Experimental and numerical study on cyclic behavior of a UHPC-RC composite pier

Conventional reinforced concrete piers are vulnerable to severe compressive damage under strong earthquake conditions and are difficult to quickly rehabilitate.This paper develops a new type of composite pier,consisting of ultra-high-performance concrete(UHPC)and reinforced concrete(RC).This UHPC-RC composite pier uses a UHPC cover outside of an RC core to achieve a high load-carrying capacity and mitigate compressive damage.An experiment is performed to evaluate the performance of the UHPC-RC composite pier under cyclic deformation.The crack development,ultimate failure modes,and load-carrying capacities of the pier are observed.Because of the extraordinary compressive strength of UHPC,the composite pier suffers little compressive damage under large lateral deformations.The composite pier fails as a result of fracturing of the reinforcement.A numerical model is developed to reproduce the cyclic behavior of the composite pier.On the basis of the verified numerical model,a parametric analysis is used to investigate the influence of the thickness of the UHPC cover and the axial load ratio.Finally,an approach is recommended for designing composite piers.

Cyclic behavior test of a new double-arch steel gate

A new double-arch structure for the gate used as tidal barrage and sluice was adopted in Caoe River Dam in China. It was a spatial structure made up of the right arch, the invert arch, the chord, etc., and was designed to bear bilateral loads. To research the cyclic behavior of the new double-arch structure, a scale-model cyclic test was conducted. First, the test setup and test method were presented in detail, and according to the test results, the cyclic behavior and failure characteristics of this structure were discussed. Then by analyzing the test cyclic envelope curve, it was found the curve was divided into three stages: the elastic stage, the local plastic stage and the failure stage at the local yield point and structural yield point. The gate model has local yield strength and structural yield strength, with both their values being bigger than that of the designing load. Therefore, the gate is safe enough for the projects. At last, dynamic property of the gate was analyzed considering additional mass of the water. It was found that the tidal bore shock would not cause resonance vibration of the gate.

Aging Behaviors of Silicone Rubber Composite Materials under Outdoor Environment

We investigated the aging effect on the chemical structure of silicone rubber composite materials under outdoor environment. The variations of low molecular weight siloxanes in silicone rubber were probed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry during the degradation process. The experimental results indicate that a series of cyclic siloxanes exist in both the virgin and aged silicone rubber samples, while the additional low molecular weight siloxanes（hexamethyl cyclotrisiloxane） only appear in the aged samples. Meanwhile, the total amounts of low molecular weight siloxanes in the aged samples are much less than those in the virgin ones. The loss of low molecular weight siloxanes is induced by the chain scission and depolymerization.

Correlation between the Cyclic Stress Behavior and Microstructure in 316LN based on the Analysis of Hysteresis Loops

Total strain controlled cyclic test was performed on 316 LN under uniaxial loadings. Through the partitioning of hysteresis loops, the evolution of two components of cyclic flow stress, the internal and effective stresses, was reported. The former one determines the cyclic stress response. Based on the transmission electron microscopic（TEM） observation on specimens loaded with scheduled cycles, it is found that planar dislocation structures prevail during the entire cyclic process at low strain amplitude, while a remarkable dislocation rearrangement from planar structures to heterogeneous spatial distributions is companied by a cyclic softening behavior at high strain amplitude. The competition between the evolution of the intergranular and the intragranular components of the internal stress caused by the transition of slip mode induces the cyclic hardening and softening at high strain levels. The intergranular internal stress represents the most part of the internal stress at low strain level.

