Performance Evaluation, Testing and Design of Composite Structures

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Structures".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 May 2025 | Viewed by 3148

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244-1240, USA
Interests: steel structures; structural stability; structural dynamics; earthquake engineering; numerical modeling; damage identification and quantification; computer-aided analysis and design of structures; composite structures
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As population grows and as countries compete to showcase their technical prowess and engineering ingenuity, more and more high-rise buildings and long-span bridges are being built around the world. These skyscrapers and viaducts are often subjected to exceedingly high gravity and lateral loads. To resist these loads, the use of high-capacity structural members is inevitable. Composite members are high-performance structural elements that not only are capable of resisting these large loads, but exhibit the necessary ductility and toughness to ensure structural resilience to static and dynamic excitations as well as a myriad of environmental stressors. Composites are materials that are engineered from two or more materials with different physical, mechanical, and structural properties. They possess many desirable characteristics not found in any single material. Some commonly used materials for composite construction include concrete, steel, reinforced plastics, high-performance cement, steel-reinforced ultra-high strength concrete, metal impregnated shotcrete, and engineered wood. Structural members made using a combination of these materials often show high strength and stiffness. They are also more durable and possess high toughness.

This Special Issue invites papers that address the fabrication, analytical/numerical/experimental studies, and design and applications of high-performance composite structural members and systems in civil engineering applications. Topics that are of interest include the investigation of the physical, mechanical, and structural properties of these members; analytical and numerical analyses of the behavior of these members under monotonic and/or cyclic axial load, shear, bending moment, and torsion; and the design and applications of these composite members in civil infrastructures.

Examples of subject areas that are considered suitable for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to:

  • Behavior of composite beams, columns, frames, shear walls, and other special structural elements;
  • Analysis of double and multi-skinned composite structural members;
  • Development of novel composites;
  • Rehabilitation, retrofitting, and performance enhancements of existing composite elements/structures;
  • Innovations in composite fabrications;
  • Experimental validation/studies;
  • Formulation of empirical and design equations;
  • Fire and corrosion resistance.

Dr. Eric M. Lui
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • composite structures
  • analysis and design
  • static and cyclic behavior
  • numerical modeling
  • experimental investigations

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

27 pages, 14396 KiB  
Article
Seismic Behaviors of Novel Steel-Reinforced Concrete Composite Frames Prestressed with Bonding Tendons
by Jing Ji, Huiling Zhang, Liangqin Jiang, Yunfeng Zhang, Zhaoqing Yuan, Zhanbin Zhang, Xuan Chu and Bing Li
Buildings 2023, 13(9), 2124; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13092124 - 22 Aug 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1075
Abstract
To investigate the seismic behaviors of novel steel-reinforced concrete composite frames prestressed with bonding tendons (PSRCFs), 15 groups of PSRCF specimens were designed with the following main parameters: the cubic compressive strength of high-strength concrete (fcu), the axial compression ratio [...] Read more.
To investigate the seismic behaviors of novel steel-reinforced concrete composite frames prestressed with bonding tendons (PSRCFs), 15 groups of PSRCF specimens were designed with the following main parameters: the cubic compressive strength of high-strength concrete (fcu), the axial compression ratio of frame columns (n), the slenderness ratio of frame columns (β), the steel ratio of angle steel (α), the span–height ratio of frame beams (L/hb), and the prestressing degree (λ). Based on the modified concrete constitutive model proposed by Mander and the prestressing effect applied by the cooling method, the finite element models of PSRCFs were established by using ABAQUS software, the static analysis on the frame structures under the combined actions of axial forces and horizontal loads was carried out, and the monotonic load–displacement curves were explored. By comparing with the skeleton curves obtained by the experimental hysteretic curves, the rationality of the modeling method was verified. The PSRCFs had good mechanisms of strong columns and weak beams. Based on this, the influences of different parameters on the seismic behaviors such as hysteretic curves, skeleton curves, stiffness degradations, energy dissipation capacities, and ductility of the specimens were investigated. The results show that the hysteretic curves of the PSRCFs are full and have no pinch phenomenon. The ultimate load and the stiffness degradation of specimens can be improved significantly by increasing α, and on the contrary, the ultimate load and stiffness degradation decreased by increasing β. The ductility of the specimens decreased gradually with the increasing β and n. The energy dissipation capacity of the specimens decreased with the increasing β. The trilinear model of the skeleton curves and the restoring force model of PSRCFS were established by statistical regression, which agree well with the numerically simulated results. These can provide theoretical support for the elastoplastic analysis on this kind of PSRCF structure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Performance Evaluation, Testing and Design of Composite Structures)
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20 pages, 12879 KiB  
Article
Experiments and Numerical Simulations on the Seismic Performance of Steel-Frame Composite Wallboard Shear Walls
by Zhen Wang, Zhe Liu, Jia-Bao Yan, Xiao Ju and Lei Han
Buildings 2023, 13(2), 282; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13020282 - 18 Jan 2023
Viewed by 1817
Abstract
In order to expand the applications of cold-formed thin-walled steel structures, this study proposes a new type of composite wallboard composed of cold-formed thin-walled C-shaped steel and multi-layer concrete, in which C-shaped steel serves as the skeleton, foam concrete acts as the thermal [...] Read more.
In order to expand the applications of cold-formed thin-walled steel structures, this study proposes a new type of composite wallboard composed of cold-formed thin-walled C-shaped steel and multi-layer concrete, in which C-shaped steel serves as the skeleton, foam concrete acts as the thermal insulation material, and fine aggregate concrete and cement mortar play the part of envelopes. The composite wallboard can be made in a factory assembly line, meeting the requirements of the building (civil and structural) industry. Two steel-frame composite wallboard shear walls were subjected to reciprocating loading, with the connection mode as the design parameter, to investigate the seismic performance of the structure. The failure mode, hysteresis curve, skeleton curve, strength degradation, stiffness degradation, ductility, and energy dissipation capacity of the specimens were analyzed. On this basis, the finite element (FE) model of the steel-frame composite wallboard was established, and the model’s accuracy was verified by comparing the bearing capacity and the skeleton curve. Results show that the structure shows shear failure characteristics, and the cement mortar layer and the fine aggregate concrete layer are separated from the C-shaped steel after being crushed. The infilled foam concrete is also crushed, and the welding seams between the extended C-shaped steel and steel frame of the WP-1 specimen are damaged. The hysteresis curves of the two specimens have a clear pinch, but the area enclosed by the hysteresis loop is large, and the energy dissipation capacity is also present. The yield load and ultimate load of the WP-2 specimen are higher than those of the WP-1 specimen, indicating that the higher the connection strength between the composite wallboard and the steel frame, the greater the ultimate carrying capacity of the specimen. The established FE model can accurately estimate the seismic performance of steel-frame composite wallboard shear walls. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Performance Evaluation, Testing and Design of Composite Structures)
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