Flange Width Research Articles

Experimental investigation on mechanical behavior of T-type perfobond rid shear connectors under combined shear and tension

The stress of shear connectors becomes more complicated as the span length of steel-concrete composite bridges increases. To bear the great shear and uplift forces, a T-type perfobond rib (T-type PBL) shear connector with sufficient stiffness and ductility is proposed. While the shear behavior of T-type PBL connectors has been evaluated in previous studies, its mechanical performance under combined shear and tension is not well understood due to the particular shape and numerous impact factors. Therefore, one pull-out test considering pure tension and seven modified push-out tests considering combined shear and tension were carried out to investigate the failure mode, bearing capacity, and load-slip behavior of T-type PBL connectors under combined actions. The pull-out test was performed to determine the tensile resistance, followed by a series of modified push-out tests with constant horizontal tension to investigate the structural behaviors. Additionally, the effects of the rib height, flange width, and hole numbers were evaluated. Based on the test results, conical failure surfaces formed from the flange of the T-type PBL to the concrete surface for all specimens, and the concrete failure angle was approximately 32°. The bearing capacity of the specimen improved by 26% when the perfobond rib height increased from 100 mm to 120 mm, but the flange width barely had any effect. The capacity of 1-hole specimen dropped by 20% while 2-hole specimen increased by 8% compared to the standard specimen, which may relate to the distance between adjacent holes. Increasing the rib height by 25% and 50% reduced the initial relative slip (S90) by 30% and 32%, respectively, indicating the improvement in initial stiffness. Generally, the pull-out resistance of the T-type PBL shear connector was enhanced by increasing the flange width, rib height, and number of holes. An evaluation equation considering the hole number and hole spacing was suggested for the bearing capacity of T-type PBL shear connectors under the combined actions. The validity was verified by test results, with a calculated-to-test-result ratio of 1.12 and standard deviation of 0.15. This study could enhance the understanding of the behavior of T-type PBL connectors under the combined actions, and promote the potential application in long-span composite bridge decks.

Development and seismic performance evaluation of New high strength reinforced concrete column and steel beam (New-RCS) joint

Reinforced Concrete column and Steel beam (RCS) structural systems have recently become popular in Taiwan for office buildings. High seismic demand makes the size of conventional concrete columns enormous and the reinforcement over-crowded, which can be solved using high-strength materials. However, due to the lacuna of research regarding the usage of high-strength materials, existing design guidelines for the RCS systems have restricted the maximum grade of steel reinforcement to 410 MPa. Also, using high-strength materials in RCS joints necessitates innovative joint detailing and design to develop sufficient joint bearing and shear strength. Thus, a new high-strength reinforced concrete column and steel beam (New-RCS) joint was developed in this study, incorporating the use of Grade 690 MPa steel as reinforcement along with Grade 84 MPa concrete. A combination of wide flange bearing plate and flange doubler plate joint detailing was developed to improve the bearing and shear capacity of the joint. Also, a design methodology based on moment–curvature analysis was proposed to include the contribution of locked longitudinal reinforcement to bearing resistance. Subsequently, two large-scale interior beam-column subassemblies were subjected to quasi-static cyclic loading to verify the seismic behaviour of the proposed joint. One specimen was designed explicitly considering the material hardening and overstrength of steel beams. While the other was designed following the Taiwanese practice, which does not explicitly consider material hardening and overstrength but implicitly does it through strength reduction factors. Both the specimens exhibited a drift capacity of 4% with a stable and ductile hysteretic response and eventually failed through beam plastic hinging.

