Editors

Chang
Al Bahar
Zhao

Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials presents

Advances in

Building Materials
Civil Engineering and
Advances in
the state-of-the-art development in:
- Structural Engineering
- Road & Bridge Engineering
- Geotechnical Engineering
Civil Engineering and
- Architecture & Urban Planning
- Transportation Engineering Building Materials
- Hydraulic Engineering
- Engineering Management
- Computational Mechanics
- Construction Technology
- Building Materials
- Environmental Engineering
- Computer Simulation
- CAD/CAE
Emphasis was placed on basic methodologies, scientific development
and engineering applications. Advances in Civil Engineering and
Building Materials will be useful to professionals, academics, and
Ph.D. students interested in the above-mentioned fields.

Editors: Shuenn-Yih Chang,

an informa business Suad Khalid Al Bahar & Jingying Zhao
ADVANCES IN CIVIL ENGINEERING AND BUILDING MATERIALS
SELECTED, PEER REVIEWED PAPERS FROM 2012 2nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
CIVIL ENGINEERING AND BUILDING MATERIALS (CEBM 2012), 1718 NOVEMBER, HONG KONG

Advances in Civil Engineering

and Building Materials

Editors
Shuenn-Yih Chang
Department of Civil Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taiwan

Suad Khalid Al Bahar

Kuwait Institute Scientific Research, Safat, Kuwait

Jingying Zhao
International Science and Engineering Research Center, Wanchai, Hong Kong
CRC Press
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Table of contents

Preface XV
Sponsors and committees XVII

Architecture & urban planning

Challenges and trends of using sewage treatment plants in Islamabad, Pakistan 3
A.A. Ikram
The role of green architecture on environment relaxation of hospital users 7
M.A. Mohammadabadi & M. Massoud
An attic as rehabilitation solution for low rise prefab concrete housing blocks 11
C. Bocan
Concentration of TV news coverage to the specific municipalities Case study on the
2011 Tohoku Earthquake 15
M. Numada & K. Meguro
Research on application of green building technologies in designs of school 21
Y.Q. Cui, Y. Liu & N. Zhao
Energy-efficient office building design in cold climate 27
W.D. Ji, T.F. Zhao & X.W. Xu
Dynamic mechnical properties of sandstone under coupled static and dynamic loads 33
F.Q. Gong & X.L. Liu
The instrument for attribute shift of urban-rural land use of eastern part county in northwest China
on the background of urban-rural incorporation A case study of Hancheng, China 39
A. Bo Jing, B. Minghua Huang & B. Yu Wang
Urban complex: New urban phenomenon in China 45
H. Zhu
Prediction of environmental-friendly eco-architecture trend by neologism analysis 49
K.-I. Chin, J. WooMoon & K.H. Lee
Evaluation on building interior accessible routes design 55
Y. Han & Y. Wang
Rain water utilization in urban design: A case study of the street natural drainage program in
Seattle America 61
J. Sun & K. Shi
Studies of urban construction and development strategy of new villages Taking the construction
planning of new village in Wangji Town, Xinzhou District, Wuhan City for example 65
Q. Hua

Building materials
Damage velocity of compressively preloaded concrete under frost action 71
S. Chen, X. Song & X. Liu
Ultrafine glass fiber vacuum insulation panel for building insulation 77
F.E. Boafo, Z.F. Chen, W.P. Wu, Q. Chen, B.B. Li & J.M. Zhou

V
Carbon nanotube coatings for building EMI shielding 83
P. Li, J. Lin, C.H. Poo, A.S. Low, X.J. Yin & G.C. Ong
Experimental study on noise reduction characteristics of polymer modified asphalt mixture 87
L. Wang, Y.M. Xing & L. Pan
Influence of mineral admixtures on anti-permeability of mixed aggregate concrete 93
J. Huo, D. Song, H. Yang, W. Li & J. Li
Corrosion resistant performance of a chemical quenched rebar 99
J. Wei, J. Dong & W. Ke
Experimental study of photocatalitic concrete products for durability of reinforced concrete 105
A. Fiore, G.C. Marano, P. Monaco & A. Morbi
Research on the durability of Reactive Powder Concrete in marine corrosive environment 109
Ming-zhe An, Y. Wang, Q. Lu & Run-dong Liu
Review and exploration of river sand substitutes for concrete production in Asian countries 115
C.-P. Sing, P.E.D. Love & C.-M. Tam
New insulating material: Binderless particleboard from durian peel 119
S. Charoenvai
Durability of reactive powder concrete under the action of sulfate dry-wet cycles 125
Y. Wang, M.Z. An & S. Han
The new conception of rare earth compounds used as asphalt modifier 131
Haixiao, R. Fu, R. Hu, S. Zhang & M. Zhang
The application technology of warm mix of ultra-thin cover face in urban road maintenance 135
Y. Li, X. Song, J. Sun, Y. Zhang & Y. Li
Studies of construction quality based on distributed fiber optic monitoring of mass concrete 139
F. Jin
Pozzolanic characteristics of palm oil waste ash (POWA) and treated palm oil fuel ash (TPOFA) 145
N.M. Altwair, M.A. Megat Johari, A.M. Zeyad & S.F. Saiyid Hashim
Investigation of accelerating effects of mineral admixtures by hydration heat and
thermal analysis 151
H. Yang, S. Tu & F. Gao
Estimation of asphalt mixture mechanical property by digital image correlation method 157
Y. Cui, L. Feng & L. Wang
The manufacturing of floating decks using grancrete and reservoir sludge 163
W.C. Liao, S.Y. Tsai, C.S. Tsai & J.W. Lin
The finite element analysis of behavior for reactive powder concrete-filled circular steel tube
stub columns under axial compression 167
H. Luo, W. Ji & Z. Yan
Review of water desorption test methods 173
C. Ince, Y. Ozturk, M.A. Carter & M.A. Wilson
Lightweight aggregates produced from mixtures of high silica heating microscope procedure 179
S. Al-Bahar, S. Al-Otaibi, M. Taha, A. Al-Arbeed, A. Abduljaleel, F. Al-Fahad & S. Al-Fadala
Nonlinear finite element analysis for reinforced CRC beam 185
H. Guo & H. Zhu
Experimental grading of locally grown timber to be used as structural material 189
G. Concu, B. De Nicolo, M. Valds, M. Fragiacomo, A. Menis & N. Trulli
Mechanical properties of ultra-high strength concrete with local materials 195
S. Allena, C.M. Newtson & M.N. Tahat
Experimental study on shear strength of reactive powder concrete 199
G. Minlong, J. Wenyu & A. Mingzhe

VI
Coastal engineering
Wave transformation by a perforated free surface semicircular breakwater in irregular waves 207
H.M. Teh & V. Venugopal
Spectral analyses of sea-state wave data for the development of a regional-sensitive spectral model 211
M.S. Liew, M.Z. Abd Wahap, E.S. Lim & N. Abdullah
Wave-induced seabed response around offshore wind turbine foundation: Donghai offshore
wind farm, China 215
K.T. Chang & D.-S. Jeng

Computational mechanics
The force-based quadrilateral plate elements for plate analysis using Large Increment Method 221
H.X. Jia, D.B. Long & X.L. Liu
Assembling and factorizing the structure stiffness matrix of skeletal structure in
segments based on graph theory 227
L. Haifeng, Y. Jingbo & H. Junke
Fracture simulation of reinforced concrete structures with account of bond degradation
and concrete cracking under steel corrosion 233
A.V. Benin, A. Semenov & S. Semenov
Effect of plane stress and plane strain conditions over fracture parameters of
ductile plate in SSY (LEFM) and EPFM regimes: A review 239
S.N.S.H. Chittajallu, M. Bansal, A.R. Bedare & S. Bhat

Computer simulation and CAD/CAE

Three-dimensional modeling of foundation pit structures and surrounding buildings during the
construction of the second scene of the State Academic Mariinsky Theatre in Saint-Petersburg
considering stage-by-stage nature of construction process 245
A.P. Ledyaev, A.V. Benin & A.N. Konkov
The second-responses method for simulation of vehicle-pavement dynamical interaction 249
S.H. Li & J.Y. Ren
Method for throughput capacity of container terminal based on complex stochastic system 255
X. Song, Y. Peng, W. Wang & Y. Guo
HOPs: A new tomographic reconstruction algorithm for non destructive acoustic testing of
concrete structures 259
B. Cannas, S. Carcangiu, A. Fanni, R. Forcinetti, A. Montisci & G. Concu
3D finite element analysis of seismic soil-micropile-structure interaction 265
A. Ghorbani, H. Hasanzadehshooiili & E. Ghamari
Wireless sensor placement based on SHM requirements and net energy consumption 271
R.N. Soman, T. Onoufriou, R.A. Votsis, C.Z. Chrysostomou, M.A. Kyriakides & B. Han

Construction technology
Use of polythene sheet formwork in place of conventional formwork (plywood/steel) 279
H.V. Pathak, L. Pasha & M. Kashyap
Research on the mechanic analysis method of prestress construction process of
large-span suspendome 283
Y. Wang, Z. Guo & B. Luo
Concrete shear test: A new tool for determining rheological properties of fresh
Portland cement concrete 289
S. Girish & B.S. Santhosh

VII
Study and optimization of construction monitoring method for long-span continuous
rigid frame bridge 295
H. Hu, X. Zhang & L. Zhu
Concept of partnering in construction projects 301
A. Ghaffari & R.K. Jane
Simulation modeling of a concrete transporting system for construction of RCC dams 307
C. Zhao, J. Wang, Y. Zhou & H. Dong
Developing a model for profit sharing amongst partners in consulting engineering
companies of construction projects 311
A. Ghaffari & R.K. Jain

Engineering management
According the historical interpretation to research the relationship of construction logistics
and the project managers level 321
H. Zhang & X.H. Wang
Structural properties of concrete containing lateritic sand and quarry dust as fine aggregates 325
M.E. Ephraim, I.Z.S. Akobo, J.O. Ukpata & G.A. Akeke
Multi-objective repetitive activities projects scheduling using Genetic Algorithms 331
M.S. Eid, M.E. Abdelrazek & E. Elbeltagi
Research on social risk evaluation and mechanism of major engineering projects of
Zhejiang province 337
Y. Wang
Scheduling of repetitive projects with learning development effect 341
M.A. Ammar & A.F. Abdel-Maged
Evaluation for subway project quality based on supply chain thoughts 347
Z. Zhang
Research trend in partnering in construction journals 351
A. Ghaffari & R.K. Jane

Environmental engineering
Evaluation on the investment effect of railway vibration reduction measures 359
Z. Gongjuan, Y. Haifeng & Z. Qianbiao
Optimization of influent distributing and effluent discharging modes of constructed
rapid infiltration system 363
A. Junmin Chen, X. Yao & B. Zhenhua Sheng
A least-square solver to estimate vertical groundwater velocity using subsurface
temperature profile 367
L. Dong, J. Shimada, M. Kagabu & K. Ichiyanagi
Unit-based SOx emission values for fuels consumed in precast concrete production 373
M. Wimala, K. Kawai & A. Fujiki
The effect of NH4 NO3 concentration on the environment-induced cracking behavior of
carbon steel 379
K. Koide, A. Iwase & R. Nishimura
Theoretical investigation of operating control strategy of a new solar-water-assisted
ground-source heat pump 383
X. Gong, L. Wei & W. Feng
Research of the Properties of Calcium Carbide Residue Desulfurization Gypsum 391
M. Ye & T. Zhu

VIII
Effect of air handler supply air temperature in VAV system on building energy consumption
under Korean climatic condition 395
K.H. Lee, K.I. Chin & J.W. Moon

Geotechnical engineering
Slope stability analysis based on method of FEM strength reduction 401
L. Zongwei
Experimental research for the wetting characteristics of compacted loess 405
W.-B. Zhang
The application of the analytical recursion scheme method on soft ground sites 409
Q. Jingjing, Y. Shaoyan, Y. Zhiqing & L. Dahua
Theoretical model for the time prediction of landslides based on the monitoring data 415
X.H. Xu & H.Q. Yang
Throws and blasting vibration control of the channel blasting near the tunnel entrance 421
N. Fang
Considerations on technical and administrative management for peer review of preliminary
design of bracing and retaining structure for foundation pit excavation protection in
Guangzhou region 425
J.Y. Zheng
Analysis on 3D surface crack transient propagation process 429
L. Guo, R.H.C. Wong, L. Liu & P. Yin
Framework of DW I2 CAD/E system for deep foundation pit dewatering 433
J.X. Wang & X.Y. Gu
Monitoring of ground deformation in southern part of Metro Manila, Philippines 437
K. Kurita, Y. Kinugasa, T. Deguchi & R.E. Rimando
Study on wall group effect of rectangular closed diaphragm wall as bridge foundation
under vertical loading 441
H. Wen & Q. Cheng
The lateral behavior of single piles in liquefiable soils 447
A. Ghorbani & R. Jahanpour
The deformation characteristics and calculation prediction method of deep excavations in
Shanghai Soft Soil area 451
K. Yang & J. Jia
Research on temperature controlling technique of mass concrete bridge bearing platform 457
Z. Qin & X. Zhang
Technology strategy of Astor House Hotel protective restoration project 463
Q. Zhang & Y. Zheng
Analysis of the attribute of indemnificatory housing 469
K. Sun
Experimental study of recycled asphalt mixtures containing high rates of reclaimed
asphalt pavement 473
L. Geng, R. Ren, L. Wang & P. Wang
Research on strain rate-sensitivities of the tensile strength for concrete and its components 477
Y. Wang, J. Zhou, H. Zhao & D. Shen
Model test study of a novel vacuum preloading method 483
S. Xiaowu, G. Bingchuan & S. Xiaoxian
Creep property of undisturbed reticulated red clay under constant-load creep test 489
J.Z. Li & Y. Xie

IX
Bearing capacity for drilled pile with rock socket and a case study 493
X. Huang
Seabed stress response by jet trenching 497
Y. Wang & D.-S. Jeng

Hydraulic engineering
Technique and theory on continuous pouring concrete of tail water branch pipe in
water power station 505
C. Yeying, W. Junjie & H. Jianyun
Tidal level trend test and extraction in downstream of the Yangtze River 509
G. Li, M. Xiao & X. Xiang
Experimental study on hydraulic characteristics of allotypic hybrid-type flip bucket 515
T. Zhang & Z.W. Wang
Dynamic gravity dam-reservoir-foundation interaction analysis based on the
scaled boundary finite element method 519
J.Y. Liu, G. Lin, Z.Q. Hu, Y. Wang & Y. Zhang
Study of material failures in operating gravity fed water supply pipelines 523
V.G. Tzatchkov & V.H. Alcocer-Yamanaka
Study on the law of coal-bearing soft rock belts in the steep excavation slopes at ZIPINGPU
hydroelectric station in SiChuan Province of China 527
Y. Cao & Y. Huang
Element analysis of consolidation of soil under surcharge and vacuum preloading 531
X. Shu, B. Guo & X. Song

Road & bridge engineering

Practical calculation method of composite cable-stayed bridge 539
X.-N. Wu, B. Li, M.-M. Zhou & X.-L. Zhai
Comparison between two improved methods of long term permanent deformation
calculation in high-speed railway subgrade 543
A. Kang Zhuang, G. Quanmei & B. Wang Yang
The influence of additional attack angle on flutter analysis result of 1400 m
cable stayed bridge 551
H.J. Zhang & L.D. Zhu
Performance evaluation on highway snow-melting agents 557
Y. Wu, N. Liu & X. Fan
Prediction of CBR from index properties of cohesive soils 561
M. Zumrawi
Static load test arrangement analysis based on combined control of moment and stress 567
X.-J. Che, X.-D. Zhang & C. Yang
Test and simulation analysis on early temperature field of the main girder for a
concrete cable-stayed bridge 571
Q. Li, Q. Chen, P. Wang & J. Yuan
Research on influence factors and evaluation of ride comfort of bridge bump based on road test 577
X. Pan, L. Yu, W. Guo, X. Ma & Z. Fu
Nonlinear dynamic stability of a rigid frame bridge with super high-rise piers 581
H. Zhang, X. Zhang & B. Dong
Performance of Ultra Thin White Topping with different admixtures to White Topping 585
C.C. Abhijith & S.P. Mahendra

X
Structural glass in metal load-carrying systems of building constructions 591
M. Karmaznov & J. Melcher
The surface electrical and microstructure analysis of peat treated with cement 597
H. Moayedi & S. Kazemian
Pushoff shear tests of self consolidating concrete 603
K.N. Rahal & A.L. Al-Khaleefi
Earthquake response study of slope with anti-slide piles under bilateral seismic actions 607
B. Dong
Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation on the reliability of the in-service highway bridges 611
D.-W. Zheng, Z.-B. Hu & L.-X. Qi
Seismic performance evaluation of bridge applying mode-based pushover analysis method 615
C. Yang, X. Zhang, X. Che & L. Zhu
Research on the reasonable strength of cement-treated macadam base 621
Y. Wang, X. Sun & Z. Li
Horizontal shear behavior and vibration isolation efficiency of FRP rubber isolators 625
L. Han, T.-B. Peng & Z.-N. Wang
The comparisons of three research methods about horizontal shear stiffness of
FRP rubber isolators 631
Z.-N. Wang, T.-B. Peng & L. Han
Effect of tower longitudinal stiffness on static performance of self-anchored suspension
bridge with multi-tower 635
Y.-J. Chen, C. Zhang & Z.-Z. Fang
Characterization of stone matrix asphalt with cellulose and coconut fiber 639
S.S. Awanti, A. Habbal, P.N. Hiremath, S. Tadibidi & S.N. Hallale

Structural engineering
Analysis on the capacities of resisting natural disasters for UHV transmission towers 645
J. Yang & F. Yang
Analysis on the unbalanced tension of 1000 kV and 500 kV AC four-circuit transmission
lines on the same tower 649
H. Junke, Z. Chunlei, Y. Jingbo & Y. Fengli
Research on load-displacement skeleton curve model of L-shaped concrete-filled
steel tubular column 655
B. Cao, S. Dai, J. Huang, Z. Peng & X. Shen
Mixed aleatory-epistemic uncertainty quantification using evidence theory with
differential evolution algorithm 661
Y. Su, H. Tang, S. Xue & C. Hu
New jacket-based anchorage for RC beams with external tendons 667
S. Hong, S.-K. Park & J. Choi
Experimental study on ultimate behaviors of aluminum alloy single shear four-bolted
connections according to plate thickness 673
T. Kim & Y. Cho
Application of modular industrialized housing method in villa project in Dubai 679
J. Li, L. Wang, H. Dong, T. Yu & Z. Sun
Discussion on technical coordination of reconstruction work for special villa 687
J. Li, L. Wang, H. Dong, T. Yu & R. Dai
Three dimensional failure surface of reinforced concrete element subjected to
complex loads 695
X. Chen & X.L. Liu

XI
Study on small base isolation system using friction bearing Effects of bearing ball shape on
dynamic characteristics 701
M. Kezuka, K. Kurita, S. Aoki, Y. Nakanishi, K. Tominaga & M. Kanazawa
Dynamic characteristics of base isolation system using sliding bearing 707
S. Suminokura, K. Kurita, S. Aoki, Y. Nakanishi, K. Tominaga & M. Kanazawa
Development of oil dampers for reduction of seismic response of houses
(Examination for some types of dampers) 711
T. Yamauchi, S. Aoki & K. Kurita
Simplified calculation method for integral of mean square value of various
nonstationary random responses 715
S. Aoki & A. Fukano
Experimental tests for the evaluation of the structural behavior of steel tapered
beam-columns with I cross section and their knee connection 721
I.M. Cristutiu & D.L. Nunes
The uniaxial tension constitutive model of reactive powder concrete considering
the stochastic damage 727
Z.R. Yu, X. Qin & Y. Yuan
Design and test study on high-neck forging flange applied in UHV steel tube
transmission tower 733
J. Wu, J.-B. Yang, Q.-H. Li & G.-Q. Wu
Improvement of punching shear resistance of RC slabs using GFRC: An experimental study 739
P. Chugh, K.K. Bajpai, S. Bose & A. Gupta
Rational determination of cover thickness in reinforced concrete structures for fire loading 745
A. Gupta, S.P. Ramdasi, P. Chugh, S. Bose & S. Misra
Seismic retrofit of reinforced concrete soft-storey structures using toggle-brace-damper system 751
R.W.K. Chan, Z. Zhao & W.C. Tang
Steel-concrete composite columns composed of high-strength materials Experimental
analysis of buckling resistance 755
M. Karmaznov
Influence of organic matter on the stabilization soft soil with cement mixed method 761
L. Shao, J. Liu & Y. Ding
Performance of shape memory alloys in the nonlinear response of RC frames 765
Z. Pirsamadi & S. Zargham
The strut arrangement and monitoring analysis of deep foundation pits in silty sand 769
Y. Haihong & H. Chengpo
Fracture assessment of cold-press-formed square hollow sections at welded joints 773
M. Arita, Y. Kayamori, Y. Suzuki, K. Hanya, T. Suzuki, I. Takeuchi & T. Yamaguchi
Research on deformation capacity of Frame-Bent Structure under bi-directional horizontal
seismic excitation 779
X. Bai & F. Liu
Flexural rehabilitation of RC beams using self-compacting concrete jacketing 783
C.E. Chalioris, C.N. Pourzitidis, C.P. Papadopoulos & D. Fotis
Quantitative robustness analysis of reinforced concrete frames 787
Y. Gao & X.L. Liu
Evaluation reinforcement of compound column to bearing capacity with corrosion 795
Y.A. Mansoor & Z.Q. Zhang
Ultrasonic testing of masonry structures by features extraction and self-organising maps 801
B. Cannas, S. Carcangiu, A. Fanni, R. Forcinetti, A. Montisci, G. Sias,
M. Usai, N. Trulli & G. Concu

XII
Frequency analysis of ultrasonic signals for non-destructive diagnosis of masonry structures 807
B. Cannas, S. Carcangiu, A. Fanni, R. Forcinetti, A. Montisci, G. Sias, M. Usai & G. Concu
Experimental investigation on shear strengths of concrete deep beams reinforced with FRP rebars 813
H. Choi, J. Choi, Y.H. Lee, H. Kim & D.J. Kim
Numerical simulation of in plane behavior of fiber reinforced polymer and polypropylene
composite retrofitted masonry wallet using 3-D Applied Element Method 817
A.S.M. Umair, B.M. Numada & C.K. Meguro
Reliability design of doubler plates for sea tankers 823
I.A. Assakkaf
Reliability-based design of tanker unstiffened steel panels 829
I.A. Assakkaf
Parametric studies in plates with holes for stress concentration factor 835
V. Pop, R. Hulea & M. Pop
Theoretical analysis for the effect of reinforcement diameter on bond strength 841
S. Yang & D. Li
RC slabs with openings issues and provision for design approach strategies 847
S.C. Florut, V. Stoian & T. Nagy-Gyrgy
Causes and required interventions on the rehabilitation process of large panel
buildings in Romania 853
T. Nagy-Gyrgy, I. Demeter, S.C. Florut & D. Dan

Transportation engineering
Analysis of speed difference at tunnel entrance and exit on freeways in China 859
H. Wu & R. Zhou
Empirical study on the relationship among lane changing, traffic speed and density for weaving
area of urban expressway on the Level of Service (LOS) four on the upper half in China 863
H. Xie, Y. Jiang, J. Sun & D. Tu
Fuzzy C-means clustering based on clustering algorithms for traffic crash data 869
I. Aghayan, N. Noii & M.M. Kunt
Potential use of multi-criteria analysis in context sensitive solutions 875
N. Stamatiadis, A. Di Graziano & S.D. Cafiso
Increasing Minimum Spanning Tree estimation precision; implemented for Tehran province 879
A.R. Mamdoohi, M. Yousefikia & A.R. Mahpour
Simulation of dynamic load for heavy vehicle under bilateral tracks road excitation 883
D. Liu, R.J.H. Chen & S. Wang
Field evaluation of weigh-in-motion system on weight enforcement operation 887
P. Chotickai
Optimization of departure time for time dependent vehicle routing problem 893
Z. Duan, D. Yang & M. Zhang
Study on percent time-spent-following: A performance measure for two-lane highways 899
P. Saha, M. Pal & A.K. Sarkar
CTM-based evacuation under incident-based non-recurrent congestion with information 903
N. Liu & A.M.H. Zhang
Speed management pilot project in China 909
C. Li, T. Wen, H. Feng, G. Zhang & A. Yuan
Gravity model with the function of cost impedance 915
D.-G. Li, Y. Zhang & Z.-W. Zheng

XIII
A review of cyclist safety studies in and out of China 921
L. Chen, X. Pan & X. Chen
Research on intercity rail terminal area planning and land development 925
D. Li, J. Cao, Y. Zheng & L. Yao
Validity analysis on ECG coefficient of variation indicator as driving fatigue measurement 929
X. Xie, Y. Zhao & B. Huang
Research on green transportation planning architecture and evaluation index system 933
Z. Lu & D. Wang
Taipei Songshan Airport (TSA) EMAS (Engineered Material Arresting System) 941
J. Bosco, H. Zou, H.K. DeLong & T.J. Chen
Research on luminance variation rate index of tunnel based on experiment 943
Q. Wu, X. Pan, H. Yang & S. Li
Studies on the low carbon building technology and integration on the green highway 947
Y. Jing, F.L. Tao & K. Yuan
Author index 953

XIV
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Preface

Following the great progress made in civil engineering and building materials, the 2012 2nd International
Conference on Civil Engineering and Building Materials (CEBM 2012) aimed at providing a forum for presen-
tation and discussion of state-of-the-art development in Structural Engineering, Road & Bridge Engineering,
Geotechnical Engineering, Architecture & Urban Planning, Transportation Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering,
Engineering Management, Computational Mechanics, Construction Technology, Building Materials, Environ-
mental Engineering, Computer Simulation & CAD/CAE. Emphasis was given to basic methodologies, scientific
development and engineering applications.
This conference is co-sponsored by Asia Civil Engineering Association, the International Association for
Scientific and High Technology and International Science and Engineering Research Center. The purpose of
CEBM 2012 is to bring together researchers and practitioners from academia, industry, and government to
exchange their research ideas and results in the areas of the conference. In addition, the participants of the
conference will have a chance to hear from renowned keynote speakers Prof. LEUNG, Andrew Y T from City
University, Hong Kong and Prof. XIAO-YAN LI from University of Hong Kong.
We would like to thank all the participants and the authors for their contributions. We would also like to
gratefully acknowledge the production supervisor Janjaap Blom, Lon Bijnsdorp, Lukas Goosen, who enthusi-
astically support the conference. In particular, we appreciate the full heart support of all the reviewers and staff
members of the conference. We hope that CEBM 2012 will be successful and enjoyable to all participants and
look forward to seeing all of you next year at the CEBM 2013.

November, 2012
Prof. Shuenn-Yih Chang
Dr. Suad Khalid Al Bahar
Dr. Jingying Zhao

XV
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Sponsors and committees

General Chair
David Packer, International Science and Engineering Research Center, Hong Kong

Scientific Committee Chair

Konstantinos GIANNAKOS, Fellow of ASCE, University of Thessaly, Greece

International Committee & Scientific Committee

Ali Rahman, Jundi-Shapur University Technology, Iran
Anuchit Uchaipichat, Vongchavalitkul University, Thailand
Ata El-kareim Shoeib Soliman, Faculty of Engineering El-Mataria, Egypt
Badreddine Sbartai, Universit de Skikda, Algeria
DAVID S. HURWITZ, Oregon State University, USA
Du Jia-Chong, Tungnan University, Taiwan
Fu-Jen WANG, National Chin-Yi University of Technology, Taiwan
HoseinRahnema, Yasuj University, Iran
Jian YANG, University of Birmingham, UK
Jianping Han, Lanzhou University of Technology, China
Jianqing Bu, Shijiazhuang Tiedao University, China
Jia-Ruey Chang, MingHsin University of Science & Technology, Taiwan
Konstantinos GIANNAKOS, University of Thessaly, Greece
Lan WANG, Inner Mongolia University of Technology, China
Malagavelli Venu, BITS, Pilani, India
MANJEET SINGH HORA, Director, MANIT Bhopal, India
Mehmet Serkan KIRGIZ, Hacettepe University, Turkey
Moghadas Nejad, Amirkabir University of Technology, Iran
Mohammadreza Vafaei, Imenrah Consulting Engineers Co., Iran
Mohammadreza Yadollahi, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia
Mubiao Su, Shijiazhuang Tiedao University, China
Niyazi Ugur Kockal, Akdeniz University, Turkey
Ruey Syan Shih, Tumgnan University, Taiwan
Shengcai LI, Huaqiao University, China
Sina Kazemian, SCG Consultant Company, Selangor, Malaysia
TaeSoo KIM, Hanbat National University, Korea
Zakiah Ahmad, Coordinator of Quality Unit, Malaysia
Zhixin Yan, Lanzhou University, China

Technical Committee Chair

Chang, Shuenn-yih, National Taipei University of Technology, Taiwan

Technical Committee
Deng-Hu Jing, Southeast University, China
Dong Yongxiang, Beijing Institute of Technology, China
Jiachun Wang, Xia men University of Technology, China
Jianrong Yang, Kunming University of Science and Technology, China
Jingying Zhao, International Association for Scientific and High Technology
Kuixing LIU, Tianjin University, China
Li Liping, Shandong University, China
Liangbin TAN, Kunming University of Science and Technology, China
LU Qun, Tianjin Institute of Urban Construction, China
Ming Zhang, Henan Institute of Engineering, China
PATRICK TIONG LIQ YEE, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia

XVII
TIANBO PENG, Tongji University, China
Xujie LU, Jianghan University

Publication Chairs
Jingying Zhao, International Association for Scientific and High Technology

Co-sponsored by
Asia Civil Engineering Association
International Association for Scientific and High Technology
International Science and Engineering Research Center

XVIII
Architecture & urban planning
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Challenges and trends of using sewage treatment plants

in Islamabad, Pakistan

Amjad Ali Ikram

Project Director Shahzad and Farash Towns, Islamabad, Pakistan

ABSTRACT: Like any under developed country, Pakistan also faces serious issues of urbanization and ribbon
growth in its population centers like Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. There is a massive trend of social change
where people migrate from rural to urban areas at an alarming pace. Due to paucity of funds, the government
could not stop this dangerous trend. As a result, the existing sewers and sewerage schemes in these cities could not
sustain and accommodate additional biological loadings due to shift of population. Eventually there is general
problem of treatment and disposal of residential sewage and human excreta. As this problem worsened, there
came a basic thought of using smart technology of installing Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) for this purpose.
Though presently this trend is uncommon in all major cities of Pakistan, the author restricted the study for capital
city Islamabad where STPs have been installed. The findings of the study reveal that; there are socio-political
issues and economic constraints which are the impediments in the procurement and installation of STPs in
residential areas. Moreover there is an element of reluctance, lack of confidence over this smart technology by
private societies and public service departments. Similarly the findings also cover the advantages and benefits
of using Sewage Treatment Plants. At the end, viable recommendations have been suggested to overcome these
problems.

Keywords: Pakistan, Islamabad, Sewage Treatment Plant, Biological Oxygen Demand

1 INTRODUCTION G8 and other adjoining areas. According to this sur-

vey and field data from public service departments
Over population and unbalanced displacement of like Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Water
masses leads to overloading of existing water and and Sanitation Authority (WASA), Islamabad, more
sanitation schemes. This is becomes true when there than 90 percent of sewage disposal in the city is com-
is a rapid urbanization in the major cities. The trends prised of Septic Tanks and soakage pits. These septic
of urbanization in the developing world are on the tanks and soakage pits are ultimately linked with trunk
increase, and Pakistan is no exception to this phenom- sewers and the finally bluck of sludge is thrown into
enal shift of population from rural to urban centers. the only renowned Nullah Laie. Unlike these areas,
Unfortunately this unhealthy trend has posed serious these are two famous towns Shahzad Town and Alipur
environmental and sanitation issues in the major cities Farash Town in Islamabad where two bio filter STPs
of Pakistan. Same is the case with the capital city of have successfully been installed. The sludge profile of
Islamabad. The existing sewer lines which were laid these two towns is.
a decade ago, have proved to be insufficient for addi-
tional sewage and biological loadings in Islamabad. Table 1. Design criteria.
In order to confront with this problem, a need for
installation of Sewage Treatment Plants was felts, in Chak Shahzad Ali pur frash
all residential sectors of Islamabad.
Daily Flowrate 110,000 GPD or 240,000 GPD or
500 m3 /day 1091 m3 /day
Peak Flow Rate 62.5 m3 /hr 136.38 m3 /hr
2 EXISTING SEWERAGE SYSTEM OF Operational Hours: 24 hrs/day 24 hrs/day
ISLAMABAD CITY
Parameter Wastewater value Discharge value
A field survey was conducted to ascertain the system of
BOD 250 30
sewage disposal in sectors like Shahzad Town, Alipur TSS 400 30
Farash Town, Defence Housing Authority Islamabad Fecal Coliform BDL
Colonies, Sector F6, F7, F8, F11, G5, G6, G7 and

3
 Table 2. Problems of existing sewerage scheme.

Rank Criteria Response

1 Overflow of manholes 35%

2 Efficiency of disposal of waste 25%
3 Choking of sewers 20%
4 Maintenance of existing system 15%
5 Epidemic diseases 5%

Table 3. Perception of use of smart technologies STPs.

Rank Criteria Response

Figure 1. P.E Bio filter system.
1 Knowledge of STPs 40%
2 Cost effective 15%
3 BENEFITS OF BIO-FILTER STPs 3 Willingness to adopt the technology 20%
4 Environment friendly 15%
5 Operation of STPs 10%
3.1 Minimum construction for Biofilter Tech-
nology as compared to other conventional
systems. Table 4. Success rate of STPs in Pakistan (Priorities).
3.2 Design is very compact for a total solution.
3.3 Biofilter Technology allows for quick re- Rank Criteria Response
commissioning in case of down time.
3.4 Simple operation/low manpower required. 1 Shahzad Town STP 50%
3.5 Effective and proven process aerobic operational 2 Farash Town STP 30%
principle. 3 Quetta City STP 5%
3.6 Cost effective 4 Defence housing authority 5%
3.7 User friendly low and easy maintenance. Islamabad STP
5 Rawal Town STP 10%
3.8 BiofilterTechnology utilizes minimum electrical
consumption.
3.9 Long service life as concrete structures are
permanent. 6 QUESTIONNAIRE ASKED
3.10 Discharge can meet any desired standards.
A questionnaire was developed and divided into fol-
lowing key areas:
6.1 Perception of use of smart technology of STPs
4 PAST REVIEW
(5 questions)
6.2 Problems of Sewerage System (5 questions)
Many articles, studies, seminars and workshops had
6.3 Success rate of STPs in Pakistan (5 questions)
been conducted on the issues of disposal of sewage in
6.4 Miscellaneous Problems (5 questions)
Islamabad by Pakistan Engineering council, Capital
Development Authority (CDA) and Water and San-
itation Authority (WASA). Several major contracts 7 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
were awarded to contractors for laying fresh sew-
ers as well as upgrading existing ones. Despite all In this section five questions were asked from respon-
these efforts, the problem still existed in Shahzad and dents and the majority of them ranked these responses
Farash Towns. as under.

7.1 Problems of existing sewerage schemes

5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY see Table 2.

In this research, a questionnaire was developed in order
to evaluate the existing demand of biological loadings
and necessity of installing and using STPs in poplars
sectors of Islamabad. Information about consultants
and design engineers were collected from same depart-
ments. Data were gathered through a survey, ana-
lyzed by using frequency, seniority and importance
indices. Agreement on the ranking of the importance
of the installing Sewerage Treatment Plants was also
tested.
7.2 Perception of use of smart technologies STPs
In this section five questions were asked to evaluate
the perception of using STPs and these are ranked as
under in Table 3.
7.3 Success rate of Stps in Pakistan (Priorities)
The local populations of following towns were asked
to rank the effectiveness of STPs installed in these
localities and results are as under in Table 4.

4
Table 5. Miscellaneous problems
Rank Criteria Response 8.2.2 Inculcate Awareness on STPs. Resistance to
1 Management rigid attitude 46%
2 Paucity of funds 28%
3 Reluctance in adopting new technology 16%
4 Lack of sludge generation data 10%
5 Other 0%
7.4 Miscellaneous problems
See Table 5.
8 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
8.1 Conclusions
8.1.1 It is evident there the existing system of sewage
and waste water disposal have outlived their life
and fail to sustain additional biological loadings.
8.1.2 The existing sewerage and drainage schemes
need up gradation because they have achieved a
stage of situation in Islamabad.
8.1.3 The pilot projects of Shahzad Town and Farash
Towns serve as a bench mark in successful
installation of smart technologies in sewerage
disposal of population areas and societies.
8.1.4 Resistance to Change Shown by most of the
public serve departments reflects their lack of
interest in adopting new technologies due to
their orthodoxical norms.
8.1.5 Paucity of Funds is one of the major con-
straints in acquisitive of STPs in public service
departments.
8.2 Recommendations
8.2.1 Replacement of Existing Sewerage System. The
existing sewerage system of Islamabad city
is completely incompatible and insufficient to
dispose off bulk sewage of residential areas.
Hence the only remedy to this problem lies
into procurement and installation of Sewage
Treatment Plants (STPs).
change is always ultimate product of Lack
of Awareness. This aspect can very easily
be addressed by spreading awareness at every
policy tier and managerial decision level. Two
successful projects which have already been
executed in Shahzad and Farash towns can serve
as inspiring and convincing example to eradi-
cate reluctance to adopt smart technologies.
8.2.3 Sufficient Funding. The problem of funds can
be overcome by adopting strategies like Build-
Operator-Transfer (BOT), Public Private Part-
nerships (PPP) or participation of NGOs in
capacity building initiatives.
8.2.4 Harvest Joint Potential. With the growing pace
of development and expansion in housing soci-
eties and colonies, it is imperative to adopt smart
technologies like STPs in order to carryout effi-
cient disposal of sludge and human excreta.
There is need to harness the joint efforts and
potential of public and private institutions to
introduce this state of the art technology into
Pakistan at wide scale.
REFERENCES
Afzal, Muhammad, Colonel (Retired) GM, M/S Pollution
Engineering Pakistan (Private) Limited, DHA-II office
Islamabad
Cheema, W.A, Adverse Effects of Poor Wastewater Manage-
ment Practices on Groundwater Quality in Rawalpindi and
Mitigation Strategies.http://www.wasa.rda.gov.pk/MD_
Papers/paper_for_engineering_congress.pdf
M/S Mumtaz Construction Company (Private) Limited,
Plot. 113, Street.8, Sector-I/10/3, Islamabad, Pakistan.
http://www.mcc.net.pk
M/S Pollution Engineering Pakistan (Private) Limited, DHA
Islamabad, Phase-2. http://www.pollution-engineering.
com.my
CDA, Islamabad Green City Program. http://
www . environment . gov. pk / New-PDF / IsbGCProgram
Presentation.pdf
5
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

The role of green architecture on environment relaxation of hospital users

Mohadesehsadat Amiri Mohammadabadi & Mohammad Massoud

Department of Architecture, Khorasgan (Isfahan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

ABSTRACT: Green architecture between of treatment centers architecture expert because of their special trait
has special place. In this essay with descriptive analytical method and collecting information by librarian
method, the role of green architecture in hospital in order the health, safety and environmental comfort for
members have been studied and provided architecture solutions about decline of environmental damage and
improve comfort and members welfare has mentioned. Result of this study has been shown that attention to
solution such as access to nature, experience a pleasant, building architecture form, the use of color and natural
light in interior space, proper materials and resource selection and etc. to create various aspect of comfort
(physical, mental solution, cognitive-nerves) is affective in the care spaces.

Keywords: Green architecture, hospital, health environmental members, hospitals members

1 INTRODUCTION important studies in this field by Florence Nightingale,

Hospital is one of the largest public buildings that has
a significant impact on its surroundings. Hospitals are
the largest consumer of energy and water and generate
the waste a lot. Because this type of space is one of the
main applicants of society sources, it is essential that
the indicators of green architecture in the buildings to
be considered.
Green hospital is a branch of sustainable architec-
ture and subset of treatment based topic of architecture
in basic principle green hospitals, and all efforts
toward green design of hospital will be efficient if
the result has an effect on the treatment. A growing
number of studies on architecture of medical centers
show the effects of architecture environment on treat-
ment and cure of patients. So the environment can be
designed in such a way that is effective in improving
patients.
One of the golden goals of green hospital is reduc-
ing the duration of therapy. In addition to reducing the
duration of therapy it causes the saving in treatment
capital of the country. The study shows that there are
several reasons that hospital environment will affect on
patients health. One factor is its effect on interactive
system of mind body, such as if environmental qual-
ity of the hospital is high, environmental stress will
be less, and therefore the brain can focus on healing
the body and therefore the duration will be decreased
(Erick Jonson center, 2005).
Another factor can be achieved by enhancing the
environmental quality in the hospital is creating the
distraction factor. Distractions factor is the factor
that causes patients to be diverted from focusing on
their pain (Weller, 1980). Of the first and the most
the initiator of modern nursing has been operating
in which both daylight and ambient air has been
introduced as healing factors (Schweitzer, 2004). In
the following researches four elements of nature,
daylight, fresh air and relaxing in environment are
introduced as four components in the treatment envi-
ronment (Berg, 2006). Notable in these researches
is that these researches has been conducted only
in area of environment impact on patients, and the
needs of staff are considered less and we can say
that the needs of families and visitors are completely
ignored.
This article studies the ways in which health care
facility design has an effect on satisfaction and produc-
tivity of all users. This type of approaches in research
is far less than environmental impact on patients and
its purpose is to provide a series of environmental
design principles that by using them in architectural
design of medical centers deep concepts of labor pro-
ductivity, environmental satisfaction, and environment
health are provided.
2 HOSPITAL USERS
Hospital design should reflect a wide range of its
users including patients, visitors, or employees. The
hospital users are classified under several categories
that in all aspects of design these users are considered.
2.1 Patients and visitors
Often entering to hospitals was an uncertain and full
of stress period for patients and visitors. According
to research conducted in the United States, the

7
environmental characteristics that patients and their
families appropriate in the hospital environment are
as follows:
It facilitates communication with employee
It facilitates communication with the outside world
of the hospital (communication with nature).
In the long-term care, it creates sense of health and
comfort
Environment is attractive and fun and waiting areas
with the distractions would be relaxing for people.
The environment arouse persons sense of autonomy
and independence
Spaces should be convenient and accessible.
Obvious signs, symptoms and visual comfort is
important to find ways
It does not destroy confidential and private life of
the individual
It is the care of family
It is safety
The injuries should be considered. The long corri-
dors, lack of chairs and are problems.
It does not destroy confidential and private life of
the individual
Spaces should be convenient and accessible.
Obvious signs, symptoms and visual comfort is
important to find ways
It does not destroy confidential and private life of
the individual
It is the care of family
It is safety
The injuries should be considered. The long corri-
dors, lack of chairs and . . . are problems.
2.2 Elderly and disabled people
Important and growing subset of population in hos-
pital are the elderly, they need several treatment so
they are more likely to be hospitalized longer (1 to 3
weeks). Elderly and those who have poor vision want
to be comfortable and have everything under their
control. Having control means to know where they
are and where they want to go (Dalke, 2004).
2.3 Child and adolescent patients
Patients with low age need certain conditions that
should be considered in the design. Hospital environ-
ment for children who are patients or who have just
come to the hospital along with others is frustrating and
frightening. The color design creates a visual interest
and they go out of the hospital with excitement.
Other categories of patients that specific approach
should be applied for them are teens, taking care of
them is very difficult because spaces for adult and
spaces for children are not completely appropriate for
them (Dalke, 2004).
2.4 Hospital staff
Staff often has clear point of view of work envi-
ronment design and definition. Based on surveys
conducted in the working environment they stated they
8
need the environment that ensures staff recruitment
and retention better morals the availability and
positioning a private space and security (Dalke,
2004).
A field study conducted in the Barbara Anne Car-
mons Cancer Hospital in Detroit has indicated that
after the reconstruction of the hospitals to improve the
environmental qualities the rate of fatigue and illnesses
as a result of work in the hospital has decreased from
23% to 8/3% (Makin, 2006). There is much evidence
that shows traditional approaches in design of hospi-
tal in which the space is important cause to reduce the
working mood, fatigue, and to increase medical errors,
and by correct design the result is adverse (Ulrich,
2006). And although job satisfaction is not only depen-
dent on the physical environment the impact of the
environment is indispensable (Tyson, 2002).
3 AFFECTIVE FACTORS
In the review of research the following environmental
factors are considered as factors affecting the users
environmental quality.
3.1 Environmental experience
One of the environmental factors is spatial experience
that the user has in environment. All of patients, staff,
families and visitors share a certain physical envi-
ronment which is the space of hospital and have the
necessary experience to understand the environment.
Controlling the environment is referred to the per-
sons ability and power in influencing the condition
and his decision making about what is happening to
him, so lack of control over the environment has neg-
ative effects on the health of the environment users
(Taylor, 1997). The sense of control over everything
is one of the most influential factors in the environ-
mental stress and happiness of person. Several studies
indicate that lack of a sense of control in environment
has negative outcomes such as depression and immune
systems will have to be week (Marberry, 1995). Those
who have more control over their environment expe-
rience less stress that this feeling is more apparent in
patients and staff of medical centers (Ulrich, 1991).
3.2 Access to nature
Natures role in improving is indispensable. Wilson
proved with the assumption of liking nature that due to
the inherent communication of man with nature, with
human exposure in the natural environment, personal
health will promote (Guenther, 2007). The benefits
of nature in medical centers are searched by the
four-factors such as stress reduction, decreasing the
disease progression and improving and increasing the
work efficiency of staff. Alrych proved that the vision
of nature in the recovery room accelerates postopera-
tive recovery (Ulrich, 2007). Also nature in the design
of medical centers is important because it can reduce
patients pain and increase staffs morale.
 Accordingly, the impacts of access to green space
in the hospital include:
Reduction of stress for patients and visitors
Higher quality of life for permanent patients
Increasing the pain threshold and decreasing depres-
sion in patients
Improving the environmental behavior
Reducing hospitalization period and thus reducing
costs
Strengthening the sense of patients independence
Increasing personnels job satisfaction and patients
satisfaction and . . .
3.3 Buildings architectural form
Design heavily overshadows functional topics of work
quality and caring of staff. The radial arrangement of
rooms or the forms that minimize spaces between the
rooms and the nursing department increase efficiency
of staff care. (Makin, 2006) Fatigue due to too much
traffic to patients rooms is of the aspects that through
proper design and minimizing the spaces between
rooms or taking away two nursing stations can be
controlled. One study shows that nurses believe their
environment architectural design has great impact on
the ability of them in patient care.
3.4 Light and color
Until recent years, the factor of light in the design
of medical centers has seen only as a possible tool
for illumination and viewing, whereas the light is the
most influential environmental factors on the quality
of treatment and work environment.
Of survey research can be concluded that the pres-
ence of light primarily in a therapeutic environment
is discussed from the patients and staff point of view,
the effects in improving processes and increasing effi-
ciency and reducing medical errors of the staff. Haton
in 2005 during a study aimed at evaluating the environ-
mental preferences of patients and staff has concluded
natural light after the amplitude factor of hospital
space is the second important factor from the per-
spective of hospital patients and staff (Makin, 2006).
After lighting the important factor in medical center is
satisfaction of staff and medical errors .The research
revealed a lack of light is the most important factor in
medication errors (Rechel, 2009).
Accordingly, the positive effects of natural lighting
in hospitals can be summarized in the following cases:
Reduction of stress and depression
Increasing patient and staff satisfaction
Accelerating the recovery process of patients
Reduction of the use of sedatives and thus minimiz-
ing the costs
Disinfection of spaces and reducing pollution of
treatment environment and . . . (Hassanpour)
Florence Nightingale believes that diversity in form
and clarity in objects color shown to the patient is
real sense of improvement (Dalken, 2006). Color can
9
be a great impact on the people understanding and
reflection of environment, and have a direct impact
on improving environmental qualities of patients, staff
and families and such as research shows that colors
like light can improve recovery rates to 10%. What
is important here is the comprehensive knowledge of
designers to use color in order to reduce environmental
stress and physiological negative responses of users to
environment. The first principle in using color is the
closeness of environment to home space and strength-
ening the symbolic aspect of medical environment.
Generally, bright colors like white will be effective for
increasing depression, especially in psychiatric hospi-
tals. According to a survey conducted in 2008 cool and
calm colors like blue is better for the room of hospital-
ized patients to reduce stress (Karlin, 2005). But other
studies suggest that nurses in their workplaces with
such colors may feel sad and depression (Dalken). So
we can conclude that in public spaces of the nursing
care environments warm colors should be used that
make the better community relations and also the cool
colors should be used in room of hospitalized patients.
3.5 The quality of materials and resources
One of the most important factors in the hospital green
design approach is paying attention to the selecting
of materials. Today the topic of infection control in
hospitals has become a major problem. So that one of
the most common diseases in hospitals is the disease
that people are suffering at the hospital (Essex health
protection unit, 2007) in green design, safety issues
related to staff and patients are considered.
The main factor in the selection of materials in the
wash ability environment is antibacterial character-
istic of materials but what is important in selecting
material of floors, walls and ceiling is the ability to
absorb sound. Noise pollution is called as a source
of chronic environmental stress in medical centers
(Topf, 2000). Like the sound-absorbing materials by
minimizing the source of this pollution, the treatment
process will improve, and also in a study in the inten-
sive care unit it is found that nurses were expose to
less sounds have shown satisfaction, social relation-
ships and higher levels of care of patients (Bomkvist,
2004).
The positive effects of these recommendations and
strategies in hospitals are summarized: (Topf, 2000).
Increasing the efficiency of medical centers
Reduction in the rate of patients with hospital
infections and diseases caused by environmental
pollution
Increasing the safety and satisfaction of hospital
users
Cost savings during the life cycle of building
The social positive effects.
4 CONCLUSION
Using green design strategies and medical centers
have the positive effects on treatment, space quality
 Health Dimensions
Cleanness/maintenance of internal spaces
Operation and maintenance of mechanical installations
The air conditioning
Selection of materials
Temperature conditions
Personal control over environmental conditions
Daylight
The influence of sunlight
Access to the pleasant scenery from the window
Relationship with Nature
Social spaces
No Rush
Silence
Personal control over environmental conditions
Temperature conditions
The air conditioning
Cleanness/maintenance of internal spaces
Selection of materials
Personal control over environmental conditions
Adequate lighting base on performance
Lack of blinding of lights and windows
Access to the pleasant scenery from the window
Adequate visual privacy
Relationship with Nature
of the hospital and satisfaction of patients and staff.
By considering the advantages and necessity of atten-
tion to hospital adverse effects on the environment,
sustainability issue in hospitals should be considered
as a crucial indicator of design stage, implementation
and operation. Based on this, spatial quality affects on
the welfare of users in the medical environment, the
following table provides a summary of these cases that
is specific to hospitals and medical centers.
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Dalke, H. & Littelefair, P. & Loe, D. 2004. Lighting and
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Dalke, H. & Little, J. 2006. Colour And Lighting in Hospital
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Guenther, R. & Vittori, G. 2007. Sustainable Healthcare
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Karlin, B. & Zeiss, R. 2005. Environmental and Therapeu-
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Cognitive-Nervous Comfort
Makin, J. 2006. Healing environment as the century mark,
the quest for optimal patient experiences in wagenaar.
The Architecture of Hospital: pp. 258265.
Malenbaum, S., Keefe, F. & Williams, A. 2009. Pain in its
environmental context. Implications for designing envi-
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Marberry, S. 1995. Innovation in Healthcare Design. Van
nostrand reinhold.
Rechel, B., Buchan, J. & Mckee, M. 2009. The impact of
health facilities on healthcare workers well-being and
performance. International Jornal of Nursing Studies 46:
pp. 10251034.
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on Health. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary
Medicine. Vol 10: pp. 7183
Taylor, S. & Repetti, R. & Seeman, T. 1997. Health Psychol-
ogy, what is an unhealthy environment and how does it get
under the skin. Ann Rev Psychology, 48: pp. 411417.
Topf, M. 2000. Hospital noise pollution, An environmental
stress model to guide research and clinical interventions.
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Tyson, G. & Lamber, G. 2002. The impact of ward design on
the behavior, occupational satisfaction and well-being of
psychiatric nurses. International Journal of Mental Health
11(2): pp. 94102.
Ulrich, R. 2006. Evidence based healthcare design in wage-
naar. The Architecture of Hospital: pp. 281289.
Ulrich, R. 2007. View through a window may influence
recovery from surgery. Science 224.
Ulrich, R.S. 1991. Effects of interior design on wellness,
theory and recent scienti research. J Health Care Inter
Des, 3: pp. 97109.
Weller, B. 1980. Helping Sick Children Play. Cassell Ltd.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

An attic as rehabilitation solution for low rise prefab concrete

housing blocks

Catalina Bocan
Faculty of Architecture, Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania

ABSTRACT: Romania, along with the other states that were under the communist regime until 1989, is gifted
with lots of prefab concrete housing blocks, low or high rise. Once the democracy reinstated, the people started
to develop different kind of construction works for comfort improvements: at a smaller scale, inside their new
bought apartments, or at a larger scale, with thermal rehabilitation and pitched roof/attic solutions. Due to
financial problems and real estate market, the new construction was built by contractors interested only in a
maximum for sale area and with no concern for good design. This paper propose an attic solution, completely
different from the actual built variations, with a large scale applicability and only prefabricated elements for
structure and enclosing parts, with light weight. There are also treated subjects like comfortable apartments,
energy saving, elevator possibility and integrated contemporary design for the whole ensemble (new plus old).

Keywords: prefab, concrete panel block, attic, structure

1 INTRODUCTION between 1960 and 1990. During this period of time,

1.1 National evolution before 1990
Romania, as a former satellite country of Russian
communist policy, has in each city, no matter how
big it is at least one building or one whole district
using prefabricated concrete panels. These construc-
tions were divided in two major categories: low rise
(four or five story high) or high rise (more than
9 stories, usually eleven). Because of the political
requirements and financial reasons, large scale indus-
trialized prefabricated concrete panels became the
major structural design of the communist housing
units. Even these days, they are known under the nick-
name of commieblock and not only in Romania.
(Fig. 1).
They represent the largest percent of existing build-
ings from the whole building stock, erected mostly
the amount of apartments realized every year was
more important than the quality of work process
(prefabrication, materials, even execution).
1.2 From 1990 till now
After 1990, once the political regime changed, these
prefab constructions were no longer desired and the
population started to look for improvements of the
existing or land property for new houses. The first step
everyone did was to buy from the state its own apart-
ment (till then there was no private ownership over the
apartments from these blocks). Even so, not everybody
could afford to move from the small socialist apart-
ment, the consequence being local interventions for
better comfort. Along with the global trend for energy
performance of buildings, starting with the 21st cen-
tury, large scale construction works were developed in
most of Romanian cities.

2 EXISTING ATTIC REHABILITATIONS

2.1 Applied solutions for existing rehabilitations,

Figure 1. Bing aerial view of a commieblock district.
including thermal
The national thermal rehabilitation program offered
subsidies for works concerning thermal insulations of
the envelope and mechanical problems. In order to
benefit from this state help, the owners had to bring
their own financial part (the last version was 20% of
the total cost of interventions). Because of economic

11
Figure 2. Existing attics.
motives, some owner associations decided to use the
flat roof or the new pitched roof (built after 1990) as an
exchange trade with builders or real estate developers.
This way, the building gained an attic with new apart-
ments instead of bad flat roof or unused space in pitch
roof, plus thermal rehabilitation of entire envelope.
The contractors became the owner of the attic housing
units in exchange of all necessary external operations
over the whole exterior elements of the underneath
concrete structure.
Due to real estate market, the attic is improperly
called like this because the usable area obtained on
this level is the same with the other stories: the closing
are vertical or with little deviation, there are no exterior
spaces (balcony or loggia) inside the perimeter of the
original block (Fig. 2).
2.2 Technical constraints
The structural conditions of the attic are more diffi-
cult than in other countries, Romania being one of the
fewest European countries with seismic movements.
The new loads from the entire sixth story should not
exceed the former loads from the roof layers. This
means that only light structures are accepted (masonry,
metal, wood or combinations of these). A technical
expertise is compulsory and all those layers of the for-
mer roof had to be removed from top to the upper
concrete slab.
Another restrictive component in design is the fire
safety. In Romania there are different degrees for fire
resistance, from 1st (the best) to 5th. The original
building, being made of prefab concrete elements,
has a very good behavior in case of fire. The legal
requirements oblige to maintain (if possible) the same
degree of fire resistance for the attic, but the practical
reasons of a quick and cheap execution lead to a large
scale use of wood and metal structures instead of other
possible solutions.
There was also a psychological factor that flat roof
means leaking and poor execution, determinant for
many people to adopt the solution of an attic with
pitched roof. Aesthetics had nothing to do with the
final image obtained for the entire block, most of
these interventions look like an ugly hat above a
monotonous and very colorful facade (Fig. 3).
A different structural problem concerns the neces-
sity of an elevator, but the small span and cellular grids
12
Figure 3. Colorful buildings.
Figure 4. Typical building.
made of concrete panels that forms these matchbox
building doesnt allow an interior position. Even the
law binds having an elevator, in most of the cases the
notion is left aside.
3 PROPOSED ATTIC
3.1 General conditions
As a result of industrialized process, political control
and centralized design institutes, all over the country
the image of dormitory districts is similar, with lim-
ited number of building types and some local variation
on exterior aspect. The consequence is that today, any
projected version for an attic is applicable to more
than other dozen buildings, spread around the national
territory.
The solution proposed for the attic as a sustainable
option is linked with a large scale applicability, quick
execution and contemporary needs for energy saving
and comfort.
3.2 Structural design
Most of building types have the same structural grid,
with two spans of 5.4 m on the short side (the cou-
pling side of a structural section) and many small
spans (between 2.4 m and 5.4 m) along the main facade
(Fig. 4).
The system consists of cellular concrete panels, all
the same on each level. The exterior panels are 27
or 30 cm width with three layers (structural concrete,
thermal insulation and protection concrete) and the
interior ones are made of 14 cm concrete (***, 1983).
Due to this arrangement the new layout for attic
structure is placed exactly over the below elements,
for loading reasons (Fig. 5).
Figure 5. Grid disposal of structural frames.
Figure 6. The attic frame visible from any point of view.
Another good thing about having the same openings
in structure design is the great opportunity of prefab-
rication, because all elements are identical and can be
used in different places/cities, even if they were pro-
duced in just one place. The attic skeleton consists
of a thin concrete frame with three columns and one
beam, repeated on each axis, visible from any exterior
point of view, even street level (Fig. 6).
The use of concrete is reasonable because of the
many constraints mentioned before, including fire
safety and quick execution. Another positive thing
about using this type of structure is the separation of
closing elements from the structure. In this case, the
architectural design was intended to improve the actual
aspect of the matchbox beneath and to offer present
day comfort standards for the new apartments.
3.3 Structural details
Under the same appearance, there are three different
possibilities of structural elements: one is the classic
system with steel bars reinforced concrete; the sec-
ond one is a mixture between steel fibers and steel
bars reinforced concrete and the third one is just with
steel fibers reinforcement. Together with each of these
solutions there is a steel element needed for the joint
between the original structure and the new one. This
element is connected with column shoes and chemi-
cally anchored bolts to the structural walls of the 4th
story. The type of concrete used for the attic frame is
C30/37, in a trapeze shape of 18/35/14 cm (Fig. 7).
3.4 Closing elements
The closing elements for attic envelope are also com-
posite types and allow a quick process of site works.
13
Figure 7. Structural details.
Figure 8. Modeled closing elements.
They have a good fire behavior, small widths and
great thermal conductivity. The vertical enclosure is
modeled with GLUPAN panels dimensions (Fig. 8),
125 mm width, U = 0.022 W/mK (***, 2009) and
the horizontal roof is formed of KS1000x-dek steel
from KINGSPAN, 100 mm width, U = 0.19 W/mK
(***, 2010).
The main insulating material used in these pan-
els is rigid polyurethane foam (PUR), a choice made
even for existing terrace new insulation, and instead
of polystyrene or rock wool (the U vale is almost
twice smaller) (Hegger, Auch-Schwelk, Fuchs &
Rosenkranz, 2005).
The whole ensemble of the structure and closing
element is not heavy considering loads for the struc-
ture of this low rise prefab concrete housing block:
the concrete elements have small dimensions and a
single frame has 1.054 m3 of concrete and 3 to max-
imum (together with metal parts, reinforcement and
connection elements); one GLUPAN panel weights
82 kg for 1.22 2.44 m element; the KINGSPAN
panel has 24.6 kg/m2 .
3.5 Architectural design
The whole building exterior design is an attempt to
invigorate a long and monotonous facade, operat-
ing with different type of balconies, three colors for
accents and one uniform color as background. The
main parts of the building consists of the original five
stories, detached from the ground due to the tech-
nical semi-basement and articulated to the sky with

Figure 9. General aerial view.
the given rhythm of structural frames and recessed
enclosures (Fig. 9).
4 CONCLUSIONS
The innovation of this attic solution is given by a
mixture of: new attic/penthouse design adverse to
general adopted solution with pitch roof; new pre-
fabricated materials used for structural and enclosing
part, opposite to wood/masonry/metal/small tiles; dif-
ferent joint type between the original concrete walls
and the new reinforced concrete frames instead of
14
monolith solutions; little structural elements inside the
new apartments; large covered terraces for the pent-
house apartments; the new elevator used as a dynamic
element for the back/inner court facade (with less
balconies).
All enumerated above contribute to a daring attic
solution, combined with a thermal retrofit, and may
represent a challenge for Romanian people, running
away from flat roof, prefab concrete structures and
small spaces.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author would like to thank to dipl. Eng. Cor-
nel Farcas and to my PhD coordinator, PhD. Eng.
Professor Valeriu Stoian for the given support in this
study, especially the structural design and details.
REFERENCES
***, 1983. Large panels living units P+4. Project 770 83
Short description Brochure.
***, 2009. Thermal Insulation Panel Glupan. Glulam
Company Presentation Brochure.
***, 2010. Kingspan X-dek KS1000 XD Longspan
Roofpanel.Kingspan Company Brochure.
Hegger, M., Auch-Schwelk, V., Fuchs, M. & Rosenkranz, T.
2005. Insulating and sealing Construction Materials Man-
ual Edition DETAIL, Munich: Birkhauser 132141.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Concentration of TV news coverage to the specific municipalities

Case study on the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake

Muneyoshi Numada & Kimiro Meguro

Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, Japan

ABSTRACT: After the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake in Japan, we observed a concentration of news coverage on
the damage and disaster response activities in specific municipalities and a high emphasis was given on the
nuclear power plant accident. The concentrated news coverage induced the concentration of aid activities such
as distribution of relief supplies and donations to the specific areas. This problem has repeatedly happened in the
past disasters as well. The purpose of this research is to conduct a quantitative analysis of the municipalities that
were repeatedly covered by the TV news reports. This research defined the media coverage rate of municipalities
in order to analyze the relationship between the amount of media coverage and the level of damage caused by
the disaster. The result showed that even if the damage level is equally high, there was a difference in the amount
of TV news coverage among the municipalities.

Keywords: Tohoku Earthquake, TV program

1 INTRODUCTION people could watch the TV programs in the open air

1.1 Overview of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake
At 14:46 JST (5:46 UTC) on March 11th, 2011, an
earthquake of a moment magnitude 9.0, the largest
earthquake ever recorded in Japan, struck off the shore
of the Sanriku area in the Tohoku Region. The fol-
lowing mega tsunami hit deeply indented coastal
areas and brought extensive and devastating damage
to many cities and villages in this area. Damage by
mega tsunami was not only limited to buildings, but
the resulting fires destroyed many communities and
nuclear power plant (NPP) facilities have suffered
complicated and serious damage. This earthquake was
later named The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku
Earthquake by the Japan Meteorological Agency
(JMA).
1.2 Importance of TV programs
In this earthquake, it was difficult to grasp the full
scope of the disaster since the damage was widespread
and diverse. In order to obtain information about
the damage condition, safety confirmation, news and
announcement from municipalities; varieties of media,
not only conventional tools such as television, radio
and the Internet but also new types of information-
sharing tools such as Twitter and Facebook were used.
The Internet TV news sites such as USTREAM and
NICO-NICO DOUGA were also able to broadcast pro-
grams from NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation)
and commercial TV stations at no charge. In addition,
by receiving one-segment broadcasting services.
According to the survey (Nomura Research Insti-
tute, Ltd. 2011) on trends in media contact associated
with the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earth-
quake, TV was ranked no. 1 and no. 2 as an important
source of information. About 80.5% of the people con-
sidered information from TV coverage by NHK and
56.9% considered information from commercial TV
stations as important in acquiring information about
the earthquake. And information from the newspa-
per and information from the portal sites on the
Internet ranked after TV. In addition, according to the
survey (My Voice Communications, Inc. 2011) with
question as How one gathered information about the
2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake?,
the TV was ranked at top as 93.5% of the people chose
TV, 44.9% chose newspapers, 44.8% chose internet
news sites, 42.8% chose portal site (such as Yahoo)
and 31.1% chose radio. From these results, it is evident
that many people used TV as a main tool for obtaining
information.
According to the article 108 of the Broadcasting
Act and Disaster Countermeasure Basic Act (Tanaka
2008), broadcasting organizations are obliged to pro-
vide useful services in order to prevent and reduce
the disaster. Also, the Ministry of Internal Affairs
and Communications requested NHK and the National
Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan to
provide accurate and detailed information to the pub-
lic as quickly as possible (Ministry of Internal Affairs
and Communications 2011).

15
 From these results, it can be said that the TV news
is not only to report damage situation but also it is
expected to provide useful information that can pre-
vent further damage and contribute to an appropriate
disaster management as one of the disaster prevention
organizations.
1.3 Problems of TV programs
Just after the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, some areas
were easily accessible by the news reporters or broad-
casted heavily at an early stage which left a strong
impact. As a result, some municipalities were inten-
sively covered by the TV news reports than others.
There was also a high emphasis on the nuclear power
plant accident. It can be said that the news coverage
was unbalanced considering the scale of affected areas
and as a result it induced the aid activities to be concen-
trated at certain areas while other areas were neglected,
causing unbalanced distribution of relief supplies and
donations.
Although this problem of media concentration has
been repeatedly pointed out in the past earthquakes
(Nakamori 1995) such as Hokkaido Nansei Oki Earth-
quake in 1993, Hokkaido Toho oki Earthquake in
1994, and the Southern Hyogo prefecture earthquake
in 1995, the same problem occurred again in 2011
Tohoku Earthquake (Nakamori 2011). Unbalanced
media coverage on certain topics and areas cannot
provide the viewers with comprehensive views and
understanding of a total damage especially at the time
of such extensive disaster as the Tohoku earthquake.
The TV media has a responsibility and an impor-
tant role to provide information to influence peoples
decision-making and proper evaluation.
Previous studies regarding to the TV news coverage
and its contents after the Tohoku earthquake include
the chronological analysis of the contents of TV news
(NHK 2011), the verification of early media cover-
age, the confused reports of the nuclear power plant
accident, and the analysis of the foreign media reports
(General incorporated association of Tokyo-sya 2011).
However, the quantitative analysis of the unbalanced
TV news coverage has not yet been conducted.
1.4 Purpose of this research
The purpose of this study is to conduct a quantitative
verification of unbalanced media coverage in differ-
ent municipalities during the emergency period after
the Tohoku earthquake. The relationship between the
media coverage and the level of damage caused by
the disaster for the first 10 days after the disaster was
analyzed.
2 TV NEWS DATA
In this study, we selected six major TV stations for the
analysis, namely NHK, NTV, TBS, Fuji TV, TV Asahi,
and TV Tokyo. In order to analyze the TV contents,
16
Table 1. Example of the text data of the TV program (259
characters).
In Miyagi Prefecture, by the earthquake, 53 people were
killed. The details is 17 people in the Higashimatsushima
city, 12 people in the Kesennuma city, 8 people in the
Shichigahama town and 5 people in the Sendai city.
In the coastal town of Minamisanriku where was attacked
by the tsunami, many buildings and houses were washed
away by the tsunami except the hospital building constructed
by concrete, and many people were missing. In the area along
with the port of Kesennuma in Kesennuma city, the
large-scale fire occurred caused by the outflowing oil
from the tank at the port. The video of Kesennumacity.
(March 12, NHK)
normally the text data from each section of the pro-
gram is required. In this study, we have employed the
database called Document-Analyser by JCC Corpo-
ration. This allowed us to obtain the text data of all six
TV stations for 365 days a year, 24 hours a day by the
unit of seconds. Also it was possible for us to com-
prehend when, what, where, and how each TV stations
reported. Table 1 shows an example of the text data of
NHK on March 12th.
This paper uses the target period of 10 days from
March 11th to 20th, considering the importance of the
TV news reports in the early stage immediately after
the disaster, with regards to the understanding of dam-
age situation and the level of influence it has on a
supply of relief goods.
3 CONCENTRATION OF TV PROGRAMS
The news programs broadcasted by each TV station
were similar and there was no big difference or distinc-
tive characteristic observed from their reports made
during 10 days after the disaster.
3.1 Definition of the Concentration-ratio of the
news coverage on municipality C
This chapter analyses how each TV station concen-
trated its reports on specific municipalities by using
the text data. This study defines Concentration-Ratio
of the News Coverage on Municipality as C. This is
indicated by the ratio of the total number of all the
municipalities each TV station picked up and the
number of each municipality each TV station picked
up. Here the definition of the word picked up is used
when the name of a particular municipality is included
in the text data as underlined in Table 1. For exam-
ple :Higashimatsushima city marked 1, Kesennuma
city 4, Shichigahama town1, Sendai city1, and
Minami-Sanriku town1in the text given in Table 1.
If the index C is high, it indicates that the TV station
has reported on the particular municipality intensively.
On the other hand, if the index C is low, it indicates
that the particular municipality has not been reported
Figure 1. Relationship between the number of casualties and the concentrationratio of the municipality.
as much. If the index C is zero, it indicates that the
municipality did not get covered at all.
3.2 Relationship between the C value
and the level of damage
In this section, we discuss the relationship between
the C value and the level of damage. In the previ-
ous studies, there has been a quantitative analysis
of the relationship between the newspaper coverage
17
and the damage level (Matsumura 1998), however
the relationship between the TV report coverage and
damage level has not yet been studied. The defini-
tion Earthquake coverage rate is indicated by the
ratio of earthquake related reports in all the news
reports in the newspaper excluding advertisement. The
result indicates that there is a high correlation to the
number of casualties and the Earthquake coverage
rate rather than to the number of totally collapsed
buildings.
Figure 2. Relationship between the number of casualties and the concentrationratio of the municipality of NHK.
Using the above result as reference, this paper anal-
yses the relationship between casualties and the index
C of TV news coverage. The number of total casualties
used here represents the sum of the missing and dead
people.
Figure 1 shows the relationship between the casu-
alties and the index C on March 11th. In calculating
the index C here, the total number of news coverage
on municipalities from March 11th to 20th is used and
the number of casualties referred to those confirmed
by March 20th.
Focusing on the municipalities with 1,000 casual-
ties such as Kesennuma city, Kamaishi City, Otsuchi
town, Higashimatsushima city, and Yamamoto town,
NHK showed the highest number of index C for
Kesennuma city, followed by Kamaishi city, Otuchi
town, Higashimatsushima city and Yamamoto town.
This result shows that even though the number of casu-
alties is similar, there is a significant difference in the
amount of TV news coverage on municipalities.
Similarly, in Nihon-TV, for the municipalities with
1000 casualties, the index C of Kesennuma city shows
high value, while Yamamoto town and Higashimat-
sushima city show relatively low value. The same
tendency is observed in other TV stations. This ten-
dency can also be observed from the chronological
analysis as given in Table 2 (a) and (b). On March
14th, in Higashimatsushima city, 152 dead and 400
missing people were found, likewise on March 15th
in Yamamoto town, 111 dead and 638 missing people
were found. Despite these findings of high number
of casualties, no obvious reaction is observed in the
index C.
Figure 2 shows the relationship between casualties
and the index C of NHK on the day of the earthquake,
the third day and tenth day from the occurrence of
earthquake. The C is calculated by the number of cov-
erage on the day of the earthquake, the sum of the
coverage by the third and tenth days since March 11th
respectively. The number of casualties used is the sum
18
of dead and missing people on the day of the earth-
quake, by the third and tenth days since March 11th
respectively.
The index C of Sendaiand Natori cityon the day
of the earthquake is high, subsequently followed
by Ofunato city, Kamaishi city, Kesennuma city,
Higashimatsushima city and Yamamoto town. Otsuchi
town is not covered at this stage as seen in Figure 2 (a).
Now, we will discuss by comparing two municipalities
of Kesennuma city and Otsuchi town.
On the third day (Figure 2 (b)), both Kesennuma city
and Otsuchi town showed increase in the number of
casualties, however the index C of Kesennuma city has
increased while that of Otsuchi town has not changed.
By the tenth day afterthe earthquake, the number of
casualties of both Kesennuma city and Otsuchi town
reached almost the same level, yet, a big difference of
index C is observed.
These results proved quantitatively that there is a
difference in the index C despite the fact that the casu-
alty level is the same. It indicated that the news reports
coverage is unbalanced. This tendency is common
among other TV stations. One of the causes for this
may be explained by the accessibility to certain munic-
ipalities due to the road condition. However, another
cause may be that the TV stations have tendency to
comply with reports by successful TV stations which
managed to deliver news with strong impacts, driven
by the mentality to avoid missing out on a scoop. The
results of this study are important as it indicated these
phenomena by using quantitative analysis.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The concentrated news coverage induced the concen-
tration of aid activities such as distribution of relief
supplies and donations to the specific area. This prob-
lem has repeatedly happened in the past disasters. This
research proved quantitatively that there is a difference
in the index C despite the fact that the casualty level is
the same and it indicated that the news reports coverage
is unbalanced. This tendency is common among all TV
stations. One of the causes for this may be explained
by the accessibility to certain municipalities due to the
road condition. However another cause may be that the
TV stations have tendency to comply with reports by
successful TV stations which managed to deliver news
with strong impacts, driven by the mentality to avoid
missing out on a scoop. The results of this study are
important as it indicated these phenomena by using
quantitative analysis.
From these results, we propose the following strat-
egy to improve the TV news reports for the next
disaster. Under the condition of limited time and
human resources of TV stations, it is advisable to (1)
grasp the overall damage condition properly, (2) pro-
vide information that corresponds to the needs of the
audience, and (3) promote the cooperation among the
TV stations, with respect to freedom of the press, in
order to avoid unbalanced news coverage to specific
municipalities and to make it more accessible to obtain
necessary information.
Regarding to the role of news organizations, the TV
stations are expected to provide useful information in
order to contribute to the realization of appropriate
disaster response, both from inside and outside of the
disaster-affected area (Cabinet Office of Japan 2008)
and it is important to consider the above-mentioned
strategy for improvement from this point of view as
well.
For the next activities of this study, we will make
similar analysis using the amount of reporting time
and verify the difference from the text data. Moreover,
we will make further study to find out what kinds of
subject matters were reported intensively.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research is supported by Mr. Takatoshi Ishii of
JCC Corporation.
19
REFERENCES
General incorporated association of Tokyo-sya (2011). Jour-
nalism of unprecedented disaster and tribulation. Journal
of general journalism research, No. 217, pp. 918, 2651.
Japan Cabinet Office of Japan (2008). Basic Disaster
Management Plan, pp. 4849.
Kazuo Matsumura (1998). Reaction of society against the
earthquake disaster reported by the newspaper, Journal of
Architectural Institute of Japan. 511, pp. 6167.
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (2011).
The request for Japan Broadcasting Corporation and
National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in
Japan about the information providing of the 2011 Off
the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake, http://www.
soumu.go.jp/menu_news/s-news/01ryutsu07_01000018.
html. [Accessed at 2011.4.1]
My Voice Communications, Inc. (2011). Questionnaire sur-
vey on How to gather information about the 2011 Off
the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake, http://www.
myvoice.co.jp/biz/surveys/15417/index.html. [Accessed
at 2011.5.30]
Nakamori H., (1995). Problems about initial and regional-
detail information focused on the city of Hanshin region,
Journal of the Institute of Social Safety Science (5),
pp. 2128.
Nakamori H., (2011). Problems of news and mass media in
the 2011 Off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake.
Journal of Urban problems, Vol. 102, pp. 49.
NHK (2011). What kinds of contents did TV stations provide
in the 2011 Off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake,
NHK broadcasting studies, Vol. 61, No. 5, pp. 27.
NHK (2011). What kinds of contents did TV stations provide
in the 2011 Off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake
(2), NHK broadcasting studies, Vol. 61, No. 6, pp. 29.
Nomura Research Institute, Ltd.(2011). Research on trends
in media contact associated with the earthquake,
http://www.nri.co.jp/news/2011/110329.html. [Accessed
at 2011.3.29.]
Tanaka H., and Yoshii A. (2008). Introduction to Disaster
Information Theory, Koubundou, pp. 164165, 218227.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Research on application of green building technologies in

designs of school

Yan Qiu Cui , Yu Liu & N. Zhao

Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shandong Jianzhu University, Jinan, China

ABSTRACT: In this paper, the program design of Guang zhou Golden Valley International Primary School is
taken as an example, and design idea of simulating the wind environment and elaborating the building volume
to achieve good ventilation effect is introduced, a comfortable and energy-saving building space is constructed
focusing on the local climate characteristics, using appropriate technologies and equipment such as movable
partition walls, rooftop solar power and rainwater collection system, and a design method combining construction
techniques and architectural art is discussed, which provides a reference for the promotion of the application of
green building technology in the program designs of primary and secondary schools.

Keywords: Program designs of primary schools, Green building technology, Simulation technology

1 OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECT

The Golden Valley International Primary School in

this case is located in Guangzhou Valley Garden Cre-
ative Industry Base, which is located in Panyu District,
Guangzhou, covering an area of about 83 hm2 . The
aim of the entire project is to build a sustainable green
international community, (Lin et al. 2010) as shown
in Figure 1-1. The school is a community primary
school with a scale of 30 classes containing 750 stu-
dents. The area of land to be used is 14700 m2 , and
the construction area is 10500 m2 . The aspects includ-
ing overall planning, spatial layout and appropriate
technology are taken into consider in the entire pro- Figure 1. General plan.
gram design, and the direction of development of green
building technology in architectural design of primary
and secondary schools is also explored. as a semi-closed courtyard space, adopting the tradi-
tional Chinese form of spatial organization. According
to the building mass relationship between the different
2 FEATURES OF THE PROGRAM DESIGN areas, the office area and logistical area together form
a courtyard space. The teaching area forms a court-
2.1 Traditional courtyard-style planning yard space by itself. Such a layout design not only
and layout facilitates the management of the school, but also helps
to create an orderly, quiet and complete campus image.
In the overall planning, the campus is divided into a At the same time, the two major enclosed spaces are
teaching area, an office area, a logistics area and a connected by the T-shaped campus main roads with
sports area. The teaching area is a 4-story building and the sports area, so an enclosed but unblocking and
the office area is a 5-story building. The sports area mutual-penetrated space is formed (Figure 1).
is at the north side of the base ,and both teaching area
and office area are separated from the northward city
main traffic arteries, so that the noise pollution can 2.2 Elaboration of building mass in wind
be reduced. In order to add the local characteristics environment
into the design, the main building layout is designed
Guangzhou is located in the southern subtropical zone
with a typical south monsoon marine climate. The

CAUP, Shandong Jianzhu University. alternation between winter and summer monsoons is

21

Figure 2. Elaboration of building mass in wind
environment.
the outstanding feature of the monsoon climate in
Guangzhou. (DBJ15-1-90, 1990) Because local build-
ings have a higher requirement for natural ventilation,
so the construction of wind environment for indoor
and outdoor activity spaces is the important content of
the entire architectural design.
The layout of the case is a semi-enclosed courtyard
space, so the solution to the contradiction between the
sense of enclosure of courtyard space and building
ventilation has become the key to the formation of
the whole building volume. In the design, the local
traditional space processing techniques such as exte-
rior corridor + unilateral classroom, open staircases,
as well as a moderate housing spacing are adopted
to ensure a reasonable indoor wind environment. The
classrooms are arranged in the southeast of the entire
building, so they can get more dominant southeast
wind in summers. In addition, in order to reduce
the impact of the cold wind in winters, the exterior
corridors and activity space are arranged within the
courtyard space.
The wind environment simulation is shown in Fig-
ure 2. In Figure 2-1, it can be seen that the wind
environment within the courtyard simply enclosed by
the building is not ideal; in Figure 2-2, the southern
volume of the building is reduced locally to form a
wind inlet for the courtyard, and the library is built on
stilts, so the lower part of the library can form another
inlet, which can improve the reading environment; in
Figure 2-3, the step-like part of the laboratory build-
ing can further introduce wind to improve the wind
environment. Regarding the elaboration of the entire
building detail volume, if the size of the wind inlet is
not determined properly, a narrow-mouth effect will
form as shown in Figure 2-4, so in the design, the size
of the wind inlet should be appropriately enlarged to
reduce the local wind speed. In addition, in order to
reduce the impact of the cold wind in winters on the
courtyard space, the 5-story office building is arranged
at the north side to block the winter wind, and make
the wind speed surrounding the building within the
whole courtyard space is less than 5 m/s (GB 50378-
2006, 2006). Finally, considering the various factors
and analyzing the relationship between the different
building volumes, the volume in wind environment is
formed.
22
Figure 3. Vertical planting of verandahs.
Figure 4. Openable partition of multi-function hall.
2.3 Detail design of the building space
In order to improve the microclimate in the court-
yard space, more consideration is paid to the
3D planting in the courtyard space, in the design, green
roofs is arranged for the inlets of the multi-function
hall and the step-like part of the laboratory build-
ing to reduce the air temperature and further improve
the microclimate of the courtyard by making full use
of plant transpiration. The step-like roof combined
with the vestibules of the 3rd and 4th stories forms
an activity space, which enables the students to have
recess activities without going downstairs, and such an
arrangement reflects a human care. In addition, vines
will be planted outside the exterior corridors to shade
sunlight (Figure 3). On the one hand, the application of
3D planting can increase the artistic effect of the build-
ings, make the environment more clean, beautiful and
lively, on the other hand, it just needs a small place,
but produces quick results and a high greening rate.
For the design of the multi-function hall, in addition
to the application of artificial lighting and mechani-
cal ventilation, an openable light partition is designed
in the south wall of the multi-function hall, and the
of the opening angle of the partition can be chosen
in according to the requirements of indoor activities
(Figure 4), all these measures can improve the effects
of natural ventilation and lighting. In addition, the tran-
sition from an enclosed space to a semi-enclosed space
enables the space itself to form a visual communication
with the river landscape in the south of the base and
increases the interesting of the space while meeting
more functional requirements.
Figure 5. Simulation analysis of classroom natural lighting.
Figure 6. Simulation analysis of classroom controlled
lighting.
3 APPLICATION OF APPROPRIATE
TECHNOLOGY
Focusing on the characteristics of primary and
secondary school buildings, combining with local
climatic conditions, the designer explores the appli-
cation of related appropriate technology in this case
from several aspects including natural lighting design,
energy-saving design of the building envelope, build-
ing sunshade design, use of solar energy and reclaimed
water treatment.
3.1 Lighting design
In the case, the lighting method of each room is
determined through a large number of simulation and
analysis. The lighting calculation is carried out using
the CIE (International Commission on Illumination)
overcast model, namely the most adverse conditions.
Taking the southward classrooms as an example, in the
simulation process, it is found that the light from the
south can not meet the illumination requirements of
300lx at the horizontal plane of 0.75 m prescribed in
Standard for lighting design of buildings (GB/T50033-
2001), and the simulation process shows that the
increase in the area of the northwestward windows can
make the classrooms meet the requirements of lighting
standard. As shown in Figure 5 and Figure 6, through
the simulation analysis of classroom lighting control,
we can find that in 93% of annual natural light time
from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, the natural light reaches
the critical value of 100lx and artificial lighting is not
necessary, so the natural lighting of these classrooms
is well-designed.
23
Figure 7. Simulation analysis of energy consumption of
building using Low-e glass.
Figure 8. Simulation analysis of energy consumption of
building using H-T glass.
3.2 Energy-saving design of the building envelope
Taking into account the climatic characteristics of
Guangzhou, the design of the building envelope should
focus on the insulation measures. Taking the windows
of the classrooms as an example, through the simu-
lation of the hourly temperature in the hottest day of
Low-e glass and single high-transmittance glass, we
can find that the summer temperature of the classroom
installed with Low-e glass is significantly lower than
that of the classroom installed glass with high trans-
mittance. Further simulating the capabilities of the two
kinds of glass to reduce the energy consumption in
maintaining indoor comfort temperature (Figure 7 and
Figure 8), we can find that in terms of the capabil-
ity to reduce energy consumption throughout the year,
in summers, the capability of Low-e glass is stronger
than that of the other kind of glass, and in winters, the
difference is not significant. In addition, because the
building is mainly for children, so the heating and insu-
lation measures in winters should be considered is the
design, so through simulating the hourly temperature
in the coldest day, we can find: the speed of the high-
transmittance glass to increase indoor temperature is
faster than that of single Low-e glass. Therefore, if
the economic conditions permit, consideration should
be given to the installation of double-glazed windows
including a level of Low-e glass and a level of high-
transmittance glass in the southern wall of the building,
so as to effectively control the buildings insulation
through reasonable opening and closing the windows
in winters and summers.
In addition, because the impact of outdoor com-
prehensive temperature on the roof of large area is
Figure 9. Simulation analysis of building sunshade.
very obvious, so insulation measures should also be
considered. In this design, roof planting technology
is used on some roofs to reduce the solar radiation
through plant transpiration, and on other roofs, a
ventilation insulation layer on stilts is designed accord-
ing to the principle of the hot pressing ventilation,
which can help the heat staying in the roofs to be
carried away, so as to achieve the purpose of roof
insulation.
3.3 Sunshade design of the buildings
While choosing sunshade methods for the buildings, a
variety of sunshade types are generated with building
size simulation software (Figure 9), and after compar-
ing the grid sunshade, horizontal sunshade, vertical
sunshade, the size of a single type of sunshade is found
too big. Therefore, the method of combining a variety
of sunshade types is adopted. In this program, different
sunshade measures are chosen for walls of different
orientations: on the south-facing walls, the horizon-
tal and vertical self-sunshades are formed firstly, and
then a grid sunshade is set in the top of each win-
dow according to the sun incidence angle; on the
east-facing walls, adjustable blinds are designed to
automatically adjust the light intensity according to the
demand of the classrooms; on the north-facing walls,
breathable louvers are designed to adapt the build-
ings to the temperature changes between winters and
summers; on the west-facing walls, planting vines is
designed to prevent the western exposure, and achieve
the effect of 3D planting.
3.4 Design integrating solar energy and
roof shape
The solar resources in Guangzhou region is adequate,
so in the design, the overhand roof plates are combined
with solar photovoltaic panels and solar water heaters
to become an insulating barrier for the buildings (Fig-
ure 10). Solar photovoltaic systems are installed in the
teaching building and the office building, and the uni-
formly set solar modules can be selected and expanded
according to the owners demands; the solar hot water
system is set in the laboratory building, and the con-
centrated pipeline can not only provide hot water for
experiments, but also provide a stable heat source for
the swimming pool on the north of the laboratory
24
Figure 10. Roof model formed by solar energy system.
building and lengthen the using time of the outdoor
swimming pool in winters.This solar collection system
combining the functions of sunshade and roof shaping
embodies the perfect fusion of architectural art and
building technology.
3.5 Integrated design of reclaimed water
treatment and courtyard space
Guangzhou is a water-stressed city, so more attention is
paid to sewage treatment and recycling of rainwater in
the design. Specifically, the water tank is buried under
the ground of the courtyard to store rain water and
save ground space. The rainwater collected from the
roofs and the courtyard can be used to meet the needs
of toilet flushing, car washing, plant watering and fire
fighting after being deeply purified with infiltration
techniques to a certain degree of cleanliness (CAO et
al, 2002). In addition to rainwater recycling, in the
program, a reclaimed water treatment system is used
to treat the changed swimming pool water, so as to
save a lot of water.
4 CONCLUSION
In this paper, combining the program design of
Guangzhou Valley International Primary School, the
author carries out a lot of explorations and tries
on the application of green building technology in
architectural design of primary and secondary schools:
(1) To elaborate and continue to improve the build-
ing shapes using simulation software, namely, to
obtain emotional building shapes in rational ways,
to reflect the combination of building technology
and architectural art.
(2) To explore the combination of energy-saving
technologies and architectural modeling: the
integration of solar systems with the roofs can
not only reflect the architectural aesthetic, but
also played the roles of heat insulation equipment
and energy sources; the adjustable blinds reflect
a unique sense of rhythm which can enhance the
sense of order of educational buildings, the 3D
planting can create a lively courtyard space for
children.
(3) The semi-enclosed courtyard space is designed
adopting the design method of gathering rain-
water dropping from four roofs of a courtyard
learned from traditional houses, which can help
the rainwater collection system to store rainwater
in the tank buried in the center of the courtyard, and
reduce the length of the pipeline. The swimming
pool is located close to the teaching area, and such
a design can not only improve the local micro-
climate, but also use the daily water changed from
the pool as an important source of reclaimed water,
so as to conserve water resources.
25
REFERENCES
Cao, X. & Che, W. 2002. Design Analysis of Urban Roof
Rainwater Collection System J. Water & Wastewater
Engineering, 2002.01: 1415
DBJ15-1-90. 1990. Guangdong Standard Construction
Meteorological Parameters Standards [S]. Beijing. Min-
istry of Construction P.R. China
GB 50378-2006.2006. Green Building Evaluation Standard
[S]. Beijing. Ministry of Construction P.R. China
Lin, W. Wang, Q.G. & Dong J. 2010. Construction of Typi-
cal International Green Communities. J. NewArchitecture,
2010.02: 9497
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Energy-efficient office building design in cold climate

W.D. Ji, T.F. Zhao & X.W. Xu

Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shandong Jianzhu University, Jinan, China

ABSTRACT: Energy-efficient building design tailored for climate has aroused wide concern as energy con-
sumption in buildings plays a key role in achieving sustainable development. After identified the pros and cons of
cold climate in Jiamusi, potential energy-efficient design strategies can be identified. Exploitation of traditional
design strategies also provides possibilities. With the aid of numerical simulation tools e.g. Energy Plus, Ecotect
and CFD, design solutions like site plan, building envelop design and natural ventilation organization have been
optimized. The heat losses through building fabric represent for 18.8%, and reduced significantly compared
un-insulated buildings (35%). The earth sheltered roof, thick mud wall with double layers insulation materials
and Low-e glasses are effective ways in preventing heat losses. Double skin facades and well organized natural
ventilation will significantly improve indoor thermal comfort and air quality. The results of this study can provide
a reference for energy efficient office building design in cold climate.

Keywords: energy-efficient building design, cold climate, numerical simulation, ecotect, cfd, energyplus

1 INTRODUCTION 2 CLIMATE ANALYSIS

People spend 90% of their time live and work in build-
ings. Large amount of energy are consumed in order
to keep comfort indoor environments. The energy con-
sumption in buildings which plays an important role in
the long-term process to achieve sustainability occu-
pies one quarter of the total energy utilization with the
growth of economy (Jiang & Tony 2010). The World
Bank (Li 2008) reported that two-thirds of energy
consumption was spent on heating and hot water
in China. Energy efficient design can be achieved
through careful design of building form and services
using renewable energy (solar energy, wind, etc.) and
appropriate passive strategies (Liddamnet 1996). In
recent years, energy-efficient building design in dif-
ferent climates has aroused wide concern especially
incorporating passive design strategies.
Due to climatic diversity in China, the design
of buildings and their thermal performances could
vary greatly (Yang et al. 2008). In this paper, better
in-sight into Jiamusi climate which locates in cold
region by Ecotect will be provided firstly. After that,
focusing on a climatic responsive design with low tech
resolution in cold region, the site plan and detailed cli-
matic responsive building design of a business park
in Jiamusi, China will be developed. By taking into
consideration of lower energy consumption and higher
quality of indoor and outdoor environment, appropri-
ate strategies combination can be defined. In addition,
the performance of final design will be evaluated using
Ecotect and CFD. At last, suggestions will be sum-
marized pertaining to energy-efficient office building
design in cold climate.
2.1 Temperature analysis
The temperature analysis are given with the aid of
Weather Tool in Ecotect. The average temperature
peaks at June and July, and bottom at December and
January. Summer can be not very hot, with average
peak temperature at around 30 C, but rarely above
35 C. Rigid winter can be very cold, with average,
average minimum and average maximum temperature
lie below comfort band. These low temperatures could
easily reach 25 C, and sometimes 30 C. Diurnal
variation is about 20 C. According to the big temper-
ature variation throughout the whole year, the main
strategies when designing a building in this region are
going to be focused on insulation and keeping heat
inside.
2.2 Solar radiation and position
The solar radiation and position analysis are given
with the aid of Weather Tool in Ecotect.Daily solar
radiations do not present obvious seasonal variation
and direct solar radiation appears higher in magnitude
than diffuse radiation. The solar radiation in winter
and summer hover at the same level, and sometimes
the radiation in winter is higher than in summer.
This implies to some extent, making use of solar
energy in winter is a good idea. Due to high lati-
tude, the sun-path diagram shows summer days are
longer than winter days. Effective day lighting should
be considered especially in winter. East and west orien-
tation shows highest solar gains, active solar systems

27
can be incorporated with this. Optimal orientation is
shown as 182.5 .

2.3 Wind
The wind analysis are given with the aid of Weather
Tool in Ecotect.Respecting the wind rose, it is possi-
ble to see that the preponderant wind comes primarily
from the west while the coldest wind comes from the
north-west. This is particularly true during winter than
during summer, because of the monsonic effect that
brings wind from different regions especially from the
east (Pacific Ocean). For this reason, it is particularly Figure 1. Birdseye view of proposed site plan.
important to shelter west facades of buildings to avoid
infiltrations and thermal loses during winter.

3 SITE PLAN

3.1 Design strategies

Developed from the group combination form of Tra-
ditional Civil Residence which is known as San-
heyuan, the modern courtyard houses can be com-
monly found throughout the countryside of Jiamusi.
Figure 2. CFD-Based model (velocity m/s).
Modern courtyard is enclosed by buildings in three
sides and adopted as a basic pattern in many new vil-
lages planning. The composition of Sanheyuan can
also be used in the group design of commercial build-
ings, office buildings and residences as a basic pattern
(Wang & Liu 2002). People living in the flat area would
like to plant high and dense trees in the west and north,
and it is efficient to protect the near-by houses expose
to the west. Developed from earth construction, earth
sheltered construction is covered with soil or buried in
the earth, which could easily achieve the aim of energy
saving and environmental protecting (Hayashi 1986). Figure 3. CFD-Proposed model (velocity m/s).
The final site plan is a comprised of a cluster of
six identically similar office blocks arranged around
a depressed plane that creates the central courtyard
(Figure 1). The office blocks are partially buried with
all of the ground floors below street level. The land-
scaping has several earth fills pilled to the sides of the
buildings to create a resemblance of the hills of rural
Heilongjiang Province.
It was important for the new site plan to relate to
the context. The design had to respond to the chal-
lenges of designing within a city.This part of the design
placed particular emphasis on the macro climate of the Figure 4. Proposed sections.
site. The six building blocks are space out to achieve a
building block density similar to that of the buildings trees are planted along the West and Northern streets.
around them. This allowed for good airflow throw the Symmetry in placement of blocks was adapted from
site and ensure that the building blocks did not disrupt local traditional architecture.
flow of the mainly North West winds through the site.
Clustering of buildings is also an efficient way to
3.2 Wind environment simulation by CFD
maintain heat. Four of the buildings have been placed
next to each other to reduce the heat losses by sharing In order to clearly display the changes, two models
walls. Creation of safe sunken courtyard is a com- were created to show the differences between them.
mon feature in local Chinese Architecture. This sunken Figure 2 and Figure 3 show the basic model which
courtyard in the centre (One level below the street) does not lower the ground plane. It can be seen that the
is protected from the North-west cold winds. Trees spaces between the buildings have a high wind speed
planted strategically to screen site from cold winds the when the wind through the area. Figure 4 and Figure 5

28

Figure 5. Wind velocity in proposed sections (velocity m/s).
clearly illustrate that after lowered the ground plane,
the wind environment has been improved significantly
in the region of normal human activity.
4 ENERGY-EFFICIENT BUILDING DESIGN
4.1 Building envelop
4.1.1 Materials of roof and walls
By taking into consideration the architecture of this
region, four cases were defined using different tra-
ditional materials and strategies such as Brick walls,
mud walls, wood walls and burring the project. In
addition two mix traditional strategies were defined,
a wood frame wall with a mud core (wood wall + mud
wall) and this same wall but buried. All the buildings
contemplate a 20% double glazing facing south and a
traditional straw roof. A simple 3 floors 10 m 10 m
building model with a total height of 9.9 m and differ-
ent configurations as illustrated above were simulated
with Energy Plus. The buried building with buried mud
walls and wooden frames is the best of all, achieving
almost a 47% of reduction.
In cold climate regions, the main purpose is to
reduce the heat flow out of the room, so low U-value
insulating materials which indicate high performance
in resisting cold are needed (Steven 1998). Changing
the internal insulation to external avoids the poten-
tial risk of creating cold bridge and the exposure of
building fabric to extreme weather. And at the same
time, for the purpose of avoiding frost damage to the
building construction, water proofing measures are
needed and should combine well with the insulation
materials. Detailed information can be seen in Table 1,
the U-values of suggested construction materials are
very low. Two layers of insulation materials includ-
ing wood wool insulation board and Polystyrene works
very well, combined with compressed wood fibers and
thick mud brick significantly reduced the U-value.
The effect of thermal mass of Earth sheltered roof
and Thick wood-mud wall cannot be neglected. Ther-
mal mass refers to materials have the capacity to store
energy for extended periods (Hasting & Wall 2007). In
order to resist cold climate and preventing heat losses,
thick mud wall and earth sheltered roof are adopted in
this project, simultaneously, heavy weight structures
are selected, which can be used to absorb daytime
29
Table 1. Constructions materials of wall and roofs.
U-Value
Material Thickness (W/m2 K)
Wall 10 mm Wood wool Board + 370 mm 0.12
50 mm Polystyrene +
50 mm Compressed Wood
Fibers + 200 mm Mud
Brick + 50 mm
Compressed Wood
Fibers + 10 mm Cement
Roof 300 mm Soil + 10 mm 500 mm 0.12
Asphalt + 10 mm Cement +
10 mm Asphalt + 50 mm
Polystyrene + 10 mm
Cement + 100 Reinforced
Concrete + 10 mm Cement
solar gains and release heat during night. Accord-
ingly, the cooling and heating load have been reduced.
Using thermal mass in public building locating in
heating-dominated region is excellent and is ironically
considered alternative method to mechanical heat-
ing and cooling. During daytime in winter months, the
ambient temperature is lower than indoor and fluctuat-
ing, thermal mass plays an important role in flattening
out the daily temperature fluctuations and absorb solar
energy, when the office building is nearly unoccupied
at night, it will give thermal energy back. The process
is similar in winter.
4.1.2 Window openings
The infiltration through openings and gaps in the
construction cannot be neglected, especially in cold
climate regions. As mentioned above, up to 10% heat
losses are through window openings (Lechner 2006).
But natural day lighting should also be maintained at a
certain level and receiving solar gains, so changing
the glazing specification is a good choice to bal-
ance them. The adopted double-glazed window with
high-solar gain Low-E glasses works by reflecting or
absorbing infrared light through changing the coating
types. Argon gas is filled between them to improve
the heat preservation property. These kinds of window
are designed aiming at admitting solar gains and at
the same time reducing heat losses. High solar gain
Low-E glass can be widely used in heating-dominated
climates.
4.2 Natural ventilation organization
4.2.1 Double skin facade
4.2.1.1 Design and working principles
Double skin facade is one of the most important enegy
saving methods in building design (Shanmeri et al.
2011). This type of double skin facade is a flexi-
ble application of a open type external recirculation.
The material of the outer pane is toughened glass and
the inlet opening locates at the bottom of the ground
floor. Inner pane comprises of hollow glass and heat
Figure 6. Predicted air flow patterns and velocity distribu- Figure 7. Predicted air flow patterns and velocity distribu-
tions for Double facade. tions for stairwell.

insulation special profiles, there are window openings

near ceilings of each floor (Ding et al. 2005)
The air exchange can be achieved through follow-
ing process. Outdoor air entering into the air cavity
through inlet openings of the outer pane and are heated
by solar radiation. Finally, the heated air rises up and
is exhausted via top outlet. The outdoor cool air flows
into the building from window openings on the north
faade. And then move along each of the floor and
went upward to the double faade and flow out of the
building through outlet due to buoyancy effect.

4.2.1.2 Ventilation modelling by CFD

Different air temperature causes different air density,
thus produces a pressure difference in the pressure gra-
dient which results in vertical temperature differences.
The pressure near bottom was negative and near top
was positive due to upward air movement. The pre-
dicted air movement in the ground floor was largest.
And as the height increased, the velocity appeared to
decrease due to smaller buoyancy effect. Thus lower
level openings possessed larger velocity. The veloc-
ity away from windows was below 0.5m/s and would
be comfortable for the occupants (GB 50189-2005).
The layout of the working areas should be carefully
designed to create a comfort indoor wind environment.
On the other hand, the upper three floors were well
ventilated while there was only small scale air turbu-
lent in the ground floor due to the fact that the north
faade was buried under the ground. The lower part
of the double skin faade was not ventilated very well
(Figure 6).
4.2.2 Wind and buoyancy effects induced ventilation
4.2.2.1 Design and working principles
A blackened surface was placed near the top vents
of the stairwell, which will warm the air there, and
induced the air flow. The air flowing into the building
under wind effects moved along the floors due to the
negative buoyancy effect, and flowing into the stair
cases, moved upward due to the stack effect and was
exhausted via the top vents. In this case, the wind effect
assisted the buoyancy effect. And at the same time,
under the combined wind and buoyancy effects, some
part of the air mass flowing into the leeward wing, and
drives the ventilation there.
4.2.2.2 Ventilation modeling by CFD
In hot summer, the stair cases can work as a solar chim-
ney. As predicted before, the velocity in the windward
Figure 8. Hourly temperature profile for Hottest day (top)
and Coldest day (bottom) with no active systems.
wing was higher than the leeward wing. In hot summer,
the working area in the wind ward wing near window
openings would be more comfortable. But in winter,
the further simulations need to be carried out to assist
the building design (Figure 7).
4.3 Overall energy performance simulation of the
final design
4.3.1 Hourly temperature profile
Before adding any heating or cooling system,
the hourly temperature profile has been calculated
(Figure 8). Comparing the daily temperature distribu-
tion of the hottest day and coldest day with the thermal
comfort zone, it is easy to find that the internal tem-
perature in summer is too high while it is too low in
winter. Effective heating systems need to be added.
There are some fluctuations but the difference is not
very significant, thermal mass plays an important role.
As can be seen in Figure 9, if the air conditioning
system just operates from 6 am to 10 pm at week-
days, the too high or too low temperatures during the
time period without air conditioning systems indicates
uncomfortable indoor environment. Even though it is
not in the working time, the rigid climate will poses

30

Figure 9. Hourly temperature profile for Hottest day (top)
and Coldest day (bottom) with full air systems (6 am10 pm).
Figure 10. Hourly heat gains/losses for hottest day (top) and
Coldest day (bottom).
threat to the facilities. So the operation time of the air
conditioning system need to be designed carefully.
4.3.2 Hourly heat gains/losses
As can be seen in Figure 10, the curve of the HVAC
load correlates well with the ambient temperature dis-
tribution. For the hottest day, the profiles all show
upward trend, and peak at around noon time, which
implies when the outside temperature is high, the heat
gains will accordingly increase. Daytime heat gains is
higher than night. The similar trends are also shown
in coldest day, but during night, the building will
losses more heat. Keeping warm strategies are more
31
Figure 11. Passive gains breakdown.
important at night. Thus, the building should seek to
reduce the heat gains and losses.
4.3.3 Passive gains breakdown
Even though the building fabric has been insulated
very well, the heat losses through building fabric are
still up to 18.8%, but compared to the 76.7% ventila-
tion losses, it is much lower. The building fabric should
seek to be sealed up and maybe the area of window
openings and air change rate can be modified in the
future (Figure 11).
5 CONCLUSIONS
A building without good heating and cooling con-
trols will result in more energy consumption. In cold
climate regions, building should be designed mainly
to keep heat in. The findings in this research are
summarized below.
The working time period of the air conditioning
system should be designed properly to balance the
heating demands and energy conservation, on the basis
of ensuring the indoor thermal comfort.
The analysis of the Ecotect simulation results
implies that most of the heat losses are through venti-
lation, accounts for76.7%. But the heat losses through
building fabric only represent for 18.8%. Compared
to the typically approximate percentages of total heat
losses in an un-insulated building (35%), reduced sig-
nificantly. But the infiltration through openings (for
ventilation) of the office building has been enlarged
prominently, which is approximately 10%.
In this design, the earth sheltered roof and thick
mud wall with double layers insulation materials plays
a key role in preventing the heat losses, performs
better than ordinal design.
Enlarged area of window openings gains more solar
energy, but on the other hand, high rate of heat losses
occurs at the same time. The negative effects should
bear in mind.
The ventilation problems in the earth sheltered
building are reveled through CFD modeling. Even
though many other remedies have been taken to relieve
the negative effect, the ventilation performance can-
not be as well as ordinary buildings. Thus, assisted
mechanical ventilation can be adopted in some earth
buried rooms apart natural ventilation.
 The buoyancy and wind effects in the double skin
faade and the stair cases can be harnessed to drive
natural ventilation. Through careful sizing and posi-
tioning of openings, the wind driven cross ventilation
also performs very well.
REFERENCES
Ding, W.T. et al. 2005. Natural ventilation performance of
a double-skin facade with a solar chimney. Energy and
Buildings. 37: 4118
GB 50189-2005 2005. Design Standard for Energy Efficiency
of Public Buildings, July 1
Hayashi, Y. 1986. The future of earth-sheltered architecture
in Chinas farming villages. Tunnelling and Underground
Space Technology. 1(2): 167169.
Jiang, P. and Toney, N.K. 2010. Overcoming barriers to
implementation of carbon reduction strategies in large
commercial buildings in China. Building and Environ-
ment. 45: 85664
32
Liddamnet, M.W. 1996. A guide to energy efficient
ventilation. Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre,
Coventry UK.
Li, J. 2008. Towards a low-carbon future in Chinas building
sector A review of energy and climate models forecast.
Energy Policy. 36: 1736-47
Norbert Lechner 2006. Heating, cooling, lighting: sustain-
able design methods for architects. John Wiley & Sons,
Canada.
Robert Hasting and Maria Wall 2007. Sustainable Solar
Housing: Strategies and solutions. UK: Earthscan.
Shanmeri, M.A. et al. 2011. Perspectives of double skin
facade systems in buildings and energy saving. Renewable
and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 15: 146875
Steven, W. 1998. The Passive Solar Design and Construction.
John Wiley & Sons, Canada.
Wang, F. and Y. Liu, 2002. Thermal environment of the
courtyard style cave dwelling in winter. Energy and
Buildings. 34(10): 9851001
Yang, L., Lam, J.C. and Tsang, C.L. 2008. Energy perfor-
mance of building envelopes in different climate zones in
China. Applied Energy. 86: 80017
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Dynamic mechnical properties of sandstone under coupled static

and dynamic loads

F.Q. Gong & X.L. Liu

School of Resources and Safety Engineering, Central South University, Hunan, China
Hunan Key Lab of Resources Exploitation and Hazard Control for Deep Metal Mines, Hunan, China

ABSTRACT: Based on the scientific understanding of deep rock under high crustal stress, the dynamic mechan-
ical properties of rock subjected to one-dimensional (1-D) coupled static and dynamic loads were conducted with
a modified split Hopkinson pressure bar (MSHPB). Before the coupled loading test, the sandstone specimen is
sandwiched between the two elastic bars of MSHPB and two strain gauges glued on the surface of the middle of
bars are used to record strain histories. The pre-compressive static stress can be loaded on the specimen by using
axial pre-compressive stress device according the desired axial stress. The rise time of half-sine stress pulse is
about 100 s and the amplitude of incident pulse can be controlled by adjusting the position of spindle-type
striker in launch tube and the gas pressure. Coupled compressive strength of sandstone increases with strain rate
and the rate of increase is larger than that of general dynamic compressive strength. Due to the effect of axial
pre-compression stress, the secant modulus of coupled tests is 135% and 257% of dynamic and static secant
modulus respectively. The results also indicate that secant modulus is unchanged at the strain rate considered in
this study for dynamic and coupled tests.

Keywords: SHPB; rock materials; coupled dynamic and static loads; dynamic compressive strength; strain rate

1 INTRODUCTION pulse wave on large diameter bar are discussed.

The uniaxial compressive strength is an important
physical property of rocks, as it is used more often
than other mechanical indexes. To obtain the static
or quasi-static compressive strength, some material
testing machines such as INSTRON and MTS are
used to conduct static experiments. For dynamic tests
with strain rates 101 103 /s, split Hopkinson pressure
bar (SHPB) is the classic apparatus to be used [15] .
One common feature for these tests is that there is
no pre-compressive stress in rock specimen before
static stress or impact loading is subjected on it. How-
ever, for some rock constructions, such as pillars in
mine or tunnels at depth, the rock is subjected to high
in-situ stress coupled with dynamic loading arising
from blasting and boring. To obtain the uniaxial com-
pressive strength under coupled loads, the rock spec-
imen should be loaded with pre-compressive stress
before it is subjected to dynamic loading. Obviously,
it is not easy to conduct such tests using general
equipment such as INSTRON or SHPB.
In this paper, it is our attempt to use a labo-
ratory testing technique to simulate the stress state
of rock under coupled static and dynamic load-
ing by using a modified large diameter SHPB
(MSHPB). The text is organized as such. In sec-
tion 2, the necessity and rationality to use large
diameter bar in SHPB test and the appropriate stress
The pulse shaping technique by using a designed
spindle-type striker is also introduced. In section 3
and 4, the testing process and results are provided;
and the strain rate dependence of dynamic compres-
sive strength under coupled loads was discussed as
well, followed by the conclusions in section 5.
2 TEST METHODOLOGY
2.1 Pulse shaping technique with spindle-type
striker
In rock uniaxial static compressive tests, the suggested
diameter of specimen by ISRM (International Society
for Rock Mechanics) is 50 mm. So in SHPB tests, the
dynamic results can be compared easily and conve-
niently with that of static tests when the diameter of
specimen is 50 mm. However, the pulse shaping tech-
nique in SHPB testing should be solved to conduct
dynamic tests on largediameter (50 mm) SHPB.
For large diameter SHPB, the rectangular pulse is
unsuitable in dynamic tests for rock materials large on
diameter SHPB and half-sine pulse is more applicable
than triangular pulse. To obtain the half-sine pulse, by
using the Impact Discrete Inverse Method[6] , a pro-
file of the projectile that would initiate a half-sine
pulse in the incident bar was determined and shown

33

Figure 1. Shaped striker used in dynamic rock tests and
recorded half-sine pulse.
Figure 2. SHPB with shaped striker for general dynamic
compressive test.
in Figure 1(a). The maximum diameter of the striker is
identical to the diameter of the incident bar (50 mm).
Due to the difficulty in fabrication and fitting the
striker into the barrel of the SHPB, a linearised form
of the striker was manufactured from a solid circular
bar of the same material as the incident/transmitted
bars. Figure 1(b) shows the recorded half-sine pulse in
incident bar and transmitted bar.
2.2 Modified SHPB apparatus
A SHPB with spindle-type striker for general dynamic
compressive test was shown in Figure 2, and the load-
ing layout of compression tests coupled dynamic-
static loads was shown in Figure 3. Compared with
Figure 2, an axial pressure system was designed and
constructed in MSHPB.
Figure 4 is the recorded half-sine pulse without
specimen sandwiched between bars in MSHPB under
coupled loads, and Figure 5 is a classic pulse, including
34
Figure 3. MSHPB for dynamic compressive test under
coupled loads.
Figure 4. Recorded half-sine pulse in bars without
specimen.
Figure 5. Recorded half-sine pulse in bars with specimen.
incident wave, reflected wave and transmitted wave in
the coupled tests.
3 TEST SAMPLES AND PROCESS
3.1 Tests preparation
The compressive tests with coupled dynamic and static
loads were conducted on homogeneous sandstone. All
cylindrical specimens were drilled from a sandstone
block. The diameter of the cylindrical specimen is
50 mm and the length is 25 mm. The average density of
sandstone s is 2499 kg/m3 . And the average P-wave
velocity cs is computed as 3655 m/s with an ultrasonic
pulse velocity measurement device.To obtain the static
compressive strength and deformation of sandstone,
cored specimens with ratio of length to diameter = 2.0
were tested on a displacement-controlled compres-
sion machine (strain rate is 105 /s). The average static
strength is 115 MPa and average scant modulus is
17 GPa.
Figure 6. Loading layout of compressive tests with coupled
dynamic-static loads.

3.2 Loading process

Compositions of loads include pre-compressive Figure 7. Stress-time curve of impact test under coupled
axial stress Pas and dynamic loads Pd (Shown in loads.
Figure 6(a)). From Figure 6, it can be seen that the
tests will be the conventional dynamic compressive
tests when Pas is zero and static compressive tests can
be conducted when Pd is zero.
Before the coupled test, the specimen is sandwiched
between the two elastic bars and two strain gauges
glued on the surface of the middle of bars are used
to record strain (stress) histories. The pre-compressive
axial stress can be loaded on the specimen. Accord-
ing to the desired axial stress, the value of Pas can
be regulated by axial stress device shown in Figure 3.
The two ends of the oil cylinder are connected through
hand pumps by oil inlet/outlet valves. When axial pre-
compressive stress is loaded, the right pump in Figure 3
starts to increase the oil pressure in the right cham-
ber and the piston moves to the left, and then applies
stress onto the elastic bars and specimen. The axial
pre-compressive stress of the specimen is limited to Figure 8. Stress-strain curves of impact test under coupled
200 MPa in the laboratory. When the setup is ready, loads.
the impact tests can be conducted. The amplitude of
incident stress wave can be controlled by adjusting
the position of the striker in launch tube and the gas
pressure.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The pre-compressive axial stress is 80 MPa, which is

70% of static strength of sandstone. The reason for
selecting 80 MPa is that the strength of rock under
coupled loads decreases rapidly when the axial pre-
compression stress is greater than 70% of the static
strength of rock[7] . The approximate half-sine stress
wave was generated by the spindle-type striker and
conducted on the specimen by the incident bar. A clas-
sic coupled test was selected to analyze as follows in Figure 9. Strain rate-time curves of impact test under
Figure 710. The stress wave on a specimen was shown coupled loads.
in Figure 7. It can be seen that the duration time of inci-
dent wave is about 90 s, which satisfied the request
of dynamic stress equilibrium in specimen. Figure 8 stress and the initial strain rate will increase to a high
shows the stress-strain curve of impact test and there value in a very short loading time due to the effect of
are no violent oscillation on it. axial pre-compression stress. The curve of strain rate
Figure 9 shows the strain rate history of impact test. history changes gently and there is no obvious ups and
Before coupled dynamic impact, there has been a little downs on it before 100 s, and then the impact test
deformation on specimen under axial pre-compression can be regarded as approximate constant strain rate

35
Figure 10. Strain-time curve of impact test under coupled
loads.
Figure 11. The variation of the dynamic compressive
strength with the strain rate.
loading. The strain rate remain to be positive value
during the whole loading time and shows that the total
strain of specimen continues to increase even unload-
ing was conducted on the sample after 100 s (shown
in Figure 10).
To investigate the strain rate dependence of dynamic
compressive strength under coupled loads, coupled
tests were conducted on modified SHPB with 7 spec-
imens. For comparison, general dynamic tests were
conducted with 57 specimens.The strengths with dif-
ferent strain rates were illustrated in Figure 11 and
both exhibit a linear increase with the strain rate. How-
ever, the strength increasing tendency of coupled tests
is larger than that of general tests. Deduced by the
linear relation between dynamic strength and strain
rate, for general dynamic tests, the dynamic strength
is 133 MPa when the strain rate is 100/s, which is
115% of static strength. For coupled tests, the dynamic
strength is 258 MPa when strain rate is about 100/s,
which is 225% of static strength and 192% of general
dynamic strength. When the strain rate is 150/s, the
strengths of coupled test and general test are 335 MPa
and 158 MPa respectively, which are 292% and 137%
of static strength.
36
Figure 12. The variation of the dynamic secant modulus
with the strain rate.
In Figure 12, the average secant modulus of
dynamic tests and coupled tests are 23 GPa and
44 GPa, which are 135% and 257% of static secant
modulus. It also can be seen that the changes in the
secant modulus of the sandstone with the strain rate
are very small and there is no strain rate dependence
for them. One conclusion can be obtained that the
secant modulus is unaffected by the strain rate in the
test range, which has also been identified in some
papers [89] .
5 CONCLUSIONS
A modified large diameter split Hopkinson pres-
sure bar (MSHPB) system with a designed loading
striker has been successfully used to measure the com-
pressive strength of rocks under coupled static and
dynamic loads.The designed loading striker can gener-
ate an approximate half-sine stress pulse. The results
of dynamic stress-strain and strain rate relationships
show that the dynamic stress equilibrium in the speci-
men can be maintained during the entire loading phase.
Coupled compressive strength of sandstone increases
with strain rate and the rate of increase is larger than
that of general dynamic compressive strength. Due to
the effect of axial pre-compression stress, the secant
modulus of coupled tests will increase and is 135%
and 257% of dynamic and static secant modulus.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank the Natural Sci-
ence Foundation of China for their financial sup-
ports (Grants Nos. 41102170).This work is supported
by the National Basic Research Program of China
(2010CB732004) and Fundamental Research Funds
for the Central Universities (2011QNZT090), the
China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project
(2011M500973) and Frontier Research Program of
Central South University (2010QZZD001) are also
greatly acknowledged.
REFERENCES
[1] A. Kumar, Geophysics, 33, 501 (1968).
[2] X.B. Li, T.S. Lok. M. ASCE, J. Zhao, and P.J. Zhao, Int.
J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. 37, 1055 (2000).
[3] D.J. Frew, M.J. Forrestal, and W. Chen, Exp. Mech. 41,
40 (2001).
[4] M. Cai, P.K. Kaiser, F. Suorineni, K.Su, Phys. Chem.
Earth. 32, 907 (2007).
[5] K. Xia, M.H.B. Nasseri, B. Mohanty, F. Lu, R. Chen, and
S.N. Luo, Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. 45, 879 (2008).
37
[6] D.S. Liu, X.B. Li, Chinese. J. Mech. Eng. 34, 506 (1998)
(in Chinese).
[7] X.B. Li, Z.L. Zhou, T.S.Lok. M.ASCE, L.Hong, and
T. B. Yin, Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. 45, 739 (2008).
[8] J. Zhao, H.B. Li, M.B. Wu, and T.J. Li, Int. J. Rock Mech.
Min. Sci, 36, 273 (1999).
[9] X.B. Li, T.S. Lok. M.ASCE, and J. Zhao, Rock Mech.
Rock. Eng. 38, 21 (2005).
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

The instrument for attribute shift of urban-rural land use of eastern part
county in northwest China on the background of urban-rural
incorporation A case study of Hancheng, China

A. Bo Jing, B. Minghua Huang & B. Yu Wang

Department of Architecture of Xian University of Architecture and Technology, Xian, China

ABSTRACT: In China, it becomes more and more urgent to coordinate the rapid growth land desire for urban
construction and preservation desire for cultivated land. This paper argues that, there are two reasons for the
contradiction between urbanization and protection of cultivated land which lead to the incompatibility of land use
between urban and rural. Firstly, the pace of rural surplus labor moving from rural to city does not synchronize
with the conversion of land attribute in the process of urbanization. Secondly, there is no overall consideration
on urban-rural land use which takes the construction land as the core. Taking Hancheng as an example, this
paper presents an instrument for interactive urban-rural Land Use. Namely by taking the framework of urban
and rural areas integration as our research platform, establishing the villages development evaluation system
model, studying the villages development strategies through zoning and classifying, thus we establish the
corresponding relation.

Keywords: Urban-rural Incorporation; attribute shift of Urban-rural Land Use; Hancheng

1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Urbanization promoting is not paradoxical for

protection of cultivated land
Along with the sustained economic growth in China
The process of urbanization is a process that the rural
since the reform and opening up, the level of urban-
population moves into city and rural land transfer
ization has significantly increased. At the same time,
into urban land use. According to the theory, with the
urban construction land has rapidly expanded. From
change of rural population to urban population, their
the end of 1990 to the end of 2009, Chinas urban pop-
rural construction land should also be converted to the
ulation doubled, but the urban construction land area
corresponding urban construction land. Upon Chinas
has increased by nearly 2 times. With the accelerated
urban planning construction land standards, using the
process of industrialization and the implementation
provisions of the state that per capita rural construc-
and propulsion of the urbanization strategy in China,
tion land no more than 150 square meters and urban
the situation of rapid growth of urban construction
construction land no more than 100 square meters to
land is inevitable. However, with continued encroach-
calculate, we can save 50 square meters of construction
ment of cultivated LandArea, the security problem that
land as one farmer transfer into the city. Because the
remains enough farming land to feed 1.3 billion peo-
per capita standards of Chinas rural construction land
ple becomes more and more prominent. At the same
are significantly higher than urban, with the improve-
time, 18 million mu of cultivated land protection red
ment of urbanization level, the total amount of rural
line suffered a serious threat. Chinas cultivated land
land for construction should be dropped theoretically.
resource is important component of strategic secu-
The total amount of urban and rural land for construc-
rity. So protecting the safety amount of cultivated
tion should also show a downward trend. Therefore,
land is to protect the national food supply security
the reasonable development of urbanization is con-
and national security of peoples livelihood. Then it is
ducive to the transformation of rural construction land
helpful for ensuring urban construction and develop-
and to promote intensive use of land for construction.
ment smoothly. Therefore, the protection of arable land
Namely, the process of urbanization is a process of
is necessary for promote the sustainable and harmo-
land saving. From this perspective, the rapid urban-
nious development of the citys economy and society.
ization should not have become the main reason for
How to properly resolve this sharp conflict becomes
declining cultivated land. On the contrary, a reason-
a common concern and explore focus by many areas,
able process of urbanization should be land saving,
including urban and rural planning.
cultivated land-protecting process in fact.

39
1.2 Contradictions originate from the
asynchronism of the urban-rural construction
during the urbanization process
Although in theory, there should be no contradic-
tions between the urbanization and the cultivated land
protection. But the fact is: with continuing advance-
ment of urbanization, the cultivated land protection is
under increasing pressure. The contradiction between
the two is seemingly irreconcilable. The reason is not
hard to realize, the reason is that the urban and rural
construction land does not synchronously increase or
decrease.
Essentially, only the agricultural population trans-
form into urban population completely, the
urbanization can be completed. However, the urban-
ization pattern implemented over the years is that it
only allows farmers to employment, not to settle in
city, which lead to an unharmonious state between the
process of population urbanization and land urban-
ization. This makes these quasi-urbanization of the
population in urban and rural both sides covers. With
the development of urbanization, although agricultural
population keeps decreasing, but the total amount of
rural land for construction not only reduced simulta-
neously but also increased significantly. And the total
increased amount of urban construction land increased
more than 50% of the total. This phenomenon is far
from normal. Over the years Chinas urban and rural
land use the dual structure in the system of plan-
ning and management, this is undoubtedly the main
reason contributing to this phenomenon. In the field
of urban planning, for a long time, urban and rural
land use planning and construction have been the
lack of effective guidance of a unified framework and
management system. At all levels of urban and rural
planning, the lack of effective connection and flexi-
bility planning restricts construction lands reasonable
allocation between urban and rural areas. Urban-rural
land dualistic use planning cannot adapt to the rapid
development of Chinas new economic and social
situation.
2 PROPOSAL OF THE INSTRUMENT FOR
ATTRIBUTE SHIFT OF URBAN-RURAL
LAND USE OF COUNTY
2.1 An instrument of zoning control and
classification regulation
This method of attribute shift of urban-rural land use
emphasizes the expansion, settlement and replace-
ment of urban and rural construction land according
to the problems that there are no effective links
between traditional urban and rural planning and
the blind configuration. Firstly with the principle
of construction\production suitable, urban and rural
construction land rationalization and the cost of the
movement and resettlement minimization, we make
the division of urban and rural functional areas for
the urban space and put forward the effective zoning
control measures.
40
The biggest obstacle to solve urban and rural coor-
dination construction land use is the disorder layout of
rural residential areas and land use extensive urban
construction land now. The unharmonious problem
between the process of population urbanization and
land urbanization becomes increasingly apparent. It
is helpful for saving construction land and promot-
ing healthy urbanization to conduct urbanization of
the village properly, transfer village and land inte-
gration. However, since traditional planning is lack
of acknowledge of the urban and rural as a whole
and scientific judgments on choosing of village devel-
opment model and timing to removal and merging,
the implementation effect have been poor. This author
proposes the method that establishing the county spa-
tial distribution model of village development and
constraints based on the socio-economic status statisti-
cal data. Using multi-factor Standard weights assigned
scoring method, select factor for the development
conditions potential and weakness and evaluates the
prospects for the development of villages. According
to the results, we conducted the horizontal compar-
ison among the villages. Finally, classify the village
space and formulate a directional space development
and construction land conformity strategy for different
village.
2.2 Dynamic growth of attribute shift
mechanism of urban-rural land use
Urban and rural coordinating development cannot be
achieved overnight, emphasizes the organic relation-
ship between urban and rural areas in the greater
regional level; Urban and rural land management can-
not be finished in one day, it emphasizes dynamic
space relation in the long run. Because the blueprint
town system lacks of instructional maneuverability
for urban and rural construction as a whole, urban
and rural planning ensued mostly become good imag-
ination due to lack of maneuverability. It is more
difficult for this blueprint type land layout to put for-
ward solution for the problems during the urban and
rural construction land adjustment of different devel-
opment stages and different types, and to effectively
cooperate with the transformation and replacement to
realize the urban and rural land-uses scientific set-
tlement, intensive development and efficient use. In
process of speeding and deepening the balanced urban
and rural development, the country has adjusted and
issued a series of policies and regulations for urban
and rural development to adapt the changing urban
and rural development. Therefore, rural and urban
planning should adapt to the changes in dynamic
way, and we should understand it with the evolu-
tionary thought. Namely: to explore the urban and
rural land layout with dynamic growth character-
istics, to formulate urban and rural land conversion
timing and development timing according to the stage
characteristic of urban and rural relationship, to for-
mulate rigid constraints with the premise of unchanged
gross of urban construction land consolidation, and to
safeguard sustainable implementation of attribute shift
of the urban and rural construction land.

3 EMPIRICAL STUDY

3.1 Research background

Located in the east of northwest China, this case was
selected as one of the county level cities Hancheng,
in Shaanxi province. In 2009, the statistics show
that the whole city has 2 street offices, 7 towns,
7 rural areas and 275 administrative villages. From
2000 to 2009, the agricultural population of Hancheng
declined 28.8 thousands; the village construction land
increased 587 hectares. And rural per capita con-
struction land increased up to 210 m2 . Based on the
integration construction planning of urban and rural
areas of Hancheng (20092020), this paper is aimed at
researching and exploring the change and the attribute
shift of urban-rural construction land use in Hancheng
region, to seek attribute shift of urban and rural land-
use technology system, which is suitable for the devel-
opment of small and medium-sized town in county.

3.2 Urban-rural function division

Figure 1. Hancheng urban-rural function subarea map.
Using the function of ARCGIS spatial analysis, we
make the space composition, segmentation and link-
age of these distribution drawings such as central Table 1. Margin settings for A4 size paper and letter size
urban area, space extend range of Longmen urban paper.
area, each townships expand buffer, scenic area, the
ecological protection area and coal subsidence area. Evaluation factors Weight
Meanwhile, according to the influence to urban-rural
function space from the towns system planning and Natural factors Landform 0.13
the urban master planning, we using the urban spatial Population density 0.13
structure one centre, two parts, one axis and two Cultivated area 0.15
Economic and Per capita income 0.08
points to optimize the preliminary dividing results,
social factors Land use status 0.12
in order to get the future urban functional partition Cultural landscape value 0.12
results of Hancheng, as shown in Figure 1. Urban construction Urban system influence 0.1
Urbanization guide development regions this type factors The degree of traffic 0.08
of area is the main area in future for the development convenience
of urbanization and urban construction land, and also The degree of public 0.09
it is the key area of attribute shift of urban and rural facilities
construction land. In this region, we should expand
towns reasonably and orderly, give villages the priority
to control the scale and guide to gradually realize the
urbanization. The vacatable land will be mainly used 3.3 Village construction development evaluation
for the supply of the city construction, and we should
strive to retain the current agricultural land. On the basis of comprehensive analysis of the natu-
Ecological controlling regions we should strictly ral ecology, rural development status and objectives
control this regions various forms of construction of Hancheng, we construct the evaluation system of
behavior, avoid the construction of the regional traffic villages potential for future. According to the present
facilities and the municipal infrastructure, and gradu- development level of urban and rural areas, in accor-
ally reduce population scale. Villages should be given dance with the principles of dominance, stability,
the first place to control and guide the relocation. Some spatial diversity and accessibility, we get the main
villages with rich tourism resources should control its evaluation factors: 3 categories, 9 indexes, as shown
scale; develop ecological agriculture and characteristic in Table 1. It includes the nature factor (landform),
tourism industry. economic and social factors (population density, cul-
Rural coordinated development regions we can tivated land, per capita income, land use status, cultural
realize the rural production land and life land concen- landscape value), urban construction factor (urban sys-
tration. tems influence, transportations convenience, public

41
infrastructure). We use the paired comparison method
in the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to solve each
indexs weight. Then with ARCGIS spatial analysis
software for technical support, we build each eval-
uation factors space attribute information database
under the management of GIS system, to determine
the minimum evaluation units and the scores at all
levels for the village development. As a result, we
make the weighted stack of each gridding, adding the
geological disasters and environmental damage for
correction factors to optimize the preliminary eval-
uation, in order to get the development of villages
construction evaluation.
Through weighted superposition of initial evalu-
ation results and correction factors, we make the
scoring and the comprehensive evaluation values, the
maximum score 11, the smallest 1 it is between
111, taking 11-10-9-8-6-4-3-2-1 for comprehensive
Figure 2. Village comprehensive classification.
Table 2. Reserves Type villages construction scale guidelines.
Construction type
Villages in the urbanization guide In-situ transformation type
regions construction guidelines
Villages in the rural coordinated Key development type
development regions construction
guidelines
Moderated development type
Villages in ecological control regions Characteristic development type
construction guidelines
42
evaluation grading standard. By this standard the val-
ues can be divided into 8 grades, thereby we can get
the classification standard of villages.
3.4 Village comprehensive classification and
construction scale guidelines
In ARCGIS, by making the space superimposition of
rural integration development evaluation and urban
of the villages above, we get the villages integra-
tion development comprehensive classification results
of Hancheng, as shown in Figure 2. For the villages
in the town guiding arrangement development zone,
according to the scores combined with their posi-
tion relations with the town construction, they can
be divided into altering housing, allocated in the dif-
ferent places and redevelopment in autochthonous
three types. According to the score, the villages
can be divided into three types: key development-
oriented, moderate development-oriented and char-
acteristic development-oriented three types. In the
ecological control areas, according to the scores and
the tourism resource distribution state, villages can be
classified into recent relocation type, gradually pop-
ularized type and characteristic development-oriented
three types.
For the villages in different areas and different
development conditions, we use different layout con-
struction mode. Considering that in Hancheng most
villages per capita construction land exceeds far
away from the reality of urban construction land,
we emphasize the collating of rural land, and guide
the construction scale for, and make the rural per
capita construction land index drop to reasonable
range (rural per capita construction land is not higher
than 150 m2 .According to a series of construction
activities such as the development of future facilities
and environmental reconstruction of development-
oriented and characteristic-oriented villages in plain
area, we select 120 m2 as controlled standards. For the
rest reserved type villages, we select 120 m2 as con-
trolled standards, in order to improve the intensive land
utilization level, as shown in Table 2.
Per capita land
Popular scale for construction
Person m2 /person
5001000 110
Plain region 10003000 110
Mountains 5001000 120
Plain region 5001500 110
Mountains 300500 120
10002000 120
Table 3. Urban and rural construction land tables.

Project 2000 2009 2020 20092020 variation

Town The urban population 14.77 20.87 32.16

ten thousand people
Urban construction land 1653 2838 4180 1342
ha
Village Village population 23.48 20.6 16.04
ten thousand people
Village construction land 3522 4109 1888 2221
ha
Total Population 38.25 41.47 48
ten thousand people
Total construction land 5175 6947 6068 879
ha

In 2009, the urban population of Hancheng is 38.25

ten thousand people, the rural population is 23.48 ten
thousand people, and the rural residential area is 4109
hectares. According to the comprehensive planning of
Hancheng (20102020), by the end of 2020, the urban
population of Hancheng will reach at 48 ten thousand
people, urbanization rate are up to 67 percent, and
the urban population 32 ten thousand people, urban
construction land 4180 hectares and the rural popula-
tion will reach at 16.04 ten thousand people. With the
rural populations gradual decrease during the plan-
ning period and the regulation and movement of rural
residential areas, the rural residential areas land will
sharply reduce to 1888 hectares with 2,250 hectares
decrement, 879 hectares more than urban construc-
tions increment as shown in Table 3. According to the
ideas about attribute shift of urban and rural construc-
tion land and the principle of improving intensive land
use, we can displace the reduced villages land index
of rural residential areas with the land index of urban
construction land in the county, to realize the construc-
tion lands reasonable growth under the total balance
of urban and rural construction land.
being widely attention gradually in planning field.
This paper, on the basis of planning practice, makes
tentative exploration on attribute shift of methods
of land use suitable for the case of county dis-
trict, trying to unify the urban and rural construction
land arrangement at the foothold of attribute shift of
urban and rural construction land. We hope that this
article could provide some flexible and operational
guidance for urban and rural integrate construction
and development, to realize the target of intensive land
development in the urbanization process.
REFERENCES
Huang Ming-hua, Chen Mo and Zhang Jingwen, The
Linkage Plan of Urban-Rural Construction Land-Use
Necessity and Must of Urbanization and Farmland Pro-
tection, Urban planning and design, vol. 1, 2011, Pp.
6165.
Tian Jie and Jia Jin, Exploration of village layout planning
method under the background of urban-rural integration:
A case study of Jinan, city planning review, vol. 31(4),
2007. Pp. 7881.

4 SUMMARY

Under the background of urban and rural coordina-

tion, the urban and rural land integration use has

43
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Urban complex: New urban phenomenon in China

Huibin Zhu
Peking University, Beijing, China

ABSTRACT: Based on Space Transfer view, this paper discusses the externality of urban complex as new
urban phenomenon in China. Urban Complex acts as an important node in urban network system that related
with land use and spatial structure issues with highly relation with urban type and size. This paper analyzes how
urban complex increases land value, redefines land use period and improve land flexibility in compact land
use pattern, promotes rapid space structure development, improve environment condition and produce space
transfer in intensive spatial structure pattern.

Keywords: Compact City; Smart Growth; Space Transfer; Urban Complex

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Chinese rapid urbanization

China enters a new rapid development stage after
the famous Opening-up Policy in 1978. Accompanied
with economy and living condition improvement, the
rapid urbanization evolution simultaneously occurs in
China. Chinese Urbanization is significant as huge
population of rural areas come to work in urban areas
and produce urban sprawl. The rural surplus labors
and foreign direct investment become key issues in
Chinese Urbanization. The huge demographic div-
idend and investment value support the rapid evo-
lution. The urban areas classify into several levels:
core urban areas like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou
and Shenzhen; secondary urban areas like Wuhan,
Hangzhou and Chongqing; periphery urban areas like
Zhaoqing, Huizhou and so on.

1.2 New urban phenomenon

In the 21st century, a new urban phenomenon hap-
pens in urban areas. Urban Complex occurs in core
urban areas that merge lots of urban function like
residence, entertainment, hotel and transport into an
environment complex. Similar with the concept of
HOPSCA occurs in Europe that means three kinds
of hotel, office, parking, shopping mall, convention
Figure 1. Urban complex that comprise with different urban
and apartment incorporate together, urban complex function.
means several urban functions merge in one environ-
ment entity. In core urban areas, urban complex merges
as node into urban network system with transport hub.
1.3 Compact City and Smart Growth
In secondary urban areas, urban complex becomes
prevalent, but still could not form the urban func- The core of Compact City and Smart Growth
tion network. In periphery urban areas, urban complex concept is compact land use and spatial form that pro-
initially occurs. motes smart use of land and optimization of spatial

45

Figure 2. Merge of urban function in urban complex.
Figure 3. Commercial development stages.
structure. Urban Complex acts as Internal City
that corporate architecture and landscape to form the
new kind of human habitat environment, with highly
mixed-use land and close connection with urban trans-
port as significant characters. Urban complex has great
value in changing land use cycle and land flexibility
that makes positive externality to urban economy in
rapid growth. Cities like Hong Kong, Shenzhen and
Guangzhou already form mature urban complex net-
work system. Cities like Hangzhou and Chongqing
are working hard to construct urban complex network
system. Urban complex is an important experiment in
Smart Growth Concept. Research on urban complex
especially urban complex network system in Smart
Growth view is essential and emergent.
2 COMPACT LAND USE PATTERN
2.1 Land use value promotion
Industry agglomeration effect of urban complex will
decrease market breeding period and increase sustain-
able operation ability that have significant drive force
to urban economy development. Commercial breed
need specific time cycle like infrastructure construc-
tion, commerce target set, commerce garrison till the
commerce saturation. The appearance of urban com-
plex helps increase land value of both the specific
building lots and surrounding areas.
46
Influence and effect of economy externality is
two-edged with both external positive and negative
economic effect. External positive economic effect
can bring huge profit to society and individuals that
decrease the cost and output. Urban Complex can help
make a comprehensive arrangement that decrease the
external negative economic effect and hold back the
land sprawl phenomenon.
The government and market together construct
urban complex to protect and exploit urban land. Urban
development agency considers the efficiency and bal-
ance of land. Only through detailed analysis, control
of urban land value could make highly effective use of
government public resources. The government under-
takes the non-profit public service function. If the
governments dont keep pace with market to protect
and develop land, the urban need to pay for public
infrastructure bill with consistent huge public budget
that makes high tension to urban finance.
Urban complex not only increases the value of
building lot, but also the value of industry. Urban
complex occurs in late urbanization when urban func-
tion, urban population and industry structure already
become stable. The main urban industry changes
from second industry to the third industry. Meanwhile
the core value of urban complex is the service and
management space, together with industry and popula-
tion agglomeration decided by commercial value. The
internal urban industry of urban complex could help
increase job occupation and create tax. LE Jie (2010)
made a conclusion that an ordinary urban complex in
secondary urban areas could bring about ten thousand
stable jobs in China..
2.2 Land use period reconstruction
Chinese land all enjoys public land right with two
forms of land ownership called national land and rural
collective land. Urban land belongs to nation and man-
aged by Chinese State Council. Land of rural and urban
fringe could be adopted by nation legislation for pub-
lic right except land already belonged to nation. The
nation will distribute land resource allocation highly
concentrated and strictly managed. Nation classifies
land use usage at large.
Phillip Berke (2009) mentioned land use was a
meaningful concept. Land use system contains land
use classification and symbol. For instance, specific
land could be used as residence, commerce, public use
and so on. Land as living condition and part of envi-
ronment system could be sold, developed and bought
through ownership transfer and value assessment.
Land as space for public planning, service and man-
agement could act as social behavior. The diversifica-
tion attributes of land decides diversification of value.
Land use period differs for land usage. Land usage
period is legal land use period minus used period and
could be resigned after deadline. Land use right could
transfer, lease and mortgage as other economy activ-
ity in land use period with legal rights protected by
nation law.
 The development and operation of urban complex
places new challenges to urban value period. Diver-
sified usage in urban complex have diversified land
symbol and could be transferred when needed. The
development mode of urban complex will produce
reconsideration for land use cycle. Land law now
decides the usage right could be resigned after deadline
without noted free. Urban complex and mixed-use
of urban land usage will place long-period influence
on land use cycle and land use usage.
2.3 Land flexibility improvement
Different from definite land usage classification
in China like residence and commerce, land use
classification in Hong Kong set kind of CDA
(Comprehensible Development Area) as a special land
use classification. This area doesnt affirm the defi-
nite land usage and urban function to increase land
flexibility and provide comprehensive development
opportunity for real estate development to promote
urban space transfer and exchange. Rudel (1989) clas-
sified into three types of land use variation region as
slow developing rural area, rapid developing urban
fringe and slow developing urban area. Urban complex
help accelerate the development speed and increase
land flexibility. Urban sprawl is a special situation due
to the cheap land price in urban fringe that attracts
population and industry. Urban complex realizes the
goal of compact use and smart growth in starting
stage. Differences in type and mode of urban complex
help to suit the specific site characters.
Land could be classified into developed land, devel-
oping land and construction available land. Urban
complex could promote exchange with different types
of land by phased construction to deal with the land
ownership and flexibility. Urban complex have same
character with Hyper-architecture and holds big space
structure for reservation that provides opportunity for
commerce transform and upgrade. For example, urban
entertainment function like theatre always situate at top
of urban complex that attracts population to organize
urban function like transportation and entertainment
to maximize economy efficiency. Comprehensive land
ownership distracts development risk.
3 INTENSIVE SPACE STRUCTURE FORM
3.1 Rapid space structure development
ZHANG Shuiqing (2001) mentioned urban space
structure comprises of different urban issues in spe-
cific period that reflects urban level system and urban
internal structure as space style of urban function.
ZHANG Jingxiang (2000) mentioned urban space
structure as composition of different urban functions
in location to form spatial shadow of urban function.
Related research prove prevalent urban complex
development have high relationship with urban level
that urban complex would be less when urban level is
47
lower. High-level urban complex drived by real estate
relates to market demand. The area of urban complex
is more than 1000000 square meters for core urban
areas, 500000800000 square meters for periphery
urban areas and lower than 500000 square meters for
fringe urban areas. Urban complex serves as strong
driving force when urban develops into poly-center
space structure.
Chinese rapid urbanization produces new urban
centers that help construct new space type like res-
idence. Japanese urban space planning ensures shop
existence within two-hundred-meter walking distance.
Its core concept is to ensure peoples infrastructure
need in short-distance area as well as residence and
work separation.
3.2 Ecology environment promotion
Urban economy improvement promotes demand of
living condition. Urban citizens will have higher
demand when basic living demand is satisfied. Envi-
ronment condition improvement is especially impor-
tant when transport accessibility and efficiency could
not be improved quickly. Open space have new trend
with internalization of externalities and landscape
ecology environment promotion. Urban complex
could reach the goal that individual will improve envi-
ronment condition and infrastructure to attract more
people to consume.
Urban complex could promote urban public func-
tion and infrastructure condition as accessibility, trans-
port exchange, transfer efficiency and living condition
of individual, together with comprehensive infrastruc-
ture improvement. Urban complex serves as coop-
eration association could save cost of government,
increase land use value and decrease public cost. Urban
complex have high radiation range to surrounding
areas to effectively control land use and develop-
ment speed. Due to definite development and oper-
ation mode, urban complex could produce new public
infrastructure to solve demand of public space. The
government could produce diversified political refund
or tax discount to inspire urban complex to realize
more social value like creating gardens and so on.
3.3 Urban space transfer
Land could classify into two types of raw and culti-
vated land. Urban complex in new town planning is
a procedure of space exchange that raw land or not
fully cultivated land form changes to new residence,
commerce and industry land. With evacuation evolu-
tion in old town, urban complex is a new kind of space
exchange by transfer land usage like redevelopment of
urban residence district.
Urban space transfer could classify into four stages:
the first stage as blur and fuzz of urban space that the
limit of space becomes unclear influenced by policy
or usage. For instance, when people work and live in
same place, the space limit with bedroom and dinning
room will be unclear. The second stage is unlimited
urban space transfer that space transfer occurs for def-
inite land owner. For instance, a private house leases
for three people that the dinning room becomes living
space of one person, the attribution of dinning room
changes.The third stage is limited urban space transfer.
For instance, land use changes from industry to resi-
dence in specific policy influence. The fourth stage
is limited urban space transfer that occurs between
different land owners. For instance, the ownership
of residence compound becomes unclear, sometimes
designer will change the location of land right to create
more suitable living condition. Urban complex could
promote low cost of space transfer and exchange.
4 CONCLUSION
China is transition economy with definite urban space
structure and network system. High density of pop-
ulation leads to concept change of space scale and
tradition network system. High density and devel-
oping speed will influence urban network system to
produce urban space internalization. Urban internal
space structure consists of poly-centers and urban
groups. Urban need to adjust development form to
promote urban development quality, realize internal
development of urban in compact criterion. The
occur of urban complex have important promotion
to both land use and space structure as land use
value promotion, land use period reconstruction and
land flexibility improvement in compact land use
pattern, together with space structure rapid devel-
opment, ecology environment promotion and urban
space transfer in intensive space structure form.
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WU Liangyong, MAO Qizhi, ZHANG Jie. Toward 21st
Century-Sustainable Future of Chinese Metropolitan
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City Planning Review. 1996(4): 2227.
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WANG Fuhai, Li Guicai. Review for the Planning of
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CUI Gonghao. Urban Issue as the Regional Issue-The
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Prediction of environmental-friendly eco-architecture trend by

neologism analysis

Kyung-Il Chin
Department of Architectural Engineering, Hanbat National University, Daejeon, South Korea (Main author)

Jin WooMoon
Department of Building and Plant Engineering, Hanbat National University, Daejeon, South Korea
(Corresponding author)

Kwang Ho Lee
Department of Architectural Engineering, Hanbat National University, Daejeon, South Korea

ABSTRACT: This study aimed at predicting the future of the environmental-friendly eco-architecture based
on the investigation about the newly-coined words reflecting issues relative to the environmental-friendly eco-
architecture as well as to the general social phenomena. Common trends significantly considered in social and in
the environmental-friendly eco-architecture were public interest (12.5%), duty/appropriateness/morality (8.7%),
social problems (6.5%), consumer problems (8.7%), formal deviation (12.5%) and new technologies (21.7%).
On the other hand, trends, which existed in the social phenomena but hardly not in the environmental-friendly
eco-architecture, were the aging society, poverty, anonymity, population, improvisation, and joblessness, and
their relativeness to the environmental-friendly eco-architecture were the issues needs to be seriously taken
into account. The results of this study are as follows. At first, the people has interested in the environmentally
appropriative accidents, which should be continued for the future at any reasons. Second, these neologism points
out the fundamental human problems such as environmental pollutions, genetic mutation, energy exhaustion,
and so on. Third, they accommodate the conceptual variation of the consumption as well as refused generality
and required extraordinary. Lastly, it revealed that there was significant expectancy on the new technologies and
their reflection to the environmental-friendly eco-architecture.

Keywords: Neologism, Trend, Environmental-friendly eco-architecture

1 GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS 1.2 Methods & scope

1.1 Background & object
Language reflects the phases of the times and the soci-
ety as well as the thoughts and requirements of the
people. Since the newly-coined words, in particular,
contain the phases of the times and peoples require-
ments, they may be one of the major tools to check on
the timely requirements of the society. Not only in the
South Korea, but also internationally, a variety of new
words has been being created, which is a phenomenon
occurring in all social area including the architectural
field.
This study investigated newly-coined words reflect-
ing social developments and phenomena, and then
extracted social trend from them. In addition, the
way how this trend could be applied to the architec-
ture or how the architecture considers this trend was
predicted. Based on this prediction, this study aims
at proposing a direction that environmental-friendly
eco-architecture could follow.
This study investigated new words, which have been
generated since the beginning of the 21st century,
dividing two groups: words in social science; and
words in eco-architecture. Then, social trend was
extracted based on the grouping of new social words
with similar characteristics. In addition to this, new
words in environmental-friendly eco-architecture were
analyzed their similarity with the extracted social
trend.
The research scopes were given below.
(1) Trends could be categorized based on the degree
of the ripple effect, and their characteristics
could be slightly different. However, the char-
acteristics and types were not considered in this
study.
(2) New words were extracted from internet and a
variety of literature. They are Korean and English
words which were created since the beginning
of the 21st century. Respective 50 words were

49
 collected for representing social phenomena and
eco-architecture.
2 ARCHITECTURE & TREND
2.1 Change of environmental-friendly
eco-architecture trend
The past international meetings regarding
environmental-friendly eco-architecture could be
summarized as s follows. In 1972, the Stockholm
UNCHE adopted Declaration on the Human Envi-
ronment with subject to the Only One Earth at the
Declaration on the Human Environment. In 1982,
UNEP introduced a concept of sustainable develop-
ment, in 1987, UN published a report regarding sus-
tainable development, and in 1992, UN Conference
on Environment and Development declared global
sustainable development plan in Rio. In 1997, United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
adopted the Kyoto Protocol, and in 1998, action plan
for the Kyoto Protocol in Buenos Aires. From the early
1970s to new millennium, international interests in the
environment have been increased. However, the upper
mentioned activities have been conducted not by the
general people, but by the experts idea. In a strict
sense, conditions of respective regions or nations have
not been reflected.
Therefore, even though the international trends and
declarations are worthy of attention, it requires to
investigate the ways for application of the contempo-
rary trend to the architecture.
3 NEOLOGISM AND TREND ANALYSIS
Newly-coined words reflecting contemporary social
phenomena, peoples requirements, and psychological
conditions are media to see the image of their society.
In this study, new words were collected in two cate-
gories. Firstly, in order to see the areas or issues receiv-
ing attentions in our society, new words, which reflect
the social phenomena, were collected. From these new
words, the social trends were extracted. The extracted
trends were used as evidentiary materials for analyz-
ing neologism of environmental friendly architecture.
Secondly, new words relative to the eco-environment
and architecture were collected, and their similarity to
the extracted trends was analyzed. For understanding
the contemporary environmental-friendly ecological
architecture, the relationship between new words and
the social trends were summarized in the table 2.
3.1 Neologisms for social trend
New worlds reflecting the social trends were collected
in terms of social tendency, economic tendency, cul-
ture and values tendency, and new technological ten-
dency. Since the numbers of new words are countless,
the representatively sampled words are summarized in
the Table 1.
50
<Table 1> 25 types of trends were extracted from
new words:  a individualism,  b change of eco-
nomic concept,  c high-quality human resources,
d aging,  e public interest, 
f network technology,
g change of morals and ethics,  h poverty prob-
lems,  i social problems, j weakened social adapta-
tion, k consuming problems,  l consumer-oriented,
m leisure,  n egoism,  o anonymity reinforcement,
p anthropocentrism,  q population problems, r affec-
tion for descendants,  s impulsiveness, t unemploy-
ment problems,  u community,  v metamorphosis,
w opportunism,  x new technology,  y well-being,
z environmental-friendly and pollution.
3.2 Neologism for eco-architecture
Newly-coined words regarding buildings, architec-
ture, eco-system and environment were summarized
in the Table 2. They were purely created and naturally
occurred excluding words generated from regulations
and standards by official bodies.
4 ARCHITECTURE TREND FORECASTING
4.1 Analysis by using social trends
Analyzed social trends werenumbered as table 2. With
this, this study analyzes the ecological environmen-
tal architecture field trend and shows the result at the
table 2 and Figure 1.
Even though all contents regarding social trends
might not be reflected in the eco-environment and
architecture, some of them were found frequently.
Those were  e public interest (12.5%),  g change
of morals and ethics (8.7%),  i social problems
(6.5%),  k consuming problems (8.7%),  v metamor-
phosis (12.5%),  x new technology (21.7%). These
trends could be inferred as area that peoples are actu-
ally interested in. On the other hand, Trends that are
found in social phenomena but not in eco-architecture
were  d aging,  h poverty problems,  o anonymity
reinforcement,  q population problems,  s impul-
siveness,  t unemployment problems. These trends
were not reflected in eco-architecture even though
they were considered importantly in society. Currently
there exists some distance between eco-architecture
and social trends, however, it still needs to seriously
investigate the relationship between them.
4.2 Eco-architecture point by trend
Based on the analysis in chapter 4.1, this study point
out the necessity of study fields; prossible new envi-
ronmental eco-architecture field related with social
trends, and the method of its copulation. As a result of
this study, these are 1) reflection of justice, 2) pointing
out the humankind problems 3) conceptual change of
consuming culture, 4) refusal of common-placeness,
5) eager for new technologies.
Table 1. Some examples of typical newly-coined words related with social trend

No. Words Definition Trend analysis/Extraction

1 Instant Family Formation of family relative anthropocentrism Publicinterest

to the adoption
2 Speed Impulsive marriage and divorce individualism impulsiveness Change of
divorce/marriage morals and
ethics
3 Pregnancy as a Pregnancy before marriage Change of individualism
bottom drawer morals and
ethics
4 Velcro parents Innuendo about parents Affection for egoism
excessively interfering to descendents
childrens lives
5 Immature, Drop a job due to weakness for Weakened social individualism
depression the stress from work adaptation
6 Depraved male People who excessively loves individualism Change of egoism
and female excessive him/herself morals and
ethics
7 Gold-tern Likening a phenomenon hard to Unemployment Social problems poverty
find even an internship position problems problems
8 Pan-NG family Delay graduation by a leave of Unemployment High-quality
absence or an insufficient credits problems human resources
9 School-drifted People wandering the school Unemployment Weakened social
party after graduation problems adaptation
10 Spec reset, Registering again for advancing Unemployment High-quality
low-quality individual specifications, or low problems human resources
spec individual specifications
11 Unfriend Removal of the friend list Change of individualism egoism
morals and
ethics
12 down Downsizing home property for poverty aging Population
investment retaining cash & reducing risks problems problems
techniques by the baby boom generation
13 polysumer A class needing an instant support poverty Social problems
from Policy + consumer society problems
14 Yu-Nanomics Yu-Na Kim + economics: Change of
Re-evaluation of economic economic
value by a person concept
15 actvertising active + advertising: Consumer- Network community
consumer-participated oriented technology
advertisement
16 Crazy A supporting actor leaving a impulsiveness
existence strong impression
17 volarbeit Volunteer + arbeit anthropocentrism Public interest
18 voluntainment Volunteer + entertainment Public interest leisure metamorphosis
19 bleisure Business + leisure Leisure metamorphosis
20 coffice Coffee + office: a person Leisure metamorphosis opportunism
working at a cafe
21 weisure Work + leisure based on the Leisure metamorphosis opportunism
communication wireless
technology
22 smartboomer An highly-educated and Leisure aging Consuming
consuming-powered aging class problems
enjoying smart phone
23 socialnomics Consuming activity using Consuming Network opportunism
social-media problems technology
24 No-link, A party composing personal opportunisam Anonymity rein- community
No-tie party connections using social-network forcement
25 Emotion A behavior restricting individual individualism egoism
labour expression for consumers
satisfaction
... ... Skip below etc: environmental-friendly, well-being

51
Table 2. Some examples of typical newly-coined words related with environmental-friendly eco-architecture/trend analysis.

Background trend Background trend

No. Words (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) No. Words (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

1 Arborcide e 35 Aesthetic Aging k w x

2 BANANA a g e 36 Archityranny k
3 Bioneers e x 37 Blobject v
4 Brownfields g e i 38 Digital Artwork v x
5 Carbon Sinks x p 39 Ecstatic Architecture v x
6 CaulerpaTaxifolia g x 40 Facadism g x i
7 Circle of poison g p n y 41 Fashion-Tech v x
8 Conservation Concessions b e g p h 42 Hypersurface Architecture v x
9 Dark Sky Preserve e m p y y 43 Industrial Cool v w x
10 Designer Waste Streams b e i k x 44 Michael Anastassiades x
11 Eco-Industrial Park b c e f x 45 New Edge Design v
12 Ecological Footprint e g i 46 Startups v x
13 Environ e i k y x 47 Trash art e v
14 ESU = The Red List e g 48 Visible Storage w v u b
15 Franken-fish e g i a x 49 Pragmatist Architecture w v
15 Green Premiums a e k 50 Qubico v w x
16 Green Washing a e n 51 Softroom v x
17 Grow it yourself Furniture k v x 52 Articure v x
18 Hard Green w j 53 Connectionism v x
19 Industrial Reincarnation x e k 24 Designer Departures v
20 Iron Fertilization g x 55 High Visibility Design v m
21 Low Emission Farming e x y 56 Inflatism v x
22 Network Farming k f y 57 Bilbio Effect b e v x i
23 Pharmaceutical Pollution i x 58 Pinut House l r v w x
24 Polylactide x k 59 Clayarch k x
25 Solenium x k 60 Swimming Spar w m j
26 Terratex x k 61 Building Webonomics l b
27 Viridian Greens a m g u v 62 Slow City a y j k
28 Wave Power x e 63 Re-Seouling g
29 Wind Farms x e i 64 Anarchitecture v g
30 Ecological Equation i 65 Slim Floor x
31 Extinction Saving Bank c e x 66 Ecobaum g
32 Home Water Treatment a i k x 67 Zero Emission House e k x g
33 Interruptive Conservation w x f 68 LOHAS y p k
34 Leadfills i g 69 Green Home x e

*Background trend symbols are extracted from social trend (except the symbol Z(environmental friendly).

eco-architecture issues, and based on the analysis of

Figure 1. Ratio of trend appearance.
5 CONCLUSIONS
This study surveyed new-coined words reflect-
ing social phenomena and environ-mental-friendly
them, the future of eco-architecture was predicted.
Findings in the study were: eco-architecture showed
that the socially and environmentally right things
have continued to being conducted and will be per-
formed; new words pointed out various problems such
as pollution and genetic variance; they also accepted
the conceptual change in consuming culture as well
as refused commonplaceness and required new and
extraordinary things; and there were a significant
expectancy in the new technologies and a hope to be
applied to the environmental-friendly eco-architecture
fields.
Further studies are warranted based on the
expanded samples relative to new words and on the
objective surveying process. In addition, it needs to
organize trends more systematically for being cul-
minated in a philosophical background and flow.
Finally, a causal analysis for the part that presented
in social trends but not in the eco-architecture will be
conducted.

52
REFERENCES
Chin, K.I. 2011. Forecasting the Future City & Building by
Analyzing the Future Oriented Neologism & SF Movies
with Maslows Hierarchy of Needs. Advanced Materials
Research Vols. 255260: 16221626
Chin, K.I. 2012. The analogizing the city & building future
by analyzing scene in the science fiction films and
the human action desire. Advanced Materials Research
Vols. 450451: 10741077
Faith popcorn & Adam Hanft. 2009. Dictionary of the future.
Hyperion
Jacques J.P. Michel. 1995. Historical, Contemporary and
Predictable Green Architecture. International symposium
53
handbook of lectures on 50 year commemoration for
Architecture Institute of Korea. AIK.
Kim, N.D. 2012. Trend Korea 2011. Seoul: Window of future.
Shin, J.E., Park J.E. 2007. Revolution of future. Seoul: Il-
song-Book.
Nomura Research Institute. 2008. 2010 IT roadmap. Seoul:
Maekyung Economic Daily.
LG Economic Research Institute. 2011. 2020 new future is
coming. Seoul: Hans-media.
Kim, M.J. 2011. 2011 trend keyword. Seoul: Window of
future.
Jung, K.S. 2000. Researches trend of ecological dwelling.
Journal of Korean Association of Air Conditioning
Refrigerating and Sanitary Engineers Vol. 17: 4657.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Evaluation on building interior accessible routes design

Ying Han
Engineering Institute, Jinling Institute of Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
School of Architecture, South-east University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

Yan Wang
Engineering Institute, Jinling Institute of Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

ABSTRACT: To design complete interior accessible routes will be the inevitable trend of the barrier-free
environment design, and how to effectively evaluate the design of accessible routes is missing in Chinese
current specification content. On the basis of the existing accessible routes design evaluation method, a method
that combination the Analytic Hierarchy Process and Gray Clustering Analysis advantages for building indoor
accessible routes design evaluation approaches (referred GCAHP) was constructed, and the method of calculation
and evaluation process described in the paper. Followed by analysis of the Nanjing Museum, for example, to
verify the practicality and effectiveness of the rating system, these study results of the perfect building indoor
accessible routes design evaluation system has a certain amount of guidance.

Keywords: Indoor public space; Accessibility flow line design, Methods of Evaluation

1 INTRODUCTION countries Accessibility Guidelines for Buildings and

1.1 Barrier-free design
Barrier-free design proposed by the United Nations in
1974, stressed that in modern civilized society, pub-
lic space planning and design of the environment,
must take into account the needs of people with dis-
abilities and the elderly, with service and device to
be able to create a caring and protection of human
security, convenient, comfortable and modern life. The
study found that the design changes to adapt to people
with disabilities do, in fact, are beneficial to anyone.
From a different angle to consider, take into consider-
ation the needs of those special people in the general
design, so as to achieve the effect will everyone fair
use more attractive and market potential. Therefore,
the current barrier-free design has actually extended to
consider including other potential users of the physio-
logical normal and the disabled, the elderly, children,
left-handed, universal design for all staff.
1.2 Accessible routes
The main specifications of our current barrier-free
design is The urban roads and buildings accessi-
ble design (to referred JGJ50-2001), which written
mainly considered by building parts, not expressly
provided for accessible routes. However, the course
of action and demand of the people were consid-
ered in the accessibility norms of the developed
Facilities (referred to as ADAAG-2010). The barrier-
free facilities constructed by our specification, can not
form a complete barrier-free path of travel, a lot of
barrier-free facilities does not work properly; result-
ing injury legal disputes are more complex. Many
big cities, those who do not contiguous, the visually
impaired can not use the Blind is the best example.
Therefore, to establish more detailed and complete
barrier-free path of travel design specifications, and
the existing barrier-free design to be effective evalu-
ated is very important. In this paper, a new evaluation
method for the evaluation of the flow line design of
indoor accessibility was built based on the existing
evaluation methods[14] .
2 THE EVALUATION METHOD
At present, the main academic evaluation method in
building filed including Artificial Neural Networks,
the Analytic Hierarchy Process, Comparative Eval-
uation, Data Envelopment the Analysis of Delphi
Method, Entropy Evaluation Method, Gray, Cluster-
ing, Analysis, and so on[5] . Taking into account the
complexity of building accessible routes on the func-
tional diversity and the building structure, the author
constructed an approach (referred GCAHP) that com-
bined advantages of the Analytic Hierarchy Process
and Gray Clustering Analysis to evaluate the indoor
barrier-free path of travel design.

55
2.1 Sample preparation partition of accessible
routes design
To establish the design evaluation system of build-
ing indoor accessible routes, we must first carry out
in accordance with the standard partition of the inte-
rior space. Museum, for example, usually divided into
three parts:
(1) Indoor traffic space, including indoor under-
ground parking, building entrances and exits,
stairs, ramps, safety grab bar armrest set, lift,
lifting platform, and emergency safety and evac-
uation routes;
(2) Indoor function space, including the total ser-
vice desk, public phones, drinking fountains, toilet
facilities, exchange of rest, exhibition spaces,
wheelchair spaces;
(3) Emergency security evacuation and indoor mark-
oriented systems, including barrier-free symbol
of international general service radius, color and
luminous sound and Braille, safety and emergency
evacuation, large screen and so on.
The article refers to the building interior space is t
the public space areas, without considering the space
of the office staff.
2.2 Determination of evaluation indicators
More barrier-free indicator of the flow line of the
indoor, need to be screened to determine the key
indicators of the evaluation system required various
types of indicators. Screening process with telephone
counseling, a combination of internet voting and
questionnaires, inquiries mainly targeted at the archi-
tectural design staff, building staff, ordinary viewers
and audiences with special needs, such as the disabled,
the elderly, audlts with children, the left-handed and
so on.
After a series of research and index selection,
the paper ultimately determine the indoor Acces-
sibility flow line evaluation include: indoor under-
ground parking, building entrances, doors, stairs or
ramps, handrails set of safety grab bar, walkways
and floors, elevator and lifting platforms emergency
security evacuation routes, barrier-free toilet seat or
a dedicated toilet, wheelchair spaces, indoor facilities
(including desk, public telephone, drinking fountains,
exchange of rest, etc.), display spaces and interior
marked-oriented system.
Table 1. Standard values of the evaluation grade.
Grades A B C
Calulation 0.81.0 0.60.8 0.6
values Median Median Median
Si(A) = 0.9 Si(B) = 0.7 Si(C) = 0.3
56
2.3 Built accessible routes evaluation system
based on the method of GCAHP
The second step, build the level of evaluation. Based
on the determined partition or classification, in accor-
dance with the affiliation of the evaluation, the evalu-
ation level should be established. Specific explanation
about how to determine the level was shown in Table 2
with examples. Generally speaking, the base layer is
specific targets, while criteria layer and sub-criteria
layer is the classification standards.
The third step, the target weight set. This part of
the computing methods used is the Analytic Hier-
archy Process. The basic principle is the pair-wise
comparison. Through construct the structural matrix
R (see Equation 1) to assess the relative importance
of a variety of factors. Then, the use of the char-
acteristic root method to calculate the weight vector
W = {W1 , W2 , , Wn } (Equation 2), and the initial
evaluation value of each factor were taken into the
calculation to seek final evaluation results justified by
the consistency test[67] .
which, uij is the importance of scale[5] .
The fourth step is to determine the score approach.
Usually the score for different index of a building were
determined according to the expert survey results, or
reference to foreign scoring criteria to determine[8] .
Finally, calculate the score value. Interval where the
last calculated value, evaluation of the building indoor
accessible routes indicator level is divided into three
grades A, B, and C, are shown in Table 1.
3 INTERIOR ACCESSIBLE ROUTES DESIGN
EVALUATION INSTANCE OF THE NANJING
MUSEUM
3.1 Present of Nanjing Museum
Nanjing Museum is the first built by the State National
museum, which is located in Nanjing Purple Moun-
tain south of Zhongshan door on the north side, an
area of 70,000 square meters, two gallery (history
museum and art gallery) construction area of 35,000
m2, architectural style exist side by side for imitation
Liao palace-style building, hospital luxurious vegeta-
tion, a variety of carved stone artifacts interspersed
with cultural landscape and the natural landscape[9] .
Part of the Museum interior shown in Figure 1.
3.2 Interior accessible routes design evaluation of
Nanjing Museum
The process and calculation method of GCAHP
described in the front in this article, in this section com-
bined with the Nanjing Museum to explain GCAHP
method. This the study, Values of the matrix R for the
rule layer and sub-criteria layer by consulting experts
to the architectural design and construction responsi-
ble person to obtain. The matrix values of the base layer
with special needs to ordinary viewers and audiences
(mainly people with disabilities and the elderly) ques-
tionnaires. In the study, 120 valid questionnaires were
selected among the distributed 130 questionnaires to
conducted a survey using the Likert Scale [10] , and the
values of the matrix R based on valid questionnaires
as follows (See formula 2 to 4), evaluate layers and
corresponding weights results shown in Table 2.

Then, the weight of each evaluation index calculated

in the share of the entire evaluation system. That is, the
second data column of in Table 3. Next, select the score
for each indicator in the base layer rate according to
the choice of rating criteria, the score results are listed
in the third column of Table 3.
Then dimensionless, with the score sequence (i.e.,
the median score) divided by the pending rating:

where k is the evaluation of level A, B, C.

i = 1, 2, 3 . . . , n, Represent the baseline layer indica-
tors 1 to 16 in this case. And then calculate the
difference as follows:
Figure 1. Pictures of Nanjing Museum.

Table 2. Museum evaluation level and evaluation index weight calculation.

Rule layers Sub-criteria layers Base layers

Interior accessible Hardware Indoor function Services, security facilities (24%)

routes design (81%) space (33%) Wheelchair seat (22%)
evaluation Exhibition space (31%)
Barrier-free toilet seat or a dedicated toilet (23%)
Indoor traffic Vertical transportation (33%) Stairs and ramps (50%)
space (67%) Elevator and lifting platforms (50%)
Horizontal transport (40%) Door (25%)
Aisle (42%)
Ground (33%)
Transport hub (27%) Indoor underground parking (36%)
Building entrances and exits (18%)
Emergency security evacuation
routes (46%)
Software Indoor marked-oriented system (35%)
(19%) Indoor blind sidewalk (31%)
Acoustic panels (14%)
Safety grabs the rod handrail (20%)

57
Table 3. Indicator scores Si , dimensional calculation results and the gray relational coefficient.

i (k) iF (k)

Base layers Ni Weight Si A B C A B C

Services, security facilities 0.064 0.66 0.27 0.06 1.20 0.75 0.93 0.40
Wheelchair seat 0.059 0.54 0.40 0.23 0.80 0.67 0.78 0.50
Exhibition space 0.083 0.78 0.13 0.11 1.60 0.86 0.88 0.33
Barrier-free toilet seat or a dedicated toilet 0.061 0.70 0.22 0.00 1.33 0.78 1.00 0.38
Stairs and ramps 0.09 0.78 0.13 0.11 1.60 0.86 0.88 0.33
Elevator and lifting platforms 0.09 0.63 0.30 0.10 1.10 0.73 0.89 0.42
Door 0.054 0.54 0.40 0.23 0.80 0.67 0.78 0.50
Aisle 0.091 0.60 0.33 0.14 1.00 0.71 0.85 0.44
Ground 0.072 0.72 0.20 0.03 1.40 0.80 0.97 0.36
Indoor underground parking 0.053 0.55 0.39 0.21 0.83 0.67 0.79 0.49
Building entrances and exits 0.026 0.63 0.30 0.10 1.10 0.73 0.89 0.42
Emergency security evacuation routes 0.067 0.81 0.10 0.16 1.70 0.89 0.84 0.32
Indoor marked-oriented system 0.067 0.75 0.17 0.07 1.50 0.83 0.92 0.35
Indoor blind sidewalk 0.027 0.70 0.22 0.00 1.33 0.78 1.00 0.38
Acoustic panels 0.059 0.71 0.21 0.01 1.37 0.79 0.98 0.37
Safety grab the rod handrail 0.038 0.82 0.09 0.17 1.73 0.90 0.82 0.32

Table 4. Correlation degree results. but in the audio-visual display devices, wheelchair
spaces and certain details of barrier-free design tend
Grades A B C to be improved.
Correlation degree 0.806 0.917 0.404

4 CONCLUSIONS

By comparison of the barrier-free design standards of

Combination of interior accessibe routes indicator
China and abroad, our barrier-free standards should be
to judge the grade standard values (Table 1) and the
added to form a complete accessibe routes provisions.
Nanjing Museum Accessibility Evaluation of the flow
On this basis, to optimize the existing evaluation crite-
line system benchmarks scores Si, obtained various
ria constructed GCAHP way, through public research
indicators of non-dimensional calculations are shown
and expert advice, screening out the key indicators
in the forth to sixth columns of Table 3.
to determine the index level and scoring methods,
Subsequently, the Gray correlation degree calcu-
and then the gray cluster computing to carry out
lations were done. The gray relational coefficient of
building indoor accessibility evaluation of the flow
comparison sequence Xi (0) with the standard sequence
line. Finally, the Nanjing Museum for the case of an
Xi (k) for each point, which is defined as:
empirical analysis, calculated the interior accessibe
routes of the Nanjing Museum of the results of the
evaluation of the Class B to verify the practicality and
effectiveness of the rating method.

where, iF (k) is the gray relational coefficient; is the

distinguishing coefficient, taking the value 0 to 1; the
meaning of other symbols are the same as before.
The gray relational coefficients for each index
results are shown in the last three column of Table 3.
Finally, the correlation coefficient of each indicator
to its right to re-multiplying interior accessibe routes
design and evaluation criteria associated degree; the
results are shown in Table 4.
By calculation, it is easy to see that the design of
interior accessibe routes of the Nanjing Museum is the
Class B standard.
In other words, barrier-free design of the Nanjing
Museum is not perfect. Although the entrance has a
ramp, the museum is equipped with signs, elevators,
accessible toilet location, exchange of rest spaces etc.,
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors appreciate the support of the Foundation
of Architecture Discipline, as well as thank profes-
sor Xiang-sheng GAO of South-east University and
Mr. Xiao-quan LV, for their valuable assistance.
REFERENCES
[1] Petry, I., Becher, T. & Steinauer, B., 2011. Barrier-
free design of civil engineering structures using road
tunnels as an example. Bauingenieur: 5360.
[2] Department of Justice, 2010. ADA Standards for
Accessible Design.

58
[3] Hong, C., & Jia, H., Z., 2009. Barrier-free Design of
Residential Community and Disabled Crowd Charac-
teristic. Sichuan Building Science: 259261.
[4] Qiang, W., 2010. Discussion on the Barrier-free Design
for Railway Station Based on the Behavior of People on
Crutch: Behavior Experiment for People on Crutch in
Beijing. South Railway Station, Architectural Journa:
9295.
[5] Xi, P. Z., 2011. Beijing Urban Green Space Sys-
tem Function Evaluation and Development Strategy.
Beijing Forestry University.
[6] Jian, M., Xin, Y., Jang, L., & Xiao, M. Su, 2010. Study
on the Assessment Indicators for Exterior Luminous
Environment of Residential Area in the City, China
Illuminating Engineering Journal: 16.
59
[7] Yan, L. Z. & Da, W. X. 2010. Objective Evaluation Sys-
tem of Historic Cultural Villages and Towns. Huzhong
Architecture: 161163.
[8] Xue, H., 2010. Study on the Battier-free Design of
Public Building. Central South University.
[9] Da, L. W., 2011. Evaluation on the present condition
of protection and utilization of Nanjing architecture
and streets in the republic of China period. Urban
Problems: 4952.
[10] China Academy of Building Research Institute &
China Disabled Persons Federation. Codes for Design
on Accessibility of Urban Roads and Buildings, 2001.
Beijing: China Building Industry Press.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Rain water utilization in urban design: A case study of the street natural
drainage program in Seattle America

Jing Sun
School of Civil Engineering & Architecture, Ningbo Institute of Technology, Zhejiang University, Ningbo, China

Kaiqi Shi
Division of Engineering, the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo, China

ABSTRACT: With rapid pace of urbanization, increasing roads and drainage facilities destroyed the natu-
ral hydrological cycle, which led to a series of urban water environment problems. Simultaneously, rainwater
drainage through pipes wasted a large amount of rain water resources and caused river pollution. In order to solve
the problems, this paper studied the case of the street natural drainage program in Seattle America, whose design
technique and management measures are analyzed systematically. It is concluded that using the ecological design
methods such as rain water utilization is significant to the urban sustainable development, and these theory and
measures are useful to the contemporary urban design in china.

Keywords: Landscape design, city street, rainwater utilization, water resource protection

1 INSTRUCTIONS road together. Therefore, it is significant to mod-

With the rapid urbanization process, there are increas-
ing amount of hard surfaced man-made areas that do
not readily absorb rainwater, which had to be drained
through artificial pipes to rivers rather than natural
rainfall infiltration. Therefore, the natural water cycle
process was largely destroyed, causing a series of
problems such as increases of rain runoff and flood
peak flow, water pollution, flood disasters, and so on.
It becomes increasingly serious in the world of water
resources and environmental problems (Zhou 1995,
Cheng 2000, Liu 1999).
Rainwater utilization emerged in the 1970s and
developed quickly in the European and American
countries. The United States issued the first law about
rainwater retention during that period. They started
to modify the traditional pattern of drainage pipeline
and design rainwater retention spaces in urban. At
the end of 1970s, the stormwater management was
sprung up based on rainwater utilization and gen-
eral planning. During 1990s, the rainwater utilization
became matured and was considered as an effective
approach to create conservation of resources, beautiful
and sustainable living environment by source control,
local retention method of surface runoff, increase the
rain delay of infiltration, restore natural water cycle
system, landscape planning and urban design (Debo
2002).
City road is one of the most important com-
ponents of the city function and urban landscape.
Urban drainage facilities are always designed with
ify drainage mode, rainwater retention and recycle
combined with urban and landscape design. The
Seattle public municipal natural drainage project is one
of typical successful cases.
2 THE SEATTLE PUBLIC MUNICIPAL
NATURAL DRAINAGE PROJECT
2.1 Background
Before urbanization, majority of Seattle was cov-
ered by forests and grassland. Some of rainwater
was absorbed by plants and soil. Some was reten-
tion. And the rest of rainwater was surface runoff.
Because of low permeability of soil, hill slope and the
plain of the valley water storage function, and natural
vegetation interception effect, the surface runoff was
relatively slow and small, while the evaporation and
rainfall infiltration amount was large. After Urban-
ization, a large area of hard roof, street pavement
and parking was applied instead of original forests
and grassland, which destroyed natural water cycle
process. The urban rainwater infiltration reduced sig-
nificantly, runoff increased greatly, and at the same
time a large amount of rainwater drained off through
the pipe into the urban water system, leading to the
city water pollution and wildlife habitat destruction.
Considering these problems, natural drainage system
was studied by Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) to reduce
surface runoff by modifying street design. In 1999,

61
 Figure 2. Bio-retention zone in SEA project.
Figure 1. Changes before and after SEA project.

SPU carried out a series of street drainage innovation

projects from a street to multi-districts.

2.2 Project design and practice

2.2.1 Street edge alternatives design
SEA (Street edge alternatives) project lies in residen-
tial district along Pipers Creek River, northwest of
Seattle, which is the most significant and success-
ful natural drainage modification case carried out by
SPU. SEA natural drainage modification project is one
part of the Urban Creeks Legacy Program (UCL), aim-
ing at protecting the water, forest and light resources.
In order to recover original function of rivers, the
UCL modified urban drainage system for better river Figure 3. Rainwater retention design on slope.
water quality. While the SEA mainly focused on reduc-
ing flood, controlling road runoff contaminate and
They could not only enhance rainwater retention and
protecting salmon habitat in Pipers Creek River. As
purification, but also upgrade the landscape level with
shown in Fig. 1, SEA changed the road into curves
their different color, flowering in different seasons.
rather than original straight line. Simultaneously, the
After these retention techniques were successful car-
wide of hard pavement was reduced for more rainwa-
ried out, larger rainwater retention space reduced the
ter retention space. In this way, street drainage became
width and linetype of roads, which lowered speed of
more natural.
cars, increasing the safety. Further, bio-retention zone
Bio-retention method was applied in SEA project.
separated the walking ways from car driving streets,
The method was first utilized by Prince George
providing even more safety space for human activity.
County, Marryland in 1990s, which is widely used as
In addition, SEA project also paid more atten-
landscape design element in America, Germany and
tion to education, management and encouragement
Australia (Debo 2002). It was employed chemical and
of natural drainage eco-design. In its practice, pub-
physical interaction among soil, plant and microor-
lic are encouraged to join eco-design education and
ganism for rainwater retention and water purification,
natural drainage management, which not only enhance
which had multi-functions of storage, transport, infil-
their awareness of environmental protection, but also
tration enhancement and rainwater purification. In
increase the communication between districts.
SEA street design, gravel and soil retention bed,
bio-retention ponds and bio-retention zone etc. were
applied as bio-retention facilities along street as shown 2.2.2 Broad green grid project
in Fig. 2. The fact that soil and gravel have good ability Broad green grid (BGG) project was a whole blocks
of penetration and absorption of pollutant in rainwater streets modification, which lied in northwest of
illustrated that bio-retention was a simple and effective Seattle, including 15 blocks. The design idea was
way. Soil could reduce 35%65% phosphorus pol- almost the same as that of SEA project, mainly focus-
lutant, 40%85% BOD and 80%90% lead of total ing on rainwater bio-retention zones along the streets.
rainwater (Marsh 2005). Besides, application of soil However, because the area of BGG project was much
and gravel retention zone could be formed various bigger than single street, BGG designed a whole
landscape according to different geomorphic status stormwater management system basing on each street
(in Fig. 3). At same time, a large amount of local and space in 15 blocks, whose structure is a green grid
vegetations was also applied for rainwater retention. connected with bio-retention zones (Fig. 4).

62

Figure 4. BGG grid system.
Figure 5. HP rainwater retention landscape.
2.2.3 High point residential project
High Point (HP) residential project is a residential
development project of 129 acre in west of Seattle.
Comparing with the BGG, HP project also consisted
of a public rainwater park, a large rainwater retention
space (Fig. 5), upgrading the functions of retention and
recreation.
2.3 Discussion
It is the evidence that the natural drainage street design
of Seattle developed both urban design and rainwater
utilization. A street design (SEA project) was extended
to multi-blocks modification (BGG project), among
which technique and management methods were all
employed according to geological features and size of
spaces. The final design makes street landscape more
ecological and humanized.
3 CONCLUSION
3.1 Utilization of rainwater resource
The environmental effect of the Seattle street natural
drainage program is outstanding. The whole program
has been monitored by University of Washington and
SPU for 3 years. The results show that 98%100%
rainwater was detained. Further, rainwater retention
63
design reduced the runoff contaminates, such as harm-
ful gas, oil dirt, heavy metal, sediment and chemical
fertilizer, etc. Consequently, the design recovers the
natural drainage process and rainwater is recycled as
a real sustainable resource (Hurley & Wilson 2004).
3.2 Safety road
Since 20th century, functions of street have been
discussing. Jane Jacobs suggested that the main func-
tions of street are safety, communication and activity.
He also indicated that wide and high speed road
destroyed the citys spirit (Jacobs1961). The street
natural drainage program modified the street, meeting
the requirements of transport and lowering the speed
at same time, which makes the walker and cycler even
safer. Simultaneously, the curved street also makes
landscape more special and humanized.
3.3 Public communication space
After urbanization, with the evolution of the people
living mode, people live in the reinforced concrete
without much more outdoor activities and commu-
nication with neighborhood which makes peoples
physical and mental health suffered serious adverse
effects. Canadas related survey reviewed that shelter
surrounding environment had close relationship with
childrens physical activity. If there is a park, green
of other public space near apartment, it will increase
a childs chance of outdoor activities, which helps
reduce their risk of obesity, be helpful for its healthy
development. Seattle streets natural drainage project
provided colorful outdoor leisure, travel and commu-
nication spaces promoting the community residents
health and play an active role. After SEA program
completion, numerous residents are willing to spend
their free time to maintain vegetation and share public
rainwater retention garden.
3.4 Education function
Kelvin Linch concluded that there were five major
urban design elements, street, boundary, spot, region
and mark respectively (Lynch 2006). The street is
the most significant element of public area. Seattle
street natural drainage project design and implemen-
tation created a desirable street landscape, forming a
high quality of the streets of the ecological landscape
image. It also improved the community residents
of the ecological and environmental protection con-
sciousness which has played a positive role of recessive
education.
REFERENCES
Cheng, F. Y., 2000. The shortage of water resources: in the
21st century China of challenge. Disaster Reduction in
China. (2):2829.
Debo, T. N. and Reese, A., 2002. Municipal Stormwater
Management. CRC Press.
Hurley, S. & Wilson, M., 2004. Great (Wet) Streets: Merging
Street Design and Stormwater Management to Improve
Neighborhood Streets America: Landscape Architecture,
University of Washington.
Jacobs, J., 1961. The Death and Life of Great American
Cities. Vintage Books.
Liu, Z. L. and Ouyang, Z. J., 1999. Climate change the influ-
ence of water resources to Beijing. Beijing agricultural
science. (5):13.
64
Lynch, K. and Fang, Y. P., 2006. City Image. Beijing: Huaxia
press.
Marsh, W. M., 2005. Landscape Planning Environmen-
tal Applications 4th edition. America: John Wiley and
Sons Inc.
Zhou, N. S. and He, B. G., 1995. City overview of hydrology.
Nanjing: East China Normal University Press.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Studies of urban construction and development strategy of

new villages Taking the construction planning of new village
in Wangji Town, Xinzhou district, Wuhan City for example

Qiuyue Hua
School of Electromechanical & Architectural Engineering, Jianghan University, China

ABSTRACT: This paper advances the planning concept and target location of urban construction from the
angle of unification of three plannings industrial planning, land planning and urban planning by analyzing
the present situation, development strengths and constraints of Wangji Town, based on the development guide-
line of new industrialization, agricultural industrialization and rural urbanization to promote the sustainable
development of urban economy and construction of new villages by taking the implementation strategies such
as space optimization, internal integration, rural community development and so on.

Keywords: new villages, unification of three plannings, new industrialization, agricultural industrialization,
rural urbanization

1 INTRODUCTION demonstration point for construction of new villages

The urban construction and development of new vil-
lages reflects the overall development level of econ-
omy and society in rural areas directly and has an
impact on overall coordinated urban and rural devel-
opment [1]. Solve economic and social problems in
rural areas, with the guidance of scientific outlook on
development, according to the general requirements
on agricultural and rural work advanced by the Party
and state again: To improve peoples livelihood in rural
areas is the important content of adjusting the dis-
tribution pattern of national income; to expand the
demands in rural areas is the essential action to pro-
mote domestic demand; to develop modern agriculture
is the major task of transforming the economic devel-
opment methods; to build new socialist villages and
promote urbanization is the lasting power to main-
tain stable and rapid economic development, etc. In
the planning and construction of new villages, there
are many new issues that must be studied in depth
and are looking for solutions. Solve the problems with
urban construction in new rural areas by adopting sys-
tematic, comprehensive and sustainable development
strategies, follow the development guideline of three
industrializations new industrialization, agricul-
tural industrialization and rural urbanization, promote
the development of rural economy, urban infrastruc-
ture facilities and social undertakings in rural areas
comprehensively and the coordinated development of
economic, social and ecological benefits and take
the road of sustainable rural construction of new vil-
lages. In the planning and design of Hubei provincial
Wangji Town, Xinzhou District, Wuhan City, we
have done some exploratory work to seek new solu-
tions. Combining with the present construction state
of Wangji Town as well as the status and development
needs of the area where it is located, we re-examine the
industrial distribution, land adjustment, village build-
ing, professional township building and infrastructure
development in Wangji Town from the angle of unifi-
cation of three plannings industrial planning, land
planning and urban planning and adopt innovative
strategies to promote the comprehensive construction
and development of new villages in Wangji Town.
2 PROJECT PROFILE
The object of planning is the provincial, municipal and
district-level key construction town Wangji Town,
Xinzhou District, Wuhan City. It has a total area of
153 square kilometers, two communitiesWangji and
Kongbu and 51 administrative villages, 1.27 million
people in towns and 7.59 million people in rural areas.
Wangji Town is located in the central part of
Xinzhou District, Wuhan City, connecting Zhucheng
Street on the east, close to Yangluo Street and Cangbu
Street in the west, south to Zhangdu Lake Farm, bor-
dering on Liji Street in the north, as the middle hub of
connecting Zhucheng and Yangluo in Xinzhou Dis-
trict. The terrain within the boundaries rises in the
northeast and falls in the southwest with an altitude
of 2050 meters. Jushui River and Daoshui River are
internally arranged in an east-west direction and run

65
through the land from north to south. It has conve-
nient traffic conditions and is the main window for
rural areas in the north of Wuhan to the outside.
3 ANALYSIS OF DEVELOPMENT
STRENGTHS AND CONSTRAINTS
3.1 Development strengths
Location strengths: Wangji is located in the center of
Xinzhou district, main traffic artery Xinshi Highway
passes through the town area, Zhucheng and Yangluo
inside the district are easy to contact and every quar-
ter outside the district may be accessible. Taking the
inherent traffic advantages, it can not only take the
advantages of Zhucheng and enjoy the public service
facilities offered by Zhucheng in politics and life in
the future development but is laden with Yangluo and
undertake the industrial advantages of Yangluo Indus-
trial Park and Logistics Center; it can not just link
Shuangliu Town and combine with the advantages in
ecological agriculture and aquaculture in Shuangliu
Town but enhance Liji Town and Cangbu Town and
radiate to Liji Town and Cangbu Town.
Advantage of roads: Four highways in planning
and construction (Jiangbei Fast Road, Wuhan Outer
Ring Road, Wuying Highway, Xingang Highway) and
five municipal highways, three in longitudinal direc-
tions and two in horizontal directions, form a highly-
accessible road system in Wangji, only 20 kilometers
away from Xindao Highway to Xinzhou Railway Sta-
tion; only 30 kilometers away from Wuhan Outer Ring
Road and Yangluo Port, only 20 minutes drive from
Wuhan Tianhe Airport, Wuhan city proper Hankou and
Qingshan can be reached within an hour and almost
all towns in Xinzhou District can be reached within a
half hour, all of which create the unique advantages of
Wangji.
Industrial advantages: it introduces industry-
leading enterprises such as Wuhan Coland Group
and Hubei Lvquan Vegetable Food Co., Ltd with
an expected annual output of up to 5 billions in
which Coland Group has an annual processing capac-
ity of 90,000 mu aquatic products. It will pro-
mote the industrialization development of agriculture
greatly by relying on two agricultural and side-
line products processing projects of Wuhan Coland
Group and Hubei Lvquan Vegetable Food Co., Ltd.
and promoting the made-to-order farming mode
of company + base + association + farmers. Tradi-
tional Wangji chicken soup and Taohe salted pre-
served duck are well-known brands in Wuhan, Wangji
chicken soup and Taohe salted preserved duck have
won the gold medal of National Agricultural Fair many
times and four gold medals of Food Fair consec-
utively and are the well-known trademarks in Hubei
Province.
Advantages of aquatic resources: the water in the
lakes on Wangji Town possesses natural resources such
as Anren Lake and Duigongzui Lake. It covers a water
66
area of 13.7 square kilometers and developed farming
area of up to 70,300 acres and has already formed
suitable scale in Westlake Village, Taozu Village,
Fengpu Village, East Lake Village, West Lake Village
and so on and become one of the largest aquaculture
bases in Wuhan city.
3.2 Constraints in development
The problems of Wangji Town are very widespread in
small towns of central China that take agriculture as
their leading industry, including single mode of agri-
cultural economy, lagged infrastructure construction,
weak rural public facilities and shanty village and
town style. The industrial structure is irrational [2]
and the towns income mainly comes from farming
and aquaculture with small scares and low technical
content. The long-term mechanism for increasing the
production of grain and the income of farmers has
not been established. The vulnerable situation of rural
infrastructure and service facilities has not been fun-
damentally changed, the deep-seated contradictions
restricting agricultural and rural development has not
been eliminated and the rural outlook is still lagging
behind.
4 PLANNING CONCEPTS
Based on the above analysis on composite factors,
the development of this region must follow the sus-
tainable development model. The established planning
concepts are as follows.
4.1 Balanced development of urban
and rural areas
Take the road to develop small towns determine the
nature, functions and building land requirements of
Wangji scientifically and develop all facilities inten-
sively under the guidance of strategy balanced
development of urban and rural areas and regional
urbanization.
4.2 Combination of workers and peasants and
circular development
The development of circular economy may be regarded
as an important measure for sustainable development
and implementation of scientific outlook on develop-
ment, is beneficial to get rid of dual constraints of
resources and environment and form the spread order
type by the combination of enterprises and farmers,
intensive base type by the combination of enterprises
and bases, share type by the combination of cooper-
atives and markets and other forms to promote the
formation of industrial chain and agricultural industry
chain [3].
4.3 Development and protection and sustainable
development
Excellent ecological environment is the most valuable
resource that distinguishes rural areas from cities, the
basis of eco-agriculture and eco-tourism and the basis
of cooperation of worker and peasants [4]. Implement
the ecological concept of development fully, pay atten-
tion to the protection of environment in the vigorous
development of industries in villages and towns and
lay special emphasis on the current sewage discharge
and waste disposal to realize the virtuous circle of
ecological environment.
4.4 Focused development of culture and spirit
The construction of villages is not only focused on the
construction of physical landscape but the construc-
tion of cultural landscape. The construction level of
public service facilities is an important standard that
defines urban modernization, an important indicator
to measure the quality of urban living environment,
a strong guarantee for the improvement of village
styles and the fundamental measure for the long-
term management of villages. Increase investment in
public service facilities, improve living environment
quality in small towns comprehensively in terms of
cultural landscape, community building and spiritual
outlook and infuse new life into the construction and
development of Wangji Soup Town.
5 TARGET LOCATION
Planning focus to the industrial construction, the
overall planning and land use planning based on com-
bined town domain distribution of resources, adjust
the industrial structure and layout, the protection of
basic farmland and ecological resources, emphasiz-
ing the function of space, and optimize village layout,
co-ordinate arrangements for the town of Victoria
regional infrastructure and public service facilities,
Wang set into a harmonious and prosperous, and the
charm of a new eco-towns.
6 IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES
With the analysis of development advantages and
constraints, we can not simply consider the superfi-
cial problems in urban development, industrial layout,
infrastructure construction and deal with them accor-
dance to the simple model of problem-resolution,
and we must proceed from deeper problems such as
urban spatial structure, urban internal mechanism and
sustainable development concept and bring up the
essential points, clear thoughts and put forward imple-
mentation strategies for guidance on all specific oper-
ations from complex conditions for development by
the means of unification of three planning (industry
planning, land planning and urban planning).
67
6.1 Space optimization to create the polar nucleus
and axis of development
Gathering of industrial parks along traffic arteries,
revelation of township style along road windows and
building of demonstration communities along space
nodes. construction relying on the corridor along
Xinshi Highway, strengthening of nodes, axis pro-
motion, overall enhancement, formation of township
center, spatial pattern of four agricultural areas along
Xinshi Highway, maximization of traffic advantages
and logistics distribution function and connections
from any directions.
6.2 Internal integration to produce strong
driving forces
Seeing from internal factors, Wangji promotes the
constitution of three support systems-formation of
industry chains, land intensification and improvement
of facilitates by relying on the internal integration of
various advantages.
6.2.1 Formation of industrial chain support system
by industrial leader and characteristic
agriculture
If there is no industrial guidance and support, there
would be no agricultural modernization and new
rural development. Promote the development of scale
agriculture and ecological agriculture industry chain
vigorously and take a new path of agricultural modern-
ization suitable for small towns in the central region
through the promotion of industrial plates to agricul-
ture. Position Wangji Town as a provincial key town
based on aquatic products, green vegetables, soup
and fish deep processing, special planting and other
industries and form industrial structure system with
reasonable, complementary and mutually reinforcing
industrial structures.
6.2.2 Formation of intensive-type land support
system by land planning and transfer
The serious shortage of public funds is the biggest
problem in the development of villages and towns,
but the greatest strength in villages and towns lies
in their rich land resources. To promote the sustain-
able use of non-renewable land resources, guide the
optimized integration of urban ecological space and
industrial resources and achieve the intensive devel-
opment of land, it must insist on reorganizing exist-
ing land for construction, upgrading land level and
utilizing reserved land efficiently, integrate land
resources by making use of technological policies for
planning of villages in the area of towns and take full
advantage of economic policies for land replacement
and transfer to achieve the intensive use of land.
6.2.3 Formation of support system for
infrastructure construction
For a long time, the infrastructure lags behind and
can not meet the future development of industrial
parks, villages and towns. In the project planning
and construction process, whether the development of
industries or the construction of villages and towns
should adhere to the principle of giving priority to
the development of infrastructure with obvious eco-
nomic and social benefits. The main construction
lies in the increase of external road level (unblock-
ing of traffic arteries), improvement of internal road
system, construction of sewage drainage and waste dis-
posal facilities and irrigation and water conservancy
facilities (basis of agricultural industrialization).
6.3 Rural community building
Establish township-level and group-level community
service facilities system[5]. Build community con-
sulting service centers containing cultural and sports
publicity to provide consulting services on daily life,
work, education, health care, tourism and other aspects
for residents; establish community welfare centers to
provide high-quality, thoughtful and attentive services
for the older age groups in communities; provide a
peaceful, harmonious and stable living environment by
information-based and networking construction and
strengthening of safety facilities system of community
policing, early warning and so on for community life.
Provide comprehensive, high-quality, convenient com-
munity services and create good living environments
and enhance home awareness of residents through the
construction of complete, convenient and protective
community service facilities.
7 CONCLUSION
The urban construction of new villages is a com-
plex system engineering related to development of
rural economy, rational use of land, improvement
of rural living environment, highlighting of pastoral
landscape features and other aspects. It must adhere
to the concept of sustainable development and solve
the problems in the urban development of new vil-
lages comprehensively. In the construction planning
and design of this project, to advance the development
of resources superiorities and promote the formation
68
of industrial and agricultural industry chains is the
root of construction; to create node lines and gradu-
ally promote urban space optimization is the outbreak
of construction; to give priority to more investment
and promote the construction urban and rural infras-
tructures is the guarantee for construction; to innovate
land management and use methods and promote the
improvement of land effectiveness is a sustainable
road; to fully implement the ecological concept of
development and improve the rural living environ-
ment is the recycling of vitality; to promote grass-roots
community work and strengthen cultural construction
in rural areas is the return of humanistic spirit and
other implementation strategies. Promote the sustain-
able development of urban economy and construction
in new countryside.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The planning and design work project is completed
with the strong support and assistance of Wangji
Town Government, Wangji Town, Xinzhou District,
Wuhan City, Hubei Province.
REFERENCES
[1] Wang Xiaofang. Analysis of Modernization Small
Towns in the Countryside of Henan Province. Agricul-
tural Archaeology. 2010(6): 266268.
[2] Chen Wenke, Liu Tianxi, Chen Hanhua. Analysis of
Typical Patterns and Paths of Construction of New
Countryside in the Areas of China. Chinas Agricultural
Economy. 2010(5): 314.
[3] Ren Yuehong, Practical Exploration in Ningbo with
Organic Integration of Urban System and Industrial
System. Economy of Special Administrative Regions
(SAR). 2010(2): 5758.
[4] Liu Shuai, Niu Yanbin, Li Xinwang. Analysis of Devel-
opment of Small Towns in Mountainous and Hilly
Regions in East Hebei. Research on Water and Soil
Conservation. 2010(12): 246251.
[5] Chen Junfeng. Research and Review of Center Towns in
China in RecentYears. Urban Problems. 2010 (8):3136
Building materials
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Damage velocity of compressively preloaded concrete under frost action

Sijia Chen, Xiaobing Song & Xila Liu

Department of Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China

ABSTRACT: Most concrete structures in cold regions are subjected to both external loads and freezing-
thawing. The degradation of compressive strength of concrete under the simultaneous action of external loads
and freezing-thawing are experimentally investigated in this research. Air entrainment, different water/cement
(w/c) ratios and different compressive stress were taken into account in the experiments. In order to track the
strength degradation process, the nondestructive tests were carried out after each freeze-thaw cycle to get the
residual strength for each specimen. Based on the experimental data, a variable Kss is proposed to describe
the damage velocity. Experimental results indicate that the damage velocity increases with the increase of the
preloading levels and w/c ratios. The air entrainment decreases the damage velocity of concrete, although which
would reduce the compressive strength of concrete.

