Interaction analysis between slenderness ratio and resin content on mechanical properties of particleboard

The interaction between particle size and resin content is one of the most important structural parameters that can influence the accuracy of predictions about wood-composite properties. We developed three kinds of equation （linear, quadratic, and exponential） for each mechanical property of particleboard based on slenderness ratio and resin content at a constant density （0.7g cm -3 ）. Results from SHAZAM software （version 9） suggested that the quadratic function was not significant, but the linear and exponential functions were significant. The interaction between particle size and resin content was analyzed by Maple 9 software. The results indicated that an exponential function can better describe the simultaneous effect of slenderness and resin content than a linear equation. Under constant resin content, particles with higher slenderness ratios increased more in modulus of rupture （MOR） and modulus of elasticity （MOE） than did particles with lower slenderness ratios. Edge withdrawal resistance （SWRe） values did not increase with increasing slenderness ratio.

Slenderness Ratio Influence on the Structural Behavior of Residential Concrete Tall Buildings

The main concern of this paper is to study the influence of the building slenderness ratio on the structural behavior of the residential concrete tall buildings aiming to deepen structure and architect designers understanding for such type of buildings. The study is emphasized only on Kuwait city design conditions for wind and seismic loadings. The paper presents an actual case study for adding two thirty stories residential towers with two different slenderness ratios to an existing residential complex. Wind loading is considered using both code values and wind tunnel results. Three dimensional finite element techniques through ETABS software are used in conducting analysis for structures presented here. A serviceability study is performed to ensure that buildings have sufficient stability to limit lateral drift and peak acceleration within the acceptable range of occupancy comfort. In addition, an ultimate strength study is carried out to verify that all the structural elements are designed to withstand factored gravity and lateral loads in a safe manner according to the international building codes. Analysis results are presented and discussed. A brief idea about foundation design of the new towers and its connection to the existing foundation is presented. Finally conclusions are summarized as guidelines for the structural professions of concrete residential tall buildings.

Role of stress,slenderness and foliation on large anisotropic deformations at deep underground excavations

High stress concentrations around underground excavations can result in significant damage to deep hard-rock mines.These conditions can be the result of stopping activities,blasting,seismicity,or other mining activities.Large anisotropic deformation and excavation closure,especially under high-stress conditions,are expected if the excavation is located in a foliated or thin-bedded rock mass.In this research,the behaviour of excavations under deep and high-stress conditions was investigated and categorised.The main purpose was to enhance the existing knowledge of managing large anisotropic deformations and to help prepare suitable measures for handling such contingencies.Numerical simulations using the distinct element method(DEM)and model calibration were performed to reproduce the anisotropic deformation of an ore drive based on the collected field data.Then,the roles of key factors(i.e.stress ratio,slenderness ratio,foliation orientation,and foliation considering excavation orientation)on the large deformation and damage depth of the excavations were investigated.This study found that increasing both the stress ratio and slenderness ratio induced linear increases in wall closure and damage depth,whereas increasing the foliation angle first increases the deformation and damage depth and then reduces them both before and after 45.The wall closure and damage thickness decreased with increasing orientation intercept.The deformation and damage levels were classified based on these factors.

GENERAL SOLUTION OF THE OVERALL BENDING OF FLEXIBLE CIRCULAR RING SHELLS WITH MODERATELY SLENDER RATIO AND APPLICATIONS TO THE BELLOWS (Ⅰ)-GOVERNING EQUATION AND GENERAL SOLUTION

The overall bending of circular ring shells subjected to bending moments and lateral forces is discussed. The derivation of the equations was based upon the theory of flexible shells generalized by E.L. Axelrad and the assumption of the moderately slender ratio less than 1/3 (i.e., ratio between curvature radius of the meridian and distance from the meridional curvature center to the axis of revolution). The present general solution is an analytical one convergent in the whole domain of the shell and with the necessary integral constants for the boundary value problems. It can be used to calculate the stresses and displacements of the related bellows. The whole work is arranged into four parts: (Ⅰ) Governing equation and general solution; (Ⅱ) Calculation for Omega_shaped bellows; (Ⅲ) Calculation for C_shaped bellows; (Ⅳ) Calculation for U_shaped bellows. This paper is the first part.