Evaluation of Measurement Strategy for Track Side Monitoring of Railway Wheels

Wheelsets form an indispensable part of the railway rolling stock and need to be periodically inspected to ensure stable, safe, reliable, and sustainable rail operation. Wheel profiles are usually inspected and measured in a workshop environment using handheld equipment or by utilizing wayside measuring equipment. A common practice for both methods is to measure the wheel profile at one position along the circumference of the wheel, resulting in a one-slice measurement strategy, based on the assumption that the wheel profile has the same shape independent of the measurement position along the wheel. In this article, the representability of a one-slice measurement strategy with respect to the wheel profile parameters is investigated using handheld measurement equipment. The calculated range of standard deviation of the parameters estimated such as flange height, flange width, flange slope, and hollow wear from the measurements shows a spread in the parameter value along the circumference of the wheel. As an initial validation of the results, measurements from the wayside monitoring systems were also investigated to see if a similar spread was visible. The spread was significantly higher for flange height, flange width, and flange slope estimated from wayside measurement equipment than for the same parameters estimated using the handheld measurement equipment.

Analysis Of The Addition Of Steel Plates Reviewed to The Compresivve Strength Capacity Of The T-Beam

Reinforced concrete is used in various constructions, such as buildings, bridges, dams, road pavement, tunnels, etc. Structural strengthening of reinforced concrete beam can be done in various ways, which one is the addition of steel plates bonded to the compression area. Steel plates with a width of 150 mm and 300 mm with a thickness of 2 mm are expected to increase the compressive strength of reinforced concrete beams. Plate installation uses Sikadur 31 CF-Normal adhesive to attach steel plates and beams, and it is hoped that composite properties will occur on both of them. The test object samples were 5 beams consisting of 1 control beam and 4 reinforcement beams with a quality of 10 MPa. The beam sample has dimensions of 75 mm flange width and 80 mm flange height, 150 mm bottom width, 250 mm h height, 300 mm top width. The flexural strength test was carried out with a loading frame in two-point loading. The results of the study of adding plates showed an increase in beam capacity compared to the control beam. The percentage increase in beam capacity of test objects BP 1(1) and BP 1(2) with 150 mm wide plate reinforcement was 17.19% and 18.85%. The increase in beam capacity of BP 2(1) and BP 2(2) specimens with 300 mm wide plate reinforcement was 26.82% and 28.02% respectively

Post-fire strength of austenitic stainless-steel T-stubs with four bolts per row

For connections made with carbon-steel, the behaviour of the T-stub component is well understood and documented in the Eurocodes and is applied to T-stubs with two or four bolts per row. Researchers have investigated the application of the same Eurocodes guidance to T-stubs made with stainless-steel and having two and four bolts per row. However, there is very little information or studies on the post-fire behaviour of stainless-steel T-stubs and none found for those with four bolts per row. This study is aimed at providing a fundamental understanding of the post-fire behaviour of this connection component. Finite element analyses were carried out on 190 specimens with different parameters including temperature, T-stub flange thickness, width and strength, bolt diameter and grade, bolts spacing and edge distance. The results indicated four failure modes that are possible for the post-fire austenitic stainless-steel T-stub with four bolts per row. In all specimens, no circular yield patterns were recorded but only beam patterns occur at the web-flange intersection and at the bolt locations. A design approach for calculating the post-fire plastic resistance is proposed by introducing new and simplified formulas for determining the effective length of the plastic hinges for the various modes of failure. The accuracy of the design approach was validated using finite element modelling and experimental data from the literature.

Effective Width of the T-section Flange of Ribbed Slabs

Ribbed ceilings in reinforced concrete, and more recently in steel-reinforced concrete and wood-concrete versions, occupy a significant place in the total volume of buildings and structures. An analysis of the regulatory and technical literature shows that in domestic and foreign sources, empirical dependencies are proposed for assigning the effective width of a T-section flange, which does not lead to economical and reliable design solutions.The purpose of the study is to determine the calculated effective width of a flange of a tee monolithic section or a composite section of a floor. Based on the analysis of the stress-strain state of a bent tee section, analytical ex-pressions are written and formulas are obtained for determining the design flange width.