Keywords: damage velocity, compressive strength degradation, freeze-thaw cycles, preloading level

1 INTRODUCTION strength degradation of concrete were investigated

In cold regions, frost action is one of the main fac-
tors which influence durability of concrete (Mehta &
Richard 2001, Mehta 2006), and many researches have
been conducted on frost resistance of concrete in recent
years (Moukwa 1990, Senbu & Kamada 1990, Yixia
et al. 1994, Hao 1998, Alexander & Magee 1999, Wei
et al. 1999, Ru et al. 2002, Guangpu 2006, Benjamin &
Jussara 2007, Alan et al. 2011). However, there are still
some limitations of most existing researches.
Firstly, most previous researchers focused on the
freeze-thaw durability of concrete without external
loads. However, in practice, most concrete structures
in cold regions, such as bridges and pavements, are
subjected to both external loads and freezing-thawing.
Secondly, with regard to the influence of the exter-
nal loads (Yixia et al. 1994, Wei et al. 1999, Ru et al.
2002), only the frost resistance of mortar or plain
concrete were discussed in the past. Comparing with
flexural load, it seems that the research on frost resis-
tance of concrete under compression is more attractive
in engineering community.
Thirdly, the dynamic modulus of elasticity and
weight loss were the main focuses for almost all
previous researches. However, engineers are mainly
concerned with the residual strength of concrete after
freeze-thaw cycles, because it can directly affect the
serviceability and safety of RC structures.
In the present work, specimens were compressed by
specially designed apparatus while suffering freeze-
thaw cycles, and their residual strength after each
freeze-thaw cycle were obtained by nondestructive
tests. From the experiment data, the compressive
comprehensively.
2 EXPERIMENTAL
2.1 Sample preparation
A Chinese standard (GB175-2007) 325# Portland
cement (which has standard compressive strength of
32.5 MPa at the age of 28 days) was used in the
experiment. River sand with fineness modulus of 2.3
was used. Coarse aggregate was crushed stones with
diameters from 5 mm10 mm. The proportions of the
various concrete mixes and the major parameters are
listed in Table 1.
More than 130 concrete prisms with 40 mm
40 mm 160 mm were made. Four types of concrete
were studied: three types of non-air-entrained con-
crete with water-cement ratio of 0.47, 0.59 and 0.67
(designated as E-0.47, E-0.59 and E-0.67 respectively);
one type of air-entrained concrete with 1.01 kg/m3
air-entraining agent and w/c = 0.47 (designated
E-0.47A).All specimens were demolded after 24 hours
of casting and cured in a condition of 20 3 and
95 percent RH for 23 days. Thereafter, the specimens
were immersed in water for 4 days prior to the
freezing and thawing cycles.
2.2 Preloading details
The specimens were subjected to uniaxial compres-
sion. For each type of concrete, the averaged compres-
sive strength was obtained by three testing samples

71
Table 1. Mix proportions and major parameters of concrete.

Coarse Air-entraining Compressive strength

Cement Water w/c Sand aggregate agent at 28 days
Series kg/m3 kg/m3 ratio kg/m3 kg/m3 kg/m3 MPa

E-0.67 297 199 0.67 749 1125 0 27.1

E-0.59 320 189 0.59 749 1125 0 29.5
E-0.47 338 159 0.47 749 1125 0 32.1
E-0.47A 338 159 0.47 749 1125 1.01 30.1

Figure 1. Schematic description of the loading device.

before freezing and thawing, and the result was used
as the basis for determining the preloading strength
level. The uniaxial compressive strength values are
given in Table 1. Before freeze-thaw testing, the con-
crete prisms were compressively preloaded, and the
maximum load applied to each prism was adjusted to
generate a maximum compressive stress of 0, 30, 50,
and 80 percent (i.e. the stress ratios are 0, 0.3, 0.5 and
0.8) of the compressive strength of the same prism.
According to each concrete mix proportion, three
specimens were measured. Preloading was generated
through a specially designed apparatus, as shown in
Figure 1. The applied force was controlled and checked
by the protected sensors (AVICI 2007) to prevent the
stress relaxation under freeze-thaw cycles.
2.3 Freeze-thaw test
At the age of 28 days, tests of the concrete was carried
out for suffering of the freeze-thaw cycles and external
loads according to ASTM C666 (ASTM 2003).
2.4 Ultrasonic method and preliminary test
The residual compressive strength of each speci-
men after every freeze-thaw cycle was obtained by
ultrasonic method (Prassianakis 2004, Popovics 2007,
Gregor et al. 2009) with the concrete strength versus
ultrasonic pulse velocity relationship. It is known that
many factors (age, porosity, composition, curing and
so forth) which influence concrete strength also inter-
fere with the determination of concrete strength by
ultrasonic means (Popovics 2007). It is noted that in
Figure 2. Number of freeze-thaw cycles to failure.
order to accurately evaluate the concrete compres-
sive strength with this method, individual relationship
between concrete strength and ultrasonic velocity for
each type of concrete should be obtained by prelimi-
nary tests.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Resistance to freezing-thawing of preloaded
specimens
The numbers of freeze-thaw cycles to failure under the
different preloading levels for four types of concrete
are shown in Figure 2. From the experimental data in
Figure 2, it is found that preloading level influences
the frost resistance of concrete.
3.2 Definition of damage velocity
As shown previously, the number of freeze-thaw cycles
to failure decreases with increasing of preloading
level. However, it is not evident from the previous
results that the external load accelerates the dam-
age velocity. The dominant factor of failure for the
preloaded specimens in the experiments reported
herein is compressive stress induced by external loads.
So, a specimens compressive strength loss after
freeze-thaw cycles becomes the main factor to deter-
mine whether the specimen fractures. For different
preloading level, the compressive strength loss of the

72
specimens needed to fail is different. For example,
the specimens subjected to a preloading level of 80
percent need only 20 percent of compressive strength
loss prior to failure; but, the specimens subjected to a
preloading level of 50 percent have to lose 50 per-
cent of their compressive strength before fracture.
Meanwhile, the experimental results show that the
specimens subjected to a preloading level of 80 percent
need fewer freeze-thaw cycles to failure than the spec-
imens subjected to a preloading level of 50 percent. In
other words, for the specimens subjected to preload-
ing level of 80 percent, they need less compressive Figure 3. Predicted compressive strength comparing to
strength loss and fewer freeze-thaw cycles to fail. That experiment data of ordinary concrete (Guangpu 2006).
is to say, for higher level preloaded specimen, fewer
freeze-thaw cycles lead to less compressive strength
loss, which cannot support that the higher preloading
level leads to higher damage velocity.
In order to understand the relationship between
preloading level and damage velocity, the residual
compressive strength (RCS) after each freeze-thaw
cycle was recorded by ultrasonic impulse method with
the formulas obtained in Table 2. The relative residual
compressive strength (RRCS) is the ratio of the RCS
value measured after each freeze-thaw cycle to that
before the freeze-thaw cycling. The RRCS loss in one
freeze-thaw cycle (designated Kss ) can be defined as
the damage velocity, which is the slope in the coordi-
nate system. The bigger the absolute value of slope is,
the more severe the damage is. So, Kss can be obtained
through the equation as follows:
Figure 4. RRCS versus number of freeze-thaw cycles for
different w/c ratio concrete.

where Kss(N ) = Damage velocity after a certain number

(N ) of freeze-thaw cycles; f(N ) = RCS after a certain
number (N ) of freeze-thaw cycles; and f(0) = Initial
compressive strength.

3.3 Average damage velocity

Most damage models (Lland 1980, Hao 1998, Jun
et al. 2003) based on the Strain Equivalence Principle
(Lemaitre 1992) focus on the variation of elasticity
modulus. Since Youngs modulus is not specifically
related to strength for a material, the damage models
cannot be used to evaluate the evolution of strength
under freezing-thawing. From the research of evo-
lution of concrete failure surface under freeze-thaw
condition (Guangpu 2006), it appears that the com- Figure 5. RRCS versus number of freeze-thaw cycles for
pressive strength could decline approximately linearly different stress ratio.
with the increase of freeze-thaw cycles before RRCS
reaches 0.3, as shown in Figure 3. Consequently, in is a good approach to derive the mathematical
order to understand the effect of external loads on relationship between the RRCS and the number of
damage velocity, using the approach of linear regres- freeze-thaw cycles.
sion on RRCS and freeze-thaw cycles to obtain the
average damage velocity (Kass ) is reasonable and
3.4 Effect of external loads on average damage
necessary.
velocity
From comparison of the experimental results
and regression analysis in Figure 4, Figure 5 and The RRCS of concrete subjected to different stress
Figure 6, it appears that the linear regression analysis ratios (0, 0.3, 0.5, and 0.8) at different number of

73
freeze-thaw cycles and the linear regression analysis
models are given in Figure 4. From the slopes of linear
regression analysis in Figure 4, the averaged damage
velocities of the RRCS of all concrete prisms increase
with increasing of the preloading level. So its evident
that the external loading accelerates the degradation
process of concrete, which exposed to freeze-thaw
cycles regardless of w/c ratios.
From macroscopic perspective, the damage of
concrete suffering freeze-thaw cycles and external
loads is a very complex fatigue process. In this dete-
rioration, the mechanical properties of concrete are
determined by freeze-thaw damage, load damage and
the coupling effect, which is more complicated and
severe than that of the concrete under freeze-thaw
damage only. Internal hydraulic pressure caused by
freeze-thaw cycles is equally distributed tension in all
directions. As concrete being compressed, the trans-
verse strain due to the Poissons effect is tensile strain,
which can be added to the strain caused by inter-
nal hydraulic pressure to deteriorate the deterioration
process.
At the mesoscale level, the compressive load can
make the microcracks or microvoids in original con-
crete to grow and coalesce, which can reduce the
load carrying capacity of concrete. So comparing to
the same type concrete without being preloaded, the
compressively preloaded concrete has lower strength
and resistance. And, freezing and thawing also can
decrease the strength and resistance of concrete.There-
fore, the preloaded concrete can be considered as
having initial freezing-thawing damage. Also, from
some typical damage processes (Lland 1980, Yixia
et al. 1994, Hao 1998, Wei et al. 1999, Ru et al. 2002), it
is known that damage velocity increases as freeze-thaw
cycles increases. As a result, preloaded concrete has
higher damage velocity than the same type concrete
without preloading.
In summary, based on the discussion given above,
it can be concluded that external load can signifi-
cantly raise the damage velocity of concrete exposed
to freeze-thaw cycles.
3.5 Effect of w/c ratio on average damage
velocity
Figure 5 shows the influence of w/c ratios to the dam-
age velocities of the RRCS of the samples. From
Figure 5, it is found that the averaged damage velocity
of RRCS of concrete increases as w/c ratio increases.
From Cai Haos model(Hao 1998), damage incre-
ment of concrete after per freeze-thaw cycle can be
expressed as follows:
where D = Damage variable; N = Number of freeze-
thaw cycle; C,, E 0 = Material parameters for con-
crete; and max = Maximum hydraulic pressure in
freezing process.
74
Figure 6. Compressive strength loss of concrete with and
without entrained air.
Formula (2) indicates that damage increment of
concrete after per freeze-thaw cycle increases with
the increase of the maximum hydraulic pressure. And
from the previous definition, damage velocity is simi-
lar to damage increment in the aspect of describing
the degradation velocity of concrete. Consequently,
it can be derived that damage velocity increases as
hydraulic pressure increases. According to Powers
static hydraulic pressure hypothesis (Powers, T.C.
1949, Powers, T.C. 1953, Hao 1998), also, higher w/c
ratio causes more capillary pores in concrete, and
more pore solution can be frozen to produce higher
hydraulic pressure. As a whole, it is apparent that
higher w/c ratio causes more severe damage of the
RRCS of concrete in one freeze-thaw cycle.
Moreover, the higher the w/c ratio is, the lower the
tensile strength is, which means concrete with higher
w/c ratio has lower resistance to freeze-thaw cycles.
Both of the previous analysis leads to the conclu-
sion that the increasing of the w/c ratio causes an
appreciable increase in the damage velocity of the
RRCS.
3.6 Effect of air entrainment on average
damage velocity
Figure 6 shows the RRCS and RCS versus number
of freeze-thaw cycles for non-air-entrained concrete
E-0.47 and air-entrained concrete E-0.47A at stress
ratio of 0.8. As the number of freeze-thaw cycles
increases, the RRCS and RCS of E-0.47A concrete
samples decrease at a slower rate than that of E-0.47.
This may suggest that air entrained in concrete by
air-entraining admixtures can slow down the damage
velocity of freeze-thaw cycles and improve the frost-
resistance of non-air-entrained concrete. However, it is
noted that air-entrained concrete (E-0.47A) has a lower
compressive strength than non-air-entrained concrete
(E-0.47) with similar composition. Therefore, in prac-
tice, the w/c ratio needs to be reduced to guarantee the
same strength.
4 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, the concept of damage velocity was
defined. In order to understand the relationship
between preloading level and damage velocity, the
variable Kss (RRCS loss in one freeze-thaw cycle)
instead of the number of freeze-thaw cycles to fail-
ure is proposed to represent the damage velocity. The
results indicate that the higher the preloading level or
the w/c ratio is given, the higher the damage veloc-
ity of the RRCS of concrete is obtained. Also, air
entrainment can decrease the damage velocity. The
effect of external loads on average damage veloc-
ity was explained from both macroscopic perspective
and mesoscopic perspective, while the effect of w/c
ratio and air entrainment on average damage velocity
were explained by static hydraulic pressure hypothesis
and Cai Haos model.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the Natural
Science Foundation of Shanghai, China, Grant
No.11ZR1417400, for the financial support for this
project.
REFERENCES
Alan, R., Kathryn, C. & Jennifer, B., 2011. Freeze/thaw
durability of concrete with recycled demolition aggregate
compared to virgin aggregate concrete. Journal of Cleaner
Production 19 (23), 272277.
Alexander & Magee, 1999. Durability performance of con-
crete containing condensed silica fume. Cement and
Concrete Research 29 (6), 917922.
Astm, 2003. Standard test method for resistance of concrete
to rapid freezing and thawing. ASTM International.
Avici, 2007. A kind of corrosion-proof strain gage (in
chinese). China.
Benjamin, G. & Jussara, T., 2007. Durability of an ultrahigh-
performance concrete. Journal of Materials in Civil
Engineering 19 (10), 848854.
Gregor, T., Franci, K. & Goran, T., 2009. Prediction of con-
crete strength using ultrasonic pulse velocity and artificial
neural networks. Ultrasonics 49 (1), 5360.
Guangpu, T., 2006. Research on durability evalution meth-
ods of concrete structures under freeze-thaw conditions
(in chinese). Tsinghua University.
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Hao, C., 1998. Prediction model of concrete freeze-thaw
durability(in chinese). Tsinghua University.
Jun, W., Hao, W.X. & Long, Z.X., 2003. Damage model of
concrete under freeze-thaw cycles. Journal Wuhan Uni-
versity of Technology, Materials Science Edition 18 (3),
4042.
Lland, 1980. Continuous damage model for load-response
estimation of concrete. Cement and Concrete Research
10 (3), 395402.
Lemaitre, J., 1992. A course on damage mechanics Springer,
Berlin, Germany.
Mehta, K., 2006. Durability of concrete-the zigzag course of
progress. Indian Concrete Journal 80 (8), 916.
Mehta, K. & Richard, B., 2001. Building durable structures in
the 21st century. Indian Concrete Journal 75 (7), 437443.
Moukwa, 1990. Deterioration of concrete in cold sea waters.
Cement and Concrete Research 20 (3), 439446.
Popovics, S., 2007. Analysis of the concrete strength versus
ultrasonic pulse velocity relationship. American Society
for Nondestructive Testing.
Powers, T.C, Year. The air requirement of frost-resistance
concrete. In: Proceedings of the Proceedings of Highway
Research Board, pp. 184202.
Powers.T.C, H.R.A., Year. Theory of volume change in
hardened porland cement paste during freezing. In:
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Board, pp. 285297.
Prassianakis, 2004. Ultrasonic testing of non-metallic mate-
rials: Concrete and marble. Theoretical and Applied
Fracture Mechanics 42 (2), 191198.
Ru, M., Changwen, M., Xin, L. & Wei, S., 2002. Inter-
action between loading, freeze-thaw cycles, and chlo-
ride salt attack of concrete with and without steel fiber
reinforcement. Cement and Concrete Research 32 (7),
10611066.
Senbu & Kamada, Year. Mechanism and evaluation method
of frost deterioration of cellular concrete. In: Proceedings
of the Durability of Building Materials and Components,
Brighton, UK, pp. 241241.
Wei, S., Mei, Z.Y., Dong, Y.H. & Ru, M., 1999. Damage
and damage resistance of high strength concrete under
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591601.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Ultrafine glass fiber vacuum insulation panel for building insulation

F.E. Boafo, Z.F. Chen, W.P. Wu, Q. Chen & B.B. Li

College of Material Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics,
Nanjing, P.R. China

J.M. Zhou
Suzhou VIP New Material Co. Ltd, Suzhou, P.R. China

ABSTRACT: Thermal insulation of buildings has become a worldwide concern, to improve energy usage and
lessen heat losses. One of the most promising thermal insulation elements for both new and renovation buildings
is Vacuum Insulation Panel (VIP). VIPs offer very thin insulation thickness hence increased indoor space and
optimized land use, very low thermal conductivity, low effective weight, among others, which are far above
conventional insulation. Important properties, performance, as well as major challenges of VIPs as building
materials have been studied. Mitigation against mechanical stress prior to and during installation and providing
inner drying against condensation, have been discussed.

Keywords: Glass fiber, vacuum insulation panel, building retrofit, thermal insulation

1 INTRODUCTION

The energy consumption in buildings has over the past

decades increased and in some countries, it reaches
almost 40% of the total energy use. Quite naturally, this
has prompted numerous efforts aimed at minimizing
energy losses in buildings and thus the use of highly
efficient insulations. Heat losses can be reduced by
lowering the heat transfer coefficient of building fab-
ric by applying insulation. Vacuum insulation panel
(VIP) is an energy saving and environmentally friendly
thermal insulation element that has been recently intro-
duced into the building industry. A VIP is a composite Figure 1. Section of VIP.
composed of a porous core material, enclosed in a
vacuum tight barrier envelope, and a getter and/or
desiccant. Generally, core materials include fibers, Mukhopadhyaya et al. 2011). A thermal improve-
foams and powders; with effective thermal conduc- ment of over 95% was realized by adding insulation
tivities of 0.0010.003 W/m K, 0.0030.007 W/m K boards containing 40mm thick VIPs; applied to a con-
and 0.0030.010 W/m K respectively (Kwon et al. crete wall (Nussbaumer et al. 2006). The construction
2010, Binz et al. 2005). of VIP is based on the physics that the absence or
Implemented building applications of VIP include reduction of gaseous pressure inside a porous material
installation on walls, floors and roofs, as well as increases its thermal insulation potential.
components of doors, windows and ceiling fittings
(Maclean et al. 2011, Glover & Rosen 2011, Binz
et al 2005). In addition to its low thermal conductiv- 2 VIP COMPONENTS AND PROPERTIES
ity, low effective weight and limited thickness, VIP
has 5-10 times higher thermal resistivity for heat The main components of VIP are an inner core mate-
flows perpendicular to the main faces compared to rial, metalized barrier envelope, and getter or desiccant
conventional insulation such as expanded polystyrene (Fig. 1). In this paper, the core material was ultrafine
foam, polyurethane foam and other gas filled pan- glass fiber while the barrier envelope was a 5-layered
els (Simmler & Brunner 2005, Alam et al. 2011, polymeric metalized envelope.

77

Figure 2. SEM micrograph of glass fiber core.
2.1 VIP core material
The glass fiber core material provides mechanical
strength to support the pressure created on the sur-
face of the envelope, especially when the core has
been vacuum compressed. Again, the core provides
the medium for thermal insulation. Ideally, a nano-
structured core material combined with vacuum can
reduce gaseous conductivity at atmospheric condi-
tions. That is, it must have an open or porous internal
structure, rendering small points of contact between
the structures, which minimizes heat transfer by con-
duction and radiation. The optimal shape is cylindrical
for glass fibers as shown in Figure 2.
2.2 VIP barrier envelope
A broad diversity of materials exists to be used as bar-
rier envelope, ranging from single layer polymer films
to solid metal enclosures. Metal sheets would have
been a preferred material to create an impermeable
envelope; however it would yield immense heat loss
or thermal bridge at the edges of the pane, unless very
large panels were used. Conversely, polymer based
multilayer films create barrier films with reasonably
good barrier properties and relatively small thermal
bridges. The barrier protects the core form mechan-
ical rubbing, abrasion, agitations, and any possible
effects of gas and moisture penetrations. The metal-
ized enveloped used in this paper can be categorized
into three distinct layers, namely: inner sealing layer of
polyethylene film; mid barrier layers of polyethylene
terephthelate, nylon and, aluminium foil; and an outer
layer of glass fiber textile. The inner sealing layer, seals
the core material at the flanges of the envelope bag by
thermal welding between two hot bars under pressure.
Three film metalized mid barrier layer obstructs mois-
ture and gas conduction. The outer glass fiber textile
layer is used as a protective barrier against mechanical
rubbing and stress. It also serves as an anti-burning
material at high temperature. Figure 3 shows the cross
sectional view of the barrier envelope.
78
Figure 3. Cross section of barrier envelope.
Suitability of a material as an envelope film primar-
ily depends on the materials permeability to gas and
water vapor. Additionally, a low thermal conductive
material is desirable.
2.3 Getter and desiccant
By inserting getters and desiccants in the core mate-
rial, residual gases and water vapor can be absorbed so
as to keep the vacuum state of VIPs. These additives
whether tablet or powdery form, increase the service
life of VIP by preventing increases in thermal con-
ductivity. Getter sorption systems such as Ba-Li and
Ti-Zr-V have been synthesized (Xiaobo et al. 2011).
3 EXPERIMENTAL CYCLE
The VIPs were manufactured and provided by Suzhou
VIP New Material Company Limited., Suzhou
China. The core material was prepared by wet
centrifugal-spinneret-blow process. The parameter
which affected the fiber diameter was service life of
centrifugal pan, fitted by the following equation:
where d is glass fiber diameter and is the service life
of centrifugal pan. The mean fiber diameter and length
of glass fiber were 10 m and 1012 mm, respec-
tively. The glass fibers was then mixed with water
to form slurry, molded into exact thickness of 5 mm,
dried at 300 C for about 20 minutes, and then molded
into exact size of 300300 mm2 . Metalized envelopes
were prepared by heat lamination and poly urethane
glue was applied in between the layers. The dried
core materials were bagged in four fold in each enve-
lope and vacuum compressed to 0.1 Pa to form thermal
efficient vacuum insulation panel. The core materials
of deteriorated VIPs are recycled.
The thermal conductivity and resistance, as well as
density of VIPs were measured using Netzsch HFM
436, and shown in Table 1. For the surface of the
samples perpendicular to the heat flux direction, the
thermal conductivity of the sample is T calculated
based on Fourier transfer formula:
Table 1. Properties of VIP.

Thermal Thermal
conductivity resistivity Density
Parameter (W/m K) (m2 K/W) (kgm3 )

VIP 1 0.0043 1.8739 377

VIP 2 0.0043 2.2126 368
VIP 3 0.0045 1.8558 375
VIP 4 0.0047 1.6074 404
VIP 5 0.0046 1.7392 382

Figure 5. Cross section of wall retrofit.

The insulation panel was well protected in the

Nomenclature:
1- Fixed mortar layer with rills of gutters
2- Vacuum insulation panel
3- Hole for anchorage
4- Swiping plaster layer
5- Alkali resistant fiberglass cloth or glass felt
6- External plaster layer
7- Wall aesthetic finishes
Figure 4. Macrograph of wall retrofit.
where Q is the centre-of-panel heat flow, d is sample
thickness, A is surface area of sample perpendicular
to the heat flux direction, Th is the hot plate tempera-
ture, Tc is the cold plate temperature, and  is the heat
transmission coefficient of a sample. The schematic
diagram and working parameters of Netzsch instru-
mentation was reported elsewhere (Wu et al. 2012).
The evaluated thermal conductivity for thermal insu-
lation materials is a key index, which can be used
to evaluate the thermal insulation performance of the
insulation materials.
3.1 Installation of VIP
VIP was successfully installed on an existing vertical
wall. The constructed retrofit consisted of 8 mm rill
mortar (mortar with rills of gutters), insulation, glass
felt and an outer mortar plaster. Sectional macrograph
and cross sectional diagram of the retrofitted wall are
shown in Figure 4 and Figure 5 respectively.
retrofit. Rill guttered mortar ensured minimum mois-
ture was in contact with the insulation. The gutters
also allowed vapor to move in either direction which
is important in order to maintain inward drying of the
insulated wall, as well as minimize adverse conden-
sation effects. In addition to protecting the insulation
panel from alkali attack, the fiberglass cloth or glass
felt also acts as a joiner material between the two mor-
tar layers; hence minimizing the area of thermal bridge.
Yet again, the felt impacted reinforcement strength
especially to the finishing mortar layer. A hole is pro-
vided for anchorage with mortar in cases where the
wall to be insulated is above 2 m.
3.1.1 Installation concerns
The in-service performance of VIP depends not only
on the properties of the panels but the method or
manner in which they are installed. Major concerns
include protecting the panels during installation and
service form mechanical rubbing and condensation.
Prior to installation, protective packaging and pre-
fabricated assemblies protecting the VIPs during
transportation are favorable.
3.1.1.1 Mechanical rubbing
VIPs are prone to mechanical damage when subjected
to harsh handling and transportation conditions prior
to installation. Mechanical rubbing can also occur due
to thermal expansion and contraction in response to
changes in the ambient outdoor temperature, and due
to building shifting. Appropriate design of VIP enve-
lope and or adjacent material foam or glass wool in a
retrofit can mitigate mechanical rubbing. Given this
vulnerability, suitable material decisions should be
factored into VIP installation designs.
3.1.1.2 Condensation
Condensation is the result of moisture built up in an
insulated wall. It can be said that relative humidity
on both inside and outside of the insulation panel
will be very close to the relative humidity of the
immediate surroundings. The main source of mois-
ture will most probably be rain water. Moisture built
up in an insulated assembly will deteriorate the core
material. Thermal conductivity will increase sporadi-
cally, decreasing the service life of the VIP. The key

79
to minimizing condensation is allowing vapor to move
in the assembly in either direction, creating an inward
drying mode (Gudmundsson 2011).
3.1.1.3 Aging and durability
The quality of manufacturing processes, determine the
properties of VIP. At present, the production failure
rate for high quality products is presumably well below
one percent. Also, the rate of change of thermal con-
ductivity as a function of variation in gas and water
vapor (two basic aging factors) inside the core mate-
rial is employed to predict the useful service life of VIP.
Gas pressure rise inside a VIP is fitted by Fouriers law
of heat conduction equation as follows:
where for a gas i, Ji is gas flux through matter
(mol/m2 s), Dij is diffusion coefficient in matter
(m2 /s), ci is gas concentration (mol/m3 ) and x is the
position (m).
Whereas water vapor permeation can easily be
measured just by weighing, various methods have
been used for measuring internal pressure. Simmer
et al. used a depressurization method (Simmler &
Brunner 2005). Other researchers used manometric
and electrochemical methods (Binz et al. 2005).
4 PHYSICS OF HEAT TRANSFER
In porous and cellular materials, heat is transferred
through four distinct mechanisms: convection (c ),
solid conduction (s ), gas conduction (g ), and radia-
tion (r ). Solid conduction occurs in the core material,
that is, heat transfer through contact of core mate-
rial constituent particles. Its magnitude depends on
the density, external pressure on core and material
structure. Gas conduction is heat transfer due to the
interaction between molecules in a gas. To prevent gas
conduction, the mean free path of the gas molecules
has to be longer than the pore size of the core mate-
rial. In such a material, the probability of a moving
molecule striking the solid part of the material is
larger than hitting another gas molecule. Radiation is
thermal energy transmitted by electromagnetic radia-
tion caused by temperature difference between bodies.
Convection occurs due to movement of moist air,
transferring thermal energy in the process. The equiv-
alent overall thermal conductivity (e ) is the sum
of the four distinct modes:
At ambient pressure, in porous silica materials,
convection is nonexistent. Equation (4) can therefore
be reduced to:
80
5 PERFORMANCE ADVANTAGES
5.1 Advantages of ultrafine glass fiber core
material
Porosity: the porosity ratio and pore size diameter of
ultrafine glass fiber core material is about 92%98%
and 1519 m, respectively. Hence, volume to weight
ratio of glass fiber core materials is smaller than that
of conventional core materials. Excellent performance
of the core material is attributed to the fiber diameter
and homogeneity by the wet processing method.
High purification rate: purification rate can be as high
as 99%. The few impurity inclusions subside and
are removed.
Easy to mold: glass fiber core material, prepared by
wet method is easy to cut and mold.
Environmentally friendly: production of glass fiber
core materials is non toxic. No harmful gas(es) is
released during short or long term usage. The glass
core material is also recyclable.
Low cost raw materials: as compared to the starting
material of some conventional insulation panels,
the raw materials of ultrafine glass fibers are cheap
minerals such as waste glass, kaolin, quartz and
boric acid. Waste glass fibers are also inclusive.
Non flammable: glass fibers are not flammable
according to French Standard NF P92-510, which
can be compared to no flammable label A1
conforming with the new European classification
norms EN 13501-1 (Baetens et al. 2010).
5.2 Advantages of ultrafine glass fiber vacuum
insulation panel
Limited thickness: conventional insulation such as
expanded polystyrene requires a thickness of about
45 times larger than vacuum insulation panel. VIP
therefore offers increased indoor space and optimum
use of land.
High thermal resistance or very low thermal con-
ductivity: owing to their high compressibility, glass
fiber core materials can be pressurized in vacuum to
0.1 Pa; suppressing gaseous conductivity to a negligi-
ble level. Equation 5 reduces to:
In effect, thermal conductivity decreases whiles
thermal resistance increases.
Aesthetic effect: the attractive surface of the barrier
envelope adds magnificence to the retrofit.
6 FUTURE PROSPECTS
Currently, applications of VIP in building is pio-
neered by Switzerland, Germany, Canada and China,
where most established institutions and laborato-
ries focus primarily on aging mechanisms, service
life, and alternative less costly thermal insulations.
It is important that such knowledge acquired through
research is properly documented and developed into
VIPs.
Aside the need for advanced materials, concepts and
computer models experimented under realistic climate
conditions are required. All these will culminate to
earn and build on confidence of building constructors,
architects, owners and other stake holders in vacuum
insulation panels.
Furthermore, quality assurance and proper decla-
ration of proven product performance data is very
important to all parties involved. Internationally stan-
dardized factory production controls and building
application test methods are necessary.
7 CONCLUSIONS
VIP is a highly efficient thermal insulation element
which offers extremely slim thickness insulation in
buildings as compared to conventional thermal insu-
lation materials.
Carefully designed and efficient impermeable met-
alized barrier envelopes which minimize thermal
bridges and resistant to chemical attack is useful for
long term building applications.
An optimum service life of several decades can be
achieved with suitable installation system, combin-
ing anti-stress techniques and inner drying to mitigate
mechanical rubbing and condensation respectively.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would want to thank the financial sup-
port of sixth major peak achievement from Jiangsu
Province of China (NO 2011-JZ-016).
REFERENCES
Alam, M., Singh, H. & Limbachiya, M. C., 2011. Vac-
uum Insulation Panels (VIPs) for building construction
industry A review of the contemporary developments
and future directions. Applied Energy 88-11 35923602.
81
Baetens, R., Jelle, B. P., Thue, J. V., Tenpierik, M. J., Grynning,
S., Uvslokk, S. & Gustavsen, A., 2010. Energy and
Buildings, Vol. 42 (2010), pp. 147172.
Glover, M. W. B. and Rosen, M. T., 2011. VIP system retrofits
of heritage buildings, IVIS 2011: 10th International
Vacuum Insulation Symposium, Canada.
Gudmundsson, K. 2011. Heat and wall moisture conditions
in walls with VIP, IVIS 2011: 10th International Vacuum
Insulation Symposium, Canada.
Kwon, J.S., Jang, C.H., Jung, H. & Song, T.H., 2010.
Vacuum maintenance in vacuum insulation panels exem-
plified with staggered beam VIP. Energy and Buildings 42
590597.
Li, B., Chen, Z., Qiu, J., Chen, ZF. & Zhou, J.,
2012. Effect of service time of centrifugal pan on
glass wool, Materials and Manufacturing Processes
DOI:10.1080/10426914.2012.663151.
Maclean, D., Korn, J. & Mukhopadhyaya, P., 2011. VIPs
arrive in Northern Canada: Institutional building pilot
retrofit in Yukon, IVIS 2011: 10th International Vacuum
Insulation Symposium, Canada.
Mukhopadhyaya, P., Kumaran, K., Ping, F. & Normandin,
N., 2011. Use of Vacuum Insulation Panel in Building
Envelope Construction: Advantages and Challenges,
National Research Council, Ottawa, Canada.
Nussbaumer, T., Wakili, G. & Tanner, Ch., 2006. Experimen-
tal and numerical investigation of the thermal performance
of a protected vacuum insulation system applied to a
concrete wall. Applied Energy 83 841855.
Simmler, H. & Brunner, S., 2005. Vacuum insulation pan-
els for building application; Basic properties, aging
mechanisms and service life. Energy and Buildings 37
11221131.
Wu, WP., Chen, ZF., Zhou, J. & Cheng, X., 2012. Effect
of Envelope Films on Thermal Properties of Vacuum
Insulation Panels with Glass Fiber, Advanced Materials
Research 415417, 859864.
Xiaobo, D., Yimin, G., Chonggao, B. & Zhongan Ch., 2011.
On getters for Vacuum Insulation Panels, IVIS 2011: 10th
International Vacuum Insulation Symposium, Canada.
Binz, A., Moosmann, A., Simmler, H., Ghazi, K.,
Bundi, R., Schwab, H., Heinemann, U., Cauberg, H.,
Tenpierik, M., Johannesson, G., Thorsell, T., Erb, M. &
Nussbaumer, B., 2005. Vacuum Insulation Panels-Study
onVIP-components and Panels for Service Life Prediction
of VIP in Building Applications, Subtask B, Report High
Performance Thermal Insulation-IEA/ECBCS Annex 39.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Carbon nanotube coatings for building EMI shielding

Ping Li, Jin Lin, Ce Huang Poo, Aik Seng Low & Xi Jiang Yin
Advance Materials Technology Centre, Singapore Polytechnic, Singapore

Guat Choon Ong

School of Chemical and Life Sciences, Singapore Polytechnic, Singapore

ABSTRACT: Electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding coatings can be applied over the interiors and
exteriors of buildings and installations to prevent both incoming and outgoing EMI. This paper investigates the
shielding effectiveness (SE) of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) coating on concrete panels. The reflectance loss and
SE of CNTs coating on concrete panels were measured. The CNTs coating has achieved a SE of more than 25 dB
(>99.68%) in the frequency range of 30 MHz to 5 GHz. The shielding mechanism was mainly absorption and
multiple reflections.

Keywords: damage Electromagnetic interface shielding; Building EMI shielding; Shielding effectiveness;
Absorbing loss; Nanocomposite

1 INTRODUCTION Z.W. Xu & F.Z. Fang 2009). These coatings can

The need for electromagnetic interference (EMI)
shielding has evolved with tremendous growth of IT
and wireless products used in homes and workplaces
(Lelan H. Hemming 1992). EMI refers to the unwanted
disturbance caused by electromagnetic conduction and
radiation emitted from electronic equipment. Many
electronic and IT products are sources of EMI which
is known to cause malfunctions to medical, military
and aircraft systems, interferences to telecommunica-
tions, leakage of sensitive business information as well
as adverse health issues. Therefore, EMI is a serious
problem of this electronic era. International directives
and global technical standards have been issued to
enforce the regulation of EMI emission. Today, shield-
ing against EMI is a common practice in governments,
militaries, private industries, medical facilities and
R&D laboratories.
Conventional EMI shielding practices for build-
ings and installations make use of various metals and
alloys in the form of plates, foils, mesh and films.
They are generally heavy and rigid. They are also dif-
ficult and expensive to install and maintain. They are
prone to EMI leakages at joints, edges and overlaps. In
addition, the use of different metals may result in dif-
ferential corrosion and oxidation under hot and humid
weather and marine atmosphere. Hence, there is a
need to develop novel approaches to provide EMI pro-
tection that can be conveniently and cost-effectively
applied to the surfaces of buildings and installations.
One of the approaches developed is the use of EMI
shielding coatings (A. Fletcher & M.C. Gupta 2010,
be conveniently applied over the interiors and exte-
riors of buildings and installations to prevent both
incoming and outgoing EMI. They also overcome the
drawbacks of conventional EMI shielding materials.
In this study, CNTs coating has been prepared and
applied to concrete panels. The shielding effectiveness
(SE), absorbance and reflectance loss of CNTs coat-
ing have been measured and the shielding function and
mechanism have been discussed.
2 EXPERIMENTAL
2.1 Materials and CNTs coating preparation
In this study, the CNTs coating was prepared using
CNTs, acrylic resin, solvent and other additives. The
diameter of CNTs was 8-10 nm and its length was
50 m. Acrylic resin was used as the coating matrix.
Alcohol was used as a solvent to disperse CNTs in the
coating matrix. The liquor composite was prepared in
a mechanical mixer at 200 rpm to disperse CNTs to
polymer matrix completely at ambient condition.
The liquor CNTs coating was applied, layer by
layer, onto concrete panels until a thickness of 1.6 mm
was reached. Each layer was dried under ambient
condition.
2.2 EMI shielding effectiveness measurements
The electromagnetic shielding effectiveness (SE) of
the CNTs coating was evaluated according to ASTM

83
Figure 1. Planar material fixture measurement seup.
Figure 2. Free Space Measurement setup.
D493599 (ASTM Standard Designation 1999). The
set-up consisted of a planar sample fixture with its
input and output connected to a vector network ana-
lyzer (VNA). The planar material sample fixture
was an enlarged coaxial transmission line with spe-
cial taper sections and notched matching grooves
designed to maintain a characteristic impedance of
50 throughout the entire length of the fixture. The
set-up produced a frequency of at least 30 MHz to
1.5 GHz to obtain a reliable measurement. The set-up
was calibrated and the measurement frequency was
increased to 5 GHz. The VNA was able to measure,
not only direct SE, but also determine the reflection
effects. The measurement setup for EMI shielding
effectiveness measurement is illustrated in Fig. 1.
2.3 Free-space measurement
Free-space setup includes a pair of broadband trans-
mitting antenna and receiving antenna with working
frequency from 4 GHz to 20 GHz. They are connected
to vector network analyzer (VNA) by a pair of phase-
stable cable. The measurement setup for EMI shielding
effectiveness measurement is illustrated in Fig. 2.
The distance from antennas to sample is 50 cm. A
hole with diameter of 16 cm is cut in the center of
the sample holder. The size of sample is larger than
the hole, the diffraction from the edge of sample can
be minimized effectively by the absorber. As for the
84
Figure 3. FESEM image of CNTs (x 60,000).
multiple reflections, gated-reflection-line (GRL) was
used to cut the signal with longer delay time from
that through sample. The noise from environment and
leakage power could be effectively removed. The noise
level could be obtained from measurement of the trans-
mission coefficient of a piece of metal plate, which is
supposed to perfectly isolate transmitter from receiver
[5]. The SE of samples data can be calculated from the
absolute value of transmission coefficient with unit
in dB.
The reliable measurement of EMI shielding effec-
tiveness (SE) at the broad frequency range for
newly developed materials is crucial to determine
their properties and potential applications. Shield-
ing Effectiveness (SE) of coating developed can be
measured. SE is in dB; an SE of 10 dB means 90%
of EMI energy is blocked and 20 dB means 99% of
EMI energy is blocked.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Characterization of CNTs
CNTs were characterized using a field emission scan-
ning electron microscope (FESEM) and transmission
electron microscope (TEM). Figure 3 illustrates a rep-
resentative FESEM image of the morphology of CNTs
used. The FE-SEM (60,000x) image of morphology
of CNTs (Ref Fig. 3) shows that CNTs morphology
is of tubular shape with small diameter (D) and long
length (L).
Figure 4 illustrated a representative TEM image of
the morphology of CNT used. The TEM (400,000x)
image (Ref: Fig. 4) shows that CNTS has inner diame-
ter 810 nm with 20 layers of multiwall configuration.
3.2 Planar material fixture EMI shielding
effectiveness
According to ASTM D4935, SE is defined as the ratio
of power received with the load specimen in place
(Pl) and with the reference specimen in place (Pr).
 Figure 6. Shielding effectiveness (SE) for 9 wt. % CNTs
coating with thickness 1.60 mm.

Figure 4. TEM image of CNTs (x 400,000).

Figure 7. Reflection of CNT based coating using Free Space

Measurement method.

Figure 5. Reflection loss for 9 wt. % CNTs coating with

thickness 1.60 mm.

The transmission loss or SE of a planner material is

obtained from equation (1) (S. Y. Yang & K. Lozano
2005):

where SE is in dB; an SE of 10 dB means 90% of signal

is blocked and 20 dB means 99% of signal is blocked.
There are three mechanisms for EMI shielding: reflec-
tion (R), absorption (A) and multiple reflections (M)
(M. H. Al-saleh & U. Sundararaj 2009). The SE mea-
surement was conducted using planar material method
in a frequency range from 30 MHz to 5 GHz. The
CNTs coating was measured and the results of SE,
absorbance and reflectance are illustrated in Figures 5
and 6.
The result (Figure 5) shows that the reflection loss
of the concrete panel with and without CNTs coat-
ing were 3-10 dB. From Figure 6, the concrete with
1.60 mm of CNTs coating has achieved more than
25 dB (99.68%) of SE in the frequency range 30 MHz
to 5 GHz. The blank concrete panel has 35 dB of SE.
The reflection loss has made less than 10 dB of contri-
bution to SE. The absorbance and multiple reflections
have made more than 15 dB of contribution to SE.
Figure 8. Shielding effectiveness of CNT based coating
using Free Space Measurement method.
3.3 Free-space measurement results
The reflection, absorption and shielding effectiveness
in 4 GHz20 GHz were analysed according to Free
Space Measurement of nano-carbon based coating as
illustrated in Figure 7 and 8 respectively.
The result (Figure 7) shows that the reflection loss
of the concrete panel with and without CNTs coat-
ing were 12 dB. From Figure 8, the concrete with
1.60 mm of CNTs coating has achieved 2530 dB
(99.6899.9%) of SE in the frequency range 3 to
18 GHz.

85
4 DISCUSSIONS
The reflection requires the mobile charge carriers
(electrons or holes) which interact with the electro-
magnetic radiation. Thus the reflection tends to be
electrically conducting (S.Y.Yang & K. Lozano 2005).
The SE of metal materials used in conventional EMI
shielding materials may be attributed by the mobile
charge carriers. The absorption requires electric and/or
magnetic dipoles which interact with the electromag-
netic fields. The absorption tends to have high dielec-
tric constants or magnetic permeability and increases
with increasing frequency.
CNTs have electric and/or magnetic dipoles which
absorb electromagnetic radiation. The multiple reflec-
tions require a large surface or interface area and
CNTs have large surface and interface areas. In addi-
tion, the EMI SE increases with increasing filler
content and aspect ratio of the filler (L. Vovchenko &
Y. Perets, P.C, in press, Ma & Naveed A 2010). Aspect
ratio is defined as the ratio of length to the diame-
ter of the conductive fillers. CNTs have a high aspect
ratio and are able to form interconnected conduc-
tive networks in the matrix more easily. The shielding
mechanism of CNTs coating in this study was found
to be mainly absorption and multiple reflections.
The use of CNTs coatings provides an attractive
way to prevent both incoming and outgoing EMI
and overcome the drawbacks of conventional EMI
shielding materials. Traditional metal based shield-
ing materials tend to corrode under hot and humid
weather as well as marine atmosphere. Furthermore,
metal plate and sheet shielding materials are heavy
and rigid. EMI may leak at joints, edges and over-
laps. The use of CNTs coating can overcome these
drawbacks. CNTs coatings are light weight and have
good resistance to corrosion. They can be applied to
any shapes of building surfaces and joints, edges and
overlaps without EMI leakages.
5 CONCLUSION
The shielding effectiveness and reflection loss of
CNTs coating on concrete have been investigated. The
86
experimental results show that the CNTs coating has
achieved more than 25 dB (99.68%) of EMI SE. The
results also demonstrate that the shielding mechanism
of CNTs coating is mainly EMI absorption and multi-
ple reflections. The high SE of CNTs coating achieved
in this study is attributed to a high aspect ratio (>3000)
as well as a large surface and interface areas within the
coating. CNTs coating shows good potential to be used
for building and installing EMI shielding.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The research has been supported by Ministry
of Education (MOE) of Singapore under project
MOE2010-IF-1-018.
REFERENCES
A. Fletcher, et al. 2010. Elastomer foam nanocomposites for
electromagnetic dissipation and shielding applications.
Composite Science and Technology, 70: 935958.
ASTM Standard Designation: D 4935-99. 1999. American
Standard Test Method for Measuring The Electromagnetic
Shielding Effectiveness of Planar Materials.
Lelan H. Hemming. 1992. Architectural Electromagnetic
Shielding Handbook. New York: New York: Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
L. Vovchenko, et al. 2012. Shielding coatings based on
carbonpolymer composites. Surface and Coating Tech-
nology. In press.
M. H. Al-saleh et al. 2009. A review of vapor grown carbon
nanofiber_polymer conductive composites. Carbon. 47:
222.
P.C. Ma, et al. 2010. Dispersion and functionalization of
carbon nanotubes for polymer-based nanocomposites:
A review. 2010. Composites, Part A, 13451367.
S. Y. Yang, et al. 2005. Electromagnetic interference shield-
ing effectiveness of carbon nanofiber/LCP composites.
Composites Part A, 36: 691697.
Z.W. Xu, et al. 2009. Fabrication of carbon nanotube probes in
atomic force microscopy. Advanced Materials Research.
7678: 497501.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Experimental study on noise reduction characteristics of polymer

modified asphalt mixture

Lan Wang, Yong ming Xing & Liqing Pan

College of Civil Engineering, Inner Mongolia University of Technology, Huhhot, China
College of Science, Inner Mongolia University of Technology, Huhhot, China

ABSTRACT: The standing wave tube experiment is carried out for the AC-16I grading specimens of common
asphalt mixture (CAM) crumb rubber modified asphalt mixture (CRMAM) and SBS modified asphalt mixture
(SMAM) with 4% porosity. The absorption sound coefficient is measured at 1/3 multiples frequency to the
3 cm, 4 cm and 5 cm specimens. The results show that the absorption coefficient increase with the thickness
increasing of specimen, and the sound absorption effect of crumb rubber modified asphalt mixture is the best,
the sccond is SBS modified asphalt mixture. In the meantime, the free falling bounce test for three kinds of
asphalt mixture plate specimens is carried out by damped vibration testing instrument. It is observed that, in
comparison with SBS modified asphalt mixture and common asphalt mixture, crumb rubber modified asphalt
mixture specimen vertical vibration damping ratio attenuation D and loss factor 1/Q becomes 2.3 and 3.1 times
as great respectively, and amplitude decays more faster. Therefore, crumb rubber modified asphalt mixture has
better damping characteristic and sound insulation fall function. Consequently the field test of noise is conducted,
it is paved that crumb rubber modified asphalt mixture has better characteristics of sound absorption.

Keywords: high polymer modified asphalt; noise reduction property; damping; absorption sound coefficient

1 INTRODUCTION mechanism. The molecular weight of polymer mate-

With the development of the auto industry and the pros-
perity of the transportation, more attention should be
paid to the noise of the highway traffic. Highway traf-
fic noise is mainly caused by the drive system and the
friction between tires and road. At present, many coun-
tries have paid enough attention to deal with noise, and
low noise pavement appeared correspondingly. Gener-
ally low noise pavement structure use asphalt concrete
which have small size, large depth of the structure and
porous structure. But in north area, porous asphalt mix-
ture will cause some problems because of the cold
and sandstorm climate, such as frost heave and sand-
burying, so the application is limited. The basic ways
to reduce the noise include sound absorption, sound
insulation and damping suspension, among which the
absorption and damping suspension are used widely
(Li si-yuan & yang wei 2004). The crumb rubber mod-
ified asphalt and the SBS modified asphalt belong to
polymer modified asphalt, especially the crumb rubber
modified asphalt pavement, the existence of the rub-
ber result in better characteristics of damping sound
absorption(Wang Lan et al. 2009).
2 THE MECHANISM OF DAMPING SOUND
ABSORPTION
The noise reduction of polymer modified asphalt
is mainly based on damping effect of viscoelastic
rial is big, and the molecular chain is long, which may
result in crimps and tangles. In the action of energy
(stress or vibration), molecular chain change confor-
mation continually, cause sports slipping and solution
bound, which lead to the internal friction, then the
energy turn into heat energy and lost. If the stress or
vibration disappears, macromolecular will return to its
former state some or all. Viscoelasticity is not the only
mechanism of damping effect (Wang He-ping et al.
2002), damping effect also exist in dislocation, phase
boundary, intergranular, all kinds of interface and so
on. It is because when the energy effect, defects sec-
tions will move slightly, and slight slippage will also
happen on defects surface and other parts, so part of
energy is lost (lv dong 2006).
3 TESTING OF ACOUSTICS
PERFORMANCESTANDING
WAVE TUBE METHOD
The acoustics performance is related with the den-
sity, modulus and mechanical properties (Pu wen-jing
2010). The standing wave tube experiment is carried
out for the AC-16I grading specimens of common
asphalt mixture, crumb rubber modified asphalt mix-
ture and SBS modified asphalt mixture with 4%
porosity. The absorption sound coefficient is mea-
sured to the 30 mm, 40 mm and 50 mm specimens,
and the diameter is 100 mm. Standing wave is one

87
Table 1. Experimental date of Standing wave tube.

Sound absorption Frequency (HZ)

coefficient
Group 200 250 315 400 500 630 800 1000 1250 1600 2000

30 mm CAM 0.020 0.029 0.035 0.044 0.069 0.081 0.102 0.137 0.158 0.180 0.171
40 mm CAM 0.028 0.048 0.063 0.086 0.094 0.137 0.166 0.182 0.171 0.181 0.173
50 mm CAM 0.030 0.072 0.098 0.117 0.202 0.247 0.188 0.190 0.182 0.184 0.189
30 mm CRMAM 0.051 0.070 0.084 0.092 0.129 0.192 0.353 0.385 0.401 0.321 0.263
40 mm CRMAM 0.061 0.099 0.117 0.133 0.244 0.311 0.383 0.420 0.391 0.231 0.202
50 mm CRMAM 0.079 0.099 0.137 0.143 0.321 0.456 0.411 0.299 0.234 0.221 0.213
30 mm SMAM 0.031 0.053 0.042 0.069 0.099 0.106 0.174 0.231 0.259 0.243 0.209
40 mm SMAM 0.040 0.075 0.081 0.108 0.134 0.177 0.210 0.225 0.214 0.163 0.169
50 mm SMAM 0.035 0.078 0.109 0.128 0.278 0.267 0.199 0.194 0.179 0.186 0.193

of the characteristics of the sound wave transmit-

ting, which is added up from an incident sine plane
wave under normal incidence and an wave reflected
from the specimen (Wu shi-sheng 2005, GBJ88-85).
In order to learn the performance of sound absorption,
a important parametersthe absorption coefficient
is introduced, the expression is as follows (Hou
Lai-guang et al. 2006):

0 the absorption coefficient;
L the difference

between maximum value of sound pressure Pmax and
minimal value of sound pressure Pmin. Unit is dB. Figure 1. Sound absorption coefficient of 3 cm.
The test method is standing wave tube experi-
ment, the connection of standing wave tube is: sig-
nal generatorpower amplifiertest tubespectrum
analyzer. Pmax and Pmin can be obtained by moving
the car, so L = Pmax Pmin, then put
L into the
formula and calculate the absorption coefficient. The
lager absorption coefficient is, the better characteris-
tics of sound absorption is.

3.1 The results of test

The standing wave tube experiment is measured at 1
/3multiples frequency, the frequency of signal gener-
ator and the frequency of spectrum analyzer are same,
get 11 frequency altogether. The sound absorption
coefficient of three kinds of asphalt mixture specimens
Figure 2. Sound absorption coefficient of 4 cm.
are showed in Table 1.

crumb rubber modified asphalt mixture is outstand-

3.2 The influence of the specimens thickness
The sound absorption characteristics curves of differ-
ent thickness of the three specimens are showed in
figure 1figure 3, from which we can draw the con-
clusion that the sound absorption coefficient of crumb
rubber modified asphalt mixture specimens are the
biggest, followed by SBS modified asphalt mixture
specimens (same thickness). So crumb rubber modi-
fied asphalt mixture has better characteristics of sound
absorption, this is because compared to SBS modi-
fied asphalt mixture and common asphalt mixture, the
ing in the aspect of viscoelastic damping effect, as
a result, more sound energy turn into heat and lost.
Whats more, from the three figures, we know that the
curves of different thickness specimens under differ-
ent frequency have a peak, which shows that different
thickness specimens under different frequency result
in better characteristics of sound absorption. The peak
of sound absorption coefficient of 3 cm specimens
is between 1200 Hz and 1600 Hz, the peak of sound
absorption coefficient of 4 cm specimens is about
1000 Hz, the peak of sound absorption coefficient of

88

Figure 3. Sound absorption coefficient of 5 cm.
Figure 4. Date of CRMAM.
5 cm specimens is between 600 Hz and 1000 Hz. The
peak of frequency of the friction noise between tire
and road surface ranges from car to trucks, the peak of
car is between 800 Hz and 1800 Hz and that of trucks
is between 600 Hz and 800 Hz (Wang zuo-min & Lv
wei-min 1997).
The sound absorption coefficient curves of the
crumb rubber modified asphalt mixture under dif-
ferent thickness are showed in Figure 4, from which
we can see that with thickness increases, the curve
move to low-frequency dirction slowly, improving the
sound absorption coefficient of low frequency, this
is because with thickness increases, the channel that
sound waves enter the pore is more long, the resis-
tance also increases and more energy is lost, the
sound absorption coefficient becomes bigger. At the
same time, we can learn that when the frequency of
crumb rubber modified asphalt specimens is more than
1200 Hz, it will result in poor characteristics of sound
absorption. But the frequency of car is usually under
1200 Hz, so crumb rubber modified asphalt mixture
shows better characteristics of sound absorption.
4 TESTING OF ACOUSTICS
PERFORMANCECHARACTERISTICS OF
DAMPING MATERIAL
The specimens size of three kinds of mixture are all
300 mm 300 mm 50 mm. The free falling bounce
89
Table 2. Free falling bounce tests data of tire/specimen
system.
Data
Specimen Damping ratio D Loss factor 1/Q
CRMAM specimen 3.785 7.621
SMAM specimen 1.677 3.326
CAM specimen 1.215 2.429
test is made on three kinds of specimens respectively
by using tire (Z. M. Wang & W. M. Lu 1999). Meridian
195/60R14 back tire is selected, and the tires pressure
is 250 KPa. Acceleration sensor is fixed on the spec-
imen using asphalt respectively, and tire falls freely
and vertically from the distance of 3cm to specimen.
Acceleration signal in vibration attenuation process is
picked up by acceleration sensor fixed on each mea-
suring point of specimen. Test results can be seen in
table 2.
From table 2, we see that the damping ratio D of
vibration subsidence and loss factor 1/Q of crumb rub-
ber modified asphalt specimen are the biggest, and the
free decay vibration amplitude is greatly attenuated,
and time for energy exhausted is the shortest. besides,
energy consumption is fast in the same time. The sec-
ond is SBS modified asphalt. This illustrates that the
use of crumb rubber modified asphalt can obviously
reduce the tire vibration, thereby reducing the vibra-
tion of vehicle noise and reaching the goal of reducing
traffic noise.
5 NOISE FIELD TEST
5.1 The vehicle noise test
Figure 5 shows the noise contrast curve for car and cart
driving at different speeds in the two kinds of modi-
fied asphalt pavement. It can be seen, the noise of
car and cart driving on the crumb rubber modified
asphalt pavement is less than that of SBS modi-
fied asphalt pavement. Car driving noise on crumb
rubber modified asphalt pavement is 4dB less than
that of SBS modified asphalt pavement on average;
Cart driving noise on crumb rubber modified asphalt
pavement is 3.6 dB less than that of SBS modified
asphalt pavement on average.
5.2 The interior test of noise
Figure 6 shows the interior noise contrast curve for
car and cart driving at different speeds on two kinds
of modified asphalt pavement. We can see, the inte-
rior noise is significantly smaller than that of vehicle
noise, and the interior noise of car and cart on crumb
rubber modified asphalt pavement is less than that of
SBS modified asphalt pavement, but the difference
is very small. It shows low noise has more effect to
external environmental noise. This is because the car
Figure 5. Comparison of noise reduction of entire car
between CRMAM pavement and SMAM pavement.
Figure 6. Comparison of noise reduction of entire car
between CRMAM pavement and SMAM pavement.
noise comes mainly from engine noise, vibration and
noise of automobile, air and body relatively high speed
of aerodynamic noise caused by the campaign and the
interaction between tire and road surface noise (Zhang
90
Figure 7. Comparison of noise reduction of idle speed
between CRMAM pavement and SMAM pavement.
Rui et al. 2006). But the later two noise is not so obvi-
ous in car, so the noise measured value must be less.
Car driving noise on crumb rubber modified asphalt
pavement is 0.8 dB less than that of SBS modified
asphalt pavement; Cart driving noise on crumb rubber
modified asphalt pavement is 1.0 dB less than that of
SBS modified asphalt pavement.
5.3 The idle speed test of noise
Figure 7 shows the idle noise contrast curve for car and
cart driving at different speed on two kinds of mod-
ified asphalt pavement. As can be seen, the interior
noise is smaller than that of vehicle noise, and the inte-
rior noise of car and cart on crumb rubber modified
asphalt pavement is less than that of SBS modified
asphalt pavement. This is because the engine noise
decrease when the car driving idle. Car idling speed
noise on crumb rubber modified asphalt pavement is
4.7 dB less than that of SBS modified asphalt pave-
ment on average; Cart idling speed noise on crumb
rubber modified asphalt pavement is 4.1 dB less than
that of SBS modified asphalt pavement on average.
6 CONCLUSIONS
In order to understand the noise reduction characteris-
tics of polymer modified asphalt mixture. The indoor
and field tests are conducted. The results indicate that
the absorption coefficient increase with the thickness
increasing of specimen and crumb rubber modified
asphalt mixture has better damping characteristic and
sound insulation fall function.
REFERENCES
Li si-yuan, yang wei. Polymeric noise reduction composites
and their applications [J]. Engineering plastics applica-
tion. 2004(32), 5: 7073.
Wang Lan, Tang Bao-li1, Xing Yong-ming. Experimental
study on sound absorption of crumb rubber modified
asphalt mixture with large porosity [J], Engineering
Mechanics, 2009, 26 (S1) (181184).
Wang He-ping; Zhang Ju-sheng; Zhang He-xin etc. Study
situation of modern high sound- absorbing damping com-
posites[J]. Journal of Natural Science of Heilongjiang
University, 2002(19), 4: 106108.
lv dong. The preparation of damping materials and its
performance study [D]. Journal of Natural Science of
Heilongjiang University, Beijing University of Chemical
Technology, 2006.
91
Pu wen-jing.Relationship study of the mechanical behavior
of polymer dynamics and sound absorption performance
[J]. Master Dissertation. National University of Defense
Technology, 2010.10.
Wu shi-sheng. Low-noise asphalt pavement design and con-
struction of conservation [M]. Beijing, China Communi-
cations Press, 2005.4.
GBJ88-85. Sound-absorbing coefficient of Standing wave
tube method and acoustic impedance measuring standard
Hou Lai-guang etc. Analysis of influence factor of ceramic
wates sound absorbend material [J]. Journal of Ceramics,
2006, 27(1): 710.
Wang zuo-min, Lv wei-min. Theory of low-noise asphalt
pavement acoustic characteristics [J]. Journal of Tongji
University, 1997, 25(4): 109110.
Z. M. Wang, W. M. Lu. The acoustical character of low
noise asphalt pavements [J]. Chinese Journal of Acoustics.
1999, 18(2): 136141.
Zhang Rui etc. Investigation and Analysis of Tunnel Noise
[J]. Journal of Highway and Transportation Research and
Development, 2006, 23(10): 2931.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Influence of mineral admixtures on anti-permeability of

mixed aggregate concrete

Junfang Huo & Detian Song

School of Civil Engineering, Inner Mongolia University of Technology, Hohhot, China

Hui Yang
Hohhot Railway Bureau Research Institute, Hohhot, China

Weiling Li
School of Civil Engineering, Inner Mongolia University of Technology, Hohhot, China

Jinshuai Li
Hohhot Railway Bureau Research Institute, Hohhot, China

ABSTRACT: The compressive strength and anti-permeability of mixed aggregate concrete under the influence
of mineral admixtures only mixing fly ash, double mixing fly ash and silica fume, slag powder, limestone powder
were studied. The results show: mineral admixtures double mixing can enhance effectively the mixed aggregate
concrete compressive strength of 28 d than only mixing. But the later strength results were not positive effect,
the 56 d compressive strength under the influence of double mixing fly ash and silica fume is higher. The mineral
admixtures can improve anti-permeability of mixed aggregate concrete. Double mixing was more obvious than
only mixing. The optimal group of anti-permeability was double mixing fly ash and silica fume. Double mixing
fly ash and silica fume was one of important ways that made the high performance mixed aggregate concrete.

Keywords: Mixed aggregate; Mineral admixtures; Compressive strength; Anti-permeability

1 INTRODUCTION concrete[4] . The activator and fortifier were permeated

The concrete structure with high strength, lightweight,
high performance, multi-function durability and other
higher requirements were put forward with the needs
of society and the rapid development of the build-
ing industry. The normal concrete and light weight
aggregate concrete had a series of technical and eco-
nomic problems that were large weight, brittle, low
elastic modulus and large deformation, etc. The mixed
aggregate concrete was the transitional concrete based
on the development of normal concrete and light
weight aggregate concrete, it was light weight aggre-
gate instead of coarse aggregate of ordinary, and the
volume density between 1950 kg/m3 2200 kg/m3 ,the
strength between 40 MPa80 MPa of high strength
concrete[12] . The durability of concrete was closely
related with anti-permeability, if anti-permeability
was insufficient, some harmful liquid and gas perme-
ated into the concrete, concrete structure have been
affected. The best way to enhancing the durability of
concrete was that some cement was instead with active
material[3] , but a lot of research was showed, the con-
crete with poor early performance, low strength and
durability cannot satisfy the requirement of engineer-
ing when a large number of fly ash was permeated into
into fly ash concrete to improve the early strength and
durability[5] , but activator and fortifier were usually
alkaline materials, it was easy to produce alkali aggre-
gate reaction and damage to the service life of the
concrete, so the method of improving the early strength
of concrete by activator and fortifier is not wise.
In this paper, the effect of mineral admixtures(Ad)
about only mixing fly ash (FA), double mixing fly
ash and silica fume (SF), slag powder (SP), limestone
powder (LS) in the concrete was compared, the com-
pressive strength of the concrete was measured, the
anti-permeability of the concrete was measured by
the combined method of gradual inflating and water
seepage height.
2 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
2.1 Materials
The ordinary aggregate used was gravel (G) with a
continuous grading of 5 mm25 mm, the lightweight
aggregate used was pumice (P) with a continuous
grading of 5 mm25 mm, physical properties was
showed in Table 1, chemical composition was showed

93
Table 1. Physical properties of coarse aggregate. Table 5. Mixture proportions of mixed aggregate concrete.

Bulk Apparent Water Cylinder Crush Material of the concrete/(kg/m3 )

density density absorption pressure value Ratio/
Aggregate (kg/m3 ) (kg/m3 ) (%/h) (MPa) (%) Name Form % W/B G P OPC Ad FDN-Y S W

G 1420 2660 5.4 NPC FA 0 0.39 648 389 447 0 4 800 175
P 690 1593 16.44 2.97 39.6 CFA FA 30 0.39 648 389 313 134 4 800 175
CSF FA:SF 20:10 0.39 648 389 313 134 4 800 175
CSP FA:SP 20:10 0.39 648 389 313 134 4 800 175
CLS FA:LS 20:10 0.39 648 389 313 134 4 800 175
Table 2. Chemical composition of pumice coarse aggregate.

SiO2 / Al2 O3 / CaO/ MgO/ Fe2 O3 / Ignition loss

% % % % % %
SP, and LS were added to the mix aggregate con-
48.88 12.90 8.70 6.10 14.00 1.82 crete. Mixing proportions of concrete about C35 was
confirmed which was showed in Table 5.

Table 3. Physical properties of P.O 42.5 ordinary Portland 3 METHODS

cement.
3.1 Compressive strength test
Setting Compressive/ Flexural/
Ignition time/h MPa MPa According to the standard test method of ordinary
Density loss Fineness concrete mechanics performance, the concrete spec-
(kg/m3 ) (%) Initial Final (%) 3d 28d 3d 28d imens of 100 mm 100 mm 100 mm were used
and maintained about 28 d in standard conditions, the
3100 1.02 2:15 2:55 1.2 26.6 54.8 5.2 8.3 compressive strength was measured on hydraulic uni-
versal testing machine, the results that was multiplied
by 0.95 were the compressive strength of concrete.
Table 4. Chemical composition of raw materials.
3.2 Test of resistance to water penetration
SiO2 / Al2 O3 / Fe2 O3 / CaO/ MgO/ Na2 O/ K2 O/ SO3
Materias % % % % % % % % According to the long-term properties and durabil-
ity of the test method of ordinary concrete, test
OPC 22.06 5.13 5.25 64.37 1.06 2.03 anti-permeability specimens of the 175 mm in upper
FA 52.54 33.62 7.05 3.56 0.36 0.31 0.50 0.68 diameter, 185 mm in under diameter and 150 mm
SF 85.16 0.06 7.04 0.56 1.10
in the height were used, the specimens were main-
SP 32.5 15.3 2.55 43.56 7.85 0.89
LS 1.33 0.58 53.37
tained about 56 d in standard conditions, the anti-
permeability level of mixed aggregate concrete was
tested by method of gradual compression, a group
had six specimens; water pressure was applied from
0.1 MPa to 0.9 MP and increased 0.1 MPa in every
in Table 2. The river sand (S) with Fineness modulus of 8 h. Water seepage of end face was ascertain when
2.9, and the mud with a proportion of less than 0.4% pressure was stopped. The specimens were split on
was used. The grade 42.5 Ordinary Portland cement hydraulic test machine, the average height of water
(OPC) was used, manufactured by zhonglian cement was measured, and the permeability coefficient was
company of Inner Mongolia, Physical properties was calculated.
showed in Table 3. The fly ash of I level, the silica
fume, slag powder , and limestone powder were used in
this study, their chemical compositions were showed in 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Table 4. The Air-entraining water reducer FDN-Y used
was produced by the Beiteng engineering material 4.1 Analysis of compressive strength in the
company of Inner Mongolia, and its water-reducing influence of admixtures
rate was 16% and gas containing 1.2%. Ordinary tap
water (W) in Hohhot was used. As was shown in Figure 1, the early strength of concrete
was significantly reduced in group of only mixing
fly ash, but the increasing speed of later strength was
faster. The 56 d strength of NPC group was increased
2.2 Mixing proportions of concrete
7% than 28 d, which mainly depended on the fly ash
According to research experience previous, volume effect, secondary hydration reaction occur between
replacement rate of pumice replacing gravel was 50% SiO2 and Al2 O3 on vitreous surface and Ca(OH)2 in
which can be confirmed. Mineral admixtures FA, SF, cement hydration products, The low alkaline hydration

94
 Table 6. The result of water pressure method.

Final Water Pressure

value(H) height(h)/ time(t)/ Anti-permeability
Number MPa mm h level(P)/

NPC 0.9 33.3 72 >P8

CFA 0.9 23.1 72 >P8
CSF 0.9 12.6 72 >P8
CSP 0.9 19.1 72 >P8
CLS 0.9 22.4 72 >P8

Figure 1. Compressive strength of mixed aggregate
concrete.
products were generated. The dense vitreous surface
was located in outer surface of fly ash, it hindered
the fly ash second hydration, the activity effect was
represented in the later[6] .
The early strength of double mixing groups was
improved in some degree, the order of early strength
increased was CSF group, CSP group and CLS group,
the composite mineral admixtures were added to con-
crete, the gel effect was composite in processes of
hydration, activity of silica fume are higher than
the slag powder and limestone powder. In the later,
the strength growth speed was equal to NPC group, the
strength of CSF group was higher than NPC group.The
strength of CSP group was higher than CLS group, but
they were lower than NPC group, and CLS group were
lower than CFA group. About mineral admixtures, the
order of surface area from large to small was silica
fume, slag powder, fly ash and limestone powder, all
kinds of different particle size of mineral admixtures
were filled with each other, so mineral admixtures
were stacked before mixing.
The silica fume and slag powder in concrete can
produce volcanic ash reaction, the hydration was stim-
ulated with each other to produce compound gel
effect. In a compound gel system, the cement always
produced hydration firstly, the CSH and CH were gen-
erated to enhance hydration. The hydration activity and
surface energy of silica fume were high than slag pow-
der and fly ash, so the response speed was fast. The
exhalation CaO in slag powder can promote formation
of CSH and AFt around fly ash, so as to promote the
dissolving of aluminum and silicon in fly ash particles
and increase hydration process of silica fume and slag
powder[7] . Composite effect of limestone powder with
fly ash was relatively weak, lime stone early strength
was enhanced, but long-term strength promoted of
concrete was not obvious.
4.2 Experimental of results anti-permeability
As was shown in Table 6, the anti-permeability level
of each group were greater than P8, according to
the technology standard of underground engineer-
ing waterproof, in Table 7, anti-permeability of each
group level was higher, but anti-permeability level
Table 7. Anti-permeability level of waterproof concrete.
Buried depth (m) Anti-permeability level
<10 P6
1020 P8
2030 P10
3040 P12
of high performance concrete cannot reflect different
penetration, the anti-permeability was evaluated with
permeability coefficient and water height.
4.2.1 Influence of water height on only fly ash
mixed
The fly ash only mixed 30% in concrete can greatly
reduce water height and improve effectively anti-
permeability, the results were shown in Table 6, water
height of only mixing fly ash can reduced to 69% of
the NPC group. The fly ash can improve the anti-
permeability, because filling effect and volcanic ash
reaction of fly ash reduced porosity in paste and
improved pore characteristic of concrete. The increas-
ing CSH and C4AH9 generated in secondary hydration
reaction of fly ash plug up pore canal[8] . The fly ash
reduce significantly large pore content and total poros-
ity in the concrete, so anti-permeability of concrete
mixed with fly ash was improved greatly. The results
of the study showed that[9] , secondary hydration reac-
tion happened with Ca(OH)2 after fly ash replaced part
of the cement, which reduced porosity and the content
of Ca(OH)2 crystal, and narrow crystal size in inter-
facial transition zone, so as to extend effectively pore
channel.
4.2.2 Influence of water height on double fly ash
and silica fume mixed
The anti-permeability of concrete was affected observ-
ably by double mixing fly ash and silica fume, the
results were shown in Table 6, water height of CSF
group was 38% of NPC group and 55% of CFA
group, and was lower than other double groups, the
permeability coefficient of CSF was the smallest in
Figure 2.
Fly ash and silica fume were mixed in concrete,
silica fume can participate in hydration reaction to

95

Figure 2. Permeability coefficient of water pressure
method.
generate more hydration products and reduce poros-
ity, and generate more hydration aluminum acid salt
and its derivatives with the second hydration reaction.
The literature[10] thought silica fume to replace part of
cement, porosity and pore of concrete decreased obvi-
ously. Because silica fume accumulated in aggregate
surface and eliminate the wall effect, prevented direc-
tional growth of large CH crystal, and changed the
microstructure in the interface area. The silica fume
made concrete connected space to become irregular,
anti-permeability was improved.
In addition, shape and size of silica fume were spe-
cial, surface area was smaller, because of the filling
effect of mineral admixtures, silica fume particles not
only fill in cement particles, but all kinds of particles
accumulated more closely and distributed more evenly
through the composite effect. The double mixing fly
ash and silica fume was one of effective ways that made
high performance concrete of mixing aggregate[11] .
4.2.3 Influence of water height on double fly ash
and slag powder mixed
The water height of CSP group was 57% of the NPC
group, less than only mixing fly ash, and higher than
double mixing fly ash and silica fume. The surface area
of slag powder was greater than cement and less than
silica fume, the filling effect of slag powder was poor
than silica fume. The slag powder surface area of initial
hydration products was larger than cement. Hydra-
tion calcium silicate had large specific surface area,
ettringite and Ca(OH)2 gathered around fly ash parti-
cles, play the role of the crystal nucleus, and improved
the anti-permeability. The mechanism of the slag
powder having high surface area was same as silica
fume, but the effects of slag powder was weaker than
silica fume.
4.2.4 Influence of water height on double fly ash
and limestone powder mixed
The water height of CLS group was 67% of the NPC
group, and it was the highest in the three kinds of
double mixing. Activity of limestone powder was the
lowest, although CaCO3 had crystal effect and made
Ca(OH)2 crystal to grow in its particles surface, lime-
stone powder play a role of crystal in C3 S hydration
reaction, enhanced the bond of interface, and improved
96
anti-permeability of concrete. However crystal effect
of limestone powder was weaker than silica fume and
slag powder. In mineral admixtures of double mix-
ing, the filling effect of limestone powder was more
apparent.
5 CONCLUSIONS
(1) The 28 d compressive strength of mixed aggregate
concrete was significantly reduced when only fly
ash was mixed, but later strength can return.
(2) The double mixing mineral admixtures can
improve 28 d compressive strength in some
degree, but the influence of later strength was not
all positive effect, the later compressive strength
of double mixing fly ash and limestone powder
was low.
(3) The mineral admixtures can significantly improve
anti-permeability of mixed aggregate concrete,
composite effect of double mixing mineral admix-
tures was better than only mixing fly ash. The
anti-permeability of double mixing silica fume
and fly ash was optimal and an important way to
make high permeability concrete.
(4) The mineral admixtures effect in concrete can be
summed a interaction of volcanic ash and micro
aggregate effect.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was supported by a grant from Inner Mon-
golia Natural Science Foundation (No. 2011BS0707).
REFERENCES
[1] Zhang Baosheng, Kong Lijuan, Ge Yong, 2006. Sum-
marize of mixed aggregate concrete. concrete 199,
2023 (In Chinese)
[2] Chu Jianjun, Huo Junfang, 2011. Experimental study
on frost resistance durability of mixed aggregate con-
crete. Building science 27(1), 2224 (In Chinese)
[3] P Nath, P Sarker, 2011. Effect of Fly Ash on the Dura-
bility Properties of High Strength Concrete. Procedia
Engineering 14, 11491156
[4] Cahit Bilim, Cengiz D Atis, Harun Tanyildizi, Okan
Karahan, 2009. Predicting the compressive strength of
ground granulated blast furnace slag concrete using
artificial neural network. Advances in Engineering
Software 40(5), 334340
[5] Wang A Q, Zhang C Z, Tang M S, et al, 1999. ASR
in Mortar Bars Containing Silica Glass in Combina-
tion with High Alkali and High Fly Ash Contents.
Cement & Concrete Composites 21(56), 375382.
[6] Smith Songpiriyakij, Teinsak Kubprasit, Chai Jatu-
rapitakkul, Prinya Chindaprasirt, 2010. Compressive
strength and degree of reaction of biomass- and
fly ash-based geopolymer. Construction and Building
Materials 24(3), 236240
[7] Bing Chen, Juanyu Liu, 2008. Experimental appli-
cation of mineral admixtures in lightweight concrete
with high strength and workability. Construction and
Building Materials 22(6), 11081113
[8] Ji Xiaoxia, Huo Junfang, Li Jinshuai, 2010. Effects of
fly ash content on the resistance to chloride permeabil-
ity of concrete. Journal of inner Mongolia university
of technology 29(2), 149153 (In Chinese)
[9] Pei Xinyi, Zhao Peng, Wang Weihe, etc, 2008.
Microstructure and the property of cement hydration
of fly ash. Comprehensive application of coal fly ash
(6), 4446 (In Chinese)
97
[10] Xie Youjun, Liu Baoju, Liu Wei, 2004. Influence of
mineral admixtures on anti-chloride permeability of
high performance concrete. Journal of railway science
and engineering 1(2), 4651 (In Chinese)
[11] S A Barbhuiya, J K Gbagbo, M I Russell, P A M
Basheer, 2009. Properties of fly ash concrete modi-
fied with hydrated lime and silica fume. Construction
and Building Materials 23(10), 32333239
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Corrosion resistant performance of a chemical quenched rebar

Jie Wei, Junhua Dong & Wei Ke

State Key Laboratory of Corrosion and Protection, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Shenyang, China

ABSTRACT: A new type of low cost chemical reagent FM was used as the quenching medium during cooling
of the hot-rolled rebar aiming to improve the corrosion resistance of water-cooled rebar. The corrosion resistance
performance of the FM-cooled rebar was evaluated comparing with water-cooled rebar both in atmosphere and
concrete. According to the 60 cycles of dry/wet alternated corrosion tests, the corrosion resistance of FM-cooled
rebar in atmosphere is much better than that of water-cooled rebar. Furthermore, after one year accelerated
corrosion in concrete immersed in 3.5% NaCl solution, EIS results show the polarization resistance Rp of
FM-cooled rebar is about 30 times than that of water-cooled rebar. By applying FM-cooling process, the corrosion
resistance performance of rebar has been improved by optimizing the quality of the scale.

Keywords: scaled rebar; corrosion resistance; atmosphere; concrete

1 INTRODUCTION was evaluated comparing with water-cooled rebar both

In order to improve the mechanical performance of
rebar and maintain a low cost of production, water-
cooling instead of air-cooling and adding strengthen-
ing alloy elements has been employed in the cooling
process after hot rolling. The grain size of rebar
can be refined by water-cooling, which improves the
strength of rebar [1] (DU et al. 2006). Neverthe-
less, the rebar produced with water-cooling tends to
rust during storage and transportation, which would
destroy the appearance of the rebar severely [2, 3]
(Almusallam 2001, Zitrou et al. 2007). Furthermore, if
the rusted rebar is embedded in concrete, the corrosion
resistance of rebar and the combining force between
rebar and concrete would also be impaired [47]
(Al-Tayyib et al. 1990, Novak et al. 2001, Auyeung
et al. 2000, Capozucca 1995). Therefore, the scale on
the water-cooled rebar is usually requested to descale
before it is embedded in concrete. However, descal-
ing of rebar will increase the cost and complicate the
working procedures for the construction, which limits
the manufacture and use of water-cooled rebar. Thus,
it is important to improve the corrosion resistance of
water-cooled rebar.
As corrosion of rebar occurs on rebar surface, the
quality of oxide scale on rebar surface, especially the
compactness of the oxide scale, affects the corrosion
resistance of rebar greatly. Therefore, the corrosion
resistance of rebar can be improved by optimizing the
quality of scale.
In the present work, a new chemical reagent named
FM was used as the quenching medium during cooling
of the hot-rolled rebar instead of water. The corro-
sion resistant performance of the FM-cooled rebar
in atmosphere and concrete containing chloride ions.
The surface morphology of oxide scale on two kinds
of rebar was also compared.
2 EXPERIMENT
2.1 Material and procedures
2.1.1 Rebar samples preparation
The steel used in the experiment was a commercial
20SiMn hot-rolled rebar. The chemical composition
(wt,%) is: C 0.170.25, Si 0.400.80, Mn 1.201.60,
P 0.050, S 0.050. The rebar samples were machined
into cylinders and the surfaces were polished using
1200# sand paper. The preparation process of water-
cooled rebar and FM-cooled rebar is as follows: (1)
the machined samples were heated to 1000 C for 10
minutes in the pipe furnace under an anti-oxidizing
flux protection. (2) the high temperature samples were
quenched by water and chemical reagent FM for 1s,
respectively. (3) after quenching, the samples were
cooled in air to the room temperature. The compo-
nents of FM are: H2 O2 10%, NaBO3 5 g/l, Na2 SiO3
0.45 g/l, MgSO4 0.45 g/l.
2.1.2 Concrete samples preparation
Reinforced concrete samples (80 mm 80 mm)
were cast according to the standard experimental pro-
cedures using ordinary Portland cement 42.5 (with a
water/cement ratio of 0.5 and cement/sand ratio of
1/3). The schematic diagram of the electrode sys-
tem is shown in Figure 1, and all the length units
are in millimeter. A three-electrode cell was used in

99

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the electrode system for
reinforced mortar samples. (a) side sectional view, (b) top
sectional view.
this experiment. The working electrode (WE) was
the machined rebar sample. Both ends of the rebar
were coated with dense epoxy, leaving an exposed
length of 40 mm. The rebar was positioned at the cen-
ter of the concrete sample with a cover thickness of
35 mm. The reference electrode (RE) was Cu/CuSO4
electrode which was positioned 5 mm near the work-
ing electrode to reduce the IR drop between WE and
RE. In order to distribute the electrical signal uni-
formly, a 60 mm height annular graphite electrode
was used as the counter electrode (CE), which was
positioned in the concrete with the cover thickness
of 11 mm. After demoulding at one day after cast-
ing, the concrete samples were cured in a standard
curing chamber at 20 1 C and 95% RH for 28
days. In order to avoid the non-uniform penetration
of solution, both ends of the concrete samples were
coated with epoxy resin leaving 40 mm height profile
exposed.
100
2.2 Dry/wet alternated accelerated
corrosion test
60 cycles of dry/wet alternated accelerated corrosion
test were carried out to evaluate the corrosion resis-
tance of two kinds of rebar in atmosphere environment.
The test process are as follows: (1) wetting sample sur-
faces with 3.5%NaCl solution; (2) drying the samples
in a chamber maintained at 30 C and 60% RH for 8
hours; (3) wetting the samples in the chamber main-
tained at 40 C and 95% RH for 16 hours; (4) repeating
the above steps from (1) to (3) until 60 cycles.
2.3 Long-term immersion accelerated
corrosion test
Long-term immersion tests were carried out to
accelerate the corrosion of rebar in concrete. Firstly,
the concretes containing two kinds of rebar were
immersed in de-ionized water to reach a constant
weight, then immersed in 3.5% NaCl solution and
carried out the electrochemical measurements.
2.4 Electrochemical measurements
During the long-term immersion tests, Ecorr and EIS
were measured at different immersion time, using
a PAR 273 potentiostat and a PAR 5210E lock-in
amplifier. EIS measurements were performed at the
open-circuit potential with a 10 mV perturbation from
100 kHz to 10 mHz.All the measurements were carried
out at room temperature (25 C).
2.5 SEM analysis
The surface morphologies of two kinds of rebar
were observed using the HITACHI S3400N scanning
electronic microscope.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Dry/wet alternated accelerated corrosion test
After 60 dry/wet cycles simulating the atmosphere
environment, two scaled rebar exhibit different cor-
rosion resistance, as shown in Figure 2. It is obvious
that the water-cooled rebar had been corroded severely
on the whole surface. However, there were only a
few rust spots on the surface of FM-cooled rebar.
Therefore, the corrosion resistance of rebar in atmo-
sphere environment has been improved significantly
using FM-cooling instead of water-cooling.
3.2 EIS spectra of long-term immersion test
According to the electrochemical theory [8] (Cao
2001), a simple electrochemical electrode system may
be described by an equivalent circuit (as shown in
Figure 3 (a)), in which Rs represents the solution
resistance; Cdl represents the capacitance of the elec-
tric double layer; and Rp represents the polarization
Figure 2. Corrosion of two rebar under wet/dry cyclic
accelerated corrosion environment. (a) FM-cooled rebar,
(b) water-cooled rebar; 1initial, 260 day.
Figure 3. Schematic diagram of a simple electrochemical
electrode system. (a) equivalent circuit, (b) modulus plot of
EIS spectra.
resistance caused by charge transfer reaction. Figure
3(b) shows the modulus plot of EIS spectra corre-
sponding to Figure 3 (a). The Rs corresponds to the
highest frequency impedance, and Rs + Rp corresponds
to the lowest frequency impedance. In the case of rebar
embedded in concrete, because the rebar was covered
by both oxide scale and corrosion product when corro-
sion proceeds, Rp consists of film resistance (Rf ), rust
resistance (Rr ) and charge transfer resistance (Rct ) [9]
(Mansfeld 1990). The protective performance of scale
can thus be described by Rp .
Figure 4 show the impedance modulus plots of two
kinds of rebar samples in concrete immersed in 3.5%
NaCl solution for different immersion time. The value
of impedance modulus at high frequency of 10 kHz
101
Figure 4. Impedance modulus plots for two rebar in mortar
as a function of immersion time. (a) FM-cooled rebar, (b)
water-cooled rebar.
is assumed equal to Rs , and the value of impedance
modulus at low frequency of 10 mHz is assumed equal
to the sum impedance of Rs + Rp . Consequently, Rp can
be calculated.
Figure 5 shows the evolution of Rp with immer-
sion time. The change tendency of Rp value for two
kinds of rebar is similar. Rp value decreases during
the initial period of immersion, which indicates the
increase of corrosion rate. Then it keeps constant after
immersion for 100 days. However, the Rp value of two
kinds of rebar differs significantly. The Rp of water-
cooled rebar is only about 12 k during initial period
of immersion, and it drops to 2 k after about one year
immersion. However, the initial Rp value of FM-cooled
rebar is more than 500 k , and after one year immer-
sion, it is more than 30 times compared to water-cooled
rebar. Therefore, the protection performance against
corrosion of FM-cooled rebar is much better than that
of water-cooled rebar in concrete.
3.3 Evolution of Ecorr of the rebar in concrete
The ASTM C876 standard [10] (ASTM C876-91) has
determined three Ecorr levels to identify the corro-
sion probability of rebar in concrete. That is, when
Ecorr > 0.20 V (vs. CSE), the corroded probabil-
ity of rebar in concrete is less than 10%; when
Ecorr < 0.35 V (vs. CSE), the corroded probability
of rebar in concrete is more than 90%; when it locates
Figure 5. Evolution of Rp with immersing time for two kinds
of rebar.
Figure 6. Change of Ecorr with immersion time of two kinds
of rebar.
in the middle, the probability is uncertain. Therefore,
the corrosion probability can be judged by Ecorr .
The evolution of Ecorr with immersion time for
both rebar is shown in Figure 6, which is corre-
sponding to the EIS result. The initial value of Ecorr
for FM-cooled rebar locates in the middle corrosion
probability region, and it keep stable during the for-
mer 15 days. This implies that the FM-cooled rebar is
in passive state during the former immersion. Then,
102
Figure 7. Surface morphology of the scale formed by
different processes. (a) FM-cooled rebar, (b) water-cooled
rebar.
it decreases gradually to the high corrosion probabil-
ity region, which indicates the initiation of corrosion.
However, the initial value of Ecorr for water-cooled
rebar locates in the high corrosion probability region,
which implies water-cooled rebar has been corroded
during the curing period. Therefore, the Ecorr result
also indicates that the corrosion initiation time of
FM-cooled rebar is much later than that of water-
cooled rebar.
3.4 Morphology of the scale
According to the above results, it can be summarized
that the corrosion resistance performance of FM-
cooled rebar is much better than water-cooled rebar. As
the breakdown of the surface scale will accelerate the
corrosion of rebar, the quality of the scale influences
the corrosion resistance of rebar. The morphology of
the outer surface of the scale is shown in Figure 7. It
was observed that the FM-cooled scale is compact and
smooth which is beneficial to block off the transporta-
tion of the corrosive medium to the matrix. However,
the outer surface of the water-cooled scale looks loose
and porous. Therefore, the FM-cooled scale is more
beneficial to resisting corrosion.
4 CONCLUSIONS
According to the accelerated corrosion tests simulat-
ing corrosion of two kinds of rebar in atmosphere
and concrete environment contaminated by chloride
ions, It were proved that the corrosion resistance
of FM-cooled rebar is much better than that of
water-cooled rebar. By applying FM-cooling process,
the corrosion resistance performance of rebar has
been improved by optimizing the compactness of the
scale.
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[1] Du, L.X., Sun J.L., Yang H.F., 2006. Strengthening
Mechanism and Microstructure of 500 MPa Ultra-fine
Grain Steels. Materials for Mechanical Engineering
30(6), 3033.
[2] Almusallam, A.A., 2001. Effect of degree of corro-
sion on the properties of reinforcing steel bars. Constr
Build Mater 15(8), 361368.
[3] Zitrou, E., Nikolaou, J., Tsakiridis, P.E., Papadimitriou,
G.D., 2007. Atmospheric corrosion of steel reinforc-
ing bars produced by various manufacturing processes.
Constr Build Mater 21, 11611169.
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[4] Al-Tayyib, A.J., Khan, M.S., Allam, I.M., Al-Mana,
A.I., 1990. Corrosion behavior of pre-rusted bars after
placement in concrete. Cement Concrete Res 20(6),
95560.
[5] Novak, P., Mala, R., Josk, a.L., 2001. Influence of pre-
rusted on steel in concrete. Cement Concrete Res 31,
589593.
[6] Auyeung, Y., Balaguru, P., Chung, L, 2000. Bond
behavior of corroded reinforcement bars. ACI Mater
J 97(2), 214220.
[7] Capozucca, R., 1995. Damage to reinforced concrete
due to reinforcement corrosion. Constr Build Mater
9(5), 295303.
[8] Cao, Ch.N., Zhang, J.Q., 2002. Introduction of
Electrochemical Impedence Spectra. Beijing: Science
Press, 3744.
[9] Mansfeld, F., 1990. Electrochemical Impedance Spec-
troscopy (EIS) as a new tool for investigating methods
of corrosion protection. Electrochimica Acta 35(10),
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Cell Potentials of Uncoated Reinforcing Steel in
Concrete [S].
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Experimental study of photocatalitic concrete products for durability of

reinforced concrete

Alessandra Fiore, Giuseppe Carlo Marano & Pietro Monaco

Department of Science of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Technical University of Bari, Bari, Italy

Alessandro Morbi
Italcementi Group S.p.A, Bergamo, Italy

ABSTRACT: This paper focuses on the topic of durability of reinforced concrete structures. The aim of the
presented study is to use the photocatalytic activity of titanium dioxide in order to create a photocatalised system
which, applied on the external surface of reinforced concrete structures, can constitute a protective barrier. To
this purpose suitable experimental tests have been carried out able to verify the efficacy of the photocatalytic
activity with respect to the durability of reinforced concrete elements in terms of carbonation of concrete and
corrosion of reinforcing steel.

Keywords: reinforced concrete, durability, photocatalytic cement products, carbonation, reinforcing bar
corrosion

1 INTRODUCTION
Reinforced concrete (RC) has been used as the main
structural material in the construction industry for
many years. Nevertheless in the last decades the rapid
deterioration of RC structures due to alkali-aggregate
reaction, chloride-induced corrosion and carbonation
has caused engineers to seek new ways to rehabilitate
aging structure and to improve durability properties of
concrete under aggressive environments.
Among the countermeasures adopted against the
deterioration of reinforced concrete structures, the
use of composite materials has shown great poten-
tial in the area of durability of RC structures. The
cementitious-polymeric composite materials are used
for the modification of concrete surfaces and include
finish coatings, barrier penetrants, linings, liquid-
applied membrane waterproofing materials and per-
manent forms, which allow to eliminate or control
chemical degradation factors in RC structures. Con-
siderable research has been carried out on concretes
containing binary cements based on fly ash or sil-
ica fume which have shown advantages such as
improved durability. Polymer-coated reinforcing bars,
including epoxy-coated reinforcing bars, FRP rein-
forcements and continuous fiber reinforcing materials,
are employed as corrosion-resistant materials (Chajes
et al. 1995).
Recently also technical codes have introduced
the durability and reliability issues, which both
rank amongst the most decisive structural perfor-
mance characteristics. In particular Model Code 2010
specializes in the durability design of concrete struc-
tures. The objective is to identify agreed durability
related models and to prepare the framework for
the standardization of performance-based durabil-
ity design approaches. According to this innovative
approach, structural design should take into account
environmental actions leading to the degradation of
concrete and embedded steel.
In this framework this paper presents the results
of a systematic study on assessing the effectiveness
of photocatalytic concrete products in improving the
durability of reinforced concrete. Until now photocat-
alytic materials have been applied on concrete pave-
ment surfaces and external building surfaces mainly to
reduce air pollution in urban areas. In fact the nature
of the cement matrix is particularly suitable for incor-
porating titanium dioxide (TiO2 ) powders and other
photo-oxidation products. The use of titanium dioxide
as photocatalyst allows the photochemical conversion
of nitrogen oxides (NO) to low concentrated nitrates
due to heterogeneous photocatalytic oxidation. A vari-
ety of products containing TiO2 are already available
on the European market and their capacity to mitigate
air pollution is widely proven (Chen & Poon 2009,
Hsken et al. 2009).
Otherwise this paper presents the results of
experimental tests carried out in order to evaluate
the durability properties of photocatalytic concrete
products focusing on carbonation of concrete and
corrosion of reinforcing steel (Bertolini et al. 2004,
Balayssac et al. 1995).

105
Table 1. Mixture proportions of CEM 32.5R II-A/LL
Portland Cement.

Weight Weight
Mix components (%) (Kg/m3 )

CEM 32.5R II-A/LL Matera 100.0 300

Sand (04) VC 58.0 983.1
Fine aggregate (410) VC 13.0 225.6
Course aggregate (1020) VC 29.0 489.6
Water 0.70 210

Figure 1. Measurement of the average depth of the colorless

2 EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS phenolphthalein region.

2.1 Concrete mix and casting of test specimens

Sixteen cubes (10 10 10 cm, Type A specimen)
and three reinforced slabs (20 10 5 cm, Type B
specimen) were cast for this experimental investiga-
tion. Type CEM 32.5R II-A/LL Portland Cement was
used in the concrete mix for the test specimens. Table 1
gives the chemical properties of the concrete.
After casting, the sides of eight cubic specimens
and of one slab were covered with cement (N) mortar
and the sides of eight cubic specimens and of one slab
were covered with photocatalytic (TX) cement mortar,
with thickness of 3 mm (s1 ) for all specimens except
for two Type A specimens with cement mortar and
two with TX mortar, for which a thickness of 5 mm
(s2 ) was adopted. Type FINICEM 6 BIANCO IDRO
mortars containing 25% white cement were produced.
In the TX mortars a 5% TiO2 content was added. On
the third slab (TQ) no finish coatings were applied.
2.2 Accelerated carbonation
After curing for six days, the specimens were trans-
ferred to a sealed chamber and subjected to accelerated
carbonation at 35 C in temperature, a CO2 concentra-
tion of 5% and relative humidity varying between 30%
and 80% every 12 hours. The aim was to reproduce
the alternate wet and dry conditions characterizing
aggressive marine environments.
The test specimens were taken out of the carbon-
ation chamber at 14, 21 and 28 days, in order to
investigate the evolution in time of deterioration.
3 CONCRETE CARBONATION TEST
The following test specimens were taken out of the
carbonation chamber at 14 days: two Type A speci-
mens with N mortar (with s1 thickness) and two Type
A specimens with TX mortar (with s1 thickness). All
the other Type A specimens were taken out of the
carbonation chamber at 21 days.
After splitting the concrete specimens, the freshly
split surface was cleaned and sprayed with a phenolph-
thalein pH indicator. In the noncarbonated part of the
specimen, where the concrete was still highly alkaline,
a purple-red color was obtained.
Figure 2. Concrete carbonation test.
In the carbonated part of the specimen where
the alkalinity of concrete is reduced, no coloration
occurred (Chang & Chen 2006). According to code
UNI EN 13295:2005, the average depth of the color-
less phenolphthalein region was measured from three
points for each side, on both the two edges of the
split face, about one hour after spraying the indicator
(Fig. 1).
3.1 Results and discussion
Figure 2 shows the results obtained for the two Type
A specimens with N mortar and the two with TX mor-
tar taken out of the carbonation chamber at 14 days.
The corresponding carbonation depths are reported in
Tables 25.
It is evident that carbonation is more intensive
in specimens without TiO2 . The carbonation depth
of specimens with TX mortar is approximately on
average 5/6 the depth of specimens with N mortar.
At 21 days the surfaces of all the other speci-
mens have been fully carbonated; this result is due
to the highly aggressive conditions created in the
carbonation chamber.
4 TEST OF REINFORCING BAR CORROSION
The corrosion of reinforcing steel in concrete exposed
to aggressive environment leads to cracking of
concrete and subsequent loss in the load-carrying
capacity of a reinforced concrete member (Trejo and
Monteiro 2005). In the experimental study herein
presented the corrosion mechanism of reinforcing

106
Table 2. Average depth of the colorless phenolphthalein Table 4. Average depth of the colorless phenolphthalein
region for specimen 1 N. region for specimen 1 TX.

Carbonation test 14th day Specimen 1 N Carbonation test 14th day Specimen 1 TX
Right section dk,13 (mm) Right section dk,13 (mm)

a1 = 36.60 b1 = 35.21 c1 = 45.95 d1 = 43.37 a1 = 33.36 b1 = 38.23 c1 = 30.22 d1 = 34.05

a2 = 31.45 b2 = 33.50 c2 = 46.41 d2 = 39.18 a2 = 31.69 b2 = 32.67 c2 = 29.8 d2 = 31.19
a3 = 33.52 b3 = 35.95 c3 = 50.60 d3 = 47.60 a3 = 34.53 b3 = 31.36 c3 = 31.21 d3 = 37.81
dk,a = 33.85 dk,b = 34.88 dk,c = 47.65 dk,d = 43.38 dk,a = 33.86 dk,b = 34.08 dk,c = 30.41 dk,d = 34.35



dk(ad),right = dk,right = 39.94 mm dk(ad),right = dk,right = 33.17 mm
Left section dk,13 (mm) Left section dk,13 (mm)

a1 = 37.67 b1 = 37.36 c1 = 43.92 d1 = 51.81 a1 = 40.1 b1 = 35.98 c1 = 33.93 d1 = 35.34

a2 = 33.67 b2 = 33.01 c2 = 40.96 d2 = 47.98 a2 = 30.51 b2 = 31.17 c2 = 30.51 d2 = 34.16
a3 = 34.23 b3 = 37.03 c3 = 44.61 d3 = 51.01 a3 = 34.99 b3 = 37.53 c3 = 31.52 d3 = 34.84
dk,a = 35.19

dk,b = 35.80 dk,c = 43.16 dk,d = 50.26 dk,a = 35.2

dk,b = 34.89 dk,c = 31.98 dk,d = 34.78
dk(ad),left = dk,left = 41.10 mm dk(ad),left = dk,left = 34.21 mm
dk = 40.52 mm dk = 33.69 mm

Table 3. Average depth of the colorless phenolphthalein Table 5. Average depth of the colorless phenolphthalein
region for specimen 2 N. region for specimen 2 TX.

Carbonation test 14th day Specimen 2 N Carbonation test 14th day Specimen 2 TX
Right section dk,13 (mm) Right section dk,13 (mm)

a1 = 33.87 b1 = 37.34 c1 = 38.48 d1 = 35.40 a1 = 32.16 b1 = 31.31 c1 = 31.48 d1 = 33.01

a2 = 32.00 b2 = 33.44 c2 = 31.88 d2 = 33.41 a2 = 30.89 b2 = 28.56 c2 = 30.45 d2 = 30.44
a3 = 33.70 b3 = 35.32 c3 = 36.08 d3 = 41.69 a3 = 32.6 b3 = 29.95 c3 = 33.14 d3 = 31.59
dk,a = 33.19 dk,b = 35.36 dk,c = 35.48 dk,d = 36.83 dk,a = 31.88 dk,b = 29.94 dk,c = 31.69 dk,d = 31.68



dk(ad),right = dk,right = 35.22 mm dk(ad),right = dk,right = 31.29 mm
Left section dk,13 (mm) Left section dk,13 (mm)

a1 = 36,36 b1 = 35.18 c1 = 35.33 d1 = 35.7 a1 = 31.37 b1 = 31.72 c1 = 35.96 d1 = 31.3

a2 = 33.19 b2 = 35.59 c2 = 33.38 d2 = 31.24 a2 = 28.72 b2 = 29.02 c2 = 30.11 d2 = 29.81
a3 = 33.53 b3 = 37.45 c3 = 37.84 d3 = 34.76 a3 = 32.92 b3 = 34.06 c3 = 33.71 d3 = 33.26
dk,a = 34.36 dk,b = 36.07 dk,c = 35.51 dk,d = 33.9 dk,a = 31.003 dk,b = 31.6

dk,c = 33.26 dk,d = 31.45

dk(ad),left = dk,left = 31.83 mm
dk(ad),left = dk,left = 34.96 mm
dk = 35.09 mm dk = 31.56 mm

no coloration occurred. The progress of corrosion

bars induced by carbonation of concrete has been
investigated.
Steel embedded in good quality concrete is chem-
ically protected by the high alkalinity of pore water,
while the dense and relatively impermeable struc-
ture of concrete provides the physical protection. The
alkaline compounds, mainly calcium and to a certain
extent potassium and sodium, in the cement contribute
to the high alkalinity of the pore solution, which in the
presence of oxygen, passivates the steel. The loss of
alkalinity due to carbonation of concrete can destroy
the passive film.
The test has interested the three Type B speci-
mens described in 2.1. Each specimen contained
four 12 mm diameter reinforcing bars with four dif-
ferent concrete covers (c1 = 1.5 cm; c2 = 2.0 cm;
c3 = 2.5 cm; c4 = 3.0 cm). The three slabs were taken
out of the carbonation chamber at 21 days and sprayed
with a phenolphthalein pH indicator. On the non-
passivated steel a purple-red color was obtained;
similarly when the passive layer was broken down
was evaluated by observing on reinforcing bars the
colorless phenolphthalein region.
4.1 Results and discussion
Figure 3 shows the results obtained with reference to
the TQ slab. It is evident that the level of corrosion
decreases as the concrete cover increases.
Figure 4 shows the comparison between the three
Type B specimens with reference to all the c1 c4
concrete covers. The corrosion propagation rate of
reinforcing bars is visibly lower in the TX slab with
respect to the TQ and N ones.
In particular in correspondence of the concrete
cover c4 the non-passivated region in the bar of N slab
is about half the one of the TX slab case.
The test results also indicate that the reinforcing
bars in the TQ specimen are more susceptible to local-
ized corrosion than the bars in the N slab. This attests
the effectiveness of using mortar finish coatings in
order to improve the durability of RC structures.

107

Figure 3. Test of reinforcing bar corrosion for TQ Type B
specimen.
Figure 4. Test of reinforcing bar corrosion for TX, N and
TQ Type B specimens at 21 days: a) with c1 concrete cover;
b) with c2 concrete cover; c) with c3 concrete cover; d) with
c4 concrete cover.
108
5 CONCLUSIONS
The experimental study herein presented deals with
the design topic of durability of reinforced concrete
elements. In this field, the effects of applying con-
crete surface layers incorporating a photocatalytic
material have been investigated, analyzing the effi-
ciency in terms of carbonation of concrete and cor-
rosion of reinforcing bars. For sake of clearness, the
results obtained on specimens covered by photocat-
alytic cement mortar have been compared with the
ones obtained on specimens simply covered by cement
mortar. The results of the experimental tests have
shown that the concrete carbonation depth can be sig-
nificantly reduced by adopting photocatalytic surface
layers. The results have also indicated that the appli-
cation of Titanium Dioxide modified cementitious
materials on the external surface of reinforced concrete
elements improves the corrosion performance of rein-
forcing bars in presence of carbonation of concrete.
In particular it emerged that the corrosion propagation
rate of reinforcing bars decreases as the concrete cover
increases.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Prof. Marcello Di Marzo and Ing. Enrico Vitobello
are gratefully acknowledged for their contribution and
advices during the experimental program.
REFERENCES
Balayssac, J.P., Dtrich, Ch.H. & Grandet, G. 1995. Effects
of curing upon carbonation of concrete. Construction and
Building Materials 9 (2): 9195.
Bertolini, L., Elsner, B., Pedeferri, P. & Polder, R. 2004. Cor-
rosion of steel in concrete: prevention, diagnosis, repair.
Editor Wiley-VCH, Weinheim.
Chajes, M.J., Thomson, T.A. & Farschman, C.A. (1995).
Durability of concrete beams externally reinforced with
composite fabrics. Construction and Building Materials
9 (3): 141148.
Chang, C.F. & Chen, J.W. 2006. The experimental investiga-
tion of concrete carbonation depth. Cement and Concrete
Research, 36: 17601767.
Chen, J. & Poon, C.S. 2009. Photocatalytic activity of tita-
nium dioxide modified concrete materials Influence of
utilizing recycled glass cullets as aggregates. Journal of
Environmental Management 90: 34363442.
fib Bulletin 55 2010. Model Code 2010, First complete draft.
Hsken, G., Hunger, M. & Brouwers, H.J.H. 2009. Experi-
mental study of photocatalytic concrete products for air
purification. Building and Environment 44: 24632474.
Trejo, D. & Monteiro, P.J. 2005. Corrosion performance of
conventional (ASTM A615) and low-alloy (ASTM A706)
reinforcing bars embedded in concrete and exposed to
chloride environments. Cement and Concrete Research
35: 562571.
UNI EN 13295:2005. Products and systems for the protec-
tion and repair of concrete structures Test methods
Determination of resistence to carbonation.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Research on the durability of Reactive Powder Concrete in marine

corrosive environment

Ming-zhe An, Y. Wang, Q. Lu & Run-dong Liu

School of Civil Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China

ABSTRACT: Reinforced concrete structure actual service conditions are severe in marine environment. The
damage of structure caused by the coupling of multiple factors is extremely serious. As a new composite material,
Reactive Powder Concrete has high durability, high strength, especially suitable for using as main structure
material and protective material in marine environment. Through the simulation of the actual environment, sea
water freeze-thaw and dry-wet cycles tests for Reactive Powder Concrete are carried out. After dry-wet and
freeze-thaw cycles, the mass and elastic modulus variation of damaged and nondestructive Reactive Powder
Concrete is clarified and its rules are also discussed. The protective components are simulated by the thin plate
test, which provide the theoretical basis for Reactive Powder Concrete structure design and protection component
design in complex service environment.

Keywords: Reactive Powder Concrete; Marine environment; Freeze-thaw cycles; Dry-wet cycles; Sulfate;
Durability

1 INTRODUCTION super plasticizer, steel fiber (The diameter is 0.22 mm,

With the development of infrastructure construction in
China, the critical structure in harsh environment, such
as coastal areas, saline-alkali soil and cold regions,
has also been developed rapidly. In marine structures,
the service environment of concrete is much more
complex, the corrosions of concrete and steel bar
are often influenced by multiple factors, especially in
the splash and tidal zone. Concrete structure simul-
taneously suffers from sulfate erosion, penetration of
chlorine, dry-wet cycles, freeze-thaw cycles, etc. The
corrosion damage of reinforced concrete is extremely
serious, the wrapped or coated materials are commonly
used as the protection methods currently, this method
in some extent delays the corrosion of concrete struc-
ture, but the service lives of these materials are very
short, which is generally less than 10 years.
Reactive Powder Concrete can be used as main
structure material or protective structure in marine
environment, due to its high strength and durability. In
recent years, the researches of Reactive Powder Con-
crete have focused on the single factors influence on
durability [16]. The report of durability affected by
multiple factors has not been seen. The durability of
Reactive Powder Concrete under the action of multiple
factors has become an urgent scientific subject.
2 MATERIALS
42.5 ordinary portland cement, silica fume, quartz
sand (The range of particle size is 0.160.25 mm),
the length is 1215 mm) and water are used in the
preparation of Reactive Powder Concrete. Anhydrous
magnesium sulfate, anhydrous sodium chloride, anhy-
drous sodium sulfate and plastic piece are used for
simulating the marine environment. The mix propor-
tions used for Reactive Powder Concrete are given
at Table 1, and R-D represents for damaged concrete
proportion. High performance concrete proportion is
given at Table 2 for comparative test.
3 METHOD
According to the analyze results of sea water sam-
ples, the major constituents of sea water have been
obtained as follows: Chloride ion: 19.3 g/kg, sulfate
ion: 2.71 g/kg, and Magnesium ion: 1.29 g/kg. With
the actual ion content expanded 5 times get practical
solution ratio to simulate the real sea water condi-
tion, which is 96.5 g/kg chloride, 13.6 g/kg sulfate ion,
6.5 g/kg magnesium ion.
The Reactive Powder Concrete are prepared as
100 mm 100 mm 400 mm prism specimens and
50 mm 400 mm 400 mm thin plate specimens.
The cover thickness of reinforced concrete usually is
1550 mm, and the thickness of thin plate specimens
is 50 mm which cover thickness is considered to be
25 mm as all its surfaces are exposed in the corro-
sive environment. So the thin plate specimens are used
for simulate protection structure. High performance
concrete test is made on 100 mm 100 mm 400 mm

109
Table 1. Mix proportion of Reactive Powder Concrete (kg/m3 ).

Mixture Silica Quartz Steel Super Plastic

code Cement fume sand fibre plasticizer Water piece

R 706 160 1249 160 74 122

R-D 704.6 159.7 1246.7 159.7 73.9 121.8 4.76

*The volume fraction of plastic piece is 2.5% in proportion R-D.

Table 2. Mix proportion of high performance concrete (kg/m3 ).

Gravel

Mixture code Cement Coarse Fine Sand Fly ash Mineral powder Water Admixture

50 308 565 565 693 88 44 132 5.3

prism specimens. Sea water freeze-thaw cycles test is Table 3. The results of prism specimens after dry-wet
based on GB/T50082 (Test Method for Rapid Freez- cycles.
ing and Thawing), which sulfate solution is replaced
by sea water. The dynamic elastic modulus and mass Relative dynamic elastic
Dry-wet modulus (%) Mass (kg)
are measured in every freeze-thaw cycle 50 times. The
cycles
dry-wet cycle period is 24 hours. The specimens are (times) R-D R C50 R-D R C50
soaked in the prepared solution for 12 0.5 h and then
natural drying for 12 0.5 h. The mass of different 10 100.0 100.0 100.0 10.14 10.04 9.91
specimens is tested before the specimens are soaked, 20 100.2 100.3 99.8 10.15 10.05 9.90
and it is tested every 10 times. 30 99.5 96.3 100.2 10.15 10.03 9.89
Plastic pieces are added to some of the specimens in 40 101.7 96.8 100.7 10.15 10.12 9.88
order to simulate the internal defects and initial dam- 50 100.3 96.3 100.2 10.15 10.10 9.87
age of Reactive Powder Concrete (R-D). The material 60 96.2 10.13
of plastic piece is PVC, with 1 mm in its thickness and 70 95.5 10.12
0.9518 g/cm3 in density. The PVC plastic pieces are
made into 10 mm width, 1020 mm length.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

4.1 Prism specimens dry-wet cycles test

The relative dynamic elastic modulus and mass results
of prism specimens R-D and R after dry-wet cycles
are given at Table 3.
After dry-wet cycles in sea water, the steel fibers
on the surface of the specimens have been corroded.
And in the specimen surface many white punctiform
precipitation have formed, as shown in Figure 1a. In
the same condition, the solution is replaced by 5%
sodium sulfate solution, while after the action of dry-
wet cycles in sodium sulfate solution, there are white
reticular precipitations on the surface of specimens,
as shown in Figure 1b. It is concluded that the surface
precipitate of samples in sea water are different with
that in sodium sulfate solution.
Through general analysis of Table 3, the mass of
prism specimens under dry-wet cycles of sea water
changed a little, the maximum is 10.15 kg and the min-
imum is 10.03 kg for R-D damaged specimens; for R
specimens, the result is 10.12 kg and 10.03 kg; for C50
Figure 1. The morphology of specimen surface precipita-
tion after dry-wet cycles.
specimens, the result is 9.91 kg and 9.87 kg. All of the
results fluctuate in a very small range.
The relative dynamic elastic modulus variations of
prism specimens after dry-wet cycles are shown in Fig-
ure 2. The relative dynamic elastic modulus of prism
R-D damaged specimens slightly increases and then
decreases with dry-wet cycles increasing.The dynamic
elastic modulus increases to 101.7% after 40 dry-wet
cycles, and then gradually reduces to 95.5% after 70
cycles. The relative dynamic elastic modulus of prism

110
 Table 4. The results of prism specimens under freeze-thaw
cycles.

Freeze- Relative dynamic elastic

thaw modulus (%) Mass (kg)
cycles
(times) R-D R C50 R-D R C50

50 100.0 100.0 100.0 10.01 9.90 10.02

100 103.6 100.6 101.6 10.01 9.91 10.05
150 105.6 99.8 101.6 10.04 9.91 10.03
200 101.4 100.8 96.1 10.03 9.92 10.04
250 105.3 76.8 10.04 10.05
300 100.8 40.9 10.03 10.07

Figure 2. Relative dynamic elastic modulus variation of

prism specimens after dry-wet cycles.
R specimens gradually reduces after dry-wet cycles.
After 50 dry-wet cycles, the relative dynamic elastic
modulus decreases to 96.3%. However, after dry-wet
cycles, the elastic modulus of C50 high performance
concrete specimens slightly increases, its maximum
is 100.7% and minimum is 99.8% within 50 cycles,
which is almost unchanged.
It is shown in Figure 2 that in the early
stage of dry-wet cycles, the influence of dry-wet
cycles presents that damaged specimens R-D < C50
specimens < specimens R. This may be because of
Reactive Powder Concrete internal compact structure.
The initial damage and defect in the surface of dam-
aged Reactive Powder Concrete is filled by crystal
substance which is produced in the initial stage of wet-
dry cycles, and it has a positive effect to the structure,
relative dynamic elastic modulus slightly increases.
The filling effect of crystal substance is less than its
damage effect after 50 dry-wet cycles, which makes
the dynamic elastic modulus reduces. Contrast with
nondestructive specimens R, the increase of dynamic
elastic modulus doesnt exist at the early stage. The
crystal substance has a damage eff ect on Reactive
Powder Concrete after 30 dry-wet cycles, which makes
the relative dynamic elastic modulus reduces. In C50
high performance concrete, the filling effect and dam-
age effect are approximately equilibrium during the
early stage of dry-wet cycles; which leads to a steady
relative dynamic elastic modulus.
4.2 Prism specimens freeze-thaw cycles test
The relative dynamic elastic modulus and mass results
of prism specimens R-D, R and C50 after freeze-thaw
cycles are given at Table 4.
It is shown in Table 4 that the mass of prism
specimens changes a little after sea water freeze-
thaw cycles. The mass loss of Reactive Powder Con-
crete is insignificant. It is mainly because that the
action degree of the cement in C50 high perfor-
mance concrete and Reactive Powder Concrete is high.
Few cement slurry covers on the surface of speci-
mens, which causes no cement slurry falls off from
specimens. Due to the good bonding between cement
base and aggregate, even in a crack condition, nothing
falls off either. For this reason, the mass of specimens
almost doesnt change. The relative dynamic elastic
modulus of damaged specimens R-D in this test is
greater than 100.0% within 300 freeze-thaw cycles,
a maximum of 105.6%; but for nondestructive speci-
mens R, the relative dynamic elastic modulus fluctu-
ates around 100.0% within 200 freeze-thaw cycles.
The maximum is 100.8%, and minimum is 99.8%,
which almost has not changed. The relative dynamic
elastic modulus of C50 high performance concrete
specimens increases first and then reduces gradually
with the increase of freeze-thaw cycles. The relative
dynamic elastic modulus is 100.6% after 100 and 150
freeze-thaw cycles. After 200, 250 and 300 cycles, it
is 96.1%, 76.8%, 40.9%, respectively. On the surface
of damaged and nondestructive Reactive Powder Con-
crete specimens white punctiform precipitations have
formed under freeze-thaw cycles, steel fibers have
been corroded. But for C50 specimens, except for the
white punctiform precipitation on the surface, there
have been many obvious cracks, the specimens are
destructed. But the mass loss is 0.5%, therefore, the
mass loss of high performance concrete should not be
individually considered as an evaluation index of the
durability.
The relative dynamic elastic modulus variation
of prism specimens under the action of freeze-thaw
cycles is shown in Figure 3. After 200 sea water freeze-
thaw cycles, the maximum value of relative dynamic
elastic modulus is damaged specimens R-D, the value
is 105.3% and 100.8% after 250 and 300 cycles respec-
tively. Nondestructive specimens R relative dynamic
elastic modulus changes little; however, the value of
C50 specimens have begun to decrease at 200 times
and dramatically reduce, 250 times of 76.8%, 300
times drop to 40.9%, which means the specimens are
already broken. The adhesion of PVC plastic piece
and concrete matrix are the weaknesses of damaged
Reactive Powder Concrete, its content in this test is
2.5%, but the relative dynamic elastic modulus of
the specimens after 300 freeze-thaw cycles is nearly
not influence. The initial crystal substance filled the
internal defects in concrete surface layer, the relative

111
 Table 5. The results of thin plate specimens after freeze-
thaw cycles.

Relative dynamic elastic

Freeze-thaw modulus (%) Mass (kg)
cycles
(times) D C D C

50 100.0 100.0 19.82 20.52

100 100.5 101.3 19.81 20.50
150 99.4 99.1 19.76 20.51
200 99.0 99.3 19.82 20.52
250 99.8 99.4 19.80 20.52
300 99.3 99.5 19.82 20.52

Figure 3. Relative dynamic elastic modulus variation of

prism specimens after freeze-thaw cycles.

Figure 4. Thin plate specimens.

dynamic elastic modulus has slightly increased; Reac-

tive Powder Concrete material has a good durability in
the action of sea water freeze-thaw cycles.
4.3 Thin plate specimens freeze-thaw test
The thin plate specimens have been shown in Figure 4.
The relative dynamic elastic modulus and mass results
of thin plate specimens R-D and R after freeze-thaw
cycles are given at Table 5.
The mass of damaged and nondestructive thin plate
specimens has changed little within 300 sea water
freeze-thaw cycles. The maximum mass of damaged
specimens is 19.82 kg and the minimum is 19.76 kg.
The relative mass loss is only 0.3%. For nondestructive
specimens the maximum mass is 20.52 kg and mini-
mum is 20.50 kg. The relative mass loss is 0.1%. The
relative dynamic elastic modulus of thin plate speci-
mens increase firstly, then reaches a steady value. The
relative dynamic elastic modulus of damaged thin plate
specimens is 100.5% after 100 freeze-thaw cycles,
and then fluctuated between 99.0%100.0%. Nonde-
structive specimens relative dynamic elastic modulus
increases to 101.3% after 100 freeze-thaw cycles, and
then tends to be stable. The value after 150, 200, 250
and 300 cycles are 99.1%, 99.3%, 99.4% and 99.5%,
respectively.
The relative dynamic elastic modulus variation of
thin plate specimens after the action of freeze-thaw
cycles is given at Figure 5.
Reactive Powder Concrete thin plate specimens
have a good performance under the action of sea water
Figure 5. Relative dynamic elastic modulus variation of thin
plate specimens after freeze-thaw cycles.
freeze-thaw cycles. The minimum relative dynamic
elastic modulus of damaged and nondestructive spec-
imens is 99.0% after 300 freeze-thaw cycles. The rel-
ative dynamic elastic modulus tends to be stable after
150 300 freeze-thaw cycles. After 300 freeze-thaw
cycles, the relative dynamic elastic modulus minimum
value of prism damaged specimens is 100.8%; and the
relative dynamic elastic modulus minimum value of
damaged thin plate specimen is 99.0%. Due to the
shaping process of specimens inevitably lead to sur-
face defections, thin plate specimen with 50 mm in
thickness has more weakness in thickness direction,
which will lead to more damage in the same corrosion
conditions.
By comprehensively considering the influencing of
dry-wet cycles and freeze-thaw cycles on the dynamic
elastic modulus variation of Reactive Powder Con-
crete thin plate specimen, 50 mm thick plate has good
durability. Wang Ziwei [7] did a life prediction of
Reactive Powder Concrete, its life can be up to 100
years which the cover thickness is 10 mm. Reactive
Powder Concrete is suitable for concrete structure pro-
tective component. As a kind of protective structure,
its not only suitable for the permanent template of
concrete structures, but also can be precast at factory
and assembled on the existing structure.

112
5 CONCLUSIONS
(1) The mass of Reactive Powder Concrete speci-
mens with and without initial damage is hardly
changed after the action of sea water dry-wet and
freeze-thaw cycles. The losing rate is about 0.1%.
The relative dynamic elastic modulus of C50 high
performance concrete declines below 60% after
300 freeze-thaw cycles, however, it presents small
increases in mass. Therefore, the mass loss of high
performance concrete should not be individually
considered as an evaluation index of the durability.
(2) After 70 sea water dry-wet cycles, the Reac-
tive Powder Concrete prism specimens with 2.5%
PVC plastic have the relative dynamic elastic
modulus changed to 95.5%. After 300 sea water
freeze-thaw cycles, the relative dynamic elastic
modulus of damaged Reactive Powder Concrete
prism specimens is 100.8%. The prism specimens
of damaged Reactive Powder Concrete are not
severely affected by coupling effect of sea water
dry-wet and freeze-thaw cycles.
(3) After 300 sea water freeze-thaw cycles, the Reac-
tive Powder Concrete thin plate specimens with
2.5% PVC plastic have the relative dynamic
elastic modulus reduced by 0.7%; however, the
relative dynamic elastic modulus of undamaged
Reactive Powder Concrete thin plate specimens
reduce only 0.5% after 300 sea water freeze-thaw
cycles. The results of thin plate specimens indi-
cated that Reactive Powder Concrete are slightly
affected by coupling effect of sea water dry-wet
and freeze-thaw cycles.
113
(4) The corrosion resistance of Reactive Powder Con-
crete is remarkable. Therefore, Reactive Powder
Concrete is suitable for permanent templates or
assembled as protective component in marine
engineering concrete structure.
REFERENCES
[1] Li Zhong, Huang LiDong. Study on durability of
steel fiber reactive powder concrete. China Concrete
and Cement Products, 2005 (3): 4243.
[2] Shaheen Ehab, Shrive Nigel G. Optimization of
mechanical properties and durability of reactive
powder concrete. ACI Materials Journal, 2006, 103
(6):444451.
[3] SONG Shao-min, WEI Cui-xia. Durability of the
Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC). Concrete, 2006,
(2):7274
[4] Lee MingGin, Chiu ChuiTe, Wang YungChih, The
study of bond strength and bond durability of reac-
tive powder concrete. Journal of ASTM Interna-
tional, 2005, 2 (7):485494
[5] Liu SiFeng, Sun Wei etc. The preparation and dura-
bility of the high performance concrete with natural
ultrafine mixed material. Journal of The Chinese
Ceramic Society, 2003 (11):l0801085
[6] Wei CuiXia, Song ShaoMin. Study on durability of
high content fly ash active powder concrete. New
Building Materials, 2005 (9):2729
[7] Wang ZiWei. Study on anti-chloride ion penetration
of RPC. Beijing: Beijing Jiaotong University, 2011
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Review and exploration of river sand substitutes for concrete production

in Asian countries

Chun-pong Sing & P.E.D. Love

Department of Construction Management, Curtin University, Western Australia, Australia

Chi-ming Tam
Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, City University, Hong Kong

ABSTRACT: Concrete is a stone like material obtained by carefully proportioned mixture of cement, fine
sand, aggregate and water, hardened in the forms of shape and dimensions of the desired structure. High quality
concrete mixture can only be produced with a proper choice of fine sand with requisite fineness module. The
natural river sand is the cheapest option due to the ease of acquisition and in a well-grade nature. However,
excessive excavation of river sand creates a serious environmental problem in Asian countries such as China,
Thailand and India. Thus, natural river sand substitutes have to be explored urgently.

Keywords: concrete, natural river sand, substitutes

1 BACKGROUND

Quality of concrete production is highly dependent on

the constituents and their optimum ratio. Fine sand and
coarse aggregates generally occupy 60% to 75% of the
concrete volume and thus strongly influence its hard-
ened properties, mixture proportion and economy. The
engineering properties of fine sand are highly related
to the relative proportions of different sizes of particles
presented. Natural river sand is commonly used as fine
sand in concrete production as it is the cheapest natu-
ral material. Such sand is well-graded in nature with
well-distributed particle sizes under mechanical and
chemical weathering. However, worldwide unbridled
urbanization is fuelling the growth of the construction
sector, which has resulted in excessive mining of river
sand.According to Joel (2010), severalAsian countries
such as India and Singapore are experiencing severe
shortage of natural river sand to meet the increasing
needs for infrastructure development. In addition, the
excessive excavation of river sand has caused seri-
ous environmental problems. For example, in India
and Thailand, riverbeds are becoming uneven and their
landscape is dramatically changing (Khamput, 2004).
To deal with this challenge, it is important to consider
alternative materials or substitutes.
2 CASE STUDY: HONG KONG
River sand was one of the major constituent materi-
als used in the production of concrete in Hong Kong.
According to the CEDD (2009), the natural river sand
Figure 1. River sand consumption for concrete production
in Hong Kong (CEDD, 2009).
used in Hong Kong has been mainly imported from
mainland China and in 2009, it was reported to be
1,800,000 (tonnes). Figure 1 shows that almost 24%
of the river sand imported was used for concrete
production.
China is the major supplier of river sand to
Hong Kong. The Chinese government has warned
the environmental impact of uncontrolled extraction
and export of natural sand for some time. For exam-
ple, in 2007, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) in
China has announced to ban export of natural sand.
Under this policy, only Hong Kong and Macau have
been exempted from this forbiddance. A Hong Kong
importer should apply for the permit called Export
License of the Peoples Republic of China for Natural
Sand from the Mainland Authority for importing nat-
ural sand from the Mainland. In addition, Indonesia
has banned export of natural river sand to Singapore.

115
3 REVIEW OF THE MOST WIDELY USED
RIVER SAND SUBSTITUTIES
The world consumption of natural river sand as fine
aggregate for concrete production is very high and sev-
eral countries have encountered shortage of natural
fine sand. As a result, river sand has become increas-
ingly expensive and also scarce (Raman et al., 2007).
Most importantly, good sand may be not readily avail-
able in every riverbed (Ilangovan & Nagamani, 2007).
The sand available in a riverbed is sometimes very
coarse and may contain a high percentage of silt and
clay. The presence of clay and silt in sand reduces the
strength of concrete as it holds dampness. In addi-
tion, the quality and composition of river sand from
riverbed can even vary significantly and its quality
cannot be guaranteed. Some Australian manufacturers
advocate the use of 100% manufactured fine aggregate
for concrete to ensure its quality (CCAA 2008).
According to the guidelines published by Cement,
Concrete & Aggregate Australia (CCAA) in 2008,
Japan has been developing and applying new tech-
nology for producing manufactured sand, since their
natural sand resources were depleted. In Canada river
sand is still abundant, though alternatives are being
developed. Alternative sources for river sand are: (a)
crushed and screened waste glass, (b) crushed rock
sand, in the form of granite dust, (c) crushed rock sand,
in the form of quarry rock dust, (d) recycle copper slag
and (e) sea sand.
(a) Crushed and screened waste glass
In the United States (US), research has shown that
crushed and screened waste glass may be used as a
sand-substitute in concrete and cement mortar produc-
tion (NAHB Research Centre, 2001). Nearly all waste
glass can be used in concrete applications, including
glass that is unsuitable for recycling. In Australia, field
and laboratory tests have demonstrated that crushed
and screened waste glass is robust and economical
when used as a sand-substitute in concrete production.
In addition, the use of waste glass helps keep material
out of landfills.
(b) Crushed rock sand, in the form of granite dust
The dust produced from granite crushers is one of
the alterative materials for river sand. In Singapore
and New Zealand, for example, crushed rock sand, in
the form of granite dust, is often used as fine aggre-
gate to replace natural sand in various proportions
(Malagavelli & Rao, 2010). It has been demonstrated
by Malagavelli & Rao (2010) in their laboratory tests
that it is technically feasible to replace sand with
crushed rock to produce concrete.
(c) Crushed rock sand, in the form of quarry rock
dust (classified as manufactured sand)
The utilization of quarry rock dust, which can be called
manufactured sand, has been accepted as an eco-
nomic alternative to river sand in countries such as
Australia, Germany, Japan and the UK (Ilangovan &
116
Nagamani, 2007). Quarry rock dust is defined as a
residue, tailing or other non-valuable waste materials
after the extraction and processing of rocks to form
fine particles less than 4.75 mm. Manufactured sand
is seen as an appropriate substitute for natural river
sand. In Malaysia, as much as 20% quarry waste is
being used as a replacement for natural river sand in
the production of concrete (Safiuddin et al., 2007).
However, to ensure the performance of concrete, strict
control should be placed on items such as the surface
texture, elongated particle shape and size graduation
of the manufacturer sand.
In Australia, OFlynn (2000) reported that the clo-
sure of the Brisbane River to extractive dredging and
the exhaustion or limitation of other sand sources have
caused the industry shifting to manufactured sand for
concrete fine aggregate. It is reported that fine aggre-
gate is produced from 12 of the major hard rock
quarries in southeast Queensland. Companies have
achieved only partial replacement of natural sand, to
around 40% of the fine aggregate component in their
concrete mixes. While improved technology and man-
agement will further reduce the amount of natural
blend sand required, river sand is unlikely to be fully
replaced in the foreseeable future. There is still a large
room for exploring the possibility to enable 100%
manufactured aggregate for substituting natural river
sand.
(d) Recycled copper slag
The vast amount of copper slag, a by-product obtained
during smelting and refining of copper, was for many
years, treated as a waste with no further use thereafter
(Al-Jadri et al., 2009). Asias countries like Singapore
and Japan have found a novel way of encapsulating
copper slag into concrete, reducing the use of natural
fine sand in cement production and avoiding land fill-
ing, which used to be the common way of disposing
this waste.
(e) Sea sand
Many countries have begun to utilizing sea sand in
place of natural river sand for concrete and cement
mortar production (Jayawardena & Dissanayake,
2006). Sea sand is extracted from below around 15 m
deep of ocean (e.g. beyond the surf zone). However,
the saltiness of sea sand (or called chloride level) with
respect to the enhancement of corrosion to reinforced
steel has been the greatest concern on deterring it to
replace river sand.
The above reviews have explored the alternatives
that have been significantly applied for substituting
natural river sand in concrete production. In addition,
key factors listed as following should be critically
examined:
(a) Supply of raw material: the availability within the
region is a significant economic benefit to the
regional construction industry.
(b) Economic consideration: any additional benefit
of using alternative materials, for example: using
crushed glass waste would lead to (i) reduce the
 concrete unit cost, (ii) lower the freight cost and
(iii) avoid landfill cost.
(c) Accessibility: transportation costs of the raw mate-
rial should be critical for selecting the river sand
substitutes.
(d) Environmental impact: use of any recycled mate-
rials as substitutes of river sand would help keep
the material out of landfills. Recycling practices
can also decrease the environmental impact.
(e) Suitability for local construction works: for exam-
ple, whether the sand substitutes are suitable for
producing a high strength concrete.
4 SPECIFICATION OF RIVER SAND
SUBSTITUTES FOR CONCRETE
PRODUCTION
Current specifications/ guidelines for the use of the
river sand substitutes include:
New Zealand
The New Zealand Standards Association has incorpo-
rated a performance-based specification for concrete
aggregate, which allows the substitution of river sand
in concrete production. There is no specified grading
limit imposed. Alternatively, there are some criteria on
controlling the flow time and void content of the sand
substitutes using flow cone tests in accordance with
New Zealand Standard.
Singapore
Singapore Standard (SS) 31: Specification for aggre-
gates from natural sources for concrete permits the use
of crushed rock sand to totally replace natural sand
for concrete. However, the grading requirements of
crushed rock sand must be in accordance with SS31.
Europe
According to European Standard EN12620 (2002),
definitions for concrete are given for: fine aggregates,
the smaller aggregate sizes with diameter less than
or equal to 4mm. Fine aggregate can be produced
from natural disintegration of rock or gravel and/ or
by the crushing of rock or gravel or processing of
manufactured aggregate.
Australia
An amendment was made in 1998 to Standard
Australia AS2758.1, which increased the acceptable
level of <75 m size to 20% of the crushed fine aggre-
gate, in contrast to natural sand where the limit is 5%.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Natural river sand has played an important role in con-
crete production. Riverbeds have been over-excavated,
which has caused serious environmental impact in
many countries such as China and Indonesia. As a
result they have begun to cease exporting natural river
117
sand. Asian countries such as as Hong Kong and
Singapore face several challenges as a result of short-
age of river sand. There are several types of fine sand
substitutes such as crushed waste glass. However, sev-
eral key factors such as supply sources of substitutes
and accessibility should be considered for develop-
ing the use of substitutes in the region. In addition,
the specification of river sand substitutes for concrete
production with reference to those currently adopted
in local and foreign construction works should be crit-
ically examined. A set of well-defined guidelines for
the use of river sand substitutes for local industry need
to be established.
REFERENCES
Al-Jabri, K. S., Hisada, M., Al-Oraimi, S. K. & Al-Saidy,
A. H. 2009. Copper slag as sand replacement for high
performance concrete. Cement & Concrete Composites,
31, 483488.
Cement Concrete & Aggregates Australia (CCAA). 2008.
Guide to the Specification and Use of Manufactured Sand
in Concrete, Australia.
Civil Engineering and Development Department. 2009.
Quantity of Natural Sand from Mainland used in Hong
Kong Construction Industry. Civil Engineering and
Development Department, Hong Kong.
Ilangovan, R. and Nagamani, K. 2007. Application of quarry
dust in concrete construction High Performance Con-
crete, [Online]Avaiable at http://knowledge.fhwa.dot.gov/
cops/HPCX.nsf/docs/07F20FC8D988B6D7852572D000
4F48C0?OpenDocument [Access 3 June 2012].
Jayawardena, U. D. S. & Dissanayake, D. M. S. 2006. Use of
quarry dust instead of river sand for future constructions
in Sri Lanka. The Geological Society of London, 38, 14.
Joel, M. 2010. Use of crushed granite fine as replacement
to river sand in concrete production. Leonardo Electronic
Journal of Practices and Technologies, JulyDecember
(17), 8596.
Khamput, P. 2004. A study of compressive strength of con-
crete using quarry dust as fine aggregate and mixing
with admisture type E. Thailand: Department of Civil
Engineering, Rajamangala University of Technology.
Malagavelli, V., and Rao, P. N. 2010. High performance
concrete with GGBS and ROBO sand. International
Journal of Engineering Science and Technology, 2(10),
51075113.
NAHB research centre, 2001. Concrete Aggregate Substi-
tutes: alternative aggregate materials. [Online]. Avail-
able at: http://www.toolbase.org/Technology-Inventory/
Foundations/concrete-aggregate-substitutes [assessed 5
June 2012]
OFlynn, M. L. 2000. Manufactured sands from hardrock
quarries: environmental solution or dilemma for southeast
Queensland? Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 47(1),
6573.
Raman, S. N., Safiuddin, M. & Zain, M. F. M. (2007).
Non-destructive evaluation of flowing concretes incorpo-
rating quarry waste. Asian Journal of Civil Engineering
(Building and Housing), 8(6), 597614.
Safiuddin, M. D., Raman, S. N. & Zain, M. F. M. (2010).
Utilization of quarry waste fine aggregate. Leonardo
Electronic Journal of Practices and Technologies, July
December (17).
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

New insulating material: Binderless particleboard from durian peel

S. Charoenvai
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Rajamangala University of
Technology Thanyaburi, Thanyaburi, Pathum Thani, Thailand

ABSTRACT: This study aims to develop a green alternative material for insulating products with good
energy conservation characteristics and to investigate the effectiveness of dried durian peel powder as binding
adhesive in particleboards in place of formaldehyde so as to reduce dependence on the hazardous in particleboard
manufacturing and thereby reducing its emission into the atmosphere. It was found that dried durian peel powder
could replace formaldehyde-based resin in particleboard manufacturing. This research studied the electron
structures and chemical composition of dried durian fiber and dried durian powder, both of which were used in
combination to produce the sample particleboards and the latter of which acted as the natural binder. The
performance of the particleboards was assessed in terms of physical properties, i.e., moisture content and
thickness swelling; and thermal property, i.e., thermal conductivity. The green particleboards, i.e. those made
from durian peel fiber and bound together with durian peel powder-based adhesive, have the advantages of
being a good energy conservation building material and of being formaldehyde-free, rendering them a suitable
alternative for indoor applications.

Keywords: Insulation Material, Thermal Conductivity, Scanning electron microscopy, Chemical composition

1 INTRODUCTION Table 1. Thermal conductivity and bulk density of certain

fruits (Khedari et al, 2002).
Agricultural waste utilization in building materials
with energy conservation properties is one promis- Thermal
ing alternative to meeting the challenges of disposing Bulk density conductivity
Types (kg/m3 ) (W/m K)
agricultural waste and to adding economic value to
such new building materials. Many research studies Pineapple 660 0.1149
(Asasutjarit et al, 2007, 2008, 2009) and (Khedari et al, Rambutan 636 0.1031
2002, 2003, 2004, 2005) experimented with various Durian 472 0.0921
raw materials and processes with the main emphasis on Young coconut 330 0.0779
finding the new materials with low thermal conductiv- Pummelo 670 0.1240
ity suitable for use in energy-saving buildings. A wide Mangosteen 580 0.1119
range of technologies have been employed to manu-
facture building materials from agricultural waste so
as to reduce dependence on natural wood and substi-
tute the building materials commercially available in and bulk density of certain fruit peels are shown in
the marketplace. Located in the tropical zone, Thailand Table 1.
can grow many kinds of fruits and therefore produces a Khedari et al (2002) found that coconut coir and
huge amount of fruit peels annually. Furthermore, agri- durian peel respectively have low thermal conductivity
cultural waste is anticipated to increase in the future, of 0.0779 W/m K and 0.0921 W/m K as shown in
and if we are unable to efficiently dispose of the agri- Table 1. Hence, Khedari et al (2002) could be regarded
culture waste, it will lead to social and environmental as Thai inventors who innovated the material with low
problems. The goal is thus to use agricultural waste thermal conductivity produced from coconut coir and
to manufacture energy-saving building materials with durian peel fibers.
low thermal conductivity so as to reduce heat transfer Khedari et al (2003) produced durian peel
into the building (Charoenvai, 2005), thereby decreas- particleboards using synthetic binders, i.e., Urea-
ing energy consumption of electrical appliances, e.g. Formaldehyde (UF), Phenol-Formaldehyde (PF), and
air conditioner, inside the building. By so doing, not Isocyanate. Formaldehye-based adhesives, such as UF
only is the operation cost of the business slashed but and PF resins, currently dominate the wood adhesive
the environment is protected. Thermal conductivity market. However, formaldehyde, regarded by many

119
Table 2. Chemical composition of durian fiber and durian
powder.

Durian Peel Durian Peel

Chemical Fiber Powder
Composition (%) (%)

Ash content 3.87 4.20

Alcohol-benzene solubility 22.0 18.9
Hot-water solubility 38.2 37.6
1% NaOH solubility 56.0 56.7
Lignin (ash corrected) 10.1 9.89
Holocellulose 48.6 47.2
Hemicellulose 10.2 9.63

Figure 1. Durian fruit (Top-Left), fresh durian peel

(Top-Right), dried durian peel (Bottom-Left) and dried durian
as a toxic air contaminant, is a human carcinogen fiber (Bottom-Right).
that causes nasopharyngeal cancer. Besides cancer-
causing hazard, exposure to formaldehyde causes
non-cancerous health problems, such as eye, nose,
and/or throat irritation (Hashim et al, 2011). Further-
more, formaldehyde emission and its non-renewable
nature have become a matter of increasing concern.
Environmentally-friendly adhesives from renewable
resources and free of formaldehyde therefore are now
being developed to replace the UF and PF binders
(Widsten and Kandelbauer, 2008). The objectives of
this study are to produce and evaluate the new insu-
lation material; binderless durian particleboards,
using durian peel powder as adhesive.

2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2.1 Chemical composition of durian peel, durian
peel fiber and durian peel powder
The results of chemical analysis of durian peel fiber
and durian peel powder conducted according to the
TAPPI standards are shown in Table 2.
It can be seen from Table 2 that both durian peel
fiber and durian peel powder possess similar chemi-
cal composition and contain lignin and hemicellulose.
Durian peel fiber and durian peel powder have high
1% NaOH solubility, which is hot alkali solution to
extract low-molecular-weight carbohydrates consist-
ing mainly of hemicellulose and degraded cellulose in
wood and pulp. Lignin, an aromatic amorphous sub-
stance containing phenolic methoxyl, hydroxyl and
other constituent groups, is a member of incrusting
materials forming part of the cell wall and middle
lamella in wood (TAPPI Standards).
2.2 Durian peel powder and durian peel fiber
preparation
Durian peel powder was prepared by first by cutting
the fresh durian peel into smaller pieces of approxi-
mately chip size. The chip size pieces were oven-dried
at 80 C for 8 h. and the dried durian peel chips were
hammermilled. The milled chips were then sieved with
an 80-100-mesh screen for durian peel powder which
Figure 2. Durian peel powder (Left) and durian peel fiber
(Right).
was subsequently used as the natural adhesive. A 60-
mesh sieve machine was also employed in removing
excess fines to obtain the durian peel fiber.
2.3 The electron structure of durian peel fiber and
durian peel powder
The structure and shape of the natural fibers are
important factors affecting fiber-based composites.
The scanning electron microscope (SEM) observation
of the durian peel fibers is shown in Figure 3. The
length and diameter of dried durian fibers are approx-
imately 2 mm and 300 m, respectively. The fiber cells
are linked together by means of middle lamellae, which
are made up of hemicelluloses and lignin. Hemicellu-
lose consists of polysaccharides, mainly xylos; and is
typically found in the middle lamella and the outer
layer of the fiber cell wall, i.e. the primary wall. The
lignin is chiefly found in the middle lamella (Gram,
1983).
The electron micrograph of durian peel powder is
shown in Figure 4. As seen, the durian peel powder is
not spherical but has irregular shapes and large surface
areas.

120

Figure 3. SEM observation of the shredded durian peel
fibers (Magnified 30 X).
Figure 4. SEM observation of the durian peel powder
(Magnified 30 X).
2.4 Particleboard preparation
The specimens were prepared by first weighing durian
peel fiber, durian peel powder and water according to
the ratios in Table 3 and mixing well. The blended par-
ticles were gradually, manually placed layer-by-layer
into a 250 mm 250 mm mould to form the final mats
which were then pressed at a platen temperature of
150 C. Pressure of 10001500 psi was applied to the
boards. After the hot pressing, the boards were dried
for 24 h to completely cure before being trimmed and
cut into test specimens. Testing of the specimens was
afterward carried out to determine their physical and
thermal properties.
2.5 Specimen preparation for testing
Testing of specimens was carried out according to JIS
A 5908-2003 (Japanese Industrial Standards, 2003)
for physical properties, i.e., density, moisture content,
thickness swelling. Thermal conductivity of the parti-
cleboards was measured using a thermal conductivity
analyzer NETZSCH Model HFM 436 Lamda accord-
ing to ASTM C 518 (American Society for Testing and
Materials).
121
Table 3. Mixing Ratio (Fiber: Powder:
Water) and Drying temperature.
Mixing Ratio
(Fiber:Powder:Water)
Board and Drying Temperature
1 1:1:1 (80 C)
2 1:1:1.5 (80 C)
3 2:1:1.5 (80 C)
4 2:1:2 (80 C)
5 1:1:1 (90 C)
6 1:1:1.5 (90 C)
7 2:1:1.5 (90 C)
8 2:1:2 (90 C)
9 1:1:1 (100 C)
10 1:1:1.5 (100 C)
11 2:1:1.5 (100 C)
12 2:1:2 (100 C)
Figure 5. Binderless particleboards from durian peel.
3 RESULT AND DISCUSSION
3.1 The physical and thermal properties
The physical and thermal properties of the twelve par-
ticleboards are shown in Table 4. It was found that the
optimum mixing ratio (durian fiber: durian powder:
water) was 2:1:1.5 with drying temperature of 100 C
for 24 hr, of which the particleboards exhibited the best
physical properties but lowest thermal conductivity.
3.2 The electron structure of the binderless durian
particleboard at the optimum ratio of 2:1:1.5
and drying temperature 100 C
3.3 Comparison between UF, PF, and IC-based
particleboard and binderless particleboard
A comparison of density and thermal conductivity of
the particleboards with UF, PF or IC as adhesive and
the binderless particleboards is shown in Table 5. As
seen in Table 5, the densities of the synthetic adhesive-
based particleboards are not different from that of the
Table 4. Physical and Thermal Properties of Particleboards. Table 5. Comparison between durian peel particleboards
using synthetic adhesives and durian peel powder-based
Moisture Thickness Thermal adhesive.
Density Content Swelling Conductivity
Board (g/cm3 ) (%) (%) (W/m K) Thermal
Types of Density Conductivity
1 0.76 19.96 70 0.110 Adhesives (g/cm3 ) (W/m K)
2 0.80 19.68 60 0.137
3 0.80 14.88 60 0.141 Urea
4 0.87 18.87 50 0.137 Formaldyhyde (UF) 0.907 0.1513
5 0.77 12.5 60 0.101 Phenol Formaldyhyde (PF) 0.822 0.1854
6 0.80 17.81 50 0.117 Isocyanate (IC) 0.881 0.1854
7 0.80 10.03 50 0.119 Durian Peel Powder-based 0.809 0.1090
8 0.75 13.36 50 0.088 adhesive (2:1:1.5 drying
9 0.80 8.39 40 0.084 temp at 100 C)
10 0.82 10.75 30 0.100
11 0.82 8.809 30 0.109
12 0.80 10.34 30 0.081
structures than the synthetic adhesive-based boards. In
addition, durian peel fiber and powder have high 1%
NaOH content. Self-bonding of binderless board can
be achieved by chemical activation reaction and phys-
ical consolidation of particles under applied heat and
pressure, in which the bonding takes place by cross-
linking carbohydrate polymers with lignin, resulting
in hydrogen bonding. As covalent bonding in synthetic
adhesive-based boards is stronger than hydrogen bond-
ing in binderless board, the formers strength indicates
that the atoms are difficult to separate. In addition,
the strong bonding is associated with efficient shar-
ing or transfer of electrons between the participating
atoms, giving rise to high thermal conductivity. As
such, the binderless boards is more ideal for energy-
saving buildings due to its low thermal conductivity
than the synthetic adhesive boards.

Figure 6. SEM observation of the binderless durian parti-

cleboard (Magnified 1000 X) (Surface). 4 CONCLUSION

It was found that dried durian peel powder could

replace formaldehyde-based resin as adhesive in
particleboard manufacturing. Compared with those
of the boards with synthetic-based adhesives, i.e.,
UF (0.1513 W/m K), PF (0.1854) and IC (0.1854),
the thermal conductivity of the board with durian
peel powder-based adhesive was significantly lower
(0.1090). The optimum mixing ratio (durian fiber:
durian powder: water) was 2:1:1.5 dried at 100 C for
24 hr. The obtained particleboards possessed the best
physical properties while yielding the lowest thermal
conductivity. Due to their low thermal conductivity
and thereby good energy conservation, the greater
use of the particleboards as a component in the con-
struction panels in the building industry should be
encouraged.
Figure 7. SEM observation of the binderless durian parti-
cleboard (Magnified 1000 X) (Cross Section).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

binderless particleboards. However, the thermal con-
ductivity value of the binderless particleboards is less
than those of the synthetic adhesive-based particle-
boards because the binderless particleboards contain
a greater number of air voids in the supramolecular
The author would like to express sincere appreciation
to the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT)
for the financial support of this research; and deep
gratitude to Dr. Sorapong Pavasupree for his invaluable
and useful suggestions.

122
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Durability of reactive powder concrete under the action of sulfate

dry-wet cycles

Y. Wang, M.Z. An & S. Han

School of Civil Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China

ABSTRACT: Reactive Powder Concrete is suitable for the harsh service environment protective structure due
to its high density and less internal defects. After the sulfate dry-wet cycles, the compressive strength, flexural
strength and mass of Reactive Powder Concrete with different fiber contents of 1.0% and 1.5% are investingated
in complex environment. It is concluded that the compressive strength increases firstly and then decreases after
50 dry-wet cycles, the flexural strength presents decrease-increase-decrease phenomenon in 60 dry-wet cycles,
however, the changing value is very small. The maximum mass loss is 0.08% during the action of dry-wet cycle
60 times. In general, Reactive Powder Concrete presents good performance of resistance to sulfate erosion.

Keywords: Reactive Powder Concrete; Dry-wet cycles; Sulfate; Durability

1 INTRODUCTION 2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

As a new kind of cement-based composite material, 2.1 Materials

Reactive Powder Concrete has high mechanical prop-
erties, good ductility and satisfactory durability. The
research on the durability of Reactive Powder Concrete
is insufficient at present. The researches reported by
Bonneau etc. showed that the mass loss of two kinds of
Reactive Powder Concrete which were mixed by truck
mixer and blender was very low under the action of
freeze-thaw cycle and salt frozen, and it was far lower
than the standard requirement. The electric flux below
10 coulomb [1]; The researches by SONG ShaoMin
etc. showed that Reactive Powder Concrete has good
anti-carbonate, anti-chloride ion penetration, corro-
sion resistance and durability [2]; The study by SHI
HuiSheng etc. showed that the chloride permeability
of Slag Reactive Powder Concrete reduced with the
increase of slag powder content, fiber improved the
permeability performance [34].
But in the current studies [17], the test methods are
conventional durability methods that only considering
single factor, the research for the durability of Reac-
tive Powder Concrete under the coupling effect of the
environmental factors (Such as: sulfate, freeze-thaw
cycles, damage, wet-dry cycles) has not been seen.
In this research, we consider the coupling effect of
sulfate, dry-wet cycles, damage, and other factors. The
compressive strength, flexural strength and mass of
Reactive Powder Concrete under the action of sulfate
dry-wet cycles are investigated, which provides certain
reference for the life-time design of Reactive Powder
Concrete structure.
42.5 ordinary portland cement (28d mortar strength:
55 MPa), silicon fume (SiO2 content: 82%), quartz
sand (Particle size: 0.160.25 mm), super plasticizer
(Water-reducing rate: 29%), steel fiber (Diameter:
0.22 mm, length: 1215 mm) and water are used in
the preparation of Reactive Powder Concrete. The mix
proportions are given in Table 1, steel fiber volume
fractions are 1.0% and 1.5% respectively.
2.2 Methods
R1.0 and R1.5 were formed 100 mm 100 mm
100 mm specimens seven groups and 100 mm
100 mm 400 mm specimens seven groups respec-
tively, which are used for sulfate dry-wet cycles tests.
In order to carry out the sulfate dry-wet cycles test
of damaged specimen, artificial preload was used
to simulate the damage, the mixing proportion of
damaged specimens was same with R1.5, which is
40 mm 40 mm 160 mm, eight specimens of each
group. Damage is defined as the degradation process
of the material or structure caused by the develop-
ment of microscopic defects under the action of load
and environment [8]. To improve the precision of the
damage simulation and reduce the discreteness, com-
pression test was used on five of the eight specimens
along the length direction, then five destructive load
values are measured, the average of these five results
is the ultimate load value. Preload the rest of the three

125
Table 1. Mixing proportion of Reactive Powder Concrete Table 3. The results of compressive and flexural strength.
(kg/m3 ).
Compressive Flexural
Mixture Silica Quartz Steel Dry-wet strength (MPa) strength (MPa)
code Cement fume sand fiber Plasticize Water cycles
(times) R1.0 R1.5 R1.0 R1.5 D1.5
R1.0 706 160 1329 80 74 122
R1.5 706 160 1289 120 74 122 0 114.72 116.46 18.97 20.51 23.56
10 116.67 118.22 15.28 16.76 25.56
20 117.38 121.70 15.17 22.97 25.09
30 116.25 119.64 19.43 23.35 24.39
40 112.44 118.82 22.04 23.51 24.18
Table 2. The results of mass loss (%). 50 107.40 115.52 19.09 20.28
60 16.26 18.52
Dry-wet R1.0 R1.5
cycles D1.5
(times) Cube Prism Cube Prism Prism

0 3.2 Results analysis

10 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
20 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00
3.2.1 The analysis of mass loss results
30 0.00 0.08 0.00 0.00 0.00 Through a general analysis of Table 3, it is seen that
40 0.00 0.08 0.00 0.00 0.00 R1.0 and R1.5 Reactive Powder Concrete which steel
50 0.00 0.05 0.00 0.00 fiber mixing content is 1.0% and 1.5%, for R1.5 cube
60 0.00 0.02 0.00 0.00 and prism specimens after 060 dry-wet cycles, their
mass loss are 0.00%. The mass loss of R1.0 cube speci-
mens is 0.00%, but the mass of prism specimens begins
to decline after 10 dry-wet cycles. The mass loss after
dry-wet cycle 20 times, 30 times, 40 times is 0.01%,
specimens with 80% of the ultimate load to simulate 0.08% and 0.08% respectively, the mass loss reduces
damage, get the damaged specimens which mixture to 0.05% after 50 dry-wet cycles, and the value after
code is D1.5. 60 cycles is only 0.02%. The change rule is that rise
The sulfate dry-wet cycle period is 24 hours: The first and then drop. The mass loss of D1.5 specimens
specimens are soaked in 5% sodium solution for after dry-wet cycle 040 times is 0.00%.
12 0.5 h, natural drying for 12 0.5 h. The mass is For R1.0 specimens, prism specimens surface-to-
measured after each cycle using mass loss test. The volume ratio is 45 (1/m), cube specimens surface-to-
compressive strength and flexural strength are deter- volume ratio is 60 (1/m), because the cube specimens
mined when the dry-wet is cycle 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, surface-to-volume ratio is greater than prism speci-
50 and 60 times respectively. Strength test is done mens, its surface crystallization is greater than prism,
according to GB/T50081 requirements, the corrosion thus its mass loss is less than prism, and they are all
resistance coefficient of compressive strength and 0.00%.
flexural strength is calculated according to GB/50082. The mass loss of R1.0 prism specimens after dry-
wet cycle 10 times is 0.00%, mainly because the sur-
face crystal and mass loss was in a balance. The mass
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS loss is 0.01% after dry-wet cycles 20 times. The sulfate
has begun to crystallize when dry-wet cycle is 10 to
3.1 Results 20 times. The crystal substance filled the pore in the
surface of Reactive Powder Concrete, but the mass of
3.1.1 The results of mass loss crystal substance was less than the loss of the speci-
The results of mass loss of R1.0 and R1.5 under sulfate mens mass. So the mass loss increases to 0.08% when
dry-wet cycle 0 time, 10 times, 20 times, 30 times, dry-wet cycle is 30 times, this may be because of the
40 times, 50 times, 60 times and the results of mass continuous accumulation of crystal substance, crys-
loss of D1.5 under sulfate dry-wet cycle 0 time, 10 tallization pressure increased, and the internal pore
times, 20 times, 30 times, 40 times are given in Table of Reactive Powder Concrete was rarely, crystalliza-
2. tion pressure began to have an effect on it. The result
was that it produced certain damage in the surface
3.1.2 The results of compressive strength and of Reactive Powder Concrete, its mass reduced, and
flexural strength compressive strength decreased.
The results of compressive and flexural strength of The mass loss still maintains at 0.08% when dry-
R1.0 and R1.5 after sulfate dry-wet cycle 0 time, 10 wet cycles reach 40 times, it may be because the mass
times, 20 times, 30 times, 40 times, 50 times, 60 times reduced due to the damage and the mass increased due
and the results of flexural strength of D1.5 after sulfate to the crystal substance were keeping in a balance.
dry-wet cycle 0 time, 10 times, 20 times, 30 times, With the increase of the dry-wet cycles, the internal
40 times are given in Table 3. pore of Reactive Powder Concrete increased, a great

126

Figure 1. The compressive strength of the specimens.
amount of crystal substance was accumulated, and the
mass reduced due to the damage was less than the
mass increased due to crystal substance, mass loss is
reduced, 60 times reduces to 0.02%.
3.2.2 The analysis of compression strength results
The compressive strength of the R1.0 and R1.5 speci-
mens according to the dry-wet cycle times are shown
in Figure 1, compressive strength corrosion resistance
coefficient results are shown in Table 4.
Through an overall investigation of Figure 1, it is
seen that with the increase of dry-wet cycle times, the
compressive strength of R1.0 and R1.5 specimens first
increases, then decreases. The compressive strength of
R1.0 specimens increases from dry-wet cycle 0 time
to 20 times, the value is 114.72 MPa at 0 time and
increases to 117.38 MPa at 20 times. After 20 dry-
wet cycles the compressive strength began to drop, the
value at 30 times, 40 times, 50 times are 116.25 MPa,
112.44 MPa, 107.40 MPa, respectively. The compres-
sion strength of R1.5 specimens also increases from
0 to 20 dry-wet cycles, the value is 116.46 MPa at
0 time, and increase to 121.70 MPa at 20 times. The
compressive strength begins to drop, after 20 times, 30
times, 40 times, 50 times, the values are 119.64 MPa,
118.82 MPa, and 115.52 MPa, respectively.
This may be mainly because the sulfate began to
crystallize at the early stage of dry-wet cycles, and the
crystal substance filled the pore in the surface layer of
Reactive Powder Concrete which made the concrete
much denser. As a result, the compressive strength
began to increase. With the increase of dry-wet cycle
times, crystal substance was accumulated. However,
the pore in Reactive Powder Concrete was rare, and
then crystallization pressure acted on the pore wall,
which made the Reactive Powder Concrete damaged
and the compressive strength reduced.
Through the analysis of the compressive strength
corrosion resistance coefficient, it is seen that the
values of compressive strength changes little. The
compressive strength corrosion resistance coefficients
of R1.0 and R1.5 are 93.64% and 99.14% after 50 dry-
wet cycles. The test results by LiFuHai etc. showed that
the compressive strength corrosion resistance coeffi-
cient of C30 concrete was 64% after 50 dry-wet cycles
127
Table 4. Corrosion resistance coefficient of compressive
strength (%).
Dry-wet
cycle times 10 20 30 40 50
R1.0 101.74 102.35 101.39 97.99 93.64
R1.5 101.46 104.46 102.66 101.97 99.14
Figure 2. The flexural strength of the specimens.
[9]. The Reactive Powder Concrete has good sulfate
corrosion resistance. The compressive strength of R1.5
specimens decreases by 0.86%, and R1.0 specimens
decreases by 6.36%.
It is concluded that the durability of Reactive Pow-
der Concrete with 1.5% steel fiber mixing content is
obviously better than the Reactive Powder Concrete
with 1.0% steel fiber mixing content. The steel fiber
number in unit volume is more for Reactive Powder
Concrete which steel fiber mixing content is 1.5%,
the restriction effect produced by steel fiber is more
apparent, its durability is higher.
3.2.3 The analysis of flexural strength results
The flexural strength of R1.0 and R1.5 specimens with
the increase of dry-wet cycle times are shown in Fig-
ure 2, flexural strength corrosion resistance coefficient
results are given in Table 5. And the flexural strength
of D1.5 specimens with the increase of dry-wet cycle
times is also given in Figure 3.
According to the Figure 2, flexural strength of
R1.0 and R1.5 specimens presents reduce-increase-
reduce phenomenon along with the dry-wet cycles. For
R1.0 specimens flexural strength gradually reduces to
15.17 MPa from 0 time to 20 times, then gradually
increases to 22.04 MPa from 20 times to 40 times,
and reduces gradually to 16.26 MPa from 40 times
to 60 times. The flexural strength of R1.5 specimens
from 20.51 MPa at 0 time decreases to 16.76 MPa at
10 times, then increases gradually from 10 times to
40 times, 40 times reaches 23.51 MPa, 40 times to
60 times gradually reduces to 18.52 MPa. But flexural
Table 5. Corrosion resistance coefficient of flexural
strength (%).
Dry-wet
cycle
times 10 20 30 40 50 60
R1.0 80.52 79.93 102.39 116.17 100.64 85.71
R1.5 81.71 111.98 113.87 114.63 98.90 90.29
D1.5 108.94 106.85 105.50 97.65
Figure 3. The flexural strength variation of D1.5.
strength of the D1.5 specimens presents increase-
reduce phenomenon in the process of dry-wet cycles.
23.56 MPa at 0 time, increases to 25.56 MPa at 10
times, reduces to 24.18 MPa from 10 times to 40 times.
For R1.0 or R1.5 the flexural strength change rule has
an obvious difference with D1.5.
The reason is that in the early stage of dry-
wet cycles, there was crystal substance produced
in the surface layer of Reactive Powder Concrete,
while the crystallization pressure was not enough to
make the Reactive Powder Concrete cracked, but it
truly influenced the adhesion between steel fiber and
matrix, matrix and aggregate. For Reactive Powder
Concrete the adhesion between steel fiber and matrix
has an obvious influence on the flexural strength, so
the flexural strength decreased. The crystal substance
increased with the continuation of dry-wet cycles, and
the interaction between the matrix and crystal sub-
stance has formed, the crystallization pressure still
was not enough to make the Reactive Powder Concrete
cracked, so the flexural strength increased. While crys-
tal substance increase continuously, it produced great
pressure on Reactive Powder Concrete, even made
the concrete cracked, the flexural strength of Reactive
Powder Concrete decreased.
For the initial damaged Reactive Powder Concrete,
it may have micro cracks due to the load applied before
dry-wet cycles. The influence of crystal substance to
the interface was relatively small. And it would not
affect the flexural strength at the early stages. With the
accumulation of crystal substance, crystal substance
128
filled the pore and the crack, the flexural strength
increased. The crystallization pressure increased with
the continue accumulating of crystal substance, and
the crack develops, the flexural strength decreased.
Through a general analysis of Table 5, it can be seen
that dry-wet cycles have a great influence on the flexu-
ral strength of Reactive Powder Concrete. The flexural
strength of R1.0 and R1.5 specimens decreases at 10
dry-wet cycles, and it achieves the maximum flexu-
ral strength at 40 cycles, which increases by 16.17%
and 14.63% respectively. The flexural strength of D1.5
specimens began to decrease at 40 dry-wet cycles, but
the change is not big, reduces by 2.35%. The flexural
strength of R1.5 specimens reduces by 9.71% after the
action of 60 dry-wet cycles, but the flexural strength of
R1.0 specimens reduces by 14.29%. The sulfate ero-
sion resistance of Reactive Powder Concrete with steel
fiber mixing content 1.5% is better than that of steel
fiber mixing content is 1.0%.
4 CONCLUSIONS
(1) The mass loss of Reactive Powder Concrete which
steel fiber mixing is 1.0% and 1.5% is close to
0.00%, and its maximum is 0.08% after 60 sulfate
dry-wet cycles.
(2) The compressive strength of Reactive Powder
Concrete first increases then decreases under the
action of 50 sulfate dry-wet cycles, but the change
is small, the compressive strength corrosion resis-
tance coefficients are close to 100%. Reactive
Powder Concrete has a remarkable performance
for sulfate corrosion resistance.
(3) The flexural strength of Reactive Powder
Concrete presents reduce-increase-reduce phe-
nomenon under the action of 60 sulfate dry-wet
cycles, they all reaches the maximum at 40 times,
increases by 16.17% and 14.63% respectively, and
the change is larger. However, the flexural strength
of damaged Reactive Powder Concrete increases
first then decreases under the action of sulfate
dry-wet cycles, it presents an obvious difference.
The impact of sulfate solution to Reactive Powder
Concrete flexural strength should not be ignored.
(4) The Reactive Powder Concrete which steel fiber
mixing content is 1.5% is better than that the steel
fiber mixing content is 1.0% in sulfate erosion
resistance performance.
REFERENCES
[1] Bonneau Olivier, Lachemi Mohamed, Dallaire Eric,
Dugat Jerome, Aitcin Pierre Claude. Mechanical
properties and durability of two industrial reactive
powder concretes. ACI Materials Journal, 1997, 94
(4): 286290.
[2] SONG Shao-min, WEI Cui-xia. Durability of the
Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC). Concrete, 2006
(2): 7273
[3] SHI Huisheng, SHI Tao, etc. Research of Chloride
Ion Diffusivity in Reactive Powder Concrete with
Blast-Furnace Slag. Journal of Tongji University
(Natural Science), 2006 (1): 9396.
[4] SHI Tao.Study on the Reactive Powder Concrete
with Blast-Furnace Slag and Its High Durabilities.
Zhejiang: ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY, 2004.
[5] YE Qing, ZHU Jingsong, etc. Investigation on dura-
bility of reactive powder concrete. New Building
Materials, 2006 (6): 3336.
[6] Shaheen Ehab, Shrive Nigel G. Optimization of
mechanical properties and durability of reactive
powder concrete. ACI Materials Journal, 2006, 103
(6): 444451.
129
[7] LI Li, HUANG Lidong. Study on the durability
of reactive powder concrete with steel fiber. China
Concrete and Cement Products, 2005 (3): 4243.
[8] Xiao Jianqing, Xu gen, Jiang fuliang. Classifications
on Damage Models for Concrete. Mining Research
and Development, 2007, 27 (1): 8284.
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

The new conception of rare earth compounds used as asphalt modifier

Haixiao, Rui Fu, Ruisheng Hu, Shumin Zhang & Minchao Zhang
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China

ABSTRACT: In the view of the destructions of present asphalt pavement, government authorities and paving
contractors seek to improve road life in the face of increased traffic. Herein, we simply analysis the existing
modifiers and sum up their advantages and disadvantages, based on this, we propose new conceptions of modified
asphalt of rare earth compounds and fly ash. In addition, we also compare them with other modifiers at the end
of this article.

Keywords: asphalt; modifier; rare earth compound; fly ash

1 INTRODUCTION 2 THE EXISTING MODIFIERS

Bitumen is a natural derivative of distillation of crude 2.1 Synthetic polymerstyrenebutadienestyrene

oil, which is particularly suitable as a binder for road block (SBS)
construction. Now asphalt has been widely used as
SBS copolymer is one of the most widely used poly-
pavements building (Gonzlez et al. 2004). Unfortu-
mers in the preparation of modified asphalts (Chunfa
nately, high-temperature rutting and low temperature
2005). Studies show (Airey 2003, Haiying 2007) that
cracking of asphalt cement or coating layer, due
the physical and rheological properties of asphalt are
to severe temperature susceptibility, limit its further
improved by means of SBS copolymer modification
application (Feng et al. 2011). In addition, the increase
and SBS can contribute to asphalt strength and elastic
in traffic loading and the number of vehicles together
properties in a wide range of temperature by blend-
with the adverse environmental conditions conduce
ing SBS with asphalt. But several issues of polymer
to a rapid structural damage of pavements (Larsen
modifiers, such as high cost and finite asphalt perfor-
et al. 2009). To deal with these situations, a modi-
mance improvement, have limited the production and
fied bitumen should be used in paving applications.
application of these kinds of modifiers (Changqing
Hence, different blends of bitumen with a large vari-
2009).
ety of materials have been studied. Among them,
Unfortunately, SBS is destined to separate from the
synthetic polymers seem to be the ones that have
asphalt when stored at high temperature and the high
worked outstandingly, due to the fact that polymer
economic cost of its limit the applications in the road
addition may result in both a more flexible bituminous
building.
binder at low in-service temperature and enhanced
properties, which significantly prevent the pavement
from being deformed at in-service high temperature
2.2 Waste plasticsethylene vinyl acetate (EVA)
(Garca-Morales et al. 2006). In spite of the small pro-
portion of synthetic polymer added to the binder, the Presently, packaging materials have brought seri-
high cost of those materials may cut down the use of ous environmental problems when making significant
modified bitumen in the road building and synthetic contributions to economic development. Plastics are
polymers are tend to separate from the asphalt when the main packaging materials and the white pollutions
stored at high temperature, which is the major obsta- (Changqing et al. 2012). Now, it is widely using the
cle to the application of synthetic polymer-modified ethylene (vinyl acetate) copolymer (EVA) as the modi-
asphalts for paving. But the rare earth compounds have fier to improve the properties of asphalt. Studies show
a good compatibility with polymers and have strong that EVA can improve the performance of asphalt road
absorption features, so do fly ash. For that reason, we (Airey 2002). But EVA shows a lower susceptibility
proposed the concept to use rare earth compounds and to temperature, have a tendency to separate from the
fly ash as asphalt modifiers. asphalt when stored at high temperature, which is the

131
major obstacle to the application of EVA-modified
asphalts in paving.
2.3 Montmorillonite (MMT)
Recently, nanomaterials have emerged to be promising
candidates for modifier due to their magical surface,
volume, quantum size and macroscopic quantum tun-
neling effects (Changqing et al. 2012). It has been well
recognized that montmorillonite (MMT), which has a
fairly large aspect ratio, intriguing multiscale struc-
ture and low cost, could be used to improve properties
of asphalt (Baochang et al. 2009). Presently, studies
have shown that Nano montmorillonite is an effective
method to improve the performances of asphalt. The
prominent features of MMT modified asphalt concrete
are significant for prolonging the service life of asphalt
pavement (Xinde 2011, Zhanping & Justin 2011). But
so far, this technology is still immature.
3 ON THE NEW CONCEPTION OF MODIFIED
ASPHALT
3.1 Rare earth compounds used as asphalt modifier
Most asphalt molecules, primarily is consisting of
carbon and hydrogen, also contain one or more of
the elements sulfur, nitrogen and/or oxygen. Within
asphalt, heteroatoms typically replace carbon atoms in
the asphalt molecule; the interaction of heteroatoms
and the hydrocarbons leads to the unique chemical
and physical properties of various asphalt mixtures.
Asphalt molecules are classified in two major frac-
tions based on solubility. These fractions are the
asphaltenes and maltenes. Both the asphaltenes and
maltenes constitute the non-volatile high-molecular-
weight fractions of petroleum. But the maltenes
constitute the fraction of asphalt which is soluble in
n-alkane solvents such as pentane and heptane. The
three basic types of molecules in asphalt are aliphatic,
cyclic, and aromatic.
Rare earth elements can react with carbon, hydro-
gen, nitrogen, sulfur, oxygen and other elements in
the asphalt and combine to form a high melting point
compounds, also so far, rare earth compound as an
asphalt modifier to improve the performance of asphalt
pavement are rarely reported in the literature and the
related studies are few. At the same time, by compar-
isons with those above mentioned modifiers, we find
that the rare earth compounds owning lower price and
high economic benefits. So we propose the concep-
tion to use rare earth compounds as asphalt modifier.
That is by using chemical method of preparing rare
earth compound as modifier, blending it into road
asphalt, and testing the performance of base asphalt
and modified asphalt. We think blending rare earth
into asphalt can improve the thermal stability of the
asphalt. The proposed experimental ideas of prepara-
tion of Modifiers and test of modified asphalt (Xiao
2010, Fu 2010):
132
Preparation and characterization of nano rare earth
compounds (CeO2 ).
Preparation of modified asphalts with different
blending ratios of nano rare earth compounds.
Measurement and comparison of modified bitu-
men and asphalt pavement performance.
Determination of the optimum mix proportion of
nano rare earth compounds in modifiers.
Through a number of characterization methods to
determine the mechanism of nano rare earth com-
pounds in modifiers for pavement, such as XRD, SEM
and Uv-DRS and so on.
The nano rare earth compounds modifiers have
following advantages through comparison with
modifiers mentioned above:
Firstly, the atomic radius of the rare earth elements
is larger than the atomic radius of the asphalt, it is
easy to fill in the asphalt grain and defects, and gener-
ate a membrane that can hinder the grains continue to
grow, so that the asphalt grain refinement to improve
the performance of asphalt (Airey 2002). Secondly, the
rare earth elements can absorb ultraviolet and infrared
radiation, adding rare earth compounds in asphalt can
greatly slow down the aging life of the asphalt pave-
ment (Airey 2002). Thirdly, the asphalt modified by
nano rare earth compounds modifier has particularly
good compatibility through mechanical mixing with
physical diffusion and chemical diffusion occuring
simultaneously, as a result, it can formed symmetri-
cal mixed system in the base asphalt. Fourthly, rare
earth modifier has strong absorption features. Mixed
with modifier, asphalt can be easily adsorbed on the
surface of the modifier particles, thus forming a bind-
ing material with high viscosity and strong adsorption,
which combined bonded aggregate lead to forming a
high-strength asphalt pavement.
Above all, rare earth compounds modified asphalt
used in asphalt pavement not only enhance the adhe-
sion of mixture, the water stability, thermal stability,
wear resistance and slip resistance of road surface, also
prevent the plastic flow of asphalt, reduce or eliminate
these destructions caused by road weeping, squeezing,
rutting and so on.
To sum up the above arguments, application of rare
earth modified asphalt in highways will has broad
market prospects.
3.2 Fly ash used as asphalt modifier
Fly ash (FA) is a by-product generated during com-
bustion of coal and has caused serious environmental
concerns (White & Golden 2010). Thermal power
plants are the main sources for fly ash in China and
it have already reached about 30 percent in the total
coal-fired. FA produced in 2010 about 700 million
tons, 2020 Chinas annual emissions for the fly ash and
the current total amount of already accumulated will
reach more than 30 tons, so rational utilization of fly
ash, to reduce the environmental and socio-economic
burden has become a pressing problem (Ruisheng
et al. 2012).
 Usually, fly ash (FA) is utilized as a filler, for
example used as a silica replacement for reclaimed
rubber powder composite (Ramamurthy et al. 2009).
Recently, as far as the moisture damage of asphalt
pavements, scientists have studied out (Jun et al. 2012)
a filler which combined with coupling agent and fly
ash, and it was named compound fly ash modifier
(CFAM), to solve the moisture damage of asphalt pave-
ments and fly ash is a kind of valorization of waste.
So we propose the conception to use fly ash as asphalt
modifier to enhance the adhesion of mixture, the water
stability, thermal stability, wear resistance and slip
resistance of road surface.
The proposed experimental ideas of preparation of
modifiers and test of modified asphalt same as the rare
earth compounds modifier.
The fly ash modifier has the following advantages
through comparison with modifiers mentioned above:
Firstly, fly ash has a good compatibility with poly-
mers, so when blending it with asphalt, it can form
symmetrical mixed system in the base asphalt. Sec-
ondly, fly ash has strong ability of selective absorption
(Baoping et al. 2012), high strength (Palomo et al.
1999), and good thermal stability (Usta 2011). Thirdly,
preparation of modified asphalt of fly ash is a new
approach of comprehensive utilization with uncom-
plicated process, while the cost of economic is also
rational. Fourthly, application of fly ash can not only
solve its accumulation problem also can protect the
environment. Fifthly, utilization of fly ash is a mature
technology.
To sum up the above arguments, application of
fly ash modified asphalt in highways will has broad
market prospects.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by 211 Engineering Inno-
vation Talents Training Project of Inner Mongolia
University.
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

The application technology of warm mix of ultra-thin cover face

in urban road maintenance

Yuanyuan Li, Xiaoyan Song, Jianyong Sun & Yapeng Zhang

Tianjin Municipal & Highway Engineering Research Institute, Tianjin, China

Yanchun Li
Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin, China

ABSTRACT: Described the comprehensive advantages combination of the Warm mix of ultra-thin cover faces
characteristics; makes the mix design of the Warm mix of ultra-thin cover face, and compared to verify the high
temperature performance, low temperature performance and water stability with the Hot mix of ultra-thin cover
face; finally, based on the test road project, summed up the mix of ultra-thin cover faces construction technology,
and confirmed by testing that its skid resistance and water permeability is well. Warm mix of ultra-thin cover
face adapted to the new era of urban road construction and maintenance needs, should be promoted.

1 INTRODUCTION of the environment, and reduce the health hazard of

Ultra-thin cover face of which used for pavement
preventive maintenance or mild, moderate disease of
surface treatment, can realize the recovery of the anti-
sliding pavement performance, improve quality, cor-
rection driving surface defects, increase safety features
(including improve sliding and drainage), reducing
noise and increase the intensity of the roadfunction[1] .
Warm mix asphalt technology is a technology that
between hot mix asphalt mixture and cold mix asphalt
mixture technology. In the same composition design
conditions, by adding warm mix agent,realize mixing
temperature lower about 30 C, and asphalt mixture
quality (using performance) dont fall[23] .
Warm mix of ultra-thin cover face technology is an
organic combination of the warm mix asphalt technol-
ogy and Ultra-thin cover face technolog, it is a new
pavement maintenance technology up development
in last two years. Application warm mix of ultra-
thin cover face technology can effectively improve
the way-use performance and surface function of city
road, meet the new period urban road construction and
maintenance needs.
2 COMPREHENSIVE ADVANTAGES OF
WARM MIX OF ULTRA-THIN COVER
FACE TECHNOLOGY
Warm mix of ultra-thin cover face can play two techni-
cal superiority in a body, form a kind of comprehensive
technology advantagelow carbon emissions, energy
saving, environmental protection, economic, easy to
realize. Specific lie in the following aspects:
(1) Reduce the emissions of CO2 , SO2 , asphalt smoke,
harmful gas, dust emissions, reduce the pollution
urban road surrounding residents and staff body[4] ;
(2) Because of the mixing lower temperature, stone
and bitumen heating temperature reduced, which
used to heat the fuel costs can drop about
20%50%, and the mechanical consumption is
also the corresponding drop.
(3) Using warm mix of ultra-thin cover face the advan-
tage of thin,can make up for warm mix asphalt
mixture due to add heating mix agent at the same
time introducing partial moisture content is not
easy to notch and affect performance defect;
(4) Solve traditional asphalt road surface easy cooling,
go against compaction, thin asphalt road surface
structure function cover fully guarantee;
(5) Warm mix of ultra-thin cover faces temperature is
lower rolling after completing, can quickly open
the traffic (will be able to resume traffic about 20
minutes after the paving), reduce the construction
work of urban traffic interference;
(6) Warm mix of ultra-thin cover face of technology
with low heat emissions, can reduce the quantity
of heat of the whole citys total emissions, alle-
viate the increasingly serious urban heat island
effect, be helpful for maintaining the city thermal
environment of the healthy balanced.
3 MIXTURE RATIO DESIGN OF WARM MIX
OF ULTRA-THIN COVER FACE
Based on the surface active agent,the mixture ratio
design of warm mix of ultra-thin cover face do not
need to independently initiate a new set of mix design
system, warm mix of ultra-thin cover face with the
mixing hot mix of ultra-thin cover face the same
asphalt mixture ratio design method.

135
Table 1. UTA-10 gradation each screen hole passing (%).

Sieve holes (mm) 13.2 9.5 6.7 4.75 2.36 1.18 0.6 0.3 0.15 0.075

Gradation cap 100 100 50 40 36 30 25 20 12 8

Gradation median 100 90 40 30 27 22 17.5 13.5 9 6
Gradation floor 100 80 30 20 18 14 10 7 6 4

Table 2. UTA-10 Marshall test results of asphalt mixture.

Oil stone ratio Gross volume VV VMA VFA Stability Flow value
Serial number (%) relative density (%) (%) (%) (kN) (0.1 mm)

1 4.5 2.429 7.3 17.5 58.1 9.6 35.6

2 5.0 2.450 5.8 17.2 66.1 10.4 37.4
3 5.5 2.473 4.3 16.8 74.6 11.2 38.2
4 6.0 2.481 3.2 16.9 80.9 10.9 41.6
5 6.5 2.494 2.0 16.8 88.1 10.7 48.2

3.1 The materials and technology raw material

nature
The selection of raw materials is one of the key
links to influence the performance of asphalt mix-
ture. Through the strict screening for raw materials
and comprehensive detection, the final determination
of basic raw materials are PG76-22 the SBS mod-
ified asphalt, 510 mm basalt coarse aggregate in
zhangjiakou, 03 mm basalt fine set in zhangjiakou
and tianjin jixians limestone ore powder, and inspec-
tion results show that the above materials conform to
the standard requirements.
Warm mix additives is active surface agent.

3.2 Mixture gradation design

Warm mix of ultra-thin asphalt concrete mixture as
surface layer, demand to has a good performance
against sliding, coarse aggregate gradation is broken
open type on the one hand has the gradation struc-
ture, so good prevent slippery minimization of noise
performance; In addition, its composition structure is
close-grained structure, so it is also a good waterproof
properties. Combining with the function and structure
thickness characteristic, this study chooses UTA-10
aggregate gradation. In order to ensure the accuracy
of the test results, mineral mixture gradation design
Figure 1. Marshall test parameters with oil-stone ratio
all take the water of the single particle size after dry- variation curve.
ing aggregate. The aggregate gradation composition is
shown in table 1. mixture mixing process of asphalt spray 35 seconds
delay, then began to gush into the mix agent, warm
mix agent of time control in spray 810 seconds or
3.3 The optimum proportion determined
less, and must ensure that the asphalt spraying com-
By Marshall design method, ascertain the optimum pleted before the end of the warm mix agent spraying,
proportion of warm mix of ultra-thin cover faces including warm mix agent: asphalt content in 5%:
asphalt. The specimen processing conditions: double 95%15%: 85% of scope.
compaction 75 times; the asphalt mixture mixing tem- UTA-10 asphalt mixture test results were see table 2.
perature is 130140 C, the compaction temperature is Marshall test parameters with the change of the Oil
120130 C; And as the conventional heat mix asphalt stone ratio is shown in figure 1.

136
Table 3. UTA-10 type of asphalt mixture performance verifying test results.
Remnants stability Freeze-thaw splitting
Mixture types (%) strength ratio (%)
WMA UTA-10 99.9 87.2
HMA UTA-10 98.5 85.4
Research using 4.5% as UTA-10 ultra-thin asphalt
mixture Objective void. From the figure 1 can see,
in the asphalt content range, density does not appear
peak, therefore, the target porosity 4.5% correspond-
ing asphalt-aggregate ratio 5.4% as OAC1 , and all the
indexes meet the technical standard pitch range from
5.2% to 5.9%, therefore, OAC2 = (5.2% + 5.9%)/2 =
5.55%, comprehensive consideration of the OAC1 and
OAC2 , choose 5.5% as UTA-10 of the the optimum
proportion of asphalt mixture.
4 COMPARISON TEST AND VERIFY OF
WARM MIX OF ULTRA-THIN COVER
FACES PERFORMANCE
In order to validate the rationality of warm mix ultra-
thin cover faces mixing ratio design, research the
high temperature stability, the low temperature crack
resistance and water stability properties under the opti-
mum of the gradation and the optimum proportion of
asphalt[5] . At the same time, comparative validate the
performance with the hot mix ultra-thin cover faces
under the same gradation and asphalt proportion.
Research use low-temperature bending test, rutting
test, retain Marshall test remnants stability experi-
ment and freeze-thaw splitting test to evaluate the
performance. Performance test data is shown in
table 3.
Performance test results showed that: (1) warm
mix ultra-thin cover faces high and low temperature
performance and water stable performance index is
good, meet with the warm ultra-thin cover way-use
performance requirements. (2) warm mix ultra-thin
cover faces high temperature performance is superior
than hot mix asphalt mixture,and other performances
are equal.
5 PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF WARM MIX
OF ULTRA-THIN COVER FACE
In order to verify with the reality application effect
of the warm ultra-thin cover, combined with the tian-
jin urban road maintenance plan, take a city road of
tianjin as the test road for a warm mix ultra-thin cover
face maintenance, through the construction and testing
for observation, detection, determined the warm mix
ultra-thin cover face special construction technology,
and make the test evaluation to its effect.
137
Dynamic stability Rut depth Flexural strain
(times/mm) (mm) ()
3927 1.759 1579
1530 1.893 895.6
5.1 Construction craft
Based on the Highway asphalt pavement construc-
tion technology standard (JTG F50-2004) and the
technique characteristics, through the experimental
sections summarizes in construction, its basic con-
struction procedure is as follows:
(1) Located in paving the road for related to before
index detection, milling planer later, with cutting
machine to pit slot outside edge nap, avoid the
crop.
(2) Production warm asphalt mixture, control with
agent in asphalt content of 5%15% and control of
spray agent time in 810 seconds or less, and must
ensure that the asphalt spraying completed before
the end of the agent spraying, asphalt mixtures
mixing temperature between 130140 C.
(3) Clean the original road surface, spray sticky layer,
then pave the warm mix ultra-thin asphalt concrete.
(4) Paving with non-contact balance beam control
mode. Paver screed must joining together closely,
forbid to entities aperture, prevent the grain of
material pull out stripe pavement. Paving speed
for 3 to 4 m/min.
(5) The initial rolling temperature control is 120
130 C, the second rolling temperature control is
90110 C, eventually rolling temperature control
is 6090 C, complete rolling temperature control
is 5060 C.
(6) The compaction paver exits, the road temperature
dropped to below 50 C, painting line, the road
without overloading of the car in case, can open
up the traffic.
5.2 Application effect
After construction warm mix of the of ultra-thin cover
face, direct visual observation of the results: roller
compaction line is in the same basic elevation with the
original road, the surface is close-grained, no shine,
scratches and wheel track phenomenon; The longi-
tudinal and transverse crack cohesion smooth, color
uniform appearance; And other installations cohesion
smooth, no pollution; rough surface, no threshing, no
take off the piece of phenomenon.
In addition, choose a stage 20 observation point
to detect the slide resistant properties and permeable
performance in the different timeconstruction just
completed finished and open the traffic in 30 days[68] ,
the test results shown in table 4 and figure 2.
Table 4. Warm mix of ultra-thin cover face detection data. (2) Production temperature of the warm mix of ultra-
thin cover face must be strictly controlled: mixing
Tectonic Set Permeability temperature is 130140 C, the second rolling
Project depth value coefficient temperature is 90110 C, eventually rolling tem-
detection (mm) (BPN) (ml/min)
perature is 6090 C, complete rolling tempera-
ture is 5060 C.
Before construction 0.58 45 46
Construction just 1.19 50 24 (3) After paving the warm mix of ultra-thin cover face,
completed the slide resistant properties and permeable perfor-
Open the traffic in 30 days 1.08 49 22 mance are improved, and attenuation lesser after
open the traffic in 30 days
(4) The warm mix of ultra-thin cover face can play
two technical superiority in an organic whole,
have low carbon emissions, energy saving, envi-
ronmental protection, economic, easy to realize
comprehensive technical advantage.
(5) The warm mix of ultra-thin cover face has signif-
icant social and economic benefits, adapted to the
new time city road construction and maintenance
needs.

