Easec16: Chien Ming Wang Vinh Dao Sritawat Kitipornchai Editors

Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering
Chien Ming Wang

Vinh Dao
Sritawat Kitipornchai Editors
EASEC16
Proceedings of The 16th East
Asian-Pacific Conference on Structural
Engineering and Construction, 2019
Volume 101
Series Editors
Marco di Prisco, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Sheng-Hong Chen, School of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering,
Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
Ioannis Vayas, Institute of Steel Structures, National Technical University of
Athens, Athens, Greece
Sanjay Kumar Shukla, School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup,
WA, Australia
Anuj Sharma, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
Nagesh Kumar, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Chien Ming Wang, School of Civil Engineering, The University of Queensland,
Brisbane, QLD, Australia
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Chien Ming Wang Vinh Dao
• •
Sritawat Kitipornchai
Editors
EASEC16
Proceedings of The 16th East Asian-Pacific
Conference on Structural Engineering
and Construction, 2019
123
Editors
Chien Ming Wang Vinh Dao
School of Civil Engineering School of Civil Engineering
The University of Queensland The University of Queensland
St. Lucia, QLD, Australia St Lucia, QLD, Australia
School of Civil Engineering
The University of Queensland
St Lucia, QLD, Australia
ISSN 2366-2557 ISSN 2366-2565 (electronic)

ISBN 978-981-15-8078-9 ISBN 978-981-15-8079-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6
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EASEC International Steering Committee
Chair Emeritus
Y. Fujino, Japan
H. Okamura, Japan
P. Karasudhi, Thailand
W. Kanok-Nukulchai, Thailand
S. Kitipornchai, Australia
Chair
Y. B. Yang, Taiwan
Deputy Chairs
C. M. Wang, Australia
T. Ueda, Japan
General Secretary
A. H. F. Lam, Hong Kong
Members
Hong Hao, Australia
José L. Torero, UK
Y. C. Loo, Australia
Sai On Cheung, Hong Kong
D. Hoedajanto, Japan
K. Maekawa, Japan
T. Matsumoto, Japan
J. Niwa, Japan
Y. Okui, Japan
H. M. Koh, Korea
Jung Sik Kong, Korea
v
Wan Hamidon, Malaysia
Y. Y. Chen, P. R. China
L. M. Sun, P. R. China
L. P. Yeh, P. R. China
L H. Han, P. R. China
Jiping Hao, P. R. China
T. C. Pan, Singapore
Ser Tong Quek, Singapore
L. J. Leu, Taiwan
C. S. Chen, Taiwan
P. Warnitchai, Thailand
C. Rojahn, USA
G. Chiu, USA
N. Hoang, Vietnam
Members of EASEC16 Scientific Committee
SangHyung Ahn The University of Queensland

Faris Albermani Central University of Queensland
Hossein Askarinejad ARA Institute of Canterbury
Yulei Bai Beijing University of Technology
Masuhiro Beppu National Defense Academy
Ron Blackwell The University of Queensland
Tan-Trung Bui INSA Lyon
Donatello Cardone University of Basilicata
Chuin-Shan Chen National Taiwan University
Jun Chen Tongji University
Shujian Chen The University of Queensland
Li Chen Southeast University, China
Wensu Chen Curtin University
Sai On Cheung City University of Hong Kong
Kwok-fai Chung The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Jian Cui Tianjin University
Arosha Dabarera The University of Queensland
Vinh Dao The University of Queensland
Luc Dao The University of Danang
Youliang Ding Southeast University
Jeung-Hwan Doh Griffith University
Yuanfeng Duan Zhejiang University
Wenhui Duan Monash University
Peter Dux The University of Queensland
Sheng-En Fang Fuzhou University
Kazunori Fujikake National Defense Academy
Jian Guo Zhejiang University of Technology
Hong Guan Griffth University
Hong Hao Curtin University
Johnny Ho Guangzhou University
H. C. Ho The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
vii
viii Members of EASEC16 Scientific Committee
Chao Hou Southern Uni. of Science and Technology

Y. F. Hu The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Jun Hu The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Chang-Wei Huang Chung Yuan Christian University
Yimiao Huang The University of Western Australia
Shao-Fei Jiang Fuzhou University
Chul-Woo Kim Kyoto University
Sritawat Kitipornchai The University of Queensland
Qingzhao Kong Curtin University
Paul H. F. Lam City University of Hong Kong
Ying Lei Xiamen University
Dongsheng Li Shantou University
Hong-Nan Li Dalian University of Technology
Xin Li Najing University
Jingde Li Curtin University
Jun Li Curtin University
Jun Li University of Technology Sydney
W. Liao National Taipei University of Technology
Xuemei Liu The University of Melbourne
Zhongrong Lu Sun Yat-sen University
Yaozhi Luo Zhejiang University
Guowei M. A. Hebei University of Technology
Matthew Mason The University of Queensland
Qingfei Meng University of Technology Sydney
Azrul A. Mutalib Universiti Kebangsaan
C. T. Ng University of Adelaide
Thuan Nguyen The University of Queensland
Xin Nie Tsinghua University
Changye Ni NUAA, China
Yan-Chun Ni Tongji University
Junichiro Niwa Tokyo Institute of Technology
Lisa Ottenhaus The University of Queensland
Weiping Peng Zhejiang University of Technology
Thong Pham Curtin University
Kai Qian Guangxi University
Gianluca Ranzi The University of Sydney
Bijan Samali Western Sydney University
Gangbing Song University of Houston
Selcuk Saatci Izmir Institute of Technology
Jihao Shi China University of Petroleum
Yanyan Sha University of Stavanger
Jun Teng Harbin University of Technology (Shenzhen)
Phuong J. Tran RMIT University
Chien-Kai Wang Tamkang University
Chien Ming Wang The University of Queensland
Members of EASEC16 Scientific Committee ix
Dansheng Wang Huazhong Uni. of Science and Technology

Hao Wang Southeast University
Weiqiang Wang University of Technology Sydney
Shun Weng Huazhong Uni. of Science and Technology
Peter Wong RMIT University
Jun Wu Shanghai University of Engineering Science
Yong Xia Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Weifang Xiao University of the Bundeswehr Munich
Xinmei Xiang Guangzhou University, China
Xian Xu Zhejiang University
Qiushi Yan Beijing University of Technology
Jia-Hua Yang Tongji University
Guotao Yang Qingdao University of Technology
Xiao-Wei Ye Zhejiang University
Ting-Hua Yi Dalian University of Technology
Kenneth T. W. Yiu Massey University
Jun Yu Hohai University, China
Chung-Bang Yun Zhejiang University
Feng-Liang Zhang Harbin University of Technology (Shenzhen)
Jian Zhang Southeast University
Lihai Zhang The University of Melbourne
Qianhui Zhang Monash University
Shishun Zhang Huazhong Uni. of Science and Technology
Jianjun Zhang Swinburne University of Technology
Xihong Zhang Curtin University
Yu Zheng Dongguan University of Technology
Hong-Ping Zhu Huazhong Uni. of Science and Technology
Xinqun Zhu University of Technology Sydney
EASEC16 Local Organising Committee
Chair
Chien Ming Wang
Vice-chair
Vinh Dao
Special Advisor
Members
SangHyung Ann
ShuJian Chen
Dilum Fernando
David Lange
Matthew Mason
Cristian Maluk
Juan Hidalgo Medina
Lisa Ottenhaus
Dorival Pedroso
Conference Managers
Arosha Dabarera
Liang Li
Conference Helpers
Da Chen
Yun Il Chu
Mengmeng Han
Ba-Dinh Le
xi
xii EASEC16 Local Organising Committee
Quang Xuan Le
Junwei Lyu
Vikum Mahagamage
Hai Hoang Nguyen
Huu Phu Nguyen
Wenhao Pan
Jeong-Cheol Park
Ronja Topp
Son Duy Tran
Der-Shen Yang
Shaoyu Zhao
Contact Persons
Arosha Dabarera (Email: a.dabarera@uq.edu.au)
Liang Li (Email: liang.li@uq.edu.au)
Vinh Dao (Email: v.dao@uq.edu.au)
C. M. Wang (Email: cm.wang@uq.edu.au)
Contents
Keynote Papers
Innovation and Practice in Building Structure Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
J. M. Ding and Y. Q. Zhang
Experimental and Numerical Study of Flexural-Torsional Buckling
of Web-Tapered High-Strength Steel I-Beams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
T. Le, M. A. Bradford, and H. R. Valipour
Personal Reflections of My Research in Structural Mechanics:
Past, Present, and Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
J. N. Reddy
Changing Our Understanding of Reinforcement Corrosion in Marine
Concrete Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
R. E. Melchers
Structural Health Monitoring and Control

Development of Elasto-Magneto-Electric Sensors for Total-Stress
in Large-Diameter Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Xiaoyang Hu, Yuanfeng Duan, Yaozhi Luo, and Chungbang Yun
Multiple Tuned Mass Dampers for Wind Induced Vibration Control
of a Cable-Supported Roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
X. C. Wang, Y. F. Duan, C. B. Yun, and W. J. Lou
Cable Damage Identification of Tied-Arch Bridge Using
Convolutional Neural Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Q. Y. Chen, C. B. Yun, and Y. F. Duan
PCA-Based Temperature Effect Compensation in Monitoring of Steel
Beam Using Guided Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
J. Q. Tu, C. B. Yun, X. Xu, Z. F. Tang, and J. J. Wu
xiii
xiv Contents
Scour Detection of Railway Bridges by Microtremor Monitoring . . . . . 97

C. W. Kim, K. Yoshitome, Y. Goi, F. L. Zhang, S. Kitagawa, M. Shinoda,
H. Yao, and Y. Hamada
Vibration Monitoring of a Real Steel Plate Girder Bridge Under
Artificial Local Damage and Varying Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
T. Hirooka, C. W. Kim, G. Hayashi, and Y. Goi
Detecting Loosening Bolts of Highway Bridges by Image Processing
Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
A. Long, C. W. Kim, and Y. Kondo
An Efficient Approach for Detecting Bolt Loosening in Periodically
Supported Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
T. Yin and H. P. Zhu
Damage Detection Based on Bayes Factor Using Ambient Vibration
Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
F. L. Zhang, C. W. Kim, and Y. Goi
Seismic Evaluation of Structures Based on Simplified Increment
Dynamic Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Feng Wang, Qiang Chen, and Zhong Zheng Guo
A Fuzzy Logic Vibration Control Method Based on Vibration
Serviceability Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Z. P. Han and J. Chen
Damage Detection for Rotating Flexible Beam Based on Time Domain
Sensitivity Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Dahao Yang, Zhong-Rong Lu, and Li Wang
Output-Only Modal Analysis of a Footbridge Based
on Compact-Bandwidth Regularization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Li Wang, Zhiyi Yin, and Zhong-Rong Lu
Analysis of Wind Induced Vibration of Stayed Cable of Sea-crossing
Bridge Based on Monitoring Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
J. Guo, J. X. He, C. J. Hu, and J. Y. Wu
Drive-By Bridge Parameter Identification: An Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
J. T. Li and X. Q. Zhu
Health Monitoring of Bridges Using RPAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
M. Rashidi and B. Samali
Application of Machine Learning Algorithms in Structural Health
Monitoring Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Y. Hamishebahar, H. Z. Li, and H. Guan
Contents xv
Using Deep Learning Technique for Recovering the Lost

Measurement Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Gao Fan, Jun Li, and Hong Hao
Using Novel Time Frequency Analysis Method for Time-Varying
System Identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Yu Xin, Hong Hao, and Jun Li
Advanced Applications of Emerging 2D Nanomaterials
in Construction Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Qianhui Zhang, Kwesi Sagoe-Crentsil, and Wenhui Duan
Single Shot MultiBox Detector Based Active Monitoring
for Anti-collision Between Vessels and Bridges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Y. Xia, Z. F. Shao, W. C. He, and L. M. Sun
Advances in Structural Engineering

Composites for Alternative Railway Sleepers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
W. Ferdous, A. Manalo, M. Muttashar, P. Yu, R. Kakarla, C. Salih,
and P. Schubel
Modal Analysis Experiments on Prestressed Concrete Sleepers . . . . . . . 277
D. Nielsen and E. Palmer
Effect of Different Structural Parameters on Track Lateral Stability . . . 289
H. Askarinejad, F. Yu, L. Qiu, and J. Cui
Structural Strengthening of Concrete Footings Using External
Prestressing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
X. Lu and R. Aboutaha
Flexural Behavior Degradation of Corroded Aashto Type II
Pretensioned Concrete Girder-Deck System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
B. Yan and R. Aboutaha
Anti-plane Response Induced by a Partially Filled Trapezoidal
Alluvial Valley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
W. S. Shyu, T. J. Teng, and C. S. Chou
Case Study of Soft Ground Countermeasure with More than 100M
Thickness in Japanese Expressway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Yusuke Oda, Motoya Chutoku, Chihiro Sugawara, Koki Sawano,
Kota Matsuzaki, Kazuyuki Nagao, and Hideki Ohta
The Influence of Non-structural Exterior Wall on the Structural
Resistance of RC Building Frames Against Seismic
and Progressive Collapse Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
M. H. TSAI
xvi Contents
Behavior of Bridge Superstructure Model with Double Spherical

Sliding Bearing Under Live Load Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Hirofumi Oyabu, Shuichi Fujikura, Nguyen Minh Hai, Saori Takeuchi,
and Akinori Nakajima
Numerical Analysis of Seepage for Saturated-Unsaturated Pavement
Structure Under Rainfall Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
J. H. Zheng, Q. Y. Xing, and D. W. Wang
Composite Action Between Steel Girder and Precast Concrete
Considering Haunches/Mortar and Stud’s Geometrical
Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
T. Matsumoto, F. Asano, N. Mitsukawa, and T. Yamaguchi
Development of an Emergency Bridge with the Double End Plate
Connection Using High Strength Bolt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Y. Mineyama, Y. Sugimoto, K. Sugita, and T. Yamaguchi
Investigation into Seasonal Effects on Vibration Frequency
and Cable Forces of a Cable-Stayed Bridge Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
C. H. Chen, H. Y. Chang, and Y. Q. Tsai
The Active Rotary Inertia Driver for Vibration Control
of Suspended Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Chunwei Zhang and Hao Wang
Estimations for Equivalent Static Wind Loads of Dome
Roof Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Y. L. Lo and C. H. Wu
Design and Experimental Research of Xinghai Bay Cross-Sea
Bridge in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
Wang Huili, Qin Sifeng, and Zhang Zhe
Evaluation of Vibration Characteristics of RC and PRC Beam
Members Under Cyclic Train Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
M. Tokunaga and K. Narita
The Role of Reinforced Piles in Stability Analysis of Road
Embankment on Soft Ground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Hoang Hai Nguyen
Resonance Effect of Separate Twin Bridges Due to Traffic Load-A
Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
H. Y. Ma, M. L. Ma, and Y. Xia
A Backup Marine Fender System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
J. Sul, F. Albermani, E. Knauth, and C. Collins
Contents xvii
A Preliminary Study on the Performance of a Flexible Sheetlike Blade

Wind Turbine Inspired by the Borneo Camphor Seed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
Yung-Jeh Chu and Heung-Fai Lam
Study on Timber Wall Reinforcing with High-Performance
Fiber Webbing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
Yuho Inoue and Osamu Takahashi
Optimal Design for Stability Performance of Super Tall Residential
Tower Equipped with Reinforced Concrete Outriggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
X. Zhao, J. L. Cai, and W. T. Yue
Study on Practical Application of Damping Control Ceiling . . . . . . . . . 503
Takuma Nagaoka, Takuya Yasuda, Yuki Iwashita, and Osamu Takahashi
Research on Prevention of Collapse of Existing Dangerous Masonry
Walls by Reinforcement Using Polyurea Resin and Aramid
Fiber Tape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515
Suzuki Keita, Takahashi Osamu, Taomoto Mikiya, Okimoto Junji,
Matsuo Jun, and Nishikawa Toshihiko
Research on the Development of the Semi-rigid Column Base
of Reinforced Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
H. Yoshida, T. Yamada, M. Oda, and O. Takahashi
Optimal Placement of Rigid Outriggers for Super Tall Buildings
Located in High Seismic Intensity Area Based on Storey Drift
Sensitivity Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
X. Zhao, J. Yao, Y. T. Xu, and Y. Yang
Calculation of Structural Response and Response Sensitivity
with Improved Substructuring Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547
J. J. Li, G. J. Yang, S. Weng, and Y. Y. Yan
Influence of Soil-Structure Interaction on Dynamics of Offshore
Wind Turbine Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559
T. Wansuwan and Y. Sapsathiarn
Combined Spar and Partially Porous Wall Fish Cage
for Offshore Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
Y. I. Chu and C. M. Wang
Development of Energyhub@Sea Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
F. Adam, M. M. Aye, P. Dierken, I. Drummen, and F. Kalofotias
Design and Construction of the Large Concrete Floating Pier
at Incheon Harbor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599
K. H. Jung, S. H. Lee, H. S. Kim, and Y. H. Choi
xviii Contents
Structures Under Extreme Loadings

Fused Bridge Structures for Higher Impact Resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611
Y. F. Wu, Y. W. Zhou, B. Hu, X. X. Huang, and S. T. Smith
Performance of Bio-mimetic Cellular Structures Under
Impulsive Loads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625
A. Ghazlan, T. Ngo, V. Le, and T. Nguyen
Experimental Study on Cross Arms Inserted in Concrete-Filled
Circular GFRP Tubular Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635
F. Xie, J. Chen, Q. Q. Yu, and X. L. Dong
Local Failure Mechanism of RC Slabs Subjected to Deformable
Projectile Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643
M. Beppu, S. Kataoka, and H. Ichino
Flexural Performance of Precast Segmental Concrete Beams
Prestressed with CFRP Tendons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655
T. M. Pham, T. D. Le, and H. Hao
Investigation of Safety Distance Effect on Gas Storage Tanks
Subjected to Vapor Cloud Fast Deflagration by Using Flacs . . . . . . . . . 667
J. D. Li and H. Hao
Dynamic Tensile Properties of Clay Brick at High Strain Rates . . . . . . 677
Y. W. Chiu, X. H. Zhang, H. Hao, and N. Salter
Effect of Relative Density on the Mechanical Behavior of Coral Sand
Under High Strain Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 687
Xiao Yu, Li Chen, Qin Fang, Yadong Zhang, and Junyu Fan
Experimental Study and Numerical Simulation for the Anti-explosion
Performance of Steel Plate-Reinforced Concrete Composite Beam . . . . . 697
X. F. Wang, L. Li, L. Zhang, J. B. Liu, D. F. Kong, and G. J. Sun
Resistance of Lattice Core Sandwich Cylinders to Internal Blast
Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 709
J. F. Li, W. Zhang, J. X. Zhang, H. M. Li, Z. L. Xu, and Q. H. Qin
Dynamic Behavior of Jacket Foundation for Offshore Wind Turbine
Subjected to Ship Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719
D. W. Gao and C. W. Zhang
Interfacial Bond Behaviour of Fiber Reinforced Polymer Sheets
Externally Bonded to Geopolymer Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
C. Yuan, W. S. Chen, and H. Hao
Experimental and Theoretical Research on Tensile Resistance
Capacity of Eight-Bolted Footplate in Steel Transmission Tower . . . . . . 737
X. M. Xue, H. L. Yuan, X. M. Wang, and F. Wen
Contents xix
Influence of Detonation Point on Blast Loads Induced With

Cylindrical Charges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749
Y. Fan, L. Chen, Q. Fang, and H. B. Xiang
Reliability-Based Constant-Damage Ductility Demand Spectra
of Mid-Rise RC Building Structures Using Modified Equivalent
Linearization Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 759
L. Z. Nugroho, C. K. Chiu, F. P. Hsiao, and S. Gautama
Study on Structural Collapse Behavior of Reinforced Concrete
Building Under Near-Fault Earthquakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771
F. P. Hsiao, P. W. Weng, W. C. Shen, Y. A. Li, R. J. Tsai, and S. J. Hwang
Cyclic Loading Tests on Seismic Retrofit of Reinforced Concrete
Bridge Pier with Embedded Seismic Retrofit Rebar and Aramid
Fiber-Reinforced Plastic Sheets Jacketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 781
T. Terasawa, M. Akimoto, H. Nishi, and M. Komuro
Evaluation of Pulse Wave Effect in Inland Crustal Earthquake
Ground Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 791
N. Nojima and T. Yamamoto
Study of Bridge Damages Induced Earthquakes in Japan
and Strength Hierarchy Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803
R. Tokuhashi, K. Tasaki, and T. Yoshizawa
Dynamic Behavior of Foundation for Steel Post of Rockfall Protection
Fence Under Impact Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 815
S. Kondo, M. Komuro, N. Kishi, and Y. Yamamoto
A Leverage-Type Variable Friction Damper for Seismic Protection
of Structural Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827
Lyan-Ywan Lu, Tzu-Kang Lin, and Rong-Jie Jheng
Inelastic Deformation Ratio Evaluation and Application
to the Seismic Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 839
Abdelmounaim Mechaala, Chikh Benazouz, Samy Guezouli,
and Youcef Mehani
Development of 1D and 2D Portable Shaking Table Test System
as Educational Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 851
O. Tsujihara, K. Uenoyama, T. Okamoto, and T. Yamamura
Experimental Study on Dynamic Behaviors of Flexural Strengthened
RC Beams with AFRP Sheet Having 1660 g/m2 Mass Under
Consecutive Impact Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 863
S. Le Huy, M. Komuro, N. Kishi, and T. Kawarai
xx Contents
Mechanical Properties and Seismic Performance Research

on Primary-Secondary Structure for High-Rise Building . . . . . . . . . . . . 875
J. Teng, P. Y. Liu, Z. H. Li, and Y. H. Qi
Evaluating and Enhancing Seismic Performance of Water
Distribution System in Terms of Fire Suppression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 887
G. J. Hou and Q. W. Li
Research on Suspended Tuned Mass Damper in Wind Vibration
Control of the Steel Chimney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 897
X. W. Li, W. X. Shi, and Y. Zheng
Viscous Dampers Based Standardized Design of Modular Steel
Structures in Different Seismic Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 909
B. J. Du and X. Zhao
Economical Evaluation of Comprehensive Seismic Risk
in Consideration of Construction System, Site and Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . 921
Ando Satoshi, Katori Yuna, Kaito Yasuko, and Takahashi Osamu
Developed Research to Carry Out Prediction Damage from
Measuring Microtremor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 931
Ryosei Omata, Takashi Baba, Yasuko Kaito, and Osamu Takahashi
Advances in Mechanics and Materials

Rigid-Mass Vehicle Model for Identification of Bridge Frequencies
Concerning Pitching Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 945
Judy P. Yang and Bo-Lin Chen
Large Displacement Analysis of Pinned-Fixed Circular Arches
with Different Rise-to-Span Ratios Using an Isogeometric Approach . . . 951
D. Vo and P. Nanakorn
A Total Lagrangian Isogeometric Timoshenko Beam Formulation
for Large Displacement Analysis of 2D Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 961
V. Chorn, D. Vo, and P. Nanakorn
Experimental and Analytical Study on Lead Rubber Bearings Under
Non-proportional Plane Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 969
S. J. Wang, W. C. Lin, and J. S. Hwang
Study on Compression Fatigue of Rubber Bearings Used
in Low Temperature Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 981
T. Sato, T. Imai, S. Kuji, K. Ueda, and H. Nishi
Charpy Absorbed Energy of Cold Press-Bent Steel Plates Made
of SM520C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 991
D. Kitazume, J. Nie, K. Ono, K. Anami, T. Miyashita, Y. Mishima,
and T. Iida
Contents xxi
A Study on the Vertical Pull-off Testing and Horizontal Shear Testing

Strength of External Wall Tile Adhesion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1001
Chu-Tsen Liao and Po-Juin Wu
The Roles of Mechanics Courses in Student-Centered Civil
Engineering Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1011
Q. Y. Xing
Investigation on Dynamic Bond-Slip Behaviour Between Steel
Reinforcement and Concrete Under Various Loading Rate . . . . . . . . . . 1021
X. J. Huang, C. Y. Wang, S. Wang, and S. B. Kang
Experimental Study on Seismic Behaviors of a New Type
of Transferring Joint with Top Steel Column Embedded
to the Panel Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1031
Jin-Yang Gao, Jian-Sheng Fan, and Guan-Jie Hou
Buckling Analysis of Nanoplates Incorporating Surface
Stress Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1043
F. Lin, Y. Xiang, and Hui-Shen Shen
Polymer-Based Composite Materials for Industralised Building
System in Flooding Situations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1053
E. N. Saharuddin, W. H. Wan Badaruzzaman, and A. W. Al Zand
A Fracture Mechanics Approach to Estimate Fracture-Induced
Unstable Failure in Steel Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1063
X. Qian and T. Liu
Comparison of Numerical and Semi-analytical Dynamic Results
for Inclined Beam Under Moving Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1075
D. S. Yang and C. M. Wang
Advanced Analysis and Test Methods

Bayesian Modeling of Axial Strain-Hardening Behaviour
in Railway Ballast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1089
M. O. Adeagbo and H. F. Lam
Bayesian Learning and Model Class Selection for Complex
Dynamic Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1099
J. H. Yang and H. F. Lam
Reliability Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Beam Under
Differential Settlement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1109
S. A. Alabi, J. O. Afolayan, and C. Arum
xxii Contents
Analysis of Scattering and Mode Conversion of Torsional Guided

Waves by Cracks in Pipes Using Time-Domain Spectral Element
Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1123
Carman Yeung and Ching Tai Ng
Ultrasonic Guided Wave Field Modeling in a One-Side
Water-Immersed Steel Plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1131
X. W. Hu, C. T. Ng, and A. Kotousov
Use of Deep Learning Algorithm to Detect Road Damage
and Closures After the 2016 Kumamoto Japan Earthquake . . . . . . . . . 1141
Y. Maruyama, R. Sezaki, and S. Nagata
Assessment and Repair for North Breakwater Dome
in Wakkanai Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1151
K. Hase, A. Saitou, S. Tomisawa, I. Sakashita, and H. Yokota
Infrared Thermography for Detecting Subsurface Defects of Concrete
Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1165
Babar Nasim Khan Raja, Saeed Miramini, Colin Duffield, and Lihai Zhang
Estimating Remaining Ductility of Corroded Steel by Using Surface
Roughness Characteristics Based on Tensile Coupon Test Results . . . . . 1177
N. Gathimba and Y. Kitane
Risk Estimation of Bridges and Bridge Networks Under Seismic
and Subsequent Tsunami Hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1189
H. Ishibashi, T. Kojima, K. Nanami, M. Akiyama, and D. M. Frangopol
Device Development for Compressive Stress Field Using
Piezoelectric Actuator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1195
Kento Obuchi, Mutsumi Miyagawa, Hitoshi Nakamura, Yusuke Kishi,
and Takumi Ozawa
Seismic Evaluation of Non-ductile Reinforced Concrete Columns
Failed in Shear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1203
Y. A. Li, W. C. Shen, and P. W. Weng
Design of an Experimental Set-up to Capture the Dynamic Response
of Mass Timber Post-and-Beam Systems Under a Column
Removal Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1213
X. Cheng, B. P. Gilbert, H. Guan, I. D. Underhill, and H. Karampour
A Voxel-Based Method for Automated Road Surface Extraction from
Mobile Laser Scanning Data in Expressway Environment . . . . . . . . . . . 1225
T. T. Ha, T. Chaisomphob, and E. Lueangvilai
Contents xxiii
Optimal Bridge Maintenance Algorithms Considering Subordinate

Relation with Bridge Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1237
Sungyeol Jin, Jin Hyuk Lee, Yangrok Choi, Jaehoon Lim,
and Jung Sik Kong
Scaled Boundary Finite Element Method for Two-Dimensional
Crack Problems in Multi-field Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1243
C. V. Nguyen and J. Rungamornrat
A Simplified Method for Estimating Differential Displacement
in Consideration of Structural Nonlinearity and Coupling Between
Adjacent Viaducts During Earthquake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1257
K. Narita and M. Tokunaga
Utilization of Machine Learning for Analyzing Concrete Material
Consumption in Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1271
N. A. Vios, M. Henry, and J. Opon
Updating the Reliability of Existing RC Structures in a Marine
Environment Incorporating Spatial Variations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1283
K. Masuda, S. Srivaranun, and M. Akiyama
Structural Damage Detection with Modal Strain Energy Using
Convolution Neural Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1289
Gongfa Chen and Shuai Teng
Simplified Model for Wind-Induced Comfort Analysis and Design
of Mega-Structures with Viscous Damped Outriggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1299
Yue Yang, Xin Zhao, Weixing Shi, and Jiayue Li
Porcupine Quill: Buckling Resistance Analysis and Design
for 3D Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1311
Yun Lu Tee, Martin Leary, and Phuong Tran
Investigation into Application of Artificial Intelligence to Facade . . . . . . 1321
M. Bowman, S. Kesawan, S. Sivapalan, and T. Sivaprakasam
Barriers in Implementing the Convolutional Neural Network
Damage Detector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1333
Development of New Oil Damper with Stiffness for Architectural
Vibration Control and Experimental Research on Structural
Characterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1341
Atsuki Yokoyama and Osamu Takahashi
Assessing the Viability of Visual Vibrometry for Use in Structural
Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1353
V. Slinger, D. Lao, V. T. Nguyen, S. Singh, and J. Gattas
xxiv Contents
Steel Structures
Study on an Innovative H-Beam to SHS-Column Joint with Cast
Column-Link in Steel Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1367
Dongchen Ye, Yiyi Chen, Gang Zhao, and Qingjun Shi
Structural Behavior of Steel Moment-Resisting Frames Subjected
to Multiple Earthquakes Considering Column
Strength Deterioration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1379
R. Tenderan, T. Ishida, and S. Yamada
Deterioration Behavior of SHS Steel Columns Subjected
to Small Amplitude Loading History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1391
T. Ishida and S. Yamada
An Experimental Study on Local Buckling Strength of Welded
Box Section Stub-Columns Made of SBHS400 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1403
K. Sobajima, J. Nie, T. Miyashita, S. Okada, N. Takeshima, and K. Ono
Proposal to Improve the DSM Design of Cold-Formed Steel
Fixed-Ended Columns Failing in Global Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1415
P. B. Dinis, D. Camotim, A. Landesmann, and A. D. Martins
An Experimental Study on Buckling Strength of Stainless Steel
Columns with Gusset Plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1427
A. Matsuo, S. Sthapit, A. Shibuya, Y. Shimura, Y. Kobayashi, and K. Ono
Effect of Number of Additional Bolts Outside Splice Plates
on Behaviour of Frictional Type Bolted Joints with a Filler Plate . . . . . 1439
H. Moriyama, T. Takai, T. Yamaguchi, and S. Kozai
Bearing Limit State of High-Strength Frictional Bolted Joints
Consisted of Several Bolts Based on Bolt Hole Deformation . . . . . . . . . 1453
R. Sakura, H. Moriyama, and T. Yamaguchi
Experimental Research and Parametric Study on the Fatigue
Performance of Slotted Tubular Connection Based on the Effective
Notch Stress Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1467
Y. X. Luo, R. L. Ma, M. J. He, R. Fincato, and S. Tsutsumi
Experimental Study of a Prefabricated Steel Frame System
with Buckling-Restrained Braces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1479
Yuan Xu, Hong Guan, Hassan Karampour, Yew-Chaye Loo,
and Xuejun Zhou
Automatic Optimal Design of Steel Modular Buildings Under
Different Wind Load Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1491
J. C. Guo and X. Zhao
Contents xxv
Instability of Metal Scaffold with and Without Settlement . . . . . . . . . . . 1503

S. H. Lo and Jake L. Y. Chan
Experimental and Numerical Analysis on the Mechanical Behaviour
of Box Beam Cold-Formed Steel Built-up C-Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1513
V. T. Trung, T. Chaisomphob, T. T. Ha, and E. Yamaguchi
Compression Tests on High Strength S690 Welded Sections
with Various Heat Energy Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1525
K. F. Chung, H. C. Ho, X. Liu, K. Wang, and Y. F. Hu
Transformation Rules on Engineering Stress Strain Curves of S690
Funnel-Shaped Coupons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1535
H. C. Ho, K. F. Chung, and Y. B. Guo
Investigations into Compression Behaviour of T-Joints Between S690
Circular Hollow Sections Under Brace Axial Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1547
Y. F. Hu and K. F. Chung
Structural Behaviour of High Strength S690 Cold-Formed Structural
Hollow Sections Under Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1559
M. Xiao and K. F. Chung
Structural Responses of High Strength S690 Welded Sections Under
Different Cyclic Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1569
Y. B. Guo, H. C. Ho, M. Xiao, X. Liu, and K. F. Chung
Concrete and Composite Structures

Restoring Force Drift Angle Relationship Models of Reinforced
Concrete Columns with Side Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1581
D. Kato, R. Kuramoto, N. Abe, and T. Nakamura
Seismic Response of RC Frame Buildings Considering In-Plane
and Out-of-Plane Behaviour of Unreinforced Masonry Infills . . . . . . . . 1595
M. Albano, G. Gesualdi, L. R. S. Viggiani, and D. Cardone
Experimental Investigations of Fire-Damaged RC Columns
Retrofitted with CFRP or Steel Jackets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1607
J. Xu, C. Tan, and R. S. Aboutaha
Evaluation of Compressive Arch Action of Reinforced
Concrete Beams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1615
S. Wang, X. J. Huang, S. B. Kang, and J. S. Xu
Cyclic Testing of Bonded Post-tensioned Interior Slab-Column
Connections with Shear Stud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1625
A. Luckkikanun, U. Prawatwong, and P. Warnitchai
xxvi Contents
Long-Term Experiments on Composite Slabs Exposed to Different

Surface Drying Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1635
G. Ranzi, G. Frigerio, and O. Vallati
Shear Behavior of Steel Reinforced Ultra High Performance Concrete
Members with Hybrid Fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1645
M. Bermudez and C. C. Hung
Experimental Study on Compressive Response of Large Rupture
Strain FRP Confined Reinforced Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1655
S. Saleem and A. Pimanmas
Effects of Web Position on Shear Resistance Mechanism of Ultra High
Strength Fiber Reinforced Concrete (UFC) Beams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1667
M. Kato, K. Okubo, K. Yamagishi, Y. Yamashita, and J. Niwa
The Effects of Shear Span Ratio on Shear Properties of RC Beams
Using Fiber Reinforced Porosity Free Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1679
H. Wakayama, K. Okubo, K. Kono, E. Yasuda, and J. Niwa
An Investigation into Application of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics
for Precast Slabs at Joint Positions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1689
H. T. Nguyen, H. Masuya, H. Watase, and T. Tanaka
Stable Limit Axial Load Ratios of Concrete Filled Steel Tubular
Beam-Columns Under Varying Axial Loads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1701
L. Li
Study on Repair and Strengthening of Steel Girder End with
Section Loss Using CFRP Members Bonded by VaRTM Technique . . . 1713
V. Thay, N. Tuvaan, H. Nakamura, and T. Matsui
FE Simulation of a New Type of Concrete-Filled Double Skin Steel
Tube with Stiffeners Under Axial Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1725
M. Ding, L. Shen, and B. Yang
Experimental Study on Stress-Strain Properties of Ultra-High
Performance Fibre Reinforced Concrete Under Uniaxial Compression
and Tension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1737
Jia-Hua Liu, Zabihullah Quraishi, Miao Ding, and Bo Yang
Complexities and Effectiveness of Australian Standard for Concrete
Structures—AS 3600-2018 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1747
S. H. Chowdhury and Y. C. Loo
The Influence of the Deterioration of Concrete-Rebar Bond Due
to Corrosion on the Structural Performance of RC Structures . . . . . . . 1757
Youhei Ito, Ryota Kurihara, and Nobuhiro Chijiwa
Contents xxvii
Theoretical Modeling and Evaluation of Thermal Stress Evolution

of Concrete at Early Age by Temperature Stress Testing Machine . . . . 1769
G. F. Ou, T. Kishi, Z. H. Lin, and T. Kamada
Effect of Confining Pressure on Compressive Strength and Ductility
of Square Section Concrete Filled Tube Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1781
V. Greepala, T. Chareerat, P. Wongthong, and P. Kongna
A Proposal of Data Driven Maintenance of RC Decks Focusing
on Deterioration Mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1793
T. Furukawa, T. Ishida, E. Fathalla, and J. Fang
Effects of Slab Thickness on the Fatigue Performance of RC Slabs:
An Analytical Investigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1805
P. R. Deng and T. Matsumoto
Nonlinear Analysis for Hysteretic Behavior of RC Joints Considering
Bond-Slip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1815
D. Y. Kim
General Prediction Model of Compressive Strength
for Confined Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1829
H. Minakawa, T. Ueda, and T. Wisuthseriwong
Equal-Capacity Design Method of Precast RC Shear Wall
with Unconnected Vertical Distributing Reinforcement . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1837
Z. W. Cao, X. W. Xiao, and S. Q. Zhang
Prediction of Restrained Expansion and Shrinkage Strains of
Reinforced Concrete Specimens by Using Finite Element Analysis . . . . 1849
Su Hlaing Myint, Ganchai Tanapornraweekit,
and Somnuk Tangtermsirikul
Advances in Concrete Technology

Effect of Fly Ash and Superabsorbent Polymer on Concrete
Carbonation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1863
P. Chindasiriphan and H. Yokota
Mechanical Properties of Mortar Reinforced with Recycled Nylon
Fiber from Waste Fishing Nets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1873
T. Srimahachota, H. Matsuura, and H. Yokota
Macroscale and Microscale Studies on Time-Dependent Mechanical
Properties of Concrete with Alkali Silica Reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1881
Y. Okano and Y. Takahashi
Quantitative Evaluation of Buildability in 3D Concrete Printing
Based on Shear Vane Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1891
K. Nishijo, M. Ohno, and T. Ishida
xxviii Contents
Investigation of Combined ASR and DEF Induced Damage

on Concrete by Using RBSM Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1903
Y. Wang, P. Jiradilok, and K. Nagai
Evaluation of Waste Recycling in Venous Industry Using
Environmental Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1915
Y. Shibazaki, Y. Ogawa, and K. Kawai
Recycled Waste Glass Powder as Binder for Sustainable Concrete . . . . 1925
Z. Kalakada and J. H. Doh
Engineering Properties of Cement Paste with Fly Ash Substitution
and Addition of Alkaline Activator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1935
A. Thymotie, V. Setiawan, H.-A. Nguyen, and T.-P. Chang
Carbonation Progress Mechanism of Cement Containing Different
Amounts of Powder Admixtures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1943
Takeshi Iyoda
Influence of Pore Structure Changed by Carbonation Using GGBFS
Cement on Water Permeability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1955
J. Nakamura, H. Mizuno, and T. Iyoda
Examination of Evaluation Method of Hydration Potential of Dry
Sludge Powder Focusing on Hydration Reaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1967
M. Araki, K. Ohkawa, and T. Iyoda
A Review of Preplaced-Aggregate Concrete Using Recycled Aggregate
and Railway Wasted Ballast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1979
A. Shibuya and T. Iyoda
Impacts of Global Warming and Variable Airborne Chloride
Exposure on Concrete Structures in Hokkaido, Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1989
M. Henry and Y. Tojo
Sulfuric Acid Resistance of Cement Pastes Containing Fly Ash
and Limestone Powder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2001
S. Wanna, W. Saengsoy, P. Toochinda, and S. Tangtermsirikul
Influence of PVA and PP Fibres at Different Volume Fractions
on Mechanical Properties of 3D Printed Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2013
Luong Pham, Xiaoshan Lin, R. J. Gravina, and Phuong Tran
Fatigue Behavior of Air-Entrained High Strength Concrete with Blast
Furnace Slag Fine Aggregates Under Freezing and Thawing . . . . . . . . . 2025
M. A. Farooq, Y. Sato, K. Niitani, and H. Yokota
Effects of Seawater and Sea-Sand on Concrete Properties:
A Review Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2037
D. Vafaei, X. Ma, R. Hassanli, and Y. Zhuge
Contents xxix
Current Issues in Construction

Motivators of Implementing Construction Incentivisation in Hong
Kong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2053
Liuying Zhu and Sai On Cheung
A Concenptual Framework on the Effects of Apology on Psychological
Aggression in Construction Dispute Negotiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2065
Liuying Zhu, Chiu Yin Ho, and Sai On Cheung
A Study of Construction Disputes in the New Zealand Context . . . . . . . 2075
Tak Wing Yiu, Zhiyuan Lu, and Kevin P. Ang
Commitment to Construction Health and Safety – The Worker’s
Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2085
Tak Wing Yiu, Hasan Hayalie, and Raymond Zhong
What Affects Construction Innovation Adoption in Building
and Infrastructure Projects – A Case Study in Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . 2097
L. Qi, S. Holdworth, and P. S. P. Wong
Towards Applying Virtual Reality Techniques in Fostering Blended
Learning of the Construction Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2107
P. S. P. Wong, T. Perera, B. Abbasnejad, and A. Ahankoob
The Application of BIM in the Undergraduate Course “Integrated
Building Project Development” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2119
Calvin C. W. Keung and W. H. Fok
Application of Knowledge Management and BIM Technology
for Maintenance Management of Concrete Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2129
Y. F. Zhang, H. Yokota, P. Y. Miao, and Y. L. Zhu
Applicability of Building Information Modeling Integrated
Augmented Reality in Building Facility Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2139
S. Khan and K. Panuwatwanich
Project Management for the Out Patient Department
Building-Planning for Hospital Design and Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . 2149
P. Chaiseri and T. Issariyarutthanon
Factors Affecting the International Training Transfer for Capacity
Development of Road Asset Management in Lao PDR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2159
A. Bounnak and M. Henry
A Real-Time Computer Vision System for Workers’ PPE and Posture
Detection in Actual Construction Site Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2169
Ammar Moohialdin, Fiona Lamari, Miska Marc,
and Bambang Trigunarsyah
Keynote Papers
Innovation and Practice in Building
Structure Design
J. M. Ding and Y. Q. Zhang
Abstract The innovation of building structure design should satisfy the aspects of
architectural form, function using and interior space design. The process of struc-
tural innovation is the fusion of structure and architecture. Firstly, structural system
should relate to the architectural design of the building. Secondly, the structural
layout should correspond to the building space using. Finally, digital design is a
critical technology during the innovation of structural design. Therefore, this essay
is going to express how the structural innovation can be achieved during the design
of structure from eight cases in details.

Keywords Large-span stadiums Architectural form Structural system

Structural layout Digital design
1 Introduction
To combine structural design and architectural design together is always the target
that structural engineers keep trying to achieve. A lot of engineering projects are
therefore be used as the platforms by engineers for achieving structural innovation
during the design.
J. M. Ding (&) Y. Q. Zhang

Tongji Architectural Design (Group) Co., LTD., Shanghai, China
e-mail: djm@tjad.cn
Y. Q. Zhang
e-mail: 52zyq@tjad.cn
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 3

C. M. Wang et al. (eds.), EASEC16, Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering 101,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_1
4 J. M. Ding and Y. Q. Zhang
2 Coordination of Structural System and Architectural

Appearance
Structural innovation requires the structure to fulfill architectural form, function and
interior space in priority. The selection of structural system should follow the
coordination of force performance and architectural design, and thus to create a
perfect structural system from both side of force and shape.
2.1 Zhengda Stadium, Fudan University
Zhengda Stadium (Fig. 1) locates in the South District of Sports Center in Fudan
University campus. It is used as the main venue for celebrating 100th anniversary of
Fudan University, therefore it is assumed as the critical engineering project for the
anniversary. The design of the stadium is inspired by the concept of “the rising sun
on the sea”, which symbolizes the spirit of Fudan University, like a silver clarion
rung.
The combination of steel truss, cable and arch are adopted by the stadium as the
structural system. The primary structure of the roof uses ridge truss and longitudinal
truss. For secondary structure, tension cable and arch system are adopted (Fig. 2
and Fig. 3).
A steel arch with a 76° slope to the horizon spans the entire structure above the
roof. The span of the arch is 100 m, which symbolizes the 100-year history of
Fudan. The architectural shape requires the upper oblique arch to be as thin as
possible. A 20% of the load is designed to be supported by the inclined arch and
80% of the load is designed to be supported by the roof in structural design (Figs. 4
and 5).
Fig. 1 After construction

Innovation and Practice in Building Structure Design 5
Fig. 2 Primary structure of

the roof
(a) Interior (b) Main structure

layout
Fig. 3 Secondary structure

of the roof
(a) Secondary structure (b) Secondary

of the roof structure of the roof
Fig. 4 Architectural form

and structural system
Fig. 5 Load distribution of

roof system
Structural members need to be properly arranged to achieve a reasonable force

balance, this reflects the combination of strength and beauty. The Fudan Zhengda
Gymnasium adopts an arch structure to bear part of the roof load, and the arch
section is relatively slender to meet the needs of architectural form. The roof slings
form a string-shaped fan arrangement that reveals the gentle beauty from force and
shape (Fig. 6).
The curved truss and the secondary steel tube arch are used as the support for the
film, and the white PTET film with high transmittance is overcoated. During the
day, outdoor light enters the room through the fiberglass film. The entire venue is
(a) Arch (b) Layout of ridge truss and hoisting point
Fig. 6 Primary structure of the slings
(a) Interior view in daylight (b) Exterior view at night
Fig. 7 View of the building from day and night
surrounded by a soft and uniform light, which is transparent and comfortable. At

night, the indoor light diffuses through the roof to the night sky, which looks like a
rising sun from a bird view (Fig. 7).
2.2 Shanghai Oriental Sports Center Outdoor Diving Pool
Shanghai Oriental Sports Center is located on the bank of Huangpu River in

Shanghai, within the Sanlin district of Pudong. The sports center, including a main
gymnasium, a swimming pool and an outdoor diving pool, which is the core venue
for the 14th FINA World Championships in 2011. The outdoor diving pool is
located on the island in the artificial lake. It consists of a standard competition pool
of 50 m 25 m and a 30 m 25 m diving pool. A shape of half-moon is adopted
with a name of “Moon Bay”. The open entrance faces the Huangpu River, shows a
wide skyline of the urban, it is also used as the background for the dividing pool.
The audience can enjoy the Oriental Sports Center from different angles and enjoy
the waterfront scenery on both banks of the Huangpu River from their seats
(Fig. 8).
(a) Exterior (b) Exterior
Fig. 8 View of Diving Pool
(a) Force distribution for a single-row truss (b) Structural layout for a single-row truss
Fig. 9 Single-row truss
(a) Structural layout in entirety (b) Roof ring beam and beam support between
the trusses
Fig. 10 Structure in entirety
The roof of the outdoor diving pool is an overhanging canopy, consisting of 18

rows cantilever steel truss. The plan projection is formed by an outer ring and an
inner eccentric elliptical ring. The 18 rows of similar shaped cantilever steel trusses
are arranged along the slanted elliptical ring. Each structural unit is conceived from
the majestic sailboats of the sea.
Each cantilever truss can balance the force by itself and form an entire structure
through cross support and roof ring beam, hence, to build a coordinated mechanism
balance between the single trusses (Figs. 9 and 10).
Fig. 11 Bird view
Fig. 12 Concept of the

design
2.3 Changsha International Convention and Exhibition

Center
Changsha International Convention and Exhibition Center locates in the integrated

development belt of the southern area of the city. The whole project consists of four
parts: Southern and Northern Entry Hall, Interior Exhibition Hall, Exterior
Exhibition Hall, and Corridors (Fig. 11). The total construction area is about
445,000 m2, including the area of the interior exhibition hall of 117,500 m2 and the
area of the exterior exhibition hall of 85,000 m2. The two adjacent exhibition halls
form a whole structure by one roof, which gets a plane projection area of 207 m
162 m. The roof has the largest span of 81 m, with the height varying from 18.9 m
to 32.1 m. The whole project has two phases in total, in which the first phase
includes the Northern Entry Hall and four pairs of eight exhibition halls.
2.3.1 Structural System
The sag to span ratio is only 1/38, while the span of the roof structure is 81 m.
Hence, the string beam is used for the roof structure, with the primary beam is set to
match the shape of the roof. The structure can both cover the shortage of the
insufficient rigidity caused by the concave shape, and satisfy the visual effect of
transparency, without the need of a ceiling.
The sag to span ratio of the string beam is 1/9.5, which is coordinated with the
curvature of the primary beam, and thus to form a rhythmic water wave shape. This
is the cooperation between force-guided structure system and aesthetically guided
architecture (Figs. 12, 13 and 14).
Fig. 13 Axonometric
drawing
Fig. 14 Elevation view
Fig. 15 Single row of string beam structure
2.3.1.1 Out-of-Plane Stability of Concave String Beam

The focus of the concave-shaped string beam structural roof is stability. Therefore,
the following measures are taken to avoid instability for the roof of the exhibition
hall.
i. The overall bending stiffness of the roof structure: The secondary beam that
perpendiculars to the string beam is densely covered and has the fixed con-
nection with the string beam. This can ensure the roof structure has sufficient
overall bending stiffness.
ii. The out-of-plane bending stiffness of the upper end of the strut: H-shaped steel
is innovatively used for the strut, which connects rigidly with the primary
beam by using the double-plate pin joint. It can freely rotate within the plane
of the string beam, and thus have sufficient bending stiffness out of the plane.
It satisfies the requirements of tension construction for concave string beam
structure and the stability out of the plane. Due to the importance of the upper
end of the strut, a fully scaled experiment was taken.
Fig. 16 The measure for ensuring the out-of-plan stability of string beam structure
Fig. 17 Visual effect
iii. Additional stability measures: Although the above two points are reliable
enough to guarantee the out-of-plane stability of the concave beam-string
beam, angle braces are arranged on both sides of the upper struts to improve
the safety of redundancy (Figs. 15 and 16).
The colossal size and elegant style of the structure improves this large-scaled
space with the features of neat and concise, and the classy and rhythmic structural
lines highlight the beauty and power of the building.
The exhibition halls in pairs are only connected by lenticular truss with a spacing
of 18 m, which can both maintain the design concept of rhythmic water waves and
keep the effect of transparency for the building at the same time. The extroverted
facade, huge overhanging eave, and flying eave corner highlight the vitality of the
building (Fig. 17).
3 Coordination of Structural Layout and Architectural

Space Design
3.1 Tongji University Jiading Campus Gymnasium
The gymnasium of Tongji University Jiading Campus is integrated with both struc-
tural design and architectural design. Its component design and connection design
have outstanding highlights in expressing the architect’s concept. The stadium fea-
tures a single curved building with a span of 76.5 m in length and 60 m in width,
including a stadium and a swimming pool with grandstand (Fig. 18). The gymnasium
adopts a string beam structure that perfectly fits the image of the building and creates a
satisfactory interior space (Fig. 19). The swimming pool adopts a retractable string
beam roof structure (Fig. 20). When building function is satisfied, the retractable roof
is environment friendly and can also save operating cost.
Fig. 19 Interior
Fig. 20 Retractable roof

Fig. 21 Roof lighting effect

in evening
Fig. 22 Integrated design of

strut and light pipe
Fig. 23 Integrated design of

the roof
(a) Interior (b) Retractable roof

structure
For structural components, the stadium introduces the design of the light guide
tube (Figs. 21 and 22), which can introduce natural light into the room, save energy
and being environment friendly. An integrated design has been made for string
beam web and light guide tube. This design avoids the light guide tube occupying
the building space and creates an architectural expression of starry sky.
The retractable roof of the swimming pool (Fig. 23) designs the roof and vertical
façade as a whole structure. The combination of a single-layer grid roof and a
façade structure allows the rails of the roof to be placed on the ground, thereby
reducing the impact of roof sliding on the overall structure and meeting the needs of
building function.
Fig. 24 String beam

connection details
Fig. 25 Refined design of

cable rod node
For structural connection, a smooth transition is designed for string beam strut
and upper trust of the retractable roof for the swimming pool (Fig. 24), which is
simple and beautiful in appearance. The bottom cable clamp node of the strut
adopts an integrated design, and the nodes are fine and pretty. The lower cable
clamp nodes of the string beam of the gymnasium have been refined, and the cables
are arranged on both sides of the strut to avoid the influence of the structure on the
light guide tube. When the construction is tensioned, the cable clamp node can
allow the cable to slide, after that, the cable will be locked to avoid a large bending
moment at the upper end of the strut during the construction (Fig. 25).
3.2 Jining Sports Center Swimming Pool
The swimming pool of Jining City has 4 floors above ground and 1 underground
floor. The total height of the structure is 23 m. The main structure of the roof
presents a continuous flap shape, which is symmetrical in the longitudinal axis. The
longitudinal length of the roof is 195 m and the maximum lateral width is 102 m.
Square steel pipe grid is adopted for the hexagonal honeycomb facade, which
extends to the exterior ground and thus subjects both the horizontal and vertical
loads. The facade forms an entire shape with the main structure of the roof, and this
helps the architectural shape to be expressed into structural form with a more
intuitionistic way (Figs. 26, 27 and 28).
Fig. 27 Structural model in

entirety
Fig. 28 Draft of structural

design
The prominent feature of the central roof structure of Jining Swimming Pool is
the double Y-shaped string beam, which is bifurcate for both upper primary beam
and lower cable. This scheme can efficiently reduce the amount of steel used under
a reasonable deflection control for mid span; and the inverse arch amount under
self-weight and cable prestress is more acceptable. In addition, the honeycomb steel
frame structure of the swimming pool can meet the requirement of architectural
appearance and meanwhile be used as the vertical support for the extension of roof
string beam. This improves the structural rigidity, enhances its out-of-plane sta-
bility, and makes the structural design and architectural design to be perfectly fit
(Figs. 29 and 30).
(a) Structural plane layout (b) Elevation view of steel frame
Fig. 29 Structural model
(a) Exterior (b) Interior
Fig. 30 Steel frame in honeycomb shape
3.3 Chongqing West Railway Station
Chongqing West Railway Station is the largest railway passenger transportation

hub in southwestern China. It locates between Shapingba District and Jiulongpo
District. Its main function is used for railway, and some other minor functions such
as coach, bus and subway. It is assumed as one of the “three mains and two
auxiliaries” transport networks by Chongqing Municipality.
The east facade of the station adopts the largest span of combined arch support
structure among stations in China. The lower force bearing arch spans 108 m and
the upper force bearing arch spans 192 m. The combined arch structure perfectly
connects the roof load-bearing structure and façade together. This achieves a
column-free open space at the main entrance of the station (Figs. 31, 32 and 33).
The design of the curtain wall structure of the entrance hall adopts digital design
technology. This helps the structure and architecture to achieve a perfect combi-
nation and therefore contribute to the “eye of Chongqing”.
(a) Main arch (b) Main arch after construction
Fig. 33 Eye of Chongqing
Fig. 34 Architectural concrete platform
The scheme of “column-free platform with architectural concrete canopy” is

proposed for innovative design. Chongqing railway station is therefore be assumed
as the demonstration pilot project for first using on-site constructed architectural
concrete canopy among the railway stations in China (Fig. 34).
Fig. 36 Form of the roof
Fig. 37 Form finding
4 The Introduction of Digital Technology
With more complicated shapes are used for large-span structures, digital technology
therefore is introduced in structural design. This can improve the efficiency of
structural design and enhance the integration of architecture and structure at the
same time.
4.1 Shanghai Symphony Orchestra
The roof of Shanghai Symphony Orchestra is a special-shaped architectural con-

crete shell structure. In order to find the most reasonable form of mechanism, digital
technology was used to find the final roof shape through multiple tries (Figs. 35, 36
and 37).
Fig. 38 Architectural
scheme
(a) Plane dimension (b) Elevation dimension
Fig. 39 Dimension of the structure
Fig. 40 Structural scheme
Fig. 41 Structural form finding

Fig. 42 The final

3-Dimension model
4.2 Dianchi Water Park
Dianchi Water Park is a shell structure with a span of 200 m. In this project,
architectural design and structural design are not limited too much at the early stage,
which makes the design can be more innovative and relative free. Therefore, digital
technology has been extremely used for this project, multiple schemes are raised by
structural engineers under the prerequisite of satisfying architectural space using
(Figs. 38, 39, 40, 41 and 42).
5 Conclusions and Prospects
The innovation of structural design should not simply base on a deep understanding
of traditional structural systems and material properties, but also should base on
solving practical engineering problems; secondly, it should have a good under-
standing of the importance of innovation in the processes of design, and tries to
make it be acceptable; finally, self-cultivation should be continuously improved,
because an ideal realm of structural design is the harmony and unify of architectural
beauty and structural beauty.
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design. Struct Eng 34(02):16–22
Experimental and Numerical Study
of Flexural-Torsional Buckling
of Web-Tapered High-Strength Steel
I-Beams
T. Le, M. A. Bradford, and H. R. Valipour
Abstract Despite now over half a century since its manufacture, high-strength
steel (HSS) structural sections have only recently attracted the civil engineering
fraternity as a replacement for mild steel in order to achieve lighter design solutions.
Contemporary HSS is weldable, reliable and more ductile than its predecessors,
leading to designs with lower carbon footprints than those offered by conventional
mild steel that provides an entry portal to the circular economy of low emissions,
deconstructability and reuse. Further economies may be gained by tailoring the
profile of the HSS cross-section to suit the envelope of design actions based on the
load cases which it is needed to resist. This paper presents the experimental testing
of full-scale web-tapered HSS beams for the lateral buckling limit state, purported
to be the first such tests reported in the literature. Fundamental to the buckling
strength of HSS is the state of the residual stresses induced during its fabrication by
welding, and these are determined by the non-destructive technique of neutron
diffraction which is also described. Based on the results of the experimental pro-
gramme, a numerical technique embedded in the widely-used ABAQUS compu-
tational library is described, which may be used to achieve advanced solutions for
the flexural-torsional buckling of HSS beams whose webs are tapered to suit the
variation of the applied bending moments along their lengths.

Keywords High-strength steel Flexural-torsional buckling Experimental

investigation Numerical model
T. Le M. A. Bradford (&) H. R. Valipour

Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Safety, School of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, UNSW Sydney, Kensington, NSW 2052, Australia
e-mail: m.bradford@unsw.edu.au
T. Le
e-mail: tuan.le@unsw.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_2
22 T. Le et al.
1 Introduction
In order to fully utilise the steel material in skeletal engineering structures,

load-carrying members may be tapered in such a way as to concur with the stress
resultants which they are required to resist. This is common in portal frame
buildings with rafter haunches [10] and often additionally for aesthetic reasons in
steel bridges [4]. Flexural-torsional buckling in structures made from mild steel
(having yield strengths not exceeding around 450 MPa) has been quite widely
researched (e.g. [3]), but hitherto such buckling has received little attention for
high-strength steel (HSS) flexural members. HSS flexural members differ from their
mild steel counterparts not only in their higher yield stress and different constitutive
response, but they also have residual stresses induced by welding during their
fabrication that are significantly less in some cases than their yield stresses.
Most studies in the literature for HSS members deal with compression members
rather than flexural members (e.g. [1, 2, 8]), presumably reflecting the lesser
importance of ductility for members subjected to compressive stresses. However,
flexural members resist both compressive and tensile stresses, and because their
profiles resemble I- rather than W-shapes, their residual stresses are considerably
different to column sections [6, 7]. To this end, the current paper presents an
experimental study of the flexural-torsional buckling of HSS beams whose webs are
tapered linearly in order to be optimal for flexural members which are subjected to a
constant gradient of the applied bending moment. The work reports both experi-
mental and numerical studies, with suggestions for design guidance consistent with
AS4100 [9].
2 Experimental Programme
2.1 Preparation of Specimens
Four full-scale web-tapered beams fabricated from Australian BISPLATE-100 HSS

plates having a yield stress of fy = 890 MPa were tested (Fig. 1), with the two lever
arms of length L1 being used to apply end moments to the segment of length Lo, in
which aw = ho2/ho1 is the web-tapering parameter. Table 1 lists the designation and
dimensions of the beams, which were fabricated simultaneously by two accredited
welding technicians on both sides of the web in order to avoid thermal distortions.
Experimental and Numerical Study of Flexural-Torsional Buckling … 23
Fig. 1 Geometry of web-tapered beams
Table 1 Designation and dimensions of specimens

No. Notation fy H1 H2 B (mm) tf tw aw
(MPa) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm)
1 TB-890-1 890 354 184 120 11.80 7.95 0.5
2 TB-890-2 890 354 184 160 11.80 7.95 0.5
3 TB-890-3 890 354 214 160 11.80 7.95 0.6
4 TB-890-4 890 354 254 160 11.80 7.95 0.7
5 RS-TB-890 890 354 184 160 11.80 7.95 0.5
2.2 Material Properties, Residual Stresses and Geometric

Imperfections
Tensile stresses were measured from samples laser-cut from the virgin steel plate
whose longitudinal axis coincided with the direction of rolling. The residual stresses
were measured using the non-destructive technique of neutron diffraction, as
described by Le et al. [6, 7]. Figure 2 shows the residual stresses so obtained; these
differ considerably from those measured in fabricated column sections because the
flanges are narrower and the web deeper (Ban et al. [10]). The out-of-plumb
geometric imperfections were measured using the technique outlined by Le et al.
[7]. None of these imperfections exceeded the guidelines proposed in AS4100 [9]
of the greater of 3 mm and of the span/1000.
2.3 Buckling Test Setup
Figure 3 depicts the test setup, with transverse loading being applied at the
taper-prismatic intersection in order to generate the bending moments in the middle,
tapered segment. Two scenarios of end moment loading (aL = 1 ) b = −1 and
aL = 0 ) b = –1/3) were considered.
24 T. Le et al.
RS-TB-890-1 RS-TB-890-2 RS-TB-890-3
Fig. 2 Residual stresses in the web-tapered beam RS-TB-890
Fig. 3 Test setup

Hydraulic actuators applied the load to the beam through special loading boxes
that allowed free rotation of the beam about the major and minor axes, and which
also allowed free warping and downward movement of the beam but restrained the
beam against lateral deflection and twist (Fig. 4). Because the loading boxes were
hung on the top flange of the beam at the prismatic-taper intersections, a layer of
high compressive strength plaster was firstly applied beneath the steel loading plate
to support and align it in the horizontal plane. After the plaster cured, the boxes
were then placed on the steel plate. The movements of the boxes were guided by a
set of two universal columns which were assembled into a frame system and firmly
braced as shown in Fig. 3. In order to minimise friction, rollers were utilised at
contact positions between the components. The end-support was similar to the
support of uniform beams so that the beam end twist and lateral deflection were
prevented but warping and rotation about the major and minor axes, as well as
movement in the axial direction, were allowed.
Linear variable differential transformers (LVDTs) were employed for the dis-
placement measurements and strain gauges (SGs) for the strain measurements. The
layout and location of the LVDTs and the SGs mounted on a cross-section are
depicted in Fig. 5. Due to the spatial restraint beneath the loading boxes, LVDT–1
and LVDT–2 were put aside and the mean of their readings was taken as the
transverse displacement of specimens at the load level P1. A similar arrangement
was used for measuring the displacement of specimens at the load level P2.
Fig. 4 Loading box in test of web-tapered beams. (1) outer box, (2) inner box, (3–5) roller
bearings, (6) spherical roller bearings, (7) modified spherical thrust roller bearing, (8) I-beam
specimen and (9) high compressive strength plaster
26 T. Le et al.
Fig. 5 Location of LVDT and SG measuring instruments
Fig. 6 Moment vs lateral deflection plots
2.4 Results
Figure 6 shows the evolution of the lateral displacements uy with the moment M,
while Table 2 summarises the test results. The buckled configuration of TB-890-2
is given in Fig. 7. For TB-890-1 under moment gradient (b = –1/3), the critical
section, at which the ratio of the applied bending moment to the plastic moment is
greatest (AS4100), was the largest tapered section (the depth of the critical section
Table 2 Test results
Hcr = H1). The buckling moment Mm = 358 kNm was significantly less than the
nominal yield bending moment My,cr = 602 kNm and the nominal plastic moment
Mp,cr = 701 kNm of the critical section so that the beam buckled in the elastic
range. The specimen responded linearly to the load before the critical load was
reached (Fig. 6). Tensile rupture did not occur in any of the tests.
For the specimens under uniform bending (b = –1), the critical section was the
smallest tapered section (the depth of critical section Hcr = H2). The tests showed
that as the taper constant aw increases, the buckling resistance of the tapered beams
increases. It is noteworthy that the buckling of these tapered beams was in the
inelastic range as the maximum applied moments were greater than the nominal
yield moments My,cr of the critical sections as shown in Fig. 6, especially for
TB-890-2 whose buckling load reached the nominal plastic moment Mp,cr of its
critical section, leading to a non-linear response when the applied load passed the
yield moment My,cr. Accordingly, it is noted the lateral buckling of these specimens
occurred not due to the yielding of the smallest tapered sections which were fully
restrained, but rather related to the yielding of the compression flange of the section
which had the largest twist displacement. While a few recent studies have proposed
first yield criteria approaches for the buckling strength of the non-prismatic steel
members, the present experiments show that more investigations are needed to
evaluate the effects of load and restraint arrangements, material and geometric
imperfections, and the variation of the steel material on the buckling resistance of
tapered beams.
28 T. Le et al.
Fig. 7 Deformed shape of the specimen TB-890-2
Fig. 8 ABAQUS meshing
3 Numerical Study
A non-linear ABAQUS modelling of the tested beams was undertaken, using the
meshing shown in Fig. 8 and using the stress-strain curves obtained from material
testing of the specimens. The geometric imperfections were taken as recommended
in AS4100 (SA [9].
The results for the buckling moments are given in Table 2 and comparisons of
the moment vs deformations response reported elsewhere [5] have shown accept-
able agreement.
A suggested revision of AS4100 for HSS [6] takes the form
Mb ¼ am as Ms minfMob ; Ms g; ð1Þ
in which Mb is the buckling strength, Mob the elastic buckling moment, Ms the
section bending capacity, am a moment modifier and as the section slenderness
factor proposed as being
"sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
#
0:6 2
as ¼ c m ks þ 1
2 4
k þ 1:08 cm ks 1;
2
ð2Þ
cm s
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
in which ks ¼ ðMs =Moa Þ is the modified slenderness (Moa is the reference elastic
buckling bending moment excluding the effect of non-uniform moment distribu-
tion) and cm (= 0.7) a material factor for HSS having a yield stress exceeding
690 MPa. Figure 9 shows the proposed formulation based on AS4100 compared
with the test results, and Fig. 10 the formulation compared with the numerical
solutions from ABAQUS, from which it can be seen that the AS4100 formulation is
fairly good, albeit conservative.
Fig. 9 Proposed design equation compared with test results

30 T. Le et al.
Fig. 10 Comparison of numerical results and proposed design equation
4 Conclusions
This paper has described detailed experimental testing of four web-tapered HSS
beams in order to investigate the limit state of flexural-torsional buckling. The
testing required a special setup in order to handle the restraints, tapering and
loading, and it led to robust responses of the beams from the onset of loading until
buckling. Tensile rupture of the bottom flange did not occur in any of the
specimens.
A numerical model was validated against the test results and it was used to
explore a design procedure based on AS4100. This was shown to be reasonably
accurate. It is suggested that considerably more testing and numerical simulations
are needed to provide design guidance that is accurate and reliable.
Acknowledgements The work reported in this paper was supported by a research grant awarded
to the second author by the Australian Research Council (DP150100446) through its Discovery
Projects Scheme. The residual stresses were measured at the Australian Nuclear Science and
Technology Organisation Facility through Proposals 6397 and 7531. This support is also
acknowledged with thanks.
References
1. Ban H, Shi G, Shi Y, Bradford MA (2013) Experimental investigation of the overall buckling
behaviour of 960 MPa high strength steel columns. J Constr Steel Res 88:256–266
2. Ban H, Shi G (2018) A review of research on high-strength steel structures. Proc Inst Civ
Eng-Struct Build 171(8):625–641
3. Bradford MA (2006) Lateral buckling of tapered steel members (Chap 1). In:
Shanmugam NE, Wang CM (eds) Analysis and design of plated structures, vol 1.
Woodhead Publishing Limited, Cambridge, pp 1–25
4. Bradford MA, Ban H (2014) Stability of half-through girder high strength steel railway
bridges. In: 2nd international conference on railway technology: research, development and
maintenance, Ajaccio, Corsica, France, April, Paper 72
5. Le T (2019) Buckling strength of high-strength steel beams. PhD thesis, School of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, UNSW Sydney (The University of New South Wales)
6. Le T, Bradford MA, Liu X, Valipour HR (2019a, in press) Buckling of high-strength steel
I-beams. J Constr Steel Res
7. Le T, Paradowska A, Bradford MA, Liu X, Valipour HR (2019b, in press) Residual stresses in
welded high-strength steel I-beams. J Constr Steel Res
8. Shi G, Zhu X, Ban H (2016) Material properties and partial factors for resistance of
high-strength steels in China. J Constr Steel Res 121:65–79
9. SA (2016) AS4100-1998 Steel Structures, Standards Australia, Sydney
10. Woolcock ST, Kitipornchai S, Bradford MA, Haddad GA (2011) Design of portal frame
buildings, 4th edn. AISC, Sydney
Personal Reflections of My Research
in Structural Mechanics: Past, Present,
and Future
J. N. Reddy
Abstract The personal reflections of the author’s research in structural mechanics,

covering the development of shear deformation theories of laminated composite
plates and shells (past and present), and formulation of nonlocal theories (present),
and the modelling of web core sandwich and architected materials (present and future)
are presented. Various professional milestones are reviewed and the salient features
are highlighted. The milestones include: (1) Reddy’s third-order shear deformation
laminate plate theory for quadratic representation of the interlaminar shear stresses
without the use of shear correction factors, (2) Reddy’s layerwise theory for laminates
for accurate determination of interlaminar stresses, (3) algebraic relationships
between the bending solutions of shear deformation theories and classical theories of
beams and plates, (4) locking-free shell finite elements accounting for thickness
stretch, (5) strain gradient/modified couple stress theories for beams and plates, and
(6) nonlocal micropolar theory of plates to model web core structures. Due to the
space limitations, a discussion of only topics 5 and 6 are included here.

Keywords Shear deformation plate theory Layerwise laminate theory Bending

relationships Locking-free shell finite elements Nonlocal structural theories
1 Introduction
The author comes from a lower middle-income farming family in rural South India.
As the youngest of five children, he was the first in his family to go beyond high
school. During summer holidays, he used to help his father on the farm, which
prepared him to be a hard worker, diligent, and thorough. He went through a
five-year integrated Bachelor of Engineering degree in India that prepared him with
a broader engineering background and helped him in the later years to work not
J. N. Reddy (&)
J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University,
College Station, TX 77843-3123, USA
e-mail: jnreddy@tamu.edu

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_3
34 J. N. Reddy
only in solid and structural mechanics but also in heat transfer, fluid mechanics, and
applied mathematics.
The author went to USA in the spring of 1969 to do a M.S. at Oklahoma State
University. The he joined Professor J.T. Oden’s research group at the University of
Alabama in Huntsville for Ph.D. in engineering mechanics. Professor Oden was one
of the top researchers in the world and the only engineer who was beginning to
work on mathematical foundations of the finite element method. The author’s
dissertation topic was on the existence and uniqueness of mixed finite element
approximations of boundary value problems as well as the unification of variational
principles of theoretical mechanics. Both of the topics led, in addition to several
journal papers, to two books with Dr. Oden.
Following his Ph.D. (1974), he worked for a brief period with Lockheed
Missiles and Space Company, where he worked on a NASA (Glenn) research
project to develop a 3D finite element code to study hypervelocity impact, he joined
the University of Oklahoma, Norman, in January 1975. It was there where he was
introduced to the subject of composite materials and structures by Professor Charles
Bert that would change the course of his professional career and follow the legacy
of Timoshenko and Mindlin and likes to develop shear deformation theories.
Knowing the limitations of classical thin plate and shell theories in capturing
inter-laminar stresses, he started working on shear deformation theories for com-
posite laminates. His background in mathematics, mechanics, and the finite element
method enabled him not only to conceive novel and improved mathematical models
of beam, plate, and shell theories, but also to develop locking-free and robust finite
element models – an activity that continues to the present day.
During the last four decades (he was at Virginia Tech for 12 years and 27 years
and going at Texas A&M University), the author has been working on two major
fronts as far as the structural mechanics is concerned (he also has also worked in
computational fluid dynamics) with two topics: (1) development of 7-, 8-, and
12-parameter shell theories and their finite elements and (2) nonlocal and
non-classical continuum mechanics. The first topic is a continuation of many years
of his work on shear deformation theories of plates and shells to develop
locking-free shell elements for large deformation analysis of laminated composite
and functionally graded structures. He has collaborated with Professor C.M. Wang
of the National University of Singapore (now at the University of Queensland,
Australia) to develop algebraic relations between the bending, frequency, and
buckling solutions of shear deformation theories in terms of the corresponding
solutions of the classical theories. The second topic is a rejuvenation of ideas
originated and advanced by Cosserat bothers, Green, Naghdi, Mindlin, Eringen,
Hutchinson, and likes, and their implementation into structural theories. These
include: couple stress theories, strain and stress gradient theories, and micromorphic
theories. The nonlocal and non-classical continuum ideas can be used to study
architected materials and efficient modelling of large or mega structures, by
bringing material as well as structural length scales into structural theories.
In this written paper, (1) the robust shell finite elements and (2) nonlocal (mi-
cropolar) plate models are discussed. However, the oral presentation will briefly
discuss all 6 milestones.
Personal Reflections of My Research in Structural Mechanics … 35
2 Robust Shell Element with Thickness Stretch
2.1 Introduction
Shear deformation theories based on the assumption of inextensibility of lines

normal to the shell surface and subsequent neglect of transverse normal stress are
not accurate, when a considerable thickness deformation occurs (e.g., shells made
of soft materials like rubber or biological materials, where large deformations can
be found), even in the linear material regime (see [1]). A simple theory that allows
for thickness stretch is the seven-parameter formulation presented by Büchter et al.
[5], Sansour [15], and Bischoff and Ramm [4], where the transverse displacement is
expanded up to quadratic terms, and the Poisson locking is mitigated when
three-dimensional constitutive equations are used. Later, Arciniega and Reddy [2]
developed a tensor-based finite element shell with first-order shear deformation
kinematics and seven parameters. A similar theory was presented by Payette and
Reddy [14], where continuous shell elements in conjunction with high-order
spectral/hp functions were used. In recent works, Gutierrez Rivera and Reddy [8]
extended the formulation to transient analysis. A linear shell theory which takes
thickness stretch into account has been developed by Carrera et al. [6]. In recent
works, Amabili [1] introduced a geometrically nonlinear shell theory allowing
third-order thickness stretch, higher-order shear deformation, and rotary inertia by
using eight independent parameters. Based on the formulation presented in Amabili
[1], Gutierrez Rivera et al. [9] presented a 12-parameter shell element for large
deformation analysis of shell structures.
2.2 Displacement Field of the 8-Parameter Theory
Here we present few results using a third-order thickness stretching theory with
eight independent parameters as an alternative to the twelve-parameter formulation.
The displacement vector is assumed to be of the form
h h h
uðni Þ ¼ uðna Þ þ n3 uðna Þ þ ðn3 Þ2 Wðna Þ^
n þ ðn3 Þ3 cðna Þ^
n ð1Þ
2 2 2
Here u denotes the mid-plane displacement vector u is the difference vector and it
gives the change in the mid-surface director, and W and c are components that are
used to circumvent the spurious stresses that occur in the thickness direction of a six
parameter formulation. The remaining theoretical development (e.g., derivation of
the Green-Lagrange strain tensor, use of the principle of virtual displacement, and
finite element model development) are not included here and the user is referred to
Gutierrez Rivera et al. [10] for additional information.
36 J. N. Reddy
2.3 A Numerical Example
As a numerical example, we consider a simply supported isotropic cylindrical shell

subjected to a non-displacement dependent internal pressure p (see Fig. 1). The
results are compared with those presented by Amabili [1], where full non-linear terms
associated with Green–Lagrange strain-displacement relations, third-order thickness
stretch, and third-order shear deformation were used to describe the shell kinematics.
The geometric parameters are L = 0.52 m, R = 0.15 m, and h = 0.03 m, and the load
used is q = 12 GPa. It is assumed that the shell is made of stainless steel with material
properties E = 198 GPa and t = 0.3. Symmetry is exploited and one octant of the
shell is used as a computational domain. A uniform mesh of 4 4 with polynomial
degree of 8 is used. The boundary conditions for the presented formulation are
x ¼ 0; L : uy ¼ uz ¼ uy ¼ uz ¼ W ¼ c ¼ 0 ð2Þ
Figures 2 and 3 show, respectively, the normalized transverse displacement and

thickness stretch versus the axial coordinate of the shell at point A. A very good
agreement between the results obtained using the present formulation and the ones
reported by Amabili [1] is observed. Figure 4 shows the deformed configuration for
this isotropic shell at the maximum load q. As can be seen from Fig. 3, the
thickness stretch is significant and it is the most near the constrained ends and
uniform in the interior of the cylindrical shell.
Fig. 1 Simply supported isotropic cylindrical shell with internal pressure

Fig. 2 Normalized
transverse displacement
versus normalized axial
coordinate
Fig. 3 Normalized thickness

stretch versus normalized
axial coordinate
Fig. 4 Deformed
configuration of the internally
pressurized cylindrical shell
38 J. N. Reddy
3 Micropolar Plate Model for the Analysis of Web-Core

Sandwich Plates
3.1 Background
Advances in manufacturing technologies have enabled the design and development

of materials whose microstructure can be architected to achieve desired function-
alities (see [7]). The scale of the architected microstructure can range from a few
nanometers to several meters (see [3, 16]). Lattice materials used in sandwich
panels are a class of architected materials whose microstructure is typically in the
order of centimeters. Modelling of such plates accounting for the architectural
details is computationally intensive. On the other hand, homogenization to reduce
the sandwich plate to an equivalent single-layer plate will result in an inaccurate
representation of the response. Therefore, model that is computationally inexpen-
sive while accounting for the material behavior to the extent that the sandwich plate
response is nearly the same as that would be obtained by 3D analysis. One such
approach based on micropolar theory is presented here.
3.2 Formulation
The micropolar theory allows us to pass information on both displacements and

rotations from the 3D unit cell into an equivalent single-layer plate model. The
conventional shell finite elements used to model the 3D unit cell have both trans-
lational and rotational degrees of freedom that are related to the generalized dis-
placement degrees of freedom of the micropolar FSDT plate theory. This way we
are able to account, in addition to the antisymmetric shear deformations, for the
local twisting and bending of the sandwich face sheets and webs with respect to
their own mid-surfaces through couple-stress moments, which is not possible in a
conventional FSDT sandwich plate theory. The two-scale approach based on
energy equivalence between the 3D unit cell and the 2D micropolar plate provides
the plate constitutive relations (see [11–13] for details).
3.2.1 Displacement Field of the Micropolar Plate Theory
The displacements and microrotations of a 2D shear deformable micropolar plate

are
Ux ðx; y; zÞ ¼ ux ðx; yÞ þ z/x ðx; yÞ

Uy ðx; y; zÞ ¼ uy ðx; y; tÞ þ z/y ðx; yÞ
Uz ðx; y; zÞ ¼ uz ðx; yÞ
ð3Þ
Wx ðx; y; zÞ ¼ wx ðx; yÞ
Wy ðx; y; zÞ ¼ wy ðx; yÞ
Wz ðx; y; zÞ ¼ 0
where ðux ; uy ; uz Þ denote the displacements of a point on the plane z = 0, and

ð/x ; /y Þ are the rotations of a transverse normal about the y- and x-axes, respec-
tively, whereas ðwx ; wy Þ are microrotations about the x- and y-axes, respectively.
Note that Wz ðx; y; zÞ ¼ 0 means that the micropolar plate theory for web-core
sandwich panels will not have a drilling degree of freedom.
Following the theory of micropolar elasticity, the nonzero strains of the
micropolar plate are obtained as follows:
xx ¼ ux;x þ z/x;x ¼ 0xx þ zjxx

yy ¼ uy;y þ z/y;y ¼ 0yy þ zjyy
xy ¼ uy;x þ z/y;x ¼ 0xy þ zjxy
yx ¼ ux;y þ z/x;y ¼ 0yx þ zjyx ð4Þ
xz ¼ uz;x þ wy ; zx ¼ /x wy
yz ¼ uz;y wx ; zy ¼ /y þ wx
vxx ¼ wx;x ; vyy ¼ wy;y ; vxy ¼ wy;x ; vyx ¼ wx;y
3.2.2 Equations of the 2D Micropolar Plate Theory
Use of the principle of virtual displacements with appropriate expressions for the
virtual strain energy potential associated with the micropolar plate theory and
introduction of suitable stress resultants, we can derive the Euler equations asso-
ciated with micropolar first-order shear deformation plate theory. For details, see
Karttunen et al. [12]. The equations of motion of the 2D micropolar plate are:
40 J. N. Reddy
Nxx;x þ Nxy;y ¼ 0; Nyy;y þ Nyx;x ¼ 0

Mxx;x þ Mxy;y Qsx þ Qax ¼ 0
Myy;y þ Myx;x Qsy þ Qay ¼ 0 ð5Þ
Qsx;x þ Qax;x þ Qsy;y þ Qay;y ¼ q
Pyy;y þ Pxy;x 2Qax ¼ 0; Pxx;x þ Pyx;y þ 2Qay ¼ 0
where ðNxx ; Nyy ; Nxy ; Nyx Þ are the in-plane membrane forces, ðMxx ; Myy ; Mxy ; Myx Þ
are the bending and twisting moments, ðQax ; Qay Þ are antisymmetric shear forces,
ðQsx ; Qsy Þ symmetric shear forces, and ðPxx ; Pyy ; Pxy Þ are the local (couple-stress
related) bending and twisting resultants. The next step is to relate the plate degrees
of freedom to the 3D unit cell displacement degrees of freedom.
3.2.3 Transformation Relations Between 3D Unit Cell and 2D Plate

Theory
Figure 5 shows a web-core 3D unit cell attached to an arbitrary point of a

micropolar plate; see the dashed line along z-axis. The 2D micropolar continuum
plate as a whole is a macrostructure, and the 3D unit cell represents its periodic
microstructure. In order to obtain the constitutive equations for the plate, the strain
energy of the microscale FE unit cell is expressed in terms of the continuous
macroscale displacement degrees of freedom so as to bridge the two scales.
Static condensation is applied at all nodes of the FE unit cell in Fig. 5 to the
rotation with respect to the z-axis. Certain nodal DOFs in the 3D unit cell are
retained only at the highlighted face edge nodes of the unit cell. Ultimately, the
nodal displacement degrees of freedom of the 3D unit cell are related to the nodal
generalized displacement degrees of freedom of the plate theory, and the bridging of
the two scales (i.e., 3D unit cell and the 2D plate) is founded on an assumption of
strain energy equivalence between the macrostructure (plate) and the microstructure
(3D unit cell); see Karttunen et al. [12] for details.
Fig. 5 Web-core 3D unit cell modeled by shell finite elements in Abaqus. The mesh is coarse for
illustrative purposes. In generating a statically condensed FE model for the two-scale constitutive
modeling approach, certain DOFs are retained on face edges A and B while all interior DOFs are
condensed out. No boundary conditions are applied
The explicit matrix form of the plate constitutive equations is given by

8 9 2 38 0 9
>
> N>
< = 6> A 0 0 0 > >e > >
M 0 D 0 0 7< j =
¼6 4 0 0 G 0 5> c >
7 ð6Þ
>Q>
> > >
: ; : > ;
P 0 0 0 H v
where N are the in-plane membrane forces, M are the bending and twisting
moments, Q contains symmetric and antisymmetric shear forces, and P is the local
(couple-stress related) bending and twisting resultants.
3.3 Numerical Example
A web-core unit cell made of steel with Young’s modulus E = 206 GPa, Poisson’s
ratio ʋ = 0.3 and density q = 7850 kg/m3 is considered. The height of the unit cell
is taken to be 0.044 m. The length and width of the unit cell are both taken to be
l = 0.12 m so that the unit cell planform area is A = l2 = 0.0144 m2. The Navier
solution for bending of the simply supported 2D micropolar plate under line load is
obtained (see Fig. 5 for the plate geometry). A conventional plate under line load
yields maximum displacement that is 34% for face sheet thicknesses of 2 mm
compared to a 3D FE solution, whereas the 2D micropolar plate model gives only
small error of 2.7% as it can emulate the 3D deformations better through
non-classical antisymmetric shear behavior and local bending and twisting (see
Fig. 6). The 3D FEM model consists of 60800 shell elements of S8R5 type from
Abaqus, whereas the micropolar plate solution is obtained with a small fraction of
the FEM solution.
Fig. 6 a Transverse displacement of a 2-D micropolar web-core plate under a line load for tf
= 4 mm. b Transverse displacement of the plate mid-section calculated by different models
42 J. N. Reddy
4 Conclusions
Beginning with a brief discussion of the author’s professional journey in

mechanics, two of his recent research topics, namely, the development of a robust
shell element and the modelling of web core sandwich plates are reviewed. The
lecture will highlight various milestones of the author’s professional life.
Acknowledgements The author is pleased to acknowledge the research collaboration with Drs.
Miguel Gutieriez Rivera (University of Guanajuato, Mexico) and Anssi T. Karttunen (Aalto
University, Finland).
References
1. Amabili M (2015) Non-linearities in rotation and thickness deformation in a new third-order

thickness deformation theory for static and dynamic analysis of isotropic and laminated
doubly curved shells. Int J Non-Linear Mech 69:109–128
2. Arciniega RA, Reddy JN (2007) Tensor-based finite element formulation for geometrically
nonlinear analysis of shell structures. Comput Methods Appl Mech Eng 196(4–6):1048–1073
3. Bauer J, Meza LR, Schaedler TA, Schwaiger R, Zheng X, Valdevit L (2017) Nanolattices: an
emerging class of mechanical metamaterials. Adv Mater 29(40):1701850
4. Bischoff M, Ramm E (1997) Shear deformable shell elements for large strains and rotations.
Int J Numer Meth Eng 40(23):4427–4449
5. Büchter N, Ramm E, Roehl D (1994) Three-dimensional extension of nonlinear shell
formulation based on the enhanced assumed strain concept. Int J Numer Meth Eng 37
(15):2551–2568
6. Carrera E, Brischetto S, Cinefra M, Soave M (2011) Effects of thickness stretching in
functionally graded plates and shells. Compos Part B Eng 42(2):123–133
7. Fleck NA, Deshpande VS, Ashby MF (2010) Micro-architectured materials: past, present and
future. Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 466(2121):2495–2516
8. Gutierrez Rivera M, Reddy JN (2016) Stress analysis of functionally graded shells using a
7-parameter shell element. Mech Res Commun 78:60–70
9. Gutierrez Rivera M, Reddy JN, Amabili M (2016) A new twelve-parameter spectral/hp shell
finite element for large deformation analysis of composite shells. Compos Struct 151:183–196
10. Gutierrez Rivera M, Reddy JN, Amabili M (2020) A continuum eight-parameter shell finite
element for large deformation analysis. Mech Adv Mater Struct 27(7):551–560
11. Karttunen AT, Reddy JN, Romano J (2018) Micropolar modeling approach for periodic
sandwich beams. Compos Struct 185:656–664
12. Karttunen AT, Reddy JN, Roman J (2019) Two-scale micropolar plate model for web-core
sandwich panels. Int J Solids Struct 170:82–94
13. Nampally P, Karttunen AT, Reddy JN (2019) Nonlinear finite element analysis of lattice core
sandwich beams. European J Mech A Solids 74:431–439
14. Payette GS, Reddy JN (2014) A seven-parameter spectral/hp finite element formulation for
isotropic, laminated composite and functionally graded shell structures. Comput Methods
Appl Mech Eng 278:664–704
15. Sansour C (1995) A theory and finite element formulation of shells at finite deformations
involving thickness change: circumventing the use of a rotation tensor. Arch Appl Mech 65
(3):194–216
16. Karttunen AT, Reddy JN (2020) Hierarchy of beam models for lattice core sandwich
structures. Int J Solids Struct 204–205:172–186
Changing Our Understanding
of Reinforcement Corrosion in Marine
Concrete Structures
R. E. Melchers
Abstract Existing theory and models do not well-predict the onset of

chloride-induced reinforcement corrosion compared with observations and practical
experience for actual concrete structures. Despite very high levels of chlorides early
corrosion (initiation) may occur but this usually stops or becomes very slow.
Serious corrosion does not commence until there is extensive loss of concrete
calcium hydroxide through leaching to the environment. This is accelerated by the
presence of chlorides. Evidence from actual concrete structures shows that this is a
very slow process, with little loss even after 75–85 years. The reasons for this are
described. The observations and inferences are considered to require a complete
re-appraisal of the conventional ideas and concepts associated with
‘chloride-induced’ reinforcement corrosion.
Keywords Reinforcement Corrosion Marine Long-term Initiation
1 Introduction
As infrastructure becomes older, there is increasing interest in the possibility of

life-extension, thereby obviating or delaying the disruptions and costs associated
with infrastructure replacement or major repair. For reinforced concrete structures
in marine environments the critical issue usually is that of ‘chloride-induced’
reinforcement corrosion. However, what this actually means is still open to debate.
The conventional approach is to limit the concentration of chlorides in the imme-
diate vicinity of the reinforcing bars to some acceptable value - a threshold value
above which it is assumed corrosion of the bars commences. Despite extensive
research to establish a threshold value, perhaps for different exposure conditions, a
very large degree of uncertainty remains (cf.[1]). This is not satisfactory since it
R. E. Melchers (&)
Centre for Infrastructure Performance and Reliability, University of Newcastle,
2308 Callaghan, Australia
e-mail: rob.melchers@newcastle.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_4
44 R. E. Melchers
implies that the level may be too high for some structures and too low for others,
without any indication of which is the case. The alternative view is that this indi-
cates there are other factors involved, not considered and that may be much more
important. Of course, such a view could be considered heresy, given the long
history of very extensive and detailed research investigations by many researchers.
Yet this ‘disruptive’ view is precisely that which must be taken to make progress, as
outlined below.
There is now a considerable body of evidence, from actual concrete structures,
exposed to various marine environments that, other than minor corrosion, often not
visible to the outside, serious damaging reinforcement corrosion may not occur for
many decades. Some of these cases have been described earlier [13, 14, 18, 19] and
most recently detailed for the Phoenix caissons placed off the coast of France just
after D-day on 6 June 1944 [16]. Figure 1 shows just one example of part of one of
the more than 40 caissons visible at low tide and some 30 with their upper part
always above high tide that show the serious structural damage done by storm
conditions commencing already soon after D-day [9] but the very limited evidence
of any reinforcement corrosion, such as cracking along the bars. Detailed investi-
gations using concrete coring of immersed, splash and atmospheric corrosion zones
showed pH above about 10 throughout, except the outer 1–2 mm at the exposed
surfaces, very high chloride concentrations [16] inside the concrete, and therefore at
the steel bars, the concrete to have very high strength (50–60 MPa) and therefore
also very low permeability.
The next section provides commentary on some basic factors that are essential
for studying reinforcement corrosion in laboratory studies - factors that have been
almost universally forgotten or ignored, with the result that many studies are
meaningless for translation to real concrete structures. This is followed by a sum-
mary exposition of the process for corrosion initiation, the essential preconditions to
that occurring, and the fact that for high quality concretes then corrosion stops or
progresses at a very slow rate. For such concretes the eventual condition for
damaging corrosion is loss of calcium hydroxide, aided in the case of marine
Fig. 1 Example of heavily damaged reinforced concrete caisson exposed to marine environments
since 1944, showing very limited evidence of reinforcement corrosion
Changing Our Understanding of Reinforcement Corrosion … 45
structures by the action of chlorides. The paper closes with a summary of the
practical implications and a warning about the, often neglected, occurrence of deep
transverse cracks that can cause very severe, highly localized corrosion.
2 Background
In actual concretes any reinforcement bars are surrounded by the concrete matrix
material. Usually this is of low permeability and thus any moisture conditions
around the bars can be characterized as stagnant. Under such conditions it was
established, empirically, more than 100 years ago that the rate of corrosion is only
minimally affected by the type of salt in solution (water) or its concentration [6].
They observed little difference in corrosion loss for mild steel strips immersed in
weak, but stagnant, solutions of many different salts, including NaCl. These
observations were explained much later Dora [3] that the weak passive film, first
observed in the 1930s [4] remains in place in stagnant conditions, thereby limiting
the availability of oxygen for corrosion. This does not occur under non-stagnant
conditions. Empirically this was demonstrated in carefully controlled experiments
for the effect of chlorides on corrosion [20]. They found essentially no overall
corrosion under stagnant conditions, no matter what the concentration of chlorides.
In this respect, the conventional electrochemical tests do not comply as they
almost always stir the solutions or the specimens in order to speed up the reactions.
But this destroys their relevance to corrosion in concrete. Also, such tests use
solutions representing the pore waters assumed to exist inside concretes, rather than
real concretes, adding to the problematic relationship between test conditions and
reality (cf. [23]).
The second important aspect is that new concretes present pH values of around
13.5. This is the result of alkalis NaOH, KOH and Ca(OH)2, the first two of which
are quite soluble in water and often leach out of the concrete matrix relatively
quickly, even for relatively impermeable high quality concretes. Typically this
leaves mainly Ca(OH)2 as the controlling alkali with a solution pH around 12.
Under high chloride conditions this is sufficient to inhibit generalized corrosion, but
not pitting [22]. Thus, if other conditions are met, such as oxygen availability and
water, pitting corrosion will occur.
The third important aspect is that the solubility of Ca(OH)2 increases with the
presence of chlorides, roughly in proportion to the chloride concentration [10].
Finally, it was proposed already in 2006 [17] that for good quality low per-
meability concretes the initiation of reinforcement corrosion at time ti is a transient
effect that may permit some limited amount of corrosion to occur but that this then
ceases or becomes very low until at some much later time, at tact say, serious,
damaging corrosion commences (Fig. 2). It was foreshadowed that these two
changes of state were governed by two quite different processes, the initiation phase
46 R. E. Melchers
Fig. 2 Model for development of reinforcement corrosion with increased exposure time (17), as
well as the effect of concrete permeability
by availability of oxygen and water and the active corrosion phase by loss of
alkalis. Recently convincing experimental proof of these two aspects has become
available. It might be noted that the classic Tuuti model does not recognize the
passive period tpass and thus has tact= ti [24].
3 Time to Corrosion Initiation
Information about the time to initiation, and the mechanisms involved have been
obtained from controlled corrosion experiments conducted using a large number of
concrete specimens each 40 40 160 mm long, made seawater and with one
6 mm diam. longitudinal mild steel bar, and to various water cement and aggregate
cement ratios [13]. The specimens were cast horizontally, in high accuracy steel
molds and vibrated on a laboratory shaking-table for concrete compaction. Since
2004 they have been kept continuously in a 25 °C, near 100% relative humidity
environment (fog room). At approximately 12 month intervals some samples were
recovered and detailed observations made [13, 15].
After 2–3 years exposure, it was noticed that while the overall amount of cor-
rosion was negligible, some samples showed a very small amount of pitting or
localized corrosion, mainly along the lower part of the reinforcing bar, away from
the casting direction and the along the side closest to the shaking table top (Fig. 3a).
Close inspection of the concrete that had been in touch with the steel bar showed
that there were air-voids in the concrete corresponding to the locations of pitting
and localized corrosion (Fig. 3b). Similar observations were made in subsequent
years, but remarkably, the amount of corrosion did not increase substantially with
time, although the amount of corrosion was, relatively, greater for the more per-
meable, poor quality concretes [13–15]. For these the local areas of corrosion were
greater and there were multiple air-voids visible in the adjacent concrete (Fig. 3b).
Even after 10 years exposure the concrete pH for the higher strength, dense, low
permeable concretes was still around 12 while for the more permeable specimens
the pH had decreased to around 10. Chloride concentrations at this time were still
considerable [13]. Thus the corrosion observed is consistent with the [22] criterion
(a) (b)
Fig. 3 a Cross-section showing typical localized (pitting) corrosion along lower part of
reinforcing bar corresponding to wet air-voids in the adjacent concrete matrix, b more extensive
corrosion along lower part of bar for permeable concrete
Fig. 4 Model for effect of

wet air-voids on localized
corrosion by differential
aeration
for pitting corrosion being possible for high chloride concentrations but that general
corrosion is, essentially, precluded.
In practice there is a long history of observations of air-voids adjacent to rein-
forcing bars, typically attributed to the degree of concrete compaction during
construction (e.g. [21]). However, voids are not always observed. For example, two
of the field studies mentioned above [18, 19] showed no visible voids next to the
reinforcement. Some research projects also have reported the presence of voids [2,
7] but there is no mention of the degree of concrete compaction. Although a number
of potential influencing factors are mentioned, no conclusions were drawn and no
mechanisms were proposed.
The experimental observations in Fig. 3 immediately indicate the corrosion
mechanism involved [11, 15]. Chlorides, high pH of the surrounding concrete and
therefore the pore-water when it is available, permit pitting corrosion according to
the [22] criterion, but not generalized corrosion. Earlier it was shown that pitting
corrosion under extended exposures in marine conditions (i.e. high chlorides) and
under rusts develops into localized corrosion owing to the sideways growth of pits
once the pitting potential has been reached [8, 12]. This produces plateaus on which
new pits can form. This process can then recycle to produce the localized corrosion
such as in Fig. 3b. All this occurs within a quite localized region, and can be
represented as in Fig. 4 [11].
48 R. E. Melchers
4 Time to Active Corrosion
As hypothesized much earlier [17], the evidence from detailed observations of the
10 year laboratory specimens that included, as noted, a range of water-cement and
aggregate-cement ratios was quite clear, and are summarized in part in Fig. 5. It
shows longitudinal cross-sections of some of the specimens broken open after
10 years for a specimens made with low-heat (sulphate resistant) cement. This is
simply a cement that is slower in setting and develops less heat but is otherwise the
same as normal blended cements, except of one aspect - it has a slightly elevated
content of MnS and FeS. These impart the darker colour of the freshly made (and
freshly exposed) concrete shown particularly in Fig. 5a. Concretes made with such
cements are known to lighten in colour within 2–3 days after exposure to the
atmosphere [5]. The details of these experiments have been given elsewhere [13].
The observations from cases such as shown in Fig. 5 are:
(a) the light coloured concrete is at the external faces, indicating these were
exposed to more oxygen whereas the dark interior was not,
(b) analysis by XRD and EDS showed the dark concrete retained Ca(OH)2 whereas
the light concrete was essentially devoid of Ca(OH)2
(c) correspondingly, the pH readings are still around 12 for the dark concrete, but
much lower for the light concrete,
(d) the depth of penetration of loss of Ca(OH)2 becomes greater as the permeability
of the concrete increases, and also increases with exposure period,
(e) although not shown in Fig. 5, when examined under the microscope the light
coloured concrete showed a much more open, permeable structure than the dark
concrete.
(a) Concrete: appears dense, low permeability (b) Concrete: apparent high permeability
Dark concrete: pH 11.6-11.8; high Ca(OH)2 Dark concrete: negligible
Light concrete: pH ≈9; negligible Ca(OH)2. Light concrete: pH ≈9; negligible Ca(OH)2.
Bar: some isolated, superficial rusts Bar: considerable visible rusts
Fig. 5 Appearance of interior concrete and reinforcing bars after 10 years exposure, showing
distinct differences in colour of the concrete and associated pH spot readings
Fig. 6 Depth (d) of loss of calcium hydroxide as a function of rebound hammer results
The observations in Fig. 5 can be given a simple explanation. The retention of

Ca(OH)2 in the concrete matrix maintains the concrete pH at around 12, and this is
much higher than the normal threshold for the commencement of overall, general
corrosion of the steel. Only when enough of the Ca(OH)2 has leached out from the
matrix outwards to the environment, as is clearly the case in Fig. 5, accelerated in
the cases of the specimens considered herein by the effect of chlorides, can con-
ditions be reached to permit corrosion of the steel. As noted, the leaching out of the
Ca(OH)2 opens up the concrete matrix in the leached zone, permitting easy entry of
the atmosphere and thus oxygen. This oxidizes the MnS and FeS in the low-heat
cement to allow the colour of the concrete to become lighter. Eventually, when the
light coloured, leached and highly permeable zone has penetrated to the steel bar
will there be both oxygen and (usually) moisture be available for general corrosion
to proceed.
While the above has been observed for concrete made with low heat cement,
re-examination of multiple specimens made with conventional blended cement
shows the same pattern, but much less obviously, owing to the very limited change
on concrete colour with exposure tot the atmospheric oxygen.
Apart from specimens made with seawater and low-heat cement, others were
made with normal blended cement and others still with freshwater and blended
cement. The degree to which the Ca(OH)2 depleted zone had penetrated inwards is
summarised in Fig. 6 for 10 years exposure. Here the horizontal axis is for rebound
hammer results as an approximate indicator of concrete permeability [14].
50 R. E. Melchers
5 Discussion
In interpreting the results shown in Fig. 6 it must be remembered that the two upper
curves are for concretes made with seawater. That means that a high concentration
of chlorides was present right from first exposure, and that any time for the chlo-
rides to diffuse into the concrete is not considered. Such diffusion would add to the
outward rate of alkali leaching from the exterior parts of the concretes. However, in
practice the concentration of chlorides would be much less on average than that for
the experimental specimens reflected in Fig. 6 and thus the rate of leaching cor-
respondingly much lower. In addition, the rate of leaching depends, obviously, on
the permeability of the concrete, as shown in Fig. 6 but also intuitively. Figure 6
shows that for such concretes there is little difference between the depth of pene-
tration (i.e. depth of light coloured concrete) for the concretes with low permeability
(right hand side of graph), irrespective of whether or not seawater had been used in
the mix.
Conversely, the depth of penetration is much greater for poor quality, permeable
concretes (cf. Fig. 5). This can be attributed to the more open concrete matrix
structure exposing greater internal surface areas for alkali dissolution.
The results in Fig. 6 are all for specimens that were continually wet. Where this
is not the case alkali dissolution is likely to be lower and hence the rate of pene-
tration lower and subsequently the rime period tact longer. To be sure, wet concretes
generally do not permit ready entry of carbon dioxide or oxygen (and presumably
chlorides) but this restriction is much removed once the alkalis leach out and the
concrete matrix structure becomes more open as a result (Fig. 5b). Once that has
happened the concrete offers little or no protection against the corrosion of the steel
bar(s) and the rate of corrosion can then approach what it would be for steel
exposed to the local environment. With sufficient such corrosion the corrosion
products would be able to split the concrete along the bar orientations, as commonly
observed in severe environments.
To be even clearer, concretes of poor quality are likely to commence serious
corrosion from soon after ti, as shown schematically in Fig. 2. The challenge clearly
is not to have such concretes if long-term durability is expected.
Finally, In some cases very deep transverse cracks have been observed to cause
very serious corrosion at the crack - this potentially serious issue is at present not
properly addressed by code rules for durability [11, 19] Space precludes further
discussion, but some examples and explanations are available [18, 19]. It might be
noted that this behaviour stems very much from the presence of chlorides at the
crack-reinforcement interface, again highlighting the need for high quality low
permeability concretes, but now also without deep cracks.
6 Conclusion
The following conclusions may be drawn from the material presented herein:
1. There is no evidence that chlorides directly attack reinforcement bars; instead
they aid the dissolution of the critical alkali calcium hydroxide thereby per-
mitting the earlier access of atmospheric oxygen and permitting corrosion of the
steel subject to availability of water,
2. Low concrete permeability is crucial for reducing the rate at which alkalis can
leach from the concrete and essential for long term durability of reinforcement,
3. Low permeability of concrete implies adequate concrete cement content - typ-
ically greater than currently in use,
4. Compaction should be sufficient to ensure low permeability of the concrete and
also to reduce the size/volume of air-voids at the concrete-steel interface as
much as possible. Larger air-voids produce greater volumes of corrosion
products and these may cause cracking of the concrete along the bars, followed
by severe corrosion as the atmosphere can reach the bars.
5. Electrochemical tests using pore water solutions cannot mimic the localized
corrosion effects identified herein, do not mimic the stagnant conditions inside
real concretes and therefore their results have limited implications for practical
concretes.
6. The present results indicate that the current thinking about reinforcement cor-
rosion needs a complete overhaul, with more attention given to achieving low
permeability, high alkali concrete and much less emphasis on the presence or
otherwise of chlorides.
Acknowledgements The author acknowledges the following support: the Australian Research
Council for some part of the work, the Civil Engineering laboratories at the University of
Newcastle, in particular Ian Jeans and Goran Simundic, and Dr Torill Pape and Dr Igor Chaves and
(the late) Dr Dick van der Molen for suggesting the use of sulphate-reducing cement.
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reinforced concrete – a review. Cem Concr Res 39:1122–1138
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Hanson Heidelberg Cement, Ketton, UK
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Losungen. Stahl Eisen 28(44):1564–1573
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Institution of Civil Engineers, London, pp 291–312
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J Am Chem Soc 53(11):3976–3991
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Durability, Melbourne, 26–27 July, Australasian Corrosion Association
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exposures. Corros Mater Degrad 1:4
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reinforcement corrosion. Mater Corros 68(6):613–621
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reinforcement in marine environments. ACI Mater J 103(1):25–32
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Structural Health Monitoring and Control
Development of Elasto-Magneto-Electric
Sensors for Total-Stress
in Large-Diameter Cables
Xiaoyang Hu, Yuanfeng Duan, Yaozhi Luo, and Chungbang Yun
Abstract As main load-carrying components of a cable-supported bridge, the

integrity of the steel cables directly affects the structure safety and durability of the
bridge during construction and operation. Therefore, monitoring cable tension in an
efficient and accurate way plays a significant role in the safety assessment of the
bridge structure. Traditional methods, such as strain-based and vibration-based
methods, are difficult to measure cable tension accurately. Therefore, based on the
elasto-magnetic (EM) effect and magneto-electric (ME) principle, the elasto-
magneto-electric (EME) sensor was developed by the present author, in order to
measure the total tension in cables. This paper presents an experimental study and a
real application of the EME sensor for large-diameter cables. The experimental
results prove that the large-diameter EME sensor can realize the long-term,
non-destructive, and high-precision tension monitoring of steel cables with a rel-
ative error of less than 1.8%.

Keywords Elasto-magnetic (EM) effect Magneto-electric (ME) principle EME

sensors Large-diameter cables Tension monitoring
1 Introduction
With the rapid development of bridge design technologies and high-strength

materials for cables, the number of constructions for cable-supported bridges
increases significantly to meet the needs of long spans. As critical load-carrying
members of a cable-supported bridge, state of the cables can affect the bridge safety
X. Hu Y. Duan (&) Y. Luo C. Yun

College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
e-mail: ceyfduan@zju.edu.cn
X. Hu
e-mail: 21712086@zju.edu.cn
Y. Luo
e-mail: luoyz@zju.edu.cn

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_5
56 X. Hu et al.
Table 1 Disadvantages of traditional methods for stress measuring

Methods Disadvantages
Strain sensors Only monitoring the relative value; Adhesive needed
Vibration frequency method Low accuracy; Sensitive to boundary conditions
Fiber bragg grating sensors High cost; Monitoring the relative value
and performance directly. Particularly, the cable vibration caused by dynamic loads,
such as wind, rain and traffics, may lead to fatigue damage of cables, thus causing
serious potential damage to the operation safety of the bridge. Bridge accidents
caused by broken cables can be very serious. For examples, the collapse of the
Chirajara Bridge in Colombia in 2018 and the deck collapse of the Wuyi Mountain
Bridge in China in 2011 due to suspender fracture have resulted in grave economic
losses and negative societal impacts. Generally, cable tensions represent the state of
structural integrity of the cable-supported bridge. Therefore, accurate cable stress
monitoring has been an important subject in the structural health monitoring
(SHM) of those structures.
The traditional methods for measuring cable tensions generally evaluate stresses
indirectly from changes in the physical parameters of the structure caused by the
applied stresses, and have various disadvantages, such as difficulty to mount on the
cable and sensitivity to temperature (Table 1).
It is well-known that ferromagnetic materials such as steel members have dif-
ferent inherent magnetic properties under different external force [8], which is the
magnetoelastic effect. Based on the magnetoelastic effect, the elasto-magnetic
(EM) sensor has been developed by many researchers to monitor the cable stress
[10]. However, as the detecting component of an EM sensor, the secondary coil
cannot generate strong induced voltage, limiting its measuring accuracy and
engineering applications. Moreover, until now, most ME sensors are only applied
on small-diameter cables with low measuring precision. For example, the EM
sensor is applied to 128 mm cables in Adige bridge with a relative error of 5% [2].
Recently, an elasto-magneto-electric (EME) sensors was developed by replacing
the secondary coil with a smart magneto-electric (ME) sensing unit. Compared with
the secondary coil, the smart ME unit has higher magnetoelectric conversion
coefficient and magnetic field responsivity [4], which makes the sensor smaller,
more accurate, and more suitable for stress monitoring of large-diameter cables.
An ANSYS model for EME sensors was built and the feasibility of total-stress
monitoring has been confirmed [5, 12]. This paper is aimed to introduce EME
total-stress sensors for large diameter cables, covering the theory, the size of EME
sensors, the experimental calibration in the lab, and an application in an engineering
project.
Development of EME Sensors … 57
2 Theoretical Background
2.1 Stress Effect on the Magnetic Properties

of Ferromagnetic Material
When the ferromagnetic material is subjected to an external force, strain is gen-

erated inside it, resulting in changes in the magnetic properties, such as magnetic
permeability. This phenomenon is named as inverse magnetostrictive effect and
may be interpreted by magnetic domain theory [1]. The concept of the magnetic
domain was proposed by the Weiss [9] who also put forward the molecular field
theory of ferromagnet. That is, the ferromagnetic material is made up of large
amount of microscopic magnetic domains. In a nonmagnetic material, these mag-
netic domains are individually saturated and randomly oriented in all directions,
making net magnetization zero since the magnetic vectors can cancel each other out
(Fig. 1.a). When an external magnetic field is applied (Fig. 1.b), magnetic domains
are turned to the external field direction (Fig. 1.c), hence, the ferromagnetic body
has a high magnetic susceptibility and exhibits a saturation behavior. Same as the
external magnetic field, the stress can also have an effect on the direction of
magnetic domains [6]. If it is tensile stress, the magnetic domains will rotate and
align themselves to the tensile stress direction, and the magnetization in this
direction will be strengthened. Conversely, the compressive stress will turn the
magnetic domains perpendicular to the direction of stress, weakening the magne-
tization in the stress direction.
In the magnetic field, ferromagnetic material will generate magnetoelastic energy
due to spontaneous deformation. But both magnetoelastic energy and magnetic
stress energy can be generated when the ferromagnetic material is subjected to
external force, which can be expressed by
Etotal ¼ Emag þ Er ð1Þ
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 1 Magnetic domain distribution in ferromagnetic materials: (a) distribution without external
magnetic field, (b) magnetic field generated by a solenoid, (c) distribution under solenoidal
magnetic field
58 X. Hu et al.
where Emag is the magnetoelastic energy due to spontaneous deformation, Er is

magnetic stress energy caused by external force.
Based on the magnetic domains’ theory, Er may be expressed by:
3
Er ¼ kr cos2 h ð2Þ
2
where r is the stress, h is the angle between

P the stress direction (ci ) and the
magnetization direction(ai ), so cos h ¼ ai ci ði ¼ 1; 2; 3Þ. k ¼ ks should be a
constant coefficient at the pure saturation.
Besides, k can be expressed by an empirical formula [7]:
X
1
k¼ ci ðrÞ M 2i ð3Þ
i¼0
Form Eqs. (2) and (3), it is obvious that there is some proportional relationship
between Er and r, which can be expressed as:
@B @Er
¼ u1 ¼ u1 f ðk; h; MS Þ ð4Þ
@r @r
where Er = BH, B is the magnetic induced intensity, H is the magnetic field

intensity, MS is the magnetization at saturation, u1 and is the constant parameter.
Equations (4) shows that the monotonical relationship between B and r can been
found. That is, the magnetic characteristics can be analyzed to predict the value of
stress, which is basis in next sections.
2.2 Working Principle of Smart ME Sensing Units
In this paper, in order to replace the secondary coil, a smart ME sensing element is
introduced, which is made from a new smart magnetoelectric laminate, Terfenol-D/
PMN-PT/Terfenol-D (TD/PMNT/TD) laminate. Owing to the magnetostrictive
effect of Terfenol-D and the piezoelectric effect of PMN-PT, this composite
material has a high magneto-electric conversion coefficient [3, 11] and can convert
the change of the magnetic field, which is resulted from the property change of the
ferromagnetic materials subjected to external force, into the detectable electrical
signal represented by the voltage. The relationship [5, 12] can be expressed as:
dVME dS dVME
aV ¼ Kð Þ ð Þ ¼ð Þ ð5Þ
dS mags dB piezo dB com
where aV represents the magnetic conversion coefficient, ðdVdSME Þmags represents the
magnetostrictive effect, while ðdB
dS
Þpiezo represents the piezoelectric effect, and K is a
constant, only influence by the volumes fraction of the component materials. From
Eqs. 4 and 5, under a certain H, the relationship between V and r can be expressed:
@VME
¼ uf ðk; h; MS Þ ð6Þ
@r
where VME is the induced voltage of ME units.
3 Structure of EME Sensory Systems
3.1 Structure of EME Sensor
The present EME sensor mainly consists of nylon skeleton, primary coils, smart
sensing units, and insulating layer, as shown in Fig. 2. The primary coil is wound
on the nylon skeleton in order to produce enough magnetic field. Inserted in the
pre-set slot of the skeleton, ME sensing units can produce induced voltage signal by
converting the changes of the magnetic field. The insulating layer can prevent the
EME sensor from the effect of external magnetic field. Furthermore, after mounting
the sensor on the cable, epoxy can be used to fill the gap between the cable and the
sensor to prevent possible damage and corrosion during the long service life.
(a) (b)
Fig. 2 Structure of EME sensor: (a) profile view, (b) top view
60 X. Hu et al.
3.2 EME Sensor System
This system is a stress monitoring platform based on LabVIEW (Laboratory Virtual

Instrument Engineering Workbench), which may consist of multiple EME sensors,
a magnetic demodulator, a multi-channel collector, and a host computer (Fig. 3).
The multi-channel acquisition instrument can link multiple sensors to one
demodulator, while the host computer program may realize the data storage and
display the final results by LabVIEW. The magnetic demodulator is comprised of
three main modules, including control circuit, data acquisition, and data processing.
The data acquisition module mainly collects the excited current in the primary coils
and the induced voltage in the ME sensing unit, and conveys them to the data
processing module, where the data may be integrated and processed to the final
magnetic characteristic values. All the control circuits are integrated into a circuit
board in the magnetic demodulator. After calibration, the monotonical relationship
between final magnetic characteristic value VEME and the total stress r can be
obtained. Finally, the on-line stress monitoring can be realized on the host
computer.
Fig. 3 EME sensor stress monitoring system

4 Engineering Application
4.1 Full-Scale Calibration Experiment in the Laboratory
A full-scale experiment based on a cable PES(C)7-421(Fig. 4) was carried out in

the lab, in order to verify the feasibility and stability of the manufactured EME
sensor for large-size cables. The cable is composed of 421 galvanized Ф7 wires
covered by double PE layer. This cable is similar to those used in a bridge, which
will be described in next section. As shown in Fig. 5, the steel cable was fixed in
the frame and the hydraulic prestressing jack was set on the top to load the cable.
Mounted at the middle of the cable, the EME sensor can measure the change of the
magnetic field by exporting voltage signal after the drive circuit excites current in
the primary coils. Then the signal is collected by a NI data acquisition
(DAQ) device (USB-6211). All the operation can be accomplished on the host
computer, and the sampling frequency is 6000 Hz.
Fig. 4 Cross section of

PES(C)7-421
Fig. 5 Calibration equipment

in the lab
62 X. Hu et al.
Experiment was conducted for various loads in the range from 300 kN to 12,000
kN under four different temperature. Calibration was carried out for each load level.
Five measurements were taken for each loading and the results were averaged.
After data processing, final magnetic parameter VEME was calculated. Figure 6
shows the calibration curves under four different temperature, which indicates the
monotonic increase of VEME with the external force. Quadratic equations have been
obtained with correlation coefficient R = 0.999 by curve fitting from the results.
After calibration, verification of this EME sensor was carried out. The cable was
loaded at various levels from 2500 kN to 10000 kN at room temperature, near 26 °C.
During each loading level, measuring was conducted five times and the results were
averaged. All the verification data can be seen in Table 2. It is observed that the EME
sensor shows great accuarcy in measuremnts with the max error lesss than 2%.
Fig. 6 Calibration curve at

four different temperature
Table 2 Comparison of the measured and applied force at 26 °C (kN)

Applied tensions (T) Single measuring values Average Errors
values (A) [(A-T)/T]
2500 2412 2564 2596 2546 2569 2538 1.52%
4000 4035 3897 4037 4060 4096 4025 0.63%
6500 6496 6562 6408 6422 6397 6457 0.66%
8500 8512 8601 8425 8528 8621 8538 0.44%
10,000 10,189 10,212 10,115 10,175 10,194 10,177 1.77%
4.2 Application of the EME Sensors on an Arch Bridge
The present EME sensors were installed in the Lupu Bridge, which is located in the
Huangpu River of Luwan District, the city center of Shanghai, China. This is the
mid-supported steel arch bridge built at soft soil, and the pile foundation cannot bear
horizontal forces from the arch. Therefore, 16 horizontal cables were arranged in the
main girder between the two sides of the main bridge to balance the horizontal thrust
of the arch (Fig. 7.a and b). A structural health monitoring (SHM) system was
operated after the bridge construction in order to ensure the bridge safety during its
service-life. Four EME sensors were mounted on different horizontal cables, labeled
with SSZ1301, SSZ1302, SSZ1303 and SSZ1304. Figure 7.c and d shows two
cables with EME sensors and the magnetic demodulator.
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Fig. 7 Layout of EME sensors in Lupu bridge: (a) arch bridge plan, (b) cross section of the girder
in A-A to display the location of 4 horizontal cables, (c) EME sensors, (d) magnetic demodulator
64 X. Hu et al.
5 Conclusion
An EME sensor is presented to realize the automated data collection and long-term
stress monitoring on large-diameter cables on a real bridge. Based on elasto-magnetic
and magneto-electric effect of ferromagnetic material, the EME sensor can provide
reliable data for SHM to ensure the safety of the bridge structure. This paper intro-
duces the structure, sensors, experimental verification, and engineering application.
The following conclusions are drawn:
(1) The EME monitoring system can achieve long-term, non-destructive stress
monitoring on large diameter cables and measure the total stress directly, rather
than relative value.
(2) With the help of the multi-channel acquisition instrument, the EME system can
monitor multiple cables simultaneously, improving the efficiency of in situ
monitoring greatly.
(3) Full-scale calibration under several temperature and the engineering application
of the Lupu Bridge prove that the measuring results of the stress monitoring
system based on EME sensors have relatively high measurement accuracy
(error is less than 1.8%) and have strong stability under different temperature,
reaching the engineering requirements successfully.
Acknowledgement This work was funded by the National Key R&D Program of China
(2018YFE0125400) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1709216).
References
1. Buschow KHJ, Deboer FR (2013) Physics of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials. Kluwer
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13660
Multiple Tuned Mass Dampers for Wind
Induced Vibration Control
of a Cable-Supported Roof
X. C. Wang, Y. F. Duan, C. B. Yun, and W. J. Lou
Abstract A multiple tuned mass damper (MTMD) system is presented for vibra-
tion control of a cable-supported roof structure of a large exhibition center.
The MTMD system consists of three TMD sub-systems, which are tuned to each of
three dominating vertical modes of the structure under wind excitation. Each TMD
sub-system is composed of multiple TMDs with small masses spread at multiple
locations with large response in the corresponding mode. Several key points in the
design of MTMD scheme are discussed including determinations of dominating
modes and damping ratios of TMDs as well as MTMD performance based on wind
vibration responses. This MTMD system is going to be installed on a real structure
in the near future.
Keywords Multiple tuned mass dampers Vibration control Cable-supported

roof Random wind load
1 Introduction
Cable-supported large span structures are widely employed for public buildings,
such as large stations, exhibition centers and gymnasiums. It is typical for large
span roof structures that mode shapes are usually intricate, rendering it a difficult
task to determine the dominating modes. Furthermore, because of the complex
spatial property of large span structures and frequency dependent characteristic of
X. C. Wang Y. F. Duan (&) C. B. Yun W. J. Lou

X. C. Wang
e-mail: wangxc1206@163.com
C. B. Yun
e-mail: ycb@zju.edu.cn
W. J. Lou
e-mail: louwj@zju.edu.cn

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_6
68 X. C. Wang et al.
multiple tuned mass dampers (MTMD), a precise 3-dimensional finite element

model of the structure is necessary and multiple modes shall be considered in
vibration control, leading to a large number of variables and a heavy computational
work.
Various algorithms have been developed to find the optimum parameters of
MTMD [1–4]. However, the underlying principles of the parameter determination
process have not been described clearly. In this paper, a detailed parametric analysis
based on a real structure is formulated to provide insights of the MTMD design
scheme.
2 Structure and Load Condition
The roof consists of a bi-directional cable system, three main steel trusses with main
cables in one direction, acting as the main-support system, and ten double-layer
cable trusses in another direction, acting as the sub-support system. Length of the
structure is 174 m, and the width is 135 m (Fig. 1). The three main trusses divide
the total length into four spans, with two middle spans of 54 m and two side spans
of 27 m. Wind pressure loads with a recurrence period of 50 years are simulated
using a CFD model (Fig. 2.a). Five load conditions are considered, with five wind
directions, 0°, 22.5°, 45°, 67.5°, and 90° (Fig. 2.b). The 10 min wind speed is
23.76 m/s.
(a) 3D view (b) Top view
Fig. 1 A cable-supported roof structure (unit: m)

Multiple Tuned Mass Dampers for Wind Induced Vibration Control … 69
(a) CFD model (b) Wind directions
Fig. 2 Wind load simulation
Fig. 3 Mode shapes
3 MTMD Design Scheme
Mode shapes and frequencies of four relevant modes are shown in Fig. 3. The 1st
mode is an asymmetric mode, while the others are symmetric modes. MTMD
system proposed in this paper consists of three MTMD sub-systems tuned to each
of the frequencies of three dominating symmetric vertical modes under wind
excitation. The influence of MTMD parameters on the modal damping and the
response of the main structure are discussed.
3.1 Dominating Modes and MTMD Layout
Vibration response of the k th degree-of-freedom in a N degrees-of-freedom struc-

ture can be computed as a sum of modal responses based on the modal superpo-
sition theory.
Xl
yk ðtÞ ¼ i¼1
ui;k qi ðtÞðl NÞ ð1Þ
where, ui;k is the displacement of the kth degree-of-freedom in the ith mode shape;
qi ðtÞ is the mode general coordinate of the ith mode; l is the number of modes
considered in the response analysis. In this paper, l is twenty.
Then the modal response of the ith mode of the kth degree-of-freedom can be
obtained as,
yi;k ðtÞ ¼ ui;k qi ðtÞ ð2Þ
In this study, the modal contribution of the ith mode for the response of the kth
degree-of-freedom is defined with the standard deviation of the modal response
yi;k ðtÞ. Two nodes are considered in the response analysis: N1 with the maximum
vertical displacement in a middle span under wind excitation and N3 with the
maximum vertical displacement in a side span. N1 is the one third point in the
middle span. And N3 is the center in the side span. (Fig. 1.b)
Figure 4 shows the modal contributions at N1 and N3. The 8th mode shows great
modal contribution for both nodes. The 15th mode is the most significant mode for
the response of N3. The 10th mode shows significantly larger contributions for both
nodes than the others. Therefore, the 8th, the 15th, and the 10th mode are selected as
the three dominating modes. TMDs are placed in the areas with large displacements
in the mode shapes of those three dominating modes as shown in Fig. 5.
(a) Modal contribution for responses of N3 (b) Modal contribution for responses of N1
Fig. 4 Modal contribution for vertical displacement responses

(a) 3D view (b) Top view
Fig. 5 MTMD layout (unit: m)
3.2 Single-Mode Control
A MTMD sub-system for the 15th mode is discussed in this section. The fre-
quencies of TMDs are designed slightly different from each other around the central
frequency (0.85 Hz) of the sub-system. The frequency bandwidth introduced will
enhance the robustness of the MTMD system against uncertainties and changes in
the dynamic properties of the roof structure. Eight TMDs are placed at two side
spans (Fig. 5). Mass of each TMD is assumed to be 400 kg. Frequency bandwidth
of TMDs is taken as 0:05 Hz (6% of the central frequency). Damping ratios of
TMDs are assumed to be equal with each other.
3.2.1 Damping Ratios of TMDs
Eight additional modes appear around the initial 15th mode due to 8 TMDs added.
Figure 6 shows the modal damping ratios of the 9 modes (the initial 15th mode plus
8 additional modes) for various damping ratios of TMDs. Modal damping ratios of
8 modes increase along with the increase of nT , while the modal damping ratio of 1
mode decreases after nT reaches 0.06. This result match the conclusion for a SDOF
main structure drawn by Masato et al. [5].
Wind vibration response analysis is carried on under the given condition to
figure out the effect of damping ratios of TMDs nT on structural root-mean-square
(RMS) vertical displacement responses (Fig. 7). N3 is selected for response
observation. The outcome shows that the structural response decreases along with
the increase of the damping ratio of TMDs.
Fig. 6 Modal damping ratio

of 9 modes for various
damping ratio of TMDs
Fig. 7 RMS responses of N3

versus damping ratio of
TMDs
3.2.2 Modal Contribution
Given the damping ratio of TMDs (nT ¼ 20%), wind vibration analysis is per-
formed to figure out the effect of MTMD on modal contribution. As Table 1 shows,
modal contribution of the 15th mode is dramatically reduced after installation of
MTMD, with a reduction rate up to 68%.
Table 1 Modal contribution for the vertical displacement response of N3 under wind direction of
90°
Modes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Before (m) 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.07 0.01 0.02
After (m) 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.07 0.01 0.02
Modes 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Before (m) 0.00 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.25 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.00
After (m) 0.00 0.02 0.02 0.00 0.08 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.01
Table 2 MTMD parameter scheme

Sub-systems MTMD-8 MTMD-10 MTMD-15
Total masses 5600 kg (350 kg 16) 1400 kg (350 kg 4) 3200 kg (400 kg 8)
Mass ratios 0.23% 0.06% 0.13%
Central frequencies 0.63 Hz 0.68 Hz 0.85 Hz
Number of TMDs 16 4 8
Bandwidth 0.61–0.65 Hz 0.65-0.71 Hz 0.82–0.87 Hz
TMD damping ratios 20% 20% 20%
Damping coefficients 308–327 Ns/m 333–355 Ns/m 415–440 Ns/m
Moreover, it has been found that the MTMD sub-system for a certain mode (the
15th mode) has little influence on the modal contribution of other modes. This result
makes the MTMD design task easier, so that the MTMD sub-systems for domi-
nating modes may be designed separately for each mode.
4 MTMD System and Performance
Based on the analysis above, a MTMD parameter scheme is proposed shown in

Table 2. Mass of the roof structure is 2.48 106 kg. Mass ratio refers to the ratio of
the total mass of TMDs in each sub-system to the total mass of the roof structure.
And the total mass ratio (the ratio of total mass of all TMDs in the whole MTMD
system and mass of the roof structure) is 0.42%.
Three representative nodes are selected to show vertical displacement response
before and after installation of MTMD: N1 (the one third point in a middle span),
N3 (the center of a side span) and the center of a middle span N2 (Fig. 1.b).
Reduction rate is calculated and used as the evaluation criterion for performance of
the MTMD system as shown in Table 3. Time history responses at N1 and N3
before and after installation of MTMD are shown in Fig. 8. The maximum dynamic
vertical displacement response of TMDs is 0.79 m.
Table 3 RMS responses of the roof before and after installation of MTMD system
Wind N1 N2 N3
directions Before After Reduction Before After Reduction Before After Reduction
(m) (m) rate (%) (m) (m) rate (%) (m) (m) rate (%)
0° 0.19 0.07 62 0.17 0.08 51 0.25 0.07 72
22.5° 0.13 0.08 40 0.13 0.09 27 0.14 0.06 59
45° 0.33 0.10 69 0.32 0.12 63 0.23 0.06 75
67.5° 0.12 0.07 39 0.13 0.09 32 0.18 0.06 68
90° 0.14 0.08 40 0.12 0.09 27 0.26 0.08 70
(a) Time history response at N1 (b) Time history response at N3

under wind direction of 45° under wind direction of 90°
Fig. 8. Time history responses before and after installation of MTMD
5 Conclusions
A MTMD system is presented for wind vibration control of a cable-supported roof

structure in this paper. Several key points in the MTMD design scheme are for-
mulated in details and relevant conclusions are drawn as follows:
(1) For vibration control under wind load conditions, the modal contribution is
employed as the criterion of determination of dominating modes instead of the
effective mass which is commonly used for seismic excitations [6];
(2) The effect of damping ratios of TMDs on modal dampings in MDOF-MTMD
systems shows similar trends to SDOF-MTMD systems and the structural
response will be reduced along with the increase of damping ratios of TMDs;
(3) A MTMD sub-system for a certain mode has little influence on the other
modes, thus the MTMD sub-systems can be designed separately for each mode;
(4) A MTMD system with a low mass ratio (0.42%) can provide a good perfor-
mance on wind vibration control, while a high damping ratio of TMDs (20%) is
required.
Acknowledgements This research work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of
China (2018YFE0125400, 2017YFC0806100) and the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (U1709216, 51578419, 51522811, 51478429, and 90915008).
References
1. Zhou XY, Lin YJ, Gu M (2015) Optimization design of MTMD for large span roof structures.
J Vib Eng 28(2):277–284
2. Tubino F, Piccardo G (2015) Tuned mass damper optimization for the mitigation of
human-induced vibrations of pedestrian bridges. Meccanica 50(3):1–16
3. Yang F, Sedaghati R, Esmailzadeh E (2014) Optimal design of distributed tuned mass dampers
for passive vibration control of structures. Struct Control Health Monit 22(2):221–236
4. Chen X, Li AQ, Zhang ZQ, Zhou GD, Cao LL (2017) Optimization design of MTMD for
vibration comfort control of long-span roof structure. J Vib Eng 30(5):827–836
5. Abé M, Fujino Y (2010) Dynamic characterization of multiple tuned mass dampers and some
design formulas. Earthq Eng Struct Dyn 23(8):813–835
6. Tang BJ, Li YM (2007) Vibration control of large span structures with MTMD under seismic
excitation. Spec Struct 24(1):64–67
Cable Damage Identification
of Tied-Arch Bridge Using
Convolutional Neural Network
Q. Y. Chen, C. B. Yun, and Y. F. Duan
Abstract In the field of structural health monitoring, damage detection has been
commonly carried out based on the modal properties and the engineering features
related to the model. However, modal properties real-world structures are often
affected by numerous uncertain factors, and the extracted features are also subjected
to various errors, which makes the pattern recognition for damage detection still
challenging. In this article, a damage detection method using the convolutional
neural network (CNN) is presented for automated operation using raw measurement
data without complex procedure for feature extraction. A CNN is a kind of deep
neural network which typically consists of convolution, pooling, and
fully-connected layers. A numerical simulation study was carried out for damage
detection in cable hangers of a tied-arch bridge using ambient wind vibration data.
Fourier amplitude spectra (FAS) of acceleration responses at cable anchorage points
on the bridge deck are arranged as a matrix, which is used as the input to the CNN.
Numerical results show that the current CNN using FAS data can detect both
damage’ locations and extent accurately. Robustness of the present CNN has been
proven under various observational noise levels and wind speeds.

Keywords Multiple damage identification of hangers Convolutional neural

network Deep learning Fourier amplitude spectra Ambient wind vibration data
Q. Y. Chen C. B. Yun Y. F. Duan (&)

College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, 866 Yuhangtang Rd,
Hangzhou 310058, People’s Republic of China
Q. Y. Chen
C. B. Yun

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_7
78 Q. Y. Chen et al.
1 Introduction
Cables are major load carrying members of a cable supported bridge, which are
vulnerable to material degradation and structural damage due to severe environ-
mental and operational loads during their long life spans. The structural health
monitoring (SHM) system for a cable supported bridge generally includes sensors
on the cables as well as on the bridge deck. In order to detect the damages of the
cable supported bridge, numerous innovations have been proposed mainly from two
aspects: direct damage detection using innovative sensors or algorithms for locating
damages and indirect damage identification based on the changes of vibration
parameters of the structure.
With the rapid improvement of the computer’s hardware and software, machine
learning (ML) based researches for damage identification have made remarkable
progress. Early researches on the application of ML in SHM focused on the
algorithms such as neural network (NN), sparse coding, and autoencoder. Many
works on the ML algorithms for the SHM demonstrated their impressive ability of
feature extraction for the damage identification. Deep learning is a kind of ML
algorithm which typically consists of multiple layers of nonlinear processing units
for feature extraction and transformation [3]. As the state of the art algorithm in
computer vision tasks, a CNN generally includes convolution, pooling, and
fully-connected layers. Abdeljaber et al. [1] applied the CNN to damage identifi-
cation in a steel frame. Cha et al. [2] presented a CNN-based algorithm for crack
detection on a surface of concrete structure. Kim et al. [5] also proposed a
CNN-based methodology for identifying concrete cracks from crack-like noisy
patterns. Lin et al. [7] proposed a CNN to estimate the damage locations and
severities in a beam structure using acceleration time-history responses.
In this research, a numerical simulation study was carried out for multiple
damage identification in cable hangers using a CNN with ambient wind induced
vibration data. Acceleration responses were generated using the simulated random
wind forces on the bridge under the daily wind condition. Fourier amplitude spectra
(FAS) of the acceleration responses along the bridge deck were used as the input to
CNN because they contain both spatial and spectral information. The vector form
intrinsic finite-element (VFIFE) method [4, 9] was used to speed up the response
calculations in generating numerous samples for training the CNN. The CNN
analyses were carried out using TensorFlow machine learning framework. The
performance of the proposed CNN using FAS data was evaluated, and the
robustness were investigated under various levels of observational noise and wind
velocity.
Cable Damage Identification of Tied-Arch Bridge Using CNN 79
Table 1 Material properties and geometric parameter

Component Arch rib Main girder Hanger
Material C50 C40 1860 strand
Elastic modulus (Pa) 3.45 1010 3.25 1010 1.95 1011
Poisson’s ratio 0.2 0.2 0.3
Mass density (kg/m3) 2549 2549 4 8005
Sectional area (m2) 1.2 6 0.00567
Section moment of inertia (m4) 0.2488 1.25 –
Section Height (m): H 1.4 1 –
Section Width (m): B 1.2 8 –
2 Formulation of Numerical Simulation
2.1 Modeling of the Arch Bridge
A tied-arch bridge with 9 vertical hangers (Fig. 1) is considered in this numerical

simulation study. The main span is 70 m and the rise of arch is 15 m. A 2-D
structural model was built using the vector form intrinsic finite-element (VFIFE)
method. The material properties and geometric parameters are listed in Table 1. In
this VFIFE model, the arch and girder elements behave as beams, whereas the
hangers behave as cables with tensions due to the static load and the dynamic
response. The bridge model consists of 30 beam elements and 9 cable elements.
2.2 Simulation of Wind Forces and Bridge Response
Typical daily wind forces are considered in this study. Only vertical acceleration
responses of the bridge are computed under the lift force, as the arch bridge is
simplified into a 2D model. The lift wind forces along the bridge deck and
arch are computed as [8] based on the equation 1.

1 2 uðx; tÞ H wðx; tÞ
FL ðx; tÞ ¼ qU B 2CL ðaÞvL þ ðCL0 ðaÞ þ CD ÞvL ð1Þ
2 U B U
where U denotes the mean horizontal wind speed; uðx; tÞ and w ðx; tÞ denotes the
simulated fluctuating wind velocity components in the lateral and vertical direc-
tions; H and B are the height and width of the girder (or arch); vL denotes aero-
dynamic admittances; CL , CD , and CL0 ðaÞ are the static wind coefficients; and a is
the attack angle of the wind.
For training sets, three cases of mean wind speed U are considered: 5, 8 and
10 m/s. For each mean wind speed, 50 sets of wind forces with different time
histories were generated at 18 nodes on the bridge (9 anchorage points of cables

and 9 points on the arch) considering the spatial correlation of the wind velocity
fluctuations. Vertical acceleration responses were computed at 9 anchorage points
along the deck using the VFIFE method. The sampling frequency for acceleration is
100 Hz.
As the changes in the modal properties reveal the structural damages more
clearly, time-history responses at 9 nodes were converted into the frequency domain
and formed a matrix whose size is 9 1024. With a time-history data of 20.48 s,
the frequency resolution of the fast Fourier transform (FFT) results is 0.049 Hz. To
reduce the leakage of the spectrum and eliminate the effect of random noises, a
moving Hanning window w(t), with the time window of 5.12 s, was applied before
the FFT, and the results of the FAS were averaged. Min-max normalization was
carried out on each matrix to keep the FAS amplitudes at the same level, which is
beneficial to the CNN training. The flow chart of the sample generation is shown in
Fig. 1.
Damages in hangers are represented by the decreases in the cross-sectional areas.
In this simulation, element-level damage indices (reduction ratio of the
cross-section) for 9 hangers range from 0.0 to 0.5, and the maximum number of the
damaged hangers was limited to 3. The FAS of vertical acceleration responses at 9
nodes were arranged as an input matrix to the CNN for each damage case. To train
the CNN, the damage indices of each cable are used as labels for the training of
CNN. 11,450 damage cases have been generated including various combinations of
the element damage indices. 10,000 randomly selected cases were used for training,
and the rest were used for validation. Training at each iteration was performed on a
mini-batch consisting of 128 sample cases randomly selected from the 10,000
cases.
Fig. 1 Procedure for generating samples

2.3 CNN Architecture
Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are biologically-inspired variants of neural

networks (NNs) for pattern recognition [6]. The CNN architecture used in this study
is shown in Fig. 2, which consists of two convolution layers, a pooling layer, and
two fully-connected layers. The training of CNN basically follows two steps: the
forward propagation (FP) for calculating the loss and the back propagation (BP) for
computing the gradients and updating the parameters in the network.
3 Results and Discussions
During the training of CNN, the loss was calculated in terms of mean square error
(MSE) for 1450 sets of validation samples, and BP was conducted once in each
iteration. Testing was primarily carried out with another two data sets. Testing Set 1
included the newly generated wind forces but at the same mean wind speeds U used
in the training set. Testing Set 2 included wind forces at different wind speeds: 3, 7
and 15 m/s. The damage indices for the testing samples were also taken differently
from those for training examples as 0, 0.05, 0.15, 0.25, 0.35, and 0.45. For com-
parative evaluation of the current CNN, the damage conditions were classified into
3 damage states: minor, moderate, and severe. The maximum damage indices of
hangers for the minor damage were in the range 0–0.1, whereas ranges for moderate
and severe damage states were taken as 0.1–0.3 and 0.3–0.5, respectively.
Fig. 2 An example of the CNN architecture

The accuracy of the predicted damage indices is consistently excellent for var-
ious damage states. The results for Testing Sets 1 and 2 in Table 2 show that the
average relative prediction errors are less than 0.022, the standard deviations are
less than 0.025, if the observation noises are not considered. The above results
indicate excellent performance of the current CNN with FAS data for multiple
damage identification.
White Gaussian noises are introduced to the acceleration responses during the
numerical simulation. The signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) were taken as 20db and
14db, which are equivalent to the RMS levels of 10% and 20% respectively. The
procedures for generating the training, validation, and testing samples are the same
as those in the noise-free condition. The CNN architecture remains unchanged, and
it is also trained with 10,000 iterations. Example cases of the predicted damages
shown in Fig. 3 indicate that the damage locations and severities have been iden-
tified excellently under the observation noises of 10% at the RMS level. As listed in
Table 2, the average relative errors under 10% and 20% noises are less than 0.022
and 0.023, respectively. They are slightly larger than the errors without noises, but
still at an acceptable level for the purpose of damage identification and quantifi-
cation. The results indicate that noises do hinder the CNN learning process, and the
identification accuracy remains acceptable.
(a) Intact Condition (b) One Damaged Hanger
(c) Two Damaged Hangers (d) Three Damaged Hangers
Fig. 3 Examples of predicted damage indices with 10% observation noise in RMS
Table 2 Average relative errors in the predictions for 3 classes of damage states
Damage states Relative errors
Testing set 1 Testing set 2
= 5, 8, or 10 m/s)
(U = 3, 7, or 15 m/s)
(U
Without With With Without With With
noise 10% 20% noise 10% 20%
noise noise noise noise
Minor Ave 0.016 0.015 0.017 0.016 0.016 0.016
damage Max 0.069 0.040 0.074 0.072 0.060 0.068
SD 0.009 0.008 0.007 0.009 0.010 0.007
Moderate Ave 0.022 0.023 0.023 0.021 0.021 0.022
damage Max 0.092 0.092 0.091 0.093 0.091 0.089
SD 0.019 0.019 0.018 0.019 0.019 0.019
Severe Ave 0.022 0.021 0.021 0.024 0.025 0.024
damage Max 0.141 0.137 0.125 0.167 0.162 0.159
SD 0.022 0.021 0.020 0.032 0.033 0.032
Average errors 0.021 0.020 0.021 0.022 0.022 0.023
Average SD 0.019 0.018 0.018 0.025 0.026 0.025
Notes: Ave and Max indicate the average and maximum errors; SD indicates the standard
deviation; noise levels are the same in the training and testing cases; and training are using the FAS
= 5, 8, or 10 m/s
data at U
4 Conclusions
A CNN-based method is proposed for structural damage identification of cable

hangers in a tied-arch bridge structure. Through using the spatial and spectral
information of the acceleration responses on the deck, CNN can extract damage
sensitive features from the response of the numerical model efficiently. No exten-
sive pre-processing such as modal identification is required, and the size of the
input matrix to the CNN can be reduced by using FAS instead of the time-history
data. Performance of the proposed CNN is investigated through a numerical sim-
ulation study under daily wind conditions. Comparative studies are carried out for
various damage states, wind speeds, and observation noise. The results of the
present study are summarized as follows:
• The overall performance of the present CNN is excellent for various damage
states. The mean values of the relative prediction errors are less than 0.022 for
the testing sample cases without the observation noises, which indicates the
excellent generalization performance of the CNN.
• The proposed CNN trained under the daily wind condition was found to be very
robust to different wind conditions. The average and maximum values of the
prediction error remained almost the same when the wind velocities are different
from the training sets.
• The CNN performance is very robust against the observation noise. For samples
with 10% and 20% noises, average relative errors are less than 0.022 and 0.023
respectively, which are slightly larger but acceptable for damage localization
and quantification.
Acknowledgements This research work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of
China (2018YFE0125400, 2017YFC0806100), the National Natural Science Foundation of China
(U1709216, 51478419, 51522811, 51478429, and 90915008), and the Fundamental Research
Funds for the Central Universities (2015XZZX004-28).
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structural damage detection using one-dimensional convolutional neural networks. J Sound Vib
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8. Simiu E, Scanlan RH (1996) Wind effects on structures: fundamentals and application to
design. Wiley, Hoboken, p 605
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Basic procedure and a plane frame element. J Mech 20(02):113–122
PCA-Based Temperature Effect
Compensation in Monitoring of Steel
Beam Using Guided Waves
J. Q. Tu, C. B. Yun, X. Xu, Z. F. Tang, and J. J. Wu
Abstract Beams with I-shaped cross-sections have been widely used in steel
structures as major load-carrying members. The weld zone connecting the web plate
and flange plate in I-beam is vulnerable to fatigue cracks during the long service
life, which might result in a catastrophic failure. To realize quick scanning over a
long length of a structural member, ultrasonic waves based structural health
monitoring (SHM) is a promising approach. However, during the long-term mon-
itoring, guided wave signals are easily affected by various environmental factors,
such as temperature. In this paper, the principal component analysis (PCA) is
employed to eliminate the temperature effect and extract the damage information.
Lab-scale experiments were carried out on an I-beam under various ambient tem-
peratures. Reconstructed residual wave signals were obtained after the elimination
of those environmental effects. Q-statistics were used for damage detection, and the
time of flight (ToF) information was used for damage localization. Experimental
results show that inflicted small cut and mass scatterer attached on the weld zone
can be successfully detected. Damage severity can be evaluated based on the
magnitudes of Q-statistics and reconstructed residual signals. To further improve
the accuracy of damage localization, the independent component analysis
(ICA) was carried out to identify the wave packets reflected from the damage
location.
J. Q. Tu C. B. Yun (&) X. Xu
J. Q. Tu
e-mail: tujiaqi@zju.edu.cn
X. Xu
e-mail: xianxu@zju.edu.cn
Z. F. Tang J. J. Wu
Institute of Advanced Digital Technologies and Instrumentation, Zhejiang University,
Hangzhou, China
e-mail: tangzhifeng@zju.edu.cn
J. J. Wu

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_8
86 J. Q. Tu et al.

Keywords Guided waves Damage detection Damage location and severity

Temperature effect Principal component analysis Independent component
analysis
1 Introduction
I-shaped steel beams are commonly used in steel structures as major load carrying
elements. Cracks on the splicing or weld zone may cause significant stiffness
degradation and even failure of the structural member. Ultrasonic waves based SHM
system can be used to detect local damages and avoid fatal accidents. It has been
applied to inspect pipelines [1], cables [2], rails [3], and many other types of struc-
tures. Semi-analytical finite element (SAFE) method has been used to effectively
investigate the wave propagation characteristics in waveguides with irregular
cross-sections [4]. Temperature and other environmental effects on wave signals have
been studied for enhancing the robustness of this damage detection technology [5, 6].
In this paper, PCA-based temperature effect compensation is presented for
damage detection and localization. Lab-scale experiments were carried out on an
I-shaped steel beam. Two kinds of damages were considered including a mass
scatterer and an inflicted cut on the weld zone. A temperature chamber was used to
control the ambient temperature. Sensor locations and excitation frequency were
selected based on the SAFE analysis. The accuracy of damage detection and
localization are discussed under various temperature conditions. To improve the
damage localization, ICA was applied for identifying the wave packets reflected
from the damage location.
2 PCA-Based Temperature Effect Compensation
2.1 Basic Theory of PCA
PCA is a statistical method to convert a set of general correlated variables into a set
of linearly uncorrelated variables by an orthogonal transformation. In SHM, it has
been widely used for the dimensionality reduction, removal of environmental
effects, and outlier detection on the measured vibration signals [7]. A brief trans-
formation expression is T ¼ XP, where Xðn mÞ is the original data matrix
constructed by the measured wave signals, n is the number of the measurement
cases, and m is the number of time points
in each measurement. By the eigenvalue
analysis of the covariance matrix CX CX ¼ XT X=ðn 1Þ , the principal compo-
nent matrix Pðm nÞ can be obtained as CX P ¼ PK. The eigenvectors pj ðm 1Þ in
P are called the principal components (PC) of the data matrix and usually sorted by
PCA-Based Temperature Effect Compensation … 87
the descending order of the eigenvalues. Then the score matrix T can be obtained
from X and P, where each column vector tj ðn 1Þ in T is the projection of the
original signals onto the direction of a PC pj ðm 1Þ. By choosing a reduced
number r of PCs as Pðm b r; r\nÞ, the original signals can be reconstructed as
b ðn mÞ ¼ T
X bPb , where T
T b ðn r Þ only contains scores corresponding to the first r
PCs. Residual signals between the original and reconstructed signals can be
obtained for the damage detection as X b ¼ X X. b
In this paper, guided wave signals obtained at the intact state under various
ambient temperatures are used to construct the baseline data matrix for PCA. By
checking the corresponding eigenvalue and scores of each PC, important envi-
ronmental factors like temperature can be discerned. After eliminating those
components from the new test signals, reconstructed residual signals ~xi (the i th test
signal) are obtained for further evaluation. The Q-statistic is introduced as Qi ¼
~xi~xTi to detect the damage as an outlier. The ToF information in ~xi is used for
estimating the damage location.
2.2 Experimental Setup
Laboratory experiments were conducted on an I-shape steel beam. The dimension

and physical parameters are shown in Table 1. Three conditions were considered:
intact state, mass-added state (1 cm * 5 mm quadrate cross section with 1 cm long
attached on the weld zone at 0.7 m from the left end of the beam), and cut damage
state (5 mm * 5 mm triangular cross section, 1 cm long on the weld zone at the
mid-point of the beam) as shown in Fig. 1. A pair of piezoelectric transducers were
installed near the weld zone at the left end of the beam as shown in Fig. 2.
Sinusoidal wave with a 3-cycle Hanning-window at 40 kHz was used as the
excitation signal. The sampling rate was 500 kHz and the total time for wave
propagation was set as 0.002 s by the guided wave detector (Fig. 3).
Guided wave signals at the intact state under two different ambient temperatures
are shown Fig. 4. Figures 4(c) and (d) show the residual signal and
cross-correlation between those two intact cases. It can be found that even slight
temperature variations can cause the movement and stretching of the guided wave
packets, which may result in serious false alarms and localization errors. Thus PCA
is employed to remove the temperature and other environmental effects from the
wave signals.
Table 1 Geometrical dimensions and physical parameters of the I-shape steel beam
Young Poisson’s Density Thickness Flange Web Weld
Modulus ratio width height size
206 GPa 0.28 7850 kg/m3 6 mm 120 mm 100 mm 5 mm
88 J. Q. Tu et al.
Fig. 1. Experiment layout
Fig. 2. Sensors
Fig. 3. Test instruments
Fig. 4 Temperature effect: a intact signal at 14.7 °C; b intact signal at 15.1 °C; c residual signal;
d Cross-correlation between two intact cases at each time segment
2.3 Damage Detection Using PCA-Based Temperature

Compensation
100 measurements at the intact state were used to construct a baseline data matrix
Xbase to build the PC model. Another 200 measurements at the intact state, 230 at
the cut damage state, and 100 at the mass-added state were used in the testing
phase. Pre-scaling of all wave signals was the first step before PCA to standardize
the data matrix [7]. Temperature variations are shown in Fig. 5. It shall be noted
that the obtained PC model is not affected by the order of the baseline signals with
different temperatures. Scores of the baseline signals and test signals corresponding
to the first PC are shown in Fig. 6. It can be found that the first PC is highly
correlated with the temperature variations. Q-statistics were then calculated after
eliminating the effect of the first PC. As can be observed, there are serious false
alarms for many intact cases. Thus scores corresponding to the following PCs with
relatively large eigenvalues were checked for their intrinsic meanings as in Figs. 7,
8 and 9. After the elimination of the first 4 PCs, the possibility of false alarm
decreases significantly, the inflicted cut and mass scatterer can be successfully
detected by observing big changes in Q-statistics as in Fig. 8(c). Hence, further
damage detection was carried out after eliminating the first 4 PCs in this study.
Fig. 5 Temperature variations: a baseline; b test signals
Fig. 6 Scores corresponding to the 1st PC: a baseline; b test signals; c Q-statistics after
eliminating the effect of the 1st PC
90 J. Q. Tu et al.
Fig. 7 Scores corresponding to the 2nd PC: a baseline; b test signals; c Q-statistics after
eliminating the effect of the first two PCs
Fig. 8 Scores corresponding to the 4th PC: a baseline; b test signals; c Q-statistics after
eliminating the effect of the first four PCs
Fig. 9 Scores corresponding to the 8th PC: a baseline; b test signals; c Q-statistics after
eliminating the effect of the first eight PCs
2.4 Damage Localization Using ToF Information

in Reconstructed Residual Signals
To estimate the damage locations, residual signals X e were reconstructed by elim-

inating the first 4 PCs as shown in Figs. 10 and 11. Reconstructed residual signals
for intact cases are also shown in Fig. 12 for the purpose of comparison. As can be
noted, the amplitudes of the intact residual waves are relatively small. Acoustic
distances (AD) were calculated using the actual propagating velocity at different
temperatures. The locations of the cut and mass scatterer can be estimated using the
ToF information in the reconstructed residual signals as described in detail in
Sect. 3. It can be found that the amplitude of the reflected wave packet from the
mass scatterer is larger than the one from the cut damage. The reason is that the
mass scatterer increases the cross-section area by 50 mm2, whereas the inflicted cut
only reduces the area by 12.5 mm2. Since the change in the cross-section area
affects the amplitude of reflected waves, it is possible to quantify the severity of
such damage by Q-statistics as in Fig. 8(c).
Fig. 10 Reconstructed residual signals for cut damage cases
Fig. 11 Reconstructed residual signals for mass scatterer cases
Fig. 12 Reconstructed residual signals for intact cases
3 ICA for Improving Damage Localization
3.1 Basic Theory of ICA
As can be observed in Figs. 10 and 11, there are a few other residual wave packets
with similar amplitudes appearing before the one related to the damage, which may
be caused by the uncertainty in sensors and bonding layers, and the measurement
noises that cannot be completely removed by the PCA. Those wave packets will
affect the accuracy of damage localization, particularly for small defects. To
improve the damage localization, independent component analysis (ICA) is applied
to identify the wave packets closely related to damages. Details of ICA can be
92 J. Q. Tu et al.
found in Dobson and Cawley [8]. The basic idea here is to use the higher order
statistics to further decompose the residual signals X e into independent components
(ICs). One or several ICs may contain information about damages, while the other
ICs related to noises can be disregarded for damage localization. The basic ICA
model assumes that the input data matrix X e ðn mÞ can be described as X e ¼ Ae S,
e
where each row in S ðl mÞ is a statistically independent source signal with m time
points. For the Fast-ICA [9] used in this study, the number of ICs l is no more than
the number of input signals n. Each row in the mixing matrix Aðn lÞ gives the
weight factor of each IC in one input wave signal. Each column in A therefore
records the amplitude of one IC across the input wave signals. By seeking out the
independent signals highly correlated with damages, other noises like random
sensor vibrations can be effectively excluded from damage localization. It shall be
noted that the damage existence has been already confirmed by the big change of
Q-statistics as in Fig. 8(c).
Here, residual signals for the baseline Xe base and each test residual signal ~xt were
i
assembled as the input data matrix X e i to obtain eS i and Ai .
2 3 2 base 3
~xbase a1;1 abase 2 3
7 ~si;1
1 1;l
6 . 7 6 . .. ..
6 .. 7 6 .. . . 76 .. 7
6 7¼6 74 . 5
4 ~xbase 5 4 abase base
an1;l 5
n1 n1;1
~si;l
~xti ati;1 ati;l
T
A standard step change vector V ssc [3] is defined as V ssc ¼ 01ðn1Þ 1 to
calculate its cross-correlation coefficients ri;l with each column vector ai;l in Ai
CovðV ssc ;ai;l Þ
(ri;l ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi). The weighting function ai;l represents the amplitudes of the
Var ½ai;l Var ½V ssc
l-th IC across the input data. ICs having high cross-correlation coefficients ri;l are
considered closely related to the damages.
3.2 Results and Discussions
100 baseline residual signals are used to construct X e base as set in Sect. 2.3. Every
residual signal at cut damage or mass-added state is processed by ICA for damage
localization. Two examples are shown in Figs. 13 and 14. The residual signal of the
cut damage case at 35.72 °C (Fig. 10(b) and Fig. 13(a)) was decomposed, and 43
ICs were obtained. The cross-correlation coefficient ri;l for each IC was shown in
Fig. 13(b). The first two independent signals having the highest cross-correlation
coefficients ri;l with V ssc are shown in Figs. 13(c-1) and (d-1). Their weighting
functions ai;l are shown in Figs. 13(c-2) and (d-2). The cross-correlation values
with V ssc are 0.63 and 0.62 respectively. It can be inferred that the wave packet near
Fig. 13 Independent signals

obtained from a cut damage
case
94 J. Q. Tu et al.
Fig. 14 Independent signals

obtained from a mass scatterer
case
the acoustic distance (AD) of 1.0 m in Fig. 13(c-1) is the reflected waves from the
right end of the I-beam and could also be the second echo from the cut damage. On
the other hand, the wave packet near the AD of 0.5 m in Fig. 13(d-1) is the first
reflected waves from the cut position.
Similar results for a mass scatterer case at 13.67 °C are shown in Fig. 14. In
total, 44 ICs were obtained. The independent signal shown in Fig. 14(c-1) has the
highest cross-correlation coefficients with V ssc as 0.93. The wave packet near the
AD of 1.5 m could be the second echo from the mass scatterer. The wave packet
near the AD of 0.75 m in Fig. 14(d-1) can be identified as the first reflected waves
from the mass scatterer. The cross-correlation value with V ssc is 0.88. It can be seen
that the source signals (ICs) closely related to damages were identified more clearly
for damage localization by observing a step change in the weighting function of
each IC. The number of ICs obtained in different test cases is generally different, so
does the value of the highest cross-correlation coefficients ri;l . In real practice, the
reliable solution is to check the first several ICs with large wave amplitudes and
high ri;l for potential damage locations. As can be observed from the results of this
lab-scale test, the first or second IC having highest ri;l gives distinct information
about the damage locations.
4 Conclusions
A guided waves based damage detection method is presented for an I-shaped steel
beam. PCA is carried out for elimination of the prominent environmental effects
and extraction of the damage information. Principal component model is built by
the baseline wave signals at the undamaged condition. Damage detection are
achieved by calculating the Q-statistics of the residual signals after excluding the
first four PCs which represents the major environmental effects. ToF information in
the residual signals is used for damage localization. ICA is also used to identify the
wave packets reflected from the damage position. Experiments were conducted on
two damaged cases. Results show that the inflicted small cut and the attached mass
scatterer on the weld zone can be successfully detected. The detection accuracy of
the mass scatterer is found to be higher than the accuracy of the cut, because the
mass scatterer increases the cross-section area much more than the reduced area by
the inflicted cut. The damage severity can be evaluated by the magnitudes of the
Q-statistics and reconstructed residual signals.
Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the financial supports from the National Key
R&D Program of China (2017YFC0806100).
96 J. Q. Tu et al.
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guided wave focusing techniques in pipe. Nondestr Test Eval 22(4):239–253
2. Zhang P, Tang Z, Duan Y, Yun CB, Lv F (2018) Ultrasonic guided wave approach
incorporating SAFE for detecting wire breakage in bridge cable. Smart Struct Syst 22(4):481–
493
3. Wu J, Tang Z, Lv F, Yang K, Yun CB, Duan Y (2019) Ultrasonic guided wave-based switch
rail monitoring using independent component analysis. Meas Sci Technol 29(11):115102
4. Hayashi T, Song WJ, Rose JL (2003) Guided wave dispersion curves for a bar with an arbitrary
cross-section, a rod and rail example. Ultrasonics 41(3):175–183
5. Konstantinidis G, Wilcox PD, Drinkwater BW (2006) The temperature stability of guided
wave structural health monitoring systems. Smart Mater Struct 15(4):967–976
6. Lobkis O, Larsen C, Richard Roth II (2015) Separation of applied stress and temperature
effects on ultrasonic guided wave phase. AIP Conf Proc 1650:211–220
7. Mujica L, Rodellar J, Fernandez A, Guemes A (2011) Q-statistic and T2-statistic PCA-based
measures for damage assessment in structures. Struct Health Monit 10(5):539–553
8. Dobson J, Cawley P (2015) Independent component analysis for improved defect detection in
guided wave monitoring. Proc IEEE 104:1620–1631
9. Hyvarinen A, Oja E (2000) Independent component analysis: algorithms and applications.
Neural Netw 13(4):411–430
Scour Detection of Railway Bridges
by Microtremor Monitoring
C. W. Kim, K. Yoshitome, Y. Goi, F. L. Zhang, S. Kitagawa,

M. Shinoda, H. Yao, and Y. Hamada
Abstract This study is intended to discuss feasibility of scour detection for railway
bridges by means of remote microtremor monitoring. The impact test that applies
impact force to the bridge pier by dropping a hammer so as to measured vibrations
of the bridge pier is a laborious and time-consuming method, and has difficulties in
real time monitoring during flood. This study investigates feasibility of scour
detection from microtremor monitoring as an alternative method for the conven-
tional impact test. An in-service railway bridge has been being monitored utilizing a
sensing unit including functions of vibration measurement, data processing and
remote control. Bayesian modal analysis was adopted as a system identification
method. Identified frequencies from the microtremor data before and after a flood
C. W. Kim (&) K. Yoshitome Y. Goi

Department of Civil and Earth Resources Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto 615-8540,
Japan
e-mail: kim.chulwoo.5u@kyoto-u.ac.jp
K. Yoshitome
e-mail: yoshitome.kazuhiro.32x@st.kyoto-u.ac
Y. Goi
e-mail: goi.yoshinao.2r@kyoto-u.ac.jp
F. L. Zhang
Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzen, China
e-mail: cezhangfengliang@163.com
S. Kitagawa M. Shinoda H. Yao
Product Technology Laboratory, Fuji Electric Co., Ltd., Tokyo 191-8502, Japan
e-mail: kitagawa-shinji@fujielectric.com
M. Shinoda
e-mail: shinoda-masaki@fujielectric.com
H. Yao
e-mail: yao-hironobu@fujielectric.com
Y. Hamada
Department of Structural Engineering, West Japan Railway Company, Osaka 532-0011,
Japan
e-mail: yoshisada-hamada@westjr.co.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_9
98 C. W. Kim et al.
event showed that target frequency was slightly decreased under increase of water
surface during flood. The decreased frequency recovered once water surface level
decreased. Scour assessment showed an extremely low probability of scour of the
target bridge.
Keywords Microtremor Railway bridge Remote monitoring Scour
1 Introduction
The number of bridges with scoured piers is increasing due to the deterioration,
heavy rain, and the reduction of sediment supply volume [4]. If scouring occurs
around the foundation ground, the substructure may settle, incline, or fall, and thus,
train operation should be suspended during flood. Many Japanese railway com-
panies have adopted an impact test on the railway bridge pier as a promising scour
detection method focusing on changes in frequencies. However, the impact test is a
laborious and time-consuming method, and is inapplicable for the real time mon-
itoring during heavy rains to make a proper decision on the train operation.
Therefore, a remote scour monitoring system is required.
How can we identify the frequency of the pier during flood is a challenge for the
remote scour monitoring. Usually the amplitude of vibration during the flood is too
weak to extract useful information about the structural frequency as train operation
is suspended during flood and enough excitation is not expected. For the system
identification from the microtremor, it needs higher performance system identifi-
cation approach and statistical approach as weak signals are easily affected by
noisy. Another challenge is the remote sensing system with high durability, which
will be coped with development of high durable sensing system and introducing an
edge computing concept to the sensing system which can reduce transferring data
volume.
This study aims to propose a way to monitor scour of piers of railway bridges
efficiently and quantitatively without approaching the target bridge especially
during flood. A bridge under operation is monitored as a case study. To estimate the
natural frequency of the target bridge, accelerometers are installed on the top of the
bridge pier and the connected girders for the impact test, and two sensors on the pier
top were left for scour monitoring in terms of long-term ambient vibration moni-
toring. For a higher performance system identification which even provides sta-
tistical information, Bayesian operational modal analysis (BAYOMA) [1] is
adopted for the modal identification from microtremor measurement during flood.
Scour Detection of Railway Bridges by Microtremor Monitoring 99
2 Methodology
The BAYOMA is well known method and has already been reported (e.g. [1, 3, 8]),
and this paper only briefly introduces the basic concept of the BAYOMA. Assume
that the acceleration
n o was collected under ambient condition. Let
€x^j 2 R : j ¼ 1; . . .; N denote the measured acceleration data at n degrees of
n
n o
freedom (DOFs) of a structure, abbreviated as ^ €
xj , where N is the number of
samples collected in the time domain. The jth acceleration response can be mod-
elled as follows:
^€xj ¼ €xj þ ej ð1Þ
where €xj 2 Rn denotes the model acceleration response; ej 2 Rn denotes the pre-
diction error between the measured and theoretical responses, mainly consisting of
the electronic noise of the data acquisition system, environmental noise and mod-
elling error. n o
The FFT of €x^j is defined as follows:
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffi N
X
^k ¼ 2Dt
F ^€xj exp 2pi ðj 1Þðk 1Þ ðk ¼ 1; 2; . . .N Þ ð2Þ
N j¼1 N
where the FFT corresponds to the frequency f k ¼ ðk 1Þ=NDt for k ¼ 2; 3; . . .Nq ,

with Nq ¼ int½N=2 þ 1, being the frequency index at the Nyquist frequency, and
int½: is the integer part; Dt denotes the sampling interval; i2 ¼ 1.
For well-separated or closely spaced modes, they should be included in a series
of specified frequency bands. Let D denote the FFT data in the ith selected fre-
quency band containing the possible modes. According to Bayes’ Theorem, the
posterior probability density function (PDF) of h for a given data, where h denotes
the modal parameters in the selected frequency band including natural frequency,
damping ratio and mode shape, etc., can be expressed as:
pðDjhÞpðhÞ
pðhjDÞ ¼ ð3Þ
pðDÞ
where pðDjhÞ denotes the likelihood function; pðDÞ is a constant; pðhÞ denotes the
prior PDF. Assume uniform prior information, the posterior PDF is directly pro-
portional to the likelihood function as follow:
pðhjDÞ / pðDjhÞ ð4Þ

100 C. W. Kim et al.
The likelihood function can be constructed as follow. Define a vector Z bk ¼

h i
b k ; Im F
Re F b k 2 R2n consisting of the real and imaginary parts of the FFT data in
b k g which includes all
the i th selected frequency band at frequency f k ; Let D ¼ f Z
the FFT data in the selected frequency band. For large N and small Dt, the vector
b k is shown to be independent at different frequencies and follow a Gaussian
Z
distribution with zero means and covariance matrix Cik [8]. Therefore, the likeli-
hood function pðDjhÞ in the i th frequency band can be constructed by a Gaussian
distribution, i.e.,
Y
1 1 b T 1 b
pðDjhÞ ¼ exp Z C Z k ð5Þ
k ð2pÞn detðCk Þ0:5 2 k k
b k , is given
in which, detð:Þ denotes the determinant; Ck , the covariance matrix of Z
by

1 U ReHk ImHk UT Se
Ck ¼ þ I2n ð6Þ
2 U ImHk ReHk UT 2
where U ¼ ½U1 ; U2 ; . . .; Um 2 Rnm denotes the mode shape matrix in a selected

frequency band; I2n is an 2n 2n identify matrix; Se 2 R is the PSD of prediction
error in the frequency band; Hk is a transfer function, whose element can be
expressed as:
1 h
i1
Hk ði; jÞ ¼ Sij 1 b2ik þ ið2fi bik Þ 1 b2jk i 2fj bjk ð7Þ
where bik ¼ fi =f k ; Sij denotes the cross spectral density between the i th and j th
modal excitation; fi 2 R denotes the i th natural frequency in the frequency band;
fi 2 R denotes the i th damping ratio in the frequency band. It is more convenient to
write the likelihood function in term of the ‘log-likelihood function’ for the purpose
of optimization, i.e.,
LðhÞ ¼ lnpðDjhÞ ð8Þ
Theoretically, the most probable values (MPVs) of modal parameters can be

determined by minimizing the log-likelihood function LðhÞ. If directly performing
the optimization, there will be some computational problem. To solve these
problems, a fast algorithm has been developed. The MPVs of modal parameters and
the associated posterior uncertainties can be calculated efficiently. For the details,
please refer to Au [1], Au et al. [3] and Au [2].
3 Target Bridge and Monitoring Information
The target bridge is a single railway track steel plate girder bridge. The height of
target pier is 11 m and width is 2.5 m. As there is high potential risk of scouring on
the target pier, a long-term scour monitoring has been carried out. The photo of the
target bridge pier and a picture of the remote sensing system adopted in the scour
monitoring are shown in Fig. 1. The elevation and plan views of the target bridge
are shown in Fig. 2. Eight triaxial sensors were installed on the top of the pier and
connecting girders for the impact test as shown in Fig. 2a. All sensors except two
sensors installed upstream and downstream of the pier top were removed after the
impact test. Two sensors on the pier top (see Fig. 2b) are left for the long-term
ambient vibration monitoring. The sampling frequency of the measurement was
200 Hz. A laser water level meter is also installed on the target bridge.
4 Mode Identification of Target Bridge
Modal characteristics of the bridge pier were first identified from the vibration data
excited during the impact test. Stochastic subspace identification (SSI) [7] was
utilized to identify modal parameters for the impact test. Stabilization diagram
(SD) is adopted to decide stable vibration modes.
Figure 3 shows the stabilization diagram (SD) in which the horizontal and
vertical axes respectively stand for the frequency and model order. The black dots
indicate modal frequencies associated with each model orders. The red circles
indicate stably estimated modes that satisfy predefined deviation tolerances of the
modal properties, i.e. the natural frequencies, damping ratio, and mode shapes. This
study adopted the frequency deviation tolerance of 0.25 Hz, the damping deviation
tolerance of 0.1%, and the lower bound of Modal Assurance Criteria (MAC) of
0.95.
The vertical blue broken lines show dominant modes that appear stably throughout
a wide range of model order and satisfy the deviation tolerances. The dominant
Fig. 1 Photo of target bridge pier and remote monitoring system

Fig. 2 Elevation view and plan view of the acceleration sensor installation position: a for the
impact test, and b for the long-term ambient vibration monitoring
Fig. 3 Stabilization Diagram (SD)
Fig. 4 Identified mode shape

(9 Hz)
frequency was identified at 9.2 Hz. Figure 4 shows the mode shape of the dominant
mode of which mode shape is relevant to the transversal rocking mode of the pier.
a) b)
c)
Fig. 5 Measured accelerations: a during flood; b microtremor (ambient vibration); c train-induced

vibration
It is noteworthy that samples of the reference frequency under healthy condition

are needed to compare those samples collected during flood. This study focuses on
microtremor (ambient vibration) of the bridge pier as the source of the reference
frequency samples. It is not proper to use train-induced vibrations as a reference
data since the train-induced vibrations are affected by train dynamics and amplitude
is extremely stronger than the vibrations during flood. Figure 5 shows examples of
those microtremor (ambient vibration) before flood, vibrations during flood and
train-induced vibration. Before flood only microtremor measurement whose
amplitude was around 0.1 gal was examined, while during the flood the bridge pier
was vibrated by water flows and the maximum amplitude was around 1 gal. On the
other hands the vibration amplitude under passing train showed around 100 gal.
5 System Identification During Flood
On September 30 in 2018, typhoon no. 24 was approached and daily precipitation

was 114 mm, and ambient vibrations monitored on September 30 and October 1
were investigated to identify dominant frequency of the target pier during the flood
by means of BAYOMA.
Plots of the identified frequency per every minute are shown in Fig. 6 with
observed wind speed and water level. It should be noted that “water level” repre-
sents the distance between water surface and lower flange of the bridge girder: i.e.
as the water surface goes up, the “water level” gets smaller. In Fig. 6, the horizontal
axis indicates time, and the vertical axis indicates frequency (Hz), wind speed (m/s),
and water level (m) from the top respectively. From 0:00 to 20:00 on September 30
before flood, identified frequencies varied widely between 8.5 and 10 Hz. However,
during flood from 20:00 on September 30 to 6:00 on October 1, variation in
frequency was quite small. One reason for scattering of identified frequency is the
quality of acceleration data as described in Sect. 4: before flood the amplitude of the
ambient vibration was around 0.1 gal, and during the flood the amplitude of the
vibration was around 1 gal.
Histograms of identified frequency for different water level are shown in Fig. 7.
Assuming all distributions follow normal distributions, the mean and variance
values are estimated as also seen in Fig. 7. The frequency decreases as the water
surface level rises (water level decreases), and the variance of the identified fre-
quency also decreases. The influence of the additional mass due to flood might be a
reason for the decrease of the frequency during flood [6]. The results show that the
natural frequency of the bridge pier is successfully identified with high accuracy
during the flood condition.
Water level Wind speed Frequency
(m) (m/s) (Hz)
a)
Water level Wind speed Frequency
(m) (m/s) (Hz)
b)
Fig. 6 Monitoring data: a 30th September 2018; and b 1st October 2018
Fig. 7 Identified frequency distribution: a water level more than 6 m (before flood); b water level
between 5 m and 6 m; and c water level between 4 m and 5 m (during flood)
Figure 8 shows that the histogram of identified frequencies during flood: i.e. the
water level between 4 and 5 m. The blue solid line is the approximate curve of the
distribution of the identified frequency. Occurrence of scour during flood is
examined following the guideline of Japanese government [5]. The guideline is
shown in the Table 1. The soundness index x is calculated by Eq. (9).
x ¼ ðmonitored frequencyÞ=ðfrequency of healthy conditionÞ ð9Þ
In the guideline, occurrence of scour is decided if it is observed that 85% or less

than the natural frequency in the health condition. Therefore, the frequency of 85%
of the natural frequency in the health condition is adopted as a threshold of
occurrence of scouring. The vertical red solid line in Fig. 8 shows 85% of the
natural frequency in the healthy condition. It is noted that the mean frequency
Fig. 8 Histogram of identified frequency from ambient vibration (during flood)

Table 1 Soundness assessment

Soundness index x Category Assessment
x ≦ 0.70 A1 Abnormal condition: repair or reinforcement are needed
0.70 < x ≦ 0.85 A2 Need to check progress of deterioration
0.85 < x ≦ 1.00 B Low possibility of abnormal condition
1.00 < x S Healthy
Fig. 9 Distribution of natural frequency before and after the flood
observed before flood was assumed as healthy condition in scour assessment. The
probability of exceeding the threshold was lower than 0.001%, which indicates
extremely low possibility of scour occurrence during this flood.
Figure 9 shows the distributions of the identified frequencies before and after the
flood. Considering mean values of the identified frequencies 9.23 and 9.19 Hz for
healthy condition and flood condition respectively, the soundness index takes
x = 0.996 according to Eq. (9), and categorized as B (Low possibility of abnormal
condition) according to Table 1. Observations showed low possibility of scouring
due to flood.
6 Conclusions
This study investigates a way of scour detection by means of ambient vibration

monitoring of the bridge pier during flood. The natural frequency of the bridge pier
was identified with high accuracy from the ambient vibration during the flood
condition. The probability of exceeding the threshold for the scour was lower than
0.001%. Moreover, the soundness index was 0.996 which is categorized as B
indicating low possibility of abnormal condition. Observations, thus, demonstrated
extremely low possibility of scour occurrence during this flood. This study also
demonstrated that it is possible to evaluate scour by using the ambient vibration
data during the flood.
References
1. Au SK (2011) Fast Bayesian FFT method for ambient modal identification with separated
modes. J Eng Mech ASCE 137(3):214–226
2. Au SK (2017) Operational modal analysis modeling, Bayesian inference, uncertainty laws.
Springer, Singapore
3. Au SK, Zhang FL, Ni YC (2013) Bayesian operational modal analysis: theory, computation
practice. Comput Struct 126:3–14
4. Keyaki T, Suzuki O (2013) Development of a new scour detector that enables monitoring of
pier soundness. JR EAST Technical Review-No. 27 Special edition paper. (in Japanese)
5. Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Railway Bureau (2007) Railway
structures maintenance management standard and commentary (structural edition), pp 169–
170. (in Japanese)
6. Samizo M (2014) A study on the evaluation of stability of railway bridge piers during the
swelling of a river. PhD thesis, Kokushikan University, pp 126–135. (in Japanese)
7. van Overschee P, De Moor B (1993) Subspace algorithms for the stochastic identification
problem. Automatica 29(3):649–660
8. Yuen K-V (2010) Bayesian methods for structural dynamics and civil engineering. Wiley,
Hoboken
Vibration Monitoring of a Real Steel
Plate Girder Bridge Under Artificial
Local Damage and Varying
Temperature
T. Hirooka, C. W. Kim, G. Hayashi, and Y. Goi
Abstract This study is intended to investigate how the local damage and varying
temperature affect changes in modal frequencies of a steel plate girder bridge.
A damage experiment on a real bridge was conducted. Artificial cracks were
applied to the lower flange and web plate near base plate of shoe, which models
fatigue cracks observed in actual steel plate girder bridges. The longitudinal dis-
placement of the bridge at supports were also monitored to investigate structural
behaviors of supports under local damage and varying temperature. Observations
showed that frequency of the 1st bending mode increased due to artificial damage
even though frequencies of the 2nd bending mode and 3rd bending mode
decreased. For a finite element model, changes in stiffness of spring which models
the cantilever steel pivot bearings at support due to the damage as well as tem-
perature change are considered to examine the reason why the frequency of the 1st
bending mode increased while those of the 2nd and the 3rd bending modes
decreased. FE analysis demonstrated that the 1st bending mode was more sensitive
to changes in the boundary condition than changes in stiffness of girder. Seasonal
changes in longitudinal displacement of each support are also examined. In addi-
tion, FE analysis also showed that the boundary condition was changed by not only
the stiffness reduction of girder due to the damage but also thermal expansion due to
varying temperature.
Keywords Damage experiment Steel plate girder bridge Temperature

Vibration measurement
T. Hirooka C. W. Kim (&) G. Hayashi Y. Goi

Department of Civil and Earth Resources Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering,
Kyoto University, Kyoto 615-8540, Japan
T. Hirooka
e-mail: hirooka.takumi.82s@st.kyoto-u.ac.jp
G. Hayashi
e-mail: hayasi.gen.2c@kyoto-u.ac.jp
Y. Goi

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_10
110 T. Hirooka et al.
1 Introduction
More efficient and quantitative structural inspection methods are required to

properly maintain infrastructures. Vibration-based structural health monitoring
(SHM) thus has been developed as one of the efficient ways for maintenance of civil
infrastructures including bridges. Many studies for damage detection by means of
SHM examined the change in modal parameters of bridges such as frequency,
damping ratio and modal shape because changes in these modal parameters are
relevant to damage or deterioration of bridges. Modal parameters are identified from
vibrations of the bridge. Existing researches are mostly conducted on long span
bridges such as arch bridges and truss bridges [1, 2]. On the other hand, there are
few researches on medium and short span bridges such as girder bridges despite of
higher portions of medium and short span bridges in all bridge stocks. It is a keen
issue to establish a diagnostic method for damage on the actual medium and short
span bridges.
N
6750 6750 6750 6750 6750 6750
2810
2810 2810 2810 2810
Ab1 Ab2
D5,7 D6,9
T1 2
D1,8 D2,10
A1,6 A2,7 A3,8 A4,9 A5,10
upstream D3 D4
D1,5
A1 A2 T1 A3 A4 A5 D3 D4
D2,6
2600
D7,8 D9,10
A6 A7 T2 A8 A9 A10
downstream
40500
Displacement meter D Acceleration(A) Static Loading Thermocouple(T)
Fig. 1 Observation bridge and sensor deployment
DMG1
DMG2
Stop hole
200
180
Ab1
Upstream
Damage Location DMG1 DMG2
Fig. 2 Artificial damage location and each damage scenario

Vibration Monitoring of a Real Steel Plate Girder Bridge … 111
In this study, the field experiment on an actual steel plate girder bridge is
conducted to detect damage by means of vibration-based SHM. In the previous
study on the same bridge [4] changes in frequencies due to fatigue cracks in steel
girder near the base plate of supports were clarified by means of stochastic subspace
identification (SSI) as a modal identification method. Observations showed that
frequency of the 1st bending mode increased due to artificial damage though fre-
quencies of the 2nd bending mode and the 3rd bending mode decreased. In general,
it has been reported that if damage occurs to the bridge frequency decreases as the
stiffness of the girder decreases. It demonstrates that the bridge must be affected by
other factors besides the stiffness reduction due to artificial damage.
This study investigates possible reasons for increasing frequency of the 1st
bending mode by means of FE model updating utilizing the data obtained from
static loading experiment. In addition, changes in the structural behavior associated
with each damage scenario are discussed using the displacement and temperature
obtained from the field experiment.
2 Field Experiment
Field experiment was conducted on an actual steel plate girder bridge shown in
Fig. 1, whose span length was 40 m long and width was 4.0 m wide. Figure 1 also
shows sensor deployment during the field experiment. Longitudinal displacements
at the both ends of the bridge were measured utilizing displacement sensors.
Artificial fatigue cracks (hereafter called artificial damage) at the girder end near the
base plate of supports are considered in the experiment by severing the lower flange
and the web plate by a cutting torch.
Table 1 The environmental condition during each damage scenario

Damage scenario Time and date Weather Temperature on bridge (°C)
INT 17:45–18:45 28th Aug. 2017 Cloudy 28
DMG1 13:30–14:30 29th Aug. 2017 Sunny 38
DMG2 14:45–15:45 29th Aug. 2017 Sunny 43
Fig. 3 Type of bearing at Ab1 Ab2

each support
Main Main
Girder Girder
Sole plate
400
Abutment
Abutment
The location of the artificial damage is on the main girder near the support of
upstream-side on Ab1 abutment as shown in Fig. 1. The artificial damage com-
prises two damage levels. One is the lower flange cut (hereafter called DMG1) and
the other is the web plate cut (hereafter called DMG2) as seen in Fig. 2. The bridge
condition before the artificial damage was assumed as the intact condition (hereafter
called INT). Types of supports at Ab1 and Ab2 are shown in Fig. 3; the Ab1
abutment adopted a line bearing, and the Ab2 abutment adopted a cantilever pivot
bearing. It should be noted that the line bearing at the Ab1 abutment was fixed due
to corrosion. The environmental condition during the field experiment is summa-
rized in Table 1. Temperatures measured from the thermocouples installed at the
center of the plate girder (Fig. 1) were 28, 38 and 43 °C during INT, DMG1 and
DMG2 experiments, respectively. The mechanical properties of the bridge were
also examined through static-loading test. The loading was given by a large sized
vehicle whose axle weight on front and rear axles were 21.66 and 54.88 kN,
respectively. In the loading test, the loading vehicle entered from Ab2 side, and
located the rear axle with 6750 mm intervals as shown in Fig. 1. The loading test
was operated two times for each scenario, and each of the displacement was also
measured twice. Hereinafter, the averaged displacement is used in discussions.
Observations from the previous study [4] showed that frequency of the 1st
bending mode increased due to artificial damage (3.15 Hz for INT, 3.25 Hz for
DMG1 and 3.28 Hz for DMG2) though frequencies of the 2nd bending mode
(9.54 Hz for INT, 9.24 Hz for DMG1 and 8.85 Hz for DMG2) and 3rd bending
mode (21.9 Hz for INT, 21.9 Hz for DMG1 and 21.6 Hz for DMG2) decreased.
3 FE Analysis
To investigate the reason of increasing frequency in the 1st bending mode as

damage is propagates, the eigenvalue analysis using the FE model of the bridge was
conducted utilizing ABAQUS 6.14. The bridge model, shown in Fig. 4, was built
based on the documents of periodic inspection and information obtained from the
field experiment as the original design documents of this bridge are not available.
The concrete deck, main girder, vertical stiffener and horizontal stiffener were
modelled with shell element, and cross frame and lateral bracing were modelled
with beam element. According to the results obtained from the static loading test
which will be mentioned in Sect. 4.1, the boundary conditions were given as fol-
lows: fixed boundary condition for the Ab1 abutment, and boundary condition with
roller supports with elastic longitudinal springs for the Ab2 abutment. As shown in
Fig. 3, the supports at Ab2 abutment are the cantilever-like steel pivot support
which deforms elastically and act as if springs in the longitudinal direction.
Therefore, the longitudinal spring was introduced at the Ab2 in the FE model as
seen in Fig. 4.
Fig. 4 Finite element model

East: Upstream
Ab2(Fixed)
West: Downstream
Ab1(Supported by spring in the

longitudinal direction )
Specific gravities of steel and concrete were assumed as 7.85 and 2.40 respec-
tively. As previously mentioned the material properties were unknown because the
original design documents of this bridge are not available. Therefore, the material
test sample was collected and the material test was performed. The material test
showed that Young’s moduli of steel and reinforced concrete were 200 and
28.1 GPa, respectively, and Poisson’s ratios of steel and reinforced concrete were
0.27 and 0.20, respectively.
Stiffness of the longitudinal spring at Ab2 support which idealizes the cantilever
steel pivot bearing on Ab2 abutment was calibrated by means of the model update
utilizing the static longitudinal displacement at supports during each damage sce-
nario. The cross entropy (CE) method [3] was applied to update the bridge model so
that the displacement of the FE analysis is fit to the displacement monitored from the
actual bridge. The artificial damage was modelled as pseudo cracks in the FE model
to realize damage scenarios. This crack was created by removing the connection of
elements. The eigenvalue analysis was conducted for each of the damage scenarios.
For the FE analysis, the thermal expansion is evenly considered on each of the
elements in the FE model for each damage scenario considering temperature in
Table 1. The thermal conductivity of steel and reinforced concrete was assumed as
45 and 1:6 W=m K, respectively. Thermal expansion coefficient of steel and
reinforced concrete was assumed as 1:0 10 5 =K.
4 Results and Discussion
4.1 Static Loading Test
To examine static responses of the bridge under vehicle loadings, longitudinal

displacements from the static-loading test were examined. Figure 5 shows longi-
tudinal displacements measured at each of the upstream and downstream sides of
the girder on Ab1 and Ab2 abutments, respectively. The horizontal axis represents
the loading position from the Ab2, and the vertical axis indicates the relative
displacements taken from the static deformation under each scenario, the vehicle
loading tests were conducted twice, and average displacements are shown in Fig. 5.
Ab1 side Ab2 side
Fig. 5 Horizontal displacement of bridge girder at each point
Table 2 Stiffness of the INT (N/m) DMG1 (N/m) DMG2 (N/m)

longitudinal spring at Ab2
support for each damage 5:05 107 7:45 107 7:67 107
scenario
Table 3 Eigenvalue analysis results for model with identified spring and without the spring
(Relative error between the measured value of frequency and eigenvalue analysis results)
Spring INT DMG1 DMG2
1st bending mode Without 2.86 Hz (−9.2%) 2.86 Hz (−12.0%) 2.86 Hz (−13.3%)
With 3.19 Hz (1.3%) 3.29 Hz (0.9%) 3.29 Hz (−0.3%)
Measured 3.15 Hz (−) 3.25 Hz (–) 3.28 Hz (–)
2nd bending mode Without 9.63 Hz (1.2%) 9.58 Hz (3.6%) 9.43 Hz (6.7%)
With 9.68 Hz (1.8%) 9.66 Hz (4.5%) 9.57 Hz (8.4%)
Measured 9.54 Hz (−) 9.24 Hz (–) 8.85 Hz (–)
3rd bending mode Without 22.47 Hz (2.7%) 22.25 Hz (1.7%) 21.76 Hz (0.8%)
With 22.47 Hz (2.7%) 22.25 Hz (1.7%) 21.77 Hz (0.8%)
Measured 21.87 Hz (–) 21.87 Hz (–) 21.60 Hz (–)
Figure 5 shows that the support on Ab1 abutment allows little displacement, while
the support on Ab2 abutment allows longitudinal displacements of the bridge gir-
der. The downstream-side girder showed larger displacements than that of the
upstream-side. Focusing on damage scenarios, the relative displacement due to the
vehicular loading from the static deformation gets smaller when the damage
propagates. This observation will be discussed again in Sect. 4.2 to clarify why the
relative displacement gets smaller when the damage propagates.
4.2 Comparison Between FE Analysis and Field

Experiment
In this section, to clarify why the relative displacement at Ab2 supports gets smaller
when damage propagates, stiffness of the longitudinal spring considered in the FE
model (Fig. 4) is estimated for each damage scenario. In addition, it is clarified how
changes of the boundary condition in the FE model affect frequency changes.
Table 2 shows estimated stiffness of the longitudinal spring for each damage sce-
nario. It is confirmed that stiffness of the longitudinal spring increases as damage
propagates. It means the supports of the target bridge has hardening behavior, and
as a result, the relative displacement at Ab2 supports gets smaller as damage
propagates.
For each frequency change, it is examined how the artificial damage and such
change of boundary condition affect each frequency change by means of eigenvalue
analysis utilizing the FE model. Table 3 shows eigenvalue analysis results for
model with identified spring and model without the spring. In addition, in paren-
theses, the relative error between the measured value of frequency and the result of
the eigenvalue analysis is shown. For the 1st bending mode, the eigenvalue analysis
results for the model without spring show that the stiffness reduction of the girder
due to artificial damage has little effect on changes in frequency. That’s why
frequency of each damage scenario doesn’t change despite of the stiffness reduction
of the girder. On the other hand, the eigenvalue analysis results for the model with
spring show that changes in boundary condition have a great effect on changes in
frequency because frequencies increase as stiffness of the longitudinal spring
increases.
Ab1 Ab2 Ab1 Ab2

D5 D6 D5 D6
(-0.15mm) Upstream (-0.30mm) (+0.17mm) Upstream (-0.71mm)
Girder Girder
D1 D2 D1 D2
(0mm) (-0.08mm) (+0.02mm) (-0.33mm)
Ab1 Ab2 Ab1 Ab2
D7 D9 D7 D9
(-0.11mm) Downstream (-0.31mm) (-0.04mm) Downstream (-0.87mm)
Girder Girder
D8 D10 D8 D10
(+0.04mm) (-0.23mm) (+0.11mm) (-1.13mm)
Bank River Bank Bank River Bank
a) From INT to DMG1 b) From DMG1 to DMG2
Fig. 6 Changes in longitudinal behavior of bridge associated with damage scenarios

For the 2nd bending mode and 3rd bending mode, the eigenvalue analysis results
for the model without spring show that the stiffness reduction of the girder due to
artificial damage has a great effect on changes in frequency because frequency of
each damage scenario decreases as the stiffness reduction of the girder due to
artificial damage. However, the eigenvalue analysis results for model with spring
show that changes in boundary condition have little effect on changes in frequency.
That’s why frequencies decrease though stiffness of the longitudinal spring
increases. In addition, the relative error in Table 3 shows that identification accu-
racy is improved for the 1st bending mode, deteriorated for the 2nd bending mode
and stayed for the 3rd bending mode, if changes in the boundary condition are
considered in the FE model.
4.3 Structural Behavior in Longitudinal Direction
In this section, longitudinal displacements at girder ends are examined to investi-

gate the cause of changes in the characteristics of the supports during the damage
experiment. The relative longitudinal displacements between INT and DMG1
scenarios and DMG1 and DMG2 scenarios are shown in Fig. 6 where “D” denotes
displacement sensor shown in Fig. 1.
Observations from the upstream girder showed that the upper flange elongated
due to DMG1 in comparison with the longitudinal displacement under INT con-
dition. Similar trends were observed between DMG1 and DMG2 conditions in the
upstream girder. For the downstream, lower flange was largely elongated than that
on the upper flange. In general, when a damage is propagated on a plate girder, dead
load of the bridge increases the deflection of the girder edge as the stiffness of the
girder decreases. Therefore, the upper flange of the girder is expected to compressed
when a damage is propagated. However, different behaviour was observed in the
Fig. 7 Correlation between temperature and displacement obtained from D2 sensor

Ab1 Ab2 Ab1 Ab2
D5 D6 D5 D6
(-0.99mm) (-1.01mm) (-1.01mm) (-1.06mm)
Upstream Upstream
Girder Girder
D1 D2 D1 D2
(-0.10mm) (-0.20mm) (-0.30mm) (-0.58mm)
Ab1 Ab2 Ab1 Ab2
D7 D9 D7 D9
(-0.97mm) (-0.99mm) (-0.90mm) (-0.99mm)
Downstream Downstream
Girder Girder
D8 D10 D8 D10
(-0.09mm) (-0.18mm) (-0.10mm) (-0.46mm)
a) From INT to DMG1 b) From DMG1 to DMG2
Fig. 8 Changes in structural behavior due to thermal expansion and artificial damage
bridge. One reason might be elongation due to temperature change during the
experiment which will be discussed in Sect. 4.4. For the elongation of the lower
flange of the downstream girder on Ab2 abutment under the DMG2, it might be
caused by torsional behaviour of the bridge under the severe damage (DMG2).
4.4 Thermal Expansion on Steel Plate Girder Bridge
As discussed in Sect. 4.3, those structural behaviours of the bridge in the longi-
tudinal direction under propagation of damage might be caused by thermal
expansion due to the temperature change. There were non-negligible temperature
changes between INT scenario and DMG1 scenario as well as between DMG1
scenario and DMG2 scenario as summarized in Table 1. From 29th December in
2017 to 5th January in 2018, displacement data and temperature were obtained from
D2 sensor and T1 sensor, respectively. The displacement showed about 2.5 mm
changes in the longitudinal direction by changing 5 °C as shown in Fig. 7 where
the red line in Fig. 7 indicates the linear regression line between temperature
change and longitudinal displacement.
In order to investigate the thermal expansion of the bridge, an FE analysis is
conducted. In this analysis, temperature changes were 10 °C from INT to DMG1
and 5 °C from DMG1 to DMG2, and artificial damage for each damage scenario
was also considered. Deflections of the bridge from FE analysis are shown in
Fig. 8, which shows elongation at the upper flange as observed from the field
experiment. It is noted that the analytical deflection shapes under the different
temperature changes and damage scenarios showed same configuration with those
shown in Fig. 6. This result demonstrated that the thermal expansion affects the
structural behaviour of the bridge. In addition, the shape after thermal expansion is
similar to the end girder shape in Fig. 6a, which demonstrates that thermal
expansion due to temperature change has more effect on the structural behaviour at
supports than the artificial damage during DMG1 experiment. However, under the
DMG2 scenario the FE model failed to simulate actual structural behaviours shown
in Fig. 6b.
5 Conclusions
This study investigates possible reasons for increasing frequency of the 1st bending
mode by means of FE model updating utilizing the data obtained from static
loading experiment. In addition, changes in the structural behavior associated with
each damage scenario are discussed using the displacement and temperature
obtained from the field experiment.
The eigenvalue analysis utilizing the calibrated FE model showed that the 1st
bending mode was strongly influenced by stiffness hardening effect in the can-
tilevered pivot bearing rather than changes in stiffness of the girder. On the other
hand, the other modes were strongly influenced by changes in the stiffness of the
girder rather than influence of stiffness hardening effect in the cantilevered pivot
bearing.
The FE analysis adopting spring element as the cantilever pivot bearing and
considering thermal expansion showed that one of the main reasons of the stiffness
hardening effect in the cantilevered pivot bearing is thermal expansion due to
temperature change during damage experiments. However, it was unsuccessful to
simulate the static behaviour under the most severe damage scenario (DMG2) that
might be caused by torsional behaviour.
The next step for this study is to clarify the static behaviour under the most
severe damage scenario (DMG2).
References
1. Chang KC, Kim CW (2016) Modal-parameter identification and vibration-based damage

detection of a damaged steel truss bridge. Eng Struct 122:156–173
2. Kim CW, Chang KC, Kitauchi S, McGetrick PJ (2016) A field experiment on a steel
Gerber-truss bridge for damage detection utilizing vehicle-induced vibrations. Struct Health
Monit 15(2):174–192
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caused by damages on a real steel plate girder bridge. Jpn Soc Civ Eng A2 74(2):I_513–I_522.
(in Japanese)
Detecting Loosening Bolts of Highway
Bridges by Image Processing Techniques
A. Long, C. W. Kim, and Y. Kondo
Abstract This study presents an approach to detect loosening bolts in steel bridges
by image processing. High-tensioned bolts have been adopted to connect members
of steel bridges. Insufficient axial tension of bolts by bolt-loosening leads to bolt
joint failure and reducing load carrying capacity of steel bridges. There are also
possibilities of accidents of pedestrian and cars under the steel bridge due to falling
bolts. Existing approaches for detecting loosening bolts are based on visual
inspection with hammer impact test, which limit their abilities to cost-effectively
detect loosened bolts in a large number of steel joints. A challenge in detecting
loosening bolts is to develop a labour- and cost-effective method. This study
focuses on a motion magnification to detect slight changes in vibrations of bolt head
due to bolt-loosening, particularly in the case of delayed fracture of bolts.
A laboratory experiment utilizing a high-speed camera demonstrated feasibility of
detecting bolt-loosening by the motion magnification.

Keywords Bolt-loosening Image processing Motion magnification Steel

bridge Structural health monitoring
A. Long
Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney 2006, Australia
e-mail: alon0121@uni.sydney.edu.au
C. W. Kim (&) Y. Kondo
Department of Civil and Earth Resources Engineering, Kyoto University,
Kyoto 615-8540, Japan
Y. Kondo
e-mail: kondou.yousuke.64e@st.kyoto-u.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_11
120 A. Long et al.
1 Introduction
In highway bridges, loosened bolts as a result of delayed fracture pose a significant

public safety hazard, and their detection is an important aspect of structural health
monitoring. Traditional detection methods are often labour-intensive and costly.
These methods include the hammer impact test and standard wired accelerometers.
On the other hand, recent studies show that non-contact methods for structural
health monitoring using video cameras can prove advantageous over traditional
methods. For example, Chen et al. [1, 2] demonstrated the feasibility of using video
cameras for remote monitoring of structures, allowing the collection of high density
spatial data from a distance. Xu et al. demonstrate also the feasibility of video
cameras for vibration measurement of cables in cable-stayed bridges [6]. Further,
structural health monitoring by means of visual testing methods using cameras can
be enhanced when combined with image-processing [3, 4].
A study by Wu et al. [5] demonstrates how imperceptible movements in videos
can be revealed using Eulerian video magnification. Eulerian video magnification is
an algorithm for the amplification of small motions in videos. Since videos are
made of a series of images and thus have two domains—the spatial domain and
time or temporal domain—the basic principle behind this algorithm is to take a
video and decompose it in the spatial domain by filters into amplitude and phase
signals, followed by time-frequency bandpass filtering, after which the resulting
signal is amplified and reconstructed back into a video where the apparent motion
of objects in a video is larger than in the real time video, occurring at a temporal
frequency selected by the user. As a result, small motions in videos that were
difficult to see can be magnified to become obvious to the viewer.
If I ðx; tÞ stands for the image intensity at position x and time t, we can express
the observed intensities with respect to a displacement function dðtÞ, such that
I ðx; tÞ ¼ f ðx þ dðtÞÞ and I ðx; 0Þ ¼ f ð xÞ since the image undergoes translational
motion. The goal of motion magnification is to synthesize the signal for some
amplification factor a as shown in Eq. (1) [5].
bI ðx; tÞ ¼ f ðx þ ð1 þ aÞÞdðtÞ ð1Þ
Assuming the image can be approximated by a first-order Taylor series expan-

sion, we can finally get the processed output simply as Eq. (2).
bI ðx; tÞ I ðx; tÞ ¼ f ð xÞ þ ð1 þ aÞdðtÞ @f ð xÞ ¼ f ð xÞ þ ð1 þ aÞBðx; tÞ ð2Þ

@x
Let Bðx; tÞ be the result of applying a broadband temporal bandpass filter to

I ðx; tÞ at every position x, Eq. (2) shows that we can amplify the bandpass signal by
a and add it back to I ðx; tÞ. In other words, the processing magnifies motions—the
spatial displacement dðtÞ of the local image f ð xÞ at time t, has been amplified to a
magnitude of ð1 þ aÞ. This is a brief theoretical background for the Eulerian motion
Detecting Loosening Bolts of Highway Bridges … 121
magnification, and a more detailed explanation and derivation of this process is

provided in the reference [1, 5].
This study investigates the feasibility of using image processing by Eulerian video
magnification to detect loose bolts. Two experiments were designed to model a situ-
ation in which loosened bolts in a highway bridge (steel plate) vibrate under the traffic
load (hammer, model vehicle), with the subtle vibrations from traffic motion captured
by camera. Using pre-existing code [5] we applied Eulerian video magnification to the
videos in order to determine whether the loosened bolts could be visually detected after
processing in Matlab. The results of this study were used to consider the feasibility of
image processing as a method to detect loosened bolts in actual high bridges.
2 Method
2.1 Experimental Method
In order to determine the feasibility of Eulerian video magnification for the

detection of loosened bolt vibrations, two experiments were carried out in a labo-
ratory under controlled conditions. The experiments will be referred to in this paper
as the steel plate test, pictured in Fig. 1(a), and the model bridge test, pictured in
Fig. 1(b). The target specimens were filmed simultaneously with a Sony RX101V
4K camera and a Keyence VW-6000 high speed camera. Framerates were selected
to sufficiently capture the vibration of the loosened bolts, while leaving enough
exposure time to allow the high-speed camera to collect enough light [1]. Extra
lighting was used to allow the high-speed camera to see the structure.
The cameras were set up on tripods and positioned as close a distance as possible
to avoid lens distortion. Both cameras were required to film simultaneously, and
since the high-speed camera footage was given priority, it was positioned dead-on
with the structure to avoid angle defects, while the 4K camera was to the side
filming at a slight angle.
(a)
(b)
Fig. 1 Experimental setup of: a steel plate test, b model bridge test front-view and side-view
122 A. Long et al.
Fig. 2 Steel plate dimensions (units in cm)
Table 1 Steel plate test Bolt 1 Bolt 2 Bolt 3 Bolt 4

scenarios: percentage shows
percentage of torque of Case 1 0% 100% 100% 100%
473 N m (Bolts 1–4 Case 2 50% 100% 50% 100%
numbered starting from left to Case 3 25% 0% 60% 100%
right) Case 4 0% 10% 25% 100%
2.2 Steel Plate Test
2.2.1 Experimental Setup
To test the feasibility of the cameras used for motion magnification in this study, a
simple experiment was formulated using a steel plate. Dimensions of the bar are
provided in Fig. 2. Four bolts were passed through holes in the bar and tightened
using a torque wrench. The beam was secured using clamps as shown in Fig. 1(a).
Using an impact hammer, the beam was excited three consecutive times on the top
edge of the bar. Subsequent vibrations were recorded by video. 4K camera video
was recorded at 480 fps. The high-speed camera was intended to be recorded at
1000 fps, but due to a technical error, ended up being recorded at 30 fps. The
experiment was repeated for a total of 4 cases with different degrees of bolt loos-
ening. Table 1 summarises the experimental scenarios used.
2.3 Model Bridge Test
2.3.1 Experimental Setup
A similar experiment to the steel plate test was performed on a model bridge. In this
second experiment, a smaller steel plate with dimensions pictured in Fig. 3(a) was
attached to a model bridge which is shown in Fig. 3(b) and (c). The natural fre-
quency of the bridge was 3.64 Hz. A model vehicle pictured in Fig. 4(a) was
programmed to run over the model bridge at a speed of 30 km/h, causing excitation
of the steel plate. Subsequent vibrations were recorded with high speed camera and
4K camera. The high-speed camera recorded video at 1000 fps while the 4K
camera recorded video at 480 fps.
As with the steel plate test, the robot vehicle was used to excite the beam in
order to produce vibrations. Bolts were loosened to varying degrees per scenario.
The experiment was repeated for a total of four cases. Table 2 summarises the
experimental scenarios used.
(a)
(b) (c)
Fig. 3 a Dimensions of steel bar for model bridge test (units in cm), b Side view of model bridge
and dimensions, c Cross-section view and dimensions
(a) (b)
Fig. 4 a Model vehicle, b Experimental setup

124 A. Long et al.
Table 2 Model bridge test Bolt 1 Bolt 2 Bolt 3 Bolt 4

scenarios: percentage shows
percentage of torque of Case 1 100% 100% 100% 0%
38.2 N m (Bolts 1–4 from Case 2 100% 100% 50% 0%
numbered starting from left to Case 3 100% 100% 60% 0%
right) Case 4 100% 100% 25% 0%
Table 3 Values for amplification factor (a), spatial frequency cutoff (kl ), frequency bands
minimum (xl ) and maximum (xh ) cutoffs and sampling rate (fs ) used to produce the steel plate test
output videos
Video a kl xl (Hz) xh (Hz) fs
Steel plate 4K camera (Case 0) 120 5 199.4 199.6 7000
Steel plate high-speed (Case 0) 100 5 96.0 97.0 5000
Bridge 4K camera (Case 4) 120 5 96.0 100.0 10000
Bridge high-speed (Case 4) 120 5 96.0 100.0 10000
2.4 Motion Magnification
The pre-existing Eulerian video magnification algorithm [5] was applied to the
input videos. For a selection of videos, where motion magnification was success-
fully observed, the chosen amplification factor, frequency band values are sum-
marized in the results section. The source videos were then input into a
custom-written code in MATLAB which converted the videos into a series of
images, which were then used to measure the amount of vertical displacement of the
loosened bolts. Screenshots of these frames are provided in the results section.
3.1 Results
To evaluate the feasibility of the motion magnification for detecting loosened bolts,
we experimented using several different cases, where bolts had been tightened to
varying degrees of tightness, as outlined in Tables 1 and 2. Motion magnification
was applied to each of the input videos, and we were able to successfully observe
magnification of bolt vibrations in the following cases: steel plate 4K (Case 0); steel
plate high-speed (Case 0); bridge 4K (Case 4); bridge high-speed (Case 4). The
parameters used to produce the output videos are outlined in Table 3.
By experimenting with different values for the above parameters, it was
observed that: a larger a produced greater motion magnification as expected from
Eq. (1) but was often accompanied with substantially more noise; a lower xl and
xh worked better the less visible the bolt motion was—suitable for high speed
camera footage—whereas a slightly higher xl and xh worked best when there was
more visible noise and/or shaking of the camera—suitable for 4K camera footage.
Figure 5 shows selected frames of some videos where motion magnification suc-
cessfully revealed the small bolt motions.
For many cases a frequency bands of approximately 96.0–100.0 Hz was suitable
for isolating the bolt motion. The narrower the frequency band (i.e. the smaller the
difference between xl and xh Þ, the more accurately we were able to target the
motion of the loosened bolt. A broader frequency band often failed to isolate the
bolt movement, instead magnifying unnecessary noise such as camera shaking and/
or overall vibration of the steel plate/bridge itself.
(a) Pre-processing (4K camera) (b) Post-processing (4K camera)
(c) Pre-processing (high speed camera) (d) Post-processing (high speed camera)
Fig. 5 Comparison of frames pre- and post-processing of 4K and high-speed camera video
126 A. Long et al.
3.2 Discussion and Limitations
The aim of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of Eulerian video magni-
fication as a method for detecting loosened bolts in bridges. Bolts were loosened to
varying degrees as seen in Tables 1 and 2 in order to observe whether degree of
loosening had any visible effect on results after image processing was applied. From
the output videos it was observed that only bolts that were ‘‘completely loosened’’
displayed any visible movement after magnification. ‘‘Completely loosened’’ bolts
were those which were loosened to a degree of 0 Nm torque and could be freely
moved just by applying force with the fingers. It should be noted, however, that it is
not detectable just by a visual inspection even it is a completely loosened case as
can be seen in Fig. 5(a) and (c). These ‘‘completely loosened bolts’’ are unable to
support any axial load, and in real bridge applications, would theoretically behave
in the same way as a bolt that has yielded due to delayed fracture. We were
successful in amplifying the bolt motion visibly in these cases, as seen in Fig. 5.
On the other hand, bolts that retained even as little as even 10% of their yield
torque displayed no movement after Eulerian magnification was applied. While
several cases were tested with varying degrees of loosening using the torque
wrench: 47.3 to 473 N m for the steel plate experiment and 9.55 to 38.2 N m for
the bridge experiment, none yielded successful results. Hence it was concluded that
this method could be applied to detecting only bolts that had been loosened
completely for example as a result of delayed fracture.
It is important to note that Eulerian video magnification was originally used to
amplify small motions in videos with minimal ‘noise’ [5]. Our input videos
included a relatively large amount of noise compared to what Wu et al. experienced
in their videos, since in this study the target motion for amplification (bolt vibration)
was often dwarfed by motion of other, unrelated regions (vibration of entire steel
plate of bridge). We observed that in the model bridge experiment, some videos
taken by the 4K camera (480 fps) did not have a high enough frame rate and during
processing it was difficult to isolate the loosened bolt vibrations from camera noise.
We were able to avoid this problem with the high-speed camera footage, as seen in
the Bridge high speed (Case 4) example; the higher frame rate seemed to make the
output less sensitive to noise hence the magnified bolt vibration was more obvious.
Other factors such as camera angle and distance may have been of influence—in
the bridge experiment the high-speed camera was positioned directly in front of the
target specimen, while the 4K camera was slightly to the side in order to allow for
both cameras to film simultaneously. It was observed that the best results occurred
when the (high speed) camera was placed directly in front of the target, in the
closest proximity possible (due to physical constraints this was 70 cm for our
experiments) and set to a frame rate of 1000 fps.
For real life applications, it is unlikely that an actual bridge would vibrate as
much as our experimental models did, hence sensitivity to noise may not be as
much of a problem.
4 Conclusions
This study demonstrates the feasibility of Eulerian motion magnification of 4K

camera and high-speed camera footage for non-contact detection of loosened bolts
in bridges.
One limitation is that the method has been observed successful only in cases
where bolts are completely loosened and unable to support any load. This situation
is likeable to that in which a bolt has experienced delayed fracture. Hence the
method could be employed as a labour and cost-effective method for the detection
of loosened bolts which have experience delayed fracture in highway bridges.
Future research would involve determining the feasibility of Eulerian motion
magnification in the detection of loosened bolts that have yet to fail, as well as
video processing methods to estimate how close such bolts are to approaching
failure. This could potentially allow early detection of loosened bolts, enabling us to
more efficiently monitor bridge health as well as to help prevent accidents of
pedestrians and cars under steel bridges due to falling bolts.
Acknowledgements We would like to thank Gen Hayashi for his helpful feedback and
comments.
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virtual visual sensors for video analysis: fundamental concept and proof of feasibility. Sensors
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railway bridges using digital image correlation. Struct Eng Int 27(3):435–440
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magnification for revealing subtle changes in the world. ACM Trans Graph 31(4):1–8
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displacement monitoring in a cable-stayed footbridge. Struct Contr Health Monit. e2155.
https://doi.org/10.1002/stc.2155
An Efficient Approach for Detecting Bolt
Loosening in Periodically Supported
Structures
T. Yin and H. P. Zhu
Abstract Periodic structures consist of a large number of repeated units, which are
joined together in an identical manner to form the whole system. It has been
revealed in the literature that periodic structures have a variety of interesting
dynamic properties including the well-known vibration band-gap phenomenon. To
our best knowledge, most of research works related to periodic structures to date
focus on the structural vibration control and optimization design by employing such
unique dynamical characteristics of periodic structures, however, there are very few
studies been carried out for the damage diagnosis with respect to this special type of
structural system. By utilizing the measured modal parameters, this paper reports a
probabilistic methodology for detecting bolt loosening on a periodically supported
beam-type structural system, which intends to represent typical pipeline structures
endowed with bolted flange joints in industry. Firstly, the entire periodic structural
system is modeled by using the spectral element (SE) method combined with the
transfer matrix approach. Then, a model-based damage detection approach is pre-
sented to identify the statistic characteristics of uncertain parameters with the most
plausible class of models selected with suitable complexity of model parameteri-
zation. The validity and efficiency of the proposed methodology is verified through
numerical case studies conducted for characterizing the connection status in a
pipeline model.

Keywords Periodic structure Bolt loosening detection Particle filter Bayesian
approach
T. Yin (&)
School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, People’s Republic of China
e-mail: tyin@whu.edu.cn
H. P. Zhu
School of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, Huazhong University of Science
and Technology, Wuhan 430074, People’s Republic of China
e-mail: hpzhu@mail.hust.edu.cn

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_12
130 T. Yin and H. P. Zhu
1 Introduction
Periodic structures containing a large number of repeated units which are joined
together in an identical manner to form the entire structure have obtained extensive
applications in various engineering fields, such as pipelines, rail-sleeper system,
multi-span bridges, etc. The periodic structures share some commonalities in dynamic
properties. They behave like mechanical band-pass filters, responding and radiating
noise very efficiently in certain frequency bands while not so efficiently in other
bands. Completely identical periodic units, however, do not exist in reality because of
small irregularities or disorder induced by manufacturing defects and possible
damages, the presence of which may lead to the phenomenon of vibration localization
and may alter their dynamic characteristics. At present, researches mainly focus on
investigating the vibration localization of periodic structures [2, 3, 6], but damage
detection of this special type of structures by utilizing the dynamic measurement is
rarely considered [8, 11, 14].
One of the simplest models for pipelines [9, 13], consisting of identical and
uniform finite-length beams connected to adjoining ones by couplers at junctions,
can be regarded to be periodic. For assessing the connection status of the pipeline
joints following model-based approaches, one must first model the jointed con-
nection properly. In recent decades, there are amount of researches for analyzing the
mechanical fasteners and interface discontinuity through the finite element
(FE) method [5, 7]. However, the conventional FE method has obvious disad-
vantages in terms of computational efficiency and accuracy especially for the
pipeline with a large number of joints. By utilizing the spectral element
(SE) approach, the authors recently develops an analytical model of the periodically
supported pipeline endowed with bolted-flange joints for linear dynamic analysis of
the entire periodic system [8]. In addition, with the transfer matrix method further
employed, the computational cost for dynamic analysis of the entire periodic system
can be dramatically reduced regardless of the number of identical units, which is
extremely attractive for periodic system containing a huge amount of such units.
Furthermore, a probabilistic methodology, combining the Bayesian theorem and the
particle filter-based approach, is also proposed for detecting joint loosening effi-
ciently with modal parameters based on the developed SE model of periodic
pipeline.
2 Theoretical Development
The periodically supported beam endowed with NP bolted-flange joints as shown in

Fig. 1 can be regarded as a periodic structural system by treating the span with
adjacent supports as the periodic cell, thus the jth (j ¼ 1; 2; ; NP ) cell can be
written as [8]
An Efficient Approach for Detecting Bolt Loosening … 131
Fig. 1 Schematic of periodically supported beam endowed with bolted joints
( ½ j
) ( ½ j
)
½ j UR;n ½ j UL;n
YR;n ¼ ½ j ¼ T½nj YL;n ¼ T½nj ½ j ð1Þ
FR;n FL;n
½ j ½ j ½ j
where NP denotes the number of cells in the periodic system. (UL;n , FL;n , YL;n ) and
½ j ½ j ½ j
(UR;n , FR;n , YR;n ) are the generalized displacement, force and state vectors on the
left and right ends of the jth cell, respectively. The transformation matrix T½nj relates
the state vectors at both ends of the jth cell. In addition, the continuity and com-
patibility conditions at the jth interface require continuity of U and F at the right end
of the jth cell and left end of the ðj þ 1Þth one, i.e.,

½ j I 0 ½ j þ 1 ½ j þ 1
YR;n ¼ Nm YL;n ¼ KYL;n ð2Þ
0 INm
where INm is the Nm -by-Nm identity matrix.

Substituting Eq. (2) into Eq. (1) yields
YL;n
½ j þ 1 ½ j Y½ j
¼T ð3Þ
n L;n
½ j
¼ K1 T½ j is the transfer matrix from the left end of the jth cell to the left
where T n n
end of the ðj þ 1Þth one. Accordingly, the relationship between the state vectors at
the left end of the first cell and the left end of the last one can be given by
NY
P 1
½N
YL;nP ¼ ½ j Y½1
T ð4Þ
n L;n
j¼1
Thus, the state vectors at the beginning and the end of entire periodic structural
system can be further related by combining Eqs. (1) and (4) as
NY
P 1
½N ½N
YR;nP ¼ T½nNP YL;nP ¼ Cn YL;n ¼ T½nNP
½1 ½ j Y½1
T ð5Þ
n L;n
j¼1
where Cn represents the system transfer matrix of whole periodic structure, from
which the dynamic stiffness matrix of the entire periodic system can be obtained by
relating the generalized displacement and force vectors at both ends of the entire
periodic system. In addition, if the forces applied to the two boundaries of the
periodic system are provided, the generalized displacements at both boundaries
½1 ½N
(i.e., YL;n and YR;nP ) for any specified frequency xn can be firstly derived from
Eq. (5), and then the state vectors at two supports of an arbitrary cell can be
obtained by further using Eq. (3) as
Y
k 1 Y
k1
½k
YL;n ¼ ½ j Y½1 ; Y½k ¼ T½k
T ½ j Y½1
T ð6Þ
n L;n R;n n n L;n
j¼1 j¼1
The proposed detection methodology involves two phases [8]. The first phase is
intended to select the most plausible class of models representing the system out of
NM prescribed classes of models by utilizing the experimental data D, including Nr
sets of measured natural frequencies and mode shapes of the first Nm modes. The
Bayesian model class selection method [1, 10, 12] is adopted to select the optimal
model class for detecting bolt loosening of the periodic system, and the probability
of model class Mj conditional on the data is given by the Bayes’ theorem as
X NM

p Mj jD ¼ p DjMj p Mj = p DjMj p Mj ð7Þ
j¼1
where it’s simply assumed that

each individual model
class
possesses the same
initial plausibility, i.e., p DjMj ¼ 1=NM . The factor p DjMj denotes the evidence
for the model class Mj providing the data D, and the optimal model class to be

chosen is the one that maximizes the evidence p DjMj with respect to Mj . The
posterior PDF of unknown model parameters hj for a given set of data D in a
globally identifiable case can be approximated
by a Gaussian distribution, and the
asymptotic expression of p DjMj includes two terms. The first term named as
likelihood factor favors more complex model, whereas the second term, i.e., the
Ockham factor ensures a resultant model that fits the data with a suitable com-
plexity by imposing a penalty against such complexity. The combination of these
two factors allows the most probable model class to be chosen with suitable
complexity to fit the given data.
For the most plausible model class Ml obtained, this phase focuses on calcu-
lating the posterior PDF of the uncertain model parameters hl with the data.
Following the dynamic state estimation methods, a nonlinear dynamical system for
Ml can be written as

ðk Þ ðk1Þ ðk Þ
hl ¼ f hl ; Ml þ uðk1Þ ; DðkÞ ¼ g hl ; Ml þ vðkÞ ð8Þ
ðk Þ
where hl is the state vector of the dynamical system at time k, and DðkÞ is the
measurement vector at time k. f ðÞ and gðÞ are the prescribed state transition and
measurement functions, respectively. uðkÞ and vðkÞ are the independent identically
distributed random noises
n in the systemoand measurement processes accordingly.
ð0:k Þ ð0Þ ð1Þ ðk Þ
Denoting hl ¼ hl ; hl ; . . .; hl and Dð1:kÞ ¼ Dð1Þ ; Dð2Þ ; . . .; DðkÞ as the
sequence up to time k of state vectors and measurements,
respectively, from a
ðk Þ ð1:kÞ
Bayesian perspective, the posterior PDF p hl jD ; Ml can be obtained by
ðk Þ
recursively calculating some degree of belief in the state hl at time k, given the
data Dð1:kÞ up to time k. It is assumed that the initial condition of the state vector is
available, and the posterior PDF can be obtained through the following two suc-
cessive stages.
ðk1Þ
In the first stage, providing the PDF p hl jDð1:k1Þ ; Ml at time k 1, the prior
PDF of the state at time k is obtained via the Chapman–Kolmogorov equation as
Z
ðk Þ ðkÞ ðk1Þ ðk1Þ ð1:k1Þ ðk1Þ
p hl jDð1:k1Þ ; Ml ¼ p hl jhl ; Ml p h l jD ; Ml dhl ð9Þ

where p hðkÞ jhðk1Þ ; Ml , denoting the probabilistic model of the state transition, is
defined by the state transition function and the known statistics of uðk1Þ in Eq. (8) as
Z
ðk Þ ðk1Þ ðk Þ ðk1Þ ðk1Þ ðk1Þ
p hl jhl ; Ml ¼ p hl jhl ;u ; Ml p uðk1Þ jhl ; Ml duðk1Þ ð10Þ
ðk Þ
In the latter stage, the posterior distribution of hl is obtained by using the
Bayes’ theorem to update the prior in Eq. (9) when a new measurement DðkÞ is
available at time k:

ðk Þ ðk Þ ðk Þ
p hl jDð1:kÞ ; Ml ¼ p DðkÞ jhl ; Ml p hl jDð1:k1Þ ; Ml =p DðkÞ jDð1:k1Þ ð11Þ

ðk Þ
where the conditional PDF p DðkÞ jhl ; Ml is defined through both the measure-
ment function and the known statistics of vðkÞ as
Z
p DðkÞ jhl ; Ml ¼ p DðkÞ jhl ; vðkÞ ; Ml p vðkÞ jhl ; Ml dvðkÞ ð12Þ
It is noted that
the procedure
of exact Bayesian solution for calculating the
ðk Þ ð1:kÞ
posterior PDF p hl jD ; Ml has been summarized through Eqs. (8) to (12).
However, except for a few cases, the analytical evaluation of the complex
high-dimensional integrals involved in these formulas is extremely difficult. Thus,
the Monte Carlo simulation-based methods, such as the particle filter approach [4],
is especially suitable for such situation.
3 Case Studies
The proposed methodology is validated in this section through numerical simula-

tions of a ten-span periodically supported beam endowed with bolted joints as
shown in Fig. 2. It is noted that the total number of cells NP contained in this
periodic system is 10. The geometric and material properties of this model are
provided in Yin et al. [8], where the computational efficiency and accuracy of the
proposed modeling method involving the concept of thin-layer element approach
for dynamic analysis of the entire periodic system has been verified by the global
assembly method. The damage of the periodic system is introduced by reducing the
Young’s modulus of the thin-layer material quantifying the connecting stiffness of
bolted joint for mimicking the bolt loosening. Ten dimensionless parameters
a1 ; a2 ; . . .; a10 are employed to scale the nominal connection stiffness for each
bolted connection, and their nominal values are all 1. There are three cases
investigated in the study. Case 1 relates to the intact situation, where all scaling
parameters are set to their nominal values, i.e., ai ¼ 1ði ¼ 1; 2; . . .; 10Þ. Case 2 is a
single damage case, and a2 is reduced to 0.7. On the base of the previous case, Case
3 further reduces a9 from 1 to 0.7 to consider the double damage condition.
Table 1 shows NM ¼ 6 model classes considered for this example. It is seen that
the parameterization complexity increases with the number of uncertain parameters
involved in each model class. Specifically, M1 denotes the simplest class of models
with single parameter to update the connection stiffness of all joints. For M2 , the
entire periodic system is equally divided into two regions, where the connection
stiffness of bolted joints are quantified by two scaling parameters. M3 and M4 with
the same number of scaling parameters but different parameterization schemes are a
little more complicated than the previous model class M2 . On the base of M4 , in
M5 , the 2nd scaling parameter in M4 is further subdivided into two equal regions.
M6 is the class of models possessing the most complex parameterization scheme
among all considered ones, where the connections stiffness of the entire periodic
system are quantified by five parameter groups each containing two scaling
parameters.
The results of model class selection, including the likelihood factors, Ockham
factors, logarithm of evidence and the probability of each class of models, for each
case are given in Table 2, where the model class with the highest posterior prob-
ability is highlighted in boldface for the sake of clarity. In Case 1, the proposed
methodology is validated by utilizing the modal parameters of the first three modes
obtained from the intact system. Among all the predefined class of models, M1 is
selected as the most plausible one for this intact case, implying that a single
Fig. 2 Ten-span periodically supported beam endowed with bolted flange joints
Table 1 Definition of various model classes for the periodic pipeline

No. parameters Parameter grouping
M1 1 h1 : fa1 a10 g
M2 2 h1 : fa1 a5 g; h2 : fa6 a10 g
M3 3 h1 : fa1 a4 g; h2 : fa5 ; a6 g; h3 : fa7 a10 g
M4 3 h1 : fa1 a3 g; h2 : fa4 a7 g; h3 : fa8 a10 g
M5 4 h1 : fa1 a3 g; h2 : fa4 ; a5 g; h3 : fa6 ; a7 g; h4 : fa8 a10 g
M6 5 h1 : fa1 ; a2 g; h2 : fa3 ; a4 g; h3 : fa5 ; a6 g; h4 : fa7 ; a8 g; h5 : fa9 ; a10 g
Table 2 Results of model class selection for each numerical case

p Mj jD ln p DjMj Likelihood factor Ockham factor
Case 1 M1 95.35% 69.65 87.06 −17.41
M2 3.73% 66.41 86.08 −19.67
M3 0.70% 64.74 87.79 −23.06
M4 0.13% 63.06 87.45 −24.39
M5 0.07% 62.46 87.68 −25.22
M6 0.01% 59.90 87.51 −27.60
Case 2 M1 0.11% 27.18 37.62 −10.44
M2 0.06% 24.26 44.54 −20.28
M3 0.15% 27.45 52.17 −24.72
M4 48.26% 33.25 63.64 −30.39
M5 6.93% 31.31 62.90 −31.59
M6 44.55% 33.17 84.03 −50.86
Case 3 M1 0.85% 20.96 29.45 −8.49
M2 1.41% 21.47 33.96 −12.49
M3 0.30% 19.92 36.57 −16.65
M4 57.61% 25.18 42.81 −17.63
M5 21.41% 24.19 43.53 −19.34
M6 18.43% 24.04 48.81 −24.77
parameter is enough to capture the vibration characteristics of the entire periodic

system in the healthy situation. In addition, it is also clear from Table 2 that the
values of likelihood factors of different model classes in this case are very close to
each other. This can be explained that the scaling parameters for different model
classes take the same nominal values, thus all the model classes fit the data in a
similar degree. However, due to the penalty effect of Ockham factor on the model
complexity, the simplest model class M1 possessing the highest evidence value is
chosen for this case.
Different from the results presented in the intact case, for Case 2, M4 is selected
as the most plausible model class among all the six candidates. It is understandable
that more parameters are needed to be involved to depict the distribution of con-
nection stiffness along the periodic system with the present of local damage. In
addition, it is noted that M2 is obviously much simpler than M4 , whereas the former
is not chosen as the most probable model class. This can be explained that, com-
pared with M4 , the first scaling parameter in M2 covers first five bolted joints,
which is ineffective to characterize the actual stiffness reduction occurred only in
the 2nd bolted connection. Thus, the likelihood factor of M2 tends to be significantly
smaller than that of M4 , even though the former possesses a relatively smaller
Ockham factor, making the probability of M4 to be larger. Moreover, comparing
M4 with M6 for Case 2, M6 obviously fits better to the data as more scaling
parameters are involved to decrease the discrepancy between the measured and
model-predicted modal parameters. As a results, the likelihood factor of M6 is
obviously found to be higher than M4 , but it also induces more severe penalty from
Ockham factor by the complexity of M6 . This makes M4 to be chosen as the most
plausible model class in this case. It should be noted that the probability of M6 is
indeed very close to that of M4 , implying the complicated model with a good
measure of fits is also very competitive sometimes. Thus, the proposed method-
ology provides an efficiency way to make a balance between the model complexity
and data-fit.
In the subsequent stage, the proposed methodology is intended to identify the
loose bolted connections for each damage case based on the most plausible class of
models identified in the previous stage. In this study, it is assumed that the prior of
particles follows uniform distribution, and there are 50 particles utilized for cal-
culation. The standard deviation of each element in the noise vector u is assumed to
be 1% of the range of prior values, and that of the noise vector v is set to be 5% of
the measured data. It is noted that the control parameters of particle filter approach
are kept to be unchanged for each class of models in order to ensure the consistency
for comparison. Due to the page limitation here, only the identified results for Case
2 are shown in Fig. 3 for demonstration purpose. Only three representative classes
of models are employed for illustration in this figure, including the identified most
probable model class, the model classes with the simplest and most complicated
parameterization schemes.
a b c
Fig. 3 History of iterative simultaneous estimation by the particle filter-based approach for Case 2
in the numerical study: a M1 , b M4 , c M6
It is clear from Fig. 3 that the identified scaling parameters will eventually
converge to some constant values after a few iterative steps. Also, model class with
few parameters like M1 and M2 can only provide very limited information about
the bolt loose. Specially, the simplest model class M1 may only be employed to
detect whether the pipeline model is damaged or not while M2 can only help to
further judge if the damaged joint is located within the left or right half of the entire
periodic system. In contrast, the model class with the maximum complexity of
model parameterization in this study (i.e., M6 ) can provide more specific infor-
mation related to the damaged bolted joint. However, for the most complex model
class M6 , there exists the widest parameter space with higher dimension, within
which maximum number of uncertain parameters needs to be determined, leading to
more iterative steps required to achieve convergence for giving the same algorithm
configuration.
Although not shown in this paper due to page limitation, the posterior mean
value and standard deviation of identified uncertain scaling parameters for all model
classes with respect to both damage cases are calculated, and interested readers are
referred to Yin et al. [8]. It is clearly found a common phenomenon that the
identified scaling parameters of the most plausible model class have a relatively
smaller standard deviation value as compared to other model classes within the
same case. This implies that the connection status of joint groups can be efficiently
quantified with less uncertainty on the base of the selected optimal model class by
utilizing the proposed methodology for detecting the loosening of bolted connec-
tions, and the validity of the proposed methodology is thus fully demonstrated.
4 Conclusions
This paper reports an efficient probabilistic methodology for detecting bolt loos-
ening in a periodically supported beam-type structural system. In the first phase of
presented methodology, the dynamic model of entire periodic system endowed with
bolted connections is developed by combining the spectral element method and the
transfer matrix approach. In the second phase, a two-staged methodology is pro-
posed to first identify the most probable class of models selected with suitable
parameterization complexity for data fitting by using Bayesian model class selec-
tion approach, and then the statistic properties of uncertain scaling parameters on
the base of the optimal model class are obtained by utilizing the particle filter-based
approach. In the latter part of this paper, the validity of the proposed methodology
is verified through the numerical case studies of a periodically supported beam
structure, which is intended to represent the typical pipeline in the industry. The
obtained results clearly demonstrate the computational efficiency and accuracy of
the proposed methodology, which can efficiently model the entire periodic system
with bolted connections and correctly identify the uncertain scaling parameters with
corresponding uncertainties for characterizing the connection status of bolted joints.
Acknowledgements The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 51778506, 51838006).
References
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in periodically supported structures endowed with bolted flange joints. Mech Syst Signal
Process 128:588–616
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model identification of periodic structures endowed with bolted joints. Comput Aided Civ
Infrast Eng 32(12):1007–1024
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mice.12492
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following the Bayesian probabilistic approach. Int J Struct Stab Dyn 19(1):1940011
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Damage Detection Based on Bayes
Factor Using Ambient Vibration Data
F. L. Zhang, C. W. Kim, and Y. Goi
Abstract This paper presents the work on developing a frequency domain method
for damage detection using ambient vibration data. Bayesian factor is used to
construct a new damage detection indicator utilizing the concept of Fast
Bayesian FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) method. Based on Bayes factor and the
properties of FFT data, the prior probability density function (PDF) and the like-
lihood function in the indicator can be constructed according to Gaussian distri-
bution. The most probable value (MPV) of modal parameters mainly including
natural frequency, damping ratio and mode shape, and the corresponding covari-
ance matrix, which can be determined by the Fast Bayesian FFT method, were also
used for the development of damage indicator. The uncertainty of modal parameters
can be taken into account in the damage detection. A simply supported bridge with
10 elements was simulated to illustrate the proposed method by generating data in
different damage cases. The damage location and degree can be identified by
instrumenting the sensors in different locations.
Keywords Bayes factor Damage detection Modal parameters Uncertainty

FFT data
F. L. Zhang
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology,
Shenzhen, China
e-mail: cezhangfengliang@163.com
F. L. Zhang C. W. Kim (&) Y. Goi
Y. Goi

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_13
140 F. L. Zhang et al.
1 Introduction
Structural health monitoring (SHM) is attracting more and more attention with the
increasing of the large-scale buildings, bridges, etc. Furthermore, with the age
increasing, some structures collapse suddenly, which also sounds the alarm for the
structures owners to pay close attention to the structural safety. In the field of SHM,
damage detection is an important tool to make full use of the collected data by the
modern sensors to find the existing problems of a tested structure. It has three main
steps, i.e., to detect whether the damage appears, where the damage is and what the
damage extents are. Focused on these objectives, many methods have been
developed. Vibration based method is one of commonly used methods with the
development of ambient vibration tests, which makes the data collection more
convenient and economical. Fast Bayesian FFT method was recently developed to
analyze the ambient vibration data and determine the most probable values of
modal parameters including natural frequency, damping ratio and mode shape, and
the associated posterior uncertainty [1, 2]. It is becoming popular since the theory of
the method is very strict while the usage of the method is quite convenient and
efficient. Damage indicator can be used to show the damage status of a measured
structure and some damage indicators in the time domain have been developed to
perform damage detection [3, 4]. Based on the theory of the Fast Bayesian FFT
method, a novel damage method was developed in this work. This method is a
frequency domain method, and the well-known Bayes factor was used to define the
damage indicator. The prior PDF and likelihood function can be determined fol-
lowing the Bayesian FFT method. Numerical examples were used to illustrate the
proposed method.
2 Methodology
The basic method is based on the Bayes factor [5], whose definition can be seen as
follow:
pðDjH1 Þ
B10 ¼ ð1Þ
pðDjH0 Þ
where pðDjH1 Þ and pðDjH0 Þ denotes the PDF of data D under two hypotheses H1
and H0 , respectively. Based on the Variants on Laplace’s Method, the general form
of the PDF can be given by
1=2
b
p DjHq ¼ ð2pÞnh C L p Djb
h q ; Hq p bh q jHq ð2Þ
Damage Detection Based on Bayes Factor … 141

where q ¼ 1 or 0; p Djb
h q ; Hq denotes the likelihood function; p bh q jHq denotes
the prior PDF; b

h q denotes the maximum of the model parameters hq with nh model
parameters inside; Cb L is the covariance matrix of the likelihood function. The

likelihood function p Djb h q ; Hq can be determined based on the theory of
Bayesian FFT method [1, 6], i.e.,
Ynb
pðfDi gjfhi gÞ ¼ pðDi jhi Þ
i¼1
Ynb Yki2
1 1 b T 1 b
¼ exp Z C Z ik ð3Þ
i¼1 k¼ki1
ð2pÞn detðCik Þ0:5 2 ik ik
where nb denotes the number of the frequency bands used in the damage detection;
Di denotes the data in the ith frequency band; hi denotes the modal parameters to
model the data in the ith frequency band; Cik denotes the covariance matrix of Z b ik ;
b ik denotes a vector containing the real and imaginary parts of the FFT data at
Z
frequency f k in the ith frequency band; ki1 and ki2 are indexes of the starting and end
frequencies in the ith frequency band.

The prior PDF p b h jH can be determined as:
q q
Ynb Ynb
1 1 b T 1 b
pð fhi gÞ ¼ pðhi Þ ¼ exp ðhi h i Þ Chi ðhi h i
i¼1 i¼1
ð2pÞn detðChi Þ0:5 2
ð4Þ
where Chi denotes the covariance matrix of the modal parameters hi with the MPV b
hi.
By this way, the damage indicator can be calculated accordingly. The possible
damage can be observed by comparing the change of damage indicator. For the
detail of the proposed method, please refer to Zhang et al. [7].
3 Illustrative Examples
To illustrate the proposed method, a series of numerical examples were designed.

The target structure is a simply supported bridge with the length of 21 m. The finite
element model was built by MATLAB and the structure was divided to ten ele-
ments. The fundamental natural frequency was set to be 1.61 Hz and the damping
ratios of all the modes are set to 1%. Ambient excitation was applied on the
structure and to simulate the real situation, random noise was also added into the
generated structural response. The power spectral density (PSD) spectra of the
synthetic data were shown in Fig. 1. There are 7 modes below 100 Hz and clear
peaks can be found. Based on Fast Bayesian FFT method [1], all the 7 modes can
be well identified and they are used to detect the potential damage. The natural
frequencies of the first seven modes are 1.61, 6.43, 14.49, 25.80, 40.42, 58.40,
142 F. L. Zhang et al.
-3
10
5 6 7
3 4
1 2
[m/s √Hz]
-4
10
-5
10
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Frequency [Hz]
Fig. 1 Root PSD spectra of the simulated data [7]
5
x 10
6
50%
5 45%
40%
4 35%
30%
BDI
3 25%
20%
2 15%
10%
1 5%
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Setup (Initial DOF)
Fig. 2 Bridge damage indicators (BDI) in different damage degrees and measured DOFs with the
3rd element damaged [7]
80.00 Hz, respectively; while the damping ratios are 0.9, 0.9,1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0,
1.0%, respectively. They are all quite close to the exact values. The posterior COVs
(coefficients of variation) of the natural frequency are less than 1% while those of
damping ratios are from one to fifteen percent. The MAC values between the
identified and exact mode shapes are all larger than 0.99. In total, the identification
of the modal parameters is quite accurate.
The damage was simulated in different elements. It is assumed that in that
bridge, only four sensors were available. They work together and move along the
bridge to measure all the DOFs step by step. From the left to right side, six setups
are needed to finish the whole measurement. Figure 2 shows the indicators calcu-
lated by the proposed method by simulating damage at the third element. The
damage was simulated by reducing the stiffness in the damaged element. Different
lines denote different damage degree. The x-axial shows the setups from the left to
Damage Detection Based on Bayes Factor … 143
the right. In each setup, one damage indicator was calculated. It is seen that when
the sensor is far away from the damage element, the damage indicator tends to
decrease and the largest value appears in the Setup 3, where all the four sensors are
at the right side of the damage element. On the other hand, the damage indicator
value increase with the damage degree. The results for the damage element was
simulated in other elements are also calculated and similar phenomenon can be
observed. For the details, please refer to Zhang et al. [7].
4 Conclusions
This paper presents the work on developing a novel damage indicator based on
Bayes factor. It is a frequency domain indicator, where the likelihood function and
the prior PDF in the definition can be calculated by the theory of Bayesian FFT
method. The most probable values and the posterior uncertainty were identified
efficiently by the Fast Bayesian FFT method and they are used to calculate and
update the damage indicator. Fast Bayesian FFT method has been developed more
than 7 years and it has been proved that it is quite efficient. This study first makes
full use of the modal parameters and the associated posterior uncertainty determined
by the Fast Bayesian FFT method for the purpose of damage detection and some
reasonable results can also be obtained from the numerical examples. This method
is also applied into a real structure while the result will not be presented in this
work.
Acknowledgements This study is supported by the JSPS Fellowship (P17371) and National
Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.: 51878484). The financial support is greatly
acknowledged.
References
1. Au SK (2017) Operational modal analysis: modeling, Bayesian inference, uncertainty laws.

Springer, Singapore
2. Au SK, Zhang FL, Ni YC (2013) Bayesian operational modal analysis: theory, computation,
practice. Comput Struct 126:3–14
3. Goi Y, Kim CW (2017) Bayesian outlier detection for health monitoring of bridges. Procedia
Eng 199:2120–2125
4. Goi Y, Kim CW (2017) Damage detection of a truss bridge utilizing a damage indicator from
multivariate autoregressive model. J Civ Struct Health Monit 7(2):153–162
5. Kass RE, Raftery AE (1995) Bayes factors. J Am Stat Assoc 90(430):773–795
6. Yuen K-V (2010) Bayesian methods for structural dynamics and civil engineering. Wiley,
Hoboken
7. Zhang FL, Kim CW, Goi Y (2020) Efficient Bayesian FFT method for damage detection using
ambient vibration data with consideration of uncertainty. Struct Contr Health Monit.
(November 2019, Submitted)
Seismic Evaluation of Structures Based
on Simplified Increment Dynamic
Analysis
Feng Wang, Qiang Chen, and Zhong Zheng Guo
Abstract Considering that traditional increment dynamic analysis (IDA) is com-

putational intensive and time-consuming, a simplified IDA method is presented
firstly, in which the assumption of equivalent single degree of freedom (SDOF)
system is combined with the method of Pushover analysis. On this basis, a sim-
plified IDA based seismic evaluation method of structures is presented, in which the
structural capacity curves can be established by using the simplified IDA, and
whether the seismic capacity of a structure meets the requirement of seismic for-
tification levels can be evaluated. In order to verify the proposed method, three
structural models are designed according to different soil sites, and typical earth-
quake records are selected as the horizontal ground motion excitation. The
implement of the seismic evaluation for the examples show that the method of
seismic performance evaluation method based on simplified IDA is easy to operate,
and the result of seismic evaluation is conservative.

Keywords Increment dynamic analysis Single degree of freedom system

Seismic fortification level Seismic performance evaluation Story drift ratio
1 Introduction
Since the original works by Bertero, the incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) has
been widely developed. Han and Chopra [2] combined the IDA and MPA to
propose a MIDA procedure. Moon et al. [6] developed the IDA procedure based on
the conventional MPA idea. Lucchini et al. [4] used IDA procedure to analysis
F. Wang (&) Q. Chen Z. Z. Guo

College of Civil Engineering, Dalian Minzu University, Dalian 116650, China
e-mail: win_0803@163.com
Q. Chen
e-mail: qaz7419327@sina.com
Z. Z. Guo
e-mail: salih1995@163.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_14
146 F. Wang et al.
seismic behaviors of single-story asymmetric-plan buildings. Zarfam and Mofid [7]

simplified the reinforced concrete structure to three linear elastic-plastic model and
the IDA was carried out based on this simplified model. Hossein et al. [3] used the
IDA procedure to estimate the structural failure probability of structures under
earthquake excitations. Alembagheri and Ghaemian [1] adopted IDA procedure to
evaluate the earthquake induced damage of concrete arch dam.
At present, the studies on IDA and its application in structural
performance-based seismic design and evaluation have achieved a certain number
of results (Zhou et al. [9]; Zhang et al. [8]; Lu et al. [5], but the traditional IDA is
very time-consuming for the reason that this method uses a certain number of
ground motion records as structural earthquake excitation for nonlinear dynamic
analysis, so it is inconvenient in practical use. For the reason, a simplified IDA
procedure is proposed firstly, and then a method for evaluating seismic performance
of structures using the simplified IDA is presented, and the accuracy and the
operability of the proposed method are verified by an example.
2 Simplified Incremental Dynamic Analysis
In the assumption of an equivalent single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system, it is

irrational to represent the distribution of the changing lateral displacement with the
elastic mode vector u. To reduce the deviation, the pushover analysis is used to
obtain the first mode vector up ðtÞ after the structure enters the plastic response
phase. up ðtÞ is a function of time. By replacing u with up ðtÞ, the following
equation is obtained:
up ðtÞ ¼ qðtÞ up ðtÞ cp ð1Þ
where up(t) is the structural displacement response vector and cp is the mode
participation coefficient corresponding to up ðtÞ.
The seismic design code specifies the peak ground acceleration (PGA) of minor
and large earthquakes corresponding to different seismic intensities, and the limiting
value of the story drift ratio [h] of structural elasticity and elastoplasticity in minor
and strong earthquakes. Hence, in simplified IDA, PGA can serve as the ground
motion intensity parameter IM, and the maximum inter-story drift angle hm as the
structural performance parameter DM.
The procedure of the simplified IDA method is as follows.
(1) Calculate the standardized first mode vector u and the mode participation
coefficient c of the structure.
(2) Conduct pushover analysis on the structure based on the pushover analysis
lateral force mode obtained according to Eq. (2), establish the capacity curve in
the form of roof displacement–base shear, and simplify the curve into a bilinear
form.
Seismic Evaluation of Structures … 147
P ¼ Mu1 ð2Þ
(3) Determine the restoring force model of the equivalent SDOF system with the
capacity curve of the bilinear form as the displacement—force monotonic
relationship of the equivalent SDOF system.
(4) Select a piece of ground motion record, adjust the amplitude of the PGA of the
ground motion from small to large, and then perform dynamic time-history
analysis on the equivalent SDOF system with excitation increasing stepwise to
obtain the maximum displacement qm corresponding to different PGAs, and
plot the IDA capacity curve of the equivalent SDOF system in the form of qm—
PGA.
(5) Calculate the maximum displacement urm at the roof of the structure corre-
sponding to different PGAs according to qm in the IDA capacity curve of the
equivalent SDOF system.
(6) Perform a pushover analysis on the structure again until the urm (obtained in
Step 5) corresponding to each PGA is pushed over, determine the plastic first
mode vector up , and substitute the vector into Eq. (1) to determine the dis-
placement vector up. Further determine the hm corresponding to each urm; that
is, hm corresponding to each PGA.
(7) Plot the IDA capacity curve of the structure in the form of hm—PGA.
3 Seismic Evaluation of Structures Based on Simplified

IDA
Based on the seismic design code, the range of the maximum story drift ratio of a
multi-story R.C. structure under different seismic fortification levels is obtained, as
shown in Table 1. Parameters in this table are used to evaluate the structural seismic
capacity for different seismic fortification levels in this paper.
According to seismic code, the seismic fortification levels in Table 1 can be
expressed as: (1) Level I: No damage under minor earthquake. (2) Level II:
Repairable under medium earthquake. (3) Level III: No collapse under strong
earthquake. (4) Level IV: Near collapse or collapse.
The set values of PGA for different earthquake levels are listed in Table 2.
The selected ground motion records are as the excitation of equivalent SDOF
system, respectively, and the IDA capacity curves of the structure in the form of
hm—PGA are obtained by the simplified IDA method. According to the capacity
Table 1 Maximum story drift ratio hm for different seismic fortification levels
Seismic fortification level Level I Level II Level III Level IV
hm <1/550 1/550–2/275 2/275–1/50 >1/50
148 F. Wang et al.
Table 2 Peak ground acceleration (PGA, cm/s2) for different earthquake levels
Earthquake level Minor earthquake Medium earthquake Strong earthquake
Seismic 6 18 49 125
fortification intensity 7 35(55) 98(147) 220(310)
8 70(110) 196(294) 400(510)
9 140 392 620
curves, and referring to Tables 1 and 2, it is possible to assess whether the seismic
performance of the structure meets the requirements of the seismic fortification
level.
4 Example Models and Earthquake Rewords
4.1 Example Models
Three six-story structural models were designed for hard soil sites (I0, I1), inter-
mediate soil sites (II, III), and a soft soil site (IV), and designated as structures 1, 2
and, 3, respectively. The three structural models have a story height of 3.6 m and
uniform lateral shear stiffness along the story. The interstory damping uses the
Rayleigh damping with a damping ratio of 5%. The basic period is 0.61 s and the
fortification intensity is 7. Table 3 lists the story weight, mode of vibration, and
interstory shear strength of the three structural models.
The structural models of this calculation example can be simplified to a
multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) system. The ideal story hysteretic relationship of
these three MDOF systems is a bilinear stiffness model, the yield stiffness coeffi-
cient is 0.024, and the stiffness degradation coefficient is 0.4.
Table 3. The main parameters of example models

Story Story gravity load/kN 1-th Story shear strength/kN
mode Structure 1 Structure 2 Structure 3
1-th 10360 0.25 4682 6797 8916
2-th 9330 0.48 4430 6383 8372
3-th 9330 0.69 4000 5673 7442
4-th 9330 0.85 3365 4628 6071
5-th 9330 0.95 2526 3247 4259
6-th 6950 1.00 1484 1530 2006
Corresponding the soil sites I0, I1 II, III IV
4.2 Earthquake Records
For the example analysis, 15 horizontal earthquake motion records for hard soil
sites (I0, I1), intermediate soil sites (II, III), and soft soil site (IV), corresponding to
B, C and D respectively for USGS, are selected and listed in Table 4.
Table 4. The information of earthquake records

Soil sites Station Earthquake Components Number
Hard 1095 Taft Lincoln Kern County (52/7/21, TAF021 Y1
soil School Ms7.7)
site 1095 Taft Lincoln Kern County (52/7/21, TAF111 Y2
(I0, I1) School Ms7.7)
14403 LA 116th St Northridge (94/1/17, 116090 Y3
School Ms6.7)
6604 Cerro Prieto Imperial Valley (79/10/ H-CPE147 Y4
15, Ms6.9)
Tcu045 ChiChi (99/9/20, Ms7.6) TCU045-N Y5
Intermediate 90063 GlendaleLas Northridge (94/1/17, GLP177 Z1
soil Palmas Ms6.7)
site 90091 LA Saturn Northridge (94/1/17, STN020 Z2
(II, III) St Ms6.7)
6621 Chihuahua Imperial Valley (79/10/ CHI012 Z3
15, Ms6.9)
22074 Yermo Fire Landers (92/6/28, YER270 Z4
Station Ms7.4)
1028 Hollister City Loma Prieta (89/10/18, HCH090 Z5
Hall Ms7.1)
Soft 5057 El Centro Imperial Valley (79/10/ H-E03140 R1
soil Array #3 15, Ms6.9)
site 90011 Montebeel Northridge (94/1/17, BLF206 R2
(IV) —Bluff Ms6.7)
0 Shin-Osaka Kobe (95/01/16, Ms6.9) SHI000 R3
Ambarli Kocaeli (99/08/17, ATS000 R4
Ms7.8)
1002 APEEL 2— Loma Prieta (89/10/18, A02043 R5
Redwood Ms7.1)
150 F. Wang et al.
5 Example Analysis
5.1 IDA Capacity Curves
The capacity curves of the three structural models studied are obtained based on
traditional IDA and simplified IDA methods. Figure 1 shows a comparison of the
average IDA capacity curves plotted using the traditional IDA method and the
simplified IDA method. As shown in Fig. 1, for Structures 1 and 2, when
PGA < 0.8 g, the hm obtained by the simplified IDA method is relatively large,
while for Structure 3, when PGA < 0.6 g, the hm obtained by the simplified IDA
method is comparatively large. Since the PGA of strong earthquakes usually does
not exceed 0.6 g, it is generally safer to use the simplified IDA method.
Based on the established capacity curve, multi-levels seismic evaluation for
structures can be carried out, as shown in Fig. 2.
5.2 Seismic Performance Evaluation
The seismic fortification intensity of the three models are all 7, corresponding to
minor, medium, and strong earthquakes, so the PGA is set to 0.036, 0.10, and
0.22 g, respectively. The three PGAs are substituted into the IDA capacity curves
obtained by the traditional and simplified methods, and the seismic performance of
each structural model is obtained according to the ranges of hm under different
seismic levels. The results are listed in Table 5.
The following can be seen from Table 5.
(1) The seismic performances of the example structures meet or excess the
requirements of the seismic fortification levels.
(2) Comparing the two methods, it is found that the evaluation results of the two
methods are basically the same except the structure 2.
(3) For the structure 2, the response obtained by the simplified IDA is higher than
the traditional IDA, which indicates that the seismic performance evaluation
results obtained by this method tend to be more conservative.
Fig. 1 Comparison of the 1

IDA capacity curves between 0.9
two IDA methods 0.8
0.7
PGA /g
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3 IDA
0.2
Simplified IDA
0.1
0
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03
Maximum interstory drift ratio /rad.
(a) Structure 1
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
PGA /g
0.5
0.4
0.3 IDA
0.2 Simplified IDA
0.1
0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05
Maximum interstory drift ratio /rad.
(b) Structure 2
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
PGA /g
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3 IDA
0.2
Simplified IDA
0.1
0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05
Maximum interstory drift radio /rad.
(c) Structure 3
152 F. Wang et al.
Fig. 2 Seismic evaluation of 0.7

multi-levels 620cm/s2
0.6
510cm/s2
0.5
400cm/s2
PGA /g
0.4
Y1 310cm/s2
0.3 Y2
Y3
0.2 Y4 0.15g
Y5
0.1 55cm/s2
Mean
0
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025
The maximum drift radio /rad.
(a) Structure 1
0.7
620cm/s2
0.6
510cm/s2
0.5
400cm/s2
PGA /g
0.4
310cm/s2
0.3
Z1
0.2 Z2
Z3 0.15g
0.1 Z4
55cm/s2
Mean
0
0.0018 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05
(b) Structure 2
0.7
620cm/s2
0.6
510cm/s2
0.5
400cm/s2
PGA /g
0.4
R1 310cm/s2
0.3
R2
0.2 R3
R4 0.15g
0.1 R5
Mean 55cm/s2
0
0.0018 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05
(c) Structure 3
Table 5. The multi-levels seismic evaluation for the example models

Seismic performance levels 1-th level 2-th level 3-th level
Minor PGA = 0.036 g IDA ★▲△
earthquake Simplified IDA ★▲△
Medium PGA = 0.10 g IDA ★▲△
earthquake Simplified IDA ★▲△
Strong PGA = 0.22 g IDA ★ ▲△
earthquake Simplified IDA ★ ▲△
Notes The symbols ★, ▲ and △ represent the structure 1, 2 and 3, respectively
6 Conclusions
(1) A simplified IDA method combining the equivalent SDOF system and push-
over analysis is proposed. To verify the accuracy of the method, the IDA result
of a multi-story structure (MDOF system model) is set as the ‘exact solution’.
Comparing the capacity curve plotted using the simplified IDA method with the
‘exact solution’, it can be seen that the capacity curve in the form of hm—PGA
obtained by the simplified method deviates from the exact solution by a certain
amount, but the deviation is within a small range and the curve can be used
once the deviation is corrected.
(2) According to the relationship between the set anti-seismic level and the max-
imum story drift ratio, a seismic performance evaluation method of structures
based on simplified IDA is proposed. According to an analysis of examples,
this method is clearly defined and easy to operate, and the analysis results are
conservative.
Acknowledgements This research described in this paper was supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51478091), the Liaoning Natural Science Foundation
(Grant No. 201602198), and the project of Dalian Minzu University.
References
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nonlinear incremental dynamic analysis. Soil Dyn Earthq Eng 44:127–137
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structures using incremental dynamic analysis. Eng Mech 34(6):109–119 (in Chinese)
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9. Zhou K, Lin J, Zhu W (2016) Case study of seismic fragility analysis based on the incremental
dynamic analysis (IDA) method. Earthq Eng Eng Dyn 36(1):135–140 (in Chinese)
A Fuzzy Logic Vibration Control
Method Based on Vibration
Serviceability Criteria
Z. P. Han and J. Chen
Abstract With the quick advancements of structural engineering, newly built

public structures like stadiums, footbridges and concerts tend to be slender and
lighter, making them prone to vibrate under external crowd activities like walking,
jumping or bouncing and arise vibration serviceability problems. Traditional
vibration control approaches, both active or passive, are mainly designed to sup-
press the vibration acceleration or velocity directly, may not able to achieve opti-
mum control effect on vibration serviceability problems. In this research, an active
controller using fuzzy logic based on vibration serviceability criteria was proposed.
Details of the control approach have been presented, followed by numerical sim-
ulations. The results demonstrate that the new control approach, compared to the
traditional tuned mass damper and direct velocity feedback active controller, shows
satisfying control effect as well as more potential of energy saving and robustness.
Keywords Vibration serviceability Human induced load Passive control

Active control Fuzzy logic
1 Introduction
In recent years, with the widely use of new materials and constructions, as well as
better structural analysis and optimization approach, newly built structures, espe-
cially long-span public structures such as sports stadiums, gymnasiums, shopping
malls, music concerts, airport terminal corridors and different types of footbridges,
tend to become slender, lighter, with lower natural frequency and damping ratio.
Coherent crowd harmonic movements like people walking, jumping or bouncing
can produce resonant or near-resonant structural vibrations that are uncomfortable
Z. P. Han J. Chen (&)

College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, 200092 Shanghai, China
e-mail: cejchen@tongji.edu.cn
Z. P. Han
e-mail: hanziping@tongji.edu.cn

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_15
156 Z. P. Han and J. Chen
and intolerable for some occupants (Ebrahimpour and Sack [4]). These kinds of
vibration serviceability problems can not only make people feel discomfort or
annoying, but can also cause crowd panic or large economic losses (Dallard et al.
[3]). For this reason, many criteria have proposed design and evaluation guides for
human induced loads and vibration serviceability, such as ISO2631, ISO 10137,
AISC design guide 11, and Hivoss (International Standard Organization [8, 9];
Murray and Allen [11]; Feldmann et al. [5]).
To suppress excessive structural vibration, many control methods have been
implemented successfully. Classified by energy consumption, there are passive
control, active control, semi active control and hybrid control (Housner et al. [7]).
The idea of passive structural control is energy absorption, so as to reduce dis-
placement in the structure (Teng et al. [13]). However, this kind of control provides
no extra assistance, and often lacks of flexibility. Taking tuned mass damper as an
example, it can only control the resonant or near resonant response effectively, and
may even cause negative effects when it’s off tuned. After Yao [16] introduced the
concept of structural active control, many control algorithms and devices have been
developed and performed well. However, requirements for sensor, actuator power
supply and regular maintenance make active control cost too much and not reliable
during huge disasters, thus not commonly used in practical structures. Facing the
shortcoming of passive and active control, semi active and hybrid control were
developed to reduce the negative effects and power consumption.
The vibration serviceability problem, which mainly judged by human subjective
feeling of perception, discomfort, annoyance or intolerability, is quite different in
different circumstance, person or body position (Griffin [6]) and usually described
by linguistic indexes, i.e. is actually a fuzzy concept. After fuzzy set theory was
firstly introduced by Zadeh [17] and successfully use of ‘IF-THEN’ rules on
automatic operating control of steam generator by Mamdani [10], fuzzy control
become a new approach for structural vibration control and is naturally suitable for
vibration serviceability problems.
In this paper, a fuzzy logic control method based on a vibration serviceability
criterion was proposed and compared to two other passive and active control
methods in MATLAB/Simulink simulation. The structure model to be controlled
was introduced in Sect. 2, control effects of tuned mass damper (TMD), direct
velocity feedback (DVF), and the proposed fuzzy logic controller (FLC) were
introduced and compared in Sect. 3 and Sect. 4, and conclusions were given in
Sect. 5.
2 Structure Model
The analysis model for simulation in this research is a 12 m 12 m composite

floor serving in a previous supermarket (Fig. 1, red squared segment), it has quite
low natural frequency and damping ratio, suitable for researches on human induced
vibration and vibration serviceability problems.
A Fuzzy Logic Vibration Control Method … 157
Fig. 1 Floor for vibration control simulation
Table 1 Dynamic properties of the floor

Mode Natural frequency [Hz] Damping ratio [%] Modal mass [103 kg]
1 5.35 1.50 30.0
2 8.17 2.04 143.2
3 9.29 1.14 273.7
4 10.54 1.21 30.6
The floor’s dynamic properties were measured by ambient vibration and impact
hammer test, results shown in following Table 1. As the natural frequency of higher
modes show little influence in practical walking, jumping and bouncing tests, the
floor was simplified as a single degree of freedom (SDOF) system in the simulation
work.
3 Vibration Control Simulation
3.1 Load Selection
Vibration serviceability problem induced by occupant activities such as walking,

jumping and running can be a dominant design issue for long span floors (Chen
et al. [2]). Generally, jumping can generate largest exciting force among all human
induced loads, a single person jumping record measured by high-precision force
plate at 2.7 Hz (nearly half time of the floor’s natural frequency) was chosen for the
simulation. The time history of jumping load (first 5 s) and floor response are
shown in Fig. 2.
3 0.5
Acceleration[m/s ]
-2
2
Force[kN]
0
1
0 -0.5
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 10 20 30 40 50
Time[s] Time[s]
Fig. 2 Jumping load (first 5 s) and floor response
Fig. 3 Control effect of 0.5

tuned mass damper 0.4 Without Control
0.3 TMD μ=2%
Acceleration[m/s ]
-2
0.2
0.1
0
-0.1
-0.2
-0.3
-0.4
-0.5
0 10 20 30 40 50
Time[s]
3.2 Passive Vibration Control
One of the most classic and commonly used passive vibration control approach is
attaching the tuned mass damper (TMD). During the past decades, dozens of
optimum TMD parameters for different circumstances have been raised (Warburton
[15], parameters based on sinusoidal excitation was chosen in this research, shown
in Eq. (1).
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
fTMD 1 3l
¼ fTMD ¼ ð1Þ
fStr 1þl 8ð1 þ l=2Þ
In which l is mass ratio between TMD moving mass and the structure to control,
fTMD and fStr are natural frequencies of the TMD and structure, fTMD is the damping
ratio of the TMD. Chose mass ratio as 2% (moving mass weight 600 kg), the
structural response under control was shown in following Fig. 3.
0.5
Without Control
0.4
-3
0.3 δ dead=1 ×10 m/s
Acceleration[m/s ]
-2 0.2 δ =1×10 -5m/s
dead
0.1 -6
0 δ dead=1 ×10 m/s
-0.1
-0.2
-0.3
-0.4
-0.5
0 10 20 30 40 50
Time[s]
Fig. 4 Control effect of DVF
3.3 Active Vibration Control
Since the concept of active vibration control was proposed in 1972, many control
methods have been proposed, such as H2 control, H∞ control, PID control, LQR/
LQG control, direct velocity/acceleration feedback control. Some of the control
methods only need the structural response, but some also require the specific
structural and controller properties. To make the comparison work clearer, an on-off
nonlinear feedback control law (NLDVF) was chosen for this research, shown in
Eq. (2) (Reynolds et al. [12]).

0 jy_ ðtÞj ddead
V0 ðtÞ ¼ ð2Þ
Vs signð_yðtÞÞ jy_ ðtÞj [ ddead
In which ddead is the dead zone level and Vs is the saturation voltage to the
actuator. In this research, an ideal actuator with maximum force of 450 N was
simulated for the control, structural response with different dead zone selection is
shown in Fig. 4.
3.4 Fuzzy Logic Control
The main advantage of the fuzzy logic controller (FLC) is its inherent robustness
and ability to handle any non-linear behaviour of the structure (Aldawod et al. [1]).
However, the membership functions of the controller are normally designed
empirically, highly rely on designer’s engineering experience. Thus, by combining
the fuzzy logic controller with vibration serviceability criteria, the FLC may
become more reasonable and meets the control target directly. In this research, the
Germany guideline VDI 2057 [14] was selected as the design guide for FLC
membership functions, shown in Table 2.
Table 2 VDI 2057 guideline requirements

Root mean square (RMS) value of frequency-weighted acceleration Description of
[m/s2] perception
<0.01 Not perceptible
0.01–0.015 Threshold of
perception
0.015–0.02 Barely perceptible
0.02–0.08 Easily perceptible
0.08–0.315 Strongly perceptible
>0.315 Extremely perceptible
Fig. 5 Input and output membership function of FLC
Fig. 6 Control effect of FLC 0.5

0.4
0.3
0.2
Acceleration[m/s ]
2
0.1
0
-0.1
-0.2
-0.3
-0.4
-0.5
0 10 20 30 40 50
Time[s]
Fig. 7 1 s running RMS 0.4

response comparison of Without Control
different control methods TMD μ=2%
1s running RMS[m/s ]
-2
0.3 DVF
FLC
0.2
0.1
0
0 10 20 30 40 50
Time[s]
One second running root mean square (RMS) value of structural acceleration
response was chosen as the controller input, shown in Fig. 5. Structural response
under the FLC is shown in Fig. 6.
4 Comparison
In order to compare the efficiency of different control methods, 1 s RMS value of

structural acceleration was calculated and shown in Fig. 7. It’s clear that although
all three methods can offer satisfying control effects, active control performs better
than the passive one. Comparing DVF and FLC methods, fuzzy logic controller can
achieve similar efficiency with lower energy consumption and no need for afore-
hand dead zone setting, which means it could be more robustness.
5 Conclusions
In this research, a fuzzy logic active control method based on VDI 2057 guideline
was proposed and simulated comparing to several other control methods on a
SDOF long span floor model. Simulation results show that after the introduce of
fuzzy logic and vibration serviceability criterion, design of active controller is more
directly towards the control target, can save more energy and provide more
robustness.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by
National Natural Science Foundation of China (51778465) and State Key Laboratory for Disaster
Reduction of Civil Engineering (SLDRCE14-B-16).
References
1. Aldawod M, Samali B, Naghdy F, Kwok KC (2001) Active control of along wind response of
tall building using a fuzzy controller. Eng Struct 23(11):1512–1522
2. Chen J, Zhang M, Liu W (2015) Vibration serviceability performance of an externally
prestressed concrete floor during daily use and under controlled human activities. J. Perform
Constructed Facil 30(2):04015007
3. Dallard P, Fitzpatrick T, Flint A, Low A, Smith RR, Willford M, Roche M (2001) London
millennium bridge: pedestrian-induced lateral vibration. J Bridge Eng 6(6):412–417
4. Ebrahimpour A, Sack RL (2005) A review of vibration serviceability criteria for floor
structures. Comput Struct 83(28–30):2488–2494
5. Feldmann M, Heinemeyer C, Lukic M (2010) Human-induced vibration of steel structures
(Hivoss). Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg
6. Griffin MJ (2012) Handbook of human vibration. Academic press, London
7. Housner GW, Bergman LA, Caughey TK, Chassiakos AG, Claus RO, Masri SF, Yao JT
(1997) Structural control: past, present, and future. J Eng Mech 123(9):897–971
8. International Standard Organization (1989) Evaluation of human exposure to whole body
vibration—Part 2: human exposure to continuous and shock-induced vibrations in buildings
(1 to 80 Hz). ISO 2631-2
9. International Standard Organization (2005) Bases for design of structures Serviceability of
buildings and pedestrian walkways against vibration, ISO/CD 10137. International
Standardization Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
10. Mamdani EH (1974) Application of fuzzy algorithms for control of simple dynamic plant. In:
Proceedings of the institution of electrical engineers, vol. 121, no. 12, pp. 1585-1588. IET
11. Murray TM, Allen DE (1997) Ungar EE. Floor vibrations due to human activity. Steel design
guide 11. American Institute of Steel Construction
12. Reynolds P, Díaz IM, Nyawako DS (2009) Vibration testing and active control of an office
floor. In: Proceedings of the 27th international modal analysis conference, Orlando, Florida,
USA
13. Teng TL, Peng CP, Chuang C (2000) A study on the application of fuzzy theory to structural
active control. Comput Methods Appl Mech Eng 189(2):439–448
14. Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (2002) VDI 2057 Human exposure to mechanical vibrations.
Whole-body vibration. Berling
15. Warburton GB (1982) Optimum absorber parameters for various combinations of response
and excitation parameters. Earthq Eng Struct Dyn 10(3):381–401
16. Yao JT (1972) Concept of structural control. J Struct Div 98(st 7):1567–1574
17. Zadeh LA (1965) Fuzzy sets. Inf Control 8(3):338–353
Damage Detection for Rotating Flexible
Beam Based on Time Domain Sensitivity
Analysis
Dahao Yang, Zhong-Rong Lu, and Li Wang
Abstract The rotating beam structure has been used widely in many fields of
engineering. It is important to conduct damage detection in such structure in order
to maintain its safety and durability. In this paper, damage detection study is
investigated on a rotating flexible beam driven by the rigid hub. In doing so, the
equation of motion for in-plane vibration including axial and chordwise deforma-
tion is established at first. Then damage detection as an inverse problem is for-
mulated as a nonlinear least-squares optimization problem which is solved from the
time domain sensitivity analysis. Trust region constraint and the Tikhonov regu-
larization are called to enhance the convergence. A Numerical example is studied to
illustrate the feasibility and efficiency of the present approach.

Keywords Rotating flexible beam Time domain analysis Response sensitivity

Trust region Tikhonov regularization
1 Introduction
Rotating structural components, such as wind turbine blade and helicopter blade,
etc., are widely used in many engineering fields. To ensure the safety of the whole
structure, it is necessary to detect the damage in the serving life time. In many
literatures, such a rotating structure was modelled as rotating flexible beam, for
instance, Roy studied the damage detection of helicopter blade [12]. Two main
mathematical models are most used for rotating beam [5]. One model is established
under the Cartesian variables such as axial, chordwise (or lagwise) and flapwise
deformations [6, 13, 14]. While another is established under the non-Cartesian
deformation variables, i.e., the stretch (the extensional deformation along the curve
of a deformed beam), chordwise and flapwise deformations [1, 5, 15].
D. Yang Z.-R. Lu L. Wang (&)

Department of Applied Mechanics and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University,
Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China
e-mail: wangli75@mail.sysu.edu.cn

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_16
164 D. Yang et al.
In each model, it can be divided into the linear model and nonlinear model for
taking account about the coriolis and centrifugal forces, nonlinear von Karman
strain, linearized stress or nonlinear stress. The equation can be established by the
kinetic, potential energies and virtual work done by external torque and force
through generalized Hamilton principle. After that it can be discretized by finite
element method, Galerkin method, Rayleigh-Ritz method, and so on. As the model
under the Cartesian variables are simple and used widely, it is chosen for vibration
analysis in this paper with considering the centrifugal stiffening effect. It is inter-
esting that the axial (stretch) and chordwise vibration are coupled in the in-plane
deformations, while the flapwise motion is only the out-of-plane deformation. As
the in-plane vibration is more attracting and common, it is discussed in this paper.
Regarding damage identification for rotating beams, the frequency-based,
model-based approaches are applied widely. Roy and Ganguli modelled the rotating
blade as rotating beam, and the damage is modelled as the reduction of the elasticity
modulus [12]. By applying indicator that the difference between the frequency of
the damaged and undamaged blade, the damage of rotating beam is identified.
Hoshyarmanesh and Abbasi found that the frequency shift of the impedance sig-
nature at antiresonance peaks appears compared to the corresponding baseline,
which can help to damage detection [3]. Similarly, the variation of a single natural
frequency was also developed to detect the crack location based on the assumed
mode method and Lagrange’s equations by Masoud and Al-Said [9]. Another
model parameter that operational mode were used to detect the damage of the blade
by Kidd and Pines with an eigenstructure assignment technique [4]. Using mea-
sured modal parameters, the experiments were conducted by Mironov et al. to
detect damage of rotating blades on helicopters [10].
As reviewed above, frequency domain methods have been widely applied to
damage identification in rotating structures. Time domain damage identification
method is rarely found in the literature. In this paper, an enhanced response sen-
sitivity method is extended to detect the damage in such rotating beam structures.
The measured acceleration responses of the beam are used in the identification. The
advantages of the method lie in, (1) only a few points of measurement are needed,
(2) it is insensitive to measurement noise, (3) it has well convergence with
Tikhonov regularization and trust-region constraint. The rest of the paper is orga-
nized as follows. The dynamic equation of rotating beam is established in Sect. 2.
In Sect. 3, the enhanced response sensitivity method with trust-region constraint is
introduced. Numerical example is carried out to elaborate the efficiency of such
method in Sect. 4 and final conclusions are drawn in Sect. 5.
2 Equation of Motion for a Rotating Flexible Beam
As shown in Fig. 1, a flexible cantilever beam fixed to a rigid hub with radius a and
inertia Ih is studied. It is modelled as uniform Euler-Bernoulli beam with mass
density q, Young’s modulus E, length L, moment inertia I, cross-sectional area A.
Damage Detection for Rotating Flexible Beam … 165
Fig. 1 Configuration of a
rotating flexible cantilever
beam in-plane deformation
The reference frame XOY and the inertial frame X 0 O0 Y 0 have the flowing
relationship

eX cosa sina eX 0
¼ ð1Þ
eY sina cosa eY 0
The derivative of Eq. 1 with respective to time t can be deduced as follows

e_ X 0 a_ eX
¼ ð2Þ
e_ Y a_ 0 eY
The displacement of P0 can be written as
r ¼ ða þ x þ uÞeX þ veY ð3Þ
where u and v are axial and chordwise deformation respectively. Form discussion
above, the velocity of P0 is:
r_ ¼ ðu_ va_ ÞeX þ ½ða þ x þ uÞa_ þ v_ eY ð4Þ
In this paper the rigid body motion is driven by a torque produced by rigid hub,
e.g., the rotating speed is not known as a priori. Hence the kinetic energy of the
system is written as follows
L
T ¼ 12 qA R r_ T r_ dx þ 12 Ih a_ 2 ð5Þ
0
Through the Euler-Bernoulli theory the potential energy can be written as
L 0
1 LR 002 LR
U ¼ 12 R EAu 2 dx þ 2 EIv dx þ Pðx; tÞðds dxÞ ð6Þ
0 0 0
166 D. Yang et al.
The last term of potential energy equation is the energy of the axial force arising
from centrifugal effects [14],
L
Pðx; tÞ ¼ R qAa_ 2 ða þ nÞdn ¼ 12 qAa_ 2 ðL2 x2 Þ þ qAa_ 2 aðL xÞ ð7Þ
x
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ds dx ¼ ðdxÞ2 þ ðv0 dxÞ2 dx 12 dxðv0 Þ2 ð8Þ
In this system, work done by the external rotational torque MðtÞ is
dW ¼ M ðtÞda ð9Þ
Appling the generalized Hamilton principle, one has
t2
ðdT dU þ dWÞdt ¼ 0
R
ð10Þ
t1
In this paper, the axial deformation is neglected. The dynamic equation of

flexible beam and its’ boundary conditions are expressed as follows [13],

qA½€v a_ 2 v þ €aða þ xÞ þ EIv0000 qAa_ 2 aðL xÞ þ 12 ðL2 x2 Þ v00 ða þ xÞv0 ¼ 0
ð11Þ
( )
ZL 1 2
02
Ih €a þ qA fv þ ða þ xÞ aðL xÞ þ L x v gdx €
2 2 2
a
0
2
( )
ZL 1 2
0 0 ZL
þ qA 2v_v 2 aðL xÞ þ L x v v_ dx a_ þ qA ½ða þ xÞ€vdx ¼ M ðtÞ
2
0
2 0
ð12Þ
uð0Þ ¼ 0; vð0Þ ¼ 0; v0 ð0Þ ¼ 0 ð13Þ
u0 ðLÞ ¼ 0; v00 ðLÞ ¼ 0; v000 ðLÞ ¼ 0 ð14Þ
After finite element discretization, the equation of motion of the beam is

obtained [13, 14].

Mv f€vg þ Kv fvg þ a_ 2 ð½Kv1 þ Kv2 fvg ¼ f€

a½CTv g ð15Þ

½Ih þ Ib þ fvgT Kv1 Kı2 fvg€a þ 2½f_vgT Kv1 Kv2 fvga_ þ ½Cv f€vg ¼ M
ð16Þ
where the elemental matrix
Zl Zl
½mv ¼ qA½N Tv ½N v dx; ½k v1 ¼ qA½N Tv ½N v dx ð17Þ
0 0
l h 0 h 0
½kv2 ¼ R qA aðL Li xÞ þ 12 ðL þ Li þ xÞðL Li xÞ NvT Nv dx ð18Þ
0
l l
½cv ¼ R qAða þ Li þ xÞ½Nv dx; Ib ¼ qA R ða þ Li þ xÞ2 dx ð19Þ
0 0
½kv ¼ R EI½N00T 00
l
v ½Nv dx ð20Þ
0
where the shape function and element displacement vector v are

h 2
i
2x3 2
x3 3x2 3 2
x3
½Nv ¼ 1 3xl2 þ l3 x 2xl þ l2 l2 2xl3 xl2 þ l2 ð21Þ
fvgT ¼ ½ v1 h1 v2 h2 ð22Þ
It is clear that the dynamic equation is coupled. Because driven by rigid hub, it is
easier to obtain the dynamic vibration of rotating flexible beam for damage
detection without any desired rotating speed profile.
3 Damage Detection by Sensitivity Analysis

and Truest-Region
3.1 Response Sensitivity Analysis in Time-Domain
The structure with damage can be simulated as the reduction of local stiffness, e.g. a
reduction in Young’s modulus E of an element [12]. If there is a damage in the ith
element, only the elemental stiffness matrix ½kiv will change
P
Ne
½kivd ¼ bi ½k iv ; ½Kvd ¼ ½kivd ð23Þ
i¼1
where bi 2 ½0; 1 is the damage coefficient. When bi ¼ 1; it means that there is no

damage at element i. Ne is the total number of elements.
168 D. Yang et al.
The response sensitivity with respect to the parameter bi can be deduced by the
derivation of bi on both sides of Eq. (15), (16). It is expressed in the following.
@ f€vg @€a
@ a_
½ M v þ ½CTv þ 2ð½Kv1 þ Kv2 fvg
@bi @bi @bi
ð24Þ
@ fv g
@ fv g
þ ½Kv þ a_ 2 ð½Kv1 þ Kv2 ¼ ½k iv fvg
@bi @bi
@ f€vg
@€ a
@ a_
½C v þ ½Ih þ Ib þ fvgT ð Kv1 Kı2 fvg þ 2f_vgT Kv1 Kv2 fvg
@bi @bi @bi
T
@ fv_ g
@ fv g
@ fv g
þ 2a_ fvg Kv1 Kv2 _ vg ð½Kv1 Kv2
þ 2af_ T
þ 2€ T
afvg ð½Kv1 Kı2 ¼0
@bi @bi @bi
ð25Þ
The coupling Eqs. (15), (16) and the sensitivity Eqs. (24), (25) can be reshaped
by vector x ¼ ½a; vT and then solved by Runge-Kutta method.

Set the measured responses as R ¼ d ðt1 Þ; d ðt2 Þ; . . .; d ðtn Þ and the calculated
response of the structure from equations of motion (15), (16) as
Rðb Þ ¼ ½d ðb; t1 Þ; d ðb; t2 Þ; . . .d ðb; tn Þ. Hence, the damage detection can be formu-
lated as a general way that to find parameter bi 2 ½01 so that the objective function
Eq. (26) is minimized.

gðbÞ ¼ fR RgT ½W R R ð26Þ
where ½W is the positive weight matrix, usually an optimal choice of ½W shall

be inverse proportional to the covariance of the measurement noise [8]. The
problem (26) is typically a nonlinear and non-quadratic optimization problem. By
applying linearization method, an approximate linear least-square equation is
obtained
2
gðdb; bÞ ¼ dRðbÞ SðbÞdb ð27Þ
where kk denotes the usual L2 norm of vectors and SðbÞ is sensitivity matrix
obtained from Eqs. (24) and (25)
0 1
@xðb;t1 Þ @xðb;t1 Þ @xðb;t1 Þ

B @x@b 1 @b2 @bm
C
B ðb;t2 Þ @xðb;t2 Þ
@xðb;t2 Þ C
B @b1 @b2 @bm C
SðbÞ ¼ rp RðbÞ := B .. .. .. .. C ð28Þ
B C
@ . . . . A
@xðb;tL Þ @xðb;tL Þ @xðb;tL Þ
@b1 @b2 @bm
3.2 Enhanced Response Sensitivity Approach
The problem (27) may be ill-posed and therefore Tikhonov regularization is chosen
to get the update.

dbk ¼ arg min k dRðbÞ SðbÞdb k2 þ k k db k2
dp
1 ð29Þ
¼ S ðbÞSðbÞ þ kI
T
ST ðbÞdRðbÞ
where I denotes the identity matrix and k is the regularization parameter. To

determine the regularization parameter, the L-curve method [2] is applied. Since the
approximate linear method is applied to obtain problem (27), to make sure the
approximate linear form agree well with the original nonlinear form, the update
norm k db k should be reasonably small. In order to measure how well the
approximate objective function gðdb; bÞ agree with the original objective function
gðb þ dbÞ, an agreement indicator is applied as follows [11]
gðbÞ gðdb þ bÞ
qðdb; bÞ ¼
gð0; bÞ gðdb; bÞ
ð30Þ
k dRðbÞ k2 k dRðb þ dbÞ k2
¼ qcr 2 ½0:25; 0:75
k dRðbÞ k2 k dRðbÞ SðbÞdb k2
In conjunction with the sensitivity analysis, the enhanced response sensitivity

approach is established which the convergence proof has already been presented in
reference [7]. In this paper, the enhanced response sensitivity approach is used and
details on the algorithm are given in Table 1.
170 D. Yang et al.
Table 1 Enhanced response sensitivity approach

– set initial parameters bð1Þ 2 ½0; 1;
– define error tolerance tol (e.g., = 10e−6) for convergence criterion;
– fix the maximum number of iterations Nmax (e.g., =200);
– fix trust-region parameters qcr 2 ½0:25; 0:75 (e.g., =0.5) and c [ 1 (e.g., =2);
– set the maximum number of steps for trust-region procedure Ntr (e.g., =20);
– load the measured response data R;
– for k ¼ 1 : Nmax
– solve Eq. (15), (16) and (24), (25) to get
response
and response sensitivity;
– compute response residual dR ¼ R R bðkÞ ;

– use L-curve method to get the initial regularization parameter kL bðkÞ ;
– for i ¼ 1 :Ntr$%Trust-region procedure;
– k ¼ ci1 kL bðkÞ ;

– compute the update db ¼ ½ST bðkÞ S bðkÞ þ kI1 ST bðkÞ dR;
– if bðkÞ þ db 62 ½0; 1, continue;
– solve (15), (16) to get response R bðkÞ þ db ;

– compute new response residual Rnew ¼ R R bðkÞ þ db ;
kdRðbÞk kdRðb þ dbÞk
2 2
– calculate the agreement indicator qðdb; bÞ ¼ kdR ðbÞk2 kdRðbÞSðbÞdbk2 ;
– if qðdb; bÞ qcr ; break;
– end for;
– update stiffness parameters bðk þ 1Þ ¼ bðkÞ þ db;
– if k db k = k bðk þ 1Þ tol, break.
– end for
4 Numerical Simulation
The rotating flexible beam studied by Yang et al. [13] is examined. It was dis-
cretized into 11 elements with mass density q ¼ 2700 kg=m3 , Young’s modulus
E ¼ 71 109 N=m2 , length L ¼ 1:10 m, moment inertia I ¼ 8:33 1012 m4 ,
cross-sectional area A ¼ 104 m2 . The rigid hub with radius a ¼ 0:1 m and inertia
Ih ¼ 3:84 kg=m2 : The fundamental natural frequency of non-rotating beam is
0.6742 Hz.
4.1 Forced Vibration Analysis for Damaged Rotating Beam
The dynamic response of the rotating beam is discussed. The external torque is
assumed to be MðtÞ ¼ 10 Nm, and the rotating speed profiles is obtained from
Eqs. (15), (16) as shown in Fig. 2. When the torque is fixed, the rotating speed is
Fig. 2 Rotating speed with

MðtÞ ¼ 10 Nm
increasing linearly approximately. The tip velocity of the beam is shown in Fig. 3
which agree well with the result from Kim and Chung [5]. It is noteworthy that the
tip vibration is found attempting to be stable even that the rotating speed is still
increasing.
4.2 Damage Detection with Enhanced Response Sensitivity

Approach
The acceleration responses at the 4th, 7th and 12th node is used in the identification.
The sampling rate is 1000 Hz with a duration of 2 s. The external torque is MðtÞ ¼
10 sinð10ptÞNm: Measurement data is obtained through numerical simulation along
with addition of the measurement noise, that is,

d k tj ¼ dk tj þ e std ð½dk ðt1 Þ; dk ðt2 Þ; . . .; dk ðtN ÞÞ randn ð31Þ

where d k is the measured acceleration, dk tj ; j ¼ 1; 2; . . .; N is the corresponding

simulated data, std means the standard deviation of a vector, randn denotes a
random number with the standard normal distribution. The noise level e is assumed
to be 5% here. Several damage scenarios are chosen as shown in Table 2.
172 D. Yang et al.
Fig. 3 Tip vibration with

MðtÞ ¼ 10 Nm
Table 2 Damage scenarios Scenarios Element bi Element bj Element bk

for the rotating flexible beam i j k
1 2 0.80 – – – –
2 2 0.90 3 0.90 – –
3 2 0.85 9 0.85 – –
4 2 0.80 5 0.85 10 0.95
The rotating beam usually first occurs damage at the root. Hence the first damage
is assumed to be near the root of the beam as Fig. 4a) shows. When there is large
damage in element 2, the large error appears in the last element with 2.5%. When
there two damage located at the root, the large error located at element 4 with
0.97%. Even the two damage locates far away, the large error occurred in the
element 2 with 0.98%. In multiply damage conditions, even the root and the tip of
the rotating beam have damages, the identification is acceptable within 1% error. In
all scenarios, the number of iterations is less than 60. In conclusion, all the damages
can be identified efficiently and accurately from the propose approach and it is not
sensitive to the artificial measurement noise.
a）Scenario 1 b) Scenario 2
c) Scenario 3 d) Scenario 4
Fig. 4 Damage identification results of a rotating beam
5 Conclusions
This paper has analysed the dynamic response of rotating flexible beam that driven
by a rigid hub. It is found that under the constant torque, the chordwise vibration
will attempt to be stable. The dynamic acceleration responses of the rotating beam
are used to detect the damages in the beam. Single damage and multiple damages in
the rotating beam can be identified successfully from proposed method. It is found
that the present method is not sensitive to measurement noise. Even under 5%
measurement noise, good identification results can be obtained.
Acknowledgements The present investigation was performed under the support of National
Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 11702336), Guangdong Province Natural Science
Foundation (No. 2017A03031300716 and No. 2018B030311001) and the Fundamental Research
Funds of the Central Universities (No. 17lgpy54).
174 D. Yang et al.
References
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Rev 34:561–580
3. Hoshyarmanesh H, Abbasi A (2018) Structural health monitoring of rotary aerospace
structures based on electromechanical impedance of integrated piezoelectric transducers.
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structures. AIAA J 36:1680–1685
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beam. Nonlinear Dyn 86:1981–2002
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of rotating beams. J Sound Vib 332:5917–5928
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identification: convergence and performance: enhanced response sensitivity approach. Int J
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sensitivity-based damage identification with measurement and model errors. Mech Syst Signal
Process 114:1–24
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Timoshenko beam. J Vib Control 15:1541–1561
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on helicopters. Aviation 20:110–122
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Watson GA (ed) Numerical Analysis. Lecture Notes in Mathematics. Springer, Berlin
Heidelberg, pp 105–116
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signal processing. J Sound Vib 283:821–851
13. Yang JB, Jiang LJ, Chen DCh (2004) Dynamic modelling and control of a rotating
Euler-Bernoulli beam. J Sound Vib 274:863–875
14. Yigit A, Scott RA, Galip Ulsoy A (1988) Flexural motion of a radially rotating beam attached
to a rigid body. J Sound Vib 121:201–210
15. Yoo HH, Shin SH (1998) Vibration analysis of rotating cantilever beams. J Sound Vib
212:807–828
Output-Only Modal Analysis
of a Footbridge Based
on Compact-Bandwidth Regularization
Li Wang, Zhiyi Yin, and Zhong-Rong Lu
Abstract Estimation of the modal parameters from ambient vibration plays a

fundamental role in structural health monitoring. To this end, a new
compact-bandwidth regularization approach is developed in this paper for
output-only modal analysis. The approach manipulates only on the measured signal
and does not involve the structural model. The key ingredient lies in the
compact-bandwidth constraint, that is, an arbitrary structural mode shall be compact
around the modal frequency in the frequency domain. Then, the alternating mini-
mization algorithm is adopted to deal with the compact-bandwidth constrained
modal separation problem. Practical application to modal analysis of a real foot-
bridge is conducted to see the performance and effectiveness of the proposed
approach.

Keywords Output-only modal analysis Compact bandwidth regularization

Alternating minimization algorithm Real footbridge
1 Introduction
Estimating the modal parameters, termed modal analysis, is central to health

monitoring and preventive maintenance of engineering structures. Specifically,
modal analysis is devoted to identifying the natural frequencies, the mode shapes
and/or the damping ratios from the measured vibration data. In particular, for a
practical footbridge, it always works under un-known ambient excitations, e.g., the
L. Wang Z. Yin Z.-R. Lu (&)

Department of Applied Mechanics and Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou,
People’s Republic of China
e-mail: lvzhr@mail.sysu.edu.cn
L. Wang
e-mail: wangli75@mail.sysu.edu.cn
Z. Yin
e-mail: yinzhy@mail2.sysu.edu.cn

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_17
176 L. Wang et al.
traffic loads induced base motion, the pedestrian loads and the wind loads. In this
way, modal analysis should be proceeded upon the output, but without the
knowledge of the input; this calls for output-only modal analysis [8, 12] or oper-
ational modal analysis [11].
Due to the wide applicability in engineering, output-only modal analysis has
received tremendous interests from industry and academic communities. Over the
years, a number of approaches have been proposed for output-only modal analysis.
A widely-recognized one is the stochastic subspace identification approach
(SSI) [8]. The SSI relies on first establishment of a state evolution model from the
dynamic equation and then estimating the state model from the output via the
singular value decomposition (SVD) of the Hankel matrix. Once the model is
estimated, the modal parameters are directly computable. Note that the system
model is involved in the SSI and therefore, the SSI belongs to the model-based
modal analysis approaches [14]. Other model-based approaches include Ibrahim
time-domain method [5], eigen-system realization algorithm [6], poly-reference
least-squares complex frequency domain method [9], ARMA model-based methods
[13], expectation maximization algorithm [3] to cite a few. A common feature of the
model-based approaches is the dependence on the model order and more often,
spurious modes may be obtained. To properly exclude the spurious modes, the
stabilization diagram [13] as the model order vs. the frequency shall be plotted. In
addition, there are also approaches that identify the modes as the peak of some
spectrum plot; these are known as the peak-based approaches [14]. One of the
well-known approaches is the frequency domain decomposition method (FDD) [2].
The key idea behind the FDD is that the singular values of the power spectral
density matrix would reach local maximums at the natural frequencies. The FDD is
simple and it is able to detect closely spaced modes: more than one singular values
will reach a local maximum around the close frequencies [10]. However, the
selection of the peaks may be subjective if the peaks are not very clear.
In this paper, a new compact-bandwidth approach is developed for output-only
modal analysis. It directly manipulates on the modal separation equation along with
the compact-bandwidth constraint where an arbitrary structural mode should be
compact in the frequency domain. In this way, the following features are invoked:
• It does not require the system model, being free from the possible spurious
modes;
• There is also no need to seek exactly the peaks of some spectrum plot and as a
consequence, it is not subjective;
• It can identify more modes than the measurements.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. In Sect. 2, the theoretic
background for output-only modal analysis is briefly recalled. In particular, the
compact-bandwidth constraint for the modal coordinates is additionally introduced,
along with which modal separation is formulated. In Sect. 3, how to solve the
modal separation problem with the alternating minimization algorithm is
Output-Only Modal Analysis of a Footbridge … 177
elaborated. The proposed approach is applied to mode analysis of a real footbridge

in Sect. 4 and final conclusions are drawn in Sect. 5.
2 Theoretic Background
Let yðtÞ 2 Rm be the measured acceleration data from the acceleration transducers
on a real structure. By the modal expansion theorem, there is
Xn
yðtÞ ¼ /qðtÞ þ wðtÞ ¼ i¼1
u i qi ð t Þ þ w ð t Þ ð1Þ
where / ¼ ½u1 ; u2 ; . . .; un are the n active mode shapes, qðtÞ ¼

½q1 ðtÞ; q2 ðtÞ; . . .; qn ðtÞ are corresponding modal coordinates and wðtÞ denotes the
measurement noise. To do output-only modal analysis, the mode shapes / and the
modal coordinates qðtÞ should be separated from the output yðtÞ, without the
information on the input. However, Eq. (1) is highly under-determinate and to well
separate the modes, addition constraints should be invoked. A common constraint
shall be that the mode shapes are normalized in the L2-norm sense, i.e.,

tr /T / ¼ I ð2Þ
where tr() denotes the trace of a matrix and I is the identity matrix. Such a nor-
malization constraint (2) is still not enough for modal separation and in this paper, a
novel compact-bandwidth constraint is additionally introduced.
To proceed further, let b
q ðxÞ with a hat symbol at the top designate the frequency
domain data after Fourier transformation of the time domain data qðtÞ. In this way,
the mode expansion (1) is alternatively expressed as,
Xn
by ðxÞ ¼ /b b ðxÞ ¼
q ðx Þ þ w ui b b ðxÞ:
q i ðx Þ þ w ð3Þ
i¼1
Note that an arbitrary modal coordinate qi ðtÞ or b

q i ðxÞ is compact around the
natural frequency xi in the frequency domain and to measure how compact a modal
coordinate is around xi in the frequency domain, a compact-bandwidth indicator
[14] is defined,
Z þ1
CBð^qi ðxÞ; xi Þ ¼ 4ðx xi Þ2 j^
qi ðxÞj2 dx: ð4Þ
0
The more compact ^qi ðxÞ is around xi , the less CB(^qi ðxÞ; xi Þ is. As for the
n modes qðtÞ or b q ðxÞ, the compact-bandwidth is the simple addition of that of
every mode, i.e.,
178 L. Wang et al.
Xn Z þ1
q ðxÞ; fxi gni¼1 Þ
CBðb ¼ i¼1
4ðx xi Þ2 jb
q i ðxÞj2 dx:: ð5Þ
0
Consequently, the compact-bandwidth constraint for the modal coordinates is

described as to minimize the compact-bandwidth CB(bq ðxÞ; fxi gni¼1 Þ in Eq. (5).
Above all, mode separation is formulated as a multi-objective optimization
problem,
þZ1
minimize kby ðxÞ /b
q ðxÞk22 ¼ 2 ðby ðxÞ /b
q ðxÞÞH ðby ðxÞ /b
q ðxÞÞdx;
0
Xn þZ1
ð6Þ
and CB b
q ðxÞ; fxi gni¼1 ¼ i¼1
4ðx xi Þ2 jb
q i ðxÞj2 dx;
0

subject to diag /T / I ¼ 0
where the superscript H denotes conjugate transpose. Actually, the multi-objective

problem has been shown able to be equivalently tackled by the weighted sum [7] of
the multiple objective functions. Along this line, mode separation (6) is alterna-
tively formulated as

minimize gl fxi ; ui gni¼1 ; b
q ðxÞ ¼ kby ðxÞ /b
q ðxÞk2 þ l CB b
2
q ðxÞ; fxi gni¼1 ¼
þZ1 Xn þZ1
2 q ðxÞÞH ðby ðxÞ /b
ðby ðxÞ /b q ðxÞÞdx þ l i¼1
4ðx xi Þ2 jb
q i ðxÞj2 dx;
0 0

subject to diag /T / I ¼ 0
ð7Þ
where l 0 is the weight (or penalty/regularization) parameter. By mode separation

formulation (7), the compact-bandwidth constraint is enforced as a penalty/
regularization term and therefore, the proposed approach is named the compact-
bandwidth regularization approach (CBR). In the next section, the alternating
minimization algorithm is called to get the solution of the mode separation
problem (7).
3 Alternating Minimization Algorithm

for Compact-Bandwidth Regularized Mode Separation
3.1 Alternating Minimization Algorithm

Recall that the objective function gl fxi ; ui gni¼1 ; b
q ðxÞ has two sets of separated
variables: the modal parameters fxi ; ui gni¼1 and the modal coordinates b q ðxÞ. On
considering this, the alternating minimization algorithm (AMA) [1] has been found
as a well-recognized algorithm to get the minima of such an objective function.

The AMA finds the solution in each iteration by sequentially/alternating mini-
mization of the objective function over the separated variables. Generally, the
procedure of the AMA for the mode separation problem (7) with the prescribed
regularization parameter l is briefly described as:
• AMA for compact-bandwidth regularized mode separation:
ð0Þ ð0Þ
Given the initial guess of the modal parameters fxi ; ui gni¼1 and then, suc-
cessively solve the sub-problems for k ¼ 1; 2; . . . as follows
• Step 1: recover the modal coordinates from the output data by ðxÞ and the pre-
ðk1Þ ðk1Þ n
scribed modal parameters fxi ; ui gi¼1 ,

ðk1Þ ðk1Þ n
q ðkÞ ðxÞ ¼ arg minbq ðxÞ gl fxi
b ; ui gi¼1 ; b
q ðxÞ ; ð8Þ
• Step 2: update the modal parameters upon the recovered modal coordinates
q ðkÞ ðxÞ,
b

fxi ; ui gni¼1 ¼ arg minfxi ;u gn g fx ; u g n
; b
q ð xÞ ; ð9Þ
i¼1 :diagð/ /I Þ¼0
T l i i i¼1
i
Until the convergence criterion is reached.

Next, how to solve the two sub-problems (8) and (9) is specified.
For stepn 1 modal coordinates recovery (8), simply regrouping the terms in
gl fxi ; ui gi¼1 ; b
q ðxÞ with respect to b
q ðxÞ yields
q ðkÞ ðxÞ ¼ ½ð/ðk1Þ ÞT /ðk1Þ þ lW ðk1Þ ðxÞ1 ð/ðk1Þ ÞT by ðxÞ;

b
ð10Þ
ðk1Þ ðk1Þ
W ðk1Þ ðxÞ ¼ diag 2ðx x1 Þ2 ; 2ðx x2 Þ2 ; . . .; 2ðx xðnk1Þ Þ2
While for step 2 modal parameters update, minimization over the frequency xi
gives rise to
2
þ1 ðkÞ
R
xb
0 q i ðxÞ dx
ðk Þ
xi ¼ 2 ; i ¼ 1; 2; . . .; n: ð11Þ
R þ 1 ðk Þ
0 b
q i ð x Þ dx
On the other hand, minimization over the mode shapes / should resort to the
following quadratic optimization problem,
180 L. Wang et al.
Z þ1 H
mintrð/T /Þ¼I by ðxÞ /b q ðkÞ ðxÞ q ðkÞ ðxÞ dx
by ðxÞ /b
0

¼ tr /AðkÞ /T 2BðkÞ /T þ c;
Z þ 1 H ð12Þ
AðkÞ ¼ real q ðkÞ ðxÞ b
b q ðkÞ ðxÞ dx
0
Z þ 1 H
BðkÞ ¼ real by ðxÞ b q ðkÞ ðxÞ dx
0
with c a constant and this leads to

1
/ðkÞ ¼ BðkÞ AðkÞ þ diagðDðkÞ Þ ð13Þ
T
where DðkÞ is a vector to render diag /ðkÞ /ðkÞ ¼ I satisfied.
Up till now, the alternating minimization algorithm for mode separation has been
clarified. Nevertheless, a proper guess of the initial modal parameters
ð0Þ ð0Þ
fxi ; ui gni¼1 and a proper regularization parameter l remain to be selected; this is
to be done in the next subsection.
3.2 Selection of Initial Modal Parameters

and Regularization Parameter
Assume that all modal coordinates have separated frequencies and further consid-
ering the fact that b
q i ðxÞ is compact around xi , it is obtainable that
X
n
q i ðxi Þj b
jb q j ðxi Þ; j 6¼ i ) by ðxi Þ ¼ uj b b ðxi Þ ui b
q j ðx i Þ þ w q i ðxi Þ: ð14Þ
j¼1
Equation (14) indicates that by ðxi Þ=kby ðxi Þk2 is to some extent a good approx-
imation of ui . Motivated by this, a spectrum-peak-based rule could be invoked for
ð0Þ ð0Þ
selection of initial modal parameters fxi ; ui gni¼1 , that is,
ð0Þ ð0Þ
• Spectrum-peak-based selection of fxi ; ui gni¼1 :
– Plot the by ðxÞ2 vs x curve over the interested frequency domain [xmin ; xmax ];
ð0Þ
– Roughly estimate the initial frequencies fxi gni¼1 at the peak of the curve;
n on
ð0Þ ð0Þ ð0Þ
– The initial mode shapes are estimated as ui ¼ by xi = by xi .
2 i¼1
As for estimation of the regularization parameter l, the L-curve method [4] is

adopted:
• L-curve method for selecting regularization parameter l:
– Define a proper set of candidate regularization parameters;
– For an arbitrary candidate regularization parameter l, do mode separation by
the AMA and calculate the residual qðlÞ ¼ kby ðxÞ /b
2
q ðxÞk2 and the

compact-bandwidth rðlÞ ¼ CB b q ðxÞ; fxi gni¼1 ;
– plot the curve (qðlÞ; rðlÞ) and find the proper l at the L-corner of the curve.
4 Application to a Real Footbridge
Herein, a real footbridge—the Zhongda footbridge is under test (see Fig. 1) for
modal analysis. The footbridge is of three spans and the test is conducted under
ambient excitations, including the base motion induced by the tranffic loads and the
pedestrian loads on the deck. Ten wireless acceleration transducers are used to get
the vertical accelerations at the middle line of the deck by referring to Fig. 1(c) and
the accelerations are sampled at the frequency of 128 Hz with the duration of
15 min. For instance, the measured accelerations from the four transducers 1, 4, 7,
10 are depicted in Fig. 2. Both the SSI [8] and the proposed CBR are used to get the
modal parameters of the footbridge.
As for the SSI, the stabilization diagram is exhibited in Fig. 3 from which five
modes are identified. While for the proposed CBR, the L-curve is plotted in Fig. 4
Fig. 1 Ambient vibration test on Zhongda footbridge

182 L. Wang et al.
Fig. 2 Measured accelerations from different transducers
and the proper regularization parameter is found to be 4p2 l ¼ 8. The detailed

results by the two approaches on the frequencies and the MAC values are given in
Table 1 where the MAC value is calculated between the mode shapes by the SSI
and those by the CBR. In terms of the identified frequencies, the results by the two
approaches are quite close to each other, to some extent verifying the correctness of
the results. While turning to the mode shapes, except for the 4th mode shape, other
four mode shapes by the SSI are found approaching to those by the CBR on the
basis of the fact that the MAC values are greater than 0.978. To see more, the
specific mode shapes are displayed in Fig. 5 for the SSI and Fig. 6 for the CBR.
The first bending mode is obviously observed in the first three identified modes and
this reason may be that the first three modes are mixture of the first-order bending
and torsion etc. and the acceleration data at the middle line of the deck can only
pose the bending modes. While the 4th and 5th identified modes correspond to the
2nd and 3rd bending modes. Looking at the mode shapes, the identified mode
shapes by the SSI would admit some undesirable non-smoothing turning points,
e.g., for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th mode shapes. In contrast, the mode shapes by the CBR
is quite smoothing, fitting better with the practice.
Fig. 3 Stabilization diagram for the SSI
Fig. 4 L-curve of the compact-bandwidth regularization approach

184 L. Wang et al.
Table 1 Modal analysis results for the footbridge by different approaches

Approach 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
Frequency (Hz) SSI 2.0665 3.2026 3.3755 6.6140 9.4090
CBR 1.9764 3.2018 3.3918 6.6068 9.4102
MAC SSI – – – – –
CBR 0.9994 0.9942 0.9789 0.9090 1.0000
Fig. 5 Identified mode shapes by the SSI
Fig. 6 Identified mode shapes by the compact-bandwidth regularization approach

5 Conclusions
A compact-bandwidth regularization approach has been developed in this paper for

output-only modal analysis. The key lies in the compact-bandwidth constraint and
along with this constraint, modal analysis is formulated as a multi-objective opti-
mization problem, to solving which the compact-bandwidth constraint is enforced
as a regularization term. The alternating minimization algorithm is used to get the
solution and the L-curve method is adopted to determine the regularization
parameter. Practical application to a real footbridge shows that the proposed
approach can identify the natural frequencies as well as the SSI, but often gives
more smoothing mode shapes. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is clearly
verified.
Acknowledgements The present investigation was performed under the support of National
Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 11702336 and No. 11972380), Guangdong Province
Natural Science Foundation (No. 2017A030313007 and No. 2018B030311001) and the
Fundamental Research Funds of the Central Universities (No. 17lgpy54).
References
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Optim 25(1):185–209
2. Brincker R, Zhang L, Andersen P (2001) Modal identification of output-only systems using
frequency domain decomposition. Smart Mater Struct 10:441–445
3. Cara FJ, Carpio J, Juan J, Alarcon E (2012) An approach to operational modal analysis using
the expectation maximization algorithm. Mech Syst Signal Process 31:109–129
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frequency domain decomposition. Measurement 128:388–392
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Mech Syst Signal Process 29:228–250
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identification literature employing blind source separation methods. Mech Syst Signal Process
94:415–431
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pp 2193–2198
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compact-bandwidth regularization. Mech Syst Signal Process 131:288–316
Analysis of Wind Induced Vibration
of Stayed Cable of Sea-crossing Bridge
Based on Monitoring Data
J. Guo, J. X. He, C. J. Hu, and J. Y. Wu
Abstract Based on the real-time health monitoring system, the wind field changes
and cable vibration at Jintang Bridge site were continuously observed by using a
three-dimensional supersonic anemometer, propeller anemometers, and acceleration
sensors on cable. The work presented in this paper focuses on the characteristics of
wind speed and wind direction, turbulence intensity and power spectral density of
fluctuating wind during typhoon Canhong are analyzed. In addition, the accelera-
tion time history data are decomposed and recomposed in different frequency bands
based on wavelet multi-scale analysis, and the characteristics of wind field variation
and frequency band distribution of wind-induced cable vibration energy are
obtained. The results show that there is a strong correlation between turbulence
intensity along wind direction and across wind direction. The root mean square
acceleration of cables during typhoon landfall is more than 5 times of normal, and
vibration energy is mainly distributed in high frequency band.

Keywords Cable-stayed bridge Typhoon period Wind induced vibration

Wavelet analysis Monitoring on-site
J. Guo (&) J. X. He C. J. Hu J. Y. Wu
Institute of Bridge Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology,
Hangzhou 310023, China
e-mail: guoj@zjut.edu.cn
J. X. He
e-mail: jxhe7@zjut.edu.cn
C. J. Hu
e-mail: huchengjie@zjut.edu.cn
J. Y. Wu
e-mail: wu-jiyi@zjut.edu.cn

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_18
188 J. Guo et al.
1 Introduction
With the development of transportation, many sea-crossing bridges have been built
in the coastal areas of China. Long-span cable-stayed bridges have become the
main choice of these sea-crossing bridges. Following the increase of span of
cable-stayed bridge, the length of cable as the main stress component is getting
longer and longer, and the flexibility is also getting larger and larger. Vibration
problems caused by wind field changes near stayed cables have become a very
serious challenge because of being prone to fatigue damage and affecting the safety
and durability of bridges.
Some scholars have done a lot of work in the research of bridge monitoring data,
and have achieved many useful results. Hu Jun and Ou Jinping measured and
studied the wind field characteristics of a suspension bridge in the East China Sea
[1]. Liu Zhiqiang and Li Na used the structure monitoring system of Xihoumen
Bridge to monitor the long-term wind field changes and bridge vibration [2]. M.C.
H. Hui et al. measured the wind field characteristics of the Shizhu Island Bridge in
Hong Kong [3]. After more than ten years of development, the health monitoring
system of long-span bridge structure is becoming more and more perfect, which
provides convenient conditions for obtaining the wind field environment and
vibration response of the bridge. The monitoring data can provide a reference for
future bridge design.
The main methods of studying wind-rain vibration of stay cables are field
monitoring, wind tunnel test, numerical simulation and theoretical research, and a
lot of research results have been achieved. Field monitoring has become the most
objective and direct means of wind field research because it can get real-time data
and transmit it to researchers’ computers by wireless. The sea area of Jintang Bridge
is seriously affected by a typhoons and monsoons, which caused wind field char-
acteristics are very complex. Therefore, based on the structural health monitoring
system of Jintang Bridge and local monitoring of the long cable, this paper carried
out analysis of the wind field and vibration response of cable, providing valuable
reference for wind resistance of this kind bridge.
2 Engineering Research Background
Jintang Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge with two towers and double cable planes
with 620 m main span, and its span combination is 77+218+620+218+77 m. It is
the first span cable-stayed bridge constructed in China under sea conditions. In this
paper, a streamlined flat steel box girder with orthogonal special-shaped plates is
adopted. Parallel steel cables are used for stayed cables. Moreover, double towers
and double cable planes are used for stayed cables. The typical length of long cables
in stayed cables can reach 331 m. The sea area of Jintang Bridge is greatly affected
by typhoon and monsoon, and the characteristics of wind field in this area are very
Analysis of Wind Induced Vibration of Stayed Cable … 189
a) The overall layout of monitoring device
b) The layout of three-dimensional supersonic anemometer
c) The layout of propeller anemometer
Fig. 1 The layout of the partial sensors installed on the Jintang Bridge
complex. A series of health monitoring systems are installed on the bridge.

Real-time monitoring data based on the structural health monitoring system analysis
of Jintang Bridge provide a basis for the study of this paper.
In order to explore the wind field characteristics, two three-dimensional supersonic
anemometers with sampling frequency of 32 Hz were installed on lamp posts on both
sides of the mid-span deck of the main bridge section, and two propeller anemometers
190 J. Guo et al.
with sampling frequency of 1 Hz were arranged at the top of East and west main
towers. What`s more, a wind anemometer with sampling frequency of 4 Hz was
installed at CAC20 cables in the later stage, which is located on the street lamp pole
nearest to CAC20 cables and 4 m away from the bridge deck. In addition, to obtain the
vibration parameters of cable, a 50 Hz unidirectional acceleration sensor was
installed on each of the 20 representative cables on the bridge. The layout of the partial
sensors installed on the Jintang Bridge is shown in Fig. 1, in which a) is the physical
picture of the supersonic anemometer, b) is the physical picture of the propeller
anemometer, c) is the physical picture of the acceleration sensor. The wind field and
vibration acceleration data collected from typhoon Canhong in 2015 were selected to
conduct the detail analysis presented in this paper.
a) The overall layout of monitoring device
b) The layout of three-dimensional supersonic anemometer
c) The layout of propeller anemomete
3 Study of the Wind Characteristic Parameters
Taking the data of typhoon Canhong during its landing in July 2015 as an example,
72 h of data had been collected since 8:00 am. on July 10, 2015, on which the wind
field characteristics are studied.
3.1 Wind Speed and Wind Direction
The analysis of average wind speed and direction usually takes the basic time
interval of 1 min or 10 min, which is calculated here according to the time interval
of 10 min. The 72-hour data collected by the propeller anemometer installed at the
top of the eastern cable tower and the western cable tower are divided into 432
sections. Average wind speed and wind direction are shown in Figs. 2 and 3.
From Figs. 2 and 3, it can be seen that the measured wind speed and wind
direction show obvious similarity, which verifies the effectiveness of the health
monitoring system of Jintang Bridge. When the typhoon landed, the wind speed at the
top of the eastern and western cable towers was very similar and the wind speed
increased significantly. The maximum wind speed reached 28.67 m/s and the average
wind speed reached 15.39 m/s at the top of the eastern cable tower, in addition, the
maximum wind speed reached 31.57 m/s and the average wind speed reached
15.74 m/s at the top of the western cable tower. With the departure of typhoon, the
wind speed gradually decreased and stabilized. The change of wind direction is rather
unstable. It only concentrates at 150–200° in the first 17 h, and then maintains about
Fig. 2 Average wind speed

time history on top of the
tower
Fig. 3 Wind direction time

history on top of the tower
75° with the departure of typhoon. Wind speed variation has a very important impact
on cable vibration, which can be reflected in the acceleration analysis.
3.2 Turbulence Parameters Analysis
The turbulence intensity and pulsating wind power spectrum are two important
parameters to describe the turbulent characteristics of a wind field. Turbulence
intensity is a physical quantity describing the degree of variation of wind speed with
time scale and space scale and reflecting the relative intensity of fluctuation. The
calculation method of turbulence intensity is the ratio of the standard difference of
192 J. Guo et al.
fluctuating wind speed to the average wind speed. Kaimal spectrum is currently used
as the wind spectrum along the wind direction and Panofsky spectrum as the vertical
wind spectrum in the code for wind resistance of bridges in China [4–7]. The tur-
bulence intensity and power spectrum can be calculated by formulas (1), (2), and (3).
ru rv rw
Iu ¼ ; Iv ¼ ; Iw ¼ ð1Þ
U U U
nSu ðz; nÞ 200fz
2
¼ ð2Þ
u ð1 þ 50fz Þ5=3
nSw ðz; nÞ 6fz

¼ ð3Þ
u2 ð1 þ 4fz Þ2
ru is the standard deviation of downwind fluctuating wind speed, rv is the

standard deviation of cross-wind fluctuating wind speed, rw is the standard devi-
ation of vertical fluctuating wind speed, U is average wind speed. fromula (2) is the
downwind Kaimal spectrum, fromula (3) is the vertical Panofsky spectrum, Su ðnÞ is
the power spectral density along the wind direction, n is pulsating frequency, fz is
the monin coordinates, u is airflow friction velocity.
The actual wind field consists of three components of wind speed in vertical
direction (along wind, cross wind and vertical) and their related characteristics.
Firstly, the wind vector is decomposed along the average wind vector in space
coordinates, and the mean and fluctuating components of the downwind,
cross-wind and vertical wind are obtained. Then, the turbulent intensity of the
downwind, cross-wind and vertical wind is further obtained [8]. What is more, it is
pointed out in reference [9, 10] that increasing turbulent intensity of flow field is
beneficial to reducing the probability of wind-induced vibration of stay cables.
The turbulence intensity is calculated by using the data collected by the
three-dimensional supersonic anemometer at different locations of the bridge.
Figure 4 shows the downwind and vertical turbulence intensity of the east main
span near Cable 21. Figure 5 shows the downwind and vertical turbulence intensity
at the middle deck of the main span.
Compared with Figs. 4 and 5, it is found that the turbulent intensity at the two
locations is quite different, but the turbulent intensity is below 0.4 except for
individual points. The turbulent intensity at the left side of cable 21 of east main
span decreases during the landing of typhoon, and the turbulent intensity at the
middle deck of main span changes relatively gently. According to the analysis
results, it can also be seen from the Figs. 4 and 5 that the variation of turbulence
intensity along the wind direction and across the wind direction is highly correlated.
Figures 6 and 7 show a comparison of the downwind and vertical wind spectra
with the standard wind spectra (data obtained by a three-dimensional supersonic
anemometer) during typhoon Canhong. It can be found from Figs. 6 and 7 that the
measured power spectrum of the downwind pulsating wind basically coincides with
Fig. 4 The turbulence

intensity of east main span
Fig. 5 The turbulent

intensity of bridge deck in the
middle of main span
Kaimal spectrum, but slightly higher than Kaimal spectrum. The measured power
spectrum of the vertical fluctuating wind can not match the Panofsky spectrum.
This difference is mainly caused by the characteristics of typhoon itself. It also
shows obviously that the turbulent energy distribution of the fluctuating wind in the
vertical direction is much lower than that in the downwind direction.
194 J. Guo et al.
Fig. 6 Power spectrum of

downwind fluctuating wind
Fig. 7 Power spectrum of

vertical fluctuating wind
4 Analysis of Vibration Characteristics
The wavelet analysis can be used for signal local analysis, which has higher fre-
quency resolution and lower time resolution in the low frequency part, high time
resolution and low frequency resolution in the high frequency part. In order to
monitor the vibration of Jintang Bridge’s stay cables, a one-way acceleration sensor
is installed on 20 representative cables on the bridge, and its sampling frequency is
50 Hz. As shown in Fig. 8, the original acceleration data for one hour during the
typhoon period. The acceleration signal data of CAC20 cable is used for wavelet
analysis. The original signal is decomposed by three scales of wavelet transform
and is distributed to different scales according to its frequency components. A1 is
the first layer approximation signal, A2 is the second layer approximation signal and
A3 is the third layer approximation signal. D1 is the first layer detail signal, D2 is the
second layer detail signal and D3 is the third layer detail signal. The frequency
bands on each scale are as follows:
A1 : 0 25 Hz D1 : 25 50 Hz
A2 : 0 12:5 Hz D2 : 12:5 25 Hz
A3 : 0 6:25 Hz D3 : 6:25 12:5 Hz
The acceleration data are decomposed by wavelet basis function db8, which is
usually used to analyze non-stationary signals, then the outline signal and the detail
signal are reconstructed, and the frequency band distribution characteristics of the
cable vibration energy are obtained by analyzing the power spectrum of each signal.
Figure 9 is the result of multi-scale decomposition and reconstruction of the orig-
inal signal. Figure 10 is the power spectrum of the outline signal and the detail
signal. Acceleration time-history signal is obtained by sensor monitoring, which
includes all vibration frequency bands of stay cables [11–13].
From Fig. 10, it can be seen that the cable vibration during typhoon is dis-
tributed in different frequency bands, but mainly concentrated in the high frequency
band. It shows that the cable vibration is mainly high-order, and it can be con-
sidered to increase the damper to reduce the high frequency vibration of the cable.
Fig. 8 Original signal time

history
196 J. Guo et al.
Fig. 9 Decomposition and reconstruction of signals
Fig. 10 Power spectrum of signals at different scales

5 Conclusion and Prospects
The wind field data measured from typhoon Canhong by the anemometers installed
on the bridge were analyzed in detail in this study. Some main conclusions are as
follows:
1) The measured turbulence intensity results are higher than the standard ones, and
the variation of turbulence intensity along and across the wind direction has a
greater correlation. During the first 16 h of typhoon landing, the turbulence
intensity increased significantly, and then gradually decreased and tended to be
stable with the typhoon leaving, and the cable vibration decreased with the
increase of turbulence intensity.
2) The power spectrum of the downwind pulsating wind basically coincides with
Kaimal spectrum, but slightly higher than Kaimal spectrum. The vertical fluc-
tuating wind power spectrum can not match the Panofsky spectrum, which is
lower than the theoretical spectrum. This difference is mainly caused by the
characteristics of typhoon itself.
3) The root mean square acceleration of cables during typhoon landing is more
than 5 times of normal. The multi-scale decomposition and reconstruction of
measured signals by wavelet can effectively identify the distribution of vibration
energy in different frequency bands and the vibration energy of cables during
typhoon Canhong is mainly distributed in high frequency band.
Acknowledgements The presented work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (U1709207, 51578506 ).
References
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on long-term monitoring data. J Central South Univ (Sci Technol) 44(7):2989–2996
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for Xihoumen Bridge(II): Implementations. Eng Sci 7:101–106 (in Chinese)
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Stonecutters Bridge site: Part I—Mean wind and turbulence intensities. J Wind Eng Ind
Aerodyn 97(1):22–36
4. Wu J, Liu HJ, Han WS et al (2018) Numerical simulation and verification of non-stationary
typhoon field on long-span bridge. J Vib Eng 4:662–670
5. Wang CQ, Li ZN, Hu JX et al (2017) Study on typhoon characteristics at high urban landform
altitude and turbulence integral length scale. ACTA Aerodyn Sinica 35(06):801–806
6. Yu M, Ni YP, Liao HL et al (2013) Field measurement and analysis of the natural wind
characteristics at site of Xihoumen Bridge. ACTA Aerodyn Sinica 31(2):219–224
7. Simiu E, Scanlan RH (1996) Wind effects on structures. Wiley,New York, pp 59–64
8. He XH, Chen ZQ, Li CG, et al (2011) Nonstationary wind characteristics analysis for
wind-rain induced vibration of stay cables. J Vib. Shock 30(10)
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9. Matsumoto M, Shiraishi N, Shirato H (1992) Rain-wind induced vibration of cables of

cable-stayed bridges. J Wind Eng Ind Aerodyn 43(1–3):2011–2022
10. Gu M, Du XQ (2005) Experimental investigation of rain-wind-induced vibration of cables in
cable-stayed bridges and its mitigation. J Wind Eng Ind Aerodyn 93:79–95
11. Piotr G (2015) Investigation of dynamic characteristics of tall industrial chimney based on
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J Sound Vibr 330(25):6088–6097
Drive-By Bridge Parameter
Identification: An Overview
J. T. Li and X. Q. Zhu
Abstract Drive-by bridge parameter identification using an instrumented vehicle

has drawn great attention in the field of bridge structure health monitoring. The
feasibility of the drive-by inspection methods has been verified by a number of
studies. However, most of the studies are conducted with numerical simulations and
the successful field application for bridge parameter identification requires more
factors to be taken into consideration. Influences from road surface roughness,
vehicle moving speed, uncertainties in vehicle models and measurement noise etc.,
may make the drive-by parameter identification challenging and impede its practical
application. Moreover, the time variant features of the vehicle-bridge interaction
(VBI) system is another important factor for the drive-by bridge parameter iden-
tification which needs further investigation to ensure the accuracy of the identified
results. This paper presents a brief overview on the drive-by bridge parameter
identification of the authors’ recent experimental investigation to show the feasi-
bility and challenges for the practical implementation of drive-by bridge parameter
identification.
Keywords Drive-by parameter identification Vehicle-bridge interaction

Time-frequency analysis
1 Introduction
Due to the fact that a large amount of bridge infrastructures are subjected to gradual
deterioration and structurally deficient, monitoring the condition of these bridges is
very important. Bridge parameter identification is a critical component in bridge
J. T. Li X. Q. Zhu (&)
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo,
NSW 2007, Australia
e-mail: xinqun.zhu@uts.edu.au
J. T. Li
e-mail: Jiantao.li@uts.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_19
200 J. T. Li and X. Q. Zhu
structure health monitoring. The measured bridge modal parameters, such as the
modal frequencies, damping and mode shapes can be effective indicators of the
structure degradation and damage. Conventional modal parameter identification
requires extensive instrumentation on the bridge structure to get the dynamic
responses from sensors on different locations of the bridge [1]. This direct approach
can pose a number of practical problems, such as the need of bridge closure,
accidental damage to installed equipment, the high initial and recurring cost of the
sensory system, etc. The idea of an indirect approach, also referred as drive-by
inspection, was proposed by Yang et al. [9] that the dynamic parameters of bridge
were extracted from the response of a passing instrumented vehicle. Without
requirement of bridge instrumentation, the drive-by inspection technique is con-
venient, efficient and low-cost. Over the past decade, a great deal of research has
been conducted in the field of indirect bridge modal identification. Besides the
frequency identification, the indirect approach was also extended to the estimation
of bridge damping and mode shapes. González et al. [2] and Keenahan et al. [3]
identified the bridge damping using a moving instrumented vehicle or a
trailer-truck. The vehicle response had also been used for the bridge mode shape
identification [7, 10]. A review paper was presented by Zhu and Law [13] for
structural health monitoring based on the VBI data. Bridge identification techniques
using vehicle responses and both vehicle and bridge responses were reviewed.
Malekjafarian et al. [6] and Yang and Yang [11] presented critical review of
indirect methods for bridge modal parameter identification and the challenges for
successful implementation of drive-by inspection in practice. Recently, some
experimental investigations have been conducted by the authors to identify the
bridge modal parameters using responses of vehicle models in the lab which is
presented in this paper. The VBI system is time-variant with the operational vari-
ations of traffic excitation on the structure. Time-frequency characteristic of a VBI
system due to the interaction is important factor for the accurate bridge parameter
identification. A recently proposed time-frequency (TF) analysis method, syn-
chroextracting transform [12], is used to extract the time-varying characteristic of
the VBI system. The instantaneous frequency trajectories of a filed cable-stayed
bridge under the excitation of a truck are extracted to show the time-varying fre-
quency features.
2 Bridge Modal Parameter Identification
2.1 Vehicle-Bridge Interaction Systems
Considering a VBI system as shown in Fig. 1, the vehicle is modelled as a

single-degree-of-freedom quarter-car model and the bridge deck is simulated as a
simply-supported beam. The coupled equation of motion of the system can be
written as
Drive-By Bridge Parameter Identification: An Overview 201
Fig. 1 Vehicle and bridge interaction model
€ þ Cd_ þ Kd ¼ F
Md ð1Þ
where M, C, and K are the mass, damping and stiffness matrices of the system,
respectively; F is the force vector and d is the response vector of the system. The
vehicle response contains dynamic information of the bridge. Thus, the bridge
modal parameters can be estimated from the vehicle response.
2.1.1 Identification of Bridge Modal Frequencies and Mode Shapes

Using SSI
With the premise that the multiple excitations to the bridge were modelled as white
noise excitation to the bridge supports, stochastic subspace identification
(SSI) based technique was adopted by Li et al. [5] to identify bridge modal fre-
quencies and mode shapes with instrumented vehicles. The bridge frequencies can
be easily extracted from responses of moving vehicle when the bridge surface
roughness is smooth. For a rough surface, the subtraction of the responses measured
from two successive identical vehicles can greatly reduce the effect of road surface
roughness. To identified the bridge mode shapes, two instrumented vehicles were
used with one remain stationary on the bridge as reference sensor and the other one
moving over the bridge as a moving sensor. The responses measured from two
vehicles were segmented into multi datasets based on the number of selected beam
elements for analysis. Within each dataset, the response was assumed stationary due
to the short measure time for each signal segment. A short time SSI method with a
rescale procedure was proposed to analyze the segmented responses and get the
bridge mode shapes.
2.1.2 Identification of Bridge Modal Frequencies Using Blind Modal

Identification with SSA
A novel drive-by blind modal identification with singular spectrum analysis

(SSA) was proposed to extract bridge modal frequencies from vehicle response [4].
Only one sensor was used to equip the vehicle and measure vehicle response during
its moving over the bridge. The acquired response was first decomposed into a
multichannel datasets using SSA, and a blind modal identification method was
implemented to analyze the datasets to extract the different response components
contained in the vehicle response. The bridge modal frequencies were identified
from the corresponding components. The method was found robust to the mea-
surement noise and can identify bridge modal frequencies without requirement of
subtraction technique when there is road surface roughness. Hilbert transform could
be used to analyze bridge related components and their instantaneous frequencies.
2.2 Experimental Investigation in the Lab
Experimental tests in the lab were conducted to verify the proposed indirect bridge
modal identification techniques. A vehicle bridge interaction testbed were built as
shown in Fig. 2. The bridge model consists of three rectangular section steel beams.
The one in the middle is the main beam with a length of 6 m and the width and
depth of the steel beams are 100 mm and 15 mm, respectively. The main beam is in
a two-span continuous simply-supported configuration. Half-cylinder steel bar and
cylinder steel bar are used to simulate the pinned support and roller support to the
beam, respectively. A leading beam and a trailing beam are sitting in front of and at
the rear of the main beam to allow for acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle.
The length of the side beams is 3 m. Vehicle model with different configurations
including one and two-axle vehicles were manufactured for study. One-axle vehicle
was manufactured to simulate the SDOF vehicle mode used in the analytical pro-
gram. The two-axle vehicle model runs on four rubber wheels. The one-axle vehicle
was connected with the two-axle vehicle when they were passing over the bridge.
The mass of the one- and two-axle vehicles are 2 and 4 kg, respectively. The model
vehicles are pulled along the guide with an electric motor.
(a) Bridge model (b) vehicle model
Fig. 2 Vehicle bridge interaction test model in the lab

The modal testing has been carried out on the vehicle and bridge models with an
impulse hammer. The first two natural bridge frequencies were obtained as 5.68,
and 8.48 Hz, respectively. Spectrum analysis on the vehicle responses gave the
modal frequency of the single-axle vehicle as 29.37 Hz.
In drive-by bridge modal parameter identification test, a wireless sensory system
was setup and wireless accelerometers were used to measure the responses. For the
bridge mode shape identification using SSI based method, a wireless sensor was
installed on the single-axle vehicle as a moving sensor with the other one installed
on the beam (at 1.1 m to the right support) as the reference sensor. The vehicles
were pulled with three different speeds at approximately 0.10, 0.14 and 0.21 m/s,
respectively which were denoted respectively by v1, v2 and v3. Measurements from
the moving and stationary sensors were analyzed with the proposed method to
identify the first mode shape of the beam. Each signal was divided into eight
segments. The identified operational mode shape values were compared with those
from modal testing using MAC values. Figure 3 the results for three different
moving speeds. The MAC value decreases from about 0.98 to 0.94 when the speed
increases from 0.10 to 0.21 m/s. The accuracy of the identification is acceptable.
For the verification of proposed blind modal identification with SSA, only the
response from the single-axle vehicle was used. The decomposed components using
proposed method are presented in Fig. 4 when the speed was 0.10 m/s. The first
component has the frequency 5.21 Hz that is close to the first modal frequency of
the bridge. Similarly, the frequency 8.32 Hz in Fig. 4(b) is related to the second
bridge mode. The vehicle modal frequency is identified in the third component as
29.35 Hz.
1
0.8 v1, MAC=0.9768
0.6 v2, MAC=0.9666
Normalized mode shape
0.4 v3,MAC=0.9359
0.2 Modal test
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
-0.2
-0.4
-0.6
-0.8
-1
Locations on the beam (m)
Fig. 3 Identified mode shapes with different moving speeds

(a) First component and its spectrum (b) Second component and its spectrum
(c) Third component and its spectrum
Fig. 4 Decomposed components and their spectra from vehicle response
3 Time-Frequency Analysis on the Bridge Responses

Under Vehicle Excitation
This section introduces the time-frequency analysis on the responses measured from
an actual bridge. Time-varying characteristic of the frequencies due to the vehicle
bridge interaction was investigated. A recent proposed time-frequency (TF) analysis
method termed synchroextracting transform (SET) was used to get the instanta-
neous frequency (IF) trajectories. A short-span cable-stayed bridge over the Great
Western Highway (as shown in Fig. 5) in New South Wales, Australia was tested. It
is a single lane highway bridge with a span 46 m and a width 6 m. A long-term
monitoring system has been installed on the bridge. This system provides an
integrated and reliable device to log high-quality data with 24-bit resolution with
bandwidth capability of 0–3 kHz. The hardware combines instrument excitation,
voltage regulation, digitization, anti-aliasing filters, and data logging. The logging
software is Catman Version 5, which collects all channels at a default sample rate of
Fig. 5 Cable-stayed bridge for tests
Fig. 6 Accelerometer array on the deck
Fig. 7 The measured bridge modal parameters under ambient excitation
600 Hz [8]. A dense array of strain gauges and the accelerometers were installed
under the bridge deck and timely synchronized to measure the structure responses.
Figure 6 shows the accelerometer array on the deck. Modal analysis using the
acceleration measurements from sensors on the deck was conducted under ambient
excitation. A bridge vibration mode with the frequency 2.00 Hz was identified as
shown in Fig. 7. It can be seen the vibration is related to the vertical bending mode.
Responses under different traffic conditions at sensor location A10 were mea-
sured and used for analysis. The acceleration responses and the spectra are pre-
sented in Fig. 8. When no traffic on bridge, only the first bridge frequency can be
identified in the response spectrum. For the condition with a moving vehicle on top
of the bridge, the vehicular excitation makes the higher bridge vibration modes
Fig. 8 Bridge response measured at sensor A10 and response spectrum
Fig. 9 IF trajectories of responses for different traffic conditions

more prominent. The TFA results of the responses under different traffic conditions
are presented in Fig. 9. For the condition of without traffic on bridge, the IF
trajectory of the first bridge vibration mode show little variation. For the conditions
of with moving vehicle, the IF trajectories corresponding to the bridge vibration
modes show great variations. For the first three modes, the frequency variation
becomes very small, while the frequency of the 4th bridge vibration mode varies
periodically after about 6 s. The composite effects of vehicle and cables account for
the complicated variation behaviors of the bridge frequencies.
4 Conclusions
This work presents a concise overview on the authors’ recent study on the drive-by
bridge parameter identification. Using instrumented vehicles, the bridge frequencies
and mode shapes can be identified with stochastic subspace identification based
method under the assumption of white-noise excitation. With SSA based blind
modal identification method, the response components can be extracted from a set
of vehicle responses. The bridge frequencies can be estimated from the bridge
related components. Further study will focus on the identification of other modal
parameters from the extracted components. A time-frequency analysis on the bridge
responses under heavy traffic excitation reveals the time-varying characteristics of
the vehicle-bridge interaction system. Further investigation on the bridge damage
detection using the time-varying features is recommended.
Acknowledgements This research is supported by research funding of the Australian Research

Council Discover Project (DP160103197). The financial aid is gratefully acknowledged. The data
from the actual bridge is measured by Data61 which is greatly acknowledged.
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Health Monitoring of Bridges Using
RPAs
M. Rashidi and B. Samali
Abstract The ever-changing dynamics of infrastructure asset management and the

success of accommodating to these transformations is largely in credit of adopting
different technologies and methods of construction, health monitoring and main-
tenance. The application of drones is one such technology, favored for their features
of safety, functionality and sustainability in the processes of infrastructure health
monitoring. Remotely Piloted Aircrafts (RPAs) commonly known as drones have
been acknowledged as the next great technology in civil infrastructure inspection.
However, very limited research has been done to prove the advantages of the
technology such as safety, effectiveness and cost savings. Building this bank of
proof is essential for bridge authorities looking to improve bridge health monitoring
into the 21st century. Remotely Piloted Aircrafts (RPAs) offer considerable
potential in conducting visual inspection with high level of accuracy and minimum
risk to bridge inspectors, allowing a bridge to be inspected without the need to use
under-bridge inspection units or walk across the deck. This can pointedly reduce the
overall inspection costs and disruption caused to the public. Furthermore, utilisation
of Aerial Photogrammetry assists bridge engineers to better understand a situation
through the 3D spatial context offered by RPAs.
Keywords Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) Bridge inspection Drones

Feasibility
1 Introduction
There are now over 50,000 bridges and over 900,000 km of roads in Australia.
Millions of travelers rely on the transportation network. The safety and reliability of
these infrastructure elements are critical to the Australian economy [7].
M. Rashidi (&) B. Samali

Centre for Infrastructure Engineering, Western Sydney University,
Sydney, NSW 2751, Australia
e-mail: m.rashidi@westernsydney.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_20
210 M. Rashidi and B. Samali
Bridge inspection is an important element of any Bridge Management System

(BMS) predominantly for old and deteriorated bridges. The precision of condition
monitoring is heavily relied on the quality of the inspection. Historically, health
monitoring of existing bridges were conducted as a consequence of warnings
received from outside the bridge network, or as a result of a noticeable inadequacy
of the structure that did not allow it to fulfill the expected functionality [8].
The inspection procedures in Australia have been extracted from the American
Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and revised
by the road authorities. However, some transportation agencies employ their own
methods for condition rating but the element based inspection is considered as the
most reliable approach for condition assessment. The inspection quality is strongly
related to the experience and knowledge of the bridge inspectors and compliance
with established procedures [4]
Visual inspections are considered as the most practical and common bridge
inspection techniques and the role of human errors in inspection has been assessed
for decades. Automated inspection tools equipped with software packages are now
the routine inspection procedure in aviation industry [6]. Automated/unmanned
techniques have the potential to improve and automate the bridge inspection
practice. RPAs have obtained massive capabilities and many organisations are
taking advantage of these new potentials to transform their industries [2].
RPAs have become smaller, less expensive and more proficient because of the
improved technology and military investment in the drone industry. Current group
of RPAs can be transported in small vehicles and take off from a small truck or road
but are still large enough to be equipped with sensors and cameras that can provide
accurate and low-cost aerial information. These aircrafts are capable of completing
pre-set flight paths and flying autonomously.
Using RPAs for civil infrastructure assessment is a fast growing trend, but is
often beyond the scope of most bridge engineers and asset managers’ training, so
the information provided herein is anticipated to aid in comprehension of RPA
inspection and the associated advantages and limitations.
2 Project Methodology
In this study, four bridges with varying types and sizes were inspected using RPAs
to study the effectiveness of this technology. A detailed drone inspection was
conducted to collect images at varying elevations, angles and distances from the
structure. The objective of the inspection was to collect sufficiently detailed data
that a desktop review could be conducted and reporting produced in line with the
requirements of a Level 2 Inspection in accordance with the RMS Bridge Inspection
Manual. This includes information about the extent, locality and orientation of
defects for each individual component (Fig. 1).
St Albans Bridge, completed in 1902, St Albans Bridge is a representative but
early example of a DeBurgh timber truss bridge, a type of construction that was the
Health Monitoring of Bridges Using RPAs 211
Fig. 1 Project outline
first to use significant amounts of steel and iron, and did so in spite of its high cost
and the government’s historical preference for timber.
Rip Bridge is a Pre-stressed Concrete Truss Bridge (PTRUS) built in 1974 over
Brisbane Water in the Hunter region. The Bridge 330 m long consists of two
prestressed concrete cantilever trusses with a central 36.6 m suspended slab. The
Bridge carries two lanes of traffic with a carriage way width of 8.54 m between the
kerbs. It carries 1.5 m footpath on downstream side of the carriageway.
Old Peats Ferry Bridge (BN 341) is a K type steel truss bridge (STRUS) built in
1945 over Hawkesbury River on Pacific Hwy at Peats Ferry in Sydney Region. The
601.98 m long Bridge consists of two steel truss span of 134.11 m and nine steel
girder (SGIRD) and eight steel beam (SBEAM) approach spans.
Mooney Mooney Bridge, is a twin cantilever bridge that spans Mooney Mooney
Creek in Brisbane Water National Park. It is the highest road bridge in Australia as
measured from the road bed to the water 75 m below. The twin bridges consist of
three spans per carriageway of post-tensioned concrete box girders. The bridge was
built in 1986. The carriageway width between kerbs is 12.3 m and it carries three
lanes of traffic (Fig. 2).
The project utilised Falcon 8+ drones with a precise 36 MP full-frame DSLM
camera. The intel Falcon 8+ drone is designed to provide stable flights in the face of
external influences such as weak GPS signals and high winds, as well as creating
resistance to magnetic field disturbances.
Fig. 2 Four nominated bridges
3 Imagery and Data Processing
The remoteness of the working locations provides an added layer of difficulty for
the project, due to the associated costs of rework in case insufficient detail was
captured by the RPA or a photogrammetric model was unable to be produced. As
data processing must be completed off-site, the quality of data was not known until
after inspections were complete. Additionally, there was the need to capture images
systematically such that a standardised approach could be adopted during the
desktop review and report. To minimise these risks, the project planning and data
capture methodology became critical. An initial pass with the drone was conducted,
capturing images at a distance of approximately 25 m from the structure to ensure
that enough coverage was achieved by all images to produce an initial baseline
point cloud model. From this, more detailed images could be built into the final
photogrammetric model. The RPA would fly parallel to the bridge at a slight offset
(about 5 m) from the line of the top and bottom chords. This would enable the
camera to be angled slightly and allow greater inspection of the areas between
crevices or connections. As illustrated, several passes would be made in each
direction to capture sufficient resolution of data for all sides of the key structural
components, with additional passes made below the level of the deck to capture
images of the soffit [1].
RPAs through their autopilot computer and external sensors, come with some
type of autonomous control. Navigation and control are important issues in all RPA
applications, and most pilots are heavily reliant on GPS signals and basic stabili-
sation methods to maintain position. A 3D hold allows for safe control of a RPA in
harsh environmental conditions as well as stabilisation for obtaining adequate
images. In bridge inspection, due to challenges of bridge environment, control and

navigation issues are exceptionally problematic.
RPAs are deployed to take the aerial imagery; the advantage of drones is the geo
spatial data that is stored within the captured images that streamline the alignment
process as well as the ability to capture a greater volume of surface area. The
images are captured in an uncompressed RAW format and converted to a lossless
image format such as JPG. The high resolution lossless images JPGs are then taken
into the photogrammetry processing software ‘Context Capture’ and put through
the process steps.
The main steps for 3D reconstruction as follows: add images, align images, create
a dense point cloud, scale the constructed model, create a mesh and build texture.
Depending on the required level of details, the last two steps can be avoided [9].
First, the images will be triangulated in 3D space. This process is accelerated
using geo spatial imagery. Once all the images are located in 3D space, a point
cloud can be constructed. A highly detailed point cloud can be constructed from the
initial dense cloud and can be later used in producing the high resolution mesh. The
production of a dense cloud is the most difficult step, which can take up to 10 days
to process an asset of 150 million points on a single core computer. The whole
process of capturing a point cloud with 150 million points and a reality mesh with 5
million triangles takes approx 10 complete days of processing the data on a single
core computer and is generated exclusively from the drone’s imagery. The Data
processing can be considerably reduced by using a more powerful computer, one
that has high end video card and multiple CPU cores. Alternatively, software such
as context capture offers a network solution that can utilise a large network of
computers to process the data in a shorter time frame. This will require an advanced
licence of the software for each computer added to the computer farm.
The constructed 3D models of bridges could provide a permanent record of
condition and dimensions from one inspection to another and could also be
employed for navigation and control purposes. A two-dimensional (2D) image
loses the scene depth during photography, but using the line of sight and camera
positions from each image, depth can be restored and a 3D model can be con-
structed. All of which use some form of feature detection, which must be efficient
enough to compare each of the images in a set made of possibly hundreds—or
thousands in the case of infrastructure inspection—of images, which is computa-
tionally expensive. The 3D model can also provide a virtual map for the RPA to
navigate around the bridge and avoid obstacles. There are open-source or
off-the-shelf programs available for reconstruction of 3D models. Agisoft
Photoscan and context capture are popular and efficient commercial software pro-
duct used to generate 3D models.
4 Advantages of RPA Bridge Inspection
4.1 Safer Inspection
When comparing RPA inspections to conventional methods, one of the major

benefits is the higher degree of safety. RPA inspections provide a mechanism that
insure the bridge inspectors and the relevant crew aren’t exposed to higher risk
situations. RPAs today are capable of capturing images from under bridge regions
without the need of man lifts and potentially closing down roads. This has dra-
matically increased the safety aspect of bridge inspections as there are many risks
that come into place when ropes and cherry pickers are used for under bridge
inspections in conventional methods.
Additionally, according to new Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) regu-
lations, having a certified drone pilot and a spotter is considered to be legally
adequate to fly RPAs (CASA, 2018). This will decrease the safety and cost risks
since there will be less people required to undergo the inspectional procedure,
whereas in conventional methods it will typically require 1-4 people in the visual
inspection.
4.2 Faster Inspection
With the use of RPA’s technical abilities today, complex and large bridge inspec-
tions can be completed at a significantly faster time than conventional methods. For
example, it only took 40 min to complete a full bridge inspection on the 116 m long
St Alban Bridge through the use of RPAs. The 40 min consisted of 18-min setup
time, 22-min flight.
4.3 Economical Inspections
Besides the safety and speed of operation, cost effectiveness is another advantage;
many of the cost savings are associated with time reductions and safety. If RPAs are
used instead of traditional inspection, cost for just the deck inspection can decrease
from $4600 to $250 [2].
However, there are some unseen costs such as cost of renting a pilot and RPA,
that are normally ignored in these studies. For many transportation authorities, the
visual inspection of a simple bridge with low traffic and easy access may take only
15–30 min and needs only one bridge inspector. In these cases, drone inspection
will not improve the time or cost associated. Our pilot study for large-scale bridges,
showed that RPA-inspection was 46% faster and 61% cheaper than the conven-
tional inspection.
4.4 Other Benefits
An indirect benefit of RPA-assisted inspection may be lessened traffic disruption.

Road closures and time required for a particular traffic disturbance can be limited,
which is particularly important for high traffic bridges.
Sometimes the objective of the inspection is to check the general integrity of the
structure, such as checking if large items are missing or large areas are defected, for
instance, a 330 m long barrier railing was inspected using a RPA in less than 3 h,
enabling to the designers to make an informed decision to ultimately replace the
railing. Data can also be analysed in real time and stored for later use [3].
5 Challenges of RPA Bridge Inspection
The advantages mentioned in Sect. 3 are possible under relatively ideal conditions.
Ideal conditions include a skilled pilot, no software and hardware malfunctions, an
appropriate RPA, and no adverse weather conditions.
Currently, there are some challenges associated with bridge inspections. Some
challenges are due to the availability of this emerging technology, and some are due
to the regulations associated with governing bodies such as the CASA and bridge
authorities. The main challenges are as follows:
– Regulations (Regulations governed by CASA to assure safety and functionality
of the operations)
– Flight control in GPS-denied or high wind environment and also poor weather
conditions
– Time spent on post processing operations
– Functionalities limited to visual inspection. Manned inspections are still
required for detailed assessment and clean ups of the asset.
– Fail-safe programming and obstacle avoidance
6 Data Collection Through Survey
In order to validate and consolidate the experimental study, a survey has been
conducted and casted out to about 180 transportation authorities around NSW
(including local and state government). The objective of the survey was to evaluate
local government’s perspective on utilising drones for bridge inspections and make
a comparison between different aspects of drone inspection and its conventional
counterpart. This was done to facilitate the decision-making process for asset
management professionals to achieve the objectives of this project [5]. Cost, time,
quality, safety, traffic Disruption and legal and environmental impact have been
identified as the major criteria for selection of the best inspection methods (Please
see Fig. 3).
The rankings given for both the conventional and RPA methods were obtained
through researching past and current projects involving bridge inspections. These
rankings were appropriately given according to the performance of each the
methods during the inspections. Evident from Table 1, the RPA method’s total
score was significantly higher than the total of the conventional method’s score, this
suggests that the RPA methods may not only be feasible but better than its con-
ventional inspection counterparts.
77% of the respondents saying that RPA technology will positively transform
the bridge inspection process. Respondents stated that the RPA technology speeds
up and streamlines the inspection process and will be an essential tool for bridge
inspections in the future.
Majority of respondents agreed that RPAs reduce risk and increase safety, are
quicker and less disruptive. The respondents also stated the challenges faced with
RPA based inspections. The most common challenges and barriers for inspection
were the satisfaction of regulations set by the CASA, weather and obstacles or
confined spaces. RPAs are also unable to perform inspection that require physical
contact with the structure.
Overall, 23% of respondents stated that RPA technology will replace conven-
tional methods for level 1 and 2 bridge inspections and 77% stated that the con-
ventional methods will not be replaced, instead, RPAs will be used in cooperation
with conventional methods to improve inspections. No respondents stated that
conventional methods are far superior to RPA based methods.
Fig. 3 Major criteria for selection of the best inspection method

Table 1 Multi criteria comparison of conventional and RPA inspection

Criteria Weight Ranking for Total score for Ranking Total score
% conventional conventional for RPA for RPA
inspection inspection inspection inspection
Cost 15 6 90 8 120
Time 17 5 85 9 153
Safety 21 5 105 8 168
Quality 20 8 160 7 140
Traffic 15 3 45 9 135
disruption
Legal 12 5 60 7 84
challenges
Total 545 800
scores
7 Conclusions
This report has outlined the state-of-the-art for bridge inspections and RPA tech-
nology with the aim of educating and informing academics and decision makers
about the current and future capabilities of RPA-assisted or automated bridge
inspections. RPAs have shown promising results in civilian applications as well as
civil engineering purposes, and many asset managers have performed feasibility
studies and found significant successes, but also some disadvantages. The most
common RPA applications in engineering were traffic monitoring and surveillance,
road condition assessment, and mapping; however, significant effort has been put
into bridge inspection with varying degrees of success. The current state of practice
for bridge inspections is heavily tied to visual inspections. RPA-assisted bridge
inspections have the potential to not only improve the safety and decrease costs, but
potentially increasing inspection accuracy; however, sometimes RPA inspections
face major challenges.
The perception of RPA effectiveness for bridge inspection is tied to several
factors, including pilot skill, asset owners’ expectations and weather condition.
Ideally, RPA s can provide inspections, with lower cost and time, for under-bridge
regions without traffic closure, but not in all situations and there are obstacles to
overcome. CASA regulations have recently relaxed, but impose significant limi-
tations, including required line of sight and RPA certification.
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Application of Machine Learning
Algorithms in Structural Health
Monitoring Research
Y. Hamishebahar, H. Z. Li, and H. Guan
Abstract Engineering structures, including civil infrastructures, have always been

susceptible to various kind of damage during their service life. The goal of struc-
tural health monitoring is to provide sufficient when the structure condition dete-
riorates. It has the obvious benefits of preventing disastrous structural collapses and
reducing maintenance costs. By and large, structural health monitoring approaches
are divided into two classes, model-based, and data-driven approaches. The main
challenge in data-driven approaches lies in a large amount of data to be dealt with.
As machine learning algorithms are often used to recognize the inherent pattern in
data, their applications in data-driven approaches have been gained an increasing
attention in recent years. Utilizing machine learning algorithms turns the
decision-making step of structural health monitoring into an automated process with
minimal human intervention. This paper presents a summary of a literature review
concerning different data-driven structural health monitoring approaches combined
with machine learning algorithms developed in the last several years. Specifically,
this report will review existing applications of machine learning algorithms for the
purposes of dimensionality reduction and developing a statistical model for struc-
tural health monitoring. The primary aim is to categorise the existing studies in the
aforementioned areas in terms of the type of machine learning algorithms. This
paper also attempts to identify research gaps to facilitate the formulation of a future
study in the aforementioned area.
Keywords Structural health monitoring Data-Driven approaches Machine

learning algorithms
Y. Hamishebahar (&) H. Z. Li H. Guan

School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus,
Southport, QLD 4222, Australia
e-mail: younes.hamishebahar@griffithuni.edu.au
H. Z. Li
e-mail: h.li@griffith.edu.au
H. Guan
e-mail: h.guan@griffith.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_21
220 Y. Hamishebahar et al.
1 Introduction
Structural and mechanical systems such as bridges, buildings, offshore oil plat-
forms, aircraft, rotating machinery, etc. are key infrastructure assets of a society.
Construction defects, aging, and environmental circumstances can adversely affect
the life and reliability of these systems. The fact that failure to these systems can
cause life-safety and economic consequences highlights that the onset of damage
should be detected [28]. Damage detection is usually carried out in the context of
one or more closely related disciplines including structural health monitoring
(SHM), condition monitoring, nondestructive evaluation, health and usage moni-
toring system, statistical process control, and damage prognosis. SHM is the pro-
cess of implementing a damage identification strategy for aerospace, civil or
mechanical engineering infrastructure [11]. Note that this paper focuses on the
application of machine learning algorithms in SHM of civil infrastructures.
Many portions of our civil infrastructures are approaching or exceeding their
initial design life. Because of economic challenges, these civil infrastructures are
still being used in spite of aging and the associated damage accumulation.
Therefore, the ability to monitor the health of these structures is becoming
increasingly important [11].
Generally speaking, damage can be defined as changes introduced into a system
that causes a disturbance in its current or future performance. In this study, the
definition of damage is narrowed down to the changes to the material and/or
geometric properties of structural systems, including changes to the boundary
conditions and system connectivity. This can adversely affect the current or future
performance of these systems [26].
SHM approaches were first used in the aerospace and mechanical engineering
industries for damage diagnosis and were then introduced to offshore platform
structures in the 1970s [29]. In the following three decades, the number of studies
and the application of SHM to civil engineering structures, such as bridges, dams,
etc., have been increased [34]. So far, numerous SHM approaches and techniques
have been proposed by different researchers. As SHM is a multidisciplinary
research, the number of studies in this area has become more significant. That is
also the reason why literature review papers with different perspectives in this area
have been published. References [7, 16, 20, 21, 26] are examples that provide
literature reviews in the area of SHM with different applications and perspectives.
In order to make an informed decision on damage detection, it is required to
compare the current properties of the structure with a baseline [30]. In general, with
respect to the baseline data, SHM approaches are categorized into two classes:
model-based and data-driven approaches. Model-based approaches require estab-
lishing a physical model of the structure, usually by the finite element method.
Identifying the occurrence, location, and severity of the damage in model-based
approaches can be achieved by the solution of an inverse problem. Friswell [13]
prepared an overview of some common methods for solving the inverse problem.
Application of Machine Learning Algorithms … 221
In data-driven approaches, a model is also established, but here the model is

usually a statistical representation of the system. Different algorithms have been
developed over the years for data-driven approaches. These algorithms are mainly
drawn from the machine learning discipline. Machine learning is the scientific study
of algorithms and statistical models that computer systems use in order to perform a
specific task effectively without using explicit instructions, relying on patterns and
inference instead. By and large, the machine learning algorithms come from two
main classes: supervised and unsupervised learning. In supervised learning, the
algorithm builds a mathematical model from a set of data that contains both the
inputs and the desired outputs. On the other hand, in unsupervised learning, the
algorithm builds a mathematical model from a set of data which contains only
inputs and no desired outputs. Unsupervised learning algorithms are used to find
structure in data [3].
Farrar et al. [10] expressed that a data-driven approach of SHM is composed of
four portions: 1. Operational evaluation. 2. Data acquisition and cleansing. 3.
Feature extraction and data compression. 4. Statistical model development.
Machine learning algorithms are mainly used in the last step to develop a statistical
model and in some cases, they are used in the third step for dimensionality
reduction.
In this paper, different applications of machine learning algorithms for both
dimensionality reduction and for developing a statistical model are investigated.
The goal is to conduct a review of the application of machine learning algorithms in
the area of SHM to identify a research gap to facilitate the formulation of a future
study in this area.
The organization of this paper is as follows. Section 2 deals with the task of
dimensionality reduction using machine learning algorithms. Section 3 narrates the
application of both supervised and unsupervised machine learning algorithms for
developing a statistical model which is the main application in the SHM area.
Section 4 highlights a brief conclusion of this study.
2 Feature Extraction and Dimensionality Reduction
The third step of developing a data-driven SHM system, feature extraction and data
compression, has a profound influence on the performance of a SHM system.
Feature extraction is defined as turning the raw signals into low dimensional vectors
which are sensitive to the existence of damage. It is usually necessary to convert
measured data into features. This has the obvious benefit of retaining the necessary
information and discarding the redundant information from raw signals [31].
Different methods have been proposed for extracting damage sensitive features. In
some cases, machine learning algorithms are used to reduce the dimension of data.
There are several machine learning algorithms that are used to discover the better
representation of the inputs and to reduce the dimension of input data [2]. Among
these algorithms, a classic example which is popular in the area of SHM would be
principal component analysis (PCA).
PCA has various applications in data mining and in analyzing fields such as
dimensionality reduction, data visualization, outlier detection, and correlation
analysis. In the area of SHM, PCA has been used for dimensionality reduction and
visualization. PCA was utilized for both dimensionality reduction and for data
visualization in a proposed SHM approach to detect damage in experimental and
numerical structures [18]. They also used another technique, i.e., selection of
subsets of auto-regressive (AR) coefficients for dimensionality reduction. Their
results showed that for larger feature dimensions, PCA outperforms the selection of
subsets of AR coefficients. PCA along with continuous Daubechies wavelet is used
for feature extraction [17]. In this study, damage sensitive features are obtained by
extracting the minimum variance obtained by the PCA of wavelet energies.
Implementation of PCA is simple and effective for dealing with linear cases.
However, for complicated cases, especially nonlinear cases, PCA is unsuccessful as
it is linear by nature. As a modification of PCA, kernel principal component
analysis (KPCA) has been used in recent years for dealing with nonlinear problems.
In the area of fault diagnosis, Yuqing et al. [33] utilized a data-dependent KPCA
technique to transform original high-dimensional data into low-dimensional man-
ifold feature space with the intrinsic dimensionality. They compared the results with
the approach including PCA instead of KPCA. It was observed that the
KPCA-based method outperforms the PCA-based one. Another comparison
between PCA and KPCA for dimensionality reduction in the area of damage
detection was investigated by Santos et al. [25]. They expressed that for the feature
vector, the fact that there is a large number of features and a small number of
measurements highlights the need for dimensionality reduction. Their results
showed that KPCA can maintain a monotonic relationship between the progressive
level of damage and the amplitude of damage indicator. In contrast, the PCA failed
to achieve the monotonic relationship and exhibited many false-negative indications
of damage for both scenarios.
3 Statistical Model Development
In the last step of developing a data-driven SHM system, the goal is to perform a
statistical comparison with the baseline. The decision on using the type of learning
(i.e. supervised and unsupervised) is made based on the availability of data from
damaged states of the structure. If the data from the damaged state of the structure is
available (e.g. extracted from either an experimental or numerical model), the
learning type would be supervised. In contrast, in the context of SHM, the unsu-
pervised learning requires data only from the undamaged state of the structure (i.e.
the input data). It is concerned with determining the underlying structure in data
from undamaged states of the structure [31].
3.1 Supervised Learning
Different supervised algorithms have been proposed so far. However, artificial

neural networks (ANNs), support vector machine (SVM), and k-nearest neighbors
(kNN) are more popular algorithms used by researchers. Two supervised pattern
recognition techniques based on nearest neighbors classification (NNC) and
learning vector quantization (LVQ) were used to classify damage based on analysis
of time series model coefficients [18]. Acceleration time histories acquired from the
book-shelf structure proposed by the Los Alamos laboratory and a benchmark
structure proposed by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) were used
to validate the method. Another application of kNN for damage detection of the
benchmark ASCE structure was done under a combination with wavelet packet
decomposition (WPD) as the feature extraction method [35]. The authors compared
the aforementioned combination with a new combination including feature selec-
tion via random forest variable importance analysis and random forest recursive
feature elimination. They concluded that the accuracy obtained from the new fea-
ture sequences is much higher than that from the original WPD feature sequence.
Support vector machine (SVM) is another popular classification algorithm. It
was used to perform a supervised multi-class classification to detect damage in a
numerical three-story structure equipped with MR damper [6]. In the case of uti-
lizing the SVM algorithm, an important step is choosing the kernel function. In
order to improve the performance of classification, different kernel functions have
been introduced by researchers. A new combinational kernel function, so-called
“Thin plate spline Littlewood-Paley wavelet (TPSLPW) kernel function”, was
introduced by Ghiasi et al. [14]. They detected and located damage in two
numerical benchmark studies using SVM which utilizes PSLPW as the kernel
function. Their results showed that the performance of the least square SVM
algorithm is improved by utilizing the proposed kernel function.
Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) have been applied in several branches of
science and engineering for years. Researchers have conducted different studies in
the area of SHM by utilizing ANNs. Their ability to simulate the behavior of
systems with high nonlinearity, flexibility, and robustness are some of the advan-
tages related to using the ANNs [1]. In another study, ANNs were used to detect
damage occurrence, location, and severity in a simply supported steel I-beam [27].
They used the ANNs incorporating a modal strain energy-based damage index as
the input layer to quantify damage severities under multiple damage scenarios.
Their findings demonstrated the accuracy and efficiency of their proposed method
in performance evaluation and failure prevention of steel beams. The applicability
of using ANNs in a supervised, under noise contamination setting, and availability
of partially modal properties as input was investigated by Chang et al. [5]. Their
results demonstrated that only slight changes are observed on predicting damage
index, level, and location when the data are noise-contaminated. So, their proposed
system can reliably be used under noise interference.
In addition to the well-known supervised algorithms, there are research studies

in which a new introduced supervised algorithm is utilized to see whether they are
useful in the area of SHM. A new supervised algorithm titled “neural dynamic
classification (NDC)” was utilized to detect damage in a high-rise building [23]. In
order to perform a supervised classification, NDC was used and compared with
kNN, probabilistic neural network (PNN), and enhanced PNN (EPNN). Their
results showed that the NDC is more accurate than kNN and PNN for all cases
defined in their study and more accurate than EPNN in most cases.
3.2 Unsupervised Learning
In the area of SHM, by relying on data from undamaged states only, the approaches
seek to flag data acquired from a damaged state of the structure as anomaly or
outlier [19]. In data mining, anomaly detection (also outlier detection) is the
identification of rare items, events or observations which raise suspicions by dif-
fering significantly from the majority of the data [36]. Different approaches have
been considered for detecting anomalies so far.
Several studies have used measures of distance for multivariate statistics outlier
detection. Mahalanobis squared distance (MSD) is one of the popular measures of
distance to perform an anomaly detection approach. One of the earliest studies with
an unsupervised anomaly detection manner was done by Worden et al. [32]. They
proposed a method of damage detection adapting anomaly detection based on
MSD. They expressed that in choosing the MSD, there is an implicit assumption
that the normal condition datasets have Gaussian statistics. MSD was utilized in
another study to compete with three other unsupervised algorithms to detect
damage in a benchmark base-excited laboratory frame structure proposed by Los
Alamos [12]. They concluded that the MSD-based algorithm is revealed to be the
best data normalization approach in terms of the classification performance, the
reduced computational efforts, and the fact that no assumptions are required
regarding its architecture. MSD is also compared with a novel distance method
called as partition-based Kullback-Leibler divergence (PKLD) proposed by
Entezami et al. [9]. They used PKLD to measure the discrepancy between the AR
model residuals of undamaged and damaged conditions for damage detection and
localization. They stated that the comparative analysis of the performances of the
PKLD and MSD methods demonstrates that both of them are able to detect and
locate damage. However, the proposed PKLD method outperforms MSD in terms
of false-positive and false-negative indication of damage.
Another way of implementing an anomaly detection approach is to develop a
statistical model on normal data. Then, an investigation is done to see whether the
newly acquired data come from the same source or distribution. If the new test data
come from different source or distributions, they might be flagged as data related to
a possible damaged state [31]. One of the popular algorithms in the aforementioned
approach is One-Class SVM (OCSVM). Das et al. [8] presented an approach to
characterize and classify different damaged states in composite laminates using

OCSVM. They compared its performance with the anomaly detection version of
kNN and suggested that OCSVM with appropriate preprocessing techniques can
often achieve better accuracy than kNN in detecting and classifying anomalies.
OCSVM along with three other kernel-based algorithms were utilized to form a
comparative study focusing on damage detection using anomaly detection
approach. It was observed that in general, kernel-based algorithms for anomaly
detection outperform four other alternative algorithms which dealing with anomaly
detection without kernel functions [24]. A comprehensive application of OCSVM
and least square OCSVM for detecting and localizing damage in a three-story
steel-frame experimental structure can be found in [19]. They introduced a novel
variant of the aforementioned algorithms, so-called “early stopping one-class kernel
least square” which is trained through a faster and simpler procedure to implement
iterative procedure than other kernel classification methods while retaining the same
advantages.
An anomaly detection approach can also be performed using cluster analysis.
Cluster analysis is a type of unsupervised learning that automatically forms clusters
of similar things [15]. In this approach, after clustering the input data, any data point
not belonging to any cluster can be flagged as an outlier. The situation goes on for
any new test data, as well. Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) are frequently used as
clustering algorithms in pattern recognition. A comprehensive application of GMMs
combined with MSD was done to investigate the occurrence and extent of damage in
the benchmark ASCE structure [22]. Damage detection was done using gap static
which ascertains the optimal number of mixtures in a particular dataset. They used
MSD as an indicator of damage extent. They also investigated the performance of
their proposed approach when the data are noise-contaminated. They showed that
with applying noise, only the smallest damage imposed on the structure is not
detected and for the rest of the damage cases, results are promising. Detection of
damage occurrence using a clustering algorithm and damage extent using a distance
measure was done again with a combination of K-means and Euclidean as clustering
algorithm and distance measure, respectively [17]. K-means algorithm was used to
estimate the mixture centers in the dataset and the gap static was utilized to deter-
mine the optimal number of clusters. The authors expressed that the reason for
choosing this combination over the previous one (i.e. GMMs and MSD) is that the
new combination provides greater computational efficiency. A new clustering
algorithm, titled “density peaks-based fast clustering” was modified to an unsu-
pervised machine learning method by adding training and testing process to improve
damage detection and localization of multi-story and multi-bay structures [4]. The
authors also compared its performance with the well-known anomaly detection
OCSVM. They showed that their proposed algorithm outperforms OCSVM. Santos
et al. [25] proposed a new approach for feature extraction including transmissibilities
and KPCA [25]. The theory provided in their study was extended to classify dam-
aged and undamaged cases via a density-based clustering procedure known as mean
shift clustering (MSC). Their results showed that their proposed approach can well
minimize false-positive and false-negative errors.
4 Conclusion
In this paper, a brief review of the application of machine learning algorithms in the
area of SHM for dimensionality reduction and statistical model development was
conducted. Statistical model development was categorized into two classes of
supervised and unsupervised approaches. Although different SHM studies have
been done with a supervised setting, the limitation of obtaining the data from
damaged states of the structure which requires establishing either a finite element or
experimental model is a disadvantage for the supervised setting. The unsupervised
setting is more compatible with the type of data existed for real structures and the
authors are going to focus on SHM approaches with this learning manner. As it was
observed, mainly, the novelty related to the studies in this area comes from intro-
ducing a new combination of algorithms for both feature extraction and statistical
model development steps. Both of the aforementioned steps deeply affect the
performance of a SHM system. The authors are going to link the feature extraction
step to the statistical model development step. In other words, the development of a
new feature fusion method based on the mechanism of anomaly detection algo-
rithms is going to be investigated. The proposed approach is going to fuse the
promising feature extraction methods in a way guaranteeing that the best possible
accuracy will be obtained in the next step. This makes the SHM process more
automated and in turn, the human intervention can be much less required.
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3_80719-1
Using Deep Learning Technique
for Recovering the Lost Measurement
Data
Gao Fan, Jun Li, and Hong Hao
Abstract With the growing number of applications of structural health monitoring

systems on civil engineering structures, different types of sensors have been used to
collect both the vibration data and environmental conditions. Signal loss is an
unavoidable issue during transmission that significantly affects the quality of signals
and consequently affects the practical applications of structural health monitoring
techniques. This paper proposes a novel approach using deep learning technique for
recovering the lost measurement data. The used convolutional neural network is a
fully feed-forward convolutional neural network with residual connections. It
constructs the nonlinear relationships between the incomplete signal with data loss
and the original signal by training with the prepared training datasets consisting of
pairs of incomplete and original vibration signals. The trained network then extracts
the robust higher representation features of the input incomplete signals layer by
layer using the compression layers, and expands those features gradually
throughout the reconstruction layers to recover the original signals. The effective-
ness of the approach is evaluated by using the data from Dowling Hall footbridge.
The network exhibits the good capability of lost data recovery, even when the
signals have severe data loss proportion up to 90%.

Keywords Data recovery Structural health monitoring Transmission lost

Deep learning Convolutional neural networks
G. Fan J. Li (&) H. Hao

Centre for Infrastructure Monitoring and Protection, School of Civil and Mechanical
Engineering, Curtin University, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia
e-mail: junli@curtin.edu.au
G. Fan
e-mail: gao.fan@postgrad.curtin.edu.au
H. Hao
e-mail: hong.hao@curtin.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_22
230 G. Fan et al.
1 Introduction
Ensuring the safety and reliability of civil infrastructure is significant for public
safety and normal operation of society. The strength of structures degrades due to the
ageing of materials, extreme loading conditions and human-induced damages.
Consequently, condition assessment and damage detection of structures are one of
the crucial tasks for civil engineers. In addressing these issues, structural health
monitoring (SHM) techniques have been developed and have gained vast research
interests recently. The vibration-based long-term SHM is becoming one of the most
popular research areas. Compared to short-term periodical monitoring, it is advanced
in continuously measuring the structural vibration to report earlier the abnormal
conditions of structures by real time analyzing the measurement. Meanwhile, a
long-term SHM system can measure both the structural vibration responses and
ambient conditions at the same time by a comprehensive sensing network, including
multiple types of sensors. The geometries and boundary conditions of structures are
strongly correlated with ambient conditions, where the variation of the vibrational
characteristics due to the change of ambient conditions may mask the damage effect.
Under this circumstance, long-term SHM capturing comprehensive information of
structure can provide a more reliable condition assessment of structures. A growing
number of long-term SHM systems has been installed on civil infrastructure such as
bridges and buildings in the past decades [3, 14].
The traditional wired-based SHM system can provide a stable measurement
whereas it is expensive in facility and labor and time consuming for the installation
[15]. Alternatively, the wireless sensing that can provide a more flexible selection of
sensor locations is attracting more attention [11]. A remarkable number of civil
infrastructures have been monitored by using the wireless sensor based SHM
systems [7, 21, 16]. The studies on improving wireless sensors for serving the SHM
of civil engineering structures concentrate on both hardware and software.
However, data loss still occurs in wireless transmission and has seriously affected
the development and application of wireless sensors for practical SHM.
The proposed method for the recovery of lost data is totally data driven, where
no finite element model is required. Compared to the model-based methods [9, 5,
20] with an accurate finite element model required, data-driven methods are more
reliable for large scale civil engineering structures. Bao et al. [1] proposed an
approach based on the compressive sampling technique to recover the lost data of
wireless sensor networks installed on a real bridge. The recovery accuracy was
good but depended significantly on the selected domain that the time-domain signal
is transferred to, and the threshold value that makes the output matrix sparse to
overcome the ill-posed issue. Wan and Ni [18] leveraged the Bayesian multi-task
learning methodology to recover the blocked SHM missing data including tem-
perature data and acceleration responses. It is reported that the choice of the
covariance function has a great influence on recovery performance.
Using Deep Learning Technique for Recovering … 231
Deep learning has been recently received a strong attention in the area of ‘big
data analytics’. The long-term SHM system continuously measures the structural
vibrations and collects a large volume of data, which fully satisfies the requirement
and superiority of exploring deep learning techniques. Moreover, deep learning
based methods have been investigated in the damaged photo recovery [19] and
image [4] and audio super resolution [8], where the concept is similar as the
vibrational signal recovery. Deep neural networks have been developed for the
condition assessment and damage detection using the crack images [2], vibration
signals [10] and vibration characteristics [17]. In this paper, deep learning tech-
niques is developed for lost data recovery in the field of SHM.
2 Methodology
2.1 The Detailed Configuration of the Proposed Network
The proposed network is a fully Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) with bot-
tleneck structure, supported by skip connection, dropout and sub-pixel shuffling
operations. It consists of one input layer, ten hidden convolutional layers and one
output layer. The architecture of the proposed CNN is illustrated in Fig. 1. In
addition, the detailed configurations of each layer are summarized in Table 1.
C1
Input
Output
R1 Final
C2
R2
C3
R3
C4
Bottleneck R4
Convolution + Leaky ReLU Skip connection

Convolution + Leaky ReLU + Sub-pixle Shuffling
Fig. 1 The architecture of the proposed CNN

232 G. Fan et al.
Table 1 Detailed parameters for the structure of the proposed CNN

Layer Kernel Kernel Stride Input Output
number size shape shape
C1 128 64 2 (1,1024) (128, 512)
C2 256 32 2 (128,512) (256, 256)
C3 512 16 2 (256,256) (512, 128)
C4 1024 8 2 (512,128) (1024, 64)
Bottleneck 1024 8 1 (1024,64) (2048, 32)
R4 2048 8 1 (2048,32) (2048, 64)
R3 1024 16 1 (2048,64) (1024, 128)
R2 512 32 1 (1024,128) (512, 256)
R1 256 64 1 (512,256) (256, 512)
Final 2 8 1 (256,512) (1, 1024)
It should be highlighted that the input and output sizes of each layer are com-
puted based on the input size with 1024 points. The proposed CNN, in fact, accepts
the input with an arbitrary size which is more applicable for the real measurement
where the length of lost cannot be controlled. The architecture of the CNN is
bottleneck shaped. It utilized the advantage of Auto-Encoder [6] which automati-
cally extracts the higher-level features gradually from the input data meanwhile sifts
the noise by reducing the dimension of features in each layer. The compression of
input is realized by the compression layers and bottleneck layer illustrate as C1 to
C4 and Bottleneck in Fig. 1 and Table 1. The network then turns to reconstruct the
complete measurement using the extracted features from the incomplete input data
by the reconstruction layers (R4 to R1). The final layer (Final) conducts the con-
volution of the features from the R1 to extract the same level of features with the
input data and then reshape the feature to have the same dimension with input by
sub-pixel sampling. The target of the model is to minimize the discrepancy between
the recovered and the original measurement (the incomplete input data is simulated
using the original complete measurement) during the training process to fine-tuning
the parameters. Therefore, the objective function used here is the mean of the
L2-norm error of each training sample in a mini batch as follows
1X N
yk H/ ðxk Þ2
Loss ¼ 2
ð1Þ
N k¼1
where N is the number of samples in each mini batch. The CNN is simply depicted
as a nonlinear model H/ (x) that parameterized by /. The target of the training
process is to determine / by minimizing the loss function based on the entire
dataset. The activation function for transferring the linear mapping as nonlinear
mapping used in this study is Leaky Rectified Linear Unit (ReLU). Dropout
technique is used throughout all the layers to alleviate the effect of overfitting.
2.2 Skip Connection
Skip connection is implemented between the compression layers and reconstruction

layers in the symmetric position to promote the information flow and alleviate the
gradient vanishing. As shown in Fig. 1, the output of the reconstruction layers is
concatenated with the delivered output features of the compression layers and then
used together as input to the next reconstruction layer. The skip connection also
allows the features to be back-propagated to the shallow layers directly, which
boosts the convergence speed of the network training.
2.3 Sub-pixel Shuffling
As shown in Fig. 1, the original output feature maps from the reconstruction layers
have the half length of the feature maps of the corresponding compression layer. To
keep those feature maps with a consistent size, the output feature maps from the
reconstruction layer are resized by a sub-pixel shuffling operation, which doubles
the length and half divides the number of feature maps. The shuffling operation is
implemented by splitting the feature maps as two groups and combining two feature
maps at the same order of each group as one by interpolating one to another.
2.4 Datasets
The datasets for training the network are generated from the previous complete
measurement. As mentioned in [1], the received data in the receiver of the base
station from the wireless sensors are in a time sequence, which means that the
locations of lost points in the time history is known. The wireless transmission lost
is simulated by setting a proportion of points as 0 in a random pattern corre-
sponding to the severity of data lost.
3 Experimental Validation with Dowling Hall Footbridge
Experimental study is conducted with data measured form a long-term SHM system
of Dowling Hall Footbridge as shown in Fig. 2. The details of this bridge and the
installed SHM system can be found in [13]. The frequency of interest of this bridge
between 4 Hz and 14 Hz containing 6 vibrational modes as reported by [12].
Therefore, the measured data sampled at 128 Hz are pre-processed by a low-pass
filter with a cutoff frequency at 16 Hz and a downsampling process to lower the
sampling rate to 32 Hz. The data are then scaled to the range between −1 to 1 by
234 G. Fan et al.
dividing the maximum absolute value of the series, to improve the stability of
training the network. The pre-processing significantly reduces the size of datasets
and consequently increases the training efficiency. Meanwhile, the filtering of data
also eliminates the redundant information merged in the signals that exceeds the
frequency of interest.
The measurement of the 2nd channel of the SHM system is selected to validate
the proposed method. The first week acceleration data are processed for generating
the datasets. The SHM system record 5 min of data each hour and totally 14 h
acceleration data are recorded in the first week. The 14 h acceleration is processed
as paired simulated incomplete data and the original data, which are used as the
input and output of the CNN. The data loss in the incomplete data is simulated as
mentioned in Sect. 2.4 where a proportion of sampling points are randomly set as
zero. The datasets consist of original and incomplete data with the lost proportion
increased from 10% to 90% with a 20% step. Directly inputting a batch of 5 min
time series to train the CNN will take massive memory and cause a large com-
putational burden. Alternatively, the data are processed as small patches segmented
from the full time series of the acceleration data. A window with a length of 1024
points (32 s) is designed to produce the patches (samples) by scanning these 5
groups of data from the beginning to the end with a 50% overlap. The generated
patches are assembled as two datasets including 90% samples for training and 10%
samples for validation.
The testing data are 5 min-long acceleration measurement randomly selected
from the subsequent weeks. It processed as incomplete data with 10% to 90% data
loss with a 10% increase to test the performance of the trained network.
Fig. 2 a South view of Dowling Hall Footbridge. b Accelerometer layout

4 Performance Evaluation
The training samples are used as input to the CNN in batches and the whole datasets
are repeatedly used for 100 times to fine-tuning the parameters of CNN. A batch
contains 32 randomly selected samples from different times with varying lost
proportions. The computer used for training this network is built with a GTX1060
Graphics card with a 6 GB GPU, an i7-6700 K CPU and 8 GB memory. The
training process takes two hours and testing of the trained network is almost real
time. The comparison between the recovered signal originated from incomplete
data with 50% data loss and the original signal in both time domain and frequency
domain are shown in Fig. 3(a) and (b), respectively. The recovered signal almost
overlaps with the original signal in the time domain as shown in Fig. 3(a).
Meanwhile, the recovered signal is highly consistent with the original signal in the
frequency domain as shown in Fig. 3(b). Four well-excited modes between 4 Hz
and 10 Hz at the sensor location are accurately recovered on both the resonant
frequencies and amplitudes, indicating that the natural frequencies and mode shapes
of these four recovered vibrational modes are consistent with the original ones.
The errors with the increasing loss proportion are shown in Fig. 4. The error is
computed as
Pn 0 2
ky y 0 k 1 yi yi
n¼ ¼ Pn 2 ð2Þ
k yk 1 yi
where y and y’ are the original and the recovered signal. The errors become large
with the increase of the lost proportion and reaches 48% and 42% in the time and
frequency domain when using only 1/10 of the original points. The error as shown
in Fig. 4(b) is quantified and the error of signal in the frequency domain is 17%
when lost proportion reaches 50%. However, by observing Fig. 3(b), those errors
are mainly contributed by noise components distributed in the non-resonant fre-
quency bandwidths. This phenomenon confirms the previously mentioned advan-
tage of the bottlenecked structure where the noise components are eliminated in the
(a) (b)
Fig. 3 Comparison of original and recovered signals in a time domain and b frequency domain
236 G. Fan et al.
higher level of feature maps among the compression layers. The reconstructed
signals recovered using the high-level features have less noise effect. The recon-
struction error is much smaller if only the frequency bandwidths of the vibration
modes are considered.
60 50
Recovery error (%)
Recovery error (%)

50 40
40 30
30
20 20
10 10
0 0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Lost proportion (%) Lost proportion (%)
(a) (b)
Fig. 4 The recovered error in a time and b frequency domain
5 Conclusion
This paper proposes a SHM lost data recovery method based on the deep learning
technique. A fully CNN is designed which extracts the higher level of features from
the incomplete data and recover the original data using the extracted features. The
proposed method is validated by experimental studies with measured acceleration
data from Dowling Hall Footbridge. The recovered signal is highly consistent with
the original signal in both time and frequency domains, which demonstrate the
effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method on recovering the lost SHM
data.
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Using Novel Time Frequency Analysis
Method for Time-Varying System
Identification
Yu Xin, Hong Hao, and Jun Li
Abstract This paper proposes a revised Empirical Wavelet Transform

(EWT) approach for time-varying system identification based on Synchroextracting
Transform (SET). Firstly, SET based time-frequency analysis representation is
performed for vibration signals measured from the structures with time-varying
dynamic characteristics. Based on the analysis results, the filtering boundaries of
each mode can be determined. Then, the non-stationary structural vibration signal is
decomposed into several mono-components with the EWT approach. When these
mono-components are obtained, Hilbert transform can be used to identify the
instantaneous frequency of each mode of structural vibration signal. To verify the
effectiveness of the improved EWT method, numerical studies on a two-storey
shear type building with varying structural stiffness under the forced vibration are
conducted. The identification results indicate that the developed method is accurate
for instantaneous frequency identification of a time-varying structure.

Keywords Empirical wavelet transform Time-varying structure

Synchroextracting transform Instantaneous frequency Identification
1 Introduction
System identification for the structures with time-varying structural properties and
vibration characteristics has attracted a large amount of attention over the past
decades. Numerous methods have been reported and studied [1]. In general, the
existing methods can be classified into two categories: (1) Time-frequency analysis
techniques, i.e. Short-time Fourier transform (STFT), Wavelet transform (WT),
S-transform (ST) [3]; (2) The adaptively iteration algorithm, i.e. Least-square
algorithms, Kalman filtering methods [2].
Y. Xin H. Hao J. Li (&)

Centre for Infrastructural Monitoring and Protection, School of Civil and Mechanical
Engineering, Curtin University, Kent Street, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia
e-mail: junli@curtin.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_23
240 Y. Xin et al.
Recently, Synchrosqueezing Transform (SST), as an advanced time-frequency

analysis tool, has been developed [4], and it has been employed to track structural
time-varying frequency components [5]. One of the significant advantages of SST
is that, it can squeeze the time-frequency coefficients into the nearby instantaneous
frequency (IF) trajectory, which can approximately denote an ideal time-frequency
plane of a vibration signal. However, the accuracy of SST is usually low when the
target signal is contaminated by high-level noise or strong non-stationary frequency
components. To overcome this problem, Synchroextracting Transform
(SET) approach is proposed [6], which can obtain more energy-concentrated
time-frequency representation results than that of using SST.
In existing studies, an improved EWT approach based on auto-regressive power
spectrum have been conducted for linear system identification [8], and the results
demonstrated that the improved EWT method is reliable for operational modal
identification, even under the effects of high-level noise. In this research, SET is
used to improve the reliability and robustness of Empirical Wavelet Transform
(EWT) approach [7] for time-varying system identification (TVSI). Therefore, a
EWT-SET approach is performed to identify the IF of time-varying structures. The
developed method contains the following steps: (1) SET approach is firstly used to
identify the filtering boundaries of each mode contained in structural vibration
signals; (2) the mono-components contained in the target signals are decomposed
by using EWT method; (3) the IF of the decomposed mono-components is further
identified by using Hilbert transform. Numerical studies on a two-storey building
model with varying structural stiffness under external excitations are conducted to
validate the reliability of the developed method.
2 Theoretical Background
2.1 Empirical Wavelet Transform (EWT)
Assuming xðtÞ is a time-domain vibration signal which consists of N Intrinsic Mode

P
Functions (IMFs), that is xðtÞ ¼ Ni¼1 xi ðtÞ, which means that the signal in the
frequency domain consists of N modes. Therefore, its Fourier spectrum can be
separated into N segments, and each part includes a corresponding IMF function.
Here, xn is assumed as the boundary of Fourier Spectrum, and each segment can be
filtered by an interval ½xn ; xn þ 1 (where x0 ¼ 0 and xn ¼ p). A transient phase
with a width of 2sn is set for each xn , sn can be written as
sn ¼ c x n ð1Þ
xn þ 1 xn
0\c\minn ð2Þ
xn þ 1 þ xn
Using Novel Time Frequency Analysis Method … 241
The empirical scaling function and the empirical wavelets can be then defined as
follows:
8
> 1 if jxj ð1 cÞxn
< h i
;^n ðxÞ ¼ cos p
2b
1
ðjxj ð1 cÞxn Þ if ð1 cÞxn jxj ð1 þ cÞxn ð3Þ
>
:
2cxn
0 otherwise
8
> 1 if xn þ sn jxj xn þ 1 sn þ 1
>
> h i
>
>
< cos p2 b 2s 1 ðjxj xn þ 1 sn þ 1 Þ if xn þ 1 sn þ 1 jxj xn þ 1 þ sn þ 1
^ n ðxÞ ¼
W h
nþ1
i
>
> sin p2 b 2s1n ðjxj xn þ sn Þ if xn sn jxj xn þ sn
>
>
>
:
0 otherwise
ð4Þ
where bð xÞ denotes an arbitrary function defined on [0, 1] and satisfies:

8
< 0 if x 0
bð xÞ ¼ bð xÞ þ bð1 xÞ ¼ 1 8x 2 ½0; 1 ð5Þ
:
1 if x 1
The filter bank of the empirical wavelets can be constructed by adopting Fourier
spectrum segment information into Eqs. (3) and (4). When ;^n ðxÞ and W ^ n ðxÞ are
derived, the detail coefficients can be calculated as

Z
Wx ðn; tÞ ¼ xðsÞWn ðs tÞds ¼ F 1 X ^ n ðxÞ
^ ðxÞW ð6Þ
The approximation coefficients can be obtained by Eq. (7)

Z
Wx ð0; tÞ ¼ xðsÞ;n ðs tÞds ¼ F 1 X^ ðxÞ ;^n ðxÞ ð7Þ
Then, Eqs. (8) and (9) can be performed to extract the mono-components from
the target signal, which can be described as
f0 ðtÞ ¼ Wx ð0; tÞ ;1 ðtÞ ð8Þ
fk ðtÞ ¼ Wx ðk; tÞ Wk ðtÞ ð9Þ
The decomposed signals are obtained by using

XN
^xðtÞ ¼ Wx ð0; tÞ ;1 ðtÞ þ W ðn; tÞ Wn ðtÞ
n¼1 x
XN ð10Þ
¼ F 1 Wx ð0; xÞ ;^1 ðxÞ þ n¼1
^ n ðxÞ
^ x ðn; xÞ W
W
242 Y. Xin et al.
2.2 The Improved EWT
2.2.1 Synchroextracting Transform (SET)
Assuming a non-stationary signal xðtÞ, which includes N mono-components, can be

expressed as
XN XN R
xi ðtÞdt
xð t Þ ¼ x ðt Þ
i¼1 i
¼ i¼1
Ai ðtÞej ð11Þ
in which Ai ðtÞ and xi ðtÞ denote the instantaneous amplitude and frequency of the
ith time-varying mode, respectively. The different components can be effectively
decomposed based on a sufficient frequency distance, i.e.,
xi þ 1 ðtÞ xi ðtÞ [ 2D; j 2 f1; . . .; m 1g ð12Þ
where D represents the frequency support of the window function. The STFT
representation Ge ðt; xÞ of the target signal xðtÞ can be expressed as the following
first-order approximation [6].
XN R
xi ðtÞdt
Ge ðt; xÞ i¼1
Ai ðtÞ ^gðx xi ðtÞÞej ð13Þ
Then the IF of the target signal is derived as

XN @Ge ðt; xÞ
xðtÞ ¼ xi ðtÞ ¼ j ð14Þ
i¼1 Ge ðt; xÞ
where g^ is the Fourier transform of the window function g 2 L2 ðRÞ.

To obtain an energy-concentrated time-frequency representation results, Yu et al.
[6] suggested to only retain the significant time-frequency coefficients which is
related to the varying characteristics of a target signal. Thus, SET can be repre-
sented as
Teðt; xÞ ¼ Ge ðt; xÞ dðx xi ðtÞÞ ð15Þ
In Eq. (15), dðx xi ðtÞÞ is a symbol function, which can be denoted as

1; x ¼ x i ðt Þ
dðx xi ðtÞÞ ¼ ð16Þ
0; else
Combining Eq. (14)–Eq. (17), SET can be deduced as

XN R
Teðt; xÞxPN h0 ðtÞ¼0
¼ Geðt; xÞxPN h0 ðtÞ¼0
i¼1
A i ðt Þ ^
gð0Þej xi ðtÞdt
ð17Þ
i¼1 i i¼1 i
2.2.2 TVSI Based on EWT-SET
For an n degree-of-freedom (DOF) time-varying system, the equation of motion can

be written as
MðtÞ€uðtÞ þ Cu_ ðtÞ þ KuðtÞ ¼ f ðtÞ ð18Þ
in which K, M and C are n n stiffness, mass and damping matrices, respectively;

uðtÞ, u_ ðtÞ and €uðtÞ are displacement, velocity and acceleration responses of a
time-varying system, respectively; f ðtÞ is the external force vector. Equation (18)
can be further transformed into modal spatial coordinates, which is expressed as:
;Ti f ðtÞ
€qi ðtÞ þ 2h0i q_ i ðtÞ þ x20i qi ðtÞ ¼ ði ¼ 1; 2; . . .nÞ ð19Þ
Mi
where M i ¼ ;Ti M;i denotes the ith modal mass, ;i is the ith mode shape vector. The
natural frequency of the ith modal response is represented by x0i . When zero mean
Gaussian white noise is assumed as the external excitation of the system, the IF of
the ith modal response can be written as
h i
;Ti f ðtÞ ;Ti f ðtÞ
Mi q þ H Mi H ½ q
x2i ðtÞ ¼ x20i ðtÞ h i ð20Þ
q2 þ ð H ½ q Þ 2
where H denotes HT, and the second term of Eq. (20) is about a zero-mean fast
time-varying function. The natural frequency of the time-variant system can be
obtained from the identified IF of its analytical signal by filtering out the fast
varying component.
3 Numerical Studies
In this study, a two-storey shear-type numerical model, as presented in Fig. 1, is

developed by using MTALB software, which is used to validate the reliability of
using the developed EWT-SET approach for TVSI. The time-varying structure
consists of two masses, which are m1 = 2.50 105 kg at the first floor, and
m2 = 1.70 105 kg at the top floor, respectively. The damping coefficients
c1 = 9.6 102 kN∙s/m and c2 = 3.2 102kN∙s/m are assumed for these two stories,
respectively. To simulate time-varying structural dynamic characteristics, the stiff-
ness coefficient of the 1st storey k1 is defined to be periodically reduced from
2.10 10 kN∙m to 1.404 10 kN∙m during a period from
5 5
t = 4 to 16 s. That is,
k1 ¼ 2:1 0:058ðt 4Þ 0:131 sin½0:5pðt 4Þg 10 kN∙m. In addition, the
5
stiffness of the 2nd storey is set to be linearly reduced from 1.05 105 kN∙m to
244 Y. Xin et al.
Fig. 1 The numerical model

in MATLAB
0.7 105 kN∙m in a time duration between 4 s and 8 s. In this study, two cases are
conducted to verify the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed method. In Case
1, 1940 El Centro ground acceleration record is set as the external excitation of the
building model. The excitation of a Gaussian white noise process with zero mean and
a standard deviation of 0.1 g is considered in Case 2.
For these two cases, a 30 s displacement signal of the 1st floor is recorded as the
measured structural dynamic responses, and the sampling rate is set as 50 Hz. Since
the dynamic characteristics of the time-variant structure system under the external
excitations are previously unknown, SET approach is first employed to identify the
numbers and locations of filtering boundaries which will be used for EWT analysis.
As can be seen from Fig. 2, it is clearly observed that a frequency interval can be
defined between the IFs of these two time-varying frequency components. Thus, it
indicates that the boundaries of EWT approach can be accurately determined based
on SET. When the filtering boundaries are determined, EWT approach is applied to
extract the two time-varying mono-components from the structural dynamic
responses. The identified IF of these two cases by using Hilbert transform are
shown in Figs. 3(a) and (b). It can be observed from Fig. 3 that the identified
frequencies using Hilbert transform are strongly fluctuant by comparing with the
exact values. Then, the average value of these identified frequencies can be
obtained by filtering out the rapidly-varying frequency components. As shown in
Fig. 3, it can be observed that the average results can accurately denote the
time-varying frequency components of the building structure.
(a) (b)
Fig. 2 The time-frequency analysis by SET: (a) Case1; (b) Case 2
(a) (b)
Fig. 3 The detected instantaneous frequencies by using EWT-SET: (a) Case1; (b) Case 2
4 Conclusions
In this paper, EWT- SET method is developed for TVSI. Firstly, a non-stationary
vibration signal is analysed by using SET. Based on the analysis results of SET, the
corresponding filtering boundaries for EWT analysis can be determined. Then EWT
is performed to decompose the target signal into several mono-components using
the identified filtering boundaries. Once these mono-components are extracted from
the target signal, Hilbert transform is further conducted to extract the IF of each
mode.
References
1. Bao CX, Hao H, Li ZX, Zhu HP (2009) Time-varying system identification using a newly
improved HHT algorithm. Comput Struct 87(23–24):1611–1623
2. Yang JN, Huang HW (2007) Sequential non-linear least-squares estimation for damage
identification of structures with unknown inputs and unknown outputs. Int J Non-Linear Mech
42(5):789–801
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3. Wang ZC, Ren WX, Chen GD (2018) Time-frequency analysis and applications in
time-varying nonlinear structural systems: a state-of-the-art review. Adv Struct Eng 21
(10):1562–1584
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decomposition-like tool. Appl Comput Harmonic Anal. 30(2):243–261
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empirical wavelet transform. Struct Control Health Monit 26:e2323
Advanced Applications of Emerging 2D
Nanomaterials in Construction
Materials
Qianhui Zhang, Kwesi Sagoe-Crentsil, and Wenhui Duan
Abstract Modern infrastructures require smart, resilient and durable construction

materials towards a much more sustainable building and construction industry. The
emerging two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials offer great opportunity for the
advancement of the next-generation construction materials due to their unique
mechanical, electrical, optical and thermal properties. For example, the 2D gra-
phene, graphene oxide and boron nitride nanosheets were found to be competitive
candidates as the highly efficient nano-reinforcing materials for cementitious
materials due to their ultrahigh aspect ratio and extraordinary mechanical proper-
ties. Beyond nano-reinforcement and interface tailoring, the multifunctionalities of
these atomically thin materials render them potentials in a much broader range of
applications in civil engineering such as structural health monitoring and energy
conserving building components. However, these potentials have not been well
explored yet. This paper introduces the great potential of novel 2D transition metal
dichalcogenides (TMDs) family of MoS2 and WS2 to be applied as the advanced
components in infrastructures. Large-scale synthesis and transfer of 2D TMDs
towards industrial application was presented. The potential of these novel nano-
materials as candidates for next-generation sensors and low energy building com-
ponents was then demonstrated. This paper can provide outlooks and open up
further possibilities for novel 2D nanomaterials with smart functionalities to be
applied as advanced components in construction materials.

