Structural Response of Nuclear Containment Shield Buildings with Construction Openings

Steam generator replacement at nuclear power plants requires large construction openings in nuclear containment structures. This study examines the effects of such openings placed in a 61?cm (2?ft) thick dome of a shield building. The dome is cast in two layers, and the limiting cases of the two layers acting as one and the lower layer carrying the entire load are considered. Without openings, the stresses due to dead load in the structure are very low when compared to the material strength. With openings, the loads are easily redistributed around the opening, and the maximum stresses for the conservative case are between three and four and one-half times larger than in the original structure with no openings. The extent of the affected area around the holes is relatively small. Smooth corners in the openings are necessary to avoid high local stress concentrations.     

Simulating Experiment for Temperature Field of Frozen Subgrade Using Regulation Tubes

The main factors that influence the temperature field of frozen subgrade were analyzed.The experimental equipment for simulating frozen subgrade was built up,and the declining regulating tubes were placed at the foot of the embankment. By means of this equipment two simulating experiments of controlling temperature filed of frozen subgrade were carried out in the laboratory. One method is to collect natural cold energy, and the other one is to collect natural cold energy ccompanied by artificial refrigeration simultaneously. The result indicates that the latter is an effective method for maintaining the stability of the frozen subgrade.     

Moving beyond the fourth dimension with an IFC-based single project database

4D CAD has been an active research area for many years. The first generation 4D tools simulated construction schedules and demonstrated the potential benefits in several case studies. Researchers tried to improve the functionality of the first generation 4D tools by adding annotations and highlighting the building elements that have problems. The future generation 4D tools are expected to include more than these. It has been envisioned that 4D models would be part of project databases in order to take decisions related with different project dimensions.This paper presents the development and implementation of a new 4D planning tool which is a part of a product model-based project database. This tool brings the 4D simulation and cost estimation together and aims to contribute to what-if analysis in construction projects. The last part of the paper presents a case study in which the proposed prototype is evaluated.     

The effect of chemical admixtures and mineral additives on the properties of self-compacting mortars

Mortar serves as the basis for the workability properties of self-compacting concrete (SCC) and these properties could be assessed by self-compacting mortars (SCM). In fact, assessing the properties of SCM is an integral part of SCC design. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of various mineral additives and chemical admixtures in producing SCMs. For this purpose, four mineral additives (fly ash, brick powder, limestone powder, and kaolinite), three superplasticizers (SP), and two viscosity modifying admixtures (VMA) were used. Within the scope of the experimental program, 43 mixtures of SCM were prepared keeping the amount of mixing water and total powder content (portland cement and mineral additives) constant. Workability of the fresh mortar was determined using mini V-funnel and mini slump flow tests. The setting time of the mortars, were also determined. The hardened properties that were determined included ultrasonic pulse velocity and strength determined at 28 and 56 days. It was concluded that among the mineral additives used, fly ash and limestone powder significantly increased the workability of SCMs. On the other hand, especially fly ash significantly increased the setting time of the mortars, which can, however, be eliminated through the use of ternary mixtures, such as mixing fly ash with limestone powder. The two polycarboxyl based SPs yield approximately the same workability and the melamine formaldehyde based SP was not as effective as the other two.     

Investigation of a miniature centrifugal fan

A centrifugal fan was designed with a matching centrifugal volute flow channel in order to investigate a numerical simulation with prototype manufacturing, and to compare with experimental results. The fan configuration was developed according to a fan-design theorem. A model P-60 turbojet engine compressor blade design was adopted for the fan aerodynamic analysis and design. The results were verified using the STAR-CD code. Also, based on the findings, a miniature centrifugal fan was designed and manufactured using a CNC five axes machine. The P–Q performance curves were tested using an AMCA standard 210-85 test chamber apparatus. From the numerical analysis results, the pressure on the suction and pressure surfaces will increase gradually from the inlet to one-half the distance of the hub’s camber line, however, it will increase more rapidly afterwards. In addition, stress-concentration phenomenon occurred at the tip of the suction and pressure surfaces. In other words, the tip was more prone to damage when the fan was operated. Experiments show that the designed fan maximum flow rate Q and static pressure P were 32% and 59%, respectively, which were lower than the commercial fan data at 2000 rpm rotational speed. However, when the rotational speed was increased to 4000 rpm, the maximum flow rate Q and static pressure P were increased to 38% and 82%. This study concluded that a centrifugal fan’s static pressure at high rotational speed is higher than that of an axial-flow fan. Therefore, a centrifugal fan should be chosen if high static pressure cooling or blowing is required. This advanced research investigation is to build up the capabilities of design, analysis, manufacturing, and measurement of a centrifugal fan with an outer diameter smaller than 10 cm.     