Determination of the load bearing capacity of pre-stressed expandable props for ground support in underground mines

This paper aims to determine the load bearing capacity of pre-stressed expandable props with different geometries and load eccentricities for flexible support in underground mining or excavation.It is deduced that the expandable device could have much higher strength(>89 MPa)by laboratory tests,and the load bearing capacity of the expandable prop may depend on the stability of the supporting steel pipe structure.A good agreement was found between the laboratory test and numerical results in terms of the load bearing capacity and the final macro-bending failure pattern for expandable props with heights of 1.5 and 2.7 m,and the theoretical calculation for the strength of traditional steel structures is not directly suitable for the expandable props.Moreover,additional numerical simulations were performed for the expandable props with different normalized slenderness ratiosλ_(n)and loading eccentric distances e.The variation of stability coefficient of the expandable prop is in line with the Perry-Robertson equation and its correlation coefficients are fitted as a of 0.979 and b of 0.314.For estimating the load bearing capacity of the expandable props,the strength equation for traditional steel structures is improved by introducing a bending magnification factor and by modifying the normalized slenderness ratio to a converted slenderness ratio.Based on the underground field monitoring for the strength of expandable props with different heights,the empirical eccentric distances were back calculated,and a safety factor is introduced to obtain the designed strength of the expandable prop.In addition,a four-step design procedure is proposed for the expandable prop.

Effect of specimen size on energy dissipation characteristics of red sandstone under high strain rate

In this experiment, red sandstone specimens, having slenderness ratios of 0.5, 0.7, 0.9 and 1.1 respectively, were subjected to blow tests using a Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar(SHPB) system at a pressure of 0.4 atmospheres. In this paper, we have analyzed the effect of slenderness ratio on the mechanical properties and energy dissipation characteristics of red sandstone under high strain rates. The processes of compaction, elastic deformation and stress softening deformation of specimens contract with an increase in slenderness ratio, whilst the nonlinear deformation process extends correspondingly. In addition, degrees of damage of specimens reduced gradually and the type of destruction showed a transformation trend from stretching failure towards shear failure when the slenderness ratio increased. A model of dynamic damage evolution in red sandstone was established and the parameters of the constitutive model at different ratios of length to diameter were determined. By comparison with the experimental curve, the accuracy of the model, which could reflect the stress–strain dynamic characteristics of red sandstone, was verified. From the view of energy dissipation, an increase in slenderness ratio of a specimen decreased the proportion of energy dissipation and caused a gradual fall in the capability of energy dissipation during the specimen failure process. To some extent, the study indicated the effects of slenderness ratios on the mechanical properties and energy dissipation characteristics of red sandstone under the high strain rate, which provides valuable references to related engineering designs and academic researches.

Seismic behavior of batter pile groups embedded in liquefiable soil

A comparative study of the seismic performance of 2×1 pile groups considering different degrees of batter(0°for vertical,10°and 20°)embedded in single homogeneous liquefiable sand through fully coupled three-dimensional dynamic analyses is presented.The effects of inertial interaction are considered with structures having two different periods.The performance of pile groups is investigated for the fixed and pinned pile to cap connections for both floating and end bearing types of pile groups.Slenderness ratios of piles were also varied to enable a comprehensive understanding.Investigations have been carried out for three earthquake motions having varied dominant frequencies.It is observed that batter pile groups in liquefiable soils provide beneficial effects on piles and superstructure responses for both fixed and pinned head pile to cap connections for long period structures.However,for short period structures,a beneficial effect is most evident for fixed head connection.