Figure 2. Warm mix of ultra-thin cover face detection data REFERENCES

comparison schemes.
From the table 4 and figure 2 test data contrast
can see, before paving warm mix of ultra-thin cover
face, the tectonic depth, set value are improved, per-
meability coefficient is reduced, prove that the slide
resistant properties and permeable performance are
improved; Open the traffic in 30 days that performance
has slightly lower, but lower range is not too much,
were 9.2%, 2.0% and 8.3%, prove that the warm of
ultra-thin cover with good durability trend.
With the improvement of slide resistant properties,
improve the quality of driving, improve the driving
safety; In addition the improvement of the perfor-
mance of the permeable performance, can effectively
prevent or reduce water infiltration into pavement
structure layer, thus protecting pavement structure,
reduce the road early water damage, prolong service
life.
6 CONCLUSION
(1) Based on the surface active agent,the warm mix
of ultra-thin cover faces high temperature perfor-
mance is superior than hot mix asphalt mixture,
and the low temperature performance and water
stability are equal.
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138
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Studies of construction quality based on distributed fiber optic monitoring

of mass concrete

Feng Jin
State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
College of Hydraulic & Environmental Engineering, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, China

ABSTRACT: Temperature control of concrete in heavy construction is one of the key factors to determine
construction quality and progress. Using the construction of a large hydropower project in summer hot weather
as a case study, this research focused on the real-time online monitoring and feedback analysis of concrete
conservation status and new and old concrete interfaces temperature changes using distributed optical fibers.
During the concrete pouring process, drastic temperature changes can lead to the shrinkage of concrete and cause
tensile stress at concentrated areas between new and old concrete interface, resulting in project quality risks.
Monitoring data and analyzing results provide a basis for optimizing the construction design.

Keywords: Distributed fiber optic monitoring; Construction quality; Mass concrete

1 INTRODUCTION temperature measurement technology. Authors of this

Currently, when construction firms carry out heavy
construction projects during the summer hot weather,
the common concern is pouring temperature control
and maintenance. Few studies have been done to eval-
uate the early impact of pouring low-temperature fresh
concrete onto the underlying and the surrounding older
concrete. Risk assessment has been lacking regarding
the formation of local cracks triggered by the concen-
tration of local tensile stress which in turn was caused
by drastic temperature difference between new and old
concrete. In fact, measures to lower the pouring tem-
perature mainly through controlling the temperature
rise from heat of hydration can lead to cold shock to
the older concrete. The reality is, when the tempera-
ture difference reaches 1220 C, the resulting tensile
stress is sufficient to cause fully constrained concrete
to break apart[1] . Current technique for pouring sur-
face conservation is to use rotating sprinkler. However,
during hot summer days, water evaporation is fast
and the rotating sprinkler conservation method in
extreme hot weather cannot meet the deck insulation
requirements. In this paper, we studied the hot summer
weather deck maintenance issues as well as cold shock
caused by temperature change through the use of fiber
optic thermometry.
A river dam for a hydropower hub station employs
a concrete hyperbolic arch type construction with
around 560 104 m3 of concrete. It was difficult to
control the concrete temperature due to high con-
struction intensity. This project utilized optical fiber
temperature measurement technology (line temper-
ature measurement) to partially replace the point
paper participated in the planning and implementation
of this new technology in the project. More than three
years of practice demonstrated that the technology is
feasible and effective with satisfactory temperature
control outcomes. It also helps to reduce the temper-
ature control costs. The application of optical fiber
temperature measurement technology in this project
has achieved great economic benefits and is one of
the most successful examples to use the technology to
control concrete temperature in dam construction.
At the project location, under the hot weather in
summer sunlight, the surface temperature of pouring
positions typically goes up to 35 C. The aggregate pre-
cooling is one of most important temperature control
measures for concrete pouring in hot seasons. Accord-
ing to design requirements for dam construction,
the pouring concrete placing temperature in summer
should be 9 C and the pouring temperature should be
11 C. Apparently, pouring 11 C concrete on top of
the older layer is equivalent to the old concrete suffer-
ing a sudden drop in temperature (or cold shock). At
this point, the old concrete surface temperature drop
in a short period is so dramatic that creep of con-
crete cannot be achieved, thus increasing the risk of
cracking.
2 THE FUNDAMENTALS OF DISTRIBUTED
FIBER OPTIC TEMPERATURE
MEASUREMENT
Distributed fiber optic temperature measurement sys-
tem (also known as DTS) usually consists of a laser

139
Figure 1. The optical fibersbased temperature measure-
ment mechanism.
light source, a sensing fiber (cable), and a detec-
tion unit which is an automated monitoring system[2] .
Temperature measurements using this system are
based on the backward scattering principle when light
is transmitted through optical fibers, i.e. when a cer-
tain energy and width of the laser pulses is introduced
into optical fibers, the laser pulses can travel along
the optical fibers while continuing to generate back-
ward scattering light waves. The state of these light
waves is affected by the temperature change at the
optical scattering point. After the scattering light was
wavelength division multiplexed, detected and demod-
ulated, it is fed into the signal processing system which
transforms temperature signals to real-time probability
of concrete cracking. Thus, distributed optical fibers
can be used to conduct real-time online monitoring and
feedback analysis of cold shock process when fresh
concrete is poured to pouring position[3] . The informa-
tion can be displayed and located by the transmission
speed of light waves in the fiber and back echo time.
The fiber optic temperature measurement system
launches a bunch of fiber pulsed light. This pulsed
light will travel at the speed slightly lower than the
speed of light in vacuum, while emitting scattering
light to the surrounding[4] . Part of the scattering light
will travel along the fiber and return to the incident
side, as shown in Figure 1.
Measure the time between the incident point and
the reflected light T , as well as the distance between
the incident point of scattering light and the launch
point X , such as equation (1).
where C = speed of light in the fiber; C = C0 /n;
C0 = speed of light in vacuum; n = refractive index
of the fiber.
Among the light reflected back into the incident
side, there is a type known as the Raman scatter-
ing light. The Raman scattering light contains two
components: the Stokes light and the Anti-Stokes
light. Stokes light is independent of temperature, and
the Anti-Stokes light intensity varies with tempera-
ture. The relationship between the ratio of anti-Stokes
140
Figure 2. Fiber elevation layout diagram below the 16#26
bin surface (Figure AG each point should avoid small angle
bending).
light and Stokes light and temperature is shown in
equation (2).
where as = Anti-Stokes light; s = Stokes light;
a = temperature correlation coefficient; h = Planck
coefficient (J s); c = speed of light in vacuum (m/s);
= Raman shift (m1 ); k = Boltzmann constant (J/k);
t = absolute temperature.
According to equation (2) and the ratio between
Stokes light and the Anti-Stokes light, the temperature
can be calculated in equation (3).
3 THE EXPERIMENTS BETWEEN THE NEW
AND OLD CONCRETE INTERFACE
MEASURED BY DISTRIBUTED OPTICAL
FIBERS AND RESULTS ANALYSIS
3.1 Experimental scheme
This experiment uses four rows of steel framework fab-
ricated on site. After the steel framework was banded
with optical fibers as shown in Figure 2, 3, it was laid
vertically underneath the concrete surface of Position
26 of Section 16# (below referred to as 16#26).
In Figure 2, temperature-measuring optical fibers
were arranged longitudinally in 4 layers. They are
below the 16#26 surface by 0.1 meters, 0.3 meters,
0.5 meters, and 0.7 meters, respectively. On each layer
effective temperature can be measured 4 meters long.
Based on the characteristics of temperature-sensing
optical fibers, 34 temperatures may be taken and
average temperature was calculated at each layer.
During the intermission period, surface concrete
curing conditions is monitored from the four mea-
suring points GJ at 0.1 m below the 16#26 inner
surface.
 Table 1. Statistics of temperatures measured at 0.1 m
below the concrete surface of 16#26.

Time 13-Jul 14-Jul 15-Jul 16-Jul 17-Jul

The highest temp. 35.19 37.17 36.12 36.16 35.78

at 0.1 m below the
surface ( C)
The lowest temp. 25.98 26.14 24.48 24.86 25.44
at 0.1 m below the
surface ( C)
The highest ambient 40.61 41.43 42.92 42.71 42.11
temp ( C)
The lowest ambient 25.19 27.51 25.51 26.22 25.41
temp ( C)

Figure 3. Optical fiber site construction picture.

Figure 4. Duration curve of temperature at each optical Figure 5. Duration curve of optical fiber temperatures at
fiber measuring point at 0.1 m below the 16#26 concrete different depth below the concrete surface of 16#26.
surface.
Table 2. Eigenvalue Table of typical temperatures at differ-
Post-intermission, after the concrete began pouring ent depth below the concrete surface of 16#26.
at Position 27 of Section 16# (referred to as 16#27,
above 16#26), using optical fibers to measure temper- The first blank 14 h after
atures, real-time cold shock impact of 16#27 position Measuring New concrete layer for placing pouring
pouring concrete on the lower 16#26 position will start. location Temp.( C) completed ( C) ( C)

0.1 m below 35.05 24.52 22.47

16#26 surface
3.2 Experimental results 0.3 m below 31.60 26.93 24.61
16#26 surface
3.2.1 Concrete curing condition monitoring results 0.5 m below 26.45 27.64 26.87
Concrete pouring at position 16#26 was completed 16#26 surface
on June 17. The experimental optical fibers were 0.7 m below 25.45 26.52 26.83
embedded in the sixth blank layer of the steel frame. 16#26 surface
On-site construction picture is shown in Figure 3.
Deck maintenance work began afterwards. In mid-
July, the rotating sprinkler conservation method was
mainly used while the corner parts of the deck were eigenvalue of typical time temperature is shown in
maintained by handheld sprinklers. The temperature Table 2.
duration curve obtained from sensors 0.1 m below the
16#26 surface are shown in Figure 4. The statistics
between these temperatures and ambient temperatures 3.3 Results Analysis
are shown in Table 1. 3.3.1 Concrete curing condition monitoring results
Optical fiber provides a real-time duration record of
3.2.2 Cold shock monitoring results the concrete surface temperatures. From the temper-
New concrete at position 16#27 began to pour at ature duration curves of different measuring points
17:00 on July 20. The fiber optic thermometer moni- G, H, I, J, it was found that surface conservation is
tors temperature distribution of time-varying process not uniform with temperature variance at different
at positions below the concrete surface of 16#26. measuring points up to 7.7 C. The temperature dif-
The monitoring results are shown in Figure 5. The ference between day and night averages 10.7 C and

141
can be as much as 11.64 C. This shows that when
average temperature reaches over 40 C in summer,
the rotating sprinkler conservation method cant meet
the conservation needs. Running water conservation or
installation of thermal insulation cover should be used.
3.3.2 Cold shock monitoring results
The optical fiber provided a real-time duration record
of the temperature change near the old concrete sur-
face which was subjected to low temperature concrete
cold shock. From the fiber optic temperature measure-
ment duration curves at different depths of 16#26, it
is clear that when concrete began pouring to 16#27 at
around 17:00 on July 20, cold shock effect was very
significant. After the first blank layer placement is
completed, the temperature measured by optical fiber
at 10 cm below the surface dropped from 35.05 C to
24.52 C within six hours, a decline of nearly 10.53 C.
14 hours after pouring, the temperature went as low
as 22.47 C, a decline of 12.58 C. Afterwards, the
temperature began to rise.
The eigenvalue table shows that the impact of the
new concrete placing on temperature of the old con-
crete increases when moving further below the surface
of the old concrete and the temperature change rate
decreases gradually. After the completion of the first
blank layer of concrete pouring of 16#27, tempera-
ture decrease at 0.1 m, 0.3 m, 0.5 m and 0.7 m below
the 16#26 surface are 10.53 C, 4.67 C, 1.19 C,
1.07 C, respectively. Thus, the pouring of new con-
crete affects greatly temperatures within 0.3 m of the
surface of the old concrete.
3.4 Feedback analysis of the optical fiber
temperature measurements
Based on optical fiber temperature measurement data,
due to the pouring of new low temperature concrete,
temperatures at top 0.1m of 16#26 dropped by up
to 12.59 C in 14 hours, which is equivalent to the
impact when the first cold wave hits. As the temper-
ature change is limited to a very shallow area below
the surface and new concrete was at flow state early
on, there are little constraints on the surface of con-
crete 16#26, which allows the analysis of the stress
using elastic creep of a semi-infinite body[6] . Full con-
straint is expected at levels 0.1m below the surface.The
maximum flexibility creep temperature stress can be
calculated with the following formula (4).
Concrete thermal parameters are shown in Table 3.
Based on field data, the intermission period for
position 16#26 was up to 33 days, thus Age = 33d.
Temperature stress calculated according to equation
142
Table 3. Basic materials parameters in the simulation.
Dam
Category concrete
Adiabatic temperature rise 0 ( C) 26.0
Rate of increase of heat of hydration n (d) 2.45
Thermal conductivity (kJ/(mh C)) 7.704
Coefficient of thermal conductivity a (m2 /d) 0.069
Density (kg/m3 ) 2663
Specific heat c (kJ/(kg C)) 0.86
Coefficient of linear expansion (106 / C) 7
Poissons ratio (no unit) 0.17
Modulus of elasticity E0 (MPa) 45330
Modulus of elasticity parameters 0.16
(4) reaches 1.51 MPa, which indicates that the inner
surface of the concrete position 16#26 changes from
the compression state prior to the pouring of new con-
crete to tension state after the pouring with a tensile
stress of 1.51 MPa. Because great elastic modulus,
small creep, and small ultimate tensile strain of the
concrete, the sudden temperature drop of the old con-
crete near the surface aggravated concrete stress. The
local maximum stress has exceeded the ultimate ten-
sile strength of concrete, which increases the risks of
forming local cracks within the concrete at early stage.
4 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
(1) During hot summer days, high surface temperature
and fast evaporation rate make rotating sprin-
kler conservation method insufficient to meet the
requirements of deck concrete. Running water
conservation or installation of insulation covers
should be adopted.
(2) During hot summer days, the cold shock resulted
from new concrete pouring onto the underlying old
concrete is significant. The underlying old con-
crete surface temperature may drop too fast with
up to 12 C decrease. The resulting tensile stress
will be more than 1.5 MPa. Due to the short dura-
tion of temperature change, shallowness of the
impacted area, and the serious constraint on tem-
perature deformation, there is significant risk of
forming local cracks within the old concrete. The
construction design should consider these factors
and avoid pouring concrete when the temperature
is at the highest in a hot summer day.
(3) Since concrete at pouring positions with long inter-
mission period has greater elastic modulus and
smaller creep, conservation and cooling should be
well planned. Pouring new concrete during high
temperature periods should be avoided and night
operations are preferred.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was financially supported by National
Natural Science Foundation of China (51079079).
REFERENCES
[1] Zhu Bofang. Mass concrete temperature stress and
temperature control [M]. Beijing: China Electric
Power Press, 1999.
[2] Measures R M, Alavie T, Maakant R et al. Bragg
grating fiber optic sensing for bridge and other
structure. Second European Conference on Smart
Structures and Materials, Glagow, Scotland, 1214,
October, 1994d, SPIE, 1994D:162167.
[3] M. Au fleger, Th. Strobl, J. Dornstadter. Fibre Optic
Temperature Measurements for Dam Monitoring
[C]. International Conference on Health Monitoring
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of Civil Infrastructure Systems, 2426, October,
1994, Chongqing University Press, 121128.
[4] Cai Desuo. Application of Optical Fiber Sensing
Technology in dam project [M]. Beijing: China
Water Power Press, 2002.
[5] Zhou YiHong, Zhou Jianbing, Huang Yaoying. Con-
crete Low-temperature Placing Monitoring Experi-
ment and Feedback Analysis Based on Distributed
Optical Fiber [J]. WATER POWER, 2012, 38(2):
2527.
[6] Zhu Bofang, Zhang Chaoran. Research on the struc-
tural safety of high concrete arch dams [M]. Beijing:
China Water Power Press, 2010.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Pozzolanic characteristics of palm oil waste ash (POWA) and

treated palm oil fuel ash (TPOFA)

Nurdeen M. Altwair
School of Civil Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Al-Merghab University, Al-Khums, Libya

M.A. Megat Johari

School of Civil Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

A.M. Zeyad
School of Civil Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Sciences and Technology, Sanaa, Yemen

S.F. Saiyid Hashim

School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia

ABSTRACT: This work presents the results of the processing of palm oil waste ash (POWA) under controlled
burning conditions in order to obtain materials with good pozzolanic properties. Palm oil waste samples were
burnt in an aired electric furnace at 800 C and 1000 C for 6 and 2 h, respectively. Furthermore, treatment of
palm oil fuel ash is also discussed. Ground palm oil fuel ash (GPOFA) was treated by heating at 450 C for
90 min. Both of the ashes were characterized by means of chemical analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning
electron microscopy (SEM) and strength activity index (SAI). Results obtained confirm that POWA burned at
800 C and 1000 C have properties indicative of very high pozzolanic activity. Moreover, no influence of heat
treatment was observed on the pozzolanic properties of the treated POFA.

Keywords: Palm oil waste ash, Palm oil fuel ash, XRD, SEM, XRF, Pozzolanic activity index

1 INTRODUCTION 2010). After the combustion in the steam boiler, there

Palm oil industry plays a major role in the economic
development of several tropical countries. Malaysia
was the second largest producer of palm oil with
around 40% and 41% of the total world supply in years
20082009 and 20092010 respectively (Chandara,
2011). Based on the statistics of the Malaysian Palm
Oil Board (MPOB), the fresh fruit bunch yield is
around 20.18 and 19.2 tons per hectare in year
2010 and 2011, respectively with the total produc-
tion of fresh fruit bunch around 90,566,927 tons and
90,070,272, tons in the year 2010 and 2011, respec-
tively (MPOB, 2010). Generally, for every 100 tons of
fresh fruit bunches processed, around 20 tons of nut
shells, 7 tons of fibers, and 25 tons of empty bunches
are discharged from the mill (Tay & Show, 1995).
As the oil price increases, it becomes costly to con-
tinue relying on diesel generators to provide power
supply. For this concern, the shell, fiber and empty
fruit bunch of palm tree are used extensively as a fuel
to produce steam for electricity generation and dur-
ing the palm oil extraction process (Sheng & Kwang,
is around 5% of ash, known as palm oil fuel ash
(POFA), being produced (Sata et al., 2004). Given
that the quantity of ash continues to increase, there-
fore more ash could lead to potential environmental
problem when it is disposed as landfill materials due
to the limitation of its utilization (Safiuddin et al.,
2011). To get a solution for this potential environ-
mental problem, many research studies have been
carried out to examine the feasibility of using the ash
as mineral admixture in blended cement. The begin-
ning was by Tay (1990), whereby ash from palm oil
mills was used to partially replace Portland cement
and showed that it had low pozzolanic property. Later
many researchers showed that POFA can be success-
fully used as a supplementary cementitious material
in mortar or concrete (Megat Johari et al., 2012;
Nurdeen et al, 2011a; Nurdeen et al., 2011b;
Jaturapitakkul et al., 2007; Rukzon & Chindaprasirt,
2009; Safiuddin et al., 2011; Sata et al., 2004; Sata,
Jaturapitakkul, & Rattanashotinunt, 2010). The partial
replacement of Portland cement with POFA can lower
the production costs and improve the engineering

145

Figure 1. Palm oil waste (POW) before crushing.
properties and durability of concrete. Furthermore, the
utilization of POFA can increase the ecological prop-
erties of concrete, contributing to a healthier and more
sustainable environment.
This paper presents the research conducted at
Universiti Sains Malaysia, aimed to determine the
characteristics of palm oil waste ash produced under
controlled condition at 800 C and 1000 C for 6 and
2 h, respectively. The treatment of palm oil fuel ash
which was taken directly from the plant boiler was
also addressed.
2 METHODOLOGY
2.1 Production of POWA
Palm oil waste (POW) (Fig. 1) was collected from a
near-by palm oil mill and it was first dried in an oven
at 105 C for 24 h. The POW was crushed using the
crusher machine followed by milling to the average
particle size of 600 m. The ground POW was burnt
at 800 C and 1000 C for 6 and 2 hours, respectively,
in an aired electric furnace.
Before testing for chemical characteristics of the
palm oil waste ash (POWA), the samples were sub-
jected to dry grinding followed by sieving in sieve
No. 200 (75 m). X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) was used
to verify the chemical compositions of the ash. The
X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was performed to
identify differences in the formation of amorphous or
crystalline silica. Morphologies, particle shapes, and
particle agglomeration were studied using a scanning
electron microscope (SEM). A laser diffraction par-
ticle size analyzer was used to measure particle size
distribution and specific surface area. The ash samples
were labeled with appropriate combination of symbols
i.e. T and t which correspond to burning temperature
( C) and burning time (hour), respectively. For exam-
ple, the ash sample prepared by grinding raw materials
at 800 C with a burning time of 6 h was designated as
POWA8006 with T = 800 and t = 4. As well as the
ash which was ground after burning was designated as
GPOWA8006 with G = ground.
146
2.2 Treatment of POFA
Un-treated POFA produced from the burning palm
wastes (shells, husks and fibers) in boiler at tempera-
ture ranging between 800 C to 1000 C was obtained
from a nearby mill. This ash was black in color because
it contained unburned materials such as fibers and
nutshells as well as unburned carbon as the major con-
stituent. For removing these materials, the POFA was
dried in an oven at 100 C for 24 h and then sieved
using a set of sieves (3 mm, 600 m and 300 m)
to remove unburned materials which are coarser than
300 m. The ash was then ground in a ball mill to
reduce the particle size for improving the reactiv-
ity. The mean particle size of POFA before milling
was about 74.29 m with the specific surface area
of around 0.054 m2 /g. For differentiating the ground
palm oil fuel ash it was designated as GPOFA. To
remove unburned carbon, the GPOFA was heated by
low heat treatment at temperature of 450 C for 90
minutes; for which case the sample was designated
as treated ground palm oil fuel ash (TGPOFA).
2.3 Pozzolanic activity index of ash (SAI)
Pozzolanic activity of POWA was evaluated based
on compressive strength according to ASTM C311
(2005). For the test mixture, 20% replaced of the mass
of cement used in the control mixture was replaced by
the same mass of the ash sample. The control mix-
ture was prepared with 1500 g of Portland cement,
4125 g of graded sand and 726 ml of water. The test
mixture was prepared with 1200 g of cement, 300 g of
ash, 4125 g of graded sand and the required quantity
of water to obtain flow of 110% to 115% of the con-
trol mixture. Fifty-millimeter cubes were cast for this
experiment. After molding, the molds were placed in
a moist room at 27 2 C. After 24 h, the specimens
were stored in saturated lime water. The compressive
strength was determined on three specimens of the
control and the test mixtures at ages of 3, 7, 14 and
28 days.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 POWA characterization
The ash color sometimes depends on the impurities
and chemical compositions of the ash. In this study, it
was observed that the temperature and burning time
affected the optical properties of ash. After burning
the ground raw materials to a temperature of 800 C
for 6 hours, the ash color became light gray to brown
with earthy texture. The same observations could be
seen for the burning temperature of 1000 C, the ash
color became light black and dark brown for 2 hours.
The ash texture changed from coarsely to earthy tex-
ture. However, at burning temperature of 800 C and
1000 C for 6 and 2 hours resulted in POWA8006
and POWA10002 with low loss on ignition of 4.02%
and 6.2%, respectively.
Figure 2. XRD patterns of POWA: Q quartz, S amor- Figure 3. SEM of POWA samples; (a) before grinding
phous silica, P potassium gallium silicate, I Iron chromium (b) after grinding.
oxide, H hematite.

Table 1. Chemical compositions of ash.

Chemical compositions (%)

Palm oil waste ash Palm oil fuel ash

Oxides POWA-8006 POWA-10002 GPOFA TGPOFA

SiO2 50.6 51.9 62.74 66.9

Al2 O3 16.2 17.1 5.32 6.44
Fe2 O3 15.5 14.4 4.87 5.72
CaO 1.4 1.5 4.94 5.56 Figure 4. Particle size distribution of POWA samples.
MgO 2.3 2.01 2.51 3.13
Na2 O 0.19 0.2 0.15 0.19
K2 O 5.5 4.8 4.69 5.20 Un-ground POWA contained very low carbon par-
SO3 0.41 0.14 0.26 0.33 ticles of irregular shape. There was no agglomeration
LOI 4.02 6.2 10.13 2.3 of particles in the unground POWA, thus it seems
that agglomeration did not occur during the burn-
ing period. After grinding, irregular particles with
a smaller, crushed size and free of carbon with the
The XRD patterns of POWA samples are shown average particle size of 0.5 m were observed. The
in Figure 2. There was no significant crystalline grinding process reduced not only the particle size but
phase could be detected by the XRD. The POWA8006 also the porosity of POWA. In addition, the grind-
showed that the main peaks were represented by - ing led to the increase of specific surface area from
quartz at peaks of 2 of 21.7 , 27.1 , 35.9 and 68.5 . 0.45 to about 8.5 m2 /g. The present results indicate
Iron chromium oxide was detected at peaks of 2 of that the amount retained on 45 m sieve were less than
49.7 and 63.4 . While amorphous silica was detected 15% and 5% for Un-ground POWA and ground POFA,
between 2 of 22.3 to 30.2 and 37.5 to 48.8 . The respectively (Fig. 4).
XRD pattern of POWA10002 showed that the small
peak of -quartz was detected at two peaks of 2
3.2 Treated POFA characterization
of 27.1 and 42.3 . It was clear that the majority of
the main phases were represented by amorphous silica The color of the treated ground palm oil fuel ash
which was detected from 17.5 to 70.2 . (TGPOFA) was light brown to grayish red due to
Table 1 shows the chemical compositions of the ash. most of the unburned residual has been removed.
The activated products were mainly formed by silica, Table 1 shows the chemical compositions of GPOFA
alumina, and iron oxide. The chemical compositions and TGPOFA which exhibit that it contains 10.13% of
of POWA samples was limited under the conditions LOI before the heat treatment but after the treatment
required for the specification of fly ash; where all the LOI decreased to around 2.3%. The decrease in
POWA presented in Table 1 were found to be under LOI value for TGPOFA is compensated by the increase
the Class F as specified in ASTMC618 (2005). The in mass percentage of other component. The differ-
total main oxides of POWA8006 and POWA10002 ence in chemical composition between GPOFA and
were up to 82.3 and 83.4%, respectively. TGPOFA is due to the difference in their unburned
Figure 3 shows SEM photograph of un-ground carbon. The main oxides of the treated ash complied
POWA and ground POWA. It was found that unground with the specifications of ASTM C618 class F, with
POWA at both temperatures had angular and irreg- SiO2 + Al2 O3 + Fe2 O3 of 79.07%.
ular particles with median size of about 20 m and Mineral compositions of the TGPOFA did not
most particles had a porous texture. Furthermore, change much due to the heat treatment. XRD pro-
small particles of carbon were observed with the files showed that the agglomeration and crystallization
average particle sizes of about 15 m. of glassy phase of POFA particles which influence

147
Figure 5. XRD patterns of POFA before and after treatment
(Q Quartz; C Cristobalite; S Amorphous silica; K
potassium aluminum phosphate.
Figure 6. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM); (a) GPOFA
(b) TPOFA.
Figure 7. Cumulative particle size distribution curves of
GPOFA and TGPOFA.
the pozzolanic property did not take place during the
treatment (Fig. 5).
GPOFA particles were irregular in shape with
a porous texture. The unburned carbon particles
were irregular in shape. The unburned particles were
observed in the GPOFA but were absent from the
TGPOFA. This indicates that the unburned carbon had
been removed by heat treatment of GPOFA (Fig. 6).
The average particle size of GPOFA and TGPOFA
was about 2.87 m and 2.96 m, respectively, indicat-
ing that there was no significant change in the average
particle sizes of POFA before and after treatment.
This also proves that the heat treatment did not result
in the agglomeration of particles (Fig. 7). The specific
surface area of GPOFA and TGPOFA were around
1.683 m2 /g and 1.521 m2 /g, respectively.
3.3 Strength activity index of GPOWA and TGPOFA
Strength activity index for all mortars containing
TGPOFA and GPOWA are shown in Fig. 8.
Figure 8. Strength activity index of GPOWA and TGPOFA
mortars at 3, 7, 14 and 28 days.
It can be observed that the SAI of TGPOFA-cement
mortar at all ages were higher than the minimum
requirement of 75% as specified in ASTM C 618.
At the early ages of 3 and 7 days, strength devel-
opment of the mortar sample containing OPC with
20% TGPOFA was mainly contributed by pure cement
hydration; hence, the compressive strength was less
than the reference. At the early ages of TGPOFA-
cement mortar, only the high fineness of POFA par-
ticles plays a role in strength development filling the
voids between the pastes and the sand. At 28 days,
the compressive strength of TGPOFA-cement mortar
was higher than the reference mortar strength. At later
ages, the amorphous silicates or aluminates react with
Ca(OH)2 generated by the hydration process of cement
to produce product of mainly calcium silicate hydrate
(C-S-H), thereby improving the compressive strength.
GPOWA mortars gave higher SAI than control at
all ages. The SAI for mortars with GPOWA8006 and
GPOWA10002 at age of 28 days increased to be
117.61% and 118.75%, respectively. This may due to
their high surface area, smaller particle size and amor-
phous conditions. The compressive strengths of mortar
with GPOWA10002 developed comparatively slightly
higher compared to mortar containing GPOWA8006 at
all ages. This could be due to difference in the amount
and type of amorphous phase. GPOWA10002 contain-
ing a greater amount of SiO2 and Al3 O2 in amorphous
form. Both of these oxides play a very important role
in the pozzolanic reaction because they can react with
calcium hydroxide, which is released from the hydra-
tion of OPC, to produce mainly products of calcium sil-
icate hydrate (C-S-H) and calcium aluminium hydrate
(C-A-H) The SAI of mortar containing GPOWA is
greater than TGPOFA at all storage ages. This may
be attributed to the fact that the GPOWAs have been
produced under controlled conditions. In addition,
raw materials of GPOWAs did not contain strange
organic materials. Based on ASTM C618, the chem-
ical and physical requirements of chosen GPOWA
samples were superior compared to TGPOFA sample.
The total main oxides of TGPOFA, GPOWA8006 and
GPOWA10002 were 79.07%, 82.30% and 83.40%,
respectively. The average particle size of TGPOFA,
148
GPOWA8006 and GPOWA10002 were 2.99, 0.29 and
0.3 m. The specific surface areas were 1521, 8399
and 8121 m2 /kg, respectively. From that, it can be
inferred that the pozzolanic reactivity of the GPOWA
should be than that of the TGPOFA.
4 CONCLUSIONS
(1) The palm oil waste can be an important raw mate-
rial for the pozzolan production. POWA burned
at 800 C and 1000 C for 6 and 2 h has good poz-
zolanic properties, suggesting suitability for use in
the manufacture of blended cements. Specifically,
an amorphous ash with high specific surface area
and reduced loss on ignition can be produced with
burning at these temperatures.
(2) After 28 days, up to 117% of SAI can be achieved
when burning the POW at a temperature of 1000 C
and 800 C for 2 and 6 h, respectively. This indi-
cates the presence of the required properties that
characterizes the pozzolanic materials. In addition,
at all storage ages, the SAI of POWA mortars was
higher than that of OPC mortars.
(3) POFA obtained by heating at 450 C for 90 min
resulted in loss on ignition significantly lower than
that of the untreated POFA. Hence, the treated
POFA was free from carbon and other organic
matter. In addition, the treatment process yielded
POFA with high specific surface area, preserv-
ing the amorphous characteristic related to poz-
zolanic activity of POFA and free from particle
agglomeration.
(4) SAI of POFA-cement mortar fulfilled the require-
ments of pozzolanic materials as per ASTM C618.
The SAI confirmed that after 28-day curing time,
the strength of treated POFA was greater than that
of the reference cement (100.7%). Hence, strength
increased as curing time progressed because of the
consumption of Ca(OH)2 by the TGPOFA.
(5) At all storage ages, the SAI in the case of GPOWA
mortars was higher than that of the TGPOFA.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors gratefully acknowledge the Universiti
Sains Malaysia for providing the financial sup-
port through the Research University (1001/PAWAM/
814103) Grant Scheme for undertaking the research
work. Special thanks are due to United Palm Oil
Industries for providing the palm oil fuel ash.
149
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Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 13(1): 2736.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Investigation of accelerating effects of mineral admixtures

by hydration heat and thermal analysis

Huashan Yang, Shengjin Tu & Fei Gao

State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China

ABSTRACT: The aim of this investigation is to study the accelerating effects of minerals admixtures by
hydration heat and thermal analysis. Three fillers (limestone, tuff, and volcanic), and two pozzolans (fly ash
and phosphorous slag) were used. Hydration heat of moderate-heat Portland cement with 30% of fillers and
low-heat Portland cement with 30% pozzolans, were examined. The accelerating effects of mineral admixtures
were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry-thermogravimetry (DSC/TG) under nitrogen flux after
28 days. It is shown that either fillers or pozzolans have an accelerating effect on cement hydration, which
may be important or even more significant than the pozzolanic effect. And the pozzolanic activity of pozzolans
could be promoted by fillers with high surface areas.

Keywords: Accelerating Effects; Mineral admixture; Hydration heat

1 INSTRUCTION cement mortar with 30% of FA at all ages. This shows

Nowadays, the incorporation of limestone (LS) filler
and fly ash (FA) in concrete as partial replacements for
Portland cement continues to increase. These mineral
admixtures can improving concrete durability, reduce
the risk of thermal cracking in mass concrete and lower
the energy and environmental cost (Mehta, 1999). The
effects of LS on the hydration of Portland cement
have been previously addressed (Lothenbach et al.,
2008; P. Raay et al., 1999; Ye et al., 2007). From a
chemical point of view, limestone filler does not have
pozzolanic properties, but it acts as the nucleus for
the precipitation of CH. These simultaneous effects
produce an acceleration of the hydration of cement
grains (Bonavetti et al., 2003). The effect is essen-
tially the same for all the fillers, irrespective of their
chemical composition (Heikal et al., 2000). However,
fillers, such as tuff (TF) and volcanic (VC) with high
crystallinity have not been fully investigated.
Small particles of pozzolans such as, FA and
phosphorous slag powder (PS) are less reactive than
Portland cement. When dispersed in the paste, they
generate a large number of nucleation sites for the pre-
cipitation of the hydration products. Therefore, FA and
PS will also accelerate the hydration of cement.
As (Yang et al., 2011) showed, the strength of mortar
with 30% of PS was lower than that of mortar with 30%
of FA at all ages, although the pozzolanic activity of PS
was higher than that of FA. This is probably due to the
physical effect of FA, which is important or even more
significant than the pozzolanic effect. In addition, the
strength of ternary blend mortars with FA and PS had
higher flexural strength and compressive strength than
that there is a synergy effect between PS and FA. P.K.
Mehta and O.E. Gjorv also reported this phenomenon.
They found that if the low reactive pozzolan, such as
FA, was used together with a high reactive pozzolan,
such as silica fume (SF), the pozzolanic activity of the
low reactive pozzolan could be promoted (Mehta and
Gjorv, 1982). However, it could be observed that the
high reactive pozzolan consumed more CH than that
of low reactive pozzolan (Yang et al., 2011). Therefore,
the investigation of the phenomenon will be the subject
of further research.
The present work aims at a fundamental insight into
the accelerating effects of nonpozzolanic fillers and
pozzolans by hydration heat and thermal analysis.
2 EXPERIMENTAL
2.1 Materials
Two Portland cements were used: a low-heat Port-
land cement (LHC), and a moderate-heat Portland
cement (MHC). Three nonpozzolanic fillers and two
pozzolans were used. The oxide compositions of the
mineral admixtures as given in Table 1 were deter-
mined by X-ray fluorescence (XRF). Figure 1 presents
the XRD pattern of LS, TF, and VC. According
to the pattern, LS mainly consists of calcium car-
bonate, whilst TF and VC had varying amounts of
anorthite. LS, TF, and VC have little pozzolanic prop-
erties because of its high crystallinity. A commercial
limestone powder labeled LS0 was used as the refer-
ence material. Calcium hydroxide (CH) is commercial

151
 Figure 2. Particle size distribution of mineral admixtures.

Table 1. Oxide compositions of mineral admixtures (wt.%).

Oxide LS TF VC PS FA

SiO2 4.38 55.89 56.97 39.32 52.46

Al2 O3 1.56 16.57 16.67 3.51 30.86
Fe2 O3 0.76 7.30 7.09 1.63 3.97
CaO 48.00 5.30 5.38 47.84 3.60
MgO 0.49 4.35 3.95 0.70 0.70
SO3 / / / 1.29 0.47
P2 O5 0.03 0.44 0.46 3.85 0.39
Loss 44.17 2.32 1.72 / 3.04
others 0.27 7.86 7.88 1.70 3.52

2.2 Specimen preparation and experiment

Figure 1. XRD pattern of limestone, tuff and volcanic.
high-grade (98.8%) product. The particle size distri-
bution of mineral admixtures was measured by laser
granulometry and the results obtained are shown in
Figure 2. It can be seen from Figure 2 (a) that the par-
ticle size distribution curve of the LS is very similar to
but slightly finer than that of TF. VC shows a coarser
distribution than LS in size smaller than 30 m. As
shown in Figure 2 (b), FA is finer than PS, but still
much coarser than LS0.
The hydration heat of the pastes with the mineral
admixture replacements of 30% were tested according
to GB/T 12959-2008 (Chinese standard). The mix-
ture proportions of all specimens are summarized in
Table 2. The dosage of the water was adjusted to give a
standard consistency for the cement mixtures. Hydra-
tion heat is calculated: q = Qt/G or q = Qt /GC . Where,
Qt is the total liberation heat of the binder paste at t
hours. G is the mass of the MHC with 30% of mineral
admixture and GC is the mass of MHC. The exother-
mic rate can be obtained through differential of the
hydration heattime curve.
To study the accelerating effects of mineral admix-
tures by thermal analysis, CH and PS in a 1:3 weight
proportion were mixed. PS was partially replaced
with 50% of LS0. The paste containing LS0 was
compared to the reference paste without LS0. The

152
Table 2. Proportions of the specimens.

Constitute MHC MHC_LS MHC_TF MHC_VC LHC_FA LHC_PS LHC_PSFA

MHC (g) 200.0 186.7 186.7 186.7 / / /

LS (g) / 80.0 / / / / /
TF (g) / / 80.0 / / / /
VC (g) / / / 80.0 / / /
LHC (g) / / / / 186.7 186.7 186.7
FA (g) / / / / 80.0 / 40.0
PS (g) / / / / / 80.0 40.0
S (g) 800.0 533.3 533.3 533.3 533.3 533.3 533.3
W (mL) 60.8 68.8 76.0 72.0 69.9 69.9 69.9

Table 3. Proportions of the pastes.

Constitute PS/CH PS/LS0/CH

CH (%) 25 25
PS (%) 75 37.5
LS (%) / 37.5
W/S 0.4 0.4

proportions of the pastes prepared in this study are

listed in Table 3. Afterwards, distilled water was added
to achieve a water/solid ratio of 0.4. The paste was
thoroughly blended and stored in sealed mould. After
time intervals of 28 days, the specimen was tested by
differential scanning calorimetry-thermogravimetry
(DSC/TG) under nitrogen flux.

3 TEST RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Effect of filler on the hydration heat of MHC

Figures 3 (a), (b) illustrate the hydration heat and
exothermic rate curves of MHC and MHC with 30% of
fillers. Hydration heat is calculated: q = Qt /G. Where,
G is the mass of the MHC with 30% of fillers.
As expected, fillers can decrease the hydration heat
and exothermic rate due to cement substitution. The
amounts of heat evolved from the different mixtures
in 168 h are 260.7 J/g (MHC), 186.5 J/g (MHC_LS),
191.0 J/g (MHC_TF), and 199.2 J/g (MHC_VC). It
can be noted that the reduction in heat evolution was
smaller than the reduction in cement content due to the
filler replacement. A 30% LS replacement resulted in
28.5% reduction in the cumulative heat evolution, a
30% TF replacement resulted in 26.7% reduction in
the cumulative heat evolution, and a 30% VC replace-
ment resulted in 23.6% reduction in the cumulative
heat evolution. These results indicate that the addition
of fillers increases the amount of heat evolved during
the setting and hardening of the cement.
Figures 4 (a), (b) illustrate the effects of fillers on
the hydration heat of MHC. The hydration heat was
calculated on the basis of a unit weight of MHC,
thus, the contributions from LS, TF and VC can be
Figure 3. Effects of fillers on the hydration heat of MHC.
Hydration heat is calculated: q = Qt /G. Where, G is the mass
of the MHC with 30% of fillers.
separated. It can be seen from Figure 4 (a) that MHC
released the smallest hydration heat in 168 h, imply-
ing that LS, TF and VC accelerate the hydration of
cement. As shown in Figure 4 (b), the MHC with
30% of fillers differ in that the exothermic rate sur-
passes that of MHC at about 5.0 h, and the second peak
(about 15.0 h) is higher than for MHC. This suggests
that fillers increase the second exothermic reaction.
Therefore, effects of fillers on the hydration heat and
exothermic rate may be attributed to its physical effects
on the cement hydration process.

153
 Figure 5. Hydration heat of LHC with FA and PS. Hydration
Figure 4. Effects of fillers on the hydration heat of MHC. heat is calculated: q = Qt /G. Where, G is the mass of the LHC
Hydration heat is calculated: q = Qt /GC . Where, GC is the with 30% of FA and PS.
mass of the MHC.

3.2 Hydration heat of LHC with FA and PS

Figures 5 (a), (b) illustrate the hydration heat and
exothermic rate curves of LHC with 30% of poz-
zolans. Hydration heat is calculated: q = Qt /G. Where,
G is the mass of the LHC with 30% of pozzolans. It
can be seen that LHC_FA released the largest hydra-
tion heat than that of LHC_PS and LHC_FAPS at 7
days, although the pozzolanic activity of FA was lower
than that of PS. It could be observed that PS has a
higher pozzolanic activity than that of FA (Yang et al.,
2011). Also, the maximum hydration exothermic rat
of LHC_FA was much higher than that of LHC_PS
and LHC_FAPS. This phenomenon might be due to Figure 6. DSC/TG curves of specimens.
the additional surface area provided by FA and PS,
which may accelerate LHC hydration. As shown in DSC curve presents an endothermic peak at about
Figure 2 (b), FA is finer than PS. When dispersed in 450 C that is attributed to the decomposition of CH,
the paste, FA generates much more nucleation sites a second one at 750 C due to the CO2 release by the
than that of PS for the precipitation of the hydration CaCO3 decomposition. Table 4 shows the weight loss
products. Therefore, the physical action enhances the of the compounds (C-S-H, CH and CaCO3 ) detected
chemical one, and the hydration heat is increased. in PS/CH and PS/LS0/CH systems as it is determined
by the TG analysis.
The bound water and residue of CH are also listed
3.3 Hydration heat of LHC with FA and PS
in Table 4. As it can be appreciated, the main reaction
Figure 6 shows DSC/TG curves of the PS/CH sys- products of both specimens are very similar, although
tem and PS/LS0/CH system hydrated for 28 days. the amount of PS in PS/LS0/CH system is only half

154
Table 4. Weight loss of compounds, bound water and
residue of CH at 28 days.
Specimen PS/CH PS/LS0/CH
C-S-H dehydration (%) 1.43 1.50
CH Dissolution (%) 4.75 4.79
CaCO3 Dissolution (%) 1.80 20.27
Bound water (%) 1.43 1.50
Residue of CH (%) 19.53 19.71
of that in PS/CH system. This fact confirms that the
presence of LS0 particles contributed to accelerate
the hydration of PS particles, yielding more hydrated
products. As shown in Figure 2 (b), LS0 is finer than
PS. LS0 generates more quantity of nucleation sites
to begin the hydration reactions, and the final result
would be a higher amount of hydrated products and,
consequently, higher calcium hydroxide consumption.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Based on the results of hydration heat and thermal
analysis, the following conclusions can be made:
(1) Nonpozzolans, such as LS, TF, and VC with high
crystallinity behave not only as filler to improve
microstructure of cement mortar, but also as a
promoter of cement hydration. The hydration heat
and exothermic rate of cement may be related to
the amount of surface area provided by fillers.
(2) Pozzolans, such as FA and PS also accelerate the
hydration of cement. Accelerating effect of poz-
zolan with high surface area, such as FA, may
be important or even more significant than the
pozzolanic effect.
155
(3) If a pozzolan, such as PS, was used together with a
nonpozzolan with high surface area, such as lime-
stone, the pozzolanic activity of the PS could be
promoted.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors wish to thank the Fundamental Research
Funds for the Central Universities for funding support.
REFERENCES
Bonavetti, V., Donza, H., Menndez, G., Cabrera, O. &
Irassar, E.F., 2003. Limestone filler cement in low w/c
concrete: A rational use of energy. Cement & Concrete
Research, 33(6): 865871.
Heikal, M., El-Didamony, H. & Morsy, M.S., 2000.
Limestone-filled pozzolanic cement. Cement & Concrete
Research, 30(11): 18271834.
Lothenbach, B., Le Saout, G., Gallucci, E. & Scrivener, K.,
2008. Influence of limestone on the hydration of Portland
cements. Cement & Concrete Research, 38(6): 848860.
Mehta, P.K., 1999. Advancements in Concrete Technology.
Concreteinternational., 96(4): 6976.
Mehta, P.K. & Gjorv, O.E., 1982. Properties of portland
cement concrete containing fly ash & condensed silica-
fume. Cement & Concrete Research, 12(5): 587595.
P Raay, J., Husson, S. & Guilhot, B., 1999. Influence of
finely ground limestone on cement hydration. Cement &
Concrete Composites, 21(2): 99105.
Yang, H., Fang, K. & Tu, S., 2011. Pozzolanic reaction of
supplementary cementitious materials and its effects on
strength of mass concrete. Advanced Materials Research,
168170: 505511.
Ye, G., Liu, X., De Schutter, G., Poppe, A.M. & Taerwe,
L., 2007. Influence of limestone powder used as filler in
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Cement & Concrete Composites, 29(2): 94102.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Estimation of asphalt mixture mechanical property by digital image

correlation method

Yanan Cui, Lei Feng & Lei Wang

College of Civil Engineering, Inner Mongolia University of Technology, Huhhot, China

ABSTRACT: Asphalt mixtures are heterogeneous multiphase composite, with complex mechanical proper-
ties. Non-contact full-field testing technique is better than traditional techniques for measures the deformation
of specimens made of these composites. The Digital Image Correlation (DIC) method has used to study the
displacement and deformation field of asphalt mixture beam in this article. The results indicated that the defor-
mation of the heterogeneous material is very complex; and that the aggregates and asphalt matrix have very
different deformation statement; the maximum tensile strain occurred between large aggregate particles near the
beam bottom, where first crack normally appear. It is concluded DIC method is a practical and an economical
method for studying the deformations of asphalt mixtures.

Keywords: Asphalt mixtures; Digital Image Correlation; mechanical property

1 INTRODUCTION reinforced polymer mortars. But, DIC has seldom been

Asphalt mixtures are multiphase reinforced composite,
consisting of irregularly shaped and randomly oriented
elastic particles embedded in an inelastic matrix that
is known to degrade with time and under mechani-
cal, thermal, and environmental loads. These types of
composites generally exhibit extremely complicated
mechanical behavior and numerous damage modes[1] .
Traditional testing methods are unable to easily
reveal the relationship between macro-mechanical
properties and microstructure of such materials. Digi-
tal image analysis of composite surface is an important
non-contact method for investigating the relation-
ship. Due to image analysis, both from the micro-
scopic and macroscopic perspective, systematic and
accurate measurements have become possible. This
method has emerged as a practical tool in experimental
mechanics[23] and is often used to evaluate concrete
and rock properties[47] , and also to measure the shear
bands in soil[8] .
Digital image correlation (DIC) method involves a
combination of modern image processing technology
and optics mechanics[911] . The basic measuring pro-
cess is that two digital gray fields obtained through
a/d conversion, which is provided by speckle patterns
of the test specimen before and after deformation
taken by CCD camera, the correlation coefficient
extreme value point to obtain corresponding displace-
ment and deformation after the related operations
on the two digital gray fields[12] . Nunes[13] used the
digital image correlation (DIC) method to determine
crack-tip-opening displacement fields of glass fiber
used for measuring asphalt mixture deformations.
Therefore, the purpose of this work is to inves-
tigate the displacements and strain distribution of
asphalt mixture beam specimen using the DIC method,
which provide a new test method for measuring the
mechanical properties of asphalt mixture.
2 PRINCIPLE OF DIGITAL IMAGE
CORRELATION METHOD
In the DIC technique, two grayscale images of objects
before and after deformation are captured and they
are expressed as f(x, y) and g(x, y), respectively. The
main idea of digital speckle correlation calculation is
the selecting of a sub-region (usually rectangular) in
the field f(x, y) before deformation, and then using
grayscale information locate the same sub-region in
the deformed image field g(x, y). By locating pairs
of points and computing the distance between them
before and after deformation, specimen displacements
and strains are easily calculated. A distinct advantage
of this method over traditional measuring techniques is
that the deformations can be measured in any direction
and over any gauge length without much extra cost and
effort.
Fig. 1 shows the position relationship of the sub-
region center and any point P, Q in the sub-region
before and after deformation at. We observe that P and
Q move to their new locations P * and Q* after defor-
mation. Therefore, the displacements of these points
in X direction and Y direction, respectively, can be

157

Figure 1. The movement of a point in sub-section and its
relation positions before and after deformation.
expressed as u and v, and these displacements and
their first and second derivatives can be calculated as
follows:
The X0 * and Y0 * coordinate of P* are:
where X0 and Y0 are the coordinates of P before
deformation, Let point Q(x, y) be any point of the sub-
region be related as follows before deformation, whose
position relative to the center point P is be given by:
where,
x and
y are the x and y components, respec-
tively, of the vector going P to Q. If the sub-region
deformed such that P(x0, y0) moved to P*(x0 *, y0 *),
and Q(x, y) to Q*(x*, y *). That the coordinate of point
Q * can be expressed as:
According to continuum mechanics, the displace-
ments components of point Q(x, y) can be expressed
in terms of displacement of P(x0 , y0 ) components and
their increment. Based on continuum mechanics, the
displacement components of Q can be expressed in
form of Taylers series as:
158
Figure 2. Three-point bending test specimen.
By equation (2) and (3), it is known that the corre-
sponding point of Q after deformation is Q* (x*, y*),
which coordinates can be expressed as:
3 ASPHALT MIXTURE MECHANICAL TEST
The three-point bending test was used to measure the
flexural strength of an asphalt mixture at a specified
temperature and loading rate. The test specimen and its
dimensions as well as the loading scheme are shown
in Fig. 2. The image method was used to observe the
entire process of the specimen deformation, including
the formation of cracks and its ultimate failure, using
the DIC acquired date, the displacement and strain
field of the specimen was analyzed, and the mechanical
properties of the asphalt mixture was evaluated.
The asphalt binder was crumb rubber modified
asphalt produced by a company in China. The mix
gradation met dense graded mix requirement of the
Chinese standard AC-13. All beams contained 5.6wt%
asphalt, as a percentage of the total mix. This percent-
age corresponds to the optimum asphalt content as
determined by the Marshall method.
The three-point bending test was performed at
room temperature 20 C using a WDW-100A eclec-
tic universal testing machine, and a low-load rate
(0.15 mm/min). A CCD camera was set up directly in
front of the specimen and a computer for capturing and
processing the images every 20s (Fig. 2). The images
of the specimen have a resolution of 748 570 pix-
els. The inset on Fig. 2 shows the region captured by
camera, and image correlation method was carried out
using the coordinate system shown in the figure.
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Displacement field
In Fig. 3, the first column in the figure shows pictures
of the target region at various times after loading, while
the contours in the second and third columns show
the regions lateral and vertical deformation contours,
respectively.
Figure 3. Contours of deformation at different loading
stage.
At the beginning of loading, although the aggregate
and the asphalt binder have good interface contact,
nevertheless the major different between the mechan-
ical properties of the two materials are evident by the
difference in the extent of deformation that each expe-
rienced, so the local deformations of the specimen was
very complex and the deformation field is highly irreg-
ular (Fig. 3a); On the other hand, it appears that voids in
the mixture can survive in the loading process, but they
are compacted and deformed, which make the changes
in the mix properties even more complex. After load-
ing to 600s, the deformation field followed essentially
the three-point bending deformation pattern, and the
aggregates and asphalt binder compression, while at
the same time the volumes of remained voids stable
(Fig. 3c); With further increase in load, the deformation
pattern became more regular, shows compression in
top and tension in bottom of the specimen; The largest
vertical deformation occurred under the loading point
and the deformation contours were almost symmet-
ric around, deformations were compatible. Finally,
159
Figure 4. Contours of lateral normal strain exx at different
loading stage.
macro crack appears in the specimen when loaded to
the 1400 s.
4.2 Strain field
The contours of lateral normal strain in specimen are
showed in Fig. 4. In the preliminary stage of load-
ing, because of interaction between asphalt binder
and aggregates, aggregates might adjust their location,
both pressure and tension existed in the mixture, the
strain of the mixture presented a complex condition,
and there was not a uniform strain field; Along with the
loading time, mixture gradually presented a obvious
pressure in top and tension in bottom state; As load
continue to increase, several larger tensile strain areas
appeared in the bottom of the specimen; when loaded
to 1400s (Fig. 4g), the tensile strain peak appeared
between the two big aggregates at the beam bottom,
Figure 5. Contours of shear strain exy at different loading
stage.
there was the place coming to crack. In Fig. 4h, the
contours have sharp change in the crack region. The
strain values when destroyed were all more than 1%,
which illustrated significant fluidity.
The shear strain contours in Fig. 5 show similar
behavior to normal strain. Irregular shear strain distri-
bution can be noticed in the preliminary loading stage;
but upon increased loading, they show that the aggre-
gate and the asphalt binder deform in a compatible
manner. At 1600s after loading, the shear strain con-
tours become discontinuous at some location where
the tensile strain changes sharply. This indicates the
formation of cracks.
Fig. 6 presents the contours of vertical strain in the
specimen. At 1600 s, the contours for this also exhibit a
shape change between the aggregate particles near the
bottom of specimen, which ia indicative of the beam
cracking at this stage.
160
Figure 6. Contours of vertical normal strain eyy at different
loading stage.
4.3 Contrast to test result
The maximum tensile strain of asphalt mixture speci-
men favorably matches the test data shown in Fig. 7.
It was found the initial strain preformatted linear
increase trend until 1200 s. After loading 1400 s, strain
growth become rapidly, that means, asphalt mixture
was cracking.
5 CONCLUSION
According to the results obtained above, we can realize
that image correlation method can reflect the displace-
ment and deformation of asphalt mixture specimen
in bending process; the displacement and strain field

Figure 7. Maximum tensile strain of specimen at different
loading stage.
distribution of the heterogeneity material can be pre-
sented more intuitively, at the same time, the dam-
age position can also be reflected in certain degree,
the method is of practical value. The advantage of the
proposed experimental approach is to measure the
full-field displacement and strain without contact for
heterogeneity composite, but as the limit of cap-
ture condition and image processing technology, the
accuracy of this method has yet to be further validation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The support of this research by the National Science
Foundation of China under Grant No.11162010 is
gratefully appreciated. The writer thanks the help of
Prof. Wang LAN and Dr. Shi Hongjian.
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

The manufacturing of floating decks using grancrete and reservoir sludge

W.C. Liao, S.Y. Tsai, C.S. Tsai & J.W. Lin

Department of Civil Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan

ABSTRACT: Cement block made of grancrete, waste sludge, and expansive agents were fabricated to produce
light weight floatable deck material. Sandwich panel made from grancrete and sludge is tested for its bending
rigidity. Kevlar mesh with or without the thickness-wise stitches was inserted in between the face sheet and core
foam of this sandwich panel to investigate the bending and shear rigidity improvement of sandwich panel. The
flexural bending ability of sandwich panel is evaluated through a series of three point bending tests.

Keywords: floating deck, grancrete, reservoir sludge, sandwich panel

1 INTRODUCTION material. The basic material properties of grancrete

This study uses the reservoir sludge, waste construc-
tion materials, expansive agent and grancrete to make
a floating deck for amphibious house. This float-
ing deck requires good durability, floatable in water,
materials that can be fetched from local area and
economic in cost. Grancrete is a kind of cerami-
crete blending of ceramics and concrete together. to make a cement cube or panel to measure their unit
The material is produced using a mixing process
very similar to that used to produce concrete. Wagh
et al. (1997a, 1997b) developed the grancrete mate-
rial which has good binding effect with the industrial
by-products such as slag and fly ash. This chemically
bonded phosphate ceramic can also stabilize and solid-
ify the hazardous and radioactive waste (Wagh et al.
1998, 2001, 2003). Grancrete is a mixture of mag-
nesium oxide, phosphate powder and water. Without
clinkering process, the manufacturing of grancrete is
environmentally friendly.
In 2005, the Hurricane Katrina attacked the
Louisiana state of USA, which caused the deaths
of 1800 people, and 81 billion of property dam-
age. Since then the hurricane center at Louisiana
state university has developed several floating founda-
tions for amphibious house. Recently a Low-Income-
Flood-proof Technology (LIFT) house project was
performed at Bangladesh (Amphibious house, 2011).
The LIFT design can prevent lateral movement but
allow the house to move up and down on stilts during
flooding. In Taiwan, many reservoirs were designed
for flood discharge in the typhoon season. Yet, lots of
river sediment or muddy debris from the upper stream
silted up the basin of the dam, and form the excessive
reservoir sludge problem.
In order to handle the sludge waste, the grancrete
material is proposed to mix with the sludge and
other expansive agents to produce usable construction
will be evaluated through the compression test of
grancrete made cement block with different grancrete
water ratios. Mixing of grancrete, reservoir sludge, and
expansive agent to produce lightweight panel is studied
by different proportioning of its constituents. Several
expansive agents such as baking soda powder, laun-
dry detergent and nano-calcium carbonate are tested
weight, compressive strengths.
A sandwich panel made of grancrete and sludge
is tested for its bending rigidity. Several layers of
Kevlar grid or mesh with or without the thickness-wise
stitches were inserted in between the face sheet of this
sandwich panel to investigate their bending and shear
rigidity improvements. The flexural bending ability of
sandwich panel is evaluated through a series of three
point bending tests.
2 MATERIALS AND EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
First grancrete was mixed with different expansive
materials such as nano-calcium carbonate, baking
soda, detergent, NaHCO3 and Styron-sphere to evalu-
ate their specific gravities and compressive strengths.
A 5 cm5 cm5 cm cube was fabricated with the des-
ignated constituents for each mixed design. Table 1
shows the corresponding results. The compressive
strength is proportional to the
density of the cube. The nano-calcium carbon-
ate grancrete has the lowest density and compressive
strength, while the 30% laboratory use NaHCO3 has
the highest compressive strength in the entire specimen
tested. However, none of the cube can float in the water.
In order to overcome the problem of higher density for
unfloatable material, a sandwich panel with Styrofoam
as the core material, and grancrete/sludge as face sheet

163
Table 1. Compressive strengths of grancrete and expansive
agents (grancrete:water = 1:0.2).

Compressive
Specific strength
Mix gravity (kg/cm2 )

nano-calcium carbonate 1.34 198

water: baking soda (0.3:0.1) 1.84 679
10% detergent 1.48 188
Styron-sphere 1.68 460
10% baking soda 1.9 565
20% baking soda 1.66 456
30% baking soda 1.76 741
10% NaHCO3 1.94 834
20% NaHCO3 1.92 1030
30% NaHCO3 1.95 1139
10% NaHCO3 and hot water 1.94 636

Table 2. Design of sandwich panel of grancrete and expan-

sive agents (grancrete:water = 1:0.2).
Figure 1. Manufacturing of grancrete panel, (1a) Kevlar
Type of face sheet mesh with stitches, (1b) Vibrating table, (1c) the finished
top face sheet, (4) the penetrated grancrete paste from the
Total Stitched other side.
Thickness Kevlar pitch Specific Ultimate
(cm) grid sludge (cm) gravity load (N)

4.52 n n n 0.730 138

4.637 160
4.86 y n n 0.833 237
4.81 264
4.80 239
4.43 n n 3 0.838 348
4.43 320
4.47 344
4.43 y n 1.5 0.862 373
4.52 367
4.39 371
4.92 y y 3 0.955 237
4.71 148
5.09 162

Figure 2. Three point bending test set-up for grancrete

material was designed to verify their densities and
bending strengths. The design of the face sheet mate-
rial is listed in Table 2. In some of the sandwich panel,
the Kevlar mesh (or grid) was loosely adhered to the
top and bottom surfaces of the 28 mm thick Styrofoam.
In order to increase the through-thickness stiffness of
the Styrofoam, Kevlar strands with stitched pitches of
1.5 cm and 3.0 cm in both directions were applied in
some specimens (see Fig. 1a). This stitched Styrofoam
was placed above a vibrating table as shown in Fig. 1b.
The grancrete or grancrete/sludge paste was poured
into the mould; the vibrating shaker can force the air
going out from the paste (Fig. 1c). After one face sheet
was hardened, the panel was turned over to do the same
fabrication process. It is noted that some of the hard-
ened grancrete can be seen in the other side (Fig. 1d)
of the sandwich panel, since the stitches will produce
lots of holes in the core foam. After a 5 day curing,
sandwich panel.
the panel was cut into several 5 cm wide strips for
the bending specimens. A 25 tones MTS was adopted
for 3-point test. The specimen has a simply supported
span of 28 cm. During the bending test, both displace-
ment and load at the mid-span was recorded through
MTS. However, an additional load cell was used to
measure the small range loading (Fig. 2). The last spec-
imen set was made of grancrete/sludge Kevlar mesh
and 3 cm stitched pitch. The grancrete: water: sludge
proportioning is 1:0.25:0.25 by weight.
3 CONCLUSIONS
An environmental friendly material grancrete was
applied to bind with the reservoir sludge and expan-
sive agents to produce light weight material. The cube

164
Figure 3. The force displacement at mid-span for
grancrete/core/grancrete sandwich panel.
Figure 4. The force displacement at mid-span for
grancrete/Kevlar/core/ Kevlar/grancrete sandwich panel.
Figure 5. The force displacement at mid-span for
grancrete/Kevlar/core/ Kevlar/grancrete sandwich panel with
1.5 cm stitch pitch.
compressive strengths test shows that the strength is
proportional to its density, and most of the propor-
tioning in this study cannot float in the water. Only
the sandwich structure with Styrofoam as the core
165
Figure 6. The force displacement at mid-span for
grancrete/Kevlar/core/ Kevlar/grancrete sandwich panel with
3.0 cm stitch pitch.
Figure 7. The force displacement at mid-span for
(grancrete -sludge) / Kevlar / core / Kevlar / (grancrete-sludge)
sandwich panel with 3.0 cm stitch pitch.
Figure 8. The surface of a grancrete-sludge sandwich panel
(8a) and the failure mode (8b).
material can be used as floating deck for amphibi-
ous house. The three point bending test results reveal
that the grancrete/Kevlar mesh/core with 1.5 cm stitch
pitch has the highest bending capacity, since the Kevlar
layer an increase the in-plane stiffness, and the through
thickness Kevlar stitch can improve the shear rigidity
of the sandwich panel as well. The face sheet made
of grancrete-sludge with a 3 cm Kevlar stitched panel
has rugged surface, lower bending strength. However,
it is still higher than the grancrete/core/grancrete sand-
wich panel without Kevlar stitch. If the workability of
grancrete/sludge sandwich panels can be controlled
during the mixing process, their flexural capacity will
increase.
REFERENCES
Amphibious houses float out of trouble in Bangladesh, 2011.
Source: Sci Dev. Net, Jul. 27.
Floating Foundation, English, E.C. PhD, Louisiana Hurricane
Center.
Wagh, A.S., Jeong, S.Y. and Singh, D. July 1997a. High-
strength phosphate ceramic (cement) using industrial
by-product ash and slag, Proc. of International Conference
on High-Strength Concrete, Kona, HI.
166
Wagh, A.S., Jeong, S.Y. and Singh, D. July 1997b. High-
Strength Phosphate Cement Using Industrial Byproduct
Ashes, eds. A. Azizinamini, D. Darwin, and C. French,
Proceedings of the first International Conference on High
Strength Concrete, American Society of Civil Engineers,
Reston, VA, pp. 542553.
Wagh, A.S., Singh, D. and Jeong, S.Y. 1998. Method of waste
stabilization via chemically bonded phosphate ceramics,
U.S. Patent No. 5, 830, 815.
Wagh, A.S., Singh, D. and Jeong, S.Y. 2001. Chemically
bonded phosphate ceramics for stabilization and solid-
ification of mixed wastes, Hazardous and Radioactive
Waste Treatment Technologies Handbook, CRC Press,
Boca Raton, FL., pp. 6.3.16.3.18.
Wagh, A.S. Jeong, S.Y. Lohan, D. and Elizabeth, A. 2003.
Chemically bonded phosphosilicate ceramics, U.S. Patent
No. 6, 518, 212.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

The finite element analysis of behavior for reactive powder concrete-filled

circular steel tube stub columns under axial compression

Hua Luo, Wenyu Ji & Zhigang Yan

Department of Civil Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China

ABSTRACT: Experiments on Reactive Powder Concrete-filled steel tube stub columns under axial compres-
sion are analyzed based on the researches of concrete-filled steel tube and Reactive Powder Concrete at home
and abroad. Finite element analyses on some specimens are carried out with ABAQUS. The results show that
the rising part of load-strain curves are in good agreements with experiment results before the peak point. The
nonlinear analysis models of two confined concrete models and two steel models are established with ABAQUS,
one of them has the best agreements with the experimental results whose concrete model is presented by Han
linhai and steel model is tri-linear stress-strain model.

Keywords: Reactive Powder Concrete-filled steel tube; stub column; finite element analysis; failure mode

1 INTRODUCTION the behavior of RPC-filled steel tube circular stub

Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) is a relatively new
cement based material, which is composed of cement,
ultra-fine reactive powder, high-quality fine aggre-
gate, and so on. Through the elimination of coarse
aggregates and reducing the water-to-cement ratio,
RPC shows the unique properties of ultra-high com-
pressive strength and excellent durability. The applica-
tion of RPC-filled steel tube columns is increasing in
modern structures, which provides high strength, high
ductility, high stiffness and full usage of construction
materials. The fragility performance of RPC will be
improved by cooperative service of RPC and steel,
the steel tubes surrounding the RPC columns elimi-
nate permanent formwork which reduces construction
time(Hong & Ri 2003, Wenjun & Yuhang 2007). Steel
tubes not only assist in carrying axial load, but also
provide confinement to the concrete. This paper aims
to perform a nonlinear analysis of RPC-filled steel
tube circular stub columns under axial compression.
Previous available test results are used in the present
study to establish consistent FE modeling technique
using ABAQUS, where nonlinear material behavior,
enhanced strength corner properties of steel, and ini-
tial geometric imperfections are included. Using the
FE model, the results obtained from the model were
verified against the results of the tests.
2 FINITE ELEMENT MODELING
columns, the main three components of these columns
are modeled, which are considered as confined con-
crete, steel tube and interface between concrete and
steel tube. In addition to these parameters, the choice
of the element type and mesh size is also important in
simulating structures with interface elements.
2.2 Material modeling of steel tubes
Two kinds of stress-strain curves for steel tubes are
adopted in this study.
1. The multi-linear stress-strain curves are adopted
in this study. The experimental measured yield
stresses (fy ) were 291.4 MPa, 321.5 MPa and
316 MPa for steel tubes with nominal plate thick-
nesses of 4 mm, 5.0 mm and 6.0 mm respectively.
The first part of the multi-linear curve represents
the elastic part up to the proportional limit stress
with a measured Youngs modulus of 205 GPa and
Poissons ratio equal to 0.3.
2. The tri-linear stressstrain curves are also used to
model the circular steel tubes. The main defining
parameters for the tri-linear stressstrain curve are
the experimental measured yield stresses (fy ), the
ultimate stresses (fsu ). The experimental measured
yield stresses (fy ) were 291.4 MPa, 321.5 MPa
and 316 MPa, and the ultimate stresses (fsu ) were
487 MPa, 460 MPa and 490 MPa for steel tubes
with nominal plate thicknesses of 4 mm, 5.0 mm
and 6.0 mm respectively.

2.1 General 2.3 Material modeling of confined concrete

ABAQUS software package was employed through- The concrete strength is considerably improved as a
out the FE analysis. In order to accurately simulate result of the confinement of steel tube. In this study, it

167

Figure 1. Equivalent uniaxial stress-strain curves for con-
fined and unconfined concrete.
is intended to develop a confined concrete model. Two
kinds of confined concrete models are also adopted
in this study (Linhai 2004, Wenping et al. 2009).
The stress-strain curves for confined concrete are
expressed as follows.
1. Han linhai confined concrete model
Where
2. Saenz confined concrete model
Fig. 1 shows equivalent uniaxial presentations for
the stressstrain curves of unconfined and confined
concrete, where fc is the unconfined concrete cylinder
compressive strength .The corresponding unconfined
strain (c ) is taken as 0.003. The confined concrete
compressive strength (fcc ) and the corresponding con-
fined stain (cc ) can be determined from Eqs. (9) and
(10), respectively, proposed by Mander et al. (Mander
et al. 1988):
168
where fl is the lateral confining pressure imposed by
the circular steel tube. The lateral confining pressure
(fl ) depends on the D/t ratio and the steel tube yield
stress (fy ). The approximate value of (fl ) can be cal-
culated from empirical equations given by Hu et al.
(Hsuan Teh et al 2003). The factors (k1 ) and (k2 ) are
taken as 4.1 and 20.5, respectively. Knowing (fl ), (k1 )
and (k2 ), the values of the equivalent uniaxial con-
fined concrete strength (fcc ) and the corresponding
confined strain (cc ) can be determined using Eqs. (9)
and (10). To define the full equivalent uniaxial stress
strain curve for confined concrete as shown in Fig. 1,
three parts of the curve have to be identified. The first
part is the initially assumed elastic range to the pro-
portional limit stress. The value of the proportional
limit stress is taken as 0.5(fcc ) while the initial Youngs
modulus of confined concrete (Ecc ) is reasonably well
calculated using the empirical Eq. (11) given by ACI
and the Poissons ratio (cc ) of confined concrete is
taken as 0.2:
The second part of the curve is the nonlinear por-
tion starting from the proportional limit stress 0.5(fcc )
and going to the confined concrete strength (fcc ). This
part of the curve can be determined from Eq. (12)
which is a common equation proposed by Saenz. This
equation is used to represent the multidimensional
stress and strain values for the equivalent uniaxial
stress and strain values. The unknowns of the equa-
tion are the uniaxial stress (f ) and strain () values
defining this part of the curve. The strain values ()
are taken between the proportional strain, which is
equal to (0.5fcc /Ecc ), and the confined strain (cc ),
which corresponds to the confined concrete strength.
The stress values (f ) can be easily determined from
Eq. (4) by assuming the strain values ():
where RE and R values are calculated from Eqs. (13)
and (14), respectively:
while the constants R and R are taken equal to 4. The
third part of the confined concrete stressstrain curve
is the descending part from the confined concrete
strength (fcc ) to a value lower than or equal to rk3 fcc
with the corresponding strain of 11cc . The reduction Table 1. The ultimate loading capacity of specimens.
factor (k3 ) depends on the D/t ratio and the steel tube
yield stress (fy ). The reduction factor (r) takes into Dt L fc fy Nu
account the effect of the concrete strength. The value cm specimen MPa MPa MPa kN
of r is taken as 1.0 for concrete with the cube strength
(fcu ) equal to 30 MPa, while the value of r is taken 121 6 450 G-1 75.2 316 0.977 1905
G-2 75.2 316 0.977 1905
as 0.5, as recommended by Mursi and Uy (Mursi & A-11 100 316 0.733 2169
Uy 2003), for concrete with fcu greater than or equal A-12 100 316 0.733 2169
to 100 MPa. Linear interpolation is used to determine 102 4 450 G-3 75.2 291.4 0.692 1162
the value of r for concrete cube strength between 30 G-4 75.2 291.4 0.692 1162
and 100 MPa. A-13 100 291.4 0.519 1300
A-14 100 291.4 0.519 1300
1525450 G-5 75.2 321.6 0.626 2945
2.4 Concretesteel tube interface G-6 75.2 321.6 0.626 2945
A-15 100 321.6 0.470 2916
The contact between steel tube and concrete is mod- A-16 100 321.6 0.470 2916
eled by interface elements. The interface elements
consist of two matching contact faces of steel tube
and concrete elements. Surface-based interaction with
a hard contact model in the normal direction and a
penalty model in the tangential direction to the sur-
faces between the steel tube and core concrete is used
in FE model. The friction between two faces is main-
tained as long as the surfaces remain in contact. The
interface element allows the surfaces to separate under
the influence of a tensile force. However, the two
contact elements are not allowed to penetrate each
other.

2.5 Mesh and load application

In this study, solid elements were proved to be more
efficient in modeling both steel tube and concrete.
A fine mesh of three-dimensional eight-node solid
elements (C3D8) is used. Loading was applied in a
displacement control mode at the top of a stub column
to simulate the axial loading condition. The ends of the
stub column were fixed against all degrees of freedom
except for the vertical displacement at the top.

3 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Ultimate loads
Table 2 shows a comparison of the ultimate loads of the
concrete-filled steel tube circular columns obtained
experimentally and numerically using the finite ele-
ment model. It is shown that good agreement has
been achieved between two sets of results for most
of the columns. A maximum difference of 9% was
observed between experimental and numerical results
for column specimens G-5 and G-6.
3.2 Failure modes
Failure modes of the stub columns were shown in Fig. 2
respectively. Concrete core was compressed to failure
due to shear splitting according to the experimental
results, which caused a shear failure of the outer steel
tube and shear failure modes were observed. It seems
that the confinement exerted by the circular tube could
Figure 2. Failure modes of experimental results and finite
element results for specimens.
not fully prevent its concrete core from shear failure,
although the circular tube obviously provides higher
confinement on the concrete core. It also can be seen
that the deformation of steel tube is more uniform
when the D/t value is smaller. This can be explained
that the local buckling of steel tube is not obvious for
the specimens with smaller D/t, and the steel tube can
provide stronger confinement to its core concrete. For
the specimen with bigger D/t, the deformation of the
steel tube is not uniform and the local deformation is
relatively evident. An explanation is, for the specimens
with bigger D/t, the steel tube separated from core
concrete and buckled subsequently due to extrusion
of the crushed concrete. For FE results, the buckling
happened to be in the middle of the columns.

169
Figure 3. Load-strain curves of experimental results and finite element results for specimens.

3.3 N curves steel and the increasing confinement to the concrete

compensate the strain-softening of the concrete, and
Fig. 3 shows the N curves for different columns.
lead to the second aforementioned ascending branch,
FE1 are numerical results whose concrete model is
at a later stage the load carried by the steel tube
presented by Han linhai and steel model is tri-linear
decreases significantly. As can be seen, FE2 have
stressstrain model; FE2 are numerical results whose
more agreements with the experiment results.
concrete model is also presented by Han linhai and
steel model is multi-linear stress-strain curves model.
The experimental N curves were compared with
the numerical results, and good agreement had been 4 CONCLUSIONS
achieved in the rising part before the peak points.
The curves are generally similar in shape before the Several accurate nonlinear finite element models for
ultimate strength. However, in the post-peak stage, it the analysis of RPC-filled steel tube circular stub
appears slight differences. In the post-peak stage of columns have been presented. The confined concrete
the experimental curves, the hardening effect of the model has been accurately introduced. The measured

170
stressstrain curves for steel tubes were used to sim-
ulate the actual material of the steel tubes. The load
axial shortening curves and deformed shapes of the
columns predicted with the finite element model are
compared with the experimental results. The follow-
ing conclusions can be drawn based on the results of
this study:
1. The nonlinear analysis models of two confined
concrete models and two steel models are estab-
lished with ABAQUS and one of them is proved to
have best agreements with the experimental results,
whose concrete model is presented by Han Linhai
and steel model is tri-linear stressstrain model.
2. For experimental results, concrete core was com-
pressed to failure due to shear splitting, and thus
caused a shear failure of the outer steel tube and
shear failure modes were observed and the smaller
the D/t value, the more uniform is the deformation
of the steel tube. For the specimen with bigger D/t,
the deformation of the steel tube is not uniform and
the local deformation is relatively evident. For FE
results, the buckling happened to be in the middle
of the columns.
3. The load-strain curves are in good agreements in
the rising part before they arrive the peak point.
However, it shows slight differences in the post-
peak stage.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to acknowledge the support and
motivation provided by scientific fund of Ministry
171
of Railway of the Peoples Republic of China (No.
2007G030) and Ministry of Education of the Peoples
Republic of China (No. 200800041019).
REFERENCES
Hong, B. & Ri, G., 2003. The Application of Reactive Pow-
der Concrete in Engineering Construction(in chinese).
Building Science 19 (4): 5155.
HsuanTeh, H., ChiungShiann, H., MingHsien, W. & YihMin,
W., 2003. Nonlinear analysis of axially loaded concrete-
filled tube columns with confinement effect. Journal of
Structual Engineering 129(10):13221329.
Linhai, H., 2004. Concrete-filled Steel Tubular Structures
from Ttheory to Practice(in chinese). Beijing: Science
Press
Mander, J.B., Priestley M.J.N. & Park, R., 1988. Theoreti-
cal stressstrain model for confined concrete. Journal of
Structural Engineering 114(8):180426.
Mursi, M. & Uy, B., 2003. Strength of concrete filled steel
box columns incorporating interaction buckling. Journal
of Structural Engineering 129(5):62639.
Wenjun, Q. & Yuhang, Q., 2007. A Review of Study and
Application of Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) (in
chinese). Structual Engineering 23(5):8692.
Wenping, W., Bingsheng, H. & Jianhui, F., 2009. Research
on three stress-strain relationships of concrete-filled steel
tube(in chinese). Si chuan Building Science 35(6):1923.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Review of water desorption test methods

C. Ince
Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering and Architecutre, Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey

Y. Ozturk, M.A. Carter & M.A. Wilson

School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Civil Engineering, The University of Manchester, UK.

ABSTRACT: The water retaining ability of fresh mortar is described by a well-defined parameter, desorptivity.
To date various methods have been developed and introduced to measure desorptivity. Desorptivity can be
measured in four main ways; Capillary Suction Time (CTS), Suction Test, Filter Paper Plate, American Pertoleum
Institute (API) Pressure Cell. All test methods for water desorption have the same working principle. The quantity
of desorbed water at specified time intervals is measured by creating a potential difference in water pressure.
This potential difference can be realised in different ways depending on the method. This paper investigates the
four main test methods for desorptivity herein. The review of the test methods show that the desorptivity results
of pressure cell is much more meaningful than the results of the CTS, paper plate and suction method as the
pressure cell uses pressures equivalent to suction of brick.

Keywords: desorptivity, mortar, capillary suction pressure

1 CAPILLARY SUCTION TIME The cylindrical container is of 25mm internal diam-

The capillary suction time test (CST) method was
devised by Gale and Baskerville (1967) according to
Meeten and Smeulders (1995). The devised method
was a small-scale and convenient filterability measur-
ing method without needing any external source of
pressure or suction (Meeten and Smeulders, 1995).
The CST method (BS EN 14701-1:2006) relies on the
capillary pressure of a filter paper (British Standards
Institution, 2006a). The filter paper withdraws filtrate
from a wet mix. A small cylindrical reservoir holds the
wet mix in contact with the surface of the filter paper.
The experimental arrangement is shown schematically
in Figure 1.
eter and the filter paper is of 185 mm diameter. The
wet mix in the cylinder is of depth H and the thick-
ness of filter paper is h. The porosity of the filter
paper should be determined. To measure porosity, the
amount of water absorbed into a fixed volume of paper
should be recorded. Afterwards, the cylindrical con-
tainer filled with wet mix is placed on the surface of
the dry filter paper as shown in Figure 1. The water
is withdrawn by the capillary pressure of the filter
paper. The water withdrawing process causes a radial
wet front to advance across the filter paper. To deter-
mine the capillary suction time, the time for the wet
front to travel between two concentric rings, which is
the distance between a0 (the side of the cylinder) to a (a
predetermined fixed point), is measured. The desorp-
tivity, R, of the wet mix is calculated from the gradient
of a plot (a4 a40 )1/2 versus t 1/2 . Carter et al. (2003)
reported that varying the container height enables pres-
sure variations in CST measurements. (i.e. the shorter
H , the longer the capillary suction time). Furthermore,
Carter et al. (2003) showed that the maximum pressure
exerted by the filter paper is about 16.5 kilopascal
(kPa). It should be noted that this is a single point
measurement method.

2 SUCTION TEST

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the capillary suction time The American Society for Testing and Materials
test apparatus (Carter et al., 2003). (ASTM) Suction test (ASTM C1506 09) method

173

Figure 2. Apparatus assembly for the ASTM water retention
test (ASTM, 2009).
provides a means for determining the ability of
mortars and plasters to retain water under suction
(ASTM, 2009). The standardised method is specifi-
cally designed to determine the water retaining char-
acteristics of hydraulic cement-based mortars and
plasters. The experimental apparatus comprises a tam-
per, a straightedge, a flow table, a mixing apparatus
and a filtration assembly. This method needs an exter-
nal source of suction. A vacuum pump connected to
the bottom of a perforated dish is used to generate the
pressure difference (p1 p2 ).
The filtration assembly and its details are shown in
Figure 2. The apparatus shown in Figure 2 consists of
eight main components: (i) a perforated brass dish; (ii)
a filter paper; (iii) a funnel; (iv) three-way stopcock;
(v) a 1-L flask; (vi) a vacuum gage; (vii) a vacuum
regulator; and (viii) a vacuum pump or aspirator.
The perforated dish rests on a funnel which is
connected to a vacuum flask by using a three-way
stopcock. It is indicated in the standard that mate-
rial of the perforated dish should be a metal, which
cannot be damaged by masonry mortar or plaster.
The requirements for the metal base of the perfo-
rated dish are given in Figure 2. Its thickness should
be 2.0 0.3 mm. The diameter of the stopcock bore
should be 4.0 0.5 mm and the inner diameter of the
connecting glass tubing should be minimum of 4 mm.
It is also indicated in the standard that there should be
an airtight seal between the funnel and the dish dur-
ing the test. The filter paper used in the test should
be a hardened, smooth and not rapid filter paper. The
diameter of the filter paper should be 150 mm. The
perforations in the dish should be completely covered
by the filter paper.
174
The vacuum gage should be capable of reading at
least 9 kPa pressure in 0.1 kPa increments. Follow-
ing mixing, the initial flow of the mortar or plaster is
determined by using a flow table. Immediately after
carrying out the flow test, the mortar or plaster on the
flow table is returned to the mixing bowl and remixed
for 15 seconds at medium speed. After remixing, the
perforated dish is quickly filled with mortar/plaster to
slightly above the rim. The material is tamped 15 times
with the tamper. The stopcock is turned on to apply
the vacuum to the funnel. After 60 seconds dewatering,
the stopcock is quickly turned off to expose the funnel
to atmospheric pressure. Immediately, the dewatered
mix is removed from the apparatus and a second flow
test carried out to determine the flow after dewatering.
The water retention as a percentage is calculated from
the following equation:
where A = flow after dewatering (the final flow);
B = flow immediately after initial mixing (the initial
flow).
It should be noted that this is a single point mea-
surement method. This standardised test method was
used by Sbabi et al. (2003) and Patural et al. (2011).
However, Sbabi et al. (2003) and Patural et al. (2011)
only used the standardised apparatus and did not fol-
low the test procedure stated in the standard. In their
procedure, the perforated dish was filled with freshly
mixed mortar and weighed. Afterwards, the apparatus
was exposed to a vacuum of 7.0 0.4 kPa for 15 min-
utes before weighing again. This is also a single point
measurement method. As the mass of the empty dish
including the filter paper was known, the mass of the
sample was calculated easily, together with the mass
of the mixing water. The water retention capacity, WR,
is calculated from the following equation:
where W0 = the initial mass of mix water; W1 = the
mass of mix water lost after suction.
3 FILTER PAPER PLATE
The filter paper plate method (BS EN 459-2:2010) also
relies on the capillary pressure of a filter paper (British
Standards Institution, 2010a). The water retention of
a freshly mixed mortar is expressed as that percent-
age of water which remains in the mortar after a short
suction time on a filter paper. The standardised appara-
tus is shown and described in Figure 3. The apparatus
shown consists of four main components: (1) two plas-
tic plates of dimensions 200 mm 200 mm 5 mm;
(1) conical plastic ring, of 140 mm smaller and 150 mm
larger inside diameter, 12 mm in height; (2) a filter
paper plate of dimensions 190 mm 190 mm 2 mm,
and (3) a nonwoven tissue, 185 mm in diameter. In

Figure 3. Test arrangement for filter paper plate method 1:
plastic plates; 2: plastic ring; 3: filter paper plate; 4: nonwoven
tissue; 5: fresh test mortar. Dimensions are in mm (British
Standards Institution, 2010).
addition, a balance which is capable of weighing to
the nearest 0,1 g and a steel straightedge are required.
To determine the water retention, a mortar of known
water volume fraction (W1 ) is used. The dry filter
plate together with one of the two plastic plates (m17 )
are weighed. A piece of nonwoven tissue is placed on
the filter plate, the plastic ring, with its smaller opening
downwards, is placed on top of this, and the assembly
(m18 ) is weighed.
The test is commenced 15 seconds after the com-
pletion of the mixing process. The mortar is placed
into the plastic ring as quickly and uniformly as pos-
sible and levelled with a straightedge immediately.
Following that, the assembly is weighed again (m19 ),
covered with the second plastic plate and left to stand
for 5 min. Then the test arrangement is inverted and
removed and the lower plastic plate with the filter plate
weighed (m20 ).
If the mass of water absorbed by the filter plate,
W3 = m20 m17 , exceeds 10 g, the test must be repeated
using two or more filter plates, selecting the number
of filter plates used, n, so that the ratio W3 /n 10 g.
The water retention (WR) is calculated on the basis of
the following formulae. The water fraction of the test
mortar (W1 ) is calculated from the equation:
where W1 = the water volume fraction of the test mor-
tar; m21 = the total mass of water in the fresh mortar,
in grams; m22 = the mass of dry mortar, in grams. The
water content of the mortar in the plastic ring (W2 ) is
calculated as W2 = m23 W1 , where W2 is the water
content of the mortar in the plastic ring, in grams; m23
is the mass of mortar in the plastic ring, in grams; m18
is the mass of the plastic plate, filter plate, nonwoven
tissue and plastic ring, in grams; m19 is the mass of the
plastic plate, filter plate, nonwoven tissue and plastic
ring with mortar filling, in grams.
The mass of water absorbed by the filter plate (W3 )
is calculated as W3 = m20 m17 where W3 is the mass
of water absorbed by the filter plate, in grams; m17 is
the mass of the dry filter plate and the plastic plate, in
grams; m20 is the mass of the soaked filter plate and
the plastic plate, in grams. The relative loss of water
175
from the mortar (W4 ) is calculated from the following
equation:
where W4 = the relative loss of water from the mortar,
in percent. The water retention (WR) as a percentage
is calculated as WR = 100 W4 . The individual values
are stated and the mean of two individual values to the
nearest 0, 1%. It should be noted that this method is a
single point measurement. In the opinion of the author,
the terminology for this test is very confusing.
4 AMERICAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE
PRESSURE CELL
The pressure cell for filtration of slurries is commonly
used in sewage treatment research, mineral process-
ing, research into the dewatering of mining sludge, in
the oil industry, and in geotechnics. This method com-
promises expelling water from a mortar/slurry placed
in a thick-walled stainless steel cylindrical vessel (the
pressure cell) via the action of pressurised gas.
Previous studies have reported desorptivity mea-
surements on muds and bentonite clay suspensions
in the oil- and mineral-processing industries (Meeten
and Sherwood, 1994; Sherwood and Meeten, 1997).
More recent studies have reported desorptivity mea-
surements of cement mortars and grouts (Green et al.,
1999; Carter et al., 2003; Bolton and McKinley, 1997,
McKinley and Bolton, 1999). In their studies, Green
et al. (1999) and Carter et al. (2003) used a stan-
dard American Petroleum Institute (API) pressure
cell designed for oil well cements and drilling flu-
ids (API, 1998). Most recently, Ince et al. (2011)
have reported desorptivity values of lime and cement
mortars. A modified API pressure cell was used by
Ince et al. (2011).
A schematic diagram of the pressure cell is shown in
Figure 4. To determine the desorptivity, R, the freshly
mixed mortar is placed in the cell and the amount of
desorbed water from the freshly mixed under the action
of a pressurised gas is measured. It is assumed that
desorption of water by using appropriate gas pressures
is equivalent to the suction of water from the mix by an
absorbent substrate materials such as brick. Desorbed
liquid from the mortar is collected on a top loading
balance. This balance is connected to a computer with
dedicated software. The software records the mass of
desorbed liquid at any designated time interval.
The desorptivity, R, of the freshly mixed mortar at
a given gas pressure is then determined from the gra-
dient of a plot of the cumulative desorbed volume of
water per unit area, i, plotted against the square root
of time, t 1/2 .
A low desorptivity, R, value corresponds to a mortar
mix which is very water retaining. A high desorptivity,
R, value corresponds to a fresh mortar mix which is
very water releasing. This test procedure produces a

Figure 4. Schematic diagram of the pressure cell method.
Table 1. Comparison of pressures exerted by all test
methods and brick (1000 kPa = 1 MPa).
Test Maximum Pressure (P)
Capillary Suction Time 16.5 kPa
ASTM Suction Test 101.325 kPa
Paper Plate 1020 kPa
API Pressure Cell >500 kPa
Brick 100200 kPa
number of data points rather than a single point mea-
surement. This method can produce pressures higher
than 500 kPa.
5 CRITIQUE OF THE METHODS
Four different methods were explained. The maximum
pressures that can be released or exerted by these
methods are summarised and the capillary suction
pressure of a clay common brick is given in in Table 1
for comparison.
It is very apparent that the CST method has very
limited use by its pressure range. Carter et al. (2003)
showed that the maximum pressure exerted by the filter
paper is about 16.5 kilopascal (kPa).
Absorbent substrate materials such as brick on
which freshly mixed mortars are placed exert a capil-
lary suction pressure. Ioannou et al. (2003) highlights
that capillary suction pressure of a clay common brick
is in the range of 0.10.2 MPa (100200 kPa). How-
ever, the pressure in CST method is a very low suction
pressure value when the substrates for masonry mor-
tars are in consideration (e.g. clay brick). Furthermore,
several studies have revealed that the CST method
has limited use by the means of testing fresh mor-
tars (Carter et al., 2003; Meeten, 1993; Meeten and
Smeulders, 1995). Moreover, it is a single point mea-
surement method. On the other hand, the CST method
is rapid and inexpensive.
The review shows that another method with a lim-
ited use by its pressure range is the pressure plate
method. The maximum pressure exerted by the fil-
ter paper is 20 (kPa). Compared with the capillary
suction pressure of a brick (100200 kPa), this is a
very low suction value. Furthermore, this is a sin-
gle point measurement method. However, the pressure
plate method is rapid and inexpensive and is adequate
for comparative measurements, even though no value
of desorptivity, R, given.
The ASTM suction tests have limited range of
pressures as well. The maximum pressure difference
that can be realised with the ASTM suction test is
atmospheric pressure (101.325 kPa). Another problem
with this method is that it measures water retention by
using flow tests which has nothing to do with desorp-
tivity. Furthermore, it is a single point measurement
method. The advantage of the ASTM suction is the
easy setup which is available in a large number of
construction material laboratories.
The maximum pressure limit of the API pressure
cell is determined by its safe operating limit. The API
pressure cell can be used to dewater freshly mixed
mortars over a pressure range comparable with the
capillary suction of clay brick substrates. Previous
studies have showed that API pressure cell is a rapid
and accurate technique (Green et al., 1999; Carter
et al., 2003). Carter et al. (2003) and Ince et al. (2011)
highlight that API pressure cell can apply a range of
pressures equivalent to the suction produced by a clay
brick or any other block masonry material. Another
advantage of the API pressure cell is the easy pressure
control. Furthermore, this is not a single point mea-
surement method. Previous and current studies have
used pressures higher than 500 kPa. Therefore, pres-
sures that mortars encounter in real life practice can
be examined.
It is clear from Table 1 that none of the tests except
API pressure cells can achieve the capillary suction
pressure of a brick. The CST and paper plate methods
are dependent on a filter paper and they are a single
point measurement method. However, the maximum
pressure exerted by the filter paper is far lower the
pressure values exerted by an absorbent substrate. Fur-
thermore, compared to pressure cell methods, the CST
and paper plate methods have far lower pressure val-
ues. The ASTM suction test is at the lower limits of the
pressure values exerted by an absorbent substrate and
the pressure cells. However, these tests are of value
because they produce comparative results.
The results of pressure cell tests will be more mean-
ingful than the results of the CST, paper plate and
suction method as the pressure cell method uses pres-
sures equivalent to suction of brick. The pressure cell
method is not standardised yet. However, measuring
desorptivity in this way could become a valuable stan-
dard test method which would help to design mortar
mixes and asses their water retaining properties based
176
on the capillary suction pressure of the absorbent
substrate to which they will be applied.
The main limitation of all the methods discussed
here is their inability to fully dewater a freshly mixed
mortar. Even though the API pressure cell can match
the pressure of a brick, it dewaters the mix from the
bottom upwards only until gas breakthrough and it is
not possible to obtain a fully dewatered mortar for any
other test such as strength testing. However, the API
pressure cell is still the best method for measuring
desorptivity because it can apply pressures equivalent
to the very high suctions produced by typical brick and
block masonry materials and gives a numerical value
of desorptivity, R.
REFERENCES
American Petroleum Institute 1998. API Specification 10.
Washington: API.
American Society For Testing and Materials. 2009. ASTM
C1506 09 Standard Test Method for Water Retention
of Hydraulic Cement-Based Mortars and Plasters. West
Conshohocken, PA: ASTM.
Bolton, M. D. & McKinley, J. D. 1997. Geotechnical Prop-
erties of Fresh Cement Grout Pressure Filtration and
Consolidation Tests. Geotechnique 47(1): 347352.
British Standards Institution. 2006a. BS EN 14701-1:2006
Characterization of Sludges. Filtration Properties. Capil-
lary Suction Time (CST). Milton Keynes: BSI.
British Standard Institution. 2010a. BS EN 459-2:2010
Building Lime. Test Methods. Milton Keynes: BSI.
Carter, M. A., Green, K. M., Wilson, M. & Hoff, W. 2003.
Measurement of the Water Retentivity of Cement Mortars.
Advances in Cement Research 15(3): 155159.
Gale, R.S. & Baskerville, R.C. 1967. Capillary suction
method for determination of the filtration properties
of a solid/liquid suspension. Chemistry and Industry 9:
355356.
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Green, K. M., Carter, M. A., Hoff, W. D. & Wilson, M. A.
1999. The Effects of Lime and Admixtures on the Water-
Retaining Properties of Cement Mortars. Cement and
Concrete Research 29(11): 17431747.
Ince, C., Carter, M., Wilson, M., Collier, N., El-Turki, A.,
Ball, R. & Allen, G. 2011. Factors Affecting the Water
Retaining Characteristics of Lime and Cement Mortars in
the Freshly-Mixed State. Materials and Structures 44(1):
509516.
Ioannou, I., Hall, C., Wilson, M. A., Hoff, W. D. &
Carter, M. A. 2003. Direct Measurement of the Wetting
Front Capillary Pressure in a Clay Brick Ceramic. Journal
of Physics D: Applied Physics 36(24): 31763182.
McKinley, J. D. & Bolton, M. D. 1999. A Geotechnical
Description of Fresh Cement Grout Filtration and Con-
solidation Behaviour. Magazine of Concrete Research
51(5): 295307.
Meeten, G. H. & Sherwood, J. D. 1994. The Hydraulic Perme-
ability of Bentonite Suspensions with Granular Inclusions.
Chemical Engineering Science 49(19): 32493256.
Meeten, G. H. & Smeulders, J. B. A. F. 1995. Interpre-
tation of Filterability Measured by the Capillary Suc-
tion Time Method. Chemical Engineering Science 50(8):
12731279
Patural, L., Marchal, P., Govin, A., Grosseau, P., Ruot, B. &
Deves, O. 2011. Cellulose Ethers Influence on Water
Retention and Consistency in Cement-Based Mortars.
Cement and Concrete Research 41(1): 4655.
Sebaibi, Y., Dheilly, R. M. & Queneudec, M. 2003. Study
of the Water-Retention Capacity of a Lime-Sand Mortar:
Influence of the Physicochemical Characteristics of the
Lime. Cement and Concrete Research 33(5): 689696.
Sherwood, J. D. & Meeten, G. H. 1997. The Filtration
Properties of Compressible Mud Filtercakes. Journal of
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Lightweight aggregates produced from mixtures of high silica heating

microscope procedure

S. Al-Bahar, S. Al-Otaibi, M. Taha, A. Al-Arbeed, A. Abduljaleel, F. Al-Fahad & S. Al-Fadala

Building and Energy Technologies Department Environment and Urban Development Division,
Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait

ABSTRACT: Aggregate wash (AW) mix with argillaceous materials, are suitable raw material for light weight
aggregate (LWA) production, characterized by its bloating ability (bloatability) as well as its thermal insulating
properties as a building material. The purpose of this study is look at the effect of high silica content on the
melting behavior and bloating characteristics, of AW mixtures with gatch, and with or without bloating agent. The
bloating ranges of raw materials were evaluated using the Heating Electron Microscope (HEM) technique,
at temperatures ranging from 25 to 1600 C. A monitoring camera captured the images of melting modes at
different phase structures. HEM techniques affirmed the suitability of AW for LWA production in a mixture with
argillaceous materials, of low silicon oxide percentage, supported by bloating agents such as sewage sludge, SS
and lube oil.

Keywords: Heating electron microscope, aggregate wash, argillaceous materials, Riley, lightweight aggregate,
silica.

1 INTRODUCTION data of the captured images continuously and plots

To check the raw materials suitability for synthetic
aggregates production, and to evaluate their melting
behavior and bloating characteristics, the chemical
analysis of all raw materials need to be assessed,
(Al-Bahar et al. 2012 and Hamlin and Templin 1962).
Chemical analysis is carried out by the X-ray fluores-
cence (XRF) method. The results of oxide analysis of
the raw materials and raw mixtures (XRF) are evalu-
ated and loss free oxides (LOI) are grouped into major
oxides (SiO2 and Al2 O3 ) and other fluxing oxides.
Oxide percentages are plotted on Rileys diagram,
(Riley, 1951) to locate their position with respect to the
tertiary area of successful bloating, which implies that
materials are fired to a mass viscous enough to ensure
good bloatability. Mineralogical analysis (XRD) of
the raw materials is also conducted, to highlight the
presence of fairly good amounts of clay minerals.
Furthermore, the bloating ranges of raw materials
and their mixtures are evaluated using the Heating
Electron Microscope technique, (Dee and Reeves,
2002), which added to the acceptability of bloating
characteristics of the raw material. With the heating
microscope technique, the samples are heated at a
temperature ranging from 25 to 1600 C. A monitoring
camera gives the images of the raw materials melting
phase at different temperatures, the computer software
registers, evaluates, and manages the measurement
them in a graph. From these measurements bloating
temperatures can be determined with accuracy and
relative precision, as the indicated temperatures assist
in identifying start and end of gas liberation.
To understand the effects of high SiO2 on the ther-
mal behavior and the LWA production of a mix with
high SiO2 , three different mixes were prepared with
different percentages of SiO2 , with and without a bloat-
ing agent. All the mixes were prepared with the same
fineness. The results were compared withthat of the
LWA produced from burning AW alone and the AW
with lube oil (LO) or with solid sludge (SS); as bloating
agents. These mixes are:
A mix prepared from: 70% aggregate wash (AW)
and 30% gatch (G); without any bloating agent,
A mix prepared from: 70% AW and 30% G with
5% LO. The bloating agent was added to this mix
to accelerate the bloating process and its formation.
A mix prepared from: 50% AW and 50% G with
5% LO.
The thermal behavior of the above three mixes was
first evaluated by the heating microscope then fol-
lowed by burning the prepared dried pellets of the 50%
AW and 50% G with 5% LO in the rotary kiln. These
heating microscope results were compared with that
obtained by burning the AW with and without LO and
AW with SS.

179
Table 1. Summary of the results of the rotary kilns Table 2. The percentage of SiO2 and the flux oxides of the
operations (lab and pilot) of the AW and the mix of 50% main raw materials and 50% AW + 50% Gmix.
AW + 50% G + 5% LO.
50% AW +
Product Water Percentage AW Gatch 50% Gatch
Materials Density Bloating Absorption
Used (g/cm3 ) Ratio (%) SiO2 66.41 87.04 76.72
Al2 O3 19.16 7.02 13.09
AW 0.81 1.29 4.3 Total Flux 14.43 5.95 9.99
AW + 1.12% LO 0.68 1.46 17.4
AW + 4% SS 0.45 1.63 21.8
50% AW + 50% 1.34 1.02 16.8
G + 5%LO

2 METHODS

2.1 Rotary Kiln operation

Bloating of high grade of LWA was produced by burn-
ing AW; with or without bloating agents. Even mixing
the AW with Kuwaiti argillaceous materials, such as
red clay (RC) produced high grade of LWA. Mixing the
AW with gatch (either with or without bloating agent)
did not produce LWA by burning the mix at 1200 C.
Bloating of such mixes was not examined at tempera-
tures higher than 1200 C, due to the limitation of the
kilns. But, as it is expected higher temperatures are
required to obtain a certain bloating (Table 1).
The aggregate with the highest density (1.34) and
the lowest bloating ratio (1.02) is that produced from
the mix with 50% AW + 50% gatch and 5% LO. It
shows the lowest water absorption, due to its higher
density. This is in comparison to the LWA produced
from AW alone with a density of 0.81 and a bloating
ratio of 1.29. Aggregate wash with 4% solid sludge
shows the lowest density, higher bloating ration and
water absorption.
The mix where the gatch is one of the components
is characterized by:
Hindering and slowing the reaction between all the
oxides of the mix,
Minimizing and/or preventing the formation of the
bloating at a temperature of 1200 C, in contrast
to the mixes that contain AW. It does not produce
LWA, and
Requires high temperature to show some properties
for bloating.
To understand the behavior of the gatch mixes
during the burning process and elaborate of the non-
bloatability of the gatch mixes, it is necessary to
evaluate such mixes from two different angles.
The chemical composition of the materials and the
mixes, to understand the percentage of the oxides
contents of the each material used, specifically SiO2
and the flux, and lastly the results of the heating
microscope analysis on these four different mixes;
to understand the characteristic morphology of each
mix. It is worth to mention here that the maximum
temperature of the heating microscope is 1600 C.
Figure 1. Rileys composition diagram of major oxides
showing the AW with argillaceous mixtures of RC lay within
the area of possible bloating, while AW with high silica
mixture lay outside the area.
2.2 Chemical composition of the materials and
mixes
The gatch is characterized by high silica and low flux
materials contents, in comparison to the AW. Accord-
ingly, the 50% AW + 50% G mix has higher silica
content (by about 10%) and low flux materials (by
about 10%) in comparison to the AW. The presence
of high silica, which is mainly quartz; and the low
flux materials, which attributes to the bloating forma-
tion at lower temperature; are the main reasons for the
non-bloating process of the 50% AW + 50% G.
Although 5% LO was added to the mix 50%
AW + 50% G, it did not help in producing the bloat-
ing. Therefore, to produce LWA it is necessary to keep
the mix composition inside the bloating area of Rileys
triangle (figure 1).
2.3 Heating microscope
Heating microscope manufactured by Hesse-
Instruments, Germany, was used for documenting all
the chemical and physical changes during heating each
of the four different samples. Heating was carried
out from 25 C1600 C. The machine documented the

180
Figure 2. Picture analysis data sheet of 70% AW + 30% G.
picture analysis results by measuring the temperature
of each of the chemical and physical changes. The
morphology of the sample, including area, shape fac-
tor, height, width and corner angles are documented.
The picture at each change is also taken and presented.
The heating microscope experiment, shown in pic-
ture analysis of figures 2, 3, 4 and 5 , was carried out
on four different samples. These are:
Sample 1: AW + 1.12% LO
Sample 2: 70% AW + 30% G
Sample 3: 70% AW + 30% G + 5% LO
Sample 4: 50% AW + 50% G + 5% LO
2.4 Experimental tests
The experimental tests for all the samples were carried
out under the same condition and the heating profile
was constant for all the four samples:
Heating rate of 60 C/min from the room tempera-
ture till 900 C
Heating rate of 10 C/min from 900 C till 1600 C
Heating the cylinder sample by the heating micro-
scope causes it to undergo several chemical reactions.
These reactions depend mainly on the chemical and
mineralogical compositions and the particle size dis-
tribution of the sample. As it is mentioned earlier, these
reactions are hindered by the increase of the silica con-
tents and by increasing the particle size distribution.
181
Figure 3. Picture analysis data sheet of AW + 1.12% LO.
Generally, the sample undergoes the following series
of reactions.
First the calcination phase occurs, where carbon
dioxide is evolved and generally this occurs at about
760 C. The degree of calcination depends on the per-
centage of the carbon dioxide in the sample. The
aggregate wash by itself has a higher percentage of
carbon dioxide in comparison to those where the
gatch is added. As a result of the calcination, a slight
reduction in the sample volume occurred.
The sintering phase is the chemical reactions
among the different oxides starts. It is enhanced by
the presence of the flux materials, bloating agents and
the suitable percentage of silica to react with the other
ingredients.
At the deforming phase the liquid phase starts
resulting in the area reduction. Usually this happened
at a lower temperature and with a higher deforming
percentage than that of mixes with high silica con-
tent. High flux materials produce high liquid phase
and improve the cohesion between the particles and
the ability of shaping in the rotary kiln.
At a higher temperature, the liquid phase and reac-
tion are increased and the gases evolution results in a
uniformly distributed pore structure. This is the sphere
phase. Due to the increase of the liquid phase, the
gas bubbles enter inside the body sample causing a

Figure 4. Picture analysis data sheet of 50% AW + 50%
G + 5% LO.
remarkable increase in the area. Resulting in produc-
ing lightweight material with low density that contains
uniformly distributed different sizes of pores. During
the cooling process of the sphere phase, the surface of
the aggregate is verified.
The hemisphere phase is characterized by increas-
ing temperature leading to increased viscosity of the
liquid. Also, the gases, that form the pores, are evolved
and the area percentage is reduced.
Flowing Phase is the last process and occurs when
increasing temperatures cause the sample to be more
flattened and reduced in the shape and the area. The
degree of the flatten and area reduction are higher
in the case of AW only, in comparison to that which
are mixed with the gatch. This is mainly attributed to
the silica and the liquid phase contents. Samples with
lower silica and higher liquid contents flatten more
and the area is more reduced in comparison to those
of high silica content and low liquid phase.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Heating microscope
Table 3 shows the sintering temperature and the tem-
perature characteristic at which the different shape
morphologies occurred for the four different samples.
182
Figure 5. Picture analysis data sheet of 70% AW + 30%
G + 5% LO.
The aggregate wash sample has the lowest sintering,
deformation, sphere, hemisphere and flow tempera-
tures in comparison to the other three samples. This
is mainly attributed to the low silica content of the
first sample and high flux composition. Introducing
the gatch in the mix results in slowing all the reac-
tions and a higher temperature, even with the addition
of 5% waste oilso that the reaction can be completed
between all the chemical ingredients.
The deformation range of the aggregate wash sam-
ple is about 120 C, while the other three samples
deform in a higher range. They deform in a range
varying from139, 189 and 262 C, respectively.
The more use of gatch in the mix, the higher
the start of the deformation temperature and the
deformation range.
The flow of the liquid starts at 1297 C and ends at
1366 C (i.e. within a range of 69 C) for the aggregate
sample with the 1.2% waste oil, while the liquid starts
to flow at 1349 C and ends at 1500 C (with a range
varies from 139 to 262 C) for the other samples that
contain gatch. The higher the gatch percentage, the
higher is the temperature range of the liquid flow.
Again, the aggregate wash sample starts bloating at
a lower temperature and its range of bloating is also the
lowest in comparison to the other three samples. Addi-
tion of the waste oil partially helps in minimizing the
bloating range, sample 4 in comparison to sample 3.
The picture analysis of the heating microscope of
the four different samples were evaluated and ana-
lyzedto understand the behavior of burning the mixes
with high silica content. This was extracted from the
parameters of the heating samples, as the heating
Table 3. Sintering temperature and the temperatures of the in the case of sphere and hemisphere phases; due
shape morphology for the four different samples. to the gas evolution, pores and bloating formation.
As the hemisphere phase occurred at higher temper-
Temperature atures, the sample is flattened and the width change
C Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3 Sample 4 is decreased in comparison to the sphere phase. This
is attributed to the increase of the liquid viscosity by
Sintering 823 840 823 826
higher temperature.
Deformation 1170 1210 1190 1190
Increasing the temperature increases the width
Sphere 1230 1259 1266 1387
Hemisphere 1285 1349 1379 1452
change in all the three phases of sample 1. It is much
Flow 1366 1477 1494 1500
higher in the case of sample 4 (with 5% LO), and this
Deformation 11701297 12101349 11901379 11901452 may be attributed to the presence of the high percent
Range of oil.
Flow Range 12971366 13491477 13791494 13871500 Heating microscope studies show that sample 1
performed much better in contrast to the other three
samples. Sample 1 has a suitable percentage of sil-
ica, flux materials and the bloating agents. In contrast
Table 4. Range of the bloating temperature of the four to the other three samples higher silica and low flux
different samples. percentage.
Production of LWA from the first mix is the most
Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3 Sample 4 economical one. This mix requires a lower temperature
for the bloating process as well as high quality of LWA
Range of 11701240 12101315 11901330 11901320 produced. This mix produces the lowest aggregate
Bloating density, the main characteristic of LWA. By increasing
Temp C the silica and reducing the flux contents, the chemical
(70) (105) (140) (130)
reactions between all the chemical components occur
at higher temperatures. Furthermore the bloating pro-
cess is reduced and the produced aggregate does not
meet the requirements of LWA.
Table 5. The area, height and width of the four different
From the above discussion and the heating micro-
samples in the deformation, sphere and hemispheres phases.
scope results, it is clear that the chemical composition
Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3 Sample 4 of the mix is very important. It is necessary to keep the
chemical composition within the bloating area of the
Area, %, at Rileys Triangle, to produce and meet the requirements
Deformation Phase 65.9 89.7 73.1 71.5 of LWA production.
Sphere Phase 154.3 119.0 125.3 110.5
Hemisphere Phase 123.5 92.1 98.0 114.3
Height, %, at
3.2 Role of silica in the mixes with high silica
Deformation Phase 81.6 92.7 84.8 84.6 content
Sphere Phase 125.5 109.8 115.7 104.2 In order to produce an acceptable LWA, silica should
Hemisphere Phase 91.0 72.4 76.7 83.0 be in the range of 60%, Al2 O3 in the range of 16%
Width, %, at and the remaining as the flux materials. Mixes with
Deformation Phase 79.6 96.9 85.8 85.8 high silica content upsets the suitability of the mix to
Sphere Phase 135.2 122.9 120.0 117.5 produce LWA. Silica is one of the main factors that
Hemisphere Phase 154.7 162.2 159.2 174.8 play an important role in the LWA.
Aggregates produced from mixes that contain high
silica content usually have a density approaching to
one. They are dense as they have a minimum bloat-
microscope measured them. The analysis includes the ing process. They need a higher burning temperature
area, height and width determinations in the deforma- to reach a complete reaction between all its chemical
tion and sphere phases. Table 5 displays the results of constituents.
the four different samples. Si has a high charge and an oxidation rate of +4
The mixes (2, 3 and 4) with a high percentage of (Si+4 ); the highest between all the other elements of
silica are more stable and showed less area change in the LWA mix. It has a low nucleation rate in contrast
the deformation phase. As a result, sample 1 has a to Fe, which has a low charge and high nucleation rate.
higher area in the case of the sphere and hemispheres Si liquid has a very hard and high viscosity. Its core
phases. This is attributed to the formation of the pores; is stable, and it is hard to split it into two or more
the flux materials in this sample are much higher than cores. The activation energy (the energy necessary to
the other three samples. detach a Si particle from its neighbors in the crystal
Due to the highest area deformation of sample 1, lattice and to bring it to a state of reactivity) of free
it shows the lowest height change in the deformation Si is too high. This requires more fuel for the reac-
phase. This is followed by an increase in the height tion. It has an electronic configuration of [Ne]3s2 3p2

183
and according to Fajans rule, (Douglas, et al, 1983,
Gouda 1979)the electrons in Si+4 , which has a noble
gas structure, are stable and more tightly held (high
charge) than Ca+2 , Al+3 and Fe+2 , +3 , which makes
their diffusion difficult.
Mixes with high silica contents usually have a low
percentage of flux. Such mixes are:
Difficult to sinter and to form sphere and hemi-
sphere phases,
Do not promote fusion and the reaction between all
the components proceeds more slowly,
Has lower surface tension and are characterized by
lower flowability that hinders the sintering process
and the reaction between the different chemical
grains, and
Produces minimum or no bloating.
The XRD of the gatch shows a high percentage of
quartz (free silica) in addition to the silicates com-
pounds. The free silica is more stable and difficult to
react in contrast to the silicate compounds.
4 CONCLUSION
Heating Electron Microscope, HEM technique, adds
to the acceptability of bloating characteristics of raw
materials. It can determine with accuracy and relative
precision, the start and the end of gas liberation, where
the released gas causes the material mass to bloat.
Though Rileys compositional diagram, can indicate
the ability of raw materials to bloat under firing
temperature, it is proven that this indication is inad-
equate, and might create misleading results, therefore
its results should be confirmed by the HEM technique
or actual firing.
Mixes with high silica contents, upset the suitabil-
ity of the mix to produce LWA. In order to produce an
acceptable LWA, silica should be in the range of 60%,
Al2 O3 in the range of 16% and the remaining as the flux
184
materials. AW wash is most suitable to produce LWA,
with or without a bloating agent. In order to increase
the life-time of the AW, it is recommended to add an
argillaceous materials and not gatch, which will posi-
tion the raw mix in the bloating area of Rileys triangle.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Appreciations go to our main sponsors; the Kuwait
Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) and the
Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science
(KFAS) for the orderly contribution to the projects
budget and the endless support. Recognition and
appreciation go to the project consultant, Dr. George
Gouda, who has been a great inspiration and a key
guide to the projects team, throughout the project.
REFERENCES
Suad, Kh. B., Saud, O., Sharifa, F., Ali, J., Mahmoud, T.,
Fatmah, F., Ruba, F., Amer, A., & Tarun, M., 2012. Produc-
tion and characterization of synthetic lightweight aggre-
gates utilizing Kuwaiti argillaceous materials, Kuwait
Institute for Scientific Research, E036C, Final report,
KISR 11037.
Hamlin, H. P. & Templin, G., 1962. Evaluating raw mate-
rials for rotary kiln production of lightweight aggregate.
U.S. Bureau Mines Info. Circ., 8122, 23.
Riley, C. M., 1951. Relation of Chemical Properties to the
Bloating of Clays. Journal of the American Ceramic
Society, 34, 121128.
Dee, M. & Reeves, D., 2002. Comparative properties for
heavyweight and lightweight concretes. Expanded Shale,
Clay and Slate Institute, Salt lake City, Utah, USA.
Publication No. 6000, June 2002.
Douglas, B. E., McDaniel, D. H. & Alexander, J. J., 1983.
Concepts and Models of Inorganic Chemistry, John Wiley
& Sons, Inc., New York.
George, R. G., 1979. Effect of clinker composition on
grindability. Cement and Concrete Research, 9, 209218.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Nonlinear finite element analysis for reinforced CRC beam

Hongmei Guo
School of Civil Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China;
Department of Civil Engineering, Tianjin Institute of Urban Construction, Tianjin, China

Han Zhu
School of Civil Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China;
Key Laboratory of Coast Civil Structure Safety (Tianjin University), Ministry of Education, Tianjin, China

ABSTRACT: Crumb rubber concrete (CRC) is a new generation concrete, which is made by adding rubber
crumbs into conventional concrete. Compared with conventional concrete, it has many advantages such as lower
Youngs modulus, high damp modulus, high ductility and crack resistance. In this paper, a nonlinear finite
element analysis for reinforced CRC beam was carried out based on ANSYS software. The constitutive relation
of materials, defining material models, selecting element type, meshing and setting solution control options are
all taken into consideration. This article studied the change of stress, strain and deflection under static load,
and compared the analysis results with experimental. This study shows that ANSYS finite element software can
well simulate the behavior of reinforced CRC beam and the results can well agree with the test. The analysis
indicated that the reinforced CRC beam has excellent ductility and energy-dissipating ability, and it can improve
the seismic capacity of buildings.

Keywords: crumb rubber concrete, non-linear finite element, ANSYS, ductility

1 INSTRUCTION But, in present the research at home abuout CRC is

With the rapid development of automobile and trans-
portation industry, the demand of tires increased very
quickly, but followed by many scrap tires per year.
The United States generates approximately 242 mil-
lion scrap tires per year, representing 1.2% by weight
of all municipal solid waste (Huang et al. 2004). It
has been estimated that 2 to 3 billion scrap tires have
already accumalted in illegal stockpiles throughout
the country, with millions more scattered in ravines,
deserts, woods, and empty lots. The black pollution
caused by accumulation of waste tires has become
a worldwide environmental problem. So, to promote
recycling of waste tires is imperative. At present, uti-
lizing recycled tire rubber powder in cement concrete
is an innovative solution to solve this problem.
Crumb rubber concrete (CRC) is made by adding
scrapped rubber tyre crumb into conventional con-
crete. Since 1990s, many studies on crumb rubber
concrete (CRC) have been conducted. Early in 1993
and 1994, out of the idea for recycling discarded auto-
mobile tires in concrete, Eldin and Senouci explored
the use of tire chips and crumb rubber as concrete
aggregate. As a new kind of concrete material of
energy saving and environment protecting, it exhibits
lowYoungs modulus, high damp modulus, large defor-
mation, better depleting energy and perfect ability of
holding back crack.
still fundamental, mainly focous on the material prop-
erty of CRC, few on the mechanical study of reinforced
CRC as a structural component. This article, based
on the experiments, estabished non-linearity finite
element model of the steel reinforced CRC beam, stud-
ied the change of stress, strain and deflection under
static load and compared the analysis results with the
experimental results.
2 FINITE ELEMENT MODEL
On the basis of test data, finite element model of the
steel reinforced CRC beam and the normal RC beam
are built by using ANSYS engineering software. Basic
properties of structural materials, such as the constitu-
tive models of CRC and steel reinforcement, are also
derived from trial databases.
2.1 Geometrical parameters of model
This paper chose rectangular section simple supported
beam tested by Li et al. (2008) as the study sub-
ject. The reinforcing bars chart of beam is shown in
Figure 1 and the force diagram is shown in Figure 2.
The beam is 100 mm wide, 160 mm high and 1700 mm
long, with 1500 mm clear span.

185
Figure 1. The reinforcing bars chart of beam.

Figure 3. The constitutive relations of reinforcing bar.

Figure 2. The force diagram of beam. Table 3. Values for 1 and 2 based on the experimental
data by different authors.
Table 1. The material parameters of concrete.
Compressive
Compressive Modulus of Rubber strength/ 0R uR
strength Elasticity Poisson Author content MPa (103 ) (103 ) 1 2
/MPa /104 Mpa ratio
Topu 15% 24.22 3.0 7.0 1.50 4.0
Normal concrete 31.5 3.10 0.2 (1995) 10% 45.3 2.752 4.065 1.38 1.31
CRC 32.3 2.04 0.25 Zhu et al. 12% 41.9 3.250 5.051 1.63 1.80
(2007) 15% 31.1 4.106 6.705 2.05 2.60

Table 2. The material parameters of reinforcement.

Yield Modulus of
strength Elasticity Poisson
/MPa /105 Mpa ratio Where CR is compressive stress of CRC when its
strain is CR ; fCR is the specified compressive strength
HPB235 290 2.10 0.25 of CRC; oR and uR are the peak strain and ultimate
HRB335 368 1.92 0.3 strain of CRC, they are defined in Equation 2 and
Equation 3 involving the two factors 1 and 2 as well
as 0 and u of conventional concrete.

The longitudinal reinforcement is 2 12 and the

stirrup is 6 with 60 mm space.
The material parameters of concrete and reinforce-
ment are shown in table 12.
2.2 The analysis model of reinforcement
In this paper, the reinforcement is considered as ideal
elastic-plastic model. The model of stress-strain rela-
tion is the bilinear kinematic (BKIN), it is shown in
Fig. 3. The yield criterion of reinforcement is von
mises.
2.3 The analysis model of CRC
The concrete is anisotropic material, the stress-strain
relationship of CRC refer to the model proposed by
Yang et al. (2010). The stress-strain model for CRC is
given as Equation 1.
According to the experimental results derived byTopu
(1995) and Zhu et al. (2007), 1 ranges apporximately
from 1.38 to 2.05, and 2 from 1.31 to 4.0 (SeeTable 3).
In this paper, it is conservatively assumed that 1 = 1.5
and 2 = 2.0, that is oR = 0.003 and uR = 0.0056.
This research adopted the model of multilinear
isotropic hardening plasticity(MISO) to simulate the
stress-strain relationship of CRC and ignored the
descending part of the curves. The stress-strain curves
for CRC is shown in Figure 4. The concrete used five
parameters William-Warnke destruction criterion, and
the crush option is off.
2.4 The construction of FEM model
In order to reflect the stress, strain, growth of crack of
CRC beam, this paper adopted three dimensional finite
element model to analyse the rectangular section sim-
ple supported CRC beam. Here we use separated finite

186
Figure 4. Stress-strain curves for conventional concrete
and CRC.
Figure 6. The stress nephogram of CRC beam.

Figure 5. The FEM model of CRC beam. Figure 7. The load-deformation curve of CRC beam.

Table 4. Comparison between tests and ANSYS results.

element model, with LINK8 and SOLID65 element
simulating steel reinforce bar and concrete separately, Deflection Yield load
without regard to the bond-slip between steel and con- /mm /kN
crete. According to the literature, the shear transfer
coefficient for open crack and closed crack is 0.45 Tests ANSYS Tests ANSYS
and 0.95. results results results results
When using the finite element method to analyze
concrete, the mesh density dont have to small. The RC beam 23.9 20.8 40.7 39.8
optimal element size is greater than or equal multi- CRC beam 36.1 32.1 39.4 42.5
ple the maximum size of coarse aggregate, and the
calculation precision and computational speed were
considered as well. In this paper, the size of concrete
element is 20 mm 35 mm 30 mm, and the size is larger than those of normal RC beam and the cal-
of reinforcing element is 30 mm. The finite element culated results using ANSYS can well agree with the
model shown in Figure 5. test results. The results show that the nonlinear finite
element analysis can well simulate the loading process
of reinforced CRC beam. The simulations of ANSYS
3 THE RESULTS AND ANALYSES demonstrate that the reinforced CRC beam has excel-
OF THE MODEL lent ductility and energy-dissipating ability, and it can
be applied to high seismic requiremented bridges or
Based on the finite element model, we applied the buildings. There are two factors causing the errors
boundary conditions and loads. In the calculations, the between tests and ANSYS results:
crush option is off, the nonlinear convergence value
is 0.05 and the load substep is 200. After solving, (1) In order to prevent stresses concentrating, a rigid
open the automatic time step control, linear search and cushion block is added in the bearing and load
large deformation switch, and turn on the predictor. point. Thus, the FEM model is different from the
The stress nephogram is shown in Figure 6, and the test condition.
load-deformation curve is shown in Figure 7. (2) In the present analysis model, the CRC constitu-
Table 4 is the comparison between measured value tive relations without the descending part of the
and calculated value of ANSYS. From table 1, we curve is adopted, which is different from the actual
can see that the deflection of reinforced CRC beam stress-strain relationship of CRC.

187
4 CONCLUSIONS
This article used ANSYS software, adopted the model
of multilinear isotropic hardening plasticity without
the descending part of the curves to simulate CRC and
the model of bilinear kinematic to simulate reinforce-
ments, estabished non-linearity finite element model
of reinforced CRC beam, studied the change of stress,
strain and deflection under static load and compared
with experimental results. Summarizing the paper, the
conclusions are as follows.
(1) There is little difference between analysis result
and experiment datum, the main reason of error is
the differences between the model and the actual
specimens. So, ANSYS nonlinear finite element
analysis can well simulate the loading process of
reinforced CRC beam.
(2) Finite element analysis and result of experiment
all indicated that the reinforced CRC beam has
excellent ductility and energy-dissipating abil-
ity, and it can improve the seismic capacity of
buildings if it was applied to the structural.
(3) In this paper, the FEM model ignored the bond-
slip between steel bar and CRC. But, it will
inevitably lead to bond failure and slippage
occurred once the concrete cracking. So, Slips
between concrete and steel bar can be considered
by adopting the spring element if the bond-slip is
considered.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work has been supported by Chinese National
Science Foundation (51078261).
188
REFERENCES
Baoshan Huang, Guoqiang Li, Su-Seng Pang and John
Eggers. Investigation into Waste Tire Rubber-Filled
Concrete. Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering,
2004,5:187194.
Eldin, N., and Senouci, A. Rubber-tired particles as con-
crete aggregate. Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering,
1993, 5(4): 478496.
Eldin, N.N., Senouci, A.B., Measurement and prediction of
the strength of rubberized concrete, Cement Concrete
Compos. 1994, 16(4):287298.
Khatib ZK, Bayomy FM. Rubberized Portland Cement Con-
crete. Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, 1999, 11
(3): 206213.
Han Zhu. Adding Crumb Rubber into Exterior Wall Materi-
als. Waste Management and Research, 2003, 20: 407413.
Bignozzi M.C., Sandrolini F., Tyre rubber waste recy-
cling in self-compacting concrete. Cement and Concrete
Research. 2006,36: 735739
Juan-hong Liu, Feng Xing and Lan-lan Zhong. Research
on Simply-supported Beam under Static Load of Rub-
ber Powder Concrete. Journal of Wuhan University of
Technology, 2007,29(12): 2428
Yue Li, Yu-sheng Wu and Yu-hong Yang. Study on the
Structure Properties of Steel Reinforced Crumb Rubber
Concrete. Journal of Beijing University of Technology,
2008, 34(12):12801285
Li-hu Yang, Han Zhu and Yan-ru Li. Theoretical Analysis of
the Effect of Crumb Rubber on the Sectional Ductility of
Reinforced Concrete Beam. Journal of Basic Science and
Engineering, 2010,18(4):609615.
ZhuHan, Liu Chunsheng, Zhang Yongming. Effect of crumb
rubber proportion on compressive and flexuralbehavior
of concrete. Journal of Tianjin University Science and
Technology, 2007, 40(7):761765
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Experimental grading of locally grown timber to be used

as structural material

G. Concu, B. De Nicolo & M. Valds

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari, Italy

M. Fragiacomo, A. Menis & N. Trulli

Department of Architecture and Planning, University of Sassari, Italy

ABSTRACT: In Italy timber and wood products are becoming increasingly used for building constructions
due to their excellent physics and mechanical properties. International Codes require the use of wood previously
graded according to the current legislation.This paper reports the preliminary results of an experimental campaign
aim at verifying the reliability of the use of Sardinian timber as structural material. For this purpose Maritime
Pine boards from three different regions of Sardinia have been analyzed and visual strength graded. Physical
properties (density, knots, clusters knot, resin pockets, deviation of the grain, annual ring width position of
board respect to the pith, humidity, etc.) and Mechanical properties (elastic modulus, tensile strength, ultrasonic
pulse velocity) have been checked and discussed.Moreover Cross-laminated Timber (CLT) panels made from
Sardinian grown timber have been prepared and tested.

Keywords: timber, grading, crosslaminate panels

1 INTRODUCTION In Sardinia traditional constructions have been long

Timber is one of the most renewable and sustain-
able materials. In Italy timber and wood products are
becoming increasingly used for building constructions
due to their excellent properties: lightness, low density,
high strength-to-weight, prefabrication, etc. All these
properties enable a cut in costs for new timber build-
ing constructions and lend timber suitable in restoring
existing buildings made of traditional materials.
Timber and wood-based products are becoming
very important as structural materials also in terms
of low CO2 emissions and affordable constructions
(Buchanan, 1994).
Several researches have demonstrated a significant
increase in the volume of timber used in construction
since year 2000, and the volume will increase in the
next few years. This result depends on significant cost
and construction time saving due to the prefabrication
process, reduced self weight compared with masonry
and reinforced concrete structures, especially in case
of seismic actions. Furthermore, new types of architec-
tural designs can be developed, not necessarily related
to the classical and traditional architectural forms. This
fast development has occurred together with the issue
of a new Italian Standard for Timber Construction,
and the introduction of timber as building material in
the new Italian Building Code (Technical Rules for
Constructions, 2008).
characterized by the use of stone and masonry, and
timber has been generally used in roofs and finishes
but not in structural load-bearing elements.
Furthermore, Sardinian locally-grown timber is
generally characterized by low quality due to the pres-
ence of defects (knots, clusters knot, resin pockets,
deviation of the grain etc.) and is not suitable for glued
laminated timber production. Nevertheless it could be
used to produce CLT panels due to the overall stiffness
and strength of the panels.
Recent experimental tests have demonstrated the
excellent seismic performance (Yates et al. 2008)
and fire resistance (Kuhulman et al. 2006) of CLT
buildings.
All the aforementioned reasons have led to the study
of locally-grown wood properties. Moreover, local
wood exploitation would led to significant environ-
mental and financial benefits, due to less petrol and
energy consumption.
A research project has been started in Sardinia
(Italy) in cooperation with the Forestry Association
of Sardinia with the aim of evaluating the possibility
of using locally grown timber as structural material.
For this purpose Maritime Pine boards from three
different regions of Sardinia have been analyzed and
visual strength graded. Physical properties (density,
knots, clusters knot, resin pockets, deviation of the
grain, annual ring width position of board respect to the

189

Figure 1. Sardinia Maritime Pine Boards in sawmill.
Figure 2. Color and Alpha-numerical code.
pith, humidity, etc.) and Mechanical properties (elastic
modulus, tensile strength, ultrasonic pulse velocity)
have been checked. Moreover, four-point bending tests
have been carried out on five layers CLT panels.
In the present paper, preliminary results of this
experimental campaign are reported and discussed.
2 MATERIALS
2.1 Boards
For visual strength grading a total of 150 boards from
three different regions of Sardinia have been sawn.
Boards average dimensions are 3.00 m long, 0.035 m
high and 0.125 m wide. They have been marked with
both color and alpha-numerical codes in order to iden-
tify origin place and board position in the log and
stump (Figures 1 and 2).
After the drying process, boards have been graded
by measuring geometrical, mechanical and physical
properties. A visual grading method has been used.
This method consists in defining grading classes of
the base material by using mainly visually identifiable
features, such as knots, width of the annual rings, den-
sity, ultrasonic velocity, boards deformation, elastic
modulus and tensile strength, etc. (UNI 11035 part 1
and 2, 2010).
2.2 CLT-panels
A total of 15 cross laminated panels have been real-
ized by using boards from the three different areas
190
Figure 3. CLT Panels made of Sardinian boards.
of Sardinia. The panels have been realized 2.80 m
long, 0.150 m high and 0.480 m wide. A set up of five
layers has been used to realize the panels (Figure 3).
Better quality boards have been used for the outer
layers, while inner layers have been made using worse
quality boards.
3 STRENGTH GRADING OF BOARDS
Grading means checking mechanical and physical
characteristics into standard grades, according to
defined quality criteria and/or dimensions (UNI EN
14081-1, 2011).
Depending on the requirements of the quality crite-
rion, grading classes can be created whose mean value
is graduated and whose dispersion is considerably
lower than that of the un-graded population.
Grading can primarily accord to: (i) load bear-
ing capacity as strength and/or modulus of elasticity;
(ii) surface aspects.
In this study several parameters have been analyzed
in order to define boards strength grade.
3.1 Knots
Knots are parts of branches embedded in the log. Knots
have origin in the pith and then progress outwards
radially.
Number and position of the knots have a very sig-
nificantly influence on the mechanical characteristics
of the board. Consequently, knots can be encountered
in accordance with current standards.
3.2 Density and moisture content
Density is defined as the weight divided by the volume
of the entire board. In wood specimens, if the mois-
ture content is grater or less than 12%, the density
must be corrected by reducing or increasing its value
respectively (UNI EN 384, 2010).
3.3 Width of annual rings
The width of annual ring is an important parameter
which influences wood mechanical properties. The
width of annual ring shall be measured in the radial
direction in mm. In case of sawn timber contain-
ing pith the measure shall be done starting from the
medulla.
3.4 Ultrasonic velocity
The ultrasonic velocity v results from the following
equation:
where: v is the ultrasonic velocity
l [m] is the length of the board
t [s] is the ultrasonic propagation time
In this experimental campaign, measurements of
pulse propagation time have been performed in the
center of mass of the boards.
When a stress wave of velocity v is induced in a
board of density and length l, the dynamic modulus
of elasticity is defined as:
The ultrasonic propagation time and the density
depend on temperature and wood moisture content.
For this reason, both velocity and dynamic modulus of
elasticity have been corrected with respect to the refer-
ence moisture content u = 12% and wood temperature
T = 20 C (Sandoz, 1993).
3.5 Tensile test
Tensile tests have been carried out according to UNI
EN 408 (2010).
The tests have been made in order to determine
the modulus of elasticity and the failure load. The
load has been applied up to approximately 1/3 of
the estimated failure load and force and displacement
have been recorded in order to achieve data required
for determining the modulus of elasticity. Then the
test has been stopped, the displacement measuring
devices have been removed and finally the test has
been continued until the board collapse.
All the parameters previously described have been
analyzed with the aim of finding the best correlation
between each feature and tensile strength.
4 BENDING TESTS ON CLT PANELS
Bending tests on CLT panels have been carried out in
accordance to UNI EN408 (2010). The global modulus
of elasticity and the characteristic bending strength
have been measured.
After the tests, the type of collapse and the factors
causing the rupture have been recorded and analyzed.
191
Table 1. Average values and Standard Deviation of boards
grading parameters.
Parameter Average SD*
ARW [mm] 7.25 24.45
12 [kg/m3 ] 496 11.70
Edyn,12 [N/mm2 ] 8380 18.75
Et,0,12 [N/mm2 ] 5880 24.20
ft,0 [N/mm2 ] 11.20 24.80
* SD = Standard Deviation [%].
Figure 3. Correlation between static and dynamic elastic
modulus.
5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
5.1 Definition of boards grading classes
Various combinations of timber properties have
been statistically evaluated by performing regression
analysis in order to identify variables significant
enough for predicting the performance of the material.
Regression analysis have been performed by
studying the correlation between:
tensile strength ft,0 and Static Elastic Modulus
Et,0,12 , Dynamic Elastic Modulus Edyn,12 , density
12 , annual ring width ARW, knots parameters.
Static Elastic Modulus Et,0,12 and density 12 ,
annual ring width ARW, knots parameters;
Dynamic Modulus of Elasticity Edyn,12 and density
12 , annual ring width ARW, knots parameters.
Table 1 reports average values and standard devia-
tion of the main parameters used for boards grading
classes definition.
As an example, Figures 3 shows the best correlation
between static elastic modulus and dynamical elastic
modulus. In this case a quadratic polynomial curve has
been used and a R2 = 0.6832 has been found.
Regression analysis demonstrates that the dynamic
modulus of elasticity is the most suitable parameter
for predicting stiffness and strength of the material.
The ultrasonic propagation velocity has been cho-
sen as an indicator of wood performance. By using this
parameter the Sardinian Maritime Pine boards have
been divided into three quality groups, namely A, B
and C. Group A clusters boards with better quality,
Table 2. Average results and Standard Deviation of CLT
Panels parameters.

Parameter Average SD*

Mass [kg] 105.15 3.5

Fmax * [kN] 83.80 16.30
Eglob * [N/mm2 ] 5973.20 9.95
Eloc * [N/mm2 ] 7913.25 14.65
fm * [N/mm2 ] 26.10 16.47

* Standard Deviation [%], Fmax = Failure Load,

Eglob = Global Static Elastic Modulus, Eloc = Local
Static Elastic Modulus, fm = flexural strength. Figure 5. Failure mode of CLT panel in correspondence of
aligned knots.

dynamic modulus of elasticity is the most suitable

Figure 4. Failure mode of CLT panel in correspondence of
knots.
Group C clusters boards with worse quality, and Group
B clusters boards with middle quality.
5.2 CLT tests
Cross Laminated panels have been realized using
Group A boards for the outer layers and Group C
boards for the inner layers.
Four point bending tests have been carried out on
the panels (UNI EN 408, 2010). Results are shown in
Table 2.
Results show a large scattering. Panels failure trig-
gered in correspondence of defects such as knots,
aligned knots and slope of grain, as shown in Figures
4 and 5.
6 CONCLUSIONS
parameter to predict stiffness and strength of the
material.
ultrasonic propagation velocity well works as indi-
cator of the performance of the Sardinian wood.
Sardinian Maritime Pine boards can be clustered
into three quality groups: A (better), B (middle)
and C (worse).
European Standard EN 338 (2009) provides a
classification for wood boards based on strength,
stiffness, or density properties. According to this
standard Sardinian boards can be classified as a
C18 class based on tensile strength, as a C14
class based on Elastic Modulus and as a C35 class
based on mean density.
CLT panel tests have shown a large scattering in
strength results due to the high defectiveness of the
base material. The achieved results are summarized as
follows:
failure modes are influenced by defect of the boards
such as knots, aligned knots and slope of grain;
despite of boards properties variability, it seems
that Sardinian CLT panels can be used as hori-
zontal and vertical elements in civil engineering
structures.
Results since now achieved are promising for fur-
ther research aimed at grading other timber species
and at realizing and testing different configuration of
CLT panels.

A research project has been started in Sardinia (Italy)

in cooperation with the Forestry Association with the
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
aim of evaluating the possibility of using locally grown
timber as structural material.
Authors wish to thank Professor Gerhard Schickhofer,
The experimental campaign has been started by
Eng. Manfred Augustin and technicians of TU Graz
testing Sardinian Maritime Pine, which wood has
for the precious support during the experimental tests.
been graded and then used for manufacturing CLT
This work is funded and supported by:
boards. These boards have been analyzed and visual
strength graded. Forestry Association of Regione Sardegna;
Both Physical and Mechanical properties have been operating program of Regione Sardegna (European
measured and discussed. Social Fund 20072013), L.R.7/2007, Promotion
Throughout the achieved results several conclu- of scientific research and technological innovation
sions can be drawn as follows: in Sardinia.

192
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Buchanan A. and Honey B. 1994. Energy and Carbon Diox-
ide Implications of Building Constructions. Energy and
Buiding. 20. 205217.
Kuhlmann U. and Michelfelder B. 2006. Optimized design
of grooves in timber-concrete composite slabs. 9th
World Conference on Timber Engineering WCTE 2006,
Portland, Oregon, USA.
Sandoz J. L. 1993. 1 Moisture content and temperature
effect on ultrasound timber grading. Wood Science and
Technology. 27. 373380.
Technical Rules for Constructions, 2008. D.M. 14/01/2008.
UNI EN 338. 2009. Structural Timber: Class Strength.
UNI EN 384. 2010. Structural timber: determination of
characteristic values of mechanical properties and density.
193
UNI EN 408. 2010. Timber structures Structural timber and
glued laminated timber. Determination of some physical
and mechanical properties.
UNI EN 14081-1. 2011. Timber Structures. Strength graded
structural timber with rectangular cross section. Part I:
General requirements.
UNI 11035-1. 2010. Visual strength grading for struc-
tural timbers. Part I: Terminology and measurements of
features.
UNI 11035-2. 2010. Visual strength grading for struc-
tural timbers. Part 2: Visual strength grading rules and
characteristics values for structural timber population.
Yates M., Linegar M. and Dujic B. 2008. Design of an 8 storey
residential tower from KLH cross laminated solid timber
panels. 10th World Conference on Timber Engineering
WCTE 2008, Miyazaki, Japan.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Mechanical properties of ultra-high strength concrete with local materials

Srinivas Allena
Civil & Environmental Engineering Department, Washington State University, Richland, WA, USA

Craig M. Newtson & Mohammad N. Tahat

Civil Engineering Department, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA

ABSTRACT: Ultra-high strength concrete (UHSC) mixture proportions developed in previous work that used
local materials to improve the sustainability of UHSC were analyzed in this work to investigate the influence
of age, steel fibers, and specimen size on compressive strength. The compressive strengths from 50 mm cubes
for the UHSC mixtures used in this study were 159.9 MPa for plain UHSC and 170.3 MPa for fiber reinforced
UHSC. Steel fibers increased the compressive strength of UHSC by 4.6% to 6.5% and increased the modulus
of rupture of UHSC by 68.3%. The ratio of compressive strength of 50 mm cubes to that of 100 mm cubes was
found to be 1.12 at seven days and 1.14 at 28 days.

Keywords: ultra-high strength, fiber reinforced, compressive strength, modulus of rupture, size effect, steel
fibers

1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND age, specimen size, and curing regimen that influence
compressive strength and modulus of rupture are also
1.1 Introduction discussed in this paper.
UHSC is an innovative cementitious composite
that possesses a compressive strength greater than
140 MPa and flexural strengths greater than 10 MPa 1.2 Background
at 28 days. This new material is usually produced with
The concept of UHSC was first developed by
cement, fine quartz sand, silica fume, steel fibers and
Richard & Cheyrezy (1995) at Bouygues labora-
high range water reducing admixture (HRWRA). Very
tory in France. Typical ingredients in UHSC include
low water-to-cementitious materials (w/cm) ratios are
cement, fine sand, quartz powder, micro silica, steel
used to produce UHSC. The ability to achieve high
fibers and HRWRA. The HRWRA reduces the w/cm
strength, improve durability, and increase ductility
ratio while improving the workability of concrete,
with UHSC has encouraged researchers and engi-
when used in optimum dosages. The addition of
neers to consider this modern material for applications
micro silica enhances the mechanical properties of
such as nuclear waste containment structures, high rise
the paste by filling voids, enhancing rheology, and
structures, and blast resistant structures.
producing secondary hydrates. The quartz powder is
Materials used in UHSC such as quartz dust and
particularly reactive during heat treatment (Dili &
steel aggregate are often shipped long distances,
Santhanam 2004). The enhanced mechanical proper-
internationally in many cases, increasing the cost of
ties of UHSC are obtained by lowering the w/cm ratio,
the material. Additionally, strict requirements on the
using HRWRAs, and including silica fume. Lower
chemistry of the cement and silica fume increase the
w/cm ratios reduce the porosity of the cement paste
cost of commercially available, prepackaged UHSC
and improve the durability of UHSC (Roux et al.
products. In previous research, the authors developed
1996). Richard & Cheyrezy (1995) recommended the
UHSC mixtures using locally available materials so
following principles to develop UHSC:
that UHSC could be made more affordable to a wider
variety of applications Allena & Newtson (2010 & 1. Removal of coarse aggregate to improve the
2011). homogeneity of the concrete.
This paper summarizes the results of compressive 2. Use of silica fume to produce pozzolanic reactions.
strength testing and modulus of rupture testing of 3. Optimization of the granular mixture to maximize
plain and fiber reinforced UHSC specimens produced compacted density.
from the mixtures developed using materials avail- 4. Use of presetting pressure for improved com-
able in southern New Mexico, USA. Factors such as paction.

195
5. Post-setting heat treatment to improve the mechan-
ical properties of the microstructure.
6. Addition of steel fibers to provide ductility.
The weakest link in conventional concrete is the
interfacial transition zone between the paste and coarse
aggregate (Dili & Santhanam 2004). According to
Richard & Cheyrezy (1995), the size of the equa-
torial crack is directly proportional to the diame-
ter of the aggregate particle. Therefore, the coarse
aggregate is eliminated from UHSC which greatly
improves the mechanical properties. The absence of
coarse aggregate facilitates the dense microstructure
and improves homogeneity. In addition to excellent
compressive strength, UHSC also possesses excel-
lent tensile strength. The greater tensile strength is
achieved by including steel fibers in the mixture. Steel
fibers also provide ductility in UHSC.
2 EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM
2.1 Materials
Type I/II portland cement, silica fume, and fine local
sand from Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA were used
to produce the UHSC in this work. Table 1 shows the
grain size distribution for the fine sand. The chemical
compositions of the Type I/II portland cement and the
silica fume are presented elsewhere (Allena & Newt-
son 2010 & 2011). Steel fibers that were 13 mm long
were used to provide ductility. To achieve the desired
workability, a polycarboxylate-based HRWRA was
used.
2.2 UHSC mixtures
Table 2 shows the mixture proportions, water-cement
ratio and the w/cm (including silica fume) for the plain
and fiber reinforced UHSC mixtures developed in this
research. The detailed mixture optimization can be
found in Allena & Newtson (2010 & 2011).
Table 1. Grain size distribution of fine sand.
ASTM Sieve size
sieve No. mm % passing
30 0.6 100
50 0.3 40.1
100 0.15 0 This procedure ensured that fiber settlement did not
2.3 Specimen preparation and testing
The constituents of each mixture were mixed for 20
minutes using a laboratory pan mixture. The dry con-
stituents were mixed for 2 minutes and then 75% of the
water was added. After thorough mixing, the HRWRA
was added and the remaining 25% of the water was
added to the mixture. Steel fibers were added last.
This process of mixing seemed to improve the action
of the HRWRA.
Compressive strength specimens included 50 mm
and 100 mm cubes. Modulus of rupture testing was
conducted on 75 100 400 mm prisms. All spec-
imens were consolidated using a high frequency
vibrating table.
2.4 Curing regimen
Concrete specimens were cured at room temperature,
20 C, for the first 24 hours. After demolding, the
specimens were heat cured in a water bath at 50 C.
Then, the specimens were removed from the water bath
and dry cured at 200 C for two days prior to testing.
This curing regimen was adopted from Reda et al.
(1999) to achieve a compressive strength of 140 MPa
at seven days. Other curing regimens such as moist
curing and curing at 50 C in a water bath were also
investigated. However, such curing did not produce the
targeted strength (Allena & Newtson 2010 & 2011).
2.5 Compressive strength testing
After the specified curing period, cube specimens
were tested according to BS 1881-116. A load rate
of 1.0 MPa/s was used because Graybeals (2006)
research concluded that this load rate did not have
a statistically significant influence on compressive
strength of UHPC. Using a load rate of 1.0 MPa/s
allows a compression test with UHPC specimens to be
completed in 5 minutes instead of the 20 to 30 minutes
that would be required using standard procedures.
2.6 Modulus of rupture testing
Modulus of rupture was determined using a third point
loading test on prism specimens according to ASTM
C 78. Specimens were rotated 90 degrees from the
orientation in which they were cast to measure the
flexural strength. Consequently, the 100 mm dimen-
sions were aligned with the direction of loading.
artificially inflate the flexural strength.

Table 2. Mixture proportions.

Silica Fine Steel

Mixture Cement fume sand fibers Water HRWRA
category kg/m3 kg/m3 kg/m3 kg/m3 kg/m3 l/m3 w/c w/cm

Plain 890 222 837 222 29.64 0.25 0.20

Fiber reinforced 890 222 799 119 222 29.64 0.25 0.20

196
Table 3. Compressive strengths in MPa.
Mixture 7 days 28 days
50 mm 100 mm 50 mm 100 mm
Plain 146.5 130.3 159.9 141.2
Fiber reinforced 149.5 153.2 136.9 170.3
3 COMPPRESSIVE STRENGTH
Average compressive strengths of plain and fiber
reinforced UHSC at seven and 28 days are presented
in Table 3.
3.1 Compressive strength of plain UHSC
Compressive strengths of 50 mm cube specimens
produced with plain UHSC mixture were 146.5 MPa
and 159.9 MPa at seven and 28 days, respectively.
Compressive strengths of 100 mm cube specimens
were 130.3 MPa and 141.2 MPa at seven and 28 days,
respectively.
3.2 Compressive strength of fiber reinforced UHSC
The fiber reinforced UHSC mixture was produced
by introducing steel fibers to the mixture propor-
tions of plain UHSC. The volume of sand in the fiber
reinforced UHSC was reduced by the volume of the
steel fibers. Compressive strengths of 50 mm cube
specimens produced with the fiber reinforced mix-
ture were 153.2 MPa and 170.3 MPa at seven and 28
days, respectively. Compressive strengths of 100 mm
cube specimens were 136.9 MPa and 149.5 MPa at
seven and 28 days, respectively. The greater compres-
sive strength of the fiber reinforced UHSC mixture is
consistent with results reported in the literature (Reda
et al. 1999).
3.3 Influence of age
Compressive strength gain with time was studied
in the present work by considering the compressive
strengths of plain and fiber reinforced concrete mix-
tures obtained from 50 mm cubes. For plain UHSC,
compressive strength at seven days was 91.6% of
28-day compressive strength. For fiber reinforced
UHSC, this percentage was 89.9%. This rapid strength
development is mainly attributed to post-setting heat
treatment that caused an increased rate of hydration.
3.4 Influence of steel fibers
Steel fibers in UHSC mixtures are primarily respon-
sible for improving the ductility of the concrete.
However, compressive strength can also be influenced
by the steel fibers. The effects of steel fibers on
compressive strength of UHSC were investigated by
considering the compressive strengths of 50 mm cube
specimens produced from plain and fiber reinforced
mixtures.
197
Table 4. Ratios of 50 mm cube strengths to 100 mm cube
strengths.
Mixture 7 days 28 days
Plain 1.12 1.13
Fiber reinforced 1.12 1.14
The compressive strength of fiber reinforced UHSC
was greater than the compressive strength of plain
UHSC at all ages. The percentage increases in com-
pressive strength obtained from 50 mm cube speci-
mens due to steel fibers at seven and 28 days were
4.6 and 6.5%, respectively. The increases in com-
pressive strength due to steel fibers obtained from
100 mm cube specimens at seven and 28 days were
5.1% and 5.9%, respectively.
3.5 Influence of specimen size
Compressive strength increases as the size of the spec-
imen decreases because the larger volume is more
likely to contain an element of low strength. Much
research data is available on the effects of specimen
size on compressive strength of normal strength con-
crete. In the present work, compressive strengths of
50 mm and 100 mm cubes were compared to investi-
gate the influence of specimen size on compressive
strength of UHSC (plain and fiber reinforced). Con-
version factors for the compressive strengths of 50 mm
cubes from the plain and fiber reinforced (1.5% fibers)
mixtures were calculated to relate them to the 100 mm
specimens. These factors are presented in Table 4.
The conversion factors obtained here were close to the
conversion factors (1.04 to 1.13) reported by Ming-zhe
et al. (2008) and Graybeal & Davis (2008). It can also
be seen from Table 4 that there was little effect of fibers
on specimen size effect.
4 MODULUS OF RUPTURE
One concern with UHSC specimens cured at elevated
temperatures was that drying of the sample might
artificially inflate the compressive strength of the sam-
ple and decrease the flexural strength. However, it
was also believed that steel fibers would improve the
ductility of the concrete and could also increase the
flexural strength of the concrete. To investigate these
potential effects, modulus of rupture was measured on
75 100 400 mm prismatic specimens.
It can be seen from Table 5 that the greatest flexu-
ral strength was obtained with fiber reinforced UHSC
(18.3 MPa). This strength is comparable to flexural
strengths obtained by other investigators for UHSC
produced without dry curing (Dili & Santhanam
2004). A significant effect of steel fibers on the
flexural strength of UHSC was also observed (Table 5).
The flexural strength of the fiber reinforced UHSC
was greater than that of the plain mixture by 68.3%.
Table 5. Modulus of rupture for UHSC.
Mixture Modulus of rupture
MPa
Plain 10.9
Fiber reinforced 18.3
The flexural strengths of plain and fiber reinforced
UHSC mixtures and the percentage increase in flexu-
ral strength due to addition of steel fibers were also
comparable with values from the literature (Dili &
Santhanam 2000).
5 CONCLUSIONS
Based on the results of this experimental investigation,
the following conclusions are drawn:
1. The compressive strength (170.3 MPa) and modu-
lus of rupture (18.9 MPa) of UHSC produced with
local materials were similar to those produced by
other researchers using higher quality and more
expensive materials.
2. The increases in compressive strength obtained
from 50 mm cube specimens due to steel fibers
at seven and 28 days were 4.6% and 6.5%, respec-
tively. These increases for 100 mm cubes at seven
and 28 days were 5.1% and 5.9%, respectively.
3. The flexural strength of UHSC containing steel
fibers was 68% greater than the flexural strength
of UHSC that did not contain fibers.
4. The ratio of compressive strength of 100 mm cubes
to that of 100 mm cubes was found to be 1.12 at
seven days while it was 1.13 at 28 days.
198
REFERENCES
Allena, S. & Newtson, C. M. 2010. Ultra High Strength
Concrete Mixtures Using Local Materials. Proc. 2010
Concrete Sustainability Conference., Tempe, AZ, USA,
April 1315, National Ready Mixed Concrete Associa-
tion: Silver Spring, MD, USA.
Allena, S. & Newtson, C. M. 2011. Ultra High Strength
Concrete Mixtures Using Local Materials. Journal of
Civil Engineering and Architecture, 5(4) (Serial No. 41):
322330.
Dili, A. S. & Santhanam, M. 2004. Investigations on Reac-
tive Powder Concrete: A Developing Ultra High Strength
Technology. The Indian Concrete Journal, 78(4): 3338.
Graybeal, B. A. 2006. Material Property Characterization
of Ultra-High Performance Concrete. Federal Highway
Administration Report No. FHWA-HRT-06-103, McLean,
VA.
Graybeal, B. & Davis, M. 2008. Cylinder or Cube: Strength
Testing of 80 to 200 MPa (11.6 to 29 ksi) Ultra-High-
Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete. ACI Materials
Journal, 105( 6): 603609.
Ming-zhe, AN. Li-jun, Z. & Quan-xin, YI. 2008. Size Effect
on Compressive Strength of Reactive Powder Concrete.
Journal of China University of Mining and Technology,
18(2): 279282.
Reda, M. M. Shrive, N. G. & Gillott, J. E. 1999. Microstruc-
tural Investigation of Innovative UHPC. Cement and
Concrete Research, 29(3): 323329.
Richard, P. & Cheyrezy, M. 1995. Composition of Reactive
Powder Concrete. Cement and Concrete Research, 25(7);
15011511.
Roux, N. Andrade, C. & Sanjuan, M. A. 1996. Experimen-
tal Study of Durability of Reactive Powder Concretes.
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, 8(1): 16.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Experimental study on shear strength of reactive powder concrete

Guo Minlong, Ji Wenyu & An Mingzhe

Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China

ABSTRACT: RPC (Reactive powder concrete) is a new kind of Cement-Based Composite Materials with ultra
high strength, toughness and durability, and satisfactory volume stability. Mixing methods and technical aspects
of RPC have been studied for years; however, the research on shearing property is still inadequate. The stress-
strain curves of shear stress and shear strain of RPC, and failure load of tested beam are investigated through the
study of 5 groups of specimens which have different mix ratios with 4 points loading uniform depth beam testing
method. The effect of mixing ratio is summarized through the study of failure features of testing specimens and
numerical simulation analysis using ANSYS. A shear-resistant formula is proposed which provides a basis for
shear design and theory analysis of RPC.

Keywords: RPC, 4 points loading uniform depth beam, failure load, failure features, stress-strain curves

1 INTRODUCTION with special test equipment of complex technique, the

With the development of structures of high-rise, long-
span, light weight and under complicated environment,
many bridges, high-rise buildings, industrial plants
with large span and some municipal engineering have
become increasingly demanding for engineering mate-
rials. RPC is quite different from ordinary concrete
on the mechanical properties; therefore, a full study
of RPCs mechanical properties is necessary before
application and popularization. The shear behavior of
RPC is one of the basic physical and mechanical prop-
erties; however, it presents the limitations of existing
studies. Study of this area has a great importance for
both theory and practice in providing an essential basis
for the methods and theories of structure design.
In this paper, the effects of gravel and steel fiber
were studied by comparing the results of shear test
using different RPC mixing ratios in order to get the
optimal mixing ratio. With the test results and numer-
ical analysis by ANSYS, formula of the shear strength
of RPC is proposed.
2 EXPERIMENTAL
2.1 Methods
The methods usually used in the test of shear prop-
erties are as follows: (1) direct shear on rectangular
short beam[7] ; (2) Z-shaped specimen with single shear
plane[8] ; (3) notched-beam with 4-point force[9] ; (4)
torsion of thin-walled cylinder[10] ; (5) two-axis ten-
sion and compression; etc. In these testing methods,
latter two types are close to the state of ideal pure shear
stress, but it is not easy to be achieved in general sit-
uation. So the former two types of test methods are
usually used. The various test methods show a differ-
ence in shear strength. The literature[8] analyzed the
distribution of the stress on the failure shear plane
of the former three methods, indicated that the shear
stress of the shear plane was not uniform in the first
and the second method and there existed normal stress
which was several times of the average shear stress.
So the former two methods are quite far from pure
shear state. The shear stress of the middle part of
the specimen in the third method is uniform and the
value of normal stress is approximately 12% to 25%
of the value of average shear stress and it is closed
to pure shear. Therefore, the stress states of the lat-
ter three methods are relatively reasonable and show a
steady value of the shear strength.
The third method which uses 4 points loading uni-
form depth beam were used in literature[8] . The middle
part of the beam is non-notched in order to avoid stress
concentration and thinner to control the location of
destruction so that it will make it easier to lay 45
cross resistance strain chip to measure the principal
strain. According to the analysis, the shear stress in
the middle part of the test beam is relatively uniform,
and its max value is 1.22 to 1.28 times of the average
shear stress, nearly the pure shear state. In order to take
a close look of the whole failure process, take certain
measures to slow down the failure process.
In summary, 4 points loading uniform depth beam
is used to test the shear ability of RPC. Dimensions of
specimen as shown in Figure 1.

199
2.2 Design of testing beams
Five different mix ratios are designed for testing in
order to find out the factors which influence the shear
ability of RPC.
The mix ratio of the first group is designed in accor-
dance with the design of ordinary concrete materials
and neither gravel nor steel fiber is added. In the sec-
ond group steel fiber is added but gravel, so as to study
the influence of steel fiber on the shear strength of
RPC. In order to analyze the influence of gravel, in the
fourth group gravel is added based on the mix ratio of
the second group. To get the optimal mix ratio between
gravel and steel fiber, the third, the fourth and the fifth
group are designed to be analyzed.
In the test, compressive strength, elastic modulus
and flexural strength of every mix ratio need to be
measured. The test blocks are designed as follows: 1.
a test of compressive strength and flexural strength
is needed right after conservation of RPC; 2. a test
of compressive strength, elastic modulus and flexural
strength is needed while shear test is being conducted.
Shown as follows:
Compressive strength: 100 100 100 mm, 2
groups, 6 blocks;
Flexural strength: 100 100 400 mm, 2 groups,
6 blocks;
Elasticity modulus: 100 100 300 mm, 1 groups,
6 blocks.
2.3 Equipment and loading method
The existing test equipment is not applicable in shear
test and loading frame needs to be constructed for shear
test. Q235 steel is used to make loading frame and
fillet weld of type E43 is used for welding. Both sides
of the column are 1.5 m height. Channel 48 100 10
is used for column cross section. The bottom beam is
built by dual-channel from welding batten plate. Chan-
nel 65 160 10 is used for bottom beam cross
section. Rolled I-shaped steel 200 10 10 is used
for beams. Vertical support with steel of 29 mm thick-
ness is added to both sides of webs. Two L-bars of
50 50 are welded onto the beams for the support
points of top loading plane. Two pressure sensors are
used for the bottom loading plane and are located on
two hydraulic jacks of 500 KN and then place the jacks
on the bottom beams. Then place the specimen in the
loading frame. As shown in Figure 2.
2.4 Shear strength
The failure of the beams started from certain part of
the shear plane, the shear strength should be decided
by the shear stress of the destruction plane. Preliminar-
ily analysis method of the ordinary concrete uniform
depth beam is considered. The ratio between the shear

Figure 1. Beam forced on four point. Figure 2. Schematic diagram of loading frame.

Table 1. The mix proportions of five beams.

Quartz

No. cement admixture gravel fine medium coarse Steel fiber water addictive
kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg

1 624 178 0 415 829 207 0 108 58

1 624 178 0 381 782 195 120 108 58
1 624 178 547 547 225 112 80 108 58
1 624 178 547 547 225 112 120 108 58
1 624 178 547 547 225 112 160 108 58

200
stress in the middle of the span and the average shear 3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
stress of the whole cross section are considered as 1.22
to 1.28. Considering that a small amount of plastic 3.1 Analysis of failure characteristics
deformation has happened when failure occurs, this
The principal compressive strain and shear strain is
value is about 1.2.
almost linear to the shear stress in the first test group
Analysis of shear strength of the test beams is as
from the beginning of loading to load up about 60% of
follows:
the failure load. By increasing the load to more than
1. The compressive strength of the first group with- 80% of the failure load, the cracks rapidly extended
out gravel or steel fiber is up to 108.10 MPa. In along the ramp and became steepening through the
the second group with steel fiber, the compressive variable cross section area. When the load went up
strength is up to 133.90MPa. This shows that the to the failure load 3.5t, cracks went through the cross
existence of steel fiber increases the shear strength section of the specimen and then cut the specimen in
about 24% in the situation of no gravel. half.
2. Through the analysis method of uniform depth In the second group, inclined cracks appeared in
beams of ordinary concrete, namely considering the mid-span section and in the variable section in
the shear strength as 1.2 times of the average shear the loading process. Inclined cracks developed at a
stress in the middle part of the beam span, the ratio slow speed and the width and length of the inclined
of the calculated strength and the shear strength of cracks were relatively stable. The steel fibers restrict
failure is about 1.4 in the first and second groups the development of the inclined cracks. Due to the
without gravel. stress concentration, the cracks in the variable cross
3. The compressive strength is up to 150.40 MPa, section area went through the whole section, but the
when gravel and the same amount of steel fiber width of the cracks varied little. Due to the existence
as the second group are added in the fourth group. of steel fibers, the shear ability is enhanced.
That means gravel can also increase the compres- Due to the effect of gravel and steel fiber, the com-
sive strength of the specimen, about 12%, but is not pressive strength and the shear strength of the third
as much as the steel fiber does. group were significantly enhanced. When the load was
4. When the third group, the fourth group and the fifth up to 60% - 70% of the failure load, inclined cracks and
group have the same amount of gravel, but the steel vertical cracks appeared in both mid-span section and
fiber of an equivalent of 80, 120 and 160 is added, variable section area which was small in width. By con-
respectively. No significant difference was found tinuing to increase the load, inclined cracks extended
according to the compressive strength. to the upper and lower edges of the cross section, the
5. Through the analysis method of uniform depth width of them was gradually developing. When loaded
beams of ordinary concrete, the ratio of the cal- almost into the failure load, the inclined cracks were
culated strength and the shear strength of failure is so close to the upper and lower edges of the cross sec-
close to 1.2 in former three groups. tion without causing the failure. The upper side of the
6. The relationship between the shear strength and the variable cross section area was heaving that leaded to
cube compressive strength is obvious through com- the tearing up of the variable cross section area.
paring the results of the test of shear strength and In the fourth group of the test, when the load
cube compressive strength of RPC. Using multiple increased from 0t to 4t, no obvious crack appeared
regression analysis, the relationship computation in the mid-span cross section and the shear ability of
expression is shown below: the specimens was satisfactory. When the load gradu-
ally increased, the cracks extended to both the upper
and lower edges of the cross section. When the load
was up to the failure load, cracks penetrated the whole
variable cross section area. Both of the inclined cracks
Fitting curve equation is y = AxB , where A = 0.88, of the mid-span section and the width of them did not
B = 0.83, 95% confidence. develop significantly.
The failure of the fifth group is the same as the
fourth group.
Table 2. The compressive strength value. In summary, through the analysis of the failure char-
acteristics of the five test groups, we can see that the
Shear Calculated Shear steel fiber make a big difference on the shear strength
Specimen fcu force value test of the test beams. In all of the latter three groups of the
No. Mpa t t t ratio test beams, gravel and steel fiber are added so that the
shear strength is much higher than that of the second
26-3 108.10 3.5 5.52 3.89 1.42 group. Both of the compressive strength and the shear
28-2 133.90 4.0 6.21 4.44 1.40 strength of the latter three groups are higher than the
18-3 145.00 5.0 6.49 5.56 1.17 first group. Due to the existence of the stress concen-
17-1 150.40 5.0 6.62 5.56 1.19 tration, failure came into being at the variable cross
25-1 154.80 5.0 6.71 5.56 1.21
section area.

201
Figure 3. 45 Strain rosettes.
3.2 Analysis of the shear stress-strain curves
of RPC
1. Stress analysis and measurement methods of plane
strain state
By measuring the linear strain of any three points,
the strain state of this point can be calculated accord-
ing to tensor calculus. Namely two normal strains
and a shear strain can be calculated to determine the
direction of the principal strain.
The expression of two principal strains by the strain
circle as follows:
The relationship between the linear strains of any
three directions and the parameters of the strain state
as follows:
In the actual test, in order to simplify the calculation,
45 strain rosette (also as rectangular rosette) is usually
used. That is a = 0 , b = 45 , c = 90 as shown in as the parameters which are used to conduct analysis
Figure 3.
The principal stress can be calculated through the
generalized Hookes law under the plane stress state.
Measuring the linear strains of any three points in the
mid-span section so as to calculate the principal strains
and shear strains. In the test, right angle strain rosette
is usually used, namely a = 0 , b = 45 , c = 90 ,
Rosettes located on both sides of the front and back of
the mid-span shear section, as shown in Figure 4.
In the test, Rosette 1, 2 and 3 are used to measure
the linear strains of the middle test point of surface
A, namely a , b and c . Rosette 4, 5 and 6 are used
to measure the linear strains of the upper test point of
surface B. Rosette 7, 8 and 9 are used to measure the
linear strains of the lower test point of surface B.
2. Analysis of the curve of shear force and the
principal strains
In the first group without gravel or steel fiber, the
principal stress in the mid-span section is relatively
202
Figure 4. 45 Strain rosettes on the middle section of the
beam.
small when the load P is not more than 20 KN. The
relation curve tends to the shear axis. When the load
P is more than 20 KN, the values of principal strains
increase rapidly as the shear force increase. The rela-
tion curve gradually deviates from the shear axis.
When the shear force is up to 35KN, failure occurs.
In the second group with steel fiber, the relation
curve is very close to the shear axis due to the good
shearing performance of the steel fibers. Compar-
ing with the first group, the shear strength of second
group with steel fiber is much higher than the first
group without steel fiber.
In the third group with gravel and steel fiber, the
relation curve is almost parallel to the shear axis and
becomes nearly vertical. When the load is greater
than 35KN, principal strains begin to increase and the
relation curve gradually deviates from the shear axis.
When the load is up to 50KN, the value of the principal
strain reaches maximum.
In the fourth group, a greater amount of steel fiber
is added comparing to the third group, the situation
of the principal strains is similar to that of the third
group.
In the fifth group, by analyzing these data, the
situation is similar to the fourth group.
3.3 Finite element analysis
1. The selection of material parameters
Take the material properties of the fourth test group
with ANSYS.
The elastic modulus of the fourth group is
E = 4.62 104 MPa according to the test and
Poissons ratio is selected as 0.19.
2. Analysis of the relation curve of shear stress and
shear strain with ANSYS
It can be seen from the Figure 5, when the load is
relatively low, the relation curve of shear force and
the measured principal strains in the mid-span section
is similar to the theoretical results, in the mid-span
section the shear stress is linear to the shear strain.
When load increases from 40 KN to 50 KN, the result
of theoretical analysis is far from the result of the test.
Considering the results of the theoretical analysis, the
shear strength of the mid-span section can continue to
improve. But in the test, the existence of the variable
cross section area leads to stress concentration so that
the failure of the variable cross section occurs before
the failure of the mid-span cross section.

Figure 5. Contrast diagram of the shear force and the
principal strains curve of specimen 17-1.
Figure 6. Contrast diagram of the shear force and the shear
strains curve of specimen 17-1.
According to the comparison in the figure, when
load is relatively low, the relation curve of shear stress
and shear strain in the mid-span section is consistent
with theoretical analysis. While the load continues to
increase from 40KN to 50KN, the rate of the curve
seen from theoretical analysis is relative stable with
little increment and the shear strain is on an upward
trend. Due to the failure of the variable cross section
area, the maximum of the real shear strength of the
mid-span section cannot be achieved.
4 CONCLUSIONS
In the RPC specimen without gravel, the ratio of the
shear strength and the shear stress of the failure shear
force is about 1.4. In the RPC specimen with both
gravel and steel fiber, that ratio is about 1.2. There-
fore, the shear strength of RPC can be calculated in
accordance with the formula of the shear strength of
ordinary concrete.
For these specimens with both gravel and steel
fiber, when the load increases to the same as the
203
RPC beam without gravel or steel fiber, the shear
strain of the cross section is small and no inclined
crack appears. This phenomenon indicated that the
steel fiber increases the shear strength of RPC. Due
to the improvement of steel fiber, the concrete on the
edges of the cracks still sticks together by steel fiber.
Disconnection does not appear.
Gravel has a great influence on the principal strains;
while steel fiber has a great influence on the shear
strains. It indicated that for the beams with certain
gravel and steel fiber, the shear strength of the spec-
imens is approximately constant while the amount of
steel fiber is increased separately.
In the analysis by ANSYS, shear force is still lin-
ear to the shear strain. When the load is close to the
failure load, the rate of the stress-strain curve slightly
increases; the shear strain still tends to increase. The
theoretical results of the principal strains and the shear
strains are coincide with those of shear tests.
In summary, the shear strength of RPC is posi-
tively correlated to the compressive strength of PRC,
which is similar to ordinary concrete material. The
shear strength formula and the compressive strength
formula of ordinary concrete can be approximately
used for the calculation of RPC.
REFERENCES
ZHU Di, RUAN Rui-jun, YAO Li-hui. Research Status and
Prospects of Reactive Powder Concrete, Science and
Technology of Overseas Building Materials, 2010,31(1):
2022
Ke KaiZhan, Cai WenYao, Application and prospect of
reactive powder concrete on the engineerings structure,
2006, (2):1719.
Yinwen Chan, Shuhsien Chu. Effect of Silica Fume on Steel
Fiber Bond Characteristics in Reactive Powder Concrete.
Cement and Concrete Research, 2004, 34(7):11671172
Bayard Pie. Fracture Mechanics of Reactive Powder
Concrete: Material Modelling and Experimental
Investigations. Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 2003.
70(78):839851.
Huang Zhengyu Tan Bin, Research on Stress-Strain Curves
of Reactive Powder Concrete with Steel-Fiber under
Uniaxial Compression, Journal of China Three Gorges
University (Natural Sciences), 2007 (5): 415420.
Iosipescu N, Negoita A. A New Method for Determining the
Pure Shearing Strength of Concrete. Journal of Concrete
Society, 1969, 3(1): 63.
Ding Qinmin, An Minzhe, Chen Yizhou. Study on the
Strength Factors of Reactive Powder Concrete, Building
Technique Development, 2003, 30(10): 4042.
Guo Zhenhai, Zhang Xiuqin, Experimental Study on the
Stress-Strain Curve of Concrete, Journal of Building
Structures, 1982, 3.
Zhang Qi, Guo Zhenhai, Study on Shear Strength and
Shear Strain of Concrete. Journal of Building Structures,
1992(5): 1724.
Mattock H. Shear Transfer in Reinforced Concrete. ACI Feb.
1969. 52.
Coastal engineering
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Wave transformation by a perforated free surface semicircular

breakwater in irregular waves

H.M. Teh
Civil Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia

V. Venugopal
Institute for Energy System, University of Edinburgh, UK

ABSTRACT: This study investigate wave-structure interactions of a free surface semicircular breakwater in
irregular waves using physical modeling. The hydraulic performance of the breakwater is evaluated in the forms
of transmission, reflection and energy dissipation coefficients. Wave climate near the test model is also recorded
and expressed in the form of wave disturbance coefficient. These hydraulic coefficients are evaluated with respect
to the wave scattering parameter, relative breakwater immersion depth, wave steepness and wave spectrum type.
The experimental results showed that the perforated free surface breakwater is an effective wave dissipater with
low reflectivity.

Keywords: Free surface breakwater, wave transmission, wave reflection, energy dissipation

1 INTRODUCTION into four categories: solid-type, plate-type, caisson-

Breakwaters are coastal structures primarily built to
provide different levels of tranquility in ports and
harbours. The most conventional type of breakwater
has been the gravity-type breakwaters. Despite good
wave attenuation ability of the gravity-type breakwa-
ters, the environmental impacts they cause are often
highly controversial and should not be overlooked in
the context of environmental sustainability. Further,
high degree of wave reflection in front of the imper-
meable structures may also pose danger to the small
floating vessels in the vicinity. These limitations have
motivated many research activities to develop break-
waters that are both economically and functionally
viable.
Recently, the study of the pile-supported break-
waters has received increasing interests among the
research community. These breakwaters require less
concrete per unit run and are recommended to be con-
structed in relatively large water depths (Neelamani &
Reddy, 1992). The barriers of these breakwaters are
located near the free surface where the wave energy
flux is maximal. Therefore, these structures are termed
as free surface breakwaters or open breakwaters. Other
advantages of these breakwaters are ease of construc-
tion, applicability in soft soil bottom with complex
bathymetry, less interference to ecosystem, relocation
and recyclability, and reduced visual impact.
There are various ingenious designs of free surface
breakwaters developed in the past. Based on their con-
figurations,Teh et al. (2010) classified the breakwaters
type, and multipart-type. In general, the solid-type and
impermeable caisson-type barriers are strong wave
reflector, whilst the plate-type and multipart-type bar-
riers are good energy dissipaters; however, the wave
suppression ability relatively low.
Breakwaters of cylindrical shape have been widely
studied in the past. The first bottom-seated semicir-
cular breakwater was constructed at Miyazaki Port,
Japan in the period 1992 to 1993 (Sasajima et al.,
1994; Aburatani et al., 1996); and the similar break-
waters were subsequently constructed in Tianjin Port
and Yangtze River Estuary, China in 1997 and 2000
(Xie, 2001), respectively.The breakwaters with a semi-
cylindrical shape offer a number of advantageous
apart from having reasonably good wave attenuation
performance, i.e. good structural stability, high sta-
bility against the wave action, applicability in the
soft soil foundation, low construction and mainte-
nance costs, ease of construction, and good scenery
enhancement. Further research on the the breakwa-
ter with perforations was carried out by Sundar &
Ragu (1987), Graw et al. (1998), and Dhinakaran et al.
(2008).
To the knowledge of the authors, the study of a free
surface semicircular breakwater has yet to be carried
out. The present study, therefore, aims at developing
a perforated, free surface semicircular breakwater that
could be supported on piles, and evaluating the hydro-
dynamic performance of the breakwater under various
wave conditions, through a series of experiments in a
wave flume.

207

Figure 1. Test model.
2 EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP
The semicircular model was constructed of a semi-
cylindrical PVC tube with a radius of 0.25 m, and a
length of 0.395 m. Rectangular openings were pro-
vided at the front and rear curved walls as shown in
Figure 1. The size of each rectangular opening was
of 3 cm 6 cm. The front curved wall had 6 rows
by 4 columns of openings giving a porosity of 27%;
whereas, the rear wall had 2 rows by 4 columns at the
upper portion of the barrier. Further details of the test
model are discussed by Teh et al. (2010).
The laboratory tests were conducted in a 22 m
long, 0.4 m wide and 0.7 m deep wave flume in the
Hydraulics Laboratory of the School of Engineering,
University of Edinburgh. A flap-type, active absorp-
tion wave generator was installed at one end of the
flume.At the downwave end of the flume, passive wave
absorbing beaches were installed to minimise the
reflection of incident waves from the end wall of the
wave flume during the experiments. The test section
was located at a distance of 12 m from the wave gener-
ator. Three wave probes which were located toward the
seaside of the model, were used to separate the incident
and reflected waves using the Least Square Method
(Mansard & Funke, 1980). A probe was located at a
distance of 5 cm from the seaward wall of the model
and was used to measure the surface elevation just
in front of the model. Another probe was positioned
through one of the rectangular openings to measure the
fluctuation of water level within the model chamber.
The transmitted waves were measured by the probe
placed at a distance 2.5 m from the leeward wall of
the model. All wave probes were carefully calibrated
before each set of experiments.
The model was tested in irregular wave climates
as they provide better representation of real sea con-
ditions. Two wave forms were chosen for this study,
i.e. Pierson-Moskowitz and JONSWAP spectra. The
Pierson-Moskowitz (PM) spectrum represents fully
developed seas; whilst the JONSWAP spectrum is for
growing seas where the height of waves is limited by
fetch. Table 1 summarizes the test parameters used in
this study.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Transmission coefficient CT
The hydraulic performance of the semicircular break-
water in irregular wave environments is investigated
208
Table 1. Test parameters.
Test Parameters PM JONSWAP
-factor 1 3.3
Immersion 0.05, 0.10, 0.15 m 0.05, 0.10, 0.15 m
depth, D
Water depth, d 0.7 m 0.7 m
Relative draft, 0.07, 0.14, 0.21 0.07, 0.14, 0.21
D/d
Peak period, Tp 0.8 < Tp < 1.3 s 0.8 < Tp < 1.8 s
Significant wave 0.04 < Hmo < 0.14 m 0.04 < Hmo < 0.14 m
height
Wave steepness 0.01 < Hmo /Lp < 0.08 0.01 < Hmo /Lp < 0.09
with respect to the scattering parameter, kR where k
and R are the wave number (=2/Lp ) and the radius
of the breakwater, respectively. Wave attenuation abil-
ity of the breakwater is indicated by the transmission
coefficient, CT , which is the ratio of the transmit-
ted wave height-to-the incident wave height, i.e. a
lower CT value indicates the breakwater is an effective
wave attenuator. Figure 2a shows the CT values for
three immersion depths, D = 0.05, 0.10, 0.15 m (cor-
responds to relative breakwater drafts D/d = 0.071,
0.143 and 0.214). Note that the kR values increase with
a decrease in peak wave periods Tp or the correspond-
ing wavelength Lp ; whereas, the relative breakwater
draft D/d increases with the increasing immersion
depth of the test model. It is seen in Figure 2a that
CT decreases with an increase in kR and D/d. This
indicates that the test model with larger immersion
depth serves a better wave attenuator particularly when
exposed to shorter period waves. For instance, the
breakwater of D/d = 0.214 reduces the incident wave
height by almost 80% when kR 1.5. Besides the effect
of kR and D/d, the figure also demonstrates wave
transmission characteristics of the breakwater model
with respect to the types of wave spectra, i.e. PM and
JONSWAP. It is clear from the plots that the CT data
for both types of waves cluster together, implying that
the wave attenuation performance of the breakwater is
less significant to the wave spectral shape.
3.2 Wave reflection CR
Wave reflection from the breakwater is typically quan-
tified by the reflection coefficient, CR , which is a
ratio of the reflected wave height-to-the incident wave
height, i.e. a lower CR value implies the breakwater is
an effective anti-reflection structure. The variations of
CR with respect to kR in Figure 2b appear to be rel-
atively small compared to those of CT . Nevertheless,
the influence of D/d on CR is considerable, partic-
ularly in smaller range of kR. The highest CR value
recorded by the test model of D/d = 0.214 is about 0.5,
which is equivalent to about 25% of the incident wave
energy. This amount of reflected waves is perceived to
be marginal in comparison with that reflected by the
solid wall structures. In addition, Figure 2b also shows

Figure 2. Energy coefficients CT , CR and CL .
that the CR values are not affected by the type of wave
spectra used.
3.3 Energy dissipation CL
Since the energy dissipated at the breakwater involves
complicated processes and is difficult to measured
physically, it is therefore mathematically estimated
based on the principle of conservation of energy, giv-
ing the energy dissipation coefficient, CL = (1 CT2
CR 2 )1/2 . A good energy dissipater always yields higher
CL values. The energy dissipation coefficients pre-
sented in Figure 2c demonstrate an increase in CL
with the increase of kR as well as with the increase
of D/d. The relationships reveal that the test model
with larger immersion depth dissipates greater amount
of energy when subjected to smaller period waves.
This can be explained by the fact that greater wave-
structure interactions take place within the breakwater
interference chamber when the test model is deeply
immersed by water; however, the wave interactions
with the structure reduce as the incident waves grow
Figure 3. Wave-structure interaction during experiment.
in period. Similar to the observations for CT and
CR , the type of wave spectra used in this experiment
does not seem to influence CL values appreciably.
Some of the major wave-structure interactions
identified in the experiment are shown in Figure 3.
These responses are deemed to directly correlate to
wave energy dissipation by the breakwater. Figure 3
displays wave impact on a test model immersed at
0.15 m from the still water level. The breakwater
model was attacked by an extreme wave of Tp = 1.3 s
and Hm0 = 0.14 m. The wave penetrated through the
perforated front wall and provoked some eddies in
the breakwater chamber close to the openings. The
wave propagated into the chamber was subsequently
reflected by the impermeable rear curved wall of
the breakwater and travelled to the seaside of the
model. Part of the reflected wave was re-reflected
by the front curve wall and the remaining continued
to propagate away from the breakwater. It was also
observed in the experiment that excessive wave crests
ran up the seaward slope of the breakwater and sub-
sequently overtopped the structure as shown in Figure
3b. Wave energy was also suppressed by the pressure
difference due to the water level variation inside and
outside the chamber, as well as the turbulence of flow
contained in the chamber. Under extreme wave condi-
tions, the waves ran up the rear wall leap out through
the rear openings, causing splashing of water over
the breakwater. The overtopped water and the water
spray generated some degree of wave agitation at the
leeside of the model; however, the disturbance was
relatively small compared to the transmitted waves past
underneath the breakwater.
3.4 Wave climate near the breakwater
Wave climate near the breakwater is quantified by
a wave disturbance coefficient, which is the local
wave height-to-incident wave height ratio. Wave cli-
mate right in front of the breakwater is represented
by CF , and that in the interference chamber is rep-
resented by CC . These wave disturbance coefficients
spread out about unity. A value of the coefficient
above unity indicates an increase in wave activity,
and vice versa. Figure 4 presents the wave climate at
the front and within the breakwater (expressed in the
forms of CF and CC , respectively) for D/d = 0.071,
0.143 and 0.214. These coefficients are plotted
against wave steepness, Hm0 /Lp .It is evident that
CF and CC are not dependent upon wave steep-
ness for all the tested D/d ratios. From the plots, it
209

Figure 4. Wave disturbance coefficients.
is apparent that CC < CF at D/d = 0.071, CC CF
at D/d = 0.143 and CC > CF at D/d = 0.214, for
0.01 < Hm0 /Lp < 0.09. The mean values of the CC
for D/d = 0.071, 0.143 and 0.214 are 1.03 (standard
deviation = 0.03), 1.13 (standard deviation = 0.06)
and 1.25 (standard deviation = 0.08), respectively;
whereas the means of the CF are 1.14 (standard
deviation = 0.04), 1.17 (standard deviation = 0.05)
and 1.14 (standard deviation = 0.07), respectively. In
deeper depth of immersion, wave overtopping often
takes place due to the limited freeboard of the break-
water, which consequently limits water build-up at the
front of the breakwater.The transmitted waves increase
the wave activity within the chamber. These waves
occasionally cause slamming onto the lower deck of
the breakwater resulting in splashing of water through
the openings at the rear wall.
4 CONCLUSION
A free surface semicircular breakwater with rectangu-
lar perforations was tested in this study. The hydraulic
performance characteristics of the breakwater were
studied through a series of systematic laboratory tests
210
in irregular wave climate. The following conclusions
are reached within the test limit:
1. The influence of the relative immersion depth,
D/d, and the scattering parameter, kR on the
hydraulic characteristics of the test model were sig-
nificant, i.e. breakwaters with greater the depth of
immersion promoted higher wave reflection and
energy dissipation, thereby limiting the transmitted
wave height at the leeside of the breakwater.
2. The test model was hydraulically efficient when
exposed to short-period waves.
3. The hydraulic performance of the breakwater was
not yield to the type of wave spectra, i.e. PM and
JONSWAP.
4. The free surface semicircular breakwater was
an effective energy dissipater and a good anti-
reflection structure.
5. A deeply immersed breakwater would induce
greater wave activity within the chamber.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the University of
Edinburgh for the financial support for this project,
and Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS for funding
this paper and presentation materials.
REFERENCES
Aburatani, S., Koizuka, T., Sasayama, H., Tanimoto, K. &
Namerikawa, N., 1996. Field test on a semi-circular cais-
son breakwater. Coastal Engineering Journal in Japan, 39
(1), 5978.
Dhinakaran, G., Sundar, V., Sundaravadivelu, R. & Graw,
K. U., 2008. Hydrodynamic characteristics of seaside
perforated semicircular breakwaters due to random waves.
Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal and Ocean Engineer-
ing, 134(4), 237251.
Graw, K. U., Knapp, S., Sundar, V. & Sundaravadivelu,
R., 1998. Dynamic pressures exerted on semicircular
breakwater. Leipzig Annual Civil Engineering Report, 3,
333344.
Mansard, E. P. D. & Funke, E. R., 1980. The measurement
of incident and reflected spectra using a least squares
method. Proceedings of the 17th Coastal Engineering
Conference, 154172.
Neelamani, S. & Reddy, M.S. 1992. Wave transmission and
reflection characteristics of a rigid surface and submerged
horizontal plate, Ocean Engineering 19, 327341.
Sasajima, H., Koizuka, T. & Sasayama, H., 1994. Field
demonstration test of a semicircular breakwater. Proceed-
ings of HYDROPORT94, Yokosuko, Japan, 1, 593610.
Sundar, V. & Ragu, V., 1997. Dynamic pressures and run-up
on semicircular breakwaters due to random waves. Ocean
Engineering, 25(45), 221241.
Teh, H. M., Venugopal, V. & Bruce, T., 2010. Hydrody-
namic performance of a free surface semicircular perfo-
rated breakwater. Proceedings of the 32nd International
Conference on Coastal Engineering, Shanghai, China.
Xie, S. L., 2001. Design of semi-circular breakwaters and
estuary jetties. Proceedings of XXIX IAHR Congress,
Beijing, 9095.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Spectral analyses of sea-state wave data for the development

of a regional-sensitive spectral model

M.S. Liew, M.Z. Abd Wahap & E.S. Lim

UniversitiTeknologiPETRONAS, Perak, Malaysia

N. Abdullah
PETRONAS CarigaliSdnBhd (PCSB), Malaysia

ABSTRACT: Spectral analysis is seen as an integral part of the design and operation of offshore structures/
vessels as they are tools used in understanding the fundamental values that are used in the codes of design and
operation. Conventionally in the Malaysian region, spectral models used in the analyses process are based on the
JONSWAP and Pierson-Moskowitz spectrum which are empirical models based on values of the North Sea and
North Atlantic respectively. As such, the lack of a regional spectral model indicates that the values used are not
regionally sensitive to the inherently calmer waters of the Malaysian basins. As a result, Malaysian basins has
seen the use of more conservative values in the design and operation process as well as fatigue issues associated
with the differing peak frequencies of wave spectrums in the region. To address this, this paper will discuss the
derivation process of the spectral model that is required to cater to the Malaysian region for application in the
offshore design process which from hereon shall be known as the Zul-Liew-Lim-Carigali (ZLLC) spectrum

Keywords: spectral analysis, empirical model, South China Sea, wave, offshore design, offshore operations

1 INTRODUCTION through the development of a regional-sensitive spec-

Traditionally, the determination of wave criteria for
an offshore structure is determined by two distinct
methods, a) spectral analysis of measured data unique
to region of interest and, b) the utilization of pre-
scribed design values of significant wave height (i.e.
PTS, API and DNV). To each method of approach,
there are their advantages and disadvantages. In the
case of using design values, the design process is far
more simplified than performing spectral analysis but
has to take into account varying wave periods along
with the selected wave height to analyze the worst
case loading that could develop. This will resultantly
lead to more conservative values than spectral analy-
sis as the consideration of preclusion of extreme values
based on a pre-selected return period is utilized dur-
ing design; for instance, wind and wave conditions
are based on an arbitrarily selected extreme loading
value of a 100-year storm period. On the other hand,
spectral analysis of measured data on site of interest
will produce the density distribution of wave periods
which is far more representative of the actual condi-
tions. Conventionally, it would be favourable to select
a theoretical spectrum or envelope to fit the measured
spectrum developed although that is seldom possible
especially in regions which are outside the North Sea
and the Gulf of Mexico. It would therefore be more
accurate to describe the regional sea wave distribution
trum similar to ones that have been developed for the
North Sea (JONSWAP spectrum) and North Atlantic
(Pierson-Moskowitz spectrum).
Spectral analysis can be described as a representa-
tion of a time series or mathematical functions in the
frequency domain. Spectral analysis differs from time
domain analysis in a sense that it can clearly identify
the content of energy over a range of particular fre-
quencies. This technique is commonplace in the area
of control systems, sound engineering and statistics.
The analysis is achieved through a set of mathematical
operators that are applied upon the time series such as
Fourier Transform which decomposes the finite signal
of sinusoidal waves into frequency components. As it
is suitably applied in the analysis of time series of any
form, spectral analysis applications can be extended
into the area of offshore engineering in the form of
spectral analysis of metocean loads. In offshore condi-
tions, the dominating environmental criterion used in
the design of offshore structures is the sea wave com-
ponent (especially for Malaysian waters which have a
large amount of fixed offshore structures). The abil-
ity to analyze sea waves as a time series will allow
the dissecting of waves by energy content in the spec-
trum, which in turn enables the identification of, a)
critical/peak wave frequencies in a particular sea, b)
the energy content associated with each particular fre-
quency range and, c) spectrum which can be applied in

211

Figure 1. Comparison between Measured, ZLLC,
Pierson-Moskowitz and JONSWAP.
the development of transfer functions to describe the
characteristic of movement in offshore structures and
vessels.
2 DEVELOPMENTAL & LIMITATION OF SEA
SPECTRAL MODELS
Spectral analysis while more accurate in obtaining
results far more representative of a regions metocean
conditions, are not always attainable due to shortcom-
ings such as the lack of workable measured data which
hampers the accuracy of the envelope. The empiri-
cal equations do however provide a relatively good
approximate of the actual conditions and are able to
replicate sea states of a particular region at a given
wave design criteria and thus could save significant
analysis time for design and operations. The drawback
to existing spectral models is that they particularly
cater to fully developed seas existent in the North Sea
and North Atlantic, i.e. JONSWAP (1973), Pierson-
Moskowitz (1964) and Bretschneider (1969) spectrum
and as such, represents different peak frequency and
energy content compared to Malaysian waters. Empir-
ical spectrums do however come along with draw-
backs that affect the accuracy of the envelope, a)
highly restrictive to fully developed seas, b) assump-
tion of unlimited fetch length, c) does not consider
effect of squalls, d) considers waves as uni-directional,
e) seafloor topography (critical in nearshore condi-
tions), f) possible limitations of workable data during
development of previous spectrums.
Current practice in the Malaysian waters dictates
the usage of JONSWAP and Pierson-Moskowitz spec-
trums which are highly conservative and non-reflective
of the regions sea state which can be seen in Figure 1.
Further analysis and decomposition of the localized
spectrum will be discussed in the following section.
However, the development of the ZLLC spectrum
which is the inherent point of discussion throughout
this paper will surpass certain limitations that previous
empirical models could not account for. For example,
the availability of workable data to produce the mea-
sured spectrum is far more accurate than 50 years ago,
which is the time most of the established spectrums
have been based upon. This is due to the ability to
212
Table 1. Summary of characteristics of P-M Spectrum
Model.
Pierson-Moskowitz
Parameters 1 (Hs )
Swell Consideration No
Direction Uni-direction
Sea State Developed
Fetch Limited No
use corrected hindcast data (SEAFINE for the South
China Sea region in which Malaysian waters rest upon)
through a set of corrective algorithms developed for
the region of concern. This thus replicates the consis-
tency of hindcast data and accuracy of measured data
in the production of measured spectrums. However,
due to complexity of modeling the various compo-
nents in each unique sea, certain variables have to be
excluded from the formulation of the empirical equa-
tion to produce a best approximate of the sea state
based on dominating variables, i.e. squall incidents and
uni-directionality assumption of waves.
3 ZLLC SPECTRAL MODEL DEVELOPMENT
As discussed earlier, JONSWAP and P-M spectrum
models are the current references for the behavior of
sea state wave of the Malaysian basin. However, the
initial finding indicates that the P-M spectrum model
is more identical or representative on the actual sea
state wave of the Malaysian basin than the JONSWAP
spectrum due to relatively closer energy densities.
This situation coupled with associated statistical tests
enables us to conclude that the reference on JONSWAP
spectrum for the characteristics of localized sea state
wave is unsuitable. The summary on the characteristics
of P-M spectrum models is as shown in the following
Table 1.
Based on the initial findings, adoption of the
P-M spectrum in order to match and characterize the
measured spectrum is preferred through an introduc-
tion of a modification factor. However, the linearity of
the P-M spectrum formula which is dependent on one
variable limits the modification approach. The intro-
duction of this modification is intended to shift the
critical frequency of the spectrum to that which is more
representative of the measured spectrum. As such, the
Modified P-M spectrum is seen as a suitable substitute
for the P-M spectrum as it is a two-parameter spec-
trum which is necessary to facilitate the peak shift. The
following summarizes the Modified P-M spectrum.
The characteristics of the Modified P-M spectrum
are quite similar to those of P-M spectrum except the
Modified P-M spectrum is dependent on two vari-
ables. The basis for this modification goes back to
the relationship factor which the P-M spectrum has
established between the significant wave height and
Table 2. Summary of Modified P-M spectrum
characteristics.