Design and Optimization of Wing Internal Structure to Study the Flutter Frequency of Aircraft Wing

The field of aviation has reached a lot of milestones in the 19th and early 20th century, but the supersonic commercial flights are still a nightmare in 21st century. The major obstacle to reach this milestone is the effect of flutter, which is an aeroelastic phenomenon. It is very important to understand the effect of flutter to reduce it. In this paper effect of flutter is studied by varying the wing internal structures. A scaled down model of the AGARD 445.6 wing having 65A004 aerofoil is designed using Catia V5, for which the experimental data is available for validation. Grid independence study is carried out to obtain more reliable mesh quality. Since flutter is a transient phenomenon time-step independence study is carried out for the time steps of, 0.005s, 0.0025s and 0.00125s. Since there is no difference between the flutter frequency readings for 0.0025 seconds and 0.00125 seconds, 0.0025 seconds is chosen to reduce the computation time. The baseline case is validated with an experimental data available and an error of 0.2-5.32% is observed. Aircraft wing is mainly made out of aluminium alloys. Hence a suitable aluminium alloy is selected by comparing the flutter frequencies. To choose a suitable material, three materials each from wood, alloys and composite are considered i.e., mahogany, aluminium alloy 7075 T6 and Aluminium Metal Matrix Composite (AMC) which are widely used in the Aviation industry. AMC is considered on the basis of frequency charts whose flutter frequency is 30Hz. In this paper in order to supress the flutter we have introduced optimization of ribs and spars in the wing. Variation in the number of ribs, flange width and rib thickness are considered individually. Wing configuration with 10 ribs, flange width of +10% and 10mm rib thickness respectively are having the best flutter frequencies. The wing with above features is further optimised by keeping weight as a constraint by introducing circular and triangular cut-outs section. Flutter frequency for without cut-out, circular cut-out and triangular cut-out are 77.84 Hz, 78.27Hz and 78.43Hz respectively. Hence it is concluded that ribs with triangular cut-outs can be able to reach maximum flutter frequency.

Advancement Study in Jumbo Beam-Column Connection Using Tubular Flange Cut and Web Cut Reduced Beam Section

Abstract: There is an increasing demand for jumbo shapes in the construction of high-rise buildings. Super jumbos are very heavy rolled wide flange sections with up to 140 mm flange thickness and weigh up to 1377 kg/m. However, there is a lack of knowledge of the behavior of these types of construction, especially under seismic loading. In this paper, a tubular reduced section (RBS) is designed. A tubular reduced beam section (RBS) is made by replacing a part beam with a steel tube at a suitable location of the beam plastic hinge.

Parameter Performance Analysis of Connection Nodes of T-Plate Connected Assembled Composite Shear Wall

With the development of construction industrialization, green and low-carbon construction methods have been strongly supported by domestic and foreign construction industries. As an efficient lateral force resistance system, the assembled steel plate-concrete composite shear wall structure has gradually become a hotspot in civil engineering. Referring to the node connection method of steel structure, this paper uses the concrete composite shear wall filled with steel plate and extended T-shaped gusset plate to realize the connection between the upper and lower walls, so as to form a T-plate connected assembled composite shear wall structure. Through establishing the refined finite element analysis model of cast-in-place and assembled composite shear wall with the same sizes and comparing the results of them, the feasibility and reliability of the connection method are verified. On this basis, according to the comparison between the bearing and continuity performance of the assembled composite shear wall under different parameters such as the T-plate length, T-plate flange width, T-plate number, joint height and joint longitudinal reinforcement ratio in the node connection area, it is found that the T-plate length, T-plate number and joint height have a great effect on the mechanical properties of assembled composite shear wall, and other parameters are not obvious. In this way, a reasonable recommendation is made for the connection parameters of T-node, which lays a theoretical foundation for promoting the theoretical development and engineering application of this new assembled composite shear wall.

