scholarly journals The Development of Finite Element Model to Investigate the Structural Performance of Reinforced Concrete Hollow Beams

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 171
Author(s):  
Jen Hua Ling ◽  
Lin Li Chan ◽  
Wen Kam Leong ◽  
How Teck Sia

The self-weight of a reinforced concrete beam contributes to the permanent loads of a structure. This can be reduced by creating a longitudinal void along the beam so that it will not affect the performance of the beam. In addition, this process can reduce the amount of building cost. Therefore, a finite element model was developed in this study with the aid of a computer program, Ansys, to investigate the behavior of the hollow beam. The model was tested for reliability by comparing the predicted results with those obtained from the experiment in terms of the load-displacement responses, mechanical properties, and parametric responses. The result showed that the reliability of the model was questionable. The main cause of the non-reliability was the inaccurate prediction of the beam deflection by the model. The poor prediction of beam deflection led to significant variations of relevant mechanical properties including stiffness, deflection, and ductility. For beam deflection, only 1/3 of the specimens were correctly predicted with a reliability of 36% while the strength properties were discovered to have higher values as observed in the yield and the ultimate strengths with 73% and 64% respectively. However, both the model and experimental results showed the hollow beam was relatively effective when the diameter of the longitudinal void was 1/3 times the beam width and placed at the neutral axis. For the evaluation to improve the reliability, some revision including the properties of the materials, boundary conditions of the beam support, bonding conditions between different materials, and meshing shape and size suppose to be applied to the model. 

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 1934-1947
Author(s):  
Dapeng Chen ◽  
Li Chen ◽  
Qin Fang ◽  
Yuzhou Zheng ◽  
Teng Pan

The bending behavior of reinforced concrete beams under uniform pressure is critical for the research of the blast-resistance performance of structural components under explosive loads. In this study, a bending test of five reinforced concrete beams with the dimensions of 200 mm (width) × 200 mm (depth) × 2500 mm (length) under uniform load produced by a specific cylinder-shaped rubber bag filled with air or water was conducted to investigate their flexural performances. An air bag load was applied to three of the reinforced concrete beams, a water bag load was applied to one reinforced concrete beam, and the remainder beam was subjected to the 4-point bending load. The experimental results highlighted that the air bag and water bag loading methods can be used to effectively apply uniform loads to reinforced concrete beams. Moreover, the stiffness of the air bag was improved by 123% in accordance with the initial pressure increases from 0.15 to 0.45 MPa. In addition, a finite element model of the test loading system was established using ABAQUS/Standard software. Moreover, the critical factors of the air bag loading method were analyzed using the numerical model. The calculated results were found to be in good agreement with the test data. The established finite element model can therefore be used to accurately simulate the action performances of the uniform loading technique using rubber bags filled with air or water.


1993 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 754-759 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. F. Ng ◽  
M. S. Cheung ◽  
J. Q. Zhao

A layered finite element model with material nonlinearity is developed to trace the nonlinear response of horizontally curved reinforced concrete box-girder bridges. Concrete is treated as an orthotropic nonlinear material and reinforcement is modeled as an elastoplastic strain-hardening material. Due to the fact that the flanges and webs of the structure are much different both in configuration and in the state of stresses, two types of facet shell elements, namely, the triangular generalized conforming element and the rectangular nonconforming element, are adopted to model them separately. A numerical example of a multi-cell box-girder bridge is given and the results are compared favourably with the experimental results previously obtained. Key words: finite element method, curved box-girder bridges, reinforced concrete, nonlinear analysis.


Author(s):  
Arman Ahmadi ◽  
Narges Shayesteh Moghaddam ◽  
Mohammad Elahinia ◽  
Haluk E. Karaca ◽  
Reza Mirzaeifar

Selective laser melting (SLM) is an additive manufacturing technique in which complex parts can be fabricated directly by melting layers of powder from a CAD model. SLM has a wide range of application in biomedicine and other engineering areas and it has a series of advantages over traditional processing techniques. A large number of variables including laser power, scanning speed, scanning line spacing, layer thickness, material based input parameters, etc. have a considerable effect on SLM process materials. The interaction between these parameters is not completely studied. Limited studies on balling effect in SLM, densifications under different processing conditions, and laser re-melting, have been conducted that involved microstructural investigation. Grain boundaries are amongst the most important microstructural properties in polycrystalline materials with a significant effect on the fracture and plastic deformation. In SLM samples, in addition to the grain boundaries, the microstructure has another set of connecting surfaces between the melt pools. In this study, a computational framework is developed to model the mechanical response of SLM processed materials by considering both the grain boundaries and melt pool boundaries in the material. To this end, a 3D finite element model is developed to investigate the effect of various microstructural properties including the grains size, melt pools size, and pool connectivity on the macroscopic mechanical response of the SLM manufactured materials. A conventional microstructural model for studying polycrystalline materials is modified to incorporate the effect of connecting melt pools beside the grain boundaries. In this model, individual melt pools are approximated as overlapped cylinders each containing several grains and grain boundaries, which are modeled to be attached together by the cohesive zone method. This method has been used in modeling adhesives, bonded interfaces, gaskets, and rock fracture. A traction-separation description of the interface is used as the constitutive response of this model. Anisotropic elasticity and crystal plasticity are used as constitutive laws for the material inside the grains. For the experimental verification, stainless steel 316L flat dog bone samples are fabricated by SLM and tested in tension. During fabrication, the power of laser is constant, and the scan speed is changed to study the effect of fabrication parameters on the mechanical properties of the parts and to compare the result with the finite element model.


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