Modified P-M

Parameters 2 (Hs & Tp )

Swell Consideration No
Direction Uni-direction
Sea State Developed
Fetch Limited No

Figure 3. The effect of Tp value on the spectrums shape.

Figure 2. The influence of sea states on the behavior of the

wave spectrum.

Figure 4. The effect of Hs value on the spectrums shape.

the peak period which is not representative of localized
effects. From the formula above, the controlling variables on
An earlier observation was that the critical fre- the shape of the spectrum are Hs and 0 . The relation-
quency of the measured spectrum is higher than the ship between the 0 and the peak wave period, Tp may
critical frequencies of the JONSWAP and P-M spec- be obtained from
trums, while the energy content of the measured
spectrum is slightly less than the energy content of the
P-M spectrum and significantly less than the energy
content of JONSWAP spectrum. These conditions led
Sensitivity tests on the effect of the variables have
to the possible assumption that the sea state of the area
been performed and the results of the tests indicate that
where the measurement took place could possibly still
the adjustment on the value of Tp will help in shifting
be in the state of a developing sea. This argument
the critical frequency towards the higher frequency as
is founded on the basis that the ZLLC spectrum dis-
shown in Figure 3, which is far more representative
plays similar characteristics as illustrated in Figure 2,
of localized conditions. Meanwhile, Figure 4 shows
whereby the wind that generates the waves in the equa-
that the adjustment of the Hs value will only affect the
torially located Malaysian waters is milder than those
amplitude of the energy densityof the spectrum and
at the NorthAtlantic Oceanand North Sea. The illustra-
not in the shift of the critical frequency.
tion of how the sea states affect the critical frequency
The results indicate that the modification on the Tp
of the wave spectrum is exemplified by the following
value of the Modified P-M spectrum would be suffi-
Figure 2.
cient in order to produce a spectrum model that coun-
The low energy wave spectrum indicates the energy
terparts the measured spectrum in terms of the critical
transferred from the wind to the wave was small possi-
frequency and energy density. The modification on the
bly due to fetch limitations and this gives us a possible
Tp value was done by introducing a regionally sensitive
explanation of the spectral phenomenon of the ZLLC
factor (from here on labeled xR ) to the Tp value and
spectrum. The position of the Malaysian basins at the
this alteration produces the following ZLLC spectrum
equatorial line of the earth where the climate is more
model.
stable than other regions is possibly the contribut-
The empirical formula was then applied data 10
ing factor in the calmer wind and wave conditions of
years worth of data sets of Hs and Tp but with
the area.
varying xR values to produce spectrums that match
In continuation, the formula of Modified P-M
the respective measured spectrums. Subsequently, sta-
spectrum is as shown below.
tistical analysis was performed on the xR values to
conclude the envelope value that would represent the
Malaysian basins. From the analysis, the xR values
seem to follow a normal probability distribution as

213

Figure 5. Histogram and derived probability distribution of
xR values.
shown in the Figure 5 and the ultimate xR value for
Malaysian basin is 2.26.
4 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
The introduction of the xR factor into the Modified
P-M spectrum has shown that it can create an enve-
lope filter that depicts the energy densities and peak
frequencies that are existent in the Malaysian waters
as compared to previous methods of utilizing the
JONSWAP and P-M spectrum which cater to the North
Sea and NorthAtlantic respectively. The results are tes-
tament to a range of extensive tests conducted based
on data from platforms located within the vicinity such
as the Malay Basin, Sarawak Basin and Sabah Basin.
214
The results presented herein will be able to drastically
alter the existing design and operating standards of
oil operators in the region. They will encompass plat-
form design, fatigue analysis, operability of vessels
and associated maintenance. The way forward on this
research would be to include measured data from more
platforms from various other basins in the Malaysian
basins to test for consistency of the xR factor in creating
the envelope filter, the ZLLC spectrum
REFERENCES
A.H. Techet (2005), Ocean Waves, MIT Ocean Engineer-
ing, MIT, U.S.A.
Broughton, S.A.; Bryan, K. (2008), Discrete Fourier Anal-
ysis and Wavelets: Applications to Signal and Image
Processing, New York: Wiley. p. 72
C. Park (1997), The Environment: Principles and Applica-
tions, London, Routledge
J. Wichard (2009), Fourier Transform and Spectral Analy-
sis, FMP Berlin
O.A. Oisen, (2011), Det Norske Veritas Wind, Wave
and Current Forces on Offshore Structures, Offshore
Drilling, Offshore Technology
S.K. Chakrabarti (2005), Handbook of Offshore Engineer-
ing, Offshore Structure Analysis Inc., Plainfield, Illinois,
USA, Vol.1
S.K. Chakrabarti, (1987), Hydrodynamics of Offshore
Structures, Southampton: WIT Press
W.H. Michel (1968), Sea Spectra Simplified: Applications
to Ships Behaviour, Marine Technology, p. 22
W.H. Michel (1999), Sea Spectra Revisited, Marine Tech-
nology, Vol.36, No.4, Winter 1999, pp. 221227
Z. Mayeetae (2011), Parametric Study on Environ-
mental Loads of Hindcast and Measured Full Scale
Data, Civil Engineering Department, UniversitiTe-
knologi PETRONAS
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Wave-induced seabed response around offshore wind turbine foundation:

Donghai offshore wind farm, China

K.T. Chang
Center for Marine Geotechnical Engineering Research, Department of Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong
University, Shanghai, China

D.-S. Jeng
Center for Marine Geotechnical Engineering Research, Department of Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong
University, Shanghai, China
Division of Civil Engineering, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK

ABSTRACT: The Donghai offshore wind farm, the first and largest commercial operating offshore wind
energy system in China, adopts a foundationhigh-rising structure foundation (HRSF). In this paper, a three-
dimensional porous model, based on Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations and Biots poro-elastic theory,
will be developed by integrating 3D wave and seabed models to simulate wave-induced seabed response around
the high-rising structure foundation. Then, a parametric study for the wave and seabed characteristics on the
foundation stability conducted. Numerical results indicated: (i) the magnitude of wave-induced pore pressure
increases as wave height or wave period increases. (ii) foundation style has significant influence on pore pressure
vertical distribution.

Keywords: offshore engineering, seabed response, pore pressure, Biots consolidtion model

1 INTRODUCTION Figure 1. The mini-platform of high-rising structure

foundation is made up of a 1.5 m high frustum and
Developments of offshore wind energy have been a 3 m high cylinder at the bottom. The base diame-
rapidly growing up since the first offshore wind farm ter and cut diameter of the frustum is 14 m and 11 m
installed off the Danish coast in 1991. It is well known
that offshore environment is more complex compared
to onshore one. therefore, it is important to select a
suitable foundation style for a certain offshore wind
turbine. The gravity base foundation has proved suc-
cessful in place where the ground conditions below
the seabed have adequate bearing capacity. Monopile
has been the most popular wind turbine foundation
in shallow water due to its competitive low costs of
fabrication and installation. A novel offshore wind tur-
bine foundation that is being tested at Fredrikshavn,
in Denmark, is the suction caisson. With the increas-
ing water depth, multiple footing options are used to
provide greater moment resistance. Recently floating
platform with tension legs is being investigated for
deep water.
Apart from aforementioned common types of wind
turbine foundation, coastal and structural engineers
have to provide new options for particular seabed char-
acteristics and marine environment, for instance, a
high-rising structure foundation (HRSF) has been used
for the Donghai offshore wind farm (DH-OWF) (Lin
et al. 2007), the first commercial offshore wind farm
in China, which started operating in July 2010. The
DH-OWF is located in Shanghai region, as shown in Figure 1. Location of Donghai offshore wind farm.

215
 incompressible fluid motion due to wave can be
described by the RANS equations,

Figure 2. Definition of wave-seabed interactions in the

vicinity of the foundation.

respectively. Eight 80 m long piles are embedded in

seabed 65 m and arranged along the circle of a radius
of 5 m equably. The steel piles are drove into seabed
with a 5.5:1 slope and connected to the upper platform
by pouring concrete.
Marine structures are exposed to marine environ-
mental loading such as wave loadings that are cyclic
in nature. Research on response of offshore founda-
tion to cyclic loads has been conducted in past few
decades, and a series of 2D or 3D models are devel-
oped to have a better understanding upon interaction
between soil and pile foundation Randolph 1981;Yang
and Jeremic 2002). Recently, several literatures study
seabed response in the vicinity of monopile foun-
dation (Li et al. 2011; Hansen 2012). However, the
mechanism of waveseabedstructure interactions has
not been fully understood. Unlike previous work, the
present study focuses on the stability of the founda-
tion installed in the DH-OWF and will propose an
advanced model to investigate seabed response under
wave loads.
In this paper, wave sub-mode and seabed sub-
mode, governed by Navier-Stokes equation and Biots
consolidation theory respectively, are integrated into
one model to investigate the mechanism of seabed
response. The Navier-Stokes equation is solved with
internal wave generation that developed by Lin and Liu
(1999). A FEM softwareCOMSOL Multiphysics is
used to solve the governing equations of seabed model.
Parametric studies will be carried out which examine
the influence of wave and seabed characteristics on the
soil response around the foundation.
where xi is the
 Cartesian coordinate, f is the  density

of fluid, ufi is the ensemble mean velocity, pf is the
pressure of fluid, and gi is the gravitational accelera-
tion. eff = + i is the total effective viscosity, is
the dynamic viscous, i is the turbulent viscosity, and
k is the turbulence kinetic energy.
The internal wave-maker method developed by Lin
and Liu (1999) is used in the present study. In the
source region, a source function S (xi , t) is added into
the mass conservation, Eq. (1), i.e.,
where S(xi , t)  = 0 within the source region. The value
of S(xi , t) depends on wave characteristics, for exam-
ple, for a linear monochromatic wave, it is
in which C is the wave phase velocity, H is wave
height, A is the area of source region, and is the
wave frequency.
2.2 Seabed model
In this study, we consider a isotropic, homogeneous
seabed with same permeability (ks ) in all direction,
the conservation of mass leads to

2 BOUNDARY VALUE PROBLEM

In this study, the phenomenon of wave-seabed interac-

tions in the vicinity of HRSF, as depicted in Figure 2, where ps is the pore pressure; w is the unit weight of
is considered. The origin of the Cartesian coordinate is pore water; ns is the soil porosity; the volume strain of
located at intersection of the HRSF centerline and the soil matrix ij and the compressibility of pore fluid
seabed surface, coinciding with Points A. B and C are are defined as:
located at left and right side of point A with a distance
of 6.5 m. In this section, the governing equations for
both wave and seabed models will be outlined first and
then following by the boundary condition.

2.1 Wave model

Based on conservation of mass and momentum, where ui,j and uj,i are the derivatives of the soil skeleton
together with the assumption of eddy-viscosity, the displacement with respect to spatial coordinates, Kw is

216
the true modulus of elasticity of water (taken as 2
109 N/m2 ), Pwo is the absolute water pressure, and S
is the degree of saturation.
According to Terzaghis principle, the relationship
between the effective stress and the pore pressure on
the saturated medium can be expressed as:
where ij is total stress, ij is effective stress, is the
Kronecker delta. Tension is taken as negative in this
equation.
Neglecting the effects of body forces and inertia
terms, the force balances lead to (Biot 1941)
In this study, poro-elastic constitute model is
used to describe the soil behavior in the seabed. Then,
effective normal stresses and shear stresses can be
expressed in term of soil displacements as
where Es is Youngs modulus and s is the Poissons
ratio. It is noted that a positive sign is taken for a
compressive normal stress in this study.
Substituting Eqs. (10) and (12) into (11), the con-
servation of momentum becomes
in which the shear modulus G is related to Es and s
in the form of Es /2(1 + s ).
2.3 Boundary conditions
To solve the RANS governing equations, appropri-
ate boundary conditions are required. A sponge layer
damping method is applied for vertical velocity com-
ponent at both domain ends to avoid reflection of
waves and interference on current inlet/outlet. On
the air-water interface, zero surface tension with
k/
n = /
n = 0 is imposed. At the solid surface, heights. The wave period used here is 7.76s which is
no-slip boundary is given and the turbulence prop-
erties are estimated from law of the wall boundary
condition. To obtain computational stability, the time
interval (
t) is automatically adjusted at each time
step to satisfy Cournat-Friedrichs-Lewy condition and
the diffusive limit condition (Lin and Liu 1999).
The evaluation of the wave-induced seabed
response also requires appropriate boundary condi-
tions. At the seabed surface, the vertical effective
normal stress is assumed to vanish (z = 0), and pore
pressure ps and shear stress (xz , xy , yz ) equal the wave
pressure and shear stress obtained from the RANS
model (wave mode). The bottom of porous seabed
with finite thickness (h) is treated as impermeable and
217
Table 1. Input data of numerical examples.
Parameter Value Unit
Wave period (T ) 10, 7.76, 5 s
Wave height (H ) 2.0, 1.5, 1.0 m
Water depth (d) 13.0 m
Seabed thickness (h) 80 m
Permeability (ks ) 104 m/s
Degree of saturation (S) 0.98
Soil porosity (ns ) 0.3
Poissions ration (s ) 0.4
Shear modulus (G) 107 N/m2
rigid, so zero displacement and no vertical flow occur
in this bottom boundary (us = vs = ws = ps /z = 0).
Zero displacement and gradient of pore pressure are
adopted in the two vertical sides far away from the
concerned region (us = vs = ws = ps /x = 0). The
interface between piles and seabed is considered
as impermeable and adopts Neumann boundary
condition.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The aim of this study is to investigate the wave-induced
pore pressure around the HRSF. In order to conform to
reality, parameters used in this study are as close as the
situation in the DH-OWF. In this section, a parametric
study is carried out to examine the effects of wave and
seabed characteristics on soil response around foun-
dation. The input data for the parametric study are
tabulated in Table 1.
In this section, we investigate the effects of various
wave characteristics, e.g., wave height, wave period, on
the wave-induced pore pressure around the foundation.
Three locations, namely Point A, B, C, (see Figure 2)
are selected when study wave period. To examine
the influences of wave parameters, the soil charac-
teristics are considered as follows: soil permeability
ks = 104 m/s, the degree of saturation S = 0.98. The
other parameters used here remained the same as that
presented in Table 1.
Figure 3 illustrates the distribution of wave-induced
pore pressure at point A with three different wave
the average period of the DH-OWT. As shown in fig-
ure 3, the magnitude of the wave-induced pore pressure
increases as wave height increases.
Wave period affect the wave length directly.
In this example, three different wave periods,
T = 5 s,T = 7.76 s, & T = 10 s are considered, and
corresponding wave lengths are L = 37.5 m, L =
75.3 m, & L = 104.5 m respectively. Figure 4 presents
the effects of wave period on the wave-induced pore
pressure at three points with wave height H = 2.0 m.
As represented in figure 4, longer wave period will
cause large magnitude of pore pressure in the seabed.
It should be pointed that distribution of pore pres-
sure varies at different position of the foundation and
Figure 3. Vertical distributions of the wave-induced pore
pressure (ps ) versus soil depth (z) for various wave heights at
point A.
Figure 4. Vertical distributions of the wave-induced pore
pressure (ps ) versus soil depth (z) for various wave period at
three different locations.
the dissipation rate of pore pressure in centre of the
foundation (point A) is lower than that in the edge of
the foundation (point B & point C). It means that the
centre area of the foundation has higher potential of
liquefaction.
In this study, we also investigate the wave-induced
seabed response in the vicinity of a gravity based
foundation (GBF) to examine the influence of off-
shore wind turbine foundation style on the seabed
response. Figure 5 illustrates vertical distributions of
wave-induced pore pressure for two foundations. As
shwon in the figure, foundation style has significant
influence on the wave-induced pore pressures.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The present study develops a three-dimensional wave
model with internal wave generation, while a new
218
Figure 5. Vertical distributions of the wave-induced pore
pressure (ps /p0 ) versus soil depth (z) for HRSF and GBF.
seabed model was developed within Comsol environ-
ments. Both models are linked together to investigate
the wave-induced pore pressure around the HRSF.
Based on the numerical results presented, the fol-
lowing conclusions can be drawn: (1) The magnitude
of wave-induced pore pressure increases as wave
height or wave period increases. (2) Foundation style
has significant influence on the distributions of the
wave-induced pore pressure.
REFERENCES
Biot, M. A. (1941). General theory of three-dimensional
consolidation. Journal ofApplied Physics 26(2), 155164.
Hansen, N. M. (2012). Interaction between seabed soil
and offshore wind turbine foundations. Ph. D. thesis,
Technical University of Denmark.
Li, X., F. Gao, B. Yang, and J. Zang (2011). Wave-induced
pore pressure responses and soil liquefaction around pile
foundation. International Journal of Offshore and Polar
Engineering 21, 233239.
Lin, P. and P. L.-F. Liu (1999). Internal wave-maker for
navier-stokes equations models. Journal of Waterway,
Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering, ASCE 125(4),
207415.
Lin, Y. F., J. Y. Li, D. Shen, and C. Song (2007). Structure
characteristics and design technique keys of wind tur-
bine foundation in shanghai donghai bridge offshore wind
farm. ShangHai Electric Power 2, 153157.
Randolph, M. F. (1981). Response of flexible piles to lateral
loading. Geotechnique 31, 247259.
Yang, Z. and B. Jeremic (2002). Numerical analysis of pile
behaviour under lateral loads in layered elasticplastic
soils. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical
Methods in Geomechanics 26, 13851406.
Computational mechanics
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

The force-based quadrilateral plate elements for plate analysis

using Large Increment Method

H.X. Jia & D.B. Long

Department of Engineering mechanics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

X.L. Liu
Department of civil engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

ABSTRACT: In traditional displacement-based finite element method, some plate elements based on Mindlin-
Reissner theory have been proposed to analyze the plate problems. However, some plate elements have been
shown to be numerically inaccuracy due to shear locking and the spurious zero energy modes when applied
to thin plates. For this problem, Large Increment Method (LIM) was employed for the analysis of the plate
problems, and two force-based quadrilateral plate elements which were based on Mindlin-Reissner theory and
free from spurious zero energy modes were proposed. Numerical examples were solved to study accuracy and
convergence behavior, and the results are compared with the analytical solutions and the results from quadrilateral
displacement-based plate elements. The results show that the quadrilateral plate elements can also analyze the
moderately thick and thin plates using LIM. The two plate elements are free from the shear locking for the thin
plate problem.

Keywords: Mindlin-Reissner theory, shear locking, Large Increment Method, spurious zero energy modes

1 INTRODUCTION In recent years, LIM has been successfully devel-

Over the past few decades, the research on the
thin plate problems has been carried out by many
researchers. Because the C1 continuity which is
required by the thin plate element based on the
Kirchhoff theory is rather difficult to guarantee for the
assumed displacement fields, the focus has switched to
the Mindlin-Reissner plate theory, by reason that only
the C0 continuity is required for the Mindlin-Reissner
plate element. The Mindlin-Reissner plate elements
today become the most popular model to calculate the
thin and moderately thick plate. But the displacement-
based Mindlin-Reissner plate elements commonly suf-
fer from numerical over-stiffness and shear locking
which often bring in inaccuracy for the analysis of thin
plates. Many successful methods to avoid the shear
locking in the displacement-based models have been
presented, such as the reduced and selective integration
approach, assumed shear strain fields and penalty-
parameter modifications (Tessler 1985). As the most
commonly used method, the reduced and selective
integration can avoid the shear locking effectively but
may result in singularity of the system stiffness matrix.
Moreover, spurious zero energy modes usually exist in
the plate elements. To overcome all the shortcomings
mentioned above, the LIM, which was first presented
by (Liu & Zhang 1997) for material nonlinear problem,
is employed to analyze thin and moderately thick plate.
oped for solving the plane frame structures and 2D
continuum problems (Barham et al. 2008, Long et al.
2009). In these analyses, the LIM provided more pre-
cise stress results and required less computational
time consumption compared with displacement-based
finite element method.
In this paper, the reasonable displacement and
stress-resultants fields are chosen in the interior of
the element, and then the governing equations of
the plate elements are presented. Thereby, two force-
based quadrilateral plate elements which were based
on Mindlin-Reissner theory and free from spurious
zero energy modes are proposed. The results are com-
pared with the analytical solutions and the results
from quadrilateral displacement-based plate elements.
It shows the advantages of avoiding the shear locking
for thin plate problems.
Only linear elastic material and small deformation
are considered.
2 LIM FOR PLATE PROBLEMS
In this section, the assumed displacement and stress-
resultant fields are discussed. The formulations of the
governing equations of plate bending elements are
proposed.

221
Table 1. Assumed stress-resultant fields for the plate
element.
Element Stress-resultant fields
PQ1 Mx = F1 + F2 x + F3 y + F4 xy
My = F5 + F6 x + F7 y + F8 xy
Mxy = F9
Qx = F2 + F4 y
Qy = F7 + F8 x
PQ2 Mx = F1 + F2 x + F3 y + F4 xy
My = F5 + F6 x + F7 y + F8 xy
Mxy = F9 + F10 x + F11 y
Qx = F2 + F11 + F4 y
Qy = F7 + F10 + F8 x
the element equilibrium equation is obtained, where
b, t, u, and  denote the body force vector,
the traction force vector, the virtual displacement, the
virtual strain and the traction boundary, respectively.
Thereby, the element equilibrium equation are
assembled to obtain the equilibrium equations of the
system as follows
where C is an m n equilibrium matrix of the struc-
ture, F is an n 1 generalized inner force vector of
the structure, and P is an m 1 node load vector.
Similarly, with Equations 2, 3 and the principle of
complementary virtual work

2.1 Displacement and stress-resultant fields

For the plate bending element based on Mindlin-
Reissner theory, the straight line that is normal to the the assembled system compatibility equations of the
mid-surface of the plate before deformation remains system can be deduced as
straight but not necessarily normal to the deformed
mid-surface. Therefore, the displacement fields for the
transverse displacement and two rotations are interpo-
lated in the interior of the element in terms of nodal where D is the nodal displacement vector of the
values are assumed as structure and is the generalized deformation vector
of the structure.
Then, the elemental constitutive equation can be
written as
where wi , xi , yi and Ni = (1 + i )(1 + i )/4 are the
corresponding displacements, rotation values and the
shape functions of node i, respectively.
The displacement vector u and the strain vector where C, P, and (F e ) are assembled from the
can be represented by components of each element

where N is the shape function of node displacement

vector, L is the differential operator, and d e denotes
the nodal displacement vector of an element.
The 4-node quadrilateral element has 12 degrees
of freedom (DOF), three of which are related by three
equations of equilibrium. At least 9 independent forces
are needed to describe the stress fields. The assumed
stress-resultant fields for the plate element should sat- where e denotes the element generalized deformation
isfy the equilibrium equations. Two stress-resultant vector and represent the relationship between stress
fields are given in Table 1. and strain of the material.
The plate element generalized force vector M can
be represented by
2.3 The spurious zero energy modes test
The stress-resultant fields should be selected in a
rational methodology for avoiding the spurious zero-
where Z is the shape function of generalized force energy mode. The generalized inverse matrix theory is
parameter vector, and F e denotes the elemental gen- applied to detect the zero energy mode (ZEM) and the
eralized inner force vector. necessary and sufficient condition are given as follow

2.2 Governing equations of plate

By using Equations 2, 3 and the equation of virtual
work where C e is the element equilibrium coefficient
matrix after the element kinematic degrees of freedom
is eliminated from C e .

222
 Figure 2. 2 2 mesh for a quarter of the square plate model.

Figure 1. LIM solution procedure.

2.4 The solution procedure of LIM

For the elastic materials, the procedure of LIM is
Figure 3. Central deflection for a clamped square plate with
presented in detail by (Zhang & Liu 1997). It is uniform load.
not difficult to know that the main goal of LIM is
to find an optimal solution of F, the corresponding
deformation can lead to |||| to the approxima-
tion of zero. To find the optimal solution, a conjugate
gradient procedure is used. The flow chart gives an
overview of the procedure in Fig. 1.

3 NUMERICAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Some standard numerical examples are presented in

this section. The square plate is used for assessing the
convergence and the accuracy. The shear locking of
the proposed plate elements is tested. A quarter of
the clamped square plate with uniform load is used
to investigate the sensitivity to distorted mesh. The
results of the proposed elements are compared with
the results of the displacement-based plate elements
(Zienkiewicz et al. 1971, Malkus & Hughes 1978,
Chen & Cheung 2000) and the analytical solutions
(Spilker & Munir 1980).
Figure 4. Central moment coefficient for a clamped square
plate with uniform load.
analytical solution and are better than the results of the
Q4 element and RDKQM element for the case of the
clamped square plate with uniform load. As the mesh
is refined, the PQ1 and PQ2 give more accurate force
results than the Q4, Q4-R and RDKQM elements.

3.1 Convergence analysis

A square plate with clamped boundary conditions sub-
jected to a uniform load. The nondimensional param-
eters: the plate side L = 40, the thickness t = 8, the
elasticity modulus E = 10.92, Poissons ratio = 0.3,
the uniform loading q = 1. Due to symmetries both
in geometry and the loading, a quarter of the plate is
analyzed. The 2 2 regular mesh for a quarter of the
square plate model is shown in Fig. 2.
From Fig. 3, 4, it is obvious that the PQ1 and PQ2
elements have good behavior of convergence to the
3.2 Shear locking tests
A simply supported square plate with various thick-
ness/span ratios subjected to uniform load is used to
test shear locking of the proposed plate elements, and
the mesh size is 6 6 in a quarter of plate. The ana-
lytical solutions for the central deflection and moment
are obtained by (Timoshenko 1959) and (Liu 2000)
for thin plate and moderately thick plate, respectively.
The results are listed in Tables 23.

223
Table 2. Central deflection coefficient for simply supported
plate with uniform load.

Central deflection coefficient

t/L Q4 Q4-R RDKQM PQ1 PQ2 Exact

0.2 480.1 490.3 489.7 491.2 490.2 490.8

0.05 294.7 410.6 410.8 411.8 410.8 410.8
102 36.9 405.5 406.3 406.7 405.7 406.2
105 0.0 405.3 406.1 406.5 405.5 406.2
107 0.0 410.1 406.1 406.5 405.5 406.2
1010 0.0 0.4 406.1 406.5 405.5 406.2

Figure 5. Distorted 2 2 mesh a quarter of a simply

Table 3. Central moment coefficient for simply supported supported square plate with uniform load.
plate with uniform load.

Central moment coefficient

t/L Q4 Q4-R RDKQM PQ1 PQ2 Exact

0.2 467.8 478.9 487.3 471.2 470.7 479

0.05 346.6 478.9 484.7 471.2 470.7 479
102 44.75 478.9 481.4 471.2 470.7 479
105 0.00 478.9 481.0 471.2 470.7 479
107 0.00 485.7 481.0 471.2 470.7 479
1010 0.00 11.79 481.0 471.2 470.7 479

From Tables 23, the results indicate that the PQ1

and PQ2 elements perform quite well like the RDKQM
element for both moderately thick plate and thin plate
problems. However, the Q4 element is not free from
shear locking and the correct solution for the thin plate
cannot be obtained. The Q4-R element has two extra
energy modes and the result for the limit thin plate
analysis is very worse.

3.3 Mesh distortion tests
A square plate with simply supported boundary con-
ditions (SS1: w = 0 and SS2: w = 0, s = 0.) (Hughes,
Cohen & Haroun 1978) subjected to uniform load.
The nondimensional parameters: the plate side L = 10,
the thickness t = 2 and 0.1, the elasticity modulus
E = 10.92, the Poissons ratio = 0.3, the uniform
loading q = 1. Due to the symmetries both in geom-
etry and the loading, the lower left a quarter of the
plate is analyzed shown in Fig. 5. Four elements are
used to discretize a quarter of the plate. The distortion
parameter d: 01.2.
The percentage deviation of the central deflection
of the SS1 in Figs. 6a, b, it is obvious that the PQ1
and PQ2 elements show weakly sensitive for the thin
plate analysis and are sensitive to geometry distortion
for the moderately thick plate analysis. The percentage
deviation of the central deflection of the SS2 plate is
shown in Fig. 6c, d. The PQ1 and PQ2 elements are
weakly sensitive to geometry distortion for the moder-
ately thick plate analysis. However, the PQ1 and PQ2
elements are sensitive to the geometry distortion for
the thin plate analysis.
Figure 6. Deviation of the central deflection for different
values of distortion parameters.
3.4 Discussion
The numerical problems are utilized to investigate the
sensitivity and accuracy of the plate elements for solv-
ing the moderately thick plate and thin plate problems
via LIM. Both the PQ1 and PQ2 elements are sensitive
to the highly distorted meshes for the thin plate prob-
lems and the sensitivity can be suppressed by using the
SS1 boundary condition.
The stress-resultant fields of the PQ2 element are
the same as the hybrid stress element LH4 (Spilker &
Munir 1980). However, the fundamental difference
between the PQ2 element and the LH4 element is
that PQ2 is a force-based plate element and LH4 is a
displacement-based plate element. In the Hybrid ele-
ment method, the stress parameters are eliminated at
the element level. Meanwhile, a conventional stiff-
ness matrix is formed and only the nodal displacement
parameters are unknown.

224
4 CONCLUSIONS
The main purpose of this paper is to propose the
force-based quadrilateral plate elements for plate
analysis using LIM. Numerical comparisons with
displacement-based elements show that PQ1 and PQ2
elements for solving the moderately thick plate and
thin plate problems via LIM have achieved, in general,
satisfactory results. The most important advantages of
the two elements are that both of them are free from
zero energy modes and do not lock in the thin plate.
The stress distributions within the plate are particu-
larly important in nonlinear analysis. As a force-based
finite element method, LIM can provide more precise
stress results with high efficiency and low cost. As a
result, LIM will be a powerful alternative method to
solve the elastoplastic problems of the plate problem.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It is grateful for the support provided by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under
Grant No. 10872128.
REFERENCES
Barham, W., Aref, A., Dargush, G. 2008. On the elastoplastic
cyclic analysis of plane beam structures using a flexibility-
based finite element approach. International Journal of
Solids and Structures, 45: 5688-5-704.
225
Chen, W.J., Cheung, Y.K. 2000. Refined quadrilateral ele-
ment based on Mindlin/Reissner plate theory. Interna-
tional Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 47,
605627.
Hughes, T.J.R., Cohen, M., Haroun, M. 1978. Reduced
and selective integration techniques in the finite element
analysis of plates. Nuclear Engineering and design, 46:
203222.
Liu, J., Riggs, H.R., Tessler, A. 2000. A four node shear-
deformable shell element developed via explicit Kirchhoff
constraints. International Journal for Numerical Methods
in Engineering, 49: 10651086.
Long, D.B., Guo, Z.Y., Liu, X.L., et al. 2009. An Element
Nodal Force-based Large Increment Method for Elasto-
plasticity. Proceedings of ISCM II and EPMESC XII,
Hong Kong-Macau, China: AIP, 14011405
Malkus, D.S., Hughes, T.J.R. 1978. Mixed finite element
methods-reduced and selective integration techniques: a
unification of concepts. Computer Methods in Applied
Mechanics and Engineering, 15: 6381.
Spilker, R.L., Munir, N. I. 1980. The Hybrid-Stress Model for
Thin Plates. International Journal for Numerical Methods
in Engineering, 15: 12391260.
Tessler, A. 1985. A priori identification of shear locking
and stiffening in triangular Mindlin elements. Computer
Methods in Applied Mechanics, 53(2): 183200.
Timoshenko, S.P., Krieger, S.W. 1959. Theory of plates and
shells. New York, McGraw-Hill.
Zhang, C.J., Liu, X.L. 1997. A Large Increment Method for
Material Nonlinearity Problems. Advances in Structural
Engineering, 1(2): 99109.
Zienkiewicz, O. C., Taylor, R. C., Too, J.M. 1971. Reduced
integration technique in general analysis of plates and
shells. International Journal for Numerical Methods in
Engineering, 3, 275290.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Assembling and factorizing the structure stiffness matrix

of skeletal structure in segments based on graph theory

Liu Haifeng, Yang Jingbo & Han Junke

China electricity power research institute, Beijing, China

ABSTRACT: Each element of skeletal structure finite element model has only two nodes, so all its information
can be represented by a weighted graph. Because of this, a new procedure was proposed to assemble and factorize
its structure stiffness matrix alternately in much shorter core storage than the traditional procedure while visiting
the corresponding graph node by node. In this way, a large percent of core storage is saved without sacrifice of
computational efficiency. As for skeletal structures, this procedure is always very efficient based on an effective
nodal ordering.

Keywords: Skeletal structure; Weighted graph; structure stiffness matrix

1 INTRODUCTION whole structure stiffness matrix in the core storage, this

new procedure assembles and factorizes the matrix in
Skeletal structures are the structures that can be sat- much shorter core storage than the traditional proce-
isfactorily idealized using line elements. When the dure while visiting the corresponding graph node by
finite element method is applied to skeletal structures, node. As for skeletal structures, this procedure is very
a node is always located at each joint of the structures. efficient based on the effective nodal ordering. It can
The analysis determines the nodal displaces caused by work well with most kinds of the sparse matrix storage
the applied loading and produces the system of linear schemes, and it is described with variable bandwidth
equations K
= P which must be solved simultane- scheme in this paper. A static analysis of a huge spa-
ously. Where K is the structure stiffness matrix,
is tial structure is carried out with this procedure to
the vector of nodal displaces, and P is the vector of demonstrate its efficiency.
nodal loads. Because the structure stiffness matrix K
symmetric, banded, and positive definite, the direct
methods are always preferable.
One of the most fundamental aspects of the com-
puter solution of large simultaneous equations by 2 THE VARIABLE BANDWIDTH STORAGE
direct methods is the type of storage scheme to be SCHEME
adopted for left-hand side coefficients of the struc-
ture stiffness matrix. There is a general classifications The variable bandwidth storage scheme stores for each
into sub-matrix, band, and dynamic memory allocation row of the matrix only the elements between the first
schemes etc[14] . non-zero element and the diagonal.The rows are stored
In spite of the effective nodal ordering[5] , a skeletal consecutively in a single one dimensional array x and
structure may be so large that its structure stiffness an address sequence y is used to locate the position
matrix cannot be kept in the computer core storage by of the diagonal elements within the array. Thus the
any sparse matrix storage scheme. Frontal method or following matrix would be stored in the computer as
wave front method has been developed to solve this the main arrayx and the address array y.
problem. These method can be applied to any type
of elements, but they always involve rather complex
bookkeeping and data manipulation[67] .
A more efficient and simple procedure special for
skeletal structures was proposed in this paper to assem-
ble and factorize the structure stiffness matrix in
segments. Unlike other types of structures, each ele-
ment of the skeletal structure finite element model has
only two nodes, so its finite element model can be rep-
resented by a weighted graph. Instead of keeping the

227
3 ASSEMBLING THE STRUCTURE
STIFFNESS MATRIX IN SEGMENTS
BASED ON GRAPH THEORY

3.1 The relationship between a weighted graph and

a finite element model of a skeletal structure
A graph P = (V , E) consists of a set V of vertices
{v1 , v2 , . . . , vn }, and together with a set of edges
{e1 , e2 , . . . , en }. Each edge ej E i s associated with a
pair of vertices. The sets E and V are assumed to be Figure 1. A weighted graph of a simple skeletal structure.
finite and V is also assumed to be nonempty.
A graph with a number on the edge is called
weighted graph, and the vertices of the graph can
also have their numbers. This kind of graph can be
expressed as P = (V , E, F, G). G = {g1 , g2 , . . . , gn },
gj is the number on the edge j, which is usu-
ally used to record the information of the edge j;
F = {f1 , f2 , . . . , fn }, fj is the number on the vertex j,
which is usually used to record the information of the
vertex j[8].
Because each element of the skeletal structure finite
element model has only two nodes, all the information
can be represented as a weighted graph. Among the
weighted graph, the vertex stands for the node of the Figure 2. The adjacency list to the figure 1.
skeletal structure, and the edge stands for the element.
The number on the edge represents the information of <vi , vi1 >, <vi , vi2 >, . . . , <vi , vit > on the node i are
element, such as linear density, section properties; the assembled to the structure stiffness matrix, the row i of
number on the vertex represents the information of the structure stiffness matrix is completed. At the same
node, such as nodal loads, support information. The time, because <vi , vi1 >, <vi , vi2 >, . . . , <vi , vit > are
small node is set to be pointed to the big node, instead also the adjacent elements of the nodes vi1 , vi2 , . . . , vin
of using a directed graph. respectively , the rows vi1 , vi2 , . . . , vin are only partially
There are several ways to represent the weighted completed.
graph, such as adjacency matrix, adjacency list etc. If visiting nodei means that: the adjacent elements
Because the graph corresponding to a large skeletal < vi , vi1 >, < vi , vi2 >, . . . , <vi , vit > on the vi , which
structure is always sparse, a better solution is the adja- are not assembled before, are assembled to the struc-
cency list representation[9] . For each vertex, a list of ture stiffness matrix. Therefore, the row i of the matrix
its adjacent nodes is kept. If the edge has weight, this is completed right now, and the rows vi1 , vi21 , . . . , vin
additional information is also recorded in the adja- are only partially completed if node i is visited. In this
cency list. The abstract representation should be clear way, the elements in figure 1 will be assembled in 4
from the figure 1 and figure 2. steps as follows:
The first step: visiting the node v1 . The adjacent ele-
ments <v1 , v2 >, <v1 , v3 >, <v1 , v4 > on the node v1 are
3.2 Visiting the graph node by node and the
assembled, which are not assembled before, are assem-
structure stiffness matrix assembling
bled to the structure stiffness matrix. Then the row 1
Instead of depth first or breadth first traversal of a is completed and the rows 2, 3, 4 are only partially
graph, the nodes of the graph are visited from the small completed.
to the large one by one in this paper. This predeter- The second step: visiting the node v2 .The ele-
mined sequence is called node by node visiting in this ments <v2 , v3 >, <v2 , v4 > are assembled. The row 2
paper. In this way, the nodes of figure 1 are visited in is completed, while the rows 3 and 4 are partially
the sequence: v1 v2 v3 v4 . completed.
If each node of the finite element model has only The third step: visiting the node v3 . The element
one freedom, when the all the adjacent elements <v3 , v4 > is assembled. The row 3 is completed, while

228
the row 4 is also completed since all the adjacent
elements on the v4 have been assembled;
The fourth step: visiting the node v4 . The step is
null since all the adjacent elements on the v4 have been
assembled in the preceding steps.
3.3 Structure stiffness matrix is assembled in
segments while visiting the graph node by node
For a large skeletal structure, the maximum differ-
ence between two adjacent nodes is supposed to be
nospan. The one dimensional array x capable of stor-
ing 0 to m1 + nospan rows is defined before the first
assembling in segments. In the first assembling in seg-
ments, when the visiting node by node comes to m1 ,
the adjacent elements on the nodes from 0 to m1 are
all assembled to the structure stiffness matrix. There-
fore the rows from 0 to m1 of the structure stiffness
matrix are completed and can be transferred to backing
storage to free the core storage. Since the maximum
difference between two nodes is nospan, the maximum
node on the adjacent elements of the nodes from 0 to
m1 is less than m1 + nospan. It is apparent that not
all the adjacent elements on the nodes from m1 + 1 to
m1 + nospan have been assembled, so the rows from
m1 + 1 to m1 + nospan of the structure stiffness matrix
have to be kept in core storage to be completed in the
next assembling in segments. The number of the coef-
ficients of the rows from m1 + 1 to m1 + nospan is
recorded in an array number[t].
In the second assembling in segments, the visit-
ing comes to m2 , and the rows from m1 + 1 to m2
are completed and can be transferred to backing stor-
age. The assembling process continues until the whole
stiffness matrix is produced in the backing storage.
Obviously, if the core storage is enough to accom-
modate the maximum value of number[t] coefficients
of the matrix, where t is the number of segments to
complete the structure stiffness matrix, the procedure
can be executed smoothly. The process is shown as
figure 3.
4 A compatible method to factorize the structure
matrix in segments.
The structure stiffness matrix that has been stored
in backing storage during section 3 may be so large
that it has to be segmented to be transferred to and
from backing storage. There are several methods that
can solve this problem[1115] . However, they are not
compatible well with this particular assembly method
described above leading to low efficiency. A more
suitable method is proposed in this section.
4 THE LDLT FACTORIZATION OF THE
STIFFNESS MATRIX IN SEGMENTS
The form of the factorization well suited to large
problems involving backing storage is the LDLT tri-
angular factorization because this method requires no
storage facilities other than that available for the left-
hand side coefficients. Expressing the simultaneous
equations in matrix form as:
where A is a symmetric positive-definite matrix, the
LDLT factorization yields a lower triangular L such
that:
Either at the same time or as a separate operation
the solution y of the equation
can be obtained. The variables y are the modified right
hand side coefficients after factorization and the back
substitution process to complete the solution is the
determination of x from

The matrix L will overwrite A in the compact

3.4 The complexity analysis of the this procedure symmetric store by using the recursive relationships:
Compared with the traditional procedure, this new pro-
cedure has to construct and visit a weighted graph
node by node. To construct an adjacency list of
the weighted graph according to a skeletal structure,
the number of the vertices can be input directly, so the
time complexity of constructing the adjacency list is
O(m_nEle + m_nNode); When a graph is stored by
adjacency list, the time complexity of the visiting the
graph node by node is O(m_Node), since each node
can be visited only once; In the adjacency list, each
vertex is stored once and each edge is stored twice, so If the maximum bandwidth of matrixA ismband ,
its space complexity is O(2m_nEle + m_nNode)[10] . from equations 4, 5 and 6, it is apparent that to cal-
The analysis shows that the space complexity and culate any coefficient lij in row i only the coefficients
the time complexity of additional operations are both between row i and row i mband are needed to be
linear with the number of the vertices or the edges, kept in the core storage. Therefore the coefficients in
so they will not lead to much additional calculation or the rows between 1 and m1 of the matrix A can be read
core storage. to the core storage first and factorized. Because only

229
Figure 3. The process of assembling the structure stiffness matrix.

Table 1. Efficiency between the traditional procedure and

the new one

Core storage consumption

Before During
calculation calculation Difference Calculation
(M) (M) (M) time

Traditional 422 644 222 336

procedure
New 422 443 21 318
procedure

Figure 4. T3A Roof in Terminal 3 at Beijing CapitalAirport.

The back substitution process is very similar with
the factorization process.

the rows between m1 mband to m1 of the matrix L

may be used in the following factorization, the rows
between 1 and m1 mband 1 of the matrix L can be
transferred to backing storage. Then the rows between
m1 to m2 are read to the core storage and factorized,
and the rows betwe m1 mband and m2 mband 1
are transferred to the backing storage.
Because the matrix b is contained within the core
storage during the factorization of A, the reduction of
b to form y can be carried out simultaneously with
the determination of L, hence after factorization has
taken place it is only necessary to call in the segments
of L in reverse order to perform the back substitution
sequence.
5 NUMERICAL EXAMPLE
TheT3A long span roof inTerminal 3 at Beijing Capital
Airport is a spatial latticed structure shuttle shaped as
figure 4 shows. It is irregular in structural form with the
longest dimension of 950 meters from south to north
and 770 meters from east to west. It has 12382 nodes,
47761 elements (truss or beam), and 45606 freedoms.
The maximum nodal span between two adjacent nodes
is 180 and the maximum bandwidth of its structure
stiffness matrix is 657.
The traditional variable bandwidth storage scheme
has to define a double one dimensional array x of

230
length 15171476, and has to involve much visual mem-
ory. However, the new procedure can be executed with
a length of only 231649 based on the formula (8). Con-
sidering the computer configuration used, the length of
the array x is set to be 2266155. The structure stiffness
matrix is assembled and factorized through 9 transfer-
ring operations. The comparison of its efficiency with
the traditional procedure can be seen in the table 1.
6 CONCLUSIONS AND REMARKS
1. Compared with the traditional method, this method
has to create a weighted graph and have a few num-
ber of storage transferring operations to save core
storage, which only brings a lightly enhancement on
the quantity of calculation. If the physical memory
is adequate, the computing time of the new pro-
cedure will be slightly longer than the traditional
one.
2. The efficiency of this method depends much on the
ratio of the maximum nodal span to the number of
nodes in the finite element model. With effective
nodal ordering, as long as the minimum memory is
met, it is more economical to have a longer array
to decrease the number of transfer operations.
3. This procedure can not be applied efficiently in the
finite element model whose element each has more
than two nodes, since a weighted graph alone can
not represent the information of the finite element
model.
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Fracture simulation of reinforced concrete structures with account of

bond degradation and concrete cracking under steel corrosion

Andrey V. Benin
Mechanical laboratory, Petersburg State Transport University, Russia

Artem Semenov
Department of Physics and Mechanics, Saint-Petersburg State Polytechnical University, Russia

Sergey Semenov
Department of Civil Engineering, Saint-Petersburg State Polytechnical University, Russia

ABSTRACT: A direct three dimensional finite element modeling of fracture processes in reinforced concrete
structures with account of the macrocrack initiation and propagation, real geometry of reinforcing elements,
discontinuity in the bond-slip behavior, using elastic-plastic-damage constitutive equations for concrete is con-
sidered. The comparison of obtained numerical results with experimental data is presented and discussed for
the problem of pulling the reinforcing bar from the concrete block, for the three-point bending of reinforced
concrete beam specimen, for the steel-corrosion driven fracture in concrete reinforced plate and for the spalling
of concrete cover at the automobile bridge.

Keywords: damage Fracture, finite-element simulation, concrete, cracking, corrosion, continuum damage
mechanics, elasto-plasticity

1 INTRODUCTION propagation, the shape and trajectory of cracks. Based

A failure of outdoor reinforced concrete structures
represents a complex multistage process including
the degradation of reinforced-concrete bond, cor-
rosion initiation, reduction of reinforcement cross
sections, concrete microcracking, macrocrack prop-
agation, delamination and spalling of the concrete
cover. An account of mentioned processes is actual for
the correct evaluation of safety and serviceability of
concrete structures. The developed approach is based
on the direct three-dimensional finite-element model-
ing of the crack propagation process with account of
real geometry of reinforcing elements, discontinuity
in the bond-slip behavior and nonlinear constitutive
equations for concrete.
The model validation is carried out for the fol-
lowing problems: pulling the reinforcing bar from
the concrete block; three-point bending of reinforced
concrete beam, corrosion driven fracture in concrete
reinforced plate and spalling of lower concrete cover at
the automobile bridge. The fracture process of bonds
at pulling the rebar from the concrete is accompanied
by the inhomogeneous and inelastic deformation, the
rupture of adhesive bonds, the initiation and propaga-
tion of cracks of different shape and orientation, the
presence of contact and tribological phenomena. The
simulation results of crack opening under corrosion
allow establishing the phases of crack initiation and
on results of investigation the recommendations may
be suggested aimed at assessment of necessary thick-
ness of the concrete cover; apart from that, the
technique of in-service monitoring the reinforcement
condition may be further defined.
Interest in nonlinear analysis of concrete structures
has increased recent years steadily, because of the
wide use of plain, reinforced and prestressed concrete
as a structural material, and because of the develop-
ment of relatively powerful finite element procedures.
If a realistic nonlinear analysis of a concrete struc-
ture can be carried out, the safety of the structure is
increased and the cost can frequently be reduced. With
the present state of development of computer codes
based on the finite element method, inadequate mod-
eling of concrete is probably the major factor limiting
computational capabilities. The objective in this paper
is to compare the various numerical approaches to
modeling of fracture processes in reinforced concrete
structures and to evaluate of validity and accuracy of
the considered approaches by means of comparison
with experimental results.
2 NONLINEAR CONSTITUTIVE EQUATIONS
FOR CONCRETE
The nonlinear rate-independent material models of
concrete are considered. The isotropic and anisotropic

233
elastic-damage and elastic-plastic damage models are
used in the present analysis. In order to capture the
degradation of the elastic stiffness of the concrete
material as well as its irreversible deformations upon
mechanical loading, the combined use of elastic-
plastic constitutive equations along with continuum
damage mechanics became vital to better describe the
mechanical behavior of concrete. One way is to cou-
pled damage to concrete plasticity by defining damage
growth as a function of accumulated plastic strains
(Lubliner 1989, Voyiadjis 1994).
The extension of microcracks plays a decisive role
in the inelasticity of concrete, as it results in the
degradation of the elastic stiffnesses. This effect is
captured in the models by introducing of damage
variables. In the simples case the influence of micro-
cracking is introduced via a single scalar damage
variable D ranging from 0 for the undamaged mate-
rial to 1 for completely damaged material. Introduced
by Kachanov 1958 and further developed by Rabotnov
1969 and others, the constitutive equation of material
with scalar isotropic damage takes the following form
where ft and fc are the uniaxial tensile and com-
pressive strengths of concrete, respectively.
 is the
1
dilation angle measured in the 3 I1 3J2 plane at high
confining pressure, while m is an eccentricity of the
plastic potential surface.
 The flow potential surface
is defined in the 13 I1 3J2 plane, where I1 = 1
and J2 = 12 dev dev.
Stress deviator is defined by
dev = 13 1I1 .
The nonassociative flow rule, which is used here
requires a loading surface definition. The plastic-
damage concrete model uses a yield condition based
on the loading function proposed by Lubliner 1989 in
the form:
The shape of loading surface in the deviatoric plane
is determined by parameter , while the parameter
is calculated based on Kupfers curve. max is the alge-
braically maximum eigenvalue of . The Macauley
elastic-plastic-damage models bracket 
is defined by x
= 12 (|x| + x)
where is Cauchy stress tensor, D is the scalar stiff-
ness degradation variable, is the strain tensor, p is the
plastic strain tensor, 4 Ce0 the initial (undamaged) elas-
tic stiffness of the material, while 4 Ce = (1 D) 4 Ce0
is the degraded elastic stiffness tensor. The effective
stress tensor is defined as:
In the formulation, it is necessary to propose
the evolution of the scalar degradation variable:
D = D(, p ) governed by a set of the effective stress
tensor and hardening (softening) variables p . In
the used in further Lubliner 1989 model, the stiffness
degradation is initially isotropic and defined by degra-
dation variable Dc in a compression zone and variable
Dt in a tension zone.
Cracking (tension) and crushing (compression) in
concrete are represented by increasing values of the
hardening (softening) variables. These variables con-
trol the evolution of the yield surface and the degra-
dation of the elastic stiffness. The yield function
represents a surface in effective stress space which
determines the states of failure or damage. For the
plastic-damage model the yield function arrives at
p ) 0.
F(,
Plastic flow is governed by a flow potential function
according to nonassociative flow rule:
G()
The flow potential G for the Drucker-Prager hyper-
bolic function is accepted in the form:
More complex loading function is used in CAP
model (Schwer 1994) ensuring the closed yield sur-
faces. The plasticity criterion for the CAP model
attributed to the three-invariant class is the generaliza-
tion of the Drucker-Prager criterion by considering the
invariant J3 = det dev and double-sided truncation of
conical surface in effective stress space by elliptic CAP
at tension and compression.
3 SIMULATION OF FRACTURE PROCESS
UNDER PULLING THE REINFORCING
BAR FROM THE CONCRETE BLOCK
One of the major factors to ensure joint operation of
reinforcement and concrete and to allow them operates
as a single monolithic body is a reinforced-concrete
bond. Reducing coupling leads to excessive crack
opening, to the decreasing stiffness and to the reduced
carrying capacity of the structure.
The process of destroying reinforced-concrete bond
at pulling the rod out of the concrete block is a
complex multistage process, accompanied by the inho-
mogeneous and inelastic deformation, the rupture of
adhesive links, the initiation and propagation of cracks
of various shapes and orientations, the presence of
contact and tribological phenomena.
Various semiempirical dependences of shear
stresses in bond from displacement s, generalizing
results of the experiments, are offered. Among them is
the normal law proposed by Kholmiansky 1981:
Identification of parameters B = emax and =
(e 1) /smax can be performed directly on the basis
of experiment.
234

Figure 1. Dependence of the shear stress in bond on the
displacement of reinforcement.
The three dimensional finite-element model is used
for simulation of the pulling the reinforcing bar from
the concrete block. The computations were performed
using the finite-element software packages ANSYS
and ABAQUS. The five different models for the bond
behavior are considered:
1 Ideal bond (without account of displacement dis-
continuity),
2 Bond as interlayer with special properties (without
account of discontinuity),
3 Elastic-damage model for concrete,
4 Elastic-plastic-damage model for concrete (1)(5),
5 Bond model with strong discontinuity and nonlin-
ear spring links.
The comparison of obtained numerical results with
experimental data (Kholmiansky 1981) has been pre-
sented in Figure 1.
Using the models of concrete deformation, taking
into account the effects of damage, qualitatively cor-
rectly describes the process of pulling out of rebar
from the concrete block. However, the peak of shear
stresses on the diagram is different from the experi-
mentally observed, that requires clarification stiffness
characteristics of concrete at the cracking, as well as
taking into account the adhesive and frictional forces
of cohesion. It should be noted that the considered
approach can be used to analyze the process of bound
failure in the structures of arbitrary geometry, it is
not restricted to the symmetrical loading and it only
requires knowledge of the constants of the material
obtained by standard tests.
The most reliable numerical results (see Fig. 1) is
obtained using the bond model with strong discon-
tinuity of displacement fields on boundary between
reinforcement and concrete. To describe the bond
properties the efficient nonlinear discrete stiffnesses
are introduced. In the simulation of bar slip relative to
the concrete used a number of non-linear springs con-
necting the neighboring nodes of finite element mesh
235
Figure 2. A three-point bending of concrete beam specimen.
of concrete and reinforcement (Benin 2006). Effec-
tive stiffness of the springs is obtained from the bond
diagram (s) in form (6) as
where d is a diameter of the rod (14 mm), h height
of the contact surface reinforcement and concrete,
N number of finite elements along the contact line.
Numerical results obtained with account of discon-
tinuity for different variants of loading demonstrate
good agreement with experimental results. Computed
value of peak displacement of the upper end of rebar is
0.10 mm, whereas in the experiment there is 0.09 mm.
4 SIMULATION OF FRACTURE PROCESS
UNDER THREE-POINT BENDING OF
REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAM
A three-point bending of reinforced concrete straight
beam (Fig. 2) of rectangular cross-section with lon-
gitudinal and transverse reinforcement is considered.
The load can be interpreted as a concentrated force,
which was applied in the middle of the beam. The
experimentally observed critical load leading to frac-
ture was about 180 N.
Geometric parameters of reinforced concrete
beams: the total length of 1.70 m, span between the
centers of the supports 1.50 m, width 0.10 m, height
0.30 m. The longitudinal reinforcement of the lower
part 2 20A-II. The distance from the longitudinal
rods to the bottom of beam is 0.03 m. Longitudi-
nal reinforcement beams of the upper zone is absent.
Transverse reinforcement is made by wire of 3 mm
diameter and rectangular form. The distance between
transverse reinforcements is 0.05 m. In order to initiate
an inclined crack in a pre-known cross-sections there
is no transverse reinforcement in the zone of 0.3 m
located at a distance of 0.225 m from supports.
The finite-element simulation is carried out with
help of the three-dimensional finite-element mod-
els. One fourth of the structure is considered due to
the presence of two planes of symmetry. Reinforc-
ing bars were modeled also as a three-dimensional
Figure 3. The damage field distribution in the central
cross-section of reinforced concrete beam specimen (only
1/4 of beam is shown).
Figure 4. The dependence of the displacement of the
bottom point of the central section of the concrete beam on
the load.
objects. The load was given in the form of a uniformly
distributed pressure acting on a narrow stripe. The
computations were performed using the finite-element
software packages ANSYS and ABAQUS.
The three different models for concrete are
considered:
1 Linear elastic,
2 Elastic-damage model for concrete,
3 Elastic-plastic-damage model for concrete (1)(5).
The material parameters were the same with con-
sidered in section 3.
Figure 3 shows the damage field distribution when
using elastic-plastic-damage material model. As seen
from Figure 3 the damage is localized in vertical strips,
thus forming a vertical macrocrack, which agrees with
experiment.
The comparison of simulation results using differ-
ent material models with the experimental results is
shown in Figure 4.
There is a good agreement between calculated and
experimental results upto the first visual macrocrack
at a load of 118 kN is appeared. The opening of
the initial macrocrack and initiation of new cracks is
observed in experiments with further increase of load.
The best match with the experiment at this stage can
be achieved through a calculation based on the finite
element model with crack.
236
Figure 5. Mechanical model of typical reinforced concrete
structure (a) and FE-model of a representative single cell (b).
5 MODELING OF FRACTURE PROCESS IN
CONCRETE REINFORCED STRUCTURES
UNDER STEEL CORROSION
A reinforced concrete structural component behavior
caused by expansion of corrosion products was mod-
eled by a plate with periodical holes corresponding
to the component cross-section. The model (Fig. 5)
was assumed in the plane strain condition loaded by
the internal uniform pressure p, applied along the
hole circumference to simulate the corrosion prod-
ucts swell. The volume of corrosive material is about
2.02.5 times of the reduction of the bar cross-
section; respectively, high pressure on the concrete is
generated resulting in origination of cracks and their
propagation through the concrete cover. The single cell
dimensions are (Fig. 5b): c = R, W = 5R, H = 10R,
R = 8 mm; the boundary conditions of the cell conform
the symmetry and periodicity, as shown in Figure 5b.
In the first phase of investigation the concrete
media was assumed free of macro-cracks. The analy-
sis provided evaluation of the potential crack initiation
locations and the critical pressure necessary to initiate
cracks at the hole. Further, the crack system growth
was assessed; it was found also, that along with the
increasing pressure the new cracks were generated at
the free surface of cover and extended towards the hole.
First, potential locations of crack initiation and
the pressure necessary for cracks to propagate were
obtained. For the criterion of crack initiation was
selected condition when the maximum principal strain
would reach the value corresponding peak stress in
tensile diagram.
The linear elastic model of material essentially
underestimates the area affected by the stress raise.
At a given pressure the application of elastic model
results in smaller strain than it is found with the elastic-
plastic models. The difference between critical pres-
sures obtained in elastic solution and elastic-plastic
solution is more 30%.
The crack growth was modeled in the step-wise
sequence with automated definition of the step exten-
sion and direction based on the maximum tangential
stress criterion. The extension process was assumed
composed of several phases: initiation and growth of
horizontal cracks (length a) slightly inclined with
respect to the free surface of component (Fig. 6a); birth
of vertical crack at the free outer surface (Fig. 6b);

Figure 6. Crack propagation under progressive corrosion.
a is the length of horizontal crack. Displacements are magni-
fied 100 times for obviousness.
Figure 7. Partial spalling of the lower concrete cover of
the automobile bridge: reality (a) and finite element simu-
lation (b).
simultaneous growth of horizontal and vertical
cracks (Fig. 6c); vertical crack deceleration (Fig. 6d)
and further fragmentation or delamination of the
concrete cover.
The obtained crack opening width = 44 m on
free surface for the reinforcement radius losses of

= 40 m demonstrate a satisfactory agreement with
experimental data 50 m (Andrade 1993, Vidal
2004). More detailed analysis of cracking under cor-
rosion has been performed in (Benin 2010). Based on
results of investigation the recommendations may be
237
suggested aimed at assessment of necessary thickness
of the concrete cover; apart from that, the technique
of in-service monitoring the reinforcement condition
may be further defined.
The other example, concerning the finite-element
simulation of the corrosion driven partial spalling
of lower concrete cover of the automobile bridge
(Fig. 7), has been performed using elastic-plastic-
damage models (1)(5) for concrete. The numerical
results demonstrate the satisfactory correlation with
the real bridge damage character (see Fig. 7).
The offered approach allows to define crack-
ing mechanisms and to evaluate a residual resource
of partially destroyed structures. However, practical
realization of this approach demands considerable
computational effort and additional experimental data
for mechanical properties of concrete.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The study was supported by the Russian Fundamental
Research Program, Project 12-08-00943.
REFERENCES
Andrade, C., Alonso, C., Molina, A.J. 1993. Cover cracking
as a function of bar corrosion: Part I-exper. test, Mater.
Struct., 26: 453464.
Benin, A.V. 2006. Deformation and failure of in rein-
forced concrete: analytical, numerical and experimental
investigations. SPb: PGUPS.
Benin, A.V., Semenov, A.S., Semenov, S.G. 2010. Modeling
of fracture process in concrete reinforced structures under
steel corrosion. Journal of Achievements in Materials and
Manufacturing Engineering. 39(2): 168175.
Kachanov, L.M. 1958. On failure time under creep, Proc.
Academy of Sci. SSSR, 8: 2631.
Kholmiansky, M.M. 1981. Contact of reinforcement with
concrete. Moscow: Stroiizdat.
Lubliner, J., Oliver, J., Oller, S., Onate, E. 1989. A plastic-
damage model for concrete, Int. J. Solids Struct., 25(3):
299326.
Rabotnov, Y.N. 1969. Creep problems in structural members,
Amsterdam: NHPC.
Schwer L.E., Murry Y.D. 1994. A three-invariant smooth cap
model with mixed hardening, Int. J. for Num. Anal. Mech.
In Geomech. 18: 657688.
Vidal, T., Castel,A., Francois, R. 2004.Analyzing crack width
to predict corrosion in reinforced concrete, Cement and
Concrete Research 34: 165174.
Voyiadjis, G.Z. & Abu Lebdeh, T.M. 1994. Plasticity model
for concrete using the bounding surface concept, Int. J.
Plast. 10(1): 121.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Effect of plane stress and plane strain conditions over fracture

parameters of ductile plate in SSY (LEFM) and EPFM regimes: A review

S.N.S.H. Chittajallu, Manik Bansal, A.R. Bedare & Sunil Bhat

School of Mechanical and Building Sciences, VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India

ABSTRACT: Although stress intensity parameter is independent of plane stress and plane strain conditions,
the energy release rate of the crack varies in these conditions. It is higher in plane stress than in plane strain
condition. The paper attempts to capture the magnitude of the effect of these conditions over energy release rate
of the crack in SSY (LEFM) and EPFM regimes. Exhaustive finite element analysis is undertaken on a, Mode I,
edge crack in elastic-plastic, Aluminum 2024-T3, plate.

Keywords: edge crack, SSY, LEFM, EPFM, finite element analysis,

1 INTRODUCTION Analytical and numerical results are compared for

A large amount of energy is dissipated near the crack
tip in a ductile body due to plastic deformation of the
material. In a thin ductile plate, in which plane stress
condition prevails, the stress in transverse, z direction,
is zero which results in higher shear stress at the crack
tip and consequently a larger crack tip yield or plastic
zone vis--vis the thick plate in plane strain condi-
tion that is greatly influenced by lateral constraints
and triaxiality.
Small scale yielding condition (SSY) indicates lim-
ited yielding near the crack tip and, as the result, the
ratio of plastic zone size, r, to crack length, a, is quite
small i.e. (r  a). Principles of Linear Elastic Fracture
Mechanics (LEFM) or K (Stress intensity parameter)
dominance, that are essentially valid for brittle mate-
rials, can be applied to ductile materials in case of
SSY at the cost of small accuracy. Irwins correction
to LEFM solutions provides effective K and improved
estimates of r in SSY. The energy release rate, G, is
also a defining parameter in SSY. J integral too pro-
vides a viable numerical estimate of energy release rate
in SSY. Although K is independent of plane stress and
plane strain conditions, G and J vary in these condi-
tions. On the other hand, crack tip yielding is higher in
Elastic Plastic Fracture Mechanics condition (EPFM)
as compared to that in SSY. So crack tip opening dis-
placement (CTOD) and J are the suitable parameters
that characterize the EPFM regime. Their values too
differ in plane stress and plane strain conditions in such
a regime (Anderson, 1995).
The aim of this paper is to find, analytically and
numerically, the magnitude of the effect of plane
stress and plane strain conditions over related frac-
ture parameters namely r, K, G and J in SSY and
EPFM regimes. Various crack lengths are examined.
validation.
2 PROBLEM DEFNITION
A ductile, Aluminum 2024 (heat treated to state T3),
plate of 500 mm (height) 500 mm (width, w) with
through Mode I edge crack is considered for the anal-
ysis. Five crack lengths of 50 mm, 55 mm, 60 mm,
65 mm and 70 mm under far field tensile stress, ,
of 50 MPa simulate SSY conditions whereas crack
lengths of 5 mm, 5.5 mm, 6 mm, 6.5 mm and 7 mm
under 230 MPa generate EPFM conditions. Fracture
conditions are avoided with selected loads in both the
cases.
Refer Graph 1. Aluminum has the following prop-
erties: Yield strength, ys = 345 MPa, Ultimate ten-
sile strength, ult = 485 MPa, percent elongation = 18
(Callister, 2006). Modulus of elasticity, E, and
poisons ratio, , of aluminum are 72000 MPa and 0.3
respectively.
3 THEORITICAL ANALYSIS (VALID IN SSY)
3.1 Calculation of K
According to Irwins correction for ductile mate-
rial, the effective stress intensity parameter, Keff , is
written as
r
where effective crack length, aeff = a + eff2 ; reff being
the effective plastic zone size. Since in the present

239
Graph 1. Stress-Strain plot of Al2024-T3.
case reff  a, aeff a. Hence expression for K takes
the following conventional form
where configuration factor, f (), for an edge crack in
a finite plate is obtained empirically (Kumar, 2009)
from
Plane stress and plane strain conditions are realized
by selecting the element thickness less and more than
respectively in accordance with the ASTM code. K is
unaffected by these conditions as is evident from the
above expressions.
3.2 Calculation of r
r is obtained from the expression:
where constant n = 1 for plane stress and n = 3 for
plane strain. Work hardening coefficient, n, accounts
for strain hardening (material non-linearity) and is
equal to 10 for chosen aluminum.
3.3 Calculation of G
Analytical expressions for G in plane stress and plane
strain cases are given as follows:
240
Figure 1. Finite element mesh model with loads and
constraints.
4 NUMERICAL ANALYSIS (VALID IN BOTH
SSY AND EPFM)
4.1 Determination of J integral
J integral is valid in both SSY and EPFM. The plate is
therefore modeled, separately with each crack length,
in finite element analysis (ANSYS) software to obtain
numerical values of J in both the regimes. Half plate
(250 mm 500 mm) is only modeled due to symmetry
of the plate about x axis. Non-linear, stress strain data
shown in Graph 1 are used in the software. Plane stress
(Thin plate) and plane strain (Thick plate) elements are
employed separately at each crack length. The plate is
map meshed with 8noded plane 82 elements is such a
way that mesh is very fine in crack region and course
at the top as shown in Fig. 1. Selected far field tensile
stress is applied over the top of the plate in y direction.
The crack is left unconstrained whereas the un-cracked
ligament is constrained in y direction. The plastic zone
size is measured. J integral values are determined over
various paths, (Paths 1 to 5), as shown in Fig. 2 and
3 near crack tip in post-processor solutions using the
following expression:
where P represents the path, ds is the elemental path
length, w is the strain energy density, u and v are the
displacements in x and y directions. Tx and Ty are trac-
tion terms in x and y directions that are defined as
under
Tx = x nx + xy ny and Ty = y ny + xy nx where
nx & ny are unit vectors in x and y directions, x & y
are normal stress in x and y directions and xy is shear
stress in xy plane.
4.2 Validation of SSY and EPFM regimes
Refer Graph 2. In case of SSY, the condition, r a,
is well satisfied. Numerical and theoretical values of r
Figure 2. J -integral paths in plane stress condition (50 mm
crack in SSY).
Figure 3. J -integral paths in plane strain condition (50 mm
crack in SSY).
Graph 2. Plastic zone size vs crack length in SSY.
are also in very good agreement with each other in both
plane stress and plane strain conditions that confirms
the accuracy of the finite element solution.
Refer Graph 3. In case of EPFM, the values of
robtained from finite element solution are comparable
with crack lengths thereby validating EPFM.
r is found to be more in plane stress than in plane
strain condition in both SSY and EPFM.
241
Graph 3. Plastic zone size vs crack length in EPFM.
Graph 4. K vs crack length in SSY.
Graph 5. G and J vs crack length in SSY.
5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In case of SSY, K, that is calculated at all the crack
lengths and plotted in Graph 4, increases with crack
length but does not show any dependence on plane
stress and plane strain conditions. Refer Table 1 and
Graph 5. G and J values increase with crack length
in both the conditions. Both the values are higher in
plane stress than in plane strain condition.
Refer Table 2 and Graph 6. In case of EPFM, J
integral values also increase with increase in crack
length in both plane stress and plane strain conditions.
J values are again higher in plane stress than in plane
strain condition.
 6 CONCLUSION

Following conclusions are drawn from the results:-

i) Average % error between G and J (computed at all
the crack lengths) in SSY is 1.97 and 3.31 in plane
strain and plane stress conditions respectively.
The corresponding values in EPFM, employing
hypothetical G (similar to that used in SSY, Refer
Table 3) are 3.26 and 12.72. Since the error in SSY
is lesser than that in EPFM, it is confirmed that
G J in SSY whereas G  = J in EPFM.
ii) Energy release rate values are more in plane stress
Graph 6. G (Hypothetical) and J vs crack length in EPFM. than in plane strain condition in both SSY and
EPFM. In SSY, maximum % deviation between
J values in plane stress and plane strain condi-
Table 1. Values of G and J in SSY.
tion is 14.98 whereas with Git is 10.89. In EPFM,
maximum % deviation between J values in two
Plane Stress Plane Strain conditions is 18.75. The above results indicate that
the difference between plane stress and plane strain
Crack Analytical Numerical Analytical Numerical values of energy release rate is more in EPFM than
length (G) (J ) (G) (J ) in SSY or in other words the effect of lateral con-
straints or tri-axiality of the plate is pronounced in
50 7633 7650 6802 6509 EPFM than in SSY.
55 8596 8622 7660 7535
60 9629 9958 8581 8583
65 10709 11310 9543 9724 REFERENCES
70 11854 12683 10563 10728
Anderson, T.L. 1995. Fracture Mechanics: Fundamentals
*Crack length in mm and Application, Boca Raton: CRC Press LLC. Chapter 2
*G and J in N/m and 3, page: 35166.
Callister, Willam D. Jr. 2006. Material Science and Engineer-
ing, An Introduction, New Delhi: Wiley India Pvt. Ltd.
Table 2. Values of J in EPFM. Appendix B, page: 746.
Prashant Kumar. 2009. Elements of fracture mechanics, Tata
Plane Stress Plane Strain McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi.
Crack Numerical Numerical Chapter 4, page: 91.
length (J ) (J )

5 16215 13174
5.5 17585 14545
6 19732 16033
6.5 21238 17258
7 23243 18895

*Crack length in mm
*J in N/m

Table 3. Values of Hypothetical G in EPFM.

Crack Plane Stress Plane Strain

length Analytical Analytical
(G) (G)

5 14477 12900
5.5 15925 14190
6 17366 15480
6.5 18819 16770
7 20267 18061

*Crack length in mm
*Gin N/m

242
Computer simulation and CAD/CAE
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Three-dimensional modeling of foundation pit structures and

surrounding buildings during the construction of the second scene of
the State Academic Mariinsky Theatre in Saint-Petersburg considering
stage-by-stage nature of construction process

A.P. Ledyaev, A.V. Benin & A.N. Konkov

Petersburg State Transport University, Saint-Petersburg, Russia

ABSTRACT: The methodology of finite-elements calculation and results of analysis of deformations of foun-
dation pit retaining and bearing structures of the Second Stage building of the State Academic Mariinsky Theatre
(SAMT-2) in Saint Petersburg at different stages of soil excavation and substructure construction has been given.
Calculations of the state of deformation of foundation pit enclosure and internal structures related to multilayer
soil mass were carried out with the integrated solution system MIDAS/CIVIL ver. 7.4.0. The data concerning
vertical and horizontal displacements of retaining and internal foundation pit structures as well as surrounding
buildings foundations and retaining walls of embankments has been received. Simulated results of building
foundations yields at all stages of foundation pit construction correlate well with the geodesic monitoring data
of the corresponding period of time.

Keywords: finite element model, three-dimensional (3D) modeling, state of deformation, monitoring

1 INTRODUCTION 2. A slurry retaining wall constructed from secant

The construction of the Second Stage building of
the State Academic Mariinsky Theatre (SAMT-2) has
become a unique event in Saint Petersburgs construc-
tion field. For the first time a 12 m deep triple layer
underground storage of a large area was constructed
in the historic centre of the city. The process was
aggravated by compact soil area and densely built-
up surrounding area, the immediate vicinity of the
Kryukov Canal and the main theatre building, dif-
ficult geotechnical and hydrogeological conditions.
Such kind of construction presupposed the applica-
tion of special engineering and design methods, new
structures and materials, management technologies
and methods allowing a large number of construction
companies and their employees work simultaneously.
This research is aimed at analyzing and evaluating
the deformations of foundation pit retaining and bear-
ing structures and the yield of surrounding buildings
at different stages of soil excavation and substruc-
ture construction of the Second Stage building of the
State Academic Mariinsky Theatre (SAMT-2) in Saint
Petersburg.
2 TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF
FOUNDATION PIT AND SURROUNDING
BUILDINGS STRUCTURES
Foundation pit structures consist of:
1. A sheet pile enclosure made from a metal sheet pile
AU Arcelor 18. Sheet piles are driven down to 21 m.
piles which are produced using the Jet-grouting
technology and are reinforced by 40 metal I-beams
1.0 m apart. A slurry wall and a sheet pile are linked
on top through a reinforced concrete grid 2.3 m
wide and 1.15 m high.
3. A horizontal soil-cement slab constructed at a depth
of between 11.500 m and 14.000 m using the Jet-
grouting technology. The projected slab capacity
reaches 2.5 m.
4. 600 mm diameter temporary bored piles embed-
ded inside the foundation pit with the 6 6 m mesh.
Piles reach the height of 29 m. 800 mm to 1200 mm
diameter boring piles which serve as a permanent
bearing structures pertaining to a future slab grid on
the level of a foundation pit bottom are embedded
below a foundation pit bottom.
5. Propping reinforced concrete slabs being installed
at a depth of 4.410 m to 11.100 m (on the top
of slabs) as the foundation pit is being exca-
vated. At a depth of 4.410 m a slab is 400 mm
thick, and it leans against temporary piles. At a
depth of 11.100 m a slab is 1200 mm thick, and
a Jet-grouting slab serves as a foundation for it.
At a final stage of foundation pit disclosure a
slab is merged with permanent piles into a slab
grid. At a depth of 8.110 m capping beams and
sections of cross walls are embedded for ensur-
ing additional foundation pit enclosure stiffness at
this level.
Figs 12 show certain stages of SAMT-2 foundation
pit excavation and shoring.

245
 Table 1. Refined soil properties.

No. E, C, ,
EGE Item MPa kPa deg

1 Backfill 2 1.0 16 0.29

2 Sand 12 1.5 24 0.29
3 Loam 4 6.0 14 0.35
4 Loam 4 7.0 7 0.35
5 Sandy Loam 8 9.0 11 0.29
6 Loam 10 12.0 13 0.35
7 Loam 12 18.0 15 0.35
8 Clay 18 60.0 22 0.42
9 Clay 40 110.0 26 0.42

Figure 1. SAMT-2 foundation pit excavation.

Figure 2. Slab concrete castling at a depth of 4.410 m.
Surrounding buildings are represented by 4- to
7-storey apartment buildings constructed at the begin-
ning of the XXth century (with the exception of
an apartment on Dekabristov Street). A design map
indicates that building structures are stressed having
longitudinal and cross bearing wall structures. The
structure of the Kryukov Canal embankment has been
adopted in accordance with data given in (Report
2007).
Geotechnical conditions on the building site were
grounded on preliminary soil research results. How-
ever, soils inside the foundation pit were significantly
modified (mainly, for strengthening) in the process of
soil-cement slab construction, drilling and concrete
castling of temporary piles. That is the reason why
additional soil researches were conducted with the help
of a static penetration test method when foundation pit
excavation reached the depth of 4.810 m. The refined
soil physical-mechanical properties received as a
result of additional researches are provided in Table 1.
3 PROJECTED STAGES OF FOUNDATION
PIT EXCAVATION
According to project regulations (Construction design
project 2004), the process of foundation pit excavation
and shoring is carried out according to the following
procedure:
1. Soil excavation activities performed by segments
of the foundation pit to a depth of 4.810 m and
accompanied by concrete castling of a 400 mm
thick reinforced concrete slab leaning against
temporary bored piles.
2. Soil excavation activities performed to a depth of
8.410 m and accompanied by concrete castling of
capping beams and sections of cross walls (namely
stiffeners).
3. Soil excavation activities performed to a depth of
12.650 m and accompanied by concrete castling of
a lower bearing wall leaning against permanent and
temporary piles as well as a Jet-grouting slab in
places where it has been embedded.
4 THREE-DIMENSIONAL (3D) MODELING
PROBLEM STATEMENT
A modeling of foundation pit excavation and shoring
processes was carried out basing on the following
premises.
1. By the moment of 3D model construction the
following work scope had been covered:
a horizontal soil-cement slab had been constructed;
a full external structure of foundation pit enclosure
had been fully constructed (a metal sheet pile, a
slurry wall reinforced by I-beams, a monolithic
grid);
internal sheet pile enclosures (islands) had been
constructed.
2. All deformations of soil mass, foundation pit enclo-
sure and surrounding buildings happened before
and in the process of the above mentioned structures
design were considered to be over (i.e. historical).
Thus, mathematical simulation results concern-
ing yields of surrounding buildings and enclo-
sures deformations were determined solely by the
adopted excavation and propping structures design
technologies.
3. Calculations were done for each of the following
foundation pit excavation stages:
Stage 1. Soil excavation activities performed to a
depth of 4.810 m (the level of slab underside). Slab

246
structure at a depth of 4.410 m was excluded from
calculating the factor of safety at that stage since
according to production techniques it was being made
by parts for quite a long period of time and, thus,
could not serve as a sprung structure at initial stages
of foundation pit excavation.
Stage 2. Slab arrangement at a depth of 4.410 m
and soil excavation activities performed to a depth of
8.410 m. Capping beams and cross bearing walls parts
were excluded from calculating the factor of safety at
that stage.
Stage 3.1. Soil excavation activities (including par-
tial Jet-grouting slab cutting) performed to a depth of
12.650 m. Permanent piles reinforcing soils below a
foundation pit bottom were excluded from calculating
the stiffness factor at that stage.
Stage 3.2. The stage was similar to stage 3.1 consid-
ering an additional load on upstands equaling 2.0 t/m2
on a 3.0 m wide section from the side of Minsky Lane,
Dekabristov Street and Soyuza Pechatnikov Street and
1.0 t/m2 from the Kryukov Canal side. The necessity of
considering the above mentioned load was determined
by warehousing of a significant bulk volume (namely
breakstone needed for base design) and heavy machin-
ery operating on upstands during concrete castling of
structures.
Foundation level loads from walls of buildings sit-
uated on Minsky Lane, Dekabristov Street and Soyuza
Pechatnikov Street on the foundation level were calcu-
lated with reference to resulting values and historical
data (Report 2004)
Three-dimensional modeling was aimed at defining
and analyzing:
horizontal and vertical shifts of enclosure parts and
foundation pit propping structures;
horizontal and vertical shifts of a soil mass, adjoin-
ing buildings foundations, Kryukov Canal embank-
ment structures;
a forecast disclosing the appearance and progress
of surrounding buildings deformations based on
projected stages of foundation pit excavation and
shoring activities;
a comparison of mathematical simulation results
with data concerning current foundation pit enclo-
sure and surrounding buildings foundations moni-
toring.
5 PRINCIPAL COMPONENTS OF 3D FINITE
ELEMENT MODEL
Calculations of the state of deformation of foundation
pit enclosure and internal structures related to multi-
layer soil mass were carried out with the integrated
solution system MIDAS/CIVIL ver. 7.4.0.
The modeling was based on the following core
principles:
Soil mass was designed with the help of eight-
node 3D prismatic finite elements. Soil layers were
designed as horizontal layers of geotechnical elements
of averaged thickness.
247
Foundations of surrounding buildings and tempo-
rary bored piles were presented as beam-type finite
elements. An internal and external metal sheet pile
enclosure and a 2.0 m thick horizontal soil-cement
slab produced using the Jet-grouting technology were
shown as plate elements. A 1.5 m thick reinforced
by I-beams wall placed in the soil, a reinforced con-
crete grid and retaining walls of embankments were
presented with the help of 3D prismatic elements.
The material of retaining walls of the Kryukov Canal
embankment was considered to be homogeneous and
possessing averaged elastic response.
On the whole, the scheme was presented by 14
types of work materials, including 9 types of materials
describing different layers of soil mass (Table 1), grade
B25 concrete for temporary piles, steel for a sheet
pile enclosure, a material for soil-based wall (prop-
erties accounting for wall reinforcement by I-beams
are provided), materials for a soil-cement slab and for
embankments retaining walls.
Calculations of the 3D model state of deformation
were carried out using a non-linear scale. Elastic-
plastic soil behavior was based on the Drucker-Prager
plasticity model. The Newton-Raphson method was
applied for solving non-linear equations. It took 45
iterations before the iterate reached 1.0%, an accuracy
prescribed beforehand.
Since the research is aimed at defining yields
caused by foundation pit excavation and shoring
activities, soil mass was considered to be weightless.
Solely a dead load of building structures and active
earth pressure on foundation pit walls within their
height (reaching 1.33 of the foundation pit excavation
depth) were taken into consideration while estimat-
ing a foundation pit load (Gorbunov-Posadov M.I. &
Ilyichev, V.A., & Krutov, V.I. 1985).
3D calculations of soil mass without excavating
were carried out. It was performed for checking the
validity of problem setting primitive conjectures, and
it accounted for a load imposed due to the surround-
ing buildings dead weight. Research results showed
that soil mass normal compressive and shear stresses
did not exceed estimated soil resistivity to compression
and shift. A load imposed due to the surrounding build-
ings dead weight did not result in significant plastic
deformations of soil mass and the aperture of dis-
continuity soils. Thus, the above mentioned modeling
principles can be considered as grounded.
A separate finite element design model was used
for calculating each of the three examined stages of
construction work.
6 RESULTS OF CALCULATED
DISPLACEMENTS OF RETAINING WALLS
AND SURROUNDING BUILDINGS
FOUNDATIONS AT DIFFERENT STAGES
OF FOUNDATION PIT CONSTRUCTION
The data concerning vertical and horizontal dis-
placements of retaining and internal foundation pit
Figure 3. The total value of foundation pit displacement
(mm): stage 3.1.
structures as well as surrounding buildings founda-
tions and retaining walls of embankments has been
received as a result of performed calculations.
A special attention will be given to the analysis
of calculated results on stages 3.1 and 3.2 as they
appear to have the most unfavorable working factors
combination.
The analysis of simulation data (Fig. 3) on stage 3.1
is presented by the following results:
the maximum yield of surrounding buildings is
exceeded by 12 mm and registered in buildings on
Minsky Lane;
the maximum yield of the nearest to the foundation
pit embankment reaches 19 mm;
the maximum yield of a grid is recorded in its lon-
gitudinal parts where it reaches 8.3 mm and in its
horizontal parts where it reaches 23.7 mm.
The following results have been received after con-
sidering an additional load on foundation pit (stage
3.2) upstands (Fig. 4):
the maximum yield of surrounding buildings has
increased 2 times and is now exceeded by 21 mm
and registered in buildings on Minsky Lane;
the maximum yield of the nearest to the foundation
pit embankment has increased to 23.7 mm;
the maximum yield of the grid in its longitudinal
parts has reached 12 mm and in its horizontal parts
has insignificantly increased to 25 mm.
248
Figure 4. The total value of foundation pit displacement
(mm): stage 3.2.
7 COMPARISON OF 3D MODELING RESULTS
WITH CURRENT MONITORING DATA
During the process of SAMT-2 construction differ-
ent construction companies monitored the state of
surrounding buildings and foundation pit retaining
structures from the geodesic point of view.
Simulated results of Minsky Lane building founda-
tions yields at all stages of foundation pit construction
correlate well with the geodesic monitoring data of the
corresponding period of time.
REFERENCES
Gorbunov-Posadov, M.I., Ilyichev, V.A., Krutov, V.I.
1985. Bases, foundations and substructure constructions
Moscow: Stroyizdat.
Construction design project. 2004. New building (the
Second Scene) of State Academic Mariinsky Theatre,
34A Dekabristov Street, Saint Petersburg. Foundation pit
shoring for substructure construction.
Report. 2004. Results of technical examination of buildings
situated at Minsky Lane and recommendations concern-
ing ensuring examined buildings safety for the period of
activities related to clearing the area of the Second Scene
new building of the State Academic Mariinsky Theatre.
Vol. 1. Examination of building superstructure situated
at 3 Soyuza Pechatnikov Street. Vol. 2. Examination of
building superstructure situated at 36 Dekabristov Street.
Saint Petersburg : SUE LMEP.
Report. 2007. Investigation of the Kryukov Canal left
bank embankment section routed from Torgovy Bridge
to Dekabristov Bridge. Saint Petersburg: MIL.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

The second-responses method for simulation of vehicle-pavement

dynamical interaction

S.H. Li & J.Y. Ren

School of Mechanical Engineering, Shijiazhuang Tiedao University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, P.R. China

ABSTRACT: A vehicle-pavement system is modeled as a 2-DOF oscillator moving on a Bernoulli-Euler beam

with simply supported ends on a linear visco-elastic Kelvin foundation. Analytical solutions of vehicle responses
are derived by dAlembert principle, and the analytical pavement dynamical response is derived by the mode
superposition method. Based on these solutions, a second-responses method (SR method) is proposed and used
to simulate the responses of vehicle and pavement. This SR method is able to consider the dynamical interaction
between vehicle and pavement. Finally the validity of the new computational method is verified by the method
of direct numerical integral.

Keywords: Vehicle, Pavement, Modelling, Computational method, Dynamical interaction

1 INTRODUCTION based on the model of beam or plate on elastic

With increase of road traffic and vehicle load, the
premature damage of bituminous pavement on
expressway is more and more serious, which has short-
ened greatly the pavements effective lifetime. The
pavement damage makes tire force increase greatly,
which may influence vehicles ride comfort and driv-
ing safety. Thus, it is quite necessary to investigate
interaction of vehicle and pavement.
However, vehicle and pavement are investigated
separately in present. In the field of vehicle dynam-
ics, scholars regard road irregularities as excitations
to vehicle system, and study vehicles optimization
and pavement damage based on vehicle system. Cebon
(1998) researched effect of heavy vehicle parameters
on tire pressure and pavement damage and opti-
mized a passive suspension. Collop (1995) built a new
whole-life pavement performance model composed of
a linear quarter-car and a layered elastic pavement
supported by a semi-infinite subgrade, and predicted
the pavement damage by numerical integration. Sun
(2007) optimized a quarter-truck suspension system
using minimum dynamic pavement load as a design
criterion.
In the field of pavement dynamics, vehicle is
regarded as moving loads acting on pavement, and
pavements dynamical response has been paid much
attention to. Hardy (1993) modeled pavement as
beam on visco-elastic foundation and used methods
of convolution integral and quasi-dynamic influence
function to calculate response of pavement. Deng
(2000) investigated pavement dynamics under mov-
ing vehicle load by generalized Duhamel integral
foundation. Kargarnovin (2004) studied response of
a Timoshenko beam with uniform cross-section and
infinite length supported by viscoelastic foundation
subjected to a harmonic moving load. An analyti-
cal solution is presented in an integral form using
complex Fourier transformation. However, investiga-
tion on dynamics of both vehicle and pavement based
on vehicle-pavement-foundation coupling system is
seldom found.
In this work, a vehicle-pavement-foundation sys-
tem is built and two methods are used to investigate
dynamics of the coupling system, including second-
response method (SR method) proposed in this work
and the direct integral method. By comparing results of
these two methods, some conclusions are drawn, which
may be benefit to vehicle suspension optimization and
pavement premature damage avoidance.
2 MODELLING FOR VEHICLE PAVEMENT
SYSTEM
In this work, only vertical motions of the vehicle and
pavement are considered and it is assumed that the
heavy vehicle runs along a straight line on a symmet-
rical road from the pavement midpoint at a constant
speed. Thus in the two dimensional space composed
of vehicle running direction and vertical direction, a
vehicle-pavement-foundation system is built as shown
in Fig. 1. A two DOF quarter vehicle suspension model
is used, and pavement is modeled as a Bernoulli-
Euler beam with simply supported ends on a linear
viscoelastic Kelvin foundation.

249
 3 ANALYTICAL SOLUTIONS OF VEHICLE
AND PAVEMENT

According to linear vibration theory, the analyti-

cal solutions of vehicle displacement response under
harmonic road excitation can be obtained as:

Figure 1. Vehicle-pavement system

where,

The systems equations of motion are obtained by

dAlembertS principle,

y1 can be simplified to

where,

where, E, I, K, C, x, and v are the modulus of elas-

ticity, cross-sectional moment of inertia, foundational
response modulus, foundational damping coefficient,
vehicles position on running direction and vehicles
running speed respectively. y2 , y1 and yr are body,
wheel, and pavements vertical displacement respec-
tively. yo is the harmonic road excitation, which takes
the following form, Substituting Eq. (3) and Eq. (7) into Eq. (4), one
will get the dynamic tire force:

F is the dynamic tire force acting on pavement, which

is expressed as,


where, A = B K12 + C12 2 .
The initial conditions and boundary conditions of the Letting
beam are


where, Yi (x) = 2
ML
sin ix
L
.

250
 Substituting Eq. (11) to Eq. (2), multiplying both
hands of Eq. (2) by Yj (x), and integrating the equation
along beams length, one may have,

where,

Deriving i (t) from the Eq. (11) and substituting Figure 2. Natural frequency of different mode.
i (t) to Eq. (10), the pavements displacement response
can be calculated as the following analytical solution,

where, i is the i-th modes natural frequency, and

di = i 1 i2 .
Substituting x = L/2 + vt into Eq. (12), the second
road excitation to vehicle can be obtained,

4 THE SECOND RESPONSES OF VEHICLE

SYSTEM

The parameters of vehicle and pavement system are

chosen as follows
m2 = 10109 kg, m1 = 190 kg, K2 = 75000 N/m,
K1 = 2060000 N/m, C2 = 30000 Ns2 /m, C1 =
900 Ns2 /m, E = 1.6 109 N/m2 , K = 48 106 N/m2 ,
C = 0.3 105 N, v = 20 m/s, L = 140, NM = 200.
The big foundation response modulus K leads
to high natural frequency of beam on visco-elastic
foundation. And the difference of natural frequency
between different modes is little. Thus the great super-
position mode NM is necessary to compute the pave-
ment response as accurately as possible. Fig. 2 shows Figure 3. The second road excitation to vehicle.
natural frequency of different mode.
The time course time course and power spectral den-
sity of second road excitation to vehicle is shown in (b) After 0.3 seconds, the excitation approaches to
Fig. 3. From Fig. 3, we can see that a harmonic distribution with a little amplitude
and frequency close to the frequency of moving
(a) Within the first 0.3 seconds, the second road load. Thus the excitation after 0.3 seconds respect
excitation fluctuates greatly. The excitations fre- interaction between vehicle and pavement.
quency is close to the first natural frequency of
pavement. Thus the excitation during this period Substituting the second road excitation into vehi-
is instantaneous response induced by initial con- cle suspensions equations of motion Eq. (1), one can
ditions. get the vehicle second response induced by pavement

251
 However, vehicle and pavement interact with one
another in practice. The dynamical tire force consid-
ering road vibration can be expressed as

Eq. (14) shows that the tire force is influenced by

wheels vibration, pavements vibration and road sur-
face roughness. Thus vehicles ordinary differential
equations (1) are coupled with pavements ordinary
differential equations (13). Since equations of vehicle-
pavement coupling system is time-varying and in
large quantity, the best method for calculating system
responses is direct numerical integral.
Results by direct integral are shown as solid lines
in Fig.4. From Fig.4, it can be seen that
(a) Vehicle body acceleration obtained by second
response method has a lag, compared to that
obtained by direct integral method. But the ampli-
tudes of vehicle body acceleration obtained by
these two methods are approximate.
(b) Suspension deformation, tire force and pavement
displacement obtained by second response method
are close to the results obtained by direct integral
method.
These results shows that the second response
method can consider coupling action between vehi-
cle and pavement in stable period and only lead to a
small error in transient period.

5 CONCULSIONS

In this work, a vehicle-pavement-foundation system

is modeled and the second responses are computed to
investigate the coupling systems dynamics approxi-
mately. Vehicle and pavements dynamics are studied
by the second response method and direct integral
method.
It can be concluded that the second response method
proposed here can consider coupling action between
vehicle and pavement and only lead to a small error in
long period. Thus the second response method (SR
method) can replace the direct integral method to
simplify calculating procedures.
Figure 4. Compare of two methods

vibration by numerical integral.Vehicle body accelera- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

tion, suspension deformation, tire force and pavement
displacement after considering second response are This work is supported by the National Natural Sci-
shown as dashed lines in Fig.4. ence Foundation of China under Grant No.11072159

252
and the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei province
under Grant No. E2012210025.
REFERENCES
Cebon D. 1988. Theoretical road damage due to dynamic tyre
forces of heavy vehicles. Proc Instn Mech Engrs, 202:
103117.
Collop A. C., Cebon D. 1995. Parametric study of fac-
tors affecting flexible-pavement performance. Journal of
transportation engineering, Nov./Dec., 485494.
Deng X.J., Sun L. 2000. Study on dynamics of vehicle-ground
pavement structure system. Beijing: China Communica-
tions Press.
253
Hardy M.S.A., Cebon D. 1993. Response of continuous pave-
ments to moving dynamic loads. Journal of Engineering
Mechanics, 119(9):17621780.
Kargarnovin M.H., Younesian D. 2004. Dynamics of Tim-
oshenko beams on Pasternak foundation under moving
load. Mechanics Research Communications, 31: 713
723.
Sun L., Cai X.M.,Yang J. 2007. Genetic algorithm-based opti-
mum vehicle suspension design using minimum dynamic
pavement load as a design criterion. Journal of Sound and
Vibration, 301: 1827.
Zhai W.M. 2002. Vehicle-track coupling dynamics. Beijing:
China railway publishing house.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Method for throughput capacity of container terminal based on

complex stochastic system

Xiangqun Song, Yun Peng & Wenyuan Wang

Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China

Yuchen Guo
YuMing Senior High School, Dalian, China

ABSTRACT: Throughput capacity of port is one of the main bases of evaluating whether the port could meet
the transportation demand. The existing methods estimated the throughput capacity could not exactly reflect the
operation state of container terminal. In this regard, a simulation model of production operation of container
terminal is established to study the method for throughput capacity of a container terminal considering the
service level. The simulation model is specifically built to be able to perform randomness of container terminal.
The simulation results and analysis conclusions provide reference for the planning, construction and expansion
of infrastructure in costal container terminal.

Keywords: Throughput Capacity; Complex Stochastic System; Service Level; Container Terminal

1 INTRODUCTION Besides, the service level is one of the important

Throughput capacity of port is one of the main bases
of evaluating whether the port could meet the trans-
portation demand. The port development judged by
throughput capacity is the basis of government macro-
control, capital construction approval and coastline
management. At present, there are basically three
methods to estimate throughput capacity of a con-
tainer terminal, namely specification approach, queu-
ing theory method, and computer simulation approach.
In China, the computational formula was first pre-
sented in Design Code of General Layout for Sea Port
(JTJ211-99), however, the throughput capacity esti-
mated by this standard had been proved to be smaller
than the real one (Chuansheng 2008), and the exist-
ing research was confined to parameter adjustment
(Jian et al. 2008, Houming et al. 2009, Guofu &
Rong 2004). The production operation of container
terminal is a complex and stochastic queuing sys-
tem (Jungang et al. 2008). So, its cumbersome to
calculate the throughput capacity by queuing the-
ory method, however there exists real difference in
results (Shijun 2006). The existing computer simu-
lation approach (Yizhong 2010, Qing 2004, Huilai
2010) mostly focuses on a certain port, without con-
sidering the port as a complex stochastic system, and
also the service level of container terminal is not taken
into account. The throughput capacity estimated by the
existing methods could not exactly reflect the actual
operation state of container terminal.
indicators to reflect the level of port operation, and
the port throughput capacity is influenced by stochas-
tic factors, such as natural conditions, loading and
unloading amount of single container ship, ship arriv-
ing time, the type and flow direction of containers
and so on. So, its necessary to study the method
for throughput capacity of a container terminal con-
sidering the service level and stochastic factors to
guarantee the sustainable development of a container
terminal.
The paper gives a general method to estimate the
throughput capacity of container terminal. Consider-
ing the service level, a simulation model of production
operation of container terminal is established based on
complex stochastic system.
2 ANALYSIS OF COMPLEX STOCHASTIC
SYSTEM IN CONTAINER TERMINAL
2.1 Component elements of port complex
stochastic system
The production operation system of container terminal
is a complex system, which is composed of ship arriv-
ing and leaving subsystem, handling operation sub-
system, yard operation subsystem, horizontal trans-
portation subsystem, and gate operation subsystem.
There exists relationship among each subsystem, both
the design of each subsystem and internal relationship

255
among each subsystem should be considered when
calculating throughput capacity.
Simultaneously, random factors and events are
included in port production operation system, whose
characteristics could be represented by random vari-
ables. The component elements of port complex
stochastic system are listed in Table 1.
2.2 Analysis of stochastic factors
Probability distribution is used to describe the varia-
tion law of random variables, such as natural condi-
tions, arriving time interval of ship and truck, loading
and unloading amount of single container ship, the
type and flow direction of container, efficiency of
loading and unloading machine and so on.
Table 1. Component elements of port complex stochastic
system.
Basic elements System elements
Entity Ship, container (loaded, empty,
dangerous, reefer)
Resource Fairway, anchorage, berth, loading and
unloading machine, container truck,
yard etc.
Attribute Ship tonnage/speed, container type,
berth tonnage, loading and unloading
machine type/efficiency,
truck speed/location, yard area etc.
Time time of ship arriving/leaving/berthing
port etc.
Interval interval of ship arriving and container
stockpiling
State busy/idle berth, busy/idle machine etc.
Event Ship arriving/leaving port, container
handling etc.
Activity Serving ship/container
Rule Ship: first come first served/first unload,
truck: shortest path
Figure 1. The sub-procedure of ship berthing operation.
256
We use the method of statistical hypothesis testing
to study the probability distribution of the stochastic
factors.
3 SIMULATION MODEL OF THROUGHPUT
CAPACITY IN COASTAL CONTAINER
TERMINAL
The assumptions of simulation model are as follows:
1) The number of anchorage and truck is enough;
2) The resource is fully used;
3) Ship and handling machine work well.
3.1 The sub-model of ship berthing and departing
operation
The sub-model of ship berthing and departing oper-
ation includes the process of ship entering port from
anchorage, sailing through fairway, berthing, depart-
ing berth through fairway, and leaving port. The entity
in the system is ship, as shown in figure 1 and 2.
3.2 The sub-model of crane handling operation
The sub-model of handling operation includes the pro-
cess of loading and unloading the ship, in the process,
the entity conversion is completed. Shipment process
includes the process of waiting for crane resource, and
loading operation, while unloading process includes
the process of waiting for crane resource, and unload-
ing operation. The entity of the system is container, as
shown in figure 3 and 4.
3.3 The sub-model of horizontal transportation
operation
The sub-model of horizontal transportation includes
the process of picking up and sending container. The
entity of the system is container, while the resource is
container truck.
Figure 2. The sub-procedure of ship departing operation.

Figure 3. The sub-procedure of unloading the ship.

Figure 4. The sub-procedure of unloading the ship.

3.4 The sub-model of yard operation

In the subsystem, the container is transported to the
yard. The entity of the system is container, while the
resource is the yard crane. In the sub-model, the stor-
age day and handling efficiency should be considered.
The process of the sub-model is shown in figure 5.

Figure 5. The sub-procedure of yard operation.

3.5 The sub-model of gate operation
The sub-model of gate operation includes the process
of truck picking and sending container. The entity of
the system is container, while the resource is the gate
channel and truck, as shown in figure 67.
4 CASE STUDY
The case deals with a container terminal with two
20000 tonnage berths. The interval of ship follows

257

Figure 6. The sub-procedure of gate operation considering
picking container.
Figure 7. The sub-procedure of gate operation considering
sending container.
Figure 8. The relationship between service level and
throughput capacity.
Poisson distribution, and the handling efficiency of
crane is 40TEU/h. The number of crane for each berth
is 2. The results by running the model for 10 trials are
shown in figure 8.
The formula considering the relationship between
port service level and throughput capacity is shown as
equation (1).
where P is the throughput capacity and S is the service
level.
For developing countries, the service level of con-
tainer terminal is no less favourable than 0.5, while
the throughput capacity is 40.71 (10 thousand TEU/a).
258
If the deadweight capacity is greater than 40.71 (10
thousand TEU/a), its necessary to build new berth or
increase the construction of infrastructure.
5 CONCLUSION
The paper presents a new approach to estimate the
throughput capacity based on complex stochastic sys-
tem. In this regard, a simulation model of production
operation of container terminal is established con-
sidering the randomness of container terminal. Then,
the relationship between service level and through-
put capacity is analyzed. It shows that, for a certain
port, the higher the service level is, the lower the port
throughput capacity is. When the service level is higher
than 0.5, its effective to decrease the service level to
improve the throughput capacity; while when the ser-
vice level is lower than 0.5, its less effective to improve
the capacity through decreasing the service level.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (No. 51079022 and
51109030) for its financial support.
REFERENCES
JTJ211-99, Design Code of General Layout for Sea Port.
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

HOPs: A new tomographic reconstruction algorithm for non destructive

acoustic testing of concrete structures

Barbara Cannas, Sara Carcangiu, Alessandra Fanni, Renato Forcinetti & Augusto Montisci
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

Giovanna Concu
Department of Civil Engineering, Environmental and Architecture, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

ABSTRACT: Tomographic reconstruction is a typically ill posed inverse problem, and the computations of
solutions are extremely sensitive to data errors, model errors, and rounding errors. Therefore the problem is
overdetermined, the solutions are ambiguous, and computational problems are severely ill conditioned. In this
paper, a new iterative algorithm has been implemented with the purpose of evaluating the reliability of acoustic
tomography in the characterization and non destructive testing of buildings structures. In particular, the new
algorithm performs a direct procedure in order to find a solution that minimizes the mean squared error. Using a
well know benchmark for 2D tomography, the performances of the algorithm have been compared with traditional
algebraic iterative reconstruction methods for discretizations of inverse problems, such as ART and SIRT. Finally,
the iterative algorithm has been applied on a case study considering the propagation of the acoustic wave that
crosses a selected section of a concrete structure.

Keywords: Non Destructive Testing; Acoustic Tomography; Inversion Algorithms; Concrete Structure

1 INTRODUCTION overcomes the previously cited limit combining the

Over the last decades, particular attention has been
devoted to the development of non destructive tech-
niques (NDT) for buildings diagnosis and evaluation.
NDTs are particularly suitable when dealing with
structural masonry because they allow one to not inter-
fere with the state of the asset (Fib 2002). Sonic
and ultrasonic NDTs methods exploit the fact that
the transmission of sound is affected by the medium
through which it passes. They are based on measure-
ments of the velocity v of acoustic waves propagating
through the material, and seem to be very suitable
for evaluating a building condition because they give
information with immediacy, rapidity and relatively
low cost (Krautkramer & Krautkramer 1990). These
methods are preferentially carried out applying the
Through Transmission Technique, in which a wave is
transmitted by a transducer (Emitter) through the test
object and received by a second transducer (Receiver)
on the opposite side.
The major limit of the Through Transmission
Technique consists of describing the velocity field
in each section of the object using only one
value of velocity for each path, i.e., hypothesiz-
ing that the mean is homogeneous along each wave
path.
The Acoustic Tomography Technique, firstly pro-
posed in the biomedical field (Hengyong 2006),
results of several Through Transmission Technique
measurements for a sharper and reliable investigation
of the internal structure of an object, using numer-
ical analysis as a real measurement instrument. The
methods by which the tomographic measurements are
converted into some object information, refer to inver-
sion methods, and are computationally intensive and
often ill conditioned.
In literature different works point out the reliability
of acoustic tomography in the diagnosis of concrete
and masonry buildings, deepening on the analysis of
the issues which affect the algebraic problem condi-
tioning and highlighting the most suitable techniques
for the problem solution (Schuller 1997, Popovics
2003).
The acoustic wave covers the path of length l
between two points (from the emitter to the receiver)
spending the time t and propagating with an average
velocity v, obtained from the ratio l/t (Cianfrone 1993).
When the distance between the two points reduces to
zero a local velocity vp , and a local slowness s = 1/vp
can be defined for the point p. The acoustic behaviour
of a selected section of the object is then defined
when the slowness s is continuously known in every
point of the investigated section. This function can be
approximated dividing the section into a grid of N
rectangular cells (pixels) in which v is supposed to be
constant (Fig. 1).

259

Figure 1. Schema of Linear Tomographic Problem.
The Tomographic Problem consists of obtaining the
slowness of the N pixels starting from the knowledge
of M travel times measured along a series of paths
joining couples of transducers located on opposite or
adjacent sides of the section. The ray-paths of waves
depend on the velocity distribution, and their accu-
rate definition is a not easy problem to solve. In this
study, the linear Tomography has been applied, which
considers the ray-paths to be rectilinear.
In order to obtain the values of the slowness in the
grid, the following equations system has to be solved:
where t = [t1 , t2 , . . . tM ]T is the vector of measured
travel times, s = [s1 , s2 , . . . sN ]T is the vector of slow-
ness; L is the coefficients matrix, whose generic
element lij is the length of the ith ray, i = 1, . . . , M ,
in the jth cell, j = 1, . . . , N .
Thus, the tomographic solution consists in deter-
mining the vector s as:
To avoid instability in matrix inversion, the number
of cells must be smaller than the number of measured
travel times. If the inverse of L exists it can be directly
evaluated. However, the inverse of L generally doesnt
exist since L is not a square matrix, it is ill-conditioned,
and it has not full rank.
Thus, other methods have to be used to solve
the problem. Because of the nonlinear relationship
between the velocity and the travel time, it is almost
impossible to find the solution by a single step
algorithm using a linear approximation.
In this paper a new direct algorithm, based on
orthogonalization of hyperplanes and projections
(HOPs), is proposed in order to solve the algebraic
problem typical of the tomographic technique. Its
performance is then compared with the iterative algo-
rithms commonly used in this field of analysis using
the residual R:
260
and the Mean Squared Error (MSE):
where s is the obtained slowness distribution.
2 ITERATIVE ALGORITHMS
Compared to single step algorithms, iterative methods,
such as ART (Algebraic Reconstruction Technique)
and SIRT (Simultaneous Iteration Reconstruction
Technique) (Berriman 1991, Herman 1980, Ivansson
1986), are preferred to solve the tomographic problem.
Both methods need a starting value of velocity, and
then they iteratively modify this value by minimiz-
ing the difference between the measured travel times
and the travel times calculated in the previous iteration.
ART updates the solution by successively process-
ing each equation (each ray) in (1) separately. In
the N -dimensional space each equation represents a
hyperplane. When a unique solution exists, the inter-
section of all the hyperplanes is a single point. A
computational procedure to locate the solution con-
sists of starting with an initial solution, denoted by
(0) (0) (0)
s(0) = (s1 , s2 , . . . , sN ).
This initial solution is projected on the hyperplane
represented by the first equation in (1) giving s(1) .
s(1) is then projected on the hyperplane represented
by the second equation in (1) to yield s(2) and so on.
When s(i1) is projected on the hyperplane represented
by the ith equation to yield s(i) , the process can be
mathematically described by
where li is the ith raw of the matrix L. This procedure
is iterated until a stopping criterion is fulfilled.
The tomographic system is often overdetermined,
i.e., M > N , and measurement noise is present. In this
case a unique solution does not exist and the solution
found by ART depends on the starting point and oscil-
lates in the neighbourhood of the intersections of the
hyperplanes.
The SIRT algorithm uses the same equations as in
the ART algorithm; the difference is that SIRT mod-
ifies the slowness model taking into account at each
iteration the effect of all ray-paths crossing each cell.
The new value of each cell is the average value of all the
computed values for each hyperplane. Then, using the
SIRT algorithm, better solutions are usually obtained
at the expense of slower convergence.
2.1 HOPs
As outlined in (Kak 2001), the angles between hyper-
planes considerably affect the rate of convergence to
the solution. The proposed algorithm works similarly with and such that: v w:
to the previously described iterative methods, with the
difference that before to project the actual point on a
hyperplane, this is rotated in order to make it orthogo-
nal to all the hyperplanes on which the point has been
projected in the previous steps. When the orthogonal- Among the infinitive solutions of the previous
ization and projection procedure has been applied to equation, we assume:
all the hyperplanes, the algorithm terminates. In this
sense HOPs is a direct method.
In order to perform such orthogonalization, a con-
vex linear combination is calculated between the
hyperplane to rotate and each one previously rotated. 2.2 Comparisons with other iterative methods
The linear combination ensures that the set of solu-
The performance of the proposed method has been
tions of the system does not change, while making the
tested on the well-known Shepp-Logan head phantom
hyperplane orthogonal to the previous ones, allowing
benchmark (Shepp & Logan 1974).
one to project the actual point without moving it away
The Tomographic problem consists in obtaining the
from the hyperplanes rotated in the previous steps.
slowness of the 2500 pixels starting from the knowl-
Therefore, excepted for the preliminary rotation of the
edge of 2700 travel times. Figure 2.a shows the original
hyperplane before the projection, the formulation of
image. Subsequently a Gaussian noise is added to the
the algorithm does not differ from ART. Nevertheless,
original data in such a way to obtain firstly a signal
the preliminary orthogonalization has a strategic role,
to noise ratio SNR = 25 dB (Fig 3.a) and secondly a
because it ensures the convergence of the method in at
SNR = 10 dB (Fig. 4.a).
most N steps, where N is the dimension of the space
The images reconstructed for the three previous
where the hyperplanes are defined.
cases with HOPs (b), ART (c) and SIRT (d) algorithms
If the problem is ill posed, which is the rule when
are shown in Figures 24.
several measurements are performed and the noise
In Figures 56 the Residual and the MSE obtained
affects the measured values, one can choose between
using HOPs, ART and SIRT have been reported with
two alternatives to solve the equation systems (1):
respect to computation time. Using as stopping crite-
a) Applying the procedure to the equation system as rion the computation time needed to HOPs to consider
it is. all the hyperplanes, HOPs and ART outperform the
b) Multiplying the equation system for the transpose SIRT algorithm. Moreover, ART shows a residual,
of the coefficient matrix L. i.e. an error on the equations system, very small (see
Fig. 5) but it does not correspond to an equal accuracy
By following the strategy a) the procedure furnishes
of the solution (see Fig. 6). In fact, in the case of quite
a solution that depends on the starting point and the
parallel hyperplanes, it is possible that the actual point
minimum MSE is not guaranteed. The strategy b)
has a smaller error with respect to any of them, but it
transforms the original system in another one whose
is however far from the exact solution.
solutions guarantee the minimum MSE of the system
Furthermore, the successive projections allow to do
(1). In particular, if the matrix L is full rank and the
very short steps, so that a great number of iterations
system (1) has a number of equations greater than the
would be necessary to reach the exact solution. This
space dimension, the solution having the minimum
does not happen with the proposed algorithm, because
MSE is unique.
the hyperplanes are orthogonalized before projecting
In the problem at hand, a great number of acqui-
the point, thus obviating the problem of quite parallel
sitions are performed on the same couple Emitter-
hyperplanes. On the other hand, the proposed algo-
Receiver in order to mediate the contribution of the
rithm introduces at each step a round off error in each
noise. Therefore we have to deal with a number of
hyperplane, so that a special care has to be spent in
equations having the same coefficients and different
monitoring the error propagation during the search.
constant term. This is because the strategy b) has to be
This is the reason why the reconstruction of the image
considered quite compulsory.
in Figure 2.b still presents some errors, even if the
Formally, with respect to ART and SIRT methods,
quality of the image is better than that of the compared
only the orthogonalization has to be defined. Let us
methods.
consider two hyperplanes <w,c> and <v,d>, the for-
It is worth noting that in the beginning ART con-
mer being a hyperplane already rotated in a previous
verges faster than HOPs, which outperforms the for-
iteration and the latter one the hyperplane to rotate.
mer one after about 350 s. This can be explicated with
We are interested in rendering <v, d> orthogonal to
the fact that ART considers all the hyperplanes at
<w,c> without changing the solution of the prob-
each iteration while HOPs improves the solution by
lem. So we substitute <v, d> with the new hyperplane
considering only one hyperplane at each step.
<v , d > defined as follows:
In the case of the noisy images, the performance of
the methods has to be evaluated in terms of sensitivity
to the noise, because the exact solution is now different
from the benchmark in Figure 2.a.

261

Figure 2. Reconstruction of the original Shepp-Logan head
phantom.
Figure 3. Reconstruction of the noisy Shepp-Logan head
phantom (SNR = 25 dB).
From this point of view it can be seen that the pro-
posed algorithm undergoes a low influence by the
noise, when the SNR is high (Figs 3.a3.b), while
the performance of the three methods tends to be the
same when the SNR is lower (Figs 4.a4.b) and the
image corresponding to the exact solution is evidently
perturbed.
3 APPLICATIONS AND RESULTS
The experimental program has been performed on a
full scale concrete structure.
The wall is 90 cm wide, 62 cm high and 38 cm thick.
Using an empty box of polystyrene, a macro-cavity
sized 20 38 14 cm3 has been realized and assumed
as a known anomaly. The Tomographic Technique has
been applied to a horizontal plane section crossing the
wall in order to intercept the void. The investigated
262
Figure 4. Reconstruction of the noisy Shepp-Logan head
phantom (SNR = 10 dB).
Figure 5. The Residual Error of the equations as a function
of the CPU time.
Figure 6. The Mean Squared Error of the solution as a
function of the CPU time.
section sized 90 38 cm2 has been divided in 40 cells
9.5 cm 9 cm.
Emitters and receivers have been alternatively posi-
tioned along the two long side of the section, in the
centers of the cells. In each acquisition the emitter and
the receivers are positioned in opposite sides of the
wall (Fig. 7). Using this measurements configuration,
the section is crossed by 50 rays, whose relative travel
times have been measured. Thus, system (1) consists
of 50 equations and 40 unknowns.

Figure 7. Measurements schema of the section under test.
Figure 8. Map of the velocities in the tomographic section.
The map of velocities is represented by a 256 lev-
els gray scale diagram, where the highest level (white)
corresponds to the maximum velocity, and the low-
est level (black) corresponds to the minimum velocity.
The 10 4 cells are represented by using the Kriging
method (Watson 1992). In Figure 8 the result obtained
with the HOPs method is shown.
The computation time for this solution was 0.8 s and
the residual was R = 3.09 102 . The average slowness
of the ray-paths crossing each cell has been assumed
as starting point of the direct procedure and 40 steps
has been performed. As it can be noted, the map of
the velocities shows that the central cavity is clearly
detected.
4 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper a new iterative algorithm (HOPs) for the
tomography of buildings elements is presented.
The aim of the procedure is to detect defects inside
structures, by exploiting the dependence of the acous-
tic velocity on the average density of the material.
263
The HOPs algorithm has been used to solve the ill-
conditioned equations system and the results have been
compared with two iterative reconstruction methods.
The procedure has been finally tested on a real case,
and the suitability of the approach has been shown.
The obtained results show that the algorithm is able
to identify the presence of an anomaly in the concrete
wall under test.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work is supported by the operating program
of Regione Sardegna (European Social Fund 2007
2013), L.R.7/2007, Promotion of scientific research
and technological innovation in Sardinia.
REFERENCES
Berryman, J.G., 1991. Non linear inversion and tomography.
Lecture notes, Earth Resource Laboratory, MIT.
Cianfrone, F., 1993. Indagini microsismiche e ultrasoniche.
In: Atti del Seminario. Sperimentazione su strutture
Venezia 1213 Febbraio 1993.
Fib bulletin 17, 2002. Management, maintenance and
strengthening of concrete structures.
Hengyong, Y., Patrick La Riviere & Tang, J. X., 2006.
Development of Computed Tomography Algorithms.
International Journal of Biomedical Imaging. 13.
Herman, G.T., 1980. Image Reconstruction from Projec-
tion: the Fundamentals of Computerized Tomography.
Academic New York.
Ivansson, S., 1986. Seismic Borehole Tomography Theory
and Computational Methods. In: Proceedings of IEEE 74,
328338.
Kak, A.C. & Slaney, M., 2001. Principles of Computerized
Tomographic Imaging. IEEE Press.
Krautkramer, J. & Krautkramer, H., 1990. Ultrasonic testing
of materials. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Popovics, J. S., 2003. NDE techniques for concrete and
masonry structures. Progress in Structural Engineering
and Materials, 5 (2), pp. 4959.
Schuller, M., Berra, M.,Atkinson, R., Binda, L., 1997.Acous-
tic Tomography for Evaluation of Unreinforced Masonry.
Construction and Building Materials, 11 (3), pp. 199204.
Shepp, L. A. & Logan, B. F., 1974. Fourier Reconstruction of
a Head Section. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science,
21, no. 3, pp. 2143.
Watson D.F., 1992. Contouring: A Guide To The Analysis
And Display Of Spatial Data. Pergamon Press, New York,
USA.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

3D finite element analysis of seismic soil-micropile-structure interaction

A. Ghorbani & H. Hasanzadehshooiili

Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Guilan, Rasht, Guilan, Iran

E. Ghamari
Faculty of Engineering, Islamic Azad University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran

ABSTRACT: In this paper, considering the nonlinear behavior of the soil and using Mohr-Coulmb criterion
based on non-associated flow rule, the effect of micropile inclination and superstructure on the seismic per-
formance of micropiles have been studied. Using three dimensional finite element modeling, a 22 group of
micropiles have been modeled. To gain an accurate model, the interaction between the soil and micropiles, also,
superstructure has been considered. Wave transmission is considered using the Rayleigh damping. The valida-
tion of the model has been carried out using remodeling a single degree of freedom shaking table test done by
Mc Manus at the University of Canterbury. The seismic analysis is done using the records of Loma prieta
earthquake. Results of the distribution of internal forces along the micropile and lateral acceleration along
the superstructure indicate the significant effect of non-linear behavior of soil, inclination of micropiles and
superstructure on the seismic performance of micropiles.

Keywords: 3D finite element analysis, micropiles group, seismic performance, soil-micropile-structure

interaction.

1 INTRODUCTION commonly applied methods for considering the soils

Micropiles can be considered as piles with small diam-
eters. Piles with diameters less than 300 millimeters
are called micropiles (Baziar et al. 2009). In compar-
ison, there are lots of advantages for using micropiles
instead of piles (Shahrour et al. 2012).
The micropiles performance and behavior is influ-
enced by lots of parameters (Sadek & Shahrour 2006).
One of these affecting parameters is the behavior
of surrounding soils. Therefore, remarkable number
of researches has been conducted to gain the true
behavior of surrounding soils (Kaynia & Kausel 1982,
Gazetas 1984, Makris & Gazetas 1992, Wu & Finn
1997). In most of these researches, the analysis is done
in the frequency domain and behavior of the soil is
assumed to be elastic (Kaynia & Kausel 1982, Gazetas
1984, Makris & Gazetas 1992, Wu & Finn 1997). Stud-
ies on the recent devastating earthquakes (e.g., Kocaeli
1999, Loma prieta 1989, Kobe 1995), have shown that
assuming a non-linear behavior for surrounding soil
present better results in designing of micropile foun-
dations for seismic areas (Maheshwari & Watanabe
2005, Alsaleh & Shahrour 2009). In these researches,
three major approaches have been utilized to apply
the non-linear behavior of soil in their modeling.
Equivalent linearization technique, discrete system of
(mass, spring and dashpot) and finite element method
based on the non-associated Mohr-Coulomb plastic-
ity, Drucker-Prager plasticity, HISS, etc, were the
non-linear behavior.
In this paper, to truly consider the role of non-
linear behavior of surrounding soil, a comprehensive
3D finite element model based on non-associated
Mohr-Coulomb plasticity was considered.
Also, as mentioned, seismic performance of
micropile groups is affected by a variety of param-
eters like inclination of micropile groups, non-linear
behavior of soil and superstructure.
Thus, the need of an accurate model to study their
role is obvious. Thus, to truly investigate the role
of all the affecting parameters on seismic perfor-
mance of micropile groups, three dimensional finite
element modeling has been considered and based on
the validated soil-micropile-superstructure modeling,
parametric analysis has been done to cover the gap
between existent models and the reality.
2 MODELIG
2.1 Geometry of the model
In this study, a 3-D model for analysis of soil-
micropile-structure has been used. Due to the sym-
metry of the geometry, only half of this symmetrical
geometry was modeled to decrease the number of
degree-of-freedom (DOF) and thus to reduce the com-
putational time. Micropiles have been fully placed in a

265

Figure 1. 3D finite element meshes in analysis of
soil-micropile-structure system.
homogeneous soil with (2*2) arrangement. So, the dis-
tance between the end of soil mass and the micropile
tips are equal to the length of micropiles (Noorzad &
Saghaei 2008). Also, to reduce the effect of boundary
condition on the accuracy of the results, considering
the research conducted by Joo, the lateral boundaries
are located at a distance of 50 dmp (dmp is diameter of
micropiles) from the centre of micropiles (Joo 2004).
Also, the soil mass was built using solid element and
modeled with 8-node hexahedron (brick) elements.
Moreover, in the vicinity of micropiles, to better
model the micropiles behavior and increase the accu-
racy of the modeling, the elements sizes are smaller
than the other places. Figure 1 illustrates general 3-D
FE mesh of the constructed model.
According to the Equation 1, the natural fre-
quency of sandy soil has been assumed to be 0.46 Hz
(Bahmani, Alhosseini 2008).
where, fs , Vs and G present natural frequency of soil,
shear wave velocity and shear modulus of the soil,
respectively. Also, soil density is and the thickness
of soil layer is shown using Hs .
Furthermore, superstructure as a single-degree
of freedom system composed of concentrated mass
m = 40 ton, and a column with a height of H = 1 m,
has been modeled. Moreover, according to the empir-
ical relation presented in Equation 2, the fundamental
frequency of the superstructure is equal to 1.56 Hz.
where, the natural period of the building is T. Also,
H and f present building height based on a 10-story
typical one and the fundamental frequency of the
superstructure, respectively.
2.2 Behavior of soil-micropile-structure
Many constitutive models have been used to model
the behavior of the soil and rock, like linear-elastic,
266
non-linear-elastic and Elasto-plastic material mod-
els with or without hardening rules (Bentley &
El Naggar 2000, Maheshwari & Watanabe 2005,
Hasanzadehshooiili et al. 2012). In this study, to
study the role of nonlinearity in the soil behavior,
Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion with non-associated
flow rule has been used. Also, the behavior of
micropile and superstructure are assumed to be linear
and elastic.
2.3 Soil damping
To take the damping of the system into the consider-
ation, both material and geometry damping has to be
taken into account. Thus, the soil damping matrix can
be calculated using the Equation 3.
In Equation 3, the first term, Cr , represents geomet-
rical part of the soil damping. Also, the second matrix,
Cm , is related to the material damping.
To consider soil hysteretic behavior under cyclic
loading condition, Rayleigh damping is utilized as
a method to assume the material damping condi-
tions which is usually used in solving the problems
in the time domain. As it has been mentioned in the
Equation 4, the damping matrix, [C], is a linear com-
bination of diagonal mass matrix and stiffness matrix
(Chowdhury & Dasgupta 2003).
where, [M] is the diagonal mass matrix and [K] shows
the stiffness matrix. Also, and are the damping
constants, which are respectively proportional to the
mass and stiffness matrixes.
Thus, to gain the Rayleigh damping based on the
mass and stiffness matrixes, firstly, and must be
calculated.
As a matter of fact, the damping ratio, , is related
to the ith natural frequency of the soil using the
Equation 5.
Then, knowing the natural frequency of the soil, also,
solving a system of equations with two equations and
two unknowns, and can be obtained using the
Equation 6 and 7.
2.4 Interface of soil-micropile-structure
Modeling of interface of soil-micropile has a signif-
icant impact on behavior of soil-micropile-structure
interaction (Joo 2004). Interface of soil-micropile is
usually modeled in two forms: fully adhesive contact
or frictional contact, in which slip and displace-
ments are allowed between the soil and micropile.
In this research, due to the high adhesion property
of micropile with surrounding soil, also, to reduce
the computational time, the interface has been mod-
eled using fully adhesive contact type. Furthermore,
Micropiles are rigidly connected to a square cap (22),
which is free of contact with the soil.
3 MODEL VERIFICATION
To validate the accuracy of the finite element mod-
eling, a laboratory test was re-modeled. To do this,
a single degree of freedom shaking table test done
at the University of Canterbury was considered (Mc
Manus 2005). This shaking table test was done using a
group of inclined micropiles. Two 26 mm in diameter
micropiles were placed diagonally in a soil of indus-
trial silica sand with the grain size of 30/60 and with
relative density of 40 percent. And, their angle with
horizon was 60 .
Soil specifications are briefly presented in Table 1.
Modulus of elasticity has been obtained from the
Equation 8. And, the density of soil is achieved using
Equation 9.
where, qc is the cone tip resistance. Also, Gs , w and
e are special soil density, water density and the soil
porosity, respectively.
Regarding the soils natural frequency, the damping
ratio will be equal to 0.05. Also, relying on the fact
that = and = /, Rayleigh damping param- superstructure.
eters, and are equal to 0.22 and 0.011, respectively.
Also, it has been assumed that the stiffness and mass
matrixes are equal. The soil is placed in a laminar
box located on a single-degree freedom shaking table.
The tank has internal dimensions of 1.8 m in length,
0.8 m in width and 2.0 m in depth. The purpose of
using a laminar tank was to simulate free field shaking
response by allowing the soil to deform in simple shear
with minimal boundary effects from the tank. Also, the
seismic load was a 1 Hz sine wave with 26 cycles with
a maximum range of amplitude of 0.04 m.
The results of cyclic shear strain for both of numer-
ical model and shaking table test has been presented in
the Figure 2. The results indicate that the results gained
from finite element modeling are in a good confirma-
tive correlation with those obtained from shaking table
test.
267
Figure 2. Comparison of peak cyclic shear strain based on
the results gained from numerical modeling and shaking table
test (Mc Manus et al. 2005).
4 PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS
In this research, seismic response of micropiles group
has been studied. Micropile groups contain four cir-
cular section concrete piles (22) with s/dmp = 4 and
diameter of 0.25 m and are embedded in the soil layer.
Micropile length is Lmp = 10 m and the axial stiff-
ness is equal to EmpAmp = 1078 MN. Properties of
soil materials and concrete used in micropiles have
been presented in Table 2 and Table 3, respectively.
Thickness of the cap has been assumed to be 0.3 m.
Considering the natural frequency of the soil, damping
ratio is equal to = 10%.
Moreover, bottom of the developed model is sub-
jected to the acceleration component of Loma Prieta
earthquake (1989) with the peak acceleration of
0.247 g.
4.1 Effect of soil non-linearity on the seismic
performance of micropiles
Figure 3 and Figure 4 show the time history of lateral
acceleration in soil surface and superstructure for both
linear and nonlinear behavior of the soil for a maxi-
mum acceleration of 0.247 g. According to the Figure
3 and Figure 4, assuming a non-linear behavior for
the soil material results in a considerable decrease in
the amount of lateral acceleration for both of soil and
The main cause for this change in their behavior
can be found from this fact that in the modeling of soil
layer as a linear model, the effect of material damp-
ing has not been taken into account. But, by means
of modeling the soil layer as a non-linear material
model, the role of material damping and reduction in
the amount of shear wave velocity due to the soil soft-
ening will be considered. Also, Figure 5 indicates the
curve of bending moment along the micropile for both
linear and nonlinear behavior of soil. In both cases, the
maximum bending moment is occurred at the head of
micropiles. As can be seen, the bending moment along
the micropile length in the case that the soil behavior
is non-linear is smaller than that for the linear behav-
ior of the soil. The maximum reduction in the bending
moment is 14 percent and is observed at the top of the
micropile.
Table 1. Soil properties (Mc Manus et al. 2005).

Density of solid Minimum voids Maximum voids Steady state Cone

particles 10% finer 60% finer ratio ratio friction angle resistance

D10 D60 s qc
s ( mt 3 ) emin emax
(mm) (mm) (degree) (Mpa)
2.65 0.3 0.45 0.53 0.83 33 11.4

Table 2. Soil Properties.

Modulus of Lateral earth pressure Internal

elasticity Poissons ratio Damping factor coefficient at rest cohesion friction angle Dilation angle

Es (Mpa) s s K0 C(Kpa) s (degree) s (degree)

6 0.45 10% 0.46 0 33 3

Table 3. Soil Properties.

Mass density Axial stiffness Poisons ratio Diameter Length

p ( mkg3 ) Ep Ap (MN ) p dp (m) lp (m)

2400 1078 0.3 0.25 10

Figure 3. Lateral acceleration at the soil surface for both

cases of linear and nonlinear soil behavior.
Figure 5. Effect of material non-linearity of soil on the
bending moment.

Figure 4. Lateral acceleration at the superstructure for both

cases of linear and nonlinear soil behavior.

4.2 Effect of micropile inclination on the seismic

performance of micropiles
Figure 6 shows the curve of bending moment obtained
from finite element analysis of micropiles group with
inclinations of 0 , 15 and 20 . As can be seen,
with increase in the inclination of micropiles, bending
moment at the head of micropiles reduces consider-
ably. This difference is significant and is continued
Figure 6. Bending moment of inclined micropiles group
( = 0,15,20 degree)
for top 1/4 length of micropiles. Then, the bending
moment reduces and there will not be a considerable
difference between their behaviors. This reduction in
inclination of 20 degrees is 60% and is observed at

268
the conjunction of the micropile and the cap. This
behavior is due to the increase in the lateral stiff-
ness of the inclined micropiles group in comparison to
the vertical ones. Increase in the flexural stiffness of
micropiles causes reduction in the lateral acceleration
of the superstructure and thus reduce in transmis-
sion of the inertia force to the micropiles. This is a
good reason for using inclined micropiles in seismic
areas.
5 CONCLUSION
Three dimensional elasto-plastic finite element analy-
ses were carried out to model seismic performance of
soil-micropile-structure. The accuracy of the modeling
was verified using a single degree of freedom shaking
table test conducted by Mc Manus et al. at the Uni-
versity of Canterbury. Good correlation between the
results of finite element modeling and shaking table
tests proved the accuracy of built models. Then, para-
metric analysis was done. In this analysis, effects of
non-linear behavior of soil, micropiles inclination and
superstructure on the seismic response of micropiles
have been investigated. The results for different cases
were presented and compared.
Inclination of micropiles causes a significant reduc-
tion in bending moment and shear force along the
micropile length.
At low and medium frequencies, considering the
soil non-linearity plays an important role in the
seismic response of micropiles and neglecting its
effect (modeling the soil as a linear material) may be
conducive to the considerable computational errors.
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Micropile design and construction guidelines implemen-
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behavior of micropiles with considering the angle of incli-
nation micropiles, in proc. of 4th National Congress of
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Wireless sensor placement based on SHM requirements and

net energy consumption

R.N. Soman, T. Onoufriou, R.A. Votsis, C.Z. Chrysostomou & M.A. Kyriakides
Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus

B. Han
Aalborg University & Athens Institute of Technology, Athens, Greece

ABSTRACT: Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) techniques have undergone a paradigm shift due to new
emerging technologies and developments in the field of remote communications. The use of Wireless Sensor
Networks (WSN) has been on an increase in the last decade due to its low cost deployment, ease of maintenance
and increased efficiency. However, the battery life of the sensors of such networks is limited and hence puts
severe restrictions on the use of this technology. Thus there is a need to enhance the life time of the network
through optimizing the energy usage of sensors. This can be achieved through the use of energy harvesting using
ambient vibrations. However, if the sensor placement is carried out for achieving network longevity alone, it
might lead to loss of vital information, thus making the sensor placement useless from the SHM perspective.
This paper focuses on optimizing the location of the sensors to cater to the specific requirements of structural
engineering while adhering to the energy limitations imposed due to the use of WSN. In this paper an Optimal
Sensor Placement problem taking into consideration the application demands and the net energy usage of the
sensor is formulated and solved making use of Genetic Algorithm for a near optimal solution.

Keywords: Structural Health Monitoring, Wireless Sensor Networks, optimizing, energy

1 INTRODUCTION and flexibility (Yun et al., 2010). However, the WSN

The increased demands of load carrying and the age-
ing of the structure have put a high demand on the
tools for performance monitoring of the structure in the
last two decades. Thus, Structural Health Monitoring
(SHM) has become a necessity than a luxury. In fact,
the bridge owners demand that, the bids for design and
construction of new infrastructure to include a design
of a SHM system to be deployed right in construc-
tion phase. SHM systems can trigger alarms of any
deterioration early enough so as to schedule main-
tenance in advance thus offering an opportunity to
reduce the cost of maintenance, and prevent severe
structural deterioration.
The traditional SHM system makes use of sensors,
data loggers, computers and large lengths of wires,
which are expensive and offset the savings in the main-
tenance cost. Over the years, it has become apparent
that the large lengths of the wires also lead to other
problems like increased time for deployment, inflex-
ibility of the system and susceptibility to damage
(Lynch et al., 2002). As a result, the use of wireless
sensor networks (WSN) is becoming more popular.
WSNs allow similar level of performance as the wired
system at a lower cost and also offer greater robustness
have limited battery life, and hence a low network life-
time which is orders of magnitudes less than the design
life of the structure.
Energy harvesting is an upcoming area to counter
this disparity in the lifetimes. Energy Harvesting can
be done through the use of solar, wind, or vibration of
the structure itself.The energy potential of solar energy
and wind energy are quite high and it has been shown
feasible by some experiments (Elvin et al., 2006).
However, the solar energy and wind energy restrict
the location of the sensors as they need to be in the
open and cannot be embedded in the structure, which at
times is a functional requirement of the sensors. Hence,
use of vibration energy for harvesting is being inves-
tigated. The problem with vibration energy is that the
energy potential is quite low and at times the energy is
not sufficient for the independent use. So, an external
battery source in addition to the harvester is required.
Although harvesting of vibration energy is not a per-
manent solution due to its low energy density, it might
be able to increase the network lifetime significantly.
In addition, by managing the energy consumption of
the sensor nodes through optimal sensor placement,
the network longevity can be further improved (Soman
et al., 2012).

271
 This research work investigates the problem of opti-
mal sensor placement considering the information
content, the energy consumption of sensor nodes and
the energy harvesting potential using PZT harvesters
making use of cantilever type harvester. The paper not
only tries to highlight the savings and the improve-
ment in performance that can be achieved through a
multi-objective optimization. Genetic Algorithm (GA)
is employed to optimize the sensor locations for higher
network lifetime and information quality for the sen-
sor placement problem on a medium-span bridge.
For the case study, it is assumed that accelerometers
are deployed to measure the response of the system
allowing us to extract the mode shapes and the nat-
ural frequencies of vibration. The accelerometers are
incorporated on an Imote2 (Crossbow, 2007) sensor
platform which is popularly used for SHM applica-
tions in bridges and is equipped with state-of-the-art
hardware for wireless communication.
2 RELEVENT WORK
2.1 Structural health monitoring
The optimal sensor placement problem has been tack-
led by researchers in various fields. Over the years
many researchers have employed diverse optimizing
principles (Heo et al., 1997, Fedorov et al., 1994). The
selection of the principle depends on the application at
hand, for modal identification the Effective Indepen-
dence Method (EFI) (Kammer, 1991) has been widely
accepted.
Once the optimizing principle is chosen there are
variety of optimizing methodologies which can be
used, like the Genetic Algorithm (GA), (Worden et al.,
2001, Papadimitriou, 2004, Haupt et al, 2004), Sim-
ulated Annealing (Worden et al., 2001), the L-search
Algorithm (Li et al., 2010). The selection of the tool
is highly objective to the application and the sample
space. Each of the methods has its own set of advan-
tages and shortcomings which should be carefully
considered before employing a specific tool.
2.2 Wireless sensor networks
WSNs have found wide scale application in many
areas. Each of these areas poses a different set of chal-
lenges to this technology and a lot of work has been
application-specific in this regard. A summary of the
various optimization principles in the field of WSN is
given by Younis et al., 2008.
The field of Energy Harvesting has been identified
as a possible solution to the problem of limited net-
work lifetime of WSNs. Much work has been done in
this field, using solar energy (Jang et al., 2010), wind
energy and vibration energy (Ali et al., 2011) to show
the feasibility of the principle. There are advantages
and disadvantages associated with each type of energy.
For instance, solar energy and wind energy have a high
energy density and can be used for energy intensive
applications but the required equipment needs more
272
Figure 1. Longitudinal View of Bridge (All dimensions
in m).
space. Also, there are cases (e.g. corrosion sensors)
where sensors may have to be embedded in con-
crete making the solar energy harvesters not feasible.
The vibration energy harvesters are useful in such
circumstances even though they have lower energy
potential. As the vibration harvesters are more univer-
sal in nature, the effect of vibration energy harvesting
on the OSP is investigated in this work.
3 FRAMEWORK OF METHODOLOGY
3.1 Outline
In the current work, a methodology is proposed for
OSP with respect to SHM requirements and Energy
constraints in WSN. The method allows a better net-
work lifetime through the use of Energy Harvesting.
The method also demonstrates the level of influence
of incorporating the energy harvesting potential of a
sensor location in the optimization principle, and how
the system performance is improved.
The proposed methodology optimizes the location
of the sensors based on the information quality indi-
cated by the determinant of the FIM and the least
energy usage, taking into consideration the energy har-
vesting potential of each point. The optimization is
carried out through the use of GA.
3.2 Bridge structure
To validate the methodology a numerical model of
a long span segmental box-girder bridge (Figure 2)
was used for extracting the mode shapes. (Grand-Mere
Bridge, Quebec, Canada).
The aforementioned bridge is a single-cell box-
girder type bridge with three continuous spans of 40 m,
181 m and 40 m, with a wedge shaped cantilever of
12 m at either end. The 40-m spans on either side have
a linearly changing cross section (Figure 3). For the
central span the depth varies parabolically. The wedge
shaped cantilevers are of solid cross section increasing
to a depth of 8.53 m at the external piers. The compres-
sive strength of concrete in mid-span is assumed to be
38 MPa, while compressive strength of the concrete at
the end-spans is assumed to be 34 MPa. The bridge has
hinged support at the ends and is simply supported at
the internal piers and external piers (Massicotte et al.,
1994).
3.3 Structural health monitoring
As discussed in Section 2, there are many princi-
ples on which the OSP can be based upon. The most

Figure 2. (a) Cross section of bridge at internal piers
(b) Cross section of bridge at mid span.
popular method for OSP with respect to SHM require-
ments is the Effective Independence Method (EFI)
which is based on the Fisher Information Matrix (FIM)
determinant (Kammer 1991) The FIM is given by
where A0 = Fisher Information Matrix and is = ith
row of the modal partition s corresponding to the
ith degree of freedom
The FIM is essentially the inverse of the covariance
matrix, as the covariance matrix is the entropy of the
information content of the system, the norm chosen
(determinant) needs to be minimized and hence the
FIM determinant needs to be maximized.
3.4 Energy
As stated in Section 2, energy is one of the parameters
which has restricted the extensive use of WSN in SHM.
Thus, increasing network lifetime through minimum
usage of energy is one of the optimizing principles.
3.4.1 Energy model
There are many energy models for estimating the
energy usage of the wireless sensors during opera-
tion; the simplest model is the exponential model. The
relation for the energy transmission is given by Olariu
et al. (2006).
where, Ed = Energy spent for transmission, d is the
distance between communicating nodes, is the path
273
loss exponent 3.51 for open spaces with no multipath
communication possible, (Tanghe et al. 2008) and is
dependent on the environment in which the sensors
are placed and c is the technology based path loss
coefficient (Heinzelman et al. 2000).
The locations of the sensors are taken to be linear
and the routing is assumed to be such that each node
is in communication with 2 nodes exactly, one from
which it receives the signals of all preceding nodes
and one to which it transmits the data. This routing
algorithm was chosen for its simplicity.
Two sink nodes at the internal piers at either ends
of the bridge are assumed, and both the sink nodes are
wired. The measurement of the vibrations is assumed
to be carried out every hour for a period 15 sec at
a sampling frequency of 200 Hz. The values are in
accordance with the values used in actual monitor-
ing applications (Kim et al., 2006). Furthermore, each
sample of data consists of 6 bits of information includ-
ing the sensor identity as given by the IEEE standards
802.15.4. The algorithm identifies the node with the
maximum difference in the energy requirement and
the harvested energy and marks it as the weakest link.
Due to the simple routing adopted, no redundancy is
observed and failure of any node will lead to the failure
of the system.
3.4.2 Energy harvester
The two primary vibration-based energy harvesting
devices are electro-magnetic or piezoelectric. Both
methods of harvesting have their merits, but the piezo-
electric harvesters are considered to be more robust
and therefore are considered in the simulations.
The piezoelectric harvesters use the strain induced
due to the external loading for the generating elec-
tricity. The mathematical formulation of the energy
potential is given by Ali et al. (2011). The potential
depends, on the bridge structure, the location along
its length and the physical properties of the harvester
itself. The harvested energy is given by
where,
Eh is the harvested energy
V (t) is the voltage across the resistor in the time
domain
R1 is the load resistance
The mathematical formulation of V(t) is given by
Ali et al. (2011)
The harvester parameters can be found in Elvin et al.
(2006) but the length and the stiffness values were
modified to match the natural resonant frequency of
the bridge. The values used for simulation of loads and
the harvester are given in Table 1. The loading param-
eters for simulation were taken from the AASHTO
codes (AASHTO, 1989) and the Weigh in Motion
(WIM) data The simulations for the harvesting were
Table 1. Parameter values for harvester.

Parameter Value Unit

Harvester1
Mass 0.1 kg
Damping Ratio 0.038
Stiffness 5 N/m
Frequency 1.0523 Hz
Electromechanical Coupling 3.69e5 C/m
Capacitance 2.866 nF
Coupling Coefficient 0.2140
Time Constant of Harvester 0.9
Loading parameter
Load on Bridge2 600 kN Figure 3. Bar chart showing improvement in network
Type of Truck3 HS20 lifetime.
Number of Axles3 3
Speed of Truck 27 m/s
Traffic Density per day4 8183 trucks Table 2. Performance evaluation with energy harvesting.

1
(Elvin et al, 2006). 2 (Cantero et al, 2009). 3 (Nowak, 1993). Number of
4 sensors Q Ehar Enor Q/Ehar Q/Enor
(Jacob et al, 2002).

27 1.02 0.64 0.72 1.58 1.40

32 1.43 1.19 1.25 1.24 1.14
carried out in ABAQUS 6.8-2 on numerical model 45 2.23 2.19 1.99 1.22 1.12
shown in section 3.2. 60 1.1 0.93 1 1.18 1.10
The net Energy for optimization is the difference 100 1.03 0.90 0.96 1.14 1.07
between the Energy required for transmission and 125 1.01 0.91 0.99 1.1 1.02
Energy Harvested by the harvester. 143 1.03 0.97 1.01 1.06 1.02

4 RESULTS AND OBSERVATIONS

gives the values for the simulations with and with-
The effect of a moving load on a bridge was modeled
out the harvesting placement normalized with the
in ABAQUS. Analyses were performed to compute the
placement without energy harvesting. As shown, there
energy potential at the nodes of the FE model, using
is improvement in the Q/Ehar ratio for each num-
the present day hardware for piezoelectric energy har-
ber of sensors, thus showing that there is consider-
vesting. Once the energy potential was computed, the
able improvement in the performance on the sensor
GA (Haupt et al., 2004) was used as the optimizing
placement when the harvesting is considered during
tool. In order to make the system efficient, extensive
optimization. As can be seen from column Q, by incor-
sensitivity analysis was carried and the parameters for
porating harvesting, there is greater freedom in the
the GA were selected. The cost function was defined as
placement of sensor and hence we get a better Q value.
the ratio of Q and E where Q is the determinant value
Also, the Column Q/Enor shows that without consider-
of FIM and E is the maximum difference between the
ing the harvesting in the optimization problem there is
energy consumption and the energy harvesting of a
an improvement in the overall fitness and hence indi-
particular node for the given sensor placement. The
cates the need to include the harvesting parameter for
goal was to maximize the cost, while keeping the val-
better results.
ues of Q and E both within limits. Population size was
taken as 512. A higher number increases the computa-
tional load without improving the solution by a great
margin. The mutation rate of 0.15 gives the best solu- 5 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK
tion for the chosen parameters, and hence has been
chosen. The number of generations was selected to be The proposed methodology aims at addressing the lack
5000 generations which gives a near optimal solution. of work in the overlapping area of WSN and SHM of
Figure 3 shows the effect of energy harvesting on structures and proposes a method to optimize the sen-
the network lifetime. It can be clearly seen that the net- sors location, for maximum information quality and
work lifetime is improved by over 30% for less number minimum net energy usage.
of sensors. In addition, while the number of sensors The methodology formulates a minimization prob-
increases, the rate of increase in network lifetime is lem, and employs the GA for reaching a near optimum
reduced. solution. The GA was chosen due to the simplicity and
Simulations were run with and without taking har- also it is ideally suited for Multi-Objective Optimiza-
vesting into consideration in the optimization. Table 2 tion. The fitness function is defined as the ratio of

274
the information quality and the net energy consump-
tion of the sensor node. The net energy consumption
is given by the difference in the energy requirement
and the energy harvesting potential of that node under
ambient vibrations.
The comparison of the performances of the wire-
less network with and without energy harvesting shows
that there is considerable improvement in the network
lifetime. This improvement is seen even when the har-
vesting is not considered as an optimization principle
and hence harvesting may be used even for existing
deployed sensor network for higher network lifetime.
In addition, by incorporating the harvesting potential
of the nodes, one can improve the network lifetime
by 70% which shows the suitability of the methodol-
ogy proposed to new deployment projects. Also the
improvement in the information quality is a positive
of this method and hence will be gladly accepted by
the structural engineers.
Looking at the promising results obtained from the
simulations, experimental validation of the methodol-
ogy is recommended. Also, the significant improve-
ment in network lifetime along with the developments
in the sensor technology, advances in communication
technology and hardware there is a possibility that the
network lifetime and the structure life time may get
comparable in the future.
Thus in nutshell, this paper presents very promis-
ing methodology using GA for multi disciplinary
problem of sensor placement optimization for SHM
using WSN and points at a wide area of research.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge the
European Commission for funding SmartEN (Grant
No. 238726) under the Marie Curie ITN FP7 program,
as the research work presented here is supported by this
program. The opinions expressed in this paper do not
necessarily reflect those of the sponsors.
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Construction technology
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Use of polythene sheet formwork in place of conventional formwork

(plywood/steel)

H.V. Pathak, L. Pasha & M. Kashyap

Department of QMD, CS, Tata Projects Ltd, Hyderabad, India

ABSTRACT: Formwork forms the base of any civil engineering construction. The use of conventional form-
work like plywood and steel has been in practice since years with successful results. However these conventional
methods have their own standard fixing procedures, which consume a minimum stipulated time under any cir-
cumstance. To cope up with todays fast paced civil engineering projects, where time plays a crucial role, an
attempt has been made to experiment with polythene sheet formwork in place of the conventional formwork
such as plywood or steel. Observations made from the study have indicated positive results such as low cost,
simplification of the process, substantial saving in time, minimizing safety hazards and reduction in carbon
footprints.

1 INTRODUCTION
In heavy construction projects such as steel plants,
power plants etc, massive concreting work at greater
depths are inevitable due to poor strength of under-
neath soil. Due to the greater depths of foundations,
water logging is inevitable. The conventional method
of formwork with plywood shuttering or steel plate
shuttering needs dewatering prior to the commence-
ment of the formwork which takes more time and also
invites safety hazards as mentioned below.
Firstly, extensive use of dewatering pumps with
increased risk of electrocution if electric pumps are
used.
Secondly, increased risk of soil collapse, resulting
in extra efforts for protective systems such as shoring
and sheeting causes delay in work and subsequently
adding extra cost to the project with increased risk of
accident also.
Thirdly, in case of conventional formwork, the stan-
dard stripping time not only delays the work but also
compels one to take risk of removing the same in
dangerous situations.
As such, the need arises for identifying a new mate-
rial which can help in eradicating the above mentioned
constraints encountered in the conventional methods
of shuttering. In this case study, the use of polythene
sheet as a shuttering material has been experimented
with and the results of the same have been investigated
comprehensively.
selected for conducting the trial casting the RCC raft
by using the polythene sheet of 700 micron thickness,
wooden runners (100 mm 50mm), (3 or 4) nails,
M.S. plate (less than 1 mm) strips to use as washers
and hammers.
2.2 Laying of polythene sheet over the leveling
course
The polythene sheet is laid over the leveling course
to avoid ingress of underneath mud and slush. Then
with the help of wooden runners, nails, hex saw blade
and hammer the polythene sheet is being fixed to work
as shuttering plate all around the reinforcement cage.
Then the concrete has been poured and compacted as
per the standard concreting practice.
2.3 28 days cube compressive test results
The grade of concrete (M25) to be poured for this work
has been kept same as in case of the conventional shut-
tering material. Needle Vibrator of 60 mm diameter
is used for compaction. More than 03 samples were
made for assessing the cube compressive strength of
concrete for 7 and 28 days.
The observations for results obtained for 28 days
compressive strength are given in Table 1.
2.4 Other observations
The trial raft casted showed slight bulging at the base
due to the flexibility of the shuttering material as
shown in the figure below.

2 EXPERIMENTAL 3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

2.1 Sample preparation 3.1 Reduction in material cost

A lighting mast location in stock house area having Use of polythene sheet has reduced expenditure by
depth of 5.5m from original ground level has been more than 50% against material cost. Consider the

279
Table 1. Mix proportions and major parameters of concrete observed by using polythene sheet as shuttering material compared
with the conventional method of shuttering.

Compressive strength Compressive strength

Coarse (Using Polythene) (Using Normal shuttering)
Cement Water w/c Sand aggregate at 28 days at 28 days
Series kg/m3 kg/m3 ratio kg/m3 kg/m3 MPa MPa

SAP-1 380 171 0.45 666 1228 35.6 36.55

SAP-2 380 171 0.45 666 1228 37.5 38.02
SAP-3 380 171 0.45 666 1228 38.1 37.15
SAP-4 380 171 0.45 666 1228 37.9 36.44

Figure 2. Material cost comparison (in INR) of plywood

Figure 1. Slight bulging due to use of flexible material. and polythene sheet required for making a formwork for a
footing of 2.5 m 2.5 m 0.4 m size.

following example (cost mentioned in INR i.e. Indian

National Rupee):
1. Size of footing = 2.5 m 2.5 m 0.4 m
2. Standard size of a plywood board = 2.44 m 1.4 m
3. No. of plywood boards required = 2
4. Market price of 1 plywood board = INR 2000
5. So price of 2 plywood boards = INR 4000
Whereas the cost of polythene sheet required for the
above quantity of shuttering quantity is as under:
1. Size of footing = 2.5 m 2.5 m 0.4 m
2. Surface area of polythene sheet laid over
PCC = 2.5 2.5 = 6.25 m2
3. Length of sheet along footing height (including
wrapping length of 0.2 m = 0.4 + 0.2 = 0.6 m
4. Length of polythene required to cover the 4 sides
each 2.5 m = 2.5 4 = 10 m
5. Area = 0.6 10 = 6 m2
6. Total area = 6.25 + 6 = 12.25 m2
7. Cost of polythene sheet per m2 = INR 160
8. Cost of 12.25 m2 = 160 12.25 = INR 1960
Therefore saving in cost = 4000 1960 = INR
2040 Percentage cost savings = (2040/4000) 100 =
51%.
3.2 Reduction in time
Thirdly the saving in time is around 70% due to the sim-
plification of the process .To elaborate this statement,
consider the following example.
Considering a footing of size 2.5 m 2.5 m 0.4 m
made by plywood shuttering, the following steps are
to be followed:
1) Cutting the board (2.44 m 1.4 m standard size)
into 0.6 m 1.2 m size panels = 20 min 4
nos. = 80 minutes
2) Fixing the same panels on the wooden runners =
40 minute 4 = 160 minutes say 2 hours
3) Shifting from assembly point to site = 5 minutes
4 nos. = 20 minutes
4) Alignment of these boards for plumb & verticality =
45 minutes
5) Fixing the side supports = 35 minutes
Therefore total time taken = 340 minutes
Whereas, in case of polythene shuttering, the fol-
lowing sequence is followed:
1) Erecting a rectangular box made up of horizon-
tal battens only (of desired size of footing) at
ground = 25 minutes
2) Fixing the rectangular box on vertical battens =
45 minutes
3) Nailing the polythene sheets to the top of the
horizontal battens = 45 minutes
Therefore total time taken = 115 minutes
Hence saving in time = 340 115 = 225 minutes
Percentage time savings = (225/340) 100 = 66%
With the improvement in skill set of the workers,
this savings in time can be further increased to 70%.

280
Figure 3. Comparison of time required (in minutes)
required for making a formwork for a footing of
2.5 m 2.5 m 0.4 m size by using plywood and polythene
sheet.
3.3 Reduction in labor cost
The process contributes to substantial reduction in
labor cost. Consider the following example.
For a 2.5 m 2.5 m 0.4 m footing size, the cost
of labor component required (for plywood shuttering)
in Indian National Rupee (INR) is as follows:
1) 1 days work = 8 hours = 480 minutes
2) Carpenters 02 nos. @ INR 250/day worked for 340
minutes, therefore (250/480) 340 = 177.08
For 02 nos. = 177.08 2 = INR 354.17
3) Helpers 04 nos. @ INR 180/day worked for 340
minutes, therefore (180/480) X 340 = 127.5
For 04 nos. = 127.5 4 = INR 510
4) Female Helpers 04 nos, @ INR 100/day for 340
minutes, therefore (100/480) X 340 = 70.83
For 04 nos. = 70.83 4 = INR 283.33
5) Labors for bitumen painting = skilled 01 no. @
250/day for 2 hours = (250/480) 120 = INR
62.49 and unskilled 01 No. @ 180/day for 04
hours = (180/480) 240 = INR 90Total = 62.49 +
90 = 152.49 say INR 153
Total = 1) + 2) + 3) + 4) = INR 1301
Whereas, for polythene sheet shuttering, for the
same work, cost of labor component is as under:
1) Carpenters 01 Nos. @ INR 250/day worked for 115
minutes, therefore 250/480X115=59.89
For 01 no. = 59.89 01 = INR 59.89
2) Helpers 03 nos. @ INR 180/day worked for 115
minutes, therefore (180/480) X 115 = 43.13
For 03 nos. = 43.13 3 = INR 129.38
Total = 1) + 2) = INR 190
Therefore decrease in labor cost = 1301 190 =
INR 1111.
The labor cost will further decrease once the work-
ers become conversant with this new system.
3.4 Acts as waterproofing membrane
The process eliminates the use of bitumen painting
in foundations buried under soil (for increasing dura-
bility of concrete) because the polythene membrane
281
Figure 4. Labor cost comparison (in INR) of plywood and
polythene sheet required for making a formwork for a footing
of 2.5 m 2.5 m 0.4 m size.
itself can also act as a waterproofing interface between
the soil and RCC and need not be removed after the
concreting is over.
3.5 Reduction in green house emission
The process also contributes to the reduction in green
house emission as the material is recyclable and pre-
vents the need of cutting trees (as in case of plywood).
In addition to this, elimination of shuttering material
deterioration due to rains and weather can be achieved.
3.6 Useful in marshy and difficult to access terrains
The process becomes very useful in marshy and dif-
ficult to access areas such as foundations beneath
previously casted slabs and waterlogged areas having
high water table.
3.7 Reduction in transportation cost
Reduction in site transportation cost due to lighter
weight is also a significant factor in adoption of this
process.
3.8 Very effective for circular columns
The observation of bulging tendency of the material
triggered the thought of making use of the same for
columns of circular shape. The flexibility of the poly-
thene sheet and with slight improvement in its fixing
technique, the cylindrical shape of a circular column
can be easily achieved at a much lesser time, effort
and cost in comparison to conventional shuttering.
The figures 5 & 6 shown below indicate the casting
of circular columns by using the same material.
3.9 Simplification of the process of formwork
as a whole
The process has made the entire shuttering mechanism
simple and straight forward. No extra technology or
effort is required in this system. The figure below illus-
trates the use of polythene sheet for raft concreting by
using pin vibrator.
 4 CONCLUSIONS

In this paper, an effort has been made for developing

the concept of implementing new material for shut-
tering, which shall suit with the pace and requirement
of time bound projects without compromising on the
quality and safety standards of the finished product.
With a little practice in developing the skill and work-
manship, the method of polythene sheet formwork can
be used in various areas of civil construction with
assured success. Further research and development
in this regard can change the trend of construction
practices prevalent in the industry at present.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Figure 5. Circular Column casted by use of polythene sheet The authors would like to thank the following officials
formwork.
of M/s Tata Projects Ltd, Hyderabad, India for their
continuous encouragement and support in developing
this new concept and implementation of the same at
project sites of the company.
Mr. V. N. Giridhar
Mr. G.V.R.R.N. Acharyulu
Mr. B. Sudhakar
Mr. R.R. Ravi Shankar
Mr. Senthil Kumar

REFERENCES
Aci374r-94. Guide to formwork for concrete.
Stubbs, Robert M., 2003, Stubbs Engineering Ltd.

Figure 6. Circular Column after removal of polythene.

Figure 7. Use of polythene sheet for raft concreting using

pin vibrator.

282
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Research on the mechanic analysis method of prestress construction process

of large-span suspendome

Yongquan Wang
College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower, Hohai University, Nanjing, P.R. China

Zhengxing Guo & Bin Luo

College of Civil Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, P.R. China

ABSTRACT: To ensure the effective establishment of prestress for large-span suspendome structure, the com-
plexity and intention of mechanic analysis of prestress construction process of large-span suspendome structure
are researched. Based on the principle of construction mechanics, the state variable superposition method, inverse
analysis method and positive analysis method of prestress construction process are compared, the result is that
the non-conservative of prestress construction process, structure configuration difference of zero state and initial
state, nonlinear contact of support and rigid frame, correlating effect of cable forces, conversion of construc-
tion temporary structure system, and geometric nonlinearity of structure can be comprehensively considered
by the positive analysis method, then the positive analysis method based on equivalent pretension is proposed,
and also the specific steps of construction process analysis of large-span suspendome are given. According to
the practical engineering example, the applicability of positive analysis method is verified. The conclusion is
that the positive analysis method is in accordance with construction process, and can accurately simulate the
whole prestress construction process and track structure state of every construction process, and also can provide
technical support for structure design and construction.

Keywords: Suspendome, Construction mechanics, Equivalent pretension, positive analysis method, Construc-
tion analysis

1 INTRODUCTION
The construction process of large-span steel struc-
ture (including large-span spatial structure, prestressed
steel structure and so on) is very complex, considering
dynamic changes of structure from basic members to
partial structure or from partial structure to the whole
structure. During the whole construction period, the
structure shape, topology, stiffness, boundary condi-
tion, and load conditions are changing with time. For
the structure constantly converted, the final structure
shape and state may be different, which are caused by
different construction sequence or installation method.
Therefore, not only the final design state but also the
construction process of such large-span steel structure
should be concerned. In order to ensure the safety of
structure in the whole construction process and reli-
ability of the integral structure after construction, the
full range mechanic analysis of construction process
of those complex structures should be carried out.
2 MECHANIC AANALYSIS INTENTION OF
PRESTRESS CONSTRUCTION PROCES
In recent years, the application of large-span sus-
pendome in public building becomes more and more
popular, and not only the span of structure is larger and
larger, but also the geometric shape of structure is more
and more various. Change of such features presents
higher requirement for prestress construction technol-
ogy. Due to the increase of structure span, complex
component of structure, and complex and correlating
factors that influence shaping and load state in pre-
stress construction process, the mechanic analysis of
prestress construction full-range process and construc-
tion influencing factors are become more and more
important.
During the prestress construction period, consid-
ering the limit of stretching equipment and staff, the
prestress construction unit cannot tension all the ten-
sile cable to the design cable force synchronously
for large-span suspendome, so such construction unit
always takes the measure to tension the cable in
lots for prestress construction. According to practi-
cal engineering construction, the general construction
procedure of suspendome can be summarized as fol-
lows: I. installation of rigid frame and cable-strut
system on support scaffoldings, II. tension the tensile
cable in lots. III. active or passive remove from support
scaffoldings. IV. the structure is shaped to the design
initial state.

283
 According to the above construction procedure, dur-
ing the prestress construction period, the temporary
construction structure is constituted by members of
the design structure and support scaffoldings. The
temporary construction structure undergoes nonlin-
ear change with construction process, featuring con-
version of structure system, nonlinear contact, and
geometric nonlinearity and correlating influence of
cable force and so on. In short, due to the reason
such as conversion of structure system, nonlinear
contact, geometric nonlinearity and correlating influ-
ence of cable force, the prestress construction process
of suspendome becomes very complex. Therefore,
before tensioning of tensile cable, its necessary to
carry on the full-range analysis of prestress con-
struction, and the specific intention is summarized as
follows: Evaluation of reasonableness and practica-
bility of planed construction scheme, and comparison
and optimization of construction scheme, Grasp of
structure state and characteristic at key construction
stage, Check the safety of temporary construction
structure(including support system) in main stages to
ensure that structure is in elastic stress range in all con-
struction stages, Grasp the influence degree between
tensile cable force, Provide necessary parameters for
construction, such as construction tensioning force of
tensile cable in all prestress construction stages, and
tensioning elongation and so on, Provide theoretical
basis and data for construction control and test.
3 FULL-RANGE ANALYSIS METHOD OF
PRESTRESS CONSTRUCTION
At present stage, the scholars at home does deep
research on the full-range analysis method of prestress
construction for suspendome, and therere three main
kinds of mechanic analysis method for construction in
application: state vector superposition method, inverse
analysis method and positive analysis method.
State vector superposition method divides the con-
tinuous construction process into fragments of con-
struction periods by fixed time point. It assumes that
construction temporary structure and the load is con-
stant in each time period, and the variation amount
of construction temporary structure state (such as
internal force, deformation and so on) is acquired by
solving of construction temporary structure in each
time period, and the final state of structure is the sum
of variation. The method is applicable for linear struc-
ture with simple support condition and large stiffness.
However, there exists the defect that nonlinear contact
and geometric nonlinearity cannot be accurately sim-
ulated, when the method is applied to simulation of
prestress construction process of suspendome.
Inverse analysis method takes structure geometric
configuration of initial design state and tensile cable
force and so on as the analysis starting point, and
release the tensile cable according to the opposite
practical construction sequence. The method calcu-
lates tensile cable force and structure deformation of
284
each construction stages by oppositely tracking the
construction process through the method of back-
ward dismantling until all prestress tensile cable are
released. For suspendome, because the inverse anal-
ysis method starts from initial known design state
and analyzes unknown state of each tensioning groups
oppositely, then the tensioning force of each tension-
ing construction process is acquired, the calculation is
relatively simple. But the key point of inverse analysis
method applicable for full-range analysis of prestress
steel structure must be emphasized, which is structure
state path of sequential construction must be identi-
cal with inverse analysis method at each construction
stage. Therefore, when inverse analysis method is
used for analyzing prestress construction process of
prestressed steel structure, the whole construction pro-
cess should be conservative. For the non-conservative
prestress construction process, the inverse analysis
method may cause construction failure.
Based on the positive analysis method, the analysis
process and practical tensioned process is consistent:
the analysis path is coincided with construction path.
Obviously, analysis with construction process in the
same sequence can not only conform to engineering
practice, but also better solves the nonlinear problem
by nonlinear finite element analysis method, and also
neglecting the conservative of prestress construction
process. The construction intention of large-span sus-
pendome is to realize the initial state of design. When
positive analysis method is applied to tensioning pro-
cess of suspendome construction, the initial design
state taken as the finishing point of analysis and the
starting point of analysis is unknown. Therefore, ten-
sile cable force of construction zero state and each
tensioning stage should be determined based on the
initial design state, and then the full-range analysis of
prestress construction is carried on.
4 POSITIVE ANALYSIS METHOD BASED ON
EQUIVALENT PRETENSION OF TENSILE
CABLE
According to the planned prestress construction
scheme, positive analysis method can be carried out.
But before the whole analysis process, the determi-
nation of forces of each tensioned cables at every
construction stage must be carried out, because of the
correlating effect of cable forces and nonlinearity of
structures and so on, the forces of tensioned cables are
always not equal to design forces. The cable force is
the internal force of prestressed steel cable when the
structure is balanced under the action of equivalent
pretension of tensile cables and other design load. So,
when the design load changed, the forces of most pre-
stressed steel cables are changing greatly, especially
during the construction process. On the other hand, the
equivalent pretension of tensile cables can remain con-
stant, which are in the form of equivalent initial strain
or equivalent temperature. Therefore, equivalent pre-
tension of tensile cable is relatively stable during the
construction process and also be constant in service
life, the equivalent pretension of tensile cable changes
only when the cable is re-tensioned.
In the process of tensioning, construction tension
of a cable can be comprehended to be the cable force
when temporary construction structure is balanced
under the action of existing equivalent pretension and
gravity. Therefore, construction tension of positive
analysis method can be converted to equivalent pre-
tension. When the tensile cable is tensioned in groups,
the tensile force should be determined after all the ten-
sile cables are tensioned in the tensioning scheme. If
cable force is known after every tensioning, equiva-
lent pretension of tensile cable can be determined by
the method of determining equivalent pretension of
tensile cable. What different from the initial design
state is that establishment of temporary construc-
tion structure should be in accordance with practical
construction condition, such as including different
scaffolding support system at each construction stage.
After the determination of equivalent pretension at
each tensioned stage, positive analysis method can be
adopted for analysis of prestressed cable tensioning
process. When calculation comes to tensioning of Nj
cable in Ni time, equivalent pretension Pij of the cable
in Ni time is acted on the cable of the contempo-
rary construction structure, and the calculating cable
force is the construction tension Fij of the cable in Ni
tensioning.
Assume basis temperature of a suspendome initial
design state Ts , structure configuration and cable ten-
sile force F. The construction scheme is planned as
follows: the upper steel reticulated shell and cable-
strut system is installed on support system. Tensioning
begins on the support system after installation. Divide
the tensile cable into M groups, and every group fin-
ishes tensioning in N times, and every cable force is
determined after every tensioning. To avoid the effect
of support on final shape, the tensioning equipment
should be removed from scaffolding support system
after NN 1 tensioning, and the last tensioning can be
finished without scaffolding support system.
Considering nonlinearity of prestressed steel struc-
ture, nonlinear finite element method is adopted.
Based on the positive analysis method of equivalent
pretension, tensioning process can be divided into
seven main steps:
Apply iterative algorithm, calculate construction
initial state under design basic temperature and
construction equivalent pretension Pc .
As construction initial state after prestress con-
struction should be in accordance with structure
configuration of design initial state, therefore, the
configuration of structure zero state and cable-
strut system or sub-structure zero state must be
determined, and then the structure configuration in
construction zero state.
Model of temporary construction structure includ-
ing scaffolding support system is established in
construction zero state.
285
The element type of members in the model: the
support applies nonlinear bar element which can
be impressed and cannot be tensioned to simu-
late nonlinear contact of support and rigid frame.
The tensile cable can apply cable element which
can be tensioned and cannot be impressed or bent.
Other members apply beam element or bar element
according to mechanic property.
In general construction, jack and adjustable
equipment are set on support top to adjust instal-
lation elevation, therefore, compressed nonlinear
bar element simulating support can be assumed
large stiffness and non-gravity. The material ther-
mal expansion coefficient should be set to simu-
late active removing temporary support of result
conveniently.
Based on the construction temporary structure
model, finding force analysis of tensile cable equiv-
alent pretension should be carried on through target
cable force after every tensioning process, and
construction equivalent pretension Pci (construc-
tion equivalent pretension of No.i tensioning) is
determined. The last step construction equivalent
pretension PcN is Pc , which is determined in the
first step.
According to tensioning sequence of planned
scheme, tensioning process analysis of Ni
(i = 1, 2, . . . , N 1) is carried out. Then analyzing
Ni tensile cable:
A. For non-tensioned prestressed steel cable,
large negative equivalent pretension (equiva-
lent pressure) can be exerted to make tensile
cable sag and not work with the whole structure.
B. For tensile cable tensioned in Ni , equivalent
pretension Pcjj can be exerted on it.
C. For the tensile cable that is not tensioned in N1
but is tensioned in Ni1 , equivalent pretension
Pc(i1)j of last time can be exerted on it.
D. Obtain structure response after tensioning of
Nj tensile cable by solving balance state of con-
struction temporary structure, such as structure
deformation, member stress, and cable force of
tensioned tensile cable and so on. Where, cable
force of Nj tensile cable is construction tension
Fij when Nj tensile cable is tensioned in Ni step.
The whole structure should be removed from scaf-
folding support system after NN 1 tensioning anal-
ysis according to planned scheme. Then NN 1
construction equivalent pretension Pc(N 1) should
be exerted on all the tensile cable, and positive
initial strain or negative temperature difference
are exerted on the scaffolding support system to
simulate active removing temporary scaffolding
support, and finally the structure state is solved
without temporary scaffolding support.
Analysis of NN tensioning process. According to
tensioning sequence of NN , construction equivalent
pretension PcN of NN can be exerted successively.
Then, structure state of Nj tensile cable in Ni ten-
sioning and corresponding construction pretension
can be acquired.
5 ENGINEERING APPLICATION OF POSITIVE
ANALYSIS METHOD
5.1 Engineering profile
The steel roof of a gymnisum applies large-span ellip-
soidal suspendome, and long axis of plane projection
ellipse is 120 m, short axis is 80 m, and rise height
is 21.45 m. The upper steel reticulated shell is single-
layer reticulated shell, and it is equally divided into 14
circles (the circle is numbered from inside to outside).
The reticulated shell is Kiewitt (K8) style from center
to the 6th circle, and the others is Levy style. Member
of reticulated shell applies circular steel tube, and the
material is Q345. Where, member section of Kiewitt
reticulated shell is 273 10, circular member sec-
tion and radial member section of from 7th circle to the
11h circle are 273 8, circular member section of
2th circle to the 13 h circle and radial member section
of the 13 h circle are 273 12, and other member
section is 273 16, and joints of reticulated shell
is cast steel joint, and the material of cast steel is
GS-20Mn5V. The suspendome has 24 supports and
the supports are all hinged immovable support, see in
Fig. 1. The form of prestress cable system arrange-
ment is Levy style, and is composed by hoop cable,
radial cable and struts, and there are six circles in total
(circle is numbered from inside to outside). Where,
strut applies circular steel tube, the material is Q345,
and the member section is 180 10. The top joint of
strut is hinged with joints of reticulated shell by uni-
versal joints. Radial cable and circular cable applies
half-parallel twisting steel cable, the hoop cable spec-
ification of inside two circles are555, and hoop
cable specification of middle two circles are 585,
and the hoop cable specification of outside two cir-
cles are5 199. The radial cable specification of
inside two circles are 5 37, and the radial cable
specification of other circles are 5 85.
The construction method of the large-span ellip-
soidal suspendome is as follows: when applying hoop
cable tensioning method, the hoop cable clamp is mov-
able cast steel cable clamp. Considering convenience
of hoop cable installation and internal force difference
of elliptical hoop cable, the hoop cable of inside two
circles are divided into four segments and four ten-
sioning points are set. The hoop cable of outside two
Figure 1. Arrangement of suspendome structure.
286
circles is divided into eight segments and eight tension-
ing points are set. The tensioning points arrangement
of every hoop cable can be seen in Fig. 2.Two hydraulic
jacks (1000 kN) are tensioning synchronously at each
hoop cables tensioning point. Applying hoop cable
tensioning method can make synchronous tensioning
target in the same circle easier and the linear control
of hoop cable is convenient.
5.2 Full-range analysis of prestress
(1) Tensile cable equivalent pretension
According to hoop cable force in initial design
state, the tensile cable pretension of suspendome
tensioning points are determined, and the value is
respectively from outside to inside, 50 kN, 36 kN,
30 kN, 25 kN, 20 kN, 10 kN. Compensation method
is applied to calculate equivalent pretension Pc0 of
hoop cable in tensioning points pretensioned in each
tensioning point, where compensation factor is 10,
allowable convergence error is 5%, and equivalent
pretension of every tensioning point in pre-tensioned
state can be seen in Table 1. Meanwhile, design cable
force of every tensioning points can be determined,
and the value is respectively from outside to inside,
1050 kN, 720 kN, 610 kN, 400 kN, 200 kN, 90 kN.
Compensation method is applied to calculate equiv-
alent pretension Pc of hoop cable in tensioning points
pre-tensioned in each tensioning point, where compen-
sation factor is 10, allowable convergence error is 5%,
and equivalent pretension of every tensioning point in
pretensioned state can be seen in Table 1.
(2) Full-range analysis of prestress construction
According to pre-tensioned state, equivalent pre-
tension in initial design state and planned integral
tensioning construction scheme, full-range analysis
of prestress construction for suspendome should be
carried out.
Determine tension of tensioned cable in every ten-
sioning construction stage is one of main intentions
for prestress construction full-range analysis. There-
fore, after the prestress construction full-range anal-
ysis according to planned construction scheme, hoop
cable force in tensioning points of every construction
Figure 2. Tensioning areas and numbering of tensioning
points.
stages(see in Table 2) should be acquired, and the cor- Step 2: tension HS-5 to 100% tension force.
relating influence between hoop cable force should be Step 3: tension HS-4 to 100% tension force.
analyzed. The analysis steps of prestress construction Step 4: tension HS-3 to 100% tension force.
process are as follows: Step 5: tension HS-2 to 100% tension force.
Step 6: tension HS-1to 100% tension force.
Step 0: pre-tension.
Step 1: tension HS-6 to 100% tension force. The conclusion comes out From Table 2 is that,
hoop cable force (tension) of tensioning points at
Table 1. Tensile cable force and equivalent pretension in
every tensioning stage is different from initial design
pretensioned state (kN). state. Therefore, determine tensile force from initial
design state, and find configuration and tensile cable
Pre-tensioned Design equivalent pretension by construction zero state, and
Number of cable Equivalent cable Equivalent full-range analysis of construction process must be car-
tensioning force pre-tension force pre-tension ried out by positive analysis method on the basis of
points F0 Pc0 F Pc equivalent pretension..
Due to the large stiffness of the upper steel reticu-
HS-6-I-1 50 175.5 1050 3917.3 lated shell of the suspendome, the interaction of tensile
HS-6-I-2 50 208 1050 3819 cables is very small. After the whole prestress con-
HS-6-II-1 50 157.5 1050 3453.2
HS-6-II-2 50 206.3 1050 3819
struction process, hoop cable force of HS-6 increased
HS-5-I-1 36 103.5 720 3102.5 about 3.7%, and HS-5 is about 4.6%, and other cable
HS-5-I-2 36 106.9 720 3002.8 forces increased less than 2%.
HS-5-II-1 36 113.3 720 2809
HS-5-II-2 36 104.9 720 3061
HS-4-I-1 30 3.9 610 2337.9 6 CONCLUSIONS
HS-4-I-2 30 13.2 610 2280.6
HS-4-II-1 30 6.4 610 2074.1 In order to grasp the structure state in tensioning
HS-4-II-2 30 13.2 610 2280.6 process, check construction safety, determine con-
HS-3-I-1 25 12.7 400 1558.4 struction tensioning force of tensile cable, provide
HS-3-I-2 25 12.3 400 1534.7 basis for construction control and monitor, optimize
HS-3-II-1 25 9.63 400 1394.4 the construction scheme and so on, the paper proposes
HS-3-II-2 25 11.66 400 1502.2 positive analysis method based on equivalent preten-
HS-2-I-1 20 129.5 200 1280.7
HS-2-II-1 20 122.6 200 1116.7
sion for full-range analysis of suspendome prestress
HS-1-I-1 10 234.6 90 989.5 construction. In addition, the paper takes steel roof of a
HS-1-II-1 10 197.2 90 549.3 gymnasium as an example, and checks the correctness
and applicability of the method.

Table 2. Hoop cable force of tensioning points in the prestress construction process (kN).

Analysis steps of prestress tensile cable construction

Number of
tensioning points Step 0 Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6

HS-6-I-1 49.9 1005.2 1038.7 1043 1042.8 1042.8 1042.8

HS-6-I-2 49.9 1006.8 1040.4 1044.7 1044.5 1044.5 1044.4
HS-6-II-1 50.3 1012.9 1046.6 1051 1050.8 1050.8 1050.8
HS-6-II-2 49.9 1006.8 1040.4 1044.7 1044.5 1044.5 1044.4
HS-5-I-1 35.9 79.2 681.7 706.3 713 713.3 713.4
HS-5-I-2 36 79.4 683.3 708 714.7 715 715.1
HS-5-II-1 36.2 79.8 686.6 711.4 718.1 718.4 718.5
HS-5-II-2 35.9 79.3 682.4 707 713.7 714 714.1
HS-4-I-1 30.1 34 51.4 594.2 602.9 605.5 605.6
HS-4-I-2 30.2 34.1 51.4 595.2 603.9 606.5 606.6
HS-4-II-1 30.4 34.3 51.8 598.6 607.4 610 610.2
HS-4-II-2 30.2 34.1 51.4 595.2 603.9 606.5 606.6
HS-3-I-1 25 24.6 33.8 51.1 390.4 393.9 396.1
HS-3-I-2 25 24.7 33.9 51.2 390.8 394.3 396.5
HS-3-II-1 25.2 24.8 34.1 51.5 393.2 396.8 398.9
HS-3-II-2 25.1 24.7 33.9 51.3 391.4 394.9 397.1
HS-2-I-1 19.8 19.7 20.5 29.3 35.5 185.6 189.8
HS-2-II-1 20.2 20 20.8 29.8 36 188.5 192.8
HS-1-I-1 9.5 9.5 9.8 10.5 17.5 25.1 85.3
HS-1-II-1 10.4 10.3 10.6 11.5 19 27.3 92.7

Note: Number inclined and bold in the table stands for tension of tensioning force.

287
 By considering the non-conservative of the whole
construction process, structure configuration differ-
ence of zero state and initial state, nonlinear contact
of support and rigid frame, correlating effect of cable
force, conversion of construction temporary structure
system, and geometric nonlinearity of structure and
288
so on, the whole tensioning process can be carried out
based on positive analysis method, the especial char-
acteristics of the method is that the analysis process of
the method is in accordance with practical construc-
tion process, and accurately tracks structure state at
every stage of prestress construction process.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Concrete shear test: A new tool for determining rheological properties

of fresh Portland cement concrete

S. Girish
Department of Civil Engineering, B.M.S. College of Engineering, Bangalore, India

B.S. Santhosh
Department of Civil Engineering, J.S.S. Academy of Technical Education, Bangalore, India

ABSTRACT: The workability of fresh concrete should be characterized by its rheological properties based on
material science approach to overcome the inadequacies of empirical test and is generally described by Bingham
parameters in terms of two physical quantities namely yield stress and plastic viscosity. Systematic study of
rheological properties using concrete shear test with specially designed and fabricated tool, is employed in this
study for the first time for the fresh Portland cement concrete. The uniqueness of the test is that the values of
rheological properties were found at zero normal stress and zero displacement rate and the stimulus provided to
concrete is similar to that experienced by the concrete in the field. The concrete shear box can be used as a new
tool effectively as a static test and can be an alternative in place of rheometers which use high shear rates for
finding the rheological properties of the fresh concrete.

Keywords: Concrete shear test, rheology, yield stress, plastic viscosity, rheometers

1 INTRODUCTION liquid (cement paste). However, cement paste is not

Concrete is a complex material and its properties in the
fresh state can have a large effect on its hardened prop-
erties. Fresh concrete property i.e workability is still
measured using the slump test. It is a fact that con-
crete with the same slump may flow differently and
may have different workability. The reason two con-
cretes with the same slump behave differently brings
out the fact that the concrete flow cannot be defined by
a single parameter (Ferraris, C. and Brower, L., eds.,
2001). Although the slump test was quickly accepted
after its introduction in the 1920s, the concrete industry
immediately recognized that the slump test was inade-
quate for fully and properly characterizing workability.
Since that time, a profusion of test methods have been
introduced to improve workability measurement. The
majority of these tests have been empiricalthat is,
they attempt to simulate a field placement condition
and measure a value, such as time or distance that
serves as an index of workability. Empirical tests are
generally limited in the relevance of their results and
have often found little use. By providing a scien-
tific description of the fundamental flow properties
of cement paste, mortar, and concrete, rheology rep-
resents a useful method of characterizing concrete
workability.
Concrete can be considered as concentrated sus-
pension of solid particles (aggregates) in a viscous
a homogeneous fluid and is itself composed of parti-
cles (cement grains) in a liquid-water (Ferraris, Chiara,
F., 1999). Workability of concrete mixture is closely
related to flow properties and there is a need to develop
methods based on material science approach. Rheol-
ogy is one such scientific method which is a study of
flow and deformation of matter. It is most commonly
used to describe the flow of fluid. Fluid rheology is
a well established widely used science that can be
applied to the properties of fresh concrete. To charac-
terize and understand the fresh properties of concrete
atleast two physical properties, namely yield stress and
plastic viscosity, need to be measured. Yield stress
commonly occurs in multi phase fluids such as con-
centrated suspensions. The solid particles interact to
form a flocculated, three-dimensional network struc-
ture that resists flow at sufficiently low stresses. The
yield stress is related to the force required to break
down this structure and initiate flow. The concept of
yield stress is readily seen in concrete slump test. Even
though fresh concrete can be considered a fluid, the
characterization of its rheology is complicated by the
fact that concrete is a complex heterogeneous mate-
rial with time-dependent properties and wide range
of particle sizes. Due to this complexity, no definite
method for predicting the flow of concrete exists and
measurements of the rheological parameters are not
easily made. Therefore, the flow of a given concrete

289
is usually measured at sites using one of the many
empirical tests like slump test (Koehler, Eric P. and
Fowler, David W, 2004). Even measurements of the
rheological parameters are not easily performed due
to the large range of particle sizes found in concrete
from 1 m cement grains to 10 mm coarse aggregates
or even larger (100 mm) as found in a dam (Ferraris,
Chiara, F., 1999). Unfortunately, due to the complex
composition of the material, no definite method for
predicting the flow of concrete from its components
exists. Therefore, a better understanding of the flow
properties of concrete is needed to be able to predict
the flow of concrete from the properties of the com-
ponents. Flocculated systems such as cement pastes
typically are thixotropic and exhibit a yield stress.
Most researchers agree that the flow of concrete can be
described reasonably well using a Bingham equation.
This equation is a linear function of the shear stress (the
concrete response) versus shear rate. Two parameters
provided by the Bingham equation are the yield stress
and the plastic viscosity. It describes a linear relation-
ship between the stress acting to shear concrete (shear
stress = ) and the rate at which it is sheared (shear
rate = ) with viscosity () being the slope in the
relationship as shown below with the y intercept
marking the yield stress (0 ).
The term yield stress and viscosity provides a more
comprehensive description of fresh concrete than the
conventional workability tools. Static measurement of
yield stress measured when the material is initially at
rest are typically higher than the measurements of yield
stress obtained from dynamic measurements of the
flow curves. Bingham flow model commonly assumes
that if lower shear rates could be measured the flow
curves would continue back and intercept shear stress
axis (Koehler, Eric P. and Fowler, David W, 2004).
Accurate data at low shear rates are needed to con-
firm that flow curves can truly be extrapolated to a
zero shear rate.
Thanks to an increasingly scientific approach, it is
becoming possible to predict fresh properties, design
and select materials and model processes to achieve
the required performance. Rheology is now seriously
considered by users, rather than being seen as an
inconvenient and rather specialized branch of cement
science (Banfill, P.F.G., 2003). By providing a scien-
tific description of the fundamental flow properties
of cement paste, mortar and concrete, rheology rep-
resents a useful method of characterizing concrete
workability and the prospect is promising.
2 RHEOMETERS
Commonly two methods are used for rheological mea-
surements on fluid systems; capillary (or tube) and
rotational. In capillary methods the test fluid made
290
to flow through a narrow tube as a result of hydro-
static or applied pressure. In rotational methods the test
fluid is continuously sheared between two surfaces,
one or both of which are rotating. Most commonly
used rheometers measure shear stress while the tested
fluid is subjected to a controlled shear rate (Hackley,V.,
and Ferraris, C.F. 2001). Some of the concrete rheome-
ters used are BML, BTRHEOM, CEMAGREF-IMG
and IBB. Many of the rheometers that were tried have
their own drawbacks. While traditionally rheometers
have been successfully used for fine particle suspen-
sions, concrete presents unique challenges. Unlike
traditional rheometers, concrete rheometers must deal
with the large size of coarse aggregates, concrete seg-
regation, and time dependence of flow properties. For
instance, in order to achieve a linear flow gradient with
coaxial cylinder rheometers, the difference between
the inner and outer cylinder radii should be at least
five times the maximum aggregate size. Rheometers
constructed based on these particular requirements are
generally too large for practical use. Although some
rotational rheometers have been designed to be suf-
ficiently small and rugged for use on jobsites, the
limited availability and high cost of these devices make
them impractical for regular field use. There is also a
problem of dead zone in co-axial cylinder rheometers.
Dead zones are those where the material is static and
does not flow. The problem cannot be fully eliminated
when the rotational speeds are low, particularly for
concrete which exhibit significant yield stress. Meth-
ods to improve the accuracy of such rheometers are
not always successful. In concrete, the presence of
aggregates also influences the actual radius at which
flow ceases and dead zones come into effect. Also,
the range of shear rates applied in a rheometer for a
given fluid should be similar to the shear rates present
in an actual field conditions, but this does not hap-
pen in most rheometers. Not many studies seem to
have been done to determine the actual shear rates in
the field for different construction processes. A num-
ber of papers in the literature indicate that thixotropic
and time dependent properties alter the values of yield
strength and plastic viscosity and hence it is almost
impossible to determine these parameters accurately
in any dynamic rheometer. It is also known that it
is inappropriate to test low slump concretes in con-
crete rotational rheometers due to the high deborah
number that indicates that the material is less of a
fluid but nearer to a solid. The range of shear rates
applied in a rheometer for a given fluid should be
similar to the shear rates present in an actual field con-
ditions, but this does not happen in most rheometers.
Comparison and correlation functions are essential to
advance the science of concrete rheology and provide
a better characterization of concrete workability. The
values of yield stress and plastic viscosity compiled
by Ferraris et al., (Ferraris, Chiara. F., and Brower,
Lynn E., 2003) from different rheometers, but mea-
sured on identical specimens, show that there is no
agreement of the measured values among the different
types of Rheometers.

Figure 1. Concrete shear box.
3 CONCRETE SHEAR BOX
The shear box test is synonymous with testing of soil
samples from the early days. It is a simple test that
was apparently used for soil testing as early as 1776 by
Coulomb (Lambe & Whitman, 1969) and was featured
prominently by French engineer AlexandreCollin in
1846 (Skempton, 1984). Further a simple shear box
with a single plane of shear was designed in 1934,
using the stress control principle where the load was
applied in increments by progressively adding weights
to a pan.
LHermite and his co workers used a ring shaped
shear box apparatus for their study on fresh concrete.
The method chosen to follow indicates that they con-
sidered shearing stress in a freshly mixed concrete
to be due to internal friction analogous to the fric-
tion between a solid body and a plane solid surface
when that body is resting on the surface. When they
plotted the graphs between shear stress verses shear
strain for various normal stresses, keeping the dis-
placement rate constant, interestingly they found that
shear stress increases linearly with the degree of dis-
tortion upto a maximum value, then decreases and
finally leveling off. This was called as dilatancy. The
shear stress-distortion relationship plotted for different
normal stresses gave only the maximum shear or the
yield strength of the sample. The values so obtained
were for different normal stresses and distortion values
(Newman, K., 1966). The values were never a rep-
resentative of zero normal stress and zero distortion
values.
Based on the experience from the previous study
(Girish, S et al., 2009) from using the smaller size
direct shear box (60 60 25 mm) a new tool namely
concrete shear test apparatus which was essential with
the required features for finding the rheological prop-
erties of fresh concrete was designed and fabricated.
The new test apparatus is similar to the direct shear box
in principle but with added features that is essentially
needed to shear the medium size sample of the fresh
concrete. The new tool is first of its kind for testing
the fresh concrete sample. The essential feature is that
the sample of 150 mm cube can be tested for coarse
291
aggregate of maximum size of 25 mm. The strain rate
for shear load ranges from 1 mm/min to 100 mm/min.
The shear stress developed at such a faster rates is cap-
tured using servo-controlled data acquisition system.
The loading unit has different normal stresses up to
maximum of 30 N/mm2 . The normal loads are applied
on the specimen through a pneumatic actuator and
a stress regulator. Electronic data acquisition system
comprises of micro controlled based signal conditional
unit and a processing unit along with a load cell of high
sensitivity of 0.1 KN with a load measuring capac-
ity of 50 KN. Data acquiring system can acquire and
store the data at the rate of four consecutive readings
per sec. There are two specifically programmed soft-
wares, namely, Tango and Direct Shear Multi cohesion
version 1.0.1. Tango is used for acquiring the data and
storing it to computer and the other is used to analyze
the stored data (simple excel sheet can also do the job).
Figure 1 shows the concrete shear box. The important
characteristics of this test are the static condition of the
test and very low shear rate applied on the specimen
during testing which is similar to the condition experi-
enced by the concrete in the field. Also the equipment
is simple and the preparation and testing of sample and
testing procedure is less time consuming.
4 PROCEDURE FOR THE DETERMINATION
OF RHEOLOGICAL PROPERTIES
In concrete shear box the shear stress and shear strain
obtained are at a particular normal stress and displace-
ment rates. The sample is sheared for different normal
stresses and displacement rates which the concrete
never experiences in the field. This fact was noted
and the need to evolve a procedure to find the shear
stress at zero normal stress and zero displacement rates
to stimulate to the field condition was contemplated.
A new procedure was evolved to find the two rhe-
ological parameters namely yield stress and plastic
viscosity using a new concrete shear box. The pro-
cedure was unique, simple and first of its kind to be
used for finding rheological properties of fresh con-
crete with specially designed and fabricated concrete
shear box.A brief procedure for finding the shear stress
and plastic viscosity at zero normal stress and zero
displacement rates was published by the same authors
elsewhere (Girish, S. and Santhosh, B.S., 2011). This
section illustrates the detailed new procedure for the
reference Mix A. The cement used was ordinary Port-
land cement (53 Grade) confirming to the requirement
of Indian standard IS: 12269-1987 similar to ASTM C
150-85A with 450 kg/m3 and water content 190 l/m3 .
Natural river sand was used as fine aggregate and
crushed angular granite stone as coarse aggregate
with quantities 713 kg/m3 and 1060 kg/m3 . The verti-
cal slump was 75 mm. A homogeneous freshly mixed
concrete (Mix A) was placed in the Concrete shear
box with a particular displacement rate () and normal
stress applied on the fresh sample. Various shear loads
and the corresponding shear displacement is recorded
Figure 2a. Shear Stress Vs Shear Strain Figure 2b. Shear Stress Vs Shear Strain Figure 2c. Shear Stress Vs Shear Strain
(Displacement rate: 5 mm/min). (Displacement rate: 15 mm/min). (Displacement rate: 25 mm/min).