Experimental and numerical evaluation of RC ribbed slabs in fire conditions

RC ribbed slabs are an important structural member in building construction. Nevertheless, experimental and numerical research on them in the event of fire is lacking, and their fire behavior is still not well characterized. This paper evaluated the thermal field of RC ribbed slabs subjected to a fire situation. Two full-scale fire tests with slabs prototypes (3.6 × 4.6 m) were carried out according to the ISO 834 [1] time–temperature curve for 120 min. In the fire tests, the thermal field of the slab cross section was monitored, as well as thermal insulation, mid-span deflections, concrete cracking and longitudinal elongation. According to the experimental results, slabs with different flange thicknesses, width and height of the ribs, and position of the reinforcements were numerically evaluated through ABAQUS software. New equations were proposed to define the temperature in the steel rebars and concrete, as this is necessary information to use the Simplified Method of EN 1992-1.2 [2] for the fire design of these slabs.

Study on in-plane and out-of-plane bearing capacity of cold-formed steel composite floor with opening

In this study, the in-plane cyclic and out-of-plane flexural performances of cold-formed steel (CFS) floors were experimentally investigated. The experimental study provided significant test data for theoretical analysis. Subsequently, the in-plane and out-of-plane performances were modeled using ABAQUS software. The numerical results agreed well with the test results. Consequently, finite element models of the CFS floors with openings were constructed. The effects of opening size, opening reinforcement measures, screw spacing, opening eccentricity, and slab material on the bearing capacity of CFS floors with openings were examined. According to the findings, the measures for improving the bearing capacity of the floor with opening include reducing the opening size, incorporating opening reinforcement measures, minimizing the screw spacing around the opening, keeping the opening centered, and prioritizing a steel deck and GSU (concrete) combination for the composite slab. In addition, the main parameter affecting the in-plane bearing capacity of the floor with opening was the opening size, and the main parameters affecting the out-of-plane bearing capacity of the floor with opening were the opening size and the opening eccentricity. Based on that, combining the simplified model of wide flange deep beam and T-shaped composite beam, the calculation method for evaluating the in-plane and out-of-plane ultimate bearing capacities of CFS floors with openings were developed by data fitting of the key factors. The calculated results were agreed well with the FE results. This study provides a scientific basis for the design of composite floors for multistory CFS structures.

Nonlinear FE Prediction of Shear Strength of RC T-Beams with Flange in Compression Zone

This research predicts the shear strength of reinforced concrete T-beams with flanges under compression stresses using nonlinear finite element (FE) analysis. A FE model is developed and verified against specially designed experiments (beams with varying flange width and depth). Results of the FE models were found to be in excellent agreement with their corresponding experimental results. The average load capacity and deflections (FE/experiments) ratios were 1.03 and 0.87, respectively. We then conducted an extensive parametric study to investigate the structural performance of flanged beams under the effect of two concentrated point loads. This parametric study examined four parameters: flange dimensions, longitudinal reinforcement in flange, concrete compressive strength, and shear span to depth ratio. Our findings indicated that the presence of compressed flanges in T-beams increases the shear strength by up to 260% of the shear strength of the web alone. The shear strength of flanged beams increases with the increase in flange dimensions, where the effect of flange thickness is more pronounced than that of flange width. Moreover, the presence of longitudinal reinforcement in the flange enhanced the beam's shear strength by up to 40%, compared to similar beams without flange reinforcement. Additionally, the shear strength increased up to three-fold for various beam conditions when the shear span to depth ratio was reduced from 2.0 to 0.5. These findings provide valuable insights for designing and constructing reinforced concrete T-beams with flanges under compression stresses.

Seismic design of bolted beam to column connections in tubular steel structures – A review

Connections play an important role for the overall behaviour of steel structures. Considering seismic performance of steel buildings, tubular sections provide a better substitute as compared to wide flange sections during flexure, compression and torsion actions. In general, Tubular steel structures show better performance during earthquake motions; however, there are evidence where moment welded connections showed failures in joints. In the past decade, extensive research has been conducted on bolted connections for tubular steel sections. Comparatively, few research papers are available with reference to Beam to Column connections and Seismic conditions. The present work is a compilation of important events recorded during the evolvement of bolted steel connections, design codes as well as limitations in implementation of bolted connections for tubular steel structures. European codes are found as updated for performance-based design.