Keywords Construction materials 2D nanomaterials Smart sensing Structural

health monitoring Energy conservation
Q. Zhang (&) K. Sagoe-Crentsil W. Duan

Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia
e-mail: sherry.zhang1@monash.edu
K. Sagoe-Crentsil
e-mail: kwesi.sagoe-crentsil@monash.edu
W. Duan
e-mail: wenhui.duan@monash.edu

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_24
248 Q. Zhang et al.
1 Introduction
The construction industry is facing increasing challenges in aspects such as per-

formance of the structures, functionalisation, monitoring, and sustainability. The
need for stronger, lighter and smarter construction materials and components is
increasing. As an emerging type of nanomaterials, two-dimensional (2D) materials
with atomic thickness has been revealed with features such as high surface area,
superior mechanical properties, effective surface functionalisation, multifunction-
alities and the ability to form heterostructures with novel properties, which makes
them high potential candidates for innovating the construction industry to meet the
requirements for modern infrastructures [1, 14]. It has been demonstrated that the
2D materials of graphene, graphene oxide (GO) and hexagonal boron nitride
(hBN) can serve as effective nanoreinforcement in cement composites [4, 12, 23].
Furthermore, due to the distinctive ability to functionalised at the surface in a
controllable manner, the 2D GO have been demonstrated to possess great potential
in tailoring the interface between fibres and cement matrix [27].
Besides the traditional nanoreinforcing and coating/interface tailoring applica-
tions, 2D nanomaterials of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) also exhibit
further implications in areas such as smart sensing and energy storage in the con-
struction industry owing to their multifunctionalities. Specifically, monolayer
TMDs are graphene-like 2D inorganic semiconductors with a distinctive direct
bandgap at the infrared range [10]. They feature strong photoluminescence, char-
acteristic optical response to strain, excellent mechanical properties, immunity to
magnetic fields, and high resistance to corrosion, which make them promising
candidates for the next-generation strain sensors for structural health monitoring
(SHM) [21]. Furthermore, the transparent 2D TMDs can be fabricated into solar
cells by forming p-n junctions with other semiconducting materials such as ther-
mochromic VO2, leading to the development of novel smart windows that can
combine the functionalities of indoor temperature regulation and solar energy
harvesting, greatly reducing the energy consumption by buildings [6].
In this paper, the recent advances in fabricating and processing 2D TMDs
towards industrial scale is reviewed. Then the potential of advanced applications of
these 2D nanomaterials in structural engineering and building industry in the
aspects of smart sensing and energy harvest and storage are introduced. At last,
future research directions for the development of 2D TMDs for the modern con-
struction industry are discussed.
2 Synthesis of 2D Nanomaterials Towards Industrial Scale
The large-scale, high-yield and low-cost synthesis of 2D nanomaterials lays the

foundation for these atomically thin sheets to be applied in engineering practice. One
of the route for the synthesis of 2D layered materials is via the wet chemical
Advanced Applications of Emerging 2D Nanomaterials … 249
exfoliation which can lead to high yield of the 2D materials [17]. It has been utilised to
fabricate 2D layered materials in solution for cement reinforcement [4, 23] and dip
coating for interface tailoring applications [27]. However, the drawbacks of this
method include affected crystal quality as well as poor layer number control of 2D
nanomaterials. Alternatively, the bottom-up synthesis of chemical vapour deposition
(CVD) demonstrates strong potential for industrial applications owing to its ability to
obtain large-area 2D materials. It has the merits of good crystal quality and good
control over the thickness, which is advantageous for the multifunctional applications
of 2D TMDs in construction industry [15]. Large-scale synthesis of atomically thin
MoS2 and WS2 via CVD have been reported by several groups [2, 5, 20]. However,
one of the critical issues that hinder the wide applications of these approaches is the
poor repeatability due to the extremely sensitive nature of CVD process.
To address this problem, we developed a one-step CVD strategy for the syn-
thesis of large-scale 2D MoS2 and WS2 single crystals, films and heterostructures in
ambient pressure. The schematic in Fig. 1a shows the setup of CVD process for
WS2 growth as an example. The precursor of sulphur at upstream was heated at 180
C into the vapour phase, which was brought to the centre of the furnace to react
with WO3 vapour at 860 °C for 5 min in an Ar environment. H2 was introduced to
assist in the reduction of WO3. The following fast cooling down procedure allows
the WS2 to epitaxy on the sapphire substrates to form large single crystals (Fig. 1b)
and uniform monolayer film (Fig. 1c). Via the patterning of pre-deposited graphene
films using photolithography, the centimetre-scale fabrication of graphene-WS2
heterostructures can be achieved where the WS2 nucleated at the edge of the
graphene and grew epitaxially in the bare regions between patterned graphene
stripes (Fig. 1d).
Fig. 1 Controllable CVD synthesis of 2D WS2 towards industrial applications. a Schematics of

the CVD setup. (b–d) Large-scale growth of WS2 b single crystals; c monolayer film; and
d in-plane heterostructures with graphene [29]
250 Q. Zhang et al.
However, since the CVD reactions for 2D TMDs are highly sensitive to the
growth environment, it has been found that with the same growth parameters, the
growth procedure yielded crystals and films with smaller size and increased
thickness after the reaction quartz tube and crucibles have been used for multiple
growth procedures. The intermediate growth products of (Mo, W)O3-x have been
identified as the governing factor for the controllable and repeatable seeding and
epitaxy, which is crucial for the size and crystal quality of the grown 2D TMDs.
We have found that the contamination of (Mo, W)O3-x can be removed via a
simple and industrially scalable acid clean process where the quartz tube and
crucibles were sequentially cleaned by hydrochloric acid (HCl), sulfuric acid
(H2SO4), and aqua regia [a mixture of nitric acid (HNO3) and HCl in 1:3 molar
ratio], followed by an oxygen cleaning at 1050 °C to remove the residual acids.
Thus, via the stabilisation of the growth environment by acid cleaning and the
optimisation of critical parameters of temperatures, annealing duration and gas flow
rate in the CVD process, controllable and repeatable synthesis of the 2D materials
in centimetre scale are achieved for the first time towards potential industrial pro-
ductions with high quality, high yield and low cost.
3 Transfer Technique of 2D Nanomaterials
CVD process usually requires specific types of substrates such as sapphire owing to
the requirement of the surface energy and rigidity of the substrates. Thus, a versatile
transfer method to transfer the as-grown 2D nanomaterials to a broad range of
substrates in a clean and non-defective manner is crucial for realising the novel
functionalities of these ultrathin nanosheets in practice.
Currently the most widely used transfer methods for 2D nanomaterials are
polymer-assisted wet transfer techniques where a spin-coated thin polymer film
such as poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) or polystyrene (PS) acts as the sup-
porting layer for the transfer of the 2D materials [8, 25]. However, the delamination
of 2D nanomaterials from the original substrate using PMMA usually require
etching using an alkaline solution, which causes damage to the 2D layers.
Moreover, the removal of the polymer supporting layers after transfer suffers from
problems of contamination from polymer residue that affect the intrinsic properties
of the 2D materials and tearing of the transferred 2D materials due to solvent
stripping.
To address these issues, we developed a novel transfer strategy named volatile
polymer stamp (VPS) for large-scale transfer and assembly of 2D nanomaterials in
an etch-free and ultraclean manner by employing a volatile polymer of polyph-
thalaldehyde (PPA) together with PS. Due to the relatively high rigidity of PS and
the hydrophobic surface of PPA, the 2D layers can be delaminated from the growth
substrate by the surface tension of a DI water droplet. After depositing on the target
substrate, a unique two-step polymer removal process was adopted where the PS is
firstly washed off by soaking in toluene, followed by the thorough removal of the
remaining PPA layer by thermal annealing at *180 °C. By introducing PPA as the
contact polymer layer with the 2D nanomaterials which can protect the 2D layers
from solvents and polymer residue, ultraclean transfer results can be achieved in an
ultrafast and etch-free manner.
This novel transfer technique has demonstrated the ability to transfer 2D
nanomaterials with excellent surface cleanness as well as exceptional optical and
electrical properties, fabrication of van der Waals heterostructures with
contamination-free interfaces by simple stacking, showing the great potential of
fabricating high-performance devices such as sensors and solar cells to be applied
in the construction industry.
4 Advanced Applications in Construction Materials
Beyond the nanoreinforcement and coating of the 2D materials such as graphene,

GO and hBN, the multifunctionalities of 2D TMDs can lead to development of
smart building components, which exhibit strong potential in sensing and energy
saving applications in the construction industry.
4.1 Sensing Applications
TMDs are semiconducting materials featuring an intrinsic bandgap, with unique

optical and electronic properties that are dependent on the band structure. For 2D
TMDs, the introduction of strain can alter the lattice constants of the crystals,
leading to perturbed band structures. It has been shown that the strain-tunable
bandgap of 2D TMDs can tailor their electronic and optical properties, which can
conversely be used for the detection of strain [13]. Given the outstanding
mechanical properties of 2D TMDs such as superior stretchability, the study of the
strain engineering of 2D TMDs can pave the way to their application in straintronic
devices. Strain engineering of 2D MoS2 and WS2 has been conducted by several
groups to illustrate their potentials as strain sensors [3, 9]. However, the behaviour
of these 2D materials under high strain levels and their interactions with the
underlying substrate, which is of great importance for their application in structural
health monitoring, remains not well understood.
We investigated the strain relaxation of monolayer WS2 triangular crystals
deposited on plastic PDMS substrate. As illustrated in Fig. 2a, via the elongation of
the underlying PDMS substrate using a loading frame, the uniaxial tensile strain
was applied to the WS2 crystals transferred from PDMS. From Fig. 2b–e, it can be
observed that the trion and exciton PL peaks undergo linear redshift when the
substrate strain is increased from 0 to 0.16. However, the redshifts cease when the
substrate strain is further increased from 0.16 to 0.32. This is caused by strain
relaxation in the WS2 through the formation of wrinkles across the crystals
252 Q. Zhang et al.
(Fig. 2d). These results indicate that for 2D TMD materials to be employed in
stretchable electronics and strain sensors, a linear relationship between optical
spectral shift to tensile strain only applies when the tensile strain is small. Beyond a
critical strain value, a new relationship must be established for correct strain
indication taking wrinkle formation into consideration.
Furthermore, we found that the wrinkle distribution was dramatically different
when the angle between an edge of the triangular WS2 crystal and the direction of
substrate elongation changes. While the wrinkles were distributed uniformly across
the triangular WS2 crystal with an edge parallel to the tensile direction, localised
wrinkles were formed within the crystal with an edge perpendicular to the tensile
direction. These observations were explained by the FE simulations which indicated
that the pattern of wrinkling reflects the pattern of strain distribution within each
crystal (Fig. 3). Thus, the conclusion can be drawn that triangular TMD crystals
with one edge oriented parallel to the tensile strain direction are preferred for
straintronics due to more uniform strain distribution. These results benefit the
understanding of the mechanical properties of TMD crystals and shed light on the
design of high-quality straintronics and flexible electronics.
Fig. 2 Investigation of 2D WS2/PDMS under tension. a Schematic of 2D WS2/PDMS in tension

under a Raman microscope. b–d Optical images of a representative WS2 triangle crystal under
tension at PDMS strains of (b) 0, (c) 0.16 and (d) 0.32. e Energy of trion and exciton PL peaks as a
function of PDMS tensile strain, showing two distinct regions [28]
Fig. 3 FE simulation of WS2 under tensile strain. a–d FE model and simulation results of WS2/
PDMS sample under tensile strain with one edge of WS2 oriented parallel to the strain direction. e–
h FE model and simulation results of WS2/PDMS sample under tensile strain with one edge of
WS2 oriented perpendicular to the strain direction [28]
4.2 Energy Harvesting and Storage
The 2D TMDs also attract significant interest as they have the ability to be applied
in a broad range of energy applications such as solar energy harvesting [16, 19],
catalysis for water splitting and hydrogen evolution reaction [7, 26], energy gen-
erator [24] and energy storage [18, 22].
Owing to the unique features of nearly transparent and lightweight and a direct
bandgap at the infrared range, 2D TMD can be integrated into smart windows for
green buildings. The smart window is an advanced glazing technology developed in
recent years based on phase changing materials such as thermochromic VO2 which
can regulate the solar heat influx in response to temperature variation while
maintaining the visible light transmittance [30]. It has been demonstrated that
monolayer TMDs has the potential to form p-n junctions with the VO2 thin film, as
shown in the band alignment plots in Fig. 4a [11]. Thus, a transparent solar cell
device is proposed via the van der Waals heterostructure formation of VO2 and
monolayer TMDs, with graphene serving as low contact resistance electrodes, as
shown in Fig. 4b. The demonstrated photovoltaic effect of the transparent 2D TMD/
VO2 offers promising possibilities of incorporating solar harvesting techniques into
smart window applications for high energy efficient green buildings.
254 Q. Zhang et al.
Fig. 4 Development of TMD-based multifunctional smart window. a Band diagrams of MoS2/

VO2 heterostructures for insulating and metallic VO2 phases [11]. b Setup of proposed TMD/VO2
solar cell with graphene electrodes for smart window applications
5 Conclusions
In summary, 2D TMDs exhibit high potential to be adopted as high-performance,

multifunctional building and construction components for the innovation of the
construction industry. Efforts have been made towards the industrial-scale synthesis
and transfer of these atomically thin 2D layers. Their ability to be applied as
next-generation strain sensors for SHM and energy harvesting components for
green buildings has been demonstrated. However, for the ultimate application of
these novel 2D nanomaterials in the engineering practice, further works need to be
conducted in the aspects of mass production and processing compatible with the
current industrial technologies, incorporation into the traditional construction
materials, as well as deeper understanding on the fundamentals of the ultrathin
materials.
Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the support from Australian Research Council
(ARC).
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Single Shot MultiBox Detector Based
Active Monitoring for Anti-collision
Between Vessels and Bridges
Y. Xia, Z. F. Shao, W. C. He, and L. M. Sun
Abstract Artificial intelligence based navigational object detection is discussed in

this paper for anti-collision between vessel and bridge. Motion based object
detection method widely used in existing anti-collision monitoring systems is
incompetent in dealing with complicated and changeable waterway for its limita-
tions in accuracy, robustness and efficiency. The detection module is discussed in
detail. A vessel-exclusive dataset with tons of image samples is established for
neural network training and a Single Shot MultiBox Detector (SSD) based object
detection model with both universality and pertinence is generated attributing to
tactics of sample filtering, data augmentation and large-scale optimization.
Comparison results with conventional methods confirms the advantages of the
proposed method along with in situ test carried out at Songpu Bridge in Shanghai,
China. Results illustrate that the method is qualified for long-term monitoring and
providing information support for further analysis and decision making.
Keywords Collision avoidance Video surveillance Object detection SSD
Y. Xia (&) Z. F. Shao L. M. Sun

College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
e-mail: yxia@tongji.edu.cn
Z. F. Shao
e-mail: 1732302@tongji.edu.cn
L. M. Sun
e-mail: lmsun@tongji.edu.cn
W. C. He
Shanghai Municipal Engineering Design Institute (Group) Co., Ltd., Shanghai 200000, China
e-mail: he_wc.dq1@smedi.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_25
258 Y. Xia et al.
1 Introduction
Maintenance of civil infrastructure has become critical with the social development
[7, 8]. We propose a technical framework of the active monitoring system for
anti-collision between vessel and bridge based on deep-learning object detection
and the detection module of it is discussed in detail [4, 5, 6]. In comparison with the
existing systems using motion based method, the utilization of deep-learning based
object detection method gives it more stability and intelligence in dealing with
complicated and changeable situation [1, 3].
2 Framework
A technical framework of the video monitoring system for vessel-bridge collision

avoidance is proposed, which contains six modules, including image acquisition,
detection, tracking, prediction, risk evaluation and decision-making (see Fig. 1).
This paper aims at the specific method and operation of the detection module,
which is the basic part of the whole monitoring system.
Fig. 1 Technical framework

Single Shot MultiBox Detector Based Active Monitoring … 259
3 Navigational Object Detection
3.1 Neural Network Model
There are several particularities and difficulties of navigational object detection task,
including complicated and changeable environment, variety of appearance,
expansive monitoring area and rendezvous and overlap among targets [2].
Single shot multibox detector is one of the most advanced deep-learning object
detection methods. It integrates feature extraction, box regression and classification
into a one-stage convolutional network and has higher operation speed for heavy
work of wide-area monitoring. Thus SSD is chose as the basic model of naviga-
tional object detection modules (see Fig. 2).
The overall training object loss function of SSD is a weighted sum of the
localization loss and the confidence loss:
1
Lðx; c; l; gÞ ¼ Lconf ðx; cÞ þ aLloc ðx; l; gÞ ð1Þ
N
where N is the number of matched default boxes and the loss would be 0 if N = 0,
and the weight term a is set to 1. The confidence loss is a softmax loss over multiple
classes confidences:
XN X
Lconf ðx; cÞ ¼ xp logð^cpi Þ
i2Pos ij i2Neg
log ^c0i ð2Þ
expðcpi Þ
^cpi ¼ P p ð3Þ
p expðci Þ
where xpij ¼ f1; 0g is the indicator for matching the i-th default box to the j-th
ground truth box of category p and the category 0 is background. The localization
loss is a Smooth L1 loss between the predicted box (l) and the ground truth box
(g) parameters. The localization parameters of the predicted box are expressed as
the relative offsets to the default bounding box (d).
Fig. 2 SSD model

260 Y. Xia et al.
3.2 Dataset
In order to achieve ideal detection effect in the vessel-bridge collision avoidance

surveillance system, the SSD model should be trained with appropriate dataset.
A good dataset must take an overall consideration of adaptability to different ship
type, view angle and environment and pertinence to specified work scene. There are
two type of dataset for object detection task, universal ones and exclusive ones. The
former usually contain wide-ranging object classes and big data quantity to fulfill
the detection requirement of most objects, but could not achieve desired perfor-
mance for precision-demanding task of specific object. The most commonly used
universal dataset include PASCAL VOC and MS-COCO and so on. The latter aim
at particular task for one or several object to achieve best detection effects. Thus we
establish a dataset especially for vessel detection with more than 35,000 images of
ships annotated named vessel collision dataset. All images of VC dataset are col-
lected via internet and field-gathering (see Figs. 3 and 4).
3.3 Large-Scale Monitoring Problem
Vessel-bridge collision avoidance monitoring is of wide surveillance area and

enormous target quantity, while ships far away are too small to detect without long
lens using conventional methods or deep-learning methods. In order to solve this
problem a wide-area division tactic is proposed. A parameter of object scale is
defined:

h w
k ¼ min ; ð9Þ
H W
where H and W are the height and width of the image, h and w are the height and
width of the object bounding. It is indicated that SSD applicable to object with a k
Fig. 3 Performance comparison between VC and VOC 0712

Fig. 4 Loss-iteration curve
at 0.1 to 1 and the detection accuracy decreases with falling k, while the scale
parameters of many vessels in practical surveillance pictures are much smaller than
0.1. The SSD architecture contributes to its limited capability dealing with small
object.
4 Contrast
A comprehensive evaluation is conducted to make a comparison between the SSD

based method proposed and the conventional motion based one. Visual background
extractor is one of the most advanced motion based detectors and is chose as the
comparison object [5].
The comparison results indicate that the proposed method shows remarkable
advantages in robustness, accuracy, efficiency and intelligence. As shown in Fig. 3,
the motion based detector needs initialization phase to achieve stable operation
while the proposed one starts from the first frame and function well all the time. The
conventional method confounds shadow, reflection and overlapping vessel with
target vessel itself and neglects the berthed one mechanically while the results of the
proposed method are much more accurate and smart. Moreover, the conventional
method produces a lot of false results due to noise caused by wave and light
(Fig. 5).
262 Y. Xia et al.
Fig. 5 Performance comparison between SSD and ViBe
5 Conclusions
A deep-learning based navigational object detection method for active vessel-bridge

collision avoidance monitoring is discussed. A neural network model is built based
on SSD and a vessel collision dataset containing more than 35,000 labelled samples
is established. Both generalization capacity and practical performance are taken into
account through sample filtering and data augmentation. A wide-area division
optimization method is proposed to solve the problem of small-object detection.
Comparison results with conventional methods indicate that the proposed
deep-learning method shows great superiority, including robustness to noise and
dynamic background, sustained stable operation without initialization, higher
positioning accuracy and speed and identification ability. The in situ test results
validate the feasibility of the proposed method for long-term monitoring and pro-
viding information support for further analysis and decision making.
Acknowledgements This paper is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China
(2018YFC0809606), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51978508), the Science
and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (17DZ1204301), and the Fundamental
Research Funds for the Central Universities.
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Advances in Structural Engineering
Composites for Alternative Railway
Sleepers
W. Ferdous, A. Manalo, M. Muttashar, P. Yu, R. Kakarla, C. Salih,

and P. Schubel
Abstract Approximately 200 million timber sleepers are currently being used in
rail networks around the world due to their availability, affordability and depend-
ability. It is estimated that nearly 90% of the existing timber sleepers will need
replacement by 2030. Recently, increasing costs, declining quality, hardwood
timber scarcity and environmental sensitivity has challenged the continuing use of
timber sleepers in rail track. Consequently, the Australian rail industry is now
looking an alternative materials to replace existing timber sleepers and it is pro-
jected that in next five years they will move from a traditional timber-based system
(15 years lifespan) to that of an engineered composites system (at least 50 years
lifespan). This paper critically reviewed the recent development of composite
sleepers, identified the potential issues and provided guidelines to overcome the
challenges.
W. Ferdous (&) A. Manalo P. Yu R. Kakarla C. Salih P. Schubel

University of Southern Queensland, Centre for Future Materials (CFM),
Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia
e-mail: Wahid.Ferdous@usq.edu.au
A. Manalo
e-mail: Allan.Manalo@usq.edu.au
P. Yu
e-mail: Peng.Yu@usq.edu.au
R. Kakarla
e-mail: Reddy.Kakarla@usq.edu.au
C. Salih
e-mail: Choman.Salih@usq.edu.au
P. Schubel
e-mail: Peter.Schubel@usq.edu.au
M. Muttashar
Department of Civil Engineering, Engineering College,
University of Thi-Qar, Nasiriyah, Thi Qar, Iraq
e-mail: majid-alzaidi@utq.edu.iq

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_26
268 W. Ferdous et al.
Keywords Alternative sleepers Composite materials Recent development

Future opportunities
1 Introduction
Australia has the sixth largest rail network in the world and traditionally timber
sleepers have been used due to their low cost, availability, ease of handling and
fittings, excellent resistance to shocks and vibrations, and good electrical resistance.
Recently, rising costs, declining quality, hardwood timber scarcity and environ-
mental sensitivity has challenged the continuing use of timber sleepers in rail track.
Currently 200 million timber sleepers are laid in Australian rail networks that are
worth over $1.3 billion per year. It is estimated that nearly 90% of these existing
timber sleepers will need replacement by 2030. Due to this, the Australian rail
industry is now looking alternative materials to replace existing timber sleepers.
Polymer composite sleeper technologies have emerged as a potential alternative
to timber sleepers. Different from steel and concrete, composite sleepers can be
designed to mimic timber behaviour (an essential requirement for timber track
maintenance), are almost maintenance free, and are more sustainable from an
environmental perspective. Despite the many advantages of composite sleepers,
they have gained a very limited acceptance by rail industry to date. Polymer
sleepers manufactured from recycled plastic materials are low cost but they have
limited strength, stiffness and dynamic properties which in most cases, are
incompatible with those of timber. Moreover, the prohibitive cost of fibre con-
taining polymer sleepers’ limit their widespread application.
This paper provides an overview of recent developments of composite railway
sleepers and their limitations, and suggests a solution which overcomes the chal-
lenges inherent in their utilisation and acceptance. The outcome of this paper will
benefit sleeper design engineers in rail industry to understand the current challenges
and possible solutions.
2 Recent Developments
Several composite sleeper technologies have been developed in different parts of

the world, mostly in last two decades. Depending on the reinforcement, these
sleeper technologies can be classified into three major categories (a) no or short
fibre reinforced sleepers, (b) unidirectional fibre reinforced sleepers and (c) multi-
directional fibre reinforced sleepers.
Composites for Alternative Railway Sleepers 269
2.1 No or Short Fibre Reinforced Sleepers
Sleepers that consist of recycled plastic (plastic bags, scrapped vehicle tyres, plastic
coffee cups, milk jugs, laundry detergent bottles etc.) or bitumen with fillers (sand,
gravel, recycled glass or short glass fibres <20 mm) falls under the category. The
load coming to the sleeper is mainly carried by the polymer. While some of these
technologies introduced short glass fibre to increase the stiffness and/or resist crack,
they do not have major reinforcing effect to improve the structural performance
required for heavy duty railway sleeper application. The high demand for alter-
native sleeper materials has resulted in some railway maintenance companies to
adopt and trial the usage of these materials. As a sleeper material, no/short fibre
sleepers offer a range of benefits including the ease of drill and cut, good durability,
consumption of waste materials, reasonable price, and toughness. The notable
sleepers in this category are TieTek [1, 35], Axion [3, 28], IntegriCo [5, 20], I-Plas
[6, 32], Tufflex [7, 36], Natural rubber [8, 31], Kunststof Lankhorst Product
(KLP) [24, 26], Mixed Plastic Waste (MPW) [19] and Wood-core [38] are shown in
Fig. 1.
TieTek Axion IntegriCo
I-Plas Tufflex Natural rubber
KLP MPW Wood core
Fig. 1 No or short fibre reinforced recycled plastic sleepers (References given in the text)
2.2 Unidirectional Fibre Reinforced Sleepers
In this category, the sleeper technologies are reinforced with long continuous glass
fibre reinforcement in the longitudinal direction and no or very short random fibre
in the transverse direction. The strength and stiffness in the longitudinal direction is
primarily governed by long glass fibre while it is dominated by polymer in the
transverse direction. These sleepers are primarily suitable for ballasted rail track
where the stresses in sleepers are governed by flexural loading. Although some of
these sleepers have been installed in bridge applications but the major concern is
their limited shear capacity that makes them less than ideal where the sleepers are
subjected to high level of combined flexural and shear forces. Easy to drill and cut,
good durability, superior flexural strength and modulus of elasticity are the
advantages of the sleeper in this category. The FFU (Fibre-reinforced Foamed
Urethane) synthetic sleeper [17, 22, 34] is classified in this sleeper category. The
key features of this material include its light weight, good resistance to water
absorption, heat and corrosion, its ease of drilling, and its more than 50 years of
design life. FFU material has been used in railway industry as plain-track sleepers,
bridge transoms, and turnout bearers with a wide range of sleeper height from
100 mm to 450 mm. This material has been installed (Fig. 2) in more than
1300 km of track (approximately 2 million sleepers) with its main application in
turnouts, open steel girder structures and tunnels. Apart from Japan, Sekisui FFU
components have been installed in Germany, Austria, Taiwan, Netherland, USA
and Australia. In 2010, the aged timber sleepers at Hornsby, NSW, Australia was
renewed using FFU alternative sleepers [23]. Their applicability is also now
investigated for a long span rail bridge in Chongqing city, China [27].
(a) FFU sleepers in track (b) dust may produce in cutting and drilling
Fig. 2 Unidirectional fibre reinforced sleeper [25]

2.3 Multidirectional Fibre Reinforced Sleepers
Polymer sleepers have been developed with long reinforcement fibres in both
longitudinal and transverse directions and consequently both the flexural and shear
behaviour are dominated by fibres. The structural performance of this sleeper can be
engineered through the adjustment of the fibre reinforcements in each direction
according to the specified performance requirements. The sandwich polymer
sleeper (Fig. 3) [29, 37] and the hybrid composite [14] sleeper wherein fibres are
oriented in the two directions to resist flexural stresses as well as shear forces falls
under this category. The author published a series of research work towards the
development of this innovative composite sleeper technology [9–16].
Table 1 compared the performance of different fibre composite sleeper tech-
nologies with the traditional timber sleepers specified by American Railway
Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA) standard. It can be
seen that the modulus of elasticity and modulus of rupture of no/short fibre com-
posite sleepers are significantly lower than the softwood sleepers. The
(a) installation technique (b) drilling
(c) cross section of transom (bridge sleeper) (d) installation of transom
Fig. 3 Multidirectional fibre reinforced sleepers [15, 37]

Table 1 Performance comparison of different fibre reinforced polymer sleepers

Performance AREMA code Composite sleepers
measurement Oak Soft-wood Glue No or Uni-directional Multi-directional
lam short
Density, kg/m3 1096 855 960 850– 740 1040–2000
1150
Modulus of 8.4 7.4 12.0 1.5– 8.1 5.0–8.0
elasticity, GPa 1.8
Modulus of 57.9 49.3 66.9 17.2– 142 70–120
rupture, MPa 20.6
Shear strength, 5 4 4 4 10 15–20
MPa
Rail seat 4.6 3 3.9 15.2– 28 40
compression, MPa 20.6
Screw withdrawal, 22.2 13.3 n/a 31.6– 65 >60
kN 35.6
unidirectional fibre reinforced sleeper can meet the performance requirements and
the multidirectional one further improved the shear capacity. The negative
impression of heavy weight of prestressed concrete sleeper can be solved using
composite technology. However, there are few challenges of these sleepers that
need to overcome before their widespread applications.
3 Overcoming the Challenges
Composite sleeper technologies have emerged as an effective alternative for railway

track maintenance and renewal. However, there are barriers that still need to be
overcome for their increased acceptance and use. This section discusses the
emerging issues on composite sleepers and presents opportunities for overcoming
these challenges.
3.1 Strength and Stiffness
The composite sleeper technologies have been developed to replace existing timber
sleepers, therefore, the strength and stiffness of composite sleepers are expected to
be similar to timber. Table 1 indicated that the strength and stiffness of no/short
fibre sleepers (17.2–20.6 MPa and 1.5–1.8 GPa) are significantly lower than the
softwood timber (49.3 MPa and 7.4 GPa). One approach to improve the strength
and stiffness of this type of sleeper is to reinforce them either with long fibres or
steel bars. However, the strength and stiffness of unidirectional and multidirectional
fibre sleepers are comparable to timber. The high shear strength of multidirectional
fibre sleepers makes them ideal for bridge application.
3.2 Drillability
The polymer sleeper should be designed in such a way so that can be drilled easily
and quickly, while it should possess high pull out resistance at the same time.
A hardwood timber sleeper has a screw-spike resistance of 40 kN [4, 22] and it
requires approximately 10 s to drill using standard drilling equipment. The drilling
of no/short fibre sleeper (recycled plastic) could be easier than the other available
polymer sleepers, however, the loosening of a fastener over time could be an issue
due to the nature of plastic materials that cannot grip the screw firmly like concrete,
especially under dynamic loading conditions. The dust produced during cutting and
drilling of unidirectional fibre sleeper (Fig. 2b) may require a protective dust mask
which is uncomfortable to the workers on site. The polymer concrete sleeper [15]
offers superior screw withdrawal resistance but it takes longer time to drill com-
paring with the other two. To make the drilling faster, the materials at the rail seat
region of polymer sleeper could be modified. Moreover, the pre-drilling of railway
sleepers on one or two sides may reduce the on-site installation time.
3.3 Cost Issue
Van Erp and Mckay [37] indicated that the price of high fibre containing composite
sleeper technologies (unidirectional and multidirectional fibre sleeper) is approxi-
mately 5 to 10 times higher than that of a standard timber sleeper. On the other
hand, the Recycled Technologies International (RTI) stated that the costs of no/
short fibre reinforced sleeper range from 85 to 105 USD per sleeper, a price not
including installation which represents a significant value and can range from 70 to
200 USD per sleeper [30]. However, the lower life cycle cost is anticipated to offset
its high initial cost [3, 20, 30] which to attract the attention of the rail industry,
needs to be similar to, or insignificantly higher than, that of traditional ones.
Similarly, optimising the manufacturing process and material usage would result in
a more cost competitive sleeper.
3.4 Design Guidelines
A complete design guideline for composite railway sleeper has not been established
yet. However, standard provisions containing specifications for alternative sleepers
are provided by the Queensland Rail [18] in Australia, and American Railway
Engineering and Maintenance-of-way Association (AREMA) in the USA [2].
International Organization for Standardisation (ISO) published material character-
isation guidelines for plastic railway sleepers in ISO 12856-1 document [21]. In
Australia, currently the Rail Industry Safety and Standards Board (RISSB) is
developing a new Specification for Alternative Material Sleepers—Timber
Replacement (Standard) [33]. Once completed, this standard is expected to provide
the performance-based requirements to allow rail infrastructure managers (RIMS)
to select appropriate alternative material sleepers.
4 Conclusions
This paper presented a brief overview of the recent developments of composite

railway sleepers, their current challenges and some suggestions to overcome these
challenges. The following conclusions are drawn:
• Composite sleepers that are available in market contains no/short fibres, uni-
directional long fibres and multidirectional long fibres. Only high fibre con-
taining sleepers can mimic the structural behaviour of existing timber sleepers.
• The strength and stiffness of low fibre containing sleepers are significantly lower
than the standard timber sleepers. To overcome this limitation, it is recom-
mended to reinforce them either with fibres or steel bars.
• Introducing an alternative drillable material at rail-seat location or pre-drilling of
railway sleepers may overcome the challenges of on-site drilling.
• The lower life cycle cost of composite sleepers is anticipated to offset its high
initial cost. Further reduction of the cost can be achieved by optimising man-
ufacturing process and material usage.
• The existing specifications for composite sleepers are unable to provide com-
plete design guidelines. The upcoming specification (RISSB) is expected to
provide the performance-based requirements to select appropriate alternative
material for sleepers.
Acknowledgements This project is partly supported by the Cooperative Research Centres

Projects (CRC-P57360 - CRC-P Round 3) grants.
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Modal Analysis Experiments
on Prestressed Concrete Sleepers
D. Nielsen and E. Palmer
Abstract Railway sleepers are a critical component of track infrastructure and

concrete sleepers are becoming the most common sleeper type found in heavy haul
and mixed traffic rail networks due to their long life, excellent reliability, high track
stability and ease of resurfacing using track machines. When inserted in track,
concrete sleepers are usually surrounded by ballast with only the top exposed. With
limited access to the sides and base of sleepers, the condition of concrete sleepers
cannot be visually assessed without their removal from track, which is a time
consuming and expensive process. Furthermore, any form of Non-Destructive
Testing of concrete sleepers is difficult, even if the sleeper has been removed from
the track. Modal analysis has been shown to be an effective approach for identifying
the dynamic behaviour and responses of structures. Using modal analysis experi-
ments, this research aims to identify changes to the dynamic response on a range of
sleepers in various condition states. Such information may, in the future, yield
methods of determining sleeper integrity and remaining life.
Sleepers were sourced from multiple railway organisations and had been used in
various operational and environmental conditions. All concrete sleepers were
manufactured after 1979 and were designed for various loading and gauge speci-
fications. In some cases, sleepers were supplied with existing cracks and, in other
cases, cracks were artificially created to compare changes in dynamic response. The
results are presented in the form of comparative frequency response functions for
different sleeper designs and condition states. Important results are identified and
discussed.
Keywords Concrete Sleeper Railroad Dynamic Response
D. Nielsen (&) E. Palmer

Centre for Railway Engineering, Central Queensland University,
Rockhampton, QLD 4701, Australia
e-mail: d.nielsen@cqu.edu.au
E. Palmer
e-mail: e.palmer@cqu.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_27
278 D. Nielsen and E. Palmer
1 Introduction
Sleepers are a critical component of the track infrastructure and are essential to safe
train operations. Concrete sleepers are becoming the most common sleeper types
found in mixed traffic rail networks due to their long life, excellent reliability, high
track stability and ease of resurfacing using track machines.
Many concrete sleepers have been in-track and successfully operating for over
40 years in heavy haul traffic conditions and their current performance indicates
that they will last much longer than the predicted design life expectation of at least
50 years. As the minimum expected service life is fast approaching, it has prompted
questions about how long concrete sleepers might last and what will be the early
signs of failure.
Sleeper life has a significant implication on future replacement budget planning.
The Australian railway network contains over 30 million concrete sleepers, with a
replacement value over AU$18B. Equally important is an understanding of whether
they will fail sporadically (at different times) or relatively uniformly (over a few
years), presenting different budget needs and operational risks.
Identifying faulty sleepers before they fail will have a significant impact on any
railway business in the future. Concrete sleeper condition assessment is visual and
usually limited to the top of the sleeper. Assignment of sleeper condition category is
predominately based on surface cracking and fastener condition. Currently,
Australian concrete sleeper failures causing derailments and train delays are very
rare. This is expected as all Australian concrete sleepers having been operating
within their design life. However, as sleepers continue to age and deteriorate, early
detection of defective sleepers will become increasingly important.
This research explores existing concrete analysis methods with the aim of
selecting an appropriate in-service assessment approach to identify concrete
sleepers that are nearing the end of their service life. It is envisaged that the
proposed testing methodology will provide additional information to support effi-
cient asset management of track components. Furthermore, this research is the first
to collect long-term compliance and analysis data from multiple Australian sleeper
manufacturers.
Concrete sleepers play an essential role in responding to the varying dynamic
loads which are generated at the rail/wheel interface. Existing studies of dynamic
rail impact include a focus on elements such as natural frequencies, modal shapes,
damping characteristics, failure modes, residual strength and energy absorption
[12]. The imparted energy is transmitted through the rails and rail pads (where
present) before it is absorbed by the sleeper through means of vibration, defor-
mation and fracture. In one particular study conducted in soft track conditions
(typical track modulus of 10–20 MPa) by Kaewunruen and Remennikov [4], it was
noted that approximately 45% of the energy was absorbed as bending and fracture
while the remainder was dissipated through wheel damage, rail pad wear, sleeper
crack acceleration and the breakdown of ballast material.
Modal Analysis Experiments on Prestressed Concrete Sleepers 279
It has been noted that defects in the rails, wheels, and supporting structures can
all contribute to the imposition of dynamic loads as high as 750 kN [9].
Unsurprisingly, train velocity has been shown through many studies to be a
dominating factor in dynamic load generation and the ratio of rail-seat load to wheel
load has appeared to have a linear relation to wheel speed [1, 8, 10].
Modal analysis is a desirable means of structural testing due to its
non-destructive nature and relatively low cost. A potential application of this
technology is to identify the mode shapes of in situ concrete sleepers at natural
frequencies and then correlate with existing data to speculate on the in-service
condition of the test sample. The assessment would require an understanding of
dynamical sensitivity and stochastic analysis [3].
Existing studies have used modal analysis to measure the dynamic response in
Australian concrete sleeper specimens [1, 8]. In a previous lab test by Remennikov
and Kaewunruen [8], four different sleepers were surrounded by ballast to replicate
an actual track condition. Two different boundary conditions were tested: free-free
and in situ. The free-free boundary condition was provided by hanging the sleeper
with soft springs. The in situ boundary conditions were provided by placing the
sleeper into a box of ballast.
An impact hammer was used to excite vibrations at different points on the
sleeper [8] and accelerometers were installed to measure the structural response due
to hammer blows. The frequency response functions (FRF) were obtained using a
pulse vibration analyser. The recorded FRFs were analysed to identify natural
frequencies and corresponding mode shapes. The impact hammer provided sleepers
with excitations in the range of 0 to 1600 Hz. Five different vibration modes were
detected at different frequencies for both the free-free and in situ boundary con-
ditions as follows:
• First frequency represents the lowest frequency corresponding to the funda-
mental bending mode.
• Second frequency represents the second bending mode.
• Third frequency represents the lowest torsional mode.
• Fourth frequency represents the third bending mode.
• Fifth frequency represents the second torsional mode.
One study performed by Sadeghi [11] measured the impact hammer excitations
at 26 points equally spaced along the sleeper. Two accelerometers were installed at
the middle and near one end of the sleeper. The data from both the accelerometer
and hammer were amplified and transferred to the Fast Fourier Analyser (FFA). The
following observations were made:
• The installation of a rail pad showed a slight reduction in the natural frequency
of the sleeper.
• Compacted ballast contributed to considerably higher responses than specimens
tested on a bed of degraded material.
• Mode shapes from specimens with rail pads showed less bending in lower
modes and greater torsion in higher modes.
The rail industry recognises vibration and noise from wheels on rail to be
destructive and problematic [12]. The ability of rail components to attenuate this
form of energy is quantified as a damping ratio. The addition of rail pads between
the rail-sleeper interface was a direct effort to increase the system damping prop-
erties, but many studies have concluded that their overall effectiveness on low
frequency, high magnitude impacts is insignificant [11].
2 Experimental Overview
2.1 Aim
The study aims to analyse the dynamic responses of concrete sleepers with the
intent of finding a quick method of evaluating the effectiveness of in situ concrete
sleepers. The study builds on previous research to identify changes in dynamic
responses from sleepers in various states of deterioration and in various support
conditions.
2.2 Concrete Sleepers
Groups of older prestressed concrete sleepers from various Australian railway

organisations were removed from track for analysis. Rejected sleepers from the
manufacturer due to low compressive strength were also supplied for analysis.
Sleeper groups were recorded with accompanying metadata including manufac-
turer, model, year, batch, design axle load, time in service, service axle loads, traffic
tonnage and environmental conditions whilst in service. Sleeper control groups
were defined as sleepers manufactured at the same plant and year, but never
installed in track and not stored in a high chloride environment.
The study includes the experimental analysis on nine (9) concrete sleepers.
Sleepers numbered 1 to 3 were rejected sleepers from the manufacturer due to low
compressive strength. Sleepers numbered 4 to 6 were “used” sleepers with concrete
cracks. Sleepers numbered 7 to 9 were undamaged and therefore selected as control
sleepers. Additional tests using other sleepers were carried out on in situ sleepers (in
track) to ascertain and compare their dynamic response characteristics.
Each sleeper was assessed using vibration analysis with vibrations originating from
an impact hammer. The mass of the hammer is 1.34 kg and the height of drop was
0.217 m. The impact was applied at different locations on the sleeper and a
piezoelectric microphone and accelerometer recorded the resulting wave form from
one end of the sleeper. Sleepers were tested in a range of supporting conditions
including on timber, attached to rail and on ground without ballast, and in an
operating track environment with rail and ballast.
The vibration waveform was captured and the Fast Fourier Transform
(FFT) applied using Matlab to determine the natural frequencies. In particular, a
section containing the vibration waveform was taken from the recorded waveform
for each impact. An FFT was then taken of the rectangular windowed data and a
periodogram formed from the square of the FFT magnitude [5]. Three experiments
were conducted using this approach.
2.3.1 Experiment 1
Using three healthy control sleepers, a control periodogram was formed as the
average of the periodograms of the individual sleepers. Concrete sleeper design is
symmetrical, and this experiment confirms symmetry with modal responses. The
test that exhibits the richest frequency responses would be selected for all further
tests. Four symmetry tests were conducted:
Test A: striking the sleeper in the centre with the sensor on the left-hand end,
Test B: striking the sleeper in the centre with the sensor on the right-hand end,
Test C: striking the sleeper on the right-hand end with the sensor on the left-hand
end of the sleeper,
Test D: striking the sleeper on the left-hand end with the sensor on the right-hand
end of the sleeper.
2.3.2 Experiment 2
Comparative analysis was conducted to identify links between natural frequencies

and sleeper concrete compressive strength. Dynamic response testing was con-
ducted before and after destructive testing, which was conducted using the rail seat
ultimate load test as described in AS1085.14. A comparison with concrete com-
pressive strengths from core hole samples was also conducted.
2.3.3 Experiment 3
Comparative analysis of sleeper dynamic responses with different support condi-

tions comprising:
• sleepers sitting on soft loamy soil, rail attached with Pandrol e-clips and rail
pads,
• in situ sleepers with rail attached with Pandrol e-clips, rail pads and ballast.
3.1 Experiment 1
The comparative results of three healthy ‘control’ sleeper FFT analyses shows a
consistency in modal frequency in the spectra and with tests C and D displaying the
richest spectra, as shown in Fig. 1. This experiment showed that the locations of the
sensor and impact can be conducted from either end of the sleeper, resulting in the
same frequency response, albeit with different magnitudes. Based on the richer
spectra response from tests C and D, it was decided to use these tests to compare the
results for the remaining sleepers.
3.2 Experiment 2
As an example, a comparison of control spectra with dynamic response results from

tests on Sleeper 1 is shown in Fig. 2. This Figure shows that Sleeper 1 has a slightly
lower dynamic response across all frequencies compared to the control spectra. The
responses of the six sleepers tested demonstrate changes in modal frequencies that
were not evident for the control sleepers, see Fig. 1. The frequency difference is
larger in the higher frequencies and there is a much lower difference in the lower
frequencies. At 2 kHz, the difference is approximately 170 Hz, dropping to about
25 Hz difference at 400 Hz. As the frequency responses have a greater divergence
at the 2 kHz frequency, the isolated peak located near this frequency was selected
as the basis for further comparisons.
All six sleepers had a shift in dynamic response frequencies that had a strong
correlation (r = 0.918) with each sleeper’s Compressive Strength (CS). Table 1 lists
the differences in Ultimate Load Test (ULT), CS and frequency shift. However, due
to the small sample size, additional experiments are required to confirm this result.
Another test conducted in Experiment 2 is the comparison of response frequen-
cies before (Fig. 3(a)) and after (Fig. 3(b)) a destructive test. The ULS test breaks the
sleeper under a rail seat which effectively reduces the length of the sleeper.
Fig. 1 Control spectra
Fig. 2 Sleeper 1 example response comparison to control spectra

(a) Before ULT (b) After ULT
Fig. 3 Dynamic response test before and after ULT
Table 1 Frequency shift comparison to ULT and compressive strength

Sleeper ULT CS Peak near 2 kHz Frequency Shift of Peak near
number (kN) (MPa) Frequency 2 kHz (Hz)
1 670 40 1891 173
2 690 40 1854 210
3 630 35 1882 182
4 710 47 1977 87
5 NA 43 1927 137
6 660 43 1952 112
Control 790 52 2064 0
(average)
The comparative analysis has shown that every frequency response is increased
by approximately 197 Hz. This result aligns with existing knowledge on increasing
frequency responses from shorter lengths.
3.3 Experiment 3
The sleepers tested in Experiment 3 had a different gauge, axle load and design
from Experiment 2. Therefore, a different frequency was needed for comparative
analysis.
Dynamic response results obtained from an FFT analysis of in situ sleepers
identified that natural frequencies were clearly identifiable and suitable for use in a
comparative analysis. However, the damping increases when sleepers are in situ
with rail attached and surrounded by ballast.
(a) Sleeper A (b) Sleeper B (c) Sleeper C
Fig. 4 Dynamic responses for in situ concrete sleepers
(a) Timber support (b) Soft loamy soil support
Fig. 5 Dynamic responses of different sleeper supports
Damping was not measured in this experiment. Damping changes can also
provide insight into changes in sleeper dynamics. Variations in damping require the
employment of other methods such as the Chirp Z transform [7] or Prony’s method
[2, 6]. Further work will be directed along these lines.
The results of dynamic response analysis of three in situ sleepers are shown in
Fig. 4(a) to (c). It is seen that the in situ sleepers can be characterised by strong
modal signatures. The damping effect is evidenced by the lower magnitudes based
on the modal signatures. It may be possible to determine the nature of the foun-
dations or ballast condition on which they are sitting. The different sleeper
responses could be due to the different ballast support conditions or rail/sleeper
connection, highlighting that further work is needed in this area.
A dynamic response test of a sleeper supported on timber (without rails attached)
is shown in Fig. 5(a) and a similar sleeper placed on soft loamy soil with two rails
attached (including rail pads) is shown in Fig. 5(b). A comparison of response
modes shows that the sleeper placed on soft loamy soil (with rails attached) has
significant damping of the response frequencies and identifying frequency shifts
would be difficult.
4 Conclusion
This research has shown that prestressed concrete sleepers have a symmetrical
design and the location of impact and sensor are also symmetric and produce the
same dynamic response frequencies.
A frequency shift was observed on prestressed concrete sleepers with lower
concrete compressive strengths. The frequency shift was larger at the higher fre-
quencies and smaller at the lower frequencies. A correlation coefficient of 0.918
was recorded between the frequency shift and compressive concrete strength.
Lower compressive strengths resulted in a comparatively lower frequency response.
Concrete sleepers broken under the rail seat exhibited a uniform frequency shift
on all modes. The reduced length of the sleeper resulted in a frequency increase
which supports existing mathematical equations based on frequency responses and
beam lengths.
Sleepers with rails attached and placed on soft loamy soils exhibit significant
damping of all spectra, which will make it difficult to determine sleeper condition.
However, the sleeper damping can be measured and may lead to advancements in
ballast condition monitoring. Furthermore, it was shown that in situ sleepers exhibit
characteristic spectral signatures which may lend themselves to better diagnosis of
sleeper and ballast condition.
With additional research, there is potential for non-destructive, in situ sleeper
testing and ballast condition assessment. The successful outcome of this research
has the potential for commercial implementation. Further research investigating
changes in damping as well as modal frequency changes is on-going. This will
further assist in the identification and categorisation of defective sleepers and
sleeper support conditions.
Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the support of the Australasian Centre for Rail
Innovation (ACRI) for funding this research project, Project HH#19: Developing methodology for
concrete sleeper life prediction. The authors also acknowledge the support of the Centre for
Railway Engineering at Central Queensland University and the industry partners that have con-
tributed to this project.
References
1. Ahlbeck DR, Hadden JA (1985) Measurement and prediction of impact loads from worn
railroad wheel and rail surface profiles. J Eng Ind 107:197–205
2. Hauer JF (1991) Application of Prony analysis to the determination of modal content and
equivalent models for measured power system response. IEEE Trans Power Syst 6:1062–
1068
3. Kaewunruen S, Remennikov AM (2009) Trends in vibration-based structural health
monitoring of railway sleepers. In: SAPRI RC (ed) Mechanical vibrations: measurement,
effects and control. Nova Science Publishers, Inc
4. Kaewunruen S, Remennikov AM (2011) Experiments into impact behaviour of railway

prestressed concrete sleepers. Eng Fail Anal 18:2305–2315
5. Kay SM (1988) Modern spectral estimation: theory and application. Englewood Cliffs,
Prentice-Hall
6. Prony GRB (1795) Essai experimental et analytique etc. J de Ecole Polytech 1:24–76
7. Rabiner LR, Schafer RW, Rader CM (1969) The chirp z-transform algorithm and its
application. Bell Syst Tech J 48:1249–1292
8. Remennikov A, Kaewunruen S (2005) Investigation of vibration characteristics of prestressed
concrete sleepers in free-free and in-situ conditions. In: Australian structural engineering
conference 2005. Institution of Engineers Australia, Newcastle
9. Remennikov AM, Kaewunruen S (2008) A review of loading conditions for railway track
structures due to train and track vertical interaction. Struct Control Health Monit 15:207–234
10. Remennikov AM, Murray MH, Kaewunruen S (2008) Dynamic design guidelines for
prestressed concrete railway sleepers. In: Proceedings of the 20th Australasian conference on
the mechanics of structures and materials. University of Southern Queensland
11. Sadeghi J (2010) Field investigation on dynamics of railway track pre-stressed concrete
sleepers. Adv Struct Eng 13:139–151
12. Taherinezhad J, Sofi M, Mendis P, Ngo T (2013) A review of behaviour of Prestressed
concrete sleepers. Electron J Struct Eng 1:1–16
Effect of Different Structural Parameters
on Track Lateral Stability
H. Askarinejad, F. Yu, L. Qiu, and J. Cui
Abstract Track structure is a complex layered composite under extreme loading.

Track lateral stability or lateral resistance is one of the most important parameters
influencing track structural performance and safety. This parameter controls two
important track structural problems including the track lateral misalignment and
track buckling. In this study, an efficient structural model of railway track with the
length of 20 m is developed where the rail and sleepers are modelled as steel and
concrete beams respectively. The rail/sleeper connection and the track substructure
(ballast/subgrade) are considered as spring layers. The model is validated using the
experimental data available in the literature and is employed to conduct a series of
comparative parametric studies. The results show that the developed model can
provide an efficient tool to analyse the global track structural responses. The sim-
ulation results provide an insight on the structural behaviour of track under lateral
load and the effects of different track design parameters on its lateral stability.
Keywords Track structure Lateral stability Rail
1 Introduction
The track lateral stability is defined as the track ability to resist lateral loads to keep
the track geometry within safe limits. This parameter controls two important track
structural problems including the track lateral misalignment and track buckling.
Track lateral misalignment can be generated due to lateral dynamic excitations from
train wheels, temperature variations or the seismic events. For example, earthquakes
H. Askarinejad (&) F. Yu L. Qiu

Department of Engineering and Architectural Studies, Ara Institute of Canterbury
(Christchurch Polytechnic), Christchurch, New Zealand
e-mail: Hossein.askarinejad@ara.ac.nz
J. Cui
Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering, University of Canterbury,
Christchurch, New Zealand

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_28
290 H. Askarinejad et al.
can cause significant structural damages to railway tracks through permanent lateral
displacements. In 2010 Canterbury earthquake in New Zealand, the track lateral
displacement varied from minor to meters off from its original position. Usually the
rails were still fastened to the sleepers while shifting laterally.
The resistance of track to lateral loads or excitations is affected by a combination
of different factors. This phenomenon has been studied by many researchers either
through field or lab experiments or through finite element simulations such as those
reported in Zand and Moraal [8], Kabo [3], Kish [5], Zakeri et al. [7], Arbabi and
Khalighi [1], Koike et al. [6]. The majority of the studies reported in the literature
deal with the local stability with focus on parameters such as the sleeper shape,
sleeper/ballast friction, and ballast properties (mainly from geotechnical aspects).
However, very limited results are reported where the global lateral stability is
examined where the effect of other track design parameters such as the rail type
(flexural rigidity) or sleeper material (rigidity) or sleeper spacing are compared or
discussed.
Therefore, in this study, a structural model of railway track with the length of
20 m is developed where the rail and sleepers are modelled as steel and concrete
beams respectively. The connection between the rails and sleepers and between
sleepers and the ground are modelled as spring layers. The model is employed to
conduct a series of analyses to evaluate the global track lateral stability examining
the effect of rail type, ballast lateral stiffness, sleeper material and sleeper spacing
on the track lateral shift magnitudes. The model is developed in structural analysis
software SPACE GASS that is a multi-purpose structural analysis program for 2D
and 3D structures. Application of such structural software in modelling the railway
track is rarely reported in the literature.
2 Model Development
The track structure can be classified into superstructure and substructure. In con-
ventional ballasted track system, the superstructure is composed of rails, sleepers
and fastening system. The substructure consists of ballast layer, capping layer (or
sub-ballast layer) and subgrade. The rails are manufactured in different sizes and
lengths and assembled either by welding or bolted connections in the field. Sleepers
are located between the rail and the ballast in transverse direction to the rail. The
sleepers transfer the loads from the rail to the track substructure and also restrain the
rail in the lateral, longitudinal and vertical directions. The fastening system
including clips and pads is used to fix the rail to the sleeper. They help with
maintaining the track gauge and acting as an elastic and damping layer between the
rail and the sleepers. Ballast layer is the select crushed granular material beneath the
sleepers to provide resiliency, transfer the loads to subgrade safely and to keep track
superstructure in the required position.
There are many methods of modelling and analysis of rail track system
depending on the purpose of the study. In general, in track structural modelling,
Effect of Different Structural Parameters on Track Lateral Stability 291
rails are considered as infinite uniform beams laid on elastic foundation modelled
either as continuous or discrete elastic supports representing the sleepers, fastening
and track substructure [2]. In this study, the track model was considered as a
structure that consists of beams and spring connections. The rail was modelled as
NZR 50 kg rail profile. The Sleepers were modelled as concrete beams with a
trapezoid cross section connected to the rails by fastenings. The standard concrete
sleeper type used in New Zealand railways is 2130 mm long, 207 mm wide on top
and 254 mm at the bottom. The depth of concrete sleeper at the ends are 174 mm;
the depth varies from 194 mm at rail seat to 164 mm in the middle. Here, for the
modelling the geometry of the sleeper was simplified with constant depth of
174 mm. The sleeper spacing is defined as 700 mm centre to centre as the common
spacing in New Zealand Railways. The Rails sit on High density polyethylene pads
and are fastened to the sleepers with clips. For modelling, the fastening was sim-
plified as a node connection restrained through springs.
The model was developed with the length of 20 m to minimise the effect of
boundary conditions (Fig. 1). In the SPACE GASS software the structural items are
treated as frame elements, so defining different restraint conditions for the top and
bottom surfaces of an element is challenging. For example, the top surface of the
sleepers are connected to the rail and the bottom surface is sitting on the ballast
layer. To overcome this challenge, a number of equally spaced vertical members
were defined underneath each sleeper connected to the ground using spring
connections.
2.1 Validation of the Model
To verify the model, the global behaviour of the model under static and dynamic
excitations is examined. Figure 2 shows the typical track displacement under a
tentative lateral load. It can be observed that, the model behaves logically under a
Fig. 1 Track model developed in SPACE GASS

Fig. 2 Track deflection under lateral load
Fig. 3 Track lateral mode shapes
Fig. 4 Lateral load vs single sleeper displacement

lateral static load. Additionally, the dynamic mode shapes of the model are shown in
Fig. 3. The three dominant mode shapes are associated with lateral bending motions
as expected, consistent with literature on track lateral dynamic behaviour [4].
In the next stage, a conventional Single Tie Push Test (STPT) is simulated where
a single sleeper is laterally pushed and the displacement of the track is measured.
The results obtained from the model is compared with some experimental and
simulated STPT results reported in the literature (Fig. 4). The results show that the
force/displacement magnitudes are within the sensible range of typical responses in
railway track even though the non-linear behaviour is not simulated. This confirms
that the model structural parameters and stiffnesses are suitably defined.
3 Parametric Study
The developed track model was used in a series of simulations applying systematic
changes to few track parameters. Through the simulations, the sensitivity of track
lateral stability (deflection) were examined. The simulations were undertaken by
changing one parameter at a time while keeping all other parameters constant as per
the standard case. The standard case parameters considered in these simulations
includes NZR50 kg rail, concrete sleepers with 700 mm centre to centre spacing,
and 2500 kN/m ballast lateral stiffness. The simulations were undertaken for two
lateral loads of 90 kN and 45 kN applied to the sleeper end. It should be noted that
the focus of this study is on the main track structural parameters and the parameters
such as frictional interactions between sleeper and ballast and the track shoulder
width are not simulated in this study.
Figure 5 shows the sensitivity of track lateral displacement to change in different
track parameters. Figure 5(a) demonstrates the effect of rail type. Two NZ rail types
(NZR41 and NZR50) and three common Australian rail types (AS53, AS60 and
AS68) are compared. It can be seen that changing NZR50 to AS68, the lateral
displacement is reduced by about 21%. Figure 5(b) presents the effect of sleeper
spacing. Four values of sleeper spacing (500 mm, 600 mm, 700 mm and 800 mm)
are simulated. It is observed that by reducing the sleeper spacing from 700 mm to
500 mm, the track lateral displacement is dropped by 37%. Figure 5 (c) shows the
effect of ballast lateral stiffness. It is observed that the lateral displacement is
decreased by 24% if the ballast horizontal stiffness is increased from 2500 kN/m
(Standard case) to 4500 kN/m. The term “ballast stiffness” used in this study refers
to the overall track sub-structures stiffness, which highly depends on substructure
properties and maintenance condition.
Figure 5(d) presents the effect of sleeper material. For this study, the size of the
sleeper is kept unchanged and only the material types is varied. Two types of
Timber material are considered. Types 1 (E = 21.5 GPa) and Type 2 (E = 6.1 GPa).
The results show that the track lateral displacement is affected by about 22%
changing the sleeper material from concrete to timber (Type 2).
To summarize the results obtained from above analyses, the sensitivity of track
lateral stability to different track parameters is compared in Fig. 6, so the relative
effects can be better observed. The results obtained here are based on the model
with specific properties and variables considered in this study and cannot neces-
sarily be generalized as different track parameters have different practical range of
variability in different railways. For example, the ballast stiffness is significantly
more variable compared to other parameters as it is affected by various track quality
and maintenance/consolidation condition.
Track lateral displacement (mm)

5.5
5
90kN 45kN 5 90kN 45kN
4.5
4.5
4
4
3.5
3.5
3
3
2.5 2.5
2 2
1.5 1.5
1
1
40 45 50 55 60 65 70 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 850
Rail Type (kg/m) Sleeper Spacing (mm)
a) Effect of Rail type b) Effect of sleeper spacing

5.00 6
90 kN 45 kN 90kN 45kN
4.50
5
4.00
4
3.50
3.00 3
2.50 2
2.00
1
1.50
0
1.00 Concrete Timber (Type 1) Timber (Type 2)
2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
Sleeper Material
Ballast Lateral Stiffness (kN/m)
c) Effect of ballast lateral stiffness
d) Effect of sleeper material
Fig. 5 Sensitivity of track lateral displacement to change in different track parameters
40
Change in lateral displacement (%)
35
30
25
20
15
10
0
Rail Type Sleeper Spacing Ballast Lateral Stiffness Sleeper Material
Track Parameter
Fig. 6 Relative effect of different parameters on track lateral displacement

However, comparing the variables considered in this study, the results show the
sleeper spacing as a quite significant factor which has been overlooked in the
majority of the literature on track stability studies. The results obtained here,
highlight the importance of sleeper spacing in particular in railways where the
lateral stability is a major issue due to either temperature variations or seismic
events. The sleeper spacing is variable in different railways; for example, in the
majority of Australian rail lines the standard sleeper spacing is 600 mm while in
New Zealand is mostly 700 mm. This parameter practically depends on various
design, maintenance and operational aspects; however, considering the vulnera-
bility of rail lines in New Zealand to lateral instabilities due to seismic events, the
possibility of reducing this design parameter in the major rail lines should be
examined.
4 Conclusion
A railway track model was developed and employed to simulate the track lateral
stability (lateral deflection) for different scenarios. The model was developed with
the length of 20 m incorporating the major track structural components. It was
shown that a practical structural software such as SPACE GASS can provide an
efficient tool for simulation of rail track global behaviour. Even though, such
modelling tool/approach has limitation in terms of incorporating the material
non-linearity or frictional interactions, the relative effects of different structural
parameters on track global behaviour can be reasonably compared. The efficiency
of the model allowed for a large section of the track to be modelled, so minimising
the effect of boundary conditions on the global behaviour. Through multiple sim-
ulations, the effect of rail type, sleeper spacing, ballast stiffness and sleeper material
was examined and compared. The results in particular highlights the importance of
sleeper spacing and can contribute to optimum design changes in railways where
the track is prone to track lateral shift and instabilities either from vehicle or
environmental causes.
References
1. Arbabi F, Khalighi M (2011) Stability of railroad tracks under the effects of temperature change
and earthquake. J Seismol Earthq Eng 12(3):119–129
2. Askarinejad H, Dhanasekar M (2016) A multi-body dynamic model for localised track
responses in vicinity of rail discontinuities. J Struct Stab Dyn 16(9):1550058
3. Kabo E (2006) A numerical study of the lateral ballast resistance in railway tracks. Proc Inst
Mech Eng Part F: J Rail Rapid Transit 220:425–433
4. Kaewunruen S, Remennikov AM, Aikawa A, Sakai H (2014) Free vibrations of interspersed
railway track systems in three-dimensional space. Acoust Australia 42(1):20–26
5. Kish A (2011) On the fundamentals of track lateral resistance. In: AREMA conference,
Minneapolis, USA
6. Koike Y, Nakamura T, Hayano K, Momoya Y (2014) Numerical method for evaluating the
lateral resistance of sleepers in ballasted tracks. Soils Found 54(3):502–514
7. Zakeri JA, Mirfattahi B, Fakhari M (2012) Lateral resistance of railway track with frictional
sleepers. Proc Inst Civil Eng: Transp 165(2):151–155
8. van’t Zand J, Moraal J (1997) Ballast resistance under three dimensional loading. Report
7-97-103-4, Roads and Railways Research Laboratory, TU Delft
Structural Strengthening of Concrete
Footings Using External Prestressing
X. Lu and R. Aboutaha
Abstract Bridge footing plays an important role in transferring loads from

superstructure to the soil underneath. Its flexural, shear, and load carrying capacities
are critical to the overall performance of the bridge. Bridge footings may require
strengthening due to structural deficiency, or increase in traffic load. In this paper, a
footing enlargement retrofit method utilizing external prestressing is proposed. For
a square spread footing, the proposed strengthening system could be implemented
using the following steps: (1) trimming four corners of the square footing, (2) in-
stalling circular prestressing ducts and tendons, (3) placing formwork and casting
the additional concrete, and (4) stressing the prestressing strands. The composite
action between the new and existing concrete parts is provided by the external
circular prestressing. Compared with the dowel-splicing connections used in tra-
ditional methods, this new connection is more effective and practical, as the
punching shear is the dominating mode of failure in the bridge footing. In this
research, the effectiveness of the proposed method on improving the punching shear
capacity of square spread footing is presented. Finite element models were built and
analyzed using the commercial software Abaqus CAE. The primary investigated
parameters were footing size, reinforcement ratio, and amount of prestressing
strands. The results of this investigation suggest that the external circular pre-
stressing can significantly improve the punching shear capacity of square spread
footing.
Keywords Spread footing External prestressing Punching shear capacity

Finite element model
X. Lu R. Aboutaha (&)
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Syracuse University,
Syracuse, NY, USA
e-mail: rsabouta@syr.edu
X. Lu
e-mail: xlu118@syr.edu

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_29
298 X. Lu and R. Aboutaha
1 Introduction
According to the latest Infrastructure Report Card (ASCE 2017), nearly 9.1% of
bridges were determined as structurally deficient, indicating that some critical
members in those bridges are deteriorated, and the bridges will be closed if no
rehabilitations are made. Retrofitting of bridges initially took place in California in
the 1970s, driven by the 1971 San Fernando earthquake [2]. However, only limited
studies have been carried out on bridge footings. Thus, retrofit strategies for bridge
footings are still under-developed.
Bridge footing plays an essential role in transferring the load from superstructure
to the soil underneath. It may be structurally deficient due to inadequate flexural or
shear capacities, insufficient load carrying capacity, inadequate steel embedment
length or poor column-footing connection. Generally, the punching shear failure is
the dominating failure mode.
In this paper, the traditional retrofit systems for bridge footings were reviewed,
with their shortcomings being addressed. The proposed retrofit system utilizing
external circular prestressing strands was introduced, with its advantages being
highlighted. Totally 18 models were analyzed using the finite element software
Abaqus CAE, and all the models were typical spread footings with square section.
Material properties, adopted concrete models and boundary conditions were
described. The parameters investigated in this research included the size of spread
footing, the flexural reinforcement ratio, and the number of prestressing strands.
Results indicated the proposed new retrofit system using external circular pre-
stressing significantly improved the punching shear capacity of square spread
footing.
1.1 Traditional Retrofit Systems for Bridge Footings
McLean et al. [3] retrofitted one pile cap and one spread footing with different
methods, and the two retrofitted pile caps are shown in Fig. 1. In Fig. 1(a), the
depth of footing was increased by a reinforced concrete overlay, which was con-
nected to the existing footing by shear friction dowels. In addition to that, in Fig. 1
(b), the plan dimensions of the pile cap were also enlarged, and the connection at
the interface was achieved by splicing the existing and the additional reinforce-
ments. Test results indicated that overturning capacity of the pile cap was increased
by enlarging the plan dimensions. Also, both bending and shear capacities were
enhanced by adding the reinforced concrete overlay. Similar retrofit methods were
also tested by Xiao et al. [6] and Saiidi et al. [5], with the same conclusions being
made.
FEMA (2006) proposed three types of strategies to retrofit a spread footing,
depending on the different deficiencies. For footings with deficient overturning
capacity, the plan dimensions can be enlarged. Inadequate shear capacity can be
Structural Strengthening of Concrete Footings ... 299
Fig. 1 Retrofit methods investigated by McLean et al. [3]
enhanced by increasing the footing’s depth, or installing additional vertical bars to

act as additional shear reinforcements. Insufficient bending capacity can be
improved by adding a reinforced concrete overlay. Similarly, the connection at the
interfaces is achieved by installing vertical and inclined straight dowels Fig. 2(a).
In addition, FEMA report also presented a retrofit method in which the hori-
zontal prestressing strands were employed (Fig. 2(b)). However, this strategy is not
practical to be implemented, as drilling a horizontal hole all through the original
footing is somewhat troublesome. The hole must be well-oriented, and attention
must be paid not to damage the existing reinforcements.
To sum up, the general retrofit methods for a bridge footing are as follows.
Enlarging size of footing, including the enlargement of the plan dimensions and
the increase in footing’s depth. This strategy can improve both bending and shear
capacities.
Adding more reinforcements. With flexural reinforcements being installed in the
additional concrete overlay, the footing’s negative moment capacity can be
(a) Dowel connection (b) Enhanced by horizontal prestressing
Fig. 2 Footing retrofit strategies specified by FEMA (2006)

enhanced. Besides, vertical reinforcements can be installed in drilled vertical holes,

serving as shear reinforcements, so that the shear capacity is improved.
Enhancing connections. Connections at the interfaces are achieved/enhanced by
installing steel dowels. The vertical dowels are applied at the horizontal interfaces,
while the horizontal or inclined straight dowels are employed at the vertical
interfaces.
1.2 Proposed Retrofit System
In traditional footing retrofit methods, the additional concrete segment is connected

to the original footing by installing dowels. Although effective, it is troublesome to
drill the holes and install the dowels, and much worse when splicing the new and
the existing flexural reinforcements is required. To address this problem, an
upgraded footing enlargement system utilizing external circular prestressing strands
is proposed, and the connection at the interface is achieved by composite action,
provided by the circular external prestressing. This system is intended for
strengthening of undamaged sound footings for the purpose of increasing the load
carrying capacity of the footing.
For a typical spread footing with square section shown in Fig. 3, the general
steps to implement the system are as follows: (1) Making grooves on top surface,
and making notches at four corners; (2) installing circular prestressing ducts and
strands in the notches, where pre-greased strands in plastic sheathing will be used to
Fig. 3 Proposed footing retrofit system using external prestressing

reduce friction; (3) placing regular reinforcements in the grooves; (4) placing
formwork and casting the additional footing part; and (5) stressing the prestressing
strands when concrete has gained strength.
With the proposed retrofit system, the original square footing is enlarged to a
circular footing, therefore the axial load capacity can be enhanced. Shear capacity
and flexural capacity are also expected to be improved, contributed by the con-
finement action provided by the external circular prestressing.
2 Research Significance
For spread footings, punching shear failure is the dominating fail mode. Therefore,
in this paper, the efficiency of the proposed retrofit system on the improvement of
the punching shear capacity of spread footings was investigated. The parameters
considered include the size of spread footing, the flexural reinforcement ratio, and
the number of prestressing strands.
3 Finite Element Models
Totally 18 models were simulated by using ABAQUS, and parameters investigated

include: footing size (3 m, 4 m, and 5 m); flexural reinforcement ratios (0.75% and
1.50%), and amounts of prestressing strands (10 and 30 strands). All models are
listed in Fig. 4(a).
(a) Models investigated (b) Model detailings
Fig. 4 Footings investigated in this research

The tendons are installed at the location with the largest eccentricity, and the
thickness of the concrete cover is assumed as 75 mm. For all footings with different
sizes, the shear span to depth ratio a/de is set as a constant value 1.5 (Fig. 4(b)).
The explicit dynamic analysis is employed to investigate all models. Compared
to the implicit analysis in ABAQUS, the explicit analysis has remarkable advan-
tages in solving problems with contact and material nonlinearities, since the for-
mation of the tangent stiffness matrix is not required, and the convergence problems
can also be avoided. Therefore, it is appropriate in this research, where
non-convergence occurs because of either the nonlinear contact between circular
tendon and concrete, or the stiffness reduction in the shear failure.
3.1 Material Properties
3.1.1 Stress-Strain Model for Concrete in Compression and Tension
For concrete in compression, the stress-strain relationship proposed by Yang et al.

[7] was adopted (Fig. 5(a)), with expressions as follows:
2 3
ec
ð b þ 1Þ
6 1 e0 7 0
fc ¼ 4 b þ 1 5fc ð1Þ
ec1
e0 þ b1
0
e0 is the strain corresponding to the compressive strength of concrete fc , and
0
f
e0 ¼ 0:0016 exp 240 c ð2Þ
Ec
40 3.5
35 3.0 ( , )
30
Stress (MPa)
2.5
Stress (MPa)
25
Primary
2.0
Cracking Stage
20
1.5
15
Secondary
10 1.0
Cracking Stage
5 0.5
4 10
0
0.0
0 1 2 3 4
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
Strain (≤10-3) Strain (≤10-3)

(a) Compressive behavior (b) Tension softening behavior
(Yang et al. 2014) (Nayal & Rasheed 2006)
Fig. 5 Stress-strain models for concrete in compression and tension

The key parameter b1 is developed to determine the slope of both the ascending
and descending branches, and

0:2 expð0:73nÞ; for ec \e0
b1 ¼ ð3Þ
0:41 expð0:77nÞ; for ec [ e0
The parameter n is introduced to simply the b1 equations, and

0 0:67 1:17
f w0
n¼ c ð4Þ
f0 wc
Where, f0 equals to 10 MPa, and w0 equals to 2300 kg/m3.

For concrete in tension, the stress-strain model proposed by Nayal and Rasheed
[4] was adopted (Fig. 5(b)). This model is upgraded from the initial model proposed
by Gilbert and Warner in 1978, and it considers the post cracking behaviours
including tension softening, tension stiffening and local bond-slip effects.
3.1.2 Stress-Strain Relationships for Steel Reinforcement

and Prestressing
For steel reinforcement, a simplified elastic-plastic behaviour was used. The yield
strength is 420 MPa. The Young’s modulus and Poisson ratio are 200 GPa and 0.3,
respectively. 270 ksi strands were considered, and the stress-strain relationship
specified by PCI Design Handbook (2014) was followed.
3.2 Interaction Contact and Boundary Condition
In this research, all flexural reinforcements are considered fully bonded with con-
crete. The contact between ducts and prestressing strands is modelled as friction-
less. The interaction between the original and additional concrete is also considered
as fully bonded.
As the footing is symmetric in both transverse directions, in each model, only a
quarter of the footing is simulated. The nodes on the top surface of the column are
constrained in all degrees of freedom. Nodes on the section perpendicular to
Axial X is set as XSYMM, and notes on the section perpendicular to Axial Y is set
as YSYMM (Fig. 6).
Fig. 6 Boundary conditions of each model
All models failed by punching shear, including three original square footings. The
flexural reinforcements did not yield, regardless of the reinforcement ratio. At the
failure point, an obvious shear crack could be observed on the cross-section of each
model (Fig. 7).
Specified by ACI 318-14 [1], the punching shear shall be resisted by the critical
sections which are located a distance d/2 from the edge of the column. Therefore,
to better understand the failure mechanism and the efficiency of the proposed
retrofit system, the load acting on the area outside of the critical sections is defined
as the punching load, which is the load resulting in the punching shear failure, and
it can be expressed as:
Atotal Apunching
Ppunching ¼ Ptotal ð5Þ
Atotal
(a) 3 m original footing (b) 3 m footing retrofitted with 10 strands
Fig. 7 Shear cracks at the failure point in 3 m original and retrofitted footings
Table 1 Punching shear capacity of each model (Unit: kN)

Reinforcement ratio 0.75% 1.50%
Size 3m 4m 5m 3m 4m 5m
Original 9297 16429 25513 12000 20682 30655
10 Strands 14383 23313 33179 20397 32036 42687
(Enhancement) (55%) (42%) (30%) (70%) (55%) (39%)
30 Strands 23215 37690 51958 33403 52271 68391
(Enhancement) (150%) (129%) (104%) (178%) (153%) (123%)
Where, Ptotal is the total load carried by the column during analysis; Atotal is the
total area of either a original footing or a enlarged footing; Apunching is the area
enclosed by the critical sections. It is noteworthy that in this paper, each
load-displacement curve was created using Ppunching , instead of Ptotal . Punching
capacity of each model is the load Ppunching when the punching shear failure occurs.
The results are listed in Table 1.
4.1 Number of Prestressing Strands
For 3 m and 5 m footings with the lower reinforcement ratio 0.75%, the
load-deflection curves of original and retrofitted models are shown in Fig. 8. For
both sizes, the application of the external prestressing strands significantly
improved the punching shear capacity. The more the strands were employed, the
larger the improvement was achieved. Besides, stiffness was also enhanced, and the
displacement at the failure point was also increased.
4.2 Size of Footing
With the same reinforcement ratio 0.75%, the load-deflection curves of 3 m, 4 m

and 5 m footings are shown in Fig. 9. The results of the original footings are shown
in Fig. 9(a). It is obvious that the larger the footing’s size is, the larger the punching
shear capacity was exhibited. Besides, at the failure point, the footing with a larger
size ended up with a larger displacement. Similar conclusions could also be drawn
from the comparison of footings retrofitted with 10 strands (Fig. 9(b)). However,
according to Table 1, when retrofitted with the same number of strands (10 strands),
3 m spread footing exhibited a larger improvement (55%), compared to 5 m spread
footing (30%).
30 60
P30 P30
P10 P10
Punching Load (≤106 N)

25 50
3m - Original 5m - Original
20 40
15 30
10 20
5 10
0 0
0 10 20 30 40 0 10 20 30 40
Displacement (mm) Displacement (mm)
(a) 3 m (0.75%) (b) 5 m (0.75%)
Fig. 8 The load-deflection curves of footings retrofitted different number of strands
30 40
3m - Original 3m (10 Strands)
35

25 4m - Original 4m (10 Strands)

5m - Original 30 5m (10 Strands)
20
25
15 20
15
10
10
5
5
0 0
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
(a) Original footings (0.75%) (b) Retrofitted with 10 strands (0.75%)
Fig. 9 The load-deflection curves of footings with different sizes
4.3 Flexural Reinforcement Ratio
To investigate the effect of the flexural reinforcement ratio, the load-deflection

curves of 3 m original footings with the two different reinforcement ratios (0.75%
and 1.50%) were compared in Fig. 10(a). Besides, in Fig. 10(b), the effect of
different reinforcement ratios in footings retrofitted with 10 prestressing strands was
also investigated. The results showed that for both original and retrofitted footings,
the footings with higher reinforcement ratio showed higher punching shear
capacities.
14 25
3m - 0.75% - Original 3m - 0.75% - 10 Strands

12 3m - 1.50% - Original 3m - 1.50% - 10 Strands
20
10
15
8
6
10
4
5
2
0 0
0 5 10 15 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Displacement (mm) Title
(a) 3 m original footings (b) 3 m retrofitted footings with 10 strands
Fig. 10 The load-deflection curves of footings with different reinforcement ratios
5 Conclusions
Based on this research, the following conclusions could be drawn: (1) The proposed
retrofit system utilizing the external circular prestressing strands obviously
enhanced the punching shear capacity of spread footings; (2) the amount of pre-
stressing strands had a significant effect on the enhancement of the punching shear
capacity, and the more the strands were used, the larger the improvement was
achieved; and (3) the footings with larger sizes or higher flexural reinforcement
ratios exhibited higher punching shear capacities.
References
1. ACI Committee 318 (2014) Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete, American
Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, Michigan
2. Buckle I, Friedland I, Mander J, Martin G, Nutt R, Power M (2006) Seismic retrofitting manual
for highway structures: Part 1 - Bridges
3. McLean DI, Saunders TD, Hahnenkratt HH (1995) Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit of Bridge
Substructures with Spread and Pile-Supported Foundations, Pullman
4. Nayal R, Rasheed HA (2006) Tension stiffening model for concrete beams reinforced with
steel and FRP bars. J Mater Civ Eng 18(6):831–841
5. Saiidi MS, Sanders D, Acharya S (2001) Seismic retrofit of spread footings supporting bridge
columns with short dowels. Constr Build Mater 15(4):177–185
6. Xiao Y, Nigel Priestley MJ, Seible F (1996) Seismic assessment and retrofit of bridge column
footings. ACI Struct J 93(1):79–94
7. Yang KH, Mun JH, Cho MS, Kang THK (2014) Stress-strain model for various unconfined
concretes in compression. ACI Struct J 111(4):819–826
Flexural Behavior Degradation
of Corroded Aashto Type II
Pretensioned Concrete Girder-Deck
System
B. Yan and R. Aboutaha
Abstract Precast-prestressed concrete (PC) girders are among the most

cost-effective type of girders used on highway bridges. Compared with conven-
tional reinforced concrete bridges, PC bridges have higher load-carrying capacity
and better crack control. Unfortunately, in corrosive environment, corrosion of
strands may result in cracking or spalling of concrete, cross-section loss of strands
and degradation of material properties, which affect the flexural behavior of PC
bridges. PC bridges are more susceptible to corrosion damage since the bond
between prestressing strands and concrete is vital to transfer prestressing force and
prestressing strand normally experiences a higher stress level. However, study on
the flexural behavior of corroded prestressed concrete girders are very limited. This
paper presents an in-depth analysis of flexural behavior of corroded AASHTO
Type II pretensioned PC girders with a cast-in-place (CIP) concrete deck using
finite element analysis (FEA). The FEA model developed considered bond dete-
rioration between corroded strands and surrounding concrete, deterioration of
material properties and cross-section loss of corroded strands. Over three hundred
pretensioned concrete girder-deck systems were investigated using the developed
FEA model. The following parameters were the primary variables: (1) span-depth
ratio, (2) prestressing reinforcement ratio, (3) corrosion level, (4) number of cor-
roded strands, and (5) corrosion length. Failure modes, residual flexural strength,
and ductility were analysed for each FEA model. It was concluded that corrosion of
prestressing strands significantly influenced the failure mode, residual flexural
strength, and ductility of pretensioned concrete girder-deck systems. Corrosion
level and number of corroded strands have major impacts on the remaining
load-carrying capacity of the corroded system.
B. Yan R. Aboutaha (&)

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA
e-mail: rsabouta@syr.edu
B. Yan
e-mail: boyan@syr.edu

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_30
310 B. Yan and R. Aboutaha

Keywords Prestressed Girder-deck system Corrosion Residual flexural

strength Failure mode Ductility
1 Introduction
Bridges with prestressed concrete (PC) girders have been built in large numbers
over the past few decades. According to the National Transportation Statistics, as of
2016, around 25% of bridges were constructed with PC superstructures in U.S.
Compared with conventional reinforced concrete (RC) bridge, PC bridges have
higher load-bearing capacity, and improved crack control. However, PC bridges
built in cold regions with an increasing use of de-icing salts are quite sensitive to
corrosion damage. According to a technical report by PennDOT in April 2009, the
proportion of deficient PC bridges was around 15% of the total PC bridges,
state-wide. Among all the damage affecting the performance of existing PC girders,
corrosion is the most common source [11].
Since it was not until the 1980s that corrosion-induced deterioration was first
observed in PC structures, studies about corroded PC members became available
only in recent decades. Based on previous experimental studies [9, 15, 19, 20, 24–
27], it was found that reduction in flexural strength was approximately proportional
to the number of strands affected by corrosion.
Previous work on FEA modeling of PC members are available [3, 4, 6, 7, 16,
23], however, FEA study on corroded (or unbonded) PC members are very limited
[10, 12, 13].
This paper presents the flexural behavior of corroded AASHTO Type II pre-
tensioned PC girders with a cast-in-place (CIP) concrete deck using finite element
analysis (FEA). The reduction of cross-sectional area, corrosion-induced deterio-
ration of material properties of prestressing strands, and loss of bond between
strands and surrounding concrete were considered in the FEA modeling.
2 Finite Element Models
A three-dimensional, nonlinear static analysis of the pretensioned girder-deck

system with corroded strands was performed with ABAQUS/Standard (version
6.16) [2]. The FEA model was verified against available experimental data, and
then was employed to investigate effect of different variables, including span-depth
ratio, prestressing reinforcement ratio, corrosion length, number of corroded pre-
stressing strands, and corrosion level.
Flexural Behavior Degradation … 311
2.1.1 Concrete
Concrete in compression was simulated with the stress-strain model proposed by

Yang et al. [22], which was applicable for a compressive strength between 10 and
180 MPa. Modulus of elasticity was defined as slope of the line joining the origin
and 40% of peak strength as shown in Fig. 1. Concrete in tension before cracking
was assumed to be a linear ascending line until stress reached concrete modulus of
rupture, fr, which was obtained per AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications
5.4.2.7. To simplify the FEA model, concrete stress after cracking reduced linearly
to a negligible value at a total strain of about 5 to 20 times the cracking strain based
on percentage of corroded strands. Concrete Damaged Plasticity (CDP) model in
ABAQUS/Standard was applied in the FEA model to simulate the nonlinear plastic
properties of concrete. Parameters used in the CDP model are summarized in
Table 1.
2.1.2 Prestressing Strand
Grade 270 seven-wire low-relaxation prestressing strand was used in the model and
the stress-strain relationship of uncorroded strands was determined per PCI Design
Handbook (7th edition) [18]. The modulus of elasticity, tensile strength, and ulti-
mate tensile strain of prestressing steel will be degraded due to corrosion.
Prestressing strands with a higher corrosion level will have a brittle tensile behavior
[8, 20, 21, 26–28]. Material properties and stress-strain relationship of corroded
Grade 270 seven-wire low-relaxation prestressing strand proposed by [26, 27] were
adopted in the FEA model as shown in Fig. 2.
Fig. 1 Concrete stress-strain

diagram
Table 1 Material parameters included in CDP model

Parameter Value
Dilation angle (W) 31°
Eccentricity (m) 0.1
Ratio of initial equibiaxial to uniaxial compressive yield stress (rb0/rc0) 1.16
Ratio of the second stress invariant on the tensile meridian to that on the compressive 0.67
meridian (Kc)
Viscosity parameter 0.001
Fig. 2 Stress-strain diagram of corroded strands: a corrosion level is smaller than 8%; b corrosion
level is equal or larger than 8% [26, 27]
2.2 Element Type
The first-order linear brick element with reduced integration and hourglass control
(C3D8R) was adopted for concrete in the FEA model. Compared with first-order
elements with full integration points (C3D8), C3D8R elements take less time to
solve and avoid shear and volumetric locking. Prestressing strand was modeled as a
simplified circular cross-section with an area equivalent to the actual seven-wire
strand with linear triangular prism elements (C3D6). Conventional non-prestressed
bars and stirrups were modeled using 3-D linear truss elements (T3D2).
2.3 Contact Model
Contacts between prestressing strands and concrete were simulated using extrusion
technique. A friction-based model was employed that consisted of two components:
(1) tangential behavior, and (2) normal behavior [3, 13]. A coefficient of friction of
1.4 appeared to be adequate to provide the interface interactions between fully
bonded strands and concrete [3]. Since corroded strands were assumed completely
unbonded with concrete within the corrosion length, zero coefficient of friction was
applied to the interface between corroded strands and concrete within the corrosion
length. Normal behavior between strands and concrete was simulated using the
“hard” contact pressure-overclosure relationship, which could minimize the pene-
tration of concrete surface into strand surface at constraint locations and prevent
transfer of tensile stress across the interface.
Non-prestressed steel bars were assumed fully bonded with concrete girder using
embedment technique. Translational degrees of freedom of the truss elements were
constrained to the interpolated values of the corresponding degrees of freedom of
the host concrete elements.
2.4 Boundary Conditions and Loading Scheme
Due to symmetry, only a quarter of the pretensioned girder-deck system was simu-
lated. To model the z-direction symmetry, the pretensioned girder-deck system was
cut with a plane parallel to x-y plane. Displacement in z-direction and rotation around
x, y-direction were constrained with roller supports (U3 = UR1 = UR2 = 0). To
model the x-direction symmetry, the system was cut with a plane parallel to y-z plane.
Displacement in x-direction and rotation around y, z-direction were constrained with a
roller supports (U1 = UR2 = UR3 = 0). The system was supported with roller sup-
ports. Displacement in y-direction at supports was restricted (U2 = 0).
Loading schemes of the FEA model were as follows: (1) Prestressing all strands
in the longitudinal z-direction. Bond between strands and concrete was invalid at
this stage; (2) Casting concrete girder through defining the bond between concrete
and prestressing strands. Elements of concrete deck were deactivated; (3) Applying
self-weight of concrete girder and deck. Assuming un-shored construction of
concrete deck in this study, girder supported the entire weight of deck; (4) Applying
service load (about 40% of the ultimate load of a section with fully bonded strands)
on the pretensioned girder-deck system. Elements of concrete deck deactivated in
previous steps became fully active immediately in the current step; (5) Including
corrosion-induced deteriorations in the girder-deck system; (6) Applying remaining
external load on the pretensioned girder-deck system.
2.5 Verifications
The developed FEA model was verified against experimental data tested by Kim
et al. [14] and Ozkul et al. [17], as shown in Fig. 3(a) and (b). It can be seen that the
model predicts the flexural response of PC girders with bonded (or unbonded)
strands well.
Fig. 3 Load-deflection FEA results compared to test results: a Kim et al. [14] b Ozkul et al. [17]
3 Finite Element Analysis Results and Discussion
Pretensioned girder-deck systems designed in accordance with AASHTO LRFD

Bridge Design Specifications [1], as shown in Fig. 4, were simulated. Concrete
compressive strength of pretensioned PC girder and CIP deck were 55.2 MPa and
41.4 MPa, respectively. Grade 270, 12.7-mm-diameter seven-wire low-relaxation
straight strands were placed in the bottom flange. Each of strands was stressed to
75% of the tensile strength and the effective prestressing force was assumed to be
about 1,103 MPa after losses.
The following variables were investigated: span-depth ratio (L/dp) (13.5,18, and
22.5), prestressing steel ratio (qp) (0.084%, 0.107%, and 0.131%), corrosion level
(ηs) (5%, 10% and 15%), number of corroded strand index (ηsn = number of cor-
roded strand/total number of strand, 0.25, 0.5 and 1) and corrosion length index
(ηsl = corrosion length/span length, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6).
1,829 #4 Reinforcement @
20 30 204 (8) centers
152 76 #4 Reinforcement @
76 #4 Reinforcement
()
15 #4 Top flange Reinforcement
381 915 #4 Web stirrup bars
#4 Bottom flange Reinforcement
152 12.7mm-dia. low relaxation strands
152 152 50
70
19 (3/4) Chamfer
45 Unit [mm] 7 spaces @ Unit [mm]
(a) (b)
Fig. 4 AASHTO Type II girder with deck: a section dimensions; b reinforcement details
(qp = 0.131%)
3.1 Failure Modes
For girders investigated in this study, the development length of strands was ade-
quate to prevent bond failure and girders had shear reinforcement necessary to
prevent shear failure, therefore only flexural failure was considered as the only
possible mode of failure. Failure was identified when concrete strain at the top fiber
on the compression side reached the failure strain of concrete in compression (CC),
or the tensile stress in corroded strands reached the tensile strength (SR).
Based on results from the FEA model, failure modes of specimens with corroded
strands were primarily affected by corrosion levels. Pretensioned girder-deck sys-
tems with a corrosion level below 5% failed in flexural due to concrete crushing. As
corrosion level was 15%, specimens failed in flexural due to strand rupture. For
specimens with a corrosion level of 10%, the failure mode would be either CC or
SR, depending on values of other parameters.
3.2 Residual Flexural Strength
After studying all cases, it was concluded that, number of corroded strand index and
corrosion level had major impacts on the ultimate flexural strength of corroded
pretensioned girder-deck systems. As 25% of strands were corroded, the reduction
of flexural strength was about 3% to 30%. As 50% of strands were corroded, the
reduction was between 8% to 33%. If all strands were corroded, the reduction of
flexural strength was approximately 17% to 42%. Since corroded strands had lower
ultimate stress due to bond deterioration and degradation of material properties, and
the neutral axis at ultimate for a girder-deck system with corroded strands was not
affected significantly due to the existence of concrete deck, increasing the number
of corroded strands reduced the total force in strands and resulted in a lower flexural
strength of the section.
Flexural strength also decreased as corrosion level increased. As corrosion level
was 5%, the reduction of flexural capacity was about 3% to 27%. As corrosion level
increased to 10%, flexural capacity decreased about 5% to 30%. As corrosion level
was 15%, the pretensioned girder-deck system lost approximately 13% to 42% of
the original flexural capacity.
For a girder-deck system failed due to concrete crushing, as corrosion length
increased from 20% to 60% of the span, the reduction of flexural strength was less
than 5%. However, as a system failed due to strand rupture, a reduction in corrosion
length resulted in a lower flexural strength. This was because, as corrosion length
increased, stress in corroded strands would decrease, which would allow more
external load to be carried by the specimen before reaching the stress limit.
Therefore, the flexural strength decreased with a reduction in corrosion length. For
pretensioned girder-deck systems having a 15% corrosion level, as corrosion length
decreased from 60% to 20% of the span, flexural strength decreased around 2% to
8%, depending on the number of corroded strand index.
Span-depth ratio and prestressing reinforcement ratio have negligible impacts on
the reduction of flexural strength of corroded pretensioned girder-deck system.
3.3 Ductility
Ductility can be used to evaluate the deformation capacity of corroded pretensioned

girder-deck systems before failure, which can be defined as the ratio (l) of the
ultimate deflection (Du) to the yield deflection (Dy).
After studying all cases, it was overserved that a pretensioned girder-deck sys-
tem with more corroded strands had a more ductile behavior. A pretensioned PC
girder-deck system with a reinforcement ratio of 0.107 and a span-depth ratio of 18
was studied as an example. For studied specimens with 10% corrosion level and a
corrosion length index of 0.4, the ductility (l) of specimen with a number of
corroded strand index of 1 was about 33% higher than that of the specimen with
25% of corroded strands, as shown in Fig. 5(a).
A higher corrosion level could reduce the ductility of the system. For studied
specimens, when 50% of strands were corroded and the corrosion length was 40%
of the span, as corrosion level increased from 5% to 15%, the ductility dropped
about 42%, as shown in Fig. 5(b).
ρp = 0.107%, L/dp=18, ηsl = 0.4, ηs= 10% ρp = 0.107%, L/dp=18, ηsl = 0.4, ηsn= 0.5
240 240
Number of Corroded Strand Index (ηsn) Corrosion Level (ηs)
180 180
Total Load (kips)
Total Load (kips)
120 120
60 60 5%
0.25
0.5 10%
1 15%
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8
Deflecon (in) Deflecon (in)
(a) (b)
ρp = 0.107%, L/dp=18, ηs = 5%, ηsn= 0.5 ρp = 0.107%, L/dp=18, ηs = 15%, ηsn= 0.5
240 240
Corrosion Length Index (ηsl) Corrosion Length Index (ηsl)
180 180
Total Load (kips)
Total Load (kips)
120 120
60 0.2 60 0.2
0.4 0.4
0.6 0.6
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8
Deflecon (in) Deflecon (in)
(c) (d)
Fig. 5 Load-deflection curves of studied specimens (qp = 0.107%, L/dp = 18)

For specimens failed due to concrete crushing, corrosion length had an

insignificant effect on the ductility of girder-deck systems (Fig. 5(c)). If a
girder-deck system failed due to strand rupture, ductility decreased with a
decreasing of corrosion length. For studied specimens, as 50% of strands were
corroded with a corrosion level of 15%, the ductility of the specimen with a
corrosion length index of 0.6 was approximately two times that of the specimen
with a corrosion length index of 0.2, as shown in Fig. 5(d).
4 Conclusions
• Corrosion level has significant impact on the failure mode of corroded

AASHTO Type II pretensioned girder-deck system. The system may fail due to
strand rupture when corrosion level is higher or equal to 10%.
• Number of corroded strand index and corrosion level have major impacts on
flexural strength reduction of the girder-deck system.
• A pretensioned girder-deck system with more corroded strands and lower cor-
rosion level had a more ductile behavior. As a girder-deck system failed due to
strand rupture, ductility decreased with the decrease in corrosion length.
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Anti-plane Response Induced
by a Partially Filled Trapezoidal
Alluvial Valley
W. S. Shyu, T. J. Teng, and C. S. Chou
Abstract This study proposes a novel strategy for the investigation of displace-
ment amplitude near and along a partially filled trapezoidal alluvial valley subjected
to shear horizontal (SH) waves. The proposed hybrid method, combining finite
element method with a Lamb series, was applied to study the effects of the irregular
alluvial valley geometry, the incident angle of SH waves, a dimensionless fre-
quency, and a filling ratio on displacements. Modified transfinite interpolation was
used to obtain the coordinates of nodes and determine the sequence of node
numbering in the inner finite region including the irregular alluvial valley.
Furthermore, we present a detailed description of the amplification of displacement
at the surface of the alluvial valley. According to the numerical results, the filling
ratio plays an important role in the value of displacements, and variations in
incident angles and dimensionless frequencies dominate the patterns of displace-
ments. The results of numerical simulation are helpful to understand the site effects
in irregular alluvial valleys.

Keywords SH wave Partially filled trapezoidal alluvial valley Filling ratio

Hybrid method Modified transfinite interpolation
W. S. Shyu (&)
Department of Civil Engineering, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology,
Pingtung, Taiwan
e-mail: wsshyu@mail.npust.edu.tw
T. J. Teng
National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, Taipei, Taiwan
C. S. Chou
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung, Taiwan

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_31
320 W. S. Shyu et al.
1 Introduction
At the site of alluvial valleys, ground motion resulting from earthquakes can
increase the amplitude of responses in the frequency domain. The site effect of
alluvial valley can be summarized to the scattering, diffraction, and standing waves
in the fixed region of alluvial valley. For obtaining the mechanisms in a 2-D alluvial
valley embedded in an elastic half-space, the wave function expansion method has
been proposed for solving the SH waves induced by various types of alluvial
valleys, such as semi-cylindrical alluvial valley [6] semi-elliptical alluvial valleys
[8]. However, a partially filled alluvial valley is closer to the ground truth found in
the field. Therefore, combining wave function expansion method with Graf’s
addition theorem is required to solve the scattering of SH waves by partially filled
semi-circular alluvial valleys [7, 9].
Since numerical methods have been developed to solve the scattering problems,
a hybrid method combining finite element method (FEM) and Lamb’s series
functions, in conjunction with a transfinite interpolation [1] was successfully to
solve the anti-plane scattering problems [2–5]. The scattering problems due to a
partially filled semi-circular alluvial valley or a circular-arc-layered alluvial valley
were solved by the hybrid method with a modified transfinite interpolation [4].
In this study, the novel strategy following Shyu et al. [4] is to investigate the
scattering of SH waves induced by a partially filled trapezoidal alluvial valley
(PFTAV) embedded in an elastic half-space. We investigated the influences of the
incident SH wave angle (h), the dimensionless frequency (g), and the filling ratio
(FR) on the displacement along the anti-plane direction (uy ). We then compared
the numerical results of a special case of the PFTAV (i.e. completely filled trape-
zoidal alluvial valley) to the results obtained by Shyu and Teng [2].
2 Numerical Model
2.1 2-D Partially Filled Trapezoidal Alluvial Valley
As shown in Fig. 1, this study investigated an irregular soft sedimentary layer

settled atop a symmetric trapezoidal canyon, which is embedded within an elastic
half-space on the x-z plane excited by an unit-amplitude plane SH wave (perpen-
dicular to the x-z plane) with h and a circular frequency (x). This elastic half-space
is divided into an inner finite region X0 , which includes a soft sedimentary layer
(X1 ) and a part of half-space (X2 ), as well as the outer infinite region X. The
boundary (C) between X0 and X is a semi-circle. The symbols a, b, and H in Fig. 1
represent the semi-width of the top length, bottom length, and depth of the sym-
metric trapezoidal canyon, respectively. The symbol d in Fig. 1 represents the
distance between the free surface and the top of alluvial valley. In this study, the
semi-width of top length (a) is regarded as the characteristic length. Table 1 lists the
Anti-plane Response Induced by a Partially Filled Trapezoidal ... 321
dimensionless parameters for four types of PFTAVs. The FR of AV is defined by

the ratio of alluvial valley area to 1:8 a2 (area of the trapezoidal canyon). In
addition, Case1 is a special case which the soft sedimentary soil completely filled
within the trapezoid canyon.
For the problem of SH wave scattering induced by a PFTAV, the responses of
traction (ty ) and displacement (uy ) can be expressed by the free field (shown with
superscript f) and scattered field (shown with superscript s). For a unit-amplitude
SH plane-wave with circular frequency x, uyf is combined of incident and reflected
waves as follows:

x sin h xz cos h
uyf ðx; zÞ ¼ 2 exp ix cos ð1Þ
Cs Cs
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
where Cs is wave speed and Cs ¼ l=q, in which q and l represent the density and

shear modulus in the elastic half-space, respectively. In addition, uyf ðx; 0Þ ¼ 2:0,
which is independent from h and x.
2.2 Hybrid Method
By referring to the functional presented by Shyu and Teng [2], the equation of the
functional is as follows:
ZZ Z Z
1 0 2 0 0 1 s
P¼ W q x uy uy dX þ
0 0
uy uy ty dS þ
0 s
uyf tys dS
X0 2 2
Z C C
0 f
uy ty dS ð2Þ
C
where W 0 is the strain energy density function.
Fig. 1 Schematic illustration

of the inner finite region
including a partially filled
trapezoidal alluvial valley
(PFTAV)
Table 1 Dimensionless b=a H=a d=a FR (%)

parameters of partially filled
trapezoidal alluvial valley Case1 0.8 1.0 0.0 100.0
(PFTAV) and the filling ratio Case2 0.8 1.0 0.2 78.2
of four cases Case3 0.8 1.0 0.5 47.2
Case4 0.8 1.0 0.8 18.2
It was proven the functional in Eq. (2) equals to the governing equations and
boundary conditions of the scattering problem shown in Fig. 1, by choosing the
scattered wave function which satisfied the condition of traction-free boundaries at
free surfaces as well as the condition of radiation. Therefore, the Lamb series was
using to express the displacement and traction in the scattered field. Hence, the
functional in Eq. (2) can be written as the following matrix equation:

Kaa x2 Maa Kac u0y Pa
¼ ð3Þ
Kca Kcc c Pc
Thus, the displacement in X0 is obtained, and the displacement in X is given by

PM
uy ¼ uyf þ Cm usy with the coefficient vector fcg. More details can be found
m¼0 m
by Shyu and Teng [2].
2.3 Modified Transfinite Interpolation
In this study, two different sub-regions (comprising an irregular soft alluvial valley
X1 and a partial region of an elastic half-space X2 ) are combined in a physical
region X0 . Therefore, two sets of transfinite interpolation functions are introduced
to map X0 (including X1 and X2 ) to logical region D0 , comprising two unit-squares
D1 and D2 . Figure 2 presents a schematic diagram showing the physical and logical
regions of the partially field trapezoidal alluvial valley. In Fig. 2, six points at the
boundary of D0 with a rectangular geometry (0 X 1; 0 Z 2) are numbered
with I to VI. The boundaries of D0 are represented with vectors XiL , XiR , XiB , and XiT
respectively in sub-region Di (i ¼ 1; 2).
Due to the regular shape, we can obtain the coordinates of inner points in D0
easily. For example, N is given by subtracting 1 from the number of nodes at the
boundary of D (or D2 ), leading to dX ¼ dZ ¼ 1=N.
1 Then we defined the coor-
dinates of inner points as follow:
Fig. 2 Schematic of physical and logical regions

Xn ; Zn ¼ Xn ; Zm ¼ Xn ¼ ðn 1ÞdX; Zm ¼ ðm 1ÞdZ ;
n
þ 1Þ
¼ n þ ð m 1Þ ð N ð4Þ
þ 1 in D1 , and n ¼ 1; 2; N
where n; m ¼ 1; 2; N þ 1 as well as m ¼

N þ 2; 2N þ 1 in D . Then, the nodal coordinates xn ; zn inside irregular
2
regions X1 and X2 can be determined by:
ðxn ; zn Þ ¼ ð1 Zm Þxib ðnÞ þ Zm xit ðnÞ þ ð1 X

n Þxi‘ ðmÞ þ Xn xir ðmÞ
h i 1 i 1 i
X n Zm xt þ X n ð1 Zm Þ xb þ Zm ð1 X n Þ xit 0 þ ð1 X
n Þð1 Zm Þ xib 0
ð5Þ
where i ¼ 1; 2. Therefore, with known boundaries, such as xi‘ , xir , xib , and xit in
sub-region Xi (i ¼ 1; 2), makes it possible to systematically determine the nodal
coordinates inside X0 , including a PFTAV. The application of modified transfinite
interpolation was detailed by Shyu et al. [4].
3.1 Verification of Numerical Results

In this study, we assume the ratio of shear modulus l lA ¼ 6, and the ratio of
A
density q q ¼ 1:5, where the superscript A represent the materials of alluvial
valley. From the assumption, we have the relation of SH wave speed is Cs ¼ 2CsA .
Figure 3 presents the FEM mesh of X0 , including Case1 (d=a ¼ 0:0) and Case4
(d=a ¼ 0:8) with 800 elements of Q8 and 2521 nodes. Then, we define the
dimensionless frequency g ¼ xa=pCs , which is the ratio of the top width of the
symmetric trapezoidal canyon to the wavelength of the incident half-plane shear
wave. Substituting the incident angle of SH wave (h) and dimensionless frequency
(g) into the numerical calculation based on the presented hybrid method makes it
possible to obtain the displacement responses in the field.
The curves in Fig. 4(a) and (b) present variations in uy with x/a in the com-
pletely filled trapezoidal alluvial valley at g ¼ 0:5, and g ¼ 2:0 (i.e., Case1),
respectively. The symbols in Fig. 4 represent the results from the formula and
numerical calculation by Shyu and Teng [2]. The results obtained in this study are
in good agreement with those of Shyu and Teng [2].
This comparison demonstrates the efficacy of the modified transfinite interpo-
lation proposed in this study for the meshing of PFTAV. This provides results that
the hybrid method in conjunction with modified transfinite interpolation could be
used to systematically solve SH wave scattering in cases of PFTAV.
3.2 Site Effects of Partially Filled Trapezoidal Alluvial

Valley (PFTAV)

The responses of uy versus x=a under a relative lower frequency g ¼ 0:5 in four
cases with various h ¼ 0 ; 30 ; 60 , 90 are shown in Figs. 5(a), 5(b), 5(c), and 5
(d), respectively. In addition, the responses of uy versus x=a under a relative
higher frequency g ¼ 2:0 in four cases with various h ¼ 0 ; 30 ; 60 , 90 are
shown in Figs. 6(a), 6(b), 6(c), and 6(d), respectively.

In Fig. 5, we can observe the amplitude of uy enlarged with a one-peak pattern
in the region of soft alluvial valley (i.e., X1 ) under a lower frequency
incident
wave
f
(i.e., g ¼ 0:5). Comparing to the response of free surface (i.e. uy ðx; 0Þ ¼ 2:0), the

maximum values of uy (i.e., uy max ) at PFTAV under h ¼ 0 are 3.21 (Case1;
FR ¼ 100%), 4.00 (Case2; FR ¼ 78:2%), 8.32 (Case3; FR ¼ 47:2%), and 3.64
(a) (b)
Fig. 3 FEM mesh of an inner finite region X0 (including X1 and X2 ): (a) Case1; (b) Case4
(a) θ = 0 (b)
θ = 30
θ = 60
θ = 90

Fig. 4 Variations in uy in Case1 with x=a at a g ¼ 0:5; b g ¼ 2:0
(a) Case1 (b)

Case2
Case3
Case4
(c) (d)

Fig. 5 Variations in uy with x=a at g ¼ 0:5, with a h ¼ 0 ; b h ¼ 30 ; c h ¼ 60 ; d h ¼ 90
(Case4; FR ¼ 18:2%) shown in Fig. 5(a), respectively. This can be attributed to the
fact that enlargement effect do exist in soft alluvial valley. It represents that theFR
is influenced the enlargement effect. For example, the extreme value of uy max
occurred in Case3, which nearly only half of the volume of trapezoidal canyon
(a) (b)
(c) (d)

Fig. 6 Variations in uy with x=a at g ¼ 2:0, with a h ¼ 0 ; b h ¼ 30 ; c h ¼ 60 ; d h ¼ 90

filled with sedimentary soil. Though the value of uy max occurred in Case3 at

g ¼ 0:5, we can observe the values of uy max increasing as h increasing form 0 to
90 , except in Case4. It could be summarized as following: (1) At a lower g,
enlargement effect could be found in PFTAV, and shown in great contribution in
Case3. (2) As h increasing form 0 to 90 , the enlargement effect could be
apparently shown in the response of uy max . (3) In Case4, a low value of FR leading
to the pattern of PFTAV is closer to the site effect of canyon [3].
In Fig. 6, under a higher frequency incident wave impinging (i.e., g ¼ 2:0), we
can observe a multi-peak pattern in the region of soft alluvial valley (i.e., X1 ), as
well as the illuminated zone of the half-space (i.e., x=a 1:0). Comparing to the
results in Fig. 5, it is interested to find the positions of uy max are not near the center
of PFTAV but the corner of PFTAV (i.e., x=a ¼ 1:0). It could be summarized as
following: (1) At higher g, enlargement effect combined with a multi-peak pattern
shown in uy is observed in PFTAV. (2) Under g ¼ 2:0, the extreme value of

uy among fours cases occurred in Case3 only appears at smaller h, such as
max
h ¼ 0 , and 30 . (3) At large h (such as h ¼ 90 ), the values of uy are decayed

rapidly at the shadow zone of the half-space (i.e., x=a 1:0).

4 Conclusions
This paper reports on a hybrid method combined FEM with Lamb series to
investigate the scattering of SH waves induced by a PFTAV embedded in an elastic
half-plane. We used a simple systematic modified transfinite interpolation to mesh
the inner finite region including a PFTAV. It is useful to obtain the coordinates of
nodes and the sequence of node numbering in the irregular regions.
To demonstrate
the validity of the hybrid method in this study, we compared uy in a special case to
the results by Shyu and Teng [2].
To discuss the site effects of PFTAV, four cases of PFTAV with various FR are
impinging by SH waves with h and g. Our results demonstrate the following: (1) At
a lower dimensionless frequency (such as g ¼ 0:5), the effect of FR exceeds the
influence of h; therefore, a larger uy can be generated in PFTAV with a medium
FR (such as Case3). (2) At a higher dimensionless frequency (such as g ¼ 2:0), the
incident angle of SH waves (h) and FR provide similar weights of site effect on uy .
(3) The peak amplitude in a partially filled alluvial valley (such as PFTAV) with
medium FR is larger than that found in a completely filled alluvial valley.
The proposed hybrid method with modified transfinite interpolation overcomes
the disadvantages to solve the SH wave scattering problems. Importantly, this study
provides a deeper understanding of the site effect associated with partially filled
alluvial valley (such as PFTAV), and helps to deal with the scattering problems of
in-plane P-, SV-, and Rayleigh incident waves induced by irregular alluvial valley.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Science and Technology,
Taiwan R. O. C. for financially supporting this research under Contract No. MOST
108-2221-E-020-016.
References
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2. Shyu WS, Teng TJ (2014) Hybrid method combines transfinite interpolation with series
expansion to simulate the anti-plane response of a surface irregularity. J Mech 30:349–360
3. Shyu WS, Teng TJ, Chou CS (2015) Determining anti-plane responses induced by
oblique-truncated semicircular canyon using systematic hybrid method with mapping function.
Soil Dyn Earthq Eng 77:24–34
4. Shyu WS, Teng TJ, Chou CS (2016) Anti-plane response induced by an irregular alluvial
valley using a hybrid method with modified transfinite interpolation. Soil Dyn Earthq Eng
90:250–264
5. Shyu WS, Teng TJ, Chou CS (2017) Anti-plane response caused by interactions between a
dike and the surrounding soil. Soil Dyn Earthq Eng 92:408–418
6. Trifunac MD (1971) Surface motion of a semi-cylindrical alluvial valley for incident plane SH
waves. Bull Seismol Soc Am 61:1755–1770
7. Tsaur DH, Chang KH (2008) SH-waves scattering from a partially filled semi-circular alluvial
valley. Geophys J Int 173:157–167
8. Wong HL, Trifunac MD (1974) Surface motion of a semi-elliptical alluvial valley for incident
plane SH waves. Bull Seismol Soc Am 64:1389–1408
9. Zhang N, Gao Y, Yang J, Xu C (2015) An analytical solution to the scattering of cylindrical SH
waves by a partially filled semi-circular alluvial valley: near-source site effects. Earthq Eng Eng
Vib 14:189–201
Case Study of Soft Ground
Countermeasure with More than 100M
Thickness in Japanese Expressway
Yusuke Oda, Motoya Chutoku, Chihiro Sugawara, Koki Sawano,

Kota Matsuzaki, Kazuyuki Nagao, and Hideki Ohta
Abstract This study shows the vacuum consolidation method in the soft ground
section of about 3 km length at the construction site in Japanese Expressway. This
soft ground is covered with high soft organic soil under the ground level, and soft
clay soil, loose sandy soil and this highly soft organic soil are deposited as the
mutual layer at the bottom part within more than 100 m thickness. Soft ground has
a possibility to cause a serious problem at the maintenance stage when the
long-term large scale settlement happen, however, there was no experience of
expressway construction on such a quite thick soft ground in Japan. Therefore, full
scale test embankment was constructed to confirm the effective method. Vacuum
consolidation method was adopted from the result of full scale test. By this method,
the construction cost can be reduced by about 60% compared with the deep mixing
treatment method, and the construction period has been shortened by about 50%.
Total settlement amount for 10 years is estimated to be around 10 to 20 cm based
on the analysis of observation during construction.
Keywords Soft ground Vacuum consolidation method Embankment

Japanese Expressway
Y. Oda (&) M. Chutoku C. Sugawara K. Nagao

East Nippon Expressway Company Limited, Chiyoda, Japan
e-mail: y.oda.ac@e-nexco.co.jp
K. Sawano K. Matsuzaki
Nexco-Engineering Tohoku Company Limited, Sendai, Japan
H. Ohta
Research and Development Initiative, Chuo University, Hachioji, Japan

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_32
330 Y. Oda et al.
1 Introduction
The Tohoku-Chuo Expressway is located in the Tohoku region of Japan and has
268 km length. It connects to main cities in the Tohoku region including Yamagata
Prefecture. As it goes through the Yamagata Prefecture, passes about 3 km
extensive soft ground section (Fig. 1). The soft soil is a deposit over 100 m thick
composed of organic soil and clay mutually sandwiching loose sandy layers. In
particular, the layer about 10 m depth from the ground surface is a deposition of
quite soft and highly organic soil. In Japan, there has never been experience of
expressway construction with extremely thick layer of soft soil such as this area.
Therefore, we constructed a full-size trial embankment to confirm the effects of soft
soil improvement methods and identify problems prior to construction of the actual
embankment. According to the test results, embankment work was constructed by
appropriate ways. This report shows the countermeasure of a large-scale soft
ground, and focuses on effectiveness of the vacuum consolidation method in par-
ticular with embanking speed, residual settlement and the behaviour of the sur-
rounding ground.
Fig. 1 Location of soft ground area site

Case Study of Soft Ground Countermeasure … 331
2 Outline of the Soft Ground at Lake Hakuryu
Lake Hakuryu is located about 1.5 km northeast of the Akayu Onsen hot spring,
Nanyo City, Yamagata Prefecture, and is used as paddy fields (Photo 1). The area
started to become marshland about 100,000 years ago, and there used to be many
lakes and marshes of various sizes. They gradually diminished and vanished, and
the only remaining water area is Lake Hakuryu. Figure 2 shoes the presumed
geological profile of the soft soil area prepared based on a geological survey
conducted at about 100 boring locations supplemented by Electric Cone Penetration
testing (about 70 locations). Soft organic layers are distributed near the ground
surface for a thickness of about 10 m at the soft soil section, and under it lie mutual
layers of clay soil and sandy soil. Tuff layer is confirmed to exist about 600 m from
the Akayu Tunnel partly, however, no such rock layer is confirmed even at a depth
of over 100 m at whole sections. Analysis of core samples taken from boring tests
reveal that volcanic ash exists continuously at similar elevations/depth, it shows that
such volcanic ash had been deposited over a flat terrain for tens of thousands of
years in the past. However, considering the presence of extremely complicated
changes in mutual layers of sandy soil or gravelly soil, it is presumed that rivers
frequently meandered or flooded in this area.
The natural water content ratio of highly organic soil distributed near the ground
surface is relatively high, or over 1,000% at some points. Even at depths from 30 to
50 m level, there are layers with a high water content ratio (200 to 300%). High water
content ratios are observed at this depth in many areas. Such areas are generally
excessively consolidated, and the condition changes to normal consolidation condi-
tion from the area to the boundary/ending side. Considering these kinds of distribution
characteristics of soil and sandy layers, the embankment section is divided into
Section A, which features relatively good ground conditions by sandy layers and, and
Section B, which features soft cohesive layers with fewer sandy layers.
Photo 1 Situation of expressway embankment at the soft soil section

332 Y. Oda et al.
Fig. 2 Geological profile
3 Soft Ground Improvement Method
3.1 Trial Embankment Work
A trial embankment was constructed prior to construction of the actual work, and
field observation was conducted in order to understand the improvement effect of
the vacuum consolidation method or the degree of impact on the surrounding/
road-side ground. Figure 3 shows how the trial embankment was constructed. The
trial embankment work was conducted in three areas (area numbers in ascending
order from the starting side). Regarding the vacuum consolidation method,
sheet-type vacuum consolidation was used in Area 1 and Area 3, and cap-type
vacuum consolidation was used in Area 2. Sheet pile work was conducted in Area 1
to separate the improvement area from the surrounding/road-side ground.
According to the result, settlement of Areas 1 and 3 (sheet-type vacuum consoli-
dation) was less than about 1.0 m, Area 2 was about 0.3 m. The reason is con-
sidered that the pressure level reached only 10 kN/m2 just after the start of vacuum
pump operation in Area 2 though, the pressure level reached 70 kN/m2 in Area 1
and Area 3 compared with the target pressure level of 60 kN/m2 due to the unstable
initial pressure level. And the reason of the unstable initial pressure level in Area 2
is assumed that the air-tightness of highly organic sand layer (pressure sealing
layer) was lower than expected. For the impact on the surrounding/road-side area, it
emerged that greater displacement occurred in Area 3 than in Area 1 (sheet piles
section). As explained above, it was confirmed that the sheet-type vacuum con-
solidation method shows greater improvement effects at this embankment area than
others, and that separation of the improved area by sheet piles is effective in
reducing impacts on the surrounding/road-side ground.
Fig. 3 Trial embankment in Area 3
Fig. 4 Deformation in surrounding/road side ground with and without steel sheet piles
Fig. 5 Lateral profile of the vacuum consolidation method determined from the trial embankment
(left: Section A; right: Section B)
334 Y. Oda et al.
Table 1 Type of countermeasure method

Section Method-1 Method-2
A,case1 Counterweight fill-embankment –
A, case2 Counterweight fill-embankment High-strength reinforced soil method
A, case3 Counterweight fill-embankment Vacuum consolidation method
B, case1 Counterweight fill-embankment Card-board drain method
B, case2 Counterweight fill-embankment Vacuum consolidation method
B, case3 Deep-mixing method –
3.2 Comparison Between Vacuum Consolidation and Other

Methods
Prior to construction of the actual embankment in the soft soil area, the special
committee (Lake Hakuryu Soft Ground Control Review Committee) was set up in
2007 to select an appropriate method for soft soil improvement. Various soft ground
improvement methods were compared and reviewed for Sections A and B in
Table 1. Based on the comparison results, the effectiveness of the vacuum consol-
idation method was verified by trial work. Figure 4 shows differences of deforma-
tion in the surrounding/road side ground between with and without steel sheet piles.
It indicates that deformation was reduced in Area 1, where steel sheet piles were
used. The adopted method for Section A (case3) and B (case2) is shown in Fig. 5.
4 Effectiveness of Vacuum Consolidation Method
4.1 Embanking (Work) Speed
Photo 2 shows the expressway road embankment work procedure using the vacuum
consolidation method. Regarding Photo 2 (4) “Road embankment underway,” trial
embankment work was conducted at various daily embanking speed: 11, 12, 15,
and 19 cm. In each case, it was confirmed that there was no negative impact on
embankment stability. Based on this trial work, the actual embankment work was
conducted at a speed of 15 cm per day.
(1) Vertical drain pile work (2) Arrangement of Vacuum facility
(3) Situation of Settlement (4) Road embankment underway
Photo 2 Vacuum Consolidation work (1) to (4)
Fig. 6 Conceptual diagram of Steam-water separation method
4.2 Reduction in Residual Settlement
The ground improvement depth in the case of vacuum consolidation was about
11 m deep in Section A, and about 35 m deep in Section B. Section B was in the
largest scale of ground improvement work in Japan. Pressure level of the air-tight
sheets during the operation of vacuum pumps was stabilized in both Sections A and
B, and there was little negative pressure loss. This is the effect of the steam-water
separation method.
In steam-water separation method, water and air collected by vacuum pump are
sent to a steam-water separation tank installed under air-tight sheets, water is
drained by the draining pump from the tank and air is discharged by vacuum pump
336 Y. Oda et al.
(Fig. 6). This allows the negative pressure generated by the vacuum pump effec-
tively applied inside the ground. As a result, excessive pore water pressure is
dissipated when the timing of vacuum pump stop, and primary consolidation is
completed. The amount of settlement at the center of the embankment when the
vacuum pump stopped was about 140 to 380 cm in Area A (average settlement of
about 220 cm) and about 420 to 570 cm in Area B (average settlement of about
500 cm) (Fig. 7).
Figure 8 shows the residual settlement data for 10 years after the opening of
expressway. The black circles show the actual results of field observations, while
the red circles show the estimated values calculated from the Mesri equation to
evaluate the without case of the any improvement. The residual settlement (black
circles) is more than 20 cm in Section B, but it is less than 10 cm in Section A. In
contrast, settlement of the ground with no improvement (red circles) is considerably
larger, or about 20 to 40 cm. This means the residual settlement was successfully
reduced to about 25 to 50%.
Fig. 7 Settlement of soft soil (until stoppage of vacuum pump)
Fig. 8 Estimated residual settlement in 10 years after the opening of expressway

4.3 Impacts on the Surrounding/Road-Side Area
Figure 9 shows displacements of the surrounding/road-side ground due to

embankment work. The upper graph shows the actual observed data when the
improvement work finished, and the below one shows the predicted data of
unimproved case. Note that the unimproved case was calculated based on the
settlement shape of the embankment described in the design manual of
NEXCO-East.
Deformation of the ground was mainly dominated by settlement and sinking, but
no upheaval or push. Settlement of 5 cm or more (approximate maximum settle-
ment: 18 cm) is observed about within10 m away from the embankment area
overall, however, the area around STA.23 reaches over 50 m away from the
embankment area (approximate maximum settlement: 58 cm). This is affected by
the operation of the vacuum pump during the winter season without embankment
work (Embankment work is be stopped due to the snowfall in winter).
In the unimproved case, settlement of 5 cm or more is presumed about 50 m
away from the embankment area (approximate maximum settlement: 70 cm). This
indicates that the affected area was successfully reduced about 20 to 50%. Note that
other improvement work such as cement stabilization (improved depth: about
10 m) was conducted as well. It many causes certain effect of the deformation.
Fig. 9 Displacement of the surrounding/road-side ground with (upper) and without (bellow) of
vacuum consolidation
338 Y. Oda et al.
5 Summary
Vacuum consolidation was conducted to improve soft ground in embankment work,

and the following results were obtained.
1) In Japan, when an embankment is constructed on soft ground with no
improvement, an embankment speed is generally 3 to 5 cm/day. In this case, it
successfully increase to 15 cm/day due to the vacuum consolidation method.
2) Steam-water separation method is able to control the negative pressure lose,
even though the progress of settlement generated pump head differences. The
negative pressure loss remained small, and the negative pressure was success-
fully applied into the ground.
3) As for the residual settlement for 10 years after the opening of expressway,
settlement is successfully reduced to about 25 to 50% compared with the
unimproved (estimated) case.
4) Affected area of the surrounding/road-side ground which settlement of 5 cm or
more occurs is successfully reduced to about 20 to 50%. The effect of cement
stabilization method which causes separation of the embankment area and
surrounding ground also contributes to this.
5) It is important to take the balance of embankment work and vacuum pump
operation by field observation. Only vacuum pump operation without
embankment work (such as winter work-stop period) may cause an unpre-
dictable settlement on the surrounding/road-side ground.
6 Conclusion
Embankment work by the vacuum consolidation method in high soft ground area
was successfully completed during a long duration of work by the sufficient trial
embankment work and field observation. The work was also completed without
causing major settlement or upheaval.
There are two major tasks to solve in the future. One is maintenance for residual
settlement after the start of expressway service. According to the estimation result,
residual settlement of 20 cm or more may occur in some places in the future. So it’s
necessary for the road administrator to continue and check the field observation and
conduct pavement repair as required.
The second task is to take care of paddy fields around the embankment site. The
ground deformation of the surrounding/road-side was effectively reduced to some
extent by some treatment. However, it’s essential to communicate with the relevant
parties among land owners or users in the area around the work site and take
appropriate action depending on the surrounding ground condition in the future.
Reference
1. High-Vacuum N&H Method, Technical Documents (2004 version) Vacuum Consolidation

Technology Association, Japan
The Influence of Non-structural Exterior
Wall on the Structural Resistance of RC
Building Frames Against Seismic
and Progressive Collapse Failure
M. H. TSAI
Abstract Because of environmental and architectural considerations, the partially

infilled exterior walls of RC condominium buildings in Taiwan were used to cast
monolithically with surrounding beams and/or columns. Among those various
exterior walls, the parapet type is the more common one. Thus, the influence of its
mechanical properties on the structural resistance of RC building frames against
seismic and progressive collapse failure was investigated in this study. From the
nonlinear static pushover and pushdown analyses of seven RC building frames, the
seismic and column-loss resistances with and without the parapet exterior walls
were compared. The analysis results revealed that with the parapet exterior walls,
both the horizontal seismic resistance and progressive collapse resistance under
column loss could be increased at the expense of reduced ductility. However, the
mechanical influence of the parapet exterior walls decreased with increased span,
number of stories, and seismic design coefficient of the RC building frames.
Keywords Parapet exterior wall RC building frame Seismic resistance

Progressive collapse resistance
1 Introduction
Confined masonry construction had been used as a major engineering technology

for many low-rise RC buildings in Taiwan. Hence, unreinforced masonry was
usually used in the construction of the exterior opening walls. However, due to
some functional and architectural considerations nowadays, the exterior opening
walls of many metropolitan RC buildings are often monolithically cast with the
surrounding beams and columns. These exterior RC opening walls are usually 12 or
15 cm thick and designed with temperature reinforcement. The reinforcement may
M. H. TSAI (&)
Department of Civil Engineering, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology,
Pingtung County 912, Taiwan
e-mail: mhtsai@mail.npust.edu.tw

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_33
342 M. H. TSAI
be provided for each direction in one or two layers, depending on the thickness of
the wall. The opening style is dominated by architects in most cases. Only the
weight of the opening walls is accounted for in the structural design process. Thus,
they are regarded as non-structural elements and their mechanical effects on the
building frame are neglected. A very common type of the exterior open walls is
defined as parapet walls, as shown in Fig. 1. It is usually around 1 m high above the
floor and quite popular for buildings without balconies.
Ou et al. [6] have investigated the effects of openings on the seismic resistance of
external RC walls. They indicated that the locations of openings could influence the
lateral strength of the wall specimens. On the other hand, experimental studies were
also conducted to investigate the effects of masonry infilled walls without and with
openings on the collapse resistance of building frames under column loss [3, 7, 9].
The test results indicated that the non-structural infilled walls with and without
openings could both moderately increase the collapse resistance building frames.
Erena et al. [1] indicated that the structural span length and story height may affect
the contribution of the concrete bricks to the collapse.
RC walls, with or without openings, were usually considered as structural
components in most published studies with their seismic strengths as the main
concerns. Very limited studies were related to their structural resistance contribu-
tion as they were regarded as non-structural components. The numerical study by
Tsai and Huang [10] indicated that with a same opening rate, different types of
exterior non-structural RC walls could have different influence on the collapse
resistances. However, the variations of structural design parameters may also
generate varied mechanical interaction with the exterior RC walls. Therefore, this
study focused on the influence of some selected structural design parameters on the
resistance contribution from the parapet walls. An inverted T-section model was
validated for simulating the integral flexural strength of the wall and underneath
beam. Seven RC building frames with varied span lengths, number of stories, and
seismic coefficients were designed. Nonlinear static pushover and pushdown
Fig. 1 The typical external parapet walls

The Influence of Non-structural Exterior Wall … 343
analyses were respectively conducted for the lateral seismic and progressive col-
lapse resistance of the building frames with and with considering the parapet walls.
Effects of the design parameters on the variation of resistance were clarified from
the analysis results.
2 Modeling of the Parapet RC Wall
2.1 Validation of the Shell-Frame Model
The RC building could be simulated with beam-column elements as the frame

members and shell elements as the parapet walls. Multi-layered shell element has
been available in several commercial structural analysis programs and is the most
direct model for the RC walls [8]. In the multi-layered shell element, concrete and
steel reinforcement were considered as several fully-bonded layers along the
thickness of the wall. Steel reinforcement was modeled as orthotropic layers with
respect to their directions. Experimental studies for the column-loss response of
moment frame with parapet RC walls are not common. Hence, the test result of a
non-ductile RC frame infilled with RC shear wall with openings by Tseng et al. [12]
was used to verify the accuracy of the shell-frame model. Figure 2(a) shows the
redrawn design drawing of the WO1D specimen, which was used to investigate the
effect of the opening shear walls on the horizontal cyclic response of the RC frame.
Since the test result revealed that most of the damages were concentrated on the
walls and columns, the horizontal behavior of the test specimen could be similar to
the vertical column-loss response of a moment frame with parapet RC walls.
The compressive strength of concrete was 22.2 MPa and the yield strength was
394.2 MPa for the #3 rebar in the 12 cm walls, 522.5 MPa for the #6 rebar in the
beam, and 518.8 MPa for the #6 rebar in the columns, respectively, from the
material test results by Tseng et al. [12]. Unconfined stress-strain model proposed
Wall reinforcement
a Single layer #3@20 2 b 1400
410 #3@20 #6
30 50 250 50 30 30 1200
50
50
1000
Load (kN)
Wall
reinforcement
#3@30 Single layer 800
170
170
#3@20
600
60
1 #6 1
400
70
70
Experiment
95 60 95
80 200 Shell + beam-column elements
50 50 250 50 50
Section 2-2
#3@30
2
0
#6
0 1 2 3 4 5
30
50 250 50
Unit: cm
Displacement (cm)
350
Section 1-1
Fig. 2 a The WO1D specimen b Comparison of the cyclic loading test and the simulation results
344 M. H. TSAI
by Mander et al. [4] was adopted for the concrete, as shown in Fig. 3(a).
A simplified stress-strain model was used for the reinforcement, as shown in Fig. 3
(b). As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the 12 cm opening shear walls were
simulated with multi-layered shell elements. Full body constraints were imposed on
the frame joints and the corner nodes of the shear walls. Partial equal constraints
(except the one along the longitudinal axis of frame members) were imposed on the
interfaces between the frame and the shear walls. Lumped plastic hinges were
assigned to the ends of frame members. The plastic hinges properties were deter-
mined from the strengths of sectional cracking moment, crash moment, and 70%
crash moment, which were estimated from sectional analysis. Figure 2(b) show the
comparison between the envelope of the cyclic loading test by Tseng et al. [12] and
the pushover curve of the shell-frame model. The numerical model could be vali-
dated from the consistent results.
2.2 Inverted T-Section Model
Although the shell-frame model was shown to be capable of capturing the nonlinear
response of the RC frame with opening wall, the required execution time could be
very long for a prototype RC building frame with parapet walls. Since the parapet
wall is monolithically cast with the underneath rectangular beam section, a planar
beam-column sub-assemblage was used to evaluate if they could be simulated with
an inverted T-section model. The beam-column sub-assemblage was extracted from
the first floor of a seismically designed five-story RC frame, which is introduced in
a later section. It had four bays with a constant 6 m span length and the middle
bottom column was removed, as shown in Fig. 4.
Pinned-end conditions were assumed for all the column stubs. Uniformly dis-
tributed gravitational loadings were imposed on the beam members. Two different
finite element models were constructed for the sub-assemblage. One was con-
structed with rectangular beam elements and layered shell elements as the parapet
a b
fc f c' xr fs
fc = 2 fc' r ε − εc
r −1 + x r fc = ( cu ) fu
f’c r −1 + 2 r ε cu − 2ε c'
fy
x = ε c / ε c' f s = f y + ( fu − f y )
ε − ε sh
r = E /( E − fc' / ε c' ) ε u − ε sh
ε’c 2ε’c εu εc εy εsh εu εs
Fig. 3 a Stress-strain model for concrete b Stress-strain model for steel

1 15
w w w w
100
#3@15
600
#3@10
1
6-#7
60
600 600 600 600 3-#7
Unit: cm 45 Section 1-1
Fig. 4 The beam-column sub-assemblage for model validation
walls. However, they were combined into inverted T-section beam elements in the
other model. Lumped hinges were assigned to the ends of the rectangular beam
elements in the former model and the ends of the inverted T-section members in the
latter. The hinge properties were determined from the sectional analysis results.
Figures 5(a) and 5(b) show the normalized moment-rotation curves of the rectan-
gular and inverted-T sections, respectively. The piecewise linear approximations of
the curves for the structural models were also shown in the figures. Nonlinear static
pushdown analyses were carried out for the two models under uniformly distributed
beam loads. The loading resistance versus deflection of the column-removed joint
responses of the two models is compared in Fig. 6(a). It is seen that although the
inverted T-section model revealed slightly larger initial stiffness than the more
rigorous shell-frame model, they had similar variations of loading resistance. In
addition, they had similar variations of the accumulated strain energy as shown in
Fig. 6(b). Hence, the inverted T-section members could be used to account for the
influence of the exterior parapet walls.
a 2 b 1.5
Rectangular section Inverted T-section
1.5 1
1
0.5
0.5
M/My
M/My
0
0
-0.5
-0.5
Hinge model
Hinge model
-1 -1 Sectional analysis
Sectional analysis
-1.5 -1.5
-0.2 -0.15 -0.1 -0.05 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 -0.15 -0.1 -0.05 0 0.05 0.1 0.15
Rotation (rad) Rotation (rad)
Fig. 5 a Normalized moment-rotation curves of the rectangular sections b Normalized

moment-rotation curves of the inverted-T sections
346 M. H. TSAI
a 3500 b 1200
3000 1000
Strain energy (kN-m)

2500
Load (kN)
800
2000
600
1500
400
1000
Inverted T-section Inverted T-section
500 200
Layered shell + beam-column Layered shell + beam-column
0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Displacement (cm) Displacement (cm)
Fig. 6 a The load-deflection curves of the two models b Cumulative energy curves of the two
models
3 Seismic Design and Characteristics of Building Models
Seven RC moment-resisting building frames were designed based on the Seismic

Design Specifications and Commentary for Buildings of Taiwan (MOI [5]). The
compressive strength of concrete and tensile yield strength of reinforcement were
assumed as 27.5 MPa (280 kgf/cm2) and 412 MPa (4200 kgf/cm2), respectively.
Five-, ten-, and fifteen-story building frames were considered and a constant story
height of 3 m was adopted. As shown in Fig. 7, a regular four bay-by-three bay
plan layout was used and three different span lengths, 4, 6, and 10 m, were con-
sidered. The design dead load (DL) was composed of the frame weight, a uniform
slab loading of 3.92 kN/m2 (400 kgf/m2) and the weight of 24 cm-thick exterior
non-structural brick walls. The service live load (LL) is 1.73 kN/m2 (300 kgf/m2).
Three seismic coefficients, Cs = 0.10, 0.15, and 0.22 were respectively deter-
mined for typical low, medium, and high seismic regions. The equivalent lateral
seismic design load was determined from Cs W and story-wise distributed in an
Fig. 7 Plan layout of the 4

building frames
Ly
3
Ly
2
Ly
C1
1
Lx Lx Lx Lx
A B C D E
Plan view
inversely triangular pattern. The effective structural weight was equal to (1.0DL +
0.25LL). Load combinations of (1.2DL + 1.6LL) and (1.2DL + 1.0LL + 1.0EQ)
were used for the structural design. A minimum beam depth equal to one tenth of its
center-to-center span length was used in the sectional design for minimizing the
elastic deflection under service loads. Also, the maximum reinforcement ratio of
beam sections was set as 1.2%. Since the building frames have fewer bays in the
transverse direction, more reinforcement was required for the transverse beams.
However, for the sake of simplicity, same reinforcement ratio was used in both the
longitudinal and transverse directions and same section dimensions were used in each
building frame. The column sections were determined according to the strong
column-and-weak beam mechanism. Table 1 shows the longitudinal fundamental
periods of the building frames. In the table, the buildings were designated by their
number of stories, span lengths, and seismic coefficients. For example, the desig-
nation of 10S06R10 stands for the ten-story building frame with span length of 6 m
and seismic coefficient of 0.10.
4 Nonlinear Static Analysis for Structural Resistance
Nonlinear static (NS) analyses were conducted for the lateral seismic resistances
and column-loss resistances of the aforementioned building models. The former
was obtained from the NS pushover analyses under the inversely triangular loads in
the longitudinal direction, while the latter was from the NS pushdown analyses
under the bottom C1-column loss scenario, as indicated in Fig. 7, and subject to
uniformly distributed gravitational loads. As mentioned in an earlier section,
lumped plastic hinges were assigned to the end of structural members. Piece-wise
linear hinge properties determined from sectional analysis were adopted for the
rectangular and inverted-T beam sections. However, the hinge properties suggested
in the FEMA-356 guidelines [2] were adopted for the column members. The lon-
gitudinal pushover and downward pushdown curves of the seven building frames
with and without the parapet walls were compared.
Table 1 Fundamental Building Period (s) Vy (kN) Cs

periods, yield base shears, and
seismic coefficients 05S04R15 0.523 1878 0.148
05S06R15 0.576 3263 0.134
05S10R15 0.430 12663 0.173
10S06R10 0.958 5299 0.096
10S06R15 0.786 9941 0.158
10S06R22 0.723 17469 0.260
15S06R15 1.045 18165 0.167
348 M. H. TSAI
4.1 Pushover Analysis for Lateral Seismic Resistance
The longitudinal (X) pushover curves of the seven building frames without and
with parapet walls are shown in Figs. 8(a) and 8(b), respectively. In the figures, the
ordinate is the base shear normalized by the design structural weight
(1.0DL + 0.25LL) and the abscissa is the global drift ratio determined from
dividing the roof displacement by the building height. The yield base shear, Vy,
which was determined as the base shear corresponding to the first appearance of
structural hinges, of the seven building frames without parapet walls and the cor-
responding seismic coefficient (Cs) are summarized in Table 1. The frames with
10 m span length present apparently larger normalized seismic resistance than the
others in the figures. This is because that the bottom reinforcement at the beam ends
were determined by the minimum reinforcement requirement that the positive
moment strength at joint faces shall be not less than one-half the negative moment
strength provided at that face of the joint. Table 1 indicates that resulting seismic
coefficients generally agree with the original design values.
The comparison of Fig. 8(a) and 8(b) reveals that the peak pushover resistance
generally increased with consideration of the parapet walls. However, the roof drift
ratio corresponding to the peak resistance decreased. From the hinge development
process during the pushover analysis, it was observed that the strong-column and
weak-beam mechanism could not be held with the parapet walls. Since the flexural
strengths of the inverted-T sections were significantly larger than that of the original
rectangular ones, the plastic hinges could thus appear on the column ends earlier
than on the beam ends. Due to the larger flexural strength and smaller plastic
rotation capacity of the column hinges, the horizontal seismic resistance may
increase, but with reduced corresponding drift ratio.
a 0.5 b 0.5
Without parapet walls 05S04R15 With parapet walls 05S04R15
0.45 0.45
05S06R15 05S06R15
0.4 0.4
R/(1.2DL+0.25LL)
R/(1.2DL+0.25LL)
05S10R15
05S10R15
0.35 0.35 10S06R10
10S06R10
0.3 0.3 10S06R15
10S06R15
0.25 0.25 10S06R22
10S06R22
15S06R15
0.2 15S06R15 0.2
0.15 0.15
0.1 0.1
0.05 0.05
0 0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05
Roof drift (rad) Roof drift (rad)
Fig. 8 a Pushover curves without parapet walls b Pushover curves with parapet walls
4.2 Pushdown Analysis for Progressive Collapse Resistance
Uniform loading pattern was adopted in the NS pushdown analysis. The dynamic
effect under column loss was not considered in the NS analysis. Therefore, the
dynamic collapse resistance was determined from the pseudo-static response curve,
which was constructed from the NS pushdown curve by using the work-energy
principle as [11]
Zud
PCC ðud Þ ¼ PNS ðuÞdu=ud ð1Þ
0
where PNS ðuÞ is the loading resistance from the NS pushdown curve and PCC ðud Þ is
the pseudo-static loading resistance at the deflection demand ud . Figures 9(a) and 9
(b) show the pseudo-static response curves of the seven building frames without
and with parapet walls, respectively. The ordinate in the figures is the total imposed
gravitational loading normalized by the design structural weight (1.0DL + 0.25LL).
The abscissa is the chord rotation defined as the displacement of the
column-removed joint divided by the span length. The dynamic collapse resistance
of the seven building frames under the column loss were then determined from the
peak pseudo-static loading response. It is observed from the figures that the collapse
resistance was generally increased with the parapet walls, especially for the
buildings with shorter span, less story number, and lower seismic design coefficient.
Except for the 10S06R22 and 15S06R15 buildings, the collapse resistance was
developed at a much smaller chord rotation. This means that although the collapse
resistance was increased with the parapet walls, the corresponding ductility capacity
was significantly reduced. Therefore, it is more probable to fail in a brittle manner
under the column loss conditions.
a 10 b 10
9 With parapet walls
9 Without parapet walls
05S04R15 05S06R15 05S10R15 10S06R10
8 05S04R15 05S06R15 05S10R15 10S06R10 8
R/(1.2DL+0.25LL)
R/(1.2DL+0.25LL)
10S06R15 10S06R22 15S06R15

7 10S06R15 10S06R22 15S06R15 7
6 6
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
0 0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
Chord rotation (rad) Chord rotation (rad)
Fig. 9 a Pseudo-static response curves without parapet walls b Pseudo-static response curves
with parapet walls
350 M. H. TSAI
5 Conclusions
The influence of a common exterior non-structural RC wall, which was defined as

the parapet wall, on the lateral seismic strength and progressive collapse resistance
of building frames was investigated in this study. The RC parapet walls were
combined with the peripheral rectangular beams into inverted-T beams in the
nonlinear structural model. Piecewise flexural hinge properties of the inverted-T
beams were determined from the sectional analyses and validated with the more
rigorous multi-layered shell elements. Seven moment-resisting RC building frames
were designed with varied seismic coefficients, span lengths, and number of stories.
Nonlinear static pushover and pushdown analyses were conducted to evaluate the
mechanical contribution of the parapet walls to the structural seismic and pro-
gressive collapse resistances, respectively. The analysis results indicated that the
peak pushover resistance generally increased with the parapet walls. However, the
roof drift ratio corresponding to the peak resistance decreased. Similarly, the pro-
gressive collapse resistance could increase with the parapet walls, especially for the
buildings with shorter span, less story number, and lower seismic design coefficient.
In general, the seismic and collapse resistance increments decreased with increased
span length, number of stories, and seismic design coefficient. This implies that
from the viewpoint of strength, the negligence of the mechanical contribution of the
exterior RC parapet walls could be practically acceptable for medium-to-high
building frames located in high seismic hazard zones. It should be reminded that for
lower building frames with the parapet walls, the resistance enhancement may be
accompanied with significantly reduced corresponding ductility.
Acknowledgements The financial support provided by the Ministry of Science and Technology,
Taiwan, under the grant number MOST 07-2221-E-020-005 is gratefully acknowledged.
References
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collapse resistance of reinforced concrete framed buildings. Eng Struct 178:375–394
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Federal Emergency Management Agency, Report No. FEMA 356, Washington, D.C.
3. Li S, Shan S, Zhai C, Xie L (2016) Experimental and numerical study on progressive collapse
process of RC frames with full-height infill walls. Eng Failure Anal 59:57–68
4. Mander JB, Priestley MJN, Park R (1984) Theoretical Stress-Strain Model for Confined
Concrete. J Struct Eng ASCE 114(3):1804–1826
5. MOI (2005) Seismic Design Specifications and Commentary for Buildings of Taiwan,
Construction and Planning Agency, Ministry of the Interior (MOI), Taipei, Taiwan
6. Ou YC, Hoang L, Roh H (2019) Cyclic behavior of squat reinforced concrete walls with
openings typical of exterior walls of row houses in Taiwan. Eng Struct 195:231–242
7. Shan S, Li S, Xu S, Xie L (2016) Experimental study on the progressive collapse performance
of RC frames with infill walls. Eng Struct 111:80–92
8. Shayanfar MA, Javidan MM (2017) Progressive collapse-resisting mechanisms and

robustness of RC frame-shear wall structures. J Perform Constr Fac. 31(5):04017045-1-12
9. Stinger SM, Orton SL (2013) Experimental evaluation of disproportionate collapse resistance
in reinforced concrete frames. ACI Struct J 111(3):521–529
10. Tsai MH, Huang TC (2013) Progressive collapse analysis of an RC building with exterior
partially infilled walls. Struct Design Tall Spec Build 22(4):327–348
11. Tsai MH, You ZK (2012) Experimental evaluation of inelastic dynamic amplification factors
for progressive collapse analysis under sudden support loss. Mech Res Commun 40:56–62
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RC shear wall with openings. Struct Eng 33(1):68–83 (in Chinese)
Behavior of Bridge Superstructure
Model with Double Spherical Sliding
Bearing Under Live Load Action
Hirofumi Oyabu, Shuichi Fujikura, Nguyen Minh Hai,

Saori Takeuchi, and Akinori Nakajima
Abstract A spherical sliding bearing (SSB) has been only used as a seismic iso-
lation bearing for buildings in Japan. In order to apply the SSB to bridges, it is
necessary to ensure that the SSB performs properly under design loads. This study
investigates the behavior of the SSB under live load action by static loading tests on
a bridge superstructure model supported by SSBs. Also, the finite element analyses
were carried out to simulate the tests and to understand the behavior of the bearings.
Keywords Double spherical sliding bearing Seismic isolation bearing Live

load Static loading tests
1 Introduction
Although laminated rubber bearings are widely used as seismic isolation bearings in
many bridges in Japan, some of them were damaged during major earthquakes in
recent years. These damages were assumed to be due to the combination of aging
degradation of laminated rubber and earthquake forces. Therefore, there is a need to
develop another type of bearings as well as the laminated rubber bearings for
seismic isolation. Spherical sliding bearings have been applied for seismic isolation
since the 1990s in some seismic regions. There are some advantages in using SSB.
The SSB has a restoring mechanism by pendulum motion and a damping mecha-
nism by frictional force. Also, because the natural period of the SSB depends on the
radius of the concave plate, it is easy to achieve the long natural period of the
H. Oyabu (&)
Graduate School of Engineering, Utsunomiya University, Utsunomiya, Japan
e-mail: h.oyabu@civitec.co.jp
S. Fujikura N. M. Hai A. Nakajima
Department of Civil Engineering and Regional Design, Utsunomiya University,
Utsunomiya, Japan
S. Takeuchi
Tokyo Division, Sogo Engineering Consultant, Tokyo, Japan

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_34
354 H. Oyabu et al.
structure. In order to apply the SSB to bridges, the bearings are required to transfer
live loads from a superstructure to a substructure and to perform properly under live
load action and also displacement due to temperature changes. Therefore, this study
investigates the behavior of the SSB, especially double SSB, under live load action
by static loading tests on a bridge superstructure model supported by double SSBs.
In particular, we wish to investigate the rotation of the bearings and the displace-
ment of the sliders due to the deflection of the superstructure.
2 Experimental and Analytical Details
2.1 Deflection Angle at Bearings Under Live Load
Prior to the experimental program, in order to investigate the behavior of bearings

in an actual bridge, the deflection angle at bearings under live load was calculated.
The target bridge was a simple plate girder bridge that had 5 main girders. It has a
span of 34.0 m and a width of 12.5 m. The design load was B-live load from
Specifications for Highway Bridges [1]. The deflection angle under live load
resulted in 0.00465 radians. Also, the deflection angle was 0.00544 radians as
calculated from allowable vertical displacement at the center of span. Hence, in the
experiments, static loadings were applied to generate these deflection angles at the
bearings with the double SSBs.
2.2 Experimental Details
A static loading was applied at the center of the beam supported by two SSBs to
replicate the deflection angle at the bearings from the design calculations. Figure 1
shows the details of the double SSB. The double SSB consisted of a slider and two
concave plates. The slider had two spherical convex surfaces at its top and bottom
which interface with sliding surfaces. The two sliding surfaces of the slider are
coated with a sliding sheet with PTFE composite material. The concave plate had a
concave surface with a spherical radius of 2500 mm.
Figure 2 shows the details of experimental setup. A steel H-beam specimen was
supported by two SSBs, Bearing A and Bearing B have a 4 m span. Two different
steel H-beams were used as shown in Fig. 3; Beam 1 was H-200 200 8 12
and Beam 2 was H-300 150 6.5 9. A cycle static loading was applied at
the center of the span, and the maximum load of 20, 50 and 100 kN was applied at
each cycle. The vertical reaction force of both bearings were measured by the load
cells placed under the bearings as shown in Fig. 2. Some of the displacements
around the bearings were also measured by a displacement gauges. The deflection
Behavior of Bridge Superstructure Model … 355
Fig. 1 Double SSB
Fig. 2 Experimental setup
angle at the bearings, h, was calculated by using the vertical displacements at two
sides of the bearing placed 400 mm apart (VD1 and VD2) as follows (Fig. 4);

1 VD2 VD1
h ¼ tan ð1Þ
400
2.3 Analytical Details
Finite element analyses were performed by using ABAQUS. Figure 5 presents one
half of the analytical model based on symmetric conditions. The specimen was
modeled in 2-dimension by using shell elements for all members. The width of the
member was given as its thickness of the shell element. The boundary conditions at
the center span are no horizontal displacement and no rotation but the vertical
displacement is free. The one at the bottom of lower bearing was to fix the vertical
displacement and the rotation, and a spring was attached in the horizontal direction
356 H. Oyabu et al.
Fig. 3 Beam specimen
Fig. 4 Deflection angle
as shown in Fig. 6 because the base of the bearing slightly moved during the
experiment. Its spring constant was set as 5 kN/mm. The contact between the slider
and concave plates was modeled using frictional contact in parallel to the surface
and allowing uplift in perpendicular to the surface. The other members are con-
nected as a rigid connection. The coefficient of friction for the sliding surface, l,
was defined as [2];
l ¼ l0 c ð2Þ
c ¼ 1:746 r0:141 þ 0:02 ð3Þ
where l0 is a reference coefficient of friction (l0 = 0.047) and c is a correction

factor which depends on the pressure, r, on the slider surface.
Fig. 5 Analysis model

Fig. 6 Schematic diagram of

the bearing in analysis
3 Experimental Results
3.1 Relationship Between Deflection Angle

and Displacement
Figures 7 and 8 show the experimental results of the deflection angle-slider dis-
placement relationship for Beam 1 and Beam 2, respectively, along with the ana-
lytical results. The load was applied to generate more than the deflection angle of
0.00465 rad and 0.00544 rad for live load and allowable displacement, respec-
tively. The maximum deflection angle of Beam 1 and Beam 2 is 0.01110 rad and
0.00706 rad, respectively. The hysteresis loop of the slider is similar to a triangular
shape or a trapezoidal shape. At the beginning of loading or unloading, the slider
does not slide for a certain deflection angle, and then the slider starts sliding. After a
cycle of loading, the slider returns to an original position. The hysteresis loop of
analyses is close to the average one of experiments.
Fig. 7 Deflection angle and Analysis

slider displacement (Beam 1) Bearing A
0.01 Bearing B
Deflection angle (rad)
Average
0.00544rad
0.005
0.00465rad
0
0 1 2 3
Displacement of slider (mm)
358 H. Oyabu et al.
Fig. 8 Deflection angle and Analysis

slider displacement (Beam 2) Bearing A
0.01 Bearing B
Deflection angle (rad)

Average
0.00544rad
0.005
0.00465rad
0
0 1 2 3
Displacement of slider (mm)
3.2 Frictional Force and Horizontal Reaction Force

of the Slider
The frictional force is calculated by considering the equilibrium at the edge of the
slider assuming that the slider contacted at its edge due to the rotation of the
bearing. While loading, the horizontal reaction force, H, is the sum of the horizontal
component of the friction force, F’, and normal force of reaction, N, as shown in
Fig. 9 and is calculated as follows;
H ¼ F 0 cos hL N sin hL ð4Þ
where W is a force including self-weight and the applied load and hL is a contact
angle which is the tangent angle at the edge of the slider.
While unloading, the horizontal reaction force is calculated as
H ¼ F 0 cos hL N sin hL ð5Þ
Fig. 9 Horizontal reaction

force
Fig. 10 Frictional force

(Beam 1) 100
Load (kN)
50
Unloading Loading
0
−2 0 2
Horizontal reaction force (kN)
Figure 10 compares the horizontal reaction force between the analytical results
and the theoretical Eqs. (4) in red line and (5) in blue line. The theoretical equations
are close to the analysis values. Note that the analytical results also show the
transition between loading and unloading.
4 Conclusions
The behaviour of the double SSB under live load was investigated herein. The
results are summarized as follows;
1. The slider returned to the original position after a cycle of loadings, and the
hysteresis loop was similar to a triangular shape or a trapezoidal shape.
2. The horizontal reaction force is the sum of the horizontal component of the
friction force and the normal force of reaction.
Acknowledgements Supports and advice from Mr. Tadayuki Noro and Dr. Shinsuke Yamazaki,
Nippon Steel Engineering Co., Ltd, are gratefully acknowledged.
References
1. Japan Road Association (2017) Specifications for highway bridges”, Part 1 (General), 93–102.
(in Japanese)
2. Nishimoto K, Nakamura S, Hasegawa H, Wakita N (2016) Bearing stress and velocity
dependency of spherical sliding bearing through large-scale tests. Summaries of technical
papers of annual meeting in Architectural Institute of Japan 2016, pp 445–446
Numerical Analysis of Seepage
for Saturated-Unsaturated Pavement
Structure Under Rainfall Conditions
J. H. Zheng, Q. Y. Xing, and D. W. Wang
Abstract The paper aims to analyse the seepage characteristics of

saturated-unsaturated subgrade and pavement under designed rainfall condition by
the combination of experimental data tested from laboratory and numerical simu-
lation through COMSOL Multiphysics, a commercial finite element software for
multiphysics problems. At first, based on the general seepage theory, a partial
differential equation (PDE) of seepage flow for saturated-unsaturated pavement is
deduced by using the principle of effective stress and considering the impact of
material compressibility. Using the PDE and the soil water characteristic curve
(SWCC) presented by Van Genuchten, numerical examples for pavement structure
are calculated with the software COMSOL Multiphysics, in which the change of
rainfall intensities and different groundwater levels are taken into consideration.
The resulted variation curves of saturation at different times demonstrate that, with
the increase of the rainfall intensity, the time for subgrade and pavement to reach to
be saturated is decreasing gradually. During the process of rainfall, the groundwater
level has definite effect in the process of rainfall infiltration. The simulation
methodology can be used and extended to the further research on mechanism of
seepage of saturated-unsaturated pavement structure.
Keywords Pavement engineering Seepage Saturation Rainfall intensity

Groundwater level
J. H. Zheng Q. Y. Xing (&)

Department of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
e-mail: xingqy@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn
J. H. Zheng
e-mail: zhengjh17@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn
D. W. Wang
School of Transportation Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology,
Harbin 150090, China
e-mail: dawei.wang@hit.edu.cn

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_35
362 J. H. Zheng et al.
1 Introduction
Water damage is one of the main kinds of pavement distress in rainy area. Although
there are numerous reasons that lead to water damage of pavement structure, in
essence, it is closely related with the saturated-unsaturated seepage in the pavement.
Moisture has significant impact on the strength, stiffness and stability of the
pavement. When moisture penetrate into the pavement, the strength, stiffness and
stability of the pavement will decline to varying degrees. If not treated well in time,
water damage will occur in the pavement structure inevitably [10]. Based on the
above reasons, the study of seepage characteristics of pavement structure has both
theoretical and practical value.
The seepage problems in the pavement structure engineering are mostly
saturated-unsaturated. The researchers have done numerous numerical analysis on
this problem. However, in the past, due to the limitation of theory and method, only
seepage in the saturated zone under phreatic line was analyzed and the unsaturated
zone was neglected. It is obvious that this assumption was unable to give a true and
comprehensive show of the seepage of saturated-unsaturated pavement, which
would naturally cause poor accuracy in analysis results [2]. In 1973, Neuman
presented a finite element method (FEM) to solve the seepage problem, which
regarded saturated zone and unsaturated zone as a whole, laying a foundation for
numerical analysis of saturated-unsaturated seepage [6]. The basic theory for
numerical analysis of saturated-unsaturated seepage is Richards’ equation, which
can be expressed as follows in tensor symbols [8]:
vi ¼ kij ðhÞHjk;k ð1Þ
where the hydraulic conductivity kij ¼ kij ðhÞ is a function of pressure head coor-
dinate h; vi is the velocity of water flow; denotes the derivative with respect to
spatial coordinate k; Hjk is the hydraulic head, which is the summation of pressure
head hdjk and elevation Djk;
Hjk ¼ hdjk þ Djk ð2Þ
where dij is the Kronecker d function; Djk equals to 0 except for j = k = 3, i.e. On the
basis of Richards’ equation, Miller proposed that the hydraulic conductivity in
unsaturated zone is a function of pressure head or moisture content, which provided
theoretical basis for the application of Darcy’s law to saturated-unsaturated seepage [5].
In the numerical analysis process of saturated-unsaturated seepage, the deter-
mination of unsaturated permeability is one of the most important parts in numerical
computation. Whether the numerical solution is reasonable highly depends on the
unsaturated permeability is right or wrong. Unsaturated permeability mainly con-
tains SWCC and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity [3]. The former one is an index
to the capacity of porous media containing water and the latter one demonstrates the
Numerical Analysis of Seepage … 363
velocity of water permeating unsaturated domain. Several SWCCs have been

proposed over the past few years. Among the notable contributions have been
included Fredlund-xing (FX) model, Van Genuchten (VG) model as well as
Brooks-Corey (BC) model. Another important part is that the initial pressure dis-
tribution is always needed as an initial condition to solve saturated-unsaturated
seepage problems. Whether the initial pressure is correct or not has a major impact
on numerical solution of saturated-unsaturated seepage. Because of the high diffi-
culty to determine negative pressure in the unsaturated zone through numerical
methods, at present, the experimental methods are always used [9]. During rainfall
process, boundary conditions of saturated-unsaturated seepage will be affected by
rainfall intensity. Currently, there are two common kinds of boundary conditions
for numerical analysis of saturated-unsaturated seepage in rainfall infiltration pro-
cess. The first one is the fixed flux for low rainfall intensity that all the rainfall
infiltrates the pavement and the second one is the fixed pressure head for high
rainfall intensity that has a runoff situation [4].
The main objective in this paper is to present a more complete theory of seepage
model for saturated-unsaturated pavement. The work is an extension and practical
application of the theory for saturated-unsaturated soils presented by J. Bear in
1978. The essential aspects presented below include: a feasible governing PDE of
seepage flow for saturated-unsaturated pavement; the numerical solution of repre-
sentative examples which are calculated with the software COMSOL Multiphysics
by using this PDE and the SWCC; the impact of different rainfall intensities and
groundwater levels on seepage of saturated-unsaturated pavement structure.
2 The Governing PDE for Saturated-Unsaturated Seepage
In the saturated seepage process, the hydraulic conductivity of any point in the
material is often regarded as a fixed value, while in the unsaturated seepage process,
the water content and hydraulic conductivity of the material are time-dependent
variables. In this section, a governing PDE for saturated-unsaturated seepage is
derived by using principle of effective stress and material compressibility, and a
solution to saturated-unsaturated seepage problem is presented.
2.1 Principle of Effective Stress
The principle of effective stress is a powerful tool for evaluation of response in

saturated-unsaturated soils. The effective stress was first expressed by K. Terzaghi
as follows:
0
rij ¼ rij þ uw dij ð3Þ
where rij is the total stress resulting from external load; r0ij is the effective stress, a
good approximation of the stress transmitted through the skeleton; uw is the water
pressure acting over the entire water area. When rij changes, r0ij and uw will change
as well. Equation (3) can be expressed using incremental format as follows:
r_ ij ¼ r_ 0ij þ u_ w dij ð4Þ
where a superimposed dot indicates the variation rate with respect to time. If rij
is kept to be a constant while uw varies, Eq. (4) can be deduced to be as follows:
r_ 0ij ¼ u_ w dij ð5Þ
which means that a corresponding change has occured in r0ij .
2.2 Material Compressibility
Material compressibility is the volumetric changes when the material is pressed or

pulled normally, which can be divided into solid compressibility and liquid com-
pressibility. Now it is assumed that the water in the aquifer is compressible.
Although this compressibility is small, it plays an important role in numerical
analysis of seepage. Hereinafter we assume that the material is isotropic. Water
compressibility b can be defined as follows:
1 @Vw 1 @q
b¼ ¼ ð6Þ
Vw @uw q @uw
where Vw and q are volume and density of a given mass of water subjected to
pressure changes respectively. The minus sign indicates decrease in volume as
pressure increases. The solid matrix of the aquifer is elastic and not rigid. In a
similar way, the elastic property of the solid matrix is expressed by its coefficient of
compressibility a, defined as follows:
1 @V
adij ¼ ð7Þ
V @r0ij
where V is the bulk volume of a porous medium. The deformation of solid matrix
involves a movement of the solid particles and their rearrangement, such that the
porosity of the porous medium changes. It should be assumed that the deformation
of the solid particles is much smaller than the solid matrix as a whole, so that the
volume of solid matrix Vs remains unchanged. Since Vs in V remains constant, we

have:
Vs ¼ ð1 eÞV ¼ const: ð8Þ
@Vs
¼0 ð9Þ
@r0ij
where e is the porosity. Substituting Eqs. (5), (8), and (9) into Eq. (7), it can be
derived that:
1 @e
a¼ ð10Þ
1 e @uw
2.3 PDE of Seepage Flow for Saturated-Unsaturated

Pavement
The most common approach to model liquid flow in porous media is to combine the
equation of linear momentum balance with the mass balance equation. Neglecting
the inertial and viscous effects, the PDE of seepage flow for saturated pavement
(Darcy’s law) can be written as follows:
h i
c_ qkij hdjk þ Djk ;k ¼ 0 ð11Þ
;i
where kij is a constant; c is the product of porosity e and density q, just as follows:
c ¼ eq ð12Þ
Assuming the Darcy’s law is suitable for unsaturated seepage, the PDE of
seepage flow for unsaturated pavement can be obtained from Eq. (11) as follows:
h i
c_ 0 qkij ðhÞ hdjk þ Djk ;k ¼ 0 ð13Þ
;i
where kij(h) is not a constant but a function of pressure head; c0 is the product of
porosity e, density q and saturation Sw, just as follows:
c0 ¼ eqSw ð14Þ
Considering that water pressure uw and pressure head h have the following
relation:
Table 1 Parameters in Saturated Unsaturated

saturated or unsaturated zone
Pressure head h 0 <0
Saturation Sw 1 0 Sw < 1
Moisture capacity C 0 @hw
@h
Hydraulic conductivity k(h) k0(const.) k(h)
uw ¼ qgh ð15Þ
where g is the acceleration of gravity. Substituting Eqs. (6), (10) and (15) into the
first term of Eq. (13), we have

að1 eÞ @Sw
c_ 0 ¼ qe Sw þ Sw b þ u_ w ¼ ðqSw S þ qCÞh_ ð16Þ
e @uw
where S is the storage coefficient and C is the moisture capacity, which can be
expressed as follows:
S ¼ qg½að1 eÞ þ be ð17Þ
@Sw @hw
C ¼ qge ¼ ð18Þ
@uw @h
where a(1 − e) + be is the compressibility and is the inverse of bulk modulus; hw is

the water content which is the product of porosity e and saturation Sw; the moisture
capacity C is zero in the saturated zone and can be calculated through SWCC.
Assuming q to be a constant and substituting Eq. (16) into Eq. (13), it is derived
that:
h i
ðSw S þ CÞh_ kij ðhÞ hdjk þ Djk ;k ¼ 0 ð19Þ
;i
Equation (19) is the governing equation for solving saturated-unsaturated

seepage problems. The parameters in Eq. (19) have some constraints in saturated
and unsaturated zone which are listed in Table 1.
2.4 SWCC
SWCC is used to describe the relation between moisture content and pressure head
or matrix suction [1]. In this section, the relation between moisture content and
pressure head will be discussed. Pressure head will change as moisture content
increases or decreases in the unsaturated domain, which means that pressure head is
the variable function of moisture content and vice versa. At the present, SWCC
can’t be obtained through the theoretical analysis but is drawn through experimental
tests or correction based on existing models [7]. In recent years, as the unsaturated
soil mechanics are gradually applied in engineering, the research of SWCC takes a
further step and more and more mathematical models are used to simulate SWCC.
These models provide convenience for unsaturated soil mechanic theory being used
in practical engineering. In this paper, VG model will be used for numerical
analysis of seepage of saturated-unsaturated pavement structure, which has a wide
acceptance for most researchers. It is expressed as follows [11]:
m
1
hw ð hÞ ¼ hr þ ð hs hr Þ ð20Þ
1 þ jahjn
where hr and hs are residual water content and saturated water content respectively;
a, m and n are three parameters for the SWCC model. From Eq. (20), moisture
capacity C and saturation Sw can be obtained and saturated-unsaturated seepage
problems can be solved with Eqs. (19) and (20).
3 Numerical Examples
In this section, a two-dimensional (2D) problem of pavement structure is taken as

the numerical example and calculated with the software COMSOL Multiphysics, in
which the variation of rainfall intensity and groundwater level are taken into
consideration.
3.1 Modelling
In this example, the modeling domain is made up of the three permeable soil layers,
each of which is represented by a rectangular domain of 2D. The top layer is the
bituminous concrete mixture. The second layer is the graded aggregate base and the
bottom one is the roadbed. The water moves through the asphaltic concrete and
graded broken stone into the roadbed. The rainfall intensity and the groundwater
level are known and there is no flow through the vertical walls. The geometry
model is shown in Fig. 1.
In order to get the storage coefficient S of each layer, we should know its
mechanical properties firstly. The relationship between bulk modulus K and elastic
modulus E is shown as follows:
Fig. 1 2D geometry model 18cm

of pavement structure 56cm
300cm
226cm
300cm
Table 2 Mechanical properties for each layer in pavement structure

Elastic modulus Poisson Bulk modulus Storage coefficient
E (Pa) ratio l K (Pa) S (1/Pa)
Top layer 1.2e−9 0.35 1.2e−8 8.33e−9
Second 3.5e−8 0.3 4.7e−7 2.14e−8
layer
Bottom 4.0e−7 0.4 2.7e−6 3.75e−7
layer
Table 3 Material parameters for each layer in pavement structure

Hydraulic Saturated Residual Storage (a, m, n)
conductivity moisture moisture coefficient
k (m/s) content hs content hr S (1/Pa)
Top 3.00e−5 0.06 0.001 8.33e−9 (1.3,1.09,0.08)
layer
Second 2.65e−4 0.29 0.005 2.14e−8 (1,1.8,0.44)
layer
Bottom 3.00e−9 0.38 0.100 3.75e−7 (2.7,1.23,0.57)
layer
Fig. 2 Boundary and initial Rainfall Q1 Pressure head h

conditions of pavement -(z+a)-0.2(z+0.74)
structure
a
0
No flow Water level No flow
3-a
Q2<<Q1
-(z+a)
E
K¼ ð21Þ
3ð1 2lÞ
where l is the poisson ratio. And S is the inverse of K. Scan be calculated with
Table 2.
The material parameters that will be needed in modelling for each layer are
shown in Table 3.
In this model, the groundwater level G is set to be from −1.0 to −2.5 m with the
interval being −0.3 m. And the rainfall intensity Q is taken from 1e−8 to 5e−6 m/s,
which include the cases of light rain, moderate rain, heavy rain, torrential rain,
downpour and rainstorm.
The boundary and initial conditions are shown in Fig. 2.
3.2 Results
For convenience, the saturation of point A (1.5, −0.5) and point B (1.5, −0.7) at
different time is studied to show the seepage effects due to different rainfall
intensities and groundwater levels, which are presented by Figs. 3 and 4.
Figures 3a and 4a have respectively demonstrated the variation of saturation at
points A and B due to different rainfall intensities over time. From Figs. 3a and 4a,
it can be seen that with the increase of the rainfall intensity, the time needed to reach
to be saturated is decreasing gradually. Figures 3b and 4b separately stand for the
changes of saturation at the two points due to different groundwater levels as time
goes on. From Figs. 3b and 4b, it is known that during the process of rainfall, the
increment of saturation at a certain time remains to be the same before the saturated
Q=1e-7m/s G=-1.0m
Q=3e-7m/s G=-1.3m
1.00 Q=6e-7m/s 1.00 G=-1.6m
Q=1e-6m/s 0.95 G=-1.9m
Q=3e-6m/s G=-2.2m
0.95 0.90
Q=5e-6m/s G=-2.5m
0.85
0.90
0.80
Saturation
Saturation
0.85 0.75
0.70
0.80
0.65
0.75 0.60
0.55
0.70 0.50
0 5 10 15 0 5 10 15
Time (h) Time (h)
a. The variation of saturation of point A at b. The variation of saturation of point A at
different time when the groundwater level is different time when the rainfall intensity is
-1.5m 1e-6m/s
Fig. 3 The seepage effects of point A at different time

Q=1e-7m/s G=1.0m
Q=3e-7m/s G=1.3m
Q=6e-7m/s 1.00 G=1.6m
1.00 Q=1e-6m/s G=1.9m
0.95
Q=3e-6m/s G=2.2m
Q=5e-6m/s 0.90 G=2.5m
0.95
0.85
Saturation
Saturation
0.80
0.90
0.75
0.70
0.85 0.65
0.60
0.80 0.55
0.50
0 5 10 15 0 5 10 15
Time (h) Time (h)
a. The variation of saturation of point B at b. The variation of saturation of point B at
different time when the groundwater level is different time when the rainfall intensity is
-1.5m 1e-6m/s
Fig. 4 The seepage effects of point B at different time
state is reached, which means that the groundwater level has a definite effect in the
process of rainfall infiltration.
As to analyse the variation of saturation at different depths, the saturation curves
after 10 and 15 h are calculated and drawn in Figs. 5 and 6.
Figures 5a and 6a have respectively demonstrated the variation of saturation
after 10 and 15 h due to different rainfall intensities changing with depth. From
Figs. 5a and 6a, it can be seen that with the increase of the rainfall intensity, the
rainfall infiltration becomes faster. Figures 5b and 6b separately stand for the
variation of saturation after 10 and 15 h due to different groundwater levels
changing with depth. According to Figs. 5b and 6b, it is known that the pavement
with higher groundwater level reaches to be saturated faster than with lower
groundwater level under the same rainfall condition. From Figs. 5 and 6, we can
know that the saturations at 0.18 and 0.74 m below the pavement have sudden
Q=1e-7m/s G=-1.0m
Q=3e-7m/s G=-1.3m
Q=6e-7m/s G=-1.6m
0.0 Q=1e-6m/s 0.0 G=-1.9m
Q=3e-6m/s G=-2.2m
Q=5e-6m/s G=-2.5m
-0.5 -0.5
Y (m)
Y (m)
-1.0 -1.0
-1.5 -1.5
0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 0.55 0.60 0.65 0.70 0.75 0.80 0.85 0.90 0.95 1.00
Saturation Saturation
a. The variation of saturation after 10 hours b. The variation of saturation after 10 hours
at different depths when the groundwater at different depths when the rainfall
level is -1.5m intensity is 1e-6m/s
Fig. 5 The seepage effects after 10 h at different depths

G=1.0m
Q=1e-7m/s
G=1.3m
Q=3e-7m/s
G=1.6m
Q=6e-7m/s
0.0 G=1.9m
0.0 Q=1e-6m/s
Q=3e-6m/s G=2.2m
Q=5e-6m/s G=2.5m
-0.5 -0.5
Y (m)
Y (m)
-1.0 -1.0
-1.5 -1.5
0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0

Saturation Saturation
a. The variation of saturation after 15 hours b. The variation of saturation after 15 hours
at different depths when the groundwater at different depths when the rainfall
level is -1.5m intensity is 1e-6m/s
Fig. 6 The seepage effects after 15 h at different depths
change. The reason is that at these two positions two different layers are connected,
and the critical positions of different layers have the same water content hw but the
different saturated water contents hs .
4 Conclusions
The present paper shows a procedure of numerical analysis of seepage for

saturated-unsaturated pavement structure under rainfall conditions. The final results
show that the rainfall intensity plays a great role on seepage for
saturated-unsaturated pavement structure. This research may be viewed as a ref-
erence to the design of pavement engineering.
Acknowledgements This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (No. 51508305). The authors are solely responsible for the content.
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Composite Action Between Steel Girder
and Precast Concrete Considering
Haunches/Mortar and Stud’s
Geometrical Configurations
T. Matsumoto, F. Asano, N. Mitsukawa, and T. Yamaguchi
Abstract Due to deterioration and damages of existing RC decks for steel girders
in Japan, redecking to PCaPC deck is significantly increasing under limited budget
and construction period. By considering cover concrete and arrangement of PC
cables and rebars, it needed to design superstructure as a non-composite steel girder
after redecking, strengthening of the main girder tends to increase. To restrain
strengthening of the main girder, it should be urgently clarified composite action
between a deck and a main girder jointed by headed studs. Authors conducted a
push-out test for RC and PCaPC deck considering geometrical configuration at the
field, such as haunch and thin layer mortar. From the experimental results, it is
found that cracks of thin mortar layer of PCaPC specimen might lead deterioration
of the shear resistance partially, however, its yield strength could be similar to that
of the RC specimen. It is also found that composite action between concrete slab
and a girder by headed studs for PCaPC deck could be expected as the same as that
of RC deck, considering the relative slip at the stud position and its regions’
slip. Furthermore, it is confirmed that the arrangement and the number of studs will
affect the yield strength of composite structure consisted by thin mortar layer which
is connected by the studs.
Keywords Redecking Headed stud Push-out test Composite action PCaPC

deck
T. Matsumoto N. Mitsukawa
CTI Engineering, Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: matsumoto-takashi@ctie.co.jp
N. Mitsukawa
e-mail: mitukawa@ctie.co.jp
F. Asano (&) T. Yamaguchi
Department of Civil Engineering, Osaka City University, Osaka, Japan
e-mail: asano@brdg.civil.eng.osaka-cu.ac.jp
T. Yamaguchi
e-mail: yamaguti-t@osaka-cu.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_36
374 T. Matsumoto et al.
1 Introduction
In Japan, damaged reinforced concrete deck (designated hereinafter as RC deck) of

steel bridge is mainly redecking by precast deck which is pre-stressed by PC cable
at the factory (designated hereinafter as PCaPC deck), to minimize construction
period and to secure a high durability. As it shown the structural specific detail of
PCaPC deck in Fig. 1, pocket is provided to weld headed studs (designated here-
inafter as stud) after setting the deck at the main girder. To adjust height of road
surface and avoid a splice plate and bolt nuts, thin spacing is provided. After the
adjustment of height, mortar is poured from pocket to fill the space between deck
and girder (designated hereinafter as thin mortar layer, shown in Fig. 1) and pocket
to connect deck and girder by stud certainly.
Based on the JSHB specifications [1], steel girder bridge can be design as
composite steel girder bridge if center to center of studs are arranged under 600 mm
spacing. However, it is difficult to product the PCaPC deck to satisfy 600 mm
spacing by keeping minimum thickness of deck considering the cover concrete,
arrangement of PC cable and rebars and such, to avoid strengthening of girder due
to the dead load of renewed deck. Therefore, superstructure after redecking to
PCaPC structure tends to be design as non-composite steel girder bridge in Japan.
From the past field tests [2, 3], it is known that composite action could be
expected for the non-composite steel girder bridge through stud, not fully but
partially. In addition, push-out test is studied considering thin mortar layer to clarify
the relative slip behavior between stud and slab, and ultimate shear strength,
however, specimens used for this test did not model the actual structural details of
the deck, such as haunch and thin mortar layer thickness.
Based on the backgrounds and past research issues, authors are conducted the
push-out tests for structural elements consisted by studs on the girder and concrete
to clarify the failure mechanism, paying attentions to stud’s arrangement and
composite action between deck and main girder, considering specific details of the
deck used for re-decking such as pocket, haunches and thin mortar layer between
PCaPC deck and the girder.
Headed Stud
Pocket
Pre-stressed Precast Pocket
Deck (PCaPC deck)
Detail of Pocket
Thin Mortar
Layer
Main Girder
Fig. 1 Naming and details of the PCaPC deck for re-decking

Composite Action Between Steel Girder … 375
2 Specification of Specimen
Table 1 and Fig. 2 shows the specific details of the specimens. For each specimen,
the deck thickness, haunch height and haunch gradient are set commonly as
200 mm, 30 mm and 1:3, respectively.
Based on the NEXCO criteria, more than 20 mm of thin layer mortar is stan-
dardly provided among PCaPC deck and main girder, to adjust the height of road
surface and attachment between them by considering the splice plates and bolt nuts.
Therefore, in this test, 20 mm thickness of thin mortar layer is provided for the
PCaPC deck specimens.
Arrangement of stud for each specimen subjected to JSHB criteria. For the
specimen PCa1_n4, PCa3_n4, PCa4_n8 series, center to center spacing of stud is
set as more than stud’s diameter +30 mm. On the other hand, the center of stud is
set as 25 mm from the edge of flange for the PCa2_n4 specimens.
Table 1 Specification and naming of specimens

Category RC PCaPC deck
deck
Series RC1_n4 PCa1_n4 PCa2_n4 PCa3_n6 PCa4_n8
Specimens RC1_n4 PCa1-1_n4 PCa2-1_n4 PCa3-1_n6 PCa4-1_n8
PCa1-2_n4 PCa2-2_n4 PCa3-2_n6 PCa4-2_n8
PCa1-3_n4
Diameter Stud / 19 150 mm
height
Center to center 50 mm 50 mm 120 mm 60 mm 50 mm
spacing of stud
Number of studs 4 4 4 6 8
RC1_n4 PCa1_n4 PCa2_n4 PCa3_n4 PCa4_n4
Fig. 2 Specimens’ details (unit: mm)

Table 2 Concrete and mortar strength tested on the day of push-out test
Series of RC1_n4 PCa1_n4 PCa2_n4 PCa3_n6 PCa4_n8
specimen
Material Conc. Conc. Mor. Conc. Mor. Conc. Mor. Conc. Mor.
Ave. 50.3 65.1 57.9 64.2 64.0 63.4 66.1 72.8 68.0
Compression
Strength (N/
mm2)
Ave. Tensile 3.27 4.45 3.60 3.90 3.46 3.93 4.27 4.62 3.34
Strength (N/
mm2)
Ave. Young’s 38.3 38.5 26.4 38.2 27.2 39.1 26.9 40.9 30.4
Modules (kN/
mm2)
Ave. Poisson 0.185 0.190 0.213 0.191 0.232 0.211 0.214 0.202 0.241
Ratio
The design strength of concrete for RC deck and PCaPC deck specimens aimed
to gain 24 and 50 N/mm2 on the day of test, respectively. Table 2 shows the
strength of the concrete and mortar conducted at the day of experiment. It is known
from the test result that the strength of concrete and mortar was tends to be high
compared to the design strength. Tensile strength is also summarized in same table.
Product procedure of PCaPC deck specimens is shown in Fig. 3. Firstly, con-
crete slab with a pocket is product. After slab has hardened, they are set to the
formwork, and pour the mortar from pocket to connect between deck and flange.
Fig. 3 Production procedure of the PCaPC deck

15mm Strain Gauge

CDP
Posision A
75mm
Posision B
75mm
Posision C
Fig. 4 Measurements contents and photograph
3 Measurements
Measurement contents and position is shown in Fig. 4.

Strain gauges are pasted at the compressive and tensile side of all of stud to
evaluate tensile strain and bending strain occurred during push-out tests. The strain
gauges are pasted at 15 mm above the top flange, therefore the measured strain
during tests for RC and PCaPC deck is at the position in the haunch and thin mortar
layer, respectively.
Displacement measurement (designated hereinafter as CDP) is set to obtain the
relative slip between deck and flange. CDP are settled at the center of stud position
(Position B), and 75 mm above (Position A) and below (Position C) the stud
position.
Load applied to the specimen and vertical displacement is obtained from actuator
control system. The vertical displacement obtained from actuator is designated
hereinafter as global displacement.
4 Sequence of Tests
Push-out test is conducted under incremental repetition loading, following a

Japanese Society of Steel Construction (designated hereinafter as JSSC) technical
report.
Figure 5 shows the loading sequence step. The load is controlled by observing
the response of relative slip between the deck and flange at the stud position during
the test.
Loading sequence step is described as follows.
• Load is applied incrementally 0.2 mm pitch until it reaches 1.0 mm.
• After that, load is applied 0.5 mm incremental pitch until its reach 4.0 mm, then
it is loaded until specimens fail.
Relative Displacement Load

at Stud Position
4.0mm
...(+0.5mm)
1.5mm
1.0mm
...(+0.2mm)
0.4mm …. ….
0 2 mm
Sequence Step
Fig. 5 Loading sequence of push-out test
5 Experiment Results
5.1 Comparison Between RC and PCaPC Experiment
5.1.1 Relationship Between Shear Force Per Stud and Relative Slip
at Stud Position
Figure 6(a) and (b) show the relationship between shear force per stud and overall
displacement/relative slip for RC1 and PCa1 specimens, respectively. Shear force
per stud is defined here by load applied dividing number of studs. Maximum shear
force per stud for RC and PCa1 specimen is 100.9 and 156.8 kN (value for PCa1 is
average of PCa-1, PCa-2, PCa-3), respectively. This means that the ultimate
resistance of PCa1 was 36% lower than that of RC1.
From Fig. 6, decrease of shear resistance is occurred for all PCa1 specimens
when relative slip reaches 0.4 mm, which was the first cracking of thin mortar layer
as shown in Fig. 7. For RC1 specimen, nor noticeable cracking or damage at the
haunch or deck is observed and decrease of shear resistance does not occurred.
(a) Shear force per stud vs. global displacement (b) Shear force per stud vs. relative slip
Fig. 6 Comparison between RC1 and PCa1 specimens

Line of Stud Center Crack

Thin Mortar Layer
(a) Crack at the thin mortar layer (b) Cracking occurred region
Fig. 7 Cracking of the thin mortar layer at 0.4 mm relative slip phase
Figure 8 shows the progress of cracking of PCa1-1 at the thin mortar layer.
Number of crack and its width are increased and widened around the stud, and
finally peeled off due to the density concentration of crack. Vulnerable of thin
mortar layer causes the exposure of stud, which induces not only shear force but
with bending moment to the studs. On the other hand, crack and peeling of concrete
at haunch are not observed for RC1 during the test, which indicates that only shear
force is applied to the stud.
It concludes that cracking of thin mortar layer causes the decrease of resistance
shear force for composite structure connected by studs, and reduction of maximum
shear force of PCa specimen, which is governed by combination of shear and
bending moment acted on the studs.
Table 3 shows the response of relative slip at position A, B and C for the yield
shear strength level specified in JSSC. Definition of yield shear strength Qy stated in
JSSC is the intersection point strength between 1/3 of the maximum shear force and
0.2 mm offset line from its origin of relative slip having the same initial gradient
(shown in Fig. 6). The relative slip normalized by the obtained response at position
B are shown in Fig. 9(b) and (c) for the yield strength of each specimen.
Crack increased Crack widened Mortar peeled off
(a) 1.0 mm relative slip phase (b) 4.0 mm relative slip phase (c) After final loading
Fig. 8 Progression of damage at thin mortar layer for PCa1-1

Table 3 Summary of yield shear strength and relative slip for RC1 and PC1 specimen
Position Specimens Average Relative Slip
RC1 PCa1 of PCa1 (mm)
PCa1-1 PCa1-2 PCa1-3
Yield Shear Strength 63.25 48.50 41.80 44.40 –
Qy(kN) Average: 44.90
Relative A 0.963 0.256 0.160 0.242 0.219
Slip (mm) B 0.930 0.242 0.209 0.222 0.224
C 0.950 0.238 0.216 0.160 0.205
RC1 PCa1-1 PCa1-2 PCa1-3
(a) Relative slip for each specimen (b) Dimensionless
RC1 PCa1
(c) Dimensionless RC1 and PCa1
Fig. 9 Relative slip at A, B, C position for RC1 and PCa1 specimens
It is noted that the yield shear strength of PCaPC is decreased to 71% of that of
RC, however, relative slip is about 4.2 times bigger than that of RC. This suggests
that PCaPC deck will behave as ductile structure as for considering the actual field
geometrical configuration compared to the RC deck. Furthermore, relative slip at

the position A and C is similar to that of B for PCaPC and RC specimens. This state
that composite action between the deck and the flange exists at least until the yield
shear strength level, around 4d (d is diameter of stud) region from the center of stud.
5.1.2 Fracture Surface of Stud and Concrete
Stud fracture surfaces after the test of RC1 and PCa1 are shown in Fig. 10. Due to
the predominant shear force action on the stud for RC1, the fracture surface is cut
straightly along vertically direction as shown in Fig. 10(a). On the other hand,
fracture surface of PCa1 stud is curved as shown in Fig. 10(b) because of applying
both bending moment and shear force after cracking of thin mortar layer.
To clarify the damage progress around studs of RC1 and PCa1, they are cut by
diamond wire as shown in Fig. 11(a) through (c), which show cut section of deck at
No. 2 position after the test respectively. From those surface observations, it is
noted that cracking and destruction of concrete and mortar occurred only around the
roots of the studs. This means that the resistance strength and relative slip between
concrete/mortar and flange connected by studs is depended on the damage around
stud roots.
(a) RC1 studs (b) PCa1-3 studs
Fig. 10 Fracture surface of studs for RC1 and PCa1-3
7
(a) Cut position (b) RC1, section No.2 (c) PCa1-3, section No.2
Fig. 11 Concrete or mortar cut surface

5.2 Effect of Stud Arrangement to the Strength

and Composite Action
5.2.1 Shear Force and Relative Slip
Table 4 summaries the maximum shear force of each stud for specimen PCa1 to
PCa4. The maximum shear force of each stud is largest for PCa3 and, the lowest for
PCa4 which is decreased to about 88% of that of PCa3.
Figure 12 shows relation between shear force per stud and relative slip for PCa
specimens. It is found that PCaPC behave elastically until it reaches yield shear
strength, which is before the crack at the thin mortar occurred. Accordingly, it is
concluded that the strength and composite action of PCaPC deck used for redecking
depends on the thin mortar layer.
5.2.2 Fracture Surface of Stud and Mortar
Figure 13 shows the fracture surface of studs and mortar section No. 2 for PCa1 to
PCa4. Red line shows a region of crack and crushing of thin mortar layer due to
compressive and shear force by deformation of the stud.
As shown in Figs. 13(a) and (b), the maximum shear strength of PCa2 was
higher than that of PCa1 due to overlap of cracking and destruction adjacent studs
does not appear in the case of PCa2, because studs are arranged enough apart. On
the other hand, the close arrangement of studs like PCa4 decreases the yield shear
strength because of widespread overlap of cracks and crushing around studs as
shown in Fig. 13(d). Even though the overlap of cracking and crushing are pro-
gressed widely in the case of PCa3 as shown in Fig. 13(c), the maximum shear
force of PCa3 was the highest among them.
This result state that the arrangement and number of studs severely influence the
yield shear strength, the maximum shear strength and damage progression.
Table 4 Maximum shear force and yield shear strength of each stud
Specimen Number Average Maximum Average Yield Average
of Stud Shear Force for each Shear Strength Qy Relative Slip at
Stud (kN) (kN) Qy (mm)
PCa1 4 100.9 {0.89} 44.90 0.22
PCa2 4 107.7 {0.95} 44.49 0.27
PCa3 6 113.3 {1.00} 41.20 0.25
PCa4 8 100.3 {0.88} 40.50 0.43
(a) PCa1 and PCa2 (b) PCa1 and PCa3
(c) PCa1 and PCa4
Fig. 12 Comparison of shear force per stud vs. relative slip for each specimen
(a)PCa1-3 (b)PCa2-1
(c)PCa3-2 (d)PCa4-2
Fig. 13 Fracture surface of stud and mortar for PCa1 to PCa4 specimens
6 Conclusions
Push-out test conducted for RC and PCaPC deck, considering actual field config-
urations such as haunch and thin mortar layer to clarify the composite action
between deck and girder jointed by studs. The obtained conclusions from the study
are as followings:
• Cracking of thin mortar layer between the deck and the girder for the PCaPC
deck would cause deterioration of the resistance shear force. It is necessary to
establish the design criteria and the way to prevent/measure the progress of such
damages at thin mortar layer in the case of re-decking and connecting them by
many studs.
• Fracture of thin mortar layer of PCaPC deck will results in action of shear and
bending moment to the studs, which induces the deterioration of maximum
resistance strength compared to RC deck.
• Close arrangement of studs causes deterioration of the yield shear strength due
to combination of compression, bending and shear fracture.
• Yield shear strength for composite structure connected by many studs through a
thin mortar layer like PCaPC deck, cannot be controlled by adjusting the
arrangement and increasing the number of studs. Further experimental investi-
gation is required to clarify the optimize arrangement and number of studs, in
order to expect composite action connected by many studs for a non-composite
steel girder bridge.
References
1. Japan Road Association (2012) Japanese Specifications for Highway Bridges PartI and II
2. Nagao K, Nakajima A, et al (2013) Study on behaviour of push-out test on headed studs in slab
model of holed precast concrete and layer of mortar. JSCE, 47.1–47.7
3. Nakajima A, Okazaki Y, et al (2016) Study on limit state of composite girder with various stud
arrangement in replacing RC slab. In: Proceedings of the fourteenth east Asia-pacific
conference on structural engineering and construction, pp 1003–1010
Development of an Emergency Bridge
with the Double End Plate Connection
Using High Strength Bolt
Y. Mineyama, Y. Sugimoto, K. Sugita, and T. Yamaguchi
Abstract Recently some emergency bridges have been developed for road
restoration at the time of disaster due to flood, landslide, earthquake, and tsunami.
On the other hand, temporary work girders are often used in a construction site, and
it is expected that temporary work girders are utilized as the emergency bridge.
In this study, for shortening erection term of temporary work girders, we propose
to use the double end plate connection using high strength bolt at the connection of
the emergency bridges. The past experiment has confirmed that double end plate
connection using high strength bolts can apply bridge main girder connection.
We have applied it to the actual temporary work girders to investigate the
structural behavior of the emergency bridge with the double end plate connection
through field loading tests.
It was found from the results of the field measurement that the proposed double
end plate connection has enough performance, and it can apply to the emergency
bridge. This paper also introduces the concept of the emergency bridge with the
double end plate connection using high strength bolts.
Keywords Field loading test High strength bolt Tensile joint Emergency
bridge
Y. Mineyama (&) Y. Sugimoto K. Sugita T. Yamaguchi

KOMAIHALTEC Inc., Osaka 550-0012, Japan
e-mail: y.mineyama@komaihaltec.co.jp
Y. Sugimoto
e-mail: ysugimoto@brdg.civil.eng.osaka-cu.ac.jp
K. Sugita
e-mail: k-sugita@hirose-net.co.jp
T. Yamaguchi

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_37
386 Y. Mineyama et al.
1 Introduction
Recently natural disasters such as flood, landslide, earthquake, and tsunami, have
frequently occurred due to climate change. In preparation for such disasters, several
emergency bridges have been developed. Temporary work girders are often used in
a construction site, and it is expected to be utilized as emergency bridges.
Besides, it is required to reduce social impacts as much as possible in the
maintenance of infrastructures, and construction time of temporary work girders are
also required to be shortened. For that purpose, we are proposing to change the
connection of the main girder from high strength bolted friction joints to high
strength bolted tensile joints paying attentions to reduce the number of connecting
bolts. Nevertheless, few cases are adopted high strength bolted tensile joints to the
connection of the bridge main girder. As an application example of high strength
bolted tensile joints for the main girder connection, “Emergency Portable Bridge”
has been developed by the Kinki Regional Development Bureau of the Ministry of
Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan(hereinafter called “the Kinki
Regional Development Bureau”). Also, no design method for such main connec-
tions has been specified.
In this study, for the purpose of shortening erection period of temporary work
girders, we propose to apply the double end plate connection using high strength
bolts to the connection of the emergency bridges as shown in Fig. 1. Considering
our previous experimental results, it was found that the double end plate connection
using high strength bolts can use the main girder connection of the emergency
bridge [1, 2].
Fig. 1 Proposed double end

plate connection
Development of an Emergency Bridge … 387
We have also applied it to the actual temporary work girders to confirm its
structural behavior through the field loading test.
This paper introduces the results of the field measurement and also the concept
of the emergency bridge with the double end plate connection.
2 Concept of the Emergency Bridge
We are developing an emergency bridge that can contribute to life-saving and early
road restoration by using the temporary work girders. The “Emergency Portable
Bridge” developed by the Kinki Regional Development Bureau has high strength
bolted tensile joints for a connection of the main girder. We are wondering about
applying it to the temporary work girders.
Table 1 shows the structural specifications of the emergency bridge. The plane
view of the emergency bridge is shown in Fig. 2. Since a simple structural form is
required due to shortening an erection period of temporary work girders, high
strength bolted tensile joint is adopted to the connection of the main girder from the
viewpoint of reducing the number of bolts and easy construction which can be
assembled even by the less experienced workers easily. By using the high strength
bolted tensile joint, the number of bolts was reduced by about 40% compared to the
high strength bolted friction joints.
Maximum passable vehicle assumed is one emergency vehicle (ambulance and
fire engine) or one 250 kN rough terrain crane (total weight 270 kN). Because the
number of the bridge which span length is less than 30 m is approximately 50% of
the whole national bridges which is categorized in long-class distinction table [3],
and in consideration of seat length of a girder at the support for around 3 m, we set
the maximum girder length 36 m with variable girder length.
Table 1 Structural specifications of the emergency bridge

Structural type Through girder bridge
Maximum passable vehicle 250 kN rough terrain crane (total weight 270 kN)
Maximum span 36 m (Variable)
Effective width (interval of main girder) 4.0 m (7.0 m)
Floor slab Steel road deck panel
Fig. 2 Plan view of the emergency bridge (unit: mm)
3 Design of Main Girder Connection
In this study, the number of bolts at the tensile side was determined to assume that
eight bolts in the hatched area as shown in Fig. 3 resist tensile cross-sectional force.
The following equation calculates Pt of the first row and the second row. Stress was
calculated assuming that the web, the upper flange, and the horizontal rib are
effective for the cross-section.
Pt ¼ ðr1 þ r2 Þ=2 tr br þ ðr2 þ r3 Þ=2 tw ðbw1 þ tr2 =2Þ ð1Þ
The divided value of Pt by a number of bolts (eight bolts) means the bolt axial
force acting on one bolt. Bolt axial force of one bolt should be designed to be less
than allowable bolt axial force. Assuming that the end plate is sufficiently thick,
prying force described in a recommendation for design of high strength tensile
bolted connections for steel bridges (hereinafter called “JSSC Specification”) [4] is
not taken into consideration.
The allowable bolt axial force is set 0.97 times of the yield bolt axial force By,
taking into consideration an increase factor of the allowable stress, 1.5. According
to the JSSC Specification, the range from the initial bolt axial force, 0.75By to the
yield bolt axial force, 1.0 By is the range in which the bolt axial force can be varied
by the applying force. The allowable bolt axial force is specified as 0.9 By (= 0.75
By + 0.25 By/1.7) by the JSSC Specification, in consideration of the safety factor of
1.7 within the axial force range of 0.25By. From the above, the allowable bolt axial
force is decided 0.97 By in this study.
bf Width of lower flange, tf Thickness of lower flange

br Width of horizontal rib, tr1 Thickness of horizontal rib
bw1 Share width of first row bolts, bw2 Share width of second row bolts
tw Thickness of web, tr2 Thickness of Shape holding member
Fig. 3 Shape of the emergency bridge (unit: mm)
4 Field Measurement
We have applied it to the actual temporary work girders to confirm the structural
behavior of the emergency bridges with double end plate connection through the
field loading tests. Figure 4 shows a plane view of the measured temporary work
girders on site. The measured bridge is temporary work girders that cross the river,
which structural type is a simple bridge with four main girders. A1-P1 is a standard
temporary work girder with no connection at the center of the span, and P1-P2 has a
double end plate connection at the center of the span. The general section of P1-P2
is same as that of A1-P1. The connection at the center of the span of P1-P2 is shown
in Fig. 5. Vertical displacement at the center of the span, bolt axial force of double
end plate connection, the distance between the end plates, and strain of the web near
the center of the span are measured in the case of P1-P2. For comparison, vertical
displacement at the center of the span and strain of the web near the center of the
span is measured in the case of A1-P1. Bolt axial forces are measured for the first
row and second row. A 70t crawler crane was used for loading. Loading position
was the location where a maximum positive bending moment occurs, as shown in
Fig. 6 shows just loading. Figure 7 shows a photo of loading status.
5 Field Measurement Results
5.1 Vertical Displacement
Vertical displacement at the center of the span during the loading of a 70t crawler
crane was 5.0 mm for P1-P2 and 3.1 mm for A1-P1. Vertical displacement was
calculated as the difference between vertical displacement before and after loading.
By Bernoulli-Euler hypothesis, design values of deflection are 5.2 mm for P1-P2
and 3.5 mm for A1-P1, and these are almost same as the obtained values. The
design deflection of P1-P2 was calculated by assuming web, upper flange, and
horizontal rib effective.
double end plate

connection
Fig. 4 Shape of the temporary work girders (unit: mm)
Fig. 5 Detail of the connection (unit: mm)

Fig. 6 Loading position (unit: mm)
Fig. 7 Loading status
5.2 Bolt Axial Force and Gap Between the Connected End
Plates
Figure 8 shows bolt axial force increment. Figure 9 shows the contact pressure
distribution on the end plate connection surface. Bolt axial force increment was
calculated as the difference between bolt axial forces before and after loading. The
bolt axial force increment of the bolt located near the web-flange intersection (1TC,
5TC) is smaller than that of the outer bolt (2TC, 6TC). That is, the bolt axial force
increment is small where the contact pressure occurs, and the difference of the bolt
axial force increment is determined by the dispersion of contact pressure distri-
bution. It is considered that bolt axial force increment of 1TC and 5TC was small
due to the scar wrap (Fig. 5) provided on the web of the end plate and lower flange
intersection.
(a)G2-girder (b)G3-girder
Fig. 8 Bolt axial force increment (unit: kN)
(a)G2-girder (b)G3-girder
Fig. 9 Contact pressure distribution on the end plate connection surface
Also, the maximum gap between the connected endplate surfaces was 0.08 mm,
and this concludes no separation between the end plates is occurred.
5.3 Strain Distribution on the Web Plates
Figure 10 shows the strain distribution of the web plate. The red dashed line shown
in Fig. 10 was calculated by an effective cross-section, not including the lower
flange as shown in Fig. 11(a). The blue dashed line shown in Fig. 10 was calculated
by an effective cross-section from the reference as shown in Fig. 11(b). The
measured values were almost the same as the reference values. The number of bolts
at the double end plate connection is calculated by using the stress gradient under
the assumption in which an effective cross-section is shown in Fig. 11(a), not
including the lower flange. This makes it possible to design on the safe side.
(a)P1 P2 (b)A1 P1
Fig. 10 Strain distribution of the web plates
Fig. 11 Effective
Cross-section
(a) For Design (b) For Reference

6 Conclusions
An emergency bridge with double end plate connections has been applied to the
actual temporary bridge, and field measurements were performed. As a result, the
measured vertical displacement was almost the same as the design value, and the
strain distribution of the web showed a smaller than those of the design values.
Also, almost no separation between end plates subjected to loading a 70t crawler
crane has been observed. Accordingly, it concludes that the double end plate
connection can be applicable to the emergency bridge, and it is possible to design
the connection by using a stress gradient calculated by an effective cross-section,
not including the lower flange.
Based on the field measurement, further research on manufacturing method to
reduce the variation of the contact pressure distribution on the connection surface
should be needed in order to reduce the variation of the bolt axial force increase.
Acknowledgements We wish to thank Hankyu Awaji Tobishima Corporation, Maeda

Corporation, and Asanuma Corporation JV by providing a measurement site to carry out this
research.
References
1. Sugimoto Y, Mineyama Y, Egashira K, Yamaguchi T (2017) Structural rationalization of

bolted tensile joint details for the emergency temporary bridge focusing on easy construction
by FEM. J Struct Eng 63A:739–748. (in Japanese)
2. Mineyama Y, Sugimoto Y, Azuma H, Egashira K, Sugita K, Yamaguchi T (2018)
Experimental Study on the connection detail for the temporary emergency bridge utilizing
temporary work girders. J Struct Eng 64A:594–604. (in Japanese)
3. Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan (2016). http://www.mlit.go.
jp/road/ir/ir-data/tokei-nen/2016/nenpo02.html. (in Japanese)
4. Japanese Society of Steel Construction (JSSC) (2004) Recommendation for design of high
strength tensile bolted connections for steel bridges. (in Japanese)
Investigation into Seasonal Effects
on Vibration Frequency and Cable
Forces of a Cable-Stayed Bridge
Structure
C. H. Chen, H. Y. Chang, and Y. Q. Tsai
Abstract The structure system of a cable-stayed bridge is to fix the pylon through

one end of the cable and is to connect the other end with the deck, as to pull up the
bridge structure. If one of the cables got broken, it would affect the structural safety
of the bridge structure, and in the worst case the bridge would collapse. This study
analyzed the long-term monitoring data of Kao Ping Hsi Cable-Stayed Bridge and
then estimated the cable frequency and forces. In detail, the monitoring data were
collected from December 2017 to November 2018. The data were then analyzed
using Fourier transform and the obtained frequencies were used to estimate the
cable forces. A design-based warning system was also established, as to check if the
cables need repairing or replacement. The result doesn’t show any seasonal effects.
That also indicates that almost all the frequency values are smaller than the warning
values, and the cables don’t need any inspection or repair at the current stage.
Keywords Cable-stayed bridge Cable force Monitoring Fourier transform

analysis Warning value
1 Introduction
Figure 1 gives the location of Kao Ping Hsi Cable-Stayed Bridge, which carries the
Freeway 3 over Gaoping River connecting Dashu, Kaohsiung and Jiuru, Pingtung
County in Taiwan.
C. H. Chen H. Y. Chang (&) Y. Q. Tsai

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Kaohsiung,
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
e-mail: hychang@nuk.edu.tw
C. H. Chen
e-mail: chchen@nuk.edu.tw
Y. Q. Tsai
e-mail: javrinqing@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_38
396 C. H. Chen et al.
Kaohsiung
Kao Ping Hsi Bridge
Pintung
Kao Ping Hsi Cable-Stayed Bridge
Fig. 1 Location of Kao Ping his cable-stayed bridge
This study collected and analyzed the one-year monitoring data of Kao Ping Hsi
Cable-Stayed Bridge (dated from December 2017 to November 2018). The result of
the analysis is then used to establish a design-based warning system, which helps
check if the cables need inspection, repair or replacement.
2 Structural Health Monitoring
2.1 Long-Term Monitoring System
A cable-stayed bridge is popular for its attractive appearance, efficient use of

structural materials and greater stiffness, when compared to a suspension bridge.
Figure 2 shows the configuration of Kao Ping Hsi Cable-Stayed Bridge and the
location of cable sensors. As can be seen, the cables are arranged asymmetrically in
a singular fan-shaped profile. As also can be seen there, one end of each cable is
anchored at the upper part of the A-shaped bridge tower, and the other end is
anchored at the bridge panel. Table 1 gives the detailed information about the cable
sensors.
The span length of cable bridges usually ranges from 100 to 500 m, and the max
has increased to 1000 m since the last few decades [1]. Kao Ping Hsi Cable-Stayed
Bridge was designed and constructed in March 1992, and the construction com-
pleted in 1999. The main span of the bridge has a length of 330 m, and the span
length is ranked in the 2nd place of the single-tower cable-stayed bridges in the
world. The main span of the bridge structure is a welded steel box-girder structure,
and the edge span is a precast concrete structure. The edge span has a length of
180 m. The total length of the bridge is 550 m.
Investigation into Seasonal Effects … 397
Fig. 2 Location of cable sensors
Table 1 List of cable sensors

Sensor type Code Number Traffic direction Unit Orientation
Accelerometer ACC06 B101N North gal X
Accelerometer ACC07 B101S South gal X
Accelerometer ACC08 B101A North gal X
Accelerometer ACC09 B101A South gal X
Accelerometer ACC14 F106N North gal X
Velocity meter VEL16 F101N North cm/s X
Velocity meter VEL17 F101N North cm/s Y
Velocity meter VEL18 F101N North cm/s X
2.2 Data Collection and Analysis
The data was collected using the sensors numbered as B101, B107, B108, B109,
B111, F106, F107, F108, F114 and F101. Table 3 gives an example illustrating the
data analysis for the B101 cable. In detail, one day was selected per month and
three time periods were chosen for further study. 10-min data was taken at 07:00,
17:00 and 23:00 respectively in the same day. The first two were selected for traffic
rush hours in the morning and evening. The last one was for no cars in the
midnight. For each data, the monitoring time is 10 min, the sampling frequency is
100 Hz, and the sampling point is 60,000 points.
Fourier transform analysis was then made to find the frequency for the 1st and
2nd modes (denoted as f1 and f2 respectively), and the frequency difference
(Df ¼ f2 f1 ). Figure 3 depicts the result of frequency analysis for the one-year
data recorded by the B101 sensor. The results didn’t show seasonal effects.
Table 2 Frequency analysis for sensor B101 (unit: Hz)

(a)
Year Month Time f1 f2 Δf
2018.06.28_07:00 0.512 0.976 0.464
2018 6 2018.06.28_17:00 0.512 0.927 0.415
2018.06.28_23:00 0.512 1.025 0.513
(b)
Frequency difference (Δf) Recorded date and time
Max 0.513(Hz) 2018.06.28_23:00
2017.12.28_17:00 23:00 2018.05.10_23:00
Min 0.415(Hz)
2018.06.28_17:00 2018.09.28.17:00
0.7
Frequency (Hz)
0.6
0.5
0.4
07:00
0.3 17:00
0.2 23:00
0.1
Date
Fig. 3 Analysis result of frequency difference (Df ) for the B101 cable
As illustrated by Table 2, there are a small difference between f1 and Df . The

bridge panel can greatly affect the 1st mode frequency f1 of a cable-stayed bridge.
The structural healthy of a stayed cable is therefore usually monitored based on the
frequency difference (Df ), as to eliminate the effects of the bridge panel.
2.3 Results and Discussion
The results indicate that the cable frequency and force may vary depending on the
cable location and time period. In detail, some of the cables had a great frequency
difference and the variation was not the same for the 3 time periods (i.e. the B108
and B109 cables of the edge span, and F114 and F101 cables of the main span).
Some of the cables had a small frequency difference and the variation was also
limited (i.e. the B101 and B107 cables of the edge span, and F106, F107 and F108
cables of the main span). The force varied greater for a longer cable. This trend was
also observed before [5]. The B101 cable is the longest cable of the edge span, and
the frequency had a variation of 0.1 Hz at maximum (approximated to 20%) (see
the details in Table 2 and Fig. 3).
As mentioned, the 10-min data was selected and analyzed for three different time
periods. The maximum frequency was often recorded at 7:00, and the minimum
was recorded at 23:00. The former was for a traffic rush hour. The latter was for no
cars in the midnight. There are many factors affecting the cable vibrations, such as
wind force and vehicle traffic flow. The wind effects include vortex-induced
vibration, wake galloping and rain-wind-induced vibration. Based on the 8-month
measurement, it was concluded that for the Kao Ping Hsi Cable-Stayed Bridge, the
vortex-induced vibration may affect to a greater extent, in comparison to the other
factors such as rainfall, traffic flow and so on [2].
3 Warning Systems
3.1 Design-Based Evaluation
The structure system of a cable-stayed bridge is to fix the pylon through one end of
the cable and is to connect the other end with the deck, as to pull up the bridge
structure. If some of the cables got broken, the broken cables would affect the
structural safety of the bridge structure, and in the worst case the bridge would
collapse [3]. It is important to evaluate the structural integrity of the cables and
bridge, especially based on the long-term monitoring data. It is also important to
establish an early warning system as to provide a basis or standard for determining
whether the cables need further inspection, repairs or replacement.
Previous studies evaluated the structural integrity of a stayed cable using the
frequency and cable force [4, 5]. The results have showed that the cable frequency
may increase or decrease for a typhoon and earthquake attack, and can return to the
origin after the event. In this study, the structural integrity of a stayed cable was
evaluated in detail based on the cable frequency and design force. The force of a
stayed cable can be estimated using the string theory with the 1st mode frequency of
the cable. Using the string theory, the characteristic frequency was first calculated
for the design force of the cable. The warning frequency was then defined for 90%
of the design cable force. In the same way, the action-taking frequency was also
defined for 80% of the design cable force.
These warning values are useful in making judgement about the cable force and
safety margin. The design force of a stayed cable is smaller than the yield strength,
and allows the evaluation keeping a safety margin.
3.2 Case Study Analyses
Figure 4 depicts the frequency values of the B101 cable and the forces. For warning,
the cable force is 803.6 ton, and the frequency is 0.61 Hz. For taking action, the
cable force is 904 ton, and the frequency is 0.65 Hz. The cable force is 553.87 ton for
the measured max frequency of 0.51 Hz (see the details in Table 2(b)). The cable
frequency and force are smaller than the warning and action-taking values. Thus, the
B101 cable doesn’t need any inspection or repair at the current stage.
1500
Cable force (ton)
0.69, 1004.5
1000 0.65, 904.05
0.61, 803.6
500 0.51, 553.87
B101
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Frequency(Hz)
Fig. 4 B101 cable frequency and force
Table 3 summarizes the 1st-mode frequency of the stayed cables and compares
to the warning and action-taking values. Except the F114 cable, the measured
frequency was lower than the warning and action-taking ones. The measured fre-
quency of the F114 cable was 1.39 Hz, and was slightly higher than the warning
value. As illustrated by Fig. 2, the F114 cable was located close to the bridge tower.
The sag of the cable was easily affected by the gravity force. The cable force
therefore can hardly be predicted using the string theory with a good accuracy. As
mentioned, the design force of a stayed cable is smaller than the yield strength, and
allows the evaluation keeping a safety margin. In sum, the F114 cable was still
considered to remain in good structural healthy.
Table 3 Cable frequency and warning values (unit: Hz)

Cable Measured max Warning Action-taking Judgment
freq. frequency frequency
B101 0.51 0.61 0.65 OK
B107 0.90 1.23 1.31 OK
B108 0.85 1.25 1.33 OK
B109 0.98 1.45 1.54 OK
B111 1.20 1.70 1.80 OK
F106 0.51 0.76 0.80 OK
F107 0.61 0.83 0.88 OK
F108 0.61 0.84 0.90 OK
F114 1.39 1.37 1.46 Say OK
F101 0.32 0.44 0.46 OK
4 Conclusions
This study analyzed the long-term monitoring data of Kao Ping Hsi Cable-Stayed
Bridge and established a design-based warning system. In detail, the monitoring
data were collected from December 2017 to November 2018. This one-year data
was then analyzed using Fourier transform and used to determine the cable fre-
quency and force. The maximum frequency was often recorded at 7:00, and the
minimum was recorded at 23:00. The former was for a traffic rush hour, and the
latter was for no cars in the mid-night. The results didn’t show any seasonal effects.
The structural integrity of a stayed cable was then evaluated in detail based on
the cable frequency and design force. The 90%- and 80%-design forces were
defined as the limits of warning and taking action, respectively. The design force of
a stayed cable is smaller than the yield strength, and allows the evaluation keeping a
safety margin against cable failures and bridge collapse. The results of case study
analyses showed that almost all the frequency values are smaller than the warning
values, and thus the cables don’t need any inspection or repair at the current stage.
References
1. Bannazadeh B, Zomorodian ZS, Maghareh MR (2012) A study on cable-stayed bridges. Appl

Mech Mater 193–194:1113–1118
2. Chou YC (2015) A study of vibration of cables based on the measurement results of Gaoping
cable-stayed bridge. Master Thesis, Department of Civil Engineering, Feng Chia University,
Taichung, Taiwan. (in Chinese)
3. Das R, Pandey AD, Mahesh, Mahesh MJ, Saini P, Anvesha S (2016) Progressive collapse of a
cable stayed bridge. Procedia Eng 144:132–139
4. Wu JJ (2017) Monitoring on the stayed cable of cable-stayed bridge. Master Thesis,

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Kaohsiung,
Kaohsiung, Taiwan. (in Chinese)
5. Zhao YJ (2015) Dynamic monitoring of a cable-stayed bridge. Master Thesis, Department of
Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
(in Chinese)
The Active Rotary Inertia Driver
for Vibration Control of Suspended
Structures
Chunwei Zhang and Hao Wang
Abstract The traditional TMD and AMD are ineffective for the swing vibration
control of suspended structures. Although the recently proposed tuned rotary inertia
damper (TRID) is effective for swing vibration control, it has the limitations of low
robustness and limited application range. The Active Rotary Inertia Driver (ARID)
is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the simplified analytical model of the suspended
structure subjected to point source excitations with ARID is established based on
Lagrangian principles. The control algorithm is developed based on the LQR (linear
quadratic regulator) algorithm. Then the numerical analysis of the small-scale
model with five kinds of multi-hazards excitations (free vibration, forced vibration,
sweep vibration, earthquake vibration and sea wave vibration) were carried out
using Simulink. Lastly, a series of shaking-table experiments were carried out to
verify the numerical analysis results. The effectiveness of the ARID system for
swing vibration control of the suspended structure is validated. Furthermore, the
better robustness and wide application range of the ARID system is also verified by
the numerical analyses and experiments of the small-scale model with multi-type
excitations.
Keywords Structural vibration control Active control Motion control Swing

vibration Active rotary inertia driver
1 Introduction
Vibration control devices have been widely applied in civil engineering, mechanical
engineering, aerospace engineering, ocean engineering and many other fields. For
the civil engineering structures, the reasonable installation of the vibration control
Chunwei Zhang (&) H. Wang

School of Civil Engineering, Qingdao University of Technology, Qingdao, China
e-mail: zhangchunwei@qut.edu.cn
H. Wang
e-mail: wanghao@qut.edu.cn

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_39
404 Chunwei Zhang and H. Wang
system can effectively reduce the dynamic response and damage to the structures. It
is meaningful to achieve a reasonable balance of economy, safety and reliability.
Many studies have proposed that the structural vibration control system can
effectively reduce the reaction and damage of structures under the excitations of
wind, waves, currents, ice and earthquakes. It can effectively improve the disaster
resistance of structures. It is the most effective countermeasure for disaster pre-
vention and mitigation.
In the field of marine engineering, studies have shown that structural vibration
control devices are very useful. It has been verified that vibration control devices
can reduce the dynamic stress amplitude of the ocean platform structure by 15%.
The structural lives can be extended by more than two times. At the same time, the
detection and maintenance cost of the offshore platform can be greatly reduced,
which has important practical significance. With the development of offshore
engineering, the vibrations of deep-water offshore platform structures under the
influence of wind, waves, currents, ice and earthquakes are no longer control
problems of single motion mode. They involve structural translational motions
(floating, swaying, and heaving), rotational motions (rolling, pitching, and yawing)
and their complex problems of coupled vibration and motion (Chandrasekaran et al.
[1]). Therefore, it is of great theoretical and practical significance to study the
structural swing vibration control methods. It can ensure the safe service of deep
ocean engineering structures and prolong the fatigue life of structures. Marine
vessels working at sea are subjected to dynamic loads such as wind, waves and
inrush currents. The complex loads can lead to vibrations of the hull and hook. It
may impact other structures or workers on the vessel and pose a serious threat to the
stability of the marine vessel. Figure 1 (a) is a photo of a large lifting pipe laying
vessel and its main hooks. Figure 1 (b) is a photo of the accident of the main and
auxiliary hooks during the operation.
Not only the marine engineering but also the hook system of various cranes on
the land, the window cleaning machine used for cleaning high-rise buildings and
the construction hanging basket during construction all have the swing motion
component. They can be simplified into a suspended structure model. For cranes
with fixed bases such as tower cranes and bridge cranes, the operator’s improper
operation or environmental disturbances (such as wind disturbances) can cause the
hooks vibrations. The vibrations can delay the lifting time and reduce accuracy,
safety. They even lead to the accident. Furthermore, such kind of vibration is
approximately undamped and needs a long time to be stable. Therefore, appropriate
control measures are needed for the vibration control of suspended structures.
Although the researchers have proposed some control methods, the wind, the
nonlinearity of the suspension cable and other factors make the hook vibration
greatly uncertainty. The current method of mitigating hook vibration relies on the
operator’s experience to manually control the vibration. Manually controlling the
vibration of the hook requires the operator to pay attention to the movement of the
hook, which will reduce the efficiency of the lifting process. In order to reduce the
burden on the operator and improve the efficiency and safety of the crane operation,
it is necessary to study the practical vibration control method. In addition, the
The Active Rotary Inertia Driver for Vibration Control … 405
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Fig. 1 Marine crane laying works ship and Tacoma narrow bridge a Large crane laying barge;
b Winding accident of main and auxiliary hooks; c Tacoma narrow bridge; d Wind flutter
instability failure
suspension structural vibration control principle and methods can also be applied to
the vibration control of large-scale civil engineering structures under specific loads
such as wind-induced flutter control of long-span bridges. Figures 1(c) and (d) are
photos of the damage caused by wind-induced flutter instability of the Tacoma
narrow bridge. It is obvious that the severe torsional vibrational divergence ulti-
mately leads to structural failure.
2 Characteristics of Control Force in Pendular Vibration

Mode
The pendulum motion of suspended structures is a common and very typical form
of basic motion. In the previous research work of the author (Zhang et al. [2]), the
pendulum motion of the suspension mass system is divided into two basic forms
according to the relationship between the structural motion direction and the
suspended direction: tangential sway motion and vertical swing motion. For sim-
plicity, the suspended structure is assumed to be concentrated mass point, and all
the mass is assumed to be concentrated into the hanging point. The TMD control
system is simplified to an undamped mass-spring oscillator. Therefore, the dissi-
pative force will not be presented in the equation, which may facilitate comparisons
on relations among inertial force, restoring force and disturbance force of the mass.
In the sway motion mode, the force is absolutely irrelated to stroke of TMD
mass and only related to the structural pendular angle. The bigger the pendular
angle, the bigger the disturbance force will be, which behaves like state-feedback
control force exerted onto the main structure. The control equation force can be
expressed as:
1 g _2
FSway ¼ 2m h sin h €
h cos h ð1Þ
x
ma þ 1 0
Based on the above equation, the control force is shown to be approaching the
minimum values when structure comes back to the balance position with maximum
velocities, whereas the maximum force will be achieved when the structure reaches
the maximum amplitude position while the velocity is zero. Thus, the control force
is shown to be increasing with the pendular angle of the structure, which behaves
like a negative stiffness force. Different from the sway motion, in the swing motion
mode, the control force equation is expressed as:
1 g x _ 2 €
FSwing ¼ 2m h h x20 sin h ð2Þ
x l
ma þ 1 0
The force is obviously different from the sway motion mode case, which is more
complicated. As regards to the latter two items shown in the definition above, they
satisfy the condition of idea single pendulum. Therefore, either the structure pen-
dulum does not satisfy the ideal condition or the suspended main structure was
disturbed greatly by the TMD system, the last two forces in the equation can be
effective for suppressing the structural motion. In this case, the main control force
comes from the first item given in the right part of the Eq. (2). However, this force
is also dependent on the mass stroke x. Under different initial settings of x/l, it can
be concluded that: (1) only if the value of |x/l| is big enough, the TMD system can
be fully excited, thus to take effect on suppressing the structural pendular motions,
but the initial stroke of mass cannot be big enough; (2) based on the significant
difference between the results corresponding to x/l = ±l, the sign of x is shown to
be critical influential on the behavior of force. Therefore, it is complicated to
consider the effects of the direct relation between x and h.
3 Mathematical Model of Suspended Structure

with the ARID System
It has been verified that TMD is invalid for swing motion control. The concept of
TRID (Tuned Rotary Inertia Damper) was proposed before (Zhang et al. [3]). Since
the TRID system is consistent with the TMD system in the basic principle, it is
subject to the passive tuning vibration damping control theory. Therefore, the
control capability of the TRID system will be limited by the general laws and
conditions that need to be met by tuning vibration damping control theory. In view
of the particularity of the suspended structure, the TRID system is extremely
sensitive to the frequency modulation ratio and the moment of inertia ratio.
Furthermore, there are strong coupling relationships between several key parame-
ters of the system. The parameter optimization method is more complex than the
traditional TMD control system. The robustness and flexibility of passive control
systems will also be greatly challenged. As the research deepened, the concept of
the Active Rotary Inertia Driver (ARID) control system for structural anti-rolling
control is proposed based on the work of the author’s previous research. Based on
the theory of AMD and the basic principle of TRID, the ARID is designed into a
kind of active control driver. The mathematical model of the suspended structure
with the ARID system is shown in Fig. 2.
Fig. 2 Simplified analysis

model of the suspended
structure with the ARID
system
The suspended particle mass is m. The ARID system rotary inertia mass is ma
and the system rotary inertia is Ja. The length of the structure is l. The model
consists of two degrees of freedom used as generalized coordinators, which are the
structural swing angle h and the mass inertia relative rotation angle / with respect
to the ground base (Zhang et al. [4]). The motion equations of the structure with the
ARID system can be achieved as

h þ ch_ þ ðm þ ma Þglsinh ¼ ðm þ ma Þlcoshax0 ðtÞ þ ca ;_ h_ þ ka ð; hÞ Ta ðtÞ
ðm þ ma Þl2 €
ð3Þ

Ja ;€þ ca ;_ h_ þ ka ð; hÞ ¼ Ta ðtÞ ð4Þ
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
where Ja ¼ ma r 2 , c ¼ 2½ðm þ ma Þl2 xn, x ¼ g=l, ca ¼ 2ma r 2 xa na , xa ¼
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ka =Ja are the needed parameters. r is the radius of the mass inertia, n is the
structural damping ratio, na is the ARID damping ratio. The structural damping
coefficient is c. The ARID system rotational stiffness coefficient is ka and the
damping coefficient is ca. The acceleration at the suspended structure lifting point is
ax0(t), and output torque of the ARID system is Ta(t). Similar to the AMD control
system, the ARID system is supposed to no damped and rotating restoring force.
The control torque is the control torque Ta(t). The numerical analysis can be carried
out based on the control algorithm.
4 Response Analysis of Suspended Structure with ARID

System Under Multi-type Dynamic Load
A set of representative structural configuration parameters are selected. The con-

figuration parameters, active control algorithm parameters, input load types, etc.,
are changed to analyze and compare the influence of the ARID system on the
structural control effect (Zhang et al. [5]). There are some typical results below.
4.1 Analysis of Structure Under Free Vibration
The total sampling time is 40 s. The excitation is the harmonic excitation. The
excitation amplitude is 20 mm and frequency is 0.65 Hz (the excitation frequency
is closed to the natural structural frequency). The structures are under resonance
harmonic excitation in the first 15 s and then decay freely. After 15 s excitation, in
the ARID ON case, the ARID system starts to work. However, in the ARID OFF
case, the ARID system still keeps off. The simulation and experimental results
50 35
ARID OFF ARID ON
ARID ON 30 ARID OFF
25 25
Angle(°)
|Y(f)|
20
0
15
10
-25
5
-50 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
Time(s) Frequency (Hz)
(a) (b)
50 35
Simulation Experiment ARID ON
Experiment 30 Experiment ARID OFF
Simulation ARID ON
25 Simulation ARID OFF
25
Angle(°)
|Y(f)|
20
0
15
-25 10
5
-50 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
(c) (d)
Fig. 3 Analysis of the structure under free vibration a Time history of structural swing angle
(simulation); b Amplitude-frequency curve of structural swing angle (simulation); c Experimental
and numerical time histories of structure with ARID control; d Amplitude-frequency curves of
experiment and simulation
including swing angle time history and power spectral density curves are shown in
Fig. 3. It can be seen that the ARID system has a good control effect under free
vibration.
4.2 Analysis of Structure Under Resonance Harmonic

Excitation Vibration
The total sampling time is 80 s. The hang point excitation is the sinusoidal wave.
The amplitude is 20 mm and the frequency is 0.65 Hz. In the ARID ON case, the
ARID system keeps working. In the ARID OFF case, the ARID system keeps not
working. The simulation and experimental results are shown in Fig. 4. Comparing
the simulation results of ARID ON and OFF, the structural swing response RMS
attenuation rate is 84% and the peak attenuation rate is 87%.
50 25
ARID OFF ARID ON
ARID ON ARID OFF
20
25
15
Angle(°)
|Y(f)|
0
10
-25 5
-50 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
(a) (b)
30
Experiment ARID ON
Experiment ARID OFF
25 Simulation ARID ON
Simulation ARID OFF
20
|Y(f)|
15
10
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
Frequency (Hz)
(c)
Fig. 4 Analysis of the structure under resonance harmonic excitation vibration a Time history of
structural swing angle (simulation); b Amplitude-frequency curve of structural swing angle
(simulation); c Amplitude-frequency curves of experiment and simulation
4.3 Analysis of Structure Under Sweep Excitation Vibration
In this condition, the total sample time is 110 s. The excitation amplitude is 10 mm,
the initial frequency is 0.4 Hz, and the ending frequency is 1.5 Hz. In the ARID ON
case, the ARID system keeps working. In the ARID OFF case, the ARID system
keeps not working. The simulation and experimental results are shown in Fig. 5.
Comparing the experimental results of ARID ON and OFF, the structural swing
response RMS attenuation rate is 90% and the peak attenuation rate is 90%.
4.4 Analysis of Structure Under El Centro Earthquake

Vibration
In this condition, the total sample time is 40 s. The El Centro earthquake accel-
eration time history is input into the structure. In the ARID ON case, the ARID
system keeps working. In the ARID OFF case, the ARID system keeps not
working. The simulation and experimental results are shown in Fig. 6. Comparing
the experimental results of ARID ON and OFF, the structural swing response RMS
attenuation rate is 91% and the peak attenuation rate is 97%.
30
ARID OFF 20
ARID ON ARID ON
20 ARID OFF
15
10
Angle(°)
|Y(f)|
0 10
-10
5
-20
-30 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
(a) (b)
12
Experiment ARID ON
Experiment ARID OFF
Simulation ARID OFF
8
|Y(f)|
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
Frequency (Hz)
(c)
Fig. 5 Analysis of the structure under sweep excitation vibration a Time history of structural
swing angle (experiment); b Amplitude-frequency curve of structural swing angle (experiment);
c Amplitude-frequency curves of experiment and simulation
30
ARID OFF
ARID ON 15
ARID ON
20 ARID OFF
10
Angle(°)
10
|Y(f)|
-10 5
-20
-30 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6

(a) (b)
15
Experiment ARID ON
Experiment ARID OFF
Simulation ARID ON
Simulation ARID OFF
10
|Y(f)|
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
Frequency (Hz)
(c)
Fig. 6 Analysis of the structure under El Centro earthquake vibration a Time history of structural
swing angle (experiment); b Amplitude-frequency curve of structural swing angle (experiment);
15 8
ARID OFF
ARID ON
ARID ON
10 7 ARID OFF
6
5
Angle(°)
|Y(f)|
0 4
3
-5
2
-10 1
-15 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
(a) (b)
10
Experiment ARID ON
Experiment ARID OFF
Simulation ARID OFF
6
|Y(f)|
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
Frequency (Hz)
(c)
Fig. 7 Analysis of the structure under sea wave vibration a Time history of structural swing angle
(simulation); b Amplitude-frequency curve of structural swing angle (simulation);
4.5 Analysis of Structure Under Sea Wave Vibration
In this condition, the total sample time is 80 s. The sea wave acceleration time
history is made from Gaussian stationary white noise function. In the ARID ON
case, the ARID system keeps working. In the ARID OFF case, the ARID system
keeps not working. The simulation and experimental results are shown in Fig. 7.
Comparing the simulation results of ARID ON and OFF, the structural swing
response RMS attenuation rate is 80% and the peak attenuation rate is 74%.
5 Conclusions
The Active Rotary Inertia Driver (ARID) system for swing vibration control is
proposed in this paper. The motion equations of the simplified model with the
ARID system is established. The numerical analysis of the small-scale model with
five kinds of multi-hazards excitations (free vibration, forced vibration, sweep
vibration, earthquake vibration and sea wave vibration) were carried out using
Simulink. A series of shaking-table experiments were carried out to verify the

numerical analysis results. The effectiveness of the ARID system for swing
vibration control is validated. Furthermore, the better robustness and wide appli-
cation range of the ARID system is also verified by the numerical analyses and
experiments of the small-scale model with multi-hazards excitations.
In addition, the ARID system can also be applied to land towers, super high-rise
buildings or structures. For the Tacoma narrow bridge, the bridge surface flutter
motion is similar to the swing motion of suspended structures. The large mass body
also has a significant rotation in the gravity field. So the ARID system can also be
applied to control the vibration of similar systems.
References
1. Chandrasekaran S., Kumar D, Ramanthan R (2016) Response control of tension leg platform
with passive damper: experimental investigations. Ships Offshore Struc, 1–11
2. Zhang C, Li L, Ou J (2010) Swinging motion control of suspended structures: Principles and
applications. Struct Control Health Monit 17(5):549–562
3. Zhang C, Ou J (2006) Modeling and Active Control of Flexible Suspended Structural System,
7th World Congress on Computational mechanics, 16−22 July Los Angeles, California, USA
4. Zhang C, Wang H (2020) Swing vibration control of suspended structures using the active
rotary inertia driver system: theoretical modeling and experimental verification. Struct Control
Health Monit 27(6):e2543
5. Zhang C, Wang H (2019) Swing vibration control of suspended structure using active rotary
inertia driver system: parametric analysis and experimental verification. Appl Sci 9(15):3144
Estimations for Equivalent Static Wind
Loads of Dome Roof Structures
Y. L. Lo and C. H. Wu
Abstract Estimation of equivalent static wind loads for structures is one of the most
important issues in wind engineering. So far, the well-known Davenport Chain has
been commonly used and put in several international codes or regulations for struc-
tural engineers. However, due to its strict hypotheses, this method can be applied to
limited structures and need certain modifications when conflicts with real designs.
Other methodologies have been developed in the past thirty years, such as the
load-response-correlation method [1], POD based universal equivalent static wind
load [2], the consistent coupling method (Ke et al. 2012), the principal static wind load
(Blaise and Denoel 2013), and so on. Recently, the load-response-correlation method
has been added in ISO 4354 Appendix D10 as an option to estimate wind loads instead
of applying gust loading factor method which is originally derived from the Davenport
Chain. These developed methodologies can be categorized into two: (1) the one that
needs the preliminary information from time-domain analysis results and (2) the one
that needs specific hypotheses for calculations. The former usually takes more cal-
culation time than the latter and is sometimes questioned for lack of practical meaning
since the time domain analysis has been done in advance. None of these method-
ologies can hardly be responsible for precise calculations of all structures. This paper
intends to introduce the advantages and shortcomings of the two main approaches in
estimating wind loads via thirty-five different parametric cases of a two-dimensional
large span roof structure. Time-domain analysis based on the direct integration
method is also included for comparison. Finally, a general suggestion table is given for
these methods for reasonable application ranges.

Keywords Equivalent static wind load Wind tunnel test Davenport chain

Time-domain analysis Structural response
Y. L. Lo (&) C. H. Wu
Department of Civil Engineering, Tamkang University, New Taipei, Taiwan
e-mail: yllo@mail.tku.edu.tw
C. H. Wu
e-mail: jacquline.wu@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_40
416 Y. L. Lo and C. H. Wu
1 Introduction
The present study intends to compare the two main approaches of estimation of
equivalent static wind loads with time-domain analysis. Generally speaking,
up-to-now developed methodologies can be categorized into two: (1) the one that
needs the preliminary information from time-domain analysis results and (2) the
one that needs specific hypotheses for calculations. The former usually takes more
calculation time than the latter and is sometimes questioned for lack of practical
meaning since the time domain analysis has been done in advance. None of these
methodologies can hardly be responsible for precise calculations of all structures.
This paper intends to introduce the advantages and shortcomings of the two main
approaches in estimating wind loads via thirty-five different parametric cases of a
two-dimensional large span roof structure. Time-domain analysis based on the
direct integration method is also included for comparison. Finally, a general sug-
gestion table is given for these methods for reasonable application ranges.
2 Experimental Setup of Wind Tunnel Test
2.1 Flow Simulation
The indoor closed-circuit type Eiffel wind tunnel simulator in University of Tokyo
is designed and built to generate laminar flow and turbulent boundary layer flow for
the experiments of building sizes. The cross geometric size of the working section is
1.8 1.8 m. The development length to the working section is 12.5 m and the
boundary layer height is about 1.2 m. The contraction ratio the wind tunnel is
1/3.16. The minimum wind speed generated by the fan is 0.5 m/s and the maximum
wind speed is 13.0 m/s. Figure 1 shows the outlook of the wind tunnel facility.
Turbulent wind flow inside the wind tunnel is simulated by the arrangement of
Fig. 1 Outlook of the wind tunnel facility

Estimations for Equivalent Static Wind Loads of Dome Roof Structures 417
Fig. 2 Spires and roughness
Fig. 3 Mean wind speed profile (left), turbulent intensity profile (middle), and turbulent length
scale profile (right)
Fig. 4 Power spectra of fluctuating wind speeds at different elevations

spires and roughness blocks. Larger vortices are generated by the spires and smaller
vortices near the ground are generated by a certain development length consisted of
roughness blocks. The arrangement of roughness blocks is shown in Fig. 2.
Figure 3 shows the normalized profiles of mean wind speeds and turbulence
intensities in the turbulent boundary layer. The solid curves represents terrain IV
(Index a = 0.27) in AIJ standards.
Turbulent flow field can be considered as consisted of various sizes of vortices.
Generally speaking, vortices of larger scales can be considered as inviscid flow
while the movements of vortices of smaller scales are fully dominated by the
viscous force. In the flow field, vortices of larger scales stretch and then convert into
smaller scales. The energy is passed to smaller scales by the inertia term and the
smallest size of vortex dissipate the energy to heat due to viscosity. Kolmogorov
proposed that the movement of small vortices can be determined by the energy
dissipation rate and the viscous constant of flow (Kolmogorov’s first rule). Further,
when the movement has nothing to do with the viscosity, the movement can be
fully determined by the energy dissipation rate, which is called Kolmogorov’s
second rule. Power spectra of fluctuating wind speeds at elevations along the profile
are shown with Karman’s model in Fig. 4. Fairly good agreement is observed at
any elevation.
2.2 Model Configuration
The dome models in this research are composed of two acrylic models, roof models
and cylinder models, to have more variety for geometric sizes to include the dome
structures in the real world. Vinyl tubes are installed on the surface of roof models
and connected to the micro-pressure measuring system. Each of the testing models
is fixed by screws on the turntable in the working section.
The definition of geometric symbol of a testing model is shown in Fig. 5. The
span of the roof models is 300 mm and denominated D. The heights of the roof
models and the cylinder models are denominated “f” and “h” respectively. Both
these two heights are adjusted to have a parametric study of geometric changes.
Table 1 lists the sizes of the geometric dimensions of the roof models and cylinder
models and the terminology of the testing models. There are six ratios of the roof
height to the span and six ratios of the cylinder height to the span. Except for the
combination of f/D = 0 and h/D = 0, there are totally 35 testing models.
Pressure taps are installed on the median line of the dome model and parallel to
the wind direction. In this research, the author intends to investigate the differences
in evaluating wind loads by two approaches—LRC method and Universal method.
Therefore, the wind direction is ignored and those measured pressures are con-
sidered for the subsequent analysis of wind forces. The three-dimensional geo-
metric feature of a dome model may cause different flow separation points over the
curved surface; however, it is ignored in this research.
Fig. 5 Diagram of geometric symbol definition
Table 1 Geometric sizes and terminology of domed models

D = 300 mm f/D (roof height to span)
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
h/D (cylinder height to span) 0.0 None B0 C0 D0 E0 F0
0.1 A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 F1
0.2 A2 B2 C2 D2 E2 F2
0.3 A3 B3 C3 D3 E3 F3
0.4 A4 B4 C4 D4 E4 F4
0.5 A5 B5 C5 D5 E5 F5
2.3 Data Processing
The sampling condition of the wind pressure measurements is assumed 1000 Hz for
2 min recording. Number of samples for further analysis is 12,000. In this research,
the length of a 10-min record is 8192 and there are 14 segments of 10-min records
in the 2 min. For statistical calculation, the average value of 14 segments is esti-
mated for observation.
Wind pressure data (in Pa) is then conducted the 1-s moving averaging in every
10-min record, which is converted from the model to the field. To calculate the
wind pressure coefficients, the reference velocity pressure at the height of the
domed model, qH, is applied for normalization.
1 2
qH ¼ q U ð1Þ
2 H
where q represents air density; U H represents mean wind speed at the height of the
dome model. Wind pressure data is recorded from the pressure tap through the vinyl
tube and then transmitted to the pressure transducer. However, when the pressure
data is transmitted through the vinyl tube, signal distortion is caused by the vinyl
tube itself. Although the mean value is unchanged, fluctuating part of the signal is
somehow interfered. Therefore, the modification of the distorted signal is necessary
before calculation of aerodynamic parameters or further analysis. In this research,
the scanned pressures are processed by the following gain function and the asso-
ciate phase function in Fig. 6. In this research, the vinyl tube length is 90 cm.
To observe the characteristics of wind pressures on testing models, aerodynamic
parameters of wind pressure data are defined as follows.
Instantaneous pressure coefficient:
pi ps
Cp;i ¼ ð2Þ
qH
Mean pressure coefficient:
1X N
Cp;mean ¼ Cp;i ð3Þ
N i¼1
R.M.S pressure coefficient:

vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
u N
u1 X 2
Cp;rms ¼t Cp;i Cp;mean ð4Þ
N i¼1
Fig. 6 Gain functions (left) and phase functions (right) of vinyl tube in three lengths
2.4 Equivalent Static Wind Loads
The research adopts two main approaches to compare how different the method-
ologies provide estimated wind loads. Although these two approaches have been
further developed or modified by recent researchers, the present study applies the
original proposal of these two approaches to show its basic methodologic spirits.
Kasperski [1] proposed a load-response correlated method (L. R. C., hereafter
LRC method) to efficiently predict the wind load distribution corresponding to a
specific condition where one target load response reaches its maximum value. This
method provides good agreements with time-domain analysis in linear systems and
in some mildly nonlinear systems. Currently the LRC method has been appended to
ISO 4354 Appendix D10 for reference. The equivalent static wind load is deter-
mined as
Cpi ;eff ¼ Cpi ;mean þ gr qrpi Cpi ;rms ð5Þ
where Cpi ;mean is the mean pressure coefficient; Cpi ;rms is the R.M.S pressure
coefficient; qrpi is the correlation coefficient of the response r caused by the loading
at i; gr is the response peak factor. In Eq. (5), the correlation coefficient qrpi is
further defined as
P
j aj qpi pj Cpj ;rms
qrpi ¼ P P ð6Þ
i j ai aj qpi pj Cpi ;rms Cpj ;rms
where aj is the influence factor at loading j. The number of equivalent static wind
load distribution is decided by the number of key responses. If the designer con-
cerns all the structural responses of all members, then this method provides equally
the same number of load distributions and theoretically overall extreme responses
as well.
Katsumura [2] proposed a equivalent static wind load distribution based on
time-domain analysis results. This method is mainly developed in an idea providing
the designers an initial load distribution which leads to good agreements with
time-domain analysis. Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) method is adopted

to decompose the fluctuating pressure field to POD modes and associate POD
eigenvalues. By applying influence matrix of the system, the response vector can be
estimated by corresponding POD mode as
½R0 ¼ ½IR ½u ð7Þ
where ½IR is the influence matrix and ½u is the characteristic load vector which can
be replaced by POD mode (vector). ½R0 is then processed by singular value
decomposition to obtain
½R0 ðM; N Þ ¼ ½U ðM; N Þ½SðN; N Þ½V ðN; N ÞT ð8Þ
Contribution vector is then calculated by Eq. (11) to have weighting factors for
corresponding POD modes.

^
fCg ¼ ½V ½S1 ½U T R ð9Þ

where R ^ is the target structural responses in vector form obtained from
time-domain analysis results.

^ ¼ c1 ff1 g þ c2 ff2 g þ . . . ¼ ½F fCg
F ð10Þ
where ½F is the POD modes representing any combinations of force vectors with
their associated weighting factors fC g.
3.1 Mean and R.M.S Pressure Coefficients
Figure 7 shows the variations of mean wind pressure coefficients. From the dis-
tributions of mean pressure coefficients, three categories of models can be found
again clearly: (1) flat models; (2) dome models with f/D = 0.1; and (3) dome
models with f/D > 0.1. For flat models and dome models with f/D = 0.1, negative
values of mean pressure coefficients are generally observed along the meridian.
Large negative values occur at the front edge in the upstream for flat models. For
dome models with f/D > 0.1, positive values are generally observed in the upstream
and increases in proportional to the curvature of the dome model. Negative values
at the dome apex also increase with the curvature of the dome model. For the
negative values in the downstream (wake region), the effect of curvature is less
significant.
(a) h/D = 0.0 (b) h/D = 0.1
(c) h/D = 0.2 (d) h/D = 0.5
Fig. 7 Mean pressure coefficient variations along the meridian line of dome models
The discrepancies caused by the height of the cylinder model are clearly indi-
cated for the aforementioned three categories of models. For mean coefficients in
flat models, gradual variation of large negative values in the upstream is clearly
shown. With the increase of the cylinder height, the area of negative values
becomes larger and the slope becomes smaller. For mean coefficients in dome
models with f/D = 0.1, the variation at the very front edge is distinct and indicated
that as the cylinder height increases, the distribution at the front edge is like a flat
model rather than a domed model. For the overall distributions, negative becomes
larger when the cylinder height is larger. For the domed models with f/D > 0.1, the
cylinder height results in an overall shift-up distribution in general.
Figure 8 shows the variations of mean wind pressure coefficients. R.M.S pres-
sure coefficients along the meridian can also show three categories of distributions.
The effect of curvature is clear for f/D = 0.2 * 0.4 in the turbulent boundary layer
flow and almost the same for f/D = 0.4 * 0.5. Same as the mean coefficients, the
effect caused by the cylinder height in the R.M.S coefficients is also discussed in
(a) h/D = 0.0 (b) h/D = 0.1
(c) h/D = 0.2 (d) h/D = 0.5
Fig. 8 R.M.S pressure coefficient variations along the meridian line of dome models
three categories of models. For flat models, the cylinder height significantly affects
the pressure fluctuation at the front edge. For models with f/D = 0.1, the cylinder
height also has the same effect at the very front edge. For curved domed models
with f/D > 0.1, the effect caused by the cylinder model can be indicated in two
turbulent boundary layer flows individually.
3.2 Response Effect Comparisons
In order to simplify the comparison and meet the requirement of page limitation, the
authors select C2 dome model for explanation. And furthermore, in order to
compare LRC and Universal methods fairly, the finite element model of C2 is tuned
to have its first frequency more than 2 Hz and higher for other modes. Figure 9
shows the C2 comparison results of LRC method and Universal method in terms of
moment response in the Y-direction respectively. In general, the structural response
can be fairly fitted with the LRC method; however, if the number of POD modes is
not enough, the prediction will be seriously biased and leads to an unreal load
(a) LRC method and time-domain (b) Universal and time-domain
Fig. 9 Structural response of Y-direction moment of each beam member
Fig. 10 Eigenvalues of POD

modes
distribution pattern. If the eigenvalues of POD modes are compared with the
accumulated POD modes for wind load estimation, it is indicated that they are not
necessarily in a same tendency for energy percentage accumulated. This indicates
that the application of Universal method needs further modifications to ensure how
efficient the POD modes can affect the final prediction (Fig. 10).
4 Conclusions
Based on estimation results of thirty-five dome models, it is found that, although the
accumulated POD energy of the first few modes can reach over 80% of fluctuating
pressure field, it does not directly to the number of POD modes which can provide
good agreements with time-domain analysis results. On the other hand, the LRC
method provides a general good results at each member; however, the number of load
distribution patterns is one-to-one relationship with the target structural response. It is
time-consuming if the structure is in a complicated degree-of-freedom system.
Another shortcoming is, the LRC method reflects the background structural responses
without the consideration of resonance-induced responses.
References
1. Kasperski M, Niemann HJ (1992) The L.R.C. (load-response-correlation) method: a general

method of estimating unfavorable wind load distributions for linear and non-linear structural
responses. J Wind Eng Aerodyn Ind 43:1753–1763
2. Katsumura A, Tamura Y, Nakamura O (2007) Universal wind load distribution simultaneously
reproducing largest load effects in all subject members on large-span cantilevered roof. J Wind
Eng Ind Aerodyn 95:1145–1165
3. Lo YL (2012) Characteristics of wind pressure fluctuations of dome-like structures. Doctoral
thesis, University of Tokyo
Design and Experimental Research
of Xinghai Bay Cross-Sea Bridge
in China
Wang Huili, Qin Sifeng, and Zhang Zhe
Abstract The Xinghai Bay Bridge is a cross-sea suspension bridge in Dalian,

China. This bridge is the first suspension anchored in the sea in China. This paper
introduce each structure composed of Xinghai Bay Bridge and sets out the
anchorage slippage experiment. The girder, tower, main cable, hanger, cable saddle,
anchorage and caisson foundation are presented. In addition, the friction coefficient
between the gravel bed and the concrete caisson is determined with anchorage
slippage experiment. The experiment results show that the dry friction coefficient is
0.520, and the underwater friction coefficient is 0.516. Water decreases the friction
coefficient.
Keywords Cross-sea bridge Suspension Anchorage Friction coefficient
1 Introduction
The Xinghai Bay Bridge (Fig. 1) in Dalian, China, is a double-deck steel truss
cross-sea suspension bridge.
The main span is 460 m in length, whereas the two end spans are 180 m. The
width between the two main cables is 25.2 m. The radius crest vertical curve of the
bridge is 13500 m with longitudinal slope 1.5% (Fig. 2). The bridge is a
double-deck bridge due to lots of traffic. The upper deck consists of four lanes and
W. Huili (&) Z. Zhe

National & Local Joint Engineering Laboratory of Bridge and Tunnel Technology,
Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
e-mail: wanghuili@dlut.edu.cn
W. Huili
State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment,
Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
Q. Sifeng
Materials Fracture Mechanics Research Center for Numerical Test, Dalian University,
Dalian 116022, China

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_41
428 W. Huili et al.
Fig. 1 Xinghai Bay Bridge
Fig. 2 Bridge elevation plan/cm
two sidewalks, and the lower deck consists of four lanes. The upper deck lanes are
for vehicles driving from east to west, and the lower deck is for vehicles driving
from west to east.
The vehicle load of the bridge meets Chinese Vehicle Load level-I, which
includes a concentrated load 360 KN and an arbitrary length uniform load
10.5 KN/m in one traffic line. The pedestrian load is 3.0 kN/m2. The construction
period is from October 2011 to October 2015.
2 Structure Design
2.1 Truss
The girder is a steel truss structure, which is 10 m high and 10 m long for a
standard segment (Fig. 3). The truss is composed of a chord member, web member,
diagonal web member, diaphragm plate and lateral brace. All members are
thin-walled box-shaped and made of steel plate with a nominal yield strength of
Design and Experimental Research … 429
Fig. 3 Truss standard segment
345 MPa. The section sizes of upper and lower chord are 920 840 mm. The
section size of vertical web member are 800 740 mm. The section size of
diagonal web member are 800 640 mm. The section size of cross beam are
1500 740 mm. The chord members are connected to the other members by
integrating joint.
2.2 Bridge Deck
The orthotropic steel plate forms the bridge deck (Fig. 4), which is 21.26 m width.
The bridge deck thickness is 16 mm, and the U-rib thickness is 8 mm. The lon-
gitudinal beam height varies from 664 to 784 mm, and the distance between lon-
gitudinal beams is 2620 mm. The diaphragm plate height is 596 mm, and the
distance between diaphragm plates is 2500 mm.
2.3 Tower
The 112.31 m tall tower is a reinforced concrete frame with D-shaped hollow
section. The external contour size of the upper uniform cross section is
4.10 6.50 m, and the root part changes to 6.30 8.20 m. A platform with
dimensions of 17.2 23.5 6.0 m is beneath each tower column, and 12 pieces
430 W. Huili et al.
Fig. 4 Bridge deck system
of U2.5 m bored piles are set under the platform (Fig. 5). A prestressed concrete
cross beam between the two pylons is under the girder.
2.4 Main Cable and Hanger
The main cable is made of the prefabricated parallel wire. Each main cable has 61
strands of parallel steel wire cables (Fig. 6), which contains 127 strands U5 mm
galvanized high strength steel wires. The main cable is wrapped with an s-shape
wire. The rise span ratio of the main cable mid-span is 1:6.667. The rise span ratio
of the side span is 1:16.67.
There are two kinds of hanger, flexible hanger and the rigid hanger. The flexible
hanger is made of 73U7 mm high-strength galvanized steel wires with a poly-
ethylene cover. The ultimate tensile strength of the hanger is 1670 MPa. Cold cast
anchors are at both ends of the hanger. The rigid hanger is made of U90 mm steel
alloy rod. Each hanging point has two pieces of hanger.
Fig. 5 Tower structural diagram/cm
2.5 Cable Clamp
The cable clamps are cast with a wear-resistant steel alloy. The bolts are made with
ASTM4340 steel, and the pins are made with ASTM5140 steel (Fig. 7).
432 W. Huili et al.
Fig. 6 Main cable
Fig. 7 Common clamp/mm
2.6 Cable Saddle
Cable saddles include the main saddle and splay saddle (Fig. 8). These saddles are
cast in a welding hybrid structure. The saddle groove is cast with steel. The saddle
seat is welded with ASTM A266 Grade 2 steel and the cable clamps are 45 mm
thick, casted with steel alloy.
Fig. 8 Tower saddle/mm
Fig. 9 Cross-section diagram of the eastern anchor block foundation bed (The unit is cm except
elevation unit is m)
2.7 Anchorage and Caisson Foundation
The anchor body is poured on the foundation of the caissons (Fig. 9). In order to
reduce the whole anchor body weight, a triangular hollowed-out structure is set
between the splay cable saddle buttress and the anchor block.
The covering layer of the eastern anchorage is approximately 15 m thick and is
formatted with sludge and sandy gravels, under which a weathered rock layer laid
(Fig. 9). The covering layer of the western anchorage is only approximately 6 m
thick, and this layer is above a weathered rock layer. The anchorage foundation
treatment process included excavating the covering layer, rock rip-rap, leveling,
setting of a caisson, and foundation consolidation through grouting. Because the
covering layer above the western anchorage is quite thin, an extra partial reef
explosion is required.
434 W. Huili et al.
The anchorage foundation is a caisson foundation. The caisson size is

69 44 17 m. There are 150 cabin grids, and its total weight is 26000 tons,
which is the most heavy in China.
3 Experimental Research
In order to avoid building underwater foundation, many suspension bridges set

anchor on coast or bank, such as Akashi Kaikyo Bridge [2], Humber Bridge [1],
Golden Gate Bridge [4], etc. Only few suspension bridges set anchor in the sea,
such as Great Belt Bridge. Xinghai Bay Bridge is the first suspension bridge
anchored in the sea in China, however there is no specification for building anchor
in the sea in China [5]. The friction coefficient between the gravel bed and the
concrete caisson must be determined to ensure avoiding anchorage slippage [3]. So
the anchorage slippage experiment is introduced in this paper.
The anchorage slippage experiment is conducted in the Tunnel R&D Base
Structure Laboratory of Dalian University of Technology, including a concrete
block, with dimensions of 1 m long, 0.6 m wide and 0.15 m high, is placed on a
gravel bed in a pool. Steel plates, as an additional weight, are put on the concrete
block. The concrete block connected load device with a steel rope. Additionally, a
dynameter is fixed on the steel rope. The weight of the concrete block and steel
plates is G, and the load is T. The angle between T and the horizontal line is a
(Fig. 10). The dry friction coefficient is l1 = Tcosa/(G-Tsina). In the case of water,
the underwater friction coefficient is l2 = Tcosa/(G-Tsina-F), where F is buoyancy.
The results are shown in Tables 1 and 2. The average dry friction coefficient is
l1 = 0.520 and the average underwater friction coefficient is l2 = 0.516. So the
water could decrease the friction coefficient.
Fig. 10 Schematic diagram of experiment

Table 1 Friction coefficient No. G/N T/N a/o l1

test results of dry gravel bed
and block 1 17510 8550 13.36 0.523
2 11670 5350 13.36 0.520
3 6020 2850 13.36 0.517
Table 2 Friction coefficient No. G/N T/N a/o l1

test results of underwater
gravel bed and block 1 17510 8000 13.36 0.519
2 11670 5100 13.36 0.517
3 6020 2400 13.36 0.511
4 Conclusion
Xinghai Bay Bridge is an important part of the Dalian South Link Line and solves
problematic traffic jams in this region. This bridge has achieved the status of an
urban landmark in Dalian. The friction coefficient between the gravel bed and the
concrete caisson is determined with the anchorage slippage experiment. The dry
friction coefficient is 0.520, and the underwater friction coefficient is 0.516, which
indicates that water decreases the friction coefficient.
Acknowledgements This work is supported by the Foundation of Liaoning Provincial Doctoral

Scientific research Projects (20170520138); Foundation of Liaoning Provincial Department of
Education Projects (L2014027); Foundation of Research Funds for the Central Universities
(DUT15QY34).
References
1. Adanur S et al (2012) Construction stage analysis of Humber Suspension Bridge. Appl Math
Model 36(11):5492–5505
2. Furuya N, Yamaoka R, Paulson BC (1994) Construction of akashi-kaikyo bridge west
anchorage. J Constr Eng Manag 120(2):337–356
3. Chiou J-S et al (2012) Testing and analysis of a laterally loaded bridge caisson foundation in
gravel. Soils Found 52(3):562–573
4. Tang M-C (2018) Forms and aesthetics of bridges. Engineering 4(5):267–276
5. Zhang Z (2015) Bridge research and development for 30 years. Nova Science Publishers,
New York
Evaluation of Vibration Characteristics
of RC and PRC Beam Members Under
Cyclic Train Loading
M. Tokunaga and K. Narita
Abstract Resonance phenomenon during train passing has been observed because
of the increased in train operation speed in high-speed railway, the spread of low
rigidity girder such as PRC and SRC girder, and the advances in measurement
technology. An example has been reported in which significant resonance is gen-
erated, which is caused by a decrease in rigidity due to the progress of cracks in
concrete members. The stiffness of members must be evaluated in consideration of
the action hysteresis during the design life time, i.e. the magnitude and the cyclic
number of the load. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the vibration characteristics
of RC and PRC beam members in operating condition and the variation of stiffness
and damping of the beam after repeated loads of about 2 million times based on
fatigue tests of 4 specimens. Static loading tests made it clear that the effective
stiffness of RC members decreases with respect to increasing load magnitude and it
is consistent with the previous evaluation formula. On the other hand, the effective
stiffness of the PRC member is overestimated in the case of the previous evaluation
formula, and is consistent with Branson’s cubic law. From the fatigue tests, the
effective stiffness decreases by about 6 to 16% for RC members and 10 to 33% for
PRC members after 2 million cyclic loading. The equivalent damping is from 4.0%
for RC members, according to the load magnitude and decreases to about 0.5%, and
1.5% to 0.5% for PRC members after 2 million cyclic loading. This means that the
repeated loading accompanying the train pass contributes to increasing the dynamic
response, especially with a large degree of influence on the PRC members.
Keywords Railway viaduct Resonance Fatigue test RC member PRC

member
M. Tokunaga (&) K. Narita

Structural Mechanics Laboratory, Railway Technical Research Institute, Kokubunji, Japan
e-mail: tokunaga.munemasa.68@rtri.or.jp
K. Narita
e-mail: narita.kenji.97@rtri.or.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_42
438 M. Tokunaga and K. Narita
1 Introduction
The phenomenon of vibrational resonance during train passing has been confirmed
following the enhanced operational speeds of high-speed railways, the spread of
low-rigidity girder such as the PRC and SRC girders, and the advances in mea-
surement technology [5]. For example, there was a study reporting that significant
resonance was generated from a decrease in rigidity of concrete members owing to
crack progression. As such, further refinement of the impact coefficient is required
in the dynamic response evaluation of such members, largely depending on their
natural frequencies or their rigidities (Sogabe et al. 2019). In view of this, the
stiffness of concrete members must be evaluated in consideration of their experi-
ence during the design lifetime, i.e. the magnitude and cyclic number of the
repeated loads. Thus, the rigidity of RC members was evaluated herein, under the
assumption of an operational condition [10]. Moreover, the hysteresis characteris-
tics of PRC members were evaluated under the same use condition, whereas in the
past such characteristics were partially studied in the architectural field, under the
occurrence of earthquakes [9], Sugino [4, 7].
This paper aims to evaluate the vibration characteristics of RC and PRC beam
members under a specific operational condition in beam stiffness and damping
variations after a fatigue test of approximately two million times of repeated
loading.
2 Experimental Method
2.1 Specimen
Figure 1 shows the design details of the specimens, which consists of both RC and
PRC members, of which the latter has become widely popular in railway structures
in recent years. Herein, the ratio of tensile rebars and the amount of introduced
pre-stress were assumed by reference to specifications of general railway bridges.
The tensile reinforcement ratio of RC and PRC member are 1 and 0.6%, respec-
tively. The prestressing coefficient of PRC member k is 0.71.
P/2 P/2
600 D10
D10 200 200 D10
D10 PC steel bar
50 300 50
400
50 300 50
100 200
D22 (B-type
2200 No.1 φ17)
2500 D13
(a) Side view (b) RC section (c) PRC section
Fig. 1 Design details of specimens

Evaluation of Vibration Characteristics of RC and PRC … 439
Yield of tile steel 170kN

Displacement +2mm 120kN
+20kN +2mm 70kN
Load,
+20kN
50kN
2 106 times
Loading step Loading step
(a) Static cyclic loading (b) Dynamic cyclic loading
Fig. 2 Loading pattern
2.2 Loading Pattern
Figure 2 illustrates the static cyclic loading test for evaluating the basic hysteresis
characteristics of the members, with increments of 20 kN in the load control
through the tensile rebar’s yield point and 2 mm as displacement control after yield.
At each increasing load level, the number of repetitions was three times. Moreover,
a 5-kN load was maintained during unloading.
In the dynamic loading test, the upper limit load was increased to 70, 120 and
170 kN, with assumed 50 kN reinforcement stress (of approximately 100 MPa) of
dead load based on a 5 Hz excitation frequency. In this test, the number of repe-
titions at each load level was two million.
3.1 Static Load-Displacement Relationship
Figure 3 shows the load–displacement relationship obtained from the static and
dynamic loading test. Apparently, the stiffness (effective stiffness Keq) at unloading
and reloading decreased in the region where cracks occurred, whereas it decreased
on the skeleton curve (after dc in the figure). Moreover, the residual displacement at
unloading in the RC members increased with respect to increasing load as com-
pared to the PRC members. The hysteresis characteristics of PRC members
exhibited a stronger tendency to point towards the origin during unloading when
compared with those of the RC members; as the residual displacement decreased,
the effective stiffness showed decreasing tendency. That is, the prestress introduced
for the purpose of reducing the crack width was found to influence reduction in the
rigidity of the entire beam system.
300 300
Static test Yield of tensile steel bar
Fiber Analysis Yield of PC bar
250 250 Yield of tensile steel bar
Crack of concrete
200 200 Crack of concrete
Load P (kN)
Load P (kN)
150 150
100 100
50 50
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
Displacement δ (mm) Displacement δ (mm)
(a) RC member (b) PRC member
Fig. 3 Load-displacement relationship obtained from static and dynamic loadings
3.2 Dynamic Characteristics Variation Due to Cyclic

Loading
Figures 4 shows the effective stiffness and equivalent damping of RC members

obtained from the static and dynamic loading tests. Displacement of the horizontal
axis was the maximum displacement experienced in the past at each loading
step. On one hand, effective stiffness was the active stiffness connecting the max-
imum and minimum load points of the loop on the load–displacement relationship
under cyclic loading. On the other hand, equivalent damping ratio was the equiv-
alent viscous damping of the hysteresis damping calculated from the area of the
same loop.
The ACI 318-08 (ACI [1] technique is based on the method proposed by
Branson [2, 3], which uses the effective stiffness Ke ,
3 ( 3 )
Mcr Mcr
Ke ¼ K0 þ 1 Kcr ð1Þ
Mmax Mmax
where K0 is the gross sectional stiffness (uncracked concrete section); Kcr the
sectional stiffness of the fully cracked section; Mmax the applied maximum bending
moment; Mcr the cracking moment. In practical designs, the secant stiffness is
calculated by Eq. (1) [6].
Wakui et al. (1996) proposed a method to predict the flexural rigidity at reloading
by using the following equation.
1:6 ( 1:6 )
Mcr Mcr
Ks;RC ¼ K0 þ 1 Ke ð2Þ
Mmax Mmax
300
Effective stiffness Keq

250 K0
Equation(2)
(kN/mm)
200
Static loading results
150
100
50 Equation(1)
0
0 100 200 300
Maximum load P (kN)
(a) Static cyclic loading
Effective damping ratio ξeq

300 50-90kN Keq 0.10
50-120kN ξeq
250 50-170kN 0.08
(kN/mm)
200
0.06
150
0.04
100
50 0.02
0 0
100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107
Cyclic loading number
(b) Dynamic cyclic loading
Fig. 4 Effective stiffness and equivalent damping of RC members
Hereafter, test results are compared with above two equations for the sake of
conforming the applicability especially for PRC members under cyclic loading
condition.
For the RC member, the static loading test results confirmed that the effective
stiffness decreases with an increase of loading amplitude after dc . The obtained
effective stiffness Keq of the RC member was consistent with stiffness Ks;RC during
reloading by the static cyclic loading test.
Results of the fatigue test by dynamic loading indicated that the RC members
achieved Keq of approximately 220 kN/mm to about 11% at 50–90 kN and
approximately 189 kN/mm to nearly 6% at 50–120 kN in 50–90 kN. At 170-kN
load, Keq decreased from 184 kN/mm to approximately 16%. Moreover, neq showed
the tendency to increase with increasing load and to decrease with increasing
number of repeated loads. Specifically, it decreased from 4.0 to 0.5% at 50–90 kN
and from 167 kN/mm to within 4.5–1.2% at 50–120 kN. The change was small at
nearly 1.5% at 50–170 kN. Keq exhibited a sharp decline of roughly 25% while neq
increased rapidly from approximately 1.5 to 9% at repetitions of almost 500 to
20,000 times at 50–170 kN. Crack width and residual displacement in this region
increased simultaneously, indicating that there is a possibility of deterioration of
aggregate mesh in the concrete at the cracked area. Nonetheless, the mesh was
improved by repeated loading thereafter, where Keq , neq must have settled to the
value prior to 500 times of repeated loadings.
For the PRC member, the effective stiffness decreases with respect to increasing
loading amplitude after dc . These results were consistent with the stiffness Ke
obtained by using Branson’s law, with overestimated Ks;RC .
Figures 5 shows the effective stiffness and equivalent damping of PRC members
obtained from the static and dynamic loading tests. For the PRC members, results
for the dynamic loading test indicated that Keq decreased almost 10% from the
initial stiffness 275 kN/mm when the cyclic loading amplitude is 50–90 kN loading.
It decreased almost 33% from 240 kN/mm when the loading amplitude is 50–120
kN and almost 20% from 167 kN/mm when the loading amplitude is 50–170 kN.
These results show the stiffness of PRC member significantly decreases when
compared to RC members due to cyclic loading. neq exhibited a tendency to
increase with respect to increasing loading amplitude and to decrease with
increasing frequency of repeated loads. Particularly, it ranged within 0.5–1.5%
when the cyclic loading amplitude is 50–90 kN. It decreased from 1.5 to 0.5% when
the amplitude is 50–120 kN and from 2.3 to 1.2% when the amplitude is 50–170
kN. Both RC and PRC members showed a tendency of stiffness reduction and
damping reduction by the repeated loading, towards a greater or a lesser extent.
Especially for PRC members, the dynamic response is expected to shift to the
direction of increase due to repeated loading accompanying the train passing.
Effective stiffness Keq (kN/mm)
300
Equation(2)
250 K0
200 Static loading results
150
100
Equation(1)
50
0
0 100 200 300
Maximum load P (kN)
50-90kN Keq
(a) Static cyclic loading 50-120kN ξeq
50-170kN
Effective damping ratio ξeq
300 0.10
250 0.08
(kN/mm)
200
0.06
150
0.04
100
50 0.02
0 0
100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107
Cyclic loading number
(b) Dynamic cyclic loading
Fig. 5 Effective stiffness and equivalent damping of PRC members

4 Conclusions
This study has evaluated the vibration characteristics of RC and PRC beam
members under operational condition, based on fatigue tests. From these results, the
following conclusions may be drawn:
• From static loading tests, it is found that the effective stiffness of RC members
decreases with respect to increasing load, which is consistent with a previous
evaluation formula. Nevertheless, the effective stiffness of the PRC members is
overestimated relative to the same previous evaluation formula, which is con-
sistent with Branson’s cubic law.
• As a result of repeated dynamic loading, the effective stiffness decreases by
approximately 6% to 16% for the RC members and 10% to 33% for the PRC
members. Equivalent damping for the RC members is from 4.0% (relative to
load size) and decreases to around 0.5%, whereas for the PRC members it
decreases from 1.5% to 0.5%. This means that repeated loading accompanying
the train passing contributes to the shift towards increasing dynamic response,
especially directing a large degree of influence on the PRC members.
Nonlinear finite element analysis will be extended in the future for an in-depth
study focusing on the relation between the adhesion deterioration in the rebar and
concrete and the whole structural characteristics.
References
1. ACI Committee 318 (2008) Building code requirements for structural concrete. ACI 318-08
and Commentary. ACI, Farmington Hills, Michigan
2. Branson DE (1963) Instantaneous and time-dependent deflections of simple and continuous
reinforced concrete beams, HPR Report, vol 7, pp 1–78
3. Branson DE (1977) Deformation of concrete structures. McGraw-Hill, New York
4. Hayashi M, Okamoto S, Otani S, Kato H, Fu J (1995) Hysteresis model for prestressed
concrete members and its effect on earthquake response. J Prestress Concr Japan Prestress
Concr Eng Assoc 37(4):57–67 (in Japanese)
5. Ito Y, Oono Y, Yoshida K, Nishiyama S, Tanabe A (2017) Proposal of simple health index
for double reinforced RC slab girder railway bridges. J Struct Eng 63A:876–887 (in Japanese)
6. Railway Technical Research Institute (2004) Design standards for railway structures and
commentary (Concrete Structures). Maruzen Co., Ltd. Tokyo (in Japanese)
7. Sugano S (1970) Experimental study on restoring force characteristic of reinforced concrete
members, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Tokyo (in Japanese)
8. Sogaba M, Matsumoto N, Kanamori M, Sato M, Wakui H (2005) Impact factors of concrete
girders coping with train speed-up. Q Rep RTRI 46(1):46–52
9. Takeda T, Sozen MA, Nielsen NN (1970) Reinforced concrete response to simulated
earthquakes. J Struct Div 96(2):2557–2573
10. Wakui H, Matsumoto N, Watanabe T (1991) An evaluation method of flexural rigidity of
reinforced concrete girders for computing deflection. RTRI Rep 5(11):55–62
The Role of Reinforced Piles in Stability
Analysis of Road Embankment on Soft
Ground
Hoang Hai Nguyen
Abstract In Southern Vietnam, the construction and maintenance of roads face a

lot of difficulties due to soft grounds with different soil properties. Also, it con-
tributes to negative impacts related to the quality of road embankment. Usually,
reinforced piles are used to reinforce embankment against settlement. This method
can help the ground increase its stability but, in some cases, it does not work.
Therefore, this research investigates various baseline cases with assumed properties
of piles (position, diameter, length) or embankment dimension. Stability analysis of
embankment will be performed and the positions of reinforced piles will be
determined to provide an optimal solution for embankments that rest on soft
grounds.

Keywords Soft ground Slope Reinforced pile Piled embankment Stability

analysis Structural engineering Construction
1 Introduction
The Mekong Delta is in the southern part of Vietnam where its soil geology
comprises a variety of low and deep layers of clay or silty clay. This region owns a
complex system of rivers, channels, slopes and various civil infrastructure like
bridges, abutments, and steep slopes. Therefore, constructions in this region have to
be supported on reinforced basement by piles or gravel layer.
In road designs, the embankment is the most important part of the total pavement
structure and therefore it must be stable. Embankment setups are commonly used to
elevate the platform of roads. In case of soft ground settlement in the Mekong
Delta’s areas (which feature river estuaries, harbour foreshore areas, low-lying
marshy or slopes) [2], civil constructions face stability challenges.
H. H. Nguyen (&)
Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
e-mail: hai.nguyen@ut.edu.vn; nghaimail@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_43
446 H. H. Nguyen
On soft foundation soils, a variety of soil reinforcement techniques exist and

they include preloading or staged construction, adding vertical drains that use
lightweight fill materials, and replacing soft soil with a suitable fill material. The
addition of column supports such as piles, cement mixed columns are also popular.
Moreover, it can be combined with geosynthetic reinforced materials [2].
Generally, these techniques are not always suitable for the local situation. In
some rural locations of the Mekong Delta, where the stratum has yet to be clearly
established as the baseline, the construction problems need to be solved by a
different approach.
2 Embankment Design
2.1 Modelling and Materials
During the last decade, erosion continues to happen without abating in the Western
of Mekong Delta. For example, in My Tho province the first channel (1819) of
Mekong Delta region what is now Bao Dinh river, happened disaster when a part of
riverside collapsed as soon as after its exploitation. (Fig. 1). It destroyed a lot of
steep slopes, road embankments and agricultural channels.
In this section, a model of a roadway with an embankment that rests on 5 layers
of soft soil will be analyzed. At the beginning, It was decided that a single piling
wall be installed at the side of riverbed (Fig. 2) because this route has light weight
traffic. A differential settlement will be assumed when investigating the role of
reinforced piles in stability analysis of the road embankment.
Fig. 1 Bao Dinh embankment collapsed after exploitation (My Tho, Mekong Delta 06.2016)
The Role of Reinforced Piles in Stability Analysis … 447
Fig. 2 Embankment site considered (Tien Giang, Vietnam 2016)
Table 1 Soil properties and pile design

Material Parameters
Silty clay (4.0–4.8 m) W = 72.14%, cw = 1.55 G/cm3, eo = 1.926, WI = 60.93%,
Wp = 32.57%, IP = 28,36%, B = 1.46, utb = 02°24’,
Ctb = 0.067 kg/cm2, E = 7.50 kg/cm2
Medium silty clay W = 30.77%, cw = 1.89 G/cm3, eo = 0.823, WI = 45.12%,
(2.9–3.1 m) Wp = 25.28%, IP = 19.84%, B = 0.28, utb = 12°11’,
Ctb = 0.288 kg/cm2, E = 21.48 kg/cm2
Soft silty clay (1.6– W = 23.10%, cw = 2.02 G/cm3, eo = 0.634, WI = 40.81%,
1.7 m) Wp = 22.41%, IP = 18.40%, B = 0.04, utb = 16°13’,
Ctb = 0.465 kg/cm2, E = 27.57 kg/cm2
Sandy silt (1.5 m) W = 17.7%, cw = 2.0 G/cm3, eo = 0.56, utb = 31°39’,
Ctb = 0.042 kg/cm2, E = 47.90 kg/cm2
Sand (0.5 m) W = 19.6%, cw = 1.9 G/cm3, eo = 0.59, utb = 31°03’,
Ctb = 0.038 kg/cm2, E = 95.19 kg/cm2
Sheet pile SW-350 W H = 966 mm 350 mm, Thickness – 120 mm, Crack
bending moment > 163.1 kN.m
Spun pile D400 Thickness—75 mm, Maximum axial load—2290 kN, Resistance
moment > 55 kN.m
Nomenclature: W—humidity, cw—unit weight of soil, eo—void ratio, WI—liquid
limit, Wp—plastic limit, IP—plasticity index, B—consistency, utb —
effective friction angle, Ctb—effective cohesion, E—Young’s
modulus
448 H. H. Nguyen
Fig. 3 Modelling of embankment and soil
Fig. 4 Cross section of piled reinforcement
The soil profile near the ground surface consists of sand, silty clay and very soft
silty clay as shown in Table 1.
The embankment has a crest width of 3 m and the height is over 2 m. It is
supported by concrete piles. The original design has a range of sheet piles (type
SW-350) with length of 9 m.
By assuming a differential settlement, this embankment was strengthened by a
new range of spun piles (type D400) with lengths varying from 7 m to 11 m, next
to the previous piles (SW-350) what is near the riverbed (Fig. 4). The analysis of
this piled embankment was carried out by using a two-dimensional finite element
model and the Plaxis 2D computer program (Fig. 3).
2.2 Calculation Scenarios
A coupled solution of two types of pile will be carried out in several parametric
studies:
• Various lateral loads (p): 5 kN/m, 7.5 kN/m, 10 kN/m, 11 kN/m;
• Various D400 pile lengths (L): 7 m, 9 m, 10 m, 11 m;
• Various embankment sloped (i = V:H): 1.25%, 1.5%, 2.0%, 2.5%.
2.2.1 Effect of Lateral Load (P)
It can be seen from the results given in Table 2 that displacement of both horizontal
and vertical changed a less. Although, the lateral load is increased, the moment piles
and factor of stability almost keep its suitable values (Table 2). Even though the
horizontal displacement of piles was increased with respect to increasing lateral
load. However, the factor of stability (FOS) is negligibly changed and maintains an
allowable value (Table 2).
A Safety calculation was performed using the principal of the failure mechanism
and the corresponding RMsf, which is the safety factor. The RMsf-value of a
particular calculation step can be found in the Calculation information window
displayed as the corresponding option is selected in the Project menu of the Plaxis
2D Output program. The factor of safety is given by:
available strength
SF ¼ ¼ FOS
strength at failure
The development of deformation shown in Fig. 5 will define the role of lateral
loads. It’s also performed load-displacement curve (Fig. 6). The result is the more
load lateral is applied, the more horizontal displacement is happened.
Table 2 Effect of changing lateral load

# Load, Horizontal Vertical Pile Cross Lateral FOS
p (kN/ displacement displacement moment force force (K)
m) (mm) (mm) (kNm) (kN) (kN)
1 5 223.3 70.15 48.66 31.5 158.2 1.091
2 7.5 229.6 70.85 49.74 32.3 159.9 1.077
3 10 235.2 71.49 50.48 32.6 161.4 1.064
4 11 237.9 71.79 50.91 32.8 162.1 1.062
450 H. H. Nguyen
Fig. 5 Deformation of embankment in case of p = 11 kN/m
240
Horizontal displacement, mm
238 237.94
236
235.21
234
232
230 229.6
228
226
224
223.3
222
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Lateral load, kN/m
Fig. 6 Relationship between lateral load (p) and horizontal displacement
2.2.2 Effect of D400 Pile Length (L)
In this scenario, Table 3 presents the results for varying pile length. It can be seen
that the horizontal displacement of piles decreased significantly when the pile
length was made longer. Hence, the factor of stability (FOS) is changed much
(K > 1.2). In Fig. 7, the embankment was more stable, when using longer piles. But
value of vertical displacement decreased effectively (Table 3). Moreover, FOS is
stayed with the same value and this point will help to find the optimal length for
embankment (Fig. 8).
Table 3 Effect of changing pile length

# Pile Horizontal Vertical Pile Cross Lateral FOS
length displacement displacement moment force force (K)
L (m) (mm) (mm) (kN.m) (kN) (kN)
1 7 166.55 86.73 31.53 21.87 111.82 1.222
2 9 145.49 64.03 33.39 22.2 128.6 1.218
3 10 138.95 58.12 33.38 22.18 132.15 1.221
4 11 123.41 45.72 33.43 22.95 137.66 1.215
Fig. 7 Deformation of embankment in case of L = 11 m
2.2.3 Effect of Steep Slope of Embankment (I%)
This scenario shows (Table 4) the results for various steep slopes of embankment. It
can be seen that the embankment slope affects the horizontal displacement of piles.
A lower slope (i = 2.5%) is associated with a lesser displacement. The
slope-displacement curve (Fig. 9) shown that the steep slope is efficient (i%) in
control displacement control.
452 H. H. Nguyen
Fig. 8 Deformation of embankment in case of i = 2.50%
Table 4 Effect of embankment slope

# Steep Horizontal Vertical Pile Cross Lateral FOS
slope (i displacement displacement moment force force (K)
%) (mm) (mm) (kNm) (kN) (kN)
1 i = 1.25 228.13 70.5 49.32 32.17 159.97 1.044
2 i = 1.50 223.3 70.15 48.66 31.5 158.21 1.091
3 i = 2.00 220.14 69.75 47.89 30.82 155.85 1.176
4 i = 2.50 213.62 68.74 47.27 30.66 152.44 1.262
230
Horizontal displacement, mm
228 228.13
226
224
223.3
222
220 220.14
218
216
213.62
214
212
1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4
Steep slope (i), %
Fig. 9 Relationship between steep slope (i%) and horizontal displacement

3 Conclusions
Embankment over soft clay is commonly seen in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. In
this study, we seek a suitable embankment design for civil constructions. After
considering various scenarios and analysing the results, the following conclusions
may be drawn:
• For the Mekong Delta’s stratum like Tien Giang, My Tho province or Western
parts, embankments are more stable if they are reinforced with coupled type of
piles (SW350A and D400). Hence, the previous designs with single pile type
should be added.
• Reinforced piles added in the embankment are more efficient when the steep
slope stands in suitable angle. This point is very important for design because it
helps in getting the optimal dimensions for the embankment.
• The length of D400 piles could be determined from the optimal value of the
stability (FOS). For example, the piles could have the length of 7 m instead of
10 m because the embankment had the same value of FOS (K = 1.22, see
Table 3). Therefore, the engineer could decide the most economical settlement
for current situation.
• The amount of load traffic on the embankment could be determined, regard to
the effect of the lateral load (p), Table 2 shows that the embankment size
depends on the value of the lateral load.
References
1. Russel D, Pierpoint N (1997) An assessment of design methods for piled embankments.

Ground Eng 30:39–44
2. Van Eekelen SJM (2016) The 2016-update of the Dutch design guideline for basal reinforced
piled embankments. Procedia Eng 143:582–589
Resonance Effect of Separate Twin
Bridges Due to Traffic Load-A Case
Study
H. Y. Ma, M. L. Ma, and Y. Xia
Abstract The median strip connecting twin bridges has effects on the rigidity and
dynamic characteristics of the bridges, but the effects are usually ignored, resulting
in unexpected dynamic performance or even structural resonance. In this paper, the
mechanism of median strips as a connection role between twin bridges is analyzed.
Finite element models of the twin bridges and median strip are developed to
analysis the effects on the overall system. Experimental study of typical twin
bridges with a median strip was conducted to explore the relationship between the
median strip and the vibration. Based on these analyses, recommendations related
to overall structural performance are made to ensure a safe and rational design for
twin bridges with median strip especially on dynamic performance in the future.
Keywords Twin bridges Median strip Short term monitoring Dynamic

performance
1 Introduction
Greenbelts are often used for many bridges to separate the round-trip traffic, which
induces sight and increase lateral width and improve the speed, safety and comfort.
Different types of plants can make different separation effects. For example, the
trees with certain height can be used as greenbelts to ensure that drivers are not
disturbed by the vehicles coming from the opposite directions [5, 6]. As well as the
connection of the twin bridges, some requirements are paid attention to use
H. Y. Ma Y. Xia (&)
College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
e-mail: yxia@tongji.edu.cn
H. Y. Ma
e-mail: mahaiying@tongji.edu.cn
M. L. Ma
Shanghai Municipal Maintenance Management Co., Ltd., Shanghai 201100, China
e-mail: anycalllei@163.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_44
456 H. Y. Ma et al.
Fig. 1 The structure of median strip
greenbelts since greenbelts have a significant impact on stiffness and dynamic

characteristics of the bridge.
Figure 1 shows a typical view of a twin-bridge using greenbelt. The prefabri-
cated plate is overlapped between the two bridges, and filled with soil. It plays a
certain role between two decks, so that the two decks are not completely separated.
Therefore, the median strip may have some influence on the durability and dynamic
characteristics of the bridge [2].
The vibration of bridge deck is very strong during the use, which results in the
decrease of comfort degree and the panic of people. In this paper, this problem by
structural analysis, finite element analysis, and experimental study is studied.
A finite element model is built. The existence of median strip is controlled as an
independent variable to observe its significance for vehicle-bridge coupled
oscillations.
2 Analyses and Simulation
2.1 Structural Analysis
Three models were built including: (1) Model 1: no connection between the two
bridges; (2) Model 2: as an elastic connection between the two bridges; (3) Model
3: as a hinged connection between the two bridges (Fig. 2).
For Model 1, the bridge is not affected by the median strip. as a result there is no
connection. When analyze the dynamic characteristics, the half can represent the
whole dynamic performance of the bridge (Fig. 3).
For Model 2, the median strip is assumed as an elastic connection, like a spring.
The stronger the restraint, the greater the elastic modulus of the spring is. When it is
strong enough, we can consider it as a rigid connection (Fig. 4).
Resonance Effect of Separate Twin Bridges … 457
Fig. 2 The model with no connection between the two bridges
Fig. 3 The model with an elastic connection between the two bridges
Fig. 4 The model with a hinged connection n between the two bridges
For Model 3, the constraint of the median strip on the two bridges is mainly
reflected in the displacement, while the relative rotation between the two bridges
only has a little effect.
The result of finite element analysis shows that when the median strip is regarded
as an elastic connection, the corresponding vibration frequency will increase with
the elastic increasing. And the vertical rigidity of the bridge may increase slightly.
When the median strip is regarded as a hinged connection, the lateral and vertical
rigidity of the bridge will improve, but compared with the elastic connection, it may
have a small reduction in rigidity of the actual structure. And for torsional rigidity,
it is larger than that of rigid connections, but not as good as connectionless one.
2.2 Finite Element Analysis
According to the assumptions above, the median strip is regarded as a connection

mode in the actual finite element modeling. The following two models are estab-
lished, one is the model of single box section (Fig. 5) and the other is the model of
double box section (Fig. 6). The array and natural frequency can be obtained by
modal analysis.
458 H. Y. Ma et al.
Fig. 5 Model 1
Fig. 6 Model 2
Table 1 Modal characteristics of models

Orders Characteristic of model 1 Characteristic of model 2
1 Vertical first-order bending Vertical first-order bending
2 Transverse first-order bending Torsion
3 Transverse second-order bending Vertical second-order bending
4 Longitudinal first-order bending Transverse first-order bending
With the help of the block Lanczos method, which is applicable to large model
multi-mode in ABAQUS, we can get the dynamic characteristics of the simply
supported bridge (Table 1).
From the shape of vibration modes, the shape of fundamental frequency is
different. In the fourth-order mode, the vertical rigidity of bridges is the smallest, so
the first-order mode is mainly vertical bending. In the previous modes, the single
box girder did not appear torsional vibration, while the double box girder appeared
torsional vibration in the second mode, indicating that the torsional rigidity of the
double box section is small and the integrity is poor. Therefore the lateral bending
mode appears later.
3 Experimental Study
See Fig. 7.
Fig. 7 Position of acceleration sensor for main bridge
Table 2 The specific information of sub-working conditions

Sub-working Weight Speed Lane Sub-working Weight Speed Lane
conditions (t) (km/h) conditions (t) (km/h)
1 50 30 Inside 7 30 30 Inside
2 50 30 Middle 8 30 30 Middle
3 50 30 Inside 9 30 30 Outside
4 50 50 Middle 10 30 50 Inside
5 50 50 Outside 11 30 50 Middle
6 50 50 Inside 12 30 50 Outside
3.1 Short Term Monitoring
In the main bridge there are 24 vibration sensors, including 17 vertical sensors and
6 transverse sensors. In the approach bridge, 10 sensors are installed in 30 m/span,
including 8 vertical sensors and 2 transverse ones; 10 sensors are installed in 40 m/
span, including 8 vertical sensors and 2 transverse ones.
3.2 Experimental Scenarios
The special vibration detection includes three working conditions: vehicles working
condition, natural excitation working condition and normal operation working
condition.
460 H. Y. Ma et al.
3.2.1 Vehicles Working Condition
The working conditions of vehicles are carried out under two-way traffic conditions
closed. An experimental vehicle with known weight passes through the bridge at
the specified speed and lane. According to different combinations of vehicle weight,
speed and lane, the running conditions of vehicles include 24 sub-working condi-
tions. The specific information of sub-working conditions is shown in Table 2.
3.2.2 Natural Excitation Working Condition
The natural excitation is carried out under the condition of the traffic closed. The
bridge only bears the action of wind and earth pulsation, except for a few non-motor
vehicles which have little influence. The natural excitation condition lasts for 1 h,
and the vibration response of the bridge is collected to understand the vibration
characteristics.
3.2.3 Normal Operation Working Condition
Normal operation working conditions are carried out without enclosed traffic. It
continued for 24 h. In addition to collecting the vibration response of bridge under
the daily traffic load, the video of road traffic is also taken to record the traffic scene
and traffic flow at the time of severe vibration of the structure.
3.3 Results
The research focuses on the evaluation of pedestrian comfort.

China’s current code GB/T3442-92 Reduced comfort boundary and evalua-
tion criteria for human exposure to whole-body vibration sets the limits for
comfort reduction of whole body vibration exposure. When the exposure time is
1 min, the reduced comfort boundary in the sensitive frequency range of human
body is shown in Table 3.
Table 3 The limits of Reduced comfort boundary for human exposure to whole-body vibration in
GB/T3442-92
Vibration Frequency RMS of value of acceleration m/s2
direction Hz Exposure time
24 h 16 h 8h 4h 2.5 h 1h 25 min 16 min 1 min
Vertical 4’8 0.04 0.07 0.10 0.17 0.23 0.37 0.57 0.67 0.89
Transverse 1–2 0.03 0.05 0.07 0.11 0.16 0.27 0.40 0.48 0.63
Table 4 The frequency of peak acceleration of four representative measure points

Acceleration Frequency of peak acceleration
interval m/s2 30 m span of 40 m span of 55 m span of 95 m span of
approach bridge approach bridge main bridge main bridge
<0.50 1938049 2380277 2149583 2345260
0.5–1.00 172 292 71 108
1.00–2.50 20 1 0 0
>2.50 0 0 0 0
The acceleration peak value is extracted from structural vibration acceleration

data which collected under normal operating conditions. And its occurrence number
in various comfort zones was counted. Table 4 lists the frequency of peak accel-
eration of four representative measure points appearing in four comfort intervals.
All measure points does not meet the requirements. It can be seen that there are
serious vibration comfort problems in this bridge, especially the approach bridge.
It is concluded that the first predominant frequency band of traffic load power
spectral density function is 2–5 Hz, which overlaps with the predominant frequency
band of frequency response function is 2–7 Hz, and the sensitive frequency band of
human body to vertical vibration is 4–8 Hz. The overlap of the dominant frequency
band of the power spectral density function of traffic load and the frequency
response function of the structure results in the strong vibration of the bridge, which
happens to occur in the sensitive frequency band of human body.
4 Conclusions
According to the structural analysis, finite element analysis and experimental study,
some conclusions are made as follows,
(1) The median strip has a connection function, and meanwhile affects the trans-
verse and torsional rigidity and dynamic characteristics of the bridge.
(2) The soil filling in the median strip may have a function of energy dissipation
and vibration reduction, it needs further study in the future.
Therefore, some suggestions are made as follows:
(1) The design of median strip should be considered at the design stage, and
corresponding measures should be taken to reduce its adverse impact on the
bridge body according to its significant influence.
(2) The damping effect of soil filling in the median strip can be used appropriately
as the seismic mitigation measures of the bridge to ensure the safety and
reliability of the structure.
462 H. Y. Ma et al.
Acknowledgment This paper is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China
(2017YFC1500603), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51978508, 51608378),
the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (18DZ1201200), and the
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.
References
1. Li X, Zhang L, Zhang J (2008) State-of-the-art review and trend of studies on coupling

vibration for vehicle and highway bridge system. Eng Mech 3:230–240
2. Jian XD, Xia Y, Lozano-Galant JA, Sun LM (2019) Traffic sensing methodology combining
influence line theory and computer vision techniques for girder bridges. J Sens 2019:3409525,
15 p
3. The Ministry of machinery industry of the People’s Republic of China (1986) GB7031-86
Vehicle vibration-describing method for road surface irregularity. China Standard Press,
Beijing
4. Peng X, Yin XF, Fang Z (2007) Coupled vibration analysis of an elastically supported bridge
with uneven surface and a speed-varying vehicle. J Vibr Shock 26(5):19–21, 37
5. Xia Y, Nassif HH, Dan S (2017) Early-age cracking in high performance concrete decks of
typical curved steel girder bridges. J Aerosp Eng 30(2):B4016003
6. Xia Y, Wang P, Sun LM (2019) Neutral axis position based health monitoring and condition
assessment techniques for concrete box girder bridges. Int J Struct Stab Dyn 19(1):1940015
7. Xian P, Zi-Jian L, Jia-Wang H (2006) Vibration analysis of a simply supported beam under
moving mass with uniformly variable speeds. Eng Mech 23(6):25–29
8. Zhi F, Feng YX, Xian P (2008) Coupled vibration analysis for a girder bridge with random
surface and a vehicle with uneven speed. J Vibr Shock 27:30–36
A Backup Marine Fender System
J. Sul, F. Albermani, E. Knauth, and C. Collins
Abstract Rubber marine fenders have been the most prevalent type to berth
vessels due to their reusability. However, variance in life of these rubber marine
fenders has been one of the major causes for the unplanned downtime of com-
mercial ports and terminals. The mechanism of metal cutting is investigated in this
paper as an impact energy absorption element. A series of experiment to investigate
the impact energy absorbing characteristics of aluminium and brass rods with
various cutting depths and impact energy were carried out and cross-checked by a
numerical study using explicit dynamics. The behaviour of reaction force at impact
was found to be highly reliant on cutting depth. This material removal process was
also found to be efficient in dissipating impact energy to provide sufficient structural
protection. Acceleration Severity Index was defined to demonstrate the occupant
protection with acceptable declarative forces during impact. A hybrid fender system
with the metal cutting mechanism as a backup system incorporated into the current
elastic marine fender is proposed in this study to reduce downtime and improve
turnaround times of port operators.
Keywords Explicit dynamics Marine fender Vessel berthing Acceleration

severity index
J. Sul (&) F. Albermani

School of Engineering and Technology, Central Queensland University,
Rockhampton, QLD 4740, Australia
e-mail: j.sul@cqu.edu.au
F. Albermani
e-mail: f.albermani@cqu.edu.au
E. Knauth
Arup Australia, Sydney, QLD 4006, Australia
e-mail: elizabeth.knauth@arup.com
C. Collins
BG Group Qld Pty., Garbutt, QLD 4000, Australia
e-mail: christina@sandona.com.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_45
464 J. Sul et al.
1 Introduction
The role of marine fenders is to berth vessels without damaging the berthing
structure and vessel by absorbing the impact energy of a berthing vessel. A cost
factor is one of the key criteria in choosing the ideal fender system which causes
elastic types to be the most widespread fender system in the globe [8]. Due to its
nature, elastic energy absorbers are suitable for repeatable low energy collision
without causing significant damage [12]. However, elastic energy absorbers are
made of highly non-linear materials so that they may not be suitable for high energy
collision. The reaction forces and the energy absorbing behaviour of elastic fenders
are highly dependent upon temperature and impact velocity. Because of the harsh
marine environment, strict maintenance schedules are required for marine fenders.
75% of 200 port operators around the world have reported to experience
unscheduled downtime in 2014, 38% of which were related to damaged jetty
structures from the failure of fenders [10]. The current marine fender systems,
therefore, demand an emergency backup system in case that the primary system is
in failure.
The performance of marine fenders can be significantly improved if berthing
energy can be dissipated/absorbed in a controlled manner with an ideal decelerative
force. Numerous experimental and numerical studies have been reported to char-
acterise the non-linear behaviour of plastic impact energy absorbers with good
repeatability. Amongst various types of impact energy absorbers using plastic
deformation of materials, the mechanics of metal cutting in absorbing impact
energy has been studied by a few investigators [2–4, 7]. The idea of metal cutting to
absorb impact energy was first introduced by Shaw [7] with a metal rod in a vehicle
bumper bar to be pushed through a cutting tool when impact. The impact energy is
dissipated via the formation of metal chips, thereby stopping the vehicle. A similar
concept was implemented by Kirk [2] in an emergency stopping device for a
subway train. This experimental work proved impact energy was absorbed/
dissipated effectively in consistent behaviour independent of cutting velocity.
The aim of this study is hence to systematically explore the feasibility of
implementing the metal cutting mechanism for a backup in a conventional marine
fender system. Due to the complexity and non-linearity of this mechanism, both
experimental and numerical investigations were carried out. A custom-built drop
tower was used to apply various impact energy to cut the specimens and finite
element methods (FEM) were used to validate its experimental work. A hybrid
design with the metal cutting mechanism embedded in the existing marine fender is
suggested at the end of the paper with a practical implementation study.
A Backup Marine Fender System 465
2 Methodology
A series of experiment were conducted to characterise the cutting behaviour of

aluminium and brass specimens. The procedures taken for testing the proposed
metal cutting device are described in this section.
2.1 Configuration of Metal Cutting Experiment
A drop tower was custom-made with a 250UC universal column and a 15 kg drop
mass as shown in Fig. 1. In this apparatus, the maximum drop height was 3 metres
and a removable mass supporter were used within 254 mm of the existing 250UC
universal column.
Two cutting tools with rake and clearance angles of 10° were installed using
cold-worked tool K245 steel whose Brinell hardness is 642. The drop tower was
equipped with a guidance rod connecting the cutting rod and the stopper. This
guidance rod ensures a completely vertical drop of the 15 kg mass upon the removal
of the mass supporter that imparts an impact force by hitting the stopper.
Fig. 1 a Schematic diagram of the drop tower and b actual photo of the circled part in a
466 J. Sul et al.
Table 1 Test parameters of each specimen

Specimen Drop height, Starter diameter, Cutting part Cutting depth,
ID mm mm diameter, mm mm
A1–A3 2135 13 15 1
A4–A5 2990 16 20 2
A6–A7
A8–A10 19 25 3
B1 2135 16 20 2
B2 2525
Fig. 2 a Schematic diagram, b actual photo of aluminium cutting rod and c numerical model of a
quarter of the cutting rod with one cutting tool (all dimensions in millimetres)
2.2 Specimen Preparation and Test Parameters
Aluminium 2011 and Brass 385 were implemented and tested to investigate the
behaviour of metal cutting at impact. The cutting rods were fabricated by machining
the bar stock materials to the dimensions shown in Fig. 2(a). The photo of an
aluminium 2011 cutting rod is shown in Fig. 2(b).
Diameter of cutting rods, cutting depth and drop height adopted for experimental
variables to investigate the dependence of each parameter. The metal cutting test
was performed with 10 aluminium 2011 and 2 brass 385 specimens, and each tested
cutting rod was rotated by 90° to cut the intact part, totalling 24 data sets. The
specimen IDs and corresponding test parameters are presented in Table 1.
2.3 Numerical Investigation
Numerical modelling of metal cutting was developed using a commercial finite

element (FE) package, ANSYS Workbench 19.1 with Autodyn solver. Explicit
central difference time integration scheme is used in Autodyn solver for simulating
non-linear transient dynamics. To minimize the computational time, only a quarter
of the full specimen rod was modelled as shown in Fig. 2(c) and simulated by using
symmetry boundary conditions that impose zero displacement on the mirrored
faces. The central axis of the specimen was constrained in the X- and Z-directions
for the same purpose of the guidance rod while the fixed boundary condition was
applied on the cutting tool. Based on the drop heights specified in Table 1, the
impact velocity was imposed assuming the conservation of energy.
The reaction force at the fixed boundary (cutting tool) was traced during the
simulation. This reaction force represents the applied cutting load. The total amount
of impact energy absorbed by a cutting rod is determined from the total area under
the cutting load-cutting length curve for each specimen. This total area represents
the work done by the drop mass on the cutting rod:
Zl
Eabsorption ¼ Fdl ð1Þ
0
where Eabsorption is the energy absorbed by the cutting rod during impact, F is the
cutting force and l is the cutting length. Specific energy absorption (U) can be
defined by dividing the absorbed energy by the mass of eroded elements from the
impact:
Eabsorption
U¼ ð2Þ
Verosion
where Verosion is the volume of the eroded elements in the numerical modelling.
This specific energy absorption is equivalent to the specific cutting energy in the
metal cutting mechanism.
468 J. Sul et al.
3.1 Experimental and Numerical Results
The cutting length of each specimen was measured on all four sides and averaged in
the experimental work. Numerical analysis was conducted with the same test
parameters and its results are used for the validation purpose. For the numerical
study, the total work done, cutting volume, reaction force and deceleration were
calculated along with the cutting length, which is shown and compared in Table 2.
The experimental cutting lengths are in good agreement with the numerical ones
with the maximum difference of 6.74% for A8–A10.
The reaction forces at the cutting tool (fixed boundary) were monitored over the
total simulation time for each specimen and presented in Fig. 3(a). It is shown that
the trend for the reaction forces and specific cutting energy of each specimen can be
grouped on the basis of cutting depth instead of their drop height. Each cutting depth
clearly presents distinctive behaviour with the maximum reaction forces of speci-
mens A8-10 (3 mm cutting depth) and A4–A7 (2 mm cutting depth) tripled and
doubled, respectively, from that of A1–A3. Furthermore, the reaction forces between
B1 and B2 remain similar with the same cutting depth despite different drop height.
The cutting chips generated from the experiment were mostly a discontinuous
type. Specimens A1–A3 with 1 mm cutting depth were with curled chips while the
rest with 2 mm and 3 mm cutting depth were with serrated chips. The characteristics
of curled chips are well presented in the result of the numerical study (Fig. 3(a)) with
relatively low reaction forces with the shallow cutting depth. On the other hand,
serrated chips are the evidence of deep cutting to bulge and separate with localised
intensive shear [5]. This cutting behaviour is accompanied with pronouncedly
increasing cutting forces [9], which are evidenced in the numerical study with
excessive reaction forces as compared to that of A1–A3.
Table 2 Experimental and simulation results

ID Experimental results Simulation results
Input Cutting length Std. dev., Specific cutting Cutting length Difference
E, J (CL), mm mm energy, J/mm3 (CL), mm in CL, %
A1–A3 314 45.78 0.72 0.65 45.58 −0.64
A4–A5 314 15.66 0.82 0.82 15.14 −3.30
A6–A7 440 22.74 0.45 0.81 22.24 −2.18
A8–A10 440 15.28 0.91 1.09 14.25 −6.74
B1 314 18.17 0.26 2.57 18.41 1.33
B2 372 19.44 0.47 2.51 20.21 3.96
Fig. 3 a Reaction forces from the numerical study and b Acceleration severity index for each
specimen with each cutting depth presented in the bracket
The collision and cutting processes occur over a very brief time interval. An
impact from a collision causes serious injuries to humans even in the absence of a
physical contact. The Acceleration Severity Index (ASI) implemented in European
Standard, EN 1317-2 [1], describes the occupant safety level in the event of a
vehicle crash by comparing the gravitational force in a collision to predetermined
threshold values. ASI less than 1.0 indicated no/minimal injury and ASI greater
than 1.4 indicates potential severe injury for the occupants. By using the gravita-
tional forces at impact, ASI can be evaluated using:
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
s 2 2
ax 2 ay az
ASIðtÞ ¼ þ þ ð3Þ
âx ây ^
az
where ax , ay , and az are the average acceleration over 50 ms in the longitudinal,

lateral and vertical directions, respectively, and âx , ^
ay , and ^
az are threshold accel-
eration for each corresponding direction. Recommended values with the unre-
strained occupants are 7 g (x), 5 g (y) and 6 g (z). The ASI is calculated for each
testing condition to evaluate the effect of decelerative forces on human body during
the cutting process and shown in Fig. 3(b). ASIs for all test conditions are below 1,
resulting in no or very minor injury.
3.2 Hybrid Fender System and Implementation Scenario
A hybrid fender system that benefits from the reusability of elastic fenders, and
predictability and controllability of the metal cutting mechanism is proposed for an
economic design in this Section. 8 brass rods with 2 mm cutting depth are installed
in a conventional Super Cone Fender system, SCN1000 [11] that has the maximum
energy absorption capacity of 500 kJ. The maximum cutting length is assumed to
be 280 mm with 72% deflection zone of SCN1000 (metal cutting starts after the
SCN1000 is compressed by 72% in case of emergency). This cutting length in turn
470 J. Sul et al.
provides an energy absorbing capacity of 23.26 kJ for a single rod and additional
186.08 kJ to a single SCN1000.
For an implementation scenario, the proposed hybrid fender system is assumed
in the worst-case scenario where the conventional SCN1000 functions only with its
50% capacity in a severe weather condition. Based on PIANC guidelines [6] with
all factors being unity (worst-case), the berthing energy of a bulk carrier with its
displacement tonnage at 95% confidence level of 464,000 tonnes is calculated to be
3,341 kJ. In consideration of the vessel length and 150% design allowance imposed
by PIANC [6], 10 SCN1000 fenders with 80 brass cutting rods are assumed to
absorb the berthing energy of the design vessel. Based on the assumptions and the
capacity of each energy absorbing mechanism, the backup fender system using the
metal cutting mechanism can provide an additional berthing energy capacity of
1860.8 kJ. As a result, the berthing structure will be protected in an emergency
situation in which the elastic fenders functions only at 30% of its full capacity
without causing injury on the occupants of the berthing vessel.
4 Conclusions
A new backup fender system using a metal cutting mechanism has been proposed in
this study. A series of experiment and numerical modelling have shown that the
metal cutting mechanism could absorb impact energy at berthing in a safe and
controllable way with high repeatability. Various test parameters were used in this
experimental and numerical investigation, including input energy, material and
cutting depth. The results clearly indicate that the trend of reaction force, the
maximum reaction force and specific cutting energy are highly dependent on cut-
ting depth. It was found that 1 mm cutting depth provides the minimum reaction
force but for the prolonged time whereas 3 mm cutting depth results in an
approximately 3 times greater reaction force than that of 1 mm cutting depth. ASIs
were evaluated to investigate the influence of the reaction forces resulted from the
metal cutting process on the human body. Regardless of cutting depth, all test cases
were within the recommended limit to protect the occupants.
This new system has been suggested to be embedded in an existing elastic
marine fender to maximise its economic factor. A brass cutting rod with 2 mm
cutting depth was implemented for the worst-case scenario to berth a cargo vessel.
Even with hostile conditions assumed in the implementation case, the new hybrid
marine fender system is capable of safely berthing the design vessel without
damaging the berthing structure, vessel and/or occupants with the elastic fenders
functioning only at 30% of their capacity.
References
1. European-Committee-for-Standardization (1998) Road restraint systems, part 2: performance

classes, impact test acceptance criteria and test methods for safety barriers. European
Committee for Standardization
2. Kirk JA (1977) Design of a metal skinning energy absorber for the U.S. capitol subway
system. Int J Mech Sci 19(10):595–602
3. Kirk JA (1982) Mechanical Energy Absorbers and Aluminum Honeycomb. J Mech Des 104
(3):671–674
4. Kirk JA, Overway N (1977) One-shot shock absorbers - for that once-in-a-lifetime failure.
Mach Design 49(24):152–157
5. Komanduri R, Schroeder T, Hazra J, von Turkovich BF, Flom DG (1982) On the catastrophic
shear instability in high-speed machining of an AISI 4340 steel. J Eng Ind 104(2):121–131
6. Maritime-Navigation-Commission (2002) Guidelines for the design of fenders systems.
International Navigation Association, Brussels
7. Shaw MC (1972) Designs for safety: the mechanical fuse. Mach Design 94(4):23–29
8. Spencer TE (2004) Marine fender systems. In: Engineers, American society of civil, ed. Port
Development in the Changing World, May 23–26 2004, Houston, Texas. ASCE
9. Sutter G, Faure L, Molinari A, Delime A, Dudzinski D (1997) Experimental analysis of the
cutting process and chip formation at high speed machining. J Phys IV 7(C3):33–38
10. Trelleborg (2015) Trelleborg barometer report 5: Infrastructure and equipment. Trelleborg
Marine System, Sweden
11. Trelleborg (2018) Marine fendering system Dubai, UAE. http://www.trelleborg.com/en/
marine-systems/products–solutions–and–services/marine–fenders/rubber–fenders/cone–
fenders. Accessed 25 Feb 2019
12. Voyiadjis GZ, El-Tawil S, Kocke PJ (2008) Feasibility of tubular fender units for pier
protection against vessel collision. Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development,
Baton Rough
A Preliminary Study
on the Performance of a Flexible
Sheetlike Blade Wind Turbine Inspired
by the Borneo Camphor Seed
Yung-Jeh Chu and Heung-Fai Lam
Abstract The Borneo Camphor with its scientific name, Dryobalanops aromatica
is a type of tropical tree that possesses winged seeds that gyrate for propagation.
The Borneo Camphor seed is unique as it consists of 5 pre-coning flexible wings
which allow it to track the oncoming relative wind and expands its rotor diameter
due to centrifugal forces induced by rotation. This subsequently increases drag
which reduces its terminal velocity, furthering its propagation distance from the
mother tree. The mechanical and flight characteristics of the Borneo Camphor seed
was mimicked into the design of a novel biomimetic downwind, flexible,
pre-coning and sheetlike blades wind turbine. This biomimetic wind turbine fea-
tures the abilities to track the wind direction passively due to its pre-coning blades,
enables cheap fabrication method due to the lightweight polypropylene sheet, easy
transport and packaging due to the sheetlike blades, and passive extreme wind
protection system which will be triggered by coupling the collapsible blades and
also internal mechanical brakes. A preliminary study was conducted to predict the
power performance of a 0.7 m diameter biomimetic wind turbine by using
Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) simulation while the yaw recovery speed was
tested by using a simple blower fan setup with a free yawing wind turbine proto-
type. The FSI prediction shows that the maximum power coefficient, CP_max was
22.9% higher than a flat plate benchmark turbine at a wind speed of 3 m/s. The
wind turbine prototype rotor was able to turn from 90 to 0° yaw error in approx-
imately 1 s at an averaged wind speed of 3.73 m/s. This preliminary result shows
the potential of the biomimetic wind turbine in distributed wind applications such as
green energy housing, portable wind turbines, and temporary off-grid wind energy
systems.
Y.-J. Chu (&) H.-F. Lam

Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering,
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
e-mail: chujeh2022@gmail.com
H.-F. Lam
e-mail: paullam@cityu.edu.hk

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_46
474 Y.-J. Chu and H.-F. Lam
Keywords Renewable energy Wind turbine Flexible blades Fluid-structure

interactions Preliminary test
1 Introduction
The wind turbine is a rotating device capable of harvesting wind power to generate
electricity. The Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) where its rotational axis
lies on the horizontal plane is the main type of wind turbine available in the market
nowadays [6]. The HAWT has become the popular wind power technology due to
its high performance [9]. There are two configurations of HAWT namely the
upwind HAWT and the downwind HAWT. The upwind HAWT has the rotor
situated in the upstream of support tower while the downwind HAWT rotor is at
downstream. The upwind HAWT needs active yaw mechanism while the down-
wind HAWT tracks the wind passively [3].
The downwind wind turbine can be a good investment as there are several
notable advantages compared with the upwind wind turbine. Firstly, the downwind
wind turbine has its blades situated at the downstream location which allows fast
passive yaw against changing wind direction [11]. This passive yawing mechanism
allows the downwind wind turbine to have simpler yaw bearing system where
additional motor for active yaw is not needed. Thus, minimizing the total cost of the
wind turbine structure. The investigations were done by Kress et al. [4] also show
that the downwind wind turbine outperform the upwind wind turbine as it exhibits
more controllability. However, the generated power of the downwind wind turbine
is expected to be lower than the upwind wind turbine due to the tower shadow effect
towards the blades [2]. Thus, the tower radius has to be small or tower fairing is
needed to reduce the effect of tower wake on the wind turbine blades.
Conventional tapered and twisted wind turbine blades were made rigid in order
to resist thrust from wind load. This is because the deformation effect of the blades
that are not considered in calculations will reduce the performance of the wind
turbine significantly. Thus, strong and expensive material such as the carbon fiber
reinforced polymer (CFRP) and glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) was used in
fabricating the blades [1]. Apart from the conventional rigid blades wind turbines,
there are some notable flexible wind turbines which possess unique features for
certain applications. For example, MacPhee and Beyene [5] designed a small
flexible blades wind turbine which has maximum efficiency increased by 32.6%
compared with a rigid benchmark wind turbine. The mentioned example proves that
the flexible blade wind turbine is worthy of investments in the wind power industry.
Based on the abovementioned references, it is proposed that the combination of
downwind configuration and flexible blades will have a synergistic effect that will
increase the total performance of a HAWT. The downwind configuration with
pre-cone blades will enable fast passive yaw mechanism that will align the wind
turbine quickly against on-coming. The flexible blades allow expansion of the rotor
diameter by rotation induced centrifugal forces and this will increase the wind
A Preliminary Study on the Performance … 475
power generation. Stress-stiffening due to rotation will increase the stiffness of the
blades and increase their natural frequency, subsequently reduce the fluttering of
blades. In addition, the sheetlike blade sections with constant thickness allow cheap
material and fabrication method. Thus, it is expected that this novel design of
flexible blade downwind HAWT will be a cost-effective alternative to the con-
ventional tapered and twisted wind turbines.
2 Numerical Setup
2.1 Turbine Geometry
The proposed flexible blade downwind biomimetic HAWT consist of single

thickness blades with flat plate cross sections which were bent into a preconed
shape mimicking the shape of the wing of a Borneo Camphor seed sample. The
biomimetic turbine blades were formed by three bends on a flat sheet for each blade
which the degree of bending is illustrated in Fig. 1. The tip of the blade was
rounded to reduce drag induced by tip vortices. The chord was made longest at 2/3
length of the blade layout while it was gradually shortened towards the blade root.
This design aims to allocate more area near the tip for better passive yaw mecha-
nism as a larger surface area at the tip will induce higher yaw moment from the
oblique wind. At the same time, it will also allow a higher moment of inertia of the
rotor which will induce higher centrifugal forces to counter thrust and to reduce
blade root stress. The chord length at the blade root was made short to allow
connection to nacelle with small hub diameter. A benchmark wind turbine con-
sisting of rectangular flat plates with 50 mm chord and 5° constant blade pitch was
also modeled to validate and compare the simulation results. Both the benchmark
and biomimetic turbine blade thickness were 1 mm. The rotor diameter of the
benchmark turbine is 0.7 m while the size of the biomimetic rotor was scaled so
that the expanded rotor diameter of the biomimetic turbine is also 0.7 m, assuming
no coning occurs during rotation. The geometry of the wind turbines was modeled
by using ANSYS Design Modeler. Figure 2 shows the 3D model of the mentioned
flat plate benchmark and the proposed biomimetic wind turbine.
Fig. 1 The crease pattern of

the sheetlike flexible blade.
L denotes the length of blade
layout from root to tip
Fig. 2 3D models of benchmark and biomimetic wind turbines

2.2 Equation
Equations for the power, thrust coefficients, rotor area, tip speed ratio, and simu-
lation error are as follows:
Qx
CP ¼ ð1Þ
0:5qV 3 A
T
CT ¼ ð2Þ
0:5qV 2 A
A ¼ pR2 ð3Þ
xR
TSR ¼ ð4Þ
V
E ¼ S TR ð5Þ
Where CP is power coefficient, q is density, V is wind speed, A is rotor swept area,

R is rotor radius, TSR is tip speed ratio, x is rotational speed, E is numerical error,
S is simulation result and TR is the truth value.
2.3 Numerical Setup and Solver Validation
The fluid-structure interaction (FSI) was conducted by utilizing the ANSYS System
Coupling application which involved a 2-way interaction between the Transient
Structural and Fluent solvers. The Fluent solver power coefficients results were
validated by comparing with the result from QBlade which is an open source wind
turbine calculation software according to Marten et al. [7]. The CL and CD of the flat
plate wind turbine airfoil section were generated by using the in-built XFOIL 2D
airfoil analysis while the turbine power performance was calculated by using the
Blade Element Momentum (BEM) algorithms in QBlade. The thickness of the flat
plate was set to 1% of the chord in the XFOIL module assuming it to be
infinitesimally thin similar to the research of Sanders [10]. It was assumed that the
1 mm thickness of the ANSYS flat plate turbine blade is also infinitesimally thin so
as to allow validation from the QBlade analysis results. Steel and polypropylene
were set as the materials for the benchmark and biomimetic wind turbines
respectively. It was observed that the Fluent over predicted the CP. Thus, presuming
that the QBlade result to be able to represent the reality as BEM and DMS method
are known to be accurate especially in low wind speed while not consuming
computational resources excessively as shown in the torque validation in Marten
et al. [7], the Fluent results were corrected according to the validation. By assuming
the QBlade result represent the truth value and referring to the numerical error
Table 1 Numerical settings and initial conditions of the FSI simulation

Inlet velocity (m/s) 3
Turbulence intensity (%) 5
Density of air (kg/m3) 1.225, at 15 °C [8]
Kinematic viscosity of air (m2/ 1.46 10−5, at 15 °C [8]
s)
Solver 2-way FSI system coupling of transient structural and
fluent
Turbulence model SST k−x
equation from Stern et al. [12], Eq. (5) was used to calculate the numerical errors of
CP at each TSRs of the flat plate turbine. The corrected power coefficient, CPcor of
the biomimetic wind turbine was then calculated based on the numerical errors of
the flat plate turbine. Prism cells were generated for the Transient structural meshes
while tetrahedral cells were generated for the Fluent meshes. Coarse meshes were
used to simulate all cases due to the limitation of computational power and time.
For the case of the benchmark turbine, the Transient structural mesh element
number is 948 while it is 8090 for the Fluent fluid domain. For the case of the
biomimetic turbine, Transient structural mesh element number is 2710 while it is
10043 for the Fluent fluid domain. The larger surface area of the biomimetic turbine
causes a higher number of mesh elements. Table 1 shows the settings and initial
conditions of the FSI simulation. Figure 3 shows the 3D view of the turbine and the
fluid domain.
Fig. 3 Turbine and fluid

domain of a simulation case
2.4 Experiment Setup
The fabrication of the prototype wind turbine blades was proposed to be made of
polypropylene sheets through cutting and bending process according to a crease
pattern as shown in Fig. 1. A plastic bending device was used to bend the plastic
sheets into the desired shape. Figure 4 shows a flexible blade downwind HAWT
prototype with blades made of polypropylene sheets. A preliminary yaw mecha-
nism test on the flexible blade downwind HAWT prototype was done by using 50
FPS video camera, fan blower and hot-wire anemometer. Figure 5 shows the
preliminary yaw mechanism test setup with 1D denotes 1 rotor diameter distance.
Fig. 4 The biomimetic wind

turbine prototype for yaw
recovery test
Fig. 5 Preliminary turbine passive yaw mechanism test fan blower setup
3.1 Power Coefficient
The power coefficients at various TSRs of the benchmark and biomimetic wind
turbine were plotted by using Eqs. (1)—(4). Base on the results, the maximum
power coefficient, CP_max of the biomimetic wind turbine is 22.9% higher than the
CP_max of the flat plate wind turbine while the maximum thrust coefficient, CT_max
of the biomimetic wind turbine is 18.9% lower than the CT_max of the flat plate wind
turbine. This shows that the proposed biomimetic wind turbine has higher power
output while induced lower thrust force. The corrected power and thrust coeffi-
cients, CPcor_max and CTcor_max of the biomimetic wind turbine are 0.366 and 0.535
0.7 1.1
Biomimetic FSI Biomimetic FSI
Corrected Bio. 1.0 Corrected Bio.
0.6 Flat plate FSI Flat plate FSI
Flat plate QBlade 0.9 Flat plate QBlade
0.5
0.8
0.4 0.7
CT
CP
0.3 0.6
0.2 0.5
0.4
0.1
0.3
0.0 0.2
-0.1 0.1
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
TSR TSR
Fig. 6 Power coefficient, CP and thrust coefficient, CT versus TSR graph

Fig. 7 The deflected flexible

blades with decreased coning
angle. Semi-transparent
shadow shows the initial
preconing blades position
respectively. The ability to increase the rotor diameter by bending and reducing the
cone angle made the biomimetic wind turbine able to harvest more wind power
after the wind direction is tracked. The operating TSR range of the biomimetic wind
turbine is expected to be lower than the benchmark wind turbine where its positive
CP is up until TSR = 9 while the benchmark turbine is able to reach TSR = 14.
Figure 6 shows the CP and CT versus TSR graph while Fig. 7 shows the deflected
flexible blades with decreased coning angle.
3.2 Yaw Recovery
The wind turbine prototype rotor was able to turn from the 90 to 0° yaw in
approximately 1 s and it reaches a steady rotational speed at the 5th s. Average wind
speed at one rotor diameter upstream of the flexible blade downwind HAWT
prototype is 3.73 m/s as measured by using a hot-wire anemometer. The prelimi-
nary yaw mechanism test result shows that the 0.7 m diameter flexible blade
downwind HAWT prototype has fast response towards changing wind direction.
This shows that the biomimetic wind turbine has the ability to fold its rotor blades
by bending and increase the cone angle to track the wind direction by means of a
wind vane.
3.3 Advantages and Potential Applications
There are several expected advantages of the proposed biomimetic wind turbine
where the preconed blades increase yaw capability, sheetlike blades enable stacking
to ease transport and packaging. The flexible blades reduce blade root stresses by
utilizing centrifugal forces, lightweight blade with cheap material e.g. polypropy-
lene which allows better yaw performance and lower gyroscopic loads. Easier and
cheaper fabrication method e.g. plastic bending method can be used to fabricate the
biomimetic turbine blades from plastic sheets compared with the expensive injec-
tion molding and casting. It has strong and simple connections at blade root and
yaw bearing which will result in sturdy wind turbine structure. Its flexible blades
enable extreme wind protection by utilizing a passive mechanical braking mecha-
nism which will stop rotating at certain wind speed that allows wind to fold the
blades towards the downstream direction, reducing the rotor area and subsequently
reducing drag.
There are a few expected potential applications of the biomimetic wind turbine
where the flexible blade downwind HAWT is suitable to be invested in small and
medium scale wind farm due to the fast passive yaw mechanism which is much
cheaper than a sophisticated active yaw control system. The flexible blade down-
wind HAWT is expected to have good self-start capability which made it suitable to
operate water pumping machines. Due to the flat plate blade sections, the fabri-
cation and material cost of the flexible blade downwind HAWT are expected to be
cheap and it is suitable for low-cost green energy housing. Due to the stacking
feature of the blades, the flexible blade downwind HAWT design can be imple-
mented into portable wind turbines which can be assembled and packed easily. The
unique biomimetic wind turbine is suitable for temporary applications such as
power up a site office made of a container for 1–3 years so that it can be powered
off the grid.
4 Conclusions
This preliminary study predicted that the proposed flexible sheetlike blade biomi-
metic wind turbine outperforms the benchmark turbine while having comparable
CPcor_max of 0.366 and low CTcor_max of 0.535. The ability to fold and unfold its
flexible blades made the biomimetic wind turbine able to attain high power output
and fast yaw recovery speed. The single thickness of its sheetlike blades ease the
fabrication process and thus greatly reduce the manufacturing cost. In conclusion,
the proposed biomimetic flexible sheetlike blade has the potential to become a
cheap and cost-effective wind turbine which is worthy of further investments.
Acknowledgements The study presented in the paper was fully funded by a grant from the
Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong SAR, China [Project No. 9042509 (CityU
11210517)].
References
1. Brøndsted P, Nijssen RP (2013) Advances in wind turbine blade design and materials.
Woodhead publishing series in energy. Elsevier Science, Sawston, Cambridge
2. Glasgow JC, Miller DR, Corrigan RD (1981) Comparison of upwind and downwind rotor
operation of the DOE/NASA 100-kW MOD-0 wind turbine. In: Proceedings of 2nd DOE/
NASA wind turbine dynamics workshop, Cleveland, 24–26 February 1981, vol 1, pp 24–26
3. Koh JH, Ng EYK (2016) Downwind offshore wind turbines: opportunities, trends and
technical challenges. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 54:797–808
4. Kress C, Chokani N, Abhari RS (2015) Downwind wind turbine yaw stability and
performance. Renew Energy 83:1157–1165
5. MacPhee DW, Beyene A (2018) Performance analysis of a small wind turbine equipped with
flexible blades. Renew Energy 132:497–508
6. Manwel JF, McGowan JG, Rogers AL (2009) Wind energy explained: theory, design and
application, 2nd edn. Wiley, New York
7. Marten D, Wendler J, Pechlivanoglou G, Nayeri CN, Paschereit CO (2013) QBLADE: an
open source tool for design and simulation of horizontal and vertical axis wind turbines. Int J
Emerg Technol Adv Eng 3(3):264–269
8. McCormick BW (1979) Aerodynamics, aeronautics, and flight mechanics. Wiley, New York
9. Pope K, Dincer I, Naterer GF (2010) Energy and exergy efficiency comparison of horizontal
and vertical axis wind turbines. Renew Energy 35(9):2102–2113
10. Sanders M (2014) The boundary layer over a flat plate. Bachelor thesis, University of Twente.
http://essay.utwente.nl/65492/
11. Snel H, Schepers JG (1995) Joint investigation of dynamic inflow effects and implementation
of an engineering method. Netherlands Energy Research Foundation ECN
12. Stern F, Wilson RV, Coleman HW, Paterson EG (2001) Comprehensive approach to
verification and validation of CFD simulations—part 1: methodology and procedures. J Fluids
Eng 123(4):793–802
Study on Timber Wall Reinforcing
with High-Performance Fiber Webbing
Yuho Inoue and Osamu Takahashi
Abstract High-Performance fiber has used in construction, car and airplane

manufacture to hoist heavy materials. The High-Performance fiber generally con-
sists of carbon, glass and polyester, for example. This study focuses on
High-Performance fiber webbing, which is made from Aramid fiber. Aramid fiber
has characteristics such as high strength, thermal resistance and elasticity. This
paper aims to develop a method of quick reinforcement on timber wall using
High-Performance webbing. This paper suggests jointing method on timber wall by
screws and using specially designed joints. Experimental study is carried out to
investigate tensile strength of the webbing with screw joint. As a result, the tensile
strength increases as numbers of screws. In addition, this paper shows experimental
results of in-shear test on the timber walls. In the end, this study will inform the
application webbing is valid for strengthen toughness of timber walls at the large
deformation. In the future, we will investigate more detail method of constructing
webbing with screw joints and design the special joint to avoid the initial damages
on the webbing.

Keywords Timber structure Timber wall Reinforcement High-performance

fiber webbing Aramid fiber
Y. Inoue (&) O. Takahashi

Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Tokyo University of Science,
Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: 4119504@ed.tus.ac.jp
O. Takahashi
e-mail: o.taka@rs.tus.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_47
486 Y. Inoue and O. Takahashi
1 Introduction
1.1 Earthquakes and Damages on Timber Houses in Japan
Earthquakes with more than magnitude 6.0 strike 326 times in Japan from 2003 to
2013, which account for 20% of the earthquakes in the world. Japanese Seismic
Resistance Law has been changed every huge earthquake occurred. However,
houses build with old standard does not satisfy the present law. In fact, the main
reason for collapse of timber house by earthquake is disqualification in the existing
building law. Investigation by the government reveals that over 60% houses are
timber structure in Japan. In 2013 the Japanese government has reported that over
45% timber houses were built before the new building standards law. They also
predict that number of collapses of timber houses may increase in the future without
reinforcement. However, reinforcement requires a time and expenses to owners, so
earthquake proof on timber houses are barely progressed in these days.
1.2 High-Performance Fiber
High-Performance fiber has used in construction, car and airplane manufacture to

hoist heavy materials. Also, its demand is increasing in other industries. Generally,
High-Performance fiber consists of carbon, glass and polyester. This paper focuses
on High-Performance fiber, which is form to a webbing and made from Aramid
fiber. Aramid fiber has high tensile strength, durability, chemical and thermal
resistance, and dimensional stability. This fiber yarns are twisted into the core and
surrounded by polyester to form webbing. Even though, Aramid fiber, itself seem to
have good characteristics to use in architectural structures, there are really few
works of use in fiber to architectural structure.
This research aims to develop a method of reinforcing timber wall using
High-Performance webbing. To search validity of the webbing for practical use to
quick reinforcement in low-cost, experimental studies are carried out. This paper
explains connecting method on timber wall by screws and specially designed metal
joints. Experimental study was carried out to investigate tensile strength of the
webbing and the effect of the application on the timber wall.
Study on Timber Wall Reinforcing … 487
Fig. 1 Details of
high-performance fiber
17mm 12mm
webbing
Table 1 Original Material Outside: Polyester

characteristics of webbing
Inner core: Aramid fiber
Maximum tensile strength 25kN
2 Tensile Experiment on High-Performance Webbing

with Screw Joints
2.1 About High-Performance Webbing
This chapter reports on validity of the method to jointing the webbing with screw.
At first, tensile experiment was carried out to investigate its initial tensile strength
with screws joint. Figure 1 and Table 1 shows details of High-Performance fiber
webbing and its original characteristics.
2.2 Outline of Specimens
This experiment was carried out preparing 2 webbings and 2 pieces of wooden
board, joining with screw for every 50 mm against the grain. Specimen No.1 is
webbing with 1 screw on both side of wooden board, Specimen No.2 is webbing
with 3 screws, Specimen No.3 is webbing with 5 screws, Specimen No.4 is web-
bing with 7 screws. Figure 2 shows specimens No.1 to No.4 before and after the
experiment. Then tensile tests on each specimen were carried out as pulling each
side of wooden boards by Amsler universal testing machine.
2.3 Results of Tensile Experiment
Figure 3 shows the result of the tensile test. Speech bubbles on Fig. 3 show the
maximum load during the experiment. According to Fig. 2, destruction properties
are same in all specimens; load decreased suddenly after screws tore off the web-
bing. As increasing number of screws, maximum load has increased about 1.0–1.5
kN by one screw. Therefore, tensile strength of webbing will increase as number of
screws increasing. However, this result also reveals that rigidity of the webbing
were not affected by amount of screws.
Specimen. Before the experiment After the experiment

No
Specimen
No.1
Specimen
No.2
Specimen
No.3
Specimen
No.4
Fig. 2 Specimens before and after the experiment
10
9 9.01
8
7 6.66
6
Load(kN)
5 No.1
4 No.2
3 3.34
No.3
2
1.50 No.4
1
0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Displacement (mm)
Fig. 3 Result of the tensile experiment
3 Experiment on Timber Wall Reinforced with Screw

and High-Performance Webbing
3.1 Outline of Experiment
This chapter reports on experimental study of application of High-Performance

webbing on timber wall with screws. In order to know the effect of reinforcement
by High-Performance webbing, in-plane shear test are carried out with two speci-
mens. Specimen No.5, were carried out until its displacement at the beam reached
to 300 mm. Specimen No.6, were carried out until its deformation angle reached to
1/60 rad. Then, continued until the specimen were collapsed.
Specimen No.5 Specimen No.6 Specimen No.7
Fig. 4 Outline of specimen No.5, No.6 and No.7
3.2 Outline of Specimen
In order to compare the method of application on the wall, specimens were dif-
ferentiated by changing the place to connect the webbing. Two types of wall were
designed. Specimen No.5 was a benchmark wall to investigate general effect of the
webbing which is applied as a brace. Lattice wall was designed for Specimen No.6
and No.7 assuming more practical use. The Fig. 4 shows outline of three speci-
mens. Specimen No.6 was the lattice wall with reinforced column’s bottom with the
webbing. Specimen No.7 was No.6 with webbing’s brace.
3.3 Result and Interpretation
Figure 5 shows the result of the experiment. Experiment was done for Specimen
No.5 until 300 mm displacement on the beam, which was maximum displacement
of the jack. There were no damages observed on screws and the webbing.
Specimen No.7 was pulled until its total collapse, and the column was pulled out
from the beam. According to Fig. 5, stiffness of specimen No.5 was comparably
low and load against displacement was huge. This would be observed because
webbing was joined at only edge of the wall and displacement got great at not
jointed area. By comparing two specimens, maximum load increases about 2 kN at
deformation of 1/60 rad. In this both specimens, the wall was more rigid and
possible to joint with screws at 100–150 mm spacing. Generally, conventional post
and beam structural systems timber wall has certain rigid wall with Stud. Therefore,
this method would be effective for reinforcing old and deteriorated wall (Fig. 6).
5
Load(kN) 4
0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12
Deformation angle (rad)
Fig. 5 Result of specimen No.5
14
Specimen No.6
12 Specimen No.7
10
Loads(kN)
8
6
4
2
0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08
Displacement(rad)
Fig. 6 Result of specimen No.6 and No.7
4 Experiment on Timber Wall Reinforced with Metal

Joints and High-Performance Webbing
This chapter reports on the experimental study of reinforced timber wall using
specially designed joint for the webbing. Figure 7 shows the overview of the
specially designed metal joints. These joints could wind the webbing and placed on
each edges of the wall. In-plane shear test was carried out until 300 mm dis-
placement. This experiment is based on “Evaluation and method of each members
in timber framework house” from “Allowable stress design method of timber
framework house”.
Fig. 7 Overview of specially designed joints for the webbing
Specimen No.8 Specimen No.9

Fig. 8 Overview of specimens No.8 and No.9
4.2 Outline of Specimen
Figure 8 shows Specimen No.8 and No.9. Only metal joints were applied in
Specimen No.8 and No.9 was with metal joints and webbing.
4.3 Result and Interpretation
Figure 9 shows the result of in-plane shear test. The test has been done until
300 mm displacement of the beam. At the maximum displacement, there were no
damages on the metal joints, but tore on the webbing was observed in both
8
7
6
Load (kN)
5
4
3 Specimen
2 No.8
Specimen
1 No.9
0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12
Deformation angle (rad)
Fig. 9 Result of in-plane shear test among specimen No.8 and No.9
specimens. According to Fig. 9, the relationship between loads and deformation

angle of Specimen No.8 and No.9 were almost corresponding. This means that the
metal joints itself worked as angle braces and reinforce the wall, so the addition of
webbing does not reflect on the result. This supposes to happen that metal was too
hard to transmit forces to the entire model and made some spaces for motion when
it was applicated.
5 Conclusions
In conclusion, this paper focus on the method of joining the High-Performance

webbing to reveal validity of reinforcing wall. In order to achieve the aim, tensile
and in-plane shear test were carried out. Section 1 shows the strength of the
webbing using screw joints. Sections 2 and 3 assumed more practical use of
webbing to the wall. Section 2 shows the validity of application of the webbing to
wall with screw. Section 4 suggest the new method, using the metal joint. In this
study shows that both joints are valid for quick reinforcement, but maximum
strength was lower than its original properties by both method. In the future study,
we are going to investigate more detail method of constructing screw joints and
design the valid metal joint to avoid the initial damages on the webbing.
Acknowledgements I wish to acknowledge POLUS Co., Ltd for experimental design and Teijin
Limited for funding. I wish to thank Natsuki YASUI for her help in interpreting the significance of
the results of this study.
References
1. Ministry of land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, HOWTEC (2018) Evaluation and
method of each members in timber framework house. Allowable stress design method of
timber framework house
2. Yasui N, Takahashi O (2019) Study on application of high-performance fiber for structural
members part5 strength test by knot and in-face shearing test of bearing wall using fiber rope.
Summery of technical papers of annual meeting Architectural Institute of Japan
Optimal Design for Stability
Performance of Super Tall Residential
Tower Equipped with Reinforced
Concrete Outriggers
X. Zhao, J. L. Cai, and W. T. Yue
Abstract With the increasing height of super tall buildings, the overall stability
performance design of buildings is also facing challenges. As an important index to
control the overall stability of super tall buildings, the rigidity-weight ratio is not
easy to meet the requirements of the code when the height-width ratio of the
structure is particularly large. In view of the fact that the height-width ratio of super
tall residential buildings is generally large and the rigidity-weight ratio does not
meet the requirements of the code, a reinforced concrete outrigger is proposed. The
reinforced concrete outrigger can not only effectively solve the rigidity-weight ratio
problem of the building, make the overall stability of the building meet the
requirements, but also have some advantages that the steel outrigger does not have,
such as reducing the construction period, no need for later maintenance, etc.
Finally, combined with the engineering example of Chengdu La Cadiere Center
(249.8 m), the actual effect of reinforced concrete outrigger on the performance
optimization of super tall residential buildings is elaborated.

Keywords Super tall residential buildings Reinforced concrete outriggers

Stability optimization Rigidity-weight ratio adjustment
1 Introduction
Optimal design has attracted more and more attention in the construction industry,
especially in the optimization design of super high-rise buildings. For super
high-rise buildings with large height and volume, their overall stability often
X. Zhao (&) J. L. Cai

Tongji University, No. 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, China
e-mail: 22zx@tjad.cn
J. L. Cai
X. Zhao W. T. Yue
Tongji Architectural Design Group, No. 1230 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, China

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_48
496 X. Zhao et al.
becomes the focus of optimization design. The additional effect of gravity load due
to lateral displacement is called gravity P-Delta effect after horizontal displacement
of building under wind load or horizontal earthquake. In super-high-rise buildings,
gravity P-Delta effect is an important factor leading to the overall structural
instability. With the increase of height, the lateral stiffness of super high-rise
buildings decreases relatively, which leads to the increase of internal force and
displacement, and the P-Delta effect of gravity becomes obvious gradually, even
leads to structural instability. Both ASCE 7 and European codes stipulate the limit
value of stability coefficient theta to ensure structural stability. The ratio of lateral
stiffness to gravity load, rigidity-weight ratio is adopted as the control index of
overall stability in Chinese codes.
As an innovative and efficient structural lateral resistance system, the outrigger
system can economically and effectively adjust the rigidity-weight ratio of the
building, and then optimize the overall stability of the building. Outrigger system
has been widely used in super high-rise buildings in recent decades. However, this
system usually uses steel outrigger, which often has high cost, long construction
period and needs late maintenance. There is still room for optimization. In this
paper, a reinforced concrete outrigger is proposed, which overcomes the short-
comings of steel outrigger and has its functions. It is of great significance to the
overall stability optimization design of super high-rise residential buildings. Finally,
according to the engineering example of Chengdu La Cadiere Center, the feasibility
of concrete outrigger is discussed comparatively.
2 Theoretical Basis
2.1 Formula Correction of Rigidity-Gravity Ratio
As the height of structure increases, the lateral deflection of the structure caused by
lateral loads is amplified by gravity loads, which is called P-Delta effect in Chinese
Code. The P-Delta effect may be significant in slender structures. If the weight of
the structure is high in proportion to the lateral stiffness of the structure, P-Delta
effect can change displacements and internal forces by 25 or 30% under certain
circumstances [5], which will cause structure instability. To ensure structure sta-
bility, P-Delta effect limitations are specified in Chinese Code:
EJd
k¼ P
n 1:4 ð1Þ
H 2 Gi
i¼1
Where H is structure height; n is the total number of stories; Gi is the weight of

its story; EJd is elastic equivalent lateral stiffness, which can be calculated by
Eq. (2).
Optimal Design for Stability Performance … 497
11qH 4
EJd ¼ ð2Þ
120u
Where q is the peak value of lateral force; u is the peak horizontal displacement
under the lateral force.
The above formulas are derived based on the assumption that the weight is
uniformly distributed along the building height and the lateral force is in an inverse
triangle distribution. Actually, for many tall structures, the weight isn’t uniformly
distributed along the building height. And actual lateral loads are not in inverse
triangle distributions at all. As a result of this, sometimes the limitations specified in
Chinese Code may be too strict and somewhat unreasonable. In consideration of the
non-uniform distribution of vertical loads, correction factor should be introduced in
calculation of rigidity-gravity ratio.
0
k ¼ bk ð3Þ
P
n
Gi
1 i¼1
b¼ P h 2 i ð4Þ
3 n
Gi HHi
i¼1
0
Where k is modified rigidity-gravity ratio; b is correction factor; Hi is the
elevation from the ground to the its story. The weight distribution factor is written
as A. So the modified rigidity-gravity ratio can be expressed as:
0 11qH 2
k ¼ ð5Þ
360uA
So, once the relationship between u and structural member cost, the relationship
0
between A and structural member cost are established, the relationship between k
and structural member cost can be established to perform sensitivity analysis.
2.2 Relationship Between Modified Rigidity-Gravity Ratio

and Structural Member Cost
0
In order to get modified rigidity-gravity ratio k sensitivity coefficient for material
0
cost of member k, we can take the partial derivative of k with respect to design
parameter cok as Eqs. (6), (7) and (8) [2].
498 X. Zhao et al.
0
@k
sck ¼ ¼ scku þ sckA ð6Þ
@cok
0 0
@k @u k @u
scku ¼ ¼ ð7Þ
@u @co k u @cok
0 0
@k @A k @A
sckA ¼ ¼ ð8Þ
@A @co k A @cok
0
Where sck is the modified rigidity-gravity ratio k sensitivity coefficient for
material cost of member k; cok is the material cost of member k; scku is sensitivity
coefficient caused by change of horizontal displacement; sckA is sensitivity coeffi-
cient caused by change of weight distribution factor. For reinforced concrete
structures, the sensitivity coefficient derived from rigidity-weight ratio can be used
to optimize the cost of components and reduce the cost of components.
2.3 Working Principle of Reinforced Concrete Outrigger
In Fig. 1 Steel outrigger form truss systems by connecting with giant columns,
concrete core tubes and horizontal chords, thus effectively resisting transverse loads
and increasing the overall stability of the structure [3]. Like steel outrigger, rein-
forced concrete outrigger forms truss system by special reinforcement and opening,
as shown in Fig. 2, and we call this truss strut-and-tie model [1].
A strut-and-tie model may be applied where opening sizes and locations permit.
This requires clear paths with adequate face width and wall thickness for com-
pression struts, bands of continuous reinforcement or embedded tension members
for tension ties, and adequate room at strut/tie intersections for force-transfer nodes.
Strut-and-tie can efficiently resolve forces from outriggers on opposite sides of the
core acting in opposite directions, as when resisting overturning. Additional tension
Fig. 1 Outrigger connections with continuous steel members

Fig. 2 Concrete outrigger wall showing bands of reinforcing bars
ties and compression struts are needed for outriggers acting in the same direction.
Strut-and-tie modeling can be complicated when outriggers at right angles meet at
the same corner of a core. As force magnitudes and directions from those outriggers
vary with time, conditions at the nodes will also vary dramatically [4].
Concrete to concrete connections may also be complex, depending on outrigger
geometry. Transitioning diagonal reinforcing into horizontal and vertical rein-
forcement, developing bars, lapping bars, and anticipating and resolving different
strain values and patterns for compression and tension in the outrigger member
must all be addressed [1].
3 Engineering Case
This paper takes the third building of the La Cadiere Center as an example. The
project is located in Chengdu with 7 degrees of fortification intensity and 0.3 kN/m2
of basic wind pressure. The height of the house is about 249.80 m and 67 floors
above ground; the first floor is 9 m, the standard floor is 3.4 m and the shelter floor
is 4.5 m; the equipment/shelter floor is 12F (4.0 m), 24F (4.5 m), 37F (4.5 m), 49F
(4.5 m) and F55 (4.0 m).
There are three design options:
A: two steel outriggers on the 24 and 37 floors;
B: one reinforced concrete outrigger on the 24 floors;
C: three deep beams on the 12, 24 and 37 floors.
Scheme A: SRC frame + reinforced concrete core tube + two steel outrig-
gers + reinforced concrete floor (floor height 600 mm), See Fig. 3.
500 X. Zhao et al.
Fig. 3 Scheme A lateral force resistance system
Scheme B: SRC frame + reinforced concrete core tube + one reinforced con-
crete outrigger + reinforced concrete floor (floor height 600 mm), See Fig. 4.
Scheme C: SRC frame + reinforced concrete core tube + three deep
beams + reinforced concrete floor (floor height 650 mm), See Fig. 5.
Referring to the data obtained from the comparison of schemes A, B and C, the
following Table 1 is given:
It can be seen that scheme B, that is, the use of reinforced concrete outrigger on
the floor height control role is obvious, can meet the owner’s demand for floor
space.
Fig. 4 Scheme B lateral force resistance system

Fig. 5 Scheme C lateral force resistance system
Table 1. Side force resistance systems of different schemes

Schemes A B C
Same part SRC frame + reinforced concrete core tube + Reinforced
concrete floor
Different Strengthening (2-steel (1-reinforced (3- reinforced
parts system outriggers) concrete outrigger) concrete deep beams)
Location 24F and 24F 12F, 24F and 37F
(shelter) 37F
Floor height 600 mm 600 mm 650 mm
Table 2. Modified rigidity-weight ratio of different schemes

Schemes A B C
Rigidity-weight 1.27 1.117 1.33 1.118 1.29 1.115
ratio (modified) (modified) (modified)
1.419 > [1.40] 1.487 > [1.40] 1.438 > [1.40]
The rigidity of different schemes is shown in the following Table 2:

It can be seen that one reinforced concrete outrigger, two steel outriggers and
three deep beams can make the rigidity-weight ratio of the structure conform to the
Chinese Code. Next, I will choose the best scheme by comparing construction
period and the structure cost derived from sensitivity analysis. The structural costs
and construction cycles of each scheme are shown in the Table 3 below.
502 X. Zhao et al.
Table 3. Construction period and structural cost of different schemes

Schemes A B C
Construction period 450 days 360 days 360 days
Structural cost 10.136 million yuan 100.21 million yuan 99.89 million yuan
We can see that the structural cost and construction period of scheme C are the
best, but the control of floor height of scheme C mentioned in Table 1 is not as good
as that of scheme A and B. For super high-rise residential buildings, too large floor
height is difficult to satisfy the owners. Therefore, considering various factors,
scheme B of a reinforced concrete outrigger is the best one.
4 Conclusions
Starting from the overall stability of super high-rise residential buildings, this paper
focuses on an important index to control the overall stability: rigidity-weight ratio,
and puts forward the modification of rigidity-weight ratio. Then, a reinforced
concrete outrigger is proposed, and the working principle of reinforced concrete
outrigger and its role in adjusting rigidity-weight ratio are introduced. We can draw
the following conclusions from this paper:
(1) Like steel outrigger, reinforced concrete outrigger can adjust and control the
rigidity-weight ratio of super high-rise buildings, so as to meet the requirements
of overall stability of buildings.
(2) The effect of adjusting rigidity-weight ratio of reinforced concrete outrigger is
better than that of steel outrigger.
(3) The reinforced concrete outrigger also has the advantages that the steel
outrigger does not have: low cost, short construction period and no need for
later maintenance.
References
1. Hi SC, Goman H, Leonard J, Neville M (2017) Outrigger design for high-rise buildings.
CTBUH technical guide, pp 51–55
2. Qin L, Zhao X (2016) Sensitivity analysis based optimal seismic design of tall buildings under
story drift constraint. In: Proceedings of IABSE conference on bridges and structures
sustainability: seeking intelligent solutions, Guangzhou, China, September 2016, pp 873–880
3. Richard T, Dennis P, Ling-en H (2001) The tallest concrete building in Shanghai, China Plaza
66. CTBUH 2001 6th world congress, Melbourne, pp 720–725
4. Wang B, Chen YY, Zhao XZ (2014) A simplified model on strength and stiffness of outrigger
truss in super high-rise structure. J Tongji Univ (Nat Sci Ed) 2014:358–364
5. Wilson EL, Habibullab A (1987) Static and dynamic analysis of multi-story buildings,
including p-delta effects. Earthq Spectra 3(2):289–298
Study on Practical Application
of Damping Control Ceiling
Takuma Nagaoka, Takuya Yasuda, Yuki Iwashita,

and Osamu Takahashi
Abstract In Japan, including the Great East Japan Earthquake, the fall of ceiling
caused by earthquake has repeatedly occurred every time. In the year of 2013,
“ceiling notice” was enforced. As a countermeasure, the technology of setting up
diagonal members and improving the stiffness and bearing strength of seismic
ceiling has become the mainstream. However, the ceiling notice is supposed to be a
medium earthquake level, and even larger inputs can be considered at the large
earthquake encountered in the future. As a result, it is necessary to increase the
proof stress of the components in order to respond to earthquakes and resonance
with buildings with earthquake-resistant ceilings.
Therefore, in this research, we aim to add damping to suspended ceilings and to
prevent damage and fall of suspended ceilings from large earthquakes. The
damping control ceiling system we proposed allows a certain amount of defor-
mation not only during the mid-earthquake targeted by the current ceiling notifi-
cation but also during severe input during a large earthquake, and can suppress the
acceleration response of the ceiling surface. In addition, considering the application
to an actual building, we will conduct vibration experiments using the placement
method, damper installation angle, and vibrating direction as parameters to confirm
the usefulness of the damping ceiling system.
In this experiment, it was confirmed that the acceleration response was reduced in
the entire region including the resonance region by installing the damping control
ceiling system. It was confirmed that the difference in additional damping was
confirmed by the damper installation angle, and that the difference in the
T. Nagaoka (&) T. Yasuda Y. Iwashita O. Takahashi

Deptrtment of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering,
Tokyo University of Science, Tokyo, Japan
T. Yasuda
e-mail: takuya-yasuda@yasui-archi.co.jp
Y. Iwashita
e-mail: y.iwashita@yasio.jp
O. Takahashi

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_49
504 T. Nagaoka et al.
arrangement method and vibrating direction had a small effect on the damping
control ceiling system.
As a result, it was confirmed that the response of the ceiling surface can be
reduced by the damping control ceiling system even under various conditions.

Keywords Suspended ceiling Earthquake resistant ceiling Damping control

ceiling Vibration tests Oil damper
1 Introduction
1.1 Background of This Research
In Japan, ceiling collapse in earthquake often give rise to casualties, the Great East
Japan Earthquake, for example. The ceiling was regarded as a finishing to arrange
architectural spaces, but also it has been re-recognized as a serious hazard for
residents due to collapsing. In 2013, “A matter of determining a structural method
that is safe on the structural tolerance of a specific ceiling (hereinafter referred to as
“ceiling notice”)” was enforced, and a specific ceiling, which is in a certain con-
dition, was is obliged to have earthquake-resistance. After this enforcement,
earthquake-resistant ceiling have been frequently researched, and the way of
proofing ceilings from earthquake is mainly with diagonal materials and enhanced
rigidity and yield strength.
In order to respond such excessive input during earthquake than assumed in
“ceiling notice”, it is necessary to have further stiffness on the diagonal material and
the ceiling substrate, and as the while cost is increasing. In that case, flexibility of
designing the architectural space is also limited.
In addition, the acceleration response of the ceiling surface becomes excessive,
and the risk of falling down of the ceiling material and equipment increases.
Based on these facts, the authors propose a damping control ceiling system that
adds damping to the ceiling. If we only to suppress deformation of the ceiling, the
strengthened earthquake resistant ceiling is superior, but even if in the case of tough
input, if a certain deformation (for example, about 6 to 10 cm of general ceiling
clearance) can be accepted new system makes possible to suppress the acceleration
response more than previous one.
Also, it is expected to reduce the excessive response at the resonance point of the
suspended ceiling and the building.
Considering the applicating new system to general ceiling, the cost of ceiling and
workability is also an important viewpoint. Therefore, the authors investigate the
possibility of a damping addition system which can be realized simply and at low
cost by combining more versatile techniques.
Study on Practical Application … 505
1.2 Concept of Damping Ceiling System
The proposed damping control ceiling system can add moderate damping and also
takes into existing ceilings, aims for high general versatility that reduces costs and
eliminates special joints as much as possible. Adopted as a device that gives
damping is a stay damper that is also used for backdoors of automobiles and
mass-produced and can reduce costs (Fig. 1). The stay damper is a damper that
exerts a damping force only in the tensile direction and has no resistance in the
compression direction. Also, it is assumed that the members around the damper and
the interlocking are not special, and the bracing of the earthquake resistant ceiling is
simply replaced with an oil damper. Therefore, by setting the maximum damping
force of the damper is equal to that of the current earthquake ceiling bracing and set
them in a distributed arrangement with our utilized knowledge of joints etc.
accumulated by seismic ceiling technology. Furthermore, consideration should be
given to the ease of installation in general ceiling construction.
1.3 Concept of Damping Control Ceiling System
The basic type of the proposed damping control ceiling system is shown in Fig. 2.
The basic unit of the damping control ceiling system consists of a stay damper and a
bundle material for balancing with the damping force on the tension side of the stay
damper. Since the damping force is one side effect on the tensile side, it is used as a
pair in principle, but there is no risk of buckling of the damper, the damper part has
a simple attachment for adjusting the length and it is easy to construct at work site.
The concept and outline of the damping ceiling system with the possibility to
cope with harsh inputs are shown up to here.
Fig. 1 Appearance of oil

damper
POST
Adjustment
Attachment
Stay Damper
Fig. 2 Basic type of damping control ceiling unit
2 Experiment Outline
2.1 Experiment Outline
Vibration tests were carried out by accelerating the oscillating table with a gate-type
frame and a hydraulic actuator for vibrating on one side, and confirming the
responsiveness of the ceiling suspended from the oscillating table. By providing a
linear guide at the attachment part of the portal frame and the oscillating table, it
moves smoothly in the excitation direction and movement in the out-of-plane
direction is restrained. The measurement items are the displacement of the hydraulic
actuator (DISP 1), the acceleration of the vibration table (ACC 1), the displacement
of the ceiling surface (DISP 2), the acceleration of the ceiling surface (ACC 2), and
the outline of the vibration system is shown in Fig. 3.
Fig. 3 Overview of the excitation system

2.2 Specimens
The ceiling area was 6.3 m2, 3.0 m 2.1 m, and the constitution of the ceiling was
aseismic ceiling which was confirmed the allowable tolerance of 4,200 N in the
horizontal direction, according to the evaluation method described in the technical
reference 2 on the technical standard on the falling off of the ceiling in the building
based on the composition of the construction method, vibration was performed
using eleven kinds of specimens. Table 1 shows the constitution of these speci-
mens. Figure 4 shows the difference of specimens.
The weight of the ceiling was multiplied by plaster plates so that the weight of
the ceiling was about 420 kg equivalent to 25 m2 from the unit area mass (16.8 kg/
m2) at the unit test of the earthquake resistant ceiling construction method.
The damping control ceiling system has a pair of oil damper placed diagonally
and a length adjustment attachment to cope with the difference in ceiling hanging
length and the damping force of the tension side damper when the damper acts on
the compression side Each bundle material is integrated.
The oil damper is a modification of the gas spring for automobiles and the
damping force has damping performance of damping coefficient C = 7.85 N/(cm/
sec)2. The damper is a type that generates damping force only on the tension side.
Table 2 shows specifications the oil damper.
Table 1 Constitution of specimens

Specimens Constituting Installation Arrangement Vibrating
members angle method direction
DC_X Hanging bolt – – Cradling
DCT_X Hanging bolt post – – receiver (X)
45_DCD_X_C Hanging bolt post oil 45° Contiguity
60_DCD_X_S damper 60° Separate
45_DCD_X_S 45°
35_DCD_X_S 35°
45_DCB_X Hanging bolt brace 45° Contiguity
DC_Y Hanging bolt – – Cradling (Y)
DCT_Y Hanging bolt post – –
45_DCD_Y_C Hanging bolt post oil 45° Contiguity
damper
45_DCB_Y Hanging bolt brace 45° Contiguity
Cradling Receiver
Contiguity Separate ( 45 ) Cradling
Arrangement Method
Vibration Vibration
Direction Direction
Cradling Receiver Cradling

Vibration Direction
60 35
Installation method
Fig. 4 Difference of specimens
Table 2 Specifications the oil damper

Installation length mm 566
Outer diameter mm 27.4
Stroke length mm ±100
Damping force direction – Tensile only
Damping characteristics – F = C V2 (Speed square proportional type)
Damping coefficient N/(cm/sec)2 7.85
Damper stiffness N/cm 25,000
2.3 Vibration Case
2.3.1 White Noise Wave
In order to grasp the vibration characteristics of each specimen, white noise

vibration was performed with the maximum acceleration normalized to 100 gal.
2.3.2 Sine Wave
Sine wave to understand basic response characteristics of each specimen

Carried out. Table 3 shows a list of vibration conditions and the maximum speed
and maximum acceleration at each vibration.
2.3.3 Response Wave
Response wave excitation was performed to understand the response characteristics

of each specimen during an earthquake. These response waves are the top-level
response waves obtained by building response analysis using EL CENTRO
(NS) waves for medium-rise buildings (5 stories) and super high-rise buildings (21
Table 3 Vibration conditions of sine wave

Frequency Amplitude(mm)
(Hz) 5 10 20 25 30 40
6.28 15.71 25.13
1 - - -
39 99 158
12.57 31.42 37.7
2 - - -
158 395 474
18.85 37.7 47.12 56.55
3 - -
355 711 888 1066
12.57 25.13
4 - - - -
316 632
15.71 31.42
5 - - - -
493 632
18.85 37.7
6 - - - -
711 1421
21.99 43.98
7 - - - -
967 1934
stories). These response waves are a middle-layer response wave and super
highrise-layer response wave, respectively. These response waves were standard-
ized to 120 mm for the effective stroke of the vibration system, and vibration was
performed. Figure 5 shows the waveform of the response waves, and Fig. 6 shows
the displacement response spectrum and the acceleration response spectrum.
ACC[gal] Maximum acceleration 750gal
Time[s]
middle-layer response wave
ACC[gal] Maximum acceleration 96gal
Time[s]
super highrise-layer response wave
Fig. 5 Waveform of the response waves

Displacement Acceleration
response spectrum[mm] response spectrum[gal]
Period[s] Period[s]
middle-layer response wave
Displacement Acceleration
response spectrum[mm] response spectrum[gal]
Period[s] Period[s]
super highrise-layer response wave
Fig. 6 Response spectrum
3 Results of Experiment
3.1 Natural Period and Damping Ration of Each Specimen
The natural period and damping constant of each specimen were calculated from
the transfer function of the acceleration of the ceiling (ACC①) to the acceleration
of the shaking table (ACC②) obtained by white noise vibration. The natural period
was calculated by the maximum point of the transfer function, and the damping
constant was calculated by the √1/2 method. Table 4 shows a list of natural periods
and damping rations.
Table 4 Natural period and damping ratio of each specimens

Specimens Natural Damping Specimens Natural Damping
period [s] ration [%] period [s] ration [%]
DC_X 1.09 3.94 DC_Y 1.19 4.3
DCT_X 1.06 4.44 DCT_Y 1.04 8.57
45_DCD_X_C 0.997 43.7 45_DCD_Y_C 0.874 43.0
45_DCB_X 0.07 0.421 45_DCB_Y 0.077 3.06
60_DCD_X_S 1.03 17.8
45_DCD_X_S 1.07 42.3
35_DCD_X_S 0.898 76.4
3.2 Sine Wave
Table 5 shows the maximum response acceleration and maximum relative dis-
placement of the ceiling surface for each test condition obtained by sinusoidal
vibration.The measurement results were subjected to LPF processing (20 Hz) only
for response acceleration in order to eliminate noise.
Regardless of the direction of vibration, the acceleration response of the
damping control ceiling was reduced compared with the earthquake-resistant ceil-
ing under all vibration conditions, and a sufficient reduction was observed even near
the natural period of the damping control ceiling. In addition, the maximum
response acceleration of the ceiling surface reached about 2.5G in the seismic
ceiling when the 7 Hz 10 mm cradling receiver vibration was applied, and the brace
joint was damaged. The response acceleration of the ceiling surface was also
suppressed to about 1.1G.
As for the installation angle, it was confirmed that the acceleration response was
reduced and the response was smaller as the installation angle was smaller under the
vibration condition near the natural period of the damping control ceiling. On the
other hand, it was confirmed that the reduction in response is proportional to the
size of the installation angle as the vibration condition is further away from the
natural period of the damping control ceiling.
Table 5 Response value of

the ceiling surface
1200 1200
45_DCD_Y_C 45_DCD_X_S
1000 (cradling) 1000 (separate)
800 800
600 600
400 400
200 45_DCD_X_C 200 45_DCD_X_C

(cradling receiver ) (contiguity )
0 0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Fig. 7 Comparison of maximum response acceleration [gal]
Table 6 Response value of the ceiling surface
ACC [gal] middle-layer response wave 45_DCB_X 45_DCD_X_C

1000
800
600
400
200
0
-200
-400
-600
-800
-1000
0 10 20 30 40 50
time[s]
ACC [gal] super highrise-layer response wave 45_DCB_X 45_DCDX_C

800
600
400
200
0
-200
-400
-600
-800
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time[s]
Fig. 8 Ceiling acceleration waveform

Figure 7 shows the vibration direction and the maximum response acceleration
of the installation method arranged on the horizontal and vertical axes. As a result,
it was confirmed that the influence on the acceleration response due to the differ-
ence in excitation direction and installation method was not significant.
3.3 Seismic Response Wave
Table 6 shows the maximum response acceleration and maximum relative dis-
placement of each test piece during response wave excitation, and Fig. 8 shows the
ceiling response acceleration waveforms of 45_DCD_X_C (damped control ceil-
ing) and 45_DCB_X (seismic ceiling). The measurement result was subjected to
20 Hz LPF processing to remove noise.
In both response wave excitations, it was confirmed that the acceleration response
of the vibration-damping ceiling was reduced compared to the earthquake-resistant
ceiling.
With regard to the maximum relative displacement between the vibration surface
and the ceiling surface, all the test specimens of the damping control ceiling sat-
isfied the deformation of 6-10 cm under the vibration conditions of this experiment.
4 Conclusions
For the damping control ceiling system proposed in this study, we confirmed the
additional damping effect of the installation of a pair of damping control ceiling
systems against a test specimen assuming a damping ceiling area of 25 m2. The
damper installation angle was 35° when the additional damping was increased to
about 75%, the ideal installation case was about 40% at 45°, and the installation
angle was 60° to reduce the additional damping effect to about 17%. It was con-
firmed that the acceleration response was reduced in all regions including the
resonance region by this effect.
In addition, it was confirmed that the influence by the difference in the
arrangement method of the damping control ceiling unit was not significant.
Similarly, it was confirmed that there was little influence due to the difference in the
vibration direction of the damping control ceiling.
Through this experiment, we confirmed that the acceleration response of the
ceiling surface can be reduced even in various arrangement conditions such as the
assumed arrangement method of the damping control ceiling system and the dif-
ference in the damper angle when applied to an actual building.
Reference
1. Yasuda T, Takahashi O, Ono T, Ashida H, Moritaka H, Tsuyuki Y, Matsui K, Iwashita Y

(2018) Study on practical application of damping control ceiling. Summaries of technical
papers of annual meeting Architectural Institute of Japan, AIJ, no 2018, pp 979–986
Research on Prevention of Collapse
of Existing Dangerous Masonry Walls
by Reinforcement Using Polyurea Resin
and Aramid Fiber Tape
Suzuki Keita, Takahashi Osamu, Taomoto Mikiya, Okimoto Junji,

Matsuo Jun, and Nishikawa Toshihiko
Abstract In June 2018, an earthquake of intensity of less than 6 occurred in Osaka.

At that time, there was a case that the girl was underlaid by the collapse of the
concrete block wall, and she died. Also, in the Netherlands, earthquakes occur
frequently due to the influence of gas sampling in recent years. There are many
masonry using bricks, but such a masonry is very vulnerable to earthquakes. In
recent years, major earthquakes have occurred not only in the Netherlands, but also
around the world. Masonry buildings around the world are at risk of earthquakes.
This research aims to discover excellent reinforcement methods for preventing
collapse against earthquakes of these masonry using concrete blocks and bricks. We
focused on polyurea resin and aramid fiber.
In this research, we prepared masonry walls made of Japanese concrete blocks
and masonry walls made of bricks as a target of reinforcement. Reinforced speci-
mens by polyurea resin sprayed to a thickness of 5 mm over the entire surface, by
blue thin aramid fiber tape attached, by black thick aramid fiber tape attached, or by
S. Keita (&)
Department of Architecture, Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo University of Science,
Tokyo, Japan
T. Osamu
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Doctor Engineering,
T. Mikiya O. Junji
DAISUN Company Limited, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: taomoto@daisun-web.com
O. Junji
e-mail: j-okimoto@daisun-web.com
M. Jun N. Toshihiko
TEIJIN LIMITED, Smart & Safety Business Development Project,
Material New Business Division, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: ju.matsuo@teijin.co.jp
N. Toshihiko
e-mail: t.nishikawa@teijin.co.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_50
516 S. Keita et al.
both tapes attached were prepared. Test specimens were laid down sideways, the
center part was pushed with an Amsler Testing Machine, and a bending test was
carried out until the center part was deformed to 40 mm. Specimens are required to
have seismic performance that can withstand a horizontal load of (self-weight) x
(1G).
As a result, it was found that all reinforced specimens had seismic performance
exceeding that required. Moreover, the effect of these reinforcements was con-
firmed from several points in this experiment.

Keywords Masonry Concrete brock Polyurea resin Aramid fiber tape Brick
1 Introduction
For a long time, it has been customary to build a masonry wall by concrete blocks
around the house in Japan. These concrete block walls were easy to construct and
widely used as a sturdy fence. However, in recent years, there have been numerous
cases of large earthquakes occurring frequently in Japan, many concrete block walls
collapsed. As a result, it caused people became the underlay of the walls or hindered
rescue of disasters. Concrete block walls were designed according to the standard
established in Japan, but since the earthquake which has occurred in Japan recently
exceeds the power of the earthquake assumed by the standard at that time, it is not
able to withstand a big earthquake, and it collapses. Even today, it is a very
dangerous situation that concrete walls which were designed with the old standard
without necessary reinforcing bars or necessary counterfort are scattered in Japan.
Also, in the Netherlands, earthquakes occur frequently due to the influence of
gas sampling in recent years. There are many masonry using bricks, but such a
masonry is very vulnerable to earthquakes. In recent years, major earthquakes have
occurred not only in the Netherlands, but also around the world. Masonry buildings
around the world are at risk of earthquakes.
Therefore, in this research, we investigate how much resistance to seismic force
is improved and practical by various reinforcement for such existing dangerous
masonry walls. The seismic force is a force horizontal against the wall, and the
seismic force applied to book walls are assumed generally (the wall’s dead
weight) (gravity acceleration) (1.0). Therefore, specimen walls must have
sufficient strength against this force and do not collapse.
Research on Prevention of Collapse of Existing Dangerous Masonry Walls ... 517
Fig. 1 Weight and size of the specimen wall
Fig. 2 Required strength to stand the seismic force
Fig. 3 Overview
2 Test Outline
2.1 Loading Plan
Masonry walls reinforced by various methods are loaded by an Amsler universal

testing machine and the performance of bending strength is verified by bending the
walls. Also, when the central part of the wall is displaced to 40 mm, that is nearly 1/
25 of the height of the wall, the loading is ended (Figs. 2, 3 and 4).
518 S. Keita et al.
Fig. 4 Loading plan
2.2 Specimen Overview
2.2.1 Concrete Block Wall
The specimen is a square (straight) joint block wall of 2 columns and 6 rows of
blocks of about 800 mm and 1,200 mm in length shown in the following design
drawing, with 2 reinforcing rods installed, 5 bodies without arrangement, a total of
7 bodies are tested. The concrete blocks and reinforcing bars used are suitable for
the current Japanese building standards and have chosen widely used in general.
Mortar was used as the adhesive for the joint and the joint thickness was 10 mm
(Fig. 1).
2.2.2 Brick Wall
The brick wall specimen was made of basic bricks commonly used in Japan. This
brick wall is made up of 17 layers of bricks. Mortar was used as the adhesive for the
joint and the joint thickness was 10 mm (Fig. 1).
Fig. 5 Brick wall
Fig. 6 Splaying polyurea
2.2.3 Polyurea Resin
Polyurea resin is a compound mainly composed of urea bond formed by chemical

reaction of isocyanate and amino group. Curing time after blowing with spray is
short, so construction can be performed easily. In addition, the urea bond is very
strongly bonded and does not hydrolyze, so it is excellent in water resistance
(Figs. 5 and 6).
520 S. Keita et al.
2.2.4 Aramid Fiber Tape
The aramid tape used this time has a blue one with a width of 15 mm (Fig. 7) and a
black one with a width of 45 mm (Fig. 8). The tensile (break) strength of this tape
is 25 kN. These tapes reinforce specimens by attaching it to the specimen by hitting
it with screws (Fig. 9).
Fig. 7 Broken tapes
Fig. 8 Broken tapes

3 Test Specimen List
There are 11 specimens in total including 7 concrete block walls and 4 brick walls
(Fig. 10). Reinforcing rods, polyurea and aramid tape was used to reinforce these
masonry walls (Table 1).
Fig. 9 Attached tapes
Fig. 10 Polyurea comparison
Table 1 Specimen list
Specimen list
Polyurea 5mm Aramid fiber tape
Specimen name Rods (Thickness) Thin tape Thick tape
CB-1
CB-2
CB-3
Concrete
CB-4
block wall
CB-5
CB-6
CB-7
R-1
R-2
Brick wall
R-3
R-4
522 S. Keita et al.
3.1 Concrete Brock Wall (CB)
CB-1 is a specimen wall reinforced with steel bars and made according to Japanese
standards. CB-1 is used as a reference for comparison with each reinforced spec-
imen. (CB-2 * CB-7).
3.2 Brick Wall (R)
The polyurea that reinforces the concrete block wall was green, but the polyurea
that reinforces the brick wall is gray, that is, different type of polyurea is used to
Fig. 11 Specimen list (plan)

Fig. 12 Styroform specimen
Fig. 13 Load-Disp Relations(CB)

524 S. Keita et al.
Fig. 14 Load-Disp Relations(R)
reinforce brick wall. As a result of bending test with each polyurea applied to
Styrofoam (Fig. 13), there was almost no difference in strength and rigidity
(Fig. 11). R-3 is a specimen attached with crossed tapes, and verifies the difference
between this specimen and the specimen with the tape attached vertically (R-2)
(Fig. 12).
4 Test Result
4.1 Load-Displacement Relations
Below is a diagram summarizing the load-displacement relations of each specimen.

When comparing the graphs of specimens other than specimens reinforced with
tape alone, there is almost no difference in the slope of the stiffness range. Since
these specimens reinforced with only the tape were deformed by its own weight
when it was laid down sideways, the inclination of the graph was relatively small
(Fig. 14).
4.2 Test Result List
A table summarizing parameters, maximum load, and residual deformation of each

specimen is shown below. The maximum load of each specimen was a value that
exceeded the required strength of either the concrete block wall or the brick wall.
Comparing concrete block wall specimens and brick wall specimens, the brick wall
Table 2 Test result list

Residual
Specimen list Maximum Required
deformati
load strength
Polyurea 5mm Aramid fiber tape on
Specimen name Rods (kN) (kN)
(Thickness) Thin tape Thick tape (mm)
CB-1 5.11 36.97
CB-2 12.16 23.75
CB-3 2.25 39.35
Concrete
CB-4 2.7 37.86 2
block wall
CB-5 18.3 30.554
CB-6 15.15 23.95
CB-7 16.52 23.51
R-1 30.72 18.62
R-2 47.66 21.41
Brick wall 4
R-3 45.07 15.31
R-4 18.02 18.2
specimens have a higher strength. This shows that brick walls are more likely to
benefit from these reinforcements (Table 2).
5 Conclusion
From the test results, it was confirmed that all reinforcing methods can give strength
exceeding the required strength. From here, we will focus on the benefits of each
reinforcement method and consider the experimental results.
5.1 Polyurea Resin
The concrete block wall specimen reinforced with polyurea (CB-2) significantly
exceeded the required strength, and showed higher strength than the current Japanese
standard specimen wall (CB-1). When the specimens CB-1 and CB-5 are compared,
an increase in strength of about 12 kN by polyurea reinforcement can be confirmed. In
addition, when the specimens CB-2 and CB-6 (CB-7) were compared, an increase in
the strength of 3 to 4 kN was confirmed, and it was found that a cumulative rein-
forcement effect can be expected by reinforcing combined with the tape.
The maximum stress of the specimen R-1 is about 30 kN, which is considerably
larger than the concrete block wall specimens. This indicates that the polyurea
reinforcement has good compatibility with brick walls and can be expected to have
better reinforcement effect. We have concluded this is due to the small size of brick
wall’s brickwork unit.
526 S. Keita et al.
Fig. 15 CB-2 After loading
Fig. 16 CB-2 Center of the

lower surface
Fig. 17 R-1 After loading

Fig. 18 R-1 Center of the

lower surface
Fig. 19 R-4 After loading
Fig. 20 R-4 Center part of

the specimen
528 S. Keita et al.
One of the benefits of the polyurea reinforcement is the reduction of residual

deformation. This can be confirmed in Fig. 15. Also, a large tensile force is gen-
erated at the center of the lower surface of the specimen wall, but no noticeable
damage is seen in Fig. 17. These facts confirm the high toughness of polyurea.
However, in the case of the brick wall specimen, it can be confirmed in Fig. 19 that
there is a small damage as if it was torn at the bottom center of the specimen
(Figs. 16 and 18).
5.2 Aramid Fiber Tape
It was found that a proof strength slightly higher than the required strength can be
obtained by the tape reinforcement. However, as described above, the combined use
of polyurea and tape provides a cumulative reinforcement effect, and the specimens
R-2 and R-3 show a dramatic increase in strength.
The maximum load does not differ between specimens R-2 and R-3, but the
slope of R-3’s graph in the stiffness range is smaller. From this, it was found that the
initial stiffness was lowered when the tape was applied to the specimen by crossing.
We have identified that this may be due to the fact that it is difficult to apply initial
tension to the tape by attaching the tape crossed to the specimen.
We can confirm that the brick itself is damaged as can be seen from Fig. 20.
From this, we conclude that it is difficult to prevent the collapse of the wall due to
damage or plastic deformation of masonry walls such as concrete block walls and
brick walls with tape alone.
5.3 Suggestions for Further Research
We conclude that any of these reinforcement methods can provide higher strength
than necessary, and that these reinforcement methods are very effective as rein-
forcement to prevent masonry collapse. Although only the case in which bending is
applied to the central part of the specimen wall is examined in this experiment, in
fact, the base part of the wall body is often bent. Therefore, it is necessary to
examine the seismic performance of the base of the wall and search for rein-
forcement plans.
Reference
1. Hiroshi F, Masanori I, Izuru O, et al (2015) Structural Technic Reference Manual of Buildings,

Japan, pp 134–148
Research on the Development
of the Semi-rigid Column Base
of Reinforced Concrete
H. Yoshida, T. Yamada, M. Oda, and O. Takahashi
Abstract The purpose of this research is to develop a semi-rigid column base of

reinforced concrete structure to control stress distribution. In this paper, we report
on the structural experiments carried out to grasp more detailed structural perfor-
mance of semi-rigid columns with tapered part. Structural experiments were carried
out changing conditions of axial force, taper angle and concrete strength. As a result
of experiments, all the specimens showed that the strength decreased rapidly with
the occurrence of burst fracture at the cross-section switching part. In addition, it
was confirmed that the yield shear reinforcements and the tensile fracture occurred
at the reduced part. In this paper, we clarified the detailed structural performance of
semi-rigid columns with tapered part. Especially, it was confirmed that different
characteristics of fracture properties and strain distribution occur depending on the
taper angle under high axial force.
Keywords RC Column base Semi-rigid Tapered part High axial force
H. Yoshida (&) T. Yamada M. Oda O. Takahashi

Tokyo, Japan
T. Yamada
e-mail: TetsuyaYamada@smcon.co.jp
M. Oda
e-mail: MinoruOda@smcon.co.jp
O. Takahashi

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_51
530 H. Yoshida et al.
1 Introduction
In order to design a structure rationally, it is desirable to have a framework that

avoids localized collapse, concentrated deformation and resists well in balance over
the building. The stress state of the structure from external force mainly depends on
the rigidity of the member in the minute deformation region and the strength of the
member in the large region. Since ordinary RC buildings adjust the cross-section
area and the amount of reinforcement in columns and beams with respect of
existing stress, so the rigidity and strength cannot be changed easily. If the rigidity
and the strength of each member can be easily changed, it would be possible to
design buildings in more desirable stress state.
In this research, we focus on the 1st floor column of RC building and reducing
the rigidity of column base, we control the stress distribution of the bending
moment on the column. Then we aim to develop the rational RC column in
building.
Previous research that the bending stress of the column base is reduced by a
semi-rigid column base. In addition, it was confirmed that by providing a tapered
part between the column general part and the reduced part, bending rigidity is
reduced while mitigating the occurrence of lengthwise cracks. By the conduction of
the bending shear experiment, the validity of fixing length of the inner column main
reinforcement and the effectiveness of the tapered reinforcement were shown, and it
was confirmed that the progress of the axial deformation could be suppressed by
arranging the tapered reinforcement.
The purpose of this paper is examining the detailed structural performance, and
discussing the parameter experiments under high axial force.
2 Parametric Experiment of Semi-rigid Column Base

with Tapered Part
For the purpose of confirming the detailed structural performance of the semi-rigid
column base with tapered part, a force experiment was carried out under constant
axial force with taper angle and concrete strength as parameters.
2.1 Outlines of Specimen and Experimental Method
Table 1 shows the specimen list, Fig. 1 is a conceptual diagram for setting speci-
men and its parameters, and Fig. 2 shows a configuration diagram. The specimen
was designed with a combination of axial force ratio (0.25, 0.45, 0.65) with taper
angle (3/9, 2/9, 1/9) and concrete strength (Fc60-100, Fc30-60) as parameters.
There were a total of 5 specimens. In previous experiments, the specimen
Research on the Development of the Semi-rigid Column Base ... 531
No. 26 showed bending fracture and stable toughness, The specimen No. 23 decline
of abrupt strength due to burst fracture. Table 2 shows the loading history. The
loading is performed by controlling the member angle, and the loading is repeated
gradually under a constant axial force. For the specimen No. 29 increases the
constant axial force were increased for each target member angle.
Table 1 The specimen list

general part
cross section concrete strength reinforcement
specimen
B D Lg Fc other
main shear
mm mm mm N/mm2
No. 28 2-D6@38 axial force 0.45NL, N=3899kN
12-D19
No. 29 380 380 1250 60 pw=0.44% axial force 0.65NL, N=5858kN
pt=0.88%
No. 30 SD490 (4-D6@38) SHD685 axial force 0.65NL, N=5858kN
No. 31 16-D19 5-D6@45 axial force 0.25NL, N=1519kN
450 450 1500 30
No. 32 pt=0.79% pw=0.78% axial force 0.65NL, N=3949kN
reduced part
cross section concrete strength reinforcement
specimen
B D Lt Lh Fc other
2
main shear
mm mm mm mm N/mm
No. 28 s0.7, ta2/9, Fc60-100
256.5 12-D19 2-D6@38
No. 29 266 266 38 100 s0.7, ta2/9, Fc60-100
pt=1.89% pw=0.63%
No. 30 513 SD490 SHD685 s0.7, ta1/9, Fc60-100
No. 31 202.5 16-D19 4-D6@45 s0.7, ta3/9, Fc30-60
315 315 45 60
No. 32 303.8 pt=1.68% pw=0.89% s0.7, ta2/9, Fc30-60
Lg : Length from the column base to the applied point s : squeezing ratio The inseide of ( ) represents
Lt : Taper length ta : taper angle the section from tapered part start
Lh : Length from the column base to the taper part starting point point to 380mm (1D)
Fc : Based on the strength on the test piece on the 28th day after placing the concrete
burst fracture is column general part : Fc60 burst fracture is column general part : Fc30
likely to occur column reduced part : Fc100 likely to occur column reduced part : Fc60
squeezing ratio : 0.7 squeezing ratio : 0.7
taper angle taper angle
bending fracture burst fracture
burst fracture is burst fracture is

likely to occur likely to occur
axial force
axial force
ratio
ratio
Fig. 1 Conceptual diagram for setting specimen and its parameters

concrete : Fc60
main : 12-D19 (SD490)
shear : 2-D6@38 (SHD685)
concrete : Fc60
main : 12-D19 (SD490)
outer shear : 4-D6@38 (SHD685)
inner shear : 2-D6@38 (SHD685)
concrete : Fc100
vertical shear : 12-D6 (SD295)
lateral shear :
[-D6double@38 (SD295)
concrete : Fc100
main : 12-D19 (SD490)
shear : 2-D6@38 (SHD685)
Fig. 2 Configuration diagram
Table 2 Loading history
cycle ±1 ±2 ±3 ±4 ±5 ±6 ±7 ±8 ±9 ±10 ±11 ±12

taper angle (rad) 1/800 1/400 1/200 1/100 1/50 1/25 1/20
No. 28 0.45
No. 29 0.302 0.354 0.458 0.666
axial force ratio
No. 30 0.65
η=N/bDFc
No. 31 0.25
No. 32 0.65
2.2 Experimental Result
Figure 3 shows the relationship between shear force (Q) and member angle (R) of
each specimen. The specimen No. 31 showed a stable up to the final cycle, but with
all the specimens, the strength decreased rapidly with the occurrence of burst
fracture at the cross-section switching part. In addition, it was confirmed that the
yield shear reinforcements and the tensile fracture occurred at the reduced part. The
specimens No. 30 and 32 ended the force application after losing ability to hold the
axial force.
<No.28> <No.29>
η=0.45, s=0.7, η=0.65, s=0.7,
ta=2/9, Fc60-100 ta=2/9, Fc60-100
bending crack bending crack

lengthwise crack lengthwise crack
compression yield compression yield
corner burst crack corner burst crack
shear yield shear yield
<No.30> <No.31>
η=0.65, s=0.7, η=0.25, s=0.7,
ta=1/9, Fc60-100 ta=3/9, Fc30-60
bending crack
shear crack
lengthwise crack
lengthwise crack
compression yield
compression yield
corner burst crack
tensile yield
shear yield
corner burst crack
<No.32>
η=0.65, s=0.7,
ta=2/9, Fc30-60
bending crack
lengthwise crack
compression yield
corner burst crack
shear yield
Fig. 3 Relationship between shear force and member angle
3 Analysis and Study
3.1 Effect of Taper Angle Under High Axial Force
Figure 4 shows a comparison of the Q-R relationships of the specimens (No. 23,
No. 29, No. 30) with different taper angles under high axial force. After the
decrease in yield strength due to burst fracture at the corners, the fracture occurred
at the taper angle 1/9 without recovery of the yield strength. Therefore, destruction
properties in specimens with taper angle 1/9 were differ from angle of 3/9 and 2/9.
Figure 5 shows a comparison of strain distribution in each specimen; the
compression side of burst direction the shear reinforcement. At the taper angle 3/9,
the strain at the cross-section switching part increases, and at the taper angle 1/9, the
strain at the tapered part after the decline of yield strength. The taper angle 2/9 has
both properties observed in other taper angles, but the value of strain was small so
that, distribution of strain is well balanced.
300
<No.23, No.29, No.30> Q (kN)
η=0.65, s=0.7, Fc60-100
taper angle 3/9

taper angle 2/9 150
taper angle 1/9
R (rad)
0
-0.015 -0.01 -0.005 0 0.005 0.01 0.015
-150
-300
Fig. 4 Comparison of the Q-R relationships (taper angle: 1/9, 2/9, 3/9)
inside outside inside outside inside outside

height from the column base (mm)

R6
measurement failure
after 1/210
strain (μ) strain (μ) strain (μ)
Fig. 5 Comparison of strain distribution in the compression side of burst direction of the shear
reinforcement (taper angle: 1/9, 2/9, 3/9)
3.2 Examination of the Necessary Amount of Shear

Reinforcement to Ensure Deformation Performance
It is probable that the shear reinforcement yielding and tensile fracture in the
reduced part occurred because the amount of shear reinforcement was designed
only with respect to the shear strength at the time of specimen design. Therefore,
the amount of shear reinforcement required for securing the deformation perfor-
mance was examined using reference. Table 3 shows the calculated values of shear
reinforcement composition and critical member angle during this experiment and
when the maximum amount of shear reinforcement is arranged. From this, it is
understood that sufficient deformation performance cannot be ensured during this
experiment.
Table 3 The calculated values of shear reinforcement composition and critical member angle
3.3 Examination of Fluctuation of Initial Rigidity Due

to Axial Force
Figure 6 shows the initial Q-R relationship at each axial force ratio for each of the
positive and negative applied forces of the specimen No. 29, and Table 4 shows a
list of calculation results for the initial rigidity at each axial force ratio. It was found
that there was no correlation between the axial force ratio and the initial rigidity.
Also, the fluctuation range was small.
-0.003 -0.0025 -0.002 -0.0015 -0.001 -0.0005 0 200

Q (kN)
R (rad)
0 positive force
negative force first cycle
first cycle 150
-50
100
-100
50 η=0.666
η=0.458 -150 η=0.458
η=0.354 η=0.354
η=0.302 R (rad)
η=0.302 0
Q (kN)
-200 0 0.0005 0.001 0.0015 0.002 0.0025 0.003
Fig. 6 Initial Q-R relationship at each axial force ratio
Table 4 The calculation results of initial rigidity at each axial force ratio
axial force ratio initial rigidity (×103)kN/rad maximum error rate percentange of theoretical value
η positive force negative force positive force negative force positive force negative force
0.302 57.60 53.67 74% 69%
0.354 56.33 54.34 72% 70%
14% 5%
0.458 58.23 51.57 74% 66%
0.666 64.42 - 82% -
from origin to 1/800
3.4 Examination of Core Concrete Cross

Section for Ultimate Bending Strength Calculation
Figure 7 shows the correspondence between the experimental value and the cal-
culated value of the ratio of cover concrete expected in the core concrete section.
This figure proves that the higher axial force has safer evaluation under the same
condition. Under the same conditions, the higher the axial force, the safer the
evaluation. When the cover concrete is expected to be 40%, the Fc60-100 specimen
has 25% even with a high axial force, and it is considered that it can be evaluated
relatively appropriately. However, in order to evaluate more appropriately, it is
considered that correction by concrete strength and axial force ratio is necessary.
(Mu experimental value) / (Mu calculated value) (Mu experimental value) / (Mu calculated value)
1.75 1.75
cover 0% cover 20% cover 0% cover 20%
1.50 1.50
1.25 1.25
1.00 1.00
axial force ratio η axial force ratio η

0.75 0.75
0 0.25 0.5 0.75 0 0.25 0.5 0.75
Fig. 7 Correspondence between the experimental value and calculated value
4 Conclusions
[1] Different characteristics in fracture properties and strain distribution were found
depending on the taper angle under high axial force.
[2] It was shown that there is a possibility of preventing damage due to lack of
reinforcements by designing the amount of shear reinforcements deformation
performance.
[3] It was confirmed that there were no needs to design the initial rigidity fluctuation
due to the axial force.
[4] It was confirmed that ratio of cover concrete expected in the core concrete cross
section when calculating the ultimate bending strength was 40% and could be
generally evaluated.
In the future, the design formula for the strength of semi-rigid columns will be
studied. In addition, we will proceed with the study of the column base shape that
can simplify the shear reinforcement arrangement and improve the strength. Also,
we will study application of this column in the building to investigate designing
process.
References
1. Oda M, Nagashima R, Hirata Y, Tano K, Takei S, Takahashi O (2017) Development of RC

Columns with Semi-Rigid Base (No. 1) * (No. 4). Summaries of technical papers of annual
meeting Architectural Institute of Japan (Chugoku), Structural IV, pp 127–134
2. National Land Development Technology Center (1993), 1992 Structural Performance
Subcommittee Report, pp III-41
Optimal Placement of Rigid Outriggers
for Super Tall Buildings Located in High
Seismic Intensity Area Based on Storey
Drift Sensitivity Vectors
X. Zhao, J. Yao , Y. T. Xu, and Y. Yang
Abstract Modern buildings are developing toward high-rise and super-high-rise

buildings. Super high-rise buildings are subjected to significant lateral loads and
high-flexibility in high-intensity seismic areas. As a component that can effectively
improve the lateral stiffness of the structure, the rigid outrigger is widely used in
super high-rise structures at home and abroad. However, there are many mechanic
floors in high-rise buildings, and there are hundreds of different combinations of
outrigger numbers and positions. In order to reduce the structural natural vibration
period and the amount of steel used, it is particularly important to determine the
optimal position of the rigid outriggers. Previous studies proposed sensitivity vector
method for high-rise buildings with outriggers under wind load control. This paper
analyzes the super-high-rise structure with the outrigger in high-intensity seismic
area, which shows that the algorithm is also applicable to the ultra-high rise
buildings with outriggers under seismic load.

Keywords Super tall buildings High-intensity seismic areas Story drift ratio

Rigid outriggers Sensitivity vector algorithm
1 Introduction
Super tall buildings have high-flexibility characteristics, and the natural vibration
period of the structure is generally long, which is more sensitive to earthquakes. In
practical engineering, buildings with larger periods will have larger deformation
problems and comfort problems under earthquake action. The story drift ratio is an
important index to reflect the deformation and comfort of buildings. Limiting its
maximum value is a common method to reduce seismic vibration. The number and
X. Zhao (&) J. Yao

e-mail: 22zx@tjad.cn; 909498283@qq.com
X. Zhao Y. T. Xu Y. Yang

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_52
540 X. Zhao et al.
the position of the outrigger set have a significant influence on the structural
rigidity. Generally, the more the outrigger truss is placed, the smaller the period of
the structure and the greater the rigidity. However, as the number of outriggers
increases, the natural period of the structure and the amount of steel used increase.
Therefore, one of the key issues in the design of super-tall buildings is to determine
the minimum number of outriggers and the optimal position of the outrigger truss
settings that meet the design criteria. In addition, it is necessary to study the
influence of the number of different outriggers and position on the structural
performance.
Outrigger systems were widely adopted in modern tall buildings. Since the first
example of the system as configured in steel, the 42-story U.S. Bank Center in
Milwaukee, this tall building outrigger system has got a widespread popularity. It
can be seen as a response to fundamental disadvantages of the perimeter and
bundled tube frames developed in the 1960s and 1970s in the United States [1]. Due
to the super height and flexible structure, the super tall buildings may get large
deformation from the overturning moments and the lateral displacements at the
upper floors. A tall building structure which incorporates an outrigger system can
experience a reduction in core overturning moment up to 40% compared to a free
cantilever, as well as a significant reduction in drift depending on the rigidities of
the core and the outrigger system [3]. Smith and Nwaka analyzed the internal force
and displacement of the enhanced story structure, and gave simplified formulas for
restraint moment of the enhanced story, reduction of top displacement and optimal
position of the reinforced story [4]. Coull and Lau analyzed the top displacement
and the base moment of the structure with multiple reinforcement stories under the
action of horizontal concentrated load at the top and horizontal load with triangular
distribution, and gave the general formula for determining the optimal position of
the reinforcement stories by using linear regression method [2]. Zhao and Liu
proposed sensitivity vector method for determining optimum outrigger Number and
position of super high-rise structures with outriggers [5].
In this paper, by analyzing the variation of the maximum story drift ratio and the
natural vibration period of the structure when the single outrigger is placed, the
influence of the setting of the outrigger truss on the structural stiffness character-
istics is explained. On this basis, the number and position of the outrigger truss can
be determined quickly by using the independence of the action of the outrigger truss
in different positions and the vector product algorithm.
Optimal Placement of Rigid Outriggers ... 541
2 Story Drift Ratio Sensitivity Analysis
2.1 Calculation Principle of Story Drift Ratio
The calculation of the story drift ratio of a building under earthquake is mainly
based on the modal story drift ratio of each mode bj , bj multiplied by the modal
amplitude kj , and the component of mode j of the story drift ratio can be obtained.
dj ¼ bj kj ð1Þ
aj c j
kj ¼ ð2Þ
x2j
In the formula: kj is the modal amplitude of the mode j; aj the acceleration of the
mode j, which is the period of the first mode multiplied by the acceleration of
gravity in the seismic response spectrum; cj is the modal participation factor of the
mode j; and xj is the circular frequency of the mode j.
For each order modal component of the story drift ratio, the SRSS mode com-
bination method is used to obtain the story drift ratio, that is:
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
u N
uX 2
d¼t dj ð3Þ
j¼1
It should be noted that the structural response is different from the first-order
mode control under wind load. The structural response analysis under seismic
action should consider the higher-order mode and adopt the mode-superposition
response spectrum method.
2.2 Calculation Principle of Sensitivity Vector Method
The basic principle of the sensitivity vector method is to calculate the relative
independence of the influence of different outrigger positions on the structure when
the distance between the outriggers is large. The calculation process can be as
follows: use S0 to indicate the structure without the outrigger truss status.
The vector d0 represents a vector composed of the story drift ratio of the layers
corresponding to the structural state S0 , Si represents the structural state of the
outrigger truss only in the region i, and the vector di represents the story drift ratio
vector of the corresponding structural state Si . If the number of rigid outriggers is
more than one, the position of the set outrigger can be written in the lower right
corner. For example, indicates structural state of the outrigger truss in zone i and
542 X. Zhao et al.
zone j. d2;8 denotes the story drift ratio vector corresponding to the structural state
S2;8 . Define the dimensionless story drift ratio sensitivity ri . vector as:
fri g ¼ di :=d0 ð4Þ
Here ./represents the division operation of the vector. Actually, ri expressed the
influence of the setting of the outrigger truss on story drift ratio of the structure in
Zone i, reflecting the correlation between the setting of the outrigger truss and the
story drift ratio of the structure. The outrigger truss is generally combined with the
building partition, and the interval is about 10 layers. It can be considered that the
impact of the outrigger truss of each area on the overall structural rigidity is
independent of each other, and the following relationship can be obtained:

ri;j;k ¼ fri g frj g frk g ð5Þ
Here .* represents the multiplication of the vector. According to the above

formula, the story drift ratio of structures with combined outrigger trusses in
arbitrary area can be calculated. The sensitivity vectors of the story drift ratio are
calculated
separately when the single-zone outrigger truss is installed, and fri g,
rj , frk g are obtained by multiplying, and according to the following formula, the

story drift ratio vector di;j;k of the structure with both outriggers is obtained.

di;j;k ¼ ri;j;k d0 ð6Þ
Finally, the optimal setting scheme of the outriggers under different number of
outriggers is compared, and the optimal setting scheme of the outriggers with the
fewest number of outriggers is obtained.
3 Case Study
Take engineering Wujiaba in Kunming as an example. The building is a 428 m

super high-rise building. It is a typical frame-tube structure. The structural system is
shown in Fig. 1. It consists of a frame concrete core-tube and 24 columns that are
incline inward. The rigid outriggers can be placed in the equipment layer and the
refuge story. There are a total of 6 zones, and up to 6 outriggers can be arranged.
The results are shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 and Table 1. It can be seen that the
control of the maximum story drift ratio of the structure in the high zone is better.
It can be seen from Fig. 2 that the rigidity of the structure is increased after the
outrigger truss is set, and the natural vibration period of the structure is significantly
reduced. At the same time, the contribution of the outrigger truss to the stiffness of
the structure is related to the position of the set, and the effect of the lowering of the
natural vibration period is more obvious. As can be seen from Table 1 and Fig. 3.
In the case of single outrigger truss, the optimal position of outrigger truss is in zone
Fig. 1 Structural system
7.300
7.172
7.200
7.136
7.089 7.084
1st mode period/s
7.100
6.941
7.000
6.844
6.900
6.800
6.700
6.576
6.600
6.500
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Outrigger number
Fig. 2 1st mode period of single outrigger
1/476
1/488
Story Drift
1/500
1/513
1/526
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Outtrigger Location
Fig. 3 Maximum story drift of single outrigger
Table 1 Story drift ratio of single outrigger

OT Location 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Story drift ratio 1/497 1/486 1/495 1/505 1/520 1/524 1/504
1st mode period 7.172 6.799 7.020 6.993 7.114 7.136 7.155
544 X. Zhao et al.
5. In the super high-rise mixed structure, the maximum story drift ratio generally
appears in the upper part of the structure. It is obviously a more effective scheme to
set the upper outrigger truss first, and the lower outrigger setting outrigger has a
poor control effect on the maximum story drift ratio. It even makes the story drift
ratio increase.
4 The Effect of the Number of Outriggers

on the Structural Performance
According to the story drift ratio of different outrigger positions, the optimal
outrigger position calculated by the sensitivity vector method is shown in Table 2.
Figure 4 shows a more intuitive representation of the story drift ratio plot for the
optimal placement of the different number of outriggers systems.
In this project, the outrigger is arranged in the 4,5 area to optimize the story drift
ratio, and the arrangement in the 1,2 area increases maximum story drift ratio.
The final solution selects the rigid outrigger arrangement position as the area 4,
5, a total of 2 outriggers. It can also be seen from the model analysis results that the
optimal position of the rigid outrigger arrangement is about 2/3 of the height of the
structure, and the excessive number of outriggers is arranged to increase the overall
stiffness of the structure. But for the maximum story drift ratio, overall indicator
optimization is not necessarily effective.
Based on the data in Table 1, Table 2, it can be found that the sensitivity of
position of the rigid outrigger to the story drift ratio is 5, 4, 3, 6, 2, 1, and the 4, 5
areas is the most effective. And its combination effect is the best. However, if only
three outriggers are arranged, the 456 combination is better than 345 combinations,
which shows that the optimal position of the three outriggers is not determined by
the three most sensitive positions. If only two outriggers are arranged, 46 combi-
nations is better than 56 combinations also show that the optimal combination of
story drift ratio is not necessarily the most sensitive combination of several
outrigger regions.
Table 2 Story drift ratio under different number of outriggers

Outrigger number 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Optimal location 0 5 45 456 3456 23456 123456
Maximum story drift 1/ 1/ 1/ 1/ 1/ 1/551 1/538
ratio 497 524 549 549 555
X direction period 7.172 7.136 7.089 7.084 6.941 6.844 6.576
Fig. 4 Story drift ratio of

sensitivity vector method
From the above analysis, the sensitivity vector method is suitable for the
structure of the high-intensity seismic zone in the case where the number of the
outriggers is relatively small. However, as the number of outrigger trusses
increases, the rigidity of the structure becomes larger and larger, and the seismic
force of the structure is also increased. Therefore, from this point of view, the
number of outriggers is not as good as possible.
5 Conclusions
In this paper, sensitivity vector method is used to optimize the arrangement of

minimum outrigger system under the condition of meeting the maximum story drift
ratio limit. The influence of outrigger on the story drift ratio of the structure is
analyzed and the optimal arrangement of outrigger in the same number is com-
pleted. The following conclusions are drawn:
(1) Increasing the number of rigid outriggers always reduce the natural vibration
period of the structure, and optimize the story drift ratio in the adjacent area of
the additional outriggers, but may have a negative effect on the story drift ratio
in other areas.
(2) For the optimization of the story drift ratio, the optimal position is about
two-thirds of the height of the structure.
(3) The natural vibration period can reflect the overall stiffness of the structure, but
cannot reflect the lateral stiffness of local structure. Therefore, it is very
important to arrange the number and position of the outrigger reasonably.
(4) The sensitivity vector method can be used not only for the analysis of the story
drift ratio under wind load of a single mode, but also for the seismic load of
multi-mode.
546 X. Zhao et al.
References
1. Choi H, Choi H, Ho G, Joseph L, Mathias N (2012) Outrigger Design of High-Rise Buildings:

An output of the CTBUH Outrigger Working Group. Council on Tall and Urban Habitat,
Chicago
2. Coull A, Lau WHO (1988) Outrigger braced structures subjected to equivalent static seismic
loading. In: Cheung YK, Lee PKK (eds) Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on
Tall Buildings, Hong Kong and Shanghai, vol 1, Hong Kong, pp 395–401
3. Lame A (2008) Optimization of Outrigger Structures, Ph. D. thesis, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
4. Smith BS, Nwaka IO (1980) Behavior of Multi-Outrigger Braced Tall Building Structures, ACI
Special Publication SP-63 (Reinforced concrete structures subjected to wind and earthquake
forces), pp 515–541
5. Zhao X, Liu NX, Zheng YM, Ding JM (2011) Sensitivity vectors method that fast determine
optimal arrangement of outriggers for super tall buildings with outrigger systems. Build Struct
41, 5:20–23, 51 1002–848X
Calculation of Structural Response
and Response Sensitivity with Improved
Substructuring Method
J. J. Li, G. J. Yang, S. Weng, and Y. Y. Yan
Abstract Structural response and response sensitivity play an important role in the
fields of model updating, damage identification and dynamic optimization.
Calculation of response and response sensitivity of a large and complex structure
usually takes up considerable computational time. This paper proposes a sub-
structuring method to calculate the structural response and response sensitivity,
where the vibration equation is represented by a few master eigenvectors of inde-
pendent substructures and compensated by a residue. The response sensitivity with
respect to a parameter is calculated from the eigenvector derivatives of its related
substructure solely whereas the derivatives of other substructures are zeros. The size
of the simplified vibration equation is equal to that of the master eigenvectors
retained, which is much smaller than the original vibration equation. The proposed
method is applied to a practical bridge structure. The case study verifies that the
proposed method is highly efficient and accurate to calculate the structural response
and response sensitivity.
Keywords Substructuring method Structural response Response sensitivity

Residue Master eigenvector
J. J. Li S. Weng (&)
School of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, Huazhong University of Science and
Technology, Wuhan 430074, Hubei, People’s Republic of China
e-mail: wengshun@hust.edu.cn
J. J. Li
e-mail: jiajingli@hust.edu.cn
G. J. Yang Y. Y. Yan
Department of Science and Technology, China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group Co. Ltd,
Chengdu 610031, Sichuan, China
e-mail: 445380616@qq.com
Y. Y. Yan

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_53
548 J. J. Li et al.
1 Introduction
Structural response and response sensitivity are widely used in the vibration-based
model updating, optimization design and damage identification. In the
sensitivity-based model updating and optimization [9, 10]. The objective function is
formed by a weighted sum of difference between the measured and calculated
structural response. The design parameters are modified iteratively to minimize the
objective function. Response sensitivity, which is the first derivative of the struc-
tural response with respect to design parameters, indicates the searching direction in
the process of optimization [1].
There are a wide range of methods dedicated to calculate the structural response
and response sensitivity. For example, Newmark integration [3], state space method
[2], condensation method [4], etc. However, methods mentioned above, which are
classified into global methods, need tremendous computer memory and computa-
tional time to calculate structural response and response sensitivity of a large-scale
structure with thousands of degrees of freedom (DOFs) and a large number of
design parameters.
The substructuring method is superior to the global method for large-scale
structures and receives great attention in recent decades [5]. The basic procedure of
the substructuring method begins with dividing the global structure into several
independent substructures of smaller size. After analyzed separately, these sub-
structures are assembled based on compatibility and equilibrium conditions to
obtain the designated solution of the global structure. The substructuring method is
more advantageous than the global method in several aspects. Firstly, substructures
have smaller size and fewer design parameters compared with that of the global
structure. Secondly, to recognize the local behavior, the substructuring method
allows the analysis of a few related substructures solely instead of re-analyzing the
global system as a whole. For example, in the process of model updating, only
substructures which contain the design parameters need to be re-analyzed while
other substructures remain untouched. Thirdly, the substructuring method can be
more efficient when combined with model reduction technique [6, 7].
This paper proposes a substructuring method to calculate structural response and
response sensitivity of a structure. The global structure is divided into several
independent substructures with smaller size. The vibration equation of the global
structure is expressed by the eigenvectors of independent substructures. The size of
global vibration equation is reduced by retaining the master (lower) eigenvectors of
substructures, whereas the contribution of slave (higher) counterparts are com-
pensated by a residue. The dynamic response of the global structure are calculated
from the reduced vibration equation efficiently. The response sensitivity with
respect to a design parameter of the global structure are calculated by directly
differentiating the reduced vibration equation, in which the derivatives of one
substructure that contains the designed element are computed while the derivatives
of other substructures are zeros. Therefore, the proposed substructuring method is
time-saving because it reduces the size of the dynamic vibration equation and
Calculation of Structural Response and Response Sensitivity … 549
avoids re-analyzing the global structure in the calculation of structural sensitivity.