Figure 3a. Peak Shear Stress Vs Normal Figure 3b. Peak Shear Stress Vs Normal Figure 3c. Peak Shear Stress Vs Normal
Stress (Displacement rate: 5 mm/min). Stress (Displacement rate: 5 mm/min). Stress (Displacement rate: 25 mm/min).

and the test was stopped when the shear load started to
decrease (point of dilatancy) or when it became almost
constant. The readings are for one set of displacement
rate and normal stress. Keeping the displacement rate
constant the test was repeated with different normal
stresses. One such plot for the mix is shown in Figure
2 (a). This plot of shear stress verses shear strain is for
a displacement rate of 5 mm/min for normal stresses of
0.015, 0.025 and 0.035 N/mm2 . From this relation the
maximum shear stress ( ) for different normal stresses
was found. The normal stress chosen are kept constant
for the other displacement rates. Further for the cho-
sen normal stresses similar procedure was followed for
the mix for finding the maximum shear stress with the
displacement rates of 15 and 25 mm/min and the plots
are shown in Figure 2 (b) and 2 (c).
Initially from the experiments one set of maximum
shear stress is obtained from the relation shear stress
verses shear strain for different normal stresses and
for a particular displacement rate. Likewise other sets
of maximum shear stress are obtained for the same
normal stresses and different displacement rates.
Further with the values of maximum shear stress
and different normal stresses, graphs are plotted for
each displacement rate and straight line fits were made
(Figure 3a).The plot is for one displacement rate of
5mm/min and for the normal stresses 0.015, 0.025 and
0.035 N/mm2 .The line intersecting the y-axis (shear
stress axis) gives the shear stress ( o ) of concrete at
zero normal stress for a particular displacement rate,
as the direct shear box test cannot be carried out at a
zero normal stress. The value of shear stress obtained
in this step is unique as it is at zero normal stress and
the values can be appropriated at zero stress condition.
Similar straight line fits were made for all displace-
ment rates and shear stress at zero normal stresses
were obtained. All maximum shear stress values were
appropriated at zero normal stress. With the values of
shear stress at zero normal stress obtained for differ-
ent displacement rates a graph was plotted between

292

Figure 4. Bingham parameters.
displacement rates and the shear stress at zero nor-
mal stress (Figure 4) and straight line fits were made.
The intercept of the line on the y-axis (o , shear stress
axis) can be regarded as the relative yield stress (o )
and this value is at zero displacement rate and the slope
of the line as the relative plastic viscosity () similar
to Bingham parameters. It is interesting to note that
the values obtained by following this procedure of the
relative yield stress and relative plastic viscosity for
the reference Mix-A is 23323 Pa and 25.27 MPa-sec
respectively which are at zero normal stress and zero
displacement rates.
5 DISCUSSION
The uniqueness of this test method and subsequent
development of procedure is that, the shear stress is
found at zero normal stress and at zero displacement
rate and finally finding both the relative yield stress
and the relative plastic viscosity. Other important char-
acteristics of this test are the very low shear rate applied
on the specimen during testing which is similar to
the condition experienced by the concrete in the field
and also the static condition of the test. The proce-
dure is very simple with not much of preparations for
conducting the test.
The intention of the authors is not to discuss the test
results but to highlight the Concrete shear box as a tool
for finding the rheological properties of fresh concrete.
The values obtained are higher than those reported in
the literature by using rheometers and therefore are
named as relative values and this could be possibly
due to particle interference or friction during shearing
at lower rates. Since the fresh concrete exhibits shear
thinning behavior, these values are likely to be lower
in rheometers which employ high shear rates. In most
293
rheometer experiments, initially the fresh concrete is
sheared at high shear rate before the rheological tests
and then the shear rate is reduced gradually in order
to obtain Bingham curve. Such high shear rates are
normally not encountered while placing of concrete.
6 CONCLUDING REMARKS
The study shows that the specially fabricated Concrete
shear box can be used as a tool to find the rheolog-
ical properties of fresh concrete. The test is unique
in the sense that the values of rheological properties
arrived at are by considering both the normal stress
and displacement rate at zero values and the stimulus
provided to concrete is similar to the field practice.
The preparation for conducting the test and the pro-
cedure are simple. The fabricated Concrete shear box
can be used as a new tool to determine the rheologi-
cal properties of fresh concrete similar to Binghams
parameters, effectively, as a static test and can be an
alternative new tool in place of rheometers which use
high shear rate.
REFERENCES
Banfill, P.F.G., (2003), The rheology of fresh cement and
concrete-A review, 11th international Cement Chemistry
Congress, Durban.
Ferraris, C. and Brower, L., eds., (2001) Comparison
of Concrete Rheometers, International Tests at MB
(Cleveland OH, USA) October 2000, National Institute
of Standards and Technology NISTIR 7154.
Ferraris, Chiara. F., and Brower, Lynn E., (2003), Comparison
of concrete rheometers, Concrete International, Vol. 25,
No. 8, pp. 4147.
Ferraris, Chiara F., (1999), Measurement of the rheologi-
cal properties of high performance concrete: state of the
art report, Journal of research of the national institute of
standards and technology, Vol. 104, No. 5, pp. 461478.
Girish, S et al. (2009), Rheological Properties of Self-
Compacting Concrete using Direct Shear Box, The Indian
Concrete Journal, Vol. 83, No. 8. pp. 4753.
Girish, S. and Santhosh, B.S. (2011) A new methodology to
study the rheological properties of fresh Portland cement
concrete, International Journal of Earth Sciences and
Engineering, Vol. 04, No. 06 SPL, pp. 797800.
Hackley, V., and Ferraris, C.F. (2001), The Use of Nomen-
clature in Dispersion Science and Technology, (Special
Report 960-3). Gaithersburg, MD: National Institute of
Standards and Technology.
Koehler, Eric P. and. Fowler, David W., (2004), Develop-
ment of a Portable rheometer for fresh Portland cement
concrete, ICAR Report 105-3F.
Newman, K., (1966), Concrete systems, In: Holliday, L.,
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Study and optimization of construction monitoring method for long-span

continuous rigid frame bridge

Hao Hu, Xiedong Zhang & Li Zhu

School of Transportation, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China

ABSTRACT: In modern bridge construction, bridge monitoring technology has become an integral part of the
bridge construction. Implementation of real-time monitoring of the bridge construction is used to compensate
the errors caused by the uncertainties, and to make timely adjustments which order to determine the next phase of
construction. This paper systematically describes the development status of the real-monitoring technology and
some monitoring methods about that. Then taking the Nangou bridge construction monitoring in Inner Mongolia
as an example, let point out the advance methods of construction monitoring, and stress the importance of these
techniques. Finally, summarize several problems exist in the construction monitoring technology which are
needed to be solved and then put forward my views on the future development of such a technology.

Keywords: Continuous rigid frame bridge, Midas/civil, Construction monitoring, Optimization

1 INTRODUCTION parameters and state parameters in the construction

The application of bridge construction monitoring
technology appears not much long, and the earliest
implementation of this technology is in Japan. In the
early 1980s, when the Hino prestressed concrete con-
tinuous girder bridge was built in Japan, the observing
systems were established for the required parame-
ters monitoring, such as stress, deflection. Take the
measured parameters into field treatment by the appli-
cation of computer on-site, and then treat the measured
parameters return to the design department to analyze
the adjustments, and finally adjusted to the construc-
tion site. Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge was built in
1957, with stress and structural elevation adjusted
on construction, and modern construction monitor-
ing of the theory was a late starting in China. In the
late 1990s, the real bridge construction monitoring
technology starts to be paid with great attention and
systematically be applied to the bridge construction.
Monitoring of the bridge construction is the basis of
long-span bridge construction control. Volumes fac-
tors of construction control due to the complex process
of large-span bridge construction, such as the differ-
ence between material properties and design values,
the error between the cross-section characteristics and
analysis of value for the pre-formed structure, con-
struction loads and calculation of the error between
the values, the difference between the structures finite
element model with the actual situation, construction
measurement error, non-ideal the impact of the error
of the construction conditions and process in the struc-
tural and distinctness from design parameters to status
parameters in measure. Importance structural design
must be monitored to reflect the actual data and tech-
nical information of construction. And then continue
to correct previously identified the ideal state of the
construction phase of the actual situation, to keep the
construction of state in the control scope.
Regardless of what type of the bridges, their con-
struction monitoring systems generally including the
monitoring of structural design parameters, such as
geometry status monitoring, stress monitoring, power
monitoring, temperature monitoring, as well as the
state of the environment monitoring. Through the
establishment of construction monitoring system to
track the construction process and to obtain the true
state of the structure, not only can fix the theory of
design parameters to ensure the reliability of the con-
struction control forecast. But it is also a security alarm
system, which can detect and avoid the bridge structure
beyond the scope of design parameters in the construc-
tion process (such as deformation, section stress etc.)
and structural damage.
2 BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION MONITORING
2.1 Geometry shape monitoring
The main purpose of the geometry shape monitoring
is to obtain the actual geometry of the bridge struc-
ture. Its contents include structure elevation, bridge
span length, crack width, deflection deformation.
Currently the geometry shape monitoring instruments
used for the bridge structure include level, theodolite,
total station, GPS and optoelectronic image deflection

295
instrument. Because of the geometry shape param-
eters direct feedback to the construction of control
system, therefore, require not only that their results are
accuracy and timely processing of the data to quickly
analyze the measured data and adjust to correct.
Relatively speaking, this is an relatively simple opera-
tion however more emphasis on the precision of the
monitoring methods and monitoring equipment, so
we must pay more attention in the accuracy of the
measured data of geometry monitoring.
2.2 Stress (strain) monitoring
Monitoring the stress (strain) of cross-section for the
bridge structure is the core content of the construction
monitoring, due to it is best to reflect the error in actual
state and ideal state and plays an important role in secu-
rity warning. Once find a big error between the stress
value monitoring and the design value, the construc-
tion must promptly be stop and find out the reasons for
this error and timely manner, otherwise the bridge con-
struction safety cannot be guaranteed. Because bridge
construction time is generally long, the stress mon-
itoring is also a long process. Higher requirements
which put forward to stress monitoring instruments,
only this can accurately measure the stress changes
but also durable and reliable.
Mainly two kinds of methods of measuring stress:
one is the direct use of the instrument to measure the
stress, another to measure the strain, and the trans-
formation relationship between them, namely indirect
to attain stress, indeed the latter is more widely used.
The main instruments of the stress monitoring are the
vibrating Hyun sensor, resistance strain gages, optical
fiber strain sensor, which vibrating Hyun sensors have
good stability, the natural strain accumulated function,
anti-jamming capability, requiring low characteristic
of the cable the use of more extensive. However, with
fiber optic technology continues to mature, the optical
fiber strain sensor will become the best bridge stress
monitoring instruments.
2.3 Temperature monitoring
For long-span bridges, especially continuous rigid
frame bridge, the temperature effect is very signifi-
cant. When the bridges are in the place that temperature
difference between day and night or in the place rela-
tively long duration of sunshine, temperature changes
in bridge construction cannot be ignored. As a whole,
when the continuous rigid frame bridge put up can-
tilever construction, the floor elevation will be change
with the temperature change. Furthermore enhance
the difficulty about the closure state of bridge con-
struction, and bring negative influence to the finished
bridge state. From the local speaking, the strength of
concrete should be change to change because of the
temperature and the whole shrinkage and creep will
be beyond the control as the temperature changes.
At present, the temperature measurement methods of
the bridge structure are too much, including radiation
296
thermometry, resistance thermometer thermometry,
thermocouple thermometry and other temperature
sensors, etc.
The measuring range, accuracy and volume of the
measuring instruments and measuring complex of
each method are different. Usually smaller size, good
adhesion, stable performance, high precision and long-
distance monitoring transmission temperature compo-
nents are more popular. For the long-span continuous
rigid frame bridge concrete structures, temperature
monitoring is including surface temperature measure-
ment and temperature measurement. Surface tempera-
ture measurement depends mainly on directly measure
of the points attached to the concrete outside, however
body temperature measurement depends mainly on the
temperature sensor to display the temperature. During
the monitoring pay special attention to combination
of the local temperature of the structure and the over-
all temperature measurement, only in this way, can we
get the accurate knowledge of the temperature changes
and make adjustments to correct.
3 EXAMPLE FOR BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION
MONITORING
3.1 Engineering situation
The Nangou bridge structure in Inner Mongolia is a
variable cross-section of three-span prestressed con-
crete continuous rigid frame bridge. The length of
each span is 95 m, 168 m, 95 m respectively and the
upper box beam with variable cross-section is single
cell box. The whole box girder is direct web with can-
tilever both sides width 3.775 m, which the section
size of the main span is that fulcrum beam 10.0 m, the
middle cross section 3.5 m, the beam height accord-
ing to 1.65 times parabola, top width of box girder
is 16.55 m, the web in the cross thick 0.6 m, 0.8 m at
roots thick, 1.1 m at the fulcrum, and the floor thick
0.35 m in cross, 1.2 m at the roots, 1.4 m at fulcrum,
the bottom plate thickness according to 1.65 times
parabola. The full-bridge applies three-dimensional
prestress construction, namely longitudinal, transver-
sal, and vertical. The bridge applies hanging basket
cantilever casting construction, but also full bridge
symmetrically uses cantilever pouring method in two
T structure. Furthermore each T-structures includes
24 construction section, 9.86 m of each two side
span cast-in-situ sections. The side and cross closure
section are 2 m.
Whole bridge closure order is: both sides of the
cross-folded; cross close; secondary dead load applied.
The full-bridge arrangement of the Nangou bridge
structure show in Figure 1 as follows.
3.2 Bridge construction process simulation
analysis method
In accordance with the construction process deter-
mined by the design and construction as well as the
Figure 1. The full-bridge arrangement of the Nan Gou bridge structure [unit: m].
Figure 2. The FEM model of the Nangou bridge structure.
design parameters, forward analysis method is be
applied to analyze the bridge structure. The aim of
forward analysis is to determine the stress state of a
bridge structure. The characteristics of this analysis
and calculation is that the next structural state is based
on the previous stage namely the former state predict
the next one. Summarize the stress state of each con-
struction stage before as nonlinear calculation basis
of the next stage. The structural displacement of the
previous phase is to be the basis of the structural dis-
placement as structural axis of this stage. This analysis
method can not only provide more accurate data and
provide a reliable basis of the force for the structural
strength and stiffness checking, but also can provide
data files of the structure to determine the ideal state
of the construction phase.
The process control of bridge construction is a sys-
tematic project consisting of three parts: the first part
is to establish the calculation model of the construc-
tion, the second part is the collection of data field
and parameter identification, that is the monitoring
process, the third part is the data analysis and pro-
cessing, as the timely prediction and correction, that is
control.
3.2.1 Establish FEM model
This article analyzed and calculated the construction
process of the bridge structure using finite element
analysis software that is Midas/Civil, divided into 118
units for the main beam. Then receive the deformation
and stress state of all construction stage in theory. The
calculation model of the Nangou bridge structure is
shown in Figure 2.
The bridge superstructure use C55 concrete and
annual average relative humidity of environment is 70
percent. Shrinking at the beginning of concrete age
period of 3 days and use the equivalent nodal loads to
simulate hanging basket weight and wet weight of con-
crete. Apply high-strength low relaxation pre-stressed
strand, and single strand diameter s 15.2 mm, area
139 mm2 , standard strength of the strand 1860 Mpa
and relaxation coefficient 3.5%.
297
3.2.2 Field monitoring method and parameter
identification
The Nangou bridge belongs to the long-span continu-
ous rigid frame bridge, which construction monitoring
including three aspects: one is the control section of
structural stress (strain) and the internal force calcu-
lation, another is structural deformation control, the
determination of pre-camber and the Elevation, the last
is temperature control, including inner temperature
and surface temperature.
(1) Stress monitoring
In the Nangou bridge structure, in order to ensure
the long-term observation and to meet the monitor-
ing accuracy, use the Steel Hyun stress meter and the
matching frequency receiver apparatus as stress obser-
vational instruments. The main beam stress test section
is selected in the vicinity of 0 # block (cantilever roots
of T), mid-span closure section (L/2) and (L/4), a total
of 11 stress test section. Take the stress monitoring
results of the final closure for example, as shown in
Table 1.
(2) Structural deformation monitoring
Deformation monitoring is the main basis to con-
trol bridge alignment through each cross pre-camber
and preload extent of hanging basket to determine the
size of the bridge deflection. To arrange two symmet-
rical elevation observation points in each Cantilever
section, which not only can observe these deflection
value, can also be observed in torsion deformation
of box girder. Depending on the different construc-
tion phase, different data can be observed: formwork,
pouring concrete and post, before and after the tension
of prestressed tendon, carry hanging basket preload
and remove hanging basket, side span closure and
midspan.
Among them, elevation measurement of continuous
cantilever pouring segmental formwork may refer to
this formula:
Hlm : formwork erection elevation
Hsj : design elevation
Table 1. The stress of the final closure.

Side span closure port Middle span closure port

High side up High side down High side up High side down
margin margin margin margin
Construction stage Mpa Mpa Mpa Mpa

Side span closure 0.04 0.07

Tension side span closure beam 5.33 1.71
middle span closure 3.16 5.46 0.65 0.88
Tension middle span closure beam 3.33 5.13 2.84 8.17
secondary dead load bump wall 3.60 4.62 3.54 6.99
secondary dead load level layer 3.88 4.12 4.27 5.66
secondary dead load asphalt 4.20 3.56 5.11 4.24

Table 2. The pre-cambers of first 7 nodes 4 SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT BRIDGE

CONSTRUCTION MONITORING
Pre-cambers Pre-cambers
Nodal of FEM Nodal of practical (1) The theory and practice of bridge construction
number (mm) number (mm) monitoring is not impressive enough. The atten-
tion of bride construction monitoring in domestic
1 0.0 1 0.0
2 0.7 2 0.8 is inadequate, investment in manpower is not
3 2.0 3 2.3 enough and material less leading to relatively sim-
4 3.8 4 3.9 ple construction monitoring system, monitoring
5 12.3 5 12.1 tools, relatively backward difficult to get accu-
6 32.4 6 32.1 rate observational data to support the next phase
7 46.8 7 46.3 of construction forecast.
(2) The optimal sensor placement problem. Due to
the quality and quantity of the sensor are not
enough to reach the monitoring requirements, the
observational data is not comprehensive, then ade-
Hypg : initialize height quately reflect the structure of the stress state. And
fgl : deformation value of hanging basket durability problem of the sensor has been the
difficulty for long-term monitoring.
Now take the pre-cambers of first 7 nodes finite
(3) The study on construction monitoring factors
element model and measurement for example, as
not thorough enough. Bridge construction mon-
shown in in Table 2.
itorings influencing factors are numerous and
(3) Temperature monitoring
complex, also comprehensive action. But the mon-
Temperature is one of the most important factors
itoring system cannot be complete consideration of
that affect the main beam deflection. Temperature
all possible influencing factors, thereby affecting
changes include the seasonal temperature and diurnal
the accuracy of the forecast construction. Espe-
change. Inner Mongolia region, seasonal temperature
cially for the Nangou bridge structure, temperature
changes are severe, with hot summers and long and
effects cannot be ignored, also the improvement
cold winter, diurnal temperature also changes much,
of the temperature monitoring instrument is the
high temperature is above 30 C, low temperature is
direction of future development.
about 0 C. In such weather conditions, the temper-
ature effect of the Nangou bridge structure must be
strict monitoring. In the practical construction, use the
temperature observation instruments to monitor the
5 MONITORING METHOD OPTIMIZATION
internal temperature of concrete changes.
(1) Smart sensor components, such as grating fiber
3.2.3 Monitoring data processing and prediction optic sensors for monitoring system has a
To organize the monitoring data and compared with good effect, which been successfully applied in
the design state value of the ideal structure, analy- the aerospace machinery industry, have good
sis of the gap of the actual state of structure and the prospects for the foreseeable bridge monitoring.
state of the ideal structure. Utilize the error adjustment (2) Improve the bridge construction monitoring tech-
theory to find out the best construction program, and nology and organizational management system,
use the revised construction program to feedback the and set up a more systematic and complete con-
next stage of construction. struction monitoring system.

298
(3) Accelerate the development of network equip-
ment, automation equipment, and intelligence, to
realize the remote automated monitoring of the
bridge construction.
6 CONCLUSION
In modern bridge construction, the applications of
long-span continuous rigid frame bridge become more
common. Its construction monitoring techniques have
also been paid more and more the attention by bridge
builders. The normative structure of the T cantilever
construction and stability problems of construction of
hanging basket are important factors that affect con-
struction safety. When the long-span continuous rigid
frame bridge is in special section that the tempera-
ture changes very much, the temperature monitoring
299
is especially worth worth notice. Temperature changes
have influence in carrying the capacity of pile cap
and pier, as well as the geometric shape of segments.
Reasonable construction monitoring technology is an
important guarantee to ensure the stability of the
bridge structure.
REFERENCES
Anbang Gu, 2005. Monitoring and Control of Bridge Con-
struction (in chinese). Beijing Mechanical Industry Press.
Je-Keun Oh, Giho Jang, Semin Oh, Jeong Ho Lee, Byung-
Ju Yi, Young Shik Moon, Jong Seh Lee, & Youngjin
Choi, 2009. Bridge inspection robot system with machine
vision. Automation in Construction 18, 929941.
Wang GY, Liu JA, & Fan Q, 2011. Construction Monitoring
of Long Span Continuous Rigid Frame Box Girder Bridge.
Advanced Materials Research.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Concept of partnering in construction projects

Alireza Ghaffari
Scholar in Construction Management, Pune University, India

R.K. Jane
D.Y Patil College of Engineering, Pune University, India

ABSTRACT: Todays construction industry business seeking a new strategies to reduce the time of project,
to lower costs of projects for competence in national and international market, to improve the quality and busi-
ness performance and to overcome claims and intractable disputes which is a essential strategy in succession
of the high-risk competitive business construction companies. Partnering is a only approach to overcome to
these impedes for conducting business in new competition environment with new method in management from
economical view of time, resources and costs by enhancing cooperation, especially in large-scale endeavors of
construction engineering projects. The myriad of real-time problems, including cost overruns, delays, excessive
and avoidable change orders, and litigation threats and actions, seemed cannot be overcome for any management
process except partnering so the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) is implemented partnering in the public
sector in 1988 during the construction of the William Bacon Oliver Lock and Dam in Alabama. For solving
the litigious nature of construction contracts by a process of promote dispute prevention and reduce litigation
exposure. This paper gives the concept of partnering as a contracting strategy in construction engineering firms
in the last 30 years and to pay on partnering strategy development, partner selection, contract negotiation, and
implementing of a partnering agreement. The key elements of partnering are effective communication, conflict
resolution, adequate resources, management support, mutual trust, long-term commitment, coordination, inno-
vation and creativity, mutual advantage and opportunity. The use of partnering as a contracting strategy is to
form strategic alliances, to strengthen the firms competitive capabilities and to overcome the barrier in this
issue.To reduce adversarial relationships and expensive claim and litigation, partnering can be used as panacea
in organizations to improve their performance and achievement to grow and expand utility as a strategic issue.

Keywords: Partnering, project, construction, construction industry, companies, incentive.

1 INTRODUCTION services in their projects. So partnering agreement may

Over the years the construction project from planning
to completion is full of claims and intractable disputes.
So to overcome to these impedes an innovative method
in the construction industry as partnering advert which
may provide for project partners to reorient themselves
toward a win-win environment by minimizing claim
and dispute and fostering synergistic teamwork for
succession.The needs of changing the construction
industry for respond to new thinking and innovative
strategies is a necessity issues which combined by new
modern decisions and investment, changing regula-
tions, new technologies, mergers, foreign competition,
and to augment of profit by changing the traditional
system to new modern one. The economic factors as
inflation raise rate, impelled that construction firms
to develop a new strategies for this challenged they
have faced, so global competition, increment on cost
of product, and product quality are compelling the con-
struction owners to seek efficient method of reducing
cost and time for obtaining design and construction
be provide mutual achievement of profit and success
for company and participates by heavily weakening
disputes and claims of firms. In 1990s the concept of
partnering has emerged to approach to the conduct-
ing business to envisage the challenges in economic
and technological view in construction industry. Part-
nering is not a panacea for the ills of the construction
industry, if it is improperly applied, either on process
or in the wrong situation. In the project partnering at
the end of project the relationship is terminated and
another project may be commenced, which was pio-
neered in the U.S. construction industry during the mid
to late 1980s. Partnering is a long-term commitment
between two or more organizations for the purpose
of achieving specific business objectives by maximiz-
ing the effectiveness of each participants resources.
This requires changing traditional relationships to a
shared culture without regard to organizational bound-
aries. The relationship is based upon trust, dedication
to common goals, and an understanding of each others
individual expectations and values. Expected benefits

301
include improved efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
increased opportunity for innovation, and the contin-
uous improvement of quality products and services.
(Hancher 1989, Construction Industry Institute 1991).
1.1 Paradigms of partnering in construction
firms
Partnering is a project-focused process that brings
together key stakeholders in the project outcome,
usually representatives of the project owner, designer
and contractor. It seeks to resolve differences, remove
roadblocks, and build and develop trust and com-
mitment, a common mission statement, shared goals,
interdependence, accountability among team mem-
bers and problem solving skills (CII Team Building
Task Force PTBTF 1993).
Partnering is a commitment between two or more
organizations for the purpose of achieving specific
business objectives by maximizing the effectiveness
of each participants resources. This requires chang-
ing traditional relationships to a shared culture without
regard to organizational boundaries. This relationship
is based on trust, dedication to common goals, and an
understanding of each others individual expectations
and values (Construction Industry Institute 1995).
The firms are finding that traditional contracting
relationships may be too slow and too expensive and
result in too many adversarial relationships to meet
the time, cost, and quality constraints in the new
environment (Goldbaum 1988; Hancher 1989).
In recent years increased interest in cooperative
arrangements, such as partnering, has been noticeable
in the construction industry as a means to mitigate
escalating conflicts and adversarial relationships in
many countries (Bresnen and Marshall 2000; Chan
et al. 2003; Ng et al. 2002).
Companies must seek new strategies to lower
costs and differentiate themselves to gain competitive
advantage (Kearney 1987; Modic 1988).
Partnering cannot solve all the problems in the con-
struction industry; it is only a management technique,
and its success is totally dependent on the people who
drive it (Slater 1998).
The mechanism by which the benefits of partnering
are actually achieved is still not clear. If the quintessen-
tial nature of partnering is understood, it is possible for
participants to tailor these principles to meet their own
particular requirements (Critchlow 1998).
Clearly there is a need to identify critical success
factors CSFs for partnering and to develop quantifi-
able models (Li et al. 2000; Lazar 2000).
The Chinese industrial culture shares many ele-
ments with partnering and the influence of cul-
ture on partnering is well accepted, (Rahman and
Kumaraswamy 2002).
In alliancing, parties contractually commit to their
contribution levels and required profit and then place
these at risk in undertaking the project. This provides
a powerful incentive to achieve project goals (Walker
and Hampson 2003).
302
Despite the potential benefits to be gained by partic-
ipants from the implementation of partnering, there are
obstacles and barriers to successful partnering. (Chan
et al. 2003, Larson and Drexler1997, Li and Green
1996, and Ng et al. 2002).
2 CONCEPT OF PARTNERING
Partnering can be used as a contracting strategy
between owners, contractors, and engineering com-
panies to attain mutually desirable goals, to satisfy
long-term needs, and to achieve future competitive
advantage (Stralkowski et al. 1988).
Partnering, aimed at increasing cooperation and
integration between project participants by building
trust and commitment and decreasing disputes, can
bring about advantages regarding quality, sustainabil-
ity, dispute resolution, human resource management,
innovation, and time and cost reductions (Barlow et al.
1997; Chan et al. 2003; Egan 1998).
Arizona Department of Transportation the contin-
gency value of partnered projects was only 3% instead
of the historical trend of 5%; comparable partnered
projects were completed 20% earlier than traditional
projects. (Warne 1994).
The increased need for cooperation is also derived
from increased complexity, uncertainty, and time
pressure characterizing construction projects (Anvuur
and Kumaraswamy 2007; Eriksson 2008).
Since the degree of cooperation and integration
among the participants is affected by procurement,
many aspects of the traditional procurement proce-
dures need to be changed when implementing partner-
ing (Eriksson and Laan 2007; Eriksson and Pesmaa
2007).
The scope of partnering relationships in industries
ranges from informal working arrangements between
customers and suppliers to contractual pacts that are
legally binding and enforceable (Goldbaum 1988).
The benefits produced by partnering as: An
improved ability to respond to changing project envi-
ronment; improved quality and safety; reduced cost
and project time; improved profit and value; and more
effective utilization of resources (Cowan 1992, Kubal
1994, Li and Green1996, and Mc-George and Palmer
1997).
Based on a study of 280 construction projects,
reported that partnered projects achieved better results
than other projects in controlling costs, in technical
performance and in satisfying customer expectations
(Larson 1995).
Based on the results of 25 alliancing projects the
cost of alliancing projects is, on average, 8.10% lower
than the target cost, and the duration of allianc-
ing projects is on average 6.94% less than schedule
(Gallagher 2002, Olds 2002, Ross 2001, Clegg 2001,
Scott 2001, Voordijk 2000, Barlow 2000, Shwer 1997,
and the ACA 1999).
Partnering has been used by U.S. manufacturing
and distribution industries since the early 1980s as a
contracting strategy and used to describe the strate-
gic alliances on long-term, highly structured agree-
ments between companies to high degree cooperation
to achieve their independently but with complemen-
tary aims. The concept of partnering is based on the
complementary opportunities may exist between com-
petitors or participators to preclude the impedes or
barriers and obscure issues in short time and allowed
each one pursuing objectives and obligations with
other customers, suppliers, or competitors.
3 PARTNERING ELEMENTS
3.1 Trust
A successful partnering relationship requires each
company to share its strategies and possibly share
proprietary or confidential information (Morgan and
Stundza 1988).
By eliminating adversarial relationships, compa-
nies can share information and control to capture
seemingly obscure synergies in systemic fashion
(Morgan and Stundza 1988).
Trust can be defined as the belief that a party is
reliable in fulfilling its obligations in an exchange
relationship (Pruitt 1981).
Mutual trust increase information exchange and
joint problem solving and promise better outcomes
(Mohr and Spekman 1994).
Mutual trust is critical to open the boundaries of
the relationship as it can relieve stress and enhance
adaptability (Williamson 1985),
Mutual trust increase information exchange and
joint problem solving (Zand 1972).
Partnering creates a trust-based environment, thus
encouraging project participants to make maximum
contributions to achieving the completion of a suc-
cessful project to the benefit of all (CII 1991; Cowan
1992; Scott 2001)
By establishing trust, organizations begin to
develop confidence in each other, which gradu-
ally influences them to merge their boundaries, and
finally trust encourages parties to make their merged
boundary more permeable, allowing active inter-
organizational exchange (Growley and Karim 1995).
Trust and contracting methods are related, and a
trust relationship can be the root cause for a significant
saving in construction cost. (Zaghloul and Hartman
2003).
Trust is the pivotal attitudinal factor of partnering.
(Cheung et al. 2003).
Many researchers have identified that partnering is
a trust-based relationship which is critical to max-
imizing positive economic outcomes indicate that
also point out the positive influence of trust is real-
ized through facilitating open communication among
participants. Positive attitudes to people are vital to
successful communication, as good communication
and willing cooperation are merged in each other.
Therefore, trust is the basis of open communication
303
among partners as it can be claimed to be the pivotal
attitudinal factor which the benefits of partnering are
directly depend on it.
3.2 Mutual objectives
The first step of partnering is to develop a partner-
ing charter addressing mutual objectives. Joint goal
formulation provides a deeper understanding of the
projects overall goals and the difficulties and pos-
sibilities involved in their establishment (Kadefors
2004).
3.3 Long-term commitment
Partnering is a commitment between two or more
organizations for the purpose of achieving specific
business objectives by maximizing the effectiveness
of each participants resources. This requires chang-
ing traditional relationships to a shared culture without
regard to organizational boundaries. This relationship
is based on trust, dedication to common goals, and an
understanding of each others individual expectations
and values (Construction Industry Institute 1995).
Commitment will provide a synergistic environ-
ment that encourages trust and openness and empow-
ers individuals to employ breakthrough thinking in a
supportive environment (Morgan and Stundza 1988,
Morgan and Dowst 1988; Weimer et al. 1988).
Partnering is a commitment-intensive process that
requires effort from all the parties involved. What it
offers is an alternative to the traditionally acrimonious
relationship between an owner and a construction
contractor (U.S. Department of Interior 1991). Com-
mitment is the most important element in partnering
relationship establishment. The partnering companies
must commit to a long-term relationship in which
each one understands the goals of the others, and each
seek a new ways to assist the partner in achieving its
goals and each partner has a clear focus on continuous
improvement of the long-term relationship and dedi-
cation to common goals. Partnering bring a clear intent
between the partners to maintain a functional organi-
zation and implies a long-term relationship over many
projects. The turnover of manager and supervisory per-
sonnel has impacted the schedule, cost, and quality of
a project and it is an inevitable in construction industry.
The partnering can minimize the turnover supervisory
personnel and management as adverse effects on the
construction project due to interfaces between the two
or more companies compare to single one with sin-
gle project. Long-term commitment is described as
the willingness of the involved parties to integrate
continuously to weather unanticipated problems.
3.4 Management skill on use of opportunities
The appropriate managements skills can convert
threats to opportunities suppose effective communica-
tion and conflict resolution are conducive to successful
partnering.
3.4.1 Open communication in partnering
Open communication refers to the free flow of
resources in terms of ideas, knowledge, skills,
and technology through different effective channels
(Cheng and Li 2001).
Partnering provides methods through which it is
natural to discuss and share information about new
processes, innovations, improvements, and manage-
ment practices, and thus makes it possible to have
a level of information exchange that does not exist
traditionally (Ronco 1996).
3.4.2 Improved total quality management
Partnering is another way of implementing quality
management by attempting to improve the commu-
nication flow in a project (Chini and Valdez 2003).
The role of partnering in enhancing TQM in con-
struction can also be largely attributed to open commu-
nication. Open communication enables all participants
to be much more integrated, and as a result the bar-
riers to implementation of TQM in construction can
be substantially removed. so, it is expected that part-
nering can improve the implementation of TQM in
construction.
3.4.3 Improve risk management
The added information brought about by partner-
ing can reduce some uncertainties, and therefore can
reduce the risks of a project because of the value of
the information. This value arises from a change in
actions because of the change in understanding after
the receipt of the information (Buck 1989).
Information that has value reduces lost opportunity
(Buck 1989).
3.5 Increased opportunity of success
3.5.1 Incentives
Incentives can create a more proactive, coopera-
tive relationship between the contracting parties, and
reinforce the cultural shift away from the traditional
adversarial approach to contracting. (Walker and
Hampson 2003).
For clients, the project objectives should be an opti-
mum combination of time, cost and quality, which
contributes to their business objective. Misalignment
between the owner and the contractors (Scott 2001).
Use of the gain-share/ pain-share mechanism is one
of the fundamentals of equitable relationships among
parties, and parties to an agreement should be aligned
not only through common goals, but also through
shared business interests in the projects success (ACA
1999).
3.5.2 Conflict resolution
The conflict resolution can be either productive or
destructive and largely depends on the manner in
which partners resolve conflict (Mohr and Spekman
1994).
Impediments to successful partnering encountered
by participants can be largely due to a lack of
304
understanding of the deeper concepts underlying part-
nering. There appears to be considerable uncertainty
as to how to translate general principles of partnering
into any sort of concrete application, and the uncer-
tainty is largely born of the vagueness of the partnering
concept, which means many things to many people
(Critchlow 1998).
As managers of our individual or corporate duty,
we must take advantage of the opportunities uniquely
available not only to achieve sensible resolutions of
disputes but also to avoid the conflicts in the first place
(Your 1991).
3.5.3 Adequate resources
Nevertheless, for enhancing the sharing of resources,
mutual interaction should be emphasized (Devlin and
Bleackley 1988).
The permeable boundaries for flow of appropriate
resources from one organization to other was restricted
for leakage of sensitive and confidential information
(Crowley and Karim 1995).
3.5.4 Top management support
Mutual agreement from senior management of
involved parties is important since the goals and
objectives projected by each organization should be
compatible and aligned with one another (Rai et al.
1996).
3.5.5 Creativity or innovation
Partnering has been acknowledged by many as an inno-
vative approach to the procurement of construction
services in the industry. It lowers the risk of cost over-
runs and delays as a result of better time and cost
control over the project (Cowan et al. 1992; Moore
et al. 1992; Abudayyeh 1994; CII 1996; Thompson
and Sanders 1998; Gransberg et al. 1999; Black et al.
2000; Li et al. 2001).
Partnering increases the opportunity for innova-
tion, especially in the development of value engi-
neering changes and constructability improvement
(Abudayyeh 1994; Li et al. 2001).
4 BENEFITS OF PARTNERING
Though the partnering experiment is fairly recent in
Caltrans projects, the benefits of such relationships
with contractors are being realized. Caltrans intent is
to eventually establish partnering relationships with all
its contractors, and to express such interest in every
projects special provisions document. This section
briefly describes the potential benefits of partnering,
to Caltrans, as well as to its contractors (Partnering
1991a; Weston 1993; Cook 1990).
The partnering relationship encourages the com-
panies to identify major obstacles to the successful
completion of the project and to develop preventive
action plans to overcome those obstacles before they
impact schedule or cost (Rubin and Lawson 1988).

Figure 1. Conceptual parterning model.
By partnering in the project, team members can
work together to achieve the highest level of quality
and safety (Provost and Lipscomb 1988).
All the potential benefits resulting from partner-
ing relationships, perhaps the one that will have the
most impact on the construction industry is improved
project quality (Laime 1987).
5 RISK OF PARTNERING
A successful partnering relationship requires that each
company understand the others objectives, business
strategy, and how the relationship will provide a com-
petitive advantage (Goldbaum 1988; Kearney 1987;
Morgan and Dowst 1988).
As many companies have experienced through tra-
ditional business relations with customers and sup-
pliers, company weaknesses and insufficiencies are
accentuated by mutual dependencies (Conrads 1983).
An owner must evaluate the risk of proprietary infor-
mation not protected by patents falling into the hands
of competitors (Stralkowski et al. 1988).
6 CONCLUSION
In the construction industry, U.S. construction compa-
nies were losing market share because of increased
foreign competition, increased change in customer
requirements, and the rapid development of new tech-
nologies (Kearney 1987; Morgan and Dowst 1988).
American construction companies realized that to
succeed in the diverse and complex global market-
place they had to develop new contracting strategies
for growth and to maintain the companies compet-
itive position. Partnering is a direct response to this
challenge (Conrads 1983).
Partnering relations is a strategic alliances of
long-term relationship with high structured agree-
ments among companies to cooperate in high degree
to achieve their separate but complementary objec-
tives. Partnering permits each participant pursuing
independent objectives and obligations with other
customers, constructors, or suppliers. Partnering com-
panies committed a long-term relationship by mutual
305
understanding of the goals of the partner and each
one is commitment to assist the others in achieving
commensurate goals. However, impedes and obsta-
cle to form or development and risks in partnering
may existed, and partners have to aware of it. Con-
struction industries and engineering firms may use
partnering as a contracting strategy to enhance their
competitiveness, augment product quality, and pro-
viding the needs of customer. The adversarial atmo-
sphere owner-constructor-engineer relationship can
replaced by effectively potential partnering agreement
that which will foster a team approach to achieve
common goals. In the construction company to imple-
ment partnering as a business strategy, the industry
should develop a partnering process and its will pro-
vide the construction industry for maintaining and
establishing a partnering relationship. Partnering has
the potential in contracting strategy for constructors,
engineers and owners. The elaborated paradigm of
existing partnering in the industry, and their success,
impelled us to apply partnering relationship more
widely on construction projects. Partnering aims is to
stimulating for cooperate construction parties, deter-
mining efficient and effective tools and techniques
for the construction projects, formulating the most
appropriate goals and objectives to improve project
performance by using of appropriate management
skill suppose effective communication and conflict
resolution and the development of mutual trust and
long-term commitment.
REFERENCES
Anvuur, A.M., and Kumaraswamy, M.M. (2007). Con-
ceptual model of partnering and alliancing. Journal of
Construction Engineering and Management, ASCE,
133(3), 225234.
Cheng, E.W.L., and Li, H. (2004). Development of a
practical model of partnering for construction projects.
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management,
ASCE, 130(6), 790798.
Weston, D.C., and Gibson, G.E. (1993). Partnering-project
performance in U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Journal of
Management in Engineering, ASCE, 9(4), 410425.
Larson, E. (1995). Project partnering: results of study of
280 construction projects. Journal of Management in
Engineering, ASCE, 11(2), 3035.
Crowley, L.G., and Karim, A. (1995). Conceptual model
of partnering. Journal of Management in Engineering,
ASCE, 11(5), 3339.
Crane, T.G., Felder, G.P., Thompson, P.J., Thompson, M.G.,
and Sanders, S.R. (1997). Partnering process model.
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5763.
Weston, D. C., and Gibson, G. E. (1993). Partnering-project
performance in U.S. army corps of engineers. J. Mgmt.
in Engrg., 9(4), 410425.
Brown, J. (1994) Partnering to save troubled projects. J.
Manage. Eng., 10(3), 2225.
Slater, T. S. (1998). Partnering: Agreeing to agree. J.
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U.S. construction industry. J. Manage. Eng., 19(2), 69
77. Engrg., ASCE, 12(1), 2633.
Growley, L. G., and Karim, M. A. (1995). Conceptual model
of partnering. J. Manage. Eng., 11(5), 3339.
Crowley, L. G. and Karim, M. A. (1995). Conceptual
model of partnering. J. Mgmt. in Engrg., ASCE, 11(5),
3339.
Bower, D., Ashby, G., Gerald, K., and Smyk, W. (2002).
Incentive mechanisms for project success. J. Manage.
Eng., 18(1), 3743.
Abudayyeh, O. (1994). Partnering: A team building
approach to quality construction management. J. Mgmt.
in Engrg., ASCE, 10(6), 2629.
Construction Industry Institute (CII) (1991). In Search of
Partnering Excellence Publication no. 171, Report CII,
Austin, TX.
Construction Industry Institute (CII (1996). Partnering:
Models for success, partnering task force, Austin, Tex.

306
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Simulation modeling of a concrete transporting system for

construction of RCC dams

Chunju Zhao, Jun Wang, Yihong Zhou & Hui Dong

College of Hydraulic and Environmental, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, Hubei, China

ABSTRACT: In this paper, the transporting system for construction for roller compacted concrete (RCC) dams
is analyzed in two aspects: road system and transporting current. Circuit is divided into section nodes, fork nodes
and loading/unloading nodes. Transporting current is described by starting time, concrete type, concrete volume,
circuit, etc.. Based on the analysis, a model of RCC dam was established in this paper by queuing theory, cyclic
network technique and system simulation technique.

Keywords: simulation model, concrete transporting system, queuing theory, cyclic network technique,
RCC dam

1 INTRODUCTION system engineering theory, stochastic service theory,

In China, most of large hydraulic projects are built in
mountainous zones. Due to the topography features of
the dam site, the structures and construction roads are
compactly laid out, which makes the management and
arrangement of the concrete transporting system par-
ticularly important during the construction period[3] .
The requirement of concrete transporting current for
RCC dams are criss-cross in space, time and concrete
type distribution. In a traditional design process, the
design of concrete roads and vehicle configuration
is mainly based on experiences, empirical formulas.
However, designers cannot get detailed data of the
running results, such as the rationality of the vehi-
cle configuration, the crowding level of construction
roads, vehicles operating status, etc. Without these
detailed parameters, designers wont know if the road
design and machinery disposition is reasonable. If the
machines are less or the road grade is lower than
actual in need, the transporting intensity cannot match
with the pouring intensity, thus delay the construction
period; if the machines are more than actual in need,
a queue may formed at loading sites or forks, which
may decrease the transporting density and machine
utilization.
In this paper, some theories are incorporated to ana-
lyze the concrete transporting system and to establish
a simulation model. Computer simulation is employed
to analyze the running status and dynamic process of
concrete transporting by simulation models. It can help
us analyze the structure, function, behavior, and the
interaction of various factors of the transporting sys-
tem comprehensively and meticulously. The behavior
of transporting system and its relations with con-
crete producing and concreting are analyzed jointly by
queuing theory and cyclic network theory.
Running the simulation model on a computer,
designers can get detailed parameters which can reflect
the operating process of the design scheme during
the construction period. To evaluate the transporting
roads and machine utilization, designers should ana-
lyze the calculation results and find out whether the
road design and machine utilization is reasonable. If
the scheme it not that satisfied, then change related
parameters until the optimum scheme is got. Thus the
construction period and resource of the project can
be optimized; bottle neck of the construction process
and unnecessary waste of different resources can be
effectively avoided.
2 ANALYSIS OF A CONCRETE
TRANSPORTING SYSTEM
The transporting system is closely linked to the con-
struction process and concrete production system.
Firstly, RCC dams are often arranged in the moun-
tainous areas where the construction space is narrow,
which can make the road layout dense; furthermore,
there are lots of road forks. Secondly, In order to speed
up the project process, multi-facial and multi-types of
work in parallel cross-operation are taken. At the same
time, the upper layer concrete should be placed before
the initial setting of the under layer concrete, which
requires the producing, transporting and pouring of the
concrete can be finished at a heat. Therefore, the inten-
sity of concretes transporting system must be able to
meet the intensity of its pouring system. Thirdly, there
are several kinds of concrete needs to be transported

307

Figure 1. Transportation system.
during the construction process such as RCC, nor-
mal concrete (NC), grout enriched vibrated concrete
(GEVC), etc. For the same concrete type, there are
still different marks. Their production and transporta-
tion equipment should be separated, which also makes
the organization and scheduling of RCC construction
more difficult.
Figure 1 shows a typical condition with a
T-intersection of the concrete transporting system.
Section 1# is a main road. It is active from the begin-
ning to the ending of a project. Section 2# and section
3# are branch lines, they are active for several months.
Their controlling elevation and dam blocks are also dif-
ferent. The table shows part of the complicate concrete
needs for a certain time quantum.
The operation of the transporting system is so com-
plex that the designers should take full consideration
of each factor. The transportation intensity should be
guaranteed while the costs should be as low as pos-
sible. The key point is the road design and machine
allocation. Lower grade road can reduce the cost. But,
if the road is under capacity, the transportation inten-
sity cannot be guaranteed. Trucks have to wait in front
of the service desk and the utilization reduces. If the
trucks are too few, they have to move all day long.
If a fault happens, the concrete pouring intensity has
to reduce and a pause may cause. If too many trucks
are set, the utilization will decrease since the pouring
intensity is not so heavy. The costs will also increase.
Based on the above analysis, its significant to opti-
mize the design and find a best scheme which makes
the whole transporting system and construction system
operate well.
3 SYSTEM MODELING
The simulation model of concrete transporting system
is divided into two parts: road system and transporta-
tion current. During the whole transportation process,
308
Figure 2. Transportation process.
pouring intensity is a strong constraint that must be
fulfilled. During the construction period, a number
of transport roads are arranged while all roads inter-
sect both in time and space, which forms a complex
transport network. This paper defines the road system
with proper data structure and builds a road model
of road system. The transporting current also changes
with time. Loading the transporting current to the road
system, the simulation model of concrete transporting
system is built.
3.1 Description of road system
Internal transporting roads are channels which con-
nect the production system and pouring system. It
can be considered as a random queuing service sys-
tem: trucks are served at the loading site, and then get
into the road system. When reaching the pouring area,
trucks discharge the concrete and return to the loading
site waiting for next service. If a fork exists, judg-
ment should be made whether a conflict will occur.
The service time every procedure takes are random.
The schematic diagram of the transportation process
is as in Figure 2.
Parameters used to describe the internal concrete
transporting system are road capacity, traffic volume,
fork queuing probability, queue length, etc.
Traditional transporting system simulation is more
likely to analyze a typical period of transport condi-
tions, and rarely considers the queuing problem at road
intersections. But in actual construction process, the
transportation of materials and supplies are involved
from the beginning to the ending of the projects. More-
over, if a queue were formed at the intersection, it may
turn into the bottle neck of the whole construction pro-
cess, thus affecting the quality and the duration of the
project. Based on the above analysis, the transport cir-
cuit can be divided into section nodes, fork nodes and
loading/unloading nodes.
3.1.1 Section nodes
The properties of the section nodes can be described
by serial number, length, gradient, active periods, road
grades, maximum vehicle density and other indexes.

Figure 3. T-intersection.
Length: the length from the last queuing node to the
next queuing node, its an important parameter to
calculate the time that the trucks operated.
Gradient: restricted by the landscape, some sections
of the roads may have the slope. When the gradient
changes, the speed of the trucks also changes.
Active periods: as the growing of the dam, the trans-
port roads changes. When the dam reaches a certain
height, some roads cant be used any more. So the
active periods can be used to describe the sections.
Road grades: different roads undertake different
assignments and have different requests. For this
reason, roads are designed as different grades.
Maximum vehicle density: the main guideposts of the
road model.
3.1.2 Fork nodes
At the construction site, there are many intersec-
tions since the roads are intensively arranged. In the
transporting system of RCC dams, there are usu-
ally T-intersections rather than crosses, So this paper
only analyzes the T-intersection. Service desk is set at
each conflict point of a T-intersection. The schematic
diagram and network diagram are as follows:
Common rules of the T-intersection according to the
traffic rules and the practical projects are as follows:
Load carrying trucks have priority.
Trucks on the road of higher grade have priority.
As showed in figure 2, if trucks coming from k1 con-
flict with trucks coming from k2, the k1 trucks have
priority.
If the queue length is equal to or more than N
(N depends on specific project conditions), the queu-
ing trucks have priority. As showed in figure 2, when
trucks coming from k1 conflict with trucks coming
from k2, if the queue length of k2 is equal to or more
than N, then trucks from k1 should wait until trucks
from k2 go through the intersection.
The main indicators that describe the fork nodes
are queuing probability and queuing length.
3.1.3 Loading/unloading nodes
Normally, there are more than one discharge ports of
the concrete production system. Trucks can get load at
different discharge port when they reached the produc-
tion system. So the loading system can be considered
309
Figure 4. Network of T-intersection.
Figure 5. Network of loading system.
as a single-queue & multi-server system. The network
is shown in figure 4. Since the decks of concrete dams
are always big enough to arrange several unload points,
the queuing at the unload node can be ignored.
To build the cycle network model of RCC dams
transporting system, principles as follows should be
kept (Wang, 2009):
a) All queuing nodes must be followed by service
nodes, the nodes in front of the service node must
be queuing nodes.
b) If different types of loading and transporting
machines are arranged, the manufacturing system
should be divided into several loading nodes.
c) If the manufacturing system supplies concrete for
several unload points, the manufacturing system
should be divided into several loading system
according to the number of the unload points.
d) The nodes that the truck flow moved through
should be a closed circuit.
e) For the same section, load carrying operation and
empty return operation are two completely different
nodes.
3.2 Transportation current
The major entities of transporting current are trucks.
They carry concrete to the pouring block at different
time by different roads, as shown in figure 1. Differ-
ent types of concrete are needed, the trucks transport
concrete from a concrete producing system to two
unloading point. When a dam block is prepared to pour,
the starting time, concrete type, concrete mark, con-
crete volume, transporting circuit and can be figured
out. Then transporting system arrange the transporta-
tion current flow into a certain circuit and continue for
some time. Service desks are set at loading/unloading
point and conflict point of forks. When the transporta-
tion work begins, trucks flow into a circuit as shown in
figure 2 until the transportation task finished. Trucks
get served at the loading point. If the service desk is
busy, following trucks should queue until the service
desk is free. After loaded, trucks get into section 1#.
Then judge whether a fork and a conflict exist. If not,
get into the next section. Otherwise, trucks should wait
for service at each desk and get into next section until
reaching the discharging point. The return process is
the same as the load carrying process. Service time at
each desk is random and can be generated by a com-
puter. Calculate and accumulate the service time and
waiting time of each step, the designer can get statis-
tics and analyze it, which can help them optimize the
scheme.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The transporting system of RCC dams has the charac-
teristics of high intensity, compactly layout and so on,
based on which the simulation model can be estab-
lished by using system engineering theory, queuing
theory, circuit network theory and computer simula-
tion techniques. Operating the model on a computer,
we can get the running parameters of the design and
analyze it well founded. Then modify the original
design if there are any unreasonable elements. By
doing so, the machine arrangements can be more rea-
sonable on utilization, costs, etc. Besides, transporting
demands can be well meet and wasting of resources can
be avoided. To sum up, the simulation of RCC dams
310
transporting system can provide scientific and reli-
able foundation to the systems designing, managing
and operating. The constructors may make decisions
according to the simulation results, which may reduce
the investment and construction period, and also
makes the construction system operates well.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was financially supported by the Three
Gorges University Graduate Research and Innovation
Fund (2011CX018).
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processes [J]. J. Constr. Div. ASCE, 103(3), 489499.
Sun Xi-heng, 1997, Computer simulation and programming
of hydropower simulation, Beijing, China Water & Power
Press.
CHEN Li-hua & MEI Ya-dong & SHEN Ming-liang &
Wang Xian-xun, 2007, Dynamic Simulation of the Trans-
portation System in Large-Scale Hydraulic Engineering
Construction, International Conference onTransportation
Engineering.
Wang Ren-chao & Zhang Li-gang & Shi Ming-hua. 2009,
Transport simulation of large-scale conservancy and
hydropower project, 19942012. China Academic Journal
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ming. 2011, Research on the Road and Transportation
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Hydropower, vol. 5, p. 109112.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Developing a model for profit sharing amongst partners in consulting

engineering companies of construction projects

Alireza Ghaffari
Scholar in Construction Management, Pune University, India

R.K. Jain
D.Y Patil College of Engineering, Pune University, India

ABSTRACT: The consulting engineering companies are private companies and capital for investment has
not performed the pivotal role in this respect, so to find the justly model to share the profit among partners,
insured the stability of the companies. The lack of fair and regulatory system for allocating the shares of the
partners according to the real rights was evident and identifying such formula will definitely result in their
satisfaction, facilitating the membership of new partners by account settlement of previous partners without any
disputes or problems. This would resulting in confidence and efficiency of the partners and the stability of these
companies.The sharing system for profit resulted from consulting engineering companies among the partners
should be according to the impact factors of each partner in economical success of the company. The effective
factors should precisely and multilaterally identified and the weight and their effects should be evaluated and
ultimately by regulating and modeling the profits resulted from the companys activities fairly distributed to each
and every entitled partner on a specific fiscal period (Yearly for instance). A form including 9 clear questions in
relation to the mentioned factors has been provided and offered to 20 major consulting engineering companies
whose main activities are in the field of building designing (residential, trading, industrial, cultural, sporting,
port, rails, roads etc.) and their experience records minimum 14 years. The method of research statistical method
with high literature work back ground in partnering and profit sharing.

Keywords: Consultant, Engineering, Profit, Sharing, Partner, Participation, Model

1 INTRODUCTION It provides the basis for job participants to re-orientate

themselves toward a win-win approach to prob-
1.1 Partnering concept in consulting engineering lem solving and fosters synergistic teamwork among
companies of construction projects them. Commitment, trust, respect, communication,
and equality are designed to include proper considera-
Partnering derives many benefits to contracting par-
tion of the interests of all parties. Many problems, such
ties, including the client, consultants, project man-
as lack of cooperation, lack of trust, and ineffective
agers, main contractor, subcontractors, and on-site
communication leading in an adversarial relationships
employees. Although partnering may not resolve all
between involved parties, need to been faced. This
the problems encountered in the construction process,
kind of relationship is reflected in job delays, diffi-
but creates an effective framework for conflict reso-
culty in resolving claims, cost overruns, litigation, and
lution, improved communications, reduced litigation,
a win-lose climate.
and cost containment on potential overruns. Indeed,
partnering requires commitment at all levels, and each
project shareholder can accrue the perceived benefits
of partnering.
1.2 The scope of the services of a consultant
Over the years, partnering has evolved as an inno-
engineering companies
vative in construction industry. It lowers the risk of
cost overruns and delays as a result of better time Consulting Engineering companies consist of pro-
and cost control over the project. Also, it increases the fessionally qualified engineers or engineering firm
opportunity for innovation, especially in the develop- which, either directly or indirectly, renders any advice,
ment of value engineering changes and constructabil- consultancy or technical assistance in any manner to a
ity improvement because of open communications client in one or more disciplines of engineering. The
and existence of trust among concerned parties. economical and social development of the country

311
demands study, planning and performing the collec-
tions of national and local plans. These plans should
pass through four stages in one of which the consultant
engineers play a significant role and in three others
they play lateral but significant roles too. Realiza-
tion of the needs is the first stage. This stage requires
the current condition, determining the priorities and
identifying the resources, the result of which shall be
ratified by legal authorities and by the proposals of the
Plan and Funding Organization or concerned author-
ities in long term and midterm programs framework.
At this stage, the consultants, as the research organi-
zations, can offer valuable assistance to the proposing
and decision-making entities. Research, planning and
engineering is the second stage that all plans should
pass through. This is the consultant engineers who
play the pivotal role in this stage. At this stage the
optimized utilization of the resources, the progressed
sciences and choosing a suitable technology should
be regarded. The executive operations is the third
most significant stage for all civil and construction
plan in which the main responsibility is held by the
contractor, however supervising work of the contrac-
tor, to ensure that the operations are in compliance
with the plans and designs, shall be performed by
the consultant engineers. Start-up and commissioning
assistance, Site performance tests and As-built docu-
mentation, Training of owners personnel defined as
fourth stage.
2 RATIONALE AND SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE STUDY
This research work has relevance in day to day life of
consulting engineering companies, their persistency,
stability and may facilitate consulting companies joint
venture to act in major international contracts com-
petitions. It cause incentive and motivated action to
participators in performance, productivity, competi-
tion among partners and durable life of consulting
engineering companies with fair appropriate model
among partners. The consulting engineering compa-
nies are private companies and capital for investment
has not performed the pivotal role in this field, so
to find the justly model to share the profit among
partners, insured the stability of the companies. The
lack of fair and regulatory system for allocating the
shares of the partners according to the real rights was
evident and identifying such formula will definitely
result in their satisfaction, facilitating the membership
of new partners by account settlement of previous part-
ners without any disputes or problems. This would
result in confidence and efficiency of the partners
and the stability of these companies. Even more sig-
nificant is the model for attending the international
tenders by facilitating the Joint Ventures formation,
at least in the Gulf and newly independent republic
countries of The Soviet Union, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.
which enhanced the employment and enhanced foreign
exchange profits. Due to world critical financial crisis,
312
even in developed countries such as Italy, Greece,or
most of EU countries, need of brain storming or knowl-
edge sharing as well as financial sharing are evident.
The weight of each and every effective factor on profit
making are evaluated and allocated to the entitled part-
ner on specific fiscal period (Yearly for instance) and
implemented on the model. Identification of the effec-
tive factors in success of profit, determining the weight
of positive impact of each factor and ultimately sharing
the profit on this basis results in fair economical justice
of the said companies. Extracting fairly valued system
necessitates for distributing the profits, enhance the
stability and performance of the company or institutes
and provides an appropriate humanitarian relationship
in performing the work.
3 FACTORS EFFECT TO ECONOMICAL
SUCCESS OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING
COMPANIES
3.1 Qualification or degrees which obtained by
partner
3.2 Experience and work records
3.3 Rate of cooperation
3.4 Key money or company record due to
reputation earned by long service records
The credits of company depends on the goodwill or
key-money due to old members. The oldness of the
company or reputation earned by long services records
of old partners and their efforts results in goodwill
of the consulting companies to receive new projects
which may called the Key money due to the prior
partners and their attempt.
3.5 Entrepreneurship skills
The partners (Shareholders) who can obtain new
projects for the company should be distinguished from
others. The entrepreneurship weight to the gross profit
should allocated to the partners efforts in this regard.
3.6 Capital
The partners may provide various portions of the cap-
ital in providing archive and library, computer and
the related equipment, or buying a suitable building
for the company, furniture, tables chairs, etc and can
receive profit as their share by finding out the ratio of
this factor to gross profit.
3.7 Grading and ranking in compliance with the
fund and programme organization or
authorized organization
Grading and ranking is a significant factor in receiving
big projects especially the state projects.
3.8 Work significance coefficient or responsibility
factor
The work significance coefficient may defined as:
1-Managing director 2-Member of the board of
directors 3-Project manger 4-Designing and research
Technical expert 5-Head of the technical unit 6-Head
of supervisors 7-Executive affairs exper 8-Technical
or designing personnel 9-Supervisory personnel.
3.9 Efficiency or output
The maximum efficiency index is one (P = 1) and
the partners who are less efficient should hold a por-
tion of 1 which shall be applied to their remuneration
according to their education levels and experiences.
3.10 The priority of internal experience
of partner inside the company to
external ones
3.11 Working conditions
3.12 Partners demand market
Official laws on remuneration, insurance, and so on of
partners by state rule or engineering council for stan-
dard of living in the areas where the offices of the
company are settled and average partners remunera-
tion in similar work in other companies also may be
affected on education and experience factors.
3.13 Working structure
Risky condition of the work can take as positive
effect in remuneration of partners by implementing
to education and experience factors.
4 ADVANTAGES OF RESEARCH
1. To facilitate the Joint venture of companies to
stand in international tenders or bids contracts
which will bring currency and welfare to home
country.
2. To increase efficiency and stability of the institute.
3. Regulating the necessary relationships among the
partners
4. Increase in the economical capacity, involve-
ment of the consultant engineers with the general
problems by determining fair allocation of the
profits which are resulting from the consultant
engineers services among the related persons are
the necessity reasons.
5. Applicable to the all consulting engineering
companies
6. It stabilizes participators, because if they leave the
concern during the course of year, they lose their
share profit so turnover of partners minimized and
5 to 15% of turnover charge vanished.
7. It gives positive incentive to participators to stick
to their job to the all consulting engineering
companies.
313
8. There is no need of strict supervision on job as
they directly linked with the share of profit.
9. The partners realized that increase in output or
reduction in cost will benefit to their personal
profit so the model create an interest among them
to work heartedly.
10. The management and partners cooperate to max-
imize the profit and so ensure peace and better
work relation and conflict minimize to an end.
11. An additional earning will be constructive in
participators welfare.
12. The partners feel a sense of responsibility and
ownership and self motivated.
13. It increase productivity and improve the quality.
14. Brings groups of partners to work together toward
a common goal and aim.
15. Enhances commitment to companies goal.
16. Reduce time of productivity in construction.
5 LIMITATION OF RESEARCH
1. This model is not applicable to the TURN KEY,
EPC, (Engineering procurements construction) or
E.C. Contract Companies.
2. The portion(ratio) of capital to the gross profit
increases a bit for the consultant engineering com-
panies which have large and equipped laborato-
ries, however there will no change in the whole
process.
3. The companies are reporting to this research will
have at least 14 years record of services. New
founded companies can consider a proportion
(ratio) out of the stability period regarding their
years of records.
4. In the time of depression, the profits of the con-
cern are either very low or are turned into losses,
the participators morale will be at its lowest and
unwilling.
5. The profit sharing ensure the stability of partici-
pators which reduce the mobility of them or turn
over minimized.
6 BACKGROUNG IN PARTNERING
Cowan 1992, Kubal 1994, Li and Green 1996, and
Mc-George and Palmer 1997 have generalized the ben-
efits produced by partnering as: An improved ability
to respond to changing project environment; improved
quality and safety; reduced cost and project time;
improved profit and value; and more effective utiliza-
tion of resources. Based on a study of 280 construction
projects, Larson 1995 reported that partnered projects
achieved better results than other projects in control-
ling costs, in technical performance and in satisfying
customer expectations. The findings of Graijek et al.
2000, Gransberg et al. 1999, Pocock et al. 1997, and
Weston and Gibson 1993 have included some quan-
titative analysis of improvements to cost and time
performance gained via partnering. Based on these
four studies, preliminary benchmarks for duration and
cost improvement have been developed. The average
decrease in duration for partnered projects was 8.99%
less than for traditional projects, and the average cost
overruns for partnering projects was simultaneously
lower than for traditional projects. These results are
consistent with the findings of Warne 1994, who
concluded that in the Arizona Department of Trans-
portation the contingency value of partnered projects
was only 3% instead of the historical trend of 5%;
comparable partnered projects were completed 20%
earlier than traditional projects. These results give an
indication of the trend of improvement achieved from
partnering. There is significantly less information
available for alliancing projects than for partnering
projects and the information is typically reported by
way of case studies. Based on the results of 25 allianc-
ing projects reported by Gallagher 2002, Olds 2002,
Ross 2001, Clegg 2001, Scott 2001, Voordijk 2000,
Barlow 2000, Shwer 1997, and the ACA 1999, the cost
of alliancing projects is, on average, 8.10% lower than
the target cost, and the duration of alliancing projects is
on average 6.94% less than schedule. Research into the
important components of partnering has been under-
taken by many studies through identifying the CSFs of
partnering. The main CSFs identified include mutual
objectives, commitment, equity, trust, attitude, open-
ness, effective communication, teambuilding, problem
resolution, timely responsiveness. Despite the poten-
tial benefits to be gained by participants from the
implementation of partnering. Moore et al. 1992 stated
that construction industry confronted several prob-
lems, as ineffective communications, limited trust, and
lack of cooperation, leading to an adversarial rela-
tionship among all project stakeholders. Which cause
project delays, difficulty in resolving claims, cost
overruns, litigation, and a win-lose climate and Black
et al. 2000 believe that, partnering has evolved an
innovative approach to procurement of construction
services in the industry. It lowers the risk of cost over-
runs and delays as a result of better time and cost
control over the project. Also, it increases the oppor-
tunity for innovation, especially in the development
of value engineering changes and constructability
improvement Abudayyeh 1994 because of open com-
munications and existence of trust among project
parties. It provides the basis for project participants to
re-orientate themselves toward a win-win approach
to problem solving and fosters synergistic teamwork
among them. The fundamental principles of partner-
ing: Commitment, trust, respect, communication, and
equality are designed to include proper consideration
of the interests of all parties at every level; Cowan
et al. 1992 and Uher 1999. The need of this research is
to portray combine impact of partnering concept, sig-
nificant factors in partnering and fair distribution of
profit sharing amongst partners by considering funda-
mental or pivotal factors in pragmatically elaborated
paradigm in consulting construction engineering com-
panies,which cause long-liveness or stability, financial
succeed, synergistic teamwork and win-win scenario
314
for partners even in international contract projects as
well as domestic ones.
7 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
To determine the true (fair) sharing system for
profit resulted from the engineering and technical
services at the consulting engineering companies
among the partners.
To recognize the effective factors which have
provided economical success for the company.
To ensure the stability and durability of consulting
engineering companies or life existence of those.
To find fair appropriate model for profit shar-
ing among shareholders or partners which directly
related to the life existence of consulting engineer-
ing companies.
Specifying the effective factors in success of the
companies and general modeling of the method and
positive contribution of each factor increases the
efficiency or performance, stability of the institute
and a better human relationship and fundamentally
from the aspect of value, which results in just and
profit distribution system as a desired aim.
8 METHODOLOGY AND TECHNIQUE USED
The statistical method which results will be drawn
from data collection of consulting engineering
construction companies, qualification and ranking
bylaw of consulting companies, ASCE journals in
rules and regulation of consulting companies, etc,
will be studied and modified in model.
After determining the success factors of the com-
pany, the weight or impact of these factors enquired
by questioning from 20 engineering consulting
companies which have at least 14 years of expe-
rience or work record. The questionnaire will be
collected and finalized by the obtained factor
indexes, recommendations and eventually collected
data was analyzed and implemented in the model.
9 SURVEY TO OBTAIN THE WEIGHT OF
EACH FACTOR
In order to determine the impact of each factor in prof-
itability for distributing the profit, a form including 9
clear questions subjected to effective factors has been
provided and offered to 20 major consulting engineer-
ing companies whose main activities are in the field
of building designing (residential, trading, industrial,
cultural, sporting, port, rails, roads etc.), architecture,
urban development, etc, with their experience records
minimum 14 years. By referring to each of companies
several times and spending lot to clarify their responses
for obtaining logical and confident responses to imple-
ment in the fair profit sharing model. Totally two
companies not responded at all and one company
has written about the impossibility of modeling in
profit sharing system and other one did not offer log-
ical response in compare to others. Those four would
not take into account. Although it is too difficult to
perform researches accurately, but by spending much
time for explaining the issue and by triple referring to
the consultant engineers companies, achieved to get
rational responses. The final results has accepted by
all contributed companies. The companies which were
participated on this research with their field of activity
illustrated in table 1.
10 QUESTION FORM OF RESEARCH
10.1 Questions
1. how many percent of the gross profit can allo-
cate to technical work remuneration of all partners
(The salary of the partners)?
25%, 27.5%, 30%, 32.5%, etc.
2. By considering 100 points to BE Level without
experience back grounds, please fill the table 2.
3. What is the ratio of work experiences outside to
inside of the company suppose for new comer
partners?
4. The entrepreneurship skill or marketing skill is a
very important factor in persisting or stability of the
consulting engineering companies. What portion of
the profit should allocate for partners who has able
to obtained profitable projects on their credits or
reputation.
A. 20% B. 30% C. 40% D.50%
5. The ranking and grading according to the Fund and
Programme Organization Laws is a significant fac-
tor is receiving the big projects particularly state
projects. What portion of the profit resulted from
grading and ranking would allocate to the partners
involved in this issue?
5%, 7%, 9%, 11%, 13%, 15%, . . . .
6. The oldness or experience records of company have
caused in famousness and well-known of receiving
new projects. What portion of the total profit should
be allocated to partners involved in this issue?
1. Up to 3 years . . . . . . . .
2. Up to 6 years . . . . . . . .
3. Up to 12 years . . . . . . . .
4. More than 12 years . . . . . . . .
7. Capital may plays its role in establishment of
the consultant engineers companies in providing
rentals or buying a suitable department or archive,
library, (computer, chair and tables etc.) and the
partners may provide various portions of the capi-
tal. What portion of the profit should be allocated
to the partners in this issue?
6% 8% 10% 12% 14% etc.
315
8. What portion of the profit do you expect to receive
from the obtained project?
9. Considering the points 1 for grade one management
such as Managing director, what points can con-
sider for grade two management and others such as
supervisors and designers?
Coefficient of the grade 1 management = 1
Coefficient of the grade 2 management = ?
Coefficient of the grade supervisors and
designers = ?
11 RESULT OF RESEARH
The mean results from 16 mentioned companies
offered logical answers for each factor in profitability
of the company which has accepted by all companies.
These results are as follows:
1. The percent of technical work remuneration of all
partners (The salary of the partners) in proportion to
the gross profit is 35%. This 35% is calculated with
respect to the education level and the experiences
of the partners.
2. The oldness or record of the company for the
companies with more than 14 years of experience
is 30% of the gross profit. The oldness distinct
between the older and newer partners and each
partner earns his/her profit according to his/her
cooperation duration.
3. The percent of the capital of the company, in
proportion to gross profit is calculated as 12%
and each partner receives his/her portion out of the
profit resulted from the capital
4. The percent of marketing skill or entrepreneur-
ship skill in proportion to the gross profit is 16%
in which each partners receives his/her share of
the profit according to his/her participation in the
marketing.
5. The ranking percent in proportion to the gross profit
is determined 7% and this resulted profit should
be shared among the partners who have involved
in respect to their weights. Meanwhile the fac-
tors like responsibility index in which the grade
one management is pointed as 1 means 100%, the
grade two management is pointed as 0.75, and
the supervisors and designers are pointed as 0.5.
The working hours suppose 180 hours per month
or part of that should be effected in remuneration
and also the work experience outside the company
may take 0.75 in converting to the experience inside
the company.
12 CONCLUSION
The lack of fair and regulatory system for allocating the
shares of the partners according to their real rights was
evident in consulting engineering firms and identify-
ing a formula will definitely result in their satisfaction
 Table 1. The results obtained from consulting engineering companies to developing the model.

The
portion
Technical of the
work Oldness work
The names remuneration of the experience Coefficient of work significance
of the Education level points Experience record yrly percent company Capital Grading outside
consultants of the (%) of the Marketing and and Average Designers
engineers Bachelor Master Bachelor Master partner (%) or Comp company skill Ranking inside the expected Management Management and
companies degree degree Doctorate degree degree Doctorate salaries records (%) (%) (%) company profit grade 1 grade 2 supervisors

Imen Rah 100 120 150 10 10 12 30 30 15 17 8 0.7 20 1 0.75 0.5

Ijad 100 125 150 10 10 10 32.5 30 10 20 7.5 0.7 20 1 0.7 0.5
Iran Raz 100 117 150 9 9 9 35 25 13 15 12 0.75 20 1 0.75 0.5
Arch 100 115 125 9 8 10 40 30 10 15 5 0.8 2015 1 0.75 0.5

316
Pazhoohesh Amal 100 130 150 10 11 12 35 30 15 13 7 0.7 2015 1 0.75 0.5
Tadbir BAna 100 120 140 10 12 14 32.5 30 15 15 75 0.5 12 1 0.75 0.5
Toseeh Omran 100 120 140 10 11 12 35 35 12 15 8 0.75 25 1 0.75 0.5
Tarh va MEmari 100 120 140 10 12 14 35 30 12 15 8 0.9 25 1 0.75 0.5
Tarh andishan 100 120 140 8 10 12 50 ... 10 15 5 0.8 10 1 0.75 0.5
shora 100 120 140 8 9 10 40 35 12 ... 5 0.5 10 1 0.9 0.6
Sazeh 100 150 200 20 30 40 25 35 10 ... ... 0.5 25 1 0.7 0.5
Mehrazan 100 115 125 5 10 10 55 20 10 10 5 0.5 15 1 0.9 0.7
Hashtak 100 150 200 15 17.5 20 35 30 125 15 75 0.8 25 1 0.7 0.5
Sath va Sanat 100 140 160 12 14 14 40 30 13 10 7 0.8 15 1 0.86 0.4
Hamgrooh 100 120 150 10 15 20 30 30 12 20 8 0.7 25 1 0.75 0.5
Geno 100 150 170 15 17.5 19 40 30 10 15 5 0.75 30 1 0.75 0.5
Farpak 100 110 120 10 11 12 25 30 10 20 15 0.75 27.5 1 0.9 0.6
Factors indicis to implement in model
Model indexes 100 125 150 11 12 13 35 30 12 16 7 0.7 20 1 0.75 0.5
Table 2.
Experience
Education 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, . . . 15
Bs. 100 How many points should be given for
each year of experience of B.E degree?
Ms. ? How many points should be given for
each year of experience of M.E degree?
Doctorate ? How many points should be given
for each year of experience doctorate
degree?
which may facilitating the membership of new partners
by account settlement of previous ones without any
disputes or problems. This would resulting in confi-
dence and efficiency of the partners and the stability of
these companies.The sharing system for profit resulted
from consulting engineering companies among the
partners should be according to the impact factors of
each partner in economical success of the company.
In this research from this aspect we have recognized
the factors which effected to the consultant engineers
companies success and its weight on beneficial cause
or profit. To determine the effect of each factor in prof-
itability for distributing the profit, a form including 9
clear questions in relation to the mentioned factors
has been provided and offered to 20 major consult-
ing engineering companies whose main activities are
in the field of building designing (residential, trading,
industrial, cultural, sporting, port, rails, roads etc.),
architecture, urban development, etc., and their expe-
rience records minimum 14 years. By referring to each
of companies several times and spending lot to clar-
ify their responses and to receive logical and reliable
replies to implement to the model, so 13 main fac-
tor are obtained and their weight of impact are found
out by research on consulting engineering firms and
implemented in the model. The method of research
is statistical method with high literature work back
ground in partnering, and profit sharing. From 20
consulting engineering firms 16 responded so closely
reply which contain 80% of responses and high enough
research result. The mean results from 16 mentioned
companies offered logical answers for each factor in
profitability of the company which has accepted by all
of the contributing consulting engineering companies.
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Engineering management
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

According the historical interpretation to research the relationship

of construction logistics and the project managers level

Hong Zhang & Xiao Hong Wang

College of Rural and Urban Construction, Chengdu University, Dr Reading in Sichuan University
College of Tourism and Culture Industry, Chengdu University, Chengdu, China

ABSTRACT: Customer satisfaction and continuous improvement are the fundamental goals of construction
logistics. The purpose of this study is to extend the framework for construction material logistics in customer
satisfaction from owner to project manager level. A survey established the general importance that a project
manager must place on the construction logistics. 23 experienced project managers in Chengdu Sichuan provided
valuable historical data and interpretation to the research. Five important factors related to satisfaction were
found through interviews with project managers and a literature review. These included personnel, material flow,
schedule adherence, contractors organization, and information flow. The research results suggest that material
flow and information flow are worthy of the most attention. Satisfying the above factors will greatly improve
the construction logistics that will, as a result, immensely increase the project managers level of satisfaction.

Keywords: construction logistics, project manager, historical interpretation, customer satisfaction

1 INTRODUCTION

Logistics is the part of the supply chain process that

plans, implements, and controls the efficient flow
of goods, services, and related information to ful-
fill customersrequirements. Efficient management of
construction material planning tasks requires an inte-
grated approach toward various logistical functions.
In particular, the role of the project manager who
executes these operations with all parties in a con-
struction project [1]. The fundamental construction
operations of facilities, inventory control, and com-
munication planning need to be closely coordinated. Figure 1. Construction logistics tasks.
Overall understanding and proper planning of the
project are factors necessary to optimize satisfaction Figure 1 illustrates the construction logistics tasks.
of both the construction company and the customer. Supplies logistics are related to activities include spec-
So that the project manager can have full under- ification of supply resources (materials, equipment,
standing of where the project fits in the general scheme and person power) [1]. The management of handling
of things in the parent organization and its priority systems, safety equipment, site layout, defining activ-
related to other projects on the system and to the rou- ity sequence, and resolving conflicts among various
tine work of the organization. The project manager production teams related to the on-site activities are
must also get to know the client to ensure that the all part of site logistics. It should always be kept in
proper facilities and any supplies required in the begin- mind that the main objective of a logistics process is
ning of project process are available when needed and to meet the customers requirements.
also take care of the routine details required to begin
the project.
3 CUSTOMER SERVICE AREA

2 LOGISTICS FUNCTIONS As shown in Fig. 2, [2] the construction logistics pro-

cess can divide into internal and external components.
In general, logistics functions in a construction firm An external logistics component covers the relation
can be divided into supply logistics and site logistics. between a constructor and the suppliers, whereas an

321

Figure 2. Construction logistics process.
internal logistics component deals with the relation-
ships among various parties involved in the project,
namely, constructor, designer, and owner. Service level
is determined by the constructors capacity to pro-
vide resources to internal agents on a site at the right
time and at the right place while satisfying the cor-
rect specifications. Figure 2 illustrates the changing
relationship between customers and suppliers in terms
of service level. The issues of customer satisfaction
and service quality generally dominate theories of cus-
tomer service management. If we consider the whole
body of research in the field of service management,
it is a fundamental and recurring observation that
higher customer satisfaction leads to better economic
returns. This can be explained by key concepts such as
customer reliability and a positive reputation for the
firm.
4 KEY CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL
LOGISTICS FACTORS
Based on operational management in the logistics pro-
cess, five critical areas of managerial planning and
action that must be practiced to achieve effective logis-
tics management in a company have been identified.
Five critical factors were selected based on interviews
with the project managers. Table 1 shows the five crit-
ical factors and their description: personnel (PER),
material flow (MAT), schedule adherence (SCH),
contractors organization (ORG), and information flow
(INF). [2]
The survey questionnaire contains several opera-
tional measures for each of the logistics factors. Each
dependent variable measures the level of satisfaction
of project managers that corresponds to each of the
five logistics factors. Although the five factors (PER,
MAT, SCH, ORG, INF) were selected as the most sig-
nificant issues for effective logistics management in
a company, each factor could have different levels of
satisfaction.
322
Table 1. Logistics factors and description.
Factor Description
Personnel Level of cooperation with skilled workers
(PER) and subcontractors for successful completion
of projects
Material Required materials maintained to prosecute
flow (MAT) the work
Schedule Schedule changing and updating procedures
adherence
(SCH)
Contractors The relationship is based upon trust,
organization dedication to common goals, and
(ORG) understanding of each others individual
expectations and values
Information Sufficient information flow to prosecute
flow (INF) the project manually or by computer
Figure 3-1. Characteristics of the respondents.
5 SURVEY SUMMARY
Most respondents completed the survey by faxed or
e-mailed the response. The survey was distributed on
5 December 2011. A total 108 surveys were distributed
to various construction companies in the Chengdu
Sichuan, including design and engineering firms, gen-
eral contractors, mechanical and electrical firms, and
construction management firms. At the same time,
analyses some historical data and interpretation in
recently 10 years.Those historical data were responded
from senior-level managers with titles, such as owner-
president, vice president, project manager, project
engineer, or superintendent.
Total 58 surveys from 52 different organizations
were returned (returned rate = 53.7%). Figure 3-1,
Figure 3-2 shows the characteristics of the respon-
dents. Respondent firms consisted of general con-
struction, construction management, heavy construc-
tion, and mechanical and electrical construction.
The majority of respondents worked for general
construction and construction management firms.

Figure 3-2. Characteristics of the respondents.
6 MEASUREMENT PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT
This research is focused on the satisfaction level of
the project managers and how the project managers
rate their own performance in terms productivity. In
considering construction logistics tasks, over 36% of
respondents rated themselves as level three in per-
sonal performance and 24% as level four. To maximize
the impact on performance management, this study
investigated the strategy on short-term costs versus
long-term benefits and computer usage for logistics
managing and organizing work [3].
7 CONCLUSIONS
This paper presented statistical regression results to
predict overall satisfaction of a project manager and
323
the relative importance of each of the five variables on
the satisfaction of a project manager [4]. There are sug-
gestions that to be most effective the project manager
should have the potential for simultaneously influ-
encing all five variables. A high level of satisfaction
with the overall construction logistics tasks, process,
and performance, the possibility or even necessity for
additional improvement through enhanced technology
always exists.
All activities involved in the construction process
within the implementation logistics should be built
around cross-functional teams, and everyone should
be involved right from the start when implementing
the advanced technologies.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The work belongs to Local culture resource protection
and development project sponsored by the human-
ity and social science research base of the education
department of Sichuan province.
REFERENCES
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Structural properties of concrete containing lateritic sand and

quarry dust as fine aggregates

Maurice E. Ephraim & Iboroma Z.S. Akobo

Department of Civil Engineering, Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Joseph O. Ukpata & G.A. Akeke

Department of Civil Engineering, Cross River University of Technology, Calabar, Nigeria

ABSTRACT: This research investigates the use of combinations of lateritic sand and quarry dust as partial
replacement for river sand in conventional concrete system. Concrete samples were made with varying content
of lateritic sand and quarry dust from 0% to 100% in steps of 25%. The samples were tested at 28 days for
compressive, flexural and tensile strengths. Mix proportions used in the study were 1:1:2, 1:1 12 :3 and 1:2:4.
Compressive strength was found to range from 17 to 34.2 N/mm2 , flexural strength and tensile strengths varied
from 2.88 to 3.28 N/mm2 and 1.67 to 2.91 N/mm2 respectively for the mixes considered. The flexural and tensile
strengths of the concrete were found to generally increase with increase in laterite content. The concrete was
found to have the best compressive strength results for the combination of 25% lateritic sand and 75% quarry dust.

Keywords: concrete, lateritic sand, quarry dust, aggregate

1 INTRODUCTION worrisome, especially in the face of increasing spate

Concrete is the principal construction material in
which the aggregates occupy about 70 percent of the
total volume. The cost of aggregates therefore will
impact majorly on the cost of concrete. Traditional
aggregates are gravels, crushed rock chippings and
river sand. However, these are in short supply in many
areas around the world and need to be imported from
far away sources. Therefore, in a bid to cut down cost
and improve affordability in housing, local practice
is witnessing the increasing use of locally occurring
materials as replacements for aggregates. Examples
of this is the use of laterite rock as coarse aggregates,
10 mm river gravel as all-in aggregates, lateritic and
quarry dust as fines and fillers. On the other hand, it
is unfortunate to observe that this practice has contin-
ued in many locations without appropriate standards
in place to guide their specifications. It is obvious that
such a state of affairs is unsafe, unprofessional and
certainly undesirable.
Recent developments in the construction practice in
and around Calabar in the Cross River State of Nigeria
have witnessed an increased application of mixtures of
lateritic sand and quarry dust in place of river sand
in concrete and masonry production. Although the
harnessing of these local materials has the beneficial
effect of value addition and conversion of an other-
wise environmental waste, their continued application
without any reliable standard or specification is rather
of structural collapses in Nigeria in recent times.
The use of lateritic sand and quarry dust inde-
pendently as partial replacement for river sand fine
aggregate in normal cement concrete has been the sub-
ject of several researches. This paper is focused on the
study of the effect of using a combination of lateritic
sand and quarry dust as partial replacement for river
sand in normal concrete. The technological parameters
including mix proportions and workability as well as
the structural properties in terms of structural strength
characteristics are considered.
2 PREVIOUS STUDIES
Early studies in lateritic concrete include Adepegba
(1975, 1977) who studied the effect of water-cement
content on the compressive strength of laterized con-
crete in cubes and reinforced short columns. Simi-
lar studies on the long-term deformations of later-
ized concrete were later conducted by Balogun &
Adepegba (1982), Lasisi & Osunade (1985), Salau &
Balogun (1999), Osunade (2002) and Salau (2003).
Others include the works of Udoeyo et al (2006);
Olugbenga (2007); Olugbenga et al (2007); Osadebe
& Nwakonobi (2007); Efe & Salau (2010) etc). These
groups of researchers were mostly Nigerians and this is
understandable, given the abundance of laterite mate-
rial in the country. The most important finding is that

325
laterite can be profitably used as fine aggregate in
concrete.
On the other hand, the suitability of quarry dust
as fine aggregate as well as the strength and dura-
bility characteristics of concrete using quarry dust
have been investigated in the works of Jayawardena &
Dissanayake (2006), Khamput (2006), Agbede &
Joel (2004) and Ilangovana et al (2008) among oth-
ers. These studies indicate even better compressive
strengths than using the conventional river sand in
concrete production.
The above studies suggest that lateritic sand and
quarry dust complement each other and can be com-
bined in the production of concrete as demonstrated in Figure 1. Concrete beams & cylinders test specimens.
Ukpata & Ephraim (2012) and Ukpata et al (2012).

3 MATERIALS AND METHODS

Lateritic sand was obtained from a borrow pit site

at Akim-Akim in Odukpani Local Government Area
while the quarry dust was taken from the abundant
deposits at Akamkpa Quarry site in Akamkpa Local
Government Area both in Cross River State of Nigeria.
Both sites are within few minutes drive from Calabar
city centre. The coarse aggregate used were crushed
granite chippings of 20 mm nominal size also pro-
duced at Akamkpa. The materials were air dried in the
laboratory. The coarse aggregate were passed through
sets of sieves, the portion passing through sieve 20 mm
and retained on sieve 5 mm was used. The laterite and
quarry dust used in the experiments were those passing
sieve 2 mm and retained on sieve 150 m.
UNICEM brand of ordinary Portland cement con-
forming to BS12 (1991) was used for producing the
samples in this research. The cement, supplied in 50 kg
bags, was well protected from dampness to avoid
lumps. Potable pipe borne water suitable for domestic
consumption was used for the experiments.
3.1 Experimental plan
The laboratory work comprised a series of par-
ticle size analysis of the dry aggregate materi-
als; slump and compacting factor workability tests
of the wet concrete; compressive strength tests of
225 nos. 150 150 150 concrete cubes; flexural
strength tests of 6 nos. 100 100 500 mm concrete
beam specimens and splitting tensile tests of 6 nos.
200 100 mm diameter standard cylindrical speci-
mens. All the tests were conducted in the Structures
Laboratory of the University of Science and Technol-
ogy, Port Harcourt, Nigeria and in accordance with
the relevant parts of the British Standards BS 1881
(1970; 1983; & 1993), BS 882 (1992), BS 5328 (1997)
and BS 8110 (1997).
3.2 Concrete mix design and production
The batching of concrete was done by weighing dif-
ferent constituent materials based on the adopted mix
Figure 2. Particle size distribution curves for various
LS/QD combinations and standard sand grading envelope.
ratios of 1:1:2, 1:1.5:3 and 1:2:4. The fine aggregate
portion of the mix was achieved by combining lateritic
sand and quarry dust in various ratios. The following
lateritic sand/quarry dust (LS/QD) ratios were used in
the experimental study: 0/100, 25/75, 50/50, 75/25 and
100/0 for the various mixes stated above. The materials
were thoroughly mixed before adding the prescribed
quantity of water and then mixed further to produce
fresh concrete. Water/Cement ratios of 0.5, 0.6 and
0.7 were used. The casting was made by filling each
mould with freshly mixed concrete in two layers and
tamping as prescribed by the relevant standards.
Figure 1 shows typical beam and cylinder speci-
mens tested, while Figure 2 presents the particle size
distribution curves for the various combinations of
lateritic sand and quarry dust. Figure 3 provides typ-
ical results for workability, showing the relationship
between compacting factor and water/cement ratio for
different combinations of LS and QD.
3.3 Workability tests
The freshly mixed concrete was subjected to the slump
and compacting factor tests to determine the work-
ability of the mixes. Typical relationship between
compacting factor and water/cement ratio is shown in
Figure 3 below.

326
Figure 3. Compacting factor versus water/cement ratio.

3.4 Compressive strength tests Figure 4. Flexural test result (Ukpata & Ephraim 2012).
Concrete cube samples for the compression test were
cast by filling the moulds in approximately 50 mm lay-
ers with each layer given 35 strokes with the tamping
rod.The concrete was trowelled off level with the top of
the mould and the specimen stored under damp sack-
ing for 24 hours in the laboratory before de-moulding
and curing in the water tank for the required duration
of time.
Testing of the hardened concrete cubes for com-
pressive strength was carried out after 3 days, 7 days,
14 days, 21 days, and 28 days using the 1000 tonnes
automatic Avery Dennison Universal Testing Machine.
The cube specimens were wiped dry and clean of
grit and centred on the platen plate of the testing
machine. The load was applied steadily at the rate of
Figure 5. Tensile splitting test (Ukpata & Ephraim 2012).
15 N/mm2 per minute to obtain a compression failure
of the test cube and the corresponding load reached
was recorded. The crushing load was used to com- where, P is the breaking load in N; d1 and d2 are the
pute the compressive strength which is the ratio of the cross-sectional dimensions in mm; and l, the beam
highest load to the cross sectional area of the sam- span in mm between the supporting rollers.
ple expressed in N/mm2 . Three samples were used for
each test and the average results adopted as the com-
pressive strength. A total of 225 cubes were tested for
the adopted mixes and water-cement ratios. 3.6 Tensile splitting test
This test was conducted as specified in BS1881,
Part117 (1983). Cylindrical concrete specimens of size
3.5 Flexural strength tests 100 mm diameter 200 mm long were moulded and
For the determination of flexural strength, a mix ratio stored in water for 28 days before testing for ten-
of 1:1 12 :3 was adopted for the laboratory test. This sile splitting strength. The automatic universal testing
test was conducted as specified in BS1881, Part118 machine was used for the test. Three similar samples
(1983). The fine aggregate portion of the mix was were prepared for each mix proportion used. The spec-
achieved by combining lateritic sand and quarry dust imen was positioned centrally before application of
in ratios of 25% LS:75% QD and 50% LS:50% QD. load without shock at a rate of 400 N/s. The tensile
Water/Cement ratio of 0.65 was adopted for this test splitting strength was calculated as shown in equation
based on findings from previous research byAdepegba 2 below from BS 1881, Part 117 (1983). A total of six
(1975), Lasisi & Osunade (1985), Ukpata et al (2012) cylinders were cast and tested. The casting was made
among others. Three beam samples were used for each by filling each mould with freshly mixed concrete in
test and the average results adopted as the flexural two layers of approximately 100 mm thickness. The
and tensile strength, respectively. The experimental experimental arrangement is shown in Figure 5.
arrangement is shown in Plates 4.
The flexural strength was calculated using the
standard formula:
where P is the maximum load (N); L, the length of the
specimen (mm); and D, cross sectional dimensions or
diameter (mm).

327
Table 1. Summary of findings. combinations of lateritic sand and quarry dust for con-
crete and masonry applications. For the mixes used, the
Mix ratios test results yielded structural properties in the follow-
ing ranges: compressive strength, 17.034.2 N/mm2 ;
1:1 12 :3 1:1 12 :3 flexural strength, 2.883.28 N/mm2 and tensile split-
WC = 0.65 WC = 0.65
ting strength, 1.672.91 N/mm2 . These results fall
Lat:Q.Dust = Lat:Q.Dust =
Parameters 25/75 50/50 within standard specifications for normal concrete for
various applications, and will provide guidance to the
Density (Kg/m3 ) 23882434 22932447 proper use of these materials in concrete construction
practice. The harnessing of these local materials has
Water absorption (%) 0.371.23 0.481.31
the beneficial effect of value addition and conversion,
Compressive 24.25 22.85 especially for quarry dust which presently constitutes
strength (N/mm2 ) an environmental nuisance in the area of reference in
Flexural strength 2.88 3.28 this study.
(N/mm2 ) For structural applications, a combination of 25%
Tensile strength 1.67 2.91 lateritic sand and 75% quarry dust in 1:1 12 :3 mix
(N/mm2 ) yielding the best structural properties in the tests is
recommended.
The study is expected to trigger interest in fur-
ther researches towards the full documentation of the
properties of this concrete in its plain and reinforced
variants.

Figure 6. Compressive strength versus age for various
mixes.
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The average values of test results from this study for
1:1 12 mix for the density, water absorption, compres-
sive, flexural and tensile strengths of the investigated
concrete system are summarized in Table 1 below.
These results compare favourably with those of pre-
vious studies as well as standard specifications for
normal concrete. Figure 6 shows that the combination
of 25% lateritic sand and 75% quarry dust in 1:1 12 :3
mix yielded the highest compressive strength.
5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
A number of tests and results to characterize the pro-
posed concrete system, containing lateritic sand and
quarry dust as fine aggregate, have been reported in
this paper. The results clearly indicate that for areas
such as Calabar in Nigeria, which are endowed with
these natural resources, there is justification for using
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Multi-objective repetitive activities projects scheduling using

Genetic Algorithms

M.S. Eid & M.E. Abdelrazek

Construction engineering department, AAST, Egypt

E. Elbeltagi
Structural engineering department, Mansura University, Egypt

ABSTRACT: Repetitive activities projects are the ones that repeat the same set of activities throughout the
project. Repetitive activities projects require schedules that meet the planner and construction manager objectives
depending on the construction project.The proposed scheduling model optimizes the project cost, duration, crews
interruptions and units delivery dates delay simultaneously. The model consists of two modules; a scheduling
module that takes into consideration the logical and resource start dates, different units quantities, different
production rates for assigned construction methods, as well as the transportation duration and cost of moving
crews, and an optimization module using Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithms to define a set of non-dominated
solutions for the decision maker to choose from depending on the construction project conditions. An example
application is presented to validate the proposed model.

Keywords: Repetitive scheduling project, scheduling, multi-objective optimization, genetic algorithms.

1 INTRODUCTION decreasing the total project duration. Moreover, the

The repetitive activities projects are characterized
by the repetition of sets of activities through the
projectsunits. The repetition of activities can be linear
(such as: pipeline, railway, highway constructions), or
non-linear (such as: high rise building, housing com-
pounds) (Moselhi & Hassanein 2003). This repetition
of the activities requires a scheduling technique that
utilizes the resource efficiently through maintaining
the work continuity and achieves the repetitive activi-
ties project objectives. Several scheduling techniques
have been introduced to solve the repetitive activities
project scheduling including the network scheduling
technique using the Critical Path Method (CPM).
While CPM has been used on countless projects, it
has been found inadequate when scheduling repetitive
activities projects (Mattila & Park 2003). It has been
reported that the CPM based on the network diagrams
applied on the repetitive activities projects has many
drawbacks. Many researchers reported the inability of
the CPM to model the repetitive nature of linear con-
struction (Reda 1990, Cole 1991, Rahbar & Rowings
1992 & Suhail & Neal 1994).
The CPM is a duration driven technique that doesnt
take into consideration the resources as an input that
drives the project schedule. A scheduling technique,
as such, does not maintain the work continuity of
resources. Maintaining work continuity decreases the
project total cost, avoiding idle time costs, as well as
CPM doesnt have any consideration for location of
work in schedule (Hegazy & Kamarah 2008). Location
of units are key items in repetitive activities projects,
as it aids the planner to determine the transportation
duration and cost of crews.
Also, the CPM technique suffers from a great
drawback in representing the repetitive activities
projects which may consist of thousands of activities
and representing them and their relationships using the
CPM technique makes it difficult for users and plan-
ners to visualize the project schedule and manage the
work in progress.
On the other hand, repetitive scheduling methods;
Line of Balance (LOB) and Linear Scheduling Method
(LSM), are more effective than traditional scheduling
methods when scheduling repetitive activities projects
(Elbeltagi and Elkassas 2008). Construction repetitive
scheduling methods have released several models that
maintain work continuity and take into account the
crews transportation from one site to the other. The
models also considered the project manager objectives
in a multi-objective critera, (Hyari & El Rayes 2006 &
Ipsilandis 2007).
2 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
The objective of this paper is to present the devel-
opment of a multi-objective scheduling model that

331
optimizes repetitive activities projects schedules and
present to the decision maker several optimum sched-
ules that meets his/her preference.
The model consists of two modules; scheduling
and optimization modules. The scheduling module
takes into consideration the production rate of the
assigned construction method crew, the quantity to
be undertaken in the current unit, the transportation
duration and cost of the assigned crew as well as
determining the delivery date delays of units. The opti-
mization module generates a set of Pareto optimal
schedules and presents them for the decision maker to
choose from.
3 SCHEDULING MODULE
The main objective of this module is to develop prac-
tical schedules for repetitive activities project. The
scheduling module consists of four main stages that
depend on the assigned construction methods crew to
the current activity through the following sections:
Stage 1: Detection of the previous unit (PU)
Determination of the previous unit that the con-
struction methods crew has been working at before
the current one to determine the transportation
duration (TD) and cost (TC) for the assigned crew.
Detection of the previous unit (if it exists) through:
a. Determining if the crew has been working at any
unit before the current one.
b. If the previous step is true, then check backward
through the preceding units determining their
finish dates (Fi,j ) and compare them with the
current units crews earliest possible start date
(SCi,j ), if the two dates are equal then the pre-
ceding unit will be the previous unit (PU) that
the crew has been working at.
Stage 2: Transportation duration and cost
Transportation from one unit to the other is a
crucial element in scheduling a repetitive activity
project. Thus, it must be calculated according to the
assigned construction methods crew type (m) and
the previous unit (PU) it worked at before. Trans-
portation duration and cost can be calculated using
Eqs. 1 and 2 respectively.
where, m is the construction methods crew index,
j is the current unit, PU is the previous unit, DS is
the distance to be travelled by the crew from one
unit to the other and SP is the average speed of the
construction methods crew (m), and CT is the cost
of transportation of crew (m) per unit distance.
Stage 3: calculating the activities scheduling dates
This step determines the activitys start (Si,j )
and finish (Fi,j ) dates depending on the assigned
332
construction method and the logical relationship
with preceding activities. The start date (Si,j ) is
obtained using Eq. 3 by determining the latest of
both logical relationship start date (SLi,j ), calculated
from a regular CPM calculations in Eq. 4, and the
earliest possible start date of the crew (SCij ).
The crews earliest possible start (SCi,j ) is
obtained through determining the previous unit
(PU) finish date (Fi,PU ) that the crew have under-
took, in addition to its corresponding transportation
duration (TDPU ,j ) from the previous unit (PU) to the
current one, the crews earliest possible start date
can be obtained using Eq. 5.
Depending on the construction method, assigned
to the activity, production rate and the quantities
in the activities, the duration of the activity can be
calculate using Eq. 6.
where Di,j is the duration of activity (i) in unit (j).
Qi,j , is the quantity of work of activity (i) in unit (j),
Pm,i is the production rate for construction method
crew (m) that can be assigned to activity (i).
The finish date is calculated by adding the dura-
tion of the activity to its start date as shown in
Eq. 7.
Stage 4: Adjusting the crews start dates in the
upcoming units
After scheduling an activity (i) at unit (j) using the
assigned construction methods crew (m), the earli-
est possible start dates for the following units of the
same activity using the same construction method
should be adjusted. The adjustment is obtained
through checking the upcoming units of the same
activity type and changing their earliest possible
start date (SCi,j ) for the same construction methods
crew (m) to the finish date of the current activity
(Fi,j ).
The scheduling module also calculates: (1) total
project duration, (2) total project cost, (3) total project
crews interruptions, and (4) total units delivery
delays.
1) Total project duration
The total project duration (TPD) equals to the
maximum finish date of the last activity in each
unit. This is represented in Eq. 8:
2) Total project cost
The total project cost (TPC) consists of
three parts: the direct cost, indirect cost and
 transportation cost. Both the direct and transporta-
tion costs are construction methods dependent,
while the indirect cost is a duration dependent cost
as shown in Eq. 9.
where, CCm,i,j is the construction methods (m) cost
assigned to activity (i) in unit (j), IC is the indirect
cost per day.
3) Total project interruptions
Interruptions are only found when the resources
are idle, and not being used or undertaking activi-
ties. Interruptions may occur due to the difference
between the logical start date (SLi,j ) and the crews
earliest possible start date (SCi,j ). The module first
checks if there would be any interruptions and then
calculates the interruptions using Eq. 10 and the
total project interruption (TPI) is calculated using
Eq. 11.
where Interi,j is the interruption of activity i, and
unit j.
4) Total project units delivery delays
Meeting delivery dates of projects units is an
important key in a successful repetitive construc-
tion project. Thus, it is important to calculate units
delivery delays. First, the module check for each
activity if theres a required finish date. If the check
is true, then it checks if theres any delivery delay
and calculates it using Eq. 12.
where, ADDi,.j is the activity (i) at unit (j) required
delivery date, DDi.j is the delivery delay for activ-
ity (i) in unit (j). The total project delivery delay
(TPDD) is then calculated using Eq. 13.
4 MULTI-OBJECTIVE OPTIMIZATION
The primary purpose of this module is to search for
and identify a set of optimal schedules that simultane-
ously minimize project duration, project cost, project
total interruption and total units delivery dates delays.
Each of these identified optimal schedules provides a
unique and non-dominated tradeoff between the four
previously mentioned criteria.
4.1 Optimization multi-objective
The optimization of the proposed model is carried out
through a four objective functions; (1) minimize the
total project duration, (2) minimize the total project
cost, (3) minimize the total project interruptions,
and (4) minimize the total project units deliv-
ery delays. The solutions (schedules) are evaluated
333
through multi-objective optimization functions as pre-
sented in Eq. 14.
4.2 Optimization variables
The independent variables in the proposed model are
the construction methods assigned to each activity.
Each construction method has its own production rate,
direct cost, and available start date. The number of
variables for each solution (schedule) is I J , where
I is the number of activities types and J is the num-
ber of units. For example, a project consisting of five
activities repeated in four units will produce twenty
variables.Assuming a four construction methods avail-
able for each activity type result in a solution space
of 420 possible schedules which represents a very
huge solution space that needs to be solved using
non-traditional optimization techniques.
4.3 Optimization constraints
Three constraints are considered to keep the solutions
(schedules) feasible, these constraints are as follows:
1. The construction methods indices are limited to
the positive integer number of methods available to
each activity.
2. The actual number of crews used in each activity is
limited to the number of repetitive units, since this
model assumes that only one crew works in a single
unit.
3. Precedence constraints.
The optimization process is performed using the
following three major cyclical steps until convergence
is reached. These steps are as follows:
1. Calculate the schedule total project cost, duration,
crew interruption and units delivery dates delays
using the earlier described scheduling module for
repetitive activities project.
2. Evaluate the fitness functions in the previous step
and sort the solutions into Pareto Fronts.
3. Perform genetic operations to the parent pool (i.e.,
selection, crossover, mutation) to create a new
offspring pool. The three operations adopt the sur-
vival of the fittest principle to provide an effective
evolutionary mechanism for generating improved
repetitive activities project plan.
5 EXAMPLE APPLICATION
The proposed model is implemented on commer-
cial software MS Project 2007, with the aid of VBA
Table 1. Quantities of activity in each unit. Table 3. Results comparison.

Repetitive Excavations Foundations Columns Beams Slabs Project duration Project interruption
units (m3 ) (m3 ) (m3 ) (m3 ) (m3 ) (days) (days)

Repetitive activities Proposed model

1 1147 1032 104 85 0 91 12
2 1434 1077 86 92 138 92 6
3 994 943 129 101 114 93 4
4 1529 898 100 80 145 93.5 3
94 0
Hyari and El-Rayes (2006)
106.8 15
Table 2. Construction methods production rates. 107 14
110.9 8
Construction Construction Construction Construction
114.3 4
Activity method 1 method 2 method 3 method 4
117.9 0
description (m3 /day) (m3 /day) (m3 /day) (m3 /day)

Excavation 91.75 NA NA NA
Foundation 89.77 71.81 53.86 NA
Column 5.73 6.88 8.03 NA
Beam 9.9 8.49 7.07 5.66
Slab 28.73 7.76 NA NA

macros. An Example of a three-span concrete bridge

is analyzed in order to illustrate the present model
and demonstrate its capabilities in generating and
evaluating optimal schedules. The project consists of
five construction activities: excavation, foundations,
columns, beams, and slabs that are repeated in four
sections of the project. The precedence relationships
among these five successive activities are finish to
start with no lag time. Table 1 summarizes the quan-
tities of work of each activity in each repetitive unit,
while Table 2 summarizes the production rate of each
available construction methods crew for each activity
type.
The example was previously analyzed in the litera-
ture by Selinger (1980), Russell and Caselton (1988,
and Hyari and El-Rayes (2006). The following Table 3
illustrates the latest results by Hyari and El-Rayes
(2006) and a comparison with the proposed model
illustrated in Fig. 1 and Table 3.
The gap between the proposed model results and
the example drawn from literature results (as shown in
Table 4.6) are due to the ability to use more than one
construction method for the same activity type creating
flexibility when dealing with large number of repet-
itive units. Through analyzing the results ob tained
from the proposed model and results by Hyari and
El-Rayes (2006), it is observed that the current models
project duration varied between a maximum value of
94 days and minimum value of 91 days, while Hyari
and El-Rayes (2006) minimum project duration is
106.8 days and expanded to 117.9 days. However, both
models reached a zero project interruption, yet the cur-
rent models maximum project interruption is 12 days
while Hyari and El-Rayes (2006) project interruption
reached 15 days.
Figure 1. Comparison between the proposed model and
Hayar- and El-Rayes 2006 results.
6 FURTHER EXPERIMENTATION
In an attempt to inspect the full range of the proposed
model, further experimentation has been carried out
by adding more inputs to initialize the four objectives
of the model. An assumption has been carried out on
the direct cost of each activity with respect to the dif-
ferent construction methods that can be assigned to
them as well as the transportation distance between
units and speed and cost of transportation for each
construction method. The indirect cost is assumed to
be $200 per day. The initial population size was 200
and crossover and mutation probability of 0.85 and
0.15 respectively. Selected results from a 121 optimum
solution set obtained from the model are shown in the
following Table 4.
7 COMPROMISE SOLUTION
Selecting a single solution from the presented 121
solutions is a difficult task. In order to help the deci-
sion maker to select a single solution among the set
of Pareto-optimal solutions, the Compromise Solu-
tion procedure introduced by Elbeltagi et al. (2010) is
applied. The resulted Pareto-compromise solution and

334
Table 4. Model results for other experiments.

Schedules

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Total cost ($100) 96.8 97.1 97.1 97.8 97.5 96.9 99 96.7 96.8 99.8
Total delays (Days) 0.93 0 0.93 0 6.3 3.9 4 2.8 3.2 0
Total duration (Days) 94.3 98.1 94 93.2 91 94 93.3 97 94 91
Total interruptions (Days) 28 20 13 34 36 10 10 57 35 13

Table 5. Pareto-compromise and best-alternative solutions of construction methods that achieves the following
for case study (I). objectives: minimize the total project cost; minimize
the total project duration; minimize the total project
Delivery interruptions and minimize the total units delivery
Project Project Project dates
date delays.
duration cost interruptions delays
Solution (days) ($) (days) (days)

Pareto- 91.96 97529.63 24.56 12.96 REFERENCES

compromise
solution
Best- 100 95953 23 12.58
alternative
solution
its theoretical objective values are listed in Table 5. The
best-alternative solution among the Pareto-optimal
solutions is found to be the solution number 18.
8 CONCLUSION
In this research, a flexible and dynamic model for
scheduling and optimizing repetitive activities project
has been developed. The model provides a schedule
complies with precedence relationship and assigned
construction method constraints. In addition, it con-
siders the impact of following practical factors:
Assigned construction methods transportation
duration and cost.
Multiple crews assigned simultaneously.
Accounting for project total cost and duration.
Accounting for interruption for crews assigned to
repetitive activities.
Accounting for units delivery dates delays.
Optimization among several alternatives construc-
tion methods for each activity.
The model has been developed on a MS Project
by using Visual Basic Application (VBA) macros.
The model employs non-traditional optimization tech-
nique, Genetic-Algorithm, that has powerful random
search capabilities.The model sorts the output possible
schedules to Pareto Fronts to determine the optimum
set of schedules for the decision maker to choose from.
The optimization process identifies the combination
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practices, and six case studies. Journal of Construction
Engineering and Management. 117: 579588.
Elbelatgi, E. and ElKassas E.M. 2008. Cost Optimization of
Projects with Repetitive Activities Using Genetic Algo-
rithms. The Sixth International Conference on Engineer-
ing Computional Technology. Paper 66.
Elbeltagi, E., Hegazy, E. and Grierson, D. 2010. A New Evo-
lutionary Strategy for Pareto Multi-Objective Optimiza-
tion.The seventh International Conference on Engineering
Computional Technology. Paper 99.
Hegazy, T. and Kamarah, E. 2008. Efficient repetitive
scheduling for high-rise construction. Journal of Con-
struction Engineering and Management. 134: 253264.
Hyari, K. and El-Rayes, K. 2006, Optimal Planning and
Scheduling for Repetitive Construction Projects. Journal
of Management in Engineering. 22: 1119.
Ipsilandis, P. G. 2007. Multiobjective Linear Programming
Model for Scheduling Linear Repetitive Projects. Jour-
nal of Construction Engineering and Management. 133:
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Mattila Kris G. and Park Amy. 2003. Comparison of Lin-
ear Model and repetitive Scheduling Method. Journal of
Construction Engineering and Management. 129: 5664.
Moselhi, O. and Hassanein, A. 2003. Optimized Scheduling
of Linear Projects. Journal of Construction Engineering
and Management. 129: 664673.
Rahbar, F.F., and Rowings, J.E. 1992. Repetitive activ-
ity scheduling process. Trans., Am. Assn. Cost Eng., 2,
O.5.1O.5.8.
Reda, R. M. 1990. RPM: Repetitive project modeling. Joun-
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Russell, A., and Caselton, W. 1988. Extensions of repetitive
projects with cost optimization. Journal of Construction
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335
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Research on social risk evaluation and mechanism of major engineering

projects of Zhejiang province

Yang Wang
Zhejiang Business Technology Institute, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, China

ABSTRACT: In recent years, social risk events triggered by major engineering projects increasing frequently,
threating to the stability of harmonious society seriously. This paper has analyzed the factors of social risk of
major projects of Zhejiang province, constructing the social risk evaluation index system in order to assess and
judge social risk of major projects conveniently, puting forward the resolution measures of social risk of major
projects.

Keywords: major engineering projects, social risk evaluation, resolving mechanism

1 INTRODUCTION 2.2 The connotation and characteristics

Zhejiang is one of the coastal provinces of China,
owning high degree of opening to the outside world,
economy is relatively developed. During the 12th five-
year plan, Zhejiang will promote the implementation
of a number of major projects, only 2012 a year of
major project investment will be over four hundred
billion yuan. Major projects generally refer to the
investment scale of engineering project, usually relat-
ing to the beneficial to the peoples livelihood, playing
an important influence on specific area between the
interests of the people of social politics, economy,
culture, health, ecological environment, causing the
public conflict of interest in the project easily. In recent
years, social risk events are often seen because of major
projects, which has caused attention of the central
government and social all circles. Therefore, research-
ing on the establishment of major projects of social
risk assessment mechanism has important practical
significance.
2 RISK AND SOCIAL RISK
2.1 The connotation of risk
Since eighteenth Century, mankind has been explored
in the study of the rule of risk, understanding of risk
is not the same, so the definition of risk is not entirely
consistent. Generally speaking, risk is divided into
broad sense and narrow sense, the generalized risk
refers to the uncertainty of some events occurring,
maybe advantageous or disadvantage. Special risk
refers to the possibility of an adverse event occurring.
This paper refers to the risk in narrow sense, namely,
the possibility of an adverse event occurring.
of social risk
Social risk is also divided into broad sense and spe-
cial sense as a type of risk. Broad sense of social risk
refers to the impact on society of political, economic,
cultural, social system. Special social risk only refers
to the field of social risk corresponding with political
risks and economic risks. This paper refers to the possi-
bility of the field of construction engineering that leads
to social conflict, endangers social stability and har-
mony, causes social crisis. Social risk has the following
characteristics:
(1) Objectivity and uncertainty. Social risk is the
objective existence that didnt move with the voli-
tion of people, but when and how will social risk
occurs, is uncertain.
(2) Diversity. With large scale, long period, multiple
and diverse of social risk factors, major projects
lead to varieties of social risk throughout whole
life cycle, and the intrinsic relationship in this large
number of social risk factors is perplexing.
(3) Predictable and dissolve. Social risk and its influ-
ence is not mysterious, but has certain regularity,
is able to predict and resolve. Based on it, research
on social risk assessment and defusing mechanism
of major projects is meaningful.
3 ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL RISK FACTORS
OF MAJOR PROJECTS
Zhejiang is in a period of large construction and
big development Currently, many major projects
bring affordable to the people, at the same time, it
also inevitably involves ecological environment, land

337
Table 1. Social risk factors of major projects.

Serial number Factors of social risk The content and form of expression of social risk

1 land expropriation and housing
demolition and resettlement
2 city house demolition and
resettlement
3 resettlement and production life
4 safe and civilized construction
5 social order of projects
land policy; land requisition; land compensation and standard of
resettlement fees in accordance with the laws, policies and
regulations; resettlement, compensation is prepared or not.
policy of relocation, removal of illegal buildings; demolition
resettlement scheme; policy of demolition resettlement compensation;
attitude to the resettlement programme of the masses; implement of
the transition scheme; the basic situation of the demolition team.
policy of the landless farmers employment and living security whether
fulfil or not; basic social insurance can fulfil or not; labor skills training
programme, measures of obtaining employment again whether fall to
real point or not; resettlement funds whether fall to real point or not;
make a living way is reliable or not.
the safety problems of construction, labor disputes problems, poor
internal management of construction unit, environmental impact, noise
impact, travel traffic impact of residents and other issues during the
period of construction.
peripheral evil forces and order problems; larger issues of social order
during the construction and after the completion of the project may
appear; whether to bring impact on the surrounding social order.

requisition, housing demolition, resettlement security
and etc. sensitive questions,which lead to social risk
easily. From the point of Zhejiang practice, social risk
factors involved are shown in table 1.
4 ASSESSMENT OF SOCIAL RISK OF
MAJOR PROJECTS
4.1 Methods of social risk assessment
Social risk evaluation can take the method of combi-
nation of quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis.
(1) Method of quantitative analysis. Through the sur-
vey of expert opinion, public voting channels
such as statistic, reflecting the relevant groups
on major projects acceptance, can set reference
index and grade criterion according to the oppo-
sition social risk ratio. Under the condition of
setting multiple social risk index, comprehensive
score method can be used by the way of experts
scoring set weight, and determine the risk grade
according to the evaluation results. Quantitative
methods used Commonly include Comprehensive
Evaluation Method, Analytic Hierarch Process,
Subjective Probability Method etc.
(2) Qualitative analysis. If it is difficult to reflect the
related groups receiving degree directly through
quantitative analysis, we can refine and form fac-
tors of social risk analysis and evaluation system
according to the actual situation, determine the
risk level through comprehensive analysis. Qual-
itative analysis methods used commonly mainly
include Subjective Probability Expert Estima-
tion, Risk Factor Control Law, Opinion Polls,
Questionnaire Survey, Informal Discussion, Hear-
ing, Consultation, Seminars etc.
4.2 Index system of social risk evaluation
In the light of social risk of major projects of
Zhejiang, constructing evaluation index system as
shown in Table 2.
Meanings of partial evaluation index in table 2 is as
follows:
(1) The compensation that ask for the ground and peo-
ple income loss compensation degree K = FL L
represents the average per capita income compen-
sation, F represents the local GDP per capita.
(2) Removal of illegal buildings J = HY 100%. Y
represents the number of illegal building has been
removed, H represents the total number of illegal
buildings.
(3) Rate of satisfaction to masses of resettlement plan
X = PP10 100%. P0 represents the total number
of influence scope, P1 represents the effects of
context on resettlement scheme with number.
(4) Social insurance coverage Y = U U0
1
100%. U0
represents the total number, U1 represents the
number of participating in social insurance.
(5) Rate of great criminal case crime O = KK10 100%.
K0 represents the total number of criminal cases,
K1 represents the number of major criminal cases.
4.3 Comprehensive evaluation of social risk of
major projects
In order to make an overall evaluation of social risk of
major projects, first of all, we need to identify weight

338
Table 2. Evaluation index system of social risk of major projects.
Serial number Factors of social risk
1 The land expropriation and
housing demolition resettlement
2 City house demolition
resettlement
3 Resettlement, production, life
4 Safe and civilized construction
5 Social order of the project
of each type of social risk factor according to expert
experience and research results, values in the range of
[0,1], the higher the value, the greater the importance
that a certain kind of social risk in all social risk. Sec-
ondly we need to identify scoring values of all kinds
of social risk, score value of social risk is determined
according to the following formula:
In the formula, Qi represents the social risk score,
Pi represents weight of evaluation index, Ii represents
the score of evaluation index.
In this paper, it is classified into 5 grades (smaller,
small, medium, large, larger) according to scores of
evaluate index of social risk, values are 10, 20, 30,
40, 50. Index value is proportional to the degree of
triggering social risk.
Then using weight multiplied by value of each kind
of social risk factor, calculating the score of the social
risk factors. Finally, we add up the score of all kinds
of social risk and obtain the score of comprehensive
social risk. The higher the values of comprehensive
social risk, the greater the social risk of projects. The
calculation formula is as follows:
In the formula, Qc represents score of comprehen-
sive assessment of projects, P represents the weight of
risk factor.
Evaluation index system of social risk
1. land policy and land requisition procedure
2. land expropriation compensation
3. resettlement, compensation in place
1. rationality and maneuverability of the demolition resettlement
compensation policy
2. the rate of removal of illegal buildings
3. the demolition resettlement plan
4. the rate of satisfaction to resettlement plan of the masses
5. implementation of removing transition scheme
6. quality and integrity of the demolition team
1. the rate of social insurance coverage
2. labor skills training programme, obtaining employment again
whether fall to real point or not
3. resettlement funds whether fall to real point
4. make a living way is reliable
1. local traffic risk may be triggered by the project
2. the safety problems of construction
3. rate of labor dispute occurrence
4. problems of poor internal management of construction unit
1. the security situation of location of the project
2. larger social security problems may appear during the project
construction
3. impact on the public security surrounding the project
4. rate of great criminal case crime
Thus, we can calculate degree of social risk of major
projects more clearly through social risk evaluation
formula. Accordingly, social risk of major projects can
be divided into green, yellow, red three grades. In gen-
eral, comprehensive evaluation score 015 points to
the III level (green), comprehensive evaluation score
1535 points to the II level (yellow), comprehensive
evaluation score 3550 points to I level (red). Green
representing the project can be implemented, yellow
representing the project should be delayed action, red
representing the project shouldnt be implemented
currently.
5 RESOLVING MECHANISM OF SOCIAL RISK
OF MAJOR PROJECTS
Social risk of major projects will be exposed in forms
of disputing or group incident if we prevente and
dissolve poorly, affecting the social harmony and sta-
bility. Therefore, this paper puts forward measures
of preventing and dissolving social risk specially as
follows.
(1) Strengthening leadership, organizing elaborately.
According to whose director, who is responsi-
ble for it and hierarchical management principle,
all departments should attach great importance
to dissolving social risk of major projects, take
it as the source of the important grasper as pre-
vention work, pay close attention to fulfilling it
as the important foundation work of maintaining
stability.
339
(2) Resolve contradictions and disputes through the
project always. Adhere to prevent risk, mediation
follow progress closely, establish mechanism of
relevant departments collaboration, take resolv-
ing the contradictions and disputes to prevent the
risk as an important measure through the project
always.
(3) Open lawful and orderly channels of information
and public opinion. A large part of social risk is
caused by major projects because degree of infor-
mation disclosure and scope is not enough, leading
to insufficient understanding on the project to
some stakeholders; or opinion expression chan-
nels are not free, the reasonable interests appeal
can not be expressed. Long-term accumulation
of dissatisfaction will become the social unstable
factors eventually.
Therefore, opening lawful and orderly channels
of information and public opinion, protecting peo-
ples right to know, right to participate, right of
expression, right of supervision is an important
work to resolve social risk of the major projects.
(4) In-depth investigations, perfecting measures,
strengthening propaganda and guidance, improv-
ing early warning ability.
Around land acquisition, relocation and other
hot issues involved in major projects, we should
construct the all-round, multi-level dynamic social
information feedback network by thoroughly
investigating and studying, obtain all kinds of
information at the first time as well as increasing
investment, implement management methods and
measures of social risk, use a variety of ways to
enhance publicity and interpretation, gain public
recognition and supporting so as to improve early
warning ability.
(5) Testing seriously, strengthening supervision and
inspection, strict reward and punishment. Main
responsibility unit should put the work of assess-
ment and dissolving of social risk of major
projects into the annual checking target cate-
gory; increase supervisory examination strength
340
through tracking, inspection, reminder etc; strictly
implement the working mechanism of assess-
ment to dissolving of social risk, seriously
pursue responsibilities of departments, the imple-
mentation unit and relevant personnel because
implement dissolving measures of social risk inef-
fectively so that cause affecting social stability
events.
6 CONCLUSIONS
Social risk of major projects is related to social har-
mony and stability, this paper has analyzed the factors
of social risk of major projects of Zhejiang province,
constructed the corresponding evaluation index sys-
tem for the project so as to discriminate social risk,
put forward the corresponding controlling and resolv-
ing measures against the social risk problem existed,
which has important guiding role for decision making
consulting and implementing of major projects.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Federation of
Social Science of Zhejiang Province, China, Project
No.2012Z35, for the financial support for this project.
REFERENCES
Chen Jing. Study on establishing mechanism of social stabil-
ity risk assessment [J]. social security research, 2010
Li Shixin. From technology assessment to social assessment
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(US) Paul S. Royer. Project risk management [M]. Beijing:
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Scheduling of repetitive projects with learning development effect

M.A. Ammar & A.F. Abdel-Maged

Structural Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Tanta

ABSTRACT: Several scheduling techniques have been used to handle repetition in construction projects; the
most widely used one is Line-Of-Balance (LOB). The primary advantage of LOB is maintaining work conti-
nuity of crew(s) over consecutive units of repetitive activities which leads to maximizing learning development
effect and minimizing idle time of each crew. However, learning development effect is not included into LOB
scheduling. Several mathematical models, or learning curves, have been developed, the most practical one is
the straight-line model. In this paper, learning development effect was incorporated into LOB scheduling main-
taining work continuity. The basic equation of LOB technique was modified to include learning effect. The
straight-line learning curve model is adopted because of its applicability and simplicity. An example project
is used to demonstrate model steps and calculations. Considering learning development in the scheduling of
repetitive projects improves overall project performance in terms of construction time and cost.

1 INTRODUCTION Specific scheduling methods may be used advanta-

Several approaches have been reported for modeling
and scheduling repetitive construction projects; the
most common and practical one is Linear Scheduling
Methods (LSMs). They include a multitude of vari-
ations that are based on the same resource oriented
principles (Birrell 1980). The concepts of LSMs are
similar and any differentiation between may only be
a question of emphasis. Researchers and practitioners
have presented forms of LSMs either as extensions
or modifications to the LOB (Johnston 1981). LOB
technique is based on the assumption that a uni-
form rate of output will be used for each activity.
AL-Sarrag (1990) formulated mathematical relations
of LOB in an algorithmic form that may be suitable
for computerization.
Repetitive construction projects are characterized
by large number of repetitive activities which are per-
formed in a sequential and repetitive manner. This
repetition of work leads to learning development due to
greater familiarity with the task, better coordination,
more effective use of tools and methods, and more
attention from management and supervision (Thomas
et al. 1986). Considering learning development effect
in the planning of repetitive construction projects pro-
vides for a more realistic forecast for project duration
and cost. This results in a higher degree in precision in
budget and schedule and can foster more competitive
bidding.
Mathematical models, or learning curves, have been
developed to investigate the variation in productivity
as a function of the number of units produced. Thomas
et al. (1986) summarized learning curve models that
can be applied to construction activities.
geously for construction projects with repetitive char-
acteristics, but incorporating learning development
effect may lead to better results (Pilcher 1992). Line
of Balance (LOB) technique is used extensively for
scheduling typical repetitive projects. However, tradi-
tional LOB scheduling did not account for learning
development effect.
Arditi et al. (2001) demonstrated the potential for
formalizing the inclusion of learning effect into LOB
scheduling. Although the proposed approach was the
first attempt to consider learning development effect
into LOB scheduling, the model did not guarantee
work continuity which violates learning curve theory.
In this paper, learning development effect is incor-
porated into traditional LOB technique. The new LOB
model has the following features: it satisfies logi-
cal dependency relationships of repetitive activities, it
maintains work and resource continuity, and it meets
a pre-specified project deadline.
2 LINE OF BALANCE TECHNIQUE
The objective of LOB schedule is to determine
resources of different activities required to meet a
prespecified project deadline while maintaining work
continuity (Mahdi 2004). The basic assumption of
LOB technique is that the progress rate for any activ-
ity is constant. Figure 1 shows graphical representation
of traditional LOB in which synchronization and work
continuity of crews are maintained.The LOB represen-
tation shown in Fig. 1 allows usage of multiple crews
in the same activity. Only one crew is assumed to work

341

Figure 1. Synchronization and work continuity of crews.
in a unit and the crew spends (d) duration on the unit
before moving to the next similar unit (Hegazy 2002).
It is possible to formulate a strategy for meeting a
pre-specified project deadline, by calculating a target
rate of delivery (RTj ) for each activity j using Eq. 1.
Total float of non-critical activities are utilized to min-
imize number of crews employed (Suhail and Neale
1994), where TFj is the total float of activity j.
The number of crews required to maintain a project
rate of delivery can be calculated (with reference to
Fig. 1) using Eq. 2, where Cth is the theoretical num-
ber of crews to be employed in activity j, and RTj
is its target progress rate. Practicality and availability
of number of crews are considered by Eq. 3. Conse-
quently, actual progress rate (Ra ) for different activities
is calculated using Eq. 4.
To draw an LOB schedule, one has to specify the
dependency relationship between consecutive activi-
ties by comparing progress rate of each activity with
that of its predecessors. Three typical cases can be
encountered. When a slower activity follows a faster
activity (e.g., B followsA in Fig. 2), activity B is sched-
uled starting from unit 1. Buffer time may be added to
the start of unit 1. Activities B and A are referred to
as divergent activities. Divergence exists if RA < RP ,
where RA and RP is the progress rates of an activity
ant its predecessor, respectively.
When a faster activity follows a slower one (e.g., C
follows B in Fig. 2), activity C needs to be scheduled
starting at the last unit, and buffer time may be added
at last unit. Activities C and B are referred to as Con-
vergent activities. Convergence exists if RA > RP . For
consecutive activities having equal progress rate, they
are scheduled in parallel (activities C and D in Fig. 2).
The parallel case exists if RA = RP .
342
Figure 2. Dependency Relationships in LOB.
3 LEARNING DEVELOPMENT EFFECT
Learning curve theory states that time and/or cost for
subsequent realizations of a task decreases by a cer-
tain percentage, which is referred to as the learning
rate. Thomas et al. (1986) investigated different math-
ematical models that can be applied to reflect learning
development effect. Three theoretical models are com-
monly used in the construction and manufacturing
industries; Boeing model, Stanford B model, and
cubic model. Other models are of minor importance
such as piecewise and exponential models.
The Boeing model is the first introduced learning
model (Thomas et al. 1986), in which performance
improvement is assumed following a logarithmic func-
tion. When this model is plotted on a log-log scale
(cumulative time or cost required versus unit num-
ber), it forms a straight-line. The model is commonly
known as the straight-line model, the mathematical
expression of which is given by Eq. 5, in which Yi is
the time or cost required for unit i, s is the slope of
the learning curve calculated by Eq. 6, a is the time or
cost required for the first unit, and LR is the learning
development rate expressed as a fraction.
The straight-line model is considered the most reli-
able predictor of future performance (Everett and
Farghal 1994). For this reason and due to diffi-
culty associated with estimating parameters of other
models, the straight-line model is the most com-
monly used one. Couto and Teixeira (2005) concluded
that straight-line model has a wide applicability in
construction activities.
The value of the learning rate denotes the level of
learning improvement. An LR value of 100% indicates
no learning improvement. However, a learning rate of
90% reflects a time improvement of 10% (i.e., 1-LR)
to complete the first two iterations. As the value of
learning rate decreases, a higher improvement would
be realized.
The learning rate varies from construction activ-
ity to another depending on variety of factors. Hijazi
(1989) summarized the factors that influence the learn-
ing rate into four groups (management, labor, project,
and task characteristics).

4 LOB MODEL WITH LEARNING EFFECT

For modeling learning development effect into LOB

schedule, the following assumptions are considered:
Multiple crews can be used by an activity but only
one crew is assumed to work in a repetitive unit,
The straight-line curve is used to model learning
development effect, and
The learning rate is assumed constant for each
repetitive activity.
Applying the equation of the straight-line learn-
ing curve assumes that only one crew is utilized by
each activity for all repetitive units. Using Eq. 5, it is
assumed that the crew utilized in a repetitive activity
moves sequentially form unit to the next. If more than
one crew is used by the same activity, Eq. 5 needs to
be modified to suit the general case of using multiple
crews.
4.1 Modeling learning effect with multiple crews
In the present modeling, it is assumed that crews move
form one unit to the other following the work sequence
shown in Fig. 1. For a number of crews of three, the
first crew moves through units 1, 4, 7, etc.
Using more than one crew in an activity divides the
repetitive units into groups. The number of groups of
an activity j (Gj ) depends on the number of units (n)
and the number of crews utilized by the activity; Cj
(Eq. 7). The group number for a unit i in activity j
(gij ), can be determined using Eq. 8.
Assuming only one crew per activity, the duration of
unit i (di ) can be determined using Eq. 5 as di = d1 (i)s .
If more than one crew per activity is used, the duration
of unit i depends on the group number for which the
unit is belonging. In this case, the duration of unit i is
calculated using Eq. 9.
Figure 3. Activity groups and crews movement.
4.2 Modeling of learning development effect into
LOB scheduling
In traditional LOB scheduling, the start time of any
unit is controlled by the finish time of the previous
corresponding unit for the same crew. The challenge
now is to maintain work continuity of crews and incor-
porate, in the same time, learning development effect
into LOB calculations.
The repetitive units executed by a specified crew
will be referred to as corresponding units. In Fig. 3,
the corresponding units executed by crew#1 are 1, 4,
7, and 10. Similarly, the corresponding units executed
by crew#2 are 2, 5, and 8, and so on. Assuming this
crew configuration, the start difference between unit
g
i in group gi (SDi i ) and the first unit executed by this
crew in the first group can be calculated as follows.
For the units performed by the first crew, the start
difference between the first unit in any group and the
first unit in the first group, for a certain activity, is
the summation of durations of first units in the previ-
ous groups. In Fig. 3, units 4, 7, and 10 are the first
units in groups 2, 3, and 4, respectively. Then, the start
difference can be calculated as:

Learning development effect is realized in the sec-

ond group due to knowledge acquired from the first
group. Then the crews move to the third group with
more learning. So, the learning effect is basically
realized from crews movement between successive
groups.
From Fig. 3 and for number of crews C, the first
crew works on unit one with initial duration d1 and
then moves to unit C + 1. So, the learning effect is The start difference between the second unit in any
realized in units C + 1 to 2C with duration d2 . The group and the first unit in the first group is the summa-
second crew moves from unit 2 to unit C + 2 and the tion of the durations of the first units in the previous
third crew moves from unit 3 to unit C + 3, and so on. groups plus d1 /C. In Fig. 3, units 5 and 8 are the second

343
Table 1. Dependency relationships rules. Table 2. Planning data of the example project.

No. Rule Dependency relationship Act. Pred.s 1st unit duration (days) LR

1 (R/LR)A < (R/LR)P Divergence A 4 0.95

2 (R/LR)A > R/LR)P Convergence B 6 0.85
3 (R/LR)A = (R/LR)P Parallel C 2 0.90
D A 8 0.95
E B 10 0.89
F B 16 0.92
units in groups 2 and 3, respectively. Then, the start G C 6 0.87
difference for these units can be calculated as follows: H D 4 0.85
I E 8 0.92
J F, G 10 0.87
K H, I 6 0.86

Similarly, the start difference between the third unit Table 3. Traditional LOB calculations.
in any group such as unit 9 and the first unit in the first
group can be calculated as: Act. d1 (days) TF (days) Rth Cth Ca Ra

A 4 9 0.20 0.80 1 0.25

B 6 0 0.25 1.50 2 0.33
C 2 14 0.18 0.36 1 0.50
D 8 9 0.20 1.60 2 0.25
In general form, start difference between unit i and E 10 1 0.24 2.43 3 0.30
the first unit in group one can be calculated using F 16 0 0.25 4.00 4 0.25
Eq.10. Start and finish times of unit i can be easily G 6 14 0.18 1.08 2 0.33
H 4 9 0.20 0.80 1 0.25
calculated using Equations 11 and 12, respectively.
I 8 1 0.24 1.94 2 0.25
J 10 0 0.25 2.50 3 0.30
K 6 1 0.24 1.46 2 0.33

5 MODEL IMPLEMENTATION

An example project chosen form the literature (Ammar

4.3 Dependency relationships between consecutive
activities
To specify dependency relationships between consec-
utive activities considering learning , not only the
progress rate of an activity is controlling but the
learning rate should also be considered.
An ambiguous case arises for diverged activities if
LR of an activity is less than that of its predecessor. In
this case, divergence may be changed to convergence
due to learning effect. In other words, dependency
relationship can not be specified directly in case of
RA < RP and LRA < LRP . Also, an ambiguous case
arises for converged activities if a predecessor has a
greater value of learning rate. In this case, convergence
may be changed to divergence due to learning effect if
RA > RP and LRA > LRP .
Instead of comparing progress rates only or learn-
ing rates only, one has to compare the ratio of progress
rate to learning rate of consecutive activities. To
specify dependency relationship between consecutive
activities considering learning effect, the rules given
in Table 1 have to be followed.
2003) has been analyzed to illustrate the features of the
proposed model. The project consists of 10 identical
units. The contract duration is 70 days and a mini-
mum buffer time of one day is to be maintained. Work
breakdown for a single unit, estimated activities dura-
tion of first unit, and assumed learning rates are given
Table 2.
The example problem is solved manually applying
the developed model described earlier in the following
steps:
Perform CPM time analysis for the first unit con-
sidering unit duration. The resulting CPM duration
of the first unit (T1 ) is 34 days and total floats of
non-critical activities are given in Table 3.
Target rate of delivery (RT ) is calculated as
(10 1)/(70 34) = 0.25 (critical activities). The
progress rates of non-critical activities are calcu-
lated considering their total float. The theatrical and
actual number of crews as well as actual progress
rate of each activity are calculated and are, also,
given in Table 3.
The dependency relationships between consecutive
activities are determined using the rules given in
Table 1 and are given in Table 4.

344
Figure 4. LOB Schedule of Path B-F-J.

Table 4. Dependency relationships. model was used, which was modified to allow for
usage of multiple crews. Dependency relationships
Predecessor #1 Predecessor #2 between consecutive activities were discussed and
modeled to introduce learning effect. An example
Act. (R/LR)A Code (R/LR)P Rel. Code (R/LR)P Rel.
project chosen form the literature is used to imple-
ment the proposed model and to demonstrate model
A 0.26
B 0.39 steps and calculations. The obtained results are then
C 0.56 analyzed and compared with traditional analysis.
D 0.26 A 0.26 Par. Although the developed model is applicable only to
E 0.34 B 0.39 Div. typical repetitive projects, it can be extended to model
F 0.27 B 0.39 Div. atypical case.
G 0.38 C 0.56 Div.
H 0.29 D 0.26 Con.
I 0.27 E 0.34 Div. REFERENCES
J 0.34 F 0.27 Con. G 0.38 Div.
K 0.38 H 0.29 Con. I 0.27 Con. Al-Sarrag, Z. 1990. Formal Development of Line-Of-Balance
Technique. Journal of Construction Engineering and
Management, ASCE, 116(4), 689704.
Ammar, M. 2003. Integrated LOB and CPM Repetitive
Dividing units into groups according to actual num- Scheduling Method, 10th International Colloquium on
Structural and Geotechnical Engineering, Ain-Shams
ber of crews chosen for each activity. Applying University, Cairo, Egypt, Paper # E03MG04.
the modified straight-line learning curve equation Arditi, D., Tokdemir, O., & Suh, K. 2001. Effect of Learning
(Eq. 9) to get unit durations due to learning. on Line-Of-Balance Scheduling. International Journal of
Calculating the start difference for all units, start Project Management, 19, 265277.
time, and finish time using equations 10, 11, and Birrell, G. 1980. Construction Planning Beyond the Crit-
12, respectively. ical Path. Journal of Construction Division, 106(3),
389407.
The calculated timings of activities are plotted for Couto, J., & Teixeira, J. 2005. Using Linear Model for
path B-F-G in Fig. 4. The resulting project duration Learning Curve Effect on Highrise Floor Construction.
is 64.3 days. The project duration ignoring learning Journal of Construction Management and Economics, 23,
effect, for the same number of crews, was 74 days 355364.
as reported by Ammar (2003). Consequently, a time Everett, J. & Farghal, S. 1994. Learning Curve Predictors for
saving of 9.7 days is obtained (i.e. 15.1%). Construction Field Operations. Journal of Construction
Although the critical activities of CPM analysis for Engineering and Management, 120(3), 603616.
Hegazy, T. 2002, Computer-Based Construction Project
the first unit (B, F, and J) controls project duration, this Management, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River,
is not the general case. NJ, USA.
Hijazi, A. 1989. Simulation Analysis of Linear Construction
Processes. Ph.D. Dissertation, Purdue University, West
Lafayette, Ind.
6 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Johnston, D. 1981. Linear Scheduling Method for Highway
Construction. Journal of Construction Division, 107(2),
A practical model for scheduling repetitive projects 247261.
considering learning development effect is presented Mahdi, I. 2004 A New LSM Approach for Planning Repet-
in this paper. In modeling learning development effect itive Housing Projects. International Journal of Project
into LOB scheduling, the straight-line learning curve Management, 22, 339346.

345
Pilcher, R. 1992 Principles of Construction Management 3rd
edition, McGraw-Hill, Inc., USA.
Strdal, O. & Cacha, J. 1982. Time Space Scheduling Method.
Journal of Construction Division, 108(3), 445457.
Suhail, S. and Neale, R. 1994. CPM/LOB: New Method-
ology to Integrate CPM and Line of Balance. Journal
346
of Construction Engineering and Management, 120(3),
667684.
Thomas, H., Mathews, C., & Ward, J. 1986. Learning
Curve Models of Construction Productivity. Journal
of Construction Engineering and Management, 112(2),
245258.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Evaluation for subway project quality based on supply chain thoughts

Zhiguo Zhang
School of Management, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu, China

ABSTRACT: Based on the quality of subway project involved many complex, drawing on the idea of the
supply chain to consider the quality of the metro project to the formation of the complexity of the process, and
clearly based on the concept of quality and content of the supply chain project to build the quality of the supply
chain-based projects evaluation index system, and explore scientific and effective evaluation methods, and are
provided the basis and reference for quality control and management of the project.

Keywords: subway project; projects; supply chain; quality

1 INTRODUCTION speed and acceleration, a complex signaling system

With the rapid economic development and expansion
of the city, many major cities during the construction of
urban rail transit, China is entering the peak construc-
tion of the rail transit project. As of the end of 2011, a
total of 13 cities of the national mainland China have
been opened to rail transportation (including light rail,
subway), operating mileage of 1630 kilometers, 12
is a critical period of Chinas transport infrastructure
network to improve urban rail traffic will reach 30
kilometers. According to the plan, by 2020, Chinas
rail transport mileage jumped to 11,700 km. The sub-
way is an important component of urban rail transit
subway project investment, long construction period,
affecting a wide range and many other reasons, affect
the quality of the formation of a variety of factors.
Therefore, the right to define the quality management
of the subway project involved, select the appropriate
standard is particularly important to ensure the quality
of the management of science and rationality.
A comprehensive analysis of metro projects
affected by many factors, quality assessment, draw-
ing on the thinking of the supply chain analysis of
the connotation of the subway project supply chain,
to examine the quality of behavior and effects of the
subway project supply chain, to build the supply chain-
based projects quality evaluation system, and explore
effective evaluation methods, in order to achieve the
goal of high-quality construction.
2 THE SUBWAY PROJECT SUPPLY CHAIN
2.1 Subway engineering project quality concept
Subway is a highly intensive passenger transport, but
also an electrified railway system, it must have a
separate access road; vehicles from cars are faster,
and the need for site passengers up and down. Its mov-
ing road is usually in the ground, underground and
overhead line.
The subway project, the quality concept has rich
connotation, it has both content with the general con-
cept of product quality, but also include broader,
more special content. According to the definition of
quality standards of ISO9000 (2000), the relevant
provisions of the Construction Law and Con-
struction Quality Management Ordinance, the paper
considers the quality of the subway project force in
the countrys relevant laws and regulations, techni-
cal standards, specifications, design documents and
engineering contract for engineering safety, use, com-
prehensive requirements for economic, aesthetic and
other characteristics. It can be seen, subway projects
include not only the quality of the results of activities
or processes (the quality of the project entity), includ-
ing the activity or the process itself (ie, the production
of the whole process of the construction project prod-
uct), Calvary stage of project construction quality and
the corresponding quality of work is comprehensive.
2.2 Subway project supply chain
Supply chain management in the manufacturing indus-
try has achieved a great success, some researchers
are committed to supply chain management into the
construction industry. Based on the nature of the
supply chain, the subway project supply chain is a
network of organizations formed due to the project
functional division of labor and the process of network
structure. The subway project supply chain starting
from the effective demand of the owners, focus on
core business, to bidding for control of information
flow, logistics, capital flow from the project decision-
making, project design, material procurement, project
construction and completion of the whole process of

347
the acceptance The project of the owners, consult-
ing units, survey and design units, construction units,
material suppliers, and supervision units, test units, all
parts are connected into a whole supply and demand
networks.
The subway project implementation process gen-
erally includes the main components of the project
decision-making, design, construction, procurement,
and related to the number of project participants,
formed around the project throughout all the par-
ties participating in the construction project delivery
network, is the project supply chain. The idea of mod-
ern supply chain requires each node in the enterprise
in the project supply chain integration, in the whole
process of construction by the subway project, all
aspects of efficient work together to form an optimal
construction system, integration in the entire project
implementation process coordination and synchro-
nization, thereby reducing the cost of the entire supply
chain, shorten the construction period, to improve the
quality of the project to meet the requirements of the
owners of the project.
According to the special nature of domestic project
management, the owner (project legal person) is the
most appropriate supply chain core principal roles or
leading role. At the core of a dominant position in the
process of project implementation, project owners,
the overall coordination of the relationship between
the project stakeholders on the construction progress,
quality and cost control, and efforts to achieve the over-
all goal of the project. At the same time from their
own interests, the owners will consider the project as
a whole to maximize the benefits from the project
life cycle and the entire process point of view, efforts
to achieve a minimum of resource inputs and output
results, and help to achieve the integrated management
of institutional constraints and project, project partici-
pants, individual interests and side projects the overall
interests of the unity.
Combined with the definition of the project sup-ply
chain, it is shown to the owners as the core of the main
subway project supply chain structure model is shown
in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Owners as the core project supply chain structure
model.
348
3 THE SUBWAY PROJECT SUPPLY CHAIN
ASSESSMENT OVERVIEW
A century, the quality of management science from the
proposed to mature through a quality inspection, sta-
tistical quality control and total quality management
in three stages, quality management into a comprehen-
sive whole process of full participation in the system
management phase. The current scope of the project
quality management system gradually from an indi-
vidual within the organization, extended to a number
of organizations in the project supply chain. With the
expansion of the scope of quality management and
supply chain management, the two integration has
become to explore new trends in theory and practice.
3.1 Project quality evaluation of the meaning of the
subway project based on supply chain
Quality of the subway project all members of the
project supply chain collaborate and work together to
do the results of the project construction process of
the whole process of work activities, and evaluation
of projects from the point of view of supply chain
supply chain in order to ensure all the efforts made
by the quality of the project (upgrade) and result of
the efforts, the quality of the project objective reflec-
tion and evaluation, and can also supply chain node
enterprises (projects involved in the process of oper-
ational activities of the unit) to provide a reference
standard.
Quality evaluation of the subway project countries
(rail industry/region) the existing relevant laws and
regulations and standards for the key factors affecting
the quality of projects, the establishment of a system
of evaluation index system, using scientific evaluation
methods, on the subway project operating activities
of the parties involved in the supply chain, collabora-
tion status, and physical quality to make an objective
assessment of the price, in order to grasp the dynamic
of the project quality, to enhance the overall quality
of the project, the participating units to improve the
project supply chain The level of quality management
play an information-oriented role.
3.2 Evaluation of the quality of the subway
project-based supply chain characteristics
The subway project quality projects in engineering and
physical quality and the process of building quality of
work of all parties participating in the construction
of a comprehensive quality assessment of the project-
based supply chain has the following characteristics.
3.2.1 Based on objective evaluation of the quality
of the entire project supply chain
Subway project quality evaluation based on the supply
chain is the quality of behavior and the effect of the
height from the supply chain network to inspect the
project, a systematic approach to achieve the overall
quality level of the supply chain. Quality Evaluation of
objectives and quality objectives of the project, you can
objectively judge the quality of the entire supply chain
behavior and effect. In addition, the idea of supply
chain emphasis on information integration, participa-
tion in the cooperation and win-win situation between
the units, should also examine whether to participate
in the quality of behavior of all parties to promote
among the participants in the evaluation of the quality
of individual members of the supply chain behavior
and effects at the same time, collaboration and win-
win, play to promote the overall effectiveness of the
supply chain.
3.2.2 To evaluate the quality of the core subject of
the supply chain owner
The core enterprise of the supply chain quality man-
agement, key decision makers, the core subjects in the
establishment of their own internal quality manage-
ment system to manage and control the quality of the
process of supply chain activities to ensure that the
effect of the whole quality management process can
really meet objectives and requirements developed in
the core subjects. Owners for the project supply chain,
the central subject of the subway project management
models, owners of quality management level of facil-
ities the formation of a great impact on the quality of
the project. The units (the owner) is the central subject
of the project supply chain building, the level of qual-
ity management and quality management measures are
taken by the formation of a great impact on the qual-
ity of the project. The focus is the evaluation for the
owners of unit mass, depending on its quality man-
agement activities, the role of different emphases on
the evaluation for the other parties participating in the
construction.
3.2.3 Focus on orientation and predictability based
on the quality of the supply chain project
evaluation
Assess based on the history and current status of the
subway project quality assessment of the supply chain
on the quality status of the parties involved to fully and
deeply understand and foresee the future development
of the quality status of the project, and to determine
project quality management objectives and measures,
reflecting the future the trend of the quality status of
the project. Oriented evaluation of the results of the
participants to take a scientific and practical quality
management measures with, evaluation of work activ-
ities to raise the level of quality management has an
important role in the guidance.
3.2.4 The complexity involved in the quality of
project-based supply chain
Subway project is a huge investment, and affect the
participation of many units and personnel, and affect
the quality of the formation of a variety of factors.
Conducting quality assessment related to the quality
of the project entity and the participating units, the
quality of work activities, but also to evaluate the qual-
ity of self-control system of the participating units and
349
the level of collaboration. Correctly define the quality
assessment related to the content, select the appro-
priate classification standards, to ensure the overall
quality status of quality evaluation of comprehensive-
ness, the level of rationality in order to fully reflect the
project.
4 BASED ON THE SUPPLY CHAIN OF THE
SUBWAY PROJECT QUALITY EVALUATION
4.1 Supply chain subway project quality evaluation
index system
The quality of the subway project is a project sup-
ply chain members to work together the results of
the subway project quality evaluation, based on the
supply chain should be based on the height of the
entire supply chain to the owners for the core sub-
ject of the supply chain to study the supply chain
members the quality of behavior and results, focus
on the quality of the supply chain system optimiza-
tion. Build a comprehensive quality assessment system
based on supply chain project is a key link to the
project quality evaluation of, the evaluation index
system of scientific rationality is directly related to
project evaluation of the quality of work.Therefore, the
index system must be scientific, objective, and fully
reflect all aspects of project quality, the index system
should be clear hierarchy, structural optimization, a
clear classification.
Subway project quality acceptance and project qual-
ity evaluation of the status quo, considering the com-
plexity and multilevel nature of the Factors Affecting
the Quality of project, refer to at home and abroad on
the index system of the existing theory to build the
subway project-based supply chain quality evaluation
index system is shown in Table 1.
4.2 Based on the quality of supply chain subway
project evaluation methods
Based on the quality of supply chain subway project
evaluation to determine the content of Science Indica-
tors System is to evaluate the quality of the premise,
but also the quality of evaluation findings is scientific
and objective basis.The evaluation method is to project
quality assessment instruments and tools, the correct
choice of evaluation method based on the quality of the
supply chain is an important condition to guarantee the
evaluation of the effect.
Based on the subway project quality assessment of
the supply chain is a multi-factor, multi-level, multi-
indicator evaluation process, the index system com-
plexity and multilevel nature of most of the indicators
are qualitative indicators, it is difficult to express the
exact number of certain ambiguity, drawing on the
principle of systematic reviews, we can consider the
analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy comprehensive
evaluation method for the technical means, fuzzy
AHP evaluation model for project quality objective,
comprehensive analysis and evaluation.
Table 1. Supply chain subway project quality evaluation quality level coincide with the corresponding weights,
index system. is passed up layer by layer, eventually arrive at the
project quality levels.
Subway The quality level Managing trade
project owners of Owner Construction
quality of the management drawing review 5 SUMMARY
overall quality Construction
of management Management Parties involved collaboration from advocacy subway
level Engineering Trade project, the new concept of win-win situation, and
management
Exploration of Exploration explore the quality evaluation system based on sup-
team
design quality Design ply chain projects. Explicitly based on the supply
level Quality liability chain subway engineering project quality evaluation
accident of the concept and content, to build supply chain
Supervision unit Supervision team projects quality evaluation system to explore effec-
quality level and supervision tive evaluation methods, in order from the perspective
system of organizations and processes subway engineering
Launch a former project quality, conduct a comprehensive evaluation
Supervision
Construction of
provide the basis and reference for quality control and
Supervision management of the project.
Supervision unit
mass accidents REFERENCES
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standards preparations V.K., Shehelokov E.A. Automated system of control,
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Test operations River Bridge. Journal of Chongqing Jiaotong University
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level systems C W Tam, Z M Deng, S X Zeng, C S Ho., 2000. Performance
Product assessment scoring system of Public housing construction
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level of operation Jha, K.N., Iyer, K.C., 2006. Critical Factors Affecting Qual-
collaboration Capital flow ity Performance in Construction Projcets. Total Quality
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Logistics Tsung-Han, Chang, Tien-Chin Wang., 2009. Using the fuzzy
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WANG Yuan-ming, ZHAO Dao-zhi, XU Da-hai., 2009.
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350
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Research trend in partnering in construction journals

Alireza Ghaffari
Scholar in Construction Management, Pune University, India

R.K. Jane
D.Y. Patil College of Engineering, Pune University, India

ABSTRACT: This paper is going to portray general view of the most of the major related journals by analyz-
ing and exploring the research trend of partnering in detail in the allotted seven brilliant construction journals.
The series of partnering journal articles published from 1983 the starting point of partnering in construction
engineering in U.S army as the only panacea to make capable U.S construction companies to compete in inter-
national tenders or bids. The main objective of partnering is to encourage all parties of a contract to change
their relationships from adversarial to cooperative, by building a friendly environment with all parties acting as
members of one team. This research show that the United States are published the largest number of partnering
article, which followed by United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Sweden, Australia, Taiwan, China, Poland. and so on.
The research method are primarily regression analysis, balanced scorecard method, fuzzy set theory, and analytic
hierarchy process (AHP). The main topic of the published paper in these journals are Critical success factors of
partnering, Barriers and benefits of partnering, Evaluation and applicability of partnering., Conceptual model
of partnering, Partnering performance and measurement, development of partnering, Partnering on construction
supply chain.

Keywords: Partnering, Construction, Research, journals, Articles, Publications, Reviews, Papers

1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND (Construction Industry Institute, CII 1991, 1995).

Tsai and Wen (2005) advocated that a systematic
analysis of papers published in academic journals
would assist researchers to explore the current status
and future trend of a chosen topic. So the increase
in partnering published papers may demonstrate the
importance of research in partnering relationship or
contract for researchers as well as practitioners. Aca-
demic journals are useful to the research community
in general and more significant to new researchers in
particular, which may help them easily to get a wider
perspective in this regard. This paper is a comprehen-
sive research of partnering literature in construction
industries and investigation of the research method of
partnering in brilliant journals of construction man-
agement from 1983 the inception of partnering by US
army till present July 2012. Numerous definitions of
partnering have been derived from different past stud-
ies as defined. Partnering is a long-term commitment
between two or more organizations for the purpose
of achieving specific business objectives by maximiz-
ing the effectiveness of each participants resources.
This requires changing traditional relationships to a
shared culture without regard to organizational bound-
aries. The relationship is based upon trust, dedication
to common goals, and an understanding of each others
individual expectations and values.
Though many different definitions are given for illus-
trating the partnering concepts in construction, there
exists a common consensus on the key elements
of partnering through co-operation and teamwork:
commitment, mutual trust and respect, communica-
tion, equity, responsiveness to problems, continuous
evaluation, common goals and joint problem resolu-
tion (Cook and Hancher 1990; Construction Industry
Institute 1991; Ng et al. 2002; Davis Langdon; Seah
Consultancy 2006 Chan et al. 2002). The benefits pro-
duced by partnering as an improved ability to respond
to changing project environment; improved quality
and safety; reduced cost and project time; improved
profit and value; and more effective utilization of
resources (Kubal 1994, Li and Green 1996). The main
CSFs identified include mutual objectives, commit-
ment, equity, trust, attitude, openness, effective com-
munication, teambuilding, problem resolution, timely
responsiveness, and incentives (Black et al. 2000 and
Cheng and Li 2002).
2 RESEARCH METHODS
The methods by Ke et al. (2009), Al-Sharif and
Kaka (2004), Tsai and Wen (2005) used to portray

351
Table 1. Partnering related published articles in signified journals of world (overall).

Name of lournals No. Subjected area No. Issue yrs. No yrs

International Journal of Project Manage. 165 supply chain 69 2012 131

Industrial Marketing Management 75 project management 29 2011 164
Research Policy 75 construction industry 25 2010 124
Automation in Construction 52 firm 23 2009 134
Technovation 37 Hong Kong 17 2008 107
Long Range Planning 33 joint venture 17 2007 110
International Journal of Production Econ 32 soft ware 14 2006 90
Journal of Business Research 30 strategic alliance 13 2005 83
Building and Environment 29 trust 12 2004 63
Building and Environment . . . 28 China 11 2003 63
European Management Journal 27 knowledge management 9 2002 62
Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management 23 project 9 2001 59
International Business Review 21 project performance 9 2000 62
Journal of Cleaner Production 20 absorptive capacity 8 1999 38
Expert Systems with Applications 17 alliance 8 1998 36
European Journal of Operational Research 16 construction project 8 1997 39
Journal of Business Venturing 16 information system 8 1996 28
Geoforum 15 supplier 8 1995 17
Scandinavian Journal of Management 15 innovation 7 1994 22
product development 7 1993 5
19831992 17

elaborately the major research which published in
the major journals under the topics of the construc-
tion partnering. Al-Sharif and Kaka (2004) reviewed
papers published by four construction journals from
1998 to 2003, namely the Journal of Construction
Engineering and Management (JCEM), the Construc-
tion Management and Economics (CME), the Interna-
tional Journal of Project Management (IJPM), and the
Engineering Construction and Architectural Manage-
ment (ECAM). The four selected journals are among
the top ten initial selection of construction journals in
the ranking of Chau (1997) which are highly recog-
nized. The research was further refined taking into
account the ranking journal list of Chau (1997) in
the construction engineering and management field
by adding the journal of engineering management
and Building and Environment (BE), Automation in
Construction (AIC) as a high impact value journals.
2.1 Research stage
2.1.1 First stage common search
In first step first part, a comprehensive search
was conducted with powerful search engine Scopus/
science dir. in term of partnering, limited to doc-
uments or PDF files style and limited to English
language from 1983 till 2012. So papers with these
terms were identified from research (As table 1). The
search has refined further by applying Title-Abstract-
Keywords, so the result decremented from 1454 papers
to 324 and by refining to 285 paper as table 2.Although
search limited to the field of partnering in construc-
tion to caching of all relater construction partnering
article but some unwanted publications may still exist
in the search result, which should be extracted from
research. In a first step second part the articles of
journal of Construction Engineering and Management
(JCEM) and Journal of Management in Engineer-
ing (JME) as ASCE important journals are searched
in ASCE library to get more accurate value in the
research, so search has done with these specific terms
in Title/Abstract/Keyword and further limited in
the subject areas such as business, management,
and accounting, decision sciences, economics,
econometrics, and finance, energy, engineering,
environmental science, and social sciences field
with the document type of article in specified time
(AFT 1982 till present) in the ASCE whole journals
and forwards refined by mentioned journals.
2.1.2 Second stage
The search was conducted under the Title/Abstract/
Keyword with powerful advanced Google scholar
search engine in term of partnering in selected
significant journal one by one searched with inves-
tigation limited to full papers, document type, English
language, by excluding editorial, book review,
discussions and closures, and letter to the editor
and from yearly distinguish from 1982 to 2012 which
illustrated in table 4. Each country, institution, and
researcher was analyzed and ranked quantitatively in
a similar manner as Al-Sharif and Kaka has done in
2004 by individual contribution. In the earlier time the
contribution of each writer in a multi-authored paper is
take in account same as the single writer, but Howard
et al. in 1987 advocated that a more accurate approach
should be adopted to reflect the actual contribution
of each individual writer in a multi-authored papers
by assuming that the first writer has contributed more
than the second writer, and the second more than the
third, and so on and so forth. Howard et al. proposed

352
Table 2. Partnering published related articles in signified journals of world in construction field (By Scoups science dir.
Search).

Name of journals No. Subjected area No. Issue yrs. No. yrs.

International Journal of Project Management 32 supply chain 13 2012 6

Journal of Business Research 14 construction industry 9 2011 14
Research Policy 14 strategic alliance 7 2010 8
Industrial Marketing Management 12 joint venture 6 2009 9
European Management Journal 10 firm 5 2008 6
Long Range Planning 8 strategic technology 5 2007 18
Technovation 8 supplier 5 2006 8
European Journal of Purchasing & Supply Managem 7 contractor 4 2005 8
Building and Environment 5 product development 4 2004 11
Business Horizons 4 r&d partnership 4 2003 18
Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management 4 research policy 4 2002 11
Automation in Construction 3 strategic partnering 3 2001 11
International Journal of Production Economics 3 alliance 3 2000 11
Journal of Operations Management 3 China 3 1999 8
Omega 3 client 3 1998 7
Government Information Quarterly 2 Hong Kong 3 1997 17
Healthcare Management Forum 2 supplier relationship 3 1996 6
The Journal of HighTech. Manage. Rese 2 construction partnering 2 1995 5
Journal of World Business 2 range planning 2 1994 5
Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and T . . . 2 risk mitigation 2 1993 1
19831992 3

Table 3. Score matrix for multi-author papers. research in the journals by U.S army in 1983 for win-
ning in international tenders or bids and therefore
Order of specific author the status of partnering publications in the year were
specifically enumerated in Table 4.
Number of authors 1 2 3 4 5
After more specific search in each of the target jour-
nals, it was computed that amongst the 1454 related
1 1.00
2 0.60 0.40 papers published in the seventeen world significant
3 0.47 0.32 0.21 journals only 164 (94 on construction journals and 80
4 0.42 0.28 0.18 0.12 on other related journals) fully related paper addressed
5 0.38 0.26 0.17 0.11 0.08 on partnering relation issues. It is obvious from the
statistics that research on partnering has emerged
within the last 10 years. The number of papers pub-
the following formula for each individual writer in lished on partnering in the significant journals in last
a multi-authored papers and it was adopted by Tsai decade is 124 articles, whereas the number of papers
and Wen 2005 to identify the research mode in this published on partnering in the decade 90 and 80 are
issue. The suitability of using the formula to rank the only 64 article which shows a large difference between
individual institutional contributions in the specific last decade and the two decade before that. The year
research topic for following research. This formula 2007 shows the peak year in publishing papers in part-
is a good reference to use the corresponding ratios nering, whereas in last third decade there was only one
between authors r to be as reasonable and reflective papers which was the starting decade of partnering
based on the order of authorship to score different in construction journals may called. Therefore there
contributions of authors was special attention has started from 2000 to now
by highly increment in number of published paper in
significant journals.
The number of papers published in journal of engi-
neering management in partnering is higher than other
n = number of writers of the article selected journals, which showed the contribution of
i = order of the specific writer this journal with the construction partnering studies,
but the number of paper in partnering in journal of
Building and Environment was four andAutomation in
3 ANNUAL SEARCH OF PARTNERING Construction journal was five only which cover 4.2%
ARTICLES IN CONSTRUCTION JOURNALS (4/94) and 5.3% (5/94) percent of brilliant journals
number of published paper in construction partnering,
The research result illustrated, the year 1987 is a which show far less than Journal of Management Engi-
tipping point for the commencement of partnering neering with 25.5% (24/94) and international journal

353
Table 4. Partnering yearly papers in significant world journals (from 1982 till July 2012 and TITLE-ABSTR-KEY
partnering).

Years 19832012 8390 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 T.L

Main Partnering papers in construction engineering in brilliant journals

J.M.E 1 1 5 3 1 4 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24
C.M.E 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 3 3 1 2 1 18
I.J.P.M 1 1 2 3 3 6 1 2 19
J.C.E.M 2 1 1 3 2 1 1 1 12
E.C.A.M 1 1 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 1 12
A.C 1 2 2 5
B.E 1 1 1 1 4
TL 1 2 4 4 1 4 3 4 5 5 5 6 6 6 5 13 5 5 4 3 4 92
Related journals in partnering papers
R.P 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 14
J.B.R 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 13
I.M.M 1 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 12
Eu M.J 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 10
Tech. 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 8
Eu J.P.S.M 1 1 1 2 2 7
J.P.S.N 3 1 4
I.J.P.E 1 1 1 3
J.O.M 1 1 1 3
J.H.T.MR 1 1 2
J.W.B 1 1 2
T.R.P 1 1 2
T.L 1 3 2 4 10 4 4 5 8 3 5 2 5 5 3 2 3 5 4 2 80
G.T 1 1 2 7 6 5 14 7 8 10 13 8 11 8 11 10 15 7 8 9 7 6 162

Table 5. Cited times of selected journals in partnering journals, with the total cited times of 1124 based upon
article. the Google Scholar search engine, followed by CME
with second cited times of 676 and JCEM with third
Total cited Total No. of Times per cited times of 439. In terms of the times cited per
Journal times papers paper
paper, IJPM was ranked as the first with the times
of 59.15 per paper which followed by CME, 37.5 time
I.J.P.M 1124 19 59.15
C.M.E 676 18 37.50 per paper and JCEM with 36.5 time per hour.
J.C.E.M 439 12 36.5
J.M.E 815 24 33.95
B.E 132 4 33 4 REGIONAL AND INSTITUTION
E.C.A.M 333 12 27.75 CONTRIBUTION IN RESEARCH
A.C 48 5 9.6
According to Cohen et al. (2002) the published papers
Note: R.P = Research Policy, J.B.R = Journal of and research reports are amongst the key channels
Business Research, I.M.M = Industrial Marketing Man- through which university research impacts industrial
agement, Eu.M.J = European Management Journal, research and development. It is obvious that the num-
Tech. = Technovation, Eu.J.P.S.M = European Journal of ber of academic research paper in particular topic in
Purchasing & Supply Management, J.O.M = Journal of
any country may represent the industrial innovation of
Operations Management, J.H.T.M.P = The Journal of High
Technology Management Research, J.W.B = Journal of that particular regions. Thus to obtain the view of con-
World Business, T.R.P = Transportation Research Part E: struction partnering in particular countries, the number
Logistics. of research paper of each country and institution on
construction partnering gathered by scoring of each
author allotted for particular institution or country.
of project management by holding 20.2% (19/94) Referring to different score of contributions of authors
percent in comparison. A citation index keeps track of in different origin, the sum of the contribution value of
which articles in scientific journals cite which other all authors in the identical country was used as the final
articles. The citation index has been increasingly rec- score of that country. For instance, if one author from
ognized as highly important for evaluating the impact an origin published two papers, one with first author-
of research articles. By using Google Scholar the cita- ship and another with second, he could get a score
tion of all partnering papers published in the target of 1 (0.6 + 0.4) as matrix table 3. The detailed anal-
journals as shown in Table 5 which shows, the journal ysis of the countries in partnering published papers
IJPM has been cited the most as compared to other shown on the table 8, which demonstrate the score

354
Table 6. Most frequently cited papers in journals from Table 8. Countries score in partnering published papers.
1982-till end June 2012.
Ranking in
Citation paper
Total no. Total no. percentage published Countries No. of papers Score
Journal of citation of papers (%)
1 United States 28 28
JCEM 2810 729 = 2381 729 326.61 2 United Kingdom 26 24.92
J.M.E 11200 3680 = 7520 3680 204.34 3 Hong Kong 24 22.28
I.J.P.M 2130 1740 = 390 1740 22.41 4 Sweden 7 7
B.E 4960 4170 = 790 4170 18.94 5 Australia 6 3.8
A.C 1600 1430 = 170 1430 11.18 6 Taiwan 3 3
C.M.E 387000 357000 = 357000 8.40 7 China 3 2.58
30000 8 Poland 2 2
E.C.A.M 656 633 = 23 633 3.63 9 South Africa 2 2
10 Singapore 1 1.00
11 Turkey 1 1.00

Table 7. Ten top frequently cited papers.

Table 9. Top ten Research Centres in Partnering Papers in
Papers title Year Journal Times Country construction.

Partnering in 2000 C.M.E 298 UK Ranking Research centres Countries Papers Scores
construction:
a critical review of 1 The Hong Kong Hong Kong 12 9.91
issues, problems Polytechnic Uni.
and dilemmas 2 The University of Hong Kong 6 5.29
Hong Kong
An analysis of 2000 192 UK 3 City University of Hong Kong 5 4.78
success factors and Hong Kong
benefits of 4 U.S. Army Corps U.S. 4 3.4
partnering in of Engineers
construction 5 Loughborough U.K. 2 2
Trust in project 2004 I.J.P.M 157 Sweden University
relationships 6 University of U.K. 2 2
Greenwich
inside the
7 University of U.K 2 2
black box
Manchestr
Exploring Critical 2004 J.C.E.M 134 Hong 8 University of U.K. 2 2
Success Factors Kong Greenwich
for Partnering 9 Heriot-Watt U.K. 2 2
in Construction University
Projects 10 Royal Institute of Sweden 2 2
Technology
Project partnering: 1995 J.M.E 116 U.S.A
results of study of
280 construction
projects
Partnering 1998 J.M.E 113 U.S.A
for each origin and total number of papers published
continuum
on that regions either by universities or institution or
authors. It portrayed that three countries as United
An overview into 2003 I.J.P.M 110 UK States, United Kingdom and Hong Kong by scoring
the concept of 28, 24.92 and 22.28 points published the maximum
partnering
number of partnering relationship papers in the 7 bril-
Problematic issues 2002 I.J.P.M 108 Australia, liant selected journals. The percentage of contribution
associated with Hong on partnering on those three mentioned countries was
project partnering Kong more than 75 percent of whole target papers in con-
the contractor struction partnering, which represent the partnering
perspective implementation to construction projects by those three
Behavioral aspects 2003 I.J.P.M 93 Hong countries in construction industry. So the Hong Kong
in construction Kong Polytechnic University by scouring 9.91 point with 12
partnering published papers was first rank amongst all identified
Conceptual model 1995 J.M.E 91 U.S universities which followed by The University of Hong
of partnering Kong as second rank and City University of Hong
Kong a third rank. The three mentioned universities

355
have played the pivotal roles in research on construc-
tion partnering not only in Hong Kong, but throughout
the world and the US Army Engineers Corps insti-
tution which widely adopted partnering to military
projects was fourth rank by 3.4 points after the three
universities of Hong Kong. The top 10 research cen-
ters publishing partnering papers in construction are
listed in Table 9, along with the country origins of these
research centers with number of published papers and
the corresponding scores of each research centers.
REFERENCES
Kumaraswamy, M.M., Ling, F.Y.Y., Rahman, M.M., and
Phng, S. T. (2005). Constructing relationally integrated
teams. Journal of Construction Engineering and Man-
agement, ASCE, 13(10), 10761086.
Tang, W.Z., Duffield, C.F., andYoung, D.M. (2006). Partner-
ing mechanism in construction: an empirical study on the
Chinese construction industry. Journal of Construction
Engineering and Management, ASCE, 132(3), 217229.
356
Anvuur, A.M., and Kumaraswamy, M.M. (2007). Concep-
tual model of partnering and alliancing. Journal of Con-
struction Engineering and Management, ASCE, 133(3),
225234.
Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) in construction journals.
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management,
ASCE, 135(10), 10761086.
Cheng, E.W.L., and Li, H. (2004). Development of a
practical model of partnering for construction projects.
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management,
ASCE, 130(6), 790798
Crowley, L.G., and Karim, A. (1995). Conceptual model
of partnering. Journal of Management in Engineering,
ASCE, 11(5), 3339.
E. (2009). Research trend of Koraltan, S., and Dikbas, A.
(2002). An assessment of the applicability of partner-
ing in the Turkish construction sector. Construction
Management and Economics, 20(4), 315321.
Tsai, C.C., and Wen, M.C.L. (2005). Research and trends in
science education from 1998 to 2002: A content analysis
of publications in selected journals. International Journal
of Science Education, 27(1), 314.
Environmental engineering
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Evaluation on the investment effect of railway vibration reduction measures

Zhai Gongjuan , Yan Haifeng & Zuo Qianbiao

School of Transportation and Logistics, South West Jiaotong University, Sichuan, China

ABSTRACT: The effective implementing of vibration reduction measures can help reducing the influence
for the line along and providing a good life environment. Reference to the subway specification, the vibration
reduction measures were divided into four levels, and reference to the prescribed vibration limits, the district
along the line was divided into six types, according to which, 11 benchmarks were determined. This paper
summarized the existing achievement, evaluated the investment effect by cost-effectiveness analysis, and the
proposal measures of different vibration reduction levels were given.

Keywords: railway, vibration reduction measures, cost-effectiveness evaluation

1 INTRODUCTION Table 1. Dividing of vibration reduction levels.

As the train speed increases, especially after the oper- Serial Vibration reduction
ating of high-speed passenger dedicated line, the number Level measure Effectiveness
influence of train vibration and noise on surrounding
1 A Ordinary measure <5 dB
environment has been increasingly serious. The effec-
2 B Medium measure 510 dB
tive implementing of vibration reduction measures 3 C Advanced measure 1015 dB
can help reducing the influence for the line along 4 D Special measure >15 dB
and providing a good life environment, which has
significant social and environmental benefits.
While choosing the vibration reduction measures,
the maturity, practicality and economy of the measures vibration limits, the district along the line is divided
should also be considered other than the effectiveness. into six types which are shown as Table 2 (Wang,
Therefore, the reasonable measures should be cho- 2011).
sen based on the above factors and the requirement
of different lines.
4 BENCHMARK
2 VIBRATION REDUCTION LEVELS On different line, the same measure may has different
effect due to the different type of train, track structure
According to ISO 2631 and other related provisions, and district along; even on the same line, the same mea-
the vibration acceleration level is used to reflect the sure may also has different effect due to the different
size of vibration with the unit of dB. Reference to speed and vibration frequency of train and the applica-
the subway specification (GB50157-2003), the vibra- tion scope of measure. In addition, the desired values
tion reduction measures are divided into four levels by of vibration reduction are not the same on condition
their effectiveness which are shown as Table 1 (Wang, of different types of district and line, and according to
2011). this, 11 benchmarks are determined which are shown
as Table 3 (Wang, 2011).
3 TYPES OF DISTRICT ALONG THE LINE
5 VIBRATION REDUCTION MEASURES AND
According to the Standard of environmental vibra-
THEIR CHARACTERISTICS
tion in urban area and other related provisions for
According to the existing achievements and their
effect, the vibration reduction measures and their
Fund name: Projects in the National Science & Technology
Pillar Program during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan Period technical and economic characteristics are shown as
(2009BAG12A10). Table 4 (Wang, 2011).

359
Table 2. Vibration limits and types of district along the line.

Types of Day Night

district Application scope (6:0022:00) (22:006:00) Dividing of application scope

Type 0 Special residential district 65 dB 62 dB District needs special quietness

Type 1 Habitation district, campus district 65 dB 62 dB District with inhabitant, education
and Institution
Type 2 Mixed district, business 70 dB 67 dB Mixed district with general industry,
center district business, a few traffic and inhabitant
Type 3 Industrial concentration district 75 dB 72 dB The clearly determined industrial
concentration district
Type 4 Both sides of the arterial traffic 75 dB 72 dB More than 100 vehicles per hour
on both sides
Type 5 Both sides of the main railway lines 80 dB 80 dB More than 20 trains per day out of
30 m on both sides

Table 3. Characters of benchmarks.

Vibration reduction
Benchmark requirement

Serial Speed Desired

number Types of district (km/h) Types of line values(dB) Level be needed

1 Both sides of the main railway lines 80200 Ordinary existing lines 010 Level A and up
2 Special residential district, Habitation 1525 Level D
district, campus district
3 Mixed district, business center district 1020 Level C and up
4 Industrial concentration district 515 Level A and up
5 Special residential district, Habitation 6080 Urban rail transit 1523 Level D
district, campus district
6 Mixed district, business center district 1018 Level C and up
7 Industrial concentration district 513 Level A and up
8 Both sides of the main railway lines >200 Passenger dedicated line 211 Level A and up
9 Special residential district, Habitation 1726 Level D
district, campus district
10 Mixed district, business center district 1221 Level C and up
11 Industrial concentration district 716 Level B and up

6 EVALUATION ON THE INVESTMENT
EFFECT
6.1 Method choosing
The vibration reduction measures are not taken for
profits, and the evaluation methods of which are gen-
erally included viability analysis, cost-benefit analysis
and cost-effectiveness analysis (Book, 2006). The
cost-effectiveness analysis (Shao, 2010) is to check the
validity and economy of a measure by comparing its
expectation and cost, which is used when the railways
investment performance can hardly be calculated by
money while the cost can. And through all the possi-
ble measures, the one cost lowest will be chosen. So
this paper used cost-effectiveness analysis to evaluate
the investment effect.
6.2 The cost
The cost of vibration reduction measures should
include the construction period cost and operation
period cost, but as the operation period cost is dif-
ficult to be calculated, this paper only calculate the
construction period cost which including engineer-
ing construction cost, equipment purchasing cost and
equipment installation cost, and the unit of which is
million/km.
The construction cost and life cycle shown in Tab.4
only represent several numerical intervals with dif-
ferent width, and they can be used to compare and
evaluate different measures when they are unified into
quantitative data as follow:
(1) While the construction cost is numerical interval,
uses the mid-value; while only knows the lower
limit interval, uses 2.5 times of the highest cost
as the upper limit interval; while only knows the
upper limit interval, uses 1/4 of the lowest cost as
the lower limit interval.
(2) While the life cycle is numerical interval, uses
the mid-value; while only knows the least value,
uses it; for those not been given, uses the longest
of all.

360
Table 4. Characteristics of the Vibration reduction measures.

Serial Construction cost Annual

number Vibration reduction measures Effect (Million) Life cycle (year) cost

1 Lightweight vehicles A + + ++* 233

2 Reasonable wheelbase design A + + ++ 233
3 Reasonable suspension system design BC + + ++ 233
4 Elastic wheel A ++ Increased 20%40% 8.6
5 Wheel repair BC ++ Almost > 9 10
6 Heavy rail A 60 4.1
7 Rail grinding AB Per >2000 11 0.17
8 Seamless tracks A ++ 12 6.6
9 Vibration absorber joint plate A 2.5 per block 7 per suite 10 0.17
10 Rail damping processing A
11 General vibration reduction buckles A <70 2.4
12 Flexible buckles BC 100150; 300 Almost >15 4.6; 11
13 Pad of sleeper B 80 (new line) Increased 30% 5.5
220 (old line)
14 Pad of the ballast BC 66240 >2025 2.1
15 High-elastic vibration-damping sleeper BC +++ 20 7.7
16 Supporting block track AB 250350 >20; <50 4.1
17 Elastic long sleeper track C <16 30 <4.1
18 Plate track AB 30
19 Sleeper bearing ballastless track AB Long life
20 Embedded track BC 7001000 30 7.5
21 Longitudinal concrete plate track A
22 Trapezoid sleeper track CD 630 No change 1.1
23 Rubber floating slab track D 750 >25; <50 10
24 Steel spring floating slab track D 900 No change 1.5
25 Continuous barrier, un-continuous barrier AB Long life
26 WIB BC +++ Long life 0.58
27 Basic building isolation D 2500 50 2.5

*+: <50 million/km; ++: 50200 million/km; + + +: 200-500 million/km; + + ++: >500 million/km.

6.3 Calculation of annual cost Table 5. Proposal measures of different vibration reduction
levels.
Due to different life cycles, the cost will be better
calculated by annual cost as follow (Book, 2006): Vibration
Serial reduction
number Proposal measures levels

Among which, 1 Vibration absorber joint plate A

(CO)t cash outflow of stage t, that is the construction 2 Rail grinding AB
cost; 3 Pad of sleeper B
N counting period, that is the life cycle; 4 WIB BC
i annual interest rate, uses 8% in Table 4; 5 Elastic long sleeper track C
(P/F, i, n) present value factor, that is 1/(1 + i)n; 6 Trapezoid sleeper track CD
7 Steel spring floating slab track D
(A/P, i, n) capital recovery factor, that is i(1 + i)n/
[(1 + i)n 1].

The annual cost of each measure is calculated

according to the above formula except those measures
whose construction cost cannot be determined, and
measure 1, measure 2, measure 3 are also eliminated
for their high cost and limited practical application.
The results are shown as Table 4.
7 CONCLUSION
Through the analysis of above calculation results, the
proposal measures of different vibration reduction
levels are given as Table 5.
REFERENCES
Book editorial committee (2006). Evaluation method and
parameter of railway construction project and its practical
case. China Construction Publishing House.
Wang Pengxiang (2011). Concluding report of evaluation
on the investment effect of railway vibration reduction
measures. Sichuan southwest jiaotong university railway
development Co., LTD.
Shao Yinghong, Huang Yuxiang (2010). Evaluation and
decision of public project. Tongji University Press.

361
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Optimization of influent distributing and effluent discharging modes of

constructed rapid infiltration system

A. Junmin Chen & Xiaolin Yao

Faculty of Geosciences and Environmental Engineering Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China

B. Zhenhua Sheng
Planning and Management Bureau of Wenjiang District, Chengdu, China

ABSTRACT: The phenomenon that the COD and NH3 -N removal efficiency is very high, but the TN removal
efficiency is very low, the TN concentration of effluent can not meet the national standard, is one of the bottlenecks
that prevent the traditional Constructed Rapid Infiltration System from widely applying in the field of the
rural domestic wastewater treatment. In this paper, the denitrification mechanism of the traditional Constructed
Rapid Infiltration System is analyzed based on the experimental results and the cause of the phenomenon is
summarized, then the optimization measures, such as step-feeding and overflowing, are proposed to increase the
denitrification efficiency of the traditional Constructed Rapid Infiltration System, at last a series of experiments
about the optimal artificial soil column are carried out. The experimental results show that: the NH3 -N removal
efficiency of the optimal artificial soil column increases to over 95% from about 85%; the TN removal efficiency
increases to about 60% from about 30%; the TN concentration of effluent from the optimal Constructed Rapid
Infiltration System can meet the national standard of GB18918-2002.

Keywords: constructed rapid infiltration system, optimization, denitrification mechanism, total nitrogen

1 INTRODUCTION CRI system is always over 16.5021.85 mg/l, and it

The traditional CRI system (Constructed Rapid Infil-
tration System) is a brand new wastewater treatment
process proposed by Zhuo-shen Zhong[1,2] , profes-
sor of College of Water Resources and Environment,
China University of Geosciences, based on the land
treatment systems, such as RI (Rapid Infiltration
Land Treatment System) and CWS (Constructed Wet-
land System). In order to avoid the disadvantages of
land treatment systems, such as low hydraulic load and
demanding large land area, the penetrability of infiltra-
tion media of the traditional CRI system is improved.
So at the present, the traditional CRI system has taken
the advantages of flexible process, low investment
cost, low energy consumption, low operating cost, con-
venient maintenance and management, etc. and has
become one of the research focuses in the field of
rural domestic wastewater treatment. The experiment
and application studies[35] on the infiltration media
performance, process parameters, and biodegradation
mechanism, reaeration and blockage, etc. of the tra-
ditional CRI System, have been carried out in recent
years, the COD and NH3 -N removal efficiency is con-
stantly increased, and now already over 85%. But the
TN removal efficiency of the traditional CRI sys-
tem is very low, always about 28.3529.78%, and
the TN concentration of effluent from the traditional
can not meet the class I-A criteria (TN
15mg/l) spec-
ified in Discharge Standard of Pollutants for Municipal
Wastewater Treatment Plant (GB18918-2002)[6,7] .
In order to increasingly improve the denitrifica-
tion efficiency of the traditional CRI system to meet
the national standard, the optimization measures, such
as step-feeding and overflowing, are proposed in this
paper, and a series of experiments about the optimal
artificial soil column are carried out to verify their
validity.
2 DENITRIFICATION EXPERIMENT OF THE
TRADITIONAL CRI SYSTEM
2.1 Experimental design
A traditional artificial soil column is used to simulate
the traditional CRI system, which is a cylinder, with an
inner diameter of 220 mm and the height of 1800 mm.
The thickness of infiltration media is 1500 mm. The
effective sectional area of the traditional artificial soil
column is 0.038 m2 .
Experimental influent: The influent is the rural
domestic wastewater, which has been sedimentated
for 12 hours. The wastewater is pumped to the sur-
face of infiltration media through a circular wastewater

363
Table 1. The infiltration media in the aritificial soil
column.

The first The second The third

Item layer layer layer

Thickness 600 700 200

(mm)
Infiltrtion Finite sand Coarse sand Gravel
media +5% marble +5% marble
sand sand
Grain 0.10.5 0.252 440
dameter (mm)

distribution pipe, which is the same as the wastewater

distribution pipe 1# shown as figure 2.
Infiltration media: The infiltration media of the
traditional artificial soil column is shown as Table 1.
Sampling sites: there are 7 sampling sites, which is
the same as the sampling sites 17# shown as figure 2.
Hydraulic load: The wastewater is pumped into
the artificial soil column, 4 times every day.
Every time, the duration of pumping wastewater is
1.5 hours, the time interval between pumping water
is 6 hours. The amount of pumping wastewater is 9.5l
in a day. The hydraulic load is 1.0 m/d.
Monitoring items and methods: The CODCr ,
NH3 -N, and TN concentrations of effluent from the
sampling site 1-7# are monitored every week, by the
National Standard Methods of the Peoples Republic
of China.
2.2 Experimental results and analysis
The CODCr , NH3 -N and TN concentrations of effluent
from the sampling site 17# are shown as figure 1.
Ammonia Nitrogen: the NH3 -N concentration of
effluent from the traditional artificial soil column can
meet the class I-A criteria (NH3 -N
5 mg/l) speci-
fied in Discharge Standard of Pollutants for Municipal
Wastewater Treatment Plant (GB18918-2002). The
NH3 -N removal efficiency of effluent from the sam-
pling site 5#, where the corresponding thickness of
infiltration media is 1200 mm, is in the range of
80.1783.86%, which is about 95% of the total NH3 -
N removal efficiency. It is obvious that the NH3 -N
is removed mainly in the 01200 mm zone of the
traditional artificial soil column.
Nitrate Nitrogen: the nitrate nitrogen concentration
of influent is very low, in the range of 0.160.19 mg/L,
but the nitrate nitrogen concentration of effluent is
relatively higher, in the range of 13.1513.58 mg/L,
which is about 80% of the total nitrogen of effluent.
The addition of nitrate nitrogen concentration of the
effluent is 13 mg/L, in comparison to the influent. As
the thickness of infiltration media increases, the nitrate
nitrogen concentration increases at first, and then
decreases. When the thickness of infiltration media
is 900 mm, the nitrate nitrogen concentration reaches
the maximum, in the range of 14.0815.06 mg/l. The
Figure 1. The ammonia, nitrate and total nitrogen con-
centration of effluent from the sampling site 17# VS. the
thickness of infiltration media.
result that the decrement of nitrate nitrogen concentra-
tion in the 9001500 mm zone is 10% of the maximum,
shows that only 10% nitrate nitrogen is used during the
denitrification process.
Total Nitrogen: the TN removal efficiency of efflu-
ent is always about 28.3529.78%, and the TN concen-
tration of effluent from the traditional artificial soil
column is always over 16.5021.85 mg/l, and it can
not meet the class I-A criteria (TN
15 mg/l) speci-
fied in Discharge Standard of Pollutants for Municipal
Wastewater Treatment Plant (GB18918-2002). It leads
that the traditional CRI system can not be indepen-
dently used as the main wastewater treatment process,
which has to be combined with the Constructed Wet-
land system, etc. It will increase the building area,
investment and operating cost of the wastewater treat-
ment system, and of course it is one of the bottlenecks
that prevent the traditional CRI system from widely
applying in the field of the rural domestic wastewater
treatment.
3 OPTIMIZATION OF INFLUENT
DISTRIBUTING AND EFFLUENT
DISCHARGING MODE
3.1 Optimization reasons
According to the above analysis, the reasons that the
NH3 -N removal efficiency is very high, but the TN
removal efficiency is very low in the traditional CRI
system, lies in the following two aspects:
Firstly, the main NH3 -N removal processes in the
traditional CRI System include filtration and adsorp-
tion, nitrification, and outflowing with the effluent.
The filtration and adsorption just can accumulate the
organic nitrogen compounds in the infiltration media,

364
the nitrification can change the ammonia nitrogen into
the nitrate nitrogen to decrease the ammonia nitrogen
concentration in aerobic zone. The 0-900 mm zone of
the traditional artificial soil column is the main aer-
obic zone, where the nitrification reaction can take
place efficiently, so the NH3 -N removal efficiency of
effluent from the sampling site 4#, where the corre-
sponding thickness of infiltration media is 900 mm, is
in the range of 75.4379.56%, which is about 85% of
the total NH3 -N removal efficiency.
Secondly, the nitrification just can change the
ammonia nitrogen into the nitrate nitrogen, only
the dissimilation denitrification process can change
the nitrate nitrogen into N2 , which will be released
into the atmosphere. As we all know, the DO (Dis-
solved Oxygen), C/N ratio and HRT (hydraulic reten-
tion time) in the anaerobic zone are the major influence
factors of the denitrification process.
The length of the facultative and anaerobic zone,
which is the 9001500 mm zone of the traditional
artificial soil column, is only 400 mm. Because the
hydraulic load is 1.0 m/d, the HRT in the anaerobic
zone is so short, only 0.4 day, that the denitrification
process can not take place completely. When the thick-
ness of infiltration media is 900 mm, the COD removal
efficiency of effluent is above 85%, so the C/N ratio
of the wastewater is so low that the carbon source can
not support the efficient denitrification process in the
9001500 mm zone. And because the 9001500 mm
zone is not the absolutely submerged area during the
drainage period, the DO concentration is too high to
meet the demand of the efficient denitrification pro-
cess in the 9001500 mm zone. In a word, although
the denitrification process can take place in the 900
1500 mm zone of the traditional artificial soil column,
but the reaction efficiency is only about 10%, which
must result in the bottleneck that the TN removal effi-
ciency of the traditional CRI system is always very
Figure 2. The optimal artificial soil column model.
low, and the TN concentration of effluent can not meet
the national standard.
To sum up, the reason that the denitrification reac- influent amount ratio of the wastewater distribution
tion of the traditional CRI system can not be carried pipe 1# and 2# is 2:1.
out completely is the insufficient HRT, low C/N Overflowing. In order to form an 1100 mm-long
ratio, and high DO concentration. So if the length of absolutely submerged area and extend the length and
the anaerobic zone is extended, the C/N ratio is HRT of the anaerobic zone, an overflow pipe is added
increased, and the DO concentration is reduced, by on the bottom of the traditional artificial soil column,
the optimization measures of step-feeding and over- and the outlet of the overflow pipe is 1100 mm high.
flowing, then the TN removal efficiency might be Figure 2 shows the optimal artificial soil column
dramatically improved. model. In consideration of the length of the paper, the
reasons about the determination of the key parameters,
such as the optimal thickness of infiltration media, the
3.2 Optimization measures outlet height of overflow pipe, and step-feeding ratio,
The two optimization measures, step-feeding and over- will be presented in the other papers.
flowing, are applied in the traditional artificial soil
column.
Step-feeding. Another wastewater distribution pipe, 4 DENITRIFICATION EXPERIMENT
which is 900 mm under the surface, is added to the OF THE OPTIMAL CRI SYSTEM
traditional artificial soil column. The wastewater step-
feeding mode is that the wastewater is pumped into By the optimization measures of step-feeding, the C/N
the optimal artificial soil column through the waste- ratio in the anaerobic zone is above 2, which is very
water distribution pipe 1# and 2# at the same time, the close to the optimal C/N ratio of the denitrification

365
Table 2. The ammonia, total nitrogen concentration and C/N ratio, and high DO concentration. It leads that the
removal efficiency of effluent from the sampling site 5#, 6#, traditional CRI system can not be independently used
and 8# of the optimal artificial soil column. as the main wastewater treatment process, which has
to be combined with the Constructed Wetland system,
Sampling sites Influent 5# 6# 8#
etc. It will also increase the building area, investment
and operating cost of the wastewater treatment system,
Thickness of 0 1200 1400 1800
infiltration and of course it is one of the bottlenecks that prevent
media (mm) the CRI system from widely applying in the field of
NH3 -N (mg/l) 20.33 8.95 1.08 0.34 the rural domestic wastewater treatment.
By the optimization measures of step-feeding,
I the C/N ratio in the anaerobic zone is increased
Removal efficiency (%) 0.00 55.98 94.67 98.33
to above 2, and by the optimization measures of
TN (mg/l) 27.52 22.25 13.62 10.48
Removal efficiency (%) 0.00 19.15 50.51 61.92 overflowing, an 1100 mm-long absolutely submerged
NH3 -N (mg/l) 23.68 9.67 2.03 0.48 area is formed in the optimal artificial soil col-
umn, the length and HRT of the anaerobic zone
II is extended, without the excessive increase of con-
Removal efficiency (%) 0.00 59.16 91.43 97.97 struction investment and operating cost. The NH3 -N
TN (mg/l) 26.13 23.78 12.38 10.83
removal efficiency of effluent from the optimal arti-
Removal efficiency (%) 0.00 8.99 52.62 58.55
NH3 -N (mg/l) 25.73 9.35 1.18 0.32 ficial soil column rises up to 95% from 85%, and
the TN removal efficiency rises up to 60% from
III 30%. The NH3 -N and TN concentration of effluent
Removal efficiency (%) 0.00 63.67 95.42 98.77 can meet the class I-A criteria specified in Discharge
TN (mg/l) 28.99 20.48 14.87 11.78 Standard of Pollutants for Municipal Wastewater
Removal efficiency (%) 0.00 29.35 48.71 59.37
Treatment Plant (GB18918-2002).

process. By the optimization measures of overflow-
ing, the length of the anaerobic zone is extended from
400 mm to 1100 mm, the HRT in the anaerobic zone is
increased from 0.4 day to 1.1 day. At the same time, the
overflowing mode forms an 1100 mm-long absolutely
submerged area in the optimal artificial soil column,
which can restrict the reaeration process and prevent
the DO concentration increasing.
Table 2 shows the ammonia, total nitrogen concen-
tration and removal efficiency of effluent from the
sampling site 5#, 6#, and 8# of the optimal artificial
soil column.
When the hydraulic load is 1.0 m/d, the NH3 -N
removal efficiency of effluent from the optimal artifi-
cial soil column, by the optimization measures of step-
feeding and overflowing, rises up to 95% from 85%,
and the TN removal efficiency rises up to 60% from
30%. The NH3 -N and TN concentration of effluent can
meet the class I-A criteria specified in Discharge Stan-
dard of Pollutants for Municipal Wastewater Treatment
Plant (GB18918-2002).
5 CONCLUSION
In the traditional CRI system, the NH3 -N removal effi-
ciency is over 85%, but the TN removal efficiency
is about 28.3529.78%, and the TN concentration
of the effluent can not meet the class I-A criteria
(TN
15 mg/l) specified in Discharge Standard of
Pollutants for Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant
(GB18918-2002). The main reason is that the denitrifi-
cation reaction in the anaerobic zone can not be carried
out completely, because of the insufficient HRT, low
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The financial support of National Technology R&D
Program in the 11th Five year Plan of China
(2006BAD01B 08-03) and Key Technology R&D
Program of Sichuan province (2006Z10-009) are
gratefully acknowledged.
REFERENCES
[1] J.T. He, Z.S. Zhong, M.G. Tang and H.H Chen, The
techniques of wastewater land treatment and renovation
of was tewater, Earth Science Frontier, Vol. 8, pp. 155
162, March 2001.
[2] Z.S. Zhong, X.M. Yang, Artificial rapid infiltration
sewage treatment system, CN Patent 1676469. (2005).
[3] L. Wang, Z.P. Yu and Z.J. Zhao, The removal mecha-
nism of ammoniac nitrogen in constructed rapid infil-
tration system, China Environmental Science, Vol. 26,
pp. 500504, 2006.
[4] X. Jiang, M.C. Ma, J. Li, L. Li and Z.S. Zhong,
Analysis of microbial community distribution in con-
structed rapid infiltration system (CRI) by DGGE,
Microbiology, Vol. 34, pp. 11791183, 2007.
[5] X. Jiang, M.C. Ma, J. Li and Z.S. Zhong, Molecu-
lar ecology of anammox bacteria in constructed rapid
infiltration system, Chinese Journal of Ecology,
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366
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

A least-square solver to estimate vertical groundwater velocity using

subsurface temperature profile

L. Dong, J. Shimada, M. Kagabu & K. Ichiyanagi

Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kumamoto, Japan

ABSTRACT: The subsurface heat is transported convectively by the moving groundwater, consequently subsur-
face temperature profiles are used to estimate vertical groundwater velocities. In this paper, a least-square solver
was developed to estimate the vertical groundwater fluxes based on the analytical solution of one-dimensional
advection-diffusion equation. Using this approach, the vertical groundwater velocities in 19 boreholes located in
Kumamoto Plain were estimated. The results indicate that groundwater recharge occurs near the middle stream
of Shirakawa River, while the discharge occurs in the coastal aquifers, which agreed well with those evaluated
from observed hydraulic tables. The shift of groundwater flowing directions at the interface between two layers
can be detected by heat tracer. Groundwater temperature profiles in 7 wells were measured repeatedly in three
periods and the comparisons suggest that the subsurface temperature overall increases during 1987 and 2011,
which might be caused by surface warming and urban heat island effects.