Bond behaviour of CFRP reinforcement for torsional strengthening of solid and box-section RC beams

The economic and time constraints in the repair or upgrading of existing infrastructure have become a major issue, particularly extending the service lifespan of bridges. Fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) has shown great promise as a state-of-the-art material in flexural and shear strengthening as external reinforcement. However, little attention has been paid to torsional strengthening in terms of both experimental and numerical research. This paper focuses on the bond-behaviour of externally bonded CFRP in an overall investigation of torsional strengthening of solid and box-section reinforced concrete beams. Significant levels of debonding prior to failure by CFRP rupture were measured in experiments with photogrammetry. Numerical work was carried out using non-linear finite element (FE) modelling. Good agreement in terms of torque-twist behaviour, steel and CFRP reinforcement responses, and crack patterns was achieved. The addition of a bond-slip model between the CFRP reinforcement and concrete meant that the debonding mechanisms prior to and unique failure modes of all the specimens were modelled correctly as well.     

Thermoelastic composites with columnar microstructure and cylindrically anisotropic phases. Part I: Exact results

A wide class of composite materials, which are in this paper referred to as having columnar microstructure, posses the microgeometrical characteristic that the constituent phases are homogeneous along one and only one direction. This class includes as an important subclass all the composites consisting of a homogeneous matrix reinforced by aligned parallel continuous homogeneous fibers. In the present work, considering a transversely isotropic composite with columnar microstructure and with cylindrically anisotropic phases, a number of exact results are established for effective thermoelastic moduli by modelling the composite as a nested composite cylinder assemblage. The results obtained in this work extend those of Hashin and Rosen [Z. Hashin, B.W. Rosen, The elastic moduli of fiber-reinforced materials, ASME J. Appl. Mech. 31 (1964) 223–232] and Hashin [Z. Hashin, Thermoelastic properties and conductivity of carbon/carbon fiber composites, Mech. Mater. 8 (1990) 293–308].     

Collocation methods: More efficient procedures for applying collocation

In recent years, new and more effective procedures for applying collocation have been published. This article is devoted to present a revision of this subject and complement its developments. From the general theory two broad approaches are derived, which yield the direct and the indirect TH-collocation methods. The former approach had not been published before, and it is a dual of the indirect approach. In particular, second order differential equations of elliptic type are considered and several orthogonal collocation algorithms are developed for them. In TH-collocation, the approximations on the internal boundary and in the subdomain interiors are completely independent. This yields clear computational advantages that are illustrated through the construction of such algorithms. In the implementations presented, three dimensional problems are included. In passing, single-point-collocation methods that have been the subject of several recent publications are revised.     

Experiments and simulations of the mechanical performance of repaired panels

Firstly, the compress experiment is undertaken to investigate the efficiency of repaired panels in this paper, and then modeling of the mechanical behavior of the repaired composite panel under compressive static load is conducted by using of the finite element method. The effect of geometric non-linearity on the stress–strain response is considered in the numeric analysis. Fatherly, the user material subroutine (UMAT) is integrated with the ABAQUS package with the geometric non-linearity effect for studying the damage initiation and its progression in the composite structure, and quadrilateral, linear, thick shell elements (S8R) are adopted. Finally, the predicted strain distribution, damage evolution and strength of the laminate are compared with the test results.     

Repair evaluation of concrete cracks using surface and through-transmission wave measurements

Surface opening cracks are common defects in large civil structures like bridges. They allow penetration of water or other agents that result in loss of durability earlier than expected. Their repair can be conducted by the injection of epoxy material that seals the crack sides keeping out any aggressive substances in addition to the recovery of strength. In order to evaluate crack parameters before impregnation as well as to determine the final repair effectiveness, a combination of Rayleigh and longitudinal waves is applied. Rayleigh waves demonstrate the filling condition of the material into the shallow layer near the surface while tomography using longitudinal waves through the thickness yields information about the area inside the structure. Wave propagation dispersion features are exploited by the proposed tomography at different frequencies, demonstrating that higher frequencies lead to more accurate characterization.