Analisis Pengurangan Defect pada Produksi Wide Flange (H-Beam) dengan Metode DMAIC

Abstract
 
 With changes in technology and the increasing internationalization of manufacturing, production has become the main approach for benefiting from globalization and being able to bridge income gaps with the industrial world. In making Wide Flange (H-beam) at PT. X found several product defects such as dimensions not according to shop drawings, holes not centered during assembly, number of holes not according to drawings, undercuts, and porosity. To improve the quality of the Wide Flange (H-Beam) product at PT X, it is necessary to take corrective steps for product defects that occur. One of the continuous quality improvement programs to overcome product defects that occur with the DMAIC stages. Based on the research results, it can be concluded that the sigma level and DPMO value of the company is 50.331 with a possible damage of 47,893 pieces. After analyzing using a Pareto diagram, it was found that the type of defect, the number of holes that do not match the drawing with a percentage of 29% and holes not centered during assembly with a percentage of 32%, is the most common. And based on the results of the FMEA analysis, one of the causes of defects in the hole not being a flashlight during assembly is improper installation with an RPN value of 144 and the cause of the defect in the number of holes not conforming to the drawing is not following the drawing with an RPN value of 140.
 
 Keyword : DMAIC, DPMO, FMEA, RPN, Wide Flange (H-Beam)

Flexural performance of H-shaped aluminium alloy members with web openings

The application of aluminium alloy space structures is increasingly widespread. There is a new single-layer aluminium alloy spatial grid structure with H-shaped members web openings nowadays. In this paper, the flexural performance of H-shaped aluminium alloy members with web openings in this structure is studied through experiments, finite element analysis and theory. Parametric analysis is carried out to study the influence of initial imperfections, opening parameters and section properties on the flexural performance of the members. The conclusions are as follows: (1) The presence of initial imperfections can significantly reduce the ultimate load-carrying capacity of the component. The initial imperfection reduced the member capacity by 6.3% to 12.7%. (2)The web openings will affect the failure mode of flexural members with H-shaped web openings. When the opening ratio is 0.7, the bearing capacity of the test specimen decreases by 31.2%–47.1%. The local buckling of the flange and web occurs at the same time as the failure of the vierendeel mechanism. (3) The bearing capacity of narrow flange members can be reduced by 2.3 times as much as that of wide flange members. The greater the section width to height ratio, the greater the ultimate bearing capacity of the member. (4) The finite element method and theoretical formula proposed in this paper can better simulate the bearing capacity and failure mode of H-shaped aluminium alloy members with web openings under bending.

Investigation of flexural performance and effective width of composite wide flat beams

To investigate the flexural performance and effective flange width of composite wide flat beams (CWFBs) with composite hollow core slabs (CHCSs), four CWFB specimens with double-sided CHCSs were tested and analyzed. The test results indicated that all specimens showed typical flexural damage. The CWFB with CHCSs had shear lag effect in both tension and compression zones. Increasing the width of the CHCSs resulted in a greater effective width, stiffness, and load carrying capacity of CWFB with CHCSs. Compared with the three-point loading method, the effective width of CWFB with CHCSs was larger for the four-point loading method and the uniform loading method. In addition, finite element models (FEMs) of the tested specimens in MSC. Marc software were validated by the test results, and 30 FEMs were further analyzed. Finally, the equations for calculating the effective width were obtained for the CWFB with CHCSs under uniform, four-point and three-point loads.

Experimental tests of FRP-HSC hybrid beams under four-point bending

This paper provides an experimental study of a new fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP)-high strength concrete (HSC) hybrid beam, which consists of a glass FRP (GFRP) I-shaped profile beam strengthened with a layer of HSC on top and carbon FRP (CFRP) sheets on the web. In this study, a total of two GFRP I-shaped profile beams, two GFRP I-shaped profile beams strengthened with CFRP sheets on the web and nine FRP-HSC hybrid beams were tested under four-point bending loading. The test parameters varied for the existence of CFRP sheets, the flange width of the GFRP profile, the width of the HSC slab, the type of shear connectors and the interfacial connection method. The test results indicated that bonding CFRP sheets, increasing the flange width and HSC slab width all showed positive effect on the ultimate bearing capacity and initial rigidity. Compared with U-shaped GFRP shear keys and inverted T-shaped GFRP shear keys, the hybrid beams using steel bolts had the highest ultimate load capacity and initial rigidity. The hybrid beams using the composite-bond interface (CB) performed better than the hybrid beams using wet-bond (WB) and dry-bond (DB) interfaces.