Keywords: Groundwater velocity, subsurface temperature, least-square solver, Kumamoto Plain

1 INTRODUCTION Taniguchi et al. (1999) employed analytical solu-

Heat carried by groundwater is an effective and prefer-
able implement to identify the surface water infiltra-
tion, flow motion through fractures, and flow patterns
in groundwater basins (Anderson 2005). Heat tracer
can be employed to estimate groundwater recharge
or discharge rates (Bredehoeft & Papadotulos 1965),
evaluate the effect of surface warming or land use
changing to groundwater flow systems (Taniguchi
et al. 1999a, b, Salem et al. 2004), indentify the interac-
tion between stream and riparian aquifer (Anibas et al.
2009), access the rate of submarine groundwater dis-
charge (Taniguchi et al. 2003a), and evaluate the inter-
face between groundwater and seawater (Taniguchi
2000). Subsurface temperature-depth profile can be
measured easily and rapidly by installing thermome-
ters at different depths in a borehole. And less money
expenses and time consumptions are required during
the monitoring.
The basic theory to interpret groundwater move-
ment using temperature profiles is the general differ-
ential equation for heat transport (Stallman, 1963).
Bredehoeft & Papadotulos (1965) first simplified
Stallmans equation into one-dimensional, steady state
equation, and developed an analytical solution to esti-
mate vertical groundwater rates in semi-confining
aquifer using measured temperature data.This solution
was derived assuming that the upper and lower bound-
ary temperatures were constants. Stallman (1965) and
tions for one-dimensional heat transfer in a moving
solid with sinusoidal, linear and step increased sur-
face temperature to evaluate the effect of surface
temperature variation to subsurface groundwater flow
systems.
The most widely used approach to estimate ground-
water velocity based on subsurface groundwater
temperature is type curve method (Bredehoeft &
Papadotulos 1965, Taniguchi et al. 2003b). Subse-
quent improvements on this interpretation were con-
centrated on the computer programming execution
(Boyle & Saleem 1979, Arriaga & Leap 2006). The
mathematical theory of the solvers referred above
is the analytical solution presented by Bredehoeft &
Papadotulos (1965). The analytical solution for steady
state performed well in the description of heat trans-
port in aquifers for a temperate climate, but would
result in erroneous flux estimates in transitional sea-
sons (Anibas et al. 2009). This conclusion implies
that the transient-state approach is preferable for a
transitional climate.
In this paper, the analytical solution of 1-D heat
transporting in transient state was employed, and we
developed a least-square solver to estimate vertical
groundwater velocities based on this solution. This
approach was applied in a case study of Kumamoto
Plain, and vertical groundwater velocities were esti-
mated using the observed temperature-depth profiles
in different decades.

367
 an incompressible fluid through homogeneous porous
media is described as

where T = temperature, z = depth from the surface

(positive downward), k = the thermal diffusivity of
the aquifer, and U = vc0 0 /c, therein, v = the ver-
tical groundwater rate, c0 0 and c are heat capacities
of water and aquifer, respectively. Assuming value
of 4.18 106 Jm1 C1 and 2.5 106 Jm1 C1 for
c0 0 and c, respectively (Taniguchi, 1989), then the
velocity of groundwater can be calculated if U is
obtained.
To apply this model into vertical groundwater
velocity calculation, we introduced the constant upper
boundary condition (Eq. 2) and linearly varied initial
condition (Eq. 3) to derive the analytical solution.
Figure 1. Schematic of the study area and the distribution
of observation wells.

2 STUDY AREA AND METHOD

2.1 Study area where T0 = the uppermost temperature, which is

invariably the measured temperature on the surface,
Kumamoto Plain is situated in the center of Kyushu at and a = the thermal gradient. Carslaw & Jaeger (1959)
the western end of Japan (Fig. 1), The Kikuch River, obtained the analytical solution under these boundary
Shirawaka River, and Midorikawa River flow in the and initial conditions, as follows
plain and drill into the Ariake Sea. The eastern area of
this Plain consists of pyroclasic flow terraces and allu-
vial deposits, which composes a shallow unconfined
aquifer system. The western area is covered by the
alluvial delta clay, which constitutes a semi-confined
aquifer system. In the west part of the plain, there are
some artesian springs, which form the lakes and ponds.
where the erfc denotes the error function
The temperature-depth profiles were measured in
complement.
19 boreholes locates in Kumamoto Plain during 2010
Solution (4) effectively describes the distributions
and 2011. The borehole temperatures were measured
of subsurface temperature profiles under different ver-
at 2 m depth interval by thermometers. As demon-
tical groundwater rates. Figure 2 presents groundwater
strated by Taniguchi et al. (2003b), the well diameters
temperature distributions for different groundwater
are small enough to prevent the significant convective
fluxes with positive (Fig. 2a) and negative (Fig. 2b)
flow occurs in the boreholes. The wells were drilled
thermal gradients. In both cases, T0 and k were
between 1977 and 1988, and the thermometers were
assumed to be 18 C and 20 m2 /year, respectively.
installed in the borehole for several days before reading
In Scenario I, thermal gradient a was set to be
to get stable profile data.
0.03 C/m, while in Scenario II, this value was set
Borehole temperatures were also measured from
to be 0.03 C/m. And temperature-depth profiles for
1987 and 1988 by Shimano et al. (1992) in 23
U = 1.0, 0.6, 0.2, 0, 0.2, 0.6, and 1.0 m/year were
boreholes. And Taniguchi et al. (2003a) observed
calculated. Thus, the vertical groundwater velocity is
temperature-depth profiles in 33 boreholes in 2001.
obtained by interpret parameter U from the simu-
Comparing with the newly measured data during
lated temperature profile which best fits with the field
2010 and 2011, repeated measurements of tempera-
observed.
ture profiles in 7 boreholes (w2, w5, w6, w7, w16,
w17, w18) were used to evaluate the transitions of
groundwater system during the last 25 years. 2.3 Least-square solver
In the solver, we constructed an objective function
with three-parameter (surface temperature T0 , aquifer
2.2 Analytical approach
thermal gradient a, and the specific parameter U ) to
Based on the general governing equation of heat trans- be used for parameter calibration. The least square
port in aquifers (Stallman 1963), transient temperature method was introduced to minimize the sum of squared
change in one-dimensional non-isothermal flow of residuals between observed and simulated temperature

368

Figure 2. Comparison of calculated temperature-depth pro-
files with different vertical groundwater velocities, (a) is the
case of positive temperature gradient, and (b) is the case of
negative temperature gradient.
values. The residuals were expressed as an objective
function, which is
where m = the number of observed temperature data,
Tcal (zi , t) and Tobs (zi , t) are observed and calculated
temperature series.
To obtain the optimum parameters for the mini-
mization of the nonlinear least square problem, the
LevenbergMarquardt algorithm (Levenberg, 1944,
Marquardt, 1963, Pujol, 2007) was introduced. This
least-square solver was accomplished in a Fortran pro-
gramming environment, and the code was applied to
estimate vertical groundwater velocities in a case study
of Kumamoto Plain in Japan.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
3.1 Subsurface temperature profiles classification
Domenico & Palciauskas (1973) noted that temperature-
depth profiles with downward fluxes in recharge area
are concave, while those with upward fluxes in dis-
charge area are convex. And when there is no vertical
groundwater movement, the thermal gradient increase
linearly with depth. Therefore, the temperature-depth
profiles can be classified into recharge, intermediate,
and discharge types according to the shapes of the
profile curves. The classification of measured ground-
water temperature-depth profiles during 2010 and
2011 of Kumamoto Plain are presented in Figure 3.The
results indicate that most of the groundwater recharges
occur near the middle stream of Shirawaka River,
369
Figure 3. The classification of temperature-depth profiles
and the contour of groundwater tables: the circle repre-
sents recharge type, the square represents intermediate type,
and the triangle represents discharge type. The solid lines
represent water level elevations (m).
where there is a paddy filed for artificial groundwater
recharge. And most of the discharges occur in the west
coastal area. Part of the groundwater discharge to the
surface in the formations of lakes or springs, and the
rest flow into the ocean in the formation of submarine
groundwater discharge (Taniguchi et al. 2006).
The evaluation of groundwater flowing system esti-
mated from the temperature profiles shows accordance
with the groundwater flow systems ensured from
observed hydraulic water tables in the studying area.
The distribution of groundwater table indicates the
regional groundwater flows from the north to the
southwest with a proximate hydraulic gradient of
0.0023. The flowing direction of groundwater suggests
that the recharge to the groundwater system occurs in
the north part, and the discharge events occur in the
southwest part. The subsurface hydrograph obtained
in this research fit overall with those estimated by
Taniguchi et al. (2003b) in 2001.
3.2 Vertical groundwater rates estimation
Using the designed solver, vertical groundwater veloc-
ities in Kumamoto Plain were calculated depending on
the measured temperature-depth profiles. The results
range from 5.900 to 1.223 m/year. While groundwa-
ter rates in 14 observation wells range from 0.5 to
0.4 m/year, which fit approximately with the investi-
gation of Taniguchi et al. (2003b). The discrepancies
of estimated groundwater velocities in different years
might be caused by the changing of regional climate
and underlying surface conditions.
When water passes from one stratum to another with
different hydraulic conductivities, or from aquifers to
aquitards, the flowlines will change (Freeze & Cherry
1979; Bear 2007). The shifts of hydrogeology envi-
ronment will consistently influent the distribution of
temperature in groundwater systems (Arriaga & Leap
2006). If the vertical groundwater rates change appar-
ently when the water permeates from one layer to
another, the shape of the temperature-depth profile
will vary. In the case of Kumamoto Plain, the observed

Figure 4. The observed and simulated subsurface temper-
ature-depth profiles in Kumamoto Plain: (a) profile in well
1, which is a representation of simplex aquifer with positive
thermal gradient; (b) profile in well 4, which is representation
of two-layer aquifer; (c) profile in well 3, which is represen-
tation of three-layer aquifer; (d) profile in well 15, which
is a representation of simplex aquifer with negative thermal
gradient.
temperature profiles in five boreholes (w2, w3, w4,
w6, w19) suggested that the aquifers were multi-layer
systems. Estimated vertical groundwater velocities in
w2 and w4 indicate that the directions of groundwa-
ter flow might vary in the depth of 70 m. And the
results of w6 and w19 indicate the groundwater suf-
fer retardation when the water passes from one layer
to another. The most anomalously varied temperature
profile occurs in w3 (Fig. 4c). The profile shows con-
cave upward in the depth of 24 to 60 m, indicating
the groundwater flows upward in this aquifer; in the
depth of 60 to 110 m, the profile shows convex upward,
indicating the groundwater flows downward; in the
depth of 110 to 138 m, the profile varies linearly
approximately, indicates there is no water flows in the
vertical direction in this layer.
To evaluate the validity of the groundwater flux
estimations using heat tracers, the squares of the cor-
relation coefficients (R2 ) between the observed and
simulated temperature-depth profiles were calculated.
All the values of R2 in 19 boreholes excess 0.991,
suggesting the calculation of groundwater velocities
using temperature profiles is reasonable. Four types
of representative comparisons between observed and
simulated groundwater temperature profiles are pre-
sented in Fig. 4. The simulated profile curves fits
favorably with the observed ones, not only in the sim-
plex aquifers (Fig. 4a), but also in multi-layer aquifers
(Figs 4b, c). In the case of aquifer with negative ther-
mal gradient, the solver also acts well in the thermal
simulation (Fig. 4d).
3.3 Transitions of groundwater systems during
1987 and 2011
Temperature-depth profiles in 7 boreholes in three
different periods were analyzed to evaluate the tran-
sition of groundwater flowing. Using the least-square
370
Table 1. Estimated vertical velocities of groundwater from
subsurface temperature profiles of Kumamoto Plain dur-
ing 2010 and 2011. R, I and D denote Recharge,
Intermediate and Discharge, respectively.
Groundwater type Estimated surface T( C)
Well ID 1987 2000 2011 1987 2000 2011
w2 I I I 17.76 17.99 18.34
w5 I R R 17.64 17.99 18.41
w6 D D D 19.32 19.10 19.76
w7 R I I 18.75 18.85 19.80
w16 D D D 19.31 19.21 19.62
w17 I R I 16.74 17.20 17.62
w18 D D D 17.09 17.54 17.37
solver, the vertical groundwater rates in different peri-
ods (Tab. 1) were estimated depending on temperature
data. The flowing directions in w2, w6, w16 and
w18 show no significant temporal changes. In the
rest 3 wells, the groundwater flowing direction show
apparent variation in different decades.
The temperature-profiles indicate the geology set-
tings of w2 and w6 were multi-layer systems. Ground-
water velocities in different layers were estimated
during different periods. The shapes of temperature-
depth profiles in w2 (Fig. 5a) change at the depth of
68 m. The profiles vary linearly between 30 and 68 m,
but show convex upward variation between 68 and
80 m. We inferred that the groundwater encountered
strong hindering when the water passed from the lower
layer to the upper. The variation of the shapes of the
temperature profiles in w6 (Fig. 5b) occurs at the depth
of 82 m, indicating there exists an interface between
two different layers. The favorable fittings between the
observed and simulated temperature profiles of w2 and
w6 verify the validity of the velocities estimation.
The surface temperatures were also estimated
depending on the subsurface temperature-depth pro-
files. The reconstructed surface temperatures (Tab. 1)
show temporal and spatial variations.The spatial distri-
bution of surface temperatures is differently attributed
to urban geometry and the nature of urban surfaces
(Landsberg, 1981). Temporally speaking, the esti-
mated surface temperatures show overall increasing
trend, indicating the regional climate warning occurred
in the last 25 years. From 1987 to 2000, the aver-
age surface temperature increased 0.183 C, and the
average surface temperature increased 0.432 C from
2000 to 2011. These results fit approximately with
the surface temperature records. The observed surface
temperature data indicates that the surface tempera-
ture increases at the average rate of 0.0163 C per year
during 1891 and 2011. The surface warming effects
might be caused by the combination of global warm-
ing and urban heat island effect, and the urbanization
is more serious in last decade. The surface warming
effect inversely influents the distribution of subsurface
temperature.

Figure 5. The observed and calculated subsurface
temperature-depth profiles in well 2 and well 6 for different
years.
4 CONCLUSION REMARKS
Temperature-depth profiles in Kumamoto Plain were
measured to evaluate the groundwater flowing situa-
tions. We constructed a least-square solver to estimate
groundwater velocity and surface temperature based
on subsurface temperature. The estimated groundwa-
ter velocities suggest that the velocities range from
0.5 to 0.4 m/year in most aquifers. And the sub-
surface hydrograph can be estimated based on tem-
perature profiles. Using this least-square solver, the
spatial and temporal variations of groundwater sys-
tem can be evaluated from the thermal perspective.
This presented approach provides an effective way to
investigate subsurface groundwater flowing evolution
under the condition of climate warming.
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ground-water flow, Geology Society of America Buletin,
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Salem, Z.E., Taniguchi, M. & Sakura, Y. 2004. Use of Tem-
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Nagaoka Area, Japan, Ground Water, 42(1): 8391.
Shimano, Y., Taniguchi, M. & Kayane, I. 1992. Character-
istics of groundwater temperature in the upland areas at
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Stallman, R. W. 1963. Computation of ground-water veloc-
ity from temperature data. In: Methods of Collecting
and Interpreting Ground-Water Data. Water Supply Paper
1544-H. Washington, DC, USA.
Stallman, R. W. 1965. Steady one-dimensional fluid flow in
a semi-infinite porous medium with sinusoidal surface
temperature, Journal of Geophysical Research, 70(12):
28212827.
Taniguchi, M. 2000. Evaluation of the saltwater-groundwater
interface from borehole temperature in a coastal region,
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Taniguchi, M., Ishitobi, T. Shimada, J. & Takamoto, N.
2006. Evaluations of spatial distribution of submarine
groundwater discharge, Geophysical Research Letters,
33: doi:10.1029/2005GL025288.
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turbances of temperature-depth profiles due to surface
climate change and subsurface water flow: 1. An effect
of linear increase in surface temperature caused by global
warming and urbanization in Tokyo, metropolitan area,
Japan, Water Resource Research, 35(5): 15071517.
Taniguchi, M., Shimada, J. & Uemura T. 2003b. Transient
effects of surface temperature and groundwater flow
on subsurface temperature in Kumamoto Plain, Japan,
Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 28: 477486.
Taniguchi, M., Shimano, Y. & Kayane, I. 1989. Groundwater
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Unit-based SOx emission values for fuels consumed in precast concrete

production

M. Wimala & K. Kawai

Hiroshima University, Higashi Hiroshima, Japan

A. Fujiki
Landes Co. Ltd., Maniwa, Japan

ABSTRACT: With the rise of acid rain issue as one of the largest environmental problems in the past few years,
it is time to consider the SOx emission being one of its major contributors in the emission inventory. By providing
an up-to-date and more accurate inventory data, it is hoped that it can be used to support the environmental load
reduction in the future. In the case of fuel combustion, the sulfur content is the only parameter that has a direct
influence on the level of SOx emission. By analyzing the sulfur contents according to Japans present regulations,
this paper will focus on determining the unit-based SOx emission values of light oil and LPG as they are normally
used nowadays as fuel in steam curing process in precast concrete production. It was found that unit-based SOx
emission values for light oil and LPG are 0.0174 g/liter and 0.1013 g/kg, respectively.

Keywords: Unit-based SOx Emission Value, Precast Concrete, Fuel Combustion, Steam Curing, Diesel, LPG

1 INTRODUCTION
Acid rain is one of the largest environmental problems
affecting the world so far. It is a broad term used to
describe the acids which fall out of the atmosphere,
either by wet or dry deposition. Acidic rain, snow,
fog and mist are some forms of the wet deposition
while acidic gases and particles are referring to dry
deposition. Acid rain will affect and destroy a variety
of plants, animal and things such as buildings, sculp-
tures, cars, etc. as they can flow over and through the
ground as well as easily scattered by wind. It has been
known that the acid rain can be formed as results from
both natural sources such as volcanoes, and man-made
sources, primarily from the emissions of sulfur dioxide
(SO2 ) and nitrogen oxide (NOx ) generated from fossil
fuel combustion. In 1990, the annual worldwide emis-
sion of sulphur produced by man was estimated at just
over 70 million tonnes (Elvingson, P. and gren, C.
2004). This number is increasing, mainly due to the
increased use of fossil fuels in some countries with
rapid industrial expansion. It is expected that the cur-
rent emissions will be double in few decades if no
countermeasures are taken.
In precast concrete production, steam curing is nor-
mally used to accelerate the rate of strength gain and
to provide additional heat and moisture to concrete
in order to accomplish hydration, as in cold weather.
A proper curing will affect the durability, strength,
water tightness, abrasion resistance, volume stability
and resistance to freezing and thawing of concrete in a
good way. However, this curing method also has some
disadvantages and one of them is its environmental
impact. Steam curing method contributes a significant
amount of emissions as a result of fuel consumption
such as oil and gas for operating the steam-curing boil-
ers. Focusing only on sulfur oxide (SOx ) emission from
fuel combustion, it is generated in the forms of sul-
fur dioxide (SO2 ) and sulfur trioxide (SO3 ). Typically,
about 95% of the sulfur in the fuel will be emitted
as SO2 , 15% as SO3 and 13% as sulfate particu-
late (Jaber 2006 & CCSD 2009). Nevertheless, sulfate
particulate is not considered part of the total SOx emis-
sions but as part of particulate matter (PM) emissions.
In this study, the unit-based values of SOx emission
for light oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) will
be determined by analyzing the sulfur (S) content of
each type of fuel, converting it into the form of SO2
and SO3 and adding them as total SOx emission.
2 OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE OF STUDY
Estimating the level of emissions is an important
element of the efforts to promote the reduction of
environmental load in concrete industry in the future.
For this reason, in Japan, emission inventory has been
prepared in recent years not only for carbon dioxide
(CO2 ) as one of the greenhouse gases (GHG), but also
for acidifying substances such as NOx and SO2 in the
form of SOx . Along with those three, PM has also been

373
taken into account in developing the inventory for its Light oil, LPG and natural gas will be discussed in
huge impact to the environment. detail in this paper considering the fact that these fuel
Emission inventory is defined as listing, by source, types are commonly used nowadays throughout the
of the amounts of emissions actually or potentially dis- world.
charged into the atmosphere of a community during a
given time period (US EPA 2011). It normally consists
of few aspects such as source or cause of the emission,
3 FUEL TYPES AND THE SULFUR CONTENTS
details on each type of pollutant, coverage area, the
period of estimation, and methodology used in deter-
SOx are considered as a pollutant because they react
mining the amount of emission. Emission inventory is
with water vapor and thus form sulfuric acid mist
developed for a variety of reasons, such as for scientific
which is extremely corrosive and harmful to the envi-
purpose, strategy development, policy and regulation
ronment. According to some references, the level of
making, and for general knowledge/information to the
SOx emissions from fuel combustion depends directly
public.
only on the sulfur content of the fuel (CCSD 2009).
Up to the present moment, the emission inventory
The term of light oil in Japan is referred to diesel
data can be classified into six groups, i.e. energy,
for English speakers. According to US classification,
transportation, construction material, construction
it can be included as No. 1 and No. 2 diesel fuel, but
work/equipment, demolition work/equipment, and
for general purpose in diesel engines it is more likely
disposal and recycling with 48 detail items in total
to be similar with the latter one. Japanese Industrial
and 139 parameters included on them (JSCE 2004 &
Standard JIS K2204:2007 classifies the specification
Kawai et. al. 2005). Initially, this emission inventory
for light oil in Japan with the maximum sulfur content
was developed specifically for infrastructure works
of 0.0010 % (by mass).
that were very much done in Japan for a few last
LPG has been used most likely to cover the disad-
decades. However, the present inventory has been able
vantages of natural gas. It has been known that natural
to be used and further developed for any kind of works
gas is very popular used in the combustion process.
generally performed in the construction industry.
Not only because of the high heating value, but look-
The term of unit-based emission value which is
ing at the situation right now with global warming, acid
used in the emission inventory is defined as the aver-
rain, etc. it also burns cleaner than the other fossil fuels
age amount of a specific pollutant discharged into
such as coal and oil due to the highly efficient com-
the atmosphere by a specific parameter such as fuel,
bustion process. This means natural gas produces very
equipment, process, or sources. It is expressed as num-
few by-products that are released into the atmosphere
ber of grams (or kilograms) of emission per unit of the
as pollutants. In fact, natural gas generates no SOx
certain parameter. Although it is not completely done,
emissions (OECD & IEA 2010). Other advantages
the present inventory data collection has revealed most
such as relatively inexpensive cost when compared
of the unit-based emission values for CO2 , SOx , NOx ,
to coal, non-toxic and non poisonous to humans if
and PM on each parameter. The efforts to fill up the
inhaled in small volumes add the reasons why natural
rest and adding some other items and parameters for
gas is a great alternative to reduce the environmental
future use are still in progress.
impact from this industry. However, major difficulties
So far, only unit-based CO2 emission values from
in transportation and storage of natural gas due to its
the use of fuels such as light oil, liquefied petroleum
low density have lead to the use of LPG at present time.
gas (LPG) and natural gas have been determined
The main advantage of LPG products results from
and used in calculating the environmental impact of
the fact that they can be stored in liquid state and used
concrete industry in Japan. With the facts that the emis-
in gaseous state. Due to this reason, LPG is relatively
sions resulting from fuel usage have almost reached a
more economical than natural gas. LPG also has some
quarter of total emission from all sources, it urges the
more advantages such as clean burning, meaning that
need to determine the unit-based emission values for
it does not produce so much pollution, higher heat
other types of emissions.
generation, stable, variety of its applications, etc. As
As one way to respond to the problem, this study
stated in Japanese Industrial Standard JIS K2240,
aims to determine the unit-based values of SOx emis-
the maximum sulfur content of LPG which is allowed
sion for various types of fuel used in operating the
in Japan is less than 0.005 % (by mass).
steam-curing boiler, regardless of the emission gen-
erated from the mining activity. Furthermore, this
unit-based emission value can subsequently be used
to determine the total amount of SOx emission in the 4 CALCULATION PROCEDURE
specific area and time span based on the intensity of
relevant activity. For long-term use, not only will the The unit-based SOx emission value of each fuel type
values be used as a basis for evaluating the environ- can be determined by using the data of sulfur content
mental impact from fuel combustion in general cases, as mentioned earlier according to the following pro-
it will also help promoting the reduction of environ- cedure. First, the amount of SO2 and SO3 per gram S
mental load by knowing and choosing the type of fuel based on their molecular weight (S = 32 and O = 16) is
with low SOx emission for various uses in all sectors. calculated. As a result, 1 g of S can be converted into

374
2 g of SO2 and 2.5 g of SO3 . Next step, the amount
of SO2 and SO3 produced from combustion process in
curing activity is calculated based on the sulfur content
of each fuel type. Unit adjustments and some assump-
tions regarding the density and the amount of energy
produced per unit of each fuel type were made in this
stage. The unit-based SOx emission value is calculated
by adding 95 % of SO2 and 5 % of SO3 generated per
unit of each fuel type. As for comparison, the unit-
based SOx emission value of each fuel type has to be
represented into the same unit of energy (MJ) produced
by each type of fuel.
5 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
5.1 Unit-based SOx emission value in Japan
Following the procedures as stated earlier, the results
show that light oil generates 0.0174 g of SOx emission
per liter and LPG generates 0.1013 g of SOx emission
per kg. In other words, 0.0020 g of SOx emission is
generated by LPG, and only 0.0005 g is generated by
light oil in producing the same amount of energy (MJ).
According to Assessment for Environmental Impact
of Concrete: Part 2 (JSCE 2004), light oil, LPG and
natural gas produce 2.64 kg/liter, 2.79 kg/Nm3 and
3.03 kg/kg of CO2 emission, respectively. In order
to be able to make a comparison, these values were
converted into the same unit for producing the same
amount of energy (kg/MJ). The results of CO2 and SOx
emissions which were generated by each type of fuel
are shown in Figure 1. It can be seen that the pattern of
both results shows a little difference where in the case
of CO2 emission, LPG was the fuel that produced the
least emission from its combustion while in the case of
SOx emission, natural gas was the one which produced
no SOx emission.
Although as a common knowledge it has been
known that LPG naturally emits less environmental
impacts compared to oil and coal, the results above
show a contradiction. In Figure 1, it shows that LPG
generates SOx emission 4 times greater than light oil
although it still produces less CO2 emission. The sulfur
content on each fuel type is the only reason that under-
lies this phenomenon. In this case, the limits on sulfur
content which have been considered in the calculation
for fuel combustion in steam-curing boiler were the
ones applied only on off-road and/or stationary engines
based on the classification and definition in force in
Japan at this moment. In other words, different results
likely would be obtained if the calculation is done
using different numbers prevailing in other countries.
It should be noted that not all countries have a clear
regulation on this matter and in fact, for some cases
there are several regulations applied in one country that
sometimes create ambiguous results in the calculation
of its environmental impact. In addition, the classifi-
cation and the definition of the use of fuels may also
contribute to the difference in the results of the calcu-
lation of the environmental impact in one country to
the others.
375
Figure 1. Unit-based CO2 and SOx emission values for
different fuel types.
5.2 Calculation of SOx emission in real cases
For further discussion about SOx emission, investiga-
tions were conducted to some selected precast concrete
plants around Chugoku area to illustrate the variety of
plants in Japan. The types of plant can be classified
by its product, i.e. popular product, large-sized prod-
uct and small-sized product. 12 plants were chosen
as case studies in which 3 of them were producing
the small-sized products and the rests which divided
almost equally were producing popular and large-sized
products.
Popular product is described as a product that nor-
mally used in infrastructure work in Japan, such as
the hollow block pipe, drainage products, and the
boundary block to separate footpath and traffic lane.
A big size and/or heavy weight product such as culvert
slab and special product is classified into large-sized
product. As for small-sized product, it is described as
product that can easily be carried like the one that is
usually sold at a home centre such as small drainage
block, gardening block, etc.
This section will show the procedure of determining
the amount of SOx emissions generated in these case
studies. Table 1 shows the amount of concrete produc-
tion and fuel used for operating steam-curing boiler on
each plant in a year. From the observations, it has been
found that all plants in this study were using heavy oil
(type A) as the fuel for their steam-curing boiler. For
further comparison, Table 1 also shows the conversion
of the amount of other fuel types such as light oil and
LPG as if they are used as replacement of heavy oil
to produce the same amount of energy. Furthermore,
the amount of SOx emissions per year from the use of
those types of fuels were determined using unit-based
emission values approach. Figure 2 shows the compar-
ison of the patterns of CO2 and SOx emissions using
light oil, LPG and natural gas on each plant.
The line graphs show the total emissions of CO2
while the bar graphs indicate the amount of SOx
emissions produced on each plant within one year of
production. It can be seen that the SOx emissions gen-
erated by three types of plants are in fluctuant results.
The results from large-sized product plants (F, G, H
and I) and popular plants (A, B, C, D and E) show
a noticeable difference compared with the ones from
Table 1. Details of each plant per year production.

Amount of Amount of heavy Amount of light Amount of

No. Plant Production (t) oil A (ltr)1 oil (ltr)2 LPG (kg)3

Popular Product Plant

1 A 46,346.0 216,758 221,864.9 168,829.4
2 B 1,455.0 36,035 36,884.0 28,067.1
3 C 33,377.0 218,600 223,750.3 170,264.1
4 D 39,384.0 285,686 292,416.8 222,516.4
5 E 10,046.0 94,000 96,214.7 73,215.1
Large-sized Product Plant
6 F 47,476.8 426,000 436,036.6 331,804.8
7 G 23,191.2 155,450 159,112.4 121,077.6
8 H 32,311.2 262,000 268,172.8 204,067.7
9 I 26,748.0 169,500 173,493.5 132,020.9
Small-sized Product Plant
10 J 10,181.0 14,900 15,251.0 11,605.4
11 K 11,999.0 46,600 47,697.9 36,296.0
12 L 9,784.0 25,200 25,793.7 19,627.9

Figure 2. CO2 emission per year (ton/year) and SOx emission per year (kg/year) in some concrete plants in Japan using light
oil, LPG and natural gas as comparison.

small-sized product plants (J, K and L). The difference
can be explained by the situation where steam-curing
boiler is more widely used in those both types of plants
rather than in small-sized product plants, which prefer
kerosene fueled-jet heater. In addition, according to
the results in Figure 2, the use of other types of fuels
such as light oil, LPG and also natural gas needs to
be considered in these case studies for future use due
to the less SOx emission produced by these fuel types
compared to that of heavy oil (type A).
According to the figure, LPG led in the produc-
tion of SOx emission, followed by light oil and natural
gas but on the contrary, it generated the least CO2
emissions while light oil produced the most. How-
ever, different patterns of CO2 and SOx emissions may
be obtained in different situation. Although the same
steam-curing boiler, fuel and even method of curing
are used in the curing process, there is a possibility that
the amount of emissions produced would be different.
It can be influenced by the curing efficiency.

376
 Based on the observations in several case stud-
ies, unlike in the small-sized product plants where
fixed-sized chamber was used in the curing process,
unfixed chamber was mostly likely to be used on
the large-sized product plants as well as on popular
product plants. This situation results on higher cur-
ing efficiency in small-sized product plant compared
to those in other types of product plants. The energy
loss produced from the flue system for providing the
steam seemed to be greater in the large-sized prod-
uct and popular product plants. In addition, the fact
that small-sized product can be fitted into fixed-sized
chamber in greater amount compared to the other two
types of products in unfixed chamber may also results
in higher curing efficiency. Ultimately, the amount
of emissions produced would be less if the curing
efficiency is greater.
6 CONCLUSIONS
1. It has been found that the unit-based SOx emission
values for light oil and LPG are 0.0174 g/liter and
0.1013 g/kg, respectively. In producing the same
amount of energy (MJ), LPG generates 0.0020 g
of SOx emission and only 0.0005 g for light oil. In
other words, LPG generates SOx emission 4 times
greater than light oil.
2. The patterns of CO2 and SOx emissions from the
use of light oil, LPG and natural gas showed a con-
tradiction result compared to those as a common
knowledge. The classification and the definition of
the use of fuels may also contribute to the difference
in the results of the calculation of the environmental
impact in one country to the others due to different
limits of sulfur contents.
3. The efficiency of curing plays an important role in
determining the amount of emissions. It was proven
that small-sized product plants produced less emis-
sion than the other two types of plants. The less
energy loss produced from the flue system in small-
sized product plant using fixed-sized chamber and
the greater amount of products that could be fitted
in it were the factors that results in higher curing
efficiency of this type of plant compared to those
of large-sized product and popular product plant.
4. Limited to these case studies, the plants preferred to
use heavy oil (type A) as the fuel for operating the
steam-curing boiler mostly because of some factors
such as cost and availability. However, these plants
are so encouraged to choose other types of fuels as
discussed here in this paper as alternatives to reduce
the environmental load in the future.
5. The unit-based SOx emission values can be used
not only for estimating but also for evaluating the
377
amount of SOx emission resulting from the fuel
combustion in steam curing process in any con-
crete production. By knowing the type of fuel with
low SOx emission, it is hoped that it will help pro-
moting the reduction of environmental load in the
future. The proper planning of emission reduction
strategies can be carried out within the framework
of available resources.
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

The effect of NH4 NO3 concentration on the environment-induced

cracking behavior of carbon steel

K. Koide
Department of Materials Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka Prefecture University, Japan
Sumitomo Metal Technology, inc, Japan

A. Iwase & R. Nishimura

Department of Materials Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka Prefecture University, Japan

ABSTRACT: The environment-induced cracking (EIC) behavior of carbon steel in NH4 NO3 solution was
investigated as a function of NH4 NO3 concentration by using constant load method. The three parameters (time
to failure (tf ), steady state elongation rate (lss ) and transition time to time to failure ratio (tss /tf )) were obtained
from a corrosion elongation curve. The relationships between tf /lss and concentration are divided into four
regions with a good correspondence, whereas the value of tss /tf was constant with 0.90 0.03 independent of
concentration. The relationship between log tf and log lss became a good straight line. In addition, the fracture
appearance was intergranular. From the results obtained, the intergranular cracking of carbon steel in NH4 NO3
solution was discussed in terms of film formation, dissolution and hydrogen permeation.

Keywords: carbon steel; constant load test; nitrate solution; intergranular cracking

1 INTRODUCTION Table 1. Chemical composition and mechanical properties

of the carbon steel used (mass %).
At present, the environment-induced cracking (EIC)
of carbon steels in nitrate solutions is well recog- C Si Mn P S
nized to be the intergranular SCC (IG-SCC), where the 0.072 0.02 0.47 0.016 0.013
EIC is composed of stress corrosion cracking (SCC) Ni Cr Yield * Tensile * Strain**
subjected to anodic reactions such as dissolution and 0.02 0.03 180 317 42
film formation and hydrogen embrittlement (HE) to
cathodic reaction such as hydrogen evolution, hydro- *MPa; **%.
gen permeation et al. To explain the IG-SCC, the
electrochemical mechanism by dissolution and film-
ing [1] was proposed by Parkins and stress sorption
cracking was reported by Uhlig [2]. 2 EXPERIMENTAL
The constant load method can provide a corrosion
elongation curve (elongation versus time), from which The specimens used were a commercial carbon steel,
three parameters, time to failure (tf ), steady state elon- which has the chemical composition (mass %) as
gation rate (lss ) and transition time to time to failure shown in Table 1 and were manufactured as shown
ratio (tss /tf ) can be obtained. These parameters are use- in Fig. 1 (gauge length: 25 mm, width: 5 mm and
ful in analyzing the failure behavior. In particular, the thickness: 1.3 mm), where they were cut in parallel
steady state elongation rate (lss ) can be used to predict to a rolling direction. The specimens were annealed
the time to failure (tf ) for those materials. at 1223K for 300 s in a vacuum furnace and then
In this paper, we have investigated the EIC of were cooled with about 200 C/h. Prior to the experi-
normalized carbon steel in NH4 NO3 solution as a func- ments, the specimens were polished to 1000 grit emery
tion of NH4 NO3 concentration by using the constant paper, degreased with acetone in ultrasonic cleaner
load method, in comparison with the EIC behavior of and washed with distilled water. After the pretreat-
austenitic stainless steels, pure Ti and Al-Cu alloy. The ment, the polished specimens were immediately set
objectives of the paper are: (1) to elucidate the effects into a glass cell. The test solutions were in a range
of NH4 NO3 concentration on the EIC susceptibility from 0.01 to 10 kmol m3 NH4 NO3 . The test temper-
systematically and (2) to confirm whether or not lss atures were 333K, 353K and 373K with an accuracy of
becomes a parameter for predicting tf . 1K. The applied stress was constant with 225 MPa.

379
Figure 1. Geometry of specimens (dimensions in mm).

All experiments were carried out under an open circuit Figure 2. Corrosion elongation curves in 3 and
condition. 5 kmol m3 NH4 NO3 solutions at 353K under a constant
A lever-type constant load apparatus (lever ration applied stress condition ( = 225 MPa).
1:10) to which three specimens can be separately and
simultaneously attached was used with a cooling sys-
tem on the top to avoid evaporation of the test solution
during the experiments. The specimens were insulated
from rod and grip by surface oxidized zirconium tube.
A change in elongation of the specimens under the con-
stant load condition was measured by inductive linear
transducer with an accuracy of 0.01 mm.

3 RESULTS

3.1 Corrosion elongation curve and three

parameters (tf , lss and tss )
Fig. 2 shows the representative example of corrosion
elongation curves (elongation versus time) in 3 and
5 kmol m3 NH4 NO3 solutions at 353K under a con-
stant applied stress condition ( = 225 MPa), where
the corrosion elongation curve in 3 kmol m3 was
similar to that in 5 kmol m3 . From these curves the
three parameters can be obtained; the time to failure
(tf ), the steady state elongation rate (lss ) for straight
part of the corrosion curve and transition time to time
to failure ratio (tss /tf ), where the transition time (tss ) is
the time when the elongation begins to deviate from
the linear increase. If the specimens are not fractured
within a laboratory time scale (<107 s), only lss can be
estimated.
3.2 Concentration dependence of three parameters
Fig. 3 shows the relationships between NH4 NO3 con-
centration and logarithm of time to failure (tf ) at 333K,
353K and 373K. It was found that the relationships
were divided into four regions (region A, B, C and D)
at three test temperatures. In region A, tf could not be
obtained within a laboratory time scale (<107 s), where
the arrows mean that no failure takes place. In region B
and D, tf was constant in dependent of concentration,
although tf became longer in region B than in region D.
In region C, the relationships between concentration
and log tf were linear independent of test temperature.
Fig. 4 shows the relationships between concentration
and logarithm of steady state elongation rate (lss ) at
333K, 353K and 373K, where the arrows are the same
Figure 3. The relationships between NH4 NO3 concentra-
tion and logarithm of time to failure (tf ) at 333K, 353K and
373K.
meaning as those in Fig. 3. It was also found that the
relationships were divided into four regions with the
same concentration ranges as those in Fig. 3. Specif-
ically, the value of lss in region A, where no failure
occurs, was of the order of 1011 m/s. Fig. 5 shows the
relationships between concentration and tss /tf at 333K,
353K and 373K. In region B, C and D, the values of
tss /tf were constant with 0.90 0.03 independent of
concentration and test temperature. In region A, the
value of tss /tf could not be obtained because of no
fracture within the laboratory time scale.
3.3 Fracture appearance
Fig. 5 shows the fracture surface appearances in 0.2
and 2 kmol m3 NH4 NO3 solutions, which belonged
to regions B and C, respectively. The fractures in
regions B and C were both intergranular, where
no transgranular appearance was observed. Further-
more, the same intergranular fracture appearance was

380
Figure 4. The relationships between NH4 NO3 concentra-
tion and logarithm of steady state elongation rate (lss ) at 333K,
353K and 373K.
Figure 5. The relationships between NH4 NO3 concentra-
tion and tss /tf at 333K, 353K and 373K.
observed in region D.These fracture appearances mean
that EIC occurs in regions B, C and D.
4 DISCUSSION
4.1 A parameter for prediction of time to failure
The relationships between log lss and log tf obtained
in regions B, C and D are shown in Fig. 6. It was
381
Figure 6. The representative fracture appearances (a) in
0.2 kmol m3 NH4 NO3 solution; region B and (b) in
2 kmol m3 NH4 NO3 solution; region C at 353K with
225 MPa.
found that the relationship became a straight line irre-
spective of concentration and test temperature and was
expressed as,
where C1 is the constant independent of concentra-
tion and test temperature, but depends upon applied
stress. Eq. (1) means that the failure proceeds with the
same EIC mechanism, since if an EIC mechanism is
different, a different equation would be obtained [3].
Furthermore, the above linear equation implies that
lss becomes a relevant parameter for predicting tf . In
addition, when the straight line in Fig. 6 is extrapo-
lated to the horizontal axis, lss becomes an order of
1011 m/s at the time to failure of the order of 107 s,
which is the time beyond laboratory time scale. There-
fore, whenever lss is of the order of 1011 m/s and less,
we can say that no failure occurs within the laboratory
time scale.
4.2 Estimation of EIC mechanism
The EIC process (path) of carbon steel in the present
work is intergranular (IG), not transgranular (TG),

Figure 7. The relationships between log lss and log tf in
NH4 NO3 solution at 353K and 373K with 225MPa, where
lss is the steady state elongation rate and tf is the time to
failure.
whereas the EIC type (SCC or HE) cannot be deter-
mined directly from the present results. At present,
many researchers [17] have reported that the EIC of
carbon steel in nitrate solutions including 5 kmol m3
NH4 NO3 was IG-SCC, which is subjected to anodic
reaction such as film formation and dissolution occur-
ring at grain boundaries and is connected to film
rupture model. In addition, Parkins [1] pointed out that
the intergranular attack took place through a galvanic
effect between grain boundaries with segregation such
as C and N and grains. Uhlig [2] estimated IG-SCC
using the adsorption model. In the present work, it
was confirmed that dissolution, film formation and
intergranular attack were clearly observed as well.
Therefore, the concentration dependence in region C
of three parameters would be qualitatively explained
with IG-SCC by considering anodic reaction, since
as a rate of anodic reaction increases with increasing
NH4 NO3 concentration and test temperature.
382
However, a problem is that the time to failure kept
constant in region B and D, showing that the EIC sus-
ceptibility was constant. As concentration increases,
the anodic reaction rate generally increases and as
a result the EIC (IG-SCC) susceptibility should be
increased. Thus, the constancy of the EIC suscepti-
bility would not be explained by IG-SCC. To explain
this, we need to consider hydrogen embrittlement (HE)
with the counter reaction (cathodic reaction; hydro-
gen evolution, hydrogen permeation and hydrogen
entry) as well as HE of Al alloy which showed the
constancy of EIC susceptibility independent of Cl
concentration [4].
5 CONCLUSION
The EIC behavior of carbon steel was investigated as
functions of NH4 NO3 concentration by using constant
load method. The results obtained were summarized
as follows:
(1) From NH4 NO3 concentration dependence of
three parameters (tf , lss and tss /tf ), they were
divided into four regions.
(2) The fracture appearance was intergranular inde-
pendent of concentration.
(3) The relationship between log tf and log lss became
a good straight line independent of concentration
and test temperature and was expressed as,
(4) The failure of carbon steel would be possible to be
explained with HE, but not IG-SCC.
REFERENCES
R.N. Parkins, Theory of Stress Corrosion Cracking in Alloys,
NATO (1971): p. 167
H.H. Uhlig, Proc. Conf. on Fundamental Aspects of Stress
Corrosion Cracking, Ed. R.W. Staehle, et al., NACE
(1967)
O.M. Alyousif, R. Nishimura, Corros. Sci. 50 (2008):
p. 23532359.
E. Izumoto, R. Nishimura, Corros. Sci. 53 (2011): p. 886
893.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Theoretical investigation of operating control strategy of a new

solar-water-assisted ground-source heat pump

Xuemei Gong, Lili Wei & Weixian Feng

Building Energy Conservation Research Institute, NingBo University of Technology, NingBo, ZheJiang, China

ABSTRACT: A new solar-water-assisted ground-source heat pump is improved to create comfortable building
environment with high efficiency. The new solar-assisted ground-source heat pump can operate in cooling mode,
heating mode, domestic hot water mode, cooling with ground-source mode and heating with ground-source or
solar energy mode. Through comparing the operational efficiency of various operating modes with various
utilization ratio of solar energy and ground heat in different season, theoretical operating control Strategy is
given. The operating time, operating parameters of various operating modes for the special climate of hot
summer and cold winter zone in China are considered in the calculation and comparing. With appropriate
operating control strategy, the new solar-assisted ground-source heat pump has advantages that heat exchange
in ground is balanced, the efficiency of ground source heat pump is increased because of intermittent operation,
and renewable energy sources can be utilized as much as possible.

Keywords: solar-water-assisted ground-source heat pump; building environment; control strategy;

operating mode

NOMENCLATURE
Twh temperature of the hot water ( C)
Tb temperature of fluent in the ground exchanger
back to the heat pump ( C)
Twc temperature of the cold water ( C)
Tl temperature of fluent in the ground exchanger
leaving from the heat pump ( C)
efficiency of solar collector system
G irradiance (J/m2 )
A area (m2 )
QU quantity of heat collected by solar collector (J)
Rs thermal resistance of soil ((m k)/W)
Rp thermal resistance of tubes wall ((m k)/W)
RH total thermal resistance in heating mode
((m k)/W)
Rc total thermal resistance in cooling mode
((m k)/W)
Ti the average temperature of fluent in tubes( )C
qH average quantity of ground heat exchange per
unit length drilled-hole in heating mode (W/m)
qC average quantity of ground heat exchange per
unit length drilled-hole in cooling mode (W/m)
THfb temperature of fluent in ground heat exchange
back to heat pump in heating mode ( C)
TCfb temperature of fluent in ground heat exchange
back to heat pump in cooling mode ( C)
COPH coefficient of performance in heating mode
COPC coefficient of performance in cooling mode
1 INTRODUCTION
The solar-assisted ground-source heat-pump (SGSHP)
system was suggested in 1982 (Metz 1982). The use
of a SGSHP system in Tianjin, China, was studied in
1995( Bi 1995). Theoretical and experimental studies
were performed for a SGSHP system with a verti-
cal double-spiral coil (VDSC) ground heat-exchanger
(GHX) in 2004, the experimental results of the SGSHP
performance show the feasibility of using a solar-
ground source heat-pump[3] . Then, the application
of solar-assisted ground-source heat pump system in
heating mode has been studied by many researcher (Bi
2000,YU 2001, YU et al. 2002, YANG et al. 2003, Hu
et al. 2005, Onder et al. 2005, Yang et al. 2005 (A,B),
WANG et al. 2006, Gu et al. 2008, LI et al. 2008,
S.K. et al. 2008, Wu et al. 2008, Xiao et al. 2010).
All the researches show that SGSHP increases the
COP of GSHP (ground-source heat-pump) for heat-
ing mode, but the unbalance of heat releasing and
heat receiving of soil is still a problem has not been
solved. The solarassisted ground heat pump was sug-
gested for cooling, heating and domestic hot water by
Dong Yuping, Shi Jun (Yu et al. 2003). The research
shows that SGSHP increases the utilization efficiency
of energy too, but the problem has still not been solved.
A new solar-water-assisted ground-source heat pump
(SWGSHP) is developed now. And in order to increase
the COP of GSHP and balance the heat exchanged in

383
Figure 1. Composition of the new solar-water-assisted
ground-source heat pump.
soil, the operating control strategy of the new system
is researched in cooling mode and heating mode.
2 DESCRIPTION OF THE SYSTEM
INVESTIGATED
The composition of the new solar-water-assisted
ground-source heat pump is shown in Figure 1. It
shows five parts in the system. They are solar collector
sub-system, domestic hot water sub-system, air con-
dition sub-system, heat pump sub-system and ground
heat exchanger sub-system. Solar collector sub-system
changes solar energy into heat energy and transfer the
heat to hot water. Heat pump sub-system can operate
in heating or cooling mode for air condition system,
and absorb heat from or release heat to ground heat
exchanger sub-system, at the same time, heat pump
absorbs heat from hot water in heating mode or release
heat to cold water in cooling mode.
The system can work in three modes, and each
mode was set to increase the COP and balance the
heat exchanged in soil.
Mode 1, heating mode in winter. In this mode, solar
collector sub-system changes solar energy into heat
energy and transfer the heat to hot water. Heat pump
sub-system operates in heating mode for air condition
system, and absorb heat from ground heat exchanger
sub-system and hot water. Whether the heat pump
absorbs heat from hot water supplied by solar collector
sub-system is controlled by the temperature difference
of the hot water (Twh ) and the temperature of fluent in
the ground exchanger back to the heat pump (Tb ). If
Twh Tb 1 C, heat pump sub-system absorbs heat
Figure 2. System flowchart of the new solarr-water-assisted
ground-source heat pump in summer.
from hot water, else, heat pump sub-system absorbs
heat only from ground heat exchanger sub-system.
Mode 2, hot water making and cooling mode
in summer. Solar collector sub-system and ground-
source heat pump work in series to make hot water,
ground-source heat pump works in cooling mode for
air condition in summer at the same time. In other
words, the cold water absorbs heat form the condenser
of heat pump and Solar collector in series, the cold
water and the ground heat exchanger are used as the
heat sink to increase the COP of heat pump and reduce
the heat released to the soil in summer. Whether the
heat pump releases heat to cold water is controlled
by the temperature of the cold water (Twc ), the load
of the hot water and the temperature of fluent in the
ground exchanger leaving from the heat pump (Tl ).
If Tl is 2 C greater than Twc , heat pump sub-system
releases heat to cold water, if the load of hot water is
not enough and Tl is not 2 C greater than Twc , cold
water is moved automatically to hot water zone and
is heated by Solar collector system, and the new cold
water comes as the heat sink of heat pump. Otherwise,
heat pump sub-system release heat only to ground heat
exchanger in summer. The system flowchart of the new
solar-assisted ground-source heat pump in summer is
shown as Figure 2.
Mode 3, hot water making mode in spring and
autumn. Solar collector sub-system and heat pump
sub-system work for hot water in spring and autumn.
In this mode, solar collector sub-system changes solar
energy into heat energy and transfer the heat to hot
water. Heat pump sub-system operates in heating mode
to make hot water too. Because the heat released to
soil in summer is greater than the heat absorbed from
soil in winter for air condition, the operating time of
384

where Xrb = rb /2 , I(X) is Calculated by formula
(3) or (4) (Boss et al. 1985, Ma et al. 2007), rb is the
radius of the drilled- hole, and ks are the average ther-
mal diffusivity and coefficient of thermal conductivity,
is operating time, 1500 h is suggested.

when 0 X 1, I(X) = 0.5[ lnX2 0.57721566

+ 0.99999193X2 0.024991055X4 + 0.05519968X6
0.00975004X8 + 0.00107857X10 ] (3)

when X 1,
Figure 3. Days whose sunlight hourage equal or greater than
6 h in every month.

heat pump to make hot water is set to balance the heat

exchanged in ground. The other time in spring and Where
autumn, hot water is made by solar collector system.
A = X8 + 8.5733287X6 + 18.059017X4 +
8.637609X2 + 0.2677737, B = X8 + 9.5733223X6 +
3 ANALYSIS 25.6329561X4 + 21.0996531X2 + 3.9684969.
For the multi-tubes heat exchanger, thermal resis-
3.1 Assumption for theoretical investigation tance of soil can be defined by the follow formula (5):
There are some assumptions for theoretical investiga-
tion. They are:
(1) The soil around the U-tubes is a cylinder.
(2) The temperature of fluent in the tubes is uniform.
(3) The recovery of temperature of the soil because of where I (Xrb )/2ks is the thermal resistance of soil,
intermittent operation is not considered. I (XSDi )/2ks is the disturbing thermal resistance of
the tubes with the distance of SDi .
3.2 The feature of solar energy in climate of hot  Thermal resistance of tubes can be calculated as
summer and cold winter zone in China follow:
First, PE tubes in a drilled-hole can be imaged as a
The solar energy in climate of hot summer and cold equivalent pipe, its outside radius is:
winter zone in China is medium-scale. It has the fea-
ture that it is abundant in summer and poverty in
spring. The average total radiant quantity per annum
is 4.25.4 GJ/m2 a. As shown in Figure 3, when the
monthly average temperature equal or greater than
where r0 is the outside radius of PE tube, n is the quan-
10 C, the days whose sunlight hourage equal or greater
tity of the tubes in the drilled-hole. n = 2 for single-U
than 6h is 150200 days (Liu 2010).
tubes, and n = 4 for double-U tubes.
The quantity of heat collected by solar collector
The thermal resistance of the wall of tube is
system is calculated by formula (1)( Yang 2009):
calculated as follow:

Where is about 90% for most solar collector

system in China. The quantity of solar energy is
determined by the buildings scale and architecture
feature.
3.3 Calculation of heat resistivity and quantity of
ground heat exchanger

Thermal resistance of soil can be calculated by the
follow formula (2):
where do is the outside diameter of PE tube, di is the
inside diameter of t PE tube, de is the outside diame-
ter of equivalent pipe, kp is the coefficient of thermal
conductivity of PE tube.
 The total thermal resistance of heating and cooling
mode:

385
where FH , FC is the quota of heating and cooling. They
are determined by formula (10) and formula (11):
 quantity of heat exchange and temperature of soil
near the tubes in cooling and heating mode
The average quantity of heat exchange per unit
length drilled-hole is determined by formula (12) and
formula (13):
where Ti is the average temperature of fluent in tubes,
Tsi is the initial temperature of soil, it is 21.3 C for the
investigated system.
Tsis is the temperature of soil near the pipe, when
heat transfer is stable, it is calculated as follow.
3.4 Stabilization time of heat exchange and the net
heat exchange
As shown in Figure 4, the stabilization time of heat
exchange in soil for heat accumulator is determined
by formula (16):
where C is the specific heat of soil, rse is the outside
radius of soil for a single hole, rse = 2 m for the inves-
tigated system, Tsi is the initial temperature of soil,
Tsis is the temperature of soil near the tubes when heat
transfer is stable, Tsos is the temperature of soil far
away from the tubes when heat transfer is stable, q is
the average quantity of heat exchange per unit length
drilled-hole. It is written in qH or qC in heating mode
or cooling mode.
When the heat is supplied by solar or absorbed by
water, the heat is supplied by solar is qs , the heat is
absorbed by water is qw , the net heat exchange per
unit length drilled-hole is determined by formula (17)
and formula (18):
386
Figure 4. Heat exchange in soil for heat accumulator.
3.5 The average temperature of soil in stabilization
process and the temperature of fluent back to
heat pump
When the ground-source heat pump works alone, as
show in Figure 4, the average temperature of soil for
heat accumulator in stabilization process is calculated
as follows:
When the ground-source heat pump works combine
with solar collector or hot water system for the same
work time, the part heat is supplied or absorbed by
solar or water, the average temperature of soil for heat
accumulator in stabilization process is calculated as
follows:
In cooling mode, the temperature of the fluent in the
ground exchanger leaving from heat pump is designed
as TCfl0 = 38 C, the temperature of fluent back to heat
pump is designed as TCfb0 = 33 C. In heating mode,
the temperature of the fluent in the ground exchanger
leaving from heat pump is designed as THfl0 = 7 C, the
temperature of fluent back to heat pump is designed
as THfb0 = 12 C. When the ground-source heat pump
works combine with solar collector or hot water sys-
tem, the part heat is supplied or absorbed by solar or
water, the average temperature of soil for heat accu-
mulator in stabilization process is reduced in cooling
mode, and is increased in heating mode. So the tem-
perature of fluent back to heat pump is reduced or
increased in cooling mode or heating mode, they are
determined by formula (22) and formula (23):
In cooling mode:
In heating mode: system is shown in Table 1. The initial temperature of
soil in winter is the final temperature of soil in the
end of summer. The lowest temperature is 23.4 C. Ti
in winter is varied with the final temperature of soil
in the end of summer, and it is shown in calculation
result.
3.6 The COP of the ground-source heat pump
The COP of the ground-source heat pump can be cal- 4.2 The calculation result in summer
culated as formula (24) and formula (25) (NingBo
The calculation result of the system in summer is
University 2011):
shown in Table 2. Figure 5 and Figure 6 show the COPc
of heat pump various with the ratio of heat absorbed
by water in summer for U tube and double-U tube. As
can be seen from Figure5 and Figure 6, in hot water
making and cooling mode, COPc increases with the
reducing of daily work time and the increasing of ratio
of heat absorbed by water. So, in the building that air
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS condition and hot water are used, the heat recovery sys-
tem should be used preferentially to make hot water.
4.1 Description of the parameters
The part designed parameters of ground-source heat
pump in hot summer and cold winter zone is shown
as follows. The cold load of the building is 1.43
times as the heat load. In summer, the temperature
of fluent in the ground exchanger leaving from the
heat pump is 38 C, the temperature of fluent in the
ground exchanger back to the heat pump is less than
33 C. In winter, the temperature of fluent in the
ground exchanger leaving from the heat pump is 7 C,
the temperature of fluent in the ground exchanger
back to the heat pump is greater than 12 C (Design
Criterion GB50019-2003). The coefficient of ther- Figure 5. COP various with the ratio of heat of water
mal conductivity of soil in the investigated zone is abstract in summer (U tube).
1.52 W/(m k)and the initial temperature of soil in
summer is 21.3 C (Guide rule S10-2010). The design
temperature of hot water in hot summer and cold
winter zone of China is 60 C (Design Criterion GB
50015-2003). The other calculation parameters of the

Table 1. Calculation parameters in summer.

Parameters

rb (m) 0.055 SDi (m) 4 di (m) 0.020

(mm2 /s) 0.568 r0 (m) 0.0125 (h) 1500
ks (W /(m k)) 1.520 rse (m) 2 Ti ( )C 38.0
kp (W /(m k)) 0.420 d0 (m) 0.025 Tsi ( )C 21.3 Figure 6. COP various with the ratio of heat of water
abstract in summer (double-U tube).

Table 2. Calculation result for cooling mode.

Ratio of heat 0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

absorbed by water
COPC of ground-source heat pump for U tube and duble-U tube

The quota of duble duble duble duble duble

cooling (Fc) U tube U tube U tube U tube U tube U tube U tube U tube U tube U tube

33% (8 h/day) 4.7100 4.8072 4.7259 4.8242 4.7418 4.8411 4.7577 4.8581 4.7737 4.8750
50% (12 h/day) 4.5290 4.6409 4.5462 4.6585 4.5633 4.6764 4.5804 4.6943 4.5975 4.7122
70% (17 h/day) 4.4190 4.5247 4.4368 4.5432 4.4546 4.5617 4.4725 4.5801 4.4903 4.5986
100% (24 h/day) 4.3319 4.4334 4.3503 4.4523 4.3687 4.4712 4.3871 4.4901 4.4056 4.5090

387
Table 3. Calculation result in winter

Ratio of heat supplied 0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

by solar energy
COPH of ground-source heat pump for U tube and duble-U tube

The quota of duble duble duble duble duble

heating(FH ) U tube U tube U tube U tube U tube U tube U tube U tube U tube U tube

33%(8 h/day) Ti ( )C 16.60 16.65 16.60 16.65 16.60 16.65 16.60 16.65 16.60 16.65
COPH 5.280 5.285 5.293 5.299 5.306 5.313 5.319 5.328 5.333 5.342
50%(12 h/day) Ti ( )C 13.70 14.06 13.70 14.06 13.70 14.06 13.70 14.06 13.70 14.06
COPH 4.990 5.026 5.004 5.049 5.018 5.064 5.033 5.079 5.047 5.094
70%(17 h/day) Ti ( )C 10.27 10.62 10.27 10.62 10.27 10.62 10.27 10.62 10.27 10.62
COPH 4.437 4.407 4.454 4.434 4.470 4.451 4.487 4.469 4.504 4.486
100%(24 h/day) Ti ( )C 5.10 5.46 5.10 5.46 5.10 5.46 5.10 5.46 5.10 5.46
COPH 4.130 4.166 4.145 4.190 4.161 4.206 4.176 4.222 4.191 4.238

Figure 7. COP various with the ratio of heat of solar energy Figure 8. COP various with the ratio of heat of solar energy
in winter (U tube). in winter( double-U tube).

The heat recovery system can increase the ratio of heat

absorbed by water from the heat pump system, and can
increase the COPc of ground-source heat pump.
As the assumption, the soil around the U-tubes is
a cylinder, and it is considered as a heat accumulator
that absorbs heat from heat pump system. The stabi-
lization time of heat exchange is about 86 days for
every Fc when the ground-source heat pump without
heat recovery system, but the cooling capacity varies
with Fc. If the heat recovery system is used as the
addition heat exchanger of the ground heat exchanger,
the stabilization time of heat exchange is longer than
the heat recovery system is not used. So, the operat-
ing control strategy of SWGHP should be designed
according the fact of the building.
4.3 The calculation result in winter
The calculation result of the system in winter is shown
inTable 3. Figure 7 and Figure 8 show the COPH of heat
pump various with the ratio of heat supplied by solar
energy in winter for U tube and double-U tube. As can
be seen from Figure 7 and Figure 8, in heating mode,
COPH increases with the reducing of daily work time
and the increasing of ratio of heat supplied by solar
energy. But the work time give more influence to the
COPH . So, in the hot summer and cold winter zone of
China, the heat released to soil in summer is greater
than the heat absorbed from soil in winter, there is no
need to use solar energy to assist the ground-source
heat-pump.
According to the heat load in winter in the hot sum-
mer and cold winter zone of China, the stabilization
time of heat exchange can be obtained by calculating,
it is about 396 days for heating mode. So, hot water
should be made by ground-source heat pump system
in spring and autumn to balance the heat exchanged in
ground.
5 CONCLUSIONS
From the analysis of the result, the following conclu-
sions can be made:
(1) In the hot summer and cold winter zone of China,
the SWGHP can be used in the building with air
condition load and hot water load, and the operat-
ing control strategy of SWGHP should be designed
according to the detailed condition of the building,
such as the buildings scale and architecture fea-
ture, the air condition load, the hot water load, the
work time requirement, etc.
(2) The heat recovery system used to make hot water
can increase the COPc of ground-source heat
pump in summer.

388
(3) The daily work time is the major factor to affect
the COP of the ground-source heat pump. In the
hot summer and cold winter zone of China, solar
energy is not need to be used to assist the ground-
source heat pump in winter, it should be used to
make hot water primarily.
(4) In order to balance the heat exchanged in ground,
hot water should be made by ground-source heat
pump system in spring and autumn.
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Bi Y, 1995, Study on the heating of solar-ground source
heat-pump. Master thesis, Tianjin University, The Peoples
Republic of China.
Bi Yuehong, Chen Ling. STUDY ON SOLAR-GROUND
SOURCE HEAT PUMP [J]. ACTA ENERGIAE
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Boss J E, etal. Design/data manual for closed-loop ground
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sity for ASHRAE, 1985
Design Criterion of Heating, Ventilation and Air Condi-
tion[S], GB50019-2003
Design Criterion of Water Supply and Sewerage work[S], GB
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Gu Tiezhu. Study on the Solar Heating Storage by PCMAs-
sisted Ground Source Heat PumP System [D]. Han Dan:
Hebei University of Engineering, 2008
Guide rule of Building Application of Ground-source Heat
pump system in NingBo City[S], S102010
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[J]. HEATING VENTILATING & AIR CONDITION-
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Liu Jianmin. Principle , Technology and Engineering of Uti-
lization of Solar Energy[M], Bei Jing: Publishing House
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Ma Zuiliang, Yue Lv. Design and Application of Ground-
Source Heat Pump System [M], Ji Nan:Publishing House
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analysis of a solar assisted ground-source heat pump
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S.K. Tyagi, Shengwei Wang, S.R. Park, Atul Sharma. Eco-
nomic considerations and cost comparisons between the
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Research of the Properties of Calcium Carbide Residue Desulfurization Gypsum

Meng Ye & Tingyu Zhu

National Engineering Laboratory for Hydrometallurgical Cleaner Production Technology, Institute of Process
Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

ABSTRACT: Calcium carbide residue is a by-product of acetylene production through the hydrolysis of cal-
cium carbide, and most of the calcium carbide residue is currently stored in stacks. With the extensive use of flue
gas desulfurization technology of calcium carbide residue (CR) in power stations and heating plants in China,
calcium carbide residue desulfurization gypsum (CG) is generated in huge amounts and the desulfurization
gypsum faces the major problem of disposal. However, the research about utilization of CG is rare and the base
data about the properties of CR and CG are scanty. In the present study, the main objective is conducting a
detailed characterization of CR and CG. Testing includes physical properties, chemical compositions, as well as,
morphology of the powders. The probability of carbide residue gypsum into -hemihydrates gypsum will been
analyzed.

Keywords: calcium carbide residue, desulfurization gypsum, the properties

1 INTRODUCTION major problem of disposal like flue gas desulfurization

Acetylene gas (C2 H2 ) is the basic material in the man-
ufacture of PVC and PVA. In China, C2 H2 is mainly
produced through the hydrolysis of calcium carbide,
which is obtained from the reaction between calcium
carbide (CaC2 ) and water (H2 O) according to the
following equation.
CaC2 + H2 O C2 H2 + Ca(OH)2
Calcium carbide residue (CR) is a by-product from
C2 H2 production process. China is the biggest cal-
cium carbide producers in the world, and also produces
a great deal of industrial solid wastecalcium car-
bide residue. In 2008 Chinas calcium carbide output
exceeded 13.61 million tons, with the emission amount
of CR reaching to tens of thousands tons.
Most of the residue is sent to landfills as waste,
causing many environmental problems, especially in
terms of the groundwater pollution due to alkaline con-
tamination (Nattapong Makaratat 2011). In order to
reduce the environmental pollution, it was important
to reuse the residue. CR is mainly calcium hydrox-
ide, which can be used for the raw material of flue gas
desulphurization. The flue gas desulfurization by CR is
widely used to control the emission of SO2 from large
stationary sources such as power stations, thus decreas-
ing exploitation of limestone and making full use of
waste utilization. With the extensive use of flue gas
desulfurization technology of CR in power stations and
heating plants in China, calcium carbide residue desul-
furization gypsum (CG) is generated in huge amounts
and the desulfurization gypsum from CR faces the
gypsum produced by limestone-gypsum FGD system.
Although FGD gypsum can be used in applications
such as binders, plasters, building materials, cement
and soil amelioration (Heiner 2009, Halit 2007, Tzou-
valas 2004, Potgieter 2004), this does not represent
an economic advantage over natural gypsum in many
regions of China. Utilization of FGD gypsum depends
on whether it can be transformed into various products
in the form of calcium sulfate dehydrates (DH), cal-
cium sulfate hemihydrates (- and -HH) or calcium
sulfate anhydrate (AH). Of these gypsum phases, -
HH in particular has outstanding properties and is of
high economic value owing to its better workability
and higher strength[6] . Research of the preparation of
-HH using LG as raw materials has been undertaken
by many researchers in last decade. However, the spe-
cialization study to the preparation of -HH using CG
is very scarce and the basic data is lack at present.
In the present study, the main objective is conduct-
ing a detailed characterization of CR and CG. Testing
includes physical properties, chemical compositions,
as well as, morphology of the powders. It analyzes the
possibility of transformation of CG to calcium sulfate
hemihydrates (-HH).
2 EXPERIMENTAL
2.1 Sample preparation
The material, which was used for measurements, was
produced at the calcium carbide residue desulfuriza-
tion project at Hunan Xiang Wei co., Ltd., a subsidiary

391
Table 1. Chemical compositions of dry calcium carbide Table 3. Chemical compositions of LG.
residue.
Composition (%)
Composition(%) CaO SiO2 Al2 O3 Fe2 O3 H2 O Others
CaO 32.0
FGD gypsum 75.6 4.1 2.6 0.3 16.8 0.6 SO3 42.2
SiO2 3.4
Al2 O3 0.8
CO2 2.2
H2 O 18.5
Table 2. Chemical compositions of CG.
other 0.9
Composition (%)

CaO 40.4
SO3 39.5
SiO2 1.1
Al2 O3 0.2
H2 O 18.5
other 0.3

of China Haohua Chemical Corporation. The FGD

project for 130t/h boiler adopts the technology of
desulphurization with calcium carbide residue, devel-
oped by Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese
Figure 1. Size Analysis of CR.
Academy of Sciences. The desulfurization efficiency
of plant is above 95%.
The chemical compositions of calcium carbide
residue determined are tabulated in Table 1. It was
found that the major chemical constituents of CR were
CaO (75.6%).

2.2 Method
A laser analyzer (Mastersizer Hydro 2000Mu,
Malvern, U.K.) was used for particle size analy-
sis. The crystal morphology was determined by cold
field emission scanning electron microscope scanning
electron microscopy (JSM-6700F, JEOL, Japan). Figure 2. Size Analysis of CG.

Fig. 3 presents the particle shapes of CR using scan-

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The chemical compositions of CG determined by using
X-ray Fluorescence analysis are tabulated in Table 2.
The chemical compositions of LG were summarized
in Table 3 (Zou Chenyang). It was found that the
major chemical constituents of CG were CaO (40.4%)
and SO3 (39.5%). Chemical analyses for CG and
flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum produced by
limestone-gypsum (LG) show very similar composi-
tions. Just few and slight differences are identified:
CG has a higher content of CaO, while LG presents a
greater amount of CO2 .
Laser particle size analysis for CR and CG reveal the
geometric mean diameter of approximately 39.04 m
and 33.47 m (Fig. 1, Fig. 2). It is noted that the geo-
metric mean diameter of CG was slightly lower than
LG reported by WU Xiaoqin and Zou Chenyang (WU
Xiaoqin 2011, Zou Chenyang).
ning electron microscopy (SEM). It was seen that the
CR had granular shapes. Fig. 4 presents the parti-
cle shapes of CG using scanning electron microscopy
(SEM). It was seen that the CG had sheet shapes.
Fig. 5 presents it can be found that, by XRD, CG
consists mainly of crystallized CaSO4 and a small
amount of crystallized CaSO3 .
The -HH using CG was prepared in aqueous salt
solution with the hydrothermal method (WU Xiaoqin
2011). The test conditions were determined as follows:
the concentration of salt solution (NaCl) 15%, reaction
temperature 100 C, reaction time 2 h, pH value = 6
and slurry concentration 20%. The transformation of
CG to -HH accords to the following equation.
CaSO4 2H2 O CaSO4 1/2H2 O + 1.5H2 O
The crystal morphology of -HH were determined
by SEM. Fig. 6 presents the particle shapes of -HH

392
Figure 3. Scanning electron microscopy of CR.
Figure 4. Scanning electron microscopy of CG.
Figure 5. XRD of CG.
prepared with CG(-HH-CG) had columnar shapes.
Compared with -HH prepared with -HH-LG in the
similar conditions, the columnar shapes had a lit-
tle irregular. The difference of crystal morphology
between -HH-CG and -HH- LG may come from
the distinction of properties between CG and flue gas
desulfurization (FGD) gypsum produced by LG. More
research is needed to find out the influence of CG
properties on crystal morphology of -HH.
393
Figure 6. Scanning electron microscopy of -HH.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The particle shapes of CG had sheet shapes. CG con-
sists mainly of crystallized CaSO4 and a small amount
of crystallized CaSO3. . Chemical analyses for CG and
LG show very similar compositions. The -HH was
prepared in aqueous salt solution with the hydrother-
mal method by CG. The crystal morphology of -HH
determined by SEM show columnar shapes. Compared
with -HH prepared with LG in the similar conditions,
the columnar shapes had a little irregular.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support
for this research by the State 863 projects
(2009AA064002).
REFERENCES
Nattapong Makaratat, Chai Jaturapitakkul, Charin Namarak,
Vanchai Sata, Effects of binder and CaCl2 contents on
the strength of calcium carbide residue-fly ash concrete,
Cement & Concrete Composites 33 436443(2011).
Heiner, H., FGD gypsum utilization: the role of European
gypsum industry (I), Building Artificial Boards, 4, 3335
(1997).
Halit, Y., Utilization of coal combustion byproducts in
building blocks, Fuel, 86, 929937(2007).
Tzouvalas, G., Rantis, G., Tsimas, S., Alternative calcium-
sulfate-bearing materials as cement retarders (II) FGD
gypsum, Cement Concr. Res., 34, 21192125(2004).
Potgieter, J.H., Potieter, S.S., McCrindle, R.I., A comparison
of the performance of various synthetic gypsums in plant
trials during the manufacturing of OPC clinker, Cement
Concr. Res., 34, 22452250(2004).
WU Xiaoqin, Tong Shitang, Guan Baohong, WU Zhongbiao,
Transformation of flue-gas-desulfurization Gypsum to a
Hemihydrated Gypsum in Salt Solution at Atmospheric
Pressure, Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 19(2)
349355 (2011).
Zou Chenyang, Research on Preparation and Mechanism in
Crystal ModifierTechnology of a- Hemihydrate Desulfu-
rization Gypsum with the Hydrothermal Method in Salt
Solution with Atmospheric Pressur, A Thesis Submitted
to Chongqing University.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Effect of air handler supply air temperature in VAV system on building

energy consumption under Korean climatic condition

Kwang Ho Lee* & Kyung Il Chin**

Department of Architectural Engineering, Hanbat National University, Daejeon, South Korea

Jin Woo Moon

Department of Building & Plant Engineering, Hanbat National University, Daejeon, South Korea

ABSTRACT: Variable Air Volume (VAV) unit system is one of the commonly used forced-air heating and
cooling systems in typical office buildings. Literally, it adjusts the supply airflow from the central Air Handling
Unit (AHU) to meet the heating and cooling load of the building, while the AHU Supply Air Temperature (SAT)
is usually fixed. This AHU SAT has significant impacts on the overall VAV system energy performance. In this
study, the detailed analysis of the impact of AHU SAT in the conventional VAV system was performed in the
typical office building prototype under Korean climatic condition using the whole-building energy simulation
software platform, EnergyPlus version 7.1. Three different AHU SATs were investigated in this study: AHU
SAT set-point of 13.9 C, 15.6 C and 17.2 C. It was observed that increasing AHU SAT raised the fan energy,
while reducing the heating and cooling energy. Due to the fact that the amount of heating and cooling energy
reduction was larger than that of the fan energy increase, the total HVAC energy consumption slight decreased
with the higher SAT.

Keywords: damage Supply air temperature, VAV system, Building energy consumption, EnergyPlus

1 INTRODUCTION This study presents the simulation of conventional

Variable Air Volume (VAV) unit system is one of the
commonly used forced-air heating and cooling sys-
tems in office buildings. To meet the heating and
cooling load of the building, it adjusts the supply air-
flow from the central Air Handling Unit (AHU), while
the AHU Supply Air Temperature (SAT) is usually
fixed at the particular set-point. The energy perfor-
mance of the VAV system is significantly affected by
the AHU SAT set-point.
As the AHU SAT increases, the larger supply air-
flow should be provided to the room space to meet the
thermal load in the cooling mode due to the reduced
difference between the room cooling set-point and the
AHU supply air temperatures, which might cause the
fan energy increase. On the other hand, the chiller
energy might be reduced due to the larger economizer
benefit at the higher SAT set-point. Similarly, it can
also significantly affect the heating energy as well.
Therefore, it is important to get the better understand-
ing of the detailed quantitative impact of the AHU
SAT on each energy sector in this circumstance. How-
ever, the impact has not been actively studied thus far,
especially under the Korean climatic conditions.
*Primary author
**Corresponding author
VAV unit system energy performance. The objective
of this paper is to evaluate the energy impact of the
differentAHU SAT set-points of theVAV system under
Korean climatic conditions using EnergyPlus software
platform.
2 METHOD
2.1 Simulation Software
The energy simulation program, EnergyPlus, was used
for this study (Crawley et al. 2001), which is a
relatively new building energy simulation program
developed by the U.S. Department of Energy. It has
the capability to realistically simulate the conven-
tional VAV system using AirLoopHVAC, Controller:
OutdoorAir andAirTerminal:SingleDuct:VAV: Reheat
objects (The U.S. DOE 20120), which model the cen-
tral AHU, economizer and VAV box in each zone,
respectively.
2.2 Description of simulated office building
A three-story prototype office building located in
Incheon, Korea with a rectangular shape and aspect
ratio of 1.5 was chosen for this study. The floor plate
size is 2,000 m2 (total floor area is 6,000 m2) and each

395
Table 1. Internal load level. Table 2. Summary of HVAC system configuration (Lee
et al. 2012).
Hear load category Internal heat load
HVAC
Overhead lighting, W/m2 10.8
Peak occupancy, m2/ person 22.3 AHU supply temperature 13.9 C (57.0 F), 15.6 C
Equipment W/m2 8.6 (60.0 F), 17.2 C (63.0 F)
Total, W/m2 22.6 AHU fan design static pressure 1125 Pa
AHU fan efficiency 75%
AHU fan part load shutoff 125 Pa
Minimum outside air rate 7.62 E-04 m3 /s/m2
Zone minimum airflow 30% of cooling maximum
floor is composed of 4 perimeter zones and an interior fraction airflow
zone with the perimeter zone depth of 4.6 m (Lee et al.
Plant
2012). The floor to floor height is 3.9 m and the return Chiller design COP 5.0
plenum height is 1.2 m. Strip windows are evenly Boiler design efficiency 80%
distributed in the walls and the window-to-wall ratio
is 30% (Lee et al. 2012). The constructions and the
thermal properties of windows change based on each
climate and they comply with ASHRAE 90.1-2004 Table 3. Annual energy consumptions breakdown
(ASHRAE 2004, The U.S. DOE 2012). ASHRAE (kWh/m2 ).
0.4% summer and 99.6% winter design conditions
were assumed during the design day simulation for AHU SAT AHU SAT AHU SAT
the sizing of each equipment (AHSRAE 2004, Lee Simulated case 13.9 C 15.6 C 17.2 C
et al. 2012).
Lighting 28.6 28.6 28.6
Equipment 43.8 43.8 43.8
2.3 Internal heat gain and schedule Boiler 26.8 26.2 25.9
Chiller 11.9 10.7 9.6
The peak internal load levels are summarized in Table Fan 4.3 5.4 6.8
1 and the hourly variations of the internal loads for the Auxiliaries 3.6 3.3 3.2
typical office building follow the schedules specified Total HVAC 46.6 45.5 45.4
in ASHRAE Standard 90.1 (AHSRAE 2004, Lee et al. Total Building 119.0 117.9 117.8
2012).

2.4 HVAC system fixed at three different set-points summarized in Table

The system controls the internal air temperature to a
cooling and heating temperature set-point of 23.9 C
and 21.1 C, respectively. The whole HVAC system is
switched off during the nighttime. The infiltration was
assumed to be 0.000333 m3/(s m2) (flow per exte-
rior surface area). The minimum outdoor air flow rate
in the system level was set to be 0.000762 m3/(s m2)
(flow per gross area) (Lee et al. 2012). The building
is served by a single variable-speed central station
AHU including an economizer, chilled water cool-
ing coil, hot water heating coil and supply fan. The
central AHU and economizer were simulated using
AirLoopHVAC and Controller: OutdoorAir objects in
EnergyPlus (The U.S. DOE 2012). The economizer
was controlled by differential dry bulb temperature
logic, which indicates that the outdoor air damper was
adjusted based on the comparison between the hourly
return air temperature and the outdoor air temperature
to meet the AHU SAT set-point with the minimized
chiller and boiler energy consumption. Regular VAV
boxes supply cold and hot air into the room space
for cooling and heating, which are modeled using the
AirTerminal:SingleDuct:VAV:Reheat object (The U.S.
DOE 2012, Lee et al. 2012). To meet the heating and
cooling load of the building, it adjusts the supply air-
flow from the central AHU, while the AHU SAT was
2. The central plant consists of a centrifugal chiller
with variable-speed pumps, and a gas fired boiler pro-
vides hot water to all heating coils. Three cases are
chosen for this study having different AHU SAT set-
points: 13.9 C, 15.6 C and 17.2 C. Table 2 shows
details of system and plant inputs.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Annual energy breakdown
Annual energy consumption breakdown of three sim-
ulated cases having different AHU SAT set-points is
summarized in Table 3. Auxiliaries in the table include
pumps and cooling tower fan energies. Since the same
conditions are used for lighting and equipment loads,
there is no difference in those two energies as shown
in the table (Lee et al. 2012). The major difference
between the simulated cases cases can be observed
in the boiler, chiller and fan energy. In the AHU
SAT 13.9 C case, the annual cooling (chiller elec-
tricity) consumption was 11.9 kWh/m2, while SAT
15.6 C and 17.2 C cases showed 10.7 kWh/m2 and
9.6 kWh/m2, respectively, indicating that the chiller
electricity usage was reduced as the SAT set-point
increased. Similarly, the boiler gas also decreased with

396
Figure 1. Enthalpy exhaust from the economizer (Aug. Figure 2. Monthly heating supply fromAHU heating coil.
12th).

the higher SAT as shown in the table. On the other

hand, the fan energy increased as the SAT set-point was
elevated. For the better understanding of the reasons
for the trends in the heating, cooling and fan energy
variations, the detailed analysis on each energy sector
under different SAT set-points are provided in the next
following sub-sections.

3.2 Chiller energy

The reason for the chiller electricity consumption
reduction with the higher SAT set-point is discussed in
this sub-section. Hourly total enthalpy being exhausted Figure 3. Monthly heating supply from 15 reheat coils.
by the central economizer in the typical summer day
is illustrated in Figure 1. Except for the early morning
warm-up period, the enthalpy exhaust remained con-
stant regardless of different SAT set-points. In addi-
tion, the greater enthalpy exhaust could be observed
at the higher SAT as shown in Figure 1. This is due to
the higher relative humidity in the room space and the
resultant higher humidity in the return air at the higher
SAT.The enthalpy exhaust by the economizer is mainly
affected by the three factors: relief airflow, relief air
temperature and humidity. Although the return air
temperature, directly affecting the relief air temper-
ature, did not show difference among different SAT
set-points and the relief airflow remained constant
at minimum outdoor airflow of 0.000762 m3/s/m2
regardless of different SATs, the enthalpy exhaust Figure 4. AHU supply fan airflow (Aug. 12th).
increased as the SAT set-point increased due to the
fact that higher humidity relief air was exhausted by air and the AHU SAT set-point. The AHU supply fan
the economizer. This greater enthalpy exhaust, indicat- airflow increased with the higher SAT in the typical
ing the greater economizer benefit, reduced the chiller summer day as shown in Figure 4 due to the reduced
energy consumption as the AHU SAT was elevated. difference between the room cooling set-point and the
supply air temperatures as the SAT set-point increased.
The increased supply airflow eventually elevated the
3.3 Boiler & fan energy fan energy consumption as summarized in Table 3.
The annual boiler gas usage is governed by the hot Moreover, the warm return air from the room
water consumption in the central AHU heating coil and space in the heating mode is not circulated through
15 reheat coils. Figures 2 and 3 present the monthly the AHU economizer. Instead, the airflow usually
heating supply fromAHU heating coil and reheat coils, remained constant at minimum outdoor airflow of
respectively. Heating supply from the AHU heating 0.000762 m3/s/m2 during the heating mode and thus
coil is the product of the AHU airflow and the temper- it is replaced by the cold outdoor air for the venti-
ature difference between the cold economizer outlet lation purpose. Therefore, the economizer outlet air

397
temperature is almost close to the outdoor air temper-
ature and thus did not show difference among each
SAT accordingly. Since the economizer outlet air tem-
perature did not vary among each SAT, the elevated
SAT increased the temperature difference between the
economizer outlet air and the air leaving the central
AHU. Eventually, both increased AHU supply airflow
and the increased temperature difference between the
cold economizer outlet air and the AHU SAT set-point
increased the heating supply from the AHU heating
coil as shown in Figure 2.
In case of the heating supply from reheat coils, it
is reduced as the SAT set-point increased as shown
in Figure 3. The reheat energy in the reheat coils is
the product of the zone supply airflow and the tem-
perature difference between the VAV box inlet air and
room temperature. The VAV box inlet temperature is
always the same as AHU SAT set-point. The room tem-
perature is controlled to the temperature set-point of
21.1 C in the heating mode, regardless of the different
SATs. Therefore, the higher SAT set-point indicates
the smaller temperature difference between the VAV
box inlet air and room temperature, which, in turn,
reduced the heating supply from each reheat coil as
shown in Figure 3. Although the zone supply airflow is
increased at the higher AHU SAT set-point, the smaller
temperature difference between VAV box inlet air and
room temperature overwhelmed the impact of the zone
supply airflow and thus eventually reduced the heating
supply from reheat coils as shown in Figure 3.
In summary, the heating supply from AHU heating
coil was elevated, as opposed to that from reheat coils.
Although the heating supply from AHU heating coil
increased as presented in Figure 2, the total boiler gas
usage was reduced at the higher SAT as summarized
in Table 3 due to the fact that the reduced amount of
gas usage by reheat coils in Figure 3 overwhelmed the
increased amount of gas usage by AHU heating coil in
Figure 2.
4 CONCLUSIONS
In this study, the energy impact of the different
AHU SAT set-points of the conventional VAV sys-
tem under Korean climatic conditions was assessed
using EnergyPlus version 7.1. Three simulation cases
were chosen: AHU SAT set-point of 13.9 C, 15.6 C
and 17.2 C. The chiller energy was reduced due to
the larger economizer benefit at the higher SAT set-
point. In addition, the boiler gas consumption was also
slightly reduced despite the elevated heating supply by
central AHU heating coil, since the heating supply by
398
the reheat coils decreased due to the reduced tempera-
ture difference between the VAV box inlet air and room
temperature. On the other hand, the fan electricity con-
sumption increased at the higher SAT, since the AHU
supply fan airflow increased with the higher SAT due
to the reduced difference between the room cooling
set-point and the AHU supply air temperatures. More
importantly, it can be concluded that the different AHU
SAT set-points have significant impacts on the overall
energy performance of VAV systems.
Based on this study, the future research that should
be done includes the investigation of the AHU SAT
impacts under different climatic conditions in Korea
and in other types of buildings addressed in this study.
Another improvement can be to assess the impact of
AHU SAT in other aspects other than energy such as
occupant comfort and the cost consequences. In addi-
tion, the optimization of the AHU SAT under different
conditions can also be the potential future research,
since a particular SAT set-point that is optimized in a
particular condition cannot be directly generalized to
other situations. Finally, the SAT reset strategy based
on either outdoor air temperature or the actual thermal
load should also be investigated, since it is becoming
popular in practice these days.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was financially supported by the Intramu-
ral Academic Support Grant funded by the Hanbat
National University (20112012).
REFERENCES
ASHRAE, ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2004, Energy Standard
for Buildings Except Low Rise Residential Buildings,
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-
Conditioning Engineers, Inc., 2004.
D. Crawley, L. Lawrie, F. Winkelmann, W. Buhl, H. Huang
and C. Pedersen, EnergyPlus: Creating a New-generation
Building Energy Simulation Program, Energy and Build-
ings, Vol. 33, pp. 319331, 2001
The U.S. Department of Energy, EnergyPlus. 2012. Energy-
Plus Input Output Reference.The Encyclopedic Reference
to EnergyPlus Input and Output, 2012.
The U.S. Department of Energy, EnergyPlus.2012. Energy-
Plus Engineering Reference.The Reference to EnergyPlus
Calculations, 2012.
Kwang Ho Lee, Kyung Il Chin and Jong Ho Yoon, Effect
of Minimum Airflow Setting of VAV Unit on Building
Energy Consumption under Korean Climatic Condition,
Advanced Materials Research, Vol. 450451, pp. 1435
1439, 2012
Geotechnical engineering
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Slope stability analysis based on method of FEM strength reduction

Li Zongwei
Changchun institute of technology, Changchun Jilin , China

ABSTRACT: This article elaborated the principle of FEM strength reduction and the rule of its broken. By
calculating a practical project, along with comparing and analyzing their result, we can prove that the safety
factors of FEM strength reduction and limit equilibrium are the same, alone with the consistency of Convergence
criterion and feature points displacement criterions damage criterion.

Keywords: strength reduction; limit equilibrium; evaluating of instability; safety factors

1 INTRODUCTION

In the water and electricity, mining, energy and trans-

portation industries, the stability of the slope is always
the concern, the study has important significance.
Slope stability analysis method can be divided into
three categories, namely, limit equilibrium method,
numerical analysis method and reliability analysis.
Limit equilibrium method for slope stability analysis
is the main method, but also regulate the recommended
calculation, the calculation method is simple, clear and
definite physical meaning. However, the limit equilib-
rium method based on a series of assumptions, this
process makes the calculation result and the actual
situation have bigger discrepancy. Numerical method
(finite element FEM, the boundary element BEM,
finite difference FDM. etc) in recent years in the
project practice application practices more and more
widely.
2 THE PRINCIPLE OF STRENGTH
REDUCTION FEM AND FAILURE
CRITERION
2.1 Basic principle
Slope strength parameters gathered force c stick and
internal friction Angle at the same time are divided
by a reduction factor F, and then as a new material
parameter input, then the trial until reached the critical
failure state, then the corresponding F is called the
minimum safety factor of dam slope. The formula is
as follows:
Figure 1. Maximum Sectional View of Jin Mountain Tailing
Dam.
The failure criterion
(1) The convergence criterion, that is with finite ele-
ment numerical computations convergence as the
slope failure criterion. When calculate conver-
gence the slope stability calculation is still, to
converge when damaged, the reduction factor is
the factor of safety.
(2) The plastic region criterion, enter into plastic state,
the deformation will increase without limit, when
the slope of plastic zone of soil through from top
to bottom, namely soil damage.
(3) The feature point displacement criterion, select
different points may give different safety factors,
At present the displacements of slope are mostly
as a criterion of mutations.
3 ENGINEERING ANALYSIS
Jin Mountains embankment height is 41.02 m, down-
stream of the dam slope ratio is 1:1.4; the average
width of it is about 10 m. According to the survey and
geological prospecting data and simplified, Jin moun-
tain tailings dams maximum cross section diagram is
shown in Fig. 1.

3.1 The calculation model and boundary conditions

Finite element strength reduction method in essence The soil constitutive relation uses Mohr-Coulomb
and the traditional method is consistent. yield conditions of elastic-plastic model. Model on the

401
Table 1. Mechanical parameters list of tailing dams soil.

Weight Friction Angle Cohesion Elastic modulus Poissons ratio

Soil name (kN/m3 ) ( ) C(kpa) E (Mpa) ()

Starter dam 21.9 33.5 10 50 0.27

Waste rock 21.7 33.3 9.5 48 0.28
Tailing medium sand 17.5 31.5 7 20 0.32
Tailing fine sand 18.09 30.3 8.5 15 0.33
Tailing silt 19 27.8 9.7 10 0.34
Tail silt clay 18.55 17.9 11.8 5 0.38
Bedrock 25 41.85 24 40000 0.25

reduction coefficient of 1, i.e. all the strength of

Figure 2. Grid Numerical Model of Strength Reduction
Method.
Figure 3. Displacement Image of Strength Reduction
Method.
boundary around level constraints, the lower boundary
constraints on fixed, border on for free boundary. The
numerical model is as shown in figure 2. According to
the plane strain problem using 15node unit were ana-
lyzed, use triangular meshes. The model is divided into
651 triangles, 5403 nodes.
Calculation and analysis to physical and mechanical
parameters used to see the table 1.
3.2 Strength reduction FEM calculation
According to the shear strength reduction calcula-
tion principle of tailings DAMS downstream slope
strength reduction calculation. The calculation is the
first kind of failure criteria that the calculation of the
convergence as the slope instability criterion.
Reduction method of execution is loading step
number method. At the beginning of the calculation,
the material is not decrease, the first computing the
intensity decreases step is taken as 0.1, from the prac-
tical application situation, the initial value is suitable.
Strength parameters in turn to be automatic reduction,
the additional steps until the execution so far. And then
use the convergence criteria to judge whether the last
step calculation completely achieves a failure mecha-
nism. If it is, it completes.Figure 3 is the displacement
which uses the strength reduction FEM calculation ,
the potential sliding surface can be seen clearly in the
figure.
Using the limit equilibrium theory of Sweden Arc
Method and simplified Bishop Method for calculation
of stability against sliding of dam body, the most dan-
gerous slip surface and safety coefficient are shown in
Figure 4 and figure 5.
The operating conditions of the dam body were
calculated, the results are summarized in the table2.
From the Fig 3Fig 5, we can see that the strength
reduction method is calculated to obtain the most
dangerous sliding surface and the limit equilibrium
method to be the most dangerous sliding surface con-
sistent description based on finite element theory, the
strength reduction FEM calculation results are cred-
ible. Since there is no limit equilibrium method the
hypothesis, the reduction coefficient is more accu-
rately than the limit equilibrium method the safety
factor.
When calculates the dam, do the displacement mon-
itoring on the dam, get the displacement and the
reduction coefficient, Figure 6 is the location map
of monitoring point, Figure 7 is for displacement and
reduction coefficient diagram.
As can be seen, A points and B points in the reduc-
tion coefficient increase at the same time displacement
increase ceaselessly, reduction coefficient at around

Figure 4. Sweden ARC Method.

402
Figure 5. Simplified Bishop Method.
Table 2. Comparison Table of Strength Reduction and Limit Equilibriums result.
Strength Reduction Method
Normal situation 1.280
Flood situation 1.296
Figure 6. Observation points location schematic.
Figure 7. Relation map of observation points displacement
and reduction factors.
1.28 displacement increases suddenly, namely insta-
bility. At the bottom of the dam, near the C and D
monitoring is no such rule. It proves that the use of the
dam displacement criterion vertex as a failure criterion
validity, it can be calculated that the displacement cri-
terion and the convergence criterion are as the failure
criterion for consistency.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Through the above analysis, we can draw the following
conclusions:
(1) Based on the finite element theory the strength
reduction factor of safety and the traditional limit
403
method of limit equilibrium
Swedish circle method simplified Bishop method
1.291 1.376
1.290 1.362
equilibrium method safety factors have the same
meaning . For limit equilibrium method is based
on a series of assumptions, the results and the
actual may have bigger discrepancy. Through the
calculation to the Jin Mountain dam, strength
reduction method of safety coefficient is smaller
than the limit equilibrium method of safety coeffi-
cient value, the results of strength reduction FEM
calculation can be used as a quantitative basis for
judgment.
(2) Based on the theory of finite element strength
reduction method convergence failure criterion
and feature point displacement failure criterions
are consistent, when the algorithm does not con-
verge, displacement increment also began to be
a dramatic change, the two are synchronous. At
the same time, using the crest of feature point
displacement mutation as the failure criterion is
reasonable.
REFERENCES
Zhao Shangyi, Zheng Yingren, Shi Weimin etc. With finite
element strength reduction for slope stability safety coef-
ficient [J]. Journal of geotechnical engineering (2002.24
(3) : 343346.)
Zhao Shangyi, Zheng Yingren, Zhang Yufang. Limit analysis
finite element method lecture II finite element strength
reduction method on slope failure criterion in [J]. Rock
and soil mechanics (2005, 26(2): 332336)
Song Erxiang The finite element calculation of soil struc-
ture safety coefficient [J]. Chinese Journal of geotechnical
engineering (1997, 19(2): l7)
Zhao Shaofei, Luan mao-tian, Lv Aizhong. Geotechnical
limit equilibrium problem with nonlinear finite element
numerical analysis [J]. Rock and soil mechanics (2004,
25(Supplement): 121125)
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Experimental research for the wetting characteristics of compacted loess

Wei-bing Zhang
College of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, Ning xia University in China. Yin Chuan city, China
Engineering Research Center Funded by Ministry of Education for Effective Utilization of modern agricultural water
resources in arid areas of Ning xa,in China. Yin Chuan city, China

ABSTRACT: In order to study the mechanism of roadbed soil impacted by water and recognize the relationship
among the wetting deformation of loess with the water content, density, confining pressure and the wetting head,
the test for characteristics of compacted loess using laboratory tri-axial experiments has been carried out. The
results from the test reveal that: Under some certain initial and confining pressure conditions, the wetting axial
strain of the soil rises with the difference of principal stress increasing during the wetting process, besides, once
the difference of principal stress exceeds a certain critical value, the wetting deformation markedly increase. The
critical pressure is related to the degree of compaction, water content and other factors; With the increasing of
the degree of compaction, the wetting axial deformation decreases due to the stable consolidation of soil. Whats
more, with the increasing of the degree of compaction, the corresponding start time of wetting deformation will
lag behind and the curve of wetting deformation become more steep incase of the smaller degree of compaction;
With the higher of the wetting head, the greater the rate of wetting and the more steep of wetting deformation
curve, within a certain range, the wetting axial strain reduce with the increasing of confining pressure, initial
water content and degree of compaction, also the curve of wetting axial strain is getting smoother.

Keywords: compacted loess; wetting deformation; triaxial slaking test

1 INSTRUCTION driving safety and the heavier would interrupt traffic.

IN China, the loess is widely distributed. Accord-
ing to the statistics, the distribution area of loess and
loess-like soil is about 650000 km2 and in which the
collapsible loess is about 60%. With the rapid develop-
ment of highway construction, not only appeared a lot
of foundations that pass through the collapsible loess
but also a large number of high embankment in loess
area appeared. In recent years, studies of special struc-
ture of highway in loess area revel that when the loess
embankment that the degree of compaction within the
range from 0.8 to 0.9 suffered from water immersion,
the deformation of which will increase rapidly in a
short period of time. It is similar to the characteristics
of the coarse-grained soil when wetted by water.
Ningxia is located in the western Loess Plateau of
China and the loess is widely distributed in its southern
mountain area. Where, the loess with coarse particle
size and its pore type is different from other areas of
the Loess Plateau, especially the high collapsible sen-
sitivity and strong self-weight collapsibility. Due to the
engineering properties of loess, especially with the role
of water, the road embankment will produce damages
such as excessive subsidence, slope erosion, spilling,
collapse and sliding. The occasional mistake occurred
during the process of design, construction, or main-
tenance would lead to ditch erosion, basal sinkhole,
foundation settlement, the lighter of which can affect
So, it is necessary to study the deformation charac-
teristics of compacted loess when it is encroached by
water, which can provide the reference for the design
and construction of road works in loess area.
2 DESIGN OF TEST
2.1 Preparation of test specimens
The soil samples for test comes from the southern
mountain area of Ningxia, the physical and mechani-
cal properties index of the soil is shown in Table 1. The
test specimens are prepared in different water content
including 10%, 12%, 16% and 19%, the corresponding
dry density of which from the compaction test respec-
tively is 1.15, 1.38, 1.56 and 1.06 g/cm3 , in addition,
all specimens are made by using static compressing
device.
2.2 Test method
The test worked on the fully automated tri-axial shear
instrument of type TSZ-3 controlled by strain, the sam-
ple size was 12.5 cm 6.18 cm. The wetting test is
carried out after consolidating with confining pres-
sure, during the wetting process; water is injected from
the bottom of the vent and exhausted at the top of the

405
Table 1. Physical and mechanical properties index of the
test soil.
Setting Unit Value
Natural density kN/m3 1.42
Water content % 9.52
Void ration 0.915
Limit of liquidity % 30.5
Limit of plasticity % 19.8
Figure 1. Wetting process of compacted loess by tri-axial
shear instrument of type TSZ-3.
specimen cap. That is, firstly, given a confining pres-
sure to make the sample fully consolidate to stability
and then make water immersion from the bottom of the
sample with a constant head till the produced wetting
deformation reaching a new steady state.
(1) Sample consolidation
Taken into account the practical construction
height and the influential depth of vehicle load on
common highway engineering, the confining pres-
sure of the test use three criteria such as 80,100
and 200 kPa. The stability criteria for axial strain
and volume transmission rate to meet the 0.01
mm/10 min.
(2) Sample wetting
When achieving the consolidation of stability in
a certain confining pressure, keep the water head
stable and start the wetting process. During the
time of test, the volume and the axial deforma-
tion of will be recorded at different times and the
moment of water exit also be marked. After reach-
ing the stability of the wetting deformation, stop
the injection and re-consolidate with preloading
stages. Here, the wetting head of water is taken as
10, 20 and 30 kPa respectively. Figure.1 shows the
changes of wetting process.
406
Figure 2. Curve of wetting deformation varies with the dif-
ferent wetting water head when water content of 12% and
confining pressure of 80 kPa.
3 ANALYSIS OF TEST RESULTS
3.1 The relationship between the wetting axial
strains and the wetting water head
The curve of wetting deformation varies with the dif-
ferent wetting water head is shown in Figure 2, which
is gained under the conditions of confining pressure
is stabled at 80 kPa and water content is 12%. it is
clearly revealed that with the increase of the wetting
water head, curve of wetting deformation becomes
more steep, that is the higher the wetting water head,
the greater the wetting rate and the greater the wetting
deformation. Since the higher water head will gen-
erate the higher pressure, thus the rate of the water
enters the soil will increase and so does the wetting
deformation. In addition, under the conditions of the
different wetting water head, the corresponding time
to achieve wetting stability also increases with the
increasing wetting water head respectively.
3.2 The relationship between the wetting axial
strains and the confining pressure
Curve of wetting deformation varies with the differ-
ent confining pressure when water content is 12% and
wetting water head is 10 kPa is shown in Figure 3 .
From which, it can be received that the wetting
axial strains decreases with the increasing of con-
fining pressure, besides, the wetting deformation rate
significantly reduces in the larger confining pressure.
In addition, there is a critical pressure that starts the
wetting deformation of loess in the same water con-
tent. As shown in the curve, the axial strain amplitude
occurs with confining pressure from 100 kPa increas-
ing to 200 kPa is much smaller than that ranged from
80 kPa to 100 kPa. It is because that when the stress
level is higher and with the wetting process going, the
sample take on softening under the action of water
erosion such as angular broken, mutual slipping, the
gap increasing, fourthly which lead to the performance
of axial compression and lateral expansion, as results
which led to the volume expansion of the sample.
Figure 3. Curve of wetting deformation varies with the dif-
ferent confining pressure when water content of 12% and
wetting water head of 10 kPa.
3.3 The relationship between the axial wetting
strains with the different dry density and water
content
Curve in Figure 4 reveals the changes of wetting
deformation with the different water content and cor-
responding dry density when confining pressure of
80 kPa and wetting water head of 30 kPa. from which,
it is shown that under the conditions of the same
confining pressure, the more the initial water con-
tent close to the optimum water content (16.8%), the
smoother the wetting axial strain curve. For the case
as shown in Figure 4, the stable wetting axial strain
for the initial water content of 10% is approximately
20 times greater than that of 16% water content. This
is mainly because that with the increase of the ini-
tial water content, structure of soil is getting softening
and the frictional resistance between the soil particles
decrease, so, under the same confining pressure, the
specimen take on high consolidating performance and
become more closely. Furthermore, the wet soaking
process slow down and volume deformation reduce
accordingly.
In addition, the relationship between the wetting
axial strains and the dry density that reflected in
Figure 5 can be concluded that with the increase of
the degree of compaction, the wetting axial deforma-
tion is reduced accordingly after the specimen being
consolidated to stable condition, and with the increas-
ing the degree of compaction, The moment of starting
the wetting deformation would lag behind, the smaller
the degree of compaction, the more steep the curve
of wetting-process. Since the smaller degree of com-
paction, the greater the soil porosity, thus water is also
more easily enter the soil structure, as results, the soil
is more vulnerable to the role of water and destruc-
tion. On the contrary, for large density, the water is
more difficult to penetrate soil samples and disrupt
the dense soil structure, so the corresponding wetting
deformation is smaller.
407
Figure 4. Curve of wetting deformation varies with the dif-
ferent water content and dry density when confining pressure
of 80 kPa and wetting water head of 30 kPa.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Through analyzing the test results of the wetting char-
acteristics of the compacted loess from such factors
as water content, density, confining pressure and wet-
ting water head, the following specific conclusions are
drawn:
(1) Under some certain initial and water head condi-
tions, the wetting axial strains of the soil rises with
the difference of principal stress increasing during
the wetting process, besides, once the difference of
principal stress exceeds a certain critical pressure
value, the wetting deformation markedly increase.
(2) Within a certain range, the wetting axial strains
decrease with the increase of confining pres-
sure, initial water content, degree of compaction
and the corresponding curve of the wetting axial
deformation tends to smoother.
(3) Under the same confining pressure and wetting
water head, with the increases of compaction
degree, the corresponding start time of wetting
deformation lag behind and the curve of wetting
deformation become more steep in case of the
smaller degree of compaction.
(4) When keep the same confining pressure and initial
conditions, with the increase of the wetting water
head, curve of wetting deformation becomes more
steep, that is the higher the wetting water head, the
greater the wetting rate and the greater the wetting
deformation. In addition the corresponding time
to achieve wetting stability also increases with the
increasing wetting water head respectively.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the Natural Science
Foundation of Ningxia, China, Grant No. NZ1127, for
the financial support for this project.
REFERENCES
Peng- tao ZHU, Jin- qian DANG, Ke- kuo,YUAN, Wen- yi
ZHANG,2010. Experimental research on triaxial slacking
deformation of compacted loess. (In Chinese) Journal of
China Rural Water and Hydropower, Nov. 2010: 104106.
LimY.Y., Miller G.A., 2004. Wetting-induced compression of
compacted Oklahoma soils. Journal of Geotechnical and
Geoenvironmental Engineering. 130 (10): 10141023.
Hong-liang DENG, Jin-kuan YIN, Xiang-wen XIE,
Yu-song GUO, 2005. Study on distortion characteristics
408
of unsaturated loess in Ningxia when inundation
(In Chinese). Journal of Rock and soil Mechanics. Vol.26
(supp.): 98104.
XIONG Bing, HU Xiao ming, 2007.The triaxial test
study of loess wetting properties (In Chinese). Journal of
Railway Engineering Society. pp.: 2327.
TAN Yun-zhi, KONG Ling-wei, GUO Ai-guo, WAN Zhi,
2011.Experimental study on wetting deformation of com-
pacted laterite (In Chinese). Chinese Journal of Geotech-
nical Engineering. 33(3): 483488
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

The application of the analytical recursion scheme method

on soft ground sites

Qi Jingjing, You Shaoyan & Yin Zhiqing

Shengli Oilfiedl Technology Inspection Center, SINOPEC; Shandong Dongying, China

Li Dahua
Tianjin Seismological Bureau, Tianjing, China

ABSTRACT: Many earthquake disasters show that the disasters from soft ground are severer than hard layer.
Thinking of the non-linear characteristics of soft layer, the analytical recursion scheme method of non-linear
seismic response analysis is brought forward. This method is introduced into solving the ground response
problem. Combined with an engineering case of electrical plant in soft ground, the seismic response is analyzed
with several methods and the predictions of earthquake ground motion parameters are studied. The equivalent
linear method and analytical recursion scheme method are both adopted. Compare the results above with those
of criteria, it is showed that the results from equivalent linear method exist some errors and the results from
analytical recursion scheme method are close to the fact.

Keywords: damage velocity, compressive strength degradation, freeze-thaw cycles, preloading level

1 GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS equivalent method, analytical recursion scheme

China is a country prone to earthquake disasters.
The earthquake caused many building to collapse and
claimed thousands of lives. Previous earthquakes have
demonstrated that the disasters from soft ground are
severer than hard layer. Several serious earthquakes in
recent years have caused great damage. And the effects
of soft ground on seismic ground motion have drawn
more attention.
Since the 1960s, many scholars have studied the
ground seismic response analysis with elastic fre-
quency domain method, time domain method, equiv-
alent linear method, etc( Singh & Sukhmander, 1994;
Singhal, 1996; Li et al, 2001; Bo et al, 2003). But,
generally speaking, we have got few achievements
in numerical calculation methods of the soft ground
seismic response analysis. However, many regions of
China are in soft ground zone. For example theYangtze
River delta area, Pearl River delta area, and the Yellow
River delta area. So it is necessary to study the seis-
mic response analysis methods of soft ground. And the
achievements will have practical value on the seismic
response analysis.
Based on the analysis of the ground seismic
response analysis methods at present, a new ground
seismic response analysis method applicable to soft
ground is advanced in this paper. And the strong
nonlinear character is concerned in the new method,
which is named analytical recursion scheme method.
Then with a practical engineering, the results of the
method and the guideline method are compared and
verified. And the applicability of the analytical recur-
sion scheme method in the soft ground is proved.
2 THE GROUND SEISMIC RESPONSE
ANALYSIS METHODS AT PRESENT
The soft ground is highly nonlinear. Because of the
nonlinear dynamic response of the soft ground, it is
difficult to get the exact solution in the ground seis-
mic response analysis. Thus the frequency and time
domain methods are produced. The ground seismic
response analysis methods have well-researched by
many researchers. But the differences do still exist in
these methods. And how to concern the soil nonlinear
characteristic should still be studied.
The software ESE is most commonly used in the
ground seismic response analysis. The kernel of the
method is the solution of the equivalent linear method
in frequency domain. The nonlinear characteristic of
the soft ground can be considered by a group of
constant shear modulus and damping ratios in the
equivalent linear method. Many theories and exam-
ples have proved that the method is reasonable when
the nonlinear characteristic is small. The calculation
error of the equivalent linear method will increase with
the increasing nonlinear. So, the applicability of the
method above is being questioned in the analysis of
the stronger nonlinear soft ground.

409

Figure 1. The shear model of ground seismic response
analysis.
Figure 2. The ground mechanical model the analytical
recursion scheme method.
In view of the above situation, the analytical recur-
sion scheme method of the structural dynamic analysis
is introduced in this paper to analyze the soft ground
seismic response. Because of the less error, uncondi-
tional stability of the new method, the unequal time
step can be solved, and the calculation precision can
be improved. So the new method is more suitable to
soft ground seismic response analysis.
3 THE DEDUCTION OF THE ANALYTICAL
RECURSION SCHEME METHOD
3.1 One-dimension ground mechanical model
The ground mechanical model of engineering sites can
be simplified to one-dimension shear model as shown
in the figure.1. And the mechanical parameters of each
soil layer are as shown in figure.2.
410
3.2 The analytical recursion scheme method of the
ground seismic response analysis
The differential equations of motion of the multi-
freedom degrees structure under earthquake action are
as follows (Gan et al.2006):
In equation (1), M,C and K are mass, damping and
stiffness matrix of the structural system respectively.
x (t), x (t) and x(t) are the columns of the relative accel-
eration, velocity and displacement time-history. a(t) is
the column of the earthquake input time-history. Under
the action of a(t), the equation(1) can be solved by the
method of digital integration. The recursion scheme of
the method is as follows:
Where yi is initialization vector, yi+1 is solution vector,
Ai is transfer operator, Fi is load vector, Li is load
operator.
The recursion scheme of equation (2) has two
groups, the single-step method and two-step method.
And there are three kinds of solution states of the
single-step method, they are as follows:
There are three kinds of solution states of the two-step
method as follows:
The equation (1) is assumed to be linear elastic dur-
ing the interval of
ti = ti+1 ti . Then the equation (2)
obtained by the analytical method is named analytical
recursion scheme. And the Ai and Li in the equation
are named analytical recursion operator and analytical
load operator (Li, 1992).
The non-orthogonal damping problem can be
solved by the analytical recursion scheme method.And
the method is unconditional stable algorithm, which
can meet the convergent requirements.
The single-step method yi = {xi , x i }T can be used to
solve the problem.
It is necessary to assume the distribution patterns
of the time history input of the ground motion a(t)
to deduce the analytical load operator in equation (2).
The a(t) is assumed distributing in ti < t < ti+1 with
linear regular pattern. The formula is as follows:
 The analytical recursion scheme deduced is as
follows:
Based on the characteristic of the analytical recur-
sion scheme, it is assumed as follows:
3.3 The determination of the calculation
parameters
The ground mass is assumed by lump-mass method
in this paper. And the lump-mass can be represented
as follows according to the ground seismic response
model shown in figure.1 and figure.2.
The spring constants are as follows:
Where is ground mass density, h is the ground
thickness, G is the shear modulus.
So we get:
C can be considered in two parts, that is the C1 and C2
in figure.2.
[C1 ] is the damping matrix outside that is the damping
moving relative to the base of the particle. [C2 ] is the
damping matrix inside, that is the damping moving rel-
ative to the adjacent particle. And [C2 ] can be inferred
from the structural internal friction coefficients.
411
Table 1. Horizontal ground peak acceleration of exceeding
probability of 63%, 10%, 2%(g).
Exceeding probability 2% 10% 63%
within 50 years
Ground motion parameter 0.1000
zoning map(GB50011-2001)
Seismic design code for 0.225 0.113 0.036
buildings (GB50011-2001)
The equivalent linear method 0.136 0.107 0.054
The analytical recursion 0.138 0.103 0.038
scheme method
3.4 Calculation process
The specific calculation process is:
(1) Obtain the ground dynamic parameters and build
the string models between two adjacent layers.
(2) Enter the time-history method circulation of the
ground seismic response by analytical recursion
scheme method.
(3) Evaluate the corresponding value of the next step
according to the acceleration, velocity and dis-
placement of the previous step. And evaluate the
ground parameters, which will be used next time.
(4) Generate drawing. Draw the results of the dynamic
response in each layer. And draw the response
spectrum of the surface soil after the plugging of
the response spectrum program.
The analytical recursion scheme method of the
ground seismic response is an integral method of time
domain. By writing the corresponding calculation pro-
gram with MATLAB software, the ground seismic
response analysis can be realized. This will reduce the
work of the amount of the work greatly.
The specific procedure of the programming is as
figure.3.
4 THE COMPARASION OF SOFT GROUND
SEISMIC RESPONSE ANALYSIS METHODS
In order to comparatively analyze the calculation
results of the different ground seismic response analy-
sis method, the results of the seismic risk analysis of a
project is provided in this paper.And the comparatively
study is based on the project.
The engineering site is located on the yellow river
delta. And the landform is unitary, the topography
is smooth, and the site soil is soft. The same one-
dimensional ground mechanic model is used in calcu-
lation with different methods. The comparative results
are as follows.
We can see from the above comparison of the data:
(1) The seismic peak ground acceleration obtained
from the analytical recursion scheme method is
similar to the results of the equivalent linear
method. And the results from the above two meth-
ods are close to the results of the codes during
the small and moderate earthquakes. However the
 (3) The characteristic periods obtained from the
equivalent linear method differ considerably with
the code results. The characteristic period from
the equivalent linear method is nearly two seconds
during the big earthquakes.
(4) The soft ground will get into nonlinear stage under
the influence of big earthquakes. Then the increas-
ing trend of the peak acceleration becomes slower,
and the characteristic period of the response spec-
trum becomes longer. The results obtained from
the analytical recursion scheme method reflect
the features. From the above analysis, the results
obtained from the analytical recursion scheme
method are more adapt to the soft ground.

5 CONCLUSION

As can be seen from the above analysis, the analytical

recursion scheme method is more adapt to the soft
ground with long-term characteristics.
(1) The analytical recursion scheme method has
highly precision. Few assumption is introduced
in the calculation of the integral, so small errors
is introduced in the results, and the results is
unconditional stable.
(2) The nonlinear characteristics of the soil parame-
ters are alternated equivalently in the equivalent
linear method. So the results are far from being
accurate and can not reflect the whole process of
Figure 3. The figure of the calculation procedure. the dynamic response. Especially in the case the
nonlinear characteristic of the soil is intense.
(3) The results of equivalent linear method are related
Table 2. Characteristic period of horizontal response spec- to the selection of the initial values of the soil
trum of exceeding probability of 63%, 10%, 2%(s). parameters. The different initial values will result
in the different calculation results. However, there
Exceeding probability 2% 10% 63% is no need to set the initial values in analytical
within 50 years recursion scheme method, and the result is unique.
Ground motion parameter 0.55 (4) It is better to apply the analytical recursion scheme
zoning map(GB50011-2001) method on the analysis of the soft ground seis-
Seismic design code for 0.55 0.55 0.55 mic response spectrum. Of course, it is necessary
buildings (GB50011-2001)
to further study some problems of the analytical
The equivalent linear method 1.99 1.30 0.17
The analytical recursion 0.94 0.56 0.37 recursion scheme method, for example the selec-
scheme method tion of the discrete grids, the influence of the
feedback damping, and the influence of the soil
nonlinear characteristics.

results from the above two methods are less than

the code results during the big earthquakes.
(2) From the comparison data of the characteristic
period of the response spectrum, we can see that
the results of the analytical recursion scheme
method differ considerably from the results of
the equivalent linear method. The results of the
analytical recursion scheme method are similar
to the code results during the small and moder-
ate earthquakes. However the above results differ
considerably during the big earthquakes.
REFERENCES
[1] Ajay Singha (1996). Method for Probabilistic Eval-
uation of Seismic Structural Damage, Journal of
structural engineering, Vol122, No.12, pp1459
1465.
[2] Bo J S, Liu X L, Li S Y(2003). Some progress of
study on the effect of site conditions on ground
motion. World earthquake engineering. Vol 19, No2,
pp1115.

412
[3] Gan Y, Li F, Li D H(2006). Analytical recur-
sion scheme method of the nonlinear earth-
quake response analysis of one dimension soil
layer, Journal of Jilin University, Vol 36, No.4,
pp 631635.
[4] Li D H (1992). A digital algorithur analytical recur-
sion scheme method for the earthquake response
problem. Earthquake Engineering and Engineering
Vibration, Vol 12, No 3, pp 4854.
413
[5] Li X J, Peng Q (2001). Calculation and analysis
of earthquake ground motion parameters for dif-
ferent site categories. Earthquake engineering and
engineering vibration. Vol 21, No 1, pp 2936.
[6] Singh, Sukhmander (1994). Response of clay liner to
seismic loading. Journal of Resource Management
and Technology, Vol22, No3, pp166.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Theoretical model for the time prediction of landslides based on

the monitoring data

X.H. Xu & H.Q. Yang

School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University, China Key Laboratory of New Technology for Construction of
Cities in Mountain Area, Ministry of Education, Chongqing University, China

ABSTRACT: Time prediction for landslide is key to the disaster prevention and mitigation, but most analysis
used in engineering practice are based on qualitative approaches. On the basis of in-situ displacement monitoring
date, a theoretical model, in which the rheological behaviors of medium on sliding surface are taken into account,
are proposed. The occurrence of landslide is predicted by using the cusp catastrophe theory. To reflect the time-
varied progress of landslides, the mediums of on the sliding surface are divided into two separated part, one is
shear section, while the other is rheology section. It is revealed that the catastrophe properties of landslide rely on
the stiffness ratio of mediums between shear and rheology section on sliding surface. By adopting the bifurcation
set equation of cusp catastrophe theory, the formulae to predict the start time of landslide, are deduced. Moreover,
the formulae of sliding velocity are obtained by using energy transformation theory. Therefore, both the time and
intensity of landslide can be predicted in present model. Finally, numerical example shows that present model
is convenient for engineering application.

Keywords: Landslides, Catastrophe theory, Kelvin-Voigt rheological model, Time prediction

1 INTRODUCTION

The problem of landslide is one of the most com-

mon in the field of geotechnical engineering and a
segment of geomechanics that has been widely stud-
ied in the previous literature. It is important from
both the theoretical and practical point of view to
study the mechanism of landslides and time prediction
methods[13] .
Catastrophe theory is a mathematical technique,
which contains discontinuous and sudden changes of
the state parameters[48] . Obviously, a landslide is a
discontinuous catastrophe phenomenon. Therefore, it
is appropriate to apply catastrophe theory to study Figure 1. Sketch map of landslides.
landslides. Great efforts have been made to study
the space prediction of landslides. For example, Qin theory, the calculation formula to predict the slid-
et al.[9,10] established a space prediction model of ing time is established. Finally, in terms of geological
slip-buckling slope; Xiao et al.[11] proposed a space information and monitoring data of actual rock engi-
prediction model of 2D high-speed landslide based on neering, the present theoretical model is applied to
the catastrophe theory. The space prediction model of determine the time of the landslide.
landslides only forecasts the space location of land-
slides, which does not forecast the time of landslides.
In order to reduce damages induced by landslides, it 2 CONSTITUTIVE RELATIONSHIP OF
is important to research the time prediction model of MEDIUMS ON THE SLIDING SURFACE
landslides. So far, the time prediction of landslides is
not established well. A two-dimensional model of landslide is shown in
Therefore, in this paper, a time prediction model of Fig. 1, where AC is the sliding surface. To simplify
landslide is developed based on the Kelvin-Voigt rhe- the analysis, it is assumed that the sliding surface is
ological properties of mediums and monitoring data. composed of only two kinds of media with different
On the basis of the bifurcation set of cusp catastrophe mechanical properties, one (medium 1) is elasto-brittle

415
 where a = G r , b = G , c = G r /G0 .
Eq. (6) can be simplified as follows

Solving Eq.(7), we have

Figure 2. Kelvin-Voigt rheological.

and the other (medium 2) has a rheology property, as

shown in Fig. 1. M is mass of rock mass, respectively,
Mw is mass of water existing in the sliding body. The
inclination of sliding surface is .
The relationship between load and displacement in
medium 1 (elasto-brittle) is expressed as
where B is integral constants defined by Eq. (5).
Substituting Eq. (4) into Eq. (8), the following
expression can be obtained as

where is initial stiffness of medium 1, uc is the

displacement value at the peak value of the stress.
It is assumed that medium 2 has the Kelvin-Voigt
rheological properties, as shown in Fig. 2.

Eq. (2) can be rewritten as follows[12]

Substituting Eq.(5) into Eq.(9), one has

where u is displacement which is parallel to sliding

surface in medium 2, G = G1 G2 /(G1 + G2 ), r = 1 /
G2 , G0 = G1 . G is long-term stiffness of medium 2,
For the system depicted in Fig. 1, the overall poten-
G0 is instantaneous stiffness of medium 2, r is the
tial energy is equal to the sum of the strain energy and
relaxation time of medium 2.
potential energy, i.e.
It is assumed that the sliding body is rigid one,
the displacement of BC and AB are the same. The
relationship between displacement u and time t can
be obtained by fitting the monitoring data. The rela-
tionship between displacement u and time t can be Let gradu E = 0, and the equilibrium surface equa-
expressed as follows. tion can be expressed as

where, u(0) is the initial displacement when t = 0, can d2R

At cusp, gradu [gradu (gradu E)] = 0, then, du2
+
be obtained by fitting the monitoring data. d 2 f (u)
du2
= 0, can be derived, i.e.

3 CONDITION OF EQUILIBRIUM

When t = 0, it is assumed that the displacement of

medium1 and medium 2 are the same. Then, we have
From Eq. (13), the following expression can be
defined by

Eq. (3) can be rewritten as follows

where uc is the displacement value at the peak value

of the stress.

416
 Making Taylor series expansion with respect to u1
for Eq. (12). Discarding all the terms but the first
three, the following can be obtained as
Where,
In order to research catastrophe model of land-
slide, a dimensionless variable is introduced. The
dimensional variable is expressed as
Substitution of Eq. (16) into Eq. (15), the standard
cusp catastrophe model of the equilibrium surface can
be rewritten as follows
where
417
4 PREDICTION OF SLIDING TIME
The cusp catastrophe described by Eq. (17), which con-
tains fold or pleat is illustrated in Fig. 3, in which axes
of three-dimensional space are the control parameters
p,q and state parameter x. The action over the equi-
librium surface may lead to a smooth or catastrophic
movement.
Eq.(17) may be satisfied, i.e., a catastrophe prob-
ably occurs. Thus, in terms of p 0, the necessary
condition of instability is
It is known from Eq.(21) that the necessary con-
dition of catastrophe is determined by the stiffness
ratio k. In other words, the occurrence of landslides are
related to the properties of mechanical system itself.
According to cusp catastrophe theory, the bifurca-
tion set of Eq. (17) can be written as
When p = 0, three Roots of Eq. (17) is x1 = x2 = x3 = 0.
When p < 0, three roots of Eq. (17) is determined
by
When the state parameters x catastrophically varied,
one has
Substituting Eqs. (18), (19) and (20) into Eq. (22),
the following can be expressed as
It is found that there only has one variablet in Eq.
(25). If Eq. (4) can be determined, the sliding time of
landslide can be predicted by Eq. (25).
 Figure 4. Profile of landslides.
Figure 3. Equilibrium surface of Cusp catastrophe model.
In order to analyze the velocity of sliding, a dimen-
5 FORMULAE OF DEFORMATION sionless variable V is introduced. The dimensionless
variable V can be expressed as
Making Taylor series expansion with respect to u1 for
Eq. (11), discarding all the terms but the first four. Eq.
(11) can be rewritten as

where V = x4 + Ax2 + Qx + F.
According to Eq. (23), we have x1 = 2x2 . Energy
difference at catastrophe point are defined as follows

where,

The magnitude of energy release at catastrophe

point can be obtained as

Velocity V0 at catastrophe point are derived as

6 ENGINEERING APPLICATION
By introducing dimensionless variable x, Eq. (26) A profile of landslides is depicted in Fig. 4. M and
can be simplified as follows Mw are equal to 104 kg and 102 kg, respectively. The
inclination of sliding surface is = 60 . The displace-
ment value at the peak point of the stress is uc = 2 m.
When t = 0, the initial displacement is u0 = 0.025 m.
For medium on the slipping surface, = 3.2 GPa,
where G1 = 0.43 GPa, G2 = 0.3739 GPa, = 3.739 MPas.
According to the monitoring data depicted in Fig. 5,
the relationship between displacement u and time t can
be determined as follows

u = 3 1037 t 5 2 1029 t 4 + 5 1022 t 3

5 1015 t 2 + 3 108 t + 0.025

where the units of time and displacement are second

and meter, respectively.

418

Figure 5. Monitoring data of displacement.
It is found that the slope satisfy the necessary con-
dition of catastrophe. According to Eq. (25), Eq. (31)
and Eq. (32), the slope will slide after 501.86 days,
and the initial velocity is V0 = 2.93858 m/s.
7 CONCLUSIONS
Based on catastrophe theory and monitoring data, a
time prediction model of landslide is established, in
which the rheological behaviors of medium on slid-
ing surface are taken into account. It is found that the
catastrophe properties of landslide are controlled by
the stiffness ratio of mediums of shear section to those
of rheology section on sliding surface. In terms of the
bifurcation set of cusp catastrophe theory, a calcula-
tion formula to predict the sliding time is established.
Meanwhile, the calculation formula of sliding velocity
is obtained by using energy transformation theory.
419
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was financially supported by the National
Natural Science Foundation (51108313) the Funda-
mental Research Funds for the Central Universities
and the visiting scholar foundation of key laboratory
of new technology for construction of cities in
mountain area in Chongqing University.
REFERENCES
X. ZhangJ Geotech.Eng, ASCE, 114, 6 (1988)
R. L. Michalowski, Geotech, 45, 2 (1995)
D. Y. Zhu, Geotech, 26, 15 (2003)
P. T. Saunders, Editor, Introduction to catastrophe theory.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1980).
J. T. Li, P Cao. Appl Math Mech-Engl, 26, 8 (2005).
Y. Pan, Y. Zhang, G. M. Yu, Appl Math Mech-Engl, 27, 6
(2006).
Y. G. Fang, Mech and Practice. 26, 4 (2004).
P. Gao, N. S. Ai, J Eng Geology, 2, 4 (1994).
S. Q. Qin, Chinese J Rock Mech Eng, 19, 4 (2000).
S. Q. Qin, Chinese J Geotech Eng. 27, 11 (2005).
S. X. Xiao, X. P. Zhou, H. Q. Yang, Chinese J Rock Mech
Eng. 25,3 (2006).
Z. H. Xu, X. H. Xu, Rock Soil Mech. 21,1 (2000).
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Throws and blasting vibration control of the channel blasting

near the tunnel entrance

Ning Fang
Department of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China

ABSTRACT: We discussed how to control the throws and blasting vibration of the groove excavation blasting
near the entrance of a newly build tunnel. Since the minimum distance between the groove and the tunnel is
only 14 m, we should strictly control the blasting vibration and throws while constructing. To reduce the blasting
vibration by using Ignition in borehole sequence technique and controlling the maximum blasting charge, and to
control the throws by choosing the sensible net parameters, specific charge and blocking length. The parameter
of blasting holes is 2m 2 m, the specific charge is 0.4 kg/m3 , and the stem length is not less than 3.5 m. Before
blasting we ignited some holes as testing and when blasting we monitored the blasting vibration. Its said by the
monitor that the blasting achieved the anticipated effect. There was no throws and the rock failure result was
good.

Keywords: Channel excavation; blasting vibration; donators network; Ignition in borehole sequence

1 PROJECT INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of project

Huashan Road which was under constructing was
an important traffic connection between Science and
Technology Park and the downtown. The Tunnel of
Baogai Hill is a two-way three-lane section tunnel
and the tunnel excavation has done already. Accord-
ing to the design, there is an underground passage to
be built on the south side near the tunnel across the
road.

Figure 1. Surroundings of blasting area.

1.2 Channel blasting project overview
The excavation section of the underground passage is
inverted trapezoidal as bottom width 7.6 m, top width
11.1 m, depth 7.0 m and passage length 80 m.
So this project belongs to Channel blasting. On the
surface of the blasting area there was 25 cm thick con-
crete pavement, and its argillaceous siltstone under.
The centre line of excavation area was 76 skew
with the centre line of the road. The nearest dis-
tance between the excavation area and the tunnel was
14 m; and on the northeast there was a six-story office
building of brick and concrete structure. The blast-
ing environment (as shown in figure 1) was complex.
We should ensure that the tunnel and the office build-
ing must be safe when blasting. The duration was
15 days.
2 BLASTING DESIGN
2.1 Blasting program
To reduce time of constructing, we took the full face
cutting program with long hole blasting. Channel
blasting is different from bench blasting in strip mine.
There was less free face, bigger specific charge and
bigger vibration. We need to control the blasting vibra-
tion and throws in this complex environment. In this
project, we used small spacing pattern parameter to
control the explosive payload of each hole and the stem
length. Then, we applied ignition in borehole sequence
technology to control the maximum charge blasting at
the same time, so that we could reduce throws and
diminish the blasting vibration.

421

Figure 2. Scheme of blasting holes arrangement.
To insure the designed parameters was correct and
the constructions surrounded should be safety, we need
testing explosion. At the tunnel front, we put blast-
ing vibration testing equipment to get the data of the
maximum charge blasting at the same time.
2.2 Blasting design
The borehole diameter was 90 mm, and the hole was
vertical. As the hardness of the rock was low, the extra-
deep took 0.5 m would be enough, so the drilling depth
was 7.5 m. To avoid throws the hole need enough stem
length. When the drilling depth was sure and the stem
length was limited, we must use small spacing pattern
parameters for good blasting effect. The pitch-row and
array pitch are both 2 m, so there are 5 holes in each
row, and 41 rows and 205 holes in total. The figure 2
was the scheme of blasting holes arrangement.
The specific charge was related to rock property and
the size of the passage (channel) section. The specific
charge becomes bigger when the rock becomes harder.
The ratio n was the depth h and the bottom width of
the channel was b, n = h/b, when n becomes bigger,
the clamp force of the rock besides becomes stronger,
and the specific charge becomes bigger. In this blasting
case the rock was less hard and the ratio n almost equal
1, and we just need standing shot, so according to the
engineering experience the specific charge we took
0.4 kg/m3 . In each row the middle hole ignited first, the
specific charge we took 0.5 kg/m3 for the middle holes,
because of the clamp force. So the charge of each hole
was 12.5 kg, besides of the middle holes, the charge
of the middle holes are 15 kg. There was only 32 mm
422
Figure 3. Scheme of detonating network.
Table 1. Delay time of all kinds of donators.
Type ms3 ms5 ms7 ms9 ms11
Delay time/ms 50 110 200 310 460
diameter emulsion explosive in storehouse that could
be used. The loaded length was 3.2 m3.5 m when
took dense charge constitution, and the stem length
would not less than 3.5 m. The enough stem length
and good quality of stem of holes would insure that
there would be no throws in blasting.
3 DETONATING NETWORK
To reduce blasting vibration and insure safety, ignition
in borehole sequence by millisecond delay technology
was applied in this project. It was blasting from east
to west row by row and the middle hole ignited first
in each row, so that there would be free face for holes
nearby. Limited by the detonators, the detonating net-
work was plastic detonators network ignited by electric
detonators. The figure 3 was the scheme of detonating
network.
From the figure below (figure 3), we could see that
there are 5 holes in each row and the 5 holes had been
used different delay time donators. Between every row
ms3 donators were been used as blasting deliver.
In the figure 3 ms3 means the type of donators, the
delay time of ms3 type donators is 50 ms. Kinds of
donators delay time we can find in the table 1 above.
4 TESTING EXPLOSION
We ignited 5 rows of holes to examine the designed
parameters. There was 6 testing points, which was put
to get the blasting vibration data, in the tunnel and near
the residents house.
4.1 The result and analysis of testing explosion
After the testing explosion, the ground surface rose
up about 0.7 m, and there was no throws. The rocks
breaking effect was good for excavation.
In channel blasting whether there is holes ignited
before and provide free face for the rest holes ignited
later is the key to a successful channel blasting. There

Figure 4. Scheme of blast vibration wave.
were 3 free faces provided by the holes in front and
holes nearby before the holes on the both sides of the
channel had been ignited. And the stem length was
longer than pitch-row, according to the line of least
resistance theory, so the power at horizontal direc-
tion is stronger than the power at vertical direction.
That mean the throws would be controlled effica-
ciously. To choose a reasonable delay time for row
could make the best use of the power after rocks crush,
and increase the collision frequency between rocks.
Therefore, there would be better blasting fragment.
According to the rock breaking mechanism the more
free face, the better blasting result. This kind of blast-
ing design used a lower specific charge and could have
a better rock breaking result.
4.2 The result and analysis of testing explosion
Figure 4 was the typical vibration wave gotten from
the testing point in the tunnel.
The characteristics of blasting vibration we can
analyzed from three areas, thats amplitude, frequency
spectrum and the last time of vibration. Amplitude
is the symbol of the blasting vibration strength. Fre-
quency spectrum is the relationship between amplitude
and frequency. The frequency spectrum of blasting
vibration is continuous. It has all kinds of vibration
with different frequency and different amplitude. The
frequency with the maximum amplitude is called main
frequency. The safety of the blasting lies on differ-
ent combination of the amplitude, frequency spectrum
and the last time of vibration. The rocks in blasting
area have low hardness and the amplitude of blasting
vibration is relatively higher and the main frequency
is relatively lower.
From figure 4 we could see the vibration wave
spread almost uniform and there was few big wave
crests. That mean the detonators and the network
was designed reasonable, and the ignition in bore-
hole sequence technology had effect on decreasing
the blasting vibration. From the vibration report we
know that the maximum vibration velocity in the tun-
nel was 3.21 cm/s, and the maximum vibration velocity
near the residents house was 1.484.2 cm/s. According
to the Safety Specification for Blasting (GB6722-
2003), the safety vibration velocity for traffic tunnels
is 1020 cm/s, and the safety vibration velocity for
brick and concrete structure building is 2.03.0 cm/s.
The main frequency gotten from the vibration monitor
423
was 36.3 Hz, as some reports said, the natural vibra-
tion frequency of brick and concrete structure building
which is lower than 6 floors is 39 Hz.
So the blasting vibration would not lead the resi-
dentshouse resonating. The safety vibration standards
for tunnel in Safety Specification for Blasting only
consider the vibration velocity, and it was safety that
the maximum vibration velocity of points in tunnel or
near the residents house was lower than the safety
standards. So, in this project the blasting vibration
was controlled in a safety range.
5 THE BLASTING EFFECT AND
CONCLUSIONS
After 12 days of constructing, the channel was exca-
vated on time. In this channel blasting there was no
throws and the rock breaking result was good.
Through this successful channel blasting, we got
some experiences.
First, in channel blasting the specific charge is
related to the rocks lithology and the sections size
of channel. For the middle weak rock, the specific
charge chosen by 0.5 kg/m3 will be reasonable when
the section wide is near to section deep. If section deep
becomes deeper the specific charge should be higher
so that there could be a good blasting effect.
Second, less pitch and array pitch and reasonable
stem length and good quality of stem are the guarantees
to avoid throws.
Third, applying ignition in borehole sequence tech-
nology with small spacing pattern parameters can not
only control the maximum blasting charge at the same
time but also can reduce the blasting vibration and
increase the effective power ratio of explosive and lead
to a good blasting effect.
Four, to apply ignition in borehole sequence tech-
nology of V type can make full use of the power of
explosive material and reduce the charge of explosive
material and blasting vibration.
Five, to apply ignition in borehole sequence tech-
nology of V type can reduce the cost for the whole
channel blasting project and improve the economic
benefit.
REFERENCES
Wei, Wang. 2009. Channel Blasting Applied Ignition in Bore-
hole Sequence Technology, Modern Mining 12(4):1924.
Zhihui, Li. & Jie, Gong. 2009. Study and Application of
Ignition in Borehole Sequence Technology. Metal Mine
11(3):4042.
Yongping, Li. & Long, Wang. 2009. Ignition in Bore-
hole Sequence Technology of V Type Applied in Kun-
yang Phosphorite Mine. Open Pit Mining Technology
4(2):2433.
Shengquan, Mo. & Xiankui, Liao. 2002. Defect and Improve-
ment of the Safety Criterion of Blasting Vibration. Blast-
ing and Impact, 25(2):205 207.
Daiyu, Xiong. & Yicheng, Gu. 2002. New Development of
Rock Blasting Theory and Technology, Beijing, Metallur-
gical Industry.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Considerations on technical and administrative management for peer review

of preliminary design of bracing and retaining structure for foundation pit
excavation protection in Guangzhou region

Jian Ye Zheng
The Office of Guangzhou Construction Science and Technology Committee, Guangzhou, China

ABSTRACT: Government functional department administratively managed peer review to preliminary design
of bracing and retaining structure for foundation pit excavation protection is a compliance control mea-
sure to guarantee fundamental design quality. Analysis to suggestions given by experts as reviewers helps
to know status quo of these designs quality. It shows frequently appeared suggestions in reviews of 2008
to 2011 charged by the author are mostly regarding to structural deficiencies. Civil engineers should have
been called to actually join in these design works. The peer review asks safety, relies on experiences, and
needs no cultural discussions. Officials responsible for management of the peer reviews will remind project
related people keep eye on nothing but solving engineering problems during the defense process. It is a
retrogression that using cultural or ideological meanings to cover engineering measures in order to avoid admin-
istrative management. Peer review cant take the place of internal audit that is the only way to increase design
quality.

Keywords: peer review; foundation pit excavation protection

1 INTRODUCTION 2 COMPLEXITY OF BOUNDARY

Peer review acts as a quality control mechanism. It
is a professional appraisal process used to assess
the design quality. Introductions of the technical and
administrative management of safety hearings for pre-
liminary design for bracing and retaining structure
of foundation pit excavation protection in Guangzhou
region are presented (Zheng, J.Y. & Hu, Z.F. 2012,
Zheng, J.Y. 2010). Summary of dilemmas of techni-
cal management (Zheng, J.Y. 2011) of peer reviews
and structural deficiencies shown in designs pointed
out by experts as reviewers (Fang, Y.Q. & Jiang,
S.T. 2004) are given these years. Here analysis to
technical and administrative management for author
charged peer reviews are made to find better solu-
tions for review administration by author who is a
technical official works for government functional
department of construction. Discussions on inherent
law of technical and administrative management of
peer review help to understand how difficult it is
to design or review or how far would the manage-
ment go to guarantee fundamental design quality.
The analysis on the management may ensure gov-
ernment functional department take overall control
on process of building construction for safety and
security.
CONDITIONS
If a design survives the peer review, the builders
license connected to the design will be issued by
government functional department of construction. In
a metropolis as Guangzhou, the boundary condition
of a foundation pit is scarcely easy for a designer
to consider. Designers need engineering experiences
to finish their job with this kind of complexity. The
system of peer review run by government functional
department involves a team of technical officials and
a pool of reviewers. 5, 7, or 9 reviewers and 1 official
will form a board of review to check on the design
and defense the designer to reach final opinions and
suggestions. Table 1 shows the total number of author
as a technical official charged peer reviews these
recent years. The numbers in Table 1 didnt include
metro facility or road/subway/electricity tunnel foun-
dation pits. They are for public buildings or apartment
buildings.
Difficulty of designing is caused by complex
boundary conditions (Zheng, J.Y. & Wu, A.L. 2011)
of foundation pit inside of influence range which is 3
times of foundation pit excavation depth.To a designer,
it is a happy thing to meet a project without difficult
boundary conditions. Figure 1 shows probabilities of

425
Table 1. Total number of author charged peer reviews.
Year 2008 2009 2010 2011
Peer reviewed designs 52 64 69 77
of bracing and
retaining structure
Figure 1. The probability of occurrence of author-charge
peer reviewed designs with easy boundary conditions.
occurrence of 4 kinds of happy things, or to say, easy
boundary conditions for design of bracing and retain-
ing structure for foundation pit excavation protection.
Here we define in Figure 1 and Figure 2:
where p is probability of occurrence of each easy
boundary condition for each year from 2008 to 2011,
n is number of an easy boundary condition appeared
in designs, t is total number of designs that the author
was responsible for their management of peer reviews
each of these years. We can get it through seeing
Figure 1 that complexity of boundary conditions ruins
designers expectation for easy works.
Especially, when there are metro facilities nearby
the location of foundation pit or cavern in the rock/soil
stratums under the foundation pit, expound consult
reports or subject designs are needed for protection
of subway or for reliability of bearing stratum. Figure
2 shows the chance of not confronting the subway pro-
tection or cavern treatment problems. We can say by
Figure 2 that it is fortunate these 2 problems are not
popular as we imaged.
3 TECHNICAL MANAGEMENT
From angle of technical management, we can summa-
rize up frequently appeared suggestions as reference
to future designs. Analyzing through the suggestions
given by reviewers, we can say some problems in
designs are so stubborn that reviewers have to point
them out as expert suggestions again and again.
426
Figure 2. The probability of occurrence of author-charge
peer reviewed designs of foundation pits without extra
consult reports or subject designs as premise of peer review.
Figure 3. The ratio of structural types of author-charge peer
reviewed designs in 2008 to 2011.
Figure 3 is about 6 generally used bracing and retain-
ing structure styles for public buildings or apartment
buildings out of the data of the peer reviews during
2008 to 2011. Here defines a parameter as in Figure 3:
Here ps is probability of occurrence of each bracing
and retaining structure type, ns is number of a structure
type appeared in designs, ts is total number of designs
that the author was responsible for peer reviews man-
agement each of these years. We can see the types are
limited to mature ones.
Table 2 gives most favorite bracing and retaining
structure types with number of times of their having
been seen in projects. Table 36 are about most fre-
quently pointed out defects in designs by reviewers.
The defects are mentioned through reviewers sug-
gestions offered to the author after defense between
designer and reviewer and discussion among review-
ers. The defects look like simple things but they
are not simple any more when they appear together.
And we can say the defects are nearly all struc-
tural problems, so, civil engineers are needed to join
in the work of design for foundation pit excavation
protection as demanded by Guangzhou Urban-Rural
Construction Commission at Notice of enhancement
Table 2. Number of times of structural types appeared in Table 4. The probability of appearing of frequently pointed
peer reviewed designs that author charged in 2008 to 2011. out problems over pile-brace system in author charged
peer-reviewed designs.
Structure type Total number
Problem Probability
Continuous wall 31
Pile-brace 95 Lack of consideration of 31%
Pre-stressed cable/anchor of piles 121 demolishing/substituting braces
in row system Design of section or reinforcement 31%
Combined bolting and shotcrete/Soil 129 is unreasonable for top/middle beam
nailing wall Wrong arrangement of plane layout 26%
Author charged peer reviewed designs 262 of bracing system or its members
of bracing and retaining structure Elevation of retaining and supporting system 24%
conflicts with floor system
Undefined pile embedded depth 16%
Omission of detail drawing of steel 13%
column and tie beam for bracing system
Table 3. The probability of appearing of frequently pointed Lack of analysis on stability of steel 11%
out problems over continuous wall in author charged peer- column for brace system
reviewed designs. Detail drawing of connection of brace to 8%
top/middle beam should have been offered
Problem Probability Lack of calculation of bracing system 8%
and members
Embedded depth should have been confirmed 26% Invalid of water cutting-off measures 6%
with double targets, or optimized between piles
Location, construction, waterproof of panel 19% Low reinforcement of pile 5%
joint should have been designed
conscientiously
Checking calculation of load bearing ability as 16%
main structure should have been carried out Table 5. The probability of appearing of frequently pointed
Insufficiency of reinforcement by retaining side 10% out problems over cable/anchor-pile system in author charged
Quality of water cutting off piles at retaining 10% peer-reviewed designs.
side would be affected by construction of
continuous wall Problem Probability
Quality of basement floor slabs would be 6%
affected when the floor concurrently Unsuitable cable/anchor distribution on sides 39%
take role as brace of exposed corner with effect of anchor
Lack of design of joint with middle beam 6% group, or unsuitable incident angle, or
Lack of monitoring during construction phase 6% vague surrounding environment
Inappropriate design value of pre-stress 27%
or uplift force
Measures for avoiding water/sand gush and 25%
hole collapse should have been taken
Improper value or lack of dual index control 21%
of management regulation of foundation pit project in for length
Guangzhou region, Construction Quality No. 1151 Number of cable/anchor should have been 19%
as an administrative regulation in 2010. increased to enhance stiffness of supporting
The probabilities in Table 36 are percentages as Unsuitable controlling value of deformation 8%
repetitive times of one kind of defect of a structure type Location of anchor head, or middle beam 7%
conflicts with floor system of main
per total number of designs with this structure type in structure at elevation
2008 to 2011. It is both funny and annoying that some Lack of axial force monitoring 6%
problems have been with high rate of appearance since
they first came out in these years.

4.1 Review asks safety only

4 ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT
Officials responsible for technical and administra-
tive management of peer reviews have to answer any
impromptu questions about the premise, procedure,
and results of them. It is a challenge for the officials
to deal with and react to the questions from every-
where along the process of review defense. A confused
official in front of people makes the situation more
complicated.
The first and last aim of the review is ensure structural
safety, neither saving money, nor innovating technolo-
gies, nor educating freshmen. Officials in charge with
the review will persuade review board to give up on
some fulfillments of social responsibilities such as
helping younger designers improving skills or promot-
ing younger designers making innovations. Usually
experts of review board feel themselves caught in a
dilemma that whatever they decide to do the conse-
quences will be depressing. Let the design pass the

427
Table 6. The probability of appearing of frequently pointed
out problems over combined bolting and shotcrete/soil nail-
ing wall in author charged peer-reviewed designs.
Problem Probability
Stiffness of retaining and supporting system 26%
should have been enhanced for better
deform control
Anchor group or exposed angles should 16%
have been avoided by adjusting plane layout
Anchor/nail short at length 14%
Steel tubular should have been insert into 11%
water cutting-off curtain
Measures should have been taken to prevent 9%
sand from rushing out of anchor/nail hole
Material of anchor/nail should have been 9%
reassigned
Unsuitable design value of anti-pullforce 4%
of anchor/nail
defense to survive the review or not, that is a prob-
lem. For example: (i) The designing is safe enough
but with too much redundancy. (ii) Designers bring
forth new ideas in design but the new ideas are under
disputing such as conception of supporting compo-
nents work with cracks. (iii) The designing is safe but
the drawings are coarse. Under these conditions, offi-
cials responsible for the review will break the dilemma.
Officials will say to the experts: please concentrate
on structural safety and security. That means keep the
only bottom line and ignore something. We all want
the design safe and sound but we admit sound is
expendable.
4.2 Review needs no cultural discussions
Review relies on experiences only. In geotechnical
projection, conception design check is based on expe-
riences of reviewers. In a peer review, experts of board
of review judge the quality of design based on their
experiences too. Experience doesnt come from hard
evidences and experts are not in a court room for law-
suits. It is difficult to prove the designs inadequate
because the designer may persist that the expertsexpe-
riences are insufficient on this project. It is a fighting
between experience and experience. Duty of Officials
is to protect the experts from bad attitude of other
project related people. Is that a truth that experiences
of a group superior to experiences of an individual?
Once a philosophical thinking discussion like this is
introduced to review process, an engineering review
will turn out to be a culturology conference. We know
ways to stay away from something such as finding
faulty in procedure to deny the result as lawyers do
in lawsuits, but we are engineers working together,
not lawyers defending each other. So using some cul-
tural or political way to avoid engineering assessment
is a backward methodology. Officials will remind the
project related people keep the eye on engineering and
do not scatter their attentions.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The author is trying to keep the whole thing in the right
track, not to predict results ahead of the defense and
discussion process. The analysis is for better future
management, not for taking control of something. But
we can say, the same suggestion to designs appear-
ing again and again reflects that external audit can
not take place of internal audit. It is internal audit
that increases design qualities, and, unfortunately, peer
reviews are not able to promote designers abilities.
There are tensions of conflicts for the officials to feel:
computerization technologies is highly developed but
skills of designers are not as available as we expect;
tight project schedules call for quick reviewing but
elaborate check on designs and their review procedures
needs time. A successful technical and administra-
tive management has to be a contradiction resolving
procedure without creating a new one.
6 DISCUSSIONS
Institutes or designers have their individual styles for
designing and designing defects. But in this paper
the institutes or designers names are covered up
with because the author wants to give out some gen-
eral information to show current situations. Nowadays
designing institutes used to neglect self-assessment
and dump traditional team spirits. Given the fact of
usual lack of external audit, we can say, using methods
to run away from being administratively peer reviewed
is a kind of retreating and an adventurism whichs loss
outweighs the gain.
REFERENCES
Zheng, J.Y. & Hu, Z.F. 2012. Deliberations on management of
peer review of preliminary design for retaining and pro-
tection of foundation pit excavation in Guangzhou: The
Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on elec-
tric technology and civil engineering, Zurich-Durnten:
Trans tech publications, pp. 30763079.
Zheng, J.Y. 2010. The influences of the non-stationary envi-
ronmental boundary condition on timbering design of
foundation pit. Municipal engineering technology, 28(3),
144146 (in Chinese).
Zheng, J.Y. 2011. Brief on scheme review management on
support design of foundation pit in Guangzhou. Municipal
engineering technology, 29(5), 137140 (in Chinese).
Fang,Y.Q. & Jiang, S.T. 2004. Status quo and prospect of tim-
bering system for retaining and protecting for foundation
pit excavation in Guangzhou region. Guangdong under-
ground structure. Beijing: China architecture & building
press, pp. 266272 (in Chinese).
Zheng, J.Y. & Wu, A.L. 2011. Considerations of technol-
ogy management for safety hearing to schematic design
of timbering system for retaining and protecting for
foundation pit excavation in Guangzhou region. Advanced
material research, 261(3), 13861392.
428
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Analysis on 3D surface crack transient propagation process

Lingli Guo
State key laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing, China

Robina H. C. Wong
Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

Liqiang Liu
State key laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing, China

Peng Yin
Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

ABSTRACT: Surface faults, which extend from ground surface to a finite depth, are one of the common
tectonic structures found on the earth surface. The mechanism of cracking from surface fault front differs
significantly from cracking from the idealized 2-D fault model, which assumes fault extending infinitely into
the earth crust. The crack emanating from pre-existing 3-D surface fault is still not fully understood. This paper
summarizes our latest endeavor in simulating crack growth from a pre-existing 3-D surface fault. There is a
stable period existed between the fully propagation and coalescence and sample failure, and the duration time is
several tens milliseconds. The coalescence of the bridge area occurs at the last stage and is a rapid process. The
crack initiation is discontinued or linear, but multi points initiate and combine each other random.

Keywords: 3D surface crack, coalescence, transient propagation, earthquake

1 INSTRUCTIONS surface fault. The problems were systematically inves-

Nature faults on the earth have limited length, limited
width and limited depth. The morphological charac-
ter is more similar with 3D surface crack model. Our
studies are focusing on the coalescence and the inter-
action between two faults, so two 3-D surface cracks
with different combination pattern model has been
selected to simulate the echelon fault state and earth-
quake deformation process. So we conduct 3-D surface
crack experiment with rock material, observe the strain
field and analyse the crack propagation of the two pre-
existing cracks. The experiment results can supply a
theoretical signature for predict the spatial type and
growth pattern of a fault.
Many experimental studies have been carried out
using a rock board with a penetrative fault (2D state),
to explain the corresponding growth phenomena of
2D single- or multi-faults under a uniaxial or biaxial
loading condition, and achieved meaningful results[1] .
Some experimental results on 3D fault propagation
have been analyzed previously[310] , but unfortunately,
not systematically continued. Recently, in the Rock
Mechanics Laboratory of The Hong Kong Polytechnic
University[1216] , a large number of the experiments
on 3D fault growth were carried out with samples,
including variety of real rocks, PMMA, resin, cement,
and gypsum samples, all containing a prefabricated 3D
tigated such as the change of growth angle with the
inclined angle (against principal compressive stress)
of fault, crack propagation patterns with the ratio (d/t)
of fault depth d and sample thickness t, and some other
corresponding problems. As d/t < 1/3, new crack pat-
terns mainly occur near the tips of a surface fault. It
is named as anti-wing crack, the growth direction of
which is opposite to that of a wing crack, and also ini-
tiation location is not at the fault tips. This is likely a
unique type of 3D surface fault rupture. These stud-
ies provide some foundational understanding on the
experimental studies on 3D fault growth to be more
deeply carried out. Because there have been differ-
ent research aims and different types of experimental
equipment, there is a great lack of reliable detailed
observation and analysis data related to rupture con-
formations, the propagation process itself, and the
deformation mechanisms existing in connection with
3D faults.
2 SAMPLE PREPARATION AND
OBSERVATION METHODS
2.1 Sample preparation
Experimental samples were made from Fangshan
granodiorite, two different pre-existing crack

429

Figure 1. Tested sample and strain gauges distribution.
combination model had been used with different load-
ing ways. The size of sample is 200 mm 135 mm
35 mm. An inclined fault of 30 from the long axis
direction was cut vertically in the sample surface using
a thin circle diamond blade. The fault length was 33
mm and its depth d was 10.5 mm. The bridge length
was 30 mm the bridge angle was 90 . The ratio of fault
depth to sample thickness is 0.3. (d/t = 0.3). The pre-
existing crack filled with plaster (Figure 1a, 1b). The
loading system used in sample A is a uniaxial conven-
tional load-control machine and the applied loading
rate of this study was at 0.1 KN/s.
2.2 Observational systems during testing
In this study, two sets of strain measurement systems
were used. One was a Multi-Channel Digital Strain
Gauge (MCDSG), another was the Digital Speckle
Correlation Method (DSCM). The MCDSG system
has higher sensitivity for direct measurement of the
deformation of a single point. For the DSCM sys-
tem, it based on the analysis of the digital white-light
images to achieve a higher spatial resolution from the
whole deformation field of the sample. The Multi-
Channel Digital Strain Gauge has 32 data channels,
an AD converter resolution of 16 Bit, a maximum
sampling frequency of 3400 Hz, and a strain record
resolution of not less than 1 . The high speed sys-
tem can supply more detail and transient information
during the process of crack propagation and coales-
cence. Depending on the purpose of study, different
patterns of strain gauge distribution were mounted
on the sample surface (Figure 1). For samples A, 8
strain gauges (size 2 mm 1 mm) and 6 group rect-
angular rosettes(include 3 strain gauges with size of
3 mm 2 mm) were pasted on the front surface of the
sample to study the strain field deformation of bridge
area and near the pre-existing cracks. 2 strain gauges
(size 60 mm 2 mm) were mounted on the both side
of the back surface of the sample to study the effect
of the fault on the deformation disturbance of the
back surface of the sample. 2 strain gauges (size
30 mm 2 mm) were mounted on the middle of the
back surface of the sample to study the effect of the
deformation disturbance from the surface crack.
Figure 2. The loading curve and the strain-time curves.
The deformation of the front surface (the surface
containing the pre-existing crack) was measured by
using the DSCM system. The DSCM system com-
prised a high resolution digital CCD camera with
which to capture the digital images on the sample sur-
face. The DSCM software was used to analyze the
captured digital deformation images. The CCD cam-
era had a spatial resolution of 1624 1236 pixels, a
gray-resolution of 12 bits and a maximum record rate
of 15 frames per second. The resolution of the corre-
sponding displacement was about 5 m, the calculated
strain resolution was about 50 . A variable speed
image acquisition was adjusted during testing, initially
from 1 frame per second, then to 15 frames per second
at the later stages.
3 EXPERIMENT RESULT ANALYSIS
3.1 Loading process and strain curves
According to the deformation characteristics of the
rock sample, the strain-time curves and loading curves
was showed as Figure 2. The symbol of + and
represent the tensile strain and compressive strain.
Strain value of each location changed linearly with
loading. The last stage of strain contained much defor-
mation and damaged information, so we enlarged the
last few second curves to show the crack propagation
process. The last 1 second strain data was showed as
Figure 5. The failure of strain gauges resulting from
crack growth on local surfaces has been showed clearly
in Figure 3. After increasing the strain rate sharply,
strain concentrated locally on some field and crack ini-
tiated gradually. Micro crack appeared at some area,
and these crack coalescence and propagated.
From Figure 3 we can see the strain value of chan-
nel 1 and channel 2 at the upper tip of the upper
pre-existing crack increased rapidly first, especially
channel 2 which state transformed compression to
tension. And then channel 13 in the middle of the
bridge area rapidly increased and tensile to damage,
that means the crack initiation occurred firstly at this
position. Channel 1 damaged sequentially. Channel 2
transformed tension to compression after 10 millisec-
onds and at the same time channel 8 compressed
increasingly. and then channel 12 at the bridge area
430

Figure 3. The strain-time curves at the last stage and the
gauges distribution.
Figure 4. The horizontal displacement field map from
DSCM.
tensiled to failure. The tensile damage of channel 12
resulted in the strain energy release at the lower tip of
the upper pre-existing crack(the strain value of channel
8, 9, 10 decreased sharply) and wing crack initiated.
Channel 9, 10 became to tensile and channel 8 com-
pressed once again. The value of the horizontal strain
gauge at the back surface increased rapidly and broke.
It revealed that the crack propagated to the back surface
and the propagation finished. After 20 milliseconds
stable period of strain field, the crack with coales-
cence started to slip with loading, and the strain values
of channel 8, 9 and 10 vibrated with the loading. The
slip sequence was: crack crossed channel 3 and arrived
channel 8, 9, 10 and made the strain release and then
went to channel 14 two milliseconds latter and up to
the position of channel 20 and went to the bottom
of the sample. The reason for strain vibration at the
bridge area with unloading is related with the frictional
slip. The figure showed an important information that
there was a stable period between crack propagation
and sample failure. This phenomenon had not been
observed and reportedly before. We can distinguish
crack propagation from overall failure by using the
super dynamic strain field observation system.
3.2 DSCM system observation results
T From DSCM system observation, the horizontal dis-
placement field map (Figure 4) further shows that the
motion of 3D surface crack activities, in the early stage,
is that top left part move to left and bottom right part
move to right morphologically. At the last stage, the
horizontal motion increases and the left part move to
left and the right part do not move at the bridge area.
This means that the state of bridge area is tensile and
the coalescence initiates at the last stage with high
speed.
431
Figure 5. The vertical displacement field map from DSCM.
Figure 6. Maximum shear strain filed map from DSCM.
Figure 7. The mean strain field map from DSCM.
The vertical displacement field map (Figure 5)
shows that the motion of 3D surface crack is that the
vertical displacement of the left part is larger than the
right part. Near the propagation, the state is shear at
the bridge area at the last stage with the right part dis-
placement rapidly, the horizontal motion increases and
the left part move to left and the right part do not move
at the bridge area. This also means that the coalescence
initiates at the last stage with high speed and finished
with shorten time.
The maximum shear strain field map (Figure 6) and
the mean strain field map (Figure 7) show that shear
strain concentrates on the pre-existing crack before
the sample failure. Until near failure, there is a shear
concentration field in the middle of the bridge area.
Response to the displacement field, this area moves to
left in horizon and shears vertically, and is shear and
tensor state. Contrast with strain observation, channel
13 in this area firstly damages. That means that the
coalescence initiates the middle of bridge area at the
last stage with high speed.
We can obtain that the tensile field of bridge area
appear 0.1 second before the sample failure and crack
initiation is a speed process and tensile-shear type
from DSCM system observation.
3.3 Transient strain field analysis
The maximum principal strain field and minimum
principal strain field rapidly accumulate within 2 sec-
onds before sample failure. Tension appears at the
right-top part of the sample intensely. In the outboard
of the upper pre-existing crack near the bridge area,

Figure 8. The maximum and minimum principle strain field
for sample A during the propagation. The top five pictures are
the maximum principle strain figures during the propagation
process. The bottom five pictures are the minimum principle
strain figures during the propagation process.
the strain state is compression(Figure 8). It means that
this model is mainly tension type. At the middle of the
bridge area, the location of the maximum principal
strain is also the position of the maximum principal
strain, it reveals that there is a intensely tension state
in this area with horizontally tension and vertically
compression and the crack initiation firstly appears
in this area.
4 CONCLUSION
Based on the experimental results and analysis we can
draw some conclusions as below: (1) There is a sta-
ble period existed between the fully propagation and
coalescence and sample failure, and the duration time
is several tens milliseconds. Contrasting with nature
earthquake, before an earthquake, there are some fore-
shocks and then calm and then earthquake occurs. (2)
The coalescence of the bridge area occurs at the last
stage and is a rapid process. (3) The crack initiation
is discontinued or linear, but multi points initiate and
combine each other random.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was funded by the National natural science
foundation of China (grant 41174046). The devel-
opment for the strain observation equipment was
supplied by The state key laboratory foundation of
China (LED-0909).
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Framework of DW I2 CAD/E system for deep foundation pit dewatering

J.X. Wang
Key Laboratory of Geotechnical and Underground Engineering of Ministry of Education, Tongji University,
Shanghai, China
Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

X.Y. Gu
Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

ABSTRACT: The framework of an integrated intelligent CAD system (DW I2 CAD/E) for dewatering design
is presented. The methods of intelligent design are discussed, the overall flow charts and data flow diagrams are
designed, and artificial neural network is introduced to realize the intelligent design in the system. The integration
of DW I2 CAD/E is characterized by system, method and knowledge. The basic design ideas of DW I2 CAD/E
include intelligent design, system integration, knowledge integration, interface integration, visualization inte-
gration and shared platform. It is composed with the modulus of project information, input, risk analysis, CAC,
CAI, CAD, CAE, output and management, which can be referred by similar systems.

Keywords: deep foundation pit; dewatering; integrated intelligent CAD; framework; overall flow charts; data
flow diagrams

1 INTRODUCTION the systems are not including partially penetrating well

Dewatering is often adopted to decline water table dur-
ing excavation of a deep foundation pit. Presently, the
designs of dewatering are performed mainly by hand-
drawing with CAD software. For the coupling between
partially penetrating wells and curtains is still not per-
fect, the designs often have multiple solutions and are
determined by experience. It is necessary to introduce
and develop intelligent CAD systems in the field.
Some knowledge-based systems were developed
for geotechnical engineering, such as SITECHAR
(Rehak et al. 1985), OMADSS (Sieh et al. 1985),
EXSEL (Asgian et al. 1988). More complex forms
of knowledge representation such as frame-based and
object-oriented systems were also developed. Artifi-
cial neural network (ANN) was introduced in the field
(Ohnishi & Soliman, 1995; Wang et al. 2002; Leea
et al. 2003; Wang et al. 2003; Ermini et al. 2005; Lu
2005; Zhang 2006; Kim & Kim 2008; Tsompanakis
et al. 2009; Gunaydina et al. 2010; Arel 2012). Intel-
ligent design is introduced in more and more domain
of geotechnical engineering. A decision support sys-
tem for dewatering systems selection DSSDSS was
developed. It was programmed with Visual Basic 6.0 to
select the most appropriate dewatering system. Multi-
attribute utility theory (MAUT) was introduced to
apply objective measurement to the main parameters
identified when selecting a dewatering system (Wang
et al. 2002). A system for dewatering was developed
with Visual Basic 6.0, in which fast and intellective
designs system were provided (Zhang 2006). However,
and intelligent design methods are not introduced, the
systems are not integrated and can only solve simple
problems.
In the paper, an integrated intelligent CAD system
(DW I2 CAD/E) serving for the whole process of dewa-
tering design is presented. The main framework of
DW I2 CAD/E is discussed, the methods of intelligent
design are discussed, and the overall flow charts and
data flow diagrams are designed, which can be referred
by similar systems.
2 FRAMEWORK
2.1 Conception design
The basic design ideas of DW I2 CAD/E includes:
1) Intelligent design. Integrated CAD framework is
adopted and intelligent design method is introduced;
2) System integration. It covers the whole process of
dewatering design; 3) Knowledge integration. It inte-
grates all the professional knowledge and possesses
unique data description; 4) Interface integration. It
is characterized by intelligent property and has good
intelligent interface between human and machine; 5)
Visualization integration. It provides all the intelligent
display of the input, processing and output. 6) Shared
platform. It develops a shared platform to realize the
sharing of data of each part.
The designed system should be feathered as:
(1) Integrated database. There are three ways to
achieve integration of the system. The first is

433

Figure 1. Main framework of DW I2 CAD/E.
network integration, which is achieved by local
area network (LAN) and internet. The second is
format integration, which is achieved when the
designer is very familiar with software. The third
is interface integration, which is achieved by using
the technology of interface development (Wang et
al. 2003). Format integration is adopted in DW
I2 CAD/E; the integrated database provides data
source, data interface, and network function.
(2) General graphics platform
General graphics platform provides visualiza-
tion for the DW I2 CAD/E. It provides entry and
display platform of drawings. In general graphics
platform, it is convenient to import drawings and
pick up point, line and surface. The calculation
results can also be displayed visually.
(3) Full service orientation of CIDE
Computer aided calculation (CAC), computer
aided investigation (CAI), computer aided design
(CAD) and computer aided engineering (CAE) are
covered by the system.
2.2 Frame design
The main frame of DW I2 CAD/E is shown in Figure 1.
(1) Project information
The engineering information includes project
name, project site, construction method, bracing
pattern, contract period, and investment cost, etc.
(2) Input
Input module include geological data, founda-
tion pit data, environment data and pumping test
data that to be used in calculation. Geological data
include strata parameters, hydrogeological data
and engineering geological data. Foundation pit
data contain diaphragm wall data, excavation data
and surrounding environmental data. Pumping test
data include parameters of pumping well, observa-
tion well, recharge well, pore pressure gauge and
stratified subsidence mark.
(3) Risk analysis
Risk of foundation in dewatering is divided into
four grades: I (low risk), II (medium risk), III (high
risk), IV (very high risk). To evaluate the risk of the
dewatering, the risk sources based on investigation
434
and similar pits are identified. Analyze the risk
sources and evaluate losses. Determine the risk
grade considering occurrence probability of risk
and losses. Putting forward counter measures
aiming at risk grade.
(4) CAC
CAC module deals with the analytical calcula-
tion based on mathematical models. The module
include anti-inrushing calculations, well depth,
total inflow of foundation pit, the number of dewa-
tering wells, drawdown at foundation pit center
and subsidence prediction around foundation pit.
(5) CAI
CAI provides intelligent design based on expe-
rience and code for hydrogeology investigation
and pumping test. The tests data can be input and
treated by corresponding program. The main func-
tions of hydrogeological investigation module are
as follows:
a. Design hydrogeological investigation and com-
plete investigation report consisting with literal
part, layout of pumping wells and structures of
pumping wells, recharge wells and observation
wells;
b. Smart design of pumping tests;
c. Analyze pumping test results, drawing data
curve, parameters inversion and output of per-
meability coefficient and pumping rate of
single wells.
(6) CAD
CAD designs dewatering scheme based on
different intelligent methods. Intelligent design
methods include 1) intelligent optimization design
method, including fuzzy intelligent optimization
design method, artificial neural network intelli-
gent optimization design method, evolution intel-
ligent optimization design method, and integra-
tion of kinds of intelligent optimization methods;
2) reasoning based design method; 3) search
based design method; 4) constraint satisfaction
based design method; 5) synthesis reasoning based
design method; 6) case based design method; 7)
prototype based design method; 8Object Ori-
ented Design method; 9) Agent Oriented (AO)
design method.
(7) CAE
Normally, CAE provides numerical analysis
method which is used to compute strength, stiff-
ness, buckling stability, dynamic response, and
thermal conductivity, elastoplastic mechanical
properties of structure and optimal design of struc-
tural performance with computer aid. Engineering
module of DW I2 CAD/E contains subsidence cal-
culation of foundation pit dewatering. User can
obtain drawdown of the foundation pit dewater-
ing and subsidence information after stratigraphic
data, diaphragm wall data, well data are input and
the boundary conditions are added.
(8) Output
Intelligent output module visually display the
design of dewatering, drawdown, filter tubes,

Figure 2. Overall flow chart of DW I2 CAD/E.
structure of pumping wells, structure of recharge
wells, structure of observation wells and pore
pressure observation points and land subsidence
observation points.
(9) Management
Administrator can log in management module
with entering the correct user name and password,
and query, modify, add, and delete not only the
case base but also the expert system rules.
2.3 Overall flow chart
The overall flow chart of DW I2 CAD/E is shown in
Figure 2. The first is the operation interface, users can
choose to enter the user interface and begin dewatering
design, while the administrator can choose adminis-
trator interface into the management operation. Users
input strata parameters, excavation parameters, and
then enter case retrieval, if there is similar case, then
modify the case to achieve the design. If not, then enter
intelligent design. The intelligent design methods are
artificial neural network design method, rule-based
design method, synthesis reasoning design method.
Users can choose one or more intelligent method to
design. Once the design is finished, it needs to call
CAE module to calculation the subsidence caused by
dewatering. When the subsidence is within the allow-
able range, dewatering design reports and the related
CAD drawings can be output by the intelligent output
module.
2.4 Data flow diagram
Data flow diagram (DFD) is an important tool for com-
prehensive description of the information system logic
435
Figure 3. Top DFD of DW I2 CAD/E.
Figure 4. Level 0 DFD of DW I2 CAD/E.
model. It can reflect the flow, processing and storage of
information in the system using a few of symbols. DFD
is composed by data flow, processing, data storage and
external entity. DW I2 CAD/E integrates investigation,
calculation, design, numerical analysis; its data flow
is complicated. Layered DFD is adopted to show the
data. The top DFD shows the data flow from the macro
perspective. The level 0 DFD shows how the system
is divided into sub-systems (processes), each of which
deals with one or more of the data flows to or from an
external agent, and which together provide all of the
functionality of the system as a whole. Figure 3 shows
the top DFD of DW I2 CAD/E, and Figure 4 illustrates
the level 0 DFD of DW I2 CAD/E.
3 INTELLIGENT DESIGN METHOD BASED
ON BP-ANN
There are three kinds of knowledge types in DW
I2 CAD/E: the first is rule-based knowledge (formula,
diagram, calculation), the second is pattern knowledge
(reasoning, search, and image), and the third is numer-
ical analysis (numerical simulation). Each of them
was independent and interrelated. Based on the object-
oriented method, the coordination of the three aspects
working in a software platform is realized. Figure 5
shows the relationship between intelligence activities
process and supporting environment.
Back-propagation (BP) belongs to a feed-forward
connecting model, which contains input layer, hidden
layer and output layer. Neurons in the same layer do
not link each other, but neurons in neighboring layer
are connected by the weight. The following is the input
and output of BP-ANN (Tab.1).

Figure 5. Relationship between intelligence activities pro-
cess and the supporting environment (Hao et al. 2001).
Table 1. Margin settings for A4 size paper and letter size
paper.
Input layer Soil/ground type
Excavation size(length, width
or diameter, depth)
Depth of ground water
Depth of curtain
Hydraulic parameters of soil
Consolidation parameters of soil
Initial water level
Drawdown
Proximity of the nearest structure
Output layer Dewatering method to be employed
Layout of pumping well
Number of the well
Back-propagation algorithm is a neural training
method mostly in use. It is simply a gradient descent
method to minimize the total squared error of the out
computed by the net. The algorithm has three steps.
Firstly, initiate weight and bias. Second, amend weight
and bias, input training data, calculate error between
output and expected output; evaluate the correction of
weight and bias, correct weight and bias. Thirdly, go
on dong. Fourth, until error is less than expected value
(Zhao 2012).
4 CONCLUSIONS
The main framework of DW I2 CAD/E for dewatering
is presented in the paper, where the frame of integrated
CAD and methods of intelligent design are introduced.
The overall flow charts and data flow diagrams are
designed.
The basic design ideas of DW I2 CAD/E include
intelligent design, system integration, knowledge inte-
gration, interface integration, visualization integration
and shared platform.
DW I2 CAD/E is composed of modulus of project
information, input, risk analysis, CAC, CAI, CAD,
CAE, output and management, which can be referred
by similar systems to improve design efficiency.
436
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in Adapazari/Turkey by artificial neural networks using
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Rehak, D.R. & Christiano, P.P. & Norkin, D.D. 1985.
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Stavroulakis, G. E. 2009. Simulating the seismic response
of embankments via artificial neural networks. Advances
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Wang, S.Q. & Wee, Y.P. & Ofori, G. 2002. DSSDSS: A
decision support system for dewatering systems selection.
Building and Environment 37: 625645.
Wang, Y.A. & Shen, B.Z. & Liu, B.C. 2003.The research of
integrating database in CAD system of casting process.
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Advances in Multimedia, Software Engineering and Com-
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Monitoring of ground deformation in southern part

of Metro Manila, Philippines

Katsumi Kurita
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan College of Industrial Technology, Tokyo, Japan

Yoshihiro Kinugasa
Association for the Development of Earthquake Prediction, Tokyo, Japan

Tomonori Deguchi
Nittetsu Mining Consultants Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan

Rolly E. Rimando
Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, Manila, Philippines

ABSTRACT: Buildings and pavements are damaged by ground vertical displacement along the creeping
segment of the Marikina Valley fault system (MVFS) on the southern part of Metro Manila, Philippines. To
clarify fault creep trigger (e.g., groundwater withdrawal, tectonic), deformation is monitored through repeated
leveling surveys. Any short term link between fault displacement and rainfall is also monitored through a
continuous creep measurement device installed across one of the sites used for leveling survey. From repeated
leveling surveys, the average slip rate since September 1999 to January 2010 ranges from 1.77 cm/y to 2.45 cm/y.
Creep acceleration since 2004 is observed in some leveling sites. Continuous creep measurement obtained an
average slip rate of 0.01 mm/day (3.65 mm/y) until January 2009. However fault creep at NPC B appears to have
stopped even with the coming of the rainy season in May 2009.

Keywords: ground deformation, repeated leveling survey, continuous measurement, creep, active fault

1 INTRODUCTION

Metro Manila, in the Philippines, is the nations center

of politics, economy, and culture. It has rapidly grown
into an overcrowded mega city with an economically
active population of at least 10 million. Yet the devel-
opment of social and urban infrastructure in Metro
Manila have not kept pace with the citys population
growth. So, many high-rise buildings, highways and
light rail transit systems are being constructed even
now. On the eastern portion of Metro Manila lies the
active Marikina Valley fault system (MVFS), which
according to results of a trench survey (Nelson et al.,
2000, Rimando et al. 2006), has a potential for a M6-
M7 earthquake occurring along the northern part of
MVFS western segment. Therefore, studies related to
Figure 1. A damage of road pavement by vertical displace-
seismic disaster with Metro Manila as a target area are ment of the ground.
deemed important.
On the other hand, while structures and pavements view of an urban area, it is important to monitor such
are damaged recently by ground deformation along the the ground deformation.
MVFS as shown in Fig. 1, no big earthquake whatso- In this study, monitoring of ground deformation
ever is involved. This type of hazard is serious at the was done through repeated leveling surveys and con-
southern part of Metro Manila. From a safety point of tinuously through a creep measuring device installed

437

Figure 2. Study area.
across the MVFS creeping zone in the southern part
of Metro Manila.
2 STUDY AREA
The Philippine archipelago consists of over 7,000
islands. These islands are located between the Manila
Trench to the west along which the Eurasian plate
is being subducted, and the Philippine Trench to the
east along which the Philippine Sea plate is being
subducted. The Philippine fault extends from north-
ern Luzon down to southern Mindanao with a total
length of about 1,300 km. Metro Manila is located at
middle part of Luzon, and the MVFS branches south-
ward from the Philippine fault and cuts the eastern
edge of Metro Manila (Fig. 2). The MVFS is a major
right-lateral strike-slip fault (Rimando et al. 2006)
with four events recorded over the past 1,300 years;
the recurrence interval is estimated to be 400 to 600
years (Nelson et al. 2000). The Marikina valley which
is located at east of Metro Manila is interpreted as a
pull-apart basin (Rimando et al. 2006).
438
3 REPEATED LEVELING SURVEYS
To monitor the slip rate, periodic leveling surveys
across the creeping fault zone at six sites had been
done since September 1999 (Fig. 2). Since there is lit-
tle or no horizontal slip, the survey employed a simple
leveling method using an electronic digital level and
barcode leveling staff. Overall accuracy is estimated
to be 23 mm. Survey interval was initially every three
months and later, every six months. At first, eight sur-
vey lines at four sites were set up but two survey lines
at one location were lost due to road repairs.
Results of the repeated leveling survey are shown in
Fig. 3. Until the most recent survey done in February
2012, one survey line (VOS) out of six shows con-
tinuous creep dislocation. One survey line (NPC-A)
shows no creep dislocation since the survey started in
1999 even though an echelon cracks on the pavements
are still visible. Two survey lines (NPC -B -C) show
continuous creep dislocation until Dismember 2007.
And, three survey lines (GRV-A,-B,-C) show continu-
ous creep dislocation until March 2010. The average
slip rate of these six survey lines ranges from 1.77 cm/y
to 2.45 cm/y. Three out of these six survey lines show
clear acceleration of the creep rate since November
2004. The accelerated rate reached 4.55 cm/y while
average rate since 1999 is 2.15 cm/y. Also, 2.25 cm/y
where 1.12 cm/y and 2.05 cm/y where 1.06 cm/y are
observed.
4 CONTINUOUS MONITORING
To track detailed displacement changes across one of
the creeping fault segments, continuous monitoring
at NPC-B has been carried out since September 2008.
The monitoring system is shown in Fig. 5. It consists of
a digital displacement sensor, thermometer, data log-
ger and solar cell. To investigate any relation between
displacement and rainfall at the site, a rain collector
was also installed. The sampling interval is 3 hours.
A flood caused by a typhoon rendered the monitoring
system inoperable in June 2009.
The displacement, temperature and rain fall plots
from September 2008 to July 2009 are shown in Fig. 6.
Until January 2009, the average slip rate gathered from
this site is 0.01 mm/day (3.65 mm/y), the east side of
the fault subsided (or the west side uplifted). Although
the fluctuation of the displacement is +/0.5 mm, the
fault creep appears to have stopped as of July 2009.
5 DISCUSSION
There are two hypotheses for the triggering mech-
anism of the continuous dislocation of the MVFS
creeping zone segment. One is excessive withdrawal
of groundwater due to rapid urban growth; the other is
tectonic.
Several ground deformation anomalies were
detected in Metro Manila through the InSAR time
Figure 3. Temporal change of ground deformation by repeated leveling surveys in southern part of Metro Manila, Philippines.

Figure 5. Temporal change of ground deformation, tem-

pera-ture and rail fall at NPC-B.
Upper: Displacement and temperature
Lower: Rail fall

Figure 4. Continuous monitoring system at NPC-B.

439
series analysis (Deguchi et al. 2011). Most of the
vertical movements can be correlated with ground-
water level changes. Some of the deformation are
independent of the groundwater level changes in the
areas surrounding MVFS. Therefore, the possibility
that some of the deformation by creep are tectonic in
nature cannot be denied.
Ground deformation may also be related to rain-
fall and other seasonal effects due to soil dynamics
changes (Roeloffs 2001). According to a creep survey
on Chihshang fault, Taiwan (Lee et al. 2001, Lee et al.
2006), slip rate changes are season dependent (i.e.,
slip late increased with precipitation during the rainy
season).
In the case of the MVFS, changes in displacement
for the period from September 2008 to January 2009 is
related to rain fall. However, there is no such relation
for the period starting May 2009, which coincides with
the onset of the rainy season. Therefore, correlation
between displacement and rainfall does not appear to
be strong.
6 CONCLUSIONS
To monitor deformation of the creeping fault segment
of the MVFS, periodic leveling surveys and con-
tinuous measurement were employed. From leveling
survey, the average slip rate since September 1999 to
January 2010 ranges 1.77 cm/y to 2.45 cm/y, although
creep acceleration is demonstrated in some sites
since 2004. Continuous measurement of creep, on the
other hand, yielded average slip rate of 0.01 mm/day
(3.65 mm/y) until January 2009. While initially there
440
may be short-term correlation between creep and
rainfall, so far, no strong seasonal link between dis-
placement and rainfall has been observed. As of July
2009, movement at the site of continuous creep mea-
surement (NPC-B) appears to have stopped. Periodic
leveling surveys shall continue and additional contin-
uous creep measurement sites will be established to
have more bases for further evaluation.
REFERENCES
Deguchi T., Y. Kinugasa & K. Kurita. 2011. Monitoring of
land deformation using Terra SAR-X data around active
fault in the Metro Manila, the Philippines, FIG Working
Week 2011, TS02E- Land Deformation 5278.
Lee, J.C., J. Angelier, H. T. Chu, J. C. Hu, & F. S. Jeng, Contin-
uous monitoring of an active fault in a plate suture zone:
a creepmeter study of the Chihshang Fault, eastrn Taiwan.
2001. Tectonophysics. 333: 219240.
Lee, J. C., J. Angelier, H. T. Chu, J. C. Hu, & F. S. Jeng,
Monitoring active fault creep as a tool in seismic hazard
mitigation. Insights from creepmeetr study at Chihshang,
Taiwan. 2005. Tectonophysics, 337: 12001207.
Nelson, R. A., S. F. Personius, R. E. Rimando, R. S. Punong-
bayan, N. Tungol, H. Mirabueno & A. Rasdas. 2000.
Multiple Large Earthquakes in the Past 1500 Years on a
Fault in Metropolitan manila, the Philippines, Bull. Seism.
Soc. Am., 90(1): 7385.
Rimando, R. E, & P. L. K. Knuepfer, Neo tectonics of
the Marikina Valley fault system (MVFS) and tectonic
framework of structures in northern and central Luzon,
Philippines. 2006. Tectonophysics, 415: 1738.
Roeloffs, E. A., Creep rate change at Parkfield, California,
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Study on wall group effect of rectangular closed diaphragm wall as bridge

foundation under vertical loading

Hua Wen
College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, China

Qiangong Cheng
College of Earth Sience and Environment Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China

ABSTRACT: Rectangular closed diaphragm wall foundation is a new type of bridge foundation. Wall group
efficiency and settlement ratio and influence of wall spacing on wall group effect were studied through a model
test. There were two groups of model walls in the test, all of the walls had same thickness and height, but side
length of model walls in group A was less than that in group B. It was observed that the load ratio of closed
diaphragm wall and single diaphragm wall with the same settlement was always greater than 1, furthermore,
the load ratio and wall group efficiency of closed diaphragm wall B was more lager than closed diaphragm
wall A. The settlement ratio of closed diaphragm wall and single diaphragm wall with the same head press was
also larger than 1, and the settlement of closed diaphragm wall A was more lager than closed diaphragm wall
B. Enlarging the wall spacing was an effective measure to improve the wall group efficiency and load-bearing
capacity with the same wall thickness and wall height. Then better economic benefits would be obtained.

Keywords: rectangular closed diaphragm wall, wall group effect; wall group efficiency, settlement ratio,
wall spacing

1 INTRODUCTION

The so-called rectangular closed diaphragm wall

bridge foundation is connected by rigid joint be-tween
the adjacent underground walls to form the rectangular
framework with the closed plane and set the founda-
tion form of roof (pile cap) (Xu 1995), as shown in
figure 1. From the structure type, rectangular closed
diaphragm wall bridge foundation can be regarded as
four single slice walls connected by rigidity. Since
1979, Japan first used diaphragm walls in the via-duct
project of Northeast Shinkansen and closed diaphragm
wall bridge foundation has received rapid development
in Japan (Cong 2001, Kaino et al. 1980, Asano et al.
1982, Matsubase et al. 1982, Magario et al. 1984).
In China, diaphragm wall bridge is generally used
in strutted structure for excavation and impervious
structure, and some projects regard diaphragm wall
bridge as one part of the major structure of build- Figure 1. Sketch of closed diaphragm wall foundation.
ing (Wang 1999, Tang 1996, Liu 1999). But using
closed diaphragm wall to bear the vertical loading of
bridge foundation has just started (Li 1997, Yu 2000). foundation is mainly as supporting structure during
Although diaphragm wall bridge foundation was used the foundation pit construction.
in Hu-men Bridge and Yang-luo Bridge in Wuhan as Because of the existence of wall soil core, load
anchorage foundation, it was not really diaphragm wall transfer mechanism and load bearing of rectangular
bridge foundation. The reason is that among these closed diaphragm wall bridge foundation become very
foundations, the function of diaphragm wall bridge complicated. As to friction- type of rectangular closed

441
diaphragm wall bridge foundation under the effect of
vertical loading, the top of foundation disseminates
most of loading to wall, outside wall and end wall by
frictional resistance of side wall. With the injection
deformation of end wall and elastic compression of
wall body, the bottom of pile cap can produce certain
soil reaction to share one part of loading. The rest of
loading are bore by end wall soil. This feature makes
all including bottom surface soil, inside wall soil, out-
side wall soil and end wall soil participate into it and
form the interaction of pile cap, wall and soil. The
working characteristics of closed diaphragm wall tend
to be complex. Any closed diaphragm wall is signif-
icantly different from independent single diaphragm
wall on working characteristics. The bearing capacity
of closed diaphragm wall is not equals to the simple
addition of 4 independent single diaphragm walls and
settlement characteristics is also different from sin-
gle diaphragm wall, which is wall group efficiency of
rectangular closed diaphragm wall bridge foundation.
However, for the study on wall group efficiency of
rectangular closed diaphragm wall bridge foundation,
there are no reports on the relevant field home and
abroad.
Therefore, the authors aim at the study on wall
group efficiency and settlement ratio of rectangular
closed diaphragm wall bridge foundation through a
model test.
2 GENERAL SITUATION OF MODEL TEST
In order to study wall group efficiency, a single
diaphragm wall and a closed diaphragm wall are set
in the model shaft at the same time. Two levers loaded
respectively are used to carry out the comparative tests.
In addition, two groups of different single diaphragm
wall models and closed diaphragm wall models with
different section size are made to study the pile group
effect exerted by the size of section-al area of soil core
(that is the size of side length of the inside closed
diaphragm wall). Vertical loading test is carried out.
2.1 Model wall
Materials of model walls are processed by using the
organic glass with the thickness of 32 millimeters.
The section size of single diaphragm wall in group
A is 280 mm 32 mm, while the section size of sin-
gle diaphragm wall in group B is 380 mm 32 mm.
Both group A and group B have the same wall height
that is 770 millimeters. The section size of rectangular
closed diaphragm walls is a gyrus shaped frame,
among which the section size of closed diaphragm
wall in group A is 280 mm 280 mm, while the sec-
tion size of closed diaphragm wall in group B is
380 mm 380 mm with the same wall height that is
720 millimeters.
The surface of organic glass model is uniformly
sticked with fine sand to increase the surface rough-
ness.
442
Figure 2. Sketch of test set.
2.2 Model soil
Q4 disturbed loess is collected from Wanrong, Shanxi
province as model soil. The embedded height of model
wall is all 72 centimeters. The total thick-ness of the
soil of wall bottom is 72 centimeters and its density
is controlled in 1.5 g/cm3 . The total thickness of the
soil of side wall is 72 centimeters and its density is
controlled in 1.4 g/cm3 .
2.3 Measurement of wall top displacement
On the top of the single diaphragm wall and closed
diaphragm wall, two percent meters whose measure-
ment range reaches to 30 millimeters are set to measure
the wall top displacement.
2.4 Loading device
The loading device of model wall is the levers that are
simple and easy to operate (as shown in figure 2). The
lever is made up of No. 10 I-steel. Loading uses the
constant weight of 10 kg of cast iron weight. Weight
disk is made up of 10 mm steel plates.
3 ANALYSIS ON TEST RESULTS
3.1 Analysis on the relationship of loading and
settlement
(1) Characteristics of Loading and Settlement of Sin-
gle Diaphragm Wall and Closed Diaphragm Wall
Figure 3 is load-settlement curves of two groups
of diaphragm walls. Two Q-s curves all appear to
be of steep drop type with the very significant fail-
ure feature points. While load-settlement curves of
rectangular closed diaphragm wall appear to be of
delayed type. Therefore, anti-precipitation of rect-
angular closed diaphragm walls in two groups is
much better than that of single diaphragm walls.
In single diaphragm wall, Q-s curves of group
B coincide with that of group A. Compared with
group A, bearing capacity of group B is improved
little. As shown in figure 9, bearing capacity of
 Table 1. Load (ratio) of diaphragm walls in group A with
the same settlement/kN.

Settlement 0.05 0.2 0.5 1 3 6 9 10 12

(mm)
Single 0.73 1.1 1.7 2.2 3 3.6 3.9 4.3 4.7
Diaphragm
Wall in
Group A
Closed 0.6 1.3 2.6 3.9 6.8 8.8 10 10.5 11.3
Diaphragm
Wall in
Group A
Load Ratio 0.8 1.1 1.5 1.8 2.3 2.5 2.6 2.5 2.4

Figure 3. Load-settlement curves comparison of diaphragm

walls.
Table 2. Load (ratio) of diaphragm walls in group B with
the same settlement/kN.

