The 2005 AISC LRFD Specifications for Structural Steel Buildings are making it possible for designers to recognize explicitly the structural resistance provided within the elastic and inelastic ranges of behavior and up to the maximum load limit state. There is an increasing awareness of the need for practical second-order analysis approaches for a direct determination of overall structural system response. This paper attempts to present a simple, concise and reasonably comprehensive introduction to some of the theoretical and practical approaches which have been used in the traditional and modern processes of design of steel building structures.

The monitoring of fatigue stress of steel bridge is a key issue of bridge health monitoring and safety assessment. This paper aims to find out the strain history features of the girder components of Runyang Suspension Bridge (RYSB) under vehicle and environmental loading during its first year of service based on the strain-history data recorded by structural health monitoring system installed in the bridge. The fatigue stress spectrums of steel box girders under normal traffic load, heavy trucks and typhoon loads were studied as well as the correlation between varying strain and temperature based on real-time monitoring of temperature histories. The results show that, monitoring on local strain in health monitoring systems of RYSB can effectively provide the information on fatigue stresses. The range of the equivalent fatigue stress on the monitoring location of the bridge is currently low, mainly due to varying traffic loading and temperature. There exists significant correlation between varying temperature and mean value of fatigue stress. Effect of the passing of heavy trucks on bridge fatigue is quite significant since the value of the cumulative fatigue damage generated by heavy trucks is 10 to 100 times larger than that by normal traffic. Therefore, the effect on fatigue cumulative damage due to heavy trucks or overloaded vehicles needs to be monitored and paid much attention to.

Based on some conclusions of two kinds of concrete-filled double skin steel tube (CFDSST) members with circular or square sections, a new kind of CFDSST with octagonal section, where the outer tube has an octagonal section and the inner tube has a circular section, is proposed in this paper. Behaviors of the CFDSST members with octagon section subjected to axial compression are investigated, and some curves of load-strain of steel tubes and confined concrete and the bearing capacity of members are obtained. It is indicated that the bearing capacity of the columns with octagonal section is larger than that with square section and is smaller than that with circular section, and the bearing capacity of members is related to the ratio of the straight side to the bevelled one. Based on the proper stress-strain relationship, a couple of numerical analyses are made using the finite element software named ANSYS. Finally, a simplified formula is proposed in the paper, and the numerical results agree well with the experimental results and the mathematical solutions. The results are valuable for engineers.

Magnesia Concrete is a kind of expansive concrete used in Chinese hydraulic engineering more and more widely. To evaluate the effects of autogenous expansion on the stresses of arch dams, a simple model of autogenous expansion for Magnesia Concrete in dam engineering is presented. This model is based on three assumptions: 1) the total amount of autogenous expansion of Magnesia Concrete is related only to the properties of materials and mixing of concrete; 2) the autogenous expansion of Magnesia Concrete is irreversible due to the irreversibility of hydration reaction of Magnesia in the concrete; 3) the autogenous expansion strain rates of Magnesia Concrete bear a relation between temperature and residual Magnesia per unit volume of concrete. The model is verified by some experimental data of autogenous expansion of Magnesia Concrete and field-measured data of an arch dam in China. Embedded into finite element arch dam simulation software, this model is employed to simulate the effects of autogenous expansion of Magnesia Concrete in hydraulic engineering.

Formulas for computing natural frequencies and modes of Hardfill dams are derived based on one-dimensional shear wedge theory, in which the influences of the upstream concrete face and hydrodynamic pressure of water on the dams’ natural frequencies and modes are discussed. Furthermore, the seismic responses of Hardfill dams are calculated using response spectrum method. An example is analyzed to compare the differences of natural frequencies and modes between shear wedge method and FEM. Then the applicability and accuracy of shear wedge method to analyze free vibration characteristics of Hardfill dams are proven.

The ultrasonic tomographic technology is applied to diagnose the defects in hydraulic concrete structure. In order to improve the precision of diagnoses, the wavelet transformation is used in the processing of ultrasonic signals. The influences of water, scale and orientation of defect, processing methods and theoretical model on image resolution are investigated. The experimental results indicate that the result of the tomographic diagnosis of a single defect is sensitive and the boundary can be clearly determined. However, the image resolution of multiple defects is not satisfactory. The water content and scale of a defect may significantly affect the imaging resolution. Defects with the orientation perpendicular to the direction of the diagnosis may have higher precision in diagnosing. The wavelet transformation technology can elevate the imaging resolution. The applied calculation model plays a very important role in improving the accuracy of detection.

