Failure Evaluation of Reinforced Concrete Beams Using Damage Mechanics and Classical Laminate Theory

The prediction of the behavior of reinforced concrete beams under bending is essential for the perfect design of these elements.Usually,the classical models do not incorporate the physical nonlinear behavior of concrete under tension and compression,which can underestimate the deformations in the structural element under short and long-term loads.In the present work,a variational formulation based on the Finite Element Method is presented to predict the flexural behavior of reinforced concrete beams.The physical nonlinearity due cracking of concrete is considered by utilization of damage concept in the definition of constitutive models,and the lamination theory it is used in discretization of section cross of beams.In the layered approach,the reinforced concrete element is formulated as a laminated composite that consists of thin layers,of concrete or steel that has been modeled as elastic-perfectly plastic material.The comparison of numerical load-displacement results with experimental results found in the literature demonstrates a good approximation of the model and validates the application of the damage model in the Classical Laminate Theory to predict mechanical failure of reinforced concrete beam.The results obtained by the numerical model indicated a variation in the stress-strain behavior of each beam,while for under-reinforced beams,the compressive stresses did not reach the peak stress but the stress-strain behavior was observed in the nonlinear regime at failure,for the other beams,the concrete had reached its ultimate strain,and the beam’s neutral axis was close to the centroid of the cross-section.

Control Mechanism of Surface Subsidence and Overburden Movement in Backfilling Mining based on Laminated Plate Theory

The backfilling mining technology is a type of high-efficiency coal mining technology that is used to address the environmental issues caused by the caving mining technology.In this paper,the mechanical model of symmetrical laminated plate representing the overburden movement caused by the backfilling mining technology is established,and the governing differential equation of the motion of the overburden is derived.The boundary conditions of the mechanical model are put forward,and the analytical solution of the overburden movement and surface subsidence is obtained.The numerical model of the overburden movement and surface subsidence,under mining with backfilling,is established by means of the FLAC3D numerical software,which aims to systematically study the influence of backfilling compactness,mining thickness,and mining depth on the overburden movement and surface subsidence in backfilling mining.When the compactnessηis less than 70%,the overburden movement and surface subsidence is greater,while whenηis greater than 70%,the overburden movement and surface subsidence is reduced significantly.On this basis,the control mechanism of surface subsidence and overburden movement in backfilling mining is obtained.The suitable backfilling compactness is the key to controlling surface subsidence and overburden movement in backfilling mining.

Two-dimensional analyses of delamination buckling of symmetrically cross-ply rectangular laminates

The conventional approach to analysis the buckling of rectangular laminates containing an embedded delamination subjected to the in-plane loading is to simplify the laminate as a beam-plate from which the predicted buckling load decreases as the length of the laminate increases. Two-dimensional analyses are employed in this paper by extending the one-dimensional model to take into consideration of the influence of the delamination width on the buckling performance of the laminates. The laminate is simply supported containing a through width delamination. A new parameterβ defined as the ratio of delamination length to delamination width is introduced with an emphasis on the influence of the delamination size. It is found that （i） when the ratio β is greater than one snap-through buckling prevails, the buckling load is determined by the delamination size and depth only; （ii） as the ratio β continues to increase, the buckling load will approach to a constant value. Solutions are verified with the well established results and are found in good agreement with the latter.

Thermo-mechanical Behaviors of Functionally Graded Shape Memory Alloy Timoshenko Composite Beams

This paper focuses on the thermo-mechanical behaviors of functionally graded(FG)shape memory alloy(SMA)composite beams based on Timoshenko beam theory.The volume fraction of SMA fiber is graded in the thickness of beam according to a power-law function and the equivalent parameters are formulated.The governing differential equations,which can be solved by direct integration,are established by employing the composite laminated plate theory.The influences of FG parameter,ambient temperature and SMA fiber laying angle on the thermo-mechanical behaviors are numerically simulated and discussed under different boundary conditions.Results indicate that the neutral plane does not coincide with the middle plane of the composite beam and the distribution of martensite is asymmetric along the thickness.Both the increments of the functionally graded parameter and ambient temperature make the composite beam become stiffer.However,the influence of the SMA fiber laying angle can be negligent.This work can provide the theoretical basis for the design and application of FG SMA structures.

Stiffness of In-Situ Formed Interleaving Polymeric Nanofiber-Epoxy Nanocomposites

This study proposes a facile, but precise method to back-calculate the effective modulus of nanocomposite interleaving plies. Adaptation of a conventional dry-reinforcement resin film infusion (RFI) approach allows interleaving neat epoxy layers (NE) with the epoxy-infused nanofibrous plies (XE) of constant thickness. The final cured nanocomposite laminate thus has the form (NE/XE)n, where “n” denotes the number of the repeats and enables clear distinction of the nanocomposite interlayers through the thickness. Mechanical testing of neat epoxy and laminated nanocomposite specimens can be coupled with the classical lamination theory for back-calculating in-plane elastic modulus of the individual epoxy-infused nanofibrous plies (EXE). Finite element analysis (FEA) and testing the laminated nanocomposite subject to flexural loading (3-point bending) are proposed to validate the analytically back-calculated EXE. It is shown that the FEA prediction incorporating EXE and testing for flexural modulus of (NE/XE)20 laminated nanocomposites correlate well and the results are within 5%. This finding suggests that the back-calculation scheme reported herein would be attractive for accurately determining the properties of an individual nanocomposite building block layer. The proposed framework is beneficial for modelling laminated structural composites incorporating XE-like nanocomposite interlayers.