The efficiency and accuracy of the proposed substructuring method are verified by a
practical bridge.
2 Substructuring Method to Structural Response
The substructuring method requires the global structure divided into NS indepen-
dent substructures. The jth (j = 1, 2, …, NS) substructure of nj DOFs has the
stiffness matrix Kð jÞ and mass matrix Mð jÞ . The Rayleigh damping matrix is
Cð jÞ ¼ a1 Mð jÞ þ a2 Kð jÞ . The vibration equation of the jth substructure is written as
n o n o n o
Mð jÞ €xðtÞð jÞ þ Cð jÞ x_ ðtÞð jÞ þ Kð jÞ xðtÞð jÞ ¼ f ðtÞðextjÞ þ f ðtÞðcon
jÞ
ð1Þ
The independent substructure is excited by the external excitation f ðtÞðextjÞ and the
connection forces f ðtÞðcon
jÞ
from the adjacent substructures. €xðtÞð jÞ , x_ ðtÞð jÞ , xðtÞð jÞ are
the acceleration, velocity and displacement response of the jth substructure,
respectively.
Assembling the variables of the independent substructures to the primitive form
gives
h i
Mp ¼ Diag Mð1Þ ; Mð2Þ ; . . .; MðNs Þ ð2Þ
h i
Cp ¼ Diag Cð1Þ ; Cð2Þ ; . . .; CðNS Þ ð3Þ
h i
Kp ¼ Diag Kð1Þ ; Kð2Þ ; . . .; KðNS Þ ð4Þ
8 9 8 9 8 9
>
> €xðtÞð1Þ > > >
> x_ ðtÞð1Þ > > >
> xðtÞð1Þ > >
>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
< €xðtÞð2Þ >
> = < x_ ðtÞð2Þ >
> = < xðtÞð2Þ >
> =
p p p
€xðtÞ ¼ ; _
x ðtÞ ¼ ; xðtÞ ¼ ;
> ... >
>
> >
>
>
>
>
.. >
. > >
>
>
>
>
.. >
. > >
>
>
> >
> >
> > >
> >
: ; : ; : ;
€xðtÞðNS Þ x_ ðtÞðNS Þ xðtÞðNS Þ
8 9 8 9 ð5Þ
>
> f ðtÞðext1Þ
>
> >
> f ðtÞðcon
1Þ
>
>
>
> >
> >
> >
>
>
< f ðtÞ = ð 2Þ > < f ðtÞ >
> ð2 Þ =
p ext p con
f ðtÞext ¼ ; f ðtÞcon ¼
>
> .. > > .. >
>
> . > >
>
>
>
> . > >
>
>
: >
; >
: >
ðNS Þ ð NS Þ ;
f ðtÞext f ðtÞcon
550 J. J. Li et al.
Superscript p denotes the primitive variables of independent substructures

without constraints, hereinafter. After assembling, the vibration equation of the
structure is rewritten as
Mp f€xðtÞp g þ Cp fx_ ðtÞp g þ Kp fxðtÞp g¼f ðtÞpext þ f ðtÞpcon ð6Þ
The independent substructures are required to be constrained by the geometric

compatibility, to make the adjacent substructures move jointly at the interface [5].
The displacement constraints are enforced as
DfxðtÞp g ¼ 0 ð7Þ
where D is a connection matrix to make sure the nodes at the interfaces have
identical displacements.
D relates the primitive connection force and its local companion like
f ðtÞpcon ¼ DT fsg ð8Þ
where fsg is the local connection force at the interfaces. Combining Eqs. (6), (7)
and (8), the vibration equation of the global structure is written as

Mp 0 €xðtÞp Cp 0 x_ ðtÞp Kp DT xðtÞp f ðtÞpext
þ þ ¼
0 0 €s 0 0 s_ D 0 s 0
ð9Þ
To improve the computational efficiency, the response is projected onto the

range space of substructural eigenvectors

xðtÞp ¼ Up qðtÞ; x_ ðtÞp ¼ Up qðtÞ;
_ €xðtÞp ¼ Up €
qðtÞ ð10Þ
The vibration equation (Eq. (10)) of the structure is rewritten as

p p
Mp 0 U € qðtÞ C 0 _
Up qðtÞ Kp DT Up qðtÞ
þ þ
0 0 €
s 0 0 s_ D 0 s
f ðtÞpext
¼ ð11Þ
0
where qðtÞ denotes the coordinates of range space in terms of complete eigen-
vectors, and Kp and Up are diagonally assembled eigenvalues and eigenvectors of
substructures as
h i
Kp ¼ Diag Kð1Þ ; Kð2Þ ; . . .; Kð jÞ ; . . .; KðNS Þ ;
h i ð12Þ
Up ¼ Diag Uð1Þ ; Uð2Þ ; . . .; Uð jÞ ; . . .; UðNS Þ
Eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the jth substructure are calculated from its
eigenequation Kð jÞ Uð jÞ ¼Kð jÞ Mð jÞ Uð jÞ
The eigenpairs in primitive form also satisfy the orthogonal properties of
½Up T Mp Up ¼ Ip ; ½Up T Kp Up ¼ Kp ; ½Up T Cp Up ¼ a1 Ip þ a2 Kp ð13Þ
Due to the orthogonal conditions of the structure as Eq. (13), the vibration
equation of the structure Eq. (11) is therefore simplified to
p
Ip 0 €qðtÞ a I þ a2 Kp 0 _
qðtÞ Kp ½DUp T qðtÞ
þ 1 þ
0 0 €s 0 0 s_ DUp 0 s
p T p
½U f ðtÞext
¼
0
ð14Þ
The vibration equation without considering damping force is used to derive the
simplified vibration equation for brevity in the following,

Ip 0 €qðtÞ Kp ½DUp T qðtÞ ½Up T f ðtÞpext
þ ¼ ð15Þ
0 0 €s DUp 0 s 0
In Eq. (15), Up includes all eigenvectors of independent substructures. It needs

to compute whole eigensolutions of each substructure to construct the range space
for projection. This is time-consuming. To improve efficiency, a few lower
eigenvectors is retained to form the projected range space with the residual ones
discarded directly.
The first lower eigensolutions are selected as the master eigensolutions. The
residual higher eigensolutions are treated as the slave eigensolutions. Hereinafter,
the subscripts m and s denote the master and slave variables, respectively. The
master and slave eigensolutions are assembled separately like
h i h i
Kpm ¼ Diag Kðm1Þ ; Kðm2Þ ; . . .; KðmjÞ ; . . .; KðmNS Þ ; Upm ¼ Diag Uðm1Þ ; Uðm2Þ ; . . .; UðmjÞ ; . . .; UðmNS Þ
ð16Þ
h i h i
Kps ¼ Diag Kðs1Þ ; Kðs2Þ ; . . .; Kðs jÞ ; . . .; KðsNS Þ ; Ups ¼ Diag Uðs1Þ ; Uðs2Þ ; . . .; Uðs jÞ ; . . .; UðsNS Þ
ð17Þ
T T
Denoting Cm ¼ DUpm and Cs ¼ DUps , the vibration Eq. (15) is rewritten
according to the master eigenvectors and slave eigenvectors as
552 J. J. Li et al.
2 38 9 2 p 38 9
Ipm 0 0 < €qðtÞm = Km 0 Cm < qðtÞm =
4 0 Ip 0 5 €qðtÞ þ 4 0 Kps Cs 5 qðtÞs
s
: s
; : ;
0 80 0 €s 9 CTm CTs 0 s
p T
< Um f ðtÞext >
> p
=
p T
¼ p
U f ðtÞext > ð18Þ
>
: s ;
0
The third line of Eq. (18) has
CTs qðtÞs ¼ CTm qðtÞm ð19Þ
Combining the second line of Eq. (18) and Eq. (19) leads to

1
1
s ¼ CTs Kps Cs CTm qðtÞm ð20Þ
Submitting Eq. (20) into the first line of Eq. (19) gives

1 T
1
€qðtÞm þ Kpm qðtÞm þ Cm CTs Kps Cs CTm qðtÞm ¼ Upm f ðtÞpext ð21Þ
Including the damping matrix, the vibration Eq. (21) of the structure is rewritten
as

1
1
€qðtÞm þ a1 Ipm þ a2 Kpm qðtÞ
_ m þ Kpm qðtÞm þ Cm CTs Kps Cs CTm qðtÞm
p T
¼ Um f ðtÞpext ð22Þ
_ m and €qðtÞm are the coordinates on the range space, and

In Eq. (22), qðtÞm , qðtÞ
can be calculated by Newmark method [3]. The residue

1
1
Cm CTs Kps Cs CTm qðtÞm accounts for the contribution of the slave eigenpairs.
In the residue,
1 1 p T T
CTs Kps Cs ¼ DUps Kps Us D ð23Þ

1 h iT
1 h iT
1 h iT
1 p T
Ups Kps Us ¼ Diag Uðs1Þ Kðs1Þ Uðs1Þ ; . . .; Uðs jÞ Kðs jÞ Uðs jÞ ; . . .; UðsNS Þ KðsNS Þ UðsNS Þ
ð24Þ
which can be calculated from the master eigenvectors. In the jth substructure,

1 h iT
1
1 h iT
Uðs jÞ Kðs jÞ Uðs jÞ ¼ Kð jÞ UðmjÞ KðmjÞ UðmjÞ ð25Þ
Afterwards, dynamic response of global structure is recovered from the range

space

xðtÞp ¼ Upm qðtÞm ; x_ ðtÞp ¼ Upm qðtÞ
_ m ; €xðtÞp ¼ Upm €
qðtÞm ð26Þ
The size of reduced vibration equation (Eq. (22)) is equal to that of the retained
master eigenvectors, which is much smaller than the original one (Eq. (9)). Besides,
the contribution of discarded eigenvectors in the proposed method is taken into
consideration by a residue. Predictably, calculation of structural response by the
proposed method is faster than the global method and is accurate at the same time.
3 Substructuring Method to Response Sensitivity
Response sensitivity is the derivative of structural response with respect to design

parameters. Proposed method is employed to calculate response sensitivity.
Differentiating Eq. (22) with respect to a design parameter r on both sides gives

1 @qðtÞ
@€qðtÞm p @ qðtÞ
_ m 1
þ a1 Im þ a2 Kpm þ Kpm þ Cm CTs Kps Cs CTm m
@r @r @r
0
1 1
T p p 1
@ Upm @ a I
1 m þ a K
2 m
p
B@K
p @C m C T
s K s Cs CTm C
¼ f ðtÞpext _ m@ m þ
qðtÞ AqðtÞm
@r @r @r @r
ð27Þ
The right side of Eq. (27) is considered as an equivalent force. The coordinate
_ m =@r and @€qðtÞm =@r) related to structural sensitivity
derivatives (@qðtÞm =@r,@ qðtÞ
are calculated from Eq. (27) by the Newmark method. The derivative associated
with the residue is written as

1
1
1 1
@Cm CTs Kps Cs CTm @ CTs Kps Cs
1 @CT
1
¼ Cm CTm þ 2Cm CTs Kps Cs m
@r @r @r
ð28Þ

where @ Upm =@r and @Kpm =@r are the diagonal assemblies of the eigenvalue
derivatives and eigenvector derivatives of substructures, respectively.

1
1
@ CTs Kps Cs =@r is the derivative matrix related to @ Upm =@r and @Kpm =@r.
Substructures are independent. If the design parameter r is contained in the Rth
substructure, the derivative matrices are calculated in the Rth substructure only.
Other substructures are not related to the parameter, and the derivative matrices of
other substructures are zeros.
554 J. J. Li et al.
2 3 2 3
0 0 0 0 0 0
6 .. .. .. .. .. 7 6 .. . . .. .. .. 7
6. . . . . 7 p 6 . . . . .7
@Kpm 6 ðRÞ
@Km 7 @ Um 6 @ ½Um
ðRÞ 7
¼6
6
0 @r 0 7;
7
6
¼ 60 @r 07 7 ð29Þ
@r 6 .. .. .. .. .. 7 @r 6. . .. .. .. 7
4. . . . .5 4 .. .. . . .5
0 0 0 0 0 0
Within the Rth substructure, the master eigenvalue derivatives @KðmRÞ =@r and

master eigenvector derivatives @ UðmRÞ =@r can be calculated by treating it as an
independent structure [8].
In consequence, structural response of the global structure are recovered by

@xðtÞp @ Upm @qðtÞm
¼ qðtÞm þ Upm ð30Þ
@r @r @r

@ x_ ðtÞp @ Upm @ qðtÞ
_ m
¼ _ m þ Upm
qðtÞ ð31Þ
@r @r @r

@€xðtÞp @ Upm @€qðtÞm
¼ €qðtÞm þ Upm ð32Þ
@r @r @r
In the proposed substructuring method, the response sensitivity is represented in

range space of master eigenvectors and the derivative of master eigenvectors in one
substructure solely. The coordinate derivatives (@qðtÞm =@r, @ qðtÞ _ m =@r and
@€qðtÞm =@r) are calculated from a small vibration equation. Only one substructure
that contains the design parameter is analyzed to calculate response sensitivity of
global structure, avoiding analyzing the global structure as a whole. This will
greatly improve the computational efficiency. The accuracy and efficiency of the
proposed method will be investigated by the dynamic analysis of a practical bridge.
4 Case Study: A Practical Bridge
A highway bridge is employed here to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of

the proposed method to calculate structural response and response sensitivity. The
finite element (FE) model of the bridge has 907 elements, 947 nodes, and 5420
DOFs with each node 6 DOFs (in Fig. 1). The Rayleigh damping coefficients
a1 = 0.6247 and a2 = 0.0039. It is assumed that the structure is excited by earth-
quake excitation. The bending rigidity of an element located in a pier is selected as
the design parameter r.
Z
Y
X
Fig. 1 FE model of the Balla Balla River Bridge
Table 1 Division Index of Sub 1 Sub 2 Sub 3 Sub 4 Sub 5

information of substructures substructures
Geometric range 0–10 10–20 20–30 30–40 40–54
(m)1
No. element 187 182 132 182 224
No. node 205 212 161 212 251
No. DOFs 1095 1260 966 1260 1371
No. tearing 138 138 138 138
DOFs
1
In longitudinal direction
The global structure is divided into 5 substructures along the longitudinal

direction as shown in Fig. 1. The detailed information of the 5 substructures is
listed in Table 1. The first 120 eigenvectors are retained in each substructure to
calculate response and response sensitivity of the global structure. The proposed
method is compared with the exact traditional global method.
Structural response and response sensitivity calculated by proposed and global
methods of one randomly selected node (Y direction) are compared in Figs. 2 and
3, respectively. Curves of displacement, velocity, and acceleration obtained by two
mentioned methods above are in good agreement with each other, respectively.
There is a close resemblance between their derivatives as well. It indicates that the
proposed method is of high precision to calculate the structural response and
response sensitivity of the practical large-scale structure.
556 J. J. Li et al.
Fig. 2 Displacement response
Fig. 3 Displacement sensitivity
Table 2 The running time of the substructuring method and traditional global method
Scheme Response Total Relative Sensitivity Total Relative
Assemble Newmark ratio Assemble Newmark ratio
Time Global 216.1765 216.1765 100.00% 219.9126 219.9126 100.00%

(second) SUB 5.3045 16.5056 21.8101 10.09% 1.4068 20.6515 22.0583 10.03%
Afterwards, computational efficiency of the proposed method is investigated

here. The running time using an ordinary personal computer of 4.00 GHz CPU and
16 GB memory is listed in Table 2. ‘Global’ represents the traditional global
method, and ‘SUB’ represents the proposed substructuring method. ‘Assemble’
denotes the process of calculating substructural eigensolutions and forming the
reduced vibration equation, and ‘Newmark’ denotes the time consumed using
Newmark method.
It can be seen from Table 2 that, the proposed method takes 5.3045 s to calculate
the master eigensolutions and form the reduced vibration equation, and takes
16.5054 s to solve the vibration equation by Newmark method. The substructuring
method takes only 21.8101 s to calculate structural response, just 10.09% of that
consumed by global method (216.1765 s). The proposed method takes 1.4068 s to
form the reduced sensitivity equation, and 20.6515 s to solve the reduced sensi-
tivity equation by Newmark method. The global method takes 219.9126 s to solve
the global sensitivity equation. The substructuring method takes 22.0586 s to cal-
culate the response sensitivity, about 10.03% of the global method. Obviously, the
proposed method greatly improves the efficiency of calculating structural response
and response sensitivity up to almost ten times as fast as the traditional global
method. This is because, the size of original vibration equation is 5400 5400,
which is reduced to 600 600 by employing the proposed substructuring method.
Since the computational effort of the structural analysis is approximately propor-
tional to the cubic of the size of the vibration equation, the computational work
could be reduced drastically with a decrease in the size of the vibration equation.
It is noted that, the assemble time is negligible as compared to that of Newmark
method with a long-time excitation and a large number of time steps. In this paper,
there are only 15001 time steps (Dt = 1/500 s) considered in this case study to
calculate the structural responses and response sensitivities, and a middle-scale
bridge with 5400 DOFs are used for illustration. The proposed method can be more
promising if a large structure with more DOFs and a larger amount of time step is
employed.
5 Conclusions
In this paper, a substructuring method is proposed to calculate structural response

and response sensitivity. The vibration equation is transformed to a smaller one by
representing the structural response with a few master eigenvectors. The influence
of discarded slave eigenvectors are compensated by a residue. The dynamic
response of the global structure is calculated from this reduced and simplified
vibration equation. Response sensitivity with respect to a design parameter of the
global structure is calculated from the derivative of one substructure that contains
the element, while the derivatives of other substructures are zeros. The case study
presented herein demonstrates that the proposed method is quite efficient to cal-
culate the structural response and response sensitivity. The required computational
time of a bridge structure is about ten percent of those by the traditional global
method. The proposed substructuring method can achieve a good degree of accu-
racy when proper master eigenvectors are retained. The proposed method is
promising to be used in sensitivity-based model updating.
558 J. J. Li et al.
Acknowledgements The research is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China

(NSFC, contract number: 51922046, 51778258), Basic Research Program of China
(2016YFC0802002), Fundamental Research Funds of the Central Universities (HUST:
2016JCTD113, 2014TS130 and 2015MS064).
References
1. Lu ZR, Law SS (2007) Features of dynamic response sensitivity and its application in damage
detection. J Sound Vib 303(1–2):305–329
2. Lu ZR, Law SS (2004) State-space approach to calculate sensitivity of dynamic response. In:
Proceedings of IMECE04, ASME international mechanical engineering congress and
exposition, Anaheim, California, USA
3. Newmark NM (1959) A method of computation for structural dynamics. J Eng Mech
Div ASCE 85(1):67–94
4. Weng S, Tian W, Zhu HP, Xia Y, Gao F, Zhang YT, Li JJ (2017) Dynamic condensation
approach to calculation of structural response and response sensitivity. Mech Syst Signal
Process 88:302–317
5. Klerk DD, Rixen DJ, Voormeeren SN (2008) General framework for dynamic substructuring:
history, review, and classification of techniques. AIAA J 46(5):1169–1181
6. Weng S, Xia Y, Xu YL, Zhou XQ, Zhu HP (2009) Improved substructuring method for
eigensolutions of large-scale structures. J Sound Vib 323(3–5):718–736
7. Craig RR, Bampton MCC (1968) Coupling of substructures for dynamic analyses. AIAA J 6
(7):1313–1319
8. Nelson RB (1976) Simplified calculation of eigenvector derivatives. AIAA J 24(14):1201–
1205
9. Zhu HP, Mao L, Weng S (2014) A sensitivity-based structural damage identification method
with unknown input excitation using transmissibility concept. J Sound Vib 333:7135–7150
10. Ebrahimian H, Astroza R, Conte JP (2015) Extended Kalman filter for material parameter
estimation in nonlinear structural finite element models using direct differentiation method.
Earthquake Eng Struct Dynam 44:1495–1522
Influence of Soil-Structure Interaction
on Dynamics of Offshore Wind Turbine
Structure
T. Wansuwan and Y. Sapsathiarn
Abstract Offshore wind turbines have a potential to provide a reliable alternative

source of energy. The wind turbine structure must be designed by keeping the
fundamental natural frequency of the system away from the excitation frequencies
so as to avoid the resonance condition. This paper presents a finite element-based
dynamic analysis of offshore wind turbines with monopile foundations including
the soil-structure interaction effects to assess the natural frequencies of wind turbine
systems. The model for wind turbine structure developed herein is based on the
Euler-Bernoulli beam-column theory with a varying stiffness along its length.
A tapered tubular wind turbine column is considered for analysis. Selected
numerical results are presented to portray the influence of various foundation
systems, i.e., fixed support, elastic end-support model with a set of springs and
nonlinear p-y model, on natural frequency of offshore wind turbines. The numerical
results for selected case studies suggest that the interaction between the foundation
and wind turbine structure should be taken into consideration in the analysis for
evaluating the natural frequency of offshore wind turbine systems.

Keywords Offshore wind turbine Natural frequency Soil-structure interaction

Foundation stiffness Dynamics Monopile p-y curve
1 Introduction
Offshore wind turbines provide an alternative source for clean renewable energy [9,
12, 13]. Monopile support is among the most commonly used foundations for
offshore wind turbine systems. In order to avoid the dynamic amplification and
T. Wansuwan Y. Sapsathiarn (&)

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,
Mahidol University, Phutthamonthon, Thailand
e-mail: yasothorn.sap@mahidol.edu
T. Wansuwan
e-mail: thanyawut.was@student.mahidol.ac.th

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_54
560 T. Wansuwan and Y. Sapsathiarn
fatigue damage, the structures for offshore wind turbine are dynamically sensitive
and must be designed so that the natural frequency of the structures is kept away
from the excitation frequencies. The estimation of the natural frequency of wind
turbine structures is therefore of crucial importance in the design phase.
Analysis of offshore wind turbine structures is challenging due to the dynamic
nature of offshore loadings such as wind and wave loadings, the rotational fre-
quency of the turbine and the blade passing frequency. The soft-stiff design
approach is widely used for offshore wind turbine. Its underlying design philosophy
is to the design the fundamental frequency of the offshore wind turbine to fall in the
gap between the rotational frequency of the turbine and the blade passing fre-
quency. Owing to the soil-structure interaction, which significantly influences the
dynamic behavior of offshore wind turbines, many researchers have developed
different methods to address this issue. Arany et al. [3] showed that the predicted
natural frequency of offshore wind turbines based on Rayleigh beam and shear
deformable Timoshenko beam do not provide a significant improvement in the
results and concluded that the Euler–Bernoulli model is sufficiently accurate. In
addition, Arany et al. [4] developed a simplified model of the wind turbine structure
in which the tapered tower is replaced by an idealized tower with an equivalent
uniform cross-sectional area. The average diameter from the actual top and bottom
diameters of the tower is employed in their idealized model together with a coef-
ficient introduced for the correction of bending stiffness of the wind turbine tower.
Adhikari and Bhattacharya [1] developed a simplified approach for dynamic
analysis of wind turbine towers with flexible foundations. Zaaijer [15] predicted
natural frequencies and studied the sensitivity for several foundation models. Bisoi
et al. [5] studied the parameters that affect the dynamic responses for offshore wind
turbine in clay considering soil–structure interaction on a p-y curve foundation
model. The natural frequency is compared by initial stiffness and secant stiffness on
varying load condition. Yi et al. [14] studied the influence of pile-soil-interaction on
natural frequency of bottom-fixed offshore wind turbines with allowance for
material uncertainties. Linearization is carried out to approximate the secant stiff-
ness of nonlinear spring for investigating the natural frequencies. The result indi-
cated that the variation of load significantly affects the natural frequency of offshore
wind turbine structure in monopile foundation type. More recently, Jalbi et al. [10]
presented a method to predict the cyclic loading profiles for offshore wind turbine
and compared ratios of max/min loading in case studies of offshore wind turbine
which will be analyzed in this paper.
A finite element-based dynamic analysis of offshore wind turbines with mono-
pile foundations including the soil-structure interaction effects is developed to
assess the natural frequencies of wind turbine systems. The dynamic model of wind
turbine structure is based on the Euler-Bernoulli beam-column theory with varying
stiffness. The soil-structure-interaction between the wind turbine structure and the
foundation is accounted by two foundation models, i.e., a non-linear p-y foundation
model and an elastic end-support model with a set of springs. Selected numerical
results are presented to portray the influence of various foundation systems on
natural frequency of offshore wind turbines.
Influence of Soil-Structure Interaction on Dynamics … 561
Fig. 1 a Typical monopile

offshore wind turbine and Blade
b model of offshore wind
turbine system
Nacelle Lump mass
Hub
Lt Lt
Mean sea level
Transition piece Ls Ls
p-y curve
Mud line
t-z curve
Lp
Lp
q-z curve
(a) (b)
2 Offshore Wind Turbine Model and Case Studies
Figure 1(a) shows a typical monopile offshore wind turbine system. The wind
turbine system comprises a tower, transition piece and a monopile foundation as
shown in Fig. 1. The tower is typically a tubular tapered column. The mean sea
level and mud line are also depicted in Fig. 1. The foundation is defined as the part
of the wind turbine system embedded below the mudline in the ground (see Fig. 1
(a)) in which the interaction between the monopile foundation and the surrounding
soil was considered.
The model of offshore wind turbine system considered is shown in Fig. 1(b).
The actual dimensions of tapered tower are used for the analysis. The analysis was
carried out by using SAP2000 finite element-based program. The tower and the
substructure are represented by Euler-Bernoulli beams. The rotor nacelle assembly
is considered as a lumped mass at the top head. Foundation system is considered by
a nonlinear p-y model.
The p-y curve is a widely used method to analyze the horizontal load–dis-
placement behavior of piles [5, 6, 16]. The surrounding soils are discretized by set
of nonlinear springs which represented the soil behavior as shown in Fig. 1(b). In
the foundation system of wind turbine, the lateral resistances of the soil against the
foundation movements (p-y spring) and the vertical springs attached to the
monopile are applied to simulate the shaft friction (t-z spring) and end bearing
capacity at the tip of the monopile (q-z spring) as shown in Fig. 1. The properties of
the soil springs are described by the p-y, t-z and q-z curves as recommended in API
[2] and DNV-OS-J101 [8].
The influence of various parameters on the fundamental natural frequency is
investigated based on the following three case studies of wind turbines with
available data from the paper by Arany et al. [4]:
• Case study I: Belwind offshore wind farm, Vestas V90 3 MW (Belgium)
• Case study II: Barrow offshore wind farm, Vestas V90 3 MW (UK)
• Case study III: Kentish Flats offshore wind farm, Vestas V90 3 MW (UK)
Parameters for all three case studies are given in Table 1 [4]. Table 2 presents
parameters for monopile and the corresponding stiffness of the offshore wind tur-
bines considered [4]. Soil parameters for Belwind offshore wind farm (Case study I)
are presented in Table 3. Soil data for the other cases can be found in Jalbi et al.
[10] and Damgaard et al. [7] but the data is not presented herein.
Table 1 Parameters for Parameters (Unit) Wind turbine case

offshore wind turbine study
structure considered
I II III
Mass of rotor-nacelle assembly (ton) 130.8 130.8 130.8
Tower height Lt (m) 53 58 60
Tower bottom diameter (m) 4.3 4.45 4.45
Tower top diameter (m) 2.3 2.3 2.3
Average tower wall thickness (mm) 28 32 22
Tower Young’s modulus (GPa) 210 210 210
Tower weight (ton) 120 153 108
Platform height above mudline Ls (m) 37 33 22
Table 2 Parameters for Parameters (Unit) Wind turbine case study

monopile and corresponding
I II III
stiffness of offshore wind
turbines Monopile diameter (m) 5 4.75 4.3
Monopile wall thickness (mm) 70 80 45
Monopile Young’s modulus (GPa) 210 210 210
Pile embedded length Lp (m) 35 40 30
Lateral stiffness KL (GN/m) 1.02 1.03 0.82
Cross stiffness KLR (GN) −7.59 −7.68 −5.42
Rotational stiffness KR (GN/rad) 91.93 93.45 58.77
Table 3 Detailed soil Type of soil Depth (m) c′ (kN/m3) u (deg) cu (kPa)
conditions for offshore wind
turbine structure at Belwind Dense sand −15 9.0 40 –
offshore wind farm (Case Stiff clay −17 8.5 – 175
study I) Dense sand −30 9.0 40 –
1200 1200 H=3m

v = 15 m/s H=1m
v = 10 m/s H = 0.5 m
v = 5 m/s
Wave Loading (kN)

Thrust Force (kN)
800 800
400 400
0 0
0 100 200 300 400 0 100 200 300 400
Time (s) Time (s)
(a) (b)
Fig. 2 a Thrust force time history with wind speeds of 5, 10 and 15 m/s and b wave load time
history for significant wave heights 0.5, 1 and 3 m
3 Natural Frequency Analysis and Discussion
In this section, selected numerical results are presented to show the influence of
various parameters on the natural frequencies of offshore wind turbine systems.
Linearization is employed for transforming the nonlinear p-y model to equivalent
linear system. The secant stiffness is calculated by considering the magnitude of
pile stiffness which depends on the dynamic loads (i.e., wind and wave loads). The
secant stiffness is determined by increasing lateral load in increments of 10% up to
the extreme loading conditions of the wind turbine [15]. Nonlinear dynamic anal-
ysis is carried out when the loading time history data are available.
The nonlinear soil springs are linearized by considering the wind and wave loads
which are determined from thrust forces based on time history analysis [11]. The
thrust forces acting on offshore wind turbines are considered at the rated wind speed
in which high thrust forces with significant fluctuations are generated [14]. Figure 2
(a) shows the time history of thrust forces with wind speed of 5, 10 and 15 m/s for
normal turbulence models. For wave loading, the JONSWAP spectrum and Morison
equation are used to simulate the wave load time history. The total wave load is
obtained as the summation of drag and inertia components arising from the velocity
and acceleration of water particles, respectively [10]. The time history data of wave
loading for significant wave height = 0.5, 1 and 3 m is presented in Fig. 2(b).
Table 4 Numerical results for fundamental frequency of offshore wind turbines considered
Case Wind First natural frequency (Hz)
study farm Measurement Fixed-support Elastic end-support p-
[4] model y model
I Belwind 0.372 0.475 0.381 0.375
II Barrow 0.369 0.460 0.380 0.379
III Kentish 0.339 0.415 0.348 0.335
Flats
p-y curve
KR KL
t-z curve
KLR
q-z curve
(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 3 Foundation types of offshore wind turbine systems: a fixed support, b elastic end-support
model with a set of springs and c nonlinear p-y model
In order to calculate the secant stiffness of p-y analysis, the lowest total loading
condition under normal operating conditions is considered [10]. The wind load
applied at the top of the wind turbine tower is 500 kN and the wave load applied at
the mean sea level is 250 kN.
Table 4 presents the numerical results for the natural frequency of offshore wind
turbines considered. Three foundation models for offshore wind turbine systems are
considered in the analysis, namely, fixed support, elastic end-support model with a set
of springs and nonlinear p-y model as shown in Figs. 3(a), (b) and (c), respectively.
For an elastic end-support model (see Fig. 3(b)), the foundation is represented
by three elastic springs, e.g., lateral KL , rotational KR and cross coupling stiffness
KLR . The force-displacement relation of the foundation may be written as

Fx KL KLR v
¼ ð1Þ
My KLR KR v0
where v and v0 denote the displacement and slope at the foundation, respectively, Fx
is the lateral force, and My is the fore-aft moment.
The numerical results shown in Table 4 show a significant dependence of the
natural frequency on the interaction between foundation and wind turbine structure
and the assumptions used in the various foundation models. As shown in Table 4,
natural frequencies of wind turbines with fixed support are 0.475, 0.460 and
0.415 Hz for Belwind, Barrow and Kentish Flats offshore wind turbine farms,
respectively. Analysis of offshore wind turbines with fixed-support model implies
that the foundation stiffness from the monopile is considered infinite in the analysis
and therefore the soil-structure interaction is not taken into account. It can be seen
from the numerical results in Table 4 that the natural frequencies of offshore wind
turbines with fixed-support are relatively higher than the corresponding natural
frequencies of wind turbines with elastic end-support model and with p-y model for
all case studies considered. The differences in natural frequencies between wind
turbine with fixed-support and the measurement reported by Arany et al. [4] are
27.7, 24.7 and 22.4%, respectively, for Belwind, Barrow and Kentish Flats offshore
wind turbine farms. The analysis for natural frequencies of wind turbines with
elastic end-support model and p-y model show a good agreement with the mea-
surement results reported by Arany et al. [4]. The differences of natural frequencies
are less than 3% for both wind turbines with elastic end-support model and
p-y model cases when compared to the measurements by Arany et al. [4]. The
numerical results suggest that the interaction between the foundation and wind
turbine structure should be taken into account in the analysis for evaluating the
natural frequency of offshore wind turbine systems.
4 Conclusions
In this paper, a finite element model for dynamic analysis of offshore wind turbines
with monopile foundations including the soil-structure interaction effects is
developed to assess the natural frequencies of wind turbines systems. The model of
wind turbine structure developed is based on the Euler-Bernoulli beam-column
theory with varying stiffness. The soil-structure-interaction between the wind tur-
bine structure and the foundation is represented by a non-linear p-y foundation
model. Selected numerical results are presented to portray the influence of various
foundation systems, i.e., fixed support, elastic end-support model with a set of
springs and nonlinear p-y model, on natural frequency of offshore wind turbines.
The investigation is based on three case studies of wind turbines, i.e., Belwind,
Barrow and Kentish Flats offshore wind farms with available data from the liter-
ature. The differences in natural frequencies between wind turbine with
fixed-support and the measurement reported in the literature are relatively high
when compared to the wind turbines with elastic end-support model and p-y model
for all case studies considered.
Acknowledgements This project is partially supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020
Research and Innovation Programme RISE under grant agreement no. 730888 (RESET) and
partially supported by Graduate Studies of Mahidol University Alumni Association, Mahidol
University.
References
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foundations. Shock Vibr 19:37–56
2. API Recommended Practice for Planning (2005) Design and Constructing Fixed Offshore
Platforms – Working Stress Design, American Petroleum Institute Publishing Service,
Washington D.C. pp 56–74
3. Arany L, Bhattacharya S, Adhikari S, Macdonald JHG, Hogan SJ (2015) An analytical model
to predict the natural frequency of offshore wind turbines on three-spring flexible foundations
using two different beam models. Soil Dyn Earthq Eng 74:40–45
4. Arany L, Bhattacharya S, Macdonald JHG, Hogan SJ (2016) Closed form solution of Eigen
frequency of monopile supported offshore wind turbines in deeper waters incorporating
stiffness of substructure and SSI. Soil Dyn Earthq Eng 83:18–32
5. Bisoi S, Haldar S (2014) Dynamic analysis of offshore wind turbine in clay considering soil–
monopile–tower interaction. Soil Dyn Earthq Eng 63:19–35
6. Carswell W, Arwade SR, DeGroot DJ, Myers AT (2016) Natural frequency degradation and
permanent accumulated rotation for offshore wind turbine monopiles in clay. Renew Energy
97:319–330
7. Damgaard M, Ibsen LB, Andersen LV, Andersen JKF (2013) Cross–wind modal properties of
offshore wind turbines identified by full scale testing. J Wind Eng Ind Aerodyn 116:94–108
8. DNV–OS–J101 (2014) Design of Offshore Wind Turbine Structures, DET NORSKE
VERITAS, pp 207–214
9. Hansena MOL, Sørensena JN, Voutsinasb S, Sørensen N, Madsen HA (2006) State of the art
in wind turbine aerodynamics and aeroelasticity. Prog Aerosp Sci 42:285–330
10. Jalbi S, Bisoi L, Salem A, Cui L, Bhattacharya S (2019) A method to predict the cyclic
loading profiles (one–way or two–way) for monopile supported offshore wind turbines. Mar
Struct 63:65–83
11. Mohammadi S, Thomassen MR, Rebelo C (2017) Wind turbine load simulations using two
different servo–hydro–aeroelastic software codes. In: Coordinating engineering for sustain-
ability and resilience conference, Amman, Irbid, Jordan, 3–6 May
12. Njiri JG, Söffker D (2016) State–of–the–art in wind turbine control: trends and challenges.
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13. Van der Tempel J, Molenaar DP (2002) Wind turbine structural dynamics–a review of the
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14. Yi JH, Kim SB, Yoon GL, Andersen L (2015) Natural frequency of bottom-fixed offshore
wind turbines considering pile-soil-interaction with material uncertainties and scouring depth.
Wind Struct 21:625–639
15. Zaaijer M (2004) Design methods for offshore wind turbines at exposed sites, Report
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16. Zuo H, Bi K, Hao H (2018) Dynamic analyses of operating offshore wind turbines including
soil-structure interaction. Eng Struct 157:42–62
Combined Spar and Partially Porous
Wall Fish Cage for Offshore Site
Y. I. Chu and C. M. Wang
Abstract Presented herein is a design concept for an offshore fish farm that
combines a spar platform and a partially porous wall fish cage, named COSPAR
fish cage. The design features a cylindrical cage with an open net for its bottom
portion and a partially porous wall (with specially designed internal section to
attenuate strong surface waves) for its top portion. A hybrid concrete and steel, deep
draft spar platform carries a wind turbine and a control unit for power supply for
remotely controlled fish farming operations. The central spar is connected to the top
and bottom of the cylindrical fish cage by frame structures. The top frames are also
used as walkways to access the central spar and the bottom frames as ballast
compartments for adjusting the draft. By combining fish cage and spar, the meta
centre height can be adjusted to induce a low frequency motion response.
Moreover, an inherently unbalanced mooring tension problem of a mega-scale cage
alone can be resolved by a 4 mooring line system attached to the central spar just
below the bottom of the cage. This novel concept of a combined spar and fish cage
design is able to overcome challenges of a high energy environment, lack of power
supply, and stable mooring system for an offshore fish farm.

Keywords Offshore fish farming Fish cage Spar platform Wind turbine

Partially porous wall Wave attenuation
1 Introduction
Nearshore fish farming industry has to bear criticisms about the degradation of the
sheltered sea environment due to fish wastes and uneaten feedstock. Also, nearshore
fish farms pose a present risk from competing users for the common nearshore sea
Y. I. Chu (&) C. M. Wang

School of Civil Engineering, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
e-mail: y.chu@uq.edu.au
C. M. Wang
e-mail: cm.wang@uq.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_55
570 Y. I. Chu and C. M. Wang
space and a restriction on the expansion of fish production. In response to the

aforementioned criticisms and a demand for expanding fish production, fish farm
operators have begun to consider moving their farms to offshore sites that provide
lots more water space and pristine water that has less parasites and pathogens due to
better water flow for dispersion of waste [5, 6, 9, 16]. However, offshore fish
farming has to contend with a high energy environment that poses challenges for
the structural integrity of the fish cage, and the guarantee of the well-being of the
fish. Hitherto, there is a dearth of rigorous studies to develop feasible cost-effective
solutions for offshore fish farming as most studies have focussed on nearshore fish
farming.
In the open ocean, wave heights can easily reach up to several meters and
non-directional irregular wild waves dominate. The wild wave actions induce risk
not only a normal operation for fish farming, but fish’s well-being as they cause
stress and abrasion of fish as well as problems in feeding. Moreover, fishes have to
use lots of energy to swim against the bigger and irregular waves and this leads to a
retardation of fish’s growth. Therefore, offshore sites are not conducive for fish
farming without an appropriate wave attenuation method to lessen the wave forces
in the fish cage.
Moreover, offshore sites pose less accessibility for fish farmers to carry out the
routine operations of feeding, venturation and maintenance. Thus, offshore fish
farming has to lean on remote technologies such as unmanned surveillance and
autonomous electric equipment/devices. These supporting devices require a con-
stant power supply [10, 19]. So, it is imperative that offshore fish farms have their
own power supply that may be harvested from solar, winds and waves at the site.
The CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) and OPEX (Operational Expenditure) of
offshore fish farms will certainly become much higher than nearshore fish farms [7].
In order to make offshore farming economically viable, the volume of offshore fish
farm has to be much larger than that of nearshore fish farms so as to reach the
economy of scale for fish production. So, an offshore fish cage must be mega large
with a suitable mooring system and has its own power supply system.
In recent years, a few global fish farming companies have suggested some
designs of offshore fish cages and have built them for trial tests at selected offshore
sites. Many of these on-going projects make use of semi-submersible platforms and
steel cages for offshore fish farming. As semi-submersible platforms have been
widely used for the oil and gas industry, it is natural to consider modifying them for
offshore fish farming. The semi-submersible platform offers a range of drafts by
having ballast tanks in the bottom pontoons and column compartments.
SalMar Group, a Norwegian fish farm operator, has developed the Ocean Farm 1
(see Fig. 1a) in a full-scale pilot offshore fish cage. It is now deployed at 5 km off
the coast of central Norway. The steel cage has a diameter of 110 m, a height of
68 m and a volume of 250,000 m3 that is able to accommodate 1.5 million salmons.
It is equipped with more than 20,000 sensors, over 100 monitors and control units.
Ocean Farm 1 can be submerged in deep water by filling the ballast tanks. It is
moored by 8 lines tied at fairleads (that are located at the lower part of the sur-
rounding columns) to the sea bottom foundation. The design is intended for
Combined Spar and Partially Porous Wall Fish Cage… 571
offshore installation in water depths of 100 to 300 m and the cage structure is able
to withstand 8 to 10 m significant waves over its 20 years of operating life.
Shenlan 1 (see Fig. 1b) was built by Wuchang Shipbuilding industry Group Co.
and it is deployed at 240 km off the shore of Rizhao in East China’s Shandong
province. This offshore fish cage has a diameter of 60 m, height of 35 m and a
volume of 50,000 m3 that is able to hold 300,000 salmons. The cage has a large
ballast volume at the bottom pontoons and columns that allows the cage to be
submerged up to 50 m below the sea level. Shenlan 1 is a kind of sister fish cage
that shares many similarities to Ocean Farm 1 with regard to shape,
semi-submergibility and mooring method. However, Shenlan 1 features a centre
buoy that is used to generate power for the fish cage by vertical oscillating motions.
The aforementioned Ocean Farm 1 and Shenlan 1 adopt the semi-submergible
solution that can temporarily protect the fish and the cage from extreme weather
conditions by sinking the cage under water for a period of time. However, these
cage designs do not fully protect the fish for the entire farming period when the sites
have daily high energetic waves as they are open net cages. It is desirable to have a
calm sea state under normal operating condition to ensure fish growth. This
requirement poses a strict constraint on the selection of a suitable offshore site. In
Australia, Tassal’s salmon farmers cannot perform normal duties when the sites are
dominated by wave condition exceeding 3 m significant wave height (Hs) in a
30-year return period. In addition, cost-effective and constant power supply for fish
farm operations are questionable. Despite Shenlan 1 has a power supply from wave
energy convertors to harvest wave energy from vertical oscillating motions, it
appears contradictory to be harvesting wave energy while at the same time desiring
a quiet and conducive environment for fish’s well-being and growth.
(a) Ocean Farm 1 (b) Shenlan 1

(photo courtesy of Charles Lim) http://www.ccccisc.com/en/haiyanggongchen
gxiangguan/70.html
Fig. 1 Examples of Offshore Fish Cages

The authors opine that the following five features are to be incorporated in the
development of a feasible and cost-effective offshore fish cage design:
1. Ensure stable dynamic motions such as heave and pitch to maintain structural
integrity of floating system and a safe working condition for workers.
2. Dissipate surface wave energy to produce calm and conducive water environ-
ment for fish’s well-being and for solving feeding process.
3. Provide a stand-alone power supply to facilitate unmanned surveillance and
autonomous systems.
4. Have a simple and stable interactive mooring solution that minimizes and bal-
ances the tension forces both windward and leeward mooring lines.
5. Have an integrated system that encompass all the above features.
In view of the above features, the authors propose a novel design concept for
offshore fish cage which will be referred to as COSPAR fish cage; an acronym for a
COmbined Spar and PARtially porous wall fish cage. The design will allow fish
farming companies to expand the choice of potential offshore sites. In this paper, 4
design features of the COSPAR fish cage are presented with some evidential results
of diffraction and coupled mooring analysis based on the potential flow theory and
followed by concluding remarks and suggested future work.
2 Design Features of COSPAR Fish Cage
Figure 2 shows the COSPAR fish cage design. It comprises 3 parts: (1) a cylindrical
open net fish cage with a partially porous wall (wave fence) at the top portion to
block strong surface waves as well as to protect the fish from floating debris and
predators, (2) a centrally placed hybrid concrete-steel spar platform that provides
the buoyancy for holding a fish cage as well as to carry a wind turbine and control
unit and (3) a mounted control unit and wind turbine on the top of the spar to
provide the power supply.
The cylindrical cage has an 80 m diameter, 39 m height and 36 m draft. The
steel cage has 8 columns, 2 horizontal ring members and 16 radial beams at the
base. All steel members have a hollow circular section. The upper part of the cage
adjacent to the still water line (SWL) is a 6 m high (3 m above and 3 m below
SWL) porous wall with special internal members installed to dissipate waves of
3 m high. By arranging a range of porous plates such as high, medium and low for
wave transmission, wave run-up and wave reflection, respectively, the incident
wave may be reduced by half; thereby creating a reasonable calm internal sea
environment that is suitable for fish farming.
The central spar platform has an 82 m height, 7.8 m diameter and 76 m draft.
The lower part of the spar up to 38 m from the keel line is made from concrete for
cost effectiveness as well as to lower the centre of gravity. The upper part is made of
steel which is both light and strong.
Fig. 2 COSPAR cage design
The cylindrical cage is connected by 4 truss girders (above water) and 16 girders
at the base to the spar so that both cage and spar work as a monolithic rigid body.
The 4 top girders form walkways to access for the control unit and the wind turbine.
Four fairleads are attached to the spar between 38 m and 40 m from the keel line
that will tie 4 catenary chains for station keeping. The fairleads are located outside
the cage to prevent interference between lines and cage structure as well as to gather
the mooring lines to produce a small benthic footprint. The total water volume of
the fish cage is about 180,000 m3 that can accommodate about 720,000 salmons by
assuming a stock density of 20 kg/m3 and 5 kg for matured fish ready for har-
vesting. Table 1 summarizes the dimensions of the structure and usage of ballast
compartments of the COSPAR fish cage.
Below, we highlight the design features of COSPAR cage design,
• Design feature 1: Partially porous wall (wave fence) to dissipate wave energy
Attenuating strong waves is an imperative requirement to overcome site
restrictions for offshore fish farming. In order to lower wave energy transmission
inside the cages, it is necessary to design the cage structures as wave dissipative
members that is able to reduce energy from not only incident wave but also from
diffraction and reflection waves. As a possible solution, thin porous structure
Table 1 Dimensions and ballasting filling of COSPAR

Part Structural No. of Material Section diameter or Length or Plate Fill
modular members members Breadth Height circumference thickness ballast
(m) (m) (m)
Spar Lower Spar 1 Concrete 7.8 38 1.1 No
(Outside Cage)
Intermediate 1 Steel 7.8 2 0.06 No
Spar (Outside
cage)
Upper Spar 1 Steel 7.8 42 0.06 No
(Inside cage)
Cage Wave fence 1 Steel 26 502 0.045 No
Vertical frame 8 Steel 2 39 0.03 *Yes/
No
Middle 1 Steel 2 502 0.03 *Yes/
horizontal ring No
frame
Bottom frame 8 Steel 4 40 0.03 Yes
Bottom 1 Steel 4 502 0.03 Yes
horizontal ring
frame
*Yes/No: Vertical frames are filled only for submerged mode
members are introduced as in a breakwater system to protect coastal assets [1, 12].
A breakwater made of material having fine pores has been shown to reduce the
hydrodynamic pressure exerted on it. A double porous barrier system is able to
reduce both wave transmission and reflection [11]. However, owing to the complex
wave-wave and wave-structure interactions, the breakwater system tends to sig-
nificantly affect the hydrodynamic performance of the floating structure [20]. There
have been several considerations in the design of such a floating breakwater system
with respect to buoyancy and floating stability, wave transmission, mooring forces
and design of structure for breakwater units [4, 11]. However, it would be costly to
build a breakwater system to surround the fish cage in a deep offshore site.
Therefore, it is proposed that the breakwater system forms the upper portion of the
COSPAR cage design and it will be referred as the wave fence. Figure 3 shows a
clearer design of the wave fence that comprises a high porous outer barrier and a
low porous inner barrier. Such a design will contribute to controlling the wave
transmission and wave reflection, respectively. In addition, internal medium porous
plates sloping upwards for incident wave and downwards for reflection wave dis-
sipate energy via wave run-up. Table 2 shows the detail hole sizes to create the
different porosities.
The cage system holds fish by suspending the flexible net at the inner porous
barrier and gratings are applied to the outer barrier so as to protect fish from floating
debris and invasion of predators. The cage system still keeps the advantage of an
open net system for replenishment of water and removal of wastes. Moreover, the
solution allows a monolithic rigid body motion that maximizes the efficiency of the
Section A-A view ISO view
Fig. 3 Design of wave fence
Table 2 Porosity of wave

fence plates
Members Outer barrier (1) Internal plates ( 3, 4, 5) Inner barrier (2)
Picture
Porosity High Medium Low

Hole size
800x800 600x600 400x400
(mm)
wave fence through stable motion response. In addition, by sharing the mooring
system for both the cage and the wave fence, capital expenditure may be reduced.
• Design feature 2: Combined spar and cage for stable wave response motion
In the offshore wind energy industry, a Spar platform has been tested through
experimental and numerical methods as a floater for wind turbine to generate power
in an open and deep ocean space. The spar platform has great stability in wave
response motions due to its deep draft, low centre of gravity and small wetted
surface area. Consequently, the world’s first commercialized floating wind farm,
Hywind Scotland, adopted a spar platform and successfully deployed it in 2017.
Moreover, Utsunomiya et al. [18] proposed a hybrid spar comprising a prestressed
concrete lower half body and a steel upper half body to save construction costs.
However, when the spar is used as a floater for wind turbine, wave response
motions of the spar is still critical as it significantly affects the performance of the
wind turbine. Especially for the horizontal axis wind turbine, pitching motion leads
to the unsteady aerodynamic effects on the rotating blades. This results in a large
variation of the aerodynamic performance of a floating offshore wind turbine sys-
tem [13–15].
On the other hand, in the offshore fish farming industry, semi-submergible
floaters are often chosen due to their capability to produce a large farming space by
having stiff and strong frame members and submergibility capability (using ballast
tanks) to protect cage from extreme storms. However, when the size of floaters
become very large, the windward mooring lines are exposed to a far greater tension
forces than those lines on the leeward side and this may result in the breaking of the
highly stressed lines [21]. Moreover, when a wave fence is incorporated as in
COSPAR cage design, the semi-submersible floaters may not suitable to produce
enough buoyancy force by the slender columns and motion response to the wave
resonance may become more susceptible.
Although both offshore fish farming and wind energy industries have not yet
developed an ideal design solution to resolve the rigid body motion problem, the
authors see great benefits by combining and co-locating the cylindrical fish cage and
the floating spar that carries the wind turbine. This is because the cylindrical fish cage
has a great horizontal and vertical mass of moment inertia, but it has a relatively large
metacentric height that generates too much angular acceleration. On the other hand, a
spar has relatively small metacentric height and low angular acceleration that results in
a low frequency motion, but its horizontal and vertical stiffnesses are small compare to
cage. By combining the two systems and adopting a partially porous wave fence, the
harmonized system can share the buoyancy force, reduce wetted surface by porous
members, truncated metacentric height, a shifted natural frequency to the low zone
and an increased mass moment of inertia. In order to validate the aforementioned
Table 3 Hydrostatic characteristics SPAR only, CAGE only and COSPAR

SPAR only CAGE only COSPAR
Centre of Gravity −44 m −22 m −34 m
(CoG)
Centre of Buoyance −38 m −19 m −30 m
(CoB)
Wet surface 45 m2 544 m2 47 m2
Metacentric Height 6.9 m 87.7 m 34.2 m
(GM)
Vertical mass of 4.871 106 kg m2 6.259 109 kg m2 1.167 1010 kg m2
inertia
Horizontal mass of 2.288 109 kg m2 4.421 109 kg m2 1.049 1010 kg m2
inertia
Note: wave fence considered as a buoyant part for CAGE due to lack of buoyant force while it is
considered a non-buoyant part in COSPAR since it is able to tap on the supplementary buoyancy
provided by the spar
characteristics, a comparison study is performed and hydrostatic characteristics are

presented for spar only, cage only and COSPAR in Table 3.
• Design feature 3: Simple and balanced mooring arrangement
The COSPAR fish cage design is moored by 4 catenary chains tied at fairleads
attached in the intermediate part of spar that is outside the cylindrical fish cage (see
Fig. 4). As offshore fish cage is ultra large from an economic viewpoint, multi
mooring lines are often adopted for the mooring of the offshore fish cage. However,
the multiple mooring lines produce several drawbacks such as creating a large
benthic footprint, complication of installation and unbalanced tension force on
windward and leeward sides. Normally, fairleads are located as close as possible to
the centre of buoyancy so that dynamic stability is at its best and cable tensions are
minimized [8]. Therefore, a circular steel cage (such as the Ocean Farm 1) have
fairleads installed on the vertical members that results in large distances between the
fairleads. On the other hand, COSPAR design is able to shift the centre of buoyancy
to a lower part of the spar; thereby enabling the gathering of mooring lines to a small
distance between them. This mooring line arrangement is expected to yield a more
stable interactive motion between mooring lines and floating structure as well as to
produce a simpler and cheaper solution than say the Ocean Farm 1.
For the mooring analysis, stud link chain cables grade NV K3 with a diameter of
84 mm are chosen with proof load and mass per metre according to the
DNVGL-RU-SHIP Pt.3 Ch.3 (DNV GL [2]) and the effective elastic modulus is
determined in accordance with DNVGL-OS-E301 (DNV GL [3]) (see Table 4).
The fairleads are positioned at 38 m below the Still Water Line (SWL) which is
2 m below from the bottom of the cage. The distance fairleads from the vertical
centreline of the spar (Axis Z) is 3.9 m. By assuming a water depth of 200 m,
anchors are at a radius of 100 m from axis Z. The unstretched length of each
mooring line is 200 m. The transverse drag coefficient of the mooring lines is 2.4
and longitudinal drag coefficient adopted is 1.15.
Table 4 Mooring specifications of COSPAR based on DNVGL-OS-E301

Class of mooring lines Stud link chain NV K3, Diameter 84 mm
No. of mooring lines 4
Angle between adjacent lines 90°
Depth of fairleads below SWL 38 m
Distance between fairleads and axis Z 3.9 m
Distance between anchors and axis Z 100 m
Unstretched mooring line length 200 m
Mooring line mass density 152 kg/m
Proof load 3610000 N
Equivalent cross-sectional area 0.011 m2
Elastic modulus 5.6 1010 N/m
Transverse drag coefficient 2.4
Longitudinal drag coefficient 1.15
Top view Front view
Fig. 4 Mooring line arrangement
Fig. 5 Cage only tension force RAO
Fig. 6 COSPAR tension force RAO

Table 5 Energy inputs for Energy inputs(EI) in kilojoules/ EI Percentage

farming salmon kilogram for salmon %
Fixed capital Structures/ 5,940 6
equipment
Operating Seed 2,970 3
input Feed 78,210 79
Electricity, fuel 11,880 12
Total 99,000 100
Table 6 Required rated Volume 180956 m3

power of wind turbine for
Stock density 20 kg/m3
COSPAR
Stock weight 3619114 kg
Energy input 5940 kJ/kg
Total energy 21497541537 kJ
Farming period 1.5 yr
Require MWh 5971 MWh
Efficiency factor 0.4
required rated power 1.1 MW
A comparison test has been performed for cage only case and COSPAR case by
using ANSYS AQWA for the coupled analysis of diffraction analysis of floating
structure interacting with mooring lines. The results show tension force response
amplitude operator (RAO) against a unit wave amplitude. Cage only case (Fig. 5)
has a wide frequency ranged motion and dominating tension on windward lines
whereas COSPAR case (Fig. 6) shows a relatively narrow frequency motion and an
evenly distributed motion response.
Note: This study does not include the partially porous wave fence as the mod-
elling of a porous surface is not supported in the ANSYS AQWA Therefore, a
buoyant wave fence is considered for both cases.
• Design feature 4: Reduction of carbon footprint and efficient power system
The fish farming industry currently rely heavily on fossil fuels for venturation,
feeding, lighting, net cleaning, fish bathing and harvesting operations. For example,
Tassal (Australia) consume 30 litres of diesel per hour for their 25 fish cages. For a
1.5 year-round operation, this translates to 335 tons of diesel. On the other hand,
wind energy industry incurs a significant cost to deliver power over longer distances
when the site is far from the coast. By co-locating the floating wind turbine and the
fish farm (the end user), it saves costs for the wind energy company and the fish
farm operator.
In order to convert wind power for offshore fish farming, it is important to

estimate the energy needs associated with farming fish. Direct energy input to fish
farming operations encompass a range of activities, including collection and pro-
duction of juvenile fishes, general system operation, harvesting, processing, and
transport of the product. Troell et al. [17] introduced approximated figures of
energy inputs, as shown in Table 5, for farming salmon. Among energy inputs, at
least a fixed capital shall be covered by in offshore condition. Seed and feed energy
inputs still need to be supplied by in land and fuelled electricity can be subtracted
by wind energy. Therefore, at least 6% of the total energy input accounted for 5,940
EI (kilojoules/kilogram) should be generated by the wind turbine.
With a total target mass of COSPAR of 3600 ton and an expected matured
period of 1.5 years, the fish farm requires about 5971 MWh. Considering a general
wind turbine efficiency factor of 0.4 to produce the same amount of energy by
generating wind turbine, it can be concluded that about 1 MW rated power wind
turbine will suffice in supplying power for offshore salmon farming in a COSPAR
cage (see Table 6).
3 Concluding Remarks
Presented herein is COSPAR - a novel fish cage design that has integrated design
features of providing stable dynamic motions by coupled spar and cylindrical fish
cage, calm water by attenuating wave energy through porous wave fence, a
stand-alone power system by having a wind turbine and stable interactive mooring
solution with 4 catenary lines attached to the spar and anchored to the seabed.
Although diffraction and radiation analyses were carried out to determine the
dynamic motion responses of COSPAR that shows its stability against wave forces,
more work is necessary to refine the design. There are still many uncertainties
regarding non-linear viscosity effect such as drag and damping that have to be
incorporated in the analysis. Strength evaluation of porous plates is another issue to
be considered in final design such as edge reinforcement or protection against
corrosion and biofouling. Other alternative material such as a fibre reinforced
composite material can be tested when it suits for the design to have more durability
in open sea condition.
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Development of Energyhub@Sea
Concept
F. Adam, M. M. Aye, P. Dierken, I. Drummen, and F. Kalofotias
Abstract The Energyhub@Sea concept is one of the four research applications of

the Space@Sea project funded by EU’s Horizon 2020 research program. The focus
of this paper is the development of a cost-effective and energy self-sufficient
maintenance platform. In view of this, a standardized modular floater was devel-
oped as an offshore wind operation and maintenance base. Four main considera-
tions were taken into account in this development: size, shape, type and mooring.
This leads to a square 45 45 m barge with a height of 4 m. Flexibility and
scalability of the modular system is considered so that, as the scope of the project or
business grows, its functionality can expand accordingly. The O&M hub will be
equipped with accommodation facilities, different renewable energy infrastructure
and spare parts logistics, enabling the platform to perform maintenance of offshore
gearless wind turbines with a capacity of up to 10 MW. In order to be energy
self-sustaining, a smart energy storage and smart grid will be optimized based on
energy demand and energy supply of the entire hub.
Keywords Energyhub@Sea Space@Sea
F. Adam (&) M. M. Aye

Chair of Wind Energy Technology, University of Rostock, 18059 Rostock, Germany
e-mail: frank.adam@uni-rostock.de
M. M. Aye
e-mail: moe.aye@uni-rostock.de
P. Dierken
Wind Engineering, GICON Consult GmbH, 18069 Rostock, Germany
e-mail: p.dierken@gicon.de
I. Drummen
MARIN Wageningen, 6708 Wageningen, The Netherlands
e-mail: i.drummen@marin.nl
F. Kalofotias
MOCEAN, 1043 Amsterdam, The Netherlands
e-mail: filippos@mocean-offshore.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_56
584 F. Adam et al.
1 Introduction
There has been a significant growth in the number and capacity of offshore wind
turbines over the last decades. The increase in distances from the shore, logistics
and transportation challenges are demanding and have to be addressed when
developing potential solutions for offshore operations. In the future, an offshore
on-site maintenance base will be an important counterpart to the land-based one in
order to save transport costs and time required to offshore wind parks. In this
regard, Energyhub@Sea (see Fig. 1) aims to offer a technical solution for offshore
wind operation and maintenance (O&M) targeting a low levelized cost of energy.
The Energyhub@Sea concept is one of the four applications of floating islands
considered in the Space@Sea project. The major goal is to develop a cost-effective
and energy self-sufficient maintenance platform for offshore wind farms. The design
concept encompasses a multitude of O&M hub for offshore wind services,
accommodation facilities for industrial personnel and renewable energy extractions
and housing of spare parts. The primary energy source of the hub will be a medium
sized wind turbine coupled with photovoltaic (PV) system and another source will
be wave energy converters. In order to be energy self-sustaining, a smart energy
storage and smart grid were optimized based on the energy demand and energy
supply of the entire hub.
While other similar research studies have been done in the offshore renewable
energy sector, the Energyhub@Sea adds value to these by its technical synergies
opportunities between O&M hub, crew accommodation, wind, wave and solar
energy converters and the Space@Sea modular floating solution. Owing to the
shared use of common infrastructures, the following technical synergies opportu-
nities exist within the Energyhub@Sea concept:
• Location
• Support structure
• Superstructure
• Mooring system
Fig. 1 Energyhub@Sea
concept for North Sea site
Development of Energyhub@Sea Concept 585
• Grid connection
• Installation equipment
Beside the Energyhub@Sea other applications like farming, logistics or living at
sea are important to consider and they influence the design. The design consider-
ations are therefore described in Sect. 2 by considering all four kinds of
applications.
1.1 The Mediterranean Sea Site
The Mediterranean Sea, to be more precise, the Gulf du Lion located near southern
France coastline is characterized by benign environmental conditions in terms of
wave, but the site has relatively deep waters and good wind conditions that are ideal
for floating offshore wind development. Figure 2 shows the possible site location of
the energy hub in the Mediterranean Sea site with a summary of characterisation of
environmental conditions in this region
• Water depth 150–200 m
• Distance from shore 60 km
• Significant wave height 5.6 m
• Extreme wave up to 10 m above mean sea level
• Average wind speed at 100 m 10–11 m/s
• Temperature 0 to 30 °C
• Ice condition no icing, some snow
• Storm condition winter storms, thunderstorms in summer
Fig. 2 Map of proposed location for Mediterranean Sea site in the Gulf du Lion
586 F. Adam et al.
2 Design Considerations
As part of the basic design, three considerations were distinguished for the modules
making up the island. All three were blind scored by the consortium and external
experts.
• Module size
• Module shape
• Module principle
2.1 Module Size Considerations
For the first principle design of the arbitrary module principal dimensions range of
12.5, 25, 50, 100 and 200 m were investigated. The following aspects play a role
when considering the module size:
• Building possibilities: A yard market survey implies that modules with a
maximum principal dimension of about 45 m can be built in a large number of
places. For larger modules the options are limited. On the other hand, it is very
likely that when a floating island will become reality, a dedicated dock or docks
will be built. In practice, this implies that existing building facilities should not
weigh hard on the decision between say a module with a principal dimension of
say 50 m or 100 m. However, when the decision falls to a principal dimension
of 50 m choosing there is a benefit of then having a maximum dimension of
about 45 m.
• Transport and installation: The transport of single modules becomes easier with
decreasing size. At least per module. For installation, smaller module sizes are
still favourable and are more easily manageable. Depending on the chosen
mooring system the installation ease decreases significantly for smaller module
sizes when the effort is put in relation to the installed area. Therefore, the
transport of modules that are smaller than say 50 m, it can be seen as resolvable,
while the installation procedures might be cumbersome.
• Functionality: For ship unloading and loading sides, the bigger the better as it
gives flexibility to possibly mount multiple containers. A module length of
200 m would enable a proper integration of all envisaged functionalities. For
harbour operations, loading equipment, apron, storage and logistics could be
well placed on a module. As container ships are typically served by one crane
per 100 m berth length, even ships longer than 200 m could be served without
losses in efficiency when compared to onshore facilities if two modules are used.
With a deck area of 40,000 m2 it is hard to imagine that any restrictions will
arise regarding applications in the scope of living, farming or Energy@Sea.
A module length of 100 m would also meet this criterion. Storage size and
flexibility regarding trans-shipment gear are however restricted. The minimum
platform length should at least be 50 m and preferably larger. The distance

between quay side and the backleg of the crane is easily 35 m or more for
required cranes. Therefore, the minimum platform length is 50 m. For storing,
the size should also be at least 50 m or preferably larger for reasonable storage
capacities. Some functionalities are then, however, faced with possible con-
straints. When conducting harbour operations on confined berths, significant
losses in efficiency can be expected compared to onshore solutions.
• Flexibility: We focus on the flexibility in the use of the modules. With smaller
module size, there is greater flexibility to make different island configurations,
unless the application of the island requires huge, monolithic and rigid areas. On
the other hand, if a minimum principal dimension of 25 m is needed for a living
quarter, modules of 12.5 25 m provide the same flexibility. An increase in
flexibility is thus not provided by each size reduction for each functionality.
Thus for living at sea, a reduced module size from 100 to 50 m might create a
gain in flexibility, while for logistics at sea hub it does not.
• Costs: The costs include both building and installation costs. When considering
the functionalities envisaged in this project, the desired usage of internal space
below the waterline, with the possible exception of farming at sea, is likely to
require a double hull design. This would increase the cost for smaller units.
While mass production effects might also benefit the construction of small size
modules, the currently considered module shapes enable the employment of
similar parts for most of the construction, effectively yielding the same effect for
larger modules.
A small module size is beneficial with respect to the building possibilities as well
as the flexibility it provides for the island formations. However, from a transport
and installation perspective, larger module sizes are easier to handle and incur a
lower cost. In addition, the larger module size is preferred with respect to the
functionality. Therefore, as a conclusion a module size of approximately 50 m
should be considered.
2.2 Module Shape Considerations
For the basic design of the module the following shapes were investigated: trian-
gular, right triangle, square, rectangle, hexagonal and circular. The following
aspects play a role when considering the shape of the module.
• Building ease: Building a square or rectangular module does not require new
insights. Triangular and hexagonal modules, although slightly less convenient,
are not considered an issue. Circular will require a totally different approach in
building since only radial lines are straight, and everything else will require
customized work. If the deck space of the modules per unit is used as a measure
588 F. Adam et al.
of success, the rectangular shape offers the most promising form with regard to
the currently available construction sites.
• Compliance and forces: It is noted that the design of the shape is related to the
design of the joints. Hinge joints are restrictive and would favor for more
compliance axis, hence a triangular shape. More flexible interconnecting joints
however might cope with less compliance axis, and hence squares. Therefore,
the design of the joints is closely related to the choice of the shape.
• Gaps: From the shapes under investigation, only a circular module will result in
islands with gaps or voids even larger than the widest indispensable slit between
the modules. For the general application these voids will be highly undesirable.
The other shapes under investigation can be combined together without leaving
large voids. It should be noted though that the triangular shapes can be put
together in two different configurations.
• Aboard logistics: Most existing buildings are rectangular buildings, and the
same holds for standardized cargo such as containers and swap bodies. From
this point of view, it seems most straightforward to also make the module
rectangular. Here it should be noted that two right triangles ‘rigidly’ connected
form a square and thus it has the same advantages. The isosceles triangles under
consideration, however, will be rigidly connected to form a rhombus and it will
not cure the problem of mismatching building- and cargo-shapes. It should be
mentioned though that if the overall dimensions of the island are much larger
than the dimensions of a cargo unit, i.e. a 40 ft container versus a 100 m
triangular island, the loss of storage space due to non-orthogonal corners is
small when compared to the overall available deck space.
A square or rectangular module is thus the preferred solution.
2.3 Module Principle Considerations
For the basic design of the module the following principles were investigated:
Barge type, Air cushion, Semi-submersible and Tension leg platform (TLP). The
following aspects play a role when considering the module principle:
• Fabrication costs: A barge type structure is well in line with what is currently
build and the most easily buildable solution. As such the barge type seems most
advantageous in fabrication costs. An air cushion type structure is not that more
difficult to build as it is mainly a barge without a bottom. The air cushion type
floaters will, when aiming for a similar draft, be however, associated with a
small increase in building effort, as the overall structure height will increase by a
significant portion of the barge-draft. The semi-sub type and the TLP type are
significantly more expensive. The semi-sub and TLP types are deemed of
similar order, when the installation cost is seen as part of the installation
procedure.
• Transport and installation: Transport and installation of a barge type structure is

a straightforward operation. For the air-cushion type structure this might be
somewhat more challenging due to the fact that air needs to remain below the
structure. During transportation in wave the air can be replaced by water.
Transport of a semi-sub is likely to be more straightforward. Transport of a TLP
depends on its shape, and whether it is stable on its own or whether it requires
transportation stability aids. Installation of a TLP is more challenging. The TLP
principle is costly because of the additional effort to install tendons and the prior
preparation of the groundwork at the seabed.
• Stability and risk: The application of the modules require stable surfaces; e.g. a
port with cranes requires very stable surfaces. Wave energy must be absorbed by
the (outer) modules. The ability and way to absorb that energy depends on the
module type. The TLP is by far the most stable, and the barge is the least stable.
Therefore, for the barge type, you may have to have more outer modules used
only for wave absorption since the motions are too large there. However, the
TLP principle is believed to be beneficial for super sensitive installations and
surely not when the target was to develop a low cost standardized artificial
island system. The semi-sub principle was developed to reduce motions of a
single platform. The reduced water plane area helps to lower the excitation
forces due to external waves as the reserve displacement is reduced. On the
other hand, the reduced water plane area is impeding the application for heavy
applications or applying the technique to constructions with varying weight and
thus variable displacement, if not solved by an expensive ballasting system.
Considering all criteria, a barge type module is the preferred solution.
3 Configuration of the Energy Hub
According to basic design of the floater in Sect. 2, the final basic design of the
floater was concluded as a square of 45 m side length with 4 m height. Therefore,
an appropriate design of O&M super structure was further refined with a wide range
of additional benefits, integrating the results of other work packages in the design.
Especially the list of functional requirements for the design developed by living
criteria, the architectural design and the inventory HSE regulations were taken into
account. Furthermore, an internal benefit analysis was carried out to find a com-
promise between engineering and architectural demands. Figure 1 illustrates a
rendered 3D-model of the final design of the energy hub. The accommodation
module is oriented in such a way that motion-induced infrastructure like wind
energy turbine is kept a safe distance from it and the entire module is stabilized
under extreme wave conditions.
Like a self-sufficient artificial island, the hub is equipped with fresh and
wastewater infrastructures, accommodation building with offices, workshops,
apartments, laundry, social rooms, kitchen and canteen, heating, ventilation and air
590 F. Adam et al.
conditioning unit (HVAC), a hospital with required first aid facilities and para-
medics as well as a helicopter deck which functions as evacuation and emergency
transport. The assumption is that each floater has 45 m edge length and the O&M
hub itself has two levels with a total net area of about 1900 m2 located in the middle
of the floater. The helicopter deck on top of the accommodation building is
accessible via hatches above the accommodation building. The centre of the
building is a 140 m2 covered patio with plants and recreation areas.
The basic design specifications and estimated space requirements for accom-
modation building are listed in Table 1. The estimated hot and cold water con-
sumption is 4–5 m3 per day for approximately 32 persons. The water desalination,
the water treatment units as well as the waste storage are placed in the storage hall.
The building technology for keeping the temperature and humidity at comfortable
levels (air condition unit and ventilation system, supply air flow according to ISO
8861), the cooling chambers and food storage rooms are integrated in the topside
building. All storage units used for food and drink supply including fresh water
must cover a capacity of minimum 30 days.
Depending on the region of operation, the configuration of the energy hub can be
adapted. Thereby, the main changes are related to the length of the columns and the
HVAC system. At the Mediterranean site, the accommodation building will be
placed directly on the storage hall and an air condition system is needed in summer.
The energy needed for heating and cooling will be almost the same in winter and
summer for the Mediterranean site.
3.1 Personnel on the O&M Hub
Being a permanently manned offshore platform, safe manning plays a vital role.
Depending on the number and type of wind turbines which is needed to be
Table 1 General design specification of O&M hub

Application Module Design
Quay width 7.5 m
Height of accommodation module 9.0 m
Edge length of accommodation building 32 m
Topside weight of O&M hub incl. columns 1,950 tons
Height of storage hall 4m
Edge length of storage hall 30 m
Wall and ceiling thickness of storage hall 0.3 m
Topside weight of PV system 325 tons
Topside weight of wind energy turbine 30 tons
Column length between storage hall and accommodation building 11 m
maintained, the required number of personnel for maintenance services can vary. In
order to define the performance of technician distribution at the appropriate levels
of responsibility for the energy hub, firstly the number and type of wind turbines to
which the energy hub can offer services is confined to 100 units of large scale
10 MW wind turbine generator (WTG). After consultation with technical expertise
from offshore O&M sectors and learning from other experiences, the following
rule-of-thumb assumptions are made within this concept:
Service Technicians
Based on estimated failure rates of the wind turbines, regular maintenance service,
special oil and coolant changes, average transfer and waiting times, the required
number of service technicians can be assumed as follow:
Service technicians = round (0.18 * number of WT to maintain)
This depends strongly on the type of turbine as well as on the maintenance
regulations given by the wind turbine manufacturer. Other factors are the local
environmental conditions (weather and waves) and the wind farm design, especially
the contour of the field, the position of the O&M hub in the field and the distances
between the turbines.
Crew Transfer Vessel (CTV) Crews
Depending on the assumed number of 100 wind turbines one CTV should be
sufficient for transportation of personnel and normal maintenance equipment
between the energy hub and the wind farm. The number of crew members is set to 3
persons.
CTV boat crew = round (3 * number of service technicians/10)
Office Crew
The office crew has to organize all service and maintenance tasks on site, the
material flow and also the communication for technical issues.
Office crew = round (number of service technicians/10)
Board and Lodging (B&L) Staff
The B&L staff has to guarantee the supply of food, clean linen and work clothes for
all persons living on the hub. They are also responsible for housekeeping such as
routines in kitchen and canteen, laundry as well as for firefighting. The minimum
team size is 3 persons; one extra staff member is needed for each additional seven
persons on the hub.
Board and lodging staff = 3 + round (number of (service technicians + ship
crew + office workers)/7)
All industrial personnel are accommodated on board. However, daily working
hours and day off for each personnel depend mainly on the region of operation. For
instance, maximum continuous stay of 2 weeks is allowed for a crew who works
more than 10 h per day according to the German offshore working time regulations
(Offshore-ArbZV). Therefore, a total of 12 h daily working hours, which includes
592 F. Adam et al.
2 h for crew transfer and waiting time for the service technicians, with a maximum
stay of 14 days was assumed.
Accordingly, the number of personnel complements for the energy hub at the
Mediterranean Sea site are described in Table 2. A total of approximately 32
persons is needed to provide preventive maintenance of 100 wind turbines.
The amount of operating days increases in south European regions. The weather
conditions in these regions allow a nearly continuous operation of the O&M hub
throughout the year. Therefore, there is no difference in the number of required
persons between summer and winter at the Mediterranean Sea site.
3.2 Space Distribution
The energy hub comprises multiple functions and the available areas are optimized
to ensure an efficient co-use of space and deliver maximum performance in an
integrated way. The configuration of the energy hub is a square shape 2-story
building supported by four steel columns. These columns will provide the stability
and secure the building against extreme waves. They will hoist two lifts, two
staircases and all supply lines for electricity, water and others. The high flexibility,
modularity and structural integrity allow downsizing or upsizing of accommodation
module over time. For example, in the case of larger accommodation complexes, it
can be stacked to form a multi-storey building supplemented by coffee shops, gym
etc.
In order to get the best possible efficiency, the quantity of space in terms of floor
area is calculated as a starting point. Thereby the accommodation building was
designed to meet a compromise between the architectural and engineering demands
and ensure compliance with several standards and guidelines. The number of users,
duration of stay and the minimum necessary space for the respective functions are
properly considered. After making a benefit analysis, it is assumed an area of
approximately 1242 m2 will accommodate comfortably around 32 persons and
other necessary functions for the energy hub, supplemented by conference room
and green spaces.
Table 2 Personnel for operation in the Mediterranean Sea

Occupation Tasks Number
Summer & Winter
Service technician Maintenance and repair 12
Extra service technician Changing fluids or battery packs 6
CTV boat crew Material and service crew transport 6
Office crew Organization and management 2
Board and lodging staff Housekeeping, kitchen and laundry 6
Sum 32
The storage hall has an edge length of 30 m and this leaves a clear working deck
of 7.5 m width on each side for cargo handling operations and safe walk way at the
quay. Thus, overall area planning contributes a high ratio of usable area to gross
built area.
Space distribution for the accommodation area was done under consideration of
ergonomic issues for the users and all activities, which will be carried out on the
hub. Here, spaces with similar functions are segregated to be in proximity to each
other. For instance, food sectors such as kitchen and dining rooms are close to the
galley on the same floor. Moreover, noise emission is an important factor to ensure
a comfortable stay. Therefore, an adequate buffer zone is designed for corridors in
the accommodation areas and cabins are not located directly adjacent to high-noise
induced rooms like galley. Each cabin is furnished with its respective bed, mattress,
working desk, lockable storage space for personal belongings, shower and toilet
and is designed to provide enough comfort and adequate span for planned overstay.
Thus, the total area planning can be seen in Table 3.
Table 3 Room distribution Type of room Amount Required area

on accommodation module [m2]
Small cabin 26 14.4
Double cabin 1 34.2
Double cabin 5 32.9
Office 1 18.5
Technical room 1 18.5
Conference room 1 48.2
Changing room 2 17.9
Health room 1 18.5
Social room 2 24.8
Social room 1 18.5
Social room 2 13.1
Dining room 1 17.4
Dining room 1 79.4
Kitchen 1 18.9
Cold-storage room 1 18.5
Storage room 2 9.0
Storage room 1 7.0
Storage room 1 10.4
Storage room 1 25.2
Sanitary 1 10.4
Sanitary 1 14.3
Galley 1 76.1
Patio surrounded by green 1 140.2
area
594 F. Adam et al.
4 Energy Demand and Supply
The Energyhub@Sea is designed in such a way that about 32 service staff can stay
on the accommodation module for at least 30 days without any outside support.
Obviously, the energy demand for such a manned hub is high since several factors
and activities which magnify daily power usage must be taken into account. For
instance, regular heating and cooling of compartments will be required to provide
the minimum temperature of about 18 °C in the storage hall and about 20 °C in the
accommodation building. The main source of energy consumption for the
Mediterranean Sea is temperature adjustment in summer, whereby air conditionings
are necessary to ensure all personnel have a comfortable stay and working envi-
ronment. In this case, uncontrolled outside air leakage into the energy hub can cause
a large amount of energy loss. The ventilation has to be optimized in terms of
energy saving by using heat exchangers and controlled air flow.
Table 4 summarize the estimated annual power demand of the energy hub in
winter and summer for the Mediterranean Sea site. Under energy consumers all
appliances which needs access to energy resources are considered and assumptions
were made.
A stable power supply is vital for the O&M hub for continuous operation. The
energy supply in Energyhub@Sea will focus on renewable energies such as wind,
wave and solar power. Energy from these resources will be harvested, and these
energies will be supplied for entire on-site applications. All these resources strongly
depend on weather and climate conditions and their power production peaks and
valleys are not always concurrent. This means, a storage system must be included
and need to be big enough to balance energy demand and energy supply during low
energy production and high energy demand.
Table 4 Annual power demand at the Mediterranean Sea site

Unit Power in summer Power in winter
[kWh] [kWh]
Devices and light 307 338
Heating 175 400
Cooling 36 0
Hot water preparation 148 158
Refrigeration chamber 18 18
Total daily energy demand 684 914
Annual energy demand 150,621 132,572
4.1 Solar Energy
One primary source of energy will be supplied from solar photovoltaics

(PV) mounted on the Space@Sea floater. The major components of solar panels are
a number of semiconducting PV cells, generators and mounting system. The per-
formance of PV panels depends mainly on the efficiency of PV cell, the intensity
and amount of direct sunlight directly on panels and geographical latitude of the
operating location. Based on the first draft of module shape, 8 variant calculations
were carried out in order to find an optimum orientation of PV-system to harvest as
much energy from the sun as possible during peak energy demands. The system
configurations and their yield could easily be converted from the triangular
geometry to the new square basic form.
Owing to the main peaks of the energy demands in the mornings and evenings it
was chosen to apply a PV-system with west/east-orientation. Figure 3 shows ori-
entation of PV-system mounted on the Space@Sea floater. The entire system
consists of 348 modules facing east and 348 facing west. The angle of inclination
was chosen to be ten degrees in order to guarantee a secure standing of the modules
even during rough wind and wave conditions. The modules themselves are
glass-glass-modules with a capacity of 310 watts peak each. As result the whole
system exhibits a total peak capacity of 215.64 kilowatts peak. Glass-glass-modules
were chosen due to the extreme environmental conditions at offshore locations
(humidity, salt etc.). The generated current is converted by means of eight con-
verters with a capacity of 25 kW each.
Fig. 3 3D-model of the

PV-System mounted on a
floater
596 F. Adam et al.
4.2 Wind Energy
In order to harvest energy from wind, a medium sized wind turbine was designed as
robust solution for on- and off-grid-applications with relatively low demands of
electrical energy like secluded villages. Figure 4 shows the so-called CART turbine
mounted on one of the 45 45 m Space@Sea-floater.
The turbine is a gearless two blade device with stall-regulation and variable
rotation speed. Owing to this, the delivered capacity can be regulated as desired.
The rotor has a diameter of 28 m. For a stand-alone CART-device the hub height
was chosen to be 35 m above mean sea level (MSL). This leads to a tower height of
around 30 m. The turbines nominal capacity is 125 kW and its predicted lifetime is
25 years. For the Mediterranean Sea site, the calculated annual yield of the wind
turbine lies about 605 MWh/a, which is equivalent to 4,840 full load hours.
This enormous production rates are caused by the layout of the used wind
turbine, which is designed for a high energy production even in low winds and the
high wind availability, which is typical for offshore sites.
4.3 Wave Energy
During the ongoing design process, it was decided that the planned wave energy
converter (WEC) should consist of an additional smaller floater instead of har-
vesting energy from relative motions between the regular modules. This step was
taken in order to adjust the WEC to the wave conditions at the proposed locations.
By analysing the wave conditions at the two locations, it was determined that the
Fig. 4 3D-model of CART

wind turbine mounted on a
floater
most energy could be considered at a wave period of about 6 s. This corresponds to

a wave length of about 56.2 m. In order to harvest the most available energy, the
WEC should be half the length of the most energetic wave length. As a result, the
length of the WECs was determined to have a length of 26 m and a weight of
2,423.8 t. The WEC has a potential average annual output of 614 MWh/a for the
Mediterranean case. In practice, it is not economically feasible to design a storage
and converter system for rare loads above 250 kW with peak loads up to 2 MW, so
a realistically usable production rate will be much lower. A calculation for the
Mediterranean Sea site for the period 2015–2017 resulted in an average annual
production of 26.1 MWh/a.
5 Conclusions
In this paper, the basic design of the energy hub was described for the
Mediterranean Sea site. The design process involved a variety of factors different
from those customarily designed. The energy hub was equipped with four main
functions such as O&M services for offshore wind parks, permanent accommo-
dation facilities for service staffs, renewable energy extraction and housing of spare
parts and equipment, enabling the platform to perform maintenance of offshore
gearless wind turbines with a capacity of up to 10 MW.
Acknowledgements This project is funded by the Horizon 2020 research and innovation pro-
gram of the European Union, under the grant agreement no. 774253.
References
1. Fernandez RP, Pardo ML (2013) Offshore concrete structures. Ocean Eng 58:304–316
2. Hahn B, Durstewitz M, Rohrig K (2007) Reliability of wind turbines. In: Wind energy.
Springer, Heidelberg, pp 329–332
3. Nianxin R, Chi Z, Allan RM, Øyvind H, Jian D, Kok KA (2019) Hydrodynamic analysis of a
modular multi-purpose floating structure system with different outermost connector types.
J Ocean Eng 176:158–168
4. Pérez R, Lamas M, Carral LM (2012) Classification and damage stability of flotel ships. J Marit
Res 9(1):33–38
Design and Construction of the Large
Concrete Floating Pier at Incheon
Harbor
K. H. Jung, S. H. Lee, H. S. Kim, and Y. H. Choi
Abstract There are two 200 m long floating piers for berthing car ferries at
Incheon harbor, South Korea. Each floating pier has almost same dimensions but
these piers are made of steel and concrete, respectively. This paper focus on the
design and construction of a concrete floating pier. In the design, it was proposed as
an alternative instead of a steel floating pier having two inner moorings and sep-
arated three parts (L: 66 m 3 ea). So it was composed of only one structure (L:
200 m) without inner mooring dolphins, not only to maximize the use of top-side
space but also to minimize the number of mooring dolphins. In the construction, the
modular construction method fabricating concrete segments on land and assembling
them as modules on the seawater was applied instead of the conventional method
using a big floating dock not only to increase the construction efficiency but also to
enhance the concrete quality of modules.
Keywords Modular construction Concrete Steel Floating pier Module
1 Introduction
The Incheon international passenger terminal in South Korea will be composed of

new trade complexes and buildings as well as large scale wharfs for berthing cruise
and car-ferry ships. It will be developed as not only a home port for many cruise
ships but also a trade hub of South-East Asia. This area is famous for a dramatic
K. H. Jung (&) S. H. Lee H. S. Kim Y. H. Choi

R&D Center of Hyundai Engineering and Construction, Seoul, South Korea
e-mail: jkh@hdec.co.kr
S. H. Lee
e-mail: sanghyu.lee@hdec.co.kr
H. S. Kim
e-mail: hsg.kim@hdec.co.kr
Y. H. Choi
e-mail: yoonho@hdec.co.kr

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_57
600 K. H. Jung et al.
tidal variation of approximately 10 m because it is located in the west costal line of

South Korea. And to overcome this large tidal variation, several floating structures
were applied instead of general gangway systems for fixed quay walls. There are
two T-shape large floating piers having over 200 m length in this port which can be
moved up and down by tidal levels and maintain the required freeboard at any time.
And these facilities have almost same dimensions and connected to the land by an
access bridge (L: 60 m) but made of different material; one is steel and the other is
concrete. This concrete floating pier was proposed as an alternative instead of a
steel floating pier, so more innovative and efficient design considerations and
construction methods were applied in this project. This paper presents those things
in detail.
2 Design Considerations for the Concrete Floating Pier
2.1 Design Concept
Figure 1 shows the design concept for two T-shape floating piers used for both sides
berthing 30,000 ton class car-ferry ships (L: 196 m W: 27 m) having 6.7 m draft.
Basically, each floating pier has floating bodies composed of a sub module (L:
200 m W: 30 m) and a main module (L: 85 m W: 30 m), and several mooring
dolphins as a station keeping system. However, the number of dolphins and sub
modules are different. The conventional concept for the steel floating pier was
composed of three sub module parts (L: 66 m 3 ea) and total six mooring dol-
phins including two inner dolphins shown in Fig. 2. But the applied design for the
concrete floating pier proposed only one sub module (L: 200 m 1 ea) without two
inner dolphins in order to fully utilize topside space. So it has total four mooring
dolphins, and the width of a main module can be extended as 39 m because it has no
gaps between sub module parts like the steel floating pier. To provide suitable
freeboard for berthing a car-ferry ship, about 2 m, the steel and concrete floating
piers are required to have 2.9 m and 5.0 m of total height, respectively, as the
concrete floating pier has heavy self-weight and high stiffness compared to the steel
floating pier. Finally, it can be summarized that the main design concept of the
concrete floating pier is not only to maximize the use of topside space but also to
minimize the number of mooring dolphins.
Figure 2 presents operational plans for these floating piers by tidal levels. They
are connected to the land by access bridges (L: 60 m) having hinge supports on the
land and roller supports on the main module. When the tidal level goes up to the
maximum level, the sub and main modules move up together and access bridges
reach at the flat level with modules. On the other hand, when the tidal level goes
down to the minimum level, the sub and main modules move down together and
access bridges are inclined as shown in Fig. 2.
Design and Construction of the Large Concrete Floating Pier … 601
Fig. 1 Design concept for floating piers
Fig. 2 Operational plan by tidal levels
Figure 3 presents the applied systems in this design for free up-down movement.
In order to safely go up and down by tidal levels, special devices such as rubber
rollers, frictionless pads can reduce the friction between dolphins and modules can
be considered. In case of the concrete floating pier, frictionless pads are attached on
the surfaces of the concrete dolphins as shown in Fig. 3(a). And the roller systems
of access bridges go forward and backward by up-down movement of floating pier
as shown in Fig. 3(b). At the same time, the hinge systems on the land are rotated
so that whole floating pier can be safely inclined.
2.2 Environmental Conditions and Design Loads
The environmental conditions such as wave, current and wind can be directly
related to the stability and safety of a floating structure. Table 1 shows the
Fig. 3 Systems for free up-down movement
environmental conditions applied in this project. The wave condition (height:

1.5 m, period: 4.5 s, 65° with sub module direction) based on 100 yr return period
and the current velocity (0.9 m/s) are presented as a calm sea condition because
these floating piers are located in the inner harbor surrounded by breakwaters.
However, there is a big tidal variation of 9.27 m in this area which is the water level
gap between the highest high water level of (+) 9.27 m and the lowest low water
level of 0.0 m. And the water depth is 18.3 m based the mean sea level of (+)
4.64 m. It is investigated that the wind velocities at mooring and non-mooring
states are about 32.8 m/s and 55 m/s, respectively.
Figure 4 presents all design loads applied in this project, which can be classified
into environmental loads, hydraulic loads, payloads and mooring loads. First, the
environmental loads caused by above wave, current, and tidal conditions (Table 1)
are applied to the side face of this floating structure. Second, the hydraulic loads
such as hydrostatic pressure, uplift pressure occurred on the bottom surface and
sagging/hogging forces in the longitudinal direction are considered. Third, on the
topside of the floating structure, vehicle loads by the Korean standard truck
(KL-510), reaction forces by access bridges as well as uniform payloads are
Table 1 Environmental Item Values Item Values

conditions
Wave Height, H 1.5 m Tidal Variation 9.27 m
Wave Period, T 4.5 s M. S. L. (+) 4.64 m
Wave Direction 65° H. H. W. (+) 9.27 m
Current Velocity 0.9 m/s L. L. W. 0.00 m
Wind Velocity 32.8–55.0 m/s Water Depth 18.3 m
Fig. 4 Design loads for the concrete floating pier
applied. Finally, bollard forces and berthing forces by 30,000 ton class car-ferry
ships are regarded as an essential design load. Based on these design loads, all
possible load combinations in the ultimate and service limit states were considered.
3 Construction Method for the Concrete Pier
3.1 Conventional Construction Method
It was a big issue how to efficiently fabricate and safely install this huge concrete
floating structure. It was estimated that self-weights of main and sub modules are
approximately 18,000 ton and 9,000 ton, respectively. Conventionally, the con-
struction method using a large floating dock having 50,000 ton class capacity (W:
51.5 m L: 298 m) was decided. Figure 5 shows the construction steps of this
method. The 200 m long sub module is composed of 5 segments (L: 40 m) because
concrete works cannot be done in one time. In the first step, Seg. 1 is initially
fabricated on this floating dock, and then two segments (Seg. 2 and 3) at both sides
of Seg. 1 are also fabricated together. And the second step, these three segments are
longitudinally prestressed (1st prestressing). And the third step, last segments (Seg.
4 and 5) at both sides of Seg. 2 and 3 are fabricated and total five segments are
longitudinally prestressed (2nd prestressing). In the last fourth step, the concrete sub
module is launched using this floating dock on the sea and installed at the desti-
nation. If this unique equipment, a large floating dock, were available at the
required period, it was regarded that it would be as a reasonable and safe con-
struction method.
Fig. 5 Conventional construction method using a large floating dock
3.2 Modular Construction Method
In the real construction, the conventional construction method was invalid because
the 50,000 ton class floating dock was not available during the required period and
concrete quality control on that was not easy in the restricted working area. Finally,
this modular construction method using a floating crane having 3,600 ton capacity
was developed and applied in this project. It can be explained that all segments
were fabricated on the land, lifted by this floating crane, connected on the sea, and
installed by tug boats.
Figure 6 shows the construction steps of this modular construction method. The
200 m long sub module is composed of 6 segments (L: 33 m) because the
dimensions and weight of each segment should be in accordance with the floating
crane capacity. In the first step, each segment was fabricated on the land at the same
time and respectively prestressed. Each segment has connection holes for PS bars as
well as longitudinal tendons to assemble with neighbor segments. The second step,
all segments are lifted and launched by the floating crane one by one. The third step,
all segments were connected each other by PS pars on the sea to make a 200 m long
sub module. In the last fourth step, this concrete sub module was towed and
installed by tug boats. Although segment connections on the sea are not easy, but it
was regarded as an alternative method because it can reduce the construction time
and enhance concrete quality.
Fig. 6 Modular construction method using a large floating crane
3.3 Module Installation of the Modular Construction

Method
Figure 7 shows the plan view of the concrete floating pier composed of main and
sub modules, access bridges, and concrete mooring dolphins. Applying the modular
construction method, the main module comprises three segments and the sub
module comprises six segments as due to the capacity limit of the floating crane,
3,600 ton, for lifting and launching. So the weight of each segment is approxi-
mately 3,200 ton to fully utilize this lifting capacity.
Figure 8 are photos taken by a drone during main and sub module installation.
Those photos show the fabrication yard for making segments and a floating crane in
the project site. Figure 9 shows the main module connections. When one segment
Fig. 7 Segmental plan for the modular construction method

(M1) of main module is installed at the mooring dolphin and hanging by the
floating crane through the lifting device, another segment (M2) is towed by tug
boats at the proper position to connect each other.
3.4 Module Installation of the Modular Construction

Method
The construction method for this large floating structure was a critical issue,
because it can be directly affected to construction period and cost. Table 2 presents
the comparison of two construction methods (conventional vs. modular). In view of
equipment use, the conventional method is required to use a big floating dock
(50,000 ton) for six month as all segments are fabricated on it at one time, but the
modular method is required to bring a floating crane (3,600 ton) for only one month
because all segments are made on fabrication yard utilizing project site. In view of
workability for segment fabrication and concrete quality control, it can be said that
the modular method is better than the conventional method because all segments are
made on land at the same time and it can provide enough space for workers and
fabrication devices. However, in view of works on the sea, it can be explained that
the conventional method is better than modular method because it can reduce sea
works such as ballasting and segment connections by prestressing bars.
Finally, it was thought that the modular construction method is better than the
conventional construction method judging from fabrication efficiency and concrete
quality control as well as construction cost and period, but it is required very careful
construction control to safely connect segments on the sea. Figure 10 shows the
200 m long concrete floating piers at Incheon harbor completed in the end of 2018.
Fig. 8 Installation of main and sub modules

Fig. 9 Main module connections
Table 2 Construction method comparison

Index Conventional method Modular method
Equipment Floating dock (50,000 ton) Floating crane (3,600 ton)
Period of use 6 months 1 month
Fabrication On floating dock ON land
Launching Floating dock Floating crane
Concrete quality Hard to control Easy to control
Workability Less stable More stable
Temporary ballasting X O
Permanent ballasting O O
Segment connection X PS bars
Fig. 10 Floating Piers at Incheon harbor (completion)
4 Conclusions
This paper illustrated on the design considerations and construction methods for the
200 m long concrete floating pier. In the design, not only to maximize the use of
topside space but also to minimize the number of mooring dolphins, only one
concrete structure (L: 200 m) without inner mooring dolphins was proposed as an
alternative instead of a steel floating pier having two inner moorings and separated
three parts (L: 66 m 3 ea). In the construction, not only to increase the con-
struction efficiency but also to enhance the concrete quality of modules, the modular
construction method fabricating concrete segments on land and assembling them as
modules on the seawater was applied instead of the conventional method using a
big floating dock (50,000 ton).
References
1. Jung KH, Lee SH, Kim HS, Kang S (2019) Design and construction of the concrete floating
pier in Golden harbor, Incheon. In: Proceedings of world conference on floating solutions
(WCFS 2019), Singapore
2. Kang S, Jung KH, Lee SH, Kim HS, Choi YH (2018) Modular construction method for
concrete floating quay at Incheon harbor. In: Proceedings of the 25th Australian conference on
mechanics of structures and materials (ACMSM25), Brisbane, Australia
3. Kang S, Wang X, Jung KH (2017) Study of pontoon-type very large floating structure (VLFS)
supported with dolphin mooring system. In: Proceedings of Singapore maritime technology
conference (SMTC2017), Singapore
4. Kang S, Wang X, Jung KH (2017) Motion reduced floating response of very large structure
under wave loads. In: Proceedings of Korean concrete institute conference, Seoul, Korea
5. Hyundai Engineering and Construction (2016) Design Report on Incheon Port Passenger
Terminal. Incheon Port Authority Institute, South Korea
Structures Under Extreme Loadings
Fused Bridge Structures for Higher
Impact Resistance
Y. F. Wu, Y. W. Zhou, B. Hu, X. X. Huang, and S. T. Smith
Abstract Accidental overloading such as vehicle impact causes significantly larger

loading to structures than normal service load, which requires a larger safety margin
in design and consequent higher construction costs. Safety margin and construction
costs are two conflicting goals for structural design. By providing a fuse in a
structure that is triggered at a certain level of overloading, further increase of
loading can be prohibited and failure of the structure is changed to a safer mode.
Control of overloading reduces the partial safety factor for loading. Enforcement of
a safer failure mode further reduces the demand for safety reserve. Therefore, such a
fused structure requires a significantly smaller safety margin, leading to more
economical construction without compromising safety. The use of a fuse will also
facilitate safer use of advanced construction materials such as fiber-reinforced
polymer (FRP) composites. In this case, a fuse can transfer the sudden and dan-
gerous failure mode associated with brittle FRP debonding or rupture to a safe and
ductile failure mode at the fuse location. This paper introduces a new type of fused
structure as well as an associated design philosophy and approach that is suitable
for structures with high impact resistance.
Y. F. Wu (&)
School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia
e-mail: yufei.wu@rmit.edu.au
Y. W. Zhou B. Hu X. X. Huang
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Durability for Marine Civil Engineering, Shenzhen
University, Shenzhen, China
e-mail: ywzhou@szu.edu.cn
B. Hu
e-mail: biaohu3-c@szu.edu.cn
X. X. Huang
e-mail: xxhruby@szu.edu.cn
S. T. Smith
School of Environment, Science and Engineering, Southern Cross University,
Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia
e-mail: scott.smith@scu.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_58
612 Y. F. Wu et al.
Keywords Fused structure Structural fuse Safety margin FRP Concrete
1 Introduction
Safety is an important concern in structural design. A higher safety margin usually

requires higher construction costs, causing conflict between safety and costs.
However, safety and costs are not conflicting goals in the design of electrical
devices because they are protected through the use of a fuse [11]. The triggering of
the fuse stops “over-loading”. Therefore, a fuse in electrical circuits reduces the
consequences of failure and avoids the conflict between safety and costs. A fuse
changes the failure mode of a circuit to a safer and less costly one, thereby,
providing a cheaper solution.
In structural engineering, safety is considered in design by providing a safety
margin through the use of safety factors (or failure probability in reliability-based
approaches) [6]. The global safety margin is affected by the reserves (or reliability)
allowed in different aspects of design, such as partial safety factors for loadings and
materials, and capacity reduction factors for design models. The combination of all
reserves or partial safety factors provides the overall (global) safety factor in
structural design [7]. The global safety factor, however, depends on failure modes.
A more dangerous failure mode requires a higher safety factor (or lower failure
probability) and vice versa.
The use of a special structural component may change a more dangerous failure
mode to a less dangerous one. Such a structural component is equivalent to the fuse
in electrical circuits. Extensive studies on various structural fuses have been
reported in the literature where dissipating energy caused by seismic action as a
sacrificial element has been the main motivator (e.g. Shoeibi et al. [12]. This
research presents a new type of structural fuse that is motivated by the need to
enhance the ductility of concrete structures reinforced with fiber-reinforced poly-
mer (FRP) composites. Details of the fuse are introduced followed by a design
methodology for structures with such a fuse.
2 A New Type of Structural Fuse
2.1 Ductility Problem
Ductility is important in reinforced concrete (RC) structures. When tension rein-

forcement in an RC member does not yield at failure (e.g. over-reinforced beams or
columns with high axial load level, and FRP-reinforced members), the member
suffers from little ductility. Extensive efforts have been made to resolve the ductility
problem of FRP reinforced concrete members; however, no satisfactory solution
Fused Bridge Structures for Higher Impact Resistance 613
has been found so far [8]. The only solution recommended by ACI 440.1R [2] for
the ductility problem of FRP RC structures is to design for higher strength reserve
or to over-design the member. However, over-design is not only uneconomical but
also impractical or impossible in many cases. Therefore, conventional structural
technologies cannot provide a solution to this ductility problem. Leading authorities
have long pointed out that “unless ductility requirements are satisfied, FRP mate-
rials cannot be used reliably in structural engineering applications” [8]. This critical
problem has been ignored by the research community so far. As a result, there is
little progress in the practical use of FRP bars to replace steel bars in the con-
struction of structures.
2.2 An Unconventional Solution to the Ductility Problem
For conventional RC structures, ductility comes from the yielding of reinforcement

in the tensile side of a plastic hinge zone (PHZ) (Fig. 1). When plastic rotation in
the PHZ cannot be achieved through plastic elongation of the reinforcement on the
tension side, the other way to achieve it is by shortening or compression yielding
(CY) on the compression side (Fig. 1). The second approach addresses the ductility
problem from a different perspective. The biggest challenge in realizing CY was to
find a suitable CY material. An ideal material, slurry infiltrated fiber concrete
(SIFCON) with perforation (Fig. 2 and Fig. 3(a)), was developed [14] for the
purpose. The high ductility of the material is shown in Fig. 2. Experimental,
numerical and analytical studies on CY beams and columns have demonstrated the
feasibility and high effective of the technology in increasing ductility of structural
members (Fig. 3(b)) [13–18].
Conventional RC member CY member
Fig. 1 Plastic deformation in PHZ

614 Y. F. Wu et al.
Fig. 2 Properties of
materials
(a) CY block cast into an RC beam (b) Test results of CY beams
Fig. 3 CY structural system
2.3 New Structural Fuse
The CY block is designed to yield before the rupture of FRP reinforcement. In

addition to provide ductility, the CY block can also act as a fuse. The utilization of
the fuse (i.e. CY block) produces the following effects: (1) it inhibits further
increase of loading by triggering the ‘fuse’. Therefore, the partial safety factor for
loading can be reduced; and (2) it transforms a more dangerous failure mode to a
safer one. Repair of the member is also confined to localized replacement of the
fuse. As a result, a higher failure probability or smaller safety margin can be applied
which further reduces structural costs.
3 Design Philosophy of Fused Structures
Owing to the changed failure consequences, the requirements and considerations on

the structural design are different. A reliability-based design approach is introduced
in this section.
3.1 Determination of Reliability Index
As the structures containing a fuse fail in a safer manner, the safety factors or failure
probability used for the design of structures containing a fuse should be different
from conventional RC structures. Neglecting maintenance, demolition and associ-
ated indirect costs, the total cost of a structure Ct can be viewed as the product of
failure probability Pf and failure cost Cf plus the initial cost [9]:
Ct ¼ Ci þ Pf Cf ð1Þ
where Ci and Cf = initial and failure costs, respectively. Notably, Ci increases as

reliability index b increases, because a safer structure requires higher Ci. Pf is a
decreasing function of b since the failure probability decreases with increasing b.
Following Nowak and Collins [9], the relationships between Ci and b as well as Pf
and b can be expressed as
Ci ¼ að1 þ bbÞ ð2Þ
Pf ¼ c expðb=dÞ ð3Þ
in which a, b, c and d are constants. Thus, Eq. (1) becomes
Ct ¼ að1 þ bbÞ þ c expðb=dÞCf ð4Þ
Equation (4) consists of two parts that are both functions of b, which is quali-
tatively depicted in Fig. 4. The first part is an increasing function of b, whereas the
second part is a decreasing one. It is evident that an optimum design can be
achieved by adopting a certain value of b that minimizes the total cost Ct. This
optimal value of b is the target reliability index bT (Fig. 4).
As the adoption of a fuse should not significantly increase construction costs, the
first part of Eq. (4) is considered the same for both conventional and fused struc-
tures. The failure of a fused structure is simply the replacement of fuse. Therefore,
the cost of failure, or the second part of Eq. (4) is much smaller for a fused structure
(Fig. 4). Figure 4 shows that at bT, both the first and second parts are smaller for
fused structures. Meanwhile, a fused structure achieves a lower cost if the same b as
that for conventional structures is adopted (Fig. 4), which demonstrates the eco-
nomic advantage of fused structures.
Normally, bT is provided by codes and may differ in different codes. In China, bT
at the ultimate limit state under a 50-year period is determined by considering both
safety measures and failure modes [4], as summarized in Table 1. Since the use of
fuse can prevent dangerous failure modes and minimize losses, RC structures
containing a fuse can have a smaller design reliability index b.
616 Y. F. Wu et al.
Cost Initial cost

Failure consequence of conventional RC structures
Failure consequence of RC structures with fuse
Total costof conventional RC structures
Total cost of RC structures with fuse
β
β too small, underdesign βT2 βT1 β too large, overdesign
Fig. 4 Costs versus reliability index
Table 1 Target reliability index bT at ultimate state of structures under 50-year period
Structural class Consequences of failure Target reliability index bT
Ductile failure Brittle failure
Class I High 3.7 4.2
Class II Medium 3.2 3.7
Class III Low 2.7 3.2
Roughened interface
Fig. 5 Structural configuration of an RC beam containing a fuse
3.2 Design of CY Beam
As shown in Fig. 5, the CY beams involve additional variables associated with CY

fuse, e.g., material properties and CY zone dimensions. This adds to the complexity
in member design. Considering that the CY block contains fibers, the shear strength
in the PHZ and at the interface (roughened) is higher than that of normal RC beams.
Therefore, the shear design of CY beams can be based on that for conventional RC
beams.
Compared with normal RC beams, the flexural behavior of fused beams involved
three more variables, namely, height and width ratios of the CY block η and a,
reinforcement ratio qf, and four variables related to the material properties of the
CY block (Fig. 6) that include the relative yield strength fb/fc (where, fb and fc are
the yielding strength of the CY block and concrete strength), yield strain eby,
ultimate strain ebu, and strain hardening/softening modulus ratio n.
A performance-based design methodology that explicitly and quantitatively
addresses the ductility and strength requirements of the fused beams has been
developed [16]. As a certain requirement can be fulfilled by different designs with
different dimensions and material properties of the CY block, the method provides
an optimal design approach that delivers the maximum possible ductility with a
minimum CY block. To facilitate convenient use by engineers, the optimal design
approach is criterion-based to avoid numerical iteration.
As the displacement ductility is directly related to curvature ductility [13], the
optimal solution can be found in two steps. Firstly, the optimal curvature ductility is
found (i.e. determine a set of values for n, fb and η at which the optimal curvature,
l/, is achieved). Secondly, the plastic hinge length ratio, a, from Eq. (5) [16] is
determined.
að2 aÞlu þ 8kð1 aÞ2 ðEIÞp =ðEIÞe

lD ¼ ð5Þ
að2 aÞ þ 8kð1 aÞ2 ðEIÞp =ðEIÞe
where lD and l/ = respectively the displacement ductility and curvature ductility

ratios; (EI)e = the rigidity of the fused beam outside the CY zone; (EI)p = the
elastic flexural rigidity of the CY section before yielding; and k = a factor that
depends on the load distribution. For a uniformly distributed load, k = 5/48.
There are two possible failure modes for fused beams: I) CY block failure, which
is governed by the attainment of ebu of the CY block; and II) the moment resistance
after reaching the peak drops below the allowable limit dd before CY block failure
(i.e. the rate of the moment drop RMD dd). Wu et al. [16] obtained the rela-
tionship between the curvature ductility and η as shown in Fig. 7, which indicates
that the intersection of the two curves for failure modes I and II is an optimal
curvature. In other words, the optimal ductility of the CY section is achieved when
Fig. 6 Stress-strain model of

CY block
618 Y. F. Wu et al.
the failure of the CY block at e = ebu occurs simultaneously at the onset of the
maximum allowable RMD = dd. The optimal ductility can mathematically be
expressed as
ðMm Mmin Þ=Mm ¼ dd ð6Þ
where Mmin = the failure moment which can be determined according to key fea-
tures of the moment-curvature curve [16]; and Mm = the peak moment of the fused
beam. The determination of Mmin can be found in the work by Wu et al. [16].
Besides the ductility requirement, the CY beam has to meet the following
strength requirement
Mm Md ð7Þ
Therefore, when n is considered as a CY material property and treated as a

constant, the two remaining variables, fb and η, can be resolved from Eqs. (6) and
(7). The value of l/ can be substituted into Eq. (5) to calculate a and the target
displacement ductility lD is given.
As the CY block behaves elastically at service loading, the design approach for
serviceability limit state can be similar to conventional beams.
4 Application
This section illustrates the advantages of a fused structure by means of an example.

Considering a footbridge with two fuses, as depicted in Fig. 8, the main structural
components of the footbridge consist of two arches, two longitudinal beams, several
trusses and a bridge deck. Since the arches are the key structural elements, the cost
of the arches is studied. As the bridge is symmetrical, only one arch is used to study
cost with and without a fuse by using a reliability-based approach. For simplicity,
only uniformly distributed dead and live loads are considered.
Fig. 7 Optimal curvature

Fig. 8 A footbridge with CY Bridge CY block

block fuses deck
f =3.5 m
Longitudinal Arch
beam
l=2
Truss 2m
4m
b=
Fig. 9 Free body diagram of qL + qD

the arch
T
y
Fx
x
Fy
The equation for the appropriate arch axis of the footbridge is determined so that
the arch is only under compression along its axis. This gives the following
relationship
4f ðlx x2 Þ
y¼ ð8Þ
l2
According to GB50068 [4], the live load qL = 5 kN/m2. The total weight of the
footbridge is estimated to be 9000 kg, thus qD = 1 kN/m2. Equilibrium leads to
Fx
TðxÞ ¼ ð9Þ
cosðarctanðdy=dxÞÞ
qL bl2 qD bl2
Fx ¼ þ ð10Þ
16f 16f
where T(x) = the compression force along arch axis; Fx = the horizontal force;
b and l = the width and span of the bridge, respectively (Fig. 8).
The load and resistance factor design (LFRD) is used for reliability-based
design. Based on ACI318 [1] and given that the live and dead loads dominate the
design, the LFRD expression under ultimate limit state can be expressed as:
620 Y. F. Wu et al.
/Rn ¼ 1:2Dn þ 1:6Ln ð11Þ
where / = the resistance reduction factor; Rn = the nominal resistance; Dn and

Ln = the compression force effect given by Eq. (9) due to the dead and live loads,
respectively. The coefficients 1.2 and 1.6 are the corresponding partial safety factors
for dead and live loads, respectively. The nominal values for Dn and Ln can be
obtained from Eq. (9), which are
qD bl2 =ð16f Þ
Dn ¼ ð12Þ
qL bl2 =ð16f Þ
Ln ¼ ð13Þ
The limit state function of this case can be represented by the following
equation:
Z ¼RDL ð14Þ
in which R, D and L = random variables for resistance, dead load effect and live
load effect, respectively. In reliability analysis, failure occurs if Z < 0. That is, the
combined load effect (D + L) is larger than the resistance (R). Therefore, the failure
probability Pf can be expressed as [10]
ZZZ
Pf ¼ PrðR D L\0Þ ¼ fR ðRÞfD ðDÞfL ðLÞdRdDdL ¼ 1 UðbÞ ð15Þ
RDL\0
where fR(R), fD(D) and fL(L) = the probability density functions for R, D and L;
U = the cumulative distribution function of standard normal distribution; and
b = the reliability index.
The resistance (R) is assumed to follow a lognormal distribution with the mean
value equal to the nominal value Rn = (1.2Dn+ 1.6Ln)// based on Eq. (11). The
coefficient of variation (COV) equals to 0.1 GB 50068 [4]. The dead load effect
(D) follows a normal distribution with the mean value and COV to be 1.05 times of
the nominal value Dn and 0.1, respectively [3]. The live load effect (L) follows an
extreme value distribution (type I) with the mean value and COV being the nominal
value Ln and 0.25, respectively [3].
Based on the stochastic information mentioned above, the probability density
functions fR(R), fD(D) and fL(L) can be developed. In the following reliability
analysis, resistance factor / ranging from 0.7 to 1.0 with a step size of 0.025 are
considered. Since the nominal values for Dn and Ln are known, for a given value of
/, the nominal value Rn is given by Eq. (11). Therefore, the reliability index in
Eq. (15) can be evaluated by either a Monte Carlo Simulation or First Order
Reliability Method [5] using the probability density function fR(R), fD(D) and fL(L).
Fig. 10 Relationship 1.00

between bT and /
Resistance reduction factor,

0.95
0.90
0.85
0.80
0.75
0.70
0.65
2.7 3.2 3.7 4.2 4.7 5.2
Reliability index,
The relationship between the resistance reduction factor / and reliability index b is
thus obtained by repeating this process for each /, as shown in Fig. 10.
According to Table 1, bT can be 3.7 for a fused structure and 4.2 for a con-
ventional structure. Their corresponding resistance reduction factor / can be
obtained based on linear regression, which is 0.87 and 0.8, respectively, as illus-
trated in Fig. 10. That means / for a structure containing a fuse is larger than a
conventional structure, which indicates that the initial cost of materials can be
reduced. In addition, for the arch with the fuse, the failure cost is simply the
replacement of the fuse and hence significantly lower than that of the arch without a
fuse.
5 Impact Resistance
The fused structure can tolerate much larger deformation without significant loss of
load - carrying capacity (Fig. 3). The structural system is superior to impact loading
from an energy dissipation point of view. The CY beam is directly applicable to
bridge construction where more economical design can be achieved for bridge
beams under vertical impact loading from vehicles. The CY concept can also be
applied to other impact resistant structures, e.g. the CY material (Fig. 3(a)) can be
used as shock absorber to reduce impact force to structures.
6 Conclusions
The inclusion of fuse can change the failure mode of a structure into a safer one and
thus reduce the consequences of structural failure. This leads to a smaller safety
margin in design and reduced costs of construction. Such advantages of fused
622 Y. F. Wu et al.
structures are more significant for structures under impact loadings. Although this
work is based on structures with CY fuses, the design philosophy is general and
applicable to different structures containing different fuses.
The design reliability index or capacity reduction factor of fused structures
should be different from those recommended by current design codes which are
based on the failure consequences of conventional structures. A reliability-based
approach is presented in this work to derive the capacity reduction factor for the
design of an arch bridge. Saving in structural cost is made from the larger value of
capacity reduction factor for the fused structure. Different fused structures require
different design parameters that can be developed using the reliability-based
approaches.
It is noted that the cost reduction from the above method comes only from the
change of failure mode. No reduction in the partial safety factors for loading is
considered. As overloading is prevented by the use of fuse in structures. Further
reduction in structural cost can be achieved when a reduction in the safety margin
of loading is considered.
References
1. ACI 318-14 (2014) Building code requirements for structural concrete and commentary. ACI,
Farmington Hills, MI, USA
2. ACI 440.1R-15 (2015) Guide for the design and construction of structural concrete reinforced
with fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars. ACI, Farmington Hills, MI, USA
3. Galambos TV, Ellingwood B, MacGregor JG, Cornell CA (1982) Probability based load
criteria: assessment of current design practice. J Struct Div 108:959–977
4. GB50068 (2001) Unified standard for reliability design of building structures. China Building
Industry Press, Beijing (in Chinese)
5. Huang X, Chen J, Zhu H (2016) Assessing small failure probabilities by AK-SS: an active
learning method combining kriging and subset simulation. Struct Saf 59:86–95
6. Melchers RE (2007) Structural reliability theory in the context of structural safety. Civ Eng
Environ Syst 24(1):55–69
7. Melchers RE, Beck AT (2017) Structural reliability analysis and prediction. Wiley, New York
8. Naaman A (2003) FRP reinforcements in structural concrete: assessment, progress and
prospects. In: Tan KH (ed) Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Reinforcement for Concrete Structures,
FRPRCS-6. World Scientific, Singapore, pp 3–24
9. Nowak AS, Collins KR (2000) Reliability of structures. McGraw-Hill Inc, New York
10. Rubinstein RY, Kroese DP (2016) Simulation and the Monte Carlo method. Wiley, New York
11. Schossig W (2007) Introduction to the history of selective protection. PAC Mag 70–74
12. Shoeibi S, Ali Kafi M, Gholhaki M (2017) New performance-based seismic design method
for structures with structural fuse system. Eng Struct 132:745–760
13. Wu YF (2008) Ductility demand of compression yielding fiber-reinforced polymer-reinforced
concrete beams. ACI Struct J 105(1):104–110
14. Wu YF, Jiang JF, Liu K (2010) Perforated SIFCON blocks-An extraordinarily ductile
material ideal for use in compression yielding structural systems. Constr Build Mater 24
(12):2454–2465
15. Wu YF, Zhou YW (2011) Controlling the damage of concrete columns through compression
yielding. Struct Control Health Monit 18(8):890–907
16. Wu YF, Zhou YW, He XQ (2010) Performance-based design of compression-yielding

FRP-reinforced concrete beams. Compos Struct 93(1):113–123
17. Zhou YW, Wu YF, Teng JG, Leung AYT (2009) Ductility analysis of compression-yielding
FRP-reinforced composite beams. Cem Conc Compo 31(9):682–691
18. Zhou YW, Wu YF, Teng JG, Leung AYT (2010) Parametric space for the optimal design of
compression-yielding FRP-reinforced concrete beams. Mater Struct 43(1–2):81–97
Performance of Bio-mimetic Cellular
Structures Under Impulsive Loads
A. Ghazlan, T. Ngo, V. Le, and T. Nguyen
Abstract Re-entrant and honeycomb cellular structures have been extensively

investigated by researchers in terms of mitigating the devastating effects of
impulsive loadings. However, these types of geometries have been observed to
buckle locally in the vicinity of the load, thereby limiting their effectiveness as
protective structures. Their performance can be enhanced by mimicking naturally
occurring cellular structures, including that of the porcupine quill, which is studied
here. The quill possesses a unique cellular structure that protects the porcupine by
perforating the skin of an attacking predator. Several distinct features have been
identified in the lightweight quill that effectively counteract buckling and bending.
This study mimics several structural features of the quill to develop a novel cellular
design for counteracting blast loads. Traditional hexagonal and re-entrant designs
are used to benchmark the performance of the novel bio-mimetic cellular structure.
By iteratively mimicking several of the structural features of the porcupine quill, a
balance between local buckling and collapse can be achieved, which minimises the
reaction on the target below and maximises energy dissipation.

Keywords Bio-inspired Porcupine quill Cellular structures Computational

geometry Protective structures
A. Ghazlan (&) T. Ngo V. Le T. Nguyen

School of Civil Engineering, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3052, Australia
e-mail: ghazlana@unimelb.edu.au
T. Ngo
e-mail: dtngo@unimelb.edu.au
V. Le
e-mail: vl3@student.unimelb.edu.au
T. Nguyen
e-mail: tuan.nguyen@unimelb.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_59
626 A. Ghazlan et al.
1 Introduction
Cellular structures have shown potential in absorbing energy, which makes them
attractive for mitigating the effects of impulsive loads. Honeycomb and re-entrant
geometries, which have been extensively investigated by researchers, are prone to
premature buckling and collapse in the vicinity of the loading. In effect, this
behaviour may amplify the reaction forces on the protected target [1, 2]. Porcupines
have evolved their light protective systems over many years for mitigating predator
attacks. Porcupine quills are light and absorb significant energy, and mimicking
their structural features can lead to the development of a superior system for pro-
tecting structures against impulsive loads.
Porcupines exist in several species that typically inhabit North-Africa, Europe,
Asia and America. Quills are the key feature that protects the porcupine from
predator attacks, which are assembled to form a protective system. They are
needle-like hairs that are arranged such that they form a dense outer shell (cortex)
and a foam-like core [3]. Researchers have expended efforts to uncover the superior
resistance of the quill to bending and buckling. Torres et al. [4] tested a Amazonian
porcupine quill in axial compression, some samples with the core intact and others
with the core removed. They observed that delamination between the layers of the
cortex had a prominent effect on lowering the buckling stress. Yang et al. [5]
conducted similar experiments and reported that the soft foam core was responsible
for increasing the buckling strength of the quill.
This study mimics several features of the porcupine quill and investigates their
influence on mitigating blast loads. To this effect, a finite element model of a
quill-like cellular structure is developed, and its efficacy is investigated in terms of
its total dissipated energy and the reaction forces transmitted to the target. The
model is benchmarked against existing cellular structures investigated in the liter-
ature, namely honeycomb and re-entrant.
2 Numerical Model
2.1 Developing the Quill-like Structure
Several structures are investigated as shown in Fig. 1, which mimic the concave
and convex cell geometries, and the stiffeners or bracing observed in the porcupine
quill. These designs can simply be obtained by modifying the pentagonal structure
(Fig. 1b). Manipulating these designs can also result in other unit cells such as the
re-entrant structure shown in Fig. 1e. The hexagonal (Fig. 1a) and the re-entrant
configurations (Fig. 1e) were chosen as the benchmark cases for assessing the
performance of the bio-inspired quill-like cellular structures shown in Fig. 1b–d
[1, 2, 6, 7]. The re-entrant configuration has a longer cell wall angle, which thereby
Performance of Bio-mimetic Cellular Structures … 627
leads to an increase in mass, which in turn increases its effective length [1]. These
unit cells are assembled and meshed to develop the baseline design as shown in
Fig. 2.
2.2 Material Model
A rate-dependent material model is adopted to simulate the cellular structures

developed in this research. The Johnson-Cook constitutive law for ductile metals
[8] was used to simulate the rate-dependent plastic deformation of these cellular
structures:
r ¼ ½A þ B 2n ½1 þ Cln2_ ½1 T m ð1Þ
Where: A represents the yield stress; 2 is the equivalent plastic strain; B and n
account for the effects of strain hardening; 2_ ¼ 2=
_ 2_ 0 is the dimensionless strain
_ 1
rate for the reference strain rate 20 ¼ 0:001 s ; the constant C is obtained from
experiment (tension, torsion, etc.); and the temperature Tm is ignored, assuming
isothermal conditions. The material employed in this work is armour graded alu-
minium (AA5083-H116), with the properties listed in Table 1.
Fig. 1 a Different unit cell arrangements that mimic the porcupine quill: a Hexagonal;
b Pentagonal; c Hybrid quad-hexagonal; d Oriented hexagonal; e Re-entrant unit cell
3.5
60
20
20
60
Fig. 2 The meshed bio-mimetic cellular structure (mesh density of 0.5 mm) obtained from the
oriented hexagonal design. The unit cell is also shown with simplified design parameters extracted
from some of the structural features of the porcupine quill
Table 1 Mechanical Property Value Property Value

properties of Aluminium
AA5083-H116 Density, q 2750 kg/m3 Plastic
A 215 MPa
Elastic B 280 MPa
E 70 GPa N 0.404
m 0.3 m 0.859
C 0.0085
e_ 0 0:001 s1
2.3 Blast Load and Boundary Conditions
The model (Fig. 2) is clamped at the base and subjected to a TNT charge of weight
W ¼ 0:1 kg at a stand-off distance of R ¼ 0:1 m from the front face of the load
transfer plate (see Fig. 3). These blast parameters were to chosen to ensure adequate
deformation of the structure. The reflected blast pressure history is plotted in Fig. 3
below. The Conventional Weapons Effects (CONWEP) program, which determines
the air blast parameters based on empirical data from explosive tests conducted by
Kingery and Bulmash was used to generate the blast pressure profile [9, 10]. This
model is also adopted in the Unified Facilities Criteria (UFC 3-340-02) in graphical
form for designing structures to resist explosions [11]. The blast pressure profile is
modelled using the modified Friedlander equation, which is representative of an
exponentially decaying pressure as follows:
Fig. 3 Reflected blast pressure history at the center of the blast face
Fig. 4 Convergence study on the hexagonal structure using the resultant reaction force, which is
indicated by R

t bt
Ps ðtÞ ¼ Ps0 1 e td ð2Þ
t0
Where Ps0 is the peak overpressure; td is the positive phase duration of the
impulse; t is the time and b is the blast waveform parameter, which typically varies
with standoff distance.
2.4 Mesh Density and Convergence Study
A convergence study was conducted on the hexagonal unit cell (Fig. 1a) model
using the reaction force as shown in Fig. 3, with mesh densities of 1, 0.5 and
0.25 mm. It The peak compressive and uplift reaction forces were captured for all
three cases. For the case with a mesh density of 1 mm, intermediate jumps in the
reaction force are observed due to the increased stiffness of the structure. The model
with a mesh size of 0.5 mm was thereby chosen to proceed with this study (Fig. 4).
The baseline model was adapted to mimic the stiffener concept adopted in the
porcupine quill to safeguard certain regions of the bio-mimetic structure from
buckling. Design 4 was used for this study, with upper and lower sub-cell wall
angles of a = 25° and b = 45°, respectively as shown in Fig. 5. It can be observed
that the collapse mechanisms between this structure (with and without bracing)
whereby densification occurs in the same regions. However, the bracing (0:5 mm
thick) slightly stiffens the structure such that the braced walls of the lower sub-cells
do not completely collapse. This, in effect, slightly increases the peak initial
reaction force but not to the point where it exceeds that of the re-entrant configu-
ration. Furthermore, it can also be observed that the subsequent spike in the reaction
force was also reduced at t ¼ 350 ls but an earlier spike at t ¼ 150 ls was
developed due to the additional stiffness provided by the bracing. Hence, the
sub-cell wall angles and the bracing thickness should be tuned to obtain the optimal
structural performance. Regardless, the braced bio-mimetic structure outperforms
the re-entrant structure in terms of reducing the peak initial reaction force where the
blast impulse is prominent (around t ¼ 50 ls) and reducing the subsequent peak
reaction force experienced by the structure. It is important to note that introducing
bracing in the lower sub-cells did not add significant mass to the structure, and the
Design 4 Design 4 Design 4 Design 5

( ( , ( ,
) ) )
Braced
Fig. 5 Comparing the collapse mechanisms of the oriented hexagonal structure (design 4 with
a ¼ 25 ; b ¼ 45 ) when bracing (0:5 mm thick) is introduced into the lower sub-cell with the
re-entrant structure (design 5)
mass of the re-entrant structure is still 14% higher than that of the bio-mimetic
structure (Fig. 6 and Table 2).
For completeness, the energy dissipated between the braced bio-mimetic struc-
ture (design 4) is also compared with the benchmark re-entrant structure. By
observing the collapsed configurations in Fig. 5, it is evident that the bio-mimetic
structure outperforms the re-entrant structure because its design facilitates a better
distribution of plastic deformation, whereas the deformation in the re-entrant
structure is highly localised. This is a prominent result, particularly given that the
re-entrant structure with the same number of unit cells is still heavier than the
bio-mimetic structure by approximately 14% (Fig. 7).
Design 4 Design 5
Fig. 6 The effect of introducing bracing (0:5 mm thick) into the lower sub-cell of the oriented
hexagonal structure (design 4 with a ¼ 25 ; b ¼ 45 ) on the reaction force compared to the
Table 2 Summary of the peak reaction forces observed when introducing bracing (0:5 mm thick)
to the lower sub-cell of the oriented hexagonal structure (design 4 with a ¼ 25 ; b ¼ 45 ). The
peak reaction forces for the re-entrant structure are shown for comparison
Design Mass Upper/lower cell wall Peak initial reaction Peak Spike in
(g) angle (a=bÞ force (kN) reaction force (kN)
Design 4 14.8 63 =63 3.7 3.2
Design 4 15.6 25 =45 1.5 2.8
Design 4 15.9 25 =45 =LB0:5 mm 1.6 2.2
Re-entrant 18.2 N/A 1.9 2.4
Design 4 Design 5
Fig. 7 The effect of introducing bracing (0:5 mm thick) into the lower sub-cell of the oriented
hexagonal structure (design 4 with a ¼ 25 ; b ¼ 45 ) on the dissipated energy compared to the
4 Conclusion
This research mimicked several structural features that were identified in the cel-
lular structure of the porcupine quill, namely the concavity and convexity of the cell
geometries, and the stiffeners/bracing in critical regions where the stresses are most
prominent. To this effect, several periodic bio-mimetic designs were generated with
easily tunable design parameters, and their performance was benchmarked against
hexagonal and re-entrant structures, which have been extensively investigated in the
literature. The re-entrant design ended up being the benchmark case because it
outperformed the biomimetic structures in terms of alleviating the reaction force
transmitted to the base through its collapse mechanism. The bio-mimetic structure
shown significant potential as a protective system due to its higher energy dissi-
pation capability and lower reaction force transmitted to the protected structure.
References
1. Imbalzano G, Ngo T, Tran P (2015) A numerical study of auxetic composite panels under
blast loadings. Compos Struct 135:339–352
2. Imbalzano G, Tran P, Ngo T, Lee PV (2015) Three-dimensional modelling of auxetic
sandwich panels for localised impact resistance. J Sandwich Struct Mater 1-26
3. Chou SF, Overfelt RA (2011) Tensile deformation and failure of North American porcupine
quills. Mater Sci EngC 31:1729–1736
4. Torres FG, Troncoso OP, Diaz J, Arce D (2014) Failure analysis of porcupine quills under
axial compression reveals their mechanical response during buckling. J Mech Behav Biomed
Mater 39:111–118
5. Yang W, McKittrick J (2013) Separating the influence of the cortex and foam on the
mechanical properties of porcupine quills. Acta Biomater 9:9065–9074
6. Qi C, Remennikov A, Pei LZ, Yang S, Yu ZH, Ngo TD (2017) Impact and close-in blast
response of auxetic honeycomb-cored sandwich panels: experimental tests and numerical
simulations. Compos Struct 180:161–178
7. Imbalzano G, Linforth S, Ngo TD, Lee PVS, Tran P (2018) Blast resistance of auxetic and
honeycomb sandwich panels: comparisons and parametric designs. Compos Struct 183:242–
261
8. Johnson GR, Cook WH (1983) A constitutive model and data for metals subjected to large
strains, high strain rates and high temperatures. In: Proceedings of the 7th international
symposium on ballistics
9. Hyde D (1992) ConWep—Application of TM 5-855-1. In: Fundamentals of protective design
for conventional weapons. USACE Waterways Experiment Station: Vicksburg, MS
10. Kingery CN, Bulmash G (1984) Airblast parameters from TNT spherical air burst and
hemispherical surface burst. Aberdeen Proving Ground, Aberdeen, MD: Ballistic Research
Laboratory
11. Engineers, U.A.C.o., UFC 3-340-02: Structures to Resist the Effects of Explosions, U.D.o.
Defense, Editor. 2008: Washington, DC
Experimental Study on Cross Arms
Inserted in Concrete-Filled
Circular GFRP Tubular Columns
F. Xie, J. Chen, Q. Q. Yu, and X. L. Dong
Abstract In recent years, development of new structural systems based on

fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) materials attracted much attention. Concrete-filled
FRP tubes taking advantages of both FRP and concrete show great promise for the
potential application in piling, poles, highways overhead sign structures and bridge
components. The hybrid member also provides an alternative solution for tradi-
tional transmission structures. However, the connection between concrete-filled
FRP tubes and cross arms has not been fully investigated. This paper conducted an
experimental study on steel cross arms inserted in concrete-filled circular glass FRP
(GFRP) tubular columns. The structural responses of the system when the cross
arms were subjected to concentrated loads were carefully recorded. It was found
that the concrete-filled GFRP tubes could offer a sufficient restraint to the cross arm,
leading to a limited deformation. Although stress and strain concentrated on the
GFRP tube at the corner of the cross arm, no visible cracks were observed.
Keywords Concrete-filled Cross arm Displacement GFRP Transmission
F. Xie X. L. Dong
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, Ningbo University,
Ningbo 315211, China
e-mail: xiefangusx@163.com
X. L. Dong
e-mail: XinlongDong_2000@163.com
F. Xie
Department of Civil Engineering, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing 312000, China
J. Chen
Department of Civil Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
e-mail: cecj@zju.edu.cn
Q. Q. Yu (&)
Department of Structural Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
e-mail: qianqian.yu@tongji.edu.cn

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_60
636 F. Xie et al.
1 Introduction
Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) materials, initially applied in aircraft structures, are

now attracted much attention in the community of civil engineering. Attributed to
the high strength-to-weight ratio, good durability to corrosion and fatigue, as well
as ease of installation, FRP materials have been widely adopted in retrofitting of
aged structures (e.g. [11–13, 17, 19–27], Lozano and Riveros 2019). These
advantages are also recognized in the development of new structural components.
The concrete-filled FRP tube is one of the typical hybrid systems, which shows
great potential in piling, poles, highways overhead sign and bridge structures (e.g.
[2–5, 9, 11, 15, 16, 18]. Based on previous studies, the outer FRP provided a
lightweight permanent formwork for concrete and prevented aggressive agents.
When subjected to compression, the ultimate load-bearing capacity and ductility of
the columns were pronouncedly improved attributed to the confinement provided
by FRP.
FRP materials also provide an alternative solution for traditional transmission
structures (e.g. [7, 10, 14, 28, 29]. Recommended practice for FRP products for
overhead utility line structures is presented by the American Standard ASCE
Manual No. 104. Godat et al. [7] conducted a series of experimental studies on glass
fiber pultruded sections in electricity transmission towers. Different specimen
configurations were adopted, including angle-section, square-section and
rectangular-section specimens subjected to axial compression, as well as I-section
and W-section specimens tested under bending. The critical buckling load was
focused and assessed based on available design manuals and analytical equations.
In Guades et al. [8], the mechanical properties of glass FRP (GFRP) tubes with
additional ±45 glass fiber reinforcement for the potential use of power pole cross
arms were investigated. Test results indicated an approximately linear elastic
behavior. Numerical analysis was also adopted to simulate the compressive and
flexural behavior of the square tubes.
To the best knowledge of the authors, the connection between the concrete-filled
FRP tubular columns and cross arms has not been fully investigated which
obstructs the wider application of FRP materials in transmission structures. In this
paper, three concrete-filled GFRP tubes with steel bars inserted as cross arms were
prepared and tested, with a special focus on the effect of concentrated loads on the
cross arm. It was found that the column provided a sufficient constraint to the cross
arm. Although strain and stress concentration were observed on the GFRP at the
corner of the cross arm, no visible cracks were found. The new connection pro-
posed here showed a good promise for engineering practice.
Experimental Study on Cross Arms Inserted … 637
2 Experimental Program
2.1 Specimen and Materials
The specimens were made of steel bars inserted into concrete-filled GFRP tubes
(Fig. 1). The GFRP tubes had a diameter of 180 mm and a wall thickness of
10 mm. Different dimensions of steel bars were selected, as listed in Table 1. In this
study, steel bars rather than GFRP tubes were adopted to serve as the cross arm. It
was because the steel bars had a larger stiffness and consequently more detrimental
effect on the GFRP tube, which was intended to simulate a more unfavorable
scenario.
The GFRP tubes were filament wound of unidirectional G-glass fibers at 45
angle and PET resin. The infilled concrete had a 28-day cubic compressive strength
of 22.7 MPa. The cross arm was Q235b steel [6]. According to the tensile coupon
test, the average yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, and Young’s modulus
were 304 MPa, 475 MPa, and 204 GPa, respectively.
During the preparation of the specimens, the cross arm was inserted into the
GFRP tube through two holes with the same dimension of the steel bar. Afterward,
Grade C30 concrete was poured into the tubes and fully vibrated. All the specimens
were cured in the room condition for 28 days before testing.
2.2 Test Set-up and Data Acquisition
The specimens were monotonically loaded by two actuators on the steel bar to
simulate the load transferred by wires to the cross arms and columns in a trans-
mission tower (Fig. 2). Displacement control at a rate of 0.2 mm/min was adopted.
The distance from the loading point to the boundary of the GFRP tube was
200 mm.
GFRP tube
Steel bar
1000
Concrete
2000
Fig. 1 Specimen geometry and dimensions (unit in mm, not to scale)

638 F. Xie et al.
Table 1 Specimen geometry Specimen Cross-sectional dimension of the steel bar (mm)
D150-20 20 20
D150-30 30 30
D150-40 40 40
200 200
Actuator
Specimen
Dial indicator Dial indicator
Fig. 2 Test set-up (unit in mm, not to scale)
The deformation of the cross arm is an important index and was monitored by
using two dial indicators mounted to the steel bar at the loading points (Fig. 2). The
strain on the cross arm and the GFRP tube was also carefully recorded by 2 and 8
strain gauges, as illustrated in Figs. 3(a) and (b), respectively. It should be pointed
out that, the strain gauges on the GFRP tubes were attached along the fiber
direction, i.e., two were perpendicularly mounted to a certain position. Four (M1 to
M4) were applied to detect the strain development on the GFRP tube in the middle
of the steel bar while the other four (C1 to C4) were intended to read the strain
affected by the corner of the steel bar.
GFRP tube
L1 L2 Cross
M1, M2 M3, M4
10 10 arm
C1, C2 C3, C4
Cross arm
GFRP 10 10
tube
Strain gauge
Fig. 3 Layout of the strain gauges on the steel bar and the GFRP tube
3.1 Failure Mode and Strain Development
All the specimens failed due to yielding of the steel bar, and no cracks were
observed in the GFRP tube. Figure 4 presents the strain development on the steel
bar and GFRP tube of a typical specimen. As the load was increased, the com-
pressive strain on the GFRP tube and tensile strain on the steel bar were both
increased. Due to the mechanical profile of GFRP and steel, the variation of the
strain reading showed a linear and nonlinear trend, respectively. Based on the
mechanical properties presented in Sect. 2.1, it was easy to know that the maximum
strain on the GFRP (7948 le) was apparently less than the ultimate strain of the
GFRP (9310 le) while the maximum strain on the steel (2323 le) had exceeded the
yield strain of 1940 le. It was also interesting to find that the strain of C series was
significantly larger than that of the M series, indicating a severe stress concentra-
tion. Therefore, the GFRP tube at the corner of the cross arm is more prone to
damage and calls for special attention.
In terms of the effect of the dimension of the cross arm, the relationship between
strain and load of specimens with different cross-sections of steel bars is displayed
in Fig. 5. The strains of the four gauges at both the corner and middle of the cross
arm were averaged and are denoted by the final letter of C and M in Fig. 5,
respectively. When the side length of the cross arm was increased from 20 mm to
40 mm, the strain on the GFRP tube at the corner of the steel bar was considerably
decreased, which implied an improved specimen stiffness. Taking the load of 28 kN
as an example, the strain reading was decreased from 3439 le (D150-20) to 1562
le (D150-30) and 1019 le (D150-40). The corresponding reduction percentage was
55% and 70%, respectively. Differently, with the increase of the load, the strain on
the GFRP tube in the middle of the steel bar was always kept below 1000 le.
Fig. 4 Strain development 50

on the cross arm and steel bar 45 C1
(specimen D150-40) 40 C2
C3
35
C4
Load (kN)
30
M1
25
M2
20
M3
15
M4
10
L1
5
L2
0
-10000 -8000 -6000 -4000 -2000 0 2000 4000
Strain (με)
640 F. Xie et al.
Fig. 5 Strains on the GFRP 50

tube for the specimens with
different dimensions of cross 40
arms
D150-20-C
Load (kN)
30
D150-30-C
D150-40-C
20
D150-20-M
D150-30-M
10
D150-40-M
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Strain (με)
Fig. 6 Vertical displacement 50

of the cross arm at the loading
point 40
Load (kN)
30
D150-20
20 D150-30
D150-40
10
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Displacement (mm)
3.2 Displacement of the Cross Arm
Figure 6 plots the deformation of the cross arm observed in the experiment. It was
found that increase the size of the steel bar was beneficial to increase the specimen
stiffness and consequently to lead to a smaller deformation. At the load of 40 kN,
the displacement on the cross arm was decreased from 11.14 mm (D150-20) to
7.16 mm (D150-30) and 2.67 mm (D150-40). The corresponding reduction per-
centage was of 36% and 76%, respectively.
4 Conclusions
This paper conducted an experimental study on the monotonic behaviour of cross

arms inserted in concrete-filled GFRP tubular columns, aiming for the potential
application in transmission structures. Steel bars were selected to serve as the cross
arm. Test results showed that the deformation of the cross arm was limited and
consequently, the rotation was well restrained. The strain on the GFRP tube at the
corner was noticeably larger than that in the middle of the steel bar, indicating a
server strain and stress concentration. However, no visible cracks were found in the
GFRP tube and all the specimens were failed due to yielding of the steel bar. As the
dimension of the cross arm increased, the strain on the GFRP tube at the corner of
the cross arm hole and the displacement of the steel bar was decreased. Based on
the limited test results, the connection between the concrete-filled GFRP column
and the cross arm adopted in this study showed a promising response.
Acknowledgements This research was supported by the National Science Foundation of China
(grant No. 11390361) and Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China
(LQ17E080010).
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reinforced with bonded CFRP plates: determination of prestressing level for crack arrest. Eng
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composite for electrical transmission structure. Proc Chem 19:871–878
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Local Failure Mechanism of RC Slabs
Subjected to Deformable Projectile
Impact
M. Beppu, S. Kataoka, and H. Ichino
Abstract In recent years, there is a concern on the possible damage of vital

structures such as nuclear facilities impacted by tornado-borne missiles because
tornadoes frequently occurred due to the climate change. Since the wind-borne
missiles could be deformed by the impact to the structures, the effects of the
deformation of the projectile on the failure characteristics of RC slabs should be
investigated. This study presents an investigation on the local failure mechanism of
RC slabs subjected to rigid and deformable projectile impacts by conducting impact
tests and numerical simulations. The experimental and numerical results investi-
gated the effects of impact velocity and the buckling of the deformable projectile on
the failure mechanism of the RC slabs. Based on the numerical simulations, the
effects of stress wave interaction and energy absorption by the deformation of a
projectile on the local failure of an RC slab was discussed.
Keywords Projectile impact RC slabs Local failure
1 Introduction
In recent years, tornado events and volcanic eruptions have increased owing to
climate change and crustal movement. For instance, 24 fatalities and 387 injuries
were caused by the Moore tornado in Oklahoma, United States in 2013 [13].
A volcanic eruption at Mt. Ontake in Japan in 2014 [1] left 58 humans dead, while
several were injured by the volcanic cinders in addition to the pyroclastic and debris
M. Beppu (&) S. Kataoka H. Ichino

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National Defense Academy, Yokosuka
239-8686, Japan
e-mail: beppu@nda.ac.jp
S. Kataoka
e-mail: ed17003@nda.ac.jp
H. Ichino
e-mail: ichino@nda.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_61
644 M. Beppu et al.
flows. In such incidents, structural damage caused by the missiles generated by

wind pressure (tornado missiles) and volcanic cinders (volcanic missiles) was
reported. To protect humans and structures from the impact loads, a reliable design
of shelters for protection from the tornado and volcanic missiles should be promptly
established. With regard to designing buildings providing protection from collisions
with tornado and volcanic missiles in Japan, guidelines have assigned a design
impact velocity of 40 m/s and 150 m/s for a tornado and volcanic missile,
respectively [2, 14]. However, details of the impact condition or failure mechanism
of the structure were not examined sufficiently.
Numerous studies on the failure behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) slabs,
subjected to impact load over a wide range of impact velocities, have been con-
ducted in the past decades. Miyamoto et al. [11, 12] proposed a safety verification
method for an RC railing of a bridge exposed to a vehicle impact, based on the
concepts of load-carrying and energy capacity, by conducting scaled vehicle col-
lision tests and finite element analysis. Other studies on the impact behavior of RC
slabs subjected to low velocity impact loads involved experiments and numerical
programming [15, 19, 20]. In these studies, primarily, the overall response of RC
slabs (flexure and punching shear failures) was investigated at an impact velocity of
less than 10 m/s. The local damage of RC slabs subjected to a high velocity impact
of 150-1000 m/s was investigated for bullet and aircraft collisions [3, 5, 9, 10].
These studies reported that a local failure occurred in the vicinity of the collided
part because of stress wave interaction and local deformation. That is, scabbing is
caused by the propagation of cracks due to the tensile stress wave transformed from
the incident compressive stress wave at the free surface. Chen et al. [3] proposed
formulae predicting the penetration depth of concrete impacted by a hard projectile
based on the dimension analysis using a theoretical penetration model. Several
studies have been devoted to the investigation of the impact resistant behavior of
RC structures as a function of moderate velocities in the range of 10–150 m/s
[5, 6, 10, 18]. However, few formulae have been proposed based on the detailed
failure mechanism of RC slabs subjected to the projectile impact on a basis of
measured test and numerical analysis.
This study aims at investigating the local failure of RC slabs that were subjected
to deformable projectile impact. Deformable projectile impact tests were conducted
to investigate the impact resistance performance of the RC slabs. In a series of tests,
a steel tube projectile, with a mass of 8.4 kg, collided into an RC slab, with a
thickness of 150 mm. The impact velocity was set between 52 and 70 m/s to
examine the variation in the failure modes of the RC slab. The experimental results
revealed that the scabbing damage induced by the impact was significantly sup-
pressed in the deformable impact case compared with in rigid projectile case.
Numerical simulations were conducted to investigate the failure mechanism of the
RC slabs subjected to the deformable projectile impact.
Local Failure Mechanism of RC Slabs Subjected … 645
A projectile impact test machine was used to conduct impact tests. This machine
can launch a projectile of 8.4 kg at velocities of 20–90 m/s by adjusting air pres-
sure. A schematic of the projectile launching test and the experimental setup are
shown in Figs. 1 and 2, respectively. A pair of laser velocity sensors is fixed at the
muzzle of an acceleration tube to measure the average velocity at intervals of
50 cm. The muzzle of the acceleration tube was approximately at a distance of
0.5 m from an RC slab because of attachment of a projectile catcher which holds
the projectile after rebounding. The impact velocity was set between 50 and 70 m/s.
Figure 3 shows a photograph of a steel deformable projectile. A 500 g steel tube
with a thickness of 2 mm was installed between a spherical nose part and rear body.
Total mass of the projectile was 8.4 kg. The RC specimens, which were cast in
National Defense Academy, each had a length, width, and thickness of 1100, 1100,
and 150 mm, respectively, as shown in Fig. 4. As the local failure was expected
under the impact condition, the dimension of the RC slab is enough to cover the
local damage area. The specimens were reinforced with reinforcing bars with a
diameter of 10 mm and yield stress of 409 MPa at intervals of 120 mm in the both
direction on the bottom sides. The specimen was fixed on four sides. Single impact
test was conducted for impact velocities of 52 and 60 m/s, respectively. The
displacement-time history of the projectile was obtained by analyzing the images
captured by a high-speed camera (50000 frames per second) after the collision. The
velocity and acceleration of the projectile were calculated by differentiating the
displacement-time history, while the impact load of the projectile was indirectly
obtained by multiplying the mass of the projectile with the acceleration.
Figure 5 shows the failure states of the RC slabs. In this test condition using a
rigid projectile, the perforation failure was expected to be occurred by the modified
NDRC equation [9]. The RC slab showed spall failure at an impact velocity of
52 m/s and scabbing at an impact velocity of 60 m/s. The test result revealed that
the scabbing limit velocity of the test condition existed between 52 and 60 m/s. As
compared to the rigid projectile impact case, the failure of the RC slab was sig-
nificantly suppressed because the deformable projectile absorbed the kinetic energy
of the projectile
Controller Velocity sensor Projectile

Air chamber Projectile catcher
Air chamber Acceleration tube

Compressor
Fig. 1 Schematic of launching test machine

646 M. Beppu et al.
Fig. 2 A view of
experimental setup
Fig. 3 8.4 kg deformable

projectile
Fig. 4 RC slab
D10
8@120mm
1100mm
115mm
150mm
8@120mm
1100mm
Fig. 5 Projectile and failure state of RC slabs
Fig. 6 Numerical model
3 Numerical Investigation
Numerical simulations were conducted by using the hydrocode ANSYS

AUTODYN (ver.15.0). Figure 6 shows the numerical models. For saving the cost
of simulations, a quarter model was constructed because of the structural symmetry.
The RC slab and the projectile were modeled by using solid elements, and the initial
velocity was applied to all nodes of the projectile model. The numbers of concrete
and projectile elements were 605160 and 1969 respectively. The element size of
concrete was 5 5 5 mm. The reinforcing bar was modeled with beam ele-
ments embedded in the concrete model with an element size of 5 mm. The steel
support was modeled by shell elements with thickness of 25 mm. The nodes in the
hatched area of the steel support in the figure were fixed.
648 M. Beppu et al.
Nonlinear Drucker-Prager yield criterion and negative pressure fracture criterion

as shown in Fig. 7 were applied for concrete material. The dynamic compressive
and tensile strengths were calculated by multiplying the static yield stress with the
dynamic increase factor (DIF) at strain rate of 10 (1/s) calculated by the following
equations proposed by Fujikake et al. [4] and Ross et al. [16] respectively, as shown
in Eqs. (1) and (2). The strain rate of 10 (1/s) was assumed based on the strain
observed in the similar tests conducted by the authors [8].
0 0:006½logðe_e_ Þ1:05
fcd e_ s
¼ ð1Þ
fcs0 e_ s
0
" #
ftd e_ 3:373
¼ exp 0:00126 log ð2Þ
fts0 e_ s
0 0 0
where, fcd and ftd are the dynamic compressive and tensile strengths respectively, fcs
0
and fts are the static compressive and tensile strengths respectively, and e_ and e_ s are
the dynamic and static strain rate respectively.
The projectile was modeled as elastic, and the steel material of the reinforcing
bar and steel tube was modeled with the Johnson-Cook yield criterion [7].
N
rf ;s ¼ A þ B epeff ð1 þ C ln e_ Þ ð3Þ
where rf,s is the yield stress, epeff is the effective plastic strain. The parameters of the
Johnson-Cook model used in the literature [17] were adopted.
Figure 8 shows the deformation of the steel tube and velocity distribution in the
RC slab at an impact velocity of 52 m/s, comparing with a rigid projectile impact
case simulated numerically. The deformation due to the local buckling was greater
than that of the experimental one by 9.5%, but the buckling in the upper portion
Fig. 7 Concrete model

was quite similar to the experimental one. Although the velocity distribution in the
RC slab, in the deformable projectile case, slightly concentrated in the central
portion of the RC slab, the overall velocity was quite less. In contrast, the RC slab
in the 8.4 kg rigid projectile case shows clear scabbing. The numerical simulation
indicates that the buckling of the steel projectile mitigated the failure of the RC slab.
Figure 9 shows the velocity-time history of the projectile and impact force-time
history obtained by multiplying the acceleration calculated based on the image
analysis with the projectile mass. In the figure, “Nose” and “Body” denote the nose
and rear body respectively, as shown in Figs. 3 and 6. The velocity of the nose and
body parts obtained in the simulation successfully reproduced the experimental one.
The equilibrium condition between the nose part, the steel tube and the rear body as
shown in Fig. 10 was given as follows;
Fc ¼ Fp ma ð4Þ
where, Fc is the resistant force from RC slab (the impact force acting on the RC
slab), Fp is the buckling force and ma is the inertia force of the projectile nose, m is
the mass of the projectile nose, a is the acceleration of the projectile nose.
In Fig. 9 (b), the impact force acting on the RC slab in the deformable impact
case rose to 800 kN in 0.3 ms as similar to the rigid projectile case, while it dropped
suddenly and oscillated due to the buckling of the steel tube. By comparing Figs. 8
and 9, the reduced maximum impact force and elongated duration due to the
buckling changed the failure mode of the RC slab.
Fig. 8 Deformation of steel tube and velocity distribution in RC slab

650 M. Beppu et al.
Fig. 9 Projectile velocity- and impact force-time histories
Fig. 10 Equilibrium condition of projectile
Figure 11 illustrates the inertia force of the rear body of the projectile simulated
numerically in the cases of spalling and scabbing, which is equivalent to the
buckling force time-history of the steel tube based on the equilibrium condition. It is
seen from the figure that the maximum force is approximately 300 kN in both cases
and oscillates with peak forces of 200 kN after 0.5 ms, which corresponds to the
buckling force of the steel tube as shown in Fig. 12. That is, the projectile pene-
tration into concrete is completed with the resistance of concrete in 0.5 ms. After
the nose part rapidly decelerates, the buckling of the steel tube develops by the
inertia force of the rear part. A schematic diagram of the impact force-time history
of the projectile is depicted in Fig. 13. Peak force Fmax could be generated by the
penetration of the projectile into concrete and the penetration completed at t1. After
that, the inertia force of the nose part can be negligible and the buckling force of the
steel tube acts on the RC slab.
Figure 14 illustrates the acceleration distribution on the back face of the RC slab
simulated numerically in the case of spalling failure. It is seen from the figure that
the peak acceleration was approximately 150000 m/s2 within 100 mm from the
center of the RC slab. The positive and negative peak accelerations at the center of
RC slab are very close because the point extremely oscillated due to the impact.
This local acceleration response revealed that the inertia force distribution in the
central area caused the local damage of the RC slab based on the dynamic equi-
librium condition.
Fig. 11 The inertia force-time history of body part of projectile (The buckling force of circular
tube)
Fig. 12 The progress of buckling of circular tube
Fig. 13 The impact

force-time history of
deformable projectile
Figure 15(a) enlarged the impact force-time history calculated for a rigid pro-
jectile with the same mass and the deformable projectile colliding with the RC slab
at a velocity of 52 m/s. The peak force in the rigid projectile case showed
approximately 1000 kN at 0.4 ms and the duration is 1.0 ms. On the other hand, the
peak force in the deformable projectile case showed approximately 800 kN at
652 M. Beppu et al.
Fig. 14 The distribution of

acceleration of back surface
on RC slab (deformable
projectile)
Fig. 15 Comparison deformable projectile to rigid projectile with 8.4 kg mass and impact
velocity of 52 m/s
0.3 ms, which is 20% less than that in the case of the rigid projectile case. After the
peak force, the impact force oscillates with the peak force of 200 kN due to the
buckling of the steel tube. Herein, the both impulse caused by the deformable
projectile are approximately 434 N s. Failure status and velocity distribution of
the RC slab as shown in Fig. 15(b) indicates that the diagonal cracks in the cross
section in the rigid projectile impact are widely opened as compared to those in the
deformable projectile impact. Velocity distribution as shown in Fig. 15(b) also
revealed that the peak velocity on the back side in the deformable projectile impact
is significantly less at 3.0 ms, while the failure mode in the rigid projectile impact is
scabbing with the peak velocity of 10 m/s on the back side. The numerical result
indicates that the decreased impulse in 1.0 ms in the deformable projectile impact
mitigated the local damage.
4 Conclusions
This study investigated the local failure of RC slabs that were subjected to
deformable projectile impact. In the experimental work, buckling deformation of
the deformable projectile and failure mode of an RC slab were examined by con-
ducting projectile impact tests. The scabbing damage was suppressed due to
buckling deformation of the deformable projectile. Numerical simulations revealed
that the impact force characteristics were changed significantly due to the buckling
of the steel tube, which mitigated the failure mode of the RC slab.
References
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Flexural Performance of Precast
Segmental Concrete Beams Prestressed
with CFRP Tendons
T. M. Pham, T. D. Le, and H. Hao
Abstract This paper presents some results of an ongoing research project on

precast segmental concrete beams (PSBs) prestressed with Carbon fibre reinforced
polymer (CFRP) tendons, which is currently being conducted at Curtin University.
To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first time CFRP tendons were used for
segmental concrete beams for the possible replacement of steel tendons to mitigate
corrosion-induced damage in the steel tendons, especially at joint locations. Four
large-scale segmental concrete beams prestressed with CFRP tendons and one
prestressed with steel tendons were tested under four-point loading in the experi-
mental program. The tested results indicated that CFRP tendons can satisfactorily
replace the steel tendons for the use in PSBs. All the tested beams exhibited
excellent load-carrying and deflection capacities. Bonding condition of the tendons
greatly affected the flexural performance of the beams while the joint type had a
minor effect on the overall performance of the structures. This paper also presents
for the first time a numerical approach using Abaqus finite element software to
predict the flexural behaviour of segmental concrete beams prestressed with
unbonded tendons. The numerical results were validated with experimental results
and therefore can be used for design and analysis of the structures.

Keywords Segmental concrete beams Unbonded tendons Fiber reinforced

polymer (FRP) tendons Numerical analysis Abaqus
T. M. Pham (&) T. D. Le H. Hao

Center for Infrastructural Monitoring and Protection, School of Civil and Mechanical
Engineering, Curtin University, Kent Street, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia
e-mail: thong.pham@curtin.edu.au
T. D. Le
e-mail: tan.le1@postgrad.curtin.edu.au
H. Hao

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_62
656 T. M. Pham et al.
1 Introduction
Precast segmental prestressed concrete beams (PSBs) have been widely used in
bridge construction projects owing to their time-saving and economic benefits [7].
So far steel tendons are used as the only prestressing material to join individual
segments of the structure. Inappropriate design choices and poor quality con-
struction of anti-corrosion systems, however, caused major damage to the structures
and in extreme cases, the entire structure was even completely collapsed as reported
in the literature [4]. This made corrosion problems of the steel tendons at segment
joints a great concern to PSBs, especially in the case the structure is exposed to
harsh conditions.
This study investigates the use of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) tendons on
PSBs as an alternative solution for steel tendons to tackle the corrosion-induced
damages on the structure. FRP tendon is corrosion free, has high tensile strength
and is lighter than steel, which allows easier handling and reduces dead load of the
structure. The use of FRP tendon on monolithic concrete beams has been exten-
sively reported, however, its application on PSBs has not been reported yet [6, 7, 9].
It is worth noting that FRP tendon shows linear stress-strain relationship up to
failure, has lower elastic modulus and is weak in shear as compared to steel ten-
dons. It is, therefore, important to investigate the behavior of PSBs prestressed with
FRP tendons before its possible practical applications.
This study also presents a numerical approach to simulate the flexural behaviour
of PSBs with unbonded tendons using ABAQUS CAE [1] commercial software. To
the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first time three-dimensional solid finite
elements are used in the numerical model that provides visual observations for
better understandings of the flexural behaviour of the structure under the applied
loads.
2.1 Specimen Design
Four large-scale segmental beams with internal unbonded CFRP tendons and one
segmental beams with internal unbonded steel tendons were fabricated and tested in
this study. All the beams had T-shape cross-section of 400 mm height and 3.9 m
overall length. Each beam consisted of four segments which were made of rein-
forced concrete ranging from 800 mm to 1150 mm length (Fig. 1). The segments in
each beam were joined together by two steel or CFRP tendons, which were
internally unbonded or bonded to the concrete using the post-tensioning technique.
Table 1 gives details of the beams’ configuration.
Two 12-mm diameter deformed bars were used for the longitudinal bars at the
bottom layer while 10-mm diameter deformed bars were for the top layer.
Flexural Performance of Precast Segmental Concrete … 657
Fig. 1 Beams’ dimensions and reinforcement
Table 1 Configuration of tested beams

Beam Tendon type Bonding type Joint type f′c (MPa) fpe (MPa) fpe/fpu
BS1 Steel Unbonded Dry 44 1280 0.69
BC1 CFRP Unbonded Dry 44 818 0.33
BC2 CFRP Unbonded Epoxied 44 661 0.27
BC3 CFRP Bonded Dry 44 917 0.37
BC4 CFRP Bonded Epoxied 44 942 0.38
These steel bars were cut-off at the joint locations. 10-mm diameter deformed bars
were used for the transverse reinforcements, which were placed at 100-mm spacing
for the two middle segments and at 75-mm spacing for the two end segments to
strengthen beams in shear.
2.2 Materials
The concrete average compressive strength on the testing day was 44 MPa. The
ultimate tensile strength of 12-mm deformed bars N12 and 10-mm deformed bars
N10 were 587 MPa and 538 MPa, respectively, as provided by the manufacturer.
12.7-mm diameter steel tendons and single strand 12.9-mm diameter CFRP tendons
were used in the specimens. The nominal area, ultimate tensile strength, and elastic
modulus of the steel tendons were 100 mm2, 1860 MPa, and 195 GPa and those
values for CFRP tendons were 126.7 mm2, 2450 MPa and 145 GPa, respectively.
More details on the material properties and beams’ configuration can be found
elsewhere [7, 8].
Hydraulic jack
LVDTs for I-steel beam

vertical
displacement
Beam
C4
LVDTs for joint

opening
Fig. 2 A typical test setup
2.3 Fabrication and Test Setup
The segments were cast using match-casting. The joint surfaces and holes of each
segment were carefully cleaned before the application of epoxy and grout.
Sikadur-30 was used for joining epoxied joints and SikaGrout-300PT was used for
creating bonded tendons. The beams were prestressed using post-tensioning tech-
nique. The effective prestresses in the tendons after transferred were recorded by
load cells and are given in Table 1 for all the beams. Figure 2 shows a typical test
setup. The applied load was generated by two vertical hydraulic jacks, which were
placed equally at one-third span. Load cells were used to monitor the applied load
generated by the hydraulic jacks and the force in the tendons. Linear variable
differential transformers (LVDTs) were used to measure the beams’ deflection and
opening of joints. All the beams were cyclically tested under four-point loading test
up to failure. All the tests were conducted under the load control at a rate of
approximately 3 to 5 kN/min.
3.1 Summary of the Test Results
The envelop load-deflection curves for all the beams under the applied load are
shown in Fig. 3. Two stages can be identified for the load-deflection curve of each
beam. In the first stage, all the beams had high stiffness and exhibited a linear
relationship between the applied load and deflection. In the second stage, the
beams’ stiffness considerably reduced and the beams deformed in a non-linear
manner up to failure. The transition from the first stage to the second stage is related
to the opening of the middle joint J2 under the applied load. The only difference is
that the load-deflection curve of Beam BS1 showed more non-linear behaviour in
Fig. 3 Load-deflection
curves
Fig. 4 Openings of joints
Table 2 Tested results of all beams

Beam Pu dmid,u DJ,u Failure mode
BS1 96 89.4 30.4 Yielding of steel tendons and top concrete crushed
BC1 113 94.7 27.7 Top concrete crushed and CFRP tendons ruptured
BC2 123 101.1 30.0 Top concrete crushed and CFRP tendons ruptured
BC3 164 47.8 4.7 CFRP tendons ruptured
BC4 169 46.6 3.5 CFRP tendons ruptured
the second stage compared to the curves of the other beams especially after the
yielding of the steel tendons. Table 2 summaries the test results of all the beams, in
which Pu, dmid,u and DJ,u are the applied load, midspan deflection, and opening of
the middle joint of the specimens at the ultimate stage, respectively.
Table 3 Material properties

Concrete, CDP parameters
Concrete w 30°
Compressive strength (MPa) 44 e 0.1
Tensile strength (MPa) 2.65 rb0/rc0 1.16
Elastic modulus Ec (GPa) 31.17 Kc 0.667
Poisson’s ratio 0.18 l 0.001
Steel reinforcement
∅12 ∅10 Steel tendons CFRP tendons
Area (mm2) 113 78.5 78.5 126.7
Elastic modulus Es (GPa) 200 200 195 145
Yielding stress (MPa) 534 489 1674 –
Ultimate stress (MPa) 587 538 1860 2450
Poisson’s ratio 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.27
Joint interface
Vertical
crack
a) BS1 b) BC1 c) BC2
Vertical
crack
d) BC3 e) BC4
Fig. 5 Failure modes of tested beams
Photos of the specimens’ failures are presented in Fig. 5, which clearly shows
different failure modes of the tested beams. Beams BS1 failed by the yielding of
steel tendons and then the top concrete crushed when the beams underwent large
deflection. Beam BC1 and BC2 with unbonded CFRP tendons failed by concrete
crushing on the compressive zone and CFRP tendons rupturing. The crushing of
concrete and rupturing of tendons occurred at the middle joint at the midspan for all
the specimens. In contrast, Beams BC3 and BC4 with bonded tendons failed by the
rupture of CFRP tendons without any concrete damage on the top.
3.2 Effect of Bonding Condition and Joint Type
Bonding condition between the tendons and concrete greatly affected the flexural
behavior of the segmental beams with CFRP tendons. The use of bonded tendons
greatly increased the strength of the beam as observed in the case of Beams BC3
and BC4 while the use of unbonded tendons greatly improved the deflection
capacity of the beams as seen in Beams BC1 and BC2. Bonding condition had no
effect on the initial stiffness of the epoxied-joint beams but considerably affected the
beams’ stiffness after the joint opened as observed in the load-deflection curves of
Beams BC2 and BC4. The failure modes of the beams were also affected by the
bonding condition of the tendons as discussed previously. The use of unbonded
tendons shifted the failure mode from tension controlled (as observed in Beams
BC3 and BC4) to compression controlled (as observed in Beams BC1 and BC2). In
Beams BC1 and BC2, severe concrete crushing was observed on the compression
zone before the rupture of the CFRP tendons at the ultimate stage.
By comparing the load-deflection curves of Beams BC1 versus BC2 and Beams
BC3 versus BC4, it can be observed that for the same tendon bonding condition, the
type of joints had only a slight effect on the overall load-carrying capacity and
ductility of the beams. Both Beams BC1 and BC2 had similar strength and
deflection at the ultimate stage as seen in Fig. 3 and that was also true for the cases
of Beams BC3 and BC4, although the beams with epoxied joints showed a higher
ultimate strength than those with dry joints (Table 2). The joint type had an
insignificant effect on the opening of joints either. As can be seen from Fig. 4,
Beams BC1/BC2 and BC3/BC4 showed almost similar load-joint opening curves
under the applied load.
4 Numerical Model
4.1 Description of Numerical Model
This part describes the use of ABAQUS CAE (2012) software to simulate the
behaviour of segmental concrete beams internally prestressed with unbonded ten-
dons. To simulate the beams, three-dimensional solid finite elements are used to
capture the response of the different components in the finite element models.
Eight-node linear brick, reduced integration hexahedral elements (C3D8R) are
selected to model the concrete elements, prestressing steel tendons, and auxiliary
elements such as steel loading plates, anchor blocks and steel plates at beams’ ends.
Two-node linear 3-D truss elements are selected to model the conventional steel
reinforcements. Details on the material models, contact relationships and modelling
procedure are discussed in sequence.
4.2 Concrete Material Model
Concrete damage plasticity (CDP) model which is incorporated in ABAQUS CAE

[1] is used to model concrete elements. The CDP model is able to capture the elastic
and plastic behaviour of concrete including damage characteristics in both com-
pression and tension. It can be applied for concrete subjected to static and cyclic
loadings. Table 3 gives details of CDP parameters used in this study.
The stress-strain curve proposed by Carreira and Chu [3] is adopted in this study
for concrete under compression. The stress-strain relationship for concrete in ten-
sion is assumed to consist of a linear ascending part up to the cracking strength fct
and a linear descending part to a total strain of approximately 10 times the strain at
the tensile cracking ect. The compressive damage parameter dc and tensile damage
parameter dt proposed by Birtel and Mark [2] are adopted and integrated in the CDP
model for the concrete in compression and tension.
4.3 Reinforcement Material Model
An elasto-plastic stress-strain material model is used for conventional steel rein-

forcements in both tension and compression. The reinforcements including longi-
tudinal and transverse steel bars are embedded into the concrete. For prestressing
steel, the stress–strain relationship proposed by Devalapura and Tadros [5] is
adopted in this study. For CFRP tendons, the isotropic elastic material model is
chosen to simulate the tendon since CFRP tendons exhibit a linear stress-strain
relationship up to failure. The failure of the CFRP tendons is considered to occur
when it reaches its nominal tensile strength fpu (2450 MPa) or when the shear stress
in the tendon obtained from the simulation result exceeds its nominal shear resis-
tance, which is 126 MPa as reported in the previous studies [7, 8].
4.4 Modelling Procedure
The surface-to-surface contact model incorporated in Abaqus [1] is chosen to

formulate the contacts between joint surfaces of the two adjacent segments (key-key
contact), and the contacts between the unbonded tendons and the surrounding
concrete (unbonded tendon-concrete contact). For the key-key contact, a friction
coefficient of 0.7 is used for the tangential behaviour while hard contact type is used
to define the normal behaviour. For the unbonded tendon-concrete contact, fric-
tionless contact type is used for the tangential behaviour while hard contact type is
again used for the normal behaviour. Tie constraint contact type is used to model
the contacts of steel loading plates to concrete, anchor blocks to end steel plates,
and end steel plates to concrete.
The beam model is built symmetrically with regard to the XY plane at the
centroid of the beam’s cross-section (Fig. 5). For the concrete elements, the most
critical areas were at joint locations where the cracks happened as observed from the
experiment [7, 8]. As such, a finer mesh with element size of 20 mm is applied for
these areas while element size of 40 mm is used for the other areas. The prestressing
tendons and the conventional steel reinforcement are meshed with element size of
20 mm. Remaining components are meshed with element size of 40 mm.
The prestressing effects in the model is specified using Predefined Fields func-
tion provided in Abaqus [1]. The applied load is exerted by creating two boundary
conditions moving vertically downward which are also placed symmetrically at the
one-third span length of the beam as shown in Fig. 6.
4.5 Model Calibration
Numerical results are validated against the experimental results in terms of the
load-deflection response and the failure modes. As observed from Fig. 7, the
numerical models well capture the load-deflection responses of the tested beams
BS1 and BC1. For Beams BS1 with steel tendons, the test was stopped for the
safety reason. At that point, the applied load was 96 kN and its corresponding
mid-span deflection was 89.4 mm. In the numerical model, the applied load cor-
responding to the deflection of 89.4 mm is 91 kN, which deviates approximately
−5.7% compared to the experimental result. In the case of Beam BC1 with CFRP
tendons, the numerical model slightly overestimates the applied load by 1.8%
compared to the experimental result.
The numerical models also well capture the failure modes of the tested beams.
The numerical model draws similar failure modes of concrete compared to the
tested beams. Only the failure mode of Beam S1 is provided in Fig. 8 for brevity
since both the beams BS1 and BC2 showed similar responses of concrete up to the
ultimate stage as discussed above. It is worth noting that the yielding of the
Concrete segments Steel loading

plates Long. steel
bars cut off at Steel
reinforcement
Boundary
conditions
Finer mesh at joint Unbonded tendons
locations Anchor block
and steel plate
Fig. 6 Numerical model

Fig. 7 Load-deflection curve: simulation vs experiment. Note: The curve of beam BS1 is plotted
to 89.4 mm deflection, which is equal to expt. value for comparison purpose
No failure Middle joint

at Joint J1 J2 No failure
at Joint J3
Fig. 8 Failure mode of Beam BS1: simulation vs experiment
prestressing steel takes place before the crushing of the concrete as observed in the
numerical model which was very difficult to determine accurately during the test. In
the case of Beam BC1, the rupture of the CFRP tendons is also captured in the
numerical model near the middle joint J2, which is similar to the test. It is noted
from the numerical model that the rupture of the CFRP tendons is due to the shear
stress generated in the tendons by the applied load, which exceeds its nominal shear
resistance, which could not be measured in the test. From the above discussions, it
is evident that the numerical model developed in this study is reliable and entirely
capable of simulating the behaviour of PSBs with unbonded tendons of either steel
or CFRP materials.
5 Conclusions
This study experimentally investigates the use of CFRP tendons on segmental

concrete beams. It can be concluded from testing results that CFRP tendons can
satisfactorily replace the steel tendons for the use in PSBs to tackle the possible
corrosion-induced damage in structures. All the tested beams with bonded/
unbonded tendons demonstrated excellent load-carrying and deflection capacities.
This study also presents a numerical approach to simulate the flexural behaviour of
segmental beams with unbonded tendons. The numerical model is validated against
experimental results, therefore is reliable and capable of modelling the behaviour of
PSBs with unbonded tendons. This will further support the analysis of segmental
beams with unbonded tendons, especially when the CFRP tendon is used in the
structure, for which it still requires extensive investigations before practical
applications.
Acknowledgements The author acknowledge the financial support from the Australian Research
Council Laureate Fellowships FL180100196.
References
1. ABAQUS CAE (2012) Analysis user’s manual, Version 6.12, ABAQUS

2. Birtel V, Mark P (2006) Parameterised finite element modelling of RC beam shear failure. In:
ABAQUS users’ conference, pp 95–108
3. Carreira DJ, Chu K-H (1985) Stress-strain relationship for plain concrete in compression.
J Proc 82(6):797–804
4. Concrete Society Technical Report (2002) Durable post-tensioned concrete structures, TR 72
5. Devalapura RK, Tadros MK (1992) Stress-strain modeling of 270 ksi low-relaxation
prestressing strands. PCI J 37(2):100–105
6. Hao H, Pham T (2017) Performance of RC Beams with or without FRP strengthening
subjected to impact loading. In: Keynote paper in the 2nd world congress on civil, structural,
and environmental engineering (CSEE 2017), Barcelona, Spain
7. Le TD, Pham TM, Hao H, Hao Y (2018) Flexural behaviour of precast segmental concrete
beams internally prestressed with unbonded CFRP tendons under four-point loading. Eng
Struct 168(2018):371–383
8. Le TD, Pham TM, Hao H, Yuan C (2019) Performance of precast segmental concrete beams
posttensioned with carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) tendons. Compos Struct 208:56–
69
9. Pham TM, Le TD, Hao H (2018) Behaviour of precast segmental concrete beams prestressed
with CFRP tendons. In: Proceedings of 9th international conference on fibre-reinforced
polymer (FRP) composites in civil engineering (CICE 2018), pp 945–953
Investigation of Safety Distance Effect
on Gas Storage Tanks Subjected
to Vapor Cloud Fast Deflagration
by Using Flacs
J. D. Li and H. Hao
Abstract The accidental gas explosions are major safety concerns in the oil and
gas sectors. A typical gas explosion associates with complex interaction between
obstacles and turbulence. Compared to the gas explosion, the chemical explosion
such as TNT explosion has much shorter blast duration. There are more than a few
engineering design rules for TNT explosion safety design in the literature.
However, for fast deflagration/detonation, no rigorous method has been published
in the open literature to study the blast wave propagation under different distances.
Therefore, this article focuses on the numerical simulation of fast deflagration
resulted from gas explosion. FLACS is used to model the decay of blast waves from
the equivalent vessel blast explosion. Safety distance, which is well-known as the
cheapest and one of most efficient measures to protect people and structures from
gas explosion, is thoroughly investigated. The parametric study by means of
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations is carried out to examine the
efficiency of safety distance in blast wave mitigation.
Keywords Safety distance Gas explosion Vapor cloud Wave propagation

FLACS
1 Introduction
Safety distance is one of the most efficient and cheapest gas explosion overpressure
mitigation ways in oil and gas industry. In the industrial standards, the safety
distance requirements for gas storage tanks are mainly regulated on the basis of
J. D. Li (&) H. Hao
Tianjin University and Curtin University Joint Research Centre of Structural Monitoring and
Protection, School of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Curtin University, Kent St, Bentley,
WA 6102, Australia
e-mail: jingde.li@curtin.edu.au
H. Hao

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_63
668 J. D. Li and H. Hao
simplified empirical equations. For instance, NFPA-59A [8] determines the

required safety distance between tanks by taking the tank volume and heat flux
value into account by using a series of experimental-based equations. It is suggested
the safe spacing should be no less than 25% of the total diameter length of all
adjacent tanks, and only 1 or 1.5 m minimum distance is specified for tanks smaller
than 265 m3.
Whereas in EN-1473 [3], it is required the minimum separation distance should
be no less than half of the secondary tank’s diameter. A series of empirical equa-
tions and comprehensive hazard assessment is usually suggested by using EN-1473
[9]. In general, there are no fine subdivisions of separation distances according to
the relationship between explosion overpressure and separation distance.
In order to investigate the separation distance effect on tank layout design,
researchers had carried out more studies. For example, a Computational Fluid
Dynamics (CFD) study was conducted by Santos and Landesmann [10] to study the
spacing effect on the safety of tank farms. However, the authors only concerned fire
conditions, the explosion blast wave was not within the consideration. Meanwhile,
in oil and gas sector, most of other literatures regarding safety distance [2, 4] are
mainly focusing on optimizing cost instead of studying the relationship between
safety distance and explosion overpressure.
Regarding the study of safety distance effect on gas explosion overpressure, Li
et al. [6] qualitatively determined the relationship between the separation distance
and explosion pressure by using both experimental and CFD simulation data.
However, the study was based on vented gas explosion. The propagation speed of
flow was subsonic, slow deflagration and pressures lower than 1 kPa near the vent
were recorded in both experiments and CFD simulations.
While this article is focused on the study of the blast wave originated from fast
deflagration/detonation with sonic/supersonic flow speed in propagation, much
higher overpressure (e.g. higher than 100 kPa/1barg with Mach number larger than
1) is expected. A CFD based software - FLACS is utilized to simulate decay of blast
wave and far-field pressures in different directions and to model the complex
phenomena associated with the interaction between the blast wave and solid walls
of tanks. The effect of safety distance between tanks on blast waves appearing from
fast deflagration/detonation is investigated.
2 Experiment
As a first step, the experimental data for far-field pressure prediction of vented gas
explosion from the authors’ previous experiments [5] are extracted in this section
and used to validate the blast wave propagation in CFD simulation.
Investigation of Safety Distance Effect … 669
2.1 Experimental Details
As seen in Fig. 1(a), a cylindrical tank with diameter of 1.5 m and height of 1.0 m
was used. The tank walls were made of Q345B steel according to the standard [1].
A rectangular vent (dimensions of 305 610 mm2) on the left side of the tank roof
was used, the tank roof and walls were welded to ensure the tank is well confined
during combustion. The bottom of the tank was anchored to a reinforced concrete
foundation to ensure the tank was stationary when it was subjected to vented
explosion.
Three piezo-resistive sensors (CYG 1409, Kunshan Shuangqiao Sensors,
China), namely, Sensor 1, Sensor 2 and Sensor 3, were mounted on the truss to
monitor external pressures from venting. Fire-resistant coating was applied for all
sensors. Signals from all sensors were logged on a 16-bit A/D converter sampling at
50–100 kHz. The separation distance between two sensors was 500 mm which was
also the separation distance between the bottom sensor and the vent.
As demonstrated in Fig. 1(b), a fan and a recirculation pump and were connected
to the tank to uniformly mix the flammable atmosphere in the tank. A measuring
tube was inserted into different location of the tank to ensure the mixture has
uniform data (i.e. gas concentration data). An infrared methane-air concentration
analyzer (QGS-08C, Nanjing Xinfen, China) was used to measure the gas con-
centration. A high-speed camera (FASTCAM SA-Z, Photron Co., Ltd., Japan) and
digital controlling system (Donghua 5927, Donghua, Testing Technology Co., Ltd.,
China) located about 25 m away the tank were used.
An electric spark was used to ignite the fuel-air mixture inside tank. The ignition
was controlled remotely in a shielded room far away from the tank. Center ignition
inside the tank was used. Water cooling system was applied to circulate cold water
so that all pressure sensors were protected from the hot flame during the test.
Fig. 1 Gas explosion experimental setup: a details of sensor, tank and truss in test; b Gas flow
control system scheme [5]
The stoichiometric methane-air gas with volume concentration of 9.5%, which

results in the greatest explosion pressure, was used in this study.
2.2 Experimental Results
Since this article focuses on the study of far field blast wave, only the external
pressures recorded by sensor 1 to 3 were extracted. The starting times of the raw
data were adjusted to zero to facilitate comparison with the CFD simulation data.
The Fast Fourier transform (FFT) method of data filtering was used and a
1000 Hz low pass filter was chosen for all testing results. It is seen from sensor
No. 1 to sensor No. 3 (i.e. the distance from 500 mm to 1500 mm away the vent) in
Fig. 2, the pressure peak decreases, which is within expectation. Since the further
the sensor is, the more pressure decays in the air.
3 CFD Simulation and Validation
The CFD-based software FLACS version 10.4 (Gexcon, 2017), which relies on the
k-e model for turbulence simulation, is utilized to calculate the external pressures.
FLACS solves compressible Navier-Stokes equations on a 3D Cartesian grid for
turbulence, burning velocities and development of overpressure, etc. The SIMPLE
pressure correction algorithm is used [7, 12].
For vented gas explosion, the external overpressure (over 1 barg or Mach
number >1) associated with acoustic effect propagates with supersonic flow speed
in the open air, which resembles the blast wave originated from the vessel burst
propagates in far field. In order to simplify the simulation and calculation of such
fast propagating blast wave in far field, the vented gas explosion involving a fast
Fig. 2 External
overpressures recorded from
sensor No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3
deflagration in this study is substituted by an equivalent vessel burst problem.

A setup file in FLACS is used to define the initial conditions for the vessel burst
problem.
The tank with diameter of 1.5 m and height of 1.0 m is modelled in FLACS in
1:1 ratio, the simulation domain in FLACS is 60 m in x, y and z directions. The
computational domain size is checked by a larger domain with dimension of
80 80 80 m. The solution is found to be independent on the domain size.
Therefore, 60 60 60 m simulation domain is chosen in this study.
Courant-Friedrich-Levy number based on sound velocity and fluid flow velocity in
FLACS are kept as 0.1, namely, CFLC = 0.1 and CFLV = 0.1, to ensure short-time
step is used for accurate pressure propagation calculation in far field.
The CFD solution is simulated with 4 different spatial resolutions, with a grid
size equal to 0.10, 0.07, 0.05 and 0.03 m. The explosion pressures with grid size of
0.05 and 0.03 m in core domain show minimum errors in the same order.
Moreover, in order to take the computational efficiency into account, 0.05 m grid
size is chosen for the blast wave propagation simulation in FLACS. The
“PLANE_WAVE” boundary which is a non-reflecting boundary condition was
utilized in this study. A temperature of 26 degree Celsius and atmospheric pressure
of 101 kPa were used as initial conditions. Three monitor points corresponding to
the sensors used in experiment are allocated above the vent to record the external
pressures.
Figure 3 demonstrates the 3D view of the blast wave propagation from 0 to 10 ms
during the explosion. It is seen the blast wave propagates spherically from the blast
reservoir, which is located inside the vent. To be precise, the pressure at the lower
sensor, which is closer to the vent, has the highest value, as seen in Fig. 4(a). As the
blast wave propagates to the top sensor far away from the vent, the pressure drops to
the lowest in the comparison.
(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 3 3D modelling of blast wave propagation in FLACS: a 0 ms; b 5 ms; c 10 ms
Fig. 4 Pressure data in FLACS and experiment: a pressure-time history in FLACS; b pressure
peak comparison between FLACS data and experimental data
Fig. 5 Comparison of experiment and CFD data for individual sensors: a sensor 1; b sensor 2;
c sensor 3
Compared to the experimental data, the pressure peaks in FLACS decay slightly
faster, as seen Fig. 4(b). The main reason is the pressure recorded in experiment
resulted from the interaction between internal and external explosions. The
deflagration near the vent are more influenced by the internal explosion. In the
internal explosion, the combustion of unburned gas is much slower than the blast
wave propagation outside the tank. Therefore, during the time when external blast
wave propagates at sonic/supersonic speed, internal explosion provides postponed
pressures, which are recorded in experiment. Whereas in the equivalent vessel burst
problem, the setup-file in FLACS only models the blast propagation in open air
without simulating the combustion associated with the deflagration and venting
process. Overall, the differences between the experimental pressure peaks and
FLACS pressures peaks for all sensors are within 10% as seen in Fig. 5, although
the combustion duration in the experiments are much longer than the duration in
equivalent vessel burst explosion. It is worth pointing that the starting times of the
burst explosion are adjusted to facilitate comparison with the experimental simu-
lation data in Fig. 5.
Since this article focuses on the investigation of blast wave propagation in far
field instead of the study of vented explosion. Moreover, compared to experimental
data, the pressure peaks and pressure decay tendencies predicted by FLACS are
satisfactory. Therefore, simulating equivalent vessel burst problem by using a
setup-file in FLACS is used to study the safety distance effect on blast wave decay
in far field.
4 Safety Distance Effect on Blast Wave Decay
In order to study the safety distance effect on blast wave decay, additional tanks are
added in the simulation. The safety distance between two tanks varies from 1 m to
10 m, two different safety distance examples can be seen in Fig. 6. A hemispherical
blast reservoir, which has the same combustion energy of the blast reservoir in the
CFD validation, is used in this section.
Since the safety distance is extending in y direction (i.e. the pressure accepting
tank on the right varies from 1 m to 10 m away the left tank), the worst case study
is conducted by locating the blast reservoir on the side wall of the left tank as seen
in Fig. 7(a). It is also seen in Fig. 7(a), one monitor at half height of the tank is
located on the pressure accepting tank wall, and another monitor is placed on the
ground corner near the tank wall.
The pressure-time data for three representative safety distance cases are shown in
Fig. 7(b). In Fig. 7(b), monitors in the free field are located at the same locations of
the monitors used in the safety distance cases. It is seen that pressure on the ground
corner is about 3 time larger than the pressure in free field case for the 1 m safety
distance scenario, which is mainly due to the blast wave reflections from the tank
wall and ground. Whereas the pressure on the tank wall is only about 1.7 times
larger than the free-field-recorded pressure, the blast wave reflection is mainly from
the curved tank wall. As the safety distance increases from 1 to 7 m, the blast wave
Fig. 6 3D view of blast wave propagation in two different safety distances: a safety
distance = 1 m; b safety distance = 5 m
Fig. 7 Blast simulation monitor point location and recorded data: a monitor locations;
b pressure-time data from monitors
Fig. 8 Pressure-time data for cases with and without a pressure accepting tank at different safety
distances: a pressure in open space without a secondary tank; b pressure on tank wall with a
secondary tank
reflection from the tank wall and ground becomes smaller and smaller, which can
be seen from the overlapping waves for 7 m safety distance case after 0.015 s in
Fig. 7(b).
In order to better understand the blast wave decay in the far field and the safety
distance effect on blast wave, the pressure-time data for the single tank case (i.e. blast
wave propagates from the blast reservoir to the free field) are charted in Fig. 8(a) and
compared with the data from the cases with two tanks in Fig. 8(b).
In general, the increase of safety distance results in the decrease of pressure in far
field for both cases. In comparison, for individual safety distance cases, the pres-
sures are greater in the dual tank cases due to the blast wave reflection on the tank
wall. However, the pressure wave decay tendencies are nonlinear. At further dis-
tance, for example at safety distance of 10 m, the pressure reflection from walls are
minimum.
The blast chart from Multi-Energy Method (MEM) is utilized in this study to
compare with the far-field pressures predicted by FLACS. The initial blast energy is
estimated by the Sedov solution [11], while the dimensionless scaled distance in
MEM is calculated as:
R
R¼ ð1Þ
ðE=Po Þ1=3
As seen in Fig. 9, the blast decaying tendencies in both of free field case and
dual tank case are faster than the MEM data, such observation is consistent with the
findings in the work by [5]. In other words, the MEM model is more conservative in
far-field pressure prediction for the fast deflagration from a vessel burst problem.
Moreover, it is seen in Fig. 9(a) that two curves from the aforementioned cases
are not parallel. As the distance increases, the pressure differences between two
cases become smaller, which again indicates that the pressure reflection in far field
becomes less and less influential.
Additionally, the pressures recorded behind the secondary tank wall are also
plotted in the blast chart in Fig. 9(b). It is seen the pressures behind the tank are
significantly decreased as the tank itself acts like a blast wall which mitigates blast
wave. It is worth noting the blast mitigation on the monitor behind the wall is also
more effective for the shorter safety distance cases. Large safety distance decreases
the blast mitigation effect of a solid wall (i.e. a tank wall).
Fig. 9 Relation between the distance and pressure in the blast chart: a pressure in free field vs.
pressure on tank wall; b pressure in free field vs. pressure behind tank wall
5 Conclusions
This paper focuses on the CFD simulation of fast deflagration from gas explosion.
FLACS is used to model the blast wave decay from the equivalent vessel blast
problem. The efficiency of safety distance in blast wave mitigation is investigated.
Experimental data are used to validate the FLACS simulation results.
Satisfactory CFD simulation results are seen in terms of the accuracy of pressure
peak and pressure decaying tendency predicted by using FLACS.
It is concluded that increase of safety distance in free field and increase of safety
distance between tanks both result in blast wave decay/mitigation in far field. Blast
wave reflections from walls and ground are more influential for shorter safety
distance cases.
Pressure behind the tank wall are mitigated due to the tank’s wall shielding
effect. However, the blast mitigation effect weakens in far field once safety distance
increases.
Compared to the blast waves calculated by MEM model, blast waves predicted
by FLACS are smaller in far field, which is in consistent with the observation of the
authors’ previous study. However, more experimental data in the future are required
to verify such findings.
References
1. API-650 (2007) Welded steel tanks for oil strorage. 11 edn. American Petroleum Institute
2. Diaz-Ovalle C, Vazquez-Roman R, Mannan MS (2010) An approach to solve the facility
layout problem based on the worst-case scenario. J Loss Prev Process Ind 23(3):385–392
3. EN-1473 (2016) EN, BS. Installation and equipment for liquefied natural gas—design of
onshore installations
4. Jung SH, Ng D, Diaz-Ovalle C, Vazquez-Roman R, Mannan MS (2011) New approach to
optimizing the facility siting and layout for fire and explosion scenarios. Ind Eng Chem Res
50(7):3928–3937
5. Li JD, Hao H (2018) Far-field pressure prediction of a vented gas explosion from storage
tanks by using new CFD simulation guidance. Process Saf Environ Prot 119:360–378
6. Li JD, Hao H, Shi YC, Fang Q, Li Z, Chen L (2018) Experimental and computational fluid
dynamics study of separation gap effect on gas explosion mitigation for methane storage
tanks. J Loss Prev Process Ind 55:359–380
7. Li JD, Hernandes F, Hao H, Fang Q, Xiang H, Li Z, Li C (2017) Vented methane-air
explosion overpressure calculation - a simplified approach based on CFD. Saf Environ Protect
109:489–508
8. NFPA-59A (2016) National Fire Protection Association. Standard for the Production,
Storage, and Handling of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)
9. Raj PK, Lemoff T (2009) Risk analysis based LNG facility siting standard in NFPA 59A.
J Loss Prev Process Ind 22(6):820–829
10. Santos FD, Landesmann A (2014) Thermal performance-based analysis of minimum safe
distances between fuel storage tanks exposed to fire. Fire Saf J 69:57–68
11. Sedov LI (1993) Similarity and dimensional methods in mechanics. CRC Press, Boca Raton
12. Vyazmina E, Jallais S, Beccantini A, Trelat S (2018) Protective walls against effects of vapor
cloud fast deflagration: CFD recommendations for design. Process Saf Prog 37(1):56–66
Dynamic Tensile Properties of Clay
Brick at High Strain Rates
Y. W. Chiu, X. H. Zhang, H. Hao, and N. Salter
Abstract Clay brick is widely used as construction material of masonry structures

in Australia. Structures in cyclone prone regions in Australia are constantly under
threats from windborne debris impacts. It is commonly known that materials behave
differently under dynamic loading than that under quasi-static state. There is still a
lack of dynamic material properties on clay bricks. This paper presents quasi-static
and dynamic testing results on two types of WA clay bricks - Limestone Hues and
St Common Solid. Brazilian disc tests are conducted to derive the split-tensile
properties. Brick strength, strain, Young’s modulus at strain rates between
1.13 10−5/s to about 10/s are determined. The DIF (dynamic increase factor) for
the two bricks are derived for easy and accurate engineering analysis and numerical
modelling of clay brick response under dynamic loading. The results are compared
with existing data on brick, mortar and concrete.
Keywords Clay brick DIF Dynamic properties Inertia effect
1 Introduction
It is commonly known that material behaves differently under static and dynamic
loading conditions. To accurately analyze and predict structural responses under
dynamic loads such as impact and blast loading, much efforts have been paid to
investigate the dynamic material properties of various construction materials
including concrete, steel, rock, glass, polymers etc. [3, 4, 12, 14–16]. Nevertheless,
brick as one of the most widely used materials have been less studied. This is
primarily because normal clay brick structures have low blast and impact resistant
Y. W. Chiu X. H. Zhang (&) H. Hao

Engineering, Curtin University, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia
e-mail: Xihong.zhang@curtin.edu.au
N. Salter
Midland Brick, Middle Swan, WA, Australia

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_64
678 Y. W. Chiu et al.
capacity and therefore less focus has been made on brick dynamic material prop-
erties. Also, the different brick materials used in different regions and areas for
constructions exhibit different mechanical properties due to different chemical
compositions. Studying the dynamic properties of clay bricks with different
chemical compositions will not only augment the literature and database of the
strain rate effect on brick materials, but also lead to more accurate analyse and
design of masonry structures subjected to high-rate dynamic loads.
Due to limited test results available on clay brick dynamic properties, most
current researches on masonry structures subjected to impact and blast loadings
adopt static material properties for bricks or dynamic material properties at par-
ticular strain rates only [5], which do not necessarily lead to accurate predictions of
structural responses. Some dynamic test data have been released in literatures on the
dynamic material properties of clay bricks. However, the reported data on the
dynamic increase effect differ substantially. Dynamic increase factor (DIF) of brick
compressive strength are generally from 1.2 to 2.5. Larcher et al. [5] carried out
SHPB test on bricks and found DIF of 1.38 at strain rate 189 s−1. Pereira et al. [7]
quantified clay brick compressive strength at quasi-static state and 176 s−1. Hao and
Tarasov [2] tested the unconfined compressive strength of clay bricks at strain rates
between 2.1 10−6 s−1 and 200 s−1 with a triaxial static-dynamic testing machine.
Recently, the authors conducted both quasi-static and SHPB dynamic tests on three
types of WA clay bricks at strain rate up to 337 s−1, and combined previous testing
data by different researchers to derive an empirical formula for clay brick com-
pressive DIF [13]. Till now, very limited data are available on the dynamic tensile
properties of clay bricks. In a recent paper [5] three different types of bricks, i.e.
terracotta, clinker and abode bricks were examined under quasi-static and dynamic
states using Brazilian disk method. A DIF for tensile strength of up to 3.0 was
found. There is still a serious short of data on the dynamic tensile properties of brick
to derive a reliable DIF versus strain rate relation for proper analysis and design
practise.
The aim of this study is to experimentally investigate the dynamic tensile
properties of clay bricks used in Western Australia. Two different types of clay
bricks (Limestone Hues solid and St Common Solid) were tested. The tests covered
strain rate from 1.13 10−5 s−1 to 10 s−1. The split-tensile strength, corresponding
failure strain and modulus at different strain rates were measured. Brick specimen
dynamic failure process was monitored. DIF for tensile strength were derived and
compared with existing data.
2 Experimental Setup
Two types of clay bricks were provided by major local brick supplier Midland
Bricks with mixtures of Western Australian local clays. Table 1 lists the chemical
compositions of the two bricks. 74 mm diameter by 37 mm cylindrical specimens
were core-drilled from 230 mm 110 mm 76 mm solid brick and finely
Dynamic Tensile Properties of Clay Brick at High Strain Rates 679
grinded for the Brazilian disc tests. The specimens were then dried in an oven at
40 °C for 48 h until the extra moisture was removed. Figure 1 shows the two types
of brick specimens. The densities for the two types of bricks are 1903.5 kg/m3 and
1960.7 kg/m3.
The quasi-static tests were conducted on a Shimadzu-300 testing system with
reference to ASTM-D3967 [11] (as illustrated in Fig. 1). The failure of each
specimen took about 5-10 min which resulted in a strain rate in the split direction of
1.13 10−5 s−1 (measured by the strain gauge). Three specimens for each type of
brick were tested at the loading speed. The dynamic split-tensile tests were con-
ducted on the SHPB testing system at the Structural Dynamics Laboratory in Curtin
University. The testing system comprises of 100 mm diameter incident bar
(5000 mm in length) and transmitter bar (3000 mm in length). The striker bar was
also 100 mm in diameter and 500 mm long. The bars are made of high strength tool
steel with density of 7800 kg/m3 and Young’s modulus of 200 GPa. Strain gages
were glued to the centres of the incident and transmitter bars to monitor stress
waves. Figure 2a shows the typical stress wave signal recorded in the incident and
transmitter bars. Dynamic equilibrium was checked to ensure the validity of each
high-speed compressive test (Fig. 2b). Considering the challenge in predicting the
strain rate that a specimen experienced in Brazilian disc test using SHPB system,
most researchers utilized loading rate (unit MPa/s from transmitted stress) and some
researchers further process the loading rate into strain rate [17]. Equation (1) gives
the formula for calculating split-tensile strength. Strain gauges were also glued to
the centre of the specimen in the split-tensile direction to monitor specimen strain.
The strain rates that specimens experienced were calculated by differentiating the
recorded strain time histories, which were validated with those estimated using
transmitted stress signal. Both strain rate and loading rate are used to describe
dynamic testing results in this study.
2P
rt ¼ ð1Þ
pDL
where P is the applied load, D and L are the diameter and length of the specimen.
Table 1 Chemical composition of the bricks from XRF analysis

Brick type Fe2O3 Al2O3 SiO2 MgO MnO Na2O K2O CaO TiO2 LOI OTHER
Limestone 4.1 24.9 59.4 0.3 0 0.4 1.9 0.1 0.8 7.8 0.4
Hue
Common 7.3 22 57.2 1.9 0.1 0.7 1.4 0.8 0.9 7.4 0.2
Solids
a) b)
Fig 1 Brick specimens: a Limestone Hues solid; b St common solid
Fig 2 a Typical stress wave signals; and b dynamic equilibrium
3 Results and Analysis
Figure 3 shows the fracturing process of brick specimens, which was recorded
using a high-speed camera with a filming rate was 40 kHz. Figure 3a and b show
the fracture processes of the limestone hue brick. It is clear that under 3.5/s strain
rate at t = 168 ls crack initiated from the centre of the cylinder which grew wider
and extended towards both ends of the specimen leading to the failure of the
specimen. Under increased strain rate (9.4/s), crack was formed at the centre of the
specimen at earlier stage (t = 96 ls) with the contacting end crushed at the left-end
of the cylinder. A thorough split failure was formed at 192 ls with both ends of the
specimen crushed. Similar fracture processes can be observed on the Common
Solids specimens as illustrated in Fig. 3c and d. Because of the dark red colour of
the brick, in the dynamic tests the specimens were painted into white colour. It is
worth noting that more severe end crushing was observed on the St Common Solids
specimen at high strain rate (9.3/s) as well as multiple cracks in the centre of the
specimen. This is because of the increased incident wave on the specimen.
a) 3.5/s (24.4MPa/s) b) 9.4/s (64.7MPa/s)
c) 4.4/s (32MPa/s) d) 9.3/s (67.7MPa/s)
Fig 3 Dynamic fracture processes of the specimens from high-speed camera images
Tables 2 and 3 tabulate the testing results of the two types of bricks. Typical
stress-strain curves of the specimens at different loading rates are shown in Fig. 4.
As depicted, both bricks exhibit strong strain rate sensitivity. For the Limestone
Hue block, a split-tensile strength of 2 MPa was measured at quasi-static state,
which increased apparently as loading rate increased. Under 23.35 MPa/s loading
rate, the tensile strength rose to about 3.6 MPa, and at 66.56 MPa/s loading rate the
tensile strength further increased to about 7 MPa. The modulus also appears to
increase at increased loading rate. Under quasi-static state, a modulus of about
7.6 GPas was measured, which increased slightly to about 7.8 GPa under
23.35 MPa/s loading rate. Under 41.87 MPa/s loading, the modulus further
increased to about 8.7 GPa. Similar observation can be found on the Common Solid
blocks that both the tensile strength and the modulus measured increased as loading
rate is increased. It is worth noting that the failure strain (corresponding to peak
tensile stress) of the Common Solid blocks are larger than those of the Limestone
Hue blocks, indicating the latter is more brittle.
DIF for brick tensile strength are derived by dividing the dynamic tensile
strength with the quasi-static strength. Figure 5 shows the tensile DIF vs. strain rate
relation for the two types of bricks. It is apparent that the tensile DIF of both types
of bricks are strongly strain rate sensitive. For the limestone Hue block, a DIF of
around 2.0 was found at around 3.5/s strain rate which increased to about 3.5 at 10/s
strain rate. Similar trend but slightly smaller tensile DIF can be observed for the
Common Solid blocks. A DIF of about 2.0 was found at about 4/s strain rate which
increased to about 3.0 at strain rate of 10/s. The difference is mainly because of the
different chemical composition in the two bricks since the specimens were of the
same dimension. Available testing data on mortar [1, 9] and concrete [8–10] are
also included in Fig. 5 for comparison. As can be found, smaller DIF was measured
on mortar by Chen et al. [1] but very close trend between DIF and strain rates like
those for the two bricks. Higher DIF on mortar was reported by Ross et al. [9]. The
DIFs for concrete by Ross and his co-works [8–10] scatter between 1.0 to 4.0 at
strain rate 1/s to 12/s. It was mainly because of different specimen diameters,
Table 2 Testing results for Common Solid

Loading rate Strain Tensile Strain Modulus DIF DIF
GPa/s rate/s strength MPa GPa (strength) (modulus)
– 1.13E−05 2.43 5.29E−04 6.40 0.98 0.88
– 1.13E−05 2.32 5.66E−04 7.30 0.94 1.00
– 1.13E−05 2.69 5.28E−04 8.20 1.08 1.12
29.99 4.12 4.35 5.16E−04 8.30 1.75 1.14
32.06 4.4 5.21 6.55E−04 7.30 2.10 1.00
45.69 6.27 5.37 7.92E−04 7.30 2.17 1.00
46.85 6.43 5.74 7.52E−04 7.40 2.31 1.01
48.61 6.67 6.56 9.88E−04 7.20 2.65 0.99
48.8 6.7 6.10 9.02E−04 8.30 2.46 1.14
51.29 7.04 5.77 1.05E−03 8.50 2.33 1.16
53.29 7.32 6.15 9.27E−04 8.20 2.48 1.12
58.32 8.01 7.09 9.63E−04 9.40 2.86 1.29
60.37 8.29 7.61 1.26E−03 8.10 3.07 1.11
67.74 9.3 7.80 1.45E−03 8.60 3.15 1.18
70.48 9.68 7.61 1.05E−03 10.00 3.07 1.37
70.56 9.69 7.06 1.11E−03 8.90 2.85 1.22
79.54 10.92 7.44 1.42E−03 8.10 3.00 1.11
Table 3 Testing results for Limestone Hue

Loading rate Strain Tensile Strain Modulus DIF DIF
GPa/s rate/s strength MPa GPa (strength) (modulus)
– 1.13E−05 2.06 4.21E−04 7.60 1.05 1.10
– 1.13E−05 1.86 3.58E−04 6.20 0.95 0.90
– 1.13E−05 1.97 3.14E−04 6.90 1.00 1.00
23.35 3.38 3.63 5.98E−04 7.80 1.85 1.13
24.44 3.54 4.07 7.43E−04 7.80 2.07 1.13
31.43 4.56 3.91 6.41E−04 8.00 1.99 1.16
34.04 4.93 5.24 7.18E−04 7.60 2.67 1.10
41.87 6.07 6.18 9.06E−04 8.70 3.15 1.26
45.10 6.54 5.31 9.47E−04 7.70 2.70 1.12
46.23 6.7 6.55 8.74E−04 8.90 3.34 1.29
53.72 7.79 6.07 1.16E−03 8.30 3.09 1.20
55.58 8.06 6.19 7.64E−04 9.10 3.15 1.32
59.06 8.56 6.79 9.01E−04 8.70 3.46 1.26
60.82 8.81 6.08 9.55E−04 9.40 3.10 1.36
61.72 8.95 7.03 1.23E−03 7.70 3.58 1.12
64.73 9.38 6.74 1.13E−03 9.80 3.43 1.42
66.56 9.65 6.99 9.81E−04 10.90 3.56 1.58
67.25 9.75 6.71 1.06E−03 9.10 3.42 1.32
a) Limestone Hue b) Common Solid
Fig 4 Stress-strain curves of the bricks at different loading speeds
Fig 5 Strength vs. loading

rate
Fig 6 Comparison of DIF

with available data
mixtures, and testing methods (Brazilian disc or direct tension). Nevertheless, the
overall trends on concrete also agree with the two types of bricks herein.
Figure 6 compares the DIFs of the two types of bricks with available popular
tensile DIF-strain rate relations for concrete. As shown, the DIF scatters for bricks
from this study aligns with the empirical trendlines by Malvar and Crawford [6] and
Ross et al. [8–10]. It is worth noting that Larcher et al. [5] measured a DIF of about
2.2 and 3.0 for Clinker and Terracotta bricks at strain rate of about 100/s through
Brazilian disc method using SHPB system. The strain rates were much higher
potentially because of much smaller diameter specimens used (40 mm diameter).
Further studies covering a wider strain rate range and using different testing
methods, i.e. Brazilian split-tension and direct tension are needed and are currently
under progress by the authors.
4 Conclusion
This study carried out Brazilian disc tests on two types of clay bricks under
quasi-static and dynamic states, which covers strain rate at 1.13 10−5/s to 10/s. It
found that the split-tensile properties of bricks are very strain rate sensitive.
Significant dynamic increase effect is found on brick strength. The corresponding
failure strain and modulus are also found to be strain rate sensitive. Through
comparing with existing data on concrete and mortar, it shows that the DIF relations
for the two tested bricks are close to the trends by Ross as well as Malvar and
Crawford for low strength concrete. Further studies are still needed to confirm
existing data on brick and to cover wider strain rate range.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge Mr Alf D’Angelo from

Midlandbrick, Boral for their support in this study. The financial support from Australian Research
Council is also to be acknowledged.
References
1. Chen X, Wu S, Zhou J (2013) Experimental study on dynamic tensile strength of cement

mortar using split Hopkinson pressure bar technique. J Mater Civ Eng 26(6):04014005
2. Hao H, Tarasov B (2008) Experimental study of dynamic material properties of clay brick and
mortar at different strain rates. Aust J Struct Eng 8(2):117–132
3. Hao Y, Hao H, Zhang X (2012) Numerical analysis of concrete material properties at high
strain rate under direct tension. Int J Impact Eng 39(1):51–62
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Hopkinson pressure bar test technique for concrete under compression. Int J Impact Eng 37
(2):141–149
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concrete strength. Mater J 93(3):293–300
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properties of clay bricks at different strain rates. Constr Build Mater 192:754–767
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presented at the 11th ISRM congress
Effect of Relative Density
on the Mechanical Behavior of Coral
Sand Under High Strain Rate
Xiao Yu, Li Chen, Qin Fang, Yadong Zhang, and Junyu Fan
Abstract The dry coral sand specimens confined by a steel sleeve were tested by
the spilt Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) system with a striker-impact velocity of
10 m/s. The effect of relative density on the mechanical behaviour of dry coral sand
was investigated. Specimens of three relative densities, namely, 10%, 50%, and
90%, which were corresponding to mass densities of 1248 kg/m3, 1373 kg/m3, and
1526 kg/m3, were tested at high strain rate around 750 s−1. Higher relative density
of coral sand contributes to higher amplitude of stress-strain curve, higher yield
stress, lower compressibility, and less energy absorption. The positive linear rela-
tionship and negative linear relationship for yield stress versus relative density and
compressibility versus relative density were respectively found; some correspond-
ing formulae were also proposed. Coral sand of lower relative density was rec-
ommended for energy absorption in the protective structures under blast loads or
impact loads.
Keywords Relative density Coral sand Mechanical behaviour SHPB
X. Yu
Research Institute for National Defense Engineering of Academy of Military Sciences PLA
China, Beijing 100036, China
e-mail: yuxiao10@foxmail.com
L. Chen (&) Q. Fang Y. Zhang J. Fan
School of Civil Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
e-mail: li.chen@seu.edu.cn
Q. Fang
e-mail: fangqinjs@139.com
Y. Zhang
e-mail: zhydjs@139.com
J. Fan
e-mail: fjy7361@sina.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_65
688 X. Yu et al.
1 Introduction
The design and construction of protective structures greatly depend on the local
geological environment. Coral sand, which is generated by bio-erosion of limestone
skeletal material of marine organisms, is abundant in the tropical and subtropical
marine environment. Exploration and exploitation of the ocean in recent decades
powerfully drive the bloom on investigation of mechanical properties of coral sand.
A comparative study [5] shows that the coral sand performs very different
mechanical responses from the silica sand under static loads. By using a newly
developed testing method [9], a better performance of coral sand on the
stress-wave-attenuation under impact or blast loads than silica sand was revealed
[10, 11]. The special mechanical responses under high strain rate make the coral
sand be incapable of being directly applied into the construction of protective
structures in the marine environment. Therefore, it makes the related research
become imperative.
As a typical kind of granular material, the mechanical behavior of sand can be
greatly affected by its initial physical properties, such as relative density, particle
size, and moisture content [7]. The investigation on the normal silica sand con-
ducted by Luo et al. [4] shows that the dynamic mechanical properties, such as
yield stress, compressibility, and energy-absorption capacity, can be significantly
affected by the relative density. However, the related research on the coral sand is
not reported yet.
To study the effect of relative density on the mechanical behaviors of coral sand
under high strain rate, impact experiments for the confined coral sand specimens
were conducted by using an SHPB system. The influences of relative density on the
stress-strain curve, yield stress, compressibility of coral sand, were analyzed and
discussed. Moreover, related formulae considering variation of the relative density
were also proposed.
2 Materials and Methodology
2.1 Coral Sand
The coral sand in the test was taken and transported from the South China Sea. The
original samples of coral sand are damp with a strong fishy smell. It is commonly
known that the coral particles own numerous micro-holes and cavities. Big particles
(bigger than 10 mm) also can be observed in the original samples, as shown in
Fig. 1. In order to meet the requirements of the test, the coral sand was processed as
the following steps. Firstly, the coral sand was dried in the drying oven at 105 °C
for 24 h. Secondly, the dry samples were then sorted by the standard sieves and a
vibrating screen machine [6], particles whose sizes were larger than 1.18 mm or
smaller than 0.075 mm were removed. The particle size distribution of the prepared
Effect of Relative Density on the Mechanical Behavior … 689
coral sand is shown in Fig. 2. Thirdly, specimens of coral sand were assembled by a
specially designed sleeve and two platens according to the particle size distribution.
The maximum and minimum mass density of coral sand were measured as
1220 kg/m3 and 1570 kg/m3 [6]. Three relative density (Dr) 10%, 50%, and 90%,
which were corresponding to mass densities of 1248 kg/m3, 1373 kg/m3, and
1526 kg/m3, were tested. Each kind of tests were conducted three times for the
cross calibration.
The specific gravities (Gs) of the coral sand was measured, and the average value
was 2.803, which agreed well with previous studies, namely, 2.88 of Lade et al. [3]
and 2.82 of Lv et al. [5].
Fig. 1 Coral sand
Fig. 2 Particle size

distribution of coral sand
690 X. Yu et al.
Fig. 3 Specimen assembling
Fig. 4 Diagrammatic sketch

of the SHPB
2.2 Assembling of the Specimen
The diameter and thickness of the cylinder sand specimen are 20 mm and 10 mm,
respectively. A steel sleeve and a pair of aluminum platens were specially designed
to assemble the sand specimen, as shown in Fig. 3. The sleeve was made of 1045
steel which is considered ‘rigid enough’ to prevent radial deformation of the sand
specimen. The inner diameter, the wall thickness, and the length of the sleeve are
20 mm, 5 mm, and 50 mm, respectively. Two pairs of screw holes were drilled
along the axial direction of the steel sleeve to fix the platens vertically to the sleeve.
2.3 SHPB Apparatus
The tests were conducted by an SHPB system. The diagrammatic sketch of the
apparatus is shown in Fig. 4. The length of the striker, the incident bar and the
transmission bar are 0.8 m, 6.0 m and 3.5 m, respectively. The bars share a com-
mon diameter of 20 mm. They are made of aluminum, which owns elastic modulus
and density of 70 GPa and 2700 kg/m3, respectively.
In order to keep the high strain rates around 750 s−1, the impact velocity of the
striker was set as 10 m/s. A rubber circular pulse shaper, which owns the diameter
and thickness of 14 mm and 1.0 mm, respectively, was used to increase the rising
time of the incident wave to achieve the stress equilibrium in the specimen during
the impact process.
The two-wave-method was applied to process the recorded data. The equilibrium
of stress in the specimen can be expressed as
ei ðtÞ þ er ðtÞ ¼ et ðtÞ ð1Þ
where ei ðtÞ, et ðtÞ, and er ðtÞ denote the strain histories of incident wave, transmitted
wave, and reflected wave, respectively.

The engineering stress rðtÞ, the engineering strain rate eðtÞ and the engineering
strain eðtÞ are respectively calculated by
rðtÞ ¼ E0 et ðtÞ ð2Þ

C0
eðtÞ ¼ 2 er ðtÞ ð3Þ
LS
Z
C0 t
eðtÞ ¼ 2 er ðtÞdt ð4Þ
LS 0
where E0 and C0 are the elastic modulus and the velocity of elastic wave in the bar
material. LS is the thickness of the specimen.
The equilibrium of dynamic stress in a coral sand specimen of 10% Dr is presented

in Fig. 5. Nearly overlap of stress histories at both sides of the specimen demon-
strates that the specimen is uniformly compressed during the impact. The strain-rate
and strain time histories of the specimen are shown in Fig. 6. A nearly constant
strain rate about 750 s−1 is achieved from 200 ls to 300 ls that corresponds to the
strains from 0.03 to 0.10. Therefore, this constant peak strain rate is determined to
evaluate the strain rate of the sand specimen. Figure 7 shows triple repeat testing
results on the stress-strain curves of coral sand of 10% Dr. The three curves exhibit
a similar shape and tendency, which indicates a good repeatability of the tests. Each
stress-strain curve presented in following sections were averaged form triple repeat
tests.
692 X. Yu et al.
Fig. 5 Stress equilibrium
Fig. 6 Strain-rate & strain

histories of the specimen
Fig. 7 Results of triple

repeat tests
Fig. 8 r e curves of coral

sand of different Dr
Fig. 9 Compression curves

of coral sand
Stress-strain curves of the coral sand of different Dr under high strain rate are
shown in Fig. 8. It is obvious that varying of Dr certainly affects the compressive
behaviors of coral sand. Increasing of Dr can contribute to higher stress the spec-
imen sustained at the same strain, similar conclusions were also drawn by Song
et al. [8] for silica sand.
The compression curves of coral sand, namely, void ratio (e)-axial stress curves,
are shown in Fig. 9. The void ratio, which is defined as the volume of the voids
over the volume of the specimen, can be calculated by the axial strain of the
specimen as
1e
e¼ 1 ð5Þ
1 n0
694 X. Yu et al.
Fig. 10 r0 of coral sand
Fig. 11 Cc of coral sand
where n0 is the initial porosity of the sand specimen. The yield stress, which is
denoted as r0 , is the stress at the maximum curvature of the compression curves [2].
The yield stress indicates the beginning of the breakage of the sand particle. After
yielding, the specimen enters the hardening stage of strain, where the compression
curve in the semi-logarithmic scale reaches approximately a linear relation [1]. The
slope of this linear relation is defined as the compressibility, which is denoted as Cc.
r0 and Cc for coral sand of different Dr are calculated and plotted, as shown in Fig. 9.
Under the same high strain rates around 750 s−1, r0 for coral sand of Dr at 10%,
50%, and 90% are 2.88 MPa, 3.75 MPa, and 6.51 MPa, respectively. It is evident
that the increase of Dr contributes to the increase of r0 . The higher Dr means the
lower pore volume of the coral sand specimen. It makes the contact between
particles become more sufficient. As an assembled structure of particles, specimen
becomes more difficult to be compressed, which results in the ascending of r0 .
The relation between r0 and Dr is shown in Fig. 10, a linear increasing relation is
observed and fitted as
r0 ¼ 2:11 þ 4:53 Dr ; Dr 2 ½0; 1 ð6Þ
Cc for coral sand of Dr at 10%, 50%, and 90% are 0.2168, 0.1937, 0.1919,
respectively. A negative correlation represents that a higher Dr makes the coral sand
harder to be compressed. The relation between Cc and Dr is shown in Fig. 11, a
linear decrease relation is observed and fitted as
Cc ¼ 0:2160:031 Dr ; Dr 2 ½0; 1 ð7Þ
In considering the energy absorption of the sand specimen, relation between the
energy absorption per unit volume (W) and the axial stress (r) of the specimen can
be obtained by integrating the uniaxial stress-strain curve, which is expressed as
Z e
W¼ rde ð8Þ
0
The W-r curves of coral sand of Dr with 10%, 50%, and 90% are shown in
Fig. 12. As Dr decreases, the W-r curve of coral sand shifts upward, which indi-
cates a better performance of energy absorption in the specimen at high strain rate.
It is because that for the coral sand with lower Dr, insufficient contact between the
particles and a large amount of void volume allow the particles to provide larger
displacement and deformation, therefore, the specimen shows better performance of
energy absorption in the macroscopic scale under high strain rate.
Fig. 12 The W-r curves of

coral sand of different Dr
696 X. Yu et al.
4 Conclusions
An experimental study of the effect of relative density (Dr) on the dynamic

mechanical behaviour of coral sand (strain rate near 750 s−1) was conducted by
using SHPB. Increasing of Dr results in an increasing of the yield stress (r0 ) and a
decreasing of the compressibility (Cc) under high strain rate. Linear relations of r0 -
Dr and Cc - Dr were proposed. Coral sand with lower Dr deforms more under the
same stress, which eventually results in a better performance of energy absorption
under high strain rate.
Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the financial supports from the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51622812, 51427807, 51738011), Postdoctoral Science
Foundation (No. 2017M613379).
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(6):777–785
9. Yu X, Chen L, Fang Q (2018) A testing method on the attenuation of stress wave in loose
porous media and its application to coral sand. Eng Mech 37:1520–1529
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sand. Chin J Rock Mechan Eng 37:1520–1529
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of coral sand on the propagation of impact-induced stress wave. Int J Impact Eng 125:63–82
Experimental Study and Numerical
Simulation for the Anti-explosion
Performance of Steel Plate-Reinforced
Concrete Composite Beam
X. F. Wang, L. Li, L. Zhang, J. B. Liu, D. F. Kong, and G. J. Sun
Abstract In order to identify the anti-explosion performance of Steel

Plate-Reinforced Concrete Composite (SPRCC) beam under contact explosion, the
explosion experiments of simply supported SPRCC beams were conducted.
Simulation of the experiments was also carried out. Based on the platform of the
commercial hydrocode AUTODYN, a three-dimensional solid model was estab-
lished containing the explosive, the air and the steel plate-RC beam consisting of
the concrete, the reinforcement and the steel plate. To simulate the dynamic
response of the SPRCC beam, appropriate contact model at the fluid-solid interface
was used. The simulation results agreed well with the experiments. Damage
mechanisms and damage modes of the SPRCC beam under different explosive
charge were studied by the validated modelling. With the increase of the explosive
charge, the damage mode of the SPRCC beam gradually changed from the local
flexure failure to the failure coupling of local punching and flexure. As a result of
this study, the SPRCC beams have good anti-explosion performance, due to the
constraints of the steel plate.
X. F. Wang (&) J. B. Liu

Department of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
e-mail: wxf15@tsinghua.org.cn
J. B. Liu
e-mail: liujb@tsinghua.edu.cn
X. F. Wang L. Li L. Zhang D. F. Kong G. J. Sun
Research Institute for National Defense Engineering of Academy of Military
Science PLA China, Beijing 100036, China
e-mail: list16@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn
L. Zhang
e-mail: ustczhanglei@163.com
D. F. Kong
e-mail: kdf35@126.com
G. J. Sun
e-mail: hyhq@foxmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_66
698 X. F. Wang et al.
Keywords Steel plate-reinforced concrete composite beam Contact explosion

Anti-explosion performance Numerical simulation
1 Introduction
When an explosion occurs on the surface of reinforced concrete structural members,

the severe shock wave produced by the explosion will damage the structural
members, resulting in reduced bearing capacity of structures or even collapse of the
structures. Thus, accurately predicting the damage caused by explosions to struc-
tural components is important for the blast-resistant design of important buildings
and protective structures.
Steel plate-reinforced concrete composite (SPRCC) structures have good
mechanical performance and flexure cracks are not easy to form in their tensile zone
[1]. In addition, they have characteristics of anti-explosion, anti-seepage and
anti-shock. Thus, the steel plate-reinforced concrete are widely used in various
structures including underground tunnels, offshore structures, nuclear power plant,
particularly in blast- and shock-resistant structures [2–4]. Scholars have carried out
a series of studies on the mechanical behavior of steel plate-reinforced concrete
structures under static and dynamic load. Watson et al. analyzed blast-resistant
performance of steel plate-reinforced concrete slabs under close-in explosions [5].
Nie et al. experimentally studied failure mode of the steel plate-concrete composite
(SPCC) beams under static load, and concluded that SPCC beams have good load
carrying capacity and ductility [1]. Tian et al. analyzed the damage of SPCC beams
under explosion load based on static resistance experiments and
overpressure-impulse theory [6]. Han et al. studied the effect of the encased steel
plate on improving the pier’s anti-collision ability by numerical simulation in cir-
cumstance of vehicle collision [7]. However, few studies have been conducted to
estimate the damage modes and anti-explosion performance of the SPRCC beams
under the contact explosion load.
In this paper, three simply supported SPRCC beams were tested under contact
explosion load. The explosion loads were generated by the detonation of 100–600 g
trinitrotoluene (TNT) explosive charges located on top surfaces of the beams. The
numerical simulations were established based on the platform of the commercial
hydrocode AUTODYN, and the simulations were validated by the experiment data.
Analyses of the dynamic response and the damage mode of the SPRCC beams
under various explosion loads were conducted based on the validated simulation
method. Based on the experimental and numerical simulation results, the damage
mechanism and damage mode of the SPRCC beams are analyzed.
Experimental Study and Numerical Simulation … 699
2 Experiment
The SPRCC beam samples were designed according to the beams of general
concrete buildings. The dimensions and reinforcement layout of the beams are
shown in Fig. 1. Three beams were casted with the same dimensions of 1800 mm
in length, 150 mm in width and 300 mm in depth. Two main steel bars with 12 mm
in diameter were horizontally placed at the top of the beam, and another two main
steel bars with the same diameter were horizontally placed at the bottom of beam.
The stirrups with 6 mm in diameter were placed by a regular spacing of 150 mm.
The steel plate with 3 mm in thickness was welded to the stirrups at bottom of
beams. The assemblage of the steel plate and the reinforcement bars is shown in
Fig. 2. The cylinder compressive strength of the concrete was 35.7 MPa the tensile
strength was 3.8 MPa, and the Young’s modulus was 27.3 GPa. The yield strength
of the reinforcement was 335 MPa, the tensile strength was 490 MPa, and the
Young’s modulus of 200 GPa. The yield strength of the steel plate was 335 MPa,
the tensile strength was 570 MPa, and the Young’s modulus was 200 GPa.
Fig. 1 The dimensions and reinforcement layout of the SPRCC beam (in mm)
Fig. 2 The assembled steel plate and reinforcement bars
Fig. 3 Test setting diagram

Test setting is shown in Fig. 3. In all the three tests, the SPRCC beam was
simply supported and the span was 1400 mm. The TNT explosive was placed in the
center of the top surface of the beam. The mass of TNT was set at 100, 200, and
600 g to investigate effect of charge mass on the damage of the beam.
Figure 4 shows the damage of the SPRCC beam samples after the explosion test.
There are craters generated by the explosion at the top surface of the beams, and
spalling damage occurs at both the two lateral surfaces. As shown in Fig. 4, the
depth of the craters and the damage area on lateral surface increase with TNT
charge mass increasing. Under 600 g TNT explosion, Two thick shear cracks
symmetrically appear near the lower edge of the lateral damage areas, as shown in
Fig. 4(h), and some flexure cracks appear near midspan of the beam. The com-
pressive shock wave due to the explosion caused the compressive damage of the top
surface of the beams. When the compressive wave reflected on the side and bottom
surface, the rarefaction waves were generated and caused swelling of the steel plate
and spalling of the concrete in the side and bottom of beams.
(a) Top of the sample 1 (b) Side of the sample 1 (c) Bottom of the sample 1
(100g TNT) (100g TNT) (100g TNT)
(d) Top of the sample 2 (e) Side of the sample 2 (f) Bottom of the sample 2
(200g TNT) (200g TNT) (200g TNT)
(g) Top of the sample 3 (h) Side of the sample 3 (i) Bottom of the sample 3
(600g TNT) (600g TNT) (600g TNT)
Fig. 4 Damage of SPRCC beam samples after tests

Fig. 5 Damage parameters diagram
Table 1 Experimental results

Sample number TNT charge mass W (g) H (mm) RD (mm) d (mm)
1 100 35 150 3
2 200 45 180 10
3 600 165 240 33
Fig. 6 Reinforcement
arrangement
Figure 5 illustrates depth of crater H, damage radius RD on side surface of the

beam and midspan deflection d. Table 1 lists experimental results with the
parameters H, RD and d. When the TNT charge mass W rose, the midspan deflection
d increased, as well as the damage area of the side and top surface.
3 Numerical Simulations
3.1 Numerical Model
AUTODYN was employed in this study because of its proven effectiveness in

geometric modeling and analysis under blast and impact loading. According to the
symmetry principle, the 1/4 three-dimensional model of the beam was created.
Figure 6 shows the reinforcement arrangement in a full model. Figure 7 shows the
1/4 numerical model. In the simulation, the SPRCC beam was modeled by
Lagrangian subgrid, in which the nodes followed the deformation of the material.
The air and the TNT explosive were modeled by Eulerian subgrid, in which the
material could flow from one cell to another. The Euler–Lagrange interface inter-
action was considered between the air and the beam. The boundary condition of the
beam was set to be consistent with the experiment. The boundary condition of the
Euler subgrid was set as a material outflow boundary. Concrete, reinforcement and
steel plate were modeled by solid elements, and the reinforcement and steel plate
were bond to the surrounding concrete. The element size of Lagrange was 3 mm,
small enough to get reliable results. And The element size of Euler was 15 mm. The
number of elements of the SPRCC beam was 750,000, and that of the air and the
explosive was 288,000. The termination time t of the simulation was set as 5 ms,
because residual velocities of the beam became very small and approximately zero
at that moment. The erosion technique was used to deal with the mesh distortion by
large deformation of Lagrangian element in simulation of the damage process. The
failure rule of instantaneous geometric strain was used for erosion algorithm, and its
value was set as 0.08. Only if severe damage occurred in the beam, such as
cratering and spalling, the erosion technique was employed.
3.2 Modelling of Materials
3.2.1 Concrete
The RHT material model, developed by Riedel, Hiermayer and Thoma [8], was
used for modelling of concrete. This model consists of three different strength
surfaces which are the elastic limit surface, the failure surface, and the residual
strength surface. It is suitable for simulating the dynamic behaviour of concrete
from elasticity to failure under explosion and impact loading.
The parameters of the RHT material model from AUTODYN standard material
library [9]were employed for concrete, except the compressive strength and tensile
strength which were determined by concrete strength standard tests. The parameters
were: reference density q = 2.314 g/cm3; shear modulus G = 16.7 GPa; compres-
sive strength fc = 35.7 MPa; tensile strength ft = 3.8 MPa; intact failure surface
constant A = 1.6; intact failure surface exponent N = 0.61; fractured strength
constant B = 1.6; fractured strength exponent M = 0.61; damage constant
D1 = 0.04; damage constant D2 = 1; minimum strain to failure emin f = 0.01.
3.2.2 Steel Reinforcement Bars and Plate
The Johnson-Cook material model [10] was adopted to represent mechanical

behavior of the steel reinforcement bars and the steel plate. It is suitable for sim-
ulating material response of metals in cases of large strain, high strain rate and high
temperature.
The yield constant of the Johnson-Cook model for steel was determined by static
tensile tests. The other material parameters from AUTODYN standard material
library [9] were employed. The parameters for steel were: reference density
q = 7.83 g/cm3; shear modulus G = 81.8 GPa; yield constant A = 335 MPa;
hardening constant B = 384 MPa; hardening exponent n = 0.26; strain rate con-
stant C = 0.014; reference strain rate e_ 0 = 1.
3.2.3 TNT Explosive and Air
TNT explosive was represented by the Jones–Wilkins–Lee (JWL) equation of state

(EOS), which is typically used to model detonation of high explosives. The
parameters of JWL EOS for the TNT explosive from AUTODYN standard material
library [9] were employed. The values of these parameters were: reference density
q = 1.63 g/cm3; parameter A = 373.77 GPa; parameter B = 3.7471 GPa; parameter
R1 = 4.15; parameter R2 = 0.9; parameter x = 0.35; Chapman-Jouget (C-J) deto-
nation velocity D = 6.93 km/s; C-J energy per unit volume E = 6.0 GJ/m3; C-J
pressure P = 21.0 GPa.
Air was represented by the Ideal Gas equation of state in AUTODYN, which is
simply and easy for computation. The parameters of Ideal Gas from AUTODYN
standard material library [9] were employed. These parameters were: reference
density q = 0.001225 g/cm3; c = 1.4. The initial specific internal energy E0 of the
air was assumed to be 206.8 MJ/kg.
4 Comparison Between Numerical and Experimental

Results
Figure 8 shows a comparison between the damaged areas of the SPRCC beams
obtained from the numerical simulations and those from the tests. The damage areas
of the beams from the simulations were consistent with the experiments, as shown
in Fig. 8. The concrete cracking, crack propagation and spalling process of the
SPRCC beam under the explosive loading were well simulated. The damage radius
R on side surface of the beam and midspan deflection d from the tests were
compared with the calculated results from the numerical simulations, as shown in
Table 2. Because the calculation time was shorter than the tests, the midspan
(a) 100g TNT Test (b) 200g TNT Test (c) 600g TNT Test
(d) 100g TNT Simulation (e) 200g TNT Simulation (f) 600g TNT Simulation
Fig. 8 Comparison of the numerical results and experimental results

Table 2 Comparison of the W (g) Experimental results Numerical results

numerical results and
d (mm) R (mm) d (mm) R (mm)
experimental results
100 3 150 0.42 153
200 10 180 1.42 195
600 33 240 9.2 255
deflections from the simulations were smaller than those from the tests. However,
the damage radiuses on side surface of the beam from the numerical simulations
were in good agreement with the experimental results.
Figure 9 shows the variety of vertical velocity of the center points of the bottom
surface of the SPRCC beams with time under different blast loadings corresponding
to different charge mass. The maximum velocity appeared at the moment of about
0.1 ms, and the beam continued to move downward under the action of inertia. At
the time t = 5 ms, the vertical velocity was 0 m/s when the charge mass was 100 g,
indicating that the beam was already in equilibrium. At the time t = 5 ms, the
vertical velocity was 0.65 m/s when the charge mass was 200 g, indicating that the
beam was rebounding. At the time t = 5 ms, the vertical velocity was –0.76 m/s
when the charge mass was 600 g, indicating that the beam was still moving
downward.
The damage phenomena of the top and side surface of the SPRCC beams from
numerical simulations are shown in Fig. 10. The red color in the figure indicates
that the damage degree D reaches 1.0 when the concrete had been completely
damaged, whereas the blue color indicated that the damage degree D was 0 when
the concrete was not damaged [8, 9]. Under different explosive loads, the com-
pressive stress wave induced compressive damage and generated blast craters on
the top surface of the beams. After contact explosions take place, the compressive
stress wave propagated through the beams and reflected on the bottom surface of
the beams. Then the compressive stress wave turned into a tensile wave, resulting in
spalling of the concrete near the bottom of the beams and even swelling of the steel
plate.
(a) Top (100g TNT) (b) Side (100g TNT)
(c) Top (200g TNT) (d) Side (200g TNT)
(e) Top (600g TNT) (f) Side (600g TNT)
Fig. 10 Damage of the SPRCC beams in numerical simulation
As the charge increased, the damage of the beams became more severe and
exhibited different modes of damage, as shown in Fig. 9. When the TNT charge
mass is 100 g, two small flexure cracks appears in the tension zone. In this case, the
damage mode of the beam was considered as locale flexure damage. When the TNT
charge mass increases to 200 g, five coarse flexure cracks appears in the tension
zone. Meanwhile, fine punching shear cracks appears on the lower side surface and
extends to the flexure cracks at the bottom of the beam. In this case, the damage
mode of the beam was considered as flexure damage coupled with weak shear.
When the TNT charge mass increases to 600 g, seven obvious flexure cracks appear
in the tension zone. Meanwhile, obvious punching shear cracks appear on the lower
side surface and extend to the bottom of the beam. An evident bulge can be seen at
the bottom of the beam, and the steel plate is partially separated from the concrete.
In this case, the damage mode of the beam was considered as composite damage of
flexure and punching shear.
However, the restraint by the steel plate can prevent the spalling delamination
and crush of the concrete, which can significantly improve blast-resistance of the
RC beams. Due to the constraints of the steel plate, the SPRCC beams have good
anti-explosion performance.
5 Conclusions
The explosion tests and numerical simulations were conducted to study the damage
modes of the SPRCC beams under contact explosion load of different TNT charge
mass detonations.
A three-dimensional numerical model, including the air, the explosive and the
SPRCC beams was established to simulate the experiments. The dynamic response
of the SPRCC beam was simulated by using appropriate material models which
considered strain rate effects. The fluid-solid interface was modelled by employing
proper contact model. The damage process of the concrete was simulated by using
the erosion technique. The comparison between the numerical simulation results
and the experimental data indicated that the present simulation method can reliably
predicts the damage of all the SPRCC beams in this study.
After contact explosions take place, the compressive stress wave propagates
through the beams and reflects on the bottom surface of the beams. Then the
compressive stress wave turns into a tensile wave, resulting in spalling of the
concrete near the bottom of the beams. With increasing of the explosive charge
mass, damage mode of the SPRCC beam gradually changes from local flexure
damage to composite damage of local flexure and punching shear.
Based on the experimental and numerical results, the SPRCC beams have good
anti-explosion performance, due to the constraints of the steel plate.
References
1. Nie JG, Zhao J (2008) Experimental study on simply supported steel plate-concrete composite
beams. China Civ Eng J 44(12):28–34
2. Nie JG, Yu ZW (1999) Research and practice of composite steel-concrete beams in china.
China Civ Eng J 32(2):3–8
3. Oduyemi TOS, Wright HD (1989) An experimental investigation into the behaviour of
double-skin sandwich beams. J Constr Steel Res 14(3):197–220
4. Wright HD, Oduyemi TOS, Evans HR (1991) The experimental behaviour of double skin
composite elements. J Constr Steel Res 19(2):97–110
5. Watson AJ, Hulton FG, Pope DJ (1997) An experimental study of steel plate bonding to
concrete slabs under close-in explosions. In: Proceeding of the 8th international symposium
on interaction of the effects of munitions with structures. Defense Nuclear Agency, Mclean,
pp 971–979
6. Tian ZM, Zhan JH, Jiang SY (2015) Damage assessment for steel-concrete composite beams
subjected to blast loading. J Vib Shock 35(4):42–48
7. Han Y, Fan DZ, Liu S (2017) Tests for Effect of encased steel plate on anti-impact
performance of a RC Pier. J Vib Shock 36(23):175–180
8. Riedel W, Thoma K, Hiermaier S, Schmolinske E (1999) Penetration of reinforced concrete
by BETA-B-500 numerical analysis using a new macroscopic concrete model for hydrocodes.
In: Proceeding of the ninth international symposium on interaction of the effects of munitions
with structures. Federal Republic of Germany, Berlin, pp 315–322
9. AUTODYN (2006) Theory Manual, Revision 4.3. Century Dynamics Inc., Horseham
10. Johnson GR, Cook WK (1983) A constitutive model and data for metals subjected to large
strains high strain rates and high temperatures. In: Proceedings of the seventh international
symposium on Ballistics, American Defense Preparedness Association, Hague, pp 541–547
Resistance of Lattice Core Sandwich
Cylinders to Internal Blast Loading
J. F. Li, W. Zhang, J. X. Zhang, H. M. Li, Z. L. Xu, and Q. H. Qin
Abstract Explosion has been a serious threat in military and civil, accordingly the
blast resistance capacity is an important indication in design and optimization of
structure to ensure the safety of device and person. Here the resistance of sandwich
cylinder with different lattice cores to internal blast loading is explored numerically.
Six core geometries are selected: square, hexagonal, semi-re-entrant, re-entrant,
sinusoidal and Kagome honeycombs, and each geometry have two arrangements:
circular and axial. Based on the numerical results, the effects of core geometry and
arrangement on the dynamic response, deformation mode and energy dissipation of
sandwich cylinders are discussed in detail. Results reveal that sandwich cylinders
experience progressive deformation during blasting and the final deformation
modes are closely affected by core geometries and arrangements. Analysis about the
blast resistance shows that circular arrangement improves the deformation extent of
outer shell and energy absorption efficiency of sandwich cylinder, however the
weak radial stiffness leads to the heavily compression extent and energy absorption
scale of lattice core with axial arrangement.

Keywords Metal sandwich cylinder Lattice core Blast resistance Dynamic

plasticity Finite element simulation
J. F. Li W. Zhang J. X. Zhang H. M. Li Z. L. Xu Q. H. Qin (&)

State Key Laboratory for Strength and Vibration of Mechanical Structures, Department
of Mechanics, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China
e-mail: qhqin@mail.xjtu.edu.cn
J. F. Li
e-mail: 13512013505@163.com
W. Zhang
J. X. Zhang
e-mail: jianxunzhang@mail.xjtu.edu.cn
H. M. Li
e-mail: lihm@mail.xjtu.edu.cn
Z. L. Xu
e-mail: zlxu@mail.xjtu.edu.cn

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_67
710 J. F. Li et al.
1 Introduction
Over the past decades, the blast resistance capacity becomes an important indication
in design and optimization of structure to ensure the safety of the internal device
and person. Comparing with other configurations, sandwich structures enhanced by
various cores take predominate advantageous in explosion-proof because of diverse
deformation and energy dissipation mechanisms [3], hence sandwich structure
become a competitive candidate for safety protection.
Many researches about the dynamic response and blast resistance of sandwich
structures have been reported [1, 2, 6], and varies factors on the performance of
sandwich structures have been investigated. However, some competing conclusions
from different references are obtained because of the distinct materials and test
methods, therefore more systematic investigations are required.
The objective of this work is to numerically investigate dynamic response of
sandwich cylinders with various lattice cores subjected to internal blast loading in
order to give an insight into deformation mechanism and energy absorption
capacity with the help of software LS-DYNA. The organization of this paper is as
follows. Firstly, the problem of sandwich cylinder subjected to internal blast
loading and details to establish the finite element model are briefly described. Then,
we present dynamic response of sandwich cylinders with various lattice cores and
discuss effects of core geometry and arrangement, also the blast resistance of
sandwich cylinders is studied. Finally, concluding remarks are presented.
2 State of Problem and Finite Element Model
Consider a closed sandwich cylinder subjected to the internal blast loading, the
cylinder consists of lattice core, inner and outer shells, and two covers. The lattice
core has the dimension of height Hc, internal diameter Din, external diameter Dout,
and core wall thickness tc, and the thickness of inner shell, outer shell, and cover are
denoted by tin, tout and tco, respectively, the TNT charge with mass of mTNT is
located at the centre, Fig. 1 shows the scheme and parameters of sandwich cylinder.
To study the effect of configuration of lattice core on the performance of cylinder,
six core geometries are selected: square, hexagonal, semi-re-entrant, re-entrant,
sinusoidal and Kagome (increased by relative density of cell), meanwhile two
arrangements so called circular and axial are employed for each core geometry,
hence twelve configurations of lattice cores are proposed herein, see Fig. 2.
Resistance of Lattice Core Sandwich Cylinders … 711
Fig. 1 Scheme of sandwich cylinder against internal blasting, where Hc = 160 mm, Din
= 200 mm, Dout = 260 mm, tc = 0.66 mm, tin = tout= 2 mm, tco = 10 mm, mTNT = 80 g (tc and
mTNT are not marked here)
The commercial software LS-DYNA is employed to conduct numerical solution.

Inner shells, outer shells, and covers are made from AL-2024 aluminium alloy,
while the lattice cores are made from AL-3104 aluminium alloy. The corresponding
mechanical behaviour is developed by bilinear elastic-plastic model and all the
parameters of comes from Zhu et al. [5]. Besides, the explosive burn model is used
to describe the detonation of TNT charge and the classical Jones-Wilkins-Lee
equation of state is employed to describe the dynamic material properties of TNT
charge during blasting. For the air act as intermediary between TNT charge and
cylinder, null material model is adopted to describe its mechanical behaviour, and
the linear polynomial equation of state is employed to define the pressure of air.
Finally, all material parameters of TNT charge comes from Zhu et al. [5], and the
parameters of ideal air comes from Suazo and Villavicencio [4].
Since all parts are symmetric about X-Y, X-Z and Y-Z plane, 1/8 model is
established so that much computation time could be saved, see Fig. 3. Lattice cores
are assigned by S4 elements with the size of 1 1 mm and the C3D8R elements
with size of 1 1 1 mm are assigned for inner and outer shells to achieve the
balance between precision and computation cost. When it comes to air and TNT
charge, ALE multi-material element is employed to describe the dynamic response.
The fluid-solid coupling algorithm is utilized to perform the dynamic response and
deformation of sandwich cylinder in air blasting correctly. Finally, assuming the
core and shells are combined by hot melt adhesive membranes and no debonding
happens during blasting, the interaction between them is set to be tied.
712 J. F. Li et al.
Fig. 2 Scheme of a cell geometries, b front view for circular arranged cores and c top view for
axial arranged cores, where the lowest relative density of core geometry is square, followed by
hexagonal, semi-re-entrant, re-entrant, sinusoidal and Kagome
Fig. 3 1/8 geometric model

of sandwich cylinder with
hexagonal cores and axial
arrangement
Figure 4 depicts the typical radial movement histories of sandwich cylinders,

including hollow and closed structures, from which the progressive deformation
features are obtained and the effect of covers on the dynamic response of cylinders
are observed. Firstly, TNT charge detonates and shock wave spreads freely in
hollow sandwich cylinder, subsequently the blast wave contacts with the surface of
inner shell and the cylinder begins to expands, as the pressure on inner shell is
much higher than that on outer shell, the lattice core is continuously compressed.
Then, around at 250–400 ls, contact force caused by transient blast loading sub-
sides with time, thus sandwich cylinder rebounds after the radial deflection reach
maximum value. Finally, sandwich cylinder reaches a stable state and no significant
deformation but some slight vibrations are observed. Furthermore, when cover is
added, shock wave will impact the inner shells repeatedly but not escape from ends,
consequently the closed cylinders present higher radial displacements than hollow
ones and covers increase the deformation extents of cylinders undoubtedly.
Comparison between Fig. 4(a) and (b) reveals that the radial deflection of outer
shell of cylinder with circular arranged cells is much lower than that with axial
arranged cells, which illustrates that the stiffness of lattice cores with axial arranged
cells is weak and cannot transfer enough force to outer shells to make it deform
significantly.
Figure 5 depicts the final deformations of sandwich cylinders, which illustrates
that lattice cores are compressed by blast loading and regions that closest to TNT
charge perform the most serious deformation. Comparison between Fig. 5(a) and
(b) reveals that the global radial expansions of lattice cores with circular arranged
cells are higher than those with axial arranged cells, however the axial arranged
cores show significant local compression, this difference coincides with the pre-
vious conclusion that circular arrangement makes lattice core stiffer than axial
arrangement. Analysis in detail shows that radial buckling is the common
Fig. 4 Movement histories of a circular arranged and b axial arranged sandwich cylinders with
square cells
714 J. F. Li et al.
Fig. 5 Final deformations of lattice cores a circular arrangement and b axial arrangement
deformation mode for circular arranged cores, whereas the significant compression
and folding of cells are observed for axial arranged cores.
Figure 6 depicts the dimensionless maximum radial deflections of outer shells of
closed sandwich cylinders (Dout ¼ DDout =Dout ), from which it is observed that
circular arrangement significantly increase the deformation extent of outer shell,
which is attributed to the higher radial stiffness of circular arranged cylinders. At the
same time, the radial deflections of circular arranged cylinders tend to first increase
then decrease with the increase of relative density of cells, whereas the perfor-
mances of axial arranged sandwich cylinders are somewhat irregular. One credible
explain for this difference is that higher relative density of cell improves the radial
Fig. 6 Dimensionless radial

deflections of outer shells of
sandwich cylinders
stiffness of circular arranged core, hence the ability to transmit radial force to outer
shell become stronger correspondingly, however, high stiffness of lattice core
strengthen the protection of outer shell, as a result, under these two contradictory
effects, the tendency that first increase then decrease is observed. When it comes to
axial arranged cylinders, force capacity of lattice cores mainly depend on the core
geometries, such as hexagonal cell would expand under compression but
semi-re-entrant cell would fully fold, consequently the different mechanical char-
acters of core geometries make the performances of outer shells and the final radial
deflections seems to be somewhat irregular.
Figure 7 depicts the final internal energy of various sandwich cylinders, and
energy ratio of each part is displayed. For circular arranged cylinders, configuration
with re-entrant cells presents the most energy absorption capacity but the hexagonal
cell contributes the least energy absorption capacity. However, for axial arranged
cylinders, configurations with re-entrant and hexagonal cells possess the least and
the most energy absorption capacities respectively, this interesting contradiction
reveals that the energy absorption of cylinder is not simply depends on the core
geometry or core arrangement but the comprehensive effect of these two factors.
Furthermore, comparison between Fig. 7 (a) and (b) shows that covers of circular
arranged cylinders occupy the least scale of internal energy and the other three parts
occupy the roughly equivalent proportion, when it comes to axial arranged cylin-
ders, outer shell plays the least role in energy absorption and the internal energy of
lattice core is much more than other parts. Combining with the previous conclu-
sions it is certainly that axial arrangement cannot effectively resist blast loading and
transmit radial force, therefore the compression extent of lattice cores of axial
arranged cylinders is much heavily than circular arranged cylinders.
716 J. F. Li et al.
Fig. 7 Energy absorptions of sandwich cylinders with a circular arrangements and b axial
arrangements
Fig. 8 Specific energy

absorptions of sandwich
cylinders
To investigate the energy absorption efficiency, the specific energy absorptions

of sandwich cylinders are displayed in Fig. 8. Since the total energy absorptions of
two arrangements are roughly equivalent whereas the masses of circular arranged
cylinders are much lighter (nearly 40%) than the counterparts that with same core
geometries, circular arrangement naturally improves the energy absorption effi-
ciency of sandwich cylinders. What’s more, analysis in detail reveals that higher
mass lead to the overall decrease of specific energy absorption (except hexagonal
and sinusoidal core geometries for circular and axial arranged cylinders respec-
tively), therefore the lightest cylinder that with square core geometry possesses the
highest energy absorption efficiency, by contrast the Kagome core geometry leads
to the lowest energy absorption efficiency.
The resistance of closed sandwich cylinders with different lattice cores subjected to
internal blast loading is investigated by using finite element method, and the
influences of core geometry and arrangement on the performance of cylinder are
discussed in detail. Numerical results point out that cylinders undergo progressive
dynamic response during blasting, and the regions that closest to TNT charge
present the most remarkable deformations. Analysis about the resistance perfor-
mance reveals that circular arrangement improves the deformation extent of outer
shell and energy absorption efficiency of sandwich cylinder. Furthermore, the radial
stiffness of axial arranged cylinders are significantly stronger than those of axial
arranged cylinders, consequently the compression extent of lattice cores of axial
arranged cylinders is much heavily than those of circular arranged cylinders.
Acknowledgements The authors are gratefully acknowledge financial support from NSFC
(11572234 and 11502189), opening project of State Key Laboratory of Explosion Science and
Technology (Beijing Institute of Technology, KFJJ18-07 M), Natural Science Basic Research Plan
in Shaanxi Province of China (2017JM1020), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded
project (2015M572546), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.
References
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honeycomb sandwich panels: comparisons and parametric designs. Compos Struct 183:242–
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with stepwise graded aluminum honeycomb cores under blast loading. Compos A Appl Sci
Manuf 80:1–12
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trapezoidal corrugated-core sandwich panels subjected to air blast loading – an experimental
study. Mater Des 65(65):221–230
4. Suazo G, Villavicencio G (2018) Numerical simulation of the blast response of cemented paste
backfilled stopes. Comput Geotech 100:1–14
5. Zhu F, Zhao L, Lu G, Gad E (2009) A numerical simulation of the blast impact of square
metallic sandwich panels. Int J Impact Eng 36(5):687–699
6. Zhu F, Zhao L, Lu G, Wang Z (2008) Deformation and failure of blast-loaded metallic
sandwich panels—experimental investigations. Int J Impact Eng 35(8):937–951
Dynamic Behavior of Jacket Foundation
for Offshore Wind Turbine Subjected
to Ship Impact
D. W. Gao and C. W. Zhang
Abstract Offshore wind energy has been widely used and becomes a new strategy
for promoting sustainable development in coastal countries. Foundation is the
support structure of the offshore wind turbine (OWT), and its safety relates to the
normal operation of the whole wind turbine generator system. Dynamic response of
the jacket foundation for OWT caused by ship impact has been investigated
numerically. The impact processes between a jacket foundation for 3.0 MW OWT
and a cargo with the dead weight of 3000t have been modelled using ADINA
considering the effect of ship speed, collision position and joint strength. The
influence of impact damage on the load-bearing capacity of the jacket foundation
has also be discussed in this study. Results show that a positive correlation exists
between impact force and impact velocity. Impact upon the tubular joints results in
larger impact force but smaller indentation than that happened to chords and braces.
Increasing the wall thickness of tubular joints will decrease the impact displacement
but increase the impact force. Impact damage may not result in the collapse of the
jacket foundation, but the bending moment and shear force increase dramatically in
the structure members adjacent to the damaged structural elements due to the
internal force redistribution. The findings in this paper contribute to the design and
retrofit of the jacket foundation for OWTs.

Keywords Ship impact Offshore wind turbine Energy absorption Finite

element method Load-bearing capacity
D. W. Gao C. W. Zhang (&)

School of Civil Engineering, Qingdao University of Technology,
Qingdao 266033, People’s Republic of China
e-mail: zhangchunwei@qtech.edu.cn
D. W. Gao
e-mail: gaodianwei@qtech.edu.cn

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_68
720 D. W. Gao and C. W. Zhang
1 Introduction
In recent years, with the continuous development of sustainability strategy, the

utilization of various renewable energy sources has been brought to the attention.
Among them, there has been increasing interest in wind power generation because
of the unlimited reserves and renewability. Compared to traditional onshore wind
turbines, offshore wind turbines (OWTs) has the advantages of a larger amount of
wind energy reserves, smaller wind turbulence intensity, and fewer restrictions from
the noise, landscape, birds and electromagnetic wave in the construction of wind
farms. As the support structure of OWTs, foundation is the important component to
ensure the safety of the working platform, tower, cabin and blades. Therefore, it is
of great significance to consider the possible extreme risks that the OWT founda-
tions may face in the normal service life.
Most offshore wind farms have been constructed in the areas about 20 km from
the coasts, where overlap with the intensive ship lanes [9]. Due to the unpredictable
harsh environment in the ocean, collision between ships and OWTs occurs from
time to time, which may cause serious consequences such as sinking of ships,
collapse of the OWTs and marine pollution. Hence, it is necessary to take the
impact hazard analysis into consideration in the design of OWTs. Although the
study of structural behaviour under impact and blast loads has been conducted by
many researchers [16–20]. However, a limited amount of literature has dealt
directly with ship-OWT collisions in the light of a relatively late start on this
research topic. Great emphasis has been put on the effects of different types of
foundations [1], pile-solid interactions [6, 10] and crashworthiness devices [3, 7] on
the impact results. The collision process between ship and offshore engineering
structures includes complex dynamic nonlinearities such as material nonlinearity,
geometric nonlinearity and contact nonlinearity. Besides, the collision problem
involves various systems, besides the participation of ships and OWTs, fluid and
soil also participate in energy absorption. The research methodologies for collision
between ships and marine structures mainly include empirical method [5, 13],
simplified analytical method [8, 14], finite element (FE) method [2, 4, 14, 15] and
experimental method [11, 12]. Because of the high cost of using real ships for
experimental studies, scale model experiment and numerical simulation are the
most commonly used approaches for the assessment ship impact on marine
structures.
Compared to the research work on ship collision of offshore platforms, very few
studies on ship-OWT collisions have been conducted. In this paper, the impact
processes between a jacket foundation for 3.0 MW OWT and a cargo with the dead
weight of 3000t have been numerically investigated using ADINA. The effect of
ship speed, collision position and joint strength on the damage degree of the OWT
was discussed. Lastly, the influence of impact damage on the load-bearing capacity
of the jacket foundation was assessed with the aid of restart analysis in ADINA.
Dynamic Behavior of Jacket Foundation … 721
2 Numerical Simulations
2.1 Description of the FE Model
A four-pile jacket-type foundation structure (Fig. 1) was selected in this study to

support a 3 MW OWT. The diameter and wall thickness of the legs were 1.5 m and
30 mm, respectively. The bottom span and top span between the adjacent legs were
12 and 8 m, respectively. The braces of X-shaped sleeve pieces were used to adjoin
legs. The diameter and wall thickness of braces were 760 and 20 mm, respectively.
The pile legs were connected by four I-beams, the cross section of which was
H1000 300 19 36. The inner part of I-beams was connected by 24 channel
steel, and the cross-section of channel steel was C300 150 12 8. For the
purpose of simplicity, the influence of water on the impact was ignored, and the
working platform was simplified as a central mass point. The shell elements were
used to establish the fine finite element model near the collision area (a pile leg and
related joint area), while the beam elements were used to model the other parts far
from the collision area to save the computational time, as shown in Fig. 2.
The superstructure of the OWT included tower, cabin and blades. The specific
dimension and weight of each part are shown in Table 1.
In this study, the tower model was established by the method of piecewise
approximation, and the mass of each section was added to the centroid position of
each section in the form of centralized mass points. In addition, because the cabin
and blades were far from the collision area, they were simplified as concentrated
Fig. 1 Four-pile jacket-type

foundation
Fig. 2 Simplified FE model

of foundation
Table 1 Geometric parameters and weights for the superstructure

Components Diameter & length (mm) Wall Height of Mass
(from bottom to thickness Mass centre (Tonne)
top) (mm) (mm)
Section 1 D4732 D4200 3700 72 1812.97 39.1
Section 2 D4200 D3875 18400 40 9075.96 66.1
Section 3 D3875 D3373 28500 30 13919.6 68.9
Section 4 D3373 D2865 28911 20 14061.8 35.6
Cabin 117
Blades 46.3
mass points added to the top of the tower. The FE model including the distribution
of concentrated mass points is shown in Fig. 3.
The damage of ship caused by collision was not considered in the present study,
it was simplified into a bow and a centralized mass point on the ship’s mass centre.
The bow and the centralized mass point are connected by means of master-slave
constrains in ADINA. The bow was regarded as a rigid body and moves in the same
way as the master node, as shown in Fig. 4. It is assumed that the ship-OWT
collision occurs in the diagonal direction of the jacket foundation, and the initial
distance between the collision point and the ship is 620 mm. The four legs were
fixed at the mud surface without considering the pile-soil interaction. The whole FE
model included 1296 beam elements and 8026 shell elements, and the other ele-
ments were rigid body elements and mass elements.
The bilinear plastic model was assigned to the collision zone considering the von
Mises yield criterion, and element deletion was controlled by failure strain. The
non-collision zone was assumed to keep elastic under impact loading. The specific
material parameters used in the study are reported in Table 2.
In order to prevent the structural components from penetrating each other,
contact pairs was defined in the collision zone. The self-contact was also defined for
Fig. 3 Distribution of
concentrated mass points for
the simplified tower model
Fig. 4 Simplified Ship-OWT

collision model
the possible contact within a single component due to the large deformation. Apart
from the contact nonlinear behaviour, the geometric nonlinearity including large
displacement and the large strain was also considered for the elements in the
collision zone.
Table 2 Material parameters

used in the FE model
Non-collision zone material model

Young’s
Poisson’s Density
modulus
ratio (g/cm3)
(MPa)
210,000 0.3 7.85
Collision zone material model
Young’s Yield Strain hardening Max. allowable
Poisson’s Density
modulus strength modulus effective plastic
ratio (g/cm3)
(MPa) (MPa) (MPa) strain
210,000 0.3 7.85 345 1180 0.35
Fig. 5 Maximum displacement histories of collision zone under different collision speed
2.2 Effect of Ship Speed on Dynamic Behaviour of OWT
In order to assess the collision speed on the dynamic behaviour of the jacket
foundation, ship-OWT collision is simulated by changing the ship speed v to be 5, 3
and 1 m/s. The collision zone is the top of the jacket leg. Figure 5 plots the
maximum displacement histories of the jacket leg at different collision speed. It can
be seen that the jacket leg experienced a peak deformation followed by a rebound
process, then the collision process ceased, leading to the permanent structural
deformations. It is clear that the increase in the collision speed significantly causes
an increase in structural peak displacement.
2.3 Effect of Collision Location on Dynamic Behaviour

of OWT
Figure 6 shows the deformation and stress distribution of jacket legs at three dif-
ferent collision locations. It is observed that the area of stress distribution corre-
sponding to the middle collision is relatively small compared to that caused by the
collision at other locations, but the stress value is relatively large. The is due to the
middle zone of tubular joint possesses relatively high stiffness. Therefore, in order
to ensure the safety of tubular joints, this zone should be properly strengthened.
2.4 Effect of Thickness of Tubular Joint on Dynamic

Behaviour of OWT
The effect of tubular joint thickness on the displacement histories of tubular K-Joint
(Fig. 7) is studied considering three wall thickness of 25, 30 and 35 mm. Figure 8
shows the displacement-time curves where the collision velocity is kept constant,
while the wall thickness is increased from 25 to 35 mm. It is observed that
increasing the wall thickness can significantly decrease the deformation of the joint
zone and reduce the time duration of the collision process.
Fig. 6 Deformation and stress of jacket leg at different collision locations, A top position;
B middle position; C bottom position
Fig. 7 Double K-Joints

configuration
Fig. 8 Displacement histories of double K-Joints corresponding to different wall thickness of 25

mm, 30 mm and 35 mm
2.5 Effect of Collision Damage on Load-Bearing Capacity

of OWT
Local damage or collapse of OWTs may occur after encountering ship collision.
When local damage exists, the strength of the component will decrease, and the
path of force transmission may change greatly, which may ultimately reduce the
overall load-bearing capacity of the foundation structure.
In order to study the effect of local collision damage on the load-bearing capacity
of OWT, the damaged jacket foundation which is collided by the ship at speed of
5 m/s is introduced, and the OWT is loaded by an extreme marine loading at the
foundation flange as shown in Fig. 9. The loading value and direction are reported
in Table 3. The response of the OWT structure before and after damage under
concentrated forces and bending moments is obtained in terms of the tower-top
displacement, maximum bending moment and maximum shear force, as shown in
Table 4. it can be seen that the displacement of the top of the tower increases after
the damage of the structural members under extreme loads in both directions, but
the increment is small. This is due to the loading position is close to the foundation
which still has great lateral stiffness after the local damage. Compared to tower-top
displacement, the maximum bending moment and maximum shear force of the
structural components increase greatly under extreme loading in two directions
because of the damage, which increases the “burden” of some structural compo-
nents and reduces the load-bearing capacity of the OWT foundation.
Fig. 9 Schematic diagram of loading position

Table 3 Loading value and direction

Loading direction Point Force (kN) Bending Moment (kN m)
X 1128 MY = 88644
Same as collision direction 1128 MXY = 88644
Table 4 Structural response before and after damage under extreme load
Loading Before damage After damage
direction Tower-top Maximum Maximum Tower-top Maximum Maximum
displacement bending shear force displacement bending shear force
(mm) moment of of (mm) moment of of
component component component component
(kN m) (kN) (kN m) (kN)
X 372.98 67.7 6.3 392.92 716.2 184.2
Same as 344.99 150.1 20.7 345.76 1144.8 380.0
collision
direction
3 Conclusions
In this paper, the ship-OWT collision is simulated by the explicit dynamic finite
element analysis method using ADINA. The effects of ship speed, collision location
and wall thickness of tubular K-Joints on the collision processes are investigated.
The influence of impact damage on the load-bearing capacity of OWT is studied
based on damaged OWT structure. It is observed that higher ship speed results in
increasing indentation, because the ship has a larger amount of kinetic energy. The
collision at tubular joint zone results in smaller stress area but higher stress value
because of the higher stiffness. Increasing the wall thickness at tubular joint zone
contributes to the decrease of structural deformation and reduces the time duration
of the collision process. The OWT structure may still have sufficient load-bearing
capacity after collision damage. However, due to the redistribution of force, the
bending moment and shear force of the structural components will greatly increase.
Hence, in order to improve the safety of OWT after collision damage, the structural
components adjacent to the collision zone should be strengthened.
Acknowledgements The research is financially supported by the National Natural Science

Foundation of China (Grant No. 51678322 and 51650110509), Ministry of Science and
Technology of China (Grant No. 2017YFC0703603), the Taishan Scholar Priority Discipline
Talent Group program funded by the Shandong Province, and the first-class discipline project
funded by the Education Department of Shandong Province.
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for minor collisions
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collisions. Paper presented at the IX international conference on structural dynamics
(EURODYN 2014)
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based on full-scale experiments. Marine Struct 22(1):42–61
12. Tabri K, Matusiak J, Varsta P (2009) Sloshing interaction in ship collisions—an experimental
and numerical study. Ocean Eng 36(17–18):1366–1376
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Naval Architect 97–99
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presented at the proceedings of the international conference on offshore mechanics and arctic
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15. Wang L, Yang L, Huang D, Zhang Z, Chen G (2008) An impact dynamics analysis on a new
crashworthy device against ship–bridge collision. Int J Impact Eng 35(8):895–904
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study of basalt FRP Strip strengthened RC slabs under impact loads. Int J Struct Stab Dyn 20
(06):2040001
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performance of chiral honeycomb core structure. J Struct Integrity Maint 3(2):95–105
18. Zhang X, Zhang C, Duan Z (2009) Numerical simulation on impact responses and failure
modes of steel frame structural columns subject to blast loads. J Shenyang Jianzhu Univ
(Natural Science) 25(4):656–662
19. Zhang X, Duan Z, Zhang C (2008) Numerical simulation of dynamic response and collapse
for steel frame structures subjected to blast load. Trans Tianjin Univ 14(SUPPL):523–529
20. Gholipour G, Zhang C, Mousavi AA (2020) Nonlinear numerical analysis and progressive
damage assessment of a cable-stayed bridge pier subjected to ship collision. Marine Struct
69:102662
Interfacial Bond Behaviour of Fiber
Reinforced Polymer Sheets Externally
Bonded to Geopolymer Concrete
C. Yuan, W. S. Chen, and H. Hao
Abstract Geopolymer concrete (GPC), as a sustainable and green building

material, is an alternative to Ordinary Portland cement concrete (OPC).
Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) sheet is a popular and effective technique which
has been widely used to strengthen the existing reinforced-concrete (RC) structures.
The bonding behaviour between FRP and OPC has been well investigated.
However, the interfacial bonding behaviour between FRP and GPC has not been
investigated. In this study, single-lap shear tests on FRP-GPC interfacial behaviours
were carried out and the experimental results were compared with those of
FRP-OPC in terms of failure mode, load-slip and bond-slip response.
Keywords FRP Concrete Geopolymer Single-lap shear test Interfacial

bond-slip
1 Introduction
To reduce the emission of CO2 from the Ordinary Portland cement concrete
(OPC) industry, geopolymer concrete (GPC) has been developed and used as green
construction material [4]. Fibre-reinforced polymer sheet has been widely used to
strengthen the existing concrete structures [7]. Interfacial bonding behaviour is a
critical factor determining the composite action between FRP and concrete [2, 8].
The bonding mechanism between FRP and OPC has been well studied [9]; however
no study has been conducted on the bonding behaviour between FRP and GPC.
C. Yuan W. S. Chen (&) H. Hao

Engineering, Curtin University, Perth, Australia
e-mail: wensu.chen@curtin.edu.au
C. Yuan
e-mail: cheng.yuan@postgrad.curtin.edu.au
H. Hao

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_69
732 C. Yuan et al.
Therefore, it is essential to understand stress transfer mechanisms between FRP and

GPC for design purpose. In this study, experimental investigations were carried out
via the single-lap shear tests on Basalt-fibre reinforced polymer (BFRP) sheet
bonded to GPC. The failure mode, load-slip and bond-slip response were evaluated
and discussed. The bonding behaviours between BFRP-GPC and BFRP-OPC were
also compared.
2 Experimental Study
Three GPC and three OPC blocks with dimension of 150 150 350 mm were
prepared in this test program. The designed concrete grade was 40 MPa for both
GPC and OPC. The coarse aggregate size was in the range of 5–10 mm. The mix
proportions of the GPC and OPC are provided in Table 1. The average compressive
strength and tensile strength after 28 days was 40.03 and 4.75 MPa for OPC and
43.40 and 4.27 MPa for GPC, respectively. The bonding length and width of BFRP
sheet was 200 and 40 mm, respectively. The nominal thickness of BFRP sheet was
0.12 mm. The strength and Young’s modulus of the BFRP was 1333 MPa and 73
GPa, respectively. Two layers of BFRP sheets were used to bond the concrete
substrate. A 50 mm unbonded region was reserved to eliminate the effect of con-
crete edge.
The single-lap shear tests were performed by using the universal testing
machine, as shown in Fig. 1 (L). The loading rate was 0.3 mm/min in this testing
program. Figure 2 shows the graphs of debonding failure after testing. It was
observed that the debonding initiated from the concrete layer for both GPC and
OPC, indicating that the debonding cracking penetrated from the tensile side of
concrete. As compared to the OPC, the fracture depth of GPC was shallower and
less amount of coarse aggregates were pulled out from concrete substrate. It might
be due to the stronger interfacial transition zone (ITZ) of GPC than OPC. The
BFRP-OPC experiences higher bond strength and peak shear stress than
BFRP-GPC as shown in Fig. 1 (R). It is because the OPC has slightly higher
average tensile strength (4.75 MPa) than GPC (4.27 MPa).
Figure 3 illustrates the strain contours of the tested specimens. Based on the DIC
technique, the FRP surface strain distributions can be obtained accordingly.
Table 1 Mixture of GPC [6] and OPC

Material Cement Concrete mixture quantity (kg/m3)
Coarse Sand Fly Slag Sodium 8M Sodium Water
aggregate ash silicate hydroxide
GPC – 1209 651 360 40 114.3 45.7 –
OPC 408 863 876 – – – – 204
Interfacial Bond Behaviour of FRP Sheets … 733
Fig. 1 (L) Testing setup; (R) Testing results (3 OPC-BFRP and 3 GPC-BFRP specimens)
Fig. 2 Typical failure mode

(L) OPC-2B-1; (R) GPC-2B-1
Different loading stages before initial debonding stage (i.e. 0.4P, 0.6P, 0.8P, P) and
loading stages after P (i.e. P1, P2, P3 and P4) representing debonding propagation
were selected to represent the debonding process, as shown in Fig. 4. The GPC and
OPC exhibited similar strain profile in general. The ultimate strain of BFRP-GPC
and BFRP-OPC was 1.437 and 1.684%, respectively. The ultimate debonding strain
of the BFRP-OPC was higher than BFRP-GPC, which was due to the higher tensile
strength of OPC.
Figure 5 shows the obtained bond-slip responses. It should be noted that the
distance of 100, 130 and 160 mm refers to the strain transfer length at different time
instants. It was observed that OPC and GPC exhibited similar results. The
ascending branch and descending branch were observed for all the tested speci-
mens. The ascending and descending branches refer to the elastic stage and
microcracking stage, respectively. The average peak shear stress of BFRP-GPC and
BFRP-OPC was 5.29 and 5.67 MPa, respectively.
734 C. Yuan et al.
(a) OPC_2B_2 (b) GPC_2B_2
Fig. 3 Strain contours
Fig. 4 Strain profile 2.2

2.0 0.4P
0.6P
1.8 0.8P
1.6 P
1.4 P1
P2
Strain (%)
1.2
P3
1.0 P4
0.8 Debonding propagation
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
0 50 100 150 200
Distance from the loaded end (mm)
10 10
100 mm 100 mm
130 mm 130 mm
8 8 160 mm
160 mm
Shear stress (MPa)
Shear stress (MPa)
6 6
4 4
2 2
0 0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
Slip (mm) Slip (mm)
Fig. 5 Bond-slip response

Interfacial Bond Behaviour of FRP Sheets … 735
Table 2 Modified coefficients for the existing models

Code for the model Coefficients Modified bond strength model
pffiffiffiffi
ACI 440.2R [1] A= 0:25ft1:3sin 0:07Ef tf Pu ¼ Aabw bL bf Le fc
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
CNR-DT 200 [3] B= 0:33ft1:1sin 0:07Ef tf Pu ¼ Bbf 2Ef tf Gf
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Fib Bulletin 14 [5] C = 0:53ft0:6 sin 0:07Ef tf Pu ¼ Cac1 kc kb bf Ef tf fctm
Note A, B and C are the fitted coefficients; Pu is the ultimate debonding load; bf is the width of
BFRP sheet; Eftf is the FRP stiffness; fc and ft are the concrete compressive and tensile strength; Gf
is the fracture energy; and kb and kc are the width factor
Fig. 6 Comparison of
16 y=x
predicted and experimental ACI modified model
debonding loads for CNR modified model
14
BFRP-GPC fib modified model
12
Pexp. (kN)
10
6
6 8 10 12 14 16
Ppre. (kN)
3 Analytical Study
Based on the existing codes, such as ACI 440.2R [1], CNR-DT 200 [3] and fib
Bulletin 14 [5], the bonding strength empirical models were proposed for the
BFRP-GPC. The coefficients A, B and C from the existing codes were re-calibrated
based on the testing data. The coefficients and the proposed equations are sum-
marized in Table 2. Figure 6 compares the predicted and experimental debonding
loads for BFRP-GPC interfaces. The predicted debonding loads by using modified
bond strength models are in good agreement with the testing data.
4 Conclusion
In this study, the interfacial bonding behaviours of BFRP-OPC and BFRP-GPC

were investigated under quasi-static loading. The BFRP-GPC interface showed
similar interfacial bond performance as BFRP-OPC interface given the similar
strength. The empirical model of debonding load of BFRP-GPC interface was
proposed with the modified coefficients, which can give good predictions of
debonding load as compared with the testing data.
736 C. Yuan et al.
References
1. ACI (2004) Guide test methods for fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) for reinforcing or
strengthening concrete structures. Michigan (USA): American Concrete Institute (ACI)
2. Chen W, Pham TM, Sichembe H, Chen L, Hao H (2018) Experimental study of flexural
behaviour of RC beams strengthened by longitudinal and U-shaped basalt FRP sheet. Compos
Part B Eng 134:114–126
3. Council NR (2013) Guide for the design and construction of externally bonded FRP systems
for strengthening existing structures CNR-DT200
4. Davidovits J (1988) Geopolymer chemistry and properties. Paper presented at the Geopolymer
5. du Béton FI fib (CEB-FIP) Model Code 2010: First complete draft. Bulletin, 55
6. Nath P, Sarker PK (2014) Effect of GGBFS on setting, workability and early strength
properties of fly ash geopolymer concrete cured in ambient condition. Constr Build Mater
66:163–171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2014.05.080
7. Smith ST, Teng J (2002) FRP-strengthened RC beams. I: review of debonding strength models.
Eng Struct 24(4):385–395
8. Wu Y-F, Jiang C (2013) Quantification of bond-slip relationship for externally bonded
FRP-to-concrete joints. J Compos Constr 17(5):673–686
9. Yuan C, Chen W, Pham TM, Hao H (2019) Effect of aggregate size on bond behaviour
between basalt fibre reinforced polymer sheets and concrete. Compos Part B Eng 158:459–474
Experimental and Theoretical Research
on Tensile Resistance Capacity
of Eight-Bolted Footplate in Steel
Transmission Tower
X. M. Xue, H. L. Yuan, X. M. Wang, and F. Wen
Abstract Nowadays transmission line tower have been developing towards high
voltage, large capacity and multi loop in electric transmission projects. The load on
those towers constantly increases resulting in the strength of the tower foundation
needs to be updated as well. The traditional foundation with four-bolted baseplate
therefore can no longer achieve the requirement of existing new projects, while the
eight-bolted one gains wider attention and shows much more application potential.
However, the relevant theoretical research and design specifications of the bearing
capacity of the eight-bolted baseplate are still far complete, which severely affect its
practical applications. Given this, this paper carries out the experimental and the-
oretical research on the tensile capacity of the eight-bolted baseplate. First, groups
of test specimens were selected to conduct the static loading test, in which their
stress state and failure mode were observed, and the influence of baseplate thickness
and bolt locations on the tensile capacity was investigated. On the basis, Yield
Hinge Line (YHL) method for calculating tensile resistance capacity of this kind of
baseplates is presented in the paper. It considers some critical factors such as
baseplate thickness and bolt locations. It additionally considers an appropriate
safety reserve under the idea of “plastic analysis and elastic design” so as to
X. M. Xue (&)
Department of Civil Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, 710049 Xi’an, China
e-mail: xuexm@xjtu.edu.cn
H. L. Yuan
Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, China
X. M. Wang F. Wen
Northwest Electric Power Design Institute of China Power Engineering Consulting Group,
Xi’an 710075, China
F. Wen

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_70
738 X. M. Xue et al.
facilitate structural design. Finally, the results calculated by the method are com-
pared to the others by design specification and experiment. It shows more consistent
and close to the experimental results, which is testified preferable in real
engineering.
Keywords Eight-bolted baseplate Tower foundation Tensile capacity Yield

Line Method Structural design
1 Introduction
Transmission towers are often installed with certain foundations that connect the
upper tower structure that associates overhead power lines [8]. The tower is sub-
jected to various unexpected damages from a wide range of extreme weather events
such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and ice storm. Figure 1 shows the broken shield wire
and damaged the tower wings with lifted foundation caused by heavy ice loading
(Allteck report).
The size of transmission towers increases with electric demand and the size of
their foundation also increases to efficiently support the larger transmission towers
[3]. A foundation reinforced with additional structures is often used to improve
foundation performance. For example, a protective baseplate anchored by several
bolts [5] (also called bolted baseplate) under the tower structure to reduce the
differential settlement of the foundation [11]. Due to its high carrying capacity as
well as flexible construction, the bolted baseplate connection is then widely used as
an important component especially in China. It is typically fabricated by welding a
steel base plate across the boot plate end and using several anchor bolts placed
around the base plate [5] (see Fig. 2). As one type of the bolted plate, baseplate with
four bolts was the most common in the related projects, however it cannot meet the
needs of the actual projects. Instead, another type baseplate with eight bolts gains
more attention because it is more suitable for larger loads. The eight-bolted one can
be divided into two types: flexible plate and rigid plate. Among them, the flexible
one has a simple structure and less welds. The rigid plate has a larger rigidity, and
presents less deformation with more uniform stress distribution.
Fig. 1 Tower damage on

transmission line
Experimental and Theoretical Research … 739
Fig. 2 Bolted base plate

Tower leg
Boot plate
Base plate
A large number of completed studies have carried out on bolted flange plate
connection in between the main structures (mostly in latticed column). Kato
developed 3D model with yield line pattern to simulate the flange-plate connections
with bolts along four sides of a hollow structure [2]. Pack developed investigations
on the behavior of bolted flange-plate connections between rectangular hollow
structure sections [9]. Wang studied the behavior of flange-plate connection under
pure-bending and next proposed a design model for its prediction bending capacity
[10]. As for the eight-bolted baseplate connection at foundation, there are no
industry standards that provide specific requirements for the analysis in latticed
steel transmission structures [5]. Since current design code in China [1] has stip-
ulated a certain design method, but it is far away to perfection. Thus, it is very
crucial to investigate the force mechanism of this connection in depth for conve-
nience of practical engineering design.
In consideration of the background, this paper is set out to study eight-bolted
baseplate connection experimentally and theoretically. Firstly tensile test is carried
out to aim at investigating the mechanical characteristics and the bearing capacities
under different design configurations. On the basis, a design method is proposed for
predicting the tensile bearing capacity of this connection by using the Yield Line
Method (YLM). And the proposed approach is finally verified accurately and
practicably with a good agreement to the test data. Note the paper use “baseplate” to
represent “eight-bolted baseplate connection” later for short.
2 Tensile Experiment
Firstly, the tensile bearing capacity test of the baseplate is carried out to investigate
the mechanical characteristics and the bearing capacities under different configu-
rations (different baseplate thickness, bolt position, etc.).
2.1 Test Setup and Specimens
In this paper, 14 specimens were selected in the test whose configuration dimen-
sions are designed in Table 1. The test setup and its loading are schematically
explained in Fig. 3. Firstly reaction set converts the pressure to tension under the
action of pressure jack. Then by the delivery function of loading set from reaction
set, connection device finally realizes the uploading the horizontal tension to the
specimen. Figure 4 shows the basic construction of a flexible baseplate. And this
test considered the flexible as well as rigid baseplates in Fig. 5 and 6.
As referred in Fig. 5 and 6, note t is the baseplate’s thickness, S1, S2, S3, S4 are
the distances as referred, St, Sl and Sh are separately thickness, length and height of
stiffener, Ct and Ch are separately thickness and height of the baseplate, and r is the
diameter of the bolt hole.
2.2 Arrangement of Measuring Points
The measuring points are arranged on one side of the baseplate. In Fig. 5, the points
of strain gauge is chosen based on the simulation results that presented relative
large strain values. As for the points of displacement gauge, they are chosen
according to the maximum deformation (point 4) and some reference points (point 2
and point 3) in Fig. 6.
Table 1 Geometrical parameters of specimens in test

No. t/ S1/ S2/ S3/ S4/ St/ Sl/ Sh/ Ct/ Ch/ r/
mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm
1 24 90 95 90 – 10 130 160 18 470 45
2 20 90 95 90 – 10 130 160 18 470 36
3 16 90 95 90 – 10 130 160 18 470 36
4 20 100 95 80 – 10 130 160 18 470 36
5 20 80 95 100 – 10 130 160 18 470 36
6 20 90 95 90 – 10 170 170 18 470 36
7 30 100 105 100 – 12 150 180 18 470 50
8 24 100 105 100 – 12 150 180 18 470 42
9 18 100 105 100 – 12 150 180 18 470 42
10 24 110 105 90 – 12 150 180 18 470 42
11 24 90 105 110 – 12 150 180 18 470 42
12 24 100 105 100 – 12 190 190 18 470 42
13 20 90 170 55 90 10 – 160 18 470 36
14 24 100 185 65 100 12 – 180 18 470 42
Fig. 3 Diagram of test setup

flexible baseplate connect upper structure
bootplate
S3 S3
S2 S2
Stiffener
Anchor bolt hole
baseplate
connect underground infrastructure
Fig. 5 Strain gauge

arrangement
(a) Flexible baseplate (b) Rigid baseplate
2.3 Test Results
By the example of specimen No. 1, strains at X- or Y-direction increase linearly

with the increase of the tensile load at the beginning phase (see in Fig. 7). Then
strains become nonlinear where the baseplate demonstrates rapidly deformed and
intensified strained, as the load is exerted larger till the ultimate bearing capacity.
Fig. 6 Displacement meter

arrangement
(a) Flexible baseplate (b) Rigid baseplate
Fig. 7 a X-direction strain and b Y-direction strain in sample No. 1
As shown in Fig. 7(a), the X-direction strain at 23 point reaches a maximum value
of 3096 106 while the ultimate tensile load is 426 ton. In Fig. 5(b), the max
Y-direction strain at 42 point is 2290 106 at the same ultimate load. It can be
seen that the strain of all the measuring points is lower than 3116 106 (i.e. the
average value of measured yield strain from the material performance test before)
except for some few points. It demonstrates that the specimen is basically intact
within yield strength. The capacity failure is mainly attributed to the other weaker
components.
Next by the case of specimen No. 10, the X-direction strain at 45 point reaches a
maximum value of 10118 106 while the ultimate tensile load is 250 ton (see
Fig. 8(a)). Similarly the max Y-direction strain at 8 point is 8812 106 in Fig. 8
(b). The strain at most of the measuring points is much higher than yield strain. It
demonstrates overused far beyond yield strength.
2.4 Determination of Bearing Capacity
From the load-displacement curve in Fig. 9, the deformation rule is consistent with
the strain one. The curve is roughly divided into linear phase and nonlinear phase.
When the specimen goes though the second phase to the maximum load, it can no
Fig. 8 a X-direction strain and b Y-direction strain in sample No. 10
Fig. 9 Displacement of point 4 in a specimen No. 1 and b specimen No. 10
longer continue to bear anymore load. With a view to certain safety reserve, the
actual bearing capacity should be used below the maximum one to a reasonable
extent. Hence double tangent method is adopted here to determine the bearing
capacity of baseplate connection in real usage.
Double tangent method is executed as follows. As shown in Fig. 9, two tangent
lines can be found out separately from the linear phase and nonlinear phase in every
specimen case. Then the intersection point of these two lines shows up, whose
corresponding load value is just the bearing capacity we are searching for.
Since the load-displacement curve isn’t actually smooth due to its discreteness of
the test data, the selection of the tangent needs to set a specific rule. First remove
few divergent data points. Herein define ki as the tangent slope that is the slope of
the connecting line from the i + 1 th point to the i th point. Next we also define
dðiÞ ¼ ðki þ 1 ki Þ=ki as tangent slop rate that explains the change rate of slope at
the i th point. The two tangents will stand out as soon as tangent slope rate is less
than 3% and meanwhile its mean value within 5 points is less than 10% (in case
few slopes are not uniformly changed along load progressing). By double tangent
method the specimen are all predicted of the bearing capacities, which can guar-
antee at least 25% safety to its ultimate capacities.
2.5 Parameter Analysis and Failure Mode
By comparison between specimen 6 and 7, we found the bearing capacity increases

by 4% when stiffener length and height are enlarged by 23% and 6%. It illustrates
that enlarging the stiffener’s length and height is beneficial to the improvement of
the bearing capacity within an appropriate range.
In the cases of specimens No. 9, No. 11, and No. 12, their spacing S1 and margin
S3 are slightly changed while other parameters unchanged. When the bolt is
symmetric as close as possible to the boot plate (S1 is as small as possible), its
bearing capacity is relatively largest.
Generally, the smaller the width-to-thickness ratio is, the larger the bearing
capacity is. By the cases of specimen No. 3 and No. 9, they both represent obvious
deformation during the loading, whose width-to-thickness ratio is relative bigger.
On the contrary, specimen No. 1, No. 7, No. 13 and No. 14 represent obvious
plastic development, whose width-to-thickness ratio is relative smaller. The rest
specimens then failure in between those two modes. Larger/smaller
width-to-thickness ratio gives rise to structural-stiffness/material-strength failure
mode (see Fig. 10). In fact medium width to thickness ratio (20–25 in flexible and
35–45 in rigid) can bring out the potentials into larger bearing capacity with
acceptable deformation.
3 Design Method of Bearing Capacity for Baseplate
Bearing capacity of the baseplate can be generally calculated by simplified equiv-

alent beam. It can be assumed that the whole section of the component is in elastic
working stage, elastoplastic or fully plastic state. The CECS102 [6] and JGJ82 [7]
procedures for this type of bolted members adopts elastic analysis method by edge
yield failure criterion. However it has been proved in the experiment and also
pratical engineering, which the baseplate possess great potential beyond elastic
strain. Hence, plasticity should be considered as well for reasonable design.
3mm 8mm
a 7 b 9
Fig. 10 Final deformation in test

In light of it, this paper employs Yield Hinge Line (YHL) to predict bearing
capacity. It uses a plastic collapse mechanism approach, based on interpretation of
experiment evidence [4]. As shown in Fig. 11, baseplate are axial symmetric,
whereby it can be divided by four sections (labeled Section I). By using YHL,
Section I would be divided into 6 rigid pieces by several yield hinge lines (see
Fig. 11(b)), where the section can deform along these hinge lines. In addition,
tensile load on baseplate would be dispersed into anchor bolts (at the bolt centers O
and P). In there, we assume a minute displacement d arises perpendicularly to the
plate plane.
(1) Rotation angle along yield lines
Geometric deformation of Section I is based on the assumption of 6 rigid pieces
coordinated along the yield lines. Thus the rotation angle of each yield line can be
given by the follows.
The rotation angle of the piece AOB (BOC) along the support hinge line AB
(BC) is

d d
h1 ¼ h2 ¼ ð1Þ
Y1 X2
The rotation angle along the line OA (OC) is
h3 ¼ h1 cosc1ðh4 ¼ h2 cosu1Þ ð2Þ
The rotation angle along the line OB is
d d
h5 ¼ ðctga1 þ ctgb1 Þ ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi ðctga1 þ ctgb1 ÞÞ ð3Þ
OB X1 þ Y22
2
(2) Inner virtual work

Every piece in Section I will have a certain rotation angle along the hinge lines.
Therefore the inner virtual energy would be generated that equals the product of
Fig. 11 Yield line

distribution in eight-bolted
baseplate
plastic bending moments and their corresponding rotation angles. In this case, the
total inner energy of plastic bending moments work on yield lines organized by

b1 a1 b2 a2 1 1
Win ¼ 2Mp d þ þ 2Mp d þ þ Mp dd1 þ ð4Þ
X1 Y1 X2 Y2 d2 d3
t2 fy
where Mp is plastic ultimate bending moment that equals 4 based on Mises yield
condition.
(3) External virtual work
Assume the tensile load on bolts centers (point O and P) is Ti where it is
deformed slightly by d, thus the external virtual work in Section I is obtained by
Wex ¼ 2Ti d ð5Þ
(4) Tensile bearing capacity

On the basis of the principle of energy conservation, the inner energy should be
equal to external energy i.e. Win ¼ Wex . Then substituting Eq. (4) and Eq. (5) into
it, the tensile capacity is

b1 a1 b2 a2 1 d1 d1
T 0 ¼ t2 fy þ þ þ þ þ ð6Þ
X1 Y1 X2 Y2 2 d2 d3
where T 0 is actually an upper limit value of the capacity because it is accordance to

the state of the plate entire yielded along the hinge lines. For the convenience of
engineering design, strength reserve should be considered. Hence, this paper use
elastic ultimate bending moment to replace the plastic one, by which 33% safety is
taken account of. Then the practical capacity is inferred into

2 2 b1 a1 b2 a2 1 d1 d1
T¼ t fy þ þ þ þ þ ð7Þ
3 X1 Y1 X2 Y2 2 d2 d3
By the same method, we also deduced the design formula for the rigid baseplate as

8 2 b a a
T ¼ t fy þ þ ð8Þ
3 Y1 Y2 Y3
Fig. 12 Tensile capacities

calculated by different
methods
Fig. 13 Error comparison of

proposed method with current
code
4 Verification of the Proposed Method
By using YHL method, the specimens in the test are all calculated of their bearing
capacities, whose results are found out fitting very well with the test data in Fig. 12.
And their calculation errors are averagely at 11.5%, which is far superior to the
errors by current design code DL/T [1] as observed in Fig. 13. Therefore the
proposed method is preferable with good reasonability and economical efficiency.
5 Conclusions
In this paper, we carried out the tensile test of the eight-bolted baseplate, and
observed the influence of its main parameters on the tensile bearing capacity.
Several design suggestions are proposed. (1) Increasing the thickness of the base-
plate is beneficial to improving the tensile load capacity within actual engineering
needs. (2) Bolts’ layout should be considered it as close as possible to the boot
plate. (3) Stiffener is very useful to improve the integral rigidity of the baseplate,
and its length should be design as long as the distance S1.
In addition, based on the preceding test results, this paper proposes a design
formula for calculating the tensile bearing capacity of the eight-bolted baseplate by
using YHL method theory. The formula can take into account various factors such
as bolt positions, stiffeners and baseplate thickness. By means of theoretical concept
“plastic analysis, elastic design”, it can guarantee an appropriate safety reserve in
entire strength of the baseplate, which is economic practicable in engineering
design. In general, the proposed method has good application foreground in related
design fields.
Acknowledgements This research is financially supported by the science and technology project
from Ltd. of China Power Engineering Consulting Group, People’s Republic of china, grant
No. XB1-TM04-2017. And it is also supported by the National Natural Science Foundation,
People’s Republic of China, grant No. 11502188. These supports are gratefully acknowledged.
References
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specification for steel structure of light-weight buildings with gabled frames. China
construction metal structure association
7. Profession Standard of The People’s Republic of China JGJ82 (2011) Technical specification
for high strength bolt connections of steel structures: Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural
Construction of the People’s Republic of China
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foundations embedded in clay. J Geotech Geoenvironmental Eng 134(4):531–540
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connection. J Constr Steel Res 84:1–16
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foundation of transmission tower in mining subsidence area. Procedia Earth Planet Sci 1
(1):571–576
Influence of Detonation Point on Blast
Loads Induced With Cylindrical
Charges
Y. Fan, L. Chen, Q. Fang, and H. B. Xiang
Abstract Design values of overpressure have been reported for spherical charges
detonated at the center of the sphere. This paper focuses on the influence of det-
onation point on the distributions of incident overpressure and impulse of cylin-
drical charges. A numerical model was developed by using AUTODYN-2D.
Numerical analyses were performed by calculating cylindrical TNT charges deto-
nated at different positions and at scaled distances from 0.42 to 4.2 m/kg1/3. The L/
D ratio of calculated cylindrical charge ranges from 1 to 5. The results show that the
non-central detonation leads to highly non-uniform pressure and impulse in the
close-in range, and the pressure and impulse are enhanced in different directions.
The relationship between the blast overpressure of different detonation point and
different angles, and the corresponding distances is summarized.
Keywords Cylindrical charge Blast loading Detonation point Close-in

explosion
Y. Fan H. B. Xiang
State Key Laboratory of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation of Explosion and Impact,
Army Engineering University of PLA, Nanjing 210007, China
e-mail: translate111@qq.com
H. B. Xiang
e-mail: xhb3188@163.com
L. Chen (&) Q. Fang
School of Civil Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
e-mail: li.chen@seu.edu.cn
Q. Fang
e-mail: fangqinjs@139.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_71
750 Y. Fan et al.
1 Introduction
Predicting the overpressure of blast wave in advance is very important in evaluating

and designing the blast-resistant structures. It is always assumed that the explosive
is spherical in the current specification. However, explosives available for military
and civilian use are usually cylindrical or rectangular in shape [3]. Non-spherical
charge geometries produce different spatial distributions of overpressure and
impulse compared to a spherical charge of the same mass, especially in the near
field. In addition, the blast overpressure also depends on the position of detonation
point.
Wu et al. [10], Katselis and Anderson [4], and Plooster [5] have explained the
influence of single-end initiation. The pressure field is unsymmetrical, and the
values of the peak overpressure are much higher on the side opposite to the det-
onator. Anastacio and Knock [1] found that for double-end initiation, the peak
overpressure is 1.6 times that for the single-end initiation at 90°, whereas the
impulse is the same, and the angles around the cylindrical charge are shown in
Fig. 1. Pressure measurements were performed at scaled distances from 1.4 to
5.5 m/kg1/3 in the radial direction, and the length/diameter (L/D) of the charge
ranged from 1/3.7 to 5.75/1, where Z is the scaled distance calculated as R/W1/3, R
is the distance from the center of the charge to the monitoring location, W is the
mass of the charge. Tham [9] conducted numerical simulation to predict the
interaction of blast waves induced by a cylindrical charge with aluminum cylinders,
and subsequently compared the results with those obtained by Held [2]. It was
found that for a cylindrical charge with L/D = 3, more momentum was directed in
the radial direction. The fragment velocity of a warhead induced by a cylindrical
charge was studied by Shen et al. [6]. The results showed that the velocity of the
directional fragments increases by around 34% under multi-spot eccentric initiation.
Sherkar et al. [7] analyzed a free-air burst of 10 kg cylindrical TNT with L/D
ranging from 1 to 5 by using the hydrocode AUTODYN-2D. The distribution
characteristics of incident overpressures and impulses in the axial and radial
directions were described at scaled distances from 0.53 to 4.22 m/kg1/3. The
influence of detonation position (center, end) was also studied, and it was found that
the effects of charge shape and detonation point can be ignored at Z > 3 m/kg1/3.
Fig. 1 Location diagram of 90

112.5 67.5
measurement lines for
charges: 180° denotes the 45
135
axial end from which
initiation takes place, 90°
denotes the perpendicular to 157.5 L 22.5
the curved end of the charge,
and 0° denotes the axial Cylindrical
direction at the far end from 180 D 0
charge
initiation Initiator
Influence of Detonation Point on Blast Loads Induced … 751
As summarized in the literature review, the influence of detonation point on the

distribution of blast overpressure around the cylindrical explosive is complex and
very important, which requires further systematic study. This article has improved
the existing research methods and ideas of Sherkar et al. [7], then conducted further
research in the following aspects: A systematic quantitative conclusion for the
magnitude and extent of the influence was proposed; The orientation between the
radial and axial directions was examined; The influence of initiation at both ends of
the cylindrical charge was studied.
2 Development of FE Model
In the present study, AUTODYN-2D was employed to conduce the numerical

analyses, which refers to the propagation of blast wave induced by cylindrical
charges. It has been proven to provide reliable predictions for shock wave propa-
gation and blast loads [8, 11]. TNT (1 kg) was determined as the reference
explosive.
All analyses are performed in two stages. (1) In the first stage, the simulation
was set to terminate at 0.07 ms and the shock front reaches 3 times of charge
diameters (318 mm; Z = 0.32 m/kg1/3) [7]. Thereafter, a remap file was created. It
contains cell data from the calculation at 0.07 ms. (2) In the second stage, the data
from the remap file was ‘‘fed’’ into a larger 2D computational domain with a larger
cell size. This approach facilitates the use of finer meshes in the initial stages of the
shock front expansion [7].
Sherkar et al. [7] studied the mesh size sensitivity in calculating a 10 kg
spherical charge using an 1D radially symmetrical model in the first stage. A mesh
size of 0.5 mm was determined, as analyses using mesh sizes of 0.25 and 0.5 mm
provided similar results. Further, a mesh size of 12.5 mm was determined in the
second stage. However, the 2D axially symmetrical model was used in both stages
of the cylindrical charge. The influence of the orientation must be considered and
the effect of the mesh size on the impulse should also be discussed. Finally, the
mesh sizes of 0.5 and 5 mm were determined after the mesh sensitivity analysis, the
method was similar to that proposed by Sherkar et al.
Figure 2 shows an overview of the entire numerical setup. A spherical charge is
presented as an example. For this 2D detonation calculation, the axial symmetry
condition is imposed on the x-axis and the mirror symmetry condition is imposed on
the y-axis. Only half of the axisymmetric charge and air domain are modeled to
reduce the computational time. Transmitting boundary conditions are imposed on all
the other planes. The position of the initiator for the high-explosive charge is defined
at the center of the charge (i.e., X = 0 and Y = 0), which is the origin of the model.
For cylindrical charges, the x-axis and y-axis are the axial and radial directions,
respectively, and mirror symmetry cannot be obtained for single-end initiated
cylindrical charges. The incident overpressures and impulses are monitored at every
charge diameter ranging from 4 (Z = 0.42 m/kg1/3) to 40 (Z = 4.22 m/kg1/3) from
752 Y. Fan et al.
the position of the initiator. Pressure monitoring points are placed along the radials at
increments of 22.5°, as shown in the second stage of Fig. 2. Analyses are performed
with cylindrical charges of the same mass, but L/D equals to 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5,
respectively. The actual dimensions of the spherical charge and five cylindrical
charges are listed in Table 1. The element sizes near the origin were altered to suit
the dimensions of the cylindrical charge. The dimensions of the cylindrical charges
in the models differ from the target values by extremely small percentages owing to
the modeling constraints.
First stage
Mirror symmetry
430 mm
boundary Calculate
Axial symmetry
boundary
Transmitting boundary
430 mm Map
4300 mm
Initiation point
Pressure transducer
TNT
Air Second stage
Symmetry boundary
4300 mm
Fig. 2 AUTODYN model

Table 1 Dimensions and Notation Dimensions Aspect ratio (L/D)

aspect ratios for different
L(mm) D(mm)
shapes of charges
Sph R = 53 mm – –
Cyl_1 92 92 1
Cyl_2 146 73 2
Cyl_3 190 64 3
Cyl_4 232 58 4
Cyl_5 268 54 5
Double ended initiated

Centrally initiated Single ended initiated
Fig. 3 Three different initiation styles
3 Results and Discussion on Parameters
There are three different initiation styles, as shown in Fig. 3. A centrally initiated
cylindrical charge is used as the reference explosive.
3.1 Peak Overpressure
At 0°, compared with the centrally initiated cylindrical charges, the overpressures of
the single-end initiated cylindrical charges increase by an average of 10%, and the
pressure shows a similar trend. The peak overpressures of the single-end initiated
cylindrical charges at 180° are less than those at 0° and that of the spherical charge
at Z < 2.4 m/kg1/3. The difference between the peak overpressures of the
double-end initiated charges at 0° and single-end initiated charges at 180° is less
than 10% at Z < 2.4 m/kg1/3, and the trend is basically the same. The Pcyl/Psph of
the single-end initiated charges at 180° (the double-end initiated charges at 0°) is
about 0.4 at the scaled distances from 1 to 3 (2.5) m/kg1/3 (Fig. 4).
At 90°, the difference between the peak overpressures of the centrally initiated
and single-end initiated cylindrical charges is less than 5% at most of the distances.
This means that the effect of a single-end initiation on the peak overpressure at 90°
cannot be considered. The peak overpressure of a double-end initiated cylindrical
charge is greater than that of a centrally initiated one at Z < 2 m/kg1/3. The peak
754 Y. Fan et al.
3.0 3.0 3.0

2.5 2.5 2.5
2.0 2.0 2.0
Pcyl/Psph
Pcyl/Psph
Pcyl/Psph
1.5 1.5 1.5
1.0 1.0 1.0
0.5 0.5 0.5
0.0 0.0 0.0
0 0 0
1 90.0 1 180 1
90.0
Z
67.5
Z
2 135 2
Z
2 67.5
/m
/m
45.0
/m
3 3 90 3 45.0 /°
22.5 45 /°
/kg
/°
/kg
/kg
22.5
4 0.0 g le Angle Angle
1/3
n 4 0
1/3
4 0.0
1/3
A
(a) centrally initiated (b) single-end initiated (c) double-end initiated
Fig. 4 Pcyl/Psph of cylindrical charges initiated at different locations, Pcyl/Psph is the ratio of peak
overpressure of cylindrical charge to peak overpressure of spherical charge at same distance,
L/D = 4
overpressure of a double-end initiated charge is 1.56 times greater than that of a

centrally initiated one and 2.5 times greater than that of spherical charge at
Z = 1.26 m/kg1/3. The peak overpressures in all other directions of the double-end
initiated cylindrical charge are less than those of the spherical charges in most
cases, especially in the near field. The peak overpressure increases as the direction
changes from 22.5° to 90° at Z < 2.5 m/kg1/3 for the double-end initiated cylin-
drical charge.
At the same scaled distance, the overpressure at 0° of double-end initiation is
greater than that at 180° of single-end initiation, greater than that at 0° of single-end
initiation, and greater than that at 0° of central initiation.
In general, compared to the peak overpressure of central initiation, the peak
overpressure of single-end initiation increases by an average of 10% at 0°, but
decreases drastically at 180°. The pressure at 90° is slightly affected. The peak
overpressure of double-end initiation decreases drastically at 0° and increases
considerably at 90°. The peak overpressure of double-end initiation is 1.5 times
greater than that of central initiation on average at Z < 2 m/kg1/3 and 0.7 times at
larger distances. Anastacio and Knock [1] found that for double-end initiation, the
peak overpressure is 1.6 times greater than that for single-end initiation in 90°.
Pressure transducers were employed at scaled distances of 1.4 to 5.5 m/kg1/3 and
the L/D of the charge ranged from 1/3.7 to 5.75/1, which are basically the same as
our calculation results at close range. A possible reason for the difference in the far
field is the deviation of the formula fitting of Anastacio and Knock.
3.2 Impulse
At 0°, compared with the centrally initiated cylindrical charges, the impulses of the
single-end initiated cylindrical charges are around 17% greater at Z < 2 m/kg1/3,
but around 5% smaller at Z < 2 m/kg1/3. The trend is basically the same. The
impulses of single-end initiated cylindrical charges at 180° are less than those in 0°
when Z < 1.6 m/kg1/3, and the difference between the impulses of the single-end
initiated cylindrical charge at 180° and the spherical charge is around 20% at
Z < 1.6 m/kg1/3. The difference between the impulses of doubled-end initiated
charges at 0° and single-end initiated charges at 180° is less than 10% at most of the
distances. The impulse curves of the single-end initiated charge at 45° and 135°
show a similar trend, Icyl/Isph reach the minimum values of 0.7 and 0.6 at
Z = 0.8 m/kg1/3 (Fig. 5).
At 90°, compared with the centrally initiated cylindrical charges, the impulses of
single-end initiated cylindrical charges are around 10% smaller at Z < 1 m/kg1/3, but
around 2% smaller at Z > 1 m/kg1/3. The impulses of double-end initiated cylin-
drical charge are greater than those of centrally initiated ones at Z < 1.37 m/kg1/3.
The impulses of the double-end initiated charges are 1.61 times greater than those of
the centrally initiated ones and 2.4 times greater than those of the spherical charges at
Z = 0.84 m/kg1/3. The impulses of the double-end initiated charges are slightly
smaller than those of the centrally initiated ones at Z > 1.37 m/kg1/3, and the dif-
ference is smaller than 10%. The conclusion is in good agreement with that of
Anastacio and Knock [1], who found that the impulse for double-end initiation was
the same as that for single-end initiated charges at 90° when Z > 1.4 m/kg1/3.
The impulse from 22.5° to 67.5° is less than that of the spherical charge at
Z < 2 m/kg1/3. The difference between the impulse from 22.5° to 67.5° and the
impulse of the spherical charge is less than 10% at Z > 2 m/kg1/3. The impulse
increases as the direction changes from 22.5° to 90° at Z < 2 m/kg1/3 for the
double-end initiated cylindrical charge.
Held [2] studied the impulse distribution of single-end initiated cylindrical
charges in the near field and found that the impulse at 0° is higher than that at 180°,
while the impulse at 90° is much higher than that in diagonal directions. These
results are consistent with the conclusions drawn from the analysis of the numerical
model.
In conclusion, compared to the results of central initiation, the peak overpressure
and impulse of single-end initiation increase by an average of 10% at 0° but
decrease drastically at 180°, while the pressure and impulse at 90° are slightly
3.0
3.0 3.0
2.5
2.5 2.5
2.0
2.0 2.0
Pcyl/Psph
Icyl/Isph
1.5
Icyl/Isph
1.5 1.5
1.0 1.0 1.0
0.5 0.5 0.5
0.0 0.0 0.0
0 0 0
1 90.0 1 1
180 90.0
Z/
2
Z
67.5 2 135 2 67.5

/m
/m
45.0
m/
3 90 45.0
22.5 ngle /° 3 45 Angle / ° 3 22.5 ngle /°
/kg
/kg
kg
1/3
A
1/3
1/3
4 0.0 40 4 0.0 A
(a) centrally initiated (b) single-end initiated (c) double-end initiated
Fig. 5 Icyl/Isph of cylindrical charges initiated at different locations, Icyl/Isph is the ratio of impulse
of cylindrical charge to impulse of spherical charge at same distance, L/D = 4
756 Y. Fan et al.
affected. The peak overpressure and impulse of double-end initiation decreases

drastically at 0° and increases considerably at 90°.
4 Conclusions
Compared to the central initiation, the peak overpressure and impulse of single-end
initiation increase by an average of 10% at 0° but decrease drastically at 180°, while
Z < 2 m/kg1/3. The maximum amplifying ratio of the peak overpressure and impulse
of single-end initiated cylindrical charge at 0° and 180° reaches 3.5 and 2.2, respec-
tively, but the overpressure and the impulse at 90° is affected slightly. The peak
overpressure and impulse of double-end initiation decrease drastically at 0° and
increase considerably at 90° in the close-in range. The maximum amplifying ratio of
peak overpressure induced by double-end initiated charge to that induced by centrally
initiated charge is around 1.6 at 90° with the scaled distance around 1 m/kg1/3. The
maximum amplifying ratio of peak overpressure induced by the double-end initiated
charge to that induced by the spherical charge is about 2.4. The peak overpressure of
double-end initiation at 90° is similar to that of central initiation at 0°.
Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the financial supports from the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51978166, 51678403, 51738011), the Fundamental
Research Funds for the Central Universities.
References
1. Anastacio AC, Knock C (2016) Radial blast prediction for high explosive cylinders initiated
at both ends. Propellants Explos Pyrotech 41:682–687
2. Held M (1999) Impulse method for the blast contour of cylindrical high explosive charges.
Propellants Explos Pyrotech 24:17–26
3. Hryci WZ, Borkowski W, Rybak P, Wysocki J (2014) Influence of the shape of the explosive
charge on blast profile. J Kones 21:169–176
4. Katselis G, Anderson J (2001) Estimation of blast overpressure from a cylindrical charge
using time of arrival sensors. In: The 14th Australasian fluid mechanics conference, Adelaide
University Australia
5. Plooster MN (1982) Blast effects from cylindrical explosive charges: experimental
measurements
6. Shen HM, Li WB, Wang XM, Li WB, Dong XL (2017) Velocity distribution of fragments
resulted by explosion of a cylindrical shell charge on multi-spots eccentric initiation.
Explosion Shock Waves 37:1039–1045
7. Sherkar P, Shin J, Whittaker AS, Aref AA (2016) Influence of charge shape and point of
detonation on blast-resistant design. J Struct Eng 142:04015109
8. Shin J, Whittaker AS, Cormie D, Wilkinson W (2014) Numerical modeling of close-in

detonations of high explosives. Eng Struct 81:88–97
9. Tham CY (2009) Numerical simulation on the interaction of blast waves with a series of
aluminum cylinders at near-field. Int J Impact Eng 36:122–131
10. Wu C, Fattori G, Whittaker A, Oehlers DJ (2010) Investigation of air-blast effects from
spherical-and cylindrical-shaped charges. Int J Protective Struct 1:345–362
11. Zhou XQ, Hao H (2008) Prediction of airblast loads on structures behind a protective barrier.
Int J Impact Eng 35:363–375
Reliability-Based Constant-Damage
Ductility Demand Spectra of Mid-Rise
RC Building Structures Using Modified
Equivalent Linearization Method
L. Z. Nugroho, C. K. Chiu, F. P. Hsiao, and S. Gautama
Abstract In the displacement-based seismic design and evaluation, the equivalent

linearization method is one of the approximation methods to estimate the maximum
displacement response of a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system. Based on the
past research [7] and the seismic design code in Taiwan, this work proposes
modified equivalent linearization method (MELM) of a SDOF system for a mid-rise
reinforced concrete (RC) building structure. By considering a modification factor
suggested by the equivalent linear method proposed by Okano and Miyamoto [7]
and performing the nonlinear regression analysis, the accuracy of the proposed
method can be improved. A total of 348 ground motions recorded on the various
earthquakes are used to calculate error statistics of MELM. Additionally, a
closed-form formula for the constant-damage ductility demand spectrum (CDDDS)
that corresponds to a specified reliability is suggested in this work.

Keywords Equivalent linearization method Ductility demand spectrum

Reliability Reinforced concrete Building structure
L. Z. Nugroho (&) C. K. Chiu S. Gautama

Department of Civil and Construction Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science
and Technology, Taipei City 10607, Taiwan
e-mail: odie.zef@gmail.com
C. K. Chiu
e-mail: ckchiu@mail.ntust.edu.tw
S. Gautama
e-mail: sukrisnagautama@gmail.com
F. P. Hsiao
National Centre for Research on Earthquake Engineering,
3F., No. 106, Sec. 2, Heping E. Rd., Taipei City 10622, Taiwan
e-mail: fphsiao@ncree.narl.org.tw

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_72
760 L. Z. Nugroho et al.
1 Introduction
In the last few decades, several displacement-based seismic design procedures have
been developed for controlling damage to both structural members and
non-structural components of a building structure. The ductility demand spectrum
of a building structure, which shows the relationship between the displacement
ductility demand and structural period of a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF)
system with a specified yielding lateral strength [11], can help engineers in
displacement-based seismic design. Some of the related literature treats the ductility
demand spectrum as the constant strength response spectrum (CSRS) because of the
constant value of the lateral strength or base shear coefficient for a SDOF system.
Besides of CSRS, the constant ductility response spectrum (CDRS) is also widely
used to derive the inelastic response spectrum of seismic design; however, the target
ductility of a structure must be determined by an iterative procedure, whereas the
lateral load capacity of a structure is relatively easily estimated.
Panyakapo [8] pointed out that CDRS cannot be reliably used for determining
strength demand. A more reliable strength demand should be calculated based on the
simultaneous consideration of the ductility ratio and other response parameters, such
as hysteretic energy that is absorbed by the structure, the number of yielding reversals
and the cumulative ductility ratio [13]. Panyakapo [8] also found that a design
approach that is developed based on the constant-damage strength demand spectrum
(CDASDS) is more reliable than one based on the constant-displacement-ductility
strength demand spectrum (CDDSDS). Therefore, the constant-damage concept
should be considered in the construction of a ductility demand spectrum for the
practical engineering purpose.
In the construction of a ductility demand spectrum, time-consuming and com-
plicated nonlinear time history analyses for determining the maximum displacement
response of the equivalent SDOF system for a building structure can be avoided
using an equivalent linearization method. This work proposes an equivalent lin-
earization method that is developed based on the seismic design code of building in
Taiwan and the past research [7], called modified equivalent linearization method
(MELM), for use in Taiwan [4]. For a building structure designed based on the
code-suggested static design procedure, engineers can use CDDDS to determine the
ductility demand related to an allowable damage state under a specified earthquake.
Additionally, a closed-form formula for CDDDS that corresponds to a specified
reliability can be derived.
2 Literature Review
Based on the research conducted by Okano and Miyamoto [7], the basic assump-
tions of the equivalent linearization method are given in Eqs. (1) to (3):
Reliability-Based Constant-Damage Ductility Demand Spectra … 761
SA F h ¼ ay ð1Þ
1:5
Fh ¼ ð2Þ
1 þ 10neq
1
neq ¼ c1 ð1 pffiffiffiÞ þ 0:05 ð3Þ
l
where SA is the elastic acceleration response spectrum, Fh is the seismic force

reduction factor, ay is the yielding acceleration of a SDOF system, l is the ductility
ratio, defined as the ratio of maximum displacement response to the yielding dis-
placement, l ¼ DM =Dy , neq is the equivalent damping ratio and c1 is the modifi-
cation factor of the equivalent damping ratio and equal to 0.15 [6].
Under the condition of the constant velocity response spectrum (in the medium
period range), which is a common condition in the seismic design in Japan, the
equivalent period of a SDOF system Teq can be calculated using Eq. (4). The
spectral acceleration ðSA Þ in Eq. (1) can then be substituted with Eq. (5) in terms of
response spectral velocity ðSV Þ. Finally, by employing Eqs. (1) to (5), an approx-
imation method to estimate the maximum displacement response of a SDOF system
in the constant response spectrum of velocity can be derived as shown in Eq. (6).
pffiffiffi
Teq ¼ l T0 ð4Þ
2p
SA ¼ SV ð5Þ
Teq
!2
SV
DM ¼ a pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi þ b Dy ð6Þ
Cy Hr Ry g
where xy is the elastic fundamental circular frequency of a SDOF system, Dy is the

yielding displacement of a SDOF system, a ¼ 1.5/(1.5 + 10 c1 ), and b ¼ 10 c1 /
(1.5 + 10 c1 ).
By following the same approach, other equations can estimate the maximum
displacement response of a SDOF system for a building structure in the constant
acceleration and displacement response spectra as shown in Eqs. (7) and (8),
respectively. The relationship between spectral displacement and spectral velocity
can be shown in Eq. (9).

1 c SA 2
DM ¼ Dy ð7Þ
b g Cy
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi!2
1 4a SD
DM ¼ bþ b2 þ Dy ð8Þ
4 Hr Ry
Teq
SD ¼ SV ð9Þ
2p
where SD is the spectral displacement, and c is equal to 1.5/(10 c1 ).

In the Okano and Miyamoto’s research, a modification factor aT (aT \1) is
proposed to reduce the equivalent period Teq as shown in Eqs. (10) and (11). The
equivalent linear method proposed by Okano and Miyamoto used the value of
aT ¼ 0:82 with the error is less than 10% and the coefficient of variation around
0.3. Similarly, an investigation is needed in order to obtain the value of aT to
improve the accuracy of the proposed equivalent linear method in this work.
2p
SA ¼ SV aT Teq ð10Þ
Teq
Teq
SD ¼ SV aT Teq ð11Þ
2p
3 Modified Equivalent Linearization Method (MELM)
MELM is an equivalent linear method that is consistent with the seismic design
code of Taiwan. According to US IBC [5], ATC-40 [1], FEMA-273 [3], the
modification factors of seismic force are divided into Bs for the short period and B1
for 1-s period in the seismic design code of Taiwan [2]. In the code, the reduction
factor of seismic design force Fh differs between the short period zone and long
period zone in the elastic acceleration response spectrum, and is thus given by
Eqs. (12) and (13). On the basis of the concept proposed by Okano and Miyamoto
[7], MELM uses Eqs. (12)–(14) to calculate the reduction factor of seismic design
force Fh and equivalent height Hr of an SDOF system, respectively.

1
1:5
40neq þ 1 þ 0:5
Fh ¼ ¼ ð12Þ
Bs 1:1

1 1:5
Fh ¼ ¼ þ 0:5 ð13Þ
B1 40neq þ 1
P
hi mi /i
Hr ¼ Pi ð14Þ
i mi /i
where Hr is the equivalent height of a SDOF system for a building, Bs is the

damping modification factor for short period, B1 is the damping modification factor
for long period, mi is the mass of ith floor in a building, hi is the height of ith floor in
a building and /i is the factor of the first mode shape of a building for ith floor.
Since Eqs. (12) and (13) related to the reduction factors of seismic design force are
suggested based on the references [1, 3, 5], MELM can still be applied to various
counties besides of Taiwan. However, for the practical use, the nonlinear dynamic
analysis (NDA) of a SDOF system should be used to investigate the accuracy of
MELM. Obviously, MELM with aT = 0.85 used in this work tends provides a
relatively good and a conservative prediction.
In MELM, the equivalent period of a SDOF system is assumed equal to that
obtained by Okano and Miyamoto [7] (Eq. (4)), which determines the equivalent
period using the secant stiffness at the maximum displacement point. Additionally,
a modification factor j is used to modify the hysterical energy area in determining
the equivalent damping ratio as shown in Eq. (15) [12].
2 ðl 1Þ
neq ¼ j þ 0:05 ð15Þ
p l

Say ¼ Cy g ¼ SA Fh ; Cy ¼ Fy =W ð16Þ

1
0:177
DM ¼ 1:354 Dy ð17Þ
1:1Cy g=SA 0:5
For a SDOF system in the equivalent acceleration, Eqs. (12) and (15) are sub-
stituted into Eq. (16). Then, Eq. (17) for estimating the maximum deformation
response can be derived by assuming j = 1/3 and l ¼ DDMy . Following the same
derivation procedure of Eqs. (17), (20) can be derived on the basis of Eqs. (4), (5),
(13), (15) and (16) to estimate the maximum deformation response of a SDOF
system in the equivalent velocity zone in the design response spectrum (Eq. (18)).
Similarly, Eq. (21) can be derived on the basis of Eqs. (4), (9), (13), (15) and (16)
to estimate the maximum deformation response of a SDOF system in the equivalent
displacement zones in the design response spectrum (Eq. (19)).

SV ¼ T0D =2p SA ð18Þ

SD ¼ 2:5T0D =2p SV ð19Þ
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1 1:5l Cy Hr Ry g DM
pffiffiffi þ 0:5 ¼ ;l ¼ ð20Þ
l 11:48l 8:48 SV Dy
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi!
B þ B2 194:7C
DM ¼ Dy ð21Þ
22:96C

where B ¼ 8.48C 7.24, C ¼ Hr Ry =SD , Cy is the yielding base shear coef-

ficient ¼Fy =W ¼ Say =g , Ry is the yielding drift ratio ¼Dy =Hr , and g is the
gravity acceleration (=9.81 m/s2).
Additionally, the time histories of acceleration during earthquakes that are used
to investigate the accuracy of MELM are scaled to be compatible with the design
acceleration response spectra based on the specified site conditions (Eq. (22)). This
work adopts Takeda model [10] in NDA is used to simulate the hysteretic behavior
of the equivalent SDOF system for an RC building structure. For Taipei Basin area,
the value of SDS and SMS are 0.6 and 0.8, respectively. Especially for Taipei Basin 1,
the value of T0D is 1.60.
8
>
> SDS 0:4 þ 3 TTD ! T 0:2T0D
>
< 0
SaD ¼ S DS ! 0:2T 0 \T T0
D D
; T0D ¼
SD1
ð22Þ
>
> T ! T0 \T
SD1 D
2:5T0
D SDS
>
: 2
2:5SDS T0D =T ! T [ 2:5T0D
where SDS and SD1 are the site-adjusted spectral accelerations at short period and at
1 s, respectively; and T0D is the corner period ratio between the short and the mid
period ranges of the design response spectrum. The term SaD , SDS , and SD1 cor-
respond to the uniform seismic hazard level with the exceedance probability of 10%
within 50 years.
In addition, since Eq. (20) is an implicit function, the maximum displacement
response in the constant velocity region cannot be obtained from the equation
easily. Therefore, for the practical use, this work simplifies Eq. (20) to be Eq. (23).
In the constant velocity region, statistical regression analyses are carried out to
minimize the sum of the residuals that are obtained when the results of Eq. (23) is
compared to the results of NDA.
Cy Hr Ry g Dmax
c1 l ¼
c2
;l ¼ ð23Þ
SV Dy
where c1 and c2 obtained from regression analysis are 0.83 and −0.68, respectively.
MELM, including Eqs. (17), (21) and (23), can be used to obtain the ductility
demand curves that correspond to different site conditions and building heights.
Figure 1 presents the ductility demand curves for Taipei Basin 1. Since the mod-
ification of equivalent period is determined based on the target maximum dis-
placement response, the calculated maximum displacements from MELM are close
to the mean values plus one standard deviations of the maximum displacements that
are obtained from the nonlinear dynamic analysis. The typical trends of MELM are
observed from the Taipei Basin area. MELM tends to give a good prediction for the
high building structures (Hr 20 m) while for the low building structures, the
prediction is conservative for Cy \ 0.35, and slightly underestimates the target
maximum displacement response for Cy 0.35.
(a) Taipei Basin 1, Hr = 10 m, Ry = 1/150 (b) Taipei Basin 1, Hr = 30 m, Ry = 1/150
Fig. 1 Ductility demand spectrum of Taipei Basin 1
4 Reliability-Based CDDDS
Park and Ang [9] proposed a mechanistic seismic damage model for reinforced
concrete members. A common attractive feature of this damage index is that it
offers simple mathematical expressions between the ground motion demands and
the structural capacities of two basic parameters: deformation ductility and inelastic
hysteretic energy dissipation as shown in Eq. (24).
Dmax EH
DI ¼ þb ð24Þ
Dmon Fy Dmon
where Dmon is the maximum displacement under monotonic loading, Fy is the

yielding force, and b is a constant that depends on structural characteristics and
history of inelastic response. In order to obtain the terms of the normalized hys-
teretic energy (Eh =M), Eqs. (24) and (16) are substituted to obtain Eq. (25). In
terms of the normalized hysteretic energy (Eh =M), Eq. (25) can be rewritten as:

Dmax EH 1 1
DI ¼ þb ð25Þ
Dmon M Cy Dmon
Based on Eq. (25), the damage spectra can be constructed for various site
conditions to understand the damage state of an RC building with a specified lateral
strength and ductility capacity after an earthquake. Herein, the damage classifica-
tion considering the damage index (b ¼ 0:2) as reported in NCREE-08-023 (2008)
[14], is adopted in constructing the damage spectrum. Based on experimental result
obtained for the full-scale structural models of a typical school building under
cyclic loading. Previously, Park and Ang [9] suggested DI is equal to 0.4 as the
limit between repairable and irreparable damage. However, based on damage
classification in NCREE-08-023, DI = 0.6 will be used in this study as the limit
value for the dividing point between the repairable and irreparable condition.
Figures 2 and 3 plot the relationship between the damage index and yielding
base-shear force for a building structure located in Taipei Basin 1. The damage
index was calculated using Eq. (25) based on the result of the nonlinear dynamic
analysis and by assuming Ry = 1/150. The dissipated energy per unit mass given by
Eq. (25), was obtained by step-by-step integration. Furthermore, as the yielding
base-shear coefficient and ductility capacity increase, the DI tends to decrease
because a system with a higher yielding base-shear coefficient and ductility capacity
more effectively to dissipates the input energy from the excitation as a result of
ground motion.

ðlmon 1Þ Ry
D1 ¼ þ Ry Hr ð26Þ
3
Restated, the maximum displacement response must be smaller than D1 , which is

equal to the ductility response multiplying with the yielding displacement, for a
structure to remain repairable. For the purpose of developing the reliability-based
ductility demand spectrum, D1 is set as the limiting value of displacement response
for the allowable damage state in this work.
By assuming that the maximum displacement response that is obtained from
nonlinear dynamic analysis follows a lognormal distribution, the probability that the
maximum displacement response exceeds the limiting value of displacement
response can be estimated as shown in Eqs. (27)−(29).
(a) 3.2 (b) 3.6
Fig. 2 Damage spectra of Taipei Basin 1 with lmon = 3.2 and 3.6
(a) 4.2 (b) 4.8
Fig. 3 Damage spectra of Taipei Basin 1 with lmon = 4.2 and 4.8
ln D1 k
Pf ðD D1 Þ ¼ 1 U ð27Þ
n
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi
r2D
n ¼ ln 1 þ 2 ð28Þ
lD
1
k ¼ ln lD n2 ð29Þ
2
where k and n are parameter of the lognormal distribution; lD and rD are the mean
value and the standard deviation of the maximum displacement response, which can
be calculated using Eqs. (17), (21), and (23) with using modification factor
aT ¼ 0:85.
Substituting Eq. (26) into Eq. (27) and setting the failure probability (to
Pf ðD D2 Þ ¼ 10% for example), yields a closed-form formula for the ductility
demand as shown in Eq. (30).

3 exp U1 1 Pf n þ k
lD ¼ 2 ð30Þ
Hr Ry
5 Conclusions
This work proposed modified equivalent linearization method (MELM) for esti-
mating the maximum displacement response of the equivalent SDOF system for a
mid-rise RC building structure. Additionally, according to the nonlinear dynamic
analysis, the modification factor aT of 0.85 for the equivalent period was suggested
to improve the accuracy of MELM. Based on the proposed MELM, a closed-form
formula for the constant-damage ductility demand spectrum (CDDDS) that corre-
sponds to a specified reliability was derived in this work. Restated, for a mid-rise
RC building structure, the engineers can set a target reliability and allowable
damage state to determine CDDDS for the displacement-based seismic design.
However, the ground motions that were used in the nonlinear dynamic analysis
herein excludes the near-fault earthquakes. Therefore, the accuracy of MELM for
the near-fault earthquakes should be investigated in the future.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Science and Technology of
the Republic of China, Taiwan, for financially supporting this research under contract MOST
107-2221-E-011-012-MY3.
References
1. ATC 40 (1996) Seismic evaluation and retrofit of concrete buildings, vol 1. Applied
Technology Council, Redwood City, California
2. Chai J-F, Teng T-J, Tsai K-C (2009) Development of seismic force requirements for building
in Taiwan. Earthq Eng Eng Vib 8:349–358
3. FEMA-273 (1997) Guidelines for the seismic rehabilitation of buildings, Federal Emergency
Management Agency Publication 273, Washington, D.C.
4. Hsu YT (2015) Study on ductility demand with equivalent linearization method for reinforced
concrete buildings (Master thesis). National Taiwan University of Science and Technology,
Taipei, Taiwan (in Chinese)
5. International Code Council (2000) International Building Code of USA
6. Kabeyasawa T (2004) Guidelines for performance evaluation of earthquake resistant
reinforced concrete buildings (Draft). Archit Inst Jpn 42(7):3–8
7. Okano H, Miyamoto Y (2002) Equation derived from equivalent linearization method -
Consideration based on energy and its application to evaluation probability of excess of
deformation capacity. J Struct Constr Eng (AIJ) 67(562):45–52
8. Panyakapo P (2004) Evaluation of site-dependent constant-damage design spectra for
reinforced concrete structures. Earthquake Eng Struct Dynam 33(12):1211–1231
9. Park YJ, Ang AHS (1985) Mechanistic seismic damage model for reinforced concrete.
J Struct Eng 111(4):722–739
10. Takeda T, Sozen MA, Nielson NN (1970) Reinforced concrete response to simulated
earthquakes. J Struct Div 96(12):2557–2573
11. Tena-Colunga A (2001) Displacement ductility demand spectra for the seismic evaluation of
structures. Eng Struct 23:1319–1330
12. Tsai KC, Loh CH, Yeh CH, Su CM (2001) Design examples and the recommended
modifications of the tentative seismic force provisions for building structure in Taiwan.
Architecture & Building Research Institute, Ministry of Interior, Research Project Report (in
Chinese)
13. Uang CM, Bertero VV (1998) Implication of recorded earthquake ground motions on seismic
design of building structures (Report No. 88(13), 1–43), University of California, Berkeley,
California: UCB/EERC
14. Yeh YK, Chung LL, Chien WY, Chai JF, Hsiao FP, Shen WC (2008) Technology Handbook
for Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit of School Buildings, Taipei, Taiwan: National Center For
Research on Earthquake Engineering, NCREE-08-023 (in Chinese)
Study on Structural Collapse Behavior
of Reinforced Concrete Building Under
Near-Fault Earthquakes
F. P. Hsiao, P. W. Weng, W. C. Shen,

Y. A. Li, R. J. Tsai, and S. J. Hwang
Abstract The near-fault effect on buildings and infrastructures is a significant issue

of human life and property in Taiwan because there are numerous active faults
inside this island. It is well-known that special characteristics with large displace-
ment and high velocity can be observed close to a near-fault. However, it is difficult
to reproduce such a near-fault earthquake record by using the existing test facilities
of National Centre for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE). Thus, the
experimental studies on the near-fault effect are rare. Furthermore, many buildings
were severely damaged in the Meinong earthquake in 2016. Among them, some of
mid- to high-rise buildings were severely damaged or collapsed and caused
numerous casualties. In recent years, more and more residential or commercial
buildings were constructed. Thus, the casualty risk caused by the collapse of mid- to
high-rise buildings should not be underestimated, and the method of seismic
assessment for mid- to high-rise buildings to identify the building with high col-
lapse risk becomes a critical issue. NCREE establishes the Tainan Laboratory to
equip with a high performance six degree-of-freedom seismic simulation testing
system which can simulate the near-fault motions. After the Tainan Laboratory is
F. P. Hsiao (&) P. W. Weng W. C. Shen R. J. Tsai S. J. Hwang

National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, Taipei, Taiwan
e-mail: fphsiao@ncree.narl.org.tw
P. W. Weng
e-mail: pwweng@ncree.narl.org.tw
W. C. Shen
e-mail: wcshen@ncree.narl.org.tw
R. J. Tsai
e-mail: rjtsai@ncree.narl.org.tw
S. J. Hwang
e-mail: sjhwang@ntu.edu.tw
F. P. Hsiao
Department of Civil Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
Y. A. Li
Department of Civil Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan
e-mail: yali@nchu.edu.tw

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_73
772 F. P. Hsiao et al.
completed, NCREE provided better seismic experimental services to the govern-

ment agencies, academia and industry which is beneficial to improving public
safety against earthquake disasters.
This study focuses on the experimental result of collapse tests on the new
shaking table in Tainan Laboratory. After the shaking table tests, the test result is
compared with the proposed seismic assessment method. This experiment can offer
abundant information of RC frames collapse behavior and help the researchers to
upgrade existing analytical models to make better prediction for RC buildings’
seismic behavior, also, to raise up the more economical improvement.
Keywords Near-fault effect Reinforced concrete structure Shaking table test

Mid- and high-rise building
1 Introduction
The effect of near-fault earthquake on buildings and infrastructures is a significant

issue of human life and property in Taiwan due to the numerous active faults are
located in this island. It is well-known that special characteristics such as large
displacement and high velocity can be observed from the earthquake ground motion
close to a near-fault. However, it is difficult to reproduce such a near-fault earth-
quake ground motion record by using the existing test facilities of National Center
for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE). Thus, the experimental studies
on the near-fault effect are limited. In 2016, many buildings were severely damaged
during the Meinong earthquake. Among them, some of mid- to high-rise buildings
were severely damaged or collapsed and caused numerous casualties. Recently,
more residential or commercial buildings were constructed, with the result that the
casualty risk caused by the collapse of mid- to high-rise buildings should not be
underestimated, and the method of seismic assessment for mid- to high-rise
buildings to identify the building with high collapse risk becomes a critical issue.
Previously, NCREE established the Laboratory in Tainan equipped with a high
performance six degree-of-freedom seismic simulation testing system which can
simulate the near-fault ground motions. After the Tainan Laboratory was com-
pleted, NCREE provided better seismic experimental services to the government
agencies, academia and industry which is beneficial to improving public safety
against earthquake disasters.
õõThis study focuses on the experimental result of collapse tests on the new
shaking table in Tainan Laboratory. The test results are then compared with the
proposed seismic assessment method. Finally, this experiment can provide abundant
information regarding the RC frames collapse behavior and help the researchers to
upgrade existing analytical models to make better prediction for RC buildings’
seismic behavior, as well as to raise up the more economical improvement.
Since the occurrence of Chi-Chi Earthquake on September 21st, 1999, Taiwan
Government have been working on the seismic evaluation and retrofitting of public
Study on Structural Collapse Behavior … 773
buildings which are considered as old buildings with insufficient seismic capacity.
Among many cases, seismic retrofitting for public school is one of the programs
which is promoted by the Ministry of Education and is executed by NCREE. It is
considered a success as 90% of these public school buildings have been retrofitted,
leaving only less than 10% remaining. However, the recent earthquakes such as
0206 Meinong Earthquake and Hualien Earthquake have shifted our retrofitting
attention from public buildings to private buildings as many of them are not pro-
viding enough seismic performance. Among all, commercial and residential mixed
buildings are easily damaged under the earthquake due to the soft and weak story
behavior, as shown in Fig. 1. Similarly, same behavior is also found in Japan, as
shown in Fig. 2.
2 Experimental Specimen Design
The near-fault effect on buildings and infrastructures is a significant issue of human

life and property in Taiwan because there are numerous active faults inside this
island. It is well-known that special characteristics with large displacement and high
velocity can be observed close to a near-fault. However, it is difficult to reproduce
such a near-fault earthquake record by using the existing test facilities of National
Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE). As a result, the
experimental studies on the near-fault effect are rare. The National Applied
Research laboratories had planned to establish NCREE Tainan laboratory for years.
It equips with a high performance 8mx8m six degree-of-freedom seismic simulation
testing system which can simulate the near-fault motions. Since early this year,
NCREE Tainan laboratory is completed, NCREE can provide better seismic
experimental services to the government agencies, academia and industry which is
beneficial to improving public safety against earthquake disasters. We plan to
(a) Residential and Commercial Mixed (b) Residential and Commercial Mixed
Building before Collapse Building after Collapse
Fig. 1 Photo of the collapse of residential and commercial mixed building subjected to Meinong
earthquake
(a) Building with Soft and Weak Story (b) Building with Soft and Weak Story
before Collapse after Collapse
Fig. 2 Photo of the collapse of building with soft and weak story subjected to Kumamoto
earthquake
perform a series of start-up tests during the grand opening and an international blind
competition with this new facility.
Figures 3, 4 and 5 show the test setup with the start-up tests of 3-, 7- and 9-story
RC structures (in 1/2 scaling). It is planned to perform the demonstration test with
3-story specimen for the grand opening with NCREE Tainan laboratory on Aug.
9th in 2017. The 7-story specimen would be tested for an international blind
competition in the next year.
A development platform of collapse prevention technology for mid- to high-rise
buildings would be established after this project. Numerical analysis is used to
compare with experimental results to understand the structural behavior of rein-
forced concrete buildings under near-fault earthquake effect. In this study, it focuses
on the experimental result of collapse tests and discusses the failure type of spec-
imens. After the shaking table tests, the test result is compared with the existing
Fig. 3 Test setup of start-up

test of 3-story RC structure
(a) 1/2 scale specimen (b) specimen with

collapse prevention
frame


collapse prevention
frame


collapse prevention
frame
analytical models. The comparison result can reveal the insufficiency of the existing
analytical models. This experiment can offer abundant information of RC frames
collapse behavior and help the researchers to upgrade existing analytical models to
make better prediction for RC buildings’ seismic behavior, also, to raise up the
more economical improvement.
The specimen design of 7-story reinforced concrete building with soft and weak
story behavior is following the characteristics as below:
1. Half scale reinforced concrete structure with non-ductile detailing.
2. Modulus design and can be assembled with 9-story, 7-story, 5-story, or 3-story.
3. The structure is asymmetric design.
4. High ceiling at 1st floor and soft story behavior.
3 Test Program and Results
Three-axial ground motion acceleration recorded in seismic station CHY015 and

CHY063 are used in this study. The record from seismic station CHY015 (See
Fig. 6) during the 921 Chi-Chi earthquake is treated as far-field earthquake whereas
the record from seismic station CHY065 (See Fig. 7) during the 0206 Meinong
earthquake is treated as near-fault earthquake. Figure 8 shows the picture of the test
specimen of 7-story reinforced concrete building on shaking table in NCREE
Tainan Lab. As test plan, the ground motion record from CHY063 with 70%
intensity, and ground motion records from CHY063 with 50% and 100% intensity
are used as input ground motion during the test in November 14th. Next, the ground
motion record from CHY063 with 150% and 200% intensity are used as input
ground motion on November 15th. According to the tests, the specimen deformed
from linear to nonlinear behavior, until total collapse was observed. Structural
damage and collapse behavior of 7-Story RC Frame Building are shown in Fig. 9.
Fig. 6 The input of far-field earthquake CHY015 in tri-axial acceleration time-history

Fig. 7 The input of near-fault earthquake CHY063 in tri-axial acceleration time-history
(a) small column side view of (b) large column side view of
specimen specimen
Fig. 8 7-story RC frame building specimen with soft and weak story on shaking table tests
(a) overview of (b) damage status of small (c) damage status of large
specimen column column
Fig. 9 Structural damage and collapse behavior of 7-story RC Frame Building
4 Conclusions
In past years, NCREE had done some experimental researches on the collapse
mechanism of column. However, it has not yet expanded to either vertical members
or structural systems. Unfortunately, there are lots of active faults in Taiwan.
A near-fault effective area is defined as within 10 km on both sides of a first type
active fault and it is affecting 1/3 of Taiwan populations which is over 8.6 millions
of people. Due to its characteristics of high-velocity pulses and large displacement
of the near-fault earthquakes, the damage of buildings affected by near-fault effects
is much serious than that of general earthquakes. Therefore, further research on the
collapse behavior of buildings affected by near faults is needed.
In 2017, NCREE has finished its construction on the advanced tri-axial seismic
simulator in the Tainan Laboratory located at National Cheng Kung University,
Kuei-Jen Campus. This shaking table system has the capability of reproducing
near-fault earthquake acceleration ground motion. In order to study the influence of
near-fault seismic waves on the collapse behavior of structures, this current program
carries out mega-structure experiments with this newly acquired shaking table
system. In respond to the opening ceremony, a 3-story RC building structure
shaking table test is carried out. In this test, the acceleration ground motion from
TCU075 and CHY047 were input to compare the influences of far-field earthquake
and near-fault earthquake. On November 2018, NCREE continues to carry out a
7-story RC Frame Building with soft and weak story collapse experiment. To take
near-fault earthquake influences into considerations, the acceleration ground motion
from CHY015 and CHY063 were input. At the same time, an international blind
analysis contest is held to attract the attentions from global earthquake engineering
researchers or scholars and to increase the international visibility of the newly built
Tainan laboratory of NCREE.
References
1. Stavridis A, Koutromanos I, Shing PB (2011) Shake-table tests of a three-story reinforced

concrete frame with masonry infill walls. Earthq Eng Struct Dyn 41(6):1089–1108
2. Moaveni B, He X, Conte JP, Restrepo JI, Panagiotou M (2011) System identification study of a
7-story full-scale building slice tested on the UCSD-NEES shake table. J Struct Eng 137
(6):705–717
3. Wang GQ, Zhou XY, Yang PZ, Igel H (2002) Characteristics of amplitude and duration for
near fault strong ground motion from the 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan earthquake. Soil Dyn Earthq
Eng 22(1):73–96
4. Panagiotou M, Restrepo JI, Conte JP (2011) Shake-table test of a full-scale 7-story building
slice. Phase I: rectangular wall. J Struct Eng 137(6):691–704
5. Gavridou S, Wallace JW, Nagae T, Matsumori T, Tahara K, Fukuyama K (2017) Shake-table
test of a full-scale 4-story precast concrete building. I: overview and experimental results.
J Struct Eng 143(6):04017034
6. Gavridou S, Wallace JW, Nagae T, Matsumori T, Tahara K, Fukuyama K (2017) Shake-table
test of a full-scale 4-story precast concrete building. II: analytical studies. J Struct Eng
143(6):04017035
Cyclic Loading Tests on Seismic Retrofit
of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Pier
with Embedded Seismic Retrofit Rebar
and Aramid Fiber-Reinforced Plastic
Sheets Jacketing
T. Terasawa, M. Akimoto, H. Nishi, and M. Komuro
Abstract Cyclic loading tests on the reinforced concrete bridge pier model were
conducted to clarify the effect of seismic retrofit in the case of applying the pro-
posed method, in which the seismic retrofit rebars were embedded into the surfaces
of the pier and jacketed them with AFRP sheets. From this study, the following
results were obtained: (1) lateral load-carrying capacities of the piers were increased
by applying the proposed method; (2) the capacities were abruptly decreased due to
low cycle fatigue fracture of seismic retrofit rebar; (3) a seismic retrofit design
method applying an additional rebar may be used to restrain the low-cycle fatigue
fracture of the rebar; however (4), the buckling length of the rebar must be predicted
accurately.
Keywords Seismic retrofit AFRP sheets Buckling Low cycle fatigue
T. Terasawa (&) M. Akimoto H. Nishi M. Komuro

Public Works Research Institute, Civil Engineering Research Institute for Cold Region,
Sapporo 062-8602, Japan
e-mail: terasawa-t22ab@ceri.go.jp
M. Akimoto
e-mail: akimoto-m22aa@ceri.go.jp
H. Nishi
e-mail: h-nishi@ceri.go.jp
M. Komuro
e-mail: komuro@mmm.muroran-it.ac.jp
T. Terasawa
Graduate School, Muroran Institute of Technology, Muroran 050-8585, Japan

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_74
782 T. Terasawa et al.
1 Introduction
The thickness enlargement method and the steel plate jacketing method are gen-
erally applied to upgrade the load-carrying capacities of RC bridge piers. However,
since the cross-sectional area of the piers are increased by applying the thickness
enlargement method, an inhibition ratio of cross-sectional area of river may be
increased in the case of the river bridge piers, and the ratio is strictly controlled by
the river administrators. The dead load of the pier is also increased. In the case of
retrofitting RC bridge piers, it is sometimes required to minimize these
cross-sectional dimensions due to site and design conditions.
In order to develop a seismic retrofitting method not only to minimize increasing
cross-sectional dimensions but also to be economical, and increase load-carrying
capacities and the ductility of the piers, the authors proposed a new method. The
method involves embedding longitudinal rebars (referred to hereinafter as retro-
fitting rebars) which are distributed over the original concrete cover (Photo 1), and
jacketing them with aramid fiber reinforced polymer (AFRP) sheet.
In this study, a cyclic loading test was conducted by using small-scale RC bridge
pier models to investigate the applicability of the proposed method. Also, it is
aimed to predict the appropriate amount of volume for the retrofitting rebar.
Photo 1 Embedded seismic retrofitting rebar (column base view)
2 Outline of the Test
2.1 Specimens
Table 1 shows details of the test specimens that are modeled as approximately 1/4
scale of typical RC bridge piers. The reference model without retrofitting was
designated as Specimen R, and the models with retrofitting, as Specimen RF.
Cyclic Loading Tests on Seismic Retrofit … 783
Specimen R was designed for longitudinal rebar ratio as to be smaller than that
determined following the current design code. Therefore, the value was set to about
0.3% and the flexural-shear capacity ratio was about 2.
Specimen RF was designed based on the Japanese Standards [1, 2] so that the
load-carrying capacities were increased by about 1.5 times that of specimen R. The
retrofitting rebar of specimen RF was anchored to the footing.
2.2 Dimensions of Specimens and Retrofitting Details
Dimensions of the specimens and the rebar arrangement are shown in Fig. 1. The
column of the specimen has dimensions of 600 mm 600 mm and a height of
1,800 mm. The shear span ratio of the column is 3.8. Two D10 retrofitting rebars
Table 1 Details of test specimens

Specimen Existing rebar Retrofitting Axial Hoop Confinement
Axial Hoop rebar rebar ratio ratio (%) rebar ratio (%)
rebar (%)
R 8-D13 D10 - 0.28 0.095 0.22
RF 8-D10 0.44
Fig. 1 Dimensions of specimen and rebar arrangement

are embedded into each side of the column. Each rebar is fixed by filling epoxy
resin into a longitudinal groove of cross section 20 mm 20 mm in the concrete
cover of the column and into the circular hole of diameter u26 mm for the footing.
The retrofitting rebar was 1,200 mm long and was anchored to a depth of 400 mm
in the footing.
The material properties of the AFRP sheet are listed in Table 2. In this study, an
AFRP sheet of unit mass 350 g/m2 and width of 500 mm was chosen. One layer of
the sheet was wrapped around the whole column. The concrete surface of the
column was grit-blasted and the corners were chamfered before wrapping the sheet.
Primer was applied and afterwards the AFRP sheet was bonded by using an epoxy
resin. The AFRP sheet was circumferentially overlapped alternately over a length of
200 mm at the side-surfaces parallel to the loading direction.
2.3 Testing Method and Measured Items
Figure 2 shows the test setup. The specimen was rigidly fixed at the base to the
testing floor. Horizontal lateral cyclic loading was applied by using an electric jack
at the swivel type loading jig installed at the top of the column. A load of 180 kN
Table 2 Material properties Material type Aramid 2

of AFRP sheet
Unit mass (g/m2) 350
Nominal thickness (mm) 0.252
Modulus of elasticity (N/mm2) 78 103
Tensile strength (N/mm2) 2,400
Fig. 2 Test setup Actuator (Vertical direction)
Electrical screw jack

(Horizontal direction)
Swivel-type loading jig

2105 100
Specimen
1800
3005
900
(mm)
(0.5 N/mm2) evaluated as the reaction of the superstructure was vertically sur-
charged through the loading jig.
The cyclic loading test was conducted using the displacement control method.
First, one half of the flexural yield load of the originally cast rebar was laterally
applied in one cycle, during which cracks occurred at the base of the column. Then
three cycles of loading were applied sequentially as an incremental displacement of
a reference displacement dy at the loading point. The reference displacement dy for
each specimen was the horizontal one at rebar yielding. Those of Specimens R and
RF were 3.0 mm and 2.7 mm, respectively.
In this test, the horizontal displacement and surcharged load were measured by
using wire-type LVDT and a load cell, respectively.
3 Experiment Result
3.1 Hysteresis Loops of Horizontal Load and Displacement
Figure 3 shows the hysteresis loops of lateral load and displacement. In this figure,
the skeleton curves are also drawn that are based on the design standards [1, 2] and
by using the material test results. The rebar yield point and the ultimate limit state
were marked and the horizontal displacement at which the retrofitting rebar frac-
tured is indicated by the broken line, which was obtained by using a low-cycle
fatigue evaluation that will be discussed later.
In the case of Specimen R, the maximum load was reached at 10 dy for the
push-loading and at 15 dy for the pull-loading. Lateral load-carrying capacities
decreased at the push-loading of the first cycle for 11 dy, and these abruptly
decreased at the pull-loading of the first cycle for 16 dy because the rebar fractured.
Fig. 3 Hysteresis loops between horizontal load and displacement

However, in the case of Specimen RF, the maximum load was reached at 9 dy for
both the push- and pull-loading and the load decreased at the push-loading of the
first cycle at 10 dy. Since the load abruptly decreased under the state from 13 dy to
14 dy, the retrofitting and originally existing rebars might fracture during this
loading cycle.
Comparing the test results with the design values, it is seen that the former
results for lateral load-carrying capacities and ultimate displacement are in good
agreement with the latter.
In the case of specimen RF, the lateral load-carrying capacities were increased to
about 1.5 times that of the Specimen R, which is a target value for seismic retro-
fitting. However, the horizontal displacement has not reached the ultimate value
based on the design standards. This may be that even though the design standard is
specified as the ultimate state as the concrete reaches compression failure,
Specimen RF reached the ultimate state due to retrofitting and the existing rebars
fractured.
3.2 Damage of Concrete
Figure 4 shows crack patterns and the area failed in compression on the four sides
of the specimens after cyclic loading. In the case of Specimen RF, these were
sketched after removing the AFRP sheet. In these figures, both sides F and B are
perpendicular to the loading direction.
600 600 600 600 600 600 600 600

1800
1800
side-L side-F side-R side-B side-L side-F side-R side-B

:Area of compression failure :AFRP sheet debonded
(a) Specimen R (b) Specimen RF
Fig. 4 Damage state of whole sides of concrete near base of column
(a) Side-F (b) Side-B
Photo 2 Damage state with compression failure at corners of Specimen RF
(a)Side-F (b) Side-B
Photo 3 Damage state of retrofitting rebar at column base after cyclic loading
In the case of Specimen R, horizontal cracks occurred at intervals of 260 mm in

the region of the base to the height of 800 mm during the loading steps from 2 dy to
9 dy. The base at the left-hand side of side F failed in compression at the loading
step of 11 dy. Finally, compressive failure proceeded up to a height of 200 mm and
the average heights of the damaged area were 55 mm and 85 mm, respectively, for
sides F and B. The sides L and R failed in compression at the corners.
Comparing this figure with the hysteresis loops shown in Fig. 3, it is seen that
since the loading step for decreasing load-carrying capacities corresponds to that
when compressive failure occurred, decrease in the capacities started at the base
concrete that failed in compression and gradually proceeded by increasing the
damage, and finally was very evident due to the retrofitting rebar fracturing at the
first loading cycle of the 16 dy step.
In the case of Specimen RF, cracks occurred in the epoxy-resin impregnated into
the aramid fibers in the region from the column base to the height of 280 mm
during the loading steps from 3 dy to 4 dy and in the area at a height of around
600 mm for the loading step of 5 dy. These continuously developed until the
loading step was increased to 5 dy. After removing the AFRP sheet from the
column, cracks were found in the concrete surface at the same locations as those in
the epoxy-resin. The concrete cover failed in compression in the region from the
column base to a height of around 160 mm and the average height of the damaged
area was about 110 mm for sides F and B.
The locations of crack patterns and the magnitude of the damaged area with
compression failure were clearly different between Specimens R and RF. This may
be because Specimen RF was strengthened by installing the retrofitting rebar near
the base and jacketing the column with an AFRP sheet, so that the flexural
deformation of the column was concentrated at the base due to the column stiffness
increasing.
Photo 2 shows the damaged state of Specimen RF at the column base due to
compression failure of the concrete. From this photo, it is observed that the dam-
aged area was limited to the concrete cover and the core concrete has not been
damaged entirely. Therefore, it suggests that the ductility of the column can be
improved using the retrofitting rebar without fracturing and corresponding to the
deformation of the column base.
3.3 Damage State of Retrofitting Rebar
Photo 3 shows the damage state of the retrofitting rebar at the column base after
cyclic loading. The following can be observed from this photo: the retrofitting rebar
buckled in the region of about 100 mm length and fractured near the top of the
buckled area. It is reported [3] that in the case of the cyclic loading test for the RC
column, the axial rebar sometimes fractured early due to low-cycle fatigue after the
axial rebar buckled. Therefore, based on the damage state of the fractured surface of
the rebar and the base of the column, the retrofitting rebar may fracture due to
low-cycle fatigue similar to that mentioned above.
3.4 Prediction of Horizontal Displacement of Retrofitting

Rebar After Low-Cycle Fatigue
In order to restrain the load-carrying capacities of the column from abruptly

decreasing due to the retrofitting rebar fracturing, it was requested to let the failure
mode of the column shift from the low-cycle fatigue of the rebar to the compression
failure at the base concrete. To accomplish this, the volume of the retrofitting rebar
Fig. 5 Distributions of
cumulative fatigue damage
ratio D
should be determined considering not only the flexural load-carrying capacities of

the column but also low-cycle fatigue of the rebar caused by its buckling.
Here, it is tried to estimate the amount of the volume of the retrofitting rebar
considering the low-cycle fatigue by using two equations as follows: Eq. (1) for
estimating the number of loading cycles at which the rebar fractured [3]; and
Eq. (2) based on the linear cumulative damage rule. These are described as follows:
ðkw l0 LÞ2
N ¼ 2:94 103 ðkw l0 =r Þ þ 1:96 102 þ1 ð1Þ
ðkd d dÞ2
in which N: number of loading cycles; kw: correction factor for buckling length l′ in
the cyclic loading (=1.0); r: diameter of the rebar; kd: ratio of the buckling length to
the length between the plastic hinges (=0.6); d: horizontal displacement; L: shear
span; d: effective depth of the cross-section, and
n1 n2 ni X ni
D¼ þ þ...þ ¼ ð2Þ
N1 N2 Ni Ni
in which D: cumulative fatigue damage ratio; ni: number of loading cycles in each
loading step i (=3); Ni: number of loading cycles when the rebar fractured under the
loading conditions for loading step i.
The predicted displacement of the column obtained by using the above equations
was plotted with a red dotted line in Fig. 3(b). In this numerical calculation, the
buckling length l′ of the retrofitting rebar was assumed to be l′ = 100 mm based on
the test results and the loading step i at cumulative fatigue damage ratio D reaching
more than one was assumed to be the same step in which the rebar fractured with
low-cycle fatigue in the test. From this figure, it is seen that the predicted dis-
placement is in good agreement with that at the load-carrying capacities abruptly
decreasing in the test. Therefore, using the prediction equations given above, the
volume of the retrofitting rebar taking into consideration the low-cycle fatigue of
the rebar can be rationally evaluated.
However, in this proposed method, the buckling length of the rebar corre-
sponding to the estimated volume must be appropriately evaluated. For practical
use, the buckling length of the rebar jacketed with AFRP sheet must be evaluated,
even though the value obtained from the test results was used in this study.
Figure 5 shows the distributions of cumulated fatigue damage ratios D on
varying the buckling length of the rebar l′ as: 75 mm; 100 mm; and 125 mm,
respectively, taking horizontal displacement of the column as the abscissa. From
this figure, it is seen that the horizontal displacement of the column when the rebar
fractured tends to increase with increasing buckling length of the rebar l′ and the
buckling length of the rebar l′ should be accurately predicted for practical design,
because the displacement was greatly influenced by the buckling length.
4 Summary
The results obtained from this study are summarized as follows:

(1) The load-carrying capacities of RC bridge piers can be upgraded by applying
the proposed retrofitting method. However, the capacities decrease abruptly
when the retrofitting rebar fractures due to low-cycle fatigue;
(2) By applying the proposed retrofitting method, the fracture of the retrofitting
rebar should be considered to ensure the required flexural load-carrying
capacities and ductility of the piers; and
(3) When an appropriate rebar volume for retrofitting is designed considering
low-cycle fatigue failure of the rebar, the buckling length of the rebar should be
accurately predicted.
References
1. Aramid Reinforcement Study Group (1998) Design and construction guideline for retrofitting
RC bridge piers with aramid fiber sheet (Draft) (in Japanese)
2. Japan Road Association (2002) Specifications for highway bridges, Part V Seismic design
3. Takiguchi M, Ikenaga T, Otsuka H (2008) Evaluation of failure of axial rebar in cyclic loading
tests on RC columns. In: Proceedings of the 63rd annual conference of JSCE, Division V,
pp 939–940 (in Japanese)
Evaluation of Pulse Wave Effect
in Inland Crustal Earthquake Ground
Motion
N. Nojima and T. Yamamoto
Abstract An evaluation method has been proposed for pulse wave effect on
structural response. First, time-frequency analysis by use of energy input rate
(EIR) was performed. The combination of the sign and amplitude of both accel-
eration pulse input and structural velocity response was found to determine the
structural response. Next, taking advantage of energy input to structure, a new
definition of strong motion duration was defined. On this basis, dynamic effects of
pulse waves were characterized with emphasis on the impulsive effects. Numerical
examples were shown using eight ground motion records observed during recent
inland crustal earthquakes in Japan. Considering both amplitude and duration,
dynamic effects were compared among various records. In long-period range, peak
velocity response was reached in extremely short time and occurs almost simul-
taneously regardless of the natural period. As a result, velocity response spectra
remained high and flat in wide range of long-period. Such impulsive effects are
considered to be representative of the pulse waves.

Keywords Pulse wave effect Inland crustal earthquake Energy input Velocity

response Time-frequency analysis
1 Introduction
In inland crustal earthquakes, pulse-like waves are observed in ground motions

recorded at observation stations near fault rupture zone [2]. Intensive input of
ground motion and/or permanent ground displacement may cause extremely sig-
nificant damage to wooden houses, structures equipped with seismic isolation
system and high-rise buildings with long natural period [2, 9]. In order to evaluate
N. Nojima (&) T. Yamamoto

Department of Civil Engineering, Gifu University, Gifu, Japan
e-mail: nojima@gifu-u.ac.jp
T. Yamamoto
e-mail: t-yamamoto@jrcc.co.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_75
792 N. Nojima and T. Yamamoto
the dynamic effect of pulse-like wave to structures, many studies were devoted to
mathematically model the pulse-like wave and derive theoretical solutions of
structural responses (e.g., [9]).
In this study, an evaluation method is proposed for pulse wave effect on
structural response with emphasis on temporal energy input to structures [7, 8].
First, time-frequency analysis by use of energy input rate (EIR) is performed. Next,
a new kind of strong motion duration is proposed. Numerical examples are shown
using eight ground motion records observed during recent inland crustal earth-
quakes in Japan.
2 Analytical Methods
2.1 Energy Input of Ground Motion to SDOF System
Dynamic response of a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system with viscous

damping subjected to a ground acceleration is represented by the following dif-
ferential equation.
m€y þ c_y þ ky ¼ m€z0 ð1Þ
where m: mass, c: damping factor, k: stiffness coefficient, y: relative response

displacement, y_ : relative response velocity €y: relative response acceleration and €z0 :
ground acceleration. The energy equilibrium is obtained as [1, 4]:
Z t Z t Z t Z t
€yy_ ds þ 2hx0 y_ 2
ds þ x20 y_yds ¼ €z0 y_ ds ð2Þ
0 0 0 0
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffi
where x0 ¼ k=m: natural circular frequency, h ¼ c 2 mk : damping ratio. The
right side of Eq. (2) represents cumulative energy input to the SDOF system per
unit mass, i.e., the work of ground motion did to the SDOF system [1, 4, 5].
Z t
EðT; tÞ ¼ €z0 ðsÞ_yðT; sÞds ð3Þ
0
where T ¼ 2p=x0 : natural period. Temporal derivative of Eq. (3) is called “energy
input rate (EIR)” [5], which represents enhancement and suppression of response
according to the sign and amplitude of the product of ground acceleration and
velocity response.
_
eðT; tÞ ¼ EðT; tÞ ¼ €z0 ðtÞ_yðT; tÞ ð4Þ
The time histories of EIR for various natural periods T is called “energy input
rate spectrum (EIR spectrum)” [5]. In this study, the time histories cumulative
Evaluation of Pulse Wave Effect … 793
energy input in Eq. (3) for all natural periods T is defined as “cumulative energy
input spectrum.” In addition, “evolutionary power spectrum” [3] defined by the
following equation is also used in order to visualize response envelope of the SDOF
system.
2hx0 ðx20 y2 þ y_ 2 Þ
GðT; tÞ ¼ ð5Þ
p
2.2 Duration Based on Cumulative Energy Input
The time history of accumulated power normalized to its total power, known as
“Husid plot,” is calculated as the equation below [6].
Rt
0€ z20 ðsÞds
PC ðtÞ ¼ 100 R tend ð6Þ
0 € z20 ðsÞds
where tend represents the length of the record. Significant duration Da-b is defined as
the time period occupying from a up to b% of PC. In this study, the duration is
calculated by using the cumulative energy input of Eq. (3). While Husid plot is
monotonously increasing function, cumulative energy input is not, since EIR can
take on negative values, therefore, percentiles cannot be identified uniquely. To
cope with this problem, Eq. (3) is divided into PE+ and PE+ according to the sign of
EIR as follows.
Z t
PE þ ðT; tÞ ¼ maxf€z0 ðsÞ_yðT; sÞ; 0gds;
0
Z t ð7Þ
PE ðT; tÞ ¼ minf€z0 ðsÞ_yðT; sÞ; 0gds
0
By using the positive term represented by the first equation of Eq. (7) only,
“normalized cumulative energy input HE+” can be calculated by:
PE þ ðT; tÞ
HE þ ðT; tÞ ¼ 100 ð8Þ
PE þ ðT; td Þ
Time corresponding to percentiles for 1 to 99% of HE+ can be determined as:
ti ðTÞ ¼ HE1þ ðT; iÞ ði ¼ 1; . . .; 99Þ ð9Þ
Thus, duration Da-b is defined as the time period occupying from a up to b%

with regard to HE+ obtained from PE+.
Dab ½HE þ ðTÞ ¼ HE1þ ðbÞ HE1þ ðaÞ ¼ tb ta ð10Þ
Furthermore, let pmax(T) and tpmax(T) represent percentile value and the per-
centile time when maximum velocity response for predominant period T is reached,
respectively. Duration corresponding to accumulation of energy input from 5% to
pmax(T) is defined as D5-pmax.
2.3 Energy Input Efficiency Based on Cumulative Energy

Input
Velocity-equivalent value of ultimate cumulative energy input E(T, tend) of Eq. (3)
for various natural period is called “energy spectrum” [1].
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
VE ðTÞ ¼ 2EðT; tend Þ ¼ 2PE þ ðT; tend Þ 2PE ðT; tend Þ ð11Þ
In order to quantify the contribution of input ground motion to enhancement of

structural response, “energy input efficiency RE” is defined in this study by using
divided values of positive and negative terms as follows:
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
VE ðTÞ PE þ ðT; tend Þ PE ðT; tend Þ
RE ðTÞ ¼ ¼ ð12Þ
VE þ ðTÞ PE þ ðT; tend Þ
3 Numerical Example Using Record at KiK-net Mashiki

Station
3.1 Energy Input Rate and Cumulative Energy Input
Figure 1 shows an example of energy input using the ground motion acceleration
recorded at KiK-net Mashiki station (KMMH16, EW component) during the main
shock of Kumamoto Earthquake, 2016 for predominant period of velocity response
T = 1.05 s [7]. Figure 1(a) shows ground acceleration and relative response
velocity. Figure 1(b) and (c) show energy input rate (EIR) and cumulative energy
input, respectively. EIR suddenly increased and reached its maximum at t = 20.7 s
when local peak response and peak ground acceleration coincidently occur. During
t = 19.5–21.8 s, EIR keeps positive value and cumulative energy input drastically
increased. Response enhancement effect within extremely short time due to
impulsive ground motion input is observed. After this point, EIR is mixed with
1500 300000
Relave response velocity(cm/s)
Acceleraon
1000 Relave response velocity(T=1.05s) 200000
Acceleraon(cm/s2 ),
EIR(cm2/s3 )
500 100000
0 0
-500 -100000
-1000 -200000
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Time(s) Time(s)
(a) Ground acceleration and relative velocity response (b) Energy input rate (EIR)
250000
Cumulave energy input
Cumulave energy input(cm2 /s2 )
Cumulave energy input(Posive)

200000 Cumulave energy input(Negave)
150000
100000
50000
0
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Time(s)
(c) Cumulative energy input and its positive and negative terms
Fig. 1 Calculation of energy input. (KiK-net Mashiki, EW comp., T = 1.05 s, h = 0.05)
positive and negative values, energy input and response velocity do not increase
very much. Durations calculated from positive terms of Fig. 1(c) are
D5-pmax = 1.57 s, D5-75 = 2.48 s and D5-95 = 4.71 s.
3.2 Time-Frequency Analysis Using Energy Input
Figure 2 shows the result of time-frequency analysis using energy input. Figure 2
(a) and (b) show ground acceleration and evolutionary power spectrum [8].
Figure 2(c) and Fig. 2(d) are EIR spectrum and cumulative energy input spectrum
which are spectral representations of Fig. 1 (b) and Fig. 1(c) for various natural
periods, respectively. Evolutionary power spectrum apparently has peak at around
T = 1 s and t = 21–24 s. Due to several pulse-like inputs during t = 19.5–22 s, EIR
spectrum consecutively kept positive values, and cumulative energy spectrum
reached almost its final value at t = 22.5 s. It can be observed that small number of
intensive pulse waves caused very quick amplification of response because of
effective energy input. In other ranges of natural period, EIR spectrum becomes
positive and negative by turns. Energy input is canceled one after another, therefore,
velocity response is suppressed.
From top to bottom, (a) Ground acceleration, (b) Evolutionary power spectrum,
(c) EIR spectrum, (d) Cumulative energy input spectrum
Fig. 2 Time-frequency analysis based on energy input (KiK-net Mashiki, h = 0.05)

3.3 Duration Based on Cumulative Energy Input
Figure 3(a) compares response velocity spectrum SV, pseudo velocity spectrum pSV
and energy spectrum VE, and its decomposition to positive and negative terms, VE+
and VE-, respectively. Figure 3(b) shows energy input efficiency RE. At around
predominant period of response velocity spectrum, T = 1.05 s, VE and VE+ are
similar values, and energy input efficiency RE is over 0.8. On the other hand, VE+
and VE- are similar values, and RE is small at long period.
Figure 3(c) and (d) show i-percentile time ti and duration Da-b, respectively.
Blue dots in Fig. 3(c) represent i-percentile time t1 to t99 for various natural period,
and t5, t75, t95 and tpmax are highlighted by color solid lines. Blue dots are highly
dense during t = 20–25 s, which means intensive concentration of energy input.
According to Fig. 3(d), approximate durations are D5-75 = 2–6 s, D5-95 = 3–18 s
and D5-pmax = 1–5 s. All kinds of durations are relatively short at around pre-
dominant period representing abrupt amplification of velocity response. D5-75 and
D5-95 gradually become longer for shorter- and longer-period. However, D5-pmax
keeps almost constantly D5-pmax = 1 s at wide range of long-period, which is
Upper left: (a) Velocity spectra and energy spectra, Upper right: (b) Energy input efficiency
Lower left: (c) i-percentile time ti, Lower right: (d) Duration Da-b
Fig. 3 Characteristics of response velocity and duration (KiK-net Mashiki, h = 0.05)

significantly shorter than their natural period. In particular, at natural period of

T = 2 s or longer, maximum responses are reached simultaneously regardless of
natural period.
In order to examine this phenomenon, Fig. 4 compares ground acceleration and
relative response velocity waveforms at long-period longer than T = 1 s. The phase
of velocity response waveforms up to t = 21 s for natural periods T = 2 s or longer,
and maximum response is uniformly 150 cm/s. This fact indicates that SDOF
system cannot follow quick and large input of pulse at t = 20.5 s, therefore relative
response velocity almost equals to ground velocity. This phenomenon is reflected in
the velocity response spectrum shown in Fig. 3 (a). Velocity response spectrum SV
is in flat shape of 150 cm/s at period longer than T = 2 s. This can be regarded as a
typical effect of pulse wave. Pseudo response velocity pSV at long period range does
not represent this characteristics, which may lead to underestimation of actual
relative response of velocity.
4 Numerical Example Using Various Records
In addition to KiK-net Mashiki station (KMMH16, EW comp.), seven additional

records were selected from four inland crustal earthquakes in Japan for further
numerical example [8]. They are Kumamoto Earthquake, 2016 (MJ= 7.3):
Nishihara Village Komori station (EW), K-NET Ichinomiya station (KMM004,
EW), Mashiki Town Miyazono station (EW), Minamiaso Village Kawayo station
(NS), Hyogoken-Nambu Earthquake, 1995 (MJ= 7.3): JMA Kobe station (NS),
Niigata-ken Chuetsu Earthquake, 2004 (MJ= 6.8): K-NET Ojiya station (NIG019,
EW), Niigata-ken Chuetsu-oki Earthquake, 2007 (MJ= 6.8): K-NET Kashiwazaki
station (NIG018, EW comp.). Relative response velocity spectra for eight records
are shown in Fig. 5. Their predominant periods are T = 1.05, 0.76, 3.16, 1.26, 3.02,
0.87, 0.69 and 2.19 s in the same order of enumeration above. Figure 6 shows
normalized cumulative energy input for each predominant period. Accumulation of
energy input is very quick, reaching 70–90% within the first 3 s at KiK-net
Mashiki, Nishihara Village Komori and Mashiki Town Miyazono stations.
Figure 7 shows the relationship between relative response velocity on the ver-
tical axis and duration D5-pmax on the horizontal axis for various natural periods.
Plot at upper left corner represents large amplitude and quick energy input indi-
cating impulsive effect of pulse, of which KiK-net Mashiki, Nishihara Village
Komori, Mashiki Town Miyazono and JMA Kobe are typical examples.
Fig. 4 Ground acceleration and relative response velocities (KiK-net Mashiki, h = 0.05)
Fig. 5 Relative response

velocity spectra
Fig. 6 Normalized
cumulative energy input
(a) Predominant period (b) T=1.00s (c) T=2.00s
(d) T=3.98s (e) T=7.94s
Fig. 7 Relationships between maximum response velocity and duration D5-pmax

5 Conclusions
Large amplitude pulse-like wave at fault rupture zone is one of the significant
engineering issues. In this study, an evaluation method was proposed for pulse
wave effect on structural response with emphasis on temporal energy input to
structures. Time-frequency analysis by use of energy input rate (EIR) was per-
formed and several kinds of duration indices were examined. Considering both
amplitude and duration, dynamic effects were compared among eight ground
motion records in recent inland crustal earthquakes in Japan. In long-period range,
peak velocity response is reached in extremely short time and occurs almost
simultaneously regardless of the natural period. As a result, velocity response
spectra remain high and flat in wide range of long-period. Such impulsive effects
are considered to be representative of the pulse waves.
Acknowledgements This study was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP17H02068
and JP17H03297. Ground motion records obtained at K-NET and KiK-net by NIED (National
Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention) and those at JMA (Japan
Meteorological Agency) were used in this study.
References
1. Akiyama H (1999) Earthquake-resistant design method for buildings based on energy balance,
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(in Japanese)
3. Kameda H (1975) Evolutionary spectra of seismogram by multifilter. J Eng Mech Div 101
(6):787–801
4. Kato B, Akiyama H (1975) Energy input and damages in structures subjected to severe
earthquakes. J Struct Constr Eng 235:9–18 (in Japanese)
5. Ohi K, Takanashi K, Honma Y (1991) Energy input rate spectra of earthquake ground motions.
J Struct Constr Eng 420:1–7 (in Japanese)
6. Trifunac MD, Brady AG (1975) A study on the duration of strong earthquake ground motion.
Bull Seismol Soc Am 65(3):581–626
7. Yamamoto T, Nojima N (2018) An evaluation method for ground motion characteristics
considering the effects of constituent pulse waves. J Jpn Soc Civil Eng Ser A1 74(4):I_1023–
I_1034 (in Japanese)
8. Yamamoto T, Nojima N (2019) Evaluation of impulsive effect of pulse wave by use of energy
input to structures. J Jpn Soc Civil Eng Ser A1 (in Japanese, in printing)
9. Yasui M, Nishikage T, Mikami T, Kamei I, Suzuki K, Hayashi Y (2010) Theoretical solutions
and response properties of maximum response of a single-degree-of-freedom system for
pulse-wave ground motions. J Struct Constr Eng 75(650):731–739 (in Japanese)
Study of Bridge Damages Induced
Earthquakes in Japan and Strength
Hierarchy Design
R. Tokuhashi, K. Tasaki, and T. Yoshizawa
Abstract Research of the bridge elements damaged in the large earthquakes that
occurred in Japan was carried out. And the correlations of the bridge design con-
ditions and seismic damaged elements of the bridges were analyzed. Using the
design documents of the seismic damaged bridge, the strength of the elements
including bearings, bearing mounting components and piers were calculated. The
strength hierarchy of the bridge elements was evaluated with the actual bridge
damage. And strength hierarchy design of bridges to induce damage to the element
that was desired in the viewpoint of serviceability and repairability of the damaged
bridge when the over design earthquake occur was discussed.

Keywords Seismic damage Extreme seismic force Resilience

Anti-catastrophe Strength hierarchy design, damage induction
1 Introduction
In the seismic design of bridges, the design earthquakes are assumed and the bridges
are designed so as not to damage, or within an acceptable level of damages in safety,
serviceability and repairability. However, earthquakes are natural phenomena and it
is difficult to predict their upper limits. Therefore, the risks of the damages of the
bridge caused by the large over design earthquakes will be recognized, and the
R. Tokuhashi (&) K. Tasaki T. Yoshizawa

Research Institute for Infrastructure Engineering, Nippon Engineering Consultants Co. Ltd.,
Saitama 330-6011, Japan
e-mail: tokuhashi@ne-con.co.jp
K. Tasaki
e-mail: tasaki@ne-con.co.jp
T. Yoshizawa
e-mail: yoshizawa@ne-con.co.jp
R. Tokuhashi
Civil Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya, Japan

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_76
804 R. Tokuhashi et al.
bridge damages will be controlled in order to be reduced the risks of lost perfor-
mances of safety, serviceability and repairability.
In this research, the tendency of the damages of the bridges caused by the large
earthquakes occurred in Japan was investigated, and the correlations of the strength
hierarchies of the bridge elements and the actual bridge damages were analyzed.
Strength hierarchy design of the bridges to induce the damages to the elements that
were desired in the viewpoint of serviceability and repairability of the damaged
bridges when the over design earthquake occur was discussed.
2 Strength Hierarchy and Bridge Damage Elements
2.1 Tendency of Damaged Elements of Bridge in Past

Earthquakes
2.1.1 Investigation Earthquake Damaged Bridges
By the 13 earthquakes that occurred in Japan and the caused some bridges dam-
aged, from 1964 Niigata earthquake to 2011 Tohoku region Pacific Ocean earth-
quake, the status of the 76 damaged bridges were investigated.
2.1.2 Bridge Damages Induced Level 1 Earthquakes Before 1995
The seismic design of the bridge before the 1995 Hyogoken Nanbu Earthquake was
conducted by the seismic intensity method with a horizontal seismic intensity of
0.15 to 0.3. Some of these bridges have been damaged by earthquakes equivalent to
today’s Level 1 earthquakes [4]. Therefore, for 9 earthquakes from 1964 Niigata
Earthquake to 1994 Hokkaido Toho-oki Earthquake, the design seismic accelera-
tions of the damaged bridges were compared with the actual seismic accelerations.
36 of 41 bridges were surveyed, and 5 very old bridges were excluded because
those were not applied the seismic design. Actual seismic accelerations were
observed PGA (Peak Ground Acceleration) that recorded at the observation cites
nearest the bridges. If there was no observation point near the bridge, PGA was
calculated using the distance attenuation formula [2] otherwise. Since the average
values of calculated PGA to be lower than the observed values, a 1.7-fold correction
coefficient equivalent to adding the standard deviation to the average value was
applied.
Figure 1 shows the comparisons of the accelerations in design and the actual
earthquake that caused the bridges damages. (a) shows the plots of the bridges that
damaged only in pier columns (10 bridges) and (b) shoes plots of bridges damaged
in bearing or bearing mounting components (26 bridge), and only 5 bridges of those
were also damaged in piers. In this figure, the horizontal axis represents the design
Study of Bridge Damages Induced Earthquakes … 805
Actual Seismic Acceleration (gal) 800 800
Actual Seismic Acceleration (gal)

Actual > Design Actual > Design
700 700
600 600
500 500
400 Actual < Design 400 Actual < Design

300 300
200 200 Design Code Before 1971

1971 Design Code
100 100
1980 Design Code
0 0
0 200 400 600 800 0 200 400 600 800
Design Seismic Acceleration(gal) Design Seismic Accelation (gal)
(a)Bridges damaged in only piers (b) Bridges damaged in bearings or piers
Fig. 1 Comparison of design earthquakes and actual earthquake
earthquakes in acceleration, and the vertical axis represents the actual PGA of the
earthquakes. Above the diagonal line, the bridges were broken due to the “Over
Design Earthquake”. And the bellow the diagonal line, the bridges were damaged
due to the earthquake smaller than the design earthquakes.
Figure 2 shows the number of the bridges grouping in damaged elements and
year of the applied seismic design codes. Figures 1(a) and 2 show that 9 bridge of
10 bridges that have only damages in pier columns were damaged caused by the
over design earthquake. The other hand, in Figs. 1(b) and 2 show that 14 bridges,
about half of 36 bridges were damaged due to the earthquakes smaller than the
design earthquakes. No obvious differences were seen in the years of the applied
design codes.
The reason why the pier columns were hardly damaged due to the earthquakes
smaller than the design earthquakes is considered to be that the strength of the RC
pier columns were well calculated in accuracy and had not been suffered from the
irregular forces that not considered in the design.
The reason why the bearings and bearing mounting components were damaged
due to the earthquakes smaller than the design earthquakes is considered to be that
metal products had no redundancy of strength for the seismic loads, and these
bearing components would had been suffered from irregular forces induced by the
seismic action of the bridges. For example, the lateral bending of the girders that
were not considered in the seismic design of the bearings.
From Fig. 2, it will be said that the pier columns with no damaged bearings were
damaged due to the over design earthquakes, and that the pier columns with
damaged bearings were prevent from being damaged under the over design
earthquakes. It is suggested that if the bearings had been damaged, the pier columns
would have not been damaged because of the isolation from the seismic reaction
from the bearings caused by the very large earthquakes.
14
Actual < De sign
12 Actual > De sign
Number of Bridges
10 6
8
6
9 2 3
4 7
2 3 3 1
01 1
0 0 0
Before 1971 1971 1980 Before 1971 Before 1971 1971 1980
Only Piers Damaged Piers And Only Bearings Damaged
Bearings
Applied Seismic Design Code And Damaged Elemnts
Fig. 2 Number of earthquake damaged bridges from 1964 to 1994
2.1.3 Bridge Damages Induced Level 2 Earthquakes Since 1995
The 1995 Hyogoken Nanbu Earthquake caused heavy damages to many bridges in
the Hanshin area. This earthquake had a PGA of up to 848 gal (0.86 G), which far
exceeded the design strengths of the bridges at that time, 0.2 G to 0.3 G. For this
reason, there were damages in the pier columns and the bearings or bearing
mounting components including steel girders near the bearing and bearing base
mortars on top of the piers. And it is difficult to discuss the tendency from the
viewpoint of the bridge strength hierarchy.
After this earthquake, “Level 2 earthquakes” [4] are described in the seismic
design code and the bridges were designed ore retrofitted so that the bridges have
sufficient seismic performance against large earthquake that rarely occurs in the life
of the bridges.
When the 2011 Tohoku region Pacific Ocean earthquake occurred, damage
occurred to both the bridges that designed or retrofitted and the bridges that have
not been retrofitted against the Level 2 earthquakes. For the existing bridges
without seismic retrofit, this earthquake would have been earthquake loadings
exceeding the design earthquakes.
The correlations between the damage index of the pier columns and the presence
or absence of damage of the bearings or bearing mounting components is shown in
Fig. 3. In this figure, the number of piers was counted in the targeted bridges that
were damaged caused by that earthquake and that had not been retrofitted when that
earthquake occurs. The damage indexes are as follows: D: no damage, C: small
damage, B: medium damage, A: large damage [3].
10 bridges that the details of the damages were reported were targeted for the
survey, and there are 54 piers damaged in the bridges. 41 piers were damaged in the
bearings or bearing mounting components and 31 piers did not have damages in the
pier column. On the other hand, in the 23 piers damaged in the pier columns, only
10 piers, less than half of those, were damaged in the bearings or bearing mounting
1.00
35 1.00
[1]Piers with Bearings Not Damged
0.90
30 [2]Piers with Bearings Damged
Ratio of [1] to ([1] + [2]) 0.80
Ratio of [1] to ([1] + [2])

25 0.70
Number of Piers
0.60
20
0.50
0.50
0.40
15
0.40
10 0.30
0.20
5
0.10
0 0.00
D C B,A
Damage Index of Piers
Fig. 3 Correlation of pier damage index and bridge damaged elements
components. From this, it can be understood that, for earthquakes exceeding the
design level, the damaged portion of the bridge tends to be either bearings including
bearing mounting components or pier columns.
In addition, the damages of the pier columns were not seen in the bridges
designed or retrofitted against Level 2 earthquake. And only a few bridges were
damaged in the bearing or bearing mounting components.
This survey also suggests the possibility of strength hierarchy design that pier
column damages would not progress by inducing damages to the bearings under the
earthquakes larger than the design earthquakes.
2.2 Strength Hierarchy of Damaged Bridge Piers
Among the bridges damaged by the earthquake, the strength hierarchies of each
members was organized for the 6 bridges for which the design documents were
available. As a result, in all 6 bridges, the damaged portions were the lowest
members in the calculated bridge strength hierarchies. Here, the results of the bridge
strength hierarchies of the A bridge [6] damaged by the Urakawa earthquake of
1982 and the B bridge [5] damaged by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake are shown.
The A bridge was a river bridge consisting of three of continuous steel I-girders
with three spans and had column type piers with circular cross sections. The A
bridge had foundations on the Type III ground, and had eight caisson foundations
and one direct foundation. The design seismic intensity was 0.2, and the PGA of the
earthquake was estimated to be 324 gal (0.33 G). Damages occurred from P2 to P7
piers, and shear failure occurred at the reinforcement reduction section of the P3
pier column (damage index: A).
Figure 4 shows the damage situation of the P3 pier column and the strength
hierarchy of P3 including the pier base, reinforcement reduction section and the
bearings in the transvers direction. The strengths of each members were converted
to horizontal seismic intensities. The shear strength of the reinforcement reduction
section is the lowest at the hierarchy and that is consistent with the damaged portion
of the pier.
The B bridge was a river bridge consisting of four continuous steel I-girders with
three or four spans, for a total of 13 spans. The B bridge had 4 fixed piers with oval
cross section and 8 movable piers with circular cross section. The B bridge had
foundations on the type II ground, and had three type foundations: a direct foun-
dation, 6 caisson foundations and 5 pile foundations. The design seismic intensity
was 0.2, and the PGA of the earthquake was estimated to be 379 gal (0.39 G).
Damage occurred to the bearings and bearing mounting components in 9 of 12
piers, and the damage indexes were determined B or C. Damage occurred at the two
pier columns, and the damage indexes were determined A and B. On the piers with
damaged pier column, there were slightly damages in bearings or bearing mounting
components with damage index of C or D (no damage).
Figure 5 shows the hierarchies of the heavy damaged (damage indexes A and B)
6 piers. The strength of the piers were calculated based on the design documents.
Because of the design documents not available, strengths of the bearings were
figured as a range of seismic intensity of 0.2 to 0.3. This range was assumed that
bearings would have Level 1 seismic strength with its seismic design. In addition,
these strengths were calculated in transverse direction in consideration of the state
of damages.
In the circular cross section piers of P2, P3, P6, and P7, the smallest strength
members in calculations were the bending strength of the reinforcement reduction
sections in converted seismic intensity 0.20 to 0.24. It is thought that if the strength
0.8
0.7
Strength in Seismic Intensity
0.6 Bearing Strength

0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
Bending Shear Bending Shear
Pier Base Reinforcement Reduction
(a) Damage of P3 pier column (b) Strength hierarchy of P3
Fig. 4 Pier damage and strength hierarchy of A bridge P3 pier

1.8
P2(Bearings Damaged)
1.6 P3(Bearings Damaged)
P6(Pier Damaged)
Strength in Seismic Intensity 1.4 P7(Pier Damaged)
1.2
1.0 Bearing Upper Strength
Bearing Lower Strength
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
Bending Shear Bending Shear
Pier Base Reinforcement Reduction
Fig. 5 Strength hierarchy of B bridge piers
of the bearings and bearing mounting components exceeded this value the damage
of the pier columns would be caused (P6, P7), and if the strength of those were
below this value the damage of the bearings or bearing mounting components
would be caused (P2, P3). In the oval cross section piers of P8 and P11 had its large
cross sectional and had high strength in the transverse direction. For this reason, it is
considered that the bearings had a relatively low strength and those were damaged.
From the examination of the stratification of the strength of the bridge where the
excess external force which exceeds the design earthquake motion acts, it was
confirmed that the place with the lowest hierarchy becomes the damaged place in
each case. From this, If the load resistance of each part can be made hierarchical, it
is considered that damage can be induced to a desirable part against excessive
action exceeding level 2 earthquake motion, and serviceability and repairability can
be secured.
3 Strength Hierarchy Design
3.1 Damage Induction for Over Design Earthquakes
As a result investigating the damaged member of the bridge caused the large
earthquake and the correlations of serviceability and repairability in the Sect. 2, the
lower connection of the bearings were the most desirable damaged portions from
the following three viewpoints. Figure 6 shows an example of the bearing damage
broken in the lower bearing connection.
Fig. 6 Lower element

damaged bearing
Fig. 7 Pier strength property

for S.H. design
(1) The horizontal reactions would not be transmitted from the bearing, it is pos-
sible to prevent the development of damage of the pier columns under the
external large earthquakes.
(2) It is possible to prevent the step of the road surface in the expansion joints after
the earthquake, and to release the traffic promptly.
(3) There is space left for the jack in the support, allowing for permanent
restoration to be facilitated.
3.2 Strength Control of Piers and Bearings for Strength

Hierarchy Design
When the damage is induced to the bearing under the external large earthquakes, it
is desirable for the pier columns to have a load-bearing capacity characteristic such
that the maximum strength is large enough to the yield strength Py, as shown in
Fig. 7.
As a result of surveying the existing papers, as shown in Fig. 8(a), in the RC
piers, the maximum strength is 1.0 times to 1.2 times the yield strength, and no
correlation with the design conditions was found. On the other hand, as shown in
Fig. 8(b), the SRC piers had the maximum strength enough larger to the yield
strength, and the difference of 1.2 to 2 times was found respectively in design
conditions. This is considered that in the case of SRC, the steel frame arranged at
the centre of the cross section is still elastic even after the edge reinforcements were
yielded, and the maximum strength increased before those steel frames were
yielded.
In order to induce the damages to the bearings under the external large earth-
quakes, the strength of the bearings should be smaller than the maximum pier
column strength. For this purpose, the total of the strength of the bearings should be
set to be intermediate between the level 2 earthquake load and the maximum pier
strength.
It had been confirmed by the previous studies that the steel components and the
laminated rubbers constituting the bearings that were designed against the Level 2
earthquakes, the actual maximum strengths would become much larger than the
applied load. Therefore, in the case where an upper limit is given to the strength of
the bearings, for example, structural consideration such as providing a shear
breakable notched bolts installed at the lower bearing connections so as to have the
lower strength than the pier maximum strength. In reference [1], notched bolts were
installed in the lower connections of the bearing plate type bearings, and the shear
strengths of the notched bolts were designed so as not to exceed the strength of the
piers.
As the stress state is pure shear, the upper limit of the proof stress can be
calculated accurately for the notched knock-off bolt. If the lower bearing connection
bolts were located much below the height of the horizontal reaction acted, axial
tensile force would be exerted by the bending moment. If the tensile stress existed,
2.5 2.5
Square Cross Section Multi Core Steel
Square, with Round Bar Single Core Steel
Strength Ratio Pmax /Py
Strength Ratio Pmax /Py
2.0 2.0
Interlocking Piers
Circular Cross Section
1.5 1.5
1.0 1.0
0.5 0.5
0.0 0.0
0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Axial Stress (N/mm2 ) Axial Stress (N/mm2 )
(a) RC piers (b) SRC piers
Fig. 8 Strength ratios of maximum strength and yield strength

(a) Bearing Plan View (b) Shear Knock Off Bolt
Fig. 9 Strength controlled bearing with knock off bolts
the bolt would be undergo strain hardening when yielding, and there would be no
intended failure with the desired strength. In reference [1], it is confirmed by
experiments that failure occurs at the intended loads as shown in the Fig. 9.
The authors want to be induced the damages for the bearings under external
earthquakes by providing a notched bolts in the lower bearing connections of the
Menshin bearings. Whether the notched knock-off bolts break with the intended
loads, whether the combination of the bearings and the pier columns causes the
failure as expected in the strength hierarchy, further researches by analysis and
experiment will be undergo by the authors.
4 Conclusions
The following findings were obtained from this study.

(1) If the bridge is damaged by earthquakes that exceed the design earthquake, the
members tended to be damaged at the portion of the lowest strength in hier-
archies. However, there are exceptions in the actual damage situation.
(2) Based on the design documents, we calculated some strength hierarchies of the
bridges. As a result, it is considered that the portion of the lowest strength
would be damaged under the over design earthquake.
(3) In order to set the upper limit of strengths of bearings for the external large
earthquakes, the strength of the pier columns should have the enough maximum
strength over the yield strength. And the such load resistance characteristics
would be realized with the SRC like pier column with the central steels or
reinforcements in the cross sections.
(4) So as to set the upper limit of the strengths of the bearings, it is desirable to
provide a notched bolts to be knock off under the designed loadings. However,
in order to provide such a function in the bearings, it is necessary to be con-
firmed by experiments.
References
1. Honjo S, Yokoyama K, Maehara N, Tasaki K, Himeno T (2009) Seismic retrofit of existing

bridges using a bearing support with knock-off functions. J Struct Eng 55A:506–514
2. Japan Road Association (1991) Specifications for highway bridges part V seismic design
3. Japan Road Association (2007) Handbook of earthquake disaster measures for highways
(earthquake restorations) 2006 revision edition
4. Japan Road Association (2017) Specifications for highway bridges part V seismic design
5. JSCE Seismic Engineering Committee (2015) Final report on damage analysis subcommittee
on bridges caused by the Great east Japan earthquake
6. Ministry of Construction Road Bureau, Ministry of Construction Public Works Research
Institute & Hokkaido Development Bureau (1982) report of investigation of seismic disaster of
Sizunai bridge (1982 Urakawa earthquake)
Dynamic Behavior of Foundation
for Steel Post of Rockfall Protection
Fence Under Impact Loading
S. Kondo, M. Komuro, N. Kishi, and Y. Yamamoto
Abstract In order to investigate the dynamic behavior of the steel posts of a

rockfall protection fence that is embedded into a concrete (RC) retaining wall, static
and drop-weight impact loading tests were conducted on 100 cm long H-section
posts installed into the plain concrete foundation model. In these tests, a 300 kg
steel weight was used and was dropped from a predetermined height. The specimen
was changed for each test. The results obtained from this study are as follows: (1) a
plastic hinge was formed near the base of the foundation in both cases of static and
impact loading; and (2) based on the strain distributions in the post model, the
anchoring depth of the post may be larger than that from design specification.
Keywords Steel posts of rockfall protection fence Impact loading Anchoring

depth Plastic hinge
1 Introduction
In Japan nowadays, the development of residential land has been extended close to
steep slopes and road networks have also been constructed along cliffs and slopes.
However, mudflows and other severe natural disasters have sometimes occurred in
these areas due to torrential rains caused by climate changes in recent years.
Usually, many check-dams have been constructed to control mudflows in steep
valleys. However, earth and sand were deposited on these dams with the passage of
S. Kondo (&) M. Komuro N. Kishi Y. Yamamoto

e-mail: s.kondo-i@sunagonet.co.jp
M. Komuro
N. Kishi
e-mail: kishi@mmm.muroran-it.ac.jp
Y. Yamamoto
e-mail: yamamoto@sunagonet.co.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_77
816 S. Kondo et al.
time and, as a result, driftwood and large rocks flow down to the foot of mountains
when mudflows occur. In order to restrain such mudflows, protection fences were
installed at the tops of the dams.
On the cliff side of roads, rockfall protection fences were installed in the top
surface of the rockfall protection retaining wall in order to ensure the safety of
transportation networks from the falling rocks as shown in Fig. 1 [2]. Generally, the
check-dams and rockfall protection retaining walls were designed as gravity-type
plain concrete structures. Therefore, the steel posts for supporting the fence were
placed in a prepared hole left at the top of the wall and back-filled with the same
concrete as in the walls.
Fig. 1 Rockfall protection

retaining wall embedded with
steel posts for fence
Photo 1 An example of
damaged retaining wall due to
falling rocks
Dynamic Behavior of Foundation for Steel Post … 817
At present, these steel posts are designed following the Rockfall Countermeasures
Handbook [3] (referred to hereinafter as Handbook). But, the dynamic response
characteristics of the posts under impact loading due to rock fall, mudflows, and/or
similar events have not been accounted for in the Handbook and these impact loads
were assumed to act as static loads. However, it was reported that the posts subjected
to impact loads due to falling rocks were actually severely damaged as shown in
Photo 1 [1], in which the concrete walls near the embedded post were spalled.
Therefore, in order to ensure greater safety of the transportation networks from falling
rocks, it is very important to establish a rational design method for the steel posts of
the rockfall protection fences considering the impact-resistant characteristics.
From this point of view, we investigate the dynamic response characteristics of
the posts. These impact loading tests on the steel posts supported by embedding one
end into the plain concrete block (referred to hereinafter as foundation) were
conducted. Here, a static loading test was also carried out for comparison.
2.1 Test Specimen and Experimental Method
Figure 2 shows the dimensions of test specimens and rebar arrangement. The
foundation models have dimensions of 700 400 1,300 mm (width height
length), in which a part of 60 cm length from its front surface was taken as the
footing for the steel post and the other part as the anchorage of the model. In order
to minimize the reinforcing effects of rebars on the load-carrying capacities of the
Fig. 2 Dimensions of test specimen and rebar arrangement

818 S. Kondo et al.
Photo 2 View of experimental setup
footing, axial rebar and stirrups were placed at the location of 30 cm from the center
of the footing in the cross-sectional plane. The diameters of the axial rebar and
stirrup were 19 and 10 mm, respectively.
Here, H-section steel members of 100 mm width and height were used for the
steel post model, even though members of 100 mm width and 200 mm height
H-section posts have been widely used for the actual ones of a conventional rockfall
protection fence. However, in this study, the small sized members were used so as
to save size and weight of the foundation models. The height of the footing may be
similar to the depth of the top surface of a conventional retaining wall.
The loading point for the H-section post for static and drop-weight impact tests
was 800 mm from the front surface (base) of the footing for bending action to be
predominant. The 6 mm thick stiffener plates were welded to the flange and web of
the posts at the loading point to restrain these against local buckling.
The foundations were anchored to the rigid steel jig by fastening with bolts and
nuts. At the start of the tests, the compressive strength of the concrete fc was
34.5 N/mm2. Also, the yield stress fy and ultimate strength fu of the H-section steel
posts obtained from the mill sheet were 354 and 449 N/mm2, respectively.
In order to investigate the dynamic response characteristics, the failure behavior
of the steel post and footing, and the anchoring depth of the posts, impact loading
tests were conducted while varying the drop height of the weight through 4 levels:
0.1; 0.5; 1.0; and 1.5 m, respectively. The tests were conducted following a single
loading method, in which a steel weight with a mass of 300 kg and a tip diameter of
200 mm was allowed to drop freely onto the H-section steel post from the pre-
scribed height once only. Here, the static loading test was also conducted for
comparisons with the dynamic response characteristics by using a hydraulic jack.
Photo 2 shows the test setups for static and drop-weight impact loading.
2.2 Measuring Quantities
Figure 3 shows the measuring points of axial strains of H-section posts and the
vertical displacements of the specimens. Strain gauges were glued at 30 mm upper
and lower points from the center of the post for a total of 19 sections in the whole
span area to investigate the dynamic behavior and anchoring depth of the post.
Fig. 3 Location of measuring points
Fig. 4 Load-displacement
curve under static loading
Fig. 5 Axial strain

distribution at upper fiber of
H-section post under static
loading
820 S. Kondo et al.
The vertical displacements of the post and foundation were measured by using a
laser-type LVDT. Displacements of the anchorage area of the foundation were also
measured to see whether it was uplifted or not. The impact force generated by the
drop weight was measured by using a load cell installed in the weight.
These analog data were converted into digital data and recorded in the digital
data recorders with a sampling time of 0.1 ms.
3 Experimental Results and Discussions
3.1 Static Loading Tests
Figure 4 shows the load Ps and displacement D at the loading point (referred to
hereinafter as displacement) curve obtained from the static loading test. In this
figure, the calculated yield load Py of the H-section post was also indicated which
was estimated by using the calculated yield bending moment My. From this figure,
it is observed that the load Ps almost linearly increased until a displacement
D reached around 12 mm, and after that the load gradually increased and then kept
constant after the displacement reaching 24 mm. However, the maximum load did
not reach the calculated yield load Py. This may be due to the load being estimated
by using a nominal section modulus and the value of the yield stress from the mill
sheet.
Figure 5 shows the axial strain distribution eu at the upper fiber of the H-section
post at a displacement reaching some typical values. Here, the upper fiber strains
were evaluated based on the plane conservation concept and two measured strain
values of euw and elw. In this figure, the yield strain ey of the post was evaluated by
using the yield stress obtained from the mill sheet and is also shown.
(a) impact forces (b) displacements
Fig. 6 Comparisons of time histories of dynamic responses under impact loading

Fig. 7 Comparisons of time histories of axial strains in H-section post
Focusing on the strain distributions in the cases of deflections of D = 6 and

12 mm, it is observed that they are linearly distributed from the loading point
toward the base of the footing. On the other hand, the distributions inside of the
footing tend to decrease and reached almost zero strain at 450 mm distance from
the base of the footing.
In the case of D = 24 mm, it is seen that the strains in the H-section post near the
base of the footing have exceeded the yield strain and the area was in a yielding
state. At D = 48 mm, this indicates that only the strains near the base increased and
strains in the other regions gave similar values at D = 24 mm. This suggests that a
plastic hinge may have formed near the base of the footing.
3.2 Impact Loading Tests
Figure 6 shows configurations of the time history of the weight impact force Pi and
the displacement D at each drop height of the weight (referred to hereinafter as drop
height) H. In these figures, the origin of the time axis was taken as the actual time
when the weight impacted the H-section post.
From Fig. 6(a), the following can be observed: (1) time histories of the impact
forces Pi were composed of half sine and/or trapezoidal-shaped waves and
high-frequency components; and (2) even though the maximum impact forces Pi tend
to increase with increasing drop height H, the forces Pi reduced to zero after keeping a
constant value around 40 kN for 15 to 30 ms except when the drop height H = 0.1 m.
Since the constant value of the impact force was approximately the same as the plastic
load Pz (= 38.2 kN) which was estimated assuming perfect elasto-plastic behavior,
this may be due to a plastic hinge forming near the base of the footing.
822 S. Kondo et al.
Fig. 8 Comparisons of upper

fiber strain distribution of
H-section post at max.
displacement
Fig. 9 Comparisons of
load-displacement curves
between static and impact
loading
From the experimental results for the drop height H = 0.1 m, since the maxi-
mum impact force (Pi max = 31.3 kN) was smaller than the static maximum load (Ps
max = 33.5 kN) and the deflection was perfectly restored as shown in Fig. 6(b), the
specimen behaved elastically.
From Fig. 6(b), these findings indicate that: (1) the maximum displacement
tends to increase with increasing drop height H; and (2) the time passed from the
beginning of impact (referred to hereinafter as passed time) on reaching the max-
imum displacement was similar to that when the impact force decreased.
Figure 7 shows the time histories of the upper and lower fiber strains eu and el at
the measuring points S6 and C1, which are near the base of the footing. From this
figure, it is observed that: (1) if the drop height is H 0.5 m, the upper and lower
fiber strains were almost symmetrically distributed; however, (2) in the case of a
drop height greater than H = 0.5 m, the strains were not symmetrically distributed
and were considerably greater than the yield strain.
Figure 8 shows the upper fiber strain distributions of the H-section posts at
maximum displacement. From this figure, the following details can be observed:
(1) in the case of a drop height H = 0.1 m, the strains are almost linearly distributed
from the loading point to the base of the footing; after that, (2) these gradually
Fig. 10 Schematic diagram for designing anchoring depth of fence post
decreased inside of the footing and then reached zero strain at the location of
450 mm from the base surface. These distribution characteristics are similar to
those within the elastic state at static loading.
In the case of a drop height H = 0.5 m, the strain of the H-section post near the
base of the footing exceeded the yield value. Furthermore, in the cases of H = 1.0
and 1.5 m, a plastic hinge may be formed in this area because the strain was greater.
On the other hand, each strain of the H-section post excluding the loading point and
the area near the base of the footing was almost the same irrespective of the
magnitude of the drop height H. This suggests that a plastic hinge was formed near
the base of the footing similarly to the static loading case. Also, the strain distri-
bution of the post inside the footing was qualitatively similar to that under static
loading.
3.3 Comparisons of Load-Displacement Curves
The impact load Pi and displacement Di curves under impact loading are shown in
Fig. 9 compared to those under static loading. From this figure, it is observed that
when the drop height H was equal to or greater than 1.0 m, the curves tend to be
similar to that under static loading with increasing displacement. In the case of
H = 0.1 m, since the curve was almost linearly distributed accompanied by some
noise, the post must behave elastically as mentioned above.
3.4 Considerations Concerning Anchoring Depth of Post
In the Handbook, for designing the anchoring depth of the post in the footing it is
recommended that the bending and punching shear load-carrying capacities of the
824 S. Kondo et al.
footing should be checked. In the specification, the bending moment and shear
impact force at a point one half of the anchoring depth d of the post in the footing
were modeled by considering the anchoring part of the post as a short pillar. The
anchoring depth d prescribed in the specification will be compared with the
experimental results obtained from this study.
The bending compressive stress r at the base B of the footing (see Fig. 10) was
specified so as to be less than the allowable bending compressive stress ra of
concrete. The stress r is described as follows:
Py M
r¼ þ ara ð1Þ
A Z
in which Py: yield load when a plastic hinge is formed near the base of the post; A:
area of flange surface of the post inside the footing (= bd); Z: section modulus of the
area which is equal to that of the flange of the post (= bd 2/6); a: overdesign factor
(= 1.5); and M: bending moment at point A shown in Fig. 10. The bending moment
M is given as follows:

d
M ¼ Py h2 þ ð2Þ
2
where h2 is a distance from the base to the impacted point of a falling rock; and d is
the assumed anchoring depth of the post.
However, the shear stress s in the wall, obtained by assuming the shear failure
surface shown in Fig. 10, is specified to be less than the allowable punching shear
stress sa. The stress s is given by the depth of the concrete cover l as follows:
Py
s¼ asa ð3Þ
2ld
Here, the allowable bending compressive stress ra and the punching shear stress
sa were estimated by using compressive strength of concrete f’c and following the
Specifications for Highway Bridges [4, 5] as: ra = 11.5 N/mm2; and sa = 1.09 N/
mm2, respectively.
Estimating the anchoring depths using Eqs. (1) and (3), the following results
were obtained: dm = 346 mm and ds = 68 mm, respectively, for the bending
compressive stress r and punching shear stress s. Therefore, the required anchoring
depth for design purposes in the case of this test is d 350 mm.
On the other hand, experimental results for the anchoring depth de for static and
impact loading are as follows: (1) in the case of static loading, considering the strain
distribution of the H-section post at the displacement D reaching 12 mm, de was
evaluated as de st = 450 mm (Fig. 5); and (2) in the case of impact loading, the
depth de i was evaluated as 450 mm at the drop height H = 0.1 m; however, (3) the
depth de i may be larger than the value of 450 mm at a higher drop height than
H = 0.1 m (Fig. 8).
The strain distribution in the post may not be directly compared with the
specified anchoring depth determined from the Handbook, because the post model
assumes full penetration into the foundation. However, it is confirmed that the
anchoring depths of the tests were larger than the design value, but the concrete
blocks have not yet debonded from the footing.
4 Conclusions
In this paper, in order to investigate the dynamic behavior and actual anchoring
depth of the posts for protection fences installed into the rockfall protection
retaining walls, static and impact loading tests were carried out on the specimens.
The specimens were made of an H-section steel post fully penetrated into the
foundation model. The results obtained from this study can be summarized as
follows:
1. The H-section steel post models reached the ultimate state, forming a plastic
hinge near the base of the footing at both static and impact loading; and
2. The anchoring depth of the post in the footing obtained from the experiments
may be larger than the specific design value; however, the concrete cover has
still not yet debonded from the footing.
References
1. Civil Corporation website. https://www.rcnet.co.jp/product/list/listless. (in Japanese)

2. Japan River Association (2017) Ministry of Construction Technical Criteria for River Works
(Draft), Commentary, Part II Design (in Japanese)
3. Japan Road Association (2017) Rockfall Countermeasures Handbook (in Japanese)
4. Japan Road Association (2012) Specifications for Highway Bridges and Commentary, Part III
Concrete Bridges (in Japanese)
5. Japan Road Association (2017b) Specifications for Highway Bridges and Commentary, Part III
Concrete Bridges and Concrete Members (in Japanese)
A Leverage-Type Variable Friction
Damper for Seismic Protection
of Structural Systems
Lyan-Ywan Lu, Tzu-Kang Lin, and Rong-Jie Jheng
Abstract A friction damper (FD) can be an effective energy dissipation device for
the seismic protection of structural systems. The level of the constant slip force in a
passive FD is a critical design parameter, since it will determine the amount of
energy dissipated by the damper in an earthquake. A passive FD will behave like a
bracing without energy dissipation capacity when the seismic load is lower than the
slip force, while the amount of energy dissipated by the passive FD may not be
sufficient if the seismic load is much higher than the designed slip force. In order to
improve the control performance, a novel leverage-type variable friction damper
(LVFD), whose friction force can be adjusted in real time through a leverage
mechanism, depending on the earthquake intensity, is introduced in this study.
Different from most existing variable FDs that are usually controlled by adjusting
the clamping force applied on friction interfaces, the LVFD system combines a
passive FD and a leverage mechanism with a movable central pivot. By simply
controlling the pivot position, the frictional damping force generated by the LVFD
can be adjusted in real time; therefore, precision control of the clamping force,
which is usually substantially larger than the slip force, can be avoided.
Furthermore, by considering 16 different ground motions with two different
intensities, the adaptive feature and control performance of the LVFD for the
seismic protection of a 3-story shear structure is further demonstrated numerically,
by comparing with those of its counterpart passive FD systems.
L.-Y. Lu (&)
Department of Civil Engineering, National Cheng Kung University,
Tainan 701, Taiwan
e-mail: lylu@mail.ncku.edu.tw
T.-K. Lin
Department of Civil Engineering, National Chiao Tung University,
Hsinchu 300, Taiwan
e-mail: tklin@nctu.edu.tw
R.-J. Jheng
Department of Construction Engineering,
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung 801, Taiwan
e-mail: too7811com@yahoo.com.tw

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_78
828 L.-Y. Lu et al.