Settlement 0.15 0.4 1 2 4 6 10 12 14

(mm)
Single 1.2 1.7 2.3 2.9 3.5 3.8 4.2 4.4 4.5
Diaphragm
Wall in
Group B
Closed 2.8 4.7 7.1 9.4 12.4 14.7 18.4 20.3 22.2
Diaphragm
Wall in
Group B
Load Ratio 2.3 2.7 3.1 3.3 3.5 3.9 4.3 4.6 4.9

segments. Combining Q-s curves and Q-s curves can

determine ultimate load of closed diaphragm wall. It is
easy to judge Q-s curves because inflection points of
Q-s curves are more significant than those of curves.
Taking Q-s curves in figure 4 and settlement into con-
sideration, ultimate load of closed diaphragm wall
in group A is 9.6 kN and ultimate load of closed
diaphragm wall in group B is 18 kN.
Figure 4. Thes-lgQ curves of closed diaphragm walls.

group B in rectangular closed diaphragm walls

is largely improved than group A. To load with
the same displacement, group B is larger than
group A, and with increase of settlement, different
vertical loads increase constantly, too.
(2) Determination of Ultimate Bearing Capacity
As shown in figure 3, Q-s curves of single
diaphragm wall appear to be of steep drop type
with the very significant failure feature points.
With reference to determination methods of verti-
cal ultimate bearing capacity of single pile, loads
at starting point with abrupt changes in curves can
be obtained as ultimate load of single diaphragm
wall. Hereby, ultimate load of single diaphragm
wall in group A is 3.9 kN and ultimate load of
single diaphragm wall in group B is 4.2 kN.
Because Q-s curves of closed diaphragm wall
appear to be of delayed type, there are no drop-down
3.2 Analysis on load ratio and wall group efficiency
with the same settlement
Load and its ratio (QB /QD , subscript B stands for
closed diaphragm wall and subscript D stands for
single diaphragm wall) of every group of closed
diaphragm wall and single diaphragm wall with the
same settlement are listed out in table 1 and table
2. In diaphragm walls of group A, when settlement
is 0.05 mm, load of closed diaphragm wall is 0.6 kN
which is smaller than single diaphragm wall and its
load ratio is smaller than 1. With increase of settle-
ment, inner frictional resistance, end resistance and
pressure under cap of closed diaphragm wall gradu-
ally increase and its bearing capacity is continuously
strengthened. Meanwhile, gradual increase along with
load is significantly larger than single diaphragm wall
and its load increases from 0.8 to 2.4.

443
Table 3. Group effect coefficient of closed diaphragm walls. Table 4. Settlement (ratio) of diaphragm walls in group A
with the same press/mm.
Ultimate Load Ultimate Load
of Closed of Single Wall Group Press(kPa) 50 75 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
Diaphragm Wall Diaphragm Wall Efficiency
Single 0.015 0.036 0.09 0.29 0.57 1.06 1.94 3.6 6.19
Group A 3.9 kN 9.6 kN 0.61 Diaphragm
GroupB 4.2 kN 18 kN 1.07 Wall in
Group A
Closed 0.26 0.42 0.72 1.37 2.53 4.41 7.37 11.5
Diaphragm
In diaphragm walls of group B, load values of Wall in
closed diaphragm wall with the same settlement are Group A
always larger than single diaphragm wall and its load Displacement 17.9 11.3 8 4.7 4.4 4.2 3.8 3.2
ratio ranges from 2.3 to 4.9, which is significantly Ratio
larger than load ratio of diaphragm walls of group A.
The reason is that section size of soil core of closed
diaphragm wall is 31.6 cm 31.6 cm that is larger than
group A-21.6 cm 21.6 cm and it is 2.14 times that of Table 5. Settlement (ratio) of diaphragm walls in group B
group A. Big section size can make two opposite wall with the same press/mm.
spacing and pressure under cap increase and be favor-
able to inner frictional resistance. Bearing capacity of Press(kPa) 100 125 150 175 200 250 300 350 400
closed diaphragm wall in group B is largely improved
Single 0.16 0.30 0.46 0.84 1.24 2.43 5.14 10.3 18.1
compared with group A.
Diaphragm
Formula of wall group efficiency is as follows: Wall in
Group B
Closed 0.37 0.57 0.88 1.26 1.75 3.06 4.68 6.91 9.5
Diaphragm
Wall in
where QuB is ultimate load of closed diaphragm wall Group B
and QuD is ultimate load of single diaphragm wall. Displacement 2.3 1.93 1.9 1.5 1.4 1.26 0.9 0.7 0.5
Ultimate load of diaphragm walls in two groups Ratio
and wall group efficiency of closed diaphragm wall
are listed out in table 3. Wall group efficiency of
closed diaphragm wall in group A is 0.61 and in group
B it is 1.07. Loading-carrying efficiency of closed with size of soil core with the same wall thickness and
diaphragm wall in group B is higher than that in group wall height. Enlarging the wall spacing is an effec-
A. Because inner side length of closed diaphragm wall tive measure to improve the wall group efficiency
in group B increases and thus its wall spacing (dis- and load-bearing capacity to obtain better economic
tances between two opposite walls) increases, which benefits.
promotes inner frictional resistance and pressure under
cap, every one of closed diaphragm wall in group B
under the condition of rectangular closed diaphragm 3.3 Analysis of displacements and settlement ratio
wall bridge foundation works obviously better than with the same press
that in group A.
Table 4 and table 5 show the ratio (sB /sD ) of displace-
From ultimate bearing capacity and base vol-
ment of wall top between single diaphragm wall and
ume (generally refers to concrete volume in practi-
closed diaphragm wall under the same head press. In
cal engineering), ultimate bearing capacity of closed
order to compare with the single diaphragm wall more
diaphragm wall in group A is 2.46 times that of sin-
easily, suppose total loads of closed diaphragm wall is
gle diaphragm wall in group A; base volume of closed
undertaken by the wall body, so head press is
diaphragm wall in group A is 3.54 times that of single
diaphragm wall in group A. Loading-carrying effi-
ciency of closed diaphragm wall in groupA is not ideal.
Ultimate bearing capacity of closed diaphragm wall in
group B is 4.29 times that of single diaphragm wall
in group B; base volume of closed diaphragm wall where QB stands for the total loads of closed diaphragm
in group B is 3.66 times that of single diaphragm wall and AB represents cross-sectional area of closed
wall in group B. Loading-carrying efficiency of closed diaphragm wall.
diaphragm wall in group B is higher than that in According to table 4, under the same head press, the
group A. displacement ratio of closed diaphragm walls in group
Based on the analysis above, loading-carrying effi- A changes from 17.9 to 3.2. Although the ratio reduces,
ciency of closed diaphragm wall has direct relation it is still larger 1. The reason for this phenomenon is

444
Table 6. Settlement ratio of diaphragm walls with ultimate 4 CONCLUSIONS
load on the wall head.
Through analysis on model test results of rectangu-
Settlement of Settlement of lar closed diaphragm wall bridge foundation, several
Single Closed conclusions are summarized as follows:
Diaphragm Diaphragm Settlement
Wall Wall Ratio (1) This feature makes all including bottom surface
soil, inside wall soil, outside wall soil and end wall
Group A 8.9 mm 7.54 mm 0.85 soil participate into it and form the interaction of
Group B 9.51 mm 9.53 mm 1.002 pile cap, wall and soil. The working characteristics
of closed diaphragm wall tend to be complex. Any
closed diaphragm wall is significantly different
from independent single diaphragm wall on work-
Table 7. Settlement ratio of diaphragm walls with design
load on the wall head.
ing characteristics. The bearing capacity of closed
diaphragm wall is not equals to the simple addition
Settlement of Settlement of of 4 independent single diaphragm walls and set-
Single Closed tlement characteristics is also different from single
Diaphragm Diaphragm Settlement diaphragm wall.
Wall Wall Ratio (2) Load ratio of closed diaphragm wall and single
diaphragm wall is generally larger than 1 with the
Group A 0.68 mm 1.38 mm 2.03 same settlement. Because wall spacing of closed
Group B 0.81 mm 1.8 mm 2.25 diaphragm wall in group B increases and thus
pro-motes inner frictional resistance and pressure
under cap of closed diaphragm wall gradually to
increase, load ratio and wall group efficiency of
that when side length of closed diaphragm wall is small
closed diaphragm wall are all larger than that in
namely wall spacing is small, inner frictional resis-
group A.
tance of the adjacent and opposite walls transfer press
(3) Because press overlapping and inner frictional
to soil core and such press is overlapping. Besides,
resistance cant fully work, settlement ratio and
pile cap produces weakening effect on inner frictional
displacement ratio of closed diaphragm wall and
resistance, which hinders inner frictional resistance to
single diaphragm wall are generally larger than 1
work. In addition, wall end resistance produces press
with the same head press. Besides, because wall
on the bottom of wall, and such press is also over-
spacing of closed diaphragm wall in group A is
lapping. Therefore, under the same head press, head
smaller, press overlapping is more obvious and its
displacement of closed diaphragm walls is larger than
displacement is larger than that in group B.
that of single diaphragm walls.
(4) Enlarging the wall spacing is an effective mea-
Although press overlapping exists in closed
sure to improve the wall group efficiency and
diaphragm wall in group B, enlargement of wall spac-
load-bearing capacity to obtain better economic
ing reduces the extent of press overloading. With loads
benefits.
increasing, inner frictional resistance gradually works,
ratio of pressure under cap to distribute the loads also
increases and pile cap has enhancement effect on resis-
tance of wall end. Therefore, dis-placement of closed ACKNOWLEDGMENT
diaphragm wall in group B is smaller than that of
closed diaphragm wall in group A, even when head This Study was supported by the National Natural Sci-
press is over 300 kPa, displacement is less than 1. ence Foundation (51108393), Research Foundation of
Table 6 and table 7 show settlement ratio of Sichuan Province Office of Education (09ZC108).
closed diaphragm wall. The settlement ratio of closed
diaphragm wall is to show increase extent of settlement
of closed diaphragm wall (sB ) compared with that of REFERENCES
single diaphragm wall (sD ) with the same loads (e.g.
either ultimate load or design load). The formula is as Asano Katsuhiro et al. A railway bridge design case of
follows: diaphragm wall as rigid foundation[J]. Foundation Engi-
neering,1982, 10(12): 7077. (in Japanese)
Cong Aisen. The Design and Construction and Application
of Diaphragm Walls. Beijing: China WaterPower Press,
2001. (in Chinese)
According to Table 6 and table 7, the settlement Kaino Takaya et al. Well foundation design method of
diaphragm wall and in-situ horizontal load test[J].
ratio of closed diaphragm wall in group A is less than Civil Engineering Technology, 1980, 36(5): 4857. (in
1 under ultimate load, while the settlement ratio of Japanese)
other cases are all larger than 1, hence, the settlement Li Tao. Test and research on the design method for diaphragm
of closed diaphragm wall is larger than that of single wall-type digging well foundation of railway bridge[J].
diaphragm wall. China Railway Science, 1997, 18(2): 4653. (in Chinese)

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Liu Xingwang. Analysis on internal force, deformation,
load- bearing mechanism of diaphragm wall as enclosure
and load bearing structure[PhD Thesis][D]. Hangzhou:
Zhejiang University, 1999. (in Chinese)
Matsubase Kazuho et al. The design of diaphragm wall
well foundation in road bridge engineering[J]. Foundation
Engineering, 1982,12(10): 7480. (in Japanese)
Magario Risaburo et al. Rigid diaphragm wall foundation
engineering in the Prince South elevated bridge on the
Northeast New artery[J]. Civil Engineering Technology,
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Engineering,1999,21(1):122125. (in Chinese)
XU Liming. A new type of foundation: diaphragm wall
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

The lateral behavior of single piles in liquefiable soils

A. Ghorbani & R. Jahanpour

Faculty of Engineering Guilan University, Guilan, Iran

ABSTRACT: The performance of single piles in liquefiable soils under earthquake loading is a complex
problem due to the effects of a progressive build-up of the excess pore water pressures in the vicinity of the piles
in fully saturated sands. In this paper, the dynamic behavior of a single pile in a liquefiable sandy soil, which is
located on a dense stratum, under earthquake load has been studied. An elasto-plastic dynamic finite difference
method was implemented to simulate this problem. The effect of the excess pore water pressure generation
resulting in the effective stress and shear strength reduction has been considered. The soil-pile interaction has
been properly simulated using a non-linear constitutive model. Results of a centrifuge test on pile foundations are
implemented to examine the feasibility of the numerical model for a reasonable analysis of piles under seismic
loading. The results thus obtained, complied reasonably with those observed in the centrifugal tests and hence,
seem to be acceptable.

Keywords: Liquefaction, Pile, Numerical Modeling, FLAC, Finite Difference Method, Earthquake

1 INTRODUCTION The scope of this research is studying the behavior

The loss of soil strength due to liquefaction may cause
large bending moments and shear forces in piles built
in liquefying sandy deposit, resulting in ground fail-
ure. During Alaskan earthquake (1964), liquefaction
was the main cause of severe damage to 92 high-
way and 75 rail road bridges (Youd, 1989). During
Kobe earthquake (1995), liquefaction was the primary
cause of damage to many pile supported bridges and
structures (Tamura, 1997).
Several laboratory tests and studies have been per-
formed to provide better perception for the effect of
single pile on soil liquefying potential. The simple
approach based on P-Y springs has been suggested
by (Japanese Road Association (JRA 1980, Liu &
Dobry 1995, Miura et al. 1989, Miura & ORouke
1991). A number of experimental studies base on shak-
ing table tests or centrifuge tests examined seismic
response of pile, soil and superstructure in liquefiable
soils (Yasuda et al. 2000, Mizuno et al. 2000, Dobry
et al. 1995, Abdoun 1997, Wilson et al. 1999, Wilson
et al. 2000). Numerical models based on one, two and
three dimensional finite element and finite difference
analyses (e.g. Hamada et al. 1994, Zheng et al. 1996,
Finn et al. 2001, Liyanapathirana & poulos 2005,
Finn & Fujita 2002, Cheng & Jeremic 2009, Haldar &
Babu 2010, Shooshpasha et al. 2011) provide some
insight into soil-pile interaction in liquefying soil.
Unfortunately, dealing with a full-scale dynamic
analysis usually was thought to be difficult consider-
ing soil nonlinearity. In the present study, nonlinearity
of soil is considered.
of a single pile in a two layer soil profile that con-
sists of a liquefying layer overlaying a non liquefy
stratum and subjected to axial load under earthquake
loading. A finite difference procedure is implemented
for modeling the pile behavior considering a nonlin-
ear constitutive model named as Byrne 1991 and the
model is validated with centrifuge test data conducted
by Wilson et al at UC Davis.
2 FINITE DIFFERENCE MODEL
A finite difference program, FLAC 2D (ver. 6.00) has
been used for elasto-plastic plane-strain analyses to
simulate an axially loaded single pile under earth-
quake load. The dynamic analysis includes coupled
dynamic-groundwater flow calculations. It is assumed
that the soil behaves as Mohr-Coulomb failure cri-
terion in static analysis and Finn model in dynamic
analysis.
It is necessary to model pile under axial static
load and obtain an equilibrium state in the model
before using it for dynamic simulation. In the first
stage, mechanical calculation is done and the flow is
turned off to prevent fluid flow. The model will be
in static equilibrium. In the second stage, the pile is
installed in the model by using pile element and the
proper coupling springs parameters are determined.
The model is brought to equilibrium another time.
Finally, in the dynamic stage, pile is subjected to an
earthquake load resulting in changes in pore water
pressure due to dynamic volume changes, on the other

447
hand the volume of the void space decreases under
constant confining stress. This change is only due to
drainage. Since drainage is not possible the reduc-
tion in volume causes pore water pressure generation.
This mechanism is described by Byrne 1991 present-
ing following experimental equation which indicates
the relation between increment of volume changes and
cyclic shear-strain amplitude:
Where
vd = incremental volume strain; vd = accu-
mulated volume strain; = cyclic shear strain ampli-
tude and C1, C2 are fixed parameters that depend on
the SPT-N value of the soil.
(N1)60 = normalized SPT-N value normalized to an
effective overburden of 100 kPa and to an effec-
tive energy of 60% of the free-fall energy and Dr =
relative density. Kramer (2003) proposes following
relation for correcting SPT-N value:
In which N = measured penetration resistance; CN=
overburden correction factor; Eff = theoretical free-
fall hammer energy; Em = actual hammer energy, that
is 0.72 Eff. And CN is:
where v0 = vertical effective overburden stress.
The input acceleration time history is filtered and
converted to a velocity history by Seismo-Signal
program. This history is used as a stress boundary
condition in the analysis by following equation and
applied to the base of model as a quiet boundary:
where, n = applied normal stress; = mass density;
Cp = p-wave velocity; and vn = input normal particle
velocity.
Free field boundaries are used for lateral
boundaries. These boundaries are placed at sufficient
distances to minimize wave reflection and achieve
free-field conditions. Hysteretic damping is defined
448
Figure 1. Model layout for centrifuge test.
by the curves suggested by Seed and Idriss (1970)
for sand. Hysteretic damping does not completely
damp high frequency components, so a small amount
of stiffness-proportional Rayleigh damping is also
applied. The required parameters for dynamic analy-
sis are soil permeability, bulk modulus, shear modulus,
water bulk and SPT-N value.
The variation of shear modulus along the depth
of the soil deposit was computed using following
equation given by Popescu and Prevost 1993:
where k0 is the coefficient of lateral earth pressure at
rest; P0 is the reference normal stress which is 100 kpa
for sand (Popescu & Prevost 1993), and G0 is the low
strain shear modulus of the soil.
3 MODEL VALIDATION
The finite difference model built by FLAC is validated
with centrifuge tests that are carried out by Wilson et al.
(2000) at UC Davis. The soil profile consists of two
horizontal layers of saturated fine, uniformly graded
Nevada sand. Upper layer depth is 9.1 m and the lower
one is 11.4 m. The relative density of the lower layer is
about 80% in all tests. Upper layer relative density is
about 3540% in test named as Csp2 and 55% in Csp3
test. Soil properties are shown in Table 1.
The pile is made by steel pipe and the pile diameter
and wall thickness in prototype model were 0.67 m and
19 mm respectively. A 480 KN axial load is located
on pile head at 3.8 m above the surface. The pile is
embedded up to 15 m below ground surface. Table 2
shows pile properties utilized for modeling.
The numerical model used for simulating the cen-
trifuge test has 900 finite difference grids, 30 rows
and 30 columns. Figure 2 shows the schematic model
diagram. The model is subjected to the Kobe 1995
earthquake scaled to a maximum acceleration of
0.22 g. The necessary parameters for Finn/Byrne
model are shown in Table 3.
Table 1. Nevada sand properties (Popsecu & Prevost 1993).

Nevada sand

Properties Dr = 3540% Dr = 5055% Dr = 80%

Mass Density 2670 2670 2670

(kg/m3 )
porosity 0.424 0.406 0.373
P0 (KPa) 100 100 100
Friction 33 34.15 39.5
angel ()
Permeability 6.6e5 6.05e5 3.7e5
k (m/s)
K0 0.5 0.5 0.5
Shear Modulus 2.7e4 3.02e4 4.19e4
(KPa)
Poissons ratio 0.45 0.45 0.45
Bulk modulus 2.16e5 2.92e5 4.05e5 Figure 3. Comparison of bending moment time history at
K(KPa) 5.3 m below ground surface.
(N1)60 7 13 28

Table 2. Pile properties used for modeling.

Pile Properties

Elasticity modulus, Ep (KPa) 2e9

Moment of inertia, Ip (m4 ) 2.06e3
Density (Kg/m3 ) 7800
Pile Diameter (m) 0.67

Figure 4. Comparison of acceleration time history at depth

1.41 m from ground surface.

Figure 2. FLAC model used for modeling centrifuge test.

Table 3. Finn/Byrne parameters for dynamic analysis.

Layer depth (m) (N1)60 Dr C1 C2

9.1 7 40 0.7376 0.54

11.4 28 80 0.3524 1.1349

Figure 5. Comparison of acceleration time history at 5.5 m

The results obtained from the analysis are compared
with centrifuge data. Figure 3 shows a compari-
son between bending moment time history at 5.3 m
below the ground surface. Obviously, a good corre-
lation between numerical results and centrifuge tests
depth from ground surface.
is perceived. The measured acceleration time history
and the computed from numerical analysis at 1.41 m
and 5.5 m depth of ground surface are compared in
Figures 4 and 5. It is observed that the numerical

449

Figure 6. Comparison of pore pressure time history at
3.87 m depth from ground surface.
model predicts the centrifuge test results. Regarding to
Figure 6, the pore pressure time history obtained from
numerical modeling and centrifuge test at 3.87 m depth
from surface match reasonably well. That indicates the
numerical results have the same trend as centrifuge
tests.
4 CONCLUSIONS
This paper provides a verified finite difference proce-
dure for simulating pile behavior in liquefying sandy
soil. The model is validated using centrifuge tests. The
obtained results demonstrate that the numerical model
can predict the pile behavior in liquefying sandy soil
reasonably well.
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Seed, H.B., & Idriss, I.M. 1970. Soil moduli and damping
factors for dynamic response analysis. UCB/EERC-70/10,
Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of
California, Berkeley.
Shooshpasha, AfzalRad, M. 2011. Study on Bearing
Capacity of Pile in Liquefiable and Unliquefiable Soil
Layers. Asce library.
Wilson, D. W. Boulanger, Ross W. Idriss, I.M. 1998. Soil-
Pile-Super structure Interaction In Liquefying Sand And
Soft Clay. University Of California Davis.
Wilson, D. W. Boulanger Ross W. & Kutter, B.L. 1999. Lateral
Resistance of Piles in Liquefying Sand. J. Geotechnical
Special Publication No. 88, pp. 165179.
Wilson, D. W. Boulanger Ross W. 2004. The Nees
Geotechnical Centrifuge At UC DAVIS. 13th World
Conference on Earthquake Engineering Vancouver.
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from the 1964 Alaskan earthquake. In: Proceedings of the
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in efacilities and countermeasures.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

The deformation characteristics and calculation prediction method

of deep excavations in Shanghai Soft Soil area

Ke Yang & Jian Jia

Architectural Design & Research Institute of Tongji University, Shanghai, China

ABSTRACT: Based on the in-site measurements, numerical analysis, K0 laboratory test, and engineering
practice, this paper analyzes the characteristics of the stress field and the displacement field around deep
excavations, and then explore the method to estimate the sphere of influence and the lateral deformation of
retaining wall in excavations. The results demonstrate the significant spatial effect inherent to the deformation
of deep excavations in Shanghai Soft Soil. The unloading influence depth of excavation and the sphere of ground
settlement are relevant to the excavation width. With increasing excavation width, the influence depth can reach
to 2.5 times excavation depth below the excavation bottom, and the sphere of ground settlement can be beyond
3.5 times excavation depth. Finally, based on the unloading deformation behavior of deep excavations, this
paper presents the calculation method for unloading influence depth, the sphere of ground settlement, and the
lateral deformation of retaining wall considering the spatial effect in deep excavations. This paper can serve as
a reference for the design and construction of deep excavations in soft soil area.

Keywords: deep excavation; unloading; spatial effect; soft soil; deformation

During the deep excavation in urban areas in soft soil,
the strength and stability of excavation must be satis-
fied. However, it is even more critical to control the
deformation and the ground settlement of excavation
to ensure the safety of adjacent environment.
The magnitude and sphere of ground settlement of
an excavation depend on its in-site soils characteris-
tics, its lateral deformation of retaining wall, and the
upheaval of its bottom. The latter two factors will be
more crucial if there is no large-scale water percola-
tion, mud leakage, and quicksand in the excavation.
However, the latter two factors are both closely related
to excavation depth and scale, for example, the lat-
eral deformation of retaining wall is generated by
the ground movement induced by the excavation; the
upheaval of bottom is composed of unloading soil
resilience and ground movement under the unbalanced
pressure in the excavation.
In order to avoid excessive deformation of deep
excavations and protect surrounding environment, it
is necessary to reveal the characteristics of unloading
deformation of deep excavations, and then to find an
effective calculation method to predict the unloading
deformation. Therefore, this paper covers an in-depth
exploration of the behavior of unloading deformation
of deep excavations, including the unloading deforma-
tion pattern, factors, the sphere of influence, and the
mechanism and characteristics of ground settlement.
Based on that research, a forecasting method is estab-
lished in this paper to calculate the unloading influence
depth, the sphere of ground settlement, and the lateral
deformation of retaining wall of deep excavations.
1 CHARACTERISTICS OF UNLOADING
DEFORMATION OF DEEP EXCAVATIONS
1.1 The displacement field around the deep
excavations
An excavation with a depth of 30m and an area of
1.3 104 m2 was conducted in Shanghai soft soil. The
retaining wall for this excavation is 52 m deep. During
the excavation, the soil settlement at the different depth
in the 8 cross profile (R1R8) around the excavation
was monitored. There are 11 monitoring points in each
cross profile. The monitoring points were installed
every 5 m in a range from 2 m to 52 m. The in-site
measurement data at each monitoring point after the
completion of the excavation is shown in Table 1.
According to Table 1, the vertical soil displacement
near the horizontal level of the excavation bottom is
close to zero. The soil exhibits a behavior of upheaval
under this horizontal level, but the soil above this
horizontal level displays an opposite tendency. There-
fore, the final ground settlement around the excavation
combines the upheaval and settlement in deep soil.
Figure 1 gives out the numerical analysis result
of the same project. Its agreement with the in-site
measure data also demonstrates the soil deformation

451
Table 1. Vertical soil displacement at different depths (mm).

Depth
(m) R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8

2 49 48 44 49 53 45 40 41
7 25 41 25 48 56 42 40 39
12 18 19 19 41 48 37 40 30
17 10 7 13 29 39 30 26 17
22 8 4 6 20 11 19 23 10
27 12 10 9 5 2 8 12 0
32 4 9 6 8 10 3 4 0
37 13 19 1 12 22 7 3 4
42 15 15 9 15 24 6 3 5
47 14 10 7 13 26 10 1 5
52 17 16 2 20 21 9 8 11
Figure 2. Zone division by different stress path.

Table 2. Rcr and Ru value of Shanghai soft soil.

Soil layer Rcr Ru h

 0.32 0.81 2.1H

 0.30 0.83 2.3H
 0.27 0.77 2.7H
 0.26 0.75 2.8H
 0.29 0.77 2.4H
Average value 0.29 0.79 2.4H

generated by the excavation will partly transmit to the

Figure 1. Displacement field around a certain deep
excavation.
behavior around the deep excavation that the shallow
soil settles and deep soil upheaves.
1.2 Soil stress path around the excavation
The soil deformation behavior that the shallow soil
settles and deep soil upheaves is mainly attributed to
the different soil stress paths in different zones around
the excavation. As shown in Figure 2, during the exca-
vation, the soil in Zone A is unloaded in horizontal
direction but its vertical load is nearly constant. As a
result, the soil in Zone A is compressed. By contrast,
the soil in Zone B is unloaded in vertical direction with
a constant horizontal load, so it generates the upheaval
deformation. Based on that analysis, the soil in Zone
C can be supposed to be unloaded in vertical direction.
According to the diffuse angle theory, the load in
the soil will spread out with the increase of depth.
However, the excavation can be regarded as a counter
process of loading, so the unloading stress induced
by excavation will spread out along with soil diffuse
angle. Meanwhile, the diffuse angle theory and numer-
ical analysis also show that the soil diffuse angle can
be derived from the soil internal friction angle.
With regard to the excavation, its retaining wall can
restrain and separate the upheaval of soil. Just because
of the restrain and separating effect, the unloading
wall instead of spreading out above the bottom of the
retaining wall. By comparison, the counter load can
spread out along with diffuse angle below the bottom
of the retaining wall due to the lack of the separat-
ing effect. So the soil in Zone C produces upheaval
deformation under the condition that its vertical load
decreases and lateral load keeps constant during the
excavation. Meanwhile, it is obvious that the unload-
ing magnitude in the C Zone is smaller than that in the
B Zone.
2 THE SPHERE OF INFLUENCE OF THE
EXCAVATION
The unloading influence depth and the sphere of
ground settlement are critical indicators to control the
deformation of excavations and to protect adjacent
structures. Therefore, in the light of the above anal-
ysis on the behavior of soil deformation around the
excavation in soft soil, this chapter targets on estab-
lishing a calculation method to estimate the unloading
influence depth and the sphere of ground settlement.
2.1 Influence depth of excavation
Jia, et al. (2007) used R-K0 method, lateral stress relax-
ation method, and resilient modulus method to study
the critical unloading ratio Rcr and ultimate unloading
ratio Ru of Shanghai soft soil from layer  to layer
 by K0 laboratory test. And the results are shown in
Table 2.

452
 The unloading ratio R can be defined as Equation 1: Table 3. Soil parameters used in the calculation.

C M

Soil layer kN/m3 kPa K0 kN/m4

1 Silty clay 18.6 20 22.0 0.46 600

where Pc = in-site vertical stress; P0 = the current ver- 1Very soft 17.3 11 16.5 0.51 950
tical stress. When the unloading ratio R reaches Rcr silty clay
during the excavation, the stress field and displace-  Silt clay 16.9 13 12.0 0.55 490
ment field will change significantly. But when R is 11 Clay 17.7 18 13.0 0.54 300
smaller than Rcr , the influence of unloading during 12 Silty clay 17.8 14 21.5 0.47 850
the excavation is negligible. 2 Clayey silt 18.5 10 30.5 0.37 910
Considering that the load diffuse below the exca- 3 Clayey silt 18.0 15 23.0 0.42 980
2 Silt 19.0 0 34.0 1970
vation bottom, the unloading stress Pc -P0 in the depth
of Z under the excavation bottom can be defined as *tan = 1 in the calculation.
Equation 2.

According to the definition of R (equation 1), Pc can

be calculated by Equation 3.

So R in the depth of Z under the excavation bottom

can be figured out by Equation 4.
Figure 3. Influence sphere of the excavation.

2.2 Sphere of ground settlement around excavation

When Rz is smaller than Rcr in the soil, it can be consid-
ered that the soil is beyond the influence of excavation.
So the unloading influence depth of the excavation Dcr
can be worked out by Rcr . The relationship between Rcr
and Dcr is shown by Equation 5.
where H = the excavation depth; D = the depth of
retaining wall; Dcr = the influence depth of the excava-
tion; Rcr = the critical unloading ratio. Consequently,
Dcr can be determined by Equation 5, when Rcr is
given.
Table 4 and Figure 4 give out the calculated results
of unloading influence depth of a 17-meter deep exca-
vation in Shanghai regarding the different excavation
width. The soil parameters used in the calculation is
shown in Table 3. The results show that the influ-
ence depth extends with the increase of excavation
width, but gradually converges to a constant. Com-
bining the calculation results and in-site measurement
data, the influence depth below the excavation bottom
is 1.01.5 times excavation depth, when the exca-
vation width is small. But as the excavation width
increases, the influence depth will reach 22.5 times
excavation depth.
Based on the analysis of soil stress paths and numerical
study, this chapter gives out the calculation method
of sphere of ground settlement around the excavation
considering spatial effect in the excavation such as the
excavation width and depth.
Figure 3 shows the influence sphere of the excava-
tion according to the soil sliding theory. On the basis
of diffuse angle theory, the arc vertex is not right below
the retaining wall but the intersection (Point c) of the
diffuse boundary (line b-c) and the horizontal line at
influence depth Dcr . The soil in the Zone C is upheaval
under the diffuse effect of the excavation, as described
above, which can explain the phenomenon seen in
the real project that the maximum ground settlement
point is not right at the retaining wall but at a distance
to the retaining wall. In this research, the point a right
above the point c is deems as the maximum ground
settlement point.
From the geometrical relationship shown in Fig-
ure 3, the influence sphere of the excavation L can be
calculated by Equation 6.
where Dcr is the unloading influence depth and can
be determined by equation (5); other parameters are
shown in Figure 3.
Table 4 and Figure 4 show the calculated results
of the sphere of influence of a 17-meter deep excava-
tion in Shanghai concerning the different excavation
width. The soil parameters used in the calculation is

453
Table 4. Influence sphere of the excavation with different
width (Calculation results).

Excavation Influence Depth under Sphere of ground

Width (m) excavation bottom (m) settlement (m)

20 12.9 30.4
40 17.6 35.2
50 19.3 38.5
100 24.5 49
200 29.5 59
300 32.1 64

Figure 5. Calculation model for lateral deformation of

retaining wall. All the soil pressure in this figure is under
the condition that the retaining wall has no deformation.

Figure 4. Influence sphere of the excavation with different unloading stress at the depth of Z below the excavation
width (Calculation results). bottom can be calculated by Equation 7.

also from Table 3. The results show that the sphere

of influence expands with the increase of excavation
width, but gradually converges to a constant. Com-
bining the calculation results and in-site measurement
data, the sphere of influence is 1.01.5 times excava-
tion depth, when the excavation width is small. But as
the excavation width increases, the sphere of influence
will reach 3.5 times excavation depth.
In conclusion, the calculation method for the
unloading influence depth and the sphere of ground
settlement of the excavation proposed in this paper
can take the excavation width into account, compared
with the traditional methods, which only consider the
excavation depth and soil conditions. The calculation
results can exactly reflect the spatial effect inher-
ent to the influence depth and the sphere of ground
settlement around the excavation.
3 LATERAL DEFORMATION CALCULATION
OF RETAINING WALL IN DEEP
EXCAVATION
Based on above discussion, the unloading stress can
diffuse along with the soil diffuse angle, so the vertical
The horizontal unloading stress at the depth of Z can
be figured out according to the relationship between
the horizontal stress and vertical stress of the soil, as
shown in Equation 8.
where = soil density; B = excavation width; H =
excavation depth; and = soil stress diffusion angle.
Given the horizontal unloading stress, the deforma-
tion of the retaining wall can be calculated using the
vertical elastic foundation beam theory.
Figure 5 gives out the calculation model for the lat-
eral deformation of the retaining wall. The retaining
wall is simplified to a vertical foundation beam. The
soil in the passive zone and the bracings are equivalent
to the springs. The soil outside the excavation converts
to the soil pressure on the retaining wall.
Before the excavation, outer and inner soil pressure
(Po and Pi ) on the retaining wall is balanced and both
equal to the static soil pressure. As the soil is exca-
vated, the Pi reduces but the Po remains unchanged

454
Figure 6. Incremental Method for lateral deformation Figure 7. The lateral deformation of the retaining wall with
calculation of retaining wall. different excavation width.

before the retaining wall has any deformation. The loss Table 5. The descriptions and measured data of two projects.
of the inner soil pressure (Pl ) represented by the area
surrounded by the dashed line (see Fig. 5a) can be cal- Luwan District Jufenglu Metro
55 Station
culated by the Equation 8. So the inner soil pressure
after the excavation (Pi ) is Pi Pl .
Depth 18 m 16 m18 m
Consequently, the final outer soil pressure on the Width 210 m 20 m
retaining wall (Po ) is Po Pi , as shown in Fig. 5b. The Retaining wall Thick: 1 m Thick: 0.8 m
equivalent rigidity of soil springs can be calculated by Depth: 37 m Depth: 2932 m
M method. Supports 4 layers 4 layers
In calculation, the Incremental Method is adopted Maximum ground 57 mm 45 mm
to simulate the excavation process (Figure 6). The settlement v,max
incremental deformation of the retaining wall at each Maximum lateral 41 mm 25 mm
excavation step is calculated. The final deformation is deformation of
retaining wall h,max
the sum of the previous incremental deformation.
Sphere of ground 70 m 40 m
Take the excavation step i for example, the incre- settlement Xs
mental soil pressure on the retaining wall at the depth
of Z can be obtained by Equation 9.

where Hi = excavation depth after excavation step i.

The above method has been programmed into a
plane calculation code. Using this code, a series of
deep excavation examples with the same depth of 17 m
but the different width (20 m, 40 m 200 m) are cal-
culated. Table 3 gives the soil parameters applied in
those calculations. The results are shown in Figure 7.
The Figure 7 shows that the maximum lateral defor-
mation (h,max ) of the retaining wall increases when the
excavation width becomes larger. And this tendency
is especially remarkable when the excavation width
is small. However, as the excavation width exceeds
a certain value, h,max gradually grows slowly. This
behavior matches the in-site measurement data of real
projects very well.
4 THE ANALYSIS OF IN-SITE MEASUREMENT
DATA OF TWO REAL PROJECTS
The excavations for Luwan District 55 and Jufenglu
Metro Station are both located in Shanghai soft soil.
Figure 8. The measured curve of the ground settlement
around excavations.
The descriptions and the measured data of two projects
are shown in Table 5.
Figure 8 and Figure 9 show that the deformation
characteristics of deep excavations closely are closely
related to excavation width. The spatial effect inher-
ent to excavations can exert significant impact on
their deformation characteristics. With the increas-
ing excavation width, the ground settlement and later
deformation of the retain wall will become larger obvi-
ously. In the Figure 9, the calculated value is quite close
to the measured value, which demonstrates that the
method presented in this paper can provide an accurate
prediction of deformation of deep excavations.

455
 (2) The influence depth of excavation is related to the
scale of the excavation. In this paper, the analy-
sis method of the influence depth is presented, in
which the effect of scale, especially the width, is
taken into considered. As shown in results of the
calculation, the influence depth of the excavation
can reach 2.5 times the excavation depth, as the
excavation width increased.
(3) Based on the soil sliding theory, the calculation
method for the sphere of ground settlement around
the excavation is presented, which considers the
spatial effect. Both the analysis and the measured
data show that the sphere of ground settlement can
expands over 3.5 times the excavation depth.
(4) This paper gives out a new calculation method
for the soil pressure on the retaining wall which
can take the spatial effect of excavations into
account. Then on the basis of that improved soil
pressure calculation method, a program is written
and applied in two real projects. The comparison
between the measure value and calculated value
show that this calculation method of this research
can effectively predict the deformation of excava-
tion in soft soil and serve as a reference for the
future design and construction.

REFERENCES
Deng, Z.J. & Jia, J. 2008. On unloading resilience depth in
Figure 9. Measured and calculated value of the lateral deep station foundation pit. Urban Mass Transit 11(3):
deformation of retaining wall. 5255.
Jia, J. & Xie, X.L . 2009. Unloading Deformation Mechanism
of Deep-large Excavation in Shanghai Clay Area. Journal
5 CONCLUSIONS Of Shanghai Jiaotong University 43(6):10051010.
Liu, J.H & Hou, X.Y. 1997. Excavation Engineering Hand-
Based on the in-site measurements, numerical analy- book. Shanghai: China Building Industry Press.
sis, K0 laboratory test, and engineering practice, this Liu, G.B. & Wang, W.D. 2009. Excavation Engineering
Manual. Shanghai: China Building Industry Press.
paper analyzes the characteristics of the stress field Pan, L.Y .2011. Experimental study on the shear strength of
and the displacement field around deep excavations, clay under the unloading state. Rock and Soil Mechanics
and then explores the method to estimate the sphere of 22(4):490493.
influence and the lateral deformation of retaining wall
of excavations. Finally, the following conclusions are
reached.
Stress diffusion angle is used to analyze the soil
stress path around deep excavation. Soil around exca-
vation was divided into three zones by stress path,
which explained the engineering phenomenon that
(1) The soil diffuse angle theory is applied in this
research to analyze the soil stress paths in deep
soil around the excavation, which can explain the
engineering phenomenon that the shallow soil set-
tles and the deep soil upheaves near the retaining
wall.

456
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Research on temperature controlling technique of mass concrete bridge

bearing platform

Zhenzhou Qin & Xiedong Zhang

Hubei Key Laboratory of road and bridge engineering, School of Transportation, Wuhan University of Technology,
Wuhan, China

ABSTRACT: How to control the inside and outside temperature range of structure caused by concrete heat
of hydration and prevent temperature flaws caused by temperature stress is a thorny problem in technology for
large concrete bridge bearing platform works. According to the performance of massive high strength concrete
in large bridges, the proportioning design, material selection and maintenance methods for constructing massive
concrete were presented. Based upon the construction example the theoretical calculation, simulation analysis,
construction control technology in large concrete structure were described in detail and a comparative analysis
showed that the results of three methods were basically identical which accumulated technical data in dealing
with puzzles for the works of mass concrete bridge bearing platform.

Keywords: mass concrete; simulation analysis; temperature field; stress field

1 INTRODUCTION Table 1. Mix proportion of bearing platform concrete.

The main reason of temperature cracks of concrete
is the thermal stresses caused by temperature dif-
ference between the center and surface of the mass
concrete section (Zhu et al. 1976, Wan et al. 2008,
Anton & Frank 2002). Because of the accumulation
of cement hydration heat, internal temperature rose
sharply in the cause of concrete expansive deformation
after pouring concrete 2 to 4 days, when the internal
stresses of concrete is compressive stresses (Peng et al.
2005, Li 2009). The Elastic Modulus and the com-
pressive stresses were small at this stage. The internal
temperature of concrete began to fall down after the
temperature peak (Duan & Xiang 2010), when the con-
crete began to shrink and the internal stresses is tensile
stresses. In this period, the Elastic Modulus was bigger
and there was large tensile stresses in the center of con-
crete due to temperature contraction distortion. When
the tensile stresses of concrete more than anti-pull
strength of the same age, it will results in tempera-
ture cracks and produces different degree of harm to
concrete structure.
The large bridge mentioned in this article con-
sists of a cable-stayed bridge with 5 spans and a
simple bridge with 8 spans whose whole length is
1137.49 m. The steel trussed cable stayed bridge with
main span of 84 m + 135 m + 432 m + 135 m + 81 m.
Bearing platform and pier were used in the sub-
structure. The size of bearing platform NO. 11 is
55.4 m 25 m 6 m, which needs 7618 m3 concrete
marking designed for C40.
Cement Fly ash Sand Stone Water admixture
kg/m3 kg/m3 kg/m3 kg/m3 kg/m3 kg/m3
276 148 708 1108 140 6.36
The internal temperature control is the key to ensure
the quality of the mass concrete of bearing platform
one-off pouring. How to retard condensation of con-
crete for long enough (up to 48 hours) and design a
scientific proportion of high-performance concrete is
the difficult point of construction (Li 2009, Anton &
Frank 2002). The physical and thermal properties of
concrete are the most basic and important influenc-
ing factor of temperature cracks controlling, so the
optimization of mix proportion is the primary task of
temperature controlling According to the mix design
principle mass concrete should has following charac-
teristics, such as little adiabatic temperature rise, great
tensile strength, great ultimate tensile deformation
capacity, little linear expansion coefficient, and slight
expansion, low shrinkage at least. The mix proportion
of bearing platform concrete is listed in Table 1.
2 CRACKING COMPUTATION
The thickness of the bearing platform in this engi-
neering project is 6 m. According to the requirement

457
of the Code for Acceptance of Constructional Qual-
ity of Concrete Structures (GB50204-2002) a cracking
computation is necessary. The temperature difference
between the center and surface of the concrete section
should not be more 25 C, the temperature difference
between the surface of the concrete and air should
not be more 20 C, as the requirement of the Tech-
nical Code for Waterproofing of Underground Works
(GB50108-2008).
The adiabatic temperature rise of concrete accord-
ing to
where W = 276 kg/m3 is the dosage of cement per
cubic concrete; C = 0.96 kJ/(kg K) is the specific heat
of concrete; Q = 461 kJ/kg, is the hydration heat of
per kilogram cement; = 2400 kg/m3 is the density of
concrete; FA = 148 kg/m3 is the dosage of fly ash per
cubic concrete. Then, the adiabatic temperature rise
T = 47 C obtained by calculation.
Calculation of the highest central temperature of
concrete according to
where Tj is the molding temperature of concrete, is a
temperature coefficient. According to the climatologi-
cal data and actual construction Tj = 18 C, = 0.9, so
Tmax = 60.3 C.
The surface temperature of concrete according to
where Tb () is the surface temperature of concrete
when the age of concrete is ; Tq is the average tem-
perature of the atmosphere and T() is temperature
difference between the center of concrete and air;
H = h + 2h is the calculated thickness of concrete
where h is the actual thickness of concrete. The virtual
thickness of concrete is h according to
Table 2. The reference value of splining tensile strength.
Age of concrete (days) 3 7 28
Splining tensile strength (Mpa) 1.4 2.4 3.5
Table 3. The reference value of physical and thermal function parameters of concrete.
Finally elastic
Concrete grade modulus Thermal coefficient
MPa meters/ C
C40 4.2 104 8.0 106
where K = 0.666 is a reduction coefficient; =
2.67 W/(m K) is the thermal coefficient of concrete;
= 2.50 W/(m K) is the thermal coefficient of heat
insulation layer. Tb () = 25.2 C was obtained by cal-
culation. Whats more, Tmax Tb () = 21.8 C < 25 C,
what is meet the requirement of the code. whats more
the reference value of splining tensile strength is listed
in Table 2.
3 MODELING ANALYSIS
For analysis the temperature and stresses field of bear-
ing platform concrete under different conditions in
the construction of once-pouring of mass concrete, a
temperature stresses simulation calculation was made,
which was aimed at providing basis and guidance to
the temperature controlling.
3.1 Simulation parameters
The concrete marking designed for C40 and the phys-
ical and thermal properties of concrete are listed in
Table 3.
All the other simulation parameters had been cal-
culated according to the construction, such as thermal
coefficient of construction materials, the size of con-
struction materials and so on. The cooling effect of
cooling pipe and heat preservation effect of steel boxed
cofferdam were both considered in the calculation.
Whats more, to analysis concrete creep a mean of
empiric numeric modeling was used according to
where C1 = 0.23/E2 ; C2 = 0.52/E2 ; E2 was the finally
elastic modulus. As the research object is symmetric,
only a quarter was taken in the modeling analysis. The
mesh dissection of the bearing platform can be seen in
Figure 1. The analysis simulated the changing process
60
3.8 Figure 1. The mesh dissection of quarter bearing platform
(with a equivalent constraint foundation).
Specific heat
of expansion Adiabatic temperature rise
kJ/kg C Poisson ratio
C
0.96 0.167 46.0
458
Table 4. The results of temperature stresses.

Age of concrete 3 7 28 180

Days
Temperature stresses 1.44 1.39 1.89 1.82
Mpa
Minimum safety factor 0.97 1.73 1.85 2.09

Figure 5. The stresses field distribution 28 days after

pouring (0.01 MPa).

Figure 2. The highest temperature envelope ( C).

Figure 6. The stresses field distribution half a year after

pouring (0.01 MPa).

Figure 3. The stresses field distribution 3 days after pouring

(0.01 MPa).

Figure 7. The layout schematic diagram of monitoring

sensors.

Figure 4. The stresses field distribution 7 days after pouring

(0.01 MPa).

of temperature stresses form the beginning to half a

year later. Figure 8. The layout schematic diagram of the temperature
monitoring procedures.

3.2 Simulation computation 4 TEMPERATURE CONTROLLING

The temperature was about 8 to 14 C when the
bearing platform construction was taken. So the con-
cretingtemperature was thought not higher than 18 C.
The result of calculation showed that the internal tem-
perature reached the peak 61.6 C about 3 days after
pouring. The results of temperature stresses are listed
in Table 4, the highest temperature envelope is shown
in Figure 2, the stresses field distribution are shown in
Figures 3 to 6.
TECHNIQUE OF MASS CONCRETE
4.1 Monitoring program
The sensors should be laid before concreting as
Figure 7. Before the temperature peak the tempera-
ture of concrete had been monitored every an hour,
after then it was once four hours which was twice a
day 5 days later until basically stable. The temperature
monitoring procedures are shown in Figure 8.

459
Table 5. The highest internal temperature and biggest temperature difference.
Mean molding The highest
temperature temperature
Area C C
The first layer 13.4 60.5
The second layer 19.2 61.6
Figure 9. The time-temperature curve of the first layer
monitoring points.
Figure 10. The time-temperature difference between inside
and surface of the first layer monitoring points.
In order to comprehend the changing rule of con-
crete temperature and provide reliable data to the
temperature controlling, the temperature monitoring
points were chosen according to the structure char-
acteristics of bearing platform. Two layers (12 points
every layer) of monitoring points were laid in the
bearing platform which followed the highlighted, con-
sidering the global principle.
4.2 Analysis of the results
The results of monitoring are shown in Table 5 and
figures 9 to 12. The highest internal temperature of the
first layer bearing platform concrete was 60.5 C, the
biggest temperature difference between the inside and
surface was 21.5 C which were 61.6 C and 21.3 C on
the second layer. The regarding time of concrete was 36
hours.The internal temperature reached the peak under
the action of the hydration after pouring. The temper-
ature kept at the peak for about 4 hours, after then,
the temperature began to decrease with a 3 C to 5 C
Appearance time of The biggest temperature difference
the temperature peak between inside and surface
Hours C
92 21.5
86 21.3
Figure 11. The time-temperature curve of the second layer
monitoring points.
Figure 12. The time-temperature difference between inside
and surface of the second layer monitoring points.
temperature drop per hour. Under the sustained action
of cooling pipe in the late stage, the time of mandatory
temperature reducing was only about 4 days.
5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The reasonable layering of concrete and cooling pipe
had been designed according to the simulation compu-
tation based on the structure characteristics of bearing
platform, which decreased the highest internal temper-
ature effectively. The security, rational and practicable
temperature control scheme had been implemented
which included monitoring real-time temperature data,
issuing pertinent instructions of temperature control-
ling and providing effective measures. Finally, the
expected effect of temperature controlling had been
obtained.
In the research on temperature controlling tech-
nique of mass concrete bridge bearing platform, the
theoretical calculation, simulation computation and
monitoring program all had been used. Their results
had been proved basically identical by comparative
460
analysis. The maximum adiabatic temperature rise of
concrete was about 37 C. About 3 to 4 days after pour-
ing, the internal temperature reached the peak that was
about 61.0 C. The temperature kept at the peak for
about 4 hours, after then, the temperature began to
decrease with a 3 C to 5 C temperature drop per hour.
About 4 more days later, the temperature of concrete
tend to prospective stable state after natural cooling
stage.
The trend of the temperature difference between
inside and surface of concrete was gentle decline due
to the plenty of recirculating cooling water supply. The
using of steel cofferdam played a positive role in avoid-
ing sudden surface temperature drop when there was a
cold wave. Good effect of the temperature difference
between inside and surface controlling was ensured by
these measures.
It could be knew from result of comparative ana-
lyzing theoretical calculation and simulation compu-
tation, that the maximum thermal stress was 1.89 MPa
appeared at 28 days after pouring and the minimum
safety factor was only 0.97 at about 3 to 4 days. So
temperature control measures and related regulations
should be enforced more strictly in the seam stages of
similar engineering.
REFERENCES
Anton K. Schindler & B. Frank McCullough 2002. The
Importance of ConcreteTemperature Control During Con-
461
crete Pavement Construction in Hot Weather Conditions.
Washington, D. C.: A paper offered for publication at the
Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board.
January 2002.
Bofang Zhu, Tongsheng Wang & Baoying Ding 1976.A Study
on Thermal Stresseses and Temperature Control in Hydro-
concrete Structures. Beijing: China WaterPower Press.
Huiwen Wan, Chunlei Xie & Wenbing Xu 2008. Analysis of
the temperature control and monitoring of large volume
concrete pile. Concrete 2008(9).
Lihai Peng, Shiqin Yan & Chunsheng Zhang 2005. Tempera-
ture and Cracking Control of Mass Concrete. Henan: The
Yellow River Press.
Shennan Li 2009. Construction and Temperature Control
of Massive Concrete in Bridge Cap. Journal of Wuhan
University of Technology 2009(24).
The peoples Republic of China Ministry of housing and
Urban-Rural Development 2005. Code for Acceptance of
Constructional Quality of Concrete Structures (GB50204-
2002). Beijing: China Architecture & Building Press.
The National Peoples Air Defense Office 2008. Tech-
nical Code for Waterproofing of Underground Works
(GB50108-2008). Beijing: China Planning Press.
Yin Duan & Zhenglin Xiang 2010. Comparative Analysis
of Pipe Cooling in Mass Concrete Using Thermal-fluid
Coupling Method and Equivalent Method Based on FEM.
Journal of Wuhan University (Engineering Science), June
2010.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Technology strategy of Astor House Hotel protective restoration project

Qi Zhang & Yue Zheng

AA Studio, School of Architecture, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

ABSTRACT: Astor House Hotel is one of the last remaining colonial architecture in Tianjin, it consists of four
parts, an old building, an extension building, a central hall and the Li Shun De tower. A protective restoration
project was carried out during 20082010. The restoration of the old building and extension building achieves the
maximum degree of preservation of the original scale, material and technology, with some reasonable updates
based on new ideas, technologies, and materials. And at the same time renovate the extension building of
1984 and the atrium connecting the old and the new building, to enhance its historic context and improve the
competitiveness of the brand name.

Keywords: Astor House Hotel, restoration, technology strategy

1 BACKGROUND OF THE RESTORATION

PROJECT

1.1 Historical background

Astor House Hotel is located in Tianjin, the first north-
ern Chinese city that opened up to the world, which also
became the origin of Chinas modern industry. As one
of the last remaining colonial architecture in Tianjin,
Astor House Hotel consists of four parts, an old build-
ing, an extension building, a central hall and the Li
Shun De tower. The old building is the only hotel
building in China that is currently in use and pretected
as a National Key Historical Relics Preservation Unit.
Until today, the earliest Otis elevator in China Is still
kept in the hotel. It plays an important role in Tianjin
and in modern Chinese history.
Figure 1. Site plan of Astor House Hotel (Source of the
The old building of the hotel, initially built in 1863. drawings is from AA Studio).
In 1886, the hotel was reconstructed into a three-storey
building with brick and timber structure on its original
site, equipped with a British pastoral style verandah 1.2 Current environment, architectural conditions,
externally and a five-storey tower at the corner and and uses of the property
pediment at the entrance. It was for a long time one of With the expansion of business scale and the improve-
the most important buildings in the Concession and ment of indoor environment, the hotel faced a series
witnessed the development of Tianjin and of mod- of problems in use: a part of wall surfaces were out
ern China: many treaties with foreign countries were of repair for many years, and had been mottled and
signed here in the building, and hotel owners were partially damaged; there were cracks in some walls,
actively involved in the Westernization Movement which brought up hidden safety issues of the archi-
and contributed to Chinas industrialization process; tectural structure. Because of these reasons, the hotel
Celebrities both local and international have stayed in owners decided to carry out a protective restoration
the hotel. like, Hoover, Sun Yat-sen, Pu Yi, etc. for the old building.
In 1976, the Tangshan Earthquake affected Tianjin,
and the exterior finish of the hotel along the street
was severely damaged, and the exterior finish work of 2 RESTORATION GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
the building after restoration was greatly simplified,
causing a complete loss of the buildings historical The main objectives of the restoration, based on the
information. principles of historic preservation, are to strengthen

463
the structure of the old building, repair exterior finish
work, restore interior space to its original meanings,
enhance building functions and update facilities, so
as to prolong the buildings lifetime. Meanwhile, the
extension building of 1984 was renovated, the internal
functions were optimized and upgraded, to coordinate
with architectural style of the old building and blend
with atmosphere of the historical block. The restaurant
addition built between the new and the old buildings in
1984 was demolished, and an additional glass ceiling
atrium was built to create a hotel human environment
endowed with historical culture.
3 THE RESTORATION PROJECT
3.1 Issues of restoration
This restoration project restored the appearance of
the old building to the state as the period with the
most historical value (18861929) by following the
Law of the PRC on Protection of Historical and
Cultural Relics and based on the argumentation of
domestic cultural relic protection experts, as well as
respected various historic stages of construction devel-
opment, and retained the valuable extension parts of
the hotels buildings of different periods, such as the
hotel entrance along North Jiefang Road rebuilt in
1921 and the ground floor room along North Jiefang
Road additionally built in 1929, and etc.
3.2 Changes made to structure, and relationship of
new to old
It was found in the survey that the load-bearing wall
of the old building has cracks, weathering, disruption
and defects, the walls of the basement have serious
moisture penetration and appeared mildew. In the pro-
cess of structural restoration, the following measures
were taken: laying bricks and stones on the damaged
and loosened part of the walls; treating cracks with
epoxy resin grouting; correcting the wall tilting with
tightened steel lever; and protecting appropriately the
architrave and details that have been well preserved
and of great historical value. To prevent The stairs, wall
panel, timber floor and other interior decorations from
damages, they were covered by wood boards during
the construction process to maintain their integrity.
The floor system of the building was well preserved.
In the innovation, the wooden floors left over by history
were preserved to the maximum extent, and local dam-
aged areas were replaced with original materials and
original process; diagonal bracing that couldnt satisfy
safety requirement was replaced. The original mate-
rials and shape of wooden structure was reserved to
the most extent. The components with potential safety
hazards were reinforced by use of double-sided splints.
The wooden components with wind crack were treated
with epoxy resin grouting. The components with wider
cracks were tightened with steel casing hoop.
The structure strengthening enhanced the security
of the old building and improved earthquake resistant
capability.
464
Figure 2. Old picture of the tower (Source of the picture is
from Postcard of old Tianjin).
3.3 The methodology of restoration
In the design process, the old photos, drawings and
similar historical buildings of the same period were
referred to investigate the form of the old building,
e.g. the node details of eave corbelling was discov-
ered in the surveying and mapping drawing of 1963;
the collection of historical information was achieved
through site investigation, wooden column covered by
the late stage structure built in 1886 was discovered in
a section of closed wooden staircase of the courtyard.
On the basis of preserving original shapes, original
materials and original processes, the parts with seri-
ous loss of historical information were repaired and
the parts with well preservation were retained, thus
protecting and sustaining the historical information
of cultural relic buildings to the greatest extent and
embodying the respect for history. Preserving original
shapes, e.g. the tower windows and eave corbelling
of the old building were based on relatively matured
composition guidelines and brick laying method of
that time and the restoration was to restore their origi-
nal appearance based on historical information; using
original materials wherever possible. For example,
the roof of the old building were rebuilt for many
times and currently was the corrugated iron roof, the
restoration used a kind of tube-shaped terracotta com-
monly used at the end of 19th century according to
the textual research on old photos; using original pro-
cesses, e.g. the restoration of precious vase on wooden
verandah was performed by local craftsman according
to traditional techniques with handmade mold, initial
sculpture, and polishing.
In order to maintain the cultural relic value of the
old building, the old materials were not discarded
or replaced and the new materials were of the same
specification and similar texture and color as origi-
nal materials as much as possible. Repaired decoration
pattern respected the original style, technique and pre-
served historical style and features. For example, the
wooden precious vase was restored in comparison
with original shape through analysis of old photos, the
flowers and plants and other mascots were carved on
the vase body.
The protective restoration focused on identifiability,
so as not to distort its artistic or historical witnesses.
At the same time, the structure was strengthened
Figure 3. Tower after conservation (Photographed by AA
studio 06/13/2010).
Figure 4. Laying bricks on the damaged and loosened part
of the walls (Photographed by AA studio 06/16/2009).
without changing the buildings original main struc-
ture and accorded with new requirement of use. For
instance, the restoration of wall body mainly used
hollow bricklaying and brick replacement; the restora-
tion of wooden stairs used sandpaper to remove the
oil paint by polishing, particularly meticulous for the
removal of oil paint of engraving patterns, thus to keep
the pattern from damage, after the removal of the oil
paint, nanmu, the original staircase material was used
to replace the decayed part in accordance with original
form and size and repainted with traditional Chinese
lacquer; the damaged wooden beam of roof structure
used plywood and bolts for reinforcement at both sides.
Structures that were severely destroyed and could
not be strengthened by traditional restoration tech-
nologies were strengthened by new technologies. For
example, specific to the large area of cracking or
crisping of the wall body, the wire mesh cement mor-
tar reinforcement technology was used; the cracks of
wooden structure was used epoxy resin grouting; con-
crete beam of extension building of 1924 was used
carbon fiber reinforcement technology, etc.
The protective restoration reconstructed the veran-
dah which was damaged in the Tangshan Earthquake.
The design, via analyzing old photos, recovered the
verandah wooden columns into the tetragonous style
with horizontal concave molding between each cer-
tain interval. The unique decoration style can be traced
465
Figure 5. Covered stairs by wood (Photographed by AA
studio 07/10/2009).
Figure 6. Reinforcement of timber structure (Source of the
drawings is from the Architecture Design Research Institute
of Tianjin University 07/10/2009.)
back to the early Southeast Asian colonial buildings;
wooden railing was recovered into circular spider style.
3.4 Use of appropriate materials
The renovation process followed the principle of using
original materials, processes and shapes, and used
modern technique to simulate the scale of original
materials and construction process. Common pine of
north China was used to repair verandas; aluminum
alloy doors and windows were added at later stage of
removal to recover the traditional exquisite wooden
doors and windows of local Tianjin; for the terra-
cotta on roof, semicircle-shaped tile generally used
in China folks at the end of the 19th century were
used; bricks for exterior finish work were baked with
clay. Since Tianjin hasnt produced semicircle-shaped
tiles and clay bricks, contractor had bricks and tiles
custom-made in the two enterprises in Yibin and Fos-
han of China, thus realizing sharing and cross-area
cooperation by use of human resources of different
areas. The glass roof of the additional atrium used steel
frame structure to avoid the connection with cultural

Figure 7. Node of timber structure (Source of the drawings
is from the Architecture Design Research Institute of Tianjin
University 07/10/2009).
relics building and made the old building keep relative
completeness and structural independence.
3.5 Use of appropriate fire prevention technologies
The risk of catching fire was high in the hotel. The fire
resistance of the building materials was poor, and the
components were aging. Site space was limited. Fire
prevention space was insufficient. Fire lane couldnt
satisfy requirement. The fire resistance of the stairs
was poor and in less quantity; and layout was uneven.
Evacuation distance was too long. Firefighting divi-
sional area was too large. Evacuation exits were not
enough. Central lobby was too large, and its space
was too high. There were openings connecting with
surrounding buildings. Due to the special architec-
tural form and structure, etc., of the hotel, mechanical
application of current building codes might violate
the principle of preservation of cultural relics and
damage architectural structure, appearance and cul-
tural value. The project made preliminary firefighting
design based on the principle of protecting and sustain-
ing the historical information of cultural relic buildings
to the greatest extent and keeping the spatial pat-
tern of the old building unchanged, namely protecting
the personal and property safety through appropriate
technical measures, e.g. the firewall and firefighting
windows were set up additionally to solve the prob-
lem of inadequate building fire separation distance.
The performance-based firefighting design was made
based on preliminary firefighting design by use of
466
firefighting safety engineering method and technol-
ogy, e.g. the long evacuation distance in the building
was improved through the addition of indicative marks,
automatic sprinkling fire extinguishing system, trans-
parent smokescreen. Finally, the aided methods like
FDS software was used for check calculation to guar-
antee the safe evacuation of personnel and effective
control of fire and smoke spreading in case of fire.
3.6 How well new elements and creative technical
solutions respect structures character
The protective restoration project also transformed the
hotel atrium. The atrium is located in the middle part
of the hotel, formerly was the courtyard space between
the buildings. In order to solve the problem of lack of
daylighting and ventilation caused to the guest room
of the old building by the restaurant additionally built
in 1984, make full use of both sides of the intact old
wall, and highlight its historical value and cultural
readability, the atrium modification works demolished
the three-storey restaurant additionally built in 1984,
cleaned and repaired the old wall of both sides, and
combined with hot summer and cold winter climate
conditions in Tianjin to create a two-storey multifunc-
tional space with courtyard intention and delightful in
all seasons by use of arched glass roof. The guest can
get a view of architectural remains of different peri-
ods of Astor House Hotel through transparent glass
roof in this space, to fully experience history and
taste culture while enjoying modern life. of the old
building by the restaurant additionally built in 1984,
make full use of both sides of the intact old wall, and
highlight its historical value and cultural readability,
the atrium modification works demolished the three-
storey restaurant additionally built in 1984, cleaned
and repaired the old wall of both sides, and combined
with hot summer and cold winter climate conditions
in Tianjin to create a two-storey multifunctional space
with courtyard intention and delightful in all seasons
by use of arched glass roof. The guest can get a view
of architectural remains of different periods of Astor
House Hotel through transparent glass roof in this
space, to fully experience history and taste culture
while enjoying modern life.
The newly increased arched glass roof was used
arched steel frame structure to avoid the connection
with cultural relics building and made the old building
keep relative completeness and structural indepen-
dence. The newly increased steel frame structure was
used beige color to coordinate and form visual unity
with the old wall.
4 CONCLUSION
Astor House Hotel Protective Restoration Project
remodeled the appearance of the old building with
the most historical value and Aesthetic significance
by means of restoration to seek for the sustainabil-
ity of the architecture, history and cultural intention,
thus to carry forward the memories of Astor House
Hotel and regional site. In the architectural restora-
tion process, the cultural relic preservation principles
of using original materials, original dimensions and
original processes were observed, the architectural
form, materials and detail practice were demonstrated
through historical drawings, old photos and local tradi-
tional craft records, the historical original appearance
was recovered by using traditional techniques and
processes, so as to inherit and develop the tradi-
tional techniques on the basis of pursuing technology
consistency.
Astor House Hotel protective restoration project
worked well in the preservation and restoration of
architectural heritage, partial restoration, reconstruc-
tion of new buildings, and linkage of new and old
building. which was a successful application of inter-
nationally accepted concept of preservation of cultural
relics in the cause of preservation of cultural relics of
Tianjin and China, as well as embodied the perfect
combination of traditional restoration technology and
467
innovation technology, and ultimately sustained urban
memory, promoted the revitalization of the neighbor-
hood and led the development of architectural heritage
conservation force in China.
REFERENCES
Astor House Hotel Co., Ltd. 1997.Astor House Hotel.Tianjin:
Peoples Publishing House.
Liu Jiantang & Tian Yutang. 1993. Astor House Hotel
and Modern Tianjin. Tianjin: Baihua Literature and Art
Publishing.
HOU Kai, XU Su-bin & Qingmuxinfu. 2010. Discussion on
the conservation and renovation of historic Architecture.
Shanxi: Shanxi Architecture.
Zhang Oi. 2010. The research on the restoration project of
Astor House Hotel. Tianjin: Urban Environment Design.
Zhe Fu. 2000. Postcard of old Tianjin. Tianjin: Tianjin
Peoples Publishing House.
Zheng Yue. 2012. New life of old industrial inspiration
from the renovation project of Pilsner Urquell in Czech
Republic. Beijin: Building Industry Magazine.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Analysis of the attribute of indemnificatory housing

Kezhen Sun
College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture,
Beijing, China

ABSTRACT: This article discusses the attribute of indemnificatory housing and housing security system in
our society. The critical problem is concerned with general character and individual character of indemnificatory
housing comparing ordinary commercial residential buildings. The general character problem includes the social
attribute of residential buildings and some other common properties. The problems of individual character have
an important meaning to the indemnificatory housing construction. The individual character problem includes
the characteristics of indemnificatory housing, including its specific standards and economic indexes. From the
society attribute this paper gives account of the housing security problem under the different social conditions.
The article also argues the critical roles of housing security system under the modern society. The paper also
reviews the progress from welfare or public room to indemnificatory or affordable housing in China; most of the
residential buildings are coincide with economical and adaptable housing, and many essential characteristics of
indemnificatory housing should be studied.

Keywords: Attribute, general and individual character, social attribute, indemnificatory housing or affordable
housing, housing security

1 INTRODUCTION development of Chinas reform, opening up and the

Inhabitation problem is an important problem of life
and a residential building problem, as well as a sig-
nificant social problem, which is concerned with the
stability of a society.And the problem that every family
should possess a moderate housing has a momentous
meaning for any country or society and that problem
is the window of a nations basic economic strength.
It is an important peoples livelihood and human right
issues. Therefore inhabitation problem possesses the
attribute of society. The problems of general character
have an important meaning to a whole field of resident
buildings construction. The general character problem
includes the social attribute of residential buildings
and other common properties of housing. In China,
most of the residential buildings are coincide with
economical and adaptable housing. The problems of
individual character have an important meaning to the
indemnificatory housing construction. The individ-
ual character problem includes the characteristics of
indemnificatory housing, such as its specific standards
and economic indexes etc.
China as a socialist country had always been insist-
ing on the developments of public and welfare housing
since 1949. At that time collected science and tech-
nology strength in the country, the planning and
design of welfare residential buildings had developed
gradually, which was economical and adaptable, and
their system of standards, technical and economic
indexes had been shaped relatively maturely. With the
practice of market economy, including a social hous-
ing security system, a series of social security systems
is being gradually set up and perfected.
Nowadays the problem of housing security system
or indemnificatory housing has become a hot issue
in the area of residential building research. There are
some problems that should deeply be studied in the
field, such as how to profit from the overseas housing
security system, how do we understand the past wel-
fare or public housing in China? How do we understand
commercial housing nowadays? What characteristics
are there in the indemnificatory housing? One of the
key researches on indemnificatory housing is about
its specific standards and economic indexes. Accord-
ing to the specific use of the crowd, considering the
feature of these kinds of consumers or inhabitants, the
specific standards and economic indexes are the indi-
vidual character of indemnificatory housing. And this
article will try to argue about these problems.
2 GENERAL CHARACTER AND INDIVIDUAL
CHARACTER OF INDEMNIFICATORY
HOUSING IN CHINA COMPARING
ORDINARY COMMERCIAL RESIDENTIAL
BUILDINGS
Indemnificatory housing was developed out of the
bases of previous welfare or public residential building

469
since 1949, and it had its general and individual char-
acter comparing welfare or public residential building.
The characteristics of times and society are their
attributes. Since the founding of the Peoples Repub-
lic of China, from 1949 to the housing system reform
the planning and design of welfare residential build-
ings have developed gradually, which are economical
and adaptable, and their system of standards have
been shaped relatively maturely. On one hand the
economic and applicable architecture represent the
mainstream of architecture. On the other hand a lot of
ordinary commercial residential buildings also coin-
cide with the principle of economics, applicability
and aesthetics. Therefore, between ordinary housing
and affordable housing there are general characters in
many aspects of economic and adaptable feature, as
well as economizing on the use of land, saving water,
and saving energy etc. Clearing the problem of general
character, the absolutization and enlargement of the
trend to the problem can be prevented in the research
on the indemnificatory housing. In resent years recog-
nizing that drastic action was needed to establish the
housing security system after nearly decades housing
system reform practices in China. Individual character
of indemnificatory housing should be deeply stud-
ied, and it has an important meaning for the housing
security system.
3 THE SOCIAL ATTRIBUTE OF RESIDENTIAL
PROBLEM
3.1 The social development and residential problem
should be coordinated growth
There is a very definite link between peoples sur-
vival condition and social development. Since people
came to modern society, industrialization and urban-
ization have brought many social problems into a
series of social crises, such as ecological environment
and living space etc. And the situation has become
increasingly grave. The problems of humans sur-
vival environment, harmonious society have become
more and more importance. The contradictions among
polarizations of wealth and social equity always are
some main social problems. Each problem, such as
obtain employment, income, housing and Medicare
etc. is concerned with stabilization of society.
Observing the development of human society indi-
cates that it is one of the important guarantees of
harmonious society to establish a social security sys-
tem for low-income peoples survival condition. From
the practice of different social system, there is an
extensive meaning to establish the social security, and
facing common social problem.In different countries
and regions the state of social security system in low-
income and vulnerable peoples survival and to obtain
employment, medical treatment, and housing should
reflect the different characters of political system. His-
torically after industrial society and some social crisis
in many western countries, many related policies have
470
continually been adjusted, and social security system
has constantly been established. Some social secu-
rity systems have been explored and established for
a long time in many western countries and some other
regions. Therefore, from that, we can learn more about
experiences for our developing country. Indeed, the
living state of low-income people, the social housing
security system or the social security system will deter-
mine whether a country, a society is successful or not,
no matter how high science, technology and national
defense strength of ones country. Therefore the living
state of low-income people, the social housing secu-
rity system is one of the most important symbols of
ones country development.
3.2 Referring to successful experience of a housing
security system overseas
By using the experience of several countries and
regions that have the earlier established a social hous-
ing security system: The levels of one countrys a
large number of residential constructions are con-
cerned with its social security, environment quality,
and harmony social system. Establish a social security
system, which is concerned with the society stabil-
ity and harmony. Indemnificatory housing and its
residential environment, and supporting facilities con-
struction can relieve social contradictions. By using
the experience of several countries and regions that
have the earlier established a social housing secu-
rity system, for instance, Public Housing in Hong
Kong, State Apartment in Singapore, Indemnifica-
tory Housing and housing security system in Japanese,
America, Canada, and some European countries etc. It
has an important meaning for perfecting Chinas hous-
ing security system. State Apartment and Garden City
construction in Singapore not only improves the resi-
dential conditions, but also beautifies residential area,
public community, and urban environment. There is
not only Home Ownership, but also Shop Ownership
in the Singapore.
The housing security system in China: Although
the history of our socialist China is relatively younger
than some developed country, but the explorations
of welfare or public house construction had already
started since 1949. Therefore we have already had
a certain foundation to establish a housing security
system. From the planned economy period, the early
year of our country, to the reform and opening up
period the practice of public or welfare house in our
country had experienced different economic develop-
ment stages. After experiencing the early practice of
welfare house, free medical care and cooperative med-
ical care in planned economy period, the economic
development of our country rapidly turned to mar-
ket economy. Each social security system is being
gradually set up and adjusted experiencing short-term
exploration. Therefore, in such a way, using for refer-
ence overseas experiences and practices our socialist
China will become the advanced representation of
social housing security system under our government
leadership and investment. Especially in recent years
it has become our clear objectives to establish and
continuously improve social housing security. In the
construction of indemnificatory housing and its resi-
dential area invested by our government, some aspects
of factors should be considered, including: mobilize
enthusiasm in every aspects of society, perfect afford-
able or indemnificatory housing system of our country,
unified coordination management, consummate poli-
cies, regulations and supervision mechanism, as soon
as perfect our countrys housing guarantee system.
Shape various development modes for each kind of
low-income and vulnerable people, establish afford-
able or indemnificatory housing system, which is
invested by various channels.
4 THE BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF
AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN CHINA
4.1 The housing security system coincides
with its socialist system
The characteristics of Chinas socialist system will
decide on its distinct feature of housing security sys-
tem. The aim of Chinas housing security system is
improving dwelling condition for low-income people.
This housing security system includes different kinds
of affordable or indemnificatory housing, and the aim
is not for profit but good residential environment and
harmonious society. The affordable or indemnifica-
tory housing is not low standard rough housing; it has
been on the basis of built and studied on economical
and adaptable housing by the time our country is estab-
lished; and it has the basis level of ordinary housing. It
is different from super standard commercial housing.
The indemnificatory housing should strictly be built
according to state standards, and the function of hous-
ing, construction area and cost are accord with national
technology standards. Its residential lands come from
government direct grant allocation and through gov-
ernment debt-related costs, lower construction costs
and other measures, and increase the intensity of
housing construction. So its price can be controlled
within a reasonable scope.
4.2 The housing security system in China is being
established and practiced
The social security system in China is still being
established, and the Party and Country are actively
promoting the establishment of our housing security
system. According to the problems in the practice
many policies and guidelines are constantly readjusted
and improved. Under the unified arrangements of the
central government, according to the actual situation
every local government are actively probing, practic-
ing, and constantly perfecting local standards about
housing security system. Different kinds of indemnifi-
catory housing had been established such as economic
affordable housing, low-rent housing, and affordable
471
public rental housing, public rental housing and eco-
nomic affordable housing etc. The object of indemnity,
the scope of the crowd who should be guarantied is
constantly extending.
4.3 Advancement in society, science and technology
Chinas indemnificatory housing should possess the
advantage of socialistic system. It should represent
in general all the care for object of indemnity. By
increasing reasonably function of housing and techno-
logical content it plays a demonstration role in housing
industry. Current reviews of affordable housing must
according to the conception: applicability, economics,
aesthetics and cost control, ecological and energy con-
servation etc. It is the basic representative of advanced
in ecology and economics, and it will be reflected
in a countrys comprehensive strength of the econ-
omy and society. Affordable housing isnt low standard
rough housing, but possesses appropriate level. The
planning of indemnificatory residential district sup-
port facilities should be carefully taken into account.
And the planning and construction should also com-
bine with community development and humanities
care, new property management pattern. At present the
planning of indemnificatory housing and its residen-
tial district will show the following characteristic: the
housing security system and its component type, the
standards of construction and its related technology
and appearance, public support facilities, community
development etc.
In short, indemnificatory housing and its residen-
tial district are the primary representative of a country,
which are not only the basic representation of its
peoples living levels, but also the window of social
and living environments of ones country. Indem-
nificatory housing is National Support Affordable
Housing. It is neither luxurious villa nor low standard
dwelling. Indemnificatory housing is the housing for
low-income people, which is supported by the coun-
try and government. Affordable housing should follow
the idea: advanced in technology, ecology, and energy
conservation etc. The indemnificatory housing should
strictly be built according to state standards: construc-
tion area and cost are accord with national technology
standards.
5 CONCLUSION
The problems of general character have an impor-
tant meaning to a whole field of resident buildings
construction. The general character problem includes
the social attribute of residential buildings and other
common properties of housing. In China, most of the
residential buildings are coincide with economical and
adaptable housing. The problems of individual charac-
ter have an important meaning to the indemnificatory
housing construction. The individual character prob-
lem includes the characteristics of indemnificatory
housing, such as its specific standards and economic
indexes. Housing security system is developed out of
the growth of the modern civilizations. Any country
or society must solve its housing security problem.
Inhabitation problem possesses the attribute of soci-
ety. Some social security systems have been explored
and established for a long time in many western coun-
tries and some other regions. We can learn more about
experiences for our developing country. The living
state of low-income people, the social housing secu-
rity system is one of the most important symbols of
ones country development.
Although the history of our socialist China is rela-
tively younger than some developed country, but the
explorations of welfare or public house construction
had already started since 1949. We have already had
a certain foundation to establish a housing security
system. The indemnificatory housing should strictly
be built according to state standards, and the function
of housing, construction area and cost are accord with
national technology standards. The social security sys-
tem in China is still being established, and the Party
and Country are actively promoting the establishment
of our housing security system. According to the prob-
lems in the practice many policies and guidelines are
constantly readjusted and improved.
Chinas indemnificatory housing should possess the
advantage of socialistic system. By increasing reason-
ably function of housing and technological content
it plays a demonstration role in housing industry. It
is the basic representative of advanced in ecology
and economics, and it will be reflected in a countrys
comprehensive strength of the economy and society.
The problem of general character and individual
character of indemnificatory housing is an impor-
tant problem. In China indemnificatory housing was
developed out of the bases of previous welfare or
public residential building, and it had its general and
472
individual character comparing welfare or public resi-
dential building. between ordinary housing and afford-
able housing there are general characters in many
aspects of economic and adaptable feature, Individ-
ual character of indemnificatory housing should be
deeply studied, and it has an important meaning for
the housing security system.
REFERENCES
[1] Quan Xin, Operation Concept and Construction
Pattern of Affordable Privaterental Housing in
America: Based on the Successful Experience
of EAH, ARCHITECTURAL JOURNAL 2011.8,
Beijing, China
[2] Gao Zhi, Guan Ruilin, Practice at Mixed-
income Affordable Housing in Big City of Amer-
ica and its Enlightenment, ARCHITECTURAL
JOURNAL 2011.8, Beijing, China
[3] Liu Jiaoming, Difference between Welfare-oriented
Housing of China and Public-operated Residences
of Japan, HOUSING SCIENCE 2010.8, Shanghai,
China
[4] Wang Danna, Hu Zhenyu, State Apartment Con-
struction in Singapore and the Enlightenment,
HOUSING SCIENCE 2010.5, Shanghai, China
[5] Zhou Dian, Planning and Design for Japanese
Indemnificatory Housing, ARCHITECTURAL
JOURNAL 2009.8, Beijing, China
[6] Lou Jingbo, Study on the Renewal of Old City, the
Pattern and the Design Elements of Development
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JOURNAL 2010.3, Beijing, China
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Experimental study of recycled asphalt mixtures containing high rates

of reclaimed asphalt pavement

Litao Geng, Ruibo Ren, Lizhi Wang & Peng Wang

Shandong provincial key Laboratory of road and traffic engineering in colleges and universities, Shandong Jianzhu
university, Jinan, Shandong, China

ABSTRACT: This work presents an experimental research of recycled asphalt mixture with high percentages
of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). The properties of old asphalt binder and aggregate of RAP were analyzed
firstly. Then the component proportion of old asphalt binder, rejuvenating agent and fresh asphalt was determined.
Recycled asphalt mixtures of 60% and 70% RAP content were designed by Marshall Design method.The Marshall
Design parameters, performance of reclaimed asphalt mixture were studied.

Keywords: ecycled asphalt mixture; reclaimed asphalt pavement; component analysis; mixture design;
performance

1 INTRODUCTION analysis test of old asphalt in RAP was conducted.

The use of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) is
becoming more of a common practice in China and
many other countries(Mohamed & Magdy 2010, Li
et al. 2009). The increase of construction costs and
the rise in environmental awareness are the main
reasons for this practice. RAP rates between 10%
and 30% are commonly used in hot recycled asphalt
mixes. Although RAP binder is already age hard-
ened, according to several studies these rates of RAP
binder can be blended with fresh binder to significantly
decrease the aging effect, and the recycled asphalt
mixtures perform similarly to conventional asphalt
mixtures(Sun et al. 2012, Shah et al. 1998).
However, environmental restrictions are requiring
an increase in RAP content added to recycled mixtures
used in asphalt pavement construction and rehabilita-
tion. This has a beneficial effect from the economic
point of view and makes pavement construction sus-
tainable over time due to lower energy and natural
resource consumption(Maupin et al. 2009). Labo-
ratory and experimental field studies on mixtures
containing large amounts of RAP (40% to 60%) show
the feasibility of this technique (Kim et al. 2009,
Bueche et al. 2008, Gonzalo et al. 2011). However, as
its use in road construction and rehabilitation projects
becomes more widespread, further research is neces-
sary due to the damaging effect of traffic and climatic
conditions on mixtures.
The aim of this work is to analyze the behav-
ior of mixtures with large RAP contents (60% and
70%). The gradation and asphalt content of RAP
materials were tested by means of solvent extracted
method and the performance and then the component
Then the appropriate proportion of old asphalt, fresh
asphalt and rejuvenating agent was decided and two
kinds of recycled asphalt mixtures (60% and 70%
RAP content) were designed by Marshall Method.
The performance of recycled asphalt mixture was
tested by laboratory test and evaluated, which shows
good properties of recycled asphalt mixtures with high
percentages of RAP.
2 PERFORMANCE OF RAP MATERIALS
The RAP materials used in this paper were sam-
pled from a real highway reconstruction project in
Shandong province, China in 2011. AC-16 asphalt
mixture and 70# road petroleum asphalt were used
when the pavement were paving several years ago.
The RAP aggregates and old asphalt binder were sep-
arated by solvent extraction method to calculate the
asphalt content in RAP materials, which is 4.2%. Then
sieve test was conducted to RAP aggregates and the
old asphalt binder was gathered via rotary evaporation
method for the later performance test and component
analysis. The gradation of RAP aggregates is shown
in Table 1.
Then the performance test and component test of
old asphalt were conducted and the test results are
shown in Table 2.
The results in Table 2 show that the penetration
and ductility significantly decrease, and the soften-
ing point obviously increases compared with nor-
mal 70# road petroleum asphalt. From the compo-
nent test results we know the asphaltene content get
higher, resins and aromatics content decreased, and

473
Table 1. RAP gradation.

Sieve size (mm) 19 16 13.2 9.5 4.75 2.36 1.18 0.6 0.3 0.15 0.075
Passing percent (%) 100 97.4 88.9 71.3 45.6 29.4 20.5 14.2 10.2 8.2 5.9

Table 2. Test results of old asphalt in RAP materials. Table 4. Test results of mixture of aged asphalt, fresh asphalt
and rejuvenating agent.
Test items Test results
Test items Test results
Penetration (25 C), 0.1 mm 40.5
Softening point, C 74.9 Penetration (25 C), 0.1 mm 72.7
Ductility (5 C), cm 9.3 Softening point, C 60.2
Ductility (15 C), cm 15.1 Ductility (5 C), cm 34
Dynamic viscosity (60 C), PaS 74.9
Component, % Asphaltene 19.2
Saturated fraction 28.8
Aromatics fraction 25.1 Specifications for Construction of Highway Asphalt
Resin 26.9 Pavement. This illustrates that the technical parame-
ters of recycled asphalt mixtures with high percentages
of RAP can be controlled by appropriate mix design.
Table 3. Technical parameters of rejuvenating agent.

Test items Test results 4 PERFORMANCE TEST

Component, % Asphaltene 6.4 According to the Chinese Standard Test Method of

Saturated fraction 24.1
Aromatics fraction 45.7
Resin 23.8
TFOT (163 C, 5 h) Mass loss, % 1.2
Viscosity ratio, % 2.3
the saturate content decreased due to the cracking
and volatilization of the light compositions, which is
coincident with the performance test results.
3 RECYCLED ASPHALT MIXTURE DESIGN
Rejuvenating agent was used in this study for the con-
sideration that fresh asphalt cant fully improve the
performance of aging asphalt. The rejuvenating agent
was provided by the construction units, and the tech-
nical parameters are shown in Table 3. And the fresh
asphalt used in this work is Qilu 70# road petroleum
asphalt. The mixing proportion was determined by
adaptability test: old asphalt: fresh asphalt: rejuvenat-
ing agent=100: 11: 12, and test results are shown in
Table 4.
Basalts aggregates produced in Jinan city were used
as new aggregate and the particle size were 1015 mm,
510 mm, 35 mm, 03 mm, respectively, and lime-
stone power was used as the filler for recycled asphalt
mixture design. Two gradations of recycled asphalt
mixtures with the 60% and 70% RAP content are
designed. The proportions of RAP and new aggregate
are shown in Table 5 and the gradations are shown in
Table 6. And the Marshall characteristics for designed
mixtures are shown in Table 7.
It can be seen from Table 7 that Marshall character-
istics of recycled asphalt mixtures meet the Chinese
Bitumen and Bituminous Mixture for Highway Engi-
neering, the performance tests of recycled asphalt
mixtures were conducted, which were rutting test,
beam bending test and freeze-thaw split test. Table 8
shows test results of two kinds of recycled asphalt
mixtures.
It can be seen from Table 8 that with the increase
of RAP content, the high temperature performance
and water stability increase, while the low tempera-
ture performance decreases. This reflects the influence
of aging asphalt binder on performance of recycled
asphalt mixture. From the test data in Table 8 we also
found that the performance of recycled asphalt mixture
can meet the Chinese Specifications for Construction
of HighwayAsphalt Pavement, which showing the pos-
itive action of rejuvenating agent and fresh asphalt on
the aged asphalt binder in RAP and the feasibility of
further application of recycled asphalt mixtures with
high percentages of RAP.
5 CONCLUSIONS
(1) The technical parameters of recycled asphalt
mixtures with high percentages of RAP can be
controlled by appropriate mix design.
(2) The performance of recycled asphalt mixture is
influenced by RAP content: With the increase
of RAP content, the high temperature perfor-
mance and water stability increase, while the low
temperature performance decreases.
(3) The performance of recycled asphalt mixture with
high percentage of RAP can meet the technical
standard by choosing proper rejuvenating agent as
well as the suiTable mix proportion of rejuvenating
agent, fresh asphalt and aging asphalt.

474
Table 5. Proportion of RAP and new aggregate.

Proportion of different particle size, %

Recycled Mix type RAP 1015 mm 510 mm 35 mm 03 mm <0.075 mm

I 60 17 15 5 2 1
II 70 15 12 1 1 1

Table 6. Gradations of recycled asphalt mixtures.

Passing percent of aggregate through standard sieves (mm), %

Recycled Mix Type 19 16 13.2 9.5 4.75 2.36 1.18 0.6 0.3 0.15 0.075

I 100 98.4 91.4 69.7 36.0 21.2 15.1 10.9 8.2 6.7 5.0
II 100 98.17 90.5 68.4 36.0 22.8 16.2 11.6 8.7 7.1 5.3

Table 7. Marshall characteristics for designed recycled asphalt mixtures.

Recycled Mix Asphalt Density, Air voids, Voids in mineral Marshall stability, Marshall flow,
Type content, % g/cm3 % aggregate, % kN mm

I 5.3 2.528 4.34 15.7 10.82 3.49

II 4.9 2.523 4.12 13.97 11.28 3.06

Table 8. Performance test results of designed recycled Sun L., Hong Z. & Xu X., 2012. The Design Method for
asphalt mixtures. Hot Recycled Asphalt Mixtures. Journal of Jilin Institute
of Architecture and Civil Engineering, 29(1): 3134 (in
Rutting test Bending test Freeze-thaw Chinese).
dynamic fracture split Shah A., McDaniel R., Huber GA. & Gallivan V, 2007.
Recycled stability, strain, test tensile Investigation of properties of plant produced rap mix-
Mix Type times/mm 106 split ratio, % tures. Transport Research Record: Journal of Transport
Research Board: 10311.
I 5842 2827 92.5 Maupin J., Diefenderfer S. & Gillespie J., 2009. Performance
II 6537 2301 97.8 and economic evaluation of Virginias higher RAP spec-
ification. In: Transportation research board 88th annual
meeting. CD-ROM. Washington, DC.
Kim W., Lim J. & Labuz J., 2009. Cyclic triaxial testing of
ACKNOWLEDGMENT recycled asphalt pavement and aggregate base. In: Trans-
portation research board 88th annual meeting. CDROM.
The authors would like to thank the Natural Sci- Washington, DC.
ence Foundation of Shandong, China, Grant No. Bueche N., Dumont A., Vanelstraete A., Visscher J.,
Vansteenkiste S., & Vervaecke F., 2008. Laboratory and
ZR2011EEQ008, for the financial support for this
ALT-evaluation of high stiffness underlayers with high
project. percentage of re-use as developed in the NR2C-project.
In: 4th Eurasphalt and eurobitume congress. CD-ROM,
Copenhagen.
REFERENCES Gonzalo V., Flix P., Rodrigo M., Adriana M. & Ramn B.,
2011. Experimental study of recycled asphalt mixtures
Mohamed A. & Magdy A., 2010. Modeling the Effect of with high percentages of reclaimed asphalt pavement
Moisture on Resilient Modulus of Untreated Reclaimed (RAP). Construction and Building Materials. 5: 1289
Asphalt Pavement. Transportation Research Record: Jour- 1297.
nal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2167,
3040.
Li Z., Yang B. & Huang L., 2009. Experimental study on
performance of plant-mix heat recycling asphalt mixture.
Petroleum asphalt. 23(4): 2426.(in Chinese).

475
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Research on strain rate-sensitivities of the tensile strength for concrete

and its components

Yao Wang
Architectural Engineering Institute, Jinling Institute of Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

Jikai Zhou, Haitao Zhao & Dejian Shen

College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

ABSTRACT: Strain rate-sensitivities of the tensile strengths were analyzed through experimental results of a
group materials including the concrete and its corresponding three components. And the influence mechanism
of strain rate on dynamic tensile strength was explored. The results indicated the following: 1) Tensile strength is
sensitive to strain rate in all these materials. 2) Rate-sensitivity of the tensile strength for concrete was close to its
component material with a lowest sensitivity. 3) The sensitivity for concretes components varies depending on
their micro texture. 4) Dynamic tensile mechanical properties for concrete were closely related to the development
of micro cracks.

Keywords: concrete; component materials; dynamic tensile strength; strain rate-sensitivity; influence
mechanism

1 INTRODUCTION mechanism of strain rate on the dynamic strength of

The dynamic mechanical properties and the fracture
mechanism of concrete under impact loading, such as
encountering an earthquake or blasting, have received
continuous attention. At the mesoscale, concrete can
be regarded as a three-phase composite consisting of
a coarse aggregate, a mortar matrix and an interfacial
transition zone (ITZ) between the aggregate and the
mortar matrix. Understanding the dynamic mechani-
cal properties of the component materials is helpful to
explain the macro-mechanical behavior concrete.
There has been a great deal of research on con-
crete 16, rock 710 and a little on mortar 11, 12,
whereas, the study on dynamic mechanical proper-
ties of ITZ is very few. In addition, dynamic axial
tension testing results are very scarce due to the dif-
ficulty of axial tensile testing. The conclusions that
the dynamic strengths of concrete and rock increase
with increasing strain rate have been acknowledged
by all researchers. But the existing studies on con-
crete and its corresponding three phases at the same
loading conditions are very limited, that is to say, the
rock and the mortar are always not gotten from the
corresponding concrete material. Thus, it is hardly to
compare the properties of the macro-materials with
the meso-materials, and hardly to determine whether
or why they have the different strain rate-sensitivities
and make clear the relations between them. Therefore,
further systematic researches on all the components
of concrete and itself under the same dynamic load-
ing conditions are required to explore the influence
these matching materials.
2 TESTING PROCEDURE
2.1 Specimen fabrication
All specimens were cylindrical cores with 68 mm
diameter and 160 mm high. Rock samples were verti-
cally cored out from a stripy granite matrix. Concrete
and mortar were drilled from their casting blocks
perpendicular to the casting direction. The coarse
aggregate in the concrete samples was made from the
same rock as the granite matrix by crushing it. The
core samples were all trimmed at each end to at least
20 mm beyond the laitance layer.
Specimen containing an ITZ was used to test
ITZs macro mechanical behavior. The ITZ specimens
were manufactured in cylindrical molds and the mak-
ing process was shown in Fig. 1. First, granite coring
was cut with a smooth surface on one end, and a natu-
rally fractured surface at the other end. Then it was put
at one end of the mold and covered with mortar at last.
ITZ specimens were made from the granite same with
the rock specimens and the mortar of same proportions
with the mortar specimens.
2.2 Treatment of specimens and testing device
For transferring tensile loads, 40 mm thick circular
steel plates were attached to the ends of the samples
with an epoxy structural adhesive that has a tensile

477
Figure 1. Making process of ITZ specimen.
Figure 2. Tensile strength comparison.
strength of 20 MPa. Then the specimens were con-
nected to a hydraulic clamp installed on the loading
device through spherical hinge apparatus with a screw
in the center of steel transfer plates. The tensile tests
were performed on an MTS322 testing system.
2.3 Loading scheme
Approximately 20 specimens of each kind of mate-
rial were tested under loading conditions 1 to 5 with
strain rates 106 s1 , 105 s1 , 104 s1 , 103 s1 , and the rate-sensitivity of strength for concrete was always
102 s1 , which are within the range of earthquake
loading speeds. A strain rate of 106 s1 is considered
to be a static strain rate. The loading were controlled
by displacement of the actuator and the displacement
speeds were determined by pre-experiments.
3 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
3.1 Dynamic tensile strength of the materials
The detail test results were displayed in paper [13].
Figure 2 shows the variation of measured average
strength with strain rate for mortar, granite, interface
and concrete, respectively. It is showed that the ten-
sile strengths of concrete and its component materials
were all sensitive to strain rate, showing rising trends
with increasing strain rate.
Comparing the variation in tensile strength with
the strain rate for all the materials, we found
that the ranking order of the strengths was almost
invariant, as shown in Figure 2; the order was
478
Figure 3. Tensile strength DIF comparison.
granite > concrete > mortar > interface. The strength
of the interface was merely slightly lower than that
of the mortar, which disagrees with Wong[14] . It is
thus necessary to further study the factors influencing
interface strength, such as the test method, material
composition, and casting quality.
Figure 3 showed the relation of dynamic increase
factor (DIF) of the strength with the corresponding
strain rate. DIF here defined as the ratio of dynamic
strength to static strength. The mortar and interface
had similar sensitivities to strain rate that were approx-
imately 3 times that of rock. In other words, the tensile
strength of mortar and interface are more sensitive to
strain rate than granite. It seems that looser materi-
als with more porosity have higher rate-sensitivity.
This observation raises the questions of whether the
strain-rate effect is related to the pore structure of
the material. These questions require further study of
the failure mechanism.
Combined with test results of another group con-
crete and its components[13] , It was also found that
lower than or close to that for its component which had
the least sensitive to strain rate. This phenomenon was
in accordance with the characteristics of composite
materials such as the concrete.
3.2 Fracture morphology
The tests had a high success ratio, with more than 80%
of the specimens made of concrete, mortar, granite
fractured within one third of the middle section of the
total length. Only a few of them fractured near the ends
(within 2 cm) and these test results were not consid-
ered. As for the ITZ specimens, most of them fractured
at their interface. Only a few fractured at the section of
mortar (more than 2 mm from the visible interface) or
near the ends and these test results were not considered
either.
3.2.1 Concrete specimens
Comparing the concrete failure surfaces from the static
and dynamic tests, it was found that many mortar-
aggregate ITZ samples fractured when the strain rate
Figure 4. Failure surface at a strain rate of 106 s1 .
Figure 5. Failure surface at a strain rate of 103 s1 .
was low, as shown in Figure 3, but that coarse aggre-
gate broke more often and the fracture surface became
flatter when the strain rate was high, as shown in Figure
4. This result is accordance with those of most studies,
and has long been accepted as the main reason why
the tensile strength of concrete increases with strain
rate. Investigating the surfaces broken in the static tests
(at strain rates of approximately 106 s1 ), we found
that most ITZ samples fractured over a wide area at
one side, but aggregate samples fractured in a small
area on the opposite side. Figure 3 shows the two cor-
responding fracture surfaces of one typical specimen
loaded at a static strain rate. (The outlined areas indi-
cate the fractured interfaces; the solid lines are the
borders of the aggregate side, and the dashed lines are
the borderlines of the mortar side.)
It is concluded that when loaded at a low strain rate,
microcracks developed mainly along the ITZ, where
it is usually weak, but when peak stress arrived, unsta-
ble fracture occurred (failure at a high strain rate),
and the cracks did not have sufficient time to develop
along their original paths but instead failed along a
short-cut (a flatter surface), thus resulting in the frac-
ture of aggregates over a small area. This observation
also indirectly showed the mechanism of increasing
strength with increasing strain rate.
A very few concrete specimens were found to have
a much lower strength at a high strain rate. Observing
their failure surfaces, as shown in Figure 5, we found
that in these specimens, a large area of the ITZ was
located at the same flat cross-section. Thus, this sec-
tion became the weakest surface and cracks developed
all along the entire ITZ but never cut across the aggre-
gates, even at a high strain rate. This is the reason why
such specimens had lower strengths at higher strain
rates.
Additionally, we found that most failure surfaces
at the higher strain rate had more visible fragmenta-
tion and obvious small cracks near the broken surface
compared to those at the static strain rate, as shown
479
Figure 6. Failure surface of concrete specimen at the high
strain rate of 103 s1 .
Figure 7. Clearly visible fragment loss and obvious small
cracks near the broken surface at high strain rate of 104 s1 .
Figure 8. Typical failure surface of interface specimen.
in Figure 6. This demonstrated that material suffered
more small cracks at the higher strain rate, which
is in accordance with the results of Eibl J[15] and
Rossi P[16] . Thus, the number of cracks increased with
increasing loading speed. Using a CT (computed
tomography) technique, Ding Wei Hua[17] also found
that more cracks appeared simultaneously at various
locations when the strain rate was increased.
3.2.2 Interface specimens
Most of interface specimens fractured at the inter-
face, demonstrating that interface is relatively weak.
Part area of the granite surface and some thin paste
remaining there can be seen on the failure surface
of the interface specimens, as shown in Figure 8. A
few specimens fractured completely within the mortar
section (Figure 9) or even in the rock section where
natural damage existed. It was showed that the ITZ
was not always the weakest location because the rate-
sensitivity made its strength stronger than the mortar
or the rock had nature defects.
3.2.3 Mortar and granite specimens
The failure surfaces of mortar and granite both
appeared uniform and flat, as shown in Figure 10
and 11, respectively. Neither material had obvious dis-
tinctions between the failure surfaces under load at
different strain rates, making it difficult to explain the

Figure 9. Interface specimen fractured within the mortar
section.
Figure 10. Typical failure surface of mortar.
Figure 11. Typical failure surface of granite.
effect of strain rate based only on macroscopic appear-
ances. It seems that the strain-rate effect is related to
the pore structure of such materials which are rela-
tively homogeneous. These questions require further
study of the failure mechanism.
Studies on dynamic fracture mechanisms in these
materials and their causative factors will require more
experiments with new measurement techniques such
as AE[18] (acoustic emission) and CT[19] .
4 SUMMARY
The influences of strain rate on the tensile strength
of concrete and its components (mortar, granite, and
the mortar-granite interface) the four materials were
analyzed and compared in this study. The dynamic
fracture mechanisms were explored preliminarily.
The main conclusions are summarized as follows:
1) Tensile strength of concrete and its components are
all sensitive to strain rate.
2) Rate-sensitivity of the tensile strength for concrete
was close to its component material with a lowest
sensitivity.
480
3) The rate-sensitivity of the tensile strength for con-
cretes components which are relatively homoge-
neous varies depending on their micro texture.
4) Dynamic tensile mechanical properties for con-
crete which is a kind of composite material were
closely related to the development of micro cracks.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was financially supported by two National
Natural Science Foundations of China (90510017,
50979032), the Fundamental Research Funds for
the Central Universities (2010B04314) and Opening
Foundation of China Institute of Water Resources
and Hydropower Research (IWHRKF2010014).
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rate effects on dynamic fracture and strength.
International Journal of Impact Engineering. V. 24,
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Experimental and numerical study of concrete
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Model test study of a novel vacuum preloading method

Shu Xiaowu & Guo Bingchuan

School of Civil Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

Song Xiaoxian
China Construction Third Engineering Bureau Co., Ltd, Tianjin, China

ABSTRACT: With rapid development of Tianjin Binhai New Area in China, more and more artificial islands
are formed by reclaimed soil with water content normally higher than 80% and vacuum preloading technology
is employed to accelerate the soil consolidation process. In order to explore a cost-saving vaccum preloading
technique for investment controlling purpose, the conception of controlled ventilation vacuum preloading was
proposed and physical model tests were conducted indoor. Results of settlement, pore pressure dissipation
and degree of vacuum in the testing soil were compared with that from conventional vacuum preloading test,
which was performed under the same circumstances. It was shown in the tests that the new vacuum preloading
method can reduce the consolidation time remarkably and therefore is economical. The mechanism of controlled
ventilation vacuum preloading was also studied and the theory can be used for application and development of
the new method. The construction process of controlled ventilation vacuum preloading technique will be studied
in the future work.

Keywords: novel vacuum preloading method, Model test, vacuum preloading technique

1 GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS In order to explore a more economical vacuum

Many works have been done on the study of
construction technology and the design method of
vacuum preloading, which made the vacuum preload-
ing method successful and great development was
obtained in practical engineering. Based on single
vacuum preloading, there is also vacuum-surcharged
preloading, vacuum-electroosmosis method and so on.
These are all based on vacuum preloading. There are
many research results in vacuum preloading model
test and indoor test research. The vacuum preloading
of soft soil with confined water was studied through
the laboratory test and field test by Jin Xiaorong and
Yu Jianlin [1]. Indoor tests on vacuum and surcharged
preloading were taken and the physical parameters and
settlement of the soil were studied by by Wu Guifen
[2]. An indoor experiment was made to study the
reinforcement effect of vacuum-surcharge preloading
by Liuhanlong and Weibo, it shows that the physical
parameters such as the water content and void ratio
were reduced, and the strength parameters were greatly
improved. Zhangliting, Luyongzheng, Lishuguo in [5]
through the indoor model test vacuum preloading con-
solidation foundation, will be negative pressure source
by surface move to deep foundation, may improve the
reinforcement effect, the vacuum preloading consoli-
dation of the filled soil should be adopted when blow
this measures.
preloading technique to quicken the consolidation of
the reclaimed soft soil which has a very high water
content, an improvement was made to the traditional
vacuum preloading method and a ventilation vac-
uum preloading model tests were designed in the lab,
the reinforcement effectiveness was observed. and
comparison was made with that of the conventional
vacuum preloading method. Deformation and pore
pressure of the soft soil after the reinforcement were
discussed. The mechanism of the ventilation vacuum
preloading is also analyzed.
2 IMPROVEMENT OF THE VACUUM
PRELOADING
As shown in Figure 1, the improved vacuum preloading
is An additional ventilation equipment was installed
on the traditional vacuum preloading. Sand layer and
filter tubes are laid at the bottom of the soil sample,
make sure the sand layer in the bottom is communi-
cated to the sand layer on the top. Through controlling
air valve, there will be air enter the bottom sand layer
through the filter tubes in the bottom. As in the vac-
uum function, there is negative vacuum pressure in the
upper sand layer and plastic vertical drains, as the bot-
tom sand layer is penetrated into a certain amount of

483

Figure 1. Sketch of Controlled ventilation device.
air, the pressure is greater than the bottom sand layer,
under the action of different pressure in the surface
and bottom, water in the bottom and plastic vertical
drains can be easily pumped out.
Vacuum pressure will be generated in the upper sand
layer as well as the plastic vertical drains (PVDs) under
the action of ventilating. Once the valve is opened,
the air will enter into the bottom sand layer and filter
tubes. Due to the pressure difference between the top
and bottom sand layer, water at the lower layer as well
as in the PVDs can be easily pumped out.
3 LAYOUT OF TEXT
3.1 Aim of the tests
This test designs an indoor model test of controlled
ventilation vacuum preloading and studies its consol-
idation effect, by comparing settlement, pore pres-
sure in the soil and the vacuum of the conventional
vacuum preloading in the same conditions to ver-
ify the superiority of controlled ventilation vacuum
preloading.
First lines of paragraphs are indented 5 mm (0.2 )
except for paragraphs after a heading or a blank line
(First paragraph tag).
3.2 Process of the tests
In order to complete the experiment, we need two
test tanks, one is used for conventional vacuum
484
Figure 2. Sketch of two model experiment.
Figure 3. The controlled ventilation vacuum preloading
tank.
preloading, and the other is used for controlled ven-
tilation vacuum preloading. the size of the tanks is
90 cm 70 cm 70 cm.
Set the plastic vertical drains, filter tube, vacuum
pump and gas storage tank (Gas storage tank will be
linked to the two test tanks, pump air from the storage
tank to form the vacuum. A complete set of test device
as shown in fig. 2.
In the figure: 1-sand layer; 2-ventilation valve;
3-filter tube; 4-vacuum meter; 5-pore pressure sen-
sor; 6-soil; 7-plastic vertical drains; 8-gas storage tank;
9-vacuum pump.
Figure 3 is the controlled ventilation vacuum
preloading test tank, and figure 4 is the conventional
vacuum preloading, figure 5 is the finished model test.
3.3 Test contents
First, filled the same soil sample to the two tanks, the
water content of the soil is 80%.
Start the vacuum pump and apply the vacuum to the
tanks.
Read the vacuum meter, and record the data.
Read the pore pressure during the vacuum preload-
ing, and record the data.
Measure the settlement of the surface, and record
the settlement data.
Compare the pore pressure, settlement of the two
tank during the test, and explore the differences

Figure 4. The conventional vacuum preloading tank.
Figure 5. Finished model test.
Figure 6. Settlement result of the two tanks.
between controlled ventilation vacuum preloading and
conventional vacuum preloading.
3.4 Test results
3.4.1 Settlement analysis
The settlement of controlled ventilation vacuum
preloading and conventional vacuum preloading result
are shown as figure 6.
From the settlement curves, it can be known that
the settlement of the controlled ventilation vacuum
preloading model is about 18% more than conven-
tional vacuum preloading model. The curve shows
that, at the beginning, there is consistent settlement
trend of the two kinds of the preloading method, but
485
Figure 7. Pore pressure of the vacuum preloading.
from later period (60 h later), settlement of the con-
trolled ventilation vacuum preloading model is more
than the conventional vacuum preloading model.
3.4.2 Pore pressure analysis
The pore pressure in different depth of controlled ven-
tilation vacuum preloading and conventional vacuum
preloading result are shown as figure 7.
It can be seen that the pressure of controlled vacuum
preloading is less than conventional vacuum preload-
ing in the same depth that is the controlled vacuum
preloading is more effective.
4 MECHANISM ANALYSES OF THE
CONTROLLED VENTILATION VACUUM
PRELOADING
The control ventilation device is added to the con-
trolled ventilation vacuum preloading, the plastic ver-
tical drains are inserted which can make the surface
sand layer and bottom sand layer breakthrough. Under
effects of the vacuum load, the air can flow from the
bottom to the surface under the vacuum in the surface
sand layer, so the water in the bottom sand layer and
plastic vertical drains can be pumped easily.
When pump the air from the sand layer, the pres-
sure in the sand and plastic vertical drains are both
minus, and gradually become to equilibrium. Water
is slowly drained off, and when the ventilation valve
is opened, water in the bottom sand layer and plas-
tic vertical drains can be drained off quickly. Shut the
valve when water is drained off thoroughly, and pres-
sure difference between the drainage plate and soil
increases for the absence of waters self weight. The
water pressure difference between drainage plate and
soil is increased. And its operation mechanism will be
detailed as follows.
Air in the sand bed will be drained off firstly when
the vacuum pump starts, and there will be vacuum in
the plastic vertical drains, which produce a vacuum
load in the plastic vertical drains. At the same time,
pore water in the soil will flow into drainage plate
and sand bed under minus pressure of vacuum load.
With pump going on, the vacuum pressure between the
up and down sand layers tend to equilibrium, thus the

Figure 8. Water unit stress analysis in the drains before
ventilation.
velocity of the water drainage is greatly reduced. How-
ever, when the controllable ventilation valve opened,
and keeps the vacuum degree not less than 75 kPa
(as shown in Fig. 8 and Fig. 9). The water will be
drained off quickly under the function of pressure dif-
ference and airflow.The man-made pressure difference
in the plastic vertical drains is the critical factor of the
controllable ventilation vacuum preloading.
Air accessing into the down sand layer by control-
lable ventilation vacuum preloading will result in two
results, one is that it can accelerate drainage of the
water, the other is that vacuum degree is decreased,
which is contradictory.
But it can be known from theoretical analysis that
if the air volume is controlled in a scope, the pressure
difference between the plastic vertical drains and soil
can be keep unchanged and even increased. In the fol-
lowing the ventilation speed should be controlled to
what value that can increase the pressure difference
between the drains and soil will be discussed.
To study the mechanism of the controllable ventila-
tion vacuum preloading, the force of a water column
dV in the plastic vertical drains is analyzed. Assuming
the width of the plastic vertical drains is B, thus the
force equilibrium equation of the water column can be
established according to Fig. 8:
When the vacuum load applied, F is greater than
0, and the direction is upward. The water column in
the drains will be drained off under the force F. As
the vacuum load continues, F gradually reduces to 0,
and water in the drains will be slowly drained off very
slow. When controlled ventilate some air into the bot-
tom sand layer and keep the vacuum degree 75 kPa, a
positive pressure caused by air will be added on the
force F (as shown in Fig. 9), that is:
At present, F > F, that is the pressure difference
between the top and bottom surfaces of the water col-
umn is enlarged, thus the water in the drains can be
drained off quickly.
How to control ventilate to make the reinforce
effect better than the conventional vacuum preloading
will be discussed in the following.
486
Figure 9. Water unit stress analysis in the drains before
ventilation.
Figure 10. The resultant force of water pressure and vacuum
pressure.
The principle of the vacuum preloading is to form
a pressure difference between the drains and soil, so
the soil can consolidate under the pressure difference.
Pressure in the plastic vertical drains is the resultant
force of the minus vacuum pressure and the hydro-
static pressure. The hydrostatic pressure will disappear
when the water drained off the plastic vertical drains
because of the ventilation, and it can also cause the
minus vacuum pressure decreased.
Pressure before the ventilation is shown as Fig. 10,
at the left hand is the hydrostatic pressure, which is
positive, while the vacuum pressure at the right hand is
minus, and their resultant force is as shown in Fig. 11.
When ventilate some air, there will be two results:
(1) water in the plastic vertical drains will be drained
off quickly, thus hydrostatic pressure at the left hand
will disappear; (2) vacuum degree of the plastic ver-
tical drains will decrease, that is to say the absolute
minus vacuum pressure at the right hand will decrease.
The vacuum degree will decrease during the vac-
uum preloading, which will extend the consolidation
time of the soil. As shown in Fig. 10, decreased or even
disappeared of the hydrostatic pressure will enlarge
the pressure difference between the soil and plas-
tic vertical drains, thus the consolidation time will
be shortened. It can be known from analysis above
that, whether the efficiency of the ventilation vacuum
preloading is higher than the conventional vacuum
preloading lies on the relationship between the loss of
vacuum pressure and the hydrostatic pressure. Hydro-
static pressure in the plastic vertical drains decreases
after ventilation, if the loss of vacuum pressure is

Figure 11. The resultant force of water pressure and vacuum
pressure.
less than the hydrostatic pressure in the plastic ver-
tical drains, the efficiency of the ventilation vacuum
preloading is higher than the conventional vacuum
preloading; if the loss of vacuum pressure is more than
the hydrostatic pressure, the efficiency of the ventila-
tion vacuum preloading is lower than the conventional
vacuum preloading; while if they are equal, the effi-
ciency of the two methods are the same. The loss of
the vacuum pressure is the dotted line part as shown in
Fig. 11, assuming the area is A, which is the decreas-
ing part resulting from decreasing of the minus vacuum
pressure, for the hydrostatic pressure in the plastic ver-
tical drains is the triangle part as shown in Fig. 10, the
area is assumed as B, and B is the resultant force dif-
ference of the hydrostatic pressure along the depth. Its
a critical point when A = B, which indicates that the
effect of the ventilation vacuum preloading is the same
as conventional vacuum preloading. The effect of the
ventilation vacuum preloading will be higher if A < B,
otherwise lower.
As analyzed above, when A is smaller than B as the
ventilation is controlled, that is to say when loss of
vacuum degree along the depth is less than self weight
of the water column, effect of the ventilation vacuum
preloading will be higher than conventional vacuum
preloading, thus the solidification can be accelerated.
487
5 CONCLUSION
A model test of ventilating vacuum preloading was
designed and conducted indoor. Through the test,
the effectiveness of the controlled ventilating vacuum
preloading was compared with that of the conven-
tional preloading method and the mechanism of the
controlled ventilating vacuum preloading was also
analyzed. Summary conclusions are listed as below
based on the study.
Ventilating vacuum preloading method can acceler-
ate the drainage speed.At the same vacuum equipment,
the same time, control the ventilation and vacuum
degree in PVDs in certain range can get a better effect
than conventional vacuum preloading.
According to the mechanism analysis, if the ventila-
tion is controlled to a degree, the loss of vacuum degree
along the depth is less than self weight of the water col-
umn, the effect of the ventilation vacuum preloading
will be higher than conventional vacuum preloading.
REFERENCES
Jin xiaorong, Yu Jianlin, Gong xiao nan, Field tests on
soft soil with confined underground water by vacuum-
surcharge preloading [J], Chinese Journal of Geotechnical
Engineering, 2007, 29(5): 789794.
Wu guifen, Gao Yufeng, Wei Daixian, Study on laboratory
test of vacuum and surcharge preloading [J], Rock and
Soil Mechanics, 2005, 26(5): 9598.
Liu Hanlong, Li Hao, Test study on creep characteristics of
soft clayey soils under consolidation by vacuum-surcharge
combined preloading method [J], Chinese Journal of
Geotechnical Engineering, 2004, 26(1): 145149.
SW Yan and J Chu, Soil improvement for a storage yard
using the combined vacuum and fill preloading method,
Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 42 (4): 10941104, AUG
2005
Yan Shuwang, Feng Xiaowei, Mechanism of using vac-
uum preloading method in improving soft clay, ASCE
Geotechnical Special Publication No. 188, Advanceds in
Ground Improvement Research to Practice in the United
States and China, March 14, 2009, Orland, Florida.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Creep property of undisturbed reticulated red clay under

constant-load creep test

J.Z. Li & Y. Xie

School of Geosciences and Info-physics, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China

ABSTRACT: Undisturbed reticulated red clay specimens from Changsha Hunan province, China were tested
under one-dimensional creep tests under constant-load. Five creep stress levels (50, 100, 200, 300 and 400 kPa)
were applied on the specimens. The specimens were primary loaded at certain stress level and creep from about
ten days. After primary loading the specimen was unloaded to 0 kPa and reloaded to the primary loading stress
level for about ten days in succession. Tests results showed that: (1) there is obvious creep deformation occurred
at each stress level in primary loading, unloading and reloading creep, and the creep deformation increases
significantly as the increasing of creep stress; (2) creep strain decreases rapidly after the creep stress unloading
occurred, and the creep strain is even smaller than the initial strain in the primary loading after unloading creep
stress being 0 kPa creep (unloaded to zero kPa); (3) strain recovery rapidly after reloaded to the primary loading
stress level, and creep deformation occurred in reloading stage is obvious bigger than that of primary loading
stage. Analysis on the test results showed that creep deformation of undisturbed reticulated red clay can be
described by a modified Singh-Mitchell general stress-strain-time function very well.

Keywords: reticulated red clay; creep; soil mechanics

1 INTRODUCTION under one-dimensional constant-load creep condition

Reticulate red clay is one of the most common clays
in Dongting Lake area, valley of Yangtze River and
Zhujiang River in China. It came from original clay
in the shallow layer of the surface of the earth in
the climate of high temperature and humidity of the
Pleistocene (Xiong S.F. 2005, Gu Y.S. 2002). Typi-
cal characteristics of reticulate red clay include that:
(1) there are red reticulate structures alternating with
white reticulate structures in the clay; (2) most of
reticulate red clay belongs to silty clay with rela-
tive high strength; (3) the main mineral of reticulate
red clay is kaolinite; (4) the main chemical compo-
nents of reticulate red clay are SiO2 , Al2 O3 and Fe2 O3
(Gu Y.S. 2002).
Reticulated red clay is a kind of clay with relative
high strength (Wu B. 1999). Stratums consist of retic-
ulated clay are usually bearing stratum in design of
shallow foundation. Geotechnical properties of retic-
ulated red clay are very important to geotechnical
engineering practice. One of these important proper-
ties is creep property. Creep property of reticulate red
clay has been seldom studied though creep deforma-
tion affects significantly the permanent displacement
of the base and foundation of geotechnical structure
built in reticulate red clay (Li J.Z. 2011a&b). In order
to study the creep property of reticulated red clay,
undisturbed reticulated red clay specimens were tests
in present study.
In soil creep tests commonly a series of specimens
or, occasionally, only one specimen is used (Vyalov S.
S. 1986, Li J.Z. 2012). In the former case, each speci-
men is tested by a constant load which differs from the
load applied to other specimens in the series; in the
later case, the specimen is subjected to a stepwise-
increasing load applied over an interval time. This
interval time can be the same at all loading stages,
or may induce an arbitrary stabilized deformation of
an attenuating nature at each stage.
One-dimensional constant-load creep tests were
used in present study. The specimen was first primarily
loaded in Oedometer to certain stress level and crept
for about 10 days under this stress level. After primary
creep, the specimen was unloaded to zero stress level
and crept at 0 kPa for about 10 days. Finally, the spec-
imen was reloaded to the primary load stress level and
crept for another 10 days.
Test results show that there is obvious creep defor-
mation occurred at each stress level, the creep strain is
even smaller than the initial strain in the primary load-
ing after crept at 0 kPa and creep deformation occurred
in reloading stage is obvious bigger than that of pri-
mary loading stage. Analysis on the test results showed
that creep deformation of undisturbed reticulated red
clay can be described by a modified Singh-Mitchell
general stress-strain-time function very well.

489
Table 1. Physical property of the specimens.

Properties Value

Water content w 28.90%

Density 1.85g/cm3
Specific gravity Gs 2.60
Liquid limit wl 48.5%
Plastic limit wp 21.0%
Void ratio e 0.88
Saturation Sr 85.4%

Figure 2. ln eT plots of primary loading creep stage.

Figure 1. Typical result of constant-load creep test.

2 TEST PROCEDURE
Figure 3. ln eT plots of primary loading creep stage.
The specimens of reticulated red clay were sampled
from a construction pit nearYuelu Mountain (a famous
scenic spot in the capital of Hunan province, China).
All specimens are cylinder with height of 20 mm
and radius of 30.9 mm. Physical properties of the
specimens were listed in Table 1.
The specimen was first applied primary load.
Five primary stress levels (50 kPa, 100 kPa, 200 kPa,
300 kPa and 400 kPa) were used in present study. After
crept for about 10 days under the certain primary load,
the specimen was unloaded to 0 kPa and crept for about
10 days with 0 kPa. Finally, the specimen was reloaded
to the primary load stress level and crept for about
10 days. Test procedures were performed conforming
to the Standard for Soil Test Method (GB/T50123-
1999), a state standard of Peoples Republic of
China.
Figure 4. ln eT plots of primary loading creep stage.

3 TEST RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

(2) Creep strain decreases rapidly after the creep
Figure 1 is the typical test result of the constant-
load (primary loading-unloading-reloading) creep. It
is very clear in figure 1 that:
(1) There is obvious creep deformation occurred at
each stress level in primary loading, unloading
and reloading creep. Creep deformation increases
significantly as the increasing of creep stress in
primary load.
stress unloading occurred, and the creep strain is
even smaller than the initial strain in the primary
loading after 0 kPa stress level creep (unloaded
to zero kPa) for a long time in each stress level.
In unloading creep stage all creep stress equal to
zero, but the creep strain is different. The unload-
ing (to 0 kPa) creep strain (or residual strain) of
the higher previous primary creep stress level was
significant bigger than that of the smaller ones.

490
Table 2. a, b value of different creep stages.

Primary load Unload Reload

Stress
(kPa) a b a b a b

50 1.8021 0.0091 0.0146 0.0394 0.2533 0.0182

100 1.9178 0.0081 0.3458 0.0423 0.6904 0.0160
200 2.0595 0.0050 0.6991 0.0401 0.9440 0.0118
300 2.1876 0.0044 0.6695 0.0328 0.9448 0.0120
400 2.3510 0.0047 0.9317 0.0283 1.1786 0.0093

This means that the creep strain affected largely

by the previous creep stress level.
(3) Strain recovery rapidly after reloaded to the pri-
mary loading stress level, and creep deformation
occurred in reloading stage is obvious bigger than
that of primary loading stage.
In order to described the creep deformation of retic-
ulated red clay under one-dimensional constant-load
creep, a modified Singh-Mitchell stress-strain-time
function was introduced in present study. This function
was presented by Awtar Singh and James K. Mitchell
(Singh A. 1968). According to this function the rate of
creep strain is a function of creep time and creep stress
level:

where is the creep strain rate, A is projected value of Figure 5. a-stress plots of different loading creep stage.
strain rate at zero deviator stress on logarithm strain
rate versus deviator-stress plot for unit time, is value Equation (5) may be further simplified by suppos-
of the slope of the mid-range linear portion of the log- ing e = 0 :
arithm strain rate versus deviator-stress plot, t1 is unit
of creep time (one hour was used in present study),
m is slope of logarithm strain rate versus logarithm
time straight line, and D is stress level which can be where b = 1 m and
calculated by the following equation:

In present study, for confined one-dimensional creep:
where is creep stress. Suppose = (1 k0 ) and
T = t1 /t, then equation (1) became:
Figure 2, 3 & 4 are ln eT plots of primary load-
ing, unloading and reloading creep stage. It is very
clear that the relationship between lne and T is almost
perfect linear.
Table 2 listed the value of a & b of equation (6)
in different creep stage under different creep stress.
From equation (7) and b = 1 m equation (8) can be
introduced:

Creep strain can be calculated by integrating

equation (4):
Figure 5 shows the linear relationship between a
and stress level . Parameters of the modified stress-
strain-time function (equation (5)) can be obtained
with equation (8) and figure 5.

491
Table 3. Function parameters of modified stress-strain-time
function.
Primary load Unload Reload
A 0.0359 0.0376 0.0188
0.0015 0.0240 0.0022
m 0.9937 0.9634 0.9865
Figure 6. Measured and calculated creep strain of undis-
turbed reticulated red clay under constant-load creep.
Table 3 listed the parameters of the modified stress-
strain-time function. Figure 6 presented the plots of
measured and calculated creep strain of undisturbed
reticulated red clay under confined one-dimensional
constant-load creep. Figure 6 shows that the modi-
fied stress-strain-time function can describe the creep
strain of undisturbed reticulated red clay very well.
4 SUMMARRY
Confined one-dimensional constant-load creep tests
were performed on undisturbed reticulated red clay in
present study. Test results show that:
(1) There is obvious creep deformation occurred at
each stress level in primary loading, unloading
and reloading creep, and the creep deformation
increases significantly as the increasing of creep
stress;
(2) Creep strain decreases rapidly after the creep
stress unloading occurred, and the creep strain at
0 kPa is even smaller than the initial strain in the
primary loading;
(3) Strain recovery rapidly after reloaded to the pri-
mary loading stress level, and creep deformation
occurred in reloading stage is obvious bigger than
that of primary loading stage.
Analysis on the test results showed that creep
deformation of undisturbed reticulated red clay can
be described by a modified Singh-Mitchell general
stress-strain-time function very well.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was financially supported by Natural
Science Foundation of China (No. 50979117).
REFERENCES
Gu Y.S., Xiao C.N. & Zhang Z.J. 2002. Research Advance of
Red Earth in South China, Journal of east China normal
university(natural science), 1: 6975 (in Chinese)
Li J.Z., Tang X. Q. & Yan L.C. 2011a. Simulation on Tri-
axial Compression Creep Deformation of Reticulate Red
Clay, Advanced Materials Research, Vol. 261263(2011)
pp14141418
Li. J.Z. & Tang X.Q. 2011b. Study on Shear Rate Effects of
Reticulate Red Clay, Advanced Materials Research, Vols.
261263, 14101413
Li, J.Z., Cao Y. & Qing Y.J. 2012. Creep property of retic-
ulate red clay under stepped-load creep tests, Advanced
Materials Research, v 446449, 14121416.
Singh A. & Mitchell J. K. 1968. General stress-strain-time
function for soils, Proceedings of the American Society of
Civil Engineers, Soil mechanics and foundations division,
SM 1, Jan. 2146
Vyalov S. S. 1986. Rheological Fundamentals of Soil
Mechanics. Translated by O. K. Sapunov, Elsevier Pub-
lication Oxford (1986).
Wu B. 1999. Engineering Geological Characteristics of Pat-
terned Laterite in Linchuan City, Journal of east China
geological institute, 22(3): 139242 (in Chinese)
Xiong S.F., Liu T.S. & Ding Z.L. 2000. The Weathering
Sequence of the Red Earth over Southern China, Journal
of mountain science, 18(1): 712 (in Chinese)
Zhen Y.M, Zhou S.Z. & Kang J.C. 2005. On the Southern
Vermicular Red Soil and Its Forming Environment, Jour-
nal of Jiaying university(natural science), 23(3): 7983
(in Chinese)
492
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Bearing capacity for drilled pile with rock socket and a case study

X. Huang
Merit Engineering, Inc., Bellingham, WA, USA

ABSTRACT: The existing model for the capacity of a rock socket pile is for a limited case when all the bonds
between the pile and the surrounding bedrock are broken along the sides of the shafts. The model, therefore,
does not include cohesion between the rock and the concrete interface. The model apparently does not represent
practical situation and significantly underestimates the pile capacity with rock socket. This paper further extends
the existing model with inclusion of cohesion between the pile and the surrounding bedrock. The model has been
applied in Miller Hall renovation project in Western Washington Universitys Bellingham Campus, Belllingham,
Washington State of USA. Pile load tests have been conducted and test piles loaded to twice as much as the
designed values using the model. The pile load test results validate the model.

Keywords: pile capacity, drilled pile with rock socket, pile load test, model for bearing capacity for drilled pile
with rock socket.

1 INSTRUCTIONS half of the design length of the socket (approximately

1.1 Needs for pile foundations
Subsurface conditions at the Western Washington
Universitys Bellingham Campus are so unique that
similar subsurface conditions are rarely found in other
areas. Most of the buildings on campus are founded
on bedrock because of the very soft and organic rich
nature of the soils, which overlying bedrock. There-
fore, piles are required for supporting structures on
the campus. Two types of pile are most commonly used
on the campus: driven pile steel pile and cast-in-place
concrete pile. Cast-in-place piles became dominant
lately on the campus because of the poor soil con-
ditions that may be adversely impacted by pile driving
efforts causing unpleasant damages to adjacent exist-
ing structures. In addition, driving piles produces
unacceptable noise. For drilled piles, it is beneficial
to drill into bedrock with minimal or no additional
cost, but to gain tremendous higher bearing capacity.
In addition, drilling into bedrock will also protect piles
from slip, due to the steep slope of the bedrock surface,
if piles are just end bearing on top of bedrock.
1.2 Current status of bearing capacity design for
piles with rock socket
Unlike the bearing capacity for soil, there is lack of
information for bearing capacity of drilled shaft with
rock socket. This consequently resulted in a significant
underestimate of the bearing capacity of drilled piles
with rock socket. In one documented case, with only
1.5 times the diameter of the pile), the field load test
revealed that the design bearing capacity was at least
9 times lower for the uplift and 18 times lower for
compression (Osterberg, 2000). This is perhaps due
to the fact that the existing model does not represent
the practical condition correctly because the model is
overly simplified.
1.3 Motivation
When a pile is socketed in rock, a considerable pro-
portion of the load is transferred to the perimeter,
and the end-bearing load is significantly less than the
total applied load. Finite element analysis indicates
that if the ratio of socket length to the pile diameter
reaches 2, more than 95% of load for stiff rock, and
more than 85% for compliance rock, are transferred
along the perimeter of the pile into the surrounding
bedrock (Osterberg, 2000). Goodman (1980) provided
a simplified solution for calculating end bearing for a
limited case when all the bonds between the pile and
the surrounding bedrock are broken along the sides of
the shafts by analog of the load transfer to that of a
cylindrical elastic inclusion welded to the surround-
ing medium. The analysis, therefore, did not include
cohesion between the rock and the concrete interface.
The model does not represent practical solution in
real application because the solution is for all bonds
between pile and surrounding rock broken, and con-
sequently, an excessive settlement or deformation of
pile in magnitude of 4 to 6% of the pile base diame-
ter is expected in order for the pile to gain the design

493
capacity. This translates more than 1 of settlement
for an 18 diameter pile due to the pile adjustment
for bond broken alone, not including the elastic defor-
mation of the pile. In reality, engineers will hardly
allow a foundation having the bond between the pile
and the surrounding bedrock broken. Neither are engi-
neers capable of accept this psychologically, nor will
engineers allow such large settlement in most of civil
engineering. Therefore, it is necessary to have a solu-
tion that is for maintaining the bond between pile and
surrounding bedrock unbroken.
2 PROPOSED MODEL WITH BOND BETWEEN
PILE AND SURROUNDING ROCK
For cost-in-place pile in bedrock, there will be bond
between the pile and the surrounding bedrock. The
compression load transfer along the sides of the shafts
may be analyzed by analog of the load transfer to that
of a cylindrical elastic inclusion welded to the sur-
rounding medium (Goodman, 1980). The detail of the
derivation is presented in the Appendix.
The total pressure at the limiting condition of the
entire bond broken is:
where: pt = total pressure applied to the pile;
= tan ;
= internal friction angle of rock;
 = length of rock socket;
a = radius of pile;
c = Poissons ratio of concrete;
r = Poissons ratio of rock;
Ec =Youngs modulus of concrete; and
Er =Youngs modulus of rock.
3 APPLICATION OF THE MODEL-A CASE
STUDY
Bedrock of weathered mudstone was found at the site
and the rock properties were determined by laboratory
triaxial tests (Merit Engineering Inc. 2000 and 2002),
which are listed in the table with concrete parameters
used.
Using the data in the table with Equation (1), we
obtain:
Previous study indicates that the load required to
break all bond is 6.2 times the load at initial bond
failure (Osterberg, 2000). Therefore, the load that will
cause initial bond failure is approximately 90.0 MPa.
494
Table 1. Rock and concrete parameters
c c r Ec Er
( ) (MPa) (104 MPa) (104 MPa)
48.4 42.2 0.25 0.18 2.1 1.2
The bearing capacity for a pile is
with factor of safety 3 to 1.0 with D in meter.
for a 0.33 m diameter pile with rock socket length of
0.67 m.
Q 412.5 kN maximum load when all bond broken
but before end bearing in effect.
Two projects were designed using the model (Com-
munications Building and Student Recreational Cen-
ter) has been built in 2004. Pile load tests have been
done recently in Miller Hall Renovation projects on
the campus. In the project, 0.33 m effective diameter
micropiles with rock socket were employed and con-
firming pile load tests carried out. The pile load test
results are summarized in the Table below. As shown
in the Table 2 in the Appendix, test results fall well
within the range of the model prediction.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The pile load test results provide a real confirmation
of the proposed model application. Equation (2) seams
on the conservative side since it was proposed when
there werent pile load test results available. However,
the capacities shown in the table are still well within the
maximum capacity from the pile bond strength. Some
discrepancies may exist since the pile load tests were
done by the construction contractor without benefit of
my input.
REFERENCES
Merit Engineering, Inc., 1995 Geotechnical Engineering
Investigation for WWU Haggard Hall & Wilson Library
Rehabilitation.
Merit Engineering, Inc., 2000 Geotechnical Engineering
Investigation for WWU Communications Facility.
Merit Engineering, Inc., 2002 Geotechnical Engineering
Investigation for WWU Student Recreational Center.
Osterberg, J, 2000 Side Shear and End Bearing in
Rock Sockets, pp. 14, Geo-Strata, ASCE Publication.
Goodman, R.E., 1980 Introduction to Rock Mechanics,
pp. 419, John Wiley & Sons.
APPENDIX A

Extending the derivation given by Goodman (1980)

by inclusion of cohesion c. As shown in the following
Figure, equilibrium in the vertical (y) direction gives:
Equilibrium in the vertical (y) direction gives:

The shear strength is given as:

Substituting (3) and (2) in (1):

or

Solving (5a):

With boundary condition of y = pt at y = 0:

where: pt = total pressure applied to the pile.

side shear but in the limiting case to begin breaking
Substituting (7) in (6), we obtain
the bond, we obtain:

Set y = 0 at the bottom of the pile, which corre-

sponds to the condition that all load is carried by the

495
APPENDIX B

Table 2. Pile Load Test Results Miller Hall Renovation at Western Washington University.

Test Length of Rock Load Applied Pile Displacement,

Number Socket, (m) on Pile (kN) Measured on top (mm) Remarks

1 0.91 180 1.12 Compression

2 3.66 445 2.44 Compression
845* 18.72 Compression
3 0.91 222 6.35 Compression
445 11.10 Compression
670* 20.02 Compression
820* 33.53 Compression
4 0.91 445 5.59 Compression
890* 22.53 Compression
5 0.91 265* 25.17 Compression
6 3.05 265* 15.24 Tension
7 1.52 340* 13.21 Tension
555* 34.04 Tension
8 0.91 220 9.93 Tension
295* 15.80 Tension
9 0.61 220* 14.25 Tension
10 0.91 170* 17.48 Tension

*Values correspond to settlement more than 4% of pile diameter, indicating bond probably are all broken and gain additional
bearing support from end bearing.

496
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Seabed stress response by jet trenching

Y. Wang
Center for Marine Geotechnical Engineering Research, Department of Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong,
University, Shanghai, China

D.-S. Jeng
Center for Marine Geotechnical Engineering Research, Department of Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong,
University, Shanghai, China
Division of Civil Engineering, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK

ABSTRACT: The process of water jetting excavation seems to be random and complex, which has been
recognized as a key issue in the construction of cables in marine environments. In the last decade, numerous
studies have been conducted from various aspects to predicate the stresses within the seabed. In this paper,
adopting Boussinesqs and Cerrutis solutions, a formula for evaluating the response of the seabed pressure is
presented. The formula consists of several key factors, including the nozzles shape, the power of the machine,
the depth of the construction area, the angle of water jetting, and the properties of the soil to be excavated.
Furthermore, this paper establishes the relationship between the jetting angle and the stress response. Combined
with the failure criterion, the stress distributions can explain for excavation depth and collapse area.

Keywords: cable burial, water jetting, angel, seabed stress

1 INTRODUCTION There are numerous investigations for seabed stress

Cable burial has a history of over 80 years (Lawton
1939). Water jetting, as one of the most commonly
used methods for submarine cable burial, becomes
more and more important in the field, due to its good
economy, less dependence on the ship, and low impact
on environment. Considering its terrified working con-
ditions since once settled and serious consequences
caused by its breaking down, offshore submarine
cable is supposed to be accuracy, efficiency and well
designed (Jauch et al. 2005). However, due to so
many uncertainties in completing a submarine cable
burial project, understanding the process of water jet
trenching is desired for offshore engineering.
According to the process, there are several child
procedures need to be more specific. In fact, all these
procedures are about the fate of the jetting water, from
it coming out of the nozzle to it finally being swallowed
by sea, namely, the jetting waters speed attenuation
rule in undersea currents, the stress response of seabed
from water impact, the transportation of soil and so on.
It is no doubt that the important factors in the design
of water jetting trenching depend on specific jetting
machine and environment. In addition, stress response
of seabed from water impact is another vital factor that
should be considered in the design process. There-
fore, a better understanding of mechanism in water
jet trenching, is of great importance to the project of
jetting system.
response by jetting impact since the 1970s. Among
these, a simple method for the determination of the
pressure applied on the seabed surface, stagnation
pressure was proposed (Kondo et al. 1974). In this
model, several key factors, including the mass den-
sity of the water, the velocity of water coming out of
the nozzle and the bearing capacity, are considered as
constants. This approach has been widely used in engi-
neering practice. However, some important factors
were excluded in this model, for example, embedded
depth, jetting angle etc. In this study, a new formula
of evaluating the stress response of seabed under sub-
merged jetting pressure will be proposed and a series
of numerical examples are given.
2 THEORETICAL FORMULATIONS
Based on the previous experiments (Machin and Allan
2010), it can be seen that it takes several seconds to
reach full cavity depth in clays. Although the inter-
action time is short, the interactions between water,
currents and seabed is relatively complicated with
different phase and form. At the first place, the defor-
mation of the soil is not large, and the soil can be treated
as a cohesive medium, i.e. a solid-state. Therefore the
seabed can be seen as a loaded part, with load coming
from the jetting water, site environment and so on.

497
2.1 Assumptions
To derive an appropriate model, the following assump-
tions are made:
(1) The whole surface on the designed route are
smooth with no rock or reef on it;
(2) During the very short interaction time, the change
of properties of soil is ignored;
(3) The nozzle is a simple standard conical one,
water coming out of it with velocity in the same
direction with the center line of the nozzle;
(4) The currents have impact on soil mass destruc-
tion, and the model ignores the help for the sake
of briefness;
(5) There is no relatively weakness plane;
(6) When jetting water strike the soil, the thrust face
is small enough that the force can be treated as Figure 1. Model schemes.
point load;
(7) The time is short enough and the jetting is very water and water depth above the excavation plane, the
concentrate that the model can ignore the impact jetting water in a certain direction and so on, as shown
of seepage force. in Figure1. If there are more than one nozzle, the stress
can be obtained by superposition.
2.2 The velocity decay In the figure, XY axis is where all the nozzle centers
As show in previous experiments (Machin and Allan lies; AF is one of the nozzles center line; EF denotes
2010), the process commences with water rushing out the distance between two nozzles; and is defined to
of the nozzle. There is a small distance between the be the jetting angle, which is the angle between the AB
nozzle and the seabed with currents all around. There- line and the XY plane.
fore the water would lose some energy to conquer the The situ stress can be measured in this way:
currents resistance. In this study, it is assumed that the
impact is limited to attenuation of velocity. Blevins
Blevins (1984) has done some research into the law of
velocity decay. Later, Machin Machin (2001) got the
similar result with Blevins. Based on this model, the where w and dw stand separately for unit weight and
velocity of water jetting (v) in a distance of x from depth of water above the excavation surface; and i
the central point of the nozzle can be determined by, and di stand separately for effective unit weight and
depth of soil above the calculated point.
Then jetting force (F) can be further determined by
p and can be decomposed into two directions (F cos
in the X direction and F sin in the Z direction). As
the soil is still remain in solid state in the original site,
where v0 is the ejecting velocity, d represents for the to simplify the problem, we consider the seabed as a
diameter and C is a dimensionless hydrodynamic drag homogeneous isotropic elastic semi-infinite material.
coefficient (C = 6.2). Under the force of F sin in the Z direction, the
stress field in seabed will come into being. This subject
2.3 The water strikes the seabed has been solved by Boussinesq, so in this model, F
The phenomenon of water striking the seabed occurs should be placed by F sin .
in a very short longitudinal space within a very short In addition, z1 can be integrated, with cross section
time. Thus, it is reasonable to consider the jetting of the nozzle to be the domain of integration:
water to be no viscosity loss and no change in height.
According to Bernoulli equation, the following for-
mula, describing the force put on the seabed (Kondo
et al. 1974), can be reached:

where w is the density of seawater.

2.4 Soil stress analysis

In this model of soil stress analysis, the following fac-
tors are considered: the force coming from the jetting

498
 Figure 2. 3 , 1 and max change with different angle when
 depth = 1 cm.
where R = x2 + y2 + z 2 and a represents the distance
from the point to the central line of the nozzle.
As to the stress field caused by the X direction force,
F cos , the sub-problem is similar to the subject of
Cerruti. And replacing the force F with F cos can and the rest can be done in the same manner.
basically solve the sub-problem. The results can be If there are more than one nozzle, we can derive the
noted as: following formula by the principle of superimposed
stresses, for example with two nozzles, the Z direction
force can be calculated by the following formula:

and other 8 elements can be calculated by analogy,

except that the situ pressure is in absence.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

As shown in the above formulations, to determine the

seabed stress in 3D, the relevant parameters include
unit weight (both the seawater and the soil above the
plane), depth under sea level, velocity of water coming
out of the nozzle (v), density of seawater (w ), distance
in the x-, y- and z-direction under single nozzle, jetting
angle (), and Poission ratio (). Based on the new
model, its easy to evaluate maximum shear stress and
major principle stress, and the results are meant to be
connected to the failure criterion of soil.
In the following numerical examples: = 0.4,
w = 1000, i = 28000, r = 0.0075, v0 = 133, and its
a assumption that the seabed is in a distance of no
more than 12r from the nozzle, so there will be no
velocity decay. The excavation surface is on the sur-
face of seabed, and all the units are in accordance with
international units.
Some notable results that are reported from the
model can be summarized as follows.
From what has been discussed above, under the jet
of single nozzle, theoretically we can get stress distri-
3.1 The maximum normal and shear stress of the
bution of any point, for both the normal and the shear
same depth and different jetting angles
stress:
Figure 2 illustrates the effects of jetting angles on the
seabed stress at 1 cm below the seabed surface. As

499

Figure 3. Change of stresses along with depth of different
jetting angle (a) 1 and 3 and (b) max .
shown in the figure, the largest tensile stress and shear
strength occur when jetting angle is 70 degrees. This
implies that in this case jetting at 70 degrees is most
likely to tear the soil surface up, and make subsequent
excavation work easier.
3.2 Stress distribution sensitivity versus angle
Stress distribution under the influence of water jetting
can have a big impact in the excavation efficiency.
By simplifying the problem, the model adopt stress
of the AB line to represent the trenchers ability to
get excavation depth, and the FE line to represent the
ability to form a failure surface.
By researching into the maximum and minimum
principal stress distribution of the AB line, Figure 3(a)
can be represented for the results. And Figure 3(b) is
represented for the maximum shear stress.
Figure 3 shows that both the principal stress and
maximum shearing stress decay quickly in a short
distance, after that, the diversification being much
500
Figure 4. max distribution along the Y axis on different
level of depth when = 60 .
smaller; and the stress monotonically decrease along
all the depth. In addition, the maximum principal stress
is relatively small compared to minimum principal
stress, which is tensile stress in the whole calculation
range and this helps a lot to excavation. Meanwhile,
from the surface to approximately 1 cm, ranking order
of max of the units along AB line can be expressed as
60 > 90 > 30 . When depth > 1 cm, the relationship
has changed, and maximum shearing stress of = 90
decays the most slowly. This means if the velocity is
big enough, there is a pretty chance = 90 can get
the biggest excavation depth and therefore the great
profile.
3.3 Stress distribution between two nozzles
The number of nozzles and distance between them
is another key factor that will affect the digging
efficiency.
Assuming that the failure criterion is related to
maximum shear stress, Figure 4 illustrates the distri-
bution of shear stress versus theY direction for various
soil depth. As can be shown in the figure, under the
impact of two jetting nozzles, the maximum tensile
stress of depth = 1.5 cm can be 5 times more than
that of depth = 3 cm, but the range of tensile stress
of depth = 3 cm can be 2 times more than that of
depth = 1.5 cm. And we can clearly see a compres-
sion area between two nozzles when depth = 1.5 cm.
In addition, when depth 8 cm, there is almost no
change of max along the EF line, and the tension stress
is very low.
4 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, a simplified model of seabed stress
response under immersion jetting is proposed. With
the new model, the three-dimensional stress state at
any point of the seabed can be determined and con-
duct further failure analysis. Based on the numerical
results, the following conclusions can be drawn:
 (i) As to principal stress under water jetting, it is
found that in most cases, the minimum princi-
pal stress (tensile stress) is in the leading position
and the maximum principal stress is very low.
(ii) A trenchers ability to tear soil apart can be very
different with changes of jetting angles.
(iii) Under the jetting of two nozzles, there is a clear
compression area between two nozzles in the
shallow depth.
REFERENCES
Blevins, R. D. (1984). Applied fluid dynamics handbook.
New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
501
Jauch, C., J. Matevosyan, and T. Ackermann (2005). Interna-
tional comparison of requirements for connection of wind
turbines to power systems. Wind Energy 8, 295306.
Kondo, M., K. Fujii, and H. Syoji (1974). On the destruction
of mortar specimens by submerged water jets. In Pro-
ceedings of 2nd International Symposium on Jet Cutting
Technology, Cambridge, pp. 6988.
Lawton, C. (1939). The submarine-cable plow. In Proceed-
ings of AIEE winter convention, pp. 675686.
Machin, J. B. and P. A. Allan (2010). State-of-the-art jet
trenching analysis in stiff clays. In Proceedings of Interna-
tional Symposium on Frontiers in Offshore Geotechnics,
pp. 871876.
Messina, Frank D.and Machin, J. B. and J. A. Hill (2001).
The economic advantages of jet-assisted plowing. In
Proceedings of OCEANS, pp. 649 656.
Hydraulic engineering
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Technique and theory on continuous pouring concrete of

tail water branch pipe in water power station

Chen Yeying, Wang Junjie & Hao Jianyun

School of River & Ocean Engineering, Chongqing Jiaotong Universit, Chongqing, China

ABSTRACT: So far, the concrete of the water tail branch pipe of workshop building under ground in water
power station cant be continuous poured. In order to solve the problem, a new building technique in which the
fixed mount isnt necessary was suggested. Based on the principle in fluid mechanics and deforming law of
shell structure, a theory of equilibrium on hydraulic pressure acting on the form board without fixed mount was
established. The theory will be used to investigate continuous pouring the concrete. And according the theory,
the relationship between the depth of the fluid filled in the steel liner of tail water branch pipe and the height of
the concrete poured was also suggested.

Keywords: tail water branch pipe; concrete; continuous pouring; theory of equilibrium on hydraulic pressure

1 INSTRUCTIONS buildings on the surface of the spillway, flushing, nav-

According to the layout of hydropower resources in
China, the western region of conventional hydropower
installed capacity reached 95 million kilowatts,
accounting for 55% of the country and the degree of
development of 21.5% by the end of 2010. Sichuan
and Yunnan these are the most abundant hydropower
resources in the western region installed capacity
reached 27 million kilowatts and 17 million kilowatts,
degree of development of 22.5% and 17%. The central
region of conventional hydropower installed capacity
reached 50 million kilowatts, accounting for 30% of
the country and the degree of development of 68%.
The eastern region of conventional hydropower
installed capacity reached 25 million kilowatts,
accounting for 15% of the country. From here we see
that rich in hydropower resources in China, but the
general level of development is not high, there is still a
large number of hydropower resources to be exploited,
especially in the western region.
Power plant cant build in the ground above, only
be built underground because of the limit by the topo-
graphy, geological effects and the layout of dam. The
construction of the underground power plant, for the
diversion power plant, the water diversion system set-
tings will free from the topographical constraints, and
easy to avoid the disasters of geological region, save
the project investment. And for the dam type power
plant, when the hub is located in the gorge or exces-
sive ground construction, and riverbed width is not
sufficient when the layout of all buildings, we need
to use the underground power plant to ensure that the
igation can be settings and built. For example, the Er
Tan Hydropower Station in the Yarlung Zangbo River,
because of canyon is too narrow, surface only enough
to set the dam spillway and flushing building, genera-
tor fully set in the underground plant. Another example
is the remarkable Three Gorges Project in the Yangtze
River, despite the dam up to 3900 meters at length,
but surface is still not able to meet the requirements of
the layout of all buildings. Six generating units set in
the underground power plant in the right bank of the
construction.
In order to reduce energy loss and improve power
quality, we will try to set underground plant near
the reservoir side in where the geological condition
is good enough. Thus making the power station tail
water pipeline growth, so does the project investment.
It also makes the design and construction of the tail
water pipeline more difficult. We often use tail water
branch pipe in order to avoid a significant increase
of investment and reduce the difficulty of design and
construction. We can combine two or more tail water
hole of a main hole, such as the tail water system of
San Ban Xi Hydropower Station[1] . This is shown in
Fig. 1.
At present, bracket template construction
techniques[1] used in the concrete construction of the
tail water branch pipe of underground power plant can
not achieve the entire continuous pouring concrete.
In this paper, on the basis of analysis of princi-
ple, the advantages and disadvantages of this bracket
template construction advanced the no template con-
struction technology. And also establish the theory of

505
the balance of no bracket template hydraulic. So we
can achieve the entire continuous pouring concrete.
2 THE CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY OF
TAIL WATER BRANCH PIPE CONCRETE
STRUCTURE
2.1 Technical analysis of existing construction
The form of tail water setting will be affected by the
environment of the water power station,the location
of the generator plant and other factors[25] . When
the generator plant near the hill,we often use single
generator-single tail water pipe and the construction
of tail water tunnel is similar to the general tunnel[6] .
When the generator plant away from the hill, we need
to set tail water branch pipe.
Because of the tail water branch pipe complex cav-
erns body, the geometry foot changing space profiled
surface structure, narrow construction site and the
large lining positions, traditional construction tech-
niques can not use the large whole shape combinations
template. We need to use assembled template with
full bracket[7,8] . We need to build a work platforms to
ensure the shape of the concrete lining and the smooth
of the surface transition[7] .Because of the different
Figure 1. The tail water system of San Ban Xi Hydropower
Station.
Figure 2. Template and lining concrete block schematic.
506
vertical size of the tail water branch pipe, structure size
must also change. Templates and the platforms need
to be segmented installation. Due to the particularity
of the cross-section shape of tail water branch pipe,
on the same section of lining concrete can not be a
casting forming. Templates also need to be segmented
installation. This is shown in Fig. 2. Template segment
make site accurate position and construction of solid
frame difficult. Followed by pouring the concrete also
need to set up a construction joint.
This construction technology has weakened the
integrity of the concrete structure and the impermeable
capability of tail water branch pipe structure. Severe
cases may affect the hydropower normal operation and
grid security. Therefore, research on the construction
method of tail water branch pipe template without
brackets and the whole pouring concrete is necessary.
It also benefits for the durability of tail water branch
pipe structure and ensure that the power plant safe
operation.
2.2 The continuous pouring concrete technology of
tail water branch pipe
Because of the complex size of tail water branch pipe,
varied geometric dimensions and the big lining posi-
tion, traditional support cannot use the large whole
shape combination of template. It also goes against
to the continuous pouring concrete technology of tail
water branch pipe.The construction cycle must extend.
It will affect the hydropower stations get into work
early. At the same time it also destroys the structural
integrity and weakens the durability of the draft tube.
To solve the problem of tail water branch pipe con-
crete continuous pouring technology, we put forward
the technology of tail water branch pipe closed lined
with concrete as a whole continuous pouring construc-
tion. In this construction technology, first according
to the size and shape of tail water branch pipe, we
use the ultra-thin plate block processing construction
template at the factory. And then we assemble the
forming a closed branch pipe lined with in the field.
At last, we use the reinforced, embedded positioning
or consolidation of the steel lining, as an alternative to Eq. 1 Calculate the cross section of liquid total
the traditional block assembly template. extrusion pressure P:
As the liner is closed, the whole structure does not
require support to maintain their shape. However, due
to the tail water branch pipe lining positions, lining
their own strength and stiffness cannot resist the weight
of pressure loads and construction loads of concrete.
It will be likely to make the liner instability, result-
ing in buckling or destruction. In order to resist the Based on the reason that shell steel liner com-
concrete weight pressure and construction loads and pressive stress more easily than the tensile stress and
maintain structural stability and security, we can inject instability, steel liner tensile stress effect has remained
into the liquid in a timely manner to the closure of steel equal to or greater than the effect of compressive stress
liner in the process of pouring concrete of tail water in the construction process of tail water branch struc-
pipe. We use liquid pressure within the pipe to balance ture concrete structure. Therefore, inside extrusion
the concrete weight and construction loads. The liquid load should be equal to or greater than the extrusion
pressure replaces the traditional bar support. This con- load of Py Pc . We can create a relation between the
struction process can not only shorten the construction depth of the liquid perfuse in tail water branch pipe
period, save a lot of support materials and labor, but steel liner and the top elevation of concrete pouring.
also avoid the uneven force of bar support template. This is shown in inequality 3.
Because the structural shape, the part and the support
position cannot limit the liquid pressure. The liquid
pressure can provide a role of continuous distribution
support according to the requirements.
Although this new construction technology is really
simple in principle and the construction operation is
relatively easy. How to control the perfusion liquid In the inequality: y is specific gravity of perfuse liq-
height in the construction needs further study. We will uid; c is specific gravity of concrete; y , c denote
establish the appropriate computational method in the
next.

3 THE HYDRAULIC BALANCE THEORY OF

TAIL WATER BRANCH PIPE WITHOUT
BRACKET TEMPLATES

In order to study the loading process of tail water

branch pipe concrete structure construction steel plate
lining, interception unit length along the axis of the
pipe. In the process of tail water branch pipe pouring
concrete construction, there are two conditions. One of
them is that part of the pipe filled by liquid and some
still occupy by two-phase material gas composed of.
Another is that the pipe fluid-filled single-phase mate-
rial. Because concrete weight and construction loads Figure 3. Pressure distribution on ds.
have limitation. There is little effect on density of the
liquid perfused in the pipe. We can treat liquid den-
sity as constant in the hydraulic balance analysis of
tail water branch pipe concrete template. Steel plate
lining need to be kept in sealed after the tail water
branch pipe filled by the liquid single-phase material.
Tube pressure increase with the top surface of concrete
rose, the branch pipe become pressure self-balancing
inside and outside. Therefore, here we focuses on the
balance inside the pipe in the conditions of liquid and
gas two-phase material composed of conditions.
According to the principles of fluid mechanics can
calculate an arbitrary depth of liquid on the unit length
of steel lining arc of any micro-segment is subjected
to the squeeze pressure
P. This is shown in Fig. 3.

Figure 4. The pressure distribution inside and outside the

steel liner.

507
the perfusion liquid and concrete buried steel lining
arc length corresponding to the circumferential angle.
This is shown in Fig. 4.
Therefore, despite the steel liner inside and outside
the pressure imbalance, as long as the pipe surface sat-
isfies the Eq. 4 perfusion conditions. Steel liner is not
to produce buckling destruction due to concrete crush-
ing in the pouring process of tail water branch pipe
concrete. It can be completed without bracket concrete
pouring.
4 CONCLUSIONS
We establish calculational relationship of the steel liner
perfusion liquid depth and pouring concrete eleva-
tion based on the hydraulic balance theory. According
this we put forward the technology of underground
hydropower station tail water branch pipe bracket con-
crete pouring. This construction technology uses a
liquid pressure to resist concrete loads, to avoid the
complex and cumbersome build process of tail water
branch pipe concrete pouring construction bracket.
So we can achieve tail water inlet structure concrete
entirely continuous pouring. It also can shorten the
construction cycle and improve the quality of the
project. It provides a theoretical support and techni-
cal support to hydropower station rapid construction
and generation as soon as possible.
508
REFERENCES
LU Xuehua & Kong Wingting & Xiong Jianghua and so on,
2009. Sanbanxi Hydropower Station Tailrace Branch Con-
crete Structure J.YunnanWater Power, 25(2): 3940 + 60.
Chen Jianwu & He Jiangda & Xie Hongqiang & Li Zhoushun
& Liyang, 2009. Pumped Storage Power Station tail water
inlet pipe region Initial Stress Field. J. Yunnan Water
Power, 25(5): 3033 + 47.
Li Ling & Lu Hao & Chen Jiafan, 2008. Pumped Storage
Power Station tail water branch pipe flow movement and
resistance characteristics test. J. Journal of Hydroelectric
Engineering, 27(3): 101104 + 109.
Huang Hefa &YangYaohong, 1999. Dachaoshan Hydropower
tail water branch pipe designed to count the parameter
sensitivity analysis. J. Journal of North China Institute of
Water Resources and Hydropower, 20(4): 2125.
Wang Lingyu & Zhao Jinggen, 2002. The Mianhuatan
hydropower station water inlet pipe design. J. Northeast
Water Resources and Hydropower, 20(3): 68.
Qi Guangheng & Zi Jiquan & Xie Xinzhi, 2009. Ditch
Hydropower Station caverns of the tailrace tunnel exca-
vation and support technology [J], Water Resources and
Hydropower Construction 2009(2): 4853.
Hu Shenggen & Wang Zhiqiang & Ma Jinchao, 2004.
Pingban Hydropower draft tube liner installation. J.
Yangtze River, 35(6): 4142 + 53.
Gu Qianxing, 2004. Construction procedures and blasting
process of Sanbanxi tail water branch pipe. J.YunnanWater
Power, 20(5): 103104.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Tidal level trend test and extraction in downstream of the Yangtze River

Guofang Li & Miaoyuan Xiao

State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, China

Xinyi Xiang
School of Geographical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing, China

ABSTRACT: In this research, Mann-Kendall test, wavelet analysis and extracting tendency item from moving
average series were utilized for tide level tendency analysis from 1956 to 2009 in Zhenjiang station in the
downstream of Yangtze River. Based on M-K test, it was found that there was an obvious rising tendency for the
annual mean tide levels in Zhenjiang station. MexHat wavelet function was utilized in cycle analysis of annual
mean tide level series, which show that there were primary cycles of 2a and 16a in Zhenjiang station. According
to tide level cycle, 16a moving average series of annual mean tide level was calculated and tendency item
was extracted to quantify the changing tendency of annual mean tide level series, based on which, consistency
correction was carried out on annual mean tide level series, which provided the theoretical foundation for
sustainable water resource development of the Yangtze River.

Keywords: annual mean tide levels; M-K test; wavelet analysis; tendency extracting; consistency correction

1 INTRODUCTION item from moving average series were utilized for tide
level tendency analysis, based on which, consistency
In flood control planning and water resource planning correction was realized with monitored annual mean
related with sustainable utilization of water resources, tide level in Zhenjiang station.
it was generally assumed that environment for hydro-
logical elements such as rainfall, discharge and water
level was unchanged in the past, at present and in
the future. Consequently, (1) taking hydrological ele- 2 RESEARCH METHOD
ments as pure random variables and describing their
changing rules with statistical distribution; (2) assum- 2.1 Mann-Kendall test method
ing that monitored hydrological series in the past Mann-Kendall (M-K for short) test method is a non-
and hydrological series in the future were samples parametric statistics test method which can examine
from the same population, probability prediction could variation tendency of time series (Ding & Deng 1988).
be realized with the future variation of hydrological It can stand with small amounts of abnormal values,
elements based on monitored series in the past. Tradi- which is suitable of type variables and ordinal variables
tional hydrological calculation theories and methods and easy for calculation (Wei 2007). In this study, M-K
in China were established on the basis of the basic test was used to examine the tendency of tide level.
assumptions mentioned, which was applicable in sta- In M-K trend test, the null hypothesis H0 was that
ble environment with little change and little artificial there was no trend variation in the sample series. For
interference. In recent years, considering the climatic the time series with n as the sample size, presented as
changes and significant artificial interference, hydro- x1 , x2 , . . . , xn , the statistic was introduced as follows:
logical elements in different period were under the
gradually-changing conditions, which meant the mon-
itored hydrological series was under tendency changes
and consistency of hydrological data was seriously
damaged. Traditional theory and methods for hydro-
logical calculation were challenged. To solve this
problem and to provide the foundation for sustain-
able water resources utilization, improvement methods
were put forward by researchers. In this study, Mann-
Kendall test, wavelet analysis and extracting tendency

509
 The statistics approximately obey normal distribu-
tion if n 10, as a result, the standardized statistics
can be calculated as follows:
In the case of degree of confidence () being given,
Z/2 can be obtained from standard normal distribution
list. If |Z| > Z/2 , it was believed the original hypoth-
esis should be rejected and there was an increasing or
decreasing tendency in the time series. Otherwise it
was regarded the original hypothesis was acceptable
and there was no tendency.
2.2 Wavelet analysis (WT)
Wavelet Analysis (WT) has been widely used in many
scientific areas recently, which found good application
in signal data processing, image processing, speech
segmentation and synthesis, radar analysis, science of
earthquake, object recognition and atmospheric sci-
ence (Li 1999). Since its first application in hydrology
(Kumar & Foufoula-Georgiou 1993), WT has also
shown great potential in hydrological sciences (Wang
et al. 2002). Many researchers have already tried to
apply WT in the analysis of runoff cycle and ten-
dency (Wang et al. 2003, Liu et al. 2010, Ni et al.
2010, Xue 2002). Tian (2001) used WT in tide analy-
sis and compared the results with that of the traditional
Darwin method. Based on the rule of moon move-
ment, there was 18.61 years long cycle of tides in
theory. Considering the deforming effect of the land-
form, combined the effect of upstream runoff, when
out-sea tide entered theYangtze River estuary, cycle of
tide might be changed. In this study, variation cycle of
annual mean tide level in the tidal reach of downstream
Yangtze River was investigated.
If any of the following conditions was met by
function (t):
where () is the spectrum of (t). Define
where a,b (t) is continuous wavelet and is basic
wavelet or mother wavelet, which is a double win-
dow function with one being time window and the
other being frequency spectrum. Oscillation of a,b (t)
increased with 1/|a|. Therefore, a is a frequency
parameter and b is a time parameter, which may change
510
with time. Then, function f (t) wavelet transform for
continuous form is:
Because tide level time series was discrete, dis-
crete wavelet transform was used. The size factor was
a (time interval length), which reflected the cycle
length of wavelet. The time factor was b, which
reflected translation on time. The wavelet coefficient
was, f (a,b) time interval was
t, sample size was n
and time series was f (i
t):
Wavelet variance was defined as:
There were many different kinds of wavelet func-
tions, namely MexHat, Wave, Morlet, Hear, Meyer and
so on. Morlet wavelet was generally used in hydrologic
cycle analysis, but it was not a compactly supported
wavelet and it was not applicable in discrete wavelet
transform as a result. Considering the hydrologic time
series was discrete, it would be unreasonable to use
Morlet wavelet. It might lead to signal distortion of
hydrologic time series (Wang et al. 2006). At the same
time, because MexHat wavelet was the second deriva-
tive of Gauss function, it had good local character.
In this study, MexHat wavelet was used to analyze
periodicity of tide level time series. MexHat wavelet
was defined as follows:
2.3 Extracting tendency item from moving
average series
Regarding time series Z(t) as a composition of ten-
dency item A(t), cycle item P(t) and random item R(t),
and the expression was as follows:
Taking primary cycle as the length in calculation
of moving average series ZMA (t) of monitored series
Z(t), there was no cycle change in ZMA (t). Conse-
quently, by extracting the tendency item A(t) from
the moving average series, the interference from the
cycle variation of monitored series can be avoided.
Because the purpose of consistency correction is to
remove the tendency item in hydrological series, if
A(t)(t = 1, 2, . . . , n) were known, annual mean tide
level can be corrected as follows:
Table 1. M-K test result for Zhenjiang station.
If the tendency
Station Statistic Confidence limit is significant?
Zhenjiang 2.499 2.005 Yes
where Z (t) was the corrected tide level, Z(t) was the
monitored tide level, A(n) was the trend value of the
present situation and A(t) was the trend value of the t
term. A(t) can be defined as the following polynomial.
where k was the order of polynomial and j ( j = 0, 1,
2, . . . , k) was undetermined coefficients.
3 INSTANCE
In this study, annual average tide level data of 54a
ranging from 1956 to 2009 of Zhenjiang station at
the downstream of Yangtze River were collected.
Zhenjiang station is located in Jiangsu Province, which
is the one of most developed areas in China. Flood
control in Zhenjiang station is one of the most seri-
ous problems. However, the data as the basis for flood
control are changing year by year considering the rapid
development of society and the significant influence
of human activities. It would lead to many problems
related with uncertainty in hydrological calculation
and bring some deviation in flood control. In this study,
the above-mentioned methods composed of M-K test,
wavelet analysis and extracting tendency item from
moving average series were used to restore the consis-
tency of tide levels time series of Zhenjiang station.
For the monitored tide level data of Zhenjiang
station, Mann-Kendall test was used to examine the
tendency with degree of confidence () being 5%, and
the result was listed in Table 1.
Before analyzing variation cycle of annual mean
tide level with wavelet method, original tide level data
were normalized to remove the influence of dimen-
sions. The normalized tide level time series was shown
in Figure 1. It was found that the tide level show a rising
tendency with time.
Figure 2 is the time-frequency variation distribution
of wavelet transformation coefficient with MexHat
for normalized tide level time series. It demonstrated
wavelet transform coefficient distribution and phase
change of tide level time series in different time scales
and different time. Zhenjiang stations wavelet trans-
formational coefficient changed significantly both in
25a time scales and in 1520a time scale. In 25a
time scale, positive and negetive phases appeared alter-
nately.There were two centers of oscillation in the large
time scale of 1520a. One was the negetive center,
which was appeared before year 1980, and the other
one was positive center, which appeared after year
1980. The phase changed from negetive to positive
511
Figure 1. Normalized tide level time series.
Figure 2. The time-frequency changed distribution.
in 1980, which indicated the period before 1980 was
low-tide period and the period after 1980 was high-tide
period. In other words, the tide levels were increasing
with time. It also reflected the tide level showd an
rising tendency.
Wavelet variance diagram (Figure 3) is time inte-
gration for wavelet transformational coefficient. It
reflected the energy of volatility distribution with
the time scales and the primary cycles were verified
through wavelet variance diagram. From Figure 3 we
can see tide level of Zhenjiang station was with max-
imum value at 2a and 16a, which means 2a and 16a
are the primary cycles. The tide levels are affected
by moon cycle so that there is a theoretical cycle
of 18.61a. However, influenced by many factors as
upstream runoff and special geographical environ-
ment, the actually cycle of tide level in estuary may
be distingwish from the theoretical cycle.
In that monitored tide levels were recorded under
gradually changed environment in different period,
changing factors including climate, underlying surface
condition, hydrological engineering operation and so
on, which was irreversible, changing tendency of tide
level should be quantified, based on which, moni-
tored tide levels were corrected according to current
conditions, which can be used as the foundation of
sustainable utilization of water resources.
In this study, tendency was extracted from moving
average series to quantify the changing tendency of
tide level. Based on the conclusion that there was 16a
cycle for annual mean tide level in Zhenjiang station,
16a moving average series of annual mean tide level
in Zhenjiang station were obtained. The first value
of moving average series was the arithmetic average
of the values from 1956 to 1971. The moving aver-
age was in the middle of the 16 years with t = 8. The

Figure 3. Wavelet variance diagram.
Figure 4. The comparison of original data with corrected
tide level.
last value of moving average series was the arithmetic
average of the values from 1994 to 2009. For moving
average, t = 46. In light of optimal fitting principle,
polynomial order k and coefficient aj ( j = 0, 1, 2, . . . k)
in (13) were determined and k = 2, the tendency A(t)
was defined as follows:
Tide levels during the period 20022009 were
almost the same with current conditions which were
not necessary to be corrected. Combine (14) with
(12), annual mean tide level from 1956 to 2001 in
Zhenjiang station can be corrected into current condi-
tions. Comparison of annual mean tide levels before
and after consistency correction was listed as Figure 4.
It was found, significant correction was needed for
early stage monitored tide levels, while minor correc-
tion was needed for recent years monitored tide levels.
There was many years ago for early-stage monitoring,
and many human activities might have influence dur-
ing this long period, which was in coincidence with
the fact. With degree of confidence () being 5%, the
results of M-K test on corrected annual mean tide lev-
els of Zhenjiang station were listed in Table 2. There
was no longer tendency in tide level variation, which
reflected the efficiency of tide level correction.
512
Table 2. The result of M-K test on corrected tidal level of
Zhenjiang station.
Confidence Whether trend
Station Statistic limit significant?
Zhenjiang 1.201 2.005 No
4 CONCLUSION
As the WMO recommended method and popular non-
parameter test method, M-K test method was appli-
cable in tendency test of such non-normal distributed
hydrological elements as tide level. As a novel analysis
method for hydrological time series, wavelet analysis
method can not only demonstrate the frequency-time
changing rule of hydrological time series, but also
reflect the variation characteristics with different time
scales. Extracting tendency item from moving average
series is easy for calculation and widely applicable,
which is suitable for gradual correction. In this study,
the three methods were combined together, which pro-
vided a new tool for analysis of monitored tide level
data in changing conditions. It can be used in both the
processing of other tide level data, and the analysis of
other hydrological elements as rainfall, discharge and
so on.
Many scholars pointed out that MexHat wavelet
could demonstrate the cycle of hydrological time series
very well due to guarantee of admissible conditions. In
this study, the MexHat instead of the Morlet wavelet
was utilized, the latter of which was commonly used in
hydrological analysis of tide levels time series, which
presented a agreeable calculation results.
Based on M-K test, it was found rising tendency
existed in the annual average tide levels of Zhenjiang
station. According to MaxHat wavelet analysis, it was
found that there were primary cycles of 2a and 16a.
Extract the tendency from 16a moving average series
and correct the monitored tide levels into current con-
ditions. Through M-K test, it was found there was
no longer rising tendency for corrected series, which
proved the efficiency of selected method.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51109053
and 50979024), the Fundamental Research Funds for
the Central Universities of China (No. 2009B06314),
for the financial support for this project.
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Ding, J. & Deng, Y.R., 1988. Stochastic hydrology. Chengdu:
Press of Chengdu Science and Technology University.
Kumar, P. & Foufoula-Georgiou, E., 1993. A multicompo-
nent decomposition of spatial rainfall fields 1. Segrega-
tion of Large- and Small-Scale features using Wavelet
transforms. Water Resources Research 29(8): 25152532.
Li, J.P. & Zhang, W.P., 1999. Some perspective applied areas
of Wavelet Analysis. Journal of Chongqing University
(Natural Science Edition) 22(1): 121125.
Liu, Y.J., Yu, H.J., Cao, J.L. & Xu X.Y. 2010. The upper
reaches of the Yellow Rivers wavelet analysis of hydro-
logical cycle composition and mutation characteristics.
Yellow River 32(6): 2728.
Ni, X.M., Chen, Y.F., Liu, Y. & Wang, Z.H., 2010. Multi-
ple time scale analysis of the low water runoff based on
wavelet analysis. Water Resources and Power 27(3): 68.
Tian, G.Y., 2001. The wavelet analysis of tide. Ocean Survey
21(1): 2025.
Wang, H.R. & Ye L.T., 2006. Problems in wavelet analysis of
hydrologic series and some suggestions on improvement.
Progress in Natural Science 16(8):10021008.
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Wang, W.S., Ding, J., Heng, T. & Xiang H.L., 2003.
Wavelet analysis of hydrological seriescycle composition
and mutation characteristics identification. Geotechnical
investigation & Surveying. 31(1): 3235.
Wang, W.S., Ding, J. & Xiang, H.L., 2002. Application and
prospect of wavelet analysis in hydrology. Advances in
Water Science 13(4): 515520.
Wei, F.Y., 2007. Modern climate statistical diagnosis and
prediction technology. Beijing: Meteorological Press.
Xue, X.J. & Jiang, X.H., 2002. The application of wavelet
analysis in hydrological sequence trend analysis. Journal
of Applied Science. 20(12): 426428.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Experimental study on hydraulic characteristics of allotypic

hybrid-type flip bucket

T. Zhang & Z.W. Wang

College of Civil Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, China

ABSTRACT: This paper focuses on an experimental study of the hydraulic performances of a new-type dis-
sipater, named allotypic hybrid-type flip bucket (AHFB), which combined the advantage of the diffusion flip
bucket (DFB), slit-type flip bucket (SFB) and hybrid-type flip bucket (HFB) together. Experiments were per-
formed on laboratory model with four types bucket, as the continuous flip bucket (CFB), the SFB, the HFB and
the AHFB. The expression for the flow regimes and the trajectory of jets is studied, considering data proposed by
other researchers. Pressure distributions on the bottom and vertical faces of the bucket are presented. It indicated
that as contraction of lower bucket of AHFB, the pressures on vertical face were positive, which protected the
occurrence of cavitation damage. The important observations are that when the Froude number exceed 5, the
scour depth of combined bucket decreases with increase in Froude number, and can reduce about 70% compared
with that of CFB.

Keywords: Flip bucket, Energy dissipation, Ski jump, Hydraulic characteristics

1 INTRODUCTION in this paper, the following items were addressed: (1)

The research topic on energy dissipation with high
head and large unit discharge has always been focused
in the field of hydraulic engineering. Among the var-
ious dissipating types, the ski-jump flip bucket is
the most commonly one. With the vigorous develop-
ment of the dam construction, a variety of flip bucket
appeared, such as HFB, SFB and DFB. As applied
in engineering, each type respectively has its own
advantages and applicable condition.
The previous research show that a well designed
HFB has a good energy dissipation effect, which can
reduce the depth by 50%, compare to the CFB. The
AHFB combined the advantage of the DFB, SFB and
HFB together, has the distinct characteristics of appli-
cation. It has been successfully used on spillway at
both Shanxi and Tankeng hydropower station. More-
over, the preliminary design of the Dalongtan arch dam
proved that the AHFB can be used in arch dam. Data
shows that the bucket can be widely applied not only to
the side spillway with high-head and large-discharge
per unit width, but also to the high arch dam in nar-
row valley. This new type of dissipater behaves the
property of upper bucket diffused and lower bucket
constricted, and can form upper and lower differen-
tial water jets in spaces. The hydraulic characteristics
from the entrance of the bucket to the plunge pool are
distinct from others energy dissipater.
To date, the available literature does not present
relative research. Experimental investigations in
hydraulic characteristics of the AHFB are presented
pressure distribution along the bucket and on the ver-
tical sidewall; (2) takeoff characteristic including the
lower and upper jet trajectories; and (3) the maximum
depth of the scour hole and its profile. The results for
all these parameters are compared with CFB, SFB and
HFB.
2 DESCRIPTION OF AHFB ENERGY
DISSIPATER:
The new type energy dissipater, named AHFB, com-
bines the advantages of the DFB, SFB and HFB
together. As illustrated in Figure 1, B1 and B2 iden-
tify the width at starting position of upper and lower
flip bucket, respectively, whereas b1 and b2 at the outlet
position. Therefore, the contraction ratio of the bucket
is defined as s = b2 /B2 . l stands for the longitudinal
length of the contraction section; R1 and R2 represent
the radius of inverse arc of upper and lower bucket,
respectively; 1 expresses the deflector angle of upper
bucket, and 2 of the lower bucket.
The hydraulic characteristics of this type bucket are
different from traditional HFB. It should be noted that
the entrance elevation of the upper and lower bucket
of AHFB is the same, as shown in Figure 1, so the jet
trajectories dont behave the character of big differen-
tial flow. From entering the bucket to dropping into the
plunge pool, the interaction of mixture and impaction
of the upper and lower jets is evident. When adopted
in practical engineering, this type of flip bucket has

515
distinctive characteristics: (1) The upper jet diffused
in transverse direction, thus decrease the per unit dis-
charge that jet into the plunge pool. (2) Otherwise, the
lower bucket flow is contractive in longitudinal direc-
tion, thus the lower jet is fully diffused and aerated
on the air. These two diffused jets in different direc-
tion may reduce the downstream scouring. It must be
noted that, when the parameters of the upper and lower
bucket are properly designed, the flow will not impact
directly at the bank wall. So this type bucket can be
used in the narrow river valley.
3 EXPERIMENT SETUP
The physical model, as shown in Figure 2, was con-
structed according to Froude similitude. The reservoir
water level is controlled by a gate at the export of
upstream reservoir, to obtain different hydraulic heads
H0 at import bucket. The cobblestone (which have
a d50 of 13.5 mm) bed was 6 m long, 90 cm high,
and spanned the full width of the flume. Down-
stream tailgate was set to control the downstream depth
h2 = 0.24 m. Discharge measurements for this study
were made using ultrasonic flowmeter with accuracy
of 0.1, and the maximum measured discharge is
0.586 m3 /s. Water level and water jet trajectory were
measured by point gauge, and the accuracy is 0.1 mm.
To research the different characteristics of AHFB,
CFB, SFB and HFB, several cases of water head have
been set up. The pressure distribution as well as local
scour hole were contrasted and analyzed. The details
of experimental series are shown in Tab. 1.

4 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

4.1 Flood patterns

Prior studies have made deep study on the flow pattern
of CFB, SFB and HFB, this paper is going to present
the flow regime of AHFB. As shown in Figure 3, since
water inflow into the bucket, a part of the upper water
flows into the lower bucket. The lower bucket flow dif-
fused in longitudinal direction due to the contraction
of lateral wall, and the water surface form a V type
in transverse direction (shown in Fig. 3b). The upper
Figure 1. Allotypic hybridtype flip bucket.

Figure 2. Details of experimental model.

Table 1. Experimental parameters and test series.

Inflowing water Inflowing Froude Downstream

Experiment head H0 number water depth h2 Takeoff angle Contraction
project m Fr m ratio s

CFB 1.353.0 4.89.15 0.24 30 1.0

SFB 4.6 0.4
HFB 1 = 30 , 2 = 4.6 1.0
AHFB 1 = 30 , 2 = 4.6 0.4

516
Figure 3. The flow regime of AHFB.
Figure 4. Pressure distribution on the bottom of different
flip bucket.
bucket water jet is well extended in transverse direc-
tion. Therefore, adjacent upper water jets collide at
the position of bucket outlet (Figs. 3a, c). Moreover,
the upper bucket jet that spread to the lower bucket
would be jacked by the lower bucket jet, thus form the
collision zone (Fig. 3c).
The experimental results show that the jet trajec-
tory of the CFB is the farthest, while the diffusion in
longitudinal and transverse direction is insufficiency.
The jet of the SFB is fully diffused, with the longest jet
trajectory, which is 2.7 times as long as the bucket
width. The upper and lower jet of the AHFB is fully
diffused in longitudinal and transverse direction, form-
ing a collision zone and making water more dispersive.
The area of incidence plane of AHFB is largest within
these four type buckets.
4.2 Pressure distribution
Figure 4 displays the pressure distribution of various
type flip bucket. As can be seen that the pressure dis-
tributions are uniform on the bottom of SFB and the
upper bucket of HFB, as well as on the upper bucket
of AHFB. While the pressure of upper bucket of AHFB
517
Figure 5. Pressure distribution on the side wall of different
flip bucket (unit: 9.8 kPa).
is slightly smaller than that of HFB, which is resulted
from the reducing depth of upper bucket nappe due
to the increase of discharge ratio of lower bucket. The
bottom pressure distribution of DFB, SFB and HFB are
similar, and the peak value occurs at the place about
0.4l from the bucket entrance. The maximum pressure
of SFB is the largest one, followed by AHFB and HFB.
Figure 5 shows the pressure distribution of three
types of bucket on the side wall. As can be seen that
negative pressure, about 0.1 * 9.8 kPa, occurs at the
side wall of the lower bucket of HFB (Fig. 5b). There-
fore, vent is necessary to be set in this place to avoid the
occurrence of cavitation damage. However, vacuum
wasnt occurred at the side wall of the lower bucket
of AHFB, resulting from the contraction of the lower
bucket. For this reason, the probability of cavitation
damage without the vent can be diminished and the
safety performance of this bucket under the condition

Figure 6. Streamwise distance from the outlet of bucket to
the maximum scour point.
Figure 7. Relations between Fr and scour depth T of
different type bucket.
of high head and large unit-width discharge would be
greatly improved.
4.3 Local scour depth
The depth and position of downstream scour hole are
the basic parameters to evaluate the ski-jump energy
dissipation effect. Under the same flow condition,
the design objects are that the jet trajectory distance
is farthest while the local scour is shallowest. The
relationship curves of jet trajectory distance L with
different Froude number Fr are shown in Figure 6.
Figure 7 displays the relations between Fr and scour
depth T of different type bucket. It can be obviously
seen that the shortest jet trajectory distance is the HFB,
followed by the SFB, AHFB, CFB. For the AHFB, the
lower bucket jet is fully diffused in the longitudinal
direction with the contraction of lower bucket, making
the lower bucket scour hole backwards. The compari-
son of local scour depth illustrated that the AHFB has
a big advantage over the SFB and the HFB, and the
scour depth ofAHFB can reduce about 70 percent com-
pared with that of CFB. An important observation is
518
that when the Froude number exceeds 5.27, the local
scour depth of AHFB decreases with the increase of
Froude number. As can be seen from the model exper-
iment, the takeoff water jet of AHFB fully diffused
both in longitudinal and transverse direction, results
in the increase of impinging area and the decrease of
impinging discharge per unit.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Model experiment was conducted to compare the
hydraulic characteristics of CFB, SFB, HFB and
AHFB, the following conclusions were addressed: 1)
The water jets of AHFB fully diffused at the transverse
and longitudinal direction, and two collision zones was
formed, then the flow diffused and mixed. The inci-
dence plane area is larger than that of HFB, and the
flow is more decentralized. 2) Due to the contraction
of lower bucket, the pressure on transverse face of
AHFB is positive, which prevent the occurrence
of cavitation damage without setting air vent and
improved safety performance in the condition of high-
head and large-discharge per unit width. 3) Among
the four type flip bucket, the AHFB has the largest
incidence plane area, the fullest diffusion and the
minimum energy per unit jet area. 4) The jet trajec-
tory distance of CFB is the farthest, follow by SFB,
AHFB and HFB. 5) For the scour depth, the AHFB
is superior to the SFB and HFB under the same flow
condition.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The writers would like to acknowledge the sup-
port from the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian
Province (Grant NO. 2011J01307).
REFERENCES
Fuyi, Zhang & Lingzhi Tie. 1988. Experimental study on
scour depth of slit-type energy dissipater for mid-level
outlets. Shuili xuebao (12): 2933.
Heller, V & Hager, W.H. 2005. Ski jump hydraulics. J. of
Hydraul. Eng 131(5): 347355.
Qiujun, Huang & Jianhua Wu. 2008. Research on contraction
energy dissipators. Journal of Hohai University (Natural
Sciences) (3): 219223.
Haifei, Sha & Hui, Zhou. 2006. Numerical simulation of 3-D
flow formed by slit-type energy dissipater for mid-level
outlets. Shuili xuebao (6); 625629.
Yanfa, Zhang & Wenping, Wu. 1989. Experimental researches
on the flow profile and the nappe trajectory distance for
slit-type bucket. Shuili xuebao (5): 1421.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Dynamic gravity dam-reservoir-foundation interaction analysis

based on the scaled boundary finite element method

J.Y. Liu
Faculty of Infrastructure Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
School of Architecture & Civil Engineering, Shenyang University of Technology, Shenyang, China

G. Lin, Z.Q. Hu, Y. Wang & Y. Zhang

Faculty of Infrastructure Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China

ABSTRACT: The response of gravity dam-reservoir-foundation interaction is evaluated based on the scaled
boundary finite element method. The unbounded foundation is modeled by a high-order transmitting boundary
based on the continued-fraction solution of the dynamic-stiffness matrix. The effects of compressibility of
reservoir water as well as the energy absorption of reservoir boundary for a wide range of wave reflection
coefficient are considered. Numerical results show that the response is less than that of the results of the classically
added mass approach neglecting water compressibility. Thus, inclusion of water compressibility and reservoir
boundary absorption is essential to predict the earthquake response of dams and to evaluate the earthquake safety
of existing dams.

Keywords: gravity dam, scaled boundary finite element method, dynamic structure-foundation interaction;
unbounded foundation

1 GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS as the energy absorption of reservoir boundary on the

Dynamic the response of gravity dam-reservoir-
foundation interaction is one of the most important
issues for the seismic designing and the earthquake
safety assessment of dam structures. However, as the
problem which requires considering the effects of
unbounded water domain and unbounded foundation
is complicated, its implementation in the engineering
practice always associates with large computational
efforts. In this paper, the response of gravity dam-
reservoir-foundation interaction is evaluated based on
the scaled boundary finite element (SBFE) method
(Song and Wolf, 1997).
The SBFEM combines the advantages of the finite
element method and the boundary element method and
has its own characters. Firstly, no fundamental solution
is needed; secondly, only the interface of structure and
the unbounded domain has to be discretized and thus
reduces some computational efforts. In addition, in
the modeling of unbounded domain, the method per-
mits the boundary condition at infinity to be enforced
analytically.
In the paper the Koyna gravity dam is taken as an
example to calculate the stress distribution. The effects
of unbounded water domain and unbounded founda-
tion are considered simultaneously. At the same time,
the effect of compressibility of reservoir water as well
earthquake response of gravity dams is also included.
The results of envelop values of maximum principal
stresses for a wide range of wave reflection coefficient
are presented.
2 MOTION EQUATION OF INTERACTION IN
FREQUENCY DOMAIN
The frequency domain equation of structure-
foundation system can be expressed as equation (1)
where, [S] is the dynamic-stiffness matrix in fre-
quency, can be expressed equation (2)
in which [M] and [K] are the mass and stiffness matri-
ces of the dam, is frequency; 2 is the hysteretic
damping of the system, is the viscous damping ratio,
= 0.05.
f
[Ut ] is the total displacement, [Ub ] is the displace-
ment of free field, the subscript b denotes the degree

519
of freedom (DOF) at the interface of the dam founda-
tion and the unbounded foundation, and the subscript
s the remaining DOF of the dam and the foundation.
When the total displacement [Ut ] is expressed as the
sum of quasi-static displacement [Uf ] and dynamic
displacement [Ud ],
in which
the governing equations of the dam-foundation system
can be expressed in the following form:
g
[Sbb ] is the dynamic stiffness of the unbounded foun-
dation, it is a function of the exciting frequency ,
the transferring process is explained in detail in (Wolf,
1985). As the purpose of this paper is to calculate the
earthquake response of gravity dams, a uniform earth-
quake input is assumed to simplify the computation
and it is specified along the boundary between dam
foundation and the unbounded foundation. Thus
in which
The earthquake input motion as well as the response
displacements of the structure in the frequency domain
and in the time domain form the Fourier transform pair
520
3 THE BASIC EQUATIONS OF SCALED
BOUNDARY FINITE ELEMENT METHOD
3.1 Governing equations of scaled boundary finite
element method
The scaled boundary finite-element equation in
dynamic stiffness is as follows:
The coefficient matrices [E0 ], [E1 ], [E2 ], [M0 ] can
be directly calculated using the numerical integration
techniques of finite element method, but only calcu-
lating the boundary. [S ()] is the dynamic stiffness
matrix of unbounded foundation which is symmet-
ric. The calculating equations of the displacement and
stress could be found in (Song and Wolf, 1997 and
Wolf and Song, 1996)
3.2 Solving infinite-dynamic stiffness
The dynamic stiffness [S ()] can be approached by
the following equation,
The solution of [Y(1) ()] can be expressed as the
following recurrence form.
That is
The number of calculated items are determined based
on the calculated accuracy, and the calculation of
[Y(8) ()] is accurate enough. [Y0 (i)] and [Y1 (i)]
(i = 1,2,3) are both constant vectors. The detailed
calculated process can refer to the reference (Bazyar
and Song, 2008).
4 ENGINEERING APPICATION
The Koyna gravity dam is taken as a numeri-
cal example as shown in Figure 1. The height of
Koyna dam is 103.02 m, and its wideness at the bot-
tom is 70.18 m,14.78 m at the top, H1 = 66.44 m,
H2 = 36.158 m in Figure 1. The effect of infinite
foundation is considered by using the transmitting
boundary and L = H/4 in Figure 1. The model is eval-
uated in frequency domain based on the SBFEM.
The elastic modulus of the dam and foundation is
E = 3.1 GPa, Poissons ratio is = 0.2, mass density is
= 2643 kg/m3 , the elastic modulus is increased 30%
for the dynamic analysis.
Figure 1. Gravity dam model of infinite foundation.

The reservoir depth is 103.02 m and the hydrody-

namic pressure is considered by the added-mass matrix
and added to the corresponding freedoms of structure
in Eq. (5), thus Eq. (5) may be expressed as follows:

The hydrodynamic pressure, generated in the reser-

voir in excess of the static pressure is governed by
the Helmholtz equation (in the frequency domain).
It is explained in detail in (Lin et al. 2007). In the
paper the results for a wide range of wave reflection
coefficient , defined as the ratio of amplitudes of
reflected hydrodynamic pressure wave to the ampli-
tudes of a normally incident wave on the reservoir
boundary, which reflects the effects of hydrodynamic
pressure wave absorption at the reservoir boundary
on the earthquake response are presented. The Koyna
earthquake record is used for the ground motion input,
the peak acceleration is assigned as 0.3 g. Because
the excitation of earthquake ground motion in the
stream direction makes a major contribution to the dam
response in comparison with the vertical and cross-
stream components of the ground motion, it is only
Figure 2. Envelope values of maximum principal stresses
input in the stream direction.
of Dam.
Envelop values of maximum principal stresses
(in Pa) of the dam-reservoir-foundation system hydrodynamic effect is equivalent to an added mass
for values of wave reflection coefficient = 0.25, moving with the structure. Two approaches were used
0.5, 0.75 respectively are shown in Figures 2a,b,c. for the determination of added mass matrix [Mp]: a rig-
For comparison, cases neglecting water compressibil- orous approach, [Mp] is evaluated by SBFE method,
ity were also studied. Under this circumstance, the which is a full matrix and a simplified approach, [Mp]

521

Figure 3. Envelope values of maximum principal stresses
of Dam for the incompressible water.
is approximated by a diagonal matrix and the diagonal
terms are determined according to the Westergaards
classical formula. Envelope values of maximum prin-
ciple stresses for incompressible water are also shown
in Figures 3a,b. In all cases, initial static stresses are
excluded.
The dam model for the transmitting boundary is
divided into 12 blocks and is discretized with 270
elements, the number of nodes is 529. The model of
infinite foundation is discretized with 54 elements.
5 CONCLUSION
Based on the SBFEM, the response of gravity dam-
reservoir-foundation interaction is evaluated. A more
realistic estimate of the earthquake response of
concrete gravity dams is given by reflecting the energy
522
dissipation due to alluvium and sediments overlaying
the river bed. The proposed approach based on the
SBFE method is computationally quite economical to
carry out dam-reservoir interaction analysis. Koyna
Dam is selected for this study. A wide range of wave
reflection coefficient has been calculated. Numerical
results lead to the following conclusions.
1. The classically added mass approach neglecting
water compressibility substantially overestimate
the significance of hydrodynamic effect, which
results in an increase of the stress response of the
dam, especially when the simplified added mass
matrix is used.
2. Reservoir boundary absorption introduces added
damping to the dam-reservoir-foundation system,
which results in decreasing the earthquake response
of the dam. With increasing absorption of the reser-
voir boundary materials from = 0.75 to 0.25, the
stress response of the dam decrease slightly with
little change in the stress distribution pattern.
Although the effects of reservoir boundary absorp-
tion on earthquake response of the dam in detail
depend, partly, on the particular dam, the general
changing trend helps a better understanding of practi-
cal problem.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research is supported by Grants 51109134,
51009019 and 11102118 from the National Nat-
ural Science Youth Foundation of China, Grants
L2010413 from Liaoning Province Education Admin-
istration Foundation, Grants 2011M500557 from
China Postdoctoral Science Foundation and Grants
20102164 from Natural Science Foundation of
Liaoning Province for which the authors are grateful.
Thanks the Professor of the University of New South
Wales, Australia, Song Chongmin, for providing the
useful data and assistance.
REFERENCES
Song C.M., Wolf, J.P., 1997. The scaled boundary finite-
element method-alias consistent infinitesimal finite-
element cell method for elasto-dynamics, Computers
Method Applied Mechanics Engineering, 147:32955.
Wolf J P, Song C M., Finite-element Modelling of Unbounded
Media [M]. Wiley: Chichester, 1996.
Wolf J P. Dynamic SoilStructure Interaction [M]. Prentice-
Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1985.
Bazyar M H, Song C. A continued-fraction based high-order
transmitting boundary for wave propagation in unbounded
domains of arbitrary geometry [J]. International Jour-
nal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 2008, 74(2):
209237.
Lin, G., Du, J.G. and Hu, Z.Q. (2007B). Dynamic dam-
reservoir interaction analysis including effect of reser-
voir boundary absorption. Science in China, Series E,
Technological Sciences, 50 Supp. 1, 110.
Thanks the Professor of the University of New South Wales,
Australia, Song Chongmin, for providing the useful data
and assistance.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Study of material failures in operating gravity fed water supply pipelines

Velitchko G. Tzatchkov & Victor H. Alcocer-Yamanaka

Mexican Institute of Water Technology, Jiutepec, Mexico

ABSTRACT: Several gravity fed water supply pipelines in Mexico, and worldwide, have suffered bursts
under relatively low operating water pressures, compared to their rated pressure. This paper analyses the possible
causes, with emphasis on those of them that are known in material science but normally not considered in pipeline
design, and even in the corresponding norms and standards. Among these are: hydraulic transients, presence
of air pockets, material fatigue due to demand variation or hydraulic transients, and rapid crack propagation.
Information about an ongoing study on causes of multiple bursts in an operating polyvinyl chloride (PVC)
pipeline is also presented.