In this paper, dynamic behavior of a group-pile foundation with inclined piles in loose sand has been investigated with centrifuge model tests. The test results are also simulated with elastoplastic dynamic finite element method, in which, not only sectional force of piles, stress of ground, but also deformation of piles are calculated using a three-dimensional elastoplastic dynamic finite element analysis (Code name: DGPILE-3D). The numerical analyses are conducted with a full system in which a superstructure, a pile foundation and surrounding ground are considered together so that interaction between pile foundation and soils can be properly simulated because the nonlinearities of both the pile and the ground are described with suitable constitutive models. Different types of piles, vertical pile or inclined pile, are considered in order to verify the different characteristics of a group pile foundation with inclined piles. The validity of the calculation is verified by the model tests.

The behavior of dark green silty soil of the 6th storey is studied by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The shape, size and contact condition of the basic elements of the soil microstructure, and the shape and the size of the pore are further studied. In addition, a comparative study is made to analyze the experiment results of Cu and dynamic test. The mechanic characteristics of common soil and those of melted soil are presented and their influences on dark silty soil after being frozen are theoretically illustrated from a microscopic perspective.

By simulation tests of concrete specimens in saturated Ca(OH)₂ solution and seawater, and based on micro mechanism analysis, this paper evaluates the stray current corrosion resistance of concrete specimens of different mixture ratios, and reaches a conclusion that the capability to resist stray current corrosion of optimally designed concrete mixed with good-quality fly ash and powdered slag is increased by over 5 times more than the reference concrete with the same water to binder ratio, and the service life of such kind of concrete meets the basic requirement of a metro project.

High strain-rate uniaxial compressive loading tests were produced in the modified split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) with pulse shaper on granite samples. It was shown that the failure of the granite cylinder was typical tensile splitting failure mode by sudden splitting parallel to the direction of uniaxial compressive loading at different strain rates. Besides, it was concluded that not only the strength of granite increased, but also the fragment size decreased and the fragment numbers increased with the increasing strain rate. To quantitatively analyze the failure phenomena, the numerical calculation based on a dynamic interacting sliding microcrack model was adopted to investigate the influence of microcrack with the different initial crack length, crack angle, crack space and friction coefficient on the macro-mechanical properties of granite under different strain rates. Accordingly, the strain-dependency of the compression strength and the fragmentation degree of granite was explained reasonably.

The design for Wangwu Mountain Geological Park Museum emphasizes protecting terrain, geomorphology and natural vegetation, utilization of local materials and traditional craftsmanship, and integrates multi-specialty design into a whole. The idea of green architecture organically guides the designer to create a museum in a remote mountain and creates a special place that is geologically significant in architectural language.

This paper outlines the essentials and procedures of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation applicable to evaluating flutter derivatives of bridge decks. An arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) description of the flow around the moving rigid box girder combined with the finite volume discretization and multi-grid algorithm is presented. The proposed methods are employed to identify flutter derivatives of the bridge deck of the Sanchaji Self-anchored Suspension Bridge. The results agree well with ones from wind tunnel tests. It demonstrates accuracy and efficiency of the present method.

The formula for the contribution of prestressed reinforcement on embedded reinforcement element is derived according to the mechanical behavior of PC bridges and the foundational principle of finite element method. Mechanical concept is definite and examples validate the calculation results. Reinforcement element model allows generating a finite element mesh without taking into consideration the layout of reinforcements. Furthermore, the prestressing tendon may pass through the concrete elements in an arbitrary manner. It is an effective approach that the no-node loads are diverted from the tendons to the adjacent concrete elements. A useful arithmetic analysis of the spatial curved tendon PC Bridges is provided.

To evaluate the remaining durability of concrete materials after combustion, the permeability of high strength concrete (HSC) after combustion was studied. The transport behavior of chloride ion, water and air in concrete after combustion and the effect of temperature, strength grade, and aggregation on the permeability of HSC after combustion are investigated by chloride ion permeability coefficient (D_c), water permeability coefficient (D_w) and air permeability coefficient (D_a). The experiment results show that all three permeability coefficients commendably reflect changes of permeability. The permeability coefficient increases with the evaluation temperature. After the same temperature, the permeability coefficient of HSC is lower than that of normal strength concrete (NSC). However, the degree of degradation of permeability coefficient of HSC is greater than that of NSC. The permeability resistance of HSC containing limestone is better than that of HSC containing basalt. Combining changes of compressive strength and permeability, the remaining durability of concrete materials after combustion is appropriately evaluated.

In order to satisfy the requirement for route location of a magnetic suspension project between Shanghai and Hangzhou, this paper proposes to adopt a new form of geodetic coordinate system, which is defined by meridians and parallel circles but with two coordinate parameters expressed by length. Not only the coordinate systems for route location along the whole line can be unified, but also the precision of lengths and angles obtained from simple formulas are very high and there are not any map projection distortions. This has been proven by calculation.

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