Fatigue characteristics of sand-cast AZ91D magnesium alloy

The fatigue characteristics of the AZ91D-T6 alloy samples taken from engine blocks have been investigated at 20℃ and elevated temperature(150℃).The fatigue strength and cyclic stress amplitude of the alloy significantly decrease with the increase of the test temperature,although cyclic hardening occurs continuously until failure for both temperatures.With the increase of the temperature,the decreased fatigue life of the alloy tested at the same stress amplitude is mainly attributed to the decreased matrix strength and the increased hysteresis energies.Fatigue failure of the engine blocks made of AZ91D-T6 alloy is mainly controlled by casting defects.For the defect-free specimens,the crack initiation behavior is determined by the single-slip(20℃)and by environment-assisted cyclic slip(150℃)during fatigue,respectively.The low-cycle fatigue lives of the alloy can be predicted using the Coffin-Manson relation and Basquin laws,the three-parameter equation and the energy-based concepts,while the high-cycle fatigue lives of the alloy fitted well with the developed long crack life model and MSF life models.

Experimental study on the shear behavior of the interface between cushion materials and the concrete raft

Cushion is a layer of granular materials between the raft and the ground. The shear behavior of the interface between the cushion and the raft may influence the seismic performance of the superstructure. In order to quantify such influences, horizontal shear tests on the interfaces between different cushion materials and concrete raft under monotonic and cyclic loading were carried out. The vertical pressure P_v, material type and cushion thickness h_c were taken as variables. Conclusions include： 1） under monotonic loading, P_v is the most significant factor; the shear resistance P_（hmax） increases as P_v increases, but the normalized factor of resistance μ_n has an opposite tendency; 2） for the materials used in this study, μ_n varies from 0.40 to 0.70, the interface friction angle δ_s varies from 20° to 35°, while u_（max） varies from 3 mm to 15 mm; 3） under cyclic loading, the interface behavior can be abstracted as a ＂three-segment＂ back-bone curve, the main parameters include μ_n, the displacement u_1 and stiffness K_1 of the elastic stage, the displacement u_2 and stiffness K_2 of the plastic stage; 4） by observation and statistical analysis, the significance of different factors, together with values of K_1, K_2 and μ_n have been obtained.

Cyclic behavior of stiffened joints between concrete-filled steel tubular column and steel beam with narrow outer diaphragm and partial joint penetration welds

This paper presented an investigation on a stiffened joint in practical engineering which was between concrete-filled steel tubular column and steel beam with narrow outer diaphragm and partial joint penetration welds. Through the low-frequency cyclic loading test, the cyclic behavior and failure mode of the specimen were investigated. The results of the test indicated the failure mode and bearing capacity of the specimen which were influenced by the axial compression ratio of the concrete-filled tubular column. On the contrary, the inner diaphragm and inner stiffeners had limited impacts on the hysteretic behavior of the joint. There was no hysteresis damage fracture on the narrow outer diaphragm connected to the concrete-filled steel tubular column with partial joint penetration welds. Due to the excellent ductility and energy dissipating capacity, the proposed joint could be applied to the seismic design of high-rise buildings in highly intensive seismic region, but axial compression ratio should be controlled to avoid unfavorable failure modes.

Low-Cycle Fatigue and Creep-Fatigue Behaviors of a Second-Generation Nickel-Based Single-Crystal Superalloy at 760℃

Low-cycle fatigue(LCF)behaviors of a second-generation nickel-based single-crystal superalloys with[001]orientation at 760℃ have been investigated.Different strain amplitudes were introduced to investigate the creep-fatigue effects.The LCF life of none tensile holding(NTH)was higher than that of the 60-s tensile hold(TH)at any strain amplitude.As the strain amplitude was 0.7%,the stacking and cross-slip dislocations appeared together at the γ/γ’coherent microstructure in both TH and NTH specimens.At the strain amplitude of 0.9%,plenty of the cross-slip dislocations appeared inγchannel and other dislocations were stacking at γ/γ’interfaces.However,the SFs still appeared in γ’phase with 60-s TH which caused cyclic softening.As the strain amplitude increased up to 1.2%,the dislocations are piling up at the γ/γ’interfaces and cutting through the γ’phase in both TH and NTH tests,which caused cyclic hardening.The influences of strain amplitude and holding time were complicated.Different stress response behaviors occurred in different loading conditions.The surface characteristic and fracture mechanism were observed by scanning electron microscopy.This result is helpful for building the relationship of various blade fatigue failure modes,cyclic stress response and microstructure deformation under different strain amplitudes.