Keywords Friction damper Semi-active control Position control Leverage

mechanism Energy dissipation device
1 Introduction
Friction dampers are one kind of energy dissipation devices for seismic protection
of structural systems [8]. Generally, a friction damper consists of one or more
friction interfaces. A normal force is then applied on the interfaces to generate an
energy-dissipating friction force when a seismic force is exerted on the structure in
which the damper is installed, and the damper will provide an additional energy
dissipation mechanism for the structure. This type of “passive” friction damper
(PFD) does not require additional control energy to operate, and is thus easier to
implement and more reliable. However, the slip force (the maximum friction) of a
PFD is usually a fixed value. In practice, the level of the slip force is predetermined
according to a given design earthquake load. Once the damper is designed and
manufactured, the slip force may no longer be altered. As a result, a PFD may not
be activated in a moderate earthquake, since its slip force is usually designed for a
strong earthquake. In other cases, a PFD may not exhibit sufficient energy dissi-
pation capacity under a severe earthquake, if its slip force is designed for an
earthquake of lower intensity.
In response to the aforementioned drawbacks regarding PFDs, some researchers
have conceived the idea of semi-active friction dampers (SAFDs) recently. Also
called a variable or controllable friction damper, an SAFD is able to alter its slip
force in real-time, according to the structural response or external excitation. In a
traditional SAFD, the slip force is usually adjusted through controlling the normal
contact force on the friction interface of the SAFD, by using a hydraulic power [1],
electromagnetic device [9], piezoelectric actuators [4, 5, 7] (Varela and Llera 2015),
or drum brake components [2]. This kind of traditional SAFDs, whose slip forces
are primarily altered through directly controlling the normal forces, may be referred
to as force-controlled SAFDs that generally require a large control force, since the
controlled normal force may be several times of the desired slip force, depending on
the material friction coefficient. The precise control over this large force in real time
may become difficult and expensive. In view of this, this study proposes a
displacement-controlled SAFD called the leverage-type variable friction damper
(LVFD). This damper consists of a conventional PFD and a leverage mechanism
with a movable central pivot. By controlling the pivot position on the lever-arm, the
equivalent friction force of the LVFD can be altered instantaneously without
changing the damper clamping force. The concept, formulation and performance of
this novel LVFD will be discussed in this paper.
A Leverage-Type Variable Friction Damper … 829

a seismic structure with
LVFD
2 Dynamic Equation of a Structure with a LVFD
Figure 1 illustrates the mathematical model of an n-story structure equipped with

the proposed LVFD that is installed on the first floor. In the figure, xi (i = 1, 2,
n) represents the relative-to-the-ground displacement of the structure in the ith floor,
and mi, ki and ci represents the mass, stiffness, damping coefficient of each floor.
Figure 1 shows that the LVFD consists of a PFD and a leverage mechanism con-
nected in series. Shown in Fig. 2, the leverage mechanism includes a lever-arm with
a movable central pivot (point P). One end of the lever-arm (point D) is connected
to the main structure through a brace of stiffness kb. The other end of the lever-am
(point A) is connected to the PFD, whose friction force is expressed as uf. The pivot
point P can only move along the y axis, while points A and D can only move along
the x axis. In the case of the pivot displacement xp > 0, the equivalent friction force
u(t) exerted on point D (the structural end) will be amplified, as compared with the
actual friction force uf (i.e., u [ uf ). Conversely, when xp < 0, the equivalent
friction force exerted on the structure end will be reduced (i.e., u \ uf ). In other
words, the equivalent friction force u(t) of the LVFD applied on the structure can be
altered by controlling the position of pivot point P. Also shown in Fig. 2,
L represents the distance of points A and D, xD is the displacement of point D, Fp is
the driving force required to move pivot P, xr is the slip-displacement of the PFD.
Notably, although the leverage mechanism shown in Fig. 2 is depicted vertically for
the convenience of explanation, in practice it may be placed horizontally for
installation convenience.
830 L.-Y. Lu et al.
Fig. 2 The leverage mechanism connected to a passive friction damper
The governing equations of motion for the mathematic model of a structure with
a LVFD shown in Figs. 1 and 2 may be derived by using the Lagrange’s forumula.
The derivation will lead to the following matrix equation [6].
_ þ Ks xðtÞ ¼ Bs ð uðtÞÞ Es €xg ðtÞ

Ms x ðtÞ þ Cs xðtÞ ð1Þ
where €xg denotes the ground acceleration, matrices Ms , Cs , and Ks represent the
structural mass, damping and stiffness matrices, respectively. Moreover, x(t) rep-
resents the displacement vector that contains xi (i = 1, 2, n); Bs represents the
damper placement matrix; Es represents the seismic force distribution matrix. In
Eq. (1), the adjustable friction force u(t), which physically represents the equivalent
friction force of the LVFD exerted on the structure, can be written explicitly as
uðtÞ ¼ rp ðtÞ uf ðt) ð2Þ
L þ 2xp ðtÞ
rp ðtÞ ¼ ð3Þ
L 2xp ðtÞ
where rp(t) denotes the leverage amplification factor, which is dimensionless and
determined by the pivot position xp(t). Equation (2) states that by adjusting rp(t), the
originally passive friction force uf (t) is converted to a controllable force u(t). In
view of Eq. (3), this semi-active force u(t) is controlled by adjusting the pivot
position xp(t), which is generally determined in real-time by a prescribed control

law. Furthermore, using Lagrange’s formula in the generalized coordinate xp(t) may
also lead to the following equation for the required pivot driving force
4 L uf ðtÞ
Fp ðtÞ ¼ ðxb ðtÞ x1 ðtÞÞ ð4Þ
ðL 2xp ðtÞÞ2
where xb denotes bracing deformation. The equation shows that pivot force Fp is
inversely proportional to the lever-arm length L.
3 Control Law-Proportional Displacement Control
In order to effectively suppress structural vibrations, a suitable control law is

required to determine the pivot position of the LVFD. Since the LVFD is one kind
of SAFD, many possible control laws may be applied to the LVFD, such as fuzzy
control and semi-LRQ [4, 5]. Nevertheless, for simplicity, in this study the fol-
lowing simple controller, called the proportional displacement control (PDC), was
adopted.
8
< rp;min þ jx1 (t)j (rp;max rp;min Þ=x1;max ; for jx1 (t)j x1;max
rp (t) ¼ ð5Þ
:
rp;max ; for jx1 (t)j [ x1;max
where rp; max and rp; min denote the upper and lower bounds of rp (t), respectively,
and x1;max represents a threshold value of the first-story drift beyond which rp (t) is
set to its maximum value rp; max . The PDC controller, is developed based on the
assumption that an increased story drift of the structure usually implies an increased
seismic force exerted on the structure. Therefore, the LVFD should generate a
larger friction force to suppress the structural response when the story drift
increases. Under this assumption and in view of Eq. (2), the PDC described in
Eq. (5) intends to maintain a direct proportionality between the equivalent friction u
(t) of the LVFD and the story drift. As a result, the PDC only requires the mea-
surement of the first-story drift x1 (t) of the structure, and thus it is convenient and
easy to implement. Once rp (t) is determined from Eq. (5), the displacement com-
mand for pivot P can be computed using the following equation, which is obtained
by solving Eq. (3).
Lðrp ðtÞ 1Þ
xp ðtÞ ¼ ð6Þ
2ðrp ðtÞ þ 1Þ
832 L.-Y. Lu et al.
4 Evaluation of Control Performance of LVFD

by Numerical Simulation
4.1 System Parameters of Numerical Examples
In order to demonstrate the adaptability of the LVFD system, in this section, the
seismic responses of structures with the LVFD and PDC controller will be simu-
lated. In the simulation, two types of structural systems will be considered: one is a
single-DOF structure (let n ¼ 1 in Fig. 1) and the other is a 3-story shear structure
(let n ¼ 3 in Fig. 1). Tables 1 and 2 list the system parameters for the single-DOF
and 3-DOF structural systems with an LVFD, respectively. For comparison pur-
pose, in each structure type, the responses of the LVFD(PDC) will be compared
with those of two passive control schemes named Passive-max and Passive-min, so
that the adaptive feature of the LVFD can be further highlighted. The Passive-max
system refers to the case where the value of rp of the LVFD is fixed at its upper
bound (i.e., rp ¼ rp;max ), so Passive-max is equivalent to a PFD system with a
higher slip force. In the Passive-min system, rp is fixed at its lower bound (i.e.,
rp ¼ rp;min ), so Passive-min is equivalent to a PFD system with a lower slip force.
Table 1 Parametric values of a single-DOF structure with LVFD

System Parameter Value
Single-DOF structure Mass (m1) 59 kg
Damping coeff. (c1) 21.673 N/(m/s)
Equivalent damping ratio (f1 ) 2.9%
Stiffness (k1) 2317.210 N/m
Natural freq. (x1 ) 1 Hz
Bracing stiffness (kb) 49143 N/m
Friction coeff. of guide rails (ui) 0.026
LVFD parameter Slip force of PFD damper (uf,max) 45.6 N (=0.076 m1 g)
Length of lever-arm (L) 0.38 m
Range of pivot displacement (xp,max, Xp,min) (0.21L, −0.21L) m
PDC controller Range of rp (rp,max, rp,min) (2.4, 0.5)
Threshold structural disp. (x1,max) 0.05 m
Table 2 Structural and system parameters of the 3-story structure with LVFD
System Parameter Value
3-story shear Mass of each story (mi) 10.914, 11.213, 11.213
structure ton
Modal frequencies (fi) 1.07, 3.48 and 5.98 Hz
Modal damping ratio (fi) 1.41, 0.44, 0.31%
LVFD parameter (all parameters are the same as those in Table 1)
PDC controller Amplification factor range (rp,max, rp, (2.45, 0.41)
min)
Threshold structural disp. (x1,max) 0.02 m
4.2 Control Performance of LVFD for a Single-DOF

Structure
In this sub-section, the seismic responses of a single-DOF structural system with the
LVFD are simulated by using the system parameters listed in Table 1. Under the
Newhall earthquake, Fig. 3 compares the hysteresis loops of the LVFD using the
three control schemes, namely, PDC, Passive-max and Passive-min controls.
Two PGA levels, i.e., 0.1 g and 0.6 g, are considered in the figure. PGA = 0.1 g is
meant to represent an earthquake with small intensity, while PGA = 0.6 g repre-
sents a severe earthquake. Figure 4 compares the time histories of the accumulative
energy Eu ðtÞ dissipated by the three control schemes for the two different earth-
quake intensities. In Fig. 4, the energy dissipation Eu ðtÞ at a given time instant is
calculated by using the following equation
Z t
Eu ðtÞ ¼ uðsÞdxD ðsÞ ð7Þ
0
where xD ðtÞ denotes the displacement of point D in Fig. 2. Figures 3(a) reveals that
in the small earthquake (PGA = 0.1 g) the hysteresis loop of the LVFD with PDC
controller is closer to that of Passive-min; while Fig. 4(a) shows that the PDC and
Passive-min dissipate almost the same amount of seismic energy and is much larger
than that of Passive-max, since the friction damper in the Passive-max was not
activated during the most of earthquake duration.
On the other hand, in a severe earthquake (PGA = 0.6 g), Fig. 3(b) shows that
the hysteresis loop of the PDC is enlarged and dissipates much more energy than
that of the Passive-min. Figure 4(b) indicates that the amount of energy dissipated
by the PDC at PGA = 0.6 g is much larger than that of the Passive-min, and is even
larger than that of the Passive-max. Therefore, Figs. 3 and 4 together have
demonstrated the superior adaptability of the LVFD with the PDC controller.
Notably, although in Fig. 3(a) the Passive-max seems to have least story drift, it
also exerts the highest force on the structure, which could lead to a higher structural
acceleration.
834 L.-Y. Lu et al.
Fig. 3 Hysteresis loops of LVFD with three control schemes (Newhall earthquake)
Fig. 4 Energy dissipated by LVFD with three control schemes (Newhall earthquake)
4.3 Control Performance of LVFD for a 3-Story Shear

Structure
To consider a more realistic case of multiple DOF structure, in this sub-section, the
seismic responses of a 3-story shear structure with a LVFD installed in the first floor
and subjected to 16 earthquake records were simulated. The schematic diagram of
this structure with the LVFD is depicted by Fig. 1 for n ¼ 3, and the structural
modal properties that were obtained from a system identification test performed on
a real steel frame are listed in Table 2 [3]. As shown in Table 2, the three natural
frequencies of the 3-story frame were 1.07, 3.48 and 5.98 Hz. In the simulation, the
16 ground motion records were carefully selected to be representative of earth-
quakes with different characteristics, and some of them are near-fault earthquakes
with a long-period pulse component. The peak responses of this structure with the
three control systems, namely, the LVFD(PDC), Passive-max and Passive-min are
compared. The control parameters for the LVFD(PDC) used in the simulation are
also listed in the lower part of Table 2. Basically, these PDC parameters resemble
those in Table 1 used for the single-DOF structure. Notably, the threshold value of
the first-story drift for the PDC controller is taken as x1;max ¼ 0:02 m, which is
about one-third of x1;max in the single-DOF structure (see Table 1), since the
structure has three stories. The bracing stiffness for the LVFD is taken to be
kb ¼ 97371 kN/m that yields about the same bracing-to-structure stiffness ratio for
the single-DOF structure.
To investigate the adaptive feature of the LVFD, Figs. 5 and 6 compare the
average peak responses of the 3-story structure controlled by the three LVFD
control schemes and subjected to the 16 ground motions with the PGA scaled to
0.1 g (low intensity) and 0.3 g (high intensity), respectively. The averages of the
peak displacement and story-shear at each floor level are depicted in subplots
(a) and (b), respectively. In the figures, the average peak responses of an uncon-
trolled system, which refers to the structure without any kind of damper systems,
are also depicted for comparison. From Figs. 5(a) and 5(b), it is observed that for
lower-intensity earthquakes (PGA = 0.1 g), the LVFD(PDC) has the lowest dis-
placement responses at the second and third floors, while its story-shears are close
to those of the Passive-min, which has the lowest story shears at all floor levels. The
Passive-max performs as poorly as the uncontrolled system for story-shear
response, since Passive-max may not be activated in small earthquakes of
PGA = 0.1 g. On the other hand, for earthquakes with a higher intensity
(PGA = 0.3 g), Figs. 6(a) and 6(b) show that the LVFD(PDC) has the second
lowest displacement and shear responses at all floor-levels, and are very close to
those of the Passive-max, which has the lowest responses. Both the Passive-min
and uncontrolled system induce the floor-displacement responses that are sub-
stantially higher than those of the LVFD(PDC) and Passive-max. This implies that
the seismic energy dissipated by the Passive-min and uncontrolled systems are
insufficient in earthquake with higher intensity of PGA = 0.3 g. Figures 5 and 6
together demonstrate that the variable friction property has made the LVFD system
adaptive to the earthquake intensity and is advantageous for the seismic response
mitigation of a multiple-DOF structural system.
836 L.-Y. Lu et al.
3 3
Uncontrolled
Passive-Min
Passive-Max
LCFD(PDC)
2 2
Floor level
Floor level
Uncontrolled
Passive-Min
Passive-Max
LCFD(PDC)
1 1
0 0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 2 4 6 8 10
4
Displacement(m) Total shear(N) x 10
(a) Average peak floor displacement (b) Average peak story shear
Fig. 5 Comparison of average peak responses for the 3-story structure (PGA = 0.1 g)
3 3
Uncontrolled
Passive-Min
Passive-Max
LCFD(PDC)
2 2
Floor level
Floor level
Uncontrolled
Passive-Min 1
1
Passive-Max
LCFD(PDC)
0 0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
5
Displacement(m) Total shear(N) x 10
(a) Average peak floor displacement (b) Average peak story shear
Fig. 6 Comparison of average peak responses for the 3-story structure (PGA = 0.3 g)
5 Conclusions
A semi-active friction damper (SAFD), whose slip force can be controlled in real
time, may provide better seismic protection for a structural system than a passive
damper. However, a conventional SAFD, that employs a force-control method to
regulate the clamping force applied on the friction interface, usually require precise
control of the huge clamping force. To avert this problem, the notion of
leverage-type variable friction damper (LVFD) is proposed and its control perfor-
mance is evalued numerically in this study. The LVFD that regulates its friction
damping force by a displacement-control approach is primarily composed of a
passive friction damper and a leverage mechanism with a movable central pivot. By
controlling the pivot position in real time, the equivalent friction force of the LVFD
system can be adjusted precisely. Moreover, in order to determine the pivot position
effectively, a simple control law called “proportional displacement control (PDC)”
is adopted. Finally, considering a single-DOF and a 3-story shear structures, the
adaptive feature of the LVFD with the PDC controller was demonstrated by
comparing the responses of the LVFD with those of two types of passive control
schemes, one with a lower slip-force (Passive-min) and the other with higher
slip-force (Passive-max), respectively. The numerical results showed that the
energy dissipation capacity and the peak responses of the LVFD with the PDC
controller resemble those of the Passive-min system in a lower-intensity earthquake,
and resemble those of the Passive-max system in a higher-intensity earthquake.
This demonstrates that the friction behavior of the LVFD system is adaptive to
seismic excitations, so that better energy dissipation capacity can be achieved for
earthquakes with different intensities.
Acknowledgements This research was supported in part by the Ministry of Science and
Technology of R.O.C. (Taiwan), through grant MOST103-2625-M-006-010.
References
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earthquakes using variable friction dampers. Eng Struct 33:3143–3154
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Inelastic Deformation Ratio Evaluation
and Application to the Seismic Codes
Abdelmounaim Mechaala, Chikh Benazouz, Samy Guezouli,

and Youcef Mehani
Abstract This paper present a new semi-analytical approach aims to estimating the
inelastic deformation ratio for SDOF bilinear systems. The new proposed approach
combines both the inelastic and elastic maximum lateral displacement demands
instead of combining the yield-strength reduction factor and the ductility factor. The
new inelastic deformation ratio on one hand depends on the inelastic properties of
systems (the period, the post-to-preyield stiffness ratio, the yield strength coeffi-
cient, the normalized yield strength coefficient), on the other hand the elastic
spectral response acceleration ðSa Þ that is presented in seismic design codes, such as
the Federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA and Eurocode8. The results
are compared to those of the Nonlinear Time History Analysis (NL-THA) and some
existing formulations for three different reinforced concrete (R.C.) 2D-frames
subjected to the record ground motion of El-Centro 1940 (N/S).
Keywords Inelastic deformation ratio Seismic demand Pushover Inelastic

spectra
A. Mechaala (&) Y. Mehani

National Earthquake Engineering Research Center,
Rue Kaddour Rahim, BP 252 Hussein-Dey, Algiers, Algeria
e-mail: mounam-90@hotmail.fr
Y. Mehani
e-mail: mehani_youcef@yahoo.com
C. Benazouz
TPITE Laboratory, High National School of Built and Ground Works Engineering (ENSTP),
Algiers, Algeria
e-mail: cheikhpbsd@gmail.com
S. Guezouli
National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA), Rennes, France
e-mail: samy.guezouli@insa-rennes.fr

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_79
840 A. Mechaala et al.
1 Introduction
During an earthquake engineers always try to predict the maximum lateral dis-
placement of the structure which leads us to estimate the seismic demand. The most
useful methods to assess the inelastic response can be divide in two categories,
force-based methods and displacement-based methods. This latter depends on both
the inelastic and elastic response spectrum. Nowadays in the current seismic codes
many studies have focused on the Displacement Coefficient Method (DCM). The
basic idea of the DCM is converting the elastic linear displacement of an equivalent
Single Degree of Freedom (SDOF) system to achieve the inelastic displacement of a
Multi-Degree of Freedom (MDOF) system. This approach depend on such modi-
fication coefficients as the inelastic deformation ratio (Ratio between the inelastic
and elastic maximum lateral displacement demands) which depend on systems that
is known either as the yield-strength reduction factor or the ductility factor.
The first research that investigated the inelastic deformation ratios was by
Veletsos and Newmark [13], after that many researchers have studied, some of
them developed an ensemble of empirical approaches of the inelastic deformation
ratio [6, 9, 11, 12, 14–18, 19].
Recently, FEMA 440 (ATC-55 2005) planned by the Applied Technology
Council for the evaluation the performance of current procedures and suggested
certain improvements. Akkar and Metin [2] evaluated the improved Capacity
Spectrum Method (CSM) and improved displacement coefficient method (DCM) of
FEMA 440 (ATC 2005) by conducting numerous nonlinear response history
analyses on SDOF and MDOF systems under near-fault ground motions with pulse.
For most structure FEMA400 propose a new expression may be used for the
coefficient C1 (the inelastic deformation ratio).
More recently, Chikh et al. [4, 5] proposed a theoretical approach to estimates
the inelastic deformation ratio for equivalent SDOF bilinear systems. This latter
unifies and combines both Cl and CR effects and depends on the normalized yield
strength coefficient.
Mechaala et al. [10] proposed a new theoretical approach to estimates the
inelastic deformation ratio by including the effect of the higher modes of vibration.
In this paper, we first present the background of the nonlinear equations of
motion, and then is following the development of the inelastic and elastic response
spectra. Next, new design equations for the inelastic deformation ratio are devel-
oped. The equations should be useful in estimating the inelastic deformations ratios
for the seismic design and evaluation of structures. Finally, a simplified expression
of inelastic deformation ratio formula is proposed for the current and future Seismic
Codes.
Inelastic Deformation Ratio Evaluation … 841
2 Inelastic Deformation Ratio
2.1 Theoretical Background
The inelastic deformation ratio is defined as the relationship between the peak of
inelastic deformation and corresponding elastic deformation [6]. This ratio will be
denoted by Eq. (1):
xm l
C1 ¼ or ð1Þ
x0 R y
Where: x0 and xm are the peak of elastic and inelastic deformations of the SDOF
system, respectively (see Fig. 1).
Ry is the yield strength reduction factor defined by Eq. (2):

f0 x0
Ry ¼ ¼ ð2Þ
fy xy
Note that f 0 is the peak resisting force of elastic system, f y is yield strength of the
inelastic SDOF system and xy is the yield displacement (see Fig. 1).
l is the ductility factor defined by the following expression:

f m xm
l¼ ¼ ð3Þ
fy xy
Where: f m is the peak resisting force of the inelastic SDOF system.

Figure 1 Behavior of a bilinear inelastic SDOF system and its corresponding
elastic system.
The inelastic deformation ratios are categorized in two sections, with known
ductility factor l [6] defined by Eq. (4):
Fig. 1 Behavior of a bilinear

inelastic SDOF system and its
corresponding elastic system
xm
Cl ¼ ð4Þ
x0
And the second with known yield strength reduction factor Ry [5] defined by
Eq. (5):
xm
CR ¼ ð5Þ
x0
Chikh et al. [4, 5], proposed new model of the inelastic deformation ratio which
depends on the period, the post-to-preyield stiffness ratio, the yield strength and the
peak ground acceleration which is expressed by Eq. (6)
8
< 1
abT T gc T 1 sec
g1
Cg ¼ 1 T 1 sec ð6Þ
:
g1 1 for all values of T
Where: a; b and c are derived from the non-linear regression analysis for each
specific a value and each of the three specific intervals for T
2.2 Elastic and Inelastic Deformation Response Spectra
The equation of motion of an inelastic SDOF system subjected to an earthquake

ground motion is expressed by Eq. (7):
m€x þ c_x þ f ðx; x_ Þ ¼ m€xg ðtÞ ð7Þ
Where: m, c and f represent the mass, damping, and the resisting force of the
system, respectively. €xg ðtÞ denotes the earthquake acceleration, f is usually reported
as the sum of a linear part and a hysteretic part [3] and expressed by Eq. (8):
f ¼ kp x þ Qz ð8Þ
In the above equation, kp and Q represent the post yield stiffness and the yield
strength, respectively. z is the dimensionless variable that characterizes the
Bouc-Wen model of hysteresis [18], it is given by Eq. (9):
x_
z_ ¼ ½A jzjg ðcsgnðx_ zÞ þ bÞ ð9Þ
xy
Fig. 2 Behavior of an
(SDOF) bilinear system [3, 4]
Where: xy is the yield displacement, A, g, c and b are the parameters which

control the shape of the hysteresis loop. The Fig. 2 shows the behavior of an
inelastic SDOF [3, 4]:
Substituting Eq. (8) into Eq. (7) and dividing by m yields:
kp Q
€x þ 2nx_x þ x þ z ¼ €xg ðtÞ ð10Þ
m m
Or simply in Eq. (11):
€x þ 2nx_x þ ax2 x þ qgz ¼ €xg ðtÞ ð11Þ
Where: n, x, a and q represent the damping ratio, circular frequency,

post-to-preyield stiffness ratio, and the yield strength coefficient (defined as yield
strength divided by the system weight ðqg ¼ Q=m), respectively.
In case of an elastic linear SDOF system, Eqs. (7), (8) and (10) provide
Eqs. (12) and (13):
f ðtÞ ¼ ke xðtÞ ð12Þ
€xðtÞ þ 2nx_xðtÞ þ x2 xðtÞ ¼ €xg ðtÞ ð13Þ
Where:
ke is the elastic stiffness and f is the resisting force.

The yield displacement is given by [2]:
qg
xy ¼ ð14Þ
x 2 ð1
aÞ
The procedure to construct the elastic and inelastic response spectra for inelastic
and corresponding elastic SDOF systems with specified levels of yield strength q
and post-to-preyield stiffness ratio a, is summarized in the following section:
1. Define the ground motion €xg ðtÞ;
2. Select and fix the damping ratio n and the post-to-preyield stiffness ratio a for
which the spectrum is to be plotted;
3. Specify a value for the yield strength q;
4. Select a value for elastic period T;
5. Solve Eq. (11) and Eq. (13) and determine the inelastic and elastic displacement
response xðtÞ according to the values selected for T; n; q and a.
6. Derive and select the maximum value of the inelastic and elastic displacement.
7. Repeat steps 3 to 6 for the given range of periods T.
8. Calculate the inelastic deformation ratios C ðn; T; a; qÞ.
Once the elastic and inelastic responses have been found and the influence of a
and q have been analyzed Abdelmounaim et al. [1], the inelastic deformation ratio
should be determined as a function of q and a using the El Centro 1940 earthquake
(N/S) ground motion for more explanation about the influence of these parameters
of control.
Abdelmounaim et al. [1] studied the influence of the post-to-preyield stiffness
ratio a and the yield strength coefficient q using the inelastic deformation ratio
spectra, the main results showed that:
– For periods T [ 1 s and for different values of both post-to-preyield stiffness
ratio a and the yield strength coefficient q, the inelastic deformation ratio
C ¼ 1.
Furthermore when q [ 0:3 and for any period T; the inelastic deformation ratio
is close to the unity (C 1Þ.
– The post-to-preyield stiffness ratio a has no effect when T [ 1 s , however it has
a small slightly influence when periods T\1 s.
2.3 Simplified Expression for Inelastic Deformation Ratio
The inelastic deformation ratio formulas presented above have been developed, in
order to simplify the estimation of this latter. Recently, Benazouz et al. [3] proposed
simplified expressions to compute the peak inelastic deformation xm by using a
parameter called the normalized yield strength coefficient (defined as yield strength
coefficient to the Peak Ground Acceleration PGA), given by Eq. (15):
qg
g¼ ð15Þ
PGA
The inelastic deformation xm is expressed by Eq. (16) as:

" #
PGA aðbÞ1=T ðT Þg þ 2c
xm ¼ ð16Þ
4p2 ð 1 aÞ
Where: a, b and c are parameters arranged in Table 3 below for the different
values of g and a. Table 1 resumes the main results according to parameters a; b
and c.
Furthermore, for periods greater than 0:6 s [2], a simplified equation may be
used to calculate the inelastic deformation xm , which is given by using the fol-
lowing expression of Eq. (17):
xm ¼ 0:027T 0:84 PGA ð17Þ
Several studies have been investigated to develop a simplified expression for the
inelastic deformation ratio considering SDOF systems. The new proposed proce-
dure allows us to assess the inelastic deformation ratio without using neither yield
strength nor the post-to-preyield stiffness ratio. It provides a good estimation of
inelastic deformation ratio for new or rehabilitated structures, using only the elastic
response spectrum and xm obtained from Eqs. (16) and (17). The Eq. (18) shows us
the simplified expressions given by:
8 1
>
> PGA aðbÞT ðTÞ
g þ 2c
< 4p2 ð1aÞ =SD 0\T\0:6 s
q 0:3 Cq ¼ 0:6 s T 1:0 s
>
> 0:027 T 0:84 PGA=SD ð18Þ
: T [ 1:0 s
1:0
q 0:3 Cq ¼ 1:0 For all values of T
We define the spectral displacement SD as the following equation
F T2 Sa Te2
SD ¼ ¼ mSa 2e ¼ ð19Þ
k 4p m 4p2
Table 1 a; b and c parameters

Parameters g\1 g 1 (all of the values of a)
að%Þ
0 3 5 10
a 1.24 1.12 1.08 1.04 1.23
b 0.98 0.94 0.92 0.88 0.85
c 1.69 1.65 1.68 1.68 1.21 + a
5 5
Proposed C
4 T heoretical C 4
NH
KN
3 3
RM
CR
C
CC
2 FEMA356 2
FEMA440
1 1
0 0
0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3
Period, sec Period, sec
Fig. 3 Inelastic deformations ratio for El-Centro 1940 (PGA = 0.319, q = 0.2, a = 0.1)
Where:
T: is the natural fundamental period of the building in the considered direction.
Sa : is the spectral acceleration (can be find in the seismic codes).

Once the inelastic deformation ratio have been constructed as a function of q; a
considering the El Centro 1940 earthquake (N/S). A different existing inelastic
deformation ratio and the proposed procedure are compared with the theoretical
inelastic deformation ratios.
Figure 3 provides a comparative study of existing models [4–6, 7, 8, 14–16], in
the case of bilinear systems under El-Centro 1940 (N/S) ground motion for q ¼ 0:2,
a ¼ 10%.
The obtained results confirm those predicted by using the selected existing
formulations.
3 Application
In order to evaluate the inelastic deformation ratio three examples of three (3St),
seven (7St) and ten (10St) story reinforced concrete frames are used to evaluate the
coefficient C1 that represents the inelastic deformation of structures in the
Displacement Coefficient Method (DCM). where in all consisting three-bay frame
with 4 m spaced and typical story height of 3 m.
The intent of the study is to analytically confirm the application of the proposed
expressions when using the nonlinear time history analysis. For this purpose,
reinforcements yield strength has been modeled using a bilinear curve (yield
strength 413 MPa, concrete compressive strength 25 MPa, and concrete density
3St 7St 10St

200 4000 4000
150 3000 3000

Vb, kN
100 2000 2000
50 1000 1000
0 0 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 0 10 20 0 20 40
x, cm x, cm x, cm
Fig. 4 Pushover curve and capacity diagram of 3St, 7St and 10St structures
Table 2 Inelastic deformation form Eq. (15), Eq. (16) and NL-THA with El Centro (1940)
ground motion (N/S)
Structure T ðsÞ a(%) q g xm NL-THA xm xm Eq. 16 and x0
(cm) Theoretical 17 (cm) (cm)
3St 0.30 24 0.299 0.94 1.718 1.20 1.56 1.70
7St 0.96 3.1 0.263 0.83 12.671 8.20 8.19 8.5
10St 1.40 2.5 0.256 0.81 13.133 8.70 11.19 9.31
2:5 t/m3 and concrete Young’s modulus 3:21107 KN/m2 ). The capacity curve in
this application is obtained by applying the adaptive Pushover Analysis (Reinhorn
et al. 2006). The capacity curve of each structure is shown in Fig. 4.
To estimate the inelastic deformation ratio more accurately, once the analysis has
been completed, the results obtained from the idealization of the Pushover curve are
shown in Table 2, (where a ¼ kp =ke is the post-to-preyield stiffness ratio). The next
step in the analysis is to determine the dynamic inelastic displacement using the
nonlinear time history analysis with the IDARC program. The results of the new
proposed procedure and theoretical expression (from MATLAB) are illustrated in
Table 2.
Figure 5 shows different inelastic response spectra of three (3St), seven (7St) and
ten (10St) story reinforced concrete frames with El-Centro 1940 (N/S) ground
motion. In order to verify the exactitude of the proposed theoretical and empirical
approaches, the obtained results are compared and summarized in Table 3 with
some existing formulations.
One can notice that, for the considered examples, the Eq. (18) gives a good
result in comparison with the results obtained when using the existing formulations.
0.35
0.3
St3
St7
0.25
St10
0.2
xm, m
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
0 0.3 0.96 1.4 2 3
Period, sec
Fig. 5 Inelastic response spectra for each structure obtained with El-Centro 1940 (N/S) ground
motion
Table 3 Comparison of the proposed inelastic deformation ratio with those obtained from the
NL-THA with El Centro (1940) ground motion (N/S) and some existing formulations
Structure CNLTHA Theoretical C CEq:18 CNH CKN C FEMA CRM CCC C FEMA Cg
356 440
3St 1.01 0.70 0.92 1.00 1.03 1.00 1.03 1.07 1.00 0.80
7St 1.49 0.96 0.96 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.99
10St 1.41 0.93 1.20 1.00 0.99 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00
4 Conclusions
The main target of this investigation is to develop a new theoretical equation for the
inelastic deformation ratio, which allows the estimation of the maximum inelastic
deformation by using the maximum elastic deformation. This equation is expressed
by a series of parameters (the natural period, the post-to-preyield stiffness ratio, the
normalized yield strength coefficient and the peak ground acceleration) taking in
consideration a SDOF bilinear system. In this study El-Centro 1940 (N/S) record
ground motions was used. According to the results above, the new inelastic
deformation ratio (C) shows a sensitive to the post-to-preyield stiffness ratio (a),
yield strength coefficient q and the normalized yield strength coefficient (g).
The main conclusions for this investigation could be summarized as follows:
The new proposed procedure provides us to evaluate the inelastic deformation
ratio without using neither yield strength nor the post-to-preyield stiffness ratio.
The accuracy of C depends strongly on the inelastic properties of systems, i.e.
a; q and PGA (peak ground acceleration).
Simplified expression for the inelastic deformation ratio have been developed
ðCq ), as a function of T, a, x0 , q and PGA. This equation provides a good estimation
of inelastic deformation ratio for new or rehabilitated structures when the elastic
response spectrum is known in comparison with the other results obtained from
existing formulations.
New design equations are developed and proposed for the current and future
Seismic Codes to estimate the inelastic deformations ratios for the assessment of
structures, based on the design response spectrum of this latter and the peak
inelastic deformation parameters.
References
1. Abdelmounaim M, Chikh B, Hamma Z, Mouhamed amine B (2018) Evaluation of the

displacement coefficient method for seismic demands assessment of structures. In: 14th Arab
structural engineering conference, Irbid, Jordon, p 55
2. Akkar S, Metin A (2007) Assessment of improved nonlinear static procedures in FEMA-440.
J Struct Eng 133(9):1237–1246
3. Benazouz C, Moussa L, Ali Z (2012) Ductility and inelastic deformation demands of
structures. Struct Eng Mech 42(5):631–644
4 Chikh B, Laouami N, Mebarki A, Leblouba M, Mehani Y, Kibboua A, Hadid M, Benouar D
(2017) Seismic structural demands and inelastic deformation ratios: sensitivity analysis and
simplified models. Earthq Struct 13(1):59–66
5. Chikh B, Mebarki A, Laouami N, Leblouba M, Mehani Y, Hadid M, Kibboua A, Benouar D
(2017) Seismic structural demands and inelastic deformation ratios: a theoretical approach.
Earthq Struct Int J 12(4):397–407
6. Chopra AK, Chiatanapakdee C (2003) Inelastic deformation ratios for design and evaluation
of structures. Rep. No. EERC-2003-09, EERC, University of California at Berkeley,
Berkeley, California
7. Fema P (2000) Commentary for the seismic rehabilitation of buildings. FEMA-356, Federal
Emergency Management Agency, Washington, DC
8. Fema A (2005) 440, Improvement of nonlinear static seismic analysis procedures.
FEMA-440, Redwood City
9. Qi X, Moehle JP (1991) Displacement design approach for reinforced concrete structures
subjected to earthquakes, vol 91, no 2. Earthquake Engineering Research Center, College of
Engineering/University of California
10. Mechaala A, Benazouz C, Zedira H, Mehani Y, Guezouli S (2019) Higher modes contribution
for estimating the inelastic deformation ratios and seismic demands of structures. J Mech Sci
Technol 33(2):591–601
11. Miranda E (1993) Evaluation of site-dependent inelastic seismic design spectra. J Struct Eng
119(5):1319–1338
12. Miranda E (2000) Inelastic displacement ratios for structures on firm sites. J Struct Eng 126
(10):1150–1159
13. Newmark NM, Veletsos AS (1960) Effects of inelastic behavior on the response of systems.
In: Proceedings of the II world conference on earthquake engineering, pp 895–912
14. Newmark NM, Hall WJ (1982) Earthquake spectra and design. Earth System
15. Krawinkler HELMUT, Nassar AA (1992) Seismic design based on ductility and cumulative
damage demands and capacities. In: Nonlinear seismic analysis and design of reinforced
concrete buildings, pp 23–39
16. Ruiz-García J, Miranda E (2003) Inelastic displacement ratios for evaluation of existing
structures. Earthquake Eng Struct Dynam 32(8):1237–1258
17. Shimazaki K, Sozen MA (1984) Seismic drift of reinforced concrete structures. Hazama-gumi
18. Wen YK (1976) Method for random vibration of hysteretic systems. J Eng Mech Div 102
(2):249–263
19. Zhai C, Li S, Xie L, Sun Y (2007) Study on inelastic displacement ratio spectra for near-fault
pulse-type ground motions. Earthq Eng Eng Vib 6(4):351–355
Development of 1D and 2D Portable
Shaking Table Test System
as Educational Materials
O. Tsujihara, K. Uenoyama, T. Okamoto, and T. Yamamura
Abstract The intuitive understandings of vibration helps to foster the motivation to

learn such the subjects as earthquake disaster prevention, vibration and earthquake
resistance in the department of civil engineering and the architecture. This paper
introduces a portable shaking experiment device which is developed as a teaching
material to support the intuitive understandings of structural vibrations. The shaking
table is composed of a PC, a commercially available motion controller and actuators.
Placing the two actuators in a right angle direction, a two-axis shaking table can be
also realized. The proposed system supports not only the intuitive understandings of
vibration but also helps the explanation of the relations between vibration of structure
models and equations. The recorded data of vibrations can be available for exercises
such as the estimation of the natural period and the damping constant of structure
models and the calculation of model responses excited by the shaking table.
Keywords Vibration Actuator Intuitive understanding Accelerometer

Exercise
1 Introduction
A questionnaire survey to the students who had difficulties in the vibration engi-
neering class at our college revealed the importance of the enhancement of
understandings of the relation between the phenomenon of vibration and the related
equation and the intuitive understanding of the strength of vibration such as the
seismic intensity and acceleration [3]. Shaking table tests are considered to be
effective to give the intuitive understandings in the subjects such as earthquake
disaster prevention, vibration and earthquake resistance in the department of civil
engineering and architecture. However, those systems are generally installed at
higher education institutions and are mainly used for the purpose of research. Data
O. Tsujihara (&) K. Uenoyama T. Okamoto T. Yamamura

National Institute of Technology, Wakayama College, Gobo 644-0023, Japan
e-mail: tsujihara@wakayama-nct.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_80
852 O. Tsujihara et al.
of vibration of structure models on the shaking table are measured by the measuring
device such as accelerometers and proceeded offline. It is not expected to be fre-
quently used in the classrooms. Therefore, the development of portable shaking
table test systems which can be often used in the classrooms to demonstrate the
phenomena of vibration is required.
Recently, some portable shaking tables have been developed which is easy to be
carried to classrooms. The hand-turned type shaking table including some building
models, which was developed by [1], is commercially supplied at a low price. The
motor-driven portable shaking table was also developed by [1]. They support the
visual understandings about the phenomena of vibration. However, the functions to
support the verification of the theory and the quantitative understandings of the
scale of vibration are also required. [3] developed the portable shaking table device
which enabled real-time measurement of motions and calculation of their seismic
intensity and Fourier spectra. The values of seismic intensity and the graphs of
waveform and Fourier spectra can be visualized in real time. [4] developed the
virtual portable vibration experiment device, in which the shaking table and
structure models were built virtually in the computer display and the table was
controlled in response to the movement of one’s hand. Also, [5] improved the
experiment system, using a commercially available compact 1-axis actuator, in
which the real shaking table could be used.
In this study, a new portable shaking test system which is composed of a motion
controller, two actuators and a PC is introduced.
2 Hardware and Software
2.1 Hardware
The hardware is composed of a motion controller, one or two actuators and their
drivers, and a PC as shown in Fig. 1. Figure 2 shows PMC-S4/00/00A-U produced
by Y2 co. ltd. and EASM6X-D020-ARAC produced by Oriental Motor co. ltd.
used as the motion controller and the actuator with its driver, respectively. The cost
of these devices except PC in total is under 2,500 US dollar.
The actuator is driven by the stepping motor. The primary specification of the
actuator is shown in Table 1. The lead denotes the shift amount of the actuator per 1
rotation of the motor. The shift amount and the moving velocity are controlled by
the number of pulse and pulse velocity, respectively. They can be calculated by the
following equations.
ðnumber of pulse in ½pulseÞ¼ðrequired shift amount in ½mmÞ=ðminimum shift amount in ½mmÞ ð1Þ
ðpulse velocity in ½HzÞ¼ðrequired moving velocity in ½mm/sÞ / (minimum shift amount in ½mm]) ð2Þ
Development of 1D and 2D Portable Shaking Table Test System … 853
Fig. 1 Hardware of portable shaking table
Fig. 2 Motion controller (upper left), driver (upper right) and actuator (lower)
Table 1 Specification of actuator

Size Length: 465 mm Width: 75.4 mm Height: 83 mm
Lead 12 mm
Stroke 200 mm
Power supply AC
Minimum shift amount 0.01 mm (changeable)
Maximum velocity 800 mm/s
Maximum transportable mass 30 kg
2.2 Software
The software is built using VB.NET. The API functions prepared as the accessary
of the motion controller are used to control the actuator. The actuator is basically
controlled by receiving the values of velocity and displacement at regular intervals.
Two ways are prepared for the control of the actuator. One is the way that the
prepared set of time series of data is sent to the actuator. The other is the way that
the values of velocity and displace, which are obtained by the integration of the
acceleration, are sent to the actuator.
3 Behavior of Actuator
The comparison of the wave forms of velocity in case of sinusoidal input are shown
in Fig. 3. Though slight disagreements between the transmitted data and the
behavior of the shaking table are recognized, the wave forms are almost identical.
Sine sine-waves up to about 10 Hz can be expressed by this shaking table
depending on the amplitude.
Figure 4 shows the comparison of wave forms in case of random vibration input,
in which the scaled acceleration in the event of an actual earthquake was used.
Partially disagreement can be recognized between the wave forms. The velocity of
the shaking table is larger in some peaks of the wave form.
Fig. 3 Comparison of wave forms of velocity between behavior of shaking table and transmitted
data in case of sinusoidal input
Fig. 4 Comparison of wave forms of velocity between behavior of shaking table and transmitted
data in case of random vibration input
4 Applications
4.1 Exercise of Calculation of Structure Response
The structure model of shear deformation type is shown in Fig. 5. The material of
the model is aluminium plate with thickness of 1 mm.
4.1.1 Natural Period and Damping Factor
The records of free vibration of the structure model can be used for the estimation of
the natural period and damping constant of the structure model. Figure 6 shows the
waveform and the Fourier spectrum of the acceleration of the structure model. The
natural period can be estimated directly from the peak frequency of the Fourier
spectrum. The data of acceleration can be saved as text data. By reading the data in
Microsoft Excel and drawing the waveform, the damping constant can be estimated
from the ratio of two peak values of acceleration. The natural period and damping
constant of this structure model were identified as 0.196 s and 0.008, respectively.
4.1.2 Forced Vibration and Response of Structure Model
The structure model is excited by the shaking table. It is recognized that the
response of the structural model may be several times greater than that of the
vibrating table, depending on how the shaking table is controlled In addition, if the
shaking table is moved at a cycle close to the natural period of the structure model,
the resonance can be quantitatively evaluated from the waveforms and the Fourier
spectra.
Fig. 5 Structure model for exercise of response calculation
Fig. 6 Free vibration test
The structure model can be regarded as single degree of freedom of shear

deformation type. The equation of motion is shown as Eq. (3).
€
€y þ 2hn_y þ n2 y ¼ / ð3Þ
Fig. 7 Comparison between analytical model responses excited by shaking table and recorded
motion
where y; h; n; / are displacement, damping constant, natural circular frequency of

structure model and displacement of shaking table, respectively. The damping
constant and natural circular frequency can be estimated by the free vibration test as
mentioned. The natural circular frequency is obtained from the natural period, and
the data file of acceleration of shaking table is available. These data can be used for
the exercise of the response analysis. Since the unknowns are acceleration, velocity
and displacement of the structure model, Eq. (3) can be solved by various
numerical analysis methods. It is interesting to discuss the fitness between the
results of response analysis and the recorded data of acceleration of structure model
as shown in Fig. 7.
4.2 Use of Two Actuators
4.2.1 2-Axis Shaking Table
As shown in Fig. 8, 2 actuators are mounted at right angle on the base to realize the
2D shaking table. The dedicated rails that move with the moving part of the
actuators are required. The most difficult part was the development of the 2-axis
slide mechanism (see Fig. 9) that played the role of transmitting the rail movement
in two directions to the sliding table. Figure 10 shows the vibrating of 3-story
structure model excited by the 2-axis shaking table.
Fig. 8 Procedure of constructing 2-axis shaking table
Fig. 9 Parts of 2-axis slider
4.2.2 Observation of Model Response Excited by Different Period

and Amplitude
The simultaneous presentation of the difference of the model response by the

different excitation is difficult by one shaking table. However, the proposed system
makes it possible, because the two actuators can be controlled simultaneously with
different period and amplitude. The observation of the response of the identical
structure models as shown in Fig. 11 excited in the same direction but different
period and amplitude helps the intuitive understanding of the relation between the
characteristics of input motions and the response of structure.
Fig. 10 4-story structure model excited by 2-axis shaking table
Fig. 11 8-story structure models excited in same direction but different period and amplitude
4.2.3 Presentation of Earthquake Damage Using Diorama
The two actuators can be used to move the wide diorama model as shown in
Fig. 12. The diorama model is attached to the actuators arranged in parallel. Then,
the two actuators are required to move completely in unison.
Fig. 12 Use of actuators to shake diorama model
The diorama model can show the following damages.

(a) Liquefaction of the ground and the damage of houses
(b) Sloshing and overflows of liquid filled in tank
(c) Bridge fall
(d) Landslide
5 Conclusions
New teaching materials are developed to promote intuitive understandings of

vibration. The portable shaking table developed in this study is composed of the
devices such as actuators, motion controller and PC. The feature of this teaching
materials is that it can be introduced at low price and flexibly used by the com-
bination of two actuators.
The major results are shown in the followings.

(1) The device can be used as a 2-axis shaking table arranging the actuators at right
angle on the dedicated base.
(2) The device can be used as two shaking tables that can be controlled simulta-
neously with different period and amplitude, respectively.
(3) The device can run wide width models like dioramas.
References
1. Fukuwa N, Hara T, Koide E, Kuratani K, Tsuruta Y (2005) Development of vibration

experiment education materials to promote seismic retrofit. J Inst Soc Saf Sci (7):1–22
2. Oriental Motor (2011) Operating manual of closed loop stepping motor and driver package alfa
step high-efficiency AR series motor CE. https://www.orientalmotor.co.jp
3. Tsujihara O, Nakatani Y, Yamamura T (2014) Development of portable shaking experiment
device to support instinctive understandings of vibration. J Jpn Soc Civil Eng A1 70(4):
I_1052–I_1060
4. Tsujihara O, Okamoto T (2015) Experiment System by Virtual Shaking Table Using
Accelerometer, Implementing Innovative Ideas in Structural Engineering and Project
Management. ISEC Press, pp 995–1000
5. Tsujihara O, Yamamura T, Okamoto T (2018) Development of self-controllable portable
shaking table test system. In: Proceedings of 16th European conference on earthquake
engineering, Paper No. 10413, pp 1–8
6. Y2 Corporation (2017.11.25 last browsed), USB-PC104 series, user’s manual of PMC-S4/00/
00A-U. https://www.y2c.co.jp/usb-pc104/pdf/pmc-s4_00_00a-u.pdf
Experimental Study on Dynamic
Behaviors of Flexural Strengthened RC
Beams with AFRP Sheet Having
1660 g/m2 Mass Under Consecutive
Impact Loading
S. Le Huy, M. Komuro, N. Kishi, and T. Kawarai
Abstract In order to establish a rational method for upgrading the impact-resistant

capacities of the reinforced concrete (RC) beams using Fiber Reinforced Polymer
(FRP) sheet, consecutive drop-weight impact loading tests of the beams strength-
ened in flexure with an Aramid FRP (AFRP) sheet were carried out. In this study,
the AFRP sheet having a density of 1660 g/m2 was bonded to the tension-side
surface of the beams. RC beams used here have a rectangular cross section of
200 mm width, 250 mm depth, and 3 m clear span length. Impact load was applied
by dropping a 300 kg steel weight from a predetermined height onto the mid-span
of the beam consecutively. The height was increased in the order of 1, 2, 2.5, and
3 m up to the corresponding ultimate state of the beam. The results obtained from
this study were as follows: (1) maximum and residual deflections can be decreased
effectively by strengthening with AFRP sheet; (2) absolute maximum and residual
deflections were linearly distributed corresponding to an accumulated input impact
energy; and (3) the RC beams strengthened with AFRP sheet reached the ultimate
state with the sheet debonding.

Keywords FRP sheet Flexural strengthening Consecutive impact loading RC

beams Sheet debonding
S. Le Huy (&) M. Komuro N. Kishi T. Kawarai

e-mail: 18096010@mmm.muroran-it.ac.jp
M. Komuro
N. Kishi
e-mail: kishi@mmm.muroran-it.ac.jp
T. Kawarai
e-mail: 18096003@mmm.muroran-it.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_81
864 S. Le Huy et al.
1 Introduction
In Japan, after the Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake on Jan. 17, 1995, strengthening
and/or retrofitting of the reinforced concrete (RC) bridge piers were carried out
nationwide. Generally, the thickness increasing method and/or steel plate jacketing
method have been usually applied for these strengthening works. However, recently
the fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) sheet bonding method has been sometimes used
because of the unique advantages of the FRP materials such as corrosion resistance,
high strength-to-weight ratio, and easy installation. Now, design methods for
strengthening RC members with FRP materials have been established [1, 5] and the
method was widely applied worldwide.
While FRP materials may be applicable for strengthening the RC structures
under not only static loads but also extreme loads such as blast and impact loads [2–
4, 10–12], the authors have also investigated the applicability of the FRP materials
for strengthening RC structures under impact loading, both experimentally and
numerically [7, 9]. However, design specifications for RC members strengthened
with FRP materials under impact loading have not been established yet, and further
studies are required.
From this point of view, in this paper, to investigate impact-resistant charac-
teristics of the RC members strengthened with FRP sheets, consecutive drop-weight
impact loading tests of the RC beams strengthened with bonding aramid FRP
(AFRP) sheet were carried out. To investigate the strengthening effects of the AFRP
sheets on impact-resistant capacities of the beams, unstrengthened beams were also
tested as a reference. Based on the test results, the failure behavior of the beams and
relationships between maximum/residual deflections and the input impact energy
were discussed.
In this study, a total of 8 specimens were used. Drop height of the weight, input
impact energy, material properties of concrete and rebar, and calculated flexural and
shear load-carrying capacities of the specimens are listed in Table 1. In this table,
the nominal name of the specimen was designated in the order of strengthening
material (N: none and AS: AFRP), loading method (S: static loading, and CI:
consecutive impact loading), and set drop height of the weight (Hm-n) (m and n:
drop height for the initial and subsequent loadings, respectively, in metric unit). The
estimated drop height of the weight (referred to hereinafter as drop height) was
evaluated using the measured drop velocity of the weight just before impacting the
upper surface of the beam.
The calculated static flexural and shear load-carrying capacities of each speci-
men were estimated according to the Standard Specification for Concrete Structure
[6] using material properties of concrete, rebar, and AFRP sheet (see, Table 2).
Table 1 List of specimens
Specimen Experimental Set Measured Measured Accumulated Compressive Yield Yield Calculated Calculated Debonding
case drop drop input input impact strength of stress stress flexural shear of AFRP
height height of impact energy Eai concrete f’c of axial of capacity capacity sheet
of weight energy Ei (kJ) (MPa) rebar fya stirrup Pusc (kN) Vusc (kN)
weight H’(m) (kJ) (MPa) fys
H (m) (MPa)
N-S N-S Static – – – 32.4 381.7 461.9 55.0 329.0 –
N-CI-H1 N-CI-H1-1 1 1.01 2.97 2.97 33.7 371.0 401.9 54.0 298.8 –
N-CI-H1-2 2 1.99 5.85 8.82
Experimental Study on Dynamic Behaviors …
–
N-CI-H2.5 N-CI-H2.5-2.5 2.5 2.49 6.73 6.73 32.4 381.7 461.9 55.0 329.0 –
AS-S AS-S Static – – – 33.7 371.0 401.9 126.1 298.8 Yes
AS-CI-H1 AS-CI-H1-1 1 1.01 2.97 2.97 No
AS-CI-H1-2 2 1.99 5.85 8.82 No
AS-CI-H1-2.5 2.5 2.49 7.33 16.15 Yes
AS-CI-H2 AS-CI-H2-2 2.0 1.99 5.85 5.85 No
AS-CI-H2-2.5 2.5 2.61 7.69 13.54 Yes
AS-CI-H2.5 AS-CI-H2.5 2.5 2.49 7.33 7.33 Yes
AS-CI-H3 AS-CI-H3.0 3.0 3.04 8.95 8.95 Yes
865
Table 2 Material properties of AFRP sheet

Mass per Unit area Thickness Tensile Elastic modulus Failure strain
(g/m2) (mm) strength (GPa) Ef (GPa) efu (%)
830 0.572 2.06 118 1.75
Figure 1 shows the dimensions of the specimens and the layout of rebars and
AFRP sheets. All beams have a rectangular cross-section of 200 mm width,
250 mm depth, and 3 m clear span length. The axial rebars were welded to the steel
plate at the ends of the beams to ensure full anchorage. Stirrups were placed at
intervals of 100 mm and the AFRP sheets were bonded to the tension-side surface
of the beams leaving 50 mm between the end of the sheet and support point.
Beam AS was strengthened by bonding two-ply AFRP sheets with a density of
1660 g/m2. Material properties of the AFRP sheets used in this study are listed in
Table 2.
Static loading tests were carried out following the three-point-loading test
method. The load was surcharged using the loading jig with 100 mm width in the
span direction by using a hydraulic jack at the mid-span of the beam.
Impact load was applied by dropping a 300 kg steel weight from a predeter-
mined height onto the mid-span of the beam. The height was increased in the order
of 1, 2, 2.5, and 3 m until the beams reached the ultimate state due to the AFRP
sheet debonding or fracturing. The weight was made of a steel solid cylinder with a
height of 1.4 m and a diameter of 200 mm for the striking part, and its impacting
surface has a taper with a height of 2 mm to prevent from one-sided contact.
In this experiment, time histories of the impact force P, the reaction force R, and
the mid-span deflection (hereinafter, deflection)d, and axial strain distribution of the
AFRP sheets were measured. The deflection was measured by using a laser-type
Fig. 1 Dimensions of specimens and layout of rebar and AFRP sheet

Experimental Study on Dynamic Behaviors … 867
Fig. 2 View of test setup for drop-weight impact loading
Linear Variable Displacement Transducer (LVDT). These output data were con-
tinuously recorded by using digital data recorders with a sampling time of 0.1 ms.
After each test, the residual deflection was measured, and the crack patterns of the
beam were also sketched.
3 Experimental Results and Discussions
3.1 Static Loading Tests
3.1.1 Load-Deflection Curves
Figure 3 shows comparisons of the static load-deflection curves between Beams

N-S and AS-S. From these results, it is observed that in the case of unstrengthened
Beam N, the curve was flattened after the deflection d = 15 mm. Because the main
rebar near the loading area yielded and the upper concrete cover in this area failed
in compression, then the beam permanently deformed at the area. On the other
hand, in the case of Beam AS, the rebar yield point and load-carrying capacities
were significantly improved.
Comparing the maximum load-carrying capacities from the experimental results
between Beams N and AS, the capacities of Beam AS were increased by 71%
referring to those of Beam N. In this comparison, the capacities for Beam N were
evaluated by using the value at the mid-span deflection of 38 mm because of the
load increasing monotonically due to the plastic- hardening effect of the rebars.
Comparing between the experimental and calculated results, the followings can
be observed: (1) the experimental results for Beam N-S better correspond to the
calculated ones; (2) the experimental results for Beam AS-S were smaller than the
calculated ones; and (3) Beam AS-S cannot ensure the calculated load-carrying
capacities due to the sheet gradually debonding.
Fig. 3 Comparisons of
load-deflection curves
between Beams N-S and
AS-S
3.1.2 Crack Patterns of RC Beams
Figure 4 shows comparisons of the crack patterns between Beams N-S and AS-S
after the static loading. From this figure, the following findings indicate that: (1) in
the case of Beam N-S, the flexural cracks developed concentrating around the
loading area and the beam was permanently deformed near the area; (2) in the case
of Beam AS-S, the flexural cracks were more widely distributed than those for
Beam N-S; and (3) Beam AS-S was not permanently deformed due to the
strengthening effects of the AFRP sheet.
Fig. 4 Comparisons of crack

patterns of RC beams under
static loading: a Beam N-S;
and b Beam AS-S
3.2 Drop-Weight Impact Tests
3.2.1 Time Histories of Impact Force, Reaction Force, and Deflection
Figure 5 shows the comparisons of time histories of the impact force P, the reaction
force R, and the displacement d between Beams N-CI-H1 and AS-CI-H1. Figure 5
(a) shows the comparisons of the dynamic responses at the drop height H = 1 m
between Beams N/AS-CI-H1. From the figures, it is observed that: (1) time his-
tories of the main response on the impact force P and the reaction force R were
similar to each other; but (2) the maximum and residual deflections for Beam AS
were smaller than those of Beam N.
Figure 5(b) shows the comparisons of dynamic responses at the drop height
H = 2 m between Beams N/AS-CI-H1. From these figures, the followings can be
observed; (1) time histories of the impact force P were similar to each other;
(2) time duration of the main response of the reaction force R for Beam N was
prolonged for 20 ms comparing to that of Beam AS; and (3) maximum and residual
deflections for Beam AS were also remarkably smaller than those for Beam N.
Figure 6 shows comparisons of time histories on dynamic responses of
Beam AS between the same initial drop heights H. In these comparisons, each time
history was for only the specified loading step and the accumulated responses due
to consecutive loadings have not been included. From the figures, it is observed that
the responses have similar time histories except maximum amplitude, time duration
of the main response, and the natural vibration period of the damped-free vibration
for the beam after unloading irrespective of the magnitude of the initial and sub-
sequent drop heights.
From Figs. 5 and 6, the negative reaction forces were observed at the beginning
of impact. This means that both ends of the beams may be uplifted due to rebound.
Figure 6(a) shows comparisons of experimental results for Beam AS-CI-H1. From
Fig. 5 Comparisons of time histories of impact force P, reaction force R, and deflection d
between Beam N and AS: a Beam N/AS-CI-H1-1; and b Beam N/AS-CI-H1-2
Fig. 6 Comparisons of time histories of impact P, reaction force R, and deflection d: a Beam
AS-CI-H1; b Beam AS-CI-H2; c Beam AS-CI-H2.5; and d Beam AS-CI-H3
this figure, the findings indicate that: (1) the minimum and maximum impact forces
excited at the drop heights H = 1 m and H = 2 m were 766 kN and 1047 kN,
respectively; (2) maximum reaction force tends to increase with increasing the drop
height H although the maximum impact force at H = 2.5 m was less than that at
H = 2 m; and (3) time duration of the main response of the reaction force R for the
case at H = 2.5 m was prolonged for 25 ms comparing with that at H = 2 m
because of the sheet debonding.
From the results of the deflection time histories, it is seen that maximum and
residual deflections for each loading step increased with increasing the subsequent
drop height H and natural period of the damped-free vibration also prolonged
similarly. Even though the AFRP sheet debonded at the drop height H = 2.5 m, the
influence was not clearly shown in the time history. However, since the residual
deflection at H = 2.5 m increased by a factor of about five comparing to that at
H = 2 m, this suggests that the sheet debonded at this loading step.
Figure 6(b) shows comparisons of experimental results for Beam AS-CI-H2. In
this case, beam reached the ultimate state at the drop height H = 2.5 m due to
AFRP sheet debonding. From these figures, the following finding can be indicated:
(1) both the maximum impact and reaction forces increased corresponding to
increasing the drop height H; and (2) time duration of the main response at
H = 2.5 m was prolonged for 20 ms comparing to that at H = 2 m due to the AFRP
sheet debonding. Comparing maximum and residual deflections at the drop heights
H = 2 and 2.5 m between Beams AS-CI-H1 (see, Fig. 6a) and Beam AS-CI-H2, it
is seen that: (1) in the case at the drop height H = 2 m (AS-CI-H1-2 and
AS-CI-H2-2), maximum and residual deflections were approximately same to each
other; however, (2) in the case of H = 2.5 m (AS-CI-H1-2.5 and AS-CI-H2-2.5),
maximum and residual deflections for Beam AS-CI-H2 were about 4 mm smaller
than those for Beam AS-CI-H1. Thus, even though the beams are strengthened in
flexure with FRP sheet, damage may accumulate due to consecutive loading.
Figure 6(c) shows the experimental results for Beam AS-CI-H2.5. In this case,
the impact test was finished after the initial load was applied because the AFRP
sheet debonded at this loading step. From these figures, the maximum impact force
reached about 1,346 kN, and the maximum reaction force stayed around 238 kN.
The impact and reaction forces for Beam AS-CI-H2.5 were larger than those for
Beam AS-CI-H1-2.5 and are smaller than for Beam AS-CI-H2-2.5, respectively.
From the results of deflection time histories, the maximum and residual
deflections for Beam AS-CI-H2.5 decreased remarkably comparing to those for
Beams AS-CI-H1-2.5 and AS-CI-H2-2.5. This suggests that in the cases of Beams
AS-CI-H1/2.5, the damage was accumulated due to consecutive loading.
Figure 6(d) shows the experimental results for Beam AS-CI-H3. Comparing the
dynamic responses between Beams AS-CI-H2.5/3, it is seen that: (1) the maximum
impact force and reaction force for Beam AS-CI-H3 were a little greater than those
for Beam AS-CI-H2.5; (2) even though the main response of reaction force for
Beam AS-CI-H2.5 had a trapezoidal shape, that for Beam AS-CI-H3 shifted to
triangular shape; and (3) dynamic response characteristics of deflection were similar
to each other except maximum and residual deflections and natural period of the
damped-free vibration after unloading.
3.2.2 Relationships Between Maximum Response Values and Input

Impact Energy
Figure 7 shows relationships between the absolute maximum deflection and the
accumulated input impact energy Ea and between the absolute residual deflection
and the accumulated input impact energy Ea. In these figures, the painted marks
mean that the AFRP sheet debonded.
From Fig. 7(a), it is seen that the absolute maximum deflections for all
Beams AS under consecutive impact loading may be linearly distributed including
the cases of the sheet debonding, even though those for unstrengthened Beams N
were linearly distributed [8].
From the results for the absolute residual deflections shown in Fig. 7(b), it can
be observed that the residual deflections for Beams AS except the results in the
cases of sheet debonding were also linearly distributed.
Fig. 7 Relationship between absolute maximum response values and accumulated input impact
energy Ea: a absolute maximum deflection; and b absolute residual deflection
Fig. 8 Crack patterns after consecutive impact loading: a Beam N-CI-H1; and b Beam AS-CI-H1
3.2.3 Crack Patterns of RC Beams After Consecutive Loading
Figure 8 shows comparisons of the crack patterns after the tests between the beams
with/without strengthening. From this figure, following details can be observed:
(1) the flexural and diagonal cracks developed for the beams under impact loading;
(2) the flexural cracks from the upper surface toward to the bottom occurred due to
a fixed beam with short span length being formed until flexural wave reached the
support points; (3) the area near the loading point was damaged accompanying with
the compressive failure, irrespective of with/without strengthening; (4) even though
Beams N were permanently deformed near the loading point, Beams AS were less
deformed than Beams N due to strengthening effect of the AFRP sheet; and
(5) Beams AS reached the ultimate state with the AFRP sheet debonding for all
loading cases.
4 Conclusions
(1) Maximum and residual deflections for RC beams under impact loading were
decreased effectively by flexural strengthening with FRP sheet;
(2) Absolute maximum and residual deflections of the beams strengthened with
FRP sheet were linearly distributed corresponding to an accumulated input
impact energy; and
(3) The RC beams strengthened with AFRP sheet having a density of 1660 g/m2
reached the ultimate state with the sheet debonding.
Acknowledgements This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP17K06527.
AFRP sheet and adhesive were provided by Fibex, Co. Ltd. and Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Co.
Ltd., respectively.
References
1. ACI Committee 440 (2008) ACI 440.2R-08. Guide for the Design and Construction of
Externally Bonded FRP Systems for Strengthening Concrete Structures
2. Buchan PA, Chen JF (2007) Blast resistance of FRP composites and polymer strengthened
concrete and masonry structures - a state-of-the-art review. Compos B Eng 38(5–6):509–522
3. Erki MA, Meier U (2002) Impact loading of concrete beams externally strengthened with
CFRP laminates. J Compos Constr 3(3):117–124
4. Hamed E, Rabinovitch O (2005) Dynamic behavior of reinforced concrete beams
strengthened with composite materials. J Compos Constr 9(5):429–440
5. JSCE (Japan Society of Civil Engineers) (2012) Guideline for strengthening and repairing of
concrete structures using FRP sheet. Concrete Library 101, Yotsuya, Tokyo (in Japanese)
6. JSCE (Japan Society of Civil Engineers) (2007) Standard Specification for Concrete
Structures-2007 Design, Yotsuya, Tokyo, Japan
7. Kishi N, Komuro M, Kurihashi Y, Mikami H (2018) Impact test of RC beams flexurally
strengthened with CFRP material. In: Proceedings of FRPRCS-13, Anaheim, USA, 14–15
October, CD-ROM
8. Kishi N, Mikami H (2012) Empirical formulas for designing reinforced concrete beams under
impact loading. ACI Struct J 109(4):509–519
9. Komuro M, Kurihashi Y, Kawarai T, Kishi N (2018) Numerical simulation of AFRP
Rod NSM RC beams under falling-weight impact loading. Technical Publication SP-327,
ACI, pp 17.1–17.14
10. Pham TM, Hao H (2016) Impact resistance of FRP strengthened RC beams. In: Proceeding
EASEC-14, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, 6–8 January 2016
11. Tang T, Saadatmanesh H (2003) Behavior of concrete beams strengthened with
fiber-reinforced polymer laminates under impact loading. J Compos Constr 7(3):209–218
12. White TW, Soudki KA, Erki M-A (2001) Response of RC beams strengthened with CFRP
laminates and subjected to a high rate of loading. J Compos Constr 5(3):153–162
Mechanical Properties and Seismic
Performance Research
on Primary-Secondary Structure
for High-Rise Building
J. Teng, P. Y. Liu, Z. H. Li, and Y. H. Qi
Abstract Primary-secondary structures have advantages on constructing high-rise

buildings because of its superior structural performance and building adaptability,
but systematic research on its mechanical properties and seismic performance is
lacking. To solve the problem, mechanical properties of primary-secondary struc-
tures are studied under the support of the Major Program of National Natural
Science Foundation of China (NSFC). The study reveals that primary-secondary
structure exhibits the characteristic of two-level distribution of internal forces
obviously under the vertical and lateral loads, and the internal force distribution of
the secondary columns presents periodicity and replicability. We discuss the stiff-
ness influence factors and find that the contribution of secondary structures to the
overall stiffness is little but cannot be negligible. An effective simplified lateral
displacement calculation method for primary-secondary structure considering shear
and bending deformation is proposed.

Keywords Primary-secondary structure Mechanical properties Simplified cal-

culation method Two-level distribution of internal force Periodicity and
replicability
J. Teng P. Y. Liu Z. H. Li (&) Y. H. Qi

School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen),
Shenzhen, China
e-mail: lizuohua@hit.edu.cn
J. Teng
e-mail: tengj@hit.edu.cn
P. Y. Liu
e-mail: lpyhit@hotmail.com
Y. H. Qi
e-mail: qyh0306@126.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_82
876 J. Teng et al.
1 Introduction
Primary-secondary structure is a new type of structure system comprising the pri-

mary structures and the secondary structures, which can work together efficiently.
Many skyscrapers, including the 108-story CITIC Tower [6], the 118-story Ping-An
Finance Center [9], and the 117-story Tianjin Goldin Finance 117 tower [4], were
constructed using the primary-secondary structure system.
As a new structural system, there are some studies on the structural design [3],
structural scheme selection [10] and structural optimization [5] of specific
primary-secondary structures project. The finite element methods to evaluate
primary-secondary structural performance in the preliminary design process is
complex [7]. In addition, the study reveals that there are significant differences in
the mechanical properties of different structural systems, which will affect the
structural scheme selection and preliminary design of the structure [8]. Thus, it is
necessary to study the mechanical properties and stiffness composition mechanism
of primary-secondary structure and propose a simplified lateral displacement cal-
culation method which can evaluate the performance of the primary-secondary
structures quickly and effectively.
This paper explores the mechanical properties and stiffness formation mecha-
nism of the primary-secondary structures, discusses the mechanical properties of
primary-secondary structure and the influence factors of structural lateral stiffness.
This allows us to explore the stiffness formation mechanism of primary-secondary
structures, and further to propose a simplified stiffness calculation method for
primary-secondary structure.
2 Design of Analysis Model Structures
Referring to Chinese code and the typical primary-secondary structures, three

40-story structural models are designed as shown in Fig. 1. They are
primary-secondary frame structure (PSF), primary-secondary frame with diagonal
braces (PSFDB), primary-secondary frame with X-braces (PSFXB), separately.
Primary-secondary structures are comprised of primary structures and secondary
structures. The structure between two adjacent mega beams (or ground) along the
vertical direction is known as a structural module (SM). The height of the secondary
story and primary story is 4 m and 5 m separately. All components are made of
reinforced concrete except for the mega brace. The beam-column joints are rigidly
connected, and the mega braces are rigidly connected with the beam-column joints
at the end position. And the secondary columns connected to primary beams at the
top of the SMs can transfer moment only. The section dimensions and material of
components are shown in Table 1.
Mechanical Properties and Seismic Performance Research … 877
Beams
Primary
SM-IV SM-III SM-II
Beams
Secondary
Primary
Story
168m @ 42m
Braces
Mega
Secondary
Story
Columns
Secondary
Columns
Primary
SM-I
(a) (b) (c) (d)
Fig. 1 Layout of structural module: a Plan layout, b PSF, c PSFDB, d PSFXB
Table 1 Dimensions and Component Section size Material properties

material of components types (mm)
Width Height Concrete Steel
Primary 3000 3000 C60 HRB400
column
Primary beam 1500 3000 C60 HRB400
Secondary 300 600 C40 HRB400
beam
Secondary 700 700 C40 HRB400
column
Brace (no in 600 600 40 – Q345
MF)
3 Mechanical Properties of Primary-Secondary Structures
3.1 Mechanical Properties Under Vertical Load
The mega braces in PSFDB and PSFXB are connected to main structure after the
construction of main structure, and braces don’t work under vertical loads. So, we
can delete braces when analyzing structural mechanical characteristics under ver-
tical loads. Considering self-weight, dead and live load, the internal force distri-
butions of primary-secondary structure are shown in Fig. 2. The primary columns
bear the main vertical load in the form of axial forces, and the primary beams
transmit the load borne by the secondary structures to the primary columns in the
form of shear force. The axial force, bending moment, and shear force of the
primary structures are obviously higher than that of the secondary structures, and
the primary-secondary structure exhibits the characteristic of two-level distribution
of internal forces.
878 J. Teng et al.
Fig. 2 Force distributions of

primary-secondary structure
under vertical load
Axial force Shear force Bending moment
Fig. 3 Axial force

distribution of secondary
40
columns under vertical load
Z6
30 Z4 Z5
Z2 Z3
Story
20 Z2
Z3
10 Z4
Z5
Z6
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Axial force (×103kN)
The axial force of secondary columns is transferred to the foundation via primary
beams and primary columns. The secondary columns only bear the self-weight and
the vertical load of the structural module where it is located. The axial force of
secondary columns in different structural modules are almost equal at the same
position in each story, as shown in Fig. 3. Obviously, the axial force distribution of
secondary structures varies periodically along the height, and the secondary com-
ponents of each structural module are reproducible. The periodicity of force dis-
tribution and replicability of secondary components can realize the modularized
design, production, and assembly of the secondary components.
3.2 Mechanical Properties Under Lateral Load
The axial force FN, shear force Fs and bending moment M of three models under
lateral loads is shown in Fig. 4. The internal force of primary structures is obviously
larger than that of secondary structures, and the primary-secondary structure
40 Push direction
30
Z1
Story
20
PSF
PSFDB
10
PSFXB
0
-1 0 1 2
FN Fs M FN Fs M FN Fs M Bending moment (×10 kN·m)
2
(a) (b) (c) (d)
Fig. 4 Internal force distribution under lateral loads: a PSF model, b PSFDB model, c PSFXB
model, d Bending moment distribution with normalized roof displacement
exhibits the characteristic of two-level distribution of internal forces under lateral

loads. The primary column bears huge axial force under lateral load, so the primary
columns may play a greater role in the structural overall anti-overturning. The
bending moment of the primary columns and primary beams varies linearly
throughout the height and span of structural module, instead of secondary frame.
As shown in Fig. 5, the axial force of secondary columns increases with the
decrease of the story inside the structural module, and the axial force distribution of
secondary structures has a certain periodicity along the structural height. The
bending moment and shear force transferred from secondary beams have little
influence on the internal force distribution of primary columns. The internal force
transferred from secondary beams may be neglected in the design and analysis
process of primary columns, which is beneficial to realize the independent design of
primary structures and secondary structures, respectively.
40 Push direction
1000 1000
100
Moment (kN·m)
30 100
Force (kN)
10
Story
20 Z2
10
1 1
10 PSF
0.1 Primary columns 0.1 Primary columns
PSFDB Secondary beams Secondary beams
0 PSFXB
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 0 10 20 30 40 0 10 20 30 40
Axial force (kN) Story Story
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 5 Internal force distribution of secondary a Axial force of secondary column; b Shear force
of secondary beam versus. Axial force of primary column, b Bending moment of secondary beam
versus. Bending moment of primary column
880 J. Teng et al.
3.3 Influence Factors of Structural Lateral Stiffness
Contribution of secondary structure to lateral stiffness was evaluated by the ratio

between the roof displacement of the primary-secondary structure and the roof
displacement of the primary structure deleting secondary structure. Figure 6 indi-
cates the displacement ratio of the three models. As the number of braces increases,
the contribution of the secondary structures to the overall stiffness decreases. The
displacement ratios converge to 0.625, 0.89 and 0.932, and the contribution of
secondary structures to the overall stiffness may be not neglected.
Considering the axial stiffness of primary columns (A-PC), braces (A-DB),
secondary frame (A-SF), and the shear stiffness of primary frames (S-PF), primary
columns (S-PC), primary beams (S-PB), secondary frames (S-SF), variable
parameter analysis results of these parameters are shown in Fig. 7. The sensitivity
of roof displacement and relative stiffness to these parameters show that, axial
stiffness of braces, the axial stiffness of primary columns, the shear stiffness of
primary frames, the shear stiffness of secondary frames are the key parameters of
structural stiffness, in which the axial stiffness of primary columns provides the
structural bending lateral stiffness and the other parameters provide the structural
shear lateral stiffness.
Displacement ratio (m/m)
0.80 1.05 1.00
0.75 1.00 0.98
0.70 0.95 0.96
0.65 0.90 0.94

0.625
0.89 0.932
0.60 0.85 0.92
0 10 20 30 40 0 10 20 30 40 0 10 20 30 40
Story Story Story
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 6 Displacement ratio distribution: a PSF model, b PSFDB model, c PSFXB model
Concentrated load Uniformaly load Triangularly load

80 4
Roof displacement (mm)
2 A-DB
Relative stiffness
60 A-DB
A-PC 1 A-PC
40 S-PC S-PC
S-PB 1/2 S-PB
20 S-PF S-PF
1/4 A-SF
A-SF
0 S-SF 1/8 S-SF
1/16 1/8 1/4 1/2 1 2 4 8 16 1/16 1/8 1/4 1/2 1 2 4 8 16
Ratio of parameter change Ratio of parameter change
(a) Sensitivity of roof displacement (b) Sensitivity of relative value of lateral stiffness
Fig. 7 Sensitivity of parameters changes on lateral stiffness

4 Simplified Lateral Displacement Calculation Method
4.1 Modules Stiffness Calculation Method
Considering the mechanical characteristics of primary-secondary structures, the

basic assumptions for the simplified stiffness calculation are as follows: (1) the
structural lateral stiffness is provided by the axial stiffness of braces and primary
columns, the shear stiffness of primary frames and secondary frames; (2) the
internal force of primary structural components are distributed along the height and
span of structural module, instead of the height and span of secondary frame; (3) the
deformation compatibility of the primary structures and the secondary structures is
considered only in the stories with primary beams, not in each structure stories.
The shear stiffness is divided into the shear stiffness of primary frame Kv;pf ,
secondary frame Kv;sf and braces Kv;mb . The shear stiffness Kv;pf and Kv;sf can be
calculated referring to the D-value method for frame structures [2]. Based on basic
assumptions, the story height in D-value method should be modified to the height of
structural module to calculate shear stiffness of primary frame. The Kv;pf and Kv;sf
can be expressed as:
Epc Ipc
Kv;pf ¼ 12 apf ð1Þ
L3pc
1 Di Esc Isc
Kv;sf ¼ P ¼ 12 asf ð2Þ
1=Di n L3sc
n
where apf and asf are the correction coefficients of primary frame and secondary
frame. Epc , Lpc , Ipc are the elastic modulus, the length and the inertia moments of
primary columns; Esc , Lsc , Isc are the elastic modulus, the length and the inertia
moments of secondary columns. The n is the number of structural story in each
structural module, and Lpc ¼ n Lsc . The Di is the shear stiffness provided by
secondary frame in each structural story.
The schematic diagram of shear deformation of a structural module under lateral
load is shown in Fig. 8(a). The shear stiffness provided by mega brace Kv;mb is the
horizontal component of axial force of mega brace when DH ¼ 1.
Dmb DH cos h Lpb

eN;mb ¼ ¼ ¼ 2 ð3Þ
Lmb Lmb Lmb
Emb Amb L2pb

Kv;mb ¼ FH;mb ¼Emb Amb eN;mb cos h ¼ ð4Þ
L3mb
where eN;mb , Lmb , Dmb , Emb , Amb , FH;mb are the axial strain, the length, the axial
deformation, the elastic modulus, the cross-sectional area and the horizontal
882 J. Teng et al.
ΔΔHH ββ
ΔΔ
VV
LLmb
mb LLmb
mb
LLpc Lpc
L
pc pc
θ θ
LLpbpb LLpbpb
(a) Shear deformation (b) Bending deformation
Fig. 8 Schematic diagram of structural module deformation
component of axial force of mega brace. DH is the roof horizontal displacement of

structural module. Lpb is the length of primary beams and h is the angle between
mega braces and the horizontal direction.
The shear stiffness of primary-secondary structures Kv can be expressed as:
Kv ¼ Kv;pf þ Kv;sf þ Kv;mb ð5Þ
The schematic diagram of bending deformation of a structural module under

lateral load is illustrated in Fig. 8(b). The bending stiffness provided by primary
columns KM is the anti-overturning moment generated by the axial force of primary
columns when Db ¼ 1.
DV 1 b Lpb
eN;pc ¼ ¼ ð6Þ
Lpc 2 Lpc
1 Epc Apc 2
KM ¼ Epc Apc eN;pc Lpb ¼ Lpb ð7Þ
2 Lpc
where eN;pc , Epc , Apc are axial strain, elastic modulus and cross-sectional area of
primary column. DV and b are vertical displacement of primary column top and
primary beam angle.
4.2 Lateral Displacement Calculation Method
Lateral displacement can be divided in shear displacement and bending displace-

ment. The shear displacement can be expressed as the accumulation of the shear
displacement of each structural module. The bending displacement is composed of
the translational displacement caused by the bending of the structural modules at
the lower height, the rigid displacement caused by the rotation angle of the
structural modules at the lower height, and the bending displacement inside the
structural modules. That is:
Xn
Vi Xn
Vi V1
DV;n ¼ ¼ þ ð8Þ
K
i¼1 Vi
K
i¼2 V;mid
K V;bot
X
n
Mi
hM;n ¼ hM;1 þ hM;2 þ þ hM;n ¼ ð9Þ
i¼1
KM
1 Mn
DM;n ¼ DM;ðn1Þ þ hM;ðn1Þ H þ H ð10Þ
2 KM
where KVi , KV;bot and KV;mid are the shear stiffness of i-th structural module, bottom
module and intermediate module. DV;n and DM;n are the shear and the bending
displacement of the n-th structural module. hM;i is the rotation angle at the top of the
i-th structural module. Vi and Mi are the shear moment and bending moment of the
i-th structural module.
The primary-secondary structure model has a total of N structural modules, and
H represents the height of a structural module. Assuming that the load distribution
is Vn ¼ V (n = N) in concentrated distributed load, Vn ¼ V (n = 1*N) in uni-
formly distributed load and Vn ¼ n q=N in triangularly distributed load. The
expressions of shear force Vn and bending moment Mn at n-th structural module are
shown in Table 2. Substitute shear force and bending moment into Eqs. (8)–(10),
the shear and bending displacement at n-th structural module are obtained as shown
in Table 2. The total displacement is DTotal;n ¼ DV;n þ DM;n . The results of the
simplified lateral displacement calculation method proposed in this paper agree well
with the results of finite element analysis, as shown in Fig. 9.
Table 2 Lateral displacement expressions of primary-secondary structure

Load pattern Type Force expression Disp. expression
Concentrated Shear Vn ¼ V DV;n ¼ KV;mid
V
ðn 1Þ þ V
KV;bot
Bend Mn ¼ V H ðN n þ 2Þ
1
DM;n ¼ VH 2
ð6Nn2 2n3 þ 3n2 nÞ
KM 12
Uniformly Shear Vn ¼ V ðN n þ 1Þ DV;n ¼ KV;mid ð2NnÞðn1Þ

V
þ NV
2 KV;bot
Bend Mn ¼ V H ðNn þ 1ÞðNn þ 2Þ 2 n½ðn2Þðn1Þ þ 6N 2 n2Nð16n þ 2n2 Þ

2
2 DM;n ¼ VH
KM 24
Vn ¼ Nq ðNn þ 1ÞðN þ nÞ
DV;n ¼ ð1nÞðn þ6mK
n 3Nð1 þ NÞÞq
þ ðN2KþV;bot
2
Triangularly Shear 1Þq
2 V;mid
" # " #
Bend ð1 þ N nÞ ð2 þ N nÞ 10Nð1 þ NÞð5 þ 4NÞn 10Nð1 þ NÞ
NqH 2
ð2N þ nÞ H q 20Nð1 þ NÞn2 5n3 þ 2n4 2 þ 5n
Mn ¼ 6N DM;n ¼ 240KM
884 J. Teng et al.
40 40 40
30 30 30
Story
Story
Story
20 20 20
10 10 10
FEM FEM FEM
Simplied Simplied Simplied
0 0 0
0 5 10 15 20 0 10 20 30 40 0 5 10 15 20 25
Displacement (mm) Displacement (mm) Displacement (mm)
(a) Concentrated (b) Uniformly (c) Triangularly
Fig. 9 Lateral displacement of PSFDB under three lateral load
5 Conclusions
Primary-secondary structure exhibits the characteristic of two-level distribution of

internal forces obviously under vertical and lateral load, the internal force distri-
bution of secondary structures shows the characteristics of periodicity and repli-
cability. The internal force and deformation of primary columns and primary beams
are distributed along the height and span of the structural module, instead of the
height and span of secondary frames.
The secondary structures have negligible influence on the force distribution of
the primary structure, but the contribution of secondary structures to the overall
stiffness cannot be ignored. The lateral stiffness of primary-secondary structures is
mainly provided by the axial stiffness of diagonal braces, the axial stiffness of
primary columns, the shear stiffness of primary frames, and the shear stiffness of
secondary frames.
Based on the mechanical properties of primary-secondary structures, the for-
mulas for calculating the bending stiffness and shear stiffness of structural modules
are derived. Then, the simplified calculation method of primary-secondary structure
lateral displacement is obtained by a recursive method. Compared with the finite
element method, the results verify the extraordinary precision of the simplified
calculation method proposed in this paper.
Acknowledgements This research is supported by the National Key Research and Development
Program of China under Grant No. 2016YFC0701102, the Major Program of National Natural
Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 51538003.
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Evaluating and Enhancing Seismic
Performance of Water Distribution
System in Terms of Fire Suppression
G. J. Hou and Q. W. Li
Abstract Urban water distribution system (WDS) plays an important role in

post-earthquake fire suppression. A wave of fire outbreaks tends to happen
immediately and simultaneously after the main shock, while WDS is highly vul-
nerable in seismic events and may not be able to provide sufficient water for fire
suppression. Several researches have been conducted to evaluate the performance
of damaged WDS following seismic events; however, few of them addresses the
capacity of WDS for fire suppression by means of providing sufficient water. With
this regard, a probabilistic method to evaluate the fire suppression ability of seis-
mically damaged WDS is proposed based on Monte Carlo simulation. In each
simulation run, hydraulic analysis is conducted considering the uncertainties
associated with pipe failures. Given the retrofit target, the cost efficiency of
upgrading each pipe can be calculated based on the simulation result, thus the
retrofit sequence can be obtained. A real WDS of a Chinese city is used for
illustration, and discussions on its fire suppression capacity following an assuming
earthquake are made based on the simulation results.

Keywords Seismic performance Water distribution network Fire suppression
Hydraulic analysis
1 Introduction
Post-earthquake fire is a frequently occurring secondary disaster following an

earthquake, and is likely to cause severe life loss and property destruction. In order
to effectively control urban fires, sufficient water for fire suppression should be
provided by the urban WDS. However, pipelines have been shown to be highly
G. J. Hou (&) Q. W. Li
Department of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
e-mail: hougj17@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn
Q. W. Li
e-mail: li_quanwang@tsinghua.edu.cn

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_83
888 G. J. Hou and Q. W. Li
vulnerable in seismic events, impairing fire-fighting capacity of the WDS.

Historical events such as the 1906 San Francisco earthquake [12], the 1994
Northridge earthquake [14], and the 1995 Kobe earthquake [8] have shown the
great importance of the WDS in disaster mitigation. Hence, it is crucial to precisely
evaluate the seismic performance of WDS in terms of fire suppression, and make
improvements to achieve certain performance goals.
Although current standards and regulations require consideration of fire flow
capacity when designing a WDS, few has provisions concerning the seismic
behavior of the WDS [9]. Several researches have been conducted to analyze the
seismic performance of the WDS. In general, the simulation model of estimating
behavior of WDS can be categorized into two types: topological method and
flow-based method. On the basis of graph theory, the topological method can be
applied to estimate the connectivity condition between service nodes and source
nodes in the WDS. This method is computational efficient but can only give a rough
estimate of the WDS performance because the physics-based principles of pipeline
hydraulics are not considered. The flow-based method, on the other hand, is able to
give more precise results on flow rate and nodal pressure with more computational
effort. Current metrics on the seismic performance of WDS were established con-
sidering only typical consumer’s base demand, but few of them took fire demand
into consideration.
In this paper, a probabilistic approach to evaluate the post-earthquake perfor-
mance of WDS in terms of fire suppression is proposed based on Monte Carlo
simulation. In each simulation run, the randomness of pipe failure is considered,
and hydraulic analysis is conducted to calculate the available fire flow on each
service node. Based on the simulation result, the probability of insufficient fire flow
at each node can be obtained. The cost efficiency of investment on strengthening
each pipe can be calculated given the enhancement target, and optimal retrofit
sequence is proposed using greedy algorithm. A city in south-west China and its
WDS is used for illustration, and the discussion on its fire suppression capability
and retrofit strategies against different targets is made based on the evaluation
results.
2 Methodology
2.1 Analysing Fire Suppression Capability of Seismically

Damaged WDS
2.1.1 Repair Rate of the Pipeline System
Urban water distribution system is composed with several basic components such
as water works, pipelines, pumps, tanks and etc. Within the system, the nodal
elements like tanks and water works are vulnerable to wind, while the linear
Evaluating and Enhancing Seismic Performance … 889
elements like pipelines are vulnerable in seismic events because of ground shaking
and permanent ground deformation [4]. Plenty of researches have been carried out
to model the seismic fragility of buried pipeline system [6, 7, 10]. Most models are
derived from fitting available data from earthquake inspection. Among these, model
proposed by American Lifeline Alliance (ALA) has the most comprehensive data
base, thus is adopted in this paper. The repair rate (RR), which gives the numbers of
repairs for a unit length of pipe, can be obtained based on earthquake intensity
together with pipeline properties as follows [1]:

0:00241 K1 PGV for wave propagation
RR ¼ ð1Þ
2:44 K2 PGD0:319 for permanent ground deformation
where RR is the repair rate of a pipe in km−1; K1, K2 are factors related to local
geological condition and pipe properties including pipe material, joint type and pipe
diameters. which can be found in the citation; PGV is the peak ground velocity in
cm/s; PGD is the peak ground deformation in centimeters. With the RR of each
pipe, a Poisson probability distribution is implemented to assess the damage
probability:
ðRR LÞn
PðN ¼ nÞ ¼ eRRL ð2Þ
n!
where P is the probability of n repairs needed for pipeline with a length of

L. Assuming pipe j fails if at least one break point occurs along its length, the
probability of the failure of pipe j (Pf ;j ) is then:
Pf ;j ¼ 1 Pj ðN ¼ 0Þ ¼ 1 eRRj Lj ð3Þ
2.1.2 Calculate Available Fire Flow Using Pressure-Driven Hydraulic

Analysis
Generally, the fire suppression capability of WDS can be evaluated by comparing

the available fire flow and required fire flow. Fire flow is defined as the flow rate at
a residual pressure of 138 kPa (20 psi) for a specific duration [2]. The required fire
flow can be estimated using existing methods such as the Insurance Service Office
(ISO) method, the Illinois Institute of Technology Research Institute (IITRI)
method and the Iowa State University (ISU) method. In these methods, the required
fire flow can be calculated based on the size and material of the construction,
occupancy, exposure and proximity of adjacent buildings [2].
The available fire flow can be calculated based on hydraulic analysis. In many
existing studies, hydraulic modeling of the WDS is performed using well-known
software, EPANET [11]. A special software named Graphical Iterative Response
Analysis of Flow Following Earthquakes (GIRAFFE) [13] has been developed by
Cornell University to assess the seismic performance of the WDS. It can work
iteratively with EPANET to eliminate nodes with negative pressure. However,

traditional simulators like EPANET and GIRAFFE are based on a demand-driven
analysis, in which the nodal demands are fixed regardless of the actual working
pressure. Thus, the pressure-deficient conditions caused by disastrous events like
earthquakes can’t be correctly modeled.
For this reason, a pressure-driven analysis [5], in which the nodal demands are
dependent on the nodal pressure head, is adopted in this study. The pressure-driven
demand formulation proposed by Wagner et al. [15] is used as follows:
8
>
< Qi;req H Hs
0:5
Qi;avl ¼ Hi Hm
Qi;req Hm H\Hs ð4Þ
>
: Hs Hm
0 H\Hm
where Qi;avl is the actual demand supplied to node i; Qi;req is the original demand at
node i; Hi is the actual pressure head at node i; Hs is the service pressure head
required to satisfy all nodal demand and Hm is the minimum working pressure head.
In this work, the pressure-driven analysis is performed using MATLAB together
with EPANET Toolkit [11]. The available fire flow at each node can be determined
as flow through an emitter, suggested by the EPANET user’s manual [11].
We use the System Fire-suppression Index (SFI), the percentage of building
floor area where the fire demand can be satisfied, as the functionality index to
measure the fire suppression capability of the WDS:
P
n
Ai Ii
i¼1
SFI ¼ ð5Þ
Pn
Ai
i¼1
where Ai is the total building floor area of buildings within the service area of
demand node i in the WDS; Ii is an indicator whose value is 1 if the available fire
flow from node i meets the requirement, otherwise is 0.
2.2 Optimal Retrofit Sequence Based on Cost Efficiency
The upgrading of the WDS can be extremely expensive. According to American

Water Works Association, replacing all pipelines in America at once will cost
around $2.1 trillion in total [3]. Therefore, it is important to consider the cost
efficiency when determining the retrofit strategy.
In this work, a probabilistic measure named Retrofit Efficiency Index (REIj) is

defined to measure the cost efficiency of upgrading pipe j. REIj can be expressed as
the increase of the functionality index (SFI) after upgrading pipe j divided by the
upgrading cost as follows:
EðSFIjupgrade pipe jÞ EðSFIÞ

REIj ¼ ð6Þ
costj
where E(SFI) is the expectation of original functionality level; E(SFI | upgrade pipe
j) is the functionality level after pipe j is upgraded; costj is the cost of upgrading
pipe j in a certain monetary unit. The upgrade of any pipe in the WDS should have a
positive influence on the overall performance, thus the REIj should be larger than 0.
The relative value of REIj shows improvement significance of unit retrofit cost.
Therefore, pipe with a higher REI has a relatively higher priority of upgrading.
3 Illustration and Discussion
3.1 Case Description
We illustrate the proposed method in a real WDS of a Chinese city. The city is
situated at the east end of the Himalaya seismic belt, and has a seismic fortification
intensity of VIII. The main water distribution network of the city includes 1 source
node and 18 demand nodes, connected by buried cast iron pipelines with a total
length of around 7.6 km. The topological configuration is shown in Fig. 1. Only the
ground shaking induced pipe failure is considered because the probability of the
Fig. 1 Schematic view of the main water distribution network

liquefaction of the city is neglectable. Based on Chinese fire codes and local
fire-fighting experience, a required fire flow is set to be 31.5L/s (500 gallon per
minute) at a residual pressure of 138 kPa (20 psi).
In this study, we evaluate the seismic performance of the WDS under earth-
quakes with MMI = VII and VIII respectively. For each earthquake intensity, a
unique value of PGV is assumed because the area of WDS is relatively small
compared with the range of action of an earthquake. The empirical expression
relating MMI to PGV proposed by Wald et al. [16] is applied to estimate the PGV:
PGV ¼ 10ðMMI2:35Þ=3:47 ð6Þ
which is valid if the MMI is within the range of V to IX [16]. The estimated mean
value of PGV is 21.88 cm/s for MMI = VII earthquakes and is 42.49 cm/s for
MMI = VIII ones.
For each earthquake intensity, a Monte Carlo simulation with 10,000 simulation
runs is conducted considering the randomness of pipe failures. In each simulation
run, the pipe failure scenario is generated firstly based on the failure probability of
each pipe, and the hydraulic model is modified accordingly. Then, a pressure-driven
hydraulic analysis is conducted to obtain the available fire flow on each node.
Detailed evaluation results are shown in the following parts.
3.2 Evaluation of Post-earthquake Fire Suppression

Capability
The overall post-earthquake fire suppression capability of the illustrated WDS is

demonstrated in Fig. 2, which shows the cumulative probability of SFI after
earthquakes with MMI = VII and VIII respectively. From the figure we can see that
the WDS performs well in earthquake with MMI = VII, the probability of SFI < 1
is about 13.3%, which indicates that the probability of fire demand being satisfied
everywhere in the WDS is about 86.7%. But extreme situations are still possible:
the probability of SFI < 0.4, is about 3.9%. Generally, the average SFI is 0.954.
Earthquakes with MMI = VIII are likely to result in worse consequences: the
probability of SFI < 1 is about 25.2%, and the probability of SFI < 0.4 is about
7.2%; the average SFI becomes 0.910. Though the probability of insufficient fire
flow seems low, we should be aware that water is vital for post-earthquake fire
suppression. Fire is likely to get out of control without sufficient fire flow, and cause
severe damage to the community.
The probability of insufficient fire flow on each demand node is demonstrated in
Fig. 3 and the spatial distribution is shown in Fig. 4. From the figure we can see
that for every node, the probability gets greater as the earthquake intensity grows.
Also, certain rules can be observed from the figure. First, node 12, 15 are always the
safest nodes in the WDS. Although node 5 is also directly connected to the source
Fig. 2 Cumulative probability of SFI after earthquake with MMI = VII and VIII
Fig. 3 Probability of insufficient fire flow on each node

Fig. 4 Spatial distribution of probability of insufficient fire flow
node, it has a relatively higher failure probability because of the greater spatial
distance between node 5 and the source node. Meanwhile, node 4 is the most
dangerous node because it is located the farthest from the source node. This indi-
cates that nodes closer to the source node topologically and geometrically tend to
have better performance. Besides, node 2 is farther from the source node compared
with node 1, but has a lower probability of insufficient fire flow, because node 2 has
a higher degree according to graph theory. This is also true for node 8 and node 18,
which indicates that the nodes with higher degree tend to have better performance.
3.3 Optimal Retrofit Strategy
In order to calculate the REI for each pipe, several assumptions are made in this
work. First, we consider upgrading a pipe by replacing the original cast iron pipe by
a welded steel pipe, which could reduce the repair rate of the pipe by 70% based on
Eq. (1). Also, the upgrading cost of each pipe is assumed proportional to the pipe
length. This assumption is reasonable because cost of pipeline itself is much higher
than other costs in pipeline upgrading, including hiring workers, rental of equip-
ment and etc. Besides, the unit cost is the same for all pipes because pipelines in the
illustrated WDS have the same diameter.
Based on above assumptions, the REIs for all pipes can be calculated based on
simulation results. The top eight pipes of the optimal retrofit sequences against
earthquake with MMI = VII and VIII are shown in Table 1. Except for the first
several pipes of the sequence, the rest pipes have REIs with relatively slight dif-
ference, thus are not shown here. From the table we can see that the top five choices
are the same, indicating that optimal retrofit strategy against earthquakes with
different intensities can be similar. Besides, critical pipes tend to be close to the
source node, which is consistent with operating experience. For example, pipe 11,
19, 22 are connected directly to the source node, and all of them have high
Table 1 Optimal retrofit Retrofit sequence 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

sequence (top eight pipes)
MMI = VII 19 11 20 22 26 16 4 27
MMI = VIII 19 11 20 22 26 4 16 8
upgrading priorities. But pipe 26 appears to be more prior to pipes closer to the
source node, such as pipe 23, 25, 16, which is conflictive to the experience. Thus,
topological model cannot truly reflect the real behavior of the WDS because
physical-based principles of pipeline network hydraulics are not considered. The
flow-based analysis, on the other hand, is able to give more realistic results.
4 Conclusions
To evaluate the seismic performance of the WDS in terms of fire suppression, a

probabilistic approach is proposed based on Monte Carlo simulation and
pressure-driven hydraulic analysis. Based on the evaluation result, a method to
determine the optimal retrofit sequence considering cost efficiency of pipe
upgrading is proposed. The case study demonstrates that:
1. The proposed probabilistic evaluating method can be used to estimate the global
performance as well as local performance of the WDS in terms of
post-earthquake fire suppression. System Fire-suppression Index (SFI) is used to
describe the overall performance considering the available fire flow and total
building floor area at each demand node. Spatial distribution of probability of
insufficient fire flow can be obtained to identify weak part of the WDS.
2. Optimal retrofit sequence can be obtained using proposed Retrofit Efficiency
Index which reflects the cost efficiency of pipe upgrading, according to the
evaluation result. Compared with operating experience, retrofit strategy based
on the evaluation results could provide a more realistic result with the physical
property of the WDS taken into concern.
References
1. American Lifeline Alliance (ALA) (2001) Seismic fragility formulations for water systems:
Guidelines. American Lifelines Alliance and Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA), ASCE, Reston, VA
2. American Water Works Association (AWWA) (1998) Distribution system requirements for
fire protection. American Water Works Association, Denver
3. American Water Works Association (AWWA) (2012) Buried no longer: confronting
America’s water infrastructure challenge. American Water Works Association, Denver
4. Chmielewski H, Guidotti R, McAllister T, Gardoni P (2016) Response of water systems under

extreme events: a comprehensive approach to modeling water system resilience. In: ASCE,
world environmental and water resources congress 2016, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA.
ASCE, pp 475–486
5. Giustolisi O, Savic DA, Kapelan Z (2008) Pressure-driven demand and leakage simulation for
water distribution networks. J Hydraul Eng 134(5):626–635
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systems. J Infrastruct Syst 4(3):118–125
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earthquake, Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo Publishing, Tokyo, Japan
8. Kuraoka S, Rainer J (1996) Damage to water distribution system caused by the 1995
Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake. Can J Civ Eng 23(3):665–677
9. Laucelli D, Giustolisi O (2015) Vulnerability assessment of water distribution networks under
seismic actions. J Water Resour Plann Manag 141(6):01014082
10. O’Rourke M, Deyoe E (2004) Seismic damage to segmented buried pipe. Earthq Spectra 20
(4):1167–1183
11. Rossman LA (2000) EPANET 2 users manual. United States Environmental Protectioin
Agency, Cincinnati
12. Scawthorn C, O’rourke TD, Blackburn FT (2006) The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and
fire—enduring lessons for fire protection and water supply. Earthq Spectra 22(S2):S135–S158
13. Shi P, O’Rourke TD (2008) Seismic response modeling of water supply systems. Isaca,
Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research, Cornell University
14. Trifunac MD, Todorovska MI (1998) The Northridge, California, earthquake of 1994: fire
ignition by strong shaking. Soil Dyn Earthq Eng 17(3):165–175
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J Water Resour Plann Manag 114(3):276–294
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acceleration, peak ground velocity, and Modified Mercalli Intensity in California. Earthq
Spectra 15(3):557–564
Research on Suspended Tuned Mass
Damper in Wind Vibration Control
of the Steel Chimney
X. W. Li, W. X. Shi, and Y. Zheng
Abstract Steel chimney is a kind of high-rise structure, which is usually built in

areas with large wind loads. And the possibility of large deformation or even
damage caused by wind vibration exists. Suspended tuned mass damper (STMD)
has been proved to be an effective vibration control device, which can effectively
reduce the dynamic response of high-rise structures caused by wind and ensure it
meets the requirements of deformation and comfort. A STMD is designed in a
seaside thermodynamic boiler chimney to reduce the wind-induced response of the
structure. The AR method for simulating the time-course load of along-wind is
firstly introduced, with Davenport wind speed spectrum used in fitting. It can be
concluded that the fluctuating wind obtained by the AR method meets the
requirements in statistical sense. Then the simulation of cross-wind is proposed
according to the range of Reynolds number, and the coupling of along-wind and
cross-wind is taken into consider. The effect of STMD on vibration reduction is
proved by analysis and test on the spot by comparing the acceleration amplitude of
the top of the chimney with or without the STMD.

Keywords Steel chimney Suspended tuned mass damper (STMD) Wind

vibration control Fluctuating wind simulation
X. W. Li (&) W. X. Shi Y. Zheng

Research Institute of Structural Engineering and Disaster Reduction,
Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
e-mail: lixiaowei277@163.com
W. X. Shi
e-mail: swxtgk@126.com
Y. Zheng
e-mail: zhengyueiswein@hotmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_84
898 X. W. Li et al.
1 Introduction
Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) consists of mass, spring and viscous damper. It is
installed to reduce the vibration response on the top of high-rise structure, or the
middle of a long span structure (Lu et al. 2017) [2]. After adjusting the frequency of
TMD to be identical with that of the main structure, the TMD will produces a force
with opposite direction when the vibration of structure is excited by external forces
(wind, earthquake, human load, etc.). Then the vibration energy of the main
structure will be partially dissipated by TMD.
Livesey and Søndergaard (1996) tested the torsional vibration of a bridge
installed with a TMD via wind tunnel experiments. The results show that the
torsional vibration reduced to 10% off the uncontrolled structure. They also pro-
posed an optimization design of TMD. Wirsching and Shehata [1] inferred that
wind-induced response of first mode of the high-rise structure accounts for more
than 80% of the total. Xu et al. [2] conducted a study of TMD parameters directly
using the wind spectrum obtained from the wind tunnel test, and proposed a
semi-analytical method for calculating the wind-induced vibration response. It is
proved that the results of semi-analytical method coincide with wind tunnel test.
Wang [3] introduced the basic theory of wind vibration control of TMD, and the
design process of Jiading TV tower. Ou and Wang [4] proposed the analysis and
design method of TMD/TLD for high-rise buildings under wind load. Ricciardelli
[5] introduced a linear model which can be applied to the analysis of wind vibration
control of TMD. The model was suitable for the vibration control of along-wind
and cross-wind of high-rise buildings, as well as for multiple modes and multiple
TMDs. Li [6] proposed an optimized design method of TMD for high-rise buildings
under wind load.
The chimney is always a high-rise structure. Suspended TMD (STMD) has been
proved to be an effective vibration control device, which can effectively reduce the
dynamic response of high-rise structures caused by wind and ensure it meets the
requirements of deformation and comfort. The frequency of STMD will be coin-
cident with that of the chimney by adjusting the pendulum length. The relationship
between pendulum length and period of STMD are as follows:
rffiffiffi
1 1 g
fd ¼ ¼ ð1Þ
Td 2p l
2 Simulation of Fluctuating Wind
A steel boiler chimney located in the seaside city is 55 m high, and has a circular
cross-section, while the outer diameter is 5640 mm. The wall of the chimney
gradually becomes thinner as the height increases. The thickness of the bottom is
20 mm, and that of the top is 10 mm. Steel of the chimney is A36 (from ASTM
Research on Suspended Tuned Mass Damper … 899
code). The geomorphological type of the construction land belongs to category C,

and the basic wind speed is 40 m/s. The chimney is shown is Figs. 2 and 5. The
first three frequencies of the chimney are all in the transcritical range (Re > 3.5
106, Re is the Reynolds number), which means the chimney may be damaged by
wind-induced vibration. Therefore wind vibration analysis and vibration reduction
design are required.
2.1 Fluctuating Along-Wind Load
The following assumptions can be designated on the simulation of wind speed,

meeting the engineering accuracy requirements. (1) the time-average wind speed
does not change with time; (2) speed-time history of fluctuating wind is a zero-mean
stationary stochastic process; (3) fluctuating wind has spatial correlation.
The wind speed at any height can be expressed as the sum of the time-average
wind vðzÞ and fluctuating wind vðz; tÞ:
vðz; tÞ ¼ vðzÞ þ vðz; tÞ ð2Þ
Then the equation of wind pressure at height z is:
qz;t ¼ 0:613 Kz Kzt Kd vðz; tÞ2 ð3Þ
In Eq. (3), Kz is the Height variation coefficient, Kzt is the topographic coeffi-
cient (take as 1), Kd is the wind direction coefficient, its value can be found in [7].
The wind load on the chimney is:
F ¼ qz;t G Cf Af ð4Þ
In Eq. (4), G is gust factor, Cf is wind shape coefficient (its value can also be
chose from ASCE7-10), Af is projection area perpendicular to the wind direction.
The gust factor takes into account the fact that the instantaneous wind is larger than
the time-average wind. G takes as 1, since the dynamic effect of the fluctuating
wind load has been considered.
The time-average wind is in accordance with the height variation of wind speed.
Exponential function expression:
vðzÞ z /
¼ ð5Þ
v10 10
v10 indicates the wind speed observed by an anemoneter at the standard height
(10 m). / is the roughness index of open floor, take as 0.15 [8].
900 X. W. Li et al.
Fluctuating wind, as a random process, must be described using probability and

statistics methods. The fluctuating wind speed can be expressed with a zero mean
Gaussian stationary random process, which has a significant ergodicity. And the
power spectral function is the most important statistical features, reflecting the
fluctuating wind energy on some frequency domain. Davenport wind velocity
spectrum is generated form more than 90 strong wind records measured in different
locations at different heights around the world and has a high stability and appli-
cability. It is assumed that the turbulence scales along the height is constant in
horizontal fluctuating wind speed spectrum [15]. So Davenport wind spectrum is
adopted in this project. The expression is:
8
< f Sð2f Þ ¼ 4x2 4=3
Kv10 ð 1 þ x2 Þ ð6Þ
:
x ¼ 1200 vf10
In Eq. (6), SðnÞ is the power spectrum of fluctuating wind speed (m2 =s), K is
ground roughness factor [9], n is the wind frequency (Hz).
The simulation of along-wind applied with linear white noise AR model has
been proved universal and practical. The accuracy and stability of the model have
been confirmed as well. The simulation process of speed-time history function
vðz; tÞ of fluctuating along-wind with AR method is shown in Fig. 1 [10].
Fig. 1 Steps of wind load

simulation
Table 1 Basic parameters of Basic wind speed (m/s) 40

wind simulation of speed-time
Geomorphological type C
history
Order of AR model 5
Simulation of wind duration/s 300
Time step/s 0.1
Number of spatial correlation load points 7
Fig. 2 Sketch map of wind load on boiler
The 55-meter-high chimney is divided into seven wind segment from the bottom
to up. And each point of the same segment is assumed to suffer the same fluctuating
wind load. Segment diagram and related parameters is shown in Fig. 2. The
speed-time history of along-wind is simulated by AR model, considering the spatial
correlation between each point. The basic parameters of the simulation are shown in
Table 1.
Figures 3 and 4 respectively shows the speed-time history diagram of fluctuating
wind and the comparison chart of power spectral density function with the target
spectrum (Davenport target spectrum) of point 1 and point 7. As can be seen form
the figures, the speed-time history change over time in a random variation, but
graphics of power spectral density function and target power spectrum are identical.
For point 1 (7 m), the time-average wind speed is 37 m/s. And for point 7
(48.24 m), the time-average wind speed is 56.5 m/s. The results are consistent with
the exponential function expression of time-average wind along the height variation
(Eq. (5)). Consequently, the simulation of fluctuating wind by AR method is proved
suitable.
902 X. W. Li et al.
(a) speed-time history curve of point 1
(b) speed-time history curve of point 7
Fig. 3 Curve of speed-time history of simulated wind
(a) wind load power spectrum of point 1 (b) wind load power spectrum of point 7
Fig. 4 Power spectrum of simulated wind and target wind
2.2 Fluctuating Cross-Wind Load
Two rows of vortexes alternately shed and rotate in opposite directions when the
airflow bypasses the building and rejoins after it. It will generate force on the
structure in the crosswind direction if the vortex shed asymmetrically, that is,
vortex-induced vibration.
As for the circular cross section structure, Reynolds number can be divided into
three critical ranges according to the relationship between the resistance coefficient
and Reynolds number (Niu 2004, Tang 2009). They are sub-critical range
(300 < Re < 3 105 ), supercritical range (3 105 \Re\3:5 106 ) and transcrit-
ical range (Re > 3:5 106 Þ. Structures in the sub-critical range just suffer the breeze
load. Adjusting the structure period by changing the structural arrangement or

ensuring the structure’s critical wind speed greater than 15 m/s can reduce the
probability of breeze resonance. Structures in the trans-critical range may be severely
damaged. Different orders of vibration mode must be taken into account during the
analysis. Structures in supercritical range will vibrate randomly. Wind speed spectrum
of cross-wind should be adopted in the simulation, similar to the along-wind [13, 14].
All the natural frequencies of the chimney are confirmed within trans-critical range
(Re > 3:5 106 Þ. So the cross-wind load is only calculated for the trans-critical range
and no consideration of vortex shedding loading is considered. Across-wind load
acting on the chimney can be expressed as [15, 16]:
1
pL ðz; tÞ ¼ qU2 ðzÞBðzÞlL sinxv t ð7Þ
2
In Eq. (7), q is air density, BðzÞ is the width of windward at a height of z, lL is

lift coefficient (take 0.2–0.25 for transcritical range), xv is the frequency of vortex
shedding (take the value as the first order frequency of the structure in the cross-
wind direction), U(z) is the time-average wind speed at z. The windward side in the
cross-wind direction is divided into 7 parts from top to bottom, identical with that of
along-wind. Take the midpoint of each windward surface as load point.
2.3 Combination of Along-Wind and Cross-Wind
The combination of along-wind and cross-wind has been considered according to

Table 2. The load diagram on the chimney is shown in Fig. 5.
Table 2 Load combination Case 1: Along-wind case Case 2: Along-wind &

of each point on the chimney cross-wind case
X direction Y direction X direction
Along-wind 0.6* along-wind Cross-wind
Note: As shown in Fig. 5, X direction represents the air intake
direction, and Y direction is vertical to X-direction
904 X. W. Li et al.
(a) along-wind case (b) along-wind & cross-wind case
Fig. 5 Load diagram of the chimney
3 Design and Analysis of STMD
To achieve the best control effect, STMD will be mounted outside the chimney wall
at a height of 54.174–53.905 m (nearly top). Once the location of STMD has been
determined, parameters of STMD, such as mass, frequency and damping, should be
adjusted to ensure the STMD system absorb more vibration energy and then reduce
the response of main structure. The mass block of STMD is a steel ring plate along
the chimney’s outside wall. There are 8 suspension points via which the mass block
is suspended to the stiffening ribs of the chimney. Viscous dampers installed
between the mass block and the external wall of chimney belong to a same hori-
zontal plane. All of the parameters of STMD are listed in Table 3, and diagram of
STMD is shown in Fig. 6.
Comparison of structures with and without STMD on modal is shown in
Table 4. The period of structure with STMD is slightly larger than that of structure
without STMD. Moreover, the first four modes of structure with STMD are mainly
based on the vibration of the mass ring of STMD.
As can be seen from Tables 5 and 6:
The displacement of each point of the structure with STMD in two load cases is
smaller than that of structure without STMD, except the results of point 1, 2, 3, 4 in
load case 1. But the increase in displacement is not significant. Moreover, the
displacement distribution of the structure with STMD along the whole height is
more uniform than the structure without STMD, which is beneficial for the main
Table 3 Parameters of STMD

Mass/t Mass ratio l/% Length/ Distance between the mass edge and
mm outside wall of chimney Δd/m
3 1.5 306 0.20
Frequency/ Number of Damping Maximum stroke/mm
Hz viscous dampers ratio nd
1.04 8 0.10 ±100
(a) Photo of STMD in factory (b) elevation of the chimney with STMD (c) plan of the
chimney with STMD
Fig. 6 Diagram of STMD
Table 4 Comparison of structures with and without STMD on period and frequency
Mode Structure without STMD Structure with STMD
Period Frequency Mainly Period Frequency Mainly
(s) (Hz) direction of (s) (Hz) direction of
the mode the mode
1 1.04 0.96 Dy, Rx, Rz 1.10 0.90 Dy, Rx, Rz
2 0.92 1.07 Dy, Rx, Rz 1.08 0.92 Dx, Ry
3 0.86 1.15 Dx, Ry 0.98 1.01 Dy, Rx, Rz
4 0.63 1.58 Dy, Rx, Rz 0.78 1.27 Dy, Rx, Rz
5 0.56 1.76 Dx, Ry 0.70 1.41 Dy, Rx, Rz
structure. In general, the displacement at the top of the chimney can be reduced to
40% off the original, and the decrease amplitude from the top to the bottom is
40–10%. The displacement of the top is no more than H/500 = 55 cm, meeting the
requirements of codes.
906 X. W. Li et al.
Table 5 Comparison of structures with and without STMD on velocity and acceleration (load
case 1)
Point Height Structure without STMD Structure with STMD
(m) Displacement Acceleration Displacement Acceleration
(cm) (cm/s2) (cm) (cm/s2)
Top 54.17 35.6 42.15 15.0 16.32
7 48.18 28.6 25.57 17.8 22.40
6 41.21 21.8 17.84 16.7 24.48
5 33.79 14.9 13.08 14.1 23.71
4 27.27 10.0 10.69 10.8 18.69
3 22.73 7.3 9.94 8.3 15.04
2 14.62 3.3 6.11 4.1 7.81
1 6.96 0.8 1.86 1.1 2.19
*Note: displacement and acceleration of load case 1 are all in X-direction
Table 6 Comparison of structures with and without STMD on velocity and acceleration (load
case 2)
Point Height Structure without STMD Structure with STMD
(m) Displacement Acceleration Displacement Acceleration
(cm) (cm/s2) (cm) (cm/s2)
Top 54.17 22.9/5.6 25.34/0.84 8.8/1.1 9.67/0.74
7 48.18 21.4/5.1 16.93/0.78 12.4/0.9 13.37/0.57
6 41.21 18.3/4.1 12.24/0.61 10.0/0.6 14.57/0.37
5 33.79 13.4/3.0 8.92/0.51 8.4/0.4 14.05/0.28
4 27.27 9.3/2.1 7.54/0.31 6.5/0.2 11.11/0.20
3 22.73 6.7/1.5 6.75/0.22 5.0/0.2 8.94/0.15
2 14.62 3.0/0.7 3.99/0.09 2.5/0.01 4.65/0.03
1 6.96 0.7/0.2 1.19/0.02 0.7/0.0002 1.30/0.01
*Note: displacement and acceleration of load case 2 are all in X-direction/Y-direction
The X-direction (along-wind direction) acceleration of top point and point 7 of

the structure with STMD in two load cases is smaller than that of the structure
without STMD. But the acceleration of point 6 and below increases instead. It
should be mentioned, the acceleration distribution of the structure with STMD
along the whole height is more uniform than the structure without STMD, which is
beneficial for the main structure. The maximum acceleration of the structure
without STMD is 42.15 cm/s2 (at top point) in load case 1, and 25.34 cm/s2 (at top
point) in load case 2. The maximum acceleration of the structure with STMD is
24.48 cm/s2 (at point 6) in load case 1, and 14.57 cm/s2 (at point 6) in load case 2.
The magnitude of decrease is 42 and 42.5% respectively. The Y-direction
(cross-wind direction) acceleration of each point of the structure with STMD in load
cases 2 is smaller than that of the structure without STMD. The magnitude of
decrease is 50–10% from top to bottom. The maximum acceleration of the structure
(a) acceleration -time history curve (b) frequency identification curve
Fig. 7 Vibration data of the chimney with and without STMD measured on site
should be no more than 22 cm/s2 to ensure the comfort of the staffs on the chimney
[32]. The acceleration of the chimney installed with STMD is reduced form 25.3 to
14.5 cm/s2 , and its amplitude meets the comfort requirements.
The vibration data measured on site of the chimney with and without STMD is
shown in Fig. 7. Figure 7(a) is the measured acceleration -time curve at the top of
the chimney, and the data length is intercepted to 60 s. Figure 7(b) is the frequency
identification curve via applying Fourier transform and removing interference fre-
quency. The frequency of the chimney is 0.87. The pendulum length of STMD
should be adjusted to coordinate its own frequency with the real frequency of
chimney. The maximum acceleration of the chimney without STMD is 13.56 cm/s2
(at top point) during the measured time period, and the acceleration of the chimney
with STMD is 7.93 cm/s2 . The rate of vibration attenuation is 41.5%, achieved the
damping target.
4 Conclusions
The displacement and acceleration at the top of the chimney can be attenuated once
installed the STMD, according to the damper design and wind induced vibration
analysis. The reduction amplitude can reach 40–60%. In this paper, a STMD with a
ring mass is hung on the top of the chimney. Its swing frequency can be adjusted by
changing the pendulum length to coordinate with the natural frequency of the
chimney. The STMD achieves vibration control in multi-degree of freedom, and
consequently realize multi-direction wind control.
Owing to the difference between the model and actual structure in dynamic
characteristics, such as mode and frequency, the adjustable measures in pendulum
length must be taken into consideration. The frequency adjustable range should be
above ±15%. The natural frequency of the main structure must be determined after
the on-site dynamic test. Then the pendulum length of STMD should be adjusted
according to the natural frequency to maximize the damping effect.
908 X. W. Li et al.
References
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126(8):989–992
Viscous Dampers Based Standardized
Design of Modular Steel Structures
in Different Seismic Zones
B. J. Du and X. Zhao
Abstract Modular steel building is now becoming an important trend of con-

struction industry, as it has the advantages of reduced overall construction schedule,
improved quality, and reduced resource wastage. And the seismic design is one of
the key points of the modular structural design in China. As the components of
modular buildings are standardized, the limited classification results in a relatively
large span of section size in adjacent levels. If the level of components is adjusted to
meet the seismic requirements of high intensity areas, it may lead to a redundancy
of structural bearing capacity and result in a waste of materials. Viscous damper
(VD) is a kind of speed dependent damper without stiffness. It has the advantages of
strong energy dissipation ability, no additional stiffness and multi-performance
vibration mitigation. Reasonable arrangements of VD can provide additional
damping ratio for the structure and effectively reduce the seismic responses. In this
paper, a standardized design method of modular steel structure through the
installation of VD in different seismic zones is proposed. The VDs are installed in
the primary steel structure to flexibly meet the requirements of different seismic
actions using standard structural modules. This study realized automatic optimal
VD design by coding design program (C#), which can obtain the optimal param-
eters, quantity and placements of VD. The feasibility of the proposed method is
illustrated by a ten-story steel frame structure.

Keywords Modular structure Seismic design Viscous damper Optimal design
B. J. Du X. Zhao (&)
B. J. Du
X. Zhao
e-mail:22zx@tjad.cn

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_85
910 B. J. Du and X. Zhao
1 Introduction
Modular steel structure building has become a new development direction of

construction industry with the advantages of factory construction, excellent quality
control, short construction cycle, low investment cost, saving manpower in con-
struction process and friendly to environment. In China, seismic design is one of the
key points of structural design. Because of its small lateral stiffness, modular steel
structure will be controlled by horizontal load in structural design with the increase
of structural height. As the components of modular buildings are standardized, the
limited classification results in a relatively large span of section size in adjacent
levels. If the level of components is adjusted to meet the lateral stiffness require-
ments, it may lead to a redundancy of structural bearing capacity and result in a
waste of materials. In addition, for modular buildings, due to the high repeatability
of modules, the vertical load of different buildings changes little when the design
stories are similar. From the perspective of structural internal forces, the building
only needs to be designed once, and then it can be mass-produced for all subsequent
construction. However, different sites will bring great differences to the horizontal
load of the structure. When the structure designed in the low seismic intensity area
is applied to the high seismic intensity area, the structure may need to be redesigned
because the lateral displacement can not meet the requirement of the code.
Therefore, the modular steel structure building urgently needs a new kind of seismic
design method which can be decoupled from the strength design, in order to further
promote the standardization and commercialization of the modular building.
In recent years, the development of energy dissipation technology has opened up
a new way for building seismic design, which has been favored and valued by
scholars and engineers all over the world. Viscous damper is a typical
velocity-dependent damper with strong energy dissipation capacity [3]. For the
seismic design of steel structure, viscous dampers can provide additional damping
ratio for the structure, so as to reduce the seismic response of the structure and
reduce the lateral displacement without changing the size of structural members.
The structure can well control the material redundancy while meeting the
requirements of both vertical force and horizontal deformation, increasing the
economic benefit of the structure.
In this paper, a standardized design method of modular steel structure is pro-
posed, in which viscous dampers are installed to increase the additional damping of
the structure to control the lateral displacement, so as to realize the construction of
standardized modular steel structure in different intensity sites. This study realized
automatic target additional damping ratio calculation and optimal VD design by
coding design program, which can obtain the optimal parameters, quantity and
placements of VD required in different seismic zones. The feasibility of the pro-
posed method is illustrated by a ten-story modular steel frame structure.
Viscous Dampers Based Standardized Design … 911
2 Modular Steel Structure
The two basic modules of the modular steel structure are shown in Fig. 1. The
length of the module is 6 m, the width is 3.5 m (ultra-wide)/3 m/2.4 m (sea
transportation), the height is 3.2 m (suitable for central air conditioning)/3 m
(suitable for common air conditioning), and the distance from the middle column to
the side column is 1.5 m. Standard module A is the basic module with no brace,
open space and flexible layout. Standard module B adds middle columns and braces
on the basis of standard module A, which is suitable for the case that the long side
stiffness of the structure is insufficient but has certain influence on the building
space, module A and module B can be arranged flexibly according to the overall
model stiffness. Modular steel structure members include floor beam, roof beam,
side column, middle column and brace, all components are standardized compo-
nents. The same kind of components in a structure should have the same peripheral
size, and the thickness of components should decrease along the vertical height of
the structure.
3 Viscous Dampers Based Modular Steel Structures

in Different Seismic Zones Standardized Design Method
3.1 Calculation of Target Additional Damping Ratio
The target additional damping ratio of the structure needs to be calculated first for
the seismic design of structure by installing viscous dampers. The response spec-
trum analysis of the initial structure is carried out, and the story drifts in X and Y
directions are calculated. If the requirements of the code are met, the target
(a) Standard module A (b) Standard module B
Fig. 1 Basic modules

additional damping ratio is 0%, the structure does not need to be installed by VD. If
it does not, the additional damping ratio is increased by 1% in the unsatisfied
direction and carry out the response spectrum analysis again, this cycle continues
until the story-drifts limit is met, and the target additional damping ratios in X and
Y directions are obtained, which can be used in the subsequent VD design.
3.2 VD Design
3.2.1 Geometric Parameters Design
Although VD can dissipate energy under small deformation, the efficiency is very
low using the traditional diagonal connection and herringbone connection, so it
usually requires motion amplification device [4]. In this paper, the toggle brace
motion amplification device [2] is selected, and its main geometric parameters are
shown in Fig. 2, which mainly includes the length of two supporting rods and VD
rods L1, L2, L3, and three angles h1, h2, h3.
The deformation amplification coefficient of reverse toggle brace type viscous
device is:

sin h2 cosðh3 h1 Þ
f ¼ þ sin h1 ð1Þ
cosðh1 þ h2 Þ
In order to obtain large deformation coefficient, Zhao et al. [5] proposed a

mathematical model for geometric parameter optimization of reverse toggle brace
viscous damper as follows.
Fig. 2 Reverse toggle brace

viscous damper
max f ðh1 Þ ð2Þ
s:t: arctanðH=BÞ h1 80 ð3Þ
L1 ¼ H sin h1 1:5 ð4Þ

qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
L2 ¼ ðL3 cos h1 Þ2 þ ðB L1 cos h1 Þ2 1:5 ð5Þ
L3 ¼ H cos h1 1:5 ð6Þ
jf ðh1 Þ f ðh1 0:3Þj 0:2 ð7Þ
f ð h1 Þ 3 ð8Þ
h2 h2;min ¼ arctan½X2=ðH Y2Þ ð9Þ
h1 h1;max ¼ 90 arctanðY1=X1Þ ð10Þ
3.2.2 Optimal VD Design Method
The working efficiency of VD mainly depends on the relative deformation of both

ends, so the energy dissipation effect obtained by installing VD in different posi-
tions of the structure is different. In order to obtain the optimal install scheme of VD
system, an optimal design method of VD is proposed in this paper, as shown in
Fig. 3. First, the target additional damping ratio of the structure and all the
selectable positions of the VD are determined, and the optimal grid parameters and
magnification factors of the VD are calculated according to formula (1)–(10).
According to the selectable position, the virtual VD model [1] is established, and
the VD energy dissipation of each group is calculated. According to the energy
dissipation, the priority installation order of VD is obtained, and then the structure
is installed according to the priority order. When the additional damping ratio in a
certain direction is less than 0.85 times the additional damping ratio objective, the
VD in that direction is iterated quantitatively. When the additional damping ratio in
both directions is greater than 0.85 times the additional damping ratio objective, the
damping coefficient correction iteration is carried out for VD. When the error
between the additional damping ratio in both directions and the objective additional
damping ratio is within 5%, the iteration stops and the optimization design process
ends.
Start
Determine the target additional damping

ratio ξ, VD damping index, VD initial damping
coefficient, VD selectable positions
Establish virtual VD model to calculate the energy

dissipation, obtain VD priority Install order
Install VD in the optimal position in X and Y directions
Calculate additional damping ratio

ξ x, ξy in X, Y direction
Install VD in the X Install VD in the Y
direction in priority order direction in priority order
ξx > 0.85ξ && ξy > 0.85ξ?

ξx unsatisfy ξy unsatisfy
Yes
Adjust the damping coefficient of VD in both
directions according to ξx, ξy
Calculate additional damping ratio

ξx, ξy in X, Y direction No
The relative error between

ξx, ξy andξ<5%?
Yes
End
Fig. 3 VD design process
3.3 Overall Design Process
Based on the above methods, the overall design process of the viscous dampers
based standardized design of modular steel structures in different seismic zones is as
follows: first, the strength design of the initial structure is carried out, and if the
strength of the member is insufficient, the cross section of the member is increased
until satisfied. Then the stiffness of the structure is judged, if the story drift has met
the code requirement, then the structure does not need to install VD, design ends. If
the story drift does not meet the code requirement, the target additional damping
ratio is calculated by response spectrum analysis and applied to the subsequent VD
design to get the optimal install scheme of VD satisfying the code requirement,
design ends. The specific process is shown in Fig. 4. The method proposed in this
paper is compiled by programming software (C#), the rapid design of modular steel
structure in different seismic zones can be realized and the engineering efficiency
can be greatly improved.
Start
Initial structural analysis
Component strength No Increase of member

meets requirements? section
Yes
The story drifts Meet Yes The structure does

the code limit? not need to install VD
No
Use response spectrum method
to calculate the target damping
ratio
VD design
End
Fig. 4 Overall process of viscous dampers based standardized design of modular steel structures
in different seismic zones
4 Case Study
A ten-story modular steel structure is shown in Fig. 5(a). The size of the module is
length 6 m, width 3.5 m and height 3 m. The plane layout is 3 modules connected
by long side, in which the middle module is provided with middle columns and
braces, the net horizontal spacing of the columns between the modules is 10 mm,
and the net vertical spacing of the beams between the modules is 20 mm. The total
height of the structure is 30.18 m. The structure is divided into three zones, 1F to
4F for the first zone, 5F to 7F for the second zone, and 8F to 10F for the third zone.
The dimensions of structural members for each zone are shown in Table 1.
This structure is designed in the 7-degree area (0.10 g) and is now planned to be
built in the 7-degree (0.15 g). The design characteristic period of ground motion is
0.40 s, and the natural damping ratio of the structure under the action of small
earthquakes is 3%. The results of structural analysis are shown in Table 2. It can be
seen that the structural members meet the strength requirements before and after the
site change, and the Y-direction story drift of the structure meets the code limit
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
a(m/s )
2
0
-0.1
-0.2
-0.3
-0.4
-0.5
-0.6
0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40
T(s)
(a) Structure diagram (b) VD selectable position (c) Earthquake time-history wave
Fig. 5 Structure information
Table 1 Members size (mm)

Zone Side column Floor beam Middle column Roof beam Brace
Zone 1 200*200*16 200*150*16 100*100*6 150*100*10 100*100*6
Zone 2 200*200*12 200*150*12
Zone 3 200*200*10 200*150*10
Table 2 Structural analysis results

Ground information Maximum stress Maximum story drift
ratio
Intensity Seismic amplification Beam Column X Y
factor direction direction
7 degree 0.08 0.646 0.541 0.0028 0.0025
(0.10 g)
7 degree 0.12 0.674 0.606 0.0043 0.0038
(0.15 g)
1/250, but the X-direction story drift exceeds the limit, so the VD design of the
structure should be carried out in the X direction.
The selectable position of the structure VD is located in the middle span of the
structure, as shown in Fig. 5(b), each storey has one selectable position. Through the
calculation of the response spectrum method, the X-direction story drift can meet the
code limit when the additional damping ratio of the X-direction structure is 2%,
Then, with 2% as the target additional damping ratio, using the small earthquake
time wave as shown in Fig. 5(c), the VD design of the structure is carried out.
Table 3 Optimization results of geometric parameters

Width/m Height/m Deformation magnification factor h1 = h3 h2
3.5 3 2.921 45.10 58.48
Fig. 6 VD energy 12
dissipation of each group
Energy Dissipation(Nm)
9
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Group Number
Table 4 Priority for placing Sequence 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

VD
Floor 5 3 4 2 6 7 8 9 1 10
Table 5 VD install schemes

Number Floor Damping coefficient Additional damping ratio
1 5F 10000 1.35%
2 5F/3F 10000 2.80%
3 5F/3F 7147 1.98%
The structure consists grids of one dimension: 3.5 m wide and 3 m high. The
geometric parameters of the grid are designed, and the results are shown in Table 3.
The deformation amplification coefficients of the grid is close to 3.0.
The virtual VD model is used to analyze the priority install sequence of VD.
The VD energy dissipation of each group is shown in Fig. 6. Taking the VD energy
dissipation as the index to judge, the priority VD install sequence of X-direction can
be obtained as shown in Table 4.
The initial damping coefficient of VD is 10000 N/(m) ^ 0.3 and the damping
index is 0.3. After three iterations, it can be obtained that when two sets of VD are
placed in the X direction on floor 5 and 3, the additional damping ratio in the X
direction of the structure reaches 1.98%. The VD install scheme for each iteration
Response spectrum-3% Response spectrum-3%

Response spectrum-5% Response spectrum-5%
28 VD 28 VD
Limit value
21 21
Hight/m
Hight/m
14 14
7 7
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
-3 5
Story drift x 10 Story shear force/N x 10
(a) Story drifts (b) Story shear forces

Fig. 7 Analyze results compare
step is shown in Table 5. Since VD is only arranged in a small number of positions

in the actual structure and the additional damping ratio is usually small, the
damping coefficient of VD is basically linearly related to the additional damping
ratio of the structure, and it usually only need to modify the damping coefficient
once.
In order to verify the correctness of the results, three cases were set: time history
analysis for the structure with VD, response spectrum analysis for the structure with
additional damping (5%) and response spectrum analysis for the structure without
additional damping (3%). The comparison of story drifts and story shear force of
the structure was shown in Fig. 7. The results show that the installation of VD can
effectively control the lateral displacement of the structure and reduce the seismic
response of the structure, and the story drift and story shear force analyzed by
response spectrum with additional damping are larger than the results of
time-history analysis with VD, which indicates that the structure is more safe when
the response spectrum analysis is used in the later stage of structural design.
5 Conclusion
In this paper, a standardized design method of modular steel structure is proposed,

in which viscous dampers are installed to increase the additional damping of the
structure to control the lateral displacement, so as to realize the construction of
standardized modular steel structure in different intensity sites. The automatic
design of the proposed method is realized by software programming, and the

optimal parameters, quantity and position of VD required in different seismic zones
are obtained, which greatly improves the engineering efficiency. The design method
is used to design a ten-story modular steel structure. The design results show that
the installation of VD can effectively control the lateral displacement of the
structure, reduce the seismic response, and solve the stiffness problem of the
structure without increasing the cross section of the members. It shows that the
design method proposed in this paper has good economy. And it is relatively
conservative to apply VD system designed in this paper to engineering response
spectrum design, which shows that the design method proposed in this paper has
good safety. Therefore, the viscous dampers based standardized design method of
modular steel structures in different seismic zones proposed in this paper has great
value of engineering application.
References
1. Li H (2019) Optimization design of aseismic integration of ultra-high structure hybrid vibration

damping system, Tongji University
2. Hwang JS, Huang YN, Hung YH (2005) Analytical and experimental study of
toggle-brace-damper systems. J Struct Eng 131(7):1035–1043
3. Huang HC (2009) Efficiency of the motion amplification device with viscous dampers and its
application in high-rise building. Earthq Eng Eng Vib 8(4):521–536
4. Wang ZH, Chen ZQ (2010) New installations of viscous dampers in high rise buildings. World
Earthq Eng 26(4):135–140
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for viscous damping system of ultra-high structure. J Vib Eng 31(1):12–19
Economical Evaluation
of Comprehensive Seismic Risk
in Consideration of Construction
System, Site and Use
Ando Satoshi, Katori Yuna, Kaito Yasuko, and Takahashi Osamu
Abstract As a seismic risk evaluation, Probable Maximum Loss (PML) is mainly

used as an index and its most general definition is 90% non-excess loss by the
earthquake which occurs 10% excess probability in 50 years, but it is not enough
clear so that the result has been different by the one who calculates. We evaluated 9
sites in Japan and found that PML differs when we evaluate a point where there is a
strong impact by the active fault whether we use the average or maximum case of
the seismic hazard data released by J-SHIS. By using the data of 2% excess
probability, we can get a result which has less difference between the average or
maximum case of the 10% excess probability and what is more, to evaluate
base-isolated buildings, 2% excess probability would be a better index to indicate
the effectiveness comparing the seismic design buildings.

Keywords Seismic risk evaluation Probable Maximum Loss Base-isolated

buildings Disaster prevention Life cycle cost
A. Satoshi (&)
Tokyo, Japan
K. Yuna
First-Corporation Inc, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: katori@1st-corp.com
K. Yasuko
TAKAHASHI Osamu Laboratory, Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering,
e-mail: y.kaito@rs.tus.ac.jp
T. Osamu
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Doctor of Engineering,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_86
922 A. Satoshi et al.
1 Introduction
1.1 Research Background
The building design method should be corrected each time a major earthquake
occurs that causes human and material damage. However, since these are designed
not to be destroyed and not to cause damage, buildings damaged by the earthquake
must be repaired, reinforced and used or rebuilt. Therefore, it is important to know
in advance how much damage a building will be caused by an earthquake.
PML (Probable Maximum Loss) is often used in seismic risk assessment of
buildings, but the definition of PML has not been clarified. Also, for seismic
hazards used in PML evaluation, a probabilistic seismic motion prediction map is
released that summarizes the relationship information of strength, duration, and
probability of seismic motion at the J-SHIS Seismic Hazard Station by
Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion. Although the hazard curve at the
point of can be evaluated, the results differ because the evaluation intervals differ in
the interval of earthquake activity and the setting of the index of seismic intensity.
Therefore, in this paper, we study seismic risk in various parts of Japan based on
dynamic response analysis and aim to establish an appropriate evaluation method.
1.2 Earthquake Risk Assessment Flow
At present, the flow of evaluation is generally shown as shown in Fig. 1, although

there are differences in the organizations that evaluate the seismic risk of buildings.
Then draw a risk curve from the hazard curve and the loss curve and calculate
various risk values. It is this risk curve that shows this magnitude and represents the
probability of loss over time.
Fig. 1 Seismic risk assessment flow

Economical Evaluation of Comprehensive Seismic Risk … 923
2 Comparison of Earthquake Hazards
2.1 Verification Target Location
Seismic hazard assessment assesses the risk of a site being subjected to large
ground motions, considering all earthquakes that affect the site. Earthquakes
assumed in the Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Maps are roughly classified into three
categories shown in Table 1. In this study, as shown in Table 1, ten points with
largely different categories are considered. At each site, the site amplification factor
was selected at 1.4 ± 0.1.
2.2 Type of Seismic Hazard
Seismic hazard is an assessment of the risk of a site being subjected to large ground
motions, considering all earthquakes that affect the site. Headquarters for
Earthquake Research Promotion publishes two types of hazards, taking the average
activity interval and the latest activity time of earthquakes from major active fault
zones as the average case and the maximum case. Moreover, the variation between
the maximum case and the average case is small at a point where the degree of
influence of the earthquake category I is large, and the variation tends to be large at
a point where the degree of influence of the earthquake category III is large.
2.3 Evaluation Method of Loss Curve and Risk Curve
To calculate the loss curve, the integrated structure calculation software “Super
Build/SS3” (UNION SYSTEM Inc) is used to calculate the maximum velocity
exceeding the interlayer deformation angle of the damage form defined as shown in
Table 2. The average damage cost ratio for each damage level is 10, 20, and 100%
for small, medium and large damage, regardless of the building size, and the loss
curve is calculated. The cost for rebuilding is used as the replacement price, and the
risk curve is calculated from the hazard curve and the loss curve.
Table 1 Maximum impact earthquake category of target location

Earthquake category Target location
I An earthquake that can identify the source fault of a Hamamatsu, Nagoya,
subducting earthquake Kochi
II An earthquake that cannot identify the source fault among Sendai, Mito, Nakano
subduction earthquakes (Tokyo)
III Shallow earthquakes on land and sea areas such as active Sapporo, Kanazawa,
faults Osaka, Fukuoka
3 Seismic Risk Assessment of Aseismic Buildings
The reinforced concrete 5F, 10F, 15F and 30F earthquake-resistant buildings to be
examined in this study are modeled using the “Super Build/SS3” as shown in
Fig. 2. PML is a ratio of loss magnitude to replacement price and is 0.0 for no
damage and 1.0 for total loss.
3.1 PML Comparison by Average and Maximum Cases
As shown in Table 3, in Category III of earthquakes, when comparing the PML of

the average case and the maximum case, there is a noticeable difference between the
average case and the PML of the maximum case. Also, as shown in Fig. 3, in the
average case there is a difference between the earthquake category II and PML at
the earthquake category III point, but in the largest case the same values are shown.
It is important to recognize the difference in the method of calculating the proba-
bility of occurrence of earthquakes, because the results are greatly different
depending on which case is used when considering the place where the influence of
earthquake category III is large.
3.2 PML Comparison by Excess Probability
In the 15th floor building with Category III earthquakes, both 5% and 2% PMLs
were found to be quite large compared to PMLs with 50 years excess probability
10%. Especially in Fukuoka City, the probability of excess is generally defined as
PML and the loss rate increases at 10% or less, so the probability of occurrence of
an earthquake is small, but if it occurs, the possibility of a large earthquake motion
becomes high. Therefore, to consider PML, you need to consider the excess
probability depending on the use.
Table 2 Definition of damage level

Damage State Interlayer deformation
level angle limit value
Small A state where the interior and equipment system can 1/200
be easily repaired
Medium A state that can be used by repairing the main 1/100
structure
Large A state that needs rebuilding of building 1/50
30F 15F 10F 5F
Fig. 2 Building model
Table 3 PML evaluation result of earthquake resistant building
category category II category

Nakano
Hamamatsu Kochi Nagoya Mito Sendai Osaka Kanazawa Fukuoka Sapporo
(Tokyo)
Average case
30F 0.17 0.15 0.09 0.10 0.08 0.04 0.06 0.01 0.01 0.00
15F 0.34 0.26 0.13 0.14 0.13 0.07 0.10 0.04 0.02 0.02
10F 0.27 0.21 0.13 0.14 0.13 0.08 0.10 0.06 0.04 0.03
05F 0.44 0.35 0.19 0.17 0.16 0.12 0.11 0.07 0.04 0.03
Maximum case
30F 0.17 0.15 0.09 0.10 0.09 0.04 0.08 0.04 0.05 0.01
15F 0.34 0.27 0.13 0.14 0.14 0.07 0.12 0.08 0.08 0.02
10F 0.27 0.21 0.13 0.14 0.13 0.08 0.12 0.09 0.09 0.04
05F 0.44 0.35 0.19 0.17 0.17 0.15 0.11 0.11 0.12 0.04
30F 15F 10F
Fig. 3 PML value comparison

4 Seismic Risk Assessment of Seismically Isolated

Buildings
In order to make a mutual comparison with the seismic risk for aseismatic build-
ings, the buildings examined in Sect. 3 were designed as seismic isolation build-
ings, and the seismic risk evaluation was performed.
4.1 PML Comparison in Earthquake Resistance

and Seismic Isolation
The results of PML when the 10F and 15F.30F buildings are isolated are shown in
Table 4. Since the average case and the maximum case are as close to 0.00 as
possible at any point with an excess probability of 10%, it can be said that the
amount of reduction of the expected maximum loss due to seismic isolation is close
to the amount of loss when earthquake resistance is used in both cases. Since there
is a gap in PML values depending on whether the average case or the maximum
case is used in earthquake-resistant buildings at the point of earthquake category III,
a difference appears when comparing the effects of seismic isolation.
Table 4 PML evaluation results of earthquake resistance and seismic isolation

category category II category
Nakano
(Tokyo)
Average case
30F 0.17 0.15 0.09 0.10 0.08 0.04 0.06 0.01 0.01 0.00
Earthquake resistance 15F 0.34 0.26 0.13 0.14 0.13 0.07 0.10 0.04 0.02 0.02
10F 0.27 0.21 0.13 0.14 0.13 0.08 0.10 0.06 0.04 0.03
30F 0.07 0.03 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Seismic isolation 15F 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
10F 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Maximum case
30F 0.17 0.15 0.09 0.10 0.09 0.04 0.08 0.04 0.05 0.01
Earthquake resistance 15F 0.34 0.27 0.13 0.14 0.14 0.07 0.12 0.08 0.08 0.02
10F 0.27 0.21 0.13 0.14 0.13 0.08 0.12 0.09 0.09 0.04
30F 0.07 0.03 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Seismic isolation 15F 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
10F 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
4.2 PML Comparison by Excess Probability
The results of PML at excess probability 10%, 5% and 2% are shown in Table 5.
As for the earthquake category I point, the PML of the seismic building is large at
30F with an excess probability of 10%, so the effect of seismic isolation is large in
the examination with an excess probability of 10%. On the other hand, at the 30F
earthquake category III point, the excess probability is 10%, PML is 0.01 in the
average case and 0.02 in the maximum case. Therefore, if it is the general definition
of PML, there is no effect of seismic isolation.
4.3 Life Cycle Cost Comparison
Regarding the life cycle cost considering the seismic risk during the operation
period, evaluate the seismic risk reduction effect by seismic isolation. The life-cycle
cost of the earthquake-resistant building and the base-isolated building in this
research is the sum of the initial cost and the expected value of the loss that may be
incurred in 50 years. In addition, the life-cycle costs of seismically isolated
buildings are assessed not only for initial costs but also for later inspection costs. It
is assumed that it will be implemented for 500,000 yen once at the completion,
5 years, 10 years and every 10 years thereafter. The inspection cost of the seismic
isolation system is based on the standards of The Japan Society of Seismic Isolation
(JSSI). The number of years for cost-effectiveness is shown in Table 6.
Although there are differences depending on the building, sites with earthquake
categories I and II with 10% probability of excess will be cost effective in about
20 years. However, many earthquake category III sites cannot be acquired within
60 years when replacement of seismic isolation devices is required. However, if the
seismic isolation is the most effective 2% over chance, then even earthquake cat-
egory III points will be cost effective within 60 years.
Table 7 show the years of cost-effectiveness when it is estimated that the
replacement cost of the seismic isolation system will be three times the equipment
cost. If the loss is more than 10%, it will be cost effective only in earthquake
category I within 60 years, but if it is more than 2%, earthquake categories II and III
are also available.
Table 5 PML evaluation results with excess probability as a variable (average case_30F)
Nakano
(Tokyo)
PML_10% 0.17 0.15 0.09 0.10 0.08 0.04 0.06 0.01 0.01 0.00
Earthquake resistance PML_5% 0.19 0.16 0.11 0.12 0.10 0.06 0.08 0.05 0.03 0.01
PML_2% 0.21 0.18 0.13 0.14 0.12 0.09 0.13 0.09 0.10 0.02
PML_10% 0.07 0.03 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Seismic isolation PML_5% 0.12 0.06 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
PML_2% 0.20 0.12 0.01 0.03 0.01 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00
Table 6 Cost effectiveness

category category category
Nakano
(Tokyo)
Average case
PML_10% 19.7 16.3 21.5 19.6 22.9 47.4 33.3
30F PML_5% 29.1 18.9 18.0 16.9 18.7 30.1 22.4 37.9 55.9
PML_2% 29.1 16.1 16.0 16.3 21.2 16.1 20.8 18.7
PML_10% 6.6 7.9 16.1 14.8 17.0 29.3 22.6 53.8
15F PML_5% 5.6 6.5 13.5 11.9 14.1 22.1 16.7 24.5 29.0
PML_2% 4.7 5.3 10.7 8.9 11.2 15.8 10.9 15.3 13.1 39.5
PML_10% 7.8 9.4 15.3 14.3 15.8 24.9 19.7 36.1 50.4
10F PML_5% 6.4 7.8 13.2 12.3 13.8 19.7 15.7 20.8 24.2 40.9
PML_2% 5.4 6.5 11.3 9.9 11.5 15.1 11.5 14.8 13.6 28.7
Table 7 Cost effectiveness

(Seismic isolation repair)
category category category
Nakano
(Tokyo)
Average case
PML_10% 59.0 48.8 58.7
30F PML_5% 56.6 50.5 53.9 56.1
PML_2% 48.0 48.4 48.8 48.4 56.1
PML_10% 19.8 23.6 44.3 48.3 51.1
15F PML_5% 16.7 19.7 35.7 40.4 42.4 50.1
PML_2% 14.2 15.9 26.6 32.0 33.5 32.5 47.5 45.8 39.2
PML_10% 23.1 15.0 32.8 38.8 42.2
10F PML_5% 19.2 23.3 36.5 39.3 41.0 46.7 58.7
PML_2% 16.0 19.2 29.4 33.5 34.3 34.1 44.8 44.1 40.5
5 Conclusion
In this study, PML was examined in the 5th, 10th, 15th and 30th floor buildings. In
the case of 15F and 30F, compared with 5F and 10F, the magnitude of the reduction
effect of the isolation amount was clear. In the average case where the excess
probability is 10%, the cost-effectiveness of the seismic isolation of a seismic
isolation building with a PML of 0.20 can be obtained with a service life of
approximately 15 years. In addition, it is necessary to clarify which information
should be used when making an evaluation, as the difference between the earth-
quake category III points tends to be remarkable when the earthquake hazard is
maximum and average. By performing the assessment in the average case with a
probability of more than 2%, you get results that reduce the error between the
average case and the largest case when compared to locations across the country.
This is effective as a presentation of the risk reduction effect by seismic isolation
when compared with earthquake resistance, and it is suitable as a new index of
PML if it is predicted that seismic isolation of buildings in the world will further
progress in the future.
References
1. Architectural Institute of Japan (2011) Seismic risk evaluation and risk communication
2. National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (2018) J-SHIS
Earthquake Hazard Station Nationwide Ground Motion Prediction Map 2018 Edition. http://
www.j-shis.bosai.go.jp/map/
3. Hayashi Y, Suzuki Y, Miyakoshi J, Watanabe M (2000) Seismic Risk Evaluation of
Existing RC Buildings Based on Seismic Performance Indices
4. Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (2018) Land Price Announcement
2018 Edition. http://www.mlit.go.jp/totikensangyo/H30kouji_index.html
Developed Research to Carry Out
Prediction Damage from Measuring
Microtremor
Ryosei Omata, Takashi Baba, Yasuko Kaito, and Osamu Takahashi
Abstract Japan has many experiences of building damage caused by earthquakes

and it has managed to recover from such disaster each time. There is a system called
Temporary Risk Evaluation, which determines the immediate availability by
investigating the damage situation of a building in a short period of time after an
earthquake, and plays a major role in the prevention of secondary disasters.
However, it has some problems, such as staff shortages and variations in judgments.
In this study, we aim to construct an immediate and accurate Temporary Risk
Evaluation system using measuring microtremor.
Although the prediction of the degree of damage to a building using a measuring
microtremor is a pre-existing study, the prediction does not take into account even
plasticization at the time of an earthquake. Therefore, we will make a more accurate
prediction considering the time of earthquake by calculating the ground response
analysis and building equivalent period.
The measuring microtremor was wide-ranging from Hokkaido in the north and
Kagoshima in the south, and also in Taiwan as well as japan.
As a determination method, to set the index by the interlayer deformation angle,
to determine the resonance range of the ground and the building considered until
the time of the earthquake.
In order to verify that the building damage level prediction proposed in this study
is correct, we select one building from the constant tremor measurement and look at
the integrity of the analysis value and the predicted value.
R. Omata (&) T. Baba Y. Kaito O. Takahashi

Tokyo, Japan
T. Baba
e-mail: t.baba@sciencekozo.co.jp
Y. Kaito
e-mail: kaito.yasuko.kaito@gmail.com
O. Takahashi

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_87
932 R. Omata et al.
Keywords Temporary Risk Evaluation Emergency risk assessment

Microtremor Disaster prevention
1 Introduction
Buildings that encounter earthquakes may look healthy at first glance, but may be
damaged by the earthquake. During aftershocks, a secondary disaster is caused by
the fall of building materials from buildings that are underway and the collapse of
the building itself. In order to prevent the occurrence of secondary disasters, it is
necessary to determine the immediate availability of the building by investigating
the damage situation of the building in a relatively short period of time from the
occurrence of the earthquake. It is “Temporary Risk Evaluation” that the country
and the municipality are doing to play the role.
The Temporary Risk Evaluation is that a qualified technician investigates the
damage situation of a building after an earthquake and makes a judgment at three
stages: “Surveyed Green”, “Attention Yellow”, and “Dangerous Red”, and a
judgment indicator based on the decision is posted on the building.
However, the system or understaffed, because the investigators determine the
decision only by their own visual, there is a problem, such as variations in the
results occur.
Ground constant FFT

START tremor measurement Conversion
Ground YES
Ground analysis
survey results Earthquake
response
analysis NO
Predic on of ground-
NO Set unique cycle
specific cycle sa ated YES Building earthquake
by ground type
during earthquakes response forecast
value
Building constant YES
FFT
tremor Building
Conversion
measurement earthquake
response analysis
Set unique cycle supine by
NO structure type and
number of floors
Resonant
rela onship curve
output
Ground -
Building risk END
assessment
Fig. 1 Flowchart
Developed Research to Carry Out Prediction Damage … 933
Fig. 2 Temporary Risk Evaluation placards
Fig. 3 Microtremor
measurement point
In Japan, one of the world’s leading earthquake powers, it is required to con-

struct a temporary risk evaluation system with immediate and accurate accuracy in
order to minimize the damage caused by earthquakes.
The flowchart of the first-aid risk determination is shown in Fig. 1. In this study,
we always perform measuring microtremor and focus on the latter part of the
flowchart. Then, we select one building from the measuring microtremor and
perform an analytical examination and compare it with the predicted value, aiming
for further study of the building damage degree prediction using measuring
microtremor (Figs. 2 and 3).
934 R. Omata et al.
2 Measuring Microtremor
2.1 Overview of Measuring Microtremor
The measuring microtremor point is shown in Fig. 4 below. IMV’s high-performance

vibration meter is used for measurement, 3 components for 10 min (X, Y, Z direction)
was recorded data. The sampling frequency is set to 100 Hz.
2.2 Analysis Method of Dominant Period of the Ground

(Constant)
First, stable waveform data of 20.48 s was cut out into 10 sections from the data
obtained from the microtremor measuring microtremor at all times. Fourier spectra
were then obtained for each of the X, Y, and Z directions for 10 sections by Fourier
transformation, and at that time noise of 10 Hz or more was cut off with a low pass
filter. From the Fourier spectrum in three directions, the H/V spectral is calculated
in order to remove the Rayleigh wave. Then, the average of the H/V spectrum ratios
for the 10 sections is averaged, and the period at the peak of the average H/V
spectrum ratio in the period of 0.1 to 1.4 s is taken. Let the period be the dominant
period of the ground constantly obtained from microtremor measurements.
Laptop
Conversion unit
Vibra on meter
Fig. 4 Microtremor measuring equipment

2.3 Analysis Method of Natural Period of the Building

(Constant)
After extracting waveform data similarly to the ground, Fourier transform was
carried out to obtain a Fourier spectrum. Then, the transfer function was calculated
by dividing the Fourier spectrum in the X and Y directions measured in the building
by the Fourier spectrum in the same direction of the ground. The peak period of the
transfer function was taken as the natural period of the building. For buildings that
were able to constantly measure microtremors on both the first and second floors,
the transfer function when the Fourier spectrum on the second floor was divided by
the Fourier spectrum in the same direction on the first floor was also calculated and
evaluated did.
Also, if it is not possible to perform the measuring microtremor of the building,
the substantial value estimated based on the shape of the building is set as the
natural period of the building.
3 Various Analyses
3.1 Method of Analyzing the Period of Excellence

of the Ground (Earthquake)
The ground causes nonlinear behavior when a constant distortion is applied, but the
period of excellence obtained by the measuring microtremor is in a state where there
is no distortion, so it is necessary to consider the nonlinearity separately from it.
Therefore, from the boring columnar diagram in the vicinity of the measuring
microtremor point, to perform the analysis using ShakePRO-L (Union System Co.,
Ltd.). Incident wave and the notification number of phase level 2, using both as a
level 1 which the magnification of the seismic wave was 1/5 times.
In addition, if the boring columnar diagram as in this Taiwan measurement can
not be obtained is set by a value based on the ground type determined by the
Building Standards Law.
3.2 Method of Analyzing the Period of Excellence

of the Building (Earthquake)
Equivalent rigidity after plasticity is assumed to be a fully elastic ity characteristic

model of the building as a full-bullet plastic type and the equivalent rigidity after
pffiffiffi
plasticity k/l, thus the equivalent period at any displacement is l times.
In this study, the interlayer deformation angle was defined for each structural
type and the magnification was set. Magnification set, wooden and steel frame was
1 times the interlayer deformation angle 1/120, reinforced concrete was 1-fold at
interlayer deformation angle 1/250 (Figs. 5 and 6).
936 R. Omata et al.
Fig. 5 Restoring force

characteristics
Fig. 6 Characteristics of Force

steel frame houses
Minor A li le Half Large Collapse
Interlayer
deforma on angle
1/120 1/60 1/30
3.3 Overview of Eligible Buildings
The target building is a detached house of the steel frame of the floor built in
Kanamachi, Katsushika-ku, Tokyo. The plane is a short side direction 3 span long
side direction 3 span in the plane dimension ratio is 1:1.2. Reinforced concrete
continuous cloth foundation for the foundation, square steel pipe for pillars, H-type
steel pipe for beams, ALC is used for floors, exterior walls, roofs.
3.4 Load Incremental Analysis
Create an analysis model of a building from a drawing and perform a load incre-
mental analysis. The analysis was made using the structural integrated calculation
software SS7 (Union System Co., Ltd.). Based on the load-displacement relation-
ship graph of each floor determined by the load incremental analysis, it approxi-
mates by bilinear, and the resiliency characteristics required for earthquake
response analysis are modeled.
1F Analysis 2F Bilinear 3F Bilinear

results
900 900 600
800 800
500
700 700
Load[kN]
Load[kN]
Load[kN]
600 600 400
500 500
300
400 400
300 300 200
200 200
100
100 100
0 0 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 0 10 20 30 40 50
Displacement[mm] Displacement[mm] Displacement[mm]
Fig. 7 Load incremental analysis results
Table 1 Earthquake response analysis results

Interlayer Element Time Displacement Load Stiffness
deformation angle [s] [mm] [kN] [kN/cm]
1/120 1 6.08 25.51 730.00 286.14
2 19.82 556.00 280.52
3 10.81 237.98 220.15
1/60 1 8.56 49.98 746.92 149.44
2 21.75 610.20 280.60
3 12.13 267.00 220.12
MAX 1 8.6 54.39 749.98 137.89
2 18.76 526.49 280.64
3 12.16 267.61 220.07
3.5 Earthquake Response Analysis Method
Resilience characteristics of target buildings obtained by load incremental analysis

Based on the model of the three-point system, we perform eigenvalue analysis and
earthquake response analysis using DynamicPRO (Union System Co., Ltd.).
When performing earthquake response analysis, since the target building is
steel-framed, the history type is assumed to be the standard type, and the plastic
type is performed by bilinear type. The resilience characteristic data of each quality
point are shown in Table 2.
Input seismic wave adopts the “notification disturbance number phase L2”,
which is a floor level notification wave calculated during ground response analysis.
After entering the seismic wave, the target building calculates the specific period
at interlayer deformation angle 1/120, 1/60, 1/30 because it is steel, but the max-
imum interlayer deformation angle before the default value to use the interlayer
deformation angle at that time.
Calculates the unique period for each interlayer deformation angle performs
eigenvalue analysis to determine the rigidity for each calculated interlayer defor-
mation angle. The results of the earthquake response analysis are shown in Table 1.
938 R. Omata et al.
Table 2 Comparison results

Constant (*1/120) Earthquake (1/60) Earthquake (1/30)
Prediction 0.238 0.337 0.476
Analysis 0.251 0.308 /
3.6 Analysis Results and Considerations
The building-specific period was calculated for each interlayer deformation angle of
the building by the earthquake response analysis. The comparison results are shown
in Table 2 below. In the earthquake response analysis of this building, the maxi-
mum interlayer deformation angle is 1/54. Comparing the building-specific period
in the interlayer deformation angle 1/30 was not performed. The predicted value of
the specific period at the interlayer deformation angle 1/120 is about 6% shorter
than the analysis value. On the other hand, the predicted value of the period is about
9% longer than the analysis value. In addition, the elongation ratio of the interlayer
deformation angle to 1/60 in the predicted value defined by this method is
pffiffiffi
2 = 1.414, but the elongation ratio of the analysis value is 1.227. It is believed
that it was possible to exhibit sufficient accuracy as a prediction value although a
little difference is seen in the prediction value and the analysis value than the above
results.
4 Prediction Damage
The lower limit of the smaller of the outstanding period of the four ground deter-
mined from the above, the upper limit of the larger limit of the outstanding period at
the time of earthquake, to provide a criteria by the ground cycle.
Further, as the determination index of the building provides a determination
index of four stages in accordance with the interlayer deformation angle as shown in
Table 3.
Although determining the risk from the two overlapping conditions as an index
color, if the criteria overlaps a plurality of index color regions, employs a larger
overlapping area.
The determination results are summarized in Table 4.
Table 3 Building indicator
Wooden
Interlayer deforma on
The state of the building Indicators
angle
~1/120 Minor Green
1/120~1/60 Small break Yellow
1/60~1/20 Medium break - Wreck Red
1/20~ Total destruc on Black
Steel frame
angle
~1/120 Minor Green
Reinforced concrete
angle
~1/250 Minor Green

940 R. Omata et al.
Table 4 Result list
Risk assessment
Building Informa on
Level 1 Level 2
Place
Columnar Building Type of
Uses NS EW NS EW
drawing measurement structure
Hokkaido Temple wooden G G G G
Reinforced
Housing R Y R Y
concrete
Kanamachi
Housing Steel frame Y Y R Y
Housing wooden G Y Y R
Nakano
Housing wooden Y Y Y Y
Housing wooden G Y Y R
Housing wooden G G G Y
Kumamoto
Housing wooden G Y G Y
Housing wooden R G R G
Reinforced
School Y G G G
concrete
Tokunoshima City hall Reinforced

G Y Y R
concrete
Housing wooden G G G G
Reinforced
Bank Y R R B
concrete
Taiwan
Reinforced
Building G G Y Y
concrete
1.2
Ground H/V EW
1
SHAKE(const)
SHAKE(earthquake)
0.8
Min
0.6 Max
building EW
0.4 Analysis
0.2
0
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2
Period[s]
Fig. 8 Resonant relationship curve
5 Conclusions
Although there were some errors in the earthquake response prediction and analysis
values targeted in this study, the risk determination was the same as seen in Fig. 7.
Structural statements are essential for earthquake response analysis, and it takes
time to analyze them.
In the future, it is considered that the earthquake response prediction value that
can be issued the risk determination in a short time only by constant tremor
measurement if there is no difference in the predicted value and the analysis value
will play a very important role.
In order to do so, we would like to take a little more time to carefully evaluate
and analyze individual ground and buildings so that we can evaluate them that are
useful to society (Fig. 8).
Acknowledgements IMV Co., Ltd. helped us in this research, and many of you cooperated in the
continuous microtremor measurement.
Reference
1. Baba T, Chiba Y, Omata R, Takahashi O (2018) A study to develop a system of

post-earthquake temporary risk evaluation of damaged buildings with measuring microtremor.
Part 1–4, summary of technical papers of annual meeting architectural institute of Japan
Advances in Mechanics and Materials
Rigid-Mass Vehicle Model
for Identification of Bridge Frequencies
Concerning Pitching Effect
Judy P. Yang and Bo-Lin Chen
Abstract In early 1990s, the concept of vehicle-bridge interaction (VBI) was

developed to investigate the dynamic behavior of bridges subjected to moving loads
such as high-speed trains. In recent years, the VBI system was further introduced to
explore the possibility of identifying bridge frequencies in order to monitor the
health of bridges by using a passing vehicle. Among the models of test vehicles, the
sprung mass vehicle model with a single degree-of-freedom vehicle body is the
most common adopted one due to its simplicity. However, for a test vehicle moving
over the uneven pavement, the pitching effect arising from the vertical and rota-
tional movements of the vehicle actually influences the identification of bridge
frequencies. Therefore, a rigid-mass vehicle model is proposed in this work to
improve the sprung mass vehicle model by including both vertical and rotational
deflections. The analytical solutions to the rigid-mass vehicle-bridge interaction
system are derived to verify the proposed model, and the numerical examples are
provided to investigate the dynamic behavior of the VBI system subjected to road
irregularity.
Keywords Pitching effect Vehicle-bridge interaction Road irregularity

Rigid-mass vehicle
1 Introduction
The vehicle-bridge interaction (VBI) was originally proposed to investigate the

behavior of high-speed trains moving over the bridges [8, 9]. Recently, the concept
was further applied to study the dynamic behavior of bridges via test vehicles in
order to extract bridge frequencies and monitor the health of bridges [7].
J. P. Yang (&) B.-L. Chen

Department of Civil Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan
e-mail: jpyang@nctu.edu.tw
B.-L. Chen
e-mail: plingod@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_88
946 J. P. Yang and B.-L. Chen
The vehicle and the bridge are the main components in a typical VBI system.
Particularly, the vehicle model has a decisive influence on the extraction of bridge
frequencies, whereas the bridge is usually assumed to be a simply supported bridge
modelled by beam elements. When the test vehicle moves over the bridge, the beam
element directly acted upon by the test vehicle forms the so-called VBI element.
At first, the vehicle model was assumed to be a single-degree-of-freedom sprung
mass moving over a beam. With such a simple idea of the VBI system, the iden-
tification of the first bridge frequency can be achieved [5]. In order to better capture
the dynamic behavior of the VBI system, a two-mass vehicle model was proposed
by including the unsprung mass in addition to the sprung mass [3], in which the
unsprung mass of the vehicle refers to the axle mass below the vehicle’s suspension
system in the automotive design. With the aid of two-mass vehicle model, the
dynamic responses of the bridge can be faithfully reflected, and the second bridge
frequency can be identified. Nevertheless, when a vehicle travels on the uneven
pavement, the front wheel and rear wheel may suffer different degrees of oscillation,
thereby causing the vehicle body to displace vertically and rotate in such a way. In
the literature, the pitching effect was discussed through the use of a train modelled
as a rigid beam moving over the bridge, where the main focus was the design of
high-speed railroad bridges [2]. As motivated by the aforementioned work, a
rigid-mass vehicle model is proposed in this work to take the pitching effect of the
vehicle into consideration, in which both vertical and rotational DOFs of the vehicle
body are assumed [4].
2 Rigid-Mass Vehicle Model for VBI Element
Figure 1 depicts the schematic diagram of the VBI system, in which the test vehicle
is modelled as a rigid beam with mass mv and pitching moment of inertia Iv moving
with constant velocity v, and it is supported by a spring of stiffness kv and a dashpot
of damping coefficient cv . It is assumed that the vehicle is in contact with the bridge
through the front wheel (on the ith beam element) and rear wheel (on the jth beam
element) spanned with axle length d while the mass of the wheels is ignored in this
work. qv and hv denote the vertical displacement and rotation about the central point
of the vehicle body. The equation of motion of the vehicle is

mv 0 €qv 2cv 0 q_ v 2kv 0 qv fver
€hv þ þ ¼
0 Iv 0 0:5cv d 2 h_ v 0 0:5kv d 2 hv frot
ð1Þ

fver cv u_ i þ u_ j þ
kv ui þ uj þ kv ri þ rj
¼ ð2Þ
frot 0:5d cv u_ i u_ j þ kv ui uj þ kv ri rj
Rigid-Mass Vehicle Model … 947
Fig. 1 Mathematical model qv

of VBI system
Iv v mv v
y kv cv kv cv
r x
qb
j i x
d
L
where ui and uj denote the displacements of elements i and j evaluated at contact

points.
As to the bridge, it is modelled as a simply supported beam of length L with road
irregularity denoted by r ð xÞ. The equations of motion for bridge elements i and j by
considering Rayleigh damping are
½mbi f€qbi g þ ½cbi fq_ bi g þ ½kbi fqbi g ¼ fci fN gci

ð3Þ
mbj €qbj þ cbj q_ bj þ kbj qbj ¼ fcj fN gcj
1
fci ¼ mv g þ cv u_ i q_ v 0:5d h_ v þ kv ðui þ ri qv 0:5dhv Þ
2 ð4Þ
1
fcj ¼ mv g þ cv u_ j q_ v þ 0:5d h_ v þ kv uj þ rj qv þ 0:5dhv
2
3 Numerical Results
The parameters of the vehicle and bridge adopted in this study are given as follows:
For the vehicle, mv = 1500 kg, Iv ¼ 2738 kg m2 , axle distance d ¼ 2:5 m,
v ¼ 11 m/s, and kv ¼ 85 kN/m for each wheel. For the bridge, m ¼ 1000 kg/m,
L ¼ 30 m, E ¼ 27:5 GPa, and I ¼ 0:175 m4 . The frequencies of vehicle and
bridge are computed as fv ¼ 1:6943 Hz and fb ¼ 3:8288 Hz, respectively.
3.1 Effect of Road Irregularity
Three different levels of road irregularity Gd ðn0 Þ ¼ 1 106 m3 , 16 106 m3 ,

and 256 106 m3 are considered, where the PSD curve is adopted to generate the
profiles of road irregularity [1]. By using a time interval of 0.001 s, the profiles are
shown in Fig. 2.
-1
5 10 15 20 25 30
(a)
Roughness (cm)
-1
5 10 15 20 25 30
(b)
1
-1
5 10 15 20 25 30
(c)
Fig. 2 Profiles of road irregularity
The corresponding vehicle’s spectra are shown in Fig. 3, in which the highest
two peaks are either the vehicle’s frequency or the bridge’s first frequency except
for the case under the highest level of road irregularity.
3.2 Pitching Effect
To understand the influence of pitching effect arising from the rigid-mass vehicle,
the output data are recorded from the following three locations of the test vehicle:
center of the vehicle, front wheel, and rear wheel in the test vehicle. For the three
levels of road irregularity introduced in Sect. 3.1, the identified frequencies of the
vehicle and bridge are respectively summarized in Table 1 and Table 2.
Referring to Table 1, it is observed that the vehicle frequencies can be identified
clearly for all cases when the output data are obtained in the center of the vehicle in
spite of high level of road irregularity. In contrast, a shifting amount of vehicle
frequencies are observed under high level of road irregularity when the output data
are obtained in the locations of front wheel and rear wheel of the vehicle in this
regard.
Referring to Table 2, it is observed that the identification of bridge frequencies
shows identical results for all cases. Especially, the bridge frequency does not
appear as either the first or the second peak in the spectrum under high road
irregularity.
Rigid-Mass Vehicle Model … 949
(a)
(b) (c)
Fig. 3 Vehicle’s spectra: a Gd ðn0 Þ ¼ 1 106 m3 ; b Gd ðn0 Þ ¼ 16 106 m3 ;

c Gd ðn0 Þ ¼ 256 106 m3
Table 1 Identified vehicle Location Gd ðn0 Þðm3 Þ

frequencies under different
road irregularity 1 106 16 106 256 106
Center of vehicle 1.693 1.693 1.693
Front wheel 1.693 1.693 2.031
Rear wheel 1.693 1.693 2.031
Table 2 Identified bridge Location Gd ðn0 Þðm3 Þ

frequencies under different
road irregularity 1 106 16 106 256 106
Center of vehicle 3.724 3.724 –
Front wheel 3.724 3.724 –
Rear wheel 3.724 3.724 –
From the above results, it is suggested that the center of the test vehicle might be
an adequate location to install the instrument such as the sensors in order to record
and process the vehicle’s responses in the on-site experiments.
4 Conclusions
This work proposes a rigid-mass vehicle model that allows for the pitching effect on
the identification of bridge frequencies. From the numerical results, it is shown that
the rigid-mass vehicle model is able to identify the frequencies of both vehicle and
bridge under all road conditions, while this cannot be done by the traditional sprung
mass vehicle model. For identifying vehicle frequencies, the dynamic responses of
the vehicle obtained in the center of vehicle yields best results under all road
conditions. For identifying bridge frequencies, the numerical results suggest that the
three locations considered can be used to install the sensors and record the dynamic
responses of the test vehicle under most road conditions. Based on the results
obtained in this study, the inclusion of vehicle’s wheels will be adopted in the future
work in order to better understand the pitching effect in this regard.
Acknowledgements This work is supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the
Republic of China (Taiwan) under the Grant MOST 107-2221-E-009-141-MY3.
References
1. ISO 8608 (1995) Mechanical Vibration-road Surface Profiles-reporting of Measured Data

(International Organization for Standardization, Geneva)
2. Yang YB, Chang CH, Yau JD (1999) An element for analysing vehicle-bridge systems
considering vehicle’s pitching effect. Int J Numer Meth Eng 46:1031–1047
3. Yang JP, Chen BH (2018) Two-mass vehicle model for extracting bridge frequencies. Int J
Struct Stab Dyn 18(4):1850056
4. Yang JP, Chen BL (2019) Rigid-mass vehicle model for identification of bridge frequencies
concerning pitching effect. Int J Struct Stab Dyn 19(2):1950008
5. Yang JP, Lee WC (2018) Damping effect of a passing vehicle for indirectly measuring bridge
frequencies by EMD technique. Int J Struct Stab Dyn 18(1):1850008
6. Yang YB, Li YC, Chang KC (2012) Effect of road surface roughness on the response of a
moving vehicle for identification of bridge frequencies. Interact Multiscale Mech 5(4):347–368
7. Yang YB, Lin CW, Yau JD (2004) Extracting bridge frequencies from the dynamic response of
a passing vehicle. J Sound Vib 272:471–493
8. Yang YB, Yang JP (2018) State-of-the-art review on modal identification and damage
detection of bridges by moving test vehicles. Int J Struct Stab Dyn 18(2):1850025
9. Yang YB, Yau JD, Hsu LC (1997) Vibration of simple beams due to trains moving at high
speeds. Eng Struct 19:936–944
Large Displacement Analysis
of Pinned-Fixed Circular Arches
with Different Rise-to-Span Ratios
Using an Isogeometric Approach
D. Vo and P. Nanakorn
Abstract Circular arches are often used as parts of engineering structures due to
their effectiveness in resisting vertical loads. An understanding of nonlinear
structural behavior of circular arches is crucial to obtaining their good designs.
Points of interest are the effects of the rise-to-span ratio on their nonlinear structural
behavior. In this paper, large displacement analysis of pinned-fixed circular arches
with different rise-to-span ratios using an isogeometric approach is presented. In the
analysis, the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory is used. The exact reference axis of each
arch and its deformed axis are represented by non-uniform rational B-spline
(NURBS) curves. The effects of the rise-to-span ratio on the nonlinear structural
behavior of the arches are studied. Some well-established examples, exhibiting
snap-through and snap-back phenomena, are considered, and the accuracy and
efficiency of the proposed approach are discussed.

Keywords Isogeometric analysis (IGA) Non-uniform rational B-spline

(NURBS) Large displacement analysis Thin circular arch Rise-to-span ratio
D. Vo (&) P. Nanakorn
School of Civil Engineering and Technology, Sirindhorn International Institute of
Technology, Thammasat University, Pathumthani, Thailand
e-mail: duyvo.ce@gmail.com
P. Nanakorn
e-mail: nanakorn@siit.tu.ac.th
D. Vo
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology,
2-12-1-W8-22, Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_89
952 D. Vo and P. Nanakorn
1 Introduction
Nonlinear responses of thin circular arches undergoing large displacements have

been studied in many works. Some analytical solutions [1, 9–11, 15] and finite
element results are available [6, 8, 13, 14]. Different boundary conditions of the two
ends, i.e., pinned-pinned, fixed-fixed, and pinned-fixed ends, are considered.
Pinned-fixed circular arches subjected to a central concentrated force behave
differently from pinned-pinned and fixed-fixed arches under the same loading
condition. The nonlinear load-deflection curves of the central points of pinned-fixed
circular arches under a central concentrated load are complex, where severe
snap-though and snap-back phenomena with several limit points can be observed
[10]. The deformed arch axes are more complicated than those of pinned-pinned
and fixed-fixed arches due to the asymmetric boundary conditions. The nonlinear
behavior of a pinned-fixed circular arch is significantly influenced by the slender-
ness of its cross-section and its rise-to-span ratio. The rise-to-span ratio is con-
sidered as one of the most important design parameters for arches.
Isogeometric analysis (IGA), introduced by Hughes et al. [4], has become a
powerful alternative technique in the field of computational mechanics. The
underlying concept of IGA is to close the gap between computer-aided design
(CAD) and finite element analysis (FEA) by using the same CAD basis functions
for geometry and displacement approximations. Among CAD basis functions,
non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS) basis functions are mostly used due to
their accuracy in representing complex geometry. IGA has been successfully
applied to various practical problems, such as structural vibration [2], and plate and
shell problems [3, 5].
Recently, the IGA approach has been used in large displacement analysis of
elliptical arches by Luu and Lee [7]. In their work, the deformed arch axis is
represented using NURBS basis functions, and the obtained results are more
accurate than those obtained from the conventional finite element approach. In this
paper, the thin pinned-fixed circular arch in Fig. 1 is analyzed using a
NURBS-based Euler-Bernoulli beam formulation. The arch is subjected to a central
concentrated force. By varying the rise-to-span ratio, the effects of this design
variable are discussed. The numerical results are also compared with those obtained
from the conventional finite element approach, and the accuracy and efficiency of
the employed approach are assessed.
D v f
B C
Fig. 1 Pinned-fixed circular arch subjected to a central concentrated force

Large Displacement Analysis of Pinned-Fixed Circular Arches … 953
2 NURBS-Based Euler-Bernoulli Beams
2.1 Reference and Current Configurations
Here, the kinematic descriptions of a planar curved Euler-Bernoulli beam are

studied. The plane of the beam is spanned by two orthonormal vectors e1 and e2 .
The material coordinates along the beam axis and thickness are n and g, respec-
tively. As a rule of notations, all the quantities described in the reference config-
uration are denoted by upper letters while the quantities described in the current
configuration are denoted by lower letters. In addition, the Greek indices a; b range
from 1 to 2.
The position vectors of a point on the beam axis in the reference and current
configurations are, respectively, written as
R0 ðnÞ ¼ X0 ðnÞe1 þ Y0 ðnÞe2 ; r0 ðnÞ ¼ x0 ðnÞe1 þ y0 ðnÞe2 : ð1Þ
The displacement vector of the beam axis becomes
u0 ðnÞ ¼ r0 ðnÞ R0 ðnÞ: ð2Þ
The tangent vectors of the beam axis in the reference and current configurations
are, respectively, defined as
dR0 ðnÞ 0 dr0 ðnÞ 0

A1 ¼ ¼ R0 ðnÞ; a1 ¼ ¼ r0 ðnÞ: ð3Þ
dn dn
In this study, the prime notations indicate the derivatives with respect to n.
The unit vectors normal to the beam axis in the reference and current configu-
rations are, respectively, determined as
A1 a1
A2 ¼ K ; a2 ¼ K ð4Þ
kA 1 k ka1 k
where K is defined as

0 1
K¼ : ð5Þ
1 0
For Euler-Bernoulli beams, the cross-sections are always orthogonal to the beam
axis. By using the unit normal vectors, the position vectors of a generic point can be
described in the reference and current configurations, respectively, as
Rðn; gÞ ¼ R0 ðnÞ þ gA2 ; rðn; gÞ ¼ r0 ðnÞ þ ga2 : ð6Þ

2.2 Strain Measurements
Covariant basis vectors are defined for the reference and current configurations as
@Rðn; gÞ 0 @Rðn; gÞ
G1 ¼ ¼ A1 þ gA2 ; G2 ¼ ¼ A2 ; ð7Þ
@n @g
@rðn; gÞ 0 @rðn; gÞ
g1 ¼ ¼ a1 þ ga2 ; g2 ¼ ¼ a2 : ð8Þ
@n @g
For the reference configuration, contravariant basis vectors are defined by the
following relation, i.e.,

0 a 6¼ b
Ga Gb ¼ : ð9Þ
1 a¼b
A metric tensor is defined based on the contravariant basis vectors as
G ¼ Gab Ga Gb ð10Þ
where is the tensor product operator, and Gab ¼ Ga Gb .

The deformation gradient tensor F is given as
F ¼ ga G a : ð11Þ
Subsequently, the Green-Lagrange strain tensor E becomes
1 T
E¼ F FG : ð12Þ
2
Substituting Eqs. (10) and (11) into Eq. (12) yields
1
E¼ gab Gab Ga Gb ð13Þ
2
where gab ¼ ga gb .
The components of the Green-Lagrange strain tensor E are determined as
1
Eab ¼ gab Gab : ð14Þ
2
From Eq. (14), the only non-zero component E11 is obtained as

1 0 0

E11 ¼ ða1 a1 A1 A1 Þ g a1 a2 A1 A2 : ð15Þ
2
Note that the higher order term, Oðg2 Þ, in E11 is neglected because g is small.
The membrane strain and bending curvature are defined, respectively, as
1 0 0
C11 ¼ ða1 a1 A1 A1 Þ; K11 ¼ A1 A2 a1 a2 : ð16Þ
2
Eventually, the strain component E11 is expressed as
E11 ¼ C11 þ gK11 : ð17Þ
2.3 Stress Resultants
The second Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor S is written as
S ¼ Sab Ga Gb : ð18Þ
The material is considered as linear elastic. Since the Green-Lagrange strain

tensor E has only one non-zero component, S11 is written as
11
S11 ¼ EE ð19Þ
is Young’s modulus in the Ga Gb coordinate system.

where E
The resultant forces are defined as
Z
11 ;
N 11 ¼ S11 dA ¼ EAC ð20Þ
A
Z
11
M 11 ¼ S11 gdA ¼ EIK ð21Þ
A
where N 11 and M 11 are the axial force and bending moment, respectively. In
addition, A is the cross-sectional area, and I is the moment of inertia.
2.4 NURBS-Based Discrete Equations
The kinematic descriptions shown above can be used for any planar Euler-Bernoulli
beams. However, in this paper, only the pinned-fixed circular arch in Fig. 1 is con-
sidered. As a result, the virtual work principle can be particularly written for the arch as
Z ZS
dE11 S11 dV ¼ dC11 N 11 þ dK11 M 11 dS ¼ dvP ð22Þ
V 0
where V and S are, respectively, the initial volume and initial length of the arch. In
addition, dv is the virtual central displacement, and P is the concentrated force (see
Fig. 1).
By following the fundamental concept of IGA, NURBS basis functions are used
to approximate both the arch axis and the displacements. Thorough studies of
NURBS basis functions can be found elsewhere [12]. Herein, NURBS basis
functions are used without introduction. The arch axis in the reference and current
configurations are approximated as NURBS curves, respectively, as
X
n X
n
R0 ðnÞ ¼ Ri ðnÞPi ; r0 ðnÞ ¼ Ri ðnÞpi ð23Þ
i¼1 i¼1
where Pi and pi are, respectively, the positions of the i-th control point in the
reference and current configurations. In addition, Ri ðnÞ is the NURBS basis func-
tion for the i-th control point. Obviously, n is the number of the control points used.
The displacement of the arch axis is determined as
X
n
u0 ðnÞ ¼ r0 ðnÞ R0 ðnÞ ¼ Ri ðnÞui ð24Þ
i¼1
where ui is the displacement vector of the i-th control point. In this study, the
displacements of the control points ui are considered as the unknowns.
Once the arch axis is expressed in terms of the unknowns ui , all the kinematic
quantities can be written in terms of the unknowns ui . Subsequently, the
NURBS-based discrete equations are determined by means of Eqs. (22) and (24).
The obtained discrete equations are nonlinear with respect to the unknowns and are
solved in this study by the Newton-Raphson method. The formulation presented so
far involves only the displacements of the beam axis. For straightforward pre-
scriptions of the concentrated force and rotational boundary conditions, the arches
are represented using two NURBS patches, and the approach in [16] is considered,
i.e., incorporating the end rotations of patches as discrete unknowns.
3 Numerical Results
The Euler-Bernoulli beam formulation presented in this study is applied to analyze

the pinned-fixed circular arch in Fig. 1.The span of the arch is denoted by L while
the rise of the arch is denoted by f . The square cross-section of h h, where
h ¼ 0:01L, is considered. To study the effects of the rise-to-span ratio f =L, the
rise-to-span ratio is varied.
Fig. 2 Normalized load versus normalized central deflection, comparison with Marc-Mentat:
a f =L ¼ 0:015, b f =L ¼ 0:03
3.1 Comparison with Finite Element Analysis
The arch in Fig. 1 is analyzed by the proposed approach and simulated in MSC
Marc-Mentat, a commercial finite element software package, using its B52
two-noded beam elements. Here, two values of the rise-to-span ratio, i.e., f =L ¼
0:015 and f =L ¼ 0:03, are considered. The obtained results for the central deflec-
tion are plotted in Fig. 2, where the normalized load PL2 =EI and the normalized
central deflection v=f are used. Here, E is Young’s modulus, and I is the moment of
inertia. When f =L ¼ 0:015, the difference between the results obtained by the
proposed approach and Marc-Mentat is not significant. However, when f =L ¼ 0:03,
more degrees of freedom are required by Marc-Mentat in order to obtain the same
accuracy as the proposed approach, i.e., 93 degrees of freedom for Marc-Mentat and
29 degrees of freedom for the proposed approach. With these results, the efficiency
of the proposed approach is clearly verified.
3.2 Effects of the Rise-to-Span Ratio
The central deflections obtained with f =L ¼ 0:015 and f =L ¼ 0:03 are plotted
together in Fig. 3. The two normalized load-central deflection curves show sig-
nificantly different behavior of the two arch configurations. When f =L ¼ 0:015, the
normalized load-central deflection curve exhibits only snap-through behavior with
2 limit points, i.e., points a and b. In contrast, when f =L ¼ 0:03, the normalized
Fig. 3 Effects of the

rise-to-span ratio on the
normalized load-central
deflection curve
load-central deflection curve becomes far more complex, exhibiting snap-back

behavior with 4 limit points, i.e., points c, d, e, and g.
The effects of the rise-to-span ratio are further investigated by varying the ratio
in a wider range, i.e., from 0.01 to 0.05. The obtained normalized load-central
deflection curves are shown in Fig. 4. It can be observed that the normalized
Fig. 4 Normalized
load-central deflection curves
with different rise-to-span
ratios
load-central deflection curve changes from a snap-through curve with 2 limit points
to a snap-back curve with 4 limit points when the rise-to-span ratio exceeds a
certain value.
4 Conclusions
In this paper, IGA of pinned-fixed circular arches with various rise-to-span ratios,
each subjected to a central concentrated force, is presented. The obtained numerical
results are compared with those obtained by Marc-Mentat. The efficiency of the
proposed IGA approach is validated when the same accuracy with Marc-Mentat is
obtained by the proposed approach using less degrees of freedom.
The nonlinear structural behavior of a pinned-fixed circular arch depends sig-
nificantly on its rise-to-span ratio. The load-deflection curve changes from a
snap-through curve to a snap-back curve when the magnitude of the rise-to-span
ratio is greater than a certain value.
Although the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed approach have been val-
idated, only pinned-fixed circular arches are analyzed in this paper. Therefore, a
complete numerical study using the IGA approach for the nonlinear behavior of
circular arches with different boundary conditions, i.e., pinned-pinned and
fixed-fixed, should also be performed.
Acknowledgements Scholarships from the ASEAN University Network/Southeast Asia

Engineering Education Development Network (AUN/SEED-Net) and Sirindhorn International
Institute of Technology (SIIT) for the first author are greatly appreciated.
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12. Piegl L, Tiller W (1997) The NURBS book. Springer, New York
13. Yang YB, Kuo SR, Yau JD (1991) Use of straight-beam approach to study buckling of curved
beams. J Struct Eng 117(7):1963–1978
14. Yoo Chai H, Kang Young J, Davidson James S (1996) Buckling analysis of curved beams by
finite-element discretization. J Eng Mech 122(8):762–770
15. Zhu J, Attard MM, Kellermann DC (2014) In-plane nonlinear buckling of circular arches
including shear deformations. Arch Appl Mech 84(12):1841–1860
16. Vo D, Nanakorn P (2020) Geometrically nonlinear multi-patch isogeometric analysis of
planar curved Euler-Bernoulli beams. Comput Methods Appl Mech Eng 366:113078
A Total Lagrangian Isogeometric
Timoshenko Beam Formulation
for Large Displacement Analysis
of 2D Frames
V. Chorn, D. Vo, and P. Nanakorn
Abstract When frame structures undergo large displacements, their deformed

shapes can be complex. Representing these complex shapes using polynomials in
the standard form in conventional finite element formulations can be ineffective.
This study presents an isogeometric beam formulation for large displacement
analysis of 2D frames by means of the total Lagrangian description with the
kinematic assumptions of the Timoshenko beam theory. The translational dis-
placements of the beam axis and the cross-sectional rotation are both approximated
by using B-spline basis functions in order that complex deformed shapes of beams
can be better represented. Some benchmark problems are solved, and the accuracy
and efficiency of the proposed beam formulation are assessed.

Keywords Large displacement analysis of beams Total Lagrangian formulation

Timoshenko beams Isogeometric analysis (IGA) B-spline basis functions
1 Introduction
Large displacement analysis of beams and frames has been extensively studied by
many researchers [7–9]. For large displacement analysis of beams, the choices of
kinematic assumptions, reference configurations, and interpolation schemes are the
key issues. The commonly used kinematic assumptions are those given by the
Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and the Timoshenko beam theory. The main difference
between them is the consideration of shear deformation. Shear deformation is
V. Chorn D. Vo P. Nanakorn (&)

School of Civil Engineering and Technology, Sirindhorn International Institute
of Technology, Thammasat University, Pathumthani, Thailand
e-mail: nanakorn@siit.tu.ac.th
V. Chorn
e-mail: vithearin.chorn@gmail.com
D. Vo
e-mail: duyvo.ce@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_90
962 V. Chorn et al.
ignored in the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory but considered in the Timoshenko beam
theory. As a result, the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory is only suitable for thin beams
while the Timoshenko beam theory is applicable to both thin and thick beams.
Regarding reference configurations in large displacement analysis, there exist
three widely used descriptions, i.e. the total Lagrangian description, the updated
Lagrangian description, and the co-rotational description. Among them, the total
Lagrangian description can be considered as the most uncomplicated one since it
employs the undeformed configuration as the only reference configuration
throughout the analysis.
In conventional finite element analysis, polynomials written in the standard form
are usually used for the approximation of geometry and unknown kinematic fields.
However, in large displacement analysis, deformed configurations are normally
complex, and polynomials in the standard form cannot effectively represent these
configurations. Recently, basis functions used in computer-aided design (CAD) are
employed as alternatives to standard polynomials in representing both geometry
and unknown kinematic fields. This approach, first introduced by Hughes et al. [3],
is called Isogeometric Analysis (IGA). Good results by IGA are reported in many
works [1, 2, 10]. From this observation, using CAD basis functions in large dis-
placement analysis of beams, where complex deformed configurations are expected,
can be beneficial.
In this paper, an isogeometric Timoshenko beam formulation is proposed for
large displacement analysis of beams and frames. The total Lagrangian description
is used. In addition, B-spline basis functions are used for the approximation of
geometry and unknown kinematic fields. Some benchmark problems are solved,
and the obtained results are compared with those in the literature. The efficiency and
accuracy of the proposed approach are discussed.
2 Isogeometric Timoshenko Beam Formulation
2.1 Kinematic Assumptions
The kinematic assumptions in the Timoshenko beam theory are illustrated in Fig. 1.
The initial configuration C0 is considered as the reference configuration, and the
deformed configuration is denoted by C. The coordinate systems for the reference
and deformed configurations are OXY and Oxy, respectively. They are set to
coincide with each other. Consider a point P0 ðX; Y Þ and its projection on the beam
axis in C0 . Due to the deformation, P0 ðX; Y Þ moves to Pðx; yÞ in C, as shown in
Fig. 1. It follows that
x ¼ X þ uX Y sin h; y ¼ uY þ Y cos h: ð1Þ
Here, uX and uY are the horizontal and vertical displacements of the projection of
P0 ðX; Y Þ on the beam axis. In addition, h is the rotational displacement of the
A Total Lagrangian Isogeometric Timoshenko Beam Formulation … 963
Fig. 1 Timoshenko beam kinematics
cross-section. In this study, uX , uY , and h are considered as the unknown

displacements.
The deformation gradient tensor F can be determined as
" #
@x @x
1 þ uX Yh0 cos h
0
@X @Y sin h
F¼ ¼ ð2Þ
uY Yh0 sin h
@y @y 0
@X @Y
cos h
where the prime notations indicate the derivatives with respect to X.

The Green-Lagrange strain tensor E is determined as
1 T
E¼ F FI ð3Þ
2
where I is an identity matrix.

To simplify the Green-Lagrange strain tensor E, an orthogonal matrix Q is
introduced as

cos h sin h
QðhÞ ¼ : ð4Þ
sin h cos h
as
Define a matrix F
¼ QðhÞF ¼ I þ L
F ð5Þ
964 V. Chorn et al.
where
0
1 þ uX cos h þ uY sin h Yh0 1
0
0
L¼ 0 0 : ð6Þ
1 þ uX sin h þ uY cos h 0
The Green-Lagrange strain tensor E is now expressed in terms of L as
1 T 1 T
E¼ F FI ¼ F I ¼ 1 L þ LT þ LT L 1 L þ LT :
F ð7Þ
2 2 2 2
The term LT L is ignored since the strains are assumed to be small.

The Green-Lagrange strain tensor E can be eventually expressed as

C11 þ YK11 2 C12
1
E11 E12
E¼ ¼ ð8Þ
2 C12
1
0 E21 0
where
0
0
C11 ¼ 1 þ uX cos h þ uY sin h 1; ð9Þ
0
0
C12 ¼ 1 þ uX sin h þ uY cos h; ð10Þ
K11 ¼ h0 : ð11Þ
The linear elastic material is considered in this study. It follows that
S11 ¼ EE11 ¼ EðC11 þ YK11 Þ; S12 ¼ 2GE12 ¼ GC12 ð12Þ
where E and G are Young’s modulus and the shear modulus, respectively.
The resultant forces are defined as
Z
N11 ¼ S11 dA ¼ EAC11 ; ð13Þ
A
Z
M11 ¼ S11 YdA ¼ EIK11 ; ð14Þ
A
Z
N12 ¼ S12 dA ¼ GAC12 ð15Þ
A
where A is the cross-sectional area, and I is the moment of inertia.

2.2 Discrete Equations
The virtual work principle is expressed here as

Z Z
ðdC11 N11 þ dK11 M11 þ dC12 N12 ÞdL ¼ dvT qdL þ dvð0ÞT f 0 þ dvðLÞT f L ð16Þ
L L
where L is the length of the beam. Here, the displacement vector v and the dis-
tributed load vector q are defined as
v ¼ ½ uX uY h T ; q ¼ ½ qX qY m T : ð17Þ
In addition, dvð0Þ and dvðLÞ are the virtual displacements at the ends of the
beam. Moreover, f 0 and f L are the concentrated load vectors at these end locations.
In this study, B-spline basis functions are used without introduction. Details
about these basis functions can be found in CAD reference books [5]. The unknown
displacements are approximated using B-spline basis functions as
X
n
uX ¼ Bi ðnÞuXi ; ð18Þ
i¼1
X
n
uY ¼ Bi ðnÞuYi ; ð19Þ
i¼1
X
n
h¼ Bi ðnÞhi ð20Þ
i¼1
where Bi ðnÞ are the B-spline basis functions, and uXi , uYi , hi are the control vari-
ables. In addition, n is the parametric variable for the B-spline basis functions, while
n denotes the number of the control points used. All the kinematic quantities can be
expressed in terms of the control variables by means of Eqs. (18)–(20), and the
discrete equations can subsequently be obtained from the virtual work principle in
Eq. (16). The obtained discrete equations are nonlinear in terms of the control
variables, and they are solved in this study by the Newton-Raphson method.
3 Results
Two benchmark problems are solved, and the accuracy and efficiency of the pro-
posed formulation are discussed.
966 V. Chorn et al.
3.1 Williams’ Toggle Frame
A frame consisting of two members connected with an obtuse angle, in Fig. 2, is

considered. This frame is called Williams’ toggle frame, and both analytical and
experimental results are available [6]. Due to the symmetry, only a half of the
structure is analyzed in this study. This member is approximated by sextic B-spline
basis functions with 7 control points. In other words, the number of degrees of
freedom is 21. The frame is also analyzed by Yang et al. [9] using ten two-noded
Euler-Bernoulli beam elements with 33 degrees of freedom. The results by
Williams [6], Yang et al. [9], and this study are compared in Fig. 2. Good agree-
ment is observed.
3.2 Square Frame in Compression
In this example, a square frame subjected to compression forces shown in Fig. 3 is

considered. Due to the symmetry, only a quarter of the frame is simulated. The
elliptic integral solutions by Mattiasson [4] are available for this problem. The
numerical results by Wu et al. [8], using ten two-noded beam elements per length L
Fig. 2 Williams’ toggle

frame
Fig. 3 Square frame in compression
or 63 degrees of freedom for one quarter of the frame, are also available. In this
study, septic B-spline basis functions with 15 control points are used to approxi-
mate the displacements. In other words, the number of degrees of freedom is 45.
The results by Mattiasson [4], Wu et al. [8], and this study are compared in Fig. 3.
Good agreement is observed.
4 Conclusions
In this paper, a total Lagrangian Timoshenko beam formulation using the isogeo-
metric approach is proposed for large displacement analysis of frames. B-spline
basis functions are used to approximate the unknown displacements, which include
the translational displacements of the beam axis and the cross-sectional rotation.
Two benchmark problems are solved. The obtained results agree well with those
found in the literature. The numbers of degrees of freedom used in this study are
smaller than those used in the literature. These comparison results illustrate the
accuracy and efficiency of the proposed formulation.
Acknowledgements Scholarships from Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology (SIIT)

and Thammasat University for the first author are highly appreciated.
968 V. Chorn et al.
References
1. Benson DJ, Bazilevs Y, Hsu MC, Hughes TJR (2010) Isogeometric shell analysis: the
Reissner-Mindlin shell. Comput Methods Appl Mech Eng 199(5):276–289
2. Cottrell JA, Hughes TJR, Reali A (2007) Studies of refinement and continuity in isogeometric
structural analysis. Comput Methods Appl Mech Eng 196(41):4160–4183
3. Hughes TJ, Cottrell JA, Bazilevs Y (2005) Isogeometric analysis: CAD, finite elements,
NURBS, exact geometry and mesh refinement. Comput Methods Appl Mech Eng 194(39–
41):4135–4195
4. Mattiasson K (1981) Numerical results from large deflection beam and frame problems
analysed by means of elliptic integrals. Int J Numer Meth Eng 17(1):145–153
5. Piegl L, Tiller W (1997) The NURBS book. Springer, New York
6. Williams F (1964) An approach to the non-linear behaviour of the members of a rigid jointed
plane framework with finite deflections. Q J Mech Appl Math 17(4):451–469
7. Wood RD, Zienkiewicz OC (1977) Geometrically nonlinear finite element analysis of beams,
frames, arches and axisymmetric shells. Comput Struct 7(6):725–735
8. Wu TY, Wang RZ, Wang CY (2006) Large deflection analysis of flexible planar frames.
J Chin Inst Eng 29(4):593–606
9. Yang YB, Leu LJ, Yang JP (2007) Key considerations in tracing the postbuckling response of
structures with multi winding loops. Mech Adv Mater Struct 14(3):175–189
10. Vo D, Nanakorn P (2020) Geometrically nonlinear multi-patch isogeometric analysis of
planar curved Euler-Bernoulli beams. Comput Methods Appl Mech Eng 366:113078
Experimental and Analytical Study
on Lead Rubber Bearings Under
Non-proportional Plane Loading
S. J. Wang, W. C. Lin, and J. S. Hwang
Abstract In this study, lead rubber bearings, which have been extensively applied
in many seismic isolation designs for buildings, infrastructures, and facilities
worldwide, are tested under unilateral reversal loading as well as non-proportional
plane loading, including circular, figure-eight, and square orbits. The test results
indicate that unlike the unilateral hysteretic behavior, the bilateral one of lead
rubber bearings is too complicated to be characterized adequately by a simplified
bilinear hysteretic model. The applicability of adopting Abe et al.’s and Hwang
et al.’s models as well as the Bouc-Wen model for describing the coupled bilateral
hysteretic behavior of lead rubber bearings are demonstrated by comparing their
predictions with the non-proportional plane loading test results.
Keywords Lead rubber bearing Loading path Bilateral coupling

Mathematical model
1 Introduction
The hysteretic model, which was either ideally deduced under unilateral loading or
simply determined by unilateral reversal loading test results, was utilized to
numerically characterize the mechanical properties of LR bearings under dynamic
plane loading. However, the differences, if there are any and even if they are not
S. J. Wang J. S. Hwang
Department of Civil and Construction Engineering,
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan
e-mail: sjwang@narlabs.org.tw
S. J. Wang W. C. Lin (&) J. S. Hwang (&)
Division of Structural Control, National Applied Research Laboratories National Center
for Research on Earthquake Engineering, Taipei, Taiwan
e-mail: wclin@narlabs.org.tw
J. S. Hwang
e-mail: jshwang@narlabs.org.tw

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_91
970 S. J. Wang et al.
very noticeable, between the unilateral and bilateral behavior of LR bearings, or any
damage owing to bilateral loading, might cause inaccurate and even not conser-
vative design results [1, 2]. In this study, the LR bearings are tested with different
loading patterns, including unilateral reversal loading and non-proportional plane
loading [3–5]. Three previously developed analytical models, Abe et al.’s [3] and
Hwang et al.’s [5] models as well as the Bouc-Wen model [6], are selected for
describing the coupled bilateral hysteretic behavior of LR bearings. The applica-
bility of these models are demonstrated by comparing their predictions in which the
parameters are identified from the identical plane loading test with the test results.
In addition, the bilateral coupling effect on the hysteresis behavior of LR bearings is
experimentally discussed.
2 Experimental Study and Test Results
The LR bearings are configured to be tested under unilateral reversal loading and
non-proportional plane loading. The LR bearings are designed with a single, central
lead plug whose diameter is 30 mm. It is comprised of 16 layers of rubber each with
a thickness of 2 mm and 15 layers of steel shim with a thickness of 2 mm each. The
diameter and height of the LR bearings are 128 and 62 mm, respectively. The test
setup is illustrated in Fig. 1. As shown in Fig. 1, the vertical load on the bearing is
exerted by the servo-hydraulic actuator, while the lateral displacement is controlled
by two mutually orthogonal servo-hydraulic actuators connected with the bilateral
sliding platform. A linear guide system is installed underneath the platform to
reduce the friction force induced by the dynamic tri-axial testing facility. An
external load cell is installed to measure the actual force responses of the bearing
during testing.
Fig. 1 Test setup: dynamic tri-axial testing facility

Experimental and Analytical Study on Lead Rubber Bearings … 971
Table 1 Unilateral reversal and non-proportional plane loading test protocols

Vertical compression stress (kg/ 50, 75, 100, 120 50, 100
cm2)
Horizontal excitation Unilateral reversal loading Non-proportional plane loading
Triangular Sinusoidal Circular Figure-eight Square orbit
wave wave orbit orbit
Excitation frequency 0.0125, 0.05, 0.0125
x=2p (Hz) 0.1
Loading rate (mm/sec) 16, 32, 48
Number of cycles 3
U0 (mm)/shear strain 16/50% (16/50%) 16/50% 11.31/
(Maximum vector sum) 35.34%
(16/50%) (20/62.5%) (16/50%)
32/100% (32/100%) 32/100% 22.62/
70.69%
(32/100%) (40/125%) (32/100%)
48/150% (48/150%) 48/150% 33.93/
106.03%
(48/150%) (60/187.5%) (48/150%)
64/200% (64/200%) 64/200% 45.24/
141.38%
(64/200%) (80/250%) (64/200%)
The unilateral test protocols under triangular and sinusoidal reversal loading are
respectively detailed in Table 1, and the bilateral ones under non-proportional plane
loading, including circular, figure-eight, and square loading paths, are described in
Table 1. The equations of the plane loading paths shown in Fig. 2 are given by
(1) Circular orbit:
Ux ðtÞ ¼ U0 sin xt and Uy ðtÞ ¼ 0; when t ¼ 0 p=2x ð1Þ
Ux ðtÞ ¼ U0 cos xðt T=4Þ and Uy ðtÞ ¼ U0 sin xðt T=4Þ; when t
¼ p=2x 5p=2x ð2Þ
(2) Figure-eight orbit:
Ux ðtÞ ¼ U0 sin 2xt; when t ¼ 0 2p=x ð3Þ
Uy ðtÞ ¼ U0 sin xt; when t ¼ 0 2p=x ð4Þ
(3) Square orbit:
Ux ðtÞ ¼ U0 sin xt and Uy ðtÞ ¼ 0; when t ¼ 0 2p=x ð5Þ
Ux ðtÞ ¼ U0 and Uy ðtÞ ¼ U0 sin xðt T=4Þ; when t ¼ p=2x p=x ð6Þ
Ux ðtÞ ¼ U0 cos xðt 2T=4Þ and Uy ðtÞ ¼ U0 ; when t ¼ p=x 2p=x ð7Þ
Ux ðtÞ ¼ U0 and Uy ðtÞ ¼ U0 cos xðt 4T=4Þ; when t ¼ 2p=x 3p=x ð8Þ
Ux ðtÞ ¼ U0 cos xðt 6T=4Þ and Uy ðtÞ ¼ U0 ; when t ¼ 3p=x 4p=x
ð9Þ
Ux ðtÞ ¼ U0 and Uy ðtÞ ¼ U0 cos xðt 8T=4Þ; when t ¼ 4p=x 9p=2x
ð10Þ
where Ux ðtÞ and Uy ðtÞ are the displacement components at time t in two prin-
cipal horizontal directions, respectively; U0 is the displacement amplitude; x is the
angular frequency; and T ¼ 2p=x.
The hysteresis loops of the LR bearings under a compression stress of 50 kg/
cm2, triangular reversal loading with a constant rate of 16 mm/s, and sinusoidal
reversal loading with a frequency of 0.0125 Hz are depicted in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4.
The test observations show that the tested bearings have an excellent and stable
energy dissipation capability without strain hardening and cyclic softening phe-
nomena under both unilateral loadings. The only discrepancy observed is that under
triangular reversal loading, the hysteresis loops become slightly sharper at the
transition from loading to unloading compared to those under sinusoidal reversal
loading. In addition, the hysteresis loops of the tested bearings under unilateral
reversal loading can be adequately described by a simplified bilinear hysteretic
model.
Uy Uy Uy
Ux Ux Ux
(a) Circular orbit (b) Figure-eight orbit (c) Square orbit
Fig. 2 Illustrations of three non-proportional plane loading paths

Fig. 3 Hysteresis loops

under triangular reversal
loading before
non-proportional plane
loading tests
Fig. 4 Hysteresis loops under sinusoidal reversal loading before and after non-proportional plane
loading tests
Exerting a vertical compression stress of 100 kg/cm2, the X and Y directional

hysteresis loops and response histories as well as the plane response loci of the
tested LR bearings under circular, figure-eight, and square plane loading with an
excitation frequency of 0.0125 Hz are depicted in Fig. 5. Under circular plane
loading, the X and Y directional hysteresis loops are like the mechanical behavior
of a viscoelastic model. Under figure-eight plane loading, the X directional hys-
teresis loops are very similar to, but have a smoother shape compared with, the
typical mechanical behavior of LR bearings under unilateral reversal loading, while
the Y directional ones are like an ancient weapon (or a special boomerang). Under
square plane loading, the X and Y directional hysteresis loops are very similar to
(a) under circular plane (b) under figure-eight plane (c) under square plane
loading loading loading
Fig. 5 Hysteresis loops under non-proportional plane loading test
the typical mechanical behavior of LR bearings under unilateral reversal loading.

The significant dissimilarity between the hysteresis loops shown in Fig. 4 and
Fig. 5 represents that the mechanical behavior of the tested bearings is strongly
dependent on the loading path.
3 Analytical Models and Experimental Verification
(1) Abe et al.’s Model:

The analytical model in the form of vectors was extended from a unilateral one
in the form of scalars derived based on Ozdemir’s elastoplastic model [7]. The
model composed of nonlinear elastic, elastoplastic, and hardening spring elements
is obtained as
F ¼ F1A þ F2A þ F3A ¼ f Fx ðtÞ Fy ðtÞ gT ð11Þ

T
U ¼ f Ux ðtÞ Uy ðtÞ g ð12Þ

Max:ðjUjÞ U
F1A ¼ a1 a3 þ ð1 a3 Þ exp U þ a4 ½1 expða5 jUjÞ ð13Þ
a2 jUj
8 " 2 #a6 1 9
a7 ½1 þ ðjUj=a8 Þa9 < _ _ F F2A =
F_ A
2
¼ U U A
a10 ð1 þ Max:ðjUjÞ=a11 Þ : a9
a7 ½1 þ ðjUj=a8 Þ a7 ½1 þ ðjUj=a8 Þ ;
a9
ð14Þ
a13
jUj
F3A ¼ a12 U ð15Þ
a8
where F, U, and U_ are the restoring force, displacement, and velocity vectors
composed of X and Y directional components at time t; respectively; F1A , F2A , and
F3A are the force vectors composed of X and Y directional components at time
t provided by nonlinear elastic, elastoplastic, and hardening springs, respectively;
and a1 * a13 are the coefficients that are required to be identified from test results.
(2) Bouc-Wen Model:
In this analytical model, the restoring force was decomposed to elastic and
hysteretic components. By employing the plane vector concept in this study, the
Bouc-Wen model can be further extended in the form of vectors and is given by [6,
8]
T
F ¼ F1W þ F2W ¼ f Fx ðtÞ Fy ðtÞ g ð16Þ
F1W ¼ a5 a6 U ð17Þ
F2W ¼ ð1 a5 Þa5 z ð18Þ

z_ ¼ a1 U_ a2 U_ jzja3 1 z a4 U_ jzja3 ð19Þ
z ¼ f zx ðt Þ zy ðtÞ gT ð20Þ
where F1W and F2W are correspondingly the elastic and hysteretic force vectors
composed of X and Y directional components at time t; z is the hysteretic dis-
placement vector composed of X and Y directional components at time t; and
a1 * a6 are the coefficients that are required to be identified from test results.
(3) Hwang et al.’s Model:
Taking the shear force experienced by elastomeric bearings as a combination of
restoring force and damping force [9, 10], and assuming that the cyclic softening
effect is insignificant, a mathematical model in the form of vectors for character-
izing their hysteretic behavior under non-proportional plane loading was proposed
by Hwang et al. [5] and is given by:
T
F ¼ F1H þ F2H ¼ f Fx ðtÞ Fy ðtÞ g ð21Þ
F1H ¼ a1 U þ a2 U3 þ a3 U5 ð22Þ
Z ( a6 1 )

F2H U_ F2H
F2H ¼ a4 þ a5 U 2 _
U a dt ð23Þ
ja7 þ ½1 þ ðjUj=a8 Þa9 j 6
where F1H and F2H correspond to the restoring and damping force vectors composed
of X and Y directional components at time t, and a1 * a9 are the coefficients that
are required to be determined from test results.
The three analytical models are examined by comparing their predictions to
non-proportional plane loading test results, as shown in Fig. 6 to Fig. 8, respec-
tively. The coefficients of the model are mathematically determined by using the
Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm [11] in the optimization routine to achieve the
following objective function.
X
m
2
min Ftest Fprediction ð24Þ
i¼1
where m is the total number of data points, and Ftest and Fprediction are the experi-
mental and predicted shear forces, respectively. An expedient representation to
quantitatively evaluate the correlation between test results and predictions, the
coefficient of determination (R2), is also provided in Fig. 6 and can be calculated by:
SSE
R2 ¼ 1 ð25Þ
SST
X
m
2
SSE ¼ ðFtest Þi Fprediction i ð26Þ
i¼1
Fig. 6 Comparison between non-proportional plane loading test results and predictions by
Bouc-Wen model
Fig. 7 Comparison between non-proportional plane loading test results and predictions by Abe
et al.’s model
Fig. 8 Comparison between non-proportional plane loading test results and predictions by Hwang
et al.’s model
978
Table 2 Identified coefficients of the three models for predicting hysteretic behavior of LR bearings under non-proportional plane loading
Coefficient Bouc-Wen model Abe et al.’s model Hwang et al.’s model
Circular Figure-eight Square Circular Figure-eight Square Circular Figure-eight Square
a1 4.9933 5.0054 5.1077 0.2106 0.0003 0.3014 0.1844 0.1374 0.2073
a2 0.1255 0.0498 0.0206 3.9567 5.57 10−8 3.9932 −1.17 10−5 1.26 10−6 −4.98 10−5
a3 0.0323 0.0041 2.2672 −0.0629 −0.1878 0.2736 1.68 10−9 −4.08 10−10 1.44 10−8
a4 5.0046 4.9911 −0.0166 4.9443 2.3842 3.7262 3.2179 3.3372 4.9249
a5 0.0074 0.0025 0.2920 0.0494 0.0838 0.0790 0.0007 −0.0004 0.0044
a6 22.1775 56.9703 0.5732 0.9310 0.3908 0.4747 1.1729 0.4370 0.9377
a7 – – – 8.6407 10.2074 8.6779 2.3215 8.0256 3.8709
a8 – – – 128.1823 177.8156 120.5360 0.0028 0.0000 0.4198
a9 – – – 2.2792 15.3206 2.1735 0.1192 −0.0447 0.0790
a10 – – – 0.8168 1.5198 0.6494 – – –
a11 – – – 18.4678 29.2730 41.6796 – – –
a12 – – – 0.1224 0.1338 0.0157 – – –
a13 – – – 0.3330 0.3350 3.0609 – – –
S. J. Wang et al.
m h
X
i2
SST ¼ ðFtest Þi Fprediction mean ð27Þ
i¼1
where (Fprediction)mean is the mean of m values of Fprediction.

It is evident that when the coefficients are identified from the identical test, the
three analytical models can provide a good match of non-proportional plane loading
test results for the tested bearings. Nevertheless, it simply demonstrates the accu-
racy and practicability of the three models. Table 2 list the coefficients of the three
analytical models identified from the circular, figure-eight, and square plane loading
tests with a vertical compression stress of 50 kg/cm2. If simply looking at the tiny
difference between the calculated values of R2 in the three analytical models, Abe
et al.’s and Hwang et al.’s models might be slightly superior to the Bouc-Wen
model in prediction accuracy. Note that among the three analytical models, Abe
et al.’s model is the most time-consuming in computation since it has the most
to-be-determined coefficients, i.e. 13 coefficients, while the Bouc-Wen model is the
most timesaving since it has the least ones, i.e. 6 coefficients (Fig. 7).
4 Conclusions
In this study, the hysteretic behavior of LR bearings under unilateral reversal

loading, as well as non-proportional plane loading including circular and
figure-eight orbits, and square orbits are experimentally investigated. In addition,
three analytical models, including Abe et al.’s and Hwang et al.’s models as well as
the Bouc-Wen model, are adopted to describe the coupled bilateral hysteretic
behavior of LR bearings. The comparison of the unilateral reversal and plane
loading test results indicates that the hysteretic behavior of the tested bearings is
strongly dependent on loading paths and loading rates. This study shows that the
three analytical models can provide a good match of non-proportional plane loading
test results for the tested bearings, which demonstrates the accuracy and practica-
bility of the three analytical models.
Acknowledgements The study was financially aided by the Ministry of Science and Technology
(MOST) of Taiwan [105-2221-E-011-169-MY2], and was experimentally supported by the
National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE), National Applied Research
Laboratories (NARL) of Taiwan. The support is greatly acknowledged.
References
1. Huang WH, Fenves GL, Whittaker AS, Mahin SA (2000) Characterization of seismic
isolation bearings for bridges from bi-directional testing. In: Proceedings of the 12th world
conference on earthquake engineering, Auckland, New Zealand
2. Huang WH (2002) Bi-directional testing, modeling, and system response of seismically

isolated bridges. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley
3. Abe M, Yoshida J, Fujino Y (2004) Multiaxial behaviors of laminated rubber bearings and
their modeling. I: experimental study. J Struct Eng ASCE 130(8):1119–1132
4. Nakamura T, Kouchiyama O, Kikuchi M (2012) Behaviors of lead rubber bearing under
horizontal bi-directional loading test. In: Proceedings of the 15th world conference on
earthquake engineering, Lisbon, Portugal
5. Wang SJ, Lin WC, Hwang JS, Huang BW (2017) Hysteretic behavior of high-damping
rubber bearings under non-proportional plane loading. In: Proceedings of the 16th world
conference on earthquake engineering, Santiago, Chile
6. Wen YK (1976) Method for random vibration of hysteretic systems. J Eng Mech Div ASCE
102:249–263
7. Ozdemir H (1976) Nonlinear transient dynamic analysis of yielding structures. Ph.D.
Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley
8. Bouc R (1976) Forced vibration of mechanical systems with hysteresis. In: Proceedings of the
fourth conference on nonlinear oscillation, Prague, Czechoslovakia
9. Pan TC, Yang G (1996) Nonlinear analysis of base-isolated MDOF structures. In:
Proceedings of the 11th world conference on earthquake engineering 1996, Acapulco, Mexico
10. Hwang JS, Wu JD, Pan TC, Yang G (2002) A mathematical hysteresis model for elastomeric
isolation bearings. Earthq Eng Struct Dyn 31(4):771–789
11. Moré JJ (1978) The Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm: implementation and theory. Lect Notes
Math 630:105–116
Study on Compression Fatigue
of Rubber Bearings Used in Low
Temperature Environment
T. Sato, T. Imai, S. Kuji, K. Ueda, and H. Nishi
Abstract Rubber bearings for bridges are important attachments connecting

superstructure and substructure of bridges, and grasp of durability performance is
very important. Deterioration (fatigue) due to external forces is a non-negligible
task in bridge member that require long-term durability, but there is no research
report on deterioration (fatigue) of rubber bearings in low temperature environ-
ments. So we conducted a field survey on damage and conducted a fatigue test at
low temperature. In the field survey, it was found that the influence of low tem-
perature on resistance to fatigue deterioration and mechanical properties etc of
rubber bearings cannot be denied. Moreover, from the results of the compression
fatigue test in the low temperature condition, it was found that the low temperature
environment affects the vertical support characteristics of the rubber bearing.

Keywords Rubber bearing Deterioration Fatigue Bridge Cold region Low
temperature
T. Sato (&) T. Imai S. Kuji K. Ueda H. Nishi

Civil Engineering Research Institute for Cold Region (CERI), PWRI, Sapporo, Japan
e-mail: taka4@ceri.go.jp
T. Imai
e-mail: imai@mgb.gr.jp
S. Kuji
e-mail: kuji@tokyo-fabric.co.jp
K. Ueda
e-mail: ueda@mgb-gouda.co.jp
H. Nishi
e-mail: h-nishi@ceri.go.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_92
982 T. Sato et al.
1 Introduction
Rubber bearings for bridges are important attachments connecting superstructure

and substructure of bridges, and grasp of durability performance is very important.
Deterioration (fatigue) due to external forces is a non-negligible task in bridge
member that require long-term durability, but there is no research report on dete-
rioration (fatigue) of rubber bearings in low temperature environments.
It is considered that the deterioration due to the rubber bearing performance is
mainly due to the chemical action on the rubber. However, for rubber bearings that
require durability, degradation (or fatigue) due to force can’t be ignored. According
to the Japanese Rubber Industry Handbook, fatigue of rubber is roughly divided
into three, namely, plastic flow and nondestructive characteristics, in addition to
fatigue failure [1]. Among them, fatigue failure due to the continuum of micro-
scopic failure phenomena is attracting attention. The other two phenomena also
reduce the performance of rubber bearings. Depending on the state of deterioration,
it may be a cause of falling below the required performance. Therefore, it is very
important to evaluate the performance for durability. In the chemical reaction which
is the deterioration factor of rubber, the case of affecting temperature is examined,
such as the behavior at low temperature, but there is no research report on the
influence of low temperature on the fatigue of rubber bearing. In the research results
on the low temperature effect of the rubber bearing, depending on the material of
the rubber, the rigidity is greatly affected. From this, it is impossible to deny the
influence of low temperature on fatigue resistance and mechanical properties.
Therefore, we started to study the fatigue of the rubber bearing as an exami-
nation subject of the influence of the low temperature on the characteristic change
of the rubber bearing. Here, we report the results of cyclic compression fatigue test
under low temperature conditions.
2 Fatigue Test Under Subfreezing
2.1 Outline of Test Model
In order to confirm the influence of low temperature on fatigue durability, cyclic

compression fatigue test under subfreezing and normal temperature was conducted.
Tests were conducted with four types of rubber bearings: Rubber Bearing of
Chloroprene Rubber (RB(CR)),Rubber Bearing of Natural Rubber (RB(NR)), High
Damping Rubber Bearing (HDR), and Lead Rubber Bearing (LRB). The test model
conformed to the standard model No. 2 of “JIS K 6411: Laminated rubber used for
rubber support for road bridge isolation-test method” (hereinafter JIS K 6411).
Table 1 lists the specifications of the test model, and Fig. 1 and 2 shows the shape
of the test model.
Study on Compression Fatigue of Rubber Bearings … 983
Table 1 Test model Internal steel plate length 240 mm * 240 mm

specifications (type of
Internal steel plate thickness 3.2 mm
bearing; RB(CR), RB(NR),
HDR, LRB) 1 layer thickness of rubber; t 7(5) mm
Total number of layers of rubber; n 4(6)
Thickness of coated rubber 5 mm
First shape factor; S1 8.2(11.5)
Nominal elastic modulus G12
( ); standard value of test model
Fig. 1 Test models (RB

(CR), RB(NR), HDR)
Fig. 2 Test models (LRB)

984 T. Sato et al.
2.2 Cyclic Compression Fatigue Test
In order to verify the effect of low temperature, cyclic compression tests were
conducted under normal temperature and low temperature environment. The test
was carried out using the outdoor servo fatigue testing device located in the site of
The Civil Engineering Research Institute for Cold Region. This test is based on the
cyclic compression fatigue test method of JIS K 6411. However, when the test is
performed on different dates for each test model, the atmosphere condition at the
time of the test is different. Therefore, as shown in Fig. 3, the bearings were
vertically connected, and the rubber bearings were arranged on the bearing fixed
guides so that the vertical direction of the rubber bearings became horizontal, and
the tests were conducted under the same atmosphere (See Fig. 4). Figure 5 shows
the arrangement of the test equipment and test model. And test conditions are
shown in Table 2. In order to check the temperature of the test model, a dummy
rubber bearing was installed near the testing machine, and the internal temperature
and surface temperature of the rubber bearing were measured.
In addition, because it was connected including the highly energy-absorbing
bearing, the bearing arrangement was changed every 500,000 times in order to
eliminate the influence of bearing arrangement from the loading point (See Fig. 6.).
2.3 Evaluation Method of Influence by Fatigue Test
In order to confirm the characteristic change of the rubber bearing by the com-
pression fatigue test under the low temperature environment, the shear rigidity was
examined before the compression fatigue test and every 500,000 loadings. The test
Fig. 3 Side view of test

condition of test model
Fig. 4 Fixed guide for

vertically loading the bearing
from the horizontal direction
actuator test model
Fig. 5 Installation condition of test model (fatigue test)
Table 2 Condition of compression fatigue test

Lower limit load of fatigue test 316.8 kN (5.5 N/mm2)
Upper limit load of fatigue test 691.2 kN (12 N/mm2)
Loading cycle 2 Hz
Number of times to load 200 * 104 times and 400 * 104 times
Maximum shear strain 70% (19.6 mm)
conditions are as shown in Table 3. The test was based on “JIS K 6411 Shear test
for rubber bearing test”. However, due to the limitations of the testing machine
shown in Fig. 7, the rotation of the rubber bearing during shear loading is
permitted.
986 T. Sato et al.
1;RB(NR), 2; HDR, 3; LRB, 4; RB(CR)
Fig. 6 Diagram of relocation of test model
Table 3 Test conditions for Number of times to load RB; 5 times, HDR, LRB; 11 times
shear property evaluation
Vertical load 345.6 kN (6 N/mm2)
Shear strain amplitude 175% (±49 mm)
Loading cycle 0.05 Hz or 0.1 Hz
actuator
test model
Fig. 7 Installation condition of test model (shear test)

3 Test Result and Consideration
3.1 Equivalent Stiffness and Influence on Equivalent

Damping Constant
Shear stiffness was calculated as the average stiffness according to the method
specified for each rubber bearing. RB (CR) and RB (NR) are the third of the history
loop, and HDR and LRB are the shear stiffness of the fifth time. The change in
equivalent stiffness after each loading cycle is shown in Fig. 8 as the rate of change
from the equivalent stiffness before the fatigue test. The change in damping con-
stant is shown in Fig. 9 as the rate of change from damping before fatigue testing.
Natural rubber system is shown in a) and synthetic rubber system is shown in b).
The change in stiffness with the number of repetitions is as small as ±5% in both
natural temperature and low temperature environments. Even if the number of
repetitions is 4 million, no major change has occurred. On the other hand, the
damping constant has a large variation and can’t be evaluated for the influence. As
for the damping characteristics of LRB with damping function, damping increased
with the test results at room temperature and decreased by about 15% with the test
results at low temperature.
Synthetic rubbers, unlike natural rubbers, have higher equivalent stiffness as the
number of repetitions increases in both normal temperature and low temperature
environments. The rate of change is up to 19%. The damping constant of HDR with
a damping function decreases by about 10% at both normal temperature and low
temperature after 2 million repetitions. However, the change in the attenuation
characteristics is small in the low temperature results after 4 million repetitions.
a) natural rubber bearing (RB(NR), LRB) b) synthec rubber bearing (RB(CR), HDR)
Fig. 8 Change in equivalent stiffness of a rubber bearing subjected to cyclic compressive loading
988 T. Sato et al.
Fig. 9 Variation of equivalent damping constant of a rubber bearing subjected to cyclic

compressive loading
3.2 Compression Stiffness
The natural rubber system is shown in Fig. 10(a) and the synthetic rubber system is
shown in Fig. 10(b) as the rate of change of the compression stiffness constant after
the loading cycle based on the compression stiffness before the fatigue test.
In natural rubber bearings, vertical stiffness tends to decrease as the number of
loading increases. In RB (NR), the vertical stiffness decreases as the number of
loading increases. In the test results of normal temperature, the reduction rate of
vertical rigidity is large from 10% to 20% due to the reduction rate of 25% at 2
million times and the increase of loading frequency at low temperature.
Fig. 10 Change in compression stiffness of a rubber bearing subjected to repeated compressive

loading
The reduction rate of the LRB damping constant is confirmed from the figure.
After 2 million loadings, the reduction rate is about 10%, which is the same level at
both normal temperature and low temperature. Furthermore, although it is the result
only of the low temperature test, after loading of 4 million times, the reduction rate
after loading of 2 million times is almost the same value, and the change converges.
The result of RB (NR) is different from that the reduction rate decreases with the
increase of loading frequency.
In synthetic rubber bearings, the change in HDR is small. The rate of change is
around 5%. It is not clear that the stiffness changes in the stiffness evaluation after 4
million loadings. In RB (CR), the reduction rate of 2 million times at normal
temperature and the reduction rate of 4 million times at low temperature are almost
the same.
3.3 Evaluation of Appearance
Figure 11 shows a photo of the surface of a rubber bearing after a shear property
test (horizontal displacement 175%) after 4 million fatigue tests. The photo on the
left shown in a) to d) is a plane perpendicular to the bridge axis direction. On the
other hand, the picture on the right is the side perpendicular to the plane shown in
the picture on the left and is the plane in the fatigue loading direction (See Fig. 12).
The appearance differs depending on the bearing type, regardless of the type of
rubber. For RB (NR) and RB (CR), residual deformation is small, and no wrinkles
or cracks on the surface are confirmed. Although LRB has large residual defor-
mation, it can’t identify surface wrinkles and cracks. HDR had large residual
deformation and wrinkles occurred on the surface. However, no crack could be
confirmed in any of the bearing.
a) RB(NR) (le; direcon 1, right; direcon 2) b) LRB (le; direcon 1, right; direcon 2)
c) RB(CR) (le; direcon 1, right; direcon 2) d) HDR (le; direcon 1, right; direcon 2)
Fig. 11 The surface immediately after the end of the shear property test after 4,000,000 fatigue
loadings
990 T. Sato et al.
Fig. 12 An illustration of the

shooting direction of the front
photograph
4 Conclusions
A fatigue loading test was conducted to investigate the possibility of deterioration

of the rubber bearing and the possibility of external damage due to the influence of
fatigue.
As a result of fatigue test at normal temperature and low temperature environ-
ment, natural rubber type has small difference in rigidity before and after fatigue
test, and synthetic rubber type has high difference in rigidity before and after fatigue
test. Regarding vertical stiffness, natural rubber and RB (CR) tend to decrease, and
HDR of synthetic rubber has a small change. Natural rubber bearings show similar
changes regardless of the damping function. However, in the case of synthetic
rubber bearings, the change in characteristics is different depending on the presence
or absence of damping. Although the number of test specimens is small, it may be
in the range of the assumption, but it may be considered that the material to which
damping is added is affecting.
In addition to the fact that the number of vertical fatigue loadings was very high,
such as 4,000,000, the shear characteristics test with a strain of 175% was carried
out every 500,000 times, and many repeated tests were conducted. (The number of
repetitions of the shear strain test is 60 for RB and 132 for LRB and HDR). Even
though the load was very large or the deformation was repeated, no cracks were
observed in the appearance, and only a small amount of residual deformation and
wrinkles were confirmed. From this, it is unlikely that fatigue is a major factor in
the crack of the rubber bearing confirmed in the bridge inspection. It can be inferred
that the deterioration that can be confirmed visually is mainly the cracks that are
caused by surface alteration by ozone and ultraviolet light.
Reference
1. Japan Rubber Association (1994) Rubber industry handbook

Charpy Absorbed Energy of Cold
Press-Bent Steel Plates Made of SM520C
D. Kitazume, J. Nie, K. Ono, K. Anami, T. Miyashita, Y. Mishima,

and T. Iida
Abstract Facing the problems of damaged bridge piers with box sections due to
the rupture of the corner welds, cold press-bent steel structure was considered as a
possible solution. However, strain aging induced by cold-forming may lead to
decrease in toughness and elongation, as well as increase in hardness and strength.
This paper focuses on the adverse effects of strain aging on the test pieces made of
steel SM520C, which were evaluated through Vicker’s hardness test and Charpy
impact tests. The test pieces were taken from different locations of the cold
press-bent corner parts, and the Charpy impact test was conducted after one month,
six months and one year correspondingly. The hardness of the material increased
D. Kitazume J. Nie K. Ono (&)

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Waseda University, Shinjuku ward,
Tokyo 169-8555, Japan
e-mail: k-ono@waseda.jp
D. Kitazume
e-mail: d-kitazume1403@suou.waseda.jp
J. Nie
e-mail: jeannie18@moegi.waseda.jp
K. Anami
Department of Civil Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Koto ward, Tokyo
135-8548, Japan
e-mail: anami@sic.shibaura-it.ac.jp
T. Miyashita
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nagaoka University of Technology,
Nagaoka, Niigata 940-2188, Japan
e-mail: mtakeshi@vos.nagaokaut.ac.jp
Y. Mishima
Machinery Corporate Head Office, Hitachi Zosen Corporation,
Tamana 869-0113, Kumamoto, Japan
e-mail: mishima_y@hitachizosen.co.jp
T. Iida
Engineering Development Department, Takigami Steel Construcxtion Co., LTD., Handa,
Aichi 475-0826, Japan
e-mail: t.iida@takigami-grp.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_93
992 D. Kitazume et al.
due to the effect of strain aging, especially at both edges at the maximum curvature
of the corner part. Small effect of strain aging on the Charpy absorbed energy was
found under 0 °C, while larger reduction ratio was obtained under a lower tem-
perature −60 °C. In the future, steel materials with high toughness are suggested to
be studied in order to widen the usage of cold-formed structures.
Keywords Cold press-bent steel plates Charpy absorbed energy Vicker’s

hardness test SM520C
1 Introduction
Collapse of two bridge piers with rectangular cross-sections in the 1995 Kobe
earthquake were found due to the unexpected loading conditions at the welded
joints. Facing such vital damage in bridges, corner sections without welding
through the cold-forming of steel plates is considered as a possible solution.
However, strain aging effect caused by the cold-forming may lead to decrease in
toughness and elongation, as well as increase in hardness and strength. Strain aging
describes the change of material properties after the metallic material reached its
plastic strain [1]. The reduced toughness of the steel material may lead to higher
risks of rupture and eventually failure at the steel piers. To deal with this problem,
the adverse effect of strain aging should be investigated in detail. The conventional
steel SM520C was studied to confirm the possibility of cold-forming using con-
ventional steel materials. In the previous studies [4, 5], pre-strain was induced by
applying tensile load with the corresponding magnitude of the actual strain, which
was considered to be evenly distributed. Also, conditions for strain aging effect
were simulated by the accelerated treatment of heating up the test pieces.
Conversely, the test pieces used in this study were cold-pressed into corner shape
with an angle of 90º, which is significantly similar to the actual curved corner parts.
As a consequence, different than the strain induced by the tension test, a linear
distribution of actual strain along the plate thickness direction can be found in the
test pieces of the current study.
2 Methods
2.1 Cold Press-Bent Steel Plates
It is described in the Specification for Highway Bridges [7] that the design of the
radius of inner surface should be 15 times larger than the plate thickness. However,
exceptions can be found for steel materials with little impurities of N content of
lower than 0.006%, and higher Charpy absorbed energy. When the Charpy
absorbed energy of the base material is higher than 150 J, the radius of bend should
Charpy Absorbed Energy of Cold Press-Bent Steel Plates Made of SM520C 993
be 7 times larger than the plate thickness; while the radius of bend should be 5 times
larger than the plate thickness when the Charpy absorbed energy is higher than
200 J [4]. The chemical composition of SM520C used in this study can be found in
Table 1. The test piece being cold press-formed was designed that the radius of
bend (= 225 mm) was 5 times larger than the plate thickness (= 45 mm), as shown
in Fig. 1.
In the previous studies [4], Charpy impact test was conducted after inducing the
tensile strain according to the magnitude of the corresponding bending strain. Also,
the strain aging effect was simulated in the laboratory and accelerated by temper-
ature control. However, in the present study, the test pieces were not only
cold-formed into actual corner shape, but also were exposed to natural duration of
the strain aging effects. Due to the fact that the cross-section remains plane and
perpendicular to the longitudinal axis, the strain induced by bending can be rep-
resented as follows [3]:
e ¼ g=R ð1Þ
where g: the distance from the netural plane
R: the radius of the netural plane

Therefore, the actual strain induced at the inner side and the outer side of the test
piece has the maximum of approximately 9.1% based on the calculation of Eq. 1
(Fig. 2).
2.2 Vicker’s Hardness Test
Vicker’s hardness test was conducted one year after the steel plates being cold
press-bent. The actual linear strain distribution, where compressive strain is induced
near the inner surface while tensile strain can be found near the outer surface
correspondingly, as shown in Fig. 1. As a result, the test pieces in this study were
taken from five different locations at each angle as shown in Fig. 3 to confirm the
effect of strain aging on the hardness of the material. The measurement lines for
Vicker’s hardness test were taken where the angle from the horizontal line (where
the radius of the curvature is perpendicular to the flat plate) is equal to 5, 22.5, 45,
67.5, and 85º. The distance from the outer surface was regarded as 0 mm at each
measurement line along the plate thickness direction. The thickness of the test
pieces was 10 mm. Vicker’s hardness tests were conducted at the locations
Table 1 Chemical C (%) Si (%) Mn (%) P (%) S (%) N (%)

composition of SM520C
SM520C 0.18 0.39 1.44 0.013 0.003 0.0027
Fig. 1 Cold press-bent steel

plates
[Unit: mm]
Fig. 2 Cold-forming of the

steel plates
Fig. 3 Location of the

Vicker’s hardness test
[Unit: mm]
mentioned above with interval of 0.5 mm near both edges and 1 mm near the
center. Flat plates without being cold press-bent are considered to be free of the
strain aging effect.
Table 2 Number of the test Flat 39 days 182 days 365 days
pieces plates
(°C) 0 −60 0 −60 0 −60 0 −60
Outside 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Center 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Inside 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Total 18 18 18 18
[Unit: mm] [Unit: mm]
(a) Location and orientation of the test pieces (b) Dimension of the test piece
Fig. 4 Test pieces for Charpy impact test
2.3 Charpy Impact Test
Taking consideration of the strain distribution induced by the bending of steel plate,
test pieces made for Charpy impact test were taken at the location of the maximum
curvature of the corner part (where the angle from the radius at the beginning of the
bent corner is equal to 45º) with different orientations, as shown in Fig. 4(a).
Charpy impact tests with V-notch test pieces were conducted following JIS Z2242:
Method for Charpy pendulum impact test of metallic materials. The dimension of
the test pieces is shown in Fig. 4(b). The measurement locations were decided to be
near the outer surface (outside), the inner surface (inside), and the center line. The
tests were conducted after nearly one month (39 days), six months (182 days) and
one year (365 days) of exposure from day of the cold-forming of the steel plates.
Flat plates can be regarded to be free of the strain aging effect for comparison. For
the cold press-bent steel plates, the test pieces were all along the direction per-
pendicular to the rolling direction. The number of test pieces is shown in Table 2.
3.1 Vicker’s Hardness Test
The hardness of the material can be indicated by the HV value from the Vicker’s
hardness test. The distribution of HV value is shown in Fig. 5. Comparing with the
flat surface, test pieces being cold press-bent are subjected to distribution where the
HV value is the lowest along the center of the plate thickness. Furthermore, the
average values of HV near both inner (40–45 mm) and outer surfaces (0–5 mm), as
well as the center line (17.5–27.5 mm) along the plate thickness direction were
compared in Fig. 6. Data obtained on the flat surface was represented as 0º. As the
results show, hardness near the center line was always lower than that near both the
inner and outer surfaces. The smallest difference between the three locations was
found at the flat surface. Moreover at the angle of 45º, the highest HV values were
found near both surfaces, while the HV near the center line was similar to the other
locations. The increase in hardness near both edges can be observed as a result of
the strain aging effect caused by cold-bending.
3.2 Charpy Impact Test
3.2.1 Charpy Absorbed Energy
The dependence of strain aging effect on the duration of natural exposure was
investigated. The test results of the Charpy absorbed energy with respect to the
duration can be found in Fig. 7, and the averaged values are shown in Fig. 8. In the
previous studies [2], relationships between temperature and time for the dislocations
of carbon and nitrogen atoms are described by logarithmic equations. Therefore, the
averaged values for the Charpy absorbed energy are plotted on semi-logarithmic
graphs as shown in Fig. 9. The vertical axis represents the ratio between the Charpy
absorbed energy measured at the corresponding dates and the Charpy absorbed
energy of the flat plates, which were free of the strain aging effect. As a matter of
fact, the data of Charpy absorbed energy for all test pieces were largely scattered.
Fig. 5 Hardness distribution along the plate thickness direction

Fig. 6 Averaged HV at different measurement angle
(a) 0 ºC (b) -60 ºC
Fig. 7 Charpy absorbed energy
According to the minimum requirement of Charpy absorbed energy of SM520C

specified by JIS (47 J at 0 °C), all locations were able to remain to be higher than
the specification under the test temperature of 0 °C as can be seen in Fig. 7(a). No
significant change of Charpy absorbed energy was found under the test temperature
of 0 °C. Therefore, it is hard to discuss the dependence of toughness on duration.
However, under the temperature of −60 °C, larger ratio of reduction of Charpy
absorbed energy compared with the flat plates can be observed, especially on the
semi-logarithmic plot (Fig. 9(b)).
(a) 0 ºC (b) -60 ºC
Fig. 8 Averaged Charpy absorbed energy
(a) 0 ºC (b) -60 ºC
Fig. 9 Averaged Charpy absorbed energy on a semi-logarithmic graph
3.2.2 Area of Brittle Failure
The failure cross-section after Charpy impact test is related to the ductility of a
material. It can be represented by the ratio of brittle failure (B), which is the area of
the brittle fracture (C) over the whole cross-sectional area (A) as shown in Eq. 2.
B ¼ C=A 100 ð2Þ
The ratio of brittle failure was calculated for the cross-sections of all test pieces
after the Charpy impact test. The results in Fig. 10 show that little area of brittle
failure could be observed after the exposure to strain aging effect under the test
temperature of 0 °C. Conversely, under −60 °C, much larger ratios of brittle failure
were found, and the effect of strain aging can be clearly observed at the center and
the inner side of the plate.
(a) 0 ºC (b) -60 ºC
Fig. 10 Area ratio of brittle failure on a semi-logarithmic graph
4 Future Directions
As shown in the experimental results, effect of strain aging on the hardness and
toughness of the steel material can be observed. In the light of this situation, steel
materials with significantly high toughness are desired to make up for the degra-
dation induced by the cold press-bending of the steel plates. SBHS (Steels for
Bridge High Performance Structure) was introduced in Japan for its superior
mechanical properties such as high yield strength, toughness, and workability [6].
Such advantages of SBHS are closely related to its fine micro-structure and well
balanced chemical composition. As specified by JIS, the minimum Charpy absor-
bed energy is 100 J along the transverse direction for SBHS. The high toughness of
SBHS indicates the possibility to be a fitting steel material for cold press-bent
structures compared with the conventional steel materials. Therefore, future studies
are expected to be conducted on such new steel materials with high toughness for
the use of cold press-bent steel plates.
5 Conclusions
In this study, the effect of strain aging on the cold press-bent structure made of
SM520C was evaluated by Vicker’s hardness test and Charpy impact test. The
hardness of the material increased due to the effect of strain aging, especially at both
edges at the maximum curvature of the corner part. The experimental data of
Charpy absorbed energy were largely scattered and the effect of strain aging was
not distinctively identified especially under the test temperature of 0 °C. However
under −60 °C, a slightly larger reduction ratio could be observed on the
semi-logarithmic plot. New steel materials with significantly high Charpy absorbed
energy are desired to make up for the adverse effects caused by cold-forming.
Therefore, future studies are expected to be conducted on such new steel materials
with high toughness for the cold press-bent steel plates.
Acknowledgements This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI (grant number 18K04331)
and the Japan Iron and Steel Federation.
References
1. Baird JD (1971) The effects of strain-ageing due to interstitial solutes on the mechanical
properties of metals. Metall Rev 16:1–18
2. Baird JD (1963) Strain aging of Steel a critical review. Iron Steel 36:186–192
3. Gaylord Jr. EH, Gaylord CN, Stallmeyer JE (1992) Design of steel structures, 3 edn.
McGraw-Hill, Inc., p 284
4. Homma K, Miki C, Soya I, Sasao H, Okumura T, Hara S (1997) A study on strain aging of
cold worked structural steel and allowable cold working radius. In: Proceedings of JSCE, no
570, pp 153–162 (in Japanese)
5. Horikawa K (1980) Strain aging embrittlement of structural steel due to cold forming. J JSCE
300:13–20 (in Japanese)
6. Japanese Industrial Standards Committee (2011) JIS G3140: Higher yield strength steel plates
for bridges (in Japanese)
7. Japan Road Association (JRA) (2012) Specifications for highway, bridges part II: steel bridges
and steel members (in Japanese)
A Study on the Vertical Pull-off Testing
and Horizontal Shear Testing Strength
of External Wall Tile Adhesion
Chu-Tsen Liao and Po-Juin Wu
Abstract Most of the exterior wall tiles deterioration appears in the adhesive layer,
because of grooves and tile caulking marks on adhesion layer are clearly be seen
from the fallen tile scene. The current strength test of adhesive layer is pull-off
testing which is vertical to the exterior wall. The author developed a new shear test
machine, and carries out the experiment with the universal pull-off testing machine.
In this study, pull-off testing and shear testing which is horizontal to the exterior
wall were both proceed for a more comprehensive discussion.
To understand the relation between adhesive strength and hollow ratio, there are
four hollow proportion of adhesion layer be set, 0%, 25%, 50%, and 75%. And the
author into a variable with the experiment, if the structure is sprinkled or not. The
pull-off testing strength is higher in the structural watering area, and 60% of the tile
failure layer appears in the cement mortar layer. According to statistics from shear
testing and pull-off testing of watering area, we get 1.62 and 12.77 kgf/cm2 on the
0% ratio of hollow, 0.77 and 5.67 kgf/cm2 on the 25% ratio of hollow, and 0.63 and
5.39 kgf/cm2 on the 50% ratio of hollow. The tiles adhesive strength of 25% ratio of
hollow is less than half of the 0%. In the case of 0% ratio of hollow, the ratio of
shear testing to pull-off testing is about 1:8. Comparing with current pull-off testing,
shear test shows that even small strength can cause damage. It is suggested that the
condition need to be aware when external wall tiles are determined to have hollow,
their adhesion strength also becomes extremely weaker.
Keywords Adhesion strength Proportion of hollow at adhesive layer Pull-off

testing Shear testing
C.-T. Liao (&) P.-J. Wu

Department of Architecture, National Taipei University of Technology,
1, Sec. 3, Zhongxiao E. Rd., Taipei 10608, Taiwan
e-mail: liaoct@ntut.edu.tw
P.-J. Wu
e-mail: guava830115@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_94
1002 C.-T. Liao and P.-J. Wu
1 Introduction—Major Heading
Tile is one of the most popular materials for constructing the exterior walls of
buildings in Taiwan. Therefore, the Public Works Bureau of the Kaohsiung City
government inspected all the apartment buildings six stories or taller (4,256
buildings) in their city in 2014. Their general survey showed that 98% of these
buildings’ façades were covered with tiles. However, 20% of the apartments (859
buildings) had deteriorated wall tiles that needed immediate repair [1].
Most of the exterior wall tiles deterioration appears in the adhesive layer,
because of grooves and tile caulking marks on adhesion layer are clearly be seen
from the fallen tile scene. To understand the relation between adhesive strength and
hollow ratio, there are four hollow ratios of adhesion layer be set, 0, 25, 50, and
75%. Some construction-site workers watered a concrete structure before adding a
mortar-bed interface to improve the structure’s overall tensile strength. However,
the effect of watering a structure to improve the tensile strength of tile was
uncertain. Therefore, the structural sprinkling is set as the variation of the test body
in the construction method. The experimental specimen is divided into the upper
half (without watering) and the lower half (watering).
The current strength test of adhesive layer is pull-off testing which is vertical to
the exterior wall. The author developed a new shear test machine, and carries out
the experiment with the common pull-off testing machine. The phenomenon of
spalling caused by the deterioration of the tile should also be affected by the force in
the horizontal direction of the exterior tile surface. There is almost no relevant
literature for this discussion. In this study, pull-off testing and shear testing which is
horizontal to the exterior wall were both proceed for a more comprehensive dis-
cussion (Fig. 1).
Pull-off testing
(vertical to the exterior wall)
Shear testing
(horizontal to the exterior wall)
Fig. 1 Diagram of strength of exterior wall tile adhesion

A Study on the Vertical Pull-off Testing ... 1003
2 Literature Review
Reviewing the research literature related to the external wall tiles in Taiwan, it is
found that the investigation of the deterioration of the tiles is mostly the cases, and
the research on the strength is mostly related to the pull-off test.
2.1 Interface of Deterioration
The surface properties of various types of tiles (such as groove form, porosity,
release agent adhesion) have an effect on tile adhesive performance [2].
Interfaces damaged of external wall tiles include: tile, tile and adhesive layer,
adhesive layer, adhesive layer and cement mortar layer, cement mortar layer,
cement mortar layer and outer wall structure. The damage of the interface between
the tile and the adhesive layer is most valued [3].
2.2 Pull-off Testing
The external wall tile pull-off testing method is based on the tile manual published
by National Magnetic Tiles Association of Japan. After two weeks of construction,
the tile is visually inspected and the required part is selected for the pull-off testing
on the outer wall [4].
Specification No. 09310 were enacted by the Taiwanese government’s Public
Construction Commission Tensile. Adhesive strength of 10kgf/cm2 was recom-
mended by the Public Construction Commission [5].
3 Experiment Planning
3.1 Specimen
The experimental specimen adopts the hard bottom construction method, and
construction process is: structure ! cement mortar layer ! waterproof
layer ! adhesive layer ! tile. The main variables are due to the structure watering
and the hollow proportion of the adhesive layer. The specimen planning is shown in
Fig. 2.
Legend
Pull-off gaskets (95 x 45 mm)

Nikogake tiles (230 x 50 mm)
Removal of boundary effect
Fig. 2 Specimen planning
3.2 Instrument
3.2.1 Experiment Period
The specimen was placed on the Kaohsiung University campus and the tile shear
test was conducted from December 13, 2017 to December 19, 2017. Pull-off testing
was conducted from April 9, 2018 to April 15, 2018.
3.2.2 Instrument
The tile shear tester is a hand-cranked hoist with a maximum reading scale of
1000 kgf. The rate is 5 s/turn, and the shear strength value is kgf. The CR-10X data
recorder is used to record the load cell tension data for a certain period of time. The
diagram of shear tester is shown in Fig. 3.
The pull-off tester used a type tensioner (R-30000ND) manufactured by Sanko
Techno CO., LTD. The instrument is hand-operated, with a maximum pulling force
of 30 KN, a minimum judgment scale of 0.1 N, a speed of 3 s/turn, and a machine
value of N/mm2. The domestic values are expressed in kgf/cm2, so the test data of
this study is expressed as kgf/cm2 after conversion. The diagram of the pull-off
testing machine is shown in Fig. 4.
Fig. 3 The diagram of shear

tester
Fig. 4 The diagram of

pull-off testing machine
4 Experimental Data Analysis
The number of tiles for each strength test are three pieces. There are eight areas for
each shear and pull-off testing: without watering the structure and have the adhesive
hollow proportion of 75, 50, 25 and 0%; watering the structure and have the
adhesive hollow proportion of 75, 50, 25 and 0%. The shear strength of hollow
proportion is shown in Fig. 5 and Table 1. The pull-off strength of hollow pro-
portion is shown in Fig. 6 and Table 2.
Comparing the shear test and pull-off test ratios for the “watering the structure”
work area:
(1) The shear testing strength of the 75% hollow proportion is 0.57, the pull-off
testing strength is 1.33 kgf/cm2, and the ratio is 0.43.
Without watering the structure

Water the structure
2 1.75
ADHESIVE STRENGTH
1.5 1.62
1.18
1
0.91
0.72
0.77
0.5 0.63
0.57
0
75% 50% 25% 0%
HOLLOW PROPORTION
Fig. 5 Trend graph of shear strength (kgf/cm2) for “watering the structure” and “without watering
the structure”
Table 1 Data sheet of shear strength (kgf/cm2)

Hollow proportion of Without watering the structure
adhesive layer Tile Tile Tile Average
position-upper position-middle position-lower
75% 0.61 0.93 *1 0.62 0.72
50% 0.89 0.8 1.04 *2 0.91
25% 1.46 0.8 1.27 *2 1.18
0% 1.55 1.83 1.87 *1 1.75
Hollow proportion of Watering the structure
75% 0.61 0.57 0.52 0.57
50% 0.47 0.71 0.71 0.63
25% 0.9 0.62 0.8 0.77
0% 1.27 *2 1.93 1.65 1.62
*1: The experiment was carried out twice due to the falling off of the gasket during the
experimental stage
*2: Located at the boundary between watering and non-watering
Without watering the structure

Water the structure
14 12.77
ADHESIVE STRENGTH
12 11.94
10
8
5.39 5.67
6
6.22
4
1.64
2
1.33 1.90
0
75% 50% 25% 0%
HOLLOW PROPORTION
Fig. 6 Trend graph of pull-off strength (kgf/cm2) for “watering the structure” and “without
watering the structure”
Table 2 Data sheet of pull-off strength (kgf/cm2)

Hollow proportion of Without watering the structure
75% 2.62 2.14 0.17 *1 1.64
50% 2.15 1.88 1.66 1.90
25% 5.57 8.11 *2 4.97 6.22
0% 7.65 *1 15.3 12.88 11.94
Hollow proportion of Watering the structure
75% 0.71 1.49 1.8 1.33
50% 7.15 5.28 3.74 5.39
25% 6.49 4.77 5.76 5.67
0% 9.14 14.77 14.41 12.77
*1: The experiment was carried out twice due to the falling off of the gasket during the
experimental stage
*2: Located at the boundary between watering and non-watering
testing strength is 12.77 (kgf/cm2). The ratio is 0.13 (Table 1and 2).
Table 3 show the photograph of the current situation of the tile after the shear
test with the structural sprinkler. For the 0% hollow-rate tile of the adhesive layer, it
was found that the damage interface of the specimen was 30% at the cement mortar
layer and 70% at the adhesive layer. The destruction interface of the structure
watering water is located on the cement mortar layer, and the adhesive layer is
completely fell off.
Table 3 Peeling tiles and

wall deterioration damage
photos
Hollow Peeling tiles and wall deterioration damage photos

proportion (after the shear test with the structural sprinkler)
75%
Back of the tile
75%
Specimen
surface
50%
Back of the tile
50%
Specimen
surface
25%
Back of the tile
25%
Specimen
surface
0%
Back of the tile
0%
Specimen
surface
14 1.00
12.77 0.90
12
0.80
ADHESIVE STRENGTH
10 0.70 Shear / Pull-off

8 0.60
0.43 0.50 Shear testing
6 5.39 5.67 0.40
Pull-off testing
4 0.30
1.33 0.12 0.14 0.13 0.20
2 1.62 0.10
0.57 0.63 0.77
0 0.00
75% 50% 25% 0%
HOLLOW PROPORTION
Fig. 7 Comparison chart between shear testing and pull-off testing of ``watering the structure''
work area
Table 4 Comparison table Hollow proportion 75% 50% 25% 0%

between shear testing and
pull-off testing of “watering Shear testing (kgf/cm2) 0.57 0.63 0.77 1.62
the structure” work area Pull-off testing (kgf/cm2) 1.33 5.39 5.67 12.77
Shear/pull-off testing 0.43 0.12 0.14 0.13
5 Conclusions
The shear testing data of the structure without watering, the strength of the adhesive
layer from hollow proportion 75% to 0% is 0.72:0.91:1.18:1.75 kgf/cm2. The ratio
of 0% and 25% hollow proportion is about 3:2. While watering the structure, the
strength of the adhesive layer from 75% to 0% is 0.57, 0.63, 0.77, 1.62 kgf/cm2.
The ratio of 0% to 25% hollow proportion is about 2: 1. Adhesive strength could be
regarded as reducing to half of the original when the tile adhesive layer appears
25% hollow. Shear testing to the pull-off testing is about 1:8 on the ratio of 0%
hollow. The shear testing requires only a small force to cause damage. (Table 4
and Fig. 7)
It is recommended to pay attention when detecting the phenomenon of hollow
on the outer wall tiles, because the adhesion strength has also been affected. In
addition, compared with the current testing strength standard, the construction
program of the Public Works Committee standardizes 10 kgf/cm2, but the shear
force requires only a small external force to cause damage.
Acknowledgements The authors are grateful that this study was funded by the Taiwanese
government’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST 105-2221-E-390-002).
References
1. Public Works Bureau of the Kaohsiung City Government (2014) Achievements promoting
building public safety for 103 years in Kaohsiung City
2. Lee C-Y (2013) The study of cement based tile adhesive’s performance with different type of
the tiles. A thesis from the National Taipei University of Technology
3. Lu T-J (2011) Discussion on the causes of the falling exterior wall of high-rise residential
buildings and the countermeasures. Architecture and Building Research Institute, Ministry of
the Interior, ROC
4. Wei-Hsiu H (2016) A study on the influence of under and waterproof layer of tile installation of
high-rise building exterior wall on adhesion strength. A thesis from the National University of
Kaohsiung
5. Public Construction Commission Specification No. 09310 (2011) Taiwanese government’s
Public Construction Commission
The Roles of Mechanics Courses
in Student-Centered Civil Engineering
Education
Q. Y. Xing
Abstract With the development of big data, AI and other modern technologies, the
traditional engineering education, which centers on disciplines and pays attention to
the systematic imparting of disciplinary knowledge, has been facing severe chal-
lenges in recent years. It has been gradually transforming into the new engineering
education, which focuses on students and pays attention to the cultivation of stu-
dents’ learning mode and thinking capability. Firstly, the newest and most advanced
research work and contributions in engineering education were studied and intro-
duced, which shows the total background of the present study. Secondly, the
mechanical curriculum in universities’ civil engineering education of China is
described. And then the roles that mechanics courses playing in cultivation of
students’ thinking abilities are discussed and two detailed reform activities in
practical teaching process are proposed, which aims at improving the students’
ability of creative thinking.
Keywords Civil engineering education Student-centred Thinking ability

Mechanics courses
1 Background for Student-Centered Engineering

Education
1.1 International Background
Following the new round of industrial revolution and transformation all over the
world, new science and technology generates and new requirements have been
proposed for engineers [6]. As a result, engineering education is facing severe
Q. Y. Xing (&)
Department of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084,
People’s Republic of China
e-mail: xingqy@tsinghua.edu.cn

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_95
1012 Q. Y. Xing
challenges, and many countries have initiated their own reform and innovation on
engineering education.
In 2016, a study considering the global state of the art in engineering under-
graduate education was undertaken in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) in the USA for the project named New Engineering Education
Transformation (NEET) [5], and the final study report “The global state-of-the-art
in engineering education” was published in 2018 [3]. It has been another great
contribution to reform of engineering education of the USA ever since the
University of Michigan proposed their study report in the Millennium Project in
2008, which is named “Engineering for a changing world: a roadmap to the future
of engineering practice, research and education” [2]. In this MIT’s research report,
it is presented that the study was structured in two phases, both of which used
one-to-one interviews as the primary evidence gathering tool, and in Phase 2, case
studies of four selected institutions as being ‘emerging leaders’ in engineering
education were implemented, including Singapore University of Technology and
Design (Singapore), University College London (UK), Charles Sturt University
(Australia) and TU Delft (Netherlands). The report mainly addressed five key
questions outlined below:
1. Which institutions are considered to be the ‘current leaders’ in engineering
education?
2. Which institutions are considered to be ‘emerging leaders’ in engineering
education?
3. What features distinguish the ‘current leaders’ and ‘emerging leaders’ in
engineering education?
4. What key challenges are likely to constrain the progress of engineering edu-
cation in the future?
5. What is the future direction for the engineering education sector?
Among the replies to these questions, what should be noticed is the close
concern to the student-centered learning all through the report. It is proposed that
there is still a range of barriers that continue to constrain positive change in
engineering education worldwide, among which the most important one is the
challenge of delivering student-centered active learning to large student cohorts. As
the anticipated trends for the future direction of engineering education, it is
emergent for a new generation of leaders in engineering education to deliver
integrated student-centered curricula at scale. According to the study, a move
towards socially-relevant and outward-facing engineering curricula has taken place.
The student’s choice and flexibility has been one focus of such curricula. However,
many of the engineering programs at the ‘current leader’ institutions are often
“bolt-on activities” and are isolated within the curriculum, which means that much
of the benefit of these experiences remains unexploited because they are uncon-
nected with other curricular components and students are not encouraged to reflect
upon and apply what they have learned in other areas of the degree program. In this
case, distinctive, student-centered curricular experiences within an integrated and
The Roles of Mechanics Courses in Student-Centered Civil Engineering Education 1013
unified educational approach is what is emergent to be constructed and delivered,

moreover, to large student cohorts. It seems that the USA has already stepped into a
further stage of the process for student-centered active learning, while in China,
student-centered active learning has been noted and developed only in the recent
few years, still in the beginning to be popularized.
1.2 Background in China
During the past years in the 21st century, China has already realized the challenging
and opportunity in the engineering education sector and has carried out a series of
reform and innovation on concepts and system of engineering education. In 2006,
the pilot program of engineering education certification was launched, which started
the arduous exploration of joining the organization of the international union of
Washington Accord for ten years. In 2008, the pilot working group was established
to propel CDIO (Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate) mode based on the
newest international concepts of engineering education at that time. In 2010, the
Excellent Engineer Education and Cultivation Project was implemented, and
comprehensive reform of personnel cultivation mode for engineering education was
started. In June 2016, China formally joined the Washington Accord, meanwhile,
the Emerging Engineering Education (EEE) project was launched [7]. In this EEE
project in China, three concepts to guarantee the quality were proposed: insisting on
promoting the student-centered learning mode, insisting on outcome-based educa-
tion, and insisting on continuous improvements. Student-centered learning was
emphasized in the systemic reform of engineering education in China as well.
Based on such a background at home and abroad, Tsinghua University has
started to implement its own education reform and innovation for nearly a decade.
In 2014, The 40 articles of Tsinghua University Education was issued on com-
prehensively deepening education and teaching reform. The ‘trinity’ education
mode of value shaping, ability training and knowledge transmission was presented,
which is a further development for the famous four pillars of education “Learning
to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be”, which was
firstly proposed in 2011 by French economist and politician Jacques Delors, the
former President of the European Commission, and then deeply reviewed in the
report entitled Learning: The treasure within by UNESCO (United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) [1]. As a result, a number of
projects for reform of curriculum and coursed have been carried out, with
student-centered active learning being furthest emphasized even than before. Many
remarkable reforms in engineering education have been made in Tsinghua
University, e.g. the International Centre for Engineering Education (ICEE) under
the auspices of UNESCO was set up in Tsinghua in 2016.
1014 Q. Y. Xing
1.3 Aims of the Study
Within such a strong wave of reforms in science, technology and education, the
discipline reconstruction and instruction innovation have already been started and
implemented step-by-step in Department of Civil Engineering in Tsinghua. In the
view of pedagogy, construction of innovative education model involves three
levels, i.e. construction of the overall socially environmental system, of the total
engineering education system, and of the instruction system [4]. As a common
teacher within this reform wave, the author of the present paper lays on the level of
instruction system to discuss the roles of mechanics courses playing in civil
engineering education with the new concept mentioned above. In the following
sections, the situation of mechanics courses from the year 2012 to 2019 in the
author’s department was introduced; the role that mechanics courses played in
engineering thinking ability training was analyzed, with the corresponding reform
activities in teaching being described. However, what is the possible future direc-
tion for mechanics courses in civil engineering education? Indeed, it is raising the
question more than giving the conclusion that the present paper aims at.
2 Current Situation of Mechanics Courses in Civil

Engineering Education in China
2.1 The Current Curriculum System
In the last twenty years of the last century, an integrated mechanical curriculum has
been established for undergraduate education of civil engineering in universities of
China, which involves the so-called fundamental mechanics courses and the
so-called specialized mechanics courses. The fundamental mechanics courses
mainly refer to theoretical mechanics, material mechanics and engineering
mechanics, while the specialized mechanics courses refer to the ones specialized for
the major of civil engineering, such as structural mechanics, elasticity, fluid
mechanics, etc. This curriculum has been used until the present. Taking the dis-
cipline of civil engineering in Tsinghua University as the example, from 2012 to
2019, such a curriculum includes totally six required mechanics courses for
undergraduates, the details of which are listed in Table 1. The situation of other
universities containing civil engineering discipline is mainly the same as that.
Table 1 The undergraduate curriculum of mechanics in Department of Civil Engineering of

Tsinghua University from 2012 to 2019
Course Credit hours The term to have the course
Theoretical Mechanics 64 2nd and 3rd terms
Material Mechanics 64 3rd and 4th terms
Structural Mechanics 96 4th and 5th terms
Elasticity 32 4th term
Hydraulics 32 4th term
Soil Mechanics 32 5th term
2.2 Traditional Aims and Objectives of the Mechanics

Courses
In the last 1980s, the Ministry of Education of China set up the higher education
teaching steering committees for each main discipline of universities, which are
composed of experts invited to conduct the research, consultation, guidance,
evaluation and service on higher education teaching work under the leadership of
the Ministry of Education. Such a teaching steering committee has developed
distinctive syllabuses for the undergraduate programs of the corresponding major.
For example, the teaching steering committee of fundamental courses of mechanics
has developed the teaching syllabus for structural mechanics course. This syllabus
contains three main parts: the nature and tasks of the course, basic contents and
requirements of the course, and ability training requirements, which fully embodies
the objectives, concepts and designs of engineering education at that time. It can be
seen that besides of learning to know, learning to do has already been noticed and
considered in this syllabus. It defines the four requirements of ability training for
students as follows:
1. Analytical ability: have the preliminary ability to select the simplified compu-
tation model for commonly used skeletal structures, and can choose the
appropriate calculation method for the specific problems.
2. Calculation ability: be capable of calculating various statically determinate and
statically indeterminate structures, and be able to use structural calculation
program initially.
3. Judgment ability: have the ability to check the computation results and make
qualitative judgment on the rationality of internal force distributions.
4. Self-learning ability: have the ability of self-learning and reading the reference
books of structural mechanics.
All these abilities are pointing at ability of computation and calculation, con-
sequently, it is obviously insufficient for the present engineering education.
However, this syllabus has been used even at present. It is really emergent for
1016 Q. Y. Xing
mechanics education in civil engineering to be reformed and innovated to satisfy

the requirements of the new generation of engineering education.
3 Cultivation of Creative Thinking Ability Through

Mechanics Courses—A Small Practical Example
in Teaching
What is the definition of the mission of engineering education? Or what abilities

should the engineering students be trained in their undergraduate stage? It is really
difficulty to give a perfect answer to these questions. Research reports from different
institute at different time may give different answers, since education is so closely
related to society, economy, culture, science and technology. According to the
author’s investigation, the problem-solving ability, creativity and design ability are
the mostly accepted aspects in the recent decade that engineering education should
achieve. In particular, creativity is emphasized even in a wider range of education
research. In this case, some small reforms in teaching have been carried out in
mechanics courses in Tsinghua. In this section, one of them was briefly described
and discussed.
3.1 The Main Idea
As a matter of fact, the knowledge system of mechanics is a fertile soil for logical
thinking. Logical thinking is the foundation of critical thinking and creative
thinking. Creative thinking is different from critical thinking, but they interact with
each other. In the teaching process of mechanics, the author explores and practices
the cultivation of students’ creative thinking under the traditional knowledge sys-
tem, and introduces the relevant design based on heuristic teaching principles and
methods in practice.
Heuristic teaching is a kind of classical teaching method and thought. Socrates is
the forerunner of heuristic teaching, and the German educator, Friedrich Adolf
Wilhelm Diesterweg (1790–1866) said, “a bad teacher gives truth, and a good
teacher makes people discover truth”. It has been pointed out in the classic textbook
of pedagogy that the enlightening principle is one of the basic principles of
teaching. The traditional inspiration means to inspire students to learn and master
scientific knowledge independently so as to solve problems and complete home-
work independently, while the newest concept of heuristic is to inspire students to
develop the habit and value of critical and creative thinking, and train their thinking
ability, which is the core of this section.
3.2 Heuristic of Innovation in Scientific Development
As one of the four basic principles of logic, the law of sufficient reason states that
everything has a sufficient reason for being. A good logical and critical thinker must
get to the bottom of the matter, make a painstaking investigation, and know exactly
what it is, until he understands the nature of the truth. The deep exploration of the
origin enables us to essentially control the influence and development of real things,
and the process is often exciting, which greatly encourages curiosity. Therefore,
tracing back to the origin and searching to the bottom has become one of the
important characteristics of creative thinking, and one of the effective measures to
cultivate creative thinking as well. Structural mechanics teaching has already
noticed it before, but confined to trace conditions or assumptions of a method or
theorem, no further exploration to touch the nature. As a result, students only
recited the knowledge items, and the focus of teaching was set only on learning to
known.
A small reform can deepen the effect of learning to known to that of learning to
do even learning to be. For example, not the assumption but the development of the
method or theorem is traced and investigated in the field of science history. It is
well-known that bending moment is one of the most important concepts in struc-
tural mechanics. Traditional knowledge instruction tries to clearly present the
computational methods of bending moment and then to let students rationally judge
the computational result is right or wrong. This is the training of ‘how’, i.e. letting
students know how to compute or calculate. In fact, when tracing to the origins, one
cannot help asking a more important question—what is bending moment. There
exist a series of classical hypotheses of solid mechanics in the answer to this
question, e.g. plane cross-section hypothesis, Hooke’s law, small deformation
hypothesis, etc. There also exist a number of scientists and physicists behind these
hypotheses and their breakthrough contributions through creative ideas together
with many mistakes and failures. We can find the answer to the ‘what’ question
there. In teaching practice of Tsinghua, the teacher designed the clues and situations
of the questions, inspired doubts by asking questions, and led students to ask and
trace by themselves. The students are likely to be guided by the teacher to expe-
rience a complex process of creative thinking. From the perspective of knowledge
transmission, students integrate the knowledge of theoretical mechanics, material
mechanics, structural mechanics and elasticity, and thoroughly understand the
concept of bending moment. From the perspective of ability cultivation, students’
ability of logical thinking and critical thinking are directly trained. Inspired by this
creative process, students are stimulated to explore the source power of science, and
to some extent, curiosity is reshaped, creative thinking is cultivated, and the goal of
value shaping is realized.
1018 Q. Y. Xing
3.3 Heuristic of Innovation in Practice
Observation is one of the most important activities of thinking and one of the most
effective ways to cultivate creative thinking, and the world of real life contains an
infinite number of scientific implications. The meticulous observation and sensi-
tivity to life and things are important characteristics of the great creative and
outstanding people. In the training program of civil engineering, structural
mechanics can be traced back to fundamental mechanics and physics, and applied
to structural design, high-rise building computation and analysis, bridge engi-
neering, earthquake engineering and other scientific and technological practice
fields. The important creative thinking in science and technology is innovation in
practice. Structural innovation comes from a lot of engineering practice, and at the
same time, it is used to meet the requirements of engineering practice corre-
spondingly—the functional requirements brought by social and life demands.
Therefore, through the multi-dimensional heuristic teaching design of small
teaching aids, daily-life examples and big projects in the course of structural
mechanics, students are trained to be observant people, to draw innovative sources
from life and practice, so as to lay the foundation of creative thinking.
For example, droplight reveals the concept of geometrically unstable system for
which it is stable under a certain kind of load while unstable under other kinds of
loads. Stapler can give a clear model of hinge between two bars under different
coupling conditions, and a series of toy balls can simulate the vibration system of
multi-degrees of freedom, etc. Students are also encouraged to discover these small
examples or models themselves, and the curiosity of science and technology are
explored through such a simple way. Of course, in civil engineering, so many
outstanding structural projects—in ancient times and modern times, around China
and abroad—they can directly stimulate the students’ interest in the discipline and
give them encouragement in self-direction of creative thinking. Small practical
examples and great practical projects are not independent but dependent with each
other. The relationship between them should be clearly revealed by teachers, which
gives another way of creative thinking and innovation. This can be summarized
with a famous Chinese idiom “with a small see big”, which means that from the first
small beginnings one can see how things will develop.
4 Conclusions
The present paper studied the current situation and severs challenges which civil
engineering education are facing in the reform and innovation of science and
technology of new generation. The recent projects and worldwide research about
engineering education are reported. After that, the mechanical curriculum in uni-
versities of China for civil engineering education is introduced. The roles of
mechanics courses playing in cultivation of students’ thinking ability are then
discussed, together with two small implementation activities in teaching being

described.
Acknowledgements This work is part of the project supported by Graduate Education Innovation
Grants, Tsinghua University.
References
1. Delors J (2013) The treasure within: Learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together
and learning to be. What is the value of that treasure 15 years after its publication? Int J Rev
Educ 59:319–330
2. Duderstadt JJ (2008) Engineering for a changing world: a road map to the future of engineering
practice, research and education. Holistic Engineering Education, pp 17–35
3. Graham Ruth (2018). The global state-of-the-art in engineering education. http://neet.mit.edu/
wp-content/uploads/2018/03/MIT_NEET_GlobalStateEngineeringEducation2018.pdf
4. Kong HB, Ye M et al (2014) Research on the innovative models of engineering education from
an international perspective. Zhejiang University Press, Hangzhou
5. Pan HS, Peng QG (2019) Engineering education discipline construction: drawing lessons from
American universities. J High Eng Educ Res 3:180–186 (in Chinese)
6. Schwab K (2016) The fourth industrial revolution. World Economic Forum, Geneva
7. Wu AH, Yang QB, Hao J (2019) The innovation and reform of higher education under the
leadership of emerging engineering education. J High Eng Educ Res 1(1–7):61 (in Chinese)
Investigation on Dynamic Bond-Slip
Behaviour Between Steel Reinforcement
and Concrete Under Various
Loading Rate
X. J. Huang, C. Y. Wang, S. Wang, and S. B. Kang
Abstract In order to study the bond mechanism and dynamic characteristics of

steel reinforcement, a total of 9 pull-out tests were conducted under different
loading rates. The applied load, the slip at the loaded end, and the strains along the
embedment length of steel reinforcement were measured during testing. Bond
stresses and strain rates along the embedment length of reinforcement were cal-
culated from the measured strains. Test results suggested that a higher loading rate
increased the bond stress near the loaded end and decreased the bond stress near the
free end, and thus, the bond stress distribution along the embedment length became
less uniform.
Keywords Dynamic bond behaviour Loading rate Pull-out test Bond

strength Strain rate
1 Introduction
In reinforced concrete structures, it is the reliable bond between reinforcing bars and
concrete that enables the two types of materials to work in a compatible way. As
early as in 1939, Menzel [1] made a systematic study of the influencing factors on
X. J. Huang C. Y. Wang S. Wang S. B. Kang (&)

Key Laboratory of New Technology for Construction of Cities in Mountain Area, Chongqing
University, Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400045, China
e-mail: kang0119@cqu.edu.cn
X. J. Huang
e-mail: huangcqdx089@163.com
C. Y. Wang
S. Wang
e-mail: 20171602066t@cqu.edu.cn
X. J. Huang C. Y. Wang S. Wang S. B. Kang
School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400045, China

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_96
1022 X. J. Huang et al.
the bond behaviour of deformed steel bars by pull-out tests. In 1987, Shima, Chou
and Okamura [2] observed that the bond stress decreased rapidly after the yielding
of embedded reinforcement, mainly due to the shearing-off of concrete keys
between steel lug and stress redistribution at the interface of the steel bar and the
surrounding concrete. Extensive experimental and analytical studies on bond
behaviour have been carried out under static or low loading rates conditions in the
past few decades. However, when it comes to high loading rates, limited data are
available at present.
Mindess [3] demonstrated that concrete is a strain rate sensitive material. Since
the bond strength depends to a great extent upon the strength of the concrete
surrounding the rebar, the loading rate should have a considerable effect on the
bond behaviour. Mindess and Banthia [4] observed that the enhanced bond stress
limited the deformations to a small area, leading to ductile fracture of the steel.
This paper describes an experimental study on the bond strength of steel rein-
forcement embedded in conventional concrete and subjected to different loading
rates. The bond strength and failure mode were quantified through experimental
tests. The experimental results can be used for dynamic analysis of embedded steel
reinforcement.
2.1 Specimen Design
Figure 1 shows the geometry of specimens in the pull-out tests. A steel rein-
forcement with 12 mm diameter was placed in the centre. At each end of the
reinforcement, a PVC sleeve was used to prevent the formation of failure cone.
Additional steel reinforcement was also provided to avoid concrete splitting failure.
Fig. 1 Geometry and

reinforcement details of steel bar
200
specimens 16mm PVC duct 10mm steel plate
5D
5D
150
70 80 80 70
40 110 110 40
Investigation on Dynamic Bond-Slip Behaviour … 1023
Table 1 lists the parameters of specimens in the experimental programme. The

effective embedment length of steel reinforcement was 60 mm, namely, 5 times the
rebar diameter. The target concrete strength was 60 MPa. Three loading rates,
namely, 0.1, 10 and 100 mm/s, were adopted in the tests. To obtain reliable test
data, three specimens were tested for each parameter.
2.2 Test Set-up and Instrumentation
Figure 2 and Fig. 3 show the setup for pull-out tests. The applied load was applied
to the reinforcement by using a hydraulic actuator. To measure the slip of steel
reinforcement relative to the concrete, two steel plates were fixed to the rein-
forcement and their displacements were captured by using two linear variable
displacement transducers. In addition to the applied load and the associated slip, the
strains along the embedment length were also measured during testing. Steel
reinforcement was grooved along the longitudinal ribs, as shown in Fig. 4, and
three strain gauges were mounted in the groove at a spacing of 45 mm. Note that
SG-1 was near the loaded end.
Prior to pull-out tests, the material properties of concrete and steel reinforcement
were determined through tension and compression tests. Three concrete cubes of
150 mm dimensions were tested in compression. The average value of the mea-
sured cube strength was 65.6 MPa. For the steel reinforcement, the average yield
and ultimate strengths were 491.1 MPa and 630.1 MPa, respectively.
Table 1 Design parameters of specimens

Specimens Diameter Height Embedment Design Loading Number
(mm) (mm) length (mm) concrete rate of
strength (mm/s) specimens
(MPa)
LS12-60 12 180 60 60 0.1 3
MS12-60 12 180 60 60 10 3
FS12-60 12 180 60 60 100 3
plate
LVDT
concrete block
test bottom
plate
LVDT
Fig. 2 Setup for pull-out tests
Fig. 3 Actual setup for pull-out tests
Fig. 4 Arrangement of strain gauges

3.1 Stress-Slip Relationship
Figure 5 shows the tensile stress-slip relationships of steel reinforcement. All

reinforcement developed similar load-slip curves, namely, elastic ascending stage,
yield plateau and hardening stage. Final failure was induced by the rupture of the
embedded reinforcement near the loaded end, as shown in Fig. 6. Table 2 sum-
marises the average values of pull-out test results. It can be observed that by
increasing the loading rate from 0.1 to 100 mm/s, the yield stress was increased
from 487 to 567.6 MPa. Similar results were obtained for the ultimate stress. With
regard to the slip associated with the yield stress, it was decreased from 1.3 to
1.0 mm when the loading rate was increased from 0.1 to 100 mm/s.
Fig. 5 Stress-slip relationship of steel reinforcement

Fig. 6 Failure modes of steel reinforcement
Table 2 Stress at loading end of steel reinforcement

Specimen Loading Concrete Failure Ultimate Yield Slip
rates strength mode stress stress corresponding to
yield stress
(mm/s) (MPa) (MPa) (MPa) (mm)
LS12 0.1 65.6 Rupture 622.6 487.0 1.3
MS12 10 646.1 527.7 1.1
FS12 100 663.5 567.6 1.0
3.2 Strain Distribution
Strain gauges were mounted in the grooves to measure the strain distribution along
the embedment length. Figure 7 shows the variation of steel strains with the slip at
the loaded end. In the figure, the numerals of the legend represent the distance from
the loaded end. At the initial stage, the measured strain increased rapidly. When the
reinforcement yielded at the loaded end, the variation of strain along the embed-
ment length exhibited a plateau stage. The yield strain of LS12 was 2176 le, and
was increased to 2552 le for FS12.
Figure 8 shows the distribution of strain along the embedment length. The
numerals of the legend denote the ratio of the calculated tensile stress at the loaded
end to the static yield stress of the reinforcement. It can be observed that steel
strains increased approximately linearly from the free end to the loaded end.
Comparisons between LS12 and FS12 suggest that by increasing the loading rate,
the measured strain near the free end can be reduced.
3.3 Local Bond Stress
At the elastic stage of steel reinforcement, the bond stress along the embedment
length of steel reinforcement could be calculated from the measured strains by
Fig. 7 Strain-slip relationships of steel reinforcement
Fig. 8 Strain distribution along the embedment length of reinforcement
assuming a constant bond stress distribution between two adjacent strain gauges
(see Eq. (1)).
An Es De
s= ð1Þ
Ce Dl
where s is the bond stress, An is the net cross-sectional area of grooved rein-
forcement, Es is the elastic modulus of reinforcement, De is the difference of strains
measured at two adjacent sections, Ce is the effective circumference of grooved
reinforcement, and Dl is the spacing of strain gauges.
Figure 9 shows the bond stress distribution along the embedment length. It is
apparent that when the loading rate was 0.1 mm/s, the bond stress varied more
uniformly along the rebar length, as shown in Fig. 9(a). By increasing the loading
rate to 100 mm/s, the bond stress near the loaded end was significantly increased,
Fig. 9 Bond stress distribution of along the embedment length
Table 3 Bond stress of steel reinforcement

Specimens Loading Concrete Strain Bond stress Bond Average
rates strength ratio at loaded stress at bond
(mm/s) (MPa) end free end stress
(MPa) (MPa) (MPa)
LS12 0.1 65.6 0.2 5.8 3.0 4.4
1 20.1 17.9 19.0
FS12 100 0.2 7.9 3.6 5.8
1 25.3 17.6 21.5
1.1 27.3 19.9 23.6
and the bond stress decreased from the loaded end to the free end, as shown in
Fig. 9(b). This phenomenon was induced by the limited propagation of radial
cracks around the steel reinforcement and the increased yield and ultimate strengths
of steel reinforcement at a higher loading rate. Moreover, the average bond stress
along the embedment length was also increased, as listed in Table 3.
4 Conclusions
This paper studies the bond behaviour of embedded steel reinforcement under
different loading rates. The following conclusions could be drawn from this study:
1. With 60 mm embedment length, all specimens achieved their ultimate strengths
under different loading rates. The specimens exhibited fracture of the embedded
steel reinforcement near the loaded end, and the failure mode was independent
of the loading rate.
2. By increasing the loading rate, the yield and ultimate strengths of steel rein-
forcement were increased, but the slip associated with the yield strength was
reduced. Calculated results showed that the bond stress near the loaded end was
increased and decreased near the free end, and the average bond stress increases
with the increase of loading rate.
National Natural Science Foundation (No.51608068), Fundamental and Frontier Research Project
of Chongqing (No. cstc2016jcyjA0450) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central
Universities (No. 2019CDXYTM0032).
References
1. Menzel CA (1939) Some factors influencing results of pull-out bond tests. ACI J Proc
35(6):517–542
2. Shima H, Chou LL, Okamura H (1987) Micro and macro model for bond in reinforced
concrete. J Fac Eng 39:133–194
3. Mindess S (1989) Effects of dynamic loading on bond. ACI Commit 446: State Art Rep
Section 4.2.3(5):51–63
4. Mindess S, Banthia NP, Ritter A, Skalny JP (1986) Crack development in cementitious
materials under impact loading and cement-based composites: strain rate effects on fracture.
ACI J 64:217–223
Experimental Study on Seismic
Behaviors of a New Type
of Transferring Joint with Top Steel
Column Embedded to the Panel Zone
Jin-Yang Gao, Jian-Sheng Fan, and Guan-Jie Hou
Abstract Based on a practical project in China, a new type of composite trans-

ferring joint is put forward as the key part to realize the structural transformation
from the upper steel frame to the lower RC frame. The joint is accomplished by
inserting the steel column into the concrete of the panel zone. The longitudinal
rebars of the bottom RC column are placed near the studs welded to the steel
column wall, so the vertical internal force can be transferred in an indirect way. To
study the seismic performance of this kind of transferring joint, four specimens
were tested under cyclic loading. Axial compression ratio and upper-panel zone
concrete were selected as the key investigating parameters. The test results show
that the failure mode of the specimens includes plastic hinge failure at the beam
ends, concrete crushing failure at the bottom of the RC column, and shear failure at
the panel zone. The force displacement hysteretic curves are very plump and the
specimens have high energy dissipation capacities, indicating this new type of
transferring joint has a good seismic performance. Furthermore, increasing the axial
compression ratio can effectively improve the stiffness and bearing capacity of the
joint, as well as the energy dissipation capacity. The existence of the upper-panel
zone concrete is of little effect under large axial compression ratio, while under
small axial compression ratio, it can significantly increase the stiffness and the
energy dissipation capacity of the joint, and increase the bearing capacity to some
extent.
Keywords Hybrid structure Embedded joint Transferring joint Quasi-Static

test Seismic performance
J.-Y. Gao (&) J.-S. Fan G.-J. Hou

Department of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
e-mail: gaojinyangqwe@sina.cn

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_97
1032 J.-Y. Gao et al.
1 Introduction
A steel-concrete vertical hybrid structure is composed of an upside steel structure

and a lower concrete structure that are connected in series. This kind of structure is
quite suitable for the buildings which have different demands for the upper and
lower part, in both structural and architectural aspects. By virtue of this conve-
nience, this kind of vertical hybrid structure system has already been successfully
applied in many kinds of structures, such as high-rise buildings, industrial plants,
telecom buildings, airport terminals, etc. [1–4] The study on steel-concrete vertical
hybrid structure mainly focus on seismic behavior and damping behavior of the
whole structure [5, 6]. But for the transfer joint connecting the upper and lower
substructures, the studies are far from enough, especially test studies.
This study investigates the seismic performance of the transfer joint of the
steel-concrete vertical hybrid structure. Four specimens are tested under low
reversed cyclic loading and the test results are evaluated in terms of damage pattern,
hysteretic behavior, joint ductility, and energy dissipation capacity. The effects of
axial compression ratio and upper-panel zone concrete are investigated and
discussed.
2.1 Test Specimens
Four specimens are made and tested to study the seismic performance of the
embedded steel column-reinforced concrete (RC) column transferring joint, which
is proposed by inserting the steel column into the concrete of the panel zone. Details
of the specimens are shown in Fig. 1.
Axial compression ratio and the height of upper-panel zone concrete are selected
as the key investigating parameters of the study. The axial compression ratio is for
the steel column section. The upper-panel zone concrete refers to the concrete
inside the steel column right above the panel zone. The test parameters of each
specimen are shown in Table 1.
2.2 Test Setup and Loading History
The test setup used for the experimental program is shown in Fig. 2. RC columns
are pin-connected at their bottom end to represent inflection points at the midspan
of the member length. The pinned connection is achieved by using a
three-dimensional spherical plain bearing. Axial compression load is applied to the
top end of the steel column using a hydraulic actuator. RC beams are supported by
Experimental Study on Seismic Behaviors ... 1033
16 14
500
16 14
440
A-A
16 14
8 60
500
16 14
440
B-B
32 16
8 60
600
C-C
(a) JD-1 and JD-2
16 14
500
16 14
440
A-A
16 14
8 60
500
16 14
440
B-B
32 16
8 60
600
C-C
(b) JD-3 and JD-4
Fig. 1 Details of the specimens

Table 1 Test parameters of joint specimens

Joint specimen Axial compression ratio Height of upper-panel zone concrete (mm)
JD-1 0.15 480
JD-2 0.40 480
JD-3 0.15 0
JD-4 0.40 0
Fig. 2 Loading equipment
two sliding bearings at their end to represent inflection points at the midspan of the
member. The sliding bearing is a vertical support device specially made for the
experiment, which only constrains the vertical displacement of the beam ends.
Horizontal cyclic loading (force or displacement) is applied at the top of the steel
column using a horizontal hydraulic actuator.
The loading process for specimen testing is composed of two steps. First, the
axial compression load is applied and is kept constant for the rest of the process.
Second, the horizontal load is applied to the top of the steel column. The loading
history of horizontal load consists of a force control stage followed by a dis-
placement control stage as shown in Fig. 3.
Load control Displacement control

480 6
400 5
320 4
Displacement(D/D y)
240 3
160 2
Load(kN)
80 1
0 0
-80 -1
-160 -2
-240 -3
-320 -4
-400 -5
-480 -6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Number of cycles
Fig. 3 Loading protocol
Table 2 Properties of the Material fy (MPa) fu (MPa) fcu (MPa)

steel and reinforcement
Steel t = 16 mm 372.6 560.1
Reinforcement U 8 367.0 507.0
Concrete C40 46.7
The steel used for the specimens is type Q345B. The longitudinal reinforcement is
type HRB400 while the stirrup is type HPB300. For each plate thickness or rein-
forcement diameter, three coupons were tested in tension. The concrete used for the
specimens is C40 and six 150-mm cubic blocks are tested for compression strength.
The mean values of yield strength (fy) and ultimate strength (fu) of steels together
with the average cubic compressive strength fcu are listed in Table 2.
3 Experimental Results and Analysis
3.1 Damage Patterns
The typical damage patterns of the specimens are shown in Fig. 4, including:
(a) concrete spall at panel zone; (b) deformation of longitudinal bars of the beam;
(c) huge vertical crack at the connecting part of beam and panel zone; (d) concrete
crushing and spalling at beam end; (e) column base damage. The damages suffered
by each specimen are listed in Table 3.
3.2 Load Versus Column Top Displacement Curves
The load versus column top displacement curves are shown in Fig. 5 for all the
specimens and the key results are summarized in Table 4. Specifically, Py and Dy
denote the yielding load and corresponding displacement of the steel column top,
respectively. Pu denotes the maximum load, Du denotes the corresponding column
top displacement. Pult corresponds to the ultimate load at the end of the test while
Dult denotes the corresponding displacement.
For all the specimens, the load versus displacement curve is nearly symmetrical
and full hysteresis loops are observed. The curves have obvious yield point together
with platform segment and demonstrate good ductility and energy dissipation
ability.
As we can see from the curves of all specimens, JD-3 has the narrowest curve
while JD-2 has the plumpest one. It can be easily noticed that specimens tested
under a large compression ratio (JD-2 and JD-4) have a plumper curve than those
tested under a small compression ratio (JD-1 and JD-3), implying axial compression
ratio can effectively influence the seismic performance of joints. The curves of
specimens with upper-panel zone concrete do not have an obvious difference with
Fig.4 Damage patterns

Table 3 Summary of test Joint specimen JD-1 JD-2 JD-3 JD-4

events
Damage patterns (a) (d) (b) (c) (d) (e) (b) (d)
(a) JD-1 (b) JD-2
(c) JD-3 (d) JD-4
Fig. 5 Hysteretic load–displacement curves of the specimens
Table 4 Summary of test results for the specimens

Specimen Yielding load Peak load Ultimate load
Py/kN Dy/mm Pu/kN Du/mm Pult/kN Dult/mm
JD-1 Positive 403.7 70.0 427.4 128.6 380.0 197.5
Negative 411.9 63.1 439.6 121.5 378.3 192.4
JD-2 Positive 524.7 56.3 573.4 98.7 492.6 166.6
Negative 493.2 56.7 524.7 75.9 476.0 153.0
JD-3 Positive 329.3 71.9 392.7 94.4 364.1 134.8
Negative 355.9 68.7 370.2 113.8 352.4 138.2
JD-4 Positive 511.7 58.0 540.1 107.6 514.2 159.6
Negative 497.3 53.8 536.3 97.4 476.8 153.4
curves of specimens without it, indicating the influence of the upper-panel zone
might be very small.
3.3 Energy Dissipation Capacity
A joint is considered tough and stable under cyclic loading if the loss of stiffness is
negligible at large inelastic deformations. Figure 6 shows the degradation of joint
stiffness with the load step, where the x-axis represents the ratio of the peak dis-
placement in each load step to the yielding displacement for each specimen. The
stiffness is defined as the ratio of the average peak load to the average peak
displacement in each load step.
The energy dissipation capacity of the joints is typically evaluated by the
equivalent viscous damping coefficient, ne , defined as follows:
1 SABCD
ne ¼ : ð1Þ
2p SOBE þ SODF
where SABCD is the area of loop ABCD, while SOBE and SODF are the shadowed
areas within the triangles OBE and ODF, respectively, as shown in Fig. 7.
The calculated equivalent viscous damping coefficients is shown in Fig. 8. The
results show that for all the specimens, with the loading process goes on, the
equivalent viscous damping coefficient decreases rapidly at the beginning, and then
Fig. 6 Stiffness degradation curves

Fig. 7 Idealized hysteretic P

loop
B
F A D
O C E
Fig. 8 Equivalent viscous damping coefficients
it increases until the end of the experiment. The damping coefficient of JD-2 and
JD-4 is obviously larger than that of JD-1 and JD-3, indicating that the axial
compression ratio can significantly improve the energy dissipation capacity of the
joints. The damping coefficient of specimen JD-2 is larger than that of JD-4 only
after yielding, and the difference is not large, showing that the effect of upper-panel
zone concrete on energy dissipation capacity is little. The average equivalent vis-
cous damping coefficients of all specimens at the final stage is 0.450, which is far
above that of reinforced concrete joints and close to that of steel reinforced concrete
joints.
4 Factors Influencing the Seismic Performance

of Transferring Joints
The skeleton curves of the specimens are shown in Fig. 9. The skeleton curve can
be divided into four stages, that is, the elastic stage, the elastic-plastic stage, the
yielding and hardening stage, and the descending stage.
The factors influencing the seismic performance of transferring joints can be
figured out by comparing the skeleton curves of two different specimens and are
discussed as followed. The value of index used for comparison (load, stiffness,
energy dissipation capacity, etc.) is the average of positive loading and negative
loading.
4.1 Effect of the Axial Compression Ratio
Specimens JD-2 and JD-4 is loaded under a large axial compression ratio while
specimens JD-1 and JD-3 is loaded under a small axial compression ratio. The
effect of the axial compression ratio is shown in Fig. 10 by comparing the skeleton
curves of load versus displacement of the two specimens.
For specimens JD-1 and JD-2, the stiffness of JD-2 is about 50% larger than that
of JD-1 at the elastic stage. In the following stages, the stiffness of JD-2 is about
31% larger and the peak load is about 27% larger. Additionally, the energy dissi-
pation capacity of specimen JD-2 is almost 21% larger than that of JD-1.
Fig.9 Skeleton curves

(a) JD-1 and JD-2 (b) JD-3 and JD-4
Fig. 10 Effect of the axial compression ratio on skeleton curves
(a) JD-1 and JD-3 (b) JD-2 and JD-4
Fig. 11 Effect of the steel column size on skeleton curves
For specimens JD-3 and JD-4, the stiffness of JD-4 is about 165% larger than
that of JD-3 at the elastic stage, which is really a significant difference. In the
following stages, the stiffness of JD-4 is about 105% larger and the peak load is
about 41% larger. Additionally, the energy dissipation capacity of specimen JD-4 is
almost 106% larger than that of JD-3.
4.2 Effect of the Upper-Panel Zone Concrete
Specimens JD-1 and JD-2 have concrete inside the steel column upon the panel
zone, while JD-3 and JD-4 don’t. The effect of the upper-panel zone concrete is
shown in Fig. 11.
For specimens JD-1 and JD-3, the stiffness of JD-1 is about 92% larger than that
of JD-3 at the elastic stage. In the following stages, the stiffness of JD-1 is about
49% larger and the peak load is about 14% larger. Additionally, the energy dissi-
pation capacity of specimen JD-1 is almost 55% larger than that of JD-3.
For specimens JD-2 and JD-4, the skeleton curves almost coincide with each
other and the stiffness, strength and energy dissipation capacity are almost the same.
Specimen JD-2 performs a little bit better, but the difference is relatively small,
which is less than 10%. The difference of the peak load is especially small, which is
only 2%. This indicates that the existence of the upper-panel zone concrete has
almost no influence on the seismic performance of specimens loaded under a large
axial compression ratio. For specimens loaded under small axial compression ratio,
it has an obvious effect on stiffness and energy dissipation capacity, while its effect
on strength is not large.
5 Conclusions
1. The failure patterns of the specimens include plastic hinge failure at the beam
ends, concrete crushing failure at the bottom of the RC column, and shear failure
at the panel zone.
2. Increasing the axial compression ratio can effectively improve the stiffness and
bearing capacity of the joint, as well as the energy dissipation capacity.
3. The existence of upper-panel zone concrete is of very little effect under large
axial compression ratio. While under small axial compression ratio, it can sig-
nificantly increase the stiffness and energy dissipation capacity of the joint, and
increase the bearing capacity to some extent.
References
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Beijing (in Chinese)
2. Kimuta E, Konno T (1975) Earthquake effects on steel tower for microwave antennas atop
building. Review of the Electrical Communication Laboratories (Tokyo)
3. Xu J, Zhu QD, Shen T (2018) Integrated analysis of vertical-combined structure of steel and
reinforced concrete under horizontal force. Eng J Wuhan Univ 51(S1):106–110 (in Chinese)
4. Lu XL, Liu F, Lu WS (2009) Shaking table model test on Pudong International Airport
Terminal 2 building in Shanghai. J Earthq Eng Eng Vibr 29(03):22–31 (in Chinese)
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structure under seismic excitation. Struct Design Tall Spec Build 27:e1497
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vertical hybrid structure using local fine numerical simulation method. Adv Mater Sci Eng
Buckling Analysis of Nanoplates
Incorporating Surface Stress Effects
F. Lin, Y. Xiang, and Hui-Shen Shen
Abstract Nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS) are miniaturized structures

with nanometer length scaled features. In such structures, due to the fewer neigh-
bouring surface atoms, the top and bottom layers of a nanoplate possess excess
energies over atoms in the bulk. The existence of surface stresses in nanoplates may
greatly influence the mechanical behaviours of such structures. In this study, the
buckling behaviours of nanoplates with surface stress effects are investigated. The
material model is derived in which the bulk core of the plates is assumed to be
single crystalline materials and have certain crystallographic directions. The top and
bottom layers of the plates are covered by atomic layers with the same crystallo-
graphic directions. Surface stresses are considered to be induced by mismatching of
the material properties between the surface layer and the underlying bulk materials
which can be evaluated via molecular dynamics simulations. The first order shear
deformable plate theory is employed to derive the total energy functional of the
plate. The p-Ritz method is then applied to derive the eigenvalue equation which
can be solved to obtain the buckling load of the nanoplates subject to the influence
of surface stresses. It was found that as the nanoplates become thinner or subject to
weaker boundary conditions, the surface stresses can significantly increase the
buckling load. While the percentage increase of the buckling load factor depends on
the type of material and its crystallographic surfaces and directions.
Keywords Buckling Surface stresses NEMS Nanoplates
F. Lin (&) Y. Xiang

School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, Western Sydney University,
Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia
e-mail: F.Lin@westernsydney.edu.au
H.-S. Shen
School of Ocean and Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University,
Shanghai 200240, People’s Republic of China

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_98
1044 F. Lin et al.
1 Introduction
When the characteristic length of a micro-electro-mechanical-system (MEMS)

reduces to below 100 nm, such a device is conventionally known as a
nano-electro-mechanical-system (NEMS). When compared with MEMS, due to its
reduced size and increased surface area, NEMS possesses many unique properties
and functions such as ultra-high vibration frequency, ultra-high sensitivity, con-
trollable absorption and detection to molecules as well as low energy consumption
[2]. On the other hand, as the system size reduces, the correlation between force and
size becomes prominent. Consequently, certain forces which are usually less
influential in the micrometer scaled devices cannot be ignored in the nanometer
scale. Intermolecular forces which related to system geometry such as capillary
force, surface stress, electrostatic force, Casimir force and van der Waals force are
some of the main reasons contributing to the exotic mechanical behaviours of such
miniaturized devices [1, 10].
Among many, surface stress is one of the important factors to be considered in
designing miniaturized devices. For example, surface stress has been utilised in
certain bio-MEMS to detect the absorption of particular DNAs or molecules. As the
MEMS structure absorbs foreign molecules, the surface stress of the structure alters,
which leads to the deformation of the structural elements. Once the structural
responses are measured, the quantity of the absorption can be deduced [11].
For NEMS, elastic beams or plates with nanoscale thickness are most popular in
these systems. As the thickness is only a couple of hundred times of its atomic
lattice constant, the surface to volume ratio is significantly larger than that of
MEMS. As a result, the existence of surface stress on even pristine nanobeams or
nanoplates can to a large extent influence their mechanical behaviours.
Owing to fewer neighbouring surface atoms, the top and bottom layers of a
nanoplate possess excessive energies over atoms in the bulk. For the NEMS
manufactured in single crystalline materials, such surface energy also varies for
different crystallographic directions. Shenoy [8] calculated the elastic properties of
metallic FCC crystal surfaces. Lim and He [6] studied the bending, buckling and
vibration of a simply supported long strip-like film based on a continuum approach.
He and Lilley [3] studied the static bending behaviour of nanowires with the
influence of surface stress using Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. Wang and Feng [9]
investigated the surface effects on the buckling of nanowires under uniaxial com-
pression. Jia et al. [4] analyzed the resonant frequency of Timoshenko nanobeams
with surface effects. All of the aforementioned studies confirmed that the surface
effect will significantly influence the bending stiffness, the buckling behaviour as
well as the resonant frequency of a nanobeam when the height of the nanobeam is
in the nanometer range.
In this study, the buckling behaviours of single crystalline metallic nanoplates
are investigated under the continuum mechanics framework. The surface stress and
surface elasticity for three common metal materials were previously evaluated via
molecular dynamics simulations [8]. Based on the first order shear deformation
Buckling Analysis of Nanoplates Incorporating Surface Stress Effects 1045
plate theory, the eigenvalue equation of the nanoplates is derived and solved by the
p-Ritz method. The buckling behaviours of the nanoplates with certain crystallo-
graphic directions, both with and without considering the surface stresses, are
presented and discussed in details.
2 Mathematical Modelling
2.1 Problem Definition
As shown in Fig. 1, consider a nanoplate of length L, width b, thickness h along the

x, y and z directions, respectively. It is assumed that the plate has two regions, the
top and bottom layers of plate surface region as well as the bulk material region.
The dash line represents different crystallographic directions, such as [100] or
[111], and it is assumed that the crystallographic direction is parallel to the x axis.
For single crystalline FCC metallic materials, the stiffness tensor has three inde-
pendent constants due to symmetry. The bulk material region is anisotropic and the
Young’s modulus E11b , E22b and shear modulus G12b , G13b and G23b are derived
from the material stiffness tensor. For the surface material region, the surface stress
s0 and surface elasticity Es values are obtained from the molecular dynamics
simulation performed by Shenoy [8].
2.2 Variational Formulation
Based on the first order shear deformation plate theory [7], the displacement fields
are assumed to be
Fig. 1 Nanoplate with different crystallographic directions and coordinates system

1046 F. Lin et al.
uðx; y; zÞ ¼ u0 ðx; yÞ þ z/x ðx; yÞ ð1Þ
vðx; y; zÞ ¼ v0 ðx; yÞ þ z/y ðx; yÞ ð2Þ
wðx; y; z; tÞ ¼ w0 ðx; y; tÞ ð3Þ
where u; v; w are the displacements in the x, y, z directions,u0 , v0 and w0 are the

midsurface displacements in the x, y, z directions, and /x and /y are the rotations of
the transverse normal to the plate midsurface.
According to the variational principle, the virtual strain energy in the bulk dU b is
given by
2 3
@du0 @d/x @dv0 @d/y
6 Nxx þ Mxx þ Nyy þ Myy
6 @x @x @y @y 7
Z 6 7
6 @dw0 @dw0 7 7
dU b ¼ 6 þ Qyz d/y þ þ Qxz d/x þ 7dX0 : ð4Þ
X0 6 @y @x 7
6 7
4 @du0 @dv0 @d/x @d/y 5
þ Nxy þ þ Mxy þ
@y @x @y @x
where X0 denotes the undeformed midplane of the plate, and the stress resultants
Nxx , Nyy , Mxx , Myy , Qyz , Qxz , Nxy , Mxy are defined as
8 9 8 9 8 9 8 9
> = Z h2 >
< Nxx > < rxx >
= > < rxx >
= Z h2 >
< Mxx > =
Qxz
Z h
2

rxz

Nyy ¼ ryy dz Myy ¼ ryy zdz ¼K dz
>
: >
; h2 >
: >
; >
: >
; h2 >
: >
; Qyz h2 ryz
Nxy rxy Mxy rxy
ð5Þ
in which K is the shear correction factor and assumed to take the value of 5/6.
In the current formulation, the surface region is considered as zero mathematical
thickness. The virtual strain energy in the surface dU s is
8 9
>
> 2E s @u0 @du0
þ h2 s @/x @d/x
E >
>
>
> xx @x @x 2 xx @x @x >
>
>
> >
>
>
> @v @dv @/y @d/y >
>
> þ 2Eyy @y @y þ 2 Eyy @y @y
>
s 0 0 h2
s >
>
Z > < 2 >
3=
dU s ¼ @u 0 @du 0 @u 0 @dv 0 @v 0 @du 0 @v 0 @dv 0 h 2
dX0
X0 >
>
> 6 2Gs þ þ þ þ Gs 7 >
>
>
>
> 6 @y @y @y @x @x @y @x @x 2 7>>
>
> þ6 7>>
>
> 4 @/ @d/ @/ @d/ @/ @d/ @/ @d/ 5 >
>
>
> x x
þ x y
þ
y x
þ
y y >
>
: ;
@y @y @y @x @x @y @x @x
ð6Þ
s s
in which Exx , Eyy , Gs are the surface Young’s moduli and shear modulus, respec-
tively. The work done by residual surface stress dV 0s is
2 3
@w0 @dw0 @w0 @dw0
Z 6 sxx þ syy 2
0 0
2
6 @x @x @y @y 7 7
dV 0s ¼ 6 7dX0 : ð7Þ
X0 4 @w 0 @dw 0 @w 0 @dw 0 5
þ s0xy 2 þ2
@x @y @y @x
The work done by the external force dV b is

Z
0 @w0 @dw0 0 @w0 @dw0
dV 0b ¼ Nxx þ Nyy dX0 : ð8Þ
X0 @x @x @y @y
By invoking the principle of virtual work, we have
dU b þ dU s þ dV 0s þ dV 0b ¼ 0 ð9Þ
The p-Ritz method [5] is employed to derive the eigenvalue equation for the
nanoplates from Eq. (9). Three types of boundary conditions are considered in this
study, i.e. (1) Pinned (P) end with u0 = 0, v0 = 0, w0 = 0, /x = 0,/y = 0;
(2) Hard-Clamped (HC) with u0 = 0,v0 = 0, w0 = 0, /x = 0, /y = 0, dw0 =dx = 0,
dw0 =dy = 0; and (3) Free (F) end with no displacement constraints, respectively.
The p-Ritz basic functions are used to impose the boundary conditions.
Consider three different materials: Platinum (Pt), Gold (Au), and Silver (Ag). Their
material properties are listed in Table 1. The surface stress and surface elasticity
values are listed in Table 2, s011 ¼ s022 , and s012 ¼ 0 [8].
3.1 Comparison Studies
A convergence study was carried out and it was found that the degree set of
complete polynomial used for the trial function ps 7 could furnish reasonably
accurate buckling results. We chose ps ¼ 7 for subsquent calculations.
Table 1 Material properties Pt Au Ag

of Platinum, Gold and Silver
C11 (GPa) 347 186 131
C12 (GPa) 253 157 97
C44 (GPa) 78 42 51
1048 F. Lin et al.
Table 2 Surface stresses and surface elasticities of Platinum, Gold and Silver
Surface Pt Au Ag
(100) (111) (100) (111) (100) (111)
s011 ¼ s022 (eV/Å2) 0.1426 0.1585 0.0877 0.1025 0.0556 0.0405
Es (eV/Å2) −0.4694 −0.6203 −0.2265 −0.4124 0.0760 −0.0870
Comparison studies were first carried out against existing results in literature
[12] of plate buckling without the surface effect. The buckling load factor of a
CNTRC plate with four edges simply supported is kp ¼ Ncr b =ðEm h3 Þ. The plate is
0 2
in uniaxial compression and has width-to-thickness ratio 5 b/h 100, aspect

ratio L/b = 1 and CNT volume fraction being 0.11. The results are compared in
Table 3 and a reasonably good agreement has been observed, which verifies the
correctness of the current method.
3.2 Case Studies with Surface Stress Effect
Case studies were carried out for buckling analysis of square nanoplates with
surface stresses. The nondimensional buckling load factor is kp ¼ Ncr
0 2
L =D110 ,
b 3
E11 h
where D110 ¼ .
½ ð b12 mb21 Þ
12 1m
Figure 2 shows the uniaxial and biaxial compressive buckling load factors of a
square Au (100) nanoplate with simply supported edges (P-P-P-P). The plate
length-to-thickness ratio L/h = 50. The solid lines are buckling curves with surface
stress while the dashed lines are the ones without considering the surface stress.
Figure 2 shows that in general the existence of surface stresses increases the
buckling load factor for the Au plate under both uniaxial and biaxial compressions.
As the plate becomes thinner, the influences of surface stress are more pronounced.
For the plate with the thickness of 30 nm, the buckling load factor with the surface
stress effect is about 2.5 times its counterpart without the surface stress effect. As
the plate becomes thicker, the difference between buckling load factors with and
without the surface stress effect decreases.
Table 3 Comparison results b/h Present study Results in [12]

of buckling load factors of
simply supported CNTRC 5 7.8965 7.8014
plate for various b/h ratios 6.67 11.8291 11.7900
10 19.0932 19.0902
20 31.1712 30.9218
100 39.3460 37.8553
Fig. 2 Uniaxial and biaxial

compressive buckling load
factors of a square Au
(100) nanoplate with different
plate thickness
Figure 3 shows the uniaxial and biaxial buckling load factors for a simply
supported square Ag (111) nanoplate with different length-to-thickness ratios L/
h = 50, 30, 10, and thickness h = 50 nm. The results in Fig. 3 show that for thinner
plates such as plate with L/h = 50, there is a considerable increase in the buckling
load factors when surface stress is considered; estimated to be around 34%. In
contrast, there is negligible difference between the buckling load factors with and
without the surface stress effect for thicker plates with L/h = 10.
Table 4 lists the biaxial and uniaxial compressive buckling load factors of
simply supported square Pt, Au, Ag nanoplates with different surfaces of (100) and
(111). It is observed in Table 4 that the existence of surface stress enhances the
buckling capacity of the plates. However the percentage increase in the buckling
load factors depends on the materials as well as surfaces. The buckling load factor
of the Au (100) plate is increased by 37.3% while for the Ag (111) plate, the
increase is 12.3%.
Table 5 shows the uniaxial and biaxial buckling load factors of a square Au
(100) nanoplate with different boundary conditions. For the uniaxial compression
cases with F-HC-HC-HC and F-P-P-P boundary conditions, the free boundary edge
(F) is assumed to be parallel to the load direction. It can be seen in Table 5 that as
the boundary conditions become weaker, there are larger deviations between
Fig. 3 Uniaxial and biaxial

compressive buckling load
factors of a square Ag
(111) nanoplate with different
L/h
1050 F. Lin et al.
Table 4 Biaxial and uniaxial buckling load factors of square Pt, Au, Ag nanoplates with
(100) and (111) surfaces (L/h = 30, h = 50 nm)
Pt Au Ag
Biaxial compression
(100) (111) (100) (111) (100) (111)
Without surface stress 22.785 17.351 28.811 15.844 29.927 15.325
With surface stress 28.568 21.587 39.564 20.861 36.175 17.207
Differences 25.4% 24.4% 37.3% 31.7% 20.9% 12.3%
Uniaxial compression
(100) (111) (100) (111) (100) (111)
Without surface stress 44.445 34.045 55.835 31.140 57.928 30.137
With surface stress 55.733 42.360 76.692 41.004 70.024 33.839
Differences 25.4% 24.4% 37.4% 31.7% 20.9% 12.3%
Table 5 Biaxial and uniaxial buckling load factors of a square Au (100) nanoplate with different
boundary conditions (L/h = 20, h = 50 nm)
Boundary conditions Buckling factors
Without surface stress With surface stress Differences
Biaxial compression
HC-HC-HC-HC 63.481 68.008 7.13%
F-HC-HC-HC 36.414 41.094 12.85%
P-P-P-P 29.608 34.402 16.19%
F-P-P-P 14.176 19.075 34.56%
Uniaxial compression
HC-HC-HC-HC 119.447 127.274 6.55%
F-HC-HC-HC 49.704 55.539 11.74%
P-P-P-P 59.216 68.803 16.19%
F-P-P-P 18.426 24.705 34.08%
buckling load factors with and without the effect of surface stress. For the biaxial
compression case, the buckling load factors for the plate with F-HC-HC-HC
boundaries are larger than the ones with P-P-P-P boundaries, while for the uniaxial
compression case, the trend is reversed.
4 Conclusions
Based on the first order shear deformation plate theory and the energy variational
principle, the buckling behaviours of single crystalline metallic nanoplates subject
to the influence of surface stresses are investigated. The surface stresses and surface
elasticity for three metals were evaluated from existing molecular dynamics sim-
ulations and are incorporated into the energy formulation. Large discrepancies have
been observed for the buckling load factors with and without the surface stress
effect. For all three metals studied, the surface stresses are found to enhance the
buckling capacity of the nanoplates. Case studies indicate that as the nanoplates
become thinner or subject to weaker boundary conditions, the influence of surface
stresses becomes more significant. In addition, it is found that the percentage
increase of the buckling load factor depends on the type of material and its crys-
tallographic surfaces and directions. The buckling load factor for the square Au
(100) nanoplate increases by 37.3% while for the square Ag (111) plate with the
same dimension and support conditions, the increase is only 12.3%. It is expected
that the study presented herein may be useful when evaluating the buckling
behaviours of the structural components in next generation NEMS.
Acknowledgements This study was supported by the Australian Research Council (Grant
DP160104462). The authors are very grateful for this financial support.
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Polymer-Based Composite Materials
for Industralised Building System
in Flooding Situations
E. N. Saharuddin, W. H. Wan Badaruzzaman, and A. W. Al Zand
Abstract Polymer-based composite materials resulted from a combination of a

variety of raw materials to form a new composite material. The use of a type of
polymer-based composite material, known as the Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer
(GFRP) has been on the increase today. GFRP Industrialised Building System
(IBS) has been developed in the form of prefabricated structural beams, slabs,
walls, staircases, and trusses for applications in buildings and bridges. For appli-
cations of the IBS system especially in areas that are often vulnerable to flooding,
special attention needs to be paid to the water/flood-resistant properties of such a
system. Most of the existing materials adopted for building construction are not
intended to be used in flood environments, as they have a high percentage of water
absorption. High water absorption of GFRP will result in the reduction of its
mechanical properties. Therefore, the objective of this study is to obtain and
improve the GFRP composite properties for use as a flood-resistant structure. The
experiments involved materials such as woven fibreglass matrix, polyester resin, fly
ash and calcium carbonate. The fly ash and calcium carbonate are introduced as
filler materials to study their influence on the mechanical and water absorption
properties of the GFRP composite. In total, 21 samples were tested for tensile,
compressive and flexural strengths, and also water absorption. The results obtained
from tensile tests found that the maximum tensile strength is 172.8 MPa for the
composition of 10% of both fly ash and calcium carbonate. Through compression
and three-point bending tests, the maximum compressive and flexural strengths are
169.2 MPa and 327.3 MPa, respectively for the composition of 5% fly ash and 15%
calcium carbonate. The composition of 5% calcium carbonate and 15% fly ash
yielded the lowest water absorption at 0.45%. It was discovered that compared to
E. N. Saharuddin W. H. Wan Badaruzzaman (&) A. W. Al Zand

Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM),
Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
e-mail: wanhamidon@ukm.edu.my
E. N. Saharuddin
e-mail: esri95@gmail.com
A. W. Al Zand
e-mail: ahmedzand70@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_99
1054 E. N. Saharuddin et al.
the conventional concrete, the percentage water absorption of the RHA concrete
cured with 5% NaCl absorbs less water with increase in replacement proportions of
RHA [9]. In conclusion, calcium carbonate improves mechanical strength while fly
ash reduces water absorption.
Keywords GFRP Calcium carbonate Fly ash Mechanical properties Water

absorption
1 Introduction
Polymer-based composite materials have grown popularity in its application in the

field of construction. Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) and Carbon Fibre
Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) are two most known polymer-based composite
materials that have been previously studied. GFRP, in general, is more commonly
adopted compared to the CFRP due to its cost-effectiveness. Glass fibre and resin
are the basic components in GFRP. Since the 1960s, commercially, GFRP has
become a popular choice of composite material for many different applications such
as automotive, marine, structural, oil and gas, and aerospace industries. The pop-
ularity resulted from its relatively lesser cost, and easier for advanced fabrication
during production. It is anticipated that the growth in the use of polymer-based
materials will be on a rapid increase, with the increasing demand for IBS, in-line
with the advancement of the 4th Industrial revolution.
Extra requirements shall be taken into account for buildings exposed to flood
risk. In flood situations, the guidelines from the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) for construction materials are adopted as a guiding principle.
Materials exposed to flood water shall be able to withstand the dry-wet cycles,
without leaving any significant damages in resisting the direct contact with flood
water for 72 h or more [3]. The most important aspects that should be considered
according to FEMA is the water absorption properties. The GFRP demonstrated a
varying rate of water absorption for different periods [6]. After 4 h of soaking under
water, results obtained show a slight increment during the first 1 h, slow increment
in the period between 1 to 2.5 h, and drastic increment of rate of water absorption
after 2.5 to 4 h. After 4 h, the total percentage of water absorption is 11.7% [6].
Chakraverty et al. [2] found that the percentage moisture gain of seawater for GFRP
under seawater for 365 days was about 1.5%.
Various researchers have attempted to add filler materials to the GFRP com-
position to improve mechanical and flood-resistant properties. Satheesh et al. [7]
have studied a combination of GFRP and fly ash as a filler material. This study has
resulted in a difference in the mechanical strengths compared to the GFRP without
any filler material. The compressive properties of GFRP without filler has the yield
and ultimate strengths of 37 MPa and 45 MPa respectively, while these values were
increased of about +21.6 and +31.1% for GFRP with fly ash filler. The tensile and
flexural properties of GFRP with fly ash filler have recorded similar improvements.
Polymer-Based Composite Materials ... 1055
The optimum percentage of 10% of fly ash in the GFRP yield strength for all
mechanical properties [7]. The formation of chemical bonding of fly ash with the
glass fibres has been identified as the main reason for the improvement [1].
Sravani et al. [8] modified the GFRP composition by introducing Calcium
Carbonate (CaCO3) as a filler material has resulted in reducing the percentage of
water absorption. This reduction can be anticipated as the presence of glass fibres
influenced the water absorption of these composites. Three main pathways for water
absorption have been identified within the body of the composite material, i.e. the
cell wall, the lumen, weak interface adhesion and gaps between the fibres and resin
[4]. Experimentally, water absorption of GFRP with 10% CaCO3 filler is less than
GFRP without filler at 96 h, which was of about 3.7% and 5.0% respectively [8].
There have been several other research works in trying to discover materials to
lessen water absorption in various material mixes, such as the research on RHA
concrete. It was discovered that compared to the conventional concrete, the per-
centage water absorption of the RHA concrete cured with 5% NaCl absorbs less
water with increase in replacement proportions of RHA [9]. In flood environment,
GFRP for structures should have low water absorption level as possible as it will
degrade the mechanical properties of GFRP by 27.9% [5].
Therefore, the main objective of this research is to investigate the mechanical
properties and water absorption properties of the composite material consists of
GFRP material with varying percentages (0, 5 and 10 wt%) of CaCO3 and fly ash
fillers. The mechanical properties including the ultimate tensile strength, com-
pressive strength, flexural strength, and water absorption were investigated and
discussed.
2 Materials
2.1 Woven Glass Fabric (E-Glass)
Woven glass fabric which is a strong and lightweight material is adopted in this
research. The raw material is not expensive and much less brittle than carbon fibre.
Woven glass fabrics are available and have significant range in the market. It is also
available in other forms such as chopped strand mat and powder. The different type
of form offers the engineer some options that satisfy the design need.
2.2 Polyester Resin
Polyester resin is introduced as an adhesive to combine two or more different

materials with great strength. The resin comes with another chemical substance,
namely Methyl Ethyl Ketone Peroxide (MEKP), which acts as a hardener to the
polyester resin. MEKP produce heat in the polyester resin mixture to harden the
resin. Increasing the MEKP content will accelerate the hardening rate of the resin.
2.3 Calcium Carbonate
Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound that is widely available. It is a natural

chemical and not hazardous to human. It is available in either powder or liquid. In
this present work, CaCO3 powder is used as filler in GFRP.
2.4 Fly Ash
Fly ash nowadays is widely used in concrete mixtures generally. It is a remarkable

material that has a lower cost and effectively improves the performance of products.
3 Methodology
The preparation of the GFRP composite involved mixing different weight per-
centages of calcium carbonate and fly ash with polyester resin and hardener.
Polyester resin and MEKP hardener (2% mass of polyester) were mixed and stirred
together for both specimen types, i.e. specimens with and without filler materials.
The whole preparation process was done manually, using a hand lay-up technique
in a 200 mm 200 mm 4 mm size mild steel mould. Before the wet mixture
being placed in the mould, a releasing agent (Polyvinyl Alcohol) was coated onto
the inner base and walls of mould. An initial thin layer of the composite mixture is
placed into the mould, and smoothen with the help of a brush. A layer
200 200 mm woven fibreglass fabric is then placed on top of the first layer of
wet mixture. After placement, the fabric is submerged with more pour of the
mixture to a certain level below the top of the mould. Further, another layer of the
woven fibreglass fabric is placed into the mould, after which, the remaining spaces
above the second layer of glass fibre fabric is then filled up with the mixture until
the mould is filled to its brink. The whole process thus completes the preparation of
the 4 mm thick GFRP specimens. Mild steel roller was used to roll the mixture to
ensure uniform distribution within the mixture to avoid air bubbles entrapment. The
composition weight percentages of the composite materials used in the research are
shown in Table 1. The samples are cured to harden at room temperature for 24 h.
After that, the main sample was cut into different sizes of smaller samples as per the
ISO standards for different type of tests (tensile, compression, flexural and water
absorption tests).
Table 1 Composition of Sample Polyester Fibre glass Fly CaCO3

composite materials (all units resin fabric ash
in % weight)
A 50 30 15 5
B 50 30 10 10
C 50 30 5 15
3.1 Mechanical Testing
The tensile, compressive and flexural strengths tests were conducted using com-
puterised Universal Testing Machine with 100 kN capacity, as shown in Fig. 1.
Tensile test samples were prepared according to ISO 527 standard. Tensile tests
were conducted at a speed of 10 mm/min to obtain tensile strength. Compression
tests were performed using the same machine at the speed of 1 mm/min according
to ISO 604 standard to obtain compression strength. Flexural test samples were
prepared by ISO 178, and were also conducted in the same machine at the speed of
2 mm/min to obtain three-point flexural strength. All the mechanical strengths are
measured in MPa unit.
3.2 Water Absorption Test
Study of moisture absorption on the GFRP specimens was done by ISO 62 standard
for moisture absorption of plastic. Three samples with dimensions of 76 mm
length 25 mm width 4 mm thickness were prepared and tested (see Fig. 2).
The initial weights of samples were taken, and then they were dipped in distilled
water. The weights of the samples were taken after 2, 8, and 24 h. At the mentioned
times, the samples were taken out of the distilled water, and the moisture on the
surfaces was removed by using tissue paper. The weight was then measured to the
nearest 0.01 g after 1 min of removal of the moisture on the surface of samples. The
water absorption was calculated by weight difference. The percentage of water
absorbed is obtained by the weight that was gained in the percentage to the initial
weight of the samples.
4.1 Tensile Strength
Figure 3 presents the tensile strength values for the three different mixtures (A, B
and C) that have varied percentages of fillers in GFRP composites. The results
a) Tensile test
b) Compressive test c) Flexural test

Fig. 1 Different types of mechanical tests
showed that the sample B with a composition of 10% CaCO3 and 10% fly ash has
the highest ultimate tensile strength. This mix proportion is the optimum mix to
gain the highest strength. The tensile strength is lower when the CaCO3 filler is
added below or above the 10% level, as shown by the results from samples A (5%
CaCO3) and C (15% CaCO3), respectively. The decrease in tensile strength of the
composite as the CaCO3 filler increases is may be due to the presence of pores in
between the matrix, CaCO3 and fly ash filler particles that weaken the adhesion.
Fig. 2 Specimens for water

absorption test
Fig. 3 Tensile strength of 200

Tensile strength (MPa)
tested samples
160
172.8
120
133.4
113.1
80
40
0
A
B
Samples C
4.2 Compressive Strength
The results of the compressive strength tests are shown in Fig. 4 with different
content of fillers in the GFRP composites. From this figure, it is observed that the
increment weight percentage of CaCO3 filler with lesser fly ash (sample C) has
resulted in higher ultimate compressive strength compared to other samples (A and
B). This behaviour is perhaps due to two reasons that affect the compressive
strength of GFRP:
• CaCO3 filler has a good contribution to compressive strength.
• There is a uniform distribution of resin mixture in all the samples.
4.3 Flexural Strength
Flexural strengths of GFRP samples with varying percentages of material compo-

sitions are shown in Fig. 5, where it is observed that the flexural strength increased
Fig. 4 Compressive strength
Comprsive strength (MPa)

200
of tested samples
160
169.2
139.3
120
106.3
80
40
0
A
B
Samples C
Fig. 5 Flexural strength of 350

Flexural strength (MPa)
tested samples
300
327.3
293.2
299.4
250
200
150
100
50
0
A
B
C
Samples
as the CaCO3 filler content increases with decreasing fly ash content (sample C).
The highest flexural strength was for sample C at 327.3 MPa with CaCO3 and fly
ash weight percentage of 15% and 5% respectively. The reasons for this increment
in the flexural strengths could be due to the following points:
• Interfacial bonding between matrix and both fillers is high.
• The distribution of the resin mixture was uniformly distributed on glass fabrics.
4.4 Water Absorption
For the application of GFRP in flood environment, water absorption properties of

the material are important. The percentage weight gain of GFRP with various
components are shown in Fig. 6. The test showed that sample A has the lowest
percentage of water absorption. It can be concluded that the higher content of fly
ash yielded a composite of lower water absorption. Sample C with the lowest
0.8
Water absorption (%)
0.74
0.6
0.66
0.56
0.52
2 hours
0.45
0.4
0.37
8 hours
0.33
0.2
24 hours
0.22
0.2
0
A
B
C
Samples
Fig. 6 Effect of immersion time on water absorption of composites
content of fly ash experienced highest water absorption. Three reasons made the
water reside in composite which are the cell wall, the lumen, weak interface
adhesion and gap between fibre and resin [4].
5 Conclusions
The current research was conducted to experimentally investigate the influence of

CaCO3 and fly ash filler contents on the mechanical performances and water
absorption of glass fibre reinforced polyester (GFRP) composites. Properties such
as the ultimate tensile strength, compressive strength, flexural strength and per-
centage of water absorption were obtained. From the experimental results, the
following conclusions can be made:
• Both fillers influenced tensile strength as the highest ultimate strength of
composite has 10% of CaCO3 and fly ash.
• The compressive strength and flexural strength of GFRP composites increase as
the content of CaCO3 filler increases and fly ash decreases.
• Water absorption properties of GFRP composite are influenced by the content of
fly ash filler. The higher addition of the fly ash filler has led to reducing water
absorption performance.
Acknowledgements The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support for the research
provided by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) under the project code No. DIP-2017-015.
References
1. Ahmed M, Islam MS, Ahsan Q, Islam MM (2011) Fabrication and characterization of

unidirectional silk fibre composites. Key Eng Mater 471:20–25
2. Chakraverty AP, Mohanty UK, Mishra SC, Satapathy A (2015) Sea water ageing of GFRP
composites and the dissolved salts. In: IOP conference series: materials science and
engineering, vol 75, no 1. IOP Publishing, p 012029
3. FEMA (2008) Flood damage-resistant materials requirements. Technical Bulletin 2 (August)
4. Iulianellu G, Tavares MB, Luetkmeyer L (2010) Water absorption behaviour and impact
strength of PVC/wood flour composites. Chem Chem Technol 3:225–229
5. Li S, Hu J, Ren H (2017) The combined effects of environmental conditioning and sustained
load on mechanical properties of wet lay-up fibre reinforced polymer. Polymers 9(7):244–259
6. Reddy G, Krishna V, Shanker K (2016) Tensile and water absorption properties of FRP
composite laminates without voids and with voids. Proc Eng 173:1684–1691
7. Satheesh R, Manisekar K, Manikandan V (2014) Study on mechanical properties of fly ash
impregnated glass fibre reinforced polymer composites using mixure design analysis. Mater
Design 55:499–508
8. Sravani SK, Ram B, Reddy G, Raffi M (2017) Effect of CaCO3 and Al2O3 fillers on
mechanical properties of glass/epoxy composites. Int J Mod Trends Sci Technol 3:207–213
9. Sukhavasi P, Patnaikuni CK, Venugopal NVS (2014) Variations of water absorption and
compressive strengths for RHA concrete exposed to NaCl medium. Int J Innov Res Sci Eng
Technol 3:16257–16265
A Fracture Mechanics Approach
to Estimate Fracture-Induced Unstable
Failure in Steel Structures
X. Qian and T. Liu
Abstract Unstable fracture failure creates critical safety concerns in engineering

structures subjected to extreme natural or artificial actions. Despite the qualitative
requirements prescribed in the prevailing engineering standards on the material
ductility, fracture initiated unstable failure has led to collapse of a number of steel
structures. This paper investigates the fracture failure in steel structures through the
fracture mechanics perspective, by first examining experimental and hybrid
approaches in quantifying the fracture resistance in small-scale material specimens.
This study extends subsequently the experimental and hybrid approaches to
quantify the fracture resistance in large-scale structural components made of cir-
cular hollow section pipes with circumferential welds. Based on the combined
experimental and numerical study for the material specimens and that for the
structural components, this paper presents an approach to modify the
load-deformation responses of critical structural components to reflect the effect of
ductile crack extension and the subsequent unstable fracture failure. The benchmark
analysis validates the presented approach against experimental results on both
large-scale structural components and steel structures.
Keywords Fracture resistance Ductile crack extension Unstable failure Steel

structures Hybrid method
X. Qian (&) T. Liu

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore,
Singapore 117576, Singapore
e-mail: qianxudong@nus.edu.sg
T. Liu
e-mail: liutianyao@u.nus.edu

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_100
1064 X. Qian and T. Liu
1 Introduction
Fracture failure has evolved as a primary failure mechanism in many engineering

structures subjected to extreme loading conditions, e.g., the Point Pleasant
Suspension Bridge in West Virginia [17], Kings Bridge in Australia [7], offshore
structures [12] and welded connections in steel moment frames in the Northridge
earthquake [5] and Kobe earthquakes Architectural Institute of Japan [2] 1995.
However, engineering designs against fracture failure has remained as a material
requirement, measured by elongation or Charpy energy levels, in engineering
standards. A quantitative criterion for the fracture failure in engineering structures is
yet to be evolved.
Many researchers have embarked on efforts to quantify the fracture failure in
large-scale steel structures from different perspectives, including the
damage-mechanics approach [11, 13, 16], the energy method [26], the failure
assessment diagram [20], direct measurement on structural components [18, 19],
and interactions of adjacent cracks [24]. These methods facilitate the assessment of
the fracture failure at a structural component level. The direct integration of the
fracture representation in a global structural analysis remains unresolved. The
complex geometry and stress field in a welded structural component introduces
additional challenges in scaling the fracture-based assessment from the material
fracture specimens to the large-scale structural components and structures.
This study presents the fracture mechanics based evaluation of the fracture
resistance on both the material fracture specimens and the welded structural com-
ponents. Based on the estimated fracture resistance, this study develops a
load-deformation relationship for a welded tubular joint with an extending crack,
which experiences unstable fracture failure. This paper presents the comparison of
the fracture resistance evaluation for the standard fracture specimens and the wel-
ded structural component, and confirms the validity of the fracture-modified
load-deformation relationship in steel frame analysis via comparing to the experi-
mental results for a large-scale K-frame test.
2 Fracture Resistance of Material Specimens
This section presents two different approaches, namely the experimental method
and the hybrid method, in measuring the fracture resistance from the single-edge
notched tension, SE(T) specimen, for which a testing standard to measure the
fracture resistance curve, or J-R curve has yet to evolve.
A Fracture Mechanics Approach ... 1065
2.1 η-Based Experimental Approach
This study extends the single specimen η approach, originally proposed by Rice
et al. [23], to measure the fracture resistance in SE(T) specimens. The measurement
of J-R curve consists the measurement of the J-integral, which represents the energy
release rate, and the measurement of the crack extension, Da. The energy release
rate derives from the η approach,
ð1 v2 ÞKI2 gUpl
J¼ þ ð1Þ
E Bb
where Upl denotes the plastic strain energy equal to the area under the load versus
the plastic deformation, B and b are the thickness and remaining ligament of the
specimen, respectively. The first term in Eq. (1) quantifies the linear-elastic con-
tribution to the total energy release rate and derives from the stress-intensity factor,
KI, elastic modulus, E, and the Poisson’s ratio, v.
The experimental procedure introduces partial unloading events to measure the
compliance of the specimen, defined by the ratio of the crack-mouth opening
displacement (CMOD) and the load. The crack size of the specimen derives from
the compliance (C) and crack depth ratio (a/W) relationship determined from
linear-elastic analyses,
DCMOD a 3 a 2 a
C¼ ¼ 0:0391 0:0289 þ 0:0197 0:00234 ð2Þ
DP W W W
Figure 1 illustrates the test setup for the SE(T) specimens and material true
stress-true strain curve for the S355 steel material. Figure 2 presents the fracture
resistance curve, or J-R curve measured from three duplicated SE(T) specimens.
Liu et al. [14] have further demonstrated that the J-R curve from the η approach
coincides with that predicted from a node release method.
Fig. 1 Test setup for the SE(T) specimens and true stress-true strain curve of the material
Fig. 2 Fracture resistance 2

J (kJ/m )
curve measured from the SE 500
(T) specimens made of S355
steels
400
300
B = 10.5 mm
200 a / W = 0.5
SE(T)_01
100 SE(T)_02
SE(T)_03
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4
Δ a (mm)
2.2 Hybrid Approach
The hybrid method originates from the multiple specimen approach to measure
J values proposed by Begley and Landes [4]. Subsequent researchers have extended
this approach to standard fracture specimens [22]. The energy release rate,
J integral, derives from the change of potential energy with respect to the increasing
crack size,
1 dU
J¼ ð3Þ
B da
where the potential energy U refers to the area under the load-displacement curve,
while the change in crack size equals the difference in crack size a among different
fracture specimens.
The fundamental idea behind the hybrid method, as illustrated in Fig. 3, remains
the same as that of the multiple specimen approach, by retaining one experimental
specimen with an extending crack and replacing the rest of the test specimens by
finite element models, each with a different non-growing crack. Figure 3a illustrates
the load-deformation curve for a single test specimen with an extending crack,
together with the load-deformation curves computed from different FE models. At
each intersection point between the test load-deformation curve and numerical
load-deformation curve, the crack size in the test specimen assumes the same size as
that in the numerical model. The strain energy in the test specimen is subsequently
calculated at each intersection point, with the corresponding crack size, as indicated
in Fig. 3b. The slope of each curve in Fig. 3b represents the term dU/da in Eq. (3).
Figure 4 demonstrates the close agreement in the J-R curves measured from the η
approach and the hybrid method for the aluminium SE(T) specimen reported by Liu
et al. [15].
Load (kN) (a) Strain Energy (Joule) (b)

80000 50
a1 = 14.4 mm CMOD1 =0.392mm CMOD2=0.460mm CMOD3=0.526mm
70000 45 CMOD4 =0.595mm CMOD5=0.643mm CMOD4=0.696mm
a2 = 14.9 mm CMOD7 =0.778mm CMOD8=0.836mm
a3 = 15.4 mm 40 CMOD10 =0.923mm CMOD11=0.942mm
CMOD5=0.880mm
60000 a4 = 15.9 mm 35
a5 = 16.4 mm
50000 30
a6 = 16.9 mm
40000 a7 = 17.4 mm 25
a8 = 17.9 mm
30000 a9 = 18.4 mm
20
a10 = 18.9 mm 15
20000 a11 = 19.4 mm
10
a12 = 19.9 mm
10000 test 5
0 0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 15 16 17 18 19 20
CMOD (mm) a (mm)
Fig. 3 a Load-deformation curves for the SE(T) specimens from the test and FE specimens; b the
corresponding changes in strain energy with respect to crack size
Fig. 4 Comparison of the J- J (kJ/m 2 )

R curve determined from η 200
approach and the hybrid Hybrid method
method for an aluminum SE 160 η approach
(T) specimen
120
80
40
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Δa (mm)
3 Fracture Resistance in Welded Components
This study extends the above approaches to measure the fracture resistance curve
from circular hollow section (CHS) members with circumferential welds. The
welded pipe considered in this study has an outer diameter of 244.5 mm and a wall
thickness of 12 mm, and is made from S355 steels. The specimen fabrication
introduces a machined notch of 85 mm in length and 7 mm in depth near the weld
toe of the pipe. The testing procedure consists of two stages: 1) fatigue pre-cracking
to generate a sharp crack front ahead of the machined surface notch; 2) monotonic
loading with partial unloading cycles to measure the fracture resistance and the
compliance based crack size. Figure 5 illustrates the test setup on a
machine-notched pipe with a length of 2000 mm.
The welded pipe contains a curved surface crack near the weld toe, which entails
varying J-integral values along the crack front. The experimental procedure, based
on Eq. (1), however, leads to a single average J value (Jav) along the crack front,
which follows,
Load
Butt welds
Pipe specimen
Machined notch
Pin Roller
LVDT COD Gauge
Fig. 5 Test setup for the welded CHS specimen
P
n
B i Ji
Jav ¼ i¼1 ð4Þ
BT
where Bi denotes the length of a crack-front segment, while BT corresponds to the

total length of the crack front. Through the domain-integral procedure implemented
in a finite element research code, WARP3D [10], Eq. (4) provides a relationship
between the J at discrete crack-front locations with the average J measured from the
test.
To measure the crack size in the welded CHS member through the unloading
compliance approach, the linear-elastic analysis computes the variation of the
compliance for CHS members with different crack sizes,
a
¼ 0:0364ðECtÞ2 þ 0:412ðECtÞ þ 0:472 ð5Þ
t
where a/t denotes the crack depth over the thickness ratio.
Figure 6a compares the fracture resistance curve estimated from the above
procedure at different crack-front locations, denoted by the crack-front angle, /, in
Fig. 6a. The fracture resistance measured at different crack-front locations remains
similar to that measured from the SE(T) specimen at a small crack extension level.
Figure 6b demonstrates that the hybrid method to measure the fracture resistance
curves remains applicable to welded CHS members with circumferential welds.
Fig. 6 Comparison of the J-R curves in the CHS member: a at different crack front locations and
that from the SE(T) specimen; b using hybrid method and η approach
4 Fracture Modified Load-Deformation Relationship
4.1 Welded CHS Joints
Direct measurement of the fracture resistance curve from a large-scale structural

component remains challenging and expensive. The fracture resistance curve has
been an essential input to the integrity assessment of large-scale structural com-
ponent, e.g., welded tubular joints made from high strength steels reported by Qian
et al. [21]. However, the fracture resistance curve is not directly deployable in the
structural analysis of engineering structures. This section presents an approach to
derive a fracture dependent load-deformation relationship of welded tubular joints,
which reflects the effect of ductile tearing and the subsequent unstable fracture
failure in tubular joints.
Previous research efforts [8] have well demonstrated that the continuum
mechanics based finite element analysis predicts successfully the load-deformation
relationships of intact welded tubular joints. Such numerical analysis thus presents a
close estimation of the strain energy (U) stored in the joint. A previous investigation
[27] has extended the η approach for the fracture specimens to the welded tubular
joints and has confirmed the accuracy of the energy release rate computed from the
η approach compared to those from the domain-integral algorithms. Combining the
energy release computed from the η approach for a welded tubular joint and a
critical fracture toughness value (JIc) allows the estimation of the onset of ductile
tearing in a tubular joint [1, 9]. The subsequent stable ductile crack extension
increases the crack driving force (due to an increasing crack size) but decreases the
load resistance of the joint (due to an escalating crack area), as illustrated in Fig. 7a.
A number of previous researchers [25] have proposed quantitative relationships
between the cracked joint strength (Pu,crack) and the crack area (Acrack),

Acrack
Pu;cracked ¼ Pu 1 ð6Þ
Lw t0
where Lwt0 represents the area along the weld line [20]. At the end of the ductile
tearing, the joint often experiences an unstable fracture failure. This study imple-
ments a conservative approach to represent this unstable fracture failure in the
welded joint, by forcing an unstable failure at a crack extension corresponding to
the maximum crack extension allowed in the ASTM E1820 [3] for the material
fracture specimens. Figure 7b validates the proposed load-deformation relationship
shown in Fig. 7a against a CHS X-joint fabricated from S690 steels reported by
Qian et al. [21]. Figure 7b also includes the test setup and dimensions of the CHS
X-joint specimen.
4.2 Large-Scale Steel Frame
The fracture-modified load-deformation relationship presented in Sect. 4.1 provides

a convenient method to represent the fracture failure in large-scale steel tubular
frames, which anticipate potential unstable fracture failure. Bolt [6] has reported a
series of large-scale steel frame tests, in which the CHS K-joint experiences
unstable fracture failure. Figure 8a shows the configuration of a selected single bay
K-frame. This study implements the above fracture-modified load-deformation
relationship in the frame analysis, through a joint spring representation in a frame
analysis tool (USFOS). The K-joint in the single bay frame is represented by
piecewise linear springs in the frame analysis. Figure 8b compares the experi-
mentally measured load-deformation response of the K frame, the conventional
rigid joint frame analysis, and the frame analysis with the fracture modified joint
representation. The rigid joint assumption leads to a brace buckling failure in the
K-frame, which deviates from the unstable fracture failure of the K-joint observed
Fig. 7 a Schematic representation of the load-deformation relationship incorporating fracture;

b validation of the load-deformation relationship against a CHS X-joint
(a)
5944 P (kN) (b)
600
1524
168OD 7.1WT 500
356ODx12.7WT
400
5123
300
200
Test
100 Rigid
1524
Proposed
0
All members168OD 4.5WT 0 0.3 0.6 0.9 1.2 1.5
Fig. 8 a Configuration of the large-scale K-frame reported by Bolt [6]; b validation of the fracture
modified representation in a frame analysis
in the experiment. The proposed fracture modified joint formulation, on the other
hand, predicts successfully the softening of the frame response caused by the ductile
tearing in the K-joint and the subsequent unstable frame failure caused by the
unstable fracture in the K-joint.
5 Conclusions
This paper presents the fracture mechanics based approach: a) to measure the
fracture resistance (J-R curve) from the material specimens; b) to estimate the J-
R curve from welded CHS members; and c) to develop a load-deformation rela-
tionship incorporating the effect of ductile tearing and the unstable fracture failure.
Compared to the reported experiments for the material fracture specimens and the
welded CHS members, the J-R curve estimation demonstrates sufficient accuracies.
The fracture-modified load-deformation relationship resembles closely the experi-
mentally measured load-displacement curve for a high-strength steel CHS X-joint
with an unstable fracture failure. Incorporating the fracture-modified
load-deformation relationship in the analysis of a single bay K frame leads to
close agreement with the experimental observation in both the failure mechanisms
and the load-displacement responses.
References
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under in-plane bending. Marine Struct 42:33–52
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Hyogoken-Nanbu Earthquake, English Edition
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static strength of thick-walled CHS K-joints. J Constr Steel Res 62(4):303–412
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under brace axial tension. Front Struct Civ Eng 10:345–362
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Cochran K, Dodds Jr RH (2004) WARP3D release 15 manual. Civil Engineering, Report
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history on crack propagation energy of cyclic ductile fracture model. Eng Fract Mech
215:117–137
12. Lancaster J (1996) Engineering Catastrophes, Causes and Effects of Major Accidents.
Abington Publishing
13. Liao FF, Wang W, Chen YY (2015) Ductile fracture prediction for welded steel connections
under monotonic loading based on micromechanical fracture criteria. Eng Struct 94:16–28
14. Liu TY, Qian X, Wang W, Chen YY (2019) A node release approach to estimate J-R curve
for single-edge-notched tension specimen under reversed loading. Fatigue Fract Eng Mater
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Comparison of Numerical
and Semi-analytical Dynamic Results
for Inclined Beam Under Moving Load
D. S. Yang and C. M. Wang
Abstract This paper compares a numerical method and a semi-analytical method

for determining the dynamic responses of a simply supported inclined beam under a
moving vertical point load. The numerical method uses the finite element method to
discretize the beam. The semi-analytical method makes use of the Fourier series for
the vibration mode shape of the inclined beam. For the time domain, both methods
involve some numerical time integration schemes to capture the dynamic response
of the beam. By comparing the results, both methods furnish similar results.
However, the numerical method can be easily applied for complicated multiple
moving loads whilst the semi-analytical method provides better insightful infor-
mation on the dynamic response such as the parameters influencing the exciting
frequencies.

Keywords Inclined beam Moving load Finite element method Fourier series
Dynamic response
1 Introduction
Research on moving load problem has attracted considerable attention from the
1990s century onwards. A quick search in the Web of Science database reveals that
there are only 4 papers written on moving load problem in the year 1990. This
number jumps to 52 in the year 1995 and to 322 in the year 2018. The total number
of papers on moving load problem is over 4000 since 1990.
The most basic moving load problem is a horizontal beam subjected to a moving
point load (Krýlov 1905). This problem has since been extended to moving mass [8],
and then to moving sprung mass [2] and more recently to very complicated multiple
D. S. Yang (&) C. M. Wang

School of Civil Engineering, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
e-mail: dershen.yang@uq.edu.au
C. M. Wang
e-mail: cm.wang@uq.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_101
1076 D. S. Yang and C. M. Wang
loads that simulate train wheels over a rail. Following the advent of computers,
researchers were able to adopt more realistic vehicle-bridge interaction
(VBI) models in their analysis [3, 13]. Recent research studies on moving load
problem are focusing on health monitoring. Due to its simplicity and mobility, we
can monitor the bridge structure by installing the sensor on a passing vehicle [4, 12].
All aforementioned studies dealt with vertical moving load or loads on hori-
zontal beams or bridges or soil foundation. We now find many inclined structures
constructed over uneven terrains and side of mountains. Wu [9] developed the
moving mass element method to study the dynamic response of an inclined beam
with allowances for the effects of inertial mass, centrifugal force and Coriolis force.
Mamandi et al. [6] presented a formulation that coupled the longitudinal and
transverse vibrations of an inclined beam under a moving load to determine the
nonlinear dynamic response. They extended their work by using the Timoshenko
beam model to allow for the effect of transverse shear deformation [5].
In this paper, we present two methods for solving the transverse motion of an
inclined Eule-Bernoulli under a moving vertical point load. Such a problem finds
applications in inclined bridges, pipelines, crane rails, roller coasters and slides.
Unlike earlier studies on moving load on inclined beams, Yang and Wang [10]
considered the effect of the compressive axial component of the moving load on the
beam stiffness. For solution, they discretized the beam by using finite element
method and employed the Newmark method to solve the equation of motion. In a
sequel study, Yang and Wang [11] revisited the problem by solving it in a
semi-analytical way. They do so by making use of the Fourier sine series to
describe the vibration mode shape of simply supported beam and using the
Runge-Kutta method to do the time integration for the dynamic response of the
inclined beam. In this paper, we wish to highlight the differences between these two
methods.
2 Mathematical Formulation
Figure 1 shows a vertical point load P moving up an inclined Euler-Bernoulli beam

with a constant speed v. It is assumed that there is no damping effect. The beam is
inclined at an angle h with respect to the horizontal ground and the ends of the beam
are simply supported.
By resolving the vertical moving load into its axial load component (P sin h) and
its transverse load component (P cos h) along the beam, we may use the vector
approach to derive the following governing equation of motion

@4w @2w @2w
@w
EI þ P sin h ½1 H ðx vtÞ þ
m ¼ P cos h þ sin h dðx vtÞ
@x4 @x2 @t2 @x
ð1Þ
Comparison of Numerical and Semi-Analytical Dynamic Results … 1077
Fig. 1 Moving load problem

on inclined beam
where EI denotes the flexural rigidity, m the mass per unit length, w the transverse
deflection with respect to the inclined beam axis, dðx vtÞ the Dirac delta function
and H ðx vtÞ the Heaviside step function. The boundary conditions for the simply
supported ends are given by
ð0; tÞ ¼ 0; ðL; tÞ ¼ 0; EI @@xw2 ð0; tÞ ¼ 0; EI @@xw2 ðL; tÞ ¼ 0 ð2Þ
2 2
w w
where L is the length of the inclined beam (see Fig. 1). The initial conditions are
given by

@w
ðx; 0Þ ¼ 0;
w @t ð
x ; 0Þ ¼0 ð3Þ
For generality, we introduce the nondimensional parameters, i.e. x ¼ x=L,

w¼w =L, t ¼ t=ðL=vÞ, k ¼ PL2 =ðEI Þ, the nondimensional Dirac delta function
1 xt
d ðx tÞ ¼ Ldðx vtÞ and Heaviside function H ðx tÞ ¼ .
0 x[t
The normalized longitudinal coordinate x varies from 0 to 1. Also, the nor-
malized time t varies from 0 to 1. When x ¼ t, it means that the moving load is at
the same position as the deflection that we are interested in.
In view of these nondimensional parameters, the governing Eq. (1) may be
written as

@4w @2w @2w @w
þ k sin hH ðx tÞ 2 þ S2 2 ¼ k cos h þ k sin h d ðx t Þ ð4Þ
@x 4 @x @t @x
in which the nondimensional speed parameter

vp2
S¼ ð5Þ
1L
x
pffiffiffi
1 ¼ pL22
where v is the constant speed of the moving load and x EI

m is the fundamental
free vibration frequency of a simply supported beam [1].
3 Numerical Method
3.1 Discretization of Domain
The numerical method is based on the finite element method. First, we divide the
space domain X 2 ½0; 1 of the problem into a set of N equal sub-intervals
Xe ¼ ðxe ; xe þ 1 Þ, so that we can isolate a typical element Xe and construct the weak
form of Eq. (4) over the element.
In dealing with time-dependent problems, we choose the decoupled formulation
where time and spatial variations are assumed to be separable. Thus, the approxi-
mation form is
X
n
wðx; tÞ weh ðx; tÞ ¼ wej ðtÞwej ð xÞ ð6Þ
j¼1
where wej is an interpolant of wðx; tÞ through nodes j and j + 1 and wej is the
interpolation function which we adopt Hermite Cubic Interpolation functions in
here.
3.2 Weak Form
^ , and then construct the

Suppose that we seek an approximation of wð xÞ w
residual function

^
@4w ^
@2w 2@ w
2
^ @w
^Þ ¼
r ðw þ k sin hH ð x t Þ þ S k cos h þ k sin h d ðx t Þ
@x4 @x2 @t2 @x
ð7Þ
As we set w^ ¼ w, we can get r ðwÞ ¼ 0. In order to derive the element equation,

we apply the weighted-residual method by multiplying Eq. (6) with a test function
gð xÞ, and integrating over the sub-domain X ¼ ðxe ; xe þ 1 Þ. Recall the fundamental
lemma of variational calculus,
Z xe þ 1
r ðwÞgð xÞdx ¼ 0 ð8Þ
xe
Equation (8) holds for any continuous function gð xÞ, for all x in ð0; 1Þ. By
expanding Eq. (8), and exchanging differentiation form w to g by using integration
by parts for the first two terms, one obtains
Z
@2w @2g
xe þ 1
@w @g 2@ w
2
^ @w
þ k sin hH ð x t Þ þ S g k cos h þ sin h gd ð x t Þ dx
xe @x2 @x2 @x @x @t2 @x

Q ^ 2 g @g Q
^ 3 gðxe þ 1 Þ Q
^ 1 gðxe Þ Q ^ 4 g @g ¼ 0
@x @x
xe xe þ 1
ð9Þ
=@x ¼
where the secondary variables follow the sign convention (h ¼ @ w
@w=@x)
h
i h
i
^ 1 ¼ k sin hH ðx tÞ @w þ @ @ 2 w2 ;
Q ^2 ¼
Q

@2w

@x @x @x @x2
h
i xe h 2 i
xe
ð10Þ
^ @w @ @2 w ^ @ w
Q3 ¼ k sin hH ðx tÞ @x þ @x @x2 ; Q4 ¼ @x2
xe þ 1 xe þ 1
3.3 Galerkin’s Method
With sufficiently small time steps, it is now possible to obtain accurate solutions
even for those problems inseparable in time and space. However, the finite element
solution that we obtain in the end is continuous in space but not in time. The
approximation form is given by
X
n n
e
X
wðx; ts Þ ¼ wej ðts Þwej ð xÞ ¼ wsj wej ð xÞ ðs ¼ 1; 2; . . .Þ ð11Þ
j¼1 j¼1

e
where wsj is the value of wðx; tÞ at dimensionless time unit t ¼ ts and node j of
the element Xe .
By using Galerkin’s method, we substitute g ¼ wi ð xÞ and Eq. (6) into Eq. (9),
we obtain the i th algebraic equation of the system:
" #
X
n
@ 2 e
wj
kij1 þ kij2 wj þ Mij 2 Fi ¼ 0 ð12Þ
j¼1
@t
In a matrix form for each element, we have

½Kfwg þ ½Mf€
wg ¼ fFg ð13Þ
where
½K ¼ ½K 1 þ ½K 2 ð14Þ
R xe þ 1 Rx @we @we
Mij ¼ S2 wej wei dxS Kij1 ¼ xee þ 1 k sin hH ðx tÞ @xj @xi dx
x
R xee þ 1 @ 2 wej @ 2 wei Rx ð15Þ
Kij2 ¼ xe @x2 @x2 dx Fi ¼ xee þ 1 k cos hd ðx tÞwei dx þ c Qi
In order to solve the dynamic response of the inclined structure, we assemble

each of the element matrix in Eq. (13) and imposing the boundary conditions in
Eq. (2). We can now solve the initial value problem by using Newmark’s method
with a = 0.5 and b = 0.25. The spatial domain and the time step size is discretized
into 100 elements and Dt ¼ 0:001. By modifying the force vector, one can readily
handle different loading conditions.
4 Semi-analytical Method
4.1 Fourier Sine Series
In view of the boundary conditions given in Eq. (2), and in order to ensure the
smoothness of the solution to be C 2 continuity throughout the space domain
1 x 1, we shall assume the spatial part of the deflection wðx; tÞ to be
approximated by the Fourier sine series, i.e.
X
Nf
wðx; tÞ ¼ qn ðtÞ sinðnpxÞ ð16Þ
n¼1
where Nf is the total number of Fourier terms and qn ðtÞ the generalized coordinate
in time.
First, we substitute Eq. (16) into Eq. (4) and multiply both sides of equation
with sinðmpx
L Þ for m ¼ 1; 2; ; Nf . By integrating both sides of the equation with
respect to x with the integration limits x ¼ 0 to x ¼ L, we obtain
P
Nf R1
qn ðtÞðnpÞ4 0 sinðnpxÞ sinðmpxÞdx
n¼1
P
Nf R vt
k sin h qn ðtÞðnpÞ2 0 sinðnpxÞ sinðmpxÞdx
n¼1
ð17Þ
P @ 2 qn ðtÞ R 1
Nf
þ S2 @t2 0 sinðnpxÞ sinðmpxÞdx
n¼1
P
Nf
¼ k cos h sinðmpvtÞ þ k sin h qn ðtÞðnpÞ cosðnpvtÞ sinðmpvtÞ
n¼1
R1
Noting that the integral 0 sinðnpxÞ sinðmpxÞdx equals to zero when n ¼ m and
equals to 12 when n 6¼ m, Eq. (17) may be expressed in the following matrix form
S2 f€qg þ 2ð½Ke k sin h½KG Þfqg ¼ 2k cos hfEg ð18Þ
where
8 9 2 3 8 9
> q1 ðtÞ > p4 =2 0 0 > sinðptÞ >
>
> >
> 6 7 >
> >
>
< q2 ðtÞ >
> = 6 0 ð2pÞ =2 4
0 7 < sinð2ptÞ >
> =
6 7
fqg ¼ . ; ½Ke ¼ 6 . .. .. 7 ; fE g ¼ . :
>
> . >
> 6 .. 7 >
> . >
>
> . >
>
: >
;
4 .

.
4
5 >
>
:
. >
>
;
qNf ðtÞ Nf 1 0 0 Nf p =2 sinðNf ptÞ Nf 1
Nf Nf
ð19Þ
2 3 2 3
ðG1 Þ11 0 0 0 ðG2 Þ12 ðG2 Þ1Nf
6 7 6 ðG Þ ðG2 Þ2Nf 7
6 0 ðG1 Þ22 0 7 6 2 21 0 7
6 7 6 7
½KG ¼ 6 .. .. .. 7 þ 6 .. .. .. 7 ;
6 . . . 7 6 . . . 7
4 5 4 5
0 0 ð G 1 Þ Nf Nf ð G 2 Þ Nf 1 ðG2 ÞNf 2 0
Nf Nf Nf Nf
ð20Þ

ðnpÞ2 sinð2ntÞ
ðG1 Þn;n ¼ tþ ; ð21Þ
2 2np

ðnpÞðmpÞ sinððn mÞptÞ sinððn þ mÞptÞ
ðG2 Þn;m ¼ þ ð22Þ
2 ðn mÞp ðn þ mÞp
By implementing the Fourier sine series, the partial differential equation in

Eq. (4) has been reduced to a second order differential equation in Eq. (18). Thus,
we can use an adaptive fourth order Runge-Kutta method which will take care of
the time step size to solve the problem. It is worth noting that the matrix ½KG
includes the non-diagonal terms, which require iterations for solution.
Equation (18) is iterated until the L1 error norm converges to the prescribed tol-
erance value of say 10−6, i.e.
Nc
X
i1
i ¼ fqgt¼j=Nc fqgt¼j=Nc 106
i
ð23Þ
j¼0
where i indicates the iteration step and Nc is number of time collocation points. In
this study, we took the Fourier sine series up to the 5th mode which will suffice in
representing the dynamic response.
5 Comparison of the Two Methods
5.1 Dynamic Response for Beam’s Deflection and Velocity
Consider a vehicle with a constant speed passing through a single span bridge with

an inclination angle h ¼ 60 with respect to the horizontal ground. The bridge is
model as a simply-supported beam of span length L ¼ 25 m and it is subjected to a
vertical moving load which models a moving vehicle without the inertial effect. The
following properties are adopted: modulus of elasticity E ¼ 2:92 GPa, moment of
inertia I ¼ 2:88 m4, mass per unit length m ¼ 2351 kg/m, moving load P ¼ 50 kN
and the speed of the moving load v ¼ 100 km/hr. The non-dimensional quantities
are: the force parameter k ¼ 0:0037 and the speed parameter S ¼ 0:3672.
Figure 1 shows the dynamic deflection responses of the inclined beam obtained
from the two aforementioned methods. The results match perfectly but the
semi-analytical method requires significantly more computational effort (about 6
times more in computer running time). It can be seen from Fig. 2 that the dynamic
velocity responses did not match as well as the deflection responses. The velocity
response obtained from the semi-analytical method shows small oscillations due to
the inclusion of higher modes of vibration in the Fourier sine series (Fig. 3).
Fig. 2 Deflection at midspan

x ¼ 0:5
Fig. 3 Velocity at midspan x ¼ 0:5
5.2 Nonstationary Dynamic Response
Consider the moving load problem with force parameter k ¼ 1:5, speed parameter
S ¼ 0:002 and beam inclination angle h ¼ 60 . In order to see the non-stationary
dynamic response more clearly, we examine the transition of the exciting fre-
quency. Unlike moving load on a horizontal beam, the first exciting frequency of
the beam gradually becomes lower as the load moves up. Recognizing the fre-
pffiffi
quency is related to the stiffness by xn ¼ 2p1 mk , the compressive axial load com-
ponent degrades the stiffness of the beam, and this leads to a lower dominant
frequency in the dynamic system.
In the numerical method, we extract the transition of the first exciting frequency
in Fig. 4 by applying the Short-Time Fourier transform (STFT) on the midspan
velocity. Noting that there exists a tradeoff between the frequency resolution and
transition time of the signal, it is likely to capture the trend instead of the magnitude
over time.
The advantage of the semi-analytical method is that one can observe the
dynamic characteristics of the inclined beam clearly. Consider the free vibration
problem (i.e. without the forcing function in the right of Eq. (18)), the exciting
frequencies may be expressed in a matrix form
Fig. 4 First exciting frequency by numerical method

Fig. 5 First exciting

frequency by semi-analytical
method
2 2
X ¼ 2 ð½Ke k½KG Þ ð24Þ
S

By focusing on the first principal diagonal term in the matrix X2 , we can
extract the first exciting frequency of the inclined beam and it is given by
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi

p sinð2ptÞ
X1 ¼ p k sin h t þ
2 : ð25Þ
S 2p
Figure 5 shows the variation of the first exciting frequency with respect to the
moving load position according to Eq. (25). Such a closed form solution given by
Eq. (29) shows clearly the effects of the speed parameter S, force parameter k and
the angle of inclination h on the exciting frequency which would not be possible
when one uses the numerical method for solution.
6 Conclusions
By comparing the numerical method and the semi-analytical method for solving the
moving load problem on a simply supported inclined beam, results from both
methods are in good agreement. However, the numerical method is easier to handle
complicated multiple moving loads and it is more computational efficient. On the
other hand, the semi-analytical method that makes use of Fourier sine series for the
vibration mode shapes allow the analyst to obtain the exciting frequencies in a
closed form solution that reveal clearly the influences of the various parameters on
the exciting frequencies. The semi-analytical method is certainly useful to verify the
solutions of the numerical method for a simple moving load problem before using
the numerical method to solve more complex moving load problems.
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Eng 123(11):1512–1518
Advanced Analysis and Test Methods
Bayesian Modeling of Axial
Strain-Hardening Behaviour
in Railway Ballast
M. O. Adeagbo and H. F. Lam
Abstract The heterogeneity, irregularity and unbounded nature of railway ballast

particles are believed to be responsible for certain intrinsic behaviors of ballast,
among which is strain-hardening property. Hence, for ballast modeling studies
involving settlement, stress, stiffness, etc., inclusion of this phenomenon is perti-
nent. Developing models that incorporate strain-hardening from triaxial test data are
plagued by numerous parameters and inconsistencies amongst others, thus neces-
sitating an empirical approach. In this study, a best fitting axial stress-strain model
for capturing the behavior of ballast is investigated, based on vertical acceleration
data collected from impact hammer test on an indoor track panel with simulated
ballast damage. A simple beam on an elastic foundation model (BOEF) of the track,
with the ballast modeled as elastic-plastic spring series was developed. To cater for
the uncertainties and errors rife with empirical models as well as from measure-
ment, an adaptive Markov Chain Monte Carlo Bayesian Scheme was developed in
the time domain and used in calibrating the parameters of the investigated models.
Five strain hardening power laws, which are variations of the Ludwik model are
examined, and the Bayesian model selection method was utilized in determining the
most plausible calibrated model conditional on the measured vibration data.
Afterward, the applicability of the proposed methodology in effective detection of
ballast damage location and severity beneath a sleeper is demonstrated.
Keywords Strain-hardening Stress-strain model MCMC Damage detection

Railway ballast
M. O. Adeagbo H. F. Lam (&)

Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong,
Hong Kong SAR, China
M. O. Adeagbo
e-mail: moadeagbo2-c@my.cityu.edu.hk

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_102
1090 M. O. Adeagbo and H. F. Lam
1 Introduction
The majority of the world’s most efficient transportation network – railway – runs
on ballasted tracks. However, the deformation of tracks, primarily influenced by the
substructure, including the ballast layer [7], accounts for a large chunk of track
maintenance costs. Since the present technologies available to the railway industry
are inefficient in identifying damage in the ballast layer across the transverse section
of a track segment, developing a non-destructive test (NDT) methodology for
damage detection is therefore very necessary. The resilient behavior of ballast
generally depends on the loading stress path, degree of compaction, and stiffness
amongst other factors, and the permanent settlement of ballast is a function of the
maximal stress in the ballast [9]. The strain-hardening property of ballast, which
results from the complexities in the ballast compositions, lead to a non-linear
stress-strain relationship and influences the strength parameters listed above.
The usage of vibration data and structural model updating is popular in structural
health monitoring and damage detection, usually based on the identified changes in
the stiffness of structural members. However, the effectiveness of this method is
undermined by the discrepancies between the behaviors of the model and the real
structure; and so, for better structural identification and/or damage detection pur-
pose, the important mechanics of the investigated structure must be well repre-
sented [1]. Thus, a phenomenon like the strain-hardening of ballast is indispensable
in railway track models for health assessment purposes. The ballast “damage”
concept in this work may refer to the pulverization of ballast and/or mud-pumping,
which reduced the support provided to the overlying sleeper over time. Undetected
ballast damage or insufficient track remedial practices will lead to uneven track
support, increase the chance of fault developments in other track elements, pas-
sengers’ discomfort, and vehicle derailment, amongst other problems [2]. In this
study, only the vertical settlement of the ballast is considered, as it accounts for
majority of track geometry deteriorations.
The uncertainties from the modeling errors, as well as measured data, are
explicitly addressed from a Bayesian probabilistic viewpoint. For identifying the
system model parameters and quantifying their uncertainties, the proposed
methodology estimates the marginal posterior probability density function (PDF) of
various model parameters using the time domain variation of the adaptive Markov
Chain Monte Carlo Bayesian Scheme, based on the vibration response data from an
Impact hammer test. Time-domain responses were utilized to remove the limitations
associated with modal parameters in non-linear problems. The Bayesian model
class selection tool was employed to select the choicest model from amongst the
five variations of the Ludwik model used in modeling the non-linear ballast springs.
Bayesian Modeling of Axial Strain-Hardening Behaviour … 1091
2 Methodology
2.1 Rail-Sleeper-Ballast System Model
In this study, the section of the ballasted railway track across a single sleeper is
considered. The track section is modelled as a Timoshenko beam on series of
non-linear springs, following the beam on elastic foundation theory (BOEF). The
rail and fastening system are considered as mass-spring elements sitting atop the
beam. 48 elements of the concrete sleeper (with nodes having 2 DOFs each) was
considered in the finite element formulation, with the mass matrix of each element
formulated using the consistent mass matrix, while the stiffness matrix of the track
system follows the common BOEF methods in the literature. The damping matrices
are constructed using the superposition of modal damping matrices method.
The stress-strain behavior of granular materials, according to Suiker and De
Borst [6], is believed to move from being fully elastic to progressive plastic
deformations under increasing stress. Indraratna et al. [3], as well as other
researchers, have demonstrated the conformation of the hardening soil model with
test results from the large-scale triaxial tests. In most works considering
non-linearity of ballast, models from triaxial tests are used (e.g., Sun et al. [7]),
often involving large number of parameters. Also, test conditions vary between
studies and are difficult to replicate on the field, resulting in inconsistent settlement
predictions. Thus, to model the general uniaxial strain-hardening behavior of the
non-linear ballast springs empirically, the Ludiwk power law [5] is re-produced in
five different forms as in Table 1 below. The incorporation of a certain pre-strain
value e0 differentiates the Swift model [8] and its modification from the other
considered models. While the pre-strain only affects the plastic region for the Swift
model, in the modified Swift model, the total strain is taken as ðe þ e0 Þ at all points.
For all considered models, only the expressions for the stress in the non-linear
plastic region are presented in Table 1. The stress in the linear region,
r ¼ Ee for e eY .
Table 1 Non-linear models S/N Models Stress, r Parameters

considered in this study
1 Ludwik r ¼ rY þ K ðe eY Þ n
eY ; n; K
n
2 Modified r ¼ rY eeY eY ; n
Ludwik
n
3 Adaptive r ¼ rY 1 þ ee Y eY ; n
eY
Ludwik
n
4 Swift r ¼ rY eeY þ e0 eY ; e0 ; n
e0
n
5 Modified r ¼ rY e þ e0 eY ; e0 ; n
eY
Swift
The parameters used in defining the models are: the elastic modulus E, the yield
strain eY , the yield stress rY , the hardening strength K, the pre-strain e0 , the total
axial strain e, the total axial stress r, and the strain-hardening exponent n.
The time-domain responses of the system are computed by employing an iter-
ative procedure using the constant average acceleration Newmark b technique,
which is stable for any time step Dt. The non-linear time-integration technique is
integrated into a self-developed MATLAB® finite element analysis tool.
2.2 MCMC-Based Bayesian Model Updating and Model

Class Selection
To calibrate the developed track structural model using experimental data for better
system response predictions, the adaptive MCMC-based Bayesian model updating
algorithm developed in Lam et al. [4] is extended to allow usage of time-domain
information instead of modal-domain ones. Owing to space limitation, only the
most essential formulations are presented herein. The goal is to minimize the dis-
crepancies between the model-predicted responses €zðn; hÞ and the measured
responses b€z ðnÞ at the nth time step, as represented by the goodness-of-fit function,
J ðhÞ.
No 2
1 X b
J ð hÞ ¼ €z i ðnÞ €zi ðn; hÞ ð1Þ
No Nt i¼1
In Eq. (1), h is the uncertain model parameters vector, Nt is the number of time
steps, No is the number of observed system degree of freedoms (DOFs), while kk
is the standard Euclidean 2-norm. Minimizing the J ðhÞ function is synonymous to
maximizing the posterior PDF of the uncertain model parameters h conditional on
the set of measurement D. The posterior PDF is constructed to have a Gaussian
form according to the Bayes’ theorem as:

Nt No
pðhjD; MÞ ¼ c exp 2 J ðhÞ ð2Þ
2d
where c is the normalizing constant combining the evidence as well as the Gaussian
constant terms and d2 is the variance of the prediction error. The sampling method
utilized in this paper was developed following the simulated annealing method,
such that the sampling process is divided into several levels, using a target PDF in
each level to connect the initial prior PDF and the posterior PDF. The importance
region of this target PDF is methodically reduced by a defined geometric ratio from
one level to the other until the target PDF can approximate to the posterior PDF at
the final level.
For selecting the most plausible model class Mm in the set of chosen model
classes M, the Bayesian method of using the evidence value of model classes is
adopted. To curb problems arising from numerical overflow, the logarithm of the
evidence is expressed through MCMC approximation as:
X
Nss X
Nss !
1 pðhm jD; Mm Þ
lnðpðDjMm ÞÞ lnðpðDjhm ; Mm ÞÞ ln ð3Þ
Nss l¼1 l¼1
pðhm jMm Þ
3 Experimental Analysis and Results
Impact hammer test was carried out on a full-scale indoor test track section under
laboratory conditions, as shown in Fig. 1(a). The ballasted track section consists of
two UIC60 rails of 60 kg/m mass per unit length on F40 mono-block prestressed
concrete sleepers at 700 mm c/c spacing, with the ballast being 350 mm in thick-
ness. Rail pads of nominal stiffness of 100MN/m are installed at the rail seats.
Ballast damage was artificially simulated under the right-end and middle of a
sleeper (2/3 of the sleeper length) by replacing the normal-sized ballast (*60 mm)
with small-sized ballast (*15 mm) as in Fig. 1(b); thus, three ballast regions are
considered in the structural model. The labor-intensiveness of the ballasting oper-
ation may lead to regions with different compaction levels. The nominal values of
the sleeper’s elastic modulus, ballast stiffness, ballast hardening strength, the
strain-hardening exponent, ballast yield strain, track system damping ratio, concrete
sleeper density, concrete Poisson’s ratio, ballast pre-strain are 38.45 GN/m2,
150 MN/m2, 70 kN/m2, 0.3, 1 10−4, 18%, 2750 kg/m3, 0.25 and 1 10−4
respectively. The vibration responses of the sleeper were obtained using 13 uniaxial
accelerometers assembled on the top surface of the sleeper along the centerline,
from right to left. The sleeper is excited at the right end with an impact force of
about 1.2 kN.
Using each of the five strain-hardening models, model updating was carried out
on the described track system model, considering each model with uncertain
parameters scaling vector defined as h ¼ fhM ; hc ; hMr ; hMl ; hKr ; hKl ; hKB1 ; hKB2 ;
hKB3 g; where hc ; hMr ; hMl ; hKr and hKl are the scaling factors for the track system’s
damping ratio, right and left rail mass, and right and left effective rail stiffness
respectively, while hKB1 ; hKB2 and hKB3 represents the ballast stiffness scaling fac-
tors for the three ballast regions, from right to left. hM is the vector of scaling factors
for the ballast model parameters in each case, as presented in Table 1.
The results of the Bayesian model class selection for the 5 models considered is
presented in Table 2. As the model with the highest log-evidence value of 1.6971
103, the Swift model is selected as the most probable model to model the ballast
spring. It is noteworthy to state that the selected model is the same as the modified
Ludwik’s model except that a pre-strain is involved.
(a) (b)
Fig. 1 a The indoor full-scale test panel showing sensor arrangements (OP1-13) b Simulated
ballast damage at sleeper’s mid-section
Using the final MCMC samples for all model classes, Bayesian model updating
was carried out on the model classes. The marginal posterior PDFs for all model
parameters are constructed using MCMC approximation, and Gaussian PDFs were
fitted to the distributions to estimate the most probable values (MPVs) as well as the
associated uncertainties in terms of COV%. An example of the marginal posterior
PDFs showing the spread of values (uncertainty) for the yield strain scaling factor is
presented in Fig. 2, where the mean values are taken as the MPVs. Owing to space
limitation, only the results of model updating for the yield strains and regional
ballast stiffness factors in each considered model class are presented in Table 2.
It is conspicuous that the uncertainty of the yield strain scaling factor in the
Adaptive Ludwik model is higher than for the other models. This explains the
differences in the J ðh Þ calculated for the investigated model classes. The MPV of
heY for the modified Swift model also incorporates the pre-strain, hence the higher
value. The results of model updating show that the MPVs for the stiffness of the
ballast in the three regions accurately portray the simulated damage scenario
regardless of the strain-hardening model utilized. The stiffnesses of the middle and
right ballast regions have very similar factors (with damaged ballasts), which are
lower compared to the left region stiffness factor (with good ballasts) in all con-
sidered models; thus, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed methodology
in ballast damage detection.
After updating the classes of model using the calibrated parameter factors, the
model predicted vibration responses at the measured DOFs were re-calculated and
compared with the measured data. In Fig. 3, the responses from both the calibrated
model and experimental test are plotted at two sensor locations (OP1 and OP3), and
only small discrepancies were observed, buttressing the accuracy of the method-
ology employed.
Table 2 Results of MCMC-based Bayesian model updating and model class selection
Parameter Ludwik Modified Ludwik Adaptive Ludwik Swift Modified swift
factors MPV CoV % MPV CoV % MPV CoV % MPV CoV % MPV CoV %
heY 2.2455 2.3626 2.2593 1.6683 4.4763 20.2468 2.2142 3.0618 4.0128 3.3194
hKB1 0.2826 1.9660 0.2825 1.3249 0.2622 0.8445 0.2876 2.1058 0.2908 0.8117
hKB2 0.3335 6.8126 0.3265 2.9082 0.3424 2.2922 0.3133 9.2075 0.3127 2.6133
hKB3 0.7615 4.9490 0.7446 2.7503 0.7249 2.7467 0.7781 6.5187 0.7906 2.4317
J ðh Þ 0.0103 0.0103 0.0106 0.0103 0.0103
Log-evidence 1695.60 1695.85 1675.89 1697.10 1692.40
Fig. 2 Marginal Posterior PDF for the yield strain factor, heY
The significance of the model so selected is demonstrated in the stress-strain

plots of the ballast under sleeper element 1 (at the right end) using all five models.
Interestingly, in Fig. 4(a), the peak stress and irrecoverable plastic strain for a
chosen system element turn out to vary from one ballast model to the other,
Fig. 3 Model predicted and measured time domain responses at OP1 and OP3
although the Ludwik, modified Ludwik and Swift models have very similar
behavior. Also, it is observed that the only distinguishing property between the
modified Swift’s model and the three models is in the location of the yield strain.
Hence, the modified Swift curve is exactly a replica of the Ludwik, modified
Ludwik, and Swift curves with the positive strain axis moved by the pre-strain
1.8221 10−4, and the stress axis moved by the pre-stress 1.8221 10−4 kN/m2.
Since the peak stress and stress evolution plays an important role in permanent
ballast settlement, necessary cautions must be taken in selecting suitable empirical
stress-strain model for reliable long-term track monitoring studies.
In Fig. 4(b), the stress-strain curves of the ballast under elements 1, 24, and 48 of
the sleeper, which are representatives of the sleeper elements within the right,
middle, and left ballast regions, are presented for the selected model. It can be
observed that the curve of element 48 in the good ballast region has the highest
modulus compared to element 24 in the damaged region, whose modulus is a bit
higher than that of element 1 in the damaged and less-compacted ballast region.
More so, the stress-strain plots indicate that only element 1, which is near the
excitation point, experiences non-linearity; thus, affirming that the non-linearity
effects decline with the amplitude of vibration as well as the distance between the
observation and excitation points.
(a)
(b)
Fig. 4 a Stress-strain plots for the ballast under element 1 using all model classes b Stress-strain
plot for the selected model at elements 1, 24 and 48 corresponding to different regions
4 Conclusions
Axial strain-hardening of the ballast layer in ballasted tracks was investigated using
five plastic power-law models, for better representation of the track section as a
beam on elastic foundation. For model updating purposes, an adaptive
MCMC-based scheme was utilized to tackle the uncertainties involved, while the
Bayesian model class selection was used to select the most appropriate
strain-hardening model conditional on measured system acceleration data set from
an Impact hammer test. The proposed methodology was then demonstrated to be
applicable in identifying the location and severity of simulated ballast damage in an
indoor track panel, with high accuracy. The Bayesian model class selection was
also used to select the Swift model as the most plausible non-linear model (con-
ditional on the set of measured data) to represent the dynamics of the ballast. Even
though the predicted time-domain responses at all observed DOFs are almost equal
using the various models, the effects in terms of stress and strain are quite different.
The influence of the relative size of ballast particles, as well as the degree of
compaction on the effective stiffness of the ballast layer, was also showcased and
proved to be credible criteria for assessing the health of railway ballast. More
investigations are however needed to buttress the findings from this work.
Acknowledgements The work described in this paper was supported by a grant from the
Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project
No. CityU 11242716 (GRF 9042336)).
References
1. Adeagbo MO, Lam HF (2018) A feasibility study on damage detection of nonlinear railway
ballast by measured vibration of in-situ sleeper. In: proceedings of 25th Australasian
conference on mechanics of structures and materials, Brisbane, Australia
2. Esveld C (2001) Modern railway track. MRT-Productions Press, The Netherlands
3. Indraratna B, Salim W, Rujikiatkamjorn C (2011) Advanced rail geotechnology-ballasted
track. CRC
4. Lam HF, Yang JH, Au SK (2015) Bayesian model updating of a coupled-slab system using
field test data utilizing an enhanced Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation algorithm. Eng
Struct 102:144–155
5. Ludwik P (1909) Elemente der technologischen mechanik, vol 32. Julius Springer, Berlin
6. Suiker A, De Borst R (2003) A numerical model for the cyclic deterioration of railway tracks.
Int J Numer Methods Eng 57:441–470
7. Sun Q, Indraratna B, Nimbalkar S (2016) An elasto-plastic method for analysing the
deformation of the railway ballast. Proc Eng 143:954–960 Advances in Transportation
Geotechnics 3
8. Swift HW (1952) Plastic instability under plane stress. J Mech Phys Solids 1(1):1–18
9. Wang H, Markine V (2018) Modelling of the long-term behaviour of transition zones:
Prediction of track settlement. Eng Struct 156:294–304
Bayesian Learning and Model Class
Selection for Complex Dynamic Systems
J. H. Yang and H. F. Lam
Abstract A huge amount of data is available almost every second nowadays due to
fast development of technology. This provides a perfect opportunity to improve
mathematical modeling using measured data for understanding and predicting
behaviors of dynamic systems, but at the same time it also poses a challenge on
how to effectively and efficiently extract information from a large amount of data,
because it means that a large computational power is required. This paper addresses
the problem of identifying mathematical models of large-scale complex dynamic
systems in civil engineering based on measured data. This problem is especially
challenging in practice because identifying a mathematical model in
high-dimensional parameter space is time-consuming (sometimes the model is
unidentifiable), and the information contained in data is always incomplete and
there are uncertainties. The identification problem is formulated as a Bayesian
learning problem where the plausible models and the associated uncertainties are
learned by identifying the posterior PDF of the model of a dynamic system.
Bayesian model class selection is also discussed, i.e., how to select an appropriate
model class that is not too simple and not too complicated based on the same set of
data. Because conventional methods are not applicable in the current case, an
efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo method is proposed to sample from the pos-
terior PDF in a complex high-dimensional parameter space. The proposed Bayesian
method is applied on a full-scale building.