Experimental study on slender reinforced concrete columns wrapped with CFRP

By axial compression tests on 6 reinforced concrete slender columns wrapped with carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP),with slenderness ratio(SR) from 4.5 to 17.5,the results show that when SR increases the retrofitting effect declines. In the case of same SR,the stability coefficient (SC) for the reinforced concrete(RC) columns with CFRP is much less than that without CFRP. There is 20% increase of stable bearing capacity to the former as compared with the latter when the SR in less than 17.5. The study summarized the simplified formula for SC,which provides a reference for engineering designers.

Elastic stability of shallow pin-ended parabolic arches subjected to step loads

Buckling could be induced when shallow arches were subjected to vertical step loads. In-plane static and dynamic buckling of shallow pin-ended parabolic arches with a horizontal cable was investigated. Based on the equations of motion derived from Hamilton's principle, nonlinear equilibrium equations and static buckling equilibrium equations were deduced. Through the pseudo-static analysis, approximate solutions to the lower and upper dynamic buckling loads under step loads were obtained, for shallow parabolic arches. The results show that dynamic buckling and snap-through buckling are impossible when modified slenderness ratio λ<λc and λ>λs, where λc and λs denote critical slenderness ratios of bucking and snap-through buckling, respectively; effects of the stiffness of the horizontal cable on the dynamic buckling are significant; and the dynamic buckling loads under a equivalent central concentrated step load are lower than the loads under a distributed load appreciably.

Experimental Investigations on Web Crippling Failure Modes of Aluminum Hollow and Composite Tubes

In order to study the web-crippling behavior of aluminum hollow sectionsubjected to concentrated load, sixteen aluminum hollow tubes with different loadingconditions, bearing length and web slenderness ratios were tested. This paper alsodiscussed a method to improve the web crippling strength of the aluminum hollowsections by infilling the mortar as composite section, and four aluminum compositesections were tested. The literature has reported lots of web crippling tests, but there isfew reports on web crippling behavior of aluminum composite sections. Interior-Ground(IG) and End-Ground (EG) loading conditions were adopted, with the specimens placedon the ground to simulate the load of floor joists. Specimens were also placed on abearing plate with end (ETF) or interior (ITF) bearing load. The influence of supportingconditions, loading positions, bearing length and web slenderness ratios on web cripplingultimate bearing capacity and ductility of aluminum hollow sections was studied. Theenhancements of infilling mortar were also evaluated. The results obtained from theexperiments show that infilling the mortar in aluminum hollow tubes is an effectivemethod for enhancing the ultimate capacity of the web, especially for specimens underInterior-Ground (IG) condition. Based on the results of parameter research, this paperproposes a series of design formulas for well predicting web crippling ultimate capacityof aluminum hollow and composite tubes under four different loading and boundaryconditions.

Behaviour of Reinforced Concrete Columns Strengthened with Ferrocement under Compression Conditions: Experimental Approach

This paper reports a study based upon experimental investigation which aims to assess the behaviour of reinforced concrete columns strengthened with a new configuration of steel wire mesh as part of ferrocement layer under the action of axial compression loads. Square and circular small scale columns with three different slenderness ratios of 5, 6.7 and 10 were adopted. A comprehensive experimental progarmme was then running to measure the load capacity and both lateral and vertical displacements. The failure mode was also monitored for each tested case. The results obtained was compared with the reference column samples (without wire mesh) and with some expressions suggested by ACI Code. The experimental results showed that the most influential parameter on the property of load carrying capacity is the slenderness of column. As the slenderness increases, the load capacity clearly decreases. The use of wire mesh enhanced the capability of column to resist the axial loads due to confinement role provided by such material. The maximum percentage increase in load carrying capacity for the modified columns compared with those for the reference samples was 53% for the circular column at slenderness ratio of 10. The critical path of the failure mode was similar for all of the tested columns and normally began from the top or bottom ends, then, in some cases, passed through the middle zone of the column. A suitable expression was suggested to be used for calculating the modulus of elasticity of the tested column based upon the value of load carrying capacity under compression loads.