Cyclic Corrosion Behavior of Pt/Ru-Modified Bond Coatings Exposed to NaCl Plus Water Vapor at 1050℃

In the present investigation,Pt/Ru-modified bond coating consisted of 2 μm Pt＋2 μm Ru was deposited on a nickel-based superalloy by electroplating method and followed by conventional Al pack cementation.The cyclic corrosion behavior of Pt/Ru-modified bond coating exposed to NaCl plus water vapor has been investigated under atmospheric pressure at 1050℃.The result shows that the cyclic corrosion life of Pt/Ru-modified bond coating is longer than that of the conventional Pt-modified aluminide coating in the presence of NaCl plus water vapor.The addition of Ru makes the coating possess the increased strength and suppress the rumpling behavior.The absence of rumpling may be responsible for the improved corrosion resistance of Pt/Ru-modified aluminide coating.

Micro-scale behavior of granular materials during cyclic loading

This study presents the micro-scale behavior of granular materials under biaxial cyclic loading for differ- ent confining pressures using the two-dimensional （2D） discrete element method （DEM）. Initially, 8450 ovals were generated in a rectangular frame without any overlap. Four dense samples having confining pressures of 15, 25, 50, and 100 kPa were prepared from the initially generated sparse sample. Numeri- cal simulations were performed under biaxial cyclic loading using these isotropically compressed dense samples. The numerical results depict stress-strain-dilatancy behavior that was similar to that observed in experimental studies. The relationship between the stress ratio and dilatancy rate is almost indepen- dent of confining pressures during loading but significantly dependent on the confining pressures during unloading. The evolution of the coordination number, effective coordination number and slip coordina- tion number depends on both the confining pressures and cyclic loading. The cyclic loading significantly affects the microtopology of the granular assembly. The contact fabric and the fabric-related anisotropy are reported, as well. A strong correlation between the stress ratio and the fabric related to contact normals is observed during cyclic loading, irrespective of confining pressures.

Experimental and simulated characterization of creep behavior of P92 steel with prior cyclic loading damage

The effect of prior cyclic loading on creep behavior of P92 steel was investigated. Creep tests on prior cyclic loading exposure specimens were performed at 650？C and 130 MPa. In order to clarify the influence of prior cyclic loading on creep behavior, optical microscope, scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope were used. Experimental results indicate that the prior cyclic loading degrades the creep strength significantly. However, the degradation tends to be saturated with further increase in prior cyclic loading. From the view of microstructural evolution, the recovery of martensite laths takes place during prior cyclic loading exposure. This facilitates the dislocation movement during the following creep process. Therefore, premature rupture of creep test occurs. Additionally, saturated behavior of degradation can be attributed to the near completed recovery of martensite laths. Based on the effect of prior cyclic loading, a newly modified Hayhurst creep damage model was proposed to consider the prior cyclic loading damage. The main advantage of the proposed model lies in its ability to directly predict creep behavior with different levels of prior cyclic loading damage. Comparison of the predicted and experimental results shows that the proposed model can give a reasonable prediction for creep behavior of P92 steel with different level of prior cyclic loading damage.

Synthesis and ring-opening copolymerization of cyclic aryl ester dimers

Two kinds of cyclic aryl ester dimers have been synthesized by reaction of phthaloyl dichloride with bisphenols via interfacial polycondensation. The cyclic dimers readily undergo anionic ring-opening polymerization or copolymerization in the melt by using sodium benzoate as the initiator, producing linear, high molecular weight polyesters. The contents of cyclic dimers in the homopolymers P1, P2, and copolymer P12 are 13.7%, 10.2%, 2.9%, respectively, which indicates that ring-opening copolymerization of cyclic dimers may impel the conversion of cyclic dimers and decrease the content of cyclic dimers in the resulting copolymer. Moreover, the isothermal chemorheology of the ring-opening copolymeriza- tion of cyclic dimers indicates that the reactive molten mixture has low shear viscosity and the viscosity increases slowly in the initial stage of ring-opening polymerization.