Keywords Bayesian learning Bayesian model class selection Markov chain

Monte Carlo Uncertainty quantification
J. H. Yang (&)
Department of Disaster Mitigation for Structures, College of Civil Engineering,
Tongji University, Shanghai, China
e-mail: javayang@tongji.edu.cn
H. F. Lam
Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong,
Hong Kong, China

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_103
1100 J. H. Yang and H. F. Lam
1 Introduction
A huge amount of data is available almost every second nowadays due to fast
development of technology. In civil engineering, buildings, bridges and tunnels are
heavily instrumented to collect valuable data in operational conditions. It is
important to process these data to gain knowledge, but it is at the same time a
challenging task, considering the large size and complexity of the data in civil
engineering. Development of theories and algorithms for processing the data will
help effectively extract information from the seemingly random data and improve
mathematical modeling of complicated structural dynamic systems. Bayesian
methods are powerful to analyze the data, because they can rigorously extract
information from data and quantify associated uncertainties that are consistent with
modeling assumptions. Bayesian methods are known to be computationally
expensive, but successfully solving the computational problem gives the premise of
rigorously processing data. A Bayesian framework [1, 3] has been developed to
provide the theory for Bayesian system identification and data analysis. In this
framework, system identification is viewed as a Bayesian inference problem. The
parameters of a mathematical model are treated as stochastic variables. Given data
and modeling assumptions, the posterior probability density function (PDF) of these
uncertain parameters will be identified. Instead of pinpointing one single model, the
relative plausibility of multiple models in the parameter space is provided and the
associated uncertainties can be quantified. When data is continuously available,
which is usually the case in civil engineering nowadays, the mathematical model of
a structural dynamic system can be continuously updated by continuously updating
the posterior PDF, so valuable information can be provided by the huge amount of
data. Depending on how mathematical modeling is done, data processing for sys-
tem identification in civil engineering usually has two categories: (1) modeling is
done for data directly (modal analysis) [10] and (2) modeling is done for structural
dynamic systems (model updating) [9]. The common problem of the two categories
is that the posterior PDF of uncertain parameters is to be identified.
However, identifying a probability distribution of uncertain parameters follow-
ing the Bayesian framework is computationally demanding, and even prohibitive
for a full-scale structure if the computation is not properly handled, because the
posterior PDF to be identified for a full-scale structure is extremely complicated.
Efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms have been developed to
tackle the computational problem [2, 5–7, 9, 11]. Samples of uncertain parameters
are efficiently drawn in the important regions (regions with high probability) of the
parameter space to approximate the complicated posterior PDF.
Another problem when using Bayesian methods to learn mathematical models
from data is how to choose a good model class. One usually tends to select com-
plicated model classes over simple ones, partly because a complicated model class
is more powerful than a simple one and the predicted responses of a complicated
model class may fit data better than a simple one. When one does this, the purpose
is to fit data as well as possible, so the most complicated model class will always be
Bayesian Learning and Model Class Selection ... 1101
chosen. However, given the amount of data, the information in the data might not
be enough to identify a very complicated model and the problem may become
unidentifiable. On the contrary, if the model class is too simple, the behaviors of a
system cannot be well captured. Following the Bayesian framework, evidences of
different model classes are calculated, so that different model classes can be
compared and the model class with the largest evidence is selected. This is Bayesian
model class selection problem [4].
2 The Framework of Bayesian Learning
2.1 Posterior PDF
Given measured data D and a model class M, the Bayesian learning problem is to
identify the posterior PDF of uncertain parameters x:
pðxÞpðDjx; M Þ
pðxjD; M Þ ¼ ð1Þ
pðDjM Þ
where pðxjD; M Þ is the posterior PDF of x conditional on D and M; pðxÞ is the prior
PDF that describes the initial knowledge on the model; pðDjx; M Þ is the likelihood
function that gives the probability of getting data given a model; and pðDjM Þ is a
normalizing constant and is also called the evidence of a model class. To let the
inference fully rely on data, a uniform PDF is chosen for the prior PDF, so the
posterior PDF is proportional to the likelihood function. If data consist of natural

frequencies and mode shapes, D ¼ ^fm ; u ^ m : m ¼ 1; 2; . . .; Nm , where ^fm and u
^m
are the measured natural frequency and mode shape of the m-th mode, respectively;
Nm is the number of modes. The likelihood function is formulated by using a
probabilistic model for the fractional prediction errors of natural frequencies and
mode shapes. The posterior PDF can then be written as [5, 9]:

1
pðxjD; M Þ ¼ cexp 2 J ðxÞ ð2Þ
2r
where c is a normalizing constant; r2 is the variance of the prediction error; J ðxÞ is

0 !2 1
X
Nm ^ T 2
J ð xÞ ¼ @ f m f m ð xÞ þ 1 u
^ m u m ð xÞ A ð3Þ
^fm
m¼1
2.2 Sampling Algorithm
The posterior PDF is usually complicated and cannot be obtained in close form,
especially when full-scale structures are considered. A MCMC algorithm is used to
sample according to the posterior PDF and the samples are used to approximate the
posterior PDF. The algorithm is a multi-level MCMC algorithm. It is briefly
introduced here, and more information can be found in Yang and Lam [9] and Lam
et al. [5]. The idea is that in each level g, samples are generated using the
Metropolis-Hastings (MH) algorithm, with the target PDF pg constructed by the
form of the posterior PDF:
!
1
pg ¼ cg exp 2 J ðxÞ ð4Þ
2rg
Note that r2g controls the size of the support of pg . r2g is constructed in such a
way that r21 [ r22 [ . . . [ r2g [ . . .r2Ng , so that samples can move smoothly from a
large parameter space at the beginning to the important regions (i.e., regions with
high probability) at the end. The proposal PDF of the MH algorithm is constructed
adaptively as a weighted sum of Gaussian PDFs, with each of them centered at one
sample of the previous level. The procedures of the MCMC algorithm is summa-
rized as follows.
(1) Set up the target PDF pg at the current level g.
(2) Constructed the proposal PDF qg at level g based on the samples at the previous
level g 1:
X
Ns
qg ¼ whg1 N xhg1 ; Cg1 ð5Þ
h¼1
where Ns is the number of samples in each level; whg1 is the weight of the h-th

sample at level g 1, xhg1 ; N xhg1 ; Cg1 is a Gaussian PDF with mean at the
h-th sample at level g 1 and covariance matrix Cg1 .
(3) Generated Ns samples for level g using the MH algorithm.
(4) Repeat steps (1)–(3) until the final level Ng is reached.
2.3 Bayesian Model Class Selection
Given the same set of data, an important question to ask in practice is how to
choose an appropriate model class. If a model class is too simple, it cannot fit data
and capture a dynamic system’s behaviors. If a model class is too complicated, it
will try to fit the noise is data, and the information in data may not enough to
identify the model. The Bayesian framework provides a rigorous way to compare
different model classes by considering uncertainties. According to Bayes’ theorem,
the probability of one model class Mj conditional on data among Nj competing
model classes is given by

p DjMj P Mj

P Mj D ¼ ð6Þ
pðDÞ

where p DjMj is the probability of getting data based on the whole model class Mj ,

and it is the evidence of Mj ; P Mj is the prior probability of Mj , which can be set to

be the same for different competing model classes; pðDÞ is a normalizing constant.
To select the best model class among a set of competing model classes is thus to
select the model class with the largest evidence. The evidence of a model class is
expressed based on Eq. (1) using the total probability theorem:
Z

p DjMj ¼ pðxÞp Djx; Mj dx ð7Þ

H
Equation (7) is a high-dimensional integral which is usually prohibitive to

integrate analytically or numerically in practice. By using the proposed MCMC
algorithm, Eq. (7) can be approximated efficiently using the generated samples [8].
3 Case Study on a Full-Scale Building
A full-scale building was used to demonstrate the Bayesian learning and model
class selection. Figure 1 shows the target building. This building has 22 stories and
the height is about 97.00 m. The floor measures about 55.00 m length 38.84 m
width. Sensors were instrumented at each floor in the three stairs of the building to
measured accelerations. Sensors were also placed on the 19-th floor, so that mode
shapes of the three stairs could be assembled. Only six tri-axial sensors were
available, so multiple setups were conducted to cover different locations of the
building.
For Bayesian updating, the 17-story three-dimensional shear building model was
used to model the dynamics of the structural system. Three degrees of freedom
(DOFs) were considered for each floor, i.e., x-direction DOF, y-direction DOF and
a torsional DOF, which corresponds to x-direction, y-direction and torsional stiff-
ness at each floor. The uncertain parameters to be learned by the Bayesian method
were the three stiffness parameters at each floor. The nominal values of these
stiffness parameters were estimated from the drawing of the building. Moreover, the
measured mode shapes of the three stairs were processed to provide the mode
Fig. 1 The full-scale

building
shapes corresponding to the three DOFs at each floor of the shear building model,
i.e., the x- and y- direction displacements and rotational angles.
Bayesian updating was conducted for this three-dimensional shear building.
Four model classes were considered. In model class 1, two uncertain parameters
were used to scale the x- and y-direction stiffness of all the floors, respectively. In
model class 2, two uncertain parameters were used to scale the x-direction and
torsional stiffness of all the floors, respectively. In model class 3, two uncertain
parameters were used to scale the y-direction and torsional stiffness of all the floors,
respectively. In model class 4, three uncertain parameters were used to scale the
x-direction, y-direction and torsional stiffness of all the floors respectively.
By applying the Bayesian framework and the proposed MCMC algorithm, the
evidences of the four model classes were calculated and summarized in Table 1.
Note that natural logarithm was taken on the evidences to avoid the numerical
overflow problem. The explanations in the parentheses remind how the model
classes are set up. It is observed that for the two-parameter model classes (model
classes 1, 2 and 3), the evidence of model class 1 is larger than the other two. It
means that model class 1 can capture the system dynamics better than the other two.
Allowing acceptable numerical errors, model classes 2 and 3 almost have the same
evidence. It makes sense because these two model classes have the common
Table 1 The evidences of Model class No. Log-evidence

the model classes
1 (x- and y- direction stiffness) −15.6726
2 (x- and torsional direction stiffness) −16.3656
3 (y- and torsional direction stiffness) −16.3639
4 (x-, y- and torsional direction stiffness) −15.0624
(a) (b)
Fig. 2 Comparison of the measured and calculated mode shapes: (a) mode 1; (b) mode 2
characteristics, i.e., one uncertain parameter is assigned for the translational stiff-
ness and the other is assigned for the torsional stiffness. The more complicated
model class 4 (with three uncertain parameters) has the largest evidence, indicating
that this is the best model class among the four competing model classes. It means
that we need a model class that is complicated enough to capture dynamics along
x-, y- and torsional directions.
For illustration purpose, Fig. 2 compares calculated mode shapes from model
class 4 with the measured ones. The red dash lines correspond to the calculated
mode shapes, blue solid lines correspond to measured mode shapes and black dash
lines correspond to the undeformed shape. It can be seen that the matching is good.
4 Conclusions
This paper develops the framework and algorithm for Bayesian learning and model
class selection. The proposed MCMC algorithm makes it efficient to identify the
posterior PDF and calculate model evidences that involve high-dimensional inte-
grals. The proposed method is particularly suitable for tackling complex dynamic
systems in practice. A full-scale building was used to demonstrate the proposed
method. In the future, more detailed theoretical investigation will be conducted to
improve the efficiency of the MCMC algorithm. Bayesian mode class selection will
also be studied in more detail.
Acknowledgements The first author is funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China
(Grant No. 51808400), China, Shanghai Sailing Program (Grant No. 18YF1424500), Shanghai,
China, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant
No. 22120180007), China. The second author is funded by a grant from the Research Grants
Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China [Project No. 9042509 (CityU
11210517)]. The authors are grateful for the generous support. The contributions of Dr. Stephen
Alabi, Dr. Jun Hu, Dr. Qin Hu, Dr. Yan-Chun Ni, Dr. Hua-Yi Peng and Dr. Feng-Liang Zhang to
the field test are greatly appreciated.
References
1. Beck JL (2010) Bayesian system identification based on probability logic. Struct Control
Health Monit 17(7):825–847
2. Beck JL, Au SK (2002) Bayesian updating of structural models and reliability using Markov
chain Monte Carlo simulation. J Eng Mech 128(4):380–391
3. Beck JL, Katafygiotis LS (1998) Updating models and their uncertainties. I: Bayesian
statistical framework. J Eng Mech 124(4):455–461
4. Beck JL, Yuen KV (2004) Model selection using response measurements: Bayesian
probabilistic approach. J Eng Mech 130(2):192–203
5. Lam HF, Yang JH, Au SK (2015) Bayesian model updating of a coupled-slab system using
field test data utilizing an enhanced Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation algorithm. Eng
Struct 102:144–155
6. Lam HF, Yang JH, Au SK (2018) Markov chain Monte Carlo-based Bayesian method for
structural model updating and damage detection. Struct Control Health Monit 25(4):e2140
7. Lam HF, Yang JH, Beck JL (2019) Bayesian operational modal analysis and assessment of a
full-scale coupled structural system using the Bayes-Mode-ID method. Eng Struct 186:183–
202
8. Yang JH (2015) Development of Bayesian structural damage detection methodologies
utilizing advanced Monte Carlo simulation. Ph.D. Thesis, City University of Hong Kong
9. Yang JH, Lam HF (2018) An efficient adaptive sequential Monte Carlo method for Bayesian
model updating and damage detection. Struct Control Health Monit 25(12):e2260
10. Yang JH, Lam HF (2019) An innovative Bayesian system identification method using
autoregressive model. Mech Syst Signal Process 133:106289
11. Yang JH, Lam HF, Beck JL (2019) Bayes-mode-ID: a Bayesian modal-component-sampling
method for operational modal analysis. Eng Struct 189:222–240
Reliability Analysis of Reinforced
Concrete Beam Under Differential
Settlement
S. A. Alabi, J. O. Afolayan, and C. Arum
Abstract This paper presents the probabilistic description of the progressive

failure of reinforced concrete (RC) beam under the differential settlement. The
method is based on the combination of the finite element structural model and the
first-order reliability method (FORM). Uncertainties associated with the structural
model are taken into account. A 4-storey framed building with a uniform storey
height of 3 m each is chosen for the study. The frame has four bays of 3 m each on
both shorter and longer sides. The results obtained from the deterministic analysis
of the model under imposed differential settlement which varied from 25 to
150 mm were used to carry out a reliability analysis of the beam. The beam
members on the first floor were found to be more prone to progressive failure as the
reliability indexes (b) for the members at that level are lower when compared to
beams on other floor levels. At 25 to 75 mm settlement, the vulnerability of the
beams to progressive failure was lower as the reliability indexes (b) of the beams
are found to be higher than the target reliability value. However, from 100 mm
settlement and above the structure exhibits low potential resistance to progressive
failure with very low-reliability indexes. The rigidity of the structure helps in
combating progressive failure under the differential settlement.
Keywords Progressive failure Demand-capacity-ratio Differential settlement

FORM Reliability index
1 Introduction
The general principle of design is that every structure must satisfy the requirements
of safety and serviceability for its intended use throughout its service life. However,
in reality, every structure has a probability of failure spite every safety method and
S. A. Alabi (&) J. O. Afolayan C. Arum

Department of Civil Engineering, Federal University of Technology, P.M.B 704, Akure,
Nigeria
e-mail: saalabi@futa.edu.ng

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_104
1110 S. A. Alabi et al.
factors considered or implemented during the design and construction of such a

structure. Moreover, deterioration of structural strength and stiffness occurs with
time in many civil infrastructural facilities as a result of their exposure to severe
operating or environmental conditions during their service life. Failure is an
unacceptable difference between the expected and observed performance. Failure in
buildings could be of two types, namely: Cosmetic failure that occurs when
something has been added to or subtracted from the building, thus affecting the
outlook of a structure. On the other hand, structural failure affects both the outlook
and structural stability of the building (Ayininuola and Olalusi [7]).
In Nigeria, building failures have been attributed to the following causes: design
faults (50%), faults on construction sites (40%), and product failure (10%) [10] as
cited by (Olagunju et al. [11]). In another investigation, Akinpelu [6] categorized
the following as major causes of structural failures: environmental changes, natural
and man-made hazards, improper presentation, interpretation in the design, and
differential settlement. The fact that failure of a structural member causes the failure
of adjoining members calls for the need to study the progressive failure of a
structure [15, 16] (Ioani and Cucu [2]) to know the amount of failure that is
tolerable and those that have to be taken care of to prevent total failure of the
structure.
The assessment of a building during construction has become a more frequent
task for engineers both now and in the future due to the increasing risk of failure
during and after construction. The use of reliability theory and probability concepts
is well established as a basis for defining criteria for the safety of a building
construction against collapse [12]. According to Afolayan [5], the use of proba-
bilistic concepts may not answer all issues of unknowns but it has played a very
remarkable role in the integrity assessment of many engineering systems. It is
conventional in structural design to seek to achieve a low probability of getting an
action value higher than the resistance of a proposed structural element. However,
natural phenomena support the existence of inherent variability in most of the
design quantities. Consequently, the expected level of probability of failure
becomes a debatable issue, which should be handled rationally [14]. Since struc-
tural safety must recognize the financial burden involved in project execution and
general utility, the derived factors of safety are improved to balance conflicting
aims of safety and economy [3, 4].
The overall aim of structural reliability analysis is to quantify the reliability of
structures under consideration of the uncertainties associated with the resistances
and loads [8]. In this paper, First-Order Reliability Form (FORM) was extended to
the assessment of reinforced concrete beam under differential settlement based on
the Alternative Load Path Method (ALPM). The positive results in the case study
clearly show the practical value of the proposed method and its potential in integrity
assessment of building under the non-uniform settlement.
Reliability Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Beam … 1111
2 Progressive Failure Analysis-Based Reliability Method
2.1 Progressive Failure Analysis
A hypothetical 4-storey reinforced concrete framed building with a uniform storey

height of 3 m each is chosen for this study. The building has four bays of 3 m each
on both shorter and longer sides. The live load chosen is 2.5 kN/m2 being a live
load of Office for General Use. Figure 1 shows the elevation of the building frame.
Based on the beam element’s cross-sections, there are three typical 4-storey
building frame models with the same form and orientation. They include:
Type I: Frame with 225 450 mm beam section;
Type II: Frame with 225 500 mm beam section;
Type III: Frame with 225 550 mm beam section; and
Type IV: Frame with 225 600 mm beam section.
For all the frame types, 225 mm square columns were used. The frames were
analyzed under the combination of normal loads (gravity & wind loads) and chosen
differential settlements which range between 25 and 150 mm. The following load
cases were employed in the structural analysis using STAAD.pro software for
determining the induced bending moments and stresses on members were based on
the alternative load path method. The procedures of the alternative load path
method are briefly summarized in the flowchart in Fig. 3.
The choice of the columns’ bases on which settlement was initiated was based
on the United States General Service Administration (GSA) guideline [9] for the
analysis of progressive collapse potential with slight modification. The guideline for
progressive collapse analysis utilized total removal of some columns on the first
floor of the building, the column removed were selected near the middle of the short
and long sides of the building and at the building corners.
The GSA [9] criterion for determining failed structural members in a progressive
collapse analysis which is based on DCR of the member was adopted in deter-
mining failed beams and columns under the assumed settlement as follows:
QUD
DCR ¼ 2:0 ð1Þ
QCE
where QUD is the acting force determined in the component (i.e., STAAD.pro
results); and QCE is the expected ultimate, un-factored capacity of the component.
Being that concrete is not a homogenous material, QCE is factored by applying a
partial safety factor of 1.5 to the characteristic strength of concrete to account for
any irregularity in the concrete elements. Generally, beams are used for resisting
bending moments. To obtain the moment of resistance of the beam, assuming the
concrete section fails in compression, the factored ultimate moment of resistance is:
Fig. 1 3-D structural frame

model of all frame types
Fig. 2 Plan view of the structure showing beams on 1st floor and columns
Mu ¼ 0:45fcu bd 2 ð2Þ
where Mu is the factored ultimate resistance of beam element; fcu is 25 N/mm2

which is the characteristic compressive strength of concrete; b is the width of the
beam section; d is the effective depth of the beam.
2.2 Development of Performance Function for Reliability

Analysis
The reliability of the structural member can be determined when the probability
level exceeds a certain value in an operational loading case. Consider a structure
with resistance, Q, subjected to a single load, L, if both Q and L are statistically
independent normally distributed random variable, then the limit state function or
safety margin, G, can be expressed as in Eq. (3)
GðhÞ ¼ Q L\0 ð3Þ
where h= h1, h2, … hN denote N basic random variables and G(h) denotes a function
of all design variables. In general, the function G(h) can take any form provided that
the structure are defined when G 0 and the survival of the structure is defined
when G > 0. Thus, the probability of failure Pf can be determined as
Z
Pf ¼ PfGðhÞ\0g ¼ fh ðhÞdh ð4Þ
GðhÞ\0
The probability of failure in terms of the reliability index can be written as
Pf ¼ UðbÞ ¼ 1 UðbÞ ð5Þ
or

b ¼ U1 Pf ð6Þ
The functional relationship between the demand-capacity ratio and acting force
determined in component or connection/joint (moment, axial force, shear, and
possible combined forces)-expected ultimate, unfactored capacity of the component
and/or connection/joint (moment, axial force, shear, and possible combined forces)
ratio can be expressed in terms of the safety margin as given in Eq. (7)
Mmax
G ð hÞ ¼ 2 0 ð7Þ
Mc
Mmax
GðhÞ ¼ 2 0 where h ¼ fMmax ; fcu ; b; d g ð8Þ
Mc
The probability of failure given in Eq. (3) becomes

Mmax
pf ðGðh ¼fMmax ; fcu ; b; d gÞ 0Þ ¼ P 2 0 ð9Þ
0:45fcu bd 2
Now the reliability index can determine by substituting Eq. (9), into Eq. (6)
Fig. 3 Progressive failure

analysis-based reliability
method

1
1 Mmax
b ¼ U pf ðGðh ¼fMmax ; fcu ; b; d gÞ 0Þ ¼ U P 2 0
0:45fcu bd 2
ð10Þ
The results obtained from the deterministic design of the progressive failure of a
reinforced concrete building frame under the differential settlement were used to
carry out a reliability analysis of the beam based on FORM. Table 1 shows the
assumed general statistical data for the analysis of the structural elements. The
target reliability index (bT) level for all beams is 3.5 based on recommendation
according to ACI 318-99 [1] and Szerszen and Nowak [13].
The results of the reliability estimates under the differential settlement for the RC
beams are presented in Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15. From the
figures for all the frame types the beams on the first floor were seen to be more
prone to progressive failure as the safety indices (b) for the beams in that level are
lower when compared to beams on other floors levels. The reliability indices b, for
the beam members, increases upwards from the first floor to the third floor. Also,
for the frame type I, type II and type III at first floor, the beams were seen to fail at
75, 100, 125, and 150 mm settlements; 50, 75, 100, 125, and 150 mm settlements
and 75, 100, 125 and 150 mm settlements at which the reliability indexes b were
zero except for beams B2 and B36 respectively. This implies that at such degrees of
differential settlement the structure is more vulnerable to progressive failure as the
level of potential for progressive failure is very severe. Within this range of dif-
ferential settlement, the structure is unable to adjust itself to a state of stable
equilibrium. Though the reliability Indexes for the members is high in all frame
type for the settlement range between 25 and 75 mm, it does not mean the structure
suffers the same stress within that range of settlement.
Table 1 - Probability distribution and the statistical parameters for the basic variables
Variable Probability density Mean Standard Coefficient of
function values E(h) deviation S(h) variations (%)
Mmax Lognormal Varying Varying Varying
fcu Lognormal 25 kN/mm2 7.5 kN/mm2 30
b Normal 225 mm 22.5 mm 10
d Normal Varying Varying 10
Fig. 4 Reliability indices for

critical beams
(450 225 mm) on the first
floor

critical beams
floor

critical beams
floor

critical beams
floor

critical beams
(450 225 mm) on the
second floor

critical beams
(500 225 mm) on the
second floor
Fig. 10 Reliability indices

for critical beams
(550 225 mm) on the
second floor

for critical beams
(600 225 mm) on the
second floor

for critical beams
(450 225 mm) on the third
floor

for critical beams
floor

for critical beams
floor

for critical beams
floor
However, it can be seen from Figs. 14 and 15 respectively, that only beams in a
group of B42 with frame type III (550 225 mm) and type IV (600 225 mm)
respectively, on the third floor meets the required target reliability index of 3.5
beams, irrespective of the values of assumed settlement. The results of the relia-
bility estimates for the beams further indicate that beams in the groups of B7, B8,
B9, and B43 will no longer be safe when the settlement increases beyond the
assumed settlement of 25 mm. Again, beams in the group of B1, B3, and B37 were
badly affected by settlement. This is because they were very close to where the
assumed settlement was imposed.
4 Conclusions
The First-Order Reliability Method (FORM) has been employed to ascertain the
performance of the progressive failure of the RC beam under the differential set-
tlement. All relevant variables were considered random with assumed probability
density function (PDFs). From the results, the beams on the first floor were well
found to be more prone to progressive under the assumed settlement as the relia-
bility indexes (b) for the beams in that level were lower when compared to beams
on the other floor levels. However, where a settlement of more than 25 mm is
envisaged, special foundation-type should be used to reduce differential settlement
to a level that can be borne by the structural members of the building.
Acknowledgements This paper was supported by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund
(TETFUND) of Nigeria.
References
1. ACI 318-99, 1999: Building code requirement for structural Concrete. American Concrete
Institute, Farmington Hills, Michigan
2. Ioani AM, Cucu HL (2010) Vulnerability to progressive collapse of seismically designed RC
framed structures: corner column case, Buletinul Institutului Politehnic Din Iaşi Publicat De
Universitatea Tehnică “Gheorghe Asachi” Din Iaşi Tomul Lvi (Lx), Fasc. 4, 2010 Secţia
Construcţii. Ărhitectură, pp 21–30
3. Adewumi OJ, Oluwatuyi OE, Afolayan JO (2017) Reliability assessment of BS 8110 (1997)
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(3):512–524
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building industry in Nigeria. The Professional Builder, Nigeria Institute of Building, pp. 11–
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Committee on Structural Safety, pp 1–16
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guidelines for new Federal Office building and major modernization project, USA
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June/July Ed., Lagos
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architect’s view. Civ Environ Res 3(4):49–54
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of an existing building. Int J Sci Eng Res 6(5):1668–1773
13. Szerszen MM, Nowak AS (2003) Calibration of design code for buildings (ACI 318) Part 2:
reliability analysis and Resistance factors. ACI Struct J 100(3): 383–391
14. Wang C, Zhang H, Li Q (2017) Reliability assessment of aging structures subjected to gradual
and shock deterioration. Reliab Eng Syst Saf 161(2017):78–86
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behaviour of reinforced concrete frame structures. ACI Struct J 105:433–439
16. Ying T (2010) Progressive collapse resistance of concrete buildings. Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, University of Nevada Las Vegas
Analysis of Scattering and Mode
Conversion of Torsional Guided Waves
by Cracks in Pipes Using Time-Domain
Spectral Element Method
Carman Yeung and Ching Tai Ng
Abstract Guided wave is one of the promising non-destructive technologies for

detection and identify different types of damages. It can be used to maintain reliable
service for damage detection. This study proposes a time-domain spectral element
method (SEM) incooperated a crack model for studying guided wave scattering and
mode conversion phenomena in pipes. The development of the proposed SEM is
based on the elementary rod theory and Timoshenko beam theory. The crack model
couples the torsional and flexural motions of guided waves. The results show that
there is good agreement between SEM and the experiment measurements.

Keywords Spectral element method Torsional guided waves Mode

conversion Scattering waves Crack Pipe
1 Introduction
Different damage detection methods have been proposed in structural health

monitoring (SHM) to maintain structures in good conditions. Those methods can be
applied in a variety of engineering fields, such as oil and chemical industry.
Common defects of pipe-like structures are corrosion [1], pits [2] and blockage [3].
It is recommended to use torsional guided wave to inspect the safety of pipes
because of its long range inspection capability [4, 5]. The interrogating area can be
up to ten meters of pipe section. Fundamental torsional wave mode T(0, 1) is the
most desired wave mode used in pipes due to its non-dispersive nature.
Wave propagation and scattering phenomena at damage can be modelled by
numerical methods, such as finite difference method [6], boundary element method
[7], conventional finite element method [8] and spectral element method (SEM) [9].
With the aforementioned approaches, SEM can use less number of elements as it
C. Yeung (&) C. T. Ng
School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, The University of Adelaide,
Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
e-mail: carman.yeung@adelaide.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_105
1124 C. Yeung and C. T. Ng
uses higher-order shape function. Due to the property of the Kronecker delta in a
shape function, the diagonalized mass matrix with Gauss-Lobatto-Legendre
(GLL) of SEM reduces the computational cost [10].
Research on SEM modelling wave propagation and scattering at cracks in pipes,
which is considered as a one-dimensional waveguide, is limited. In this study, the
mode conversion effect at the crack in pipes is investigated using the proposed
time-domain SEM with a cracked element. The study can provide a better under-
standing in wave scattering and mode conversion phenomena of torsional guided
wave at the cracks in pipes.
The paper is structured as follows. A mathematical framework of time-domain
SEM and a cracked model are introduced in Sect. 2. In Sect. 3, the results of the
simulation using the proposed SEM is compared with the experimental data and the
results are discussed in detail. Conclusions are given in the last section.
2 Mathematical Framework for Time-Domain SEM
2.1 Time-Domain Spectral Element Method
The wave propagation modelled in SEM can be written in the time-domain dynamic
equilibrium analogical to finite element method [11, 19]
€ þ CU
MU _ þ KU ¼ FðtÞ ð1Þ
where M, K, F(t), U; U_ and U € are the global mass matrix, global stiffness matrix
and global force vector, displacement vector, velocity vector and acceleration
vector, respectively. C is the global damping matrix where C = ηM with damping
parameter η [12].
The local components, Me ; Ke and Fe , are expressed as follows
Xn
Me i¼1
wi He ðni ÞT lHe ðni ÞdetðJe ðni ÞÞ ð2Þ
Xn
Ke i¼1
wi Be ðni ÞT DBe ðni ÞdetðJe ðni ÞÞ ð3Þ
Xn
Fe i¼1
wi He ðni ÞT f ðni ÞdetðJe ðni ÞÞ ð4Þ
@x
where n is the number of integration points. Je ¼ @n is the Jacobian function. f ðni Þ is
the external force. D and l are stress-strain matrix and mass density matrix, which
are defined as
Analysis of Scattering and Mode Conversion … 1125
2 3
GJ 0 0
D¼4 0 K1Tim GA 0 5 ð5Þ
0 0 EI
2 3
qIo 0 0
l¼4 0 qA 0 5 ð6Þ
0 0 K2Tim qI
where q, A, I, J, Io, E and G are the mass density of the pipe and the corresponding
cross-section area, second moment of inertia, the polar moment of inertia, second
moment of inertia, Young’s modulus and shear modulus, respectively. The
parameters are KTim1 = 0.28 and KTim
2 = 45KTim 2
1 /p [13].
Lobatto polynomials are used as the derivatives of the Legendre polynomials.
GLL nodes are applied to achieve diagonal mass matrix [14]. The local coordinate
ni can be determined from the roots of the given equation
dLn1 ðni Þ
1 n2i ¼ 0 for ni 2 ½1; 1 and i 2 1; . . .; n ð7Þ
dni
where Ln1 is the Legendre polynomial of degree (n-1) and the corresponding
weights wi of the GLL point ni are
2
wi ¼ ð8Þ
nðn 1ÞðLn1 ðni ÞÞ2
The use of Kronecker property of a shape function in conjunction with GLL

integration scheme results in the diagonal form of mass matrix. The shape function
matrix He is given as
He ¼ H I ð9Þ
where I is a 3 3 identity matrix, is the Kronecker product, and

H ¼ ½H1 ðnÞ; . . .; Hn ðnÞT . Hi ðnÞ is the spectral shape function for node i is defined as
Yn n nk
H i ð nÞ ¼ ð10Þ
k¼1;k6¼i ni nk
The formulation of the time-domain SEM is based on the elementary rod theory
[15] and Timoshenko beam theory [16]. The previous theory considers the torsional
movement while the latter theory takes into account the horizontal movement and
the shear deformation defect. The governing equations are [17]
@2h
GJ þ Fh ðx; tÞ ¼ qIo €
h ð11Þ
@x2
@ @v
K1Tim GA @x u ¼ qA€v FV ðx; tÞ
@x
@2u
EI þ K1Tim GA @v Tim
€
@x u ¼ K2 qI u ð12Þ
@x2
where h, v and u are the rotation, displacement, and bending. Fh and Fv are the
function for the function of time located at variable x. The strain field e,
strain-displacement operator B and displacement vector q are expressed as
e ¼ Be q ð13Þ
2 @ 3
@x 0 0
B¼4 0 @
@x 1 5He ð14Þ
@
0 0 @x
q ¼ ½h v u T ð15Þ
2.2 Cracked Element Model
Mode coupling effect can be simulated by the cracked element model in pipes using
SEM. The cracked element is derived from the model of Darpe et al. [18]. The
proposed model has two nodes and each node has 3 DoFs (h, v and u). The
notations in Fig. 1 are the parameters used in the calculation of the model. The local
stiffness matrix Kec is presented when a crack appears in a pipe. Therefore, the
values of the cracked stiffness matrix are different from that of the normal stiffness
matrix.
The cracked stiffness matrix Kec is converted by transformation matrix T and
flexibility matrix G [19]
Kec ¼ TG1 TT ð16Þ

2 3
1 0 0 1 0 0
TT ¼ 4 0 1 0 0 1 l 5 ð17Þ
0 0 1 0 0 1
2 3
g11 g12 g13
G ¼ 4 g21 g22 g23 5 ð18Þ
g31 g32 g33

time-domain SEM with
cracked element model,
b Crack cross-section
l kl l3 l
g11 ¼ þ Ig1 þ Ig2 g22 ¼ þ þ Ig4 þ s2 Ig3 g33 ¼ þ Ig3
GIo GA 3EI EI
ð19Þ
l2
g12 ¼ g21 ¼ Ig5 g23 ¼ g32 ¼ þ sIg3 g13 ¼ g31 ¼ 0
2EI
With
R 8ab2 FII 2
R 2mah2 FIII 2
R 32ab2 F1 2
Ig1 ¼ A pE ðR4 r4 Þ2 dA Ig2 ¼ A pE ðR4 r4 Þ2 dA Ig3 ¼ pE ðR4 r 4 Þ2
dA
A
R 2mk 2 aðR2 þ r2 Þ FIII 2
2
R 2mkahðR2 þ r 2 ÞFIII 2
Ig4 ¼ A pE ðR4 r4 Þ2
dA Ig5 ¼ A pE ðR4 r 4 Þ2
dA
3 Validation by Experimental Data
The pipe, which is assumed to be made by aluminium, was modelled using the
proposed time-domain SEM. The Young’s Modulus, density and Poisson’s ratio are
68.9 GPa, 2700 kg/m3 and 0.3, respectively. A 0.01 m long crack was simulated at
the middle of the pipe. The inner and outer diameters are 22 mm and 25 mm,
respectively. The time step was set as 1 10−7 s in the model, where eight GLL
nodes were used in each uncracked element. Tangential force was applied at a node
in rotation h about x-axis to generate torsional wave T(0, 1). A 50 kHz 5-cycle
narrow band sinusoidal tone burst modulated by a Hann window was excited.
Explicit central difference method was applied to solve the dynamic equation.
An aluminium pipe with the same geometry as the numerical model was used to
validate in the experiment. A slot cut was made in the half way of the sample (Fig. 2).
Four piezoceramic shear transducers were bonded with conductive epoxy adhesive
Fig. 2 Schematic diagram of the experiment setup in a pipe sample
Fig. 3 Signals comparison

between SEM and experiment
and placed equally at the circumference. The dimensions of a piezoceramic shear

plate are 6 6 1 mm3 [20]. Another shear plate for measurement was located at
0.3 m away from the excitation point. A centre frequency of 50 kHz narrow-band
5-cycle sinusoidal tone burst pulse was synthetised by a PC-controlled function
generator. The signal amplitude was then amplified by a power amplifier. The
received signals were recorded by a data acquisition system. The sampling frequency
was set to 60 MHz and the received signals were averaged 500 times to maximize the
signal-to-ratio.
The measured data was compared with the signal simulated by the time-domain
SEM in Fig. 3 [19]. The signals were normalized by their maximum values. The
first wave packet is the incident fundamental torsional wave T(0,1) mode. Reflected
wave (T-T wave) and mode converted wave (T-F wave) are followed by the
incident wave. These two wave packets are produced when the incident wave
interacts with the damage. T-T wave is the reflection from the cut slot while T-F
wave is the converted mode induced at the cut slot. There is good agreement
between the signals measured from the experiment and calculated by the SEM
model in the arrival time and the amplitudes of each wave packet.
T-T wave and T-F wave are generated because of mode conversion effect. The
parametric studies are shown in Fig. 4. The a/w represents the ratio between crack
depth and pipe thickness. The measurement point at 0.3 m records the reflected
waves from the crack. Since the crack is not symmetric, mode converted wave is
generated. The amplitude of the signal increases with crack size. There is good
agreement between the amplitudes calculated by SEM and ampltiudes measured in
experiment as shown in Fig. 4.
Fig. 4 Amplitude as a function of crack depth to thickness ratio for incident T(0, 1) guided wave
in SEM and experiment [19]
4 Conclusions
A time-domain SEM has been proposed to simulate the torsional guided waves with
mode conversion phenomenon in pipes. The SEM has been developed based on
one-dimensional waveguide, and Timoshenko beam and elementary rod theory. In
order to simulate mode conversion effect due to asymmetric crack, the cracked
element has been proposed. Experimental validation has been carried out to validate
the accuracy of the results simulated by the proposed SEM. Good agreement has
been found by comparing two sets of data obtained from SEM and experiment. This
study can extend the use of SEM for the development of damage detection tech-
niques using guided wave.
References
1. Lee JH, Lee SJ (2009) Application of laser-generated guided wave for evaluation of corrosion
in carbon steel pipe. NDT and E Int 42(3):222–227
2. Løvstad A, Cawley P (2012) The reflection of the fundamental torsional mode from pit
clusters in pipes. NDT and E Int 46:83–93
3. Papadopoulou KA, Shamout MN, Lennox B, Mackay D, Taylor AR, Turner JT, Wang X
(2008) An evaluation of acoustic reflectometry for leakage and blockage detection. Proc Inst
Mech Eng Part C: J Mech Eng Sci 222(6):959–966
4. Rose JL, Jiao D, Spanner J (1996) Ultrasonic guided wave NDE for piping
5. Lowe MJ, Alleyne DN, Cawley P (1998) Defect detection in pipes using guided waves.
Ultrasonics 36(1–5):147–154
6. Xu F, Zhang Y, Hong W, Wu K, Cui TJ (2003) Finite-difference frequency-domain algorithm
for modeling guided-wave properties of substrate integrated waveguide. IEEE Trans Microw
Theory Tech 51(11):2221–2227
7. Zhao X, Rose J (2003) Boundary element modeling for defect characterization potential in a
wave guide. Int J Solids Struct 40:2645–2658
8. Aryan P, Kotousov A, Ng CT, Cazzolato B (2017) A model-based method for damage
detection with guided waves. Struct Control Health Monit 24(3):e1884
9. He S, Ng CT (2016) A probabilistic approach for quantitative identification of multiple

delaminations in laminated composite beams using guided waves. Eng Struct 127(15):602–
614
10. Willberg C, Duczek S, Perez JV, Schmicker D, Gabbert U (2012) Comparison of different
higher order finite element schemes for the simulation of Lamb waves. Comput Methods Appl
Mech Eng 241:246–261
11. Reddy JN (2006) An introduction to the infinite element method. McGraw-Hill, New York
12. He S, Ng CT (2017) Modelling and analysis of nonlinear guided waves interaction at a
breathing crack using time-domain spectral finite element method. Smart Mater Struct
26:085002
13. Doyle JF (1989) Wave propagation in structures. Springer, New York
14. Kudela P, Krawczuk M, Ostachowicz W (2006) Wave propagation modelling in 1D structures
using spectral finite elements. J Sound Vibr 300:88–100
15. Petyt M (2010) Introduction to finite element vibration analysis. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge
16. He S, Ng CT (2017) Guided wave-based identification of multiple cracks in beams using a
Bayesian approach. Mech Syst Signal Process 84:324–345
17. Rucka M (2010) Experimental and numerical study on damage detection in an L-joint using
guided wave propagation. J Sound Vibr 329:1760–1779
18. Darpe AK, Gupta K, Chawla A (2004) Coupled bending, longitudinal and torsional vibrations
of a cracked rotor. J Sound Vibr 269(1–2):33–60
19. Yeung C, Ng CT (2019) Time-domain spectral finite element method for analysis of torsional
guided waves scattering and mode conversion by cracks in pipes. Mech Syst Signal Process
128:305–317
20. Yeung C, Ng CT (2020) Nonlinear guided wave mixing in pipes for detection of material
nonlinearity. J Sound Vibr 485:115541
Ultrasonic Guided Wave Field Modeling
in a One-Side Water-Immersed Steel
Plate
X. W. Hu, C. T. Ng, and A. Kotousov
Abstract Guided wave testing is one of the most reliable structural health moni-
toring techniques to identify and evaluate damage in structures. However, guided
waves in submerged structures often strongly attenuate that challenges their prac-
ticability for safety inspection. This paper presents a numerical study of guided
wave propagation in a steel plate that has one side immersed in water.
A three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) model is employed to provide a
visualization of the ultrasonic field in both the plate and the water. It is found that at
low frequency range, normal vibrations on the water-free surface of the one side
water immersed steel plate predominantly generate quasi-Scholte wave which is an
interface mode with low attenuation,. In addition, the fundamental anti-symmetric
wave (leaky A0) and fundamental symmetric wave (leaky S0) are too weak to be
observed at low frequency but become discernible when the excitation frequency
increases. It seems that the interface wave at low frequency range dominating the
measured signal from the water free surface can be a promising wave mode to
detect damage in storage tanks and pipes filled with water. To further verify the
accuracy of the FE simulation, the group and phase velocity of quasi-Scholte wave
have been calculated from the simulated out-of-plane displacements measured on
the water free surface. Good agreement has been observed between the numerical
simulation and analytical solutions. Therefore, it is concluded that the FE model can
accurately simulate guided wave propagation for the water immersed plate.

Keywords Non-destructive testing Guided waves Quasi-Scholte wave Finite

element method Fluid-solid interface
X. W. Hu (&) C. T. Ng A. Kotousov
School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, The University of Adelaide,
Adelaide, Australia
e-mail: xianwen.hu@adelaide.edu.au
C. T. Ng
e-mail: alex.ng@adelaide.edu.au
A. Kotousov
e-mail: andrei.kotousov@adelaide.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_106
1132 X. W. Hu et al.
1 Introduction
Structural health monitoring (SHM) techniques using guided waves are based on
the understanding of wave propagation and interaction with damage in the struc-
tures. Although guided waves have been applied for identifying damage in sub-
merged structures, such as water tanks and pipes [7, 10, 11], using guided waves to
quantify changes in plate surface condition with the presence of water is not fully
understood. When a plate is immersed in water, the boundary conditions of the
water-plate interface are changed and guided wave energy can leak into the sur-
rounding water so that guided waves in the submerged plate have different char-
acteristics compared to those in a water free plate [3, 9]. In addition, there is an
interface wave mode, quasi-Scholte wave, presented at the water plate interface.
Cegla, Cawley and Lowe [2] studied quasi-Scholte wave in a plate which is fully
immersed in fluid. They found that at low frequencies, quasi-Scholte wave energy is
concentrated mainly in the plate but at higher frequencies most of the wave energy
goes into the fluid. Tian and Yu [13–15] experimentally investigated the guided
wave propagation in a one-side water-immersed steel plate. They showed that
quasi-Scholte wave can be directly excited and detected on the water-free surface of
the plate. Hayashi and Fujishima [4] applied the quasi-Scholte wave to detect a
through-width notch in a water-loaded flat aluminum alloy plate. They confirmed
that scattered waves could be generated by interaction between quasi-Scholte wave
and the defect. However, the scattered waves can only be detected at low frequency
range. All the aforementioned studies were carried out through experimental
measurements, which are limited by a small amount of measurement points and
accuracy of the sensors.
This paper presents a numerical analysis of guided wave propagation in a steel
plate that has only one side immersed in water. The guided wave propagation is
simulated using a 3D FE model. The numerical simulation can provide additional
information that helps to interpret experiment data. This paper is organized as
follows. Section 2 describes the FE model in detail. Section 3 presents the simu-
lation results. The accuracy of the FE model is verified by means of comparing the
phase and group velocity with analytical solution. Finally, the paper is concluded
with discussion in Sect. 4.
2 3D FE Simulation
A 3D FE model is developed to simulate guided wave propagation in a steel plate

that has one side immersed in water. Figure 1 shows the configuration of the FE
model. The dimension of the steel plate is 192 mm 260 mm 1:6 mm
(W L H) with 48 mm wide absorbing regions bounded to its edges. The bot-
tom surface of the plate is immersed in water. Material properties are summarized in
Table 1. A Cartesian coordinate system is defined with the origin being the left top
Ultrasonic Guided Wave Field Modeling … 1133
of the test plate. Guided wave is excited by applying normal vibration at a 10 mm

diameter circular area located at x = 100 mm and y = 144 mm. Commercial FE
software, ABAQUS/CAE, is used to build the 3D FE model. 3D Eight-node solid
elements with reduced integration (C3D8R) are used to model the steel plate and
the absorbing regions. The water layer is simulated using the 3D eight node
acoustic elements with reduced integration (AC3D8R). To ensure simulation
accuracy, the thickness of the plate is meshed with four layers of elements and the
largest dimension of the FE elements in the plate is 0.8 mm which makes sure that
there are at least ten elements per wavelength. The interface between the water and
the steel plate is simulated by surface-based tie constraint provided by ABAQUS/
Explicit, which allows the particle motions at the interface to be continuous in
normal direction [1] This is consistent with the fact that water cannot sustain shear
load [16]. The response of the wave propagation is calculated by the explicit FE
code, ABAQUS/Explicit, which employs the explicit central different integration.
The absorbing regions are discretized by 60 layers and have the same material
property as the steel plate with gradually increasing mass-proportional damping
coefficients one layer by one layer. The aim of the absorbing regions is to reduce
spurious reflection from the boundaries so that a small FE model can be used to
represent a section in a large structure. Figures 2(a)–(d) show the guided wave
propagation on the plate with and without absorbing layers. Figures 2(a) and
(b) show the wave propagation on the plate without absorbing layers. The incident
wave hits the edge, incurring significant reflections. When absorbing regions are
bonded to the plate edges, as shown in Figs. 2(c) and (d), the incident wave
gradually diminishes in the absorbing regions and there is no apparent reflections
Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of FE model for a one-side water immersed steel plate with absorbing
regions
Table 1 Material properties for FE simulation

Density (kg/ Young’s modulus Poisson’s Bulk modulus
m3) (GPa) ratio (GPa)
Steel 7800 200 0.3 –
Water 1000 – – 2.2
Fig. 2 Contour snapshots of guided wave propagating in a plate without absorbing layers a when
the incident wave arrived at the boundary; b soon after the wave is reflected from the plate edge;
with absorbing layers c when the incident waves passed through the interface of the steel plate and
the absorbing regions; d soon after the incident wave is being absorbed
from the plate edges. This technique enables a small FE model to simulate wave
propagation in a large structure, significantly saving computational efforts.
The FE model is used for simulation of guided wave propagation in a one-side

water immersed steel plate, of which the top water-free surface is excited by normal
vibration. The signal is a five cycle tone pulse with central frequency of 150 kHz,
which is modulated by Hanning window and the maximum amplitude is 1 lm.
Figure 3(a) shows the contour snapshot of the simulated displacements of the plate
and the acoustic pressure in the water at 50 ls for the inner half of the model cut by
the dash line (Fig. 1). One the plate, there are only one wave mode discernible, of
which the acoustic pressure (denoted by the color line in the water layer) is confined
to the plate-water interface. It is recognized that this wave mode is quasi-Scholte
wave [6]. Figures 3(b) and (c) present the simulated out-of-plane displacements at
points A and B located at 100 mm and 172 mm away from the excitation center on
the top water free surface (Fig. 1). Their corresponding scalograms are shown in
Figs. 3(d) and (e). Figures 3(f) and (g) display the power density at 150 kHz over
time for points A and B, respectively. The corresponding time coordinates at the
peak in Figs. 3(f) and (g) are 63.4 ls and 95.5 ls, respectively, based on which the
group velocity is calculated as 2051 m/s similar to the analytically predicted
2150 m/s by DISPERSE. It should be noted that the leaky A0 wave and leaky S0
mode are too weak to be observed at 150 kHz in the simulation. This is consistent
with experiment measurements reported by Yu and Tian [16].
Then, the simulation is run with the signal being a five cycle tone pulse with the
central frequency of 250 kHz modulated by hanning window with the maximum
amplitude equal to 1 lm. Figure 4(a) gives the contour snapshot of simulation
results at 50 ls, where three wave packets can be observed. Figures 4(b) and
(c) presents the simulated out-of-plane displacements at points A and B. Compared
to their counterparts with the excitation frequency of 150 kHz as shown in Figs. 3
(b) and (c), the overall amplitudes significantly reduced. Their corresponding
scalograms are shown is Figs. 4(d) and (e). The fast wave is leaky S0 wave detected
with energy density peak at about 28 ls for point A and at 42 ls for point B. The
second wave packet detected at about 48 ls in point A is highly dispersive, indi-
cated by longer arrive time at lower frequency and shorter arrive time at higher
frequency. This is the typical behavior of leaky A0 wave. However, this wave mode
attenuates fast and it almost vanished at point B as shown in Fig. 4(e). Figures 4(f)
and (g) display the power density at 250 kHz over time for points A and B,
respectively. It can be seen that the second peak has the greatest amplitude in Fig. 4
(f) but decreases significantly as shown in Fig. 4(g). Based on the time difference of
the three energy density peaks, the group velocity of the three wave packets is
calculated as 5333, 2978 and 1702 m/s which are consistent with the theoretical
derivation for leaky S0 wave, leaky A0 wave and quasi-Scholte wave. It is con-
cluded that the simulation results are theoretically verified.
Compare the simulation results with two different excitation frequencies, it can
be seen that at low frequency, the measured signal from the top water-free surface is
dominated by quasi-Scholte wave. But at higher frequency, the measured
quasi-Scholte wave decreases in magnitudes and most of its energy confined to
frequency components slightly lower than the excitation frequency as shown in
Figs. 4(d) and (e). This is reasonable since the wave energy of quasi-Scholte wave
is mainly taken up by the plate at low frequency but concentrates to water side at
higher frequency [5]. In addition, the amplitudes of leaky S0 and leaky A0 are
observable at higher frequency, which makes the measured signal more compli-
cated than that at low excitation frequency. Therefore, conclusion can be drawn that
Fig. 3 ABAQUS simulations of wave propagation in a one-side water-immersed plate subjected

to five-cycle 150 kHz tone pulse a snapshot of field output; out-of-plane displacements at b point
A and c point B; short time Fourier transform associated with displacements at d point A and
e point B; power density at 150 kHz for displacements at f point A and g point B
Fig. 4 ABAQUS simulations of wave propagation in a one-side water-immersed plate subjected

to five-cycle 250 kHz tone pulse a snapshot of field output; out-of-plane displacements at b point
A and c point B; short time Fourier transform associated with displacements at d point A and
e point B; power density at 250 kHz for displacements at f point A and g point B
quasi-Scholte wave at low frequency range dominates the measured signal from
water-free surface of one side water immersed plate structure. With the absence of
other wave modes, the interface mode can be a very promising wave mode to detect
damage in structures such as storage tanks and pipes, which does not involve the
difficulty in signal processing due to multimodal features of guided waves [13].
To further validate the accuracy of FE model, the phase velocity and group
velocity dispersion curves are calculated for the quasi-Scholte wave. It should be
noted that the displacement of quasi-Scholte wave is dominated by the out-of-plane
displacements. Thus, the simulated phase and group velocity are calculated based
on the out-of-plane displacement as [17,18].
2pf D/
Cp ¼ ð1Þ
Dx
Dx
Cg ðfc Þ ¼ ð2Þ
Dt
The simulated results are then compared with the analytical derivation by
DISPERSE. This study considers excitation frequency from 70 kHz to 200 kHz
with steps of 10 kHz. Figures 5(a) and (b) show the phase and group velocity
dispersion curves calculated by the FE simulation and DISPERSE. There is good
agreement between the FE simulations and DISPERSE. The largest discrepancy is
shown in the group velocity, which is less than 5%. Therefore, it can be concluded
that the 3D FE model is able to predict guided wave propagation in the one-side
water-immersed plate.
Fig. 5 Comparison between ABAQUS and DISPERSE a phase velocity; b group velocity (solid
black line denotes the analytical solution by DISPERSE; blue circles represent numerical
simulations)
4 Conclusions
This paper has presented a numerical analysis on the guided wave propagation in a
steel plate with one side immersed in water. A 3D FE model has been used for
numerical simulations. It has been demonstrated that normal vibrations on the
surface of the water loaded steel plate predominantly generate quasi-Scholte wave.
The amplitudes of the measured signal on the top water free surface decrease with
the excitation frequency increases. The numerical results of group and phase
velocity of quasi-Scholte wave have been calculated and compared with
DISPERSE. Good agreement has been observed between the numerical simulation
and analytical solutions. The 3D FE model provides a powerful tool to visualize
guided wave propagation and to distinguish leaky S0 wave, leaky A0 wave,
quasi-Scholte wave, and pressure wave in water. Future research can employ the 3D
FE model to study the sensitivity of the quasi-Scholte to identify damage. The
scattering characteristics of guided waves at damage have been extensively studied
by means of scattering directive patterns (SDPs) for water-free structures [8, 12]
(Diligent et al. 2002; Ng and Veidt 2012) but there has been no study describe the
SDPs for submerged structures. The proposed 3D FE model has the potential to
study the influence of the surrounding water on the SDPs of guided waves in
submerged structures.
Acknowledgements This work was supported with supercomputing resources by the

Phoenix HPC service at the University of Adelaide.
References
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quasi-Scholte mode—a waveguide sensor. J Acoust Soc Am 117(3):1098–1107
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nonlinearity. J Sound Vib 485:115541
Use of Deep Learning Algorithm
to Detect Road Damage and Closures
After the 2016 Kumamoto Japan
Earthquake
Y. Maruyama, R. Sezaki, and S. Nagata
Abstract This study tries to detect the earthquake-induced damage to the roadways
and road closures due to collapsed buildings using the images captured by a
vehicle-mounted camera. The images employed by this study were sequentially
taken after the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake with a camera installed in an auto-
mobile. To achieve the objective, the authors try to develop an image classifier to
detect the earthquake-induced damage to the roadways and road closures based on
deep learning algorithm. The 31,951 images captured on April 17 and 20, 2016
were employed to develop the image classifier. The images were visually classified
into the three classes: damage to roadway, road closure, and no damage, and they
were divided into training and test sets. The overall accuracy of the image classifier
was calculated using the test set, and it reached 81%. The image classifier properly
recognized the images with no damage on roadway with the accuracy of 90%. It
was difficult to detect the damage to roadway because some of the images include
only minor cracks.

Keywords Deep learning 2016 Kumamoto earthquake Damage to roadway
Road closure due to collapsed building
Y. Maruyama (&) R. Sezaki

Department of Urban Environment Systems, Chiba University, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
e-mail: ymaruyam@tu.chiba-u.ac.jp
R. Sezaki
e-mail: acka2149@chiba-u.jp
S. Nagata
Technical Research Institute, Kajima Corporation, Chofu 182-0036, Japan
e-mail: nagata-shigeru@kajima.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_107
1142 Y. Maruyama et al.
1 Introduction
The Kumamoto earthquakes, which are a series of earthquakes including an event

on April 16, 2016 with a moment magnitude of 7.0, caused severe damage to the
various structures in Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyushu Region, Japan [4]. The
earthquakes killed 50 people, and approximately 3,000 people were injured. Many
damage incidents to the road network were also found after the earthquakes, and the
roads were closed to the traffic at approximately 200 sites [5]. The road network
serves as the trunk line of transportation, and is important to the restoration of
damage-stricken areas. The road authorities, such as the Japanese Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT), survey the damage to the road network,
however, it is difficult to evaluate the damage situation soon after an earthquake.
Hence, a new method to grasp the distribution of the damage to road network is
expected, and a restoration plan can be developed based on the results of damage
assessment.
A neural network consists of input and output layers with one or multiple hidden
layers. The hidden layers process the output of the previous layer. The neural
networks with several successive nonlinear layers of neurons date back at least to
the 1960s and 1970s [6]. Recently, deep neural networks have won numerous
contests in pattern recognition and machine learning. Deep learning uses the
composition of many nonlinear functions to model the complex dependency
between input features and labels [1]. Deep learning has shown effective results in
various fields, and it is frequently applied in the field of image recognition.
Based on the background, this study tries to detect the earthquake-induced damage
to the roadways and road closures because of collapsed buildings using the images
captured by a vehicle-mounted camera. The images employed by this study were
sequentially taken after the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake with a camera installed in an
automobile. The images captured in Mashiki Town, Kumamoto Prefecture, where
was severely affected by this earthquake, are also included in the dataset. To achieve
the objective, the authors try to develop an image classifier to detect the
earthquake-induced damage to the roadways and road closures based on deep learning
algorithm. In this study, a deep learning module Caffe (convolutional architecture for
fast feature embedding) is employed to develop an image classifier [3].
2 Development of the Image Classifier Based on Deep

Learning
2.1 Dataset of the Images Captured from an Automobile
The images used in this study were captured by a vehicle-mounted camera. The
images were sequentially acquired with an interval of 5 m. Global Survey
Corp. (GLC) surveyed damage situations using an automobile, which is equipped
Use of Deep Learning Algorithm to Detect Road Damage … 1143
with six cameras, in the damage-stricken areas after the 2016 Kumamoto earth-
quake [2]. The images captured by a camera installed in front are used in this study.
The moving trajectories of the automobile are shown in Fig. 1. The images were
mainly acquired in Mashiki Town, Nishihara Village, and Kumamoto City from
April 17 to April 28, 2016.
The vehicle-mounted camera captures a 2048 1536 image. The bottom
quarter of the image was cropped so as to focus on the roadway, and it was resized
to a 512 75 image. The images were normalized to apply to the deep learning
algorithm. Figure 2 shows an example of image used in this study.
First, six investigators visually inspected a total of 31,951 images to classify into
the three classes: damage to roadway, roadway closure, and no damage. The images
classified into the same class by more than five investigators were used to develop
an image classifier in this study. Totally, 512 images for damage to roadway, 673
for roadway closure, and 14,346 for no damage were selected by the six investi-
gators. The authors randomly selected 100 images for each class, which were used
as a test set for validation of the image classifier. The other images were employed
as a training set for deep learning. The contrast of an original image of the training
set was changed, and two images were newly obtained from the original image. The
mirror-reversed images were also illustrated from the original images. Hence, the
number of images of the training set is six times as large as that of the original
images.
Fig. 1 Moving trajectories of the automobile to capture the images after the 2016 Kumamoto
earthquake
Fig. 2 Example of an image employed in this study
Fig. 3 Convolutional neural network assumed in this study
2.2 Development of the Image Classifier
A deep learning module Caffe (Jia et al. 2014) was employed in this study. The
authors assumed the convolutional neural network (CNN) as shown in Fig. 3,
which consists of five convolutional layers, five pooling layers, two fully connected
layers, and an output layer. Each convolutional layer is associated with ReLU
activation function f(x) to introduce nonlinearities to the model.
X
f ð xÞ ¼ max 0; i;j
wij x ij ð1Þ
where wij and xij are a weight for each neuron, and input in the previous layer,
respectively. The output layer provides the probability of the image with respect to
each class through the softmax function (Eq. (2)). The image is assigned to the class
associated with the highest probability.
X3
yj ¼ exp zj = k¼1
expðzk Þ ð2Þ
where zj is expressed as follows:

X
zj ¼ i
wij xi ð3Þ
The image classifier was built using the training set of images and the CNN
shown in Fig. 3. The maximum number of iterations to update the weights in the
CNN was set to be 60,000. The images of the training set were divided into the two
sets, i.e. training and validation sets, with the ratio of 6:1. The training set was
employed to obtain the values of loss function every 100 iterations, and the vali-
dation set was employed to calculate the values of loss function and accuracy of
classification every 500 iterations. As for the loss function, the cross-entropy loss is
assumed in this study.
X3
En ¼ t logynk
k¼1 nk
ð4Þ
ynk is the probability of the image n associated with the class k, which is calculated
using Eq. (2). tnk represents the truth data. If the image n actually belongs to the
class k, tnk is set to be 1. tnk is set to be 0 if the image n belongs to the other classes.
Figure 4 shows the values of loss function and the accuracy of classification with
respect to the number of iteration. The values of loss function decreases as the
number of iteration increases. The loss function for the training set reaches 0, and
that for the validation set reaches 0.2. The accuracy of classification for the vali-
dation set reaches 0.95 as the number of iterations increases.
The image classifiers were sequentially built when the number of iterations
reaches multiple of 1,000. The accuracy of the image classifiers was evaluated
using the test set (Fig. 5). The highest accuracy of 81.0% was realized when the
number of iterations was 8,000. Hence, the image classifier constructed with the
number of iterations of 8,000 was adopted in this study. Table 1 shows the result of
image classification using the test set. The images with no damage were identified
with the accuracy of 90%. On the other hand, the images which captured damage to
roadway were detected with the accuracy of 66.0%. The images with minor cracks
were visually classified as the images which captured damage to roadway. The
image classifier tends to misclassify these images as those with no damage, and the
accuracy decreases.
Fig. 4 Values of loss function and accuracy of classification with respect to the number of
iterations
Fig. 5 Accuracy of image 1

classification with respect to 0.9
the number of iterations using 0.8
the test set 0.7
Accuracy
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000
Number of Calculation
Table 1 Result of image classification using the test set

Visual inspection Image classification Overall
Roadway Damage to No accuracy
closure roadway damage
Roadway closure 87 9 4 81.0%
Damage to 15 66 19
roadway
No damage 6 4 90
Table 2 Specifications of the images employed for image classification

Area Acquisition date Number of images
(a) Nishihara Village April 22 1,483
(b) Center of Mashiki Town April 22 773
(c) West of Mashiki Town April 25 2,157
(d) Mifune Town and Kosa Town April 26 1,586
3 Application of the Image Classifier
The image classifier developed in the previous section was applied to the images
captured by a vehicle-mounted camera. As is described in the previous section, the
images acquired on April 17 and 20, 2016 were employed to construct the image
classifier in this study. In order to evaluate versatility of the image classifier, it was
applied to the images captured on April 22, 25, and 26, and the classification accuracy
was investigated. First, the images were visually inspected by one investigator. The
images were classified into the three classes: damage to roadway, roadway closure,
and no damage. The image classifier was applied to the images, and then the results
were compared with those of visual inspection. Table 2 summarizes the specifications
of images employed in this section. The images captured in the four areas were
selected.
Table 3 compares the results of visual inspection and image classification in the
four areas. The accuracy to detect the images with no damage is in the range of 76–
92%, and it shows the highest value of the three classes. The accuracy to detect the
images which captured the closures of roadways is in the range of 56–79%. More
than half of the images which were not properly identified by the image classifier
were mistakenly detected as the images which captured damage to roadways. The
detection accuracy for the images which captured damage to roadways is in the range
of 18–48%, and it shows the lowest value of the three classes. Minor cracks on the
roadways due to the earthquake were difficult to detect by the image classifier, and
the images with minor cracks were mistakenly detected as those with no damage.
Figure 6 shows the results of visual inspection and those of image classification
in the four areas. According to the results, the road sections with no damage are
Table 3 Results of image classification in the four areas

Visual Image classification Detection Overall
inspection Roadway Damage to No accuracy accuracy
closure roadway damage
(a) Nishihara Village
Roadway 45 17 18 56.3% 78.8%
closure
Damage to 43 98 142 34.6%
roadway
No damage 36 59 1031 91.6%
(b) Center of Mashiki Town
Roadway 106 14 14 79.1% 72.9%
closure
Damage to 28 56 34 47.5%
roadway
No damage 101 87 585 75.7%
(c) West of Mashiki Town
Roadway 162 62 29 64.0% 63.8%
closure
Damage to 122 239 172 44.8%
roadway
No damage 105 69 585 77.1%
(d) Mifune Town and Kosa Town
Roadway 5 1 1 71.4% 86.8%
closure
Damage to 4 6 23 18.2%
roadway
No damage 55 96 1170 88.6%
(a) Nishihara Village
(b) Center of Mashiki Town
(c) West of Mashiki Town
(d) Mifune Town and Kosa town
Fig. 6 Comparisons between the results of visual inspection (left) and those of image
classification (right)
Fig. 7 Comparisons between a the result of visual inspection and b that of image classification
with respect to the 50 50 m2 grid cell
comprehensively realized by the image classifier. It is difficult to identify the

damage pattern of the roadways because the detection accuracy for the images with
damage to roadways is not sufficient. Based on the findings, the results of visual
inspection and image classification are illustrated using the 50 50 m2 grid cells.
The grid cells which include closure or damage to roadways estimated by visual
inspection are shown as anomalous road sections (Fig. 7(a)). In order to detect the
anomalous road section, the ratio of the number of images detected as either
roadway closure or damage to roadway by the image classifier to the total number
of images in the grid cell was calculated. The grid cell associated with the ratio
more than 0.2 was also regarded as the anomalous road section (Fig. 7(b)).
According to the result, the image classifier is effective to know the road sections
where anomalous conditions might be caused because of an earthquake.
4 Conclusions
This study constructed the image classifier based on deep learning algorithm to
detect the roadway closure and damage to roadway because of an earthquake. In
order to achieve the objective, the images captured by a vehicle-mounted camera
after the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake were employed in this study. First, the six
investigators performed visual inspection of the images to classify into three
classes: roadway closure, damage to roadway, and no damage. Then, a deep
learning module Caffe (convolutional architecture for fast feature embedding) was
used to construct the image classifier.
The images acquired on April 17 and 20, 2016 were divided into the training and
test sets. The test set was used to evaluate the accuracy of the image classifier, and
the overall accuracy was 81.0%. The detection accuracy for the images with no
damage was quite high, but that for the images which capture damage to roadways
was not sufficient. The image classifier was applied to the images captured on other
dates, and the result was compared with that of visual inspection. It was difficult to
reveal the damage pattern of roadways, however, the image classifier was effective
to identify the anomalous road sections due to an earthquake.
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Assessment and Repair for North
Breakwater Dome in Wakkanai Port
K. Hase, A. Saitou, S. Tomisawa, I. Sakashita, and H. Yokota
Abstract Wakkanai Port, located in the northernmost part of Japan, has a break-
water called “North Breakwater Dome”, which is reminiscent of ancient Greek
architecture. The Dome has played an important role not only as a seawall, but also
as a central tourist facility in the area. Currently, the deterioration of the dome is
becoming apparent. Accordingly, it was decided to conduct a comprehensive
rehabilitation covering a survey, diagnosis, evaluation, and repair. Particularly for
the Dome, which has high historical value and is important as a tourism resource,
special evaluation criteria that fully take the characteristics of the structure and
environmental conditions into consideration are required. This paper discusses a
series of ideas that provided the basis for realizing the repair work, which is still
underway. The discussed topics include basic ideas related to 1) inspection and
diagnosis methods for the Dome; 2) evaluation of the structural members with five
deterioration grades; 3) repair and prevention methods particularly suitable for a
civil engineering heritage; and 4) execution of repair and prevention to enhance the
durability of the Dome.
Keywords Harbor structure Civil engineering heritage Assessment Aesthetic

appearance Repair
K. Hase (&)
Civil Engineering Research Institute for Cold Region, Sapporo, Japan
e-mail: hase-k22ac@ceri.go.jp
A. Saitou S. Tomisawa I. Sakashita
Hokkaido Regional Development Bureau, MLIT, Sapporo, Japan
e-mail: saitou-a22ac@mlit.go.jp
S. Tomisawa
e-mail: tomisawa-s22aa@mlit.go.jp
I. Sakashita
e-mail: sakashita-i22aa@mlit.go.jp
H. Yokota
Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
e-mail: yokota@eng.hokudai.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_108
1152 K. Hase et al.
1 Introduction
Wakkanai Port, which is located in the northernmost part of Japan, has an unusually
shaped breakwater called the North Breakwater Dome, which is reminiscent of
ancient Greek architecture (Fig. 1). Construction of the North Breakwater Dome
was completed in 1936, and the structure has played an extremely important role as
a breakwater for a pier that was developed to secure sea transport between
Wakkanai and Sakhalin. This facility, which also plays a role as a venue for events
attended by residents and tourists, was selected as a “civil engineering heritage” by
the Japan Society of Civil Engineers and as a “Hokkaido heritage” by the
Government of Hokkaido, and has been playing a new role as a landmark of
Wakkanai City.
The North Breakwater Dome, which faces the outer sea in an extremely cold
region, had deteriorated more severely than had been expected. A complete reha-
bilitation, including repair of the footing beams and the superstructure, was con-
ducted from 1978 to 1981. From 1999 to 2002, repairs—mainly of the seismic
retrofit of the columns—were conducted to address revisions to the seismic design
standards. More than 30 years after the first complete repair, deterioration of the
facility had progressed again, and the name plate fell off in 2012, an incident that
had the potential to cause harm to third parties. As described earlier, this facility has
played an important role not only as a facility to protect a mooring facility and a
port transportation facility behind it from wave overtopping, but also as a central
tourist facility in the area; therefore, it is necessary to maintain its value as a civil
engineering heritage and tourist facility. In light of the above, deterioration
inspection, structural evaluation and planning for appropriate repairs based on a
careful consideration of priorities had been called for, and the Technical
Examination Committee for the Wakkanai Harbor North Breakwater Dome, chaired
by one of the authors, was established by the Hokkaido Regional Development
Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
This paper discusses a series of ideas that provided the basis for realizing the
repair work, which is still underway.
Fig. 1 North Breakwater

Dome
Assessment and Repair for North Breakwater Dome in Wakkanai Port 1153
Total Length 427.6m

Block No.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Fig. 2 Schematic of North Breakwater Dome
2 Structure of the North Breakwater Dome
The North Breakwater Dome is an unusual RC structure with a semi-arched cor-

ridor that draws from Gothic architecture. The facility has maintained its original
appearance since its completion. The structure of the current North Breakwater
Dome is shown in Fig. 2. The Dome is arched. Its wall is supported by cylindrical
columns installed at intervals of 6 m and by arched beams in the dome. Each of the
cylindrical columns has RC pile foundations. The heads of piles and the base of the
arch on the ocean side are connected by an underground beam. In the longitudinal
direction, beams with arched tapers connect the supporting columns. The Dome
wall is made up of 24 blocks that are connected by expansion joints.
3 Inspection and Deterioration Prediction
3.1 Methods for Inspection and Deterioration Prediction
On the North Breakwater Dome, the environmental and deterioration conditions on

the inside of the Dome wall and parapet wall differed from those on the outside of
the Dome wall and parapet wall. Therefore, inspection and evaluations were con-
ducted separately for the inner and the outer surfaces. The inspected items are listed
in Table 1. Given that different locations on the facility have different degrees of
exposure to ocean waves and airborne salinity, measurements of half-cell potential
were taken to estimate the degree of corrosion of the rebar and the thickness of the
concrete cover (Figs. 2 and 3) along 7 transverse lines on the outer surface and 13
1154 K. Hase et al.
Table 1 Inspected items
Test item Inspection method

Survey by Visual testing methods for concrete
Damage
structures [NDIS 3418]
Survey by Method for investigating location of
Cover
reinforcing bars in concrete structure by radar
Depth
[NDIS 3429]
Steel Survey by test method for half-cell potential of
Corrosion uncoated rebars in concrete structures [JSCE-E 601]
Chloride Survey by Measurement method for distribution of
ion content total chloride ion in concrete structure [JSCE-G 573]
Fig. 3 Inspection points on

outer surfaces of the wall
TL 1 A B C D E F G H I
TL 2
TL 3
TL 4
TL 5
TL 6
TL 7
: Cover Depth, Steel Corrosion

: Chloride ion content
transverse lines on the inner surface. For measurements of the chloride ion con-
centration on the outer surface of the wall, 7 blocks with visibly exposed rebar or
rust stain were selected. To determine how the chloride ion concentration differed
by height on the structure, measurements were taken along TL1 (transverse line 1),
TL4 and TL7. Measurements of the inner surface of the wall were done for 4 blocks
that were selected as representative blocks. Sampling from each block was done at
the location where the concrete surface was considered to be sound.
Next, rebar corrosion was predicted based on the inspection results. This pre-
diction was based on the diffusion of chloride ions (JSCE-G 573 [1]) in which the
measured chloride ions during the inspection were used and was based on the cover
concrete thickness over the rebar. From the relationship between the corrosion of
the rebar on the outer surface of the Dome and the chloride ion concentration, the
critical chloride ion concentration for the occurrence of corrosion for this facility
was set at 3.2 kg/m3.
Fig. 4 Sketch of damages on

outer surfaces of the wall
Block No.5
3.2 Results of Inspection for Outer Surface of the Dome
In the inspection of the outer surface of the Dome, damage, including severe
honeycombing, was found. An example is shown in Fig. 4. Many damages were
found on the sloped section from TL4 to TL6. As causes of these damages, it was
estimated that the work for applying cover concrete had been difficult in this area
because of its curved shape and that this area tended to receive a disproportionate
amount of ocean waves because of its height. The causes of rebar exposure were
determined to be the insufficient cover concrete thickness at the curved section and
the honeycombing and other damage.
As a result of the measured cover concrete thickness, the location where the
cover concrete thickness was less than the design thickness of 85 mm concentrated
on TL5 on block No.15. On the other blocks, the specified cover concrete thickness
was secured.
As a result of the corrosion inspection of rebar using half-cell potential and
ASTM standards [2], about 5% of the 1,475 measured locations were judged to
have a high likelihood of rebar corrosion.
Chloride ion concentrations exceeding 3.2 kg/m3 were not found for the mea-
surements at the rebar locations. Changes in chloride ion amounts were predicted
for the coming 50 years based on the data obtained in the inspection. It was found
that, except for No. 15, whose cover concrete thickness was insufficient, the like-
lihood of rebar corrosion before the end of the coming 50 years was predicted to be
low. This prediction was for the locations where the soundness of the concrete
1156 K. Hase et al.
surface had been maintained at the time of inspection. The locations where planar
and linear damage had progressed were considered to have undergone rebar cor-
rosion earlier than had been predicted.
3.3 Results of Inspection for the Inner Surface of the Dome
Cracks and 9 other types of planer and linear damages were found on the inner side
of the Dome. Most of them were cracks and cold joints. Even though the numbers
were not large, missing parts and damage with loose parts and rust stain at previously
repaired locations were found. On the inner surface of the wall, unlike on the outer
surface, no marked differences depending on the elevation of the parts were found.
The measurement results for the cover concrete thickness did not differ by block. In
all of the blocks, the cover concrete thickness roughly satisfied the design value.
In the inspection for rebar corrosion, half-cell potentials that indicate the like-
lihood that corrosion occurs were obtained at most of the measurement locations
along the handrail and wheel guard. On the other hand, for other members such as
the wall, except for the locations with exposed rebar, the measured half-cell
potentials indicated that the likelihood of corrosion was small. Loose concrete was
not detected at these locations in the hammering sound test either. In inspection for
rebar corrosion, which was done for some parts of the structure by chipping the
cover concrete, corroded rebar was not found. We judged that corrosion did not
occur at these locations.
Based on the data obtained in these inspections, we predicted the transition of
the amount of chloride ions for the coming 50 years. As a result, we found the
likelihood of rebar corrosion would be low even in the 50th year after the survey.
4 Deterioration Evaluation and Setting of the Range

for Repair
4.1 Evaluation of Damage on the Outer Surface

of the Dome Wall and the Range for Repair
A repair plan was formulated based on the concept of preventive maintenance. The
design service life of this facility was determined to be 50 years. In setting the range
for repair, deterioration was categorized into 5 grades of severity. This catego-
rization was done based on the idea of sorting damage from the most severe, i.e.,
that which might have been affecting the structural capacity at the time of the
inspection, to the least severe, i.e., that which would have the potential to degrade
the structural capacity near the end of the coming 50 years if the planned repair was
not conducted. The concept behind this categorization is shown in Table 2 and
Fig. 5. We considered that, by conducting repairs at locations where the possibility

of structural capacity decreases at the time of the inspection was high as determined
by the ideas explained above, we would contribute to extension of the lifespan and
reduction of the life-cycle cost of the facility, and to maintenance of the structural
capacity for the design service life of 50 years. Based on the concept of preventive
maintenance, the “decrease in the structural capacity” is considered to start when
rebar corrosion starts, because the facility is an RC concrete structure. From the
results of the rebar corrosion prediction discussed earlier, it was predicted that the
rebar at locations where the concrete surface was sound would not corrode within
50 years. Therefore, the locations that required repair on the outer surface of the
Dome wall were determined to be those with a deterioration grade of 3 or higher.
We considered that it would be possible to satisfy the conditions for maintaining the
design service life of 50 years by maintaining deterioration grades of 2 or lower for
the entire facility.
Based on the concept expressed in Table 2, a map of deterioration grades was
created using a sketch created for the detailed inspection. As examples of the
deterioration sketch and the map of deterioration grade, those for Block No. 5 are
shown in Fig. 6. In the deterioration sketch and the map of deterioration grade, a
square area (2 m 2 m) between the transverse lines used for the inspection was
regarded as a single unit. As discussed earlier, damage with deterioration grades of
3 or higher included planar damage such as honeycombing and linear damage such
as cracks.
When setting the range for repair based on the deterioration grade determined in
the inspection, as shown as the areas with different deterioration grades shown as
Stage 1 in Fig. 7, there were many boundaries between areas that required repair
and those that did not. If the repairs were to be done only for the units with certain
levels of deterioration, the repairs would not be efficient, and it was feared that such
repairs would result in structural weakness. As discussed earlier, this facility is a
central tourist attraction of the area, so if the facility were to be given a quilt-like
appearance with different colors from patchwork repair, its appeal as a tourist
Table 2 Damage and deterioration grade

Deterioration Target damage
Impact on structural capacity
Grade Planar damage Linear damage
Grade 5 Structural capacity is decreasing. ✓Rebar exposure
䘟Planar damage with rust stain
Grade 4 Structural capacity begins to decrease. 䘟Linear damage with rust stain
䘟Loose parts
䘟Planar damage with efflorescenc 䘟Linear damage with efflorescenc
Structural capacity is maintained, but If
Grade 3 nothing is done, likely to decrease.
䘟Missing parts 䘟Cracking (Crack width 䍻 0.2 mm)
䘟Honeycombing (Severe) 䘟Cold joint (With delamination of concrete)
Structural capacity is maintained, but 䘟Aggregate exposure
Grade 2 making it easy for deterioration- 䘟Honeycombing (Moderate) 䘟Cracking (Crack width 䠘 0.2 mm)
promoting agents to intrude. 䘟Trace of repairing
Although a damage has occurred, 䘟Scaling
Grade 1 structural capacity is maintained. 䘟Honeycombing (Mild)
䘟Cold joint (No delamination of Concrete)
1158 K. Hase et al.
Fig. 5 Deterioration grading
percentage holding structural

concept The corrosion percentage
of the steel reinforcement
100
100
capacity (%)
10%
20%
destruction increases
8080
30%
A risk of the
6060 40%
Life during which the Life during which 50%
4040 structural capacity is the structural capacity
maintained. decrease.
2020
Preventive Measures Corrective Measures
00
1 2 3 4 5 or more
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Deterioration grade
Fig. 6 A map of A B C D E F G H I
deterioration grade
TL 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
TL 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
TL 3 1 Stage 3 3 3 3 3 3
TL 4 2 1 1 1 1 Stage 2 1
TL 5 2 1 3 3 1 3 3 3 2
TL 6 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
TL 7 1 1 1 3 4 1 1 1 3
attraction would be diminished. It was also important to maintain an aesthetic

appearance worthy of the structure’s status as a civil engineering heritage and a
Hokkaido heritage. For this facility, it was necessary to set the range for repair not
only based on an evaluation of the structural capacity but also on aesthetic
considerations.
We attempted to set the areas for repair to be continuous, and we set the unit area
for repair as 2 m 2 m (Stage 2). Even so, some locations appeared quilt-like in
Stage 2. We set the repair range as shown in Stage 3, in which locations requiring
repair were all connected. We continued our examination of the repair plan based
on the repair range setting of Stage 3. The areas for repair for Stages 1 to 3 were
plotted on the photo of the facility (Fig. 7), and the aesthetic appearances were
examined. As the result of this examination, we decided to employ ranges of repair
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3
Fig. 7 Image of color after repair (Outer surfaces of the wall (No. 5))
of Stage 2, because the outer surface of the Dome is seen from ferries sailing
offshore and from the coast. Furthermore, if the Stage 3 setting were employed, the
repair would also cover the sound areas. Such excess repair had to be avoided.
4.2 Evaluation of Deterioration on the Inner Surface

of Dome Wall and the Range for Repair
Unlike the outer surface, the inner surface of the Dome wall, which is a major
member of the structure, is less exposed to moisture, salinity, temperature changes
and waves. The influence of external factors on rebar corrosion was considered to
be less on the inner surface than that on the outer surface. Therefore, the same
concept for categorizing the grade of deterioration was used for the inner surface
and the outer surface. However, when the environmental conditions were consid-
ered, we determined that linear damage, which corresponds to Grade 3 deteriora-
tion, had the low potential to greatly degrade the structural capacity.
Most of the horizontal cracks were minute ones of 0.2 mm or less in width, and
rust stain was not found along them. We considered the cracks to be from concrete
shrinkage and we estimated that the likelihood of these cracks progressing would be
low. Many of the vertical cracks, however, were 0.2 mm or wider. Judging from the
sizes and locations of those cracks, it was probable that those cracks were caused by
external confining pressure and thermal stress. However, rust stain was not seen
along those cracks, either. It was concluded that these cracks do not require urgent
repair.
In evaluating the inner surface of the wall, the factors necessary for maintaining
structural capacity were considered, including the soundness of the concrete and the
rebar. In addition to these factors, aesthetic appearance was considered because the
facility is used as a tourist attraction. In the evaluation, we examined the impres-
sions of risk and appearance held by ordinary people regarding the cracks and other
deterioration on the facility. People without professional knowledge of the deteri-
oration of concrete structures participated. Figures 8 and 9 show the conditions of
damage at locations subject to this impression assessment. The areas enclosed in
green squares in the figure, are those for which the influence of cracks on aesthetic
appearance was examined. The red circles in Fig. 9 indicate the locations where the
inspection subjects considered the cracks to affect the aesthetic appearance. Based
on the results of this examination, we judged that the vertical cracks, which are
easily spotted by people walking or standing near the cracks, required measures of
some kind. It was possible that the vertical cracks affect the structural performance,
in addition to affect the aesthetic appearance. As a result of this impression
assessment, deterioration evaluation of the inner surface of the wall and the criteria
for repair were clarified as shown in Fig. 10.
The red broken line in the figure indicates the boundary between the grade of
deterioration that requires repair and that which do not require repair. When a
1160 K. Hase et al.
Fig. 8 The inner surface of

the Dome that confirmed the
impression
Fig. 9 Impression Expansion joints Expansion joints

confirmation area on the inner
surface of the wall
Loose parts
Leakage trace
coating 䕿䕿 coating
䕿
Missing parts Missing parts

Block No.4
The areas which the influence of cracks on
:
aesthetic appearance was examined.
䕿 : The location where the survey subjects considered
the cracks to affect the aesthetic appearance.
The outer surfaces

The inner surfaces of the wall and so on The inner surfaces of the wall and so on
of the wall
Grade 5 Grade 5 Grade 5
䘟Missing parts
Grade 3a 䘟Honeycombing (Severe) Grade 3a
䘟efflorescence (With planar damage)
Grade 3
Repair 䘟cracking (Crack width 䠚 0.2 mm) Grade 3b- 䘟Close viewing position
boundary Grade 3b
䘟Cold joint (With delamination of concrete) Grade 3b+ 䘟Long distance viewing position
Rearrangement in considera on Rearrangement in considera on
of environmental condi ons of aesthe c impressions
Fig. 10 The inner degradation evaluation classification and repair implementation criteria
Fig. 11 Map of deterioration Wall A C D F G I

grade (Block No. 4) Beam B E H
TL 7 2 5 3 3 3 3 3 2 2
TL 8 2 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 2
TL 9 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 4 3
TL 10 2 2 3 3 2 3 3 2 3
TL 11 3 2 3 3 2 3 3 2 3
TL 12 2 1 3 3 2 3 2 2 3
certain location was evaluated as having a grade of deterioration exceeding this red
line, we judged that the location required repair. Considering boundary conditions
and structural capacity, the grade of deterioration that required repair was deter-
mined as 3a. However, based on considerations of aesthetic appearance and the
relationship between the locations of damage and the eye level of people, the grade
of deterioration 3b was subdivided into 3b+ and 3b−.
A map of the deterioration grade of the inner surface of wall, based on the
deterioration evaluation in Fig. 10, is shown in Fig. 11. In this figure, areas with a
deterioration grade of 3 that are enclosed with double lines indicate the areas subject
to repair. The other areas with a deterioration grade of 3 corresponded to those with
3b+ in Fig. 10. It was judged that these areas with 3b+ are subject to follow-up
monitoring. Areas with deterioration grades of 4 and 5 were those with planar
damage. We determined that these areas require planar repair.
5 Repair Method for the Dome Wall
The outer surface of the wall will be repaired in the range indicated as Stage 2 areas,
as explained earlier. Chipping was planned to be done in units of 2 m 2 m. In
consideration of the need to afford workability and to control deterioration from
chipping, we decided that chipping for cross-sectional repair should be basically
done using a water jet.
In selecting materials for repair, the following items were considered. 1) Given
that the facility was a historical structure and a landmark in the district, we needed
to select materials that did not decease the textural and color unity of the existing
structure; 2) To prevent the intrusion of agents that cause deterioration, we planned
to select materials with low chloride diffusion velocities and high crack resistance;
and 3) As this structure was exposed to a severe cold environment, we decided to
select materials resistant to frost damage.
Part of the outer surface of the structure under repair is shown in Fig. 12.
Shotcreting was selected because it excels in workability and economy. We decided
1162 K. Hase et al.
Fig. 12 The outer surface of

the structure under repair
to use polymer cement mortar mixed with short fibers, because this material had
been used successfully as a repair material in cold regions.
On the other hand, for the repair of the inner surface of the wall, we decided to
repair the cracks wider than 0.2 mm in the lowest zone to enhance the aesthetic
appearance. The injection method was selected for repairing these cracks.
6 Conclusions
In this paper, we reported on the inspection, and the concept and methods for repair
based on the preventive maintenance for the North Breakwater Dome focusing on
walls. The major findings are as follows:
1) For the repair of the outer surface of the wall, the inspection results were sorted
by unit area of 2 m 2 m. The grade of deterioration for each unit was clarified
in 5 categories of planar and linear damages. The range of repair was decided
based on the grade of deterioration.
2) For the repair of the inner surface of the wall, which had played an important
role as a central tourist attraction of the area, aesthetic appearance was taken into
consideration in the evaluation. The range of repair was decided based on the
grade of deterioration categorized into 7, which was more detailed than the
5-grade categorization of deterioration for the outer surface.
3) At repairing, we put our efforts in securing aesthetic value and improving
durability by selecting materials which would not damage the unity in texture
and color of the North Breakwater Dome. Frost-resilient materials which would
prevent intrusion of agents causing deterioration were also selected.
Acknowledgements We would like to express our gratitude to the members of the Technical
Examination Committee for Wakkanai Harbor North Breakwater Dome for their cooperation in
realizing this study. At the time of onsite inspection, the persons in charge of the North Breakwater
Dome of the Wakkanai Port Office of Hokkaido Regional Development Bureau, City of
Wakkanai, and Cold Region Port and Harbor Engineering Research Centre assisted us in many
ways. We would like to thank all of the persons who cooperated in the onsite inspection.
References
1. JSCE-G-573 (2003) Measurement Method for Distribution of Total Chloride Ion in Concrete
Structure
2. ASTM C876, Standard Test Method for Half-Cell Potentials of Uncoated Reinforcing in
Concrete
Infrared Thermography for Detecting
Subsurface Defects of Concrete
Structures
Babar Nasim Khan Raja, Saeed Miramini, Colin Duffield,

and Lihai Zhang
Abstract Delamination is one of the serious types of deterioration in reinforced

concrete structures. It could cause concrete spalling, exposed steel bars, and ulti-
mately affects the structural integrity of concrete structures. Infrared thermography
(IRT) is a non-destructive technique which could potentially detect the delamina-
tion by capturing thermal contrast (ΔT) on concrete surface caused by the heat flow
disruption within the concrete due to subsurface anomalies. However, the optimum
time and environmental conditions for IRT data collection are still unclear. In this
study, an experimentally validated numerical model was developed to investigate
the effect of a range of environmental conditions and defect characteristics on the
IRT inspection outcomes. The results show that, under direct solar irradiation, the
total heat flux input plays an important role in the development of thermal contrast
ΔT instead of flux rate. Furthermore, delamination depth and size are two critical
parameters that affect IRT results.
Keywords Structural health monitoring Damage identification Infrared

thermography Delamination
B. N. K. Raja S. Miramini C. Duffield L. Zhang (&)

Department of Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC
3010, Australia
e-mail: lihzhang@unimelb.edu.au
B. N. K. Raja
e-mail: babarr@student.unimelb.edu.au
S. Miramini
e-mail: s.miramini@unimelb.edu.au
C. Duffield
e-mail: colinfd@unimelb.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_109
1166 B. N. K. Raja et al.
1 Introduction
The reinforced concrete structures are designed to carry large loads and are always
exposed to extreme weather conditions, such as thermal loadings, freeze and thaw
cycles and other ambient environmental conditions, thus they are subjected to
continuous degradation [17, 19]. Subsurface delamination is one of the major
problems affecting reinforced concrete structures and normally caused by corrosion
of reinforcing steel. Once the environmental agents penetrate the material and come
in contact with reinforcement bars, a layer of oxides begin to form on the rebar
surface which leads to the local expansion of steel. This expansion imposes the
local tensile stresses on concrete and eventually causes the cracking along rebar and
weakens the bond between reinforcement and concrete, ultimately causing sub-
surface delamination, cracking or even spalling of concrete [2, 19]. Delamination is
very common in concrete bridge decks and pavements where de-icing agents are
used [20]. Similarly, premature finishing of burnished slabs is another common
cause of delamination in concrete structures [11]. The delamination is normally not
detectable with routine inspection techniques and by the time it is detectable, it has
been widespread and urgent and extensive maintenance is required [7]. Early
detection and maintenance of delamination is essential to avoid uncontrolled
spalling and rebar exposure and to ensure the overall integrity of structure [24].
Traditionally, sounding techniques (hammer sounding or chain drag) are used
under the supervision of qualified engineer to detect the delaminations within the
concrete structure [8]. A clear ringing sound indicates an intact area while a dull or
hollow sound is an indication of delaminated area [6]. These techniques are very
subjective in nature as the quality of concrete is determined by generated sounds
heard by inspector. Further, such techniques require direct access to the structure,
and in case of bridges it may need the lane closure and traffic disruption which
limits the effectiveness of these methods [20].
Infrared thermography (IRT) is one the advanced and efficient way of rapid and
safe evaluation of concrete subsurface damages [15, 16, 18]. It uses the temperature
difference between intact and defected concrete areas to identify the potential
delamination in concrete. Every object with temperature over absolute zero radiates
energy to ambient environment based on their temperature and other physical
properties [5]. Infrared cameras are used to detect those radiations and convert them
into a thermal image, often called thermograph. The presence of any subsurface
anomaly, especially air void or delamination disrupt the heat transfer through the
mass and the influence is projected on the surface by variation in temperature
distribution [3].
Available IRT is categorized into two types, active and passive thermography.
Passive thermography uses the ambient environmental conditions to measure the
temperature difference in structures, whereas active thermographic techniques
require external stimulus to generate thermal gradient in the object [14]. Civil
engineering structures are usually large in size and external stimulation is not
economical for such structures. Therefore, passive infrared thermography is
Thermography for Detecting Subsurface Defects … 1167
commonly adopted method for these structures. ASTM D4788-03 [4] has defined a
standard test procedure for inspection of concrete bridge deck using passive IRT.
The standard defines some limitations for environmental conditions feasible for
accurate data collection of subsurface delamination.
Previous studies have highlighted some of the important parameters that effect
the passive IRT results including weather conditions, solar loading, wind speed,
size and depth of delamination. Regarding data collection time, there are lot of
inconsistencies in literature and different studies have different recommendations
based on their experimental conditions. Researchers have normally argued upon the
number of hours after sunrise and recommended a time frame suitable to collect the
data [1, 4, 9, 12, 21–25]. However, none of these studies defined the optimal
conditions and time for IR thermography. Effective critical parameters that affect
the results are identified as radiation heat flux, wind velocity, ambient temperature
as well as size and depth of delamination. The current study aims to address, how
radiation heat flux and defect parameters influence the data collection time using
experimental studies and numerical modelling. This study will come out with some
quantitative values to suggest the ideal time of data collection instead of a range of
time frame.
2 Methods
2.1 Materials
A reinforced concrete slab 500 500 175 mm was prepared for the experiment.
A Styrofoam of size 142 142 5 mm was used in center of slab to mimic the
internal defect as its thermal conductivity is very close to air. (air: 0.0241 W/moC,
Styrofoam: 0.033 W/moC) [9]. Figure 1 shows schematic diagram and photos of
test slab before and after casting. The sides of slabs were insulated using wooden
formwork to ensure no heat loss or gain from sides. Depth of delamination was kept
Fig. 1 Reinforced concrete test slab

63 mm to make is close to concrete bridge deck, as normal clear cover for deck slab
is 50 mm and delamination usually appears along the rebar.
The experimental setup for the infrared thermography is depicted in Fig. 2. The
setup consisted of four halogen lamps (500 W each) to irradiate the slab, an infrared
camera (FLIR T1050sc) for thermal images, a RS pro IM-750 solar power meter
(b) to determine radiation intensity and DigiTech weather station (c) for environ-
mental parameters recording.
At the beginning of experiment the environmental conditions (i.e., humidity and
ambient temperature) were recorded. The halogen lamps were used to heat up the slab
through irradiation and the radiation intensity was measured using solar power meter
in term of W/m2. The uniform heat flux was ensured on the slab surface by adjusting
the position, height and angle of halogen lamps. IR camera was used to record the
thermographs throughout the experiments. The camera was positioned perpendicular
to the slab at 1 m from surface. The thermal sensitivity of camera is less than 0.02 K
and frame rate was set to 30 Hz with image resolution of 1024 768 pixels. The slab
was heated up by halogen lamps for 60 min through face, facing towards the camera
and then allowed to cool down under ambient environmental conditions for further
60 min. The slab was placed on 3inches high wooden supports to allow air flow all
around the sample. Figure 2d shows a typical thermograph taken by IR camera during
the experiment. The thermal contrast developed between defected and sound region
was obtained by determining the absolute temperature difference between delami-
nated (Td) and intact region (Ts) as follow.
DT ¼ Td Ts ð1Þ
Fig. 2 Experimental setup and procedure

2.3 Numerical Modelling
Heat transfer module of commercially available COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS

software was used to simulate the experiments. A concrete slab of same geometric
parameters as of experiment was developed and Styrofoam was included inside the
concrete as delamination. The depth and size of delamination was also kept same
for initial model. The thermal properties of the materials were obtained from pre-
vious literature [6, 9, 22, 23] as presented in Table 1 below. Free tetrahedral ele-
ment with size ranging from 2 to 27.5 mm were chosen in the model through
convergence studies for computational accuracy and efficiency.
Heat flux from halogen lamps was simulated as external radiation source. The
source distance and power were adjusted accordingly to attain the uniform heat flux
over slab surface. In addition, to attain desired spectral distribution, the source
temperature was also adjusted accordingly. The heat exchange between slab and
surrounding are modelled as boundary conditions. The heat exchange between
surrounding and slab takes place through convection, conduction and radiation. As,
the conduction between slab and air is very low and hard to quantify, a combined
coefficient for conduction and convection (hc) is adopted. The heat transfer equation
is expressed as:
qcon ¼ hc ðTc Ta Þ ð2Þ
where, hc is convective heat transfer coefficient (W/(m2. K)), Tc is the concrete

surface temperature and Ta is the surrounding air temperature (K). Kelhbeck [13]
has recommended an empirical formula to estimate the heat transfer coefficient for
the concrete box girder as follow:
hc ¼ 3:83v þ c ð3Þ
v is wind velocity around the surface and c is constant based on orientation of

surface. Finally, the heat exchange from slab to surrounding through radiation (long
wavelength) is given by:

qr ¼ e rTa4 rTc4 ð4Þ
Table 1 Thermal properties Material properties Concrete Styrofoam

of materials used for
modelling Thermal conductivity (W/m.K) 1.7 0.024
Specific heat (J/kg.K) 900 1130
Density (kg/m3) 2300 25
Solar absorption coefficient 0.65 –
Surface emissivity 0.92 –
where, r is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant = 5.677 10 −8 W/(m2. K4), and e is

the emissivity of the material.
Initially the system was considered under equilibrium with surrounding area and
initial temperature was taken as ambient environmental temperature. (Tin. = Tamb. =
24 °C). The sides of slab were taken fully insulated to make sure no heat exchange
between side and surroundings.
3.1 Experimental Results and Numerical Model Validation
Once the experiment setup was completed, the test slab was subjected to external
radiations through halogen lamps. The height and angle of lamps were adjusted and
a uniform heat flux of 220 W/m2 was achieved thorough out the surface of slab. To
ascertain the uniformity of radiation, the solar power meter shown in Fig. 2b, was
used to measure the flux at all four corners as well as middle of the slab. The slab
was irradiated for 60 min and then allowed to cool down under ambient environ-
mental conditions (surrounding temperature 24 °C and humidity 40%). Change in
temperature on slab surface was recorded with IR camera with an average sampling
frequency of 30 Hz throughout the experiment, the results are averaged over the
interval of 15 s and are presented in Fig. 3. The same experimental scenario was
then numerically simulated using FEM software COMSOL Multiphysics and
thermal outputs on surface are plotted in Fig. 3 along with the experimental results.
The absolute thermal contrast is obtained using Eq. 1. The numerical predictions
and experimental results match rationally well. Figure 3a shows the total heat flux
and absolute thermal contrast and Fig. 3b presents the surface temperature on slab
over sound (Ts) and delaminated (Td) areas.
2.5 300 32
radiant flux Td (experimental)
2 200 Ts (experimental)
External irridiaon (W/m2)
30
Experimental result Td (numerical )
1.5 Ts (Numerical )
Numerical predictions 100
28
Irridiation
abs. thermal contrast
(oC)
T (oC)
1 0
26
0.5 -100
24
0 -200
-0.5 -300 22
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Time (min) Time (min)
a) b)
Fig. 3 Experimental and numerical results. a absolute thermal contrast b surface temperature of
slab for sound and defected areas
The presence of water or moisture content on surface can interfere the quality of
thermal contrast. This would become consideration after the rainfall event. As water
has higher thermal mass and different emissivity than concrete so it can disrupt the
thermographic images to some extent [24]. Also, if the water saturates the
delamination, the thermal contrast will be lost as the water has much higher thermal
conductivity than air. Similarly, the object colour is one of the important compo-
nents that defines the surface emissivity. So, for different surface colour of concrete
there can be difference in the obtained thermal contrast.
3.2 Numerical Parametric Studies
After numerical model validation against experimental results, a series of para-

metric studies are conducted with the model. Some researches [8, 10, 22] have
identified that different radiation intensities has no significant impact on thermal
contrast development, rather the total heat input getting into the system controls the
thermal contrast development. The parametric study was thus focused to understand
the effect of radiations and geometric parameters of defect on development of
detectable thermal contrast with IR camera. The modern infrared cameras has
sensitivity as low as 0.02 °C however, ASTM D4788-03 [4] recommends a min-
imum of 0.5 °C thermal contrast as a safe detectable contrast.
This study is then designed such that, we get both the effect of radiations
intensity and total heat input along with the defect parameters on thermal contrast
development. A 0.5 °C temperature difference is considered as safe detectable
thermal contrast for infrared thermography. The model parameters used for
numerical study are summarized in Table 2.
Table 2 Irradiation conditions for parametric study

No. Type 1 Type 2 Total heat flux/total heat
Irradiation Time Irradiation Time input (W-hr/m2)
(W/m2) (min) (W/m2) (min)
1 220 60 110 120 220
2 300 60 150 120 300
3 400 60 200 120 400
4 500 60 250 120 500
5 600 60 300 120 600
6 700 60 350 120 700
7 800 60 400 120 800
8 900 60 450 120 900
The total heat input is taken as hourly average of radiation intensity (W/m2)
integrated over the time and presented in term W-hr/m2. The total heat input applied to
the system is varied from 220 W-hr/m2 to 900 W-hr/m2 under two different types of
radiation intensities (heating rate) and heating durations (i.e., Type 1 with higher heat
intensity and short duration, and Type 2 for lower heat intensity and longer heating
duration). For both cases, the total heat input was kept constant in order to see the
effect of heating rate and durations. The values of irradiation were chosen such that, it
could be associated with the diurnal solar radiation variation. Also, the hourly average
was adopted as the results are intended to present guidelines for passive thermography
for non-destructive health assessment in practice. To incorporate the effect of geo-
metric parameters of defects (i.e. size and depth), different geometric parameters are
defined (Table 3) for the above described parametric heating conditions. As in con-
ventional reinforced concrete structures the delaminations usually appear around
depth of 25 to 65 mm, a same depth range is considered for parametric study and
delamination area is considered from 50 to 300 cm2.
3.2.1 Numerical Results
As illustrated in Fig. 3a, the maximum contrast appears somewhere in early cooling
phase. However, to avoid unquantifiable correlation between heat input and thermal
contrast, the peak contrast achieved during cooling phase is considered as sup-
plementary rise in contrast. And the maximum contrast taken as the one at the end
of heating phase only. Figure 4 presents the results of numerical parametric study,
where the slab was irradiated with two different types of radiation intensity and
durations as shown in Tables 2 and 3. Figure 4a shows the effect of total heat input
on absolute thermal contrast (ΔT) development for different depths of delamination
under aforementioned radiation types. It has been observed that absolute thermal
contrast (ΔT) has linear relationship with total heat input. However, the rate of
change in ΔT with total heat input varies with the depth of delamination and is more
sensitive for relatively shallow delamination. Similarly, for shallow depths it’s not
just total heat input that governs the thermal contrast development, but the radiation
intensity also plays a significant role. For example, as seen in Fig. 4a for a 25 mm
deep delamination under same total heat input but different radiation intensity (Type
1 and Type 2) ΔT is different. With increase in depth of delamination, this differ-
ence gradually reduces and in our case for example for a 63 mm deep delamination,
the ΔT values almost overlap for both Type 1 and Type 2 heating conditions.
Therefore, the governing factor is total heat input only for deep delamination.
Table 3 Defect parameters Parametric Study Depth z, (mm) Area A, (cm2)

25 37 50 63 50 100 200 300
Heating Type 1 & Type 2
condition
Figure 4b is extracted from 4a to ascertain the amount of heat input required to

generate a detectable thermal contrast (i.e., 0.5 °C) for different depths. Total heat
input for half degree Celsius thermal contrast development is plotted as a function
of depth for a 200 cm2 delamination. It is found that almost 350 W-hr/m2 of total
heat input can generate a detectable thermal contrast for up to 63 mm deep
delamination regardless of heating duration and time.
With the increase in area, an increase in thermal contrast is observed for same
heat input. Also, for small size delamination, the radiation intensity and duration
have more impact on thermal contrast development than for large sizes. Figure 4d
shows the amount of heat energy required to generate a thermal contrast of 0.5 °C
as a function of delamination area at a depth of 50 mm from surface. It is observed
that once the delamination area reaches 300 cm2 the effect of area on contrast
development vanishes for both total heat input as well as radiation intensity and
duration. So, it would be safe to conclude that, for a delamination size 300 cm2 or
higher a total amount of heat input of 350 W-hr/m2 can generate a safe detectable
thermal contrast for up to 63 mm deep defects.
A strong positive linear correlation has been found between total heat input and
delamination depth regardless of radiation intensity and duration (Type 1 and Type 2)
as shown in Fig. 5. This could be helpful in determining the depth of delamination
considering the developed thermal contrast and size of delamination.
Fig. 4 Numerical parametric study results a total heat input vs abs. thermal contrast for different
depths of delamination (area 200 cm2). b total heat required to generate 0.5 °C thermal contrast for
different depths. c total heat input vs. abs. thermal contrast for different areas of delamination
(depth 50 mm). d total heat input required to generate 0.5 °C thermal contrast for different areas
400
Total heat input (W-hr/m2)

Irradiaon type 1
Irradiaon type 2 R² = 0.9997
300
R² = 0.9875
200
100
0
500 1500 2500 3500 4500
Depth square z2 (mm2)
Fig. 5 Total heat flux as a function of square of depth of delamination to develop a thermal
contrast of 0.5 °C (area of delamination 200 cm2)
4 Conclusions
Infrared thermography has is a useful NDT technique for quick scanning of rein-
forced concrete structures. Due to large size of RC structures, usually passive
thermography is adopted. This technique depends upon environmental heat sources
and hence very sensitive to environmental conditions. The primary heat source for
passive thermography is solar radiations. In addition, the thermographic result is
dependent upon the defect parameters itself. In this study, we experimentally and
numerically investigated the influence of these parameters (external irradiation, size
and depth of delamination) on IRT result. The following are the major conclusions.
• The numerical model developed for this study, simulates the experimental data
reasonably well.
• The thermal contrast (ΔT) development in RC structures due to subsurface
defects has a positive linear relationship with total heat influx into the system. In
addition, heat flux rate and duration have a certain impact on DT based on
geometric characteristic of delamination.
• The influence of radiation heat flux and duration is more prominent for shallow
delamination and reduces with the of the delamination depth. Similarly, radia-
tion flux and duration have positive impact on detection of small size delami-
nation, but this impact diminishes with the increase delamination size (i.e.,
300 cm2 in our case).
• There is a linear relationship between delamination depth and the total heat input
required to generate a certain ΔT.
In summary, after certain depth and size of delamination (63 and 300 cm2 for
our study) the radiation duration and intensity has least effect on thermal contrast
development independently. It is the total heat input that governs the DT
development. Therefore, instead of suggesting a time range (usually number of

hours of sunlight) a correlation between total heat input and thermal contrast has
been established in this study. It is found that almost 350 W-hr/m2 of heat input is
required to generate a thermal contrast of 0.5 °C for up to 63 mm deep delami-
nation in reinforced concrete structures. The research outcomes of this paper could
potentially provide a useful guideline for optimal data collection time period for
IRT inspectors in real field environment.
Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank the Australian Research Council (ARC
IH150100006), Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan and The University of Melbourne
for their support.
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Estimating Remaining Ductility
of Corroded Steel by Using Surface
Roughness Characteristics Based
on Tensile Coupon Test Results
N. Gathimba and Y. Kitane
Abstract Corrosion may cause not only a reduction in thickness but a change in
the surface geometry, as well. Recent studies have shown that ductility capacity is
reduced by the presence of corrosion surface roughness. The current study inves-
tigated the role of the surface roughness in the reduction of the static ductility.
Standard uniaxial tensile tests were conducted on corroded steel plates exhibiting
varying surface roughness characteristics. The specimens were obtained from nat-
urally corroded steels having different material properties and corroded in different
environments. First, 3D surface heights measurements were performed to obtain
surface profile data for statistical quantification of surface roughness features. The
remaining load and elongation capacities were determined experimentally from the
tensile tests. The distribution of the surface strains was studied employing digital
image correlation techniques. From this work, the mechanism of ductility decrease
was confirmed to proceed as follows: Surface unevenness due to corrosion was
found to cause stress concentration and uneven yielding, and strain localization
after yielding during the tensile test. This translates to an early necking initiation,
resulting in reduced ductility in corroded specimens. Finally, empirical equations
for estimating remaining ductility of corroded steel based on surface roughness
characteristics are proposed.

Keywords Corrosion Ductility Surface roughness Digital image correlation
Residual capacity
N. Gathimba (&)
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nagoya University,
Nagoya 464-8603, Japan
e-mail: gathimba.naftary.kimenju@i.mbox.nagoya-u.ac.jp
Y. Kitane
e-mail: kitane.yasuo.2x@kyoto-u.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_110
1178 N. Gathimba and Y. Kitane
1 Introduction
One of the important characteristics that have made carbon steel to become a
commonly preferred construction material in structural engineering is its high
ductility. In this study, ductility is defined as elongation of steel at fracture or at the
maximum load divided by the elongation at yield. Nevertheless, the steel is highly
prone to corrosion damage. Corrosion may cause a change in surface geometry in
addition to a reduction in thickness. A reduction in the thickness results in reduced
load-bearing capacity. However, ductility may not be significantly affected when
there is minimal variation in the surface configuration [8]. Studies on ductility
performance of steel with respect to surface geometry are very limited.
Ductility has been reported to decrease in a decreasing manner as the coefficient
of variation (COV) of the remaining thickness of a corroded specimen increased
[7]. In a recent study on the behavior of corroded steel subjected to cyclic loading
[3], it has been reported that the hysteretic energy dissipation capacity decreases
with an increase in surface roughness. However, it remains unresolved how static
ductility can be determined based on the surface roughness characteristics.
The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the role of corrosion surface roughness
in ductility reduction and hence seek possible ways of estimating remaining duc-
tility based on the surface roughness characteristics. To this end, thickness mea-
surement, as well as, analysis of thickness loss and surface roughness
characteristics, for steel plates corroded in different natural environments, and
having different material properties have been carried out. Then, the remaining load
and elongation capacities have been determined experimentally from the standard
uniaxial tensile test. From the distribution of surface strains, identified using DIC
techniques, the mechanism of ductility decrease due to surface roughness has been
clarified. In addition, regression models for estimating ductility based on surface
roughness characteristics are proposed.
2 Materials and Test Methods
2.1 Specimens Fabrication
The specimens were prepared from five different structural steel members, namely,
a bridge girder, sheet piles, weathering steel plates, channel sections, and a web of
H-section, corroded in different environments and possessing different material
properties. A total of 128 coupon specimens were prepared. Figure 1 shows the
sequence of preparing specimens from a typical corroded member. Corroded
coupon specimens were prepared by welding a corroded rectangular plate to
uncorroded tapered grip tabs to create a typical tensile coupon specimen (#5 in JIS
Z2241). The control specimens were prepared by removing corrosion unevenness
via milling, as shown in Fig. 1(d). Removing corrosion unevenness results in a
Estimating Remaining Ductility of Corroded Steel … 1179
smaller thickness of control specimens than the average thickness of corroded

specimens, which may affect the elongation in the tensile test. According to BS EN
ISO 2566-1 [2], a specimen with a cross section of 25 mm 4 mm can be esti-
mated to have a smaller elongation than a specimen with a cross section of
25 mm 6 mm by several percent. Therefore, the effect of thickness reduction, as
a result of removing the corrosion unevenness, on the elongation capacity of the
control specimens is found to be insignificant.
2.2 Instrumentation and Testing
First, the surface of the corroded coupon specimens was cleaned sufficiently so as to
remove corrosion products adhered to the surface using sand-blasting method,
while ensuring that the underlying surface profile was left unaltered as much as
possible. Then, the surface profiles on the corroded coupon specimens were mea-
sured using a laser displacement meter, for characterizing the condition of the
surface, as well as for estimating the remaining thickness. A 500 kN capacity
material testing machine was used in conducting the tensile tests. Specimens were
subjected to monotonic uniaxial tension by displacement control where the loading
rate was set at 0.1 and 1 mm/min before and after the onset of strain hardening,
respectively. During the loading, photographs were taken at a 5-s interval for
purposes of strain measurements over the entire gauge length section, measuring
50 mm long, using digital image correlation (DIC) techniques in order to obtain the
strain distribution characteristics.
(c) Corroded specimen

Uniform
cross Removed
section material
(a) Plate extraction (b) Marking out
from a corroded bridge cutting location
(d) Control specimen
Fig. 1 Sequence of preparing test specimens from a corroded steel bridge member
3.1 Surface Roughness Characteristics
Surface roughness data was obtained by removal of the nominal form, i.e., sub-
tracting a first order linear least squares mean plane from the measured surface
heights data. Surface roughness parameters, specified by ISO 25178-2 [6], were
then calculated on the resultant surface profile. A brief description of the roughness
parameters considered in the current study is given in Table 1. Parameters were
calculated for both the top and bottom surfaces of the coupon, and the average value
of the two surfaces was calculated for each specimen and used for subsequent
discussions.
Results of the computed surface roughness parameters are summarized in Fig. 2.
The largest variability of the surface roughness parameters was observed in the
bridge girder specimens. The relative standard deviation for the Sz, Sa, Sdq, and Sdr
parameters was calculated as 80, 106, 46 and 44%, respectively, depicting signif-
icantly varying corrosion surface characteristics. Detailed results of the surface
roughness parameters for the specimens from the channel section are shown in
Table 2.
Table 1 Description of the considered surface roughness parameters

Attribute Parameter Expression Remarks
name
Amplitude Maximum Sz ¼ Sp þ jSvj ¼ Sp Sv Sp and Sv are the maximum
parameters surface peak and valley heights,
height respectively
nx

Average P
ny P g xi ; yj ; is the roughness data
Sa ¼ nx1ny g xi ; yj
surface j¼1 i¼1 matrix of size nx by ny
height
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Hybrid Root mean Pny P nx q2ij is the surface slope at a
parameters square Sdq ¼ A1 q2ij point, A is the planar surface
j¼2 i¼2
gradient area representing the
uncorroded surface
!
Developed y 1 nP
nP x 1 Aij is the incremented surface
interfacial Sdr ¼ 1
A Aij A area due to surface roughness
j¼1 i¼1
area ratio
Table 2 Surface roughness parameters and deformation indices for the specimen from the
channel section
Specimen Sz Sa Sdq Sdr Elongation (%) Plastic ductility
name (mm) (mm) Uniform Total Uniform Total
1C1-C1 – – – – 16.4 29.8 48.0 87.3
1C1-C2 – – – – 15.7 30.1 44.0 84.7
1C1-1 1.32 0.121 0.187 0.153 12.0 16.2 34.4 46.5
1C2-4 1.39 0.147 0.184 0.155 12.3 19.7 35.4 56.4
1C2-5 1.58 0.193 0.214 0.178 8.76 10.6 25.1 30.3
1C2-6 1.68 0.229 0.237 0.190 9.66 14.0 27.7 40.1
1C3-2 1.15 0.110 0.167 0.142 8.28 10.1 23.8 29.0
1C3-3 1.19 0.130 0.181 0.152 10.9 15.9 31.2 45.6
1C3-4 1.01 0.110 0.171 0.143 11.3 15.5 32.3 44.4
1C3-5 1.89 0.163 0.240 0.199 10.5 13.7 30.1 39.3
2C1-1 0.817 0.0572 0.170 0.142 15.7 25.5 45.1 73.3
2C1-2 1.04 0.0895 0.197 0.163 12.5 15.3 35.8 44.0
2C1-5 1.10 0.121 0.209 0.175 10.6 13.0 30.4 37.4
3.85 0.6
H-section
3.35 Sheet piles 0.5
Bridge girder
2.85
Channel section
0.4
Sa (mm), Sdq, Sdr

2.35 Weathering steel
Sz (mm)
1.85 0.3
1.35 0.2
0.85
0.1
0.35
0
-0.15
Sz Sa Sdq Sdr
Roughness parameter name
-0.65 -0.1
Fig. 2 Amplitude and hybrid surface roughness parameters for different specimens
3.2 Tensile Tests Results
3.2.1 Load-Elongation Characteristics
Typical load-elongation curves for the tested coupon specimens are shown in Fig. 3
using specimens from the channel section. The control specimens, which do not have
corroded surface, are denoted by suffices “C1”, “C2” and “C3”. Elongation was
expressed as percent elongation for the gauge length of 50 mm. The elongation
indices used for quantifying the elongation capacity are: uniform elongation, dm ,
which is the elongation at the point of the maximum load, total elongation, df , which is
the elongation at fracture, and necking elongation, dneck , which is the elongation
measured from the point of maximum load up to the fracture point ¼ df dm . The
computed elongation indices for the specimens from the channel section are tabulated
in Table 2.
The control specimens exhibit a significantly reduced load-bearing capacity due
to their reduced tmean resulting from the removal of corrosion unevenness. However,
the elongation capacity of these control specimens is more than that of the corroded
specimens. For example, specimen 1C1-C1 (tmean = 3.5 mm) has a df of 30% of the
initial gauge length, while the df of specimen 2C1-1 (tmean = 5.5 mm) that showed
the longest elongation among the corroded specimens, is 26%.
Again, a clearly defined yield plateau is manifested once the surface roughness is
eliminated from the control specimens, as can be seen on the inset in Fig. 3. The
yield plateau region represents the formation of Lüders bands [5], where the
material undergoes plastic deformation at the same rate until the whole gauge length
becomes fully-plastically deformed. For the corroded specimens, the absence of this
stable deformation region implies that initiation of yielding and consequently,
plastic deformation occur at different times. Therefore, surface unevenness causes
non-uniform yielding.
The dneck for the corroded specimens ranges from 13% to 52% of the dneck of the
control specimen. The dneck for the corroded specimens varies from 17% to 38% of
the df of the individual specimen, while the dneck of the control specimen was 47%
of df . The necking zone corresponds to the zone of diffuse and localized necking,
70
60 50
50
40
Load (kN)
40
30
30 0 2 4 6
20 1C1-C2 1C1-C1 1C1-1 1C2-4
1C2-5 1C2-6 1C3-2 1C3-3
10 1C3-4 1C3-5 2C1-1 2C1-2
2C1-5
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Elongation (%)
Fig. 3 Load–elongation curves for coupons from the channel sections

and it is a characteristic of a ductile material, where material undergoes a significant

localized plastic deformation before final fracture [1]. The reduction of the necking
feature results in failure occurring immediately after the maximum load. Therefore,
surface roughness may result in early failure.
3.2.2 Deformation Capacity
The deformation capacity defined by elongation and ductility was investigated in

this section. In terms of elongation, two types of ductility indices can be defined as
follows: uniform plastic ductility, lm ¼ dm =dy , and total plastic ductility,
lf ¼ df =dy , where dy is the elongation at yield. The value of dy was taken as the
yield elongation of the control specimen, since the yield point is not clearly defined
for severely corroded specimens, as was noted in Fig. 3. The yield point was taken
as the upper yield point.
Figure 4 shows the mean values ± the standard deviation of ductility indices for
different specimen sources. Detailed results of the computed deformation indices
for the specimens from the channel section are included in Table 2. In plotting
Fig. 4, the ductility values have been normalized by the ductility of the respective
control specimens. The specimens from the sheet piles exhibited the highest
reduction in the deformation capacity. Among the specimens shown, the sheet pile
specimens had the roughest surface. Thus, the rougher the surface, the more the
reduction in deformation capacity.
A general trend in Fig. 4 is that the reduction in lm is lower than the reduction in
lf : For instance, specimens from the channel section had a reduction of 31% and
49% in lm and lf , respectively, which leads to the reduced dneck as discussed in
Sect. 3.2.1.
1.2
μm
1
Nomalized ductility
μf
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
Channel sheet piles H-section weathering
section steel
Specimen source
Fig. 4 Deformation capacity for corroded specimens having different material properties
3.3 Effects of Surface Roughness on Strain Distribution
Strains over the entire gauge length section were measured employing a DIC
software. Strain distribution was examined at three loading stages, i.e., Stage 1: at
an elongation of 0.5%, Stage 2: at the maximum load and, Stage 3: just before final
fracture. Table 3 shows the distribution of remaining thickness and surface
roughness for specimen N2-1, one of the corroded specimens from the bridge
girder. The remaining thickness values vary between 1.0 mm and 9.0 mm. The
surface height values fluctuate within a range of 3.5 mm and 4.3 mm on the sides
‘A’ and ‘B’, respectively. Due to these thickness variation and surface unevenness,
variation in surface strains due to differential straining is anticipated.
Table 4 shows the distribution of the in-plane tensile strains on the surface of the
specimen N2-1 and the corresponding control specimen X1-C1. The maximum
strain value was set to a value of 5, 20, and 40% for the different stages of loading
for ease of comparison between specimens with different levels of corrosion. For
specimen X1-C1, Stage 1 corresponds to the yield plateau region. For this speci-
men, uniform plastic deformation initiated from the edges of the gauge length and
progressed towards the mid-section forming the Lüders bands, as seen in Table 4.
The strain varied from 0 to 2.4%. For specimen N2-1, strain concentration was
manifested at Stage 1. Strain values in specimen N2-1 varied from 0 to 5.5%, where
approximately 0.3% of the gauge length area has strain values of over 5.0%. The
valleys on the surface act as stress raisers which leads to stress concentration and
consequently strain concentration, i.e. non-uniformity in strain distribution.
A significant non-uniform strain distribution was observed at Stage 2 for the
corroded specimen. Whereas surface strains varied from 10 to 24% for specimen
X1-C1, the values varied from 0 to 51% for N2-1. Strain is more localized for the
corrosion case (N2-1), as can be seen in Table 4. As an illustration, specimen N2-1
Table 3 Typical distribution of surface roughness and remaining thickness
Surface roughness: Surface roughness:

Remaining thickness
Side A Side B
N2-1
Table 4 Comparison between surface strain distribution, at different levels of loading, for
specimens with and without surface roughness
Stage 1: At an Stage 2: At the Stage 3: Before the final

elongation of 0.5% maximum load fracture
X1-C1
N2-1
has an area of 4.1% of the total gauge length area undergoing straining of over 20%,
while for the specimen X1-C1, the percent area experiencing strains of over 20% is
about 11%. For the control specimen, strain localization may initiate at this point,
which is the onset of necking.
Past Stage 2, the geometry of the specimens starts to change as a result of the
initiation of diffuse necking. As the specimen approaches fracture point, strain
localization becomes more apparent, as is manifested in Table 4. For instance, at
Stage 3, about 12% of the gauge length area experiences a strain of over 40% for
the specimen X1-C1, while it is only 4.7% for the specimens N2-1. Therefore, it can
be seen that strain localization for specimen with corrosion roughness is more
pronounced than for the uncorroded specimens although the failure strains, ef , for
these specimens are almost equal at the fracture initiation point (ef ¼ 68.0% for X1-
C1 and 67.6% for N2-1).
In conclusion, corrosion surface unevenness causes stress and strain concen-
tration and non-uniform yielding. Thereafter, strain localization after yielding
occurs during the tensile test. This translates to an early necking initiation, resulting
in reduced ductility in corroded specimens. In addition, the reduced dneck resulting
in early failure, i.e., failure occurring immediately after the maximum load.
Fig. 5 Normalized ductility 1.2

Channel section
Normalized uniform ductility

versus average surface height
Bridge girder
ratio 1 Sheet piles
H-section
0.8 Weathering steel
Prediction, m
m + 2e
0.6 m - 2e
0.4
0.2
0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2
Average surface height ratio, ζSa
Table 5 Values of the Ductility index Surface roughness parameter ratio

coefficient k and the
fSz fSa
estimation error e for the
proposed equations m
l k = 2.2, e = 0.11 k = 19, e = 0.10
f
l k = 3.7, e = 0.12 k = 33, e = 0.11
3.4 Development of Ductility-Surface Roughness

Relationships
Empirical relationships between ductility and surface roughness parameters were

derived in the form given in Eq. (1) through regression analysis (Gathimba and
Kitane [4].
1
¼
l ð1Þ
1 þ kfp
where l is the normalized uniform or total plastic ductility of the corroded steel, fp
is a roughness parameter ratio obtained by normalizing a particular surface
roughness parameter with tmean , and k is a constant. Figure 5 shows a typical
combined plot for the tested specimens, where the trend of the normalized uniform
m with average surface height ratio, fSa ¼ Sa=tmean , is shown as m e,
ductility, l
where m is the mean, and e is the standard error of the estimation. Empirical
relationships of the form given by Eq. (1) were developed utilizing data from all the
specimens. A summary of the value of coefficient k and the value of e for different
ductility indices and surface roughness parameter ratios are given in Table 5. In the
f = normalized plastic ductility and fSz ¼ Sz=tmean .
table, l
4 Conclusions
From an experimental investigation on the influence of corrosion roughness on the

ductility of naturally corroded steel, the following conclusions can be made:
(1) Surface unevenness due to corrosion causes stress concentration and uneven
yielding, and strain localization after yielding during the tensile test which
translates to an early necking initiation, resulting in reduced ductility in cor-
roded specimens.
(2) Ductility decreases with an increase in surface roughness parameters ratio, fp
where the rate of ductility decrease is significantly reduced as the parameters
increase.
(3) The remaining ductility using surface roughness parameters can be estimated
by Eq. (1) for corroded specimens tested in this study.
References
1. Abbassi F, Mistou S, Pantalé O, Zghal A (2015) FE simulation and full-field strain

measurements to evaluate the necking phenomena. In: Procedia manufacturing, pp 500–504
2. British Standards Institution (1999) BS EN ISO 2566-1: Steel. Conversion of elongation
values. Carbon and low alloy steels. BSI
3. Burke S, Bruneau M (2016) Effect of surface roughness on cyclic ductility of corroded steel.
J Struct Eng 142(6):4016014
4. Gathimba N, Kitane Y (2019) Numerical investigation on the effect of surface roughness on the
ductility of steel plates corroded in marine environments subjected to tensile loading. J Struct
Eng (JSCE) 65A:63–75
5. Hallai JF, Kyriakides S (2011) On the effect of Lüders bands on the bending of steel tubes. Part
I: Experiments. Int J Solids Struct 48(24):3275–3284
6. ISO 25178-2 (2012) Geometrical product specification (GPS)—Surface texture: Areal-Part 2:
Terms, definitions and surface texture parameters. International Organization for
Standardization
7. Kariya A, Tagaya K, Kaita T, Fujii K (2005) Mechanical strength of corroded plates under
tensile force. In: Hara (ed) Collaboration and Harmonization in creative systems. Taylor and
Francis Group, pp 105–110
8. Wang Y, Xu S, Wang H, Li A (2017) Predicting the residual strength and deformability of
corroded steel plate based on the corrosion morphology. Constr Build Mater 152:777–793
Risk Estimation of Bridges and Bridge
Networks Under Seismic
and Subsequent Tsunami Hazards
H. Ishibashi, T. Kojima, K. Nanami,

M. Akiyama, and D. M. Frangopol
Abstract A procedure for estimating risk of road structures subjected to seismic

ground motion and subsequent tsunami is proposed. In the 2011 Great East Japan
earthquake, many bridges and embankments were severely damaged due to the
strong ground motion and/or subsequent tsunami. The damage to these structures
caused significant economic losses associated with the reconstruction and disrup-
tion of the road network. Given a limited budget, it is important to estimate the
economic loss due to the damage to structures in road networks and determine the
retrofitting prioritization for effective risk mitigation. In an illustrative example, the
risk of road networks under both seismic and tsunami hazards caused by the
anticipated Nankai Trough earthquake is estimated. The numerical results show that
the retrofitting prioritization can be determined by comparing the risk of road
networks.
Keywords Risk Bridge Road network Seismic hazard Tsunami hazard
H. Ishibashi T. Kojima K. Nanami

M. Akiyama (&)
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Waseda University, Shinjuku-ku,
Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: akiyama617@waseda.jp
H. Ishibashi
e-mail: hirokiishibashi@toki.waseda.jp
T. Kojima
e-mail: t-koji.h080077ms@asagi.waseda.jp
K. Nanami
e-mail: 4.nanaken.773@fuji.waseda.jp
D. M. Frangopol
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA,
USA
e-mail: dan.frangopol@lehigh.edu

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_111
1190 H. Ishibashi et al.
1 Introduction
Field investigations conducted after the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake con-
firmed that many road structures were inflicted severe damage due to the strong
ground motion and/or subsequent tsunami. For example, although RC bridge piers
of Utatsu Bridge on Route 45 were retrofitted by jacketing before the 2011 Great
East Japan earthquake to improve their seismic capacity against the strong ground
motion, the superstructure was washed away by giant tsunami [1]. It is of vital
importance to identify the dominant hazard when developing the retrofitting strat-
egy of infrastructures.
Since bridges are most vulnerable components in road networks, it is necessary
to pay special attention to prevent their damage [2]. In addition, the damage to
bridges caused significant economic losses and degradation of the functionality of
bridge networks. Therefore, it is important to determine the retrofitting prioritization
based on not only structural reliability but also risk considering the associated
consequence in terms of monetary loss, personal injury and death, and environ-
mental damage [3].
In this paper, a flowchart for estimating the risk of road networks subjected to
both seismic and tsunami hazards is presented. It is expected that economic losses
due to the damage to road structures resulting from the anticipated Nankai Trough
earthquake would be larger than those resulting from the 2011 Great East Japan
earthquake. In an illustrative example, the risk given the occurrence of anticipated
Nankai Trough earthquake is estimated. The procedure of risk-based retrofitting
prioritization of road structures is presented.
2 Risk Estimation of Road Networks Under Seismic

and Tsunami Hazards
Figure 1 shows the procedure of risk estimation of road networks subjected to both
strong ground motion and tsunami caused by the anticipated Nankai Trough
earthquake. The seismic and tsunami faults are modeled considering uncertainties
associated with the average stress drop and slip angle based on the parameters
provided by Cabinet Office, Government of Japan [4]. These fault parameters are
used to estimate the seismic and tsunami intensities.
Non-linear dynamic analysis is performed in the seismic fragility analyses of
bridges and embankments. The amplitudes of seismic waves provided by Cabinet
Office, Government of Japan [4] are adjusted to be equal to specified seismic
intensities.
Hydrodynamic wave forces are calculated by the software CADMAS-SURF/3D
[5] and used in Push-over analysis to estimate tsunami fragility curves of bridges. In
addition, vertical wave forces are estimated to check against floating of the bridge
Risk Estimation of Bridges and Bridge Networks … 1191
Fig. 1 Procedure of risk estimation of road networks under both strong ground motion and
tsunami caused by anticipated Nankai Trough earthquake
superstructures. For the tsunami fragility curve of embankments, the threshold

associated with the depth of overflow was determined according to Shuto [6]. In the
procedure shown in Fig. 1, the tsunami fragility is evaluated taking into consid-
eration the damage due to the seismic ground motion before the tsunami arrival.
Failure probabilities are estimated using equations shown in Fig. 1, where Pfbt (i,
j) and Pfet (i, j) are the conditional failure probabilities that bridge and embankment with
seismic damage states dsbi and dsei become the damage state dsbj and dsej due to the
tsunami, respectively, fFW jHðfw jhÞ is the probability density function of FW when the
tsunami wave height H is equal to h, and fH (h) is the probability density function of H.
The economic loss Lrisk is defined as the sum of the direct and indirect loss as
shown in Fig. 1, where Ldir is the anticipated direct loss of bridges and
embankments in the road network. The direct loss is calculated by multiplying the
failure probability and recovery cost. Lind is the indirect loss due to the increment of
the running time and traveling distance. This loss is estimated based on the func-
tionality deterioration and recovery time of the road network. The economic
effectiveness of retrofitting can be evaluated by using the benefit cost ratio (BCR).
A retrofitting is efficient if BCR is larger than 1.0.
3 Illustrative Example
Links in the road network shown in Fig. 2 are used in this case study. Old and new
bridges in the road network were designed according to the Japanese seismic
specifications published in 1964 and 1996, respectively [7, 8]. The design param-
eters of embankments were determined according to Shinoda [9].
Figure 3 shows the numerical results of BCR. It is assumed that only an old
bridge or an embankment in the road network is retrofitted. As shown in Fig. 3, the
retrofitting of Bridges 8 and 9 significantly results in large BCRs. The retrofitting of
these bridges can decrease failure probabilities effectively because tsunami hazard
intensity can be smaller with the increasing distance from the coastline. Therefore,
the highest priority should be given to the retrofitting Bridges 8 and 9.
North
8
C
E
Link 3
New bridge A
D
Old bridge
Embankment South
Fig. 2 Schematic layouts of the investigated road network

Risk Estimation of Bridges and Bridge Networks … 1193
Benefit cost ration (BCR) 10
2
BCR = 1
Fig. 3 Estimation results of risk
4 Conclusions
The procedure of estimating the risk of road networks under both seismic and
tsunami hazards was proposed. In an illustrative example, the risk given the
occurrence of the anticipated Nankai Trough earthquake is estimated. Risk-based
approach is useful to make the decision on the retrofitting prioritization for road
structures.
Acknowledgements The authors express sincere appreciation to Dr. Masayuki Yoshimi at

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology of Japan and Professor Shunichi
Koshimura at Tohoku University, Japan for their suggestions on the seismic fault parameters and
the topic of tsunami propagation analysis.
References
1. Kataoka S, Tasaki K, Gushi K, Matsumoto K (2016) Tsunami damage simulation of a highway

bridge of which superstructures washed out in part by a 3-D multi-phase flow analysis. J Japan
Soc Civil Eng 72(4):748–755
2. Liu M, Frangopol DM (2006) Optimising bridge network maintenance management under
uncertainty with conflicting criteria: life-cycle maintenance, failure, and user costs. J Struct Eng
132(11):1835–1845
3. Akiyama M, Frangopol DM, Ishibashi H (2020) Toward life-cycle reliability-, risk-, and
resilience-based design and assessment of bridges and bridge networks under independent and
interacting hazards. Struct Infrastruct Eng 16(1):26–50
4. Cabinet Office, Government of Japan (2012) Investigative commission on the modelling of
giant earthquake caused by Nankai Trough: Modelling of seismic fault. (in Japanese)
5. Coastal Development Institute of Technology (2010) CADMAS-SURF/3D Research and
development of numerical wave tank, Coastal Technology Library, No.39, 1–235
6. Shuto N (2001) Traffic hinderance after tsunamis. In: Hebenstreit, GT (ed) Tsunami research at
the end of a critical decade, vol 18, pp 65–74
7. Japan Road Association (1964) Design Specification for highway steel bridges
8. Japan Road Association (1996) specification for highway bridges. Part V: Seismic design
9. Shinoda M (2007) Quasi-Monte Carlo simulation with low-discrepancy sequence for
reinforced soil slopes. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 133(4):393–404
Device Development for Compressive
Stress Field Using Piezoelectric Actuator
Kento Obuchi, Mutsumi Miyagawa, Hitoshi Nakamura,

Yusuke Kishi, and Takumi Ozawa
Abstract It is important to control the growth of fatigue cracks for a long time.
These cracks usually occur from stress concentrations at corners, at heat-stress areas
from welding heat, and so on. Once started, fatigue cracks grow due to vibration.
When a crack reaches a certain threshold length, it is said to be in an unstable
fracture state and cannot be controlled. The aims of this study are to relax the stress
on stress-concentrated parts and to suppress crack growth. By using a piezoelectric
actuator to suppress crack growth, we were able to relax the stress on
stress-concentrated parts. However, if the piezoelectric actuator adhered to a test
piece directly, problems arose. For example, an amount of deformation escaped to
the outside, or repeated attachment and detachment damaged the actuator. We need
a method to locally and efficiently compress stress-concentrated areas. We also
need to learn how to detach the piezoelectric actuator from the test piece. Therefore,
we developed a device to create a compressive stress field that is easy to set. By
using this device, we can create compression locally and simply. We also per-
formed fatigue tests to confirm that this device prolonged the life of the material.

Keywords Fatigue Piezoelectric actuator Stress concentration Stress relax-

ation Infrastructure
1 Introduction
Japan‘s existing bridges were built during the period of high economic growth.
There are about 160,000 bridges and huge stocks of road bridges with bridge
lengths of 15 [m] or more (Fig. 1). Now about 15 [%] of the bridges in Japan are at
least 50 years old. Japan’s steel bridges need repair not only because of the
K. Obuchi (&) M. Miyagawa

Tokyo Metropolitan College of Industrial Technology, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: s18009@g.metro-cit.ac.jp
H. Nakamura Y. Kishi T. Ozawa
Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, Japan

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_112
1196 K. Obuchi et al.
60 600
Total number of bridges [ 1,000]

Number of new bridges [× 1,000]
50 500
40 400
30 300
New bridges
20 Total bridges 200
10 100
0 0
Year
Fig. 1 Transitive graph of new bridges and total bridges over 15 [m]
unexpected increase in heavy vehicle traffic but also because the welding methods
used during construction are now obsolete. These fatigue cracks usually occur from
stress concentrations in corners, in welding-heat-stressed areas of the steel beams,
and so on (Fig. 2). Thus, for a long time it has been important to analyze stress
around cracks to assess the linear fracture mechanics based on elasticity. These
cracks usually grow due to vibration. Metropolitan expressways have many narrow
parts, and it is difficult, time-consuming, and expensive to repair fatigue cracks in
steel bridges under construction conditions. In steel bridges, an efficient mainte-
nance plan is important for repair and inspection. Also, municipalities possess many
road bridges with lengths of 2 [m] or more (Fig. 3) [1]. New repair and maintenance
methods for steel bridges must be developed.
The aims of this study are to relax the stress of stress-concentrated parts and to
suppress crack growth. To suppress crack growth, stress is relaxed by applying a
piezoelectric actuator to the area of crack growth. Figure 4 shows a pattern diagram
of the piezoelectric actuator.
The piezoelectric effect is the interactive effect between dynamic quantities, such
as strain and stress, and electric quantities, such as electric field and electric dis-
placement. A piezoelectric element makes use of this piezoelectric effect.
A piezoelectric actuator is one such element, and it has excellent responsiveness
and high occurrence. In this study, the actuator provided local force.
Device Development for Compressive Stress Field … 1197
Fig. 2 Example of fatigue cracks
3%
5%
26%
100%
66%
Fig. 3 Number of bridges by road type and total bridges over 2 [m] in length
Fig. 4 Piezoelectric material (piezoelectric actuator)
2 Life Extension Experiment Method Using Piezoelectric

Actuator
2.1 Purpose
We use the piezoelectric actuator to apply the generated force in the crack closing
direction. This reduces stress concentration near the crack tip. We then relieve stress in
the fatigue test by applying a voltage to the piezoelectric actuator through the control
circuit. Figure 5 outlines the stress relaxation induced by the piezoelectric actuator.
2.2 Outline of Fatigue Test
In this experiment, in accordance with the standards for JIS plate-like test piece
No. 13A, test pieces are made using a wire electric discharge machine. The test
piece’s thickness is 2 [mm] and material is SS400 (yield point 235 [MPa], tensile
strength 400 [MPa]). A preliminary crack is made to determine the point of fatigue
crack initiation in the fatigue test. The preliminary crack length is 5 [mm] and the
tip shape is circular. The load on the test piece is 0—tension 7 [kN] (nominal stress
140 [MPa]). The test frequency is 10 [Hz]. The strain gauge is pasted at 10 [mm]
from the preliminary crack tip, and we measure the strain during the experiment.
The piezoelectric actuator used this experiment is the AE1010D16DF [2] made by
NEC/TOKIN (maximum output 3500 [N]) (Fig. 6).
σ ∞y
Piezoelectric
actuator
a
Δa εy
2b ≈ 0
Strain gage
Test piece
σ ∞y
Fig. 5 Stress relaxation using piezoelectric actuator
Fig. 6 Test pieces by the

piezoelectric actuator to relax
stress
3 Experimental Results and Consideration
3.1 Stress Control Experiment by Stress Relaxation Using

Piezoelectric Actuator
The piezoelectric actuator has a unipolar type of hysteresis characteristic. The

actuator has linearity in applied voltage and a force range of 40 to 100 [V]. In the
experiment, the input and output are controlled in the range of 0 to 150 [V] (Fig. 7).
We conducted stress relaxation experiments at the crack tip.
The maximum output during fracture control was 100 [V] (piezoelectric actuator
output 2333 [N]) when the value of the strain gauge increased by 200 [lst]. The
experimental results at this time are shown in Fig. 8. The stress relaxation exper-
iments achieved about 50 [MPa] of stress relaxation at the crack tip when 100 [V]
was applied to the piezoelectric actuator. The cycle until the crack growth reached
the unstable failure state was extended by about 160 [%]. In this experiment, the
force generated by the piezoelectric actuator is determined from stress analysis
using inverse analysis. It is expected that further stress relaxation can be achieved
by setting a larger value.
4000
Voltage load
3500
Voltage unload
Generative force F [N]
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
Input voltage V [V]
Fig. 7 The hysteresis characteristic of piezoelectric actuator

Fig. 8 Fracture-control experiments using piezoelectric actuator
4 Conclusion
In this study, in order to generate a load in the direction opposite that of the
generated stress, a high-power piezoelectric actuator was applied and a fatigue test
was performed. As a result of the stress relaxation experiments near the crack tip
under cyclic loading, we confirmed our predictions for crack growth and the effect
of stress relaxation; that is, when the amount of growth of the fatigue crack was in a
stable fracture state, we confirmed a life prolongation effect of about 160 [%].
When discussing repair work on steel bridges, butt plate repair [3], TIG welding,
and so on can be mentioned, but all are difficult to do under construction conditions.
As a new proposal for repair work, life extension experiments were conducted
focusing on the characteristics of “high response” and “high output” of a piezo-
electric actuator. In addition, various loads such as those in in-plane and
out-of-plane directions, are actually applied. Therefore, it is thought that the
applicable range of the piezoelectric actuator is expanded by identifying the pasting
position and direction of the piezoelectric actuator, and by optimizing the applied
voltage.
References
1. MLIT: Annual report of road maintenance, August 2017 http://www.mlit.go.jp

2. NEC/TOKIN: Stacked type piezoelectric actuator, vol 07, http://www.nec-tokin.com
3. Oka S: Design of repair and reinforcement work for steel bridges Attention point of
construction, Japan Bridge Construction Association Conservation First Section. http://library.
jsce.or.jp
Seismic Evaluation of Non-ductile
Reinforced Concrete Columns Failed
in Shear
Y. A. Li, W. C. Shen, and P. W. Weng
Abstract Due to the requirements of open space, there are almost no walls on the
ground floor of these buildings. The stiffness and strength of the ground floors are
weak compared to other levels. The buildings collapse in past earthquake due to
damage in the weak and soft stories is common situation. If the vertical members of
the soft stories are only shear-critical columns, the problem becomes even more
severe. To effectively evaluate and retrofit such buildings, it is necessary to clearly
define the stiffness and strength behavior of the shear-critical reinforced concrete
columns. According to the experimental observations, the shear failure and the
shear deformation caused by shear cracking occur in the D-regions with stress
concentration. Therefore, the method of dividing the range of the D-region, the
force transfer mechanism, and the corresponding lateral displacement prediction
model are proposed. To facilitate engineers to perform nonlinear pushover analysis,
a simple lateral load displacement curve for the shear critical reinforced concrete
columns is established in this paper. The proposed model can provide reasonable
prediction results in comparison with the experimental data. In this paper, it is
suggested that the shear deformation caused by shear crack expansion is included in
the lateral displacement calculation of strength point, which can accurately predict
the lateral stiffness of the shear-critical reinforced concrete column and improve the
reliability of seismic evaluation.

Keywords D-region Force transfer mechanism Non-ductile Shear critical

column Shear deformation
Y. A. Li (&) W. C. Shen P. W. Weng

Department of Civil Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 40227,
Taiwan
e-mail: yali@nchu.edu.tw
W. C. Shen
e-mail: wcshen@ncree.narl.org.tw
P. W. Weng
e-mail: pwweng@ncree.narl.org.tw
Y. A. Li W. C. Shen P. W. Weng
National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE), Taipei 10617, Taiwan

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_113
1204 Y. A. Li et al.
1 Introduction
Due to the requirements of open space, there are almost no walls on the ground
floor of soft story buildings. The stiffness and strength of the ground floors are weak
compared to other levels. The buildings collapse in past earthquake due to damage
in the weak and soft stories is common situation (Pujol et al. [8]). If the vertical
members of the soft stories are only shear-critical columns, the problem becomes
even more severe. Based on recent reconnaissance observations, the plastic hinge
zone or D-region of structural members is vulnerable under earthquake loading.
These types structural members are usually dominated by shear behavior due to
inadequate reinforcement. However, the deformation capacity of the shear critical
members is not small, as commonly expected according to reconnaissance obser-
vations. Therefore, a clear understanding of the seismic behavior of the shear
critical members is essential to the evaluation of the seismic performance of
buildings.
The D-region of a reinforced concrete structure contains a geometry disconti-
nuity and stress disturbed area. The shear strength analysis in the D-region is
difficult for engineers because of the complex force transfer mechanism. Based on
the D-region macro model, there are two different types of concrete struts (shown in
Fig. 1). One is the bottle-shaped concrete strut for short and deep structural
members, and the second is a fan-shaped concrete strut for longer members. The
prediction of shear strength in these two concrete strut shapes is different because of
the failure modes. The objective of this study is to propose an analytical model to
evaluate the shear behavior and force transfer mechanisms in these two types of
structural members.
concrete
crushing
(a) Bottle-shaped strut (b) Fan-shaped strut
Fig. 1 Two force transfer mechanisms in D-region

Seismic Evaluation of Non-ductile Reinforced ... 1205
2 Analytical Model for D Region
For short and deep members with bottle-shaped strut, the shear strength can be
reasonably modeled using the strut-and-tie model. This paper utilizes the softened
strut-and-tie model (SST model) proposed by Hwang and Lee [2] to estimate the
shear strength. On the basis of the force transfer mechanism in the SST model,
combined with softening behaviors after reinforced concrete cracking, the concrete
crushing strength at the ends of diagonal struts is obtained. Figure 1a shows the
force transfer mechanism in the SST model used to predict the shear strength of
bottle-shaped strut.
For intermediate and typical columns, described by the force transfer mechanism
in Fig. 1b, the concrete struts between the fan-shaped main inclined strut cannot be
directly connected from the loading end to the reaction end. As shown in Fig. 1b,
there are two strengths in the compression fan; the first is the concrete crushing
strength (Vn;c ) in the compression zone at the column end of the compression fan
and the other is the tensile strength (Vn;t ) induced by the insufficient internal support
at the node. The concrete crush strength (Vn;c ) in the compression zone of the
column end can be predicted by the softened strut-and-tie model (Hwang and Lee
[2]), as shown in Eq. (1).
Vn;c ¼ Cd cos h ¼ Kffc0 Astr cos h ð1Þ
where Cd = compressive strength of the diagonal strut; h = inclination angle

between diagonal strut and horizontal axis; K = strut-and-tie index; f = softening
coefficient after reinforced concrete cracking; fc0 = compressive strength of concrete;
and Astr = effective area at the end of diagonal strut.
As for the tensile strength (Vn;t ) of the internal support of the compression fan
dispersed across the column, it can be predicted by the shear strength of inclined
cracking. This paper suggests using the shear strength equation in ASCE/SEI 41-13
[1], as shown in Eq. (2).
" pffiffiffiffi sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi! #
Av fyt d 0:5 fc0 N
Vn;t ¼ þ 1þ pffiffiffiffi 0:8Ag ð2Þ
s M=Vd 0:5 fc0 Ag
in which Av = area of transverse reinforcement; fyt = yielding strength of transverse

reinforcement; d = effective depth of the column cross section; s = spacing of
transverse reinforcement; N = axial force; Ag = gross cross-sectional area of the
column; and M=Vd = maximum ratio of moment to shear times effective depth
under loading for the column (which should be between 2 and 4).
Therefore, the shear strength (Vn;prop: ) of a fan-shaped strut should use following
equation:

Vn;prop: ¼ smaller of Vn;c ; Vn;t ð3Þ
After determining how to evaluate the shear strength of shear critical members,
the proposed curve could be established by a tri-linear relationship to simulate the
shear behavior of a D-region under Earthquake Loading, as shown in Fig. 2. The
first segment indicates elastic behavior up to the shear cracking point. The strength
at the concrete shear cracking point is Vcr , and the corresponding displacement is
Dcr . The second segment represents the portion from the shear cracking point to the
shear strength point. Shear cracking of concrete results in a rapid increase in lateral
displacement. The main source of this displacement is shear deformation from
cracking. Therefore, the change in the gradient is due to the reduction in column
stiffness caused by shear cracking. As cracks propagate, concrete struts are formed
in the cracks, and the crushing strength of the struts is subsequently reached. The
corresponding shear strength and displacement are Vn;prop: and Dn;prop: , respectively.
The shear strength of shear critical members (Vn;prop: ) was proposed as above, and
the prediction of the lateral displacement at the strength point for shear critical
members under double curvature bending is described by Li et al [5].
The third segment is from post-peak shear strength degradation to axial failure at
the loss of vertical load-carrying capacity. This paper refers to the approach in
ASCE/SEI 41-13 [1] to predict the collapse point. Based on the hypothesis that the
lateral strength decay of the collapse point is zero, the lateral displacement of the
collapse point (Da;prop: ) can be predicted by:
Da;prop: ¼ Dn;prop: þ b H ð4Þ
where H = net column height; b = parameter from Table 10-8 in ASCE/SEI 41-13 [1].
3 Verification of Bottle-Shaped Strut (Short Columns)
Experimental data of short columns used in this study is a testing on 8 short column
specimens (Li et al. [3]), and the material properties of these experiments are listed
in Table 1. In addition, a paper by Moretti and Tassios [7] were also included.
Fig. 2 Proposed V
load-displacement curve for strength point
shear critical structural Vn , proposed
members
V cr cracking
point collapse
point
Δ
Δcr Δ n , proposed Δa , proposed
Table 1 Comparison for short columns (Li and Hwang [4]

Specimens H N Hoop ratio, Measured Analysis for strength point
h Ag fc0
qs Vtest Dn;test Da Vtest Dn;test Vn;test Dn;test
Vn;proposed Dn;proposed Vn;ASCE Dn;ASCE
(kN) (mm) (mm)
Li et al. [3]
1DL 1 0.09 1.27% 698 6.9 34.1 1.35 2.05 0.75 8.82
1DH 0.29 701 3.5 24.7 0.99 1.00 0.69 4.92
1NL 0.10 0.24% 660 3.5 32.9 1.52 1.06 1.89 11.12
1NH 0.29 757 3.1 14.9 1.21 0.91 1.72 10.02
2DL 2 0.09 1.27% 564 13.3 68.4 1.41 2.24 0.61 3.17
2DH 0.30 589 11.1 50.2 1.17 1.82 0.58 3.53
2NL 0.10 0.24% 402 7.8 57.6 1.44 1.45 1.15 4.78
2NH 0.29 460 6.5 29.5 1.15 1.18 1.04 4.69
Moretti and Tassios [7]
1 2 0.3 1.21% 330 5 – 1.06 1.27 0.93 5.23
3 360 4 – 1.07 1.09 0.99 4.23
4 1.88% 360 5 – 1.19 1.35 0.78 3.96
2 0.6 1.21% 410 – – 0.93 – 0.89 –
AVG 1.21 1.40 1.00 5.86
COV 0.15 0.30 0.39 0.45
Moretti and Tassios [7] reported experimental data on four short column specimens,
excluding specimens containing diagonal reinforcements.
Figure 3 presents the comparison between experimental envelopes and the
proposed lateral load displacement curve for the test specimens tested by Li et al.
[3] and Moretti and Tassios [7]. It can be seen that prior to reaching shear strength,
as concrete cracks in shear, the turning point of stiffness in the proposed curves and
experimental envelopes are in good agreement (Li and Hwang [4]. However,
ASCE/SEI 41-13 [1] assumes the shear strength drops rapidly after reaching the
peak strength, which is evidently inconsistent with the actual behavior. The
assumption of rapid loss of lateral strength will significantly affect the prediction of
internal force redistribution within the structure.
Table 1 contains the ratio of test results and calculated values using the proposed
curve. In terms of shear strength, the average ratio (AVG) of measured strength to
the analytical strength by the proposed model is 1.21 with a coefficient of variation
(COV) of 0.15. For the prediction of displacement at strength point by the proposed
model (Table 1), average test-to-calculation ratio is 1.40 with a coefficient of
variation of 0.30. The proposed method utilizes the SST model (Hwang and Lee
[2], which makes it easier to capture characteristics in the mechanical behavior of
short columns, leading to more accurate predictions.
According to the test-to-calculation ratio in Table 1, for shear strength prediction
of ASCE/SEI 41-13 [1], the average ratio is 1.00 with a coefficient of variation of
Test envelope ASCE/SEI 41-13 Proposed

1000 1000
1DL 1DH 1NL 1NH

500 500
Lateral Load (kN)
Lateral Load (kN)

0 0
4 3 3 3
2DL 2DH 2NL 2NH
500 500
0
0 4 3 3 3
1 3 4
250 250
0
0 3 0 3 0 3 6
Drift Ratio (%)
Fig. 3 Comparison of proposed curve and ASCE/SEI 41-13 for short columns (Li and Hwang [4])
0.39. Although the average ratio is 1.00, there is a greater discrepancy among the
analytical values. The values in Table 3 also indicate that ASCE/SEI 41-13 [1]
significantly underestimates the displacement at the strength point. Its average
test-to-calculation ratio is 5.86 with a coefficient of variation of 0.45. This is due to
under-estimation of shear deformation.
4 Verification of Fan Shape (Intermediate Short Columns)
This paper compares experimental data of intermediate short columns with the
existing analytical model, and based on those results, suggests a lateral load dis-
placement curve for intermediate short columns failed in shear with height-to-depth
ratios of between 2 and 4 (Li et al. [5]). The existing analytical model refers to the
evaluation method in ASCE/SEI 41-13 [1], but the experimental database follows
the experimental results of this paper, and the material properties of these experi-
ments are listed in Table 2.
Figure 4 shows the comparison of envelope curves of specimens in the exper-
imental and proposed lateral load displacement curve, the envelope curves of the
experiments in this paper can be seen in Fig. 4. Before intermediate short columns
reach their shear strength, stiffness softening can occur as the expansion of shear
cracks, this indicates the requirement to consider shear deformation induced by
Table 2 Comparison for intermediate short columns

Specimens H N Hoop Measured Analysis for strength point
h Ag fc0
ratio, Vtest Dn;test h Vtest Dn;test Dn;test
V n;proposed Dn;proposed Dn;ASCE
(kN) (mm)
4DL 4 0.08 0.43% 717 34.5 63.4 0.95 1.65 2.64
4DH 0.22 772 24.4 63.4 0.86 1.32 2.27
4NL 0.08 0.10% 467 16.7 63.4 1.10 1.08 2.25
4NH 0.24 661 14.8 63.4 1.18 1.01 2.21
3DL 3 0.07 0.43% 766 15.4 63.4 0.94 1.23 2.63
3DH 0.22 845 17.6 63.4 0.87 1.50 3.42
3NL 0.07 0.10% 471 7.3 63.4 0.96 0.70 2.06
3NH 0.23 699 6.2 63.4 1.10 0.61 1.83
AVG 0.99 1.14 2.41
COV 0.11 0.30 0.19
Test envelope ASCE/SEI 41-13 proposed

1000
4DL 4DH 4NL 4NH
Lateral Load (kN)
500
1000
4 3 3 3
3DL 3DH 3NL 3NH
500
0 4 8 3 6 3 6 3 6
Drift Ratio (%)

Fig. 4 Comparison of proposed curve and ASCE/SEI 41-13 for intermediate short columns
shear cracking. After intermediate short columns reaching their shear strength, the
lateral strength decreases rapidly, and the straight line of negative stiffness of the
proposed curves matches the results of experiments. The prediction of the proposed
curve is rational and conservative.
Table 2 shows the prediction of shear strength in the proposed curves and
compares it with experimental results. The average value of the test-analytical
strength ratio is 0.99, and the coefficient of variation is 0.11. In terms of the
prediction of failure mode in the proposed model, the predictions are all shear
tensile failure, so the prediction complies with the results of ASCE/SEI 41-13 [1].
Table 2 also indicates the prediction of lateral displacement at the strength point
in the proposed curves and compares it with experimental values, the average value
of the test-analytical displacement ratio is 1.14, and the coefficient of variation is

0.30. Since the proposed curve comprehensively takes consideration of shear
deformation induced by shear cracks, it can rationally predict the lateral displace-
ment at the strength point in intermediate short columns failed in shear. Table 3
shows that lateral displacement prediction of intermediate short columns failed in
shear, the average value of the test-analytical displacement ratio is 2.41, and the
coefficient of variation is 0.19. The results show that ASCE/SEI 41-13 [1] obvi-
ously underestimates the lateral displacement of intermediate short columns failed
in shear, the reason is when ASCE/SEI 41-13 [1] evaluates the shear deformation at
the strength point, it still regards intermediate short columns as elasticity continuum
and does not consider the shear deformation induced by expansion of shear cracks.
Based on the comparison results above, for shear strength prediction in inter-
mediate short columns failed in shear, the ASCE/SEI 41-13 [1] formula can be
adopted, but more discussion is needed on the physical meaning of formula.
However, for lateral displacement prediction at the strength point in intermediate
short columns failed in shear, as abundant shear cracks have already developed, the
shear deformation induced by shear cracks should be taken into consideration.
5 Conclusions
By the aforementioned verification on bottle-shaped and fan-shaped concrete struts,

this paper provided a rational analytical model and load-displacement curve to
simulate the shear behaviour of D-Regions under earthquake loading. Comparison
with test envelope and proposed curve confirms that stiffness of concrete members
do change before and after shear cracking, and consideration should be given to this
phenomenon. Using a strut-and-tie model to predict shear strength can obtain
accurate results. On the prediction of displacement at strength point, shear defor-
mation due to shear cracking should be accounted for, and utilizing the strain field
of cracked reinforced concrete proves to be a feasible method.
Comparison shows that, before the intermediate short columns failed in shear
reached their shear strength, their stiffness will decline due to the expansion of shear
cracks, so the increase rate of lateral displacement of the intermediate short column
is improved. This phenomenon indicates that when predicting the lateral dis-
placement at strength points in an intermediate short column, shear deformation
induced by the expansion of shear cracks should be taken into consideration. In
addition, according to the crack development at the strength point in the interme-
diate short column experiment, one side of the compression fan can be fixed on the
compression zone of column end, and the other side requires force from transverse
reinforcement to reach an equilibrium. Therefore, it can be known that transverse
reinforcement is critical to shear transfer mechanism in intermediate short columns
failed in shear.
References
1. American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (2014) Seismic evaluation and retrofit of existing
buildings (41-13), ASCE/SEI 41-13. Reston, VA, p 518
2. Hwang SJ, Lee HJ (2002) Strength prediction for discontinuity regions by softened
strut-and-tie model. J Struct Eng ASCE 128(12):1519–1526
3. Li YA, Huang YT, Hwang SJ (2014) Seismic response of reinforced concrete short columns
failed in shear. ACI Struct J 111(4):945–954
4. Li YA, Hwang SJ (2017) Prediction of lateral load displacement curves for reinforced concrete
short columns failed in shear. J Struct Eng ASCE 143(2):04016164
5. Li YA, Weng PW, Hwang SJ (2019) Seismic performance of RC intermediate short columns
failed in shear. ACI Struct J 116(3):195–206
6. Lopes, MMPS (1991) Seismic behavior of reinforced concrete walls with low shear ratio, Ph.D.
Thesis, Department of Civil Engineering, University of London
7. Moretti ML, Tassios TP (2006) Behavior and ductility of reinforced concrete short columns
using global truss model. ACI Struct. J. 103(3):319–327
8. Pujol S, Irfanoglu A, Jahanshahi M, Laughery LA, Puranam A, Cheng LH, Hesam P, Lund A,
Wu RT, Hwang SJ, Chiou TC, Chung LL, Wu CL, Shen WC, Li YA, Weng PW, Hsiao FP,
Tsai TC, Lam WK, Lin CC, Li CH (2017) Performance of reinforced concrete buildings in the
2016 Taiwan (Meinong) earthquake, Purdue University Research Repository. https://doi.org/
10.4231/r7m32sz3
Design of an Experimental Set-up
to Capture the Dynamic Response
of Mass Timber Post-and-Beam Systems
Under a Column Removal Scenario
X. Cheng, B. P. Gilbert, H. Guan, I. D. Underhill, and H. Karampour
Abstract Mid-rise to tall mass timber buildings are required to be designed for
progressive collapse, as specified in the Australian National Construction Code
(NCC). Owing to the computational complexity of nonlinear dynamic procedures,
static procedures are usually adopted in the design practice. To take into account of
the dynamic and nonlinear characteristics of progressive collapse, the current design
guidelines, such as DoD [6] and GSA [9], suggest multiplying the static responses
by a dynamic increase factor to replicate the actual structural behaviour. However,
existing research on the progressive collapse of mass timber structures is extremely
limited, especially regarding their dynamic responses. This paper will firstly
introduce a literature review on existing designs of dynamic test set-ups under a
column removal scenario. Thereafter, the final design of a test set-up to capture the
dynamic behaviour of timber post-and-beam systems under a sudden column
removal scenario will be presented. Preliminary results are discussed showing the
effectiveness of the dynamic experimental set-up.

Keywords Mass timber building Progressive collapse Disproportionate col-

lapse Dynamic response Connectors
X. Cheng (&) B. P. Gilbert H. Guan I. D. Underhill H. Karampour

School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University, Brisbane,
QLD 4222, Australia
e-mail: xinyi.cheng@griffithuni.edu.au
B. P. Gilbert
e-mail: b.gilbert@griffith.edu.au
H. Guan
e-mail: h.guan@griffith.edu.au
I. D. Underhill
e-mail: i.underhill@griffith.edu.au
H. Karampour
e-mail: h.karampour@griffith.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_114
1214 X. Cheng et al.
1 Introduction
Engineered wood products, such as cross laminated timber (CLT), glue laminated
timber (Glulam) and laminated veneer lumber (LVL), make it possible to build
mid-rise to tall timber buildings, as these products minimise the strength reduction
and variations from natural defects and anisotropic material characteristics. Such
buildings assembled from engineered wood products are referred to “mass timber
buildings” and are attracting international attention. Compared to concrete and steel
structures, mass timber buildings are advantageous of reduced global carbon
emissions, allow faster erection, require less onsite workforce requirement and
aesthetically pleasing. Moreover, in case of catastrophic events, lower density of
timber results in less inertia force and debris loads (Huber, Ekevad, Girhammar and
Berg [10]). Emblematic examples of mass timber buildings worthwhile to be
mentioned are: (1) The Crossroads, completed in 2013 in the USA, was the first
large-scale commercial utilisation of CLT panels manufactured in North America;
(2) The tallest (8 floors) mass timber building in the USA, Carbon 12, completed in
2018 with only 8 weeks of construction for the structure above the ground; (3) In
Brisbane (Australia), the 52-m tall “25 King Street”, completed in 2018, is the
world’s tallest and largest mass timber office building. Given the increasing height
of mass timber buildings, the social and economic consequences of a potential
progressive collapse event of one of these buildings would be devastating.
Therefore, mid-rise to tall mass timber buildings are required to be designed for
progressive collapse, as specified in the Australian National Construction Code
(NCC) (ABCB [1]). Progressive collapse is characterised by a disproportionate and
catastrophic failure of a structure due to a local damage caused by abnormal and
accidental events such as explosions, vehicle impacts or natural disasters
(Ellingwood [7]). Progressive collapse is essentially a dynamic and nonlinear event.
If the dynamic internal forces exceed the bearing capacity of the structural elements
adjacent to the local damage, it will cause sudden failures of these elements and in
turn, additional dynamic forces will be transferred throughout the remaining part of
building. This will eventually result in either stabilisation (reaching a new equi-
librium state) or collapse of the structure, depending on whether the internal energy
can be fully absorbed or otherwise (Marjanishvili [16]).
In design practice, linear and nonlinear static procedures are broadly used due to
their time and computational efficiencies when compared to complex nonlinear
dynamic analyses. Considering the dynamic effects and nonlinearity, the static
responses are multiplied by a dynamic increase factor (DIF) which is specified as
2.0 for wooden structures under load bearing wall removal scenario (DoD [6]; GSA
[9]). However, a rational DIF for mass timber post-and-beam structure under col-
umn removal scenarios has not yet been investigated. Hence, more experimental
and numerical research are needed urgently to gain a better understanding of
dynamic behaviours of mass timber post-and-beam systems (Arup [2]; Bita and
Tannert [5]; Ellis and Bougard [8]; Huber et al. [10]). This paper will firstly
introduce a comprehensive literature review regarding the existing designs of
Design of an Experimental Set-up to Capture … 1215
dynamic test set-ups. Thereafter, design of a series of ¼ scaled 2D mass timber

post-and-beam substructures will be presented in detail, followed by the validation
of the effectiveness of the set-up and the presentation of the preliminary results of
the experiment.
2 Review of Dynamic Test Set-Ups
2.1 Design of Quick Release System
A quick release system plays an important role in progressive collapse tests under a
sudden column loss scenario, since it controls the release time of the experiments.
To trigger the dynamic responses, it is required that the release time should be less
than 1/10 of the natural period of the dominate structure above the removed column
(Biggs [4]; DoD [6]; GSA [9]).
Four typical quick release systems are found in the literature. (1) As shown in
Fig. 1a, the lost column was replaced by a dummy column mechanism which was
assembled with a three-hinged strut (Li et al. [12]). One glass rod was inserted to
the middle hinge to fix the strut then was broken by a pendulum hammer during the
experiments. (2) Similar mechanism can be found in Fig. 1b that the removed
column was support by a pin, with a small contact area between the tip of a
hemisphere steel ball and the surface of a steel stub (Qian and Li [20]). During the
test, the load release was triggered by a heavy hammer knocking down the steel
stub. (3) Apart from the concept of temporary supports underneath the removed
column, the quick release hook is also a common design (Liu, Fung and Tan [13];
Liu, Tan and Fung [14]; Pham and Tan [19]), as shown in Fig. 1c. The hook was
manually opened by jerking the rope, which could be easily operated under labo-
ratory conditions. (4) Another innovative quick release system was by using
electromagnets in conjunction with a scissors-type clamper (Fig. 1d) (Zhao, Yan,
Chen, Xu and Lu [22]). The member was welded with trapezoid grooved steel
cylinders which were interlocked by the scissors-type clamper. Once the power of
Fig. 1 Typical release systems a Three-hinged strut column quick release mechanism(Li, Li,
Jiang, & Lu, [12]); b Pin supported steel column quick release system (Qian & Li, [20]); c Quick
release hook (Liu et al., [13]; Liu et al., [14]; Pham and Tan, [19]); d Scissors-type truss member
breaking device (Zhao et al. [22])
the electromagnets was switched off, with the help of pre-tension and
pre-compression springs, the clamp opens up to simulate a sudden breaking of the
load bearing element. Regarding the satisfaction of the loading procedure
requirement, the first (Fig. 1a) and the second (Fig. 1b) quick release designs are
the most suitable for triggering the dynamic effects with the release time less than
4% of the natural period measured during the tests, while the third (Fig. 1c) and the
last (Fig. 1d) have the percentage (release time to natural period) of around 20 and
10% respectively. However, the design of the quick release hook (Fig. 1c) is the
most convenient one under the laboratory conditions. Therefore, the quick release
hook concept has been adopted and improved in this study.
2.2 Design of Loading Stage
In static tests, a complete load-deflection curve can be obtained from a single test.
However, one dynamic test can produce only a single load-deflection data point,
because each test is performed under a single constant loading resulting to a cor-
responding maximum displacement. Therefore, the design of loading stages is of
vital importance in terms of getting as much information as possible through a
limited number of experiments. Static tests are often recommended prior to the
dynamic loading design, as they will provide a clear indication of the magnitude of
the dynamic initial release loads applied to the structure (Liu, Fung and Tan [13];
Liu, Tan and Fung [14]; Pham and Tan [19]; Tsai and You [21]). Theoretically, in
the elastic stage, the dynamic load is half the amount of the static load under the
same displacement (Biggs [4]). To validate the elastic response, specimens can be
loaded multiple times (i.e., 21.7, 30.4, 38.4 and 54.4% of the static yield load) in the
linear elastic stage (Tsai and You [21]), under the assumption that no significant
damage occurs during this stage. Thereafter, each specimen can be reused to test the
nonlinear dynamic responses, with the release loads usually less than 50% of the
static ultimate load (Liu et al. [14]; Peng, Orton, Liu and Tian [17]; Pham and Tan
[19] ∛; Tsai and You [21]).
3 Design of 2D Dynamic Tests of Timber Post-and-Beam

Substructures
3.1 Overview of the Dynamic Test Set-up
Extracted from a representative mass timber frame office building, a series of ¼

scaled 2D LVL timber post-and-beam substructures have been designed and
manufactured to study their dynamic behaviours under a sudden column removal
scenario, as illustrated in Fig. 2. A series of loading stages (i.e., up to 55% of the
Fig. 2 Overview of the

dynamic test set-up
static yield load, as well as between the static yield load and up to 65% of the static
ultimate capacity) were executed to collect sufficient data whilst making the best
utilisation of the test specimens.
Three types of beam-to-column connectors (referred to as T-section,
Double-beam and Knapp connectors) used in mass timber buildings were adopted,
which were the same as the ones used in the static tests reported in Lyu et al. [15].
The overall length of the two-bay substructure was 4 m with a short middle column
stud being considered as the removed column. All the LVL softwood timber col-
umns (90 90 1500 mm3) and beams (150 63 1998 mm3 for
Double-beam connectors or 150 63 1910 mm3 for Knapp connectors) were
from hySPAN with veneer species Radiata pine or Douglas fir. The clearance
height was designed to be twice that in the static tests, to avoid potential contact
between the substructure and the floor before collapse. Both side columns were pin
connected to rigid support to simulate the horizontal restraints from adjacent bays in
the actual structure. The mass was rigidly and symmetrically attached to the middle
column and was sudden released by a specially designed quick release system
(Sect. 3.2) to replicate the free-fall acceleration. Roller supports were placed at the
bottom of side columns to release the shear force between them and the floor.
A 250kN capacity Moog servo-controlled hydraulic actuator was pin connected to
the top of the quick release system to adjust the height of the frame in a controlled
and precise way. Moreover, the out-of-plane movement of the frame was also
prevented in the set-up (Sect. 3.3).
3.2 Quick Release System
To meet the loading procedure requirements specified in the guidelines (DoD [6];
GSA [9]), a quick release system consisted of a snap hook and a lever arm handle
was designed, as shown in Fig. 3a. A rope was attached to the lever arm, allowing
the hook to be opened by simply yanking the rope from a safe distance.
(a) (b)
Fig. 3 a Quick release hook; b Out-of-plane movement control
3.3 Out-of-Plane Movement Control
To allow the 2D timber frame to undergo in-plane displacement during the tests, its
out-of-plane movement must be restrained. A specially designed column cap with a
single ring ball bearing was screwed to the top end of each side column and was
positioned in a channel made by steel RHS (Fig. 3b), which allowed the column to
move freely in-plane but its out-of-plane movement was restricted.
3.4 Scaling Effect
As mentioned previously, the test specimens were scaled down to ¼ of the original
design. This practice is commonly done in researches on progressive collapse to
account for budget and laboratory size restrictions. Design guidelines for concrete
and steel buildings, such as DoD [6] and GSA [9], were mainly developed from
such tests. It is well known that timber structures are sensitive to size effects
(Isaksson [11]), a phenomenon also encountered in concrete structures (Bažant and
Yu [3]). Research in Masaeli, Gilbert, Karampour, Underhill, Lyu, Gunalan and
Guan [16] proved that the nonlinear moment and shear behavior of the ¼ scaled
connections used in this study, and in which the deformation mainly occurs, are
similar to the behaviours of the full scaled connections. The scaling effect mainly
impacted the capacity of the connections, not their behavior. Therefore, while the
scaling effect may affect the experimental capacities, the overall structural beha-
viours under the dynamic loading scenarios will not change and will provide
in-depth understanding of the dynamic behaviour of post-and-beam timber build-
ings under a column removal scenario.
3.5 Instrumentation Arrangement
Four pinned 75kN S-shaped load cells (LC1-LC4 in Fig. 4) were attached to the
side columns and rigid frame to measure the axial force in the beam and the
moment developed in the connector (Lyu et al. [15]). Another 10kN S-shaped load
cell (LC5 in Fig. 4) was connected to the quick release system to measure the
dynamic initial release load as well as to capture the release time. The vertical
reaction forces were measured by two 10kN pancake load cells (LC6 & LC7 in
Fig. 4) positioned at the bottom of each side column. Laser displacement sensors
(L1 & L2 in Fig. 4) were used to directly measure the rapid change of the vertical
displacement (average value the readings from L1 & L2) of the middle column. In
addition, the vertical displacement at the mid-point of each beam was measured by
two laser displacement sensors (L5 & L6 in Fig. 4). Another two pairs of laser
displacement sensors (RL1-RL4 in Fig. 4) were attached to the middle column to
obtain the relative beam to column rotations (Fig. 5), i.e., the average relative
horizontal displacement between the two pairs of sensors divided by their vertical
Fig. 4 Overview of instrumentation arrangement
Fig. 5 Measurement of beam

to column rotation
distance. Two strain gauges (SG1 & SG2 in Fig. 4) were placed on the top and
bottom surface at the mid-span of the right-hand beam to capture the strain profile
during the tests. Moreover, the acceleration response of the substructure was
recorded by two accelerometers (AC1 & AC2 in Fig. 4) with a 5 g measurement
range. All the sensors were recorded at a sampling rate of 1000 Hz.
4 Preliminary Test Results
4.1 Structural Response Time-History
Typical test results of the test specimen with Knapp connectors, under a dynamic
initial release load of 50% of the static yield load are shown to validate the
effectiveness of the dynamic test set-up (Fig. 6). Duration of the release time (tr) can
be analysed from the force-time history plot of LC5 (Fig. 6a), based on the period
between the moment when the initial release load started to drop and the moment
when the load decreased to zero. The results indicate that the release time was
around 3 ms. On the other hand, the natural period (T) of the substructure can be
determined from the vertical displacement (middle column) - time history results
(Fig. 6b) and was around 230 ms. Using the same principles, the release times of all
the tested substructures were significantly less than 1/10 of their respective natural
periods, which met the loading procedure requirement mentioned in Sect. 2.1.
Moreover, the vertical displacement results also indicated a large damping in the
system.
Thereafter, the average moment developed in the Knapp connector (Fig. 6c), the
average beam-to-column rotation (Fig. 6d), the total vertical reaction (Fig. 6e) and
the acceleration response (Fig. 6f) of the specimen are presented, showing that the
dynamic effects have been triggered during the tests. In the moment-time history
curve of the connector (Fig. 6c), a large fluctuation has been observed around the
equilibrium state. In addition, the average rotation curve (Fig. 6d) showed a
time-history similar to the other responses of the specimen (Fig. 6b, c, e, f),
revealing that the beam-to-column rotation measurement set-up was effective. To
confirm that no vertical load has been transferred through the horizontal column
side load cells (L1-L4), the total vertical reaction is plotted with time in Fig. 6e,
showing almost the same value as the initial release load measured from the top
S-shaped load cell (LC5) (Fig. 6a), with an average of 2.5% difference.
4.2 Failure Modes
Two types of connectors were tested, and different failure modes were observed in
each. In the test specimens with Double beam connectors, timber tensile failure
Fig. 6 Results of the dynamic tests
perpendicular to the grain occurred in the middle column at the bolts location
(Fig. 7a). On the other hand, failure happened in the aluminum bracket for the
specimens with Knapp connectors (Fig. 7b). The failure modes have shown a
significant similarity with the ones observed in the static tests (Lyu et al. [15]).
However, failures of the dynamic test specimens were more likely to be
unsymmetrical.
Fig. 7 Dynamic test failure modes of a Double beam connector; b Knapp connector
5 Conclusions
This paper presented the design of a series of dynamic tests of 2D post-and-beam

timber substructures under a sudden column removal scenario. Typical results of
the dynamic tests have shown the effectiveness of the test set-up design, with
respect to the loading procedure, dynamic effects, beam-to-column rotation mea-
surement and vertical load transfer. Different failure modes have been observed
between the Double beam and Knapp connectors, but they are comparable with
those observed in the equivalent static tests.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank PhD candidates Mr Chunhao Lyu and Mr
Mahyar Masaeli for their valuable assistance in making these experiments possible. The financial
support provided by the ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub IH150100030 and the
School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University is also gratefully acknowledged.
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types of beam-to-column connectors used in mass timber buildings. In: Australasian
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frames under sudden column removal applying concentrated loading. Eng Struct 139:31–45
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A Voxel-Based Method for Automated
Road Surface Extraction from Mobile
Laser Scanning Data in Expressway
Environment
T. T. Ha, T. Chaisomphob, and E. Lueangvilai
Abstract One of the crucial components of transportation infrastructure is the road

network system. In an urban environment, the expressway/highway is an integral
part of the road network. Thus, collecting and updating all road surface information
of expressway is essential for the maintenance agency. Using point cloud data
collected from mobile laser scanning, all road surface geometry can be obtained by
post–processing 3D point clouds. A region growing approach for the automated
road surface extraction from mobile laser scanning system point clouds in the
expressway was proposed in this paper. The proposed approach contained three
major steps: determining the seeding voxel based on the vehicle trajectory data;
extracting the road surface points via integrating the octree–based segmentation and
slope–based algorithm; refining the road boundary using the curb–based segmen-
tation algorithm. To assess the accuracy of the proposed approach, the two point
clouds of two typical test sites in the expressway environment were performed. The
proposed approach automatically extracted the road surface successfully at the high
accuracy, with the average completeness of 99.5%, correctness of 96.3%, and
quality of 95.9%. The high accuracy results were achieved, thereby indicating the
effective and feasible of the proposed approach.
Keywords Road surface Voxelization Mobile laser scanning Segmentation

Point clouds
T. T. Ha (&) T. Chaisomphob E. Lueangvilai

Technology, Thammasat University, Pathumthani, Thailand
e-mail: thanhhabk2006@gmail.com
T. Chaisomphob
e-mail: taweep@siit.tu.ac.th
E. Lueangvilai
e-mail: xekarin@yahoo.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_115
1226 T. T. Ha et al.
1 Introduction
Poor road surface quality of expressway can lead to the severe traffic casualty.
Periodical maintenance and assessment of road surface should, therefore, be
checked by the maintenance expressway authorities so as to make convenience,
comfort, and safety for the driver. Collecting and updating all road surface infor-
mation of expressway such as road surface quality, lane’s number, lane’s width,
manhole, road slope, road marking, road curb, road crack status are essential for the
maintenance agency. Conventionally, all expressway information data are manually
collected on–site by the inspector and then the on–site information was combined
with two–dimensional (2D) as–built drawing to create a historical database of
expressway infrastructure. Due to the complex and large scale of expressway
infrastructure, this traditional method had disadvantages such as tedious, time–
consuming, labor cost and occasionally incomplete data collection.
Recently, there are several emerging advanced methods such as aerial photog-
raphy, satellite imagery, satellite remote sensing, aerial laser scanning (ALS) and
mobile laser scanning (MLS) to collect the large–scale information in 2D and 3D
format. Capturing precise and accurate 3D spatial data along the expressway in an
urban environment, MLS are broadly used in the recent decade for the purpose of
collecting road geometries data for maintenance management inside the city.
Producing dense and huge geospatial data in the vast expressway area with road
speeds is one of an advantage of mobile laser scanning. Using point cloud data
collected from MLS, all road surface geometry can be obtained by post–processing
3D point clouds, and each geometry can be extracted individually for the purpose of
maintenance work. However, it is a big challenge to deal with the complicated
characters of 3D point cloud collected from MLS such as density variation, dense
(3,000 points/m2), massive volume, unstructured pattern (Wu et at. [5]). Thus, it is
essential to propose the robust, reliable and accurate method to extract road surface
in an automated and effective way by inheriting the advantage of MLS.
To this end, we are motivated to develop an algorithm for automated extraction
road surface from point cloud data collected by MLS. The research reported in this
paper is a part of a larger study that aims at developing InfraDoctor System for
enhancing efficiency and effectiveness in maintenance and management work of
expressway infrastructure in Japan and Southeast Asia.
2 Literature Review
To extract the road surface, some authors developed the algorithm to detect the road
edge first, and then the road surface point data were recovered from the extracted
road edge in such a way that all points located inside the road edge were obtained to
construct the road surface. Cabo et al. [2] suggested the method to automatic
extraction road asphalt edge by applying the line clouds concept. A transformation
A Voxel-Based Method for Automated Road Surface Extraction ... 1227
from the initial point clouds into line clouds data was performed, and then quasi–
planar constraint was applied to assemble all lines whose having a similar character.
Subsequently, all points located at the end of the line group were obtained to
construct the road edge, and two–step smoothing approach was used finally to
recover some incorrect points which were not detected from the previous
step. Miraliakbari et al. [3] used two– and four–neighborhood region growing to
extract the curbstone edge and the road surface. Zhang [9] extracted road surface
from LiDAR data based on the combination of elevation information and prior
knowledge of the minimal road width. Yang et al. [7] proposed a scan line–based
approach to detect the road curb, and then the road surface was constructed from
that road curb.
Apart from using the road edge as the preparatory step for extracting the road
surface, several methods were processed to extract the road surface via integrating
the 3D point cloud data with additional road feature information or based on some
assumption of a road surface. Wu et al. [5] presented the method to detect the road
surface in the urban environment consisting of three–phase as follows: trajectory
data were used to reorganize the point cloud into vertical profile; an adaptive alpha
shapes algorithm was built to detect the ground points; an elevation variation filter
was performed to refine the road surface point. Yadav et al. [6] used some addi-
tional information of the road such as road roughness, road spatial geometry, and
point clouds density, to extract the road surface. Yang et al. [8] developed the
binary kernel descriptor (BKD) that represented 3D local features to extract the road
curbs and road surfaces. However, the method was expensive computation due to
kernel density estimation step.
In summary, many methods were proposed to automatically extract the road
surface by using the 3D point data. However, most of the above–mentioned
reviewed methods extracted the road surface based on the additional information
such as road roughness, road spatial geometry, returned pulse width, returned
intensity, local point density, GPS time, scan line information. In the expressway
environment, it is observed that there is a presence of the road edge/road curb which
is the noticeable character of all expressways in an urban environment. Thus, the
authors proposed the approach to extract road surface for expressway based on the
existence of the road edge/road curb.
3 Methodology
The proposed method consists of three steps (Fig. 1): (1) determine the seeding
voxel via integrating seeding points and voxel model; (2) extraction of road surface
points by employing voxel–based segmentation algorithm; (3) road surface
refinement.
Mobile laser scanning p oint cloud data
Voxelization model Find seeding points
Find seeding voxel

Step 1
Extract road surface points

Step 2
Road surface refinement

Step 3
Completed 3D Road surface model
Fig. 1 Workflow for road surface extraction from MLS point cloud data
3.1 Seeding Voxel (Step 1)
The procedure consists of three substeps: (i) voxel model was built via octree
structure; (ii) determine the seeding points which solely belong to road surface;
(iii) the seeding voxels is extracted by selecting voxels which contain only the
seeding points.
3.1.1 Voxel Model
From the set of point cloud Pi = (xi, yi, zi) R3, i = 1,…, n, where n is the total
number of point clouds, the initial bounding box enclosing entire data can be
determined by two components, that is, the origin O(xmin, ymin, zmin) and the length
of voxel Δx = Δy = Δz = max[|xmax-xmin,|ymax- ymin|, |zmax- zmin|]; where (xmin, ymin,
zmin) and (xmax, ymax, zmax) are minimum and maximum of the x, y, z coordinates of
the point cloud, respectively. The octree was then recursively subdivided the
bounding box along x, y, z directions until reaching the termination conditions. In
this implementation, the voxel size was chosen as a termination condition.
Moreover, the voxel was classified as “full” if the voxel contains at least 3 points,
otherwise, “empty”. It is noted that the subdivision was applied to only the full
voxels.
Since the road surface is an objective of this segmentation, the points within the
voxel were assumed to describe a patch of the road surface. In this implementation,
principal component analysis (PCA) was employed to estimate a normal vector of
each full voxel (see Eq. 1, 2), while the root mean square of orthogonal distances
from the points to the fitting surface was considered as the residual (Eq. 3).
1 X m
CV ¼ ð pi pÞ ð pi pÞ T ð1Þ
m 1 i¼1
1X m
1X m
1X m
pX ¼ xi ; pY ¼ yi ;
pZ ¼ zi ; ð2Þ
m i¼1 m i¼1 m i¼1
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
uP
um 2
u di
ti¼1
r¼ ð3Þ
m
where CV represents the covariance matrix of a set of points in each full voxel; pi is
the coordinate of each point in voxel; pðpX ; pY ; pZ Þ denotes the mean of a set of
points in each full voxel; m represents the total number of points in each voxel; r is
residual; di is referred to as the orthogonal distance from point ith to its fitting plane;
xj, yj, zj represent the value of coordinate of point ith in each voxel.
In addition, the centroid’s coordinate of voxel VJ = (VXj , VYj , VZj ) R3, j = 1,…,k,
where k are the total number of voxels in the octree structure, was calculated as
follows:
1X 1X 1X
Pj j P j P
VjX ¼ xj ; VjY ¼ yj ; VjZ ¼ zj ; ð4Þ
Pj j¼1 Pj j¼1 Pj j¼1
where Pj are the total number of data points within voxel Vj.
3.1.2 Seeding Point (Pseeding)
The candidate seeding points were extracted based on the trajectory data. It is
observed that the road surface points are located under or away from the trajectory
data at a certain distance (Fig. 2a). Thus, the point cloud was first projected onto XY
plane, and then the 2D neighborhood search function with a certain radius was
employed to find the candidate seeding points. As shown in (Fig. 2b), the cluster of
the neighboring points of the trajectory point T1 was determined. It is seen that the
value of searching radius (R) in neighborhood search function could affect the
seeding point result; for example, if R is less than the minimum voxel size, the
seeding voxel may not be found by the intersection between the seeding point and
the cluster point in each voxel. Thus, the value of R should be larger than the voxel
size to expose all candidate seeding points. As a result, the set of candidate seeding
points A2D 2D
XY , was obtained corresponding to the trajectory point T1. From AXY , the
points with Z coordinate and having the same value X, Y coordinate, that is, A3D XYZ,
2D
Point clouds AXY Trajectory point T1
(a) (b)
Fig. 2 Point cloud data. (a) Trajectory data; (b) 2D neighborhood search function
were retrieved from MLS point clouds. However, some non–candidate seeding
points where coordinate is the same value of X and Y with the road surface points,
but different in Z value, are still present in the set of A3D
XYZ. Therefore, the further
filtering process is needed for eliminating the non–candidate seeding points out of
A3D
XYZ.
The density distribution of the seeding points (ground points) is always greater
than that of the non–candidate points due to the high density of ground points
which is located nearby the trajectory data (Armesto et al. [1]). By employing the
statistic analysis, the probability density function of the seeding point which is
characterized by kernel distribution can be obtained. The kernel density estimator
^ h) is used on Z value of the set of candidate seeding points A3D
(F XYZ to eliminate the
non–candidate seeding points, and is given as Eq. 5:
Xn3D
^ h ðZ Þ ¼ 1 XYZ
Z Zi
F K ð5Þ
n3D
XYZ h i¼1 h
where n3D XYZ denotes the total number of candidate seeding points in the set of
candidate seeding points A3D XYZ; K presents the kernel function, and h is the band-
width. The value h of 0.1 is used in this paper.
For each set of A3DXYZ with respect to each trajectory point T, the kernel density
estimator of all points in each set was computed. As above–mentioned, the value of
kernel density estimator of seeding point which belongs to road surface always
higher than that of the non–candidate seeding points. Thus, the point having the ZF^h
^
h value corresponding to the highest Fh value was chosen as the representative of
the elevation for the cluster of seeding point. However, due to the elevation vari-
ation or roughness of the road surface, all points having the |Z F ^h ± h| value were
experimentally selected as the seeding point (Fig. 3). As a result, the set of seeding
points were generated, that is, Pseeding
i (i = 1 to ntrajectory), where ntrajectory is the
total of trajectory points.
the cluster of
(kernel density)
h
seeding point
Z (Elevation)
Fig. 3 Kernel density estimation for candidate seeding points
3.1.3 Seeding Voxel
After the set of seeding points, Pseeding, was obtained, the seeding voxel can be
determined in such a way that only the voxel containing the seeding points was
selected as the seeding voxel. The set of seeding voxel was generated using Eq. 6:

ifPj 2 Vj and Pj 2 Pseeding : Vseeding
8Vj ð0 j kÞ : ð6Þ
else
3.2 Extracting Road Surface Points (Step 2)
It is observed that all voxels which contain only road surface point belonging to the
one segment. The region growing was similar to the procedure that was performed
in Vo et al. [4], except that the seeding voxel (Vseeding) was used as the initial seed
instead of the voxel with the minimum residual. Additionally, the condition of the
Z elevation difference between the current voxel and its neighbors was added to
remove the voxel that satisfied the angle threshold condition which is defined by the
angle between normal vectors of two adjoining voxels. The Z elevation difference
between two neighbors voxel should be smaller than the rise in cross–section of the
road which is defined by the cross slope function. After the segment R1 including all
voxels that satisfied the feature condition such as angle, residual and slope condi-
tion were obtained, there were present of some voxels along the boundary of the
road consist of both road surface and non–road surface points. It is thus necessary to
delete that voxels out of the segment R1. If the difference Z elevation which is
characterized by the difference between the maximum and minimum of
Z coordinate of all points in each voxel is higher than the slope function, the voxel
was removed out of the segment R1. Finally, the set of voxel which contained only
the road surface points was generated (R2). However, there are missing some road
surface points which are located near the road boundary. Thus, the additional
process is required to recover the missing points.
3.3 Road Surface Refinement (Step 3)
First, the list of voxel located on the boundary of the segment R2, namely, boundary
voxel (Vb) was generated based on the definition that the voxel on the boundary of
the segment often had less than eight neighborhood voxels from the same segment
(Vo et al. [4]). Next, each voxel (vh) in the boundary voxel was used to find the
adjoining voxel (vt) from the remaining voxel that was not present in the list of
voxel R2. The orthogonal distances from each point (pt) inside adjoining voxel to
the plane (xh ) that fitting through all points located within voxel vh were computed,
and if the distance is less than the distance threshold Δth, the point pt was added to
the segment R2. The value of the distance threshold Δth (user–defined) was chosen
based on the accumulation of two parameters, that is, the noise level accuracy of
laser scanner and the roughness of the road surface near the curb where the different
height is obviously observed between the road surface and sidewalk in expressway
environment.
4 Experiment Tests and Discussion
A 3D point cloud of two congested expressway in Bangkok, Thailand was collected

using a GT–4 MLS. The MLS system contains four main components including
two laser scanners RIEGL VQ450, Global Positioning System, 360° cameras, and
Inertial Measurement Unit. A data collection data was carried out by two passed
(inbound and outbound) for each lane direction with a moving at 50 km/h to ensure
the ideal laser point density. Site 1 is a part of BangNa Expressway, with the total
surveyed length of 1.01 km, resulting in the total points of 14,056,306 points and
the average point density of 560 pts/m2. Site 2 was conducted at cable–stayed
Rama IX Bridge. The dataset in Site 2 consists of 33,246,417 points with the point
density of 659 pts/m2, and cover the total length of 2.1 km (Fig. 4).
The input parameters for road surface extraction was empirically chosen based
on the terrain complexity of Site 1, 2 (see Table 1). The result of the extraction road
surface was successfully completed for both test sites (Fig. 5). The total number of
11,545,695 and 23,809,649 road surface points were extracted from Site 1 and Site
2 by the proposed algorithm. To evaluate the accuracy of the proposed algorithm,
the ground truth data were extracted manually. The total number of road surface
points in the truth data in Site 1 and Site 2 were 11,253,402 and 22,863,692 points,
respectively. These values were used to compute the three indices which are a
(a)
(b)
Fig. 4 Point clouds of: (a) BangNa elevated expressway. (b) Rama IX Bridge
Table 1 Input parameters Dmin slopeth ath rth Δth

used for Site 1 and 2 (m) (%) (◦) (m) (m)
Site 1 2 5 5 0.03 0.03
Site 2
representative of the evaluation metrics for the comparison. The three indices, that
is, recall, precision, and quality, were obtained using Eq. 7:
TP TP
Recall ¼ 100%; Precision ¼ 100%; Quality
TP + FN TP + FP
TP
¼ 100% ð7Þ
TP + FP + FN
where TP is the detected road surface points belong to ground truth and proposed
method, FN is road surface points in the ground truth data but not detect in the
proposed method data, FP is the detected road surface points in the proposed
method data but not found in the ground truth.
As shown in Table 2, the value of recall, precision, and quality for Site 1 were
99.9%, 97.4%, and 97.4%, respectively; whereas Site 2 achieved 99.1%, 95.2%,
and 94.4%, respectively. It can be seen that the proposed algorithm detected and
extracted the road surface in Site 1 at higher accuracy than those from Site 2. In Site
2, the points at the road boundary in the main span length of the bridge were
misclassified as non–road points (Table 2). That is because there is no presence of
noticeable height jump at the boundary along the bridge.
Fig. 5 Road surface extraction. (a) BangNa elevated expressway. (b) Rama IX Bridge
Table 2 Accuracy evaluation of the proposed method at two test sites

Test site Ground Algorithm TP FN FP Recall Precision F1
data (points) (points) (points) (points) (%) (%) score
(points) (%)
Site 1 11,253,402 11,545,695 11,249,918 3,484 295,777 99.9 97.4 97.4
Site 2 22,863,692 23,809,649 22,669,047 194,645 1,140,602 99.1 95.2 94.4
Average 99.5 96.3 95.9
5 Conclusion
In this paper, the method was introduced for automated extraction of the road
surface in an expressway environment from point cloud data collected by MLS.
Observe that there is a presence of the road curb along the road which is the
noticeable character of all expressways, the voxel– and curved–based segmentation
algorithm was proposed to extract the road surface out of the huge point cloud data
in the vast expressway area. The proposed method consists of three steps: (1) define
the seeding voxel by combining seeding points and voxel model; (2) voxel–based
segmentation algorithm was applied to extract the road surface; (3) curved–based
segmentation algorithm was employed for road surface refinement. Two test sites
including flat and bumpy with a high slope of road surfaces were then used to assess
the efficiency of the proposed method. With the average recall, precision and
quality results of 99.5%, 96.3%, and 95.9% at two test sites. This proved that the
proposed algorithm was a reliable, robust method to extract road surface at high
accuracy.
Acknowledgements This paper report is a part of a project supported by the Ministry of

Economy, Trade and Industry Japan. The authors wish to thank Metropolitan Expressway Co.
Ltd., Elysium Co. Ltd., Aero Asahi Corporation, Nikon–Trimble Co. Ltd, and Expressway
Authority of Thailand for supporting the MLS equipment and assisting the site survey.
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Optimal Bridge Maintenance
Algorithms Considering Subordinate
Relation with Bridge Members
Sungyeol Jin, Jin Hyuk Lee, Yangrok Choi, Jaehoon Lim,

and Jung Sik Kong
Abstract Recently, social interest in the deteriorated bridges and infrastructure has
been increasing. Also, studies on performance prediction and maintenance decision
making of structures are underway. In this study, it was proposed an algorithm to
create an optimal maintenance scenario that takes into consideration the relationship
between the members of bridge that affect each other, rather than the conventional
maintenance that is focused on single members of the bridge.
Since maintenance scenario creation is discrete in terms of time and cost. So in
this study, it is used a genetic algorithm. Each member of bridge has a subordinate
relation that takes into account member damage transitions effect and the elimi-
nation of duplication maintenance cost, which was established through the Korean
bridge maintenance manual and expert opinion. In order to predict the performance
change of each member, the algorithm used the condition prediction model of each
member of the bridge, which was created by multiple regression analysis based on
the actual bridge case. Also, it used the maintenance cost model of members for
cost estimation, it has created and applied it through actual maintenance case
analysis. The constraint of the algorithm is set to the minimum maintenance level of
S. Jin J. H. Lee Y. Choi J. Lim J. S. Kong (&)

School of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, Korea University,
Seoul, Korea
e-mail: jskong@korea.ac.kr
S. Jin
e-mail: sg30539@korea.ac.kr
J. H. Lee
e-mail: 2018020424@korea.ac.kr
Y. Choi
e-mail: azsxdc93@korea.ac.kr
J. Lim
e-mail: limccy@korea.ac.kr

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_116
1238 S. Jin et al.
the bridge by the bridge administrator. And, it was conducted the case study about
real bridge model using the optimal maintenance model, analyzed the cost-effect
and made maintenance scenario.
Keywords Optimal bridge maintenance Condition prediction model Genetic

algorithm Subordinate relation
1 Introduction
Recently, interest in preventive maintenance of bridges and infrastructure has

increased, and research has been conducted on the performance of structures and
maintenance costs [1−4]. After collecting the safety inspection and in-depth
inspection data of the national road bridges, the condition prediction model was
established through polynomial regression analysis considering the deterioration
rates [5]. In order to make these studies practical, optimization algorithms were
proposed to take account of the various constraints and correlations between
members.
2 The Optimal Maintenance Algorithm for Time

and Costs
To optimize time point and cost for maintenance are required to satisfy correlation
in each member and various constraints. And then, a genetic algorithm has some
effective advantages to estimate various variables and constraints. So, in this study,
there is suggested the model to predict optimal time point and cost for bridge
maintenance, using a genetic algorithm(G,A).
2.1 The Prediction Model of Bridge Member Condition

and the Maintenance Cost
The prediction model of bridge member condition is made to forecast each member
condition rate up to the target life of the bridge. And this model is based on safety
inspection and in-depth inspection data of the national road bridges in Korea since
1995. In Fig. 1, the condition prediction model was developed by polynomial
Optimal Bridge Maintenance Algorithms … 1239
Fig. 1 Concept about prediction model of bridge member condition and maintenance cost
regression results which were based on bridge condition ratings, and the difference
in the degree of deterioration expressed the deterioration ratio in the point of
maintenance before and before after.
The rating maintenance cost function was proposed by specialists’ opinions and
maintenance rating cost data, and it was shown that the curve was newly updated by
rating resulting from maintenance.
2.2 Optimization Model Using the Genetic Algorithm
The genetic algorithm (G.A.) is suitable as maintenance optimization methods

because they do not have to be constrained by differential and continuous condi-
tions in the purpose function. So, in this study, it was applied to. Figure 2 is
described in the genetic algorithm for the absence-specific correlation and
constraints.
Each Member of the bridge is needed to consider the correlation with the
increased deterioration ratio. When it was reached condition-index Grade D(0.3), it
has to replace as the maintenance and resets as the initial deterioration ratio(a). At
this time, it should be considered some relationship with each member and decided
to main or sub-member. Then, it is calculated the cost of bridge maintenance using
relationship about bridge members.
1240 S. Jin et al.
3 Case Study of Optimal Algorithm About Maintenance

Time Point and Cost
In this study, to confirm the applicated performance ability about the optimal algo-
rithm, it conducts a case study using by deck and pavement members of the common
bridge in Korea. As shown from the Table 1, it is represented factors - the deterio-
ration ratio, deterioration increase ratio, C.I.- Cost function, and constraints. Each
factor is set into the algorithm and calculates the optimal time point and cost of
maintenance. And then, it makes the maintenance scenarios with the member-specific
correlation. The deck and pavement maintenance scenario of Fig. 3 is represented the
optimal maintenance scenario considering the member-specific correlation and scale
for the target life of 100 years.
Fig. 2 Optimal algorithm for bridge maintenance about time point and cost using G.A.
Optimal Bridge Maintenance Algorithms … 1241
Table 1 The factors of optimal algorithm about maintenance using G.A.

Bridge Deterioration Deterioration C.I. - Cost function Constraint
member ratio (a) increase ratio
(Da)
cost ¼ 10
9
109
3 C:I: þ
Deck 0.0018 0.15 1) If deck were
3
108
replaced,
Pavement 0.0052 0.19 cost ¼ 3 C:I: þ 108
3 pavement was
automatically
replaced
2) Each member
was satisfied that
C.I. was over D
grade (C.I. = 0.3)
Fig. 3 The scenario study about bridge maintenance
4 Conclusions
In this study, to optimize time point and cost for maintenance, there is suggested the
model to predict optimal time point and cost for bridge maintenance. Then, it is
represented the optimal algorithm about maintenance of bridge using and genetic
algorithm.
This algorithm can establish an optimal maintenance scenario considering cor-
relation about each member of bridge to maintenance efficiently and reasonably. In
addition, it is expected to be able to further apply a variety of member-specific
correlations.
1242 S. Jin et al.
Acknowledgements This research was supported by a grant (17SCIP-B128492-01) from Smart

Civil Infrastructure Research Program funded by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of
Korean Government.
References
1. Mohan A, Poobal S (2018) Crack detection using image processing: a critical review and
analysis. Alexandria Eng J 57(2):787–798
2. Korea Agency for Technology Infrastructure Advancement (KAIA) (2013) Bridge life-span
extension using ICT, partial replacement and low-carbon materials
3. Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (2014) Korea Infrastructure Safety Corporation,
Bridge Maintenance Manual
4. Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (2012) Z Developing Bridge Management
System Considering Life-Cycle Cost and Performance of Bridges
5. Lee JH, Lee KY, Ahn SM, Kong JS (2018) Proposal of maintenance scenario and feasibility
analysis of bridge inspection using bayesian approach. J Korean Soc Civil Eng 38(4):505–516
Scaled Boundary Finite Element Method
for Two-Dimensional Crack Problems
in Multi-field Media
C. V. Nguyen and J. Rungamornrat
Abstract This paper presents a numerical procedure, based on the scaled boundary
finite element method (SBFEM) that is capable of modeling cracks in a
two-dimensional linear multi-field medium. The formulation is established in a
broad setting to handle various classes of linear boundary value problems, in a
unified fashion, such as those related to linear elasticity, piezoelectricity,
magneto-elasticity, and magneto-electro-elasticity. A scaled boundary finite ele-
ment approximation is also implemented within a general framework integrating the
influence of the distributed body source, general boundary conditions, contributions
of general prescribed data on side-faces, and the flexibility of the scaling boundary
approximations. The implemented SBFEM is then verified with available bench-
mark solutions for crack problems in multi-field media. Obtained results for various
scenarios have clearly indicated the accuracy, vast capability and robustness of the
proposed method.

Keywords Scaled boundary finite element methods Multi-field media Cracks

Stress intensity factors Surface flux State variables
1 Introduction
A scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM) has been proved, for the past
two decades, as one of powerful solution techniques for the analysis of various
engineering problems. The technique has increasingly gained popularity from many
C. V. Nguyen (&)
Faculty of Civil Engineering, HCMC University of Technology and Education,
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
e-mail: chungnv@hcmute.edu.vn
J. Rungamornrat
Applied Mechanics and Structures Research Unit, Department of Civil Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
e-mail: jaroon.r@chula.ac.th

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_117
1244 C. V. Nguyen and J. Rungamornrat
researchers, since its emergence, due to the key feature resulting from its underlying
formulation and the discretization scheme (e.g., Wolf [9]). In particular, the
introduction of scaled boundary coordinates to describe the geometry and all
involved spatial differential operators allows the reduction of spatial discretization;
more specifically, only the representative boundary requires the discretization.
Several versions of the SBFEM have been continuously proposed to further
enhance its capability and computational performance. For instance, Deeks and
Wolf [2] integrated an h-adaptive procedure in the SBFEM. Object-oriented and
sub-structuring approaches were employed in their study. The positive feature of
the SBFEM was then exploited to model the stress singularities at the scaling center
and to avoid the discretization of certain adjacent segments of the boundary. Later,
Vu and Deeks [8] explored the use of high-order elements (e.g., spectral-element
and hierarchical approaches) in the SBFEM. They found that the spectral element
approach was better than the hierarchical approach. He et al. [4] developed a new
element-free Galerkin SBFEM to solve a number of standard linear elasticity
problems. It was found that the technique offers the better rate of convergence than
that of the original SBFEM. Li et al. [5] developed the SBFEM to solve
two-dimensional crack problems in linear piezoelectricity. Both static and dynamic
stress and electric displacement intensity factors were evaluated. In such procedure,
no asymptotic solution, local mesh refinement or special treatment around a crack
tip was required. Furthermore, Dieringer and Becker [3] developed the SBFEM to
handle problems within the framework of a classical laminated plate theory. In their
study, the scaled boundary finite element equations in terms of the displacements
for composites were derived and used to examine the stress singularities at a notch.
They also demonstrated the enhancement of the SBFEM in evaluating the singular
stress field as a function of the notch opening for the wide variety of composites.
Besides the capability of treating the stress singularity, the accuracy and efficiency
of the SBFEM to handle arbitrarily laminated plates was also confirmed. Most
recently, Nguyen et al. [6] and Rungamornrat and Nguyen [7] proposed a general
SBFEM for the analysis of two-dimensional linear multi-field problems. In their
work, the underlying formulation and the implementation of solution procedure
were established in a broad framework allowing various classes of linear boundary
value problems to be handled in a unified setting with a general set of prescribed
data. In addition, the accuracy enhancement of SBFE solutions via the use of exact
defining curve was also investigated.
The present study aims mainly to extend the work of Nguyen et al. [6] to further
enhance the capability of the SBFEM to analyze cracks in both single-field and
multi-field media. Remaining sections of this paper are organized to include the
problem description, basic equations, the scaled boundary finite element formula-
tion, its performance in handling crack problems, and concluding remarks.
Scaled Boundary Finite Element Method ... 1245
2 Problem Description and Basic Equations
Consider a two-dimensional body occupying a region X in R2 as shown

schematically in Fig. 1. The body is assumed nice in the sense that all involved
mathematical operators can be performed over such the region. The boundary of the
body X, denoted by @X, is assumed piecewise smooth and an outward unit normal
vector at any smooth point on @X is denoted by n ¼ fn1 n2 gT . A set of equations
governing all field quantities defined within the body is formulated in a general
framework allowing various classes of linear, second-order boundary value prob-
lems (e.g., linear elasticity, problems associated with multi-field materials such as
piezoelectric, piezomagnetic, and piezoelectromagnetic solids, etc.) to be treated in
a unified manner. Three sets of basic equations including the law of conservation,
the constitutive law of materials, and the relationship between state variables and
the measure of their variation, which relate the state variables uðxÞ, the variation of
state variables eðxÞ and the body flux rðxÞ, are given explicitly by
LT r þ b ¼ 0 ð1Þ
r ¼ De ð2Þ
e ¼ Lu ð3Þ
where L is a linear differential operator defined, in terms of a 2K K-matrix, by

@ @ I 0
L ¼ L1 þ L2 ; L1 ¼ ; L2 ¼ ð4Þ
@x1 @x2 0 I
with I and 0 denoting a K K-identity matrix and a K K-zero matrix, respec-

tively. The integer K is used as a key parameter to indicate the type of problems; for
instance, K ¼ 2 represents problems in linear elasticity; K ¼ 3 represents problems
Fig. 1 Schematic of
two-dimensional, multi-field
body
in linear piezoelectricity and magneto-elasticity, and K ¼ 4 represents problems in

linear magneto-electro-elasticity (see more details in Chung et al. 2017). From the
law of conservation, the surface flux tðxÞ at any smooth point x on the boundary @X
can be related to the body flux rðxÞ and the outward unit normal vector nðxÞ by
t ¼ ½ n1 I n2 I r, where, n1 and n2 are components of nðxÞ. By applying the
standard weighted residual technique to the law of conservation [1], then integrating
certain integrals by parts via the divergence theorem, and finally employing [2] -
[3], the weak-form equation in terms of the state variables is given by
Z Z Z
ðLwÞT DðLuÞdA ¼ wT tdl þ wT bdA ð5Þ
X @X X
where w is any K-component vector of sufficiently smooth test functions.
3 SBFE Formulation
The geometry of the body can be fully described by a rectangular region ½n1 ; n2
½s1 ; s2 in the n s plane via the following coordinate transformation
x ¼ x0 þ n^xðsÞ ð6Þ
where n; s are termed the scaled boundary coordinates; x0 is the scaling center; and
x^ðsÞ is a locus of points along a defining curve relative to x0 as shown in Fig. 2. If
the defining curve is not a closed curve, the boundary of @X corresponding to
s ¼ s1 and s ¼ s2 are termed the side faces. If the defining curve is a closed curve,
the boundary of @X contains no side face. If n1 is finite, the body X is said to be
finite; otherwise (i.e., n2 ¼ 1), it is said to be infinite. If n1 ¼ 0, the body X
contains the scaling center x0 ; otherwise (i.e., n1 [ 0), the body X does not contain
the scaling center x0 . Portions of the boundary @X associated with n ¼ n1 [ 0 and
n ¼ n2 \1 are termed the inner and outer boundaries, respectively. With the
coordinate transformation [6], the differential area dA can be related to differential
area dnds in the n s plane by dA ¼ Jndnds with J ¼ ^x1 ðd^x2 =dsÞ ^x2 ðd^x1 =dsÞ
and the length dl of the differential vector dx along the boundary and along the side
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
face are given, respectively, by dl ¼ ðd^x1 =dsÞ2 þ ðd^x2 =dsÞ2 nds ¼ J s ðsÞnds and
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
dl ¼ ^x21 þ ^x22 dn ¼ J n ðsÞdn. The linear differential operator L given by [4] can
now be expressed in terms of partial derivatives with respect to n and s by

@ 1@ 1 ðd^x2 =dsÞI 1 ^x2 I
L ¼ b1 þ b2 ; b1 ¼ ; b2 ¼ ð7Þ
@n n @s J ðd^x1 =dsÞI J ^x1 I
Fig. 2 Schematic of scaling

center x0 and defining curve
C
Fig. 3 Schematic of generic

body X and its approximation
Xh
The state variables u, the body flux r, and the weight function w can be
approximated by
uh ¼ uh ðn; sÞ ¼ N S U h ð8Þ
h i
rh ¼ D B1 U h;n þ ð1=nÞB2 U h ð9Þ
wh ¼ wh ðn; sÞ ¼ N S W h ð10Þ
where N S is a matrix containing all basis functions used for approximating the state
variables, U h is a vector containing all unknown nodal functions, W h is a vector
containing all arbitrary nodal functions, B1 ¼ bh1 N S , B2 ¼ bh2 BS , BS ¼ dN S =ds, and
the superscript “h” is used to designate quantities resulting from the approximation.
A set of scaled boundary finite element equations is established for a generic,
two-dimensional body X shown in Fig. 3. As a result of the boundary partition
@X ¼ @X1 [ @X2 [ @Xs1 [ @Xs1 together with the coordinate transformation [6], the
manipulation of all involved matrix algebra, and the integration by parts with
respect to the coordinate n, the weak-form [5] becomes
Zn2
1
ðW h ÞT nE0 U h;nn þ ðE1 ET1 E0 ÞU h;n þ E2 U h Ft nFb dn
n
n1
n o n o
þ ðW h2 ÞT nE0 U h;n þ ET1 U h P2 ðW h1 ÞT nE0 U h;n þ ET1 U h þ P1 ¼ 0
n¼n2 n¼n1
ð11Þ
where W h1 ¼ W h ðn1 Þ; W h2 ¼ W h ðn2 Þ, and the matrices E0 , E1 , and E2 , and all

involved quantities are defined by
Zn2 Zn2 Zn2

E0 ¼ BT1 DB1 Jds; E1 ¼ BT2 DB1 Jd; E2 ¼ BT2 DB2 Jds ð12Þ
n1 n1 n1
Zso Zso
S T
P1 ¼ ðN Þ t1 ðsÞn1 J ðsÞds; P2 ¼
s
ðN S ÞT t2 ðsÞn2 J s ðsÞds ð13Þ
si si
Ft1 ¼ Ft1 ðnÞ ¼ ðN S1 ÞT ts1 ðnÞJ n ðs1 Þ; Ft2 ¼ Ft2 ðnÞ ¼ ðN S2 ÞT ts2 ðnÞJ n ðs2 Þ; Ft ¼ Ft1 þ Ft2
ð14Þ
Zs2
F ¼ F ðnÞ ¼
b b
ðN S ÞT bJds ð15Þ
s1
From the arbitrariness of the weight function W h , it can be concluded that
n2 E0 U h;nn þ nðE0 þ ET1 E1 ÞU h;n E2 Uh þ nFt þ n2 Fb ¼ 0 8n 2 ðn1 ; n2 Þ ð16Þ
Qh ðn1 Þ ¼ P1 ð17Þ
Qh ðn2 Þ ¼ P2 ð18Þ
where Qh ¼ Qh ðnÞ ¼ nE0 U h;n þ ET1 U h is commonly known as the nodal internal
flux. By partitioning U h into f Uhu U hc gT where U hu and U hc denote unknown
and prescribed state variables, the system of differential Eqs. (16) and the nodal
internal flux can be expressed, in a partitioned form, as
" #( ) " #( )
Euu
0 Euc
0 Uhu
;nn Euu uu T
0 þ ðE1 Þ E1
uu
Euc cu T
0 þ ðE1 Þ E1
uc U hu
;n
n 2
T þn
ðEuc
0 Þ Ecc
0 Uhc
;nn ðEuc T uc T
0 Þ þ ðE1 Þ E1
cu cc T
0 þ ðE1 Þ E1
Ecc cc Uhc
;n
" uu # ( ) tu ( )
E2 Euc
2 U hu F F bu
T þn þ n2 ¼0
ðEuc
2 Þ Ecc
2 Uhc Ftc Fbc
ð19Þ
( )
Qhu Euu Euc U hu
;n 1 Þ
ðEuu T
ðEcu
1 Þ
T
U hu
¼n 0
T
0
þ ð20Þ
Qhc ðEuc
0 Þ Ecc
0 U hc
;n ðEuc
1 Þ
T
ðEcc
1 Þ
T
U hc
Clearly, Eq. (19) can be separated into two systems:

uu uu T
hu
0 U ;nn þ n E0 þ ðE1 Þ E1 U ;n E2 U
n2 Euu hu uu uu hu
¼ nFtu n2 Fbu Fsuu ð21Þ
nFtc ¼ n2 Fbc Fsuc Fscc ð22Þ
where the vectors Fsuu , Fsuc , and Fscc are defined by
cu T
Fsuu ¼ n2 Euc
0 U ;nn þ nðE0 þ ðE1 Þ E1 ÞU ;n E2 U
hc uc uc hc uc hc
ð23Þ
T hu uc T uc T
hu uc T hu
Fsuc ¼ n2 ðEuc
0 Þ U ;nn þ n ðE0 Þ þ ðE1 Þ E1 U ;n ðE2 Þ U
cu
ð24Þ
cc cc T
hc
Fscc ¼ n2 Ecc
0 U ;nn þ n E0 þ ðE1 Þ E1 U ;n E2 U
hc cc cc hc
ð25Þ
By following the same procedure, the Eq. (20) can also be separated into two
systems:
uu T hu
Qhu ðnÞ ¼ nEuu
0 U ;n þ ðE1 Þ U þ Q
hu huc
ðnÞ ð26Þ
T hu uc T hu
Qhc ðnÞ ¼ nðEuc
0 Þ U ;n þ ðE1 Þ U þ Q ðnÞ
hcc
ð27Þ
where the known vectors Qhuc ðnÞ and Qhcc ðnÞ are defined by
cu T hc cc T hc
Qhuc ðnÞ ¼ nEuc
0 U ;n þ ðE1 Þ U ; Q
hc huc
ðnÞ ¼ nEcc
0 U ;n þ ðE1 Þ U
hc
ð28Þ
A system of differential Eqs. (21) along with the boundary conditions on the
inner and outer boundaries,Qhc ðn1 Þ ¼ Pu1 and Qhu ðn2 Þ ¼ Pu2 , is sufficient for
determining the general solution of U hu . A homogeneous solution of (21), denoted
by Uhu
0 , must satisfy
uu uu T
hu
n2 Euu
0 U 0;nn þ n E0 þ ðE1 Þ E1 U 0;n E2 U 0 ¼ 0
hu uu uu hu
ð29Þ
and the corresponding nodal internal flux Qhu

0 ðnÞ is given by
uu T hu
0 ðnÞ ¼ nE0 U 0;n þ ðE1 Þ U 0
Qhu ð30Þ
uu hu
Since (29) is a set of ðm pÞK linear, second-order, Euler-Cauchy differential

P
2ðmpÞK
0 takes the following form U 0 ðnÞ ¼
equations, U hu hu
ci nki wui where a constant
i¼1
ki is termed the modal scaling factor, wui is the ðm pÞK-component vector rep-
resenting the ith mode of the state variable, and ci are arbitrary constants denoting
the contribution of each mode to the solution. By substituting U hu 0 into (29) and
(30) together with introducing a 2ðm pÞK-component vector Xi such that
X i ¼ f wui qui gT , it leads to a system of linear algebraic equations
AX i ¼ ki X i ð31Þ
where ki denote the eigenvalues, Xi are associated eigenvectors, and A is a matrix

defined by
1 uu T 1
0 Þ ðE1 Þ
ðEuu ðEuu
0 Þ
A¼ uu 1 uu T uu 1 ð32Þ
2 E1 ðE0 Þ ðE1 Þ
Euu 1 ðE0 Þ
uu
Euu
Let k þ and k be ðm pÞK ðm pÞK diagonal matrices containing eigen-

values with the positive real part and the negative real part, respectively; Uw þ and
Uq þ be matrices whose columns containing all vectors wui and qui obtained from the
eigenvectors X i ¼ f wui qui gT associated with all eigenvalues contained in k þ ,
respectively; and Uw and Uq be matrices whose columns containing all vectors
wui and qui obtained from the eigenvectors X i ¼ f wui qui gT associated with all
eigenvalues contained in k , respectively. Now, the homogeneous solutions U hu 0
0 ðnÞ are given by
and Qhu
wþ
0 ðnÞ ¼ U
U hu P þ ðnÞC þ þ Uw P ðnÞC ð33Þ
qþ
0 ðnÞ ¼ U
Qhu P þ ðnÞC þ þ Uq P ðnÞC ð34Þ
where P þ and P are diagonal matrices obtained by simply replacing the diagonal
entries ki of the matrices k þ and k by the function nki , respectively; and C þ and
C are vectors containing arbitrary constants representing the contribution of each
mode.
A particular solution of (21), denoted by Uhu 1 , associated with the distributed
body source, the surface flux on the side face and the prescribed state variables on
the side faces can also be obtained from a standard procedure in the theory of
differential equations such as the method of undetermined coefficient. Once the
1 is obtained, the corresponding particular nodal internal flux
particular solution U hu
hu
Q1 can be calculated. Finally, the general solution of (21) and the corresponding
nodal internal flux are then given by
wþ
U hu ðnÞ ¼ U hu
0 ðnÞ þ U 1 ðnÞ ¼ U
hu
P þ ðnÞC þ þ Uw P ðnÞC þ U hu
1 ðnÞ ð35Þ
qþ
Qhu ðnÞ ¼ Qhu
0 ðnÞ þ Q1 ðnÞ ¼ U
hu
P þ ðnÞC þ þ Uq P ðnÞC þ Qhu
1 ðnÞ ð36Þ
By enforcing the boundary conditions on both inner and outer boundaries

together with the general solutions (35)–(36), it results in a system of linear alge-
braic equations governing the unknown data on both the inner and outer boundaries

Uhu ðn1 Þ Pu1 1 ðn1 Þ
U hu 1 ðn1 Þ
Qhu
K ¼ þK ð37Þ
Uhu ðn2 Þ Pu2 1 ðn2 Þ
U hu 1 ðn2 Þ
Qhu
where the coefficient matrix K, commonly termed the stiffness matrix, is given by
1
Uq þ P þ ðn1 Þ Uq P ðn1 Þ Uw þ P þ ðn1 Þ Uw P ðn1 Þ
K¼ ð38Þ
Uq þ P þ ðn2 Þ Uq P ðn2 Þ Uw þ P þ ðn2 Þ Uw P ðn2 Þ
Once the unknowns on both the inner and outer boundaries are solved, the
approximate field quantities such as the state variables and the body flux within the
body can readily post-processed; in particular, the approximated state variables and
body flux can be computed from (8)–(9) as
uh ðn; sÞ ¼ N S ðsÞU h ðnÞ ¼ N Su ðsÞU hu ðnÞ þ N Sc ðsÞUhc ðnÞ ð39Þ

1 u 1 c
r ðn; sÞ ¼ D B1 ðsÞU ;n ðnÞ þ B2 ðsÞU ðnÞ þ D B1 ðsÞU ;n ðnÞ þ B2 ðsÞU ðnÞ
h u hu hu c hc hc
n n
ð40Þ
where fN Su ; N Sc g, fBu1 ; Bc1 g, and fBu2 ; Bc2 g are matrices resulting from the partition
of N S ,B1 and B2 , respectively. The intensity factors along the crack front are
determined by (Li et al. [5])
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ðsÞ
fKðhÞg ¼ 2pL½wrL ðhÞfcðsÞ g ð41Þ
ðsÞ
where ½wrL ðhÞ are the singular body flux modes at the characteristic length L and
fcðsÞ g are the integration constants corresponding to the singular modes.
(a) (b)
Fig. 4 Schematic of (a) plane-strain rectangular plate containing edged notch and (b) scaling
center and defining curve used in scale boundary finite element analysis
4 Performance of Implemented SBFEM
Two numerical examples, associated with an edged notch contained in both the
elastic and piezoelectric finite plates, are considered to investigate the computa-
tional performance of the proposed technique. In addition, reference solutions
available in the literature are employed to verify the formulation and
implementations.
4.1 Rectangular Plate Containing Edged Notch
Consider a plane-strain, rectangular plate containing an edged notch as shown

schematically in Fig. 4(a). The plate is made of a homogeneous, isotropic, linearly
elastic material of Young’s modulus E and Poisson’s ratio m (i.e., K ¼ 2 and D with
non-zero entries D11 ¼ D44 ¼ ð1 mÞE=ð1 þ mÞð1 2mÞ,D14 ¼ D41 ¼ mE=ð1 þ mÞ
ð1 2mÞ,D23 ¼ D32 ¼ D22 ¼ D33 ¼ E=2ð1 þ mÞ) and subjected to a uniformly
distributed traction r0 . The opening angle of the notch is taken as a ¼ 00 to sim-
ulate an edged crack. The mode-I stress intensity factor (KI ) reported in the liter-
pffiffiffiffiffiffi
ature (Brown and Srawley [1], for this particular case, is given by KI ¼ Cr0 ap
where C is a geometric factor given by
Table 1 Mode-I stress KI 100 jKIRef KISBFEM j=KIRef

intensity factors of rectangular
elastic plate containing edged SBFEM, N = 13 65.6009 7.4016
crack SBFEM, N = 21 69.6269 1.7187
SBFEM, N = 41 70.3924 0.6382
SBFEM, N = 81 70.7098 0.1901
Ref solution 70.8445
(KIRef )
FEM, 70.6850
N = 66700
Table 2 The first eigenvalue SBFEM, N 13 21 41 81

corresponding to the singular
stress field (a ¼ 0) k 0.49691 0.49998 0.50006 0.50001
Table 3 Normalized SBFEM, N 13 21 41 81

intensity factors of edged pffiffiffiffiffiffi
crack piezoelectric plate KI =ðr0 paÞ 2.3473 2.7808 2.8174 2.8277
pffiffiffiffiffiffi
KIV =ðD56 r0 pa=D55 Þ 4.1319 5.5684 5.7448 5.7933
a
a
2 a
3 a
4
C ¼ 1:12 0:231 þ 10:55 21:72 þ 30:39 ð42Þ
W W W W
In the analysis, the scaling center is selected at the notch tip; the defining curve is
discretized by N identical linear elements; and the dimensions of the plate are
chosen such that a ¼ b and W ¼ L. The mode-I stress intensity factors generated by
the implemented technique are shown in Table 1 along with the benchmark solu-
tion. To further demonstrate the efficiency of the present technique at least in terms
of the number of degrees of freedom required, a solution generated by a reliable
finite element program with 6–node triangular elements is also reported. It is seen
that numerical solutions generated by the proposed SBFEM converge and also
exhibit excellent agreement with the reference solution with the used of relatively
coarse meshes. In addition, the standard FEM clearly requires a significantly large
number of degrees of freedom to obtain the stress intensity factor with the same
level of accuracy. The order of singularity (i.e., one of eigenvalues obtained from
the present method) is also reported in Table 2. It is evident that the order of
singularity converges to the theoretical value (i.e., 0.5) as expected.
Table 4 The first eigenvalue SBFEM, N 13 21 41 81

corresponding to the singular
stress field (a ¼ 0) k 0.49816 0.50045 0.50016 0.50004
4.2 Rectangular Piezoelectric Plate Containing Edged

Notch
A representative boundary value problem associated with the linear piezoelectricity

(K ¼ 3) is investigated, here, to further highlight the capability of the proposed
technique to handle linear multi-field crack problems. Consider, again, a plane-strain
rectangular plate containing an edged notch as shown in Fig. 4(a). In this case, the
plate is made of PZT-4 (Li et al. [5]) with all non-zero entries of the modulus matrix D
given by D11 ¼ 139GPa,D15 ¼ D51 ¼ 74:3GPa,D16 ¼ D61 ¼ 6:98Cm2 ,D22 ¼
25:6GPa,D24 ¼ 25:6GPa,D42 ¼ 25:6GPa,D33 ¼ 6:0109 CðVmÞ1 ,D34 ¼ D43 ¼
13:44Cm2 ,D44 ¼ 25:6GPa,D55 ¼ 113GPa, D56 ¼ D65 ¼ 13:84Cm2 , and
1
D66 ¼ 5:47 109 CðVmÞ . The plate is loaded by a uniformly distributed normal
traction r0 and the electric displacement D0. In the numerical study, the scaling center
is also selected at the notch tip and the defining curve is discretized by N identical
linear elements. The dimensions of the plate are chosen such that a ¼ b and W ¼ L.
The computed normalized stress and electric displacement intensity factors are
reported in Table 3. It is seen that the numerical solutions exhibit excellent conver-
gence behavior; in particular, only few elements are required to achieve the converged
result. In addition, the order of singularity, reported in Table 4, also converges to the
theoretical value (i.e., 0.5) as expected.
5 Conclusion
A numerical technique, based on the scaled boundary finite element method, has
been successfully implemented to solve two-dimensional, multi-field crack prob-
lems. Both the formulation and implementations have been established in a general
framework allowing a variety of linear boundary value problems and the general
associated data, such as the domain geometry, the prescribed distributed body
source, boundary conditions, contribution of the side face, and the flexibility of the
scaled boundary approximations, to be treated in a single, unified fashion. Results
from an extensive numerical study have confirmed the validity, accuracy, conver-
gence, and capability of the prosed technique.
References
1. Brown WLJ, Srawley J (1966) Plane strain crack toughness testing of high strength metallic
materials, ASTM 410
2. Deeks AJ, Wolf JP (2002) An h-hierarchical adaptive procedure for the scaled boundary
finite-element method. Int J Numer Meth Eng 54:585–605
3. Dieringer R, Becker W (2014) A new scaled boundary finite element formulation for
computation of singularity orders at cracks and notches in arbitrary laminated composites.
Composite Structures. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2014.12.036
4. He Y, Yang H, Deeks AJ (2012) An Element-free Galerkin scaled boundary method. Finite
Elem Anal Des 62:28–36
5. Li C, Man H, Song C, Gao W (2013) Fracture analysis of piezoelectric materials using the
scaled boundary finite element method. Eng Fract Mech 97:52–71
6. Nguyen CV, Rungamornrat J, Pheinsusom P (2017) Scaled boundary finite element method for
two-dimensional linear multi-field media. Eng J 21(7):333–360
7. Rungamornrat J, Nguyen CV (2019) Scaled boundary finite element method with exact
defining curves for two-dimensional linear multi-field media. Front Struct Civil Eng 13(1):201–
214
8. Vu TH, Deeks AJ (2006) Use of higher-order shape functions in the scaled boundary finite
element method. Int J Numer Meth Eng 65:1714–1733
9. Wolf JP (2003) The scaled boundary finite element method. Wiley, Chichester
A Simplified Method for Estimating
Differential Displacement
in Consideration of Structural
Nonlinearity and Coupling Between
Adjacent Viaducts During Earthquake
K. Narita and M. Tokunaga
Abstract Railway viaducts responds in different vibration period during earth-

quake, which causes relative displacement between adjacent viaducts. Seismic
running safety of railway vehicles are significantly affected by the differential
displacement at the ends between longitudinally adjacent viaducts. This study
introduced a simple estimation method for the differential displacement based on
the vibration characteristics of a single structure, in consideration of structural
nonlinearity and coupling between adjacent viaducts during earthquake. First of all,
Statistical investigation of the vibration characteristics of existing structures
revealed that Equivalent natural period ratio ranges within 1.0 to 2.0 when the
adjacent structure are different structural types. Secondly, time-history analyses are
performed based on SDOF-system in order to quantify differential displacements
during earthquakes considering the nonlinearity. Relative displacement increase
with differential equivalent period between the adjacent structures. And then, the
influence of the coupling between adjacent viaducts on the relative displacement
depends on their vibration period ratio. The relative displacement decreased when
the vibration period ratio of adjacent viaduct is close to 1.0, whereas it is increased
when difference of vibration period ratio of adjacent viaduct is large. Finally, the
proposed method can estimate the differential displacement in the structures with
high accuracy of ±30%, independently of the hysteric character of the structure.

Keywords Seismic analysis Nonlinear Differential displacement Relative

displacement Railway viaducts
K. Narita (&) M. Tokunaga

Structural Mechanics Laboratory, Railway Technical Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: narita.kenji.97@rtri.or.jp
M. Tokunaga
e-mail: mumemasa.tokunaga.68@rtri.or.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_118
1258 K. Narita and M. Tokunaga
1 Introduction
In Japan, derailment of running railway viaducts during an earthquake is not an

isolated case; in fact, it happened during the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the
2004 Mid Niigata Prefecture Earthquake, in 2004, and the 2016 Kumamoto
Earthquake. Such incident brings several discomforts to the people affected,
including a long time of blockade at the major railway system and impedance of
post-disaster relief efforts.
Running safety of railways in the event of an earthquake is secured by limiting
the displacement between railway structures, namely, lateral vibration displacement
and differential displacement, during the design phase. Under seismic conditions,
lateral vibration displacement refers to the horizontal displacement perpendicular to
the rail axis of the track of structure, while differential displacement indicates the
angular rotation at the structural boundaries [1, 2].
Figure 1 displays the components of differential displacement, which is the
focus of this paper. Large-scale earthquakes often induce the nonlinear behavior in
structures, especially the existing old ones whose yield strength may have degraded
Alignment irregularity Angular rotation (Parallel shift) Angular rotation (Folding)
Fig. 1 Track defomation produced by differential displacement
1.0 2.0 1.0 2.0

Vibration period(Teq, j)
Yield strength(khy, j)
Yield strength(khy,j)
S.D.=0.11 S.D.=0.17
1.5 S.D.=0.12 1.5 S.D.=0.25
0.5 1.0 0.5 1.0
S.D.=0.10
0.5 S.D.=0.10 0.5
S.D.=0.10 S.D.=0.19
0 0 0 0
0 0.5 1.0 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 0 0.5 1.0 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
Yield strength(khy,i) Vibration period(Teq,i) Yield strength(khy,i) Vibration period(Teq,i)
(a) Section A (b) Section B
1.0 2.0 1.0 2.0
S.D.=0.08 S.D.=0.09
1.5 S.D.=0.15 1.5 S.D.=0.10
0.5 1.0 0.5 1.0
S.D.=0.07
0.5 0.5
S.D.=0.07
S.D.=0.11 S.D.=0.07
0 0 0 0
0 0.5 1.0 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 0 0.5 1.0 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
Yield strength(khy,i) Vibration period(Teq,i) Yield strength(khy,i) Vibration period(Teq,i)
(c) Section C (d) Section D
Same Structural type Differential structural type
Fig. 2 Distribution of yield strength and vibration period on existing structures

A Simplified Method for Estimating Differential Displacement ... 1259
to inadequacy. That aside, the current railway seismic design code in Japan spec-
ifies a simple method for estimating the differential displacements, which is
applicable only for elastic structural behaviors.
This study aims to establish a simple method for estimating the differential
displacement cased on the vibration characteristics of a single structure in con-
sideration of structural nonlinearity and coupling between adjacent viaducts at the
instance of an earthquake.
2 Analysis Method
2.1 Vibration Characteristics of Existing Structures
Differential displacement occurs easily when the adjacent viaduct has a different
structural type that has significantly different vibration characteristics, i.e., yield
strength and vibration period. Herein, the vibration characteristics of the existing
structures of Japanese high-speed railway sections were statistically investigated for
an assessment of the influence of vibration period and yield strength of viaducts on
differential displacement.
Typical yield strength and vibration period on an existing Japanese railway
structure are depicted in Fig. 2, where i and j denote the start and end sides.
Sections A, B, C, and D of the Japanese high-speed railway was evaluated within
13.0, 6.1, 10.0, and 8.0 km, respectively, there are service life of 30–50 years, and
including the girder, rigid frame and adjustment girder viaduct, tunnel, and
embankment. Moreover, the standard deviation (S.D.) values of yield strength and
vibration period between i and j sides was calculated. At yield strength greater than
1.0, the S.D. was also more than 1.0 in Fig. 2(a)–(d). Vibration period differed in
the ranged 0.09–0.17 s with the adjacent viaducts having the same structural type,
and 0.12–0.25 s with different structural types. Moreover, seismic yield coefficient
differed by approximately 0.10 in the same structural type and 0.10–0.19 in dif-
ferent structural types.
Fig. 3 Dynamic model of structure

Acceleration (gal) Damping ratio Damping ratio Damping ratio Damping ratio
Acceleration(gal)
Acceleration(gal)
Acceleration(gal)
h=5% h=5% h=5% h=5%
1000 1000 1000 1000
100 L1(G2) 100 L1(G5) 100 M id 100

Niigata Kumamoto
L2spe.I(G2) L2spe.I(G5)
L2spe.II(G5) Tohoku Kobe
L2spe.II(G2)
10 10 10 10
0.1 1 10 0.1 1 10 0.1 1 10 0.1 1 10
Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz)
Fig. 4 Elastic acceleration response
2.2 Dynamic Model of Structure
Figure 3 shows the dynamic model of the structure. Principally, the dynamic behavior
of a railway structure can be often expressed by a single degree-of-freedom (SDOF).
Structures in this study were modeled from a SDOF system with trilinear skeleton
curve and standard type hysteric characters, as depicted in Fig. 3(a). For the skeleton
curve, yield seismic coefficient khy, maximum seismic coefficient khmax, yield fre-
quency feq, and structural unit weight/length ws, were set as the parameters. The
second gradient was fixed at 1/10 of the first gradient, whereas the third gradient was
fixed as infinitesimal. Meanwhile, the hysteric character of structures is displayed in
Fig. 3(b). A 5% modal damping was considered for each mode [3]. When the
structure is nonlinear behavior, its damping can be evaluated as the viscous damping,
including the energy loss due to the hysteric character. Figure 3(b) is a simple and
widely used model in practical seismic design.
2.3 Analysis Cases
Equations of motion for the structures were solved in the model coordinates for
each time increment Δt by the Newmark time difference scheme. Given the non-
linear equations, iterative calculations were needed for each time increment until the
unbalanced force becomes sufficiently small.
The elastic acceleration response using seismic wave is shown in Fig. 4.
Particularly, seismic waves were input on the ground surface analysis design for
earthquake motion L1 and L2 in spectrum I and II standard for Japanese seismic
design [1]. Earthquake motions data were recorded for Mid-Nigata (observed in
Mid-Niigata), Tohoku (observed in Sendai), Kumamoto (observed in Kasuga), and
Kobe(observed in Kobe). As reference for the evaluation of the existing structures,
the analytical parameters of the structures were defined as follows: initial stiffness
of structure (Teq) was in the range of 0.3–2.0 s, and the yield seismic coefficient of
structure (khy) was within 0.2–0.7 in both the nonlinear and linear cases [4].
3 Effect of Nonlinear Behavior
Differential displacement is characterized by alignment irregularity and angular

rotation (parallel shift or folding), depending on the type of adjacent structures. By
definition, alignment irregularity refers to the relative displacement on adjacent
structures, while angular rotation is the ratio between the relative displacement and
the span length between adjacent structures. On this basis, relative displacement is
the commonly used parameter for evaluating differential displacement. This work
focused on dimensionless relative displacement DRD and the ratio of equivalent
vibration period on adjacent structure, or b. DRD describes the degree of relative
displacement on the adjacent structures, and is expressed by,
dijmax
DRD ¼ ð1Þ
dimax þ djmax
where is dmax
ij is the absolute maximum relative displacement of time history
response and dmax
k (k = i, j) is the absolute maximum displacement each structure.
Moreover, b is defined by,
b ¼ Teq;i =Teq;j ð2Þ
where Teq,k (k = i, j) indicates the equivalent vibration period on each structure.
3.1 Linear Case
Figure 5 shows the influence of b on the DRD for a structure with linear charac-
teristics based on the design and the recorded seismic data. Analytical results
demonstrated that an increase in b is corresponded by a relative increase in DRD.
With the value of b close to 1.5, DRD was near 0.8, describing an out-phase
situation. This result showed good agreement with that of the design parameters and
the recorded seismic data. Moreover, when b is less than 1.25, DRD increased with
sharply increase of b. Basically, relative displacement happens when the equivalent
vibration period on the adjacent structures are in different conditions. Here, larger
differential equivalent period between the adjacent structures leads to higher relative
displacement ratio.
Fig. 5 b effect on DRD for a
Dimensionless Relative Dimensionless Relative

1.2
Displacement (DRD)
structure with linear 1.0
characteristics 0.8
0.6 L2spe.I(G2)
L2spe.I(G5)
0.4 L1(G2) L2spe.II(G2)
0.2 L1(G5) L2spe.II(G5)
0
1 2 3 4 5
Ratio of equivalent natural period
(a) Design earthquakes Linear
1.2
Displacement (DRD)
1.0
0.8
0.6 Mid-Nigata
0.4 Kumamoto
0.2 Tohoku
Kobe
0
1 2 3 4 5
Ratio of equivalent period
(b) Record earthquakes Linear
3.2 Nonlinear Case
Figure 6 describes the influence of b on the DRD of a structure with nonlinear

characteristics, from the design parameters to the recorded seismic data. Analytical
results showed that such increase in b is corresponded by a relative increase in DRD.
Due to decrease khy, DRD was within 0.4–0.8 when b was close to 1.5 and khy was
0.7, whereas DRD had a value of 0.2–0.8 at b close to 1.5 and khy of 0.3.
Furthermore, although the response displacement of each structure increased due
to the nonlinear characteristics of the structure, the relative displacement between
the adjacent structures did not assume an increase at the same rate as the increase of
the ductility factor by the nonlinearization. Therefore, residual displacement did not
contribute to the relative displacement, as part of the response displacement
remained as residual displacement when both structures become largely
nonlinearized.
Figure 7 shows the effect of b on the DRD of a structure that had a different
nonlinear characteristics from the earthquake motion of L2spe.I(G2) standard seis-
mic design. Here, khy had values of 0.3 in different instances, namely, 0.3, 0.3–0.5,
and 0.3–0.7, and DRD was 0.3–0.8 at b close to 1.0. Even when one of the structures
was linear, the existence of other nonlinear structures led to an increase in the
maximum value with respect to time, as the timing of nonlinearization was different
given the varying yield seismic coefficient among the adjacent structures.
1.2
Dimensionless Relative Dimensionless Relative Dimensionless Relative

1.0
Displacement(DRD)
0.8
0.6 L2spe.I(G2)
0.4 L2spe.I(G5)
L1(G2) L2spe.II(G2)
0.2 L1(G5) L2spe.II(G5)
0
1 2 3 4 5
(a) Design earthquakes khy=0.7
1.2
Displacement (DRD)
1.0
0.8
0.6 Mid-Nigata
0.4 Kumamoto
Tohoku
0.2 Kobe
0
1 2 3 4 5
(b) Record earthquakes khy=0.7
1.2
Displacement (DRD)
1.0
0.8
0.6 L2spe.I(G2)
0.4 L1(G2)
L2spe.I(G5)
L2spe.II(G2)
0.2 L1(G5) L2spe.II(G5)
0
1 2 3 4 5
(c) Design earthquakes khy=0.3
Dimensionless Relative
1.2
Displacement (DRD)
1.0
0.8
0.6 Mid-Nigata
0.4 Kumamoto
0.2 Tohoku
Kobe
0
1 2 3 4 5
(d) Record earthquakes khy=0.3
Fig. 6 b effect on the DRD for a structure with nonlinear characteristics
Fig. 7 b effect on the DRD 1.2

Dimensionless Relative
when structure is difference 1.0

Displacement
non-linear behavior (L2spe.I 0.8

(G2)) 0.6
0.4 khy0.3-0.3
khy0.3-0.5
0.2 khy0.3-0.7
0
0 .2 1.0 2 .0
Ratio of equivalent period
4 Effect of Coupling Between Adjacent Viaducts
Unequal displacement response has been presumed to differ between the case where
the viaducts are divided into vibration units and the case describing a coupling of
continuous viaducts; nonetheless, the degree of influence remains unclear [2].
Section A of the railway investigated, as mentioned in Chapter 2, was considered
herein for clarifying the influence of coupling between adjacent structures on dif-
ferential displacement. Figure 8(a) displays the vibration characteristics of some of
the structures in the line model of the existing structures. Yield seismic coefficient
for the line section target varied from 0.2 to 0.5 except for a part, and the equivalent
natural period was in the range of 0.8 to 1.4 s.
Figures 8(b) and 8(c) show the response displacement when L1G5 wave was
input, it was divided and calculated using a vibration unit (hereinafter referred to as
“single system”), considering the coupling between the adjacent structures. The
figures also show the influence on the maximum displacement dmax k (k = i, j) and the
maximum relative displacement dmax ij in the case of calculation (hereinafter referred
to as “coupled system”). Apparently, the maximum displacement was reduced by
the coupling at the point where the equivalent natural period of the structure greatly
decreased at around 0.6 km. Moreover, with L1 as the input seismic wave, the
influence of yield seismic coefficient was considered to be small. Relatively, at
locations where the change of equivalent natural period of the structure at 0.6 to
0.7 km was small, the maximum displacement tended to be equal due to the
Fig. 8 Coupling effect on the
Yield coefficient( k hy )
Equivalent vibration
2.0 1.0
displacement Teq khy 0.8
relative displacement (m) displacement (m) period (Teq ) (s)
1.5
0.6
1.0 0.4
0.5 0.2
0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Distance (km)
(a)vibration characteristics in the line model
0.3
Single
Maximum
0.2 Couple
0.1
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
Distance (km)
(b)Maximum displacement
0.3
Single
Maximum
0.2 Couple
0.1
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
Distance (km)
(c)Maximum relative displacement
coupling between the adjacent structures. From Fig. 8(c), at 0.1–0.2 km associated
to a large change in equivalent natural period, the maximum relative displacement
decreased due to the coupling between the adjacent structures; nonetheless, it
tended to be large at 0.2 to 0.4 km, where the change of the equivalent natural
period of the object was small. Furthermore, the response displacement of the long
natural period structure decreased under the influence of the low natural period
structure, and otherwise increased for the short natural period structural response.
5 Proposed Method for Differential Displacment

Estimation
5.1 Conventional Method
In customary practical design, the complexity of modeling multiple structures in

obtaining the differential displacement of railway structures during earthquake can
be addressed with a simple estimation method incorporating Japanese design
standards for railway structures as follows,

di ¼ cos uj ui dsi 2hi ðTi =TE Þ
; ui ¼ tan1 ð3Þ
dsi ¼ di 1 ðTi =TE Þ2
where di refers to the absolute maximum displacement in consideration of the phase

difference in earthquake ground motion; dsk (k = i, j) is the absolute maximum
displacement each structure; uk (k = i, j) is the phase of earthquake ground motion;
hk(k = i, j) is the damping coefficient of the structure and; TE indicates the pre-
dominated period of earthquake ground motion. In addition, the low limit of relative
displacement is 25% of the maximum displacement of either structure given a small
phase difference [2].
5.2 Proposed Method
As DRD exhibits the same tendency in both design and actual ground motion and
shows high correlation with the equivalent natural period ratio of adjacent struc-
tures, Eq. (4) was proposed for estimating dimensionless relative displacement
DERD. Although the conventional method described above easily evaluates the rel-
ative displacement between buildings by focusing on problem of coupling between
adjacent buildings during earthquake, such is only a specific character model of a
railway structure and cannot be applied on certain scenarios depending on the type
of the structure. On the contrary, Eq. (4) acts as a response spectrum method that
takes into consideration the correlation between structure modes; likewise, it is a

theoretical solution when the input spectrum is assumed as white noise [5, 6].
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
qij dij 8 hi hj ðhj þ bhi Þb1:5
DERD ¼ 1 2 2 ; qij ¼ ð4Þ
dij þ 1 ð1 b2 Þ2 þ 4hi hj ð1 þ b2 Þb þ 4ðh2j þ h2i Þb2
where dij (= dmax

i /dmax
j ) gives the ratio of maximum displacement of each structure;
qij is the cross correlation coefficient between adjacent structures obtainable in
Eq. (4), with b (= Ti/Tj) being the ratio of vibration period each structure of which
Tk is the ratio of predominated period, and hk(k = i, j) being the damping coefficient
of structure. The subscript i denotes the displacement of structure that is larger than
either structure. As such dmax
i > dmax
j can be established. Additionally, qij= 0 means
in-phase, whereas qij= 1 means out-phase. The relationship between the ductility
factor (l) and predominated period damping coefficient in each method is given in
Fig. 9. Note that the conventional method can be applied in the range where
ductility factor is small. However, results of damping coefficient analysis showed
that an increase in l was a corresponding increase in the damping coefficient by the
exit method, leading to low-level estimated accuracy. In the proposed method, the
stiffness when the structure has been nonlinearized is evaluated with Eq. (5), where
peak structure acceleration PSA indicates the maximum absolute acceleration of
structure and peak structure displacement PSD is the maximum displacement of
structure.
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
PSD
Tk ¼ 2p ð5Þ
PSA
Moreover, after the structure has been nonlinearized, the damping ratio heq is
evaluated with Eq. (6), in which a is the ratio of the second slope to the first slope
of the hysteresis character model
8 ðl1Þð1aÞ
< 2 plð1 þ alaÞ ; ðfrom yield to maximum momentÞ
heq ¼ ðb1Þ2
ð6Þ
: 2 lb 2b1 þ a ; ðafter maximum momentÞ
plb
and b (= khmax/khy) is the ratio of the maximum seismic coefficient to the yield
seismic coefficient.
The ductility factor was calculated by relative displacement rate as the ratio of
response displacement drel
k to maximum displacement dk
max
for each structure at the
max
time of maximum relative displacement dij . The damping ratio was then added to
the initial damping ratio by calculating the equivalent viscous damping ratio heq to
the history in consideration of the energy loss (Fig. 3(b)). Figure 10 shows an
example of time history response of displacement and relative displacement of a
single structure by SDOF model. Here, note that it was possible to confirm the
tendency for the dmax
ij appearing at the dmax
i after Ti/2 s. On such basis, relative
Fig. 9 l vs. Tk, hk
0.6
Displacement(m)
0.4 dimax djrel djmax

0.2
0
-0.2
-0.4 direl i j
-0.6
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Time(s)
Displacement(m)
0.6
0.4 Relative displacement dijmax
0.2
0
-0.2
-0.4 Ti/2
-0.6
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Time(s)
Fig. 10 Time history response of displacement and relative displacement
displacement rate rk was evaluated to provide a comparison between drel max

k and dk .
Figure 11 shows the frequency distribution of rk. Here, ri was highly frequent in the
region close to 1.0 and rj was highly frequent in the range of 0.1 to 0.5. From
Fig. 11, the estimated values of relative displacement were assumed a ductility
factor li of 100% for a large structure and 50% for a small structure, for estimation
of the safety limit with respect to the equivalent viscous damping coefficient.
Figure 12(a) shows the estimation accuracy of the maximum relative displace-
ment of linear behavior in all design ground motions. Here, the horizontal axis is
the input design seismic, while the vertical axis is the ratio between the estimated
value and the analysis value. Shown as well were results for the conventional
method (CM), the proposed method (PM), and the design standard method (DSM).
DSM yielded an estimation accuracy of about ±60%, whereas that of PM and CM
was about ±20%.
Accordingly, Fig. 12 (b) shows the estimation accuracy of the maximum relative
displacement of nonlinear (khy = 0.3) behavior in all design ground motions. DSM
was calculated on the assumption that the structural response was linear, as indi-
cated in Fig. 12(b). Note that PM and CM demonstrated higher accuracy, of
about ± 30%, than DSM. This indicates that PM performs estimation more easily
and with high accuracy, independent on the hysteric character. Moreover, with
15000 1500
Num 18000 Num 18000
Frequency
rj=djrel/djmax
Frequency
10000 ri=direl/dimax 1000
5000 500
0 0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0
7
0
ri rj
Fig. 11 Frequency distribution of relative displacement rate
※ CM: Conventional Method, PM: Proposed Method, ※ CM: Conventional Method, PM: Proposed Method,
DCM: Design Code Method in Japan DCM: Design Code Method in Japan
2.0 2.0
CM NM DCM C.V. CM NM DCM C.V.
Low limit of DCM Ave. Low limit of DCM Ave.
1.5 1.5
Est Ana
Est Ana
1.0 1.0
0.5 0.5
0 0
L2spe.II(G1)
L2spe.II(G2)
L2spe.II(G4)
L2spe.II(G0)
L2spe.II(G3)
L2spe.II(G5)
L2spe.I(G2)
L2spe.I(G4)
L2spe.I(G0)
L2spe.I(G1)
L2spe.I(G3)
L2spe.I(G5)
L2spe.II(G2)
L2spe.II(G4)
L2spe.II(G1)
L2spe.II(G0)
L2spe.II(G3)
L2spe.II(G5)
L2spe.I(G2)
L2spe.I(G4)
L2spe.I(G1)
L2spe.I(G0)
L2spe.I(G3)
L2spe.I(G5)
L1(G4)
L1(G6)
L1(G0)
L1(G2)
L1(G5)
L1(G7)
L1(G1)
L1(G3)
L1(G4)
L1(G6)
L1(G0)
L1(G2)
L1(G5)
L1(G7)
L1(G1)
L1(G3)
(a) The estimation accuracy of linear behavior (b) The estimation accuracy of linear behavior (khy=0.3)
Fig. 12 Accuracy of estimation methods
L2spe.I as input, CM and PM estimated a lower value compared to the analysis

value, mainly due to the high probability of the out-phase condition as L2spe.I took
a long time duration.
6 Conclusion
This paper presented a simplified method for estimating the differential displace-
ment on railway structures based on the vibration characteristics of a single
structure, in consideration of the structural nonlinearity and coupling between
adjacent viaducts during earthquake. The findings can be generalized as follows:
1. Statistical investigation of the vibration characteristics of the existing structure
revealed that equivalent natural period ratio ranges within 1.0 to 2.0 and the
difference in yield seismic coefficient ranged in approximately ±0.4 when the
adjacent structures in the line section is different types.
2. Relative displacement increase with differential equivalent period between the
adjacent structures. Due to decrease of yield seismic coefficient khy, dimen-
sionless relative displacement DRD was within 0.4–0.8 when the ratio of
equivalent vibration period on adjacent structure b was close to 1.5 and khy was
0.7, whereas DRD had a value of 0.2–0.8 at b close to 1.5 and khy of 0.3.
Residual displacement did not contribute to the relative displacement, as part of

the response displacement remained since residual displacement when both
structures become largely nonlinearized.
3. The influence of the coupling between adjacent viaducts on relative displace-
ment depends on their vibration period ratio. The relative displacement
decreased when vibration period ratio of adjacent viaducts is close to 1.0,
whereas it increased when vibration period ratio of adjacent viaducts is large
difference.
4. The proposed method can estimate the differential displacement in the structures
with higher accuracy than design code method in japan, independently of the
hysteric character of the structure. It can estimate the coefficient of variation of
about ±20%, when the structure are assumed to be linear and about ±30%
when nonlinear.
References
commentary (seismic design). Maruzen co., Ltd., Tokyo(in Japan)
commentary (displacement limits). Maruzen co., Ltd, Tokyo(in Japan)
3. Sogabe M, Ikeda M, Yanagisawa Y Train-running quality during earthquakes and its
improvement for railway long span bridge. Q. Rep. RTRI, 48(3):186–189
4. Tokunaga M, Sogabe M, Watanabe T, Santo T, Tamai S (2016) Seismic response
characteristics of tall noise barrier on railway structures and its seismic design method.
J Struct Eng 62A:291–302
5. Kasai K, Jagiasi AR, Jeng V (1996) Inelastic vibration phase theory for seismic pounding
mitigation. J Struct Eng, ASCE 122(10):1136–1146
6. Der Kiureghian A (1980) A response spectrum method for random vibration, Earthquake
Engineering Research Center, University of California
Utilization of Machine Learning
for Analyzing Concrete Material
Consumption in Japan
N. A. Vios, M. Henry, and J. Opon
Abstract Concrete is one of the most widely used construction material in the
world. For developed countries like Japan, the trend of concrete consumption is
affected by significant changes over time. These changes can be attributed to the
decrease in population, stability of the economy, declining need of new infras-
tructures and other hidden factors that might not be easily recognizable with con-
ventional statistical modeling. Understanding these drivers of concrete material
consumption is important in evaluating construction resource efficiency. As such,
this paper aims to understand concrete material consumption trends in Japan by
utilizing machine learning techniques. Machine learning has gained popularity
mainly due to its self-learning characteristics that allows performance enhancement
without being explicitly programmed. A backward approach of stepwise regression
analysis was performed to quantify the contribution of socioeconomic factors to
concrete consumption. After which, an agglomerative hierarchical clustering was
made to identify similar patterns of concrete consumption behavior across the
prefectures of Japan and group these prefectures together. Through the detection of
patterns in the historical data, understanding the drivers of concrete consumption
leads to the enhancement of the efficiency of resource consumption in the future.
Keywords Concrete material consumption Historical data Resource

efficiency Machine learning
N. A. Vios (&) M. Henry J. Opon

Graduate School and Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University,
Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-8628, Japan
e-mail: nicolealexisv@gmail.com
M. Henry
e-mail: mwhenry@eng.hokudai.ac.jp
J. Opon
e-mail: joel.g.opon@eng.hokudai.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_119
1272 N. A. Vios et al.
1 Introduction
Humans have been using concrete in their pioneering architectural accomplish-

ments for millennia. Its constituent materials – cement-like binder, coarse and fine
aggregates and water – were being mixed and used at least as far back as the
Egyptian epochs [2]. Undeniably, concrete and the technology surrounding it has
come a long way since its discovery. In fact, concrete is tagged as the most widely
used substance on the planet next to water. Moreover, it is the most commonly used
construction material in the modern built environment simply because it is a
remarkably good construction material as it can be manufactured to a desired
strength economically, has the ability to be casted to any desired form, has rea-
sonable durability, and its constituent materials are locally and readily available.
Looking at how concrete is consumed over the years, its consumption can be
primarily attributed to a country’s aim for development. For developing countries in
Southeast Asia as an example, investing in new infrastructure constructions has
been rapidly increasing. A case in point is the Philippines where its construction
industry’s output value increased from US$38.5 billion to US$44.3 billion in a span
of only a year – 2017 to 2018 [5]. The case of the Philippines, therefore, proves the
relationship between concrete consumption and socioeconomic development.
However, the case is seemingly different for developed countries whose econ-
omy has already stabilized and infrastructures has become saturated and mature. In
Japan for example, the country’s economy entered into a period of high growth
following World War II from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s. This profoundly
high and sustained growth transformed the Japanese society and economy signifi-
cantly as huge number of infrastructures were built during this period [8]. This
revival of the Japanese economy in less than a quarter of a decade lead to the
saturation and maturity of its infrastructure system [7]. In addition, the Japanese
population is declining and rapidly aging attributed to the combined low fertility
rates and a fairly limited openness to immigration [1]. These characteristics of the
country shaped over time may potentially influence how a developed country’s
concrete consumption behavior differs from developing countries. Accordingly, the
need to analyze how these socioeconomic factors from the perspective of developed
countries affect the concrete consumption behavior and thereby understand what
drivers are significantly underlying this behavior is important in assessing con-
struction resource efficiency is the goal of this paper.
Machine learning is a subfield of computer science that gives computers the
ability to learn without being explicitly programmed. Its self-learning ability allows
pattern recognition and performance enhancement based on data and empirical
information [9]. For this study, this tool helps achieve the goal of the paper not only
by automating the process and saving time as well as through detecting patterns in
the historical data, drivers of concrete consumption will be better understood.
Utilization of Machine Learning for Analyzing Concrete Material ... 1273
As reliable statistical data is essential for such an analysis, the paper focuses on
Japan as a case study. Japan as a whole appears to be a relatively homogeneous as a
country. Its 47 prefectures, however, have great diversity such as those that are
densely populated like Tokyo to the sparsely inhabited like Tottori. These varied
attributes may imply varied behavior of concrete consumption among prefectures.
With this, this paper aims to understand the drivers of concrete consumption of
Japanese prefectures by identifying commonalities in the concrete consumption
behavior across the different prefectures. The utilization of machine learning
approaches to detect patterns in the historical data is a tool in understanding the
drivers of concrete consumption of the prefectures which will eventually lead to the
enhancement of the efficiency of resource consumption in the future.
2 Methodology
2.1 Data Collection
To learn more about the relationship between concrete consumption and its drivers,
the concrete production (CP) data was utilized to explain concrete consumption. As
this research is on an exploratory stage, three variables were particularly chosen as
initial factors to influence concrete production based on literature review. These
variables are construction investment (CI), population (POP) and gross domestic
product (GDP) from 1994 to 2014 (21-year period) reflecting socioeconomic
conditions. Moreover, the span of time stated earlier was particularly chosen as this
reflects a distinct phase of the development of Japan when the infrastructure system
became saturated and mature. Thus, the concrete production (CP) is referred to as
the dependent variable – the main factor to be understood, and the socioeconomic
factors (CI, POP, GDP) are the independent variables – the factors that are
hypothesized to have an impact on the dependent variable.
Data for each factors were collected primarily from available online resources
made publicly available by the Japanese government such as the Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure and Transportation for concrete production and construction invest-
ment data, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry for gross domestic product
and e-Stat, a portal site of official statistics in Japan for population.
The raw data of the 47 prefectures for all of the variables considered from 1994
to 2014 are illustrated in Fig. 1 below. It can be deduced from this figure that
though the general trend among the prefectures are similar, that is, concrete pro-
duction and concrete investment are decreasing over time and population and GDP
are either stable or increasing at a low rate, the degrees of this trend is different
among prefectures.
25 10
Construction Investment
Concrete Production
(in millions of m3)
(in trillions of yen)

20 8
15 6
10 4
5 2
0 0
1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014
Year Year
(a) (b)
16 100
14
Gross Domestic Product

(in millions of persons)
80
(in trillions of yen)

12
Population
10 60
8
6 40
4
20
2
0 0
1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014
Year Year
(c) (d)
Fig. 1 Raw data from 1994 to 2014; (a) concrete production, (b) construction investment,
(c) population and (d) gross domestic product
2.2 Analysis
As the objective of the study is to group prefectures exhibiting similar character-

istics on the socioeconomic factors underlying concrete production behavior, data
preparation was made by quantifying the individual contribution of these factors to
concrete production using a regression analysis to obtain regression coefficients.
After which, through the help of machine learning, these regression coefficients are
clustered to achieve the objective.
2.2.1 Stepwise Regression Analysis
Regression analysis is a statistical method that allows the examination of the

relationship between two or more variables of interest. As for the aim of this paper,
performing a regression analysis facilitates the determination of which factors
matter most and which factors can be ignored. Specifically, the backward approach
of stepwise regression wherein all the predictor variables are initially added into the
model, then the variables that do not significantly predict anything on the dependent
variable based on the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) are removed from the
model one by one to retain the relevant variables was utilized in this study [3]. AIC
compares the quality of a set of statistical models to each other by taking each
possible model and rank them from best to worst [4]. To perform this analysis, R, a
free open source software for data analysis was used [10]. For each of the pre-
fectures, a backward approach of the stepwise regression analysis was performed
for data points from 1994 to 2014 to obtain the corresponding coefficients of each
socioeconomic factors that will determine its contribution to the concrete produc-
tion. Equation (1) below shows the general regression equation considering the
three socioeconomic factors.
CPi ¼ ai þ bCIi CIi þ bPOPi POPi þ bGDPi GDPi þ ei ð1Þ
where:
i = prefectures (Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate, …)
CP = concrete production
a = intercept term
CI = construction investment
POP = population
GDP = gross domestic product
bCI = regression coefficient of construction investment
bPOP = regression coefficient of population
bGDP = regression coefficient of gross domestic product
e = residual term
The regression analysis may or may not consider the inclusion of the intercept.
However, for the purposes of this study, the intercept term was not included in the
analysis for simplicity and to emphasize the contribution of each independent
variable to concrete production. Thus, only the regression coefficients are utilized in
the cluster analysis discussed in Sect. 2.2.2.
2.2.2 Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering Analysis
To group prefectures to determine regions demonstrating similar characteristics of

socioeconomic factors contributing to concrete production based on regression
coefficients, clustering was used. Clustering analysis is a machine learning technique
that groups a set of objects in such a way that objects in the same cluster are more
similar to each other than those in other clusters. This approach best explains which
prefectures are exhibiting similar characteristics in their concrete production behav-
ior. The regression coefficients of each prefecture as obtained following the regression
in Sect. 2.2.1 were tabulated. Then, agglomerative hierarchical clustering was uti-
lized in order to group and determine prefectures having similar socioeconomic
factors contribution to concrete production. Agglomerative hierarchical clustering
works in a bottom-up manner wherein each observation is initially considered as a

cluster of its own, then the most similar clusters are successively merged until there is
just one single big cluster [6].
In reference to the guidelines provided by Kassambara for the cluster analysis,
the variables in the dataset were initially standardized to a mean of zero and
standard deviation of one to enable manipulation of the variables with varied units.
The Euclidean distance was then calculated to aid in deciding which objects are to
be combined. This is a distance matrix that measures the similarity between objects
and subsequently summarizes the distance between any two prefectures in an n
dimensional space, where n is the socioeconomic factors. After which, a hierar-
chical tree is created using a linkage function. A linkage function takes the distance
information and group pairs of objects into clusters based on their similarity. This is
chosen based on the correlation coefficient between the Euclidean distance matrix
of the standardized data and the cophenetic distance matrix of the linkage function.
A cophenetic distance is the height of fusion provided on the vertical axis of the
hierarchical tree indicating distance between two clusters. The average linkage
wherein the distance between two clusters is defined as the average distance
between the elements in cluster 1 and the elements in cluster 2 showed the highest
correlation coefficient of 0.786. As a last step for the clustering method, a den-
drogram was produced as a graphical representation of the hierarchical tree.
3.1 Stepwise Regression Analysis Results
The stepwise regression analysis result is summarized in Table 1. The table colors
shown represent cluster membership which will be further explained in Sect. 3.2.
The values indicate the corresponding regression coefficient for each socioeco-
nomic factor per prefecture as in Eq. (1). A value of ‘0’ was set by the authors to
imply that for that certain prefecture, this socioeconomic factor is not significant in
describing the concrete production based on the AIC criterion of the regression
analysis which lead the regression model to eliminate this certain socioeconomic
factor.
From this procedure, it can be seen that for all the prefectures CI has a significant
positive contribution to CP ranging from 0.979 of Miyagi to 4.8479 of Kochi. In
terms of POP contributions to CP, it varies from −5.8954 of Osaka to 4.523 of
Okinawa. Of the three socioeconomic factors, GDP has the least contribution to CP,
as the coefficients ranges from −1.5945 of Okinawa to 1.5185 of Osaka. These
estimates describe the relationship between concrete production and the socioeco-
nomic factors considered. Prefectures like Aichi, Okayama, Tottori, Nara, Ehime,
Gifu and Kochi, only CI and POP have significant contribution to CP. Also, pre-
fectures like Shiga, Saga, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Hiroshima, Gunma, Kyoto, Kagawa,
Table 1 Stepwise regression coefficients of all prefectures

Prefecture CI POP GDP Prefecture CI POP GDP
Miyagi 0.979 -2.4142 0.7841 Akita 1.94847 0 0
Fukui 2.4754 -4.5847 1.1326 Chiba 1.93948 0 0
Osaka 1.7559 -5.8954 1.5185 Hokkaido 1.69899 0 0
Okinawa 3.2541 4.523 -1.5945 Hiroshima 1.72565 0 0.06991
Shimane 2.9687 2.5792 -0.9174 Kanagawa 1.9771 -1.0478 0.317
Tokushima 2.7953 3.3994 -0.8686 Shizuoka 2.1728 -0.9887 0.2544
Miyazaki 2.134 3.8672 -1.1462 Tochigi 1.6701 -1.2191 0.3324
Kagoshima 2.6774 3.7873 -1.1318 Ishikawa 1.817 -1.4632 0.4222
Oita 3.1329 1.5658 -0.4486 Tokyo 2.34576 -2.36352 0.30062
Aomori 1.7999 1.7598 -0.516 Niigata 1.9751 -2.7016 0.6806
Yamagata 2.1214 1.1787 -0.3677 Hyogo 2.8106 -1.2601 0.615
Nagano 2.32 1.5821 -0.4268 Fukuoka 3.5386 -2.5494 0.6292
Yamaguchi 2.5513 1.5701 -0.4108 Kumamoto 3.09399 0 0
Aichi 2.30194 -0.16833 0 Gunma 2.87029 0 -0.0871
Mie 2.21944 0 0 Toori 2.94332 -0.18298 0
Shiga 2.26909 0 -0.0365 Nara 3.66779 -0.514 0
Saga 2.54991 0 -0.0917 Ehime 3.8447 -0.2193 0
Toyama 2.38332 0 0 Kyoto 3.23617 0 -0.13275
Okayama 2.49965 -0.13303 0 Gifu 3.4069 -0.4753 0
Fukushima 1.44578 0 0.06275 Kagawa 3.50003 0 -0.06288
Ibaraki 1.43428 0 0.05275 Kochi 4.8479 -0.5813 0
Wakayama 1.82696 0.67486 -0.10834 Yamanashi 4.10086 0 -0.277773
Saitama 2.03559 0 0 Nagasaki 4.09965 0 -0.12658
Iwate 1.974 0 0
Yamanashi and Nagasaki, only CI and GDP have significant contribution to

CP. Another thing that can be inferred from this result is that for prefectures like
Mie, Toyama, Saitama, Iwate, Akita, Chiba, Hokkaido and Kumamoto, only CI has
a significant contribution to CP. From this, it can be deduced that the prefectures
exhibit varying degrees of socioeconomic factors contribution to concrete pro-
duction and it will be helpful to cluster which prefectures demonstrate similar
characteristics using machine learning as a tool to detect patterns in this data.
3.2 Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering Analysis Results
The agglomerative hierarchical clustering analysis result is shown in Fig. 2.

A comprehensive examination of the cluster dendrogram led the authors to set the
number of clusters to eight by cutting the hierarchical tree at the height shown. This
sufficiently represent the different prefectures without making the analysis complex.
Each prefecture corresponds to one object, by moving up the tree, objects that are
similar to each other are combined into branches which are themselves connected at
a higher height.
Fig. 2 Dendrogram of agglomerative hierarchical clustering results
The cluster membership is summarized as follows: Cluster 1 and 3 are single

membership clusters – Miyagi and Okinawa, respectively. Cluster 2 and 7 are
clusters containing only two prefectures, and Cluster 4 and 5 consists of four and
five prefectures, respectively. Cluster 6 and 8 are two clusters containing the
greatest number of prefectures which are 21 and 11, respectively. These member-
ships explain which prefectures exhibit commonalities of the socioeconomic factors
contribution to concrete production based on the distance metric used.
3.3 Cluster Characteristics
A box plot of the different clusters against the socioeconomic factors is illustrated in
Fig. 3 to visualize the distribution of the data of each cluster. The overall dissim-
ilarity between prefectures is explained by the height of the tree (see Fig. 2) at
which the branches of the prefectures merge. Clusters 1 and 2 can be said to be the
most dissimilar clusters as they join the rest of the tree at the top of the dendrogram,
followed by Clusters 3 and 4 and finally Clusters 5 and 6.
In Clusters 1 and 2, POP is negatively contributing to CP, while CI and GDP are
positively contributing to concrete consumption, but to varying degrees – Cluster 1
at a lower rate compared to Cluster 2. This explains why these two clusters though
joining the rest of the clusters at the top of the tree are best explained when
separated to clarify its dissimilarity. In Clusters 3 and 4, both CI and POP are
positively contributing to CP, while GDP is negatively contributing to CP but in
varying degrees – Cluster 3 at higher rate compared to that of Cluster 4. This also
explains why these two clusters though joining the rest of the clusters second from
the top of the tree are best explained when separated to elucidate its dissimilarity. In
Cluster 5, though the trend is similar to Clusters 3 and 4 wherein both CI and POP
are positively contributing to CP, while GDP is negatively contributing to CP, these
factors contribute at a lower rate. In Cluster 6, CI is positively contributing to CP,
while both POP and GDP shows little to no contribution to CP. In Cluster 7, despite
showing similar trend to Cluster 6 wherein only CI is positively contributing to CP
and both POP and GDP show little to no contribution to CP, it does so in a higher
rate than cluster 6. Finally, in Cluster 8 the trend is similar to Clusters 6 and 7 but
the rate is much higher.
Fig. 3 Boxplots of in-cluster distributions of socioeconomic regression coefficients

It can be deduced from the clustering results that the prefectures exhibited varied
degrees of contributions of the socioeconomic factors (construction investment,
population and gross domestic product) to concrete production. As stated earlier, all
of the clusters exhibited a positive contribution of construction investment to
concrete production, but the degrees vary. This implies that, for some clusters,
concrete is widely used in construction reinforced by the large value of the
regression coefficient and for others it is otherwise which can be attributed to the
use of other construction materials. As to population, its contribution to concrete
production is ranging from a high negative to high positive value among clusters.
This entails that for some clusters, the increase or decrease in population does not
contribute to the demand in concrete production as there are enough buildings or
infrastructures available to accommodate this change in population. As to GDP, its
contribution to concrete production is ranging from a low negative to a low positive
value among clusters. Which signifies that this variable has less contribution to
concrete production. Its increase or decrease does not significantly affect concrete
production which can be associated to other components of GDP such as personal
consumption or net exports which are not directly related to concrete production.
4 Conclusions
This paper utilized machine learning as a tool for understanding the drivers of
concrete consumption across the prefectures of Japan. By clustering, not only does
this method demonstrated how a developed countries’ characteristics drive concrete
consumption, but also it narrowed down which prefectures demonstrated similar
and dissimilar patterns on what socioeconomic factors contribute to the concrete
consumption behavior and its corresponding degree of contribution. Furthermore,
the outcome unfolds the possibility of extending the analysis to developing coun-
tries and see which factors are driving the developing countries’ concrete con-
sumption and eventually compare and contrast these to developed countries.
The paper’s objective, though realized, lacks clarity of the robustness of the
evaluation. The socioeconomic factors selected may not be a strong representation
of concrete consumption, thus, additional factors such as cement consumption
intensity, steel consumption and urbanization level should be considered. Extending
the analysis for a longer historical period, say 50 years can also be considered.
Additionally, to strengthen the methodology and enhance decision making in the
clustering method different clustering type, distance metric and linkage function can
be examined to obtain the most appropriate procedure.
References
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Updating the Reliability of Existing RC
Structures in a Marine Environment
Incorporating Spatial Variations
K. Masuda, S. Srivaranun, and M. Akiyama
Abstract A novel procedure for updating the reliability of existing reinforced

concrete (RC) structures in a marine environment by incorporating spatial varia-
tions of steel weight loss is proposed. Since the properties of concrete and steel bars
are uncertain, it is necessary to deal with the long-term structural performance based
on probabilistic concepts and reliability-based methods. In this paper, epistemic
uncertainties of material properties are updated using inspection results associated
with steel weight loss prediction using Sequential Monte Carlo Simulation (SMCS).
Possible distributions of steel weight loss over RC members are generated by a
stochastic field method based on simple Kriging and inspection results at several
observational points. Effect of the distance from the observational points on the
reliability is discussed in an illustrative example.
Keywords Spatial variability Stochastic field Updating RC structure
1 Introduction
Structural performance of reinforced concrete (RC) structures in a marine environ-

ment deteriorates due to chloride-induced corrosion of reinforcing bar. Since the steel
corrosion is caused by numerous structural and environmental factors, it is difficult to
evaluate structural performance of aging RC structures accurately for their remaining
lifetime. Because of the presence of uncertainties, long-term structural performance
must be predicted based on probabilistic and reliability methods [1, 2].
K. Masuda S. Srivaranun M. Akiyama (&)

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Waseda University,
Shinjuku-Ku, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: akiyama617@waseda.jp
K. Masuda
e-mail: keisuke-masuda@akane.waseda.jp
S. Srivaranun
e-mail: supasit@fuji.waseda.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_120
1284 K. Masuda et al.
It is well recognized that the material properties of a concrete structure and

structural dimensions are random due to the spatial variability associated with
workmanship and other factors [3]. Papakonstantinou and Shinozuka [4] proposed
the probabilistic model to estimate life-cycle reliability of new RC structures in a
marine environment considering spatial variability associated with concrete prop-
erties. For existing structures, it is possible to reduce epistemic uncertainties using
inspection results [5]. Akiyama et al. [6] proposed a procedure to update failure
probabilities of existing RC structure in a marine environment by using observa-
tional information such as corrosion crack width.
In this paper, a novel procedure for updating the reliability of existing RC structures
in a marine environment by incorporating spatial variations is proposed. Sequential
Monte Carlo Simulation (SMCS) is used to update the random variables associated
with the material properties. Incorporating spatial variability of these random vari-
ables using a stochastic field method based on simple Kriging makes it possible to
evaluate the possible distributions of steel corrosion in aging RC structures.
2 Degradation Model of RC Structures Due to Chloride

Attack
Akiyama et al. [6] proposed a probabilistic approach for evaluating structural

reliability of existing RC structures in a marine environment. Nine random vari-
ables representing model uncertainty were considered to estimate the chloride
concentration around steel bars, time to corrosion initiation and corrosion cracking
occurrence, and time-dependent steel weight loss. It should be note that spatial
variability of corrosion was ignored in Akiyama et al. [6].
Because of the spatial correlation, the parameters associated with critical
threshold of chloride concentration at occurrence of steel corrosion, critical
threshold of corrosion amount at crack initiation and construction errors of the
concrete cover are considered as spatial random variables in this paper. Meanwhile,
the other random variables in Akiyama et al. [6] are considered as constant value to
simplify the deterioration process.
3 Updating Random Variables in a Stochastic Field

Context
3.1 Sequential Monte Carlo Simulation (SMCS)
Based on observational information, the epistemic uncertainty can be reduced by

SMCS (Yoshida [7]). In the SMCS, multiple Gaussian and non-Gaussian variables
are updated. The weight (i.e. likelihood ratio) of each sample can be obtained by
Updating the Reliability of Existing RC Structures ... 1285
comparing computational results with corresponding inspected data (e.g. steel

weight loss). According to the weight of each sample, the updated probability
density functions (PDFs) of random variables is
X
n
ð jÞ ð jÞ
pðxk jZk Þ ¼ ak d xk xkjk1 ð1Þ
j¼1
where

ð jÞ ð jÞ
qk ¼ p zk xkjk1 ð2Þ
ð jÞ
ð jÞ q
ak ¼ Pn k ð3Þ
ðiÞ
qk
i¼1
where, x is the random variables in probabilistic model, Z is the observational

information, a is the weight, k is current calculation step of model (e.g. time), and
the subscript j denotes the generated sample realization.
Since the algorithm is developed based on Monte Carlo approach, it can be
applied even if the relationship between random variables and observational
information is non-linear and non-Gaussian variables are involved.
3.2 Stochastic Simulation
Parameters of random variables at observation points are obtained using updated

PDFs. To interpolate the parameters between observational points, Gaussian and
lognormal simple Kriging (Noda and Hoshiya [8]) is applied. To generate corre-
lated sample fields for each random variable, simultaneous simulation with
Cholesky decomposition (Rubinstein [9]) is applied. Correlation coefficient
between two given points is provided by:

ji jj
qij ¼ exp ð4Þ
d
where |i − j| is the distance between two given points and d is the correlation length
of the stochastic field.
4 Illustrative Example
4.1 Modeling of Observational Data
Visual inspection results of corrosion crack width are considered in this case study.
Since the corrosion crack is induced due to the corrosion product expansion, it
relates to the amounts of steel weight loss. Based on the survey of marine RC
structures by Kodama et al. [10], the relationship between the amount of steel
weight loss and corrosion crack width is classified as shown in Table 1 (Akiyama
et al. [6]). Steel weight loss classified in four categories 1, 2, 3 and 4 is less than
2.3%, between 2.3% and 5%, between 5% and 20%, and larger than 20%,
respectively. The corresponding thresholds of crack width to classify into four
categories, I, II, III and IV, are 0.1, 0.2 and 0.5 mm, respectively. Given the
category of steel weight loss, the probability of each category of crack width can be
calculated from Table 1. These probabilities are used to estimate the weight in
Eq. 3.
4.2 Time-Dependent Reliability Analysis of RC Structure
RC girder is assumed to be located at 0.1 km from coastline in Niigata City, Japan.

The longitudinal length of the girder is 10 m. The diameter of the longitudinal
rebars is 19.1 mm and concrete cover is 60 mm. Correlation distance is assumed to
be 1.0 m. It is assumed that three observational information (i.e. crack widths)
inspected at the left end, 5 m from the left end and 10 m from the left end are
provided at 30 years after construction. In this case study, all width is 0.25 mm
(Category III).
100,000 samples of steel weight loss distribution for 50 years are simulated. In
order to investigate the effect of updating, ordinary MCS (i.e. without updating) is
also conducted. As an example, five samples at 50 years after the construction are
Table 1 Observational Steel weight loss Category based on crack width

model of visual inspection of
Category Amount I II III IV
corrosion crack width
(%)
1 0–2.3 0.811 0.159 0.031 0.000
2 2.3–5.0 0.268 0.410 0.313 0.009
3 5.0–20 0.019 0.120 0.600 0.261
4 20 0.000 0.004 0.219 0.776
Updating the Reliability of Existing RC Structures ... 1287
Steel weight loss (%)

100
Observational point
80
60
40
20
0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Distance from the left end (m)
Fig. 1 Five samples of steel weight loss distributions at 50 years after the construction
25 2.5
Mean of steel weight loss (%)
COV of steel weight loss

20 2.0
15 1.5
10 1.0
5 Updating at 30 years 0.5 Updating at 30 years

No updating No updating
0 0.0
0 5 10 0 5 10
Distance from the left end (m) Distance from the left end (m)
(a) (b)
Fig. 2 Statistics of 100,000 samples of steel weight loss distributions at 50 years after the
construction: (a) mean, (b) coefficient of variation (COV)
shown in Fig. 1. Mean value and coefficient of variation (COV) of steel weight loss
are shown in Figs. 2 (a) and (b). Since crack widths provided by visual inspection
are more severe than those provided by the computational model (Akiyama et al.
[6]), the mean with updating is larger than that without updating. Because of the
reduction of uncertainties, COV is lower, especially, at near the inspection points.
5 Conclusions
A novel procedure to simulate the possible corrosion distribution of RC structures

using inspection results was presented. Random variables representing model
uncertainty were updated by SMCS with visual inspection results. Parameters of
random variables at the locations between observation points were interpolated by
Gaussian and lognormal simple Kriging. Simultaneous simulation with Cholesky
decomposition was used to generate numerous sample distributions of correlated

random variables.
Effect of the distance from observational points is discussed in the case study.
Based on the proposed method, failure probabilities of RC structures with obser-
vational information can be evaluated considering the incorporating spatial
variations.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Prof. Maruyama at Tokyo City University,
Japan for his suggestions on the topic of stochastic field analysis.
References
1. Akiyama M, Frangopol DM, Yoshida I (2010) Time-dependent reliability analysis of existing

RC structures in a marine environment using hazard associated with airborne chlorides. Eng
Struct 32:3768–3779
2. Zhang M, Nishiya N, Akiyama M, Lim S, Masuda K (2020) Effect of the correlation of steel
corrosion in the transverse direction between tensile rebars on the structural performance of
RC beams. Constr Build Mater 264:120678
3. Zhang M, Song H, Lim S, Akiyama M, Frangopol DM (2019) Reliability estimation of
corroded RC structures based on spatial variability using experimental evidence, probabilis-
ticanalysis and finite element method. Eng Struct 192:30–52
4. Papakonstantinou KG, Shinozuka M (2013) Probabilistic model for steel corrosion in
reinforced concrete structures of large dimensions considering crack effects. Eng Struct
57:306–326
5. He ZS, Srivaranun S, Akiyama M, Frangopol DM (2020) Life-cycle reliability-based design
and reliability updating of reinforced concrete shield tunnels in coastal regions.
StructInfrastruct Eng 16(4):726–737
6. Akiyama M, Frangopol DM, Yoshida I (2010) Time-dependent reliability analysis of existing
RC structures in a marine environment using hazard associated with airborne chlorides. Eng
Struct 32:3768–3779
7. Yoshida I (2009) Data assimilation and reliability estimation of existing RC structure. In:
COMPDYN 2009, CD281, Rohdes, Greece
8. Noda S, Hoshiya M (1998) Kriging of lognormal stochastic field. J Eng Mech 124(11):1175–
1184
9. Rubinstein RY, Kroese DP (2017) Simulation and the Monte Carlo method, 3rd edn. Wiley,
New Jersey
10. Kodama S, Tanabe T, Yokota H, Hamada H, Iwanami M, Hibi T (2002) Development of
maintenance management system for existing open-piled piers, Technical Note of the Port and
Airport Research Institute, 1001 (in Japanese)
Structural Damage Detection
with Modal Strain Energy Using
Convolution Neural Network
Gongfa Chen and Shuai Teng
Abstract Based on the excellent feature extraction and non-linear learning ability
of a convolutional neural network (CNN), a structural damage detection method is
proposed in this paper. When the structure is damaged, the changes of its modal
parameters reflect the damage information of the structure. A simply supported
beam was used and structural damage was introduced at different locations. The
finite element method was used to simulate the free vibration of the beam and
obtain the first-order modal strain energy for various damage scenarios. The
obtained modal parameters and the damage information were used as the training
samples of the neural network. A CNN was designed to detect damage (both
location and level), which detected damage location with 100% accuracy and
damage level with 5% relative error. Compared with a traditional Back Propagation
(BP) neural network, the CNN had more advantages than the BP neural network in
detecting damage location, and it was more economical in computational costs, the
uptime of the CNN was about 5%–40% that of the BP neural network. It is found
the CNN has excellent performance in detection of both damage locations and
levels, the detection effect exceeds BP neural network, and it is more economical in
computational cost than a BP neural network as it uses convolutional operation.

Keywords Structural damage detection Convolutional neural networks Modal

strain energy Feature extraction Simply supported beam
G. Chen (&) S. Teng

School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology,
Guangzhou 510006, China
e-mail: gongfa.chen@gdut.edu.cn
S. Teng
e-mail: 1114ai0805@sina.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_121
1290 G. Chen and S. Teng
1 Introduction
Structural damage detection is an essential approach to prevent sudden collapse of

structures and avoid casualties and heavy economic losses. A series of damage
detection methods have been proposed [1, 6, 11, 18, 25], the principle of
vibration-based methods is that the modal parameters (e.g., natural frequencies and
modal shapes) of a structure vary with the changes of the structural physical
parameters such as the stiffness and mass. By collecting the vibration excitation and
response data of a structure, the modal parameters are obtained, and then the
potential damage of the structure is detected by analyzing the change of its modal
parameters. Frequency-based structural damage detection method has been used in
damage detection of composite structures [2, 3]. Modal-based methods show that
local damage causes irregularity of mode shapes [21] which is evident for relatively
large damage [17]. Nevertheless, the changes of natural frequencies and mode
shapes are unable to detect small damage [30]. As the modal strain energy (MSE) is
related to the second-order derivatives of mode shapes for beam-like structures, it is
much more sensitive to the damage than natural frequencies and mode shapes.
The MSE has been used to successfully locate structural damage and quantify the
damage level [4, 10, 16, 20, 22] for simple structures. Structural damage can cause
changes in many mechanical parameters, normally, a single damage index is
generally impossible to reflect all types of damage of the real structures. Thus it is
essential to develop a comprehensive damage detection method, such as artificial
neural networks (ANNs) [8], which is able to integrate multiple damage features
into a detection method. An ANN is similar to a human brain and has excellent
non-linear learning ability. Combination of ANNs and traditional damage indicators
for obtaining structural damage information may advance the damage detection
technology.
It has been demonstrated that an ANN is able to locate and quantify structural
damage owing to its powerful data fitting as well as pattern recognition capability
[7, 9], It has achieved promising results [19, 24]. The traditional ANN (e.g., BP
neural network) has its inherent shortcomings, such as low convergence rate,
time-consuming, and over-fitting of data [27, 28], etc. When the traditional ANN is
used to detect damage location, its training time is very long for high-dimension
input data. To overcome the limitations of ANNs, the convolutional neural network
(CNN), with convolution layers and pooling layers, has been developed to extract
the features of the image [29] and been proved successful. It has more powerful
feature learning ability and feature expression ability [12] than traditional ANNs. At
present, the CNN has been widely used in license plate detection, face recognition
and other fields [13, 23, 26]. The CNN has also been applied to SHM, such as crack
detection [5, 14] and damage feature extraction from low-order vibration signals
[15]. The application of CNNs to SHM provides a new intelligent method for
structural damage detection. It is expected that CNNs can be applied to predict the
locations and levels of damage in a structure.
Structural Damage Detection with Modal Strain Energy ... 1291
In this paper, a CNN is proposed to detect damage of a simply supported beam;

the modal strain energy is used as the input data of the CNN as it can reflect the
damage information of structures, and comparisons are made between the perfor-
mance of the CNN and traditional BP neural networks.
2 Methods
The CNN was trained with the modal strain energy of various damage scenarios and
then used to predict new damage scenarios. In this paper, the collected data were
arranged into a two-dimensional matrix as the CNN input data. The abnormality of
the modal strain energy was extracted by the CNN to predict the damage location
and damage level.
2.1 Numerical Calculation and Sample
The beam model used in this paper had a length of 9 m and a rectangular cross
section of 0.3 m 0.2 m. The structure was divided into 36 elements as numbered
in Fig. 1.
The Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio and density of the steel beam model were
211 GPa, 0.288, and 7800 kg/m3 respectively. Structural damage was simulated by
reducing the Young’s modulus of the concerned element. Totally 18 damage levels
for each element were simulated, which were from 5% to 90% with an increment of
5%. In-house python scripts were used to prepare the training samples for the CNN.
Firstly, the detection of damage location is studied. The validation set was based
on the cases with 45% damage in an element and the intact case (totally 37 sam-
ples), and the testing sets included the cases with either 10% or 60% damage in an
element (72 samples).The training set included the following five groups, each
group included 37 samples, i.e., 36 scenarios with damage in only one element plus
the intact case.
Dataset (A): only 15% damage in one element for each damage scenario plus the
intact case;
Element number:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 34 35 36
Fig. 1 Simply supported beam model with 36 elements

Dataset (B): only 30% damage in one element for each damage scenario plus the
intact case;
Dataset (C): only 75% damage in one element for each damage scenario plus the
intact case;
Dataset (D): only 90% damage in one element for each damage scenario plus the
intact case.
Then, the detection of damage level is studied. The validation set was based on
the data of 45% damage in an element and the intact case (37 samples), the samples
for 60% damage in an element (36 samples) were used to test the CNN fitting effect,
the training set included the following five groups.
Dataset (A): Every element was simulated with 15% damage levels, thus there were
36 damage scenarios, plus 1 intact case, and thus there were totally 37 samples.
Dataset (B): Every element was simulated with 75% damage levels, thus there were
36 damage scenarios, plus 1 intact case, and thus there were totally 37 samples.
Dataset (C): Every element was simulated with 15%, 30%, 75% and 90% damage
levels, thus there were 144 damage scenarios, plus 1 intact case, and thus there were
totally 145 samples.
Dataset (D): Every element was simulated with 16 damage levels from 5% to 90%
with an increment of 5%, thus there were 36 16 = 576 damage scenarios, plus 1
intact case, and thus there were totally 577 samples.
2.2 Convolutional Neural Network
The CNN was designed and trained using the Deep Learning Toolbox in MATLAB
(MathWorks Inc, Natick, MA, US). The network included an input layer, 2 con-
volution layers, 1 pooling layer, an activation layer, a fully connected layer and
output layer (classification layer or regression layer); for classification problems, a
softmax layer was added after the fully connected layer. The explanations for the
activation function and convolution and pooling processes were seen in the
appendix A. In this paper, a CNN was designed for damage detection. The network
architecture and structural parameters of the CNN were shown in Fig. 2 and
Table 1.
2.3 Input and Output of Network
The CNN input data, i.e., the modal strain energy of each element, was collected for
each damage scenario, and a matrix of 6 6 was constructed as the input. This
paper used a classification method to detect the damage location, which was set to
1
Raw data 6 6 spread
damage location or level

90@4 4
90@3 3 2 1
200@2 2
799 36
C1 P C2
800
FC
Fig. 2 CNN framework. C1, C2: Convolution layers; P: Pooling layer; FC: Fully Connected layer
Table 1 Structural parameters of the CNN

Layer Type Kernel Kernel Stride Pad Activation
num. size
1 Input None None None None None
2 Convolution (C1) 90 33 [1, 1] 0 Leaky
ReLU
3 Max pooling (P) None 22 [1, 1] 0 None
4 Convolution (C2) 200 22 [1, 1] 0 Leaky
ReLU
5 FC None None None None None
6 Classification or None None None None None
regression
different categories, i.e. the intact condition was set to 0, the damage on the element
1 set to 1, the damage on the element 2 set to 2, and so on.
For detection damage level, by replacing the softmax layer and classification
layer with a regression layer of the CNN, the classification problem was trans-
formed into a regression problem. The network output was set as a vector consisting
of 36 elements, i.e. the 15% damage in Element 1 was set as [0.15, 0, 0… 0, 0, 0],
30% damage of Element 1 was set to [0.3, 0, 0, 0… 0, 0, 0], and so on; the intact
case was defined to be a vector of 36 zeros.
3 Results
3.1 Detection of Single Damage Location
The CNN was trained with the 4 training sets described in Sect. 2.1 separately. The
detection results were shown in Table 2.
Table 2 Prediction results Training sets Testing sets

by CNN
Damage 10% Damage 60%
Dataset (A) 100% 100%
Dataset (B) 66.6% 100%
Dataset (C) 58.3% 100%
Dataset (D) 61.1% 100%
According to the detection effect of the four different Datasets, no matter which
dataset was used for training, the prediction accuracy was 100% for the testing set
with the damage level of 60%. For the testing set with the damage level of 10%, the
prediction accuracy reached 100% only for the CNN trained by Dataset (A).
In order to compare the detection effect between the CNN and a traditional BP
neural network, Dataset (A) was inputted into BP neural networks, and the pre-
diction results were shown in Table 3.
Table 3 showed that the detection effect of the BP neural networks was worse
than that of the CNN, and the detection effect of BP neural networks did not change
significantly with the node number of the hidden layer. The best detection effect
was 77.8%.
Table 3 Prediction results by BP neural networks

Network Nodes of hidden Iterations Termination Accuracy
type layer (n) reason Damage Damage
10% 60%
BP 18 8 Validation 72.2% 72.2%
checks
checks
checks
checks
checks
checks
checks
Note: Validation checks: The error of continuous 6 iterations no longer changed
3.2 Detection of Damage Level
The testing sets were inputted into the trained network as described in Sect. 2.1.
The detection results were shown in Table 4, the relative error decreases with the
increase of training samples, and the minimum relative error of the damage level
was about 5%.
The relative error was used to evaluate the detection effect of damage level, and
the formula was as follows:

yp yt
RError ¼ 100% ð1Þ
yt
where yp and yt were the predicted value and target value of a testing sample. The
relative error for n testing samples was:

1 Xn yp yt
R Error ¼ 100% ð2Þ
n 1 yt
The Dataset (D) were inputted into the BP neural networks. After training, the
detection effect was obtained and shown in Table 5.
As shown in Table 5, with the increase of the nodes of the hidden layer, the
relative error of the BP neural networks decreased gradually, and the error was
lower than that of the CNN, but the training time increased significantly. The fitting
effect of the BP neural networks for damage level was better than that of the CNN.
Table 6 showed the uptimes of the CNN and the BP neural networks which had the
most comparative relative errors to that of the CNN.
When the relative errors were similar, the uptime of the CNN was about 5%–
40% that of the BP neural networks, the iteration time of the CNN was only about
1% that of the BP neural networks. For the smallest relative error (1%) of the BP
neural network in Table 5, the relative error of CNN was only 5%, but its uptime
was only 2% that of the BP neural network.
Table 4 Prediction result of different Datasets

Dataset Sample num. Damage location Damage level (relative error)
(A) 37 100% 75.69%
(B) 37 100% 24.50%
(C) 145 100% 23.30%
(D) 577 100% 4.77%
Table 5 Detection effect of the BP neural networks

Network Nodes of Iterations Uptime Termination Relative error
type hidden layers reason (Damage level)
BP 18 15 44 s Validation 46%
checks
BP 24 19 1 min Validation 31%
39 s checks
00 s checks
24 s checks
58 s checks
32 s checks
29 s checks
Table 6 Comparisons of uptime between CNN and BP neural networks

Network Nodes of Iterations Uptime Termination Relative error
type hidden layers reason (Damage level)
24 s checks
58 s checks
CNN 2000 4 min Max epoch 5%
21 s
4 Discussions
The comparisons of damage locations detected between the CNNs and BP neural
networks showed that the CNNs had better classification ability than BP neural
networks to extract damage location features. The CNNs used partially connected
network structure to extract the main damage features, ignoring trivial information.
While the BP neural networks adopted a fully connected network structure, each
element in the raw data had an impact on the results.
It can be seen from Sect. 3.2 that the detection effect (damage level) of the BP
neural networks was slightly better than that of the CNN. When the BP neural
network had 36 and 42 nodes in the hidden layer, the relative errors were 6% and
2%, respectively, and the CNN were 5%. The uptime was 10 min 24 s, 78 min
58 s, 4 min 21 s, respectively. Thus, when the relative error was similar, the uptime
of CNN was 5%–40% that of the BP neural networks.
In summary, the BP neural networks had excellent regression fitting effects but
consumed a lot of computing resources. Because of its partial connection, the CNN
lost some information and its fitting effect was sacrificed in the training process, but
the calculation speed was faster than that of the BP neural network.
5 Conclusion
Based on the above discussions, the following conclusions can be drawn:

1) The CNN achieved excellent detection results for structural damage location and
level.
2) The CNN had more advantages than the BP neural networks in detecting
damage location.
3) The CNN was more economical in computational costs than a BP neural
network.
According to the results of this paper, the combination of the CNN and the
modal strain energy as a new damage detection method has great potential in
structural damage detection.
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Simplified Model for Wind-Induced
Comfort Analysis and Design
of Mega-Structures with Viscous
Damped Outriggers
Yue Yang, Xin Zhao, Weixing Shi, and Jiayue Li
Abstract Mega-tall structures often adopt mega-structure system characterized by

secondary structure system, and its wind-induced vibration comfort often becomes
the controlling factor in structural design. Since the deformation of super high-rise
building usually presents bending characteristics, viscous damped outrigger can
reduce the wind vibration acceleration of super high-rise building with a small
installation number of viscous dampers. The time history analysis of the prototype
model considering the non-linear characteristics of viscous dampers is
time-consuming, which is not conducive to iterative design optimization. The
simplified cantilever beam model proposed in the literature can not be used for the
viscous damped outrigger analysis and design. In this paper, a simplified method of
wind-induced vibration comfort analysis and design model is proposed based on the
mechanical characteristics of mega-structures. The analysis shows that the simpli-
fied method is simple, the physical concept is clear and the prediction results are
accurate. Taking a 600 m super high-rise building as an example, the effectiveness
of the simplified model proposed in this paper is illustrated.
Keywords Damped outrigger Mega-structure Wind-induced vibration

comfort Simplified model
Y. Yang X. Zhao (&) W. Shi J. Li

Y. Yang
W. Shi
e-mail: swxtgk@126.com
J. Li
Y. Yang X. Zhao

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_122
1300 Y. Yang et al.
1 Introduction
The prevalent structure system adopted in supertalls (>300 m) and megatalls

(>600 m) is the mega frame-tube structure system where the mega frame is char-
acterized by secondary system (He and Yu [4]; Zhu et al. [10]. And this kind of
structure system is often accompanied by the damped outriggers, as the height
increases the wind-induced horizontal vibration acceleration at the top of the
structure gets more likely to exceed the code, which is the wind-induced human
comfort problem of tall buildings (Wang et al. [8]). It is necessary to put forward a
simplified model to obtained the wind-induced acceleration of a super tall with
damped outriggers as fast as possible, because the time history analysis of the
prototype model is time-consuming which is not conducive to iterative design
optimization.
Currently, the simplified models used for analyzing the relationship between the
damped cantilever system and the main structure proposed by O’Neill et al. [6];
Chen et al. [1]; Tan et al. [7]; Huang and Takeuchi [5] etc. are mostly based on the
continuous cantilever beam, which simplifies the whole structure to a single-
degree-of-freedom cantilever beam regardless of what the structure system is.
Because the current simplified cantilever beam model ignores the basic fact that the
hysteretic deformation difference between the core tube and the outer frame gen-
erates the energy dissipation of the outrigger system, it cannot accurately simulate
the role of the damped outrigger in controlling the structural wind-induced
response. There are three main sources of the vertical difference deformation
(Cheng et al. [2]). The first is that the outrigger rotates when the core tube bends;
the second is that the outrigger itself bends under load; and the third is that the
peripheral mega column deformed axially under load. Apparently, only the bending
deformation of core tube can be simulated by the cantilever beam model but the
outrigger and column deformation cannot be simulated. Besides, the mega
frame-tube structure is characterizing by secondary structure. With clear load path,
the simplification method will be specific. Therefore, a simplified plane model
composed of both shear wall and frame is proposed in this paper to consider the
viscous damped outrigger system used to control wind-induced vibration in mega
frame-tube structure.
2 Simplified Wind-Induced Human Comfort Prediction

Model of Mega Frame-Tube Structure
2.1 Simplified Model Composition
As shown in Fig. 1, the simplified model proposed in this paper simplifies the core
tube of supertalls into a shear wall element that can simulate the bending defor-
mation of the core tube under lateral loads; the mega column is simplified as a
Simplified Model for Wind-Induced Comfort Analysis… 1301
Fig. 1 Composition of
acceleration prediction
simplified model
column element in the shear wall plane which can simulate the axial deformation of
the mega column under lateral loads; and the outrigger element simplified as the
beam which can simulate the self-deformation under load. Only one slice of the
prototype models is taken to simplify the model, and only the main components in
the lateral resistance system are considered in the simplification process.
2.2 Simplify Method of Structure Member
There are three components in the simplified model, which is wall, column and
beam.
The wall in the simplified mode has the same geometry as the web wall and
flange wall in the prototype, where the flange wall effective thickness equals to 6
times flange wall thickness plus web wall thickness in accordance with Chinese
code (Code for Seismic Design of Buildings (GB 50011-2010 [3])) as shown in
formula (5). If there is a narrow hole in the middle of the web wall, it is believed
that the wall bending stiffness weakening is relatively small and the wall still accord
with the plan-section assumption, so the web wall can be simplified to a piece of
integrated wall with a length of LW shown in Fig. 2. Otherwise the hole should be
included in the simplified model.
ð1Þ
.
Where Lf is the length of the flange wall, TW is the thickness of web wall and TF
is the thickness of flange wall.
The column in the simplified model should have same section as the prototype as
shown by b and h in Fig. 2. And in order to get unidirectional reaction the column and
wall was simplified as a plane model in whichL_{{\text{f}}} = T_{W} + 6T_{F} the
1302 Y. Yang et al.
H
H
TW 6TF
TW 6TF
LW TW LW TW
H LF
H
h
h
b
b
Mega Column
Core Wall
Outrigger
Fig. 2 Simplified method for wall and column element
Outrigger Beam
Damped Outrigger Beam & Rigid bar
No Outrigger Rigid bar
Fig. 3 Simplified method of mega frame beam element
column is pushed horizontally into the web wall plane. So, the distance in vertical
direction is just as same as the prototype, which is shown by the H in Fig. 2.
The simplified method of wall and column is shown in Fig. 2.
As shown in Fig. 3, the mega beam between the core and column in prototype
can be divided into 3 categories: one is the rigid outrigger, one is the damped
outrigger, and one is no outrigger. The simplify methods differ correspondingly.
For the rigid and damped outrigger, it will be simplified to normal beam with the
same stiffness. For the region without outrigger and the gap between the column
and damped outrigger, they will be simplified as a rigid bar with both ends released
to simulate the horizontal restriction provided by the slab.
(a) Before Deformation (b) After Deformation

Fig. 4 The outrigger FEM model
The deformation of cantilever beam should be D ¼ Pl3 =3EI, so the bending

stiffness can be back-calculated and the concrete beam has the equivalent bending
stiffness can be got. Give the two nodes connected to the tube fixed restriction, then
load on the other side to get the deformation by FEM analysis which is shown in
Fig. 4.
3 Applicability and Robustness of Simplified Model
Based on the mechanical characteristics of mega frame-tube structures, the sensi-

tivity analysis of key parameters in simplified model is analyzed. Take a simplified
model of a supertall as an example. Keeping the mass unchanged while changing
the stiffness of the members to analyze the influence of the member size simulation
accuracy on the accuracy of prediction result and to demonstrate the applicability
and robustness of the simplified model, and to point out the key factors affecting the
prediction results.
3.1 Influence of Column Section Axial Stiffness Coefficient

on Structure Period
Because the force arm between the columns is large, it provides a huge
anti-overturning moment and greatly reduces the overturning moment borne by the
core tube. It can be inferred that the axial stiffness and angle of column is key to the
structure stiffness which is embodied by the structure period. Just as shown in the
Fig. 5, when the axial stiffness is reduced to half the period increase by 1.2 s.
Although the structure stiffness is sensitive to the column axial stiffness, the
cross-section area and angle can be got easily and be expressed as exactly same as
the prototype.
1304 Y. Yang et al.
Fig. 5 Influence of column 9
section axial stiffness on the Period

period
Period (S)
7
6
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Column axis stiffness coefficient
Fig. 6 Influence of column 7.2

section shear stiffness Period
coefficient on period
Period (S)
7.1
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
Column shear stiffness coefficient
3.2 Influence of Column Section Shear Stiffness

on Structure Period
Since the column has large slenderness ratio, the column can only provide the
shearing capacity by bending deformation, and as shown in Fig. 6 the picture below
changing the section shear stiffness from half two double almost has no influence on
the structure period.
That is to say, the simulation of height-width ratio of column section is not the
key factor affecting the accuracy of prediction results of simplified model.
Fig. 7 Influence of column 8

section bending stiffness Period
coefficient on period
(S)
7
Period
6
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Column bending stiffness coefficient
3.3 Influence of Column Section Bending Stiffness

on Structure Period
Since the slenderness ration of column is relatively large and the section is much
smaller than the core wall tube, which means that the bending stiffness provided by
the column is much less than that provided by the core wall tube, the bending
stiffness coefficient of column has small influence on the structure. As shown in
Fig. 7, when double the column stiffness the period drops down by 0.2 s and even
when reduce the stiffness to 1/10 the period increases by no more than 0.5 s, which
shows that the bending stiffness has almost no influence the structure stiffness.
That is to say, the simulation of height-width ratio of column section is not the
key factor affecting the accuracy of prediction results of simplified model.
3.4 Influence of Beam Section Bending Stiffness

on Structure Period
It can be inferred that the beam section has a greater impact base on the fact that the
axial force in column is transferred by beam as shear force. It is shown is the Fig. 9
that when the beam is too weak to coordinate the core tube and periphery frame the
period is much elongated, but when the beam line stiffness is pretty much larger
than that of the column the period cannot increase along with it further. While, from
Fig. 8 it can be inferred that in the scope of normal size of mega frame, the stiffness
of the outrigger is much larger than the column from the fact that when the stiffness
is double or half the period only change about 0.2 s, which is in accordance with
the fact that the outrigger normally occupies one or two stories which equals to 5 to
10 m and the column section usually ranges from 0.8 to maximum 5 m.
1306 Y. Yang et al.
Fig. 8 Influence of beam 18
section bending stiffness 17 Period

(10-7 * 105) on the period 16
15
14
13
Period (S)
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
10-7 10-6 10-5 10-4 10-3 10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103 104 105
Beam bending stiffness coefficient
Fig. 9 Influence of beam 8

section bending stiffness
Period
(0.6-2) on the period
(S)
7
Period
6
0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0
Beam bending stiffness coefficient
That is to say, in the regular size range, the beam section is large enough that the
accuracy of its simulation has little effect on the results.
3.5 Influence of Ignoring the Normal Floor Beam

on Structure Period
Because of the hinged connection between the floor beams and the columns cannot
restrain the deformation of mega columns, even when the beams and columns are
rigidly connected the coordinated effect of the beams on ordinary floors can be
neglected due to its small cross section area. Based on the previous argument, it can
be seen that even if the introduction of beams can improve the coordination effect
Table 1 Influence of core Without flange With flange

wall bending stiffness on wall wall
structure period
Structure period 7.3 6.3
(s)
between the core and column or can improve the flexural and shear stiffness of
columns a little, the impact of structural stiffness and period is not significant.
3.6 Influence of Core Wall Bending Stiffness on Structure

Period
Because the supertall is high, the wall can be seen as a cantilever beam member and
the bending stiffness will impact the structure stiffness a lot. The bending stiffness is
mainly decided by the flange wall while the web wall mainly transfer the shear
force, which resembles the H-shape beams. This point can be verified by Table 1
that the period significantly drop down from 7.3 s to 6.3 s when adding up the
flange wall to the simplified model without flange wall.
3.7 Influence of Wall Bending Stiffness on Mode Shape
In order to compare the correlation of first order modes between the simplified
model and prototype, the concept of mode confidence criterion (MAC) is intro-
duced as below.
T 2
/ /j
i
MACij ¼
/Ti /i /Tj /j
Where /i ; /j is mode vector. The closer the MAC is near to 1, the more
correlative the two modes are.
Change the flange wall stiffness coefficient, and extracted data from the two
models. The normalized first-order mode shapes are drawn in the following Fig. 10
and the MAC is listed in Table 2.
1308 Y. Yang et al.
600
500
400
Structure Height(m)
Original Structure Mode

0.32
300 0.41
0.53
0.68
200 0.88
1.14
1.47
100 1.9
2.45
3.16
0
0 1
Mode
Fig. 10 Sensitivity of the first order mode shape to the flange wall stiffness of simplified model
Table 2 Structural period No. Flange wall stiffness Period MAC

and MAC value coefficients (s)
corresponding to flange wall
stiffness coefficients 1 0.32 8.8 0.9989
2 0.41 8.68 0.9991
3 0.53 8.55 0.9993
4 0.68 8.39 0.9994
5 0.88 8.2 0.9992
6 1.14 8 0.9988
7 1.47 7.77 0.9981
8 1.9 7.52 0.9971
9 2.45 7.25 0.9959
10 3.16 6.95 0.9944
The results show that the MAC values are bigger than 0.999 when the flexural
stiffness of the wall doubles or decreases to half. That is to say, the mode distri-
bution is not sensitive to the absolute size of the simplified model wall members
and the relative stiffness of the wall-column members. It is easy for the first mode
shapes of the simplified model resembling that of the prototype, which ensures the
accuracy of the predicted results of the simplified model. It can be seen from the
following Figure that when the stiffness correction factor of the flange wall is close
to 1, the shape of the simplified model is closest to that of the prototype model,
which verifies the feasibility of the flange wall effective width methodology.
4 Conclusions
Based on the research above it can be concluded as follows:

(1) Without considering the secondary structure, the period of prototype structure
can be well simulated by a simplified plane structure consisting of mega frames
and shear walls.
(2) The simplified model period is insensitive to the beam section size and the
flexural and shear stiffness of the wall and column.
(3) The axial stiffness and angle of the column and bending stiffness of the wall in
the simplified model are the key factors to ensure the prediction accuracy.
References
1. Chen Y, Mcfarland DM, Wang Z et al (2010) Analysis of tall buildings with damped
outriggers. J Struct Eng 136(11):1435–1443
2. Cheng P, Ma LZ, Chen YQ (2015) Application of outrigger damping system in high-rise
building structures. In: Papers collection of the fifth national building structure technology
exchange conference, vol. 2
3. China Ministry of Construction (CMC) 2010. Code for Seismic Design of Buildings (GB
50011-2010). China Architecture & Building Press: Beijing. (in Chinese)
4. He S, Yu ZW (2009) A review of research on seismic performance of mega-frame structure
systems. Ind Constr 39(5):101–105
5. Huang B, Takeuchi T (2017) Dynamic response evaluation of damped-outrigger systems with
various heights. Earthquake Spectra 33(2):665–685
6. O’Neill JC (2015) Application of damping in high-rise building. Massachusetts Institute of
Technology 2006
7. Tan P, Fang CJ, Chang CM et al (2016) Dynamic characteristics of novel energy dissipation
systems with damped outriggers. Eng Struct 98:128–140
8. Wang LL, Zhao X, Zheng YM (2016) A combined tuned damper and an optimal design
method for wind-induced vibration control for super tall buildings. Struct Des Tall Spec Build
25(10):468–502
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buildings in wind excitation based on fuzzy probability method. Struct Des Tall Spec Build
26:e1365. https://doi.org/10.1002/tal.1365
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financial center scale model. China Civil Eng J 10:18–26
Porcupine Quill: Buckling Resistance
Analysis and Design for 3D Printing
Yun Lu Tee, Martin Leary, and Phuong Tran
Abstract Recently, materials with lightweight and high mechanical strength are on
high demand. These characteristics are exceptionally important in various field,
particularly in structural engineering. Nature offers inspirational solutions which are
beyond our expectations. Plants and animals are made of well-architectured
structures and materials to protect themselves against harsh environments and
enemies, same goes to porcupines. Under emergency condition, porcupine protects
itself by jabbing the quills into the skin of the assailant. The long and sharp
cylindrical quill possesses outstanding mechanical properties including lightweight
and high buckling resistance. At present, research focusing on the mechanical
analysis of porcupine quills in the literature is limited. The extraordinary features of
the quills are known but not fully-explored. At different cross-sections within a
same quill, different microstructural patterns are observed. To better understand the
buckling property of porcupine quill, compression test is performed. This paper is
aimed to microstructurally investigate the mechanism of buckling resistance in
porcupine quill at different cross-sections. Theoretical analysis is performed via
buckling theory proposed in the literature. Based on the understanding of this
biological structure, a design approach is proposed to mimic the porcupine quills
for 3D printing.
Keywords Bioinspired Buckling Compression Porcupine quill Voronoi

3D printing
Y. L. Tee P. Tran (&)

School of Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, RMIT University,
Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia
e-mail: jonathan.tran@rmit.edu.au
Y. L. Tee
e-mail: s3761247@student.rmit.edu.au
M. Leary
School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, RMIT University,
Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia
e-mail: martin.leary@rmit.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_123
1312 Y. L. Tee et al.
1 Introduction
Nature has created living things with unique biological structures as means to
protect themselves against harsh environments and predators (Malik et al. [6]). The
well-architectured designs equipped with high strength and lightweight are often the
source of inspirations for researchers to solve structural problems. This leads to the
emergence of new research area: bio-inspiration [11, 14, 16].
Sophisticated structures with lightweight and good mechanical properties are
gaining attentions [8]. Porcupine quill is known for its exceptional buckling
resistant. Recent years, researchers are exploring the mechanical properties of
porcupine quills [1, 13, 17]. Based on the reported results, the buckling stress varies
depending on a few factors, including quill species and condition of the quill [1,
17]. Microstructure of quill consist of mainly the outer shell and inner core. Vincent
and Owers [15] reported that denser shell delays local buckling of a filled cylinder.
However, the role of the core in resisting buckling is not clearly defined.
The theory of buckling analysis of hollow cylinder is proposed by Timoshenko
[12]. Karam and Gibson [4] improvised the theory which consider the buckling
stress contributed by both the shell and the core. Both theory of hollow cylinder and
filled cylinder are used to calculate the buckling stress and comparisons are made
with the experimental values. In most scenario, theoretical buckling stress are found
to be much higher than the experimental values obtained [13, 17]. There is no
explanation on the reason for the mismatched values up to date.
Research works based on additive manufacturing or 3D printing has increased
dramatically in recent decades. Being an efficient tool for rapid prototyping with
low production cost, more attention is given to produce complex geometries [2].
Podrouzek et al. incorporated bio-inspiration of 3D infill patterns for structural
application [9]. They mainly focus on Gyroid and Schwarz patterns. A better
representation of nature could be introduced, such as a Voronoi infill to mimic the
core structure of porcupine quill.
The paper is organized as follows. The next section gives information on the
experimental setup. This is followed by the buckling analysis and 3D printing of
cylinder with different infills. The final part includes conclusions and future works.
2 Experimental Setup
2.1 Materials Preparation
African porcupine quills were purchased. Due to the non-uniform diameter at both
ends of the quill, the specimens were cut using surgical tools, each with the length
of approximately 5 mm. Samples were prepared from the same strand of quill to
avoid data discrepancy due to nature properties. Figure 1a shows the purchased
quill with middle section as the region of interest. Three types of samples were
Porcupine Quill: Buckling Resistance Analysis ... 1313
Fig. 1 Samples preparation for whole quills, shells and foams
prepared as presented in Fig. 1b, the whole quill, Fig. 1c, shell only and Fig. 1d,
foam only. Experimental buckling stress were calculated based on the whole
cross-section of the quills.
2.2 Microstructural Analysis
Detailed microstructure of porcupine quills before, during and after compression

were evaluated using micro-CT scanner. The compression test was paused to
analyse the change in microstructure and was resumed after the analysis was
completed.
Axial compression loadings were performed at room temperature using universal

testing machine Instron with load capacity of 2kN at 3 different strain rates: 0.5, 1
and 2 mm/min. The samples were compressed up to complete failure.
2.3.1 3D Printing
Cylinder with different infills were designed and formed into two groups, uniform
and Voronoi respectively. The designed structures were printed using Zortrax M200
Plus printing machine using Z-Ultrat filament. The parameters were by default
mode.
3.1 Micro-CT Analysis
The microstructures of porcupine quills are shown in Fig. 2. The porcupine quill
consists of the shells, foam and stiffeners. The foam size is smaller near the shell
and larger towards the centre of the quills. There are stiffeners along the longitu-
dinal direction of the quills. The thickness of the shell is approximately 0.13 mm,
while the diameter of the quills was between 2 to 4.5 mm.
The microstructure of quill during buckling was captured as shown in Fig. 3. It
can be observed that the shell was compressed in a wavy form. Foam structure
remained attached to the shell after buckling.
Fig. 2 Structure of porcupine quill via micro-CT scan before compression: (left) transverse
cross-section and (right) longitudinal cross-section
Fig. 3 Structure of porcupine quill after compression: a transverse cross-section and b longitu-
dinal cross-section
Axial compression test was conducted on whole quill, shell and core. Figure 4
shows the stress-strain curve of a quill under axial compression. Although quills in
the original state were subjected to mechanical loading, the curves exhibited were
similar to the core-only compression as described by Gibson [3], Reddy and Wall
[10], McKittrick et al. [7] and Liu et al. [5].
Different strain rates were imposed onto the quills during compression, however
strain rate plays minimum role in axial compression. No significant variation
between the results at different strain rates. The stress-strain curves were consistent
as the samples were originated from a single quill. The specimens exhibited elastic
region up to 12 MPa, followed by a plateau with fluctuant serration and finally
densification. Elastic modulus of the foam was obtained at linear elastic region.
Differ from the presented data by McKittrick et al. [7], Torres et al. [13] and Yang
et al., no initial peak stress and load drop before plateau. One interesting phe-
nomenon that differ from the data in the literature is the slight drop of stress before
densification. This could be explained from the microscopic point of view. Each
component of the foam and shell failed consecutively during the plateau regime.
Individual cell in the foam collapsed gradually leading to the slight drop in stress.
Densification is initiated when the foam structure started to collapse.
Figure 5 shows the representative stress-strain curves of whole quill, shell and
core. Both whole quill and shell shows elastic region prior to buckling. They are
followed by fluctuated stress. This could be explained by the occurrence of local
failure in the samples. Similar to the whole quill and shell, the stress-strain curve of
foam initiated with an elastic region. There is a plateau region before densification
occur. It is worth to note that there is no load drop as for the case of whole quill
sample.
Fig. 4 Stress-strain curves of

3 whole quills samples
compressed with different
strain rate. Three regimes are
observed: a elastic region,
b plateau region and
c densification region
Fig. 5 Stress-strain curves of

whole quill, shell and core
Table 1 shows the properties of porcupine quills samples before axial com-
pression loading and their corresponding experimental buckling stress and theo-
retical buckling stress based on Karam and Gibson’s model [4].
Et
r0 ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð1Þ
a 3ð 1 v 2 Þ
where v is the Poisson’s ratio, E is the Young’s modulus, t is the thickness and R is
the radius.
Table 1 Properties of Samples a/t Ec/Es rexp rcal

porcupine quills
(MPa) (MPa)
Whole quill 12.76 0.146 11.54 47.42
Shell – – 10.73 11.99
Core – – 1.56 –
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
rcr ¼ 3ð1 v2 Þr0 f1 ð2Þ
where f1 is given as follow:

1 ða=tÞ ðkcr =tÞ2 2a kcr a
f1 ¼ þ þ ; ð3Þ
12ð1 v2 Þ ðkcr =tÞ2 ða=tÞ ð3 vc Þð1 þ vc Þ t t
where r0 is the buckling stress for the hollow cylinder.

Properties of porcupine quills were shown in Table 1. Comparing with experi-
mental results and calculated values according to Eq. 1 for shell and Eq. 2 for
whole quill, the buckling stress values are consistent for the shells, which are
10.73 MPa and 11.99 MPa respectively. However, there is large discrepancy
between the experimental value and theoretical value for the case of whole quill,
obtaining 11.54 MPa and 47.42 MPa. Theoretical buckling stress is approximately
4 times larger than the experimental values. Similar situation was found in the work
of Torres et al. [13] and Yang et al. [17]. This could be explained by the insufficient
information of the core that is accounted in the proposed model. Further investi-
gation is needed to improve the existing work on buckling analysis of filled
cylinder.
3.2.1 3D Printing of Cylindrical Structure with Different Infills
Two groups of infill patterns were designed. The first group of patterns are shown in
Fig. 6. Figure 6a(i–iii) and (iv–vi) illustrates the isometric view and top view of the
CAD designs respectively. From left to right showing hollow, angular stiffeners and
grid infills. The next group of patterns were inspired from porcupine quill as shown
in Fig. 7. Figure 7a are the isotropic views and top views of the CAD designs. The
patterns are generated via Grasshopper and graphically integrated into Rhinoceros
6. Voronoi structure is generated according to the allocated seed number and cell
size. The wall thickness is then imposed via offset function. The infill of the
cylinder is uniform along the z-axis, which is applied via extrusion.
The designed cylindrical shell with infills are then converted into STL files and
sliced using Z-Suite software. The parameter such as layer thickness and nozzle size
are by default mode, 0.9 mm and 0.4 mm respectively.
Fig. 6 CAD design of cylindrical structures with uniform infills (left) and 3D printed structures
(right)
Fig. 7 CAD design of cylindrical structures with Voronoi infills (left) and 3D printed structures
(right)
4 Conclusions
The buckling analysis of porcupine quills were investigated. Theoretical buckling

stress model presented in the literature for hollow cylinder was in line with our
experimental data. On the other hand, the proposed buckling stress model for filled
cylinder was different from our experimental data for a factor of 4. This could due
to the lack of infill information in the existing model. Further work will be focusing
on the performance of 3D printed structures with different infill. In addition, more
effort is needed to take into consideration the buckling of cylinder with different
core structure.
Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the facilities, and the scientific and technical
assistance, of the Advanced Manufacturing Precinct (AMP) and the Rheology and Materials
Characterisation (RMPC) laboratory at RMIT University.
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Investigation into Application
of Artificial Intelligence to Facade
Abstract Glazed curtain wall (GCW) facades have increasing popularity on newly
constructed high-rise buildings and match with current aesthetics of urban com-
munities. Traditional routine inspection procedure of these façade involves
obtaining building inspection scope, accessing the building with suitable equip-
ment, recording the conditions and results from hands-on inspection, and lastly,
providing a proper inspection report with advices on the facades. Qualified
inspectors are usually stayed up in the mid-air for hours to detect all potential
falling threats and defects on the exterior facade. This form of inspection is time
consuming and risky, and thus Artificial intelligence (AI) could be a suitable
alternative in this façade inspections. This paper reviews the capability of using AI
damage detection framework through a detail literature review. Following this, a
suitable AI framework is developed to assist the façade inspection for structural
damage. This proposed façade detection system is designed to utilise drones to
capture façade images at height while using Convolution Neural Network
(CNN) model with deep learning algorithms to process those images for damage
identification. In this damage detection AI framework VGG16 and a modified CNN
were recommended for the detection of the corrosion of aluminium, gasket and
silicone sealant degradation and cracks in glass. This can potentially reduce the
risks associated with the current façade inspection practices.

Keywords Deep learning Facade inspection Convolutional Neural Network

Artificial intelligence Glazed facades
M. Bowman S. Kesawan (&) S. Sivapalan T. Sivaprakasam

School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology,
Brisbane, Australia
e-mail: kesa.sivakumar@blightanner.com.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_124
1322 M. Bowman et al.
1 Introduction
Façades are the exterior skin of a building, which separate the inside and outside
environments in order to protect the occupants from wind, rain, temperature and
other environmental actions. Various types of façade systems are available, such as
solid masonry walls, pre-cast concrete walls and glazed curtain walls. Glazed
curtain wall (GCW) façade system is now increasingly used in high-rise buildings
due to its aesthetic appearance, ease of construction and economy. Therefore, the
scope of this research is limited to GCW façade system. GCW facade system
comprises glass panes, aluminium frame, gaskets and sealants. Glass panes are
supported by the aluminium frame, which is made of vertical (mullions) and hor-
izontal (transoms) members. Furthermore, depending of the type of glazing it is
categorized as structural (glass panes are bonded to the frame using structural
silicone sealants) or captive (glass panes are placed in between rubber gaskets)
glazing system.
In industry annealed, heat strengthened, tempered and laminated glass types are
used. In comparison with ordinary annealed glass and heat strengthened glass,
tempered glass is stronger and can resist higher loads. However, when tempered
glass is broken its small beads falling from a height of more than three storeys can
still cause severe injuries to a person. Therefore, laminated glass panes are used,
where glass panes are laminated using an interlayer that prevents falling of glass
pieces. For lamination, either annealed or tempered glass types can be used in order
to get laminated annealed or laminated tempered glass. Aluminium is widely used
in façade framing due to its light weight, high strength to weight ratio, and par-
ticularly, extrudability. Aluminium is protected using anodising, powder coating
and PVDF coating. Aluminium anodising is most commonly used in industry since
anodising process thickens the oxidation layer, which already exists on the alu-
minium surface and has high resistance to physical damage.
One of the aims of this research investigation is to identify the potential damage/
defect types of GCW components, particularly glass panes and aluminium frame. In
terms of glass pane, the damage type is glass cracking that can be due to thermal
expansion and contraction of the frame structure, or physical impacts such as wind
born debris attack. For the heat strengthened glass and laminated glass without
tempering, the cracking pattern would look the same as ordinary annealed glass,
which breaks into large jagged and sharp fragments (Fig. 1). When a tempered
glass pane is impacted it would shatter into relatively small non-pointed cube beads
as shown in Fig. 1. Crack pattern in a laminated glass will depends on the crack
pattern of the glass used for lamination.
Investigation into Application of Artificial Intelligence to Facade 1323
Fig. 1 Breakage Patterns Based on Glass Type (Image from https://rocklinglass.com [Accessed
on September 12, 2019])
The corrosion is a chemical reaction, where it reacts with the environment and
leads to aluminium deterioration. Aluminium will react with water/moisture and
atmospheric oxygen to form a thin and dense layer of aluminium oxide. This
coherent surface oxide, a stable passive layer that is about 4 nm thick, is the reason
why aluminium materials have very high resistance to corrosion and can resist
further oxidation or corrosion caused by the environment. However when the oxide
layer become unstable, the aluminium corrosion will continue to proceed. Such
corrosion on aluminium can be crevice, galvanic and filiform corrosion (Fig. 2). As
the corrosion process continues it may lead to failure of the facade.
Crevice corrosion can arise when saltwater and water enters a crevice, which can
be located at surface holes, underneath a gasket where two parts are overlapped, lap
joints under bolts or under rivet heads (see Fig. 2(a)). This can lead to corrosion on
the surface (water spots). Galvanic corrosion is also known as dissimilar metal
corrosion. This type of corrosion is regarding as electrochemical corrosion. It
occurs when two different metals are electrically connected and share the same
electrolyte with one of the metal being more nobler. This creates a potential dif-
ference that flow liked a circuit where a more active (negative) metal flows to a
more noble (positive) metal. This is called galvanic coupling. With most of the
materials, aluminium is the less noble metal. This poses a greater risk of galvanic
corrosion on aluminium (see Fig. 2(b)). Filiform Corrosion is a special form of
corrosion that occurs normally under a protective film or metallic coatings on
aluminium, like crevice corrosion. Filiform corrosion requires both chlorides and
relatively high level of humidity for the moisture to permeate the coating layer. If
humidity is over 95%, blister corrosion can occur. After moisture went underneath
of the painted surfaces, filiform corrosion starts to occur in between the layers as
shown in Fig. 2(c).
(a) Crevice Corrosion. (b) Galvanic Corrosion.
(c) Filiform Corrosion.
Fig. 2 Chemical attack to an anodized aluminium door
Conventional façade inspection method has procedures of obtaining building

inspection scope, arranging a time for inspection, accessing the building with
suitable equipment, recording the conditions and results from hands-on inspection,
and finally providing a proper inspection report. Inspection method can be visual
survey from ground or adjacent buildings or hands-on survey which requires
equipment. Equipment used can be ladder, rope access, suspended platform and
ground-based access equipment. Facade Inspection Safety Program (FISP) requires
exterior facades of buildings with six or more stories being inspected periodically.
This is because, the aging façade has the potential threat of loose façade material
falling down resulting in injuries or damages to the people and property. Since such
manual inspections are time consuming and expensive, using the AI technology
would benefit in terms of time, safety and economy. The visual inspection phase is
the place where the AI framework can be applicable. The materials mentioned
earlier in this section are the categories of material classification in AI framework.
All the damage types of glass crack patterns and aluminium corrosions will be the
defect labels for the AI framework output. At this stage, other damage types such as
mould and watermarks are not considered due to significant variations.
2 Investigation of AI in the Context of Façade Inspection
Cha et al. [4] conducted a study on corrosion and cracks detection using AI. Their
study gives details on developing AI-based solution through Convolutional Neural
Networks (CNN) to detect and locate the defects on buildings [4]. Figure 3 describes
the hierarchical components AI-based solutions. Machine Learning is a field of
computer science that deals with developing computational systems to learn [8],
which is developing meaningful information from a set of input data. This can be
developed in Unsupervised or Supervised manner depending on the availability of
the input-data. In Supervised learning system, the learning is conducted with inputs
and information containing the desired outputs from the learning as shown in [10].
2.1 Understanding Neural Networks
A Neural Network (NN) is an AI framework inspired by the behaviour of neurons

in the human brain [7]. Several neurons are connected to each other by links
(Fig. 4). When an input is given, the neurons on the layer get excited and activated
neurons propagates the signal to the next layer. The neurons and links utilise the
concepts of activations and weights. The activations describe how an excited
neuron gets within the system based on its inputs [7]. Weights are values that
describe the influence one node has on another [6]. In a NN, the weights are
multiplied by the given upstream node’s activation to generate a value to represent
the influence that upstream node has on the downstream node. The cost function
within the NN is the part of the AI that indicates what aspect of the network can be
changed for the biggest benefit to the system, while gradient descent method is
needed to indicate what parameters need to be changed and by how much to
Fig. 3 Overview of the

concepts in AI
Fig. 4 The overall structure of a Neural Network [3]
improve the system. For this process, the is needed [9]. There are many neurons in
the output layer. Therefore, there will be multiple gradient descents recommended
to improve the system. To compute all the recommendations for the previous layer
of neurons Backpropagation is used [9]. The Backpropagation takes in all the
recommended changes for a downstream layer and assigns changes to the upstream
layer to induce the desired result. From implementing this method, the NN can learn
from given certain training data. Now that SL learning for NN has been explained,
in its basics, the operation and application of CNN can be touched upon.
2.2 Understanding Convolutional Neural Networks
A CNN utilises underlying theories of NN and expands on their application to

handling visual inputs. In CNN, features in an image/video can be characterised.
CNN can be effectively applied for images, videos or data that can be represented as
arrays [11]. These inputs come in a matrix which detail both an aspect of space and
intensity at a location. For a CNN to handle these arrays, a concept of sliding
window has to be applied [4]. Sliding window refers to using a window and sliding
it across the array. This window would have a size and a space in which it is
moving across the array. Utilising sliding windows and spatial based inputs, CNN
can learn features in the image. Figure 5 shows the main components of a typical
CNN-based learning system. The Convolutional layer in a CNN is responsible for
filtering through an image to detect certain features [5]. To do this, it utilises the
sliding window concept. With the sliding window, it applies a filter to the image,
which is responsible for determining the location or the possibility of feature pre-
sents in the input [1].
Fig. 5 System architecture of

the CNN-Based Learning
system
The pooling layer is responsible for reduction in the array sizes in NN. To do
this, averaging or maximum pooling methods can be used [5]. However, maximum
pooling method is recommended since it is more effective in training the NN. By
using the maximum pooling layer, the data is reduced, and therefore, the demand on
the hardware is reduced. The ReLU is responsible of converting all the numbers in
the array to a value between zero and a positive number [9]. The softmax layer is
the layer responsible for relating the output to a probabilistic value, a value between
one and zero. Converting the outputs to a probabilistic form benefits the CNN in
multiple classifications [4]. By combining all the different components a CNN can
be constructed, and developing a CNN for damage detection in GCW applications
can be approached.
2.3 Facade Inspections Utilising CNN for Damage

Detection
Few studies were conducted in the past on corrosion and crack detection using
CNN. For corrosion of aluminium mullions, colour and shapes are the key features
to identify the damage, and NNs can be used to detect these features. Deegan
recommended a CNN by comparing different previously implemented corrosion
detection models considering their robustness in categorising images. For the CNN,
Deegan specified that a VGG16 model would be a robust model to use. The
robustness of the CNN was attributed to its convolutional layers. It also noted, as
more corrosion types are classified, the fully connected layer becomes important.
Fig. 6 Overview of the CNN structure for rust classification [2]
Within the VGG16 model, it was suggested to set the sliding window to 128 128
and to use either RGB or YCbCr colour space to help classification. Based on these,
Atha and Jahanshahi [2] showed that CNN is possible for corrosion detection
(Fig. 6).
Based on the recommendations of this paper, an AI framework for the GCW
could be developed, which could feature a CNN for the classification of the dif-
ferent defects of aluminium. In that the VGG16 could be used to detecting the
damages. This would be possible as the main damage types for mullions are cor-
rosion types. From applying a VGG16 model to the AI, the aluminium corrosion
aspect of the AI could be generated.
Cha et al. [4] recommended the use of CNN for detection of cracks in concrete
since concrete cracks are in inhomogeneous environments. They recommended to
have two convolutional layers, two pooling layers and a Softmax layer. The con-
volutional layers used initial randomly generated weights. The test results showed
positive results to varied image inputs [4]. Since concrete and glass are different
materials, this CNN cannot be directly applied to glass crack detection. However, it
can be used as a base for developing a CNN for detecting cracks in glass.
Furthermore, the main damage types in GCWs are aluminium corrosion and glass
cracks. Therefore, by using the recommended CNNs a CNN framework could be
developed for GCWs.
3 Discussion of CNN Findings and the Application

to GCW
In Sect. 2, it was recommended that an AI can be used in GCW façade inspections.

To do this, the AI will have to use a CNN for glass crack detection, and one for
aluminium corrosion (Fig. 7). Depending on the application, the CNN would have
to vary. In GCWs, there are several different possible types of damages that could
appear. For instance, in aluminium it can be filiform, crevice or galvanic corrosion.
For glass panes, damage that is considered is crack (annealed - large segments or
tempered and laminated - tiny cube-like segments). Each of these features will have
Fig. 7 Overall layout of the

AI framework
to be detected by the AI. As previously noted, a CNN can be able to perform the
categorization adequately for each of these features.
As the scope of the research is tailored to GCWs, the AI classification will be
focused towards this. Figure 7 shows recommended overall layout of the AI
framework. When inspecting the site, there are two main elements for the facade:
mullions, and the glass panels. AI would have to be able to detect between glass and
aluminium elements. After the materials have been classified the corresponding
damage detections could be made. Details of the layer-architecture of the proposed
CNN is shown in Table 1.
It would be recommended to extrapolate research from damage detection from
other materials and applications. Therefore, the aluminium corrosion detection, a
VGG16 CNN will be utilized to detect the defects. The benefit of this model is the
CNN can categorize corrosion and has been noted as a robust build. For the crack
detection, it will be recommended to use the crack detection previously for concrete
and attempt to apply it to glass panel cracks. Appendix C contains a summary of the
layout of their structures. For the design and optimization of the AI framework, data
will be needed to develop the different CNN. These labels should reflect the
classifications the AI will have to be made. After testing and optimization, a proof
of concept could be completed. Following that it would be investigating the ways of
implementing the AI in a façade inspection. If it can be used in façade inspection of
GCWs, risks and safety issues associated with the conventional visual inspection
methods can be reduced.
Table 1 Mullion and Glass Detector - CNN VGG16 Architecture

Layer type Layer Input Kernel shape Number Stride Output Number
of kernels of variables
Convolutional C1 128 128 3 333 64 1 128 128 64 1728
C2 128 128 64 3 3 64 64 1 128 128 64 36864
Pooling P1 128 128 64 221 – 2 64 64 64 –
Convolutional C3 64 64 64 3 3 64 128 1 64 64 128 73728
C4 64 64 128 3 3 128 128 1 6 6 128 147456
Pooling P2 64 64 128 221 – 2 32 32 128 –
Convolutional C5 32 32 128 3 3 128 256 1 32 32 256 294912
C6 32 32 256 3 3 256 256 1 32 32 256 589824
C7 32 32 256 3 3 256 256 1 32 32 256 589824
Pooling P3 32 32 256 221 – 2 16 16 256 –
Convolutional C8 16 16 256 3 3 256 512 1 16 16 512 1179648
C9 16 16 512 3 3 512 512 1 16 16 512 2359296
C10 16 16 512 3 3 512 512 1 16 16 512 2359296
Pooling P4 16 16 512 221 – 2 8 8 512 –
Convolutional C11 8 8 512 3 3 512 512 1 8 8 512 2359296
C12 8 8 512 3 3 512 512 1 8 8 512 2359296
C13 8 8 512 3 3 512 512 1 8 8 512 2359296
Pooling P5 8 8 512 221 – 2 4 4 512 –
Fully FC1 4 4 512 8192 4096 4096 33554432
connected FC2 4096 4096 4096 4096 16777216
FC3 4096 4096 2 2 8192
4 Conclusions
This paper presents an artificial intelligence (AI) framework for assisting the con-
ventional inspection method of Glazed Curtain Wall (GCW) façades of buildings.
This proposed façade detection system is designed to utilise the flying drone’s
ability to capture the façade image at height. This will reduce the need for tech-
nicians to conduct inspections while suspended in mid-air. Application of this
proposed system could possibly reduce both the risk and the associated costs of the
conventional inspection approach. Furthermore, the system will process the façade
images by using Convolution Neural Network (CNN) model with deep learning
algorithms. This CNN model will help to reduce the amount of labour when
inspecting a façade. This is possible because of the visual recognition CNN.
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Barriers in Implementing
the Convolutional Neural Network
Damage Detector
Abstract The use of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is a suitable quicker,

accurate and cost-effective method in implementing damage detection during rou-
tine façade inspection, where images are taken from drones. This paper evaluated
the barriers associated with the implementation of drone-based façade inspection. It
was identified that strategic planning and stakeholder perspectives are key concerns
for the implementation of Information Technology (IT) in façade inspections.
Furthermore, this paper presents the disparities between rope access and
drone-based inspection by considering the laws that are relevant to the operation,
and then provides insights to business managers who are willing to use the tech-
nology. The Privacy Act 1988, Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998 and Civil
Aviation Legislation Amendment Regulation 2016 are key pieces of legislation that
impacted the drone-based inspection, and from these the necessary items required
for a company to conduct a strategic plan to implement the artificial intelligence
based façade inspection is provided in this paper.

Keywords Deep learning Facade inspection Convolutional Neural Network

Artificial intelligence Rope-access
1 Introduction
Glass Curtain Walls (GCWs) are becoming popular facade system in building
construction. During operation of a building it is important to perform routine
façade inspections in order to ensure its life span and safety since materials degrade
with time. Facade inspection is the practice of locating and assessing facade
damages of a building [17]. The purpose of this exercise is to actively check the risk
of facades harming the public or other structural elements 1]. In order to do this,
M. Bowman S. Kesawan (&) S. Sivapalan T. Sivaprakasam

School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology,
Queensland, Australia
e-mail: kesa.sivakumar@blightanner.com.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_125
visual inspections and possible ‘hands-on’ testing are conducted so that health of
facade elements can be recorded and highlighted [17, 12]. With the advancement in
computer technology damage detection methods that use Artificial Intelligence
(AI) becomes possible, and thus possibility of using Convolutional Neural Network
(CNN) method in the field of facade inspections should be investigated. This paper
investigates the possible barriers in implementing CNN damage detection method,
with the use of drones, in the field of facade inspections in Australia.
By using drone technology, safety of façade inspection operation could be
increased, and also the time spent on manual inspection method (rope access) could
be reduced (Choi and Kim [2]. On the other hand, a preliminary investigation of a
façade could be conducted using drone so that the time or the need for an individual
to conduct a rope access inspection could be reduced [14]. As a result, the liabilities
of a company in regards to the safety of workers could be reduced. In addition,
damage inspections may become more accessible for clients through preliminary
inspections. If these potential benefits need to be achieved, factors that resist the
deployment of such technology must be understood and considered.
In the context of Information Technology (IT), barriers are something that hinder
the progression of IT developments. These can be social, technological or cost
related constructs that pose a problem. For instance, 18 month legal battle of Waste
Management and SAP costing $100 million is an example for this [9]. This incident
was about SAP’s implementation of a software called ERP. Waste management
claimed SAP’s ‘failure’ of the system was due to fraudulent sales and SAP was
claiming Waste Management did not define their business requirements. In this
scenario, the communication of the stakeholder’s perceptions played a large factor
in hindering such technology to emerge [9]. This is an example of social factors
being a barrier, but it is worth noting there are many other factors that can impact
the successful implementation of such technologies. Through proper investigations
such potential barriers to CNN damage detection approach can be successfully
managed. For non-technological barriers, in the context of IT, it was identified that
stakeholder communication and input played a key role for the successful imple-
mentation [10]. Therefore, increasing client and stakeholder interactions through a
forum to allow better communication are important.
When reviewing the challenges faced with implementation of IT systems in
small to medium size enterprise businesses, particularly in the Australian con-
struction industry, it was found planning had a greater importance [11]. It was
recommended for these size businesses that a strategic planning need to be
implemented within their respective businesses [11]. This plan was regarding how
the IT would work within their business. The reason for this solution surrounds the
impact IT systems had in their industry. By considering the recommendations and
findings of barriers for the past examples, barriers associated with façade inspec-
tions can be identified and managed.
Barriers in Implementing the Convolutional Neural Network Damage Detector 1335
2 Characteristics of Drone-Based Façade Inspections
A facade inspection company may choose to diversify its inspection techniques,

and thus laws and stakeholders would influence the operation of such business
during its operation. Through understanding of these different elements, barriers in
implementing such technology can be identified.
2.1 Laws and Regulations of Drone-Based Facade

Inspections
As the use of drone technology is being used, regulations towards commercial use
of unmanned aircraft come in effect. In Australia, the governing body that manages
the use of drones is the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA). It has
implemented the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998 and Civil Aviation
Legislation Amendment Regulation 2016, which stipulates the requirements for
operating drones. In the specifications, it classify the size and the use that must be
considered in practice. Drones are classified into four different classes, which are
very small, small, medium, and large. In fact, very small, small, medium and large
means weight less than 2 kg, between 2 and 25 kg, between 25 and 150 kg and
above 150 kg, respectively. Once the size of a drone size is classified, its use needs
to be defined. Table 1 gives a summary of the details of the categories and the
regulations of drones that are relevant to commercial use. Depending on the type of
application and the technical specifications of drones to be used for GCW
inspections, appropriate regulations need to be adopted in practice.
In addition to the aforementioned regulations, there are other important regu-
lations that apply to a drone-based inspection [3–8]. They are:
• The aircraft must operate within visual line of site, which can be changed if
CASA grant it.
• The drone should be below 120 m during day time.
Table 1 Summary of regulations for drones based on commercial use

Size Regulations
Very For standard use, the user does not need a remote pilot licence
small
Small For standard use and under person’s land, the user does not need a certification or
a licence
Medium Standard use and under person’s land, the user will require a remote pilot’s licence
Large Special considerations need to be made to the operation and handling of the
aircraft, which is done by the Australian CASA
• The drone should be operating 30 m away from people who are not associated
with the operation of the drone.
• The drone should operate within an approved airspace. This will depend on
whether it is in a public zone or not, and the type of zone allowances or
restrictions are applied on that location.
The rules stated above are general rules applied to the operation of an aircraft.
CASA provides changes to the above regulations, but they are under certain cir-
cumstances. In addition, façade inspection relates to recording information in a
public environment, and hence, laws that governs privacy and visual recordings
come into effect. In Australia, the predominate law that regulates visual recording
for drones is the Privacy Act 1988 [13]; [16]. The act indicates the rights of
individuals to protect their information through privacy. Therefore, businesses
using drones should comply with the appropriate regulations of the 1988 Privacy
Act, since drones would record individuals.
2.2 Operation of Drone-Based Inspection
To gauge the impact of regulation and stakeholders on a drone-based inspection, a

visual site inspection and desktop study was conducted. A sample of buildings in
the Brisbane CBD were chosen to conceptualise any site issues in relation to the
operation of drone in order to do façade inspection. The buildings considered in this
study are Abian tower, Capri hotel and Rio Tinto office building. Figures 1(a) to
(c) show an image of the buildings and Fig. 1(d) shows their location on the map.
By considering the chosen locations, a desktop study was conducted on the
zoning in place on these buildings. Figure 2 shows the result of the desktop study
conducted. Furthermore, using these three locations and the company framework,
potential site based challenges were generated as given in Table 2.
Based on the desktop study and the information collected onsite, the potential
issues were identified. They are:
• Drone potentially recording street pedestrians
• Drone recording neighbouring building occupants
• The zoning of the Brisbane CBD region means the site inspector needs a remote
pilot licence
A drone operator will have to apply for a:
• Aviation Reference Number [4]
• A remote pilot licence [6]
• A remotely piloted aircraft operators certificate [7]
• Flight authorisation application form [5]
• Depending on CASA’s reply to application, a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) may
have to be submitted [8]
(a) Abian tower (b) Capri hotel (c) Rio Tinto office
(d) Location on the map Queensland Government [15]
Fig. 1 Sample of buildings considered
By holding approvals for the above forms and certificates, droned based façade
inspection can be carried out.
3 Discussion of Drone-Based Inspection Against Current

Inspection Practices
For a business trying to implement drone-based inspections, CASA would be a new

government authority that would have to be communicated with to conduct busi-
ness. The operation would have to undertake applications and forms to be filled out
and operations would be heavily influenced by the Privacy Act 1988, Civil Aviation
Safety Regulations 1998 and Civil Aviation Legislation Amendment Regulation
Fig. 2 Zoning information for flying drones around the Brisbane CBD [3]
Table 2 Field data of three buildings with GCW system

Building Location Zoning Comments
Abian 140 Alice St, Flying within zoning for Public below + flying closer than
Tower Brisbane Brisbane River Helipad 30 m to public violates the
City QLD standard operation conditions
4000
Capri 80 Albert St, Within 5.5 km of Public below + flying closer than
hotel Brisbane helipad. Cannot fly if 30 m to public violates the
City QLD manned aircraft is standard operation conditions
4000 operating.
Rio 123 Albert St, Within 5.5 km of Public below + flying closer than
Tinto Brisbane helipad. Cannot fly if 30 m to public violates the
office City QLD manned aircraft is standard operation conditions
4000 operating.
Note All three buildings are surrounded by buildings with windows and pedestrians on roads
2016. The business stakeholders and inspection process may be affected by these
laws.
For the stakeholders of façade inspections, introducing drone inspections will
evoke change. Based on the preliminary investigation it was recommended to
consider the stakeholders’ perspectives in the implementation of the technology. In
addition, the facade inspection personal will have to undertake training prior to
operate the drone. It would be of recommendation to what key elements they desire
from the upgrade. At the same time, it would be worth developing actual per-
spectives within the business on the change.
When conducting this change, like mentioned previously, planning should be
conducted for the business to incorporate the technology. The planning recom-
mended was a strategic planning that would incorporate the new technology with
the business goals. Therefore, it will be recommended to make the following

considerations in the strategic planning:
• Have trained personnel to undertake site inspections with drone
• Develop a business framework for the forms that must be completed before
inspection is carried out
Through incorporating the following planning, the information technology being
implemented within the business framework will reflect the business direction.
In conducting a strategic plan and doing an investigation of stakeholder’s per-
spectives, the barriers involved into implementation of the drone-based inspection
technology can be reduced. These considerations will have to factor the change or
addition of skill in holding a remote pilot licence. In using the drone, there would be
a legal responsibility, the business will have to assure the business operation abides
by the Privacy Act 1988, Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998 and Civil
Aviation Legislation Amendment Regulation 2016. By utilising these recommen-
dations, it is aimed to reduce the barriers of implantation of the drone-based façade
inspections.
This paper presented an insight to the barriers in implementing drone-based
façade inspection, and it was aimed to be informative on a systems level. In this
investigation, the following information were not able to be found:
• Practice of façade inspections using rope access in Australia
• The business process conducted in a façade inspection.
To improve the quality of this investigation, the following future studies are
recommended:
• Conducting a survey of business in the façade inspection industry
• Stakeholder perspectives should be collected in this survey
• If possible, business operations involving rope access should be recorded from
companies in the industry
• Collect stakeholder perspectives of the implementation of the drone-based
inspection technology
4 Conclusions
The aim of this paper was to identify and provide insight into the barriers associated
with the implementation of drone-based façade inspections. Based on background
reading, it was identified that strategic planning and stakeholder perspectives were
key concerns in regards to the implementation of information technology in façade
inspection. Following the findings, an investigation was made into the disparities
between rope access and drone-based inspection by considering the relevant laws.
The Privacy Act 1988, Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998 and Civil Aviation
Legislation Amendment Regulation 2016 are key pieces of legislation that influence
the drone-based inspection. Therefore, it is concluded based on these laws that a
company should conduct a strategic plan to train its staff personnel with the nec-
essary skills that comply with these regulations.
References
1. Anonymous (2001) Facade failures spur cities to act, In, vol. 48, p. 14. Trade Press Publishing
Company, Milwaukee
2. Choi S, Kim E (2015) Building crack inspection using small UAV. In: Proceedings of the
17th international conference on advanced communication technology (ICACT)
3. Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) (2018) Can I Fly There?. https://casa.dronecomplier.
com/external
4. Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) (2018) Commercial unmanned flight - remotely
piloted aircraft under 2 kg. https://www.casa.gov.au/standard-page/commercial-unmanned-
flight-remotely-piloted-aircraft-under-2kg
5. Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) (2018) Get permission to fly. https://www.casa.gov.
au/standard-page/get-permission-fly
6. Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) (2018) Get your remote pilot licence. https://www.
casa.gov.au/standard-page/get-your-remote-pilot-licence
7. Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) (2018) Get your RPA operator’s certificate,
Retrieved from Get your RPA operator’s certificate
8. Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) (2018) Information about submitting NOTAMs.
https://www.casa.gov.au/
9. Dwivedi YK, Wastell D, Laumer S, Henriksen HZ, Myers MD, Bunker D, Srivastava SC
(2015) Research on information systems failures and successes: status update and future
directions. J Res Innov 17(1):143–157. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-014-9500-y
10. Ericsson S (2014) Barriers of developing and implementing IT-innovation in healthcare: A
process study of challenges in eHealth development, MSc dissertation, Umeå University,
Sweden
11. Love PED, Irani Z (2004) An exploratory study of information technology evaluation and
benefits management practices of SMEs in the construction industry. Inf Manag 42(1):227–
242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2003.12.011
12. McCurley L (2016) Professional rope access: a guide to working safely at height, pp 245–256.
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119085416.ch14
13. Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) (2018), Privacy Act. https://www.
oaic.gov.au/privacy-law/privacy-act/
14. Peng KC, Feng L, Hsieh YC, Yang TH, Hsiung SH, Tsai YD, Kuo C (2017) Unmanned
Aerial Vehicle for infrastructure inspection with image processing for quantification of
measurement and formation of facade map, IEEE, pp 1969–1972
15. Queensland Government (2018) Queensland Globe. https://qldglobe.information.qld.gov.au/
16. Volovelsky U (2014) Civilian uses of unmanned aerial vehicles and the threat to the right to
privacy – an Israeli case study. Comput Law Secur Rep BI-Monthly Rep Comput Secur Law
Govern Inf Technol Comput Use 30(3):306–320. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clsr.2014.03.008
17. Vossoughi H, Siddiqui R (2004) Industrial rope access - an alternate means for inspection,
maintenance, and repair of building facades and structures, building facade maintenance,
repair, and inspection, pp 116–118
Development of New Oil Damper
with Stiffness for Architectural
Vibration Control and Experimental
Research on Structural Characterization
Atsuki Yokoyama and Osamu Takahashi
Abstract This paper shows test and analyses results of a new oil damper, “The Oil
Damper with Stiffness”. It was developed to solve some issues around seismic
retrofit. There are difficulties in reinforcing buildings which were designed before
1981 in accordance with The Old Buildings Standards Act and many buildings have
low stiffness. Therefore, it has become common to retrofit old buildings using
braces and oil dampers, but this requires many areas to be reinforced. It causes
some problems relating to construction period, cost, and convenience of access.
This paper confirms that the test specimens have sufficient capabilities regarding
stiffness, constant slip force, durability, etc. in test results and advantages of this
damper in analyses using the factory model and the high-rise building model.

Keywords Oil damper Viscoelastic material Seismic retrofit High-Rise

building Long-Period earthquake
1 Introduction
Japan is a country where earthquakes hit many times, and The Building Standards
Act has been revised because of damage from earthquakes. There are many
buildings designed according to The Old Building Standards Act before 1981. It is
now common to retrofit these buildings using braces and oil dampers. However,
this requires many areas to be reinforced. It causes some problems such as
increasing the construction period, cost, and inconvenience due to blocking access
to frames. The new oil damper has been developed in order to solve these problems.
A. Yokoyama (&) O. Takahashi

Tokyo, Japan
O. Takahashi

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_126
1342 A. Yokoyama and O. Takahashi
Spring of Viscoelastic Material Slip Mechanism
Oil Damper
Spring Unit
Fig. 1 Composition of BOD
This paper shows tests and analyses results of the new oil damper. The new oil
damper is referred to BOD (Banetsuki Oil Damper) in this paper.
2 Composition and Characteristics of BOD
Figure 1 shows the composition of BOD. It is composed of an oil damper and a

spring unit which combine springs of viscoelastic material with slip mechanisms.
The spring unit has the same characteristics as a steel brace, so it is possible to
provide stiffness and damping to buildings using only BOD. It retains spaces of
buildings after reinforcement. Two types of the newly developed BOD are reported
in this paper. Tables 1 and 2 show the characteristics of each type of BOD.
3 Tests of Spring Unit
Some tests were carried out to confirm the performance of the spring unit. Figure 2
shows the relationships between displacement and force in Sine Wave Tests. As
shown by Fig. 2, these specimens have stiffness and slip force nearly in accordance
with design values regardless of the frequency and amplitude of sine waves.
Figure 3 shows results of Sine Wave Test before and after Endurance Test of
viscoelastic material. Endurance Test uses 100-Cycle Sine Wave with a frequency
of 1 Hz. Figure 4 shows the 50 and 99 cycle loops of Endurance Test of Slip
Mechanism. Figure 5 shows the results of Random Wave Test. This test uses the
wave made by earthquake recorded in Kobe 1995. Based on these results from
Figs. 3, 4 and 5, it could be confirmed that these specimens have sufficient dura-
bility and stability. (Red dashed lines in Figs. 2, 4, and Fig. 5 show slip force of
design value).
Development of New Oil Damper with Stiffness … 1343
Table 1 Characteristics of Oil Damper
Max Disp [mm] ±80
Max F orce [kN] 500
Max Vel. [cm/s] 30
Relief F orce [kN] 400
Relief Vel. [cm/s] 3.2
Table 2 Characteristics of spring unit
Charact erist ics＼Type 2 Layers 4 Layers
St iffness [kN/mm] 25 50
Max Disp. (Spring) [mm] ± 10 ±5
Slip F orce [kN] 250
Max Disp. (Slip) [mm] ± 80
Force [kN] Force [kN]

400 400
300 300
200 200
100 100
0 0
-100 -100
-200 -200
-300 -300
0.5Hz 1Hz 2Hz 0.5Hz 1Hz 2Hz
-400 -400
-80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80
Displacement [mm] Displacement [mm]
2 Layers 4 Layers
Fig. 2 Results of Sine Wave Tests (spring unit)


400 400
300 300
200 200
100 100
0 0
-100 -100
-200 -200
Before Test Before Test
-300 -300 After Test
After Test
-400 -400
-20 -10 0 10 20 -20 -10 0 10 20
2 Layers 4 Layers
Fig. 3 Results of Sine Wave Tests (Regarding Endurance Test (viscoelastic material))

400 400
300 300
200 200
100 100
0 0
-100 -100
-200 -200
-300 -300
50cycle 99cycle 50cycle 99cycle
-400 -400
-40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40
2 Layers 4 Layers
Fig. 4 Results of Endurance Test (Slip Mechanism)
4 Modeling Method of BOD
The modeling method of BOD has already been shown to be represented by

Maxwell Model and Bi-linear Spring Model in previous research [1]. Every test in
Sect. 3 was conducted without hydraulic oil in the damper. Therefore, BOD’s
relationships between force and displacement were described using test results and
analysis results which are calculated [2]. Figures 6 and 7 show the
force-displacement relationships. The slip mechanism doesn’t slide and the oil
damper doesn’t relieve in Fig. 6. In addition, the slip mechanism doesn’t slide and
the oil damper relieve in Fig. 7.

400 400
300 300
200 200
100 100
0 0
-100 -100
-200 -200
-300 -300
-400 -400
-80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80
2 Layers 4 Layers
Fig. 5 Results of Random Wave Test (spring unit)
Force [kN] Force [kN] Force [kN]

300 300 300
200 200 200
100 100 100
0 0 0
-100 -100 -100
-200 -200 -200
-300 -300 -300

-4 -2 0 2 4 -4 -2 0 2 4 -4 -2 0 2 4
Displacement [mm] Displacement [mm] Displacement [mm]
Fig. 6 Displacement-force relationships 1 (BOD)

800 800 800
600 600 600
400 400 400
200 200 200
0 0 0
-200 -200 -200
-400 -400 -400
-600 -600 -600
-800 -800 -800
-10 -5 0 5 10 -10 -5 0 5 10 -10 -5 0 5 10
Fig. 7 Displacement-force relationships 2 (BOD)

Fig. 8 Figure of factory analysis model
Table 3 Analysis cases
Not Reinforced
Knee Blace
Oil Damper
Oil Damper + Knee Blace
BOD
5 Analyses of Factory Building Analysis Model
Analyses were conducted using the factory building analysis model with BOD
installed as a knee-brace. Two kinds of analyses were conducted: static load analysis
using wind load in a large typhoon and time history response analysis. Figure 8
shows the factory analysis model. Table 3 shows analysis cases. There are five
analyses cases: no reinforcement, knee brace, oil damper, oil damper and knee brace,
and BOD. Tables 4, 5, 6 show the characteristics of the knee brace, spring unit, and
oil damper. Time history response analysis is calculated with settings of 2.0 damping
ratio by initial stiffness proportion and New-markb (b = 0.25). These analyses were
calculated by the software, SNAP Ver.7. Table 7 shows the displacement values of
each case’s reaction. As a result, cases 2, 4, and 5 reduce displacement reaction
against wind load. Table 8 shows characteristics of earthquake waves, Table 9
shows maximum story deformation angles and Table 10 shows maximum absolute
response acceleration in time history response analysis. Each result confirmed cases
2 to 4 reduce these values respectively. Furthermore, Fig. 9 describes the relation-
ships between force and displacement of oil dampers at X1 in each analysis model. It
could be confirmed that case 5 has the smallest amount of energy absorption. This is
the result of the difference of each model’s proper frequency, the frequency of
dependency of the oil damper, and the fact that BOD’s deformation is less than that
of oil damper only because of the stiffness of BOD.
Table 4 Characteristics of knee brace
St eel Type φ114.3×4.5

St iffness [kN/cm] 580

Slip Force [kN] 50
Table 6 Characteristics of oil damper
F irst Damping Coefficient [kN/(cm/sec)] 62.5

Second Damping Coefficient [kN/(cm/sec)] 4.2
Relief Vel. [cm/sec] 1.12
Table 7 Results of wind load analyses
Case Disp. [cm]

No Reinforcement 22.01
Knee Blace 11.37
Oil Damper 21.96
Oil Damper + Knee Blace 11.49
BOD 17.33
Table 8 Characteristics of earthquake waves

Observation Direc Max. Acc. Max. Vel. Case
The Names of Earthquake Waves 2
Area tion [cm/s ] [cm/s] Name
1995 The Southern Hyogo P refecture Earthquake Kobe NS 494.6 50 KOBE2
1940 Imperial Valley El Centro NS 507.4 50 ELCE2
1952 Kern Country Taft EW 496.0 50 TAFT2
1968 The Tokachi−oki Earthquake Hachinohe NS 357.8 50 HACH2
1995 The Southern Hyogo P refecture Earthquake Kobe NS 820.6 83 KOBE
Table 9 Results of maximum story deformation angles

Maximum St ory Deformat ion Angle bet ween [rad]
Case KOBE2 ELCE2 TAF T2 HACHI2 KOBE
No Reinforcement 1/25 1/31 1/22 1/47 1/16
Knee Blace 1/37 1/39 1/45 1/39 1/25
Oil Damper 1/52 1/62 1/74 1/63 1/34
Oil Damper + Knee Blace 1/39 1/59 1/77 1/61 1/32
BOD 1/46 1/50 1/61 1/58 1/30
Table 10 Results of maximum absolute response accelerations

Maximum Absolut e Response Accelerat ions [cm/s2]
Case KOBE2 ELCE2 TAF T2 HACHI2 KOBE
No Reinforcement 599 471 614 311 675
Knee Blace 649 643 623 653 753
Oil Damper 432 371 330 371 617
Oil Damper + Knee Blace 806 622 505 607 905
BOD 557 506 447 453 754

250 250 250
200 Energy : 15.84 [kNm] 200 Energy : 19.32 [kNm] 200 Energy : 13.16 [kNm]
150 150 150
100 100 100
50 50
50
0 0
0 -50 -50
-50 -100 -100
-100 -150 -150
-150 -200 -200
-200 -250 -250
-30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30
Case 3 Case 4 Case 5
Fig. 9 Force-displacement relationships (KOBE2)
6 Analyses of High-Rise Building Analysis Model
Figure 10 shows how to make MDOF (Multiple-Degree-of-Freedom) model.

Analyses were conducted using High-Rise Building MDOF model which is com-
posed of Bending-Sheer Spring made by incremental load analysis. This model has
44 stories above ground, 5 stories underground and a height of 158 meters and CFT
(Concrete Filled Steel Tube) columns above ground, and RC columns underground.
74 oil dampers are installed on this model from B1F * 36F, i.e., 2 dampers are
installed on each floor. Table 11 and Table 12 show the characteristics of the oil
damper and the spring unit. These analyses were conducted using the same setting
and the software in Sect. 5.
Oil dampers are

attached to each
Storiy
(B1F 36F)
Frame Model MDOF Model
Fig. 10 Figure of high-rise building analysis model
Table 11 Characteristics of oil damper

F irst Damping Coeffient [kN/(cm/sec)] 500
Second Damping Coeffient [kN/(cm/sec)] 14.93
Relief Vel. [cm/sec] 3.2

Slip F orce [kN] 500
Table 13 Characteristics of earthquake waves

Observation Direc Max. Acc. Max. Vel. Case
Scale The Names of Earthquake Waves 2
Area tion [cm/s ] [cm/s] Name
1940 I mperial Valley El Centro NS 253.7 25 ELCE1
Eart hquake Lv.1
(Vmax= 25 [cm/s])
1968 The Tokachi−oki Earthquake Hachinohe NS 178.9 25 HACH1
1940 I mperial Valley El Centro NS 507.4 50 ELCE2
Eart hquake Lv.2
(Vmax= 50 [cm/s])
1968 The Tokachi-Oki Earthquake Hachinohe NS 357.8 50 HACH2
1995 The Southern Hyogo P refecture Earthquake Kobe NS 494.6 50 KOBE2
2011 The Tohoku Region P acific Coast Earthquake Haga EW 798.0 50 HAGA
Eart hquake Lv.3 1995 The Southern Hyogo P refecture Earthquake Kobe NS 820.6 83 KOBE
(Vmax= 75 [cm/s] 2011 The Tohoku Region P acific Coast Earthquake Haga EW 1197.0 78 HAGA
Table 14 Results 1 of analyses
Max. Abs. Res. Acc. [cm/s 2] Max. St ory Shearing F orce [kN] Max. St ory Defomat ion Angle [rad]
Lv.1 Lv.2 Lv.1 Lv.2 Lv.1 Lv.2
ELCE_NO 254 507 41363 82726 1/377 1/188
ELCE_OD 254 507 42108 84216 1/507 1/253
ELCE_BO 254 507 81088 159857 1/490 1/238
TAF T_NO 248 496 42594 85187 1/490 1/245
TAF T_OD 248 496 42520 85040 1/572 1/286
TAF T_BO 249 498 71691 143343 1/518 1/264
HACH_NO 179 358 35888 71777 1/51 1/26
HACH_OD 179 358 35194 70385 1/120 1/60
HACH_BO 185 371 56572 115321 1/273 1/88
※Red cells show not to satisfy design criteria.
Table 15 Results 2 of analyses
Max. Abs. Res. Acc. [cm/s 2] Max. St ory Shearing F orce [kN] Max. St ory Defomat ion Angle [rad]
Lv.2 Lv.3 Lv.2 Lv.3 Lv.2 Lv.3
KOBE_NO 495 821 92256 152995 1/362 1/218
KOBE_OD 495 821 92947 154079 1/380 1/228
KOBE_BO 505 844 158055 260365 1/289 1/171
HAGA_NO 178 277 23914 37250 1/218 1/140
HAGA_OD 178 277 24092 37515 1/304 1/195
HAGA_BO 187 292 46825 72678 1/914 1/360
Three cases of analyses (no reinforcement (NO), using oil damper (OD), BOD
(BO)) were carried out in time history response analysis. The design criteria of story
deformation angle in every case are 1/200 in Lv.1 earthquake and 1/75 in Lv.2 and
3 earthquake. Table 14 and Table 15 show results of maximum absolute response
acceleration, maximum story sheer force, and maximum story deformation angle. It
could be confirmed that cases of NO and OD do not satisfy design criteria in The
Tokachi-Oki Earthquake which has a huge spectrum in Long-Period. However, the
case of BOD satisfies design criteria in all cases and has nearly the same reaction in
maximum absolute response acceleration as the case of NO (Table 13).
7 Conclusions
In conclusion, test results show the BOD has nearly the same performance as the
design values and analysis results show the following merits of BOD.
(1) BOD reduces reactions of factory model against wind load.
(2) BOD is effective on high-rise building against Long-Period Earthquake.
References
1. Yokoyama A, Takahashi O (2016) Development of new oil damper for architectual vibration
control and experimental research on structural characterization. In: 6th Asia conference on
earthquake engineering, no 1, p 47
2. Takahashi O, Tsuyuki Y, Ikahata N, Matsuzaki Y, Fujita T (2005) A research on damping
performances analysis model of brace-type oil damper. J Struct Constr Eng, AIJ, no 594,
pp 57–64
Assessing the Viability of Visual
Vibrometry for Use in Structural
Engineering
V. Slinger, D. Lao, V. T. Nguyen, S. Singh, and J. Gattas
Abstract Visual vibrometry is a computer vision methodology that allows a user

to perform modal analysis on an object using typical video cameras, for example a
standard smartphone. There is significant potential in using visual vibrometry for
structural monitoring and building modal analysis; it significantly reduces cost and
set-up time as compared to traditional contact and non-contact based modal analysis
techniques, and allows for the measurement of non-conventional structures which
might be difficult to otherwise instrument. This paper describes an initial bench-
marking of the effectiveness of the visual vibrometry technique in structural modal
analysis, with testing conducted on a simply supported beam and a complex
semi-rigid frame structure using both visual vibrometry and classical contact-based
methods. Results indicated that visual vibrometry was effectively able to detect
natural frequencies under 20 Hz for both structures, with reasonable correlation
seen between visual and contact-based measurements, as well as analytical and
numerical solutions. The poor detection of higher frequency modes was attributed
to the receptance frequency response, generated when the collected visual dis-
placement data is transformed to the frequency domain. Doing so highlights low
frequency responses but suppresses intermediate and high frequency responses. Use
of high-speed cameras may improve high-frequency detection, but further work is
needed to determine practical limitations.
Keywords Visual vibrometry Structural dynamics Structural health

monitoring Modal analysis
V. Slinger V. T. Nguyen S. Singh J. Gattas (&)

School of Civil Engineering, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
e-mail: j.gattas@uq.edu.au
D. Lao
School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland,
Brisbane, Australia

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_127
1354 V. Slinger et al.
1 Introduction
Modal analysis has been widely used for many decades within various fields of
engineering, to detect the natural frequencies of objects and structures (Fu and He
[6]. In the field of structural engineering, modal analysis has proven to be effective
for ascertaining the dynamic properties of a huge range of engineered structures and
is a key technique for applications in structural dynamics, structural health moni-
toring, and quality control for manufactured building products [3].
Modal testing is typically undertaken using an impact hammer or shaker for
excitation of the test specimen, with structural response then measured using
contact or non-contact based methods [6]. Contact-based methods typically involve
attaching accelerometers directly to the structure. Collected data is highly precise,
but set-up can be time and labour intensive, so it is impractical for many appli-
cations outside of geometrically simple specimens in laboratory environments [2].
Non-contact methods were developed to reduce these limitations and commonly
involve the use of Laser Doppler Vibrometers for remote measurement of structural
displacement [5]. Laser vibrometers can typically only measure a single location on
a given surface and have a relatively high price point, again limiting their use for
continuous displacement field measurement or measurement of structures in situ.
Camera-based computer vision technologies have recently seen much interest as
a non-contact method that can aid or replace conventional modal analysis methods.
Computer vision processing of video from a basic camera has been shown to allow
for quasi-real time bolt tightness monitoring, overcoming many of the shortcomings
associated with conventional human inspection-based structural health monitoring
techniques [1]. A methodology referred to as visual vibrometry has been found
capable of extracting the frequencies of vibration modes and subsequently deducing
material properties of a vibrating object, using both high speed and regular video
cameras [5]. Visual vibrometry approaches are highly appealing as they avoid many
of the impracticalities associated with laser vibrometry and it are likely to be
significantly cheaper than a scanning or multi-beam laser vibrometer, even with use
of a high-speed camera. Video cameras are also easier to operate and likely to be
more adaptable and compatible with varying test circumstances. These benefits give
visual vibrometry great potential for improving the efficiency of structural health
monitoring and quality control.
This paper describes an initial benchmarking of the effectiveness of the visual
vibrometry technique in structural modal analysis. Testing is first conducted on a
simply supported beam, using both visual vibrometry and classical contact-based
methods, verified by analytical and numerical methods. A complex semi-rigid
frame structure is then also tested, again with both measurement methods and with
results verified against a calibrated numerical model.
Assessing the Viability of Visual Vibrometry ... 1355
2 Simply Supported Beam
As an initial benchmark, a modal analysis was conducted on a simply-supported

timber team using visual vibrometry and classical contact-based assessment
techniques.
2.1 Specimen
The tested beam was a non-structural grade timber stud, with cross sectional
dimension of 90 mm by 45 mm and a length of 2400 mm, as shown in Fig. 1. It
had a mass of 2.26 kg/m and was oriented about its weak axis for all tests con-
ducted. Timber is not naturally a homogeneous material; thus, the Young’s mod-
ulus of any given stud varies with length, however for the purposes of this
comparative study, overall average Young’s modulus was considered. The tested
stud had an average Young’s modulus of 4757.4 MPa, provided by the manufac-
turer Hyne Timber from their in-house mechanical grading process.
2.2 Experimental Test
2.2.1 Visual Vibrometry Method
Visual vibrometry modal testing was conducted by exciting the beam at mid-span
using a hammer, with the subsequent vibrations recorded by standard smartphone at
30 Hz and 120 Hz. To minimise noise, the camera was mounted firmly at a distance
and the footage was taken outside in bright natural light and with a still background.
This minimised potential flickering from artificial light.
Fig. 1 Tested specimens: simply-supported beam (left) and semi-rigid timber frame (right)
Fig. 2 Measured beam frequents. On left, normalized movement with visual vibrometry
frequency sampling at 120 Hz. On right, contact-based test 1, Accelerometer 1, acceleration
with frequency
Figure 2. Measured beam frequents. On left, normalized movement with visual

vibrometry frequency sampling at 120 Hz. On right, contact-based test 1,
Accelerometer 1, acceleration with frequency.
2.2.2 Contact-Based Method
The modal test was conducted using impact hammer excitation and contact-based
accelerometer response measurement. The beam was positioned to vibrate about its
minor axis, with an effective length of 2360 mm caused by 20 mm overhang at
each support. Seven accelerometers were positioned symmetrically about mid-span,
at 1/6, 1/4, 1/3 and 1/2 span length as measured from beam ends. These positions
were selected such that the first three natural frequency modes and their corre-
sponding mode shapes could be detected. The beam was excited via single impulse
at the mid span and data acquisition collected at a sampling rate of 2000 Hz. This
was repeated a total of 13 times, with separate data sets collected each time for
post-processing.
2.2.3 Results
The data obtained from the visual vibrometry (VV) test was post-processed in
MATLAB based on modified code from Davis et al. [4] and transformed to the
frequency domain by Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT). At 30 Hz, no discernible
trends were evident in the frequency domain data, however at 120 Hz a peak in the
normalised movement data is evident at 10.14 Hz. This can be observed in Fig. 2.
From the contact-based (CB) test, analysis was performed on data from
accelerometer 1 (at 1/6 span length) as it was able to detect vibration from all of the
Table 1 Measured and predicted frequencies for simply-supported beam test

Mode VV Freq. (Hz) CB Freq. (Hz) Analytical (Hz) Numerical (Hz)
1 10.14 10.63 10.26 10.27
2 N/A 39.33 41.05 41.07
3 N/A 93.71 92.35 92.41
first three natural vibration modes. The data from accelerometer 1 was transformed
to the frequency domain using MATLAB’s in-built FFT function. In order to
improve the accuracy of frequency estimates and avoid inferences based on single
data sets, the frequency values determined from the 13 separate tests were examined
and averaged together. Results are shown in Fig. 2. The first three natural fre-
quencies of the beam are easily discernible as 10.629 Hz, 39.325 Hz and
93.710 Hz, with VV and CB results summarised in Table 1.
2.3 Analytical and Numerical Solution
2.3.1 Analytical Solution
For a freely vibrating simply supported homogeneous beam with constant

cross-section, Eq. 1 can be used to determine the natural frequency of any given
mode (Nilsson and Liu [7]).
p rffiffiffiffiffi
D0
fn ¼ n 2
ð1Þ
2L 2 m0
Given that n represents the vibration mode, the frequency of the 2nd mode is 4
times that of the 1st mode, the frequency of the 3rd mode is 9 times that of the 1st
mode, et cetera. For a rectangular cross section:
bd 3
D0 ¼ E ð2Þ
12
which becomes D0 ¼ 6:75 107 E from substitution of specimen geometric

dimensions. Substitution of the specimen’s average modulus then gives D0 and
Eq. 1 gives the first three natural vibration frequencies of the beam, as summarised
in Table 1.
2.3.2 Numerical Solution
Using the beam properties described in Sect. 2.1, a numerical model of the beam
was developed in structural analysis software SPACEGASS to provide a numerical
prediction for the frequencies of the first three vibration modes, also summarised in
Table 1.
2.4 Discussion
The first natural frequency observed in the vibrometry test correlates well with the
experimental contact-based modal analysis prediction as well as the analytical and
numerical solutions, implying that the technique employed has effectively detected
this natural frequency. Variation between the specific natural frequency values
predicted could be attributed to a variety of errors, including inaccuracies in data
collection and imperfect simply supported test conditions.
Since the Nyquist frequency of the 30 Hz test is 15 Hz, theoretically the first
mode should have been detected in this vibrometry test, however it was not.
Equally, the Nyquist frequency of the 120 Hz test is 60 Hz, implying that it should
have also detected the 2nd mode but it did not. This could be attributed to the
vibrometry methodology utilizing displacement data. Transforming this into the
frequency domain generates a frequency receptance response, which is known to
exaggerate low frequency responses and suppress intermediate or high frequency
responses.
Even just with detection of the first mode, the visual vibrometry technique is
sufficiently accurate for prediction of the specimen material properties. Substituting
Eq. 2 into Eq. 1 and re-arranging for E gives a predicted Young’s modulus a value
of 4639.6 MPa, which is within a few percent of the actual average specimen value
of 4757.5 MPa.
3 Complex Semi-rigid Frame Structure
Visual vibrometry and contact-based modal analysis were conducted on a complex

semi-rigid frame structure to further test and contrast the capabilities of the
technology.
3.1 Specimen
The test structure, shown in Fig. 1, is a complex semi-rigid arch frame composed of
MGP10 timber elements held together via tension straps. The x and y dimensions
were defined for in plane horizontal and vertical movement, and the z direction was
defined for out of plane movement.
3.2 Experimental Test
3.2.1 Visual Vibrometry
The visual vibrometry test was conducted by exciting the frame in the x direction,
with the subsequent vibrations recorded by standard smartphone at 30 Hz and
120 Hz. Video was captured from a front and side view. Data collection and
processing was otherwise as described for the simply-supported beam. As was the
case with the simply supported beam visual vibrometry test, no discernible trends
were evident in the frequency domain data transformed from the 30 Hz video,
however at 120 Hz peaks within normalised movement data are evident. This can
be seen in Fig. 3.
3.2.2 Contact-Based Method
The modal analysis was conducted using an impact hammer for excitation and
contact accelerometers for response measurement. The frame was free to move in
any direction and thus a total of 6 accelerometers were used, 3 for each of the x and
y spatial dimensions. Data was logged and processed using a Dewesoft SIRIUS HD
ACC DAQ (data acquisition) system and the Dewesoft X3 DAQ software package.
Fig. 3 (a) Front and (b) side view normalized movement with frequency sampling at 120 Hz
Fig. 4 X and Y direction strike modal indicator function with frequency
Two tests were conducted, once with the frame excited in the x direction and once
excited in the y direction. For each contact-based test conducted, 5 separate hammer
strikes were performed, and these results were averaged within the Dewesoft X3
software. The results are shown in Fig. 4, displayed as mode indicator function
values to more clearly highlight frequency spikes.
3.3 Numerical Model
3.3.1 Model Parameters
Given that the structure is complex, it is significantly more difficult to validate the
obtained experimental modal frequencies. There are no analytical solutions avail-
able for this structure, so instead a numerical model of the frame was constructed in
structural analysis software SPACEGASS. Members were designated as MGP10
from the SPACEGASS AustTimb library, which assigns them a Young’s modulus
value of 10000 MPa. Connections between frame members were simulated as
semi-rigid by inserting very short intermediate members of significantly reduced
cross-section. By adjusting the dimensions of these intermediate members, the
stiffness of the joints in the frame model can be adjusted.
3.3.2 Semi-rigid Joint Calibration
Calibrating the numerical model requires calibrating the rotational stiffness of the
frame joints until the first numerical modal frequencies align with experimental
results. Since the frame was free to move in all directions, in plane and out of plane
(transverse) vibration modes influenced the experimental results obtained. The
stiffness of joints was iteratively calibrated by restraining the frame model such that
the in plane and out of plane modal frequencies could be isolated. These were then
matched as closely as possible with the experimental results obtained from the
vibrometry test.
The first two clear data peaks come from the front view test (Fig. 3a) which are
at frequencies of approximately 2 and 2.8 Hz. This closely aligns with the first out
of plane and in plane modal frequencies predicted by the SPACEGASS model for
intermediate member sizes of 20 by 30 mm and 17 by 20 mm, respectively. The
validity of these initial frequencies is supported by the modal analysis results, which
also shows MIF peaks at approximately 2 and 2.8 Hz.
3.4 Discussion
Tables 2 and 3 summarise the numerical and experimental frequency findings for
both in plane (XY) and out of plane (Z) vibration modes. As was observed from the
results of the simply supported beam vibrometry test, the receptance frequency
Table 2 XY natural frequencies of semi-rigid frame

Mode Numerical CB VV Freq. Notes
Freq.
1 2.85 2.93 2.51–3.16 There are two major peaks close together in
visual vibrometry data, the 1st mode
frequency could be interpreted as being
anywhere between these two
2 9.42 9.28 8.83–9.42 The CB frequency observed is represented by
a very wide peak and the corresponding value
is taken as the mid-point. This mode is only
visible from the Y direction CB hit test
3 19.73 N/A N/A This frequency is present within the numerical
model but is not observed from any of the test
data. This could potentially be attributed to the
mode not being initiated by the excitation
points tested
4 32.8 30.0 N/A No frequency spikes in this range are evident
within the visual vibrometry test data
5 45.7 45.5 N/A No frequency spikes in this range are evident
within the visual vibrometry test data
Table 3 Z natural frequencies of semi-rigid frame

Mode Numerical CB VV Freq. Notes
Freq.
1 1.83 1.83 1.85–2.07 There are two major peaks close together in
visual vibrometry data, the 1st mode frequency
could be interpreted as being anywhere
between these two
2 5.03 5.13 5.05–5.34 Results corroborate each other, all else
unremarkable
3 10.20 10.99 10.89 Visual vibrometry peak at this mode only
discernible from side view data
4 17.97 16.99 17.87 Visual vibrometry peak observable from front
view data
5 28.91 26– N/A No frequency spikes in this range are evident
29 within the visual vibrometry test data. There is
a CB peak over this range which corroborates
numerical results
response highlighted low frequencies but did not detect any frequencies higher than
about 20 Hz, with the highest frequency peak detected being 17.87 Hz.
After adjusting the numerical model to fit the first two modal frequencies, the
subsequent modal frequencies below the 20 Hz limit could be correlated with the
vibrometry results and these with the modal analysis results. Some of these cor-
relations were not as clear as the correlation between the first two frequencies across
the test types and varied by up to 1 Hz in some instances. Despite this, an overall
correlation between the numerical results and vibrometry results exists and this
reinforces the method’s validity for structural characterisation.
4 Conclusion
The results of the study suggest that visual vibrometry can be used to detect the
natural frequencies of structures both simple and complex in nature. When com-
bined with numerical or analytical models, this could be an effective means of
obtaining properties of numerous types of structure, from simple to very complex.
Given the quick set-up, low-cost equipment, and fast post-processing time,
visual vibrometry can be concluded to be significantly easier to implement than
contact based modal testing. The viability of this technology suggests that it could
hold great potential for use in improving the efficiency of a variety of industries
such as structural verification and health monitoring, and could also create new
opportunities in digital building certification.
The results suggest that there are practical limitations associated with receptance
frequency response functions, which are an integral component of visual vibrom-
etry. Since the low frequency region of a sample is highlighted when transformed,
structures with very high modal frequencies would likely require high speed
cameras in order to effectively detect them. Further research should be conducted to
ascertain the limitations of high-speed cameras used for visual vibrometry of
building structures.
References
1. Cha YJ, You K, Choi W (2016) Vision-based detection of loosened bolts using the Hough
transform and support vector machines. Automat Constr 71:181–188
2. Chen JG, Wadhwa N, Cha YJ, Durand F, Freeman WT, Buyukozturk O (2015) Modal
identification of simple structures with high-speed video using motion magnification. J Sound
Vib 345:58–71
3. Choi FC, Li J, Samali B, Crews K (2007) An experimental study on damage detection of
structures using a timber beam. J Mech Sci Technol 21(6):903–907
4. Davis A, Rubinstein M, Wadhwa N, Mysore GJ, Durand F, Freeman WT (2014) The visual
microphone: passive recovery of sound from video
5. Davis A, Bouman KL, Chen JG, Rubinstein M, Durand F, Freeman WT (2015) Visual
vibrometry: estimating material properties from small motion in video. In Proceedings of the
IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, pp. 5335–5343
6. Fu ZF, He J (2001) Modal analysis. Elsevier
7. Nilsson A, Liu B (2015) Vibro-acoustics, vol. 2. Springer
Steel Structures
Study on an Innovative H-Beam
to SHS-Column Joint with Cast
Column-Link in Steel Frames
Dongchen Ye, Yiyi Chen, Gang Zhao, and Qingjun Shi
Abstract Industrialized Building is introduced in many countries to improve the

affordability and quality of housing projects as well as to accelerate the construc-
tion. Based on the demand for industrialized Building, an innovative joint for
connecting H-beam to the closed-section column is proposed in this research. The
joint is composed of three parts including the beam-link, the column-link, and the
panel zone, where the beam-/column-link are designed into a series of standardized
modules while the panel zone uses the existing profile steel. This modular design
could extend the applicability of the joint since the joint is able to connect different
sections of the beam and column by assembling different modules. Here the
column-link was manufactured through a casting process in order to meet the
requirement of construction and mechanical performance. The key geometrical
parameters of the column-link are discussed based on the theoretical calculation and
finite element analysis in this paper, and the corresponding design proposals are
presented.

Keywords Beam-to-Column joint Closed-section column Steel casting Steel

frame structure Industrialized building
D. Ye (&) Y. Chen
Department of Structural Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
e-mail: ydc1111@tongji.edu.cn
Y. Chen
e-mail: yiyichen@tongji.edu.cn
Y. Chen
State Key Laboratory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University,
Shanghai, China
G. Zhao Q. Shi
BMEI Co., Ltd., Beijing, China
e-mail: zhaogang@bmei.com
Q. Shi
e-mail: shiqingjun@bmei.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_128
1368 D. Ye et al.
1 Introduction
Industrialized Building is a promising strategic direction to the upgrading of tra-

ditional construction industry and therefore it is strongly supported by central and
local governments of China [7]. Compared to conventional construction, it has
obvious advantages in terms of speed, safety, and quality. In addition, it becomes
more essential because of the increasing shortage of labor [2].
The structural members for Industrialized Building are expected to be manu-
factured in a controlled environment, mainly in the factory for the reason that their
qualities could diminish the influence of the external factors to the most extent, such
as weather, operational difficulties, etc. However, a large number of in situ oper-
ations could hardly be avoided for the beam-to-column joint, which is crucial in
ensuring construction quality. The weld and bolted are two main connection types
for joints in steel frames. Compared with the weld connection, the quality of the
bolted is less dependent on the operation circumstance and skill of workers. One
disadvantage of such connection is that it is unsuitable for the closed-section col-
umn due to some operations like fixing bolts. Although the blind bolt [5] provides
an effective solution to this problem, the bolted connection is still seldom used in
steel frame because of the high requirement for construction accuracy.
A novel kind of joint connecting H-beam and closed-section column, especially
for square hollow section (SHS), is proposed in this article while its design intent is
to meet the demand of Industrialized Building by reducing the assembly difficulties,
increasing construction speed and quality. The joint is artificially divided into
beam-link, column-link and panel zone as Fig. 1. The aim of the division is to
create a series of standard modules for each part so that every joint with different
sections of beams and columns could be assembled. If this is achieved, it will bring
about mass production of standard modules which is a source of cost savings. This
paper begins by providing details of the joint, and then it is focused on the design
method for column-link.
Fig. 1 H-beam to SHS

column joint
Column-link Beam-link
Panel zone
Bolts
H-beam
SHS column
Study on an Innovative H-Beam to SHS-Column Joint … 1369
Fig. 2 Illustration of the

column-link
(a) Column-link for square column section
(b) Column-link for circular column section
2 Concept of the Joint
The joint is developed in order to realize a more effective construction mode for
H-beam and closed-section column. To accomplish this objective, several features
are included:
(1) The column-link is shop welded to the panel zone and column while the
beam-link is bolted to the column-link and beam in situ. A transition is needed
if the column section is circular or elliptical as Fig. 2. However this is still
under development thus it will not be discussed in this paper.
(2) The column-link is manufactured by casting because of the complex configu-
ration, Fig. 3. Inner-stiffeners are cast for improving the bearing capacity and
stiffness of the joint as well as diminishing the welding deformation. Besides
the welding backing is added to ensure the welding quality. Loose pieces are
applied during the casting process so that backing with different curvatures of
the corner could be manufactured in order to satisfy several different thick-
nesses of SHS column of the same depth. More importantly, threads are drilled
through the wall of column-link and boss, which makes bolts could be tight-
ened from one side.
(3) As illustrated in Fig. 4, the beam-link is similar to Kaiser bolted bracket [1] but
it is regarded to be evolved from the end-plate in bolted connection. One
end-plate is separated into two beam-links and with the combination of over-
sized bolt-holes, it could achieve a higher construction tolerance and a more
flexible assembly. Moreover, it is tapered in order to shorten the load path.
(4) The panel zone uses the existing profile steel and its height depends on the
depth of the beam.
(5) Although the beam-link and column-link are designed into a series of standard
specifications (some examples given in Fig. 5), their bolt-hole position is
expected to be compatible so that different modules could match each other.
1370 D. Ye et al.
Welding backing
Inner-stiffeners
Boss
Hole for casting
Fig. 3 Details of the column-link for SHS column
End-plate Beam-link
Hole for casting
Col umn-link
Loadi ng path
H-shaped beam H-shaped beam
St iffener Tapered beam-link flange

Oversized bolt-holes
Bol ts
( a) ( b)
Fig. 4 Illustration of the column-link
Fig. 5 Examples of standard specifications of the beam-link and column-link
3 Design of the Column-Link
3.1 Thickness of the Column-Link Section
In order to avoid the weakness in column-link, the axial compression ratio at

column-link should not higher than that at column. Thus the wall thickness should
satisfy:
Table 1 Comparison D (mm) tr (mm) tmin (mm) tmin/tr fy,r/fy,c

between tmin/tr and fy,r/fy,c
200 4 4.61 1.153 1.15
10 11.55 1.155
300 6 6.91 1.152
12 13.84 1.153
400 8 9.21 1.151
14 16.14 1.153
500 8 9.21 1.151
16 18.44 1.153
Note: fy,t = 345Mpa, fy,c = 300Mpa
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
fy;r h 2 i
t D D2 D ðD tr Þ2 ð1Þ
fy;c
Where D is outer width of the square hollow section. fy,r, fy,c and tr, t are the
yield strength and section thickness of column and column-link respectively. The
curvature of the SHS corners is neglected.
Table 1 indicates that tmin/tr approximately equals fy,r/fy,c thus Eq. (1) is sim-
plified to:
fy;r
t tr ð2Þ
fy;c
3.2 Length of the Thread Engagement
The length of the thread engagement could be easily obtained by Eq. (3) [4]. The
shear area of the thread is regarded to be parallel to the screw axis.
Pl cosða qÞ
Leng ¼ p p ð3Þ
pd 2 þ ðd d2 Þ tan a cos a cos q
The geometric parameters are given in Fig. 6, where d, d2, p and a represents
bolt major diameter, bolt mean diameter, pitch and half-thread angle respectively.
The friction factor q in the screw takes 0.15 and the pledge load Pl of nuts are given
in a Chinese specification [3].
1372 D. Ye et al.
d
d2
p
shear surface
thread
Fig. 6 Details of thread
Fig. 7 Deformation of a
plate with the boss
F
Nut
Plate
Screw
d
Lf
df
However, in practical structures, the column-wall is prone to out-plane defor-

mation under transverse tension due to the small thickness. The situation is similar
to the column-link. The tensile force enlarges the bolt-holes which make part of the
thread that drilled along the wall fail as inner and outer screw could not be con-
tacted effectively. This problem needs to be considered in order to prevent thread
stripping. Here the wall of column-link is simplified into a plate with a boss as
Fig. 7. Lf is defined as the length of the failure screw. Since the Lf value is hard to
determine, two parameters, failure diameter df, and failure threshold f, are intro-
duced. It is assumed that when the diameter of bolt d exceeds df, the screw fails.
df d
f¼ 100% ð4Þ
d
The relationship between Lf and F is investigated by a large number of parameter

analysis using the general finite element software ABAQUS. C3D8R is chosen for
all components of the model while the mesh was discretized with more than 4 layers
Fig. 8 Two contact models

for thread
(a) Plate model with thread contact
(b) plate model with thread details
Fig. 9 Load-displacement 300

relationship of different
contact modeling 250
200
Force(kN)
150
100
thread details
50 thread contact
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Displacement(mm)
across the edge of plate thickness for sections in bending. The reference point is
coupling to the nut.
Two modeling methods are applied when creating the contact between bolt and
plate as Fig. 8 (a)–(b). One is to use the surface-to-surface contact which is
determined by parameters including half-thread angle, pitch, and bolt diameter. The
other one is to model every detail of the screw. The load-displacement curves of the
reference point in Fig. 9 indicates that there are little differences between these two
methods. For the sake of simplicity, the first modeling method is adopted. Adding
the thermal expansion coefficient to the bolt material and changing the temperature
field, the bolt preload is set due to the initial axial strain along the screw. This
method produces a little fluctuation of the bolt preload for different plate thickness.
1374 D. Ye et al.
Table 2 Summary of Abaqus models in parameters analysis
l l l
l/2 l/2 l/3 2l/3 l/2 l/2
Boundary
condition and bolt
l/2
l/2
2l/3
position
l
l
l
l/2
l/2
fixed edge
l/3
sliding edge
S1 S2 S3
Bolt specification M16/M22/M24/M30 M24

Plate thickness 6/8/10/12/16 (mm)
Plate size l = 4 bolt diameter
10
8 S1,M16,ζ=5% S1,M22,ζ=5% S1,M24,ζ=5% S1,M30,ζ=5%
6
Lf(mm)
4
2
0
0 100 200 300 0 100 200 300 0 100 200 300 0 100 200 300
F(kN) F(kN) F(kN) F(kN)
10
8 S2,M16,ζ=1% S2,M22,ζ=1% S2,M24,ζ=1% S2,M30,ζ=1%
6
Lf(mm)
4
2
0
0 100 200 300 0 100 200 300 0 100 200 300 0 100 200 300
F(kN) F(kN) F(kN) F(kN)
t=6mm t=8mm t=10mm t=12mm t=16mm
Fig. 10 Relationship between failure length Lf and tensile load F
Forty-five Abaqus models of the square plate with 4 bolt specifications, 5 plate
thickness, 2 bolt positions, and 2 boundary condition were established as Table 2.
The relationship between the failure length Lf and tensile load F are discussed
respectively under f of 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, and 5%. The obtained results are similar
thus only part of them are plotted in Fig. 10 for the reason of space. It is obvious
that Lf keeps zero at first and then increases rapidly. The turning point of each Lf –
F curve is defined as the failure load, Ff.
2.5
S1,ζ=1% S1,ζ=2% S1,ζ=3% S1,ζ=4% S1,ζ=5%
2.0
Ff/Fy
1.5
1.0
0.5
0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8
P/Fy P/Fy P/Fy P/Fy P/Fy
2.5
S2,ζ=1% S2,ζ=2% S2,ζ=3% S2,ζ=4% S2,ζ=5%
2.0
Ff/Fy
1.5
1.0
0.5
0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8
2.5
S3,ζ=1% S3,ζ=2% S3,ζ=3% S3,ζ=4% S3,ζ=5%
2.0
Ff/Fy
1.5
1.0
0.5
0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8
Fig. 11 Fitting analysis for Ff/Fy and P/Fy
It has been found from Fig. 11 that despite different plate thickness and bolt
specification, the ratio of failure load to plate yield load grows linearly with the ratio
of bolt preload to plate yield load. Here the yield load is calculated on the basis of
yield line theory [6]. To describe this relationship, two coefficients k and b are
introduced as Eq. (5).
Ff P
¼k þb ð5Þ
Fy Fy
Multiplying both sides by Fy, we obtain Eq. (6). This equation reveals that the
failure load is ruled by bolt preload P and plate yield load Fy.
Ff ¼ kP þ bFy ð6Þ
k and b are obtained by linear fitting and their value are plotted in Fig. 12.
Generally, we found that k grows as f increases while b keeps unchanged. The
value for k of S1 and S2 is similar but obviously different from that of S3 thus it is
concluded that k may be influenced by the plate boundary condition. The value for
b of S1, S2, and S3 are close with the average value of 0.68 which is coincidentally
consistent with the ratio of elastic to plastic section modulus of rectangle section.
1376 D. Ye et al.
0.31 0.95
0.28
0.8
0.25
0.22 0.65
b
k
0.19 0.5
k-S1 b-S1
0.16
k-S2 0.35 b-S2
0.13
k-S3 b-S3
0.1 0.2
0.00%1.00%2.00%3.00%4.00%5.00%6.00% 0.00%1.00%2.00%3.00%4.00%5.00%6.00%
ζ ζ
Fig. 12 Relationship between k, b, and f
Load (kN) Load(kN) Load(kN) Load(kN) Load(kN)

100 180 200 320 480
75 S1, M16, t=6mm 135 S1, M16, t=8mm 150 S1, M16, t=10mm 240 S1, M16, t=12mm 360 S1, M16, t=16mm
50 90 100 160 240

Fy Fy Fy Fy Fy
25 bFy 45 bFy 50 bFy 80 bFy 120 bFy
0 0 0 0 0
02 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10
Displacement (mm) Displacement (mm) Displacement (mm) Displacement (mm) Displacement (mm)
Load(kN) Load(kN) Load(kN) Load(kN) Load(kN)
120 180 240 320 560
60 90 120 160 280

Fy Fy Fy Fy Fy
0 0 0 0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 0 3 6 9 12 15
Load(kN) Load(kN) Load(kN) Load(kN) Load(kN)
80 120 200 320 600
40 60 100 160 300

Fy Fy Fy Fy Fy
0 0 0 0 0
0 3 6 9 12 0 3 6 9 12 0 4 8 12 16 0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
Fig. 13 Load-displacement curves of the Reference point in Abaqus models
As a result, bFy is assumed to be the bearing capacity of the plate at elastic limit
stage with the further support illustrated by load-displacement curves of the
Reference point in Fig. 13. In addition, one special situation that the failure load Ff
is equal to bFy when the bolt preload is zero could be explained that after the plate
yields, the plate deformation will increase rapidly which make the thread lose its
function. Thus this assumption seems plausible.
Two facts need to be considered that the bolt preload may difficult to satisfy the
construction requirement in practical, and bFy takes the major part of the Ff.
Therefore for sake of safety and simplicity, it is recommended to neglect the
contribution of the bolt preload to failure load as Eq. (7). Another assumption is
made that the failure length Lf equals the plate thickness when the plate fully yields.
10
8 S1,M16,ζ=1% S1,M22,ζ=1% S1,M24,ζ=1% S1,M30,ζ=1%
6
Lf(kN)
4
2
0
0 100 200 300 0 100 200 300 0 100 200 300 0 100 200 300
F(mm) F(mm) F(mm) F(mm)
t=6mm t=8mm t=10mm t=12mm t=16mm —— Abaqus results
t=6mm t=8mm t=10mm t=12mm t=16mm —— Design method
Fig. 14 Comparison of the Lf-F curve obtained by Abaqus and Recommended method
Therefore, the relationship between tensile force F and Lf could be finally deter-
mined. Part of the results are shown in Fig. 14.
Ff ¼ bFy ð7Þ
4 Conclusion
In this study, an innovative beam-to-column joint with the cast column-link is

presented. The design concept of the joint is to satisfy the demand for Industrialized
Building and its configurations are described in details. Then puts the focus on a
design method for two key parameters in the column-link. One is the thickness of
the column-link section which is designed on the basis of axial compression ratio.
The other one is the length of the thread engagement. Thread failure due to the
transverse load is taken into consideration and the paper proposes the design
method to determine the failure length of thread.
References
1. American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC). (2016). Prequalified connections for special
and intermediate steel moment frames for seismic applications. ANSI/AISC 358-05, AISC,
Chicago
2. Cao X, Li X, Zhu Y, Zhang Z (2015) A comparative study of environmental performance
between prefabricated and traditional residential buildings in China. J Clean Prod 109:131–143
3. GB/T 1231-2006 (2006): Specifications of high strength bolts with large hexagon head, large
hexagon nuts, plain washers for steel structures, China Standards Press, Beijing, China
4. Jiujing Z, Chai Z (2016) Connection engineering of thread fastener. China Machine Press,
Beijing
5. Wang W, Li M, Chen Y, Jian X (2017) Cyclic behavior of endplate connections to tubular
columns with novel slip-critical blind bolts. Eng Struct 148:949–962
6. Ye D, Chen Y (2019) Plastic limit state analysis of bending perforated plates based on
segmentation method. Eng Mech 36(6):36–48
7. Zhang X, Skitmore M, Peng Y (2014) Exploring the challenges to industrialized residential
building in China. Habitat Int 41:176–184
Structural Behavior of Steel
Moment-Resisting Frames Subjected
to Multiple Earthquakes Considering
Column Strength Deterioration
R. Tenderan, T. Ishida, and S. Yamada
Abstract This study evaluates the seismic performance of steel moment-resisting

frames (SMRFs) under multiple strong ground motions considering the effect of
column strength deterioration. A hysteretic model of square hollow section column
taking into account strength deterioration caused by local buckling is employed to
the models. Six SMRFs model which consist of two parameters, i.e., the number of
stories and the column width-to-thickness ratio, are analyzed by conducting an
inelastic earthquake response analysis. To simulate the occurrence of multiple
strong ground motions, seismic sequences are created by repeating the same record
and same intensity ground motion. All the SMRF models were designed to form an
overall sway mechanism by making the columns 1.5 times stronger than the beams.
However, the analytical result shows that in several cases, weak story collapse
occurred due to strength deterioration of columns caused by local buckling. It is
because, under multiple strong ground motion excitations, the damage generated
within the structure is accumulated from one excitation to the next excitation. Thus,
once both end hinges of a column are significantly deteriorated, the mechanism is
shifting from the overall sway mechanism to the weak story mechanism.
Keywords Steel moment-resisting frames Multiple earthquakes Column

strength deterioration
R. Tenderan (&) T. Ishida S. Yamada

Department of Architecture and Building Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology,
Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: tenderan.r.aa@m.titech.ac.jp
T. Ishida
e-mail: ishida.t.ae@m.titech.ac.jp
S. Yamada
e-mail: yamada.s.ad@m.titech.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_129
1380 R. Tenderan et al.
1 Introduction
The occurrence of multiple strong shocks in a short period of time has been wit-
nessed in many earthquake events (e.g., the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and 2016
Kumamoto earthquake). Within this short period of time, any structural repairs
could hardly be done; thus, the structure should be able to sustain multiple strong
shocks at once. On the other hand, the current seismic design utilizes the inelastic
deformation capacity of the member to dissipate seismic energy. This design means
that theoretically, the structures will undergo some damage (i.e., permanent
deformation) if shaken by an earthquake with an intensity that is equal to or larger
than the design level intensity. Consequently, a structure having been shaken by a
strong shock might not have sufficient strength to resist subsequent strong shocks.
The structural behavior of nondeteriorated steel moment-resisting frames
(SMRFs) has been analyzed by Tenderan et al. [4]. Their analysis is focusing on the
cumulative damage of beam assuming that with the application of strong column –
weak beam principle, the column will be stronger than beam; thus, the energy is
mostly dissipated by the plastic hinges of the beams. However, in the current
seismic design practice, to achieve the sway mechanism, the forming of plastic
hinges in the 1st story column and top column is still allowed. Thus, there is a
possibility that the column will be deteriorated after plastification. Since columns
are bearing an increased amount of axial force during the seismic excitation, the
main possible cause of column strength deterioration is the occurrence of local
buckling. Therefore, in this study, the hysteric model of RHS column taking into
account the strength deterioration due to local buckling is applied to the SMRFs
model and the inelastic time history analysis considering multiple strong ground
motion excitations is conducted.
2 Analytical Model
The analytical model is an infinite uniform plane frame model, the same type of
model that is used by Tenderan et al. [4]. In this model, an infinite number of
uniform single-bay frames is assumed to exist throughout the plane; thus, the
response of every single-bay frame is uniform as well, and the analytical result of
the single-bay frame model can be used to represent the response of the whole
frame. The analytical frame has a typical height of 3.5 m, typical span of 7 m, and
typical weight per story per span of 400 kN; the column section and panel zone are
square hollow section (SHS) with BCR295 steel grade (nominal yield strength of
295 N/mm2 and nominal tensile strength of 400 N/mm2); the beam section is a
wide-flange section with SN400 steel grade (nominal yield strength of 235 N/mm2
and nominal tensile strength of 400 N/mm2); and the column base is an
exposed-type column base. The sizes of the columns, beams, and column bases are
designed according to the parameters of the model. The first parameter, the number
Structural Behavior of Steel Moment-Resisting Frames … 1381
of stories, consists of three variations, i.e., 3-, 6-, and 9-story. Considering that
variation, the models are designed with the typical section every three stories. In
addition, the second parameter, the column width-to-thickness (D/t) ratio, consists
of two variations, i.e., D/t = 29.45 and 20.
By combining those two parameters, a total of six different models are created.
These models are named according to the parameters, i.e., models 3_29, 6_29,
9_29, 3_20, 6_20, and 9_20. All six models are designed to comply with the
Japanese seismic design code. The column-to-beam moment capacity ratio
(cMp/bMp) is set to equal to or larger than 1.5 according to the code (The Building
Center of Japan [2]. Since the deterioration of the column is the main focus in the
analysis, the column base is designed to be stronger than the 1st story column to
prevent any slip or plastification of the column base; thus, the damage is concen-
trated on the column. The sizes of the column and beam members and cMp/bMp are
shown in Table 1.
In the time history response analysis, the average acceleration method is used for
the numerical integration with a time step of 1/2000s. In addition, the 2% Rayleigh
damping for the 1st and 2nd natural periods and the P-D effect are considered in this
analysis. The 1st and 2nd mode natural periods of all the models are also shown in
Table 1.
Table 1 Member sizes, column-to-beam moment capacity ratio, & natural periods
Story Model 3_29 (T1 = 0.925 s; T2 = 0.277 s) Model 3_20 (T1 = 0.957 s; T2 = 0.290 s)
Column Beam cMp/bMp Column Beam c M p /b M p
1–3 □ − 353 12 H − 493 211 812 1.53 * 1.58 □ − 312 16 H − 493 211 812 1.52–
1.56
4–6 □ − 425 14 H − 602 258 10 14 1.51 * 1.54 □ − 377 19 H − 602 258 10 14 1.51–
1.53
3 □ − 470 16 H − 602 258 10 14 1.76 □ − 415 21 H − 602 258 10 14 1.74
1–2 □ − 470 16 H − 653 280 10 16 1.52 * 1.56 □ − 415 21 H − 653 280 10 16 1.52–
1.55
7–9 □ − 436 15 H − 618 265 10 15 1.51 * 1.53 □ − 387 19 H − 618 265 10 15 1.51–
1.52
6 □ − 509 17 H − 618 265 10 15 1.94 □ − 450 23 H − 618 265 10 15 1.93
4–5 □ − 509 17 H − 713 306 11 17 1.52 * 1.54 □ − 450 23 H − 713 306 11 17 1.51–
1.53
3 □ − 538 18 H − 713 306 11 17 1.63 □ − 474 24 H − 713 306 11 17 1.62
1–2 □ − 538 18 H − 740 317 12 18 1.52 * 1.56 □ − 474 24 H − 740 317 12 18 1.52–
1.54
3 Hysteretic Model
For the beam members, the same hysteretic model as that used by Tenderan et al.
[4] is employed in the analytical model. The hysteretic model is based on the
decomposition of hysteretic loops into the skeleton part, the Bauschinger part, and
the elastic unloading part. The skeleton part corresponds to the load-deformation
relationship under the monotonic loading test, and in this analysis, the skeleton part
is idealized into a trilinear model considering material strain hardening (Fig. 1(a));
the Bauschinger part is modeled using the Kato-Akiyama model (Akiyama and
Takahashi [1]; and the elastic unloading part is the unloading part having stiffness
equal to the elastic stiffness.
The deteriorated hysteretic model proposed by Yamada et al. [5] is employed for
the column members. This model also adopts the concept of decomposition of
hysteretic loops. However, the model is divided into two ranges, named the non-
deteriorating range and deteriorating range as shown in Fig. 2. The nondeteriorating
range is the range before reaching the maximum strength; the hysteretic behavior in
this range is the same as that in the hysteretic model of the beam. Additionally, the
deteriorating range is the range after reaching the maximum strength. In this
deteriorating range, every progression of plastic deformation contributes to strength
deterioration. The skeleton curves of the 1st story column of every model are shown
in Fig. 1(b). cMp is the plastic moment of the column; chp is the elastic rotation
angle that corresponds to cMp.
(a) Trilinear model of beam skeleton curve (b) Column skeleton curve at the 1st story
Fig. 1 Skeleton curve of beam and column member

(a) nondeteriorating range (b) deteriorating range
Fig. 2 Decomposition of the hysteretic curve
4 Input Ground Motion
Ten earthquake records are used as the input ground motion, i.e., (1) 1940 Imperial
Valley EQ El Centro NS record; (2) 1952 Kern Country EQ Taft EW record;
(3) 1968 Tokachi-oki EQ Hachinohe EW record; (4) 1989 Loma Prieta EQ Gilroy
Array#3 90o record; (5-6) 1994 Northridge EQ Newhall NS & Olive View NS
records; (7) 1995 Kobe EQ JMA Kobe NS record; (8) 1999 Chi-Chi EQ
TCU129 EW record; (9) 2011 Tohoku EQ JMA Sendai NS record; and (10) 2016
Kumamoto EQ Kik-net Mashiki EW record. To standardize the input energy, all the
input ground motions are scaled to peak ground velocity (PGV) = 0.5, 0.75, and
1.0 m/s. The intensity of PGV = 0.5 m/s is also known as the design level in Japan
since the time history analysis for building structural design is conducted with the
intensity of PGV = 0.5 m/s. To simulate the occurrence of multiple strong earth-
quakes, an earthquake sequence is created by repeating the same ground motion
with the same intensity for five excitations, and 30 s of zero acceleration is inserted
between two consecutive excitations to allow the structure to stop vibrating before
continuing to the next excitation. The repeated sequence type is chosen because it is
useful to simply evaluate the effect of column strength deterioration on the struc-
tural behavior of SMRFs. In addition, the limitation to a maximum of five exci-
tations is used to standardize the number of excitations performed during the
analysis, and five excitations are considered to be proper because the occurrence of
more than five strong excitations in a short period of time is a relatively rare case.
5 Analytical Result
5.1 Typical Structural Behavior
Inelastic earthquake response analysis was conducted on the aforementioned six

SMRF models using ten different input ground motions with three different
intensities; thus, this analysis resulted in a total of 180 cases. Regardless of the
model, input ground motion, and input intensity, the analytical result can be divided
into two typical cases, i.e., (i) column strength deterioration does not occur within
five excitations, and (ii) column strength deterioration occurs within five
excitations.
Figure 3 shows the example case of the case (i). It can be seen that the distri-
bution of dissipated energy is barely changed from 1st to 5th excitation. In the 1st
excitation, the skeleton part could be observed in the 1st story beam and 1st story
column lower end M–h curve. However, in the next 2nd to 5th excitation, the energy
is mostly dissipated by the Bauschinger part. There is no strength deterioration
occurred within five excitations, and the structure is able to maintain its stability and
sway mechanism. This behavior agrees with the stable behavior found by Tenderan
et al. [4] based on the analytical results of SMRFs under multiple strong ground
motions using a nondeteriorated hysteretic model.
Figure 4 shows the example of case (ii). In this case, both column strength
deterioration and story collapse occurred within five excitations. Story collapse is
defined to occur when the story shear (Q) becomes zero. As shown in the figure, at
the 1st excitation, no deterioration occurred at the 1st story column lower end hinge,
and the 1st story column upper end hinge remained elastic. However, at the 2nd
excitation, strength deterioration occurred at the 1st story column lower end, and the
plastic hinge was formed at the 1st story upper end. In addition, it can also be seen
that the distribution of dissipated energy changed gradually and resulted in the
concentration of damage to the 1st story column. This change indicated a shift from
the sway mechanism to the weak story mechanism. Finally, at the 5th excitation, the
1st story column lower end hinge completely lost its restoring force and became like
a pin joint, and this effect caused moment redistribution to the upper end of the 1st
Fig. 3 Analytical results of model 3_29 excited by PGV 0.5 m/s Olive View NS record
story column. Hence, the 1st story column upper end hinge also deteriorated until
the 1st story completely lost its resistance, as indicated by the story shear of the 1st
story becoming less than zero at 5th excitation. This collapse mechanism is similar
to the one found during the shaking table test of 4-story SMRFs under exceedingly
large ground motions (Suita et al. [3].
5.2 Damage Evaluation of the 1st Story Column Lower End
The typical behavior found in the previous section indicates that the plastic hinge
condition of the 1st story column lower end can be a good damage index to rep-
resent the whole state of the structure. In case of the case (i), the stable behavior
could be achieved if the deterioration of the 1st story column lower end does not
occur. Meanwhile, in the case (ii), the amount of deterioration of the 1st story
column lower end corresponds to the remaining strength in the 1st story. Thus, to
simplify the display of the results, the 1st story column lower end hinge state is used
as the main damage index. The quantitative index of the 1st story column lower end
hinge state is represented by the nondeterioration margin (NM) and deterioration
index (DI), as explained in Fig. 5. NM indicates the margin to reach the maximum
Fig. 4 Analytical results of model 3_29 excited by PGV 0.5 m/s JMA Kobe NS record
moment (cMu) or to start deterioration, and DI indicates how much the strength has
been deteriorated.
Figures 6 shows the NM and DI damage index vs. the number of excitations.
However, some results are not shown because of space limitations. The mark in the
graphs shows the state of the 1st story column lower end hinge as no deterioration
(○), deteriorated (●), or complete loss of moment resistance (x). From the graphs,
it can be seen that the increment of NM tends to decrease when the number of
excitation increase, and once the structure reaches the stable behavior, the incre-
ment is nearly zero. However, when the structure starts deteriorating, the pro-
gression of damage (increment of DI) is in the rate that is mainly affected by the D/t
of the models. The lower the D/t, the slower the progression of damage.
In terms of the number of stories, it can be seen that the 3-story models suffer the
largest damage then followed by 6-story models and then 9-story models. The main
cause is the distribution of the dissipated energy of a low-rise building tends to be
concentrated in the lower story (e.g., 1st story). Meanwhile, for mid-rise building, it
tends to concentrate in the middle story. In this analysis, in all cases of the 3-story
model, more than 50% of the energy is dissipated by the 1st story at the 1st exci-
tation, while in most cases of 6- and 9-story model, the amount is less than 50%.
This trend also can be seen from the graphs in which the value of NM at the 1st
excitation of the 3-story models is generally larger than that of 6- and 9-story
models.
In terms of D/t, it can be seen that lowering D/t can greatly enhance the per-
formance of the structure. Because as shown in Fig. 1(b), lowering D/t is not only
increasing the maximum moment (decreasing NM at the 1st excitation) but also
slowing down the rate of deterioration (decreasing the increment rate of DI).
Regardless of the number of stories, input ground motion record, and input ground
motion intensity, for models with D/t = 29.45 (X_29 series models), the number of
deteriorations and collapses are 53 and 45 out of 90 cases, respectively. However,
for models with D/t = 20 (X_20 series models), the number of deteriorations and
collapses are only 26 and 9 out of 90 cases, respectively.
Fig. 5 Definitions of the nondeterioration margin (NM) and deterioration index (DI)
Fig. 6 1st story column lower end hinge state
Since the stable behavior is the more desirable behavior of SMRFs under
multiple earthquake excitations, the value of NM at the 1st excitation can be a good
index to predict whether the deterioration will occur within the five excitations. In
this analysis, it is found that if NM at the 1st excitation is less than approximately –
50% then the strength deterioration could be prevented (the case ended up in case
(i), the stable behavior). This finding indicates that a certain target value of NM due
to one excitation could be adopted in the design process to ensure the structure is
able to reach stable behavior. Inevitably, a further parametric study needs to be

done to figure out the optimal NM targeted value for various type of SMRFs and
considering a different combination of ground motion records and intensities.
6 Conclusions
The seismic performance of SMRFs was evaluated in the present study by con-
sidering column strength deterioration due to local buckling under multiple strong
ground motion excitations. The summary of the findings from the analytical results
is listed below.
(1) The typical structural behavior can be grouped into two cases. In the case of no
deterioration, the structure shows a stable behavior and maintains the sway
mechanism. In case of 1st story column lower end deteriorated, the story shear
strength at the 1st story is decreased, which in subsequent excitations, it results
in the concentration of damage the 1st story column, deterioration at 1st story
column upper end, and finally weak story collapse at the 1st story.
(2) The damage progression in the nondeteriorating range (NM) tend to decrease by
the number of excitations and nearly equal to zero when the structure reaches a
stable behavior. Meanwhile, in the deterioration range, the damage progression
rate (DI) is greatly affected by the D/t of the 1st story column. The lower the D/
t, the slower the damage progression.
(3) In terms of the number of stories, the 3-story model is the most vulnerable to
excitation of multiple strong ground motions because of the tendency of con-
centration of dissipated energy to the 1st story. Meanwhile, in terms of column
D/t, lowering D/t can greatly improve the performance of the structure. By
comparing the analytical results of models with D/t = 29.45 and D/t = 20, the
number of deteriorated cases (53 cases vs. 26 cases) and story collapse cases
(45 cases vs. 9 cases) is greatly reduced.
(4) To ensure the structure could end up in the stable behavior, a certain target
value of NM due to one excitation could be adopted in the design process. In
the present analysis, it is found that in case NM at the 1st excitation is less than
approximately –50%, the structure can achieve stable behavior.
Acknowledgements This work is supported by the Japanese Society for the Promotion of
Science KAKENHI Grant Number JP17H01302 and JST Program on Open Innovation Platform
with Enterprises, Research Institute and Academia. Their financial support is gratefully
acknowledged.
References
1. Akiyama H, Takahashi M (1990) Influence of Bauschinger effect on seismic resistance of steel

structures (in Japanese). J Struct Constr Eng Architect Inst Japan 418:49–57
2. Building Center of Japan (2013) Stipulation of horizontal load-carrying capacity calculation
and allowable stress and supplemental analysis calculation, in The Building Standard Law of
Japan: Notifications of Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism (MLIT)
No. 594, Tokyo, Japan
3. Suita K, Yamada S, Tada M, Kasai K, Matsuoka Y, Shimada Y (2008) Collapse experiment on
4-story steel moment frame: Part 2 detail of collapse behavior. In: Proceeding of the 14th
World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, vol. 1217, Beijing, China
4. Tenderan R, Ishida T, Yamada S (2019) Seismic performance of ductile steel moment-resisting
frames subjected to multiple strong ground motions. Earthquake Spectra 35(1):289–310
5. Yamada S, Ishida T, Jiao Y (2018) Hysteretic behavior of RHS columns under random cyclic
loading considering local buckling. Int J Steel Struct 18(5):1761–1771
Deterioration Behavior of SHS Steel
Columns Subjected to Small Amplitude
Loading History
T. Ishida and S. Yamada
Abstract This study investigates the effect of small amplitude loading histories to
strength deterioration behaviors of square hollow section (SHS) steel columns due
to local buckling. Cyclic loading tests of cold-formed SHS columns are conducted
and test parameters are the loading history, the width-to-thickness ratio and the
compressive axial load ratio. Several constant small deformation amplitude cyclic
loading histories, and the large deformation loading history such as the monotonic
loading which is commonly used in previous studies, are employed. The effect of
the loading amplitude is observed in the strength deterioration range caused by local
buckling i.e. the strength deterioration under small amplitude loading histories is
smaller than that under the large amplitude loading history. This reason is that the
progress of the axial shortening of the flange plate due to local buckling of each
cycle is reduced because the effect of a tensile force induced due to bending become
significant as the loading amplitude decrease.