Full-Scale Floor System Testing for Future Hot-Rolled Asymmetric Steel I-Beams

The presented study conveys the initial full-scale experimental study for future hot-rolled asymmetric steel I-beams, termed A-shapes. The primary use for these beams is residential building floor systems. Current systems commonly utilize concrete solutions, which achieve a shallow depth for optimal floor-to-floor heights. However, these floor systems are relatively slow to construct because of the amount of formwork, rebar and post-tensioning placement, and shoring needed. The shallow-depth steel-concrete floor system concept explored in this research aims to improve the speed and efficiency of residential building construction. This increase in speed is achieved through hot-rolled steel A-shapes, which reduce the fabrication time for beam production. These steel shapes have a wide bottom flange that can support precast concrete panels or deep metal decking. Therefore, a relatively easy to assemble shallow-depth system can be achieved. The research study presented herein includes the experimental feasibility testing of a full-scale shallow-depth steel-concrete floor system to further the knowledge of A-shape performance in such systems. The floor system concept evaluated consisted of three steel A-shapes, precast hollow-core concrete panels, and a cast-in-place concrete topping slab. The testing involved taking measurements during construction, service live loading, and loading of the system to failure. The major unknowns were constructability, stability during construction, live load performance, and composite behavior. This experiment revealed that the system was constructed easily and rapidly and also remained stable during construction. The system performed well under service live load, experiencing deflections equivalent to L/3,000. The system failed due to the bond breaking between the concrete and steel, going noncomposite after experiencing partially composite behavior. This occurred at an actuator load equivalent to five times the design service live load. All of this indicates that the floor system concept using A-shapes is a legitimate path forward to faster construction of residential facilities. This validates the need for the research toward standardized A-shapes in the United States.

NEW EUROCODE 4 DESIGN RULES FOR COMPOSITE BEAMS WITH PRECAST CONCRETE SLABS

AbstractAs members of Project Team SC4.T5, the authors of this paper present the main outcomes from the work that is intended for implementation within the second generation of Eurocode 4. General design and application rules for composite design of precast concrete elements will be presented, with a particular focus on: the effective width of flanges using precast concrete elements for shear lag; design resistance to longitudinal shear; and the design resistance of headed stud connectors in the presence of precast hollow core slabs.

The shear lag effect of composite box girder bridges with corrugated steel webs

The composite box girder bridge with corrugated steel webs has been constructed throughout the world since its debut in France in 1986 due to its various advantages. Since the shear lag effect is very essential to the safety of this kind of structure and it is seldom issued, in this paper a theoretical method is firstly developed based on the energy variational principle and then a finite difference solution procedure for the analysis of the shear lag effect of this kind of bridge. Afterwards, a new definition of effective flange width applicable to thickness-varying flanges is proposed. This new definition is then adopted to obtain the effective flange width coefficient that can indicate the characteristics of the shear lag effect. To validate the proposed semi-analytical method and to investigate the characteristics of shear lag effect, the semi-analytical method and finite element method are used to estimate the effective flange width coefficient of simply-supported and continuous bridges of this kind. The comparison of the two methods shows that the semi-analytical method can accurately predict the effective flange width coefficient. Under uniformly distributed loading, positive shear lag effect can be observed throughout the whole bridge when it is simply supported. For continuous bridges under uniformly distributed loading, the magnitude of shear lag effect in each span reduces with the increase of the effective span length. Finally, the applicability of technical provisions about effective flange width in design codes is studied, and some design suggestions are proposed for the effective flange width and the shear lag effect of this kind of bridge based on a comprehensive parametric study that is carried out using the semi-analytical method.