Influence of Geometric Imperfections on Buckling Resistance of Reinforcing Bars during Inelastic Deformation.

This paper presents the results of numerical simulations on three main factors and their influence on the buckling resistance of reinforcing bars and on their behaviour in the range of postcritical deformations. These three factors are the shape of initial deformation, the amplitude of geometric imperfection and the slenderness of bars. The analysis was made of bars fixed on both sides for three initial shapes of deformation between adjacent stirrups, four amplitudes of geometric imperfections and eight bar slendernesses. The results of the numerical analyses carried out showed that the factors analysed have a very high influence on the inelastic buckling of the bars. The initial deformation shape, the radius of curvature and the slenderness of the bars have a significant influence on the buckling resistance of these bars and their longitudinal and transverse deformations. The research demonstrates that bars which are bent or compressed initially have a smaller resistance to buckling compared to straight bars, as the amplitude of geometric imperfections increases and the slenderness of the members increases. However, for the deformation shape of the bars, which is accompanied by shear forces, the drop in the buckling resistance of the members is small, and resistance to buckling for items with a small slenderness was higher than that of straight bars.

From Tension to Compression: Asymmetric Mechanical Behaviour of Trabecular Bone's Organic Phase.

Trabecular bone is a cellular composite material comprising primarily of mineral and organic phases with their content ratio known to change with age. Therefore, the contribution of bone constituents on bone's mechanical behaviour, in tension and compression, at varying load levels and with changing porosity (which increases with age) is of great interest, but remains unknown. We investigated the mechanical response of demineralised bone by subjecting a set of bone samples to fully reversed cyclic tension-compression loads with varying magnitudes. We show that the tension to compression response of the organic phase of trabecular bone is asymmetric; it stiffens in tension and undergoes stiffness reduction in compression. Our results indicate that demineralised trabecular bone struts experience inelastic buckling under compression which causes irreversible damage, while irreversible strains due to microcracking are less visible in tension. We also identified that the values of this asymmetric mechanical response is associated to the original bone volume ratio (BV/TV).

INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL MODELS ON PREDICTING THE FIRE BEHAVIOR OF STEEL COLUMNS.

Finite-element (FE) analysis was used to compare the high-temperature responses of steel columns with two different stress-strain models: the Eurocode 3 model and the model proposed by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The comparisons were made in three different phases. The first phase compared the critical buckling temperatures predicted using forty seven column data from five different laboratories. The slenderness ratios varied from 34 to 137, and the applied axial load was 20-60 % of the room-temperature capacity. The results showed that the NIST model predicted the buckling temperature as or more accurately than the Eurocode 3 model for four of the five data sets. In the second phase, thirty unique FE models were developed to analyze the W8×35 and W14×53 column specimens with the slenderness ratio about 70. The column specimens were tested under steady-heating conditions with a target temperature in the range of 300-600 °C. The models were developed by combining the material model, temperature distributions in the specimens, and numerical scheme for non-linear analyses. Overall, the models with the NIST material properties and the measured temperature variations showed the results comparable to the test data. The deviations in the results from two different numerical approaches (modified Newton Raphson vs. arc-length) were negligible. The Eurocode 3 model made conservative predictions on the behavior of the column specimens since its retained elastic moduli are smaller than those of the NIST model at elevated temperatures. In the third phase, the column curves calibrated using the NIST model was compared with those prescribed in the ANSI/AISC-360 Appendix 4. The calibrated curve significantly deviated from the current design equation with increasing temperature, especially for the slenderness ratio from 50 to 100.