Keywords Square hollow section steel column Small deformation amplitude

Cyclic loading test Local buckling Deterioration behavior
1 Introduction
Structural components may be subjected to a relatively small amplitude and a large

number of cyclic loading under long-duration and long-period earthquake excita-
tions as well as multiple strong ground motions in a short period of time such as the
2016 Kumamoto Earthquake. Lower ends of columns of 1st story would yield under
severe earthquake, even though the strong-column-weak-beam concept is adopted
in the design. Therefore, deformation capacities and the hysteretic behaviors
T. Ishida (&) S. Yamada

Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama, Japan
e-mail: ishida.t.ae@m.titech.ac.jp
S. Yamada
e-mail: yamada.s.ad@m.titech.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_130
1392 T. Ishida and S. Yamada
including the strength deterioration range of steel columns subjected to small

amplitude cyclic loads should be clarified to evaluate seismic performance of
buildings under such earthquakes.
In previous studies regarding steel columns subjected to small amplitude cyclic
loads, the deformation capacity of structural components used for high-rise build-
ings such as built-up box section columns and concrete-filled steel tube columns
were evaluated in Japan (Kiyokawa et al. [2], Narihara et al. [4], Kido and Tsuda
et al. [1]) since resonance with long-duration and long-period ground motions is
significant in high-rise buildings. Meanwhile, there are few researches focusing on
the small amplitude behavior of cold-formed square hollow section (SHS) steel
columns which are commonly used for Japanese low- and middle-rise steel
buildings (e.g. Kuwamura et al. [3]).
In this study, cyclic loading tests of SHS columns under small plastic defor-
mation amplitude are conducted and the effect of the loading amplitude to deteri-
oration behavior due to local buckling is investigated.
2 Test Plan
2.1 Specimen and Test Setup
Test specimens were cold-formed SHS columns (BCR295 steel grade, nominal
yield strength is 295 N/mm2 and nominal tensile strength is 400 N/mm2) □-
200 200 9 and □-200 200 6. Results of the tensile coupon test of the flat
part of SHS column using JIS-1A testing sample are shown in Table 1.
The test setup is shown in Fig. 1. The upper end of the specimen was pin
supported and the lower end is fixed support to the loading table. The specimen was
subjected to a lateral force by the horizontal jack. Constant compressive axial force
was applied by three vertical jacks through the upper reaction frame and the vertical
jacks were controlled so that the reaction frame keep horizontal. The horizontal jack
was controlled by the column end rotation angle h of the specimen (Fig. 2).
Table 1 Test parameter Specimen Loading history D/t N/Ny

M_22.2_0.35 Monotonic 22.2 0.35
C1.5_22.2_0.35 1.5 hpc const.
C2.0_22.2_0.35 2 hpc const.
V_22.2_0.35 Variable (see Fig. 4)
M_33.3_0.2 Monotonic 33.3 0.2
C1.5_33.3_0.2 1.5 hpc const.
C2.0_33.3_0.2 2 hpc const.
V_33.3_0.2 Variable (see Fig. 4)
Deterioration Behavior of SHS Steel Columns ... 1393
500
Nominal stress [N/mm2 ]

400
300 -200 200 9
200 Yield Stress Tensile Stress Elongation -200 200 6

N/mm2 N/mm2 %
-200×200×9 392 430 26
100
-200×200×6 345 403 30
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3
Nominal strain
Fig. 1 Tensile test results
Horizontal support Reaction frame Vertical jack
Q
Pin jig
Specimen
860mm
M
N
Horizontal jack Loading table Linear guide
Fig. 2 Test setup
2.2 Measurement
The load acting on the specimen was measured by the load cell installed in each
jack, and the horizontal and the vertical deformation of the specimen were mea-
sured by displacement transducers. In addition, to measure the deformation of the
local buckling zone as shown in Fig. 3, displacement transducers were installed at a
position 1.1D (D is column depth) from the lower end of the specimen. The rotation
angle, hb, and the axial deformation of the flange plate, db, of the local buckling
zone are calculated by Eq. (1), (2), respectively.
Lb Target is connected to a θb
coupling nut welded to
d1 d2 δb
the center of the column
web.
1.1D
D
D
Fig. 3 Measurement of the deformation of the local buckling zone
Fig. 4 Variable amplitude θ

loading history
1.5θpc 2.0θpc 2.5θpc

(4 cyc.) (2 cyc.) (1 cyc.)
hb ¼ ðd2 d1 Þ=Lb ð1Þ
d1 þ d 2 D
db ¼ þ hb ð2Þ
2 2
where, d1 and d2 are vertical deformations at 1.1D from the lower end of the
specimen, Lb is the horizontal distance between the displacement transducers which
measure d1 and d2.
2.3 Test Parameters
Test parameters are the width-to-thickness ratio (D/t) and the loading history. Test
parameters are summarized in Table 1. Width-to-thickness ratios are 22.2 and 33.3.
For D/t = 22.2 specimen, the axial load ratio, N/Ny, was set to 0.35. For D/t = 33.3
specimen, N/Ny was set to 0.2. Loading histories used in this test could be divided
into three gropes: constant, variable, and monotonic deformation amplitude loading.
For constant deformation amplitude, two peak-to-peak amplitudes were used:
1.5hpc, and 2.0hpc, where hpc is the calculated elastic rotation angle which corre-
sponds the plastic moment considering the effect of the axial load. For variable
deformation amplitude, one set was determined, and this set would be repeated. The
peak-to-peak deformation amplitude of variable loading consisted of four cycles of
1.5hpc, two cycles of 2.0hpc, and one cycle of 2.5hpc, as shown in Fig. 3.
3 Test Result
3.1 Load – Deformation Relationship and Cumulative

Hysteresis Curve
Figure 5 shows column end moment, M, – rotation angle, h, relationships and

cumulative hysteresis curves for cyclic loading test results. M – h relationships
under monotonic loading is also shown by solid gray line in the graph which shows
the cumulative hysteresis curve. Note that the cumulative hysteresis curve is
obtained by connecting the skeleton curve before reaching the maximum strength
and the hysteresis curve after reaching the maximum strength of each half cycle; the
envelope curve of this cumulative hysteresis curve, which is defined as the extended
skeleton curve, is empirically known that approximately corresponds to the hys-
teresis curve under monotonic loading (Yamada et al. [5]).
The strength of each specimen deteriorated as progress local buckling. The
strength deterioration behavior after reaching the maximum strength of
C2.0_33.3_0.2 and V_33.3_0.2 specimen roughly corresponds to that of the
monotonic loading. However, with respect to the other specimens subjected to
cyclic load, the number of cycles from after reaching the maximum strength until
initiating the obvious deterioration of the strength increased. Moreover, the negative
slope of the envelope curve of those specimens after observed the strength dete-
rioration obviously was gentler than that of the specimen subjected to monotonic
load. As a result, the deterioration behavior of those specimen did not correspond to
the behavior of the monotonic loading test result.
Fig. 5 Load - deformation relationship and the cumulative hysteresis curve
3.2 Axial Deformation of the Flange Plate in the Local

Buckling Zone
Column end moment, M, and the axial deformation of the flange plate in the local
buckling zone, db, relationships are shown in Fig. 6. The increment of db of each
half cycle under cyclic loading became large as the strength got deteriorate. The
envelope curve of M – db relationship under positive bending moment for each
cyclic loading test result approximately corresponds to M – db relationship under
monotonic loading, that is, the strength deterioration due to local buckling is
dependent on db regardless of loading history.
To investigate the progress of db for each half cycle, the ratio of the rotation
angle due to axial shortening of the flange plate in the local buckling zone of each
half cycle, Dhbc, to the rotation angle of the local buckling zone of each half cycle,
Dhb, was calculated (see Fig. 7). Dhbc is obtained by Eq. (3).
Dhbc ¼ Ddbc =D ð3Þ

subjected to compression
Elongation Contraction load when M is positive Monotonic Cyclic
250 M [kNm] M( ) 250 M [kNm] 250 M [kNm]
200 200 200
150 b 150 150
100 100 100
50 50 50
0 0 0
-10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
-50 -50 -50
b [mm] b [mm] [mm]
-100 M( )
-100 -100
b
-150 -150 -150

-200 -200 -200
-250 -250 -250
1.5 pc 2 pc Variable
(a) D/t = 22.2, N/Ny = 0.35
150 M [kNm] 150 M [kNm] 150 M [kNm]
100 100 100
50 50 50
0 0 0
-10 0 10 20 30 40 50 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50
-50 b [mm] -50 b [mm] -50 b [mm]
-100 -100 -100
-150 -150 -150

1.5 pc 2 pc Variable
(b) D/t = 33.3, N/Ny = 0.2
Fig. 6 Axial deformation of the flange plate in the local buckling zone
Elongation Contraction Elongation Contraction
M Δθ b M
Δδbt
Δδbc
δb Δθbc δb
Δδbt Δδbc
D
Fig. 7 Definition of Dhb and Dhbc
where, D denotes the increment of half cycle and Ddbc is the increment of the axial
shortening of the flange plate in the local buckling zone of half cycle. Note that
Dhbc/Dhb = 0.5 indicates the axial elongation and shortening of the flange plate in
the local buckling zone of a half cycle, which are caused by tensile and compression
load due to bending, respectively, are equal; Dhbc/Dhb > 0.5 indicates that the axial
shortening in the local buckling zone increases.
Figure 8 shows Dhbc/Dhb – db relationships for the cyclic loading test results.
Also, db of the monotonic loading test result when reaching the maximum strength
(hereafter, db,u) and Dhbc/Dhb = 0.5 are also shown by black broken line and gray
broken line in Fig. 8, respectively. Dhbc/Dhb was approximately constant and
ranged from 0.5 to 0.6 until db reaches db,u of the monotonic loading test result.
1.5θpc 2.0θpc Variable

Δθbc/Δθb Δθbc/Δθb
δ b when reaching the maximum δ b when reaching the maximum
1.2 1.2
strength under monotonic loading strength under monotonic loading
1 1 : “Stability limit”
0.8 0.8
0.6 0.6
0.4 0.4
Δθbc/Δθb =0.5 Δθbc/Δθb =0.5
0.2 0.2
δ b [mm] δ b [mm]
0 0
0 20 40 60 0 2 4 6 8 10
Whole Enlarged view
(a) D/t = 22.2, N/Ny = 0.35
Δθbc/Δθb Δθbc/Δθb
1.2 1.2
δb when reaching the maximum δb when reaching the maximu m
1 strength under monotonic loading 1 strength under monotonic loading
: “Stability limit”
0.8 0.8
0.6 0.6
0.4 0.4
Δθbc/Δθb =0.5 Δθbc/Δθb =0.5
0.2 0.2
δ b [mm] δb [mm]
0 0
0 20 40 60 0 2 4 6
Whole Enlarged view
(b) D/t = 33.3, N/N = 0.2
Fig. 8 Dhb/Dhb –db relationship
However, after db reaches db,u, Dhbc/Dhb was significantly increase; that is; the
cyclic behavior is no longer stable due to the progress of local buckling. Hereafter,
the point when db reaches db,u, is defined as “stable limit”.
4 Modification of the Extended Skeleton Curve
The modification method of the extended skeleton curve under small deformation
amplitude loading is proposed based on the stable limit and the ratio Dhbc/Dhb.
Figure 9 shows the schematic diagram of the modification method of the extended
skeleton curve. First, since the progress of the axial shortening of the flange part in
the local buckling zone is small and the strength deterioration can be assumed to be
negligible before reaching the stable limit, the cumulative deformation which is
from after reaching the maximum strength to reaching the stability limit is elimi-
nated from the extended skeleton curve. Also, the extended skeleton curve after
reaching the stable limit is offset by hs,cr – hu from the original position as shown in
M hysteresis under monotonic loading

stability limit extended skeleton curve under cyclic loading
Mu offset extended skeleton curve after reaching the
stability limit
modified extended skeleton curve
θs
θu θs,cr multiply Δθbc/Δθb for each half
cycle as shown in Fig. 9 (b)
(a) Schematic diagram of modification
M
after modified
before modified
θs
Δ θs * Δθs*= Δθs Δθbc /Δθb
Δ θs
(b) Modification of each half cycle’s s after reaching the stability limit
Fig. 9 Modification method of the extended skeleton curve
Fig. 9 (a). In which hs,cr is the deformation of the extended skeleton curve when
reaching the stability limit under cyclic loading and hu is the deformation corre-
sponding to the maximum strength under monotonic loading.
Figure 6 showed that the strength deterioration after reaching the stability limit
is governed by the axial shortening of the flange plate in the local buckling zone
regardless of loading histories; however, the deformation of the extended skeleton
curve after reaching the stability limit includes both axial shortening and elongation
components due to bending. Therefore, since only the axial shortening component
can be assumed to affect to the deterioration behavior due to local buckling, a half
cycle increment of the deformation of the extended skeleton curve is modified by
multiplying the ratio Dhbc/Dhb of each half cycle, as shown in Fig. 9 (b).
Figure 10 shows comparisons of the modified extended skeleton curve and
hysteresis curve under monotonic loading. The deterioration behavior corresponds
regardless of loading history.
Monotonic 1.5θpc 2.0θpc Variable
300 M [kNm] 150 M [kNm]
200 100
100 50
0 θs [rad] 0 θs [rad]
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0 0.1 0.2 0.3
-100 -50
-200 -100
-300 -150
(a) D/t = 22.2, N/Ny = 0.35 (b) D/t = 33.3, N/Ny = 0.2
Fig. 10 Comparison of the modified extended skeleton curve and hysteresis curve under
monotonic loading
5 Conclusions
In this study, cyclic loading tests under small deformation amplitude were con-
ducted and the strength deterioration behavior was investigated.
1) The strength of each specimen deteriorated due to local buckling. Comparing
extended skeleton curves under cyclic loading and hysteresis curve under
monotonic loading, the strength deterioration was reduced as the decrease of the
deformation amplitude. Especially, the strength deterioration behavior of the
amplitude of 1.5hpc significantly differ because the number of cycles from after
reaching the maximum strength until initiating the obvious deterioration of the
strength significantly increased.
2) The strength deterioration was dependent on the axial shortening of the flange
plate in the local buckling zone, db, regardless of loading history.
3) After db under cyclic loading exceeded db,u of the monotonic loading test result,
the ratio of the rotation angle due to axial shortening of the flange plate in the
local buckling zone of each half cycle, Dhbc, to the rotation angle of the local
buckling zone of each half cycle, Dhb, was significantly increase. Therefore, the
point when db under cyclic loading reaches db,u, can be defined as “stable limit”.
4) The extended skeleton curve was modified based on the stable limit and the ratio
Dhbc/Dhb, as follows. (A) The extended skeleton curve after reaching the sta-
bility limit is offset. The offset distance is set to hs,cr – hu in which hs,cr is the
deformation of the extended skeleton curve when reaching the stability limit
under cyclic loading and hu is the deformation corresponding to the maximum
strength under monotonic loading. (B) A half cycle increment of the deforma-
tion of the extended skeleton curve after reaching the stability limit is modified
by multiplying the ratio Dhbc/Dhb of each half cycle.
5) The modified extended skeleton curve corresponded to the hysteresis curve
under monotonic loading regardless of loading history.
Acknowledgements This experiment is financially supported by the Japan Iron and Steel
Federation and JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 17H01302.
References
1. Kido M, Tsuda K et al (2019) Behavior of square concreate filled steel tubular beam-columns
subjected to lateral load with constant cyclic displacement. J Struct Constr Eng 84(759):725–
735 (in Japanese)
2. Kiyokawa T, et al. (2011) (2012) Study on safety assessment methods for super-high-rise steel
buildings against long-period earthquake ground motions Part 6 – 7, Part 13 – 14. In:
Summaries of technical paper of annual meeting. Architectural Institute of Japan, pp. 1023–
1026, 1057–1060. (in Japanese)
3. Kuwamura H et al (1999) Collapse and residual drift during post-local-buckling behaviors
under earthquake. J Struct Constr Eng 64(526):169–176 (in Japanese)
4. Narihara H, et al. (2014) Study on safety assessment methods for super-high-rise steel
buildings against long-period earthquake ground motions Part 27 – 31. In: Summaries of
Technical Paper of Annual Meeting. Architectural Institute of Japan, pp. 1251 – 1260. (in
Japanese)
5. Yamada S, Ishida T, Jiao Y (2018) Hysteretic behavior of RHS columns under random cyclic
loading considering local buckling. Int J Steel Struct 18(5):1761–1771
An Experimental Study on Local
Buckling Strength of Welded
Box Section Stub-Columns Made
of SBHS400
K. Sobajima, J. Nie, T. Miyashita, S. Okada, N. Takeshima,

and K. Ono
Abstract “SBHS” has been standardized in Japanese Industrial Standards [1]. The
major features of SBHS are high yield point, high toughness and better weldability.
In some bridges in Japan, SBHS has been already used as steel members. However,
the information on the buckling strength of steel members made of SBHS400 is not
sufficient compared to conventional steel materials. In this study, the compression
tests on welded box section stub-columns were conducted to obtain information on
buckling strength of SBHS400. As a result, basic information on the buckling
strength of box section stub-columns was obtained. The experimental data indicate
the possibility that the previous ultimate strength curves may be applicable to
simply supported plates of SBHS400.
Keywords SBHS400 Local buckling strength Welded box section

stub-columns
K. Sobajima J. Nie K. Ono (&)

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
K. Sobajima
e-mail: sobajimaiifuro@fuji.waseda.jp
T. Miyashita
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nagaoka University of Technology,
Niigata, Japan
e-mail: mtakeshi@vos.nagaokau.ac.jp
S. Okada N. Takeshima
IHI Infrastructure Systems Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: seiji@iis.ihi.co.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_131
1404 K. Sobajima et al.
1 Introduction
Higher yield strength steel plates for bridges, “SBHS” is a high-performance steel
plate that has been standardized in Japanese Industrial Standard [1]. The major
features of SBHS are high yield point, better toughness and weldability. SBHS is
available in three types, which are SHBS400, SBHS500 and SHBS700. SBHS400
was the last to be standardized among the three types. SBHS400 and SBHS500
were specified in ‘‘Specification for highway bridges’’ [2]. Some studies on SBHS
have been conducted [3–7]. However, the information on the buckling strength of
steel members made of SBHS400 is not sufficient compared to conventional steel
materials. It is necessary to obtain more information in order to establish rational
design method. This study focuses on the buckling strength of simply supported
plates of SBHS400. The compression tests on welded box section stub-columns
were conducted in order to obtain the information on the buckling strength and an
investigation on the buckling behavior was carried out. The experimental data
indicate the possibility that the previous ultimate strength curves may be applicable
to simply supported plates of SBHS400.
The test specimens of box sections stub-columns in this study are made of
SBHS400. The major mechanical properties of SBHS400 obtained from tensile
tests are presented in Table 1. Figure 1 shows the nominal stress-nominal strain
relationship.
1.2 Test Specimens and Apparatus
In order to investigate the buckling strength of SBHS400, the compression tests of

welded box section stub-columns were carried out. The welded box section
stub-columns consist of four plates. Figure 2 shows the configurations of test
specimens. The dimensions of the two test specimens are shown in Table 2. The
thickness t was fixed to be 9 mm, and the width B was determined in consideration
of the values of the width-thickness ratio parameter. This parameter is defined by
Eq. 1 according to the specifications for highway bridges. The values of RR were
Table 1 The mechanical Steel type Yield stress Tensile strength Yield ratio
property of SBHS400
ry (MPa) ru (MPa) ry/ru
SBHS400 483 551 0.88
An Experimental Study on Local Buckling Strength … 1405
Fig. 1 Nominal
stress-nominal strain
relationship
Fig. 2 Configuration of test specimens
around 0.7 and 1.1 and the length L was decided to prevent the overall buckling of
test specimens.
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
B ry 12ð1 m2 Þ
RR ¼ ð1Þ
t E p2 k
where, B = width of steel plates of test panels; t = thickness of steel plates of test
panels; E = Young’s modulus; m = Poisson’s ratio; kR(=4.0) = buckling coefficient;
ry = yield stress gained from tensile tests.
Strain gauges were attached on all plates and displacement transducers were
set along both the horizontal and vertical directions. Using a large scale test
machine, the compressive axial force was applied to each specimen at 0.01 mm/s
by the displacement control. Figure 3 shows the actual condition of the compres-
sion tests.
Table 2 Dimensions and mechanical properties of the specimens

Name of test Steel type Width Thickness Length RR
specimens B (mm) t (mm) L (mm)
B07 SBHS400 252 9 545 0.73
B11 372 790 1.07
Fig. 3 The actual condition

of the compression tests
Fig. 4 P/Py − d/dy

relationship
2 Test Results
2.1 Load-Displacement Relationship
Figure 4 shows the P/Py − d/dy relationship of each specimen. The vertical axis is
the ratio between compressive axial force and yield force “P/Py” and the horizontal
axis is the ratio between axial displacement and yield axial displacement “d=dy ”.
Where, P is the compressive axial force, Py is the yield axial force, d is the axial
displacement and dy is yield axial displacement. From this figure, it is obvious that
B07 has a higher buckling strength Pmax/Py than that of B11.
2.2 Out-of-Plane Deformation
For each specimen, out-of-plane deformations at three locations along the height
direction were measured on two plates. P − d relationships were shown in Fig. 5
and Fig. 6. The development of the out-of-plane deformation was shown by the
horizontal displacement data taken at five different times shown in Fig. 7 and
Fig. 8. In these figures, ‘ ’ is 0.75 times of the maximum load. ‘ ’ is the load at
bifurcation point shown in the dotted lines in Fig. 9. ‘ ’ is the maximum load. ‘ ’
is the 0.9 times of the maximum load. ‘ ’ is the 0.8 times of the maximum load.
Figure 10 shows the locations of strain gages of B07. The bifurcation points were
defined as the points when the difference between strains on inside and outside
surfaces as shown in Fig. 10(b) reach approximately 1000l. The result of
out-of-plane deformation at plate B is similar to that of plate A and the result of
Fig. 5 P − d relationship of
B07
Fig. 6 P − d relationship of
B11
(a) Plate A (b) Plate C
Fig. 7 Out-of-plane deformation of B07
(a) Plate A (b) Plate C
Fig. 8 Out-of-plane deformation of B11
(a) Load-strain relationship (A-b-3, A-b-3i) (b)Load-Strain relationship (A-d-3, A-d-3i)
Fig. 9 Load-Strain relationship of B07

unit: mm
(a) Front view (b) Cross section view
Fig. 10 Locations of strain gages (B07)
unit: mm
(a) B07 (b) B11
Fig. 11 Residual deformation
out-of-plane deformation at plate D is similar to that of plate C of both specimens.

As shown in these figures, the large out-of-plane deformations started to appear
between the bifurcation points and Pmax for both test specimens. As a result, a half
sine waveforms were found in each plate of B07 and two-half sine waveform was
found in that of B11.
2.3 Residual Deformation
After the compression tests, residual out-of-plane deformations were measured for
both test specimens. Figure 11 shows the plots of residual deformations and Fig. 12
shows the deformations of plates at the mid-height cross section of B07 and B11.
As shown in these figures, the direction of the residual deformation of plate A and
plate B of B07was outward, while that of plate C and plate D was inward.
Plate A Plate A
Plate C Plate D Plate C Plate D
Plate B Plate B
(a) B07 (b) B11
Fig. 12 Residual deformation at mid-height cross section
Plate A
unit: microstrains
Plate D
Plate C
0.75Pmax
Pmax
0.9 Pmax (aer Pmax)
Plate B 0.8 Pmax (aer Pmax)
Fig. 13 Load-strain relationship of B07 (mid-height cross section view)
The deformations at the mid-height of B11 can be found little. From these results, a
half sine waveform was found in all steel plates of B07 and two-half sine wave-
forms were found in all steel plates of B11.
2.4 Strain Distributions
Figure 13 indicates the transition of the strain distribution measured from strain
gauges attached on the outside surface at the mid-height cross-section of B07.
P P
P P
outside inside outside inside outside inside

outside inside outside inside outside inside
M M
= ε ε
+ ε
ε
= ε ε
ε
+ ε
M M
P P
P P
(a)-1 (a)-2 (a)-3 (b)-1 (b)-2 (b)-3
(a) Plate C and plate D (b) Plate A and plate B
Fig. 14 Relationship between out-of-plane deformations and strain distributions(B07)
For plate C and plate D, the compressive strain values at all locations became
higher as the loading was progressing. For plate A and plate B, similar transitions of
the strain were observed at both edges of the plates. However, the compressive
strain became smaller at the center of the plates. This phenomenon was related to
the difference in the shape of out-of-plane deformation as shown at ‘(a)-1’ and ‘(b)-
1’ in Fig. 14. During the stage when the out-of-plane deformation was small, the
compressive strains occurred on both inside and outside surfaces of steel plates as
shown at ‘(a)-2’ and ‘(b)-2’ in Fig. 14. With the development of larger out-of-plane
deformation, tensile strain on outside surface of the steel plates was induced by the
outward deformation found on plate A and B, as shown at ‘(b)-3’ in Fig. 14. and the
total magnitude of compressive strain decreased due to the increase in tensile strain
by the out-of-plane deformation. On the other hand, compressive strain on outside
surface on the steel plates was induced by the inward deformation found on plate C
and D, as shown at ‘(a)-3’ in Fig. 14. and the total magnitude of the compressive
strain increased due to the increase in the compressive strain by the out-of-plane
deformation. As a result, it is considered to be the reason why the difference in the
transition of the strain distribution was observed.
2.5 Comparison with the Previous Studies
Figure 15 shows the comparison between the test results and the ultimate strength
curves. The vertical axis is the value of rcr =ry (Pmax/Py) and the horizontal axis is
the width-thickness ratio parameter RR. As for the ultimate strength curves, the
following ultimate strength curve for simply supported steel plate are focused on in
this study.
Fig. 15 Comparison with the previous studies
(a) Ultimate strength curve by Fukumoto et al. [8]

0:86
rcr rcr 0:5
¼ 1:0 ðRR 0:7Þ ¼ ðRR [ 0:7Þ ð2Þ
ry ry RR
(b) Ultimate strength curve by Japanese Road Association [2]

1:83
rcr rcr 0:7
¼ 1:0 ðRR 0:7Þ ¼ ðRR [ 0:7Þ ð3Þ
ry ry RR
Equation (2) shows the ultimate strength curve proposed by Fukumoto et al. [8]
and Eq. (3) shows the ultimate strength curve specified in “Specifications for
highway bridges” by Japan Road Associations (JRA) [2]. As shown in Fig. 15, rcr/
ry of B07 is found to be a little below the ultimate strength curves and that of B11 is
found to be above the ultimate strength curves. These plots indicate that there is a
possibility that the previous design method is applicable to the simply supported
plate made of SBHS400. However, the number of studies on buckling strength of
box section stub-columns made of SBHS400 is not enough to propose more
appropriate evaluation method. Hence, it is necessary to obtain more information on
the buckling strength of steel plates under compression force by not only experi-
mental studies but also numerical studies.
3 Conclusions
In this research, compression tests of box section stub-columns made of SBHS400

were conducted in order to investigate the buckling strength. Based on the results in
this study, it was found that the large out-of-plane deformations occurred between
the bifurcation points and the maximum load. Furthermore, it is thought that there is
a possibility that the previous design method for simply supported plate is also
applicable to welded box section stub-columns made of SBHS400. However, the
number of experimental and numerical studies are not enough to propose more
appropriate evaluation method compared with those of conventional steel materials.
Hence, it is necessary to obtain more information on the buckling strength of steel
plates under compression through experimental studies and numerical studies.
Ackowledgements This work was supported by the Japan Iron and Steel Federation.
References
1. Japan Industrial Standards Committee (2011) Higher yield strength steel plates for bridges, JIS
G3140. (in Japanese)
2. Japan Road Association (JRA) (2017) Specifications for highway bridges, Part II; Steel
Bridges, (in Japanese)
3. Adake T, Ono K, Miyashita T (2017) Load-carrying capacity of cruciform columns made of
SBHS400. In: 9th international symposium on steel structures
4. Ono K, Adake T, Kato K, Kitane Y, Matsumura M (2016) Load-carrying capacity of box
stub-columns made of SBHS500. In: Proceedings of 14th East Asia-Pacific conference on
structural engineering and construction, pp 1839–1843
5. Ono K, Ishikawa T, Hashimoto S, Okada S (2015) A study on residual stress and ultimate
strength of steel columns made of SBHS500. In: Proceedings of 8th international symposium
on steel structures
6. Hashimoto S, Ono K, Okada S (2013) An experimental study on mechanical properties and
constitutive equation of SBHS500. In: Proceedings of the 13th East Asia-Pacific conference on
structural engineering and construction (EASEC-13)
7. Ono K, Aizawa H, Miyashita T, Yamada S, Miyazaki Y (2016) An experimental study on
constitutive equation of SBHS400 under cyclic loading. In: Proceedings of 14th East
Asia-Pacific conference on structural engineering and construction (EASEC-14), pp 1833–
1838
8. Fukumoto Y, et al (1990) Approach to the unified evaluation of ultimate strength of steel
framed structures. Achievement Report of Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research. (in Japanese)
Proposal to Improve the DSM Design
of Cold-Formed Steel Fixed-Ended
Columns Failing in Global Modes
P. B. Dinis, D. Camotim, A. Landesmann, and A. D. Martins
Abstract This paper presents a proposal to improve the failure load prediction
quality provided by the current Direct Strength Method (DSM) design curve for
cold-formed steel fixed-ended columns failing in global modes, namely flexural and
flexural-torsional ones. After (i) collecting the available numerical failure load data,
comprising columns with several geometries (cross-section dimensions and length)
and covering a wide slenderness range, and (ii) showing that the currently codified
DSM column global design curve is unable to predict them adequately, the
development of new strength curves, aimed at estimating more efficiently the
column global failure loads, is addressed. Their merits are assessed through (i) the
quality of the estimates of the available failure load data and (ii) the determination
of the corresponding Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) resistance factors.
It is shown that the failure load predictions provided by either of the two proposed/
modified DSM global design curves (i) exhibit a very high quality and (ii) clearly
outperform those yielded by the currently codified strength curve for the whole set
of columns considered in this work.

Keywords Cold-formed steel columns Fixed-ended columns Flexural and

flexural-torsional failures Direct Strength Method (DSM) design Proposal of
novel strength curves
P. B. Dinis D. Camotim (&) A. D. Martins

CERIS, DECivil, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
e-mail: dcamotim@civil.ist.utl.pt
P. B. Dinis
e-mail: dinis@civil.ist.utl.pt
A. D. Martins
e-mail: andrerdmartins@ist.utl.pt
A. Landesmann
Civil Engineering Program, COPPE/UFRJ, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro,
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
e-mail: alandes@coc.ufrj.br

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_132
1416 P. B. Dinis et al.
1 Introduction
Most cold-formed steel members display very slender thin-walled open cross-
sections, a feature making them highly susceptible to several instability phenomena,
namely local, distortional and global (flexural or flexural-torsional) buckling—
Figs. 1(a)–(d) show cross-section deformed configurations of lipped channel col-
umns buckling in these modes. Depending on the member length and cross-section
shape and/or dimensions, any of the above buckling modes may be critical.
In the context of numerical investigations on local-distortional-global and
distortional-global mode interaction in cold-formed steel columns, Dinis and
Camotim [6] and Martins et al. [10] reported that the current Direct Strength Method
(DSM—e.g., [4]) global design curve underestimates, often substantially, the ulti-
mate strength of slender cold-formed steel columns failing in flexural-torsional
modes, thus leading to uneconomic designs. These authors also noted that this
design curve estimates much more accurately column flexural failure loads—not
surprising, since its roots are in hot-rolled steel specifications, concerning almost
exclusively doubly symmetric members. These findings prompted Dinis et al. [7, 8]
to perform extensive numerical investigations, involving columns with several
commonly used cross-section shapes, intended to (i) assess the accuracy of the
current DSM design curve in predicting column flexural-torsional and flexural
failure loads, (ii) acquire knowledge on the column post-buckling behaviour and
(iii) gather large failure load data, to help develop improved DSM-based design
approaches for these columns. The analysis of the above failure loads confirmed that
the current DSM design curve (i) predicts quite well flexural failure loads (even if
there is still room for some improvement) and (ii) often strongly underestimates
flexural-torsional failure loads of columns with moderate or high slenderness—the
underestimation depends on the cross-section geometry (shape/dimensions) and
increases with the slenderness.
The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the research effort men-
tioned above, and to propose DSM-based design curves to estimate more efficiently
column global failure loads. After collecting the available failure loads, concerning
fixed-ended columns buckling and failing in flexural-torsional (FMT) or flexural (Fm)
modes, it is shown that the current DSM global strength curve is unable to estimate
them adequately, thus justifying the need to improve the prediction quality provided
by the current curve. The strength curve proposed to predict flexural failure loads only
Fig. 1 Cross-section deformed configurations of lipped channel columns buckling in a local,

b distortional, c flexural-torsional and d flexural modes
Proposal to Improve the DSM Design … 1417
differs (slightly) from the current one in the low and moderate slenderness ranges.
Conversely, it is also shown that the flexural-torsional failure loads can only be
adequately predicted, for columns with moderate or high slenderness and an arbitrary
cross-section shape, by means of a strength curve set dependent on a geometric
parameter involving the cross-section area, major/minor moments of inertia and
warping constant. Indeed, the predictions of the two proposed/modified DSM-based
global design curves have very high quality and clearly outperform those yielded by
the current strength curve, leading to Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD)
resistance factors higher than 0.90 for all the columns analysed in this work—this
value is considerably above that currently recommended by the North American
Specification [1] for compression members (/c = 0.85).
1.1 Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD)
According to Section K2.1.1 of AISI [1], the LFRD resistance factor is given by
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi
/ ¼ C/ (Mm Fm Pm ) eb0 VM þ VF þ CP VP þ VQ
2 2 2 2
ð1Þ
where (i) C/ = 1.52 (calibration coefficient for LRFD), (ii) Mm = 1.10 and
Fm = 1.00 (taken from Table K2.1.1-1 of the specification) are the material and
fabrication factor mean values, (iii) b0 is the target reliability value (b0 = 2.5 for
structural members in LRFD), (iv) VM = 0.10 and VF = 0.05 (also taken from
Table K2.1.1-1) are the material and fabrication factors, (v) VQ = 0.21 is the
coefficient of variation of the load effect, and (vi) Cp is a correction factor dependent
on the number of tests. The Pm and Vp values are the mean and coefficient of
variation of the “exact”-to-predicted failure load ratios. The value recommended for
compression members is /c = 0.85, regardless of the column failure mode nature.
2 Cold-Formed Steel Column Failure Load Data
The numerical failure loads collected by Dinis et al. [7] concern columns with a wide
variety of cross-section shapes: plain channels (U), unstiffened (C), return lip (RLC),
web-stiffened (WSC) and web/flange-stiffened (WFSC) lipped channels, hat-sections
(H) and rack-sections (R)—(i) C, H, Z column trios with the same cross-section
dimensions, such that 2.00 bw/bf 1.09, 10.00 bf/bl 4.09 and 4.0
t 1.0 mm, (ii) R and RLC column pairs with the same cross-section dimensions,
such that 2.00 bw/bf 1.09, 8.75 bf/bl 3.00 and 2.5 t 1.0 mm,
(iii) WSC and WFSC columns such that 2.00 bw/bf 1.09, 11.00
bf/bl 3.50 and 4.0 t 1.2 mm, and (iv) I columns with 2.50 bw/bf
0.83—see Fig. 2. Note that (i) the WCS and WFSC column “v-shaped” intermediate
d4
bs bf bf bf d3 bf
d1 d1
bf bf bs
bw bw bw bw bl bw bl bw d2 bw d2 bw
bs bf bs bs
bs bs
(a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) bf (h)
Fig. 2 Column cross-sections: a C, b, H, c Z, d RLC, e R, f WSC, g WFSC, h I (2 Us)
stiffeners are such that d1 = d3 = 10 mm and d2 = d4 = 20 mm, and (ii) the I column
web thickness is 2 t = 4.0 mm. The fixed-ended columns (i) have lengths selected to
ensure buckling in FMT or Fm modes, more or less equally spaced in the interval
LT < L min {3 LT; 1000 cm}, (ii) contain critical-mode initial geometrical
imperfections with amplitude L/1000 and (iii) have yield stresses fy selected to cover
wide critical slenderness ranges—the values considered are 75, 150, 300, 450,
600 MPa (to achieve low slenderness value completion, some fy values are unreal-
istically low). A total of 1710 columns buckling/failing in FMT modes, associated
with 11.00 fbF/fcrFT 1.17, and 600 columns buckling/failing in Fm modes are
analysed—all cross-section dimensions, lengths, critical buckling stresses fcr and
column failure loads Pu can be found in Dinis et al. [7, 8]. The failure load data also
include six experimental values reported by Bandula Heva and Mahendran [2] and
concerning fixed-ended lipped channel columns with 1.57 bw/bf 1.50,
1.95 t 0.95 mm, and 2800 L 1800 mm.
3 Current Direct Strength Method (DSM) Design
The current DSM column global design curve (Pne) combines Johnson parabola
with a lowered Euler curve and was first codified for hot-rolled steel members used
in buildings. Later, due to the work of Peköz and Sümer [11], it was included in the
cold-formed steel specification [1]—the nominal strength Pne is given by
8
< Py 0:658k2c if kc 1:5 0:5
Pne ¼ with kc ¼ Py =Pcre ; ð2Þ
: Py 0:877 if kc [ 1:5
k 2
c
where (i) kc is the global slenderness value, (ii) Pcre is the column global buckling
load and (iii) Py is the squash load—they are calculated on the basis of the gross
cross-section area (A) and the elastic buckling (fcr) or the steel yield (fy) stresses.
3.1 Current DSM Strength Curve Predictions
Figures 3(a)–(g) and 4(a)–(c) plot the Pu/Pne ratios obtained for nine column sets (U,
C, H, R, RLC, WSC, WSFC, Z, I), grouped according to the buckling/failure mode
nature: Fm (Pu.F —Fig. 3) or FMT (Pu.FT—Fig. 4)—these figures also include the Pu/
Pne means, standard deviations, maximum/minimum values. These results clearly
show that (i) the Pu/Pne values “clouds” are similar for all the FMT and Fm column sets,
and (ii) the current DSM global design curve is not able to handle adequately columns
failing in both mode types. Indeed, this curve (i) overestimates, mostly by small
amounts, the flexural failure loads of columns with low-to-moderate slenderness
(kc 2.0) and (ii) underestimates, often by large amounts, the flexural-torsional
failure loads of columns with moderate or high slenderness (kc > 1.5). The next
section addresses the improvements proposed by the authors in order to overcome the
shortcomings just identified.
U columns Pu.F /Pne Z columns Pu.F /Pne I columns

2.0 2.0
1.0 1.0
Mean=0.998 Max=1.100 Mean=1.004 Max=1.100 Mean=0.991 Max=1.110

St.Dev.=0.085 Min=0.800 St.Dev.=0.065 Min=0.840 0.0 St.Dev.=0.061 Min=0.819
c 0.0 c
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 3 Plots Pu.F/Pne vs. kc for a U, b Z, c I columns
U columns Pu.FT /Pne C columns Pu.FT /Pne H columns

3.0 3.0
2.0 2.0
1.0 1.0
Mean=1.601 Max=3.130 Mean=1.321 Max=2.740 Mean=1.361 Max=3.320
St.Dev.=0.582 Min=1.020 St.Dev.=0.396 Min=0.950 St.Dev.=0.458 Min=0.990
c 0.0 0.0 c
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
(a) (b) (c)
R columns RLC columns Pu.FT /Pne WSC columns WFSC columns
3.0
2.0
1.0
Mean=1.329 Max=2.814 Mean=1.290 Max=2.791 Mean=1.328 Max=2.279 Mean=1.343 Max=2.700
c St.Dev.=0.363 Min=0.953 St.Dev.=0.347 Min=0.939 St.Dev.=0.330 Min=1.010 St.Dev.=0.379 Min=0.982 c
0.0
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
(d) (e) (f) (g)
Fig. 4 Plots Pu.FT/Pne vs. kc for a U, b C, c H, d R, e RLC, f WSC, g WFSC columns

4 Proposed DSM-Based Design Curves for Fixed-Ended

Columns
The U column failure load data assembled by Dinis et al. [7] provided the means to
propose and validate strength curves that improve the failure load prediction quality
for columns buckling and failing in FMT and Fm modes—such curves provide
failure load estimates termed PnFT and PnF, respectively. Then, the merits of the two
proposed/modified DSM-based design curves were assessed by predicting the
whole set of column global failure loads collected in Sect. 2.
4.1 Flexural-Torsional Strength
In order to achieve a better failure load prediction quality for columns buckling and
failing in FMT modes and exhibiting moderate or high slenderness (kc > 1.5—this
means that the Johnson parabola is kept in the low-to-moderate slenderness range),
a new DSM-based approach was initially proposed, involving a set of strength
curves dependent on a geometric parameter b = II/III, relating the cross-section
major (II) and minor (III) moments of inertia [7]. Although using this geometric
parameter enabled a fairly good estimation of the numerical failure loads obtained,
it was also found that distinct strength curve sets were needed for columns with
one-wall and two-wall end stiffeners—the latter are the R and RLC columns. The
search for a single set of strength curves able to handle columns with arbitrary
cross-sections led to the proposal of a new geometric parameter involving not only
the moments of inertia (II, III), but also the warping constant Iw [8]—note that this
constant can be nowadays easily calculated numerically, by means of freely
available codes such as CUFSM [9] or GBTUL [3]. The parameter, termed bFT, is
given by
II þ Iw =A
bFT ¼ ; ð3Þ
III
where A is the gross cross-section area, included in the expression to keep its
non-dimensional nature. Thus, for kc kFT > 1.5 (to distinguish the current and
proposed DSM design curves, kFT replaces kc in the latter), the strength curve is
bFT-dependent and defined by a general “Euler-type” expression, similar to that
appearing in Eq. (2)—this strength curve set is provided by the expressions
8 2

< Py 0:658kFT if kFT 1:5 0:5
PnFT ¼ with kFT ¼ Py =PcrFT ; ð4Þ
: Py ab if kFT [ 1:5
k FT
Pu.FT / Py FMT Buckling R columns ( FT =6.53)

Pu.FT / Py FMT Buckling R columns ( FT =11.96)
1.2 1.2
1.0 1.0
0.8 0.8
0.6 0.6
0.4 0.4
0.2 Eq.(4) 0.2 Eq.(4)
0.0 Pne FT
0.0 Pne FT
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
(a) (b)
Fig. 5 Comparison between the Pu.FT/Py values concerning R columns exhibiting a bFT = 6.53
and b bFT = 11.96 with the current and proposed DSM design curves (Pne and PnFT)
where the bFT-dependence is felt through parameters a and b, which are functions
of bFT given by
a ¼ 0.39 1:5b ð5Þ

8
< 0.06bFT þ 0.71 if bFT \21.5
b¼ : ð6Þ
:
2 if bFT 21.5
To illustrate the prediction quality achieved by the proposed strength curve set,
Figs. 5(a), (b) plot, against kFT, the Pu.FT/Py values concerning R columns with two
bFT values (bFT = 6.53-11.96) and compare them with the current DSM column
global design curve and the strength curve set obtained with Eq. (4) (solid and
dashed lines, respectively). It is clear that the proposed DSM strength curves follow
the Pu.FT/Py trends quite well, providing close underestimations of the numerical
failure loads.
In order to assess the performance and merits of the proposed strength curve set,
Figs. 6(a), (b) plot, against kFT, the Pu.FT/PnFT ratios of (i) all the numerical failure
loads considered in this work and (ii) the six experimental failure loads reported by
Bandula Heva and Mahendran [2]—these figures also include the failure-to-predicted
means, standard deviations, maximum/minimum values, as well as the LRFD resis-
tance factors they lead to. These results lead to the following remarks:
(i) The proposed strength curve set leads to a fairly uniform failure load prediction
quality along the whole slenderness range. For the various column sets, the
Pu.FT/PnFT statistical indicators read 1.074-0.069-1.207-0.845 (U), 1.056-
0.051-1.234-0.875 (C), 1.093-0.067-1.308-0.906 (H), 1.054-0.049-1.225-
0.888 (R), 1.040-0.039-1.147-0.939 (RLC), 1.059-0.044-1.157-0.901 (WSC)
and 1.060-0.062-1.288-0.860 (WFSC)—these indicators are quite close to
those obtained for the whole set of numerical failure loads: 1.061-0.054-
1.308-0.845.
Numerical All columns Pu.FT /PnFT Experimental

2.0
U C H R RLC WSC WFSC All Mean=0.999
St. Dev.=0.075
Mean 1.074 1.056 1.093 1.054 1.040 1.059 1.060 1.061
Max =1.114
St.Dev. 0.069 0.051 0.057 0.049 0.039 0.044 0.062 0.054 1.0 Min =0.915
Max 1.207 1.234 1.308 1.225 1.147 1.157 1.288 1.308
=0.87
Min 0.845 0.875 0.906 0.888 0.938 0.901 0.860 0.845
0.97 FT FT
0.0
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
(a) (b)
Fig. 6 Plots Pu.FT/PnFT vs. kFT for the a numerical and b experimental column failure loads
(ii) The LRFD resistance factors concerning all the Pu.FT/PnFT ratios for
kFT 1.5 and kFT > 1.5 are practically identical and well above /c = 0.85
—value recommended for compression members in AISI [1]. Indeed, they
read / = 0.96 (n = 698, Pm = 1.051, VP = 0.031) and / = 0.97 (n = 1012,
Pm = 1.068, VP = 0.060), respectively.
(iii) Since only three C columns tested by Bandula Heva and Mahendran [2]
exhibit kFT 1.5, further experimental studies involving slender column
specimens are required in order to provide adequate experimental validation
for the proposed strength curve set. Nevertheless, the six-value (three below
kFT = 1.5 and three above kFT = 1.5) Pu.FT/PnFT statistical indicators
obtained are quite good: average, standard deviation and maximum/
minimum values equal to 0.999-0.075-1.114-0.915—the associated LRFD
resistance factor is also above 0.85.
4.2 Flexural Strength
In order to improve the ultimate strength prediction quality concerning columns

buckling/failing in Fm modes, the failure loads of the U columns analysed in this
work were again considered. Then, a single “Winter-type” strength curve (PnF) was
sought to estimate all of them, as safely and accurately as possible. Recall that it
was shown earlier (see Sect. 3.1) that all the unsafe failure load predictions pro-
vided by the current DSM design curve concern columns in the low-to-moderate
slenderness range (kc kF 2.0) (to distinguish the current and proposed DSM
design curves, kF replaces kc in the latter—kF is the minor-axis flexural slender-
ness), as illustrated in Figs. 3(a)–(c).
As for the FMT columns, the above search was carried out by means of a
“trial-and-error curve fitting procedure” that led to
(
Py if kF 0:422 0:5
PnF ¼ h i with kF ¼ Py =PcrF :
Py 1 0:24 k2 þ 0:42
1 1
k2 þ 0:42
if kF [ 0:422
F F
ð7Þ
It is worth noting that, if coefficient 0.42 is changed to 0.60, this curve practi-
cally coincides with the Eurocode 3 [5] curve c. Figure 7 compares the Pu,F/Py
values of U columns buckling and failing in Fm modes with the current (solid—Pne)
and proposed (dashed—PnF) DSM strength curves. It is readily noticed that the two
strength curves only differ for kF 2.0.
In order to assess the merits of the proposed PnF strength curve, Fig. 8 plots,
against kF, the Pu.F/PnF values concerning all the numerical failure loads considered
in this work–the figure also includes the statistical indicators of the Pu.F/PnF values.
These results lead to the following comments:
(i) The proposed strength curve leads to a fairly uniform failure load prediction
quality along the whole slenderness range. Indeed, the statistical indicators of
the Pu.F/PnF values are 0.995-0.040-1.100-0.910 (U), 1.042-0.059-1.200-
0.910 (Z) and 1.053-0.059-1.201-0.897 (I)—these indicators are close to
those obtained for the whole set of numerical failure loads: 1.042-0.060-
1.201-0.897.
(ii) Although the failure load prediction quality improvement achieved by the
PnF strength curve is much less pronounced than that of its PnFT counterpart,
it is by no means negligible for kF 2.0. Indeed, for this slenderness range,
the minor-axis flexural failure loads obtained in this work lead to
failure-to-predicted ratios with averages and minimum values equal to
1.055-0.897 (Pu.F/PnF) and 0.969-0.800 (Pu.F/Pne), respectively, which
constitutes a visible improvement.
(iii) The associated LRFD resistance factor is / = 0.94 (n = 600, Pm = 1.042,
VP = 0.060). For kF 2.0 and kF > 2.0, one has / = 0.95 (n = 398,
Pm = 1.055, VP = 0.067) and / = 0.93 (n = 202, Pm = 1.017, VP = 0.031),
respectively.
Fig. 7 Comparison between Pu.F / Py Fm Buckling U columns

the Pu.F/Py values concerning 1.2
the whole set of U columns 1.0
failing in Fm modes with the
current and proposed DSM 0.8
design curves (Pne and PnF) 0.6 Pne
0.4 PnF
0.2
0.0 F
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
Pu.F /PnF Fm Buckling. All columns

2.0
U Z I All
Mean 0.995 1.042 1.053 1.042

St.Dev. 0.040 0.059 0.059 0.060 1.0
Max 1.100 1.200 1.201 1.201
Min 0.910 0.910 0.897 0.897
0.94
0.0 F
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
Fig. 8 Plots Pu.F/PnF vs. kF for all the available numerical column failure loads
5 Summary of the Proposed Strength Curves
On the basis of the fixed-ended column numerical failure loads obtained in this
work, it was found that it is essential to distinguish between the DSM-based global
strength curves used to design columns against major-axis flexural-torsional (PnFT)
and minor-axis flexural (PnF) failures. In the first case, a strength curve set were
proposed, (i) dependent on bFT = (II+ Iw/A)/III (II, III: cross-section major and minor
moments of inertia; Iw: warping constant; A: gross cross-section area) and (ii) dif-
fering from the current global curve only for kFT > 1.5—it is defined by the
expressions
8 2

< Py 0:658kFT if kFT 1:5 0:5
PnFT ¼ with kFT ¼ Py =PcrFT ; ð8Þ
: Py ab if kFT [ 1:5
k FT
where a = 0.39 1.5b and b is given by

8
< 0.06bFT þ 0.71 if bFT \21.5
b¼ : ð9Þ
:
2 if bFT 21.5
As for the columns buckling and failing in Fm modes, a “Winter-type”

DSM-based strength curve is proposed. It only differs from the current one for
kF 2.0 (there a virtual coincidence for kF > 2.0) and is defined by the
expressions
(
Py if kF 0:422 0:5
PnF ¼ h i with kF ¼ Py =PcrF :
Py 1 0:24 1
k2F þ 0:42 k2F
1
þ 0:42
if kF [ 0:422
ð10Þ
6 Conclusions
This paper presented a proposal to improve the failure load prediction quality
provided by the current Direct Strength Method (DSM) for cold-formed steel
fixed-ended columns failing in global modes, namely flexural (Fm) and
flexural-torsional (FMT) ones. Initially, the available numerical failure load data,
concerning columns with several geometries (cross-section shape/dimensions and
length) and covering a wide slenderness range, were collected and subsequently
used to show that a single DSM design curve, such as the currently one, is unable to
handle adequately columns failing in both mode types. Indeed, it was shown that
the current strength curve (i) underestimates, often by large amounts, the failure
loads of columns with moderate or high slenderness (kc > 1.5) that fail in FMT
modes, and (ii) overestimates, usually by small amounts, the failure loads of col-
umns with low-to-moderate slenderness (kc 2.0) that fail in Fm modes. Then, the
paper presented modified DSM-based design curves that improve the failure load
prediction quality for columns buckling/failing in both global modes. It was shown
that the failure load predictions provided by either of the proposed/modified DSM
global design curves (i) exhibit a very high quality and (ii) clearly outperform those
yielded by the current strength curve, for the whole set of columns considered in
this work.
Finally, one last word to mention that the possible codification of the proposed
DSM-based column global design curves must be preceded by (i) experimental
validation and (ii) an assessment of their applicability to columns exhibiting other/
arbitrary support conditions.
References
1. AISI (American Iron and Steel Institute) (2016) North American Specification (NAS) for the
Design of Cold-Formed Steel Structural Members (AISI-S100-16)+Commentary, Washington
DC
2. Bandula Heva Y, Mahendran M (2012) Flexural-torsional buckling tests of cold-formed steel
compression members at elevated temperatures. Steel Compos Struct 14(3):205–227
3. Bebiano R, Camotim D, Gonçalves R (2018) GBTUL 2.0 – a second-generation code for the
GBT-based buckling and vibration analysis of thin-walled members. Thin Walled Struct
124:235–277
4. Camotim D, Dinis PB, Martins AD (2016). Direct Strength Method (DSM) − a general
approach for the design of cold-formed steel structures. In: Yu C (ed) Recent trends in
cold-formed steel construction. Series in Civil & Structural Engineering. Woodhead
Publishing, Amsterdam, pp 69–105
5. CEN (Comité Européen de Normalisation) (2005) Eurocode 3: Design of Steel Structures –
Part 1-1: General Rules and Rules for Buildings, EN 1993-1-1:2005, Brussels, Belgium
6. Dinis PB Camotim D (2016) Behaviour and DSM design of hat, zed and rack columns
experiencing local-distortional-global interaction. In: Young B, Cai Y (eds) USB Key Drive
Proceedings of 8th International Conference on Steel and Aluminium Structures (ICSAS
2016), Hong Kong, 7–9/12, Paper 60
7. Dinis PB, Camotim D, Landesmann A, Martins AD (2019) On the direct strength method
design of columns against global failure. Thin Walled Struct 139(June):242–270
8. Dinis PB, Camotim D, Landesmann A, Martins AD (2019) Accurate direct strength method
(DSM) prediction of column flexural-torsional failure loads. In: Website proceedings of
structural stability research council (SSRC) annual stability conference, St. Louis, 2–5/4
9. Li Z, Abreu JCB, Leng J, Ádány S, Schafer BW (2014) Review: constrained finite strip
method developments and applications in cold-formed steel design. Thin Walled Struct 81
(August):2–18
10. Martins AD, Camotim D, Dinis PB (2017) On the distortional-global interaction of
cold-formed steel columns: relevance, post-buckling, strength and DSM design. In: Website
proceedings of structural stability research council (SSRC) annual stability conference, San
Antonio, 21–24/3
11. Peköz T, Sümer O (1992) Design provisions for cold-formed steel columns and
beam-column. Research Report RP92-1, American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI),
Washington DC
An Experimental Study on Buckling
Strength of Stainless Steel Columns
with Gusset Plates
A. Matsuo, S. Sthapit, A. Shibuya, Y. Shimura,

Y. Kobayashi, and K. Ono
Abstract The damage of corrosion at lateral bracings and sway bracings has been
reported and some of them are serious damage. Stainless steel has high corrosion
resistance. Therefore, by applying stainless steel to such members, it is expected
that the maintenance cost for corrosion can be reduced. In order to use stainless
steel for lateral bracings and sway bracings, it is necessary to grasp the buckling
strength. However, there are insufficient data of stainless steel compared with the
conventional steel. Therefore, the compression test on the stainless steel column
was conducted in this study. The test specimen was designed based on the inves-
tigation of the configurations of lateral bracings and sway bracings in actual
existing steel bridges. The experimental results show the displacement of the col-
umn was increased rapidly and the slippage in bolted connection was observed after
the maximum load. The test results were compared with the ultimate strength curve
A. Matsuo S. Sthapit K. Ono (&)

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Waseda University,
Tokyo 169-8555, Japan
A. Matsuo
e-mail: ats.matsuo123@akane.waseda.jp
S. Sthapit
e-mail: sshranay55@akane.waseda.jp
A. Shibuya
Public Works Research Institute, Ibaraki 305-8516, Japan
e-mail: a-shibuya44@pwri.go.jp
Y. Shimura
Japanese Society of Steel Construction, Tokyo 103-0027, Japan
e-mail: shimura.yasumi.rj4@nssc.nssmc.com
Y. Kobayashi
Japan Bridge Association Inc, Tokyo 105-0003, Japan
e-mail: kobayashi.yusuke@miyaji-eng.co.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_133
1428 A. Matsuo et al.
described in “Specifications for Highway Bridges” in Japan. The result indicates the
possibility that the buckling strength of the stainless steel column can be evaluated
by ultimate strength curve in the current design specifications.
Keywords Stainless steel SUS316 Buckling strength Lateral bracing Sway

bracing
1 Introduction
Damage due to corrosion is one of the problems in maintenance of steel bridges,

which leads to the increase in the maintenance cost. The damage of corrosion at
lateral bracings and sway bracings has been reported and some of them are serious
damage. Stainless steel has high corrosion resistance. Therefore, by applying
stainless steel to such members, it is expected that the maintenance cost for cor-
rosion can be reduced. In order to use stainless steel for lateral bracings and sway
bracings, it is necessary to grasp the buckling strength. Lateral bracings and sway
bracings are connected to main girder as the member of the angle or T section
through gusset plates at both ends. In “Specifications for Highway Bridges” [1], the
ultimate strength curve for such members made of conventional steel is shown
based on the previous studies [2, 3]. However, there are insufficient experimental
and numerical data of stainless steel compared with the conventional steels.
Although there are some studies on the buckling behaviour of stainless steel col-
umns [4], it is necessary to grasp the buckling strength of stainless steel columns
with gusset plates in order to evaluate the buckling strength of lateral bracings and
sway bracings. Therefore, the uniaxial compression test was conducted. The
behaviors of the overall buckling in the column, the local buckling in gusset plates
and the slippage in bolted connections were focused on in the experiment. In order
to examine the design methods of the buckling strength, the test results were
compared with the ultimate strength curve.
2 Experimental Designs
2.1 Test Specimen
The test specimen consists of the column and the gusset plates. The column is angle
steel. The steel type of the column is SUS316 and that of the gusset plates is
SM400A. The bolts are made of SUS630. Figure 1, Tables 1 and 2 show the con-
figurations of the test specimen. The yield stress of SUS316 and SM400A obtained
from tensile tests are shown in Table 3. The yield stress of SM400A was the value
provided by the inspection certificate. The slenderness ratio parameter
k, the ratio of
fixed point distance and plate thickness a/t were decided based on the survey of
An Experimental Study on Buckling Strength … 1429
existing steel bridges. Figures 2 and 3 show the results of the survey. k is represented
in Eq. (1). a/t is used as the parameter that is related to the local buckling strength of
the gusset plates. a/t was designed to be close to the value of 15, which exist in the
most frequent range of the data according to the survey of existing bridges. In order to
avoid the galvanic corrosion, epoxy resin sheets were installed on the washer and
between the column and gusset plates as shown in Fig. 1(e).
rffiffiffiffiffi
k ¼ L 1 ry
ð1Þ
rx p E
where, ry : yield strength, E: Young’s modulus, L: effective buckling length, rx:

radius of gyration of area.
2.2 Experimental Setup and Procedure
The uniaxial compression force was applied by displacement control with a test
machine whose total capacity was 1000 kN. Figure 4 shows the photograph of the
installation of the test specimen. The support condition at both ends of the test
specimen was fixed. The loading was repeated in the elastic region and after the
maximum load. Table 4 and Fig. 5 show the loading process.
x axis
Centroid
y axis
(c) Cross section of

the column
(d) Fixed point

distance a
Column SUS316
Gusset plate
SM400A
Washer
Unit: [mm] : Epoxy resin sheet
(a) Front view (b) Side view (e) Position of the

epoxy resin sheets
Fig. 1 Test specimen

Table 1 Dimensions of the column
Column SUS316 L 100-100-10

Cross sectional area A (mm2 ) 1900
Length L (mm) 2000
Slenderness ratio L/r x 66
Slenderness ratio parameter λ 0.768
Table 2 Dimensions of the gusset plates
Gusset plates SM400A

Thickness t (mm) 9
Fixed point distance 2a (mm) 295
a (mm) 147.5
The ratio of a and t a/t 16.4
Table 3 Yield stress obtained from the tensile tests
SUS316 SM400A
Yield stress (N/mm2) 260* 293
*0.2% proof stress
Fig. 2 Survey of the k of the 25

existing bridges
20 Blue Intermediate sway bracing
The number of data
Red End sway bracing

15
10
0
Fig. 3 Survey of the a/t of 60

the existing bridges
50 Blue Sway bracing
The number of data

Red Lateral bracing
40
30
20
10
0
Less 5 10 10 15 15 20 20 25 25 30 30 35 35 40
than 5
Fig. 4 Installation of the test

specimen
Fig. 5 Loading process 300

Pmax
250
Axial Load P (kN)
200
150
100
50
Average
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Axial Displacement δ (mm)
Table 4 Loading process
Number Load (kN) Repeat count

0 80
3
80 0
0 100
3
100 0
0 120
3
120 0
0 140
3
140 0
0 200
3
200 0
3.1 Load-Displacement Relationship
The relationship between axial load P and axial displacement d (P-d relationship) of
the test specimen is indicated in Fig. 6. The displacement of d is the average of four
axial displacements (Fig. 7). The test specimen reached the maximum loads Pmax
that was less than the yield load Py (495 kN). After reaching Pmax, the displacement
increased rapidly.
The relationships between the load and the displacement of the slippage in
bolted connection are shown in Fig. 8. The slippage in bolted connection did not
occur before reaching Pmax but occurred after reaching Pmax in the upper side.
3.2 Load-Strain Relationship
The principal stress diagram at the maximum axial load ‘(A)’ in Fig. 9 and the
unloading point ‘(B)’ in Fig. 9 are shown in Fig. 10. Comparing Fig. 10 (a) with
Fig. 10 (b), the stress at ‘(B)’ is much smaller than that at ‘(A)’. The results indicate
the possibility that the residual strains may be smaller than those shown in ‘(B)’ in
Fig. 9 if unloading was conducted at the maximum load ‘(A)’.
Fig. 6 The P-d relationship 300

of the test specimen Pmax=240 (kN)
250
Axial Load P (kN)

200
150
100
50 Average
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Fig. 7 Displacement VSW VNW

transducers
VSE VNE
VSW,VSE VNW,VNE
3.3 Comparison with the Ultimate Strength Curve
In order to examine the design methods of the buckling strength of the columns
with gusset plates, the experimental result was compared with the ultimate strength
curve in “Specifications for Highway Bridges”. The ultimate strength curve
excluding the welded box section columns is represented as Eq. (2) and that for the
angle section is expressed as Eq. (3) under the influence of eccentricity. The result
of the compression test is shown in Table 5. Figure 11 indicates that the experi-
mental result was plotted above the ultimate strength curve. Therefore, there is a
300 300
Pmax Pmax
250 250
Axial Load P (kN)
Axial Load P (kN)

200 200
150 150
100 100
50 HUL1 50 HDL1
0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
(b) Lower side
(a) Upper side

(c) Position of the pi-shape displacement transducers
Fig. 8 Slippage in bolted connection
Fig. 9 Focus points of the 300

principal stress Pmax
250
(A)
200
Load P (kN)
150
100
50
Average
(B)
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
(a) At the maximum load ((A) in Figure 9.)
(b) At the first time of the unloading ((B) in Figure 9.)
Fig. 10 Principal stress diagram of the gusset plates
Table 5 The results of the compression test
Experimental results
Maximum load Pmax (kN) 240
Cross secsional area A (mm2) 1900
Buckling stress σ cr (N/mm2) 126
Yield stress σy (N/mm2) 260
σ cr /σ y 0.484
Slenderness ratio parameter λ 0.768
Fig. 11 Comparison with the 1.2

ultimate strength curve Experimental result
1.0 Eq. (2)
Eq. (3)
0.8 L-100 × 100 × 10 Usami et al.
σcr/σy
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0
Slenderness ratio parameter
possibility that the buckling strength of the stainless steel columns can be evaluated
by the ultimate strength curve of the current design specifications.

rcr 1:00 ðk 0:2Þ
¼ ð2Þ
ry 1:109 0:545k ð0:2 \ k 1:0Þ
1
0:733 þ k2
ð1:0 \
kÞ
rcud rcr L=rx ð3Þ
¼ ð0:5 þ Þ
ry ry 1000
where, rcr , rcud : buckling stress.
4 Conclusions
The uniaxial compression test was conducted on stainless steel columns with gusset
plates. After the maximum load, the axial displacement of the column was
increased rapidly and the slippage in bolted connection was observed. The principal
stress of the gusset plates after unloading was much smaller than at the maximum
load. In this study, the test result was plotted above the ultimate strength curve.
Therefore, there is a possibility that the buckling strength of the stainless steel
column can be evaluated by the ultimate strength curve in the current design
specifications. However, it is necessary to obtain more experimental data of the
buckling strength of the stainless steel columns with gusset plates and numerical
studies that verify the experimental data.
Acknowledgements This study was conducted as a part of the joint projects on application of high
performance steel to the highway bridges and was supported by Public Works Research Institute,
Japanese Society of Steel Construction, Japan Bridge Association, Nagaoka University of
Technology, National Institute of Technology, Nagaoka College, Waseda University and
Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Expressway Company Limited. The authors gratefully acknowledge them.
References
1. Japan Road Association (2017) Specifications for Highway Bridges, Part II; Steel Bridges (in
Japanese)
2. Usami T, Fukumoto Y (1972) Compressive strength and design of bracing members with angle
or tee section. J Jpn Soc Civil Eng 201:43–50
3. Usami T, Galambos TV (1971) Eccentrically Loaded Single-Angle Columns, Pub1. IABSE,
vol 31-II, pp 153–184
4. Yuan HX, Wang YQ, Gardner L, Du XX, Shi YJ (2015) Local–overall interactive buckling
behaviour of welded stainless steel I-section columns. J Constr Steel Res 111:75–87
Effect of Number of Additional Bolts
Outside Splice Plates on Behaviour
of Frictional Type Bolted Joints
with a Filler Plate
H. Moriyama, T. Takai, T. Yamaguchi, and S. Kozai
Abstract In recent steel bridges, for improving productivity and constructability,

members which have different dimensions are connected by high-strength bolts or
welding. As for bolted joints, it’s known that the difference in thickness of con-
nected members is adjusted with loose type or tight type fillers. End of the former
plate is aligned on end of splice plates, and the latter is connected to a member with
additional bolts outside the joint. However, the difference of the mechanical
behaviour between the joint with them isn’t clarified. In this study, tensile tests and
FEA of high-strength frictional bolted joints with loose and tight filler plates were
conducted to investigate the difference of their load transfer mechanism and
mechanical performance. From obtained results, it’s found that load carrying
capacity of joint such as slip coefficient, maximum load was decreased by presence
of a filler plate and its connection method, and additional bolts outside splice plates
can hardly contribute to the performance enhancement of the joint with a filler plate.
So, loose type filler is more preferably used than tight type filler. The effect of
additional bolts on the mechanical performance of joint is to equalize the load
sharing ratio of splice plates. Therefore, in case that eccentric moment can’t be
disregarded because thickness of a filler plate is large, tight type filler may prevent
failure of the splice plate which is contacted with connected plate.
H. Moriyama (&)
Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Kumamoto University,
Kumamoto, Japan
e-mail: moriyama@kumamoto-u.ac.jp
T. Takai
Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Kyusu Institute of Technology,
Fukuoka, Japan
e-mail: takai@civil.kyutech.ac.jp
T. Yamaguchi
S. Kozai
Department of Bridge Design, Takada Kiko Co. Ltd., Osaka, Japan
e-mail: s_kozai@takadakiko.co.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_134
1440 H. Moriyama et al.
Keywords Frictional bolted joints Filler plate Bolt shear resistance Loose

filler Tight filler
1 Introduction
In recent steel bridges, for improving productivity and constructability, members

which have different dimensions such as height and thickness are connected by
high-strength bolts or welding. As for bolted joints, the difference in thickness of
connected members is adjusted with filler plates as shown in Fig. 1. Filler plates are
classified as “loose type” or “tight type” fillers. Loose filler plates are included in
the joint, that is, the end of the filler plate is aligned on that of splice plates. Tight
filler plates is extended beyond splice plates to connect the tight filler plate to a
member (hereafter called as connected plate with additional bolts). The latter is used
at the joint and gusset plate in the girder or truss bridges, and the build-up members
in existing riveted bridge. However, the difference of the mechanical behaviour
between the joint with loose and tight filler plates isn’t clarified.
In this study, tensile tests and FEA of high-strength frictional bolted joints with
loose and tight filler plates were conducted to investigate these load transfer
mechanism, and then discuss the difference of mechanical performance between the
joint with a loose and tight filler plate.
2 Tensile Tests
2.1 Specimens
Figure 2 shows geometrical dimensions of specimens. Because of limitation of

loading capacity of the loading machine, F10T-M16 bolts whose slip resistance are
lower than that of F10T-M22 bolts, which are used commonly for bridges in Japan,
were used in slip-side. The ratio of bolt hole diameter d0 by bolt diameter d is the
same as in case of M22 bolt. SHTB bolts whose tensile strength is 1,400 N/mm2
was used in non-slip side to prevent from slip occurrence.
Fig. 1 Classification of filler

type
(a) Loose Type Filler
(b) Tight Type Filler

Effect of Number of Additional Bolts Outside Splice Plates … 1441
Non-slip Side Slip Side Non-slip Side Slip Side
(a) Specimen “n3-NF” (b) Specimen “n4-NF”

Non-slip Side Slip Side
(c) Specimens “n4-LF20”, “n4-LF30”, “n4-LF50”

Non-slip Side Slip Side
(d) Specimens “n4-TF20”, “n4-TF30”, “n4-TF50”
Fig. 2 Geometrical dimensions of specimens (unit: mm)
Table 1 Structural
configurations and bolt
arrangement
Constant Configraitons Considered Parameters
Bolt Bolt Width Width/ End End Bolt Pitch Thickness of Thickness Designed Number Thickness of Thickness Change Rate
Number Diamter Hole Bolt Distance Distance Pitch /Bolt Connected of Spice Bolt of Connected of Filler of Thickness
Specimen /Bolt
of Diameter Diamater Diamter Plate in Plates Tensions Bolts Plate in Plate of Connected
Name Diamter
Specimens Non-slip Side Slip-sidde Plate
d d0 w w/d e1 e1 / d p p/d t mf t spl Nd n t ms tf η
(mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (kN) (mm) (mm) (%)
n3-NF 80 5.00 3
28 0 0
n4-NF 100 6.25 4
n4-LF20
125 7.81 22 6 21
n4-TF20
3 16 17.8 40 2.50 50 3.13 28 19 116
n4-LF30
140 8.75 4 19 9 32
n4-TF30
n4-LF50
180 11.25 14 14 50
n4-TF50
Table 1 shows the structural configurations and bolt arrangement of specimens.

As shown in Fig. 2 and Table 1, the considered parameters are number of bolts,
filler type and thickness of the filler plate and the connected plate in slip-side.
Table 2 Mechanical
properties based on material
test
(a) Connected plate, filler plate and splice plates
Thickness Young's Modulus Poisson's Ratio Yield Stress Tensile Strength Yield Strain
Apprication
t E ν σy σt εy= σ y / E
Parts 2
(mm) (N/mm ) (N/mm )
2
(N/mm )
2 -6
(×10 )
6 Filler 215,797 0.280 408 571 1,892
9 Filler 214,841 0.283 400 519 1,862
Filler
14 210,558 0.278 401 532 1,906
Connected Plate
Connected Plate
19 210,949 0.283 413 557 1,958
Splice Plates
22 Connected Plate 210,991 0.286 424 563 2,010
28 Connected Plate 209,472 0.281 377 525 1,798
(b) High-strength bolt

Diameter Nominal Length Young's Modulus Poisson's Ratio Yield Stress Tensile Strength Yield Strain Sticking Position of Strain Guages
d L Eb ν σ yb σ tb ε yb = σ yb / E b Lg
(mm) (mm) (N/mm2 ) (N/mm2 ) (N/mm2 ) (×10-6 ) (mm)
60 217,241 - 1031 1073 4,746 37.5 mm from the bolt head
16
95 191,332 - 1012 1054 5,289 18 mm from the bolt head
The mechanical properties of plates and high-strength bolt are shown in Table 2.
All properties of plates were obtained by material tests. As for high-strength bolt, its
yield stress and tensile strength were quoted from the mill test certificate, and
Young’s modulus was determine by tensile tests with the bolt stuck on strain gauge.
The faying surface was coated with inorganic zinc-rich paint after shot blast
processing.
2.2 Design Resistance
Table 3 shows the design resistance of connected plate, filler plate and
high-strength bolt calculated based on the mechanical properties shown in Table 2.
The design slip resistance Psd and net cross-section yield resistance Pynd are
calculated by Eqs. (1) and (2), respectively. And also, the ratio of these resistance b,
which is related to the slip behaviour, is obtained by Eq. (3). The net cross-section
failure resistance Ptnd, bolt shear failure resistance Pbod are calculated by Eq. (4)
and (5), respectively.
Psd ¼ nmlNd ð1Þ
Pynd ¼ ðw d0 Þtm ry ð2Þ
Psd
b¼ ð3Þ
Pynd
Ptnd ¼ ðw d0 Þt rt ð4Þ
pffiffiffi
Pbod ¼ nmAe stb ¼ rtb = 3 ð5Þ
where; n is the number of bolts, m (= 2) is number of friction surfaces, l (= 0.45) is

slip coefficient, Nd (= 116 kN) is the design bolt tension, w is the width, tm is the
thickness of an objective plate, d0 is bolt hole diameter, ry is the yield stress of an
objective plate. rt is tensile strength of an objective plate, Ae is the effective
cross-sectional area of bolt, rtb is tensile strength of bolt.
Table 3 Design resistance of

specimens
Service Limit State (SLS) Ultimate Limit State (ULS)
De-
De- Slip Net Cross Net Cross Designed Bolt Net Cross Net Cross Shear
signed
signed Resis -SectionYield -Section Yield Slip/Yield Shear -Section Failure -Section Failure Failure Expected
Specimen Slip
Bolt -tance Resistance of Resistance of Resistance Failure Resistance Resistance Resistance of Failure
Name Coefficien
Tensions Connected Pl. Filler Pl. Ratio Resistance of Connected Pl. of Filler Pl. Connected Pl. Mode
t
Nd P sd P ynd-m P ynd-f βd P bod P tnd-m P tnd-f P esd (F. M.)
μd
(kN) (kN) (kN) (kN) (kN) (kN) (kN) (kN)
n3-NF 452 656 - 0.690 747 915 2207 BO

-
n4-NF 603 867 0.696 996 1209 3016 BO
n4-LF20 996 NF
1000 263 0.603 1328 367 2539
n4-TF20 992 NF
0.65 116
n4-LF30 996 BO
603 959 440 0.629 1294 571 2171
n4-TF30 992 BO
n4-LF50 996 BO
911 911 0.662 1207 1207 1526
n4-TF50 992 BO
(a) n3-NF (b) n4-NF
(c) n4-LF20, n4-LF30, n4-LF50 (d) n4-TF20, n4-TF30, n4-TF50
Fig. 3 Measurement items and these measuring points (unit: mm)

2.3 Items and Method of Measuring
Figure 3 shows measuring items and these measuring points. To evaluate the
overall behavior of joint, its displacement was measured. Investigating the net
cross-sectional yield strength and shear yield strength at the end portion, the strain
of the side surface of the connected plate was measured. The bolt tension was
installed by referring to the strain of the bolt shank.
3.1 General Observations
Obtained experimental results are summarized in Table 4, and load versus dis-
placement curves are shown in Fig. 4.
Slip coefficient was calculated by Eq. (6).
P
l1 ¼ Ps ð6Þ
m i Ni1
where; Ps is the slip strength, Ni−1 is tension of each bolts before the test.
Net cross-section yield strength Pyn−m and shear yield strength Pye were deter-
mined with the strain of the side surface and end portion of the connected plate.
When one of strains measured at side surface reaches yield strain ey , its peripheral
Table 4 Experimental
results
Slip Limit State (SLS) Yield Limit State (SLS) Maximum Load and Failure Mode (ULS)
Actual Average Slip
Slip Net Cross Shear Yield Shear Yield/ Maximum Maximum
Change Rate Bolt Maximum Load Actual Failure
Strength Coefficient -Section Strength of Net Cross- Load Load / Bolt Maximum Load Ratio
Speci Speci of Thickness Tensions Ratioof the Joint Mode (Number
Evaluated Yield Connected Section Shear Failure of the Joint with and
-men -men of Connected before with and without of Broken Bolts
with N 1 Strength of Pl. at Strength Resistance without Filler Plate
Name No. Plate Tests Filler Plate /Total Bolts)
Connected Pl. End Portion Ratio
η N1 Ps P ye / P yn-m
-Number of Shear P max /P bod P max /P ma P max /P ma
μ1 P s /P s P s /P s P yn-m P ye P max
(%) (kN) Failure Plane
(kN) |n3-NF |n4-NF (kN) (kN) (kN) x |n3-NF x |n4-NF
1 0.0 115.9 543 0.78 593 748 1.26 BO (3/3)-2 845 1.13
n3-NF 2 0.0 115.9 554 549 0.80 0.79 - - 600 588 706 718 1.18 1.22 BO(3/3)-1 and 2 850 843 1.14 1.13 - -
3 0.0 116.2 549 0.79 573 698 1.22 BO(3/3)-2 835 1.12
1 0.0 116.0 783 0.84 776 1090 1.40 1147 1.15
n4-NF 2 0.0 117.5 814 809 0.87 0.87 - - 777 797 1087 1063 1.40 1.34 BO (4/4)-2 1177 1165 1.18 1.17 - -
3 0.0 116.8 830 0.89 839 1011 1.20 1171 1.18
1 21.9 115.7 687 0.74 853 935 1.10 1060 1.06
n4-
2 21.9 116.2 715 700 0.77 0.75 1.27 0.86 844 839 972 950 1.15 1.13 BO (4/4)-1 1066 1066 1.07 1.07 1.26 0.91
LF20
3 21.9 116.4 696 0.75 820 943 Do 1.15 1071 1.08
1 21.8 116.2 558 0.60 820 729 wn 0.89 855 0.86
n4-
2 21.9 116.2 550 543 0.59 0.58 0.99 0.67 - 820 724 720 - 0.89 BO (3/4)-1 851 847 0.85 0.85 1.00 0.73
TF20
3 22.0 116.2 521 0.56 - 708 - 834 0.84
1 33.3 116.1 763 0.82 738 958 1.30 1070 1.07
n4-
2 33.4 116.3 754 766 0.81 0.82 1.40 0.95 741 739 929 933 1.25 1.26 BO (4/4)-1 1101 1095 1.11 1.10 1.30 0.94
LF30
3 33.5 116.1 780 0.84 738 913 Do 1.24 1116 1.12
1 33.4 116.7 626 0.67 816 805 wn 0.99 890 0.89
n4-
2 33.4 115.8 636 629 0.69 0.67 1.15 0.78 782 791 827 805 1.06 1.02 BO (3/4)-1 896 893 0.90 0.90 1.06 0.77
TF30
3 33.4 117.2 626 0.67 776 783 1.01 892 0.90
1 50.3 116.5 703 0.75 772 873 1.13 1003 1.01
n4-
2 50.2 116.3 743 716 0.80 0.77 1.31 0.89 775 796 873 838 1.13 1.06 BO (4/4)-1 1036 1022 1.04 1.03 1.21 0.88
LF50
3 50.2 116.4 704 0.76 841 767 Do 0.91 1026 1.03
1 49.9 116.2 601 0.65 707 698
wn 0.99 838 0.84
n4-
2 50.1 117.1 583 585 0.62 0.63 1.07 0.72 726 713 722 730 0.99 1.02 BO (3/4)-1 837 834 0.84 0.84 0.99 0.72
TF50
3 50.0 116.6 571 0.61 705 771 1.09 826 0.83
1200
1000
800
P (kN)
600
400
200 n4-LF20-3 n4-TF20-2

n3-NF-2 n4-LF30-1 n4-TF30-1
n4-NF-2 n4-LF50-2 n4-TF50-3
0
-2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
δ(mm) δ(mm) δ(mm)
Fig. 4 Load vs. displacement curves
region was regarded to be yielded, applied load at the time was defined as Pyn−m.
When the strain at end portion reaches ey , the load at the time was defined as Pye.
As shown in Table 4 and Fig. 4, load carrying capacity of joint was influenced
by presence of a filler plate and its connection method. The slip coefficient and
maximum load of all cases with filler plate were the same as or larger than the case
“n3-NF” which has three bolts without a filler plate, and lower than the case
“n4-NF” which has four bolts without a filler plate. The load carrying capacity of
the joint with a tight filler was lower than a loose filler. The shear yield strength of
the former is lower than that of latter, so the difference of filler type affect the load
transfer mechanism of the joint with a filler plate.
3.2 Influence of Filler Type on Failure Mode and Load

Sharing Ratio of Each Bolt
Figure 5 shows load versus the strain of bolt shank curves, and Fig. 6 shows an
appearance of deformation of bolts after tensile tests. As can be seen in Table 4 and
Fig. 6, in all cases, confirmed failure mode in the test was bolt shear failure. But
number of shear failure plane was changed according to the presence of a filler
plate. The specimen “n3-NF” and “n4-NF” were broken mainly because of shear
force considering these deformation. On the other hand the joint with a filler plate
was broken because of bending moment and shear force. The additional bolt outside
splice plates in the tight filler type joint, wasn’t broken.
Figure 5 shows that the axial strain derived from the bending moment increases
as thickness of the filler plate becomes larger. In cases of tight filler type joint, the
additional bolt was not almost deformed and other bolts was more deformed instead
of it. Another influence of the tight filler is to make more shear deformation of “B1”
bolt which located near joint center considering the behaviour of the specimen
“n4-LF20” shown in Fig. 5. From these results, the load sharing ratio of “B1” bolt
was increased so that the shear yield strength of tight filler type joint is smaller than
loose filler type joint as shown in Table 4.
B1 2 3 B1 2 3 4 B1 2 3 4 B1 2 3 4
n3-NF n4-NF n4-LF20 (50) n4-TF20 (50)

1.2
1.0
0.8
P / Pmax
n4- n4-
0.6 n4- n4- LF50
n4-NF TF50
LF20 LF20 B1
0.4 n3-NF B1 B1
B1 B1 B2
B1 B2 B2
B2 B2 B3
B2 B3 B3 B3
0.2 B3 B4
B3
B4
B4 B4 B4
ε=εy ε=εy ε=εy ε=εy ε=εy ε=εy
0.0
0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2 2.4 0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2 2.4 0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2 2.4 0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2 2.4 0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2 2.4 0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2 2.4
εbi / εybi (%) εbi / εybi (%) εbi / εybi (%) εbi / εybi (%) εbi / εybi (%) εbi / εybi (%)
Fig. 5 Load vs. bolt strain curves
(a) n3-NF-2 (b) n4-NF-2
(c) n3-LF20-3 (d) n3-TF20-2
(e) n3-LF50-2 (f) n3-LF50-3
Fig. 6 Appearance of deformation
Therefore, it can hardly contribute to the performance enhancement of the joint

with a filler plate. It is concluded that loose type filler is more preferably used in
high-strength bolted joint.
3.3 Parametric Studies
3.3.1 FE Model
Herein, FEA was conducted with Abaqus/Standard 2018 [1] to investigate the effect
of number of additional bolts outside splice plates on the behaviour of the joint.
Figure 7 shows examples of FE model and Fig. 8 shows its boundary condi-
tions. The contact-separate-cohesive condition is applied in the faying surface
related to the friction. Since the dynamic friction can be considered in Abaqus only
when slip velocity is known, static friction with Coulomb’s model is only con-
sidered in this study. As shown in Fig. 8, the frictional coefficient between two
plates is 0.65 and it is 0.20 between a plate and washer.
Table 5 shows summary of each analysis cases. Thickness of splice plates and
connected plate in non-slip side are constant in all cases. The width of joint is
adjusted to make the ratio of net cross-section failure Ptnd by bolt shear failure Pbod
constant (Ptnd−m/Pbod = 0.72).
Table 6 shows the material properties of all component of joint based on
Japanese Specifications of Highway Bridges [2]. Figure 9 shows the stress-strain
curves. The constitutive law of bolt, nut and washer is tri-linear model, the law of
plates is multi-linear expressed by Eq. (7) by referring to JSCE specifications [3].

r 1 Est e est
¼ 1 exp nm þ1 ð7Þ
r y nm E ey ey
where; r is the nominal stress, e is the nominal strain, est is the strain when the
strain-hardening occurs, Est is the slope at e = est , nm is the material parameter.
Fixed
Cases
(ui and θi = 0, i = x, y, z) without Filler Pl.
Considering
F10T-M16 bolt
structural symmetry
Introduced Bolt
both in width direction and
Tensions = 116.6 kN
in longitudinal direction
half of a joint is modeled by

considering structural symmetry Uniform Forced
Displacement u
in longitudinal direction
Bolt and Bolt holes in non-slip side
were not modeled because the behavour
in slip-side wasn’t changed by that
Fig. 7 FE model (examples: n4-NF and n-TF20-n1)

Constraint(ui and θi DOF) μ = 0.01
μ = 0.65
Fig. 8 Boundary conditions
Table 5 Analysis case
Analysis Nu- Thickness Width with / Additional

mber Connected Pl. without Bolts
Case
Note: All cases of in Slip-sidde Filler Pl. outside
have same bolts / Filler Pl. Loose:L Splice Pl.
P tnd-m / P bod n t ms - t f w Tight:T na
(=0.72) (mm) without:-
(mm)
n1-NF 1 28-0 42 - -
n2-NF 28-0 64 - -
n2-LF20 2 L 0
22-6 78
n2-TF20-a1 T 1
n3-NF 28-0 88 - -
n3-LF20 L 0
3
n3-LF20-a1 22-6 108 1
T
n3-LF20-a2 2
n4-NF 28-0 112 - -
n4-LF20 L 0
n4-TF20-a1 4 1
22-6 138
n4-TF20-a2 T 2
n4-TF20-a3 3

introduced in FEA
Young's Modulus Poisson's Ratio Yield Stress Tensile Strength Yield Strain Yield Raito
Name E ν σy σt εy = σy / E γ = σy / σ t
(N/mm2) (N/mm2) (N/mm2) (×10 -6)
All Pllates 200,000 0.3 325 490.0 1,625 0.66
Bolt, Nut, Washer 200,000 0.3 900 1,000 4,500 0.90
Fig. 9 Stress-strain curves 1000

900
800
E st εy ε st
ξm
700 (N/mm2 ) (×10-6 ) (×10-6 )
σ (N/mm2)
600 6,667 1,625 11,375 0.06
500
400
300
200
Bolt, Nut, Washer
100
all plates
0
0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000
ε( 10-6)
Table 7 Summary of
numerical results
Slip Maximum
Analysis Load Load
Case Ps P max
(kN) (kN)
n1-NF 151 283
n2-NF 298 559
n2-LF20 308 533
n2-TF20-a1 154 276
n3-NF 448 854
n3-LF20 461 829
n3-LF20-a1 312 563
n3-LF20-a2 155 278
n4-NF 589 1,142
n4-LF20 613 1,090
n4-TF20-a1 467 859
n4-TF20-a2 312 556
n4-TF20-a3 153 275
3.3.2 Effect of Number of Additional Bolts Outside Splice Plates

on Load Carrying Capacity
Table 7 shows summary of numerical results. Figure 10 shows load sharing ratios
of splice plates. Horizontal axis shows the ratio of applied load by maximum load
confirmed in FEA, and vertical axis shows the ratio of cross-sectional force of a
splice plate by total cross-sectional force of them. Figure 11 shows Mises stress
56 LF20
Ni: Cross-sectional force (H)
of splice pl. (i = H or N) LF20
54 (N)
TF20-a1
52 (H)
TF20-a1
Ni / P
(N)
50 TF20-a2
(H)
TF20-a2
48 (N)
TF20-a3
(H)
46
TF20-a3
(N)
44 NF (H
0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 and N)
P / Pmax P / Pmax
(a) Total bolts n = 3 (b) Total bolts n = 4
Fig. 10 Load sharing ratio of splice plates
(a) n4-NF (b) n4-LF20
(c) n4-TF20-a1 (d) n4-TF20-a2

Gray Tensile
strength of bolt
1,047N/mm2
(e) n4-TF20-a3
Fig. 11 Mises stress distributions at Maximum Load confirmed in FEA
distributions at maximum load. As shown in Table 7 and Fig. 11, it’s understood
that additional bolts outside splice plates can hardly improve the resistance of joint
with filler plate, and only bolts inside splice plates resist applied load. On the other
hand, in cases of the joint with loose filler plate, their maximum load were almost
same as the joint without filler plate.
As shown in Fig. 10, the effect of additional bolts on the mechanical perfor-
mance of joint is to equalize the load sharing ratio of splice plates. Therefore, in
case that eccentric moment can’t be disregarded because change rate of thickness of
connected plate η is large, tight type filler may prevent failure of the splice plate
which is contacted with connected plate, that is, has more cross-sectional force than
the other one. And also by that, number of shear failure planes is increased from
one to two so that we can utilize the resistance of a bolt although the overall
resistance of the joint is determined only by bolts inside splice plates.
4 Conclusions
Tensile tests and FEA of high-strength frictional bolted joints with/without filler
plates were conducted to investigate these load transfer mechanism and the dif-
ference of performance between the joint with a loose and tight filler plate.
Obtained concluding remarks are as follows.
1) Load carrying capacity of joint such as slip coefficient, maximum load and shear
yield strength of the connected plate was decreased by presence of a filler plate
and its connection method. These strength of the joint with a tight filler was
lower than that with a loose filler.
2) The failure mode of all specimens was bolt shear failure. But number of shear
failure plane varied according to the presence of a filler plate. The joint without
it was broken mainly because of shear force, and the joint with it was broken
because of bending moment and shear force considering these appearance and
axial strain of bolts. As for the tight filler type joint, its additional bolt outside
splice plates wasn’t almost deformed and broken, and other bolts was more
deformed instead of it. Numerical analysis also shows the same results as tensile
tests.
3) From above results, it’s concluded that loose type filler is more preferably used
than tight type filler because additional bolts outside splice plates can hardly
contribute to the performance enhancement of the joint with a filler plate.
4) The effect of additional bolts on the mechanical performance of joint is to
equalize the load sharing ratio of splice plates. Therefore, in case that eccentric
moment can’t be disregarded because change rate of thickness of connected
plate η is large, tight type filler may prevent failure of the splice plate which is
contacted with connected plate. And also by that, number of shear failure planes
is increased from one to two so that we can utilize the resistance of a bolt
although the overall resistance of the joint is determined only by bolts inside
splice plates.
References
1. Dassault Systemes Simlia Corp. (2018) Abaqus standard 2018

2. Japan Road Association (2017) Specifications for Highway Bridges (in Japanese)
3. Japan Society of Civil Engineers (2016) Standard Specifications for Steel and Composite
Structures – III Design (in Japanese)
Bearing Limit State of High-Strength
Frictional Bolted Joints Consisted
of Several Bolts Based on Bolt Hole
Deformation
R. Sakura, H. Moriyama, and T. Yamaguchi
Abstract The high-strength frictional bolted joints should be designed considering

not only slip resistance but also bearing resistance. This study focused on bearing
resistance based on deformation of bolt holes. This resistance contributes to obtain
high structural redundancy because we can control safety margins of resistance and
ductility. Tensile tests of the joints consisted of four bolts arrayed along two rows
and columns was conducted, which varies a pitch and an edge distance, to clarify
the relationship between these parameters and the deformed bearing limit state. It is
found that the bearing stress when the deformation of one of all bolt-holes reaches
10% dimeter of bolt shank was more than three times of the yield stress of the
connected plate in all cases. As the pitch/the edge distance increases, the safety
margin of resistance and ductility in 10% deformed bearing limit state for failure mR
and mD becomes larger. Comparing the maximum strength, the strain distributions,
and the safety margin and so on, it’s concluded that the specimen “p/d4.0-e2/d4.0”
has one of desirable structural configurations to expect high resistance and ductility
after major slip.
Keywords High-strength frictional bolted joints Bearing resistance Deformed

bearing limit state After major slip behaviour
R. Sakura (&) T. Yamaguchi

e-mail: sakura@brdg.civil.eng.osaka-cu.ac.jp
T. Yamaguchi
e-mail: yamaguti-t@civil.eng.osaka-cu.ac.jp
H. Moriyama
Department of Civil Engineering, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan
e-mail: moriyama@kumamoto-u.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_135
1454 R. Sakura et al.
1 Introduction
This paper focuses on mechanical behavior of high-strength bolted frictional type

joints after major slip. According to Japanese Specifications of Highway Bridges
(JSHB) [1], the number of bolts in the joint has been designed by the slip resistance
only. However, it is might be uncertain whether the resistance after major slip is
enough for extreme loads such as seismic action because the resistance depends on
structural configurations [2]. Thus, the number of bolts should be also designed
considering not only frictional resistance but also the bearing resistance as same as
Eurocode 3 (EC3) [3]. For the aseismic performance, ductility of the joint is as
important as resistance. Even if the ultimate load of some joints in the structure are
the same, the failure elongation of each joint is different according to its failure
mode. It’s also difficult to measure the failure elongation. On the other hand, it’s
easy to measure the elongation before the ultimate load because the elongation of
the joint increases gradually regardless of the failure mode. Authors think that the
limit state before the ultimate load is suitable to control the mechanical behavior
and prevent from the failure of the joint.
As shown in Fig. 1, the ultimate limit state (ULS) which authors proposes is
determined by the bolt hole deformation db contrary to the conventional bearing
limit state such as EC3. This limit state contributes to obtain high structural
redundancy because we can control the safety margins not only of ductility but also
resistance for the failure. The local deformation adjacent to a bolt hole has become
larger when the joint reaches the ultimate load. Equalizing of each bolt hole
deformation enhances the ultimate load and the ductility. As plastic deformation of
joints is not so much developed in the situation such as plotted with green circle in
Fig. 1, it’s considered that the deformation of each bolt can be equalized easily.
Uniformed deformation can be obtained by controlling the bolt arrangement such as
end/edge distance, bolt pitch (hereafter called as “pitch”), and gage.
After Slip Behaviour νResistance = Pmax / Pbearing (δb = x)
Ultimate Load
Failure
Load P
νDuctility = δmax / x
Limited bolt hole deformation x = 10%
for Restoration Defining the ULS by the bolt hole
deformation which is deeply related to the
Ultimate Limit State (ULS) bearing force , we can manage the safety
: Deformed Bearing Limit State margin of resistance and ductility for
failure indirectly through the ultimate load.
Serviceability Limit State (SLS)
: Slip Limit State Displacement δ
Fig. 1 Proposed ultimate limit state (deformed bearing limit state)

Bearing Limit State of High-Strength Frictional Bolted Joints … 1455
In this study, tensile tests for high-strength frictional bolted joints consisted of
four bolts arrayed along two rows and columns, which varies the pitch and edge
distance, was conducted to clarify the relationship between these parameters and the
deformed bearing limit state.
2 Tensile Tests
2.1 Specimens
Figure 2 shows geometrical dimensions of specimens. Because of limitation of

loading capacity of the loading machine, F10T-M16 bolts whose slip resistance are
lower than that of F10T-M22 bolts, which are used commonly for bridges in Japan,
were used in slip-side. The ratio of bolt hole diameter d0 by bolt diameter d is the
same as in case of M22 bolt. SHTB bolts whose tensile strength is 1,400 N/mm2
was used in non-slip side to prevent from slip occurrence.
Table 1 shows the structural configurations and bolt arrangement of specimens.
As shown in Fig. 2 and Table 1, the considered parameters are pitch p, edge
distance e2. The ratio of pitch p by bolt diameter d is changed to 3.5 from 4.5 in
intervals of 0.5. The ratio of edge distance e2 by bolt diameter d is changed to 2.5
from 4.0. The gage g is changed depending on the edge distance because the width
of specimens is constant as 216 mm (9.5d).
The mechanical properties of specimens obtained by material tests are shown in
Table 2. The faying surface was coated with inorganic zinc-rich paint after shot
blast processing.
40 65 40 e p e
1 1
d
57
0
10
N S N S
S S
H TB H TB
18
g
120
120
136
4,5
w
N S
O2 N S
O1
8
S S
H TB H TB
57
9 9
2
150 220 145 10 60 80 150 150

e
spl
m
9 9
t
t
Fig. 2 Geometrical dimensions of specimens (unit: mm)

Table 1 Structural configurations and bolt arrangement

Constant Configrations Considered Parameters
Bolt Bolt Width Thickness Number Number End End Bolt Bolt Pitch Edge Edge Gage Gage/
Number Diameter Hole of of Distance Distance Pitch / Bolt Diatance Distance Bolt
Specimen Connected Splice /Bolt /Bolt
of Diameter Rows Columns Diameter Diameter
Name Plate Plate Diameter Diameter
Specimens
d d0 w tm t spl n m e1 e1 / d p p/d e2 e2 / d g g/d
(mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm)
p/d 3.5-e 2 /d 2.5 40 2.5 136 8.5
p/d 3.5-e 2 /d 3.0 56 3.5 48 3.0 120 7.5
p/d 3.5-e 2 /d4.0 64 4.0 88 5.5
p/d 4.0-e 2 /d 2.5 3 16 18 216 9 9 2 2 40 2.5 40 2.5 136 8.5
p/d 4.0-e 2 /d 3.0 64 4.0 48 3.0 120 7.5
p/d 4.0-e 2 /d 4.0 64 4.0 88 5.5
p/d 4.5-e 2 /d 2.5 72 4.5 40 2.5 136 8.5
Table 2 Mechanical properties based on material test
Thickness Young's Modulus Poisson's Ratio Yield Stress Tensile Strength Yield Ratio Yield Strain
Steel
t E ν σy σt γ=σ y /σ t ε y =σ y /E
grade
(mm) (N/mm2) (N/mm2) (N/mm2) (×10-6)
SM490Y 9 208,000 0.283 382.8 503.8 0.76 1,841
2.2 Design Resistance
Table 3 shows the design resistance of specimens calculated based on Table 2. As

fracture of the connected plate only occurred, Table 3 shows the resistance of the
connected plate and bolt. As shown in Fig. 3, herein, failure modes of the con-
nected plates were classified into net cross-section failure (N), shear failure (S),
block shear failure which occurs along the inner perimeter of bolt holes (IS), block
shear failure which occurs along the outer perimeter of bolt holes (IS).
2.2.1 Slip and Yield Resistance (For Serviceability Limit State)
The design slip resistance Psd and net cross-section yield resistance Pynd are cal-
culated by Eqs. (1) and (2) respectively. And also, the ratio of these resistance b,
which is related to the slip behaviour, is obtained by Eq. (3).
Psd ¼ nmlNd ð1Þ
Pynd ¼ Ant ry ¼ ðw d0 Þtm ry ð2Þ
Psd
b¼ ð3Þ
Pynd
Table 3 Design resistance of specimens

Serviceability Limit State (SLS) Ultimate Limit State (ULS)
Slip Design Slip Net Cross- Design Bolt Net Cross- Shear Inner Block Outer Block Expected
Co- Bolt Resistance Section Slip/ Shear Section Failure Shear Shear Failure
Specimen efficient Tensions Yield
Yield Failure Failure Resistance Failure Failure Mode
name Resistance Resistance Resistance Resistance Resistance Resistance
μd Nd P sd P yn βd P bod P tnd P sed P sid P sod (F.M.)
(kN) (kN) (kN) (kN) (kN) (kN) (kN) (kN)
p/d 3.5-e 2 /d 2.5 970 716 OS

p/d 3.5-e 2 /d 3.0 871 898 789 OS
p/d 3.5-e 2 /d4.0 753 934 IS
p/d 4.0-e 2 /d 2.5 0.65 106 551 620 0.889 1034 816 1007 753 OS
p/d 4.0-e 2 /d 3.0 943 934 825 N
p/d 4.0-e 2 /d 4.0 789 970 IS
p/d 4.5-e 2 /d 2.5 1016 1043 789 OS
Ant Ans Ans Ant Ans Ant
Beak Line Beak Line Beak Line Beak Line

(a) Net cross-section (b) Shear failure (c) Inner Block Shear (d) Outer Block Shear
failure (F. M.: N) (F. M.: S) failure (F. M.: IS) failure (F. M.: OS)
Fig. 3 Representative failure mode of the connected plates
where; n (= 4) is the number of bolts, m (= 2) is number of friction surfaces, l

(= 0.45) is slip coefficient, Nd (= 106 kN) is the design bolt tension, w is the width
of connected plate, tm is the thickness of connected plate, d0 is bolt hole diameter,
ry is the yield stress of the connected plate.
2.2.2 Ultimate Load and Expected Failure Mode (For Ultimate Limit
State)
According to Recommendation for Design of Connections in Steel Structures [5],

the net cross-section yield resistance Pynd, shear failure resistance Psed, block shear
resistance (Psid, Psod) are calculated by Eqs. (4), (5), (6) and (7), respectively.
Ptnd ¼ Ant rt ¼ ðw d0 Þt rt ð4Þ

rt rt
Psed ¼ Ans ¼ 2ðe1 þ ðn 1ÞpÞt ð5Þ
2 2
rt
Psid ¼ Ant rt þ Ans ð6Þ
2
rt
Psod ¼ Ant rt þ Ans ð7Þ
2
where; rt is ultimate strength of connected plate, e1 is end distance, p is pitch, Ant is

the tensile fracture cross section, Ans is the shear fracture cross section.
2.2.3 Design Bearing Resistance
The bearing resistance in EC3 is obtained by Eqs. (8)–(12).

X
Pb Euro ¼ n Pb Euro ð8Þ
ðk1 ab rt dtÞ
Pb Euro ¼ ð9Þ
cM

rt
ab ¼ min ad ; bolt ; 1:0 ð10Þ
rt
e1 e1 1
ad ¼ ; ð11Þ
3d0 3d0 4

2:8e2
k1 ¼ min 1:7; 2:5 ð12Þ
d0
where; RPb_Euro is the design bearing resistance of a row of joint, Pb_Euro is the
design bearing resistance per bolt, k1 is the parameter of bolt arrangement per-
pendicular to the direction of load transfer, ab is the parameter of bolt arrangement
in direction of load transfer, rt_bolt is the tensile strength of bolt, e2 is edge distance,
cM is the partial safety factor of joints.
2.3 Measuring Items and Method of Measuring
Figure 4 shows measuring items and these measuring points. To evaluate the
overall bihaviour of joint, its displacement and the relative displacement between
connected plate and splice plates were measured. Investigating the strain distribu-
tions after major slip, the strain of the side surface of the connected plate was
measured. The bolt hole deformation was measured by using the device shown in
Fig. 5. Figure 6 shows the way of calculating the bolt hole deformation from the
relative displacement between the side surface of the connected plate and the bolt
CL
2-0 3.5d 4.5d

2.5d 2.5d
60 1.5d
1.5d 1.5d 1.875d
1 2 34 5 6 7 8
1-0 2e1+p+4.75d mm
(b) p / d = 4.0, 4.5
2.5d 2.5d 4.5d
CL 1.5d 1.5d 1.5d 1.875d
1 23 56 7 8
(a) p / d = 3.5
Fig. 4 Measurement items and these measuring points (unit: mm)
Fig. 5 Device for measuring

bolt hole deformation
hexagonal socket set screw
(a) Over view (b) Close up view
Fig. 6 Calculation method of

bolt hole deformation
Relative
Bolt
displacement δr
Bolt diameter: d Relative displacement

after major slip δr
Bolt Indirectly
measuring
(kN)
Relative displacement
P
Slip Limit State

after major slip δr Bolt hole
Bolt hole deformation δb deformation δb δb(mm)
δr (mm)
after slip. The bolt tension is installed by referring to the strain of the bolt shank.
The tightened tensions is 10% higher than design bolt tensions shown in Table 3 by
considering the relaxation of faying surface with inorganic zinc-rich paint. The
experiment is carried out more than one week after tightening.
3.1 Load Versus Displacement
Obtained experimental results are summarized in Table 4, and load versus dis-
placement curves are shown in Fig. 7. Figure 8 shows failure modes of specimens
confirmed in this test.
As shown in Fig. 7, displacement of joint of maximum load was enhanced by
increasing the pitch. As for failure modes, the actual failure modes were same as the
expected failure modes in any cases. The behaviour before major slip was not
influenced by the pitch and edge distance.
Shear Net Cross- 10% Deformed 10% Deformed Maximum Maximum Load Ultimate
Yield Section Yield Bearing Bearing Load /Design Ultimate Bearing Limit
Expected Actual
Specimen Strength Strength Limit Stress Limit Strength Strengh Stress
Failure Failure
Name
Mode Mode
P ye /P max P yn /P max σ c10 /σ y P c10 /P max P max P max /P ud σ max /σ t
(kN)
p/d 3.5-e 2 /d 2.5 0.80 0.66 3.10 0.82 836 1.17 2.88 OS OS
p/d 3.5-e 2 /d 3.0 0.73 0.67 3.24 0.80 890 1.13 3.07 OS OS
p/d 3.5-e 2 /d4.0 0.73 0.79 3.12 0.82 837 1.11 2.88 IS IS
p/d 4.0-e 2 /d 2.5 0.75 0.69 3.19 0.82 857 1.14 2.95 OS OS
p/d 4.0-e 2 /d 3.0 0.73 0.74 3.19 0.77 908 1.11 3.13 N N
p/d 4.0-e 2 /d 4.0 0.74 0.87 3.15 0.83 842 1.07 2.90 IS IS
p/d 4.5-e 2 /d 2.5 0.73 0.66 3.25 0.81 885 1.12 3.05 OS OS
3.2 Relationship Between Yielding Progress Path

and Failure Mode
Figure 8 shows the failure modes confirmed through tensile tests. With the strain of
the side surface and the end portion of the connected plate, shear yield strength Pye
and net cross-section yield strength Pyn were evaluated. When the value of the strain
gauge reaches yield strain ey (= ry/E), its peripheral region was regarded to be
yielded. Comparing the ratio of these yield strength by maximum load in all
specimens, it’s understood that the ratio (Pye/Pmax, Pyn/Pmax) were related to the
failure modes of the connected plate. In case of inner block shear failure (IS),
Pye/Pmax is larger than Pyn/Pmax. In case of outer block shear failure, Pyn/Pmax is
larger than Pye/Pmax. In case of net cross-section failure (N), Pyn/Pmax is nearly the
same value as Pye/Pmax.
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
P/Pmax
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3 p/d3.5-e2/d2.5 p/d3.5-e2/d3.0 p/d3.5-e2/d4.0
0.2 p/d4.0-e2/d2.5
0.1 p/d4.5-e2/d2.5 p/d4.0-e2/d3.0 p/d4.0-e2/d4.0
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
δ(mm) δ(mm) δ(mm)
Fig. 7 Load versus displacement
(a) Net cross-section (b) Inner Block Shear (c) Outer Block Shear
failure (F. M.: N) failure (F. M.: IS) failure (F. M.: OS)
Fig. 8 Failure modes confirmed through tensile tests

3.3 Deformed Bearing Limit State
The deformed bearing limit state is determined by the bolt hole deformation. When
the deformation of one of all bolt holes db reaches 10% diameter of bolt shank d, the
joint is judged in 10% deformed bearing limit state. The 10% deformed bearing
limit stress rc10 is calculated with nominal bearing area as expressed in Eq. (13).
Pc10
rc10 ¼ ð13Þ
n dtm
where; Pc10 is the applied load at 10% deformed bearing limit state, n is the number
of bolts, d is the nominal bolt diameter, tm is the thickness of the connected plate.
3.4 Deformed Bearing Limit Stress
Figure 9 shows the relationship of the 10% deformed bearing limit stress rc10 and
dimensional parameters. The vertical axis shows the stress rc10 normalized by the
yield stress of connected plate. Circle and triangle plots present the experimental
results. The purple and orange colored lines present the normalized design bearing
resistance in EC3.
As shown in Fig. 9, the stress rc10 was more than three times of the yield stress.
In the case of e2/d = 2.5 and p/d = 4.5, rc10 is nearly the same as the design bearing
stress specified in EC3.
3.5 Strain Distributions
Figure 10 shows the strain distributions at P/Pmax = 0.80, 0.85. The color of plotted
data distinguishes the magnitude of e2/d, and the symbol of plotted data distin-
guishes the magnitude of p/d. As for measured points of No. 3 and No. 5, their
strains became larger as the pitch and edge distance increase. Especially about the
influence of edge distance, the strain at No. 3 and No. 5 points in case of e2/d = 4.0
is smaller than e2/d = 2.5 and 3.5. If the edge distance is smaller than 2.5d, it’s
assumed that the plastic area develops in width direction early, and so that the
failure modes become outer block shear failure.
Fig. 9 Deformed bearing limit stress (the data shows the average value of 3 specimens)
Fig. 10 Strain distributions of connected plate (the data shows the average value of 3 specimens)
3.6 Evaluations of the Safety Margins of Resistance

and Ductility for Failure
Table 5 shows safety margins of the resistance and ductility in 10% deformed
bearing limit state for failure. These safety margins mR and mD are calculated by
Eqs. (14) and (15).
0
max dbi
mD ¼ ð14Þ
maxðdbic10 Þ ¼ 0:1d
Pmax
mR ¼ ð15Þ
Pc10
where; dbi′ is the bolt hole deformation at maximum load, dbi-c10 is the bolt hole
deformation at 10% deformed bearing limit state.
As the pitch/the edge distance increases, each mR and mD become larger. The
overall displacement of the specimen “p/d4.0-e2/d3.0”, which mode was net
cross-section failure, was the largest. The overall displacement of the joint at the
maximum load was changed by its failure mode.
Although the maximum load and corresponding overall displacement of the
specimen “p/d4.0-e2/d4.0” is smaller than that of the specimen “p/d4.0-e2/d3.0”, the
strain of the specimen “p/d4.0-e2/d4.0” at each measured point became more
equally and its ductile safety margin mD was also higher than that of the specimen
“p/d4.0-e2/d3.0”. It is considered that the structural configurations of the specimen
“p/d4.0-e2/d4.0” is desirable.
Table 5 Ductility and resistance for failure
Ductility and
Displacement Maximum Bolt
Resistance
of Joint Hole
for Failure Actual
Specimen at Maximum Deformation of
Failure
Name Load Maximum Load
Mode
δ max δ b-max νD νR
(mm) (mm)
p/d 3.5-e 2 /d 2.5 17.05 11.06 6.91 1.25 OS
p/d 3.5-e 2 /d 3.0 22.63 12.20 7.34 1.37 OS
p/d 3.5-e 2 /d4.0 20.01 11.70 7.31 1.37 IS
p/d 4.0-e 2 /d 2.5 19.16 11.43 7.14 1.33 OS
p/d 4.0-e 2 /d 3.0 27.69 11.72 7.33 1.36 N
p/d 4.0-e 2 /d 4.0 21.58 12.30 7.69 1.36 IS
p/d 4.5-e 2 /d 2.5 20.12 11.70 7.31 1.37 OS
4 Conclusions
In this study, tensile tests for high-strength frictional bolted joints consisted of four
bolts arrayed along two rows and columns, which varies the pitch and edge dis-
tance, was conducted to clarify the relationship between these parameters and the
deformed bearing limit state such as its stress and its safety margin of resistance and
ductility for the failure. Obtained concluding remarks are as follows.
1) The ratio of the yield strength by maximum load (Pye/Pmax, Pyn/Pmax) were
related to the failure modes of the connected plate. In case of inner block shear
failure (IS), Pye/Pmax is larger than Pyn/Pmax. In case of outer block shear failure,
Pyn/Pmax is larger than Pye/Pmax. In case of net cross-section failure (N), Pyn/Pmax
is nearly the same value as Pye/Pmax.
2) 10% deformed bearing limit stress rc10 was more than three times of the yield
stress of the connected plate in all cases. In case of e2/d = 2.5 and p/d = 4.5, that
is the specimen “p/d4.5-e2/d2.5”, its stress rc10 is the same as design bearing
stress of EC3. Therefore, number of bolts can be reduced by considering the bolt
arrangement to expect high bearing resistance and a certain bearing deformation
of bolt hole.
3) The strain at measured points No. 3 and No. 5 located at the net cross-section of
connected plate, become larger as the pitch and edge distance increase. The
influence of the edge distance on the strain distribution was larger than that of
pitch. It is concluded that, in the case that the edge distance is smaller than 2.5d,
the plastic area develops in width direction early, and the failure mode is outer
block shear failure.
4) As the pitch increases, the safety margins of the resistance and ductility at 10%
deformed bearing limit state for the failure, mR and mD became almost the same or
larger than their original values which case is “p/d3.5-e2/d2.5”. As the edge
distance increases, mR and mD were also enhanced.
5) Since strain distributions of the specimen “p/d4.0-e2/d4.0” became almost equal
at each measuring point, the ductile safety margin mD was the highest. It is
concluded that the specimen “p/d4.0-e2/d4.0” has one of the desirable structural
configurations from the viewpoints of the ductile safety margin mD and insen-
sitivity to the contact condition between a bolt and the bolt hole due to some
construction errors.
Acknowledgements This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP18J15508.
References
1. Japan Road Association (2012) Specifications for Highway Bridges, 2012.3 (in Japanese)
2. Može P, Beg D (2010) High strength steel tension splices with one or two bolts. J Constr Steel
Res 66:1000–1010
3. CEN, European Committee for Standardization (2005) Eurocode 3 Design of steel
structures-part1-8: design of joints, EN 1993-1-1, 2005.3
4. Japanese Industrial Standards Committee (2011) Metallic Materials-Tensile Testing-Method of
test at room temperature, JIS Z 2241
5. Architectural Institute of Japan (2012) Recommendation for Design of Connections in Steel
Structures
Experimental Research and Parametric
Study on the Fatigue Performance
of Slotted Tubular Connection Based
on the Effective Notch Stress Approach
Y. X. Luo, R. L. Ma, M. J. He, R. Fincato, and S. Tsutsumi
Abstract The slotted circular hollow section (CHS) tube-to-plate welded joints are
extensively used in steel structures to connect CHS bracings to main members.
Nevertheless, brittle failure within the weld fatigue spot of this joint is still an
urgent issue. In this paper, fatigue experiments in the high cycle regime were
conducted on four large-scale specimens of slotted CHS tubular joints.
Subsequently, 162 test data from existing literature were collected and re-analyzed
with the effective notch stress approach (ENSA). Besides, a comprehensive para-
metric study was executed to determine the elastic notch stress concentration factor
(SCF) of the joints with various weld types and geometries. The results indicate that
the weld type is the most significant parameter affecting the fatigue behavior of this
joint. The notch S-N curve FAT 225 for the ENSA recommended by the
International Institute of Welding (IIW) is rather conservative for the fatigue
assessment of this joint. Finally, optimal structural solutions to reduce the notch
SCF at fatigue spot were recommended based on the parametric study.

Keywords Tubular connection Gusset plate Circular hollow section Fatigue

experiments Effective notch stress
Y. X. Luo (&) R. L. Ma M. J. He
Department of Structural Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
e-mail: luoyuxiao@yahoo.com
R. L. Ma
e-mail: marenle@tongji.edu.cn
M. J. He
e-mail: hemj@tongji.edu.cn
R. Fincato S. Tsutsumi
Joining and Welding Research Institute, Osaka University,
11-1 Mihogaoka, Ibaraki, Osaka 567-0047, Japan
e-mail: fincato@jwri.osaka-u.ac.jp
S. Tsutsumi
e-mail: tsutsumi@jwri.osaka-u.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_136
1468 Y. X. Luo et al.
1 Introduction
Circular hollow sections (CHS) are extensively used as bracings in steel structures
owing to the excellent material utilization and relatively low drag coefficient.
Various slotted CHS tube-to-plate welded joints are applied to connect CHS
bracings to main members in practical projects as shown in Fig. 1. To achieve this
kind of joints, a gusset plate is inserted into the slits at the end of the CHS tube and
connected with weld seams. The fatigue behavior assessment of this type of joints is
of importance when the joints are subjected to cyclic loads in their service life, such
as in steel bridges and steel towers.
The weld around the tip of the gusset is one of the most critical fatigue spots of
this joint. Figure 2 shows the geometric details of this fatigue spot in three different
weld types. It is believed that the weld type has a significant effect on the fatigue
behavior of this joint. Besides, many geometric parameters influence the fatigue
behavior of this joint as well, such as the geometric shape of the gusset plate and the
tube (as shown in Fig. 1 A–I), the dimensional ratio of the gusset plate to the tube.
However, only a few experimental results can be found in literature. Zirn [6]
conducted a series of fatigue experiments on slotted tube-to-plate welded joints in
which configurations of geometric detail (Fig. 1 A–C, E), weld type and materials
were tested. Experimental results of the variant of the joints that commonly used in
transmission towers in Japan (Fig. 1 H–I) were reported by Harada and Kurobane
Fig. 1 Exploded view of various variants of slotted tube-to-plate welded joints

Experimental Research and Parametric Study … 1469
Fig. 2 Critical fatigue spot at

the weld around the tip of the
gusset
[4] as well. Recently, a comprehensive literature review together with twenty-four

fatigue experiments on the slotted CHS tube-to-plate welded joints (Fig. 1 D–G)
were carried out by Baptista et al. [1], the test results indicate that the fatigue
classification recommended by Eurocode 3 [2] for this joint with an open hole at the
slit end (see Fig. 1 F) is nonconservative, and three types of connections together
with a corresponding characteristic nominal S-N curve FAT56 with slope m = 3
were recommended.
Despite the geometric complexity of the slotted CHS tube-to-plate welded joints,
the local stress approach has been verified reliable to evaluate their fatigue
behavior. The effective notch stress approach (ENSA) was adopted by Baptista
et al. [1] to re-analyze the test results by them and by Zirn [6], and several geo-
metric details affecting the elastic notch stress concentration factor (SCF) were
discussed. However, relatively low notch SCF values were given by Baptista et al.
[1] when simulating Zirn’s specimens.
Based on previous researches, fatigue performance analysis on the slotted CHS
tube-to-plate welded joints was conducted in this paper by fatigue experiments and
numerical simulations. Four sets of experiments on the large-scale joints with open
holes at the end of the slits were carried out. Subsequently, the test results by Zirn
[6] and Baptista et al. [1] were re-analyzed with the ENSA. Finally, the influence of
various parameters on the elastic notch SCF of the joint was investigated and
summarized.
2 Experimental Procedure
2.1 Experimental Specimens
Four sets of fatigue experiments on the CHS tube-to-plate welded joint with open
holes at the end of the slits were carried out. In order to meet the needs of a practical
project, L-shape sealing plates were fixed to the end of the CHS tube as shown in
Fig. 3. The open hole at the end of the slit was manufactured by drilling, and all the
specimens were fabricated by Q345-B steel with the yield strength of 345 MPa.
Full penetration weld was adopted as shown in Fig. 2 (weld type B). All the
weld seams were checked by roentgen ray, and sandblast was executed to both sides
of the gusset plate before the welding procedure.
2.2 Test Procedure
In order to meet the special conditions of a practical project, in three of the four test
specimens, four long bolts were fixed inside the tubes and pre-stretched before the
fatigue test (see Table 1 No. 2–4). The actual nominal stress ranges and the
effective stress ratios for these three cases were computed in the CHS tubes inde-
pendently. The loading frequencies were kept at 4 Hz. Strain gauges were applied
on the critical fatigue spots of the specimens, 5% rate of change of the strain range
was considered to be the crack initiation life, and the observation of a large or
through-wall crack was taken as the failure of the specimens.
Fig. 3 Experimental specimen

Table 1 Test parameters and results

No. Gusset plate Stress Stress Modified stress Fatigue Crack
thickness tp / ratio range/ rang (R = 0.1)/ life/cycle location on
mm R in MPa MPa the tube
tube
1 10.0 0.175 93.0 95.5 405,000 Hole edge
2 16.0 CC 73.0 56.0 1,980,000 Weld end
3 16.0 CC 79.0 – >4,000,000 No crack
4 16.0 CC 93.0 56.3 1,513,000 Hole edge
CC: Completely in compression
3 Results
Three crack patterns were found in experiments as shown in Fig. 4. Besides the
open hole at the slit end, the weld at the tube end (on gusset plate) is the other
critical fatigue spot (Fig. 4 (c)), especially for thin gusset plate cases.
Due to the limited number of specimens, the test results have no statistically
significance. Therefore, the test data were plotted with the results of the same
geometry (open hole at the slit end) by Baptista et al. [1]. In order to convert the
effective stress ratio to R = 0.1, the stress ranges were modified according to the
recommendations by the International Institute of Welding (IIW) [5] when plotting
the diagram. The crack on the hole edge (Fig. 4 (a)) and the crack on the weld seam
(Fig. 4 (b)) are regarded as category I and II defined by IIW [5] respectively when
converting the stress ratio.
(a) Crack at the hole edge (b) Crack at the weld end (c) Crack on the gusset
on the tube
Fig. 4 Crack patterns found in fatigue experiments

Fig. 5 Experimental results

in the nominal stress range
Table 1 presents the test results. No crack was observed at the open hole on the
tube in No. 3 specimen before the gusset plate completely ruptured at 4 million
cycles. Figure 5 shows the other three test results after the conversion of stress ratio.
It can be seen from Fig. 5, the test results in this paper after the stress ratio
conversion are consistent well with the results by Baptista et al. [1]. A mean curve
FAT 55 with slope m = 3 was obtained by linear regression.
4 The Effective Notch Stress Analysis
Based on Neuber’s micro-support effect of material theory, Radaj proposed the

ENSA to evaluate the fatigue behavior of various types of welded joints with one
uniform notch S-N curve. Currently, this approach has been adopted by multiple
guidelines and recommendations.
According to the regulations of the ENSA, all the weld toes and the weld roots
were rounded with a 1.0 mm fictitious radius before calculation, see Fig. 2. In this
paper, the maximum principal stress at the notch was taken for the notch stress
rnotch , and the nominal stress rnom was applied to the tube extremity. Consequently,
the elastic notch SCF Kt can be defined as Eq. (1) shows.
Kt ¼ rnotch =rnom ð1Þ
4.1 Effective Notch Stress Analysis of Fatigue Experiments
The specimens tested by Zirn [6] (L1–L3) and by Baptista et al. [1] (C1–C4) were
modeled and re-analyzed with the ENSA by means of 3D finite element method
(FEM). Table 2 presents the results of Kt at both the weld toe and the weld root.
The dimensions of the specimens refer to the literature (Zirn [6]; Baptista et al. [1]).
Figure 6 shows the typical stress distribution results at the weld toe and the weld
root.
Table 2 Kt results of the

specimens of previous fatigue
experiments
Kt
Specimen Geometry Weld type
Toe Root
C1
8.3 5.2
tp =18mm
C2
5.5 (hole edge)
tp =18mm
C3
3.7 7.8
tp =18mm
C4
10.3 -
tp =18mm
L1
7.2 10.0
tp =15mm
L1
3.4 7.3
tp =15mm
L2 3.5 4.7
tp =15mm (outer toe) (inner toe)
L2
4.4 6.9
tp =10mm
L2
3.9 6.4
tp =15mm
L2
3.7 5.9
tp =20mm
L2*
3.7 6.0
tp =15mm
L3
8.3 10.4
tp =15mm
L3
4.7 6.0
tp =15mm
tp : the thickness of the gusset plate. Bold values represent the higher Kt
(a) Weld toe (b) Weld root (filletweld) (c) Weld root (full penetration)
Fig. 6 Typical stress distribution results at the weld toe and the weld root
The results of Kt given in Table 2 are compared with the results computed by
Baptista et al. [1]. Although the Kt results for C1–C4 have a good agreement with
the results by Baptista et al. [1], notable differences are found in L1–L3. The Kt
results for L1–L3 by Baptista et al. [1] are much lower than that obtained in this
paper. Nevertheless, the crack locations in C1–C4 predicted by the results with the
highest Kt are consistent well with the crack locations reported by Baptista et al. [1].
It can be noticed that the weld type is the dominant parameter that influences the
Kt values most as listed in Table 2, fillet welds lead to significantly higher Kt value
than full penetration welds. The geometry of the joint also has an obvious effect on
Kt values. While the thickness of the gusset plate has only a slight effect on the Kt
values.
The fatigue test results by Zirn [6] and Baptista et al. [1] are plotted in the S-N
diagram in the nominal stress range in Fig. 7, in which the FAT 45 and the FAT 56
curve are the recommended design categories by Baptista et al. [1] for the fillet
welds and the full penetration welds respectively. Besides, based on the results of
the Kt obtained in this paper, the test results are plotted in the S-N diagram in the
notch stress range as well, see Fig. 8.
Fig. 7 Test data in the

nominal stress range
Fig. 8 Test data in the notch

stress range
A contradiction can be noticed between Figs. 7 and 8, the joints with full
penetration welds become more disadvantageous based on the ENSA evaluation.
Nevertheless, the notch S-N curve FAT 225 with slope m = 3, which is recom-
mended by IIW [3] and considered to have 97.7% survival probability for steel
material, is rather conservative for the fatigue assessment of CHS slotted
tube-to-plate welded joints.
4.2 Parameters Effects on Kt
Besides the weld type and the plate thickness that has been discussed in Sect. 4.1,
other parameters also have non-negligible effects on the elastic notch SCF Kt of the
joints, such as the geometries of the gusset plate, tube chamfer, sealing plate and the
length of the weld seam. Baptista et al. [1] have discussed a part of the parameters
by the parametric study. Similarly, by means of 3D FEM, this paper executed a
series of numerical simulations to investigate the effects of various parameters on
the Kt values for both the fillet welds and the full penetration welds. The results are
displayed in Table 3.
From Table 3 it can be seen that the gusset chamfer has a beneficial effect on
decreasing the Kt only for the full penetration welds, no obvious effect was found
for the fillet welds. A sealing plate and the relatively long weld seam are the feasible
measures to decrease the Kt for both the fillet welds and the full penetration welds.
In addition, it is worth noting that the tube chamfer, which may have a beneficial
effect on reducing the stress concentration degree at the tube extremity on the gusset
(see Fig. 4 (c)), slightly increases the Kt at the weld around the tip of the gusset.
Table 3 Kt results under

various configurations
Elastic notch SCF Kt

Parameter Geometry Full penetration Fillet welds
Toe Root Toe Root
*Baseline
3.7 7.8 7.3 10.8
model
Without gusset
3.3 8.6 7.2 10.8
chamfer
Without tube
3.6 7.2 7.0 10.3
chamfer
With Sealing
3.5 6.7 6.6 9.4
plate
lw
=0.7 3.7 9.3 7.9 12.4
D
lw
=1.4 3.7 7.8 7.3 10.8
Weld seam D
length lw
=2.1 3.6 7.3 7.0 10.1
D
lw
=2.8 3.5 7.0 6.9 9.8
D
*the specimen C3 tested by Baptista et al. [1] was chosen as the baseline model.
lw : the length of the weld seam
D: the diameter of the steel tube
5 Conclusions
Two fatigue critical spots were found in the experiments of the slotted CHS
tube-to-plate welded joints with open holes at the end of the slit. Based on the test
data in this paper and reported by Baptista et al. [1], a mean S-N curve FAT 55 with
slope m = 3 for this type of connections was obtained by linear regression.
The ENSA proved to be effective in predicting the crack locations, and the notch
S-N curve FAT 225 with slope m = 3 recommended by IIW [3] is rather conser-
vative for the fatigue assessment of this kind of joints. The joints with full pene-
tration welds are recommended. Besides, the sealing plate fixed to tube extremity,
the chamfer on the gusset plate, a relatively thick gusset plate and the relatively long
weld seam all have beneficial effects on decreasing the notch SCF at the welds
around the tip of the gusset.
References
1. Baptista C, Kannuna S, Pedro JO, Nussbaumer A (2017) Fatigue behaviour of CHS tubular
bracings in steel bridges. Int J Fatig 96:127–141
2. EN 1993 1-9 (2005) Eurocode 3: design of steel structures - Part 1-9: Fatigue. European
Committee for Standardization (CEN)
3. Fricke W (2012) IIW recommendations for the fatigue assessment of welded structures by
notch stress analysis: IIW-2006-09 Woodhead Publishing
4. Harada K, Kurobane Y (1982) Fatigue of welded tube to gusset plate joints applicable for use
in transmission towers. Trans AIJ 318:62–70 [in Japanese]
5. Hobbacher A (2009) IIW recommendations for fatigue design of welded joints and
components. Welding Research Council, New York
6. Zirn R (1975) Schwingfestigkeitsverhalten geschweißter Rohrknotenpunkte und
Rohrlaschenverbindungen, Ph.D. thesis, Universität Stuttgart. [in Germany]
Experimental Study of a Prefabricated
Steel Frame System
with Buckling-Restrained Braces
Yuan Xu, Hong Guan, Hassan Karampour, Yew-Chaye Loo,

and Xuejun Zhou
Abstract This paper presents an experimental study of a proposed prefabricated

steel frame system with buckling restrained braces (BRBs) which is expected to
satisfy both seismic and prefabrication requirements. The experimental program
was conducted incorporating three half scaled 2-story models: two double-bay
frames consisting of a buckling retrained braced frame (BRBF) and an adjoining
non-moment resisting frame, plus one single-bay BRBF (without a non-moment
resisting frame). The numerical models of the test specimens were designed using
software package SAP2000, based on the analysis results from the finite element
package OpenSees. The specimens were assembled and tested under cyclic loads.
The experimental results are discussed with regard to the hysteretic behaviour, the
skeleton curve, the energy dissipating capacity, and the stiffness degradation.
Comparisons between the numerical predictions and the experimental results show
that the OpenSees modelling provides a reasonable match with the observed
behaviour of the tested specimens.
Keywords Buckling restrained braces Non-moment resisting frame

Prefabricated steel frame
1 Introduction
In recent years, building and construction industry has been facing ever-increasing
challenges in safeguarding civil infrastructure against natural hazards like earth-
quakes. Conventional structural design approaches can no longer satisfy the needs
Y. Xu (&) H. Guan H. Karampour Y.-C. Loo

School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University,
Brisbane, QLD 4222, Australia
e-mail: yuan.xu4@griffithuni.edu.au
X. Zhou
School of Civil Engineering, Shandong Jianzhu University,
Jinan, People’s Republic of China

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_137
1480 Y. Xu et al.
for the rapid development of advanced modular constructions. Meanwhile, sus-

tainable construction through the adoption of prefabrication in commercial and
residential buildings has become a trend in modern construction industry, due to
limited availability of land, intensive construction demand, and most importantly,
the construction speed, safety, and cost effectiveness that the prefabrication tech-
niques can provide [2, 4].
A Buckling Restrained Brace (BRB) is a structural brace, designed to enable the
building to withstand cyclic lateral loadings, typically earthquake-induced loading.
In recent decades, BRB frames (BRBFs) have become more and more common in
seismic prone regions because of its proven and relatively stable hysteretic beha-
viour, significant ductility and large energy dissipation capacity [1, 8]. Therefore,
adopting the BRBFs for prefabricated construction could be a mutual gain by
satisfying both structural performance and sustainable development demand. This
construction system has the potential to show favourable seismic behaviour under
earthquake actions.
An improved prefabricated steel system with all bolt-connected beams and
columns and BRBs has been developed [9]. This system adopts solely bolted
connections for both the buckling restrained braced bay as well as the non-braced
bays. In the proposed system, the lateral earthquake forces are resisted by
employing the BRBs. Hence, the potential damage to the main structural members
due to earthquake ground motions can be prevented by the BRBs, while the
bolt-connected beams and columns remain elastic. Moreover, with all bolted con-
nections, the on-site assembly speed can be significantly improved without the
application of welding, and potentially damaged lateral load resisting members can
be rapidly replaced at a reasonable cost after the earthquake. The feasibility of the
proposed BRBF system has been preliminarily confirmed by using time-history
analysis.
To further investigate the seismic performance of the proposed structural system,
the rotational capability of the bolted beam-column connections, and the contri-
bution of the bolted non-moment-resisting frame to the whole structural system
under seismic actions, an experimental program has been undertaken on three half
scaled 2-story models: two double-bay frames consisting of a buckling retrained
braced frame (BRBF) and an adjoining non-moment resisting frame, and one
single-bay BRBF (without a non-moment resisting frame). Note that the beams and
columns in the non-moment resisting frames are all connected by bolts, therefore
the moments in such a frame are expected to be minimal.
2 Experimental Design
In this study, the testing frames include three different specimens. The first two are
standard frames consisting of a BRB frame (BRBF) and an adjoining
non-moment-resisting frame. The difference between the two is the assembly of the
Experimental Study of a Prefabricated Steel Frame System … 1481
frames, i.e. fin plate beam-column connections (BRBF-FF) and end-plate

beam-column connections (BRBF-EF). The third frame is a single BRBF.
For all three frames, each span is 3 m long with a typical height of 1.5 m for each
story. H-shaped steel is used for both the beams and columns, while low strength
steel is employed for the BRBs. The schematic diagram and notation of all the
members of a standard frame and a single BRBF, as well as the setup of the test are
shown in Figs. 1 and 2. Given that the actuator is connected to the top of KZ1 on the
left side of the frame, the BRBs are designed in the form of chevron configurations in
the second story to resist the horizontal loads together with the second story beam,
and inverse-chevron configurations are designed in the first story.
(a) Standard BRBF with non-moment resisting frame (b) Single BRBF
Fig. 1 Elevation of the tested frames (unit: mm)
Fig. 2 Experiment setup of

the standard BRBF with
non-moment resisting frame
1482 Y. Xu et al.
Table 1 Member sizes of specimen (unit: mm)

Member Notation Section profile Size
Column KZ H HW200 200 8 12
Beam KL H HN175 90 5 8
Ground beam GB H HW300 300 10 15
Table 2 Mechanical properties of beams and columns

Elastic modulus Yield force (kN) Yield strength Tensile strength
(MPa) (MPa) (MPa)
2.16E + 05 63.5 330 455
Table 3 Mechanical properties of BRB

Elastic Yield Overstrength Core EA/L Yield Yield
modulus (MPa) strength (MPa) ratio area (mm2) (kN/mm) force (kN) stiffness ratio
2.06E + 05 100 1.1 900 87.41 99 0.04
The frames were designed using software package SAP2000 in accordance with
the current Chinese seismic design provision [3]. The design dead load (DL) of the
floor is 3.68 kN/m2 and that of the roof is 2.94 kN/m2. The design live load (LL) is
2 kN/m2 for each floor. The design load combinations considered 1.2DL + 1.6LL.
Note that the selection of the beams and columns where also constrained by the
profile steel supplied by the manufacturer. Therefore, the availability of the steel
sections was also considered for the design. According to the above considerations,
the size and material properties of all members of the frame specimen are sum-
marised in Tables 1, 2 and 3.
3 Test Rig Setup and Loading Protocol
This experiment employed the low cyclic loading method. The lateral cyclic load
was provided by MTS electro-hydraulic servo actuator which was fixed to the
reaction wall on one side and bolted to the top left of the frame on the other side.
The travel distance of the actuator is ±150 mm. The static vertical loads exerted at
the columns were applied through three hydraulic jacks. To ensure consistent
vertical loads during the horizontal motion of the frame, roller sliding blocks were
placed between the column top and the hydraulic jack. To achieve the fixed end
constraint for the boundary condition, the columns were welded to the ground
beams. The schematic of the experimental set up is presented in Fig. 3.
Fig. 3 Experimental set up (unit: mm)
Quasi-static simulations were conducted using the displacement control method.

The loading protocol follows the loading protocol provisions outlined in the
Chinese seismic provision [3]. 250 kN vertical loads were first exerted on all the
columns through hydraulic jacks. After the pressure was stabilised, a small lateral
load was applied to the top left of KZ1 through the actuator, collinear with the
centre line of KL1. Then a small step size of Df was applied in the initial phase until
the test frame reached its maximum elastic displacement Dfe. Subsequently, the
multiple of Dfe (2 Dfe, 3 Dfe, 4 Dfe, 5 Dfe, 6 Dfe ……) step size were acted.
4 Experimental Results and Numerical Comparison
4.1 Experimental Observations
The first test was for BRBF-EF, and Dfe adopted 4.8 mm according to the numerical
prediction. In the initial stage of the loading process, there was no obvious phe-
nomenon observed in the testing frame. At Df = 28.8 mm, “popping” noises were
heard from the BRBs which could be from the internal concrete crushing.
Meanwhile, the steel core of BRBs began to display visible axial extension from the
bond preventing material, as shown in Fig. 4. From then, during the “push-pull”
actions, the extension and compression of BRB cores were constantly observed,
which implies adequate axial deformation capability of BRBs. Not surprisingly, no
noticeable yielding was observed in the beam, columns or gusset plates during the
entire loading process.
1484 Y. Xu et al.
Fig. 4 Axial extension of

BRB core in BRBF-EF
specimen
At Df = 38.4 mm, KL1 connecting to the actuator started to show the tendency
of out-of-plane deformation. Therefore, in case when KL1 buckled, the test was
terminated at Df = 38.4 mm. After unloading, no visible plastic deformation was
observed in the test frame, implying sufficient ductility and energy-dissipation
capacity of the structural system.
The observations of the second test for BRBF-FF are very similar to those for
BRBF-EF. Dfe is identical to the first test. At Df = 33.6 mm, small, yet noticeable
out-of-plane rotation was found at the actuator, due to the tendency of buckling at
KL1. Then, the test was ended.
The third test was for the single BRBF. This test also adopted 4.8 mm as the
maximum elastic displacement for the loading. Similar to the first two cyclic
loading tests, crushing sound from BRB4 was heard when the horizontal dis-
placement Df reached 28.8 mm. It should be noted that the BRBs in the single
BRBF yielded at the same displacement with those in specimens BRBF-EF and
BRBF-FF. This is because the non-moment-resisting bays in BRBF-EF and
BRBF-FF provide very limited stiffness to the BRBF, therefore results in a simi-
larity of the structural behaviours of the three specimens. Subsequently, as the BRB
steel core was observed to be pulled out from the steel tube, the BRBs yielded
successively. The test ended when the displacement went up to 52.8 mm.
4.2 Experimental and Numerical Result Comparisons
The finite element analysis software OpenSees [6] was used to predict the structural
behaviour of the three test specimens, i.e. BRBF-EF, BRBF-FF, and single BRBF.
In the OpenSees models, displacement-based beam-column elements “steel 01”
with fibre sections are used to simulate the beams and columns. A total of five
integration points are used in the element state determination. In order to account
for the material non-linearity, elastic-plastic bilinear behaviour is considered for the
beams and columns. Truss elements are used to model BRBs, and “steel 02”
material type with similar hysteretic behaviours in tension and compression [7] is
employed. To capture the geometric non-linearity, the P-d effects in the columns
and BRBs are taken into account. For the pin connections exhibiting zero rotational
stiffness, pairs of slave and master nodes are defined at the corresponding
beam-column connections and are connected using zero-length spring elements.
Note that for the numerical models of all three specimens, the columns were
assumed to be fully fixed to the ground. Furthermore, the numerical models for
BRBF-EF and BRBF-FF were identical as the beam-column connections (end-plate
connections for BRBF-EF and fin-plate connections for BRBF-FF) in the
non-moment-resisting bays were all assumed to be purely pinned, therefore the
non-moment-resisting bays provide no stiffness to the BRBF in the numerical
models.
Figures 5, 6 and 7 show the comparisons between the numerical values and the
experimental ones in the form of the overall hysteresis behaviour and skeleton
curve. Note that the energy dissipation and stiffness degradation capabilities can be
directly calculated from these curves. In these figures, the experimental base shear
force takes the value of the actuator force.
It can be observed from the hysteresis curves of the three tests (blue lines), that
the tensile force is always greater than the compressive force in a cyclic circulation.
This is possibly due to the slight loosening of the bolts connecting the actuator and
the tested specimen during the loading process. When the bolts were tightened up
again, the specimen might not have been placed back at the exact original position,
therefore led to the slight difference in tension and compression.
As illustrated in Figs. 5 (a) and 6 (a), the hysteresis behaviours of BRBF-EF and
BRBF-FF are very close to the ideal behaviour which displays stable and
non-degenerating loops. The amount of area enclosed by the hysteresis loops is
large and the loops follow approximately the same path for each of the higher
loading cycles.
Nevertheless, in the cyclic test for BRBF-EF, the supporting system was not
reinforced properly, which resulted in a slight out-of-plane rotation of the 2nd story
beam during pushing action. As can be seen in Fig. 5 (a), the hysteresis loop in the
first quadrant increases almost linearly when the displacement is greater than
9.6 mm, this is because the 2nd story beam started to slightly lean onto the sup-
porting system when being pushed at a relatively large force-displacement level.
This problem was corrected in the following tests. In Fig. 6 (a), the sudden change
in the first quadrant for BRBF-FF is due to the unexpected rotation of the actuator,
and when this happened, the test was terminated.
1486 Y. Xu et al.
While BRBF-EF and BRBF-FF displayed almost ideal hysteresis behaviour, the
single BRBF demonstrates slightly pinched hysteresis loops. Typically, pinched
hysteresis loops reflect the behaviour of a structure that have members buckled
when subjected to compressive loads. However, in the case of the single BRBF, the
pinched loops are not due to the buckling of members but are the result of the
change in stiffness due to the deformation of the BRBs after yielding.
It can be seen from the skeleton curves obtained from the tests of the three
specimens (Figs. 5 (b), 6 (b) and 7 (b)), except that the actuator rotated at the end of
the test for BRBF-FF, there is no decrease found in the curves. This implies that
there was no strength degradation in tension or compression for the specimens
throughout the tests. Note that all three tests reached point A where the elastic
deformation is 4.8 mm. However, none of the tests reached point B due to the
capacity limitation of the experimental equipment.
All the skeleton curves demonstrate a clear bilinear behaviour differentiating the
elastic and plastic stages by Dfe = 4.8 mm. The actual base shear forces for
Specimens BRBF-EF, BRBF-FF and single BRBF when BRB started yielding (the
structural behaviour entered the plastic stage) are 135 kN, 140 kN and 155 kN,
respectively, which are very close to the numerical prediction. Also in Figs. 5, 6
and 7, the numerical model predicts slightly larger displacements than those
observed in the tests, this is due to the assumed infinitely rigid boundary conditions
in the numerical model.
For the analysis results presented, only flexural and axial deformations are
considered. The imperfections of the experimental setup is also believed to con-
tribute to the discrepancies to a certain extent. Furthermore, as the instantaneous
horizontal actuator forces obtained from the tests are only approximate, especially
for the later cycles, the correlation of the numerical and experimental results is
considered to be satisfactory.
(a) Hysteresis curve (b) Skeleton curve
Fig. 5 Comparison between experimental and numerical results for BRBF-EF

Fig. 6 Comparison between experimental and numerical results for BRBF-FF
Fig. 7 Comparison between experimental and numerical results for the single BRBF
Structural components and systems often exhibit certain level of stiffness

degradation when subjected to reverse cyclic loading. Stiffness degradation can be
evaluated by the secant stiffness coefficient Ki [5].
j þ Fi j þ jFi j
Ki ¼ ð1Þ
j þ Xi j þ jXi j
where ±Fi are the maximum base shear forces (actuator forces) in loop i, ±Xi are
the maximum displacements in loop i.
The Ki values are calculated for each loop of the tests and numerical analyses for
all three specimens, and are summarised in Table 4. It can be observed that the
numerically predicted horizontal secant stiffnesses for BRBF-EF and BRBF-FF
systems are slightly larger than that of the single BRBF as expected. However the
test results show smaller stiffnesses especially for BRBF-EF, which could be due to
the pin connections in the non-moment resisting bay not being fully tightened,
thereby causing frictions at the pin joints. Such a phenomenon was less obvious in
the later loading cycles because the increased applied load became more dominant.
1488 Y. Xu et al.
Table 4 Secant stiffness coefficient Ki for three test specimens

Applied Loop Ki-BRBF-EF Ki-BRBF-FF Ki-single BRBF
displacement (mm) number Test Numerical Test Numerical Test Numerical
±1.2 1 22.73 45.3 35.07 45.3 36.12 44.1
±2.4 2 26.42 45.3 35.95 45.3 39.32 44
±3.6 3 27.72 42.1 34.79 42.1 39.16 41.2
±4.8 4 27.83 34.6 32.73 34.6 38.72 33.8
±9.6 5 21.44 20.9 23.39 20.9 25.11 19.9
±14.4 6 16.84 15.9 17.68 15.9 18.57 14.9
±19.2 7 14.76 13.7 14.78 13.7 15.42 12.7
±24.0 8 13.33 12.4 13.52 12.4 13.71 11.3
±28.8 9 12.37 11.4 12.44 11.4 12.47 10.4
±33.6 10 11.46 10.5 11.53 10.5 11.78 9.5
±38.4 11 – – – – 10.70 8.8
±43.2 12 – – – – 9.77 8.2
5 Conclusions
In this paper, an experimental study of a proposed prefabricated steel frame system

with BRBs has been presented. The experiment results are discussed and compared
with the numerical modelling results, with regard to the hysteretic behaviour, the
skeleton curve, the energy dissipating capacity, and the stiffness degradation. In
general, the results showed that the BRBF system performs well in energy dissi-
pation under earthquakes.
The numerical models used utilised simple rigid boundary conditions and purely
pinned beam-column connections in the non-moment resisting bays. These
assumptions imply that the rotational stiffness of the beam-column connections has
a negligible contribution to the global behaviour. This is the main reason for the
slight discrepancies between the numerical predictions and the experimental results.
Nevertheless, the numerical models have proven to provide a reasonable approxi-
mation of the observed behaviour of the tested specimens.
References
1. Black CJ, Makris N, Aiken ID (2004) Component testing, seismic evaluation and
characterization of buckling-restrained braces. J Struct Eng 130:880–894
2. Blismas N, Pasquire C, Gibb A (2006) Benefit evaluation for off-site production in
construction. Constr Manage Econ 24:121–130
3. GB50011 (2010) Code for seismic design of buildings. China Building Industry Press, Beijing
4. Jaillon L, Poon C-S (2008) Sustainable construction aspects of using prefabrication in dense
urban environment: a Hong Kong case study. Constr Manage Econ 26:953–966
5. JGJ/T 101 (2015) Specification for seismic test of buildings. Ministry of Housing and
Urban-Rural Development of the People’s Republic of China, Beijing
6. McKenna F, Mazzoni S, Scott MH, Fenves GL (2006) OpenSees command language manual.
Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, vol 264
7. Uriz P, Mahin S (2008) Toward earthquake-resistant design of concentrically braced
steel-frame structures. PEER rep no. 2008/08, Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research
Center, College of Engineering, University of California, Berkeley
8. Xie Q (2005) State of the art of buckling-restrained braces in Asia. J Constr Steel Res 61:727–
748
9. Xu Y, Guan H, Zhou XJ, Loo YC (2015) Preliminary seismic analysis of fabricated steel frame
systems with pin beam-column connections and buckling restrained braces. In: International
conference on performance-based and life-cycle structural engineering, Brisbane, Australia,
09–11 December 2015, pp 768–775
Automatic Optimal Design of Steel
Modular Buildings Under Different
Wind Load Levels
J. C. Guo and X. Zhao
Abstract The modular structure is ideal for buildings with repeatable units as its
advantages of the reduced on-site construction schedule, improved quality, and
reduced environmental impacts. The design of modular structure doesn’t need to be
the same as the traditional structural design which adopts the process of trial and
error methodology to try to search a “feasible solution” that satisfies the structural
design criteria. In this paper, an automatic optimal design method is developed for
steel modular buildings. The proposed design method integrates computer tech-
nology and advanced optimal method into engineering practice to make the
structural design of steel modular buildings automatically, quickly, and accurately
under different wind load levels. The critical components are firstly indicated by
redundancy and sensitivity analysis results, and the optimal design results are then
obtained by the iteration procedure. This study realized the proposed design method
by coding a program. The design results of a steel frame structure obtained by
traditional design method and the automatic optimal design method developed in
this paper are compared to show the accuracy and efficiency of the automatic
optimal design method.
Keywords Modular structure Sensitivity analysis Automatic optimal design
J. C. Guo X. Zhao (&)

School of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, No. 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai, China
J. C. Guo
e-mail: guojunchen@tongji.edu.cn
X. Zhao
Tongji Architectural Design Group, No. 1230 Siping Road, Shanghai, China

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_138
1492 J. C. Guo and X. Zhao
1 Introduction
Modular building refers to the building is divided into a number of space modules,
all the equipment, pipelines, decoration, fixed furniture have been done. The
modular building is ideal for buildings with repeatable units as its advantages of the
reduced on-site construction schedule, improved quality, and reduced environ-
mental impacts. In the face of the increasing shortage of urban land, the demand for
high-rise modular buildings is becoming more and more urgent.
In China, there is a correlation between wind load and construction site. Because
of its small lateral stiffness, the modular steel structure will be controlled by the
horizontal load in structural design with the increase of structural height. That
means the wind resistance design become one of the key points of the modular
structural design.
Traditional structure design usually adopts the process of modeling-analysis-
calculation-artificial modify to try to search a “feasible solution” that satisfied the
structural design requirements. This process is complex and inefficient. As the
components of modular buildings are standardized. It’s convenient to integrate
computer technology and advanced optimal method into engineering practice to
make the structural design of steel modular buildings automatically, quickly, and
accurately under different wind load levels, which is advance research in the field of
engineering structure design.
Previous studies are mainly through the study of artificial optimal methods.
Dong Y.M proposed an optimal design for the structure lateral system of super tall
buildings under multiple constraints [2]. Cao B.F developed a multilevel con-
strained optimal structural design method for reinforced concrete tall buildings [1].
Ma H.J offered an integrated optimal design method by adding supplement
damping technology-reverse toggle brace damper (TBD) system [3]. The sensi-
tivities of wind-induced acceleration on design variables of typical structural
members for super tall buildings was addressed [5]. Sensitivity analysis based
optimization method to optimize structures subject to story drift constraint under
earthquake action was studied [4].
Base on wind resistance optimal design theory, this paper proposes an automatic
optimal design of steel modular buildings under different wind load levels, A
ten-stories plane frame structure is exemplified in this paper to illustrate the char-
acteristics and advantages of the method.
2 Structure
Modular steel structure members include floor beam, roof beam, side column,
middle column and brace, all components are standardized components. The same
kind of components in a structure usually have the same peripheral size, and the
thickness of components can decrease along with the vertical height of the structure.
Automatic Optimal Design of Steel Modular Buildings… 1493
(a) Standard module A (b) Standard module B
Fig. 1 Basic modular
The size of the module can be customized. In general, the length of the module is
6 m, the width is 3.5 m (ultra-wide)/3 m/2.4 m, the height is 3.2 m (suitable for
central air conditioning)/3 m (suitable for common air conditioning), and the dis-
tance from the middle column to the side column is 1.5 m. Standard module A is
the basic module with no brace which is suitable for free space layout. Standard
module B adds middle columns and braces on the basis of standard module A,
which is suitable for the case that the stiffness of the structure is insufficient and
haven’t too many requirements for space layout. Module A and module B can be
arranged flexibly according to the overall model stiffness. The two basic modules of
the modular steel structure are shown in Fig. 1.
3 Theoretical Basis
3.1 The Optimal Design Based on Sensitivity Analysis
In the optimal design based on sensitivity analysis, the order of constraint opti-
mization should be selected first. There are many constraints in the design of a
structure, which can be divided into global constraints, assembly constraints,
component constraints, sectional constraints and detailing constraints. If the con-
straints satisfy the requirements of the standard, ascend the constraint. Otherwise,
the constraints are further optimized as driven constraints until all of the constraints
satisfy the requirements of the standard. As shown in Fig. 2.
After that, the redundancy is a measure of the margin of a performance metric to
the design standard limits, which needs to be calculated to determine whether the
Detailing Sectional Component Assembly Global

Constraint Constraint Constraint Constraint Constraint
Fig. 2 Ascending order constraints

optimization is needed or not. The proper-redundancy indicates that the design of

the structure is satisfactory. In this paper, the proper-redundancy is 0–10%, more
than 10% is over-redundancy, less than 0% is under-redundancy.
Then, the sensitivity analysis of the structure is carried out. The constraint
sensitivity is the relationship between a constraint condition and the variation of
design variables, which is the basis of optimal design. The sensitivity coefficient is
the degree of variation of a design variable to a constraint condition when the other
design variables are unchanged. The sensitivity coefficient is defined as follows:
ski ¼ Dgi =Dvk ð1Þ
When Dvk tends to 0, the formula (1) can be expressed as a formula (2):
ski ¼ dgi =dvk ð2Þ
where ski refers to the sensitivity coefficient of i-th constraint on the k-th design
variable; gi refers to the value of i-th constraint; vk refers to the value of k-th design
variable.
Constraint sensitivity can be solved by virtual work based sensitivity method,
which use the principle of virtual work to deduce the explicit relation between
design variables and constraints. According to the principle of conservation of
energy, the external work is equal to the internal energy, the relationship between
the optimization variables and story drift angle is first established, which can be
realized by the principle of virtual work, such as the Eqs. (3).
ZLbi
FX fX FY fY F fZ MX mX MY mY MZ mZ
edi ¼ ð þ þ Z þ þ þ Þ dx
EA GAY GAZ GIX EIY EIZ i ð3Þ
0
ðBeam, columnÞ
where Lbi refers to the length of the i-th beam and column elements, FX , FY , FZ ,
MX , MY , MZ refer to the internal forces of the element under external loads; fX , fY ,
fZ , mX , mY , mZ refer to the internal force of the element under the virtual load; A
refers to the cross section area of beam and column element; AY and AZ refer to the
shear area of beam and column elements; IX , IY and IZ refers to the torsion and
bending moment of beam and column under inertia force.
If the optimization model is statically determinate, the change of the structural
constraint is equal to the change of the internal energy of the i-th element, The
sensitivity coefficient (SIdi ) of the i-th element can be defined as follow:
dd dedi
SIdi ¼ ¼ ð4Þ
dvoi dvoi
Fig. 3 Optimization
strategies
Aa Ba Aa Ba
a+ status a- status
In order to reduce the number of reanalysis and improve the efficiency of cal-
culation, the a simplified sensitivity coefficient of story drift is defined [2] as follow:
edi
SSIdi ¼ ð5Þ
voi
After calculating the sensitivity coefficient SSI of the component, the opti-
mization strategy is shown in Fig. 3. Status a+ refers to that the structure is
under-constrained and a- refers to the structure is over-constrained. Aa indicates
those components that are sensitive to the controlling constraint and Ba indicate
those components that are insensitive to the controlling constraint. Black up arrow
means increase corresponding components and black down arrow means decrease
corresponding components.
3.2 The Automatic Optimal Design
In this paper, an automatic optimal design method is proposed based on the

ascending order constraint method. The schematic diagram of the proposed auto-
matic optimal design method is shown in Fig. 4. The designer first provides a
primitive design of the structure, and then the program carries on the component
constraint automatic compliant design (CCACD) process. When the component
constraint design satisfied the requirements of the specification limits, it enters and
completes the design of the assembly constraint and the global constraint of the
structure in turn. When all the constraint designs are completed, the checking
calculation of the constraints and the calculation of the overall redundancy of the
structure, and if the economy of the structure does not meet the requirements, it
should be redesigned.
Fig. 4 Automatic optimal Primitive Design

design process
The design of
component constraint
The design of the

assembly constraint
The design of the

global constraint
Unsatisfied Check the overall

constraints
Evaluate the redundancy

and the economy
Satisfied
Output
3.3 The Automatic Optimal Design of Steel Modular

Buildings Under Different Wind Load Levels
In this paper, the CCACD process judged the compliance of each component at the
component constraint through the iteration, so that the whole building components
satisfied the component constraints.
Then, the structure enters the global constraint automatic design (GCAD) pro-
cess based on the redundancy analysis method, ascending order constraint theory,
sensitivity analysis method and single driven constraint optimal strategy, which
including redundancy analysis under wind load, the global constraint automatic
optimal design (GCAOD) process and the global constraint automatic compliant
design (GCAPD) process. By considering the convergence of the optimal strategy.
The sensitivity analysis of GCAPD calculate the sensitivity index of the whole
structural components, However, the sensitivity analysis of GCAOD only calcu-
lates the sensitivity index of the beam and column components of the calculated
story.
The GCAD can design the structure under different wind load levels by entering
different wind load parameters automatically. Combine all of them, the automatic
optimal design of steel modular buildings under different wind load levels process
is shown in Fig. 5.
Start
Structural analysis
Compliance Design of
component constraint
Redundancy analysis of
story drift under wind load.
Grouping by redundancy
Exist over- Exist under-

No
constrained group constrained group
Yes Yes
Apply the virtual couple to Apply the virtual couple to

the story group which the story group which
over-constrainted in turn under-constrainted in turn
Calculate the SSI of beams

No Calculate the SSI of beams
and columns in its story
and columns in the whole
under wind load
structure under wind load
The SSI of the

Increase the amount of
column is higher than that
cross-section material for
of the beam
the components with
No higher SSI in each story in
Yes turn.
Optimized Optimized
column beam
Check all constraints.

Redundancy calculation.
Result output
Fig. 5 The automatic optimal design of steel modular buildings under different wind load levels
process
4 Case Study
In this case, a 10-story plane steel frame structure is selected. The height of the
structural model layer is 3 m, the bay is 3.5 m, the depth is 6 m. The beam uses
rectangular steel pipe, the column selects square steel pipe, the connection of
structural and ground are hinges. The beam element model is used to simulate each
component element, and the shear deformation is not considered. The seismic
action is 6° (0.05 g), and the wind load is taken as the larger load to ensure the wind
load as the control load. The calculate parameters is shown in Tables 1a and 1b.
3m
3.5m 6m
Fig. 6 10-story plane steel frame structure diagram and modular unit
Table 1a Calculate parameters

Superimposed Live Basic Shape Maximum of Damping Characteristic
dead load (N/ load wind coefficient seismic ratio site period
m) (N/ pressure influence
m) (kN/m2) coefficient
12000 6000 3.5 1.3 0.04 0.04 0.4
Table 1b Calculate parameters

Story 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
numbers
Wind 1 1 1 1.056 1.14 1.206 1.267 1.318 1.369 1.420
pressure
height
coefficient
Table 2 Redundancy of the primitive design components

Story Redundancy (%)
numbers Story drift Slenderness Beam Stress ratio Stress
under wind ratio Deflection (Column) ratio
load (live load) (Beam)
1 −198179 48 −1225 −21453 −42359
2 −131484 63 −1119 −14095 −32086
3 −104994 63 −1145 −11148 −27090
4 −89566 63 −1138 −9603 −23522
5 −76766 63 −1140 −8401 −20203
6 −64120 63 −1140 −7260 −16815
7 −51047 63 −1135 −6088 −13309
8 −37576 63 −1157 −4909 −9733
9 −24238 63 −1067 −3442 −6407
10 −12890 63 −1436 −2410 −3922
The redundancy of the primitive design component is under-constrained, As shown

in Table 2. The section is expressed as wide X high X wide direction tube thickness
X high direction tube thickness. Column section: 100 mm 100 mm 4 mm
4 mm. Beam section: 100 mm 50 mm 4 mm 4 mm. The frame of the
module is equivalent to the steel frame with the variable peripheral size of the cross
section. The 10-story plane steel frame structure diagram is shown in Fig. 6. In
order to compare the results of the automation design, this paper compares the
results of manual design with the results of automatic optimal design method.
Table 3 shows the optimization results obtained after 1.5 h of manual design.
Table 3 Results of manual design method

Story numbers Optimal section size of beams Optimal section size of column
1 800 400 45 45 700 700 32 32
2 700 350 28 28 700 700 22 22
3 700 350 28 28 600 600 20 20
4 700 350 24 24 600 600 18 18
5 700 350 20 20 600 600 17 17
6 700 350 18 18 600 600 12 12
7 600 300 21 21 500 500 17 17
8 600 300 17 17 400 400 23 23
9 400 200 24 24 400 400 14 14
10 300 150 24 24 300 300 12 12
Total steel usage 9640 kg 5623 kg
Total costs (yuan) 76315
Note: the price of steel is calculated according to 5000 yuan/t
Table 4 Results of automatic optimal design method

Story numbers Optimal section size of beams Optimal section size of column
1 800 400 35 35 700 700 26 26
2 700 350 24 24 600 600 23 23
3 700 350 22 22 500 500 24 24
4 700 350 20 20 500 500 22 22
5 600 300 22 22 500 500 20 20
6 600 300 20 20 500 500 16 16
7 500 250 22 22 450 450 18 18
8 500 250 20 20 350 350 22 22
9 400 200 15 15 300 300 21 21
10 300 150 20 20 250 250 11 11
Total steel usage 8958 kg 4479 kg
Total costs (yuan) 67185
Note: the price of steel is calculated according to 5000 yuan/t
Table 5 Redundancy of the automatic optimal design components

Story Redundancy (%)
numbers Story drift Slenderness Beam Stress ratio Stress
under wind ratio deflection (live (Column) ratio
load load) (Beam)
1 31.34 92.51 99.62 1.37 9.41
2 43.56 93.76 99.30 11.72 5.23
3 30.51 92.47 99.19 5.36 3.45
4 27.39 92.49 99.13 11.68 2.92
5 22.17 92.50 98.79 15.60 1.33
6 16.82 92.53 98.65 19.12 3.42
7 13.55 91.67 97.88 29.02 5.73
8 8.89 89.17 97.36 30.90 18.10
9 8.43 87.32 93.99 38.46 5.73
10 13.62 84.98 82.23 0.02 37.22
Table 6 The comparison between automatic optimal design and manual design
Contrast option Automatic optimal design method Manual design method
Time usage 30 s 1.5 h
Total cast (yuan) 67185 76315
Cost difference 11.96%
Based on the automatic optimal design of steel modular buildings under different
wind load levels process, the design results are obtained by realizing the design
automation. The results of optimal sections and redundancy are shown in Tables 4
and 5.
The results of comparison between automatic optimal design and manual design
are shown in Table 6:
The time usage of automatic optimal design is much lower than that of manual
design method, and the result of automatic optimal design is also lower than the
result of manual design method.
5 Conclusions
Integrating computer technology and advanced optimal method into engineering

practice to make the structural design of steel modular buildings is the future
development trend of the structural design. Through automatic design to provide
higher automation efficiency, more optimized design results, engineers can be
liberated from the tedious manual design optimization and re-optimization of the
tedious labor. However, there are still many parts to be improved in today’s design
theory and automatic optimal theory.
The main conclusions of this paper are as follows:
(1) The sensitivity coefficient of components is obtained by automatic calculation,
and the optimization order of structural members is determined automatically,
so as to realize the design from traditional manual design to automatic optimal
design.
(2) Compared with manual design, it is time-consuming and laborious. Combined
with advanced computer technology, the structural design can be automated
and intelligent, which can greatly improve the efficiency of structural design, so
that engineers can put more energy into more important work such as structural
system selection and structural layout.
References
1. Cao BF (2015) Optimal design for reinforced concrete structure of tall building under multiple
constraints, Tongji University
2. Dong YM (2015) Optimal design for structure lateral system of super tall buildings under
multiple constraints, Tongji University
3. Ma HJ, Zhao X (2016) Performance based optimal human comfort design of
toggle-brace-damper system for super tall buildings. In: IABSE conference Guangzhou
2016, pp 481–488
4. Qin L, Zhao X (2016) Sensitivity analysis based optimal seismic design of tall buildings under
story drift constraint. In: Proceedings of IABSE conference on bridges and structures
sustainability: seeking intelligent solutions, pp 873–880
5. Zhao X, Jiang X (2015), Sensitivity analysis of wind-induced acceleration on design variables
for super tall buildings. In: Proceedings of IABSE conference on structural engineering:
providing solutions to global challenges, pp 593–599
Instability of Metal Scaffold
with and Without Settlement
S. H. Lo and Jake L. Y. Chan
Abstract Door-type modular steel scaffolds are commonly used as temporary

supporting structures for construction works. The vertical displacement of the
baseplates due to soil consolidation and ground settlement has been reported and
found to have a significant impact on the stability of scaffold systems. In this paper,
the effect of differential settlement on the load carrying capacity of door-type
modular scaffolds was systematically investigated. A robust spring element incor-
porating the second-order Direct Analysis (DA) was devised to study the load
carrying capacity of scaffolds due to ground settlement. An efficient curved quartic
function (CQF) element based on the forth-order polynomial shape functions with
series connection to end-springs was employed for the parametric study of scaffold
systems on key design variables. The present study for scaffolds under influence of
partial settlement unavoidable in many construction sites was not investigated
before.
1 Introduction
Instability of multi-storey door-type modular steel scaffolding systems with ideal-

ized boundary condition was investigated by Yu and Chen et al. However, in most
cases, the ground supports are non-rigid and may displace vertically due to
vibrations of the temporary traffic ramp or consolidation of soils. In this study, soil
springs were applied to a portion of the supports while wall ties with horizontal
restrains were applied on the top loading beam and the jack bases. Numerous
experiments and numerical tests were conducted to investigate the instability of
scaffold with practical constrains. The influence of joint stiffness, initial geometric
S. H. Lo J. L. Y. Chan (&)
Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Pokfulam,
Hong Kong
e-mail: lokychan@hku.hk
S. H. Lo
e-mail: hreclsh@hku.hk

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_139
1504 S. H. Lo and J. L. Y. Chan
imperfection, yield stress and load eccentricity on the structural strength of steel
scaffolding structures were investigated by Zhang and Rasmussen et al. Zhao and
Chen investigated studied the influence of screw jack stiffness and found that the
influence is larger for pinned-fixed condition compared to free-fixed condition. The
influence is also found to be negligible for scaffold systems more than two stories.
The reliability of numerical analytical approach considering the P-d and P-D effects
with notional disturbance force was proven to be quite consistent with full-scale test
results by an acceptable margin of 11.08% with 3-story and 2-story metal scaffolds
connected by couplers by the works of Liu and Jia et al. Increasing a 2-story
single-row steel scaffold from 1 bay to 4 bays also improved the load-carrying
capacity by up to 2.3 times as reported by the Pang and Wang et al. The lowest
Eigen-buckling mode of scaffold systems by rigorous computer simulation multi-
plied by the P-D effects to account for complex geometrical imperfections of
irregular scaffold structures are reported by Chu et al. The Eigen-buckling approach
was integrated into P-D effects of the scaffold models studied in this paper. A brief
discussion on the analysis and design method is given here for determining the
design failure load of scaffolds. DA has been used by the authors in design of
various scaffolds in Hong Kong with great success. Nearly all failed scaffolds,
although infrequent in Hong Kong, were designed by other methods like the ELM
and test-based approach where the load capacity was taken directly from test of
scaffolds with similar height.
2 Formulation of Soil Spring
In order to establish a simple soil spring model compatible with Direct Analysis
(DA), a perfectly elastic spring was used in this paper as shown in Fig. 1. A model
for elastic soil which accounts for the behavior of both the foundation and soil was
developed by Winkler. The model as a simplified mathematical formulation
describes a system of mutually independent elastic springs represents the soil
beneath the foundation. This formulation assumes a homogeneous pressure zone
within the soil layer which ignores the deeper soil interaction known as the bulb
pressure for simplification. An elastic model based on model was developed by
Vesic which introduced the elastic parameters of soils as well as the shape factor of
the foundation (Ip). The stiffness matrix of a beam on single parameter foundation
is derived based of displacement shape functions or differential equations governing
the behavior. An infinite beam under a concentrated load resting over the foun-
dation of an elastic continuum was studied by Biot. Shear interaction between
adjacent soil medium may exist in reality and was omitted in this paper to simplify
the process.
Instability of Metal Scaffold with and Without Settlement 1505
Fig. 1 a Typical soil spring stiffness; b Soil spring model for the current study
Fig. 2 Freestanding and

putlog scaffolding system
types in the current study
3 Parametric Studies
This section covers the analytical results to the investigation of several design
parameters on the failure load of a wide range of freestanding and putlog scaffolding
systems as shown in Fig. 2 and Table 1. The findings are important in assessing
whether or not engineers can rely on manufacturer’s performance data or to carry
out their own design analysis using Direct Analysis.
Table 1 Design configurations of the studied scaffolding systems
3.1 Freestanding Scaffolds with Partial Settlement
The influence of partial settlement on Type 1 freestanding scaffold system is

investigated. As shown in Table 1, the effect of partial settlement for all Type 1
scaffolding systems as opposed to those without settlement is noted with a reduction
in failure pressure ranging between 32.5% and 28.5% using DA and between
23.2% and 36.6% using ELM. A downward trend was observed between the size of
the systems and their failure pressure (Fig. 3). Furthermore, increasing both the bay
number from 4 to 10 bays and its height from 7.72 m to 15.44 m reduces the failure
pressure by 40%.
The critical failure mode for both configurations was by buckling of the screw
jack portion of stand columns at ground level, this is consistent with the critical
failure mode in the scaffold research work by Yu and Chung et al. As shown in
Fig. 4, the simultaneous yielding of stand columns by buckling was observed in
scaffolding systems without settlement. This is in contrary to the yielding of a
singular stand column by buckling for scaffolding systems with partial settlement.
Fig. 3 Failure pressure vs Design parameters for Type 1 to 6 scaffolding systems
To describe the failure mode of a practical freestanding scaffolding system due

to partial settlement, load-displacement curves and failure load by first yielding for
type 1A scaffolding system with and without partial settlement are compared in
Fig. 5. It can be seen from the load-displacement curve that a structure with partial
settlement is less stiff as indicated by its gentler slope. The failure load which was
determined by the first yielding of a member in the structure was 32.5% lower if
partial settlement was allowed. In practical situation, a scaffold system with a lower
stiffness undermines its serviceability limit state considerably as well as its ultimate
limit state. For the larger structure Type 1C, both the structure’s overall stiffness
Fig. 4 Locations of first

yielding for Type 1A
Fig. 5 Load Displacement curves for the studied scaffolding systems
and loading capacity are found to suffer by 40% compared to the smaller structure
Type 1A. Furthermore, with weaker soil and larger settlement area, the degree of
reduction would likely be much greater, as indicated by Type 4 scaffold system.
Meanwhile, Type 5 and 6 scaffolding systems with a soil stiffness of 7840 kN/m
(loose gravel) was used throughout the investigation. An overall spring-to-support
ratio of 40% was adopted. It is noted from the Eigen-buckling analysis that set-
tlement in the middle bays of the plan for Type 5 did not resulted in its weakest
mode due to the counter-weight effect.
The load-displacement graphs reveal that a taller Type 5 or Type 6 structure
would result in a lower overall stiffness compared to their shorter counterparts, with
their loading capacities slightly affected (less than 5% difference). However, Type 6
scaffold suffers a greater loss of stiffness compares to Type 5, as shown in their

respective Load-Displacement graphs in Fig. 5. The reduction in loading capacity
in pressure for Type 5 is much lower, with a range between 11.0% to 15.6% by an
increase from 15.8 m to 23.5 m in structural height, and from 38.7% to 40.2% by
an increase from 8.1 m to 15.8 m in structural height for Type 6.
Compared to Type 6, the effect of partial settlement for Type 5 is indeed less
influential to the structure’s performance as the critical Eigen-Buckling modes of
Type 5 with and without settlement are very similar. However, the Eigen-buckling
mode for Type 6 with partial settlement is quite different from that without ground
settlement. This can be demonstrated in the difference in yielding location of col-
umns as shown in Fig. 4. With settlement, yielding occurs first to a single stand
column whereas yielding occurs simultaneously to most stand columns when there
is no ground settlement.
3.2 Putlog Scaffolding System with Partial Settlement
The influence of partial settlement on putlog scaffolding systems with height pro-
files between 5.79 m and 23.16 m is investigated. Lateral restrains are introduced
for the putlog scaffolding systems to prevent out-of-plane movement while vertical
and sideway movements are allowed. Such arrangement is considered safe to the
design of typical putlog scaffolding systems by assuming lateral stability of scaffold
being derived strictly from diagonal bracing members on the scaffolding system
rather than the putlog-wall interaction.
In general, a reduction in failure pressure ranging between 8% to 12.3% based
on DA is noted for a Type 2 scaffolding system with partial settlement. However,
such reduction for ELM is noticeably larger, with a range between 19% to 34.5%.
The stress distribution for Type 2 scaffolding systems with partial settlement is less
uniform, as first yielding occurred in only one of the stand column as opposed to
simultaneously on four stand columns for system without partial settlement.
A nonlinear relationship between lateral displacement and loading can be
observed for Type 2 scaffold systems of various heights with ground settlement. For
Type 3 systems, the portion of settlement is again set at 50% of the total number of
supports with a soil spring stiffness k1 of 4000 kN/m. The scaffold front length
increases from 7 to 15 bays while the height is fixed to 5.79 m (the height of 3
stacked scaffold units).
A uniform distribution between the number of horizontal bays and the pressure
at failure was observed. A larger span created a larger maximum bending moment
at the middle span compared to a smaller span. This causes the larger structure to
yields under a smaller load. The reduction in structure’s overall stiffness for more
bays also suggests a weaker structure.
3.3 Soil Spring’s Stiffness
A simple five-bays free-standing scaffold system with a height of three stacked

door-type scaffold units was chosen to study its behavior over a range of soil spring
stiffness. Four soil spring stiffness ranging from 2500 kN/m to 52800 kN/m were
chosen to represent practical ground conditions ranging from soft clay to granite.
As expected, the maximum bending moment is smaller for the beam model with
the highest spring stiffness as its bending stress is more uniform across the supports.
Such effect diminishes sharply once a threshold of k = 7840 kN/m is reached.
A nonlinear relationship is observed between loading and lateral displacement, which
does not vary much for various soil stiffness from k = 2500 kN/m to 52800 kN/m.
4 Conclusions
A comprehensive study on the stability of freestanding and putlog scaffolding

systems with and without partial settlement has been conducted using Direct
Analysis (DA). The performance of Effective Length Method (ELM) on the various
scaffold systems is also evaluated. Based on the numerical results, the following
conclusions and suggestions are drawn:
1. For a fixed height, increasing bay number of a freestanding scaffold system with
partial settlement from 5 to 11 bays reduces its failure pressure by up to 5.6%.
For a putlog scaffolding system, its failure pressure is reduced by up to 9.8%
when the number of bays in the system increases from 7 to 15 bays. For a fixed
number of bays or stand columns, an increase in height from 5.79 m to 23.16 m
reduces its loading capacity by 4.3%. For Type 5 and Type 6 freestanding
scaffolding systems, no trend can be spotted but their Load-Displacement plot
shows that a taller scaffolding system has a reduced stiffness corresponding to a
gentler gradient.
2. Soil stiffness is found to have the largest effect on the load carrying capacity of a
scaffold system under partial settlement. For a simple putlog 5-bays 2-storey
scaffold system (type 4 scaffolds), stiffness higher than 7840 kN/m (loose
gravel) per leg has less than 5% effect to its load capacity.
3. Load capacity and structural stiffness (Eigen buckling factor) for some of the
scaffold systems reduce considerably with partial settlement, with up to 32.5%
for a 7.72 m tall self-standing scaffold (Type 1A). As such, partial settlement
should be taken into account in structural design for scaffold systems with
likelihood of vertical movement at the stand column base.
4. ELM cannot cater for the behaviour of second order effects due to partial settle-
ment and could underestimate the actual effective length of scaffolding systems.
For scaffolds of lower stories, the effective length assumption of 2xLoriginal leads
to acceptable results. For scaffolds of higher stories, the actual Leff could only be
calculated by DA. Without settlement, the error of under design was up to 53.6%
based on ELM.
References
1. Andresen J (2012) Investigation of a collapsed scaffold structure. Proc Inst Civil Eng Forensic
Eng 165(FE2):95–104
2. Biot MA (1934) A Fourier-integral solution of the problem of the bending under a
concentrated load of an infinitely long beam resting on an elastic continuum. In: Proceedings
fourth international congress applied mechanics
3. Chu AYT, Zhou ZH, Koon CM, Chan SL, Peng JL, Pan AD (1996) Design of steel
scaffolding using an integrated design and analysis approach. In: Proceedings of the first
international conference on advances in steel structures, Hong Kong, pp 245–250
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buckled members. Thin-Wall Struct 98:285–292
5. Hongbo L, Jia L (2016) Experimental and theoretical studies on the stability of steel tube–
coupler scaffolds with different connection joints. Eng Struct 106:80–95
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study. Adv Steel Constr 13(4):318–342
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5th international conference on soil mechanics and foundation engineering, vol 1, pp 845–850
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9. Yu WK, Chan KF, Chan SL (2002) Structural stability of modular steel scaffolding systems.
In: Proceedings of the second international conference of stability and dynamics, Singapore,
pp 418–423
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steel scaffolds. Eng Struct 26(7):867–881
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numerical method. Adv Steel Constr 12(3), 316–327
Experimental and Numerical Analysis
on the Mechanical Behaviour
of Box Beam Cold-Formed Steel
Built-up C-Sections
V. T. Trung, T. Chaisomphob, T. T. Ha, and E. Yamaguchi
Abstract The box beam composed of two face-to-face C-section beams is getting
popular in the cold-formed steel construction due to its advantage in strength.
However, at present, no clear design rules are available for this type of built-up box
beam. In this study, the mechanical behaviour of this box beam built-up C-section
is investigated both experimentally and numerically. The finite element model using
ABAQUS is conducted to verify experimental results. Four connection spacings are
considered for each of the five C-sections, and thus 20 built-up beams are tested.

Keywords Cold-formed steel Built-up box beam Face-to-face C-sections

Moment capacity Connection spacing
1 Introduction
High strength-to-weight ratio, easy prefabrication, economy in transportation and

speedy installation have made cold-formed steel (CFS) popular in engineering
practice. CFS is an integral part of the construction industry. For example, CFS
beams are used as floor joists, wall studs, roof purlins and rafters in industrial/
commercial buildings and residential houses [1, 2].
V. T. Trung (&) T. Chaisomphob T. T. Ha

of Technology, Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand
e-mail: trungvothanhxd@gmail.com
T. Chaisomphob
e-mail: taweep@siit.tu.ac.th
T. T. Ha
e-mail: thanhhabk2006@gmail.com
E. Yamaguchi
Department of Civil Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering,
Kyushu Institute of Technology, Kitakyushu, Japan
e-mail: yamaguch@civil.kyutech.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_140
1514 V. T. Trung et al.
The structural behaviour of cold-formed steel beams has been studied for a long
time. Yu and Schafer [3, 4] did a series of bending tests on CFS C- and Z-section
beams to deal with distortional buckling and local buckling phenomena. Wang and
Zhang [5] carried out a numerical and experimental study on the behaviour of
various C-section beams with different edge stiffeners subjected to bending. The
results revealed that the beam strength is greatly affected by the edge stiffener. Laím
et al. [6] conducted a series of bending test and numerical analysis of CFS beams,
including box beams.
The increasing use of the CFS beam is a direct result of continuing research.
Wang and Young [7] studied the flexural behaviour of cold-formed steel built-up
box beam composed of two face-to-face plain sections with circular web holes
about failure modes and the moment capacities. The test and numerical results were
compared with the strength calculated by the direct strength method given in North
American Specification AISI Standard [8, 9]. Wang and Young [10] investigated
the local buckling and/or distortional buckling behavior of the built-up closed
sections with intermediate stiffeners using self-tapping screws located at web or
flange. Wang and Young [11] presented the influence of different screw arrange-
ments on the behaviour of cold-formed steel built-up box beams. The study indi-
cated that the screw spacing affected significantly on the moment capacities of those
beams.
Currently, no clear design rules are available for this type of built-up box beam
(Australian/New Zealand Standard [12], AISI Standard [8, 9]). There have been a
lot of researches about the built-up box. However, the research about the connection
method, such as the connection spacing, is somewhat limited. Therefore, the
objective of this research is to propose a design method for a box beam composed
of two face-to-face CFS C-section beams. The impact of connection spacing on the
beam’s strength is primarily investigated.
2 Experimental Investigation
2.1 Test Specimens
Five different C-sections shown in Table 1 are employed in this study. Variables in
the table are defined in Fig. 1.a. Two identical C-sections form a box section, as
illustrated in Fig. 1.b. A thin batten plate with the length of 80 mm, the width of
80 mm and the thickness of 1.9 mm is screwed to the top and bottom flanges of the
box beam, respectively, to fasten the C-section beams intermittently. Four 4.8 mm
self-drilling screws are used for each batten plate (Figs. 1.b and 2).
Experimental and Numerical Analysis on the Mechanical Behaviour … 1515
Table 1 Dimension of C-section t (mm) D (mm) B (mm) ‘ (mm)

C-section
C10012 1.2 102 51 12.5
C10015 1.5 102 51 13.5
C15019 1.9 152 64 16.5
C15024 2.4 152 64 18.5
C20019 1.9 203 76 19.0
Fig. 1 Cross-section
a. Definition of variables b. Built-up box section
Fig. 2 Batten plate and

self-drilling screws
The overall length of the beam specimen is 4000 mm, and the distance between
the centers of two bearings is 3800 mm. The distance between the center of the
outer batten plate on the bottom side and the outer end of the beam is always
250 mm because the screwed connection can’t be placed right on the bearing. Four
different spacings between the adjacent screwed connections are considered. The
center-to-center spacings in the four cases are L/2 (1750 mm), L/3 (1167 mm), L/4
(875 mm) and L/6 (583 mm), respectively. The schematic of the box-beam spec-
imen with the connection spacing of L/6 is presented in Fig. 3.
With the five C-sections and the four connection spacings, 20 box beam spec-
imens are experimentally conducted for this study. The specimens are listed in
Table 2.
Fig. 3 The schematic of the box-beam specimen with connection spacing of L/6
No.6 Roller support
No.7 Pinned support
Fig. 4 Test setup
2.2 Test Setup
The experimental arrangement is shown in Fig. 4. The box-beam test specimen

(No. 1) is supported. A load is applied by the hydraulic jack (No. 2) that hangs
down from the loading frame. The load is transferred to an I-steel beam (No. 3) and
then to the two bearing plates (No. 4) on the beam specimen. Thus, it is a four-point
bending test. The two bearing plates are placed symmetrically concerning the center
of the beam specimen, which gives uniform bending moment between the two
bearing plates. A load cell (No. 5) is used, which is positioned beneath the hydraulic
jack to control the magnitude of the load. The load cell is connected to a data
logger.
To achieve a simple support condition, a bearing is used in each bearing,
allowing bending rotation. At one bearing (No. 6), the roller bearing, the beam
displaces horizontally while at the other bearing (No. 7), the pinned bearing, the
horizontal displacement is constrained by clamps as Fig. 4.
2.3 Test Procedure
At the beginning, a small load is applied for the beam specimen to settle in the
position. The load is then increased gradually. The vertical and horizontal dis-
placements are measured at Cross-section M shown in Fig. 3 and recorded together
with the load. Linear variable displacement transducers (LVDTs; Nos. 8 and 9) are
used for measuring the displacements at Cross-section M. As shown in Fig. 3,
Cross-section M is located 100 mm away from the mid-span.
Tensile coupon tests are carried out, following the procedure specified in the
Australian Standard Australia Standard [13]. The following values of the yield
strength Fy have been obtained: 536 MPa for the thickness of 1.2 mm, 504 MPa for
1.5 mm, 510 MPa for 1.9 mm, and 484 MPa for 2.4 mm. The yield strengths
obtained are all larger than the respective minimum yield strengths given in
Material Specification from NS BlueScope Lysaght (Thailand) Limited [14].
2.5 Experiment Results and Discussion
Table 2 reveals that the connection spacing influences on the mechanical behaviour
of the built-up box beam considerably. As the spacing becomes smaller, the
strength PEXP increases. The exception is observed in the result of the C15024
series of box beams: the strength of C15024-L4 is 48.70 kN while that of
C15024-L3 is 50.61 kN, of the C10012 series: the strength of C10012-L4 is 8.55
kN while that of C10012-L3 is 8.69 kN. In all the other tests, the shorter spacing
has resulted in a larger strength.
Failure modes are also influenced by connection spacing. The basic failure
modes associated with the CFS C-section beam are lateral–torsional buckling
(LTB), local buckling (LB) and distortional buckling (DB). The three modes are
illustrated schematically in Fig. 5. Indeed, the test beams have failed in those
modes. But pure DB didn’t occur. It tended to go with LB, resulting in the mixed
mode of DB and LB. DB + LB in Table 2 indicates this mixed-mode failure.
Figure 6 presents the typical failures observed in the experiments.
(a) Lateral–torsional buckling (LTB) (b) Local buckling (LB) (c) Distortional buckling (DB)
Fig. 5 Failure mode of C-section beam
(a) LTB (b) LB (c) DB+LB
Fig. 6 Typical failure in experiment
Table 2 Test result Specimen PEXP (kN) Failure mode

C-section 1 C-section 2
C10012-L6 9.29 LB LB
C10012-L4 8.55 LB LB
C10012-L3 8.69 DB + LB DB + LB
C10012-L2 8.25 DB + LB LTB
C10015-L6 15.50 LB LB
C10015-L4 15.03 LB LB
C10015-L3 14.25 DB + LB DB + LB
C10015-L2 11.69 DB + LB LTB
C15019-L6 36.82 LB LB
C15019-L4 36.50 LB LB
C15019-L3 34.24 DB + LB DB + LB
C15019-L2 30.58 DB + LB LTB
C15024-L6 51.50 LB LB
C15024-L4 48.70 LB LB
C15024-L3 50.61 LB LB
C15024-L2 45.22 DB + LB LTB
C20019-L6 48.00 LB LB
C20019-L4 47.50 LB LB
C20019-L3 40.48 DB + LB DB + LB
C20019-L2 36.70 DB + LB LTB
*LTB: lateral–torsional buckling; LB: local buckling; DB:
distortional buckling
Horizontal Displacement (mm) Vertical Displacement (mm)
Fig. 7 The experimental load-displacement curve for built-up box-beam (C20019)
Table 2 shows that the beam fails in LB when the connection spacing is equal to
or less than L/4. For a larger spacing, the beam undergoes DB + LB or LTB except
for C15024-L3 that fails in LB. The connection spacing influences the failure mode
then changes in strength. The connection spacing becomes smaller, the two
C-section beams tend to behave together, increasing the member stiffness and thus
failing not in the member buckling but rather locally.
The change in the failure mode is also recognized in the load-displacement
curve. For example, Fig. 7 shows the experimental results of the C20019 series of
box beams. When the connection spacing is large, horizontal displacement starts
increasing nonlinearly at a very early stage of loading. At the failure, Cross-section
M has displaced over 30 mm horizontally. The vertical displacement also starts
deviating from the linear response at an early stage in case of the beams with large
connection spacing. On the other hand, for the box beams with the smaller spacings
(L/4 and L/6), the horizontal displacement was very small until failure (less than
3 mm); the load-displacement relationship is almost linear up to the failure. The
load-displacement curve is thus another evidence for the influence of the connection
spacing on the failure mode.
All the experimental results prove that the connection spacing of L/4 would have
two face-to-face C-section beams fastened sufficiently.
3 Numerical Analysis
The finite element program ABAQUS is a computational software for modelling

structures with material and geometric nonlinear behaviour [15]. The numerical
results of 20 beams were compared with the experimental results.
3.1 Element Type
C-sections and stiffening plates were modelled with shell elements (S4R). Based on
Kirchhoff theory, when one dimension was very small compared with the other two
dimensions, the shell element is recommended for the calculation process. Load
bearing plates and support bearing plates were modelled by using solid elements
(C3D8R).
Material nonlinearity (plasticity) was considered for the CFS C-sections profile.
A yield strength and a Young’s Modulus were obtained from the coupon test.
Elastic stress-strain was considered for the stiffening plate because there was no
failure at the stiffening plate during the testing process. Besides, the material
properties for load bearing plates and support bearing plates were assumed as rigid
steel with the value of Young’s Modulus equal to one thousand times greater than
that of normal steel. The elastic modulus of steel was equal to 208 GPa and the
Poisson’s ratio to 0.3.
3.3 Boundary, Loading and Contact Conditions
Based on the set-up of the test beam, all beams were simulated through a
three-dimensional numerical model. All components included the beams, the beam
support system, the loading system and the screws were modelled with high
accuracy in the ABAQUS simulations, as shown in Fig. 8.
Since there was no failure at the screw connection during the test, so the function
fastener in ABAQUS Faridmehr et al. [16] was used to represent the screws to be

used in the finite element
analysis
simple in the calculation process. The contact between two lips of both C-sections,
load-bearing plate with the beam, and C-sections with the support bearing plate
were also defined in the modelling analysis.
3.4 Analysis Procedure
Each of the models was analysed in two steps. Firstly, linear buckling analysis was
performed to get the buckling shape (eigenvectors). The buckling shape has been
used to represent initial imperfection shape with scale factors. Mode 1 in the
analysis was taken to be the mode shape. Then, general material and geometrical
nonlinear static analysis with imperfections were conducted to simulate the struc-
tural behaviour of CFS built-up box beam.
3.5 Comparison of Numerical Results with Experimental

Results
The ultimate load and main failure mode of cold-formed steel beam obtained from
numerical analysis are compared with test results, as summarized in Table 3. It is
seen that the ultimate load obtained numerical analysis is consistent with the test
results. Table 3 shows that the differences in the FEM-to-test ultimate loading
capacity ratio are from 0.90 to 1.12. Table 3 indicates that most of the failure modes
of numerical analysis are the same with the test results, except C15024 beam with
connector spacing L/3. The load–vertical displacement curves at midspan of C20019
beam are plotted and compared with test results, as seen in Fig. 9. The FEM failure
modes of C20019 beam are also presented and compared with test results, as seen in
Fig. 10. It can be concluded that the finite element model predicted with acceptable
accuracy about the behavior of cold-formed steel beams. Load capacity increases
when the thickness of the steel C-section increases and connection spacing
decreases. The FEM curves agree well with the test curves from beginning to
maximum loading stage.
L/2 L/3 L/4 L/6
Fig. 9 Load–vertical displacement comparison between experimental and numerical results

(C20019)
a. L/2 b. L/3
c. L/4 d. L/6
Fig. 10 The failure modes comparison between experimental and FEM results (C20019)
Table 3 Comparison between experiment and FEM results

Specimen Experimental results FEM results Ratio
PFEM/
PEXP
PEXP Failure mode PFEM Failure mode
(kN) C-section 1 C-section 2 (kN) C-section 1 C-section 2
C10012-L6 9.29 LB LB 9.74 LB LB 1.05
C10012-L4 8.55 LB LB 9.39 LB LB 1.10
C10012-L3 8.69 DB + LB DB + LB 9.70 DB + LB DB + LB 1.12
C10012-L2 8.25 DB + LB LTB 8.72 DB + LB LTB 1.06
C10015-L6 15.50 LB LB 14.14 LB LB 0.91
C10015-L4 15.03 LB LB 13.69 LB LB 0.91
C15019-L6 36.82 LB LB 34.51 LB LB 0.94
C15019-L4 36.50 LB LB 34.03 LB LB 0.93
C15024-L6 51.50 LB LB 46.23 LB LB 0.90
(continued)
Table 3 (continued)
Specimen Experimental results FEM results Ratio
PFEM/
PEXP
PEXP Failure mode PFEM Failure mode
(kN) C-section 1 C-section 2 (kN) C-section 1 C-section 2
C15024-L4 48.70 LB LB 45.43 LB LB 0.93
C15024-L3 50.61 LB LB 45.97 DB + LB DB + LB 0.91
C20019-L6 48.00 LB LB 45.72 LB LB 0.95
C20019-L4 47.50 LB LB 44.14 LB LB 0.93
4 Conclusions
The experimental and numerical investigations on 20 cold-formed steel built-up

C-section beams under bending conditions consisting of four connection spacing
L/2, L/3, L/4 and L/6 with five types of section C10012, C10015, C15019, C15024,
and C20019 have been investigated. Through the results of the study, the following
conclusions are drawn:
• The connection spacing influences on the mechanical behaviour of the built-up
box beam considerably. The spacing becomes smaller, the strength of the
built-up C-section box beam increases.
• The connection spacing of L/4 provides sufficient connection between the two
C-section beams. When the connection spacing is equal or smaller than L/4, the
local buckling occurs for all the built-up box beams. Otherwise, the two
C-section beams of the built-up box beam may fail in the member buckling
mode, such as the lateral-torsional buckling mode, the mixed mode of distor-
tional buckling and local buckling.
• When the connection spacing is equal or smaller than L/4, the horizontal dis-
placement is quite small even at the failure. Otherwise, the load-displacement
response deviates from linearity at the early stage of the loading, and large
displacement results at the failure.
• The batten plates and the screws did not fail in all experiments tests. Therefore,
the screwed connection employed in the present experiment has proved
satisfactory.
Finally, the good agreement between the experimental and numerical results
proves that the finite element analysis is a useful tool to produce reasonably
accurate results.
Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to NS BlueScope Lysaght (Thailand) Limited for
providing the CFS beam specimens. The authors would also like to especially thank Mr. Wasan
Patwichaichote and the Structures Laboratory of the Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy,
Thailand for their supports.
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17. Patwichaichotea W, Chaisomphob T, Yamaguchi E, Tran HT (2019) Bending behaviour of
box beam composed of two face-to-face cold-formed steel C-sections. In: Proceedings of 9th
international conference on steel and aluminium structures (ICSAS19), Bradford, UK, 3–5, pp
617-627
Compression Tests on High Strength
S690 Welded Sections with Various Heat
Energy Input
K. F. Chung, H. C. Ho, X. Liu, K. Wang, and Y. F. Hu
Abstract Over the past twenty years, conflicting research findings have been
reported on mechanical properties of high strength S690 welded sections due to
different welding procedures and parameters adopted during welding. In order to
quantify adverse effects on mechanical properties of these S690 steel welded sec-
tions, a total of 12 spliced S690 welded H-sections with different heat input energy
adopted in the welding processes have been conducted to examine their deforma-
tion characteristics under compression, in particular, their cross section resistances.
It is demonstrated that by a proper control on the heat input energy during welding,
it is possible to control or even eliminate any reduction to the mechanical properties
of these spliced S690 welded H-sections under compression.
Keywords High strength steels Welding Welded H-sections Heat input

energy
K. F. Chung (&) H. C. Ho Y. F. Hu
Chinese National Engineering Research Centre for Steel Construction (Hong Kong Branch),
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR
e-mail: kwok-fai.chung@polyu.edu.hk
H. C. Ho
e-mail: hc.ho@polyu.edu.hk
Y. F. Hu
e-mail: yi-fei.hu@polyu.edu.hk
K. F. Chung H. C. Ho X. Liu K. Wang Y. F. Hu
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic
University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR
e-mail: leo-xiao.liu@connect.polyu.hk
K. Wang
e-mail: leon.kai@connect.polyu.hk

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_141
1526 K. F. Chung et al.
1 Introduction
High strength S690 steels are efficient steel constructional products which possess
mechanical strengths two to three times to those of normal strength steels, such as
S235 and S355 steels. Owing to their excellent strength-to-self weight ratios, they
are highly desirable to be used in heavily loaded structures, leading to a potential
saving in both materials and costs in the order of 30 to 50%. Since 2000, high
strength steels have been successfully used in key structural members of large
lifting equipment, machinery and offshore structures. However, they have not been
widely adopted in construction owing to potential adverse effects of welding on
their microstructures which lead to significant reductions in their mechanical
properties [8]. Hence, it is necessary to examine structural adequacy of these S690
welded sections with different heat input energy in order to ensure satisfactory
structural performance of S690 welded members in construction.
1.1 Adverse Effects of Welding onto High Strength Steels
In general, welding in normal strength S355 steels does not cause any significant
strength reduction as they are primarily ferritic or ferritic-pearlitic steels which
microstructures do not undergo phase transformation during welding. However,
high strength steels are primarily manufactured with heat treatments during
steel-making, such as Quenching and Tempering for QT steels. These high strength
steels possess highly favourable properties of strength, ductility and toughness.
However, large heating/cooling cycles induced during a practical welding process
will trigger phase transformation, recrystallization and grain growth in
heat-affected-zones (HAZ) of their welded joints. QT steels possess different con-
tinuous cooling transformation (CCT) characteristics, and thus, various phases of
the QT steels will be formed. Hence, significant adverse effects on mechanical
properties of these welded joints at locations within the HAZ, in particular
decreased hardening due to softening, will be resulted, if the heat input energy, q
(kJ/mm), adopted during welding is not properly controlled [1].
1.2 Related Investigations on High Strength S690 Steel

Plates and Their Welded Sections
In order to promote effective use of the high strength S690 steels in construction, it
is essential to examine mechanical properties and structural behaviour of the S690
steel members and their joints. A comprehensive research programme on experi-
mental and numerical investigations was conducted by the authors on i) mechanical
properties of the S690 steels and their welded sections under monotonic and cyclic
Compression Tests on High Strength S690 Welded Sections … 1527
actions [2–4], ii) cross-sectional resistances of S690 welded H-sections as stocky

columns, iii) member resistances of S690 welded H-sections as slender columns [5–
7], and iv) cross-sectional and member resistances of S690 welded I-sections as
restrained and unrestrained beams respectively.
However, it becomes obvious in many cases that reductions in various
mechanical properties of these high strength S690 welded sections are found to be
significantly less severe than anticipated. In general, there is a lack of systematic
experimental evidence on such reduction on the mechanical properties of these
S690 welded sections as well as on the structural behaviour of these S690 steel
members.
In this paper, an experimental investigation is undertaken to examine structural
behaviour of high strength S690 steel spliced welded H-sections under compres-
sion. It aims to quantify compressive behaviour of these welded sections manu-
factured with different heat input energy during welding, and hence, to establish
whether there are significant reductions in the mechanical properties of these S690
welded sections.
2 Experimental Tests
In order to assess any adverse effect of welding onto the mechanical properties of
the S690 welded H-sections, a total of 12 compression tests on 4 different cross
sections, namely, Sections C1 to C4 with butt welded joints at mid-height, i.e. S690
spliced welded H-sections, were carried out. Figure 1 illustrates these four welded
H-sections with different cross-sectional dimensions, and steel plates with three
different thicknesses, i.e. 6, 10 and 16 mm, are used in these sections. Table 1
presents their mechanical properties obtained in standard coupon tests.
Fig. 1 Nominal cross sectional dimensions of S690 welded H-sections

Table 1 Material properties of S690 steels and welding materials

Plate Yield Tensile Young’s Strain at Elongation
thickness strength fy strength fu modulus E tensile at fracture
(mm) (N/mm2) (N/mm2) (kN/mm2) strength eu eL (%)
(%)
6 722 847 209 6.36 18.8
10 784 874 206 7.42 19.8
16 745 832 216 6.62 19.6
Table 2 Welding parameters for butt welds of S690 steels

Plate Welding parameters
thickness Voltage Current Welding speed Heat input energy No. of
(mm) U (V) I (A) v (mm/s) q (kJ/mm) pass
6 20 175 2.9 1.03 1
24 220 3.0 1.50 1
22 215 2.0 2.01 1
10 20 170 2.9 1.00 2
24 220 3.0 1.50 2
24 245 2.5 2.00 2
16 20 180 3.0 1.02 3
21 235 2.8 1.50 3
25 280 3.0 1.98 3
* By skilled welders with GMAW
2.1 Test Programme and Set-up
Table 3 summarizes the test programme of the compression tests, and a total of 12
sections with welded splices at mid-height of the sections are tested. It should be
noted that in this test series, only three different values of the heat input energy q are
adopted during welding of the butt welded joints, i.e. q = 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 kJ/mm.
Refer to Table 2 for various welding procedures and parameters adopted during
butt welding of the steel plates of these sections. Two different testing systems are
employed to conduct compression tests on various sections according to expected
failure loads of these stocky columns. The testing systems are shown in Fig. 2, i.e.
Sections C1 and C2 are tested with a MTS Testing System with a loading capacity
of 4,000 kN while Sections C3 and C4 are tested with a Hydraulic Servo Control
Testing System with a loading capacity of 10,000 kN. Both ends of the H-sections
are properly welded onto thick end plates to ensure consistent deformations of the
sections under compression.
Table 3 Section resistances of S690 spliced welded H-sections under compression

Specimen Heat input Section classification Design Measured Nc,Rt/Nc,Rd
energy q resistance resistance
(kJ/mm) Nc,Rd Nc,Rt
(kN) (kN)
C1S-1-bw 1.0 Class 1 2531 2707 1.07
C1S-2-bw 1.5 2508 2663 1.06
C1S-3-bw 2.0 2507 2660 1.06
C2S-1-bw 1.0 Class 3 3166 3232 1.02
C2S-2-bw 1.5 3117 3206 1.03
C2S-3-bw 2.0 3134 3240 1.03
C3S-1-bw 1.0 Class 2 6446 7047 1.09
C3S-2-bw 1.5 6351 7022 1.11
C3S-3-bw 2.0 6383 7027 1.10
C4S-1-bw 1.0 Class 3 8050 8453 1.05
C4S-2-bw 1.5 7955 8472 1.06
C4S-3-bw 2.0 8121 8548 1.05
(a) MTS 400 tons Testing System (b) 1000 tons Hydraulic Servo Control
Testing System
Fig. 2 Overview of compression tests on S690 welded H-sections
2.2 Test Results
All the tests have been conducted successfully. Typical deformed shapes of these
spliced welded H-sections after tests are shown in Fig. 3. It should be noted that, in
all cases, symmetrical local buckling appears in both flanges of these spliced
welded H-sections while complementary local buckling is also found in their web
plates. Hence, the failure mode of these stocky columns is shown to be plastic local
buckling in both the flange and the web plates of these H-sections.
The measured applied load vs axial shortening curves of all these spliced sec-
tions are plotted onto the same graph in Fig. 4 for easy comparison. It is evident
that all these curves extend above the respective design section resistances Nc,Rd of
these Sections. All Sections C1S and C3S exhibit significant deformation ductility
under compression, but there is little ductility in all Sections C2S and C4S. This
agrees with the section classification obtained in accordance with the current
classification rules for welded cross-sections given in EN 1993-1-1 [1].
Table 3 presents the measured section resistances of all these S690 spliced
welded H-sections, Nc,Rt, together with their design section resistances, Nc,Rd. The
design resistances of the spliced welded H-sections are given by:
Nc;Rd ¼ 2Af f y;f + Aw f y;w ð1Þ
where
fy,f and fy,w are the measured yield strengths of the flange and the web plates of
the welded H-section respectively;
A f ¼ b tf ð2Þ
Aw ¼ ðh 2tf Þtw ð3Þ
where
b and tf are the measured width and the measured thickness of the flange plate
respectively; and
Heat input energy, q (kJ/mm)
1.0 1.5 2.0
Section C3S-1-bw Section C3S-2-bw Section C3S-3-bw
Fig. 3 Typical deformed shapes of S690 welded H-sections after tests

10000 10000
C1S-1 C2S-1
9000 C1S-2 C2S-2
C1S-3 9000
C2S-3
8000 8000
Applied load, N (kN)

7000 7000
6000 6000
5000 5000
4000 4000
Class 3 Nc,Rd = 3139 kN
Nc,Rd = 2515 kN
3000 Class 1 3000
2000 2000 Sections C2S-1/2/3-bw
Sections C1S-1/2/3-bw
1000 1000
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Axial shortening, Δ(mm) Axial shortening, Δ(mm)
10000 10000
C3S-1 C4S-1
9000 C3S-2 9000 C4S-2
C3S-3 Class 3 C4S-3
8000 8000
Class 2
7000 Nc,Rd = 6393 kN

7000
6000 6000 Nc,Rd = 8042 kN
5000 Sections C4S-1/2/3-bw
5000
Sections C3S-1/2/3-bw
4000 4000
3000 3000
2000 2000
1000 1000
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Axial shortening, Δ(mm) Axial shortening, Δ(mm)
Fig. 4 Measured applied load vs axial shortening curves of S690 welded H-sections
h and tw are the measured overall depth and the measured thickness of the web
plate of the welded H-section respectively.
It is shown that all the measured section resistances, Nc,Rt, are larger than the
design section resistances, Nc,Rd, and the ratios of Nc,Rt to Nc,Rd range from 1.02 to
1.11 with an average value of 1.06. Hence, there is no reduction in the section
resistances of these spliced welded H-sections when the heat input energy q adopted
during welding ranges from 1.0 to 2.0 kJ/mm. Consequently, Eq. (1) is shown to be
applicable to predict the section resistances of these stocky columns of S690 spliced
welded H-sections under compression.
3 Conclusions
In order to assess any adverse effect of welding onto the mechanical properties of
the S690 welded sections, a total of 12 compression tests on 4 different cross
sections, namely, Sections C1 to C4, with butt welded joints at mid-height were
carried out.
It should be noted that key test results, including the failure modes, the measured
deformation characteristics, and the measured section resistances of all the 12 tests
are presented in this paper. It is demonstrated that by a proper control on the heat
input energy during welding, it is possible to eliminate any reduction to the
mechanical properties of these S690 welded sections under compression.
Consequently, experimental evidence on structural adequacy of these high strength
S690 steel welded joints with different heat input energy adopted in the welding
processes is provided scientifically to confirm applications of these high strength
S690 steel in construction.
Acknowledgements The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by the Research
Grants Council of the University Grants Committee of the Government of Hong Kong SAR
(Project Nos. 152194/15E, 152687/16E, and 152231/17E). The projects leading to publication of
this paper are also partially funded by the Chinese National Engineering Research Centre for Steel
Construction (Hong Kong Branch) under the Innovation and Technology Commission of the
Government of Hong Kong (Project No. BBY3), and the Research Committee of the Hong Kong
Polytechnic University (Project Nos. BBY4 and BBY6). Moreover, the research studentships
provided by the Research Committee of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University is acknowledged
(Project Nos. RTK3, RTZX, and RUQV). All structural tests on high strength S690 steels were
conducted at the Structural Engineering Research Laboratory of the Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and supports from the
technicians are gratefully acknowledged.
References
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various heat input energy. In: Fifteenth East Asia-Pacific conference on structural engineering
and construction (EASEC-15), 11–13 October 2017, Xi’an, China (Paper No.: P1412)
4. Liu X, Chung KF, Ho HC, Xiao M, Hou ZX, Nethercot DA (2018) Mechanical behaviour of
high strength S690-QT steel welded sections with various heat input energy. Eng Struct
175:245–256
5. Ma TY, Liu X, Hu YF, Chung KF, Li GQ (2017a) Structural behavior of slender columns of
high-strength Q690 steel welded H-sections under compression. Eng Struct 157:75–85
6. Ma TY, Li GQ, Chung KF (2017b) Numerical investigation into high strength Q690 steel
columns of welded H-sections under combined compression and bending. J Constr Steel Res
144:119–134
7. Ma TY, Hu YF, Liu X, Li GQ, Chung KF (2017c) Experimental investigation into high
strength Q690 steel welded H-sections under combined compression and bending. J Constr
Steel Res 138:449–462
8. Willms R (2009) High strength steel for steel construction. In: Proceedings of nordic steel
construction conference, pp 597–604
Transformation Rules on Engineering
Stress Strain Curves of S690
Funnel-Shaped Coupons
H. C. Ho, K. F. Chung, and Y. B. Guo
Abstract Funnel-shaped coupons are widely adopted for various steels low cycle
high strain cyclic tests to investigate hysteretic behaviour of structural steels under
cyclic actions in order to avoid plastic axial buckling. However, a technical problem
is induced that the engineering stress strain curves obtained from these
funnel-shaped coupons are not comparable to those curves obtained from standard
cylindrical coupons. Hence, it is essential to correlate the engineering stress-strain
characteristics obtained from monotonic tensile tests using these two types of
coupons. This paper presents a theoretical study into such a correlation on the stress
strain characteristics between the funnel-shaped coupons and the standard cylin-
drical coupons. A series of transformation formulae are proposed for various
deformation ranges, namely i) Elastic range; ii) Plateau range; iii) Hardening range
and iv) Necking range. The proposed transformation formulae have been calibrated
with tensile test results and FE models of the S690 funnel-shaped coupons. These
test results provide strong evidence to the effectiveness of the proposed transfor-
mation rules for subsequent investigations into hysteretic behaviour of steel
materials.
Keywords Tensile tests Funnel-shaped coupons S690 steels Stress-strain

characteristics
H. C. Ho (&) K. F. Chung
K. F. Chung
e-mail: cekchung@polyu.edu.hk
H. C. Ho K. F. Chung Y. B. Guo
e-mail: liz.guo@connect.polyu.hk

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_142
1536 H. C. Ho et al.
1 Introduction
Hysteretic behaviour of constructional materials and structural members is very

important for a seismic resistant structure, which affects heavily its seismic
responses and the corresponding structural behaviour. It is important to quantify the
hysteretic behaviour of both the steel materials and their structural systems against
seismic actions [5]. In the past two decades, many researchers [4, 10], [11] con-
ducted experimental investigations on the hysteretic behaviour of structural steels
with different testing methods due to different areas of interest and engineering
applications. In general, a funnel-shaped test coupon is commonly adopted for low
cycle high strain cyclic tests to BS 3518-3 [2, 6, 9].
However, a technical problem is induced that the engineering stress strain curves
obtained from cyclic tests with funnel-shaped coupons are not directly comparable
to those curves obtained from standard tensile tests with cylindrical coupons due to
different definitions of gauge lengths and engineering strains. Consequently, it is
essential to perform a theoretical analysis to generate transformation rules for
assessment on stress-strain characteristics of the steel materials tested with funnel
shape coupons and standard cylindrical coupons.
2 Stress-Strain Characteristics of Funnel-Shaped Test

Coupons
2.1 Dimensions of Cylindrical and Funnel-Shaped Coupons
In general, the cylindrical coupon is considered to be suitable for cyclic tests up to a

maximum strain of 2% while the funnel-shaped coupon is considered to be suitable
for a strain amplitude between 2 to 15%. A standard cylindrical coupon is of a
circular cross-section with tangentially blending fillets between the parallel length
and the ends [3], as shown in Fig. 1a. The ends of the funnel-shaped coupon should
be formed to suit the type of testing machine. The gauge length of a cylindrical
coupon is taken as 5 times of the diameter, i.e. Lo = 5d.
(a) a standard cylindrical coupon (b) a funnel-shaped coupon
Fig. 1 Geometry of coupons

Transformation Rules on Engineering Stress Strain Curves … 1537
----------------------- (1)
Fig. 2 Variation in radius against the longitudinal length of a funnel-shaped coupon
Engineering stress (N/mm )

d=5mm
2
d=5mm
2
Engineering strain ε (%) Engineering strain ε (%)

(a) Funnel-shaped coupon, FUN01 (b) Standard cylindrical coupons, CYD01
Fig. 3 Engineering stress-strain curves of S690 funnel-shaped and cylindrical coupons
However, a standard funnel-shaped coupon is of a circular cross-section with a

continuous varying radius between both ends, as shown in Fig. 1b, while the gauge
length of the funnel-shaped coupon is taken as twice the diameter, i.e. Lo = 2d. In
the funnel-shaped region, the radius of curvature is specified as 6 times of the
diameter, i.e. R = 6d. Hence, the variation in cross-sectional radius against the
longitudinal length can be expressed as the following mathematical formulation
(Fig. 2):
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
r ¼ d=2 þ R R2 x2 ð1Þ
2.2 Standard Tensile Tests of Funnel-Shaped and Standard

Cylindrical Coupons
Tensile tests of both funnel shaped and cylindrical coupons were carried out [3]. All
coupons are in 5 mm diameter. The measured engineering stress-strain curves are
plotted in Fig. 3. Key data and test results are presented in Table 1. The test results
will be used for calibration of the proposed analytical method for evaluation of
deformation of funnel-shaped coupon under different deformation stages in sub-
sequent sections.
2.3 Deformation of Funnel-Shaped Coupon
The authors (Ho et al. 2018) [8] carried out a series of research projects to inves-
tigate the true stress characteristics of S690 steels using a newly developed
Instantaneous Area Method. In general, a typical stress strain curve of high strength
S690 steel can be classified into four deformation stages, namely i) Elastic stage; ii)
Plateau stage; iii) Hardening stage; and iv) Necking stage, as shown in Fig. 4. The
localized deformation within the gauge length of the funnel-shaped coupon is
visually presented in Fig. 5.
Table 1 Equivalent engineering stress-strain characteristics to a cylindrical tensile coupon

Specimen fy (N/ ey E (kN/ fh (N/ eh fu (N/ eu eL
mm2) (%) mm2) mm2) (%) mm2) (%) (%)
FUN01 751 0.36 200 767 0.96 790 5.19 25.78
CYD01 711 0.36 200 716 2.34 753 6.57 16.01
Y H N
Elastic stage
F
Plateau stage
Hardening stage
Necking stage
I
Fig. 4 Typical stress strain characteristics of steel materials
(a) Elas c stage (b) Plateau stage (c) Hardening stage
Fig. 5 Funnel-shaped coupon at different deformation ranges

2.3.1 Deformation at the Elastic Stage
In the elastic stage, all materials of the funnel-shaped coupon are elastic until the
stresses within the minimum cross-section reaches the yield strength. Thus, the
elongation of the coupon within the gauge length, Δ, is given by
Xr Z d Z d
F F F
D¼ ¼2 dl ¼ 2 dl ¼ 0:459 ð2Þ
E 0 EA 0 Epr 2 A
For details of the derivation procedures, please refer to Appendix A.

Thus, the point of yielding of the coupon is given by:
Stage 1 - Point of Yielding, Y
Yield stress, fy = 751 N/mm2; Nominal cross-section area = 19.63 mm2;
fy 4 751 4
D ¼ 0:459 ¼ 0:459 ¼ 0:034 mm
E pd 2 200000 25p
Strain corresponding to Point Y, ey = 0.034/10 100% = 0.34%
2.3.2 Deformation at the Plateau Stage
After the elastic stage, the deformation would enter the plateau stage, in which
limited hardening effect is localized in the shaded area of the coupon as shown in
Fig. 6. At the end of plateau stage, the stresses within the minimum cross-section
reaches fh, i.e. Point H—Onset of hardening. It is essential to identify the yielding
zone of the coupon by direct determination of the critical length as illustrated in
Fig. 6. Based on the stress ratio between fh and the yield strength fy, i.e. fh =fy , the
critical value of the cross-sectional diameter / at which material yielding begins, as
well as the critical length of yielding zone, lc, could be determined by the principle
of force equilibrium.
p/2 pd 2
fy ¼ fh
4 4
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
) critical diameter / ¼ d fh =fy
CriƟcal length, σ Point Y Point H

lc
fh
fy Eh
2
Lo E = 200kN/mm
Edge of yielding zone, at which

diameter = ; stress σ = fy ε
εy εh
Plateau stage
Fig. 6 Yielding of funnel-shaped coupon at Plateau Stage
Stage 2 - Point of Onset of Hardening, H

It should be noted that the total elongation of the coupon within the gauge length is
composed of the elongation of the elastic zone and that of the yielding zone. For the
elongation of the elastic zone, Eq. (3) can be directly applied with an integral from
lc to d. For the elongation of the yielding zone, both deformations contributed by
elastic and plateau stages should be taken into account. The simplified mathematical
formulation is given by:
D ¼ Delastic þ Dyielding ð3Þ

Z
fh pd 2 1
d
where Delastic ¼ dl
lc E 4 pr 2
Z lc Z lc
fh fy pd 2 1 fy pd 2 1
Dyielding ¼ 2 dl þ dl
0 Eh 4 pr 0 E 4 pr 2
Eh ¼ 0:90 kN=mm2 measured from test data
After tedious calculations as presented in Appendix A, the total deformation D is

found to be 0.096 mm. Hence, the engineering strain at the end of plateau stage
eh = Δ/10 100% = 0.96%, while the stress of Point H, fh = 767 N/mm2.
2.3.3 Deformation at the Hardening Stage
After the hardening stage, the deformation is highly localized in the minimum
cross-section of the funnel-shaped coupon, and thus, the test coupon undergoes a
large deformation leading to a very different longitudinal profile. Therefore, Eq. (1)
describing the longitudinal profile of the test coupon is not valid at the hardening
stage. Hence, the elongation of the coupon within the gauge length cannot be
assessed using Eq. (2).
di = 2.77mm
d = 5.00mm di = 4.84mm
Pixel = 88
Pixel = 159 Pixel = 154
Initial stage Point of tensile Point of tensile

strength, N fracture, F
Fig. 7 Measurement of instantaneous diameter of test coupon at different deformation
Instead of using analytical solutions, digital image correlation method (Ho et al.
2019) [7] is applied to determine the point of the tensile strength. Figure 7 illus-
trates the measured instantaneous diameter of the funnel-shaped coupon under
different deformation ranges.
Stage 3 - Point of Tensile Strength (i.e. Onset of Necking), N
At the point of tensile strength, the diameter is reduced from 5.00 mm to 4.84 mm.
Thus, the reduction ratio to the cross-sectional area is 4.842/5.002 = 0.939.
Accordingly,
True strain e = ln (1/0.939) = 0.065 = 6.5%
Corresponding engineering strain eu = ee 1 = 6.7%
Tensile strength = 15.68kN/19.63 mm2 = 798.6 N/mm2
Stage 4 - Point of Fracture, F
After onset of necking, the applied load reduced with the instantaneous area.
Meanwhile, the deformation is highly localized in the necking region. From Point H to
Point F, the total deformation is Dneck ¼ 2d eL 2d eh ¼ 2:58 0:12 ¼ 2:46 mm.
Hence, the total elongation eL ¼ eu þ eneck ¼ 0:067 þ 2:46=5d ¼ 0:1654 ¼
16:54%.
3 Effect of Non-uniform Stresses at the Funnel-Shaped

Region
According to the research studies by Bridgman [1], the effect of non-uniform of

stresses across the minimum cross sections of the funnel-shaped coupons should be
taken into account. The non-uniformity of the stresses depends heavily on the ratio
of d/2R according to the following definitions:
d is the diameter of the minimum cross section of the funnel-shaped coupon as

illustrated in Fig. 2.
R is the radius of curvature of the longitudinal profile of the funnel-shaped coupon
as illustrated in Fig. 1b.
The stress correction factor, gr , is given by:
( 12 " 12 1 # )
R d d d 2
gr ¼ 1= 1þ4 ln 1 þ þ 1þ 1 ð4Þ
d 2R R 4R
In the current study, the ratio d/2R = 0.083 at small deformation range. Hence,
the stress correction factor, gr , is equal to 0.95.
4 Equivalent Engineering Stress-Strain Characteristics
Based on the theoretical findings as presented in Sects. 2 and 3, the equivalent

engineering stress-strain characteristics to a cylindrical tensile coupon can be
determined with details as presented in Table 2.
Table 2 Equivalent engineering stress-strain characteristics of a funnel-shaped coupon

Corrections Corrected Measured
values values
(FUN01) (CYD01)
Yield point (Y) fy ¼ 751 gr ¼ 751 0:95 ¼ 713.5 N/mm2 711.0 N/mm2
ey ¼ fy =E ¼ 713:5=200000 ¼ 0.36% 0.36%
Hardening point fh ¼ 767 gr ¼ 767 0:95 ¼ 728.7 N/mm2 716 N/mm2
(H) ðfh fy Þ 2.04% 2.34%
eh ¼ ey þ E h
ð728:7713:5Þ
¼ 0:0036 þ 900 ¼
Point of tensile fy ¼ 789:6 gr ¼ 789:6 0:95 ¼ 750.1 N/mm2 753.1 N/mm2
strength (N) eu ¼ ee 1 ¼ e0:065 1 6.70% 6.57%
Point of fracture eL ¼ eu þ eneck 16.5% 16.0%
(F)
Engineering stress (N/mm ) Predicted curve Predicted curve

by FEM
2
2
by FEM
Test data
Test data
Engineering strain ε (%) Engineering strain ε (%)
(a) Funnel-shaped coupon, FUN01 (b) Standard cylindrical coupon, CYD01
Fig. 8 Predicted engineering stress strain curves of funnel-shaped and cylindrical coupons
5 Verification of the Theoretical Transformation Rules

Using Advance Finite Element Method
In order to verify the proposed theoretical transformation rules, advanced FE

models of both funnel-shaped and cylindrical coupons are established using a
measured true stress curve of cylindrical coupon CYD01 obtained by Instantaneous
Area Method (Ho et al. 2009). Figure 8 plots both measured and predicted engi-
neering stress strain curves in the same graph for direct comparison. It is shown that
good agreements are achieved in terms of stress-strain characteristics and ductility
for both funnel-shaped and cylindrical coupons.
6 Conclusions
This paper presents a theoretical study into the correlation on the stress strain
characteristics between a funnel-shaped coupon and a standard cylindrical coupon.
A series of transformation formulae are proposed for various deformation ranges,
namely i) Elastic range; ii) Plateau range; iii) Hardening range; and iv) Necking
range. The test results provide strong evidence to the effectiveness of the proposed
transformation rules. The research findings are considered to be very important to
subsequent investigations into the hysteretic behaviour of the S690 steels.
Acknowledgements The project leading to publication of this paper is partially funded by the
Research Grants Council of the Government of Hong Kong SAR (Project No. PolyU 5148/13E,
PolyU 152194/15E, and PolyU 152687/16E) and the Research Committee of the Hong Kong
Polytechnic University (Project No. RTZX). Both technical and financial support from the Chinese
National Engineering Research Centre for Steel Construction (Hong Kong Branch) (Project
No. 1-BBY3 & 6) of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University is also gratefully acknowledged.
Special thanks go to the Nanjing Iron and Steel Company Ltd. in Nanjing for supply of high
strength steel materials.
Appendix A – Calculation Procedures for Deformation

of Funnel-Shaped Coupons at Different Deformation Stages
General formula of deformation of funnel-shaped coupon

Xr Z F r
D¼ ¼ dx
E EA F F
Z F d pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi x
¼ dx where r ¼ þ R R2 x2
Epr 2 2
Z F 1
¼ ffi2 dx
pE 13d pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2 36d x
2 2
1. Deformation at the point of yielding, Y

Z d
F 1
D ¼2 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi2 dx
d = 5mm
0 pE 13d 36d 2 x2
2 r
Z 5
F 2
¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi2 dx x
0 pE 13d 36d 2 x2
2
fy 4 14760
¼ 0:459 ¼ 0:459 ¼ 0:034 mm
E pd 2 200000
*All materials are in elas c
2. Deformation at the point of onset of hardening, H
Determine the critical diameter dc by using the At the minimum cross secƟon:
principle of force equilibrium: diameter = ; stress σ = fh
p/2
fy ¼ pd4 fh
2
4 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi Critical length of yielding zone
) critical diameter dc ¼ d fh =fy
Determine the total deformation lcritical
D ¼ Delastic þ Dyielding
Zd fh pd 2 1
where Delastic ¼ dx
lc
E 4 pr 2
Lo
Zd fh d 2 1
¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi2 dx Elas c zone
4E
lc 13d
2 36d 2 x2
Edge of yielding zone, at which
diameter = ; stress σ = fy
(continued)
(continued)
General formula of deformation of funnel-shaped coupon
Dyielding
Z Point Y Point H
fh fy pd 2 1
lc
¼ dx f
0 Eh 4 pr 2 h
Z lc f
fy pd 2 1 E
þ dx y h
0 E 4 pr 2
Z lc 2 2
fh fy d 1 E = 200kN/mm
¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi2 dx
4Eh
2 36d x
0 13d 2 2
Z lc 2
fy d 1 ε ε
þ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi2 dx
y h
0 4E
2 36d x
13d 2 2

fh fh fy fy
D ¼ 5:57 þ 3:45 þ
E Eh E

767 16 751
¼ 5:57 þ 3:45 þ
200000 900 200000
¼ 0:0214 þ 0:0743
¼ 0:0957m
References
1. Bridgman P (1952) Studies in large plastic and fracture. McGraw-Hill, New York
2. BS 3518-3 (1963) Method of fatigue testing – Part 3: Direct stress fatigue tests. British
Standards Institution
3. BS EN ISO 6892-1 (2009) Metallic materials – Tensile testing Part 1: Method of test at
ambient temperature. British Standards Institution
4. Fournier B, Sauzay M, Caes C, Noblecourt M, Mottot M (2006) Analysis of the hysteresis
loops of a martensitic steel – Part I: Study of the influence of strain amplitude and temperature
under pure fatigue loadings using an enhanced stress partitioning method. Mater Sci Eng, A
437:183–196
5. FEMA-461 (2007) Interim testing Protocols for determining the seismic performance
characteristics of structural and non-structural components. Federal Emergency Management
Agency
6. GB/T 15248 (1994) Metallic materials – constant amplitude strain controlled axial fatigue –
method of test. Standard Press of China, Beijing, China. (In Chinese)
7. Ho HC, Chung KF, Liu X, Xiao M, Nethercot DA (2019) Modelling tensile tests on high
strength S690 steel materials undergoing large deformations. Eng Struct 192:305–322
8. Ho HC, Liu X, Chung KF, Xiao M, Yam MCH, Nethercot DA (2018) True stress-strain
characteristics of high strength S690 steels. In: International Conference on Engineering
Research and Practice for Steel Construction 2018, Hong Kong, pp 160–167
9. ISO 12106 (2003) Metallic materials – Fatigue testing – Axial-strain-controlled method.
International Organization for Standardization
10. Khan S, Wilde F, Beckmann F, Mosler J (2012) Low cycle fatigue mechanism of the
lightweight alloy Al2024. Int J Fatigue 38:92–99
11. Nip KH, Gardner L, Davies CM, Elghazouli AY (2010) Extremely low cycle fatigue tests on
structural carbon steel and stainless steel. J Constr Steel Res 66:96–110
Investigations into Compression
Behaviour of T-Joints Between S690
Circular Hollow Sections Under Brace
Axial Force
Y. F. Hu and K. F. Chung
Abstract This paper presents an experimental and numerical investigation into the
compression behaviour of T-joints between S690 cold-formed circular hollow
sections (CFCHS). A total of four T-joints between S690 CFCHS were tested under
axial compression in brace members. A typical failure mode was observed that all
joints failed in an interaction between the local plastification of the chords and
overall plastic bending of the chords. Three dimensional finite element models with
geometrical and material non-linearity have been established and verified after
calibration against test results. Both measured geometrical dimensions and material
properties of these CFCHS are incorporated into the proposed models. Both the
experimental and the numerical results are compared with design resistances
obtained from existing design codes, including EN 1993-1-8 and CIDECT Design
Guide 1. The investigation will facilitate development of efficient design rules for
resistances of T-joints between S690 CFCHS under brace axial compression.
Keywords High strength steel T-joints Circular hollow sections Axial

compression
Y. F. Hu K. F. Chung (&)
Y. F. Hu
e-mail: yi-fei.hu@polyu.edu.hk
Y. F. Hu K. F. Chung

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_143
1548 Y. F. Hu and K. F. Chung
1 Introduction
Structural behaviour of tubular joints between normal strength steel hollow sections
have been extensively investigated in the past decades. The research findings have
been developed into various design rules adopted by some international design
specifications for application. Design recommendations for these tubular joints were
proposed by the International Institute of Welding (IIW) Subcommission XV-E in
1981 and 1991(IIW [6] and 1991). Eurocode EN 1993-1-8 CEN [3, 4] adopted the
design recommendations proposed by the 2nd edition of IIW recommendations IIW
[7]. The latest version of CIDECT Design Guide 1 [11] follows the 3rd editions of
IIW recommendations IIW [8]. Current design rules for high strength steel tubular
joints were developed based on extensive numerical results and re-assessment of
existing experimental results [10]. Since there were insufficient experimental results
for high strength steel tubular joints available at that time, both strength reduction
factors and limitations on the tensile to yield strength ratio, fu/fy, were set to ensure
a safety margin for practical design. In recent years, there has been an increasing
number of research on high strength steel tubular joints. Various joint types with
different cross-section geometry were studied to enrich the database on high
strength steel tubular joints, for re-evaluating the current design rules. As many
current design rules for high strength CHS T-joints are developed based on the test
results on normal strength steel CHS T-joints and extensive numerical analyses
results, it is necessary to carry out structural tests on high strength CHS T-joints
under brace axial compression to enrich the existing database.
It is also highly desirable to develop finite element models with a high precision
to analyze suitability of existing reduction factors on high strength steel CHS
T-joints to see whether the design could be improved. Effects of cold-forming,
weld-induced residual stresses and strength reduction in heat affected zones on the
structural behaviour of these high strength tubular joints are necessary to be further
investigated.
2.1 Test Programme
In order to investigate the structural behaviour of these high strength S690 welded
steel T-joints, a total of four T-joints between cold-formed circular hollow sections
(CFCHS) were fabricated and tested under axial compression in brace members.
The test programme is presented in Table 1 while Fig. 1 presents detailed config-
uration of a T-joint. The lengths of both the chords and the braces of the joints, L0
and L1 are 1200 mm and 600 mm respectively. The span between two pinned
supports, L, is 1500 mm.
Investigations into Compression Behaviour of T-Joints … 1549
Table 1 Test programme

Test Steel Chord member Brace member a b c s
specimen grade d0 t0 d1 t1
(mm mm) (mm mm)
T2A S690 250 10 150 6 9.6 0.6 12.5 0.6
T2B S690 250 10 150 6 9.6 0.6 12.5 0.6
T4 S690 250 10 200 6 9.6 0.8 12.5 0.6
T5 S690 250 10 200 10 9.6 0.8 12.5 1.0
N
α = 2L0/d0
Brace d1 β = d1/d0
L1
2γ = d0/t0
Chord t1 τ = t1/t0
t0
Crown
d0 Saddle
L0
Fig. 1 Configuration of a typical T-joint
Table 2 Measured geometric dimensions of test specimens

Specimen Steel Chord Chord Brace Brace
grade length diameter length diameter
L0 (mm) d0 (mm) L1 (mm) d1 (mm)
T2A S690 1198.8 251.6 599.4 152.6
T2B S690 1198.8 251.5 599.4 152.0
T4 S690 1199.0 251.8 599.2 200.9
T5 S690 1198.5 251.5 599.4 201.3
The following geometrical parameters are covered: i) the brace to chord diameter
ratio ðb ¼ d1 =d0 Þ is assigned to range from 0.6 to 0.8, ii) the ratio of brace wall
thickness to chord wall thickness ðs ¼ t1 =t0 Þ is assigned to range from 0.8 to 1.0.
The diameter of the chord is assigned to be 250 mm, and its thickness is 10 mm.
The measured geometric dimensions of the four T-joint specimens are summarized
in Table 2.
Standard tensile tests were conducted to obtain basic material properties of the
S690 steel plates. A summary of key results of the standard tensile tests are shown
Table 3 Material test results of high strength S690 steel

Plate Young’s modulus Yield strength Tensile strength Elongation at
thickness E (kN/mm2) fy (N/mm2) fu (N/mm2) fracture ef (%)
(mm)
6 201 745 826 15.9
10 203 787 835 17.8
Fig. 2 Test setup and instrumentation
in Table 3. Edge preparation was performed at the ends of the braces in order to
make profiled connecting surfaces for joint welding. The chords and the braces
were then connected together through a combination of partial penetration butt
welds and fillet welds. Welding of all these T-joints was performed by a highly
skilled welder in a well-equipped fabricator. The welding electrode ER110S-G
(with a diameter of 1.2 mm) according to AWS A5.28 [2] was employed for
GMAW of high strength S690 steels. The nominal yield strength of the welding
electrode is 720 N/mm2.
2.2 Test Setup and Test Procedures
Figure 2 illustrates typical test setup and instrumentation for the joint tests. All
these tests were carried out at the Structural Engineering Research Laboratory of the
Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Both ends of the chord of each T-joint were
attached to two vertical supports through two steel pins. Only in-plane rotations
were allowed at both ends of the chord. Two laser levels were installed in front of
and at the left of the T-joint during testing to ensure the centre of the brace was
carefully aligned with the centre of the loading attachment.
2.3 Test Results
2.3.1 Failure Modes
All the T-joints were tested successfully and they all failed in an interaction
between a global failure mode and a local failure mode as follows:
• Overall plastic bending of the chord
• Local plastification of the chord at the joint panel zone
This is because the axial compression force acting on the brace induces a
bending moment and a shear force in the chord. The chord section at the joint panel
zone is, therefore, under compressive stresses. Such compressive chord stresses will
reduce the joint resistance. The deformed shapes and the typical failure mode of
these T-joints are illustrated in Fig. 3. No weld cracking was observed in all these
tests.
2.3.2 Load-Chord Indentation Curves
The vertical displacement at the mid-span of the chord of each T-joint is calculated
as follows
D6 þ D7
d¼ ð1Þ
2
Local plastic deformation of the chord Out-of-plane ovalization of the chord
Fig. 3 Typical local failure of Joint T2A

Fig. 4 Applied load-chord Joint T2A

indentation curve of Joint 1400
3% d0
Applied axial load, N (kN)

T2A
1200 for d0 = 250 mm
1000
800
600
400
200
0
0 2.5 5 7.5 10 12.5 15 17.5 20
Chord indentation Δ (mm)
The maximum indentation, or distortion, is found to occur at the crown point of

the chord. Hence, this deformation, namely, chord indentation D, is taken as the
maximum relative deformation at the crown points and the centre of the chord,
which is calculated according to
D ¼ maxðD4 d; D5 dÞ ð2Þ
The applied load versus chord indentation curve of Joint T2A is shown in Fig. 4.
2.3.3 Joint Resistances
In the present study, the maximum load resistance of each T-joint is defined by the
lower value of: i) the applied ultimate load, and ii) the applied load corresponding
to an ultimate deformation limit, where the deformation limit is proposed by [9].
This out-of-plane deformation limit is defined as 3% of the outer diameter of the
chord, i.e. 0.03d0, according to CIDECT Design Guide 1. It is observed from the
applied load versus chord indentation curves that all the tested joints reached the
ultimate loads prior to the deformation limit, i.e. 0.03d0 or 7.5 mm. Hence, the
applied ultimate load of each joint is determined as its axial compressive resistance.
The design resistances of all the T-joints are summarized in Table 4. For Joints T4
and T5, the calculated maximum bending moments in the chords all exceed the
plastic moment resistances of the chords. Hence, an overall failure mode of chord
bending is considered to be dominant in these joints. However, a local failure mode
of chord plastification is considered to be dominant in Joints T2A and T2B through
a back analysis on the maximum bending moments in the chords.
By comparing results of Joints T4 and T5, it is shown that the resistance of a
T-joint does not always increase by increasing the wall thickness of the brace.
Both CIDECT Design Guide 1 and EN1993-1-8 are considered to be structurally
adequate for prediction of the axial resistances of these T-joints without the need of
Table 4 Summary of test results of T-joints between S690 CFCHS

Joint Nc,Test M0,Test Mpl,0 M0,Test/ NCIDECT Nc,Test/ NEC3 Nc,Test/ Nc,FE Nc,FE/
(kN) (kNm) (kNm) Mpl,0 (kN) NCIDECT (kN) NEC3 (kN) Nc,Test
T2A 861 290.6 342.3 0.85 690 1.25 546 1.58 864 1.00
T2B 920 310.5 342.3 0.91 690 1.33 546 1.68 931 1.01
T4 1223 397.5 342.4 1.16 871 1.40 688 1.78 1244 1.02
T5 1175 381.8 342.4 1.12 871 1.35 688 1.71 1248 1.06
Notes Nc, Test denotes the measured strength of T-joints;
M0, Test denotes the calculated maximum bending moment in the chord;
Mpl,0 denotes the plastic moment resistance of the chord;
NCIDECT denotes the ultimate resistance predicted by CIDECT Design Guide 1; and
NEC3 denotes the ultimate strength predicted by according to EN 1993-1-8
applying a reduction factor of 0.9 or 0.8. With these reduction factors, both for-
mulae give an under-prediction of about 25 to 71%. The safety margin is considered
to be quite large. Therefore, the strength reduction factor of 0.8 defined by EN
1993-1-12 CEN [5] is considered to be very conservative for these T-joints.
3 Numerical Investigation
3.1 Proposed Finite Element Model
Nonlinear finite element models of these four T-joints between S690 CFCHS with
brace axial compression are established and analyzed using the commercial finite
element programme ABAQUS [1]. In the present study, solid elements C3D8R are
employed for modeling the T-joints. Three layers of solid elements are employed
through the thickness of the CFCHS in order to capture local bending behaviour.
A general mesh size of 6 mm is determined through a mesh sensitivity study, after
considering both computational efficiency and accuracy of the numerical results. An
overall view of the finite element mesh of a typical T-joint is shown in Fig. 5.
Partial penetration butt-welds are simplified as deep penetration fillet welds in
accordance with EN 1993-1-8. The stress-strain curves of the S690 steel plates of 6
and 10 mm thick obtained from standard tensile tests are converted to true
stress-strain curves, as illustrated in Fig. 6. Stress-strain curves of S690 welds are
simplified using an elastic-perfect plastic model. The initial elastic modulus of the
weld metal is taken as 210 kN/mm2, according to EN 1993-1-1 [3, 4] while the
yield strength of the weld metal is 720 N/mm2. The Poisson’s ratio is taken as 0.3.
Isotropic hardening rule and von Mises yield criterion are adopted.
The boundary conditions of the proposed FE models are shown in Fig. 7. Three
reference points are set, and they are coupled with the nodes on both surfaces of the
chord ends and the top surface of the brace with all six degrees of freedom. An axial
load is applied onto Reference Point A through the static Risks method given in
ABAQUS/Standard.
Fig. 5 Finite element mesh of a typical T-joint
1200 900
800 f y = 720 N/mm2
True stress (N/mm2)
True stress (N/mm2)
1000
700
800 600
500
600
400
400 300
S690-6mm 200
200 S690-Weld
S690-10mm 100
0 0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
True strain True strain
Fig. 6 True stress-strain curves for numerical study
Fig. 7 Boundary conditions Applied load, N

for the FE models Reference Point A
ux = 0, uy = 0
urx =0, ury = 0, urz=0
Reference Point B Reference Point C

y uy = 0, uz = 0
ux = 0, uy = 0, uz=0
urx =0, urz = 0 urx =0, urz = 0
3.2 Validation of Numerical Models
Both the measured and the predicted axial load versus chord indentation curves of
Joint T2A are compared in Fig. 8. Figure 9 illustrates the predicted deformed
shapes and stress contours of Joint T2A. The axial resistances from the numerical
results are also compared with the test results in Table 3. The differences between
the measured and the predicted axial resistances of these T-joints are lower than
6%, with a mean value of the axial resistance ratio Nc,FE/Nc,Test of 1.02. Therefore,
the proposed numerical models are found to be able to predict structural behaviour
of these T-joints under brace axial compression well.
Joint T2A
1400
3% d0
Applied axial load, N (kN)
1200 Test
FEM for d0 = 250 mm
1000
800
600
400
200
0
0 2.5 5 7.5 10 12.5 15 17.5 20
Chord indentation Δ (mm)
Fig. 8 Comparison of load-chord indentation curves of T-joints between CFCHS
Stress (N/mm2)
1000
800
600
400
200
0
Fig. 9 Deformed shapes and stress contours of Joint T2A

4 Conclusions
In this paper, an experimental and numerical investigation into structural behaviour

of T-joints between S690 CFCHS is presented. It should be noted that:
a) A total of four T-joints between S690 CFCHS have been successfully tested
under brace axial compression. All test specimens are found to have sufficient
strength and ductility.
b) Current design rules provided in CIDECT Design Guide 1 and EN1993-1-8 are
considered to be structurally adequate for prediction of the axial resistances of
these T-joints between S690 CFCHS with a large safety margin.
c) Three dimensional finite element models have been established and they have
been validated to be effective to predict the structural behaviour of T-joints
between S690 CFCHS under brace axial compression.
Both the test data of the experimental work and the numerical data to be gen-
erated by the calibrated finite element models will facilitate development of efficient
design rules for axial compressive resistances of S690 T-joints under brace axial
compression.
Acknowledgements The project leading to publication of this paper is partially funded by the
Research Grants Committee of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Project No. RTZX) and the
Research Grants Council of the University Grants Committee of the Government of Hong
Kong SAR (Project Nos. PolyU 152194/15E, PolyU 152687/16E and PolyU 152331/17E). The
authors also wish to acknowledge the Chinese National Engineering Research Centre for Steel
Construction (Hong Kong Branch) at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University for financial support.
References
1. ABAQUS 6.12 (2009) Theory Manual 2009, Providence, Dassault Systems Simulia Corp, US
2. AWS (2005) Specification for Low-Alloy Steel Electrodes and Rods for Gas Shielded Arc
Welding, Structural Welding Code – Steel. American Welding Society, Miami, United States
3. CEN (2005) BS EN 1993-1-1, Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures Part 1-1: General rules
and rules for buildings, European Committee for Standardization
4. CEN (2005) BS EN 1993-1-8, Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures Part 1-8: Design of
joints, European Committee for Standardization
5. CEN (2007) BS EN 1993-1-12, Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures Part 1-12: Additional
rules for the extension of EN 1993 up to steel grades S700, European Committee for
Standardization
6. International Institute of Welding (IIW) (1981) Design recommendations for hollow section
joints—predominantly statically loaded, IIW Doc. XV-701-89, 1st edn
joints—predominantly statically loaded, IIW Doc. XV-701-89, 2nd edn
joints—predominantly statically loaded, IIW Doc. XV-701-89, 3rd edn
9. Lu LH, De Winkel GD, Yu Y, Wardenier J (1994) Deformation limit for the ultimate strength
of hollow section joints. In: 6th international symposium on tubular structures, pp 341–347
10. Qian XD, Choo YS, Van Der Vegte GJ, Wardenier J (2008) Evaluation of the new IIW CHS
strength formulae for thick-walled joints. In: Proceedings of the 12th international symposium
on tubular structures, Shanghai, pp 271–280
11. Wardenier J, Kurobane Y, Packer JA, Van der Vegte GJ, Zhao XL (2008) Design guide for
circular hollow section (CHS) joints under predominantly static loading, CIDECT
Structural Behaviour of High Strength
S690 Cold-Formed Structural Hollow
Sections Under Compression
M. Xiao and K. F. Chung
Abstract High strength steels are considered as efficient constructional materials

due to their high strength-to-self-weight ratios. Over the past years, a large number
of investigations into structural members made of high strength steels have proved
that they meet various design requirements in both strength and ductility under
various actions. However, the fabrication processes of these high strength steel
sections are quite different from those made of normal strength steels, in particular,
the presence of residual stresses due to both cold-forming and welding. In the
current study, a total of eight cold-formed structural hollow sections (CFSHS) with
different dimensions and fabrication methods are tested. The structural performance
of these sections is examined with a total of 8 stocky column tests and 16 slender
column tests. After comparing these measured resistances with the predicted
resistances according to EN 1993-1-1, further works on improvements to the design
method are suggested.

Keywords High strength steels Cold-formed sections Classification of

cross-sections Section resistances Member resistances
M. Xiao K. F. Chung (&)

M. Xiao
e-mail: meng.ce.xiao@connect.polyu.hk
M. Xiao K. F. Chung

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_144
1560 M. Xiao and K. F. Chung
1 Introduction
High strength steels are considered as efficient constructional materials due to their
high strength-to-self-weight ratios. With this remarkable advantage, low costs and
energy consumption during production per unit weight have become the other two
main advantages of high strength steels. Over the past years, a large number of
investigations into structural members made of high strength steels have proved that
they meet various design requirements in both strength and ductility under various
actions [7, 8]. However, their fabrication processes are quite different from those
members made of normal strength steels, in particular, the presence of residual
stresses due to both cold-forming and welding are generally considered to affect
adversely the structural performance of these cold-formed sections. Recently, the
experimental studies into residual stresses of high strength steels have been carried out
by several researchers, and the most commonly used methods to obtain residual
stresses are the hole-drilling method and the sectioning method. Many researchers
have compared measurements of the residual stresses among sections of different steel
grades [11]. Numerical simulation is another effective method to study residual
stresses. The coupled thermomechanical welding analysis has been developed with a
calibrated heat source model [3], and it enables accurate predictions on residual stress
patterns for different sections with minimum laboratory work [4, 6, 9]. The residual
stresses in the S690 welded H-sections obtained by finite element models or physical
measurements may be directly incorporated into structural analyses, and buckling
behaviour of both stocky and slender columns is subsequently simulated. These
studies incorporating realistic residual stresses into column buckling are recently
employed in high strength steel columns. It is found that these residual stresses have
little effects on stocky columns of S690 welded H-sections, but they play an important
role in slender columns of the same sections [5, 10]. In the current study, a total of eight
S690 cold-formed structural hollow sections (CFSHS) with different dimensions and
fabrication methods are designed, and the structural performance of these sections are
examined by with a total of 8 stocky column tests and 16 slender column tests.
2 Fabrication and Material Properties
2.1 Fabrication and Residual Stresses
A total of eight cold-formed structural hollow sections (CFSHS) are investigated in

this study, and they are categorized into two series, i.e. Series SA and Series SB, as
shown in Fig. 1. These two series of sections are identical in their overall
cross-sectional dimensions, but they are fabricated in different ways. For those
sections of Series SA, two welds are made onto a pair of identical cold-bent
C-shaped channels. For those sections of Series SB, a U-shaped channel is
cold-bent, and welded onto a flat plate at both edges. The key differences between
these two series of sections lie in two aspects: (1) Series SA sections are biaxially
Structural Behaviour of High Strength S690 … 1561
symmetric while Series SB sections are uniaxially symmetric; (2) Series SA sec-
tions have four cold-bent corners and two butt-welded side joints while Series SB
sections have only two cold-bent corners and two butt-welded corner joints.
The residual stresses due to welding are predicted by using the coupled ther-
momechanical welding analysis, and the calibrated heat source model [3] is adopted
to simulate movement of the welding arch during welding. The simplified longi-
tudinal residual stress patterns for these two series of sections are shown in Fig. 2.
In the current study, 6 and 10 mm thick S690 plates are used to fabricate these
CFSHS, and the results of standard coupon tests on these steel plates are presented
in Table 1. The measured mechanical properties of the steel plates are compared
with the requirements of EN 1993-1-12 [2], and it should be noted that all these
requirements are satisfied.
Table 1 Test results of standard coupon tests on S690 steel plates

Steel plate fy fu Elongation limit fu
fy
(N/mm2) (N/mm2) (%)
6 mm 733 807 16.2 1.09
10 mm 754 813 17.7 1.06
EN 1993-1-12 (lower limit) 690 – 10.0 1.05
Section S1A Section S2A Section S3A Section S4A
Section S1B Section S2B Section S3B Section S4B
Fig. 1 Dimensions of CFSHS sections

Fig. 2 Simplified
longitudinal residual stress
patterns
(a) Series SA section (b) Series SB section
3 Stocky Column Tests Under Compression
3.1 Test Programme
The section resistances of a total of eight stocky columns of S690 CFSHS are
examined under compression, and the corresponding test programme is shown in
Table 2. In order to avoid failure of overall buckling, these columns are designed to
be short, i.e. their member lengths, Lm, are designed at 3 h. Except for those stocky
columns with Class 4 sections (Sections S2A and S2B), all stocky columns with
Class 1 or 2 sections are expected to mobilize readily their full plastic resistances of
the sections, and the measured maximum applied load, Nc,Et, should be larger than
the design resistance of the section, Nc,Rd.
3.2 Test Results
Table 2 summarizes the key test results. It is shown that Sections S2A and S2B
achieve only about 82% of their design resistances of the sections. For all the other
sections, their measured section resistances are all larger than their design resis-
N
tances. Figure 3 shows a direct comparison on the section resistance ratios, N c;Et ,
c;Rd
against axial shortenings of various sections. Since Sections S3A and S3B have
very small h/t ratios, they not only exceed their design resistances of the sections,
Table 2 Test programme and results of stocky column tests

Series Designation Section classification Nc, Nc,Et Nc;Et Strength
Nc;Rd mobilization
Rd (kN)
SA S1A-S 1 2459 2450 1.00 Full
S2A-S 4 3297 2745 0.83 –
S3A-S 1 5502 5999 1.09 Full
S4A-S 1 6894 6914 1.00 Full
SB S1B-S 2 2459 2517 1.02 Full
S2B-S 4 3330 2719 0.82 –
S3B-S 1 5604 5891 1.05 Full
S4B-S 2 7043 7108 1.01 Full
but also exhibit high degree of ductility. Sections S2A and S2B fail to reach their
design resistances of the sections because they are Class 4, and hence, a part of the
cross-sectional area may be defined as non-effective that do not bear any com-
pression. For Sections S1A, S1B, S4A and S4B, their measured section resistances
just exceed their design section resistances with a limited degree of ductility.
Although these four sections are Class 1 or 2 according to the current section
classification rules of EN 1993-1-1 [1], it is more reasonable to categorize them as
Class 3 according to their low degree of ductility. Typical failure modes of these
sections are shown in Fig. 3, and it is found that there is no significant difference in
the failure modes between Series SA and SB sections since local buckling occur at
similar locations in these stocky columns.
Test S4A-S TestS4B-S
Fig. 3 Applied load ratio-axial shortening curves and typical failure modes of stocky columns
4 Slender Column Tests Under Compression
4.1 Test Programme
In testing slender columns under compression, the most important structural

parameter controlling failure modes of the columns is the slenderness ratio. In
accordance with the design rules of EN 1993-1-1, the non-dimensional slenderness,
k, plays a very important role in defining the member resistances of the slender
columns. To evaluate the structural performance of these columns over a wide
range of slenderness, two series of columns with different slenderness ratios are
designed for each section in the current study, as shown in Fig. 1. Thus, a total of
16 slender columns are tested under compression (see Table 3). It should be noted
that the values of k is designed to range from 0.3 to 0.9, and this allows an effective
examination on certain reductions in the member resistances due to overall
buckling.
Table 3 Test programme and results of slender column tests

Series Designation Section Nc,Rd k Nb,Rd Nb,Et Nb;Et Nb;Et Failure
classification Nb;Rd Nc;Rd mode
(kN) (kN) (kN)
SA (1) S1A-P 1 2450 0.52 2039 2603 1.28 1.06 Local
(3) S2A-P 4 3295 0.46 2847 2981 1.05 0.91 Overall
(5) S3A-P 1 5524 0.40 4951 5448 1.10 0.99 Overall
(7) S4A-P 1 6933 0.38 6293 6867 1.09 0.99 Overall
(9) S1A-Q 1 2435 0.83 1565 2187 1.40 0.90 Overall
(11) S2A-Q 4 3392 0.56 2743 2913 1.06 0.86 Overall
(13) S3A-Q 1 5478 0.63 4220 4917 1.17 0.90 Overall
(15) S4A-Q 1 7010 0.51 5879 6698 1.14 0.96 Overall
SB (2) S1B-P 2 2485 0.55 2031 2477 1.22 1.00 Overall
(4) S2B-P 4 3341 0.48 2861 2724 0.95 0.82 Overall
(6) S3B-P 1 5598 0.42 4963 5556 1.12 0.99 Overall
(8) S4B-P 2 7102 0.39 6409 7149 1.12 1.01 Overall
(10) S1B-Q 2 2485 0.86 1547 2213 1.43 0.89 Overall
(12) S2B-Q 4 3438 0.58 2743 2852 1.04 0.83 Overall
(14) S3B-Q 1 5605 0.67 4181 5451 1.30 0.97 Overall
(16) S4B-Q 2 7110 0.53 5886 7027 1.19 0.99 Overall
Note: Nb,Rd is calculated with curve c (imperfection factor, a = 0.49) according to the buckling
design rules in EN 1993-1-1
4.2 Test Results
Table 3 summarizes the test results of a total of 16 slender column tests under
compression, where the measured maximum applied loads, Nb,Et, in each test is
recorded. Besides, the design section resistance of the section, Nc,Rd, and the design
member resistance of the column, Nb,Rd, are presented. It should be noted that Nb,Rd
in the current study is calculated based on the buckling curve c (imperfection factor,
a = 0.49) according to EN 1993-1-1 for member resistance design of slender
N
columns of CFSHS against overall buckling. It should be noted that the ratios N b;Et
b;Rd
of all slender columns with Classes 1 or 2 sections exceed 1.0. For those of Class 4
sections, there are parts of the cross-sectional area non-effective which have no
contribution to their section resistances. For typical failure mode of these slender
column tests, many of them fail in overall buckling. Figure 4 demonstrates typical
relationships of the applied load against displacements of Test S3A-P. As depicted
by Fig. 4(a), there is a significant decrease in the applied load after reaching the
maximum load. A similar trend is also evident in the applied load-horizontal dis-
placement curve, as shown by Fig. 4(b), where the horizontal displacement
increases quickly after the maximum load is reached, and this indicates that an
obvious overall buckling has occurred herein.
As above-mentioned, many of the slender column tests exceed their Nb,Rd pre-
dicted by the buckling curve c, which means that it is too conservative to design
these slender columns of CFSHS by simply adopting the current design rules of EN
(a) Applied load-axial shortening curve
Test S4A-Q Test S4B-Q

(b) Applied load-horizontal displacement curve
Fig. 4 Applied load-displacement curves and typical failure modes of slender columns
Series SA
Fig. 5 Design buckling curves and test data: EN 1993-1-1 and Series SA
Series SB
Fig. 6 Design buckling curves and test data: EN 1993-1-1 and Series SB
1993-1-1. Figures 5 and 6 show differences in the member resistances between the
slender columns of Series SA and SB sections. Obviously, the slender columns of

N
Series SB sections have higher ratios v ¼ N b;Et than those of Series SA sections.
c;Rd
Based on a direct comparison between the test results and the predictions provided
by those buckling design curves (from curves a0 to d) with different imperfection

factors, a, it is reasonable to propose a design recommendation that both slender
columns of Series SA and SB sections should be designed by using a buckling
curve with a smaller value of imperfection factor, a.
5 Conclusions
In this paper, a total of eight cold-formed structural hollow sections (CFSHS) are
examined, and an experimental investigation into the structural behaviour of 8
S690 CFSHS stocky columns under compression and 16 S690 CFSHS slender
columns under compression are presented.
In general, all stocky columns with Class 1 and 2 sections are able to mobilize
their full cross-section resistances, except Sections S2A and S2B which are Class 4
sections. Similarly, all slender columns with Class 1 and 2 sections are able to
mobilize their member resistances, except Column S2B-P which is Class 4 section.
Based on a direct comparison between the measured and the predicted resistances
provided by those buckling design curves given in EN 1993-1-1, it is proposed to
improve the design method such that a higher curve with a smaller imperfection
factor should be used. Numerical models will be established after calibration
against these test results, and both material and geometrical initial imperfections of
these members with practical magnitudes will be incorporated to generate numer-
ical resistances for development of the improved design method.
Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to the financial support provided by the Research
Grant Council of the Government of Hong Kong SAR (Project Nos. PolyU 152687/16E and
152231/17E). The project leading to the publication of this paper is also partially funded by the
Research Committee (Project No. RUQV) and the Chinese National Engineering Research Centre
for Steel Construction (Hong Kong Branch) (Project No. 1-BBY3) of the Hong Kong Polytechnic
University. The research studentship of the first author provided by the Hong Kong Polytechnic
University is acknowledged. Special thanks go to the Nanjing Iron and Steel Company Ltd. in
Nanjing, and to Dongguan Pristine Metal Works Ltd. in Dongguan. All structural tests on
S690 CFSHS were carried out at the Structural Engineering Research Laboratory at the Hong
Kong Polytechnic University, and supports from the technicians are gratefully acknowledged.
References
1. BSI (2005) EN 1993-1-1. Eurocode 3: Design of structures – Part 1-1: General rules and rules
for buildings. British Standards Institution
2. BSI (2007) EN 1993-1-12. Eurocode 3: Design of structures – Part 1-12: Additional rules for
the extension of EN 1993 up to steel grades S 700. British Standards Institution
3. Goldak J, Chakravarti A, Bibby M (1984) A new finite element model for welding heat
sources. Metallurg Trans B 15(2):299–305
4. Hu YF (2019) Structural behaviour of high strength S690 steel cold-formed circular hollow
sections (Doctoral dissertation, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University)
5. Li TJ, Liu SW, Li GQ, Chan SL, Wang YB (2016) Behaviour of Q690 high-strength steel
columns: Part 2: parametric study and design recommendations. J Constr Steel Res 122:379–
394
6. Liu X, Chung KF (2018) Experimental and numerical investigation into temperature histories
and residual stress distributions of high strength steel S690 welded H-sections. Eng Struct
165:396–411
7. Ma TY, Hu YF, Liu X, Li GQ, Chung KF (2017) Experimental investigation into high
strength Q690 steel welded H-sections under combined compression and bending. J Constr
Steel Res 138:449–462
8. Somodi B, Kövesdi B (2017) Flexural buckling resistance of cold-formed HSS hollow section
members. J Constr Steel Res 128:179–192
9. Wang K (2018) Study on structural behaviour of high strength steel s690 welded H-and
I-sections (Doctoral dissertation, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University)
10. Wang YB, Li GQ, Chen SW, Sun FF (2014) Experimental and numerical study on the
behaviour of axially compressed high strength steel box-columns. Eng Struct 58:79–91
11. Yang C, Yang J, Su M, Li Y (2016) Residual stress in high-strength-steel welded circular
tube. Proc Inst Civil Eng Struct Build 170(9):631–640
Structural Responses of High Strength
S690 Welded Sections Under Different
Cyclic Actions
Y. B. Guo, H. C. Ho, M. Xiao, X. Liu, and K. F. Chung
Abstract Structural engineers are constantly looking for high strength construc-
tional materials as they face huge challenges in providing structural solutions to
build heavily loaded structures, such as high-rise buildings and long span bridges.
Applications of high strength S690 steels to building structures are very attractive
owing to their high strength to self-weight ratios which often provide significant
savings in costs and time. However, there are concerns on mechanical properties of
welded S690 members, in particular, in both strength and ductility, and there is a
lack of technical guidance on how to assess any adverse effect on these mechanical
properties. This paper presents an experimental investigation into structural
responses of S690 steel plates and welded sections under cyclic actions with both
constant and varying strain amplitudes, and comparison on cyclic deformation
characteristics of both steel plates and their welded sections is presented.
Keywords High strength steel Welded sections Cyclic tests Hysteretic

behaviour Ductility
Y. B. Guo H. C. Ho M. Xiao X. Liu K. F. Chung (&)

University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR PRC
Y. B. Guo
H. C. Ho
M. Xiao
e-mail: meng.ce.xiao@connect.polyu.hk
X. Liu
H. C. Ho M. Xiao X. Liu K. F. Chung
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR PRC

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_145
1570 Y. B. Guo et al.
1 Introduction
Structural engineers are constantly looking for high strength constructional mate-
rials as they face huge challenges in providing structural solutions to build heavily
loaded structures, such as high-rise buildings and long span bridges. Applications
of high strength S690 steels to building structures are very attractive owing to their
high strength to self-weight ratios which often provide significant savings in costs
and time [8]. However, there are concerns on mechanical properties of welded S690
members, in particular, in both strength and ductility. In general, welding in normal
strength S355 steels does not cause any significant strength reduction as they are
primarily ferritic or ferritic-pearlitic steels which microstructures do not undergo
phase transformation during welding. However, high strength steels are primarily
manufactured with heat treatments during steel-making, such as Quenching and
Tempering for QT steels. It should be noted that large heating/cooling cycles
induced during a practical welding process will trigger phase transformation,
recrystallization and grain growth in heat-affected-zones (HAZ) of their welded
joints. Hence, significant adverse effects on mechanical properties of these welded
joints at locations within the HAZ, in particular, both strength and ductility will be
resulted, if the heat input energy, q (kJ/mm), adopted during welding is not properly
controlled [4].
In most current structural steel design codes, there are specific clauses on duc-
tility requirements for steel materials. For example, according to EN 1993-1-1 [1],
the ductility requirements of normal strength S235 to S460 steels are:
i) fu/fy 1.10; ii) eL 15%; and iii) eu 15 ey .
where ey , eu , and eL are the strains corresponding to the yield strength, fy, the
tensile strength, fu, and fracture of the coupons.
For high strength steels up to S700, the relevant ductility requirements given in
EN 1993-1-12 [2] are:
i) fu/fy 1.05; ii) eL 10%; and iii) eu 15 ey .
These requirements are generally believed to be derived from experiences in
both engineering and research projects in accordance with materials tests under
monotonic tensile actions. However, many recent research works [6, 7] suggested
that the mechanical properties of the S355 and the S690 steels in monotonic and
cyclic tests differ significantly. Hence, it is argued that these ductility requirements
on mechanical properties of both the S355 and the S690 steels may not be directly
applicable for seismic design. Moreover, there is little technical guidance on the
ductility requirements of welded sections under monotonic and cyclic actions.
Structural Responses of High Strength S690 … 1571
2 Experimental Investigations
It is highly desirable to investigate the structural responses of both the S690 steel
plates and the S690 welded sections under cyclic actions, and to quantify their
cyclic deformation characteristics under different loading protocols with different
strain amplitudes. Hence, a total of 16 cyclic tests on the S690 steel plates and the
S690 welded sections under different loading protocols were conducted to compare
their deformation characteristics of these steels, and to investigate their hysteretic
behaviour at large deformations. Figure 1 illustrates the two loading protocols
adopted in the present study: i) Loading Protocol C, and ii) Loading Protocol V [5].
It should be noted that all these cyclic actions are applied with different fre-
quencies, i.e. 0.1 and 1.0 Hz. Two values of target strain amplitudes, i.e. ±5.0%
and ±10.0%, are adopted for cyclic tests with both varying and constant strain
amplitudes. In contrast to those standard cylindrical coupons recommended in many
codes and standards for monotonic tensile coupon tests, funnel-shaped coupons are
used in these tests to enable direct comparisons on test results obtained from both
the monotonic and the cyclic tests. The geometry and dimensions of the
funnel-shaped coupons are illustrated in Fig. 2.
All tests were conducted on an Instron Servohydraulic Testing Machine with a
capacity of 500 kN, as shown in Fig. 3. It should be noted that a high precision
extensometer and a high resolution digital camera are used to measure deformations
of the coupons throughout testing.
FEMA-461
(a) Loading ProtocolV (b) Loading Protocol C

with varying strain amplitudes with constant strain amplitudes
Fig. 1 Various loading protocols of cyclic actions

(a) Preparation of coupons
(b) Coupon of S690 steel plates (c) Coupon of S690 welded sections
Fig. 2 Geometry and dimensions of typical funnel-shaped coupons
Table 1 Test programme of monotonic tensile tests on S690 steels and welded sections
Coupon Shape of Thickness of Diameter Gauge Total
coupons steel plates d (mm) length L0 length
(mm) (mm) L (mm)
S690-T1 Funnel-shaped 10 5 10 184
S690-T2
S690H-T1 Funnel-shaped 10 5 10 184
S690H-T2
In order to obtain the basic material properties of both the S690 steel plates and the
S690 welded sections under investigation, a total of 4 monotonic tensile coupon
tests are conducted in accordance with BS EN ISO 6892-1 [3], and the test pro-
gramme is shown in Table 1.
Figure 4 plots the engineering stress–strain curves of both the S690 steel plates
and the S690 welded sections onto the same graph for direct comparison. It is
shown that both the S690 steel plates and the S690 welded sections exhibit a linear
deformation under initial loading application up to their yield points, and then, a
nonlinear deformation with different extents of hardening, i.e. a steady increase in
strength with strains.
The mechanical properties of both the S690 steel plates and the S690 welded
sections are summarized in Table 2. Hence, it is shown that both the S690 steel
plates and the S690 welded sections have very similar deformation characteristics in
these engineering stress-strain curves under monotonic tension forces, and these
curves form the basis for subsequent investigations into their deformation charac-
teristics under cyclic actions.
Fig. 3 Test set-up
Fig. 4 Engineering stress

strain curves of S690 steel
plates and welded sections
Table 2 Test results of monotonic tensile tests on S690 steels and welded sections
Coupon Thickness Young’s Yield Tensile Elongation fu/fy
of original modulus strength strength at fracture
plates (mm) E (kN/ fy (N/ fu (N/ eL (%)
mm2) mm2) mm2)
S690-T1 10 231.3 872 922 24.1 1.06
S690-T2 225.8 895 933 23.6 1.04
Average 228.6 883 927 23.8 1.05
COV 0.012 0.013 0.006 0.011 0.007
S690H-T1 10 202.8 833 936 19.1 1.12
S690H-T2 207.6 828 946 20.8 1.14
Average 205.2 830 941 20.0 1.13
COV 0.012 0.003 0.005 0.041 0.007
3 Cyclic Test Results
Table 3 summaries the test programme and results of the cyclic tests on the coupons
of both the S690 steel plates and the S690 welded sections. All these cyclic tests are
performed under a strain control mode during testing. It should be noted that all
cyclic tests have been completed successfully, and the funnel-shaped coupons are
shown in Fig. 5 after testing.
The test results of cyclic tests on both the S690 steel plates and the S690 welded
sections are summarized in Table 3 while the engineering stress-strain curves of
both the S690 steel plates and the S690 welded sections under the two different
loading protocols, target strains and loading frequencies are illustrated in Figs. 6
and 7.
It should be noted that:
i) For cyclic tests under Loading Protocol C with em = ±5% and f = 0.1 Hz
• the S690 steel plates and the S690 welded sections are able to complete 16
and 8 cycles respectively, and
• the engineering stress-strain curves of both the S690 steel plates and the
S690 welded plates do not overlap one another well, and there is a sig-
nificant softening after a number of cycles completed.
ii) For cyclic tests under Loading Protocol C with em = ±10% and f = 0.1 Hz
• the S690 steel plates and the S690 welded sections are able to complete
only 6 and 1 cycles respectively, and
• there is a significant softening in the engineering stress-strain curves of
both the S690 steel plates and the S690 welded sections.
iii) For cyclic tests under Loading Protocol V with em = ±5% and f = 0.1 Hz
• both the S690 steel plates and the S690 welded sections are able to
complete all 20 cycles, and
• the engineering stress-strain curves of the S690 steel plates overlap one
another very well along the full range of deformations, and hence, there is
no evident of softening.
(a) Typical funnel-shaped coupon before testing
(b) Fractured coupon of steel plates after test (c) Fractured coupon of welded sections after test
Fig. 5 Funnel-shaped S690 coupons after testing

iv) For cyclic tests under Loading Protocol V with em = ±10% and f = 0.1 Hz
• the S690 steel plates are able to complete 19 cycles while the S690 welded
sections are able to complete only 16 cycles, and
• the engineering stress-strain curves of the S690 steel plates overlap one another
very well along the full range of deformations, and hence, there is no evident of
softening.
Similar observations on cyclic tests with f = 1.0 Hz are also found.
Hence, it is shown that these cyclic tests are able to identify different defor-
mation characteristics of the S690 steel plates and the S690 welded sections, and
differences in their engineering stress-strain curves in terms of the number of cycles
completed and whether there is any softening after repeated cyclic actions.
Moreover, an overall inspection on all these graphs reveals that whether the
curves are of S690 steel plates and the S690 welded sections under either Loading
Protocols C or V, the cyclic deformation characteristics are unsymmetrically. That
is, their deformations under tension are very different from those under compres-
sion. Such differences are very apparent when the coupons undergo large defor-
mations, i.e. 5%. Instantaneous diameters may be used to re-plot these graphs to
give symmetrical cyclic deformation characteristics.
Table 3 Test programme and results of cyclic tests

a) Funnel-shaped coupons of S690 steels
Thickness Diameter Gauge Loading Loading Target Nos. Target Nos.
of steel d (mm) length protocol frequency strain of strain of
plates (mm) L0 (mm) f (Hz) em cycles em cycles
nc nc
±5.0% ±10.0%
10 5 10 C 0.1 1 16 1 6
1.0 1 17 1 5
V 0.1 1 20 1 19
1.0 1 20 1 19
b) Funnel-shaped coupons of S690 welded sections
Thickness Diameter Gauge Loading Loading Target Nos. Target Nos.
of steel d (mm) length protocol frequency strain of strain of
plates (mm) L0 (mm) f (Hz) em cycles em cycles
nc nc
±5.0% ±10.0%
10 5 10 C 0.1 1 8 1 1
1.0 1 8 1 2
V 0.1 1 20 1 16
1.0 1 20 1 17
Loading frequency, f = 0.1 Hz Loading frequency, f = 1.0 Hz
S690
steels
S690
welded
sections
S690
steels
S690
welded
sections
Fig. 6 Engineering stress-strain ðre ee Þ curves under Loading Protocol C at em = ±5%

& ±10% with f = 0.1 Hz & 1.0 Hz
Loading frequency, f = 0.1 Hz Loading frequency, f = 1.0 Hz
S690
steels
S690
welded
sections
S690
steels
S690
welded
sections
Fig. 7 Engineering stress-strain ðre ee Þ curves under Loading Protocol V at em = ±5%

& ±10% with f = 0.1 Hz & 1.0 Hz
4 Conclusions
A systematic experimental investigation into hysteretic behaviour of the S690 steel

plates and the S690 welded sections are carried out, and a total of 16 cyclic tests on
funnel-shaped coupons of both the steel plates and the welded sections under two
different loading protocols had been conducted successfully. Key findings of the
tests are:
• The proposed loading protocols are found to be able to identify differences in
the hysteretic behaviour of both the S690 steel plates and the S690 welded
sections. They have exhibited different numbers of completed cycles under the
two different loading protocols.
• Hence, the effect of welding onto the cyclic deformation characteristics of the
S690 steels is clearly demonstrated and readily quantified.
Similar tests will be conducted on coupons of both the S355 steel plates and the
S355 welded sections so that it is able to quantify whether there are similar
reductions in the ductility of the normal grade steels.
Acknowledgements The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by the Research
Grants Council of the University Grants Committee of the Government of Hong Kong SAR
(Project Nos. 152687/16E, 152231/17E, 152157/18E). The projects leading to publication of this
paper are also partially funded by the Chinese National Engineering Research Centre for Steel
Construction (Hong Kong Branch) under the Innovation and Technology Commission of the
Government of Hong Kong (Project No. BBY3), and the Research Committee of the Hong Kong
Polytechnic University (Project Nos. BBY4 and BBY6). Moreover, the research studentships
provided by the Research Committee of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University is acknowledged
(Project Nos. RJKB, RUQV and RTK3). All structural tests on high strength S690 steels were
conducted at the Structural Engineering Research Laboratory of the Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
References
1. BS EN 1993-1-1 (2005) Design of Steel Structures – Part 1–1: General rules and rules for
buildings. British Standards Institution
2. BS EN 1993-1-12 (2007) Design of Steel Structures – Part 1–12: Additional rules for the
extension of EN 1993 up to steel grades S700. British Standards Institution
3. BS EN ISO 6892-1 (2009) Metallic materials – Tensile testing: Part 1: Method of test at
ambient temperature, British Standards Institution
4. Easterling KE (1992) Introduction to physical metallurgy of welding, Butterworth -Heinemann
5. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) (2007) Interim testing protocols for
determining the seismic performance characteristics of structural and nonstructural compo-
nents, Report No. FEMA-461
6. Ho HC, Liu X, Chung KF, Elghazouli AY, Xiao M (2018) Hysteretic behaviour of high
strength S690 steel materials under low cycle high strain tests. Eng Struct 165:222–236
7. Wang YB, Li GQ, Sun X, Chen S, Hai LT (2017) Evaluation and prediction of cyclic response
of Q690D steel. Proc Inst Civil Eng Struct Build 170(11):788–803
8. Willms R (2009) High strength steel for steel construction. In: Proceedings of nordic steel
construction conference, pp 597–604
Concrete and Composite Structures
Restoring Force Drift Angle
Relationship Models of Reinforced
Concrete Columns with Side Walls
D. Kato, R. Kuramoto, N. Abe, and T. Nakamura
Abstract Experimental studies of reinforced concrete columns with sidewalls have

been conducted recently, and evaluation methods of the strength and ultimate drift
angle have been proposed by some researchers including the authors. The observed
restoring force drift angle relationship of columns with side walls is characterized
by initially high strength portion, which is mainly a contribution of side walls,
followed by ductile behavior, which is mainly a contribution of columns after the
failure of side walls. In this study, backbone curve models of restoring force drift
angle relationships are proposed considering these characteristics. The accuracies of
the models are examined using a variety of experimental data including those
conducted by other researchers. It is concluded that the models can be used in
earthquake response analysis as conservative models.
Keywords Reinforced concrete Columns with side walls Load drift

relationship
1 Introduction
Reinforced concrete (RC) secondary walls, such as side walls, are used because they
increase the stiffness and strength of structures. From this view-point, experimental
studies of RC columns with sidewalls have been conducted recently, and evaluation
methods of the strength and ultimate drift angle have been proposed [4, 7] etc.
D. Kato (&) R. Kuramoto N. Abe T. Nakamura

Faculty of Engineering, Niigata University, Niigata, Japan
e-mail: dkato@eng.niigata-u.ac.jp
R. Kuramoto
e-mail: rcstr@eng.niigata-u.ac.jp
T. Nakamura
e-mail: takaya@eng.niigata-u.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_146
1582 D. Kato et al.
The restoring force drift angle relationship of columns with side walls was
characterized by initially high strength portion, which was mainly a contribution of
side walls, followed by ductile behavior, which was mainly a contribution of col-
umns after the failure of side walls. However, in the practical design, only initially
high strength portion is the objective. In other words, the ductile behavior after the
failure of side walls is not considered; although many types of design options can
be provided considering this ductile behavior [6].
This neglect is mainly due to the lack of knowledge on the behavior after the
maximum strength. In this study, backbone curve models of restoring force drift
angle relationships are proposed considering the characteristics of columns with
side walls.
The accuracies of the models are discussed using a variety of experimental data
including those conducted by other researchers [3–5, 8]. A total of 29 specimens
were examined. Among them 12 specimens are columns with one side wall, and
other 17 specimens are columns with side walls on both sides of the column.
Regarding the failure mode reported in the original papers, 13 specimens failed in
flexure, and other 16 specimens failed in shear. The thickness of the cover concrete
of the column and side wall section, which is necessary for the evaluation as
discussed later, is not commonly described in the original papers. In those cases,
thicknesses of 10 mm and 20 mm are assumed for the member section with less
than a thickness of 100 mm and more than a thickness of 100 mm, respectively.
2 Model of the Backbone Curve of the Restoring Force

of Columns with Side Walls
2.1 Outline of the Model
The authors reported that the characteristic behavior of a column with side walls
could be simulated with two independent models: side wall model and column
model, generated from the original section [7]. Figure 1 shows assumptions of the
effective sections of the models. The side wall model represents an undamaged
section before loading. The column model represents an imaginary section without
a side wall subjected to compressive axial force, assuming that the side wall is
hardly damaged and ineffective.
Finally, the backbone curve of the restoring force drift angle relationship of a
column with side walls can be obtained as the envelope curve of the side wall
model and column model, as shown in Fig. 2. The failure mode, flexural failure or
shear failure, is determined for each model in accordance with the evaluation
equations, as shown later. Thus, regarding the failure mode of the original member,
four cases are considered. Figures 2(a) and (b) illustrate the cases when both the
side wall and column models fail in flexure and in shear, respectively.
Restoring Force Drift Angle Relationship Models … 1583
(Original sec on)
(Column model) (Side wall model)
Fig. 1 Assumptions of the effective sections of the column model and sidewall model
Side wall Side wall
Colum
n Column
l
(a) Flexural Failure (b) Shear failure
Fig. 2 Examples of the restoring force – drift angle relationships of columns with sidewalls
The model of the restoring force drift angle relationship for each model is
expressed by four lines connecting four characteristic points of the model: cracking
point (C), yielding point (Y), ultimate point (U) and limit point (L). In the case of
shear failing models, the ultimate point is replaced by the yielding point, which
leads to a model with three lines.
Table 1 shows the evaluation methods of the characteristic points of the side wall
model and column model. Herein, the cracking strength is assumed to be one third of
the yielding strength. The drift angles at yielding are assumed to be 1/250 rad. and
1/150 rad. for the side wall model and the column model, respectively. The yielding
strength is assumed to be equivalent to the ultimate strength. The limit strength is
assumed to be zero. These rough assumptions are introduced for simplification. Other
important points are discussed in Sects. 2.2 and 2.3.
1584 D. Kato et al.
Table 1 Evaluation methods of the characteristic points of the side wall and column models
Sidewall model Column model
Cracking Strength One third of the yielding strength
point (C) Drift angle Calculated with the initial stiffness
Yielding Strength Equivalent to the ultimate strength
point (Y) Drift angle 1/250 (rad.) 1/150 (rad.)
Ultimate Flexure Strength Equation (1)
point (U) Drift Equation (2) Minimum value of Eq. (2)
angle (m = 3.8) (m = 3.8) and Eq. (3)
Shear Strength Equation (4) Currently used design equation
Drift 1/250 (rad.) 1/150 (rad.)
angle
Limit point Strength 0
(L) Drift angle Equation (2) (m = 10)
2.2 Models of Member Failing in Flexure
2.2.1 Ultimate Flexural Strength (Side Wall and Column Models)
The ultimate flexural strength sw Mu in both the side wall and column models is
given by Eq. (1) considering the effective sections shown in Fig. 1. Equation (1)
was introduced in AIJ Standard [1] and represents the maximum flexural strength
assuming that all tensile longitudinal bars yield.
X
sw Mu ¼ at ry jt þ N jN ð1Þ
where at , ry , jt and N denote the cross-sectional area, yielding stress of the lon-
gitudinal reinforcing bar in tension, distance between the longitudinal reinforcing
bar and the center of the concrete compressive zone, and the subjected axial force,
respectively. jN denotes the distance between the subjected position of the axial
load and the center of the concrete compressive zone. Refer to AIJ Standard [1] for
details.
2.2.2 Ultimate Drift Angle (Sidewall Model)
In general, the ultimate drift angle is given as the smaller value of the two values:
the ultimate drift angle determined by concrete compressive failure of the edge of
the side wall subjected to compression and that determined by shear failure of the
member. However, regarding the column with side walls the ultimate drift angle is
usually determined by concrete compressive failure because the side wall is thin.
Thus, the ultimate drift angle sw Ruf is given by Eq. (2) in accordance with the
proposal by Kato et al. [7] considering the concrete compressive failure of the edge
portion of the side wall. Additionally the ultimate curvature determined by concrete
compressive failure is given by the larger value of the two values: that considering
concrete confinement by transverse reinforcement (sw ;u1 ) and that neglecting the
confinement (sw ;u2 ).

sw Ruf ¼ sw Ry þ max sw ;u1 ; sw ;u2 tw

m sw eC 2 m e0 2 ð2Þ
sw ;u1 ¼ ; sw ;u2 ¼
j
sw e 3 sw ge sw D 3 sw g
where sw Ry is the drift angle at yielding, which is 1/150 rad., as shown previously.
tw denotes the width of the side wall. sw eC and e0 denote the strains at the maximum
stress of confined and unconfined concrete. sw je and sw D denote the depth of the
core and overall section. sw ge and sw g denote the equivalent axial load ratio of the
core and overall section, which are given in accordance with AIJ Design Guidelines
[2]. m denotes the empirically obtained coefficient and it is suggested to be 3.8 for
the conservative design equation of the ultimate drift angle.
2.2.3 Ultimate Drift Angle (Column Model)
The ultimate drift angle cl Ru in the column model is given by considering the drift
angle determined by shear failure of the member cl Rus in addition to the drift angle
determined by concrete compressive failure cl Ruf , as shown previously by Eq. (2).
Thus, the drift angle is given by Eq. (3).

cl Ru ¼ min cl Rus ; cl Ruf cl Rus ¼ cl Ry þ Rp ð3Þ
where Rp denotes the incremental drift angle after yielding until shear failure and it
is obtained in accordance with AIJ Design Guidelines [2].
2.2.4 Limit Drift Angle (Side Wall and Column Models)
The limit drift angle in the side wall model and the column model is also given by
previously shown Eq. (2) of the ultimate drift angle. However, the coefficient m is
suggested to be 10 for the conservative design equation of the limit drift angle in
accordance with AIJ Design Guidelines [2].
1586 D. Kato et al.
2.3 Models of Member Failing in Shear
2.3.1 Ultimate Shear Strength (Side Wall Model)
The ultimate shear strength in the side wall model sw Qsu can be obtained by Eq. (4),
the empirical shear equation based on the divided fiber sections proposed in AIJ
Standard [1]. The total section is divided into two rectangular sections: side wall
section and residual column section. For each section, the empirical design equation
Qsuw or Qsuc commonly used in practical design in Japan is applied. The shear
strength of this member can be obtained by summing these two values and the
contribution of axial load, as shown in Eq. (4).
sw Qsu ¼ Qsuw þ Qsuc þ 0:1N ð4Þ
2.3.2 Ultimate Shear Strength (Column Model)
The ultimate shear strength of the column model cl Qsu can be obtained by the
empirical shear equation used frequently in Japan.
2.3.3 Limit Drift Angle (Side Wall and Column Models)
The limit drift angle of the side wall and column models failing in shear can be
given by the same method of that failing in flexure discussed in Sect. 2.2.4.
3 Determination of the Ultimate Strength and Drift Angle

of the Test Results in the Side Wall and Column Models
The ultimate strength and drift angle of the side wall and column models discussed
previously in Sect. 2 are compared to experimental data presented in Sect. 4. Thus,
in this section, the determination methods of these points of the test results are
discussed. Table 2 shows the determination methods of the ultimate strength and
drift angle of the test results using the sidewall and column models. Figure 3
illustrates the concept of the methods.
In the side wall model, the observed ultimate strength is determined as the
maximum strength. The observed ultimate drift angle is determined as the drift
angle at the point where the observed restoring lateral force degrades to 80% of the
maximum strength. On the other hand, the determination methods in the column
model are a little bit debatable because the influence of the behavior of side walls
after failure remains for a while. Despite this issue, in this study, those are deter-
mined as follows. The ultimate strength is determined as the observed restoring
Table 2 Determination of the ultimate strength and drift angle of the test results in the sidewall
and column models
Characteristic points Determination method
Side wall Ultimate Maximum strength
model strength
Ultimate Drift angle at the point where the observed restoring lateral
drift angle force degrades to 80% of the maximum strength
Column Ultimate Observed restoring lateral force where the drift angle equals to
model strength the calculated drift angle of the ultimate point of the column
model. (If it is not defined, the restoring force of the final
loading step is taken.)
Ultimate Observed drift angle where the restoring lateral force equals to
drift angle the calculated strength of the ultimate point of the column
model. (If it is not defined, the drift angle of the final loading
step is taken.)
Fig. 3 Concept of the Ｑ

defined characteristic points maximum
of a test result strength
Ul mate strength of a side wall
Ul mate strength
of a column
Ul mate dri angle of a side wall Ul mate dri angle

of a column
lateral force where the drift angle is equivalent to the calculated ultimate drift angle
of the column model. Furthermore, the ultimate drift angle is determined as the
observed drift angle where the restoring lateral force is equivalent to the calculated
ultimate strength of the column model.
Herein, it must be noted that neither the ultimate strength nor the drift angle can
be determined using these methods when loading is terminated before the defined
point. For such cases, the restoring force and the drift angle of the final loading step
are taken for the ultimate strength and drift angle, respectively. Furthermore, if the
loading is not terminated and the ultimate strength and drift angle are obtained, the
assumed ultimate strength and drift angle must be smaller and larger, respectively.
1588 D. Kato et al.
4 Comparison Between the Models and Test Results
4.1 Comparison of the Ultimate Strength and Drift Angle

of the Side Wall Model
Figures 4(a) and (b) illustrate the comparisons of the ultimate strength of the side
wall model between the modeled and test results. Figure 4(a) shows those of the
side wall model failing in flexure and Fig. 4(b) shows those failing in shear.
Furthermore, Figs. 5(a) and (b) illustrate the same comparisons as Figs. 4(a) and
(b) regarding the ultimate drift angle.
Figures 4(a) and (b) indicate that the modeled ultimate strengths approximate the
test results conservatively for both flexural and shear failures. On the other hand,
Figs. 5(a) and (b) indicate that the modeled drift angles underestimate the test
results more significantly compared to the ultimate strength. However, it is con-
cluded that both the calculated strength and drift angle can be applied
conservatively.
4.2 Comparison of the Ultimate Strength and Drift Angle

of the Column Model
Figures 6(a) and (b) illustrate the comparisons of the ultimate strength of the col-
umn model between the modeled and test results. These figures are presented in the
same way as Figs. 4(a) and (b) regarding the side wall model. However, each figure
is divided into two figures classifying them according to the failure mode of the
column model. Hollow marks in these figures represent the specimens whose
1200 1200
Experiment
Experiment
800 800
400 400
0 0
0 400 800 1200 0 400 800 1200
CalculaƟon CalculaƟon
(a) Side wall model (b) Side wall model
failing in flexure failing in shear
Fig. 4 Comparison of the ultimate strength of the side wall models between the test and the
calculation (in kN)
0.05 0.05
0.04 0.04
Experiment
Experiment
0.03 0.03
0.02 0.02
0.01 0.01
0 0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05
Fig. 5 Comparison of the ultimate drift angle of the sidewall models between the test and the
calculation (in rad)
loadings were terminated before the defined ultimate points of the column models.
As for the ultimate strength, the assumed strength must be smaller if the loading is
not terminated, as previously discussed in Sect. 3.
Figure 6(a-1) shows the comparisons of the combination of the flexural failing
side wall and flexural failing column. This figure indicates that the ultimate
strengths calculated using the column model approximate the test results conser-
vatively even though two hollow circle marks may locate slightly downward. Note
that there is no specimen classified as a combination of the flexural failing side wall
and shear failing column, as shown in Fig. 6(a-2).
Figure 6(b-1) shows the comparisons of the combination of the shear failing side
wall and flexural failing column, and Fig. 6(b-2) shows the comparisons of the
combination of the shear failing side wall and shear failing column. Figure 6(b-1)
indicates that the modeled drift angles overestimate the test results significantly, and
it is concluded that the calculated drift angle cannot be applied conservatively.
Figures 7(a) and (b) illustrate the comparisons of the ultimate drift angle of the
column model between the models and test results. These figures are presented in
the same way as Figs. 6(a) and (b) regarding the ultimate strength. The assumed
drift angles shown by hollow marks must be larger if the loading is not terminated,
as previously discussed in Sect. 3.
Figure 7(a-1) illustrates those of the combination of the flexural failing side wall
and flexural failing column. Even though two hollow circle marks overestimate the
test results, they may be located upwards. Furthermore, considering that the ulti-
mate drift angles calculated using the column model almost approximate the test
results conservatively, it is concluded that the calculated drift angle can be applied
conservatively.
Figure 7(b-1) shows those of the combination of the shear failing side wall and
flexural failing column, and Fig. 7(b-2) shows those of the combination of the shear
failing side wall and shear failing column. Figure 7(b-1) indicates that half of the
1590 D. Kato et al.
800 800
Experiment
Experiment
400 400
0 0
0 400 800 0 400 800
(a-1) Column model (b-1) Column model
failing in flexure failing in flexure
800 800
Experiment
Experiment
400 400
0 0
0 400 800 0 400 800
failing in shear failing in shear
Fig. 6 Comparison of the ultimate strength of the column models between the test and the
calculation (in KN)
modeled drift angles overestimate the test results significantly, and it is concluded
that the calculated drift angle cannot be applied conservatively.
4.3 Comparison of the Restoring Force – Drift Angle

Relationship
Figures 8(a)–(h) show examples of comparisons of the restoring force drift angle
relationships between the modeled and test results. The failure modes of the side
wall model of four specimens illustrated in Figs. 8(a)–(d) were flexure, and those of
0.1 0.1
Experiment
Experiment
0.05 0.05
0 0
0 0.05 0.1 0 0.05 0.1
failing in flexure failing in flexure
0.1 0.1
Experiment
Experiment
0.05 0.05
0 0
0 0.05 0.1 0 0.05 0.1
failing in shear failing in shear
Fig. 7 Comparison of the ultimate drift angle of the column models between the test and the
calculation (in rad)
other four specimens illustrated in Figs. 8(e)–(h) were shear. On the other hand, the
failure modes of the column model of eight specimens were flexure.
These figures indicate that the ultimate strength calculated using the side wall
model underestimates the test results, and the behaviors simulate the test results
around the maximum strength, which means that the side wall model can be used as
conservative design equations. However, regarding the column model the calcu-
lated restoring forces overestimate the test results if the column models fail in shear,
as shown in Figs. 8(e)–(h); although the calculated restoring forces underestimate
the test results if the column models fail in flexure, as shown in Figs. 8(a)–(d).
1592
300 600 600 600

Experiment Experiment Experiment Experiment
Model of Column Model of Column Model of Column Model of Column

with Side Wall with Side Wall with Side Wall with Side Wall
Only Only Only Only
150 300 300 300
Lateral load [kN]

Lateral load [kN]
Lateral load [kN]
Lateral load [kN]

0 0 0 0
0 0.05 0.1 0 0.05 0.1 0 0.05 0.1 0 0.05 0.1
Lateral driŌ [rad] Lateral driŌ [rad] Lateral driŌ [rad] Lateral driŌ [rad]
(a)CSW-1 (b)NS3 (c)SWF-3 (d)SWB
1200 600 800 800
Experiment Experiment Experiment Experiment

with Side Wall with Side Wall with Side Wall with Side Wall
Only Only Only Only
600 300 400 400
Lateral load [kN]

Lateral load [kN]
Lateral load [kN]

Lateral load [kN]
0 0 0 0
0 0.05 0.1 0 0.05 0.1 0 0.05 0.1 0 0.05 0.1
Lateral driŌ [rad] Lateral driŌ [rad] Lateral driŌ [rad] Lateral driŌ [rad]
(e)NM2’ (f)NM6 (g)SWT-SC (h)SWS
Fig. 8 Comparison of the restoring force drift angle relationships between the tests and the models
D. Kato et al.
Methods to calculate the ultimate strength and the drift angle of the side wall and
column models are proposed. The backbone curves of the restoring force – drift
angle relationships of columns with side walls can be evaluated with these char-
acteristic points. The accuracies of the models are examined using a variety of
experimental data. The conclusions are:
1) Regarding the ultimate strength and drift angle of the side wall model, calcu-
lations underestimate the test results and are found to be useful for conservative
design equations.
2) Regarding the ultimate strength and drift angle of the column model, calcula-
tions underestimate the test results only when the failure modes of the side wall
model are flexure. Thus, the method cannot be applied when the failure modes
of the side wall are shear.
3) The evaluated backbone curve of the restoring force drift angle relationship of
the column with side walls simulates the behavior of the column with side walls
when the failure mode of the side wall model is flexure. However, when the
failure mode of the side wall is shear, the behavior of the column model should
be neglected.
References
1. Architectural Institute of Japan (2016) AIJ Standard for Lateral Load-carrying Capacity
Calculation of Reinforced Concrete Structures (Draft) (in Japanese)
2. Architectural Institute of Japan (1999) Design Guidelines for Earthquake Resistant Reinforced
Concrete Buildings Based on Inelastic Displacement Concept (in Japanese)
3. Iso M, Tajiri S, Sawai Y, Fukuyama H, Mukai T (2008) The research on the seismic behavior
of RC columns with side-walls - with different failure modes- Part 1 Outline of experiment,
summaries of technical papers of annual meeting, Architecture Institute of Japan (in Japanese)
4. Toshimi K, Kim Y, Sato M, Hyunseong H, Toshikazu K, Fukuyama H (2012) Evaluation on
deformability of reinforced concrete columns with wing walls. In: 15th world conference on
earthquake engineering (15WCEE), Lisbon (Portugal), 24–28 September 1 (No.2573), IAEE
5. Toshimi K, Toshikazu K, Kim Y, Toshinori K, Kunkuk Bae (2009) Tests on reinforced
concrete columns with wing walls for hyper-earthquake resistant system. In: Proceedings of the
3rd international conference on advances in experimental structural engineering, San Francisco,
15–16 October, PEER
6. Kato D, Kobayashi M, Takamatsu T, Oshio K (2015) Study on damaged RC school buildings
paying attention to columns with sidewalls. J Struct Constr Eng Architect Inst Jpn 80
(718):1931–1939 (in Japanese)
7. Kato D, Sun HY (2003) Evaluating method of post peak behavior of R/C columns with side
walls. J Struct Constr Eng Architect Inst Jpn, no 566, pp 97–103 (in Japanese)
8. Takahashi S, Yoshida K, Ichinose T, et al (2011) Flexural deformation capacity of RC shear
walls without column on compressive side. J Struct Constr Eng Architect Inst Jpn, No.660 (in
Japanese)
Seismic Response of RC Frame
Buildings Considering In-Plane
and Out-of-Plane Behaviour
of Unreinforced Masonry Infills
M. Albano, G. Gesualdi, L. R. S. Viggiani, and D. Cardone
Abstract UnReinforced Masonry (URM) infills can significantly affect the seismic
response of frame buildings. Typical numerical models, however, do not account
for the In-Plane/Out-Of-Plane (IP/OOP) interaction that characterizes the damage/
collapse mechanism of masonry infills. The main objective of this study is to
investigate the seismic performance of RC frame buildings accounting for the IP/
OOP interaction of URM infill walls, using a refined nonlinear macro-model
recently implemented in OpenSees. To this end, the seismic performance of a
case-study building, representative of typical residential buildings realized in Italy
before ‘70 s, is examined, at different earthquake intensity levels, with return period
ranging from 30 to 2500 years. A set of fragility curves is then derived to express
the probability of exceedance of given building performance levels as a function of
the earthquake intensity level, considering (or neglecting) the IP/OOP interaction of
masonry infill walls.

Keywords Seismic performance RC buildings Masonry infill walls In-plane/

out-of-plane interaction Non-linear Time-history analyses
1 Introduction
UnReinforced Masonry (URM) infill walls are a common solution widely adopted
in Reinforced Concrete (RC) frame buildings for internal partitions and exterior
enclosure walls. Typical configurations of URM walls include single or double
layers of hollow clay bricks inserted in, and rigidly connected to, the RC frame.
URM infills are usually considered as non-structural elements, and are neglected in
the seismic design of the building. Past earthquakes, however, clearly pointed out
that the presence of URM infills can significantly affect the structural strength and
stiffness of the building, compared to its bare configuration, and modify the
M. Albano G. Gesualdi L. R. S. Viggiani D. Cardone (&)

School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, 85100 Potenza, Italy
e-mail: donatello.cardone@unibas.it

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_147
1596 M. Albano et al.
inelastic mechanism of the structure. Moreover, URM infills can strongly interact
with the surrounding RC frame, triggering the brittle shear failure of RC columns.
In-Plane (IP) and Out-Of-Plane (OOP) failure are the two important brittle damage
mechanisms observed in URM walls during seismic events, both characterized by
degradation of strength, stiffness and low energy dissipation. Extensive damage to
masonry infills can jeopardize the usability and immediate occupancy of the
building after the earthquake with obvious important socio-economic conse-
quences, including large economic losses for building repairing [3]. It is also
important to note that the OOP collapse of URM walls is a very dangerous failure
mechanism because it might seriously threaten human life either inside or outside
the building.
In the last years efforts have been made to develop analytical tools and com-
putational macro-models able to capture the IP cyclic behavior of URM infills and
their interaction with RC frames. Based on experimental tests, Mainstone [5]
proposed a simple and low time-consuming macro-model based on the assumption
of an equivalent “strut” for simulating the in-plane global response of masonry infill
under seismic actions.
Experimental tests aimed at investigating the IP/OOP interaction of URM infills,
considering different slenderness ratio and load conditions demonstrate that the IP
damage can reduce up to 50% the corresponding OOP resistance, depending on the
slenderness of the wall (e.g. see [1]). Simplified expressions derived from the
observation of experimental results have been then proposed (e.g. see [7]) to esti-
mate the lateral strength and seismic demand to non-structural elements. Moreover,
efforts have been made to capture the OOP behavior of URM infills in RC frame
buildings when subjected to seismic loading (e.g. see [6]. Recently, Di Domenico
et al. [9] developed a refined lumped-plasticity macro-model, which relies on
appropriate degradation-modelling relationships, derived from experimental results
and empirical observations. The new model has been implemented in OpenSees [8].
In this study, the influence of the IP/OOP behavior of URM infills on the seismic
performance of older RC frame buildings is investigated. A suitable case-study
building has been selected and a refined lumped-plasticity model has been imple-
mented in OpenSees. Extensive Nonlinear response-Time History Analyses
(NTHA) have been carried out, using nine sets of ground motions, with increasing
seismic intensity. The comparison of results (with and w/o IP/OOP interaction)
clearly points out the great relevance of the OOP behavior towards the seismic
performance of RC frame buildings. Based on the results of this study, a set of
fragility curves are tentatively proposed to express the probability of exceedance of
different building performance levels as a function of the earthquake intensity level.
Seismic Response of RC Frame Buildings Considering … 1597
2 Metodology of the Study
The influence of the IP/OOP interaction of URM walls on the seismic response of
RC frame buildings has been investigated following a four steps methodology:
(i) Step 1: Selection of case-study, Modeling assumptions, Ground motion selec-
tion; (ii) Step 2: Definition of seismic Performance Levels (PLs); (iii) Step 3:
Non-linear Time History Analyses (NTHA); (iv) Step 4: Derivation of fragility
curves for each PL, considering, or alternatively neglecting, the IP/OOP interaction
of masonry infills.
2.1 Case-Study Building and Ground Motion Selection
A 8-storeys RC frame building, designed for gravity loads only, representative of

typical multi-storey residential buildings realized in Italy before’70 s (see Fig. 1)
has been selected. The building has an in-plane rectangular shape with 27.30 m
15.30 m dimensions and 3.00 m interstorey height. It features four frames in long
direction (X-dir. in Fig. 1) and two external frames in the short direction (Y-dir. in
Fig. 1). In the Y-dir., the building features a dog-leg stair with cantilever steps
sustained by two stiff ‘knee’ beams. Structural characteristics (geometric dimen-
sions, reinforcement ratios, structural details, etc.) have been derived from a sim-
ulated design, according to the Standards and state of practice enforced in Italy
before’70 s. More details on this issue can be found in Cardone et al. [4]. URM
infill walls realized with hollow clay bricks arranged in two single layers (100 mm
thickness each), separated by an air-cavity of 100 mm, have been considered.
The URM infills feature large openings in the X-direction, while there are no
openings in the Y-direction.
The case-study building is supposed to be located in the city of L’Aquila (central
Italy) on soil type C (soft soil), according to the current Italian code classification.
The aforesaid site and soil conditions have been purposely selected to investigate
the seismic performance of this class of buildings for the highest levels of seismic
hazard expected in Italy. Nine different earthquake intensity levels, with return
(a) (b)
Fig. 1 Selected case-study building: a plan view, b lateral views

periods ranging from 30 years (0.118 g PGA on soil type C) to 2475 years (0.467 g
PGA on soil type C), have been selected for NTHA. For each seismic intensity, a
set of ten ground motion pairs, compatible with suitable Conditional Mean Spectra
(Baker 2011), derived considering the M-R-e (Magnitude-Distance-Deviation)
disaggregation and a proper attenuation relationship for the city of L’Aquila, has
been used.
2.2 Numerical Model
The seismic behavior of the selected case-study building has been described
thorough a refined 3D lumped-plasticity model implemented in OpenSees [8]. The
beam with hinges element has been used to describe the mechanical behavior of RC
members. Plastic hinges are characterized by a tri-linear cyclic hysteretic behavior,
described by the modified Ibarra-Medina-Krawinkler deterioration model, cali-
brated based on an accurate moment-curvature analysis of the critical cross section
of each beam and column. The plastic hinges of the short columns around the stairs
have been modified in order to capture possible brittle failure, considering the shear
resistance formulation proposed by Sezen and Moehle (2004). More details on
modeling assumptions are reported in Cardone and Perrone [3].
The IP behavior of masonry infills has been modelled using a “revised” Decanini
model (Sassun et al. 2016) assuming a compressive strength of 1.2 N/mm2, a shear
strength of 0.3 N/mm2 and an elastic modulus of 990 N/mm2, respectively. The IP/
OOP interaction has been captured using the macro-model recently developed by
Di Domenico et al. [9]. It consists of two rigid truss elements, aligned along each
diagonal, pinned at the outer extremities to the RC frame and connected at their
inner-ends, corresponding to the central node where a tributary mass of the wall is
lumped (see Fig. 2a). Two groups of 2n + 1 zero-length plastic hinges elements
have been defined in order to capture the IP/OOP interaction as a function of the
Interstorey Drift Ratio (IDR) and out-of-plane displacement. The first skeleton
curve corresponds to the “undamaged” URM infill, while the other 2n couples of
skeleton curves correspond to the “degraded” behavior of the infill, defined as a
function of the IDR and OOP displacement, respectively, attained in the other
direction.
During numerical analyses, the jump from one couple of backbone curves to
another is governed by appropriate semi-empirical relationships derived from
experimental results, which express the OOP stiffness, strength and displacement
capacity reduction due to IP damage and vice versa. A specific algorithm is
implemented in Opensees to remove from the structural model the macro-elements
when either IP or OOP collapse occurs (attainment of the ultimate displacement in
the relevant curve). Figure 2b shows the 2n + 1=19 IP and OOP backbone curves
adopted in this study to model the double layer (100 + 100 mm) clay bricks infills.
It is worth noting that, due to the large openings present in the masonry infills in the
X-Direction (see Fig. 1(b)), they have been neglected in the numerical model.
(a) (b)
Fig. 2 a Schematic representation of the macro-model used for URM infills; b IP and OOP
backbone curves adopted for the double layer infills considered in this study
3 Definition of Performance Levels
In order to reduce computational efforts required to process NTHA results at the

level of individual elements, a simplified global approach has been pursued. First of
all, four Performance Levels (PLs), associated with different post-earthquake
damage scenarios, have been defined. They are referred to as: (i) Zero Loss
(ZL) performance level, Usability Preventing Damage (UPD) performance level,
(iii) Life Safety (LS) performance level and Collapse Prevention (CP) performance
level, respectively. The definition of each PL, in terms of expected post-earthquake
damage to structural and nonstructural components, is reported in Table 1. In the
same table the multi-criteria approach adopted to define the threshold limits of each
PL is summarized. The threshold limits associated with each PL (as reported in
Table 1) have been preliminarily identified by Multi-Modal PushOver Analyses
(MMPOA). The only exception is represented by the OOP collapse of the first infill,
which has been identified directly from NTHA results.
Figure 3 shows the MMPOA curves derived for the selected case-study building,
considering (Fig. 3a) and neglecting (Fig. 3b) the IP/OOP interaction, respectively.
In the same figure, the points corresponding to the attainment of the aforesaid PLs
are clearly identified. During the analysis on the model with IP/OOP interaction, an
iterative procedure has been followed to remove the URM walls that experience
OOP collapse. Basically, this has been addressed by combining the relationships
proposed by Di Domenico et al. [9] (to reduce the undamaged OOP strength of the
URM infill as a function of the IDR) with the seismic horizontal force demand (Fh)
to each infill, estimated based on the simplified relationship provided by the Italian
seismic code (NTC2018):
Wa
Fh ¼ Sa ðTa Þ ð1Þ
gq
Table 1 Definition of Performance Levels (PLs) and relevant threshold limits

PL Definition Threshold limits
ZL Buildings meeting this PL level Maximum interstory drift = 0.10%
experience no damage to their structural
and nonstructural components ensuring
theirs immediately occupancy after an
earthquake
UPD Buildings meeting this PL level First condition between:
experience no damage to their structural (i) 50% of URM walls attain their peak
elements and easily repairable damage to lateral strength;
nonstructural components, which does (ii) the first URM walls attain a strength
not jeopardize the normal use of the reduction equal to 50%;
building after the earthquake (iii) the top displacement exceeds the
value corresponding to the attainment of
95% of the peak lateral strength
LS Buildings meeting this PL level First condition between:
experience significant damage to (i) out-of-plane collapse of the first URM
structural and/or nonstructural infill wall;
components that may pose at risk human (ii) Maximum interstory drift = 2.00%
life
NC Buildings meeting this PL level First condition between:
experience an incipient collapse with a (i) Maximum interstory drift = 3.5%;
high risk for the human life, due to (ii) The top displacement exceeds the
extensive damage to structural and value corresponding to a reduction of
nonstructural components. Damage is 50% of the peak lateral strength
not repairable from a technical and/or
economical point of view
ZL UPD LS CP
With IP/OOP interaction Without IP/OOP interaction
2500 2500
2000 2000
Force (kN)
Force (kN)
1500 1500
1000 1000
500 500
0 0
0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50 0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50
Displacement (m) Displacement (m)
(a) (b)
Fig. 3 Pushover curves of the selected 8-storey RC frame building a with and b without IP/OOP
interaction, and corresponding Performance Points
where, Sa(Ta) is the OOP spectral acceleration at the fundamental period of

vibration Ta of the URM wall, Wa is the weight of each single layer of the URM
wall, g is the acceleration of gravity, q is the behavior factor of the infill, which can
be assumed equal to 1 or 2 depending on the boundary conditions of the infill.
In the same guidelines, an expression for the estimation of the spectral accel-
eration Sa(Ta) is also provided, as a function of the PGA, fundamental period of the
building and location of the infill along the height of the building. The PGA value
associated with each point of the capacity curve has been derived through an
inverse application of the non-linear static method of analysis (the so-called N2
method) adopted in the Italian seismic Code, considering a bi-linear schematization
of the capacity curve in accordance with the NTC2018 provisions.
For the model without IP/OOP interaction, the OOP collapse of URM walls has
been monitored a posteriori, by comparing the seismic demand derived from
Eq. (1) with the strength capacity of the (undamaged) URM walls, as reported in
[9]. It is interesting to note that, based on the results of the model without IP/OOP
interaction, no URM wall experiences OOP collapse. On the other hand, when the
IP/OOP interaction is considered, OOP collapse is progressively recorded at five
different storeys of the building, starting from the upper storey (first collapse) to the
third storey (last collapse). The first collapse occurs around the peak strength of the
POA curve. Each drop in Fig. 3(a) corresponds to the collapse of the infills of a
given storey.
As can be seen in Fig. 3, considering IP/OOP interaction, minor changes in the
performance points associated with ZL and UPD PLs are observed. On the contrary,
a significant reduction (over 80%) of the top displacement associated with the
attainment of LS is observed, due to the premature OOP collapse of the first
masonry infills. Also the displacement corresponding to CP PL tends to decrease a
little (by about 20%), due to the lower contribution to the lateral strength of
masonry infills.
4 NTHA Results
NTHA have been performed with OpenSees [8] on the same numerical models
adopted for POA. NTHA results have been processed by comparing the maximum
top displacements recorded during the analyses (average over 10 ground motion
pairs) with the top displacement associated with each PL, as derived from POA.
A given PL is deemed being attained for a given IM when the corresponding limit
displacement from POA (see Fig. 3) exceeds the average (over 10 ground motion
pairs) top displacement from NTHA. The OOP collapse of the first URM wall (first
condition for the attainment of LS, see Table 1) has been identified directly from
NTHA (again as average over 10 ground motion pairs). Based on the results of this
study, which focuses on a single 8-storey RC frame building, designed for gravity
loads only, and representative of typical residential buildings realized in Italy before
‘70 s, the following observation can be done:
– For this class of buildings, the ZL PL is attained for earthquake intensity levels
with return period lower than 30 years, due to the premature IP damage of
masonry infills;
– Taking into account IP/OOP interaction, the first OOP collapse of masonry
infills is recorded for an earthquake intensity level with return period as low as
50 years (IM2) at the upper storeys of the building (8th storey precisely). Then,
the OOP collapse spreads over almost the entire building, propagating down-
wards from the top storey to the 4th storey of the building (see Fig. 4);
– According to the simplified approach adopted in the current version of the
Italian seismic Code (NTC2018) for the verification of non-structural elements
(which is similar to those adopted also in other codes and guidelines world-
wide), no OOP collapse is expected up to earthquake intensity levels with return
periods as high as 2475 years (in the model without IP/OOP interaction, the first
IP collapse of masonry infills is observed for an earthquake intensity level with
return period equal to 975 years (IM8) at mid-height of the building);
– Accounting for IP/OOP interaction, the attainment of the LS performance level
occurs much earlier, almost at the same time (for the case-study building under
consideration) of the UPD performance level (see Fig. 3);
– The ratio between the spectral accelerations (Sa(T*)) associated with the
attainment of the LS PL, predicted by the model without and with IP/OOP
interaction, is around 3.
– Taking into account IP/OOP interaction, the CP performance level is attained for
an earthquake intensity level with return period of the order of 475 years.
Neglecting IP/OOP interaction, the CP performance level is not reached, in the
range of earthquake intensity levels examined in this study;
– At the lowest seismic intensities (i.e. IM2-IM3), the seismic behavior of URM
walls is mainly governed by the IP damage/failure mechanism (see Fig. 4(a));
while increasing the earthquake intensity level, the IP damage triggers the
premature OOP collapse of more and more masonry infills. As a matter of fact,
0% 0% - 20% 20% - 40% 40% -60% 60% -80% 80% - 100% 100%
IM1 IM2 IM3 IM4 IM5 IM6 IM7 IM8 IM9 IM1 IM2 IM3 IM4 IM5 IM6 IM7 IM8 IM9
S1 S1
S2 S2
S3 S3
S4 S4
S5 S5
S6 S6
S7 S7
S8 S8
(a) (b)
Fig. 4 Occurrence of collapse (either due to IP or OOP mechanism) of URM walls at each storey
of the building, recorded during NTHA at different earthquake Intensity Measures (IMs),
a considering and b neglecting IP/OOP interaction
the OOP collapse mechanism tends to govern the seismic response of URM
walls at the highest seismic intensities (i.e. from IM5 to IM9) (see Fig. 4(a));
– The OOP collapse mechanism strongly affects the seismic response of older
high-rise RC frame buildings. For the case-study under consideration, indeed,
approximately all the masonry infills of the upper storeys of the building (i.e.
from 8th to 5th storey, see Fig. 4(a)) are lost for an earthquake intensity level
with return period around 140 years (IM5). At the highest seismic intensities
(IM8-IM9), almost all the masonry infills of 6 storeys out of 8 (see Fig. 4(a)) are
collapsed due to the IP/OOP interaction;
– A completely different non-structural (and structural) damage scenario is
observed when IP/OOP interaction is neglected (see Fig. 4(b)). As a matter of
fact, indeed, no (IP) collapse of masonry infills is observed up to IM7. As a
consequence, using the traditional equivalent diagonal strut models (neglecting
IP/OP interaction), the seismic performance of the building is overestimated
(especially those relevant to LS and CP limit states) and expected losses sig-
nificantly underestimated (simply compare the percentage of masonry infills lost
at any IM between Fig. 4(a) and (b)).
To conclude, it is not possible to capture with accuracy the seismic performance
of older high-rise RC frame buildings neglecting the IP/OOP interaction.
5 Deriving Fragility Curves
A set of Fragility Curves (FCs) has been tentatively derived for the pre-70 RC
frame building under consideration. The spectral acceleration at the effective period
of vibration of the building (mean value in the two horizontal directions), Sa(T*),
has been selected as IM. FCs are expressed by a cumulative lognormal distribution
with median value 0 and logarithmic standard deviation (or dispersion) b. Each FC
provides the conditional probability of the structures to exceed a given PL. The total
dispersion b should take into account different sources of uncertainty including:
(i) record-to-record variability (br ), (ii) modeling variability (bm ) and (iii) uncer-
tainties in the definition of the threshold limits for each PL (bth ). In this study, a best
fit regression of the frequencies of occurrence of the accelerograms corresponding
to the attainment of a given PL has been performed to estimate the values of 0 and
br , considering and neglecting the IP/OOP interaction, respectively (see Fig. 5).
The uncertainty related to modeling variability, bm , has been derived from [2],
considering the quality/completeness of the two analytical models (with and w/o the
IP/OOP interaction). In particular, bm has been set equal to 0.1 for the model with
IP/OOP interaction and equal to 0.4 for the model without IP/OOP interaction. For
simplicity, uncertainties relevant to the definition of the PLs have been neglected.
The total dispersion, b, has been derived by combining br and bm with the SRSS
rule. The values thus obtained are reported in Table 2, for each PL, separately for
the model with and w/o IP/OOP interaction.
UPD LS CP
1.0 1.0
βr = 0.266 βr = 0.194
0.8 θ = 0.159 0.8 θ = 0.185
P(PL ≥ dsi)
P(PL ≥ dsi)
0.5 βr = 0.407 0.5
← UPD=LS θ = 0.634 βr = 0.352
0.3 0.3 θ = 0.613
0.0 0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Sa (g) Sa (g)
(a) (b)
Fig. 5 Fragility curves derived accounting for record-to-record variability for the model a with
and b without IP/OOP interaction
Table 2 Values of median 0 PL With IP/OOP Without IP/OOP

and dispersion b of fragility interaction interaction
curves associated with the
0 b 0 b
attainment of different PLs in
pre-70 s RC frame buildings, UPD* 0.159 0.284 0.185 0.445
considering and neglecting LS* 0.159 0.284 0.613 0.533
IP/OOP interaction for CP 0.634 0.419 – –
masonry infills
* Note that UPD = LS for the model with IP/OOP interaction
6 Conclusions
The results of this study clearly point out the great relevance of the IP/OOP
interaction of masonry infills with regard to the seismic performance of RC frame
buildings. Future research should investigate further RC frame buildings, including
buildings with different number of storeys and/or configuration of URM walls, as
well as buildings of different age of construction, in order to consolidate the results
and derive reliable fragility curves.
References
1. Angel R, Abrams DP, Shapiro D, Uzarski J, Webster M, (1994) Behavior of Reinforced

Concrete Frames with Masonry Infills. Dept. of Civil Eng., University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA
2. ATC - Applied Technology Council, FEMA P-58 (2012) Next-generation Seismic
Performance Assessment for Buildings, Volume 1 – Metodology, Federal Emergency
Management Agency, Washington, D.C
3. Cardone D, Perrone G (2017) Damage and loss assessment of pre-70 RC frame buildings with
FEMA P-58. J Earthq Eng 21(1):23–61
4. Cardone D, Gesualdi G, Perrone G (2019) Cost-benefit analysis of alternative retrofit strategies

for RC frame buildings. J Earthq Eng 23(2):208–241
5. Mainstone RJ (1971) On the stiffness and strength of infilled frames. Proc Instn Civil Eng.
supplement IV, 57–90 (paper 7360S)
6. Mosalam KM, Günay S (2014) Progressive collapse analysis of RC frames with URM infill
walls considering in-plane/out-of-plane interaction. Earthq Spectra
7. NTC18 (2018) D.M. 17.01.2018. Aggiornamento delle Norme Tecniche per le Costruzioni,
Rome (in italian)
8. McKenna F, Fenves GL, Scott MH (2000) Open system for earthquake engineering simulation.
University of California, Berkeley
9. Di Domenico M, Ricci P, Verderame GM (2017) Empirical unreinforced masonry infill
macro-model accounting for in-plane/out-of-plane interaction. In: COMPDYN 2017 -6th
international thematic conference, pp 1606–1624
Experimental Investigations
of Fire-Damaged RC Columns
Retrofitted with CFRP or Steel Jackets
J. Xu, C. Tan, and R. S. Aboutaha
Abstract Due to the increasing number of high-rise buildings and long-span

bridges, high strength concrete (HSC) has been widely used in the infrastructures.
Therefore, HSC occupies the same large amount of share in the construction market
as normal strength concrete (NSC). In general, fire-exposed reinforced concrete
(RC) structure leads to serious structural problems due to the loss of strength and
stiffness for both concrete and steel bars. Carbon fiber reinforced polymer com-
posites (CFRP) and steel jacketing are two common methods applied to strengthen
RC structure columns. Therefore, it is valued to investigate the structural behavior
of fire exposed and retrofitted RC columns with CFRP and steel jackets. This paper
presents the compressive behavior of RC columns exposed to ISO834 standard fire
for 2 h, cooled by air and retrofitted with CFRP and steel jackets. Total 8 RC
columns (/300 1000 mm) with two different concrete strength, normal and high,
were tested. Cross-sectional temperature distribution, load-deflection response were
investigated in this studied. It was observed that, temperature gradient was devel-
oped in each specimen during fire exposure. HSC columns were more susceptible to
spall off compared with NSC columns. CFRP and steel jacket can effectively
improve the ultimate capacity and the stiffness for fire damaged RC columns.
Repaired fire-damaged RC columns with removing loose concrete has large impact
on the stiffness improvement for NSC columns.
Keywords Fire-damaged Circular column HSC CFRP Steel jacket
J. Xu C. Tan R. S. Aboutaha (&)

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA
e-mail: rsabout@syr.edu
J. Xu
e-mail: jxu26@syr.edu
C. Tan
e-mail: ctan@syr.edu

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_148
1608 J. Xu et al.
1 Introduction
In general, fire-exposed reinforced concrete (RC) structure leads to serious struc-

tural problems due to the loss of strength and stiffness for both concrete and steel
bars [2]. Due to the increasing number of high-rise buildings and long-span bridges,
high strength concrete (HSC) is occupying a large share of the construction market
as normal strength concrete (NSC). Therefore, it is important to investigate the
structural behaviors of fire-damaged RC columns for both NSC and HSC. Carbon
fiber composite polymer (CFRP) and steel jacketing are two common methods to
retrofit and strengthen the existing RC structures for considering both environ-
mental and economic benefits [3]. In this study, eight circular RC columns were
exposed to ISO834 standard fire for 2 h, cooled by air and retrofitted with CFRP or
steel jackets [1]. The experimental results showed CFRP and steel jackets could
effectively improve the ultimate capacity of fire-damaged circular RC columns for
both NSC and HSC columns. Replacing loose concrete could effectively increase
the stiffness of fire-damaged columns for NSC columns.
A total of 8 circular RC columns were tested, and the objective of this experimental
program is to compare the effectiveness of CFRP and steel jackets for repairing
fire-damaged circular RC columns and investigate the impact of removing loose concrete.
2.1 Details of Specimens
All 8 circular RC columns were identical with a 300 mm diameter and a length of
1000 mm. Columns were reinforced by six 16 mm diameter longitudinal rein-
forcing bars with equal spacing throughout the cross-section, and confined by 6 mm
diameter spirals with 40 mm spacing throughout the length. The concrete cover was
25 mm for all columns. Figure 1 shows the cross-sectional details for the columns.
Fig. 1 Cross-sectional
Details of Specimen
Experimental Investigations of Fire-Damaged … 1609
Table 1 Details of circular RC columns

Group Label Descriptions
1 N-FD-R NSC, 2 h fire-damaged, non-retrofitted
N-FD-CJ2 NSC, 2 h fire-damaged, retrofitted by 2 layer of CFRP jacket with
loose concrete removed
N-FD-CJ2L NSC, 2 h fire-damaged, retrofitted by 2 layer of CFRP jacket without
N-FD-ST NSC, 2 h fire-damaged, retrofitted by steel jacket with loose concrete
removed
2 H-FD-R HSC, exposed to ISO834 for 2 h, non-retrofitted
H-FD-CJ2 HSC, 2 h fire-damaged, retrofitted by 2 layer of CFRP jacket with
H-FD-CJ2L HSC, 2 h fire-damaged, retrofitted by 2 layer of CFRP jacket without
H-FD-ST HSC, 2 h fire-damaged, retrofitted by steel jacket with loose concrete
removed
Columns were divided into two groups based on the concrete strength. Group 1
was normal strength concrete group, and group 2 was high strength concrete
group. Columns from the same group were casted from the same batch in the same
day. The average compressive concrete strength at the test day for group 1 and 2
were 44 and 90 MPa, respectively. The condition for each specimen is listed in
Table 1.
2.2 Heating and Cooling Procedure
8 columns were exposed to fire for 2 h in the gas furnace, and the temperature in the
furnace followed the ISO834 standard fire curve. One column from each group was
instrumented with four type-K thermocouples to investigate the cross-sectional
temperature distribution during heating and cooling procedure. Three type-K
thermocouples were embedded at concrete core, 50 and 100 mm from concrete
core at mid-height, and one was tied at the mid-height of a steel bar. The tem-
perature in the furnace was controlled by two type-K thermocouples attached on the
furnace walls. After 2 h fire exposure, the furnace was turned off, and the door was
opened to let columns cool down to the ambient temperature by air. The maximum
temperature at each location are summarized in Table 2, and temperature in the
column for both heating and cooling procedure is plotted in Figs. 2 and 3. Since
columns in the same group were fire exposed at the same time, it was assumed that
the temperature field recorded from the column instructed with thermocouples was
the same as the other columns in this group. The test results indicated that higher
temperature was developed in HSC columns compared with NSC columns.
1610 J. Xu et al.
Table 2 Maximum temperature in the column during heating and cooling procedure
Location cc (°C) 50 mm form cc (°C) 100 mm from cc (°C) Steel (°C) Furnace (°C)
Group 1 321.5 313.8 350.4 412.6 937
Group 2 380.8 375.4 406.2 467.2 931.5
cc—concrete core
Fig. 2 Temperature vs. time for NSC columns
Fig. 3 Temperature vs. time for HSC columns

2.3 Retrofitting and Compressive Tests
After fire exposure, visual inspections were performed to each column. It was
observed that concrete cover was severely damaged and cracks were developed as
seen in Fig. 4. The HSC columns had larger spalling area compared with the NSC
columns (Fig. 5).
For columns N-FD-CJ2L, N-FD-ST, H-FD-CJ2L, and H-FD-ST, loose
fire-damaged concrete was removed by using steel wire brushes. To apply CFRP
jackets, oiled PVC pipe molds with 370 mm diameter were placed around
fire-damaged columns. High strength mortar was applied to fill out the spalling area
and enlarge the cross section diameter from 300 to 370 mm. After mortar cured,
PVC pipe molds were removed and two layers of uni-directional transverse CFRP
wrappings were applied to repair fire-damaged columns. For columns with steel
jackets, steel tubes with 370 mm diameter were used as mold, and high strength
mortar was applied to restore the original circular shape of the columns and enlarge
the cross-sectional area to 370 mm. All repaired columns were cured at room
temperature for one month.
Fig. 4 Side and top views for NSC columns after fire exposure
Fig. 5 Side and top views for HSC columns after fire exposure
1612 J. Xu et al.
After being repaired, all columns were tested to failure under axial compression
using a testing machine with 10000 kN capacity, and the loading rate was set as 1
kN/s. Two steel plates with 300 mm diameter were placed at top and bottom to
make all columns have the same loading area.
3 Test Results and Discussion
3.1 Test Results
Test results of the ultimate capacity for each columns are shown in Fig. 6, and
load-displacement response for each specimen are presented in Figs. 7 and 8. The
failure mode for CFRP jacketing fire-damaged columns is CFRP ruptured and
concrete crushed. For steel jacketing columns, dilation of steel tube was observed.
Compared with NSC columns, HSC fire-damaged columns behaved more brittle.
3.2 Discussion
Based on the test results, both CFRP and steel jackets showed improvement on the
axial strength of fire-damaged columns. Table 3 summarized the increasing per-
centage of the axial strength for fire-damaged columns with different retrofitted
systems, compared with the fire-damaged reference columns. Steel jacketing shows
the best result on improving the compressive strength and the stiffness of
fire-damaged columns for both NSC and HSC. The axial strength was increased
more than 100% of the axial strength for fire-damaged reference columns. CFRP
Fig. 6 Axial strength comparison of fire-damage columns

Fig. 7 Load vs. displacement relationship for NSC columns
Fig. 8 Load vs. displacement relationships for HSC columns
jacketing also showed good results on the axial strength and stiffness improve-
ments. Two layers unidirectional CFRP can increase more than 50% of the axial
strength for fire-damaged reference columns. CFRP jacketing with loose fire-
damage concrete removed can effective improve the stiffness and the ductility for
NSC fire-damaged columns as shown in Fig. 7. For HSC fire-damaged columns,
CFRP jacketing with loose fire-damaged concrete removed showed higher com-
pressive strength. However, there is no significant impact on stiffness for HSC
fire-damaged columns with loose concrete removed.
1614 J. Xu et al.
Table 3 Comparison of axial strength improvement for fire-damaged columns with CFRP and
steel jacketing
Retrofitting system NSC HSC
2 layers CFRP jacket without loose concrete removed 87.8% 58.5%
2 layers CFRP jacket without loose concrete removed 95.7% 77.5%
Steel jacket with loose concrete removed 157.5% 104.1%
4 Conclusions
Concrete can be an effective shield for RC column during fire due to its low thermal
conductivity and high heat capacity. Large temperature gradient could be developed
between concrete core and concrete cover. Spalling is more significant for HSC
columns compared with NSC columns. Therefore, it should be properly accounted
for fire performance evaluations on HSC applications. CFRP and steel jacketing can
effectively improve the axial strength and the stiffness for fire-damaged columns.
Removing loose concrete has impact on the stiffness improvement for NSC
fire-damaged columns and improve the axial strength for HSC fire-damaged
columns.
References
1. ISO834 (2012). Fire resistance tests- Elements of building construction, s.l.: International
Organization for Standardization
2. Kodur V (2014) Properties of Concrete at Elevated Temperatures. ISRN Civil Engineering
3. Yaqub M, Bailey C (2010) Repair of fire damaged circular reinforced concrete columns with
FRP composites. Constr Build Mater 25:359–370
Evaluation of Compressive Arch Action
of Reinforced Concrete Beams
S. Wang, X. J. Huang, S. B. Kang, and J. S. Xu
Abstract Compressive arch action (CAA) is a favourable structural mechanism to

mitigate progressive collapse of reinforced concrete frames. The full development
of CAA highly depends on relatively rigid boundary conditions. This paper
describes an evaluation of compressive arch action of reinforced concrete beams. In
the paper an analytical model is proposed based on rigid-plastic assumption. The
model is validated against experimental results and reasonably good agreement is
obtained. Comparisons between the analytical model and previous methods indicate
that the analytical model can predict the CAA capacity of reinforced concrete
beams with various boundary conditions with good accuracy.
Keywords Reinforced concrete beams Progressive collapse Compressive arch

action Analytical model
S. Wang X. J. Huang S. B. Kang (&)

Key Laboratory of New Technology for Construction of Cities in Mountain Area
(Chongqing University), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400045, China
e-mail: kang0119@cqu.edu.cn
S. Wang
e-mail: 20171602066t@cqu.edu.cn
X. J. Huang
e-mail: huangcqdx089@163.com
S. Wang X. J. Huang S. B. Kang
School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400045, China
J. S. Xu
Exploration Team 606 of Sichuan Metallurgical & Geological Exploration Bureau,
Chengdu 611730, China
e-mail: josenxu@foxmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_149
1616 S. Wang et al.
1 Introduction
Compressive action arch (CAA) in beams results from jamming of the beam seg-
ments between boundary restraints under vertical loads, which causes the beam to
form an arch between boundaries. A number of research studies have been con-
ducted on compressive arch action in reinforced concrete beams. It is found that
CAA can improve structural resistance by 30–150%, as indicated in the existing
studies [1]. Many analytical studies on the estimation of CAA capacities have been
proposed, among which the model by Park and Gamble has been widely accepted
by researchers all over the world [2]. In recent years, Yu and Tan improved the
model and calculated the load-deflection relationship of beam-column
sub-assemblages [3]. Lu et al. [4] presented an explicit method for beams with
and without slabs. However, the simplified equation overestimated the compressive
arch action capacity by assuming that the tensile and compressive reinforcement
had yielded. Moreover, the simplified equation can only be used for fixed boundary
conditions.
This paper proposes an analytical model for CAA of reinforced concrete beams
by using rigid-plastic assumption. In the model, different boundary conditions are
taken into consideration. Comparisons are made among test results and different
models to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed model in predicting the load
capacity of beam-column sub-assemblages with various levels of axial and rota-
tional stiffnesses.
2 Park and Gamble’s Model
Park’s analytical model for CAA was derived based on a rigid-plastic assumption
[2], as shown in Fig. 1. In the model, flexural deformation was concentrated in the
plastic hinge regions at the beam ends, and equilibrium and compatibility were
established based on the deformed geometry.
In order to calculate the CAA capacity, the following assumptions were made in
the model.
Fig. 1 Plastic hinges of a beam-column sub-assemblage

Evaluation of Compressive Arch Action of Reinforced Concrete Beams 1617
(1) The critical sections in the plastic hinge regions remain plane.
(2) Tensile reinforcement has yielded, and the extreme compression concrete fibre
has reached its ultimate strain.
(3) The areas of the top and the bottom steel reinforcement remain constant along
the beam length, but the top and bottom steel reinforcement may be different.
Based on the assumptions, the equilibrium and compatibility of the beam can be
established, as shown in Fig. 2. Equation (1) shows the equilibrium of beams under
CAA and Eq. (2) expresses the relationship of the neutral axis depths, the beam end
rotation and the axial compressive strain.
N ¼ T1 Cc1 Cs1 ¼ T2 Cc2 Cs2 ð1Þ
½bl þ 0:5eb ð1 2bÞl þ t sec u ¼ ðh c1 Þ tan u þ ð1 eb Þbl c2 tan u ð2Þ
where N is the axial force of the beam, T1 and T2 are the tension forces of rein-
forcement, Cs1 and Cs2 are the compressive forces of reinforcement, Cc1 and Cc2 are
the compressive force of concrete, at Sects. 1 and 2, respectively, l is the total
length of the two-span beam, b is the ratio of the net span to the total span l, eb is the
axial compressive strain of beams, t is the lateral movement of the support, c1 and
c2 are the neutral axis depths at Sects. 1 and 2, h is the height of the beam, and u is
the rotation angle of the beam.
When the beam is subjected to a concentrated point load, the axial compression
force and bending moments in the plastic hinge regions can be calculated in
accordance with the force equilibrium and compatibility. However, the model
generally overestimates the load capacity, as the rotation of supports and the actual
strain of compressive reinforcement was not considered in the model. The model
was later modified by [3] to take account of the effect of rotational restraint, but it
was only applicable to the plastic stage of beams.
Fig. 2 Compatibility of βl+0.5εb(l-2β)l+t

reinforced concrete beam
T1 φ (1-εb)l δ
φ
1 Top
steel
c2 Cc2
Cc1 h C s2
c1
C s1
2
Botto
m ste
el
φ
T2
1618 S. Wang et al.
3 Development of Analytical Model
Based on Park’s rigid-plastic assumption, an analytical model is proposed to predict

the CAA capacity of beam-column sub-assemblages with various levels of hori-
zontal and rotational restraints. The horizontal movement and rotations of the
supports are taken into consideration, as expressed in Eqs. (3) and (4). The effects
of axial stiffness and rotational stiffness can be reflected by the present compati-
bility condition from Eq. (5).
N
t¼ ð3Þ
Ka
M
h¼ ð4Þ
Kr
½bl þ 0:5eb ð1 2bÞl þ t0:5htanh sec u ¼ ðh c0 Þ tanðu hÞ þ ð1 eb Þbl

c tan u ð5Þ
where h is the rotation of the boundary.

To determine the strain of compressive reinforcement in the plastic hinge
regions, a linear variation of reinforcement strain was assumed between the
inflection point and the end section, as shown in Fig. 3. The total shortening of the
reinforcement was equal to the deformation of the corresponding fibre in the plastic
hinge region [5]. According to the plane-section assumption, the strain profile of the
bottom reinforcement and concrete can be determined from Eqs. (6)–(9).
0
0 c1 as1
es1 ¼ es1 ð6Þ
h c1 as1
0
0 h c2 as2
es2 ¼ es2 ð7Þ
c2 as2
Fig. 3 The strain of εs1

reinforcements and concrete εs1
Top s
teel
ε's1 l1
c1 Inflec
tion p εc2
oint
εc1
l2
Inflec εs2 c2
tion p
oint
Botto
m ste
el
ε's2
ε's2
c1 0
ec1 ¼ 0 es1 ð8Þ
c1 as1
c2
ec2 ¼ es2 ð9Þ
c2 as2
0
where es1 and es1 are the strains of top and bottom reinforcements at Sect. 1; as1 and
0
as1 are the distances from the centroid of the top and bottom reinforcements to the
0
corresponding outer surface at Sect. 1; es2 and es2 are the strains of top and bottom
0
reinforcements at Sect. 2; as2 and as2 are the distances from the centroid of the top
and bottom reinforcements to the corresponding outer surface at Sect. 2; and ec1 and
ec2 are the strains of compressive concrete at Sect. 1 and Sect. 2.
Moreover, to calculate the whole load-displacement curve, the stress-strain
model for concrete proposed by Mander et al. [6] was utilised in the analytical
model instead of equivalent compressive stress block. Compression force in con-
crete was calculated through the integration of compressive stresses across the
compression zone. A similar method was employed to determine the bending
moment. A bilinear stress-strain relationship was determined for the tensile steel
reinforcement, and a linear unloading branch was also defined for the compressive
reinforcement, with its modulus identical to the elastic modulus.
With equilibrium, compatibility and constitutive models for concrete and steel
reinforcement, a set of solution procedures was proposed for the analytical model.
By assuming a rotation of the beam and the neutral axial depths, the strain of
reinforcements and concrete can be calculated through Eqs. (6)–(9). Equilibrium
and compatibility in Eqs. (1) and (2) are examined. If they are satisfied, the vertical
load applied to the middle joint and the associated displacement can be quantified;
otherwise, the rotation and neutral axial depths have to be re-assumed, until Eqs. (1)
and (2) are satisfied.
4 Verification of the Analytical Model
To verify the accuracy of the analytical model, the load capacities of beam-column
sub-assemblages tested by [7] are predicted by using the model. Table 1 includes
the material and geometric properties of the sub-assemblages. The load capacities of
F1 and F4 obtained from experimental tests were 40.5 kN and 40.1 kN,
respectively.
1620 S. Wang et al.
Table 1 Parameters of beam-column sub-assemblages

Specimen Axial Rotational Beam section Total Longitudinal Material Maximum
stiffness stiffness length reinforcement properties vertical load
(N/mm) (N.mm/rad) Height Width L (mm) Top Bottom 0
fc (kN)
fc
h (mm) b (mm) (MPa) (MPa)
F1 1.0 106 1.4 106 180 180 4400 2N10 2N10 30.5 620 40.5
F4 1.0 10 6
1.8 106 180 180 4400 3N10 3N10 26.0 620 40.1
4.1 Comparison with Experimental Results
Figure 4 shows comparisons between experimental and analytical

load-displacement curves. It is apparent that the analytical model is capable of
predicting the load-displacement curves with good accuracy in terms of the initial
ascending phase and the descending phase. The calculated load capacities of F1 and
F4 are 37.7 kN and 38.6 kN, respectively, slightly smaller than the experimental
values. However, fracture of tensile reinforcement is not considered in the model,
and thus the sudden drop induced by rebar fracture cannot be successfully captured.
4.2 Comparison with Other Models
Park and Gamble [2] derived two formulae to explicitly calculate the neutral axis
depths at the beam ends, as expressed in Eqs. (10) and (11). With the neutral axis
depths, flexural theories can be used to calculate the bending moments and the axial
compression force in beams. The CAA capacity of beams can be determined from
force equilibrium. However, there are four unknowns in the expressions, namely, d,
0
eb , Cs and Cs , which hinder the further application of the equations.

h d bl2 2t T1 T Cs1 þ Cs2
c1 ¼ eb þ þ ð10Þ
2 4 4d l 1:7fc0 b1 b

h d bl2 2t T1 T2 Cs1 þ Cs2
c¼ eb þ ð11Þ
2 4 4d l 1:7fc0 b1 b
where d is the vertical displacement corresponding to the peak vertical load, b is the
width of the beam.
To use these two formulae in design, Lu et al. [4] assumed that all compressive
reinforcement had attained the yield strength, and thus the compression force in
steel reinforcement could be calculated accordingly. Besides, the vertical dis-
placement at the CAA capacity was defined as a function of the beam span and
depth, as expressed in Eq. (12).
50 50
Test results Test results
Analytical results Analytical results
Vertical load (kN) 40 40
Vertical load (kN)

30 30
20 20
10 10
0 0
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Vertical displacement (mm) Vertical displacement (mm)

(a) F1 (b) F4
Fig. 4 Comparisons between experimental and analytical load-displacement curves

d ¼ 0:0005 l2 h ð12Þ
In the following section, comparisons are made among the results calculated
according to different models. In the comparison, the effects of axial and rotational
restraints on CAA capacity and axial compression force are also studied through the
model. Note that the four parameters required in Park’s simplified equations are
extracted from the proposed analytical model, so that the neutral axis depths can be
directly calculated.
4.2.1 Effect of Axial Stiffness
The axial stiffness of F1 and F4 were 1.0 106 N/mm. To demonstrate the effects
of axial stiffness, the stiffness is gradually reduced, as included in Table 2. It can be
observed that the CAA capacity and the associated axial force decrease with
decreasing axial stiffness. When the four parameters used in Park’s simplified
equations are taken from the analytical model, the analytical results are in good
agreement with the values predicted by Park’s equations. The average ratios of
vertical load and axial force are 1.018 and 1.022, respectively. It indicates that if the
four parameters are known, Park’s simplified equations can accurately predict the
CAA capacity and the associated axial force.
Figure 5 shows the comparisons of vertical load and axial force among different
models. It suggests that the effects of axial stiffness on CAA capacity and axial
force can be well predicted by using the analytical model and Park’s equations,
whereas Lu’s model is only applicable to beams with fairly rigid axial restraints. By
reducing the axial stiffness, Lu’s model tends to substantially overestimate both the
CAA capacity and the axial compression force.
1622 S. Wang et al.
Table 2 Comparisons of vertical load and axial compression force with different axial stiffnesses
Specimen Axial Beam Axial force associated with maximum Maximum vertical load (kN)
Stiffness depth vertical load (kN)
(N/mm) (mm) Park’s Analytical Analytical Park’s Analytical Analytical
model model model/ model model model/
Park’s model Park’s model
F1 1.0 106 180 185.7 197.0 1.060 35.8 37.7 1.053
5.0 105 180 172.8 179.9 1.041 35.3 37.1 1.051
2.5 105 180 154.0 147.4 0.957 34.7 35.8 1.032
1.2 105 180 127.4 115.0 0.902 33.6 34.0 1.012
6.5 104 180 88.5 91.1 1.029 32.0 32.4 1.013
F4 1.0 106 180 157.0 168.2 1.071 38.1 38.6 1.013
5.0 105 180 145.0 154.1 1.063 38.1 38.4 1.008
2.5 105 180 127.2 134.3 1.056 37.5 38.0 1.013
1.2 105 180 100.1 101.5 1.014 36.4 37.1 1.019
6.5 104 180 77.9 77.3 0.992 35.7 35.8 1.003
Mean value 1.018 1.022
Coefficient of variation 0.053 0.017
44 350
42 300
Axial compression force
Vertical force(kN)
40
250
38
200
36
150
34 Lu's model Lu's model
Park's model 100 Park's model
32 Analytical model Analytical model
50
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2
Normalised axial stiffness Normalised axial stiffness
(a) Vertical force (b) Axial compression force
Fig. 5 Variation of vertical load and axial force of F4 with normalised axial stiffness
4.2.2 Effect of Rotational Stiffness
The rotational stiffness of F1 and F4 measured during testing were 1.4 106 N.
mm/rad and 1.8 106 N.mm/rad, respectively. Table 3 shows the effects of rota-
tional stiffness on the CAA capacity and the axial force. It can be seen from the
analytical model that both the vertical load and the corresponding compression
force decrease with decreasing rotational stiffness. The effect of rotational stiffness
was not considered in Park’s simplified design equation, and thus, the axial com-
pression force predicted by the simplified equation remains nearly unchanged.
However, the vertical load can still be relatively accurately predicted through the
simplified equations.
Table 3 Comparisons of vertical load and axial compression force with different rotational
stiffness
Specimen Rotational Beam Axial force associated with maximum Maximum vertical load (kN)
stiffness depth vertical load (kN)
(N.mm/rad) (mm) Park’s Analytical Analytical Park’s Analytical Analytical
model model model/ model model model/
Park’s model Park’s model
F1 1.4 1010 180 185.7 196.9 1.060 36.3 37.7 1.039
7.2 109 180 186.8 181.0 0.969 36.0 37.0 1.028
3.6 109 180 188.5 174.6 0.926 35.2 35.8 1.017
1.8 109 180 186.4 166.7 0.894 33.0 33.6 1.018
F4 1.8 1010 180 157.0 168.1 1.071 37.3 38.6 1.035
9.0 109 180 156.0 167.5 1.074 37.0 38.1 1.030
4.5 109 180 155.4 161.9 1.042 36.0 37.0 1.028
2.2 109 180 149.2 150.8 1.011 34.4 35.3 1.026
Mean value 1.006 1.028
44 350
Axial compression force
42 300
Vertical force(kN)
40
250
38
200
36
150
34 Lu's model Lu's model
Park's model 100 Park's model
32 Analytical model Analytical model
50
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2
Normalised rotational stiffness Normalised rotationtal stiffness
(a) Vertical force (b) Axial compression force
Fig. 6 Variation of vertical load and axial force of F4 with normalised rotational stiffness
By using Lu’s method, the vertical force and the axial compressive load remain
at constant values of 41.7 kN and 258.9 kN, respectively. It should be noted that
similar to the effects of axial restraint, the discrepancies between Lu’s model and
the analytical model become increasingly large by decreasing the rotational stiff-
ness, as shown in Fig. 6.
5 Conclusions
In this paper, an analytical model was proposed to evaluate the CAA of reinforced
concrete beams with different axial and rotational restraints. The model was validated
against the experimental results of beam-column sub-assemblages. Comparisons
1624 S. Wang et al.
were also made among several models to show the effects of axial and rotational
restraints. The following conclusions could be drawn from the study:
(1) The proposed analytical model can accurately predict the CAA of reinforced
concrete beams in terms of the vertical load-displacement curve and the axial
compression force-displacement curve. However, iteration procedures are
required for the calculation, which makes it difficult to directly use the model in
design.
(2) The equations proposed by Park can be used to evaluate the CAA of beams if
the forces in compressive reinforcement, the axial compressive strain and the
vertical displacement of beams are known. However, it is challenging to
determine these four parameters explicitly.
It should be noted that the proposed model is developed by iterative calculation.
Accurate values can be obtained by computer calculation. Future studies are
therefore needed to investigate a simple yet accurate method or equations to
explicitly consider CAA in the design of reinforced concrete beams.
National Natural Science Foundation (No. 51608068), Fundamental and Frontier Research Project
of Chongqing (No. cstc2016jcyjA0450) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central
Universities (No. 2019CDXYTM0032).
References
1. Qian K, Li B, Ma JX (2015) Load-carrying mechanism to resist progressive collapse of RC

buildings. J Struct Eng 141(2):104–107
2. Park R, Gamble WL (2000) Reinforced concrete slabs, 2nd edn. Wiley, Hoboken
3. Yu J, Tan KH (2014) Analytical model for the capacity of compressive arch action of
reinforced concrete sub-assemblages. Mag Concrete Res 66(3):109–126
4. Lu X, Lin K, Li C, Li Y (2018) New analytical calculation models for compressive arch action
in reinforced concrete structures. Eng Struct 168:721–735
5. Kang SB, Tan KH (2016) Analytical model for compressive arch action in horizontally
restrained beam-column subassemblages. ACI Struct J 113(4):813–826
6. Mander JB, Priestley MJN, Park R (1988) Theoretical stress-strain model for confined
concrete. J Struct Eng 114:804–826
7. FarhangVesali N, Valipour H, Samali B, Foster S (2013) Development of arching action in
longitudinally-restrained reinforced concrete beams. Constr Build Mater 47:17–19
Cyclic Testing of Bonded Post-tensioned
Interior Slab-Column Connections
with Shear Stud
A. Luckkikanun, U. Prawatwong, and P. Warnitchai
Abstract The use of flat plate floor systems consisting of a post-tensioned concrete
slab-column system incorporating shear reinforcement within the slab-column
connection region has become increasingly popular in medium to high-rise build-
ings in Thailand. However, no experimental studies of bonded PT slab-column
connections involving shear reinforcements subjected to earthquake-type loading
have been found in literatures. Very few guidelines and little information are
available to designers for design the connections under earthquake loading.
Therefore, experimental data on seismic behavior of bonded PT slab-column
connections with shear reinforcements is needed. This paper presents the results of
reversed-cyclic tests to failure on a three-fifth scaled model of bonded
post-tensioned interior slab-column connections with shear stud. The main objec-
tive of this study is to investigate the seismic performance of bonded post-tensioned
interior slab-column connections containing shear reinforcements in the form of
double head studs. A lateral quasi-static cyclic loading routine, simulating earth-
quake actions, was adopted to investigate the seismic performance. Overall per-
formance is examined in term of lateral load-carrying capacity, maximum drift, and
stiffness degradation. The results show that the model with double head studs is
able to undergo up to 4.00% drift prior to failure and the mode of failure is flexural
punching failure. Comparing results with the model without shear reinforcement,
which has been tested earlier. The model with shear studs can carry more drift
A. Luckkikanun U. Prawatwong (&)

School of Civil Engineering, Suranaree University of Technology,
Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
e-mail: unnop@sut.ac.th
A. Luckkikanun
e-mail: luckkikanun.a@gmail.com
P. Warnitchai
School of Engineering and Technology, Asian Institute of Technology,
Khlong Nueng, Pathumthani, Thailand
e-mail: pennung@ait.ac.th

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_150
1626 A. Luckkikanun et al.
capacity than the model without shear reinforcement approximately twice. The test
results from this study will be useful for seismic design and evaluation of seismic
performance of the entire slab-column frame building in the future.

Keywords Slab-column connection Bonded post-tensioned Shear stud Cyclic
test
1 Introduction
Post-tensioned (PT) slab is divided into two types; bonded system and unbonded
system. In Thailand, bonded system is much more popular than unbonded system.
Under earthquake type loading, it is widely known that brittle punching failure may
occur in the slab near the column due to transfer of shear forces and unbalance
moments between the slab and column. Hawkins and Mitchell [7] have shown that
the punching failure at an interior slab-column connection can sometimes initiate a
progressive collapse throughout the entire structure.
To protect slab-column connections from punching shear failure, several
methods were used in design practice. A common method is to provide shear
reinforcement within slab around the column perimeter as recommended by
ACI-421-R08. This method allows the use of shear reinforcement in the form of
closed-hoop stirrup and vertical shear stud. Nevertheless, the experimental inves-
tigation by Prawatwong et al. [11] has pointed out that under earthquake type
loading shear reinforcement in the form of closed-hoop stirrup may not provide a
significant increase in punching shear strength of the thin bonded PT slabs. Thus,
the use of vertical shear stud is an another choice. In case of unbonded slab-column
connections, a number of experimental studies were found in literature. [6, 8]. Ghali
and Youakim [4] suggested that the main advantages of using double-headed stud
are more efficient anchorage, simpler installation, less congestion of reinforcement,
more improved confinement, and more effective with thin slab. Recently, Yan Zhou
and Hueste [12] has reviewed of test data for unbonded PT interior slab-column
connections with moment transfer. The data shows that drifts capacity of PT
slab-column connections with shear stud are higher than without shear stud.
However, it should be note that the bonded PT slab-column connection with shear
stud has not been found in the review or any other researches. Therefore, the
seismic performance of PT bonded slab-column connections with shear stud is still
unclear.
This paper deals with reversed-cyclic tests to failure on a three-fifth scale model
of bonded PT interior slab-column connections with shear reinforcement in the
form of double headed stud. The specimen was subjected to a lateral quasi-static
cyclic loading routine to investigate its seismic performance through the elastic,
inelastic ranges and finally until failure. The effect of incorporating shear stud in the
PT slab-column region on its seismic performance was identified by comparing the
test results with those of connection model without shear reinforcement, which has
Cyclic Testing of Bonded Post-tensioned Interior Slab-Column … 1627
been tested earlier [10]. The results from this study will provide useful information
on cyclic performance of bonded PT interior slab-column connections with shear
reinforcement. It will be a guideline for structural designers in the future.
2.1 Description of Specimen
To study the lateral cyclic performance of bonded PT slab-column connection with

shear stud, that are typical in Thailand, an effort was made to acquire architectural
and structural drawings of three representative buildings with bonded PT floors.
Some important structural parameters associated with cyclic behavior are computed
from the drawing; they are herein called “structural indices”. These indices are:
gravity shear ratio (Vg =V0 ), critical section perimeter-to-depth ratio (b0 =d), side
pffiffiffiffi
ratio (b1 =b2 ), prestressing ratio (fpc = fc0 ), distance between column face to critical
section divided by depth (a=d), spacing between first peripheral line of shear stud
and column face divided by depth (s0 =d), spacing between peripheral line of shear
stud and column face divided by depth (s=d).
To compare the results with previous experiment without shear stud, which has
been tested earlier. The gravity shear ratio was controlled equal to S1 from previous
experiment [10], while the other parameters are given in Table 1. In part of shear
stud parameters, the average value of the buildings sample was used except the
(s0 =d) due to the area restriction since the first stud was placed close to the tendon
and column as shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Structural indices of slab-column connections in three representative buildings

Building Span Column size Structural indices
(mm) (mm mm) Vg b0 b1
p ffiffiffi0
fpc a s0 s
V0 d b2 d d d
fc
Condo 5800 400 1200 0.31 15.43 2.18 0.23 3.20 0.18 0.35
Apartment 10700 300 600 0.39 12.66 1.59 0.42 5.10 0.24 0.63
Personal 5700 250 250 0.33 10.25 1.00 0.39 4.38 0.31 0.63
house
Average 0.34 12.75 1.57 0.35 4.23 0.24 0.54
Value
Specimen in this research
S1 (without 5000 250 500 0.28 18.29 1.70 0.27 – – –
stud rails)
SS2 (with stud 5000 250 500 0.28 18.29 2.00 0.29 4.42 0.42 0.50
rails)
*Detailed definitions of parameter can find more in ACI 421.1 R-08 and [10]
Figure 1 shows the dimension of the tested specimen. The typical span, story
height, and slab thickness of flat plate with shear reinforcement building in Thailand
were in the range of 5.70 to 10.70 meters, 3.00 meters and 0.25 m, respectively.
The test specimen was scaled to 3/5 of full-scale. At 3/5-scale, the span length of
full-scale prototype structure was scaled down to 4.80 m, the 3.00 m story height to
1.80 m, and the 0.25 m slab thickness to 0.15 m. The slab was supported along
each transverse edge by 5 pin-ended bars to simulate a moment-free boundary
condition. The validation of this model and assumption for interior slab-column
connections are well explained by Pan and Moehle [9].
Figure 2(a) shows the layout of bonded PT strands in the specimen. The strands
were grade 270, 12.7 mm (1/2 in) diameter. Every strand was tensioned to about
80% of ultimate strength (0:8fpu ). Eight tendons with ten strands were banded in the
direction of loading with a spacing of 300 mm, except the two strands located near
to the column had spacing of 290 mm. The other eight tendons with ten strands
were distributed uniformly in perpendicular to the loading direction.
Figure 2(b) shows the layout of bonded reinforcing bars in slab. The deformed
bars diameter 10 mm (DB10) were used for top and bottom reinforcement. The
minimum top reinforcement at least 0:00075Acf was placed within an effective slab
width of c þ 3h and extends away from the column face at least ln =6 in accordance
with ACI 318-14 (Sect. 8.6.2.3, 8.7.5.3, 8.7.5.5.1), where Acf is the larger gross
sectional area of the slab-beam strips in two orthogonal equivalent frames inter-
secting a column, and c is the column width, h is the slab thickness, and ln is length
of clear span. For bottom reinforcement, DB10 bar were mesh bottom bar was
provided as temperature and shrinkage reinforcement. In addition, the quantity of
slab-bottom reinforcement through the column head, satisfied the ACI-ASCE 352.1
R-89 [2], was provided in both directions.
Figure 3(a) shows column reinforcement detail. Twelve bars DB28 yielding
stresses of 40 MPa were continuous from bottom to top part of the column. The shear
reinforcements of the column were stirrups fabricated from bars type DB10 with
500
250
825 150 230 4800
825
2500 2500
5700
Fig. 1 Interior slab column connection specimen with dimension

5700
800 590 590 600 540 600 590 590 800

500 500 500 510 100x3 510 500 500 500
500
1335
C1+3h Top bars
500 12DB10 @80mm
(2000 mm Long)
300 500
300
300 550
4800 290 125 C2+3h
300 550
300 Top bars
ALL PRESTRESSING STRANDS DIA 500 10DB10 @80mm
300
0.5 IN GRADE 270K (2200 mm Long)
BOTTOM BARS
500 4DB10 PASS OVER THE COLUMN
All BOTTOM BARS: DB10 GRADE SD30
1335
LENGTH (N-S): 5600 mm LONG
500
LENGTH (W-E): 4600 mm LONG
2 strands each tendon

230 130
150 1 strand each tendon 150
230
110
2600 500 2600 2600 500 2600
(a) Layout of prestressing strands (b) Bonded reinforcing bars
Fig. 2 Layout of prestressing strands, and bonded reinforcing bars in slab
3PRESTRESSING STRANDS 8x60

DIA 0.5 IN GRADE 270K Dia.12
12DB28
3DB10@60 mm STR SECTION a-a
ANCHORAGE
Shear critical sections
PLATE .
SECTION a-a
60
.
.
.
.
.
3DB10@60 mm STR
.
60
.
.
.
50 Column 60 210
.
.
.
.
530
.
.
.
3DB10@60 mm STR
.
ANCHORAGE
.
.
PLATE
.
DEAD
END 230 230
(a) Column reinforcement details (b) Layout of stud rails
Fig. 3 Column reinforcement details, and layout of stud rails
spacing of about 60 mm. The nominal clear cover for the column reinforcement is
15 mm. It is expected that the column could behave in elastic manner during the test.
Figure 3(b) shows the shear studs layout in the test specimen. All of them were
type 2 double headed stud following ASTM A1044/A1044M. Total height of stud
rails were 120 mm. From the average value of parameters related to shear studs, ten

Concrete Compressive strength at test Steel Yield strength Tensile
date (MPa) (MPa) strength (MPa)
Bottom 47.41 (138 days) DB10 374 636
column
Top 49.45 (31 days) 7-wires 1710 1901
column strand
Slab 38.52 (33 Days) Shear 380 537
stud
stud rails were placed around the column. Stud spacing were 60 mm (0.5d). The
first studs were placed away from the column face 50 mm (Table 2).
2.2 Testing Procedures
Figure 4 shows the experimental setup. The simulation of gravity load was simu-
lated by a large number of sand bags. They were piled up on and hanged underneath
the slab in order to correctly simulate the gravity load effect. The amount and
distribution of sand bags were determined by finite element analysis such that the
computed gravity shear ratio ðVg =V0 Þ was equal to 0.28. After the application of the
gravity loading, the lateral load was applied to the top column by MTS servo
controlled hydraulic actuator mounted horizontally to a rigid reaction wall. The
hydraulic actuator was pined at its ends to allow rotation during the test. The bottom
part of the column was connected to concrete strong floor of the structural labo-
ratory. Torsional restraining systems were installed in both end of the slab to
prevent this rigid-body twisting of the specimen. The systems consisted of two wire
Reaction wall Loading Reference frame

MTS Actuator
Torsion restraining system

Sand Bag
Strong floor
Hinge support Bolts Pin-ended link
Fig. 4 Experimental setup
50
3 4 1 2
40
DISPLACEMENT (MILLIMETER)
30
20
10 2
1 4
0 TIME
3
-10
-20
-30
-40
-50 0.25% 0.50% 0.75% 1.00% 1.25% 1.50% 2.00%

CYCLE CYCLE CYCLE CYCLE CYCLE CYCLE CYCLE
Fig. 5 Pattern of lateral loading
ropes on each side, which diagonally crossed from either of the slab corners to the
channel firmly anchored to the strong floor.
Figure 5 shows the pattern of lateral loading. A typical displacement controlled
cyclic loading test was carried out with monotonically increasing drift levels
of ±0.25%, ±0.50%, ±0.75%, ±1.00%, ±1.25%, ±1.50%, ±2.00%, ±2.50%,
±3.00%, ±4.00%, and ±5.00%. For each drift level, two completed cyclic dis-
placement loops were made.
During the test, all measurement data were recorded at each loading step. The
data measured and recorded in the experiment include: 1) lateral force and dis-
placement at the top column end, 2) strain in stud rails, 3) strain in top and bottom
bars of slab at various locations, and 4) strain distribution along some prestressing
strands. Photo were taken and at peak positive and negative drift every cycle of
loading to record the development of visible cracks on the top and bottom slab
surface. Five video security cameras were also continue recorded throughout the
testing.
3 Experimental Results and Discussion
Due to space limitation, only some results are presented in this paper. The relation
between lateral force and lateral drift is shown in Fig. 6. The first stage (0.00
to ±1.5%), hysteretic loop in every loading cycle was long and narrow, indicating a
limited ability to dissipate energy. Afterward, the second stages ±2.00%
to ±4.00% loop 1 hysteretic loop began to grow larger and lateral force has sat-
urated, indicating a yielding of the connections occur in this stage. The stiffness was
degrading down. The final stage punching, at ±4.00% loop 2, shows lateral load
decrease about 77% from peak load. The specimen has failed at 4.51% while
specimen was going to +5.00% loop 1. Lateral load decreased down from 100 kN
to 76 kN, suddenly. The specimen has failed by flexural punching mode.
Figure 7 shows comparing the backbone curve between the results from this
study and the model without shear reinforcement. As can be seen in Fig. 7, the
model S1, without shear reinforcement, could only withstand 2.0% drift. After the
maximum lateral load of 107 kN was attained, this specimen suddenly failed in
brittle punching shear and completely lost its lateral strength and stiffness while no
peak load saturation was perceived in advance. On the other hand, SS2 with double
head studs attained 65% higher lateral load-carrying capacity than the control
250
200
150
Lateral force, kN
100
50
0
-50
-100
-150
-200
-250
-6.0 -4.0 -2.0 0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0
Lateral drift, %
Fig. 6 Relation between lateral load and lateral drift
250
200
150
Lateral forces (kN)
100
50
0
-50
S1 without shear stud
-100 (Prawatwong et al. 2012)
-150 SS2 with shear stud
-200 (This study)
-250
-6.0 -4.0 -2.0 0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0
Specimen drift (%)
Fig. 7 Comparing results with the model without shear reinforcement

specimen (S1). In addition, the specimen SS2 with double head studs apparently
failed in a more ductile manner than the one without shear studs. As can be seen in
Fig. 6 and 7, SS2 exhibited a saturation of peak load for a drift of 2% to 4%,
indicating that flexural yielding took place long before punching failure. Until the
end of the test, the specimen with double head studs showed much higher drift
capacity at about 4% at punching failure than the one without shear reinforcement.
4 Summary and Conclusions
A three-fifth scale model of bonded post-tensioned (PT) interior slab-column

connection was design and constructed to represent a typical detail of slab-column
connections with double head studs in medium to high rise buildings in Thailand.
The model was tested under a conventional reversed cyclic loading with mono-
tonically increasing drift levels until failure to investigate its seismic performance.
Based on the experimental results and comparing results with the model without
shear reinforcement, the following conclusions are drawn:
1. During the test, the specimen with double head studs essentially behaved like a
linear elastic system with viscous damping. As the drift level increased, the
lateral stiffness of specimen decreasingly degraded.
2. The specimen with double head studs in this study showed ductile behavior
under reversed cyclic loading. The ductile behavior was clearly demonstrated by
its lateral forced-drift relationship. Specimen SS2 experienced saturation of peak
load from about 2.0% to 4.0% drifts, indicating flexural yielding took place
before punching failure.
3. The test results suggest that the use of double head studs in bonded PT slab in
the vicinity of column is an effective solution to enhance the overall seismic
performance of bonded PT interior slab-column connection. SS2 exhibited
dramatic increases in lateral strength, lateral stiffness and lateral deformation
capacity, compared to those of S1.
Acknowledgements This experimental work was conducted with funding provided by National
Research Council of Thailand (NRCT). The prestressing strands, ducts and anchors used in the
tests were donated by Concrete Products and Aggregate Company (CPAC) Limited. Double head
studs were donated by SNP Post-tension co., Ltd. For initial backgrounds data was supported by
Postteck Prestressing co., Ltd. Heartfelt gratitude is conveyed to them for their great supports in
the research program.
References
1. ACI Committee 318 (2014) Building code requirements requirement for structural concrete
and commentary (ACI 318R-14), American concrete institute
2. ACI Committee 352.1R-89 (1989) Recommendations for design of slab-column connections
in monolithic reinforced concrete structures, American concrete institute
3. ACI Committee 421.1R-08 (2008) Guide to shear reinforcement for slab, American concrete
institute
4. Ghali Amin, Youakim Samer A (2005) Headed studs in concrete: state of the art. ACI Struct J
102(67):657–667
5. ASTM A1044/A1044M-16a (2016) Standard specification for steel stud assemblies for shear
reinforcement of concrete
6. Gayed RB, Ghali A (2006) Seismic-resistant joints of interior columns with prestressed slab.
ACI Struct J 103(5):710–719
7. Hawkins NM, Mitchell D (1979) Progressive collapse of flat-plate structure. ACI Struct J 76
(7):775–809
8. Kang THK (2004) Shake table tests and analytical studies of reinforced and post-tensioned
concrete flat plate frames, Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of California, LA, 309 p
9. Pan AP, Moehle JP (1988) Reinforced concrete flat plates under lateral loading: an
experimental study including biaxial effect, report UCB/EERC-88/16, Earthquake engineering
research center, University of California – Berkeley, California USA
10. Prawatwong U, Warnitchai P, Tandian CH (2012) Seismic performance of
bonded-post-tensioned slab-column connections with and without drop panels. Adv Struct
Eng 15:1653–1672
11. Prawatwong U, Warnitchai P, Luckkikanun A (2018) Cyclic testing of bonded posttensioned
interior slab-column connections with shear reinforcement, International conference on
continental earthquakes. In: 4th ICEE-0000000139, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
12. Zhou Y, Hueste MBD (2016) Review of test data for interior slab-column connections with
moment transfer. In: ACI-fib international symposium punching shear of structural concrete
slab, pp 141–166
Long-Term Experiments on Composite
Slabs Exposed to Different Surface
Drying Conditions
G. Ranzi, G. Frigerio, and O. Vallati
Abstract Composite slabs are a cost-efficient form of construction and consist of

thin-walled profiled steel sheeting, non-prestressed reinforcement and concrete. In
this form of construction, the profiled steel sheeting acts as permanent formwork
and, once the concrete has hardened, as external reinforcement. This paper presents
new experimental data collected from the long-term testing of three
simply-supported composite slabs and three continuous two-span composite slabs
subjected to their self-weight and the associated creep, and to shrinkage effects. The
particularity of this study consists in exposing the top surface of the composite slabs
to different drying exposure conditions during the long-term monitoring. This has
been carried out to evaluate the impact on the composite service response of surface
finishes that can be applied on the top surface of the slab during construction or the
in-service life of the structure. In the first part of the paper, the preparation of the
specimens is outlined, followed by the presentation of the long-term measurement
and their discussion.
Keywords Composite slabs Concrete Steel Serviceability Shrinkage

Humidity
1 Introduction
Composite steel-concrete slabs are widely used throughout the world for building
floor applications and consist of thin-walled profiled steel sheeting, non-prestressed
reinforcement and concrete. Over the last decades, research carried out on the
G. Ranzi (&) G. Frigerio O. Vallati

School of Civil Engineering, The University of Sydney, Darlington, NSW 2006, Australia
e-mail: gianluca.ranzi@sydney.edu.au
G. Frigerio
e-mail: giorgio.frigerio@sydney.edu.au
O. Vallati
e-mail: vallatiosvaldo@hotmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_151
1636 G. Ranzi et al.
behavior and design of composite slabs has mainly focused at the ultimate limit
state conditions, with particular attention devoted to aspects related to strength and
ductility, while only limited work has been dedicated to the long-term response
under in-service conditions [20]. This trend has changed in recent years with a
growing number of studies aimed at the evaluation of the time-dependent response
of composite floors, mainly triggered by recent experimental observations reporting
the development of a non-uniform shrinkage gradient that takes place through the
thickness of composite slabs, first noted experimentally in [3]. The shrinkage
gradient is produced by the inability of the slab to dry from its underside due to the
presence of the profiled steel sheeting. Subsequent work has focused at the char-
acterization of the non-uniform shrinkage profile and of the consequent long-term
member response, e.g. [2, 12–14, 19, 21, 23] and at the development of suitable
methods of analysis that have dealt with composite and post-tensioned composite
slabs, e.g. [8, 9, 22]. Most recent work in this area has focused at predicting relative
humidity profiles through the slab thickness and how these influence the
shrinkage-induced deformations exhibited by a composite slab. For example, the
analytical solution of the diffusion problem proposed in [17] was used in [1] to
determine the moisture distribution and consequent shrinkage effects in composite
slabs. The use of a hygro-thermo-chemical-mechanical model was proposed in [5,
6], based on previous work [10], to describe the relative humidity and temperature
profiles that develop over time through the thickness of composite slabs and to
adopt these for the determination of the shrinkage profiles to be used for the
structural modelling. The main difficulty in adopting multi-physics models to
capture the concrete time-dependent response relies in the identification of the
numerous material parameters required to describe the moisture and heat transfer
mechanisms. For this purpose, a robust inverse analysis procedure was proposed in
[5, 6] to characterize the material parameters and this approach was applied to
predict the deflections measured during long-term composite experiments in [7].
Among available design guidelines, the Australian composite code [4] provides
guidance on the effects of the non-uniform shrinkage based on a simplified design
model, e.g. [18]. Guidance is provided in [4] for the determination of the shrinkage
profile to be used in design. Its representation is based on a linearly-varying
approximation that is regarded acceptable for routine design [15]. The composite
standard allows the engineer to account for the possible beneficial effects induced
by the presence of surface treatments or floor coverings applied on top of the slab
that could influence the time-dependent drying of the slab and, consequently, the
occurrence of the shrinkage gradient. This possibility is available to the engineer
only if he/she can ensure that the surface treatments or floor coverings are to be
present in the constructed slab at the locations and for the duration of time assumed
in the design.
The European guidelines do not contemplate the need to perform design checks
for the service response of composite slabs associated to shrinkage effects [11].
Despite this, it is envisaged that these requirements will be considered for possible
inclusion in the coming code revisions [16] based on work carried out for the
Australian composite code.
Long-Term Experiments on Composite Slabs … 1637
In this context, this paper intends to provide new experimental data that aims at
demonstrating the influence of permanent surface finishes on the time-dependent
response of composite floor slabs. The vision at the basis of this approach is to
consider the possibility of achieving a structural composite floor installation in
which the drying components of time effects are reduced or eliminated by adjusting
the drying exposure conditions of the top surface of the slab. This is particularly
relevant to mitigate the influence of the shrinkage gradient that has been shown,
based on both modelling and experimental work, to significantly influence the floor
deflections of composite and post-tensioned composite slabs. To the knowledge of
the authors, the beneficial effects in reducing time-dependent deflections by
applying surface finishes has never been demonstrated experimentally.
In this study, a total of six specimens have been prepared and are currently being
monitored over time to observe the long-term behavior. Three samples have been
arranged in a simply-supported and the remaining three specimens consist of
continuous slabs. For each static configuration, three identical companion speci-
mens have been prepared and these only differ for the exposure conditions specified
on the top surface of the slab, varying from the condition in which the top surface of
a specimen is sealed immediately after casting to the situation in which the top
surface is left exposed for drying throughout the test. In the following sections, the
preparation of the samples is presented and it is followed by the outline of the
long-term measurements and by the discussion of the results. This work highlights
the possible beneficial effects in sealing the top surface of a composite slab in order
to minimize or eliminate the drying components of time effects and, in particular,
those associated to shrinkage.
2 Description of Samples
The experimental program presented in this paper includes the preparation and
long-term testing of three simply-supported composite slabs and three continuous
composite slabs.
The geometry of the simply-supported slabs is presented in Fig. 1a. The total
length of the samples is 3200 mm with an internal span between supports of
3000 mm. With this arrangement, each slab has an overhang of 100 mm at each
end. The width of the slab and its thickness are 634 mm and 120 mm, respectively,
as shown in Fig. 1c. The simply-supported samples have been denoted as SS1, SS2
and SS3. As depicted in Table 1, the top surface of specimen SS1 has been exposed
for drying from the time of casting (Fig. 2a), while the top surface of sample SS2,
initially exposed for drying has been sealed with wax and plastic after 37 days from
casting (Fig. 2b). Sample SS3 has been sealed immediately after casting (Fig. 2b).
The layout of the continuous samples is outlined in Fig. 1b and adopts the
distance between the roller supports already specified for the simply-supported
specimens. With a total length of 6200 mm, an overhang of 100 mm is present at
each end. The cross-sectional geometries are those adopted for samples SS1-SS3
100 3000 100
(a) simply-supported samples SS1, SS2 and SS3
100 3000 3000 100

(b) continuous samples CS1, CS2 and CS3
634
120
(c) typical cross-section

Note: all dimensions in mm
Fig. 1 Geometry and layout of the composite slab samples
Table 1 Summary of exposure conditions of the top slab surface of the samples
Sample Exposure conditions of the top the surface
ID
SS1 Exposed for drying
SS2 Exposed for drying till 37 days from casting and sealed with wax and plastic at
37 days from casting
SS3 Sealed with wax and plastic on same day of casting
CS1 Exposed for drying
CS2 Exposed for drying till 37 days from casting and sealed with wax and plastic at
37 days from casting
CS3 Sealed with wax and plastic on same day of casting
and depicted in Fig. 1c. The continuous specimens are referred to as CS1, CS2 and
CS3 and their exposure conditions are summarized in Table 1. In particular,
samples CS1 and CS2 have been exposed for drying from the time of casting, with
CS2 being sealed with wax and plastic after 37 days from casting. The top surface
of specimen CS3 has been sealed immediately after casting.
All slabs have been cast on a Stramit Condeck HP Profiled sheeting with
nominal thickness of 1 mm whose geometry is depicted in Fig. 3 [24]. The adopted
reinforcement reflected typical detailing for building applications. For this purpose,
a SL62 steel reinforcing mesh has been placed in all specimens in the higher part of
the concrete slab at a cover of 20 mm. For the continuous samples, two additional
sealed side
edges (typ.)
(a) exposed for drying on top surface and sealed with wax and plastic on side edges
sealed top surface
sealed side
edges (typ.)
(b) sealed with wax and plastic
Fig. 2 Exposure conditions specified for the composite slab samples
N12 reinforcing bars have been placed on top of the sheeting at the internal support
over the hogging moment region.
To reflect the continuity that the slab samples would have in a real floor, the side
edges of all specimens, i.e. SS1-SS3 and CS1-CS3, have been sealed with wax and
plastic as highlighted in Fig. 2.
A nominal 32 MPa concrete has been used in this study and, as for standard
practice, a wet curing has been carried out for 7 days for the samples exposed to dry
from their top surface.
All samples have been cast under propped conditions and, once the props were
removed after 14 days from casting, the samples have been monitored over time
subjected to shrinkage effects and to creep of the self-weight, as the specimens were
cast propped. The long-term tests are currently underway and the measurements
reported in this paper relate to the first 267 days from casting.
An overview of the long-term tests is depicted in Fig. 4. All specimens have
been placed in close proximity to each other to expose them to similar environ-
mental conditions.
Fig. 3 Profile of the steel

sheeting used for the
55
composite samples
300
Fig. 4 Overview of the slab samples during long-term monitoring
RH-10,-20,-40,
T-10
SG-M-T T-60 RH-60,-110
SG-M-B LVDT-M
= =
(a) simply-supported samples SS1, SS2 and SS3

RH-10,-20,-40,
RH-60,-110
T-10
SG-L-T SG-R-T T-60
SG-L-B LVDT-L SG-R-B LVDT-R

LC-L1,-L2 LC-M1,-M2 LC-R1,-R2
= = = =
(b) continuous samples CS1, CS2 and CS3
Fig. 5 Layout of the instrumentation
3 Instrumentation Layout
The time-dependent deformations experienced by each specimen have been mon-

itored based on the instrumentation specified in Fig. 5.
In particular, deflections have been measured at the mid-span of each span with
linear variable displacement transducers (LVDTs). These have been referred to as
LVDT-M for the simply-supported samples (Fig. 5a), and LVDT-L and LVDT-R
for the left and right spans, respectively, of the continuous specimens (Fig. 5b).
This notation has been later used in the plot describing the time-dependent varia-
tions of the deflections. Deformations have been recorded at the mid-span of the
spans on top and bottom of the slab with the arrangement shown in Fig. 5. The
displacement and deformation measurements have been started at 10 days from
casting.
Thermocouples (referred to as T-10 and T-60 in Fig. 5) have been used to gain
insight into the thermal variations taking place in the concrete, especially for the
first few days from casting. Relative humidity and temperature sensors (denoted as
RH-10, −20, −40, and RH-60, −110 in Fig. 5) have been included to capture the
time-dependent moisture variations and to collect information how the drying
process develops through the slab thickness. The recording of the latter measure-
ments started 3 days after casting. In the continuous samples, two load cells (re-
ferred to as LC-L1, -L2, LC-M1, -M2 and LC-R1, -R2 in Fig. 5) have been placed
at each support to observe the time-dependent changes of the internal redundant
reaction.
4 Long-Term Measurements
The long-term deflections measured at the mid-span of the simply-supported and

continuous composite slabs are reported in Figs. 6 and 7, respectively.
As expected, the long-term displacements of the composite slabs exposed for
drying from its top surface, i.e. SS1 and CS1, are larger than those undergone by the
sealed slab, i.e. SS3 and CS3. The reason for these trends is related to the difference
in the relative humidity distributions exhibited through the slab thicknesses, and the
associated shrinkage profiles. Samples SS1 and CS1 have been significantly
influenced by the drying taking place through the top surface of the slab that leads
to the development of a shrinkage gradient and consequent shrinkage-induced
curvature. Such gradient is not present in the case of the sealed specimens SS3 and
CS3 as their humidity profiles have exhibited a more uniform distribution over the
slab thickness. Specimens SS2 and CS2 followed the long-term behavior of sam-
ples SS1 and CS1 until the instant in time in which they have been sealed with the
Fig. 6 Mid-span deflections measured for samples SS1, SS2 and SS3
Fig. 7 Mid-span deflections measured for samples CS1, CS2 and CS3
wax and plastic. After this point, the slabs have undergone a reduction in deflec-
tions for a period of time due to the redistribution of the humidity profile from a
highly non-uniform variation, with a pronounced drying component in the top part
of the slab, to a more uniform distribution.
5 Conclusions
This paper presented new experimental data describing the long-term behavior of
composite steel-concrete slabs subjected to different exposure conditions. A total of
three simply-supported composite slabs and three continuous composite slabs have
been prepared and monitored over time subjected to its self-weight and the asso-
ciated creep (as the specimens were cast under propped conditions) and to
shrinkage effects. For each static configuration, the three companion samples were
identical and only varied for the exposure conditions of the top surface of the slab.
One companion specimen was exposed for drying for the entire duration of the test,
while a second companion sample was sealed with wax and plastic on the day of
casting to prevent any drying to take place from the slab. The third sample was kept
exposed for drying until 37 days from casting, time at which it was then sealed with
wax and plastic.
These experimental results highlighted the beneficial influence in sealing the top
surface of the slab to reduce the influence of the drying components of concrete
time effects and, in particular, of shrinkage effects that have been shown to lead to
significant flexural deflections due to the non-uniform shrinkage gradients that
forms in a composite member due to its inability to dry from the underside of the
slab because of the presence of the profiled steel sheeting. The reported measure-
ments highlighted the beneficial effects that could be achieved in sealing the top
surface of a composite slab to avoid drying to take place to the environment. These
considerations have been based on long-term tests monitored for a period of
267 days from casting.
Acknowledgements The work presented in this paper was supported by the Australian Research
Council through its Future Fellowship scheme (FT140100130).
References
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effects on steel-concrete composite slabs. Steel Compos Struct 26(3):303–314
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composite steel-concrete slabs. Int J Steel Struct 15(2):415–432
3. Al-Deen S, Ranzi G, Vrcelj Z (2011) Full-scale long-term and ultimate experiments of
simply-supported composite beams with steel deck. J Constr Steel Res 67(10):1658–1676
4. AS/NZS 2327 (2017) Australian Standard for Composite Structures, AS/NZS 32327 (2017)
Standards Australia
5. Bocciarelli M, Ranzi G (2018) An inverse analysis approach for the identification of the
hygro-thermo-chemical model parameters of concrete. Int J Mech Sci 138–139:368–382
6. Bocciarelli M, Ranzi G (2018) Identification of the hygro-thermo-chemical-mechanical model
parameters of concrete through inverse analysis. Constr Build Mater 162:202–214
7. Bocciarelli M, Ranzi G (2018c), Evaluation of shrinkage-induced deflections of composite
slabs with a simplified design approach and a hygro-thermo-chemical-mechanical model. In:
Proceedings of the 25th Australian conference on mechanics of structures and materials
(ACMSM25), Brisbane (Australia), 5–7 December 2018
8. Bradford MA (2010) Generic modelling of composite steel-concrete slabs subjected to
shrinkage, creep and initial thermal strains including partial interaction. Eng Struct 32:1459–
1465
9. Bradford MA, Gilbert RI, Zeuner R, Brock G (2011) Shrinkage deformations of composite
slabs with open trapezoidal sheeting. Proc Eng 14:52–61
10. Di Luzio G, Cusatis G (2009) Hygro-thermo-chemical modeling of high performance
concrete. I: Theory. Cement Concr Compos 31:301–308
11. EN 1994-1-1 (2004) Eurocode 4: design of composite steel and concrete structures – part 1.1:
General rules and rules for buildings, European committee for standardization
12. Gholamhoseini A, Gilbert RI, Bradford MA (2018) Long-term behavior of continuous
composite concrete slabs with steel decking. ACI Struct J 115(2):439–449
13. Gholamhoseini A, Gilbert RI, Bradford MA, Chang ZT (2014) Time-dependent deflection of
composite concrete slabs. ACI Struct J 111(4):765–776
14. Gilbert RI, Bradford MA, Gholamhoseini A, Chang ZT (2012) Effects of shrinkage on the
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16. Johnson RP (2019) Composite structures of steel and concrete. WileyBlackwell, Oxford
17. Moon JH, Weiss J (2006) Estimating residual stress in the restrained ring test under
circumferential drying. Cement Concr Compos 28:486–496
18. Ranzi G (2018) Service design approach for composite steel-concrete floors. In: Proceedings
of the institution of civil engineers structures and buildings, vol 171, no SB1, pp 38–49
19. Ranzi G, Al-Deen S, Ambrogi L, Uy B (2013) Long-term behaviour of simply-supported
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20. Ranzi G, Leoni G, Zandonini R (2013) State of the art on the time-dependent behaviour of
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Shear Behavior of Steel Reinforced
Ultra High Performance Concrete
Members with Hybrid Fibers
M. Bermudez and C. C. Hung
Abstract Current design codes require a dense array of steel reinforcement for
shear-critical structural elements in earthquake-resistant structures, such as col-
umns, walls, coupling beams, and beam-column joints. However, this leads to
congested reinforcement in such elements during construction, which could cause
extensively prolonged construction and reduced construction quality. This paper
aims to investigate the potential of utilizing Ultra High Performance Concrete with
hybrid fibers to reduce shear reinforcement in shear-critical structural elements.
A series of beams reinforced with longitudinal steel bars and various combinations
of hybrid fibers were tested in a four-point loading setup. Two different shear spans
to depth ratio were used to evaluate the effect of the hybridization in the shear
response of the member. The test results showed that the presence of hybrid fibers
enhanced the shear cracking strength, ultimate shear strength, and crack width
controlled ability of the specimens compared to the monofiber beams. The results
also indicated that the hybrid specimen with a less volume fraction of fibers could
delay the appearance of cracking in the member.

Keywords Hybrid fibers Synergy Shear strength UHPC beams without shear
reinforcement
1 Introduction
Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC), which is a type of high performance fiber

reinforced cementitious composites [19, 20]; Hung et al. [5–15], has an ultra-high
strength in both tension and compression while showing strain-hardening behavior
under tension. Banthia et al. [2], Yoo and Yoon [24], and Fantilli et al. [4]
M. Bermudez (&) C. C. Hung

Department of Civil Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
e-mail: mrbermudez7@gmail.com
C. C. Hung
e-mail: cchung@mail.ncku.edu.tw

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_152
1646 M. Bermudez and C. C. Hung
investigated the synergy performance of hybrid fibers in UHPC. Juárez et al. [18],
Zakaria et al. [25], and Rafeeqi and Ayub [21] indicated that the use of hybrid fibers
could increase the tensile strength of the matrix, promote the multiple narrow
cracking patterns, and delay the initiation of critical shear cracks.
Banthia et al. [3] indicated that reinforcing concrete with short randomly dis-
tributed fibers could address some of the concerns related to concrete brittleness and
poor resistance to crack growth. Therefore, by choosing adequately the types of
fibers added to the mixture, several properties of the concrete might be enhanced.
Yao et al. [23] mentioned that the presence of one fiber enables the more efficient
utilization of the potential properties of the other fiber. Steel fiber on its own can
reach higher levels of strength for the matrix and contribute to crack control, but the
confinement effect granted by the hybrid with microfibers can lead to more durable
material. Jen et al. [17] indicated that fibers present in the fracture process zone
ahead of the crack tip could subdue and delay crack propagation, while fibers
incorporated in the crack wake provide a load transfer path to maintain load car-
rying capacity and restrict crack growth. Thus, hybrid fiber concrete will display an
increased post cracking ductility due to the process of crack control.
Due to the superior mechanical performance of UHPC, abundant studies have
been performed to investigate the applicability of UHPC for earthquake-resistant
structures, structural retrofitting and rehabilitation, and connections of precast
members. Nevertheless, while the tensile and compressive behaviors of UHPC have
been widely studied, the shear behavior of UHPC remain to be explored. In par-
ticular, the shear capacity of UHPC has to be adequately quantified before such an
innovative material can be applied to shear-critical members. In this research, the
shear behavior of UHPC beam members without stirrups was studied. The exper-
imental parameters included the amount and type of fibers and the shear
span-to-depth ratio of the beam. The synergy of the mixture with three different
types of fibers was studied. In particular, its effect on the shear strength of the beam
was investigated.
The beam specimens had cross-sectional dimensions of 165 mm by 350 mm. The
length of the beam members was 1750 mm or 2300 mm. A total of 24 beam
specimens, with detailed dimensions shown in Fig. 1, were tested in the study.
Details of the experimental and design parameters are listed in Table 1. Three
different types of fibers were used in this study, i.e., short steel hooked fibers with
∅: 0.38 mm and length: 30 mm; long steel hooked fibers with ∅: 0.90 mm and
length: 60 mm; and PVA fiber with ∅: 0.038 mm and length: 8 mm.
Shear Behavior of Steel Reinforced Ultra High Performance… 1647
(a) Short beams with a/d = 1.5
(b) Long beams with a/d = 3.3
Fig. 1 Reinforcement details of short and long beams (units in mm)
The mix components of the UHPC material were Type I ordinary Portland
cement, silica fume, silica sand, quartz powder, water and polycarboxylate-based
superplasticizer. The design water-to-binder ratio was 0.25 but it was slightly
adjusted for the mixes with different types and amounts of fibers in order for the
fresh UHPC to have an adequate workability. The UHPC compressive and splitting
tensile strength were obtained by cylinders, which were prepared according to
ASTM C172, fabricated and cured following ASTM C31, and tested following
ASTM C39 and ASTM C496. The mean fc0 was 116 MPa. The uniaxial tensile
strength of UHPC was obtained by direct tension tests on UHPC dogbone-shaped
specimens and the average uniaxial tensile strength ft0 was 4.1 MPa.
Table 1 Design details and material properties of the tested beams
1
* Note: The results of the test with No Fiber, 0.75% SF and 1.50 SF for a/d of 1.50 and 3.31 were done by Wen et al. (2018).
All beams failed due to the development of localized, diagonal shear cracks before
major flexural cracks occurred, except for L-75SF + 150LF that failed in flexure.
Figure 2 presents the representative failure patterns of the beams. The test results
were discussed in this section in terms of the shear strength and the influences of
fibers and beam slenderness.
Fig. 2 Crack patterns of representative UHPC beams
Table 2 Summary of the test results

Beam v ðMPaÞ c@VU Beams v ðMPaÞ c@VU (rad)
puffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi puffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi
f 0 c ðMPaÞ (rad) f 0 c ðMPaÞ
B1.5-F0-N 0.78 0.0050 B3.3-F0-N 0.25 0.0064

B1.5-F075-N 0.93 0.0062 B3.3-F075-N 0.62 0.0069
B1.5-F150-N 1.41 0.0066 B3.3-F150-N 0.76 0.0068
S—75PVA 0.97 0.0060 L—75PVA 0.37 0.0086
S—225PVA 1.13 0.0054 L—225PVA 0.62 0.0046
S—75LF 1.07 0.0032 L—75LF 0.39 0.0066
S—150LF 1.26 0.0184 L—150LF 0.66 0.0062
S—225LF 1.45 0.0077 L— 225LF 0.75 0.0079
S—75SF + 75LF 1.48 0.0072 L—75SF + 75LF 0.74 0.0079
S—150SF + 75LF 1.74 0.0092 L—150SF + 75LF 0.84 0.0077
S—75SF + 150LF 1.62 0.0094 L—75SF + 150LF 0.86 0.0063
S— 1.47 0.0070 L— 0.72 0.0078
75SF + 75LF + 75PVA 75SF + 75LF + 75PVA
3.1 Shear Strength
The obtained shear strengths of the beams were summarized in Table 2. The
highest shear strengths for the short and long UHPC beams were 1:74 f 0c ðMPaÞ
and 0:86 f 0c ðMPaÞ, respectively. These shear strengths were 2.2 and 3.4 times
greater than that of the control beams without fibers for short and long beams,
respectively. For beams with fibers, the lowest shear strength for the short beam
was 0:93 f 0c ðMPaÞ occurring to B1.5-F075-N; and for the long beam was
0:37 f 0c ðMPaÞ occurring to L—75PVA. Both beams had the lowest volume
fraction of fibers among the tested beams with fibers, i.e., 0.75%. It is worth
mentioning this level of shear strength was still 1.2 and 1.5 times greater than that
of their corresponding control specimens.
3.2 Effects of Fibers
Figure 3 shows the relationship between the shear cracking strength and the volume
fraction of fibers for the beams reinforced with monofibers. It can be seen that
increasing the amount of fibers considerably enhanced the shear cracking strength
for the short beams whereas the effect was relatively minor for long beams.
For the short beams with Vf = 0.75%, the shear cracking strengths of the beams
were similar for three types of fibers. As Vf was increased, both short and long steel
fibers performed better than the PVA ones in terms of the enhancement in the shear
cracking strength. In the case of the long beams with Vf = 0.75%, the short steel
fibers led to a shear cracking strength twice greater than those of the beams rein-
forced with long steel fibers and PVA fibers. It is worth mentioning that for the long
Cracking Strength/
Cracking Strength/
Vf (%) Vf (%)
(a)Short beams (b) Long beams
Fig. 3 Relationships between the Vf and the shear cracking strength for the beams with
monofibers (in MPa units)
beams, the short steel fibers at Vf = 1.5% led to a greater cracking strength than that
of the long steel fibers at Vf = 2.25%, suggesting the effectiveness of short steel
fibers in enhancing the shear cracking strength of UHPC beams. Overall, the beams
reinforced PVA fibers had the lowest cracking strength.
Figure 4 presents the effect of Vf on the ultimate shear strength of the beams
with monofibers. When compared to the results of the control specimen without
fibers, the ultimate shear strengths of the short beams with Vf = 0.75% were
enhanced by at least 20%, regardless of the type of fibers. In the case of long beams,
the ultimate shear strengths of the fiber reinforced beams were 1.5 times greater
than that of the beams without fibers. For the beams with a short shear span and
reinforced with fibers at Vf = 0.75%, the different types of fibers led to similar
ultimate shear strengths. When Vf was increased, the short steel fibers with
Vf = 1.5% led to an ultimate shear strength that was essentially the same as the
short beam with 2.25% long steel fibers and was 23% greater than that of the short
beam with 2.25% PVA fibers.
For the long beams with Vf = 0.75%, when PVA or long steel fibers were used,
the resulting ultimate shear strengths of the beams were essentially the same,
whereas the short steel fibers led to an ultimate shear strength that was 19% greater
than the other two fibers. Similarly, it can be observed that the addition of 1.5%
short steel fibers led to a greater ultimate shear strength than that of the specimens
having 2.25% PVA or long steel fibers.
The impacts of Vf and the shear span-to-depth ratio on the ultimate shear strength
for beams with hybrid fibers are illustrated in Fig. 5. It can be seen that for short and
long beams, the ultimate shear strengths of the beams with hybrid fibers were at least
1.8 and 2.8 times greater than that of the control beam specimen having no fibers,
respectively. The results also indicated that the combination of short and long steel
fibers in the beams achieved the greatest synergy, leading to the largest ultimate shear
strengths when compared to other combinations of hybrid fibers.
Ultimate Strength/
Ultimate Strength/
Vf (%) Vf (%)
(a)Short beams (b)Long beams
Fig. 4 Relationships between the Vf and the ultimate shear strength for beams with monofibers
(in MPa units)
3.3 Effects of Beam Slenderness
When Vf = 0.75%, it can be observed in Fig. 5(a) that different types of fibers led
to similar shear strengths of the beams. The influence of fibers on the strength
however became more obvious with the increase in the shear span-to-depth ratio;
particularly, the use of short steel fibers in conjunction with other types of fibers led
to a greater strength. When the Vf was increased to 1.50%, the hybrid fibers with
0.75% short steel fibers in conjunction with 0.75% long steel fibers led to a greater
strength than the 1.5% short steel fibers for both cases of a/d ratios. In the case of
Vf = 2.25%, it can be seen in Fig. 5(c) that for the short beams, the presence of
more short steel fiber in the hybrid fibers led to a greater ultimate shear strength
than the case when more long steel fibers were used. Interestingly, when the shear
span was increased, the beneficial effects of long steel fibers became similarly well
as the short steel fibers. The results also indicated that when Vf = 2.25%, the beams
with hybrid fibers had a higher ultimate shear strength than the ones with mono-
fibers. It can be seen in Fig. 5(c) that the beam with 0.75% of each type of fibers
had a shear strength close to that with 2.25% long steel fibers. Overall, the beams
with 2.25% hybrid fibers had an ultimate shear strength that was 1.4-2.2 times and
2.5-3.5 times higher than that of the corresponding ones without fiber for short and
slender beams, respectively.
Ultimate Strength/
Ultimate Strength/
Ultimate Strength/
(a)Vf =0.75% (b)Vf =1.5% (c)Vf =2.25%
Fig. 5 Relationships between the Vf and the ultimate shear strength for beams with hybrid fibers
(in MPa units)
4 Conclusions
Based on the results obtained in this experimental study, the following conclusions
were drawn:
• The shear cracking strength, ultimate shear strength, and critical shear crack
width of UHPC beams without stirrups could be considerably improved by
using hybrid fibers when compared to the results of beams having monofibers or
no fibers.
• The study showed that when slender UHPC beams containing hybrid fibers with
Vf larger than 1.5%, it could provide a unit shear strength greater than
0:7 f 0c ðMPaÞ, even without the use of stirrups. The result implies that when
UHPC is used to replacement conventional concrete materials in shear critical
structural members, the amount of shear reinforcement could be fully eliminated
or greatly reduced. In comparison with the design of conventional reinforced
concrete beams that has an upper limit on the design shear strength of
0:83 f 0c ðMPaÞ specified by ACI 318 (2019), it was found that the shear
strength of the fiber reinforced deep UHPC beams could surpass the limit
without any signs of diagonal compression failure.
• The investigation also revealed that the most effective synergy of fibers occurred
when the short steel fibers were present. On the other hand, the PVA fibers
appeared to have the least enhancement in the shear strength of the UHPC
beams when compared to other types of fibers employed in this study.
• The combination of short and long steel fibers was found to be effective in
carrying the loads through localized cracks and delaying the shear failure.
Furthermore, the results of the slender beam L-75SF + 150LF demonstrated that
the proper combination of fibers could significantly enhance the shear strength
of the UHPC beam, which ultimately led to a flexurally-dominated behavior
even the UHPC beam had no stirrups.
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Experimental Study on Compressive
Response of Large Rupture Strain FRP
Confined Reinforced Concrete
S. Saleem and A. Pimanmas
Abstract External confinement of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites can

effectively control the unstable concrete dilation. However, presence of internal
steel reinforcement, particularly poorly detailed, can limit the efficiency of FRP
confinement by imposing high stress concentrations due to buckling of the longi-
tudinal bars. The adverse effect of bar buckling can be mitigated by delaying the
premature FRP rupture to high strain levels using confining materials with a large
rupture strain (LRS) capacity. In this paper, experimental results on the compressive
response of poorly detailed reinforced concrete (RC) column specimens externally
confined with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) FRP, which possesses an LRS, are
presented. Experimental results indicated that buckling of steel bars in specimens
was a noticeable event. The results also indicated the high efficiency of PET FRP in
controlling the unstable dilation of confined concrete with internal steel rein-
forcement. Furthermore, PET FRP efficiently sustained the local stress concentra-
tions due to bar buckling and redistributed the internal concrete damage, which
makes it an attractive option for seismic retrofitting.
Keywords Buckling Concrete Dilation PET FRP Seismic retrofitting
1 Introduction
It is well understood that the external confinement of fiber-reinforced polymer

(FRP) composites can significantly improve the strength and ductility of confined
concrete. In circular columns, concrete dilates uniformly in radial direction, hence
S. Saleem
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology,
Taxila 47080, Pakistan
e-mail: shahzad.saleem@uettaxila.edu.pk
A. Pimanmas (&)
Department of Civil Engineering, Kasetsart University, Bangkok 10900, Thailand
e-mail: amorn.pi@ku.th

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_153
1656 S. Saleem and A. Pimanmas
engages the FRP confinement mechanism simultaneously in all the directions. On

the other hand, concrete dilation is not uniform in non-circular columns. As a result,
FRP confinement mechanism and its activation is not uniform in non-circular
columns. Furthermore, in non-circular columns, the FRP wrap fails prematurely at
one of the corners due to high stress concentrations, which usually limits the
efficiency of FRP confinement [9].
Most of the existing studies on FRP-confined concrete were conducted on the
plain concrete columns (e.g., [4–7, 9]). In real structures, concrete columns have
steel reinforcement inside, which may have significant effect on the confinement
efficiency of externally wrapped FRP composites. Among these effects, buckling of
longitudinal steel bars due to largely spaced transverse stirrups or ties is one of the
most critical, as it leads to premature failure of FRP [1, 11]. This situation is even
more critical in non-circular columns, in which FRP ruptures by a combination of
buckling of steel bars and FRP stress concentrations at the corners [12].
For the purpose of seismic retrofitting, where the improvement in deformational
capacity is more important than the strength enhancement, an FRP with a large rupture
strain (LRS) capacity is more beneficial as it results in a more ductile response with an
almost same improvement in strength enhancement [4]. Polyethylene terephthalate
(PET) FRP is a newly developed material which possesses low elastic modulus and a
LRS capacity. Bai et al. [1] tested a total of 12 FRP-confined RC columns and 12
FRP-confined plain concrete columns in axial compression. The specimens were
200 mm in diameter and 500 mm in height. The test parameters were the type of FRP
(i.e., PET FRP and CFRP), number of FRP layers (i.e., 1 and 2), and the type of
loading (i.e., monotonic and cyclic). Among others, the main conclusion of their study
was that, for the same stiffness of FRP jackets, the buckling of longitudinal steel bars
was much more likely in PET FRP-confined RC columns than in CFRP-confined RC
columns. Based on these results, Bai et al. [2] then presented an empirical monotonic
compressive stress-strain model for FRP-confined concrete incorporating the effects
of buckling of internal longitudinal steel reinforcement and extended it to the cyclic
loading in [3].
In this paper, experimental results on the compressive response of poorly
detailed square RC column specimens externally confined with PET FRP are
presented. Number of PET FRP layers is the variable of this study. Effect of this
variable on the axial compressive response, Poisson’s ratio and dilation rate of
confined concrete is also discussed in detail.
Experimental Study on Compressive Response … 1657
2.1 Specimen Design
In this study, experimental results of eight square specimens tested under mono-
tonic axial compression are presented. Among these specimens, two specimens
served as the control specimens. The variable of this study is the number of
PET FRP layers (one, two and three). The details of the specimens and test results
are given in Fig. 1(a) and Table 1, respectively. The height of all specimens was
325 mm. The specimens were cast in square molds. The molds were manufactured
with plywood sheets with 26 mm corner radius, as shown in Fig. 1(b). The 26 mm
corner radius represents a well-rounded corner.
In the specimens’ designation, first capital letter S represents the square speci-
mens followed by a numeric digit in subscript which indicates the first or second
identical specimen. The next capital letter U represents the unsupported length of
longitudinal steel bars followed by a numeric digit in subscript which indicates the
unsupported length in mm. The last capital letter L represents the PET FRP layers
followed by a numeric digit which indicates the number of PET FRP layers.
The mechanical properties of PET FRP are similar to those reported in Saleem
et al. [9], and their tensile stress-strain curves obtained from the coupon test are
reproduced in Fig. 2. As shown in Fig. 1(a), four longitudinal steel bars with
10 mm diameter were used in each column. This corresponds to a reinforcement
ratio of 1.43%. The unsupported length of 155 mm corresponds to a slenderness
ratio of 15.5 which represents maximum chances of bar buckling. For steel ties,
plain bars with 6 mm diameter were used.
150 x 150 R = 26
4 # 10
#6
155
325
L/D = 15.5
(a) (b)
Fig. 1 a Specimens details, b Rounded corners of square mold
Table 1 Test results

ecu
Specimen Fco (kN) Fcc (kN) Fcu ɛco ɛcu Fcc
Fco
Fcu
Fco eco
Fcu ecu
Fco avg eco avg
(kN)
S1U155L0 469.92 – – 0.0044 – – – – – –
S2U155L0 460.17 – – 0.0037 – – – –
S1U155L1 – 654.39 642.05 – 0.0695 1.41 1.38 17.16 1.4 19.25
S2U155L1 – 652.30 659.95 – 0.0864 1.40 1.42 21.33
S1U155L2 – – 1101 – 0.0811 – 2.34 20.02 2.25 21.04
S2U155L2 – – 995.68 – 0.0893 – 2.14 22.05
S1U155L3 – – 1434.72 – 0.1142 – 3.09 28.20 3.02 26.55
S2U155L3 – – 1372 – 0.1008 – 2.95 24.89
Fig. 2 Tensile stress-strain

response of PET FRP [9]
The specimens in each series were wrapped with one, two and three PET FRP
layers by the wet layup process. A minimum overlap length of 150 mm was pro-
vided to avoid any possible slippage. Both ends of each specimen were additionally
strengthened by roving carbon fiber to avoid any local failure.
2.2 Instrumentation and Testing
To measure the strains in longitudinal steel bars, two 5 mm gauge length strain
gauges were fixed at the middle height on the inner and outer sides of two diag-
onally opposite steel bars. To measure the strains in steel ties near the both ends of
unsupported segment of longitudinal bars, two 5 mm gauge length strain gauges
were fixed on each tie at the outer face on opposite sides. The location of strain
gauges on steel cage is shown in Fig. 1(a).
In this study, linear variable differential transducers (LVDTs) were also used to
measure the axial and horizontal displacements. It is to be noted that, to avoid
recording the closing of gap between the specimen’s top surface and steel plate, two
steel bars were welded on the top of two diagonally opposite longitudinal steel bars
and were projected out, as shown in Fig. 1(a). Two horizontal LVDTs were placed
at the middle of two opposite flat sides while two horizontal LVDTs were placed at
opposite corners in the diagonal direction. The confined specimens were tested
under displacement controlled manner at a rate of 0.5 mm/min. The test data
including all LVDTs and strain gauges were recorded automatically by using a data
logger to a computer. Test setup and position of LVDTs are shown in Fig. 3.
3 Test Results
3.1 Failure Modes
3.1.1 Unconfined Specimens
The typical failure modes of unconfined RC square specimens are shown in Fig. 4.
Small vertical cracks first appeared close to the top end of specimens when the load
reached near the peak strength. These cracks grew faster after crossing the peak
strength and projected down towards the mid height of specimens. After the for-
mation of major vertical cracks in the concrete cover, the longitudinal steel rein-
forcement buckled and resulted in a major almost vertical crack around the corner
zone, as shown in Fig. 4(a). At further axial deformation, concrete cover was
completely separated from the intact concrete core. No stirrup opening was
observed as the concrete damage was more concentrated with in the central zone.
Figure 4(b-c) show the failed RC square specimens.
3.1.2 PET FRP Confined Specimens
The failure modes of confined specimens are shown in Fig. 5. For specimen
S1U155L1, PET FRP overlap debonding occurred (Fig. 5(a)). For this specimen,
local interfacial failure between FRP and concrete surface was observed above and
below the mid-height section. For the other specimens, FRP ruptured at the corner
locations quietly. For all the confined specimens, after removing the FRP shell and
loose concrete, the inside longitudinal steel bars were found to be buckled badly in
the central zone, as shown in Fig. 5(b, e and h). It is interesting to note that, unlike
in unconfined specimens, in PET FRP-confined specimens the lateral deformation
of buckled bars was significantly reduced and buckling was concentrated over the
short length in the mid-height of unsupported bars. The transverse stirrups remained
closed. The inside concrete core was found badly crushed and fragmented.
Figure 5(c, f and i) shows the FRP-concrete interface after failure. Some concrete
was still attached with FRP, particularly around the corner location which shows the
presence of a good bond between FRP and cover concrete.
Fig. 3 Test setup and

position of LVDTs
(a) Inside steel bar buckling (b) S1U155L0 (c) S2U155L0
Fig. 4 Failure modes of unconfined RC column specimens
3.2 Force-Strain Response
The effect of PET FRP layers on the force-strain response of confined specimens is
shown in Fig. 6(a). It can be seen that the compressive response of both unconfined
and confined specimens is almost identical in the first ascending part; however, the
stiffness of confined specimens is slightly higher than the unconfined specimens.
In PET FRP-confined specimens, the concrete in central zone was also confined by
FRP; hence, exhibited slightly high stiffness.
After the unconfined peak strength (Fco), the curve continued to ascend in the
transition zone, although with gradually reducing slope until the peak strength (Fcc)
is reached. It can be seen in Fig. 6(a) that the slope of the transition zone and the
peak strength as well as the corresponding axial strain were increased with an
increase in number of PET FRP layers. However, external confinement of one
PET FRP layer was not sufficient to further delay the stiffness degradaion due to bar
(a) FRP rupture (b) Bar buckling (c) FRP-concrete

S1U155L1 S1U155L1 interface S1U155L1
(d) FRP rupture (e) Bar buckling (f) FRP-concrete

(g) FRP rupture (h) Bar buckling (i) FRP-concrete

Fig. 5 Failure modes of PET FRP-confined specimens

1600 S2U155L3 1200

3L
1400 1000
Member force (kN)

1200 S1U155L3 2L
S1U155L2 800
Force (kN)
1000 1L
S2U155L2 600
800 0L
600 400
S2U155L1
400
S2U155L0 S1U155L1 200
200 S1U155L0
0 0
-0.02 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 -0.01 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1
-200 -200
Axial strain Longitudinal bar strain
(a) (b)
Fig. 6 a Force-axial strain response, b Force-longitudinal bar strain response
buckling. As a result, after the peak strength a slight strength softening was
observed in specimens S1U155L1 and S2U155L1. In specimens S1U155L2 and
S2U155L2, no strength softening was observed after the transition zone, whereas in
specimens S1U155L3 and S2U155L3, confined by three PET FRP layers, the curve
continued to ascend with a much reduced slope compared to the transition zone.
It is interesting to note in Fig. 6(b) that the onset of buckling was delayed to
higher load level with an increase in FRP layers. Table 1 shows that the average
ultimate strength ratio ðFcu =Fco Þavg was 1.40, 2.25 and 3.02 for one, two and three
PET FRP layers, respectively. Similarly, the average strain enhancement ratio
ðecu =eco Þavg for these specimens was 19.79, 23.23 and 27.88.
3.3 Lateral Strain-Axial Strain Response
The effect of PET FRP layers on the lateral strain-axial strain response of square
specimens is shown Fig. 7(a). An interesting observation in these figures is the
significant difference between the lateral expansions measured in the two directions,
as also observed for PET FRP-confined plain concrete column specimens in Saleem
et al. [10], which clearly shows highly non-uniform damage of concrete core. The
0.18 2.5
3 L-middle Control
0.16 1 L-middle
2 L-middle
Poisson's ratio
0.14 2
Lateral strain
2 L-middle 3 L-middle
0.12
1 L-middle
0.1 1.5
0.08 1 L-corner
1 L-corner 1
0.06 Control 2 L-corner 2 L-corner
0.04 3 L-corner 0.5 3 L-corner
0.02
0 0
-0.02 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 -0.02 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12
Axial strain Axial strain
(a) (b)
Fig. 7 Effect of PET FRP layers, a Poisson’s ratio, b lateral strain

first linear portion had a very small and similar slope in both directions, however,
the steepness of the transition zone was reduced with an increase in number of
PET FRP layers, particularly on the flat sides. It is also noticed in Fig. 7(a) for the
second linear segment that with an increase in number of PET FRP layers, the
expansion was efficiently restrained for a given axial strain level.
3.4 Poisson’s Ratio-Axial Strain Response
Figure 7(b) shows the effect of PET FRP layers on the variation of Poisson’s ratio
along the axial strain history of confined specimens. These figures clearly show that
the peak Poisson’s ratio measured on the flat side is remarkably higher than that
measured in the diagonal direction. In addition, the peak value was reduced sig-
nificantly when the number of PET FRP layers was increased from one to three.
After the peak value, the instability of the Poisson’s ratio was then recovered
gradually as the PET FRP effective confinement was increased, reaching a stable
lower value until FRP ruptured. The recovery in unstable Poisson’s ratio was more
obvious in specimens confined with 1 PET FRP layer.
3.5 Dilation Rate-Axial Strain Response
The dilation rate of these specimens is shown in Fig. 8. It can be observed that the
dilation rate was considerably higher in the middle of flat sides than in the diagonal
direction. This figure shows that the dilation rate, particularly the peak value,
decreased as the number of PET FRP layers increased, as also observed for PET
FRP-confined plain concrete specimens [8]. Interestingly, at the failure of specimen
with 1 FRP layer, the dilation rate was almost similar for all the specimens with
different number of PET FRP layers.
5
1 L-middle
4
2 L-middle
3 3 L-middle
Dilation rate
1 L-corner 2 L-corner
3 L-corner
2
0
-0.02 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12
-1 Axial strain
Fig. 8 Effect of PET FRP layers on dilation rate

4 Conclusions
In this paper, an experimental study is presented to understand the compressive

behavior of RC square columns confined with PET FRP. For this purpose, test
results of 8 specimens which were tested under monotonic axial compression are
presented. The following conclusions are drawn from the results and discussions
presented in this paper:
1. The axial force-axial strain response of PET FRP-confined RC square specimens
is trilinear, where after the peak strength the curve exhibits a gradual strength
softening, a considerable long horizontal plateau or a slightly ascending curve
for lightly, moderately or heavily confined specimens, respectively, before
showing the last ascending part.
2. The overall response of RC specimens was improved significantly with an
increase in number of PET FRP layers.
3. Due to LRS property of PET FRP, all the confined specimens exhibited fairly
high axial deformations. Although buckling of internal steel bars was resisted at
higher load levels depending on the confinement level, it could not be restrained
completely and in most specimens it started during the transition zone.
However, because of LRS, confined concrete dilated considerably and devel-
oped high area strain which accommodated the lateral deformations of longi-
tudinal bars and resulted in less detrimental effect of bar buckling.
4. The dual confinement of internal steel stirrups and externally wrapped PET FRP
efficiently controlled the concrete damage in the post-elastic range up to
remarkably high deformation level.
5. The concrete dilation including lateral strain, Poisson’s ratio, and dilation rate
were reduced with an increase in number of PET FRP layers.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Maeda Kosen Co. LTD.-Japan, Prof.
Tamon Ueda from Hokkaido University and Mr. Nakai Hiroshi for their assistance and gra-
ciousness in providing the necessary materials (PET FRP) for this experimental study.
References
1. Bai YL, Dai JG, Teng JG (2017) Buckling of steel reinforcing bars in FRP-confined RC
columns: an experimental study. Constr Build Mater 140:403–415
2. Bai YL, Dai JG, Teng JG (2017) Monotonic stress–strain behavior of steel rebars embedded
in FRP-confined concrete including buckling. J Compos Constr 21(5):04017043
3. Bai YL, Dai JG, Ozbakkaloglu T (2017) Cyclic stress-strain model incorporating buckling
effect for steel reinforcing bars embedded in FRP-confined concrete. Compos Struct 182:54–66
4. Dai JG, Bai YL, Teng JG (2011) Behavior and modeling of concrete confined with FRP
composites of large deformability. J Compos Constr 15(6):963–973
5. Ilki A, Kumbasar N, Koc V (2004) Low strength concrete members externally confined with
FRP sheets. Struct Eng Mech 18(2):167–194
6. Ispir M (2014) Monotonic and cyclic compression tests on concrete confined with PET-FRP.
J Compos Constr 19(1):04014034
7. Lam L, Teng JG (2003) Design-oriented stress-strain model for FRP-confined concrete in
rectangular columns. J Reinf Plast Compos 22(13):1149–1186
8. Pimanmas A, Saleem S (2018) Dilation characteristics of PET FRP–confined concrete.
J Compos Constr 22(3):04018006
9. Saleem S, Qudeer H, Amorn P (2017) Compressive behavior of PET FRP–confined circular,
square, and rectangular concrete columns. J Compos Constr 21(3):04016097
10. Saleem S, Pimanmas A, Rattanapitikon W (2018) Lateral response of PET FRP-confined
concrete. Constr Build Mater 159:390–407
11. Tastani SP, Pantazopoulou SJ (2004) Experimental evaluation of FRP jackets in upgrading
RC corroded columns with substandard detailing. Eng Struct 26(6):817–829
12. Tastani SP, Pantazopoulou SJ, Zdoumba D, Plakantaras V, Akritidis E (2006) Limitations of
FRP jacketing in confining old-type reinforced concrete members in axial compression.
J Compos Constr 10(1):13–25
Effects of Web Position on Shear
Resistance Mechanism of Ultra High
Strength Fiber Reinforced Concrete
(UFC) Beams
M. Kato, K. Okubo, K. Yamagishi, Y. Yamashita, and J. Niwa
Abstract The objective of this study is to clarify the effects of web position on the
shear resistance mechanism of Ultra High Strength Fiber Reinforced Concrete
(UFC) beams. Four-point bending tests were conducted on total three beams with
different web positions, i.e. centered web, two webs arranged at the quarter of the
flange and two webs at the edge of the flange. The results revealed the structural
performances such as shear capacity, flexural rigidity, displacement at the shear
failure and post peak behavior differed in each specimen. The different structural
performances can be explained by the difference in the area resisting the shear force,
which is determined by the existence of flange overhang and whether webs were
distributed in the flange.
Keywords UFC beam Shear failure behavior Shear resistance mechanism

Flange Web position
1 Introduction
Ultra High Strength Fiber Reinforced Concrete (UFC) is an advanced cementitious

material developed around 15 years ago and in practical use. As a main feature of
UFC, the compressive and tensile strengths are about 4 times higher than those of
normal concrete. Moreover, it can transmit high tensile force between cracks since
UFC contains a certain amount of steel fiber. Therefore, civil engineering structures
using UFC can ensure high structural performance with smaller dimension. In
Japan, several UFC bridges have been constructed and most of them are T-beams or
hollow-beams with thin web and flange for weight saving [1].
M. Kato (&) K. Okubo J. Niwa

Department of Civil Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: katou.m.ag@m.titech.ac.jp
K. Yamagishi Y. Yamashita
Nippon Concrete Industries Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_154
1668 M. Kato et al.
Recommendations for Design and Construction of Ultra High Strength Fiber

Reinforced Concrete [2] define the method to calculate the shear capacity and the
flexural capacity of UFC beams considering characteristic material properties of
UFC. However, when calculating the shear capacity of UFC T-beams and
hollow-beams which are often adopted for UFC bridges, the contribution of
compressive and tensile flanges and the effects of different web positions are
ignored. Obviously, the evaluation of exact shear capacity of UFC beams consid-
ering the contributions of them will lead to more rational design.
Up to now, few researches have been conducted to investigate the effects of
compressive and tensile flanges and different web positions on the shear resistance
mechanism of UFC beams. Thus, it is necessary to clarify them by considering
unique cross section to UFC.
This research focused on the effects of the web position on the shear resistance
mechanism of UFC beams with flange. Static four-point bending tests on total three
beams changing the web position were conducted, and their shear resistance
mechanisms were discussed.
2 Experimental Outline
Figures 1 and 2 show the outline and the pictures of all three specimens in this
study. Table 1 summarizes the specimen details. All three specimens were designed
to fail in shear. Since the web width was defined as the sum of width of two webs in
II-beam and Box-beam, which is 60 mm, the parameter was only the web position.
Therefore, the structural performances such as the stiffness and the shear capacity of
each specimen became same in theory by assuming that all cross section was
effective. A small hunch was created on the boundaries between webs and flanges
for reducing the stress concentration. The sheaths were arranged at the appropriate
positions on the tensile flange during casting. After removing the formwork, the
tensile steel bars were inserted and all sheaths were filled with grouting material.
Tables 2 and 3 summarize the mix proportion of UFC and the mechanical
properties of tensile steel bars and steel fibers. The combination of 15 mm and
22 mm short steel fibers with diameter of 0.2 mm were used.
(a) I- beam (b) II- beam (c) Box-beam (d) Side view
Fig. 1 Specimen outline

Effects of Web Position on Shear Resistance Mechanism … 1669
(a) I-beam (b) II-beam (c) Box-beam
Fig. 2 Specimen pictures
Table 1 Specimen details

Specimen b’w bw bf tf1 tf2 d a/ pw
(mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) d (%)
I-beam 0 60 300 25 80 260 3.5 9.44
II-beam 120
Box-beam 240
b’w: distance between webs, bw: web width, bf: flange width, tf1: compressive flange depth
tf2: tensile flange depth, d: effective depth, a/d: shear span ratio, pw: reinforcement ratio
Table 2 Mix proportion of Air [%] Unit weight [kg/m3] Fiber [kg]
UFC
W C S SP
2.0 195 1287 905 32.2 137.4
W: Water, C: Premix binder
S: Sand, SP: Superplasticizer
Table 3 Details of steel bars Tensile steel bars Steel fibers

and steel fibers
fy (N/mm2) Es (kN/mm2) ft (N/mm2) Es (kN/mm2)
1179 201 2800 200
fy: yield strength, Es: elastic modulus
ft: tensile strength
Static four-point bending tests with simply supported condition were conducted
on all specimens. Teflon sheets and silicon grease were inserted between the
specimen and the supports to prevent the horizontal friction. During the loading
tests, the applied load and the displacement at the mid span were measured.
3.1 Load-Displacement Relationships
Figure 3 shows the load-displacement relationships, and Table 4 tabulates the

experimental results and the calculated shear capacity. The failure mode of all
1670 M. Kato et al.
700
II-beam
600 Box-beam
500
Load (kN)
400 I-beam
300
200 Diagonal
cracking load
100
0 Ultimate load
0 5 10 15 20
Displacement (mm)
Fig. 3 Load-displacement relationships

0
Specimen fc fcr Pcr Pd du Pu_exp Pu_cal Pu_exp/Pu_cal
(N/mm2) (N/mm2) (kN) (kN) (mm) (kN) (kN)
I-beam 193.6 7.0 96.0 184.0 13.13 464.6 315.8 1.47
II-beam 174.0 7.8 105.0 166.0 13.11 583.8 311.7 1.87
Box-beam 177.7 6.0 95.0 158.6 16.84 525.2 312.5 1.68
0
fc : compressive strength, fcr : cracking strength, Pcr: flexural cracking load
Pd: diagonal cracking load, du: displacement at the ultimate load
Pu_exp: ultimate load, Pu_cal: calculated ultimate load (=2Vu_cal)
specimens was determined as the shear failure. The calculated shear capacity is
obtained by Eq. (1)–(3) based on the UFC guideline.
Vu cal ¼ Vrpc þ Vf ð1Þ

qffiffiffiffi
Vrpc ¼ 0:18 fc0 bw d ð2Þ
Vf ¼ fv cotbu bw z ð3Þ
where, Vu cal : calculated shear capacity (N), Vrpc : shear carried by matrix (N), Vf :
0
shear carried by fiber (N), fc : compressive strength (N/mm2), bw : web width (mm),
d: effective depth (mm), fv : average tensile strength (=7.35 N/mm2), bu : angle of the
diagonal crack (=40°), z: lever arm length (=d/1.15).
From Fig. 3 and Table 4, it was observed that the shear capacity, the flexural
rigidity, the displacement at the shear failure and the post peak behavior were
different in each specimen. Comparisons of them are mentioned below.
3.1.1 Shear Capacity
The shear capacity of II-beam was the highest in all specimens, which was 1.26 and
1.11 times higher than that of I-beam and Box-beam, respectively. The shear
capacity of I-beam was the lowest. The experimental shear capacity of all speci-
mens greatly exceeded the calculated values, which were 1.47 to 1.87 times higher
as listed in Table 4.
3.1.2 Flexural Rigidity
The initial flexural rigidity of II-beam was slightly larger than that of the other
specimens as shown in Fig. 3. After diagonal cracks appeared at the load around
170 kN, the flexural rigidity of each specimen declined and the difference of the
flexural rigidity between II-beam and the other two specimens became larger. The
flexural rigidity of I-beam and Box-beam were almost same until the load around
400 kN.
3.1.3 Displacement at the Shear Failure
In Box-beam, the load kept increasing even after the displacement became over
13 mm as shown in Fig. 3 and the shear failure occurred at the displacement of
16.8 mm. On the other hand, in I-beam and II-beam, the shear failure occured at the
displacement of around 13.1 mm. Therefore, it can be considered that the defor-
mation performance of Box-beam was better than that of other specimens.
3.1.4 Post Peak Behavior
In I-beam, the load decreased gradually after the ultimate load with continuously
increasing the displacement. On the other hand, in II-beam and Box-beam, the load
decreased sharply after the ultimate load and brittle failure occured. Therefore, the
toughness in failure of I-beam was relatively higher than that of the other two
specimens.
3.2 Shear Failure Behavior
Figures 4 and 5 show the diagonal crack patterns of the web and the flanges at the
ultimate load and the maximum displacement in each specimen, respectively. The
widely opened cracks are represented in thick lines. The arrows illustrate the
direction of the critical crack propagation and the compressive flange deformation.
1672 M. Kato et al.
(a) I-beam (b) II- beam (c) Box-beam
Fig. 4 Crack patterns at the ultimate load
Fig. 5 Crack patterns at the maximum displacement
(a) I-beam (b) II- beam (c) Box beam
Fig. 6 The main area resisting shear force
Figure 6 shows the conceivable main area resisting the shear force at the ulti-
mate load by the black hatching and at the postpeak by red hatching. It was
determined by assuming that the failed area at the ultimate load and postpeak could
resist the shear force mainly. The shear failure behaviors and the shear resisting area
of each specimen are mentioned below.
3.2.1 I-Beam
As load increased, the flexural cracks and the diagonal cracks appeared from the
tensile flange and the web, respectively. Before the ultimate load, a lot of diagonal
cracks were observed in the shear span near the loading point. After that, one of the
diagonal cracks opened widely just before the ultimate load, which was considered
to be the critical crack. The critical crack occurred from the mid shear span to the
loading point. At the ultimate load, the load decreased gradually due to the opening
of the critical crack in the web. Meanwhile the critical crack did not propagate to the
compressive and tensile flanges (Fig. 4(a)).
In terms of the shear resisting area, it appears that the shear failure occurred
because of the decrease in shear resistance of the web before the failure of the
compressive and tensile flanges. Therefore, only limited area of the web from the
mid shear span to the loading point seems to have resisted the shear force at the
ultimate load (Fig. 6(a)).
After the ultimate load, the load decreased gradually and another diagonal cracks
occurred from near the support to the mid shear span in the web. Finally, the
compressive flange was lifted and bent due to the punching force from the web in
the mid shear span (Fig. 5(a)).
In terms of the shear resisting area in the post peak, it can be said that the wide
area of the compressive flange and the web which did not fail at the ultimate load
could still resist the shear force (Fig. 6(a)).
3.2.2 II-Beam
Unsimilarly to the I-beam, diagonal cracks appeared dispersedly over the whole
area of the web before the ultimate load. The critical crack occurred from near the
support to the mid shear span (Fig. 4(b)).
At the ultimate load, the load decreased sharply because of the lifting and
bending of the compressive flange by the punching force from the web at the mid
shear span. This shear failure behavior was similar to that of I-beam in the post
peak. Then, the critical crack propagated to the loading point along the bottom of
the compressive flange. Since the wide area of the web and the compressive flange
were failed at the shear failure with large deformation, another shear failure
behavior in the post peak like I-beam could not be observed (Fig. 5(b)).
In terms of the shear resisting area, it was considered that the area of the com-
pressive flange from the mid shear span to the loading point and almost the whole
area of the web could mainly resist the shear force at the ultimate load (Fig. 6(b)).
3.2.3 Box-Beam
Similar to I-beam, a lot of the diagonal cracks were observed in the shear span near
the loading point before the ultimate load. The critical crack occurred from the mid
shear span to the loading point, and started to propagate to the tensile flange from
the web at the displacement of around 13 mm (Fig. 4(c)).
At the ultimate load, the load dropped suddenly due to the concrete crush of the
compressive flange near the loading point. The concrete crush occurred over the
entire flange along the loading plate. Then the critical crack propagated to near the
support in the tensile flange. Same as II-beam, since the shear failure occurred at the
relatively wide area with large deformation, another shear failure behavior in the
post peak like I-beam could not be observed (Fig. 5(c)).
In terms of the shear resisting area, the area of the web from the mid shear span
to the loading point, the compressive flange near the loading point and the tensile
flange from the support to the mid shear span could resist the shear force at the
ultimate load (Fig. 6(c)).
1674 M. Kato et al.
4 Discussion
4.1 Shear Resistance Mechanism
The difference of the structural performance of each specimen can be discussed

based on the observed shear resisting areas as follows.
4.1.1 Shear Capacity
As shown in Fig. 6, it can be confirmed that the shear resisting area of I-beam at the
ultimate load was much smaller than that of II-beam and Box-beam, which was
only the limited area in the web. This implication suggests that the shear capacity of
I-beam was the lowest since the smallest area resisted the shear force at the ultimate
load.
Comparing II-beam with Box-beam, though Box-beam could resist the shear
force by the web and the compressive and tensile flanges, II-beam could resist it by
the wider area in the web and the compressive flange. Therefore, it seems that the
total area effective in resisting the external shear force was larger in II-beam. These
differences might contribute to the highest shear capacity in II-beam.
4.1.2 Flexural Rigidity
As shown in Fig. 3, after the diagonal cracks were observed in the web, the flexural
rigidity of each specimen declined and the decrement of II-beam was smaller than
the other specimens. Thus, it can be assumed that the flexural rigidity of each
specimen was greatly affected by the shear deformation of the web. Focusing on the
shear resisting area of the web in Fig. 6, I-beam and Box-beam resisted the shear
force by only partial area. On the other hand, II-beam could resist the shear force
with the whole area of the web. Therefore, the shear deformation of the web might
be smaller because the expansion of each crack was suppressed. From this point, it
is considered that the flexural rigidity became the largest in II-beam and those of
I-beam and Box-beam were almost the same.
4.1.3 Displacement at the Shear Failure
As shown in Fig. 3, I-beam and II-beam failed at the displacement of around

13.1 mm. On the other hand in the case of Box-beam, it was observed that the
critical crack started to propagate to the tensile flange from the bottom of the web at
the displacement of around 13 mm. Finally the shear failure occured at the dis-
placement of 16.8 mm. Thus, in Box-beam, the opening of the critical crack might
be suppressed since the web and the tensile flange resisted the shear force at the
same time. In addition, the load kept constant due to the critical crack propagating
to the tensile flange even when the critical crack opened widely in the webs. This
mechanism seems to have contributed to higher deformation performance in
Box-beam.
4.1.4 Post Peak Behavior
As shown in Fig. 6, in case of I-beam, different areas resisted the shear force at the
ultimate load and in the post peak. This was because the only limited area of the
web failed at the ultimate load and there was still another area in the web and
flanges to resist the shear force in the post peak. On the other hand, in the case of
II-beam and Box-beam, it can be considered that the load decreased sharply since
the shear failure occured in the wide area of the web and the flanges with large
deformations. Due to this reason, the toughness in failure of I-beam might be
relatively higher than those of the other two specimens.
4.2 The Effects of the Web Position on the Shear Resistance

Mechanism
Since the parameter in this study was only the web position, the effects of the web
position on the shear resisting area are discussed below. Figure 7 shows the crack
patterns on the compressive flange just before the ultimate load. Figures 8 and 9
show the crack propagation behaviors from the web to the compressive and tensile
flanges, respectively.
4.2.1 Integrity of Web and Flange
In II-beam, two webs were located at the quarter of the flange width from the edge.
Thus, the distance between the webs was shorter than that in Box-beam, and the
flange overhang length was also shorter than that in I-beam. It suggests that the
Web
Cracks Web Cracks
Web
(a) I-beam (b) II-beam (c) Box-beam
Fig. 7 Crack patterns on the compressive flange

1676 M. Kato et al.
Interrupt Transfer
Interrupt
deformation deformation
deformation
(a) I- beam (b) II- beam (c) Box-beam
Fig. 8 Crack propagation behaviors to the compressive flange
Transfer
deformation
Fig. 9 Crack propagation behaviors to the tensile flange
integrity of the webs and the flanges of II-beam was higher than other specimens.
Actually, cracks along the webs could be observed on the compressive flange in
I-beam and Box-beam due to the concentration of the punching force from the webs
to the compressive flange (Figs. 7(a) and (c)). On the other hand, there was no crack
in II-beam (Fig. 7(b)) and the punching force seems to have been distributed over
the compressive flange widely.
Therefore, in the case of II-beam, the web and the compressive flange together
could resist the shear force as a whole and the shear force could be dispersed
through the compressive flange in axial direction. From this, it can be concluded
that only in II-beam almost the whole area of the webs could resist the shear force.
4.2.2 Continuity of Web and Flange
Since there was no flange overhang in Box-beam, the side of the specimen was flat
without roughness in the boundary between the webs and the flanges. Therefore, the
shear deformation like the propagation of the diagonal cracks tended to transfer
continuously. Actually, in Box-beam, the concrete crush occurred on the com-
pressive flange due to the shear deformation from the webs (Fig. 8(c)). Moreover,
the critical crack propagated to the tensile flange continuously without being
interrupted by the flange overhang (Fig. 9(c)). On the other hand, in the case of
I-beam and II-beam with flange overhang, the propagation of the critical cracks
from the webs to the compressive flange were interrupted by the flange overhang
(Figs. 8(a) and (b)). Furthermore, the critical cracks could not be observed in the
side of the tensile flange (Figs. 9(a) and (b)).
From this, it can be concluded that the webs, the compressive and tensile flanges
could resist the shear force at the ultimate load in Box-beam.
5 Conclusions
Experimental studies were conducted on total three UFC beams considering the
different web positions, whose cross sectional dimensions such as web width, flange
width and effective depth were completely same. The effects of the web position on
its shear resistance mechanism were investigated. The following conclusions can be
obtained under the conditions of this study;
1) The structural performances such as the shear capacity, the flexural rigidity, the
displacement at the failure and the post peak behavior were different in each
specimen with different web positions.
2) Completely different area resisting the shear force at the ultimate load was
observed, i.e. with or without of the contribution of the flanges as well as the
wider or limited area in the web and the flanges. The different shear resisting
area is considered to affect the structural performance of each specimen.
3) With two webs distributed in flange, the integrity of webs and flanges became
higher. Herewith, the shear force could be dispersed widely through the com-
pressive flange in axial direction and almost the whole area in the webs and the
compressive flange could resist the shear force.
4) In case of a specimen without flange overhang, the shear deformation trans-
ferred from webs to flanges continuously, hence the tensile flange could con-
tribute to the shear resistance apart from the webs and the compressive flange.
References
1. Musha H, Watanabe N, Inahara H, Ohshima K (2009) Feature and application of UFC (Ductal)
structure, Report of Taisei Technology Center No. 42, pp 20-1–20-8. (in Japanese)
2. Japan Society of Civil Engineers (2004) Recommendations for design and construction of ultra
high strength fiber reinforced concrete structures, -draft, JSCE guidelines for concrete, pp 31–
35. (in Japanese)
The Effects of Shear Span Ratio
on Shear Properties of RC Beams Using
Fiber Reinforced Porosity Free Concrete
H. Wakayama, K. Okubo, K. Kono, E. Yasuda, and J. Niwa
Abstract The objective of this research is to clarify the effects of shear span ratio
on shear properties of RC beams using fiber reinforced Porosity Free Concrete
(PFC beams). Therefore, the static four points bending tests were conducted with
different shear span ratio. When the shear span ratio increased, the initial rigidity,
the flexural cracking load and the diagonal cracking load decreased, but the density
of diagonal cracks became large. Furthermore, the increased shear span ratio also
led to the decrease in shear capacity when the failure modes were the same.
Moreover, it was confirmed that the experimental shear capacity of PFC beams is
higher than calculated shear capacity by following Recommendations for design
and construction of Ultra High Strength Fiber Reinforced Concrete structures (UFC
guideline).
Keywords RC beam using PFC Shear span ratio Shear property Failure

mode Tied arch
1 Introduction
High strength concrete enables the concrete structures to have longer span, higher
height and higher durability. Recently, with the development of Ultra High Strength
Fiber Reinforced Concrete (UFC), there are several applications of UFC to the
actual structures such as bridges and airport runway slabs. In 2015, Porosity Free
Concrete (PFC) was newly developed in Japan and compressive strength of PFC
was more than 400 N/mm2 [3].
H. Wakayama (&) K. Okubo J. Niwa

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology,
Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: wakayama.h.ab@m.titech.ac.jp
K. Kono E. Yasuda
Taiheiyo Cement Corporation, Chiba, Japan

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_155
1680 H. Wakayama et al.
Some researches have been conducted to clarify the mechanical properties of

fiber reinforced PFC. For example, Yanagida et al. proposed mechanical models of
fiber reinforced PFC on compression and tension which included the tension
softening curve [6]. Nevertheless, the researches on the structural properties of fiber
reinforced PFC were still insufficient. In the previous research, it was reported that
shear span ratio (a/d) affects shear properties of UFC beams such as shear capacity
and crack distribution [1]. Similarly a/d affects shear properties of fiber reinforced
PFC beams. Thus, this research aims to clarify the effects of a/d on shear properties
of RC beams using fiber reinforced PFC.
2.1 Specimens
Table 1 and Fig. 1 show the details and the outline of specimens.
The parameter of the specimens was shear span ratio which was 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0.
In all specimens, the effective depth was 210 mm and the web width was 60 mm as
shown in section A-A’ of Fig. 1. Mechanical properties of steel bars are also
summarized in Table 1. Mix proportion of PFC and the details of materials are
summarized in Tables 2 and 3, respectively. After casting, the specimens were
cured with steam (40 °C) for 12 h. After the removal of formwork, the deuterating
process was also carried out for 30 min to absorb the water into specimens. When
the water-absorbing process was finished, the specimens were cured with steam
(90 °C) for 48 h, and then a heat curing process (1 atm, 180 °C) for 48 h was
carried out [5]. The arrangement of the longitudinal reinforcement is shown in
Fig. 1. SBPD 1080/1230 with nominal diameter of 25 mm was used as the tensile
steel bar. SBPR 1080/1230 with nominal diameter of 13 mm was used as the
compressive steel bar. Sheaths with diameter of 38 and 22.5 mm were used to make
ducts in concrete for tensile and compressive steel bars, respectively. Ultra low
viscosity PC grouting material was used.
Table 1 Details of specimens and mechanical properties of steel bars

Specimen a/ a (mm) d (mm) d’ bw pw Tensile steel Compressive
d (mm) (mm) (%) bars steel bars
fy Es fy Es
(MPa) (GPa) (MPa) (GPa)
ad3.0 3.0 630 210 35 60 11.7 1179 201 1250 201
ad4.0 4.0 840
ad5.0 5.0 1050
a/d: shear span ratio, a: shear span, d: effective depth, d’: depth of compressive steel bar, bw: web
width, pw: tensile reinforcement ratio, fy: yield strength, Es: elastic modulus
The Effects of Shear Span Ratio on Shear Properties of RC Beams … 1681
A-A’ 60 B’ A’ CL
B-B’
SBPR 1080/1230 ( 13) 35
210 100 630 250
150
250 B A 250
SBPD 1080/1230 (D25) (a) ad3.0
A-A’ 60 B’ A’
B-B’
35
210 100 840 150 250
250 B A 250
(b) ad4.0
A-A’ 60 B’ A’
B-B’
35
210 100 1050 150 250
250 B A 250
(c) ad5.0
Fig. 1 Outline of specimens (Unit:mm)
Table 2 Mix proportion

Specimen W/B Unit weight (kg/m3) Slump flow
(%) W B S F SP DF (mm)
ad3.0 15 199 1328 934 157 26.6 26.6 261–275
ad4.0 264–272
ad5.0 271–278
Table 3 Materials
Material Type Symbol Characteristic
Binder Premixed B Density: 2.82 g/cm3
binder
Sand High strength S Max size: 0.3 mm, Density: 2.63 g/cm3
sand
Fiber Steel fiber F Diameter: 0.2 mm, Length: 15 mm, Density:
7.84 g/cm3, Tensile strength: 2800 N/mm2
Chemical Superplasticizer SP Polycarboxylic acid-based admixture
admixiture Deforming DF Polyglycolic admixture
agent
Displacement transducer PI gauge Strain gauge Central position
Fig. 2 Gauge and transducer
2.2 Loading Test
The static four points bending tests were conducted for all specimens. The width of
the steel plates used in the loading points and the supporting points were 65 and
70 mm, respectively. The horizontal friction from the support was minimized by
using anti-friction pads.
During the loading test, applied load, displacement of the mid span and sup-
porting points and strain of concrete were measured. Figure 2 shows the position of
gauge and transducer. The displacement of the mid span was measured at two
places to prepare when one displacement transducer came off. 3 PI gauges were set
at the bottom surface in the equal bending moment region to determine the flexural
cracking load. The longitudinal strain of concrete at the mid span was measured at
10 mm from the top surface. The concrete strain at the mid of shear spans was also
measured at 5 points (10, 35, 105, 210 and 240 mm from the top surface).
3.1 Load-Deflection Curve
Figure 3 shows the load-deflection curves of all specimens. All specimens failed in
shear. The dot line of the specimen ad4.0 shows the values of alternative mea-
surement because the displacement transducer came off at the peak load. Table 4
summarizes the flexural cracking load (Pcr_exp), the diagonal cracking load
(Pdia_exp) and the peak load (Pu_exp) of all specimens. In this research, when the
diagonal crack reached the height of d/2 (=105 mm) from top surface, the load was
defined as Pdia_exp. The background of this definition is that it is difficult to confirm
the initial diagonal crack because the width of the initial diagonal crack is too thin
to watch. Hence, this definition was adopted to unify the decision of the diagonal
cracking load.
As shown in Fig. 3, the initial rigidity, Pcr_exp and Pdia_exp tended to decrease
when shear span ratio (a/d) increased. The specimen ad4.0 had the largest peak load
due to the different failure mode from the other specimens. This will be discussed in
following Sect. 3.2. From the results of the specimens ad3.0 and ad5.0 which had
Fig. 3 Load-deflection curve 500

Flexural crack
ad4.0
ad3.0 Diagonal crack
400
Peak load
ad5.0
Load (kN)
300
200
100
0
0 10 20 30 40
Deflection (mm)
Table 4 Data of Specimen f’c Pcr_exp Pdia_exp Pu_exp

load-deflection curve (MPa) (kN) (kN) (kN)
ad3.0 296 67.6 201 414
ad4.0 313 60.4 190 450
ad5.0 331 48.0 170 322
the same failure mode, the shear capacity of ad5.0 was lower than ad3.0 for nearly
30%. Taking this into account, it can be said that the shear capacity of PFC beams
tended to decrease when a/d increased.
3.2 Crack Patterns and Failure Modes
Figure 4 shows the crack patterns of all specimens. Figure 4 also shows the critical
diagonal crack and concrete crush. It can be observed from Fig. 4, the density of
diagonal cracks increased when a/d increased.
Two types of failure modes were observed from Fig. 4. In the first type, the
compression failure occurred before the critical diagonal crack opening. This type
of failure mode was observed in the specimen ad4.0. In the second type, the critical
diagonal crack opening occurred before the compression failure. This type of failure
mode was observed in the specimens ad3.0 and ad5.0.
Table 5 shows the concrete compressive strain of 10 mm from top surface of
mid span at the peak load in all specimens. From Table 5, the compressive strains
of the specimen ad3.0 and ad5.0 were 35 and 25% smaller than the specimen ad4.0,
respectively. It can be considered that the specimen ad4.0 had strong compression
zone near the loading point so that the compressive strain of the specimen ad4.0
was higher than the other 2 specimens. Furthermore, it can be considered that in
case of the specimen ad4.0, strong compression zone led to the failure mode in
which compression failure occurred before the critical diagonal crack opening.
C
L
Critical diagonal crack

Concrete crush
(a) ad3.0
(b) ad4.0
(c) ad5.0
Fig. 4 Crack patterns
Table 5 Concrete Specimen Compressive strain (106 )

compressive strain of 10 mm
from top surface of mid span ad3.0 3633 (0.65)
at the peak load ad4.0 5557 (1.00)
ad5.0 4176 (0.75)
3.3 Distribution of Concrete Strain
Figure 5 shows the distribution of concrete strain at the mid of shear span under
different load levels (Pdia_exp, 300, 400 kN and Pu_exp). Figure 5 shows the distri-
bution at the span of failure side. From this figure, it can be seen that the com-
pressive strain at 105 mm from top surface at Pu_exp became large, and the
compressive strain near top surface at Pu_exp was lower than that at the load before
Pu_exp. This tendency was more obvious when a/d decreased. In the specimens
ad3.0 this tendency becomes remarkable.
It can be considered that the concrete compressive strain at 105 mm from top
surface increased because it located in the tied arch part as shown in Fig. 6. In case
of RC beams using normal strength concrete, when a/d is lower than 1.0, the beam
is called as a deep beam and the shear capacity becomes larger due to the mech-
anism like a tied arch [4]. In this research, since the compressive strength of PFC
was extremely high, even in the slender beam (the specimen ad3.0), the shear
resisting mechanism was similar to deep beams.
0 0
Pdia_exp
top surface (mm) Pdia_exp
top surface (mm)

50 300 kN 50
Distance from
300 kN
100 400 kN 100
Pu_exp 400 kN
150 150
Pu_exp
200 200
250 250
-2000 0 2000 4000 -2000 0 2000 4000
Strain (με) Strain (με)
(a) ad3.0 (b) ad4.0
0
top surface (mm)
50 Pdia_exp
Distance from
100 300 kN
Pu_exp
150
200
250
-2000 -1000 0 1000 2000
Strain (με)
(c) ad5.0
Fig. 5 Distribution of concrete strain at the mid of shear span (failure side)
Compression strut
105mm
Fig. 6 Mechanism like a tied arch
3.4 Comparison with Calculated Values
Table 6 shows compressive strength of PFC (f’c), calculated shear capacity carried
by matrix (Vrpc_cal), calculated shear capacity carried by fiber (Vf_cal), calculated
shear capacity (Vy_cal), experimental shear capacity (Vy_exp) and the ratio of
experimental shear capacity to calculated shear capacity (Vy_exp/Vy_cal). Vrpc_cal,
Vf_cal and Vy_cal were calculated by using Eqs. (1)–(4) from Recommendations for
design and construction of Ultra High Strength Fiber Reinforced Concrete struc-
tures [2]. In all specimens, Vy_exp/Vy_cal was more than 1.0. Moreover, Vy_exp/Vy_cal
was even higher than 1.4 in case of the specimens ad3.0 and ad4.0. It can be
considered that shear capacity was underestimated without considering the effect of
a/d on Vrpc_cal. Hence, more detailed researches are required to improve the
Table 6 Experimental and calculated results

Specimen f’c Vrpc_cal Vf_cal Vy_cal Vy_exp Vy_exp/
(MPa) (kN) (kN) (kN) (kN) Vy_cal
ad3.0 296 39.0 102 141 207 1.46
ad4.0 313 40.1 102 143 225 1.58
ad5.0 331 41.3 102 144 161 1.12
calculating process of shear capacity, for example calculating the shear capacity
with considering a/d.
Vy cal ¼ Vrpc cal þ Vf cal ð1Þ

pffiffiffiffi
Vrpc cal ¼ 0:18 fc0 bw d ð2Þ
Vf cal ¼ ðfv = tan bu Þ bw z ð3Þ
1 2s
bu ¼ tan1 ð 0 Þ b0 ð4Þ
2 rxu r0yu
where bw: web width, d: effective depth, fv: average tensile strength in vertical
direction of diagonal crack (=7.84 N/mm2) [6], bu: angle of diagonal crack, z: lever
arm length (=d/1.15), s: average shear stress, r’xu, r’yu: average compressive stress
in each direction, b0 = 5°
4 Conclusions
The static four points bending tests were conducted for 3 specimens to clarify the
effects of shear span ratio on shear properties of RC beams using fiber reinforced
PFC. The following conclusions can be obtained.
(1) When shear span ratio increased, the initial rigidity, the flexural cracking load
and the diagonal cracking load decreased, but the density of diagonal cracks
became large. Furthermore, when shear span ratio increased, the shear capacity
tended to decrease with the same failure mode of the specimens ad3.0 and
ad5.0.
(2) It was confirmed that the experimental shear capacity of fiber reinforced PFC
beams was larger than calculated shear capacity using UFC guideline.
It is recommended that further structural performance of fiber reinforced PFC
needs to be investigated in order to be applied to actual structures.
References
1. Fukuura N, Tanaka Y, Zhao W, Tsuka T, Kano K, Hyodo H (2005) Experimental study on

flexure and shear behavior of ultra-high performance fiber reinforced concrete. J JSCE, V-68
(795): 67–80. (in Japanese)
2. JSCE (2004) Recommendations for design and construction of ultra high strength fiber
Reinforced Concrete structures. Concrete Library of JSCE, No 113, pp 31–35. (in Japanese)
4. Nakayama R, Kono K, Tada K (2015) Development of new cementitious material with
compressive strength of 460 N/mm2. In: Proceeding of 70th JSCE Annual meeting, vol V-303,
pp 605–606. (in Japanese)
5. Niwa J (2006) Foundation of structural concrete, Suurikougaku-Sha Co, Ltd., pp 12–13. (in
Japanese)
6. Yanagida R, Nakamura T, Kono K, Niwa J (2017) Mechanical properties of fiber reinforced
pore free concrete with high strength matrix above 400 MPa, AFGC-ACI-fib-RILEM. In:
International Symposium on Ultra-High Performance Fibre-Reinforced Concrete, pp 93–101
7. Yanagida R, Nakamura T, Kono K, Niwa J (2018) Mechanical model of compression and
tension about fiber reinforced porosity free concrete. Journal of JSCE 74(1): 10–20 (in
Japanese)
An Investigation into Application
of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics
for Precast Slabs at Joint Positions
H. T. Nguyen, H. Masuya, H. Watase, and T. Tanaka
Abstract The previous studies confirmed that Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics
(CFRP) is well suited for application in concrete structures as internal reinforce-
ment. In precast slabs, using CFRP is a method not only mitigate against the steel
corrosion by the salt damage environment, improve the durability and serviceability
of the structures but also reduce the structural weight. However, other studies
showed that the drawback of the precast slabs is the in situ joints. Focusing on the
development of precast slabs reinforced by CFRP, this study considers how to using
CFRP in joint positions to enhance the durability and reduce the width as short as
possible of the joint. A series of pull-out specimens were carried out as fundamental
experiments to consider the increase of the bond between CFRP and concrete in the
joints. Specimens have the differences in diameter of CFRP, the fixation length, and
method using CFRP in the joint. From achieved experimental results, the method
using CFRP with a diameter of 15.2 mm, fixation length of 15Ø, and F-type (filling
inside tuft body) has been selected, proposed for further development and research.
Keywords Precast slabs CFRP Pull-out experiment Joint Fixation length

H. T. Nguyen (&)
Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Kanazawa University, Ishikawa, Japan
e-mail: nguyenthihue@stu.kanazawa-u.ac.jp
H. T. Nguyen
Thuyloi University, 175 Tay Son, Dong Da, Hanoi, Vietnam
H. Masuya
Faculty of Geoscience and Civil Engineering, Institute of Science and Engineering,
Kanazawa University, Ishikawa, Japan
e-mail: masuya@se.kanazawa-u.ac.jp
H. Watase
Oriental Shiraishi Corporation, Institute of Technology, Tochigi, Japan
e-mail: hiroshi.watase@orsc.co.jp
T. Tanaka
CFCC Civil Engineering and Construction Division, Tokyo Rope International Co., Ltd.,
Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: tanaka.tooru@tokyorope.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_156
1690 H. T. Nguyen et al.
1 Introduction
Reinforced concrete structure is a combination of concrete and reinforcement to

enhance a bearing capacity of the structure through the advantages of two materials.
These structures are widely used in construction field. However, the fact has shown
that concrete structures in the natural environment increasingly appear of damages
and their early degradation, especially the attack of corrosion phenomenon in the
reinforcement in the salt damage environment. New methods and materials such as
epoxy-coated steel, stainless steel and cathode protection have been studied and
proposed to overcome this problem. However, they still have disadvantages in
terms of efficiency, complexity and long-term durability. At the same time, the
development of composite materials has given a new answer to this difficult
problem. FRP is known as a new material to replace reinforcement in concrete
structures, which can significantly increase the service life of structures by reducing
concrete deterioration due to corrosion [3]. Researchers have found that Carbon
Fiber Reinforced Plastics (CFRP) has outstanding characteristics in comparing to
conventional reinforcement as high corrosion resistance, lightweight, and high
tensile strength [1]. CFRP has been applied to various construction projects in
different countries around the world. More than 140 structures in Japan have used
this material [2]; it also strongly developed in the USA, Canada [5], Green [4],
especially in the bridge structures. The durability of the structure reinforced by
CFRP after serving nearly 30 years in the corrosive environment has been con-
firmed [6].
With advantages in characteristics, CFRP has been applied in the precast con-
crete components. Using CFRP for precast concrete slabs not only mitigate resists
the steel corrosion, improves the durability and serviceability of the structures but
also reduces structural weight. The weight of CFRP is about 1/5 weight of con-
ventional steel [1] and the amount of concrete cover of slab reduces when CFRP
application. However, as in the conventional reinforced concrete, the in situ joint of
these precast structures is always a matter that needs concern.
To develop the precast slabs reinforced by CFRP, this study focuses on inves-
tigating the method to enhance the durability of the joint and reducing the width of
the joint as short as possible by increasing the bond between CFRP and concrete in
the joints. A series of fundamental pull-out experiments were conducted with the
variation in the diameter of CFRP, the fixation length, and the method using CFRP
in the joint. The results were discussed, the outcome was found, and the final
proposal was shown.
An Investigation into Application of Carbon Fiber … 1691
2 The Outline of Experiment
2.1 The Method and Setup of Experiment
The pull-out experiment was conducted following the method in JSCE-G503-2013.

The universal test machine-Shimadzu corporation UH-1000kN was setup for this
experiment as shown in Fig. 1. The specimen was prepared with CFRP in the centre
of concrete block. One at the end of CFRP was covered by steel pipe, which has the
diameter and the length belongs to the specimen (see in Table 3). This steel pipe
protected the CFRP from the gripping force of the machine. The other end of CFRP
was attached a displacement meter (CDP5) to record the displacement of the tip of
CFRP. Loading force was measured by a load cell (Tokyo Sokki Kenkuyjo Co., Ltd
CLC-300KNA) during the time of the experiment.
2.2 The Material Used and Kinds of Joint for Experiment
Specimens were prepared for the fundamental experiment with two main materials
including concrete and CFRP. The differences in these specimens were CFRP
diameter, the fixation length, and the method using CFRP in the joint.
Compressive strength for concrete was designed of 50 N/mm2. Concrete was
mixed with fly ash. The detail of compounding of concrete was shown in Table 1.
In here, Gmax is maximum aggregate size; W/B is water-binder ratio; W is water; B
is powder amount, and it was calculated as the following equation B = C +
EX + FA; EX is expansion agent; C is early-strength Portland cement; FA15 is fly
Fig. 1 The setup of pull-out experiment

ash from Hokuriku Electric Power Nanao with rate 15%; s/A is fine aggregate
percentage; S (fine aggregate) and G (coarse aggregate) are respectively crushed
sand and crushed stone, they were from Sakurawaga, Ibaraki Prefecture; AE is
high-performance AE water reducing agent.
CFRP was used to replace the regular steel in slabs in this study. A normal slab
was reinforced by steel of diameter of D16 or D19 corresponding with Ø10.5 mm
of CFRP. However, after considering the design and the cost, diameter 12.5 and
15.2 mm of CFRP were selected. Table 2 shows the standard specification of CFRP
from the manufacturer (Tokyo Rope).
The fixation length means the part of CFRP inside of concrete specimen and it
has the relationship with the width of the joint. Normally, the width of in situ joints
was roughly 600 mm in the pre-cast slabs when the conventional steel of D19 and
the lap-splice method were chosen. If the width of the joint is shortened and the
durability of the structure is still guaranteed, this work will save a lot of costs on
materials, labour and construction time for a project. Moreover, previous studies
show that the bond between CFRP and concrete was 7.32 MPa, which was two
times larger than the value of conventional steel. Therefore, the fixation length in
this study was designed to be CFRP diameter multiples of 10, 15 and 20 (10Ø, 15Ø
and 20Ø) to investigate the possibility of reducing joint width.
CFRP was set up in a joint with three different methods to find the most effective
method, which can enhance the durability of the joint. Firstly, CFRP was used with
the ordinary type, which was the straight type, and called S-type. Secondly,
non-twisted CFRP type has been chosen as the next method, in which the poly-
urethane foam was put inside the tuft body. Consequently, concrete cannot be
completely filled and the diameter of the CFRP tuft body could be narrowed. It’
name was N-type or no filling inside tuft body. Finally, F-type or filling inside type
was the kind of the non-twisted type but the tuft body was freedom and concrete
can filling inside. Figure 2(a), 2(b) and 2(c) show three methods mentioned above.
The detail of the setup for specimens was shown in Table 3.
Table 1 Standard specification of compounding of concrete

Slump Air content Gmax W/B W B EX (kg)
(cm) (%) (mm) (%) (kg) (kg)
18 4.5 13 35 165 471.4 20
C (kg) FA 15 (kg) s/A S (kg) G (kg) AE Anti-foaming
(kg) agent (kg)
383.7 67.7 0.41 736.9 1060.5 3.3 14.1
Table 2 Standard specification of CFRP
Shape of Effective Guaranteed Nominal mass Tensile elastic

Diameter
CFRP cross-sectional capacity density modulus
(mm)
strand area (mm2) (kN) (g/m) (kN/mm2)
12.5 76 184 145 155

15.2 115.6 270 221 155
(a) S-type (b) N-type (c) F-type

Fig. 2 Three methods using CFRP in joint
3 The Series of Experiments
3.1 First Series of Experiments
3.1.1 The Setup for First Series

The first series of experiments was conducted with 24 specimens (shown in
Table 4). The cross-section size of 150 150 mm was designed for a concrete
specimen. When CFRP reinforced for pre-cast slabs, concern regarding corrosion
was limited, the concrete cover can be thinned. Therefore, this dimension was
chosen for concrete block to expect the reduction of structural weight. The F-type
Table 3 Size of specimen
Fixation length Lb Total length

Name d (mm) ℓ (mm) L (mm)
(mm) (mm) (mm)
10Ø (125 mm) 167 1107
CFRP Ø12.5 15Ø (188 mm) Ø27.2 250 940 230 1170
20Ø (250 mm) 292 1232
10Ø (152 mm) 194 1187
CFRP Ø15.2 15Ø (228 mm) Ø31.8 350 993 270 1263
20Ø (304 mm) 346 1339
specimens were twice as larger as the S-type and N-type specimens. This type was
expected to achieve the highest adhesive force in the group of three types using in
the joint.
3.1.2 The Result of First Series
Figure 3(a), 3(b) and 3(c) show the situation of specimens after the first series was
carried out. Here, the name “Ø12.5–10Ø-S” means the CFRP diameter of 12.5 mm,
the fixation length (10Ø), and the method of using CFRP in the joint part was
S-type. The failure mode of specimens included pull-out CFRP and split concrete.
Table 4 summarised the experimental results of the first series. Firstly, the results
were evaluated between two groups of CFRP diameter. As shown in Table 4, the
diameter of CFRP in the specimens was larger, the pull-out load was higher. Secondly,
the pull-out load was considered in specimens having different fixation length.
Experimental results indicated that the fixation length increased, the pull-out load also
increased accordingly. When the results were compared among three types of CFRP,
F-type achieved the highest-maximum load in the group having the same diameter and
fixation length as expected. In F-type, the ratio of the maximum pull-out load to CFRP
guaranteed break force reached from 60% to 76% in group having fixation length of
Table 4 Summary of experimental results of the first series

STT Name Maximum Maximum Ratio of Ratio of Adhesive
load Pmax displacement Pmax to Pmax to strength
(kN) dmax (mm) guaranteed Pmax of (N/mm2)
break force Straight
type
1 Ø12.5– 64.3 1.508 35% 100% 13.10
10Ø-S
2 Ø12.5– 30.6 0.458 17% 48% 6.23
10Ø-N
3 Ø12.5– 139.5 1.818 76% 217% 28.42
10Ø-
F1
4 Ø12.5– 134 1.032 73% 208% 27.30
10Ø-
F2
5 Ø12.5– 91.5 1.708 50% 100% 12.39
15Ø-S
6 Ø12.5– 98.1 1.942 53% 107% 13.29
15Ø-N
7 Ø12.5– 174.1 0.712 95% 190% 23.58
15Ø-
F1
8 Ø12.5– 174.9 1.288 95% 191% 23.69
15Ø-
F2
9 Ø12.5– 118 1.756 64% 100% 12.02
20Ø-S
10 Ø12.5– 98.1 3.684 53% 83% 9.99
20Ø-N
11 Ø12.5– 184.2 1.086 100% 156% 18.76
20Ø-
F1
12 Ø12.5– 184.8 0.582 100% 157% 18.82
20Ø-
F2
13 Ø15.2– 102 1.998 38% 100% 14.05
10Ø-S
14 Ø15.2– 38.1 0.686 14% 37% 5.25
10Ø-N
15 Ø15.2– 160.1 1.04 59% 157% 22.06
10Ø-
F1
16 Ø15.2– 165.3 1.108 61% 162% 22.77
10Ø-
F2
(continued)
Table 4 (continued)
STT Name Maximum Maximum Ratio of Ratio of Adhesive
load Pmax displacement Pmax to Pmax to strength
(kN) dmax (mm) guaranteed Pmax of (N/mm2)
break force Straight
type
17 Ø12.5– 146.6 2.032 54% 100% 13.46
15Ø-S
18 Ø15.2– 126 3.2 47% 86% 11.57
15Ø-N
19 Ø15.2– 243.7 1.218 90% 166% 22.38
15Ø-
F1
20 Ø15.2– 247.1 1.194 92% 169% 22.70
15Ø-
F2
21 Ø15.2– 182.8 1.148 68% 100% 12.59
20Ø-S
22 Ø15.2– 198.7 3.452 74% 109% 13.69
20Ø-N
23 Ø15.2– 270 0.984 100% 148% 18.60
20Ø-
F1
24 Ø15.2– 204.7 1.092 76% 112% 14.10
20Ø-
F2
(a) Fixation length 10Ø (b) Fixation length 15Ø (c) Fixation length 20Ø
Fig. 3 Situation of specimens after the first series of experiments
10Ø and from 90% to 95% in the group having fixation length of 15Ø. Regarding the
group having fixation length of 20Ø of F-type, this number was over 100% in three
specimens. However, the specimen of Ø15.2–20Ø-F destroyed due to the concrete
splitting. The maximum pull-out load of this specimen was 204.7 kN, which was
lower than the guaranteed break force of CFRP. This was the reason to consider the
second series of experiments. Furthermore, the failure mode of F-type was split and
fractured, the accuracy of bond strength was not obtained this time, but the bond
strength still exceeded 20 N/mm2.
3.2 Second Series of Experiments
3.2.1 The Setup for Second Series

The outside and inside of the specimen of Ø15.2–20Ø-F were observed after the
first series of experiments. Some reasons were given to discuss and explain this
phenomenon. Base on the result of the discussion, the second series of experiments
was conducted to consider two factors including the length of the tuft body in the
fixation length and the effect of the presence or absence of filling material inside the
tuft body.
To focus on F-type and consider the efficiency, the diameter of 15.2 mm of
CFRP, the fixation length of 15Ø and cross-section size of 150 150 mm were
selected for the specimens in this series. Three lengths of the tuft body in the
fixation length (9Ø, 10Ø, and 11Ø) were investigated, they were shown in Fig. 4. In
addition, F-type in this series was divided into two types. Fa-type was the
non-twisted type but the tuft body was freedom and concrete can filling inside as
mentioned in the first series of experiment. Incidentally, Fb-type used the polymer
cement mortar to fill inside the tuft body (see in Fig. 5).
3.2.2 The Result of Second Series

The results of 18 specimens after the second series of experiments are shown in
Fig. 6(a) and 6(b). The variation of the pull-out load among specimens was slight,
the average value stands roughly 210 kN. It seems that the pull-out load was
independent of the length of the tuft body.
However, the group having the tuft body length of 10Ø in Fb-type had a sig-
nificant difference. The second specimen in this group achieved the pull-out load at
152.8 kN. This value was the lowest value and was to differ from two values in the
same group.
Fig. 4 Three lengths of tuft

body
Fig. 5 Polymer cement

mortar filled inside tuft body
(Fb-type)
(a) Fa-type (b) Fb-type
Fig. 6 The relationship between the pull-out load and the length of tuft-body corresponding with
Fa-type and Fb-type
Fig. 7 The situation of

specimens after experiment in
Fb -group of 10Ø
(a) Fa- type (b) Fb - type
Fig. 8 The relationship between the pull-out load and the length of tuft-body corresponding with
Fa-type and Fb-type
This consequence may come from the quality of filling inside the tuft body.
Polymer cement mortar was remained with a large amount in the second specimen,
whereas only a small amount was found in other specimens (see Fig. 7). It may be
the part of polymer cement mortar did not break because the contact surface
between polymer cement mortar, fixation length and concrete was not good.
Figure 8(a) and 8(b) show the relationship between pull-out load and CFRP’s
displacement of both types Fa and Fb in 9Ø group. From these figures, the dis-
placement of Fb-type at the failure time is larger than that of Fa-type. It seems that
the polymer cement mortar in the tuft body of the CFRP broken slowly and made
the pull-out process slower.
4 Conclusions
From the results and discussions above, some remarkable conclusions were derived
as follows:
1. F-type achieved the highest pull-out load and bond strength in comparing with
N-type and S-type. When the specimen using CFRP with diameter 15.2 mm, the
pull-out load achieved the higher value than that using CFRP with diameter
12.5 mm. The force in the case using the fixation length of 20Ø was the highest
among three types of the fixation length. Therefore, the specimen of F-type,
Ø15.2 mm, and 20Ø would be a great combination for the actual bridge.
However, after considering the ultimate load, bond strength, the ratio of ultimate
load to the breaking force of CFRP, and the fixation length; the method using
CFRP with a diameter of 15.2 mm, the fixation length of 15Ø, and F-type
(filling inside tuft body) was proposed to apply in the pre-cast slabs.
2. If the pre-cast slabs use the proposed method, the width of the joints will
improve, only a half with the fixation length 15Ø (228 mm). Besides, the weight
of the slabs reduces significantly.
3. From the results of the second series of experiments, the method filling inside
tuft body should consider in the future.
Acknowledgements This experiment was assisted by members of structural laboratory of

Kanazawa University including graduate and undergraduate students, especially cooperated of Mr.
Yotaro Koizumi, Mr. Daisuke Kusaka. Authors express our deepest thanks to them.
References
1. Enomoto T (2012) Use of CFCC tendons and reinforcements in concrete structures for
durability. In: APFIS 2012, Hokkaido University, Japan
2. Enomoto T, Grace NF, Harada T (2012) Life extension of prestressed concrete bridges using
CFCC tendons and reinforcements. In: Proceedings conference on FRP composites in civil
engineering, Rome Italy
3. Erki MA, Rizkalla S (1993) FRP reinforcement for concrete structures. ACI Concr Int 15
(6):48–53
4. Green MF (2017) Long-term applications of CFRP prestressing in Canada. In: Fourth
conference on smart monitoring, assessment and rehabilitation of civil structures
5. Grace NF et al (2002) Design - construction of bridge street bridge - first CFRP bridge in the
United States. PCI J 47(5):20–35
6. Nguyen HT et al. (2018) Long-term application of carbon fiber composite cable tendon in the
prestressed concrete bridge - shinmiya bridge in Japan. In: MATEC web of Conferences, vol
206, pp 02011
Stable Limit Axial Load Ratios
of Concrete Filled Steel Tubular
Beam-Columns Under Varying Axial
Loads
L. Li
Abstract The behaviour of a concrete filled steel tube (CFT) beam-column is

affected by the magnitude of the axial load applied on it. In this study, the stability
limit axial load ratios (SLALR) of CFT beam-columns subjected to repeated
bending under axial loading were investigated analytically at a constant drift angle
of the CFT beam-column. An axial load can be divided into a constant part that is
caused by vertical loads and a varying part that is caused by lateral loading. The
analyses of the CFT beam-columns were conducted using idealized hysteretic
stress-strain relations and discrete cross-section method. The analytical variables
included compressive strengths of concrete, yield stresses of steel, and
width-to-thickness ratios of steel tubes. The analyses results showed that the values
of SLALR at constant axial loads decrease corresponding to the increase in the drift
angle amplitude when the other variables were the same. The varying part of the
SLALR decreased as the constant axial load ratio increased. There was a slight
influence of width-to-thickness ratios on SLALR at a drift angle amplitude of 1%
when normal concrete and steel tubes were used. However, almost no influence of
width-to-thickness ratios when high strength materials were used. Moreover, the
material strengths and the width-to-thickness ratios of steel tubes caused almost no
differences on the SLALR at a drift angle amplitude of 2%.

Keywords Cyclic loading Drift angle Strength of concrete Yield stress of

steel Width-to-thickness ratio
L. Li (&)
Division of Human Habitat, Faculty of Environmental and Symbiotic Sciences,
Prefectural University of Kumamoto, Kumamoto, Japan
e-mail: lili@pu-kumamoto.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_157
1702 L. Li
1 Introduction
In recent years, CFT structures have been widely used in high-rise buildings. The
axial loads acting on the exterior beam-columns in the lower floors of high-rise
buildings vary due to horizontal forces such as seismic or wind forces. Behaviour of
the beam-columns changes depending on the magnitude of the axial force acting on
them.
Structural analysis [2] on a high-rise framed building (20-story, 3-bay) showed
that the axial load of a beam-column could vary from n = 0.05 to n = 0.3, where
n is the ratio of the axial load to the axial load-carrying capacity. In addition, it
doesn’t only occur in the exterior beam-columns but also the variation in axil loads
of the interior beam-columns could be n = 0.05–0.5 when dampers were located in
the middle bay.
In the analysis of Saisho et al. [5], the axial load of the ground floor
beam-columns in a 15-story, 3-bay frame varied remarkably so that the axial load
ratio varied from its normal value of 0.2 in compression to 0.3 in tension and 0.8 in
compression under an extremely strong ground motion (maximum of spectral
acceleration 6g in NS direction and 4g in UD direction), which is twice the strength
of JMA-KOBE.
Dastourianjamnani et al. [1] showed by dynamic analysis that the variation of
axial loads affects not only the local buckling or steel tube cracks of CFT columns
but also the bending restoring forces of CFT columns in a 12-story, 4 4-bay
frame. As with the analysis of Saisho et al. [5], it was clear that not only the exterior
columns but also the interior columns are subjected to varied axial loads under
vertical ground motions.
This study analytically investigates the stability limit axial load of a square CFT
beam-column subjected to repeated bending under varying axial loads at constant
drift angle amplitudes. The objective is to clarify the influences of
width-to-thickness ratios of the steel tubes in CFT beam-columns and material
strengths which are analytical variables on the stability limit axial loads.
2 Analysis
2.1 Assumptions
The analysis model shown in Fig. 1 is a cantilevered member. The curvature is

constant at the curved portion (length Lp) from the fixed end of the cantilever, and
the remaining portion is rigid. The top horizontal displacement (d) can be deter-
mined geometrically and expressed as a function of the curvature of the curved
portion. The value of Lp can be assumed to be 0.422 times the total length (L) by
equaling the top horizontal displacement to the elastic displacement when the
Stable Limit Axial Load Ratios of Concrete Filled Steel … 1703
Fig. 1 Analytical model δ

H P
Rigid portion
Lp
Curved portion
Fig. 2 Variation of axial

force
n
nc+nvl
nc
-R 0
R0 R
nc-nvl
cantilever is assumed to be an entirely elastic member. The following assumptions

are also used in the analysis:
(1) A plane section remains plane before and after bending.
(2) Shear deformation and torsional deformation are ignored.
(3) Slip between steel and concrete is ignored.
(4) The axial load ratio (axial load/axial load-carrying capacity) increases or
decreases in proportion to the drift angle up to the drift angle amplitude (±R0)
shown in Fig. 2.
2.2 Parameters
The CFT columns to be analyzed are using square steel tubes: the nominal
cross-section of dimensions of width (b = 750 mm) height (D = 750 mm)
thickness (t), and a length of L = 2250 mm. The thicknesses of steel tubes are 19
and 28 mm; the design standard strengths of concrete (Fc) are 36 and 60 N/mm2;
and the yield stresses of steel tubes (ry) are 325 and 440 N/mm2. In total, there are
eight combinations of the variables.
The drift angle amplitudes (Ra) are 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, and 2.0%.
1704 L. Li
2.3 Stress-Strain Relationship of Materials
A Popovics stress-strain relationship [4] is used, and the confining effects of a steel
tube on the filled concrete is considered according to Mander’s proposal [3].
Stress-strain relations of concrete considering the refining effects of a steel tube of a
thickness of 28 mm are presented in Fig. 3 by dotted lines. However, in the
analysis, the design standard strengths (Fc) and the strain at the confined strengths
are used, as shown in Fig. 3 by solid lines. An idealized multi-linear model is used
for a steel tube on both the tensile and compressive sides as shown in Fig. 4. The
ultimate strains are 15% and 25% for steel of ry = 325 N/mm2 and ry = 440
N/mm2, respectively.
Fig. 3 Stress-strain concrete F c (N/mm2 )

model
80
60 Fc=60MPa
40
20
F c=30MPa
0
0 1 2 3 4 5
ε (%)
Fig. 4 Steel constitutive σ (N/mm2 )

model
800
σ y=440MPa
325MPa
400
0
-30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30
ε (%)
-400
-800
2.4 Analysis Method
Under a given displacement (d) at the free end of the analytical model and a given
applied axial load (Napplied), the depth of the neutral axis can be obtained by
iterative calculation to satisfy the equilibrium condition: the calculated axial load
(Nanalysis) = Napplied. Then the flexural moment at the fixed end of the cantilever
corresponding to the given drift angle (R = d/L) can be calculated. Therefore, the
moment-drift angle relations can be obtained by changing the value of R at intervals
of 0.1% between a given amplitude ±R0 and repeating 10 times from +R0 to –R0.
The applied axial load is divided into a constant axial load (Nc) corresponding to
long-term axial loads and a varying one (Nv) due to seismic or wind loads. The
varying axial load increases or decreases in proportion to the drift angle (R) as
shown in Fig. 2.
When a beam-column is subjected to a constant axial load at a drift angle of
amplitude ±R0, there is a limitation (maximum value) on the axial load so that the
beam-column has stable behaviour. The maximum axial load ratio (ncl) under a
constant axial load at a drift angle amplitude can be determined by analysis, where
an axial load ratio is a ratio of axial load to the ultimate compressive strength of a
CFT column. The maximum axial load ratio ncl is called the stability limit axial load
ratio (SLALR) and is defined as the maximum axial load ratio when the decrease of
the flexural moments is within 10% of the maximum flexural moment during 10
times cyclic loading under a drift angle amplitude. The value of ncl of a CFT
beam-column is found through analyses by increasing the axial load ratio from 0.0
at increments of 0.05.
The constant part (nc) of an axial force ratio is changed from 0.00 to the value of
ncl at increments of 0.10 and the varying axial load ratio (nv) under each nc is
changed at increments of 0.05 to find the maximum varying axial load ratio (nvl).
The determination condition for nvl is the same as that to determine a value of ncl,
which is the maximum axial load ratio (nv) at a given nc under which the
beam-column is able to maintain its flexural resistance with less than 10% strength
degradation even subjected to 10 times of repeated bending.
Figure 5 shows the results of a CFT column of Fc = 36 N/mm2, ry = 325
N/mm2 and t = 19 mm under nc = 0.30 at Ra = 1.0%, and the varying axial load
ratios nv = 0.15 and 0.20 respectively. The decrease in flexural moments (M) under
nv = 0.15 is 7.7% as shown in Fig. 5(a), and under nv = 0.20 in Fig. 5(b) is 11.3%.
When the constant part of axial force ratio is 0.30, the maximum varying axial load
ratio (nvl = 0.15) can keep the beam-column stable under 10 cycles of loading;
when nv > 0.15, the beam-column will lose more than 10% of its flexural strength
and the bigger nv is, the sharper the decrease in flexural moments. Therefore, the
stable limit axial load ratio is 0.30 ± 0.15 which means that the axial load ratio can
changes from 0.15 to 0.45.
1706 L. Li
Μ (kNm) Μ (kN m)
10000 10000
Decrease
Decrease
6000 6000 11.3%
7.7%
2000 2000
-2 -1 -2000 0 1 2 -2 -1 -2000 0 1 2
R (%) R (%)
-6000 -6000
-10000 -10000
(a) Varying axial load ratio = 0.15 (b) Varying axial load ratio = 0.20
Fig. 5 Moment-drift angle relations of a CFT beam column when Fc = 36 N/mm2, ry = 325
N/mm2, t = 19 mm, nc = 0.30 and Ra = 1.0%
3 Analysis Results
Figures 6 and 7 and Figs. 8 and 9 show the analytical results when Ra = 1.0% and
Ra = 2.0%, respectively. In these figures, the lines with black painted circles (•) are
the relations of nc to nvl; the lines with white circles ðÞ are the relations of nc to the
range of axial load ratio (nc ± nvl).
The values of nc under Ra = 1.0% are bigger than those under Ra = 2.0%.
When the value of nc is smaller than about 0.20, all the beam-columns can bear
some tensile axial loads. When nc 0.30, the beam-columns can only resist
compressive axial loads.
The influences on the values of nc and nvl due to the width-to-thickness ratios of
steel tubes, concrete strengths and steel strengths are discussed in Sects. 3.1–3.3.
3.1 Effects of Width-to-Thickness Ratios of Steel Tubes
3.1.1 In Case of Ra = 1.0%
The values of nc (the values when nvl = 0) increase 0.1 while the width-to-thickness
ratio (b/t) is 27 (thickness t = 28 mm) as can be seen by comparing Figs. 6(a) and
(b) or comparing Figs. 6(c) and (d). When high strength steel tubes are used, the
values of nc are not affected by width-to-thickness ratios (see Fig. 7).
The difference of nvl at nc = 0 is 0.10–0.20 due to the width-to-thickness ratios.
However, in a real building, no beam-column is subjected to a long-term axial load
of zero. The values of nvl at each level of nc (nc 0.10) are almost the same as can
be seen by comparing the figures (a) with (b), or (c) with (d) in Figs. 6 and 7.
0.8 0.8 nvl

Fc 36 nvl Fc 36
Constant portion, nc
ncl nc nvl
0.6 σy 325 nc nvl 0.6 σy 325
b/t 39 ncl b/t 27
0.4 Ra 1.0% 0.4 Ra 1.0%
0.2 0.2
0 0
-0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
Variation nvl , nc nvl Variation nvl , nc nvl
(a) Fc =36 MPa; t =19 mm (b) Fc =36 MPa; t =28 mm
0.8 0.8
Fc 60 nvl Fc 60 nvl
σy 325 nc nvl σy 325 nc nvl

0.6 0.6 ncl
b/t 39 n b/t 27
Ra 1.0% cl Ra 1.0%
0.4 0.4
0.2 0.2
0 0
-0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
(c) Fc =60 MPa; t =19 mm (d) Fc =60 MPa; t =28 mm
Fig. 6 Analytical results (ry = 325 MPa and Ra = 1.0%)
Therefore, it can be concluded that the width-to-thickness ratio will not influence
the values of nvl to a significant extent.
3.1.2 In Case of Ra = 2.0%
Comparing Figs. 8(a) and (b) or Figs. 8(c) and (d) shows that the value of nc when
b/t = 27 is 0.1 larger than that when b/t = 39. Comparisons of Figs. 9(a) and (b) or
Figs. 9(c) and 9(d) indicate that the values of nc are not affected by the
width-to-thickness ratios.
The values of nvl at each level of nc are almost the same when nc is between 0.10
and 0.30 for normal strength steel tubes; between 0.1 and 0.2 for high strength steel
tubes.
1708 L. Li
0.8 0.8
Fc 36 nvl Fc 36 nvl
σy 440 nc nvl 0.6 σy 440 nc nvl

0.6
b/t 39 b/t 27
Ra 1.0% ncl 0.4 Ra 1.0% ncl
0.4
0.2 0.2
0 0
-0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
(a)Fc =36 MPa; t =19 mm (b) Fc =36 MPa; t =28 mm
0.8 0.8
Fc 60 nvl Fc 60 nvl

0.6 0.6
b/t 39 b/t 27
Ra 1.0% ncl Ra 1.0% ncl
0.4 0.4
0.2 0.2
0 0
-0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
3.2 Effects of Concrete Strengths
3.2.1 In Case of Ra = 1.0%
Comparisons of the figures (a) and (c), (b) and (d) in Fig. 6 (normal strength steel
tubes) reveal that the values of ncl is 0.05 higher when Fc = 36 MPa than those
when Fc = 60 MPa. When high strength steel is used (Fig. 7), there are no dif-
ferences in the values of nc due to concrete strengths.
The values of nvl at each level of nc are almost the same when nc is between 0.10
and 0.40 for normal strength steel tubes; between 0.1 and 0.3 for high strength steel
tubes. There are no differences caused by concrete strengths.
0.8 0.8
Fc 36 nvl nvl
Fc 36
σy 325 nc nvl nc nvl

0.6 0.6 σy 325
b/t 39 b/t 27 ncl
n
0.4 Ra 2.0% cl 0.4 Ra 2.0%
0.2 0.2
0 0
-0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
0.8 0.8
Fc 60 nvl nvl
Fc 36
σy 325 nc nvl nc nvl

0.6 0.6 σy 325
b/t 39 ncl
b/t 27
0.4 Ra 2.0% 0.4 Ra 2.0%
0.2 0.2
0 0
-0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
3.2.2 Under Ra = 2.0%
Comparisons of (a) and (c), (b) and (d) in Fig. 8 (normal strength steel tubes) and
also (a) and (c), (b) and (d) Fig. 9 (high strength steel tubes) show that differences
only occurred in the values of nvl at nc = 0 or nc = ncl.
3.3 Effects of Steel Tubes Strengths
3.3.1 In Case of Ra = 1.0%
Decreases in the values of ncl are 0.05–0.2 when high strength steel tubes are used,
and the decreases are larger when normal concrete (Fc = 36 MPa) and thick steel
tubes (b/t = 27) are used. The differences in the values of nvl at nc = 0.1 or 0.3 are
0.05 that can be ignored.
1710 L. Li
0.8 0.8
nvl Fc 36 nvl
Fc 36
0.6 σy 440 nc nvl 0.6 σy 440 nc nvl

b/t 39 b/t 27
Ra 2.0% Ra 2.0%
0.4 ncl 0.4
ncl
0.2 0.2
0 0
-0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
0.8 0.8
Fc 60 nvl Fc 60 nvl

0.6 0.6
b/t 39 b/t 27
Ra 2.0% Ra 2.0%
0.4 0.4
ncl ncl
0.2 0.2
0 0
-0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
3.3.2 Under Ra = 2.0%
Decreases in the values of ncl are 0.1 when high strength steel tubes are used except
the case of Fc = 36 MPa and b/t = 27 where the decrease in the value of nc is 0.2.
The differences in the values of nvl at nc = 0.1 or 0.2 are 0.05, as with that of
Ra = 1.0%.
3.4 Approximate Expression of nvl nc Relations
The relations of nvl—nc can be expressed approximately by a line in the range of

0.1 nc ncl. It can be expressed by Eq. (1), where nvl(at nc =0.1) is the value of
nvl when nc =0.1. The approximate lines are shown in Figs. 6, 7, 8 and 9 by dashed
lines. The approximate expression give safe evaluations on the values of nvl except
when Fc = 36 MPa and ry = 325 MPa at Ra = 1.0%.
nvlðat nc ¼0:1Þ ðncl 0:1Þ

nvl ¼ ð1Þ
ncl
4 Conclusions
From the analysis of square CFT beam-columns subjected to varying axial loads
and repeated flexural bending, the following can be summarized.
(1) The value of constant stable limit axial load ratio (ncl) decreases corresponding
to the increase in the drift angle amplitude when the other perimeters are the
same.
(2) There is a slight tendency to increase the value of ncl when b/t = 27 and normal
strength materials are used.
(3) When the value of nc is equal to or smaller than 0.20, all the beam-columns can
bear some tensile axial loads up to n = 0.20–0.25 in tension. When 0.30
nc ncl, the beam-columns can only resist compressive axial loads.
(4) The varying stable limit axial load ratio (nvl) decreases when the value of nc
(nc 0.10) increases. A value of nvl at a given nc can be interpolated linearly
between (ncl, 0.0) and (0.1, ncvl) to obtain a conservative value.
(5) The influence of concrete strengths on the values of ncl, nvl is so little that it can
be ignored except for the combination of Fc = 36 MPa, ry = 325 MPa,
Ra = 1% and b/t = 27.
(6) The most influential variable is steel tube yield strength that caused a maximum
difference in the value of ncl up to 0.2 in the case of Fc = 36 MPa and b/t = 27
at Ra = 1%.
(7) In general, the influences of all the three variables on the values of nvl are not
significant because the difference of nvl caused by each variable does not exceed
0.1.
1712 L. Li
References
1. Dastourianjamnani F, Khashaheiran F, MacRae G, Tajalli M (2014) Evaluation of near-fault

ground motion effects on frames with CFST columns and steel beams. In: The 10th
international conference on advances in steel concrete composite and hybrid structures,
Singapore
2. Hanzawa T, Sato T, Terada T (2000) Proposal of soft-elastic building structure with high
capacity damper. In: The 12th world conference on earthquake engineering (12WCEE), Paper
No. 0449
3. Mander JB, Pristtley MJN, Park R (1988) Theoretical stress-strain model for confined concrete.
J Struct Eng ASCE 114(8):1804–1826
4. Popovics S (1973) A numerical approach to the complete stress - strain curve of concrete. Cem
Concr Res 3:583–599
5. Saisho M (2004) Dynamic collapse of CFT-frame under extremely strong ground motion. In:
The 13th world conference on earthquake engineering (13WCEE), Paper No. 1877
Study on Repair and Strengthening
of Steel Girder End with Section Loss
Using CFRP Members Bonded
by VaRTM Technique
V. Thay, N. Tuvaan, H. Nakamura, and T. Matsui
Abstract Vacuum assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VaRTM) as a composite

fabricating technique can be used to apply Carbon Fiber (CF) sheets on cross section
loss of steel structures. The repair operation work has been proven to be very
efficient and convenient even on complex shapes of structures due to the flexibility
of this method. This paper deals with repair and strengthening of steel girder end
with section loss using carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) members bonded by
VaRTM technique, experimentally and analytically. The section loss is 100 mm of
the lower end of web and vertical stiffener in the steel girder with the depth of
800 mm and section loss ratio is 100% in the web, 50% in the vertical stiffener,
respectively. In the case of repair, CF sheets were placed in the area of section loss.
In the case of strengthening, the partial CF sheets and three-dimensional CFRP
members were placed in the web panel. The number of laminated CF sheets and the
direction of arrangement were used as parameters. The arrangement of CFRP was
parametrically examined by FE analysis and four optimal arrangements were
selected. Moreover, three point bending load tests were conducted to confirm their
validity. As a result, steel girder end with section loss can be repaired and
strengthened by applying CFRP members using VaRTM technique.
Keywords Plate girder Repair and strengthening VaRTM technique CFRP

Shear buckling
V. Thay H. Nakamura (&)

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo,
Japan
e-mail: hnaka@tmu.ac.jp
V. Thay
e-mail: vthay@tmu.ac.jp
N. Tuvaan
International Division, Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: t-nyambayar@smcon.co.jp
T. Matsui
First Advanced Composites Technical Department, Toray Industries, Inc., Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: takahiro_matsui@nts.toray.co.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_158
1714 V. Thay et al.
1 Introduction
Steel girder end of bridge structure with section loss due to corrosion can lead to the
reduction load-carrying capacity. Therefore, many analytical and experimental
studied have been conducted to investigate the existing load-carrying capacity and
to recover the performance of steel girder [8]. For the repair and strengthening
method of cross section loss in steel members, high-strength bolted joint method or
steel plate adhesively bonded joint method are generally used [14]. Moreover, with
the advantage of corrosion resistance, light weight and high rigidity, CFRP plate
adhesively bonded joint have been recently focused and studied [1, 2]. However,
high rigidity and excellence in construction work of CFRP plate cannot be properly
applied by adhesively boned joint to rough and discontinuous surfaces or complex
shapes of steel members. Here, carbon fiber (CF) sheets are flexible materials,
which are convenient for applying on discontinuous surfaces or complex shapes.
The application of CF sheets bonded to steel girder end has been verified [10–13]
and the design and construction manual is being published [9]. However, the
efficiency of work on site may become poor when the number of CF sheet layers
increase due the thinness of CF sheets. Regarding to this problem, Vacuum assisted
Resin Transfer Molding (VaRTM) presented in Fig. 1, as a composite fabricating
technique, can be used to apply Carbon Fiber (CF) sheets on cross section loss of
steel members in a time, which can shorter the construction time. It has been proved
in previous studied that it is possible to repair and strengthening on cross section
loss of steel members [3, 5–7]. Base on previous study [4], this paper deals with the
enhancement of load-carrying capacity in case of girder end of steel bridge is
subjected to severe cross section loss by analytically and experimentally investi-
gating the appropriate arrangement and its application of CFRP members adhe-
sively bonded by VaRTM technique.
Fig. 1 Schematic view of Bagging film Distribution media Joint reinforcement

VaRTM technique for repair Reinforcement (FRP) Sealant tape
and strengthening
Vent
Resin Steel member (Vacuum)
Study on Repair and Strengthening of Steel Girder End … 1715
2 Modelling of Steel Girder End and Its Cross

Section Loss
Figure 2 shows the specimen of girder end and the range of cross section loss due to
corrosion. Table 1 shows the dimensions of the specimen. For the analytical model
of girder end of steel bridge, it is supposed for the three-point bending load test with
the span of 1,700 mm and the aspect ratio of 1.0.
As presented in Fig. 2, the cross section loss is vertical stiffeners and lower end
of web at 100 mm, where the flange is not considered for cross section loss. The
shape of cross section loss is considered for constant or complete loss. 50% cross
section loss of 12 mm of vertical stiffeners and 100% cross section loss of web are
defined.
12
800
824
12 12 12 12 12
6 Cross section loss

6
100
12
250 100 800 100 400 400 100

270 1900
Fig. 2 Specimen and its cross section loss
Table 1 The dimensions of Members Symbols Units Values

the specimen
Girder length L mm 1,900
Flange’s width bf mm 270
Flange’s thickness tf mm 12
Aspect ratio hw/L – 1.0
Web’s height hw mm 800
Web’s thickness tw mm 6
Vertical stiffener end’s width bs mm 120
Vertical stiffener end’s ts mm 12
thickness
1716 V. Thay et al.
Table 2 Material properties of steel (JIS SM400)

Members Elastic modulus Yield strength Tensile strength
Es (MPa) ry (MPa) rtu (MPa)
Web 208,400 317.5 463.8
Vertical stiffener and flange 206,300 286.5 421.1
3 Analytical Model and Method
In analytical model of specimen, vertical stiffeners, webs and flanges are modelled
as a shell element, while sole plate and loading plate as a solid element, and
adhesive layers as a spring element with equivalent stiffness are modelled. The
minimum element size is 10 10 mm. The initial imperfection of 1/1,000 (max-
imum of 0.8 mm) against the height of web with sine half wave shape is introduced.
The steel type is JIS SM400 with its material properties shown in Table 2. The
finite element analysis (FEA) is conducted using general-purpose analysis program,
MSC Marc 2018, with elasto-plasticity finite displacement analysis. The model
without and with cross section loss are defined as non-defect model and defect
model. Furthermore, in order to investigate the target value of strengthening in this
specimen, the reference model are modelled with vertical stiffeners at the center of
web on both sides (Fig. 3(a)).
4 Modelling of CFRP Member Arrangement

and Strengthening
In this study, properly arrangement of CFRP in defect model is considered in the

strengthening purpose to enhance the load-carrying capacity to the equivalent level
as reference model. It should be noted that, the specimen leveled by the epoxy resin
putty (Toray ACE AUF60W) at unevenness in cross section loss and then
strengthened by 15 layers of CF sheets to vertical stiffeners and 10 layer of CF
sheets to web in vertical direction (high-strength type of CF sheets) has been proved
the enhancement (1,339.5 kN) to the performance of the reference model (1,330.1
kN). Therefore, study below is based on this strengthening design. The material
properties of high-strength type of CF sheets and epoxy resin putty (Toray ACE
AUF60W) are descripted in Tables 3 and 4, respectively.
First, strengthened model is basically reinforced by two types of preform angle
material (PF material) in purpose of improving the shear buckling strength of web.
In other word, the specimen is strengthened with the CF sheets partially arranged in
the ±45° direction and over put by PF material of (W120 H100 L800 mm)
vertically at center of web (Fig. 3(b)). The case study is in the parameter of the layer
of PF material from 1 to 20 layers.
12
800
824
12 12 12 12 12 12
6
12
250 100 800 100 400 400 100

270 1900
(a) Reference model

120
800
824
45
300
255
100
250 180
270 100 800 100 400 400 100
1900
(b) Strengthened model by CFP (CFP_SH90)

0
12
12
0
800
824
45
300
255
100
250 180
270 100 800 100 400 400 100
1900
(c) Strengthened model by CFP (CFP_SH±45)

Fig. 3 Reference and strengthened models
Furthermore, another specimen is strengthened with PF material (W120

H60 L1,130 mm) in ±45° direction with case study in the parameter of the layer of
PF material from 1 to 20 layers. However, the unevenness in cross section loss is
leveled by medium-elasticity type of CF sheets (15 layers) instead of epoxy resin
putty (Fig. 3(c)). It should be noted that PF material is material of CF sheets which are
maintained in predetermined shape in advance. The material properties of
medium-elasticity type of CF sheets are shown in Table 3. The fiber volume fraction
is 50% and the fiber orientation is in 90° direction (vertical) and ±45° direction.
1718 V. Thay et al.
Table 3 Material properties of CF sheets

Types Elastic Tensile Sheet Fiber
modulus strength thickness weight
Ecf (MPa) rtu_cf (MPa) tcf (mm) (g/m2)
High-strength type 245,000 35,000 0.167 300
Medium-elasticity type 440,000 24,000 0.217 400
Chopped strand mat 18,750 97.1 0.143 –
(CSM)
Table 4 Material properties of epoxy resin

Materials Elastic modulus Compressive strength
Ee (MPa) rcu_e (MPa)
Toray ACE AUF60W 7,610 99.3
Toray ACE AUP40 3,430 117.7
5 CFRP Bonded Method by VaRTM
First, coating and mill scale are removed from the specimen using bristle blaster and
then the surface is cleaned by acetone before coating by cold hardening type epoxy
resin with low-viscosity epoxy resin (Toray ACE AUP40), the same to epoxy resin
using to bonded CF sheets. CF sheets and PF materials are installed to the speci-
men. Material properties of epoxy resin (Toray ACE AUP40) are shown in Table 4.
To prevent the corrosion due to electrochemical action and to facilitate the
impregnation of the epoxy resin, one layer of fiberglass chopped strand mat (CSM),
which its material properties are presented in Table 3, is installed as the first layer
between steel plate and CF sheets. Then secondary materials such as one layer peel
ply (to remove secondary materials after hardening), 3 layers of distribution media
(to secure the fluidity of resin), etc. are set and enclosed in bagging film. The system
is operated by vacuum pump in resin impregnation process. The impregnation time
is within the pot life of resin (approx. 1.5 h) and it is cured at 40 °C for 24 h. Last,
secondary materials are removed. The process of adhesion by VaRTM are can be
done part by part. However, the whole surface (one side) is conducted in one time
for this target specimen.
Figure 4 shows the failure modes of defect and non-defect model from analytical
studies. Shear buckling of web can be confirmed in non-defect model, while local
buckling at vertical stiffeners of 50% cross section loss is seen. In comparison to
non-defect model, the load-carrying capacity of the defect specimen model decreased
by 35%. Figure 5 shows the relationship between load and vertical displacement
below loading point from experimental and analytical studies. In comparison of both,
the defect and non-defect between experimental and analytical studies, good agree-
ment of maximum load, vertical displacement behavior can be verified. In addition,
the failure mode of reference model is shear buckling at web and the shear buckling
capacity increased approximately 20% in comparison to non-defect model from
analytical study. Therefore, with the dimensions of current cross section, the
strengthening of shear buckling capacity can be estimated to be upper limit.
Figure 6 shows relationship between amount of CF sheets and strengthening
effect of model CFP_SH90N10 and CFP_SH ± 45N10. From the figure, the
strengthening effect becomes stable in constant from the 10 layers of PF material in
call cases. Therefore, 10 layers of PF material are conducted in both the analytical
study and experimental study.
As presented in Fig. 7, although the deformation in-plan and out-of-plane in
CFP strengthened model (CFP_SH90N10) is effectively controlled, the failure of
CFRP at girder end is occurred. The maximum load is enhanced to the equivalent
level of load-carrying capacity in reference model. However, shear buckling at web
strengthened by vertical stiffeners cannot be confirm. This is due to the advance
failure of CFRP.
As presented in Fig. 8, in CFP strengthened model (CFP_SH ± 45N10), the
maximum load increases by 34% compare to non-defect model. However, in this
case, the actual maximum load is considered to be even higher due to the buckling
preceded in another web which are not arranged by CFRP. Although the debonding
of CFRP occurred ahead of maximum load, the influence on shear buckling
capacity is small.
Figure 9 shows relationship between load and vertical displacement below
loading point. From the figure, good agreement of maximum load, vertical dis-
placement behavior can be verified in each cases. Furthermore, the effectiveness of
the design in compression and tension direction on both sides is considered in
comparison to reference model. All the results of analytical and experimental
studies and strengthening effect are mentioned in Table 5.
(a) Defect model (Pmax=913.1 kN) (b) Non-defect model (Pmax=1419.1 kN)
Fig. 4 Relationship between load and vertical displacement below loading point
1720 V. Thay et al.
1800
Vertical displacement
1600
Non-defect 31.1%
1400 Defect 102.7%
Basler's equation (1303.3 kN)
1200
Load (kN)
1000
Non-defect (exp. 1330.1 kN)
800 Shear buckling (766.9 kN) Non-defect (ana. 1353.3 kN)
Defect (exp. 860.3 kN)
600 Defect (ana. 913.1 kN)
Reference (ana. 1743.9 kN)
400
Non-defect Basler's equation (the.)
200 Elastic shear buckling (the.)
Vertical displacement (the.)
0
0 3 6 9 12 15 18
Displacement (mm)
35 35
P-N1L800B120SH-90 P-N1L1130B120SH±45
P-N2L800B120SH-90 P-N2L1130B120SH±45
P-N3L800B120SH-90 30 P-N3L1130B120SH±45
30
P-N4L800B120SH-90 P-N4L1130B120SH±45
P-N5L800B120SH-90 P-N5L1130B120SH±45
25 P-N6L800B120SH-90 25 P-N6L1130B120SH±45
Strengthening effect
Strengthening effect
P-N7L800B120SH-90 P-N7L1130B120SH±45
P-N8L800B120SH-90 P-N8L1130B120SH±45
20 P-N9L800B120SH-90 20 P-N9L1130B120SH±45
P-N10L800B120SH-90 P-N10L1130B120SH±45
P-N11L800B120SH-90 P-N11L1130B120SH±45
15 P-N12L800B120SH-90 15 P-N12L1130B120SH±45
P-N13L800B120SH-90 P-N13L1130B120SH±45
P-N14L800B120SH-90 P-N14L1130B120SH±45
10 P-N15L800B120SH-90 10 P-N15L1130B120SH±45
P-N16L800B120SH-90 P-N16L1130B120SH±45
P-N17L800B120SH-90 P-N17L1130B120SH±45
5 P-N18L800B120SH-90 5 P-N18L1130B120SH±45
P-N19L800B120SH-90 P-N19L1130B120SH±45
P-N20L800B120SH-90 P-N20L1130B120SH±45
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10
Amount of CF sheets (m2) Amount of CF sheets (m2)
(a) CFP Strengthened model (CFP_SH90N10) (b) CFP Strengthened model (CFP_SH±45N10)
Fig. 6 Relationship between amount of CF sheets and strengthening effect
(a) Analytical result (Pmax=1670.5 kN) (b) Experimental result (Pmax=1642.6 kN)
Fig. 7 Analytical and experimental result of CFP_SH90N10

(a) Analytical result (Pmax=1779.6 kN) (b) Experimental result (Pmax=1781.9 kN)
Fig. 8 Analytical and experimental result of CFP_SH ± 45N10
2000
Vertical displacement Reference (ana.)
1800
1600 CFP_SH90N10 (ana.)
1400 CFP_SH90N10 (exp.)

Basler's equation 1303.3 kN
Load (kN)
1200
CFP_SH±45N10 (ana.)
1000
CFP_SH±45N10 (exp.)
800 Elastic shear buckling 766.9kN
600 Vertical displacement (the.)
400 Non-defect Basler's equation (the.)
200
Elastic shear buckling (the.)
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Displacement (mm)
Table 5 Analytical and experimental results

Model Web V.S. Web panel Maximum load
90° 90° −45° +45° 90° Ana. (kN) Exp. (kN) Ana./Exp.
No-defect – – – – – 1,419.1 1,330.1 0.941
Defect – – – – – 913.1 860.5 0.942
Reference – – – – – 1,743.9 – 1.285
CFP_ SH90N10 10L 15L 5L 5L 10L 1,670.5 1,642.6 1.235
CFP_ SH ± 45N10 10L 15L – – 10L 1,779.6 1,781.9 1.340
1722 V. Thay et al.
7 Conclusions
In this research, analytical and experimental studies of enhancement of

load-carrying capacity of steel girder end with cross section loss (defect rate of web:
100%, vertical stiffener: 50%) by adhesively bonded CF sheets using VaRTM
technique are conducted. The results of the studied show that with the arrangement
of CF sheets in the ±45° direction and over put by PF material vertically at center
of web, the maximum load is enhanced to the equivalent level of load-carrying
capacity in reference model. However, shear buckling at web strengthened by
vertical stiffeners cannot be confirm due to the advance failure of CFRP. Moreover,
with the arrangement of PF material in ±45° direction at cross section loss, max-
imum load increases by 34% compare to non-defect model. Although the
debonding of CFRP occurred ahead of maximum load, the influence on shear
buckling capacity is small.
It can be concluded that with the proper arrangement of CF sheets, not only the
recovery of load-carrying capacity but also the enhancement of load-carrying
capacity even in case of 100% loss in girder web panel. Future work will deals with
the prediction and countermeasure of the debonding of CFRP.
References
1. Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE) (2007) Application of advanced composite materials
to infrastructures, Hybrid structure reports 01. (in Japanese)
2. Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE) (2012) Advanced technology of repair and
strengthening of steel structures using externally-bonded FRP composites, Hybrid structure
reports 05. (in Japanese)
3. Kobayashi K, Kondo R, Nakamura H, Matsumoto Y, Matsui T, Ochi Y (2017) Repair of
section loss in girder end by CFRP using vacuum assisted resin transfer molding technology.
J JSCE 73(5):II_20–II_31. (in Japanese)
4. Kobayashi K, Kondo R, Thay V, Nakamura H, Matsumoto Y, Matsui T, Ochi Y (2018) Study
on strengthening of steel girder end using CFRP members fabricated by VaRTM technique.
J JSCE 74(5):II_44–II_55. (in Japanese)
5. Kondo F, Matsui T (2012) Recent topics about CFRP large structural molding in other fields –
the report of the task committee for FRP hybrid structures (H208). In: JSCE –, Proceedings of
the 4th symposium on FRP (Fiber Reinforced Polymer) hybrid structures and bridges, pp 23–
26
6. Matsuyama A, Sato J, Thay V, Nakamura H, Matsumoto Y, Matsui T, Ochi Y (2018) Repair
and strengthening of steel compression members using CFRP members fabricated by VaRTM
technique, J JSCE 74(5):II_67–II_80. (in Japanese)
7. Nakamura H, Kobayashi K, Kondo R, Thay V, Matsumoto Y, Matsui T, Ochi Y (2017)
Experimental study on repair of section loss in girder end by externally bonded carbon fiber
sheets using VaRTM. In: The 6th Asia-Pacific conference on FRP in structures (APFIS2017),
pp 36-1–36-4
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and Transport (2006) Research on local corrosion of highway steel bridges, technical note of
national institute for land and infrastructure management, No 294. (in Japanese)
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repair and strengthening method in steel structures by carbon fiber sheets. (in Japanese)
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(2011) Uniaxial compression test of steel plate bonded FRP sheet for rational repair and
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(2012) Experimental study on repair method using CFRP for corroded web in steel girder
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Horimoto W, Nagai M (2012) Shear buckling test and prediction of shear load carrying
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Horimoto W (2012) Experimental study on repair method of corroded vertical stiffeners at
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Japanese)
FE Simulation of a New Type
of Concrete-Filled Double Skin Steel
Tube with Stiffeners Under Axial
Loading
M. Ding, L. Shen, and B. Yang
Abstract Proposed herein is a new type of concrete-filled double skin steel tube
(CFDST) that uses webs to connect the inner and outer steel tubes so as to increase
the collaborative performance of this column. The outer square steel tube was
formed by welding steel plate and T-shaped section, while the webs of T-shaped
steel were also welded on the inner steel tube as stiffeners. Based on past experi-
ments, the finite element model (FEM) of CFDST under axial loading was estab-
lished and verified by comparing against the results from tests. The verified FE
models were developed to analyze the compressive behavior of these new stub
columns. The effects of stiffener (number and thickness), width-to-thickness (Bo/to)
ratios and hollow ratio on the compressive behavior were studied. It was found that
stiffeners could delay local buckling of the tube and change its mode and stress
path.
Keywords CFDST stub column Stiffeners Ultimate strength Failure mode

Finite element simulation
1 Introduction
Concrete filled double skin tube (CFDST) stub columns consist of double con-
centric steel tubes, and the space between the tubes filled with concrete. When
compared with concrete filled steel tube (CFST) column, CFDST column is lighter,
M. Ding L. Shen B. Yang (&)

School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University,
No.174 Shazhengjie, Shapingba, Chongqing, China
e-mail: yang0206@cqu.edu.cn
M. Ding
e-mail: 18865518033@163.com
L. Shen
e-mail: ryun2010@163.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_159
1726 M. Ding et al.
has a higher bending stiffness, higher section modulus, better local stability and
cyclic performance.
In recent years, researchers have carried out experiments and finite element
analyses to investigate the behavior of concrete filled double-skin stub members
under compressive forces. The performance of CFDST column under axial loading,
eccentric loading and bending moment was studied by Elchalakani et al. [1], Han
et al. [3], Huang et al. [5], and Uenaka [10]. The corresponding calculation method
of bearing capacity was proposed. The results indicated that local buckling occurred
not only on the outer steel tube but also on the inner steel tube before their ultimate
strength was developed.
In order to investigate the effect of stiffeners, Liang et al. [7] studied the com-
pressive behavior of CFDSTs with different types, arrangements of stiffeners, and
varied slenderness ratios under both axial and eccentric loading. Shekastehband
et al. [8] analyzed the cyclic behavior of CFDST columns with different patterns of
stiffeners embedded in the interior or exterior surfaces of the inner or outer tubes.
Wang et al. [11] investigated the effects of the eccentricity and slenderness ratio on
the compressive behaviors of concrete-filled double-skin steel tubular columns with
an outer stiffened thin-walled steel tube. All results indicated that the ductility of the
CFDST specimens was improved greatly by the presence of stiffeners. However,
the stiffener stiffness has no significant effect on the load-bearing capacity of the
CFDST.
In general, it is clear that there is little information regarding the stiffeners of the
CFDST column. To increase the collaborative performance of this column, the
authors proposed a new type of concrete-filled double skin steel tube (CFDST) that
uses webs to connect the inner and outer steel tubes as shown in Fig. 1. The outer
square steel tube was formed by welding steel plate and T-shaped section, while the
webs of T-shaped steel were also welded on the inner steel tube as stiffeners. The
outer square steel tube facilitates the connection of the beam-column joints, and the
circular steel tube acts as an inner tube to prevent the occurrence of local buckling.
CFDSTs with longitudinal stiffeners can effectively delay the buckling of the steel
(a) Traditional CFDST (b) New CFDST with stiffeners
Fig. 1 Cross sections of CFDST

FE Simulation of a New Type of CFDST … 1727
tube, increase the interaction between tube and concrete, and thus have the
advantages of ductility, good integrity and economical superiority.
In order to examine the compressive behavior of this new type of CFDST stub
column, FE simulations of CFDST stub columns with outer steel tubes (square) and
inner steel tubes (circular) under axial force were performed by using ABAQUS.
Material nonlinearity and geometric nonlinearity were considered in the model.
The FE results were verified against the test data reported by Han et al. [3]. The
verified FE model was then used to study the new column with stiffeners con-
necting the outer steel tube and inner steel tube. An extensive parametric study was
conducted to investigate the effects of stiffener number, width-to-thickness (Bo/to)
ratios and hollow ratio on column behaviors.
2 Finite Element Modelling
2.1 Material Models
2.1.1 Steel
The stress-strain constitutive model of carbon steel considering strain-hardening [2]

was selected in the FE model. Elastic modulus (Es) for steel was taken as 2:06
105 N/mm2, and the Poisson’s ratio (l) was assumed to be 0.3.
2.1.2 Concrete
It was found that the failure features of the CFDST specimens were very similar to
those of CFST columns [9]. Therefore, Han [4] uniaxial stress-strain model for
concrete in CFSTs is used for the analysis of CFDST members, i.e.
2x x2 ð x 1Þ
y¼f x
ð x [ 1Þ ð1Þ
b0 ðx1Þg þ x
e r
x¼ ;y ¼ ð2Þ
e0 r0
0
r 0 ¼ fc ð3Þ
e0 ¼ ec þ 800 n0:2 106 ð4Þ

0

ec ¼ 1300 þ 12:5 fc 106 ð5Þ
1728 M. Ding et al.
g ¼ 1:6 þ 1:5=x ð6Þ

0 0:1
fc
b0 ¼ p ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð7Þ
1:2 1 þ n
0
where fc is the concrete cylinder compressive strength. The initial modulus of
elasticity (Ec) and Poisson’s ratio (l) of concrete are determined according to the
recommendations given in ACI Committee 318 [6]. They are given as Ec ¼
pffiffiffiffi
4700 fc0 l ¼ 0:2 respectively.
2.2 Element Type, Element Mesh and Boundary Conditions
The inner and outer steel tubes of a CFDST were modelled by reduced-integration
shell elements (S4R), and the concrete was modelled by 8-node brick elements
(C3D8R). The approximate global mesh size of the steel tubes and concrete was
20 20 mm. Two reference points (RP-1, RP-2) were created to couple the area
where the steel tube and concrete were located in order to define the boundary
conditions. The first reference point (RP-1) was restrained against all degrees of
freedom. The second reference point (RP-2) was restrained against lateral dis-
placements (x and y directions) and all types of rotations. The load was specified as
a displacement on RP-2 along the longitudinal (z) axis. The finite element meshes
and boundary conditions of a model are shown in Fig. 2.
Concrete Outer and inner tube Load
R P -1
R P -2
Fig. 2 Finite element meshes and boundary conditions

2.3 Steel Tube-Concrete Interface
In ABAQUS, the “normal behavior” was selected as a “hard contact”. The tan-
gential mechanical property of the contact interaction is simulated by an isotropic
Coulomb friction model. The coefficient of friction (l) is assumed to be 0.6.
2.4 Verification of FE Modelling
The predicted ultimate strengths NFE from the FE modelling were compared with
12 published test results Ntest from Han et al. [3], as shown in Table 1. The dif-
ferences between NFE and Ntest are less than 5%. The predicted axial load N versus
axial strain curves were compared with the test curves in Fig. 3. It can be seen that
the simulation and test results are in good agreement; demonstrating the FE models
are efficient and can be applied for further analysis.
Table 1 Comparison between the experimental and finite element capacities

Ref. Dimensions Material properties Comparison
Bo to Di ti v fcu fvo fvi Ntest NFE NFE
Ntest
(MPa) (MPa) (MPa) (kN) (kN)
asc2a 120 3 32 3 0.28 46.8 275.9 415.42 1054 980.576 0.930
asc2b 120 3 32 3 0.28 46.8 275.9 415.42 1066 0.925
asc3a 120 3 58 3 0.51 46.8 275.9 369.6 990 996.729 1.007
asc3b 120 3 58 3 0.51 46.8 275.9 369.6 1000 0.997
asc4a 120 3 88 3 0.77 46.8 275.9 376.72 870 964.434 1.109
asc4b 120 3 88 3 0.77 46.8 275.9 376.72 996 0.968
asc5a 180 3 88 3 0.51 46.8 275.9 376.72 1725 1827.134 1.059
asc5b 180 3 88 3 0.51 46.8 275.9 376.72 1710 1.068
asc6a 240 3 114 3 0.49 46.8 275.9 312.32 2580 2724.230 1.056
asc6b 240 3 114 3 0.49 46.8 275.9 312.32 2460 1.107
asc7a 300 3 165 3 0.56 46.8 275.9 312.85 3240 3806.980 1.175
asc7b 300 3 165 3 0.56 46.8 275.9 312.85 3430 1.110
average – – – – – – – – 1.043
Note Bo and to was the width and thickness of the outer steel tube; Di and ti was the diameter and
thickness of the inner steel tube; v is the hollow ratio of the member, defined as Di /(Bo 2to ); L
was the column length, fcu is the concrete strength of 150 150 150 cube; fvo ,fvi was the yield
strength of outer and inner steel tube respectively
1730 M. Ding et al.
1200 1200 1200

scc2a scc4a
scc2b scc4b
1000 Simulation 1000 1000 Simulation
800 800 800

Load(kN)
600 600 600
400 400 400
200 200 200
0 0 0
0 10000 20000 30000 0 10000 20000 30000 0 10000 20000 30000
Strain(με) Strain(με) Strain(με)
2000 3000 5000

scc5a scc6a scc7a
scc5b scc6b scc7b
1600 Simulation 2400 Simulation 4000 Simulation
Load(kN)
1200 1800 3000
800 1200 2000
400 600 1000
0 0 0
0 10000 20000 30000 0 10000 20000 30000 0 10000 20000 30000
Strain(με) Strain(με) Strain(με)
Fig. 3 Axial load versus axial strain for the verified models
3 Mechanism Analysis of a New Type of CFDST
Having validated the FE models, a parametric study was then generated by

ABAQUS to study the compressive behavior of this new column. To study the
influence of dimensions and hollow ratio (v), two groups of columns (in total 25
columns) were designed: the outer tube of column in group A had the same size,
and the column in group B had the same hollow ratio, as shown in Table 2. Each
series included five specimens with different numbers (n was 0, 2 or 4) and
thickness (ts was 2 mm or 3 mm) of stiffeners. The specimens were labelled
according to the following rule: series, followed by the first number and the second
number which represent the number and thickness of the stiffener, respectively. In
addition, five columns were modeled without stiffener and were denoted by “0”. For
example, A1-23 represented the specimen with 2 pieces of 3 mm stiffener. C45
0
(fc = 41.5 MPa) and Q345 (fy = 345 MPa) were chosen for all specimens.
Group A was used to investigate the effect of hollow ratio v, the number and
thickness of stiffener on the capacity of columns with the constant Bo and to .
Table 2 Column sizes

Group Series Dimensions Group Group Dimensions
Bo to Di ti v Bo to Di ti v
A A1 120 3 32 3 0.28 B B1* 120 3 58 3 0.51
A2 120 3 58 3 0.51 B2 180 3 88 3 0.51
A3 120 3 88 3 0.77 B3 300 3 150 3 0.51
Note Series B1 is same as series A1
Group B was used to investigate the effect of Bo =to , the number and thickness of
stiffener on the capacity of columns with the constant hollow ratio of 0.51. The
failure mode, axial load-displacement curves and capacity will be discussed below.
3.1 Failure Mode
From Figs. 4 and 5, it can be seen that the outward displacement of outer steel tubes
was clearly constrained due to the presence of stiffeners. For group A, as the hollow
ratio increased, local buckling occurred not only on the outer steel tube but also on
the inner steel tube. When compared to specimens having only two stiffeners, the
buckling deformation of the two outer steel plates without stiffening was more
serious. This may be caused by the pressing force in the process of concrete
extrusion. For specimens with four stiffeners, even if the hollow ratio was large, the
buckling of the inner and outer tube can be well limited. For group B, as the ratio of
Bo =to increased, the deformation of outer tubes was significant regardless of the
presence stiffeners. When the ratio was equal to three (like B3), the buckling of the
outer steel tube was difficult to be restricted.
Fig. 4 Failure mode of group A

1732 M. Ding et al.
Fig. 5 Failure mode of group B
3.2 Displacement-Load Curve
Figures 6 and 7 show the axial load-displacement curves for Group A and Group B,
respectively. All curves appeared approximately linear at the beginning. It can be
seen that the existence of stiffener can improve the ultimate strength of columns.
After reaching the peak strength, the load of CFDSTs generally dropped slowly. For
the stiffened specimens, the capacity decreased more slowly than that of the
unstiffened one, showing better deformation coordination ability. After the load
dropped, the residual load capacity remained almost unchanged. The residual
strength part after the ultimate load seemed parallel to each other. The curves in A3
were very close to one another which indicated that stiffeners had a small effect
when the hollow ratio was large. The curves behaved slightly differently for B3,
maintaining a large ratio of Bo/to. When compared to Group A, all curves in
Group B differed only in the descending segment with varing the Bo/to ratio.
3.3 Ultimate Bearing Capacity
Table 3 shows the results for Group A and Group B. The ultimate loads of most
stiffened specimens of types A1, A2, and A3 increased by 5.1–15.2%, 3.2–10.8%,
1350 1350 1350

1250 1250 1250
1000 1000 1000

Load (kN)
750 750 750
A1-00 A2-00
A3-00
500 A1-22 500 A2-22 500
A3-22
A1-23 A2-23
A3-23
250 A1-42 250 A2-42 250 A3-42
A1-43 A2-43
A3-43
0 0 0
0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4
Axial displacement (mm) Axial displacement (mm) Axial displacement (mm)
(a) χ=0.28 (b) χ=0.51 (c) χ=0.77
Fig. 6 Axial load-displacement curves of group A
1250 2250 5000

2000
1000 4000
1500
Load (kN)
750 3000
B1-00 1000 B2-00

500 2000 B3-00
B1-22 B2-22
B3-22
B1-23 B2-23
500 B3-23
250 B1-42 B2-42 1000
B3-42
B1-43 B2-43
B3-43
0 0 0
0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4
Axial displacement (mm) Axial displacement (mm) Axial displacement (mm)
(a) Bo/to=40 (b) Bo/to=60 (c) Bo/to=100
Fig. 7 Axial load-displacement curves of group B
and 1.8–5.4%, respectively, as compared with the unstiffened ones. For A3, the
effect of stiffener on bearing capacity was not significant, because of the large
hollow ratio (v = 0.77). It can be seen that the influence of stiffener number and
thickness on the ultimate bearing capacity of the specimens was obvious. In the
same group like A1, the more number and the thicker of stiffener, the larger the
capacity can be gained. In Group B, the ultimate loads of most stiffened specimens
of types B1, B2, and B3 increased by 3.2–10.8%, 3.0–8.9%, and 2.3–6.9%,
respectively, compared with the unstiffened ones. It was obvious to find that the
increment of capacity of the specimens in Group B was smaller than that of
Group A.
1734 M. Ding et al.
Table 3 Results of Group A and Group B

Group v n ts mm Nc kN rc MPa Nu kN D/Nu,0 %
A1-00 0.28 0 – 570.85 46.82 1114.56 0.0
A1-22 0.28 2 2 574.38 47.75 1170.97 5.1
A1-23 0.28 2 3 572.46 47.92 1195.28 7.6
A1-42 0.28 4 2 616.69 51.98 1252.70 10.2
A1-43 0.28 4 3 612.44 52.35 1304.42 15.2
A2/B1-00 0.51 0 – 486.29 46.97 1117.41 0.0
A2/B1-22 0.51 2 2 484.14 47.27 1153.42 3.2
A2/B1-23 0.51 2 3 483.09 47.43 1171.14 4.8
A2/B1-42 0.51 4 2 503.54 49.71 1202.90 7.7
A2/B1-43 0.51 4 3 499.97 49.91 1237.57 10.8
A3-00 0.77 0 – 320.42 46.34 1058.44 0.0
A3-22 0.77 2 2 323.47 47.14 1077.23 1.8
A3-23 0.77 2 3 321.95 47.10 1084.91 2.5
A3-42 0.77 4 2 329.77 48.42 1100.00 3.9
A3-43 0.77 4 3 327.32 48.43 1115.44 5.4
B2-00 0.51 0 – 1076.47 44.49 2006.76 0.0
B2-22 0.51 2 2 1059.59 44.11 2059.47 3.0
B2-23 0.51 2 3 1039.58 43.43 2074.38 4.4
B2-42 0.51 4 2 1097.30 46.01 2163.65 5.9
B2-43 0.51 4 3 1089.36 46.01 2215.53 8.9
B3-00 0.51 0 – 3114.45 45.29 4340.05 0.0
B3-22 0.51 2 2 2959.89 43.22 4501.42 2.3
B3-23 0.51 2 3 2921.70 42.76 4534.05 3.4
B3-42 0.51 4 2 2990.92 43.86 4790.58 4.6
B3-43 0.51 4 3 2976.57 43.84 4876.58 6.9
Note Nc is the force of concrete at peak load; rc is the average compressive stress of concrete at
peak load; Nu is the ultimate load; Nu,0 is the capacity of the specimen without stiffener, D = Nu
−Nu,0 is the load increment; A2/B1-xx means A2-xx and B1-xx
4 Conclusions
Based on the verified FE model, the compressive behavior of the new type stiffened
CFDST short column was studied. The following conclusions may be drawn for the
study:
1) Stiffeners can delay the local buckling of both inner and outer steel tubes.
Moreover, the efficiency of 4 stiffeners was much better for the specimen with
large Bo =to ratio.
2) Stiffeners can improve the ultimate strength of columns. However, the increase
ratio of the bearing capacity decreases as the hollow ratio increases.
3) After peak load, the load-displacement curve of stiffened columns became more
gradual and maintained a higher residual bearing capacity than unstiffened ones.
All the above results show that this novel stiffened CFDST has potential
application value.
References
1. Elchalakani M, Zhao XL, Grzebieta R (2002) Tests on concrete filled double-skin (CHS outer
and SHS inner) composite short columns under axial compression. Thin Walled Struct
40:415–441
2. En, 1993-1-2. (2005) EN 1993-1-2: Eurocode 3: design of steel structures. Part 1-2: general
rules and rules for buildings. In: Comité Europeo de Normalización
3. Han LH, Tao Z, Huang H, Zhao XL (2004) Concrete-filled double skin (SHS outer and CHS
inner) steel tubular beam-columns. Thin Walled Struct 42:1329–1355
4. Han LH (2016) Concrete Filled Steel Tubular Structures—Theory and Practice. Science
Press, Beijing
5. Huang H, Sun W, Chen MC, Zeng GP (2015) Experimental study on concrete-filled
double-skin circular steel tubes under combined loadings. J Build Struct 36:53–59
6. Institute, American Concrete (2005) Building code requirements for structural concrete and
commentary. In: Concrete Construction. ACI Committee 318 (ACI318), Detroit, USA
7. Liang W, Dong JF, Wang QY (2019) Mechanical behaviour of concrete-filled double-skin
steel tube (CFDST) with stiffeners under axial and eccentric loading. Thin Walled Struct
138:215–230
8. Shekastehband B, Mohammadbagheri S, Taromi A (2018) Seismic behavior of stiffened
concrete-filled double-skin tubular columns. Steel Compos Struct 27:577–598
9. Tao Z, Han LH, Zhao XL (2004) Behaviour of concrete-filled double skin (CHS inner and
CHS outer) steel tubular stub columns and beam-columns. J Constr Steel Res 60:1129–1158
10. Uenaka Kojiro (2016) CFDST stub columns having outer circular and inner square sections
under compression. J Constr Steel Res 120:1–7
11. Wang ZB, Gao YH, Chi SY, Liao FY (2018) Behavior of concrete-filled double-skin
thin-walled steel tubular columns under eccentric compression. J Build Struct 39:124–131
Experimental Study on Stress-Strain
Properties of Ultra-High Performance
Fibre Reinforced Concrete Under
Uniaxial Compression and Tension
Jia-Hua Liu, Zabihullah Quraishi, Miao Ding, and Bo Yang
Abstract Ultra-High Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC) is a

superior type of concrete with high strength in both compression and tension. The
stress-strain relationship under uniaxial compression and tension is the premise for
analyzing the mechanical behavior of UHPFRC components. This paper determines
the stress-strain behavior of UHPFRC under uniaxial loading. The results of
experimental investigations on the compression and tensile response of UHPFRC
are presented. The experimental tests include 36 cylinders compressive tests and 36
dog-bone shaped tension tests to evaluate the stress-strain relationship of the
material under compression and tension. The rigid auxiliary component and the
deformation test frame were adopted in the compressive tests to obtain the decline
curve successfully. Based on self-designed uniaxial tensile test equipment, a series
of UHPFRC uniaxial tensile tests were completed. The effects of steel fibers content
and water to binder ratio of the tensile and compressive strength, modulus of
elasticity and post-cracking behavior was investigated.

Keywords UHPFRC Uniaxial compressive testing techniques Uniaxial tensile

testing techniques Stress-strain curve
1 Introduction
UHPFRC is a new cementitious material with ultra-high strength, high durability

and high toughness [4]. Due to its superior qualities, they are increasingly being
used in structures subject to severe environmental and loading conditions, such as
bridges, off-shores, and high-rises. With the increasing use of UHPFRC in modern
J.-H. Liu Z. Quraishi M. Ding B. Yang (&)

School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China
e-mail: yang0206@cqu.edu.cn; 20171602005t@cqu.edu.cn
J.-H. Liu Z. Quraishi M. Ding B. Yang
Key Laboratory of New Technology for Construction of Cities in Mountain Area,
Chongqing University, Chongqing, China

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_160
1738 J.-H. Liu et al.
buildings, determining its tensile and compressive properties are critical to its
structural behavior, numerical simulation and fracture mechanics. A number of
studies about the behavior of UHPFRC under static loading have been investigated
[3, 6, 7], each with its own interpretation to develop appropriate tensile and com-
pression test methods. However, the influence of the mix ratio, raw materials and
test instruments on the static properties of UHPFRC, especially the post-cracking
behavior, is significant, and the stiffness of most test machines is not enough to
capture the full stress-strain curve, so a relatively common test method has not been
found. At the same time, the research on the influence of different steel fiber
contents and water-cement ratio on the full stress-strain curve is still insufficient.
This paper was developed for the determination of UHPFRC and UHPC (re-
inforced without steel fibers) test method for uniaxial tensile and compressive
properties. In the compression test, a rigid element and a deformation test frame
were used to obtain a method for capturing the UHPFRC stress-strain curve falling
section on a conventional electro-hydraulic servo test machine. Large cross-section
specimens were used in the tensile test to ensure the random distribution of the
fibers. In the mixture used in this study, Steel fiber is 13 mm long and the diameter
is 0.2 mm, The yield strength is 2850 MPa. The ultimate compression and tensile
stresses of the six concrete mixtures and their corresponding strains were deter-
mined. The effects of different steel fiber content and water-to-binder ratio on
strength and ductility were determined.
2 Materials and Mix Design
The detailed information of the mixing ratio of UHPFRC and UHPC used in this
study is shown in Table 1. Its mix design is developed on the basis of other
researchers [8].
A total of six different concrete mixtures (UHPFRC and UHPC) were cast and
numbered. The six mixtures contained different steel fiber content or water to binder
ratio. Among them, W18F1 indicates that the water-to-binder ratio is 0.18. The steel
Table 1 Mix design for UHPFRC and UHPC

Material Cement Silica Silica sand Superplasticizers Water Steel
(kg/m3) fume (average size fibers
0.25 mm)
W16F0 971 242 1068 42 176 0
W16F1 997 249 1097 43 181 74
W16F2 968 242 1065 42 175 148
W16F3 940 235 1033 41 171 223
W18F2 959 240 1055 42 198 148
W20F2 950 238 1045 42 220 148
Experimental Study on Stress-Strain Properties … 1739
fiber content is 1% of the total volume. All specimens were kept at the laboratory
temperature (20 °C) for 24 h. After checking the initial solidification of all samples,
demolding was carried out in about 24 h. All samples were placed in a 90 °C
high-temperature water bath for the next 48 h. Finally, the specimen was stored at
the laboratory temperature until the test day.
3 Experimental Test
A total of 36 cylindrical specimens and 36 tensile specimens were tested in 6

groups 28 days after casting. A relatively simple test procedure for determining the
elastic modulus and the full stress-strain curve during uniaxial compression and
drawing was developed.
3.1 Compression Test
The compressive strength test is the most common test for UHPFRC. Many
accepted standards (AFGC; ASTM C469-94) provide detailed guidance for mea-
suring the compressive strength and modulus of elasticity of concrete using
cylindrical specimens. However, it has been found that the test methods recom-
mended by the two specifications are not very suitable, especially when measuring
the post-cracking behavior of UHPFRC samples. those methods only capture the
peak strength of the UHPFRC sample. When the bearing capacity of the specimen
reaches the maximum value and starts to fall, the test machine recovers deformation
due to the reduced force and rapidly releases energy. A large additional strain is
applied to the specimens, causing the specimens to be destroyed rapidly. It shows
the characteristic of a steep drop in stress on the curve.
By modifying the standard tests, a simple method has been developed. This
method allows the general electro-hydraulic servo tester to obtain the entire
stress-strain range. A uniaxial compression test was performed on a cylindrical
specimen with a diameter of 100 mm and a height of 200 mm. Grub screws were
used to secure two rigid rings to two-thirds of the specimen. Two displacement
meters were introduced in the middle of the two rigid rings and are fixed on
opposite sides of the sample. The specimens were loaded at a rate of 0.1 mm/min
and the measured values were recorded.
To obtain a stable full curve of stress and strain, the main difficulty is the falling
part of the curve. As shown in Fig. 1, in this study, by inserting four screw jacks
with a maximum bearing capacity of 32t, the overall stiffness of the test device was
increased and exceeded the maximum line stiffness of the falling section of the
specimen. The elastic strain energy released by the test machine was absorbed by
those four screw jacks when the specimen was damaged, so a stable concrete
stress-strain full curve is obtained. Prior to each test, All the cylindrical specimens
Rigid
auxiliary
Deforma on
Test frame
Strain
gauge
Fig. 1 Uniaxial compression test setup
were polished to both ends with an unevenness of less than 0.1 mm. High strength
gypsum was applied to minimize stress concentration at the ends.
3.2 Direct Tensile Test
It is essential to select a representative measurement method for the determination

of fiber reinforced cementitious matrix concrete [5]. The true tensile strength of
UHPFRC and UHPC can be more accurately captured using a uniaxial tensile test.
The specimens were cast into a dog bone shape to create a uniaxial stress field
through the central section of the specimen, and cracks and failure locations occur
in these regions. The shape of the specimen was improved on the basis of the
predecessors (Nguyen et al. 1994), and the size of the smallest section of the
specimen was increased to 36 36 mm. The size at the smallest section is equal to
three fiber lengths (13 mm), to ensure random fiber distribution. In this test, as
shown in Fig. 2a, six unnotched dog bone specimens were prepared for each
mixture. Figure 2b shows the test device in a displacement control tester with a
maximum test load of 100 kN. Two strain gauges were mounted on opposite sides
of the sample to measure the strain in the longitudinal direction of the cracking front
of the specimen, the eccentricity of the test device was minimized by the indication
of the two strain gauges. Two displacement meters were introduced at a gauge
length of 140 mm in the middle of the sample to measure the displacement value of
the gauge length throughout the test. In this test, displacement control was applied
to the steel bar at a rate of 0.4 mm/min, and the tensile load was transmitted to the
specimen. As the test progresses, The entire stress-strain curve in the ascending and
descending branches was automatically recorded.
a b
Grip for
Strain
gauge Deforma on
Fig. 2 Uniaxial tensile tests setup: a Specimen geometries. b Tests setup
For each test in tension and compression, 6 specimens from six concrete mixtures
were tested, and the average curve after interpolation is given here. The strain is
obtained by dividing the average of the displacement meter with the gauge length.
The stress is obtained by dividing the load captured by the pressure sensor with the
smallest cross section of the specimen. The material behavior of the six concretes
can be summarized as follows.
4.1 Compressive Behaviour
For the compression performance of UHPFRC, the steel fiber mainly acts as a fine
aggregate in the rising section of the compressive stress-strain curve and does not
play the role of tension. However, its effect on the performance and failure
mechanism after cracking is significant. It can be seen in Fig. 3a that the elastic
phases of the four concrete with different steel fiber contents follow a similar trend
up to the proportional limit.
When the steel fiber content is 0, the UHPC sample is destroyed by a sudden
explosion at this time. As shown in Fig. 4a, the concrete fragments are splashed
because there is no fiber pulling action. In contrast, the elastic phase of the
UHPFRC specimen can extend up to about 90–95% of its peak strength, followed
a b
175 175
W16F0 W16F2
W16F1 W18F2
150 150
Compressive stress (Mpa)

Compressive stress (Mpa)
W16F2 W20F2
W16F3
125 125
100 100
75 75
50 50
25 25
0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 0 2000 4000 6000 8000
Strain (µε) Strain (µε)
Fig. 3 Compressive stress–strain curve: a the stress-strain curve with respect to steel fibers
content. b the stress-strain curve with respect to water-cement ratio
(a) The failure mode of UHPC. (b) The failure mode of UHPFRC.
Fig. 4 Uniaxial Compressive tests failure mode
by a strain hardening process up to the peak strength. After the peak intensity, a
sudden strain softening occurs where the presence of fibers controls the softening
phase. When the fiber content is 1%, the interaction between the fiber and the
matrix is still not enough to cause strain softening of UHPFRC, but its failure mode
is shown in Fig. 4b, which is transformed into ductile compression failure, even
under the total strength loss. The surface remains intact.
With the further increase of steel fiber content, the strain softening stage of
UHPFRC is more gradual, and the area under the entire stress-strain curve
increases. This is because the bridging effect of the fiber slows down the further
development of the crack after the cracking of the specimen.
Compared with the steel fiber content, the water-binder ratio has no significant
effect on the strain softening stage of UHPFRC, as shown in Fig. 3b. As the
water-to-binder ratio increases, the stiffness of UHPFRC decreases accordingly.
With the increases of water-to-binder ratio, although the workability of the concrete
mixture improved, it is easier to leave a larger pore in the test block. Those large
pores result in a corresponding decrease in the elastic modulus of the UHPFRC. As
the water-to-binder ratio increased from 0.16 to 0.18, the peak strength of UHPFRC
was basically the same, but it decreased by 12.54% from 0.18 to 0.2. The reason is
that when the water-to-binder ratio is increased to a certain extent, the interface
between the fiber and the cement matrix is more likely to form a water film. It has a
looser structure than the matrix structure, so the steel fiber is liable to be pulled off
due to insufficient bond strength.
4.2 Tensile Behaviour
As shown in Fig. 5a, the tensile properties of the four concretes with different steel
fiber contents are significantly different. The entire curve can be divided into a line
elastic phase, a crack development phase, and a failure phase. In the Linear elastic
phase, similar to the uniaxial compression experiment, the fiber content does not
significantly affect the behavior of the material. The maximum tensile strength that
can be obtained at this stage is the cracking strength of the concrete matrix. When
the first micro crack appears, the curve enters the crack development stage. At this
stage, the UHPC with a steel fiber content of 0 is rapidly destroyed at the first crack
as shown in Fig. 6a. In contrast, the strength of the UHPFRC specimen is main-
tained by the composite action of the steel fibers that bridge the concrete crack.
Tensile strength begins to increase at a very small rate. With the increase of the steel
fiber content, the strain hardening behavior becomes more pronounced. At this
stage, a large number of microcracks are formed around the first main crack as
shown in Fig. 6b. Strain hardening behavior is the most significant difference
between UHPFRC and all other types of concrete. When the ultimate tensile
strength of UHPFRC is reached at the end of the strain hardening state, the curve
enters the failure phase. The microcracks formed in the crack development stage
form the main crack, and the width gradually increases after the transverse pene-
tration. The steel fiber continues to be pulled out, and the bearing capacity is
gradually reduced until the specimen is broken, as shown in Fig. 6b.
As shown in Fig. 5b, the difference between the tensile stress-strain curves of the
three concretes with different water-to-binder ratios is mainly the difference in
cracking strength. The reason is that water-to-binder ratio mainly affects the
strength of the UHPFRC concrete matrix. As the water-to-binder ratio decreases,
the strength of the concrete matrix increases, and the corresponding cracking
strength also increases. The bond between the steel fiber and the concrete matrix is
too small when the water-to-binder ratio is 0.2. Therefore, the strain hardening
phase does not occur, but directly enters the failure phase.
10
a W16F0
b
W16F1 W16F2
W16F2 8 W18F2
8 W16F3 W20F2
Tensile stress (Mpa)
Tensile stress (Mpa)

6
6
4
4
2
2
0 0
0 1500 3000 4500 6000 7500 9000 10500 12000 13500 0 1500 3000 4500 6000 7500 9000 10500 12000 13500 15000
Strain (µε) Strain (µε)
Fig. 5 Tensile stress-strain curve: a the stress-strain curve with respect to steel fibers content.
b the stress-strain curve with respect to water-cement ratio
(a) The failure mode of UHPC. (b) The failure mode of UHPFRC.
Fig. 6 Uniaxial tensile tests failure mode
5 Conclusions
The increase of steel fiber content has little effect on the peak strain and elastic
modulus of UHPFRC tensile and compressive stress. However, there is a significant
improvement in the form of failure and the ductility after cracking, which is the
decisive factor for the transformation of UHPFRC from brittleness to ductility. 2%
of the steel fiber content is proved to be able to make the failure form of UHPFRC
into ductile failure.
The value of the water-to-binder ratio affects the strength of the UHPFRC
concrete matrix and the modulus of elasticity. Tests have shown that a
water-to-binder ratio of 0.18 is the most suitable choice without reducing the
strength of UHPFRC.
Acknowledgements The author is very grateful to the Chongqing University of Mountainous

Cities Construction New Technology Key Laboratory for its support. The author also wishes to
thank Ms. Jun Zhang for her technical support in the specific laboratory of Chongqing University.
References
1. ASTM C (2002) 469, Standard test method for static modulus of elasticity and Poisson’s ratio
of concrete in compression. Annual book of ASTM standards, 4
2. AFGC SETRA (2013) Ultra high performance fiber-reinforced concrete. Recommendations.
AFGC-SETRA Working Group, Bagneux
3. Duque LFM, Graybeal B (2017) Fiber orientation distribution and tensile mechanical response
in UHPFRC. Mater Struct 50(1):55
4. de Larrard F, Sedran T (1994) Optimization of ultra-high-performance concrete by the use of a
packing model. Cem Concr Res 24(6):997–1009
5. Kanakubo T (2006) Tensile characteristics evaluation method for ductile fiber-reinforced
cementitious composites. J Adv Concr Technol 4(1):3–17
6. Prabha SL, Dattatreya JK, Neelamegam M, Seshagirirao MV (2010) Study on stress-strain
properties of reactive powder concrete under uniaxial compression. Int J Eng Sci Technol
2(11):6408–6416
7. Wille K, El-Tawil S, Naaman AE (2014) Properties of strain hardening ultra high performance
fiber reinforced concrete (UHP-FRC) under direct tensile loading. Cement Concr Compos
48:53–66
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Complexities and Effectiveness
of Australian Standard for Concrete
Structures—AS 3600-2018
S. H. Chowdhury and Y. C. Loo
Abstract The first of the AS 3600 standard series, Australian Standard for
Concrete Structures AS 3600-1988 was published in March 1988. It was a unified
code for providing design guides for reinforced and prestressed concrete structures.
Since then, AS 3600 has been revised four times and published consecutively at
between six to nine-year intervals as AS 3600-1994, AS 3600-2001, AS 3600-2009
and the latest, AS 3600-2018.
The changes and/or updates made in AS 3600-2018 are mainly in the following
requirements:
• Values of capacity reduction factor, /, for different strengths of reinforced and
prestressed members
• Stress-block configuration for the analysis and design of reinforced and pre-
stressed members in bending
• Shear and torsional strengths of reinforced and prestressed members
• Effective moment of inertia for deflection calculation of reinforced and pre-
stressed members
Examples illustrating the application of the relevant new design procedures and
formulas have been worked out in detail and presented elsewhere by the authors.
Being a rather mature discipline, research worldwide on the mechanics and
strength of concrete structures is sustaining a state of diminishing return. Australia
is no exception. In particular, much of the abovementioned modifications have
resulted in more complicated procedures and computational efforts. Academically,
such added complexity might be considered as a disciplinary upgrade. On the other
hand, the practitioners definitely deserve to be advised of the effectiveness, or
worthiness, of such an advance.
S. H. Chowdhury (&) Y. C. Loo

School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University,
Gold Coast Campus, QLD 4222, Australia
e-mail: s.h.chowdhury@griffith.edu.au
Y. C. Loo
e-mail: y.loo@griffith.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_161
1748 S. H. Chowdhury and Y. C. Loo
In each of the concerned topics, analysis and design calculations have been
carried out using the updated specifications given in AS 3600-2018, as well as those
available in the superseded AS 3600-2009. Based on the numerical data and design
outcomes, observations are made in this paper in regard to the complexity and
effectiveness of this Australia’s premier concrete structures code.
Keywords Australian standards AS 3600-2018 Concrete structures

Complexities Effectiveness
1 Introduction
Australian Standard (AS) 3600-1988 Concrete Structures, the first of the AS 3600
series, was published in March 1988. In line with European practices, it was a
unified code covering reinforced and prestressed concrete structures. In effect, AS
3600-1988 Concrete Structures was the revised and amalgamated version of AS
1480-1982 SAA Concrete Structures Code [1] and AS 1481-1978 SAA Prestressed
Concrete Code [2], which it then superseded. Limit state design philosophy was
adopted in AS 3600-1988 [3]. Many of the design equations for shear, torsion, slabs
and columns were changed, but the strength design procedure was basically the
same, that is, to ensure /Ru S . For a given section of any structural member to be
designed, S* was the ‘action effect’ or axial force, moment, shear or torsion due to
the most critical combination of the external service loads, each multiplied by a
corresponding load factor; Ru was the computed ultimate resistance (or strength) of
the member at that section against the said type of action effect; and ϕ was the
capacity reduction factor specified for the type of ultimate strength in question.
Since 1988, AS 3600 has been revised and updated four times and published
consecutively at approximately six to nine-year intervals as AS 3600-1994 [4], AS
3600-2001 [5], AS 3600-2009 [6], and the latest AS 3600-2018 [7]. However, the
limit state design philosophy remains unchanged in the latest version of the
Standard in which Clause 2.2.2 states that Rd Ed , where Rd ¼ /Ru is the ‘design
capacity’, and Ed ¼ S , the design action effect.
In AS 3600-2001, N-grade or 500 MPa steel was specified, leading to modifi-
cations in serviceability specifications and other consequential changes. In AS
3600-2001, an additional strength grade for concrete was introduced with the
characteristic compressive strength fc0 = 65 MPa. Two more grades were provided
0
in AS 3600-2009 [6], i.e. fc = 80 MPa and 100 MPa. This has resulted in modi-
fication to many of the design equations. However, these design equations are
further modified and/or made more complex in some cases in AS 3600-2018 [7].
Complexities and Effectiveness of Australian Standard … 1749
The changes and/or updates made in AS 3600-2018 [7] are mainly in the fol-
lowing requirements:
• Stress-block configuration for the analysis and design of reinforced and pre-
stressed members in bending
• Values of capacity reduction factor, /, for different member strengths
• Shear and torsional strengths of members
• Effective moment of inertia for deflection calculations.
Being a rather mature discipline, research worldwide on the mechanics and
strength of concrete structures is sustaining a state of diminishing return. Australia is
no exception. The abovementioned modifications have resulted in more complicated
procedures and added computational efforts. Academically, such increased com-
plexity might be considered as a disciplinary upgrade. On the other hand, the prac-
titioners deserve to be advised of the effectiveness, or worthiness, of such an advance.
In view of the above, for each of the concerned topics, analysis and design
calculations have been carried out using the updated specifications given in AS
3600-2018 [7], as well as those available in the superseded AS 3600-2009 [6].
Based on the numerical data and design outcomes, observations are made in this
paper regarding the complexity and effectiveness of this the latest version of
Australia’s premier concrete structures code.
2 Concrete Stress Block and Capacity Reduction Factor
Design of reinforced concrete for flexure is traditionally performed using a rectangular

stress block that simulates compressive stresses in concrete. Because of its simplicity
and relative accuracy, the use of the rectangular stress block is recommended in many
major national concrete structures codes, including AS 3600 series. It is well estab-
lished that the stress-strain characteristics of concrete change with strength [9, 10, 13,
14]. Therefore, the rectangular stress block adopted for normal-strength concretes in
earlier versions of AS 3600 may not be applicable to high strength concrete. Thus, in
AS 3600-2009 [6], with the introduction of higher strength grades of concrete, a new
rectangular stress block was incorporated. However, these stress block parameters
have been further modified in AS 3600-2018 [7].
Although the strength design procedure was unchanged from AS 1480-1982 [1]
and AS 1481-1978 [2], the recommended load factors were generally lower in AS
3600 series than previously specified. However, accompanying these lower load
factors were the corresponding reduced values of /. A probabilistic-based analyt-
ical model was adopted to re-evaluate the reliability of the then new design pro-
cedure. Unfortunately, actual failure statistics were inadequate for the probabilistic
analysis to produce a new and more reliable procedure (in terms of load factors and
/). Instead, the new procedure was calibrated simply using designs based on the old
AS 1480-1982 code. In simplistic terms, the codes prior to AS 3600 series and after
applied in parallel should lead to the same design. However, the values of / have
been increased in AS 3600-2018 [7] to address this issue.
2.1 Complexities
The widely accepted ‘actual’ stress block is as shown in Fig. 1(a). The factor g < 1
accounts for the difference between the crushing strength of concrete cylinders and
0
the concrete in the beam; a and b, each being a function of fc , define the geometry
of the stress block. Empirical but complicated formulas have been given for g, a
and b. Although the concept of the curved stress block was acknowledged as an
advance, it was tedious to apply. The equivalent (rectangular) stress block, as
shown in Fig. 1(b), was so defined that its use would give the same Mu as that
computed using the ‘actual’ stress block.
In AS 3600-2009 [6], a2 and c for all section types were given as:
a2 ¼ 1:0 0:003fc0 but 0:67 a2 0:85 ð1Þ
c ¼ 1:05 0:007fc0 but 0:67 c 0:85 ð2Þ
In AS 3600-2018 [7], these are changed to:
a2 ¼ 0:85 0:0015f 0 but a2 0:67 ð3Þ
For circular sections, a2 is to be reduced by 5% and for any section for which
width reduces from the neutral axis towards the compression face, a2 is to be
reduced by 10%.
On the other hand, for all section types,
c ¼ 0:97 0:0025fc0 but c 0:67 ð4Þ
ηf c' α 2 f c'
βk ud γ k ud / 2
C = αηf c'k ubd γ ku d

ku d C = α 2 f c'γ k ubd
Neutral Axis
(a) (b)
Fig. 1 a Actual stress block and b equivalent stress block

In AS 3600-2009 [6], the capacity reduction factor ϕ was given as
/ ¼ 1:19 13kuo =12 ð5Þ
but for beams with Class N reinforcement only, 0:6 / 0:8 and for beams with
Class L reinforcement, 0:6 / 0:64:
In Eq. (5), kuo ¼ kduod in which do is the distance between the extreme compres-
sion fibre and the centroid of the outermost layer of the tension bars.
In AS 3600-2018 [7], ϕ values are changed to:
/ ¼ 1:24 13kuo =12 ð6Þ
but for beams with Class N reinforcement only, 0:65 / 0:85 and for beams with
Class L reinforcement, / ¼ 0:65:
2.2 Effectiveness
Analysis and design calculations have been carried out using the updated specifi-
cations given in AS 3600-2018 [7] and those available in the superseded AS
3600-2009 [6] for several problems. These helps investigate the effectiveness of
introducing the complexities as described above in determining α2, γ and ϕ. The
results are presented in detail elsewhere [11].
As a demonstration, for a singly reinforced rectangular section with
b = 250 mm, d = 500 mm, fc0 = 50 MPa, and Class N reinforcement only
(fsy = 500 MPa), the reliable moment capacities for the following reinforcement
cases were calculated using provisions of both AS 3600-2009 [6] and AS
3600-2018 [7]:
(a) Ast = 1500 mm2
(b) Ast = 9000 mm2
(c) a ‘balanced’ design
(d) with the maximum allowable reinforcement ratio (pall)
(e) Ast = 4500 mm2.
The results are tabulated in Table 1 for comparison. As can be seen from
Table 1, the ultimate moment capacities for different reinforcement cases differ very
little while reliable moment capacities varying to slightly larger extents mainly
because of increase in ϕ values in AS 3600-2018 [7]. Similar minor variations in
moment capacities were observed for all other problems even for non-standard and
circular sections [11].
As for design examples, these changes made no difference at all in reinforcement
requirements and sectional dimensions [11] for any of the worked problems which
include all section types (rectangular and flanged) and reinforcement details (singly-
and doubly-reinforced).
Table 1 Comparison between AS 3600-2009 [6] and AS 3600-2018 [7] for the analysis problem
Reinforcement case (Ast As per AS 3600-2009 [6] As per AS 3600-2018 [7]
values) Mu ϕ ϕMu Mu ϕ ϕMu
(kNm) (kNm) (kNm) (kNm)
(a) Ast = 1500 mm2 348.5 0.8 278.8 346.0 0.85 294.1
(b) Ast = 9000 mm2 964.2 0.6 578.5 978.5 0.65 636.0
(c) balanced pt = pB 819.5 0.6 491.7 858.7 0.65 558.2
(d) maximum pt = pall 639.6 0.757 484.2 680.4 0.807 549.1
(e) Ast = 4500 mm2 840.7 0.6 504.4 860.4 0.65 559.3
3 Design for Shear and Torsion
In AS 3600-2018 [7], complexities and computational efforts introduced are most

severe for design of reinforced and prestressed concrete for shear and torsion. Apart
from the required increase in capacity reduction factor (ϕ) for shear and torsion
consideration from 0.7 to 0.75, some substantial changes have been introduced.
These, together with their effectiveness, are discussed in the following sections.
3.1 Complexities
The nominal maximum shear force that can be carried by a beam is limited by the
crushing strength of the web, Vu.max, given in AS 3600-2009 [6] by
Vu:max ¼ 0:2fc0 bw do , where bw is the width of the web of the beam.
On the other hand, Vu.max is to be calculated in a much more complicated manner
in AS 3600-2018 [7], as

cot hv
Vu:max ¼ 0:55 fc0 bw dv ð7Þ
1 þ cot2 hv
where effective shear depth, dv, shall be taken as the greater of 0.72D or 0.9d and
the angle of inclination of the compression strut (θv) shall be calculated as, hv ¼
ð29 þ 7000ex Þ; in which, the longitudinal strain in concrete for shear, ex , at the
mid-depth of the section is calculated as
jM =dv j þ jV j þ 0:5N
ex ¼ 3:0 103 ð8Þ
2Es Ast
where M* and V* are absolute values and M* ≥ V*dv and N* is the axial force acting
on the section and is taken as positive for tension and negative for compression.
Alternatively, θv may be taken as 36° for N* = 0, fsy ≤ 500 MPa, fc0 65 MPa
and maximum aggregate size not less than 10 mm.
Concrete contribution to shear strength, Vuc, is given by the following in AS
3600-2009 [6]:
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Ast
Vuc ¼ b1 b2 b3 bw do fcv ð9Þ
3
b w do
where β1, β2 and β3 can be computed using simple formulas and/or taken as equal to
pffiffiffiffi
1, and fcv = 3 fc0 .
In AS 3600-2018 [7], the determination of Vuc, requires much more computa-
pffiffiffiffi
tional efforts in a rather complex way. Or, Vuc, is given as Vuc ¼ kv bw dv fc0 ; where
pffiffiffiffi
fc0 is not to exceed 8.0 MPa, the strut angle θv is calculated using equations as
above and kv is determined as elaborated below.
h ih i
0
(a) For Asv < Asv.min: kv ¼ 1 þ 0:4
1500ex 1000 þ kdg dv , where for fc ≤ 65 MPa and not
1300
h i
light-weight concrete, kdg ¼ ð1632þ aÞ 0:8, in which a is the maximum nom-
inal aggregate size and for a not less than 16 mm, kdg may be taken as 1.0. For
fc0 > 65 MPa or light-weight concrete kdg = 2.0.
h i
(b) For Asv ≥ Asv.min: kv ¼ 1 þ 0:4
1500ex .
Alternatively, for N* = 0, fsy ≤ 500 MPa, fc0 65 MPa and maximum aggregate
size not less than 10 mm, kv mayh be determined
i as follows.
(a) For Asv < Asv.min: kv ¼ 200
1000 þ 1:3dv 0:10 and (b) For Asv ≥ Asv.min:
kv = 0.15.
Finally, transverse shear reinforcement is to be provided in all regions where
V [ /Vuc or in which the overall depth of the member D ≥ 750 mm.
For torsional design, even though the basic principles were still the same, the
computations and formulas used are made a lot more complicated—not to mention
the extra computational efforts required.
For brevity, these are not re-produced here but Vu.max, which is required for
torsional design check, itself is calculated using Eq. (7) but for the determination of
θv, the longitudinal strain in the concrete at the mid-depth of the section, εx, sub-
jected to shear and torsion is determined as
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
h i2ffi
M
dv þ jV j þ 0:9T
2
2Ao
uh
þ 0:5N
ex ¼ 3:0 103 ð10Þ
2Es Ast
where Ao = area enclosed by shear flow path, including any area of holes therein
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
h i2ffi

and M and V are absolute values and M dv jV j þ 0:9T
* * 2
2Ao
uh
.
Finally, for the transverse reinforcement (ties) to be fully effective, longitudinal

bars are needed. Thus, longitudinal torsional steel in addition to the main rein-
forcement for bending must be provided in the bending tensile and compressive
zones. Formulas for calculating the additional longitudinal reinforcement require-
ments for torsion, in both the tensile and compressive zones, are also made much
more complicated in AS 3600-2018 [7]. Once again, for brevity, these new changes
are not reproduced herein. Interested readers may refer to the Standard itself (AS
3600-2018) for details.
3.2 Effectiveness
Calculations for design of reinforced concrete for shear and torsion have been
carried out using the updated specifications given in AS 3600-2018 [7], as well as
those available in the superseded AS 3600-2009 [6] for several practical problems.
These are presented in detail elsewhere [11].
A summary of some of the worked problems for shear design using AS
3600-2009 and AS 3600-2018 is presented in Table 2 for comparison.
As obvious in Table 2, the final designs for shear varied rather little for most of
the problems. In fact, for the lower range of design shear values, where the max-
imum spacing for shear reinforcement allowed by the Standard governed, there are
no difference in the final design. Cases where the final design varied significantly
are beams subjected to large axial forces together with design shear forces.
Interested readers may find further details elsewhere [11].
Table 2 Comparison between AS 3600-2009 [6] and AS 3600-2018 [7] for shear design
problems
Problem Design As per AS 3600-2009 [6] As per AS 3600-2018 [7]
no. V* (kN) Vu.max Vuc Final Vu.max Vuc Final
(kN) (kN) design (kN) (kN) design
1 248.76 430.0 108.2 R10@ 506.1 58.05 R10@
75 mm 75 mm
2 537.73 987.0 218.2 N16@ 1112.2 127.6 N16@
285 mm 245 mm
3 334.61 1658.9 260.3 N12@ 1876.5 190.4 N12@
300 mm 300 mm
4 478.36 1316.3 210.1 N10@ 1474.5 154.5 N10@
155 mm 125 mm
5 876.60 2165.8 394.7 N12@ 2375.4 241.0 N12@
165 mm 130 mm
6 228.69 420.0 98.3 R10@ 494.3 56.7 R10@
85 mm 90 mm
7 1180.7 2030.4 328.7 N12@ 2392.6 101.9 N12@
75 mm 45 mm
Similar observations have also been made for torsion design in that little or no
variations can be found in the outcomes.
4 Deflection
The empirical Branson formula for calculating the effective moment of inertia (Ief)
has been adopted in the AS 3600-2009 [6] and several other major codes of practice
including that of the American Concrete Institute (see [12]). Taking into consid-
eration the stiffening effects of the concrete in tension between cracks (i.e. tension
stiffening), the formula is explicit and all-encompassing. That is
3
Mcr
Ief ¼ Icr þ ðIg Icr Þ Ief:max ð11Þ
Ms
where Ief.max = Ig for pt ≥ 0.005 and Ief.max = 0.6Ig for pt < 0.005, which indicates
that the Branson formula in its original form underestimates the deflection of very
lightly reinforced beams (see [8]).
The quantity Ms is the maximum bending moment at the section due to the
short-term serviceability load under consideration, and Mcr is the cracking moment.
In AS 3600-2018 [7], the formula for calculating Ief is modified as follows with
the same limiting values for Ief.max as in Eq. (11):
Icr
Ief ¼ 2 Ief:max ð12Þ
1 1 IIcrg MMcrs
To investigate the effectiveness of the changes made to the Ief formula, calcu-
lations for several deflection problems have been made using the provisions given
in AS 3600-2018 [7], as well as those available in the superseded AS 3600-2009
[6]. The outcomes are detailed elsewhere [11]. Little or no variations in deflection
results were observed for all of the problems attempted in the said investigation.
5 Conclusions
Significant changes and/or updates have been made in AS 3600-2018 [7], the latest
Australian Standard for Concrete Structures. These are mainly in the requirements
for configuring the stress-block, calculating the capacity reduction factor ϕ, eval-
uating the shear and torsional strengths of concrete members, as well as in esti-
mating the effective moment of inertia Ief.
These modifications have resulted in more complicated procedures requiring

added computational efforts. Comparisons of results tend to show that such addi-
tional efforts have in most cases produced no significant difference in outcomes
from the superseded AS 3600-2009 [6]. Where there are differences, the new
Standard would lead to less conservative designs.
References
1. AS 1480-1982 (1982) SAA Concrete Structures Code. Standards Association of Australia,

North Sydney
2. AS 1481-1978 (1978) SAA Prestressed Concrete Code. Standards Association of Australia,
North Sydney
3. AS 3600-1988 (1988) Concrete Structures. Standards Association of Australia, North Sydney
4. AS 3600-1994 (1994 Concrete Structures. Standards Australia, Homebush
5. AS 3600-2001 (2001) Concrete Structures. Standards Australia International Ltd, Sydney
6. AS 3600-2009 (2009) Concrete Structures. Standards Australia Limited, Sydney
7. AS 3600-2018 (2018) Concrete Structures. Standards Australia Limited, Sydney
8. Gilbert RI (2008) Revisiting the tension stiffening effect in reinforced concrete slabs. Aust J
Struct Eng 8(3):189–196
9. Ibrahim HHH, MacGregor JG (1997) Modification of the ACI rectangular stress block for
high-strength concrete. ACI Struct J 94(1):40–48. https://doi.org/10.14359/459
10. Kaar PH, Hanson NW, Capell HT (1978) Stress-strain characteristics of high strength
concrete. In: Douglas McHenry international symposium on concrete and concrete structures,
SP-55, American Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, MI, pp 161–185
11. Loo YC, Chowdhury SH (2018) Reinforced and prestressed concrete, 3rd edn. Cambridge
University Press, Melbourne (Supplement and Solution Manual)
12. Loo YC, Wong YW (1984) Deflection of reinforced box beams under repeated loadings. ACI
Struct J 81(1):87–94
13. Nedderman H (1973) Flexural stress distribution in very high strength concrete. M.A.Sc.
Thesis. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Texas, Arlington
14. Ozbakkaloglu T, Saatcioglu M (2004) Rectangular stress block for high-strength concrete.
ACI Struct J 101(4):475–483. https://doi.org/10.14359/13333
The Influence of the Deterioration
of Concrete-Rebar Bond Due
to Corrosion on the Structural
Performance of RC Structures
Youhei Ito, Ryota Kurihara, and Nobuhiro Chijiwa
Abstract In reinforced concrete (RC) structures, bond between concrete and rebar is
a key to form load bearing mechanism. When rebar is corroded, it is said that the bond
of concrete-rebar is deteriorated and structural performance is also influenced. To
improve accuracy in assessment of the residual structural performance for deterio-
rated structures, it is important to understand the influence of bond deterioration more
deeply. This research aims to investigate the influence of concrete-rebar bond
deterioration on structural performance. Three beams with physically different state
of the bond, 100% mechanical bond, 50% mechanical bond and 0% mechanical
bond, were tested with a static loading. According to the test results, all bond con-
ditions presented differences in the crack spacing, load capacities, and failure modes.
The specimens with 0% mechanical bond were much inferior to the other cases in the
bond performance. Due to bond deterioration, rigidity of 0% mechanical bond
specimen was decreased. However, shear capacity of 0% mechanical bond specimen
was enhanced by forming of tied arch mechanism. With regard to 50% mechanical
bond specimens, the bond performance degraded to some extent and it leaded rigidity
reduction and high shear capacity due to forming tied arch mechanism. However, the
presence of shear reinforcement affected the bond performance of 50% bond spec-
imen. When the shear reinforcement was arranged, it improved the bond performance
of the main rebar and concrete, and the bond performance did not degrade as sig-
nificant as expected from physical contact loss. As a result, the structural behavior of
50% bond specimen with shear reinforcement was similar to 100% bond specimen.

Keywords Bond Deformed bar Crack dispersion-effect Tied arch mechanism
Y. Ito (&) R. Kurihara N. Chijiwa

School of Environment and Society, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 Ookayama,
Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan
e-mail: ito.y.bi@m.titech.ac.jp
R. Kurihara
e-mail: kurihara.r.aa@m.titech.ac.jp
N. Chijiwa
e-mail: chijiwa@cv.titech.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_162
1758 Y. Ito et al.
1 Introduction
As well-known, rebar corrosion deteriorates the structural performance of RC

structures. The main phenomena caused by rebar corrosion are the following. One
is section loss of steel reinforcement. Yielding point and load capacity of corroded
members are decreased due to sectional loss. Another one is crack around the rebar
which is introduced by corrosion product [1]. Load bearing mechanism in deteri-
orated RC members can be different from the sound one due to corrosion cracks and
the rust layers. Last one is the bond loss between concrete and rebar. Bond is
defined as a mechanism that integrates rebar and concrete. The bond consists of 3
mechanisms: interlocking by mechanical contact, resistance by friction, and
chemical adhesion. Now, deformed bars are widely used in the world, this is
because deformation on reinforcement surface is mechanically interlocked with
surrounding concrete, and bond performance is significantly improved.
In RC structures, the bond between concrete and rebar is a key to form load
bearing mechanism. Therefore, it is thought that this bond deterioration due to
corrosion affects the structural performance [2–4]. However, crack induced by
corrosion along the rebar also degrade the stress transfer between the cracked
surfaces, and it can be regarded as the apparent bond deterioration. Many factors are
interlinked here and it is difficult to extract and discuss just the influence of bond
deterioration due to the corrosion. To improve accuracy in assessment of the
residual structural performance for deteriorated structures, it is important to
understand the effect of bond deterioration more deeply. An objective of this
research is to understand the influence of bond deterioration on the structural
performance of RC structure. Though this is a longstanding theme in the structural
mechanics of concrete, this study aims to report the details of the experiment and
analysis them with latest technology.
2 Methodology
2.1 Experimental Cases
Beam specimens with 3 kinds of bond conditions, 100%, 50%, and 0% were casted.
These apparent bond ratios were the proportion of bonding area by interlocking
mechanism because interlocking mechanism by contacted points has more signif-
icant effect than the other mechanisms like friction and adhesion. The specimen
with 100% bond was a sound RC beam. The specimen with 50% bond was a RC
beam whose bottom half cover concrete on the main rebar was artificially removed.
In other words, a half of rebar was exposed in this specimen. The specimen with 0%
bond was a RC beam with round bar, and this beam had no interlocking resistance
by contacted points. However, resistance by friction and chemical adhesion still
existed. Table 1 shows bond conditions of beam specimens.
The Influence of the Deterioration of Concrete-Rebar Bond ... 1759
The shear reinforcement restraints the main rebar, and it is thought that shear
reinforcement affects the bond performance of the main rebar. To investigate the
effect of shear reinforcement, 2 series of specimens, ST series and PL series were
prepared. ST means specimens with stirrup, and PL means specimens without
stirrup in shear span. Table 2 shows a list of experimental cases.
Table 1 Bond conditions of beam specimens
Bond conditions Notes

Specimen Deformed Sound beam
with 100% bar
bond
Specimen Deformed Bottom half
with 50% bar side of rebar are
bond exposed.
Specimen Round Friction and
with 0% bar chemical
bond adhesion work.
Table 2 Experimental cases

Specimen Apparent Shear Specimen Apparent Shear
name bond ratio reinforcement name bond ratio reinforcement
(%) (%)
PL-0 0 Not arranged ST-0 0 Arranged
PL series
ST series
Fig. 1 The design of specimens (unit: mm)

1760 Y. Ito et al.
2.2 Specimens
Figure 1 shows the detailed design of beam specimens. Nuts anchored the edge of
rebar. Table 3 shows the dimensions of all beam specimens, and Table 4 shows the
material properties of concrete and rebar.
Table 3 Dimension of beam specimen

Height Length Span Shear Effective a/d Anchorage Space of
(mm) (mm) (mm) span depth length stirrup
(mm) (mm) (mm) (mm)
280 2500 1500 600 230 2.6 500 115
Table 4 Material properties of concrete and rebar

Concrete Rebar
Water Compressive Yield strength of Yield strength Strength of main
cement ratio strength stirrup and erection of main rebar rebar (round bar)
W/C (%) (N/mm2) bar (N/mm2) (N/mm2) (N/mm2)
42.5 39.7 295 710 1189
Fig. 2 Crack distribution
3 Results
3.1 Static Loading Behavior
The influences of the differences of bond conditions on the structural performance

were found in the results of static loading tests. The failure modes and crack
distribution were different as shown in Fig. 2 and Table 5. It was found that the
cracks were dispersed as the apparent bond ratio increased.
In the case of the specimens with 0% bond, anchorage part was destructed and
beam failed. In these cases, large stress acted on the anchorage nuts by the tensile
Table 5 Failure mode

Case Failure mode Case Failure mode
PL-0 Anchorage failure ST-0 Anchorage failure
PL-50 Flexural compression failure ST-50 Shear compression failure
PL-100 Shear compression failure ST-100 Shear compression failure
500 500
400 400
Load (kN)
Load (kN)
300 300
200 200
100 100
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Deflection (mm) Deflection (mm)
PL-0 PL-50 PL-100 ST-0 ST-50 ST-100
(a) PL series (b) ST series
Fig. 3 Load-Deflection curves
stress acting on the main rebar because the bond along the surface was small. This
stress exceeded compressive strength of concrete and anchorage failure occurred.
PL-50 was failed by flexural compression failure. The failure modes of ST-50 and
100% bond specimens were shear compression failure.
In the static loading test, the deflection at the center of span and magnitude of the
load were measured by displacement transducer and load cell. The load deflection
curves were obtained as shown in Fig. 3. As shown in the load deflection curves, in
the case of specimens with 0% bond, the rigidity declines significantly after the
middle stage of loading. The rigidity of specimens with 50% bond also declines
after the middle stage of loading, but the rigidity reduction is small and the behavior
is similar to 100% bond case.
The differences in the bond conditions changed the load-bearing mechanisms,
and it leads the differences in failure modes and load capacities.
3.2 Strain of the Main Rebar
The strain of the main rebar was measured by strain gauges. Figure 4 shows the
positions of strain gauges. The strain distribution of the main rebar is obtained from
the test results. Figure 5 shows the relationship of load and strain at each position.
1762 Y. Ito et al.
PL series
ST series
Fig. 4 The position of strain gauges
(a) PL-0 (b) ST-0

300 500
Load (kN)
400
Load (kN)
200 300
200
100
100
0 0
0 1000 2000 0 1000 2000 3000
Strain (μ) Strain (μ)
G4 G3 G2 G1 G4 G3 G2 G1
(c) PL-50 (d) ST-50
300 500
Load (kN)
400
Load (kN)
200 300
200
100
100
0 0
0 1000 2000 0 1000 2000 3000
G4 G3 G2 G1 G4 G3 G2 G1
(e) PL-100 (f) ST-100
300 500
Load (kN)
Load (kN)
400
200 300
200
100
100
0 0
0 1000 2000 0 1000 2000 3000
G4 G3 G2 G1 G4 G3 G2 G1
Fig. 5 Load-Strain curves at each position

The bond performance of each specimen during loading can be inferred from the
strain distribution of the main rebar. As you can see in Fig. 5, the magnitude of
strain at each position was different. The magnitude of strain was maximum at the
center of span, and it decreased as the position got close to the supports. These
differences in the magnitude of strain came from bond. Looking at (a) PL-0 and
(b) ST-0 in Fig. 5, there were differences of strain value depending on the position
at initial period of loading; however, the differences disappeared at middle period of
loading. It can be said that chemical adhesion worked at initial period, and it lost
gradually in the specimens with 0% bond. In PL-0 and ST-0, they can be found that
each curves starts to asymptote when the load exceeds 100 kN, and the curves
almost matches from 170 kN. Therefore, it is thought that chemical adhesion lost
gradually from 100 kN, and when the load exceeded 170 kN, chemical adhesion did
not work. This type of beams had no interlocking by contact points. So the bond
performance degraded rapidly when chemical adhesion was lost.
Looking at (c) PL-50 in Fig. 5, the curves of G1, G2 and G3 showed similar
behaviour to the case of PL-0 and ST-0. And, the strain value of G4 had difference
from G1, G2 and G3. As well as the specimens with 0% bond, the bond deterio-
ration could be found in PL-50; however, the bond performance was kept by the
upper half of the contact points to some extent.
On the other hand, looking at (d) ST-50 in Fig. 5, the shapes of curves are
almost same as the case of ST-100 and PL-100. The differences of strain value at
each position kept until the end of loading. That means the bond performance of
ST-50 specimen did not degrade so much even if the bonding area was halved.
From these results, in the case of 50% bond specimens, the presence of shear
reinforcement affected the bond performance of the main rebar and concrete. It is
thought that the shear reinforcement restrained the main rebar upward, and
improved the interlocking mechanism of concrete and contact points of rebar.
4 Discussion
4.1 Crack-Dispersion Effect
The bond of concrete and rebar has crack-dispersion effect, and it prevents local-
ization of cracks. Conversely, the bond performance can be estimated from the
degree of the dispersion of cracks at certain extent. So the number of flexural cracks
has important meaning. Figure 6 shows relationships of the number of flexural
cracks and apparent bond ratio.
1764 Y. Ito et al.
Fig. 6 Relationship of the 10

ST
Number of flexural
number of flexural cracks and
apparent bond ratio 8
PL
6
cracks
4
2
0
0 50 100
Apparent bond ratio (%)
In PL series, the number of flexural cracks were fewer as the apparent bond ratio
were smaller. Therefore, from the viewpoint of crack-dispersion effect, the bond
performance of specimens of PL series degraded as the apparent bond ratio
decreased. On the other hand, in ST series, 0% bond specimen had fewer cracks;
however, 50% bond specimen had same number of flexural cracks as 100% bond
specimen. It is thought that shear reinforcement improved interlocking mechanism
of concrete and contact points of rebar in ST-50. In ST-0, this specimen had no
contact points of main rebar, and the effect of shear reinforcement on the bond
performance could not found from the degree of crack dispersion.
From the viewpoint of the crack-dispersion effect, the bond performance was
degraded as the apparent bond ratio decreased in PL-series. In ST series, the bond
performance was degraded; however, it of 50% bond specimen improved by the
presence of shear reinforcement and the degradation of bond performance was
slight.
4.2 The Influence of Bond Deterioration on the Structural

Performance
From the strain distribution of the main rebar and the degree of crack dispersion, the
bond performances of beam specimens under loading were revealed. The bond
performance of the specimen with 0% bond degraded gradually, and it was much
inferior to the other cases. The degradation of the bond performance was also found
in 50% bond specimens. However, the bond performance degradation of specimen
with shear reinforcement was slight due to the bond enhancement effect by shear
reinforcement.
At first, the bond condition influenced the rigidity of beam. The initial rigidity of
beam specimens was checked by load-deflection curves in Fig. 7. Until the flexural
cracks were generated, the entire cross section resisted bending, and the flexural
rigidity was decided by only the section of beam and Young’s modulus of mate-
rials. So, the bond performance did not affect the initial rigidity. As you can see in
Fig. 7, the initial rigidity (before generated flexural cracks at about 50 kN) of 100%
bond and 0% bond specimens were almost same; in addition, 50% bond specimen
200 200
150 150
Load (kN)
Load (kN)
100 100
50 50
0 0
0 1 2 0 1 2
Deflection (mm) Deflection (mm)
PL-0 PL-50 PL-100 ST-0 ST-50 ST-100
(a) PL series (b) ST series
Fig. 7 Load-Deflection curves (Initial stage)
was lower than other cases. The 50% bond specimen has no concrete under the
main rebar, so the cross section was smaller than the other cases. This is a reason of
small rigidity of the specimens with 50% bond.
On the other hand, the bond performance influenced the rigidity after generated
flexural cracks. When the concrete-rebar bond does not work, cracked concrete
does not resist tension completely. However, if the concrete and rebar are integrated
by bond, the concrete between the flexural cracks contributes to carry stress.
Therefore, it is thought that the rigidity dropped sharply and simultaneously with
generation of flexural cracks in the specimens with 0% bond. On the other hand, the
bond made the rigidity reduction due to the generation of flexural cracks be
moderate in the specimens with 50% bond and 100% bond.
Looking at Fig. 3, common to PL series and ST series, the curves of 50% bond
specimen and 100% bond specimen showed the similar behaviour. However, the
bond performance of PL-50 was degraded, and it was thought that different
load-bearing mechanisms worked in this case. Comparing the curves of PL-50 and
PL-100 in Fig. 3(a), the rigidity of PL-50 reduced from about 100 kN. This rigidity
reduction was due to bond deterioration. And, from about 170 kN, the rigidity of
PL-100 reduced, and the curves of PL-50 and PL-100 were overlapped. This
rigidity reduction of PL-100 was due to the generation of shear cracks. On the other
hand, in the case of PL-50, such rigidity reduction did not occur. The reason
seemed to be that tied arch mechanism was formed due to the bond deterioration,
and shear cracks formation was supressed. As a result, the curves of PL-50 and
PL-100 showed similar trend after 170 kN. However, it was thought that the
load-bearing mechanisms were different.
The slopes of the load-deflection curves of ST-50 and ST-100 were almost same
immediately after generated flexural cracks (Fig. 7), however, a slight difference
began to occur in the slopes of these two curves in the middle stage of loading
(Fig. 3). According to the discussion about strain of the main rebar, the bond
performance of ST-50 was slightly degraded. And it is thought that this slight bond
deterioration reduced the rigidity of beam.
The bond conditions influenced the load capacity and the failure mode. The
failure modes of PL-50, PL-0 and ST-0 were different from sound cases (PL-100
and ST-100). The load capacity of PL-50 was also a little higher than that of
1766 Y. Ito et al.
PL-100. It is thought that tied arch mechanism was formed in PL-50 due to bond
deterioration, and it contributed to high shear capacity. As a result, failure mode
shifted from shear failure to flexural failure.
In the case of specimens with 0% bond, tied arch mechanism were formed as
well as the case of PL-50. The bond deterioration of 0% bond specimens was more
severe than PL-50. It is thought that the tide arch effect was stronger, and these
beams exerted high shear capacity. Because those beams failed by anchorage
failure, it is thought that the shear capacity of PL-0 and ST-0 can be higher when
they have stronger anchorage zone.
On the other hand, the failure mode of ST-50 was same as the sound cases (PL-100
and ST-100). The bond performance of ST-50 did not degrade so much, and tide arch
mechanism seen in other cases was not formed. Therefore, improvement of shear
capacity due to bond deterioration was not found, and the shear capacity of ST-50
was smaller than that of ST-100. It is thought that the slight degradation of bond
performance reduced the load capacity. The bond deterioration changed the shear
cracks behaviour such as the degree of dispersion and the angle. The shear cracks of
50% bond specimen were more concentrated than 100% bond case. It is thought that
interlocking resistance due to aggregates at crack surface became weaker by con-
centration of shear cracks, and shear capacity reduced in ST-50.
5 Conclusion
The static loading behavior of the beam specimens with different bond conditions
were investigated. The specimen with 100% bond (sound beam), 50% bond (a half
of rebar were exposed) and 0% bond (round bar) were considered. From the results
of static loading tests, the following facts were revealed.
1. In the case of the specimens with 0% bond, the chemical adhesion was gradually
lost and the bond performance degraded significantly.
2. With regard to 50% bond specimens, the bond performance was degraded to
some extent; however, the shear reinforcement restrained the main rebar upward
and the bond performance did not degrade as significant as expected from
physical contact loss in the case of the 50% bond specimen with shear
reinforcement.
3. The bond enables concrete between cracks to resist tension, so the bond dete-
rioration leads to the rigidity reduction of RC beam.
4. The bond deterioration affects the degree of dispersion of shear cracks and it
leads to the reduction of shear capacity. However, when the bond deterioration
is severe, tied arch mechanism is formed and it contributes to high shear
capacity.
References
1. Liu Y, Weyers RE (1998) Modeling the time-to-corrosion cracking in chloride contaminated

reinforced concrete structures. ACI Mater J 95:675–680
2. Ikeda S, Uji K (1980) Studies of the effect of bond on the shear behavior of reinforced concrete
beams. J Jpn Soc Civ Eng 283:101–109
3. Uchibori H, Mutsuyoshi H, Pandey GR, Tanino R (2004) Studies of the shear behavior of RC
beam with bond controlled reinforcement. Proc Jpn Concr Inst 26(2):1027–1032
4. Tanaka Y, Kishi T, Maekawa K (2005) Tied arch system and evaluation method of shear
strength of RC members containing artificial crack or unbonded zone. J Jpn Soc Civ Eng 67
(788):175–193
Theoretical Modeling and Evaluation
of Thermal Stress Evolution of Concrete
at Early Age by Temperature Stress
Testing Machine
G. F. Ou, T. Kishi, Z. H. Lin, and T. Kamada
Abstract Early-age cracking of concrete can significantly affect the durability

performance of concrete structures. Thermal stress evolution during hydration is the
main contribution to early-age cracking of concrete materials, which associates with
interacted chemical and physical processes. To control thermal cracking in practice,
experience-oriented mix design is usually implemented, which may become inef-
fective and lose extensibility from one to another case since the thermal stress
evolution is usually coupled with different environmental factors in reality (e.g.,
humidity conditions, temperature rise conditions and restraint degrees). In this case,
the thermal stress evolution of concrete materials become sophisticated to be
accurately modeled. Though related research has been widely studied, a constitutive
model that can simulate thermal stress evolution of concrete with reliable experi-
mental validation has been seldom reported. Recently, the temperature stress testing
machine (TSTM) developed by this laboratory has been found to provide reliable
evaluation for thermal stress of concrete with varied temperature rise conditions and
restraint degrees. In view of that, this research presents a theoretical model to
understand the interactive behavior between cement matrix and aggregate on the
basis of TSTM, which traces the thermal stress evolution of concrete with varied
temperature rise conditions and correlates the free deformation with restrained
stress under full restraint degree.

Keywords Concrete Cracking Thermal stress Temperature stress testing

machine Construction
G. F. Ou (&)
Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: gfeng-ou@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
T. Kishi Z. H. Lin T. Kamada
Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: kishi@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Z. H. Lin
T. Kamada
e-mail: tkamada@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_163
1770 G. F. Ou et al.
1 Introduction
The hydration of cement greatly determines the early-age transformation of con-

crete from a viscous suspension to a porous load-bearing media. The interacted
chemical and physical processes during hydration, coupled with the environmental
condition (e.g., varied temperature and humidity field, restraint degree of the
concrete members), result in rather complicated early-age stress evolution of
cement-based materials. Since the volume changes during early age will be partly or
fully restrained according to different boundary conditions in situ, the stress
build-up or stress relaxation of concrete may create residual stress that reduces
structural members’ load-carrying capacities or cause early-age cracking. Therefore,
early-age stress evolution process plays a crucial role in the initiation and devel-
opment of thermal cracking in concrete. If the early-age crack is not controlled
properly, the deterioration of concrete structures can be greatly accelerated, e.g., via
penetration of aggressive substances, corrosion of steel reinforcements or spalling
of concrete.
However, current design practices of many countries and areas may mainly
focus on the workability and strength-related properties of freshly cast concrete, for
practical purposes. The early-age cracking mix design of cement-based materials
has usually been simplified or even disregarded, which may not impose any visible
effects in a short term, nevertheless, may be accompanied with costly repairing and
maintenance or even premature failure in a long term. Certainly, concrete structures
guided by practice codes have been proven to reveal proper structural response
(load carrying capacity or deflection) and adequate safety margins. Nevertheless,
the realistic crack width larger than the predicted/designed values have frequently
occurred, causing subsequent durability problems. In the case with massive con-
struction, the effective control of thermal cracking becomes more critical and
tougher, due to the adiabatic/semi-adiabatic temperature rise and higher restraint
condition. Without adequate and reliable guidance, the construction party may
adopt mix proportions empirically to control thermal cracking. These experience-
oriented methods usually become ineffective owing to the lack of sufficient
understanding of the underneath mechanism. Moreover, as different engineering
projects have different conditions of temperature, moisture and restraint degree, the
empirical mix proportion may lose extensibility from one to another case.
In view of that, it is imperative to possess reliable experimental techniques and
theoretical comprehension for the complicated early-age stress evolution, which
remains as ongoing major concern in the concrete construction industry [1].
Research on thermal cracking has been extensively investigated in the past
20–30 years [7], and varied experimental methods/machines have been proposed,
among which Temperature Stress Testing Machine (TSTM) is considered as one of
the most reliable testing techniques. In this study, the main features of the devel-
oped TSTM will be demonstrated [3], which is capable of conducting reliable
Theoretical Modeling and Evaluation … 1771
measurement under varied restraint condition and temperature rise conditions.

Cracking sensitivities of concrete with varied types of cement, aggregate and SCMs
have been captured well by the developed TSTM [2]. It has been validated by the
TSTM that expansive concrete mixed with lightweight aggregate reveals effective
control on thermal cracking even under the semi-adiabatic temperature rise and full
restraint condition [4], which currently has been successfully applied into two
engineering projects in Japan and China, respectively. This study attempts to
establish a constitutive model for the thermal stress evolution of OPC concrete,
which forms on the basis of simulating the actual development of restrained stress
in the TSTM test. The proposed analytical model underscores the interactive
behavior between aggregate and cement matrix during varied temperature rise
conditions, relating the deformation properties under free condition with stress
evolution under full restraint condition. It can be served as an alternative to the
widely-used finite element method (FEM), which offers more practical and intuitive
meaning, especially with validation from reliable TSTM experimental results.
2 Test Method
2.1 General Design Features of TSTM
After comparing the advantages and shortcomings of uniaxial testing devices

developed in many countries, the TSTM was constructed and improved on the
prototypes of Springenschmid [6] and Tsinghua TSTM. In order to achieve the
uniaxial restraint condition, the slenderness ratio of the specimen should be large
enough and the accuracy of deformation along the longitudinal direction should be
controlled as less than 1 l, under both compression and tension. The length of the
specimen between two cross-heads is 1200 mm and the slenderness ratio is 10:1 in
our design, with the displacement control accuracy of 0.5 lm. Before hardening,
the displacement of the specimen is recorded by two LVDT sensors between
crossheads, while after hardening, displacement between two embedded steel rods
will be adopted. As friction between the specimen and the mould board will impose
significant influences on the test result, two friction reduction design is adopted as
the following: (1) Before casting, double layers of plastic sheet were embedded
between the specimen and the mould, (2) After the specimen became hardened
enough, the lateral mould board and bottom mould board were separated from the
specimen through bolt connections with three bearing rollers supporting the
specimen to avoid deflection. A three-dimensional schematic representation is
shown in Fig. 1(a). More detailed mechanical design properties can be referred to
the literature [3].
Fig. 1 a Schematic representation of TSTM; b Experimental conditions simulating free

deformation and full restraint
Table 1 Mix proportions

Mix notation Cement Water Coarse aggregate Sand Water reducer W/B
kg/m3
C45 400 180 950 855 3.2 0.45
2.2 Experimental
2.2.1 Materials and Specimen Preparation
The cement type used is ordinary Portland cement. The mix proportion discussed in
this study is listed in Table 1. The coarse and fine aggregate used was crushed
limestone and river sand respectively, with a lumped thermal expansion coefficient
around 8 le/ C.
2.2.2 Restraint Conditions
The experimental condition consists of free deformation test and the full restraint
test. During the free deformation test, the deformation was measured by limiting the
axial stress within a negligible value ±0.01 MPa. While for the full restraint test,
the longitudinal deformation is controlled by two cross heads and the threshold
value for the specimen is within ±0.5 lm. When the deformation of the specimen
reached this threshold value, the step motor will apply a restraining force to drive it
back to the original position, as shown in Fig. 1(b). Noted that during free defor-
mation and full restraint tests, the temperature rise conditions should be kept
approximately identical, in order to compare and obtain the early-age effect. The
measurement will start automatically right after the casting of the concrete.
2.2.3 Temperature Rise and Humidity Conditions
The low temperature rise condition signifies the heat generated by the specimen can
release normally, without applying any heat source or insulation. Whereas in the
high temperature rise conditions, the specimen was insulated by polystyrene with a
thickness of 30 mm, the air inside the temperature cabinet was heated and con-
trolled by the heater to achieve a semi-adiabatic condition. In this study, only the
sealed curing condition is discussed, in which the wet towels were wrapped around
the specimen and sealed by gum tape at about 2 h after casting. The drying effect
can be assumed to be excluded in this case.
2.2.4 Measurement of Young’s Modulus
The measurement of young’s modulus of concrete was achieved by a special

method proposed [3]. In order to reduce the error, the variation of displacement was
set as around 20 lm. Thus, the young’s modulus of concrete at a given time can be
evaluated by Eq. 1.
DrðtÞ
E ðt Þ ¼ l ð1Þ
DDðtÞ
where, DrðtÞ denotes the stress variation, DDðtÞ the deformation variation and l the
specimen length, respectively.
3.1 Experimental Results
3.1.1 Free Deformation Test
Under the free deformation condition, the sample can deform freely without
restriction. The maximum expansion under the low and high temperature rise
conditions are around 100 and 250 le respectively. As the temperature starts to
decline, the specimen starts to shrink and it can be easily observed that under the
high temperature case, the deformation of concrete witnesses a sharper change, as
shown in Fig. 2.
3.1.2 Full Restraint Test
When the deformation is fully confined, internal stress will be generated. The
restrained stress in the first few hours are negligibly small and only after the
solidification, it starts to grow, revealing a rise and drop pattern as temperature
changes. The evolution of restraint stress and elastic modulus as time elapses are
shown in Figs. 3 and 6, respectively. It can be found that during low temperature
rise condition, both the maximum compressive stress and tensile stress are lower
than that in the high temperature rise condition, demonstrating a higher cracking
risk under high temperature rise. The occurring time of zero stress in a high tem-
perature rise condition (i.e., around 40 h) is much later than in the low one (16 h),
due to the larger compressive stress built up during the period of temperature
increase. The sudden reduction of tensile stress can be observed in the circled
region Fig. 3, which is attributed to the generated micro-cracking invisible to the
naked eye. The reasons for the micro-cracking probably can be owing to the
existence of interfacial transition zone (ITZ) between the aggregate and cement
matrix, which is considered as the weakest link inside the concrete materials. The
calculation of theoretical elastic stress can be determined as Eq. (2).
Xt
re ðtÞ ¼ t¼0
efree ðt þ DtÞ efree ðtÞ E ðtÞ ð2Þ
where re ðtÞ, efree ðtÞ; EðtÞ are the theoretical elastic stress, free strain and elastic
modulus at time t, respectively. The relaxed stress could be given as Eq. (3).
rr ðtÞ ¼ re ðtÞ rðtÞ ð3Þ
Fig. 2 a Temperature rise conditions b Free deformation

Fig. 3 Restrained stress evolution under a low temperature rise condition; b high temperature
condition
Fig. 4 a Microstructure evolution; b parallel-serial relation between aggregate and matrix;

c computation flow of proposed analytical model
3.2 Theoretical Modeling
The interactive behavior between aggregate and cement matrix has been modeled
by many researchers using FEM method [5, 7], in which the spring element with
varied rheological models are considered to simulate the early age solidification
process of concrete materials, as shown in Fig. 4(a). In this study, the interaction
will be analyzed and modeled as a one-dimensional case (which will not lose
justification since the slenderness ratio is large) and validated by experimental
results from TSTM.
The parallel or serial relation between aggregate and cement matrix has been
considered in many researches, also known as the Voigt and Reuss model.
However, all of these models are proposed for hardened concrete rather than
early-age behavior. As shown in Fig. 4(b), when the concrete is subjected to

external load, a portion of the cement matrix can be considered to reveal a parallel
relation with aggregate while another proportion shows a serial relation. Firstly, the
modulus of composite matrix part can be considered as Eq. (4):

Egc ðtÞ ¼ ðEm;p ðtÞcm;p þ Eag cag Þ= cm;p þ cag ð4Þ
where Eag, Em,p, Egc denotes the elastic modulus of aggregate, parallel cement
matrix, and the composite matrix respectively. Cag and Cm,p represents proportions
of their volume ratio. The elastic modulus of the whole system can then be cal-
culated as the serial relation between the composite matrix and the serial matrix,
determined as Eq. (5):
Egc ðtÞEm ðtÞ

E ðt Þ ¼ ð5Þ
Egc ðtÞcgc þ Em ðtÞcm;s
where E, Em are elastic modulus of the composite matrix and cement matrix
respectively. Cm,s represents the proportion of the serial matrix, and it always yields
cm;p þ cm;s þ cag ¼ 1.
In this way, it could be considered as a time-dependent interaction between
cement matrix and the composite matrix, as shown in Fig. 4(b). Under certain
temperature rise condition, if the free deformation at each time interval of com-
posite matrix and serial cement matrix is denoted as dDgc and dDm respectively, and
the balanced deformation is dD, the constitutive law in the full restraint condition
can be given as Eq. (6):
eðtÞ dDm dD dDgc þ dD

Em ðtÞA ¼ Egc ðtÞA ð6Þ
lm lgc

In which dDgc ¼ f dDg ; eðtÞ; dDm;p and eðtÞ ¼ DDelastic
total
¼ eeelastic
total
; 0 eðtÞ 1; sig-
nifying the elastic proportion of the restrained free deformation and thus,
time-dependent creep effect could be considered. lm and lgc are the length of the
serial cement matrix and composite matrix respectively, Em(t) and Egc(t) are
time-dependent function of elastic modulus.
Rewriting Eq. 6, it gives the expression of balanced position of different
deformations:
eðtÞ dDm Sm ðtÞ dDgc Sgc ðtÞ

dD ¼ ð7Þ
Sm ðtÞ þ Sgc ðtÞ
where Sm ðtÞ ¼ Em ðtÞ A=lm , Sgc ðtÞ ¼ Egc ðtÞ A=lgc and A is the area of cross
section.
Substituting Eq. (7) into dr ¼ eðtÞ dDlmm dD Em ðtÞ, The stress increment at time
t yields,
eðtÞ dDm þ dDgc

dr ¼ h i ð8Þ
A Sm1ðtÞ þ Sgc1ðtÞ
Therefore, the restrained stress at time t can be expressed as Eq. (9):

Z th i 1
rðtÞ ¼ eðtÞ D0m ðtÞ þ D0gc ðtÞ dt ð9Þ
0 A Sm1ðtÞ þ 1
Sgc ðtÞ
The equations above are formulated by consideration of e(t), i.e., the elastic
proportion of the total free deformation, similar to the concept of creep coefficient.
If formulated in the manner of stress relaxation, the theoretical elastic stress can be
given as:
Z th i 1
re ðtÞ ¼ D0m ðtÞ þ D0gc ðtÞ dt ð10Þ
0 A Sm ðtÞ þ
1 1
Sgc ðtÞ

where dDgc ¼ f dDg ; dDm;p . The restrained stress can be computed by subtracting
the relaxed stress rr ðtÞ from theoretical elastic stress, as determined in Eq. (11):
rðtÞ ¼ re ðtÞ rr ðtÞ ð11Þ
In this study, the feasibility of the proposed analytical method is verified by the
latter method. The time-dependent function including free deformation, relaxed
stress and elastic modulus from TSTM tests are used as known input. In the future,
the free deformation of cement matrix could be computed by a summation of the
autogenous shrinkage, thermal deformation and artificial expansion, and the creep
effect can also be modeled. Following the computation flow shown in Fig. 4(c), the
stiffness and deformation-related properties and eventually the restrained stress
could be obtained step-by-step. Within this scope, since the exact mathematical
expression of those time-dependent functions are hard to be acquired, the stress
evolution could be approximated by the method of discrete integral with acceptable
accuracy.
As shown in Fig. 5, the modeled stress evolution can agree well with the
experimental results from TSTM, tracing the increasing and decreasing patterns and
branching from low to high temperature case.
Fig. 5 Modeled stress evolution of C45 under a Low temperature rise b high temperature rise
3.3 The Influence of Tensile Modulus
As shown in Fig. 6(a), experimental results reveal that elastic modulus under high
temperature rise is lower than that under low temperature, which can probably be
attributed to the greater tension during sharper decline of temperature. Actually,
though the final values are lower, the elastic modulus in high temperature case
evolves 1–2 h earlier, as shown in Fig. 6(b). It is also found that after reaching the
maximum values, the elastic modulus will be reduced to some extent for both low
and high temperature cases. This analytical model attempts to consider the effect of
ITZ by considering this lower tensile modulus, different from three-phase (cement
matrix, aggregate and ITZ) FEM model. As shown in Fig. 6(c), if the elastic
modulus is assumed to grow continually or at least keep stable as age increases
(which holds true for compressive modulus), the final restrained stress will be
higher than that using reduced tensile modulus. Therefore, it is necessary to con-
sider the effect of tensile modulus, since the stiffness of concrete materials under
tension will always be weaker than compression.
3.4 Applicability and Extensibility
The analytical model is established on the basis of mutual interaction between

cement matrix and aggregates via simplified analysis on stress and deformation
balance between two mediums in one dimension. It is capable of tracing the stress
evolution under varied temperature rise conditions. Certainly, the commonly-used
FEM method can simulate much sophisticated scenarios with different boundary
conditions and geometries. However, the validation through reliable experimental
results also plays a key role in cracking sensitivity analysis. Though limited to
simple boundary condition, if the analytical model is able to trace the thermal stress
evolution under full-restrained and semi-adiabatic condition (which can be
Fig. 6 a Experimental elastic modulus evolution b magnified graph c comparison between

continual modulus evolution and tensile modulus
considered as a relatively strict criterion for evaluating thermal cracking), it will

point towards a more practical and intuitive method for testing cracking sensitivities
of varied mix design.
The solidification model [5] generally simulates increasing numbers of solidi-
fying clusters forming gradually as hydration proceeds. The stress of each cluster is
a function of strain at the present time t and t0 time at which the cluster is formed,
and the thermodynamic state. The historical properties of different clusters are
mutually independent. In this way, the formation of clusters can be related to the
hydration process more logically.
The proposed model can be considered as treating the solidification process as
single integrated solidifying cluster with time variables, which may be less
meticulous in physics, but practically offers acceptable characterization for the
deformation, stiffness and stress state.
4 Conclusions
The proposed analytical model simulates the one-dimensional interaction between

cement matrix and aggregate as a coupled parallel-serial relationship, the modelled
thermal stress evolution reveals a satisfactory match with the experimental results
from temperature stress testing machine, which can be served as a practical method
to trace the thermal stress evolution and further extended for optimal mix design.
Acknowledgements The first author would like to express gratitude to Sho-bond scholarship.
References
1. Dao VTN, Nguyen D, Lura P (2016) Early-age thermal cracking in concrete structures-the role
of zero-stress temperature? In: EASEC-14. Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
2. Lim S, Lin ZH, Kishi T (2008) Thermal cracking sensitivity of slag and fly ash concretes by the
uniaxial restraint test. Proc Jpn Concr Inst 30:175–180
3. Lin ZH (2006) Quantitative evaluation of the effectiveness of expansive concrete as a
countermeasure for thermal cracking and the development of its practical application. PhD
Thesis, The University of Tokyo
4. Lin ZH, Kishi T (2006) Cracking resistance of expansive concrete mixed with lightweight
aggregate. Proc Jpn Concr Inst 28:647–652
5. Maekawa K, Ishida T, Kishi T (2009) Multi-scale Modeling of Structural Concrete. Taylor &
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6. Springenschmid R (1994) Development of the cracking frame and the temperature-stress
testing machine. In: RILEM Proceedings, Munich, Germany
7. Springenschmid R (1995) Thermal Cracking in Concrete at Early Ages. Technical University
of Munich, Germany, E & FN SPON
Effect of Confining Pressure
on Compressive Strength and Ductility
of Square Section Concrete Filled
Tube Column
V. Greepala, T. Chareerat, P. Wongthong, and P. Kongna
Abstract Concrete-filled-tube (CFT) column is developed to become an excellent

structural element due to its superior strength and ductility performance contributed
by the composite action. However in case of the rectangular section of CFT column,
this advantage was less than that of the curricular section due to non-uniform
distribution of lateral pressure. This paper aims to develop the performance of the
square section of the CFT column using preconfining pressure. The square sections
of CFT columns were experimentally investigated for its strength and ductility
performance based on its compressive strength and load-deformation characteristics
under uni-axial load test. The main parameter investigated was the confining
pressure, which various from 0, 2.4, 4.8 and 7.2 MPa corresponding to 0, 11.4, 22.9
and 34.3% of concrete strength. The steel tubes with external dimensions of 98, 98
and 350 mm were used to confine the core concrete having a compressive strength
of 20.98 MPa. The confining pressure was applied by preconfining of the steel
jacket. During the experiments, load-deformation curves were recorded. Test results
showed that increasing of confining pressure of 11.4–34.3% of concrete strength
slightly improved the compressive strength of the square section of CFT column by
3.0–19.3% and the more improvement occurs at the preconfining pressure beyond
22.9%. However, it was found that the use of preconfining steel jacket for the
square section of CFT column does not enhancing its ductility as well as energy
absorbing capacity unlike the circular section.
Keywords CFT Concrete filled tube Confinement Compressive strength

Ductility
V. Greepala (&) P. Wongthong P. Kongna

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering,
Kasetsart University Chalermprakait Sakon Nakhon Province Campus, Sakon Nakhon,
Thailand
e-mail: vatwong.gr@ku.th
T. Chareerat
Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ubolratchatani
University, Ubolratchatani, Thailand

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_164
1782 V. Greepala et al.
1 Introduction
Concrete-filled steel tubes (CFT) are a type of structural element where structural
concrete is placed inside a structural steel shell, which have been widely used in tall
buildings, arch bridges and structural rehabilitation [5, 22]. The steel tube and
concrete work together, to resist applied loads. The external steel tube provides
confinement for the inner concrete which in turn delays local buckling of the tube
and so increases the stability and strength of the column as a system. Previous
studies have shown that CFT structural members have several distinct advantages
over equivalent steel, reinforced concrete, or steel-reinforced concrete members.
These advantages include high stiffness and strength, large energy absorption and
enhanced ductility and stability [22]. However, it was found that the square or
rectangular CFT columns present less gain of the advantages than the circular CFT
due to some loss of the confinement effect, as shown in Fig. 1, but they are still
better than concrete columns [1, 7, 10, 13, 15, 17, 18].
a. Distribution of confining stress in the b. Distribution of confining stress in the

circular CFT column square or rectangular CFT column
Fig. 1 Effectively confine concrete for CFT columns [1, 7]
The development of the CFT column needs a full understanding of the con-
finement effect. However, most previous research has focused on the passive
confinement of CFT columns [4, 8, 9, 12, 14, 16]. Several studies have been
conducted on the effect of active confinement of the circular CFT columns on its
mechanical behavior [1, 5¸10, 21]. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of knowledge
and experimental data on the behavior of the square or rectangular CFT columns
under active confinement pressure.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of preconfining pressure
(flp ) on the strength and ductility performance of the square sections of CFT columns.
The steel jacket was used to confine pressure to the CFT column. The steel tubes with
external dimensions of 98 98 2.3 mm (width depth thickness) were used
0
to confine the infill concrete with compressive strength (fco ) of 20.98 MPa [2].
The CFT columns were experimentally investigated for its strength and ductility
Effect of Confining Pressure on Compressive Strength … 1783
performance based on its compressive strength and stress-strain characteristics under

uni-axial load test. The main parameter investigated was the confining pressure,
which various from 0, 2.4, 4.8 and 7.2 MPa corresponding to 0.0, 11.4, 22.9 and
34.3% of the infill concrete strength. During the experiments, load-deformation
curves were recorded. The compressive strength, stress-strain relation, ductility factor
(lcu ) and the energy absorption capacity of the square CFT columns were compared
and discussed.
In this study, the effect of confining pressure on compressive strength and ductility
of the CFT column was investigated. The experimental study was carried out in
four steps: specimen preparation, testing of compressive strength, determination of
the mechanical properties and conclusion as shown in Fig. 2. Altogether four series
of CFT column specimen were produced and conducted to investigate the influence
of preconfining pressure by varying the preconfining pressure from 0.0, 2.4, 4.8,
and 7.2 MPa which were equivalent to 0.0, 11.4, 22.9 and 34.3% of the infill
concrete strength, respectively.
The details of the specimen series are summarized and shown in Table 1. For
each series, two identical CFT specimens were cast and experimentally investigated
for its strength and ductility performance based on its compressive strength and
axial stress-strain relation characteristics under uni-axial load test. The compressive
strength, ductility factor (lcu ) and the energy absorption capacity were obtained by
taking the average of these specimens.
Fig. 2 Flow chart of the experimental processes

Table 1 Details of the CFT specimens

Specimen DHtL Pre-confining ratio Pre-confining pressure
f
series mm (f lp0 100%) flp (MPa)
co
CFT00 98 98 2.3 350 0 0.0

CFT10 98 98 2.3 350 11.4 2.4
CFT20 98 98 2.3 350 22.9 4.8
CFT30 98 98 2.3 350 34.3 7.2
2.1 Materials Used and Specimen Preparation
In this study, a concrete compressive strength of 20.98 MPa [2] was used filled
materials place inside steel tubes. The steel tube grade TIS SM490 with a dimension
of 98 98 2.3 mm was used as CFT shell. The yield stress and tensile strength
of the steel tube were 324 MPa and 490 MPa, respectively.
The steel tube having the dimension of 98 98 350 and 2.3 mm in thickness
was used to make steel mold. In order to make the CFT specimen, the core concrete
was mixed and cast in the steel mold having a longitudinal gap of 1 mm as shown
in Fig. 3a. After casting, all CFT specimen were cured for a period of 28 days and
allowed to air-dry under laboratory environment until the time of jacketing and
preconfining. After curing, the CFT specimen was assembled into the steel jacket as
shown in Fig. 3b. The hydraulic ramp was used to apply to confine the sample over
the steel jacket, as shown in Fig. 3c, until the confining pressure was reached the
aimed level. After that, the longitudinal gabs of steel shell were welded and the steel
jacket was removed. The CFT specimen after preconfining, as shown in Fig. 3d,
were conducted to install strain gauges and allowed in laboratory environment until
the time of the compressive strength testing.
a. Casting CFT specimen b.Jacketing c.Preconfining &Welding d.Removing Jacket
Fig. 3 Specimen preparation of CFT column

2.2 Compressive Strength Testing
In this experiment, the universal testing machine with a maximum load of 2,000 kN
was adopted for the uniaxial compression test. The details of the test set-up and
instrumentation are shown in Fig. 4. Two linear variable differential transducers
(LVDTs) with 50 mm stroke were installed to record the full-length axial dis-
placement of the CFT columns by measuring the relative displacement between the
top and bottom loading platens. Four numbers of one-directional strain gauges were
installed at the two un-welding external faces of the tested specimens. At each face,
two of one-directional strain gauges were installed at around the midheight of the
tested specimens in order to measure the longitudinal and transverse strains of the
CFT column.
Fig. 4 Test set-up
All the CFT columns were tested under displacement control. The initial loading
rate was 0.5 mm/min. The loading rate would then increase at a rate of 0.05 mm/
min for every 2 mm increase in the axial displacement after the specimens had
yielded. The loading application would stop when the axial deformation was larger
than 10 mm, or when the applied load dropped to less than 80% of the measured
maximum load, or when the applied load reached 90% of the machine capacity,
whichever was the earliest. During the compressive strength test, the axial load and
the corresponding axial deformation, the longitudinal and lateral strain were
recorded every 1 s until the loading application was stopped.
2.3 Determination of Compressive Strength

0
The compressive strength of the CFT specimen (fcmax ) is determined by the max-
imum compressive load (Pmax ) and the gross sectional area of CFT specimen
(Agross ) using Eq. (1):
0 Pmax
fcmax ¼ ð1Þ
Agross
2.4 Determination of Ductility
To facilitate analyzing the ductility of steel tube-confined concrete, a series of

parameters similar to those suggested by Sheikh et al. [19], including ductility factor,
energy absorption capacity, and work index, is adapted to calculate based on the
experimental axial stress-strain curves [3]. In this study, the type A axial stress-strain
curve is adapted to calculate the series of parameters, as shown in Fig. 5.
Fig. 5 Definition of ductility

factor for type A of response
[3, 19]
Ductility factor (lcu ) of the specimens is determined using the following Eq. (2):
ecu
lcu ¼ ð2Þ
e1
Energy absorption capacity factor (ecu ) is defined as the area under the
stress-strain curve up to the rupture of the CFT jacket (Fig. 5).
Work index (Wcu ) is a dimensionless parameter calculated by normalizing the
energy absorption capacity (Eq. (3)) which is considered to be a reasonable
parameter in evaluating the ductility of confined concrete.
ecu
Wcu ¼ 0
ð3Þ
fcmax e1
In the conclusion step, the compressive strength, ductility factor (lcu ) and the
energy absorption capacity of each series were obtained by taking the average of
two specimens. The effects of preconfining on these parameters were compared and
discussed.
3 Results
The experimental stress-strain relations of the four series of CFT specimens are
0
shown in Fig. 6. The compressive strength (fcmax ), ductility factor (lcu ) and the
energy absorption capacity of the squared CFT columns which were determined in
accordance with the stress-strain respond suggested by Sheikh et al. [19] are
summarized and shown in Table 2.
Preconfining 0% Preconfining 11.4% Preconfining 22.9% Preconfining 34.3%
CFT00a CFT10a CFT20a CFT30a
CFT00b CFT10b CFT20c CFT30c
Fig. 6 Axial stress versus strain response of the CFT specimen
Table 2 Summary of the test specimens

0
Specimen Preconfining Preconfinement fcmax Ductility Energy Work
series pressure (flp ) f factor absorption index
ratio (f lp0 ) % MPa
MPa co
(lcu ) capacity factor (Wcu)
(ecu ) MPa
CFT00 0.0 0.0 49.52 1.543 0.280 1.019
CFT10 2.4 11.4 51.01 1.146 0.229 0.644
CFT20 4.8 22.9 51.15 1.278 0.189 0.767
CFT30 7.2 34.3 59.04 1.510 0.256 0.769
It is of interest to note that the ultimate strain of CFT column (ecu ) for samples
are about 0.0048–0.0105 which is higher than the ultimate strain of unconfined
concrete (0.003) about 1.6–3.5 times. The improvement of the ultimate strain shows
that the confining of squared steel tube improves the ductility of the core concrete in
CFT column, although the confinement in the squared section was found to be less
effective than the circular section [6, 11].
The CFT specimen having a steel shell of 2.3 mm were tested to ascertain the
influence of the preconfining pressure (flp ) from 0, 2.4, 4.8 and 7.2 MPa which were
equivalent to 0, 11.4, 22.9, and 34.3% of the compressive strength of core concrete,
0
respectively. The test results of the compressive strength (fcmax ) for each series of
CFT specimens which were determined from the average of 2 samples are sum-
marized and shown in Table 2. The influence of the confining pressure on the
compressive strength of CFT specimen is shown in Fig. 7; test results reveal that
increasing of confining pressure of 2.4–7.2 MPa significantly improved the com-
pressive strength of the square section of CFT column by 1.5–9.5 MPa which are
equivalent to 3.0–19.2% of the control specimen. It is of interest to note that the
increase in preconfining pressure beyond 22.9% (4.8 MPa) of concrete strength
resulted in a gradual increase of the compressive strength of CFT specimen, even
though in the low confining pressure the compressive strength of CFT specimen
slightly increase as the preconfining pressure increase. The slight improvement in
compressive strength presents that the squared CFT section has inefficiency for
preconfining. This result due to uninformed lateral pressure which is higher
occurred only at the center and corner of the section [11]. Moreover, the squared
section did not provide a large confining effect especially when the
width-to-thickness ratio was large (B/t > 30); in this study B/t is 42.6. The effects of
concrete confinement for columns with large plate slenderness ratios were also
found to be less pronounced, as local buckling may occur [6, 20].
Fig. 7 Effect of preconfining

pressure on compressive
strength of CFT column
3.2 Ductility
The CFT specimen was tested and the ductility factor (lcu ) was determined to
ascertain the influence of the preconfining pressure (flp ) from 0, 2.4, 4.8 and
7.2 MPa which were equivalent to 0, 11.4, 22.9, and 34.3% of the compressive
0
strength of core concrete (fco ), respectively. The test results of the ductility factor
(lcu ) and work index (Wcu ) which were determined from the average of two
samples are summarized and shown in Table 2. The influence of the confining
pressure on the ductility parameter is shown in Fig. 8. When compared with the
control samples, it was found that the incorporation of confining pressure induced a
reduction of both ductility factor (lcu ) and work index (Wcu ). However, in pre-
confining pressure beyond 2.4 MPa (11.4%), both parameters slightly increase as
the preconfining pressure increase as shown in Fig. 8a and b. It can be concluded
that the use of preconfining steel jacket is not effective in improving the ductility
and energy absorption of CFT column. This results may due to the tension hoop
developed along the side of the tube was not constant [18]. In preconfining process
of most of the hoop stress and hoop strain of the square section occurred at the
pre-stressing side unlike the hoop stress and hoop strain in a circular which are
constantly distributed along the hoop ring as shown in Fig. 9. At the loading state,
the ultimate hoop stress and hoop strain at the pre-stressing side may reach the yield
limit early results in poor improvement of compressive strength and ductility of the
square section.
a. Ductility factor ( µcu ) b. Work index ( Wcu )
Fig. 8 Effect of preconfining pressure on ductility parameters of the squared CFT column
Fig. 9 Distribution of stress in circular and square steel tube
4 Conclusions
The influence of the preconfining pressure of CFT column on its compressive

strength and ductility was experimentally investigated. The following conclusions
can be drawn:
(1) The increasing of confining pressure of 11.4–34.3% of concrete strength
slightly improved the compressive strength of the square section of CFT col-
umn by 3.0–19.3% and the more improvement occurs at the preconfining
pressure beyond 22.9%.
(2) The use of preconfining steel jacket is not enhancing its ductility and energy
absorption.
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A Proposal of Data Driven Maintenance
of RC Decks Focusing on Deterioration
Mechanism
T. Furukawa, T. Ishida, E. Fathalla, and J. Fang
Abstract Performance degradation of reinforced concrete (RC) bridge decks is one

of the most serious problems in highway structures. Therefore, in order to secure
safety and extend the service life, an efficient inspection and maintenance system is
urgently demanded. In this paper, Cox regression survival analysis and fatigue life
analysis are discussed. The first one is a statistical method which can quantitatively
analyze the risk of each deterioration factor for RC decks. The other one, which
utilizes multi-scale simulation and artificial intelligence, has the advantage to
estimate residual life of RC decks quickly by considering bottom-surface crack
patterns. Result of two methods are compared and it is found that they have a fairly
high correlation. Although the reliability of the two methods is confirmed, their
results are directly applied to establish a new inspection system. Then by comparing
the fatigue life of dry and water-submerged conditions, the importance of water-
proofing is highlighted. Additionally, impact of non-uniform stagnant water of RC
slab is investigated, where it provides an analysis that is close to the actual situation
by the utilization of non-destructive testing. Finally, a comprehensive maintenance
system that can determine the priority of inspection is proposed to ensure a rational
decision-making.
Keywords Survival analysis Remaining fatigue life RC deck Stagnant water
T. Furukawa T. Ishida (&) J. Fang

Graduate School of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering,
The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: tetsuya.ishida@civil.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
T. Furukawa
e-mail: furukawa@concrete.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
J. Fang
e-mail: fang@concrete.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
E. Fathalla
Structural Engineering Department, Cairo University, Giza 12613, Egypt
e-mail: mahmoudfthll@cu.edu.eg

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_165
1794 T. Furukawa et al.
1 Introduction
During the period of high economic growth, massive bridge structures were con-
structed. After almost 40 year pasted, the safety of this aged structures become a
non-negligible issue. In urban area of Japan, the fatigue damage of reinforced
concrete (RC) bridge decks from accumulated traffic load is one of the most serious
problem in highway structures. Therefore, a more effective inspection system which
can prolong the life of RC decks is becoming highly demanded.
In this paper, we focus on the fatigue damage of RC decks in Tokyo region. By
integrating existing technologies, a new inspection system is proposed referring to
the concept of “Society5.0”. Firstly, inspection data of decks regarding structural
and traffic information together with the crack information are analyzed by using
two different methods, which are survival analysis and fatigue life analysis. Then,
the two methods are compared by analyzing real RC decks from site in dry and
water submerged states. Finally, a comprehensive maintenance plan is introduced in
terms of inspection system and countermeasures.
2 Methodology and Previous Results
In this chapter, the two technologies, ‘survival analysis’ and ‘fatigue life analysis’
are discussed and a part of previous results are shown.
Survival analysis is a statistical method that can be used to quantify risk factors
for large amounts of data. On the other hand, fatigue life analysis is used for life
prediction of RC deck based on site-inspected crack.
2.1 Methodology of Survival Analysis and Results
Survival analysis is based on the relationship between a time period start from the
observation time until an event occurs. It does not only quantity the risk factors, but
also has the advantage of considering censoring comparing with linear model. Cox
regression model is one of the most frequently used survival analysis method.
Moreover, there is no assumption about distribution of the hazard, which makes it
more practical.
2.1.1 Cox Regression Analysis

Yamazaki and Ishida [1] conducted Cox regression analysis of RC decks. They
suggest that the method can be used for risk assessment of RC deck slab. Fang et al.
[2] used same method to analyze Metropolitan Expressway by considering
repairing effect. In this paper, the definition of event is consistent with the previous
A Proposal of Data Driven Maintenance of RC Decks ... 1795
research [2]. The event is defined as the appearance of two-dimensional cracks and
the appearance of efflorescence at the bottom of an RC deck slab. Additionally, the
deterioration rate will be changed since the repairing work is conducted before
inspection. Therefore, the repairing should also be considered. If steel plate
bonding, replacing, carbon fiber reinforcement and crack injection were conducted,
an extra event will be assumed. The cox regression model is defined as Eq. (1).
hðtÞ ¼ h0 ðtÞexpðx1 b1 þ x2 b2 þ þ xn bn Þ ð1Þ
where x is a covariate and b is regression coefficient. h0(t) is baseline hazard which

only changes with time. Hazard ratio is calculated using the function above. Hazard
ratio of covariate vector and is defined as Eq. (2) [3].
h0 ðtÞexpðx1 ; bÞ
HR ¼ ¼ exp½bðx1 x0 Þ ð2Þ
h0 ðtÞexpðx0 ; bÞ
The hazard ratio can be interpreted as the ratio of mortality for two samples with
covariate x0 and x1 for any time duration. Risk increases as variate increases when
hazard ratio is higher than one, and vice versa. Efron method is used to estimate b.
The partial likelihood function is shown in Eq. (3).
Y
m
exi þ b
lðbÞ ¼ Qdi P xj b k1
P xj b
ð3Þ
i¼1 k¼1 j2Rðti Þ e di j2Rðti Þ e
2.1.2 Result for Metropolitan Expressway Co

Data come from Metropolitan Expressway are used for analysis. Table 1 shows the
sample of input variables and hazard ratios of Cox regression for Tokyo region.
Risk score, which is interpreted as the deterioration rate of each RC panel can be
estimated by using the follow equation. By plotting the score in the map, it is
possible to visualize the risk of deterioration.
risk score ¼ expðx1 b1 þ x2 b2 þ þ xn bn Þ ð4Þ
Table 1 Sample of input Input variables Hazard ratio

variables and results of Cox
regression analysis for Tokyo Traffic volume 1.357
region Deck’s thickness 0.621
Winter precipitation 1.180
Slope 0.808
Design code after S39 1.000
Design code before S39 3.923
2.2 Methodology of Fatigue Life Analysis
Fatigue life analysis is conducted with the data assimilation technology of the
integrated system of the multi-scale simulation program (DuCOM-COM3) together
with the pseudo cracking method (PCM) [4–7]. In the multi-scale simulation, the
constitutive laws for high cycle fatigue loading were already integrated in order to
consider the concrete’s damage of high cycle fatigue loading in terms of reduction
in both stiffness and strength and increase in time dependent deformation.
On the other hand, PCM is a numerical technique to estimate fatigue life of RC
decks based upon site-inspected cracks. The visual cracks at the bottom surfaces are
assumed to be flexure ones up to the neural axis of the RC decks and they are
considered as the first candidates for fatigue lifetime simulation. Then, inner
unknown cracks are numerically produced during the early age of fatigue cycles by
the means of corrector-predictor approach based on energy principles. Finally,
remaining fatigue life can be successfully achieved.
Moreover, multi-scale simulation was upgraded to consider concrete-water
interaction based on Biot’s theory, where the impact of stagnant water on RC decks
can be simulated. It should be noted that multi-scale simulation program can deal
with any crack patterns for fatigue life prediction of RC decks in dry or
water-submerged states, but it takes huge computation cost. Thus, ANN models has
been developed to achieve high-speed quantitative assessment [5, 6].
2.2.1 ANN Models

In order to reduce computational cost, an ANN model was developed [5, 6] for
fatigue life prediction of RC decks based on site-inspected cracks. The target of
these models is RC decks with thinner thickness less than 200 mm. Travelling
wheel is chosen to be 98 kN in consideration of Japanese Speciation of Highway
Bridges [8].
According to previous research [11], the criterion of fatigue failure is defined
when the live load deflection (Eq. 5) is three times its initial value.
dL;N ¼ d1;N d2;N ð5Þ
dL;N
3:0 ð6Þ
dL;0
where dL,N is central live load deflection at Nth number of cycles, d1,N is central total
deflection at Nth number of cycles during loading time, d2,N is central total
deflection at Nth number of cycles during unloading time, dL,0 is the initial live load
deflection, Nf is the number of cycles at failure corresponding to (dL,N calculated
from Eq. 6).
Figure 1 shows the methodology for building up the developed ANN models for
dry and water-submerged states (Fathalla et al. [5, 6]).
3 Comparison of Survival Analysis and ANN Model
In order to develop an efficient inspection system, the prediction accuracy of the

two method should be examined. Here, a comparison of two methods is conducted
by analyzing RC decks in Tokyo region. Based on previous research [6], it has been
demonstrated that the deterioration of RC decks can be greatly accelerated under
stagnant water. To confirm the effect of stagnant water, a comparison is executed
for both dry and water-submerged states.
Fig. 1 Methodology of building ANN models for fatigue lifetime prediction

3.1 About Targeted RC Slab
Fatigue failure is the main reason to cause the deterioration of RC bridge in Tokyo
region [2] and up to now our ANN model can only deal with specific environmental
condition. Therefore, in this research, data of RC slab from Metropolitan
Expressway is randomly selected. The analysis object is a panel, which is defined as
an area surrounded by longitudinal-main girders and transverse-cross girders. For
survival analysis, all data are simulated in the same process which have been done
before to calculate the risk score [2]. Then, 55 panels from Line 5 under different
situations are selected. On the other hand, for ANN model, not only structural
information but also the crack information, which are extracted from slab
bottom-side photos of the slab are used to conduct ANN models. However, since
the crack width cannot be determined from the photo, all crack width is assumed as
0.1 mm for simplification based on previous site investigations.
3.2 Comparison Result
The relation of ANN model and risk score from the target RC slab are shown in
Fig. 2. The vertical axis expresses the remaining fatigue life estimated by ANN
model in dry case in logarithmic scale and the horizontal axis expresses the risk
score calculated by survival analysis. High-risk score means serious deterioration
possibility with low remaining life. Although the two methods are completely
different, it can be seen that as the risk score increases, the remaining fatigue life
reduces with a high correlation coefficient of R = 0.83. Thus, the reliability of both
terminologies to be integrated together is demonstrated.
Now, in Japan, all bridges are under a 5-years periodic inspection, which was
launched by government. However, it has been pointed out that the current
inspection strategy is not smart enough to handle different deterioration stages.
Therefore, depending on these results, inspection interval can be updated based on
Fig. 2 Relation of remaining

fatigue life and risk score for
analyzed RC decks
Fig. 3 Inspection interval

base on remaining fatigue life
and risk score
Fig. 4 Comparison of dry

case and wet states for the
analyzed RC decks
increasing deck’s thickness
and waterproof installation for
extending life of RC decks
the real performances of RC decks in order to save unnecessary and excessive costs.
As shown in Fig. 3, for high-risk zone, the inspection can be set as 5-years, and for
the low-risk zone, the inspection can be set as 15-years. In this graph, the threshold
is based on 95% confidence interval. Considering the actual application of deciding
the inspection-span by using these results, the threshold can be set depending on
company’s circumstance and budget.
Furthermore, in comparison with the dry case, the RC decks in water-submerged

(wet) case are also analyzed. The comparison result is shown in Fig. 4. It can be
clearly seen that fatigue life in dry case is around 100-times higher than the fatigue
life in wet case, which indicates that RC decks is extremely risky under wet case.
The important of waterproof installation is illustrated by comparing the
remaining life of thin and thick RC decks in dry and wet states, as shown in Fig. 5.
Point A represents a bridge panel under wet condition with a thickness of 190 mm.
Since the remaining life is less than 1 year, two reinforcing ways which include
increasing deck’s thickness and waterproof installation can be used to slow down
and prevent further deterioration. By increasing the slab thickness to 240 mm, point
A turns to point B. Risk score changes from about 5.0 to about 1.0 and remaining
fatigue life is increased about 3 times. On the other hand, by installing complete
waterproof, Point A jumps up to Point C, remaining fatigue life increases dra-
matically comparing with slab thickening method. According to the above dis-
cussion, it can be concluded that waterproof has a significant effect on slowing
down deterioration of RC decks. Here, it should be noted that the first priority of
inspection should focus on stagnant water detection.
4 Impact of Stagnant Water on Fatigue Life
In reality, RC decks under water-submerge state are very rare, in most of the cases,
where this assumption is overestimating their deterioration risk. In the past few
decades, there was no feasible technique to detect the location of the stagnant water
on RC decks below the pavement layers. Recently, a non-destructive testing
(NDT) has been developed to detect stagnant water locations by signal processing
of data collected from site by utilizing ground penetration radar (GPR) installed on
vehicle that can travel up to 80 km/h [9].
Fig. 6 Proposed model for life prediction based on site-inspected wetting locations
Moreover, a predictive model was proposed for the fatigue life prediction of RC
decks based on site-inspected wetting locations [10], as shown in Fig. 6 and Eqs. 7
and 8.
D:I: ¼ 0:55WR1 þ 0:23WR2 þ 0:17WR3 þ 0:05WR4 ð7Þ

Pk¼n
Ak
WR ¼ k¼1
100 ð8Þ
A
where D.I. is the damage index of water impact, (WR1, WR2, WR3, WR4) are wetting
rates for each of the zones shown in Fig. 6, k is the kth ponding region at the top
surface, Ak is the wetting-area of the kth ponding region, and A is the total area of
top surface of RC deck. This D.I. can be used as a threshold for checking the
significance of water impact.
5 Proposal of New Inspection System
Based on the previous result, it is found that inspection interval can be changed
according to the level of risk. In addition, it is important to install waterproof in
order to prevent further deterioration of RC decks. Finally, a new inspection system
is introduced by combining the current developed technologies, as shown in Fig. 7.
Fig. 7 Proposal for comprehensive inspection system

At first, GPR is used to check the stagnant water at the top layer of RC slab.
Then, D.I. can be calculated based detected wetting locations. If D.I. is higher than
the threshold, the panel is needed to be waterproofed quickly or replaced. If D.I. is
lower than the threshold, monitoring the progress and dispersion of ponding by
GPR system is needed in order to check whether D.I. exceeds the threshold value or
not. Then, for close inspection, crack and peeling information need to be collected.
Any missing information (compressive strength, reinforcement details, etc.) can be
obtained by NDTs. Moreover, by using the information of cracks, remaining fatigue
life can be estimated and updated. In dry case, inspection interval of crack can be
changed regrading to risk score as discussed in Sect. 3. For the RC decks with
higher risk of fatigue failure, more investigations should be conducted by using
high definition cameras, UAV, etc., in order to obtain reliable estimation. Finally,
this information is accumulated in database and combined with environmental
information in order to provide rational counter measure plans.
6 Conclusion
In this paper, survival analysis and ANN models for fatigue life are discussed.
Then, these two methods are compared by using real decks from site. Finally, new
inspection system is proposed. The conclusions can be summarized as follows.
(1) Although the terminologies and methodologies of two model are different, they
are integrated together for decision making of deterioration risk of RC decks
since their results show high correlation. Here, inspection interval can be
extended for RC decks with lower risk to reduce costs.
(2) Stagnant water has been proven to be the main factor to cause the reduction of
lifetime of RC decks. Thus, applying waterproof works with regular mainte-
nance is an indispensable way to effectively slow down the degradation rate of
RC decks.
(3) A comprehensive inspection system of RC decks is proposed in detail. Thus,
feasible maintenance plans can be successfully implemented.
References
1. Yamazaki T, Ishida T (2015) Application of Survival Analysis to Deteriorated Concrete

Bridges in East Japan (Japanese Title:
). J Jpn Soc Civ Eng Ser.
F4 (Construction and Management), 71
2. Fang J, Ishida T, Yamazaki T (2018) Quantitative evaluation of risk factors affecting the
deterioration of RC deck slab components in East Japan and Tokyo regions using survival
analysis. Appl Sci 8(9):1470
3. Ishak KJ, Kreif N, Benedict A, Muszbek N (2013) Overview of parametric survival analysis
for health-economic applications. Pharmacoeconomics 31(8):663–675
4. Fathalla E, Tanaka Y, Maekawa K (2018) Remaining fatigue life assessment of in-service
road bridge decks based upon artificial neural networks. Eng Struct 171:602–616
5. Fathalla E, Tanaka Y, Maekawa K (2018) Quantitative deterioration assessment of road
bridge decks based on site inspected cracks. Appl Sci 8:1197
6. Fathalla E, Tanaka Y, Maekawa K, Sakurai A (2019) Quantitative deterioration assessment of
road bridge decks based on site inspected cracks under stagnant water. J Adv Concr Technol
17(1):16–33
7. Fathalla E, Tanaka Y, Maekawa K (2019) Effect of crack orientation on fatigue life of
reinforced concrete bridge decks. Appl Sci 9(8):1644
8. Japan Road Association (2012) Specification for Highway Bridges-Part III Concrete Bridges.
Tokyo, Japan
9. Mizutani T, Nakamura N, Yamaguchi T, Tarumi M, Hara I (2017) Bridge slab damage
detection by signal processing of uhf-band ground penetrating radar data. J Disast Res 12
(3):415–421
10. Fathalla E, Tanaka Y, Maekawa K (2019) Fatigue life of RC bridge decks affected by
non-uniformly dispersed stagnant water. Appl Sci 9(3):607
11. Tanaka Y, Maekawa K, Maeshima T, Iwaki I, Nishida T, Shiotani T (2017) Data assimilation
for fatigue life assessment of RC bridge decks coupled with hygro-mechanistic model and
nondestructive inspection. J Disaster Res 12:422–431
Effects of Slab Thickness on the Fatigue
Performance of RC Slabs: An Analytical
Investigation
P. R. Deng and T. Matsumoto
Abstract Due to an over-emphasis of economy in previous design codes, RC

bridge slabs were normally designed with small thickness resulting in the emer-
gence of an unexpected brittle punching shear failure in these key structural
members. In this paper, exploiting a fracture mechanics-based method, the effects of
slab thickness on the fatigue performances of RC slabs under wheel-type moving
loads are investigated analytically, where the changes of fatigue behaviors including
fatigue life, propagation and development rates of the critical punching shear cracks
with respect to the slab thickness are presented for the thickness ranging from 140
to 180 mm. The obtained results demonstrate the detrimental effects of reducing
slab thickness mainly indicated by a shortened fatigue life, which provides evi-
dences for increasing the slab thickness in structural design from a theoretical point
of view. Furthermore, the behaviors vs. slab thickness relations can be referenced in
selecting suitable slab thickness.

Keywords RC slab Punching shear failure Fatigue Slab thickness Crack
bridging degradation
1 Introduction
Due to an overlook of fatigue shear capacity in the previous design codes of RC

bridge decks slabs, a brittle and unexpected punching shear failure has been
commonly observed in the last few decades around the world. To uncover the
punching shear failure of RC bridge deck slabs, an amount of experiments has been
systematically conducted. In these experiments, a wheel-type moving load was
commonly employed, where the punching shear failure mode was successfully
P. R. Deng (&) T. Matsumoto

Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8628, Japan
e-mail: pengrudeng@eng.hokudai.ac.jp
T. Matsumoto
e-mail: takashim@eng.hokudai.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_166
1806 P. R. Deng and T. Matsumoto
reproduced. In addition, it is observed that the RC slab was gradually divided into a
series of RC beams perpendicular to the slab axis, which is known as a
slab-to-beam phenomenon. Finally, the punching shear failure of a critical RC beam
at the mid-span leads to the failure. According to experimental observations, a
group of empirical life prediction equations were formulated with the static
punching shear capacity of this critical RC beam through fitting different sets of
experiment data [1, 5, 6]. Moreover, it is concluded that the punching shear failure
of RC bridge deck slabs stems from the insufficient slab thickness due to the
overvalue of economy in past design codes. The effect of slab thickness has been
experimentally investigated in lab tests and implicitly accounted for in the empirical
life prediction equations as an essential factor. However, to uncover the effect of
slab thickness mechanically, a mechanism-based analytical study on this effect is
necessary and meaningful, which is the purpose of this study. The analytically
obtained effects can provide a solid theory foundation and reference for the
improvement of related design codes.
In this study, the fatigue behaviors of RC slabs with different thicknesses are
studied employing a fracture mechanics based analytical method, where two gen-
erally accepted dominant degradation mechanisms, i.e. rebar/concrete bond slip
degradation and concrete bridging degradation, are considered as the source of the
propagation of the critical punching shear cracks [3, 4]. From this method, one can
not only predict the fatigue life but also obtain the cracking states after every
loading cycle. Obviously, the different fatigue life of the slabs clearly manifests the
effect of slab thickness. In addition, the effect is investigated in detail through
analyzing the evolutions of the critical punching shear cracks, i.e. crack depth,
tensile depth and crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD), in the slabs.
2 Method
2.1 Basic Assumptions and Problem Formulation
For an RC slab under cyclic moving loads, the RC slab is gradually divided into a
series of RC beams perpendicular to the slab axis and the punching shear failure of
a critical beam located in the mid-span leads to the failure of the RC slab.
According to the cracking process and failure mode, Matsui proposed a method of
determining the dimensions and static punching shear capacity of the critical RC
beam. Moreover, empirical life prediction S-N relations were formulated using this
capacity through fitting different sets of experimental data. Therefore, the fatigue
analysis of an RC slab under a moving wheel load can be simplified into the life
prediction of a critical RC beam focusing on the propagation of punching shear
cracks which are assumed to propagate along 45º lines symmetrical with respect to
the moving load.
Effects of Slab Thickness on the Fatigue Performance … 1807
For the critical RC beam subjected to general loads, the sectional stresses and
forces acting along the punching shear cracks are shown in Fig. 1. To determine all
the sectional forces and stresses, three widely accepted assumptions are employed
as follows: (1) plane cross-section assumption; (2) the cracked cross-section is
assumed to rotate around the neutral axis; (3) the crack has a linear crack opening
profile. From these three assumptions, the strain distributions of all materials and
the crack opening displacement (COD) profile can be expressed three cracking
parameters, i.e. a, b, and d (CMOD). And then, substituting the strains and COD
profile into material models, one can express all the stresses and forces with a, b,
and d. To get a, b, and d after every loading cycle, at least three independent
equations with unknown of a, b, and d should be established.
Referencing to the Fig. 1, there are one force equilibrium equation along x di-
rection and one moment equilibrium equation can be easily established. In order to
obtain the three unknown a, b, and d, another relationship is necessary. According
to the cracking analysis of RC structures in [2], a CMOD decomposition equation
can be established, where the total CMOD is assumed to consist of crack openings
due to applied loads and rebar/concrete bond slip and crack closings due to rebar
and concrete bridging stresses.
Therefore, if all stresses and forces can be expressed with a, b, and d, one can
obtain them after every loading cycle through solving these three governing
equations.
2.2 Sectional Stresses and Forces
Firstly, according to the transferring characteristic of moment and shearing force,

sectional moment and shearing force in the critical RC beam can be obtained from
finite element analysis of the RC slab and analysis of the RC beam, respectively.
With the obtained sectional moment and shearing force, stresses that would exist
Fig. 1 Sectional stresses and

forces
along the punching shear crack line in the absence of the crack can be easily
expressed with a, b, and d from sectional analysis. Secondly, stresses from
uncracked concrete can be expressed with a, b, and d through multiplying the
concrete strain and elastic modulus of concrete. Thirdly, in terms of the stresses
from cracked concrete, in the 1st cycle, it can be expressed with a, b, and d
following an empirical concrete bridging model and using the COD profile. From
2nd loading cycle to the final failure, a concrete bridging degradation is accounted
for by introducing a concrete bridging degradation model. Finally, the rebar stresses
are determined by substituting the rebar strains from the plane cross-section and
cross-section rotation assumptions into a modified stress-strain relation of rebars
embedded in concrete. After this modification, the rebar/concrete interface bond
slip known as the tension stiffening effect as well as the bond slip degradation can
be included in this method.
2.3 Failure Moment Determination
As is generally accepted, the total shear capacity resistance for a traditional RC slab
is from the vertical component of the shear strength of concrete and dowel action of
flexural reinforcement. Under cyclic moving loads, the formed cracks experience
repeated opening and closing process, which keeps polishing the interface of
aggregates and mortar. As a result, only the concrete in the compression region can
provide shear resistance. Therefore, in this study, the total shear capacity is obtained
by integrating the vertical components of the tensile stresses in compressed concrete
following the AASHTO and ACI equations for punching shear.
In terms of the ultimate dowel forces of both tensile and compressive rebar are
calculated following an equation in [5]. However, post-mortem inspections of tested
specimens showed that a delamination at the upper rebars level occurs in the
mid-span cross-section of specimens subjected to cyclic moving loads. This is
probably a result of high-fatigue shear stresses at that depth due to the existence of
upper rebars and a short distance from the neutral axis. Therefore, the dowel effect
of upper rebars should not be included in determining the punching shear capacity
after the crack tip reaches upper rebars.
Using the obtained cracking state parameters after every loading cycle, the final
failure moment is determined following the mentioned shear capacity-based failure
criterion and considerations.
3 Numerical Results
In this study, RC slabs with three normally used thicknesses are employed. Detail
information of dimensions, boundary conditions, load conditions and reinforcement
arrangements of the RC slabs are shown in Fig. 2. The highlighted thickness of the
slabs, h, varies from 140 to 180 mm with a step of 20 mm. The material properties
of concrete and steel rebars are assumed as the same for these three slabs and listed
in Table 1. Applying the introduced method, one can obtain the evolutions of the
cracking state parameters and the predict the fatigue life.
3.1 Cracking State Parameters Evolutions
The cracked depth/beam depth ratios under different loading levels for the three
thicknesses of RC slabs are plotted with the number of loading cycles on the
semi-logarithmic scale as shown in Fig. 3. If the relations for each thickness of RC
slabs are investigated, it is found that the generally initiate two stages of fatigue
growth of a bridged crack in concrete structures, i.e. initial decelerated growth stage
and the second steady growth stage, can be captured by the analysis. However, the
relative relations between these two stages varies from loading levels and slab
thickness. More specifically, the number of cycles occupied by the initial stage
decreases with the increasing loading level and slab thickness. These phenomena
can be explained by the dominant degradation mechanisms for these two stages.
According to the analysis, the concrete bridging degradation is dominant the initial
stage, nevertheless as the degradation of cracked concrete is fast and accelerates
with the enlarging crack width, the bridging effect from concrete reduces rapidly to
almost negligible. And the force which was carried by the concrete is transferred to
rebars. Due to the increasing rebar stresses, the rebar/concrete interface bond slip
degradation becomes more significant. As a result, the dominant degradation
mechanism transforms into the rebar/concrete bond slip degradation in the second
stage. Compared with the concrete bridging degradation, the rebar/concrete bond
slip degradation tends to the more stable and less apparent. Thus, it is demonstrated
that the length of the initial stage depends on the extend of the initial crack opening
Fig. 2 RC slab geometry and reinforcement arrangement


Concrete Steel rebar
Properties Value (MPa) Properties Value (MPa)
Compression strength 43.2 Yielding strength 341
Tensile strength 2.88 Tensile strength 462
Elastic modulus 25,442 Elastic modulus 200,000
mainly represented by the initial crack depth and opening displacement.

Apparently, for one thickness of RC slabs, the crack should be more fully devel-
oped under higher loading level. In terms of RC slabs with different thickness, as
shown in Fig. 3, the crack depth and opening displacement increase from 140 to
160 to 180 mm thickness of RC slabs under the selected loading levels.
Correspondingly, the length of initial stage should decrease with the increasing
loading level and slab thickness in this calculation, which is consistent with the
observations.
Similar to the characteristics exhibited in the crack depth/beam depth ratio to
number of loading cycles relations, the initial two stages of crack growing are also
observed in Fig. 4, where the relationships between tensile depth/beam depth ratio
and the number of loading cycles for the three thicknesses of RC slabs under
several loading levels are plotted on the semi-logarithmic scale. However, each
tensile depth/beam depth ratio curve tends to be more compacted than the crack
depth/beam depth ratio and approaching one asymptotic line. This is because that
this ratio cannot surpass the cross-sectional tensile depth ratio obtained by ignoring
the tensile effects of concrete, in other words, the tensile depth ratio from the fully
cracked cross assumption. Theoretically, the level of the asymptotic line is the value
of this tensile depth ratio. As the maximum-to-minimum sequence of major rein-
forcement ratio for the three thicknesses of RC slab is 160, 180, to 140 mm, the
relative relations of asymptotic line level also follow the same sequence.
The evolution of CMODs with respect to the increasing number of loading
cycles for the three thicknesses of RC beams subjected to several loading level are
Fig. 3 Crack depth evolution

Fig. 4 Tensile depth

evolution
Fig. 5 CMOD evolution

Applied load/Punching shear capacity
10
Matsui equation
PWRI equation
Abe equation
JSCE equation
1
0.1
Ana. 180mm Exp. 180mm

0.01
1 100 10000 1000000 1E8 1E10
Number of cycles
Fig. 6 Comparison of fatigue life

Table 2 Fatigue life of RC slab with different thickness under different loading levels
Thickness (mm) Predicted fatigue life (cycles)
100 125 150 175 200 225
180 – – – 3,626,813 305,632 8,922
160 – – 501,087 9,859 644 –
140 3,682,651 96,123 1,429 – – –
drawn on a semi-logarithmic scale as shown in Fig. 5. Theoretically, the widening

CMOD is a result of combined effect of concrete bridging degradation and rebar/
concrete interface degradation. In terms of the contribution from concrete bridging
degradation, firstly, the concrete tensile strength drops fast after cracking. Besides,
as the concrete bridging degradation increases with the increasing crack width, the
lever of concrete bridging stress decreases at the same time as the point of resultant
force of it approaches to the crack tip. As a result, the concrete bridging degradation
related CMOD evolution should be faster than that of the crack depth evolution.
Correspondingly, the length of the initial stage for CMODs is reduced as the
degradation of concrete bridging is dominant in this stage. Hereafter, a steady
growth of CMOD is observed, which manifests a more stable rebar/concrete
interface degradation than the concrete bridging degradation. Moreover, it can be
found that generally the length of the initial stage becomes less apparent with the
increasing slab thickness. This can be understood with the relative relation between
the bridging contributions from rebar and concrete as well. On one hand, the lever
of rebar increases with the increasing slab thickness. On the other hand, as the
concrete bridging stress decreases from crack tip to crack mouth, the contribution
from cracked concrete should stay almost unchanged from different thickness of RC
slabs if they have the same slope of crack profile. In other words, the contribution
from rebar becomes more significant for thicker RC slabs. Correspondingly, the
relative relation between rebar/concrete bond slip and the concrete bridging
degradations should also follow a similar trend as observed.
3.2 Fatigue Life Prediction
With the obtained cracking state parameters, the fatigue life of the three RC slabs
under the employed loading levels can be predicted and listed in Table 2. Under a
same absolute value of moving wheel load, it can be found that the fatigue life is
extended to about 400 times if the thickness of the RC slab increases for only
20 mm. In addition, the S-N diagrams of the three RC slabs are shown in Fig. 6
together with four empirical life prediction equations and experimental fatigue life
of three RC slabs from [7, 8]. These three tested RC slabs are with three different
thickness, i.e. 140, 160, 180 mm, but with the same other dimensions. Since the
three thickness are identical with the analyzed ones, they are suitable for this
comparison. From this figure, it is found that the analytical S-N relation agrees well
with the experimental fatigue life and the four reported life prediction equations.
These good agreements further verify the reliability of the proposed method and
confirmed the significant fatigue life extension effect of a slight increase of slab
thickness.
4 Conclusions
A fatigue analysis method which was developed specific for studying the RC slab
subjected to moving loads was employed to analyze RC slabs with three normally
used thicknesses. The crack propagation was assumed to be induced by the concrete
bridging and rebar/concrete bond slip degradations.
From analyses, the evolutions of the critical punching shear cracks are obtained,
where the initial two stages of crack propagation were captured. In particular, the
cracks in thicker slabs tend to enter the steady growth stage faster than in thinner
slabs under a similar level of load to static punching shear capacity ratio.
Furthermore, the fatigue life was predicted analytically and presented to provide a
straight forward image about the effect of slab thickness. An about 400 times of life
extension was achieved by a 20 mm increment of slab thickness, which clearly
demonstrated the primary role played by the thickness in the punching shear failure
of RC bridge slabs and also provided theoretical references for design code
improvement.
References
1. Abe T (2005) Study on punching shear load-carrying capacity of RC slab. J Coll Ind Tech
Nihon Univ 38(2):11–21 (in Japanese)
2. Deng P, Matsumoto T (2017) Estimation of the rebar force in RC members from the analysis of
the crack mouth opening displacement based on fracture mechanics. J Adv Concr Technol 15
(2):81–93
3. Deng P, Matsumoto T (2018) Determination of dominant degradation mechanisms of RC
bridge deck slabs under cyclic moving loads. Int J Fatigue 112:328–340
4. Deng P, Matsumoto T (2019) Fracture mechanics based fatigue life prediction method for RC
slabs in a punching shear failure mode. J Struct Eng (Accepted)
5. Matsui S (1987) Fatigue strength and water effect on the RC slab of highway bridge under the
running load. Proc JCI 9(2):627–632 (in Japanese)
6. Matsui S (2007) Road bridge deck: design, construction, and maintenance. Morikita Publishing
(in Japanese)
7. Mitamura H, Syakushiro K, Matsumoto T, Matsui S (2012) Experimental study on fatigue
durability of RC deck slabs with overlay retrofit. J Struct Eng A 58:1166–1177 (in Japanese)
8. Yokoyama H, Kakuma K, Sato K, Masuya H (2017) Study on the curvature of the road bridge
deck under live load action. J Struct Eng A 63:1296–1303 (in Japanese)
Nonlinear Analysis for Hysteretic
Behavior of RC Joints
Considering Bond-Slip
D. Y. Kim
Abstract This paper presents a numerical model for the analysis of reinforced
concrete (RC) joints that explicitly accounts for the bond-slip between the rein-
forcing bars and the surrounding concrete. A frame element whose displacement
fields for the concrete and the reinforcing bars are different from each other to
permit slip is introduced. From the fiber section concept, compatibility equations
for the concrete, reinforcing bar, and bond are incorporated in the formulation of the
element stiffness matrix. For analyses of general loading cases, cyclic stress-strain
relations of concrete and reinforcing bar are defined in the material model. For the
constitutive model of bond, local bond stress-slip relations for monotonic loads are
updated according to the accumulated bond damage at each slip reversal. The
numerical applications to the reinforcing bar embedded in the concrete block, RC
column anchored in the foundation, and RC beam-column sub-assemblage validate
the analysis model and show the effect of bond-slip for the assessment of energy
dissipation during loading histories.
Keywords Reinforced concrete Bond-slip Nonlinear analysis Frame element
1 Introduction
The fundamental seismic design adopted in the design codes follows the concept of
strong column-weak beam so that most of the strain energy is dissipated through the
plastic hinge in the beam to prohibit collapse of whole structural system. For a
desirable seismic design of the RC joints, one needs to investigate the nonlinear
behavior and failure mechanism of the RC joint through analytical modeling as well
as an experimental study. Especially, the RC joint shows a complicated structural
behavior due to load transfer through bond and shear resistance in the concrete core.
D. Y. Kim (&)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Department, KEPCO E&C,
39660 Gimcheon, Republic of Korea
e-mail: ehdus11@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_167
1816 D. Y. Kim
In order to simulate this behavior analytically, a development of numerical model

with adequate material constitutive relation is required. To verify the nonlinear
behavior of RC joint including the bond-slip mechanism analytically, many
numerical studies have been conducted [1, 5, 10].
Since the joint area is a kind of connection part where the sectional properties of
connected members change abruptly, it should be modeled with interface elements
or bond-slip springs to represent the discontinuous slip at the joint explicitly.
However, it is not easy to model the discontinuous behavior in the finite element
which is derived based on the continuum mechanics. Most of the related research
studies are limited to the development or introduction of simple physical models
such as plastic hinges and lumped bond springs [5]. These simple modeling
approaches give reliable results to the simple analyses, but it is not suitable to apply
these models to general cases having irregular sections with complicated rebar
details subject to general multi-directional loading such as earthquake excitations.
In this study, a numerical model is introduced to analyze the RC joints focusing
on the bond-slip which significantly affects the hysteretic behavior of the RC joints.
A frame element is developed accounting for the effect of bond-slip explicitly by
introducing relative displacements between concrete and reinforcing bars. Separate
material models for the concrete and reinforcing bar and a bond-slip model for the
interaction between two materials are incorporated into the numerical model. In
order to validate the developed model and investigate the bond-slip behaviour in the
RC member, numerical analyses are conducted for the test specimens.
2 Finite Element Formulation
To develop a frame element considering bond-slip, the beam element [7] which is
derived based on the Timoshenko’s beam theory is used herein. In this element, the
lateral and rotational displacement fields are represented by the nodal lateral and
rotational displacements, respectively. Hence, this element could be used effectively
to express the compatibility condition of discontinuous slip separating the rotational
displacement field of reinforcing bars from that of concrete. The frame element could
then be constructed by adding an axial degree of freedom in the beam element [3].
2.1 Displacement Fields
A planar frame element has axial, lateral, and rotational displacement fields. Apart
from the displacement field of concrete, the displacement field of reinforcing bars is
introduced and connected with a bond spring to account for the slip between two
materials (see Fig. 1). Since the reinforcing bars have small sectional area com-
pared to their lengths, the transverse shear deformation of the reinforcing bars could
be neglected.
Nonlinear Analysis for Hysteretic Behavior … 1817
vc1 vc2
θ c2
y uc1 uc2
θ c1
Concrete
vc(x) θ c(x) θ s(x) x
uc(x) us(x) +
θ s2
Reinforced Concrete us1 us2
θ s1
Steel
Fig. 1 Displacement fields and DOF of RC frame element considering bond-slip
From this assumption, the displacement field vector of an RC frame element at

an arbitrary location has the following form:
uðxÞ ¼ fuc ðxÞ vc ðxÞ hc ðxÞ us ðxÞ hs ðxÞgT ð1Þ
where the subscript c is for the concrete and the subscript s is for the reinforcing
bar. As shown on the right side of Fig. 1, this displacement field vector is expressed
as the nodal displacement components of concrete and reinforcing bars at each
node, i.e.
U ¼ fuc1 vc1 hc1 us1 hs1 juc2 vc2 hc2 us2 hs2 gT ð2Þ
By using shape functions, this nodal displacement vector is expressed as
uðxÞ ¼ NðxÞ U ð3Þ

2 3
N1 0 0 0 0 N2 0 0 0 0
6 0 N1 0 0 0 0 N2 0 0 0 7
6 7
where, NðxÞ ¼ 6 6 0 0 N1 0 0 0 0 N2 0 0 77, N1 = 1 − x/L,
4 0 0 0 N1 0 0 0 0 N2 0 5
0 0 0 0 N1 0 0 0 0 N2
N2 = x/L, L is the length of an element.
2.2 Compatibility Conditions
Because the reinforcing bars and concrete have different displacement fields, the
fiber model in which a section is divided into layers or grids and appropriate
material properties are assigned at the corresponding locations is adopted.
1818 D. Y. Kim
Fig. 2 Typical section

configuration of RC fiber
model
i th fiber
yi
z
yj
j th bar
Fig. 3 Compatibility
elongation = us -uc
condition for slip Initial
elongation
+
Final
-yj
rotation
total rotation = -yj ( s c)
Figure 2 shows a typical section configuration for the fiber model which discretizes
the section by grids and calculates the secant modulus, strain, and stress at each
grid.
The strain of the concrete at an arbitrary grid is calculated from the axial strain,
curvature, and grid location as follows:
eci ¼ u0c ðxÞ yi jc ðxÞ ð4Þ
in which eci is the strain of i-th fiber (see Fig. 2) and jc h0c ðxÞ. Similarly, the
strain of the reinforcing bar is calculated from the distance yj between centroidal
axis and center of the reinforcing bar as
esj ¼ u0s ðxÞ yj js ðxÞ ð5Þ

in which, js h0s ðxÞ. Besides the compatibility conditions for the bending defor-
mation, an additional compatibility condition for the shear deformation is consid-
ered. With the assumption that only concrete resists shear deformation, an
additional compatibility condition has the following form [3, 7]:
c ¼ v0c ðxÞ hc ðxÞ ð6Þ
in which v0c ð xÞ is the derivative of concrete lateral displacement with respect to x.

For the compatibility condition of the slip, the differences in elongation and
rotation between two materials are considered as schematically depicted in Fig. 3.
For clarity, the displacements of concrete are not shown. The final slip at any rebar
location is determined from the combination of axial and rotational displacement
differences as
Dj ¼ us ðxÞ uc ðxÞ þ ðhs ðxÞ hc ðxÞÞ ðyj Þ ð7Þ
2.3 Sectional Stiffness
The sectional stiffness of the RC frame element is calculated from the construction
of sectional stiffness of each material, such as the axial rigidity and moment of
inertia, and bond stiffness between the two materials. The axial and rotational
components in the sectional stiffness matrix are calculated from the material and
sectional information of each grid and reinforcing bar as given by
m
X Xn
Eci Aci 0 Esj Asj 0
Dc ¼ ; Ds ¼ ð8aÞ
0 y2i Eci Aci 0 y2j Esj Asj
i¼1 j¼1
and the sectional shear stiffness is calculated from
Dc ¼ GA ð8bÞ
in which m is the total number of grids in the section, Eci the Young’s modulus, Aci
the area of ith grid, n the number of reinforcing bars in the section, and Esj and Asj
are the Young’s modulus and area of jth reinforcing bar, respectively. For the shear,
G is sectional shear modulus and A* is effective area [3]. Since this study is focused
on the combination of bending and axial behavior, the shear behavior is assumed to
be elastic.
1820 D. Y. Kim
Generally, the amount of slip in each reinforcing bar is different from each other.
Hence, the stiffness matrix for the bond could be constructed by extending the bond
property of each reinforcing bar to the whole of reinforcing bars as follows:
2 3
Eb1 p1 0
6 .. .. .. 7
DD ¼ 4 . . . 5 ð9Þ
0 Ebn pn nn
where Ebj is the Young’s modulus obtained from hysteresis curve of bond-slip
material model of jth reinforcing bar and pj is the perimeter of jth reinforcing bar.
The element stiffness matrix and internal force vector of the frame element are
then obtained from applying the principle of virtual work.
3 Material Model
3.1 Concrete and Reinforcing Bar
Since the bond behavior is considered explicitly in the finite element,

tension-softening effect by the fracture energy of concrete itself is only incorporated
in the tensile stress-strain curve ignoring tension-stiffening effect [2]. The con-
finement effect provided by transverse reinforcement such as stirrups is considered
in the fiber model by introducing different compressive stress-strain curves inside
and outside the stirrup in the fiber section. Based on the monotonic stress-strain
relations, a generalized cyclic stress-strain relation is constructed with unloading
and reloading branches [8]. A linear elastic, linear strain hardening model is
adopted for the monotonic curve of reinforcing steel. Among a number of models
developed to describe the cyclic stress-strain curve of reinforcing steel, the model
introduced in CEB [2] is adopted herein.
3.2 Bond-Slip Model
The bond-slip relationships representing the resistance against interfacial slip

between concrete and rib of a deformed bar are proposed by many researchers
through pull-out and splitting tests of reinforcing bar embedded in concrete [4–6].
The bond stress-slip relationships for both of pull-out and splitting failures are
proposed by experimental work [6] and are adopted in this study (see Fig. 4). Some
representative points are calculated from compressive strength of concrete, diameter
of reinforcing bar, cover depth, and reinforcement ratio of stirrup [6].
Fig. 4 Local bond stress-slip

relation
Fig. 5 Hysteretic bond

stress-slip curve
For the cyclic bond-stress slip relationship, very limited experimental researches
for model development are performed [5]. A hysteretic bond stress-slip model is
proposed by Eligehausen et al. [4] through pull-out tests of reinforcing bar
embedded in concrete block and is adopted in this study. In this model, a damage
parameter, d, which is defined by the accumulated area of hysteretic bond stress-slip
curve during slip history and the area of monotonic curve, is introduced (see
Fig. 5).
1822 D. Y. Kim
4 Numerical Analysis
4.1 Embedded Reinforcing Bar
For a fundamental study of bond behavior in the RC member and verification of the
bond-slip model, a numerical analysis is conducted with the test specimen of
reinforcing bar embedded in the concrete block [12]. The specimen is subjected to
cyclic push-pull displacements at the ends of the reinforcing bar. The embedment
length of test specimen is 25 times the diameter of reinforcing bar and other
material properties of the reinforcing bar are summarized in Table 1.
Table 1 Material properties Anchorage length Reinforcing bar

of reinforcing bar (mm) db (mm) fy (MPa) E0 (MPa)
635 25.4 483 29,000
600 600
400 400
Steel Stress (MPa)
Steel Stress (MPa)
25db
200 200
0 0
-200 -200
-400 -400
-600 -600
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
(a) Experiment (b) Analysis w/o damage para.
600
400
Steel Stress (MPa)
200
-200
-400
-600
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
Displacement (mm)
(c) Analysis w/o damage para.
Fig. 6 Cyclic stress-displacement relation of reinforcing bar embedded in concrete

In this example, axial degrees of freedom of reinforcing bar and concrete in the
frame element are used only. Since this test is performed with fully confined
condition, the displacement of concrete could be ignored and the pull-out failure
could be assumed in the material model. Evenly spaced twenty-five elements are
used to model the specimen. Figure 6(a) shows the experimental result of
stress-displacement history of reinforcing bar at the rightmost side of the specimen.
To see the analytical effect of bond damage accumulated during slip histories,
analysis results with and without consideration of damage parameter, d in the
bond-slip hysteresis curve are shown in Figs. 6(b) and (c), respectively.
If the reinforcing bar experiences small displacement with low level of slip
reversal before yielding, stresses are transferred well along the length of the
specimen. However, as the bond damage increases after yielding of reinforcing bar
at both ends, a bond failure occurs before stresses are developed inside the block,
resulting in abrupt decrease of resisting force. The analysis results with consider-
ation of damage parameter shows a good agreement with experimental results. An
overestimation of the energy absorption is observed in the analysis results without
consideration of damage parameter.
4.2 RC Column
To obtain bond-slip effect in the behavior of simple structural member, an axially

and laterally loaded RC column specimen tested by Low and Moehle [9] is ana-
lyzed. Figure 7 shows the configuration of the test specimen and its cross section
with reinforcing bar layout. The compressive strength of concrete is 36.5 MPa and
three different types reinforcing bars are used (see Fig. 7). The finite element dis-
cretization used are shown in Fig. 8. The column and anchorage parts are modeled
with 20 and 14 evenly spaced elements, respectively. The cross-section is idealized
with fiber model with confined and unconfined stress-strain curves of concrete.
Compared to the column part, relatively large axial and rotational stiffness is
applied to the concrete of the anchorage part.
Fig. 7 Geometry and section 44.5kN Cross Section

configuration of RC column z
specimen y
12.7mm Clear to
Longitudinal Bar
165.1mm
508.0mm
y
b3
b2 b1
Anchorage
Zone 127.0mm
177.8mm
Bar No. fy
b1 #3 447.5 MPa
b2 #2 444.0 MPa
b3 #2 504.0 MPa
1824 D. Y. Kim
Fig. 8 Finite element

idealization of RC column
specimen
20@25.4=508.0mm
Column
14@12.7=177.8mm
30 Anchorage
30
Lateral Force (kN)
20 20
Lateral Force (kN)
10 10
0 0
-10 -10
Experiment Experiment
-20 Analysis with
-20 Analysis without
bond-slip bond-slip
-30 -30
-30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30
(a) With bond- slip effect (b) Without bond- slip effect
Fig. 9 Force-displacement relations of RC column specimen
As shown in Fig. 7, the column specimen is subjected to the combined action of

axial load (44.5 kN which causes stress equivalent to 5% of fc0 ) and horizontal
displacements histories to the y direction. The same conditions are applied to the
numerical analysis and force-displacement relations at the top of column are
compared in Fig. 9.
From the analysis results, it is shown that the effect of bond-slip on the peak
strength after yielding is not so much. This is due to the fact that the peak strength is
maintained regardless of increase of displacement due to the embedment length and
modeling of hooked anchorage. Hence, as shown in the experiment, bond failure
does not occur in the analysis. However, the simulated unloading and reloading
curves considering bond-slip show better agreement with the experimental results
and evaluate energy dissipation capacity exactly.
4.3 Beam-Column
To simulate the RC joint behavior under lateral loading history and to see the
bond-slip effect of the developed frame element, one of the beam-column speci-
mens tested by Soleimani et al. [11] is analyzed. This specimen governs bond
failure of the reinforcing bar rather than joint shear failure. The geometry and
cross-section dimensions of the test specimen is presented in Fig. 10. The material
properties of concrete and reinforcing bars used in the analysis are the same as those
of the test specimen and summarized in Table 2.
Table 2 Material properties Concrete Reinforcing bar

of beam-column specimen
fc0 (MPa) Bar no. db (mm) fy (MPa) E0 (MPa)
29.9 #2 6.35 445 29,000
#5 15.9 492 29,000
#6 19.1 490 29,000
1828.8mm
1422.4mm
1206.5mm
B B Shear
800.1mm Transducer
A
Regular Ties @88.9mm

489.0mm
(Total 10 at Each Side) A

228.6mm Column Ties @40.6mm 431.8mm
34.9mm (Total 13 at Each Side)
4@#6 12@#6
Joint Ties (Total 7)
431.8mm
406.4mm
25.4mm
#2 Ties
#2 Ties
19.1mm
3@#5 19.1mm
Section A-A Section B-B
Elevation View
Beam Cross Section Column Cross Section
Fig. 10 Configuration of beam-column specimen

1826 D. Y. Kim
Splitting Failure
Pull-out Failure
Confined
Concrete
Unconfined
Concrete
Beam Section Column Section

V=2091kN
Fig. 11 FE idealization of beam-column
250
250
200
200
Horizontal Force (kN)
150
150
100
100
50
50
0
0
-50
-50
-100
-100
-150
-150
-200 Analysis w/ Bond-Slip
-200 Experiment -250
-250 -125 -100 -75 -50 -25 0 25 50 75 100 125
-125 -100 -75 -50 -25 0 25 50 75 100 125 Displacement (mm)
Displacement (mm)
(b) Analysis w/ bond-slip
(a) Experiment
250
200
150
100
50
0
-50
-100
-150
-200 Analysis w/o Bond-Slip
-250
-125 -100 -75 -50 -25 0 25 50 75 100 125
Displacement (mm)
(c) Analysis w/o bond-slip
Fig. 12 Hysteretic force-displacement relation beam-column

As shown in Fig. 11, a dense finite element mesh is used to model the joint
location. To ignore the deformation of concrete in the beam elements inside the
joint, relatively large axial and rotational stiffnesses are assumed. Because the
unconfined part which is outside the stirrup in the column is governed by a splitting
failure, different bond-stress slip relations (see Fig. 4) are assigned in the inside and
outside the stirrup (see the dotted enlarged part in Fig. 11). A constant axial load of
2,091 kN is applied first at the bottom of column, and then the lateral displacement
history is applied at the same location based on the concept of ductility. In order to
investigate the contribution of bond-slip effect to the nonlinear structural response,
the hysteretic force-displacement relationships obtained from the analysis with and
without consideration of bond-slip are compared with those from the experiment in
Fig. 12.
As displacement histories are accumulated, slip of the main reinforcing bar at the
joint increases causing a bond failure when the ductility ratio is over 6. This leads to
an abrupt reduction of energy absorption. Figure 12 shows that the analysis with
consideration of bond-slip predicts well the bond failure and reduction of energy
dissipation capacity.
5 Conclusions
A numerical model and its application to the hysteretic analyses of RC joints are
introduced in this study. A frame element which has independent displacement
fields for the concrete and reinforcing bars is developed to account explicitly for the
slip between the two materials. Based on the different displacement fields of the two
materials, fiber section concept, and compatibility conditions for strain and slip with
material models, a finite element is constructed.
The developed model is validated through comparison of the obtained numerical
results with experimental data from embedded reinforcing bar, RC column, and
beam-column joint. The hysteretic behaviors are well predicted with consideration
of bond-slip simulating appropriately the accumulated bond damage and energy
dissipation during loading histories.
Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Basic Science Research Program received
through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and
ICT (NRF-2017M2A8A4014828). The information presented in this paper represents the opinions
and views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring agencies.
1828 D. Y. Kim
References
1. Ayoub A (2006) Nonlinear analysis of reinforced concrete beam-columns with bond-slip.

J Eng Mech ASCE 132(11):1177–1186
2. CEB (1996) RC elements under cyclic loading: state of the art report, Thomas Telford
Services Ltd., London
3. Cook RD, Malkus DS, Plesha ME, Witt RJ (2002) Concepts and applications of finite element
analysis. Wiley, New York
4. Eligehausen R, Popov EP, Bertero VV (1983) Local bond stress-slip relationships of
deformed bars under generalized excitations. Report No. UCB/EERC-83/23, University of
California, Berkeley, California
5. fib (2014) Bond and anchorage of embedded reinforcement: Background to the fib Model
Code for Concrete Structures 2010, Bulletin No. 72, Fédération internationale du béton,
Swiss
6. Harajli MH, Hamad BS, Rteil AA (2004) Effect of confinement on bond strength between
steel bars and concrete. ACI Struct J 101(5):595–603
7. Hughes TJR, Taylor RL, Kanoknukulchai S (1977) A simple and efficient finite element for
plate bending. Int J Numer Meth Eng 11(10):1529–1543
8. Kim DY (2004) Cracking and hysteretic behavior of reinforced concrete shear walls. Ph.D.
Dissertation, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
9. Low SS, Moehle JP (1987) Experimental study of reinforced concrete columns subjected to
multi-axial cyclic loading. Report No. UCB/EERC-87/14, University of California, Berkeley,
California
10. Maekawa K, Pimanmas A, Okamura H (2003) Nonlinear mechanics of reinforced concrete.
Spon Press, London
11. Soleimani D, Popov EP, Bertero VV (1979) Hysteretic behavior of reinforced concrete
beam-column subassemblages. ACI J Proc 76(11):1179–1195
12. Viwathanatepa S, Popov EP, Bertero VV (1979) Effects of generalized loadings on bond of
reinforcing bars embedded in confined concrete blocks. Report No. UCB/EERC-79/22,
University of California, Berkeley, California
General Prediction Model
of Compressive Strength for Confined
Concrete
H. Minakawa, T. Ueda, and T. Wisuthseriwong
Abstract This paper presents the general prediction model of compressive strength
which can be applied for concrete confined by any material. Prediction models of
confined concrete have been developed at every appearance of new confining
material. Confined concrete has steel tube, spiral or hoops and FRP jacket as
external confining material. However, steel and FRP have deferent responses to
tensile stress. Existing prediction models regard confining stress as a function of
steel yielding strength for steel confinement and rupture stress/strain of FRP jacket
and predict compressive strength by one variable function of confining stress. The
main feature in this general model is the intersecting line between lateral stress and
strain relationship of confining material and relationship between axial stress and
lateral strain under constant lateral stress, in three-dimensional space among axial
stress, lateral stress and lateral strain. Therefore, the prediction model is with lateral
strain as the additional variable. Application to concrete which has low compressive
strength is also considered. Agreement of predicted and experimental compression
strength as well as predicted and experimental failure mode are examined.

Keywords Fibre-reinforced polymer Confined concrete Compressive stress

Lateral confining pressure Prediction model
H. Minakawa (&) T. Ueda T. Wisuthseriwong

Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
e-mail: mnkw@eis.hokudai.ac.jp
T. Ueda
e-mail: ueda@eng.hokudai.ac.jp
T. Wisuthseriwong
e-mail: tidarut.j@ku.th
H. Minakawa T. Ueda T. Wisuthseriwong
College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
H. Minakawa T. Ueda T. Wisuthseriwong
Department of Civil Engineering, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_168
1830 H. Minakawa et al.
1 Introduction
Many researchers have proposed the prediction model of compressive behavior for
each jacket material. Existing prediction models regard confining stress as a
function of steel yielding strength for steel confinement and rupture stress/strain of
FRP jacket and predict compressive strength by one variable function of confining
stress. This study aims to find the general model which considers every relationship
between tension stress and strain of confining material. In this study, the applica-
bility of the general model is examined by comparing predicted and experimental
compression strength as well as predicted and experimental failure mode for the test
data of normal strength and low strength concrete confined by Jute-FRP jacket.
2 Modeling Process
Target equation of this general model is the intersecting line between lateral stress
and strain relationship of confining material and relationship between axial stress
and lateral strain under constant lateral stress, in three-dimensional space among
axial stress rc , lateral stress rl and lateral strain el (see Fig. 1). This equation was
obtained from two experimentally obtained planes: the plane of rc el relationship
under different rl and the plane of rc el relationship for each confining material.
2.1 rc el Plane
Test data presented by Candappa et al. [1] was used to obtain relationship between
axial compressive stress and lateral strain of cylinder concrete confined by constant
lateral pressure. 4, 8 and 12 MPa of confining pressure was applied by a pressure
Fig. 1 Three-dimensional space

General Prediction Model … 1831
cell which accommodated a 100 200 mm cylindrical specimen. Concrete used in

test had 41.9, 60.6, 73.1 and 103.3 MPa of compressive strength. Figure 1 shows
Stress-Strain relationship under each confining pressure.
The characteristic curve shown in Fig. 2 identifies stress-strain relationship in
compression when concrete is under a constant confining pressure in lateral
direction. The notation in Fig. 1 is as follows: rc0 is the peak stress of unconfined
concrete; el0 is the strain at the peak of unconfined concrete; rcc is the peak stress of
confined concrete; elc is the strain at the peak of confined concrete.
Based on the model by Popovics [2], the expression for the axial stress-lateral
strain curve is defined as
el n
rc ¼ rcc ð1Þ
elc n 1 þ ðel =elc Þn
By regression analysis of the test data by Candappa et al. [1], we have
rcc ¼ rc0 þ 8:6r0:8

l ð2Þ

rl
elc ¼ el0 1 þ 16 ð3Þ
rc0
where
Ec
n¼ ð4Þ
ðEc rcc =ecc Þ
Curves provided by the above equations and the test data by Candappa et al. [1]
are shown in Fig. 3(1) to (4).
Fig. 2 General stress-strain

relationships for unconfined
and confined concrete
(1) U40 series ( c 41.9 MPa) (2) U60 series ( c = 60.6 MPa)
(3) U75 series ( c = 73.1 MPa) (4) U100 series ( c = 103.3 MPa)
Fig. 3 Axial stress-lateral strain relationship of experimental and model data
2.2 rl el Plane
The plane of rl el is unique to jacketing material. In this case of confinement of

FRP, ry is given by
2tf rt
rl ¼ ð5Þ
D
where tf is the thickness of FRP jacket, D the diameter of concrete cylinder, rt the
tensile stress (hoop stress) of FRP. rt is a unique function for jacketing material.
The insertion of rt for each jacketing condition provides rl el relationship.
In this paper, result of this prediction model is compared to experimental data of
concrete confined with Jute-FRP jacketing. Tensile properties of Jute-FRP is shown
Table 1 Tensile properties of Jute-FRP

Thickness (mm/a Modulus Modulus Tensile strength Ultimate strain
layer) E1 E2 rt efu
0.43 30470 MPa 19720 MPa 378.1 MPa 0.016
Fig. 4 Tensile stress-strain

relationship of Jute-FRP
in Table 1 and tensile stress-strain relationship is shown in Fig. 3. Ultimate strain is

the strain when Jute-FRP ruptured.
Tensile stress-strain reaction of Jute-FRP is modelled as a 2 linear function
(Fig. 4). The curve has elastic modulus in 2 phases; elastic modulus in the first
phase (E1) is 30470 MPa and in the second phase (E2) is 19720 MPa. The fold
point of 2 lines is el = 0.0002.
3 Application for Jute-FRP Confined Concrete
3.1 Normal Strength Concrete
The intersecting line of rc el Plane and rl el Plane is obtained for each con-
fining condition; 1-layer wrapping to 4-layer wrapping. Comparisons of predicted
and experimental curves are shown in Fig. 5. Measured rupture strain from the
tension coupon test of Jute-FRP is shown on the horizontal coordinate. Predicted
curves is observed to have the same behaviour which is increasing up to fracture of
FRP jacket as experimental curves. Mechanical properties of Jute-FRP is those
shown in Table 1 and compressive strength of unconfined concrete is 33.1 MPa.
Predicted axial stress-lateral strain curve for 1-layer confined concrete showed high
accuracy. Curves of confined concrete more than 2 layers show larger value in axial
Fig. 5 Axial stress-lateral strain relationship of Jute-FRP confined concrete (normal strength)
Table 2 Maximum axial 1-layer 2-layer 3-layer 4-layer

stress at rupture strain of
Jute-FRP (normal strength Model (MPa) 43.56 62.21 78.46 92.81
concrete) Experimental 39.68 45.13 56.80 56.56
(MPa)
stress than experimental values and overestimate compressive strength at the

fracture strain of Jute-FRP. The maximum axial stress is summarized in Table 2.
The curve provides larger maximum axial stress at rupture strain of Jute-FRP than
experimental data by 110–164%.
Based on the comparison of axial stress for given lateral strain and axial stress at
jacket rupture, the measured lateral strain is considered to be larger than the average
lateral strain. This non-uniform lateral strain distribution might cause earlier jacket
rupture. Further investigation on the difference between the prediction and exper-
imental results is necessary.
3.2 Low Strength Concrete
Figure 6 shows the intersecting line of rc el Plane and rl el Plane when low
strength concrete is confined with Jute-FRP and measured rupture strain of
Jute-FRP obtained from tension test. Compressive strength of unconfined concrete
is 7.69 MPa. Curves obtained by this model overestimated the axial behaviour of
confined low strength concrete. Predicted compressive strength at fracture of jacket
Fig. 6 Axial stress-lateral strain relationship of Jute-FRP confined concrete (low strength)
Table 3 Maximum axial 1-layer 2-layer 3-layer 4-layer

stress at rupture strain of
Jute-FRP (low strength Model (MPa) 27.79 42.33 55.09 66.75
concrete) Experimental 21.43 32.05 41.47 44.81
(MPa)
is larger than those obtain in experimental test. Maximum axial stress at rupture
strain of Jute-FRP obtained by the model is larger than experimental result by
130%–149%. The cause of this discrepancy can be considered as the same as the
case of normal strength concrete (Table 3).
4 Conclusions
Method to determine axial stress-lateral strain relationship under confined stress

using 3-dimensional space is proposed. Plane of axial stress-lateral strain was
described based on Popovics’s proposal and extended by considering constant
confining stress. Lateral stress-strain plane is obtained by tensile stress reaction of
confining material. Intersectional line of these two planes shows curves of axial
stress-lateral relationship. The process for normal strength concrete and low
strength concrete which confined by Jute-FRP was presented. Accurate prediction
curve was obtained for 1-layered jacketed normal strength concrete. Obtained
curves for 2 to 4 layers confined normal strength concrete showed larger axial
stresses for given lateral strains than experimental data. Curves for low strength
concrete confined concrete obtained from this method overestimate axial stresses
for given lateral strains. Applicability for another confining material such as steel
and CFRP can be investigated in future research to improve the proposed general
model.
References
1. Candappa DC, Sanjayan JG, Setunge S (2001) Complete triaxial tress-strain curves of
high-strength concrete. J Mater Civ Eng 13(3):209–215
2. Popovics S (1973) A numerical approach to the complete stress-strain curves for concrete. Cem
Concr Res 3(5):583–599
Equal-Capacity Design Method
of Precast RC Shear Wall
with Unconnected Vertical Distributing
Reinforcement
Z. W. Cao, X. W. Xiao, and S. Q. Zhang
Abstract To solve the problem of grouted spliced sleeve in PC shear wall such as
increasing material costs and poor quality, a new type of PC shear wall had been
developed whose vertical distributing reinforcement were unconnected. The lon-
gitudinal reinforcements in boundary elements were enlarged by Equal-capacity
Design Method proposed in this paper to offset the reduction of bearing capacity
caused by unconnected vertical distributing reinforcement. To verify the accuracy
of the design method and the rationality of the new type shear wall, 10 models had
been analysed by finite element method. The results shown that models with
unconnected vertical distributing reinforcement had lower bearing capacity, and the
contribution of vertical distributing reinforcement to bearing capacity was inversely
proportional to axial compression ratio. On this basis, if the longitudinal rein-
forcements were enlarged by the proposed design method, the capacity of PC
models were as well as cast-in-situ ones which proved that the new type of shear
wall designed by proposed method was reasonable and available.

Keywords Design method PC shear wall Grouted spliced sleeve Vertical

distributing reinforcement Finite element analysis
Z. W. Cao (&) X. W. Xiao

School of Civil Engineering, University of Tongji, Shanghai 200092, China
X. W. Xiao
e-mail: xiaoxw@cscec.com
X. W. Xiao
China State Construction Engineering Corp, Beijing 100029, China
S. Q. Zhang
China Construction Eighth Engineering Division. Corp, Shanghai 200135, China

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_169
1838 Z. W. Cao et al.
1 Introduction
Shear walls are known to be quite effective to resist wind and earthquake action due
to their high lateral stiffness. It is the fact that majority of researches were focused
on the cast-in-situ concrete shear walls in recent years [1–3]. However, there are
many disadvantages to construct by traditional cast-in-situ construction, such as
requiring much more labours and resources. Nowadays, precast concrete
(PC) structures develop quickly due to the cost of labour increasing.
The PC elements are basically connected at their joints and installed at the
construction site. The seismic performance of PC structures mainly depends on the
behaviour of the connecting joints. The joints of PC shear wall can be divided into
dry- and wet-type joints. And at present the main joints used in PC walls in China
generally include joint of grouted spliced sleeve, lap-spliced joint by restraint
grouting-anchoring (see Fig. 1). The grouted spliced sleeve is used widely in PC
members in Asian.
However, there are also some shortcomings about the grouted spliced sleeve
during practical engineering application. First, too many reinforcements across the
section of vertical joint means few fabrication errors will lead PC component hard
to install. Second, effective detection method of the grouting quality is limited
which may lead to potential safety hazard of connection joint in the future.
Moreover, so many sleeves in a building project increases material costs. Therefore,
the configuration of PC shear wall need to be improved to meet the requirement of
production and construction.
Scholars from home and abroad have been conducting extensive and detailed
research on vertical distributing reinforcement of shear wall. Qian [4] tested 5 RC
walls with different connecting patterns of vertical reinforcement and found that RC
wall with unconnected vertical distributing reinforcements had lower capacity and
worse ductility performance. Wood [5] analyzed the results of 37 RC walls tested
prior to 1985 and found that walls with total vertical reinforcement contents less
than 1% were susceptible to premature fracture of vertical reinforcement. Dazio
et al. [6] tested three walls with vertical reinforcement ratios between 0.39 and
0.54%, and Li et al. [7] tested eight walls with vertical reinforcement ratios of 0.8%;
however, all these walls had concentrated vertical reinforcement at the wall ends,
which assisted in the formation of secondary cracking.
(a) (b)
Fig. 1 The vertical joints used in PC walls. a Grouted-coupling sleeve; b Lap-spliced joint by
restraint grouting-anchoring
Equal-Capacity Design Method of Precast RC Shear Wall … 1839
Fig. 2 The configuration of new type of PC shear wall
To solve the problem of increasing costs and poor quality of grouted spliced
sleeve, a new type of PC shear wall structural system with unconnected vertical
distributing reinforcement was proposed (see Fig. 2). The longitudinal reinforce-
ments in boundary elements were enlarged by design method proposed in this paper
to offset the decrease of flexural capacity due to unconnected vertical distributing
reinforcement. The vertical distributing reinforcement could be configured by
minimum reinforcement ratio of 0.20% base on “Code for Design of Concrete
Structures” of China. The boundary elements were cast in site which means no
sleeve in the new type of PC shear wall structural system. Finite element analysis
has been conducted to verified the rationality of the equal-capacity design method.
2 Proposed Methods
According to Chinese code of “Technical specification for high-rise concrete

structures”, the bearing capacity of compression members with large eccentricity
should be based on plane cross-section assumption, and only consider the contri-
bution of vertical distributing reinforcement 1.5 times outside the scope of com-
pression zone (see Fig. 3a). The bearing capacity of compression members with
small eccentricity don’t consider the contribution of vertical distributing
reinforcement.
“Technical specification for precast concrete structures” stipulates that uncon-
nected vertical reinforcement should not be taken into consideration of capacity and
reinforcement ratio calculation. Hence the bearing capacity of new type PC shear
wall with large eccentricity pressing don’t consider the contribution of vertical
distributing reinforcement (see Fig. 3b).
(a) (b)
Fig. 3 Sketch for flexural strength with large eccentricity pressing a Traditional shear wall; b new
type of PC shear wall
The equilibrium equations of the force and moment were obtained as:
N ¼ A0s fy0 As rs þ a1 fc bw x ð1Þ

hw 0 x
N e0 þ hw0 ¼ A0s fy0 hw0 as þ a1 fc bw x hw0 ð2Þ
2 2
When x nb hw0 ,
rs ¼ f y ð3Þ
When x [ nb hw0 ,

fy x
rs ¼ bc ð4Þ
nb 0:8 hw0
bc
nb ¼ fy
ð5Þ
1þ Es ecu
3 Finite Element Analysis
3.1 Analytical Model
Three specimens were collected from Qian [4] for analysis. The dimensions of the
specimens were 2800 mm height, 1300 mm length and 160 mm thickness (see
Fig. 4). The lateral loads were transferred through a rectangular beam on the top of
each shear wall with the dimensions of 250 mm height and 250 mm width. SW-1
was monolithic RC wall. Shear wall, top beam and footing were cast as a whole.
SW-2 and SW-3 were PC shear walls, vertical distributing reinforcement of both
specimens were unconnected, the longitudinal reinforcement of SW-2 were
Fig. 4 Elevation of shear

wall specimens
connected by indirect splicing, the longitudinal reinforcement of SW-3 were con-

nected by grouted spliced sleeve. The distributing reinforcement configuration of all
three specimens was C8@100. The length of boundary elements was 200 mm with
configuration of 4C16 longitudinal reinforcement and C8@100 stirrup. To verify
the rationality of the design method above, finite elements analysis had been
conducted by ABAQUS by means of separated model (see Fig. 5).
C3D8R unit and the concrete damage plasticity (CDP) model available in the
ABAQUS library were selected to simulate the mechanical property of concrete.
The density and Poisson’s ratio of concrete were respectively taken as 2500 kg/m3
and 0.2 based on “Code for Design of Concrete Structures”. Cubic compressive
strength of concrete was obtained by material test with the mean value of 40.9 MPa.
Other plastic damage parameters were presented in Table 1.
T3D2 unit was selected to simulate the mechanical property of reinforcement.
Elasticity modulus and Poisson’s ratio were respectively taken as 2.1 105 MPa
and 0.3. Measured value of reinforcement strength were shown in Table 2.
Fig. 5 Finite element model.

a concrete model;
b reinforcement model
(a) (b)
Table 1 Parameters of concrete damage plasticity model

Parameter Value
Dilatancy angle 30°
Ratio of concrete biaxial compressive strength to uniaxial compressive strength 1.16
Shape parameter of yield surface 0.6667
Viscosity coefficient 0.005
Table 2 Measured value of Reinforcement fy/MPa fu/MPa

reinforcement strength
C6 314.0 443.0
C8 400.9 519.5
C16 362.0 547.0
C18 396.8 608.8
C20 374.3 573.9
3.3 Boundary Condition
The interaction between reinforcement and concrete chose the method of

“Embedded Region”. The footing of wall specimen was fixed on the ground as a
fixed end, the top surface of the upper beam of specimen was coupled as a reference
point to apply lateral load by displacement loading pattern.
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 6 Comparation between simulated result and test result. a SW-1 result; b SW-2 result;
c SW-3 result
Table 3 Parameter information of specimens

Specimen Axial Longitudinal Vertical distributing
compression reinforcement (mm) reinforcement (mm)
ratio
SW-1(a) 0.125 4C16 C8@100
SW-2(a) 0.125 4C16 C8@100
SW-3(a) 0.125 4C16 C8@100
SW-2(Da) 0.125 4C20 C6@100 (unconnected)
SW-3(Da) 0.125 4C20 C6@100 (unconnected)
SW-1(b) 0.35 4C16 C8@100
SW-2(b) 0.35 4C16 C8@100
SW-3(b) 0.35 4C16 C8@100
SW-2(Db) 0.35 4C18 C6@100 (unconnected)
SW-3(Db) 0.35 4C18 C6@100 (unconnected)
3.4 Verification of Finite Element Model
The simulated result of specimens had been compared with test result to verify the
accuracy and rationality of the finite element analysis (see Fig. 6). The test result
was consistent with that by finite element analysis which proved that the finite
element method in this paper was reasonable.
3.5 Parameter Analysis
10 specimens had been analysed with the finite element model above, the parameter
information of specimens were shown in Table 3.
The longitudinal reinforcements of SW-2(Da), SW-3(Da), SW-2(Db) and SW-3
(Db) were enlarged by equal-capacity design method under different axial com-
pression ratio.
4 Numerical Results of the Finite Element Analysis
The load-displacement curve of different specimens had been obtained by finite

element analysis (see Fig. 7). Tables 4 and 5 indicated the lateral force of speci-
mens at various states.
We can see from Table 4 that the SW-2(Da) model and the SW-3(Da) model had
the higher capacity, compared with other models. Compared with SW-1(a), the
yield load of SW-2(a) and SW-3(a) had a 14% and 11% decrease respectively, the
ultimate load had a 22% and 13% decrease respectively, which meant that the
unconnected vertical distributing reinforcement had a reduction of the bearing
capacity. The yield loads of SW-2(Da) model and SW-3(Da) model had an increase
of 3% and 7% compared with SW-1(a) respectively, the ultimate load had a 1% and
3% increase respectively, which meant that the equal-capacity design method was
accurate and reasonable.
(a) (b)
Fig. 7 Comparisons of load–displacement curves. a Axial compression ratio of 0.125; b Axial

compression ratio of 0.35
Table 4 Lateral force of specimens at various states under 0.125

Specimen Yield load Compared with Ultimate load Compared with
(kN) SW-1(a) (kN) SW-1(a)
SW-1(a) 300 1.00 362 1.00
SW-2(a) 257 0.86 284 0.78
SW-3(a) 266 0.89 316 0.87
SW-2 310 1.03 364 1.01
(Da)
SW-3 320 1.07 374 1.03
(Da)
Table 5 Lateral force of specimens at various states under 0.35

Specimen Yield load Compared with Ultimate load Compared with
(kN) SW-1(b) (kN) SW-1(b)
SW-1(b) 450 1.00 536 1.00
SW-2(b) 444 0.99 510 0.95
SW-3(b) 446 0.99 519 0.97
SW-2 489 1.09 548 1.02
(Db)
SW-3 470 1.04 548 1.02
(Db)
However, when axial compression ratio was 0.35, the capacity of SW-2(b) and
SW-3(b) didn’t decrease so much although the vertical distributing reinforcement
were unconnected. The enlarged longitudinal reinforcement of SW-2(Db) and
SW-3(Db) was 4C18, smaller than 4C20 of SW-2(Da) and SW-3(Da), which
shown that the contribution of vertical distributing reinforcement to bearing
capacity had an inverse relation to axial compression ratio.
The CDP model adopts damage factor to indicate the crack and crushing of
concrete (see Fig. 8). It could be seen that specimen with unconnected vertical
distributing reinforcement had the smaller damage scope. On this basis, when the
longitudinal reinforcements were enlarged, the damage scope had been increased.
(a) (b) (c)
(d) (e)
(f) (g) (h)
(i) (j)
Fig. 8 SDEG damage of concrete. a SW-1(a); b SW-2(a); c SW-3(a); d SW-2(Da); e SW-3(Da);

f SW-1(b); g SW-2(b); h SW-3(b); i SW-2(Db); j SW-3(Db)
5 Conclusions
In this paper, a new precast shear wall was developed whose vertical distributing
reinforcements were unconnected. A design method and FE verification were first
conducted. Afterward, FE parametric analysis was performed on the critical
parameters. The conclusions drawn from the study are as follows:
(1) The new type of PC shear wall could solve the problem of grouted spliced
sleeve in PC shear wall such as increasing costs and poor quality with
mechanical behavior as well as cast-in-situ shear wall.
(2) The equal-capacity design method could use to satisfy the requirement on
offsetting the reduction of bearing capacity from unconnected vertical dis-
tributing reinforcement by enlarging the longitudinal reinforcement. The finite
element analysis result proved that design method was accurate and reasonable.
(3) The specimens with unconnected vertical distributing reinforcement had the
smaller damage scope and lower capacity, which meant that connection pattern
of vertical distributing reinforcement had impact on mechanical and deforma-
tion performance of shear wall.
(4) Unconnected vertical distributing reinforcement had less impact on the capacity
of the specimens with higher axial compression ratio.
Acknowledgements This work was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program
of China (No. 2016YFC0701906-3) and China construction technology R&D Program
(CSCEC-2016-Z-16).
References
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(5):582–591
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Prediction of Restrained Expansion
and Shrinkage Strains of Reinforced
Concrete Specimens by Using Finite
Element Analysis
Su Hlaing Myint, Ganchai Tanapornraweekit,

and Somnuk Tangtermsirikul
Abstract When concrete shrinks under restraint from internal reinforcements or

external adjacent structural members, tensile stress is developed in the concrete.
This leads to shrinkage cracks when the tensile stress reaches the tensile strength of
the concrete. Therefore, expansive concrete is used to prevent shrinkage cracks in
reinforced concrete structures. Expansion and shrinkage strains are highly affected
by the degree of restraint resulted from internal and external restraint conditions.
Apart from external restraint conditions, internal reinforcement ratios are varied
with respect to the structural members and the level of design loads. As the level of
expansion and shrinkage also depend on the amount of reinforcements, it is
required to conduct experiments for all the possible reinforcement ratios which
could be used in each structural member. Therefore, this paper presents a numerical
analysis to predict expansion and shrinkage strain profiles for normal concrete and
expansive concrete with the internal restraint condition. This study employs a
three-dimensional (3D) finite element code, LS-DYNA, to predict both expansion
and shrinkage strain profiles. The proposed 3D finite element model predicts the
restrained expansion and shrinkage strain profiles based on the modified free
expansion and free shrinkage strains from the laboratory test data. The restrained
expansion and shrinkage strain profiles obtained from finite element analysis are
consistent with the experimental results with good accuracy. Thus, this method is
useful for predicting the restrained strain profile from the free strain profile of
reinforced concrete members.
S. H. Myint S. Tangtermsirikul
Technology, Thammasat University, Pathum Thani, Thailand
e-mail: suhlaingmyint134@gmail.com
S. Tangtermsirikul
e-mail: somnuk@siit.tu.ac.th
G. Tanapornraweekit (&)
Construction and Maintenance Technology Research Centre (CONTEC), School of Civil
Engineering and Technology, Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology,
Thammasat University, Pathum Thani, Thailand
e-mail: ganchai@siit.tu.ac.th

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_170
1850 S. H. Myint et al.
Keywords Expansion Shrinkage Free and restrained conditions Finite

element modelling
1 Introduction
Reinforced concrete structures are very common structures nowadays. Better

physical appearances and durability have become important factors for reinforced
concrete structures. For example, industrial floors, pavements, storage tank walls
are preferably designed to prevent undesirable cracks which can shorten their
service life. However, concrete is weak in resisting tensile stress which is some-
times caused by shrinkage under restrained condition. To alleviate shrinkage cracks
in concrete, expansive additive (EA) or expansive cement has been introduced as a
material in the construction industry since the mid-1960s (ACI 223R-10). This
material produces the expansion strain, compression under restraint, in concrete at a
very early age, therefore, the level of shrinkage (tensile) strain at the later age is
reduced when compared to that of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) concrete.
According to the characteristic of concrete, concrete can shrink freely without
producing any tensile stress under free condition. However, restrained conditions
prevent concrete to shrink freely, and so tensile stress is developed in the concrete
under the restraint. Cracks in concrete are formed when the tensile stress exceeds
the tensile strength of the concrete. Therefore, the behaviour of expansion and
shrinkage in concrete under free or restrained condition is required to be under-
stood. ASTM C157/157M-08 proposes the length change measurement to deter-
mine shrinkage in concrete under free condition. In addition, the length change due
to expansion under restrained condition can be measured following ASTM C878/
878M-08.
The level of expansion and shrinkage depends on the degree of restraint resulted
from both internal and external restraints. It is noted that this study only focuses on
the strain profiles resulted from the effect of internal restraint. Several researchers
have performed a series of tests to investigate effect of internal restraint by varying
reinforcement ratios in concrete members [5, 7]. The relation between specimen
expansion and member expansion with respect to their reinforcing ratios were
estimated (ACI 223R-10, [4]). However, too many resources are required in order
to conduct the experiments for expansion and shrinkage strain profiles for speci-
mens with all the possible reinforcing ratios.
Finite element (FE) modelling can be used as one of the efficient tools to
investigate the expansion and shrinkage strain profiles of concrete with respect to
their internal restraint conditions. Simple inputs such as compressive strength at
28 days, equivalent temperature strain profile from the relationship of thermal strain
and temperature change are required for FE analysis. In this study, LS-DYNA FE
code is used to predict the strain profiles (both expansion and shrinkage) under
restraint from the strain profile under free condition.
Prediction of Restrained Expansion and Shrinkage Strains … 1851
Laboratory specimens were cast with concrete which was used for casting slab in a
construction site. Strain profiles were measured in free and restrained conditions by
following ASTM C157/C157M-08 and ASTM C878/C878M-08, respectively.
Restrained expansion/shrinkage concrete prims conformed to ASTM C878 with a
slight modification. The details of the modification are explained later in Sect. 2.2.
The mix proportions of the concrete are given in Table 1.
2.1 Compressive Strength of Concrete
Cylindrical specimens with a size of 100 mm in diameter and 200 mm in height

were used for compressive strength tests. Compressive strength data were collected
at 1 day, 3 days, 7 days and 28 days of age. The specimens were kept in a control
room with a temperature of 27 °C, and 70% relative humidity. The 28-day com-
pressive strength was used as one of the input parameters in the concrete material
model in LS-DYNA.
2.2 Free and Restrained Expansion and Shrinkage Strain

Profiles of Concrete Specimens
According to ASTM C157, the specimen size is 75 75 285 mm. As the

concrete used to cast the specimens were taken from the concrete batch used in a
construction site, the specimens were also kept in the site for 1 day. The specimens
Table 1 Mix proportions for specimens

Concrete type W/B Cementitious Actual Aggregate (kg/m3) Admixture*
materials (kg/m3) water (kg/m3)
Cement Fly EA Fine Coarse Type Type
type 1 ash aggregate aggregate D F
Normal 0.6 226 54 – 185 930 1040 791 1600
Concrete (NC)
Expansive 0.6 201 54 25 185 930 1040 800 1700
Concrete-1
(EA-1)
Expansive 0.6 206 54 20 185 930 1040 791 1600
Concrete-2
(EA-2)
*Type D—water retarding and water reducing admixture, Type F—water reducing, high range admixture
Fig. 1 Details of restrained

specimen (All dimensions are
in millimeter)
were brought back to the laboratory and the strain measurement was started from
the first day (day 1). In this study, three specimens were taken from each mix
proportion in order to obtain average strain profiles.
The strain measurement in restrained specimens is based on ASTM C878 with
some slight modifications. In the modification test method, the specimen size is
100 100 350 mm, and a 12 mm diameter deformed bar is placed at the centre
of the specimen. Also, an electrical resistance strain gauge was installed on the
reinforcing bar at the mid-length of the rebar to measure the strain of the specimen
(see Fig. 1). Measurements were started immediately after the concrete was cast in
the mould (day 0). Three specimens were collected for each mix proportions to
obtain the average strain value.
According to the test data in Fig. 2, the normal concrete specimens show higher
compressive strength than those of the expansive concrete specimens, although the
water to binder ratios of all mix proportions are the same. Moreover, the com-
pressive strength of expansive concrete-1 is lower than the expansive concrete-2 as
the amount of expansive additive is high in the expansive concrete-1.
3.2 Free and Restrained Strain Profiles
According to the experimental results, the highest shrinkage can be observed in the
normal concrete specimen (see Fig. 3). It is noted that, since the length change
method was employed to measure the free strain profiles of all concrete types, the
free strain measurement was started after day 1 when it was possible to remove the
specimen mould. On the other hand, the measurement of restrained strain profiles
which relies on the results from the installed strain gauges can be started since day
0. Therefore, the measured free expansion was lower than those of the measured
restrained expansion due to difference in starting of the measurement as presented
in Figs. 3(a) and (b). In addition, measurement results show that although the
Fig. 2 Compressive strength Normal Concrete Expansive Concrete-1 Expansive Concrete-2

of tested specimens
Strength (MPa)
50
Compressive
40
30
20
10
0
1D 3D 7D 28D
Age (days)
Expansion
Shrinkage Expansion
300 300
Normal Concrete
Normal Concrete Expansive Concrete-1
100 Expansive Concrete-1 100 Expansive Concrete-2
Strain (με)
Strain (με)
Expansive Concrete-2
-100 -100
Shrinkage
-300 -300
-500 -500
1 21 41 61 81 101 120 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Age (days) Age (days)
(a) (b)
Fig. 3 Expansion and shrinkage strains a free condition b restrained condition
amount of expansive cement in expansive concrete-1 is higher than that in

expansive Expansion concrete-2, their expansion and shrinkage strain profiles are
almost the same.
4 Finite Element Analysis
LS-DYNA, a general-purpose FE code, is used to analyse and simulate the

restrained specimens under expansion and shrinkage. Concrete specimen, base slab
and steel end plates are modelled using solid element, and reinforcing bar is
modelled using beam element. The mesh size for both solid elements and beam
element are 1 cm.
4.1 Material Models for Concrete and Reinforcement
MAT_CONCRETE_DAMAGE_REL3 available in LS-DYNA code was used as

the concrete material model in this study. This material model requires to input 49
parameters in eight keyword cards. However, LS-DYNA recommended using the
automatic parameters generation capability by inputting only the density, Poisson’s
ratio and the unconfined compressive strength of concrete. The background theory
of this concrete model is provided in detail by Schwer et al. [9] and Wu et al. [10].
This material model was used to model both specimens and concrete base slab with
respect to their input material properties.
MAT_THERMAL EXPANSION is required to convert the equivalent temper-
ature profile to a strain profile. This material card can be used to simulate expansion
of both isotropic and anisotropic material. Since the expansion and shrinkage of the
concrete body of the specimen were concerned, this material card was only used for
the concrete body.
MAT_PIECEWISE_LINEAR_PLASTICITY, an elastoplastic material model, is
employed to model the reinforcing bar. The input parameters for steel are the yield
strength of 12 mm diameter bar of 513 MPa, Young’s modulus of 200 GPa, and
Poisson’s ratio of 0.3.
4.2 Applied Loadings
In order to apply free expansion and shrinkage profiles to the model, the relation
between strain (e) and temperature change (DT) was used to obtain the equivalent
temperature profile. The coefficient of thermal expansion of concrete (ac) is adopted
to be 10 le/°C [8]. The equivalent temperature profiles (from DT = e/ac) of all
types of concrete in this study are shown in Fig. 4. It is noted here again that the
free strains were measured 1 day after concrete casting, therefore, the equivalent
temperature loadings were applied to the model from day 1. Apart from applying
equivalent temperature load to the concrete, the self-weight of the specimen was
applied as a body load.
4.3 Boundary Conditions
Figure 5 shows a 3D FE model of a restrained specimens in LS-DYNA. All nodes of

the bottom of the base slab were restrained. In addition, as the bolts and nuts were
Equivalent Temperautre ( °C)
Fig. 4 Applied equivalent 10

temperature curves
0 Normal Concrete
Expansive Concrete-1
-10 Expansive Concrete-2
-20
-30
-40
1 21 41 61 81 101 120
Age (days)
Concrete body Steel endplate

Steel endplate Concrete base slab
Reinforcing bar
Restrained at the bottom

Restraint at joint
Fig. 5 3D finite element model of the tested specimen
used to lock the rebar with the endplates where the endplates were installed to obtain
uniform stress on the specimen cross-section, therefore, the displacement at the
intersections of the endplate and reinforcing bar was restrained in all the directions as
shown in Fig. 5. Constrained beam in solid function was used to specify the perfect
bond between concrete and rebar. The base slab was also modelled so as to account
for the frictional restraint from the base. Surface to surface contact card is used to
specify frictional effects between the specimen and the base slab. The friction
coefficients between steel endplate and concrete specimen and between the concrete
specimen and base slab are 0.1 and 0.4, respectively [6].
5 FEM Results of Restrained Specimens
Initially, the prediction of steel strain was conducted by FE analysis, and compared
with the measured restrained strain from the experiment. Thereafter, the strain
contours at the mid-depth of the specimens were investigated to capture the strain
data between the end and the middle parts of the specimens.
5.1 Comparison of Strain Profiles Between Experimental

and FEM Results
As can be seen from Fig. 6(a), the measured expansion strain for normal concrete is
significantly low (<30 le), and the shrinkage strain reaches approximately 300 le
from 80 days of age. However, the measured restrained expansion strains are nearly
300 le, and the measured restrained shrinkage strains are reduced to 100 le in both
expansive concrete-1 and expansive concrete-2, which can be seen from Figs. 6(b)
and (c), respectively.
It is noted that the level of free expansion under restrained condition is actually
lower than that under free condition. The term “effective free expansion” should be
used to specify the free expansion under restrained condition. However, since the
starting point of free strain was 1 day after concrete casting, the obtained free strain
profiles were actually lower than they should be. In order to discard the effects of
current unknown level of effective free expansion and difference in starting of the
300
Expansion
200 Measured-Steel Strain
FEM-Steel Strain
100
0
Shrinkage
-100
-200
-300
-400
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Age (days)
(a)
300
Shrinkage Expansion
Shrinkage Expansion
300
200 200
100 100
0 0
-100 -100
-200 Measured-Steel Strain -200 Measured-Steel Strain
-300 FEM-Steel Strain -300 FEM-Steel Strain
-400 -400
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
(b) (c)
Fig. 6 Comparison of experimental and FEM results a Normal Concrete b Expansive Concrete-1
c Expansive Concrete-2
measurement, the initial obtained restrained strains (only the maximum expansion
of restrained strain) were offset to be the same as those from the measurement
results. Figures 6(a), (b) and (c) show that the predicted (analysed) restrained strain
profiles of all the specimens agree well with the test results.
5.2 Investigation of Strain Distribution in Restrained

Specimens
Contours of maximum principal strain in all the specimens caused by expansion

and shrinkage are investigated and presented in Fig. 7. According to the analysis
results, the maximum tensile strain was observed near the end of the normal con-
crete specimen due to the high degree of restraint provided by the end restraint. This
is the tendency of crack formation for the normal concrete specimen. However, less
tensile strain area can be seen at the end of expansive concrete specimens.
The differential strain at the end and at the center of the specimens can be
observed significantly in Fig. 8. Maximum principal strain near the endplate
showed the tensile strain (positive value) while the center part of the specimen was
still in the compressive strain (negative value). According to Fig. 8, the expansive
concrete specimens showed less tensile strain results than normal concrete. This is
Fig. 7 Maximum principal

strain at mid-depth of the
specimens a Normal concrete
b Expansive concrete-1
c Expansive concrete-2
(a) (b) (c)
1500 End 1500 1500

T
T
T
Middle End End

1000 1000 Middle 1000
με)
με)
Middle
C Strain (με
C Strain (με
με)
C Strain (με
500 500 500
)
)
0 0 0
-500 -500 -500

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Time (days) Time (days) Time (days)
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 8 Maximum principal strain at end and middle part of specimens a normal concrete
b expansive concrete-1 c expansive concrete-2. (C denotes “compressive strain” and D denotes
“tensile strain”)
due to the compression strain from the expansive concrete which can compensate
for the tensile strain resulted from the higher degree of restraint. The highest tensile
strain can be seen from the normal concrete specimen which is over 1200 µe.
6 Measurement in Restrained Slab Using Expansive

Concrete-1
Expansive concrete-1 was also used to cast the reinforced concrete jointless slab in
the construction site. The slab dimension is 30 m in long direction and 13.2 m in
short direction as shown in Fig. 9(a). Strain gauges were installed at the mid-depth
of the slab in both short and long directions in order to obtain the restrained strain
profiles in the real structure. According to Fig. 9(b), the measured restrained strains
show the compressive strains in concrete as well, similar to those presented in
Sect. 5.2. By using expansive concrete, compressive strains instead of tensile
strains are initiated in concrete, implying that no shrinkage crack is developed in
expansive concrete structures.
600
Shrinkage Expansion
400
με)
Strain (με
200
8 0
Short Direction Short direction of Slab
-200 Long direction of Slab
Long Direction
-400
0 20 40 60 80 100
Time (days)
(a) (b)
Fig. 9 a Floor plan of the slab b Concrte strain at mid-depth of the slab
7 Conclusions
The proposed methodology is to predict the restrained strain from the known profile
of the free strain. The FE analysis requires the basic properties of concrete and steel,
and equivalent temperature profile calculated from the free strain profile. A good
agreement between the predicted and the measured restrained strain profiles can be
observed in both normal concrete and expansive concrete. Moreover, the effec-
tiveness of expansive concrete for compensating tensile strain can be seen from the
strain distribution obtained from FE results, and from the measurement in the real
structure.
Acknowledgements The first author would like to express a special thanks to Sirindhorn
International Institute of Technology, Thammasat University for providing Excellent Foreign
Scholarship (EFS) during this study. The authors wish to thank Siam Research and Innovation Co.,
Ltd and Denka Co., Ltd for providing research funds for this study. This study is also supported by
the Center of Excellence in Material Science, Construction and Maintenance Technology Project,
Thammasat University. The authors would like to thank Rachot Chatchawan for conducting the
laboratory experiment.
References
1. ACI 223.R-10. Guide for the use of shrinkage-compensating concrete, Am. Conc. Inst.
(2010). 16 p
2. ASTM C157/C157M-08 (2008) Standard Test Method for Length Change of Hardened
Hydraulic-Cement Mortar and Concrete, ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA.
www.astm.org
3. ASTM C878/C878M-08 (2008) Standard Test Method for Restrained Expansion of
Shrinkage-Compensating Concrete, ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA. www.
astm.org
4. Bissonnette B et al (2018) Characterization tools for shrinkage-compensating repair materials.
MATEC Web Conf 199:07002. https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201819907002
5. Chang X, Huang C, Zhang P (2011) Expansive behaviors of self-stressing concrete under

different restraining conditions. J Wuhan Univ Technol Mater Sci Edn 26(4):780–785. https://
doi.org/10.1007/s11595-011-0310-5
6. Gorst JS et al (2003) ‘Friction in temporary works’, p 62. http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/
rrpdf/rr071.pdf
7. Nguyen DT, Sahamitmongkol R, Tangtermsirikul S (2010) Prediction of Net Expansion of
Expansive Concrete under Restraint Construction and Maintenance Technology Research
Center, Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology (SIIT) School of Civil Engineering
and Technology, Sirindhorn International Ins 21(3)
8. Richardson J et al (2010) Measured strains in post-tensioned concrete parking deck made with
shrinkage-compensating concrete. ACI Struct J 107(6):718–725
9. Schwer LE Malvar LJ (2005) Simplified Concrete Modeling With *Mat_Concrete_Damage_
Rel3. Jri Ls-Dyna User Week 2005, pp 1–14
10. Wu Y, Crawford JE, Magallanes JM (2012) Performance of LS-DYNA concrete constitutive
models. In: 12th International LS-DYNA Users conference, no. 1, pp 1–14
Advances in Concrete Technology
Effect of Fly Ash and Superabsorbent
Polymer on Concrete Carbonation
P. Chindasiriphan and H. Yokota
Abstract Superabsorbent polymer (SAP) is a multipurpose water-entraining agent,

which is used for mitigating autogenous shrinkage in concrete, including its
applications to mitigate frost damage and enhance self-healing capability. Despite
its benefits, SAP also has some negative effects on concrete properties. For
example, initial swelling of SAP generates SAP pores that would be a bypass
allowing harmful agents to penetrate into concrete. Fly ash enhances self-healing
capability of concrete but it reduces concrete alkalinity because the pozzolanic
reaction consumes calcium hydrate in the concrete. This study investigates the risk
of carbonation of self-healed concrete mixed with fly ash and SAP. Experimental
tests were conducted in which cement mortar was cast with varying fly ash and SAP
contents. A crack was induced by a mechanical load. The cracked specimens were
cured in water and stored in air for 2 years. Carbonation resistance was evaluated
by carbonation depth measurement and thermogravimetric/differential thermal
analysis. It was found that carbonation resistivity is decreased in self-healed con-
crete mixed with fly ash and SAP.
Keywords Carbonation Fly ash Superabsorbent polymer Durability
1 Introduction
Concrete structures lose their integrity and durability by cracking. Cracks in con-
crete structures are generated with many mechanisms such as excessive stresses
from the external loading, shrinkage of concrete, and physiochemical reaction of
P. Chindasiriphan (&)
Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8628, Japan
e-mail: pattarapon2005@eis.hokudai.ac.jp
H. Yokota

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_171
1864 P. Chindasiriphan and H. Yokota
concrete constituent materials. Cracks in concrete serve as a pathway to decrease

resistance to carbonation and chloride ion penetration.
To prevent cracking and enhance durability of concrete, many studies have
focused on superabsorbent polymer (SAP) as an admixture. SAP is a cross-link
polymer designed to absorb high amount of fluid. It spontaneously swells and forms
a watertight gel when it is exposed to water. SAP is widely used in hygiene
products such as diapers and bandages. In civil engineering work, Snoeck et al. [7]
reported that SAP is effective for autogenous shrinkage mitigation due to its ability
to release water to enable internal curing, for enhancing freeze/thaw resistance by
creating a small micro-pore for water to expand, and for optimizing self-healing
capability as swollen SAP could seal up a small crack and facilitate cement
hydration in the damage areas.
Fly ash has been used in concrete as a cement replacement admixture which
allows cement manufacturers to commit to sustainable construction strategy by
lowering energy and carbon footprints in built environments. Fly ash concrete is
characterized by long-term compressive strength development which affords by
pozzolanic reaction. However, the decline of portlandite content is generally found
in fly ash concrete that is associated with the progressive of pozzolanic reaction,
which inevitably results in the tendency of alkalinity reduction.
Despite its benefits, carbonation resistivity may decrease in concrete mixed with
fly ash and SAP. Carbonation is a primary concern for durability of concrete
structures as it reduces concrete pH, and subsequently deactivates a protective
passive film on the surface of rebar. To evaluate the long-term risk and benefit of
SAP for use in fly ash mixed concrete, this study investigates the coupling effects
on fly ash and SAP mixture in concrete on the progress of carbonation.
2 Methodology
2.1 Specimen Preparation
The experimental test was conducted using cement mortar specimens. The chemical
compositions of cement and fly ash are presented in Table 1, and the specific
information of the SAP is given in Table 2. Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and fly
ash type F according to ASTM C618 were premixed along with sand and SAP for
2 min. The premixing was carried out to obtain a uniform distribution of materials
and decrease the potential of an adhesive effects of swelling SAP. Water was then
added, and continually mixed at a medium speed for 3 min. The SAP mixtures were
designed at different replacement ratios of 1, 2, 3 and 4% by weight of cement, and
fly ash contents were 0 and 25% by weight of cement. The designed mix proportions
are given in Table 3. The fresh mortar was casted into /100 200 mm cylinder
molds. After 24 h, they were demolded and immersed in water for 28 days.
Effect of Fly Ash and Superabsorbent Polymer … 1865
Table 1 Chemical Chemical composition (wt%) Cement Fly ash

compositions of cement and
fly ash Silicon dioxide (SiO2) 21.2 55.4
Aluminum oxide (Al2O3) 5.2 25.9
Ferric oxide (Fe2O3) 2.8 3.7
Calcium oxide (CaO) 64.2 4.1
Magnesium oxide (MgO) – 0.4
Sulfur trioxide (SO3) 2.0 0.7
Alkalis (Na2O) 0.65 –
Chlorine (Cl) 0.004 –
Sum (SiO2 + Al2O3 + Fe2O3) 29.2 86.0
Table 2 Properties of SAP Material Apparent density (g/cm3) Water absorption (g/g)
SAP 0.7 417
Table 3 Mix proportions of mortar

Specimen Cement (kg/m3) Fly ash (kg/m3) Water (kg/m3) Sand (kg/m3) SAP
(wt% cement)
F00 525 – 237 1459 –
F00S1 525 – 237 1459 1
F25 394 131 237 1459 –
F25S1 394 131 237 1459 1
F25S2 394 131 237 1459 2
F25S3 394 131 237 1459 3
F25S4 394 131 237 1459 4
Each mix produced 6 cylinders. Three of them were for the compressive strength
test at the age of 28 days as per ASTM C39. Another 3 of them were for
self-healing capability tests. The cylinder was cut into four /100 50 mm thick
disks. In each cylinder, the middle 2 disks were noted as “the specimen” while the
top-most and bottom-most were disposed. Accordingly, a total of 6 disks were
prepared for the self-healing capability test.
For the self-healing capability test, a control crack of 0.2 ± 0.1 mm wide was
induced in the specimen by a splitting tensile load. The splitting loads range of 19–
30 kN were used to generate a control crack width. Then, the cracked specimens
were self-healed in water for 28 days. After the evaluation of self-healing capa-
bility, the specimens were stored in dry laboratory environment for 2 years. The
results of self-healing capability were reported in the authors’ other paper [2].
2.2 Carbonation Depth
The carbonated region is referred to the area that the concrete high alkalinity has been
neutralized by CO2. The carbonation depth can be identified by using phenolphthalein
solution which changes red/pink for uncarbonated concrete and remain colorless for
carbonated concrete (pH < 9) [5]. The self-healed specimens were cut into two pieces
perpendicular to the crack. One specimen produced 2 half circular prisms. Then the
phenolphthalein solution was sprayed onto the cut area at the time of the extraction.
The determination of carbonation front was made using the two parameters: dc and ds,
where dc and ds denote for the averaged carbonation depth from the cracked zone
inside the core of healed crack and that from the specimen surface, respectively. These
measurements were done at 4 locations as presented in Fig. 1.
2.3 Service Life Prediction Model
The carbonation depth is governed by diffusion of carbon dioxide that occurs through
concrete’s pore structure. The diffusion rate is influenced by many parameters such as
concrete permeability, temperature, moisture content and CO2 concentration. It was
specified in the JSCE Standard Specifications for Concrete Structure [6] that the
prediction of carbonation can be made according to Fick’s first law.
pffi
x¼k t ð1Þ
where x represents the carbonation depth (mm), t represents the period of car-
bonation (year) and k represents the coefficient of the rate of carbonation
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
(mm= year).
Fig. 1 Measurement
locations of dc (orange) and
ds (blue)
2.4 Thermogravimetric/Differential Thermal Analysis
The influence of fly ash and SAP on carbonation of self-healed concrete was
investigated by thermogravimetric/differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA). The
extracted powder sample was immersed in acetone to terminate cement hydration,
before oven dried at 50 °C for 24 h and stored in the desiccator to minimize
carbonation effects. The powder sample was heated at a constant heating rate of
10 °C/min until reaching 1000 °C under a controlled nitrogen (N2) atmosphere.
The high alkalinity of concrete is due to the presence of portlandite (Ca(OH)2)
produced by the solid phase of cement gel. Carbonation occurs with the reaction
between the dissolved CO2 and portlandite, which produces calcite (CaCO3).
Through the TG/DTA analysis, the quantity of portlandite was determined through
mass change at approximately 400–500 °C while the amount of CaCO3 was cal-
culated at approximately 501–900 °C [1]. Harilal et al. [3] found the relation
between mass lost and molecular mass of decomposed products as given in Eqs. (2)
and (3).
MðCHÞ
CHð%Þ ¼ M1 ð2Þ
MðH2 OÞ
where M1 is the mass loss due to dehydration, MðCH Þ is the molecular mass of
portlandite and MðH2 OÞ is the molecular mass of water.
MðCaCO3 Þ
CaCO3 ð% Þ ¼ M2 ð3Þ
MðCO2 Þ
where M2 is the mass loss due to decarbonation, MðCaCO3 Þ is the molecular mass of
CaCO3 and MðCO2 Þ is the molecular mass of CO2.
3.1 Effect of Admixtures on Compressive Strength of Mortar
Table 4 presents the results of the averaged compressive strengths. It is noticeable

that the main material which interfered compressive strength development is fly
ash. At the 28 days of curing, F25 exhibited approximately 34.84% lower strength
compared to F00, indicating that pozzolanic reaction in tested fly ash is inactive at
the early age. Indeed, long-term strength under the development of pozzolanic
reaction is expected to be greater than that of ordinary mortar as pozzolanic reac-
tivity is progressive with age. Meanwhile, it was observed that SAP shows an
insignificant effect on the mortar compressive strength. In presence of SAP, F00S1

is subjected to strength reduction of 1.28% compared to F00. However, a slight
increase in compressive strengths was found among fly ash and SAP containing
specimens (F25Sx). Hasholt et al. [4] reported that, at the right replacement ratio,
SAP can enhance the compressive strength due to its ability to increase the degree
of hydration and prevent micro structure’s damage caused by self-desiccation. On
the other hand, SAP also decreases the strength of mortar because of the formation
of SAP voids.
3.2 Carbonation Depth and Service Life Prediction
The carbonation depths measured are illustrated in Fig. 2. The averaged carbona-
tion depth from the surface of the specimen (ds) was largest in F25S1, followed by
F00 and F25S4. The carbonation depths of F00S1, F25, F25S2 and F25S3 were
small. Therefore, mixing fly ash and SAP in mortar does not have a significant
effect on the carbonation resistivity of mortar. In contrast, the averaged carbonation
depth at the cracked zone (dc) demonstrates the positive effect of fly ash and SAP on
the carbonation resistivity as the carbonation depths decreased with increase in the
SAP replacement ratio. This is in good agreement with the authors’ previous study
[2], in which they reported that concrete self-healing performance increases with
increase in the SAP replacement ratio which results in the recovery of concrete
permeability. It is found that the permeability reduction is facilitated by SAP’s
ability to release water in the cracked area, which consequently results in crack
closure and densification of concrete pore structures due to a further hydration.
Table 4 Compressive Specimen Compressive strength

strengths at 28 days
fc0 (MPa) SD (MPa) %CV Dfc%
F00 55.4 0.35 0.63 –
F00S1 54.7 1.61 2.94 −1.28
F25 36.1 3.03 8.41 −34.84
F25S1 31.1 1.01 3.24 −43.75
F25S2 35.0 0.96 2.74 −36.76
F25S3 37.3 1.75 4.69 −32.64
F25S4 36.2 2.28 6.30 −34.69
Fig. 2 Carbonation depth of

mortar specimens
Fig. 3 Carbonation depths predicted until 20 years
3.3 Service Life Prediction
The carbonation resistance is determined by the carbonation coefficient, k as defined

in Eq. (1). k can be determined once the carbonation depths at the specific time are
obtained. ds and dc for 20 years were predicted to determine the minimum concrete
cover for avoiding rebar corrosion. The results are shown in Fig. 3. Predicted ds at
20 years were approximately 2.7–6.0 mm, and dc reaches 9.4 mm (maximum) in
F00 and 2.2 mm (minimum) in F25S4.
Although it is well known that a crack degrades concrete permeability and leads
to the decrease of carbonation resistance. However, the predicted dc at 20 years was
not significantly large at the healed crack area. It was also found that dc decreases
with increase in the SAP replacement ratio. In contrast to this, SAP had no apparent
effect on concrete permeability at the surface of concrete. It is predicted that SAP
improves the long-term carbonation resistance at the cracked area, whereas SAP has
an insignificant effect on the long-term carbonation resistance at the uncracked area.
Therefore, it is expected that SAP pores produced during an initial swelling period
are not connected each other and have no significant influence on the permeability
of mortar. In addition, extra water was not added to compensate the water absorbed
by SAP during the fresh stage of mortar. It means that the tendency of decreasing an
effective w/c ratio is found in the mortar with the higher SAP replacement ratio. As
a consequence, the number of capillary pores of mortar with high SAP contents is
expected to be lower than those with the low SAP contents. As a result, the
potential of carbon dioxide infiltration into sound concrete is inferior. To under-
stand the relationship between carbonation resistance and the contents of SAP and
fly-ash, the information on specimens’ pore structure needs to be investigated in the
future.
3.4 Evaluation of Carbonation by TG/DTA
The results of derivative thermogravimetric curve (DTG) and % weight loss are
shown in Fig. 4. In Fig. 4(a), several materials can be determined by analysing
mass change observed through the different peaks. This study mainly investigated
the derivative of mass which occurs at approximately 450 and 600–800 °C as they
represent dehydroxylation and decarbonation reactions. The mass change of F00 is
clearly noticeable at approximately 450 °C, which denotes that the significant
amount of portlandite is found. In contrast, the reduction of portlandite content is
found to be associated with the presence of fly ash, which potentially results in the
tendency of pH drop. It was reported by many studies that portlandite is produced
due to the process within cement hydration while pozzolanic reaction from fly ash
reacts to consume portlandite producing calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H).
It is interesting to note that the portlandite content of F00S1 is lower than that of
the reference specimen (F00), and the calcite content of F00S1 was considerably
(a) DTG curves for portlandite and calcite (b) TGA curves for powder fired to various
temperature regimes
Fig. 4 Result of TG/DTA

F25S4 1.2 6.4 F25S4

F25S3 1.0 7.8 F25S3
F25S2 0.8 8.5 F25S2
F25S1 0.8 6.7 F25S1
F25 0.6 7.3 F25
F00S1 1.0 11.1 F00S1
F00 1.9 7.3 F00
0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0
Portlandite (%wt) Calcite (%wt) BW(g/100g)
(a) Contents of portlandite and calcite (b) Contents of chemically bound water
Fig. 5 Quantitative analysis results of cement powder
higher than that of F00. As shown in Fig. 4(b), F00S1 shows a great mass loss at
the temperature range of 650–750 °C which was caused by the decomposition of
calcite. This draws an attention to the influence of SAP on carbonation acceleration.
In contrast, specimens in F25Sx series show no significant gain in calcite content
compared with F00S1. In F25Sx series, it is assumed that portlandite is the control
reactant. Once portlandite is consumed by fly ash, carbonation progress is restrained
due to absent of coupling substrate. However, specimens are encountered with pH
reduction through the pozzolanic reaction of fly ash.
The results of quantitative analysis on portlandite and calcite contents are shown
in Fig. 5(a), whereas the amount of chemically bound water is shown in Fig. 5(b).
The chemically bound water is recognised as the water that chemically bonded into
the structure of hydrates. The chemically bound water can be used to determine the
degree of hydration. The results show that the change in chemically bound water is
related to the fly ash and SAP contents that lead to a higher value of chemically
bound water.
In consideration of the pozzolanic reaction, the reduction of portlandite in fly ash
containing specimens is reflected with increase in bound water, which indicates that
the main hydrated product is expected to be C-S-H. In case of SAP mortar, there is
no clear evidence that shows any chemical reaction related to SAP and the increase
of bound water. However, the effect of SAP on promoting internal curing which
further improves the degree of hydration is profound. The change in chemically
bound water gives a brief overview on phase transformation among hydrate
products which tentatively shows the increase in the C-S-H content.
4 Conclusions
In this paper, the effect fly ash and SAP on carbonation of self-healed mortar was
focused using phenolphthalein indicator and thermal analysis technique. The pro-
gress of carbonation within 20 years was predicted in terms of the carbonation
depth. The thermal analysis allows to quantify portlandite and calcite contents
through materials decomposition which occurs at the elevated temperatures. The

conclusions are summarized as follows:
1. The compressive strength development of mortar at 28 days was interfered by
fly ash which resulted in approximately 34.8% lower than that of non-fly ash
containing mortar. In contrast SAP had an insignificant effect on compressive
strength.
2. There is no noteworthy systematic difference in the averaged surface carbona-
tion depths between specimens mixed with fly ash and SAP.
3. The carbonation depth at the cracked area showed the evidence that durability of
specimens is enhanced as increase in the SAP replacement ratio.
4. Mortar containing fly ash shows the limited potential for mitigating carbonation
due to absent of portlandite, but is inevitably encountered with alkalinity
reduction as portlandite is consumed by pozzolanic activities.
5. The rate of carbonation of F00S1 is approximately 50% greater than that of F00.
Acknowledgements The superabsorbent polymer used in this study was kindly supplied by
Nippon Shokubai, Co., Ltd.
References
1. Alarcon-Ruiz L, Platret G, Massieu E, Ehrlacher A (2005) The use of thermal analysis in

assessing the effect of temperature on a cement paste. Cem Concr Res 35(3):609–613
2. Chindasiriphan P, Yokota H (2017) Self-healing ability of concrete made with fly ash and
superabsorbent polymer. In: Proceedings of the 2nd ACF symposium, Chiang Mai, Thailand,
23–25 November 2017
3. Harilal M, Rathish VR, Anandkumar B, George RP, Mohammed MSHS, Philip J,
Amarendra G (2019) High performance green concrete (HPGC) with improved strength and
chloride ion penetration resistance by synergistic action of fly ash, nanoparticles and corrosion
inhibitor. Constr Build Mater 198:299–312
4. Hasholt MT, Jespersen MHS, Jensen OM (2010) Mechanical properties of concrete with sap
part i: development of compressive strength. In: International RILEM conference on use of
superabsorbent polymers and other new additives in concrete, Lyngby, Denmark, 15–18
August 2010, pp 117–126
5. Hills TP, Gordon F, Florin NH, Fennell PS (2015) Statistical analysis of the carbonation rate of
concrete. Cem Concr Res 72:98–107
6. Japan Society of Civil Engineers (2017) Standard Specifications for Concrete Strucures - 2017
[Design]
7. Snoeck D, Velasco LF, Mignon A, Vlierberghe SV, Dubruel P, Lodewyckx P, Belie ND
(2015) The effects of superabsorbent polymers on the microstructure of cementitious materials
studied by means of sorption experiments. Cem Concr Res 77:26–35
Mechanical Properties of Mortar
Reinforced with Recycled Nylon Fiber
from Waste Fishing Nets
T. Srimahachota, H. Matsuura, and H. Yokota
Abstract Derelict fishing nets are becoming an environmental issue. Since those
fishing nets are threatening many marine creatures, it is necessary to find suitable
recycling solutions. In this study, recycled nylon fiber from waste fishing nets was
used as a reinforcing material in mortar. Parameters which are likely to have effect
on the changes in mechanical property of the mortar such as geometry of fiber and
percent fiber content by volume were examined. Furthermore, compressive
strength, flexural capacity, flowability of fresh mortar, and failure behavior were
extensively investigated to evaluate the effectiveness of the reinforcement.
Experimental results showed higher flexural capacity of the mortar reinforced with
recycled nylon fiber. In addition, post-peak behavior and flexural capacity after the
peak load were investigated. Adding fibers also shows improvement in ductility of
the beams and postpones beam failure.
Keywords Recycled nylon fiber Waste fishing nets Cement mortar Flexural
capacity
1 Introduction
Ocean ecology and many of marine species are being threatened from marine debris
especially from waste fishing nets. Waste fishing nets account at least 46% of the
plastic in the “Great Pacific garbage patch” which is approximately 41,000 tonnes
[3]. In addition, it was estimated that 640,000 tonnes of fishing nets are lost or
T. Srimahachota (&) H. Matsuura

e-mail: teeranai.sg@gmail.com
H. Matsuura
e-mail: haruka-tmao@ets.hokudai.ac.jp
H. Yokota

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_172
1874 T. Srimahachota et al.
discarded into ocean annually [7]. Therefore, recycling and those waste fishing nets
is an urgent action to mitigate the environmental problem.
Fishing nets usually made of a strong and durable material such as nylon; thus, it
can be utilized into many products such as homewares, accessories and clothes [1].
For engineering applications, recycled plastics have long been used in concrete [4,
8]; however, the application of using waste fishing nets are not still well studied.
Synthetic fibers including polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), recycled polyethylene tereph-
thalate (PET), and recycled nylon (RN) from waste fishing nets were found to
improve mechanical properties of mortar; for instance, flexural capacity, toughness,
and ductility [5]. Moreover, Karahan and Atis [2] reported that synthetic fibers such
as polypropylene contributes the durability enhancement of concrete by reducing
drying shrinkage and increasing freeze-thaw resistance. However, slightly reduction
of flowability and compressive strength were observed with the addition of fiber. It
has been studied that nylon fiber from waste fishing nets are stable under alkaline
environment in concrete with no harmful effect to human [9]. In common practice,
fishing nets are usually stored to prevent degradation from sunlight.
This paper investigates the effectiveness of recycled nylon short fiber from waste
fishing nets for the reinforcing of mortar. Influences of fiber geometry and percent
fiber content on the mechanical properties were focused. Compressive strength,
flexural capacity, flowability, and bending behavior were extensively investigated.
2.1 Testing Material
Recycled nylon (RN) fibers from waste fishing net were used as a reinforcing
material in mortar. Discarded fishing nets were received from fishermen in
Hokkaido, then cleaned with water and manually cut into specified lengths. Only
the straight part of the nets was used to prevent the formation of fiber lumps during
the mixing of mortar. Two types of RN fibers were used in this study: type A with
0.24 mm in diameter and type B with 0.52 mm in diameter as shown in Fig. 1.
Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) mortar with the water-to-cement ratio of 0.45 was
prepared. RN fibers were added during the mix with carefully monitoring to ensure
uniformly distribution.
2.2 Testing Methods
Mortar flow tests and flexural strength tests were conducted as specified in JIS R
5201. Compressive strengths were determined in accordance with JIS A 1108.
Flexural strength was determined with three-point bending tests as shown in Fig. 2.
Mechanical Properties of Mortar … 1875
(a) (b)
(a) Type A (0.24 mm in diameter) (b) Type B (0.52 mm in diameter)
Fig. 1 RN fibers used for reinforcing mortar
Fig. 2 Three-point bending test setup
Table 1 Details of test specimens

Specimen Fiber diameter, Fiber length, Aspect ratio Fiber fraction Flow diameter %Dflow
D (mm) L (mm) (L/D) (volume%) of mortar (mm) diameter
PL – – – – 254.4 –
A20-1.0 0.24 20 83 1.0 243.6 −4.2
A20-2.0 0.24 20 83 1.0 238.8 −6.1
A40-1.0 0.24 40 167 2.0 233.7 −8.1
A40-2.0 0.24 40 167 2.0 205.4 −19.2
B20-1.0 0.52 20 38 1.0 234.7 −7.7
B20-2.0 0.52 20 38 2.0 239.8 −5.7
B30-1.0 0.52 30 58 1.0 237.8 −6.5
B30-2.0 0.52 30 58 2.0 243.5 −4.3
B40-1.0 0.52 40 77 1.0 249.3 −2.0
B40-2.0 0.52 40 77 2.0 238.3 −6.3
Mix20-1.0 0.24, 0.52 20 – 1.0 each 247.3 −2.8
Mix40-1.0 0.24, 0.52 40 – 1.0 each 209.7 −17.6
Two linear variable differential transformers (LVDTs) were installed to measure the
midspan deflection. The flexural tests and compressive tests were conducted on
40 40 160 mm prism and 50 100 mm cylinder specimens respectively. All
the specimens were cured for 28 days under wet condition. Details of specimens are
listed in Table 1.
3 Result and Discussions
3.1 Flowability
Flow diameters of mortar with respected to diameter of fiber, length of fiber, and
percent fiber fraction by volume are presented in Table 1. Aspect ratio which is the
ratio between length and diameter of fiber (L/D) and the percent differences in flow
diameter compared to plain mortar (%Dflow) were calculated. Adding RN fibers
resulted in the reduction of flow diameter up to 19% for type A and 8% for type B.
Especially in type A, the more fiber fraction, the greater reduction of flow diameter
was observed. Using the long fiber (e.g. 40 mm long) reduced the flow diameter of
type A and the mix of types A and B. The mix of types A and B expressed the same
tendency as type A. This behavior was observed on PET fiber and PVA fiber [5].
On the contrary, increase in fiber length or fiber fraction did not show clear
effects on the reduction of flow diameter for type B. This behavior might be due to
the lower aspect ratio of type B. Fiber with higher aspect ratio accounts more
surface area at the same quantity of fiber, so it reduces flowability of the mix. For
the fiber with the same modulus of elasticity, fibers with larger diameter tends to be
stiffer; therefore, it is difficult to form fiber knots during the mix. In addition, it was
observed during the mix that type B tends to be more dispersed than type A.
3.2 Compressive and Flexural Tests
Results from the average of 2 compressive tests and 3 flexural tests for each
condition are summarized in Table 2. The addition of fiber reduced the compressive
strength up to 27% for type B and 19% for type A. Especially, type B showed
greater reduction in compressive strength. Karahan and Atis [2] suggested that
modulus of elasticity of concrete is decreased with the addition of fiber since it
increases void in cement matrix.
Table 2 Results of compressive and flexural tests

Specimen Compressive strength Flexural strength
fc0 (MPa) SD %D fc0 Pcr (kN) fb (MPa) SD %D fb
PL 45.1 7.7 1.9 5.3 0.2
A20-1.0 48.1 10.8 6.7 2.0 5.5 0.8 4.5
A20-2.0 38.1 4.4 −15.4 2.0 5.7 0.5 8.9
A40-1.0 43.8 14.1 −2.9 2.4 6.7 1.2 26.7
A40-2.0 36.4 4.0 −19.2 1.8 5.2 0.0 −2.2
B20-1.0 42.1 14.1 −6.6 1.8 4.9 0.3 −6.7
B20-2.0 33.0 4.0 −26.7 2.0 5.7 0.5 8.9
B30-1.0 36.0 0.4 −20.2 1.9 5.3 0.8 0.0
B30-2.0 33.1 4.0 −26.7 2.0 5.6 0.0 6.7
B40-1.0 36.9 2.2 −18.2 2.2 6.2 0.8 17.8
B40-2.0 43.3 10.4 −4.0 1.9 5.4 0.3 2.2
Mix20-1.0 35.9 2.9 −20.3 1.9 5.4 0.0 2.2
Mix40-1.0 38.0 6.4 −15.7 2.3 6.3 0.0 20.0
Note: fc0 is the compressive strength, SD is the standard deviation, %D fc0 is the percent difference in
compressive strength compared to PL, Pcr is the maximum load, fb is the flexural strength, and %D
fb is the percent difference in flexural strength compared to PL
Flexural strength increased up to 27% for the type A and 18% for type B. The
increasing in flexural strength was found because adding fibers improves tensile
strength of mortar [6]. Using fiber with 40 mm long tends to provide higher
strength due to better bond between fibers and cement matrix because of greater
surface area. Specimens with higher fiber fraction also expressed higher flexural
strength since fibers transfer tensile stresses and enhance tensile strength.
3.3 Failure Behavior
Figure 3 shows load-midspan deflection curves of the beams. Beams reinforced

with RN fibers expressed ductile failure while plain mortar expressed brittle failure.
Reinforced beams sustained the load after the yield point, and a hardening stage
was observed for type B. Increase fiber fraction resulted in the increasing of residual
load for both types A and B. It was also observed that using type B with longer fiber
(e.g. 30 and 40 mm) increases sustained load after the yield point; for instance, the
load can increase approximately 0.4 kN for B40-2.0 (Fig. 3(e)). Test beams
expressed more ductile failure when fiber fraction was increased from 1.0% to 2.0%
for the type A as indicated in Fig. 3(a) and (b). However, type B beams showed
more stiffness when fiber fraction was increased as shown in Fig. 3(c)–(e). The mix
of RN type A and type B fibers expressed similar load-deflection curves as type B.
Using fiber with larger diameter seems to improve flexural capacity and delay
the failure processes as the load slowly decreases after the yield point.
(a) Type A with 20 mm long fiber (b)Type A with 40 mm long fiber
(c) Type B with 20 mm long fiber (d) Type B with 30 mm long fiber
(e) Type B with 40 mm long fiber (f) Mix of RN type A and type B
with 20 and 40 mm long fiber
(g) Plain mortar
Fig. 3 Load-midspan deflection curves

This behavior might be concluded that RN fibers have the ability to bridge the
cracks and transfer stress through the cracks. Beams reinforced with RN fibers can
sustain loads until it completely failed.
4 Conclusions
The study on the recycled nylon fiber reinforced mortar reveals several findings on
its mechanical behavior. Experimental results confirmed that recycled nylon fiber
from waste fishing nets has the potential for strengthening cement mortar.
Parameters influencing the mechanical behavior were studied including fiber
diameter, fiber length, and fiber fraction by volume.
Adding fibers results in the reduction of compressive strength. Increasing fiber
diameter causes greater reduction. The addition of fibers results in the reduction of
mortar flowability especially for type A fiber. Flexural strength is improved with the
addition of both type A and type B fiber. The mix of types A and B fiber does not
show a noticeable effect on the flexural strength comparing to the used of one fiber
type. Post-peak behavior with some residual load-carrying capacity is found on the
fiber reinforced beams under the bending tests. The residual load-carrying capacity
increases with the increasing in fiber fraction and the fiber length. Adding RN fibers
improve ductility of the beams; however, beams with RN type B become more
stiffen when fiber fraction is increased.
It is noted that adding RN fiber in mortar gives better performance in term of
flexural strength and ductility. Moreover, adding fibers also delay the failure pro-
cess since fiber helps in transferring tensile stress through the cracks. Further
studies are needed to investigate the applicability of RN fibers in real structures. In
experimental scale, RN fibers were manually cut by hand to control the fiber
quality. However, in real application which require large amount of fibers,
pre-treatment and quality control of fiber are still the challenge for practical used.
Acknowledgements This research has been supported by JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific
Research (B), Grant Number 17H03293.
References
1. Charter M, Carruthers R, Jensen S (2018) Product from waste fishing nets. Circ Ocean Rep
Type 04–2017:1–29
2. Karahan O, Atis CD (2011) The durability properties of polypropylene fiber reinforced fly ash
concrete. Mater Des 32:1044–1049
3. Lebreton L, Salt B, Ferrari F, Sainte-Rose B, Aitken J, Marthouse R, Hajbane S, Cunsolo S,
Schwarz A, Levivier A, Noble K, Debelijak P, Maral H, Schoeneich-Argent R, Brambini R,
Reisser J (2018) Evidence that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is rapidly accumulating plastic.
Nat Sci Rep 4666:1–15
4. Mercante I, Alejandrino C, Ojeda J, Chini J, Maroto C, Fajardo N (2018) Mortar and concrete
composites with recycled plastics: a review. Sci Technol Mat 30:69–79
5. Orasutthikul S, Unno D, Yokota H (2017) Effectiveness of recycled nylon fiber from waste
fishing nets with respect to fiber reinforced mortar. Constr Build Mater 146:594–602
6. Ozger OB, Girardi F, Giannuzzi GM, Salomoni VA, Majorana CE, Fambri L, Baldassino N, Di
Maggio R (2013) Effect of nylon fibers on mechanical and thermal properties of hardened
concrete for energy storage systems. Mater Des 51:989–997
7. Sea Around Us. http://www.seaaroundus.org/can-we-end-ghost-fishing/. Accessed 22 June
2019
8. Siddique R, Khatib J, Kaur I (2007) Use of recycled plastic in concrete: a review. Waste Manag
28:1835–1852
9. Spadea S, Farina I, Carrafiello A, Fraternali F (2015) Recycled nylon fibers as cement mortar
reinforcement. Constr Build Mater 80:200–209
Macroscale and Microscale Studies
on Time-Dependent Mechanical
Properties of Concrete with Alkali Silica
Reactions
Y. Okano and Y. Takahashi
Abstract The time-dependent mechanical properties of concrete that expands

because of alkali–silica reactions (ASRs) were studied. Compression tests were
conducted with concrete specimens, which have several levels of expansion and
material ages (14, 26, and 52 weeks). The specimens with larger expansions
showed smaller stiffnesses at 14 weeks, while all specimens with different expan-
sion levels had similar stiffnesses at 52 weeks. To investigate the cause of stiffness
recovery of ASR-expanded concrete, the time-dependent chemical compositions
and mechanical properties of ASR products inside cracks were investigated. With
the scanning electron microscopy energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analyses of
ASR products inside the specimens at 14 and 52 weeks, it was shown that matured
concrete had considerable calcium in the ASR products. E-moduli of ASR products
inside cracks located in cement paste were determined by nanoindentation, the
stiffness increased as the distance from the aggregate increased, and the stiffness of
ASR products outside aggregates was higher than the values for ASR products
inside aggregates in previous studies. The stiffness of the ASR products increased
as the calcium contents in the ASR products increased. Thus, the relationships
between the stiffness and calcium–silica ratios of the ASR produces were under-
stood. However, there seem to be some other dominant factors than the stiffness of
ASR products that govern the time-dependent mechanical properties of concrete
that suffer from ASR.
Keywords Alkali–silica reaction Mechanical property Calcium–silicate ratio

Nanoindentation E-modulus
Y. Okano (&) Y. Takahashi

Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: takahashi@concrete.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Y. Takahashi
e-mail: takahashi@concrete.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_173
1882 Y. Okano and Y. Takahashi
1 Introduction
Alkali–silica reaction (ASR) is one of the chemical reactions inside concrete. It

occurs among reactive aggregates and alkalis from pore solution in cement paste.
ASR products absorb water and turn into expansive gel. The expansive ASR gel
makes cracks, and the cracks propagate from aggregates to cement paste as the gel
moves. ASR is thought to be harmful to concrete structures, because it makes
numerous cracks in the concrete. ASR often causes the strength of the concrete to
deteriorate.
However, it was shown in previous studies that the ASR-induced structures
sometimes restore the mechanical performances of the concrete structure once
deteriorated by the cracks [5, 6]. For example, Ogawa et al. [5] showed that the
mechanical performances of concrete beams with preceding bending cracks were
restored after ASR expansion, and the failure mode changed as well.
Meanwhile, Katayama [2] showed the time-dependent chemical compositions of
ASR gel. ASR gel mainly consists of silicon and alkali when created. Then, ASR
gel changes its chemical composition, as in Eq. (1), by receiving calcium from
cement paste when it passes through the cement paste. Katayama showed that the
proportion of calcium in ASR gel was higher in cement paste than aggregate.
Si O R þ R O Si þ Ca2 þ þ 2OH ! Si O Ca O Si
þ 2ROH
ð1Þ
The change of the chemical composition of ASR gel can affect its physical
properties. In past experimental results (e.g. [3]), different stiffnesses were observed
with the ASR gel with different calcium contents. It was found that ASR gel is
stiffer when it is placed on the edge of the aggregate than inside the aggregate.
However, the physical properties of ASR gel located outside the aggregate have not
been understood.
The objective of this study was to reveal the relationships between the change of
physical properties of ASR gel and the mechanical performance of concrete.
Understanding the characteristics of existing concrete with ASR expansions can be
helpful to make a proper decision in the maintenance of these concrete structures.
2 Experimental Conditions
2.1 Specimen Preparations
Concrete specimens were prepared and exposed to an ASR-acceleration condition

before compression tests. The mix proportion of the specimens is shown in Table 1.
NaOH was added to accelerate ASR. Coarse aggregates were reactive andesite.
Macroscale and Microscale Studies … 1883
Mixed concrete was cast into /10 20 cm cylindrical molds. Each specimen was
sealed for three days after casting and, after that, exposed to each environmental
condition.
The series of specimens is given in Table 2. Specimens for compression tests
and nanoindentation tests were prepared. For the specimens for compression tests,
several target strains of the expansion were set; they were approximately 0, 2000,
and 4000 l and labeled N (no acceleration), M (moderate expansion), and H (high
expansion), respectively. After eight weeks of sealed curing, the specimens of the
M and H series were exposed to ASR acceleration conditions in which specimens
were soaked in 40 °C 3% NaCl solution until the expansions reached target strains
of expansion, and then the specimens were moved to a 20 °C sealed environment in
a sealed condition. The N-series specimens were just sealed and placed in a constant
20 °C environment. Thus, an attempt was made to prepare the specimens with
different expansions and material ages. After 14, 26, and 52 weeks, compression
tests were conducted on the specimens. Another series of specimens, the I series,
was prepared for the nanoindentation test; the specimens were soaked in 40 °C 3%
NaCl solution after eight weeks of sealed curing, and nanoindentation tests were
conducted at 26 weeks of material age. Three specimens were prepared for each
series.
2.2 Compression Tests
Compression tests were conducted at the designated material ages shown in

Table 2. The stress–strain relationships were recorded for each specimen. The
stiffness and compression strength were calculated and compared.
2.3 SEM-EDS Analysis
Chemical compositions of ASR gel in thin samples were analyzed by scanning

electron microscopy energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDS,
JSM-7900F). Thin samples were made from the specimens of M series, 14 and
52 weeks, and the specimen of I series. The specimens were cut and impregnated
into epoxy resin. After that, the impregnated specimens were ground to a thickness
of 100 lm by diamond paper, and the surfaces for the analyses were coated by
carbon. The images in microscale were obtained by SEM, and the places of ASR
Table 1 Mix proportion Unit weight [kg/m3]

W C S G sp AE NaOH
175 269 827 988 4.3 0.010769 12.90
Table 2 Series of specimens

Curing Exposed Exposed
Exposed Environment Test Test Test
Condition Environment Environment
8 weeks 6 weeks 12 weeks 26 weeks
N
20°C (Sealed) 20°C (Sealed) 20°C (Sealed) 20°C (Sealed)
8 weeks 4 weeks 40°C (NaClaq) 12 weeks 26 weeks
M
20°C (Sealed) 2 weeks 20°C (Sealed) 20°C (Sealed) 20°C (Sealed)
8 weeks 12 weeks 40°C (NaClaq) 26 weeks
H
20°C (Sealed) 6 weeks 20°C (Sealed) 20°C (Sealed)
8 weeks
I 18 weeks 40°C (NaClaq)
20°C (Sealed)
gel were detected. The detected areas were analyzed by EDS. The ratio of calcium
and silica (Ca/Si) in ASR gel was focused on in the analyses as the parameter to
represent the calcium content in ASR gel.
2.4 Nanoindentation
Nanoindentation is a method to obtain the microscale physical properties of

materials by pushing a cantilever into the material’s surface, and the method was
used to measure the Young’s modulus of ASR gel in this study. Bruker Hysitron TI
Premier was used for this measurement, and the measurement conditions were as
follows: the maximum load was 1000 lN, loading time period was 5 s, load
holding time was 2 s, and unloading time period was 5 s. Specimens of the I series
were used for this measurement, and the expansion of the specimen was 5600 l at
26 weeks. The chemical composition of ASR gel was analyzed by SEM-EDS, as
mentioned above, and the points of nanoindentation measurements were selected.
The relationships between the chemical compositions and the physical properties of
ASR gel were analyzed based on the results of SEM-EDS and nanoindentations.
3.1 Compression Tests
Stress–strain relationships obtained by the compression tests are shown in Fig. 1.

The peak strengths of the specimens increased as time passed, and there were slight
differences among the N, M, and H series. Meanwhile, the characteristic tendency
was observed in terms of stiffness. At 14 weeks of material age, the stiffness of the
specimens of the M series was clearly lower than that of N series, while the
difference became rather smaller later. With the increase of material age, the
damage caused by ASR expansion in terms of stiffness seemed to become smaller

—in other words, it recovered.
The stiffness reduction with expansion was found by plotting the relationships
between stiffness and expansions, as in Fig. 2. The decreased stiffness was observed
with higher expansions of the specimens by ASR, if the specimens at the same age
were compared. Meanwhile, the stiffness increased with time, and the relationships
among different expansion levels changed. The stiffness of the M-series showed
large increases from 7–12 GPa at 14 weeks to 17–27 GPa at 52 weeks. Some
specimens recovered to the same level as the specimen of the N series, which had
no expansion and damage. The stiffness of the H-series increased as well, while the
N-series showed few changes. The result showed that the stiffness of the
ASR-expanded specimens recovered with time, even though the damage and cracks
resulting from ASR expansion had been already induced, and this cannot be
explained only by the hydration progress.
3.2 SEM-EDS Analysis
Figure 3 shows the result of SEM-EDS analysis on the specimen of M-series at

52 weeks. An SEM image of the specimen is shown in Fig. 3(a). In the middle of
the image, it can be observed that a crack filled with ASR gel runs through the
aggregate. ASR gel also exists around the surface of aggregate. Figure 3(b) is an
EDS image of the same area of the SEM analysis. In this picture, the point where
calcium existed was colored by blue, sodium was colored by green, and silicon was
colored by red. According to the EDS analysis, the part of cement paste was plotted
by more blue color, which means that it contains plenty of calcium. However, the
Fig. 1 Results of the compression tests by stress–strain relation

Fig. 2 Stiffness obtained

from stress–strain relation
(a) SEM image (b) EDS mapping
Fig. 3 SEM-EDS results of M-series, 52-week specimen (red: Si, green: Na, blue: Ca for EDS
mapping)
aggregate part contains much sodium and silicon, which are plotted by red and
green colors, respectively. ASR gel in Fig. 3(b) is shown as the color mixed by red,
blue, and green, because it mainly contains these three elements.
The chemical compositions of the ASR gels at different places and material ages
were compared based on the results of SEM-EDS. The area of the ASR gel was
divided into three areas: edge inside aggregate, surface of aggregate, and outside of
aggregate. The Ca/Si of each area in the specimens of M series, 14 and 52 weeks,
was calculated from the SEM-EDS results and is plotted in Fig. 4. Different Ca/Si is
observed at different times and areas. ASR gel in the 52-week specimen has higher
Ca/Si than that in the 14-week specimen. ASR gel outside the aggregate has higher
Ca/Si than inside the aggregate for each specimen. Higher Ca/Si is the result of the
calcium replacement described by Eq. (1), and the EDS results clearly show the
tendency that the matured ASR gel and ASR gel far from the aggregate center have
higher Ca/Si.
Fig. 4 Ca/Si obtained from ASR gel in each location
3.3 Nanoindentation
Nanoindentation measurements were conducted on the I series specimen at a

material age of 26 weeks. First, the SEM-EDS analyses were conducted to decide
the area for the indentations. The area shown in Fig. 5 was selected based on the
SEM-EDS analysis, because the area had a major crack from the aggregate.
Figure 5 shows the chemical composition analyzed by EDS, and the area is mapped
by RGB whose color allocations are the same as in Fig. 3(b). There was a hori-
zontal crack filled by ASR gel in the middle of the image and colored by purple.
The crack can propagate from the aggregate located on the right side of the image.
On this crack, indentation measurements were done in two different directions. The
first is the direction along the crack. The EDS-analyzed points are shown with the
numbers from 1 to 23 in Fig. 5. The distances from the aggregate surface were from
0 to 2000 lm. Among these plots, points 2, 4, and 20 were selected, and the
indentations were measured. The other direction was across the crack. Along the
arrow mark on point 2 in Fig. 5, EDS and indentation measurements were con-
ducted. Ca/Si from the EDS analyses and the stiffness calculated from indentations
along the crack and across the crack are shown in Figs. 6 and 7, respectively. There
is a clear correlation between Ca/Si and the stiffness of ASR gel. Figure 6(a) shows
that the points farther from the aggregate have higher Ca/Si, and the stiffness has the
same dependency as shown in Fig. 6(b). In the direction across the crack, the ASR
gel part has higher Ca/Si than the cement paste part, and the values of stiffness seem
to correspond to the values of Ca/Si. These results show that, once cracks are filled
by ASR gel, the crack part can no longer be regarded as damaged inside the
concrete material.
Fig. 5 SEM-EDS image of the area of nanoindentation (red: Si, green: Na, blue: Ca)
(a) Ca/Si from EDS measurements (b) Results of nanoindentation
Fig. 6 Chemical composition and stiffness of ASR gel along the ASR gel
Figure 8 shows the relationships between Ca/Si and stiffness from indentation of
ASR gel. Some previous studies have measured stiffness and the chemical com-
position of ASR gel located inside aggregate [1, 3, 8]. Their results are also plotted
in Fig. 8. The measurement results of previous studies are mainly focused on the
ASR gel inside the aggregate, whereas this study focused on the ASR gel outside
the aggregate. The plots of this study seem to be located on the extension of the
plots of previous studies, which means that the relationships between stiffness and
Ca/Si are irrespective of the location of the ASR gel. In addition, the stiffness of
ASR gel measured by indentation can vary from several gigapascals to several
dozens of gigapascals.
From the compression test results shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the stiffness of the
ASR-expanded specimen increased and recovered with time. Considering that there
were drastic changes of ASR gel in terms of stiffness in concrete, as shown in
Fig. 8, it can be concluded that the change of chemical compositions and micro-
scopic mechanical properties of ASR gel resulting from calcium exchange can be
(a) Ca/Si from EDS measurements (b) Results of nanoindentation
Fig. 7 Chemical composition and stiffness of ASR gel across the crack
Fig. 8 Comparison with

previous research (stiffness
and Ca/Si)
one factor governing the macroscopic mechanical performance of concrete mate-

rials with ASR-induced expansions.
However, the volume ratio of ASR gel in all concrete is less than a few percent.
It is doubtful whether the changes in the stress–strain relationships or bulk stiffness
of ASR-affected concrete can be fully explained only with the change of stiffness of
ASR gel from several gigapascals to several dozens of gigapascals. There should be
other factors than the stiffness of ASR gel to explain the recovery of the stiffness,
such as density or viscosity. It is necessary to investigate the influences of other
factors, which can be helpful to improve the models to predict the behavior of
ASR-expanded concrete structures (e.g. [4, 7]).
4 Conclusions
Concrete specimens with ASR expansions were prepared, and the mechanical
properties of the specimens were investigated on a macro scale by compression
testing and on a micro scale by nanoindentation. The macroscopic measurement
revealed that the concrete expanded by ASR had a smaller stiffness at an early age;
then, the stiffness recovered to undamaged concrete as time passed. The micro-
scopic observations showed that the changes of chemical composition and Young’s
moduli of ASR gel could have some influence on the macroscopic stiffness of
concrete. However, there should be other dominant factors to explain the recovery
of mechanical performance of concrete affected by ASR expansion.
Acknowledgements This study was financially supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant

No. 18H01507. We are greatly thankful to Dr. Nomura from Nomura Concrete Laboratory and Dr.
Hasegawa from Bruker Japan K.K. for their help with the SEM-EDS and nanoindentation
experiments.
References
1. Hu C, Gautam BP, Panesar DK (2018) Nano-mechanical properties of alkali-silica reaction

(ASR) products in concrete measured by nano-indentation. Constr Build Mater 158:75–83
2. Katayama T (2012) ASR gels and their crystalline phases in concrete – universal products in
alkali-silica, alkali-silicate and alkali-carbonate reactions. In: Proceedings of 14th international
conference on alkali aggregate reaction in concrete, 030411-KATA-04, 12
3. Leemann A, Lura P (2018) E-modulus of the alkali-silica-reaction product determined by
micro-indentation. Constr Build Mater 44:221–227
4. Morenon P, Multon S, Sellier A, Grimal E, Hamon F, Boudarot E (2017) Impact of stresses and
restraints on ASR expansion. Constr Build Mater 140:58–74
5. Ogawa S, Takahashi Y, Maekawa K (2018) Effects of preceding bending cracks on the
behaviours of ASR expansion and mechanical properties of RC beams. Proc JCI 40(1):867–
872 (in Japanese)
6. Takahashi Y, Ogawa S, Tanaka Y, Maekawa K (2018) Nonlinear coupling models of
alkali-silica reaction and multi-directional cracked reinforced concrete. In: Proceedings of the
conference on computational modelling of concrete and concrete structures, pp 353–362
7. Takahashi Y, Ogawa S, Tanaka Y, Maekawa K (2016) Scale-dependent ASR expansion of
concrete and its prediction coupled with silica gel generation and migration. J Adv Concr
Technol 14(8):444–463
8. Zheng K, Lukovic M, de Schutter G, Ye G, Taerwe L (2016) Elastic modulus of the
alkali-silica reaction rim in a simplified calcium-alkali-silicate system determined by
nano-indentation. Materials 9(9):787
Quantitative Evaluation of Buildability
in 3D Concrete Printing Based on Shear
Vane Test
K. Nishijo, M. Ohno, and T. Ishida
Abstract While the slump test is widely used in conventional in situ concrete
construction, no field test has yet been proposed for additive manufacturing of
cementitious materials. In the extrusion-based 3D printing technology, one of the
important material characteristics is buildability; when deposited fresh mortar is not
stiff enough, the 3D printed object could collapse during the printing process,
resulting in a limited number of buildable layers. The buildability is likely to
depend on environmental conditions. Therefore, to apply the innovative 3D con-
crete printing technology to in situ field construction, the buildability of materials
on site under varying temperature and humidity needs to be evaluated. In this
research, the applicability of an evaluation method of buildability based on shear
strength has been studied. The shear strength of fresh cement mortar is measured by
shear vane test, which can be easily conducted on site. At an arbitrary point of the
3D printed structure, the shear stress is calculated based on the self-weight of upper
layers. By comparing the strength and applied stress, potential risks of collapsing
can be evaluated over the entire object and the maximum buildable height can be
predicted. To verify the evaluation method, square thin-walled structures were
printed by using a 3D concrete printer and the actual pintable height observed was
compared with the prediction. The objects were printed with varying test param-
eters, including temperature conditions of 10 and 20 °C, three mix designs of
cement mortar, and different sizes of 3D printers. The shear vane test was conducted
under each condition during the printing process. The result showed that the
evaluation method significantly underestimates the actual printable height. The
discrepancy might be attributed to the significant amount of air voids in deposited
K. Nishijo M. Ohno (&) T. Ishida

Graduate School of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Tokyo,
Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: ohno@concrete.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
K. Nishijo
e-mail: nishijo@concrete.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
T. Ishida
e-mail: tetsuya.ishida@civil.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_174
1892 K. Nishijo et al.
filaments and to accelerated setting of fresh mortar due to moisture evaporation in

the printed object.
Keywords 3D concrete printing Additive manufacturing Buildability Shear

vane test
1 Introduction
Concrete can be easily formed into various shapes and sizes because of its plastic
consistency. This has been true only when prefabricated formwork is readily
available; today, so-called three-dimensional concrete printing (3DCP) technologies
are expected to change the paradigm.
Among a variety of 3DCP methods, fused deposition modeling (FDM) is one of
the most widely used processes in the construction industry. Notable examples are
Contour Crafting [2, 3] and Concrete Printing [4, 5]. This additive manufacturing
process is based on extruding continuous cement-paste/mortar filament to build a
structure layer by layer. With this technology, cost- and labor-intensive formwork is
not required in concrete construction, while the ease of forming any shapes and
sizes can be maintained or even improved (i.e. freeform construction).
When printing cementitious material in the extrusion-based method, the fresh
material should be stiff enough to support the weight of subsequent upper layers as
well as its self-weight without collapsing. This characteristic, referred to as build-
ability, is one of the key properties of 3DCP materials for additive manufacturing
[5]. There have been several previous studies on prediction and evaluation of the
buildability for a given cementitious material.
Wolfs et al. [8] focused on the similarity in mechanical behaviors of fresh 3DCP
mortar and soil, thus conducted geotechnical test methods to measure the cohesion,
angle of internal friction, Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio. Based on the
measured material properties and a time-dependent Mohr-Coulomb failure crite-
rion, finite element method (FEM) analyses were performed to simulate deforma-
tion and collapse of 3D printed cylinder objects during the printing. It has been
demonstrated that the numerical model can qualitatively predict the
failure-deformation mode, while the maximum number of buildable layers are
overestimated. Roussel [7], on the other hand, focused on rheological properties of
3DCP materials for predicting the buildability. The proposed model predicts the
critical object height at which either strength-based failure or self-buckling of the
printed object occurs, based on the shear yield stress, plastic viscosity, elastic
modulus, critical strain, and structuration rate of the fresh 3DCP material.
Validation of the proposed model has yet to be done in actual printing experiment.
One of the factors that could significantly affect the buildability but have not
been fully investigated in previous studies is environmental conditions. For
example, the time-dependent development of cohesion, elastic modulus, shear yield
stress and viscosity would highly depend on the temperature of the fresh 3DCP
Quantitative Evaluation of Buildability … 1893
material. Thus, to apply the extrusion-based 3DCP to in situ concrete construction,

effects of varying temperature in the surrounding environment should be consid-
ered. One way would be to conduct some test on site to measure the fresh properties
required for the buildability evaluation. Such field tests, like the slump test, should
be easy to carry out on site, preferably requiring no large or delicate equipment,
complicated calibration, and long testing duration. So far, no simple method to
evaluate the fresh properties and the corresponding buildability of 3DCP material
on site has been proposed yet.
The present study proposes an evaluation method of buildability in
extrusion-based 3DCP process based on shear vane test. First, the shear vane test,
which is an in situ geotechnical testing method to measure shear strength of soils,
was conducted on three series of 3DCP mortar under different temperature condi-
tions. The measured shear strength was used to predict the maximum buildable
height based on a simple strength-based criterion. While conducting the shear vane
test, square thin-walled structures were printed by using custom-made 3D concrete
printers. Then, the predicted buildable height of each series was compared to the
maximum printed height observed in the actual printing. Finally, the discrepancy
between the prediction and experiment results was discussed, and the applicability
of the proposed evaluation method was confirmed.
2 Experimental Program and Prediction
2.1 Materials and Mix Proportions
Three mix designs used in this study are shown in Table 1.

The first mix design (S260) was used for printing experiments using a
small-scale 3D concrete printer, while the other two series (L250 and L240) were
printed by using a larger printer. W, P, S, and R represent tap water, premixed
powders (consisting mainly of ordinary portland cement), natural sand, and a
retarder, respectively. The designed air content is 3% in all series.
Table 1 Mix designs of Mix ID W P S R W/P (%)

3DCP mortar (by kg/m3)
S260 260 788 1187 7.88 33
L250 250 757 1239 4.54
L240 240 727 1290 4.36
2.2 Shear Vane Test
A pocket vane testing apparatus was used for the shear vane test. The diameter and
height of the blade are 2 and 4 mm, respectively. After mixing, a portion of the
fresh mortar was poured into a 500-mL container. The container was covered with a
plastic wrap (except during the shear vane test) to avoid moisture evaporation. The
maximum torque was measured at three different points in the same sample and
take the averaged value. The shear strength sy was calculated based on the fol-
lowing formula (JGS1411-2012):
M
sy ¼ D 2 H ð1Þ
p 2 þ D3
6
where M is the measured maximum torque, D is the blade diameter, and H is the
blade height.
The test was conducted approximately every 15 min during the printing
experiments to see the development of shear strength of the mortar over time. After
each test, the container was manually shaken to fill the holes made by the vane and
kept at rest until the next test.
2.3 Printing Experiments
To investigate effects of temperature on buildability, printing experiments were

conducted by using the S260 mix and a small-scale gantry-type 3D concrete printer
(Fig. 1a) in a controlled environment room. Two temperature conditions of 10 and
20 °C were employed, while the relative humidity was fixed at 60%. For each
condition, printing was conducted twice by using different batches of the same mix
design. Parameters of the printer are shown in Table 2. The printed object was a
100 mm2 thin-walled structure with one mortar filament per layer. The printing was
continued until either the collapse of the built layers occurs or the printed height
reaches the buildable limit of the gantry system.
For further verification of the proposed prediction method of buildability, two
different mix designs (L250 and L240) were printed by using a large-scale printer
(Fig. 1b and Table 2). The printed object was a 400-mm square thin-walled
structure in this case. Since the large printer was placed outside, the temperature
was not constant but varied with time; it changed from 7.0 to 10.8 °C during the
printing experiments of 5 h, and the average temperature was 8.8 °C. The
large-scale printing experiments reflect more realistic printing conditions in in situ
construction.
Fig. 1 a Small-scale printer and b large-scale printer
Table 2 Parameters of 3D Small printer Large printer

concrete printers
Nozzle shape Circular
Nozzle diameter (mm) 10 25
Height of a layer (mm) 5 10
Printing speed (mm/sec) 50
2.4 Prediction Method
The buildability prediction is based on a model proposed by Roussel [7]. Figure 2

illustrates the prediction method. First, the evolution of shear strength of the mortar
is determined by a best-fitting curve of the shear strength measured by the shear
vane test. A linear regression was adopted in this study as the retarder was supposed
to delay the initial setting and suppress significant increase in viscosity during the
printing experiments. Then, the gravity-induced shear stress s0 caused by the
self-weight of one layer is calculated as follows [6]:
qgh
s0 ¼ p ð2Þ
3
where q, g, and h are the density of the mortar, gravitational acceleration, and
height of one layer, respectively. Here, it is assumed that the maximum shear stress
occurs in the bottom layer and progressively increases while new layers are
deposited on top. Then, the shear stress in the bottom layer s(t) can be expressed as:
Fig. 2 Illustration of
development of shear stress
caused by the self-weight of
upper layers and shear
strength of the mortar
X
sðtÞ ¼ s0 H ft ðt0 þ ntc Þg ð3Þ
n
where H(t) is the Heaviside step function; t, t0, and tc are the time after mixing, time
when the printing starts, and the time needed to print one layer, respectively; n is a
summation index representing the number of layers built. Here, the Heaviside step
function is defined as:

1; x0
H ð xÞ ¼ ð4Þ
0; x\0
It is assumed that each layer is added with a constant time interval tc and thus the
shear stress in the bottom layer increases stepwise, which is represented by the
summation of the Heaviside step functions. Then, adopting a simple strength-based
criterion, the collapse of the printed object is assumed to occur when the
gravity-induced shear stress s(t) reaches the shear strength of the mortar sy(t).
3.1 Shear Strength Development
Figure 3 shows the shear strength development of the S260 mortar under constant
temperature conditions. Linear regression equations of the data are plotted as
dashed lines. The results show that the temperature difference of 10 °C causes a
remarkable difference in the trend. Under the temperature of 10 °C, the shear
strength is almost constant during the printing experiments. On the other hand,
significant increases can be seen in the case of 20 °C, especially in Batch 2. It
should be also noted that, while the shear vane test on Batch 1 was stopped at
47 min after the printed object collapsed, a highly nonlinear increase might have
been observed in this case as well if the vane test was continued. Thus, linear
regression seems inappropriate for the S260 series under 20 °C.
Fig. 3 Temperature effect on shear strength development of 3DCP mortar: (Left) S260 mix under
a constant temperature of 10 °C, (Right) S260 mix under 20 °C
Fig. 4 Shear strength

development of L250 and
L240 in the outside
environment
Although a higher shear strength leads to a higher buildability, too viscous fresh
mortar cannot be extruded from the nozzle. To prevent the substantial increase in
shear strength during printing, a larger amount of the retarder should be employed
in the mix. This indicates the difficulty in determining the appropriate mix design of
3DCP mortar used for in situ printing construction. For example, in a region with
high diurnal temperature variation, a mix design that has adequate buildability and
extrudability in the morning might be impossible to extrude in the afternoon if the
temperature rises substantially. Therefore, the mix design needs to be adjusted
based on the environmental conditions, for which the on-site shear vane test and
measured shear strength should be useful.
Figure 4 shows the shear strength development of L250 and L240 in the outside
environment with their linear regression lines. The L250 series exhibits the almost
constant shear strength of about 0.5 kPa, while a significant increase can be seen in
the case of L240. The temperature variation during the printing was relatively
small; the average temperatures during the printing of L250 and L240 were 7.8 and
9.9 °C, respectively. Thus, the shear strength evolution is also sensitive to the unit
water content.
3.2 Observed Printable Height and Corresponding

Prediction
In each printing experiment, the buildable height was predicted based on the
obtained linear regression equation of shear strength and the evolution of
gravity-induced shear stress. Table 3 summarizes the predictions and observed
buildable heights in the printing experiments. In all series, the prediction under-
estimates the actual buildability. The biggest difference is found in the Batch 1 of
S260 under 20 °C; in fact, the printing reached the height limit of the gantry system,
thus the actual buildability should be higher than the reported value. This is the
series that exhibits the nonlinear increase in the shear strength development as
shown in Fig. 3.
Despite the large discrepancies, the concept of the proposed model (i.e. pre-
dicting buildability based on shear strength) seems valid unless a highly nonlinear
evolution of shear strength occurs. Figure 5 plots the observed buildable heights
and the shear strengths measured when the printed object collapsed. If the series of
S260-20 °C (Batch 1) is excluded as an outlier, a significant correlation can be
found in the other series. It should be also noted that the predictions evenly
overestimated the buildability; about two-fold overestimation is found in all the
series other than the possible outlier. Therefore, the overall discrepancies between
the prediction and actual buildability might be attributed to inappropriate estima-
tions of parameters in the model.
There are several probable causes of the discrepancies regarding the model
parameters. Firstly, although the mortar density q was calculated based on the mix
design and the designed air content, the actual density of the printed mortar could
be smaller. In fact, as shown in Fig. 6, a highly porous texture was observed in the
surface of the printed object, especially in the large-scale printing experiments.
Thus, the gravity-induced shear stress was overestimated, which resulted in some
underestimation of buildability.
The second probable cause is significant moisture evaporation in the printed
object. While the sample of the shear vane test was covered with plastic wrap
Table 3 Prediction parameters and comparison of the predicted and observed buildability
ID s0 * (kPa) tc * (min) t0 * (min) Buildable height (cm)
Prediction Observed
S260-10 °C (Batch1) 0.063 0.17 60 5.5 11
S260-10 °C (Batch2) 90 5.5 12
S260-20 °C (Batch1) 44 11.5 37.5**
S260-20 °C (Batch2) 14 5.5 14.5
L250 0.125 0.61 30 4 9
L240 0.131 30 9 15
*See Eq. (3) in Sect. 2.4
**The maximum buildable height of the gantry system was reached
Fig. 5 Relationship between

the observed buildable height
and measured shear strength.
The dashed line is a linear
regression equation for the
data excluding S260-20 °C
(Batch 1)
Fig. 6 Surface of an object

printed by the large-scale
printer. Porous texture can be
seen
except during the test, the extruded mortar in the printing experiments starts to lose
moisture right after deposition. This is especially the case in 3D printed structures
that are not sealed by molds and often have a high surface-area-to-volume ratio. If
the moisture evaporation is significant, the shear strength development in the
printed object could be accelerated, as implied by the effect of water content shown
in Fig. 4. Thus, the underestimated strength in the shear vane test leads to another
underestimation of buildability.
It might be also possible that the procedure of the shear vane test is inappro-
priate. As mentioned in Sect. 2.2, the test was performed approximately every
15 min on the same sample, and the sample was manually vibrated after each test to
fill the holes made by the vane. This vibration might have broken up flocculated
cement particles and delayed the shear strength development. On the other hand, the
extruded mortar in the printed object is not disturbed, which is beneficial for shear
strength development.
4 Conclusions
The following conclusions can be drawn from the present study:

• Shear strength development of fresh 3DCP mortar using a retarder is remarkably
altered by temperature variations. This indicates the difficulty in determining the
appropriate mix design for in situ printing construction where the temperature
can significantly vary.
• The shear strength development is also sensitive to the unit water content of the
mortar; the lower the water content becomes, the higher the shear strength will
be. This implies that, if notable moisture evaporation occurs in a 3DCP structure
during the printing, the buildability can be improved to some extent. This would
be the case especially in 3D printed structures that are not sealed by molds and
often have a high ratio of surface area to volume.
• The proposed model to predict buildability based on shear vane test significantly
underestimates the actual buildable height in printing experiments. However, a
certain correlation can be seen between the observed buildability in printing
experiments and the measured shear strength. This seems to validate the
buildability prediction based on shear strength.
• The discrepancy between the prediction and observed buildability might be
attributed to the significant amount of air voids in deposited filaments (i.e.
overestimated mortar density and corresponding shear stress), accelerated set-
ting of fresh mortar due to moisture evaporation in the printed object, and to
underestimated shear strength due to the inappropriate procedure of the shear
vane test. With proper modifications of these parameters, the proposed model
would be able to predict the buildability more accurately.
Acknowledgements This study was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 18H05915.
The support is gratefully acknowledged. The authors also acknowledge Taisei Corporation, Japan,
for providing materials and 3D printers used in this study.
References
1. Japanese Geotechnical Society (JGS) (2017) JGS 1411-2012: Method for field vane shear test.
Japanese Geotechnical Society Standards Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Investigation
Methods, vol 2
2. Khoshnevis B (2004) Automated construction by contour crafting – related robotics and
information technologies. Autom Constr 13:5–19
3. Khoshnevis B, Hwang D, Yan K, Yeh Z (2006) Mega-scale fabrication by contour crafting.
Int J Ind Syst Eng 1(3):301–320
4. Lim S, Le TT, Webster J, Buswell RA, Austin SA, Gibb AGF, Thorpe T (2009) Fabricating
construction components using layer manufacturing technology. In: Global innovation in
construction conference. Loughborough University, Leicestershire, UK, 13–16 September
5. Lim S, Buswell RA, Le TT, Austin SA, Gibb AGF, Thorpe T (2012) Developments in
construction-scale additive manufacturing processes. Autom Constr 21:262–268
6. Roussel N, Coussot P (2005) “Fifty-cent rheometer” for yield stress measurements: from slump
to spreading flow. Rheology 49(3):705–718
7. Roussel N (2018) Rheological requirements for printable concretes. Cem Concr Res 112:76–85
8. Wolfs RJM, Bos FP, Salet TAM (2018) Early age mechanical behaviour of 3D printed
concrete: Numerical modelling and experimental testing. Cem Concr Res 106:103–116
Investigation of Combined ASR
and DEF Induced Damage on Concrete
by Using RBSM Simulation
Y. Wang, P. Jiradilok, and K. Nagai
Abstract In this study, a 3 dimensional rigid body spring model (RBSM) was used
to simulate the combined effects of alkali-silica reaction (ASR) and delayed
ettringite formation (DEF) induced concrete damage. To model the mechanical
reduction of concrete after deterioration, expansion was considered as the index and
the initial strain was introduced as the damage history. Firstly, for each damage
type, the simulated cracking patterns and mechanical reduction of concrete were
compared with the existing experimental findings, good agreement was reached
which verified the reliability of the proposed simulation method. Then the para-
metric study was conducted to understand the combined effects of ASR and DEF
since they may coexist in site. Surface cracking and internal crack numbers were
analyzed to correlate the mechanical reduction. More importantly, the quantitative
interaction of the two type damages was further discussed to clarify the mechanical
properties loss of concrete under the combined effects, which is hard to achieve
from experimental studies. The proposed method is efficient in simulating of
durability problems of concrete and the simulated results are significant to the
concrete structure design and durability evaluation under harsh environmental
exposure.
Keywords ASR DEF RBSM Expansion Cracking pattern
Y. Wang (&) P. Jiradilok K. Nagai

Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: wangyi@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
P. Jiradilok
e-mail: punyawut@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
K. Nagai
e-mail: nagai325@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_175
1904 Y. Wang et al.
1 Introduction
Alkali-silica reaction (ASR) and delayed ettringite formation (DEF) can both cause
surface map cracking of concrete, which are typical durability problems. It was
reported that the two damage mechanisms in some cases are coexisted and it is
difficult to distinguish them [1]. In addition to the surface map cracking, the internal
cracks could also be induced by the expansion due to ASR gel or delayed ettringite
formation. Because of the cracking inside, the mechanical properties of concrete
could be decreased consistently with the expansion [2]. Although the mechanical
property degradations of concrete after ASR and DEF damages are widely studied,
for their combined effects, the investigation is still limited on structural level [3].
Because of the testing difficulties, there are few experimental data available for
concrete deterioration due to the combined ASR and DEF. Therefore, prior to
reaching the reliable test results, simulation of the mechanical property degradation
of concrete by using computer tool could be a good option.
Since concrete is a heterogeneous material and the cracking of concrete could be
randomly distributed. It is better to analyze the concrete cracks by using a discrete
model. Rigid body spring model (RBSM) is one type of discrete analysis method,
which has advantages in simulating the cracking and small deformation of concrete
materials. In this study, a three dimensional (3D) RBSM model was used to
examine the mechanical property degradation of concrete under combined effects of
ASR and DEF. Firstly, the simulations for the ASR and DEF damage of concrete
were verified with the existing test results, respectively. Then the model was used to
study the expansion and surface cracking difference between the single damages
and combined damage. The mechanical properties degradation and the cracks
distribution were further analyzed. Finally, the damage mechanism of the combined
effects was preliminarily revealed.
2 Summary of RBSM Simulation Method
RBSM was initially proposed by Kawai [4], and then the concept was adopted by
many researchers to develop this method. In this paper, a 3D RBSM model was
developed on the basis of Nagai et al. [5]. The concept and constitutive models of
RBSM simulation method are shown in Fig. 1. Concrete was meshed by using
Voronoi diagram with two types of polyhedron rigid elements (mortar and aggre-
gate). Each element has six degree of freedoms, consisting three translational and
three rotational ones. Elements connect with each other via springs (one normal and
two shear springs). The concrete sample dimension is 100 100 100 mm, both
mortar and aggregate elements are meshed with a size of 2–3 mm. The aggregate
percentage in this simulation is 28.8% and the maximum size is 20 mm, and the
aggregate distribution is based on JSCE standard. The mechanical properties of
mortar, aggregate and the ITZ are presented in Table 1.
Investigation of Combined ASR and DEF … 1905
Fig. 1 Concept and constitutive models of RBSM simulation
Table 1 Input materials properties

Mortar Aggregate ITZ
Elastic Tensile Compressive Poisson’s Elastic Poisson’s Tensile
modulus strength ft strength fcm’ ratio vm modulus ratio va strength fi
Ec (GPa) (MPa) (MPa) Ea (GPa) (MPa)
29.29 2.48 35 0.18 50 0.25 1.63
The pre-damage simulation procedure followed the method used by Matsumoto

[6]. For ASR damage, the initial strain was introduced to the springs of ITZ to
achieve the target expansion, while the initial strain on the springs of mortar ele-
ments interface was used to simulate the damage induced by DEF. As shown in
Fig. 2(a), 75% randomly distributed reactive coarse aggregate was considered,
which are able to initiate the expansion. On the other hand, the intensive expansion
area of 50 50 50 mm was used to present the localized expansion by DEF (see
Fig. 2(b)). For the combined effects of ASR and DEF, both of the two types of
initial strain were used as the inputs at the same time. The simulated cases are
summarized in Table 2. The expansions of ASR, DEF in the same level were
studied. The combined ASR and DEF expansion damage was simulated based on
the initial strains corresponding to the same as ASR and DEF expansions, which is
supposed to be the sum of single ASR and DEF. After obtaining the target
expansion, uniaxial compressive loading was simulated. The concrete was fixed at
the top and bottom faces and the displacement of the top was increased by 0.02 mm
downward in the vertical direction at each step.
1906 Y. Wang et al.
3 Parametric Simulation of the Combined Effects
3.1 Expansion
The expansion induced by the combined effects was calculated based on method
shown in Fig. 2(c) and can be seen in Table 2. It seems the expansion was only
slightly larger than the case of single effect, instead of the sum of them. In par-
ticular, when the expansion is small, the expansion of specimen under the combined
effect has no much difference compared with the single effect. The discrepancy
increased with the expansion level, but the amount is still no large in the severe
expansion case.
3.2 Internal Stress and Cracking Pattern
After expansion simulation, the internal stress and cracking pattern were further
analyzed and presented in Fig. 3. All cases show map cracking phenomena on the
surface of concrete. In case of ASR (Fig. 3(a)), since the expansion can be initiated
around the reactive coarse aggregate, the cracks distribute evenly inside. However,
due to the intensive expansion, in case of DEF (Fig. 3(b)), the cracking occurred in
the outer part of concrete instead of inside and the corner. When the ASR and DEF
expansions occur simultaneously (Fig. 3(c)), the compressive stress is not only
appeared at the center, but also the corner. With the expansion increase, the cracks
develop gradually and the compressive stress was distributed. Due to the existence
of compressive stress, similar to the case of DEF, the cracks were not appeared at
the center part of specimen. However, both outer parts and the corner cracked
severely, which is obviously due to respective contribution of the two effects.
(a) ASR (b) DEF (c) Expansion

The distance change (d0) of two
elements aside the boundary in
Reactive aggregate
the middle section of the
Non-reactive aggregate concrete.
Strain Mortar elements

Intensified expansion area Selected Selected
element element
εmax
75% reactive aggregate 0 25 75 100 d0=100 mm
Fig. 2 Concept for a ASR and b DEF damage simulation c expansion calculation
Table 2 Summary ASR expansion

parameters of the Cases A0.2 A0.4 A0.6 A0.8 A1.0
simultaneous ASR and DEF ASR expansion 0.2% 0.4% 0.6% 0.8% 1.0%
DEF expansion
Cases D0.2 D0.4 D0.6 D0.8 D1.0
DEF expansion 0.2% 0.4% 0.6% 0.8% 1.0%
ASR and DEF expand simultaneously
Cases A0.2D0.2 A0.4D0.4 A0.6D0.6 A0.8D0.8 A1.0D1.0
Final expansion 0.21% 0.5% 0.76% 1% 1.25%
A0.2 A0.4 A0.6 A0.8 A1

(a) Single ASR damage
D0.2 D0.4 D0.6 D0.8 D1.0

(b) Single DEF damage
A0.2D0.2 A0.4D0.4 A0.6D0.6 A0.8D0.8 A1.0D1.0

(c) ASR and DEF damage occurs simultaneously
Fig. 3 Internal stress and surface cracking pattern of concrete damaged by a ASR b DEF c ASR
+DEF
1908 Y. Wang et al.
As shown in the Fig. 4, the three cases show similar cracks increase tendency,
despite some discrepancies can still be observed. The number of cracked faces
increased more slowly in case of combined effects with comparison to the others.
The total number of cracks mainly increased before the expansion increased to
0.4%. The value is the smallest in case of the combined effects. For cracked faces
over than 0.03 mm, ASR and DEF cases initiated at expansion around 0.4% and
0.2%, respectively, while the combined effect case initiated at expansion about
0.5%, which means that the strength degradation or large cracks development was
delayed due to the interaction effect. Because of the simultaneous expansions from
distributed ITZ and mortar elements at the center part, they can provide a con-
finement to each other for expansion or cracking development. As a result, com-
pared with their free expansions, the strength degradation could be impeded.
3.3 Degradation of Mechanical Properties
After the expansion simulation, the compressive loading was simulated. The typical
compressive stress-strain curves are shown in Fig. 5, as well as the internal stress
condition for typical load levels (0.2Pu, 0.5Pu and Pu). As shown in Fig. 6, to verify
the reliability of the proposed method, the published experimental results were
picked up to compare with our simulated results. As the expansion increases,
compressive strength decreases gradually in both cases of ASR and DEF. The rapid
decrease was mainly occurred in the initial 1% expansion and then the strength was
almost kept constant. A good agreement was obtained by comparing the experi-
mental and simulated results. Therefore, the method can be used to simulate the
ASR and DEF induced damage and its combined effects, providing some insights
about these durability problems.
The mechanical properties degradation due to the combined effect of ASR and
DEF can be seen in Fig. 7. As shown, there is a slight difference between single
ASR, single DEF and combined effects of ASR and DEF. All cases show consistent
decrease of compressive strength with the increase of expansion. The decrease rate
was largest in case of ASR and the combined effects of ASR and DEF is the least,
regardless of compressive strength and elastic modulus.
5 5
5x10 5x10 >0 mm >0.0005 mm >0.001 mm
>0 mm >0.0005 mm >0.001 mm
>0.002 mm >0.005 mm >0.01 mm ASR >0.002 mm >0.005 mm >0.01 mm DEF
>0.03 mm >0.1 mm >0.3 mm >0.03 mm >0.1 mm >0.3 mm
Number of cracked faces

5 5
4x10 4x10
5 5
3x10 3x10
5 5
2x10 2x10
5 5
1x10 1x10
0 0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2
(a) Expansion (%) (b) Expansion (%)

5
5x10 >0 mm >0.0005 mm >0.001 mm
>0.002 mm >0.005 mm >0.01 mm
>0.03 mm >0.1 mm >0.3 mm
5
4x10
ASR+DEF
5
3x10
5
2x10
5
1x10
0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2
(c) Expansion (%)
Fig. 4 Number of cracked faces increases with expansion a ASR b DEF c ASR+DEF
Fig. 5 Internal stress and cracking development of ASR, DEF, and ASR+DEF damaged concrete
(middle cross-section) under compressive loading (all cases expansion 1%)
1910 Y. Wang et al.
1.4 1.4
Normalized compressive strength

ASR Ahmed et al. (2003) DEF Al Shamaa et al. (2014)
Giannini (2012) 1.2 Bouzabata et al. (2012)
1.2 Brunetaud et al. (2008)
Sanchez et al. (2017)
Sanchez et al. (2018) Giannini (2012)
1.0 Simulated results 1.0 Sanchez et al. (2018)
Simulated results
0.8 0.8
0.6 0.6
0.4 0.4
0.2 0.2
0.0 0.0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
Fig. 6 Comparison between simulated compressive strength with existing test results a ASR
b DEF
1.0 1.0
ASR ASR
Nor malized elastic modulus
DEF DEF
0.9 0.8 ASR+DEF
ASR+DEF
0.8 0.6
0.7 0.4
0.6 0.2
0.5 0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4
Fig. 7 Comparison between mechanical properties loss of specimens damaged by ASR, DEF,
ASR+DEF a Normalized compressive strength b Normalized elastic modulus
The relationships between the number of cracked faces and the normalized
compressive strength, and the number of cracked faces and the normalized elastic
modulus change are shown in Figs. 8 and 9, respectively. For smaller faces (w > 0
and w > 0.0005 mm), the number of cracked face and compressive strength are in a
non-linear relationship for all cases. However, the linear relationship is very clear
for larger cracks (w > 0.01 mm and w > 0.03 mm). It means that the compressive
strength is highly dependent on the large cracks. On the other hand, for the case
with smaller cracks, the linear relationship was observed between the number of
5 5
5x10 5x10
w>0 mm w>0.0005 mm

5 5
4x10 4x10
5 5
3x10 3x10
5 5
2x10 2x10
5 ASR 5 ASR
1x10 1x10
DEF DEF
ASR+DEF ASR+DEF
0 0
1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6
(a) Normalized compressive strength (b) Normalized compressive strength
5 5
3.0x10 1.2x10
ASR ASR
2.5x10
5 DEF DEF

Number o f cracked faces
ASR+DEF 9.0x10
4 ASR+DEF
5
2.0x10 w>0.01 mm w>0.03 mm
5 4
1.5x10 6.0x10
5
1.0x10
4
3.0x10
4
5.0x10
0.0 0.0
1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6
(c) Normalized compressive strength (d) Normalized compressive strength
Fig. 8 Number of cracked faces changed with normalized compressive strength for ASR, DEF,
ASR+DEF damaged specimens a w > 0 mm b w > 0.0005 mm c w > 0.01 mm d w > 0.03 mm
cracked faces and normalized elastic modulus, while the relationship between the
number of cracked faces and the normalized compressive strength is rather
non-linear. The results imply that the stiffness is very related to the smaller cracks.
Interestingly, for the combined effects, the curve was in the middle of single ASR
and DEF curves with regard to compressive strength. However, the slop of the
ascending curve is the smallest among the three with regard to the elastic modulus.
It indicates that to decrease the same degree of elastic modulus, smaller amount of
cracked face is needed. More importantly, the mechanical properties degradation is
dominated by the cracking inside, instead of the surface cracking pattern or
expansion degree. The strength reduction trend is consistent for all cases as the
large cracks developing.
1912 Y. Wang et al.
5 5
5x10 5x10
w>0 mm w>0.0005 mm

5 5
4x10 4x10
5 5
3x10 3x10
5 5
2x10 2x10
1x10
5 ASR 1x10
5 ASR
DEF DEF
ASR+DEF ASR+DEF
0 0
1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0
(a) Normalized elastic modulus (b) Normalized elastic modulus

5 5
3.0x10 1.2x10
ASR ASR
2.5x10
5 DEF DEF
Number o f cracked faces

ASR+DEF 9.0x10
4 ASR+DEF
5
2.0x10 w>0.01 mm w>0.03 mm
5 4
1.5x10 6.0x10
5
1.0x10
4
3.0x10
4
5.0x10
0.0 0.0
1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0
(c) Normalized elastic modulus (d) Normalized elastic modulus
Fig. 9 Number of cracked faces changed with normalized elastic modulus for ASR, DEF, ASR
+DEF damaged specimens a w > 0 mm b w > 0.0005 mm c w > 0.01 mm d w > 0.03 mm
4 Conclusions
In this paper, the mechanical degradation of concrete damaged by the combined

effects of ASR and DEF were investigated using a discrete 3D RBSM simulation.
From the results and discussion, the following conclusions can be reached.
(1) The strength and stiffness degradation due to the combined ASR and DEF is
not as severe as the single ASR or DEF damage when the expansion is in the
same level. The cracks development could be impeded due to the existing
cracks and confinement from expansion in other direction. Although the
combined effect is the sum of two single cases, the actual expansion could be
less than either of them in some case. It means expansion or cracking can be
impeded due to another type of damage initiation.
(2) Although the three cases all show map cracking on the surface of concrete, the
internal stress condition is very different. Under the combined effects, both the
ITZ and mortar elements will expand. Due to interaction of the two effects, the
compressive stress was distributed at the centre part and the specimen corner
filled with reactive coarse aggregate. The cracking was severe only in the outer
part including the corner, there is no clear cracking can be observed in the
internal part.
(3) The mechanical properties change tendency is consistent with the cracks
development in all cases. While the compressive strength is dominated by the
larger cracks, the elastic modulus is largely affected by the smaller cracks. For
the compressive strength degradation, it seems the combined effects case is in
the middle of the single ones. Still, the combined effect case shows less increase
slop in elastic modulus loss and cracked face numbers relationship.
Acknowledgements The first author would like to express his sincere thanks to Japan Society for
the Promotion of Science (JSPS) for providing fellowship (P18348) to his postdoctoral study.
References
1. Thomas M, Folliard K, Drimalas T, Ramlochan T (2008) Diagnosing delayed ettringite

formation in concrete structures. Cem Concr Res 38(6):841–847
2. Sanchez LFM, Drimalas T, Fournier B, Mitchell D, Bastien J (2018) Comprehensive damage
assessment in concrete affected by different internal swelling reaction (ISR) mechanisms. Cem
Concr Res 107:284–303
3. Karthik MM, Mander JB, Hurlebaus S (2018) Experimental behavior of large reinforced
concrete specimen with heavy ASR and DEF deterioration. J Struct Eng 144(8),
04018110-1-10
4. Kawai T (1978) New discrete models and their application to seismic response analysis of
structure. Nucl Eng Des 48(1):207–229
5. Nagai K, Sato Y, Ueda T (2005) Mesoscopic simulation of failure of mortar and concrete by
3D RBSM. J Adv Concr Technol 3(3):385–402
6. Matsumoto K, Osakabe K, Niwa J (2015) Effect of shrinkage and strength development
histories on high strength concrete beams in shear. In: The 13th fib symposium proceedings,
pp 61–67
Evaluation of Waste Recycling
in Venous Industry Using
Environmental Indicator
Y. Shibazaki, Y. Ogawa, and K. Kawai
Abstract As an environmental indicator for showing the contribution of recycling

wastes and by-products to environmental impact reduction, a waste indicator using
recycling rate has been proposed and its validity was confirmed in cement industry.
To show the applicability of the proposed waste indicator to other venous industries
than cement industry, the waste indicator values for cement, steel and paper
industries were calculated and compared with the values obtained from the
life-cycle impact assessment method based on endpoint modeling (LIME2). In
addition, the effects of the differences in the definitions of the recycling rate, which
shows the difficulty of wastes recycling, on the waste indicator value were inves-
tigated. As a result, when the recycling rate was defined as a ratio of the recycling
amount to the sum of the recycling amount and final disposal amount, the waste
indicator value was consistent with the evaluation result by using LIME2. This
definition of the recycling rate was suggested to most appropriately show the dif-
ficulty of wastes recycling. Besides, the evaluation results indicated that the cement
industry contributes most to the wastes utilization.
Keywords Waste Indicator Environmental impact Recycling rate Venous

industry
Y. Shibazaki Y. Ogawa K. Kawai (&)

Graduate School of Engineering, Hiroshima University, Higashihiroshima, Japan
e-mail: kkawai@hiroshima-u.ac.jp
Y. Shibazaki
e-mail: m180994@hiroshima-u.ac.jp
Y. Ogawa
e-mail: ogaway@hiroshima-u.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_176
1916 Y. Shibazaki et al.
1 Introduction
Recently, global warming is widely taken up as a serious environmental problem,

and it is generally agreed that the reduction of CO2 which is one of the causes of
global warming is crucial. However, the production of traditional cement discharges
a large amount of CO2. In Japan, the amount of CO2 emitted from cement industry
is 3 to 4% of total domestic CO2 emissions. Therefore, the use of blended cement
has been expanded in order to reduce CO2 emissions.
On the other hand, the Japanese cement industry plays an important role in the
resource recycling by using a large amount of wastes and by-products from other
industries as raw materials and fuels for cement production, and it accounts for
approximately 10% of domestic recycling amount. In Japan where land and
resources are limited, various effects on environmental impact reduction can be
expected from the use of wastes and by-products such as the life extension of waste
disposal sites, CO2 reduction associated with landfill work and preservation of
natural resources. It is well known that the cement industry discharges a large
amount of CO2; however, the contribution of using wastes and by-products to
environmental impact reduction is not well understood.
An indicator for waste recycling in manufacture process, Iw4 was proposed in a
previous study as follows [1] in order to simply disseminate knowledge that this
resource recycling contributes to the reduction of environmental impact:
X X
Iw4 ¼ ðck wk Þ ðck ck Þ ð1Þ
where ck is equal to 1 Rk =100, Rk is recycling rate for a recyclable resource k

(%), wk is the usage of the recyclable resource k (kg/t), and ck is the amount of
waste generation (kg/t).
The higher Iw4 means the greater contribution to the reduction of the environ-
mental impact by using wastes. Some wastes and by-products are easy to use, while
the others are difficult to use. Therefore, the indicator considers the difficulty of the
waste utilization by using recycling rate, which indicates the difficulty of effective
utilization of wastes and by-products. That is, the recycling rate of resources which
are difficult to use is low. Thus, the more usage of the resources that are difficult to
use can be reflected in the higher Iw4 . It was reported that Portland cement (PC),
Portland blast-furnace slag cement type B (BB) and Portland fly-ash cement type B
(FB) were evaluated by using Iw4 , and the validity of the application of the Iw4 in
the cement industry was confirmed [1]. However, even if the validity of the Iw4 can
be confirmed for the cement industry, the versatility of the Iw4 cannot be assured in
other industries. Therefore, it is necessary to confirm the applicability in other
venous industries that contribute to the resource cycle society.
In addition, the Iw4 changes according to the definition of the recycling rate. The
Iw4 is calculated based on the assumption that the sum of the Rk and ck is 100%.
However, for resources that may be reduced in volume during the disposal process, the
sum does not reach 100%, which is not in accordance with the assumption. This relates
Evaluation of Waste Recycling in Venous Industry … 1917
to the validity of using the recycling rate as the difficulty of the use of recyclable
resources. The present study aims at evaluating Iw4 for cement, steel and paper
production, which are typical venous industries in Japan, by using some types of
recycling rates to investigate the applicability of Iw4 as an environmental indicator.
2 Evaluation Method
2.1 Evaluation Target
In the present study, the Iw4 for three industries including cement, steel and paper
industries was examined. These industries play a role in resource recycling, but
each industry has different scenarios in resource recycling as shown in Fig. 1.
Wastes and by-products used in the cement industry are discharged from other
industries. On the other hand, the steel and paper industries have characteristics of
the horizontal recycling that they collect and use their own by-products as recycling
resources. In addition, while the steel and paper industries discharge wastes in the
manufacturing process, the cement industry does not discharge wastes in the
manufacturing process in Japan.
2.2 Data of Usage and Generation of Recyclable Resources
The usage of the recyclable resources (wk ) of each industry is shown in Table 1.
The amount of waste generation (ck ) of each industry is shown in Table 2. The data
for cement industry were collected from the Cement Hand Book published by the
Japan Cement Association [6]. For the steel and paper industries, there is no lit-
erature that gathers data on the industries as a whole. For this reason, the data were
collected from several references [2–4].
Fig. 1 The resource recycling for each industry in Japan

2.3 Data on Recycling Rate of Recyclable Resources
The situation of discharge, treatment and disposal for wastes and by-products has
been investigated by various administrative agencies and industrial groups, but the
data of the recycling rate are different since the investigation methods are different.
In the present study, the data on recycling rate were mainly adopted from the report
of industrial waste discharge and treatment in 2011 published by the Ministry of
the Environment in Japan [2]. This report divides industrial waste generation into
three categories: recycling amount, reduction amount, final disposal amount. This
report also classifies industrial wastes into 19 types, but some of data for industrial
wastes used in this study are classified into more than 19 types. In this study, blast
furnace slag, fly ash, by-product gypsum and iron scrap are not included in the
above-mentioned reported data, so the recycling rates of those resources were
adopted from other references [4, 5]. In addition, since waste paper is included in
general wastes, data from the Ministry of the Environment cannot be used; there-
fore, the recycling rates of this resource was also adopted from other reference [3].
Table 1 The amount of recyclable resources used and each recycling rate
Kind The amount of recyclable Recycling rate (%)
resources used in each
industry (kg/t)
Cement Steel Paper Rk1 Rk2 Rk3
Blast furnace slag 140.7 0.0 0.0 100 100 100
Fly ash 3.5 0.0 0.0 100 100 100
Coal ash 113.2 0.0 0.0 98 98 98
Sewage sludge, Sludge 52.0 0.0 0.0 6 98 75
By-product gypsum 37.6 0.0 0.0 100 100 100
Waste soil from construction 33.9 0.0 0.0 88 88 88
Incineration ash, Soot 24.3 0.0 0.0 67 74 71
Non-ferrous slag 11.8 0.0 0.0 92 93 92
Wood chips 10.2 0.0 0.0 79 96 94
Foundry sand 9.2 0.0 0.0 92 93 92
Waste plastics 8.2 3.8 0.0 54 81 73
Steel slag 7.8 0.0 0.0 92 93 92
Waste oil 4.6 0.0 0.0 39 96 91
Waste white clay 4.3 0.0 0.0 39 96 91
Recycled oil 3.3 0.0 0.0 92 93 92
Waste tire 1.3 0.0 0.0 54 81 73
Meat and bone meal 1.1 0.0 0.0 66 98 97
Iron scrap 0.0 283.0 0.0 99 98 99
Waste paper 0.0 0.0 809.9 72 78 81
Others 10.0 0.0 0.0 52 96 95
Table 2 The amount of Kind The amount of waste Recycling rate

waste generation and each generation in each (%)
recycling rate industry (kg/t)
Cement Steel Paper Rk1 Rk2 Rk3
Incineration 0.0 1.0 9.7 67 74 71
ash
Sludge 0.0 23.8 1048.9 6 98 75
Waste oil 0.0 2.2 0.6 39 96 91
Waste acid 0.0 3.0 0.1 32 97 91
Waste alkali 0.0 1.3 0.5 22 98 92
Waste plastics 0.0 0.8 15.0 54 81 73
Waste paper 0.0 0.0 21.1 72 78 81
Wood chips 0.0 0.6 5.6 79 96 94
Waste metal 0.0 32.5 1.4 96 98 98
Waste glass 0.0 4.3 0.3 93 96 94
Blast furnace 0.0 233.0 0.0 100 100 100
slag
Steel slag 0.0 127.4 0.0 92 93 92
Rubble 0.0 5.1 0.1 96 97 97
Soot 0.0 63.4 20.3 74 87 85
In the present study, the recycling rates according to the three definitions were
proposed as follows:
Recycling amount
Rk1 ¼ ð2Þ
Recycling amount þ Reduction amount þ Final disposal amount
Recycling amount þ Reduction amount

Rk2 ¼ ð3Þ
Recycling amount þ Reduction amount þ Final disposal amount
Recycling amount
Rk3 ¼ ð4Þ
Recycling amount þ Final disposal amount
Based on this definition, the recycling rates of the recycled resources are shown
in Table 1, and the recycling rates of waste generation are shown in Table 2. When
the recycling rate is defined as Rk1 , the wastes reduction leads to the environment
impact, and the recycling rate shows a low value for all resources. When the
recycling rate is defined as Rk2 , the wastes reduction leads to the reduction of
environmental impact, and the recycling rate shows a high value for all resources.
In addition, ck represents the final disposal rate. When the recycling rate is defined
as Rk3 , the wastes reduction does not lead to either the environmental impact or the
reduction of environmental impact. Although Rk3 shows the ratio of the amount of
recycling as Rk1 , the reduction amount is not included in the denominator, so Rk3 is
higher than Rk1 . For industrial wastes with a low percentage of reduction such as
steel slag and waste metal, the difference in the value of recycling rate by definition
is small, whereas for industrial wastes with a high percentage of reduction such as
sludge and waste oil, the difference in the value of recycling rate by definition is
large. The Iw4 of each industry was calculated using these three recycling rates.
3.1 Evaluation Results of Waste Indicator
The evaluated Iw4 by using Rk1 , Rk2 and Rk3 is shown in Figs. 2, 3 and 4,
respectively. When the recycling rate is defined as Rk1 and Rk3 , the Iw4 for the
cement industry is the highest, followed by the steel industry and the paper
industry. When the recycling rate is defined as Rk2 , the Iw4 for the paper industry is
the highest, followed by the cement industry and the steel industry. Thus, it can be
said that Iw4 changes according to the definition of the recycling rate. In the paper
industry, there are significant changes in Iw4 as positive and negative values. This is
attributed to the large amount of sludge generated from paper industry with a large
amount of reduction. That is, Iw4 was significantly changed by whether the
reduction is included in the recycling rate or not. In addition, the cement industry
shows a positive value for any indicator value using any recycling rate, and it is
considered that cement industry contributes to the reduction of environmental
impact by performing resource recycling.
Fig. 2 Evaluation results of 200

waste indicator of each
0
industry using Rk1
Iw4 (kg/t)
-200
-400
-600
-800
-1000
Cement Steel Paper

waste indicator of each 140
industry using Rk2 120
100
Iw4 (kg/t)
80
60
40
20
0
-20
-40
Cement Steel Paper

waste indicator of each 20
industry using Rk3 0
Iw4 (kg/t) -20

-40
-60
-80
-100
-120
Cement Steel Paper
Fig. 5 Waste evaluation -10000

results by LIME2
-5000
0
LIME2 (yen/t)
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
Cement Steel Paper
3.2 Comparison with Waste Evaluation Results by LIME2
The evaluation results of the indicator for recyclable resources were compared with
the results of LIME2 (Life-cycle impact assessment method based on endpoint
modeling) which is typical LCA method in Japan [7]. The waste evaluation results
by LIME2 are shown in Fig. 5. The relationship between waste evaluation results
by LIME2 and waste indicator values of each industry using Rk1 , Rk2 and Rk3 is
shown in Figs. 6, 7 and 8, respectively. The lower evaluation value for waste by
LIME2 indicates the greater contribution to the reduction of the environmental load.
The value estimated by LIME2 for the cement industry is the lowest, followed by
the steel industry and the paper industry. This result shows similar trend as the waste
Fig. 6 Relationship between 400
Waste indicator value [Iw4] (kg/t)

waste evaluation results by Cement
200
LIME2 and waste indicator
0 Steel
values of each industry using
Rk1 -200
-400
-600
Paper
-800
-1000
30000 20000 10000 0 -10000
Integrated assessment results of environmental
impact of wastes by LIME2 (yen/t)
Waste indicator value [Iw4] (kg/t)

waste evaluation results by 140
LIME2 and waste indicator 120 Paper
values of each industry using 100
Rk2 80
60
40 Cement
20
0
Steel
-20
-40
30000 20000 10000 0 -10000

Waste indicator value [Iw4 ] (kg/t)
waste evaluation results by 20 Cement

LIME2 and waste indicator 0
values of each industry using
-20
Rk3
-40 Steel
-60
-80
-100 Paper
-120
30000 20000 10000 0 -10000
indicator using Rk1 and Rk3 . When the recycling rate of Iw4 is defined as Rk1 and Rk3 ,
the correlation with evaluation result of LIME2 was confirmed. Therefore, it can be
said that Iw4 can be applied to venous industries other than cement industry.
Furthermore, in order to conduct a unified evaluation in research on this indicator,
the optimal recycling rate was selected. From the role as an indicator value used for
comparative evaluation, it is considered preferably that the value of indicator becomes
larger as in the case of using Rk1 . However, according to the definition of Rk1 , both the
recycling amount and final disposal amount show small values when the reduction
amount is extremely large. This cannot reflect the original intention of this indicator.
On the other hand, Rk3 fully reflects the original intention of using recycling rates as
reflecting the difficulty of effective use of recycled resources.
Consequently, the waste indicator using Rk3 as the recycling rate in this study is
considered to have the highest validity.
4 Conclusions
In the present study, Iw4 in the cement, steel and paper industries were evaluated
and compared with waste evaluation results by LIME2 to show the validity of the
application of the waste indicator in the venous industries. In addition, the effects of
the differences in the definitions of the recycling rate, which shows the difficulty of
wastes recycling, on the waste indicator value were investigated. Based on the
results, the following conclusions can be drawn:
(1) As a result of applying the waste indicator to the cement, steel and paper
industries, the Iw4 changed significantly according to the definition of the
recycling rate.
(2) When the recycling rate of Iw4 is defined as Rk1 and Rk3 , the correlation with
evaluation result of LIME2 was confirmed, and it can be said that Iw4 can be
applied to venous industries other than cement industry.
(3) The Rk3 , which was defined as a ratio of the recycling amount to the sum of
recycling amount and final disposal amount, fully reflects the original intention
of using recycling rates as reflecting the difficulty of effective use of recycled
resources. Based on this, the waste indicator using Rk3 as the recycling rate in
this study is considered to have the highest validity.
References
1. Kirino Y, Shinmi T, Hoshino S, Kawai K (2019) Evaluation of bridge by environmental

indicator considering resource recycling and CO2 emission. Cem Sci Concr Technol 72:352–
358
2. Ministry of the Environment (2015) The report of industrial waste discharge and treatment in
2011. 2houkoku_h21.pdf
3. Paper Recycling Promotion Center (2018), Transition of waste paper recovery rate. http://
www.prpc.or.jp/wp-content/uploads/kaisyuritu.pdf
4. The Japan Ferrous Raw Materials Association (2019) Iron and steel scrap supply and demand.
http://www.tetsugen.or.jp/kiso/3jyukyu1nendo.htm
5. Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry (2015) Recycle Data Book 2015
6. Japan Cement Association (2017) Cement Hand Book 2017
7. Itsubo N, Inaba A (2010) Life-cycle assessment method based on endpoint modeling. Japan
Environmental Management Association for Industry
Recycled Waste Glass Powder as Binder
for Sustainable Concrete
Z. Kalakada and J. H. Doh
Abstract The main focus of this study is to investigate the pozzolanic attribute of
the recycled waste glass powder used as cement replacement. A coarser glass
powder (<150 µm) was used and the substitution levels employed were 0, 15 and
30% by weight of cement. A mix design similar to that of fly ash was used in the
current experimental program in order to enhance the performance of the glass
powder (GP) under investigation. In addition to principal tests like workability,
density and compressive strength durability tests like drying shrinkage and resis-
tance to chloride ion penetration were performed. Temperature of the mixes was
also evaluated to ascertain the effect of GP on heat of hydration. Test results show
that 30% is the ideal replacement level which lead to higher strength reporting a
strength activity index (SAI) of over 100%, improved resistance to chloride per-
meability and lower density, drying shrinkage and temperature.
Keywords Waste glass Cement replacement Pozzolan Strength activity

index Sustainability
1 Introduction
Waste Glass disposal is fast becoming an upheaval task globally, owing to low
recycling rate, limited storage spaces and shortage in new spaces for landfills [2, 16].
Since glass is non-biodegradable, disposing it in the landfill is environmentally
unsustainable. On the other hand, cement production is one of the main reasons for the
global warming since leading to discharge of almost similar amount of carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere. There has been numerous studies, reported in the literature which
Z. Kalakada J. H. Doh (&)

School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD 4222,
Australia
e-mail: j.doh@griffith.edu.au
Z. Kalakada
e-mail: zameer.kalakada@griffithuni.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_177
1926 Z. Kalakada and J. H. Doh
successfully employed pozzolanic materials like fly ash; blast furnace slag and silica
fume as partial replacement of cement but as the methodology is value-added it is
imperative to look out for other readily available waste materials which can exhibit
cementitious properties [1, 11–13, 19, 23]. Recently it’s revealed that glass when
grinded to a particular fineness exhibits pozzolanic characteristics.
In the early days, waste glass was used in concrete as an aggregate replacement
and it was observed that the mechanical and durability properties of the modified
concrete were degraded due to the increased potential of Alkali-Silica Reaction
(ASR) (Etris et al. 1974), [18, 25]. The main reason for this deterioration was due to
high percentage of silica in glass cullets which increased the chances of ASR in the
concrete. Taha and Nounu [24] explained that ASR is a deleterious expansion
occurring in concrete due to the reaction between siliceous minerals present in
aggregate and the alkaline pore solution in concrete. Later, Investigations have
shown that ASR occurrence in concrete is dependent on the particle size distri-
bution of glass used, as the particle size decreases the ASR probability reduces [20,
21]. The suppressive effect of glass powders on the ASR expansion in concrete was
due to the pozzolanic characteristic of glass powder, similar to other pozzolanic
materials such as fly ash, silica fume and metakaolin [7, 17]. These results moti-
vated the application of recycled waste glass powder with microscopic particle size
distribution as cement replacement in concrete.
Experimental investigations have reported that glass when grinded to about
300 µm showed negligible ASR but beyond 300 µm, silica in glass tend to react with
the alkalis and would lead to cracks owing to ASR (Farshad et al. 2010), [3, 4, 21].
Mehta [14] stated that the pozzolanic reaction in glass particle initiates at approxi-
mately below 300 µm and when the fineness is reduced to about 100 µm the poz-
zolanicity of the glass exceeds that of fly ash at low cement replacement levels and
after curing of 90 days. Shao et al. [20] is foremost in the research pertaining to GP as
cement replacement and the size of the glass particle ranged from 38–150 µm. Of late,
the researchers concentrated on finer glass particle size ranging from 0–100 µm and
the maximum percentage of cement replacement is 60% [5, 6, 10, 15]. There is no
agreement on the ideal replacement level of GP reported in the numerous studies done
so far as the performance of GP is dependent on several factors including: particle size;
chemical composition; and experimental parameters.
Most of the research done in the past relating to GP as binder replacement
employed a finer GP (<100 µm), this is one of the few studies in which a coarser
GP is employed and the pozzolanic performance of the GP is improved by modi-
fying the mix design.
Recycled Waste Glass Powder as Binder … 1927
The cement used in this project was general purpose cement which complies with
all the regulations and requirements highlighted in AS 3972 for general purpose and
blended cement. GP (95% < 150 µm) used in the current study was obtained from
a recycling centre based in Brisbane (Envirosand). Fine aggregate passing 4.75 mm
sieve was used in the preparation of the mixtures having a specific gravity of 2.48,
water absorption of 1.5% and fineness modulus of 2.5. A weight based mix design
was used to design a control target strength of 32 MPa and details of which are
shown in Table 1. GP tends to increase the workability due to its water reducing
ability, additionally the specific gravity of GP (2.46) is similar to that of fly ash (2.5)
hence applied an efficiency factor (k = 0.3) akin to that of fly ash mix design [9].
Super plasticizer (SP) content was slightly reduced in GP mixes in order to maintain
similar slump with the control mix as seen in Table 1. Concrete cylinders of
dimension 100 mm (diameter) and 200 mm (height) were prepared in accordance
with AS 1012.8.1, each mix had 15 cylinders for density, strength and chloride
resistance measurements, additionally 3 prisms of 75 75 275 mm were cast
for measuring the drying shrinkage as per AS 1012.13. Drying shrinkage testing
was done for a period of 56 days and heat of hydration of the mixes was evaluated
using an EL-USB-TC-LCD thermocouple data logger for a period of seven days.
Fresh concrete was poured in a vacuum flask, the lid of the flask was drilled to
enable one end of the K-type temperature probe in the mortar while the other end is
connected to the thermocouple data logger to monitor the temperature of the mix
every 5 min.
The workability of the fresh concrete is determined by slump cone test in
accordance with the standard AS 1012.3.1. AS 1012.12 was used to measure the
hardened density of cylindrical samples at 7, 28 and 91 days of curing. The
compressive strength test of all the concrete cylinders was performed at 7, 28 and
91 days of curing in accordance with AS 1012.9. An average of five cylinders was
taken for each testing age in order to keep the standard deviation to a bare mini-
mum. Resistance to chloride ion penetration was evaluated by using Resipod which
complies with the standard AASHTO TP 95. Resipod is a fully integrated 4-point
Wenner probe used to measure the electrical resistivity of concrete cylinders
non-destructively. Current is applied at the two outer probes and the resulting
potential difference between the two inner probes is reported as the resistivity of the
Table 1 Mix design (corresponding to a volume of 0.03 m3)

Mix id GP Cement GP Sand Water W/ SP Slump
(%) (kg) (kg) (kg) (kg) (C + 0.3GP) (kg) (mm)
M1-0% 0 17.9 0 42.1 7.5 0.42 0.27 250
M2-15% 15 16.1 2.8 41.4 7.1 0.42 0.24 245
M3-30% 30 14.5 6.2 39.9 6.9 0.42 0.22 240
specimen, the applied current is passed by the ions in the pore liquid. For each
cylinder, an average of eight readings is taken as the final resistivity value which is
expressed in kXcm. In majority of the cases, the resistivity results from the Resipod
have shown a good correlation with chloride exposure tests, like ASTM C-1556, on
cylinders cast from the same concrete mix [8].
3 Results
3.1 Hardened Density
Density of all the mixes increases linearly with an increase in curing age as seen in
Fig. 1. There is a minor reduction in the densities with the increasing GP content,
mix with 30% GP recorded the least densities at all curing ages. The possible reason
may be due to the fact that the specific gravity of GP used is 2.45 compared to the
cement which has a specific gravity of 3.15.
3.2 Compressive Strength and Strength Activity Index
Compressive strength results are illustrated in Fig. 2, control mix with 0% GP

showed highest strength values compared to GP mixes at 7 and 28 days of curing.
However, at prolonged curing of 91 days, mix with 30% GP showed higher
strength values compared to the control mix. From 28 to 91 days, GP mixes with 15
and 30% reported a rise in strength by 18 and 10% respectively while the control
mix had an increment of only 3% illustrating the notable effect of GP. This
2200
2190
Hardened Density (kg/m3)
2180
2170
2160
2150
2140
2130
2120
M1-0% M2-15% M3-30%
Mix Id
7-Day 28-Day 91-Day
Fig. 1 Hardened density of the mixes

40
Compressive Strength (MPa)

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
7-d 28-d 91-d
Curing Period (days)
M1-0% M2-15% M3-30%
Fig. 2 Compressive strength of mixes
105
Strength Acitivty Index (%)
90
75
60
45
30
15
0
7-d 28-d 91-d
Time (days)
M2-15% M3-30%
Fig. 3 Strength activity index of the mixes
improved performance, particularly at later stage is due to the secondary hydration

brought about by the pozzolanic reaction in GP mixes.
The pozzolanic performance of GP may be estimated with the Strength Activity
Index (SAI), which is the ratio between strength of mortar containing GP and
strength of equivalent reference mortar at the same age. As seen in Fig. 3, mix with
30% GP showed the highest SAI at all testing age reporting SAI values of 80, 93
and 101% at 7, 28 and 91 days of curing period respectively.
3.3 Resistance to Chloride Ion Penetration
Chloride resistance of the mixes measured using Resipod are depicted in Fig. 4. As
can be seen, higher the GP content, more would be the resistance value. Both 15
and 30% GP mixes showed a higher resistance to chloride ion penetration compared
to the control mix at all testing ages. The resistance value increased with the curing
age in all mixes, mix with 0, 15 and 30% GP showed a resistivity of 19, 23 and
25 kXcm respectively at 91 days of curing. GP illustrated a much improved
resistance compared to the control mix especially at 91-days of curing and hence
fell in the category of low risk of chloride permeability.
3.4 Drying Shrinkage
Results of drying shrinkage of the mixes can be seen in Fig. 5. Both the GP mixes
showed a slightly higher shrinkage value compared to the control mix until 28 days
but subsequently ended up a bit on the lower side with respect to the control mix at
final drying age of 56 days.
At 56 days, the lowest shrinkage of 690 microstrain was recorded by the mix
with 30% GP, while the control and 15% GP reported 730 and 710 microstrain
respectively. The slight improvement in the shrinkage of GP mixes compared to the
plain mix is due to the lower water content owing to water reductions of 12.5 and
20 kg/m3 applied to mixes with 15 and 30% GP respectively in accordance with fly
ash mix design [9]. Another study reported similar shrinkage results with a higher
30
25 Low
Resistivity (kΩcm)
20
Moderate
15
10
High
5
0
M1-0% M2-15% M3-30%
Mix Id
28-d Cl Res 91-d Cl Res
Fig. 4 Chloride resistance of the mixes

0
-100
Shrinkage (microstrain)
-200
-300
-400
-500
-600
-700
-800
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56
Drying period (days)
M1-0% M2-15% M3-30%
Fig. 5 Drying shrinkage of the mixes
water to cementitious material ratio of 0.49, however, GP mixes showed higher

shrinkage values compared to the control mix this may be due to absence of water
reductions in the mix design [22].
3.5 Heat of Hydration
The heat of hydration of the mixes was evaluated using EL-USB thermocouple data
logger, the results of which are shown in Fig. 6. It can be seen that as the GP
content increases the temperature reduces, mix with 30% GP recorded the lowest
temperature of 41.5 °C, while 15% GP resulted in 49 °C, the highest temperature of
52 °C was reported by the control mix with 0% GP. The lower heat of hydration in
53
48
Temperature (°C)
43
38
33
28
23
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
Time (Minutes)
M1-0% M2-15% M3-30%
Fig. 6 Heat of hydration of the mixes

GP mixes is most likely due to the combined effect of decrease in cement content
and increased secondary hydration owing to pozzolanic characteristic of GP.
4 Conclusions
This study presents experimental results on the use of coarser GP as binder in

concrete. Unlike previous work, this study altered the mix design in order to
maximize the pozzolanic attribute of GP. Based on the newly obtained results,
following conclusions can be drawn:
• Hardened density results indicate that GP replacement would lead to lighter
concrete;
• For a control mix with 32 MPa design strength, GP mixes with 15 and 30%
replacement resulted in compressive strengths of 33 and 34 MPa respectively at
curing age of 91 days;
• Mix with 30% GP showed SAI values of greater than 75% at all curing ages and
hence the GP under examination can be used as a pozzolanic material in
concrete;
• Resistance to chloride ion penetration increased with the GP substitution, with
respect to the control mix, the increment in resistance is about 23 and 33% with
15 and 30% replacement respectively;
• GP mixes resulted in slightly lesser shrinkage resulting in reducing the drying
shrinkage by 3 and 6% in comparison to control mix at 15 and 30% substitution
respectively;
• There is a significant depletion in the heat of hydration due to GP replacement,
30% GP resulted in 20% reduction;
As part of current experiment tests, 30% of GP replacement of concrete is the
ideal replacement level which showed better strength, higher resistance to chloride
ion penetration and lower density, shrinkage and temperature.
Acknowledgements Special thanks to Mr. Paul Howard and Mr. Des Chalmers (Envirosand,
Brisbane), for providing the GP for the research project at their own expense.
References
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Engineering Properties of Cement Paste
with Fly Ash Substitution and Addition
of Alkaline Activator
A. Thymotie, V. Setiawan, H.-A. Nguyen, and T.-P. Chang
Abstract This study investigated engineering properties of blended paste using

class F fly ash as partial replacement of cement with addition of sodium silicate as
partial replacement of mixing water. Experimental variables water-binder ratio of
0.3, four different fly ash substitutions (0, 10, 30, and 50%), and three different
amount of sodium silicate (0, 5, and 10%) were observed. Fresh properties
including workability and setting time, and hardened properties including com-
pressive strength and drying shrinkage were examined through this study. From the
experimental results, fly ash improved the engineering properties of paste with fly
ash substitution up to 30%. At early age, the strength decreased with the increase of
fly ash substitutions due to the low hydration rate from the fly ash. With the increase
of age, the strength paste specimens increased about 20% with the fly ash
replacement up to 30% compared with those of the control specimen at the age of
56 days. However, the application of sodium silicate reduced the engineering
properties. It can be concluded that the presence of sodium silicate did not activate
the pozzolanic reaction of fly ash as expected.
Keywords Class F fly ash Sodium silicate Engineering properties Cement

paste
A. Thymotie V. Setiawan T.-P. Chang (&)

Department of Civil and Construction Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science
and Technology, Taipei 116, Taiwan
e-mail: tpchang@mail.ntust.edu.tw
A. Thymotie
e-mail: annethymotie@gmail.com
V. Setiawan
e-mail: lanhuifei@gmail.com
H.-A. Nguyen
Department of Rural Technology, College of Rural Development,
Can Tho University, Can Tho 90000, Vietnam
e-mail: hoanganh@ctu.edu.vn

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_178
1936 A. Thymotie et al.
1 Introduction
Portland cement is of the main cementitious ingredient used in concrete production.

The production of Portland cement (PC) generates carbon dioxide (CO2) that
contributes to 10% of man-made global warming [3]. Some ways to reduce the
amount of CO2 emissions from PC production are by partially replacing PC with
supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) from industrial waste such as fly ash
(FA), by fully replacing PC with one or more SCMs with the addition of alkali
activator, and by partially replacing PC with SCMs with the addition of alkali
activator [1].
This research studied the utilization class F fly ash as partial replacement of
cement and the effect of different amount of fly ash on fresh and hardened properties
of paste specimens. However, FA possesses a lower reactivity than that of PC,
making that the application of FA as partial PC replacement could lead to a lower
early strength [5, 8]. Therefore, this research also investigated the application of
sodium silicate (SS) as alkaline activator with consideration to activate FA in
blended mixture and increase the early age strength.
2.1 Materials and Mixture Proportions
Type I Portland cement in accordance to ASTM C150 was used for control spec-
imens. Low calcium FA (class F FA) produced by Ya Tung Ready Mixed Concrete,
Co. Ltd in accordance to ASTM C618 was used as partial replacement of cement
with ratios of 0, 10, 30, and 50 wt% of cement. Physical and chemical properties of
PC and FA are shown in Table 1. Sodium silicate (SS) solution type 3 from Rong
Xiang Industrial, Co. Ltd was used as alkaline activator. SS was used to partially
replace the mixing water with ratios of 5 and 10 wt% of water. The properties of SS
are shown in Table 2. Blended paste specimens were cast at a fixed water-to-binder
(w/b) ratio of 0.3. Mixture proportions of blended paste specimens and activated
paste specimens are shown in Tables 3 and 4, respectively.
2.2 Testing Methods
Workability and setting time tests were carried out to understand the fresh prop-
erties of blended paste. Workability test was conducted using flow table test in
accordance to ASTM C230. Vicat needle method in accordance to ASTM C191
was used to determine the setting time of blended paste. Fresh paste specimens for
Engineering Properties of Cement Paste … 1937
Table 1 Physical and Portland cement Class F fly ash

chemical properties of PC (PC) (FA)
and FA
SiO2, wt% 20.87 59.98
Al2O3, wt% 5.06 25.38
Fe2O3, wt% 3.16 3.65
CaO, wt% 63.31 3.37
MgO, wt% 3.36 –
SO3, wt% 2.45 0.26
L.O.I, wt% 1.79 3.00
Specific 3.15 2.14
gravity
Table 2 Properties of SS Sodium silicate (SS)

SiO2, % 25.72%
Na2O, % 8.63%
Fe, % <0.02%
°Be 37.50
Specific gravity 1.38
pH value 11.66
Table 3 Mixture proportions of PC-FA blended paste

Mix ID w/b FA (%) FA (kg/m3) PC (kg/m3) Water (kg/m3)
0.3 PC 0.3 0 0 1620 486
0.3 F10 0.3 10 158 1423 474
0.3 F30 0.3 30 453 1056 453
0.3 F50 0.3 50 722 722 433
setting time test were placed in a curing chamber with controlled temperature at
23 °C with relative humidity of 65%.
Hardened properties of blended paste including compressive strength and drying
shrinkage were examined. 50 50 50 mm cubes were casted for compressive
strength test in accordance to ASTM C109. The compressive strength was tested at
the age of 3, 7, 14, 28, and 56 days. Drying shrinkage test specimens were casted in
size of 25 25 295 mm in accordance to ASTM C157 and were tested at the
age of 1, 3, 5, 7, 14, 28, and 56 days.
Table 4 Mixture proportions of activated blended paste with sodium silicate

Mix ID w/b FA (%) SS (%) FA PC SS Water
(kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3)
0.3 PC 0.3 0 0 0 1620 0 486
0.3 PC-5 0.3 0 5 0 1620 24 462
0.3 PC-10 0.3 0 10 0 1620 49 437
0.3 F50 0.3 50 0 722 722 0 433
0.3 F50-5 0.3 50 5 722 722 22 411
0.3 F50-10 0.3 50 10 722 722 43 390
3.1 Fresh Properties
3.1.1 Workability
As presented in Table 5, the workability of blended pastes indicated by slump flow

was slightly decreased with the increase of FA amount. The insignificant reduction
of slump flow (around 1–10%) might be due to the fine particle of FA that absorbed
more water compared to that of PC. For activated paste, the addition of 5% SS
slightly increased the flow for 1–14% as shown in Table 6. However, increasing the
SS amount up to 10% tended to slightly decrease the slump flow for 1–10%. High
viscosity of SS solution might have role in reducing the flow when it were used in
higher amount.
3.1.2 Setting Time
The utilization of FA led to the retardation of both initial and final setting time. As
shown in Table 5, the retardations of initial setting time were approximately 20, 60,
and 120 min for 10, 30, and 50% FA substitution, respectively. FA exhibits a lower
Table 5 Fresh properties of blended paste

Mix ID Slump flow (mm) Initial setting (min) Final setting (min)
0.3 PC 214 249 323
0.3 F10 204 269 346
0.3 F30 203 316 363
0.3 F50 193 364 422
Table 6 Fresh properties of activated blended paste

Mix ID Slump flow (mm) Initial setting (min) Final setting (min)
0.3 PC 214 249 323
0.3 PC-5 242 240 290
0.3 PC-10 218 201 265
0.3 F50 193 364 422
0.3 F50-5 210 300 400
0.3 F50-10 173 283 357
hydration rate compared to that of PC. Therefore, increasing the amount of FA led
to the decrease of hydration products formed by PC [11]. The incorporation of SS
accelerated the setting time of specimens, indicating that the addition of SS might
contribute to the acceleration of hydration reaction of fresh pastes.
3.2 Hardened Properties
3.2.1 Compressive Strength
As shown in Figs. 1a and b, the early age compressive strength was decreased as
the amount of FA increased due to its lower pozzolanic reaction activity [11]. With
the increase of curing time, the strength of FA blended pastes began to increase.
The early compressive strengths of 10% FA and 30% FA paste increased for 22%
and 17% at 56 days, respectively, compared to that of PC specimen. At later curing
period, the calcium hydroxide (CH) from PC hydration began to react with FA to
produce a secondary hydration that resulted in strength increase of FA blended
pastes [7, 9, 10, 11].
Proper incorporation of SS on blended paste did generate a good result for
compressive strength. As presented in Fig. 1b, both of the additions of 5% SS for
PC paste and 10% of SS for FA blended paste somehow led to slight increase of
respective compressive strength, but, in contrast, the other two additions resulted in
the strength reduction. The reason for strength decrease by the addition of SS was
suggested due to the ratio of SiO2/Na2O of 2.98 was too high, thus lowered the
alkalinity of paste and decreased the strength.
3.2.2 Drying Shrinkage
On Fig. 2a, the addition of FA on w/b of 0.3 specimens increased the drying
shrinkage. This result is contrary with some literature review that mentioned that
the addition of FA could reduce the drying shrinkage [4, 6]. Therefore, it is sug-
gested that the increase of shrinkage in this research might have been caused by the
100 100
a) w/b = 0.3 b) w/b = 0.3 - SS specimens

80 80
60 60
40 40
20 20 0.3 PC 0.3 F50

0.3 PC 0.3 F30 0.3 PC-5 0.3 F50-5
0.3 F10 0.3 F50 0.3 PC-10 0.3 F50-10
0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Fig. 1 Compressive strength of hardened pastes: a w/b = 0.3; b w/b = 0.3—SS specimens
200 400
a) w/b = 0.3 b) w/b = 0.3 - SS specimens
Drying Shrinkage × 10-6 (mm/mm)
Drying Shrinkage × 10-6 (mm/mm)
100 200 0.3 PC 0.3 F50

0.3 PC 0.3 F30 0.3 PC-5 0.3 F50-5
0.3 F10 0.3 F50 0 0.3 PC-10 0.3 F50-10
0
-100 -200
-200 -400
-300 -600
-400 -800
-500 -1000
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Fig. 2 Drying shrinkage of hardened pastes: a w/b = 0.3; b w/b = 0.3—SS specimens
porous surface of the specimen due to the inhomogeneous compacting during

casting the specimens. High degree of restraint that was possessed by fly ash
generated higher shrinkage resistance causing reduction in drying shrinkage [2].
For alkali-activated paste, the utilization of SS on PC paste increased the
shrinkage. For FA blended paste, the addition of 5% tended to decrease the drying
shrinkage.
4 Conclusions
From the experimental results, the following conclusions can be drawn:

1. The application of FA up to 50 wt% in blended paste did not significantly
change the workability of paste. The incorporation of 5% SS slightly increased
the workability for 1–14%, while increasing the amount of SS up to 10%
slightly decreased the workability for 1–10%.
2. The retardation of setting time was increased with the increase of FA amount
due to the lower hydration rate of FA compared to that of PC. With the addition
of SS, the setting time of specimens with w/b of 0.3 had been accelerated.
3. The compressive strength of FA blended paste was lower at early age due to its
lower pozzolanic reaction. However, at 56 days, the compressive strength of
30% FA blended paste was higher than the control in the rage of 9–18% due to
secondary hydration of FA. The incorporation of 5% SS slightly increased the
compressive strength of w/b of 0.3 specimens.
4. The drying shrinkage was decreased with the increment of FA substitution from
30 to 50%. The application of 5% SS tended to slightly improve the drying
shrinkage of FA blended paste.
References
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and experimental study on hybrid binders containing date palm ash, fly ash. OPC Activ
Compos Constr Build Mat 159:567–577
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and slag on the compressive strength of self-consolidating concrete. Constr Build Mater
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high-volume fly ash grouts. Constr Build Mater 16(6):353–363
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volumes of low calcium fly ash. Cem Concr Res 30(3):447–455
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ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag mineral admixtures. J Clean Prod 95:66–74
Carbonation Progress Mechanism
of Cement Containing Different
Amounts of Powder Admixtures
Takeshi Iyoda
Abstract The cement industry is also reducing carbon dioxide emissions to pre-
vent the global warming. As one of the methods, the use of many powder
admixtures are considered. While the use of admixtures is highly advantageous in
various terms of durability, it is known that carbonation resistance is inferior when
compared to ordinary Portland cement. In this study, we investigated the progress
mechanism of carbonation using cement with high content of powder admixtures.
First, we compared the progress of carbonation in the real environment and
accelerated environment. As a result, it was confirmed that, although carbonation is
delayed in a real environment, the progress of carbonation is quicker than when not
using large amount of admixtures. The effect is more remarkable as the curing
period decrease, and it is found that it has correlation with the compressive strength.
Next, the progress of carbonation was considered to be influenced by the pH and
the hydrate products of the sample. The pH and hydrate and carbonate products
were evaluated quantitatively at depth positions from the surface before and after
carbonation. As a result, it was confirmed that the carbonation depth increased as
the pH was lowered by the high content of the admixture, and the calcium
hydroxide is converted to calcium carbonate. It was also confirmed that the type of
calcium carbonate produced was different. Furthermore, with the change of the pore
structure, the tendency of carbonation to accelerate was also recognized. On the
other hand, it was also confirmed that the carbonation depth identified by the
phenolphthalein solution was different from the actual formation position of cal-
cium carbonate.
Keywords Carbonation Blast furnace slag Fly-ash Calcium hydrate

Calcium carbonate
T. Iyoda (&)
Department of Civil Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: iyoda@shibaura-it.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_179
1944 T. Iyoda
1 Introduction
According protect for global warming, we are working to reduce carbon dioxide in
cement production. Cement has a significant amount of carbon dioxide emissions
during clinker production, and reducing clinker production is most effective for
carbon dioxide emission limitation. Therefore, active use of admixture materials
such as ground granulated blast furnace slag (BFS) and fly ash (FA) is important in
the cement industry. Table 1 shows the carbon dioxide emission of each materials
for concrete shown in “Guideline for checking the environmental performance of
concrete structures” of Japan Society of Civil Engineers. Cement that burns at high
temperature during production generates a large amount of carbon dioxide, while
replacing industrial by-products such as BFS and FA with a part of the cement can
significantly suppress the emission of carbon dioxide. So, it is very effective to use
admixtures for concrete in terms of environmental impact reduction. In addition,
mixed cement in which cement is replaced with admixture material has advantages
such as improvement of salt damage resistance and chemical resistance, and
improving of long-term strength. However, on the other hand, resistance to initial
strength and carbonation decreases due to the small amount of cement. In this study,
we focused on the carbonation resistance, which is considered to be a drawback of
this mixed cement [1, 2].
When carbonation progresses in the RC structure, the passive film of the rebar is
broken, the rebar corrodes, and the expansion pressure causes the concrete to crack.
The JSCE Standard specifications for concrete structures [Design edition] proposes
a carbonation progress prediction formula, and for concrete using admixtures, the
carbonation rate is evaluated by using a constant determined for each admixture.
Concrete using blast furnace slag fine powder is said to have low resistance to
carbonation. However, this regression does not take into consideration the effects of
curing and environment of concrete. Also, Matsuda et al. [3] reported that the
carbonation depth in the actual environment was almost same between normal
concrete and concrete using blast furnace slag fine powder. Generally, calcium
hydroxide [Ca(OH)2] or calcium silicate hydrate is achieved by replacing a part of
the cement with the admixture as a reason for the decrease in carbonation resistance
Table 1 Carbon dioxide emission on each cementitious materials
Cementitious material Unit carbon dioxide emission (kg-CO2/t)

Ordinary Portl and Cement 757.9
Blast furnace slag cement type B 457.7
Fly-ash cement Type C 622.8
Ground granulated Blast furnace slag 24.1
Fly-ash 17.9
Carbonation Progress Mechanism of Cement … 1945
in the cement in which the admixture is substituted. It is considered as one of the

factors that the pH in concrete is reduced by the decrease of cement-derived
hydrates such as CSH. In this research, we focused on the cement which highly
replaced the admixtures in order to reduce the environmental impacts and examined
the following two points. In Series 1, compare the carbonation depth in cement with
high admixture replacement in accelerated environment and real environment, and
verify the difference in carbonation resistance due to the difference in admixture
replacement ratio and carbon dioxide gas concentration. And in Series 2, focusing
on the relationship between pH and hydrate in mortar, we analyzed in the depth
direction and evaluated pH and hydrate products with the color change area of
phenolphthalein solutions in accelerated carbonation condition, and we examined
the cause that is progressing of carbonation quickly on mixed cement.
2 Comparison of Carbonation Progress in Real

Environment and Accelerated Environment (Series 1)
It is pointed out that the use of a large amount of various admixtures for reducing
the content of OPC and reduces the resistance to carbonation. Here, the purpose is
to experimentally clarify whether there is a difference in the progress by comparing
the accelerated and the real environment.
2.1.1 Binder Ratio Examined
Table 2 shows a list of cements used in the tests conducted to understand the
difference between the progress of carbonation in the real environment and the
accelerated environment. Ten types of cement were prepared by changing the
combination using ground granulated blast furnace slag having hydraulic properties
and fly ash having pozzolan material based on ordinary Portland cement. A mortar
was produced using these binders. The water-binder ratio was 0.5, and the
sand-cement ratio was 3. The mortar was set to 40 * 40 * 160 mm, and was
deformed 24 h. It was carried out during 7 days and 28 days of sealed curing. The
change in curing expressed the difference in initial strength.
2.1.2 Measurements
A mortar strength test based on JIS R 5201 was performed after curing. The
specimen which sealed by the aluminum tape was prepared except one side surface
1946 T. Iyoda
Table 2 Mix proportions on Series 1
Series.1 W/B S/C Binder ratio(%)

Cement type (%) (%) OPC GGBFS FA
N100 100 - -
B60 40 60 -
B50F15 35 50 15
B70 30 70 -
B50F25 25 50 25
0.5 3
B60F15 25 60 15
B70F15 15 70 15
B85F5 10 85 5
B85F10 5 85 10
B70F25 5 70 25
for carbonation test. The samples were allowed to stand in an accelerated car-
bonation test (20 °C, RH 60%, concentration of carbon dioxide is 5%) and in real
condition test as constant temperature and humidity chamber (20 °C, RH 60%,
concentration of carbon dioxide is about 0.05%). The specimen was cut at setting
age, and the carbonation depth was measured in accordance with JIS.
A phenolphthalein solution was sprayed, and 6 points of a portion colored in red
purple from the surface were measured, and the average value was taken as the
carbonization depth.
2.2 Results of Carbonation
2.2.1 Compressive Strength
Figure 1 shows the relationship between the contents of OPC in the binder and the
compressive strength. It can be seen that the compressive strength decreases with
the decrease in the contents of OPC in the binder. In addition, it was confirmed that
the strength was progressed in any of kind of binders by increasing the curing
periods.
2.2.2 Comparison of Carbonation Depth of Accelerated and Real

Environment
Figure 2 shows the relationship between the OPC ratio in the binder and the car-
bonation depth on accelerated and real environment. It can be seen that the
accelerated carbonation depth and the real environment carbonation depth increase
Fig. 1 Compressive strength 60

on different binders 7days 28days
Compressive strength
50
40
(N/mm 2)
30
20
10
0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Contents of OPC in binder (%)
20 20
Accelerated Real Accelerated Real
Carbonation Depth (mm)
Carbonation Depth (mm)
15 15
10 10
5 5
0 0
100 80 60 40 20 0 100 80 60 40 20 0
Contents of OPC in Binder (%) Contents of OPC in Binder (%)
Fig. 2 Relationship between contents of OPC in binder and Carbonation depth on accelerated and
real carbonation environments (Left: 7-day curing, Right 28-day curing)
with a decrease in the contents of OPC in the binder. However, it can be seen that
the difference between the accelerated carbonation depth and the real environment
carbonation depth is large when the contents of OPC in the binder decreased. In
addition, even if the curing days were set long from 7 to 28 days, the accelerated
carbonation depth was significantly large when the contents of OPC in the binder
decreased. From these results, it can be said that the difference between the car-
bonation depth in the accelerated environment and in the real environment is large
in which the contents of OPC in the binder decreased.
2.2.3 Comparison of Compressive Strength and Carbonation Depth
Figure 3 left shows the relationship between compressive strength and the real
environment carbonation depth. It can be seen that the carbonation depth decreases
as the compressive strength increases, regardless of the curing periods and the
contents of OPC in binder. Next, Fig. 3 right shows the relationship between
1948 T. Iyoda
20
20
OPC rate : 0 15 , 40
Carbonation depth in accelareted (mm)

-2 compornents, -Cured in 7d,
Carbonation Depth in real (mm)
, -3 compornents -Cured in 28d

15 15
10 10
5 5
0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Compressive strength (N/mm2) Compressive strength (N/mm2)
Fig. 3 Relationship between the compressive strength and carbonation depth on different
environments (Left: in real, Right: in accelerated)
compressive strength and the accelerated carbonation depth. Also the carbonation
depth generally decreases as the compressive strength increases regardless of the
contents of OPC in binder. However, the result of on 28 days curing period was
different from the result of the real environment, that cement with a small amount of
OPC in binder did not decrease the carbonation depth while the compressive
strength increased. That is, although the strength is progressed by the extension of
curing, it can be said that the carbonation resistance is not increased by the
accelerated test.
From these results, it is necessary to consider curing period when examining
compressive strength and carbonation resistance in accelerated tests on highly
replacement for admixtures (especially when the contents of OPC in binder is less
than 15%) is necessary. However, if the contents of OPC in binder is less than 15%,
the compressive strength at 28 days is considered to be insufficient in strength
expression, so it is necessary to further study on long term curing periods in the
future.
3 Examination of Change of pH and Hydrate Before

and After Carbonation (Series 2)
With regard to the progress of carbonation under the accelerated environment

obtained by the above study, it was decided to compare the decrease in pH with the
amount of hydration product. Investigate the relationship between the decrease in
pH and the amount of carbonation products in the mixed cement, which is inher-
ently low in pH, and consider why carbonation is fast.
3.1.1 Binder Ratio Examined
Table 3 shows the composition of the mortar which examined pH and a hydration
product in a depth position. In Series 2, three blast furnace cements were used. Such
as B50 equivalent to blast furnace cement type B, B65 equivalent to blast furnace
cement type C, and B85, which have a higher BFS replacement ratio. In addition, in
each of B50, B65 and B85, a study was made on a ternary cement in which 15% of
BFS was replaced with FA.
3.1.2 Measurements
After curing, the specimen was split before accelerated carbonation, and samples
were taken to determine the pH before carbonation and the amount of hydration
products. After that, the specimen sealed with aluminum tape except for one side
was left in the accelerated carbonation test. After measuring the carbonation depth
in the same method as in Series 1, cutting was performed each 6 mm in the depth
direction, and samples for measuring the pH of each layer and the amount of
hydration products were analyzed.
The measurement of pH was performed according to “the method of measuring
pH (JIS Z 8802)” using a digital pH meter of the glass electrode method. The
calibration reagent was a two-point calibration using 0.01 mol/L aqueous sodium
borate solution and 0.05 mol/L aqueous potassium hydrogen phthalate solution.
The pH measuring device used had a measuring range of 0.00–14.00 and a
Table 3 Mix proportions on Series 2
Series.2 Binder ratio (%)

W/B (%) S/C (%)
Cement type OPC BFS FA
N100 100 - -
B50 50 50 -
B35F15 50 35 15
B65 0.5 3 35 65 -
B50F15 35 50 15
B85 15 85 -
B70F15 15 70 15
1950 T. Iyoda
measuring resolution of 1/100 pH specification. The measurement method was

based on the previous research, and the measurement sample was mixed with
distilled water so that the powder concentration in the solution was 1%, and the pH
was measured after stirring for 5 min.
In addition, the content of calcium hydroxide [Ca(OH)2] and calcium carbonate
[CaCO3] as hydrates were measured using differential thermos-gravimetric analysis
(TG-DTA) [4].
3.2 Results of Carbonation
3.2.1 pH and Hydration Products Before Carbonation
Figure 4 shows the pH before carbonation. The pH slightly decreases with the
decrease of the OPC ratio in the binder. However, except for B85 and B70F15, the
proportion of OPC in the binder was 15%, the pH values were almost the same.
Focusing on admixtures, it can be seen that the ternary cement has a slightly higher
pH than the binary cement. The reason for this is considered to be that the pH is
raised by replacing part of BFS with FA, which is a low alkali. Next, Fig. 5 shows
the contents of Ca(OH)2 and CaCO3 before carbonation. It is confirmed that the
amount of CaCO3 shown the small amount of mixed component contained in OPC.
That is, the amount of CaCO3 decreases at a rate corresponding to the decrease in
the rate of OPC in the binder. On the other hand, it can be seen that the hydrate Ca
(OH)2 decreases as the mixing and mixing interest of the admixture increases due to
the effect of hydration.
Fig. 4 pH value before 12.5

Sealed curing on 7d
carbonated
12.0
11.5
pH
11.0
10.5
10.0
N100 B50 B35F15 B65 B50F15 B85 B70F15
OPC 100 50 35 15
Fig. 5 Components before 10.0

carbonations Ca(OH)2 Sealed curing on 7d
8.0
hydration products (%)

6.0
CaCO3
4.0
2.0
0.0
N100 B50 B35F15 B65 B50F15 B85 B70F15
OPC 100 50 35 15
3.2.2 pH and Ca(OH)2 and CaCO3 Content at Depth Position After

Carbonation
Figures 6, 7 and 8 show the pH and the contents of the amount of Ca(OH)2 and
CaCO3 on each depth. Here, the results of B65, B85 and B70F15 are shown. First,
focusing on the pH, the pH decreases in carbonation zone with phenolphthalein. It
can be confirmed that this is related to 10.2–10.3 of the color boundary of phe-
nolphthalein. With the progress of the carbonation, the pH at the measurement
position decreases and we can be clearly confirmed the progress of the carbonation
from pH value. In B65, focusing on the change in pH in the first layer, pH value
significantly decreases from pre-carbonation to the second week of accelerated
carbonation. If the rebar corrosion because of carbonation is due to the decrease of
pH, the decrease rate of pH and the value of pH after judging as the carbonation
zone with phenolphthalein are very important. Next, we focused on the mineral
content. In the case of highly substituted admixtures with cement as in this study,
the amount of Ca(OH)2 formed is very small. Although the difference is not clear in
all figures, it can be said that Ca(OH)2 disappears as much as the progress of
carbonation. On the other hand, focusing on the amount of CaCO3 produced by
carbonation, it can be seen that although a large amount of CaCO3 is produced in
the carbonation zone, there is no significant difference in the amount for each
composition.
Moreover, in B70F15, the amount of CaCO3 increases greatly over the inner-
most layer. This is considered to be due to insufficient sealing when sealing the
specimen with aluminum tape. There was no difference between the
two-component cement (B85) and the three-component cement (B70F15) in which
the proportion of OPC in the binder was the same.
From these results, when the different mix proportions were compared, it was
found that, in the region judged to be a carbonation zone with phenolphthalein, the
change of pH and the lower limit pH value were different, however the amount of
CaCO3 was almost the same. This indicates that care should be taken for
1952 T. Iyoda
Fig. 6 Result of pH and contents of amount of Ca(OH)2 and CaCO3 on each depth [B65]
Fig. 7 Result of pH and contents of amount of Ca(OH)2 and CaCO3 on each depth [B85]
Fig. 8 Result of pH and contents of amount of Ca(OH)2 and CaCO3 on each depth [B70F15]
carbonation of C-S-H in cements with low Ca(OH)2 such as cements with highly
substituted admixtures. There are two types of CaCO3 present in concrete, Calcite
and Vaterite. Toyomura et al. [1, 2] reported that the CaCO3 produced changes with
the change of the replacement rate of ground granulated blast furnace slag. Also,
Harasawa et al. reported changes in pore size distribution before and after car-
bonation for each cement type, and that the cumulative pore volume after car-
bonation increased with the combination of 50% blast furnace slag. From these
reports, it is assumed that substituted with admixture materials such as ground

granulated blast furnace slag in cement, CaCO3 is generated by carbonation, and the
pores are coarsened along with by progressing carbonation. In the future, it will be
necessary to distinguish between the types of CaCO3 generated during carbonation
in the ternary cements, Calcite and Vaterite. Then, it is necessary to examine the
pore size distribution of each area judged to be the carbonated area and the
un-carbonated area with phenolphthalein, and to investigate the change of the pore
before and after the carbonation.
4 Conclusions
(1) In highly admixture material replacement cements, the tendency differs

between the carbonation by the accelerated environment and by the real
environment. Especially
p in the accelerated environment, the carbonation depth
did not show t law.
(2) The relationship between pH and the amount of hydration products was
investigated before and after carbonation. The pH value of the portion judged to
be a carbonation area with phenolphthalein showed a different value for each
composition. On the other hand, the amount of CaCO3 was almost the same.
Acknowledgements This research is in master work of Mr. Takafumi Ito who is graduated
student from Shibaura Institute of Technology.
References
1. Toyomura E, Iyoda T (2013) Study of carbonation mechanism of blast-furnace slag cement

with different carbon dioxide concentration. Proc Jpn Concr Ind 35(1):769–774 (In Japanese)
2. Takeshi I, Eri T (2014) Study on carbonation mechanism in different concentration of carbon
dioxide. In: The 6th international conference of Asia concrete federation, pp 1263–1268
3. Matsuda Y, Ueda H, Ishida T, Kishi T (2010) Influence of cement and water given to the
carbonation based on the actual structure survey. Proc Jpn Concr Ind 32(1):629–643 (In
Japanese)
4. Takeshi I, Junya N, Seishi G (2019) Study for carbonation mechanism and permeability after
carbonation on highly containing blast furnace slag. In: 15th International congress on the
chemistry if cement. (On Published)
Influence of Pore Structure Changed
by Carbonation Using GGBFS Cement
on Water Permeability
J. Nakamura, H. Mizuno, and T. Iyoda
Abstract In the cement industry, ground granulated blast furnace slag, which is an
admixture, is used as an effort to reduce environmental impact. There are various
characteristics of ground granulated blast furnace slag which can be useful as a
substitute material for cement. However, carbonation resistance is low, and it can be
a problem. In this study, it was investigated the effect of carbonation using ground
granulated blast furnace slag on water permeability and it was also measured the
porosity by Archimedes method and mercury intrusion porosity method. It was
investigated the alteration by measuring the pore structure before and after car-
bonation of using ground granulated blast furnace slag. As a result, it was found
that using blast furnace cement can easily permeate water after carbonation. About
the influence of different curing periods, when the curing period was short, it was
found that water can easily permeate in the samples. The result measured by
Archimedes method showed that the porosity increased when carbonation occurred.
As a result of mercury intrusion porosity method, there are many small diameter
pores when carbonated, and it has a complicated pore structure. In conclusion,
carbonation when using blast-furnace cement is considered to reduce the mass
transfer resistance by forming a continuous pore structure.
Keywords Ground granulated blast furnace slag Carbonation Water perme-

ability Mass transfer resistance Pore structure
J. Nakamura (&) H. Mizuno T. Iyoda

Graduate School of Engineering and Science, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: me18091@shibaura-it.ac.jp
H. Mizuno
T. Iyoda

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_180
1956 J. Nakamura et al.
1 Introduction
Recently, the construction industry is promoting the use of admixtures from the
viewpoint of reducing the environmental impact. There are various kinds of
admixtures. Generally, fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag fine powder
(GGBFS) are used in Japan. By using the admixture as an alternative material for
cement, it is possible to reduce the CO2 emissions significantly. Especially GGBFS
can replace the cement in high volume and, as a result of that, it can greatly
contribute to reduce environmental impacts. In addition, GGBFS cement charac-
teristics such as increase salt damage resistance, suppression of ASR, enhancement
of long-term strength and mass transfer resistance is also improved by curing.
However, its resistance to carbonation can decrease.
Carbonation, which is one of the deterioration phenomena of reinforced concrete
structures (RC), destroys the passive film of reinforced bar by decreasing the
alkalinity in concrete and causes rebar corrosion. In general, carbonation of con-
crete is represented by Eqs. (1) and (2).
CaðOH Þ2 þ CO2 ! CaCO3 þ H2 O ð1Þ
C-S-H þ CO2 ! CaCO3 þ SiO2 þ H2 O ð2Þ
Carbonation of concrete proceeds by reaction of cement hydration products such

as calcium hydroxide and C-S-H (Calcium Silicate Hydrate) with carbon dioxide. In
addition, it is also reported [1] that calcium carbonate, which are different in crystal
morphologies (Calcite and Vaterite), is formed by carbonated hydrates and the
Calcium and Silica ratio (Ca/Si) of C-S-H.
According to researches using actual structures in recent years, even if car-
bonation of concrete has progressed near to the rebar, corrosion cannot be seen or
progressed slowly in a dry environment without rain. It has been reported [2] that
rebar corrosion progresses more in an environment where drying and moisture
occurs repeatedly. In other words, it is thought that water is necessary for the
occurrence of corrosion. From this, it is necessary to examine rebar corrosion due to
carbonation of the concrete structure from both carbonation and water penetration.
Not only the rate of carbonation progress of concrete but also the rate of water
penetration has to be considered. The difference between carbonated hydrates and
the calcium carbonate formed is also different, it is conceivable that the pore
structure in the cement paste also changes. Previous studies have reported [3, 5] that
carbonation of calcium hydroxide forms a dense pore structure while carbonation of
C-S-H causes the coarse pore structure. In particular, the tendency is remarkable in
the carbonation of C-S-H having a low Ca/Si ratio. The Ca/Si ratio can decrease
when using admixtures additives such as GGBFS. If the cement paste using
GGBFS is carbonated and the pore structure is coarsened, the penetration of water,
which causes rebar corrosion, may be simplified. In this study, we made concrete
using GGBFS, and examined the influence of the carbonation of the concrete on the
water permeability when the carbonated hydrate changes.
Influence of Pore Structure Changed by Carbonation … 1957
2 Effect of Carbonation on Water Penetration Resistance
2.1 Materials and Mix Proportion
Table 1 shows the details of the materials used in this research. Table 2 shows the
mix proportion of concrete. The water binder ratio was set to 60% in order to
accelerate the progress of carbonation. Concrete was prepared by replacing GGBFS
with 0, 50, and 70% of the cement.
2.2 Specimen Specifications
Table 3 shows the curing condition of the specimens. The samples were cylindrical
with the size of U100 50 mm. The curing condition were non-curing (S1) and
sealed curing 7 days (S7). After curing, the specimens were allowed to stand in a
constant temperature and humidity chamber (temperature 20 ± 2 °C, relative
humidity 60%) until the age of 28 days. The carbonated specimens were allowed to
stand after 28 days in an accelerated environment (inside a chamber with con-
centration 5% of CO2). In order to investigate the effect of carbonation on water
permeability, all the tests were conducted at the 20th week of age when the test
specimens placed in the accelerated environment were completely carbonated.
A prismatic specimen was also prepared, and it was judged that carbonation of the
cylindrical specimen was completely finished when the carbonation depth reached
25 mm.
Table 1 Details of materials

used
Table 2 Mix proportion of

concrete
Table 3 Curing condition of

the specimens
0 1 1 4 20
Curing
Day Day week weeks weeks
Constant Temperature and Humidity Room
S1
(temperature 20±2°C, relative humidity 60%)
Carbonation Accelerated
Constant Room
S1 Form Carbonation
Cast Demold Test
Placement
S7 Constant Room
Sealing Curing
Carbonation Accelerated
Constant Room
S7 Carbonation
2.3 Water Penetration Test
The water penetration test was conducted with reference to the standard specifi-
cation for concrete structure [test method and specifications] of Japanese Society of
Civil Engineering (JSCE) [4]. Figure 1 shows the test method. The side of the
specimen was sealed with aluminum tape and the top and bottom were left opened.
The water absorption method was immersed to a height of 10 mm from the lower
end of the specimen. Tap water was used as a test solution. The specimens were
split at 1, 2, 3 h after immersion and sprayed with an indicator. The water pene-
tration depth was measured at 5 points using an electronic caliper for the colored
part by the indicator, and the average value was taken.
Fig. 1 Water penetration test

method
3 Result of Water Penetration Test
Figure 2 shows the fractured surface of the specimen after 3 h of water absorption.
The blue part shows that water has penetrated. Water penetration was found to be
smaller in GGBFS than OPC in uncarbonated samples. On the other hand, when
carbonation is carried out, the water penetration of GGBFS significantly increased.
Figures 3 and 4 show the results of measuring the water penetration depth of S1
and S7. In S1, the water penetration depth is smaller as GGBFS is replaced, and it
can be seen that water penetration is suppressed by GGBFS replacement. The water
penetration depth for S7 had around the same value at any replacement rate.
Fig. 2 Surface view of split

after water penetration test
Fig. 3 Water penetration

depth (S1)

depth (S7)
Figures 5 and 6 show the measurement results after carbonation of S1 and S7.
The water penetration depth in OPC was significantly reduced by carbonation. On
the other hand, the water penetration of B50 and B70 were increased by carbon-
ation. Particularly in S1, the penetration depth of water reached 50 mm in 2 h of
water absorption. From the above, it was shown that the resistance to water pen-
etration is lowered when blast furnace cement samples were carbonated.

depth after carbonation (S1)

depth after carbonation (S7)
4 Examination of Pore Structure Changes by Carbonation
From the results of the water penetration test, it is considered that the changes in
water penetration resistance due to carbonation were because of the modifications in
the pore structures. Therefore, the amount of pore and its structure were measured
by the Archimedes method and the mercury intrusion method using the specimens
subjected to the water penetration test.
4.1 Archimedes Method
The sample was crushed and used with a size of about 5 mm square, so the porosity
was calculated by Eq. (3). The sample was immersed in acetone for 24 h and
vacuum degassed to obtain a dry mass W1. After that, the sample was put in water
and depressurized to fill with water inside the air gaps and calculate the water
saturated mass W2. The mass in water W3 was calculated using the sample mass
when immersed in water.
ðW2 W1Þ
Porosityð%Þ ¼ 100 ð3Þ
ðW2 W3Þ
Figure 7 shows the results of porosity for uncarbonated and after carbonation of
S1. The porosity of the OPC was reduced by carbonation. However, the porosity in
GGBFS was increased by carbonation. Figure 8 shows the result of S7. As a result,
it was found that the porosity of GGBFS increases after carbonation in S7 as well as
in S1. From this fact, carbonation when using blast-furnace cement may increase
the pore volume.
4.2 Mercury Intrusion Method
The specimen used were the same as the Archimedes method. In this study, we
focused on the continuity of the porosity, which greatly affects the water perme-
ability. The pore in the cement-hardened structures are connected to each other in
large and small pores to form a complex pore structure. In the mercury intrusion
method, the pore size is calculated on the assumption that mercury continuously
penetrates from the large pore size to the small pore size. However, when a large
pore such as an ink bottle pore exists, the large diameter pore is evaluated as a small
diameter pore. Therefore, assuming the difference as the ink bottle pore effect from
the relation of hysteresis generated in the process of pressurization and depres-
surization of mercury, it was evaluated the continuity of the pores.
Fig. 7 Result of porosity 30

(S1) Uncarbonated
25 Carbonated
20
Porosity (%)
15
10
0
OPC B50 B70
Fig. 8 Result of porosity 35

Uncarbonated
(S7)
30 Carbonated
25
Porosity (%)
20
15
10
0
OPC B50 B70
Fig. 9 Cumulative pore size 0.12

(S1) S1-OPC
0.10 S1-B50
Total pore volume (cc/g)
S1-B70
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0.00
1 10 100 1000 10000 100000
pore diameter (nm)
Figure 9 shows the result of cumulative pore size of S1. The total pore volume
of OPC was the smallest. On the other hand, the total pore volume of B50 and B70
are larger than OPC, resulting in a large pore volume of small diameter pores. That
is, when blast furnace slag fine powder is replaced, it is conceivable that many small
diameter pores exist and that it has a complicated pore structure.

(S7) S7-OPC
0.10 S7-B50

S7-B70
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0.00
1 10 100 1000 10000 100000
pore diameter (nm)

after carbonation (S1) S1-OPC-C
0.10 S1-B50-C
S1-B70-C
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0.00
1 10 100 1000 10000 100000
pore diameter (nm)

after carbonation (S7) S7-OPC-C
0.10 S7-B50-C
S7-B70-C
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0.00
1 10 100 1000 10000 100000
pore diameter (nm)
Figure 10 shows the result of cumulative pore size of S7. The total pore volume
of OPC was the smallest, and B50 and B70 resulted in a large pore volume of small
diameter pores. It follows the same tendency as S1.
Figure 11 shows the results after carbonation of S1. The difference in total pore
volume due to the presence or absence of carbonation in OPC is small. On the other
hand, B50 and B70 had an increased in the amount of the large diameter pores by
carbonation.
Figure 12 shows the results after carbonation of S7. There was no significant
change in OPC compared to the results of carbonation of S1. On the other hand,
B50 shows that the total pore volume is reduced by carbonation. In addition, the
total pore volume of B70 became the largest.
Figure 13 and 14 show the volume ratio of the ink bottle pore contained in the
total pores. The result is the value obtained by dividing the difference between the
pressurization process and the decompression process by the total pore volume.
This value is defined in this research as the ink bottle pore existing in the cement
hardened structure. The larger this value is, the smaller the difference between the
pressurizing process and the depressurizing process, which means that the structure
has a complicated pore structure. In the case of uncarbonated S1, the value becomes
larger when GGBFS is replaced when compared with OPC, and it is considered that
a complex pore structure is obtained by replacing GGBFS. However, in the results
after carbonation, the value of OPC increases, but the value GGBFS replacement
results in a smaller value. From this result, it is considered that the carbonation of
OPC densifies the pore structure to form complicated pores with ink bottle pores.
On the other hand, it is considered that when the GGBFS is replaced, carbonation
changes the pore structure from densified to continuous. Also, in the result of S7,
the value for OPC increased due to carbonation. On the other hand, in the case of
GGBFS replacement, the difference due to the presence or absence of carbonation
was small.
From the above, it was considered that the hardened cement structures for blast
furnace cement had a complex pore structure but became a continuous pore due to
carbonation. And the tendency was remarkable as the number of days for curing
decreased. Previous studies have shown that the carbonate which hydrates when
GGBFS is substituted is superior to calcium hydroxide in carbonation of C-S-H.
From previous studies (5), it has been reported that C-S-H is superior to calcium
hydroxide in carbonation when GGBFS is replaced. From this, it is shown that
carbonation of C-S-H forms a continuous pore structure and reduces the mass
transfer resistance such as water permeability.
Fig. 13 Volume of ink 90

Uncarbonated
bottles (S1) 80
Carbonated
Percentage volume of
70
Ink bottle pore
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
OPC B50 B70
Fig. 14 Volume of ink 0.9

Uncarbonated
bottles (S7) 0.8
Carbonated
Percentage volume of
0.7
Ink bottle pore

0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
OPC B50 B70
5 Conclusions
In this study, we investigated the effect of carbonation on the water permeability in

hardened cement structures using blast furnace cement, focusing on the changes in
pore structure. The results obtained are described below.
(1) When the concrete using blast furnace cement is carbonated, the resistance to
water penetration decreases, and the tendency becomes remarkable for the early
days of curing.
(2) As a result of measuring the porosity by the Archimedes method, when the
cemented material of the blast furnace cement is carbonated, the porosity
increased when compared with the uncarbonated one.
(3) From the results of mercury intrusion method, the hardened cement structures
for blast furnace cement had many small diameter pores and had a complicated
pore structure.
(4) Carbonation of C-S-H forms a continuous pore structure and reduces the mass
transfer resistance such as water permeability.
References
1. Suzuki K, Nishikawa N, Hayashi T (1989) Carbonation of the C-S-H with various Ca/Si ratios.
Cement Sci Concr Technol (43), 18–23
2. Maehara S, Iyoda T (2018) Study on the effect of rain exposure on carbonation-induced
spalling/falling of the cover concrete. J Jpn Soc Civ Eng 74(2):80–87
3. Harasawa Y, Honda K, Iyoda T (2014) Effects of different carbonation environments on pore
characteristics and carbonation progress. Proc Jpn Concr Inst 36(2):808–813
4. Japan social of civil engineers (2018) Test method for water penetration rate coefficient of
concrete subjected to water in short term, The standard specification for concrete structure [test
method and specifications] of JSCE, pp 448–452
5. Ito T, Iyoda T (2017) Investigation of carbonation progress mechanism in cement with high
replacement of admixtures. Proc Jpn Concr Inst 39(1):637–642
Examination of Evaluation Method
of Hydration Potential of Dry Sludge
Powder Focusing on Hydration Reaction
M. Araki, K. Ohkawa, and T. Iyoda
Abstract In recent years, dry sludge powder has attracted attention for reducing
environmental impact as a method of reusing ready mixed concrete waste.
Manufacturing process of the dry sludge powder is different from the ordinary
portland cement. In the manufacturing process, there is drying process, and it is
performed at high temperature. A characteristic of dry sludge powder is that it
contains hydration products. However, few studies have focused on the effects of
high temperature treatment and the hydration products contained in dry sludge
powder. Therefore, in this study, we focused on the influence of hydration products
contained in dry sludge powder and the high temperature treatment on hydration
reaction. Firstly, we analyzed hydration products contained in the dry sludge
powder. Next, the progress of hydration was examined by measuring the rate of
heat of hydration. In addition, a sample was prepared by simulating the dry sludge
powder process and it was treated at different temperatures and times. By exam-
ining this sample, the relationship between hydration product and hydration reac-
tion was investigated. As a result, it was found that, as the amount of calcium
hydroxide in the dry sludge powder decrease, the strength development becomes
easier. Furthermore, the hydration potential of the dry sludge powder, can be
derived by subtracting the ignition loss value of the raw dry sludge powder state
from the measured ignition loss value.

Keywords Dry sludge powder Hydration product Hydration potential

formula Strength development Ignition loss
M. Araki (&) K. Ohkawa T. Iyoda

T. Iyoda
e-mail: iyoda@shibaura-it.ac.jpf

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_181
1968 M. Araki et al.
1 Introduction
In recent years, various efforts have been made to reduce environmental impact in
many industries. In the ready-mixed concrete industry, along with CO2 reduction,
the reduction of residual concrete and return concrete is one of the major issues.
Annually, about 1.5 to 2 million m3 of concrete are returned and it is expensive to
dispose this material so it became a problem. Returned concrete is divided into
aggregate and sludge water by the washing process. Figure 1 shows the washing
process of the returned concrete. It is specified by the Japanese Industrial Standard
(JIS) A 5308 for Ready-Mixed Concrete, that this washed aggregate can be reused
as a collected aggregate. The supernatant water, that can be filtered and recovered
from the sludge water, can also be reused as the mixing water of ready-mixed
concrete. However, in the present situation, most of the material left after filtration
of sludge water (sludge cake) is discarded as industrial waste. This disposal process
is expensive and an economic burden for ready-mixed concrete plants. Therefore,
Ohkawa et al. have studied methods in which dry sludge powder (DSP), obtained
by drying and crushing sludge cake, is used as a substitute for cement. Figure 1
shows the process of producing dry sludge fine powder. In the drying process, the
burner is heated at about 300 to 500 °C, and the inside of the rotary drum is
processed at an actual temperature of about 100 to 200 °C. Also, as shown in the
figure, the time from when the water comes in contact with ready mixed concrete
until the sludge cake is dried is referred to as the processing time. Returned concrete
and leftover concrete are also washed immediately when they are returned to the
ready-mixed concrete plant to collect aggregate. At this time, regarding to the dry
crushing process, since the amount that can be processed at once by the drum-type
burner to be dried is limited, there is also a time for stirring and storing in the state
of sludge water. Therefore, there are DSP with different processing times. The
difference in DSP processing time refers to the difference in time of agitation of the
sludge water. Previous studies have reported that DSP has different density and
specific surface area depending on the processing time. In addition, tests have been
conducted to confirm strength and durability of structures using DSP. However, few
studies have examined the relationship between hydration product, strength and the
hydration reaction of the DSP, focusing on the correlation between the contained
ingredients in the DSP raw powder. In this study, we investigated hydration
reaction and hydration products from water contact of several DSPs with different
processing times. In addition, in order to clarify the influence of hydration products
contained in DSP on hydration reaction, the production process of DSP was sim-
ulated, and DSP samples were prepared and tested for different processing times
and drying temperatures. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship
between these hydration-formed hydrates and the hydration reaction.
Examination of Evaluation Method of Hydration Potential … 1969
Production Process of Dry Sludge Powder
Processing time
Mix Washing Drying

Stirring
Ready-mixed
concrete Returned Sludge water
concrete Sludge cake
Dry sludge powder
Reuse (DSP)
JIS A 5308
Recovered Supernatant
aggregate water
Fig. 1 Process of washing method and production process of dry sludge powder
2 Outline of Experiment and Materials
First, the hydration products contained in the raw powder were confirmed. During
the processing time, the DSP is in contact with the water so it is considered that raw
powder already contains hydration products because the hydration reaction is in
progress. Hydration products contained in the raw powder were qualitatively ana-
lyzed by X-ray diffraction, and the quantitative analysis was performed by differ-
ential thermogravimetric analysis. At this time, in order to clarify the influence of
the hydration products contained in the DSP on the hydration reaction, it was
simulated the production process of the DSP and hydrated samples were produced
with different processing times and the drying temperature. Thermogravimetric
analysis was also performed.
Next, the influence of the hydration products contained in the raw powder
submitted to the hydration reaction was examined. A cement paste was prepared,
and powder X-ray diffraction was performed to confirm the hydrates formed as the
hydration reaction proceeds. Differential thermogravimetric analysis was also per-
formed to determine hydration products. Furthermore, the total hydration heat of
cement paste was measured using a conduction calorimeter, and the progress of
hydration reaction was confirmed. After that, mortar was made using DSP, and it
was examined the relationship between strength and the degree of hydration pro-
gress of DSP affected mortar.
2.2 Material and Mix Proportion
For this study, it was used five kinds of DSP made with different processing times and
prepared by simulating the method of making DSP and also ordinary portland cement
(OPC) as reference. The details of each DSP and OPC are shown in Table 1, and for
hydrated cement, it is shown in Table 2. The specific surface area, that is shown in
Table 1, was measured using a braine permeation device. The processing time was
chosen to be short and long, so that the differences in the progress of hydration
between DSPs could be considered. The fine aggregate used in this study is a mountain
sand from Kimitsu at Chiba Prefecture in Japan (Surface dry density: 2.62 g/cm3).
2.3 Cement Paste Specimen Specification
The hydrated cement samples were made using a W/C factor of 200% with OPC
cement paste mixed together using a stirrer devise. In this study, three hours and
24 h were set as the processing time for mixing with the stirrer. After the prede-
termined time, the cement paste was dewatered with a suction funnel and dried
using an electric furnace until the mass loss became constant at a set temperature.
The drying temperature was set at 105 °C, close to the actual drying temperature,
and it was also used the 40 °C and 300 °C for comparison. After drying, the sample
was ground using a grinding mill to obtain the DSP.
2.4 Mortar Specimen Mix Proportion and Compressive

Strength Test
The mix proportion of mortar used in this research was 1:3 according to the cement
strength test standard JIS R 5201. The size of the specimen was 40 40 160
mm. After demolding on the next day of placement, the samples were transferred to
Table 1 Details of DSP
Table 2 Details of hydrated cement

a constant temperature and humidity chamber (temperature 20 °C, humidity 60%)

and subjected to sealed curing for 28 days. After curing was completed, a mortar
compressive strength test was conducted in accordance with JIS R 5201.
2.5 Tests to Consider Hydration Progress and Hydration

Products
Measurement of the total hydration heat was performed to confirm the progress of
hydration. The heat of hydration was measured over time using a conduction
calorimeter. It is known that there is a correlation between the cement hydration
speed and the total hydration heat. In this test, the binders OPC, DSP-B, DSP-C,
and DSP-E were used. The cement paste used was W/C = 55%. The specimens
were weighed so the total amount of water and cement reach 4 g, so after put
together, they were mixed for 30 s. Following, a conduction calorimeter was
installed, and hydration heat from immediately to 48 h after water contact with
material was measured at a constant temperature environment (20 °C). X-ray
diffraction was used to identify the hydration products contained. The raw powder
of DSP, hydrated cement and OPC were analyzed. Differential thermogravimetric
analysis was performed using TG-DTA for measurement at a heating rate of
20 °C/min from 40 °C to 1000 °C under an N2 flow environment. The amount of
production was calculated from the TG curve by the dehydrated weight of the
product from the inflection point of the DTA curve. The analysis was carried out
using the DSP, the hydrated cement, and the raw powder of OPC as samples.
3 Result and Discussion
3.1 Hydration Products of DSP and Hydrated Cement
Figure 4 shows the results of powder X-ray diffraction of DSP raw material and
hydrated cement. Unlike the other samples, the peak of ettringite was confirmed at
24 h_40 °C and 24 h_105 °C. The hydrates that can be identified in the raw powder
are generally the same for any sample. However, focusing on the intensities of these
peaks, different results were obtained depending on the powder. From this result,
quantitative analysis of hydrate was performed.
The amount of hydration products contained in the raw powder of OPC, DSP
and hydrated cement were measured, and the ratio was calculated. Figure 2 shows
the content of calcium hydroxide and Fig. 3 shows the content of calcium car-
bonate. DSP and hydrated cement are compared with OPC, and it turns out that
both calcium hydroxide and calcium carbonate are contained. The amount of cal-
cium hydroxide varie for DSP and hydrated cement. The longer the processing
Fig. 2 Calcium hydroxide

content ratio
Fig. 3 Calcium carbonate

content ratio
time, the more calcium hydroxide is contained. From this, it is considered that the
calcium hydroxide contained in the sample is generated due to the progress of the
hydration reaction during the water processing time. The amount of calcium car-
bonate contained in DSP was almost equal regardless of the processing time. Also,
the hydrated cement contains less calcium carbonate than DSP. Calcium carbonate
is derived from cement because the amount contained in the sample is equivalent to
OPC. From this, it is thought that calcium carbonate contained in DSP is increased
by the influence of fine particles derived from aggregate which could not be dis-
charged by washing treatment and classification treatment. The samples that were
stirred for 24 h and dried at 40 °C decreased in the amount of calcium hydroxide
and increased in the amount of calcium carbonate compared to the other samples
stirred for 24 h. This is due to carbonation of part of the sample during the drying
process.
3.2 Hydration Progress and Hydration Products by DSP

and Hydrated Cement
Figure 4 shows the powder X-ray diffraction results of the 3 days old cement paste
manufactured using DSP and the hydrated cement. The hydration products that
could be confirmed were generally similar. However, in DSP, different peaks can be
confirmed around 2h = 10°. This was considered to require further study. Figure 5
shows the results of total hydration heat measured with a conduction calorimeter.
Figure 5 shows the results of total hydration heat amount. As shown in the figures,
the shorter the DSP processing time, the larger the hydration reaction peak and the
higher the integrated temperature. It is considered that this is due to the already
developed hydration reaction affecting the processing time of DSP and hydrated
cement. As the processing time is shorter, the hydration reaction does not progress
within the processing time. Therefore, it is considered that there is a remaining
capacity of hydration when water is put in contact with DSP and hydrated cement.
3.3 Consideration of DSP Hydration
The results of making a cement paste using DSP and performing differential
thermogravimetric analysis for each material age are shown. Figure 6 shows the
progress of calcium hydroxide content. From this graph, the tendency of the
transition of the amount of calcium hydroxide is divided into two. The calcium
hydroxide content of the DSP exceeds the OPC in the raw powder state. After water
contact, the OPC far exceeds the DSP and reverses. DSP-C, DSP-D, and DSP-E
have the largest amount of calcium hydroxide in the raw powder state, and after
contact with water, calcium hydroxide has decreased. The amount of calcium
hydroxide in OPC, DSP-A and DSP-B increased with age. As the processing time
of DSP-C, DSP-D, and DSP-E became longer, the amount of calcium hydroxide
showed was smaller than the raw powder state. It can be seen that the DSP, with a
short processing time, has a large amount of hydration products when compared to
the DSP having a longer processing time.
Calcium hydroxide
Raw Calcium hydroxide
powder Calcium carbonate 3days
Calcium carbonate
Ettringite
OPC
24h_40
OPC 24h_105
24h_40 24h_300
24h_105
24h_300 DSP-A
DSP-A DSP-E
DSP-E
Fig. 4 Hydration products content

Fig. 5 Hydration speed of DSP

content of DSP
3.4 Comparison of the Hydration Reaction of Hydrated

Cement and DSP
Figure 7 shows the progress of calcium hydroxide ratio of hydrated cement and
DSP, and Fig. 8 shows the progress of calcium carbonate ratio. From the figures, it
can be seen that the calcium hydroxide content of the hydrated cement, that was
dried at 105 °C and 300 °C, exceeds the DSP and is equivalent to the OPC. When
the drying temperature was 40 °C the hydrated cement for 3 h and 8 h had calcium
hydroxide equivalent to that of DSP-A. However, when the treatment time is 24 h
with drying temperature of 40 °C, almost no calcium hydroxide is produced below
DSP-E. On the other hand, calcium carbonate is considered to not contribute to
hydration because it hardly changed in proportion by 3 days of material age.

content of hydrated cement
Fig. 8 Amount of calcium

carbonate
Fig. 9 Compressive strength

3.5 Compressive Strength of DSP
Compressive strength test was conducted to confirm the strength development of

DSP. Figure 9 shows the compressive strength. The DSP and the hydrated cement
do not reach the strength of the OPC. As in previous studies, samples with longer
processing time had lower compressive strength development, and shorter pro-
cessing times tended to increase it.
3.6 Consideration on the Hydration Potential of DSP
From the tendency of hydration of DSP, the evaluation method of strength

expression of DSP is discussed. Generally, there is a correlation between strength
and cement hydration and hydration products. However, DSP has a hydration
product generated at the processing time. There is a problem that, even if ignition
loss and calcium hydroxide amount are analyzed in order to measure the hydration
reaction of DSP, it cannot be evaluated correctly. Therefore, the amount of hydrates
that were generated during the processing time in the raw powder was subtracted
from the amount of hydrate that was generated when the DSP got in contact with
water. It was considered to use this as an evaluation of the hydration potential (%)
of DSP. Therefore, the hydration potential was calculated as shown in the following
Eq. (1). By subtracting the ig.loss value in the raw powder state from the ig.loss
value at 3 days of age, we considered this value as capable of hydration reaction.
Figure 10 shows the relationship between the calculated hydration potential and the
compressive strength at 28 days. There was a correlation that the higher the
hydration potential of DSP, the larger the compressive strength at 28 days of age,
indicating the residual hydration ability of DSP. 24h_105 °C and 24h_300 °C
showed large hydration potentials despite the large amount of calcium hydroxide.
Compared with 24h_40 °C, which was reacted for 24 h and dried at 40 °C, the
Fig. 10 Relationship
between compressive strength
and hydration potential
hydration potential increased. This result suggests that the drying temperature of
105 °C or more may affect the hydration reaction, and it is thought that further study
is necessary in the future.
3 days ig:Loss value raw powder ig:Loss value

Hydration potential ¼ ð1Þ
3 days ig:Loss value
4 Conclusions
1) The total hydration heat of DSP decreased as the treatment time increased. Also,
the total hydration heat of DSP with short processing time was increased. This is
the effect of the hydration reaction that has already progressed, because the
degree of progression of hydration varies depending on the processing time of
DSP.
2) The hydration potential of DSP can be calculated by subtracting the ignition loss
value of the raw powder state of DSP from the measured ignition loss value.
3) Strength development can be evaluated by calculating hydration potential. By
using this, it was shown that the smaller the amount of calcium hydroxide
contained, the easier it is for strength to be developed.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to thanks Mr. Y. Kengo, Ms. N. Yukari and Mr.
M. Kanta from Shibaura Institute of Technology for their help in this study.
References
1. Okawa K, Aoki S, Kanda T, Momose H, Kasai T (2017) Study on durability of clinker-free

concrete with a binder combining dehydrated sludge powder with other industrial by-products
admixture. J Japan Soc Civ Eng Ser E2 (Materials and Concrete Structures), 73(1):107–11
2. Yoshida R, Mizuno K, Kishi T, Umehara H (2015) Discussion on an ink-bottle pore and
acontinuative pore obtained by step-by-stepmercury intrusion porosimetry test on hardened-
mortar. Cem Sci Concr Technol 69(1):235–242
A Review of Preplaced-Aggregate
Concrete Using Recycled Aggregate
and Railway Wasted Ballast
A. Shibuya and T. Iyoda
Abstract Preplaced-aggregate concrete is used when normal concrete cannot be

cast. In this method, coarse aggregate is put in a formwork, then non-shrink grout
mortar is poured into it so the aggregate surrounds are filled with the material. An
advantage of preplaced-aggregate concrete is that construction waste can be used as
coarse aggregate. However, the durability of the concrete structure when using
preplaced-aggregate has not been clarified. It is considered that the properties are
different between normal concrete and preplaced-aggregate concrete because of the
different method of casting. In this research paper, preplaced-aggregate concrete
and ordinary concrete were cast using various aggregates and their properties were
analyzed by comparison. For aggregate, it was used recycled aggregate, railway
wasted ballast, and normal coarse aggregate. Compressive strength test and the air
permeability test were conducted. In addition, the porosity was calculated by the
Archimedes test. Preplaced-aggregate concrete did not show difference in strength
even when the type of aggregate was changed, and there was no significant dif-
ference in pore ratio, concluding that it does not depend on aggregate.
Keywords Preplaced-aggregate concrete Recycled aggregate Railway waste

ballast Porosity
1 Introduction
Earthquakes often occur in Japan. The recent biggest earthquake that occurred on
March 11th, 2011 caused huge damages. Disaster wastes became a problem after
the earthquakes. Preplaced-aggregate concrete has attracted attention as one a
method of using concrete waste among the disaster waste’s. In the method of
A. Shibuya (&) T. Iyoda

T. Iyoda

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_182
1980 A. Shibuya and T. Iyoda
Fig. 1 The method of

preplaced-aggregate concrete
preplaced-aggregate concrete, coarse aggregate is put in a formwork, then

non-shrink grout mortar is poured into it, and the aggregate surroundings are filled
with grout material as shown in Fig. 1. Therefore, it can be used where unrein-
forced concrete is used or where ordinary concrete is not able to be used. In Japan,
there are not many researches and examples of application for this method and it
needs more studies to clarify this technology. The method of placement is different
between ordinary and preplaced-aggregate concrete, so physical properties are
considered to be different. In this research, preplaced-aggregate concrete and nor-
mal concrete were cast using various aggregates, and their properties were con-
firmed by comparison.
2 Outline of Experiments
2.1 The Kinds of Coarse Aggregates
It was used normal coarse aggregate (C-40), recycled aggregate (RC-40), and
railway waste ballast (Ballast). Table 1 shows the physical properties of the
aggregates used. Figure 2 and Fig. 3 show the distribution of particle size.
In preplaced concrete, aggregates with a particle size of 10 mm or less are not
used because the spaces between the aggregates have to be filled.
Table 1 Physical properties of coarse aggregate

Surface dry Specific surface Grading Absorption Solid
density (g/cm3) area (cm2/g) content
C-40 2.56 3.11 Good 2.2% 58.3%
RC-40 2.39 2.69 Good 5.0% 58.2%
Ballast 2.68 1.63 Bad 1.2% 58.1%
A Review of Preplaced-Aggregate Concrete Using Recycled Aggregate … 1981
2.2 Materials and Mix Proportions
In Table 2, the specified mix proportion are indicated. Water-binder ratio is 45%.
The mortar used for preplaced concrete is a non-shrinkage premixed mortar and
contains 40% of ground granulated blast-furnace slag (BFS). Therefore, in normal
concrete, the replacement ratio of BFS was also set to 40%.
Fig. 2 Grading aggregate

100%
(normal concrete) Percentage of aggregate C-40
80% RC-40
passed through
Ballast
60%
40%
20%
0%
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Particle size (mm)
Fig. 3 Grading aggregate

100% C-40
(preplaced concrete)
80% RC-40
Percentage of aggregate
Ballast
passed through
60%
40%
20%
0%
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Particle size (mm)
Table 2 Mix proportion

Aggregate Water/ Sand/ Water Binder Sand Aggregate
Binder Aggregate Cement BFS
Normal C-40 45% 48% 170 227 151 832 929
RC-40
Ballast
Preplaced C-40 21% Non-shrinkage premixed mortar is used
RC-40 BFS content rate is 40%
Ballast
2.3 Testing Methods and Sample Size
2.3.1 Compressive Strength Test
The specimens for compressive strength test were cast using formwork as shown in
Fig. 4. This test was performed on 3 specimens from the same mix proportion.
2.3.2 Splitting Tensile Strength Test
For splitting tensile strength test, specimens were prepared by removing cores from
the sample (size of / 100 mm 200), as shown in Fig. 5. This test was conducted
by removing 3 cores from the sample in the upper, middle and lower position.
Fig. 4 Specimens size

Fig. 5 Specimens size
2.3.3 Air Permeability Test
Air permeability test was performed by using specimens cut off the core. The core
of Fig. 5 was cut into four equal parts and made into size of / 100 mm 50 mm.
2.3.4 Accelerated Carbonation Test
Accelerated carbonation test is performed using specimens in Fig. 5. The specimens

were sealed letting only one side opened and placed in 5% carbon dioxide envi-
ronment for 4 weeks. After that, it was measured the carbonation depth of the
specimen.
2.4 Curing Method of the Specimens
Figure 6 shows curing method and test flow. The curing is for 7 days. The spec-
imens in Fig. 5 were demolded after 3 days and the core as shown in the figure was
removed. The splitting tensile strength test was done before cutting.
Fig. 6 Test flow

3.1 Compressive Strength Test
Figure 7 shows the results of compressive strength test. Normal concrete was
stronger than preplaced concrete. Preplaced concrete had the same strength for all
aggregates. Therefore, in preplaced concrete, the kind of aggregate did not affect
compressive strength.
3.2 Splitting Tensile Strength Test
Figure 8 shows the results of splitting tensile strength test. Normal concrete and
preplaced concrete showed the same trend. The concrete using C-40 had the
strongest result for split tensile strength, and the concrete using ballast had the
weakest result.
After this test, the appearance of specimens looked like Fig. 9. Normal concrete
was destroyed in the paste part. On the other hand, preplaced concrete was broken
along the aggregate. Therefore, it was considered that the aggregate interface of
preplaced concrete is weak.
3.3 Air Permeability Test
Figure 10 shows the results of air permeability test. For preplaced concrete, there
was a large difference in air permeability coefficient due to the core removal
30
Compressive strength(N/mm2)
25
20
15
10
0
C-40 RC-40 Ballast C-40 RC-40 Ballast
Normal concrete Preplaced concrete
Fig. 7 The results of compressive strength test

Fig. 8 The results of splitting 3.5

tensile strength test
3.0
Splitting tensile strength

2.5
(N/mm2)
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
Fig. 9 The appearance after

test Normal concrete Preplaced concrete
position. Normal concrete had the same value. In addition, normal concrete had
smaller value than preplaced concrete. Considering the result for splitting tensile
strength test, it is believed that the weak aggregate interface has pores connected
and air can easily pass through that parts.
3.4 Relationship Between Air Permeability Coefficient

and Compressive Strength
As Fig. 11 shows, preplaced concrete and normal concrete tended to be different. In

preplaced concrete, even if air permeability coefficient changed, compressive
strength is almost constant. On the other hand, in normal concrete, even if
0.0001
Air permeability coefficient 0.001

(cm4/N s)
0.01
0.1
1
C-40 RC-40 Ballast C-40 RC-40 Ballast
Fig. 10 The results of air permeability test
compressive strength changed due to kind of aggregates, air permeability coefficient

is almost constant.
3.5 Relationship Between Air Permeability Coefficient

and Splitting Tensile Strength
Figure 12 shows the relationship between air permeability coefficient and com-
pressive strength. Preplaced concrete and normal concrete tended to be different.
C-40
Air permeability coefficient
RC-40
0.1
Ballast
(cm4/N s)
Preplaced
0.01 concrete
0.001
Normal concrete
0.0001
0 10 20 30
Compressive strength (N/mm2)
Fig. 11 Air permeability coefficient and compressive strength

In preplaced concrete, there was a correlation between air permeability coefficient

and compressive strength. The lower compressive strength, the easier the air is able
to pass. Also, preplaced concrete using ballast had weak compressive strength and
high air permeability. On the other hand, normal concrete didn’t have correlation
between air permeability and compressive strength.
3.6 Carbonation
Figure 13 shows the result of accelerated carbonation test. In normal concrete, there
is no much difference in carbonation depth by the kind of aggregate. However, in
preplaced concrete, the difference was large depending on the kind of aggregate.
Preplaced concrete used ballast was the most carbonated. It was considered that the
air gaps were connected, and it was easier for preplaced concrete to carbonate.
Because the results were different depending on the aggregate, it was assumed that
the gaps at the aggregate interface were connected. Figure 12 shows relationship
between air permeability coefficient and carbonation depth. The low correlation
between the results of the air permeability test and the carbonation test are con-
sidered to be caused by the difference in pressure (Fig. 14).
0.1
Preplaced
concrete
Air permeability coefficient
0.01
(cm4/N s)
0.001
C-40
RC-40 Normal concrete
Ballast
0.0001
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0
Compressive strength (N/mm2)
Fig. 12 Air permeability coefficient and compressive strength

Fig. 13 Carbonation depth 10
Carbonation depth (mm)

8
Fig. 14 Air permeability and 10

carbonation
8
Carbonation depth (mm)
0
0.0001 0.001 0.01 0.1
Air permeability coefficient(cm4/N s)
4 Conclusion
(1) Since preplaced concrete collapses at the part where the weak parts around the
aggregate are connected, the compressive strength does not depend on the type
of aggregate and has only a low strength.
(2) In preplaced concrete, aggregate interface is weak and air gaps on the of
aggregate interface are connected, and there is a big air passage.
(3) The large amount of aggregate and the closeness between the aggregates is the
cause of the difference between preplaced concrete and normal concrete.
Acknowledgements This research summarizes the results of Mr. Otsuka, Asahi, student from
Civil Engineering Department at Shibaura Institute of Technology.
Impacts of Global Warming
and Variable Airborne Chloride
Exposure on Concrete Structures
in Hokkaido, Japan
M. Henry and Y. Tojo
Abstract Global warming has become a threat to human societies due to its myriad
and complex impacts. Among these are sea level rise and climate change, which
carry significant implications for the life-cycle management of concrete infras-
tructure in coastal areas due to unforeseen changes in chloride exposure, which may
lead to uncertainty about structural safety. This may be attributed to the inability of
chloride diffusion prediction methods to account for temporal changes in exposure,
as conventional methods assume a constant surface chloride ion concentration.
However, it may be expected that, due to changes in airborne chloride exposure as a
result of global warming, the surface chloride concentration is not constant over
time. It is therefore necessary to account for its impacts in the life-cycle manage-
ment of concrete infrastructure by considering temporal changes in the exposure to
airborne chloride. In this study, a method is developed that facilitates the prediction
of chloride penetration into concrete under non-constant surface chloride concen-
trations, which are estimated from the airborne chloride exposure based on sea wind
ratio, wind speed, and distance from coastline. The impacts of global warming on
chloride diffusion are then estimated at a specified coastal location in Hokkaido,
Japan, over a 50-year period using forecasted climate data and simulated sea level
rise. Although the numerical simulation results did not find that the chloride con-
centration limit necessary to initiate corrosion will be reached in even the most
severe prediction scenario, variability in the surface chloride concentration may
reduce the safety factor against chloride-induced corrosion, as not considering the
effects of global warming may lead to underestimating the actual chloride exposure.
Keywords Airborne chloride Climate change Concrete corrosion Global

warming Sea level rise
M. Henry (&) Y. Tojo

Faculty and School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_183
1990 M. Henry and Y. Tojo
1 Introduction
Awareness of global warming as a severe environmental issue has been growing

since the late 20th century, leading to a majority of the world governments to
cooperate together towards mitigation planning. Per the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC), which carries out work on the projection and impacts of
global warming, the global mean surface temperature has risen by 0.85 °C over the
period from 1880 to 2012, and it is further forecasted that an additional temperature
increase of between 0.3 to 4.8 °C (from present levels) may occur by 2100 [5].
These project scenarios and data are useful to help organizations to plan for the
future impacts of global warming.
Concrete structures, which serve as the foundation for economic development
and societal wellbeing and safety, will mainly be affected by global warming and
climate change in two ways. First, changes in the wave force acting on coastal
structures due to sea level rise and more frequent extreme weather events will
increase uncertainty regarding the structural safety against external mechanical
loading. Second, the durability of concrete against environmental exposure will also
become more unclear, as the supply of chloride ions will become more erratic due
to changes in wind speed and direction; additionally, the distance from the coastline
may also grow shorter as sea level rise leads to coastal erosion. As a result, it is
necessary to consider the risks to concrete structures associated with global
warming and climate change to assure future structural safety, and prior research
can be found on structural design and countermeasures for wave overtopping
caused by sea level rise [6, 8] and adaptation measures against carbonation and
chloride-induced corrosion [2–4, 7].
This paper focuses on how to assure durability against chloride-induced corro-
sion under changing environmental conditions caused by global warming. The
previous work considered the effects of global warming through a probabilistic
approach based on increasing uncertainty in the environmental exposure. In con-
trast, this study aims to clarify how temporal changes in surface chloride concen-
tration will affect diffusion progress in concrete by developing a method that
considers varying airborne chloride exposure due to coastal erosion and changes in
wind patterns. The method is then applied to predict the chloride diffusion in a
hypothetical new concrete bridge in Hokkaido, Japan, under various projection
scenarios for a 50-year period.
Impacts of Global Warming and Variable Airborne Chloride … 1991
2 Development of New Analytical Method
2.1 Conventional Modeling of Chloride Diffusion

in Concrete
The Standard Specifications for Concrete Structures (Design) of the Japan Society
of Civil Engineers (JSCE) provides Eq. 1 for calculating chloride diffusion in
concrete.

0:1c
C ¼ C0 1 erf pffiffiffiffiffi ð1Þ
2 Dt
where C: chloride ion concentration at the depth of reinforcement (kg/m3); C0:

chloride ion concentration at the concrete surface (kg/m3); c: depth of reinforcement
(mm); D: chloride ion diffusion coefficient (cm2/year); and t: elapsed time (years).
Additionally, JSCE specifies the confirmation of durability performance against
chloride-induced reinforcement corrosion following the conditions shown in Eq. 2.

C
1:0 ð2Þ
Clim
where Clim: chloride ion concentration limit to initiate reinforcement corrosion

(kg/m3). This limit varies depending on the cement type and water-cement ratio, but
may be estimated using regression models. Equation 3 gives a model for ordinary
portland cement (OPC) concrete.

W
Clim ¼ 3:0 þ 3:4 ð3Þ
C
where W/C: the water-cement ratio, by mass. The chloride ion diffusion coefficient
D also varies by the cement type and water-cement ratio. Equations 4 and 5 outline
the estimation of the diffusion coefficient for OPC concrete.
w
D ¼ cc Dk þ 1:5 D0 ð4Þ
l

W
log10 Dk ¼ 3:0 1:8 ð5Þ
C
where cc: concrete material coefficient; Dk: characteristic diffusion coefficient value
(cm2/year); w/l: ratio of crack width to length; and D0: a constant representing the
effect of cracks (generally set to 400 cm2/year).
2.2 Diffusion Prediction Considering Temporal Change

in Surface Chloride Content
The surface chloride concentration, C0, in Eq. 1 is dependent on the concrete

structure’s environmental exposure conditions. Table 1 summarizes the C0 values
suggested by JSCE for various chloride exposure environments. It can be seen that
these are static values, which represent conservative estimates used for durability
design.
These static values highlight two problems with the conventional approach
regarding the consideration of the effects of global warming.
First, the solution of Fick’s Second Law shown in Eq. 1 requires assumption of
the boundary condition that the surface chloride concentration remains constant
over time. However, it is possible that, as a result of global warming, the local
exposure environment may not remain constant, leading to varying surface con-
centrations. Consequently, the conventional modeling approach cannot be applied.
The second problem lies with the limited conditions shown in Table 1, which
consider just the distance from the structure to the coastline and a qualitative
judgement of the potential for chloride ion transport by air. However, sea level rise
and changes in wind characteristics may lead to different exposure conditions than
were present at the design stage of the structure.
The above two problems are addressed by Eq. 6, which represents a solution to
Fick’s Second Law using the finite difference method, and which considers a
non-constant surface chloride concentration.
Dt t
Cxt þ 1 ¼ Cxt þ D Cx1 2Cxt þ Cxt þ 1 ð6Þ
Dx 2
where Cxt : chloride ion concentration (kg/m3) at depth x from the concrete surface
(mm) at t (years); and DxDt2 : a scaled value depending on the analysis conditions (set as
0.25). It is noted that C0t : surface chloride ion concentration (kg/m3) at year t. By
setting a new surface chloride content as the boundary condition at each analysis
time step t, Eq. 6 enables the calculation of the chloride diffusion under
non-constant chloride exposure conditions.
Table 1 Values for chloride ion concentration at concrete surface, C0 (kg/m3)

Regional characteristic Splash zone Distance from coastline (km)
Near 0.1 0.25 0.5 1.0
Large amount of airborne chloride 13.0 9.0 4.5 3.0 2.0 1.5
Small amount of airborne chloride 4.5 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0
2.3 Calculation of Surface Chloride Content Based

on Variable Airborne Chloride
Equations 7 and 8 were adopted to link the effects of global warming with the
temporal change in the surface chloride concentration [1]. First, in Eq. 7, the
amount of airborne chlorides is shown as a function of sea wind ratio, wind speed,
and the distance from coastline. This equation was developed by statistical fitting of
historical data taken at measurement stations around Japan.
Cair ¼ 1:29ru0:386 d 0:952 ð7Þ
where Cair: airborne chloride content (100 mg/m2/day); r: sea wind ratio (ratio of
the time period during which the wind is blowing from the sea to the total time
during which the wind is blowing); u: average wind speed at a height of 10 m (m/s);
and d: distance from the coastline (m).
The surface chloride concentration can then be calculated from the airborne
chloride content as shown in Eq. 8. This relationship was obtained using actual
values of surface chloride content from concrete specimens measured simultane-
ously with the airborne chloride content, wind speed and direction, and distance
from coastline used to develop the Eq. 7.
C0 ¼ 0:988Cair
0:379
ð8Þ
Integrating Eqs. 7 and 8, and considering temporal changes in the distance to

coastline and wind characteristics, the surface chloride concentration at a given time
t may be calculated using Eq. 9
0:379
C0t ¼ 0:988 1:29rt u0:386
t dt0:952 ð9Þ
where rt: sea wind ratio at year t; ut: average wind speed at year t; and dt: distance to
coastline at year t. Equation 9 can thus be used to calculate the boundary condition
at each time step t in Eq. 6.
3 Analysis Conditions and Prediction Data
3.1 Analytical Flow
The analytical flow is illustrated in Fig. 1. First, forecasts were made for sea wind
ratio, wind speed, and distance to coastline. The individual projections were then
synthesized into a set of prediction scenarios. Next, for each scenario, the surface
chloride concentrations were calculated at each time step, and the diffusion in concrete
was simulated using the surface concentrations and structural characteristics. This was
repeated for the whole analysis period. Finally, the chloride concentration at the depth
of reinforcement at the end of the analysis period was compared with the limit to
initiate corrosion.
3.2 Characteristics of the Target Structure
A hypothetical, newly constructed concrete bridge on the coastline of the Ishikari

region of Hokkaido, Japan, was adopted as the target structure. The material and
structural characteristics are summarized in Table 2. The chloride ion concentration
limit to initiate corrosion (Clim) was estimated using Eq. 3, and the chloride ion
diffusion coefficient (D) was calculated using Eqs. 4 and 5. The analytical period
was set to a 50-year service life, beginning in 2020.
3.3 Forecast Data for Sea Wind Ratio, Wind Speed,

and Distance to Coastline
The conditions and methods for creating the forecast data are summarized in
Table 3. Historical data on wind speed and wind direction for coastal Ishikari from
1980 to 2018 were collected from the Japan Meteorological Agency. The data were
segmented into three-month periods considering the regional seasonal changes
(Dec.-Jan.-Feb., Mar.-Apr.-May, June-July-Aug., Sep.-Oct.-Nov.), and the
three-month averages were calculated for each year.
Forecasting was carried out by fitting a second order polynomial curve to the
historical data from 1980 to 2018 with a target value in 2070. As it is unknown how
the environment will change in the future, three target values were set in 2070
according to the maximum, average, and minimum values from the 1980 to 2018
period (Fig. 2(a)). Forecast values for each three-month period for the 2020 to 2070
analysis period were then calculated, and combining the values of all periods for
each year created continuous forecast data. These are shown in Fig. 2(b) and 2(c)
for sea wind ratio and wind speed, respectively.
The distance from the hypothetical bridge in Ishikari to the coastline was cal-
culated using a geographic information system for the 50-year analysis period
beginning in 2020. However, the coastline was recalculated each year based on
projected global sea level rise data reported by IPCC using two sea level rise
Prediction scenarios for 2020 to 2070 Surface chloride Chloride diffusion progress in Comparison with
based on projected environmental data concentrations for concrete from 2020 to 2070 concentration limit to
→ Wind speed u, sea wind ratio r, each time step t For t=1 → Equation 1 initiate corrosion
distance to coastline d → Equation 9 For t>1 → Equation 6 → Equation 2
Fig. 1 Analytical flow

Table 2 Assumed material and structural characteristics

Cement Water-cement Cover depth Design service Clim D (cm2/
type ratio (%) (mm) life (years) (kg/m3) year)
OPC 50 50 50 1.9 1.65
Table 3 Conditions and methods for forecasting change

Items Forecasting method Target or
condition
Sea wind ratio, Fitting 2nd order polynomial curve to historical data and Maximum
Wind speed forecast target value Average
Minimum
Distance to Calculate distance using GIS and simulating coastal IPCC
coastline erosion due to sea level rise RCP8.5
IPCC
RCP2.6
6.0 0.7
Maximum Maximum
5.0 0.6
Average
Sea wind ratio
Wind speed (m/s)
0.5
4.0
Average 0.4
3.0
0.3
Minimum
2.0
0.2
1.0 Historical data Forecast data 0.1 Minimum
0.0 0.0
1980 2000 2020 2040 2060 2080 2020 2030 2040 2050 2060 2070
Year Year
(a) Example of forecasting for MAM period (b) Sea wind ratio, r
7.0 482
Maximum
480 RCP2.6
Distance to coastline (m)
6.0
Average 478
Wind speed (m/s)
5.0
476
4.0
474
3.0
472
2.0 RCP8.5
470
1.0 Minimum 468
0.0 466
2020 2030 2040 2050 2060 2070 2020 2030 2040 2050 2060 2070
Year Year
(c) Wind speed, r (d) Distance to coastline, d
Fig. 2 Example of forecasting method and forecast changes in the environmental conditions at the
target site from 2020 to 2070
scenarios: RCP8.5 and RCP2.6. The forecast change in the distance to coastline is
shown in Fig. 2(d), with an initial distance of 479 m in 2020.
3.4 Surface Chloride Concentration Prediction Scenarios
The forecast data for sea wind ratio, wind speed, and distance to coastline were
synthesized as shown in Fig. 3 to produce 18 prediction scenarios for the surface
chloride concentration. Each scenario reflects a different potential combination of
future environmental conditions that may lead to varying surface chloride con-
centrations. However, as there are no means to assess the likelihood of each
individual combination, prediction of chloride diffusion over the 50-year period was
carried out for all 18 scenarios following the flow in Fig. 1.
4.1 Chloride Diffusion Prediction Results by Analytical

Scenario
The predicted chloride ion concentrations at the reinforcement depth for the 18
prediction scenarios over the 50-year period are shown in Fig. 4. The scenarios in
the legend are arranged in descending order according to their values in 2070.
First, it can be seen that no scenario reaches the estimated Clim of 1.9 kg/m3;
indeed, no concentration even exceeds 1.0 kg/m3 by the end of the analysis period,
with the most severe projection scenario (max/max/8.5) only reaching 0.917 kg/m3
after 50 years. Although the increases in wind speed (3.57 m/s to 5.24 m/s) and sea
wind ratio (40.8% to 53.6%) in this scenario are relatively large compared to their
initial values, the distance from coastline only decreases by approximately 5 meters
due to the local geography and resolution of the geospatial data used in this
analysis. Furthermore, the initial distance from the coastline is approximately 500
meters, so the change in distance due to sea level rise is relatively small. As a result,
it is concluded that the impacts of global warming on concrete structures at the site
Distance to Prediction
Sea wind ratio Wind speed
coastline scenarios
Maximum Maximum Max/Max/8.5

RCP8.5
Max/Max/2.6
Average Average
RCP2.6
Minimum Minimum 18 scenarios
Fig. 3 Combining forecast data to synthesize prediction scenarios

1.0
max / max / 8.5
0.9 max / max / 2.6
Chlroide concentration C (t, 50), kg/m3
max / ave / 8.5

0.8 max / ave / 2.6
ave / max / 8.5
0.7 ave / max / 2.6
min / max / 8.5
0.6
min / max / 2.6
0.5 ave / ave / 8.5
ave / ave / 2.6
0.4 max / min / 8.5
max / min / 2.6
0.3 min / ave / 8.5
min / ave / 2.6
0.2
ave / min / 8.5
0.1 ave / min / 2.6
min / min / 8.5
0.0 min / min / 2.6
2020 2030 2040 2050 2060 2070
Year
Fig. 4 Predicted change in chloride concentration at reinforcement depth over 50-year analysis
period (Scenario key: sea wind ratio/wind speed/sea level rise)
in Ishikari, Hokkaido, are not so severe due to the distance from the coastline and
the relatively small change in this distance due to sea level rise.
Although none of the projection scenarios resulted in chloride concentrations
that exceeded the limit necessary to induce reinforcement corrosion, considering the
analysis assumptions and limitations it cannot be concluded that the risk from
global warming is zero. First, all variables used the average values, so the chloride
concentration at the reinforcement depth also represents an average condition.
However, infrastructure management should take into consideration the risk that
may occur due to variability of the design, construction, and exposure conditions. In
this case, a probabilistic approach would be useful to consider the uncertainty of
various factors, such as the annual variability in sea wind ratio and wind speed. The
previous literature has demonstrated such an approach by utilizing Monte Carlo
simulation to probabilistically model chloride-induced reinforcement corrosion.
Applying a similar approach to the method utilized in this paper, together with
statistical distributions of the wind speed, sea wind ratio, distance from coastline,
and other influencing variables, could obtain a more accurate representation of the
risk to concrete structures associated with global warming.
4.2 Quantifying the Impact of Global Warming

and Variable Chloride Exposure
Another means for examining the impact of global warming on concrete structures,
although still deterministic, is to compare the chloride diffusion considering vari-
able conditions with the diffusion calculated by the conventional approach. Three
situations were compared: diffusion under variable surface chloride concentration
using the “max/max/8.5” prediction scenario; diffusion under constant surface
concentration calculated from the 2020 environmental data and Eq. 9; and diffusion
under constant surface concentration using the value specified for the Ishikari site
per the JSCE Standard Specification (Table 1). The two scenarios with constant
surface concentrations modeled diffusion using Eq. 1, while the scenario with
variable surface concentration used Eq. 6. The calculation results are shown in
Fig. 5.
It can be seen that the constant surface concentration calculated from the 2020
data is less than the value suggested by the Standard Specification; consequently,
the calculated chloride concentration at the reinforcement depth at the end of the
analysis period is higher when following the Standard Specification. The surface
chloride concentration calculated from the 2020 data is also less than the variable
surface concentration, which fluctuates seasonally but increases over time; subse-
quently, the chloride concentration at the reinforcement under the variable condi-
tion after 50 years is also greater than that under the constant condition.
As the Standard Specification assumes a comparatively extreme prediction of the
chloride diffusion, material and structural design following this result will be more
conservative. The ratio of the prediction result for the chloride concentration at the
reinforcement depth by the Standard Specification to that of other methods can
therefore be considered as a kind of safety factor for durability design. From the
preceding, the safety factors relative to the constant surface chloride concentration
based on the 2020 data and the variable surface chloride concentration were
2.5 1.6
Chloride conentration C(50,t), kg/m3
Surface chloride conc. C(0,t), kg/m3
Constant, JSCE Standard Specification (Table 1)

Constant, JSCE Standard Specification (Table 1) 1.4
2.0
1.2
Variable, calculated from yearly data Variable, calculated
1.5 1.0 from yearly data
0.8
1.0 0.6
Constant, calculated from 2020 data
Constant, calculated from 2020 data
0.4
0.5
0.2
0.0 0.0
2020 2030 2040 2050 2060 2070 2020 2030 2040 2050 2060 2070
Year Year
(a) Surface concentration (b) Concentration at reinforcement depth
Fig. 5 Comparison of surface chloride concentrations and chloride concentrations at the

reinforcement depth for three analytical scenarios over a 50-year period
calculated as 1.74 and 1.52, respectively. It can thus be seen that the impact of
global warming - as represented by the variable surface chloride concentration -
reduces the safety factor by around 12.5% for the projection scenario demonstrated
here. Consequently, it can be concluded that not considering these impacts may
lead to overestimation of the safety factor for durability against chloride diffusion
and reinforcement corrosion.
5 Conclusions
This study aimed to improve the evaluation of the impacts of global warming on
concrete structures by developing a new analytical method that considers
non-constant surface chloride exposure caused by sea level rise and climate change.
This method was then demonstrated through the analysis of a hypothetical concrete
bridge in Hokkaido, Japan, using an ensemble of prediction scenarios based on
forecast environmental data and simulated coastline erosion. Although none of the
prediction scenarios resulted in chloride concentrations that could initiate rein-
forcement corrosion by the end of the 50-year analysis period, it was concluded that
not considering the impacts of global warming could lead to an overestimation of
the safety factor for durability against chloride diffusion. The proposed analytical
method may be improved by obtaining more accurate projections for the changes in
sea wind ratio, wind speed, and coastal distance; utilizing a scientific model to
calculate surface chloride concentration from the environmental data; including
other temporal changes, such as in material properties; and integrating these into a
comprehensive, probabilistic durability assessment framework.
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Sulfuric Acid Resistance of Cement
Pastes Containing Fly Ash
and Limestone Powder
S. Wanna, W. Saengsoy, P. Toochinda, and S. Tangtermsirikul
Abstract This research studies the deterioration in sulfuric acid solution (pH 1) of
cement pastes incorporating fly ash and limestone powder. Two types of fly ashes,
with high CaO and low CaO contents, as well as limestone powder were used as
cement replacements in binary and ternary binder systems. The replacement per-
centages were 30% of total binder for binary binder paste with fly ashes and 10% of
total binder for binary binder paste with limestone powder. In the case of ternary
binder paste, the contents of OPC, fly ash, and limestone powder were 70%, 20%,
and 10% by weight of total binders, respectively. The cement paste specimens were
immersed in sulfuric acid solution for 420 days and their weight changes were
measured every week during the test period. The test results indicated that the use
of fly ashes significantly improves the resistance of cement pastes against sulfuric
acid attack while limestone powder can slightly decrease the deterioration of paste
in sulfuric acid solution when compared to OPC paste. In addition, it was found that
the low CaO fly ash is more effective for enhancing the sulfuric acid resistance of
cement pastes than the high CaO fly ash. Moreover, the combination of fly ash and
limestone powder in the ternary binder paste provides a satisfactory performance in
sulfuric acid resistance and is better than the OPC paste and the binary binder paste
S. Wanna S. Tangtermsirikul
of Technology (SIIT), Thammasat University, Pathum Thani, Thailand
e-mail: w.surachet24@gmail.com
S. Tangtermsirikul
e-mail: somnuk@siit.tu.ac.th
W. Saengsoy (&)
Construction and Maintenance Technology Research Center (CONTEC) School of Civil
Engineering and Technology, Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology (SIIT),
Thammasat University, Pathum Thani, Thailand
e-mail: warangkana@siit.tu.ac.th
P. Toochinda
School of Bio-Chemical Engineering and Technology, Sirindhorn International Institute of
Technology (SIIT), Thammasat University, Pathum Thani, Thailand
e-mail: pisanu@siit.tu.ac.th

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_184
2002 S. Wanna et al.
with limestone powder, but is slightly less effective than the binary binder pastes
with fly ashes.
Keywords Sulfuric acid resistance Fly ash Limestone powder Weight loss
Cement paste
1 Introduction
Concrete structures such as sewer structures are frequently exposed to aggressive

environment, especially sulfuric acid attack. Sewage system is a system that has to
face with an acidic environment. Sulfate in the waste water is generally converted
by bacteria in the water to form hydrogen sulfide gas. Finally, hydrogen sulfide
becomes sulfuric acid that causes erosion of concrete above the wastewater surface
in the sewage system [5]. The mechanism of deterioration between sulfates and
acids in sewers are different, especially sulfuric acid is severer than sulfates. Today,
many concrete mixtures contain supplementary cementitious materials that can be
used for improving concrete performances in fresh and hardened states, for
example, to enhance performance against aggressive environment attack.
Fly ash is one of the supplementary cementitious materials which has been
widely used to improve various properties of concrete and also provides economic
and environmental benefits [1, 3]. Fly ash as a pozzolanic material contains high
silica that reacts with calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) to produce new calcium silicate
hydrate (CSH). Concrete blended with pozzolans will have high strength in long
term but some disadvantages of concrete with pozzolans are low compressive
strength at early ages and delay of setting time. So, the idea of using limestone
powder to partially replace fly ash was primarily aimed to solve the early age
strength development problem and to seek for new alternative usages [6]. Concrete
is susceptible to attack by acids in wastewater while repair and maintenance of the
damaged sewer system is difficult. Even though, concrete is enhanced by supple-
mentary materials such as fly ash or limestone powder, still it will deteriorate by
sulfuric acid attack. So, studying mechanisms of acid attack on concrete in sewer
structures will provide the information which will be useful for designing the
structures to have long service life. It is necessary to understand the mechanism of
the reaction of concrete with acid when exposed to the acidic environment. So, one
of the aims of this research, is to study the mechanism of the deterioration in
sulfuric acid solution (pH 1) of cement pastes incorporating fly ash and limestone
powder. These data are useful for the design of proper mix proportion of concrete to
resist aggressive acid attack in the future.
Sulfuric Acid Resistance of Cement Pastes Containing Fly Ash … 2003
2 Materials and Experimental Procedure
2.1 Materials
The Portland cements used in this study were Ordinary Portland cement type 1,
Thailand which followed ASTM standards C150 and Thai Industrial Standard (TIS
15). In case of cement replacing materials, this study used two different types of fly
ash, one from Mae Moh electric power plant of the Electricity Generating Authority
of Thailand (EGAT) in Lampang province, northern of Thailand that produces fly
ash with high CaO content, and another one from BLCP Power Co., Ltd. in Rayong
province, eastern of Thailand that produces fly ash with low CaO content. All of the
fly ashes followed Thai Industrial Standard (TIS 2135–2545). Limestone powder
which was used in this experiment had a mean particle size of 8 micron and was
provided by Surint Omya Company, Thailand. Chemical compositions and physical
properties of each binder are shown in Table 1. The Mae Moh fly ash
(FAM) contained high calcium oxide (CaO) content of 13.63%, and so is classified
as TIS 2135-2545 class 2b. On the other hand, BLCP fly ash (FAR) contained low
calcium oxide (CaO) content of 2.32%, which is classified as TIS 2135-2545 class
2a. In case of physical properties, the Blaine fineness and particle size are
2,460 cm2/g and 17.74 microns for FAM and are 3,400 cm2/g and 15.91 microns
for FAR, respectively.
Table 1 Chemical compositions and physical properties of Portland cement type 1, limestone
powder, and fly ashes
Chemical Portland cement Limestone Fly ash
composition type1 (C) powder (LP) Mae Moh BLCP
(% by weight) (FAM) (FAR)
SiO2 19.70 0.46 40.93 61.91
Al2O3 5.19 0.06 22.42 20.35
Fe2O3 3.34 0.03 13.64 5.20
CaO 64.80 55.25 13.63 2.32
MgO 1.20 0.37 2.93 1.35
Na2O 0.16 0.01 0.89 0.79
K2O 0.44 0.01 2.39 1.36
SO3 2.54 0.01 1.93 0.28
Free lime 0.87 – 0.22 0.19
LOI 2.10 43.79 0.46 5.68
Specific gravity 3.13 2.70 2.26 2.16
Blaine fineness 3,660 7,500 2,460 3,400
(cm2/g)
Mean diameter 15.41 8.00 17.74 15.91
(µm)
2.2 Experimental Procedure
2.2.1 Mix Proportion
There were 12 different mixtures for the experiment. The cement paste mixtures
were designed with w/b ratios of 0.25 and 0.40. The percentages of cement
replacing materials (CRMs) in binary binders were 30% for each type of fly ash
(FAM or FAR) and was 10% for limestone powder. In ternary binder case, fly ash
and limestone powder were used to replace cement at 20% and 10% of total binder,
respectively. The mix proportions are given in Table 2. All of the mixtures were
cast to obtain cube specimens (50 50 50 mm.) following ASTM standard
C109. Each test specimen was removed from the mold one day after casting, then
cured in lime water for 28 days before exposed to sulfuric acid solutions with a pH
of 1.
Table 2 Mix proportions of cement paste specimens

Mix Mix designation w/b Mix proportion of cement paste (ratio by weight)
Cement Fly ash Limestone
(C) FAM FAR powder (LP)
(High (Low
CaO) CaO)
1 C100 W0.25 0.25 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
2 C 100 W0.40 0.40 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
3 C70FAM30 0.25 0.7 0.3 0.0 0.0
W0.25
4 C70FAM30 0.40 0.7 0.3 0.0 0.0
W0.40
5 C70FAR30 0.25 0.7 0.0 0.3 0.0
W0.25
6 C70FAR30 0.40 0.7 0.0 0.3 0.0
W0.40
7 C 90LP10 W0.25 0.25 0.9 0.0 0.0 0.1
8 C90LP10 W0.40 0.40 0.9 0.0 0.0 0.1
9 C70FAM20LP10 0.25 0.7 0.2 0.0 0.1
W0.25
10 C70FAM20LP10 0.40 0.7 0.2 0.0 0.1
W0.40
11 C70FAR20LP10 0.25 0.7 0.0 0.2 0.1
W0.25
12 C70FAR20LP10 0.40 0.7 0.0 0.2 0.1
W0.40
2.2.2 Acidic Environment Preparation
To simulate acidic environment, the acid solution was prepared by using sulfuric
acid (95–97%, EMSURE of Merck) dissolved in reverse osmosis water to obtain a
solution with a pH of 1. The pH of sulfuric acid solutions was controlled at 1
throughout the test period.
2.2.3 Weight Change Calculation
After curing in lime water for 28 days, each sample was measured to obtain initial
weight before immersing the cement samples in the sulfuric acid solution. The
cement samples were brought out to record the weight change every week. Before
weighting, the cement samples were washed by water and brushed with a soft brush
to eliminate the unsounds and dried by clean towel. After that, weights of the
specimens were measured. The weight change can be calculated as shown in Eq. 1.
The weight loss of each cement paste specimen was calculated from the average
weight loss of three specimens.
Weight loss; in percentage ¼ ½ðwt wi Þ=wi 100 % ð1Þ
where; wt = weight of the paste sample after immersion in the sulfuric acid solution
(g).
wi = weight of the paste sample before immersion in the sulfuric acid solution
(g).
2.2.4 Analysis of Compounds on the Specimen Surface After Acid

Attack
The surface structure of each cement paste sample was analyzed to find reaction
products after having been immersed in the sulfuric acid solution for 30 days. The
specimens were washed with water, brushed, dried, and then left at room temper-
ature for 24 h. After that, the powders that were scraped from the specimen surface
were dried at 60°C in a desiccator for 5 h to eliminate moisture. The dried speci-
mens were ground to a particle size range of 45–75 lm by a planetary ball mill. The
ground sample was mixed with corundum as an internal standard with a ground
powder to corundum ratio of 9:1 by weight. The mixed samples were characterized
using XRD technique (XRD, Bruker D4 Endeavor with Cu ka1 radiation at 35 kV
and 45 mA, 5° to 70° 2 theta, 0.02° step size, and 0.2 s). EVA software was used to
identify the compounds in the sample, and Rietveld analysis of the XRD pattern of
each sample was used to quantify the amount of each compound.
Sulfuric acid resistance of cement pates containing fly ash and limestone powder of
this research was studied by comparing weight loss of samples immersed in sulfuric
acid solution for 420 days.
3.1 Effect of Fly Ash and Limestone Powder on Sulfuric

Acid Resistance
3.1.1 Binary Binder
Figures 1a and 1b show the weight loss of binary binder pastes with w/b of 0.25
and 0.40, respectively, exposed to the sulfuric acid solution for 420 days. The
results show similar trend that both fly ashes, FAM and FAR, can improve the
resistance to sulfuric acid attack of the paste specimens. The results of the weight
loss for paste specimens show small differences up to the first 30 days. However,
clear differences were observed after that. The control paste specimen, C100,
showed the highest weight loss. Moreover, the control specimens, C100, with a w/b
of 0.25 were completely disintegrated at 300 days of immersion. The next was
C90LP10 with a w/b of 0.25 which was completely disintegrated at 330 days of
immersion. In contrast, the resistance to sulfuric acid attack was improved when fly
ashes were used. The mix C70FAR30 showed the lowest weight loss which was
followed by the mix C70FAM30. In case of different type of fly ash, fly ash with
low CaO (FAR) shows better performance than fly ash with high CaO (FAM).
Moreover, the weight loss of specimens with a w/b of 0.40 is lower than that of the
specimens with a w/b of 0.25. The specimens with a lower w/b ratio showed higher
degradation than those with a higher w/b ratio. This was reported to be due to the
larger pore sizes and the higher number of pores in the paste with a higher water to
C100 w/b 0.25 C90LP10 w/b 0.25 C100 w/b 0.40 C90LP10 w/b 0.40
C70FAM30 w/b 0.25 C70FAR30 w/b 0.25 C70FAM30 w/b 0.40 C70FAR30 w/b 0.40
40
40
w/b of 0.25 20 w/b of 0.40
20
Wwight Change (%)
Weight Change (%)
0
0
-20 -20
-40 -40
-60 -60
-80 -80
-100 -100
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360 390 420 0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360 390 420
(a) w/b of 0.25 (b) w/b of 0.40
Fig. 1 Weight loss of binary binder pastes immersed in sulfuric acid solution pH of 1 for
420 days
binder ratio. These characteristics provide more space to accommodate the

expansion product, which is mainly gypsum [4, 7].
3.1.2 Comparison Between Binary Binder Pastes and Ternary Binder

Pastes
Figures 2a and 2b show weight loss comparison of binary binder pastes and ternary
binder paste with FAM. C100 still shows highest weight loss, followed by
C90LP10. It should be noted that the two mixtures with FAM, both binary and
ternary (C70FAM30 and C70FAM20LP10), show very similar weight loss, which
is lower than that of the C100 and C90LP10.
Figures 3a and 3b show weight loss comparison of binary binder pastes and
ternary binder paste with FAR. The mixture C100 still shows highest weight loss,
followed by C90LP10. In case of w/b of 0.25, the two mixtures with FAR, both
binary and ternary (C70FAR30 and C70FAR20LP10), show small differences of
weight loss. However, for w/b of 0.40, C70FAR30 shows slightly better perfor-
mance than C70FAR20LP10.
These results can be explained that the use of fly ash can improve the resistance
of cement pastes to sulfuric acid attack because of the ability of fly ash to reduce the
amount of calcium hydroxide, which over time is vulnerable to sulfuric acid attack.
Degradation by sulfuric acid attack begins when the sulfate ions react with calcium
ions to mainly form gypsum, causing expansion. The mechanism of sulfuric acid
attack in paste specimens is shown by the following chemical reactions [9].
CaðOHÞ2 þ H2 SO4 ! CaSO4 2H2 O ð2Þ
3CaO Al2 O3 12H2 O þ 3ðCaSO4 2H2 OÞ þ 14H2 O

! 3CaO Al2 O3 3CaSO4 32H2 O ð3Þ
CaO SiO2 2H2 O þ H2 SO4 ! CaSO4 þ SiðOHÞ4 þ H2 O ð4Þ
C70FAM30 w/b 0.25 C70FAM20LP10 w/b 0.25 C70FAM30 w/b 0.40 C70FAM20LP10 w/b 0.40
40 40
20 w/b of 0.25 20 w/b of 0.40
Weight Change (%)
Weight Change (%)
0 0
-20 -20
-40 -40
-60 -60
-80 -80
-100 -100
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360 390 420 0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360 390 420
(a) w/b of 0.25 (b) w/b of 0.40
Fig. 2 Weight loss of binary binder pastes compared with ternary binder pastes (FAM system)
C70FAR20LP10 w/b 0.25 C70FAR30 w/b 0.25 C70FAR20LP10 w/b 0.40 C70FAR30 w/b 0.40
40
40
20 w/b of 0.25 w/b of 0.40
20
Weight Change (%)
Weight Change (%)

0 0
-20 -20
-40 -40
-60 -60
-80 -80
-100
-100 0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360 390 420
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360 390 420
(a) w/b of 0.25 (b) w/b of 0.40
Fig. 3 Weight loss of binary binder pastes compared with ternary binder pastes (FAR system)
From the above mechanism, fly ash can decrease the weight loss of cement paste
specimens in sulfuric acid solution by decreasing the amount of calcium hydroxide.
However, in addition to the benefits of fly ash to decrease calcium hydroxide
(CH) amount, it also produces a stronger calcium silicate structure against the acid
attack. This was confirmed by a previous research which reported that C-S-H
produced by pozzolanic reactions of SCMs has a different structure and calcium to
silicate ratio (CaO/SiO2 of below 1.0) from that of the conventional C-S-H (CaO/
SiO2 of about 3.0) produced by OPC hydration [2].
3.2 CaO to SiO2 Ratio of Mixtures
The calcium to silicate ratio of the mixture (CaO/SiO2) was calculated using Eq. 5.

CaO ðCaOc Wc Þ þ CaOf Wf
¼ ð5Þ
SiO2 ðSiO2c Wc Þ þ SiO2f Wf
where CaOc and CaOf are percentages of CaO in the cement and fly ash, respec-
tively (%). SiO2c and SiO2f are percentages of SiO2 in the cement and fly ash,
respectively (%). Wc and Wf are unit weight of cement and fly ash in the mixture,
respectively (kg/m3).
The relationship between the CaO/SiO2 ratio, which was calculated from the
chemical composition of all binders in the tested mixtures, and the weight loss after
240 days of immersion, is shown in Fig. 4a and Fig. 4b. Though the CaO/SiO2
ratio computed from Eq. 5 is different from the CaO/SiO2 ratio of the C-S-H, they
are correlated. It was observed that the incorporation of FAR and FAM in the pastes
results in lower CaO/SiO2 ratios when compared to the ratio of the control mixture.
The CaO/SiO2 ratio of the C100 and C90LP10 mixture are 3.29. It is noted here that
the contribution of limestone powder in the CaO/SiO2 ratio was still not considered
here. The fly ash replacement decreases the CaO/SiO2 ratio to 1.42 for
CaO/SiO2 ratio CaO/SiO2 ratio

0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50
40.00
40.00
C70FAR30 C70FAR20LP10
20.00
20.00
0.00
Weight loss (%)
Weight loss (%)

0.00
C70FAM20LP10
-20.00 C70FAM30
C70FAR20LP10 -20.00 C90LP10
-40.00 C70FAR30 C70FAM20LP10 -40.00
C70FAM30
-60.00 The deterioratiobn of low CaO/SiO2 C100
-60.00
The deterioratiobn of low CaO/SiO2 ratio mixtures like sheet or plate
-80.00 ratio mixtures like sheet or plate C90LP10 -80.00
C100
-100.00 -100.00 The deterioratiobn of high
The deterioratiobn of high CaO/SiO2 ratio mixtures like clay
CaO/SiO2 ratio mixtures like clay
(a) w/b of 0.25 (b) w/b of 0.40
Fig. 4 Relationship between weight loss and CaO/SiO2 ratio
C70FAMR30, 1.75 for C70FAR20LP10, 1.90 for C70FAM30 and 2.19 for
C70FAM20LP10.
Regarding CaO/SiO2 ratios, Fig. 4 shows that a mix with a lower CaO/SiO2 ratio
has a lower weight loss than that with a higher CaO/SiO2 ratio. For the mixtures
with fly ashes, fly ashes improve the bonding capacity of the C-S-H structure in the
long term. Moreover, low calcium oxide (CaO) and high silica dioxide (SiO2)
contents in fly ashes can contribute to a higher acid resistance of paste specimens as
silica is a strong compound which is hard to deteriorate in acid and sulfate solution
attack [8].
3.3 Characteristics of the Deterioration of Specimen

in Sulfuric Acid Solution
Figures 5a and 5b show that C100 and C90LP10 specimens disintegrate into
clay-like particles. For fly ash replaced specimens, the deterioration of the paste
surface was in the form of a surface hard layer as shown in Figs. 5c and 5d. To
analyze the actual products of reactions of the cement paste with the sulfuric acid,
the unsound portions (both the clay-like material and the hard layer on the surfaces
of the specimens in Fig. 5) were removed. After that, the specimen surfaces were
scraped to obtained samples for XRD analysis. A quantitative analysis to obtain the
amount of gypsum on the surface of paste specimens with a w/b of 0.25 is shown in
Fig. 6. The figure shows that the amount of gypsum of specimens with C70FAR30
is the lowest, 58.67%, due to cement dilution and pozzolanic reaction effects,
followed by C70FAM30, 67.12%. Next is the group of ternary binder pastes,
67.79% for C70FAR20LP10 and 72.34% for C70FAM20LP10. The amounts of
gypsum of C90LP10 and C100 are 75.12% and 75.79%, respectively. The char-
acteristics of the deterioration of paste specimens due to sulfuric acid attack was
(a) C100 (b) C90LP10 (c) C70FAM30 (d) C70FAR30
Fig. 5 The deterioration of specimen in sulfuric acid solution

Amount of gypsum(%)
100
75.79 75.12 72.34
80 67.12 67.79
58.67
60
40
20
0
C100 C90LP10 C70FAM30 C70FAR30 C70FAM20LP10 C70FAR20LP10
Fig. 6 Amount of gypsum of paste specimens after immersed in sulfuric acid solution for 30 days
found to correlate well with CaO/SiO2 ratios, as shown in Fig. 4. It was found that
the group of low CaO/SiO2 ratios show the deterioration in form of a hard layer. On
the other hand, the group of high CaO/SiO2 ratios shows the deterioration in form
of clay-like material.
4 Conclusions
From the above discussion, the tested low CaO fly ash (FAR) is more effective for
enhancing the sulfuric acid resistance of the pastes than the high CaO fly ash
(FAM), mainly due to three reasons. First, low CaO fly ash mixtures have a lower
Ca(OH)2 content than the high CaO fly ash mixtures. Second, the pozzolanic
reaction of low CaO fly ash produces C-S-H with a lower CaO/SiO2 ratio than high
CaO fly ash does. Third, less gypsum is produced when the mixtures incorporate
low CaO fly ash. The characteristics of the deterioration of specimen in sulfuric acid
solution depend on CaO/SiO2 ratios that low CaO/SiO2 ratios show the deterio-
ration in form of a hard layer, while high CaO/SiO2 ratios shows the deterioration in
form of clay like material.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge the research support from the
National Research Council of Thailand and the Center of Excellence in Material Science
Construction and Maintenance Technology, Thammasat University.
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attack with consecutive pH reduction. Cem Concr Res 37(7):1070–1084
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Woodhead Publishing, Cambridge, pp 153–197
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accelerated biodeterioration test to understand the behavior of Portland and calcium aluminate
cementitious materials in sewer networks. Int Biodeterior Biodegradation 84:236–243
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ash and limestone powder. Songklanakarin J Sci Technol 36(5):569–576
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In: International Conference on Durability of Building Materials and Components, pp 17–20
8. Kunther W, Lothenbach B, Skibsted J (2015) Influence of the Ca/Si ratio of the C-S–H phase
on the interaction with sulfate ions and its impact on the ettringite crystallization pressure. Cem
Concr Res 69:37–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconres.2014.12.002
9. Monteny J, Vincke E, Beeldens A, De Belie N, Taerwe L, Van Gemert D, Verstraete W (2000)
Chemical, microbiological and in situ test method for biogenic sulfuric acid corrosion of
concrete. Cem Concr Res 30(4):623–634
Influence of PVA and PP Fibres
at Different Volume Fractions
on Mechanical Properties of 3D Printed
Concrete
Luong Pham, Xiaoshan Lin, R. J. Gravina, and Phuong Tran
Abstract This research primarily aims to investigate the effect of polyvinyl alcohol
(PVA) and polypropylene (PP) fibres at different volume fractions of 0.25, 0.5, 0.75
and 1% on mechanical properties of high-performance printing concrete. For
concrete without fibres, there is no noticeable discrepancy in the compressive
strengths between printed and cast specimens, which are around 90 MPa. In terms
of bending resistance, the flexural strength in direction Z (perpendicular to printing
direction) is 46% and 15% higher than that in direction X (parallel to printing
direction) and that of cast specimen, respectively. For fibre-reinforced concrete,
PVA and PP fibres at different contents lead to no positive impact on both com-
pressive and flexural strengths although specimens with PP fibres show less brittle
failure in these tests. Based on the experimental investigation, reinforcing printed
concrete with PVA and PP fibres with the length of 6 mm might not be recom-
mended. X-ray micro-computed tomography (Micro-CT) measurement is per-
formed for visualization of porosity.
Keywords 3D printed concrete Compressive strength Flexural strength,

Micro-CT
1 Introduction
Digital fabrication technology or 3D printing has increasingly become common-

place in many fields such as aerospace, automotive, sports, food industry, health-
care and medical, and other manufacturing industries. Recently, this advanced
technology has been intensively studied and applied for fabricating concrete
L. Pham X. Lin R. J. Gravina P. Tran (&)

Department of Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, RMIT University,
Melbourne, VIC, Australia
e-mail: jonathan.tran@rmit.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_185
2014 L. Pham et al.
structures. Compared to the conventional casting method, 3D concrete printing

offers some great advantages such as no formwork, fewer labours, less material
waste, and more freedom in designing and constructing complex structures [1, 2].
However, layer-by-layer deposition technique could lead to anisotropic mechanical
properties of 3D printed concrete, meaning different strengths in different direc-
tions [3]. This technique also is as a cause of weak interface bond between lay-
ers [4]. The use of high-performance concrete can offset these imperfections
existing in printed structures. Based on a literature review, it is found that polyvinyl
alcohol (PVA) and polypropylene (PP) fibres have certain advantages in the flexural
performance of concrete. Reinforcing concrete with PVA fibres could lead to an
improvement in flexural strength, ductility and fracture toughness [5], while PP
fibres also have significant benefits in bending resistance and failure patterns [6].
With the potential capacity to strengthen a concrete matrix, fibres could be an
important type of reinforcement in 3D printed concrete structures.
The current research is aimed to explore the influence of two types of fibres
namely PP and PVA with a length of 6 mm at different volume fractions on
the mechanical performance of printed concrete. Cast specimens for each mixture
are fabricated for comparison purposes. The flexural and compressive strength tests
are conducted for cast specimens and printed specimens in different loading
directions.
2.1 Material Preparation
The printable concrete needs to meet printing characteristics such as pumpability,

extrudability, buildability and reasonable open time. Therefore, the required
properties of fresh concrete for the printing technique are different from those for
the conventional casting method. In the present paper, printable concrete is
designed based on modifying the mixture of ultra-high performance concrete [7],
which is originally developed for the casting process. The modified mixture has the
same ratios of sand, ground slag, silica fume and water to cement as those in the
original mix. Instead of using superplasticizer alone, retarder is added in the mix to
delay the setting time of fresh concrete. By experimental investigation, the appro-
priate ratio of superplasticizer and retarder to cement by weight is selected. It should
be noticed that all mixtures are designed to meet buildability by printing a twisted
square vase, which is 798 mm height, as demonstrated in Fig. 1. The mix com-
positions are detailed in Table 1. There are nine mixes, including one mix without
Influence of PVA and PP Fibres at Different Volume Fractions … 2015
fibres and eight mixtures with PP and PVA fibres at different volumetric fractions
(0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1%).
Mixing procedure, as displayed in Table 2, is implemented by mixing all dry
powder materials in 5 min. After that two-third of water blended with superplas-
ticizer and retarder is poured into the pre-mixed materials, which are mixed for
12 min until the wet mix is consistent. Finally, fibres are added, and the mixing
process lasts for extra 3 min to distribute fibres evenly.
2.2 Specimen Preparation
Cubic specimens of 50 mm and prismatic specimens of 40 40 160 mm are

selected for compressive and flexural strength tests, respectively. Casting specimens
are implemented right after mixing, which are covered by plastic sheet for reducing
moisture loss. After one day, the samples are demolded and cured in water tank for
28 days.
The printed objects of 140 120 180 mm (height width length) and
180 120 140 mm (height width length) are selected as Fig. 2 based on
the capacity of extruder and the desired dimensions of extracted printed specimens.
These printed samples are cured in the lab conditions and then are cut into small
cubes of approximately 50 mm and prisms of around 40 40 160 mm for
compressive and flexural strength tests.
Table 1 Mix compositions

Materials Unit weight, kg/m®
MixO Mix Mix MixPVA- MixPVA-1% Mix MixPP- MixPP- MixPP-1%
PVA- PVA- 0.75% PP-0.25% 0.5% 0.75%
0.25% 0.5%
Cement 483 483 483 483 483 483 483 483 483
GP
Silica 268 268 268 268 268 268 268 268 268
fume
Ground 322 322 322 322 322 322 322 322 322
slag
Sand 1074 1074 1074 1074 1074 1074 1074 1074 1074
Water 182 182 182 182 182 182 182 182 182
PVA 3.25 6.5 9.75 13
PP 2.275 4.55 6.825 9.1
2016 L. Pham et al.
Table 2 Concrete mixing Procedure Time

procedure
Step 1: Dry mixing
Mix all powder materials 5 min
Step 2: Wet mixing
Add 2/3 water and all admixtures 2 min
Add the rest of water 3 min
Add clay 7 min
Step 3: Adding fibres and complete
Manually spray fibres 3 min
Total wet mixing time 15 min
Fig. 1 Layer build-up

capacity
3D Digital Model Printed Objects

Fig. 2 Printing path direction

and printed object
Fig. 3 Definition of loading

directions for compressive
and flexural strength tests
2.3 Mechanical Property Test
Dimensions and weights of cast and printed cubic samples are measured for cal-
culating density, which is defined as the weight per unit volume. The density of
2018 L. Pham et al.
each mix is averaged at least 6 samples out and densities of cast and printed
concrete are average values of all mixes with and without fibres.
Cast and printed cubic samples are tested for compressive strengths with a
loading rate of 900 N/s according to ASTM C109 by using a 1000 kN MTS
machine. Here, printed specimens are loaded into three different directions, as
defined in Fig. 3.
For flexural strengths, cast and printed prisms are tested under a loading rate of
20 N/s in accordance with ASTM C348. Two loading directions, namely direction
Z (D1) and direction X (D3), as illustrated in Fig. 3, are applied on printed
specimens.
X-ray micro-computed tomography testing, known as non-destructive detection
method, is carried out to visualize pores in the sample. Scanning parameters are
selected with a tube voltage of 175 kV, a tube current of 110 lm, a resolution of
40 lm. The sample is scanned for 50 min to collect 1500 radiography images.
3.1 Density
The density of printed specimens is 2300 kg/m3, which is slightly lower than the
value of 2350 kg/m3 for that of cast samples.
3.2 Compressive Strength Test
As demonstrated in Fig. 4, there is a slight difference in the compressive strengths

of cast and printed specimens without fibres in different loading directions, which
are approximately 90 MPa.
Figure 5a illustrates the effect of different volume fractions of PVA fibres on the
compressive strengths of both cast and printed specimens. For cast specimens, PVA
fibres with 0.25, 0.5 and 0.75% leads to an increase in the compressive strength by
8, 15 and 6%, respectively, but a significant decrease is found for 1% fibre content.
For printed specimens, the presence of PVA fibres brings about no improvement in
the compressive strengths in almost all directions; meanwhile, some positive
influences are observed in direction X. In general, the compressive strengths of
printed specimens in all loading directions are lower than those of their cast
counterpart, exclusive of specimens with 1% PVA fibres. Similar to PVA fibres,
adding PP fibres leads to a slight or moderate increase in the compressive strengths
of cast specimens; however, negative impacts are found on those of printed spec-
imens, as shown in Fig. 5b. Cast and printed samples with PVA fibres at 0.25%,
0.5% and 0.75% by volume have equal or higher compressive strengths than their
Fig. 4 Compressive
strengths of cast and printed
specimens without fibres
Fig. 5 Compressive strengths of all printed and cast specimens at different fibre contents: a PVA
fibres and b PP fibres
counterparts with PP fibres (except for 0.75% fibres in direction Y), as shown in
Fig. 6. On the contrary, cast and printed specimens with 1% by volume of PP fibres
demonstrate considerably higher compressive strengths than their PVA counterparts
(except for printed specimen in direction X).
2020 L. Pham et al.
Fig. 6 Comparison of compressive strengths of specimens with PVA and PP fibres: a Cast
specimens; b Printed specimens in direction Z; c Printed specimens in direction X; d Printed
specimens in direction Y
Fig. 7 Flexural strengths of

cast and printed specimens
without fibres
3.3 Flexural Strength Test
The flexural strength of cast specimens without fibres is 11 MPa relative to 7 MPa
and 13 MPa of its printed counterparts in direction X and Z, respectively
(Fig. 7), which agree with test results published by Le et al. [7] except for the
strength in direction Z. It can be seen in Fig. 8a that the addition of PVA fibres at
different volume fractions leads to no positive effect on the flexural strengths on
both cast and printed specimens.
Adding PP fibres at different contents results in almost no change in the flexural
strength in cast specimens, which is around 11 MPa, as exhibited in Fig. 8. There is
a slight difference in the flexural strengths of printed specimens with PP fibre at
0.25%, 0.5% and 0.75% tested in direction X, which are 28% higher than those of
samples without fibres. Meanwhile, 1% by volume of PP fibres increases the
flexural strength in this direction by 14%. In general, the flexural strengths in
direction X are lower than those in direction Z and those of cast specimens. The
result is understandable because the weakness at the interface between layers is
attributed to the layer-by-layer printing process [3, 8, 9]. Printed specimens with PP
fibres in direction Z have higher flexural strengths than their cast counterparts.
Only 0.5% by volume of PP fibres leads to an increase in the flexural strength in
direction Z compared to its counterpart without fibres.
Figures 9 and 10 show that the flexural strengths of both cast and printed
specimens adding PP fibres are higher than those with PVA fibres in all directions
at any fibre content except for in the case of 1% fibre content (Fig. 7).
Fig. 8 Flexural strengths of all printed and cast specimens at different fibre contents: a PVA fibres
and b PP fibres
2022 L. Pham et al.
flexural strengths of cast
specimens with PVA and PP
fibres
3.4 X-Ray Micro-Computed Tomography Result
Figure 11 illustrates the pore distribution of a printed specimen without fibres,

which has 9.63% pore content with the volumes ranging from 5E + 6 lm3 to
1.21E + 10 lm3.
Fig. 10 Comparison of flexural strengths of printed specimens with PVA and PP fibres: a Printed
specimens in direction Z; b Printed specimens in direction X
Fig. 11 Pore distribution of printed sample without fibres. 2D images presenting all pores and 3D
images presenting pores with the diameter above 2 mm
4 Conclusions
The compressive strengths of printed samples without fibres are relatively similar to
their cast counterpart. As anticipated, printed specimens without fibres tested in
direction Z have higher flexural strengths than cast specimens and printed speci-
mens in direction X. The addition of PVA and PP fibres have some positive impacts
on the compressive and flexural strengths of printed specimens, but more negative
influences are found. Specimens with PP fibres show less catastrophic failure in
comparison with specimens with PVA fibres. Based on these experimental results,
using PVA and PP fibres with 6 mm length for reinforcing high-performance
printing concrete needs to be reconsidered. The research contributes to the under-
standing of the influence of PVA and PP fibres on the material properties of printed
objects.
2024 L. Pham et al.
References
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information technologies. Autom Constr 13:5–19
3. Le TT et al (2012) Hardened properties of high-performance printing concrete. Cem Concr Res
42:558–566
4. Kazemian A, Yuan X, Cochran E, Khoshnevis B (2017) Cementitious materials for
construction-scale 3D printing: Laboratory testing of fresh printing mixture. Constr Build
Mate 145:639–647
5. Thong CC, Teo DCL, Ng CK (2016) Application of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) in cement-based
composite materials: A review of its engineering properties and microstructure behaviour.
Construction and Building Materials 107:172–180
6. Nili M, Afroughsabet V (2010) The effects of silica fume and polypropylene fibers on the
impact resistance and mechanical properties of concrete. Constr Build Mater 24:927–933
7. Wu Z, Shi C, He W, Wang D (2017) Static and dynamic compressive properties of ultra-high
performance concrete (UHPC) with hybrid steel fiber reinforcements. Cem Concr Compos
79:148–157
8. Feng P, Meng X, Chen J-F, Ye L (2015) Mechanical properties of structures 3D printed with
cementitious powders. Constr Build Mater 93:486–497
9. Nerella VN, Hempel S, Mechtcherine V (2019) Effects of layer-interface properties on
mechanical performance of concrete elements produced by extrusion-based 3D-printing. Const
Build Mater 205:586–601
Fatigue Behavior of Air-Entrained High
Strength Concrete with Blast Furnace
Slag Fine Aggregates Under Freezing
and Thawing
M. A. Farooq, Y. Sato, K. Niitani, and H. Yokota
Abstract This experimental study investigates the compressive fatigue behavior of

air-entrained (AE) concrete with blast furnace slag (BFS) fine aggregates subjected
to freeze-thaw cycles (FTC). The fatigue tests were carried out on cylindrical
specimens of intact and frost-damaged AEBFS concrete and the results are com-
pared with those of AE high strength (HS) normal concrete using crushed sand. The
strain measurements are used to discuss the damage progress under fatigue loading.
The results reveal that although the static compressive strength of AEBFS concrete
is slightly less than AEHSN concrete, the fatigue life of AEBFS concrete is longer
than that of AEHSN concrete. No significant effect of FTC is found on the fatigue
behavior of each concrete due to very low frost damage. Moreover, it is found that
overall the fatigue life of AEHS concrete is longer than that of non-AE high
strength concrete from literature and this difference is pronounced with the
reduction in maximum stress level.

Keywords Fatigue Freeze-thaw Air-entrainment High strength concrete
Blast furnace slag sand
M. A. Farooq (&)
e-mail: engr.mabf@yahoo.com
Y. Sato
Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan
e-mail: y.sato@waseda.jp
K. Niitani
Research Institute, Oriental Shiraishi Corporation, Moka 321-4367, Japan
e-mail: k.niitani@orsc.co.jp
H. Yokota

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_186
2026 M. A. Farooq et al.
1 Introduction
Fatigue behavior of high strength concrete has gained attention owing to its
increasing use in bridge and off-shore structures [4] and because of slender sections
obtained from high strength concrete [16]. There has been much progress in the
development of high strength and durable concrete by using admixtures, steel fibers
and industrial wastes like silica fume and blast furnace slag (BFS). It has been
found that the frost resistance of concrete can be improved by incorporating ground
granulated BFS (GGBFS) as percentage of binder and BFS sand as full amount of
fine aggregates [2]. Farooq et al. [5] found overall improved monotonic and fatigue
behavior of mortar with BFS fine aggregates compared to ordinary mortar in air.
However, the fatigue behavior of high strength concrete with BFS fine aggregates is
not investigated yet and moreover, understanding the fatigue behavior of high
strength plain concrete (HSPC) is still a main concern due to its brittle nature
compared to normal concrete and owing to conflicting information in the literature,
whether the compressive fatigue strength of concrete reduces [12], Tue and Mucha
[17], remains same [16], Do et al. [4], Hordijk et al. [10], Oneschkow [14] or
increases with the increase in compressive strength (f′c).
Moreover, the usage of air-entrainment (AE) concrete in reinforced concrete
(RC) structures becomes inevitable in cold regions, where these structures are
subjected to mechanical actions combined with freezing and thawing. It is well
understood that the mechanical properties of concrete become inferior with the
increase in porosity and air entrainment. However, Antrim [1] reported that overall
fatigue behavior of AE normal concrete is not significantly different than non-AE
normal concrete, however, at lower value of maximum stress levels (Smax), the
fatigue life (Nf) of AE concrete is comparatively longer than non-AE concrete,
while it is shorter at higher Smax. In addition, limited studies have focused on the
investigation of fatigue behavior of frost-damaged concrete. Hasan [9] reported the
reduction in fatigue life of non-AE normal concrete with the increase in frost
damage. However, detailed studies related to AE high strength concrete under
combined action of freeze-thaw and fatigue are nearly non-existent. Ayano et al. [2]
reported the improved fatigue performance of frost-damaged high strength concrete
with BFS fine aggregates at lower Smax in water compared to ordinary concrete.
Nevertheless, no report on fatigue behavior of intact and frost-damaged AE high
strength concrete with BFS fine aggregates in compression in air at higher Smax is
available.
Therefore, the experimental investigation is carried out to study the fatigue
behavior of AE high strength concrete with BFS fine aggregates subjected to dif-
ferent number of freeze-thaw cycles in comparison with AE normal concrete of high
strength. The Smax-Nf relationship of AE high strength concretes with BFS sand and
crushed sand are compared to those of developed for non-AE HSPC using the data
extracted from literature and for normal concrete proposed by different codes.
Fatigue Behavior of Air-Entrained High Strength Concrete … 2027
2.1 Materials, Mix Proportions and Specimen Preparations
The cylindrical specimens of (100Ф 200) mm from two series of concrete i.e. air
entrained blast furnace slag concrete (AEBFS) and air entrained high strength
normal (AEHSN) concrete are used in this study, the mix proportions of which are
presented in Table 1. High early strength Portland cement with density and Blaine
fineness of 3.13 g/cm3 and 4490 cm2/g respectively, is used as binder. Blast fur-
nace slag (BFS) sand is incorporated in AEBFS concrete specimens, whereas
crushed sand is used in AEHSN concrete, with the particle size of 0.15 to 5 mm.
After demoulding, the specimens were cured in water for 28 days at room tem-
perature. Later, the specimens were stored in controlled temperature at 20 °C until
the start of freeze-thaw test.
2.2 Test Procedure
2.2.1 Freeze-Thaw Test
ASTM C-666 type-A test procedure was adopted to carry out the freeze-thaw test in
3% NaCl solution at the age of 51=2 months of concrete specimens in freeze-thaw
chamber. Each freeze-thaw cycle (FTC) lasted for 8-h with temperature change
between −25 °C and +20 °C. Before freeze-thaw test, the specimens were sub-
merged in 3% NaCl solution for proper saturation. Then, the specimens were put
inside the rubber tubes filled with 3% NaCl solution up to 25 mm above the
concrete specimens. The rubber tubes were then placed in the thermal exchange
fluid of the freeze-thaw chamber. The temperature variations during the freeze-thaw
test was recorded using the thermocouples embedded at the center, placed on
surface of specimens in addition to the thermal exchange fluid of the chamber.
Moreover, the strain measurement during freeze-thaw test was made by mold
gauges embedded in the concrete specimens and foil gauges of 70 mm attached to
the surface of specimen. The relative dynamic modulus of elasticity (RDME) was
Table 1 Mix proportions of AEBFS and AEHSN concrete

Series W/C AC (%) s/a Unit content (kg/m3) WR T AE AF
(%) (%) W C BFS CS G (C x %)
AEBFS 43 4.5 ± 1 45 158 367 831 0 1012 0.75 0.04 2.00 2.00
AEHSN 43 4.5 ± 1 44 158 367 0 786 1012 0.4 – 0.50 –
W: water, C: Binder, AC: Air content, s/a: sand to aggregate ratio, BFS: Blast furnace slag sand, CS:
crushed sand, G: Gravel, WR: High-performance air entraining water reducing admixture, T: Thickener,
AE: Air-entraining agent, AF: Anti-foaming agent
determined by measuring the velocity of ultrasonic pulse (UP) wave, during

thawing phase after each 15 FTC, in addition to the mass loss. The specimens were
taken out at 250 and 400 FTC and were stored until start of static and fatigue tests.
2.2.2 Compressive Fatigue Test
To determine the uniaxial compressive strength ðfc0 Þ, the static tests were performed
on cylindrical specimens of each concrete for 0, 250 and 400 FTC at the age of
around 1-year. The static tests were performed in accordance with ASTM C39/39M
at a loading rate of 0.01 mm/s.
The fatigue tests in compression for intact and frost-damaged specimens of each
concrete were carried out using servo hydraulic machine just after static tests. The
maximum stress levels of 70% and 80% of f′c were adopted and the minimums
stress level of 5% of ðfc0 Þ was maintained. The load was applied using the sinusoidal
wave with a constant amplitude as shown in Fig. 1(a). Minimal effect of loading
frequency on the fatigue strength of concrete was reported within the range of 1–
15 Hz for Smax of 75% of ðfc0 Þ [11]. In this study, the loading frequency of
3.5 Hz was opted considering the likelihood of instability of loading arrangement.
Two strain gauges of 60 mm gauge length were mounted on the specimens using
adhesive in the axial direction. For recording strains, high speed measuring system
with 100 Hz sampling frequency was used. Loading cycles were applied until the
failure of specimens or 2 million cycles (i.e. 63=5 days) whichever reached earlier.
The diagram of loading arrangement is shown in Fig. 1(b).
σmax = 0.7f 'c and 0.8f 'c Loading platen of Machine

Stress (MPa)
Hinge
Concrete Specimen
Strain gauges
f = 3.5Hz '
σmin = 0.05f c Steel Basement
300 300.285 300.571
Time (sec)
(a) Sinusoidal loading wave form (b) Loading arrangement
Fig. 1 Compressive fatigue test

3.1 Freeze-Thaw Properties
Figure 2(a) represents the histories of input temperature and measured at the center
and surface of specimens and in the thermal exchange fluid of freeze-thaw chamber
during 225th FTC. The temperature of thermal exchange fluid and on the surface of
specimen are close to input temperature, however, the temperature at the center of
specimens of both types of concrete was bit behind the input temperature. The
similar tendency of temperature change was observed during the whole freeze-thaw
test.
The RDME and mass change of specimens of AEBFS and AEHSN concrete
corresponding to FTC number are shown in Fig. 2(b) along with for AE normal
strength normal (AENSN) concrete from past study [6]. No significant reduction in
RDME was found during the whole freeze-thaw test for AEBFS and AEHSN
concrete, which is because the AE voids in the concrete specimens provided the
space to compensate the freezing of the pore water preventing the micro-cracking
inside the specimens, while the RDME of AENSN concrete reduced slightly.
However, the amount of scaled mass for AENSN concrete is more than that of
AEBFS and AEHSN concrete, which might be because of lower f′c of AENSN
concrete. The equivalent plastic strain development due to FTC (Ep,ftc) for each
concrete is calculated from plastic strain in axial and lateral direction by
elasto-plastic and fracture (EPF) model [13] as shown in Fig. 2(c) along with for
AENSN concrete [6], Hasan [9]. The rate of increment of FTC equivalent plastic
strain with the increase in FTC number is almost similar and very small for AEBFS
and AEHSN concrete, which is due to provision of AE voids and high strength
concrete. The similar tendency of Ep,ftc increment was observed in the previous
studies for AENSN concrete with a slightly higher rate.
20 0.5
FTC Eq. Plastic Strain, Ep,ftc
Thermal Exchange Fluid 100 AEBFS

20 Specimen's Surface RDME 16 0.4 AEHSN
Scaled Mass (%)
80 AENSN (Farooq et al. 2018)

Temperature (oC)
Specimen's Center
RDME (%)
10 AEBFS
12 AENSN (Hasan 2003)
60 AEHSN 0.3
0 AENSN (Farooq et al. 2018)
1792 1794 1796 1798 1800 40 8 0.2
-10 Time (hrs) Mass loss
20 4 0.1
-20 Input
0 0 0.0
-30 0 100 200 300 400 0 100 200 300 400
FTC Number FTC Number
(a) Temperature histories (b) RDME change and mass (c) Equivalent plastic strain
(225th FTC) loss development due to FTC
Fig. 2 Freeze-thaw properties

3.2 Monotonic Mechanical Properties
The change in mechanical properties i.e. compressive strength (f′c), Young’s

modulus (Ec0) and average peak strain e0co for each concrete with the increase in
number of FTC are shown in Fig. 3. AEBFS concrete exhibits slightly less f′c
compared to AEHSN concrete. The rate of change of mechanical properties for AE
high strength concrete is minimal compared to that of AENSN concrete observed in
the past studies. This might be because the amount and rate of FTC induced
equivalent plastic strain in AE high strength concrete is very small owing to
air-entrained voids and high strength of concrete. The other possible reason might
be that the curing was resumed during FTC and it compensated the slight plastic
damage caused by FTC.
3.3 Fatigue in Compression
3.3.1 Wöhler Curves
The Wöhler curves, generally known as Smax-Nf relationships, for AEBFS and
AEHSN concrete for 0, 250 and 400 FTC are shown in Fig. 4. No significant
difference in fatigue life of each concrete for higher number of FTC is found,
because of very low FTC induced plastic strain and minimal change in monotonic
properties of each concrete. Therefore, the experimental data for 0-FTC is used for
regression, for which the equations are given by Eqs. (1) and (2) for AEBFS and
AEHSN concrete respectively.
logNf ¼ 20:43ð1 Smax Þ=ð1 Smin Þ ð1Þ
log Nf ¼ 16:97ð1 Smax Þ=ð1 Smin Þ ð2Þ
50
0
80
300
70 40
60
Average ε'co (μ)
fc' (MPa)
Ec0 (GPa)
50 30
0
200
40
20
30
20
0
AEBFS AEHSN 10 AEBFS AEHSN AEBFS AEHSN

100
10 AENSN (Farooq et al. 2018) AENSN (Farooq et al. 2018) AENSN (Farooq et al. 2018)
0 AENSN (Hasan 2003) 0 AENSN (Hasan 2003) AENSN (Hasan 2003)
0 100 200 300 400
0
0 100 200 300 400 0 100 200 300 400

FTC Number FTC Number FTC Number
(a) Change in f′c (b) Change in Ec0 (c) Change in ɛ’co
Fig. 3 Change in mechanical properties with FTC number

1.0 1.0 1.0

run-out run-out run-out
Stress Level (Smax)
Stress Level (Smax)
Stress Level (Smax)

0.9 0.9 0.9
0.8 0.8 0.8
0.7 0.7 0.7 AEBFS-400FT

AEBFS-0FT AEBFS-250FT
AEHSN-0FT AEHSN-250FT AEHSN-400FT
0.6 Fitted Line for AEBFS-0FT
Fitted Line for AEHSN-0FT Fitted Line for AEHSN-0FT Fitted Line for AEHSN-0FT
0.5 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0.5 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0.5 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Number of Cycles to failure (Nf) Number of Cycles to failure (Nf) Number of Cycles to failure (Nf)
(a) 0-FTC (b) 250-FTC (c) 400-FTC
Fig. 4 Wöhler curves for AEBFS and AEHSN concrete
For all frost-damage levels, the overall fatigue life of AEBFS concrete is longer
than that of AEHSN concrete. The similar tendency of longer fatigue life for BFS
mortar compared to high strength ordinary mortar was observed by authors [5].
This difference in fatigue life can be due to weaker interfacial transition zone
(ITZ) of AEHSN concrete between matrix and aggregates compared to AEBFS
concrete. It has been reported that with usage of GGBFS, the ITZ is improved due
to additional CSH gel in the matrix and matrix-aggregate ITZ because of pozzolanic
reaction of GGBFS grains [8] resulting in better crack resistance and fatigue per-
formance of concrete with slag. Moreover, Onoue [15] reported that energy con-
sumed to form new microcracks in concrete with granulated BFS sand under cyclic
loading is less compared to normal concrete, indicating lower fatigue damage and
higher fatigue durability of concrete with BFS sand.
At 70% Smax, some specimens of AEHSN concrete and all the tested specimens
of AEBFS concrete didn’t fail until 2 million cycles. The static test was performed
on the “run-out” fatigue test specimens and the increase in f′c within the range of 0
to 5% was observed compared to f′c of specimens without fatigue loading. This
might be because of stiffening of the specimens owing to increase in temperature
from cyclic loading [3].
3.3.2 Comparison of Smax-Nf Relationships
The comparison between data points of Nf at different Smax for non-AE HSPC and
normal concrete extracted from literature is shown in Fig. 5 along with those of
AEBFS and AEHSN concrete for 0-FTC. The Smax-Nf relationship for non-AE
HSPC is obtained using the regression of extracted data points for Smin of 5% and
for various frequencies and compressive strengths. The Smax-Nf relationships for
normal concrete calculated by equations for CEB/FIP MC1990, Eurocode 2, fib
MC 2010, JSCE specification 2007 are also drawn along with proposed by Hsu
(1981). CEB/FIP MC 1990 underestimates the fatigue life of non-AE HSPC.
However, the regression of data points for non-AE HSPC having strength class
( C45: fib MC 2010) show that overall fatigue performance of non-AE HSPC is
almost similar to normal concrete as determined by fib MC 2010. The Smax-Nf curve

for normal concrete developed by Hsu (1981) show slight longer fatigue life than
non-AE HSPC, but with the same slope.
Moreover, the Nf of AEHSN concrete is almost same as that of non-AE HSPC at
80% Smax, but it is longer for AEBFS concrete. However, as the Smax reduces, the Nf
of AE high strength concrete increases at high rate compared to non-AE HSPC.
This increase in fatigue life at lower Smax for AEHSN and AEBFS concrete can be
because with appropriate air entrainment i.e. air content of 4–5%, the small, stable,
and closed spherical air bubbles can be uniformly introduced into the concrete [1].
The large number of small pores inside the AE concrete prolongs the Nf of concrete
[18], which might be because of less energy dissipation under cyclic loading at
lower Smax. The longer Nf of normal strength concrete with AE voids at lower Smax
is reported compared to that of without AE voids by Antrim [1].
3.3.3 Fracture Parameter Change and Plastic Strain Development
The stress-strain loops recorded throughout the fatigue tests were analyzed to get the
stiffness reduction and cycle-strain curves. The cycle-strain curve represents the
relationship of plastic strain and total axial strain development with the increase in
loading cycles. The total or maximum strain ðe0max Þ is the value of strain of
stress-strain loop at Smax for respective loading cycle, and the plastic strain ðe0p Þ is
determined by extending the line joining the highest point of strain at Smax and lowest
point of strain at Smin towards the horizontal axis, and the slope of this line gives the
stiffness (Eth
c,i cycle) for that particular loading cycle (Ni). The change of stiffness with
the increase in loading cycles is represented by the stiffness reduction curve.
1.0 Legends
Smin = 0.05 C80 (f=10Hz) [Oneschkow 2016, Hohsberg 2004a],
C80 (f=5Hz), [Oneschkow 2016],
0.9 run-out C80 (f=1Hz) [Oneschkow 2016],
Stress Level (Smax)
C80 (f=0.1Hz) [Oneschkow 2016],

C70 (f=1-6Hz) [Petkovic 1990, Hordijk 1995],
0.8 C60 (f=1-6Hz) [Petkovic 1990, Do 1993],
CEB/FIP MC1990 C55 (f=6Hz) [Tue and Mucha 2006],
Eurocode 2 C45 (f=1Hz), [Petkovic 1990],
0.7 a
C40 (f=10Hz) [Wefer 2010 ],
JSCE a
fib MC 2010 C35, (f=10Hz, Smin = 0.04) [Hohberg 2004 ],
2007 a
0.6 C20, (f=10Hz, Smin = 0.08) [Hohberg 2004 ],
logN=14.8(1−Smax)/(1−Smin) Fitted Line for extracted data points of
non-AE HS Plain Concrete (> C45: fib MC2010)
Hsu (1981) for Normal Concretea
0.5 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 This study: AEBFS-0FT
Line for AEBFS-0FT
AEHSN-0FT
10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 Line for AEHSN-0FT

a
Number of Cycles to failure (Nf) cited in Oneschkow (2016)
Fig. 5 Comparison of Smax-Nf relationships of AEBFS and AEHSN concrete with data of non-AE
HSPC from literature
The stiffness reduction and cycle-strain curves with respect to cycle ratio and
number of cycles are shown in Fig. 6 for 0, 250 and 400 FTC. The cycle-strain
curve consists of three phases i.e. phase-I is the rapid increase in strain due to
initiation of microcracks up to 8–10% of Nf, followed by uniform increment due to
progress of formation of microcracks until 90–93% of Nf, while in phase-III
microcracks lead to macro-cracks resulting in rapid increment in strain until failure.
The stage-II for AE high strength concrete is almost similar to that of non-AE
HSPC from past studies [14], Petkovic et al. [16] and longer compared to normal
concrete. The rate of change of stiffness reduction and strain development for each
concrete and for all FTC number is almost similar with respect to cycle ratio as
shown in Fig. 6(a). However, the rate of plastic strain development with the
increase in number of loading cycle is higher for AEHSN concrete for each FTC
number, consequently the stiffness reduces rapidly depicting higher damage per
cycle compared to AEBFS concrete as shown in Fig. 6(b). Therefore, the fatigue
life of AEHSN concrete is shorter compared to AEBFS concrete.
The change in fracture parameter (K) and plastic strain development with the
increase in normalized axial strain under cyclic loading are shown in Figs. 7((a) and
(b)) respectively, along with for AE high strength concrete under static loading [7],
Farooq et al. [19], and for normal concrete (NC) in EPF model [13]. The fracture
parameter and plastic strain change at almost similar rate for both AEBFS and
AEHSN concrete and no significant effect of FTC is found due to very low frost
damage. However, the plastic strain development of each concrete under cyclic
loading is more than that of static loading. This is because of involvement of time
dependent strain during fatigue loading due to creep and cyclic effect. Moreover,
the fracture parameter of both AEBFS and AEHSN concretes under cyclic loading
is more than that of normal concrete and it reduces at higher rate compared to static
loading, which might be due to collapse of AE voids and damage at ITZ under
cyclic loading.
Stiffness Reduction, Ec,i cycle(GPa)
40 40 40
0-FTC 4,000 250-FTC 4,000 Stiffness 400-FTC 4,000
35 Stiffness 35 Stiffness 35
3,500 3,500 3,500
30 3,000 30 3,000 30 3,000
ε'p and ε'max (μ)
AEHSN-250FT-80% AEHSN-400FT-80%
εp' and ε'max(μ)
εp and εmax (μ)

th
th
th
25 AEHSN-0FT-80% 25 25
AEBFS-0FT-80% 2,500 AEBFS-250FT-80% 2,500 AEBFS-400FT-80% 2,500
20 2,000 20 2,000 20 2,000
15 Total Strain 1,500 15 1,500 15 Total Strain 1,500
Total Strain
10 1,000 10 1,000 10 1,000
5 5 Plastic Strain 5
Plastic Strain 500 500 Plastic Strain 500
0 0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 0 20 40 60 80 100 0 0 20 40 60 80 100 0
Cycle Ratio (Ni/Nf) Cycle Ratio (Ni/Nf) Cycle Ratio (Ni/Nf)
(a) with respect to cycle ratio
40 4,000 40 4,000 40 4,000

35 Stiffness
0-FTC 35
Stiffness 250-FTC 35
Stiffness 400-FTC
3,500 3,500 3,500
30 3,000 30 3,000 30 3,000
ε'p and ε'max (μ)
(μ)
εp and εmax (μ)

th
th
th
25 AEHSN-0FT-80% 25 AEHSN-250FT-80% 25 AEHSN-400FT-80%

500 500 500
AEBFS-0FT-80% 2, AEBFS-250FT-80% 2, AEBFS-400FT-80% 2,
εp' and εmax
20 2,000 20 2,000 20 2,000

'
15 Total Strain 1,500 15 1,500 15 1,500

Total Strain Total Strain
10 1,000 10 1,000 10 1,000
5 Plastic Strain 500 5 Plastic Strain 500 5 Plastic Strain 500
0 0 0 0 0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Number of Cycle (Ni x103) Number of Cycle (Ni x103) Number of Cycle (Ni x103)
(b) with respect to number of loading cycles
Fig. 6 Stiffness reduction and cycle-strain curves

Fracture Parameter, K=Ec,i cycle/Ec0
)
AEBFS-0FT-80%
1.0
Normalized Plastic Strain (ε'p/εco

0.4
'
AEBFS-250FT-80%
AEBFS-400FT-80%
0.8
th
AEHSN-0FT-80%
AEBFS-0FT-80% 0.3 AEHSN-250FT-80%
0.6 AEBFS-250FT-80% AEHSN-400FT-80%
AEBFS-400FT-80%
AEHSN-0FT-80% 0.2 Farooq, 2019:
0.4 Static Model-AEBFS-0FT
AEHSN-250FT-80% Static Model-AEHSN-0FT
AEHSN-400FT-80% 0.1 Maekawa, 1983:
0.2 EPF Model for NC (Maekawa 1983) EPF Model for NC
Static Model for AEHS (Farooq 2019)
0.0 0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Normalized Axial Strain, ε'max/ε'co Normalized Axial Strain (ε /ε )' '
max co
(a) Fracture Parameter change (b) Plastic Strain development
Fig. 7 Fracture parameter change and plastic strain development
4 Conclusions
Following conclusions can be drawn from this study:

1. No significant effect of freezing and thawing is found on the fatigue behavior of
AEBFS and AEHSN concrete owing to very low FTC induced equivalent
plastic strain and minimal change in monotonic mechanical properties due to
freezing and thawing.
2. The fatigue life of AEBFS concrete is longer compared to AEHSN concrete for
all frost damage levels. Moreover, at higher Smax, the fatigue life of AEHSN
concrete is almost same as that of non-AE HSPC from literature. However, at
lower Smax, the fatigue life of AE high strength increases at higher rate compared
to non-AE HSPC from literature.
3. The rate of plastic strain development and stiffness reduction of AEHSN con-
crete is higher with the increase in loading cycles compared to AEBFS concrete
leading to shorter fatigue life of AEHSN concrete. However, the rate of change
of stiffness and plastic strain with respect to cycle ratio and normalized axial
strain is almost same for both concrete. However, the fracture parameter reduces
at more rate under fatigue loading compared to static loading.
Acknowledgements The first author would like to thank the Japan Concrete Institute (JCI) for
awarding the International Conference Participation Grant to present this research work at
EASEC16.
References
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compression. Mag Concr Res 19(19):113–117
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water. Constr Build Mater 143:429–443
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furnace slag fine aggregates subjected to freeze-thaw cycle. In: Hordijk D, Luković M
(eds) High tech concrete: where technology and engineering meet. Springer, Cham, pp 65–72
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under severe environmental action, PhD dissertation, Hokkaido University, Japan
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on fatigue damage propagation and life prediction of high-performance concrete containing
reactive mineral admixture, Intl. J Fatigue 32:227–237
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thawing cycles, Doctoral dissertation, Hokkaido University, Japan
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limestone concrete as compared to gravel concrete. Heron 40(2):125–146
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Tokyo, XXXVII
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stiffness. Int J Fatigue 87:38–49
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blast-furnace slag sand related to nucleation and propagation of microcracks. Constr Build
Mater 218:404–412
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ACI SP-121: High-strength Concrete, pp 505–525
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Druckbeanspruchung. Bautechnik 83(7):497–504
18. Vicente MA, Gonzáleza DC, Míngueza J, Tarifac MA, Ruizd G, Hindi R (2018) Influence of
the pore morphology of high strength concrete on its fatigue life. Int J Fatigue 112:106–116
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stress-strain models of AE and non-AE high strength concrete with BFS fine aggregates under
freezing and thawing. Constr Build Mater 249:118679
Effects of Seawater and Sea-Sand
on Concrete Properties: A Review Paper
D. Vafaei, X. Ma, R. Hassanli, and Y. Zhuge
Abstract In this paper, the most important observations of the effect of seawater
(SW) and/or sea-sand (SS) on the properties of concrete are presented and critically
reviewed. Concrete is responsible for about 9% of global annual industrial water
and almost 70% of the extracted natural sands use. During last decades many
researchers focused on replacing them by SW and SS and many promising results
have been reported. SW and SS affect the fresh concrete properties by decreasing
setting time. They increase the early age strength while their effects on 28-days and
long-term strength is insignificant. Durability of seawater sea-sand concrete
(SWSSC) and corrosion resistance of embedded steel can be improved by using
supplementary cementitious materials.

Keywords Seawater Sea-sand Fresh concrete properties Mechanical

properties Durability
1 Introduction
Growing global concern about scarcity of freshwater resources and depletion of

river sand motivated researchers to explore the possibilities of using suitable
alternatives. Using seawater and sea-sand in concrete production is an example.
Concrete, which is the most wildly used construction material [24], is responsible
for approximately 9% of the global annual industrial water use [22] and almost 70%
D. Vafaei (&) X. Ma R. Hassanli Y. Zhuge

UniSA STEM, University of South Australia, SA 5095 Adelaide, Australia
e-mail: davoud.vafaei@mymail.unisa.edu.au
X. Ma
e-mail: xing.ma@unisa.edu.au
R. Hassanli
e-mail: reza.hassanli@unisa.edu.au
Y. Zhuge
e-mail: yan.zhuge@unisa.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_187
2038 D. Vafaei et al.
of the extracted natural sands use [39]. So, the idea of replacing fresh water with
seawater as well as natural sand with sea-sand will have a considerable positive
effect on these natural resources.
Using seawater and/or sea sand in concrete is not a new idea. From the begin-
ning of 1960s, researchers from the US and UK studied the effect of seawater and
sea-sand used in concrete [4, 26, 33, 35], Griffin and Henry [9]. This was followed
by Japanese researchers who used desalted sea sand as one of the main sources of
fine aggregate in concrete [42]. More recently, other countries such as Netherlands,
Hong Kong, South Korea, Germany, Denmark and France has extensively used
desalted sea-sand for various civil engineering applications [7].
Today all the design codes restrict the level of chloride in concrete to avoid the
corrosion of reinforcing steel in high chloride environment. Sea-water and sea-sand
include a high level of chloride, hence, based on the current international code
criteria, washing sea-sand using fresh water is inevitable. Washing sea-sands and
the process involved leads to extra cost in making concrete. Furthermore, fresh
water is used for washing which is not environmentally friendly. To tackle these
limitations, researchers started to work on directly using sea-sand without desalting
as well as seawater in concrete. Figure 1 shows some structures in Japan where
seawater mixed concrete (SWC) was used in the concrete mix. Figure 1a shows a
port where concrete breakwater armours are used to protect the jetty and costal
structures against wave loads, and Fig. 1b shows a reinforced concrete coastal
lighthouse built in 1959, both constructed out of SWC. Existing studies indicates
that chloride ions are unlikely to affect the properties of concrete beyond a slight
effect of the acceleration of the setting time and hardening rate of concrete. The
main concern about chloride-induced is the corrosion of steel reinforcement that is
the main reason why using SW and SS in construction is not well accepted.
Interestingly, the coastal lighthouse shown in Fig. 1b has been used for about
60 years, without any major problem or any sign of concrete deterioration or
reinforcement corrosion. This indicates the feasibility of using seawater and
unwashed sea-sand if concrete is designed and manufactured properly.
Furthermore, promising results of using supplementary cementitious materials
(SCMs), specially blast furnace slag (BFS) in increasing durability of concrete and
immobilizing chloride ions, and invention of corrosion inhibitors such as calcium
nitrite and more durable reinforcements such as coated steel, stainless steel, fiber
reinforced polymers (FRPs) and FRP-steel hybrid rebars provide potential solutions
to seawater sea-sand concrete problems. The following sections contain a critical
review of the previous studies on the effect of using SW and/or SS in the concrete
mix on the fresh properties and mechanical characteristics of hardened concrete as
well as the durability resistance concrete. The effect of using SCMs on various
properties of SWSSC reported in the previous studies is also presented and
discussed.
Effects of Seawater and Sea-Sand on Concrete Properties … 2039
Fig. 1 a Breakwater armour produced by seawater mixing concrete, Soma Port, Japan, b Hizen
Nagasaki Nao lighthouse, Ukushima Island, Japan- Reinforced concrete structure made up of
seawater mixing concrete built in 1959 [29]
2 Effects of SW and/or SS on Various Properties

of Concrete
2.1 Fresh Concrete Properties
To understand the workability of fresh concrete mixed with SW and/or SS, different
properties including the initial and final setting time, slump/spread flow, and air
content have been investigated in the previous studies. It has been shown that using
SW and SS in concrete decrease both the initial and final setting time [5, 11, 38].
Younis et al. observed that initial setting time of SW mixed concrete was
approximately 30% lower than conventional concrete (CC) (285 min in SWC
compared to 395 min in CC). This reduction is due to the high chloride content of
the SW and SS [44] which is explored in more detail in the following section. To
tackle this problem and increase the setting time, using retarding admixtures is
recommended by some researchers [12].
The effects of SW and SS on the workability properties of concrete is not clear
and contradictory observations have been reported in the previous studies. Some
studies reported that seawater reduces the initial slump flow [44] and increases
dredged marine sand incorporation in concrete (from 25% to 50%) resulting in a
considerable loss of fluidity [17, 18]. On the other hand, some researchers reported
that the workability of concrete is not affected by changing the type of water used in
the mix [5] and concluded that there is no clear difference between the slump of
sea-sand and river-sand concretes [20]. Interestingly, the results of an old study
shows that SWSSC had a higher average slump (53 mm) than those of sea-sand
concrete (SSC) (45 mm) and conventional concrete (40 mm) [32].
There are very limited studies on the effect of SW and SS on the concrete air
content all of which focused on SWC. It has been reported that the effects of SW on
the air content of the fresh concrete is negligible [11, 13, 44]. IN terms of the
density of the fresh concrete, no effect of the seawater of freshwater were reported
in the literature [13]. More studies need to be conducted on fresh concrete to better
understand the effects of SW and SS mixing on the air content of the concrete.
2.2 Mechanical Characteristics
The mechanical properties of concrete produced using SW and/or SS have been

reported in many previous studies. A summary of the main research on this area is
presented in Table 1. Most of these studies have indicated that using SW and/or SS
results in a slight increase in the compressive strength of the concrete at early ages.
This can be due to the chloride ions existence in SW and SS which accelerate
cement hydration process.
Portland cement is a mixture of several compounds. Tricalcium silicate (Ca3SiO5
or C3S) and dicalcium silicate (Ca2SiO4 or C2S) are two main phases of Portland
cement clinker that eventually are responsible for the strength of the finished
concrete. Once water is added to the concrete mix, these compounds undergo
hydration process. For example:
2Ca3 SiO5 þ 7H2 O ! 3CaO2SiO2 :4H2 O þ 3CaðOHÞ2 þ 173:6kJ ð1Þ

|fflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl} |fflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflffl}
calciumsilicatehydrate calciumhydroxide
Sodium chloride (NaCl) from the SW or SS reacts with the calcium hydroxide in
concrete to form calcium chloride (CaCl2 in Eq. 2). Calcium chloride is a strong
accelerator of cement hydration that accelerate both the setting and early age
hardening of concrete [3, 14, 44].
CaðOHÞ2 þ 2NaCl ! CaCl2 þ 2Na þ þ 2OH ð2Þ
Different observations have been reported on the short- and long-term com-
pressive strength of SSC. While the results of several studies indicated that the
compressive strength of SSC at 28 days is higher than conventional concrete, some
other researchers observed opposite behavior where lower compressive strength,
and some other showed that SS does not have significant effect on the compressive
strength of concrete. In Fig. 2, compressive strength of SSC is plotted against
conventional concrete. As can be seen in the figure, the minimum compressive
strength of concrete with SS was more than 90% of that of conventional concrete,
regardless of its age. Similar to SSC there are various and sometimes contradictory
observations reported for SWC. Most of these studies showed that SWC has a
significantly higher 7-day compressive strength, a comparable 28-day compressive
strength and a similar long-term compressive strength to conventional concrete
[41]. The effects of SW and/or SS on flexural strength and elastic modulus of
concrete has been reported to be negligible as compared with conventional concrete
[18]. Regarding to other mechanical properties of SW and/or SS concrete, such as
Table 1 Effects of seawater and/or sea-sand mixing on mechanical properties of concrete

SW and/ Observations/recommendations Reference
or SS
SW SW increased the early strength but ultimately the strength [12]
decreased by about 13% at 28 days. After 18 months, concrete
made with SW showed a decrease in strength by 5–10% in
comparison to concrete made with tap water.
SW The difference in the strengths of concrete mixed with SW and [25]
fresh water was small after the 10-year exposure test.
SW At 7- and 14-days SW mixed concretes had higher compressive, [40]
tensile, flexural and bond strengths than conventional concretes.
28-days strength of the SW mixed concrete was lower than
conventional concrete. At 90 days significant reduction in the
compressive strength of the SW mixed concrete was shown.
NaCl Increased chlorides from NaCl in concrete had little effect on the [31]
strength, young’s modulus, and water loss of concrete.
SS 25% partial replacement of raw sands with DMS improved the [17]
packing and compressive properties of the mixes, probably due to
the grading distribution and the modification of the granular
skeleton.
SS Elastic modulus and compressive, tensile and flexural tensile [18]
strength of concretes made with DMS in substitution of fine sand
(0.2 mm) were similar to those of conventional concrete.
SS The strength of the SSC was about the same with the river sand [10]
concrete.
SW-SS The early strength and late strength (180 days) of SWSSC were [15]
better than concrete based on freshwater and river sand. There was
no significant strength decreased for SWSSC under accelerated
alternating wet and dry conditions.
SW and Early strength of SWSSC was high, and long-term strength was [11]
SS also retained at a high level.
SW For prolonged curing period the compressive strength of SW-mixed [16]
mortars was slightly higher than fresh water ones.
SS Concrete mixed with offshore-sand had a lower 28-day [8]
compressive strength than conventional concrete.
SS The chloride ion can improve concrete strength value. [36]
SW The use of SW increased the compressive strength at an early age. [5]
However, at 28 days or 1 year of age, the concretes produced
employing freshwater or seawater achieved similar strength. The
modulus of elasticity was also slightly increased when seawater
was employed.
SW At 3 and 7 days a slight increase in the compressive strength of the [44]
SWC was shown. At 28 days, the compressive strength of SWC
was 7–10% lower than that of freshwater mixed.
SW In contrast to conventional concrete, SWC showed higher [13]
compressive strength after 3 and 7 days by 7.5% and 6%,
respectively. This difference decreased with time, as both mixtures
showed comparable performance after 28 days.
tensile strength, toughness, impact and fatigue behaviour, there are not any infor-
mation and more studies are necessary to gain comprehensive insight about
mechanical properties of these kinds of concrete.
2.3 Durability Characteristics
Concrete durability includes many aspects such as chloride and sulphate diffusion,
carbonation behaviour, freeze–thaw resistance, drying shrinkage, creep and in
special exposure conditions acid resistance. Regarding the long-term performance
of SW and/or SS mixed concrete there are very limited research, most of which
were written in Chinese or Japanese.
For SSC, in addition to the phenomenon that chloride ions (Cl ) may penetrate
into concrete from the external environment, the chloride diffusion from the sand
inside the concrete is an extra concern. The penetration process of these inside Cl
to the cement hydration products completely differs from the case where Cl is
directly added. Furthermore, their reduction is a continuous process which cause the
long-term acceleration of cement hydration. With the accumulation of Cl , Ca
(OH)2 produced by free Ca2 þ and OH from hydration leads to a decrease in the
Calcium-Silicate-Hydrate (C-S-H) gel. The increase of Ca(OH)2 and ettringite make
the pore structure of SS mortar inhomogeneous [41].
Girish et al. [8] demonstrated that the average chloride ions passing through the
concrete mixed with offshore sand almost doubled that of the CC, but it was still
within the acceptable range specified by ASTM. In another study, the relationship
Fig. 2 Normalized strength of sea-sand concrete (horizontal axis is the year of publication of the
results) [41]
BFS refers to all slags of blast furnace (i.e. BFS, GBFS and GGBS)
Fig. 3 Researchers opinions about concrete mixed with seawater before 2015 [27]
between permeability and the chloride content was tested. To produce artificial SS
with different chloride content, the river sands were soaked in solutions with var-
ious NaCl concentration. The finding was that by increasing chloride concentration,
the permeability of mortar reduces [41]. Younis et al. [44] studied the permeability
performance of hardened SWC. In their study, mixing SW in concrete had
insignificant effects on the chloride permeability, chloride ingression, and water
absorption behaviour of concrete. The lower average pore size for SWC was
reported by Etxeberria et al. [5]. They concluded that the water permeability of
SWC was half of the freshwater concrete. Furthermore, SW significantly reduced
the capillary absorption capacity of the concrete.
Freeze-thaw resistance of SSC is somewhat lower than conventional concrete
[41], and by increasing NaCl content of the concrete to more than 0.5% of the
oven-dry sand the freeze-thaw resistance will decrease [37]. For freeze-thaw
resistance of SWC, two opposite results were reported. Selicato et al. [34] claimed
that SW improved the freeze-thaw resistance of the concrete while Otsuki et al. [29]
concluded that freeze-thaw resistance of SWC was inferior to that of conventional
concrete. Carbonation depth of the SSC is less than conventional concrete. It is due
to the presence of Cl of the DMS that can reduce the porosity of cement paste and
optimize the pore distribution [19].
Similarly, SW mixing improved short- and long-term (25-year exposure) car-
bonation resistance of concrete compared with freshwater mixing [1]. However, some
studies claimed that there was no significant difference in the carbonation depth
development between seawater and freshwater concretes [12], Otsuki et al. [29]. It
was also found that SSC has lower resistance than CC against sulphate attack [41].
Using SW in concrete mix increases both autogenous [13] and drying [13, 23,
31, 44] shrinkages. A study by Khatibmasjedi [13] showed high value of autoge-
nous shrinkage in mixtures with SW because the Cl accelerated cement hydration
process at early ages. Moreover, increasing drying shrinkage was observed due to a
finer pore size distribution and internal water movement. He also reported that the
use of fly ash in SWC could be problematic in applications where drying shrinkage
may be a concern. Regarding the effect of using both SW and SS in shrinkage
performance of concrete Zhang et al. [45] reported that SWSS concrete followed
the same trend as that of CC while Katano et al. [11] concluded that SWSS concrete
had a lower drying shrinkage strain.
3 Effects of SCMs in SW and/or SS Concrete
Today, supplementary cementitious materials are widely used in concrete to

enhance the fresh and hardened properties of concrete. Additionally, SCMs are used
as a partial replacement for Portland cement (PC) to decrease CO2 emissions of PC
production [21]. Silica fume (SF), Slags (i.e. blast furnace slag (BFS), granulated
blast furnace slag (GBFS) and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS)) and
fly ash (FA) are mostly used in SCMs. SF is a by-product of producing silicon
metal or ferrosilicon alloys. Slags are a by-product from iron production and fly ash
from coal combustion. SCMs, specially slag, have mostly used in seawater,
sea-sand mixed concrete.
Nishida et al. [27] reviewed 85 published papers on concrete mixed with SW.
The positive and negative observations of the authors of these 85 papers about
using SW in concrete are presented in Fig. 3. More than half of these papers had
positive views about SWC by adding SCMs. Also, in comparison to FA, BFS
attracted more positive views (63% positive and just 15% negative views). SWC
with BFS cement has similar initial and final setting time of conventional concrete
[6] and effects of SW on early age and long term compressive strength of concrete
with BFS is insignificant and BFS concrete even in some cases showed higher
strength [6, 28, 43], Adiwijaya et al. [2].
The high capacity of BFS to immobilize chloride ions is important from the
viewpoint of corrosion protection. Furthermore, BFS concrete has low porosity
with low oxygen environment around the steel bar [27]. In case of steel corrosion
some researchers claimed that the steel corrosion in concrete mixed with SW and
BFS was not remarkably different from conventional concrete [27] and in some
cases the specimens with BFS was far better than other kinds of cements, even after
20 years’ in tidal zone exposure [28].
Adding SCMs of GGBS and FA can significantly increase the sulphate resis-
tance capacity of SWSS concrete. The main reason is that reducing the amount of
cement leads to the tricalcium aluminate (C3A) content decrement. Furthermore, the
secondary hydration of admixture consumed a large amount of calcium hydroxide
in cement paste, eliminated the possibility of the ettringite’s formation, but also
hindered the crystallization of gypsum, generated a large number of low-Sulphur
type C-S-H gel filled in the pores in cement stone, made the pore structure changes
from connected status to closed status, thus reduced the porosity of the cement,
increased the density of the cement stone, effectively blocked the erosion by the
water with sulphate and other ions penetration in it [45]. Chloride penetration and
oxygen permeability of seawater mixed concrete with BFS and FA is lower than
that of freshwater mixed OPC specimens [30].
Using 20–30% FA in SWC was recommended by Lim et al. to gain a favorable

compressive strength at 28 days. Partial replacement of cement by FA reduced the
early age strength of SWC but due to the pozzolanic reaction the strength devel-
opment continued over time. The 28 days strength of fly ash concrete was com-
parable to OPC’s [16]. Fly ash increases the autogenous shrinkage at later ages. The
mixture with seawater and fly ash showed the highest autogenous shrinkage which
could be due to the combined early age increase due to seawater and later age
increase due to the fly ash. The use of seawater and fly ash together drastically
increase the drying shrinkage in mortar mixtures with w/cm 0.45. The increase is
likely due to a finer pore size distribution and internal water movement [13].
4 Future Studies
• For some properties of SW and SS concrete, such as air content and compressive
strength, there are contradicting results. So, to gain a reliable insight more
researches are essential.
• There is not any information about tensile strength, toughness, impact and
fatigue behaviour of SWC and SSC. Furthermore, the resistance of these kinds
of concrete against physical (abrasion, hydration cracks and salt crystallisation)
and chemical (sulphate, chloride and acid) attacks is not clear.
• In case of permeability of SSC as well as chloride ingress and chloride
migration, there are no enough information and the existing studies mostly have
various observations. In case of effects of SW although there are some positive
results about decreasing the permeability and chloride ingress of SWC, but still
further researches are needed.
• Using SCMs could improve various properties of concrete. Researches on
SWSSC with SCMs is highly recommended.
• There are other types of concrete, such as high strength, high performance and
ultra high-performance concrete that SW and SS have the potential of using in
their production.
5 Conclusions
This paper reviews existing literature on the effects of using seawater and/or
sea-sand in concrete. The following conclusions can be made.
• Fresh Concrete Properties:
• Both SW and/or SS decrease the initial and final setting time.
• There are contradicting results about effects of SW and/or SS on workability

of concrete. Some researchers showed that the slump value was increased,
some claim that it was reduced and the other showed that it was not affected
by type of mixing water and mixing sand.
• Effects of SW on air content and density of the fresh concrete is scarce.
• Concrete mechanical properties:
• Using SW and/or SS resulted in a high increase in the compressive strength
of the concrete at early ages (7-day specimens). In case of 28-days and
long-term strength, although there are different observations, most of studies
are in common that concrete made with SW and/or SS has a comparable
28-day compressive strength and a similar long-term compressive strength to
conventional concrete.
• Based on some limited existing studies, effects of seawater and/or sea-sand
in flexural strength and elastic modulus of concrete is insignificant.
• Concrete Durability Properties:
• Carbonation depth of the SW and/or SS concrete is equal or somewhat less
than conventional concrete.
• Freeze-thaw resistance of SS concrete is somewhat lower than conventional
concrete, and by increasing NaCl content in concrete, freeze-thaw resistance
will decrease. For freeze-thaw resistance of SW concrete two opposite results
were reported, some believe that SW increase freeze-thaw resistance of
concrete and some have completely opposite view.
• Producing concrete by seawater increase both autogenous and drying
shrinkages.
• Effects of SCMs in SW and/or SS Concrete
• BFS is a suitable SCM for partially replacement of cement in SW and/or SS
concrete.
• The setting time and early age and long-term compressive strength of SW
mixed concrete with BFS are similar to conventional concrete. BFS reduces
the porosity of concrete, also is able of immobilizing chloride ions that leads
to an increased corrosion resistance of steel bars.
• Chloride penetration and oxygen permeability of SW concrete with BFS and
FA is lower than that of freshwater mixed OPC specimens.
• Adding SCMs of GGBS and FA can significantly increase the sulphate
resistance capacity of SWSS concrete.
• Using FA reduce the early age (7-day) compressive strength of SW concrete,
however, the 28-day strength is comparable to OPC’s.
• Fly ash in seawater-mixed concrete could be problematic in applications
where shrinkage may be a concern.
Acknowledgements The first author would like to thank Australian Research Training Program
(RTP) for financial support.
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Current Issues in Construction
Motivators of Implementing
Construction Incentivisation
in Hong Kong
Liuying Zhu and Sai On Cheung
Abstract Construction incentivisation (CI) collectively describes the range of

incentive schemes that can be used to enhance construction project performance. It
is believed that using incentive schemes can motivate contractors to move away
from short-term financial gain and focus on long-term mutual benefits [27].
Literature review shows that project performance improvement and inter-
organizational relationship building are two key objectives for setting CI. In fact,
incentive schemes are considered as useful means to establish and enhance long
term inter-organizational relationships [25]. Five cases were studied in Hong Kong
to validate this proposition. Data were mainly collected through interview, contract
documents and participants’ observations. Apart from the theoretical inferences
were verified, it was also found that (1) The use of incentive schemes is highly
objective-orientated; (2) Clients are the key initiators of installing financial incen-
tives in the Hong Kong construction industry; (3) The use of CI is far more
common in public projects than private projects; (4) Carrots are often than sticks;
(5) The input/output ratio may well be the main consideration in committing to
incentivisation for contractor and (6) The intention of better inter-organizational
relationship building is a necessary part for CI. It is found that there is no con-
clusive evidence that use of incentive schemes would automatically lead to per-
formance improvement. In this connection, the identity of the contracting partner
does matters if CI is to have effect.
Keywords Incentivisation Construction contracting Motivation
L. Zhu S. O. Cheung (&)

Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Construction Dispute Resolution
Research Unit, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
e-mail: saion.cheung@cityu.edu.hk

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_188
2054 L. Zhu and S. O. Cheung
1 Introduction
Construction is project-based and needs to be carried out by teams comprised

multiple parties. Each party is a separate entity that has its own interests and
expectations. The coordination of these organizations is a challenge [31]. Das and
Teng [14] found that pursuit of business goals with alliances involves more risks
than a single firm go-it-alone because project team members are more concerned
about fulfilling their own interests. Opportunistic behaviour thus might happen
when they focus on their own benefits and at the expense of the other team
members [21]. In this situation, the chance of having cooperative working will be
diminished [14]. A change in contracting behaviour is therefore needed for project
participants to engender common interests and build cooperative relationships [34].
Incentivisation has been suggested by many researchers as an effective con-
tractual tool to motivate contractors to move away from short-term financial gain
and focus on long-term mutual benefits [27]. Study of incentivisation have mainly
focused on the function of financial incentives [3, 25, 28]. There are also many
successful cases in construction industry with the implementation of incentives. The
comprehensive promotion of NEC contract has made significant contributions on
many public projects. There is a significant trend of adopting NEC contract into
public projects from 2009 to 2017 [15]. The successful cases like Tin Shui Wai
Hospital and Secondary School at Kai Tak Development. The central idea of using
target cost contract is to pursue a win-win solution for projects between government
and contractors. A spirit of mutual trust and cooperation is stressed in NEC target
cost contract with Pain/Gain share System. Another intention of using target cost
contract is to promote innovation. Facing the challenges of high construction cost
and lack of manpower, the contract is set to encourage use of innovative technology
to enhance productivity, cost-effectiveness and safety performance [11].
Researchers have also made significant contributions to understand the moti-
vating effect of incentive schemes. Many of them are from economic perceptive and
the content are about the operability of financial incentives [3, 25, 29]. Through
case studies in Australia, it was found that the success of incentive schemes was
achieved through a combination of motivational and commercial objectives [27]. It
is the demand guide behaviours that made achievement of expected outcomes
possible. Figuring out the actual demands underneath incentivisation is therefore
necessary when analysing the working mechanism of incentivisation. Based on that,
the study is organized as follows: (1) Identify the motivators of incentivisation in
construction projects; (2) Investigate the motivation dimensions of incentivisaion in
construction contracting; and (3) Case study to validate these motivators.
Motivators of Implementing Construction Incentivisation … 2055
2 Motivators of Incentivisation
Motivation is the urge to perform an act, to obtain a certain object, or to produce a

desired outcome [6, 33] illustrated that motivation is a process to energize, maintain
and direct behaviours towards attainment of goals. It drives and pulls forces which
results in decision-making and persistent behaviour directed towards a particular
goal [5]. In the pursuit of these various types of goals, different dimensions of
motivation come to action. Incentives play as a role to transform the demands into
tangible evidences. It aims to inspire, drive and strengthens people’s behaviour. In
construction projects, different incentives show different demands and expectations
for projects. To understand the expectations of incentivisation, it is necessary to
figure out the motivators behind CI. Generally, the motivators are concluded as
follows:
2.1 Project Performance Improvement
The overriding goal of contractual incentives is to achieve better project perfor-

mance [27]. Goal commitment between both parties is considered as an important
part for incentivisation [20]. According to goal-setting theory [20], goals need to be
meaningful, specific, challenging and acceptable to those who are attempting to
achieve them. When incentives and rewards are contingent on goal attainment, a
performer’s goal acceptance increases in proportion to the perceived benefits of
attaining the goal [20]. The core construct of goal commitment is “discrepancy” that
means the difference or mismatch between present state and ideal state. In this area,
two types of discrepancies exist [4]: The first is discrepancy creation that due to
intrinsic motivation of pursuing better performance, one party sets a future, higher
goal in an ideal state generate in mind; the other is discrepancy reduction which is
the effort people may pay to narrow the gap between existing facts and require-
ments or feedbacks such as results of previous project evaluations [20].These two
features direct that the goals of incentive schemes are affected by subjective
requirements and objective facts. The major reflections in incentive planning are
contractual safeguards and additional value creation. The contractual safeguards are
based on project objectives in terms of cost, schedule and quality. For example,
quality incentive schemes are used for meeting performance targets. A performance
bonus arrangement can be applied to a wide range of performance areas such as
quality, functionality and safety [23]. Value creation refers to the aim to achieve
additional project value such as cost-saving, innovations or long-term cooperation.
In some projects, bonus was set for contractors to generate technical innovations.
Some cost incentives also act as a tangible bridge to build linkages with different
parties to engender common interests and in turn provide the platform for long-term
collaborative working [12].
2.2 Inter-organizational Relationship (IOR Hereafter)

Enhancement
Incentivisation also acts as one of the vehicles that actually set up the commercial
inter-organizational relationship between the contracting parties [19]. Oliver [24]
concluded six generalizable determinants of inter-organizational relationship for-
mation: efficiency, asymmetry, reciprocity, necessity, stability and legitimacy. As
the owner-contractor relationship is more a contractual relationship, necessity (re-
lationship are formulated because of legal requirements), stability (an adaptive
response to environmental uncertainty) and legitimacy (environment pressure
motive organizations to interconnect for social reputation) all stress the external
effects towards organizations while efficiency, asymmetry and reciprocity are all
internally oriented [20]. These three major factors are therefore analysed as intrinsic
motivates:
(1) Efficiency
Based on transaction cost economics theory [34], the formation of
inter-organizational relationship is prompted by an organization’s attempt to
improve its internal commercial benefits. Organizations will seek out or be
receptive to inter organizational cooperation when faced with situations of
resource scarcity or performance distress. The motivation by establishing
incentives shows organizations’ attempts for business achievements. Some
incentives for the purposes of improving efficiency may be the organization’s
anticipation of increases in return on assets or reductions in unit costs, waste,
downtime, or cost per patient [24]. For construction projects, the main purpose
for the clients to set cost and schedule incentives is to improve project
efficiency.
(2) Asymmetry
Asymmetry refers to organizational relationship building by the potential to
exercise power or control over another organization or its resources [24]. When
using incentives, organizations generally seeks to guide others to engage the
specific activity [26]. Much of the spirit behind the use of incentives is therefore
to shape, influence or outright control others’ behaviour so as to increase some
desirable behaviour or to decrease some undesirable behaviour. For construc-
tion projects, some monitoring methods are included into project assessment
systems for safety or schedule purposes [1, 13] as a performance control
mechanism within highly detailed contractual specifications. The use of
financial incentives in a respectful contractual environment which avoid the
perception that the client is untrustworthy and suspicious of the contractor’s
behaviour, and encourage the idea that the client aims to promote respect and
recognition [29].
(3) Reciprocity
In some cases, the demand for affiliation is manifested by the fear of losing
some intimacy and the avoidance of interpersonal conflict [22]. The human
instinct of altruistic sometimes is a powerful force and may force a majority of

selfish individuals to cooperate [17]. Refer to exchange theory, motivates of
reciprocity also emphasize cooperation, collaboration, and coordination among
organizations. It is the key point and the base for inter-organizational rela-
tionship development [16, 24]. Schermerhorn [30] identified incentive schemes
are tools to enhance working relationship and set common goals and interests
towards cooperation. It is believed that the alignment of objectives creates a
more proactive, cooperative relationship between the parties and produces a
cultural shift away from the reactive, adversarial approach [7]. In a case study
of using incentive schemes as promoters of motivation and commitment on
projects, Rose and Manley [28] concluded that the core of the effectiveness of
financial incentives comes from the willingness of relationship enhancement.
Through analysing 113 capital projects, Suprapto et al. [31] also suggest that
better relational attitudes and team working quality, projects with a partnering/
alliance contract are likely to perform better than those with lump-sum and
reimbursable contracts.
Table 1 summarizes the motivation dimentions of incentivisation in
construction:
Table 1 The motivation dimentions of incentivisation in construction

No. Name Key
reference
1 Project Contractual Cost Herten and
2 performance safeguards Quality Peeters [14]
improvement
3 Schedule
4 Value Innovation Chan et al.
added [7]
5 Promotions of project performance Bresnen
(e.g. cost-saving, shorten the and
construction period and quality Marshall
improvements) [6]
6 Long-term commitment Suprapto,
Bakker and
Mooi [27]
7 IOR enhancement Efficiency Oliver [20]
8 Asymmetry
9 Reciprocity
3 Case Study
A case study approach was selected to examine these issues. It is a good way of
capturing a wide range of views and opinions of respondents selected from different
organizations and across a variety of management levels [9]. Five construction
projects located in Hong Kong with incentivisations were studied. The methodol-
ogy is mainly through interview, document study and participant observations.
Table 2 gives the particulars of the five projects:
Table 3 shows the summary of the motivation dimensions for these projects.
The motivation dimensions of these incentive schemes are mapped with the
motivators framework. Comparatively, there are some differences in terms of dif-
ferent types of project objectives. For IOR development, the attempt to improve
organizational efficiency is the most common objective for incentivisation planning.
The monetary rewards were therefore commonly distributed in different stages to
make sure that these rewards were achievable and increase their expectancy for
obtaining all the incentives.
For cost incentive schemes (Case A and B), the consideration of reciprocity was
detected through interviews. The attitudes towards pain/gain share arrangements
were positive and considered useful to moderate unequal project risks. In both
cases, cost incentive schemes are closely incorporated with the whole contract, the
focusing point in the contract are mainly about defining the scope and share ratio of
benefits and the intension for collaborative working. For Case A, flexibility was
allowed for the contractors to have a more comfortable working climate. An
innovative foundation design was proposed by the contractor. It became the key
core of the savings in construction cost and time. The project is considered as a
success with over HK$ 60 million have been saved and earlier completion.
Differing from cost incentives, schedule (Case C) and quality incentive scheme
(Case D and E) show a stronger intention for project controlling and project ori-
entation governances. More attention is directed to the assessment of project
behaviour and put them into specific details. For the schedule incentive scheme in
Case C, milestones were set to award and monitor contractor’s behaviours. As a
historic building revitalisation project, it encountered more unforeseeable risks than
Table 2 Summary of 5 projects located in Hong Kong

No. Description Contract value (billion Type of incentive scheme
HKD) used
A Public infrastructure 1.7 Cost
B Tunnel 1.6 Cost
C Historic buildings 1.8 Schedule
revitalisation
D Residential building 3.2 Quality
E Residential-commercial 0.6 Quality
complex
Table 3 Summary of the motivation dimensions detected under financial incentive schemes
No. Name Case A Case B Case C Case D Case E
1 Project Cost √ √
2 performance Quality √ √
3 improvement Schedule √
4 Innovation √ √
5 Promotions of project √ √
performance
6 Long-term commitment √
7 IOR Efficiency √ √ √ √ √
8 maintenance Asymmetry √ √ √
9 Reciprocity √ √
Reach anticipated outcome (Y/N) Y N Y N Y
expected and accident happened. The schedule incentive scheme is therefore set to
motivate the contractor to finish this project with the best endeavour. In the end, the
completion date is 2 months’ earlier than original plan.
For Case D and E, specific criteria were set in different dimensions to evaluate
the performance of contractors. Investment were made for labour training, man-
agement team forming, management system generating and so on. To attract the
contractors, these tasks are exposed along with rewards. Safety incentives were
used in Case D. The assessment criteria were set for each Quarter. The assessment
consists of three parts: Effective Safety Management, Safety Performance and Legal
Compliance. The behaviour of the contractor was monitored by developer’s safety
manager. For case E, the client also intends to build positive feedback mechanism
and try to incorporate project performance into a profound long-term development.
the Bonus scheme goes hand in hand with Performance Assessment Scoring
System (PASS). PASS consists of outputs (Works) Assessment and Input (Goals)
Assessment to be conducted during the construction project and the substantial
completion stage of the building contract. The most concern was taken in schedule,
safety performance, clean disciplinary record and no offence, malpractice, or mis-
conduct causing damage to the client’s image. Differ with other quality incentives,
PASS also provides database of contractors for conferring tendering opportunities
in works contracts commensurate. It takes around 30% of the tendering score when
doing tendering analysis. Better previous project performance has more chance to
tender than under-performer. A long-term commitment is therefore offered for
contractor with good performance.
4 Discussion
The followings are observed from the cases studied:

(1) The use of CI is highly objective-orientated.
All these incentive schemes are rooted in different project targets and try to
fulfil the specialty of different projects. Based on their classifications, three
major types of CI (cost, schedule and quality) are all implemented in Hong
Kong construction industry.
(2) Clients are the key initiators of installing financial incentives in the Hong Kong
construction industry.
As commercial organizations are profit-oriented, they can be motivated by
harvesting the benefits associated with the incentive schemes. CI can also be
used as sweetener to attract contractors to come to the negotiation table.
Usually, setting CI at the earlier stage is considered helpful to prevent some
accidents and achieve better performance. The selection of incentives is related
to clients’ priorities of their objectives and the confirmation of responsibility.
(3) ‘Carrots’ are often than ‘sticks’.
The preference of gain share system to pain share system represents the
intention and expectations of contracting parties. For Case A and B, gain share
system is preferred. It is mentioned that clients align more the contractor to
focus on the gain share system instead of the pain share system as it improves
the expectancy for project success.
(4) The input/output ratio may also well be the main consideration in committing
to incentivisation for contractor.
It is common that contractor needs to achieve a certain level of performance
based on the contract. Higher standard of project performance requires higher
costs. Based on that, Incentives are welcome but the effectiveness is also rel-
evant to the resources the contractors’ have. For example, large organizations
are more willing to accept the incentives because they have sufficient labour/
resources to achieve targets. The sensitivity of incentive scheme is more related
to confidence of goal achievement and goal compatibility. They believe that it
is important to create a comfortable, satisfied working environment with
achievable targets.
(5) The intention of better IOR building is a necessary part for CI.
It is also found that one of the key core of incentivisation is to [9]. The specific
asset investment enhances financial interlocks between two organizations. For
different type of CI, the IOR is enhanced through different strategies. Cost
incentives stress a more equitable share about the benefits or losses while
schedule and quality incentives more focus on enhance project controlling.
Also, the effect of use incentive schemes is also shown as follows:

(1) It is difficult to attribute project success or failure is the result of use of CI.
As there are multiple features influencing the result of the project, the effec-
tiveness of incentive schemes shall be further analysed to find out the specific
factor.
(2) The partner matters even though using the same type of CI.
When analysing Case E, it is found that the project manager tends to believe
that the success of the project shall be contributed to the consistency between
the reward system and contractor’s management style. Although this project
encountered many technical difficulties, the contractor still paid less effort to
adopting to the existing system. However, few other contractors actually
obtained this reward. Some other contractors, though considered as claimed that
the existing criteria for bonus award are too harsh, and the chance of awarding
the bonus is slim. The client did not insist on any relaxation of the criteria for
more contractors to benefit. In this way, selecting the right partner is also a key
consideration when applying CI.
5 Conclusions
Construction is project-based and needs to be carried out by teams comprised

multiple parties. The coordination of these organizations is a challenge.
Construction Incentivisation (CI) is therefore suggested by many researchers as a
contractual mans to manage this challenge. Figuring out the actual demands
underneath incentivisation is therefore necessary when analysing the working
mechanism of CI. Based on that, the study is organized as follows: (1) Identify the
motivators of incentivisation in construction projects; (2) Investigate the motivation
dimensions of incentivisaion in construction contracting; and (3) Case study to
validate these motivators. Through literature review, two key factors were con-
cluded as (1) Project Performance Improvement and (2) Inter-organizational rela-
tionship enhancement. To validate these results, five projects were selected as
classical cases. Results show that the attempt to improve organizational efficiency is
the most common objective for incentivisation planning. The monetary rewards
were therefore commonly distributed in different stages to make sure that these
rewards were achievable and increase their expectancy for obtaining all the
incentives. The application status is also concluded as: (1) The use of incentive
schemes is highly objective-orientated; (2) Clients are the key initiators of installing
financial incentives in the Hong Kong construction industry; (3) The use of CI is far
more common in public projects than private projects; (4) Carrots are often than
sticks; (5) The input/output ratio may well be the main consideration in committing
to incentivisation for contractor and (6) The intention of better inter-organizational
relationship enhancement is a necessary part for CI. Also, the current problems
under investigation are concluded as: (1) It is difficult to attribute project success or
failure is the result of use of CI; (2) The partner matters even though using the same
type of CI. All these points shall be noted when analysing the effectiveness of
incentivisation for the further study.
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A Concenptual Framework
on the Effects of Apology
on Psychological Aggression
in Construction Dispute Negotiation
Liuying Zhu, Chiu Yin Ho, and Sai On Cheung
Abstract Most construction projects end with major disputes. Resolving dispute
consumes considerable resources that would have better deployed for the benefits of
the project. Almost all construction industries across the globe are seeking ways to
minimising the occurrence of disputes. In July 2017, the Hong Kong Government
enacted an Apology Ordinance as part of the campaign in promoting use of
mediation to resolve civil disputes. Construction disputes appear to be the inevitable
destiny of construction projects. An Apology may suppress aggressive behaviour
that is quite common in hearted arguments. This study examines the effect of
apology on psychological aggression. It was found that the apology has the effect to
(1) reduce the expected liability; (2) repair conflict in a damaged relationship and
(3) determinant the willingness to forgive in aggression.
Keywords Aggression Apology Construction dispute negotiation
1 Introduction
Dispute can be defined as “a situation where two parties typically differ in the
assertion of a contractual right, resulting in a decision being given under the con-
tract, which in turn becomes a formal dispute” [2]. The five main causes of disputes
in Asia construction projects in 2014 are: (1) failure to properly administer the
contract; (2) failure to make interim awards on the extension of time and com-
pensation; (3) poorly drafted, incomplete and unsubstantiated claims; and (4) biased
project manager or engineer [1]. The ARCADIS Global Construction Disputes
Report indicates that the length of dispute was around 11.4 months in 2010 and has
risen to 19.5 months in 2015. Time is also of the essence in construction projects,
resolving disputes at the shortest time will alleviate the negative impact of disputes
L. Zhu C. Y. Ho S. O. Cheung (&)

Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Construction Dispute Resolution
Research Unit, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
e-mail: saion.cheung@cityu.edu.hk

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_189
2066 L. Zhu et al.
on project performance. With the aim of minimising the occurrence of disputes and
facilitate amicable resolution, the Hong Kong Government promotes the use of
alternative dispute resolution in general and mediation in particular. Whilst nego-
tiation is the most efficient way to settle dispute as among all the dispute resolution,
mediation as a form of assisted negotiation can be the second best alternative. In
this connection, the Hong Kong Government enacted an Apology Ordinance at the
end of December 2017 with the aim of enabling apology to be offered without
running the risk of admitting liability. With that, it is expected that more disputes
could be settled and in a faster manner.
Many researches on psychological aggression have mainly focused on the
children’s development, intimate relationship, workplace bullying and medical
aspect. The above aggression research prospect is well developed in both theories
and research methods. In fact, it has been found that failing construction dispute
negotiations are fuelled aggressive behaviours of the disputants.
This study posits to examine the effects of an apology on aggressive behaviours
of disputants. This study therefor has three main objects:
(1) Identify psychological aggression behaviours that damage construction dispute
negotiation;
(2) Discuss the effects of apology on aggressive behaviours and dispute negotiation
outcomes; and
(3) Propose a conceptual apology-aggressive behaviours relationship framework.
2 Psychological Aggression Behaviour in Construction

Dispute Negotiation
Psychological Aggression refers to use a series of psychological actions with direct

or indirect intention to humiliate, criticize, blame, dominate, isolate, intimidate, and
threaten one party in nonphysical way. Psychological aggression behaviours are
usually in the form of behavioural and verbal, to aggress or cause harm against
Non-cooperative behaviour
Social Aggression Over control
Psychological
Relational Aggression Non-equality distribution
Aggression
Indirect Aggression
Fig. 1 The categories of psychological aggression (Adapted from [20])

A Concenptual Framework on the Effects of Apology … 2067
other parties in a relationship [11, 27]. Figure 1 shows the categories of psycho-
logical aggression:
2.1 Social Aggression
Social aggression is defined as the aggressors are having the intention of manip-
ulating the acceptance in group and harm against other parties’ social status through
the acts such as verbal refusal, undesirable facial expressions or body movement [3,
13]. Three factors of aggression can be generated from the definition of social
aggression, they are non-cooperation behaviour, over control and non-equality
distribution. These factors can be commonly found in the conflict among the
contracting parties during the construction period:
(1) Non-cooperative Behaviour
Cooperation is particularly important as construction project requires different
parties’ collaboration to run the project smoothly. The negative reaction of the
aggressive parties such as verbal rejections or slanderous rumours in the con-
struction conflict affects their cooperative behaviour in the project. The inten-
tion to harm is an important element that prevent forgiveness in the situation of
conflict [14].
Two types of non-cooperative behaviour could be generated, first is subjective
non-cooperative aggression, the other one is negatively non-cooperative reac-
tion. For subjective non-cooperative aggression, the aggressor is the leading
party and try to imply negative reactions in the construction cooperation
relationship. The happening of psychological aggression can be demonstrated
by the following examples. First, the aggressor would point out to their partners
that another party is more attractive to cooperate with [12]. This is intended to
harm the partner’s social status and also implies that the counterpart is not a
good partner to cooperate with. It also damages the reputation and affect the
counterpart’s further cooperation opportunity. Another example is negative
non-cooperative aggression that describes the situation when the aggressive
parties are not willing to cooperate [20], the aggressive party intents to harm the
counterpart by not being cooperative and having negative reaction during the
negotiation or conflict towards the other parties.
(2) Over Control
Over control means that the aggressor has the intention of manipulating the
behaviour of a group [3, 13]. In a construction project, if one party has greater
power than the others and in favour of exercising this power, dissatisfaction and
conflicts may arise. In this situation, the party with greater power can inten-
tionally threaten the other parties to abandon collaboration and in extreme
circumstances terminate the project [12].
2068 L. Zhu et al.
(3) Non-equality Distribution

Non-equality distribution is a problem usually encountered in a construction
project cooperation as some parties have greater power than the others. In a
construction project, it is important for every party to understand the different
views, needs and objectives of the others. When problem occurs, collective efforts
should be directed to solve the same. However, if one party is aggressive and not
treating the other parties equally [12], it will create a bad impact towards their
relationship. The difference between over control and non-equality distribution is
that over control is to manipulate and overuse their power in group but the
non-equality distribution is just not equally treating others. Examples are like the
aggressive parties put the other parties in a lower position during negotiation,
arguing with the other parties to show the merits of their own or making decision
which only satisfies the expectation of their own [20].
2.2 Relational Aggression
Relational aggression is that the aggressor harms the encounter party through the
manipulation to damage the encounter party’s relationship or feelings of acceptance
or group inclusion in the form of covert [3]; Crick and Grotpeter [9]. The
aggression has an emphasis on the intention to harm a relationship or group
members. “Silent treatment” is given from the aggressor to the encounter party. Or
it was told that the encounter party is excluded from the social group unless they
comply with what the aggressor desires, which the encounter parties know who the
aggressors are and what they are doing [3], Crick and Grotpeter [9]. Examples of
relational aggression can be found as the aggressor says something harmful that
reduce the opportunity of other parties to express opinions, dismiss others’ opinions
openly or reduce or increase the duties of the other parties in order to hamper their
work [3]. It shows that the aggressor has the intention to harm the other parties and
have a bad influence on the organizational relationship in construction project.
2.3 Indirect Aggression
Indirect aggression can be defined as “a type of behaviour in which the perpetrator

attempts to inflict pain in such a manner that he or she makes it seems as though
there is no intention to hurt at all” [3], (Lagerspetz et al. 1988). The indirect
aggression is also causing harm in a covert manner continuously [6]. The a ct
includes gossiping, rumours spreading, nasty notes writing to others, and trying to
get others to exclude group members [10]. Examples are like the aggressor being
utterance and proclaiming dislike of the counterpart. For example, the aggressor
tells or suggests to the counterpart that he would not let them to participate in
certain group activities [28]. Further examples include the aggressor attempts to
cause psychological harm to the targeted person or parties through social manip-
ulation; attack the target often in circuitous ways through a third person in order to
conceal the aggressive intent or pretend that the attack was not aggressive at all [3].
The above situation may also occur during the construction conflict or negotiation.
Aggression is one of the sources of conflict in construction projects. Once
disputes crystallise, negotiation is likely the first step to get them resolved.
However, when aggression in embedded in the conflict, resolution becomes more
complicated and rational decisions are less forthcoming. Manifested conflict
involves openly aggressive behaviours which the aggressor aims to frustrate the
goals of the counterpart(s) [16]. Section 3 will discuss the negative effects of
aggression for negotiation outcome.
3 The Negative Effects of Aggression for Negotiation

Outcome
Three possible negotiation outcomes could be related to psychological aggression.

These are conflict escalation, relationship deterioration and inaction [8]:
3.1 Conflict Escalation
It is described as the negative implication on outcome. The aggressive behaviour

occurs and is unlikely for the dispute to be resolved. The conflict therefore escalates
[8]. Examples can be found in the construction project such as because of lacing
information, two parties cannot construct solutions for the conflict and there is
difficulty in resolving dispute [8].
3.2 Relationship Deterioration
Second outcome is relationship deterioration. It is described as the negotiators’

relationship could be a critical factor in conflict tacking [8]. Construction industry’s
examples such as the needs and expectation of the other parties were ignored by the
aggressors, the decision-making process in negotiation was a one-sided process and
the development of solution was likely to be sub-optimal and resources wasted [8].
2070 L. Zhu et al.
3.3 Inaction
The third outcome is inaction that is identified as one of the outcomes of negotiation
due to withdrawal of one of more of the negotiating parties [8]. There are some
examples can be found in the construction industry such as the counterpart with-
drawing from a threatening situation or the issue being postponed until a better time
[8]. It can be defined as “some people forgive after they had got back what was
taken away from them or when their rights had been restored by the appropriate
instance or when the consequences had vanished with time” [15].
The aggressor may bring an unforeseeable psychological aggression’s conse-
quences to the counterpart that may potentially last indefinitely due to the
aggressor’s behavior or the social circumstances [14, 31]. Therefore, whether the
consequence of aggression could be cancelled will be the items to measure the
extent of aggression’s impact towards construction conflict or negotiation.
4 The Roles of Apology in Construction Dispute

Negotiaiton
4.1 Identification of Apology
Apology has been defined as “an acknowledgment intended as an atonement for

some improper or injurious remark or act: an admission to another of a wrong or
discourtesy done him accompanied by an expression of regret [18]” or “an
explanation offered to a person affected by one’s action that may have been given”
or “a frank acknowledgment of the offence with expression of regret for it, by way
of reparation” (Dictionary 1989). An apology can be expressed as “admissions of
blameworthiness and regret for an undesirable event and allow actors to try to
obtain a pardon from audiences [26]. An apology can have two parts. The first is the
guilt of an offense. The second is the affirmation of the belief of the offended rule
[7, 17]. After reviewing the definitions of apology, there are mainly two key factors
for apology:
1) Full Apology
Full Apology is defined as an apology that expresses regret and also accepts
responsibility [19], Robbennolt [23]. A full apology should include the following
elements, they are “(1) acknowledge the legitimacy of the grievance and express
respect for the violated rule or moral norm; (2) indicate with specificity the nature of
the violation; (3) demonstrate understanding of the harm done; (4) admit fault and
responsibility for violation; (5) express genuine regret and remorse for the injury;
(6) express concern for future good relations; (7) give appropriate assurance that the
act will not happen again, and, if possible, (8) compensate the injured party [22],
Robbennolt [23]”. Sincerity is the most important factor included in the full
apology [14]. One of the essential representation of a sincere apology is the promise
by the aggressor that the aggression will not be repeated. Therefore, an aggressor
giving a sincere apology may help the encounter party reducing the level of fear
they feel towards the aggressor [14, 24]. One of the advantages of sincere apology
is the encounter party are more likely to grant forgiveness once they believe the
aggressor is apologizing sincerely and this is classified as the most effective strategy
to ensure forgiveness are given [4], McCullough et al. [21]. Examples can be found
during the construction dispute such as the aggressor apologise sincerely for the
dispute, the aggressor was truly sorry for the harm caused by our parties or the
aggressor felt genuine remorse for the harm caused [5].
(2) Partial Apology
Partial apology is defined as the apology which expresses the sympathy only and
without admitting responsibility [23, 30]. This type of apology would be useful
when the offender is unclear about the fault or the injury is not severe [23]. The
greatest difference between full apology and partial apology is the admission of
responsibility. For full apology, the apology will unequivocally admit responsibility
while partial apology will not. Examples can be found in the construction industry
such as the aggressor was sorry that there was dispute and hoping the dispute will
end soon [23].
4.2 The Role of Apology in Construction Dispute

Negotiation
Whether to forgive is one of the factors that can be found in measuring the extent of
psychological aggression [14]. Some people could forgive psychological aggres-
sion due to the other parties putting pressure on them to forgive [15], (Neblett
1974). It is therefore suggested that this attitude will affect the successfulness of
dispute when there is aggression found in the negotiation or conflicts. For example,
when the aggressor insisted that all the problems were the fault of other parties [12],
avoiding openly discussions about both parties’ differences, not willing to negotiate
in order to compromise [20], an apology by the aggressor may effect an attitude
change of the apology recipients. There are a number of studies describing the
impacts of apology towards negotiation. For the effect for aggressive behaviours,
the apology takes effects as follows:
(1) Firstly, the aggressors would like to reduce the expected liability by apolo-
gizing in the settlement of negotiations [7]. This means the present of apology
could generate the positive relationship and ease the settlement of negotiations
even aggression is included.
2072 L. Zhu et al.
Apology
Negotiation
Aggression
Outcome
Fig. 2 The effects of apology on psychological aggression in construction dispute negotiation
(2) Secondly, apology is useful in repairing conflict that damages relationship [25].
This means the apology can patch create a positive relationship towards the
aggression and construction negotiation process but to what extent different
types of apology help in the relationship of aggression and construction
negotiation outcome will be the focus of this study.
(3) Thirdly, the apology is important to determine the willingness to forgive in
aggression [14, 29]. This means that an apology can heal the harm caused by
the aggression and thereby reignite the chance of successful negotiation. This
study further examines how different types of apology could bring a positive
impact on negotiation outcome and aggression.
A conceptual framework formulating the foregoing constructs is presented in
Fig. 2.
5 Conclusions
In construction projects, disputes are common. How to resolve them effectively is

an important issue for construction projects. Aggressive behaviour is one of the
obstacles against construction dispute settlement. An Apology Ordinance was
enacted in July 2017 in Hong Kong with the aim to facilitate the use of mediation to
resolve civil disputes. And research in negotiation has found that apology can
moderate the negative impacts resulting from psychological aggression. This study
posits to (1) identify psychological aggression behavior and its damage in con-
struction dispute; (2) discuss the role of apology in the relationship between the
aggression and construction negotiation outcome; and (3) put forward a conceptual
framework of the role of apology in construction disputes. Through literature
review, aggressive behaviours damage inter-organizational relationship and inhibit
communication between the negotiating parties. Three forms of psychological
aggression behaviour are found happening in construction dispute negotiations.
These are: (1) social aggression; (2) relational aggression and (3) indirect aggres-
sion. Furthermore, aggressive behaviours are having the following negative
impacts: (1) conflict escalation; (2) relationship deterioration and (3) inaction. It is
proposed that offering an apology would bring the following aggression soothing
effects: (1) reduce the expected liability; (2) repair conflict that damages relation-
ship and (3) engender the willingness to forgive the aggressor. A conceptual
framework is therefore proposed to illustrate the moderating role of apology in
construction dispute negotiation.
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A Study of Construction Disputes
in the New Zealand Context
Tak Wing Yiu, Zhiyuan Lu, and Kevin P. Ang
Abstract The uniqueness of New Zealand construction industry necessitates the

research on mitigating disputes regarding the avoidance and minimisation of
impact. This paper assesses the current issues revolving around construction dispute
and it involves an interview of 40 engineering and construction professionals
working in both the public and private sectors in New Zealand. The result suggests
that more than 97% of construction dispute is directly related to human factors such
as performance, behaviour and perception. Results have also revealed that human
factors often play a vital role during dispute resolution process such as personality
or experience, which may result in less desirable outcomes.
Keywords Construction disputes Human factors New Zealand
1 Introduction
The construction industry is one of the pillars of New Zealand (NZ)’s economy,
contributing to commerce, GDP and employment [9]. In spite of the national sig-
nificance, NZ construction industry also features in the lack of momentum in
productivity, relatively smaller market size in the global context and an acute
shortage of skills [12]. Meanwhile, construction dispute is an epidemic facing the
whole industry worldwide, costing disputants a considerable amount of time and
money and undermining the mutual trust [1]. Therefore, the characteristics of NZ
construction industry and the detrimental effects of construction disputes necessitate
the research on construction disputes mitigation. This behavioral study has focused
on identifying the significance of human factors in the occurrence, escalation and
T. W. Yiu (&)
School of Built Environment, Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
e-mail: tyiu@massey.ac.nz
Z. Lu K. P. Ang
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Auckland, Auckland,
New Zealand

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_190
2076 T. W. Yiu et al.
resolution of construction disputes based on 40 interviews with engineering pro-

fessionals in NZ, analyzing the general patterns underlying the results and pre-
senting recommendations based on the NZ context. This paper aims to identify the
role of human factors in various stages of construction dispute in NZ, and to
provide recommendation on how to avoid and mitigate construction disputes in NZ.
2 Literature Review
The construction industry plays a vital role in NZ economy [9], accounting for
6.3% of GDP and 7.6% of the workforce even in the year of 2010 when the whole
industry remained distressed. This industry is a fast-growing industry with signif-
icant momentum, which has experienced a sustained growth rate 7% since 2011 and
is expected to reach the value of $37 billion between 2017 and 2018, approximately
20% higher than that of 2015 [9]. Relatively smaller industry size in a global
context, the lack of large-scale developments and low productivity are also the
major characteristics of NZ construction industry [12]. Hence, the construction
industry in NZ differentiates it from that in other common reference countries, e.g.
the UK, US or Australia [11]. The critical role of NZ construction industry’s
economy and various constraints facing the industry necessitate the needs of
avoiding and mitigating construction disputes to better allocate resources and serve
the national economy. Due to the high costs associated with the traditional litigation
approach and the uncertainties of its outcome, Alternative Dispute Resolution
(ADR) has become more commonly adopted by the construction industry [2].
Poirot [10] opined that ADR approaches should include internal negotiation,
mediation, mini-trials and dispute resolution boards.
Chan and Tse [3] and Gad et al. [6] suggested that the resolution of construction
disputes may be prone to cultural influence. This could be better elaborated by the
way construction disputes are usually handled in China. Xu and Cheung [13]
opined that the core moral values rooted in the traditional Confucianism and
Taoism make Chinese people tend to resolve disputes in a peaceful way without
undermining the so-called “face” and harmony. Moreover, disputes may have
detrimental effects on the project performance, causing unpredictable delay, addi-
tional expenditure, loss of productivity, and damage to the relationship [7], Cheung
and Pang, [5]. Chen et al. [4] further investigated the impact of disputes or the
generalised “conflicts” in the construction industry and suggested that task-related
conflicts could have a positive impact on project performance given the
well-established mutual trust between both parties prior to entering the contract. In
terms of human factors, a number of studies have been conducted [8], Yiu and Lee
[14], Zhang et al. [15], Cheung et al. [4]. A knowledge gap has been identified to
exist between the prestigious international research achievements and their feasi-
bility and application in the New Zealand context.
A Study of Construction Disputes in the New Zealand Context 2077
3 Methodology
This research has collected data from 40 engineering professionals in Auckland,

New Zealand through face-to-face interviews using a designated questionnaire. The
data was then analysed in both quantitative and qualitative ways to examine the
common patterns and logic behind 80 construction dispute examples discovered in
the survey. The interviewees have been recruited from the engineering & con-
struction industry in the private and public sectors. The questions that have been
asked during the interview are aimed at identifying the interviewees’ previous
experience involving construction disputes, causes of the disputes, whether or not
and how the disputes have been related to or affected by human factors, satisfaction
level of the resolution outcome, awareness of the professional dispute resolution
steps, confidence in avoiding or mitigating future construction disputes, any per-
sonal lessons learnt or recommendations, etc. The questionnaire is a mixture of
descriptive and quantitative questions to encourage more flexible interaction. The
interviewees had been thoroughly briefed on the nature and purpose of our research
and potential positive outcome for NZ construction industry before being invited
for an interview and they were encouraged to speak frankly and honestly
throughout the interview process. Moreover, as part of the regulations set out in the
ethics application approval by the University of Auckland regarding the anonymity
of the research and ethical consideration, the questionnaire avoids any questions
that might result in the participants or their organisations being identified to better
protect their privacy and promote more thorough discussion.
The collected data was compiled together upon the completion of the survey and
was analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively. To facilitate the analysis of the
interview results, the answers to some qualitative questions have been digitised with
each number representing different significance so that quantitative analysis can be
allowed. For example, regarding the question asking about whether and how
interviewees were affected by any external factors during the dispute resolution
process, e.g. managers, legal issues, public opinions, etc., the qualitative answers
were digitised depending on whether human factors were involved (i.e. excessive
pressure from managers) and the significance of the involved human factors
accordingly. These digitised answers were subsequently computed into Excel
Spreadsheet to conduct statistical analysis while some descriptive feedback from
participants were incorporated into the proposed framework as a recommendation
for the NZ construction industry.
4 Results
A total of 40 interviews were conducted. Except for one interviewee who shared
with the author some experience on observing other people dealing with con-
struction disputes, all the other 39 participants answered that they had been
previously involved in at least one construction dispute. Subject to the methods of

counting, a total of 80 construction dispute cases were discovered and discussed in
the interviews with most of them happening in NZ. As shown in Fig. 1, “Change of
scope” and “Unrealistic expectation” are the two most common causes for disputes,
each accounting for 25% of the 80 disputes cases discussed in the interviews.
“Quality” and “Performance” each took up 12% of the causes of disputes.
Discussion and negotiation remain the most common resolution method with
72% of the dispute cases resolved through this approach (Fig. 2 refers). No dispute
case involving the litigation process has been identified. Mediation and adjudication
accounted for 18% and 10% of the resolution methods respectively. A clear
majority of the dispute cases achieved a relatively satisfactory outcome at least for
the party that the interviewee stood for, with 70% of the dispute cases scoring 4 out
of 5 for the results satisfaction level (i.e. rating 4 & 5). Only two dispute cases were
recorded with the least satisfactory level (rating 1).
Fig. 1 Nature of disputes

Fig. 2 Dispute resolution methods
5 Discussion
5.1 Cause of Disputes
The causes of the dispute cases were analyzed by classifying them into
human-related causes and non-human-related causes. With regards to this classi-
fication, the principle adopted by the author could be described by a common
Chinese idiom, “See through the appurtenance to perceive the essence”. For
example, the interviewee answered “unrealistic expectation” as the main cause of
the dispute which might appear to be human-related. However, after an in-depth
discussion about the specific dispute example, the cause of the dispute could be
further explained as resulting from the unforeseeable underground conditions and
both parties had acted professionally and with good faith throughout the process. It
is believed that the likelihood of such a dispute cannot be substantially reduced
regardless of how differently both parties, the “human factor”, could have behaved.
Therefore, the cause of this dispute case was classified as non-human-related. Using
the same principle, it has been found that approximately 76% of the dispute cases
were caused to a certain extent by human factors which could have been rectified.
This result demonstrated that human factors are likely to be the most common cause
of construction disputes in NZ and identified the focus of the subsequent analysis.
5.2 Dispute Resolution Experience
In regard to the difficulty and room for improvement in resolving dispute cases as
well as the external and internal factors that affect the interviewees’ performance or
decision-making, 78% of the answers for “the most difficult part in the dispute
resolution process” are related to human factors with non-professionalism and
confrontational behaviours as the major issues. When asked about “what might
have been done” to improve the resolution outcome, 85% of the interviewees’
responses centered on human-related factors, e.g. improving their own or the other
party’s work behaviors, more professional decision-making. 70% of the “external
influence” and 65% of the “internal influence” during the resolution process was
found to be human-related while the organizational pressure, public perception and
professional knowledge were the main contributors. The qualitative and descriptive
answers, which were classified as human-related, were then transformed into
quantitative data based on the significance of human factors in these responses, i.e.
to what extent the participants and the resolution outcome have been adversely
impacted by the human-related factors. Human-relate factors such as
non-professionalism, confrontational behaviours or excessive external pressure
have a significant influence on disputants’ performance and the resolution outcome.
5.3 Feedback and Recommendation
A considerable amount of constructive feedback and comment beyond the standard

questions has been received by the author during the interviews. Inspired by the
interviewees’ insights and passion for the construction industry, the following three
most representative pieces of recommendation are presented:
5.3.1 Establish and Promote the Utilisation of Peer-Review Platform
Over half of the interviewees, who were taking managerial-level roles, have
expressed and agreed on the idea that a peer-review platform between clients and
contractors should be established and perfected. This idea stemmed from, the lack
of tools to assess a client’s or a contractor’s previous performance in contracts, e.g.
behaviours, good faith, business style, etc. In more detail, both the client and the
contractor could have the opportunity to comment on the performance of each other
and post the comments on the platform. The comments may be posted anony-
mously but the users should be encouraged to comment with real names to ensure
the data authenticity. Meanwhile, there should also be an assessment panel set up to
verify the reliability of each comment so that the defendant, i.e. the party being
commented on, may have the right to appeal. The interviewees who proposed or
commented on this mechanism generally believed that such a platform could help
exchange information between previous and future contractual parties and allow
clients and contractors to build a better understanding of the other contractual party.
For some organisations which have already internally developed a similar platform,
according to a few interviewees working for local government agencies, more effort
should be put on promoting the awareness and utilization of the peer-review system
while considering introducing the system across the industry.
5.3.2 Introduce the Concept of Scope Lock Point (SLP)
The concept of Scope Lock Point originated from an intellectual conversation with
an interviewee who is taking a chief managerial role in a local government agency
with more than 35 years of experience in the industry. A dispute case worth more
than $20 million was thoroughly discussed in the interview. The main cause of the
dispute was a late change of scope during the construction stage as a compromise to
offset the significantly increased project cost which was initially based on an
inaccurate cost estimation. The cost for change of scope could increase exponen-
tially past a certain point between development design and detailed design, which
was defined as the Scope Lock Point (SLP). It is thus recommended that the scope
of a project should be defined as early as possible with regards to functionality,
major deliverables, etc. and the best effort should be made to incorporate the
concept of Scope Lock Point into the detailed design, which means that no sub-
stantial change of scope should be made or expected past the SLP. It is believed that
the consensual acceptance and understanding of the SLP by both parties could
dramatically reduce the likelihood of construction disputes and the incurred cost of
time, money and opportunity.
5.3.3 Foster a Sustainable and Productive Industry Ecology
The findings in the literature review regarding the characteristics of NZ construction

industry resonated with most of the interviewees, i.e. its significance to the country,
relatively small market and limited choices of contractors, etc. This implies that a
large proportion of engineering professionals could understand that construction
disputes are astonishingly detrimental to the industry especially with the small
market volume and constrained recourses. At least 32 out of the 40 interviewees
either criticized or expressed concerns about the lack of professionalism and
accountability mechanism within NZ construction industry. More than 63% of
interviewees mentioned in the additional feedback section of the questionnaire that
a joint effort across the industry should be made to create an atmosphere where
justice is always served and each party behaves consciously to avoid disputes and
mitigate disputes professionally in case a dispute does occur. Continuing from the
dispute case discussed in Sect. 5.3.2 above, the interviewee suggested that although
the dispute happened in the construction stage between the client and the contractor,
the cause actually originated from the major discrepancies in the quantity
surveyor’s cost estimation during the design stage. Therefore, as the client’s rep-
resentative, after settling the claim with the contractor the interviewee decided to
claim indemnity from the quantity surveyor. This might seem to be an isolated case;
however, the universal principle embodied in this example could be applied to
many other situations, which is the spirit of finding the truth from facts and holding
each other accountable. It is this philosophy that NZ construction industry urgently
needs to foster an environment which values professionalism and accountability.
6 Conclusions
This research examined the significance of human factors in construction disputes

based on the NZ context. It aims to probe into the general attributes of NZ con-
struction industry and pave the way for further research on the avoidance and
mitigation of construction disputes in this country. Human factors, which may
include professional knowledge, pressure from managerial levels, public opinion,
etc., are proved to be significantly related to construction disputes and are likely to
adversely affect the resolution outcome. At least 76% of the 80 dispute cases
discovered and discussed during the interviews were to a certain extent caused by
such human factors. 78% of interviewees believed the most difficult part of dealing
with disputes was associated with human factors such as confrontational beha-
viours, while more than 65% of interviewees mentioned that their performance or
decision-making had been adversely affected by human factors, e.g. organisational
pressure, knowledge about the dispute resolution, etc.
The interviewees urge to establish a universal peer-review platform for clients
and contractors for contract management. Furthermore, Scope Lock Point
(SLP) may be introduced to all engineering and construction projects in order to
encourage early engagement and responsible decision-making. Above all, it is
considered as the initiative from the whole industry, including legislation, disci-
plinary committees, the guilds, market surveillance, to foster an environment across
the industry which values professionalism and accountability. Future research on
NZ on the behavioral studies of construction dispute resolution could use this paper
as a starting point. More research could be carried out to take into consideration the
regional difference in NZ and specifically investigate the applicability of interna-
tional research models involving human factors as discussed in the literature
review.
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Commitment to Construction Health
and Safety – The Worker’s Perspective
Tak Wing Yiu, Hasan Hayalie, and Raymond Zhong
Abstract New Zealand is currently experiencing an increasingly ageing popula-

tion. As a result, the ageing trend will also be reflected within the work-force. This
calls for certain problematic industries such as construction sector to reform their
traditional methods of practice in order to accommodate the expected influx of older
workers. Construction sector related studies have focused on the health impacts the
sector has on its workers, and ageing population studies have focused on the needs
of older worker. However, little attention has been given to study both of these
areas together with the client’s commitment to construction health and safety. This
study identified areas within the construction sector which workers perceived as
being negligent or detrimental to their well-being as well as key ways to reduce the
effects of an ageing population within New Zealand construction sector.
Keywords Health and safety New zealand
1 Introduction
The percentage of New Zealanders over the age of 65 has been projected to increase
from being 14% of the population in 2012 to approximately 24% of the population
by 2036 [11]. This fluctuation is expected to be reflected within the nation’s work
force as larger proportions of older people will opt to work for longer years due to
reasons such as financial hardshi [12]. The proportion of the nation’s labour force
that is over the age of 65 is projected to grow from 6% in 2017 to between 8–11%
by 2038 and between 9-15% by 2068 [12]. As such New Zealand (NZ) is predicted
to experience a substantial growth in population as well as an ongoing shift in age
T. W. Yiu (&)
School of Built Environment, Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
e-mail: tyiu@massey.ac.nz
H. Hayalie R. Zhong
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Auckland, Auckland,
New Zealand

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_191
band proportions over the coming years [9]. This change is also expected to be
reflected within the population of workers employed within the construction
industry [12]. This has created an issue that requires immediate attention as con-
struction is known for being punishing on the well-being and health of those that
work within the industry [1]. NZ construction industry had highest number of
work-related injury in the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) claims in
2017. This accounted for 16.1 percent of all occupational claims in New Zealand
[12]. Research has shown that one of the greatest hurdles the NZ construction
industry faces is a commonly held carelessness towards work safety, establishing a
counterproductive work culture [14]. This sense of recklessness is associated with
workers tolerating and embracing the idea of there being risk [14]. Rather than
acting upon work-related dangers, studies show that NZ construction workers are
more likely to accept being endangered [14]. It has been suggested that the ability
for construction workers to claim injuries to the ACC significantly attributes to their
sense of carelessness [14]. In addition, the natural decline of people’s health will
likely develop more injury cases (in particular musculoskeletal disorders, MSD) in
construction sector [5]. This makes it vital to explore and identify the areas for
improvement within NZ construction industry to become more accommodating and
less dangerous for older workers [5]. The nature of the musculoskeletal disorders
workers within the construction industry are at risk of developing vary depending
on the type of occupation the worker is employed within [1]. Lower back pain is the
most frequently experienced musculoskeletal disorder for worker within construc-
tion [13]. Winkel and Mathiassen [15] identified three potential risk categories for
back pain. These are: (a) individual factors, such as a person’s age, body weight and
muscle strength, (b) biomechanical factors, such as the frequency of physically
lifting heavy objects, twisting of the trunk, prolonged awkward postures and
exposure to whole body vibration, (c) psychosocial factors, such as job satisfaction
and job control [15]. A Swedish study examined the patterns of 73,631 construction
workers of various ages and their development of musculoskeletal disorders [5].
This study found that there was a steady increase in the prevalence of lower back
pain as the age groups increased in age [5]. This puts older workers at higher risk of
developing chronic injuries that plague their quality of life, as well as forcing them
to retire early due to their inability to meet the physical requirements of their job
[8]. The construction industry should prepare for accommodating ageing workforce
in the coming decade. It is necessary to provide recourses and services to reduce the
negative effects associated with an ageing workforce [3]. The more ‘ready’ a
company is, the more likely they are to address and reduce the physical burden
experienced by senior construction workers [10]. Building a positive work envi-
ronment to increase the comfortability of senior employees in communicating
which aspects of their job cause them physical strain is suggested to be the first step
[3]. In order for these problems to be communicated and acted upon, employers
must actively build positive relationships with employees [4]. More specifically, a
Dutch study gained information from 637 senior construction workers in relation to
their work, health, career preferences, ability and expectations [2]. It was discov-
ered that among 56% of men who developed musculoskeletal disorders, the most
Commitment to Construction Health and Safety … 2087
preferred preventative measure was to reduce the overall physical workload [2].
This study reinforces the importance of gaining information from workers, via a
questionnaire survey, as a means of increasing the construction industry’s readiness
for confronting the problems faced by senior employees [2]. The primary objective
of this project is to investigate the perceptions of construction workers within NZ
relating to their healthy ageing. The secondary objective is to identify key areas
requiring improvement within NZ construction industry in relation to accommo-
dating older workers, and the methods necessary to help reduce the negative effects
on this demographic.
2 Methodology
2.1 Survey Administration
The study was administered through an anonymous online questionnaire. It was

advertised at various construction companies as well as publicly. The advertisement
had a website link to the Google forms page including the participant information
sheet and submission as required by the University of Auckland Human
Participants Ethics Committee (Reference number: 021702).
2.2 Questionnaire Design and Analysis
The questionnaire developed for this study was based on the review of relevant
literature. More specifically, recommendations made by industry professionals and
studies from existing literature on how to ease the transition of older workers into a
workplace. Literature has typically defined ‘older worker’ as one who is
approaching the age of retirement. The most commonly accepted retirement age in
NZ is 65 as this is when New Zealanders become eligible to receive their super-
annuation benefits. However, literature in medical discipline suggests that the
decline in biological function begins decades prior to this age [7]. Cross-sectional
studies indicate that muscular strengths peak between the second and third decade
for males [7]. This level generally plateaus throughout the fourth decade and then
declines from the fifth to the eighth decade by about 35–45% [7]. The peak
strengths in woman are observed to occur earlier, with losses in strength also
occurring at a younger age [7]. Given the strenuous, muscular strength and
endurance demanding tasks typically associated with work within the construction
sector, it may be appropriate to define older workers in relation to this decline [6].
As such this study defines ‘older worker’ as person aged 40 or above. The survey
was designed and intended for workers employed within various labour intensive
jobs in NZ construction industry. Socio-demographic questions were included to
categorize the participants on their gender, age groups, work experience and current
work circumstances such as typical number of hours worked per week. Questions
were asked to gauge the thoughts of the participants on their employer’s contri-
bution to facilitating the healthy ageing of their employees. Similar perception
questions were asked about the participants own contributions to their healthy
ageing. This was included to help identify any trends and patterns which exist, to
create a starting point for policy makers within companies and government to
review when deciding which methods of intervention would be most effective to
implement. The perception questions were answered according to a 5-point Likert
Scale where participants could choose the option which best represented their
perceptions towards a certain statement. The options available were defined as;
1 = Strongly disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Neutral, 4 = Agree, 5 = Strongly Agree.
To analyze the collected data, the participants were first divided into two age
groups, ‘Below 40 years of age’, and ‘40 years and above’. The mean value of each
age group were calculated. Mann-Whitney U tests were used to check if attitude
variables were statistically significant between the < 40 age group and the 40 + age
group. Variables which showed mean scores below 3 (representing some degree of
disagreement) were identified and discussed. Similarly, those which showed sta-
tistically significant associations (p < 0.05) between the two age groups in relation
to their answers were also analyzed and discussed. These associations were further
investigated by breaking the groups up into their specific age bands (16–29, 30–39,
40–49, 50–59, 60 +) to see if more intricate patterns existed within the specific age
bands.
3 Results
The questionnaire survey had received 63 participants. Among these, three 3 of

them did not fully completed the survey. This reduced the total number of partic-
ipants to 60.
3.1 Socio-Demographics
3.1.1 Age Groups
The age of the participants were relatively well-scattered. The number of partici-
pants from the different age groups are shown in Table 1.
After dividing the participants into the two age groups ‘Below 40 years of age’,
and ‘40 years and above’, the sample was split at 28 and 32 respectively.
3.1.2 Number of Hours Worked Per Week (on Average)
The most common range of weekly hours worked was 40–50 h which over a third
of the participants (24 out of 60) answered. The second most common response was
50 + hours which 16 participants answered.
3.1.3 Size of Companies
The distribution of participant company size (number of employees) are shown in

Table 2.
3.1.4 Employment Arrangements
The overwhelming majority of participants were employed full time (46 out of 60).
The survey also showed that 5 of the participants were self-employed. Part-time and
casual employment received 7 and 2 responses respectively (Table 3).
Table 1 Participants’ Profile Age group 16–29 30–39 40–49 50–59 60+
(by age groups)
# of participant 18 10 11 14 7
Table 2 Participants’ Profile Size of company <5 5–15 16–30 31–49 50+
(by company size) (number of employee)
# of participant 8 19 13 9 11
Table 3 Participants’ Profile Full Part Self-employed Causal

(by employment time time
arrangements)
# of 46 7 5 2
participant
3.2 Commitment to Health and Safety
Both age groups disagreed (p-value = 0.247) that their respective management
provided frequent breaks to ensure their employees were not exhausted (< 40
mean = 2.34, 40 + mean = 2.57). Similarly, both groups also disagreed
(p-value = 0.096) that their respective companies were frequently improving the
health and safety facilities to accommodate current and future employees. (< 40
mean = 2.39, 40 + mean = 2.78). There is evidence (p-value = 0.014) that a sig-
nificantly larger proportion of workers in the older age group disagree that man-
agement delegates age-suitable tasks (mean = 2.25) compared to the younger group
(mean = 3.11). This inversely proportional relationship was also consistent within
the specific age bands. The mean values decrease from 3.17 for the youngest band
(16-29 years) to 1.86 for the oldest band (65 + years). Both age groups responded
strongly against the questions that related to their company’s provision of: quality
health insurance, subsidized health examinations, and frequent health examinations.
The mean values of the responses for the < 40 years of age group were 1.68, 1.68
and 1.39 respectively. Similarly for the 40 + years of age group, the mean scores
were, 1.41, 1.34 and 1.16 respectively. This was irrespective to company size. The
two groups mutually disagreed upon the statement that their employer provided
facilities which assisted employees with personal or work related issues (e.g.:
counselling services) (p-value = 0.485). The mean values reported were 2.5 for
the < 40 group and 1.81 for the 40 + group. However, when comparing the
responses to this question against the size of the company the participants were
from, there is very strong evidence suggesting that larger companies are much more
likely to provide such facilities (p-value = 0.001). All of the participants which
strongly agreed with this statement worked for companies which employed at least
31 employees, with 82% of these responses coming from those working in com-
panies which employed 50 + employees.
3.3 Safety Climate Factors/ Work Culture
Very strong evidence suggest a difference in opinion exists between the < 40 years
of age group (mean = 3.64) and the 40 + years of age group (mean = 2.75) in
response to the statement of not wanting to appear ‘unmanly’ by being overly safe
(p-value = 0.001). 68% of the < 40 years group either agreed or strongly agreed
with this statement compared to 22% from the 40 + years group.
There was also very strong evidence suggesting a significant disparity between
the two age groups relating to their willingness to caution co-workers when they are
working unsafely (p-value = < 0.001). The < 40 years of age group responded that
they were less likely (mean = 2.54) to do so than the 40 + age group (mean =
3.97). This trend was also seen to exist within the specific age bands with
exception of the age bands 40–49 and 50–59.
These show that the younger group responded more positively (mean = 4.11) to
always wearing the correct PPE compared to the older group (mean = 3.47)
(p-value = 0.041). (Talk about self-employment). However, there was mutual
agreement in regards to skipping breaks often to finish jobs in a timely manner,
where the mean values of both groups were above 3 (neutral).
3.4 Individual Commitment to Healthy Ageing
Very strong evidence (p-value = < 0.001) suggests that the younger group are less
likely to attend regular health examinations (mean = 1.54) as well as ensure they
are well rested before participating in work related activities (mean = 2.32) when
compare to the older group (mean = 2.97, and 3.44 respectively). However, it is
worth noting that there is very strong evidence to support that < 40 years of age
group are significantly more likely to show interest in learning new safety tech-
niques to enhance their well-being (mean = 3.43) compared to their older group
(mean = 2.44) (p-value = 0.001).
3.5 Individual Health Factors
Very strong evidence indicates that the disparity between the perceptions of whe-
ther it was commonplace to sustain a work-related injury (p-value = < 0.001). The
younger group disagreed for the most part with 0% strongly agreeing and only 7%
agreeing. Compared to the 40 + years of age group whom 25% strongly agreed and
another 25% agreed with the statement.
Similarly, there is very strong evidence to suggest large disparities between the
two age groups in relation to the statements “My mobility has been affected by
work-related activities” and “I experience aches and pains during my regular work
activities” (p-value = < 0.001 for both). These discrepancies were the most sig-
nificant differences within the entire questionnaire, with the < 40 years old group
having a mean of 1.79 and 2.29 respectively, and the 40 + years age group having a
mean of 4.09 and 4.34 respectively (Fig. 1).
Q1- I do not want to be seen as ‘unmanly’ or ‘weak’ being overly safe; Q2-
When I see co-workers working unsafely I caution them; Q3- I always wear the
correct Personal Protection Equipment (PPE); Q4- I attend regular health exami-
nations to ensure I am fit to work (e.g. eyesight, hearing, mobility); Q5- I ensure I
am well rested before partaking in work related activities. (e.g. Enough sleep the
night before); Q6- I feel it is common to sustain a work-related injury within my
current job; Q7- My mobility has been affected by work-related activities.
Q8- I experience aches and pains during my regular work activities; Q9- I am
interested in learning new safety techniques to improve my well-being at work.
Fig. 1 Mean scores obtained

from Question 1 (Q1) to
Question 9 (Q9)
4 Discussion
4.1 Management’s Commitment to Facilitating Healthy

Ageing
This study shows that dissatisfaction with the frequency of breaks provided was
unanimous between the two age groups. These results indicate a flaw on man-
agement’s behalf as the administration of frequent breaks is essential in providing
workers with time to recover and rest. Regular breaks were one of the mitigation
strategies indicated within the literature as being effective in reducing the workload
on older workers [6]. This result could be attributed to the negative work culture
where workers are willing to compromise their breaks in order to finish jobs in a
timely manner.
Similarly, the survey results showed unanimously strong disagreements with the
statements relating to companies providing quality health insurance, subsidized
health examinations, and frequent health examinations. This lack of medical sup-
port on behalf of the companies of those participating in the survey could contribute
to the hesitation of workers seeking medical aid for injuries due to financial con-
straints. As indicated by medical literature, early management of injuries is vital
when reducing the negative affects felt by workers [16]. This however would have
to be at the expense of the companies, which may not be financially feasible for
them. Government’s support may be helpful to reduce the injuries. This could
therefore minimize their effects on demographics vulnerable to sustaining injuries
such as older workers [6]. It is found that smaller companies were significantly less
likely to provide their employees with facilities such as counselling, to assist with
personal or work related issues. These services could benefit workers by increasing
their enjoyment with their work. This could be reflected by a decrease in MSD
developed due to improvement in the workforce’s psychosocial factors, as indicated
by existing literature [15].
4.2 Perceptions of the Young and Old Workers
The study found that there were numerous significant disparities between the
perceptions of younger and older workers. Many of these relate to habits and
precautions taken to increase the health and safety of the employees. The difference
in responses relating to the reporting of aches, pains and loss of mobility demon-
strates that older workers are far more likely to develop MSD’s compared to
younger workers. This also agrees with the survey result that older workers are
more likely to perceive that injuries are commonplace within construction. This
indicates that there is an unhealthy disconnect between the younger worker’s
perception of their biological resilience and the reality of the likelihood of sus-
taining work related injuries within the construction industry. This disconnect is
especially problematic as the younger workers may develop unhealthy habits
relating to serious factors which affect their healthy ageing due to maintaining the
false impression that these patterns will eventually likely lead them to injuries.
These results coincide with the study completed by Holmström and Engholm [5]
where older workers were also far more likely to develop MSD’s within con-
struction. Early intervention where younger workers are educated on the realities of
neglecting their well-being within the construction industry could have significant
impacts on the upcoming generation’s ability to age in a sustainable manner within
the construction industry.
The difference in perception relating to how appropriately management delegates
tasks to suit the abilities of the workers, highlights this disconnect and the fact that
older workers have different requirements to younger workers. Judging by the
responses, the younger age group’s perception was relatively unaware of this issue
whereas older workers collectively felt the delegation efforts were insufficient in
relation to what they could offer. According to relevant literature, the mitigation
strategy of tasking each worker with physically compatible tasks is an essential
measure to be considered to improve a company’s ‘readiness’ in better accom-
modating older workers [6]. This also coincides with the Dutch study of 637 senior
construction employees where of those 56% who had developed MSD’s, the most
preferred preventative measure was to reduce the overall workload [2].
4.3 The Habits of Young and Old Workers
Although younger workers responded more enthusiastically in regards to willing-

ness to learning new safety techniques’ and consistently wearing the correct PPE,
older workers were more likely to attend regular health examinations and ensure
they are well-rested before working. This suggests that as worker’s age, they begin
to become complacent in regards to health and safety standards. This could be due
to workers becoming more comfortable with the risks associated with their jobs.
However, as the worker’s age they are also less resilient to sleep deprivation and the
damaging movements associated with construction work [5]. This could explain
why the older workers prioritize rest and medical check-ups more than their
younger colleagues. It should also be noted that the increased frequency of health
check-ups reported by the older workers could also likely be due to the higher
prevalence of injuries observed within this age group. Again, educating the younger
workers on the significance of maintaining healthy habits such as regular check-ups
and ensuring sufficient sleep prior to working could help break the cycle of younger
workers contributing to negative well-being statistics as they age within the con-
struction industry.
5 Conclusions
This study revealed that the fundamental disparities existed between the younger
workers (<40 years of age) and older workers (40+ years of age). Management was
perceived to be flawed in certain key areas which would exacerbate the issues of
unhealthy ageing. Impact reduction strategies including improved administration of
breaks, smarter delegation of tasks and providing services to cope with stress
should be considered by companies to enhance the healthy ageing of their
employees. The reporting of injuries as well as the expectation of developing an
injury within the construction industry were significantly higher within the older
group compared to the younger group. This disparity in the expectation of devel-
oping an injury suggests that younger workers are oblivious to the dangers of
maintaining bad habits such as not ensuring they are well rested before work. These
could eventually prevent them from ageing in a healthy manner. Improving the
efforts to educated employees on the statistics associated with the prevalence of
injuries within construction could help cut the cycle of workers contributing to the
detriment of their well-being.
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prevention in the construction industry. Appl Ergon 41(6):771–778
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and safety regime. http://www.chancerygreen.com/articles/2016/healthandsafetyatworkact
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concepts, issues and operational considerations. Ergonomics 37(6):979–988
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treatment of acute low back musculoskeletal disorders. J Occup Environ Med 42(1):35
What Affects Construction Innovation
Adoption in Building and Infrastructure
Projects – A Case Study in Australia
L. Qi, S. Holdworth, and P. S. P. Wong
Abstract Construction project organizations (CPOs) collaborate under a transient

network with common project objectives but different corporate goals. It is
understandable that CPOs working in the same project might have different per-
ceptions about construction innovation. The respective perceptions have been
affecting CPOs’ attitudes and responses towards the adoption of construction
innovation. There is no lack of research findings advocate the more extensive
implementation of construction innovation in projects. Unfortunately, previous
studies might have overlooked how different CPOs’ attitudes might affect the
implementation of construction innovation in building and infrastructure projects.
This paper reports a study that seeks to understand CPOs’ attitudes towards con-
struction innovation. 17 Semi-structured interviews were conducted in Australia to
investigate (1) practitioners understanding construction innovation and (2) how
CPOs may affect the adoption. Thematic analysis was conducted. QSR NVIVO 12
Plus software was utilised to assist qualitative data analysis with regard to data
organisation, exploration, coding, retrieval of data, searching, interrogating to build
propositions and theories, and recording systematically. The results indicate that
builders are the key decision making in adopting construction innovation in pro-
jects. Disregarding the nature of CPOs, construction innovation cannot be suc-
cessfully implemented without the support of senior management.
Keywords Construction innovation Project organizations
L. Qi (&) S. Holdworth P. S. P.Wong

School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University, Melbourne,
VIC 3000, Australia
e-mail: liang.qi@rmit.edu.au
S. Holdworth
e-mail: sarah.holdsworth@rmit.edu.au
P. S. P.Wong
e-mail: peterspwong@rmit.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_192
2098 L. Qi et al.
1 Introduction
Construction innovation is inextricably related to the benefits obtained such as cost

reduction, productivity improvements, and environmental sustainability perfor-
mance improvements [9]. It has been recognized as central to an organization’s
competitive advantage within the marketplace [32]. Construction projects have
become more complex and difficult to manage in recent years [7]. From a lifecycle
perspective, the project involves the changing profile of stakeholders including but
not limited to the developer, consultant, main contractor, sub-contractor, suppliers,
employees, local communities, financial institutions, government, end-users and
non-governmental organization [15]. The construction industry is made up of a
large and complex supply chain and within the complexity is a range of positions
actions that perpetuate traditional practice or a driving new more innovative ways of
building. One of the key complexities presented is a consequence of the interde-
pendence of different organizations involved in the process including; suppliers,
consultants, builders, sub-contractors, authorities, trades, lawyers, and financing
institutions [6].
Lin et al. [22] classified stakeholders into internal and external stakeholders, that
is, the internal group included developers, consultants, and main contractors, and
external that have formal or contractual connections within projects, and the
external group consisted government, NGOs, distinctive councils, and end-users.
The difference between a developer and a contractor is that the contractor is des-
ignated by the customer (might be the developer) to carry out the construction
work. The internal stakeholders are those who have formal official or contractual
relationships in the project, while external parties are those who have no formal
contact with the major organizations within the project. Therefore, to investigate the
relationship in the internal group to adopt innovation, in this study, construction
project organizations (CPOs) can be defined as the organizations collaborating in a
construction project, consisting of developers, consultants (including architects,
engineers, quantity surveyors), and builders. Moreover, internal stakeholders are
entities within a business (e.g., employees and managers), and external stakeholders
are entities not within a business itself but who care about or are affected by its
performance (e.g., clients, regulators, investors, suppliers). Therefore, the internal
stakeholders in this study include CPOs, managers and employees.
In a diversified partnership, organizations do not always agree nor do they
always share the same values [29]. Additionally, not all members of an organization
share the same values and objectives. Different construction participants have dif-
ferent targets and may or may not cooperate to achieve the adoption of new con-
struction innovation [43]. For example, from the builder’s perspective, BIM
(Building Information Modelling) may change the delivery method of construction
projects [14], and it is an innovation [34]. However, the architect and engineer do
not view BIM as an innovation because it was implemented in the 1980s working
software in the computer-aided design program [27]. Although the impact of BIM
has been proved to be revolutionary, it is only the latest version of several
What Affects Construction Innovation Adoption in Building … 2099
generations of tools [11]. Their attitude of understanding of innovation may impact

on its adoption. While it would be ideal if all parties were able to reach a com-
promise on objectives and values this does not always happen. Generally, there is
one organization/individual in a more powerful position to push its own system
onto others, coercing others to accept it [29]. However, few references investigated
the relationship among CPOs to implement the innovation. Given this dynamic, it is
important to explore what influences the adoption of construction innovation
identified in building and infrastructure projects. This study is conducted with a
premise that the successful adoption of innovation in the project is relied on the
attitude towards accepting innovation by CPOs. It aims to investigate practitioners’
understanding of construction innovation and how CPOs may affect innovation
adoption. This research provides a better understanding of the different roles and
responsibilities of CPOs in adopting innovation in the construction project, to this
end, it helps to facilitate collaboration among project stakeholders.
2 Methodology
Seventeen experts (including three developers, three architects, three engineers,

three quantity surveyors and five builders) from the Australian construction industry
were interviewed face to face. Mason [25] indicated the most common valid sample
size of similar types of studies around 20-30, and 15 is the smallest acceptable
sample for all qualitative research. The interviews started with the first question
referred to “How would you define innovation in the building and infrastructure
projects?” and then they were asked the same set of questions from suggested by
Francis et al. [12] and Manley and Miller [24], that is, “Are there any person or
groups that are supportive of adopting the advanced technology in building and
infrastructure projects?”, “Are there any person or groups that are unsupportive of
adopting the advanced technology in building and infrastructure projects?”, and
“Who is/are the key person or groups that influenced your decision to adopt the
advanced technology in building and infrastructure projects?”. The last question
was asked “Is there anything else you associate with other people’s view about
adopting the advanced technology?”, which are aimed at capturing any views that
were the possibility not discussed during the interview. This will be an opportunity
for interviewees to provide their own views about the successful implementation of
advanced technology.
NVivo, a Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) computer software package pro-
duced by QSR International, has many benefits and could essentially enhance the
quality of research such as analysis of qualitative data becoming easier and
receiving more professional results [16]. Sociograms in NVivo 12 plus can assist to
analyse social networks by displaying them as a diagram and help to visualize
connections. The process of the coding is adopted the recommendation by Bazeley
2100 L. Qi et al.
and Jackson [4]. Meanwhile, during the process of coding, the relationships were
established by participators’ response. The types of relationships were coded by
“supportive”, “unsupportive”, and “main decision”, based on the structure of the
interview outline. The “supportive” or “unsupportive” means who (the role of
interviewee) believed the innovation adoption is (un)supportive by the person (or
organization) (see the direction of the arrow). For example, one developer reported
“there are both developer and builders that do embrace it (innovation)”, thus, the
developer thought developer and builder are supportive of innovation adoption,
then they have a relationship with “supportive”. The similar built the relationship
between developer and developer. However, the majority of them reported client as
a factor, and some of them mentioned developer after they talked about the client,
while, few used government clients instead of the client. In order to clearly make
sure what the client was included, they were asking to explain what client it was.
29.4% of them reported client consisted of both developer and government, and two
interviewees made sure they mentioned the client only as a developer. Therefore,
the coding of this study was used the specific term that participants mentioned
during the interviews.
3.1 The Definition of Construction Innovation
The concepts of construction innovation were originated from the business research
field [36]. Murphy et al. [30] linked the concepts of innovation in businesses
practices to the construction field and described construction innovation as the
adoption of a new idea that will benefit stakeholders. Slaughter [38, p. 226] defined
construction innovation as “actual use of a nontrivial change and improvement in a
process, product or system that is novel to institution developing change.” Scholars
defined construction innovation in different perspectives, with some focused into
the change of process e.g., Motawa et al. [28], and some emphasised on the per-
spective of technology, e.g., Tatum [40], others defined from spanning both sides
from technology and process, e.g., Dale [9]. Views from the interviewees are
generally in line with the literature review. It was found that 70.6% of the partic-
ipants define innovation as both the adoption of new technologies and processes,
23.5% described construction innovation as merely an adoption of new process and
5.9% defined it as the adoption of new technology.
3.2 The Relationship Between Construction Organizations

and Innovation
A typical construction project generally consists of a client, design and cost con-
sultants, main-contractor (builders), sub-contractors [32]. According to CIOB [8],
the client is defined as “entity, individual or organisation commissioning and
funding the project, directly or indirectly.” The role of the developer is constructing,
redeveloping or refurbishing buildings in regard to make a profit [19]. The con-
struction supply chain and its management are significantly regarded as a set of
practices sought to manage and coordinate the entire supply chain from raw
material suppliers to end customers [2]. New materials created as the crucial ele-
ments consist of innovation [33]. Customers promote innovation by placing pres-
sure on project participants to provide a high standard of work/products [3],
increase performance [13], or may present new requirements challenging traditional
practices and products [37]. Nam and Tatum [31] found consultants have a sig-
nificant impact on product innovation. They have the potential to combine the
knowledge of construction design science, process, materials, and constraints with
technology tool and equipment in the innovative design [23]. The relationships
between consultants and customers have become important with the ever-increasing
competition in the construction industry [18]. Often it is the consultant who is hired
by customers that promote the need for advanced technology implementation
through alternative products of building design [5]. Additionally, consultants liaise
between the builders and the customers.
Akintoye et al. [1] identified the main stakeholders within the industry that
influence the adoption of innovation include suppliers, design consultants, builders
and sub-contractors. In the Australian construction industry, Unsworth et al. [41]
identified stakeholders impact on innovation adoption including clients, suppliers
[17]; Mehrtens et al. [26], competitors, and government branches [10]. Moreover,
Steinhardt et al. [39] identified traders and sub-contractors, consumers, government
and regulatory bodies, finance industry/banks, suppliers, industry representative
bodies, architects and designers, clients, and engineers that influenced prefabrica-
tion adoption.
Similar to the literature reviews, participants of the semi-structured interviews
generally believe the existence of dynamics among developer/government/client,
architect/engineer/quantity surveyor, builder/sub-contractor and suppliers in regard
to innovation adoption. Such dynamics can be shown in sociograms with centrality
measures generated through NVivo 12 plus. The degree of centrality is the count of
the number of vertices directly connected by the vertex. “Degree is often used as a
measure of a vertex’s degree of connectedness and consequently, their popularity
and influence” (QSR International n.d.). This can be used to determine which
conditions are critical to disseminating information and affecting others in the
network. For example, how many people can this person reach directly? Nvivo is
used to calculate centrality measures by the Stanford Network Analysis Project
(SNAP), which is a network analysis and graphics mining library. “It is written in
2102 L. Qi et al.
C ++ and easily scales to massive networks with hundreds of millions of nodes,

and billions of edges” (Leskovec n.d.). Figure 1 shows the relationship among the
stakeholders from the interviews by using Nvivo, in this diagram, the colour, the
size of the circle, and the thickness of line between different stakeholders are
represented the degree of the power. Table 1 shows the top stakeholders from
interviews by using Centrality Measures output with Nvivo.
It is worth noting that interviewees used several terms including developer,
government and client to describe the owner of the project. Analyzed with the due
caveat that interviewees are working in different CPOs and ‘clients’ or ‘govern-
ment’ in their eyes may not represent the owners of the projects, all relevant terms
including developers, clients and government were analyzed individually. This
might about the results when the impact of CPOs in construction innovation
adoption is the topic of analysis. Results presented in Table 1 and Fig. 1 indicates
that Builders, Architects, Engineers and Quantity Surveyors are comparative
impactful in construction innovation adoption in projects.
Builder is identified as the most impactful role in innovation adoption. The
results are understandable as the builders used to be the organization who assess the
technical feasibility of options. It is also the key CPO who responses to the new
ideas suggested by the architects and engineers [2]. Builders are at the forefront of
using new products and implementing new processes and techniques in projects
[42]. This study is conducted in the greater Melbourne region, Australia, where
Fig. 1 The dynamics of stakeholders in relation to construction innovation adoption –

Sociograms view
Table 1 Top seven most impactful stakeholders in construction innovation adoption – ranked by
Centrality Measures
Case Degree Degree in Degree out Betweenness Closeness
Builder 13 5 11 51.786 0.056
Architect 12 4 12 44.919 0.053
Engineer 11 3 11 33.033 0.050
Quantity Surveyor 10 2 9 28.167 0.048
Developer 9 4 7 8.952 0.045
Senior management 5 5 0 0.286 0.040
Government 5 5 0 0.286 0.040
prefabrication has become more extensive used in projects. In recent years, inno-
vative ideas in prefabrication emerged for reducing on-site skilled labours,
decreasing project cost and shortening the construction period [21].
From the interviews, 41.2% of the participants clearly indicate builder/main
contractor as the most impactful CPOs in construction innovation adoption. They
reckon decisions of builders are mostly affected by the developers/clients willing-
ness to ‘try new thing’. Builders are sensitive to price and efficiency and they would
only adopt innovation that can bring a positive effect to the project outcomes.
17.6% of the participants highlighted that builders may react negatively to inno-
vation implementation if the benefits are not justified. The builder needs proofs and
evidence to support behavior change.
In this study, interviewees generally described ‘senior management’ in two
folds: personnel at senior positions within the CPOs and personnel at senior
positions from the CPOs. Interviewees from consultants’ and contractors’ firms
often mentioned “senior management” is playing a decisive role in innovation
adoption. ‘Senior management’ is described as a group of personnel that would give
a broad view of what they need to do in the next stage and had a strong power to
lead them to adopt innovation. 35.3% of interviewees articulated senior manage-
ment made a positive attitude of innovation adoption. While 11.8% commented
senior management would against innovation adoption refers to afraid of change
and they want to use in the traditional ways. Therefore, the company’s manager
may have to adopt or develop new technology to provide a price, schedule, or
quality performance equivalent to the competition [40]. From the interviews, 54.5%
reported senior management as the main decision-maker to impact on a project
innovation adoption. The leader could show the employees by adopting an inno-
vation, although they might not get affected immediately, they could share the
reward, and if the employees meet that, they would adopt it. Therefore, instead of
assessing stakeholders’ general influences, this research highlights the relationship
among the internal stakeholder groups to seek better collaboration to implement
innovation in the construction industry.
2104 L. Qi et al.
4 Conclusion
In this study, semi-structured interviews were conducted in the great Melbourne

region to investigate practitioners’ understanding of construction innovation and
how CPOs affect the understanding may affect the adoption. The results indicate
that all interviewees are able to define construction innovation. Their understanding
about construction innovation is generally in line with the literature. Different views
were found in regard to who is more impactful in construction innovation adoption.
The results suggest that Builders are the frontline whose decisions in innovation
adoption are mostly affected by the consultants including the architects, engineers
and quantity surveyors. Actions will only be taken if the benefits of innovation
adoption can be justified. Furthermore, senior management across CPOs play a
significant in innovation adoption.
As with many studies, this study consists of a number of limitations. Nvivo can
help the researcher to find the possible impact of human factors, while the figure
result is based on the relationship by the researcher built within the interviews.
Moreover, from the table, the government and senior management are the same
power to impact on the innovation adoption. However, based on the percentage of
these factors by interviews, senior management is higher than the government under
supportive human factors. Thus, to investigate the degree of power in these
stakeholders, extended from the research findings, further studies can investigate
the relationship among the stakeholders by conducting the survey. The research
perspective should come from different stakeholder groups rather than as a general
construction organization.
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Towards Applying Virtual Reality
Techniques in Fostering Blended
Learning of the Construction
Technology
P. S. P. Wong, T. Perera, B. Abbasnejad, and A. Ahankoob
Abstract Effective learning of building technology is stemming from persistent

practices in transforming information from construction drawings to appropriate
responses in compliance with the industry standards and the government require-
ments. This type of training has been delivered in a conventional fashion involving
formal lectures and studios-based practice sessions. Nevertheless, learners usually
lack construction site experience and demand for more intensive guidance to
understand the learning materials they received in classes. Unfortunately, this issue
is more critical as professional trainers or academics in this area with sufficient
industry experience is not readily available. Devising more effective training in
construction technology shall be invaluable for the learners, trainers and the con-
struction industry itself. Research findings suggest that virtual reality
(VR) environment engender learners to make more references to critical thinking
and higher-order cognition in compare to conventional teaching methods. In
engineering education context, VR improves learners’ understanding about spatial
arrangements and the link between two-dimensional and three-dimensional envi-
ronment. A literature review that identified the types of VR techniques in appli-
cation to construction education and professional training was conducted. Strengths
and weaknesses of these applications were compared. The findings suggest that not
all VR techniques are effective on fostering blended learning with integration
among real-life construction site environment. A more effective form of VR tech-
nique should address the limitation of hardware, class size and conditions.
P. S. P.Wong (&) T. Perera B. Abbasnejad A. Ahankoob

School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University, Melbourne,
VIC 3000, Australia
e-mail: peterspwong@rmit.edu.au
T. Perera
e-mail: treshani.perera@rmit.edu.au
B. Abbasnejad
e-mail: behzad.abbasnejad@rmit.edu.au
A. Ahankoob
e-mail: alireza.ahankoob@rmit.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_193
2108 P. S. P. Wong et al.
Keywords Virtual reality Construction technology training
1 Introduction
Building technology usually stands out as the core competencies of the construction
professionals Autralian Institute of Quantity Surveyors [1] 2012. Effective learning
of building technology is founded on persistent practices in transforming infor-
mation from construction drawings to real actions on site and documents with
precise and consistent descriptions in compliance with the industry standards and
the government requirements [29]. This type of training has been delivered in a
conventional fashion involving formal lectures and studios-based practice sessions.
Learners without relevant working experience usually encounter difficulties in class
when they were asked to base on learning materials that are mainly
two-dimensional (2-D) drawings/pictures to delineate three-dimensional (3-D)
objects in the construction sites. Worse still, an integral part of similar types of
professional training is to adopt continuous assessment to compliment lectures.
With insufficient information and experience, it is understandable that learners may
have far from satisfactory learning experience in these courses and demand for
more intensive guidance [3]. Unfortunately, this issue is more critical as academics
in this area with enough industry experience is not readily available. Devising more
effective delivery of building technology courses shall be invaluable to the students,
industry, professional bodies and the academia.
In recent years, both industry and the academia invested remarkably in Building
Information Modelling (BIM)—a platform that digitizes and accommodates 2-D
and 3-D drawings, as well as all essential project information that can be extracted,
networked and shared among project stakeholders to foster effective decision
making and operations [27]. BIM enables visualisation of end-products in 3-D
forms before physical construction work commence. This facilitates project
stakeholders to better link the designs to their operations and coordination. This
fosters better project planning to reduce design and opeartional errors, minimise
waste, optimise schedule, and rationalise budgeting and subcontracting.
Notwithstanding, BIM is merely an information visualization technique that only
provides a non-immersive virtual environment on the desktop screens and projec-
tors. Furthermore, information abstracted from BIM is merely 3-D computerised
models in a virtual environment that cannot help learners to develop spatial skills as
much as site visits guided by experts with hands-on experience sharing. Traditional
way of course delivery, even with an introduction of BIM as a complement, has its
constraints to present real construction site environments in classroom [11].
In this aspect, some described that adopting virtual reality (VR) technique in
professional training can facilitate academics/trainers to provide new instructional
element to learners that received traditional mode of training. This foster blended
learning with integration among real-life site environment. In recent years, several
studies were conducted in applying VR techniques in the construction education
Towards Applying Virtual Reality Techniques … 2109
[28]. Nonetheless, various approaches were adopted and their strengths and
weaknesses in articulating concepts through real-life construction site environment
were not reviewed in a holistic manner. This paper presents a study that seeks to
identify the strengths and weaknesses of implementing VR techniques in fostering
blended learning of construction technology. A systemic review was conducted to
uncover the optimal match between strengths/weaknesses and the goal of
improving learners’ understanding about real-life construction site conditions and
its links to 2-D and 3-D environments. The rest of the paper are arranged as follows:
First, the definition of VR is reviewed, and the definition used in this study is
articulated. Second, data collection and analysis methods are presented. Third, the
results and implication of findings are reported.
2 Definitions of Virtual Reality (VR)
The groundwork of VR dates to the early 1960’s. The first immersive man-machine
graphical communication system mock-up named ‘Sketchpad’ was invented to
interpret information drawn directly on a computer display [24]. The actual term
‘Virtual Reality’ first appears in 1986 and is attributed to Jaron Lanier, early virtual
reality entrepreneur. Since then, several taxonomies have been raised by scholars to
illustrate rigorous VR concept that aligns continuum of reality to virtuality
including virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality. Subsequent research
produced working models of the various elements required to construct usable VR
visual display systems. For instance, virtual reality systems were used all areas of
industrial design, computer gaming, defence strategy development and training, real
time military battlespace planning and management, medical research and training,
nuclear research, and a growing array of real-time control systems and robotics [5].
Moving to a further advanced platform, Shields [21] emphasised on positioning
the user to experience a range of interaction within a computer-generated virtual
world far beyond the human physical capabilities in the real world. In doing so,
automated software agents of real-world human actors, named ‘dramatis personae’
were used in VR. The definition by McCloy and Stone [12] stresses the role of user
interaction within a virtual world using their natural physical and cognitive senses,
skills and capabilities. Thus, VR comforts to be in an environment that can be
perceived as a realistic place with enough interaction to perform tasks more effi-
ciently. In a nutshell, virtual reality is a term that implies a broad range of 3-D
computer simulated environments with its associated hardware to experience
unique insights into the real-world scenarios. Sherman and Craig [20] combined all
the elements and defined VR as: ‘a medium composed of interactive computer
simulations that sense the participant’s position and actions and replace or augment
the feedback to one or more senses, giving the feeling of being mentally immersed
or present in the simulation (a virtual world)’ (p. 16).
Given the board range of VR applications that were reported, this study focuses
on the specific insights into the use of VR in improving the learners’ understanding
about construction technology. In this study, VR is defined as the technological

platform to display simulated or immersive virtual environment to support users’
sensing and interaction.
3 Research Methodology
A systematic review is conducted to accomplish the research objective. The review

is limited to academic journal articles, considering their relatively high impact.
Scopus and Web of Science core collection, which were the largest two academic
databases, were used for this literature synthesis. The search rule of the keyword
scanning used in the retrieval process was: {(“virtual reality” OR “virtual envi-
ronment” OR “augmented reality” OR “mixed reality” “3D” OR “game”) AND
(“building” OR “construction” OR “architecture” OR “infrastructure” OR “civil
engineering”) AND (“education” OR “training”)}. All publications which con-
tained the above keywords in the title and abstract were identified. From a pile of
retrieved articles from 1999 to 2019, 42 publications were identified after manual
refining by ‘relevance’ to ensure all retrieved articles were related to the aim of this
study.
The marked list of peer reviewed journal articles falls under four main Web of
Science categories (non-mutually exclusive): engineering civil (16), engineering
multidisciplinary (15), education specific disciplines (13), and construction building
technology (10). The journal publications were analysed thematically, formulating a
coding template in accordance with the requirements of the objectives.
QSR NVIVO 12 software, which is the latest version of the qualitative data analysis
toolkit, was used to simplify the work relating to qualitative analysis. It was used to
organise and assist with the analysis of themes to find patterns and relationships.
The use of the computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software assists during
the analysis with regard to data organisation, exploration, coding, retrieval of data,
searching, interrogating to build propositions and theories, and recording system-
atically [17].
4 Results
4.1 Types of VR Technology Used in Construction

Engineering and Management Training
Learners in construction technologies are often challenged with visualising and

understanding the multiple complex processes that are interconnected. The limi-
tations of traditional instructional media such as textbooks and simple multimedia
presentations impede the lecturer’s ability to teach and explain them effectively in a
classroom setting Levesque-Bristol et al. [8]. Although field trips and internship
programs are the main two approaches applied in construction academic programs,
their success depends on intrinsic motivation and active learning participation of the
students [8]. Therefore, having an alternate approach to present these encounters in
a classroom context would be a more viable option for delivering a more effective
learning experience. An evolving body of literature traces the use of reality tech-
niques to enhance student learning experiences. Types of VR techniques can
broadly be categorised into (i) Non-immersive VR and (ii) Immersive VR. Yet,
(iii) Game-based VR, (iv) Web-based VR, (v) BIM-enabled reality techniques are
also discussed.
4.2 Non-immersive VR
Non-immersive VR is also referred as desktop VR or windows on the world. It does

not provide a full sense of immersion but can display a 3D model on an ordinary
personal computer work station without any tracking equipment to support [15].
While it relies on the users’ spatial and perception abilities, the movement of
‘walkthrough’ in the non-immersive system was controlled by mouse and keyboard
[28]. Due to this fact, it is considered relatively affordable when compared with
other reality techniques. For example, Sawhney et al. [18] developed an
object-oriented prototype desktop VR-enabled system for maintenance engineering
training. The geometrical models were constructed using Computer-Aided Design.
The result shows the reduction in training cost with the use of desktop-based VR. In
the study conducted by Su et al. [23] to compare the design effectiveness of the
training schedules, computer-based VR technology is adopted for learning con-
struction excavator control skills. Commercially available Simlog’s Hydraulic
Excavator Personal Simulator was used to conduct this experiment. This system
was set up on a desktop computer with an LCD monitor and joystick controls.
Likewise, to aid student comprehension of complex spatial arrangements in
structural engineering, Fogarty et al. [3] used a screen of a desktop computer to
deploy a non-immersive VR environment with the aid of a head mounted device
and a handheld system. Given the fact of affordability and optimal portability,
non-immersive VR is more practical over immersive VR which is discussed next.
4.3 Immersive VR
Within an immersive environment, Waly and Thabet [26] investigated the Cave
Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) for further development of the virtual
construction environment. The CAVE is a multi-person collaborative, room-sized
with four-sided displays (front, left, right and down), 3D video and audio envi-
ronment. As the user wearing a position sensor (tracking equipment) moves within
the boundaries, the user’s potion in the virtual environment also moves with and
surround the user. 3D models are created in a 3D modeling software such as
AutoCAD and then converted into the CAVE. Wang et al. [27, 28] used Autodesk
3D Studio Max Design 2015 and Unity 5.3.4 to enable the head-mounted display/
360-degree display of the immersive system in their development of VR-embedded
BIM immersive system. Teizer, et al. [25] integrated 3D immersive data visuali-
sation techniques and real-time location tracking in existing construction iron-
workers’ education and training environments. 3D models of the existing training
facility created in Sketchup were converted into 3D Studio Max data and then
imported into the real-time 3D virtual environment software. Each trainee is
equipped with an Ultra-Wideband (UWB) tag so that all their locations are tracked
and recorded in real-time. Safety and operation information can be monitored and
visualised for increasing workers’ situational awareness through real-time feedback.
Engaging all training participants through data visualisation in an immersive VR
environment can increase learning effectiveness. Therefore, the real-time sense in
the immersive VR provides more advantages compared to desktop-based VR.
4.4 Game-Based Reality Technology
Game-based VR makes use of the immersive effect, allowing users to explore 3D

interactive environments in real time [16]. Le et al. [7] developed a social/
collaborative VR system framework on a Second Life (SL) 3D virtual world
platform, created by Linden lab to enhance construction safety education and
training process. The 3D safety design and simulation are supported by programs
such as Autodesk Revit Architecture, Maya, or SL in-world tool - prim simulation.
Likewise, non-immersive VR also provides the facility to use game engines in
safety training. Li, et al. [9] developed a multiuser virtual safety training system for
tower crane dismantlement based on an existing game engine. This can facilitate
prototyping and robust development and is an innovative approach to interactive
3D content creation. These game-based models facilitate self-evaluation by pro-
viding incentives and penalty scores for optimal and non-optimal solutions
respectively [4]. Game-based VR systems ensure the real-time collaboration by
allowing team-based problem solving supporting different player roles such as field
engineer, superintendent, project manager. Thus, users can interact with their peers
and instructors within the virtual environment to acquire safety knowledge and
improve their collaborative and cooperative skills.
4.5 Web-Based Reality Technology
Despite the advantages of improving learning outcomes, VR has limitations not

only in reflecting physical world visibility and user-device adaptability but also in
consuming significant energy. To overcome this hurdle, Pham, et al. [14] developed
an energy-efficient interactive constructive safety education (eCSE) using
web-based panoramic virtual photo-reality technology. A photo-reality scene can be
captured by portable devices such as Samsung Gear 360. Furthermore, the recent
proliferation of wearable devices such as VR-glasses provides major potential
applications to support both the industry and education. However, photo-reality
technology by itself cannot provide float object interactions, as in 3D-VR models
but the emergence of Web3D technology address this limitation. Shelbourn et al.
[19] demonstrated how multimedia can be used as an interface for complex systems
using VR techniques. The use of web-based VR Modeling Language (VRML) as
multimedia provides the ease of access and real-time integration. Similarly,
Sawhney et al. [18] developed an internet-based interactive construction manage-
ment learning system (ICMLS). The key features of the system include using the
internet as the launching medium, employing multimedia databases, hypertext, 3D
modeling, and simulation to provide students with an interactive and adaptive
learning environment.
4.6 BIM-Enabled Reality Technology
Despite the several studies of adapting virtual reality techniques, level of detail with
VR contents has not been achieved. A combination of the features of 3D BIM
model and VR is capable of providing students engaging, self-motivating, and
immersive contents, which would induce virtual interaction and experiential
learning [7]. Wang et al. [27, 28] developed a VR-embedded BIM immersive
system for quantity surveying practice and education, which consists of an
immersive system (head-mounted display/360-degree display) and a non-immersive
system (Desktop VR). This VR application was developed to improve the accuracy
and efficiencies of taking off quantities using BIM. In doing so, learners can
visualise context and hidden features otherwise unattainable through traditional
lecture-based teaching.
5 Implications of Findings
Summarised from the above, strengths and weaknesses of recent develop of VR

techniques in construction engineering and management training are identified.
5.1 Strengths
As a teaching tool, the emerging interactive environments provide benefits through

the simulated learning by modelling an operation that closely overlays the
real-world outcomes. Interactive interfaces maximise the sense of presence and
immersion by bringing construction field trips to the classroom setting [14]. To
easily acquire practical experience, contextually rich immersive virtual environment
and interactive interface have proven effective at improving the educational expe-
rience by incorporating practical content into the curriculum [4, 7]. Thus, efficient
and interactive learning motivates learners to develop active strategies to acquire,
retain and transfer concrete knowledge into practice [14].
Further, VR training practices in a controlled learning environment from which
learners can experience safe insights into the way the real construction site works
[23] and real-time feedback increase learners’ situational awareness and learning
effectiveness [25]. Moreover, highly detailed simulated environment is particularly
attractive to mature learners who prefer independent self-directed [13]
self-motivating, and experiential learning [7]. The integration of gaming features
into a virtual environment has been a contributing factor to enhance motivation [4].
Several tasks in construction site monitoring and documentation also require
interactive input. The ability to understand detailed spatial dimensions, new pos-
sibilities for progress tracking, annotating objects to provide deeper levels of
knowledge on demand, and cost controlling are some of the associated benefits of
interactive visualisation [30]. Providing an interactive environment, multiple users
could interactively suggest and modify construction scenarios in the context of
project progress information. Further, the visualisation of rich models are lever-
aging equal opportunities to facilitate remote collaboration and distance-learning
possibilities by virtue of internet [10].
The most stringent problems in the construction industry are related to time, cost
and quality. Zheng et al. [31] proposed the use of VR to reduce time and costs while
enhancing the quality and flexibility through the continuous computer support
during development life cycle. Zaher et al. [30] explains the potential to address
these problems in terms of reducing the time of explaining information, reducing
the time of construction and decreasing the risk of errors, which, consequently, will
reduce the construction costs. Furthermore, virtual training systems for construction
equipment operations resulted in reducing costs, eliminating risks, and providing
flexible environments [23] for efficiency and safe operation. In particular, following
the training on a simulator in a manner that maximises skill acquisition from the
virtual environment avoids expenses for fuel, equipment rental, site, and more
importantly, the risks from real site operation hazards [22].
5.2 Weaknesses
Irrespective of the benefits, the cost and time consumed for the model development
should be further considered [13]. Kim, et al. [6] mentioned their system limitations
in terms of its hardware as to equip all workers with wearable devices are expen-
sive. In addition, it would be expensive to build a strong network and computing
system. Le, et al. [7] explains that their the game creation process was
time-consuming due to the complicated game scenarios and required instructors and
students to spend extra efforts to gain new skills for using this education system. As
such complex VR models are time-consuming, require a large amount of capital,
the decision for technology acceptance likely to remain with the financial experts,
rather than the technical experts of a company [2]. Although it requires more
upfront capital, training efforts can pay big dividends in the form of improved
labour productivity and safe operation [25]. The lack of standardisation of infor-
mation and communication technology (ICT) tools is another issue. The informa-
tion has been handled inconsistently with several software tools and datasets [14].
VR devise configuration might have limitations in mobility. Some immersive VR
techniques require laboratory space and learners need to use hand-held devises or
sensors to interact with the immersive environment. Learning within a virtual
environment needs to be well understood by learners in terms of understanding the
interface and interaction tools before navigating within the environment [14].
Otherwise, bad experience with the technology can demotivate students to learn and
explore the environment [25].
6 Conclusion
Learners of construction technology often have difficulties in visualising and

understanding the multiple complex processes that are interconnected. The limi-
tations of traditional instructional media such as textbooks and simple multimedia
presentations impede the lecturer’s ability to teach and explain them effectively in a
classroom setting [8]. Although field trips and internship programs are the main two
approaches applied in construction academic programs, their success depends on
intrinsic motivation and active learning participation of the students [8]. Therefore,
having an alternate approach to present these encounters in a classroom context
would be a more viable option for delivering a more effective learning experience.
The above review indicates that as compared to other forms of VR techniques,
web-based reality technology has its strength in enabling the use of panoramic
virtual photo-reality technology and the portable devices. However, further efforts
should be made in improving the mobility of applying VR techniques to foster
blended learning with integration among real-life construction site environments.
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The Application of BIM
in the Undergraduate Course
“Integrated Building Project
Development”
Calvin C. W. Keung and W. H. Fok
Abstract Since 2015, a 13-week core course “Integrated Building Project

Development (IBPD)” was launched annually for final year students of all under-
graduate programmes of the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering of
the City University of Hong Kong. These undergraduate programmes cover most
disciplines of the construction industry—architectural studies, civil and structural
engineering, building services engineering, surveying, and construction engineering
and management. From 2018 onwards, students are required to use Building
Information Modelling (BIM) across all disciplines in the project development
process of this course. A BIM project execution plan on Client’s BIM requirements,
the scope of BIM implementation and the required BIM deliverables in this course
is provided to students. A BIM server that supports in-campus and remote access
was built for students to store, retrieve and archive their digital files so that they can
practise BIM communication and data exchange on a centralised platform. This
paper shares the successful execution of the BIM project execution plan, under the
framework of the interdisciplinary BIM (iBIM) implementation and the BIM server
architecture, by the students.

Keywords Undergraduate programmes Integrated Multidisciplinary Building
Information Modelling (BIM)
C. C. W. Keung W. H. Fok (&)

Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon,
Hong Kong SAR
e-mail: winghfok@cityu.edu.hk
C. C. W. Keung
e-mail: cwkeung@cityu.edu.hk

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_194
2120 C. C. W. Keung and W. H. Fok
1 Introduction
The undergraduate programmes currently run by the Department of Architecture

and Civil Engineering (ACE) of the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) cover
most disciplines of the construction industry—architectural studies (AS), civil and
structural engineering (CVSE), building services engineering (BSE), surveying
(SURV), and construction engineering and management (CEM). Since 2015, a
13-week core course “Integrated Building Project Development (IBPD)” has been
successfully conducted annually to provide opportunity for the final year students of
all these programmes to come together to practice the development of a building
project from its initial design stage to costing and construction planning as if they
were practising in the industry. The issues and challenges of organizing and con-
ducting the IBPD course as well as the outcomes were presented in EASEC-15 [4].
In response to the increasing popularity of use of Building Information
Modelling (BIM) in recent years, the students are required to practice the use of
BIM across all disciplines in the project development process of the IBPD course
from 2018 onwards. It is unprecedented for the students to be involved in BIM
training in such interdisciplinary setting. A BIM project execution plan, including
the Client’s BIM requirements, the scope of BIM implementation and the required
BIM deliverables in this course, is provided to the students. It is expected that with
this exercise, the students are familiar with the BIM practices in the industry upon
graduation.
This paper aims at reporting on a successful case of the tertiary BIM education in
Hong Kong. The framework of the interdisciplinary BIM (iBIM) implementation in
the IBPD course and the supporting BIM server architecture are outlined to
demonstrate the concepts. The iBIM implementation in the IBPD course develops a
revolutionary approach in tertiary BIM education and has a profound implication on
future BIM training in the construction field.
2 The Framework of the Interdisciplinary BIM (iBIM)

Implementation—A Case Study
BIM is an emerging technology in the construction industry and it offers new

solutions to the whole project cycle. Successful BIM implementation needs mul-
tidisciplinary efforts throughout the BIM process [2]. As a result, every project
participant is connected to share information and expected to work collaboratively
under BIM environment [3, 6]. To enhance the efficiency of data exchange, BIM
database files, models, data, etc. are exchanged among project participants on a
centralized BIM platform during project period [5]. The platform not only supports
data exchange and integration but also facilitates project participants to work col-
laboratively [7]. In this regard, the incorporation of BIM in tertiary education
should provide the students not only fundamental BIM knowledge but also
The Application of BIM in the Undergraduate Course … 2121
collaboration skillsets that are essential for them to deal with new challenges in the
BIM implementation stage.
Construction is a professional training that adopts long-established curriculum.
As such, changes are necessary to incorporate BIM into the existing curriculum.
BIM education can be an isolated new subject or the change of the existing subjects
[9]. However, BIM education is not the pure computer software training in any
particular courses. Rather, the curriculum should be designed to offer opportunities
for more teamwork and collaboration between courses. The most important com-
ponent is to let the students to learn team cooperation and how they can work
collaboratively under BIM environment [1, 8]. The IBPD course supports the
students’ interdisciplinary learning and strong team collaboration under a hypo-
thetical building project. With the mandatory use of BIM in the IBPD course, an
excellent opportunity is created for the students to achieve full-team BIM collab-
oration in the aspects of design coordination, construction planning and cost
management. The students shall demonstrate their BIM capabilities to accomplish
the building project according to the BIM project execution plan provided by the
departmental BIM coordinator.
The BIM project execution plan is a core document for BIM adoption in the
IBPD course. Same as the real-life BIM projects in the industry, the BIM project
execution plan outlines the client’s BIM goals and objectives for the successful
completion of the IBPD project. It is expected that BIM adoption can offer effi-
ciency benefits to the students and bring greater co-ordination between them par-
ticularly at an early project stage. At the beginning of the IBPD course, the students
shall form a number of teams and each team shall accomplish the required tasks by
utilizing the BIM technology. The course intended learning outcomes are designed
to suit the five disciplines (i.e. AS, CVSE, BSE SURV and CEM) and six
dimensions of BIM are ultimately achieved. Table 1 lists out the BIM deliverables
to be submitted by each discipline under the IBPD course.
Table 1 BIM deliverables for each discipline

Disciplines BIM deliverables
AS ∙ Architectural design
∙ Green design and site analysis (e.g. solar path analysis, wind analysis, etc.)
CVSE ∙ Structural design
∙ Structural analysis
BSE ∙ Building services design
∙ Engineering and energy analysis
SURV ∙ Quantity take-off and cost estimation
∙ Cash flow forecast
CEM ∙ Virtual construction simulation with scheduling and phase planning
∙ Design review, coordination and clash analysis
Based on the interdisciplinary setting of the IBPD course, the students shall
demonstrate their capabilities of interpreting the client’s information requirements
and transforming them into feasible BIM solutions. iBIM implementation is
accomplished by the students in this regard. For example, the students from the AS,
the CVSE and the BSE disciplines are the design team members who use the design
authoring software for 3D design and 6D analysis of their respective discipline
models. The CEM students carry out 4D simulation based on the construction
programme and act as coordinator to detect clashes from the design team’s models.
The SURV students are responsible for automatic quantity take-off and cost esti-
mating. With the integration of the 4D scheduling from the CEM discipline, 5D
BIM solution is also provided for the project cash flow forecast. Figure 1 provides
some examples of BIM deliverables produced by the students. In addition, the
degree of collaboration between the students can be increased on a centralized
platform that is the departmental BIM server. With the aid of the server, the stu-
dents can practice team communication and data exchange on a BIM data platform.
Figure 2 illustrates the framework of iBIM implementation in the IBPD course.
Collaboration is of particular importance in the IBPD course. The BIM col-
laboration teams under the IBPD course consist of the five core disciplines who
have their own responsibilities associated with the BIM incorporation into the IBPD
project workflow. The project execution plan specifies the BIM process in which
the collaboration teams need to reach consensus on how the model is set-up,
organized, communicated and controlled. To enable the team members to work
individually at the early design stage, the models are being created by each disci-
pline model author based on a common structure developed and agreed by them. In
addition, to allow successful BIM implementation, model changes should be
tracked and documented. Each team is required to record the latest design changes
incorporated in the model and the version of the model to be shared or exchanged
among the team members. Each discipline model developed during project pro-
gression and development should be well planned by considering model content
and format before distribution to the team members for design coordination. Each
discipline model author shall create a model in sufficient detail in order to illustrate
that all elements are properly sized, coordinated and documented. To ensure the
desired BIM maturity, Level of Development (LOD) is specified for the content of
the models and it allows the team members to realize the usability and the limi-
tations of the models received.
Architecture BIM model Structure BIM model
MEP BIM model Clash detection
4D simulation BIM quantity take-off
Fig. 1 Some examples of BIM deliverables produced by the students under IBPD
Fig. 2 The framework of iBIM in IBPD
3 The BIM Server Architecture
A BIM server is set up by the ACE Department for the students who can practice
BIM team communication and data exchange on a centralized platform. Exclusive
rights to access the server are authorized for the students and the team supervisors
throughout the IBPD course period. The server is custom configured for a
team-based structure that offers a shared repository for the collaboration teams to
retrieve, archive and store their massive digital data for the IBPD project. The
server authenticates each team member by requesting login and it supports
in-campus or remote access through VPN. In order to support efficient BIM
workflow and increase the degree of team collaboration, the team members’ digital
models should be stored on common data environment and made available to the
appropriate team members. In order to achieve common data environment, if
alternative BIM software is chosen, all models should be delivered in a neutral file
format like IFC or other open standard format that supports interoperability between
BIM software packages.
The BIM server aims to offer efficiency benefit to the collaboration teams and
brings greater coordination between them. To facilitate efficient digital data
exchange and modelling data consistency, a standardized folder structure is pre-
scribed in the BIM project execution plan by the departmental BIM coordinator.
For instance, the folder of “working models” is reserved for work-in-progress BIM
models so that the draft models can be stored in the corresponding sub-folders until
they are ready to be shared with other team members. The folder of “published
models” is used to store the BIM models ready for exchange in design stages.
Furthermore, an individual folder is used for cost management deliverables,
whereas a separate folder is reserved for filing the weekly team meeting reports. To
enhance the traceability of the updated BIM data, date of model revision should be
clearly stated by the team members as the file name. Once the folder structure is
agreed among the team members and established in the server, the team members
are restricted from modifying it. Figure 3 displays the BIM server architecture
established in the IBPD course.
The server security is another key issue addressed in the BIM project execution
plan for the students to pay attention. For example, the students are recommended
to log out the server at once after finishing the file sharing and storing. The reason is
continuous server connection may cause high risk to the server such as virus
attacks, hacking, and any unauthorized acts. Moreover, the server is provided for
each IBPD team to retrieve, archive and store their digital data and models
exclusively for the IBPD project collaboration. Any storage of non-IBPD-related
files in the server is strictly prohibited. The students are not permitted to let other
non-IBPD users access the server. Additionally, the students are not allowed to
perform any unintended amendment or alteration of the models and other data
stored on the server. The students are strongly recommended to back up and store
the models and other data in their personal storage devices. The students should be
responsible for safeguarding all digital data for their IBPD projects in order to avoid
any information loss arising from their misuse of the server.
Fig. 3 The BIM server architecture

4 The Outcomes of the BIM Implementation in IBPD
In response to the Hong Kong government’s BIM initiative, BIM becomes the key
curriculum of the undergraduate programmes of the ACE Department, a department
that is quite unique in the academic world as it embraces the five core disciplines in
construction. This unique feature supports the students’ interdisciplinary learning,
in particular the project-based IBPD course that requires strong team collaboration.
The IBPD course successfully demonstrates that, through the adoption of the
intelligent BIM tools, the students’ innovation can be energized and the interdis-
ciplinary designs are efficiently coordinated. Furthermore, with the aid of the
departmental BIM server, the team members can collaborate on a centralized
platform for data exchange and team communication. In this regard, the iBIM
implementation in the IBPD course could pave the way for future BIM teaching and
learning in its pursuit of the three core objectives: (i) design innovation, (ii) mul-
tidisciplinary coordination and (iii) project team collaboration.
As the construction industry lacks full-team BIM project showcase, the IBPD
course is expected to be an exemplar of collaborative BIM applications in Hong
Kong and other BIM-developing countries. The outcomes of the iBIM imple-
mentation can sensitize the practitioners to the transformation of BIM adoption
from individual-based to interdisciplinary-based. Thus, the IBPD exhibition cum
competition organised annually by the ACE Department is a good occasion for the
students to showcase their BIM competencies to the public. The last event was held
in February 2019 at CityU with six participating teams selected based on their
overall performance in the IBPD course. As in previous years, very senior practi-
tioners of various disciplines of the construction industry were invited as judges of
the competition.
During the exhibition, the participating teams not only display their final out-
comes of the building project but also present how BIM was fully adopted
according to the BIM project execution plan. The students effectively used a wide
variety of innovative tools to showcase their BIM deliverables such as BIM model
viewer, 3D printing model and VR device. Additionally, a video of model walk-
through was produced for each team and played during the exhibition to illustrate
students’ creative design in an immersive view. Figure 4 illustrates the students’
BIM showcases during the exhibition. The exhibition was well received by the
guests and visitors and they absolutely agree that IBPD gives the students a
competitive edge over other university students as they are now BIM ready.
3D printing model VR device
Fig. 4 Students’ BIM showcases during the IBPD exhibition
5 Conclusions
BIM has been adopted in the IBPD course since 2018 and this creates a platform for
the students to achieve BIM collaboration in the aspects of design coordination,
construction planning and cost management. The development of an interdisci-
plinary course content in BIM is vital in preparation of future professionals for the
contemporary architecture, engineering and construction environment. The IBPD is
a unique course that supports the students’ interdisciplinary BIM learning and they
can exchange the BIM data for collaboration through the departmental BIM server.
After the course, opportunities are provided for the students to showcase their
excellence in BIM adoption to senior practitioners who probably are their
prospective employers. In conclusion, the concepts of iBIM implementation in
IBPD demonstrate a successful case in BIM education and pave the way for future
BIM teaching and learning in tertiary institutions.
Acknowledgements The authors gratefully acknowledge the endless support from the
Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering of the City University of Hong Kong on BIM
adoption in IBPD.
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Application of Knowledge Management
and BIM Technology for Maintenance
Management of Concrete Structures
Y. F. Zhang, H. Yokota, P. Y. Miao, and Y. L. Zhu
Abstract Maintenance management is an important part of the life-cycle man-

agement of concrete structures. The pivotal responsibility of a decision-maker in
charge of maintenance management is to fully understand the conditions of
structures. Accordingly, comprehensive analyses on concrete structures based on a
variety of information and knowledge offered by different groups are urgently
required. An efficient information communication approach by changing the
information communication modes between an expert and a non-expert is proposed
based on knowledge management (KM) and building information modeling
(BIM) technology. First KM is adopted to describe the process of professional
knowledge transferring from an expert to a non-expert. Then, BIM technology is
employed to build up an integrated information sharing platform, by which the
transferred knowledge can be stored and accessed. Finally, a case study on the
evaluation of chloride ion penetration into concrete is carried out to demonstrate the
implementation process of the proposed approach. The approach helps to improve
efficiency of transferring and sharing knowledge between an expert and a
non-expert with information technology, which is also of great significance to
explore the application of information technology in maintenance management.
Keywords Maintenance management Knowledge management BIM technol-

ogy Information communication
Y. F. Zhang (&) P. Y. Miao Y. L. Zhu

Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
e-mail: zhangyafen@eis.hokudai.ac.jp
P. Y. Miao
e-mail: p.y.miao@outlook.com
Y. L. Zhu
e-mail: zhuyulong@eis.hokudai.ac.jp
H. Yokota
Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_195
2130 Y. F. Zhang et al.
1 Introduction
Maintenance management of concrete structures as one of the most important parts

during the lifecycle management should be carried out effectively [14], MLIT [8].
To realize the effective and rational maintenance, evaluating the condition of
concrete structures is essential. To complete the assessment, a large amount of
information needs to be obtained from different workers, including onsite inspec-
tion data and knowledge for simulation analysis from experts and experience.
Hence information communication plays a vital role among maintenance partici-
pants from different backgrounds especially for professional knowledge commu-
nication. Currently, knowledge for theoretical evaluation is mastered by different
experts. When decision makers need knowledge, they need to consult to the cor-
responding experts separately. This mode of information communication takes time
and efforts, resulting in inefficient maintenance management. There are many
studies focusing on improving the information communication in maintenance
management of civil structures. Hamzah et al. [4] built up an integrated system to
record, diagnose and analyse information, and also built up a decision-making
support system in diagnosis in building maintenance. Liu et al. [7] proposed the
concept of integrate knowledge in building information modeling (BIM) to improve
information management. However, there is no detailed systematic approach and
full procedure established to describe the implementation for professional knowl-
edge in maintenance management of concrete structures. This paper focuses on the
knowledge creating and sharing processes to create a technology-oriented knowl-
edge management model for concrete maintenance management. The model would
improve the efficiency of information communication between experts who have
gained the professional knowledge and non-experts or users who have little pro-
fessional knowledge but need to use the knowledge.
2 Theory of KM and BIM
The theoretical framework of knowledge management (KM) approach is employed

to describe the information flow while the extension of BIM is employed to act as
the information carriers.
2.1 Concept and Application of KM
KM is defined as the process of creating, sharing, using and managing the

knowledge and information of an organization [15], Liu et al. [7]. The most fun-
damental purpose of KM is to effectively manage the knowledge acquired by
individuals and groups. The first core step in KM is creating knowledge. The
Application of Knowledge Management and BIM Technology … 2131
conversion of two categories of knowledge from tacit knowledge into explicit

knowledge could be used to illustrate the creating process. Tacit knowledge is the
abstract items that cannot be found in manuals, books, databases and files such as
ideas, experiences, theories, and so on. Tacit knowledge is personal,
context-specific knowledge that is difficult to record, articulate and is stored in the
heads of people normally [5], Johnson [6]. Explicit knowledge, on the other hand,
structured and codified in formal language (manuals, expressions, patents, copy-
right, and so on) provides the basis for systematic storage and dissemination of
information and assist organizations with solving similar problems in the future
[13]. The transform pattern is called “externalization” as one of the Nonaka’s four
knowledge conversion processes [10]. After the externalization of knowledge, it is
necessary to focus on the generalization and simplification of the knowledge form
in order to facilitate the sharing of knowledge among people with different back-
grounds. For specific engineering projects, the form of sharing information can be
customized through participant negotiation. Finally, the simplified explicit knowl-
edge will be transferred to users who will apply it to new project and update it when
necessary.
2.2 Concept and Application of BIM
Advances in information technology make it efficient to manage knowledge and

information by using computers. At present, an increasing focus on the application
of BIM throughout the whole lifecycle of infrastructure has emerged and the sig-
nificance of integrated information systems has been acknowledged. BIM shows
the character of broad nature of the concept and many possible declarations. BIM is
seen as a tool to support and deepen collaborative activities [9]. BIM represents the
geometry, spatial relationships, quantities and properties of building elements, cost
estimates, material inventories, and project schedules [1]. BIM is defined as “the
process of creating and using digital models for design, construction and/or oper-
ations of projects” in a market-based survey by Young et al. [17]. In the early
history of BIM, it mainly benefits architects and engineers in the design phase and
construction phase in areas such as clash detection, visualization, and quantification
[16]. However, with the development of technology, application areas have been
outspread including energy analysis, structural analysis, scheduling, progress
tracking, jobsite safety etc. There is the potential for BIM implementation to
maintenance management of concrete structures, not only because of its
element-related information assigned to each part of the model, but also because of
its possibility of adding new features through secondary development. The appli-
cation programming interface (API) is one of the main technologies for the inte-
grated platform by allowing a direct link between the specialized computer
application and BIM software. Therefore, BIM can be selected as the basis of an
integrated maintenance management platform.
3 Research Methodology
3.1 System Framework
The KM system focuses mainly on managing the expertise required for mainte-
nance decision-making, especially on the condition analysis of concrete structures
during maintenance management. BIM technology is adopted as the information
carrier. Figure 1 demonstrates the flow of the KM system in this paper.
The KM system includes two groups of people in different backgrounds and a
transfer procedure, explained as follows:
(1) From Knowledge Providers:
Knowledge creating is conducted by experts. Experts acquire knowledge by

experience and study accumulating by years. Here the knowledge is implicitly
stored in their minds. However, the most important function for knowledge is its
application for solving problems in the reality, which requires transferring tacit
knowledge into explicit knowledge. In the transferring process, experts can code
their knowledge into a complete visual form (named “prototype”) which is a set of
procedures for solving problems by the complicated theories. A new problem of the
same type can be dealt with by using the prototype. Here the prototype is a very
complex form of expression with a lot of details. Advance in computer software
development, such as finite element software and discrete element software, makes
it feasible to develop the visual prototype from ideas for revealing physical
phenomena.
(2) Through Knowledge Transfer (Transport Carrier):
The prototype is the materialization of the knowledge from the expert’s brain, which is
also difficult for a non-expert (user) to understand. Moreover, non-experts are not
concerned about the details of knowledge (e.g., the basic principles, theoretical rela-
tionships or logical framework). What they really care is how to apply the prototype to
solve a new problem. Before transferring the knowledge to non-experts, experts should
simplify the prototype to meet non-expert’s needs. The simplified prototype hides some
Knowledge creating Knowledge sharing
Knowledge provider Knowledge tranfer Knowledge receiver

Make explicit form of Integrated information Receive and reuse
knowledge platform knowledge
Experts Non-experts
For expertise
Fig. 1 Workflow of the knowledge management

of the complex knowledge but reserves full functionalities. A carrier for the transfer of
prototype from experts to non-experts is necessary. Application with easy-to-operate
user interfaces can be made to carry the knowledge. Usually, referring to expertise of
many disciplines is required to make decision for even one maintenance action;
therefore, choosing a platform to store and share the knowledge can benefit the main-
tenance management participants. The platform can be built up by using BIM with
secondary development.
(3) To Knowledge Receivers:
In the process of knowledge use, non-experts get the permission to access the
application and then understand the usage method. It is the most important to know
where to input data and control parameters as well as how to obtain the results from
the user interface of the application. Non-experts can finally apply the knowledge to
solve a new similar problem.
3.2 Technical Realization
A complete KM system is proposed with the usage of BIM. During the procedure,
the most important step is to set up the integrated platform, which can receive the
expertise from experts as well as deliver the expertise to non-experts. An infor-
mation platform that can aggregate as well as store information is efficient for
long-term knowledge sharing. A BIM software is designed to be applied to the life
cycle management of structures due to its 3D visualization model and the feasibility
of customizing new features via API. The platform integrates a wide variety of
information: 3D geometry information provided by BIM and a functional module
provided by another software and placed on the platform by BIM plugin (Fig. 2).
The basic platform is flexible since the work sharing feature can allow multiple
users from different locations to access the central model by internet with BIM
software. That is, the integrated platform can be set up anywhere once users have
the BIM software with a central model license and a knowledge plugin.
This platform can realize the knowledge aggregation and knowledge sharing
among participants of different knowledge backgrounds and realize the integration
of multidisciplinary knowledge based on visualization.
4 Case Study
4.1 Target of Case Study
In the process of maintenance management, various information is needed to make

timely and correct intervention decisions. Onsite investigation can provide a
Fig. 2 Implementation of the information platform
maintenance manager with information on macro performance of the structure.

Before implementing a remediation strategy, the professional assessment should
also be conducted for deep understanding the mechanisms of defects. Since dete-
rioration of concrete members can be induced and accelerated by chemical agents
such as chloride ion, transportation of those agents should be predicted as indices
for durability assessment [18]. Prediction of deterioration progress as one of the
durability analyses is conducted to estimate future deterioration of a structure
caused by identified deterioration mechanism based on the results of investigations
and appropriate models.
Many underwater concrete tunnels are used under hydrostatic pressure, high
chloride ion concentration and adequate oxygen supply, which may cause deteri-
oration of the tunnels. To analyse the deterioration process, it is particularly nec-
essary to reveal the process of chloride ion penetration into concrete. This case
study focuses on the expertise of simulating the chloride ion concentration in tunnel
concrete over time under external hydrostatic pressure, describing the process of
expertise creating and sharing according to the proposed knowledge management
system mentioned before.
4.2 Knowledge Creating
From the beginning, experts conceive the simulation models in their minds by using
a lot of scientific knowledge. Chloride ion penetration into concrete can be
described as a mixed form of moisture transport and chloride ion immobilization
and transfer. From the microscopic point of view, the fluid-solid coupling inter-
action between porosity change and permeability change under hydrostatic pressure
in unsaturated concrete cannot be ignored in the process of chloride ion penetration.
To fully reveal the mechanism of chloride ion penetration, three parts of knowledge
should be considered as follows (Fig. 3):
Fig. 3 Knowledge for chloride ion penetration into concrete structures
(1) Moisture transport with Richards’ equation is employed to explain the water
penetration into the structure. Richards’ equation as given in Eq. (1) in pressure
head is used as a governing differential equation for isothermal
saturated-unsaturated single-phase flow [12].
(2) Fluid-solid coupling in the process is used to explain the concrete porosity
changing with pore pressure. According to Cui et al. [2], the relationship
between porosity and pore pressure is given in Eq. (2).
(3) Equation (3) simulates the chloride ion transfer process in concrete
(diffusion-convection equation). A convective term is added to the Fick’s
second law of diffusion to explain the mechanisms of diffusion-convection [11].
To transform the tacit knowledge in the expert brain into explicit knowledge,
visualization computational software is needed, such as a simulation software for
solving the partial differential equations and image software for displaying the
calculation results. Experts can conduct chloride ion penetration simulation with
their theoretical knowledge and environmental parameters by using numerical
software. The numerical software encompasses the whole workflow from modelling
to simulating—from building up geometric model, defining boundaries, assigning
material properties, describing specific phenomena, to finally solving and post
processing models for producing accurate and trustworthy results. The
second-development method in numerical software allows experts to create cus-
tomized and easy-to-use applications based on the complicated simulation. Experts
can simplify the simulation process by creating and/or customizing applications
with open partial parameters related to the numerical model of chloride ion pene-
tration process. Then a cloud technology is adopted to deploy the application and
deliver the application to non-experts through internet. Experts upload the appli-
cation to internet, and non-experts can run the application on any computer with a
Knowledge externalization by Knowledge simplification by Knowledge transfer by

numerical software second-development method cloud technology
Fig. 4 Knowledge creating, simplifying and transferring process for chloride ion penetration
simulation
Fig. 5 Integrated information platform based on BIM
network through web browsers. The process for the simulation knowledge creating,
simplifying and transferring is shown in Fig. 4.
4.3 Knowledge Sharing
As the representative of the BIM software, Autodesk Revit [3] was selected as the
basis of the maintenance management platform in this paper. The maintenance
management platform is built up, as shown in Fig. 5, containing two kinds of
information: a 3D visual model and a knowledge plugin module on chloride ion
penetration simulation. The 3D visual model is important during the maintenance
management of concrete structure by bringing us a strong visual impact and a
perfect reproduction of the real world. The expertise plugin module linking to the
on-cloud application makes it possible for decision makers of maintenance man-
agement to trigger the applications in local computer.
Maintenance managers can reuse the applications by modifying input settings,

running computations and visualizing the results when they need the knowledge for
reference to make decision in maintenance stage. Usually the framework of the
applications from experts are universal, the managers can apply them to another
project by inputting different parameters or applying them in different time periods
of a certain project.
5 Conclusions
BIM has been widely adopted in the design and construction stages of concrete
structures with the advantage of building a 3D virtual reality digital model to
facilitate the collaboration of workers. Knowledge management proposes the
concept of making full use of knowledge which is critical to improve the pro-
ductivity and efficiency of maintenance management. From the research presented
in the paper, the efficient information communication approach can be implemented
by using the knowledge management to illustrate the information flow and using
BIM as a platform for information integration and sharing. The case study
demonstrates the process of the proposed efficient information communication
approach.
This approach enables people from different backgrounds to enter the knowledge
sharing system, in which knowledge is created by experts, aggregated in sharing
platform and distributed to non-experts. The form of knowledge is very flexible
because the explicitness degree and the simplification degree of knowledge can be
customized to meet user needs. Additionally, the integrated information platform
proposed in this approach improves the working efficiency and productivity com-
pared to managing knowledge separately.
The approach proposed in this paper is an effective real-time communication
platform for project team members with internet access which can change the
conventional knowledge communication modes, eliminate time and space barriers
for information communication, break the knowledge isolated island and reuse the
knowledge.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from China
Scholarship Council (CSC).
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(1/2):138–145
Applicability of Building Information
Modeling Integrated Augmented Reality
in Building Facility Management
S. Khan and K. Panuwatwanich
Abstract Building Information Modeling (BIM) has played a significant part in

streamlining the modern design, construction and project delivery of a building.
BIM, when implemented properly, provides a flow-on benefits to the operation and
maintenance phase of the building, enabling the facility manager to perform
effective and timely asset management. Augmented Reality (AR) represents a latest
addition to the visualization technologies used the construction industry, which has
gained its omnipresence alongside the development of high-performance mobile
devices. The ability to overlay digital information on to the real world allows users
to merge the virtual environment with real world environment. In the construction
context, this means the ability to visualize digital models over a real physical
environment. By linking BIM with AR, the visualization can be greatly enhanced
through the ability to see the digital information of the building overlaid on top of
the actual physical building or the actual location of the building. The aim of the
research presented in this paper is to examine the applicability of a BIM-integrated
AR in the facility management of a building. As a case study, a BIM-integrated AR
system is being developed for a selected part of a newly constructed laboratory
building on a university campus. This system will be implemented and tested with
the facility management team to evaluate its performance and practical usage for a
wider implementation.

Keywords Augmented reality Building information modeling Digital con-

struction Facility management Visualisation
S. Khan K. Panuwatwanich (&)

Technology, Thammasat University, Pathum Thani, Thailand
e-mail: kriengsak@siit.tu.ac.th
S. Khan
e-mail: sochea.itc@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_196
2140 S. Khan and K. Panuwatwanich
1 Introduction
Building Information Modeling (BIM) is extensively used in countries-worldwide.

It is rapidly gaining industry-wide adoption among the building industry and
organizations involving in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) as
well as owners and operators of building projects [6].
Augmented Reality (AR) is known as the superimposition of a digital contents or
computer-generated objects over a physical environment in the real world. In the
past decade, AR has become very popular in gaming, market, and entertainment
industries, and increasingly in other heavy industries including construction.
Researchers have attempted to study AR technology to examines its current benefits
and future potential in various fields [9].
The International Facility Management Association [5] stated that “Facility
management is a profession that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure
functionality of the built environment by integrating people, place, process, and
technology”. Facility management provides a supportive role or service to the
organizations in order to effectively manage and maintain buildings, people, assets
in organization; and increase/cost efficiency. The importance of an effective facility
management cannot be overlooked because it plays such an important role in the
effectiveness of successful business.
This proposed study will achieve the below objectives:
1. To investigate the current practice of the building facility management in
Thailand,
2. To examine the applicability of BIM-integrated AR in the building facility
management,
3. To develop a conceptual BIMAR system for building facility management.
2 Literature Review
2.1 Facility Management (FM)
Facility management (FM) is the integration of people, place, process and tech-
nology within an organization to maintain and develop the agreed services which
support and improve the effectiveness of its primary activities. It is an effective form
of outreach business management which aims to provide relevant, cost-effective
services to support and optimize the working activities [5].
Facility managers (FMs) are responsible for making sure systems of the built
environment, or facility, work, harmoniously. They could have many different
titles, but they share common roles within their respective organizations such as
building operation and maintenance, sustainability, risk management, communi-
cation, performance and quality, project management, etc. Based on experiences,
Applicability of Building Information Modeling Integrated Augmented Reality … 2141
facility managers are able to define the requirements for the use of the future
operational costs. Facility manager indicates a limited functional program of the
building’s space usage from the perspective of users. As, some parts of the building
concerns about the future maintenance and repairs, details of the structure and
equipment necessary for the technical support are needed. Facility manager in
co-appointment with the investor and designers characterizes the requirements for
the building from the perspective of users, and this can help reduce the costs and
better achieve building services for the users [7].
Chotipanich [3] studied facility management practices in Thailand and found
that facility management services mostly involve building operations, maintenance
and routine services. Strategic facility management, planning and consulting ser-
vices are being used at the minimum levels. More, the development of facility
management practice is hindered by the attitudes of building owners who regard
their own physical resources as risky, burdensome obstacles to daily work. Physical
resources have a low priority in most organizations. Decision-makers take a
short-term view of investments in construction and set close limits on budgets for
maintenance and operation costs. The author concluded that facility management in
Thailand appears to take place on operational levels. Many facility managers are
constrained by their own business culture from trying to imagine their mission in a
broader scope. In short, facility management practice in Thailand has been adapted
and implemented in line with constraints of local knowledge, technology, invest-
ment and cultural preferences [3].
2.2 Building Information Modeling (BIM)
Building Information Modeling (BIM) is described by international standards as

“shared digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of any
built object which forms a reliable basis for decisions”. BIM is an intelligent 3D
model-based process that gives architecture, engineering, and construction
(AEC) professionals the insight and tools to more efficiently plan, design, construct,
and manage buildings and infrastructure. BIM does not only contain geometries, it
also includes spatial connections, light investigation, geographic data, and objects’
properties of building [8].
Gao and Pishdad-Bozorgi [4] examined 177 journal papers pertaining to BIM for
facility management and divided them into 6 categories: maintenance and repair,
energy management, emergency management, change/relocation management,
security, and facility operation and management in general [4]. Especially for
maintenance and repair, a detailed area needed to discuss are: understanding the
current practice and information source; data exchange and system integration; data
accessibility; and fault detection and diagnosis. Furthermore, BIM has a potential in
improving facility operation and management activities and providing new func-
tionalities for facility managers, such as 3D visualization, comprehensive analysis,
and real-time building information access.
2.3 Augmented Reality (AR)
Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology that superimposes a computer-generated

image on a user’s view of the real world, thus providing a composite view. It is an
enhance of a virtual environment with the computer-generated object that the users
can see in their view. A few classifications of augmented reality exist:
Marker-Based AR; Markerless AR; Projection-Based AR; and
Superimposition-Based AR (Fig. 1).
AR is being used in different sections of a construction project. It is believed that
AR technology is the latest technology with great potential to assist with the
completion of certain tasks faster in the construction project [1].
Since AR enables users to strengthen their perspectives with real-time super-
imposed digital information. User is able to use information about asset or to access
step by step instructions on how to repair an asset while literally working with that
asset. The AR system in maintenance has a lot of potential with the ability to
receive information about specific assets. Using AR in maintenance work would
gain many benefits such as reduced human errors, time, cost, and improved pro-
ductivities. For example, company can utilize AR to provide written instructions on
top of assets, reducing the number of hours spent on-boarding new employees.
Baek et al. [2] applied AR-based system for facility management using the
image-based indoor localization. The article proposed a system which is used to
visualize pipe system in the building with the location onto the real scene to assist
with site comprehension. The method also included indoor localization using TCP/
IP to help in retrieving image. Thus, it demonstrated the applicability of the system
in an actual building in a facility management scenario. The experts participated in
the study tested and evaluated the system in facility management and agreed that
the AR visualization is an effective approach that can be employed to facilitate
communication among people related to the work as well as onsite personnel [2].
Fig. 1 Superimposition-based AR example of a BIM model of a house projected on an image

target
3 Methodology
This research intents to integrate Building Information Modeling (BIM) and

Augmented Reality (AR) system deployed on a mobile device to improve building
facility management. To fulfill this aim, research procedures (Fig. 2), the devel-
opment workflow of BIM integrated AR application, and preliminary work are
proposed in the following sections.
3.1 Proposed Research Procedures
(See Fig. 2)
Fig. 2 Proposed flowchart of research methodology

3.2 Development Workflow of BIMAR Application
The BIM-integrated AR system will be developed base on 3 main parts: 2D & 3D

asset creation, BIMAR system development, and BIMAR system deployment.
• The first part provides 3D BIM model developed from 2D CAD drawing and
export to.fbx for the application. It is imported to process the model in 3D studio
max first for the segment and material alignment (because Unity only recognizes
textures or color from 3D studio max, not the existing from Revit) and then
export the model to make it ready for the application as a final.fbx file.
• The second part is the designing stage of the system menu, and interactions
between the users and the application. The scripts will be attached to the objects
and buttons for users to be able to select and link to various functions of the
system.
• The final part is the deployment of BIMAR system. The system will be saved as
a.apk file and ready to install and used on a mobile (Android) device.
To understand more clearly how BIM-integrated AR system will be developed
to achieve the research goal, Fig. 3 below illustrates the development process.
3.3 Research Setting
In this study, a newly constructed laboratory building at Sirindhorn International

Institute of Technology (SIIT), Thammasat University, Thailand, will be used as a
test subject for the developed BIMAR system. Due to the lack of a BIM model for
this building, a BIM model was created from 2D CAD drawings. Thus, the MEP
system of a selected room inside the building will be used as a test model for the
participant to experiment with how AR could help assist the building facility
management team.
3.4 Research Tools
The BIMAR system will be developed through software and plug-ins as listed:
Unity (Game engine), Vuforia, Microsoft Visual Studio, Android Studio, Autodesk
Revit, Autodesk 3D Studio Max, and Autodesk CAD. Plus, the hardware used for
BIMAR system: an android device “Samsung Galaxy Note 9” and a gaming/design
laptop “Asus ROG G501 JW”.
Fig. 3 Proposed development workflow of BIMAR development

4 Preliminary Work
4.1 BIMAR System Development
Through the proposed workflow of BIM-AR system development, a sample BIM

model was created from 2D CAD drawing using Autodesk Revit. It was exported
to.fbx file to be used for the application development on Unity (Fig. 4).
A BIMAR system was developed and deployed to a mobile device running an
Android operating system. A pipe system was used as a sample in the developed
BIMAR system that can be visualized through scanning an image target. An
interface of the system was designed with clickable button function that is linked to
each scene in unity to switch from one to another. Moreover, there is a function
inside the image target that allows user to view a full model or just a specific
part. Besides, user could find object’s information by just clicking on the model.
The information of a selected object will be shown on the right side of the screen.
Figure 5 shows the sample of the developed BIMAR system that was developed to
visualize a pipe and air-conditioning system as a sample prototype.
4.2 Exploratory Study
To implement the system with the existing building, an exploratory study was
conducted to understand a baseline situation of the current building facility man-
agement practice of the selected laboratory building. An interview with the building
and ground division’s staff of SIIT was conducted to gain some information about
the current practices. It was found that a preventive maintenance was being used to
operate the building to maintain serviceability and efficiency, which consists of the
following activities:
1. Inspection: daily/monthly/yearly check due to its lifetime.
2. Cleaning: clean/clear dust/something that stick with object and make it work
better.
Fig. 4 BIM model in Revit

Fig. 5 Screenshots of BIMAR system used to visualize an MEP model
3. Repair or replace: fix small issue by repair or replace some part before the whole
system breakdown.
In the inspection part, paper-forms of inspection will be printed out to record the
work. After that, there will be another request-form for the replacement if there is a
part needing replacement. All data records are in a paper-based format and stored in
folders that are kept at the office.
4.3 Expected BIMAR System
The BIMAR system will be experimented with a new lab building at SIIT. It would
help the team to visualize the pipe system, check for its information, make a record,
and save the data to the online database system by using a mobile device. It would
help the team to save time, reduce papers, and improve productivity.
The prototype of the BIMAR system will be experimented by staffs of Building
and Ground division of SIIT, who is currently working as a facility management
team. The prototype will focus on the sprinkler and aircon system of a room in the
newly constructed laboratory building. Before the test, participants will be guided
to understand how the utilize of the BIMAR system. During the test, the partici-
pants will be able to use the application to visualize the digital model on a real
environment by scanning the target attached to a specific position in the room. They
could choose to see the model of the whole system or a specific part, and also an
information panel when the participants click on the AR model. After getting to see
the digital model on the real physical building and its information (properties,
maintenance history, supplier, etc.).
After the test, the participants will be asked to complete a questionnaire about
the usability of the developed system including its usefulness, information, and
interface quality of the application. Feedback will be taken to determine the par-
ticipants’ satisfaction of the BIMAR system as well as any recommendation for
further improvement.
5 Conclusion
BIM is a useful concept that has been widely adopted in the construction industry as
a tool to enhance collaboration and project delivery, including facility management.
Augmented reality is a technology that can be used to overlay BIM model onto the
real world. In facility management, visualizing the exact model on the exact
location within the real-world environment is very important to better understand
the parts requiring maintenance and to retrieve important information such as its
service life, past maintenance records, suppliers, etc. By integrated BIM with AR, a
system has been proposed and developed to be used to improve the work in the
building facility management. A study was conducted to investigate the current
practices of building facility management within a university campus in Thailand,
as an experimental case. Six research tasks have been proposed to develop and test
a BIMAR system. By capitalizing on the BIM and AR technology, it is expected
that the developed system will help the facility management team to improve their
work efficiency and productivity.
References
1. Ahmed S (2018) A review on using opportunities of augmented reality and virtual reality in
construction project management. Organ Technol Manage Constr Int J 10(1):1839–1852
2. Baek F, Ha I, Kim H (2019) Augmented reality system for facility management using
image-based indoor localization. Autom Constr 99:18–26
3. Chotipanich S (2002) Principles and concepts of facility management in thailand. note for
presentation in FM Thailand Seminar 2002. Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok
4. Gao X, Pishdad-Bozorgi P (2019) Bim-enabled facilities operation and maintenance: A review.
Adv Eng Inform 39:227–247
5. IFMA (2019) What is facility management? Houston, USA. https://www.ifma.org/about/what-
is-facility-management. Accessed 2019
6. Kubba S (2017) Building information modeling (bim). In: Kubba S (ed) Handbook of green
building design and construction. Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford
7. Potkany M, Vetrakova M, Babiakova M (2015) Facility management and its importance in the
analysis of building life cycle. Proc Econ Financ 26:202–208
8. Volk R, Stengel J, Schultmann F (2014) Building information modeling (bim) for existing
buildings—literature review and future needs. Autom Constr 38:109–127
9. Wang J, Pour Rahimian F, Ibrahim R, Wang X, Shou W, Xu B (2014) Integrating bim and
augmented reality for interactive architectural visualisation. Constr Innov 14(4):453–476
Project Management for the Out Patient
Department Building-Planning
for Hospital Design and Construction
P. Chaiseri and T. Issariyarutthanon
Abstract Project Management for hospital building is important because the

hospital building is one of the most complicated building. It concerns many aspects
that need many expertise. Integration of these relevant aspects and implementation
is a delicate task. The Extended OPD building Project is to construct an Out Patient
Department (OPD) building in Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital. The site is very
tight and surrounded with conserved buildings and hospital buildings which are in
services. The hospital is one of the most advanced public facilities that serves
thousands of OPD patients daily. Therefore, the Project Management Consulting
service is need to handle all requirements of the hospital services, patients and users
as well as fulfilling the objectives of maintaining the medical services at the highest
level. Construction time and cost is crucial. All concerning plans have to be
carefully considered from the beginning of the project.
Keywords Project management Hospital Design Construction Lessons

learned
1 Introduction
Hospital building is always complicate and concerns many disciplines, more than
normal buildings. Project Management Consultant (PMC) is, therefore, important
for smooth and successful project outcome, as preoccupation of all aspects con-
cerning efficiency, safety and hygiene of operations and maintenance.
The project of Out Patient Department Building is to construct a new building
which would replace old and small hospital buildings. The building is to be 15
stories with 4 basements. The construction site has a very close perimeter with other
existing buildings and the hospital infrastructures which is continuously operational
throughout the construction. Therefore, demolition and construction planning is to
P. Chaiseri (&) T. Issariyarutthanon

Arun Chaiseri Consulting Engineers Co., Ltd., 3300/28 Phahonyothin Rd, Bangkok, Thailand
e-mail: piyawat.chaiseri@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_197
2150 P. Chaiseri and T. Issariyarutthanon
Fig. 1 Extended OPD Building, Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital
be well prepared. Furthermore, relocating the existing users to other buildings

before the demolition is extremely necessary. The construction is adjacent to the
historical and preserved building which was about 100 years of age.
The project owner requested for design reviewing services since the design was
done without official Project Management in the first place. The objective of the
design review is to develop the design to maximize efficiency of the building, to
control the construction cost and time and to consider the effective operation and
maintenance of the building.
Experts of many related fields were asked to give comments on the development
of the design, ranges from architecture, structural engineering, Mechanical
Electrical & Plumbing Engineering, energy, environmental impact to Operation &
Maintenance. Project Controllers had input the implementation and construction
plan to monitor and alert the cost and time overrun since many unforeseen obstacles
were expected (Fig. 1).
2 Success Factors and Implementation
To achieve the Project Management’s role of quality, time and budget, consider-
ation and implementation of the following factors are to be taken seriously.
Project Management for the Out Patient Department Building … 2151
2.1 Function Program and Connection Flow Diagram
Requirement of function of each department and their connection and flow of

operation were to be considered thoroughly. Understanding the flow of operation of
each function will yield efficiency for hospital staff and convenience for patients.
Function Program & Connection Flow Diagram is the prerequisite to the design of
hospital space and must be obtained, developed and approved by the users of each
department. PMC had to discuss about the Flow Diagram with the users based on
the universal practice as well as the PMC’s experiences since some requirements
from the users were not practical as they were focused only on their own objective,
not the overall operation.
2.2 Expectation of the Owner
Project owner’s expectation might differ and it results in the design concept and the
construction details. PMC had to acquire the exact expectation of the Project
Owner. In order not to miss out any important requirements, PMC had a checklist
of basic expectation of the owner, for instance, the expectation of the hospital
standard, either the local standard of the international standard such as Joint
Commission International (JCI) and the building conservation standard such as
LEADS of Green Building Standard. PMC had to inform the consequences of these
standards that will affect the project parameters such as construction cost and time.
2.3 Planning and Phasing
Planning is the earliest step of the project. It has to be done in accordance with the
Owner’s Expectations. Planning of this project is very sensitive because it affects
timing and cost. It would be extremely difficult to have a planning for a project to
replace and construct a new building on a tight existing site while the whole
operations are still on. Relocation by preparing new space in other building and
migrating all equipments and staffs to a temporary site is to be planned carefully
with the black-out period to be shortest. PMC had to acquire full information from
the relevant departments to make a planning and phasing of the project. After the
planning is approved by the owner’s administration committee, it was distributed
among the concerning parties and the planning was strictly enforced.
2.4 Space and Area Program
In term of space and area design program, proper location and size of each
department and each room is to be considered. PMC had to derive proper location
from Function Program and Connection Flow Diagram. The space and area of each
room was discussed with the users based on their requirement and the PMC’s
recommendations. For example, the route of each medical service for staffs and
patients should be short, even inside separated room. For example, the doctor’s
check-up room should not be too small or too large. Too small room will be not
practical for doctor and assistant to move around whilst too large room will
lengthen the moving time from point-to-point. Thus, it would not be efficient.
2.5 Planning for Future Upgrade
Development in medical services and equipments is absolutely fast. New methods

of treatment are introduced continuously. Design and selection of medical equip-
ments that are the latest at the starting of the project might become obsolete at the
time the building is completed. From the experience, much latest-model hi-tech
medical equipment such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine or
operating table was procured at about the last period of construction. This means
that most of the structure and block-out or main power supply was already in place.
Therefore, partial demolition and relocation of concerning systems were to be done.
This caused some delays and addition cost had to be spared.
PMC had to anticipate such upgrade of medical equipments by planning for
larger space and larger opening for installation and replacement. As for the elec-
trical and other relevant system, it should provide flexibility to adjust to any
position and adequacy of building system for the new equipment.
Furthermore, as medical services are continuously developed in a very fast pace,
mean and mode of service changes and requirement for space also changes. PMC
had to make an interview with the owner for the vision of future upgrade of the
hospital services and facilities to be prepared.
2.6 Planning for Medical Equipment Compatibility
PMC had to consider the medical equipment compatibility because it would be

more practical and economical to have the same or compatible equipments with the
existing one. On the construction side, the equipment that needs an outlet; medical
gas, should be considered to be compatible to the existing ones so that the hospital
could use similar socket and cap. This means fewer types and less stock to be stored
and, hence, Operation and Maintenance would be more efficient. The determined
type of socket and relevant system could be installed in the exact sequence of
construction as planned.
2.7 Requirements for Design Basis and Detail
When all requirements are obtained, these will be set as a Design Basis that Design
Consultant would be obliged. The Design Consult (DC), then, has to perform his
professional practice conforming to the local building laws and regulations. With
the owner’s requirement to meet the hospital standard, either local or international
one, the Design Consultant has to comply with such standard.
While the standard has to be abided for the design basis, the construction details
have to be carefully designated. For some special purpose room such as detail for
radiated room, the pressurized system for the Operation Room, etc. PMC should be
able to monitor the detail design as the inappropriate detail would mean unsatis-
factory condition to use safely.
PMC urged that DC use Building Information Management (BIM) program.
This helped to integrate and monitor every part of the building from design to
construction. It gives Building Operation & Maintenance more efficiency.
2.8 Requirements for Construction
As common practice, contractor should conduct the construction according to the

standard. Nevertheless, in the case of hospital which is currently operational with
full capacity, the contractor should pay full attention to the safety of the hospital
users as well as the main utilities that might be accidentally cut off or disturbed.
Protection above ground should be completely implemented whilst underground
construction should be on high alert with safety team and utility back-up team ready
all the time of working. Accident to the utility, such as electricity, water supply or
IT system that might occur must be resolved as fast as possible. In order to have
more efficiency in construction and beyond, PMC required that the contractor use
BIM for their shop drawings.
2.9 Requirements for Prevention of Infection Relating

to Quality of Building
Infection is one of the most crucial threats in the hospital. Because there are many
patients who carry various kind of germs and in the environment that transport
many kind of microbiology such as bacteria, virus and fungus, design of the
building has to be done with caution of the infection by means of both physical and
building ventilation system.
Physical design to prevent infection is to separate the Clean Zone and the
Contaminated Zone completely. The Clean Zone is where medical staffs, normal
people and patients are. The Contaminated Zone is where contaminated waste is.
The two zones must be completely separated with walls and closed doors. Corridors
of the two zones must not cross each other. Furthermore, the department with
respiration disease should be located in a separately closed zone or the farthest zone
because infection to other people might be easy.
Building ventilation system would play an important task in order to carry away
germs to the outside and bring fresh air from the outside in. Because fresh air
contain moisture and usually has higher temperature that the inside (as in tropical
area such as Thailand), it should be dehumidified and pre-cooled before entering the
inner atmosphere to prevent fungus from growing inside the unventilated area such
as air duct, ceiling and store.
PMC had to implement this precaution during the design stage and have a
thorough inspection during the construction.
2.10 Requirement for Operation and Maintenance
To achieve the goal for efficient Operation & Maintenance (O&M) after the
building is handed over from the contractor, precautions are to be thoroughly
considered from the beginning of the conceptual design. O&M for the hospital
building could be divided into two aspects; Building O&M and Medical O&M.
Building O&M concerns about main facilities of the building; lighting,
air-conditioning system, building ventilation, fire alarm and fire fighting, power
supply, water supply & sanitary system, waste disposal & treatment system,
Information Technology system, cleaning, repairing, security system, structural
health monitoring and energy conservation monitoring.
Medical O&M concerns medical services operation, patient service, internal
document & sample transport system, medical equipment, food catering, laundry.
As for medical O&M, it is rather sensitive that the flow of each medical service
must be learned and developed furthermore. Medical staffs and patients should not
commute a long distance from the start until the finish of the process and all
directions must be clear in a straight manner. Clean Zone and Dirty Zone are to be
separated completely to meet the standard of hygiene.
Space planning and design in accordance with the requirements for O&M is one
of the success factors for the hospital project. Careless consideration will lead to
difficulties and inefficiency in the long run.
2.11 Design Control
In order to achieve all requirements, the design work, which is done by Design
Consultant, is the first key step of the execution stage. Even though all requirements
are complete, sharp and clear, the design work still could not be complete and
correct without the design control process. Experiences of the design team
including the comprehensive attention of requirements and working are the main
factor of success. Number of designers in the design team does not guarantee the
delivery of perfect design work. Experienced staffs who actually work for the
project does matter. In terms of risk management and reality, the responsibility of
design team could not be relied on and just blame them when mistake occurs. The
damages are going to happen and, certainly, there is not beneficial to the project.
Therefore, the preventive thinking is the issue that the Project Management
Consultant has to consider. The design control with efficient tool is to be formulated
once all requirements have been settled and it is to be shared with the design team.
2.12 Procurement Strategy
As the hospital project is one of the most complex buildings, in terms of building
system and complicates medical equipment, the allocation for scope of work for
each contractor is one of the most important matters. The Project Management
Consultant has to execute a strategic plan in order to compromise risk management,
cost management and quality management. The procurement strategy includes
package of procurement (Main Contractor/Owner Direct Contractor), work break-
down matrix, identification of nominated subcontractor and suppliers.
2.13 Construction Control
The construction is the final key step of the execution stage. Besides the normal
construction control process of time control, quality control, cost control, the
success of the project is to ensure that the construction is in compliance with
drawing & specification. The other factor that could lead to the success of the
project is the experience of Construction Supervision Consultant (CSC). The detail
of construction specifically for hospital project is the last mechanism to assure the
completeness of hospital. Do & Don’t List and Detail Handbook derived from
lessons learned in many projects shall be valuable to project and ensure that con-
struction is in control.
3 Extended OPD Building as a Lesson Learned
Considering the aforementioned success factors for the Extended OPD building of
Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, obstacles, solutions and lessons were learned
and recorded for academic benefit;
i) Function Program and Connection Flow Diagram had to be obtained from the
very beginning and had to be reviewed from occasionally by each department to see
whether there was any development is their requirement. Some of the later
requirements could not be fulfill since the main structure and system were already
in place.
ii) Expectation of the owner was a major requirement that had to be achieved.
High standard with lower cost is a key requirement since the hospital is a public
hospital under control of the Thai Red Cross and the role of the hospital is to serve
patients regardless of status at high medical standard.
iii) Planning and Phasing of the project was very crucial since the building was
to be constructed by replacing three small and outdated building while keeping one
conserved building in a very closed adjacent. Moving and migrating existing
department from the three small building to a temporary place and having a very
short pause of operation is to be brain-stormed. One small building was kept as a
site office for PMC, CSC and Contractors. The location of this building, after the
demolition, was designed to be a waste treatment plant for the building itself and
the adjacent buildings.
Planning for pedestrian traffic and road for vehicles had to be done with
diversion from the current one. Full protection had to be implemented.
iv) Space and Area Program was designed to have optimum and efficient size in
proper location.
v) Planning for future upgrade was implemented in the building skeletons.
Overall area is spacious for future renovation and relocation. Structural system was
determined to be concrete column and Reinforced Concrete flat slab system so that
any modification would be easily applicable. Main vertical shafts provide flexibility
for future retrofit of building and IT system.
vi) Selection of medical equipment was based on the compatibility with the
existing equipment so that users are acquainted with the system. The storage of
equipment parts and accessories became less.
vii) PMC set the Design Basis as per the requirements obtained from the owner.
BIM was requested for evaluating and monitoring the design and construction and
help reducing the in-site incompatible conflict.
viii) Demolition and site preparing needed very careful procedure. There were
many underground pipes and cables that were not known before. Thorough
checking was done to find out. Underground structure of the buildings to be
demolished and the adjacent buildings were found in the perimeter of the con-
struction site. Designers had to adjust the design in order to avoid these structures
Protection for pollution of dust, waste water, garbage and noise that might annoy
hospital staffs and patients are very serious and was one of the key valuations at the
time of evaluation the bidding contractors.
ix) For the prevention of infection, Clean Zone and Contaminated Zone were
separated completely. Higher pressurized air is applied in the Clean Zone to prevent
air from Contaminated Zone to flow into. Department of respiration disease was
separated and located on its own floor, as well as other departments.
Dehumidifier and filter is utilized for fresh air in the ventilation system. The air
is pre-cooled to prevent condensation that would let fungus grow which is not
acceptable for the hospital.
x) Operation and Maintenance issues were taken into design to provide effi-
ciency of the building and its system to serve the need of the hospital both the
building physical and the medical services.
For the physical of the building, utilities were rearranged in order to be easily
maintained. Cleaning equipments for the external facade were prepared. Modern
computer monitoring and control system was implemented with flexibility to
upgrade in the future.
For the medical services, O&M was included into space planning so that the
operation should be smoothest and efficient. Maintenance route line was consid-
ered that it would not block the medical operation
4 Conclusion
It is clear that comprehensive planning for both design and construction is benefitial
for the success of hospital project. Various factors have to be considered thoroughly
without ignoring any concerning matters. The key goals of the project; Quality,
Time and Budget could be achieved by means of integration of all relevant
expertise. Project Management Consultant plays important role to integrate and
control the input of all parties of the project team for the benefit of the project owner
as well as the project users; the hospital staffs and the patient.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to express sincere gratitude to Mr. Nimit
Phattarathanachote of Arun Chaiseri Consulting Engineers Co., Ltd. who contributed his vast and
useful experience of hospital construction.
Factors Affecting the International
Training Transfer for Capacity
Development of Road Asset
Management in Lao PDR
A. Bounnak and M. Henry
Abstract Lao PDR is a land-locked country surrounded by neighboring countries

including Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, and China. Due to its geo-
graphic location, it has been a vision of Lao Government to develop road infras-
tructures and become a land-link country. There are obstacles, however, in
extending the road network infrastructure development plan, one of which is to
ensure sustainable infrastructure development. For many years, the Government of
Lao PDR extends national road network to reach this vision. The human resources
necessary to realize this development plan, however, are still not met. As such,
international training transfer is viewed as one key element to address human
resource deficiency to improve infrastructure development in Lao PDR. In this vein,
Non-Government Organization (NGO) funding supports were secured and oversea
training programs have been engaged. In the case of oversea training program,
trainees are expected to transfer their knowledge on road asset management to
contribute to the required critical number of human resources. Therefore, it
becomes necessary to make clear the effectiveness of these training programs for
sustainable development. This research, taking Lao PDR as a case study, aims to
identify the influence of factors that affect the training transfer of trainees after they
joined the Improvement on Road Management Capability training in Japan and
Thailand between 2012 and 2017. An initial qualitative survey by personal inter-
view was conducted by face to face interview with observation during discussion.
The interviewees at least joined external training program once and are coming
from six departments relevant to the project under Ministry of Public Works and
Transport (MPWT). The results from these interviews are beneficial for classifying
the affecting factors of the training transfer on the sustainable road infrastructure
development plan for Lao PDR.
A. Bounnak (&) M. Henry

Graduate School of Engineering and Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University,
Sapporo, Japan
e-mail: amphaphone@eis.hokudai.ac.jp
M. Henry

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_198
2160 A. Bounnak and M. Henry
Keywords International training program Road asset management Training

transfer
1 Introduction
1.1 Current Challenges on Public Works and Transport

in Lao PDR
As a completely landlocked country, road transport is essential for transportation in

Lao PDR. The vision of the government emphasizes developing the infrastructure
and focusing on extending road infrastructure to achieve the goal of becoming a
land-linked country. For many years, the Lao government was supported by inter-
national non-government organizations to develop road infrastructure. However,
human resources are the most important for sustainable infrastructure development,
and, for many years, the government encouraged employees to participate in training
courses on sustainable infrastructure development in order to up-grade and improve
specialist engineers’ skill for road infrastructure management.
In 2010, after the Road Maintenance Program Phase-II was completed by World
Bank, Japanese Government was supporting Lao government for a technical
cooperation program under the Road Asset Management program. As noted by the
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA):
“Road Asset Management is a program for Lao Road Management key element on this
vision; as it is adopted asset management method for the operation and maintenance of
social infrastructure facilities. A way of thinking to place social infrastructure facilities for
assets of the nations, and to carry out the operation and maintenance of the asset effec-
tively, premeditatedly and steadily” (Kanenawa, T., 2018, Road Asset Management pre-
sentation, 6th International Doctoral Symposium at Hokkaido University)
This study was motivated by the Project for Improvement of Road Management
Capability to develop planning and technical ability of road maintenance works in
Lao PDR. The training program was known as the key element for better works on
road management supported by JICA, which aimed to improve infrastructure main-
tenance works together with improving the capability of human resource. There were
six external training programs under the improvement road management capability,
including: four trainings between 2012 and 2015 in Japan; and two trainings in
Thailand (1st external training in 2013 and 2nd training in 2017 which is the last
training under the program). Trainings in Japan were hosted by Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT). Additional, two trainings in Thailand were
hosted by Department of Highway of Thailand. Each training invited five to six
departments under MPWT Lao PDR to attend each training. Through a series of
external trainings, the trainees were expected to gain knowledge and skills such as:
Asset management of road/bridge infrastructure, planning of road/bridge mainte-
nances including budget making, Human resources development, Controlling over
Factors Affecting the International Training Transfer … 2161
loaded vehicle. There are road infrastructure management projects and activities
which directly needed to use the transfer of learning after the training programs. It is
also the main support for the effectiveness on improvement of road management and
human resource in Lao PDR.
1.2 Objective
Based on the background of current issues on road infrastructure of Lao PDR, this
study emphasizes the study on transfer of training which can be viewed in two areas
such as (1) methodology and measurement of transfer and (2) what factor most
influences the transfer. This study integrated these two areas to describe the training
transfer process and gain insight into better understanding of the most influential
factors of training transfer which can be developing framework of the training pro-
gram. In particular, the study aims to understand the effect of the work environment on
the training transfer, due to the encouragement to attend, goal activities, reinforce-
ment activities, and behaviours modelling are descriptive by the supervisory support.
1.3 Literature Review
Transfer of training:
Rapid change in economy, society, technology, dynamic environment and the
effect of globalization encouraged organizational leaders to implement training to
improve the performance of their employees to get effective project [9]. Many
companies in U.S. operating domestic and international spend billions of dollars
annually on training initiatives for their workforces. The transfer of training in work
organization have seen large investment in many organizations recently due to it
becoming an important issue [8]. Also, many organizations in developing countries
encourage their employees to participate in domestic and overseas training [3].
For more than three decades, many researchers have tried to provide the answer
of the influence of factors on the training transfer process [1, 2]. Many studies have
led to a better understand of the training transfer process and system. Many models
and systems have been developed to explain how effective training transfer char-
acteristic [10]. It is important to consider the role of trainees’ individual and work
environment characteristics as influencing training effectiveness because it needed
to fully understand the effective cause by trainee [7].
For many years, studies on transfer of learning issues and concerns are
increasing. The main issue of learning transfer motivates on how knowledge, skills
and attitudes can apply or fail to apply in new situations. There are three areas effect
on the training transfer involving (1) training design, (2) trainee characteristic and
(3) work environment [1, 2] and [5].
Work Environment:
A literature review found the work environment strongly affects the training transfer
[1], Trainees responded how the important and needed in their workplace of the
training transfer depend on the opportunity [6]. According to the LTSI model in the
work environment, there are five main factors are focused on in this study,
including positive and negative aspects of personal outcomes, support and sanction
of supervisor, and motivation to transfer.
The work environment is the most influential element among three main ele-
ments for many studies on training transfer. Work environment characteristic define
as strong support for the important of environmental and motivation to transfer.
Moreover, there are several factors related to the work environment which is the
personal behaviour or motivated of transfer, supervisor support, peers support and
rule of effort transfer [1].
Learning Transfer System Inventory (LTSI):

Holton [6] developed the Model of Learning Transfer System Inventory (LTSI) to
describe the primary outcome of training invention. According to LTSI model,
there are seven elements involved in the work environment factors, such as feed-
back, peer support, resistance or openness to change, positive and negative personal
outcome, and support and sanction of supervisor [6, 9]. However, this study only
summarized five sub-themes due to limitations in the data collection (Table 1).
Table 1 Summary of sub-themes and definitions under work environment

Sub-theme Definition
Positive personal The degree to apply training on their job and lead positive outcome for
outcome the individual
Negative personal The extent to which individual believe that not applying skills and
outcome knowledge learnt in training will lead to outcome negative
Supervisor support The extent to which supervisors-managers support and reinforce use of
training on the job
Supervisor The extent to which individuals perceive negative responses from
sanctions supervisors-managers when applying skills learned in training
Motivation to The direction, intensity, and persistence of effort toward utilizing in a
transfer work setting skills and knowledge learned
2 Overview of Investigation
2.1 Survey Method
This study adopted a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews as

the primary method of data collection. The qualitative design was based on the
method and resources [4]. The method of initial data collection in the interview
emphasized face to face discussion with 16 individual interviewees, with obser-
vations at their work place in the working day. The goal in collecting data was to
better understand the most influential factors in the work environment for the
training transfer process on road management and human resource development in
Lao DPR.
2.2 Survey Content
The LTSI model adopted to this study is based on the work environment influence
theme. This model is the starting point for collaborative planning with affected
employees [6] which led to the result of the influence of organizational factors on
trainees’ transfer of learning. The theme of LTSI model consists of seven elements;
however, this study covered only five elements. As the outline of the interview did
not cover the other two elements, the study will focus on the elements as positive
personal outcome, negative personal outcome, supervisor support, supervisor
sanction, and motivation to transfer. This model was adopted to analyze the
interview results.
The general interview outlines by Burke [2] were used as a guideline due to the
many variables involved in explaining the training transfer process. This content
carried on the three sections in the Table 2. Section 1 covers the general back-
ground of the trainees, including the position and responsibility during training
course and current position of trainee in order to recall their benefits from training
program and also to make comfort atmosphere for trainee. Section 2 was about the
usefulness of training contents after training program, and aimed to evaluate the
direction to see how the trainees expressed on applying experience and knowledge
from training program in their job and work environment in various ways.
Section 2 also aimed to classify the usefulness and better understand their needed
together with observing trainees’ expectation with the training program. Section 3
focused on sharing new knowledge to their organization, target on diverse
multi-sharing strategy expressive in order to get the result on the most effective
factor from work environment individually and alliance.
Table 2 Summary of interview outline

Interview outline Content Target
Section 1: general Position, responsibility during To recall their benefits from
background of the and current job of trainee training program as a goal of
trainees individually comfortable atmosphere at the
beginning of interview
Section 2: applying A direction for trainees’ To classify the useful and better
useful contents after expressive on applying contents understand their needed together
training program and knowledge from training with observing trainees’
program with their work in expectation with the training
various ways program
Section 3: sharing Direction for multi-sharing To get the result on the effective
new knowledge to strategy, feedback from factor from work environment
their organization coworkers and supervisor, individually and organizational
improvement on performance level
The expecting result emphases on what and how the factors of work environ-
ment or organization affected the trainees in order to encourage them sharing the
new knowledge from the external training in their organization. Moreover, the
direction of these contents also led to the multi-sharing strategy for individuals and
alliances in their work climate, as well as the motivation to transfer.
2.3 Survey Sample
The target of this study consisted of participants from Ministry of Public Works and
Transport of Lao PDR who participated in external training programs under the
project of the improvement of building capacity on road management in Lao PDR
between 2012 and 2017. The external training consisted of six training programs,
with four trainings in Japan and two trainings in Thailand. Each of trainees par-
ticipated in at least one external training program. The sample included 16 out of 24
trainees in the total from the JICA recorded who attended the external trainings
under this project. As the external training was held outside of Lao PDR, the
participant was selected based on requirements such as intermediate English level,
at least three years work experience together with senior level, able to make
decisions on road works, and be able to continue the future plan on road man-
agement development project. The sample was slightly dominated by female
respondents among six departments under MPWT Lao PDR. Respectively of
position and responsibility on work, more than five interviewees are senior level
with one female and about 11 technical officers. Moreover, this data collection was
transcribed in Lao language, then translated to English by the interviewer. The
interviewees were contacted to get permission through email from the interviewer
directly in order to schedule before the actual interview date.
The result of this study relied on the LTSI model as a guideline, with the contents of
the interview following the work environment theme. Work environment is the
center of the key elements for evaluating the training transfer process. The interview
outline covered only five elements, or sub-themes, of the work environment,
including positive personal outcome, negative personal outcome, supervisor sup-
port, supervisor sanction and motivation to transfer.
3.1 Positive Personal Outcome
Personal outcome in the positive way can be applied for trainees who were suc-
cessful in their work after the training finished. This positive outcome also refers to
successfully applying knowledge and experience in work and get promoted to
higher position individually. It was found that trainees gained advantage and got
promoted based on their performance, which evaluated as an excellent performance.
During the interview session, trainees willing to share their experience of training to
researcher lead to the different perspectives on the benefits of training transfer. One
trainee shared many interesting experiences related to the positive outcome, such as,
“…for governance performance, I got promoted from technical officer to be deputy
director, after then I was a director of division. Another part of the project I was promoted
from engineer to be senior and now I am vice team project…”
In this part, it was found that the trainee was successful and led to a positive
outcome for the individual, as well as created the benefit to their organization as a
whole. The action taken by trainees provided positive impact on work as a suc-
cessful project could not happen without their performance.
3.2 Negative Personal Outcome
The result of this element refers to unsuccessful application of the lessons learned to
their work; in other words, the trainees were unable to transfer their knowledge.
Negative outcome also refers to the negative result of personal action taken by
trainees that complicated the transfer of learning. The consequences from this issue
came from various situations of trainees’ expressions during the interview. For
example, the below was conveyed from trainee:
“…this training showed me the current road management system they are using. All
contents were directly pair of my works, unfortunately they are only benefit for our future
plan which not applicable to implement now due to different condition. For example: they
showed us how do they maintenance asphalt pavement, but in our area, we don’t have
asphalt yet…”
There are two major situations came out as negative outcome. The first situation
is an expectation of the training contents met trainees’ expectation, but only had
benefit for future plans. Another situation is sharing new knowledge to coworkers
under the same organization is optional, e.g. trainees did not have any requirement
to transfer due to many circumstances of work environment, which did not create
benefits for anybody involved.
3.3 Supervisor Support
Many studies have found that support by the organization has the largest impact on
transfer of training, especially that the supervisor is the key element to inspire this
process. Specifically, the involvement of the supporting supervisor and approval
and encouragement by supervisor before and after participated the training program
are key factors. We found the organization, as well as the support tool from
supervisors, were big inspirations for the trainees’ behavior to sharing and applying
new knowledge from the training program to their job and work environment.
3.4 Supervisor Sanction
This factor is also an important work environment characteristic, and many

researchers have studied how this issue is powerful in the training transfer process.
In this context, it was revealed that one challenging issue when the trainees pro-
posed new technique and the new knowledge in their work was that they got
declined response from their supervisor. The interviews found out this issue being a
barrier on applying and sharing on training transfer; for example, as one trainee
responded as:
“…I did propose road maintenance to my supervisor because I believe this knowledge is
particle and useful on road maintenance. Unfortunately, this plan is not appropriate to the
condition and budget plan for our country which mean this propose had been dropped…”
This result is also supported by Faizal et al. [4], which found that the supervisor
opposes the use of new skills, knowledge and new techniques that are difference
from what was taught in training due to some difficult in applying to the current
situation in the job.
3.5 Motivation to Transfer
This item corresponds to the interview question: Are there any policies for sup-
porting the sharing of new knowledge that was learned from the external training?
It was found out that trainees were willing to share information directly and indi-
rectly to their coworkers in different ways due to their specific and non-specific
sharing regulation at their organization. Having a specific policy is a strong key
element of training transfer, and many trainees responded to this topic during the
interview, such as:
“…we have special rule of sharing information after international training by presenting
the summarize of new knowledge in the annual workshop of our department within one
month after the training program have been done…”
This factor focuses on the strength of training transfer. It is the strong motivation
to transfer, and trainees strongly believed in the specific policy of sharing knowl-
edge after training as the key element for effective training transfer. This result is
supported by many studies on work environment and found that it has the largest
effect on the trainees when sharing new knowledge in their organization, and that it
is the strong enforcement in the training transfer process by Baldwin [1].
4 Conclusions
This paper has presented some issues on transfer of training due to the influence of
factors in the work environment. It also provided discussion based on the Learning
Transfer System Inventory (LTSI) as an evaluation unit of the data collection. In
this context, the training transfer process was examined from the five factors of
work environment involved: positive and negative personal outcome, support and
sanctions from supervisor and motivation to transfer. It was found that organiza-
tions which have specific policy supporting sharing have a deep relationship with
training transfer. Moreover, the climate of the work environment related directly to
moderate the training transfer process.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the Japan International Cooperation Agency
(JICA) for the financial support and providing information on the Project for Improvement of Road
Management Capability in Lao PDR, as well as the kind cooperation of the Ministry of Public
Works and Transport of Laos (MPWT-Laos) for providing information on the training of Road
Management in Laos.
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characteristics on training effectiveness: evidence from skill certification system for
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9. Noorizan MM, Afzan NF, Norfazlina AZ, Akma AS (2016) The moderating effects of
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Dev 11(4):282–294
A Real-Time Computer Vision System
for Workers’ PPE and Posture Detection
in Actual Construction Site
Environment
Ammar Moohialdin, Fiona Lamari, Miska Marc,

and Bambang Trigunarsyah
Abstract The real-time video detection model is yet a challenging, especially in

detecting construction site workers and their PPE (helmet and safety gear) and
postures, since the construction site environment consists multiple complications
such as different illumination levels, shadows, complex activities, a wide range of
personal protective equipment (PPE) designs and colours. This paper proposes a
novel computer vision (CV) system to detect the construction workers’ PPE and
postures in a real-time manner. Four different recording sessions have been carried
out to build a dataset of 95 videos by using a novel design of site cameras. The PPE
detection included eight different types of helmets and gears and the postures
detection consisted of nine classes. The Python data-labelling tool was used to
annotate the selected datasets and the labelled datasets were used to build a
detection model based on the TensorFlow environment. The proposed method
consists of two layers of decision trees, which was tested and validated on two
videos of 2000 frames. The proposed model achieves high-performance results in
both identification and recall ratios over 83 and 95%, respectively. It also achieved
higher accuracy in classifying the postures over 72 and 64% in model testing and
validation. The proposed model can promote potential improvements in the
application of real-time video analysis in actual site conditions.
Keywords Construction Worker Computer vision PPE Posture

Detection Real-time
A. Moohialdin (&) F. Lamari M. Marc

School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, Science and Engineering Faculty,
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane 4000, Australia
e-mail: Ammar.moohialdin@hdr.qut.edu.au
B. Trigunarsyah
Property, Construction and Project Management, Design and Social Context,
RMIT University, Melbourne 3000, Australia

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_199
2170 A. Moohialdin et al.
1 Introduction
Collecting accurate information from the construction sites is essential to be an

input for decisions making processes. This information is needed to be in a
real-time manner so it can support safety and productivity-related decisions as well
as proactive actions. Conventional data collection methods such as monitoring
sensing technology are overly intrusive [1, 2, 13], costly and require stuff training
[9, 15]. It is, therefore, important to collect information from the construction site in
proper ways that can fit the actual site conditions [5].
The video recording applications in the construction sites can produce massive
amounts of inexpensive information [3, 4, 10] with minimal cost [7]. In the last
decade, essential improvements have been made in computerised vision analysis
and its algorithms, which have been effectively employed in real industry appli-
cations such as detecting the construction workers and their movements [7, 11].
However, the CV application is still challenging when considering the real-time
application and automated interpretation of the massive amount of video’s infor-
mation. Moreover, there is a lack of structured data about the site activates in a way
that can be transcribed into logical algorithms [12]. Besides, the CV application in
the actual site conditions should have the ability to process the videos with less time
and likelihood error [6, 12, 14].
Construction site environments also include dust, direct sunlight, rain and the
movement of heavy equipment, which can be another challenge of using
off-the-shelf cameras. Therefore, this study aims to build a real-time CV system that
can effectively be implemented in the actual site conditions to detect the site
workers’ PPE and postures. It also proposes a novel practical design for a site
cameras system that can fit the challenging construction site conditions. The results
of the proposed system implementation show that it can be effectively used in the
actual site conditions for real-time data analysis purposes.
2 Methodology
The CV used in this research refers to the process of transferring the knowledge of
site workers and their postures onto a computer to interpret site videos and retrieve
meaningful information. The CV system included three main parts: a data acqui-
sition unit; a processing and understanding unit; and a reporting unit.
2.1 Data Acquisition and Structure
This research used a 2D camera designed for the construction site applications
rather than off-the-shelf cameras. The camera included four main parts: a power
A Real-Time Computer Vision System for Workers … 2171
Fig. 1 The structure of the

CVA measurement units
unit, a processing unit, a data storage unit and a camera, as shown in Fig. 1.
Construction site environments include dust, direct sunlight, rain and the movement
of heavy equipment; therefore, the cameras needed protection to prevent them from
being damaged. A plastic box was used for this purpose and designed to sit at the
top of a tripod that can reach heights of up to three meters to ensure the coverage of
a wide area. The recording system included a 2D camera with a framerate of 24 fps
and a resolution of 1024 by 720. The camera recorded video clips that were 41 s
long. It also sent each frame to a cloud browser that shows one fps. The camera gets
5-v from the processing unit and sent back the footage to the same unit. The
processing unit then saved the footage as videos on the external hard drive and sent
images to the cloud browser.
It can be challenging to have a constant electrical power connection on a con-
struction site as additional arrangements are needed. The position of the camera
may need to be changed as the construction work progresses. Therefore, the camera
was designed to run on solar power. The CVA system also included a small battery
of 12-v that the transformer converted into 5-v power. The processor unit organised
the power connection between the transformer and the camera. It also controlled the
storage of the footage storage on the hard drive and in the cloud browser. Three
cameras were deployed on three different construction sites at allocated locations.
The orientation of the cameras at the top of the tripods helped to cover a flat area of
up to 20 m2 at ground level. The CVA system detected multiple objects, such as
helmets, gear and workers, as well as the workers’ postures. The distance between
the camera and the targeted workstation was around 30 to 40 m.
2.2 Requirements of Real-Time Data Analysis
A sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the appropriate video resolution

and frame rate for a real-time data analysis. The analysis algorithm was the average
number of the processed frames per minute, which used to compare 138 different
combinations of video resolution versus framerate. The duration of the tested video
was 15 s and it was converted into six different resolutions: 4096 by 2160–4 K;
2048 by 1080–2 K; 1280 by 720–720P; 720 by 576–576P; 720 by 480–480P and
1960 by 1080. For each type of the resolution, 23 different framerates between 8 fps
and 30fps were tested.
A human detection code was created using MATLAB software. The sensitivity
analysis began by reading the video and then set the value of the video resolution,
framerate and time counter. The code then converted the video into frames. In each
frame, the detection algorithm identified any humans and plotted bounding boxes
around them. The frames were then converted into videos that include the detection
results. Finally, the MATLAB video viewer showed the videos with the bounding
boxes. The code outcomes also presented a summary of the processing time and the
average number of frames processed per minute. Figure 2 shows the sensitivity
analysis process in the form of pseudocode.
1. Initialization;
2. Input1: Request_To_Upload_A_Video_Record;
3. Get_Information_About_ The_Video;
4. Output1: Show_Video_ Duration,Resolution,FrameRate,Number_Of_Frames;
5. Input2: Request_To_Inter_The_Required<Video_Resolution>;
6. Input3: Request_To_Inter_The_Required<Frame_Rate>;
7. Set_Timer_Start_Point;
8. Create_Output_Folder<Resized_Frames,Segemented_Frames, Frames_With_Bounding_Box>;
9. For i==1: Number_Of_Frames;
10. Stract_Frames_From_Video;
11. Resize_Frames_As<Input2>;
12. Output2: Save_Step11Otcomes_Into_ Resized_Frames_Floder<Frame_Name_
ìframeî_sequential_number_of_three_ digits>;
13. Segment_Moving_Objects_From_Each_Frame;
14. Output3: Save_ Step13Otcomes _Into_ Segmented_Frames_Floder<Frame_Name_
ìframeî_sequential_number_of_three_ digits>;
15. Set_Fliters_For_Human_Detection;
16. Draw_Bounding_Box_Arround_Moving_Objects;
17. Output4: Save_ Step16Otcomes _Into_Frames_With_Bounding _Floder<Frame_
Name_ìframeî_sequential_number_of_three_ digits>;
18. Count_Number_Of_Bounding_Boxes;
19. Output5: WriteVideo<For_ALL_Frames_In_Resized_Frames_Floder>; Video_Name
<îResized_Videoî>;
20. Output6: WriteVideo<For_ALL_Frames_In_Segmented_Frames_Floder>; Video_
Name<îSegmented_Videoî>;
21. Output7: WriteVideo<For_ALL_Frames_In_ Frames_With_Bounding_Box _Folder>;
Video_Name<î Bounding_Box_Videoî>;
22. Display<Output5, Output6, Output7>;
23. Set_Timer_End_Point;
24. End;
25. Display<îNum ber_Of_Workersî== Number_Of_Bounding_Boxes>;
26. Display<îProcessing_Timeî==Timer_Counts>;
27. End
Fig. 2 The pseudocode of video resolution and frame rate sensitivity analysis
2.3 Video Frames Structure
The videos of the construction site consisted of a series of worker activities,

including walking, lifting, bending, carrying and kneeling. As a static frame of
video cannot show changes in the workers’ activities. A series of consecutive
frames were extracted from the videos records at the rate of 10 fps to support the
real-time data analysis. These frames included dynamic changes on the workers’
postures and activities, which were defined as foreground. Any static objects in the
frames, such as foundation and constructed work were defined as background. The
characteristics of the images include 2D RGB images defined in a colour intensity
vector versus the location of the pixels as:
r ðx; yÞ
f ðx; yÞ ¼ bðx; yÞ ð1Þ
gðx; yÞ
where, f ðx; yÞ is the image function and represents each pixel in the image; x and y
are integer variables representing the location of each pixel; and r; b and g is the
colour channel. The colour intensity range is an integer number within 0 and 255.
The images were defined as a function of the location of the pixels and the time
f ðx; y; tÞ, where t denotes the time domain. The colour intensity of the moving
pixels changes from the image at a time (t) to time (t þ DtÞ: The RGB image
function can be formulated as:
r ðx; y; tÞ
f ðx; y; tÞ ¼ bðx; y; tÞ ð2Þ
gðx; y; tÞ
2.4 Tensorflow Model
TensorFlow has multiple models that have different processing speeds and levels of
accuracy, such as SSD-Mobilenet, R-CNN, Faster-RCNN and Mask-RCNN mod-
els. This research compared Tensorflow models to assess their ability to achieve the
required rate of 10 fps. The methodology also considered 0.30 s per 10 frames as a
safety margin of the processing speed and 25 mAP (mean average precision) as the
minimum accepted accuracy level. Only two models met the criteria:
SSD-Mobilenet-V1-FPN and Faster-RCNN-Inception-V2. In term of processing
speed, the two models are very similar, but Faster-RCNN has been proven to be the
most accurate model [8]. Therefore, Faster-RCNN-Inception-V2 was chosen to
build the detection model.
2.5 Applied Decision Tree of the CVA
The first stage of the video analysis involved detecting if there were workers in each
frame using the highly visible items, i.e., the safety helmets and highly visible
clothing (gear). The worker detection algorithm considered three main classes
(helmet, gear and worker’s body) to detect the site workers in a real environment.
The outcomes of this step provided bounding boxes around helmets and gear, as
Fig. 3-a illustrates.
The automated postures identification process provided information on a limited
number of worker body postures. It also included the identification of the upper and
lower parts of the workers’ bodies based on the bounding boxes around the
workers. As the workers perform different activities, their posture changes and their
upper and lower body parts form different lines and angles. In this research, both
parts were assumed to create only two lines with one angle. There is also one angle
connecting the two parts. Based on this simplified definition of the workers’ body
postures, the decision tree defined five different postures positions (see Fig. 3-b).
Initially, the proposed was designed to detect five postures including standing,
sitting, kneeling, bending and overhead. Then, the model has been modified to use
these five postures as a base to estimate four more postures including walking,
pushing, carrying and climbing. The primary assumption of the posture detection
still depends on the number of lines and angles created from the postures. For
instance, in case the worker is walking, the upper body part will create a similar
pattern as the standing posture while the lower body part will create two inter-
secting lines with an angle between 30° and 60°.
(a) (b)
Image Cropping
Video Record Start at time t Tack 10 fps and Size
Adjustment
Image Colour
00
Enhancement
Safety
Helmet
Safety Colour
Gear Intensity?
No
Yes No
Workers
No
Human
Shape?
Body
Yes
Initiate Detections
All Workers Yes
Bounding Box Counts
No
No
01 Cycle
00
Determination
Fig. 3 The proposed decision tree of the task and worker detection process
3.1 Real-Time Sensitivity Analysis
A sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the appropriate video resolution

and framerate for real-time data analysis. The analysis algorithm calculated the
average number of processed frames per minute, which used to compare 138 dif-
ferent combinations of video resolutions versus framerates. The duration of the
tested video was 15 s and it was converted into six different resolutions: 4096 by
2160–4 K; 2048 by 1080–2 K; 1280 by 720–720P; 720 by 576 – 576P; 720 by
480–480P; and 1960 by 1080. For each resolution, 23 different framerates between
8 fps and 30fps have been tested. The results show that three video resolutions have
the minimum number of processed frames per minute 4 K, 2 K and 1960 by 1080,
respectively. For the 4 K resolution, there was no significant change in the average
number of processed frames per minute when the farm rate changes except in case
the frame rate is 26 fps. At this level, the average number of processed frames were
around seven frames per minute. The optimal average number of processed frames
per minute has been identified to be about 1368 and 1224 frames per minute at the
resolution 480P with nine fps and 576P with ten fps, respectively.
The analysis results have been formulated in a different structure to identify
whether the average number of processed frames can meet the frame rate of the
processed video. The processing ration (PR) indicates the ability of the CV system
to process video records in a real-time manner, which calculated as:
Video Frame Rate in Frames per Minute

PR ¼ ð3Þ
The Average Number of Processed Frames Per Minute
In case the video framerate equals the average number of processed frames per
minute, the PR value will be one. The appropriate framerate for the real-time video
processing has been found between 8 and 10 fps and the resolution 576P and
480P. These combination sets of video framerates and resolutions can provide
around 50% extra processing capacity in a real-time manner.
3.2 Model Training
This research utilises the TensorBoard to visualise the model training process and
its outcomes. It also presents the performance matrices that measures the accuracy
of the model compared to time and training iterations. The first performance
indicator is the total loss that describes the ability of the model to classifying each
detected object into its assigned class and to what extent this classification is
accurate. As observed in the visualised graph (see Fig. 4), there are two continuous
plots with different colours, dark and faded orange, indicating the actual and
Fig. 4 Gradient change in the model’s total loss over time
smoothed total loss. Initially, the training process was set to include 120,000 iter-
ations. The gradient update of the prediction accuracy increased, while the total loss
rapidly decreased and reached to around 0.4 at the 37,000 iterations. Thus, the
training process was stopped at 37,000 iterations as there is no further improvement
in the total loss. The prediction accuracy pattern also shows normal consistent
changes from 20,000 iterations, which means that around 20,000 and 30,000 iter-
ations will also give the same detection accuracy level.
3.3 PPE and Worker Detection
The first measure of the PPE and worker detection is the identification rate (IR) and
recall reate (RR), which was calculated for each class: helmet (H), gear (G) and
worker (W). 10% of the 3,000 frames have been used to test the detection model.
The training and testing datasets included a variety of helmet and gear colures and
shapes. The most common colure of the helmet is white colure (93.8%). The
dataset also consists of some other colours such as blue, yellow and green helmets.
Similarly, various gear colours were included in the training and testing datasets
with different gear designs. For instance, some of the workers wore yellow gears
with blue colour and grey reflective tape, while others wore orange gear without
reflective tape. The most commonly used gear colure and design in the dataset
under study is yellow-blue colure without reflective tape. The variety in helmet and
gear colours and shapes help to enhance the diversity of the PPE that this model can
detect effectively in a real-site environment. Table 1 illustrates some examples of
the detection outcomes.
Table 1 Illustration examples of the detection outcomes

Outcome Outcome
Example H G W Posture Example H G W Posture
√ √ √ Walking √ √ √ Climbing
√ √ √ Bending √ √ √ Standing
3.3.1 Workers and PPE Detection Evaluation
To evaluate the performance of the detection model, a video of 1000 frames has
been used for testing and another video of 1000 frames has been used for valida-
tion. IR and RR are calculated as per the definition of each detection class including
helmet, gear and worker. The validation process includes 200 frames from a dif-
ferent construction site and 100 frames of different capturing angle, which include
different site environment, video recording angles, illumination levels and occlusion
cases. The results of the model testing and validation are summarised in Table 2.
Four main measures were used to calculate the model performance indicators
including: [1] true-positive (TP) indicates to cases in which the model correctly
predicts and labels objects as positive that are actually showing in the scene; [2]
true-negative (TN) are the cases where the model correctly does not predict and
label objects as positive that are actually not showing in the scene; [3] false-positive
(FP) indicates to the cases in which the model incorrectly predicts and labels objects
as positive while they are actually not showing in the scene; [4] false-negative
(FN) indicates to the cases where the model incorrectly does not predict and label
objects as positive while they are actually showing in the scene.
The IR measures the ability of the model to correctly detect the number of
objects in each frame as correctly as they belong to one of the three classes H, G
and W. The testing results in Table 2 reveals that the proposed detection model
achieved an IR of 95, 96.83 and 97.15% for the H, G and W, respectively. The IR
validation results yielded 86.14, 80.41 and 82.63% for the H, G and W, respec-
tively. Compared to the testing results, the validation results show on average
13.27% decline of the IR. These slight declination in the IR can be explained in part
by the significant difference in the illumination level as difference capturing angles
were also included in the validation dataset. Meanwhile, the validation IR is still
maintained above 80% in the three classes.
Table 2 The IR and RR results of the model testing and validation

Testing Validation
Actual Actual
Class IR RR IR RR
779 41 1740 280
Helmet 95.00% 89.03% 86.14% 98.31%
96 8 30 0
Predicted
Predicted
1285 42 1941 473
Gear 96.83% 98.47% 80.41% 99.18%
20 1 16 0
1602 47 2084 438
Worker 97.15% 99.38% 82.63% 99.81%
10 1 4 0
Fig. 5 The pseudocode of constructing the confusion matrix
3.3.2 Postures Detection Evaluation
The average prediction accuracy measure was employed to examine the perfor-
mance of the proposed model on two datasets composed of various sequencing
postures. The datasets included a video of 1000 frames for model testing and
another video of 1000 frames for model validation. Since nine positions were
included, a multiclass comparison approach was adopted to construct the confusion
matrix of the proposed model. Separate Python code has been developed to perform
the multiclass comparisons based on three main python libraries including Seaborn,
Pandas, Matplotlib and Numpy. The pseudocode in Fig. 5-c describes the algorithm
applied to build the confusion matrix.
Figure 5 summarises the results of the confusion matrix for the model testing
and validation. These results explain how the proposed model is performing when
considering similarities between different postures and identifies the effects of the
misclassification among these postures. The results also provide insight into the
misclassified detections and, more importantly, to what class that have been mis-
classified. Overall, the results of model testing (Fig. 5-a) shows higher accuracy
when classifying the postures in which the upper and lower body parts are clearly
shown. For instance, the model achieved a higher accuracy (on average 0.89) in
classifying standing, walking, overhead, carrying and pushing postures.
In contrast, the postures of sitting, kneeling, climbing and bending have a lower
accuracy (on average 0.77) compared to other classes. Also, the results revealed that
climbing, bending, kneeling and walking postures have more crossed confusions
with at least three different classes. Meanwhile, the highest misclassification rates
were identified between walking-standing (0.072) and standing-walking due to
strong similarities in the extracted line and angle features from upper and lower
body parts. Interestingly, the model has no misclassification cases in pushing and
sitting classes, which can be explained to the wide distinctiveness of these type of
postures compared to the other classes.
In the case of validation results (Fig. 5-b), it can be observed that all classes have
at the minimum one confusion instances. It can also be observed that the model
achieved a classification accuracy over 0.75 in the first seven classes while
achieving the accuracy of 0.67 and 0.64 on the last two classes, respectively. An
analysis the validation dataset and confusion instances reveals that most of the
misclassifications have resulted from walking-standing strong similarities; and the
200 additional validation frames as they include more repeated occlusions instances
due to the improper camera position, high illumination levels as the sunlight was
directly hitting the camera’s viewfinder, as the workstation was one meter more
elevated than the surface on which the camera was mounted and 50 meters away
from the camera. On top of these, the 200 frames consist of different site activities,
concreting activities, which the model has not been trained on. The dataset also
includes 100 frames of a varying camera angle such that the camera was mounted
about 8 meters over the work area s
4 Conclusion
This paper presented a novel CV system for automated workers’ PPE and postures
detections, which is equipped with a practical design for site cameras. Two layers of
decision algorithms have been developed to perform the detection in a real-time
manner based on the Tensorflow environment. The proposed system has been tested
and validated in real site conditions and the results show that the average perfor-
mance identification rate to be 90.57, 88.62 and 89.89%, while the recall rate was
93.67, 98.83 and 99.60% for W, H and G, respectively. Meanwhile, the model
confusion analysis reveals a higher accuracy when classifying workers’ postures, in
particular, postures in which the upper and lower body parts are clearly shown in
the scene such as standing, walking, overhead, carrying and pushing. In turn, the
results show that climbing, bending, kneeling and walking postures have more
misclassification rates compared to other postures. The proposed CV system testing
and validation results carry the promise of practical application on the construction
site in a real-time manner. The ongoing future work involves the opportunities of
applying the prosed system for construction site safety and productivity purposes.
Future work also includes more analysis of various types of site occlusions and their
effects on the model performance, as well as methods that can be applied to
overcome these effects.
Acknowledgements The first author thanks Queensland University of Technology (QUT) for the
finical support to this research in the form of PhD scholarship. The authors also would like to
acknowledge Dr Miljenka Perovic and Mr Nathan Sianidis for their support in getting access to the
construction site for data collection. The authors also acknowledge the QUT’s High-Performance
Centre (HPC) for providing access to large data storage and computational resources.
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Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering

Chien Ming Wang

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15087

ISSN 2366-2557 ISSN 2366-2565 (electronic)

SangHyung Ahn The University of Queensland

Chao Hou Southern Uni. of Science and Technology

Dansheng Wang Huazhong Uni. of Science and Technology

Structural Health Monitoring and Control

Scour Detection of Railway Bridges by Microtremor Monitoring . . . . . 97

Using Deep Learning Technique for Recovering the Lost

Advances in Structural Engineering

Behavior of Bridge Superstructure Model with Double Spherical

A Preliminary Study on the Performance of a Flexible Sheetlike Blade

Structures Under Extreme Loadings

Inﬂuence of Detonation Point on Blast Loads Induced With

Mechanical Properties and Seismic Performance Research

Advances in Mechanics and Materials

A Study on the Vertical Pull-off Testing and Horizontal Shear Testing

Advanced Analysis and Test Methods

Analysis of Scattering and Mode Conversion of Torsional Guided

Optimal Bridge Maintenance Algorithms Considering Subordinate

Instability of Metal Scaffold with and Without Settlement . . . . . . . . . . . 1503

Concrete and Composite Structures

Long-Term Experiments on Composite Slabs Exposed to Different

Theoretical Modeling and Evaluation of Thermal Stress Evolution

Advances in Concrete Technology

Investigation of Combined ASR and DEF Induced Damage

Current Issues in Construction

J. M. Ding and Y. Q. Zhang

J. M. Ding (&) Y. Q. Zhang

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 3

2 Coordination of Structural System and Architectural

2.1 Zhengda Stadium, Fudan University

Fig. 1 After construction

Fig. 2 Primary structure of

(a) Interior (b) Main structure

Fig. 3 Secondary structure

(a) Secondary structure (b) Secondary

Fig. 4 Architectural form

Fig. 5 Load distribution of

Structural members need to be properly arranged to achieve a reasonable force

(a) Arch (b) Layout of ridge truss and hoisting point

Fig. 6 Primary structure of the slings

(a) Interior view in daylight (b) Exterior view at night

Fig. 7 View of the building from day and night

surrounded by a soft and uniform light, which is transparent and comfortable. At

2.2 Shanghai Oriental Sports Center Outdoor Diving Pool

Shanghai Oriental Sports Center is located on the bank of Huangpu River in

(a) Exterior (b) Exterior

Fig. 8 View of Diving Pool

Fig. 9 Single-row truss

Fig. 10 Structure in entirety

The roof of the outdoor diving pool is an overhanging canopy, consisting of 18

Fig. 11 Bird view

Fig. 12 Concept of the

2.3 Changsha International Convention and Exhibition

Changsha International Convention and Exhibition Center locates in the integrated

2.3.1 Structural System

Fig. 14 Elevation view

Fig. 15 Single row of string beam structure

2.3.1.1 Out-of-Plane Stability of Concave String Beam

Fig. 17 Visual effect

3 Coordination of Structural Layout and Architectural