Keywords: PVC pipes, material fatigue, rapid crack propagation

1 INTRODUCTION
Pipes to be used in water supply are tested at manu-
facturing to withstand pressures that are higher than
those defined by their pressure class and are selected
in such a way that their pressure class is always higher
than the working pressure, with some allowance for
transient overpressure. Nevertheless, in practice some
properly designed pipelines suffer bursts. While there
may be obvious reasons for that, such as wrong instal-
lation, aggressive environmental conditions and soil
settlements, sometimes the reason may be an unex-
pected phenomenon or material behavior that is not
considered in the design standards. This paper presents
several possible reasons for pipe burst that are fre-
quently overlooked, with emphasis on gravity fed
polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipelines, and their appli-
cation to an ongoing study of an operating pipeline in
Mexico where there has been bursts that are difficult
to explain otherwise.
2 PIPE PRESSURE RATING AND DESIGN
STANDARDS
According to the standardAWWA C905 and the related
Manual AWWA M23 (AWWA 2002), the minimum
pressure pipe class for a PVC pipe should be selected
to be equal to or greater than the system working pres-
sure, and the sum of the system working pressure and
an occasional surge pressure should not exceed 1.60
times the pressure class of the pipe. In its last revision
AWWA C905-10,April 2010, the same standard makes
provision for basic fatigue design under cyclic load-
ing. The corresponding standards for designing steel
and ductile iron pipes (AWWA 2004) do not take into
account fatigue at all.
3 LESS KNOWN CAUSES FOR PIPELINE
FAILURES
Inadequate design, improper installation, pipe manu-
facturing defects and unexpected soil settlements are
among the most common explanations for pipeline
failures in gravity fed pipelines. Other, generally less
known and thus often overlooked, causes are described
below.
3.1 Hydraulic transients in water-filled gravity
systems
Hydraulic transients following pump shutdown are
a well known reason for important overpressures in
pumping pipelines and are considered in their design.
In gravity fed systems transients may be caused by
valve maneuvers (closures and openings), but since
maneuver times are relatively long they frequently are
thought insignificant and are ignored in the design.
Such overpressures can be important, however, when
the valve closure (or opening) is non-uniform. As an
example, many tanks receiving water are equipped
with automatic water level control valves that cut
inflow to the tank when it is full. Although the total
time of such valves close may be relatively long, the
effective part of the closure is concentrated at its
end so that the resulting transient overpressure can
be important and should be analyzed with a transient
(waterhammer) model.

523
 In gravity systems that deliver water to more than
one receiving tanks, such as the system shown in Fig-
ure 1 explained later in this paper, at any time some
of the tanks may be full (with no flow to them and
their level control valves closed) and the other tanks
receiving water. In such a state the hydraulic system is
a system with dead ends. Surge pressures that arrive
to a dead end in a transient event double their values
so that the resulting system overpressures can be very
high (Jung et al. 2007). Once again, such transients
should be analyzed with a waterhammer model.
3.2 Material fatigue
Under fatigue conditions pipes fail under a stress con-
siderably lower compared to their pressure class. In
its last revision the PVC pipe design standard AWWA
C905-10 considers a basic material fatigue analysis but
such analysis is seldom done in practice. It is important
to assess the potential risk of material fatigue in such
pipelines, and protect them against it. Tzatchkov et
al. (2007) and Tzatchkov & Alcocer-Yamanaka (2010)
explained the phenomenon of material fatigue caused
by hydraulic transients in pipelines, and presented
applications of fatigue risk evaluation in the design
of new pipelines and in the evaluation of the remain-
ing life of existing ones. At the design stage, pipelines
can be protected against material fatigue by a suffi-
cient pipe wall thickness that maintains the pipe stress
below certain level. Three approaches for comput-
ing the required wall thickness in steel and ductile
iron pipes are presented: infinite life design, design
based on the number of cycles, and cumulative damage
(Palmgren-Miner rule) based design. Standard S-N
(Stress versus Number of cycles) fatigue curves and
Goodman diagram are used in the three approaches.
Considerations on fatigue in other pipe materials, such
as prestressed concrete and PVC pipes, are given too.
In order to evaluate the fatigue risk, the number or
valve operations needs to be estimated, along with the
number of the pressure change cycles and the magni-
tude of those changes in each cycle. The number of
the pressure change cycles and their magnitude can
be obtained, in principle, by direct observation of the
transient pressure (in existing pipelines), by a transient
flow numerical model, or by approximate models.
3.3 Air pockets
Water pipelines are usually designed assuming no air
in the water and sometimes pipeline designers do not
take into account the causes of air entrainment and the
potential problems that can be raised by entrained air.
Water used in civil engineering is likely to contain a
certain amount of dissolved air (approximately 2% at
normal temperatures) which can come out of solution
usually as a result of pressure drop. Pipeline profiles
are often undulating and most of the times pipelines
contain air in the form of pockets which can build up
at high points along the profile where pressure drops.
The phenomenon occurs also because air is lighter than
524
water and therefore tends to migrate to the high points.
In gravity fed pipelines air can further be entrained due
to vertices at inlets or intakes. When the water level
in the structure is very low, the core of the vortex can
be deep enough to introduce considerable quantities of
air into the pipe. The air in the pipelines is undesirable
and air release valves are commonly used to remove
it, but if these are absent, not properly sized, or not
maintained, air may remain entrapped at some high
points of the line.
Besides the reduction of the hydraulic capacity
of the pipeline, the presence of air can be danger-
ous for two reasons. First, the increase in velocity
beneath the air pocket may push away part or the entire
pocket downstream. The abrupt and rapid change in
the fluid velocity when the pocket is removed and
stopped by another high point could lead to a high pres-
sure surge (waterhammer). This phenomenon is called
waterhammer induced by air evacuation (Pozos 2007).
Secondly, the air pockets induce the phenomenon of
rapid crack propagation, described in the next section.
3.4 Rapid crack propagation
Rapid Crack Propagation (RCP), as its name implies, is
a very fast fracture. It is also referred to as fast brittle
fracture. Crack speeds up to 1800 ft/s (600 m/s) have
been measured. In butt fused pipes these fast cracks
can also travel very long distances, even hundreds of
meters. RCP cracks initiate at internal defects or points
of damage during an impact or impulse event. They
generally occur in pressurized systems with enough
stored energy to drive the crack faster than the energy
is released. The crack will continue to run the entire
length shattering the pipeline, or until the pressure
driving the crack has dissipated.
RCP is an engineering performance property of the
plastic or metal pipe material. Various piping materi-
als will behave differently when an RCP event occurs.
For some ductile materials, like polyethylene (PE), the
rapid crack travel can be arrested because of the tough-
ness of the material. For other materials that are more
brittle, the pipe can shatter during an RCP event or can
run for over one thousand feet. In PVC pipe joined by
bell-and-spigot the cracks typically only travel a few
meters to the next joint.
RCP can only be sustained above a critical pressure.
The RCP Critical Pressure for butt fused PVC pipe can
be only half of its pressure rating. The probability of
an RCP failure in plastic pipe is dependent on these
factors (Palermo 2010): 1) pipe size, 2) internal pres-
sure or stress, 3) temperature, 4) resistance to Rapid
Crack of the plastic material.
For all pipe materials, Rapid Crack Propagation
is more likely to occur in larger diameter pipe sizes.
Rapid cracking generally does not occur is pipe sizes
less than 4 . The larger the diameter of the pipe, the
more likely Rapid Crack Propagation will occur. This
does not mean that a water utility should not use large
diameter pipes. It simply means that the water design
engineer needs to be more aware of the possibility
of Rapid Crack Propagation in larger pipe sizes, and
design against its occurrence. Greenshields & Leevers
(1997) report that for PVC pipe the minimum DR for
a sustaining RCP crack in pipe with 100% water is
DR 13. For PE pipe, the minimum DR for a sustaining
crack is DR 29.
For all plastic pipe materials, RCP is more likely
to occur at higher pressures. These higher pressures
provide the energy to drive the rapidly propagating
crack sometimes for several hundred feet. The higher
the internal pressure, the more likely RCP will occur.
This does not mean that a water utility should not use
plastic pipe at high pressures. It simply means that
the water design engineer needs to be more aware of
the possibility of RCP at higher pressures, and design
against its occurrence. Figure 1. Schematic view of Conejos-Medanos pipeline
Rapid Crack Propagation failures do not occur in gravity water supply system.
PE pipe when completely filled with water. For Rapid
Crack Propagation to occur in PE water distribution
pipe, some air generally needs to be trapped in the
pipeline, and this air helps to drive the crack down
the pipeline. When this air is present with the water,
the RCP crack path is sinusoidal. Greenshields et al.
(1997) concluded that fast brittle fracture could not
occur in HDPE pipes at their rated pressure when they
were completely filled with water. However, the inclu-
sion of modest amounts of air, 5 to 10% by volume,
enabled cracks to propagate.
Research, testing, and field experience has shown
that when there is only water inside PVC pipe, RCP Figure 2. Water inflow variation at Plutarco Tank.
can occur and the RCP crack path is a straight line.
When air is present in the PVC pipe, the RCP crack
1,140 kPa (165 psi), bell-spigot type. Working pres-
path changes from a straight line path to a sinusoidal
sure in all points along the pipes is below that value
path. Recommendations for design against RCP are
therefore in an ongoing study the causes for those
given by Palermo (2010).
pipe burst are to be determined. A careful examination
of the design project revealed that the pipe class was
properly selected, according to normal current design
4 MATERIAL FAILURES IN practice. No installation errors or important soil set-
CONEJOS-MEDANOS PIPELINE SYSTEM tlements were observed at removing the burst pipes.
A sample of the pipes was sent to a testing laboratory
Conejos-Medanos water supply system comprises a in the USA where they were tested according to the
group of deep water wells, a pumping station, an inter- corresponding standards, showing they are compliant
mediate tank, and connecting pipes that convey water with them. Afterwards the study proceeded with exam-
to the so called Main Tank (actually a group of three ining the four less known possible causes described in
tanks) from which water is fed by gravity to other tanks this paper.
in Ciudad Juarez, a Mexican city with a population The system is subject to frequent hydraulic tran-
of about 1,321,000 inhabitants (as of 2010), located sients. The main reason of them is that the receiving
on the Mexico-US border. Pipe material is steel, from tanks are located at different elevations.The lowest ele-
the water wells to the Main Tank, and PVC from the vation tank is filled more rapidly than the other tanks
Main Tank to the other tanks. The design flow rate is and the level control valve stops the flow to it causing
1,075 L/s. The system started operation in May 2010. some transients. Another tank is filled after that caus-
From June 2011 to April 2012 there have been four- ing a new transients in which the pipe supplying the
teen severe bursts in the PVC pipe, with damages to first tanks may act as a dead end, magnifying the surge
nearby homes. Figure 1 shows a schematic view of the pressure. At the same time water demand lowers the
gravity fed PVC pipelines downstream from the Main water level at the tanks being full opening the inflow
Tank. The pipe bursts have taken place in the pipelines to them, making the transient more complex. Figure 2
between the Main Tank and Plutarco tank, and between shows the observed inflow variation at Plutarco Tank
Plutarco tank and Altamirano tank. that reflects such highly unsteady behavior.
The PVC pipes where bursts have taken place were Nevertheless, in this system hydraulic transients do
manufactured in the USA, pipe diameter 972.8 mm not produce dangerous pressure variations. Figure 3
(36 inches), Dimension Ratio (DR) 25, pressure class shows the water pressure variation registered every 15

525

Figure 3. Registered water pressure variation at four points
along the pipeline (including the instant of one of the pipe
bursts).
minutes at four points along the pipelines, including
the time interval when one of the pipe bursts happened.
No important overpressures are observed.
Anyway, the transients in the system were analyzed
by a general purpose hydraulic transient computer
program developed by the authors, just in order to be
sure that an important transient overpressure was not
captured by the coarse 15 min registering interval.
The model showed some overpressures, but, as
expected, always below the occasional surge pres-
sure the pipe should be able to resist according to its
pressure class.
Material fatigue, although a possible cause given
the highly unsteady flow behavior and constant pres-
sure variation in the system, did not seem to be the
cause since the system is relatively new (2 years).
Anyway it was analyzed too, estimating the number of
pressure cycles in a day, showing no reason for fatigue
failure.
The pipelines are equipped with a sufficient num-
ber of air valves, most of them of combination type,
but in the pipeline reach between the Plutarco tank
and the Altamirano tank it was found there were only
Air/Vacuum (large orifice) valves, and no air release
(small orifice) valves. The rest of the pipelines do have
air release valves, but their size and maintenance may
be questionable. Therefore air pockets were formed,
and the probable reason for the failures is rapid crack
propagation, assisted by those air pockets and initi-
ated by suspected minor manufacturing defects of the
pipes (defects with which they pass the normal test
required by the standard). This is also confirmed by
526
the observed shape of the fractures, similar to arch
rather than a straight line. This conclusion is prelimi-
nary, however, and final results will be reported at the
end of the study.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Hydraulic transients, air pockets, material fatigue and
rapid crack propagation are possible causes for pipe
material failures, that can be examined when other
common and obvious explanations, such as inade-
quate design, improper installation, pipe manufactur-
ing defects and unexpected soil settlements, are not
found.
REFERENCES
AWWA. 2002. Manual M23, 2nd Edition: PVC Pipe Design
and Installation. American Water Works Association,
Denver, CO.
AWWA, 2004. Manual M11, 4th Edition: Steel Water Pipe:
A Guide for Design and Installation, American Water
Works Association, Denver, CO.
Greenshields, C. J., Leevers, P.S. & Morris, J. 1997. Brit-
tle Fracture of Plastic Water Pipes, Pipes and Pipelines
International, May-June, 1997.
Greenshields, C. J. & Leevers, P.S. 1996. Rapid crack prop-
agation in plastic water pipes: measurement of dynamic
fracture resistance, International Journal of Fracture, 79:
8595.
Jung, B. S., Boulos, P. F. & Wood, D. J. 2007. Pitfalls of
water distribution model skeletonization for surge analy-
sis. Journal of the American Water Works Association 99
(12): 8798.
Palermo, E. F. 2010. How to Design Against Long Run-
ning Cracks in Plastic Pipe for Water Applications,
WATERCON 2012, (http://www.plasticspipe.com/plastic-
pipe-industry-publications.htm )
Pozos, O. 2007. Investigation on the effects of entrained air in
pipelines, PhD. Thesis. University of Stuttgart, Germany.
Tzatchkov, V., Alcocer-Yamanaka, V.H. & Bourguett-Ortiz,
V.J. 2007. Material fatigue due to hydraulic transients
in pipelines, Water Management Challenges in Global
Change, Taylor & Francis/Balkema, London et al.,
p. 3138
Tzatchkov, V. & Alcocer-Yamanaka, V. 2010. Risk of
fatigue failure and reliability of intermittent water sup-
ply pipelines, 9-th International Conference on Hydro-
Science and Engineering, Chennai, India, August 25,
2010.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Study on the law of coal-bearing soft rock belts in the steep excavation
slopes at ZIPINGPU hydroelectric station in SiChuan Province of China

Yunjiang Cao & Yufeng Huang

Human Province Key Laboratory of Coal Resources Clean-utilization and Mine Environment Protection of Hunan
University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, China
School of Civil Engineering of Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, China
Faculty of Engineering of China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China
National Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection of Chengdu University of Technology,
Chengdu, China

ABSTRACT: The rock mass character in slope is directly influenced by different degree of coal-bearing
soft rock belts in the slip rupture zones and fault rupture zones. However, the coal-bearing soft rock belts are
not regular spread in the engineering slope, as weak belt in the fracture zones, it is the most potential slip
surface in engineering slope and incipient fault in the key project. Owing to intense structure compression
many times and continuous weathering and ground water percolation later in parent rock of coal seams, it
has formed a along shearing rupture and belt in space spread coal-bearing soft rock belts with complex rock
character. The paleotemperature and paleomoisture during the depositional period of the Xujiahe Formation
fluctuated regularly against the setting of tropics subtropics.Taking all the geological factors into consideration,
five different formation stages are put forward to explain the formation mechanism of the coal-bearing soft rock
belts. The X-ray diffraction analysis tests on coal-bearing soft belts indicate that there are new clay minerals in
coal-bearing soft belts at the dam area.

Keywords: Shajinba syncline, Coal-bearing soft rock belts, formation model, Distribution law

1 INTRODUCTION and at last formed compression-dipping & facturing

The hydro-electrical power station at upstream of
Minjiang river in Southwest of China is the synthetic
hydro-power plants combined function of irrigation,
Generating electricity, providing clean water, tourism,
and also it plays important role in control the water
in whole irrigation area. With 156 m high dam and
altitude of 877 m water level under ordinary condi-
tion, the total capability of reservoir is 1.112 billion
m3 . Project area is located at 180 river meander of
Minjiang river, which point to NE direction, and all
the hydraulic constructions are applied on the belt-like
ridge on the right side and enclosed by the river mean-
der, like shape in plane vision. The inclination of
ridge is average about 20 25 , and the NW side of with coal in Sichuan basin, and the sedimentary
the mountain ridge is relative steep in landform, which
is about 37 .
The slope at the spillway in the construction area
is identified as cross direction slope with different
degrees coal-bearing soft rock belts, which developed
there. If coal-bearing soft rock belts in slope have
not been treated properly, under force of gravity and
excavation, it could shear out along strike direction,
formed weak rock foundation to provide space for
potential further turn over deformation of upper slope,
deformation and failure patterns.
2 SEDIMENTARY ENVIRONMENT
The Upper Triassic Xujiahe Formation in the Sichuan
Basin can be divided into six members with a texture
of interbeded sandstones and mudstones. Paleoclimate
is one of the factors controlling the texture.
The outcrops in construction area are mainly sec-
ond section of Xujiahe formation up series of Triassic.
According to evolution about coupling of basin and
mountain, Xujiahe formation is main strata contained
facies are composed of continental and marsh facies
intersected with each other at Norian and Rhaetian
age in latter Triassic. In Guanxian county, west part
of Sichuan basin, the strata deposit at Norian and
Rhaetian age are 4000 m thick with a deposit trench,
which stretched into NE direction, and it provide
idea ancient geological environment for formation of
original sheared rupture zone.
According to Xuzhaohuis research (2010), it indi-
cates that the paleotemperature and paleomoisture

527
Table 1. Distribution characteristic of main coal-bearing soft rock belts in the engineering area.

Profile
Thickness of spacing between
crushed coal-bearing soft
No. Attitude belt rock belts/m Main property of crushed belt Status of crushed belt

L14 Same to 210 m <46.2 Rich in coal layer, Core of syncline at

strata carbonaceous shale, debris river bed
and mylonitic after T33 j14-
compression and shearing
L13 Same to 210 m 36.454.1 Rich in coal layer, Foundation and toe of
strata carbonaceous shale, debris dam
and mylonitic after compression T33 j14-
and shearing
L12 Same to 612 m 26.846.8 Carbonaceous shale with Intake tunnel at right
strata thin layered siltstone, mess of river bank
bedding and with disturbed T33 j13-
surface
L11 Same to 838 m 32.042.0 Carbonaceous shale and coal Intake tunnel and sand
strata layer with lamellar loose sluicing tunnel at right
muddy siltstone river bank
L10 Same to 25 m 36.048.6 Loose and fracture T33 j13-
strata carbonaceous shale,
muddy shale
L9 Same to 613 m 67.8155.7 Carbonaceous shale in upper Sand sluicing tunnel,
strata layer, muddy shale with spillway
lamellar mudstone in lower and factory building at
layer right of river bank
T33 j12-
L8 Same to 67 m >15.7 Loose and fracture Outlet of flood tunnel
strata Carbonaceous shale with T33 j9
disordered bedding

during the depositional period of the Xujiahe Forma-
tion fluctuated regularly against the setting of tropics
subtropics. The Member 1 of the Xujiahe Formation
was formed in a transitional facies when the paleocli-
mate was hot and humid. The Member 2 of the Xujiahe
Formation was formed in a hot and arid climate. The
temperature and moisture declined slightly when the
Member 6 was formed, and the paleoclimate became
warmer and more arid.
General speaking, the rupture zone is thick in
west and thin in east at the construction area, and
in the lengthwise direction, the particle diameter of
rocks in strata largely follows the tendency of flysch-
type from fine to coarse as carbonatite sand-mud
stone gravel stone from west to east. The dimen-
sional spread of sedimentary layer is made up of
muddy shale in early period of the time, as well as
topset bed consisted mudstone or siltstone combined
with coal with property of delta deposit.
3 TECTONIC SETTING
In tectonic structure speaking, the engineering is
belonged to mid-south part of Longmeng Mountain
structure belt between the fracture of Beichuan
Yingxiu and AnxianGuanxian. The main geologic
structure in strata is known as Shajinba syncline in the
engineering area. The strike of Shajinba syncline is
N5060 E, and dip is 2535 in NE direction. How-
ever, the NW limb is relative steep with attitude of
N25 E/SE6070 , and SE limb is gentle, with the
attitude of N4560 E/NW4560 .
4 DEVELOPMENT LAW OF COAL-BEARING
SOFT ROCK BELTS
Based on the Geology Engineering Investigation, the
stability of engineering slope is largely controlled by
the major fault of F3 and F2-1 in construction flied.
F3 fault is the largest weak layer in the engineering
area compared crushed belt in each stratum. There are
no big difference of rock mass property between anti-
shearing strengthen and anti-shearing index, and the
mechanical characteristic of rock is extremely awful
indicated by loose structure and high compression
deformation.
The main composition of layered rock mass in engi-
neering area is cyclic strata of sandstone with coal,
siltstone and carbonaceous shale (carbonic shale), and

528
Figure 1. Distribution Characteristics about coal-bearing soft rock belts of three-dimensional space.
with strong tectonic movement, the deformation is rel-
atively dramatic. The crushed belt in different scale is
widely spread at construction field as trace of tectonic
movement, and most of them come from weak shale
by shearing and disturbing during process of fold-
ing. Characterized by large scale and long extension,
except tangency in few areas, the attitude of crushed
belt is almost same to attitude of strata. According to
consequence of sediment, the crushed belts are num-
bered from L1 to L15 from old to new. The L8, L9,
L10, L11, L12, L13, L14, which are controlled by
Shajinba syncline, are tightly related to stability of
excavated engineering slope (Tab. 1, Fig. 1).
5 THE FORMATION MODEL OF
COAL-BEARING SOFT ROCK BELTS
According to geological identification of coal, car-
bonaceous shale, and mud-siltstone in coal series
formation (main concerned about shearing interbed-
ded crushed layers), the existence of clay minerals
such as illite, kaolinite, and chlorite have not been
found there, and there are also no kaolinite in mid-
fine sandstone and debris sandstone. It is suggested
that the feldspar of this pretrofabric have not been
influenced by acid water. Meanwhile, combined all
the factors in synthesis geological information in this
region and measurement of profile in the field, the
several main stages of formation mechanism of coal-
bearing soft rock belts is indicated as follow after
systematic analysis:
1) Original bedded formation of upper Triassic, which
also named coal layer, is formed in relative stable
limnetic lake and marsh facies environment.
2) Under several strong compression caused by tec-
tonic movement, the soft rocks as carbonaceous
shale, mud-siltstone, and coal were compressed
and crushed, and they also formed uncemented
debris and powder cut by several structure planes.
3) With changes of environment, the leading effect
applied on crushed rock is physical weathering:
first, the integrity of rocks has been destroyed, and
then after later transformation of tectonic move-
ment, it continues to slaking to debris or grain with
different sizes. After experienced process above,
529
it forms interbeded shearing crushed layers. How-
ever, it also be called original mineral because it
owns same ingredient as the original rock.
4) The electric double layer will be varied, on con-
dition that the mediators around them have been
changed. The results of ion exchange could possi-
ble change the thickness of electric double layer.
At the same time, large proportion of fine grain
will be emerged in the crushed belts caused by
tectonic movement.The large area surface of result-
ing from finer particles implied the thickness of
electric double layer will be thicker. Also, with
change of mediator, the particle has experienced
the process of conglomeration and decentralization
for several times, which is crucial to engineering
geology property of coal-bearing soft rock belts.
The composition of clay mineral plays very impor-
tant role in coal-bearing soft rock belts at engineering
geology, because it will control engineering geology
property of coal-bearing soft rock belts even it is not
in dominant proportion, particularly to the hydrophilic
clay mineral. It is potential stability incipient of rock
slope, and under a certain circumstance, even causes
failure of slope.
6 CONCLUSION
After describing all the property of coal-bearing soft
rock belts, a few conclusions can be drawn and
specified below:
(1) Influenced by original geological environment,
the strata in engineering area are flysch sediment.
The shearing crushed belt with coal layer caused
by compression tectonic movement is mainly
controlled by Shajingba syncline in space.
(2) After measuring and calculation of strata pro-
file, especially some weak belt as L8, L9, L10,
L11, L12, L13, L14, the proportion of soft rock
and hard rock is 3:7 in all the construction field.
Meanwhile, at least four types of petrofabrics
can be classified as: coal-bearing soft rock belts,
coal layer, macker, and mud-sandstone. based on
some typical measured profile, it can be found
that the proportion of coal-bearing soft rock
 belts, coal layer, macker, and mud-sandstone is
7.2%:8.6%:30.2%:54.0% or 1:1.2:4.2:7.5.
REFERENCES
Xu Zhao-hui, Wang Ze-cheng, Hu Su-yun, Zhu Shi-fa, Jiang
Qing-chun. 2010. Paleoclimate during depositional period
of the Upper Triassic Xujiahe Formation in Sichuan
Basin. Journal of Palaeogeography. 12(4), 415424
(in Chinese).
530
Kong De-fang. 1991. Science of Engineering Rock and Soil.
Beijing: Geological Publishing House (in Chinese).
Zhang Xian-gong, Nie De-xin. 1990. Study on Possible
Relationship between Confining Pressure Effect and
Argillizing of Weak Interlayer. Geology Comment. 36(2):
160167 (in Chinese).
Deng Rong-gui, Zhang Zhuo-yuan, Zhou De-pei. 2000.
Study on Deformation and Stability of Rock in High Steep
Slope. Chengdu: Southwest Jiao tong university Publish
house (in Chinese).
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Element analysis of consolidation of soil under surcharge and vacuum

preloading

Xiaowu Shu & Bingchuan Guo

School of Civil Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

Xiaoxian Song
China Construction Third Engineering Bureau Co., Ltd, Tianjin, China

ABSTRACT: As an under-consolidated soil, the reclaimed soil consolidation with vacuum preloading is very
complex, so are the boundary and initial conditions. Through the analysis of the formation of the reclaimed
soil foundation and its consolidation process, the initial pore pressure and the delivery of negative vacuum
pressure in the PVDs herein were studied. The negative vacuum pressure was applied in the sand layer and the
PVDs elements. The nonlinearity constitutive relation (Duncan-Changs model) was employed into the Biots
consolidation theory, and a plain strain FEM program was coded considering different load conditions, initial
conditions and boundary conditions. The behavior of the soft clay consolidation was also analyzed with the
program. The surcharge was put into effect in the program. As a result, the program can be used to analyze the
reclaimed soil consolidation with pure vacuum preloading method and also vacuum combined with surcharge
preloading method. Comparing the calculating results with the observed data, it is confirmed that the developing
trend of settlement and pore pressure agree very well with the field result.

Keywords: under-consolidated soil, vacuum preloading, PVDs

1 INTRODUCTION soil foundation includes PVDs installation duration

With advantage of good consolidation effects and eco-
nomical efficiency, vacuum preloading method for
reinforcing the soft soil foundation is popularly used
in the express highway, port and land reclamation
engineering. As an effective strengthening method
especially for the reclaimed soil foundation, its design
theory was improved continuously. However, it is
confirmed in the practice that there is a significant
difference between the calculation results and the field
measurement. Therefore the calculation method needs
to be perfected further.
The reclaimed soil foundation is newly formed with
high water content, there is excessive pore pressure
in the native foundation and reclaimed soil layer.The
PVDs increase the vertical drainage channels and
shorten the drainage path significantly when it is
installed in the foundation. Therefore the excessive
pore water pressure dissipates quickly and soil layer
settles a lot during PVDs installation. The settlement
is called PVDs installation duration settlement (Gen-
eral the installation time is 1520 days). According
to the observed data, the PVDs installation duration
settlement can reach 1/31/2 of the total settlement.
After the vacuum loading applied, the soil consoli-
dated continually. So the settlement of the reclaimed
settlement and the preloading settlement.
Yan[2004] used elasticity constitutive equations and
applied negative vacuum pressure on the soil surface
to calculate the consolidation basing on the biots
consolidation theory. Yu[2002] used viscoelasticity
constitutive equations to calculate the consolidation
process of soil layer improved by vacuum preload-
ing by using finite element method, the negative
pressure is applied in the sand bedding course and
other nodes applied with zero pressure. Wei[2005]
introduced the nonlinear constitutive equations to the
BiotS consolidation theory and applied surcharge
load on the foundation. Lei[2007] used linear consti-
tutive equations and applied the vacuum preloading
through setting the pore pressure on the boundary
element.
There are still some limitations in the former analy-
sis of vacuum preloading. The distribution of vacuum
pressure along the PVDs was summed up herein,
negative vacuum pressure was applied on the PVDs
elements.The effective self-weight of the reclaimed
soil was applied on the foundation nodes in this paper.
On the base of biots consolidation theory, a finite ele-
ment program was compiled using Duncan-Changs
constitutive model and field projects were analyzed.
The analysis result was compared with the field data.

531
2 FINITE ELEMENT MODELS
2.1 Theory analysis
2.1.1 Plain strain biots consolidation formula
According to the vacuum preloading mechanics and
Biots consolidation theory, the finite element general
equation can be expressed as:
Where:
k k k T kstiffness coefficient matrix;

, settlement increment and exceeded pore
pressure;
Rexternal load;
Rt the load that balance the displacement gener-
ated before t
t.
2.1.2 Constitutive model
The Duncan-changs model was employed to model
the stress strain relationship of soil layer, Et defined
as the follow formula:
Where:
1 max primary stress;
3 min primary stress;
ccohesive strength;
internal friction angle;
Rf failure ratio;
Ki loading module;
nloading module exponential;
pa barometric pressure.
2.1.3 Loads
The reclaimed soil foundation is under-consolidated.
In this paper the excessive pore pressure was equated
to load applied on the soil layer. Assuming the value of
excessive pore pressure is {0 }, Deriving from balance
 
equation [K]{} + K {} = {R} give
Known from the formula above, because of exces-
sive pore pressure {0 }, the load {R0 } need to be
calculated.({R0 } was calculated by the self-weight of
reclaimed soil and the filled layer, show as fig. 1).
The whole analysis of reclaimed soil foundation
with vacuum preloading method can be equivalent
to the surcharged preloading combined with vacuum
preloading.
532
Figure 1. The surcharge of the reclaimed soil foundation
before the PDVs installing.
Figure 2. The delivery of the vacuum degree in the PVDs.
Figure 3. The negative pressure distribution along the PDVs
of Tianjin port vacuum preloading.
2.1.4 The distribution of the vacuum load along
PVDs
Because of the well block, the vacuum load will be
reduced along the PVDs. Zhao Chang-Zhou did an
experiment to study the distribution law, the result
shows as fig. 2.
In the base of the vacuum load analysis on the
project of Tianjin port, the distribution of negative
pressure in PVDs is presented and shows as fig. 3.
2.2 Case 1
This project was a general bulk cargo berths yard
located at southern border of Tianjin Port. The improv-
ing region is 94 m311 m rectangular. The PVDs
were installed in 1 m1 m square pattern and 20 m in
depth. According to the field measurements and lab-
oratorial experiment, the parameters of the soil and
Duncan-changs Model are listed in Table 12.
2.2.1 Modeling
Because the cross section of this area is symmetric,
half region is selected with width equals to 47 m and
length equals to 30 m. The width of effected region was
106 m from the edge of the improving zone to study the
influencing area. Because the depth of four soil layers
under the ground was 17 m and the depth of PVDs
was 20 m, the fifth layer was divided into two parts
to input the initial data easily. PVDs were installed
Table 1. Calculating parameter of the soil layer

Siol c/ / E/ /
layer kpa rad kpa kN/m3 kx

1 12 0.50 0.32 2600 17.2 2.82e-7

2 18 0.50 0.35 3200 18.0 3.11e-7
3 10 0.36 0.35 2600 17.0 1.12e-7
4 15 0.45 0.35 2700 17.4 5.23e-7
5 32 0.51 0.30 5100 19.3 1.16e-6
PVDs 0 0.50 0.25 3000 12.0 0.001 Figure 5. Settlement during the PVDs installing.
Smear 18 0.46 0.26 2500 18.0 5.30e-9
area

Table 2. Duncan-Changs model parameter

Siol
layer K N Rf P/kpa

1 95 0.701 0.80 101.3

2 95 0.701 0.80 101.3 Figure 6. Settlement-time relation curve.
3 95 0.701 0.80 101.3
4 95 0.701 0.80 101.3
5 300 0.40 0.80 101.3
PVDs 500 0.40 0.50 101.3
Smear area 150 0.701 0.80 101.3

Figure 7. Pore pressure-time relation in the 1 m under-

ground.

Figure 4. Load applying process.

at 1m spacing in a square pattern and the equivalent

drain diameter was 60 mm. The smear diameter was
100 mm.
The FEM analysis of reclaimed soil foundation
include two phase: the first phase is PVDs install-
ment in first 20 days, in this course, the self-weight
of reclaimed soil and filling layers are applied on the
foundation nodes (the load is showed as fig. 1), and
the soil consolidated under this load. The second phase
is the vacuum preloading, in this course, the soil con-
solidated under the self-weight and vacuum load. The
loading applying process is showed as fig. 4.
2.2.2 Settlement calculation
Fig. 8 shows the comparison between the FEM result
of surface and the field data at the centre of improv-
ing region. The settlement includes two parts, one part
is the settlement during the PVDs installation (fig. 5)
and the other part is the settlement during the vacuum
preloading. Compared with the field measurement
data, the result analyzed using Duncan-Changs model
is better than using the linearity constitutive relation.
Figure 8. Pore pressure-time relation in the 8 m.
It can be seen from Fig. 5 that calculated results which
used the Duncan-Changs model agree well with the
field test.
2.2.3 Pore water pressure calculation
According the FEM results, the pore pressure-time
relationship in the depth of 1 m, 8 m, 17 m are
shown in Fig. 7Fig. 9.
2.3 Case 2
The project located at Tianjin Port. The improving
region was a 30 m 80 m rectangular. The PVDs were
installed in 1 m 1 m square pattern and 20 m in depth.
A surcharge of 40 kPa was applied in 2 stages. Accord-
ing to the indoor triaxial test, the parameters of soil and
Duncan-changs model are given in Table 34.

533
Figure 9. Pore pressure-time relation in the 17 m . Figure 11. Settlement-time relation of the surcharge
preloading combined with vacuum preloading.

2.3.2 Results of calculation

Figure 10. Load applying of the surcharge preloading
combined with vacuum preloading.
According to the results of FEM calculation, which
had calculated the settlement in depth of 0 m, 3.8 m,
7.0 m, 10.5 m, 14.5 m, the comparison of calculated
settlement-time relation curve with field data in the
middle point of the improving region is shown as
Fig. 11. The calculated results agree well with the
observed data, which proves that the method proposed
by this paper is feasible.

3 CONCLUSIONS
Table 3. Calculating parameter of the soil layer
Through the analyzing of the reclaimed soil foundation
Siol c/ / E/ / and the load conditions during the foundation enforce-
layer kpa rad kpa kN/m3 kx
ment, a FE program was developed to simulate the
whole consolidation process. Some conclusions can
1 13 0.45 0.32 3200 17.5 5.6e-9
2 19 0.50 0.35 3200 18.5 6.2e-9 be made as following:
3 10 0.35 0.35 2600 18.0 2.2e-9 Comparing the FEM analysis results using lin-
4 35 0.51 0.30 5100 19.5 2.3e-7 ear elastic model and Duncan-Chang model with the
PVDs 0 0.50 0.25 3000 12.0 0.01 measured data, it can be known that Duncan-Chang
Smear 18 0.46 0.26 2500 18.0 5.3e-9 nonlinearity constitutive calculation results fix better.
area The vacuum pressure is negative in the sand bed-
ding and PVDs elements and varies linearly along the
drains, which is appropriate for the practice.
If the soil is under-consolidated, based on the anal-
Table 4. Duncan-Changs model parameter ysis method of surcharge preloading combined with
vacuum preloading, add the equivalent surcharge load
Siol layer K N Rf P(Kpa) to soil nodes in FEM model instead the excessive
pore pressure. The load value varied linearly along the
1 95 0.701 0.80 101.3 depth. The calculation and the consolidation process
2 95 0.701 0.80 101.3 matched well.
3 95 0.701 0.80 101.3 Comparing the calculation results with the mea-
4 300 0.40 0.80 101.3
PVDs 500 0.40 0.50 101.3
sured data for the project No. 2, it can be informed that
Smear 150 0.701 0.80 101.3 the program can be used to solve the problems of sur-
area charge combined with vacuum preloading by giving a
external load vector {R}.

REFERENCES
2.3.1 Load applying
There are 3 steps in the process of load applying.
Firstly, the vacuum pressure is applied; secondly, after
50 days, a surcharge load of 15 kPa is applied; and
thirdly, another surcharge load of 25 kPa was applied
after 130 days, so the total value raised to 40 kPa in the
final stage. The process of applying load is showed in
Fig. 10.
[1] Zhu Jiwei, Yan Shuwang, Sun Wanhe. A study on fac-
tors affecting lateral deformation of vacuum preload-
ing[J], Port & Waterway Engineering, 2004(01):
1620.
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Road & bridge engineering
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Practical calculation method of composite cable-stayed bridge

Xiang-nan Wu, Bin Li, Ming-min Zhou & Xiao-liang Zhai

Key Laboratory for Bridge and Tunnel Engineering of Shaanxi, Changan University, Xian, China

ABSTRACT: There exist evident shear-lag phenomena in large-span composite cable-stayed bridges under
the combination action of axial force and bending moment. The distribution law of the effective flange width
coefficient along the span which caused by the comprehensive function of axial and bending forces was discussed.
The computation method of effective slab width coefficient under axial and bending force was presented. After
comprehensive analysis, practical calculation methods of effective slab width coefficient were got for large-span
composite cable-stayed bridges under the combination action of axial force and bending moment, the method is
valuable for the design of large-span composite cable-stayed bridges.

Keywords: composite cable-stayed bridge, effective width coefficient, axial force, bending force, notional span

1 INTRODUCTION Moreover, the studies of the effective width of flange

Under the combined action of axial force and moment,
the distribution of normal stress of wide and thin
concrete deck will be very complicated. There is no
explicit stipulation in the current specification about
the determination of effective width coefficient of
compressive top flange of the composite cable-stayed
bridges main girder. So, in the designing process, we
must use the finite element analysis of a large number
of complex spatial entities to determine the coeffi-
cient of effective width of the main girder, moreover
the calculation time and vigor, and to the different
understanding of people, the calculation results of the
modeling analysis reflect great discrete. The deter-
mining method of the deck of composite cable-stayed
bridges effective width coefficient has been plagued
by designers, which became an urgent problem to
be solved in composite cable-stayed bridge design
process.
2 FORCE MECHANISM OF CONCRETE
DECKS
The normal stress of the composite cable-stayed
bridges concrete bridge deck consists of two parts: (1)
The axial force generated by the cable-stayed strong
horizontal force; (2) the moment generated by dead-
weight and secondary dead load and live load and
the eccentricity of horizontal force of stayed cable.
Actual concrete deck longitudinal stress by the com-
bined effects of the passing of the axial force and
bending moment of shear lag. Currently the study of
the axial force transfer law of concrete bridge deck is
still fewer. In the domestic, only literature (Zhou et al,
2005, Nie et al, 2007) made a study of related issues.
which under moment are focused on simply supported
or continuous beam system. No study reported on the
effective width of concrete bridge decks of composite
cable-stayed bridge with multiple elastic supports and
withstands the bending moment and axial force.
3 EFFECTIVE WIDTH COEFFICIENT UNDER
THE ACTION OF AXIAL FORCE
In order to study the axial force transmission angle in
composite cable-stayed bridges concrete bridge deck,
five built or in the construction composite cable-stayed
bridge were analyzed using the software ANSYS.
Selected five composite cable stayed bridge have been
built or under construction in the finite element anal-
ysis has a strong representation. Therefore, taking the
average of axial force passing angle of five actual
bridges as the passing angle of axial force in com-
posite cable stayed bridges concrete bridge deck is
closer to reality. So, 27.9 degree is suggested to be the
passing angle of axial force, when the effective slab
width coefficient of composite cable stayed bridge is
calculated.And when it is calculated based on the angle
27.9 degree. This coefficient is smaller than AASHTO
LRFD (1994) by 8.3%, and higher than DIN 1075 by
5.8%.
4 EFFECTIVE SLAB WIDTH COEFFICIENT
UNDER THE ACTION OF BENDING
MOMENT
Currently, in existed specifications, the calcula-
tion methods of continuous beam effective width
coefficients are put forward on the basis of the rigid

539
support. For composite cable-stayed bridge this multi-
point elastic supported structure cannot use fixed span
to determine the equivalent span l0 . In AASHTO
LRFD (1994) there are provisions that under the action
of uniformly distributed load we can use inflection
point spacing to determine the equivalent span l0 .
This method has provided a basis for determining
the composite cable stayed bridges equivalent span l0
(D.D. Byers, 1999). The method can better applicable
to composite cable-stayed bridge features to achieve
a simplified effect. Following steps for calculation
of the effective width coefficient of the main beam
under the bending moment: First, according to the
actual construction process, build the finite element
model, and then get the bending moment diagram of
main beam at completed construction stage; Second,
According to the number of inflection points and the
distances between every two inflection points in the
bending moment diagram, we can determine the num-
ber of simply supported beams being simplified and
the value of corresponding equivalent span li0 , which
will be used to calculate the effective slab width of
composite cable stayed bridge. Where li0 represent the
number i spans equivalent span; Third, to determine
the half of the value of the two main girders spacing
named b; Fourth, according to the value of b/li0 , we can
find the effective width coefficient bis of the equivalent
span of number i span in figure 4.6.2.6.2-2 atAASHTO
LRFD (1994). The effective width coefficient bif cor-
responding to bf is suitable for all the equivalent span
which have no rigid supports at inflection points. For
the equivalent spans which have rigid supports at
inflection points, the effective width coefficients at
the position of inflection points are determined by the
equivalent span bis corresponding to bs ; Fifth, for the
situation that there are no rigid supports at inflection
points but the effective width coefficients of adjacent
equivalent span is inconsistent, the value of effective
width coefficient at the position of middle inflection
point is took the average of adjacent spans. Among
the 20% of adjacent equivalent span use a straight-line
to transit. For the equivalent span that there are rigid
supports at inflection points, between bif and bis , the
value of effective width coefficient also needs linear
transition and the transition length is corresponding to
20% of the equivalent span length. Sixth, by the effec-
tive width coefficient of different location of the main
beam, draw composite cable stayed bridges effective
width coefficient curve changing along the longitudi-
nal direction of bridge when the bridge is under the
action of bending moment.
5 PRACTICAL CALCULATING METHOD OF
EFFECTIVE SLAB WIDTH
5.1 Background engineering
The main span of the composite cable-stayed bridge
is 300 meters, both side spans is 135 m, total length
is 570 m. The form of main beam cross-section is
540
double I-type steel girder in the longitudinal direc-
tion of the bridge. The height of standard segment of
main beam is 2.80 m, the center spacing of main beam
is 34.00 m, the standard distance of cables-stayed is
11.5 m. Concrete bridge decks were prefabricated in
factory, and through cast-in-place wet-joint to form an
overall structure. The thickness of concrete deck plate
is 0.28 m,the cable-tower uses H-type tower.
5.2 Calculation of effective slab width coefficients
of concrete bridge decks in the axial force.
First, determining the passing angle of the axial force
in composite cable-stayed bridges concrete decks to
take the 27.9 , then calculating the effective width
coefficient of the anchoring position of the various
cable-stayed bridge sections according to cables final
hanger force and inclination, details are shown in
table 1. In side span, from end of main beams con-
crete slab to anchoring position of B12 cable, and in
middle span, from anchoring position of Z12 cable
to bridge centerline, all the areas referred above are
sacred from the impact of cable-stayed axial compres-
sive stress. Therefore, the effective width coefficient
is took 1 with no reduction. According to axial pass
law of the cable-stayed horizontal force, except the B1
and Z1 cable cable-stayed, the horizontal axial force
produced by other cable-stayed has spread to close to
the compression of full-face in the center location of
the bridge towers, so the effective width coefficient
of the center location of the bridge towers is approxi-
mately took 1.The effective width coefficient changes
in accordance with the linear between the two adja-
cent cable anchor point location. The curve of the
composite cable-stayed bridge concrete slab effective
width coefficient changing along the span was shown
in Fig. 1.
5.3 Calculation of effective slab width coefficients
for concrete decks under the action of bending
moment
On the basis of bending moment diagram, a total
of seven equivalent spans can be determined. Equiv-
alent span respectively, 71.00 m, 34.50 m, 46.70 m,
263.60 m, 46.70 m, 34.50 m and 71.00 m.According to
simplified calculation method we can obtain the distri-
bution law diagram of effective width coefficient along
the span under the bending moment, shown in Fig. 2.
From Fig. 2, we can know that the effective width
coefficient of mid-span maximum up to 0.981, and
the effective width coefficient of side-span minimum
reach only 0.345. When under the action of bending
moment, the distribution laws of the concrete decks
effective width coefficient along the span direction are
significantly different from that under the action of
axial force.The effective width coefficient of mid-span
of main span is the largest and uniformly distribute in
a long region under the action of bending moment, but
the effective width coefficient changes linearly along
the span of the direction at range of mid-span of main
Table 1. Comparison of top and bottom concrete maximum stress under case one to case three
Case One
Whether consider the shear lag yes no Difference
value
Stress of top/Mpa 8.74 6.64 24.0%
Stress of bottom/Mpa 6.79 4.95 27.0%
Figure 1. Values of the effective flange width coefficient for axial forces along the span.
Figure 2. Values of the effective flange width coefficient for bending forces along the span.
span within cable section under the action of axial
force. The closer the cable is to mid-span, the smaller
the effective width coefficient is.
In order to measure the strain distribution and
certificate plane cross-section assumption more accu-
rately, strain gauges were allocated to middle, quarter
and loading sections, and strain rosettes were used
at the web in the vicinity of supporting. At the same
time, eight pairs of strain gauges were arranged around
steel tube in the circumferential direction averagely
in order to test circumferential strain and determine
whether crippling caused by local buckling would
occur. In the axis of concrete filled tube up-flange,
two displacement gauges were located to measure the
relative displacement between the steel tube and inner
concrete. Displacement gauges were also arranged in
middle and quarter section to measure displacement
in vertical deflections. To observe the local ductil-
ity and deformation in middle section, displacement
gauges were arranged in the top of steel tube and lat-
eral face. Besides, in order to observe whether entire
lateral bending or local ductility in web would occur,
displacement gauges were arranged between support-
ing and quartered sections to observe the transverse
displacement of web.
5.4 Checking results of longitudinal normal stress
for concrete bridge deck.
MIDAS2010 program is used to establish a spatial
beam element model. When the stress was checking,
the software only can use vertical bending stiffness
EI to multiply by the effective width coefficient for
reduction, thereby taking into account the shear lag
effect, but it cannot take into account the reduction of
axial stiffness. According to the stress characteristics
541
Two Three
yes no Difference yes no Difference
value value
8.86 7.04 20.5% 13.0 10.21 21.4%
6.79 5.18 23.7% 7.59 5.75 24.2%
of composite cable-stayed bridges main beam the
reduction of the vertical bending stiffness EI and
the axial stiffness EA should be all considered when
the stress was checking during the process of static
calculation.
For effects extraction and deformation calculation,
the method that does not take into account the shear lag
effect is used to establish the model in accordance with
the actual structure. When composite cable-stayed
bridge under the action of axial force, the axial stiff-
ness EA of concrete bridge deck need to be reduced
using the effective width coefficient, and when com-
posite cable-stayed bridge under the action of bending
moment, vertical bending stiffness of composite sec-
tion of the main beam and concrete slab working
together also need to be reduced using the effective
width coefficient only when the stress was checking.
Three load combination conditions were carried out
for checking the normal stress of main girders con-
crete bridge deck respectively, the results was shown
in Table 1.
The stress calculation results are given in Table 1
that when the composite cable-stayed bridge under
the combination action of the axial force and bend-
ing moment, for transverse stress distribution law of
concrete bridge deck, there are two cases, one case
considers the impact of combined effects and the other
does not consider. The calculation results show that
when considering combined effects of the axial force
and bending moment, the stress of top flange is maxi-
mum 24% higher than that does not consider, and the
stress of lower flange is maximum 27% higher than
that does not consider. It can be seen that, through
using the effective width coefficient method to take
into account the influence of the axial force and bend-
ing moment combined effects to the stress of the
concrete deck, it has practical significance for ensuring
structures safety.
The stress calculation results are given in table 1
that when the composite cable-stayed bridge under
the combination action of the axial force and bend-
ing moment, for transverse stress distribution law of
concrete bridge deck, there are two cases, one case
considers the impact of combined effects and the other
does not consider. The calculation results show that
when considering combined effects of the axial force
and bending moment, the stress of top flange is maxi-
mum 24% higher than that does not consider, and the
stress of lower flange is maximum 27% higher than
that does not consider. It can be seen that, through
using the effective width coefficient method to take
into account the influence of the axial force and bend-
ing moment combined effects to the stress of the
concrete deck, it has practical significance for ensuring
structures safety.
6 CONCLUSION
The effective slab width of composite cable-stayed
bridge under axial force is the focus of this paper, the
findings are shown as follows. The combined effects
of cables horizontal forces axial passing and moment
shear lag effect must be considered when the longitu-
dinal normal stress is checking. The stress calculation
results up to 27% higher than not to consider. In the
actual calculation process, we can use the effective
width coefficient in the bending moment and the effec-
tive width coefficient in cable-stayeds horizontal force
542
to consider the two factors separately. When the stress
of concrete deck of composite cable-stayed bridge is
analyzed, the axial stiffness EA of concrete bridge deck
can be reduced according to the effective width coef-
ficient of the concrete bridge deck under the action of
cable-stayed horizontal force, and the vertical bending
stiffness EI of composite section for main beam and
concrete bridge deck working together can be reduced
according to the effective width coefficient under the
action of bending moment.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The work described in this paper was partially sup-
ported by National Key Technology R&D Program
in the 11th Five year Plan of china (Grant No.
2009BAG15B01).
REFERENCES
Zhou, X.H., Di, J. & Dai, G.L. 2005. Study on Segmental
Model of Long Span Prestressed Concrete Cable-Stayed
Bridge. China Civil Engineering Journal 38(3): 5963.
Nie, J.G., Li, F.X.J. & Fan, J.S.2007. Study on effective
width of concrete deck in composite cable-stayed bridge.
Journal of HARBIN Institute of Technology 39(sup.2):
719724.
AASHTO. AASHTO LRFD bridge design specifications[S].
DEUTSCHE NORM. German DIN 1075. April, 1981, DIN
1072, Din 1076. Current.
D.D. Byers, Evaluation of the Effective Slab Width for
Composite Cable-Stayed Bridge Design, p. 88, Ph.D.
Dissertation, The University of Kansas, 1999.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Comparison between two improved methods of long term permanent

deformation calculation in high-speed railway subgrade

A. Kang Zhuang & Gong Quanmei

Key Laboratory of Road and Traffic Engineering of the Ministry of Education, TongJi University,
Shanghai, China

B. Wang Yang
China Urban Construction Design & Research Institude, Beijing, China

ABSTRACT: Two improved computational methods are proposed to research on the long-term deformation
calculation of railway subgrade. The analysis calculation method is based on the Mindlin-Boussinesq joint
method; Simplify the embankment according to the multilayer systematic structure theory, then calculate the
stress distribution and strain regularity with a pseudo static Mindlin-Boussinesq joint solution considering the
intercoordination effect between piles and soil. And the finite element method which is named creep-implicit
method is based on the displacement between creep and soil deformation processes; Replace the soil accumulated
deformation with creep deformation according to the approximation of the two processes, which decrease the
enormous data and increase the calculation speed during single implicit algorithm, and further the long-term
dynamic load is considered. Both deformation results of the two methods are compared with measured real data
of railway subgrade after operation for certain days. After feasibility of the two kinds of calculation method
testified, summarize the results of comparison and appraise the merit and demerit.

Keywords: damage Mindlin-Boussinesq joint solution; cyclic dynamic traffic load; long-term deformation;
creep deformation

In calculation of permanent deformation under long-
term dynamic load, it is improved that analysis calcula-
tion and finite element method implementation are two
kinds of method which are frequently and effectively
used in order to obtain the result of predicted deforma-
tion and dynamic stress field distribution after lots of
engineering and experiments. But the two methods are
actually with totally different solution ways and as the
detailing of the considered situation, its necessary to
improve the two calculation methods and declare the
merits and demerits. Comparing the results with real
data, to distinguish the accuracy and tendency between
results and finally guide the practical application.
1 SIMPLIFY OF DYNAMIC STRESS IN
ANALYSIS SOLUTION
In the subgrade, dynamic stress passes through the
track slabs and concrete base to the embankment sur-
face, and keeps on spreading into the surface layer
and so on. To calculate the distribution of dynamic
stress in embankment, take the embankment as infinite
half space and multilayer systematic structure theory
and Boussinesq solution are used. And when there
a pile-soil reinforcement area is, the pile-soil effect
also should be considered by the Mindlin-Boussinesq
solution. With the pseudo static method to express
dynamic stress, the final deformation of subgrade
could be obtained by deformation prediction model
and layerwise summation methods.
1.1 Simplify the embankment structure with
multilayer system theory
Considering the form of embankment multilayer struc-
ture with different elastic modulus in high-speed rail-
way, multilayer systematic theory is used to integrate
some of the different layers into one with same elastic
modulus and height.And according to the different lay-
ering of the embankment, the theory is strictly divided
into two situations:
When the height of the embankment is relatively
low as the first situation, the embankment can be sim-
plified as an entirety and conversed to an equivalent
half space with the Odemark equivalent theory. Take
a three-layers system as example and the process of
equivalence is shown in Fig 1;

543

Figure 1. Stress calculation of multilayer system with
Odemark equivalent theory.
Figure 2. Multilayer system to three layers system conver-
sion diagram.
And when the multilayer is more than four as the
second situation, the first method may cause 44%
error and it need to be displaced with the equivalent
thickness conversion method proposed by Lin Xiuxian
[12]
.
With this method, as Fig 2 shown, take the height
and modulus of the fundamental layer stay and transfer
height of the other layers with the same modulus as
fundamental layer by formula (1). hi and h i are the
original and transferred height, Ei Ef are the modulus
of the transferred layer and fundamental layer, is the
transfer factor decided by Ei /Ef .
To simplify the load on embankment surface, the con-
crete base is considered part of the embankment, and
the load is the counter- force of track slabs bearing
stress. And load on one track slab can be considered
as a rectangular load with the same application length
and width as the size of slab. Then the stress and strain
of centre point under the rectangular uniform load can
be calculated with Boussinesq solution and layerwise
summation method to obtain the total displacement of
the embankment.
1.2 Stress calculation in the pile-soil
reinforcement area
When dynamic stress arriving at the bottom of
embankment and running into the pile-soil reinforce-
ment area, with the multilayer system theory men-
tioned above, the effect of different stress bearing
544
between piles and soil in the reinforcement area can
not be considered. To obtain the stress distinguish of
different position between piles and soil, the pile-soil
stress rate theory is used.
According to the conclusion of previous work[3] ,
the height of embankment play an important part in
considering the arch effect of pile-soil reinforcement,
and to consider the pile-soil effect in analysis calcula-
tion method under dynamic load, take the equivalent
pseudo static calculation instead to analyze dynamic
load.
Take h as the height of embankment above and take
s as distance between adjacent piles, the arch effect
of foundation under dynamic load influence can be
divided into 3 conditions according to the h/s ratio
:1) The influence of dynamic load on soil arch which
is formed in statical condition can be ignored when
h/s > 2.53.0, and the composite foundation stress
calculation following the existing soil arch theory
under statical condition; 2) The soil arch is consid-
ered has destroyed under dynamic load when h/s 1.4,
and the composite foundation stress can be calculated
without arch effect; 3) The soil arch is considered will
not be destroyed in a few minutes and the arch effect
will be adjusted regularly when 1.4 < h/s< 3.0, and at
this time the soil arch reduction factor can be used
for dynamic stress calculation as (2):
In which E is the load bearing rate of pile and soil
under statical condition, and it could be obtained by
German standard EBGEO- 2004[4], E is the load
bearing rate of pile and soil under both statical and
dynamical condition, the reduction factor could be
confirmed by its changing curve with h/sd (sd is the
diagonal piles distance) and c (amplitude of dynamic
stress) shown as figs. 13[5] . With the reduction fac-
tor , dynamic condition could be conversed by static
condition with a pseudo static method. And the calcu-
lation process could be summarized as: (1) Confirming
the dynamic stress amplitude c and the peak point of
dynamic stress k,max = m + c (m is the static devi-
atoric stress) with the Fig 4; (2) Take dynamic stress
instead of the statical stress in the statical stress calcu-
lation model of arch effect to obtain the stress of soil
between piles z0 under pseudo statical condition; (3)
Confirm with Fig 3, with which to obtain the stress
of soil between piles under dynamic condition z0 by
the formula (3).
In which AE is the influenced area by one pile, AS
is the sectional area of one pile, and is unit weight
of soil.
Figure 3. - h/sd, c diagram.
Figure 4. Diagram of dynamic load.
Figure 5. Piles and soil stress distribution and plane diagram
of roadbed bottom.
1.3 Stress correction on the bottom of embankment
There is still a problem that the stress on the bot-
tom of embankment is calculated from the top down;
the effect of the pile-soil foundation wasnt taken into
account. Considering the modulus difference of piles
and soil, and the arch effect which may cause the stress
distribution difference, the uniform distributed stress
obtained with multilayer systemic method should be
corrected by the pile-soil dynamic stress rate.
As shown in Fig 5, is the stress obtained with
multilayer systemic method. z (Stress of pile) and t
(the stress of soil between piles) could be confirmed
with formula (4), (5).
545
Figure 6. Subgrade diagram.
2 STRESS CALCULATION OF PILE-NET
STRUCTURE BASED WITH
MINDLIN-BOUSSINESQ SOLVING METHOD
There are still some factor should be taken into account
within the foundation permanent deformation and
stress distribution calculation like: the deformation
regularities of pile and soil between piles, negative fric-
tion effect influence, and residual settlement caused
by dynamic load. To consider the stress transmitting
in pile and soil simultaneously and intercoordination
effect between piles and soil, the Mindlin- Boussinesq
solving method which accords with the practical work
mechanisms is applied[6] . Within this solving method,
the dynamic stress is taken as a pseudo-static stress
with an impact coefficient.
The load that piles shared and soil share in the total
load of composite foundation is dependently divided
into two kinds of stress to be obtained. Subsidiary
stress caused by piles load is solved with Geddes inte-
gration based on Mindlin solution; Subsidiary stress
caused by soil load is solved with Boussinesq solution.
Stress of any point in the whole composite foundation
is overlying by the two kind of stress.
2.1 Hypothesis before solution
In the composite foundation, the reinforcement effect
of piles is decreasing from the centre line to the two
sides in the cross section of embankment. With this
premise, the following assumption exert in the com-
posite reinforcement area and underlying stratum of
foundation as shown in Fig. 6.
(1) The foundation soil is considered as semi-space
elastomer; (2) Without considering the continuative
destroy caused by piles in reinforcement area; (3) Each
pile shares the same load of the uniform load in pile
groups; (4) Analyze single pile based on elastic contin-
uum theory and analyze pile groups based on overlying
of piles in certain scope; (5) Soil elastic modulus and
Poissons ratio remain unchanged regardless of piles.
2.2 Subsidiary stress of piles in reinforcement area
The stress of single pile is comprised of three kinds
of vertical stress caused by piles which is: 1) Vertical

Figure 7. Stress caused by piles diagram.
stress caused by pile tip pressure; 2) Vertical stress
caused by uniform distributed friction resistance;
3)Vertical stress caused by friction resistance linearly
increasing with depth.
is the distributed coefficient of pile tip load; is
the distributed coefficient of rectangular formed lat-
eral friction resistance. According to the stress solution
integrated from Mindlin formula, the total subsidiary
stress can be obtained by (6) as:
And with the overlying theory, vertical stress z of
any point in pile groups can be obtained by (7) as:
In which zi is vertical stress in soil with single pile;
k is the number of piles.
2.3 Subsidiary stress of soil in reinforcement area
and stress calculation of underlying stratum
based on boussinesq solution
Soil between piles can be count as semi-space elas-
tomer with a concentrate force exerted on the bound-
ary, and vertical stress with any depth z can be
obtained by Boussinesq solution. With the overlying
theory, uniform load which passed through and exerted
on the surface of embankment can be conversed to
stress distribution of piles and soil, and the total sub-
sidiary stress can be expressed by the sum of the two
subsidiary stresses.
Under the composite reinforcement area there is
the underlying stratum as Fig 21 shown, and the load
will keep on spreading in this stratum. With the same
Boussinesq solution as above, stress of piles bottom in
underlying stratum of foundation can be obtained.
2.4 Permanent deformation calculation with
pseudo static method
With the consideration of dynamic stress influence
in embankment and foundation deformation, cyclic
dynamic stress, physical property and state of soil
should all be included in the prediction model. After
546
improving by generations of experiment and the-
ory deduction, the Monismith correction formula as
(8) is considered a relatively complete method to
describe the soil deformation process under dynamic
stress[710] .
In which a, m, n, b are experiment constant; qs
, qd , qf is respectively the static deviatoric stress,
dynamic deviatoric stress and static damage devia-
toric stress of each layer of the foundation in vertical
direction which can be obtained in previous calcula-
tion process. Combing the layer summation method
with Monismith correction formula, permanent defor-
mation solution of the whole foundation structure can
be obtained with analysis calculation method.
3 PERMANENT DEFORMATION
COMPUTATIONAL UNDER CYCLIC
DYNAMIC LOAD COMBINING CREEP WITH
SOIL DEFORMATION BASED ON ANSYS
Considering the dynamic stress of soil in finite element
software, thousands of cyclic dynamic stress needs to
be exerted on the soil model in the implicit algorithm.
This algorithm accords with the accuracy requirement
of the model but also with some apparent defects like
that accumulation of data will cause serious system
error because of the limit of software data volume
and computational speed of hardware [11] . So its nec-
essary to search for a reasonable method to build
the model that can not only remain the accuracy of
implicit algorithm without the defects but also express
the characteristics of soil deformation in the practical
embankment and could be realized in ANSYS.
With a lot of research achievements, the high-cycle
accumulated model was proposed which divided the
stress-strain path under dynamic load into two parts:
the vibrated part and the tendency part [1213] . And
the tendency part predicted by empirical equation (9)
expresses the elastic-plastic deformation which is the
main part of long-term deformation.
To find an equivalent model which can describe
the tendency part of the deformation in plastic model,
the static creep model is taken to instead of the soil
deformation model under long-term dynamic load.
In research of soil, the dependent parameter N is
connected with the accumulation of time which can
be expressed by t, and creep is also a process with
dependent parameter t. In the creep theory, there are
also some different modes with several factors, and in
which the time hardering mode of the creep mod-
els can take place of the elastic-plastic model. The
similarity between the two expressions also gives the
improvement to take the replacement. The strain rate
expression of this model is:
Figure 8. Results Comparison between the real Dynamic
Triaxial Experiment (DTE result in the figure) and creep
strain curve.
Figure 10. Equivalent curve with creep and implicit algo-
rithm.

Figure 9. Calculation process diagram.

In which, cr is the equivalent creep strain rate.

After integration, the computational equation of the Figure 11. DK34 + 535.00 cross section of Shang-
equivalent creep strain is: hai-Nanjing railway.

Table 1. Soil characteristics of stratums of cross section

DK34 + 535

Id. Name Characteristics

From the equation, its obviously that there is corre-
(3) alQ3silty clay tawny, hard plastic,
sponding relationship between parameters of equation 0 = 200 kPa
(10) and (8) Creep process has the same characteris- (5) 1 granodiorite luidity, completely
tics with soil accumulated deformation. 1 +c1c3 is the weathered, core appeared
parameter effects
 the amplitude of strain, which cor- as sand shape,
0 = 250 kPa
respond to a 1 + qqfs when n = 1 in equation (8); c2
(5) 3 granodiorite cinerous, weak weathered,
is the parameter effects the amplitude of stress, which core appeared as columnar,
correspond to m in equation (8); c3 + 1 is the parame- 0 = 1000 kPa
ter controls the increasing rate of strain with the time
accumulation, which can be connected with the accu-
mulated loading times N. The correlation between the
two models supports a possibility to express the ten- 4 COMPARISON BETWEEN TWO SOLUTION
dency of soil long-term deformation with creep model IN THE PRACTICAL ENGINEERING
and realize the replacement in finite element software. APPLICATION
To testify that the accumulated strain can certainly
be expressed by creep strain, simulate the dynamic Take a practical cross section DK34 + 535 from the
triaxial experiment in ANSYS to compare the two Shanghai-Nanjing railway which have completed and
results. opened to traffic in 2010.
After simulation of exerting 14000 times cyclic The section is reinforced by the CFG piles with
dynamic load, comparing the ANSYS calculation 0.5 m diameter and 7.5 m length piles. Distance
result with real dynamic triaxial result as shown in between adjacent piles is 1.6 m and distributed as
Fig 8: square shape. The height of embankment is 6 m with
With re-modeling method in ANSYS as shown in 0.6 m thick hardcore bed and two levels of geotextile.
Fig 9, an equivalent curve which will tend to become The other dimensions are as Fig 11 shown.
stable is obtained as Figure 10. Its much more time- The geology investigation data shows that the soil
saving and data space-saving with this method in characteristics of stratums are shown in Table 1.
modeling and predicting the subgrade deformation The times of cyclic dynamic load accord to the prac-
under high-accumulated dynamic load in ANSYS. tical condition of the operating times, vehicle number

547

Figure 12. Deformation along depth of embankment and
foundation.
Figure 13. DK34 + 535.00 cross section vertical displace-
ment increasing with number of cycles.
Figure 14. Deformation measured data of relevant sections
of Shanghai-Nanjing railway.
of each day and grouping number of each vehicle.
And take one cycle dynamic load as one wheelset
caused. The grouping number of each vehicle is 16
with 32 wheelsets, and there are 119 pairs vehicle pass
through the section. So the cycles number of each day
as 32238 = 7616 times.
With the equivalent layers conversion and Mindlin-
Boussinesq joint solution, the deformation changing
with depth increasing is shown as Fig 12, which
shows the deformation tendency of roadbed within this
section under dynamic load.
With the ANSYS calculation, deformation accumu-
lation with the number of cycles increasing is shown
as Fig 13, which expresses the permanent deformation
of this section under 1050 days cyclic dynamic load.
According to the measurement data of this section
as Fig 14 shown after 409 days operation, the measured
deformation is 1 mm. The analysis calculation solution
is 2.06 mm, which is relatively bigger than the mea-
sured value; the finite element calculation solution is
1.18 mm which is much closer.
548
5 SUMMARY OF COMPARISON RESULT
Comparing the analysis calculation method, finite
element implementation method has considered the
couple effect between stress field and strain field. And
during the calculation process, the effect do cause crit-
ical distinguish. And from the comparison, we can also
get the other conclusions.
(1) Take the analysis calculation method to ana-
lyze roadbed with Boussinesq solution and to
analyze the composite foundation with Mindlin-
Boussinesq joint solution is a available method
to deal with the permanent deformation problem
and the result is accredited. But neither strain nor
stress can be obtained with certain time, which
means the deformation tendency increasing with
time can not be represented.
(2) Comparing the two results with the measured
practical data, both the analysis calculation solu-
tion and finite element implementation solution
are all bigger than the real condition, so the result
from the two methods could both be consid-
ered safe for long-term settlement management
in operation.
(3) Considering distinguishes between the two meth-
ods, the analysis solution method comes from
laboratory test and has proved by engineering
practice, but whose essential to deal with the
cyclic dynamic load is to take the pseudo stat-
ical stress instead of dynamic stress, which is
still a simplification of the model. Meanwhile the
improved finite element implementation method
is also a process to take dynamic deformation
process instead of creep statical process; but the
dynamic stress field could couple with the strain
field with the re-modeling method. And the finite
element implementation method is much fit for
the practical situation under cyclic dynamic load.
According to the comparison results above, the
improved finite element implementation is suggested
to be used in practical projects more reasonable.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author thanks the financial support of Minis-
ter of Railway Science and Technology Research and
Development Program, Grant, 2010G003-A, and the
financial support of Specialized Research Fund for
the Doctoral Program of Higher Education, Grant,
20110072110026 is also appreciated.
LITERATURE REFERENCES
Zhao Yanqing, Wang Zhichao, Wang Guozhong, Tan Yiqiu.
Stress pulse durations in asphalt pavement under moving
load. Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering,
2009, 9(6), 1115.
Li Jingwen. Joint application of Boussinesq and Mindlin
solution in stress and settlement calculation in pile-soil
 compositional subgrade. Fundamental Treatment, 1993,
4(4), 1521.
Han Gaoxiao, Gong Quanmei. Mechanical analysis of soil
arching under dynamic loads. 14th Pan-American Con-
ference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering.
2011, Toronto, Canada.
DGGT. EBGEO Kapitel 6.9 (Entwurf 2004), Entwurf der
Empfehlung Bewehrte Erdkrper aufpunktoder linien-
frmigen Traggliedern. Arbeitskreis AK 5.2 der Fach-
sektion Kunststoffe in der Geotechnik der Deutschen
Gesellschaft fr Geotechnik e.V., 2004.
Hu Yifeng, Li Nufang. Theory of ballastless track-subgrade
for high speed railway. 2010.
Zhao Jia. Calculation Method and Settlement Characteristics
of Rigid Pile-net Composite Foundation 2010.
MONISMITH C L; LONG F Overlay design for cracked
and seated Portland cement concrete (PCC) pavement
interstate route 710 1999.
LID, SELIGET. Cumulative Plastic Deformation for Fine-
Grained Subgrade Soils. J Geotech Eng, 1996, 122(12):
10061013.
549
LEE K L Cyclic strength of a sensitive clay of eastern Canada
1979 (01)
SEED H B; CHAN C K; MONISMITH C L Effect of repeated
loading on the strength and deformation of compacted clay
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Niemunis A, Wichtmann T, Triantafyllidis T (2005) A high-
cycle accumulation model for sand. Computers and
Geotechnics 32(4):245263.
T. Wichtmann, A. Niemunis, TH. Triantafyllidis. Strain accu-
mulation in sand due to cyclic loading: drained triax-
ial tests. Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering,
25(2005):967979.
T. Wichtmann, A. Niemunis, TH. Triantafyllidis. Strain accu-
mulation in sand due to cyclic loading: Drained cyclic tests
with triaxial extension. Soil Dynamics and Earthquake
Engineering, 27(2007): 4248.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

The influence of additional attack angle on flutter analysis result

of 1400 m cable stayed bridge

H.J. Zhang
China Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing, China
Bridge Engineering Department of Tongji University, Shanghai, China

L.D. Zhu
State Key Laboratory for Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Bridge Engineering Department of Tongji
University, Shanghai, China

ABSTRACT: Due to low rigidity, the influence of addition attack angle to the flutter performance of 1400 m
steel box girder cable stayed bridge can not be neglected. In the flutter analysis process, the including level of
additional attack angles are different to different wind tunnel tests used for identification of flutter derivatives,
and so to different theoretical arithmetic methods. As a result, the differences between the results obtained by
complex application of wind tunnel test and flutter analysis method can not be avoid. By contrasting the analysis
results derived from four possible situations, under the influence of additional attack angle, some disciplinarians
of flutter analysis result can be summarized as follows: the result which based on flutter derivatives obtained
from forced vibration section model test and taking additional attack angle into consideration in flutter analysis
method is more reasonable; the result which based on flutter derivatives obtained from free suspension section
model test and without taking additional attack angle into consideration in flutter analysis method cant contain
the influence of additional attack angle completely; the results obtained from the other two situations are not
reasonable.

Keywords: additional attack angle; forced vibration section model test; free suspension section model test

1 INTRODUCTION girder cable stayed bridge with main span of 1400 m

The main girder is inevitable to produce additional
attack angle under action of static wind load [1],
larger is span of the bridge and more flexible is the
main girder, greater is the produced additional attack
angle, the influence of the additional attack angle
on the flutter performance is more obvious [2]. For
the current flutter analysis in frequency domain, it
not only includes the free suspension section model
test affected by the additional attack angle but also
excludes the forced vibration section model test with
influence of the additional attack angle during wind
tunnel test. In the successive theoretical analysis pro-
cess, it not only includes the flutter analysis with-
out influence of the additional attack angle but also
includes the flutter analysis method with influence of
additional attack angle. There are four possible con-
ditions after two to two combinations. There are great
difference in these four conditions for contain degree.
In order to exclude this confusion status during
matching application of the flutter derivative of the
wind tunnel test and the theoretical analysis method
caused by the additional attack angle, define which
flutter critical wind speed obtained in which method is
more reasonable, this paper takes the 1400 m steel box
as research object [3], carry out comparison analysis
about flutter analysis in frequency domain in above
four conditions.
This research is developed taking the steel
box girder cable stayed bridge with main span
of 1400 m as background. Shown as figure 1,
the span arrangement of this design scheme is
180 + 156 + 300 + 1400 + 300 + 156 + 180 m, height
of the bridge tower is 357 m, width of main girder
is 41m, height is. Fundamental frequencies for side
bending, vertical bending and torsion of main girder
under finished bridge state obtained by ANSYS finite
element analysis software are 0.0611 Hz, 0.1474 Hz
and 0.4157 Hz respectively, ratio between torsion and
vertical bending frequency is 2.82. The correspond-
ing equivalent quality of main girder [2] and qual-
ity inertia moment are: 29.087 t/m, 32.894 t/m and
4606.3 tm2 /m.
2 FLUTTER DERIVATIVE IDENTIFICATION
WIND TUNNEL TEST
The free suspension section model is one conven-
tional test method used to identify deck section flutter

551
Figure 1. General layout and deck section of the proposed 1400 m-span cable-stayed bridge (unit: m).

derivative of the main girder, which is extensively

applied during wind tunnel test phase in various bridge
engineering [4]. Because the free suspension sec-
tion model is inevitable to produce certain additional
attack angle during test, the identified flutter deriva-
tive isnt corresponding to the initial attack angle, it
is corresponding to the effective attack angle con-
taining influence of the additional attack angle. But
the section model only contains the additional attack
angle produced by static wind load which only acts
on its own length scope, main girders of the whole
bridge which are actually in the wind field are under
action of the wind load, therefore the flutter deriva-
tive measured by the free suspension section model
Figure 2. Free suspension section model in TJ-2 wind
test doesnt completely contain influence of additional tunnel.
attack angle.
Compared to the free suspension section model
test, the forced vibration section model test [5][7]
is to carry out simple harmonic vibration with con-
trolled frequency and amplitude by driving model and
structure of the special machinery, which cant pro-
duce additional attack angle under action of wind load
which deviates initial wind attack angle. Therefore
the identified flutter derivative excludes influence of
additional attack angle effect.
This paper carries out flutter derivative identifica-
tion on the main girder section model of 1400 m cable
stayed bridge respectively on basis of these two test
methods. Figure 2 and figure 3 give the free suspen-
sion section model and the forced vibration section
model which are placed in TJ-2 and TJ-1 wind tunnel Figure 3. Forced vibration section model in TJ-1 wind
of Tongji University respectively. tunnel.

not containing influence of additional attack angle

3 DEFINITION OF FOUR COMPARISON CASE
IN THIS PAPER
There exists two conditions mentioned in above
whether the additional attack angle is included or
not during the wind tunnel test. There are not only
improvement method [8][9] containing influence of
additional attack angle but also convention method
during the flutter analysis process. Make two to two
combination with two conditions existing in the wind
tunnel test, four possible conditions are obtained,
which are summarized in table 1, their contain degrees
for additional attack angle are different.
Following law is found in four case listed in table 1
on contain degree aspect of the additional attack angle
on basis of individual characteristics of the flutter

552
Table 1. Contain Degree of Additional Attack Angle.

Flutter derivative Flutter analysis in

identification frequency domain

Additional Additional
attack Analysis attack
Test method angle method angle

Case-A Free Partially Conventional Not

suspension contain method contain
Case-B Forced Not Conventional Not
vibration contain method contain
Case-C Free Contain Improvement Contain
suspension method
Case-D Forced Not Improvement Contain
vibration contain method

derivative identification test and the flutter analysis

method:
(1) Case-A partially contains influence of additional
attack angle during the flutter derivative identi-
fication process, Case-D contains influence of
additional attack angle during flutter analysis in
frequency domain, the reliable flutter instability
critical wind speed may be obtained in these two
cases. Their difference lies in that contain degree
of additional attack angle depends on the addi-
tional attack angle of the section model during
the wind tunnel test in Case-A, contain degree of
additional attack angle depends on the additional
Figure 4. Additional Attack Angle Distribution Along
attack angle of three dimension finite element
Bridge Span Under Different Initial Attack Angle.
model of the whole bridge during theoretical cal-
culation in Case-D. It is further deduced from
difference and connection of above two cases that too high; vice versa, containing additional attack
Case-D can reflect influence of additional attack angle will cause reduction of the flutter critical
angle of the whole bridge caused by wind on the wind speed, the flutter instability critical wind
flutter stability analysis more real, the reliability speed obtained in Case-B is too high, the flutter
of its analysis result is better than that of Case-A. instability critical wind speed obtained in Case-C
It also shows that Case-A only partially contains is too low.
influence of additional attack angle, and Case-D Whether above law really exists shall be evaluated
completely contains influence of additional attack by comparison of the flutter analysis results.
angle.
(2) Case-B doesnt contain influence of additional
attack angle in the flutter derivative identification 4 DISTRIBUTION OF ADDITIONAL ATTACK
and flutter analysis in frequency domain, Case- ANGLE ALONG BRIDGE SPAN
C repeatedly contains influence of additional
attack angle in the flutter derivative identifica- Whereas the improvement method has considered
tion and flutter analysis in frequency domain, the influence of the additional attack angle on the flutter
reasonable instability critical wind speed cant analysis, various influences on the additional attack
be obtained under these two cases. Their differ- angle shall be explained. The distribution condition of
ence lies in that Case-B doesnt contain influence the effective attack angle along bridge span shall be
of additional attack angle and Case-C repeat- firstly learnt after the additional attack angle is con-
edly contains influence of additional attack angle. sidered. In particular to under different initial attack
In case it is assumed that containing additional angle, there are difference in positive and negative and
attack angle will cause improvement of the flutter absolute value of the effective attack angle, these may
critical wind speed, the flutter instability critical cause the additional attack angle to produce influence
speed obtained in Case-B is too low, the flut- with different characteristic and different degree on
ter stability analysis result obtained in Case-C is the flutter analysis under different initial attack angle.

553
Table 2. Flutter Analysis Results.
Initial
attack Flutter critical wind Flutter
angle speed (m/s) frequency (Hz)
Case-A 3 105 0.30
0 99 0.32
+3 108 0.32
Case-B 3 100 0.29
0 92 0.29
+3 104 0.29
Case-C 0 105 0.29
Case-D 3 108 0.28
0 99 0.30
The figure gives distribution condition of the effec-
tive attack angle along the bridge span under different
attack angle. Learn from analysis on the figure, there is
obvious difference between obtained effective attack
angle and initial attack angle after the additional attack
angle is contained no matter under any initial attack
angle for 1400 m steel box cable staying bridge plan.
Whether the additional attack angle is contained or not
will certainly have influence on the final flutter critical
wind speed.
5 COMPARISON OF FLUTTER ANALYSIS
RESULT
Taking the cable staying bridge with main span of
1400 m as research object, carry out the flutter analy-
sis in frequency domain for four cases listed in table 1,
the obtained analysis results are summarized in table
2.
Following rules are obtained after the flutter critical
wind speed of the 1400 m steel box cable stayed bridge
plan obtained in table 2 is analyzed.
(1) When initial attack angle is 0 , the Case-B which
doesnt contain influence of the additional attack
angle obtains 92 m/s minimum flutter critical
wind speed, Case-A and Case-D which contain
influence of the additional attack angle obtains
99 m/s flutter critical wind speed, Case-C which
repeatedly contains influence of the additional
attack angle obtains 105 m/s maximum flutter
critical wind speed, i.e. the flutter critical wind
speed shows rising trend following increasing of
containing degree of the additional attack angle.
Reason for this rule lies that adding CHSP makes
0 attack angle as most unfavourable attack angle.
After the additional attack angle is contained,
the effective attack angle is converted to either
positive attack angle or negative attack angle, in
summary it is far away the most unfavourable
attack angle (shown as figure), so the flutter criti-
cal wind speed shows rising trend; this monotone
rising trend just verifies monotone rising trend of
554
containing degree of the additional attack angle,
i.e. Case-B < Case-A Case-D < Case-C.
(2) When the initial attack angle is 3 , Case-B
which doesnt contain influence of the additional
attack angle obtains 100 m/s minimum flutter crit-
ical wind speed, Case-A obtains 105 m/s flutter
critical wind speed, Case-D obtains 108 m/s flut-
ter critical wind speed. The flutter critical wind
speed obtained in Case-A lies in between Case-
B and Case-D, it means containing degree of the
additional attack angle shall lie in between them,
it verifies that the flutter derivative of the sec-
tion model test applied by Case-A only partially
contains influence of the additional attack angle,
i.e. on containing degree of the additional attack
angle, Case-A < Case-D.
In a word, possible existing rules for four cases listed
in table 1 are embodied in table 2. So for 1400 m steel
box cable stayed bridge, influence of the additional
attack angle on the flutter analysis result is listed as
following:
(1) The conventional flutter analysis method is
applied to analyze the flutter for the flutter deriva-
tive obtained on basis of free suspension section
model test identification, which partially con-
tains influence of the additional attack angle.
The obtained flutter critical wind speed conforms
better with practical conditions.
(2) The conventional flutter analysis method is
applied to analyze the flutter for the flutter deriva-
tive obtained on basis of forced vibration section
model test identification, which doesnt contain
influence of the additional attack angle. The
obtained flutter critical wind speed is too low.
(3) The flutter analysis method containing the addi-
tional attack angle effect is applied to analyze the
flutter for the flutter derivative obtained on basis
of suspension section model test identification,
which repeatedly contains influence of the addi-
tional attack angle. The obtained flutter critical
wind speed is too high.
(4) The flutter analysis method containing the addi-
tional attack angle effect is applied to analyze the
flutter for the flutter derivative obtained on basis
of forced vibration section model test identifi-
cation, which completely contains influence of
the additional attack angle. The obtained flutter
critical wind speed will be more compliable with
actual conditions.
6 CONCLUSIONS
After comparison and analysis of several possible con-
ditions referenced in this paper, it can be found that the
flutter analysis carried out on different bridge shall be
developed according to following principles:
(1) The flutter analysis result is affected less by the
additional attack angle for the bridge with small
 span. The flutter derivative obtained on basis of
free suspension section model test identification
applies the conventional flutter analysis method
which doesnt consider influence of the addi-
tional attack angle, and the reasonable flutter
instability critical wind speed is obtained, which
meets requirements on wind resistant at the flutter
stability aspect.
(2) The flutter analysis result is affected greatly by
the additional attack angle for the bridge with
large span. The flutter derivative obtained on basis
of forced vibration section model test identifica-
tion applies the improved flutter analysis method
which considers influence of the additional attack
angle, and the reasonable flutter instability critical
wind speed is obtained, which meets requirements
on wind resistant at the flutter stability aspect.
Even though operation of the forced vibration sec-
tion model test is difficult, more manpower and
material shall be put. But considering the safety
performance requirement of the bridge with large
span is higher, such flutter analysis is necessary.
(3) No matter the bridge with large span or the bridge
with small span shall not carry out the flut-
ter analysis under the conditions mentioned in
Case-B and Case-C of this paper, the obtained
flutter instability critical wind speeds are incor-
rect, which shall be strictly prohibited during
wind-resistant design.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The work described in this paper was supported
the Ministry of Science and Technology of China
through both the Fundamental Research Fund for
State Key Laboratories (Grant SLDRCE08-A-02) and
the National High-tech R&D Program (863 Pro-
gram) (Grant No.: 2006AA11Z120).Any opinions and
555
concluding remarks presented in this paper are entirely
those of the writers.
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domain method for pneumatic derivative of bridge sec-
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Performance evaluation on highway snow-melting agents

Yuhui Wu, Nan Liu & Xinghua Fan

Liaoning Provincial Communications Science Institute, Expressway Maintenance Technology
Key Laboratory of Transport Ministry of P.R.C., Shenyang City, China

ABSTRACT: The snow-and-ice-covered pavements threaten highway transport safety and smoothness. The
use of snow-melting agents is a significant means to ice and snow removal, anti-ice and to anti-skid on the
highway in time. With application practice requirements and the advance of the cognitive level of snow-melting
agent technology, the highway snow-melting agent technology experiences three stages, which are chloride salt,
non-chloride salt and environment-friendly stages. As the chloride salts have been used in large quantities for a
long time, their corrosion and damage to the environment and infrastructures are serious and significant because
of the existence of the chlorides. So the snow-melting agents such as non-chlorides and environment-friendly
agents appear in the market and come into use. It is expected that the use of non-chlorides and environment-
friendly snow-melting agents on the ice-and-snow covered pavements can reduce or eliminate the adverse effect
s on the environment and infrastructures while they have the same melting snow performance as the chloride
salts. Some evaluation tests on the melting snow and ice performance, the corrosion to the concrete and metal
materials, the effects of poa pratensis seed germination percentage of different snow-melting agents are carried
out to evaluate different agents performances synthetically. The test results show the differences among the
different snow-melting agents on the aspects of technology, environment and economy. The applicability of the
different snow-melting agents is summarized. Then technological references are put forward to use snow-melting
agents efficiently, safely and environmentally-friendly.

Keywords: snow-melting agents, melting snow and ice performance, scaling mass loss, seed germination
percentage, corrosion rate

1 SNOW-MELTING AGENT APPLICATION Table 1. Representative snow-melting agents

SUMMARY
Chlorides NaCl
Since 1950s, snow-melting agents have been used for MgCl2
removing snow and ice in the developed countries. CaCl2
Industrial Salt
The snow-melting agents are divided into three types Non-chlorides urea
that are chlorides, non-chlorides and environmentally- CMA
friendly ones. The chlorides that include sodium chlo- KAc
ride, magnesium chloride, calcium chloride, potas- Environmentally-friendly WD
sium chloride and so on were used to melting snow ones
and ice first. And then no-chlorides that include mag- LY-102
nesium calcium acetate, potassium acetate (KAc),
urea, glycol and propycol were used. Environmentally-
friendly agents that are consisted of chlorides and cor-
rosion inhibitors or chlorides and non-chlorides added
some corrosion inhibitors are used for fight snow and
ice in winter. The melting snow and ice performance 2 TEST AND STUDY ON THE DIFFERENT
and environmental effects of snow-melting agents SNOW-MELTING AGENTS
mentioned above are different. The melting snow and
ice performance, the scaling mass of concrete, ger- Some representative snow-melting agents (see tab.1)
mination percentage are tested and studied. Then the are selected to evaluate their performances on the
snow-melting agents are evaluated. Finally applica- melting snow and ice performance, the corrosion
bility of the different types of snow-melting agents to concrete and metal materials, the effects of poa
is summarized and some references are provided for pratensis seed germination percentage of different
using snow-melting agents scientifically. snow-melting agents.

557

Figure 1. Freezing temperature at various contents.
2.1 Performance of melting snow and ice
According to Engine coolant freezing temperature
Determination Method (SH/T0090-91) in China,
freezing temperatures of different snow-melting
agents are tested for evaluating and comparing the
melting snow and ice performance. And freezing
temperature-content curve can be drawn by measur-
ing the freezing temperatures at the different contents.
So the snow-melting agent amount used for melting
some amount of snow and ice can be determined on the
curve. Some representative samples of snow-melting
agents are tested.
The freezing temperature-content curve (Figure 1)
can be drawn based on the data listed in tab.1. From
the curve, we can make the following conclusions.
(1) For the same snow-melting agent, its freezing
temperature increases generally with the its con-
tent. The relationship among snow-melting agent
content, snow-melting agent mass and the snow
or ice mass which are to be melted shows as the
equation :
Snow-melting agent content = snow-melting
agent mass/snow or ice mass
At the colder temperature, snow-melting agent
content should be higher to melt a certain amount
of snow and ice. That is to say: the used amount
of snow-melting agent should be higher when the
temperature decreases. The used amount of snow-
melting agent depends on the temperature.
At the certain temperature, the content of the
required amount of snow-melting agent used for
melting snow is a constant value. According to
equation , we can conclude that the required
amount of snow-melting agent used for melting
snow will increase when the snowfall increases.
The relationship between snow-melting agent
amount and snowfall is direct proportion snow-
melting relationship.
(2) At the same content, the freezing temperatures
of chlorides and environmentally-friendly snow-
melting agents are lower than those of non-
chlorides. The first two types of agents have
the better melting snow and ice performance
558
Figure 2. Spalling mass of concrete immersed in agents.
than non-chlorides. Under the same conditions,
the chlorides and environmentally-friendly snow-
melting agents can melt more snow and ice than
non- chlorides. And the contents of different
agents differ at the same freezing temperature.
If a certain amount snow and ice will to be
melted completely, the required amount of chlo-
rides and environmentally-friendly snow-melting
agents are less than that of non- chlorides. The
first two types of agents have the advantage on
the melting snow performance.
(3) Chlorides and environmentally-friendly snow-
melting agents are suitable in the cold areas while
non- chlorides are not suitable in the cold areas
and are suitable in the hotter areas than in the cold
areas.
(4) The limited freezing temperature of NaCl is about
22 . So NaCl are not suitable for melting snow
and ice in the colder areas at less 22 while
CaCl2, MgCl2 can be used to melt snow at the
temperature less than 22 C.
2.2 Study on concrete resistance against frost of
different agents
The ordinary portland cement 42.5# is used to test
resistance against frost of concrete immersed in the
different agents. The crushed stones and sand can
meet the requirements in Technical Specification of
Bitumen Pavement Construction for Highway (JTG
F30-2003). Some pieces of concrete surface will be
scaled after freezing and thawing immersed in differ-
ent agents. The frost damage is the largest at the salt
content of 25%. All the content of agents tested in
the study is 3%. The compressive strength, the flexural
tensile strength and relative frost moduli of concrete
have little response on the different agents. But the
scaling mass has the obvious relation with the snow-
melting agents. So scaling mass is considered as the
index to compare the different effects of agents on the
concrete.
Conclusions made from the data and Figure 2:
(1) In contrast with the data immersed in water, all
snow-melting agents have worse effects on the
concrete scaling mass than those in water.
(2) No matter what kind of snow-melting agent, they
all damage the concrete.
Figure 3. Cumulative germination percent on 14th day.
Figure 4. Cumulative germination percent on 21st day.
(3) Different agents have the different effects on the
concrete scaling mass. The worst effect of agent
on the scaling mass is industrial salt, NaCl and
WD. CaCl2 is the best agent among the chlo-
rides on the aspect of scaling mass loss, which
has nearly the same effects as the non-chlorides
and environmentally-friendly agents. Although
WD and LY102 belong to the environmentally-
friendly agents on the market, they have the
obvious difference on the effect on the concrete.
2.3 Effects of snow-melting agents on grass seed
germination percentage
According to rules for forage seed testing-germination
test (GB02930-4-2001) in China, the poa pratensis
seed germination percentage of excellence seeds
imported from USA is tested in the study wetted in dif-
ferent snow-melting agent solution. The germination
percentage is the percent of normal seedling number
occupied the number of tested seeds. The germination
bed is wetted by the agent solution. Then the seeds are
put in the bed (BP). Furthermore, the treated seeds in
the bed are placed in 7 C incubator for 7 days. Then
put them in the changing temperature box. The seed
are shined in the light for 8 hours at 25 C, and then are
not shined in the light for 16 hours in a day. The water
should be added in the bed to keep the seeds wetted in
the period of test. Observe and record the normal ger-
mination number and pick out the seedlings everyday.
At last count the germination percentage on the 14th
day and the 21days. The results are shown as Figure 3
and Figure 4.
Some conclusions can be made:
(1) The data tested on the germination show that
the germination percentage of seeds wetted in
559
Figure 5. Corrosion effects of agents on metals.
urea solution is the highest. The germination per-
centage wetted KAc or CMA is the lowest. The
germination percentage wetted in CaCl2, WD
or LY102 solution is higher than that wetted in
the NaCl, MgCl2 or industrial salt solution. The
environmentally-friendly agents, CaCl2 and urea
show the advantage to other agents.
(2) The agent contents affect the germination percent-
age. The germination percentage will decrease
when the agent content increases.
2.4 Corrosion effects of snow-melting agents on
metals
Corrosion effects of snow-melting agents on metals
are done according to GB/T 18175-2000 (Determi-
nation on corrosion inhibition performance of water
treatment agent rotation specimen method). The car-
bon steel corrosion rates of steel specimens immersed
in 5% snow-melting agents are obtained.
Some conclusions can be got from above Figure 5:
(1) Different agents have different corrosion effects
on metal.
(2) Chlorides such as NaCl, CaCl2 , MgCl2 and indus-
trial salts in which there is no inhibitor have worst
corrosion effects on metals.
(3) Non-chlorides such as CMA have lowest corro-
sion rates which are lower than the requirement
of 0.18 mm/a.
(4) Corrosion level of Environmentally-friendly
agents on metals are between chlorides and non-
chlorides. It shows that inhibitor added into the
agents can reduce corrosion rate.
3 CONCLUSIONS
(1) The environment-friendly agents such as LY102
have four advantages on the performances dis-
cussed above, for example better melting snow
performance, concrete resistance against frost,
lower corrosion to metal and higher germination
percentage which ought to be chosen to remove
snow and ice at first.
(2) Urea and CMA have advantages on better resis-
tance against metal corrosion. But their freezing
temperature is very high.To melt the same amount
snow and ice, the more urea should be used
 than the agents with lower freezing temperature.
In addition, their costs are much higher than
other agents. So non-chlorides are not suitable
for removing snow and ice covered on highways
in colder regions.
(3) The non-chlorides are not used to melting snow
though they have better resistance against metal
corrosion because of their poor melting snow and
ice performance, worse damage to the concrete
and high cost.
(4) We should select the right and suitable snow-
melting agents to control snow and ice in winter.
REFERENCES
Cecil C. Chappelow, A. Dean McElroy, Robert R. Blackbur
SHRP-H-332 Handbook of Test Methods for Evaluating
Chemical Deicers, Midwest Research Institute.
560
NCHRP-RPT-557, 2007. Guidelines for the Selection of
Snow and Ice Control Materials to Mitigate Environmen-
tal Impacts.
Masanori Izumi, Tsutomu Nakamur, Snow engineering:
recent advances.
Winter Maintenance Manual-UTAHLPAT, 2008.
SALT AND THE ENVIRONMENT, New Mexico LTAP
Approach, a newsletter of The New Mexico Technology
Transfer Center, December 1996, No. 14, pp. 45.
Wang Xiaoguang, ZhangYadong, research progress and
developing direction [J] inorganic salt industry , vol. 39.3
2007.03.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Prediction of CBR from index properties of cohesive soils

Magdi Zumrawi
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan

ABSTRACT: Prediction of CBR is quite important in pavement design. This paper presents and analyses the
results of a laboratory investigation to measure the CBR in soaking and unsoaking conditions. Several tests
to measure the CBR were performed for three different cohesive soils compacted at different water contents
and dry densities. Analysis of the experimental results demonstrates very clearly a strong linear relationship of
unsoaked CBR with the initial state factor (Fi ), combination of water content, dry density and void ratio. This
factor has been also developed for the soaking or saturated condition and is called the soaking state factor (Fs ).
The coefficients of the linear relationship (i.e. constant and slope) have been found to depend on plasticity index
and testing conditions. Comparison of the measured and predicted values of unsoaked and soaked CBR using
the developed equations clearly indicates the reliability of these equations.

Keywords: CBR, Initial state factor

1 INTRODUCTION

The CBR test is the most widespread method of deter-

mining the bearing strength of pavement materials and
is fundamental to pavement design practice in most
countries. The design of pavement is much dependent
on the CBR value of subgrade. The CBR test can be
performed both in the laboratory and field. It is essen-
tial that the standard test procedure should be strictly
followed (AASHTO 2005, ASTM 1992, BS 1377-
1990). The CBR test may be conducted on remoulded
or on soil in place. The samples may be tested at their
natural or at remoulded moisture content (unsoaked
CBR), or they may be soaked by immersing in water
for a specified period of time (four days) in order to
simulate highly unfavorable moisture conditions of the
soil type.
Civil engineers always encounter difficulties in
obtaining representative CBR values for design of
pavement. A CBR value is affected by the type of soil
and different soil properties.An attempt has been made
to correlate the CBR with simple soil properties. It can
be an alternative method for the time consuming tests.
These tests are much economical and rapid than CBR
test. This paper aims to develop correlations between
CBR values with the soil state factors developed from
easy measured soil index properties such as water con-
tent, dry density, void ratio and plasticity index that can
be used for prediction of CBR values of cohesive soils
(i.e. silt and clay).
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
It is reasonable to assume that California Bearing Ratio
(CBR) values are related to soil index properties in
Figure 1. Relationship between CBR and plasticity index
for various liquidity index values (Black 1962).
some ways. Many researches had been carried out to
show the effect of soil types and characteristics on
CBR values (Black 1962, De Graft Johnson & Bhatia
1969, Agarwal & Ghanekar 1970, NCHRP 2001).
A number of attempts have been made to corre-
late CBR with soil grain distribution and plasticity.
Among them, Black 1962 had developed a method of
estimating the CBR value for cohesive soils. He had
obtained the correlations between CBR and plasticity
index for various values of liquidity index which is
shown in Figure1. The values given in this figure are
only referred to saturated soils. For unsaturated soils,
the CBR values obtained can be corrected by applying
the correction factor as shown in Figure 2.
Agarwal and Ghanekar 1970 had tried to develop
a correlation between CBR values and either liquid
limit, plastic limit or plasticity index. However, they
failed to find any significant correlation between them.

561
 Table 1. The unsoaked CBR (measured and calculated)
values and initial state data analysed of the three soils (A,
B&C).

d U CBRm * U.CBRc *
Sample % g/cm3 e Fi % % R*

A1 8.7 1.650 0.67 28.4 44.2 46.4 1.05

A2 11.3 1.718 0.60 25.3 47.9 41.1 0.86
A3 11.6 1.361 1.02 11.5 21.1 18.0 0.85
A4 13.6 1.414 0.94 11.0 19.8 17.1 0.87
A5 15.2 1.339 1.05 8.4 11.4 12.7 1.11
A6 15.9 1.355 1.03 8.3 12.1 12.6 1.04
A7 16.2 1.347 1.04 8.0 15.3 12.1 0.80
A8 17.7 1.316 1.09 6.8 11.7 10.1 0.86
A9 19.4 1.742 0.58 15.5 27.9 24.7 0.89
A10 20.5 1.711 0.61 13.7 29.1 21.7 0.75
Figure 2. Correction of CBR values for partial saturation A11 21.5 1.696 0.62 12.7 23.6 20.0 0.85
(Black 1962). A12 21.5 1.322 1.08 5.7 8.3 8.2 0.99
A13 22.0 1.380 0.99 6.3 8.3 9.3 1.12
Instead, they found an improved correlation when they A14 26.0 1.539 0.79 7.5 10.9 11.3 1.04
A15 30.2 1.394 0.97 4.7 5.9 6.6 1.12
included the optimum moisture content and liquid
A16 34.5 1.330 1.07 3.6 4.7 4.7 1.00
limit. The correlation is defined as below. B1 13.7 1.654 0.66 18.4 66.5 67.9 1.02
B2 20.6 1.635 0.68 11.7 50.3 38.6 0.77
B3 20.1 1.291 1.12 5.7 17.8 12.0 0.70
B4 20.0 1.293 1.12 5.8 9.5 12.3 1.29
Where OMC = optimum moisture content; LL = liquid B5 23.2 1.356 1.02 5.7 6.8 12.0 1.70
limit. B6 25.4 1.321 1.07 4.8 8.3 8.1 0.98
The 48 soil samples tested by them had CBR val- B7 29.5 1.499 0.83 6.1 16.9 13.9 0.82
ues of not more than 9% and the standard deviation B8 30.0 1.357 1.02 4.4 8.2 6.4 0.80
obtained was 1.8. Hence, they suggested that the cor- C1 7.1 1.450 0.88 23.3 50.0 55.7 1.11
C2 9.8 1.519 0.79 19.6 42.0 44.2 1.05
relation is only of sufficient accuracy for preliminary
C3 12.7 1.745 0.56 24.6 59.4 59.8 1.01
identification of material. C4 14.0 1.580 0.72 15.6 32.1 31.8 0.99
The National Cooperative Highway Research Pro- C5 16.7 1.816 0.50 21.8 44.6 51.2 1.15
gram (NCHRP 2001) had developed some correlations C6 21.3 1.763 0.54 15.2 25.0 30.6 1.22
that describe the relationship between soil index prop- C7 23.6 1.669 0.63 11.2 20.5 18.0 0.88
erties and CBR values. An equation was established C8 25.7 1.575 0.73 8.4 3.8 9.2 2.40
for soils which contain 12% fines and exhibit some C9 28.3 1.549 0.76 7.2 1.9 5.5 2.90
plasticity. For plastic, fine-grained soils, the soil index C10 31.0 1.495 0.82 5.9 2.2 1.3 0.60
properties chosen to correlate CBR are the percentage
passing sieve size 0.075 mm and plasticity index. The * U.CBRm is the measured value of unsoaked CBR.
* U.CBRc is the calculated value of unsoaked CBR.
suggested equation by NCHRP 2001 is shown below.
* R is the ratio between the calculated and measured unsoaked
CBR.

dry densities. Some of the soil samples were tested to

Where w = percentage passing sieve no. 200 U.S. (in measure unsoaked CBR and others to measure soaked
decimal); PI = plasticity index. CBR. These tests were performed in accordance with
BS 1377-1990.

3 EXPERIMENTAL WORK
The primary objective of this paper is to predict the
CBR values as soaked and unsoaked of silty clay soils
using soil index properties such as water content, dry
density, void ratio and plasticity index. To achieve this
objective an experimental testing program was con-
ducted on soil samples collected from three different
locations of silty clay soils in Sudan. The selected soil
samples are tested for CBR, water content, dry density,
liquid limit, plastic limit and specific gravity. The Soil
samples were prepared with different water contents
and compacted into a standard CBR mould to different
4 ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
The results of the laboratory tests are summarized and
presented in Tables 1 to 3. These tests results were anal-
ysed and used to verify the linear relationships between
the state factors and the measured CBR values.
4.1 Soil state factor
The soil state factor of compacted soil was first
developed by Mohamed 1986 and then modified by
Zumrawi 2000. This factor is defined as a combination

562
Table 2. The soaked CBR (measured and calculated) values Table 3. The tested soils index properties and analysis
and initial state data analysed of the three soils (1, 2&3). results.

d S S.CBRm* S.CBRc* LL PI
% g/cm3 e % Fs % % R* Sample % % G Fi0 or Fs0 Mi or Ms R*

5.9 1.701 0.60 3.5 12.5 0.63 0.78 1.24 Soil A 70 42 2.75 0.66 1.81 0.978
9.5 1.695 0.60 2.1 12.3 0.61 0.78 1.27 Soil B 65 25 2.74 2.79 4.56 0.972
10.7 1.814 0.50 2.3 19.3 0.94 1.09 1.15 Soil C 59 33 2.72 5.93 3.00 0.989
14.2 1.893 0.44 2.0 26.4 1.11 1.40 1.26 Soil 1 59 32 2.72 5.10 0.04 0.980
15.1 1.862 0.46 2.0 23.4 1.03 1.26 1.23 Soil 2 54 24 2.70 3.40 0.43 0.894
17.7 1.766 0.54 1.3 16.3 0.81 0.95 1.17 Soil 3 43 19 2.65 6.27 0.63 0.986
17.9 1.835 0.48 1.2 21.2 0.88 1.17 1.33
19.8 1.804 0.51 1.1 18.8 0.90 1.06 1.18 *R is the coefficient of regression analysis.
24.3 1.699 0.60 0.6 12.7 0.68 0.79 1.17
25.0 1.648 0.65 0.5 10.5 0.60 0.70 1.16
27.1 1.592 0.71 0.5 8.6 0.52 0.61 1.18
29.7 1.510 0.80 0.4 6.4 0.33 0.51 1.56
13.2 1.453 0.86 8.9 4.9 0.6 0.7 1.17
14.6 1.470 0.84 7.8 5.3 0.9 0.9 0.96
16.0 1.496 0.80 7.2 5.8 1.2 1.1 0.91
20.2 1.540 0.75 5.8 6.9 1.6 1.6 0.98
23.5 1.508 0.79 3.5 6.3 1.0 1.3 1.30
25.5 1.470 0.84 1.8 5.6 0.8 1.0 1.24
8.0 1.664 0.59 3.0 12.2 3.0 3.9 1.29
10.0 1.696 0.56 2.2 13.9 5.0 5.0 0.99
14.0 1.792 0.48 1.0 20.5 9.5 9.2 0.96
16.0 1.824 0.45 0.2 23.5 10.6 11.1 1.05
18.0 1.760 0.51 0.1 18.2 7.0 7.7 1.10
22.0 1.632 0.62 0.0 11.1 3.5 3.2 0.91

* S.CBRm is the measured value of soaked CBR.

* S.CBRc is the calculated value of soaked CBR.
Figure 3. The linear relationship between unsoaked CBR
* R is the ratio between the calculated and measured soaked
and initial state factor (Fi ) for the data analysed of the tested
CBR.
three soils (A, B& C).

of the soil initial state parameters such as dry density,

water content and void ratio and can be expressed thus:

Where Sr = the degree of saturation; S = the amount

Where Fi = the initial state factor; d = the initial dry
density of soil; w = the density of water; = the ini-
tial water content of soil; e = the initial void ratio of
soil.
Where Gs = the specific gravity of soil.
When the soil is subjected to soaking, the factor is
called the soaking state factor and is expressed as:
of swelling due to soaking.
4.2 The state factors and CBR relationships
To investigate the relationship between the state factors
(Fi & Fs ) and the CBR values, the tests results obtained
in this study were analysed as given inTables 1 & 2.The
relationships of the analysed data are shown in Figures
3 & 4. The plots in these figures and the values of the
correlation coefficient (R) as listed in Table 3 have
clearly demonstrated that a direct linear relationship
exists between the CBR values and the state factors
for all the data analysed. The straight lines shown in
the plots of Figures 3 & 4 can be expressed as:

Where ds = the dry density for the soaked soil;

s = the saturated water content for the soaked soil.
For the soaked soil, the dry density (ds ) and
the water content (s ) can be calculated using the
following equations:
Where Fi0 , Fs0 = the value of Fi , Fs at zero CBR value;
Mi , Ms = the gradient of the straight lines.
The relationship of Fio , Fso and Mi , Ms with plas-
ticity index was plotted in Figures 5 & 6. It can be
observed that in these figures, increasing in plasticity

563

Figure 4. The linear relationship between soaked CBR and
soaking state factor (Fs ) for the data analysed of the tested
three soils (1, 2& 3).
Figure 5. The variation of Fi0 and Mi with plasticity index
for the unsoaked CBR data.
index will decrease M and Fo values. The equations of
the best fit curves and lines are expressed thus:
By substituting the above equations (10) to (13) in
the general two equations (8) and (9) and rearranged
to express unsoaked and soaked CBR as:
564
Figure 6. The variation of Fs0 and Ms with plasticity index
for the soaked CBR data
Figure 7. Comparison of measured/predicted unsoaked
CBR.
Where Fi = the initial state factor; PI = the plasticity
index (%).
The unsoaked and soaked CBR values obtained
from the developed equations (14) and (15) are com-
pared with the measured CBR values in Tables 1 & 2
and Figures 7 & 8. As can be seen in these tables the
ratio (R) between the calculated CBR using the devel-
oped equations (14) & (15) and the measured CBR
values is in the range (0.801.30). The data trends in
Figure 7 & 8 indicate that there is a good agreement
between the measured and predicted CBR values as
unsoaked or soaked and this proved the validity of the
developed equations.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Experimental work has been carried out to predict the
CBR of cohesive soils from easy measured soil prop-
erties. Several tests to measure the CBR and index
properties were performed on samples compacted at a
wide range of water content and dry density.
The soil initial state parameters such as water con-
tent, dry density and void ratio were combined in a

Figure 8. Comparison of measured/predicted soaked CBR.
way reflecting the influence of each of them on CBR
value. This combination was termed the initial state
Factor (Fi ) and in the soaking condition was termed
the soaking state Factor (Fs ).
Analysis of the tests results demonstrates very
clearly that a direct linear relationship exists between
unsoaked CBR and the initial state Factor (Fi ). Sim-
ilarly the relationship between soaked CBR and the
soaking state Factor (Fs ) is linear as well. The coeffi-
cients of this linear relationship (constant and slope)
were found to depend on plasticity index of soil.
On basis of this linear relationship, reliable strong
correlations have been established between CBR val-
ues and soil state factors and plasticity index.
Comparison between the measured and the pre-
dicted CBR values for all the data studied indicates
that there is a good agreement between the measured
and predicted CBR values (soaked and unsoaked).
REFERENCES
AASHTO, 2005. Standard Specifications for Transportation
Materials and Methods of Sampling and Testing. Part
II. Methods of Sampling and Testing. American Asso-
ciation of State Highway and Transportation Officials,
Washington.
565
Agarwal, K.B. & Ghanekar, K.D., 1970. Prediction of CBR
from Plasticity Characteristics of Soil. Proceeding of 2nd
South-east Asian Conference on Soil Engineering, Singa-
pore. June 1115, Bangkok: Asian Institute of Technology,
571576.
American Standard Test Method, 1992. Standard Test Method
for CBR (California Bearing Ratio) of Laboratory- Com-
pacted Soils. United States of America, ASTM Designa-
tion D1883-92.
Black, W.P.M., 1962. A Method of Estimating the CBR
of Cohesive Soils from Plasticity Data. Geotechnique.
Vol.12, 271272.
British Standards Institution, 1990. BS 1377. Methods of Test
for Soils for Civil Engineering Purposes. BSI, London.
Das J.K, Mookerjee A.K. & Rao S.K, 2003. Influence of
Compaction Moisture on Sub-grade Strength Character-
istics. Indian Highways, 1526.
De Graft Johnson, J.W.S. & Bhatia, H.S., 1969. The
Engineering Characteristics of the Lateritic Gravels of
Ghana. Proceedings of 7th International Conference on
Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Mexico.
August 2829. Bangkok: Asian Institute of Technology.
Vol.2, 1343.
Mohamed, A. E.M., 1986. Microstructure and swelling char-
acteristics of an untreated and lime-treated compacted
black cotton soil. Ph.D thesis. University of Strathclyde,
Glasgow.
National Cooperative Highway Research Program, 2001.
Appendix CC-1. Correlation of CBR Values with Soil
Index Guide for Mechanistic and Empirical Design for
New and Rehabilitated Pavement Structures, Final Docu-
ment. In: Properties. West University Avenue Champaign,
Illinois: Ara, In.
Yoder, E. J. and Witezak, M. W., 1975. Principles of Pavement
Design. 2nd edition. John Wiley, New York.
Zumrawi, M. M. E., 1991. Characterisation of expansive
soils as road subgrade. M.Sc. thesis, Building and Road
Research Institute, University of Khartoum.
Zumrawi, M. M. E., 2000. Performance and design of
expansive soils as road subgrade. Ph.D. thesis, Changan
University, China.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Static load test arrangement analysis based on combined control of

moment and stress

Xiao-jun Che, Xie-dong Zhang & Chao Yang

School of Transportation, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China

ABSTRACT: For the advantage of structure, variable cross-section continuous-beam bridge is used widely
in bridge construction. Static load test is an effective way to assess its carrying capacity and performance
evaluation. Through structural analysis by finite element software, stress of the internal force control section
for the continuous-beam bridge is not necessarily the largest, which needs to carry out load arrangement that
comprehensively reflects the bridge structure effect. As an example of real bridge, the study carries out a load
test through load arrangement of continuous beam bridge static load test based on combined control of moment
and stress. In the premise of not increasing load conditions, the load arrangement determines the reasonable
control sections and load arrangement position, which helps efficiency coefficient of moement, deflection and
stress to accord with the testing protocols, and effectively assess the carrying capacity of the bridge. The Load
arrangement method is an optimization for traditional load arrangement ways.

Keywords: Static Load Test; Load Arrangement Optimization; Efficiency Coefficient

1 INTRODUCTION some issues of the load arrangement through static

Bridge static load test is an effective way to assess
the bridge structural capacity and performance, and
provides the scientific basis for the completion and
acceptance of the bridge and the safe operation, in
accordance with the established load arrangement pro-
gram, the process of load test is recorded and analyzed,
in order to achieve understanding of the actual work-
ing conditions of the bridge structure influenced by the
control loads[1][4] . Based on the existing bridges car-
rying capacity testing assessment procedures (JTG/T
J21-2011), in the process of static load test, the load
arrangement is controlled by the efficiency of internal
force load, and arranged on the layout of the internal
forces affect online. In order to ensure the test results ,
the efficiency of the load test should be between 0.95
to1.05.
However, the load arrangement which is controlled
by the internal force contains the following problems:
the test load arrangement sets the focus detection
on the intensity of the bridge, to some extent, con-
sidering the overall stiffness (deflection of control),
while it is not a comprehensive consideration to vari-
able cross- section of continuous beam bridge, just
because the stress is not necessarily the largest at the
same internal force controlled section of the bridge ,
so the load arrangement must take into account the
efficiency of stress based on the moment and deflec-
tion efficiency coefficient control for variable cross
section continuous beam bridge.
The study sets up a three-span variable cross section
continuous girder beam bridge, to explore and analyze
load test based on combined control of the moment
and stress.
2 PROJECT OVERVIEW
The bridge model is 40 + 70 + 40 m variable cross sec-
tion continuous girder bridge , which is constructed
for single cell box, Cantilever construction, the ful-
crum of the beam height is 5.8 m, cross the beam
is 2.7 meters high, during which the beam height is
changed according to 1.8 parabola, box top width is
12 meters. And roof thickness is 0.28 m in the web, in
the cross-0.5 m thick, the fulcrum of a 0.6 m thick,
0.3 m thick backplane cross fulcrum at a thickness
of 0.65 m, during which the base plate thickness is
chan-ged according to 1.8 parabola, both sides of the
cantilever are 3.0 m meters wide, The beam cross-
section is the straight web section. Three prestress
concrete is used on the box girder, the longitudinal
prestress group adopts anchor system of the large ton-
nage, and transverse prestressing is flat anchor system,
the vertical prestressing uses JL32 high strength fin-
ishing thread crude steel bar anchorage system. The
designed load is: Highway-grade1.
3 LOAD ARRANGEMENT BASED ON
MOMENT CONTROL
3.1 Choice of control section
Under the normal circumstances, control section can
be chosen according to the moment peak which is

567
Figure 1. Maximum and minimum of the moment influ-
enced by designed force.

Figure 3. Figure of axle load and size for 400 kN load

vechicles.

Table 1. Static load test list of conditions 1.

Load Control Control Efficiency

conditions section section coefficient

Figure 2. Control section of continuous-beam bridge Static 1 Section A Positive 3846.5/3948.1 = 0.99
loading Test Under normal circumstances. movement
2 Section B Negative 2458.1/2508.9 = 0.98
movement
influnced by the designd force to the continuous girder 3 Section C Positive 3263.8/3362.7 = 1.01
bridge. Figure 1 shows the maximum and minimum of movement
moment influnced by designed load.
From the figure the maximum positive moment
cross section A of side span, the maximum negative
moment section B of the pier top, and the largest pos-
itive moment cross section C are generally chosen as
control sections. If the span is larger, the cross-L/4 sec-
tion is usually increased as the control section [5][10]
(Figure 2).

3.2 Loading vehicles and test conditions

Number of vehicles that is necessary for all test condi-
tions, can be based on the following equivalent formula
according to the most unfavorable effect of value,
which is generated on the designed standard live load:

Where: Ss = designed internal forces calculated value

of load control section influenced by load in static load
test; S = the most unfavorable internal forces calcu-
lated value of the control section influenced by control
loads; = impact coefficient drawn by the specifi-
cation, = 0 for flatbeds, tracked vehicles, heavy
vehicles.
According to the control value calculated from the
control section, six 400 kN three-axis trucks are used
for the equivalent load. For the loading trucks, the axle
wheelbase from the front to the central is 3.5 m, and
axle wheelbase from the central to the rear is 1.35 m,
the front axle load is 70 kN, the central and rear axle
load is 330 kN, and the loading vechicles models are
shown in Figure 3.
Control value, testing load and internal force testing
efficiency of the control sections are shown in Table 1.
Figure 4. Vehicle arrangement for conditions 1.
3.3 The Testing load position
Figure 4 shows the specific loading position, onwhich
load efficiency of the largest positive moment cross-
section A for the side span is achieved the value of
Table 1.
Figure 5 shows the specific loading position, on
which load efficiency of the largest negative moment
cross-section B on the top of the pier is achieved the
value of Table 1.

568
 Figure 7. Figure of section arrangement recommended by
the study.

Table 2. static load test list of conditions 2.

Load Control Control Efficiency

Conditions section section coefficient

SectionA Positive 3678.5/3798.1 = 0.97

movement
1 SectionD Stress 2058.3/2085.1 = 0.98
SectionE Deflection 6.0/6.3 = 0.95

Figure 5. Vehicle arrangement for conditions 2.

Figure 6. Figure of floor stress peakinfluenced by design

load.

4 LOAD ARRANGEMENT METHOD BASED

ON COMBINED CONTROL OF MOMENT
AND STRESS

4.1 Loading arrangement method
From the continuous beam bridge structure and actual
force, and structural analysis of the bridge for general
purpose finite element method, according to the load
arrangement method based on combined control of
moment and stress, the position on which the internal
force and stress peak appears should be considered as
control setion. Figure 6 shows the floor stress peak
influenced by designed load.
Combined with Figure 1 and Figure 6 , maximum
moment cross-sectionA of the side span, the maximum
negative moment section B on the top of pier and in
the maximum positive moment cross section C of the
mid-span , maximum tensile stress cross-section D of
and maximum deflection section E of side span, can
be shosen as the control sections. (Figure 7).
Figure 8. Loading position of the maximum stress
cross-section D, the maximum positive moment cross-section
A and the maximum deflection of cross-section E of side span.
4.2 Test conditions and load arrangement method
Loading vehicles for load test are the same as before.
In order to better reflect the response of sections
controlled by stress, Table 2 is focus on the control
value, load value and load test efficiency of the control
sections.
Figure 8 shows the specific loading position, on
which load efficiency of the largest stress section
D of side span, the side spans the maximum posi-
tive moment section A, and the side span maximum
deflection section E is achieved the value of Table 2.

569
4.3 Comparative analysis between optimized load
arrangement and trational ways
It can be found through the above calculation, when
the usual method is carried out, although the maxi-
mum positive moment section A of the side span can
reach the efficiency of the load test specifications, but
the side across the backplane maximum tensile stress
cross section E of load test efficiency is only about
70%, which does not reflect the most adverse cir-
cumstances, while when a certain distance is adjusted
towards to the bearing side, stress of the conditions can
reach more than 95%, and at the same time, the deflec-
tion of the coefficient of efficiency can reach more
than 95%, a comprehensive reflection of the effect of
various structures reflect the situation can be achieved.
5 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
(1) For static load test of variable cross-section
continuous-beam bridge, in general cases, it could
meet the requirements for the deflection effi-
ciency according to the loading arrangement
controlled by moment, but it often does not
reflect value of themaximum stress effects, which
need to determine the proposal to the load test
of combined controlled by moment and stress
effiencicy.
(2) In the premise of not increasing load conditions,
the load arrangement determines the reasonable
control section and load arrangement position,
which helps efficiency coefficient of moment,
deflection and stress to accord the testing proto-
cols, and effectively assess the carrying capacity
of the bridge. The study can better solve the above
problem.
6 CONCLUSIONS
For static load test of variable cross-section con-
tinuous beam bridge, load arrangement of moment
control has a lack which does not reflect the maximum
570
stress effect. Load test efficiency method based on the
comined control of moment and stress, the test pro-
gram itself does not also increase more amount, but
could better integratedly reflect the actual structure of
the bridge corresponding to more scientific and reflect
the actual carrying capacity of the bridge.
In short, the bridge load test has a strong engi-
neering significance. The study sets up a three span
variable cross-section continuous girder bridge, to
explore and analyze load arrangement through static
load test based on combined control of the moment and
stress, which is an optimized method of conventional
ways.
REFERENCES
Ministry of Communications Highway Research Institute.
Test methods for long span bridges. Ministry of Commu-
nications Highway Research Institute, 1982.
Cham Run water, Hu, Zhao Fang. Highway Bridge Load Test.
Beijing: China Communications Press, 2003.
Road and Bridge carrying capacity detection assessment
procedures. 2011. 10.
Wangguo Ding, Yuan Haiqing Chen Kaili. Bridge detec-
tion and reinforcement. Beijing: China Communications
Press, 2003.
Liu si Meng, Liu gold, Zhou Jianting. Cloth contained inter-
nal force control to take into account the deflection load
efficiency of bridge load test method. Chongqing Jiaotong
University, 2005. 2 1617.
Hu Jianxin, Based on the internal force control, taking into
account the stress and deflection control of the load test
fabric contains analysis. Communications Standardiza-
tion, 2010. 9.
Wangguo Ding, Yuan Haiqing, and Chen Kaili. Bridge detec-
tion and reinforcement.Beijing:Communications Press,
2003.
Zhang Xi. Bridge structural static load test and application.
Highway & Automotive 2004 (5).
Song highway bridge load testing and structural assessment.
Beijing: People China Communications Press, 2002.
Zhang Wenji, Liu Xi, SURVEYING AND New bridge
static load test research Study. Bulletin of Surveying and
Mapping, 2002 (7).
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Test and simulation analysis on early temperature field of the

main girder for a concrete cable-stayed bridge

Qi Li
College of Civil Engineering, SouthWest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, P.R.China
China Merchants Chongqing Communications Research & Design Institute Co., Ltd. Chongqing, P.R.China

Qibiao Chen & Peng Wang

China Merchants Chongqing Communications Research & Design Institute Co., Ltd. Chongqing, P.R.China

Jianxin Yuan
Bridge Science Research Institute Ltd.,China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group, wuhan, P.R.China

ABSTRACT: Main bridge of Zhongxian Yangtze River Bridge is an total floating system cable-stayed bridge
located on the shizhong expressway,with the spans of 205 m + 460 m + 205 m = 870 m. By embedded sensing
element,the test for early heat of hydration temperature field of concrete for deck slab,diaphragm and rib of
-type concrete girder was carry out.The comparative analysis between the simulation calculation and practical
test was done, and researches early temperature field and change rules of actual structures so as to provide a
reference for development of study on early anti-cracking of concrete structures of similar bridges.

Keywords: cable-stayed bridge; concrete main beam; heat of hydration; field test; simulation calculation

1 INTRODUCTION located on the shizhong expressway,with the spans of

Through the investigation of on-service cable-stayed
bridges, it was found that cracks on -type concrete
girder existed widely. In most of them, serious cracks
appeared in construction. The statistics all around the
world show that racking load such as temperature load
is the critical reason to cracks on engineering struc-
tures and it is proved that over 80% of cracks on
concrete structures are caused by that. Recently, most
researches on early hydration temperature field of con-
crete are aimed at mass concrete such as dam body and
platform structure, with the ignorance of researches
on concrete main girder of cable-stayed bridge. The
test and analysis to early hydration heat temperature
field carries important meanings to the researches on
preventing cracks of concrete girder.
In this paper, aiming at the pre-buried sensors at
bridge deck slab, diaphragm and rib of the -type con-
crete main girder, an early test of temperature field
test of hydration heat was done. With the compara-
tive analysis between the simulation calculation and
practical test, a research on the early temperature field
and its variation rules in practical structure was car-
ried on. It provided references to researches on early
anti-cracking in similar structures.
2 ENGINEERING SITUATION
Main bridge of Zhongxian Yangtze River Bridge
is an total floating system cable-stayed bridge
205 m + 460 m + 205 m = 870 m. The main girder is
composed by concrete ribbed slab, the girder width in
top is 26.5 m, the girder height in centre line is 2.965 m
and the thickness of bridge deck slab is 0.32 m, the
concrete strength grade is C55. It used H-type cable
tower. The tower is separated into three sections as
upper, middle, and lower pylon column.
The main girder is constructed with segmental can-
tilever method and the standard length of segment is
8m. With the huge volume of rib around and extremely
complicated stress distribution, the girder near tower
is the typical position where crack appears. To ana-
lyze the cracking mechanism of main girder segment,
the 2# segment in cantilever casting construction near
mid-span is chosen as the test object. The general
structural map of segment under test is shown in
Figure 1.
3 FIELD TEST
3.1 Test point arrangement
Irregularity of cross-section and large interface with
outside environment of the -type girder makes it com-
plicated to test and analyze the early temperature field
for cable-stayed bridge. The half area of test segment
was chosen to be tested according to the structural
symmetry and temperature variation rules. Based on
the characteristics of section, 30 temperature sensors
were placed as Figure 2 shows, 16 of which at the

571

Figure 1. The general structural diagram of 2# segment.
Figure 2. The layout diagram of test points in main girder.
deck slab, 9 at the diaphragm and 5 at the rib of
girder. There are 4 section in deck slab as Figure 2(a)
shows and each section has 4 test point in the deck
slab.
572
Figure 3. The temperature variation diagram.
3.2 Data acquisition
The tested segment was cast from 19:00, December
31st, 2007 to 8:00, January 1st, 2008, which spent
13 hours. The continuously test began at 10:00, Jan-
uary 1st, 2008 with a period of 29 days. Before peak
value appears, the temperature of concrete was mea-
sured with an interval of 3 hours, then, the interval was
adjusted to 6 hours. This process would last for 7 days.
After that, the temperature would be measured twice
at each day until the temperature is stable.
3.3 Weather situation
It was always cloudy in the first 10 days of the test,
then it became sunny or cloudy. The air temperature
kept within 814 C and the air temperature amplitude
was not obvious, the temperature gradient caused by
sunlight is not obvious in deck slab of concrete girder.
As the record shows, there was an distinct heating at
350 hours. The air temperature variation of main girder
in test period is show in Figure 3.
3.4 Result and analysis of the temperature test
3.4.1 Result of the temperature test
Time-histories diagram of temperature variation
ofmain girder was show as Figure 4.
3.4.2 Changing course to the variation of
temperature
Figure 4 show that there are heating period, cooling
period and stable period in the variation of tempera-
ture field. The temperature soared when the casting
was done. The peak of temperature appeared 13 hours
after casting and then the girder cooled gradually. From
the peak value to a stable one, it took 240 hours. The
cooling was definitely much longer than the heating.
3.4.3 The peak value of temperature
The peak value of temperature in deck slab var-
ied within 32.5 C44.5 C, with the highest one of
44.5 C. Otherwise, the peak value of temperature in
diaphragm varied within 22.7 C43.5 C, with the
highest one of 43.5 C. Whats more astonishing, the
peak value of temperature in centre of girder rib
(test point 3) varied within 51.0 C83.0 C, with the
highest one of 83.0 C appeared in the centre of 1-1 sec-
tion. The highest temperature in girder rib absolutely
exceeded that in deck slab and diaphragm. Besides,
test point 2 reached to the peak value with a shortest
Figure 4. Time-histories diagram of temperature variation of main girder.

Table 1. The highest temperature of each test point in high value at the beginning of the test. The peak value
girder rib. of temperature in test point 3 at the centre of girder rib
is 83 C. Thus, test point 1 at the roof plate of girder
Test Point 1 2 3 4 5 rib and test point 3 at the center line had a temperature
difference of 42 C. The external and internal surface
Highest 48.2 51.0 83.0 61.0 56.5
of girder rib had a temperature difference of 39 C.
Temperature ( C)
Time 12 9 25 15 15 Such a great temperature difference brings huge tem-
Cost(h) perature stress which contributes to the early cracks of
concretes to a great extent. Figure 5 shows the tem-
perature of each test sensor 25 hours after the concrete
was completely cast.
time of 9 hours, and it took 25 hours for test point 3 to Considering the weather situation, the tempera-
the maximum, which was the slowest. ture is stable and the temperature gradient caused
by sunlight in concrete girder was so tinny that it
3.4.4 The temperature difference between test points could be ignored. There is enough evidence to prove
It is obvious from the temperature variation diagram that at the early hydration heat, concrete girder has a
that after 13 hours casting process, the temperature of huge inside-outside temperature difference, as a result,
some test points at diaphragm and girder rib reached a cracks emerge easily. The importance of hydration heat

573
Figure 5. The temperature of each test sensor 25 hours after
the concrete was completely cast.

Figure 6. The temperature of each test sensor 25 hours after

the concrete was completely cast.

temperature field to concrete girder exceeds that of the

temperature gradient caused by sunlight.

4 SIMULATION ANALYSIS TO
TEMPERATURE FIELD

A 3-dimensional infinite element model is established

as show in Figure 6. The corresponding input param-
eters are calculated out with the mix proportion of
C55 concrete, thermal conductivity and specific heat
capacity of materials. Outside temperature and con-
crete placing temperature was input as practical value.
The wind velocity at external surface is 4 m/s, the one
at internal surface is 1m/s, as a result, the heat trans-
fer coefficient of external surface is larger than that of
internal surface.

4.1 Changing course to the variation of

temperature
Corresponding to the practical test positions, the cal-
culative values of test points at deck slab, diaphragm
and girder rib temperature are drawn into time-history
curve as Figure 7 shows. From this diagram, it is clear
that the concrete is in heating period 050 hours after
the girder was cast, it stepped into cooling period
within 50450 hours after the casting was done,
finally, it came to stable period with tinny temperature
variation after 450 hours.
Figure 7. The calculative diagram of temperature variation
with the aging of concrete.
diaphragm is 40 C which appeared at the 12th hour,
too. The peak value of temperature at girder rib was
the largest, and the one at diaphragm and deck slab
were almost equal.

4.2 Peak value of temperature
The highest temperature at internal surface of main
girder is 83 C, it appeared at the 48th hour sense
recording in the center of the girder rib. The tem-
perature nephogram is shown in Figure 6. Besides,
the highest temperature at deck slab of maim girder
is 41 C, it appeared at the 12th hour and that of
4.3 The temperature difference between test points
To test points at the same section, the temperature
peak value at top surface, bottom surface and the cen-
ter location along the thickness direction of deck slab
appeared almost simultaneously and equally. Excep-
tionally, the peak value of temperature in 1# test point
is larger because it was adjacent to girder rib. To

574
test points at the same horizontal section, the tem-
perature peak values were almost equal and appeared
simultaneously, too. It proves that to bridge deck slab
and diaphragm, the inside-outside temperature differ-
ence is not obvious on external and internal surface
along thickness direction and the temperature dif-
ference between horizontal test points is tinny. The
phenomenon above is caused by the small and uniform
thickness.
For the main girder rib with a thickness of 2.4 m,
due to the higher wind velocity and heat transfer coeffi-
cient, the peak value of temperature on internal surface
was larger than that on external surface. Whats more,
that peak value on internal surface came later than
that on external surface. At the same time, the inside-
outside temperature difference is lager on external
surface than that on internal surface. When 3# test
point at main girder rib reached the temperature peak
of 83 C, the temperature on top surface of girder rid
and the lateral windward was 28 C, the largest differ-
ence reached to 55 C. Nevertheless, the temperature
difference between internal surface and 3# test point
was only 29 C. It could be concluded that when the
outside environment and mix proportion of concrete is
constant, inside-outside temperature difference in one
section is proportional to the heat transfer coefficient
of surface.

5 THE CONTRAST BETWEEN FIELD TEST

AND SIMULATION ANALYSIS

5.1 The comparison of temperature change courses

According to the layout of test points, 1# test point
at the 2-2 section of bridge deck slab, 1# and 5# test
point at the diaphragm, 3# and 5# test point at the main
girder rib was selected out, a contrast of calculative and
practical temperature time history curve was done. The
result is shown in Figure 8.
It is vividly from the diagram that there are heating
period, cooling period after the main girder is com-
pletely cast. Heating period exists in the early 40 hours
after casting is done, the next 260 hours belongs to
cooling period and then it steps into stable period.
Cooling period is definitely longer than the heating
period. For the main girder, the practical consequence
of temperature variation is perfectly consistent with
the theoretical one. Nevertheless, two reasons make
the calculative value lags behind the practical value in
the diaphragm. Firstly, the casting of diaphragm con-
sumed 13 hours. Secondly, the diaphragm and bottom
of main girder rib was firstly cast.
5.2 The comparison of temperature peak values
The theoretical analysis signifies that the maximum
value of temperature on the internal surface of concrete
main girder rib is 83 C, in the deck slab, that value is
41 C and in the diaphragm, that value comes to be
40 C. The practical value has a little difference with
Figure 8. The comparison on temperature time history
curves between simulation analysis and field test.
the theoretical one. The practical peak value of tem-
perature is 83 C, in bridge deck slab, it is 44.5 C and
in the diaphragm, it comes to be 43.5 C. As the time
history curve illustrates, the practical consequence of
temperature peak value is perfectly consistent with the
theoretical one.
The theoretical peak value of temperature has lit-
tle difference with the practical one and the practical
one was a little bit larger. The theoretical peak value of
temperature in the main girder rib was consistent to the
practical value. However, the practical value appeared
earlier. The temperature peak value of main girder rib
was much larger than that of deck slab and diaphragm.
From this phenomenon, the following rules could be
found. When the outside environment and mix propor-
tion of concrete is constant, the larger the thickness of
concrete structure is, the higher the temperature peak
value will be and the later the peak value will come.
5.3 The comparison of temperature difference to
test points
From the theoretical temperature time history curve,
the largest inside-outside temperature difference in

575
main girder rib was 55 C. The temperature of exter-
nal and internal surface in rib was almost equal with
a largest difference of 8 C. On the other hand, for
practical situation, the top surface and lateral surface
had a temperature difference of 42 C with the centre
of main girder rib. The temperature of external and
internal surface in rib was almost equal with a largest
difference of 3 C. The practical temperature difference
was smaller to the theoretical one. Generally, theoreti-
cal and practical inside-outside temperature difference
between external and internal surface is following the
same rule.
The external and internal surface of main girder
rib had little temperature difference and the practical
temperature difference was smaller than the theoreti-
cal one. Two main reasons bring this consequence. The
first one, a relatively low value of heat transfer coef-
ficient was taken in practical analysis to external and
internal surface of main girder rib. The second one,
the heat transfer coefficient of external surface was
almost equal to that of internal surface.
6 CONCLUSIONS
1) There are three obvious stages in the variation
process, heating period, cooling period and sta-
ble period. When the construction situation and
mix proportion of concrete is constant, the larger
the thickness of concrete structure is, the higher
the temperature peak value will be and the later
the peak value will come. At the same time,
inside-outside temperature difference in one sec-
tion is proportional to the thickness of concrete
structure, too.
2) When the outside environment and mix propor-
tion of concrete is constant, inside-outside tem-
perature difference in one section is proportional
to the heat transfer coefficient of surface. The
inside-outside temperature difference of main
girder rib has already reached to reaches 40 C,
so a drastic measure should be taken to prevent
cracks brought by early hydration heat.
576
3) Under the early hydration heat temperature field,
cracks are easy to appear in concrete main girder
of cable-stayed bridge. More attention should be
pay to this effect than the temperature gradient
effect by sunlight.
4) Contrasting field test with calculation of early
temperature field of concrete main girder, the
result is consistent to each other. It was proved that
the calculative result is high reliability. This result
could be used to the analysis of early hydration
heat temperature field of concrete bridge and it
can provide a reference for development of study
on early anti-cracking of concrete structures of
similar bridges.
REFERENCES
China Merchants Chongqing Communications Research and
Design Institute Co., LTD. 2010. The research on methods
to prevent cracks in critical segment in huge span cable-
stayed bridge. [R], Chongqing.
Wang Tiemeng. 1997. Controlling of cracks in engineer-
ing structures. [M], Beijing: China architecture &building
press.
Zhu Bofang. 1999. Temperature stress and controlling of tem-
perature in mass concrete. [M], Beijing: China Electric
Power Press.
Peng Lihai. 2005. Temperature controlling and crack preven-
tion of mass concrete. [M], Zhengzhou: The Yellow River
water conservancy press.
Chen Qibiao, Wang Hong, Li Qi, 2010(06). Test and analysis
of early temperature and stress to concrete of cable tower.
[J]. Technology of Highway and Transport.
Wang Peng, Liu Xiaohui, Chen Qibiao, Li Qi. 2009(05).
Investigation for Influences of Hydration Heat on Early
Cracking of Concrete Main Tower of Cable Stayed Bridge.
[J], Technology of Highway and Transport.
Wang Peng, Wang Fumin, Li Qi, Chen Qibiao. 2010(02).
Effect of Cooling on Early-age Cracking in Concrete
Tower of Cable-stayed Bridge. [J], Special Structures.
Li Xing. 2009. The Research on Temperature Field and
Temperature Effect of -TYPE Girder P.C. Cable-
stayed Bridge [D], Changsha University of Science &
Technology.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Research on influence factors and evaluation of ride comfort of

bridge bump based on road test

Xiaodong Pan, Lijia Yu, Wei Guo, Xiaoxiang Ma & Zhibin Fu

School of Transportation Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

ABSTRACT: Vertical acceleration is closely related to riding comfort and Bridge bump is the most common
problem in highway construction and road maintenance. By analyze the experimental data got from the road
test on S210, the main influence factors including driving speed, settlement difference and whether going on
or off the bridge was found. The relationship between these factors was fitted using least square method; most
of them have exponential relationship. When the settlement difference is less than 20 mm, the vehicle vertical
acceleration is not sensitive to running speed. Then ride comfort was analyzed according to ISO2631-1-1997
based on experimental vertical acceleration data. The analysis uses two index including root-mean-square
of weighed acceleration and the maximum transient vibration values. The results show that the settlement
difference exceeds 25 mm may make the driver feel uncomfortable.

Keywords: damage velocity, compressive strength degradation, freeze-thaw cycles, preloading level

1 GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

Bridge bump is the most common problem in highway

construction and road maintenance both at home and
abroad. The existence of the bridge approach settle-
ment affecting the ride comfort reduce vehicle speed
and road capacity. So it is important to learn the inter-
action of driver-vehicle-road system on road-bridge
transition section and to put forward the correspond-
ing evaluation index, to guide the car jumping at
end of bridge maintenance indicator development has
important realistic significance.
There are previous studies such as (Moulton, L. K.
1986 Wahls, H. E, 1994) study on it. However there
are not enough the studies based on road test which is Figure 1. Test sites.
close to the real condition. And settlement control cri-
terions for bridge-road transition band rarely consider
the riding comfort. So these issues were discussed. 2.2 Test sites
Our group chooses Zhejiang provincial highway S210
(form K20 to K34) as a testing section where there are
14 bridges.
2 EXPERIMENT DESIGN The researchers measured the bridgehead differen-
tial settlement, the average settlement difference was
2.1 Experimental methods and purpose between 1339 mm.
The experiment aims to study the vehicle acceleration
characteristic and its influencing factors which affect
2.3 Apparatus
riding comfort. We want to evaluate riding comfort and
put forward the settlement control index of the bridge- We choose G-LOGGERTM, tri-axis accelerometer
road transition area. Data was collected by repeated made by U.S. Silicon Designs to collect acceleration
driving tests by a certain number of drivers with dif- data of the car. The experiment was conducted by three
ferent driving speed under differential settlement at skilled drivers (48-52 old). The test vehicle was Mazda
bridgehead. PREMACY car (small car).

577
Figure 2. The acceleration data from one driver.
Figure 3. The relationship between vertical acceleration and
going on or off the bridge.
3 THE CORRELATION FACTORS WHICH
AFFECT THE ACCELERATIONS
When driving through the bridge-road transition area,
riding comfort mainly depends on vertical acceleration
which is related to many factors. In this part, the main
factors that affect acceleration based on the analysis
of experimental data are presented.
3.1 The acceleration difference between going up
and down the bridge
According to the data presented above. The accelera-
tion change is obvious when the car passed the bridge-
head. Also we can find different response between
going up or down the bridge.
So the vertical acceleration for the different
response of the vehicle vertical acceleration of up and
down the bridge in the same differential settlement was
extracted as is shown in figure 3.
The relation between vertical acceleration and
settlement difference was fitted using least square
method.
When the car goes onto the bridge, the relationship
between can be described as the equation (1) :
578
Figure 4. The relationship between vertical acceleration
settlement difference and driving speed.
The car goes off the bridge:
Where: y = average vertical acceleration(unit: g),
X = settlement difference (unit: mm)
The R2 results show that under both situations, the
functions have high correlation degree. The accelera-
tion level will increase with the increases of settlement
difference. While when going on the bridge, the verti-
cal acceleration of the car and the settlement increase
with exponential relationship; when gonging off the
bridge, the relationship between the two is closer to
the linear growth trend.
The vertical acceleration is higher when driving on
the bridge. When the differential settlement is less than
20 mm, the difference between the two is not very
significant, while when the differential settlement is
higher than 20 mm, the gap between the two is much
more obvious with the growth of settlement difference.
So it is obvious that the vertical acceleration when
the car going on a bridge makes the driver much more
uncomfortable and should have further study.
3.2 The influence of driving speed and differential
settlement height
After processing the experimental data, figure4 shows
the relation between driving speed vertical accleration
and settlement difference is presented.
The least square method was used to fit the data,
both data at different speed obey exponential fitting.
The acceletation is higher with the increase of
settlement difference and vehicle speed.
In addition, when the differential settlement is less
than 20 mm, The vertical acceleration of the speed is
not sensitive to the travelling speed.
3.3 Analysis of variance.
From the above qualitative analysis, the settlement
difference and running speed affects the vertical
acceleration. Furthermore, In order to test whether set-
tlement difference and speed have a significant effect
Table 1. Two-way ANOVA.
Source ss df MS F
differential settlement 0.263 2 0.132 139.52
speed 7.048 13 0.542 574.42
interaction 0.294 26 0.011 12
Error 0.079 84 0.001
total 7.685 125
of vertical acceleration, The experimental data from
three experimental drivers under 14 kinds of differen-
tial settlement and three kind of running speed was
analyzed by double factor variance analysis. We use
Matlab Statistics Toolbox to analyze the data. Analysis
results were shown in the Table 1.
The variance analysis shows that the events which
the means are equal are small probability events.
Under significance = 0.05, FA = 139.52 > F0.95 (2,
84), FB = 574.42 > F0.95 (13, 84), So the assumption
that the probability are the same can be refused.
Thus we can come to the conclusion that the vertical
acceleration has significant differences with differ-
ent Settlement difference or running speeds. In other
words, differential settlement and running speed have
significant influence on vertical acceleration.
3.4 Conclusion
From the analysis of the experimental data presented
above. we can come to the conclusion that when the car
drive through a bridge, The vertical acceleration which
affects the riding comfort most reaches the maximum
in the stage of going onto the bridge. The significant
influence of settlement difference and running speed
on vertical acceleration was also found.
4 EVALUATION FOR THE RIDE COMFORT
BASED ON ACCELERATION
4.1 Ridding comfort evaluation index
Vehicle bumping at bridge-head can be classified as
special pavement flatness problem. Vertical accelera-
tion and vehicle vibration amplitude and frequency are
closely related, since the body load intensity increases
with vertical acceleration.
According to general pavement vibration comfort
evaluation standard and methods (ISO2631-1(1997),
it suggests use root-mean-square of weighed accel-
eration to evaluate ride comfort. In addition, in the
evaluation of whole body vibration on human health
and comfort effect, when the maximum transient
vibration(MTVV) and acceleration root-mean-square
ratio is bigger than 1.5, additional evaluation method
MTVV should be used to evaluate driver transient
comfort(DU Zhi-gang, 2007).
579
Table 2. The relationship between root-mean-square of
weighed acceleration and degree of comfortable.
root-mean-square of
weighed acceleration The degree of ride
aw (m/s2 ) comfort
<0.315 m/s2 comfortable
0.315 0.63 m/s2 little uncomfortable
0.5 1 m/s2 a little bit uncomfortable
0.8 1.6 m/s2 uncomfortable
1.25 2.5 m/s2 very uncomfortable
>2.0 m/s2 extremely uncomfortable
Figure 5. The relationship between degree of ride comfort
and influencing factors.
4.2 Riding comfort evaluation according to
experimental data
According to conclusion presented in charpter3, when
evaluating the riding comfort, the factor of driving
speed and settlement difference should be taken into
consideration.The acceleration when the car drive onto
the bridge should be analyzed since it is the maximum.
Where aw (t) = instant root mean square of weighed
acceleration; aw (t0 ) = root-mean-square of weighed
acceleration; = The average time for integra-
tion; t = time (integration variable); t0 = Investigation
moment
When is very short, it is defined as MTVV
(Maximum Transient Vibration Value), this can evalu-
ate the instant shock:
The experimental data of three driver at different
settlement difference and running speed when the car
go onto the bridge was calculated, the results was show
in figure 5.
Figure 5 shows that when using root-mean-square
value of weighted acceleration as the indexes for
the evaluation of ride comfort, when the settlement
difference is less than 25 mm, the drivers just feel

Figure 6. The relationship between MTVV and influencing
factors .
slightly uncomfortable; when the settlement differ-
ence is larger than 25 mm. the driver are in l some
uncomfortable area.
While the response of the drivers shows that some
bridge bump make them feel extremely uncomfort-
able. So the evaluation using root-mean-square value
of weighted acceleration may underestimate the
drivers uncomfortable feeling of vehicle bump and
this index is not sensitive to the running speed.
Since the ratio of maximum transient vibration and
root-mean-square of acceleration of the experimental
data is greater than 1.5, The MTVV index can be used
as is shown in figure 6.
MTVV is sensitive to the speed difference. MTVV
at different running speed and settlement difference
directly shows exponential relation. MTVV can be
ideal index for the evaluation of riding comfort at
bridge-head. But the international standards organi-
zation did not give the relation between MTVV and
riding comfort. So it may be hard to take this index
into practical use and needs further study.
5 CONCLUSION
By analyze the experimental data getting from the
driving test on S210, this paper found the main influ-
encing factor that related to the vertical acceleration
of the vehicle at the bridge-road transition band. These
factors are settlement difference, running speed and
whether the car was going onto the bridge or driving off
the bridge. The relationship between these factors was
fitted using least square method; most of them have
exponential relationship. The results show that the ver-
tical acceleration was significantly higher when the
car going onto the bridge. Secondly, when the settle-
ment difference is less than 20 mm, the vehicle vertical
acceleration is not sensitive to the running speed, while
when the differential settlement is more than 20 mm,
vertical acceleration is much more sensitive to speed.
Furthermore, the analysis of variance shows that the
running speed and settlement difference at bridgehead
both had significant effects on vertical acceleration.
Based On the analysis of the influencing factor
of the acceleration, the ride comfort was analyzed
according to ISO2631-1-1997 based on vertical accel-
eration data. The analysis using two index including
root-mean-square of weighed acceleration and the
maximum transient vibration values, the results show
that when the settlement difference exceeds 25 mm, the
driver is not comfortable. But the index of "root-mean-
square of weighted acceleration" may underestimate
the drivers uncomfortable feeling and it is not sensi-
tive to the speed. MTVV at different running speed
and settlement difference directly shows exponential
relation and may be a good index. But this index lacks
relation between MTVV and riding comfort.
Due to the limited number of experimental sam-
ples, the results obtained may be part of the deviation,
further study are expected.
REFERENCES
Moulton, L. K. Tolerable Movement Criteria for Highway
Bridge. Final Report No. FHWA-TS 85-228, Federal
Highway Administration, Washington, D.C. 1986, pp. 86.
Wahls, H. E, Tolerable deformations. Proc. Settlement,
94.Ameriean Society of Civil Engineers, 1994, Vol.2, pp.
1611162.
International standard Organization. Mechanical vibration
and impact-Evaluation of human exposure to whole-body
vibration-Part 1: General requirement, Second edition
1997-05-01, Corrected and reprinted 1997-07-15.
DU Zhi-gang, PAN Xiao-dong. Research of Driving Safetys
Evaluation Index and the Improving Method at Bridge-
Head of Mountain Highway. Journal of Anhui University
of Science and Technology(Natural Science), 2007, Vol.
27, p. 1720.
580
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Nonlinear dynamic stability of a rigid frame bridge with

super high-rise piers

Hang Zhang, Xiedong Zhang & Bichang Dong

School of Transportation, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China

ABSTRACT: Recently Rigid-Frame Bridges have been built for only twenty years in China and they have been
used as the preferred bridge type in complicated terrain mountainous areas. This paper investigates the nonlinear
dynamic stability of the Longtan long-span continuous rigid frame bridge with 178m-high-pier, under seismic
action. By using the software package OpenSees, the dynamic ultimate capacity of Longtan Bridge is analyzed
in terms of the point of deformation by the application of Incremental Dynamic Analysis in combination with
B-R criteria. Effect of input directions of the earthquake on the nonlinear dynamic stability of that bridge is
discussed. Results indicate that the longitudinal earthquake input affects the bridge dominantly.

Keywords: nonlinear dynamic stability, super high-rise piers, seismic, OpenSees

1 INTRODUCTION most disadvantageous direction in dynamic stability

Recently, many rigid frame bridges with high-rise piers
have been constructed crossing deep valleys at moun-
tainous area in western China, where the geotechnical
condition is more complicated and the earthquake is
more active. The rigid frame bridge with high-rise
piers is usually used as the backbone bridge of the
trunk transport line, and its seismic damage would
have a great influence on the transport of the whole
area and the earthquake relief effort. It is therefore of
great engineering significance to investigate their seis-
mic performance, earthquake damage mechanism and
ultimate seismic capability.
Research on the dynamic stability of structure is
valuable both in theory and application of struc-
tural engineering. Existing studies focused on the
dynamic stability of concrete-filled steel tubular arch
bridge, suspended-dome structure and single-layer lat-
ticed shell structure. For instance, Haishan & Shizhao
(2003) studied the analytical method for dynamic sta-
bility of a single-layer latticed shell structure and
introduced the concept of dynamic response process,
which was used to evaluate the dynamic stability of
shell structure together with the time-history curve
of structure. Yan & Shide (2005, 2006, 2007) paid
attention to the dynamic stability of concrete-filled
steel tubular arch bridge under ground motions and
investigated the influence factors, such as earthquake
input directions and geometric and material nonlin-
earities. Yuhua (2009) studied the dynamical stability
properties of 308m span Nanpu Bridge, which is a
long-span half-through trussed CFST arch bridge, and
pointed out that lateral earthquake excitation is the
analysis.
Similar to the static analysis for stability, the analy-
sis of dynamic stability consists of two parts. One is the
problem of elastic dynamic buckling; the other is the
problem of nonlinear dynamic ultimate load capacity.
Li et al. (2008) studied the elastic dynamic stability
of rigid frame bridge with high-rise piers. Based on
the software package OpenSees (Silvia et al. 2007),
the dynamic ultimate capacity of Longtan Bridge is
analyzed under different seismic loading in this paper.
2 DYNAMIC STABILITY ANALYSIS METHOD
BASED ON INCREMENTAL DYNAMIC
ANALYSIS
Nonlinearity of structure is not considered in elas-
tic dynamic buckling analysis, though structures are
usually in plastic condition under earthquake. It is
important to study the nonlinear dynamic stability of
bridges. Due to the challenging nature of accurately
modeling the material nonlinearity of both steel rein-
forcement and concrete, conducting nonlinear static
and dynamic analysis of the rigid frame bridge with
high pier remains as a significant difficulty. The key
of nonlinear dynamic analysis is to build a precise
and accurate model, which can reflect the hysteretic
behavior of important components. The fiber model
in OpenSees makes this possible.
In the research on the dynamic stability of struc-
ture, the critical problem is to develop some criteria to
evaluate the stability of structure and the appropriate
solution method. Budiansky & Roth (B-R) criteria and

581
Incremental Dynamic Analysis are combined to solve
the problem and have been used to study the dynamic
stability of concrete-filled steel tubular arch bridges
and shell structures.
B-R criteria was proposed by Budiansky and Roth
(Qiang 2000) in 1962 when they study the dynamic
stability of spherical shell, which means that high sen-
sibility of the structural response to a very small load Figure 1. Drawing of Longtan Bridge.
increment above the critical load. This idea, similar to
the maximum point instability of static stability, can
be readily realized.
IDA is a parametric analysis method developed
by Bertero et al in 1977 for assessing the structural
performance under earthquake developed in recent
years, which can analyze dynamic instability prob-
lem and received more international focus (Zhiyao &
Wei 2007). FEMA350 (FEMA 2000) adopts it in 2000
and uses it to analyze the overall stability of Steel
Frame Structures. In 2002 Vamvatasikos & Cornell
summarized IDA in detail.
Dynamic response is one of the most important
parameters describing dynamic stability of large and
complex structures. According to this theory, the B-R
criteria of rigid frame bridge with super high-rise piers
can be described as follows: bridge reaches its criti-
cal state when small incremental load amplitude lead Figure 2. Kent-Park concrete model.
to larger changes in the characteristic response, and
the corresponding load is the critical load. The related
analysis method is as follows: by using OpenSees, a bridge with 178 m-high-pier. The bridge has a box
nonlinear fiber-based finite element model is estab- girder and its piers are designed as two-leg rectangular
lished, and then the Incremental Dynamic Analysis is thin-wall hollow piers with variable sections.
carried out to record the characteristic responses. The Nonlinear beam-column element, that is, disp-
relation curves between seismic excitation amplitude BeamColumn element in OpenSees, based on fiber
and the characteristic response of the bridge will be model is used to simulate bridge pier where plas-
drawn, by which a comprehensive understanding of tic deformation emerges, and the elastic element, i.e.
the whole dynamical process from initial vibration to elasticBeamColumn element in OpenSees, is used to
the final unstable state will be given. simulate bridge girder. The piers are fixed at foot
The characteristic response of structure needs to and beam is hinged in vertical and lateral direction
define when carrying Incremental Dynamic Analy- and fixed in longitudinal direction at the end in the
sis. In the dynamic stability analysis of concrete-filled analytical model. One of the important advantages
steel tubular arch bridge, the maximum displacement of fiber model is the nonlinear constitutive relations
response of structures is regarded as the characteristic of reinforcement and concrete can been taken into
response. For rigid frame bridge with super high-rise consideration simultaneously. The Kent-Park concrete
piers, the displacement at the pier top is generally the model and Giuffr-Menegotto-Pinto reinforcement
greatest one and can be adopted as the characteristic model are adopted and concrete02 and steel02 model
response. in OpenSees are used to model them respectively,
Although nonlinear dynamic responses vary sig- shown partially in Figure 2 and Figure 3. The cor-
nificantly with different seismic inputs, for many responding parameter values are introduced in detail
structures, the result from a single ground motion (Hang 2010).
record is more accurate than that from static pushover
analysis (Jianping et al. 2007). Therefore, the elcentro
ground motion is selected as seismic input, and the
4 NUMERICAL ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
duration is 53.76s.
IDA is carried out to investigate the nonlinear dynamic
stability capacity, in which the material nonlinearity
3 ENGINEERING SITUATION ANDMODELING and geometric nonlinearity are considered simulta-
neously. The whole process of the structure from
Longtan Bridge, whose span is 106 + 3200 + 106 m initial excitation, nonlinear vibrating to instable fail-
shown partially in Figure 1, is a key project of ure is simulated. Different seismic input directions,
the Shanghai-Chengdu national trunk express way in which are the vertical, the longitudinal and the lateral
China, which is a long-span continuous rigid frame direction respectively, are considered as follows.

582
Figure 3. Giuffr-Menegotto-Pinto reinforcement model.
Figure 4. Vertical displacement under vertical earthquake
input.
Figure 5. Time-history curves of displacement at pier top.
The vertical displacement at left leg of the high-
est pier is adopted as the characteristic response. The
curve between the vertical displacement at pier top
and the vertical earthquake input is shown in Fig-
ure 4. The maximum vertical displacement at pier
top is 0.055 m when earthquake input acceleration
is 1.26 g. Then the minimal earthquake input accel-
eration increment 0.01 g result in a leap of vertical
displacement, seeing in Figure 5.According to B-R cri-
teria, dynamic instability occurs. Therefore the critical
seismic acceleration under vertical earthquake input
is 1.26 g.
583
Figure 6. Vertical displacement under lateral earthquake
input.
Figure 7. Time-history curves of displacement at pier top.
Relation curve of vertical displacement at pier top
and lateral earthquake input is shown in Figure 6,
which shows significant nonlinear property. When the
earthquake input acceleration is 1.39 g, the vertical
displacement has a dramatic increase which means
dynamic instability occurs, as shown in Figure 7. The
critical seismic acceleration under lateral earthquake
input is 1.38 g. Similarly, results under longitudinal
earthquake input are shown in Figure 8 and Figure
9. The critical seismic acceleration under longitudinal
earthquake input is 0.43 g.
Nonlinear dynamic instability is therefore such a
process that a development of plastic from quantita-
tive change to qualitative change, which finally causes
structural instability. For the selected constrain condi-
tion, i.e. piers are fixed at foot and beam is hinged in
vertical and lateral direction and fixed in longitudinal
direction at the end, the longitudinal earthquake input
affects the bridge dominantly. Nonlinear dynamic sta-
bility is also discussed in another constrain condition
by relaxing translational freedom of the former. The
critical acceleration are 0.6 g in longitudinal direction,
1.5 g in lateral direction and 1.33 g in vertical direction
respectively, the longitudinal earthquake input is still
the worst earthquake input direction.

Figure 8. Vertical displacement under longitudinal earth-
quake input.
Figure 9. Time-history curves of displacement at pier top.
Preventing collapse of structure is one of the impor-
tant objectives in performance-based earthquake engi-
neering. The vertical displacements of characteristics
present an apparent nonlinear feature, which means
the loss of gravity load-carrying capacity gradually
with the increasing of earthquake acceleration and
results in collapse. Therefore it is necessary to investi-
gate nonlinear dynamic stability of major engineering
structure, such as rigid frame bridges with super
high-rise piers.
5 CONCLUSION
The nonlinear dynamic stability of a rigid frame bridge
with super high-rise piers is investigated in this paper.
The Incremental Dynamic Analysis combined with
B-R criteria is an effective method to solve the nonlin-
ear dynamic stability of complicated structures. The
analysis of Longtan Bridge indicates that the longitu-
dinal direction is the worst earthquake input direction,
under which critical seismic acceleration is 0.43 g, i.e.,
584
a value far lower than that the corresponding critical
lateral and vertical earthquake inputs. The vertical
displacement at pier top can be adopted as the char-
acteristic response of rigid frame bridge with super
high-rise piers.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the Fundamental
Research Funds for the Central Universities, China,
Grant No. 2012IV051, for the financial support for
this project.
REFERENCES
Haishan Guo, Shizhao Shen, 2003. Analysis method of
dynamic stability of single-layer reticulated domes. Jour-
nal of Building Structure 24 (3), 19.
Yan Xu, Shide Hu, 2005. Research on Elastic Dynamic Sta-
bility of Concrete Filled Steel Tube Arch Model. Journal
of Tongji University(Natural Science) 33(1), 610.
Yan Xu, Shide Hu, 2006. A study on the dynamic ultimate
capacity of CFST arch bridges. China Civil Engineering
Journal 39 (9), 6873.
Yan Xu, Shide Hu, 2007. Dynamic Stability of Concrete Filled
Steel Tubular Arch Bridge Under Earthquake, Journal of
Tongji University(Natural Science) 35(3), 315319.
Yuhua Wu, 2009. Study on Seismic Behavior and Dynamical
Stability of Large Span CFST Arch Bridge (in chinese).
Zhejiang University.
Li Li, Hang Zhang, Xiaohong Long, et al, 2008. Investigation
on Elastic Dynamic Stability of Long-span Continuous
Rigid Frame Bridge with High-piers Induced by Earth-
quake. Earthquake Resistant Engineering and Retrofitting
30(6), 8488.
Silvia Mazzoni, F. M., Michael H. Scott, et al, 2007.
OpenSees Command Language Manual. Pacific Earth-
quale Engineering Research Center, University of Cali-
fornia, Berkeley.
Qiang Han, 2000. Dynamic buckling and bifurcation of
elastic-plastic system(in chinese). China.
Zhiyao Liang, Wei Peng, 2007. State-of-the-art of elasto-
plastic seismic analysis of bridge structures. World Earth-
quake Engineering 23(4), 163169.
FEMA, 2000. Recommended Seismic Design Criteria for
New Steel Moment-Frame Buildings. FEMA350, Federal
Emergency Management Agency, Washington, D C.
DimitriosVamvatasikos, C.A. C, 2002. Incremental Dynamic
Analysis. Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynam-
ics 31 (3), 491514.
Jianping Han, Xilin Lu, Hui Li, 2007. State-of-the-art of
performance-based earthquake engineering and need for
structural nonlinear analysis. Journal of Earthquake Engi-
neering and Engineering Vibration 27(4), 1523.
Hang Zhang, 2010. Research on Dynamic Stability of Rigid
Frame Bridge with High-piers under Earthquake(in chi-
nese). Huazhong University of Science & Technology.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Performance of Ultra Thin White Topping with different admixtures

to White Topping

C.C. Abhijith
Department of Civil Engineering, YDIT, Bangalore, India

S.P. Mahendra
Department of Civil Engineering, PES College of Engineering, Mandya, Karnataka, India

ABSTRACT: Traditionally, Cement concrete has been perceived as a material for new pavement construction,
in particular for streets with heavy axle loads. However, with respect to pavement rehabilitation, agencies many
a times consider bituminous overlays as the first option, regardless of the condition of the existing pavement
structure. It is in this environment that Ultra Thin White Topping (UTW) and Thin White Topping (TWT) overlays
are gaining popularity.Sub arterial and residential main streets with considerable high volume of traffic within
Bangalore City have been strengthened periodically with bituminous layers. These streets exhibit well stabilized
base due to the repeated wheel load applications, but the riding quality of these streets are not satisfactory due
to the deterioration of the surface layer, hence it is required to rehabilitate these pavements. At present these
pavement are being rehabilitated with a bituminous layer almost every year which is causing hindrance and
delay to the traffic and the road user. To overcome this it is advisable to rehabilitate these pavement sections
with such rehabilitating methods which will not require repeated maintenance and also provide the road user
a better riding quality for a long duration of time. Although thin concrete overlays (Thin White Topping and
Ultra Thin White Topping) have been constructed for decades, the bond between the new concrete and existing
bituminous pavement is not only assumed during design but specific measures are taken to ensure such bond
during construction. This paper highlights the effect of different admixtures in concrete on the bond strength
between the bituminous layer and a new cement concrete layer.

Keywords: Ultra Thin White Topping, Thin White Topping, environment

1 INTRODUCTION
(1)
1.1 Thin and ultra-thin whitetopping
Although thin whitetopping (TWT) and ultra thin
whitetopping (UTW) overlays have been constructed
for decades, their recent popularity is largely the
result of a renewed demand for longer-lasting but
cost-effective solutions for bituminous pavement reha-
bilitation. A whitetopping overlay is constructed when
a new portland cement concrete layer is placed on top
of an existing bituminous pavement system. The con-
crete thickness for a UTW is equal to or less than
100 mm. A TWT is greater than 100 mm but less than
200 mm. Conventional whitetopping is an overlay of
200 mm or more. In most cases, a bond between the
new concrete and existing bituminous layers is not
only assumed during design, but specific measures are
taken to ensure such a bond during construction. The
success of this bond, leading to composite action, has
been found to be critical to the successful performance
of this pavement-resurfacing alternative.
2 FUNDAMENTAL BEHAVIOR OF
ULTRA-THIN AND THIN WHITETOPPING
UTW and TWT overlays provide a unique pavement
structure that is fundamentally different from other
pavement types. UTW and, in most cases, TWT over-
lays are designed and constructed with consideration
of a sound bond between the PCC and bituminous
materials. The result is a composite structure that dis-
tributes traffic and environmental loading differently
than more conventional PCC or bituminous pavement
structures.
As Fig-01 illustrates, the stress distribution in a
bonded system versus that of an unbonded system can
be significantly different. As a result of the composite
section, the stresses in the top PCC layer are signifi-
cantly lower in the bonded than those in the unbonded
case. Furthermore, because much of the slab is in com-
pression and because concrete is much stronger in
compression than in tension, the design of the slab can
be thinner for a bonded case than for an unbonded case.

585

Figure 1. Effect of composite action on UTW and TWT
under loading.
Although a fully bonded system would be ideal, it
has been shown that partial bond is usually realized as
a result of a number of factors. In such case, the neutral
axis will lie somewhere very much near to the interface
of PCC layer and bituminous layer, as illustrated in
Fig-01.
It has been reported that a key to the success of any
concrete pavement, including a UTW or TWT over-
lay, is a uniform and stable support system. In such
a case, the support is provided by an existing bitu-
minous pavement. Therefore, it should be recognized
that any contributing factor to the failure of the bitu-
minous pavement might similarly lead to a failure of
the overlay.
The stiffness of the pavement system as a whole
(including the bituminous layer and support layers) is
known to have a significant effect on the performance
of the whitetopping overlay. As a result, deflection
bowls analysis will be required.
3 RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE
It is evident that the performance of UTW and TWT
depends on the bond strength between the existing
bituminous layer and the PCC overlay. To attain the
required compressive strength and to improve the
concrete characteristics certain additives like fly ash,
micro silica are used as admixtures to concrete. These
admixtures can alter the bond strength of concrete
overlay on an existing bituminous layer. Hence it is
necessary to evaluate the bond strength and study the
performance of concrete with admixtures when used
as UTW or TWT.
3.1 Experimental work
The main aim of this experimental work was to study
the variation in bond strength due to the addition of
admixtures to concrete used as UTW or TWT. As
there was no standard testing equipment and procedure
available to evaluate these properties a suitable instru-
mentation was developed and fabricated to suite the
requirement further, since the spread of the deflection
bowl has a greater influence on the stresses and strains
586
developed in the structural layers of the pavement
section, hence it was required to measure the spread
of the deflection bowl along with the deflection in the
field, which required a modified Benkelman Beam.
Various sub arterial and residential main streets with
considerable volume of traffic within Bangalore City
were selected and Benkelman Beam Studies were car-
ried out to evaluate the structural condition of the
pavement, the spread of the deflection bowl was mea-
sured using modified Benkelman Beam, further the
pavement sections were cut open and the cross sec-
tion details were collected. Out of the various streets
surveyed, only those which had bituminous layer thick-
ness greater than 100 mm and base course thickness
greater than 150 mm were summarized. The sum-
marized data clearly indicated that the characteristic
deflection of these pavement sections were less than
one millimeter (1 mm) and the deflection bowls had
spreads greater than 600 mm. Even though these pave-
ment sections were structurally sound with a well
compacted base their functional characteristics were
not satisfactory because of excessive cracking and
potholes present in the pavement sections.
To relate the experimental setup to the field con-
dition composite beam specimens of size 600 mm
100 mm 200 mm were casted along with compos-
ite cylindrical specimens of diameter 100 mm and
height 150 mm. the composite beams were tested on a
modified wheel trafficking equipment where as the
cylindrical composite specimens were subjected to
direct tensile tests using a modified mould clamp.
To evaluate the effect on the performance of UTW
with different admixtures to white topping, the follow-
ing combinations were selected for the study.
Plain cement concrete(M40)
Plain cement concrete(M40) with ROFF cement
interface
Cement concrete + Fly ash
Cement concrete + Micro silica
3.2 Materials and experimental procedure
Portland cement (53 Grade) and locally available
coarse and fine aggregates were used to prepare the
concrete layer over a bituminous concrete layer. 60/70
grade bitumen and locally available aggregates were
used to prepare a bituminous concrete base. The spe-
cific gravity of fine, coarse aggregates and fillers was
found to be 2.66, 2.68 and 2.7 respectively. Micro sil-
ica is a by-product of the electric arc furnaces used in
the production of ferro silicon and silicon industries.
Micro silica is in the amorphous state with the chem-
ical composition of >90 % silica and the grain size
of <0.1 microns. It is very fine active artificial poz-
zolanic and cementitous material. Fly ash (also called
pulverized fuel ash) is the most widely used pozzolanic
waste material and one that has largest potential for
use in concrete. It is a waste product of the coal-based
power plants. ROFF cement is a cementitious polymer
modified tile adhesive and usually known as ROFF
cement. It resembles Portland cement to a great extent
but has a longer pot life and longer initial setting time.
It is ideal for surfaces which are constantly in contact
with water e.g., swimming pools, bathrooms, kitchens,
shower floors, etc. This polymer modified tile adhesive
is used to improve bonding for granite, marble etc on
concrete layers.
The different sizes of aggregates i.e. 20 mm,
12.5 mm, 10 mm, 6 mm and dust samples were col-
lected and sieve analysis was done to obtain the
individual gradation of these aggregates. The desired
aggregate gradation for bituminous concrete (BC) has
been obtained to match the midpoint gradation by
Rothfutchs method (20 mm down 28%, 12.5 mm down
20%, 6 mm down 22% and quarry dust 30%). Plain
bitumen of grade 60/70 was used for the study and the
physical properties of bitumen were tested as per IS
codes and found satisfactory. The optimum bitumen
required was obtained as 5.9%.
The bituminous concrete was prepared as per the
standard procedure and was placed in the pre heated
cylindrical and rectangular moulds and were well com-
pacted initially using tamping rod and later by applying
repeated compressive load from a universal testing
machine. The moulds were left to cool down for 24 hrs
the dimension details and photographs of the moulds
are shown in fig: 02.
The cement concrete mix proportion adopted in
the experimentation was 1:2.02:3.05(coarse aggre-
gate 1142 kg/cum, fine aggregate 756 kg/cum, cement
375 kg/cum and water cement ratio of 0.4% which is
150lit/cum) which corresponds to M40 grade concrete.
The mix design was carried out according to IS: 10262-
1982. Homogeneous concrete mass was prepared as
per the mix design. This mass was gently placed on the
bituminous base in layers and consolidated by using
just the required vibration for good compaction. After
consolidation the surface was finished smooth and was
covered with wet gunny bags. After 3 days the speci-
men was demoulded and transferred to the curing tank
wherein they were allowed to cure for 4 days. After cur-
ing for 7 days the specimens were weighed and tested
for their respective bond strengths.
The cylindrical composite specimens having 75 mm
thick concrete layer over 75 mm thick bituminous layer
was subjected to direct tensile test by clamping the
moulds with specially designed clamps, which could
hold the specimen and could be clamped on to UTM
for conducting the test.
The rectangular composite specimens having
100 mm thick concrete layer over 100 mm thick bitu-
minous layer was subjected wheel trafficking test on
modified wheel trafficking equipment.
The general form of specimen coding are Plain Con-
crete is PC, Plain Concrete with ROFF cement paste
is PCR, Plain Concrete with 20% Fly ash is 20F Plain
Concrete with 25% Fly ash is 25F, Plain Concrete with
30% Fly ash is 30F, Plain Concrete with 2% Micro Sil-
ica is 2M, Plain Concrete with 4% Micro Silica is 4M
Figure 2.
and Plain Concrete with 6% Micro Silica is 6M.
The cylindrical composite specimens were tested
for direct tensile test. Table 1 shows the bond strength

587
 Figure 5. Modified wheel trafficking test setup

Figure 3. Variation of compressive strength for different

combinations of admixtures.

Figure 6. Varriation of deflection for 8 kg/sqcm pressure for

all combinations

The Modified wheel trafficking equipment consists of

a loaded rubber wheel mounted on the surface of the
composite slab (specimen to be tested).The specimen
Figure 4. Variation of bond strength for different combina- was fitted on a mounting table which was driven by
tions of admixtures. AC motor through rack pinion arrangement. The table
reciprocates with to and fro motion at a frequency 25
Table 1. Bond strength and Compressive strength Test
Results
to 40 passes per minute.
The pressure exerted on the specimen could be
Strength in N/mm2 varied by varying the weights on the lever arm.
All specimens were subjected to 8 kg/sqcm and
Compression 20 kg/sqcm pressures and corresponding deflections
Sl. No Description Bond strength (7 days) were recorded at convenient intervals up to 1000
repetations.
1 PC 0.076 24.65 Fig 05 shows the experimental setup of modified
2 PCR 0.162 25.47 wheel trafficking equipment. Fig 06 shows the varia-
3 20F 0.185 26.78
tions in deflection for all combinations of composite
4 25F 0.190 29.06
5 30F 0.209 29.78 specimens which were subjected to 8 kg/sqcm pres-
6 2M 0.202 27.12 sure. Fig 07 shows the variations in deflection for
7 4M 0.206 30.86 all combinations of composite specimens which were
8 6M 0.220 33.97 subjected to 20 kg/sqcm pressure.

and compressive strength test results of plain cement
concrete with different combinations of admixtures
and interface ROFF cement bond layer.
3.3 Test results
Fig 03 shows the variation in compressive strength and
Fig 04 shows the variation in bond strength exhibited
by the specimens of different combinations.
The rectangular composite specimens were tested
for its performance under wheel trafficking equipment.
3.4 Discussion on the test results
Bond strength values (in kN) for fly ash increases with
the increase in percentage of addition of fly ash. Bond
strength values (in kN) for Micro silica increases with
the increase in percentage of addition of Micro silica.
Compressive load (kN) for 7 days increases with the
increases in percentage of addition of Fly ash and sim-
ilarly for Micro silica. Compressive strength (kN) for
7 days are comparatively higher than that of the fly
ash. Bond strength (kN) of Plain Concrete with ROFF
paste is double than that of Plain Concrete Values.

588

Figure 7. Varriation of deflection for 8 kg/sqcm pressure for
all combinations
Compressive load (7days) of Plain cement with ROFF
is higher than that of Plain concrete. Addition of Micro
Silica (in 2%, 4% and 6%) is always a better option to
increase the bond strength and Compressive strength
of the Composite section. Addition of fly ash less
than 30% is not preferable for the better results of the
compressive and bond strength.
Higher percentage of fly ash added to the Compos-
ite slab, lower the deflection values under the wheel
loads at different pressure (8 kg/cm2 and 20 kg/cm2 ).
Higher the percentage of micro silica added to the
Composite slab, lower is the deflection values under
the wheel loads at different pressure (8 kg/cm2 and
20 kg/cm2 ). Comparing the deflection values for fly
ash with different percentages, Micro silica for differ-
ent percentages and plain cement with ROFF cement
interface values, indicated that composite slabs with
ROFF cement paste gives the lowest deflection values
at 8 kg/cm2 and 20 kg/cm2 pressure.
3.5 Conclusions
The success of ultra thin white topping mainly depends
on deflection of the composite section under wheel
loads. Repeated higher deflection of ultra thin white-
topping will result in cracking of the concrete, which
will lead to the failure of the composite section. The
composite section with bituminous concrete base and
plain cement concrete with ROFF cement interface
exhibited greater stiffness and better bonding when
compared to all other combinations. Even though
higher bond strength was exhibited by the concrete
with 6% micro silica the deflection values are much
589
higher when compared with plain cement concrete
with ROFF cement interface. Hence the combination
of plain cement concrete with ROFF cement interface
can be recommended for ultra thin whitetopping.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to thank Mohd.Faizan Samee,
Thirumalesh. V.M. and Naveen for their assistance in
conducting the experimentation. Thanks are also due
to the Principal and management authorities BMSCE,
Bangalore and YDIT, Bangalore, who constantly
boosted our morale by providing us the necessary
assistance required.
REFERENCES
[1] NATIONAL COOPERATIVE HIGHWAY RESEARCH
PROGRAM (NCHRP 338)Thin and Ultra-Thin
Whitetopping- A synthesis of highway practice.
[2] Specifications for road and bridge works (section
500), Ministry of Road Transportation and Highways
(MORT&H): Fourth revision.
[3] INDIAN HIGHWAYS VOLUME 35, NO.10. OCT
2007.
[4] RAJKUMAR, C. Provisions for cements and mineral
admixtures. The Indian Concrete Journal, February
2001, Vol 75, No 2, pp. 105112.
[5] Swamy, R. N., Cement Replacement Materials, Surrey
University Press, (1986).
[6] Markestad, A. An investigation of concrete in regard
to permeability problems and factors.
[7] Taylor, H. F. W., Cement chemistry Academic press
(1990).
[8] Pro c. Symp. on Fly Ash, Materials Research Society
Boston, 316325, Nov. (1981).
[9] Bernhardt, C. J, Silica dust as cement additive,
betongen l dag, N, 2 pp. 2953.
[10] Loland, K. E. and Gjorv, O, E., Silica fume in
concrete Trondheim, Norway, 8 report June (1981).
[11] Use of Fly ash in Concrete, ACI Committee 226, ACI
Materials Journal SepOct 1987.
[12] Use of Fly ash in RCC dams, Anil Bhatnagar &
Rajesh Kumar, ICJ May 2007.
[13] Aggregates for Mortar and Concrete, C. M. Dordi &
M. T. Tendulkar, ICJ May 1996.
[14] Making Concrete Greener with Fly ash, V. M.
Malhotra, ICJ Oct 1999.
[15] High Volume Fly ash Concrete Hydration studies,
Dr. M. Shekar Kumar, Mr. K. Suryanarayana, CPRI,
Bangalore, DSCE.
[16] ACI monograph 234R-96 1996. Guide for the Use of
Silica Fume in Concrete. ACI Michigan, USA.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Structural glass in metal load-carrying systems of building constructions

M. Karmaznov & J. Melcher

Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic

ABSTRACT: In the period of last years, in civil engineering practice the usage of structural glass not only as
filling openings, but mainly also as the application of the large-dimension structural glass plate integrated to the
load-carrying system of the construction. In this direction glass is very often used for load-carrying panels of
glass faade structures and also more often for the transparent systems of shelter and roof structures. However
so far, in the case of these load-carrying systems, the knowledge and design method development significantly
falls behind the constructions composed of classic structural materials (concrete, masonry, steel, timber), namely
in the field of the analyzing and dimensioning connections of metal members to glass panel through the glued
joints. Previously the applications of structural glass have been based on the empirics and experiences. In the
period of last two decades technical and theoretical design procedures are developed; the normative document for
the design of load-carrying panels using structural glass according to limit states philosophy is already included
to the next prepared parts of Eurocode system, nevertheless the behaviour of structural glass in the loading
process is non-sufficiently theoretically elaborated still yet. To can ensure the reliable and efficient structural
design of glass panels as the load-carrying structural part, it is necessary to carry out the intensive research in
this field. The methods, which can provide the essential information about the behaviour of glass panel as the
part of cladding or roofing load-carrying structure, can be the approaches based on the experimental verification
of the actual behaviour and capacity in the real structural system, too. In the period of several last years, the
significant attention is paid to these problems, especially with regards to the development of glass production
technology and requirements to the transparency and architectural expression of civil constructions [Haldimann
et al. 2007, Melcher et al. 2005a].

Keywords: Structural glass, building construction, experimental verification, reliability, test, actual behaviour,
failure

1 INTRODUCTION applied for the comparison of resulting stresses, unlike

From the viewpoint of structural mechanics, plated
glass panels of faade, roof or ceiling structures are
transversally loaded slabs subjected to the actions of
the self weight, wind, snow and defined live load. The
internal slab forces for given marginal support condi-
tions and corresponding stresses may be determined
on the base of the analytical solutions or numerical
methods using suitable software.
Unlike usual civil constructions it should be con-
sidered, that glass is in essence the soft material and
before its failure it allows reach very large deflec-
tions multiply exceeding the slab thickness (see e.g.
illustration in Fig. 1a). So the basic assumption of the
classic Kirchhoff s theory of thin plates with small
deflections is not complied and it is necessary to use
the theory of thin plates taking into account large
deflections. Large deformations require the geomet-
rically non-linear solution and also the membrane
stresses must be considered in addition to the flex-
ural (normal) plate stresses. From the viewpoint of
the failure theory, the theory of main stress must be
the energetic approach arising from the comparative
stresses using in the case of steel as the plastic material
(for more about approaches see [Belis, Colvin, Kott,
Overend]).
The next problem complicating the application of
the design procedures normally using for other civil
structures is wide material and structural variability of
possible composition of structural glass load-carrying
system. Various cases of glass structure composi-
tion may be used as follows: single-layer float glass,
single-layer tempered glass, multi-layer (laminated)
non-tempered or tempered glass with intermediate
PVB foil, or respectively various combinations of
different glass types.
The character of the behaviour of load-carrying
glass structures subjected to general loading is dif-
ferent from the behaviour of structures composed of
usual building materials. Thus for example unlike
steel structures, in the case of structural glass the
strength exhaustion is caused by brittle fracture with-
out redistribution and previous elastic-plastic material
behaviour (see e.g. illustration in Fig. 1b).

591

Figure 1. Illustration of loading test of glass faade panel.
With regards to the fact, that glass is the brittle mate-
rial and it fails always by brittle fracture, it is necessary
to consider and analyze the problems in connection
with the possibility of the crack initiation and propa-
gation and their influence on glass panel strength. In
this meaning the study of the failure mechanism of
glass panels in the process of loading action increase
up to the objective ultimate capacity is taking on the
importance.
With regards to the mentioned problems of the reli-
able and efficient design of load-carrying systems
using structural glass it is practicable to verify their
actual behaviour, load-carrying capacity and strain
affected by the loading actions, through the loading
tests and experiments (for more see e.g. [Melcher
2005b, 1997, Karmaznov 2012, 2011a, 2011b]). In
the test room of authors workplace such tests of struc-
tural glass are performed during the period of about
25 years. Some characteristic examples of realized
experiments are shown below, for the illustration.
2 DESIGN AND TESTS OF STRUCTURAL
GLASS PLATE PANELS SUBJECTED TO
UNIFORM TRANSVERSE LOADING
For the simulation of uniform loading actions to the
plated structural glass panel, the simple, but very effec-
tive loading using vacuum testing method is applied
(see examples of application in Figs. 1, 4). The air
is sucked from the space under tested plated panel,
which is covered by transparent plastic foil bonded to
the floor, that difference between external atmospheric
592
Figure 2. Scheme of test arrangement using vacuum testing
method in the case of loading test of glass shelter panels.
Figure 3. Scheme of test arrangement using vacuum testing
method in the case of loading test of glass shelter panels.
pressure and pressure inside of closed sucked space
causes uniform loading of specimen.
The usage of this method is illustrated on the tests
of the actual behaviour of glass bus station platform
shelter (see Fig. 2). The scheme of test set-up is drawn
in Fig. 3, the test set-up in reality is shown in Fig. 4.
Glass panel is fixed by four circular targets connected
to distributing metal parts of the shelter. The testing
programme contained in common six specimens of the
dimensions of 2 306 2 394 mm with various material
structures and configuration of glass panels (for more
see Table 1).
During the test load has been increased by steps, test
specimens have been loaded up to the failure which
is characterized by the particular load level taken
(after adding self weight) as the objective (not design)
ultimate capacity (see Table 2). Maximum load of
specimens T3 and T4 corresponds to the values of the
first cracks around the targets. In the case of the spec-
imen T5, after reaching the value of 3.00 kN m2 the
load has been decreased to the value of 1.50 kN m2 one fell down. In the case of specimen T6 it was pre-
and on this load level according to the produc- vented by the chords in the perimeter and diagonally
tion company requirement the specimen has been between targets. Representing relationships load q
mechanically (by the hammer) damaged aimed to find displacement wp in the plate centre for tests T1 to T6
out the behaviour due to this impact. are in Fig.7.
The results of loading tests of three glass panel
configurations (see Table 1) indicate quite different
failure mechanisms. In the case of specimens T1 and
T2 sudden failure by the fragmentation to small pieces
occurred, as typical for tempered glass. The failure of
specimens T3 and T4 (see Fig. 5) began by the crack
initiation around the targets. Influencing safety foil,
which prevented to the fragmentation, the specimen
was able, though beginning failure, to transfer the load,
although the cracks spread almost on the whole area.
Test specimen integrity was kept in all the load time,
but glass tendency to break up was seen. Reaching ulti-
mate capacity of specimens T5 and T6, glass fractured
to small pieces, but safety foil prevented to defragmen-
tation. The specimen T5 torn off targets and the whole
Figure 5. Failure of two-layers laminated non-tempered
glass.

Figure 4. Illustration of vacuum testing method application

in the case of loading test of glass shelter panel. Figure 6. Failure of two-layers laminated tempered glass.

Table 1. Overview of test specimens.

thickness weight area weight self weight

Specimen glass [mm] [kg] [kg m2 ] [kN m2 ]

T1 tempered
T2 one-layer 12 163 29.5 0.295
T3 non-tempered
T4 2-layers lamin. 2 10 280 50.7 0.507
T5 tempered
T6 two-layers laminated 28 214 38.8 0.388

Table 2. Ultimate load-carrying capacities of test specimens.

Test specimen T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6

Max. load
[kN m2 ] 3.23 5.46 1.40 1.201) 3.002) 3.51
Max. load+
+self weight 3.525 5.755 1.907 1.707 3.388 3.898

1)
Initiation of the first cracks.
2)
Mechanical damage see text.

593

Figure 7. Relationships q wp in glass panel centre.
Based on the loading tests, it may be deducted:
intermediate foil, which keeps the panel integrity
though failed, has significant safety importance,
mainly for tempered glass; however, the attention
must be paid to the prevention of breaking off the
target, for tempered glass and for float glass, too;
for effective section characteristics determination
of the soft layer connection, safety foil may have
the important influence; respecting the long term
durability it is recommended to use safe approach
for the dimension of layer glass panel considering
flexural without static interaction of the layers;
the capacity of 2-layers laminated tempered glass
is twice more than the capacity of laminated float
glass, even though its more total thickness.
3 BEHAVIOUR OF STRUCTURAL SEALANT
IN CONNECTIONS OF METAL MEMBERS
TO STRUCTURAL GLASS
As an illustrative example focused on the impor-
tant questions of dimensioning structural glass load-
carrying systems oriented to the behaviour of sealant
in connections of metal members to structural glass,
can be listed the basic information about the study
of the actual behaviour of the metal plate glass
connection type using two-tier silicon sealant. The
research has been initiated by the requirement to ver-
ify strength and strain characteristics of the metal joint
detail of faade transverse stiffening glass rib in the
staircase construction. The illustrations of the build-
ing construction including structural solution are seen
in Fig. 8. Test specimen arrangement results from the
structural detailing the glazed facade inside stiffened
by transverse glass ribs. The vertical glass rib long of
3 600 mm, wide of 200 mm and thick of 15 mm is not
connected to the facade continuously, but locally in
Figure 8. Faade structure with transverse stiffening glass
ribs.
two places, through aluminium alloy both-sided rect-
angular plates of 100 102 mm glued to glass rib on
the area of 100 50 mm (see Fig. 8). Pair of plates is
fixed to the rib in the length thirds.
The glued layer of test specimens on 100 50 mm
area when the thickness of 8 mm is made up of two-
tier silicon sealant DOW CORNING 983 (DC 983)
determined for the structural glazing. It is non-flowing,
resistant to climatic effects and has shape memory in
the repeated loading. Essential problem of the loaded
connection types of metal sealant glass is the
adhesion of sealant to metal and glass. In the case of
overload, silicon silicon failure mode must occur
i.e. the adhesion to glued materials must be more than
the strength of structural sealant. If the separation of
silicon sealant from metal or glass occurs, the test is
evaluated as non-compliant and this configuration of
the glued connection is classified as non-suitable and
non-reliable.
The first stage of tests included the selection of the
suitable surface treatment of metal plates. The aim of
loading tests was to verify the resistance and deforma-
tion sealant layer enabling the transfer of the wind load
from the faade area to the transverse stiffening rib.
The tests have been realized on the section of glass rib
(see Fig. 9a) with both-sided glued anchor plates corre-
sponding the real structural detailing. Tensile loading
affecting glued layers by shear is introduced through
the circular pins fitted in the test press. The section of
glass plate of the test specimen is subjected through the
steel belts fixed to the distributing steel cross girder.
In the case of the default treatment of aluminum
plates by powdered paint (specimens TT1 to TT3) the
problem with the adhesion of silicon sealant occurred.
When the ultimate load-carrying capacity has been
reached, sealant layer itself has not been failed, but the
surface of sealant has been smoothly separated from
metal plate area. This configuration was found to be
non-compliant, that other specimens with better qual-
ity of the surface treatment have been delivered. These
specimens have been marked as TTx1 (coating by
polyester thermo-setic powder PE GREY RAL7015
GLOSS) and TTx2 (powder coating Interpol D1036
Lesk 85). All specimens surface treated by pow-
der lacquered Al-profiles demonstrated the adequate
594

Figure 9. Test specimen scheme and loading test realization.
adhesion of sealant to metal or glass, too, and the fail-
ure always occurred in the shear area passing through
silicon sealant.
In the final test stage of the specimens marked by
TT4 to TT7 the recipe with the improved surface of
metal plates guaranteeing the required adhesion of
glued layer to metal and glass, too. The loading tests
have been performed for glued connections of the stiff-
ening plate mounted on the whole glass rib long of
3 600 mm (see Fig. 9b). The anchor plate displacement
in loading force direction related to glass rib is graph-
ically elaborated. Representative relationship load F
displacement w elaborated for the tests TT4 to TT7
is drawn in Fig. 10. Overview of the objective load-
carrying capacity of specimens TT4 to TT7 is in Table
3. Corresponding shear displacement may be derived
from the graphic expression of test results according
to Fig. 10.
The considered connection design resistance is
depending on the defined safety for shear loading and
defined limit deformation. For both these basic design
595
Figure 10. Relationships q wp in the plate centre.
Table 3. Ultimate load-carrying capacity of glued
connection
Specimen TT4 TT5 TT6 TT7
Load-carrying capacity [kN] 11.02 12.02 11.01 11.02
characteristics the adequate normative value is not
determined. Considering the chosen value of the par-
tial reliability factor u = 2.2 in relation to the ultimate
resistance Nu = 11 kN, the defined design resistance of
the considered glued connection type is
and the corresponding design value of shear stress in
structural sealant is
where A t is shear area of sealant. The corresponding
defined design value of connection loading is
The permanent deformation of the structural sealant
in the case of load decreasing from the design value
of limit force Nud = 5 kN, derived from the repeated
loading during the experiments, is wpl = 0.5 mm. The
alternative approach for the determination of defined
design resistance of the connection may be based
on the assignment of conventional (agreed) limit
displacement resulting from experimentally verified
relationship in Fig. 10. For example, for the agreed
limit deformation of wm = 3 mm, from the graph the
value Nud,w = 4.3 kN can be derived. Defined design
values of shear stress and corresponding design forces
of the glued connection refer to the short-term loading
actions (without e.g. self weight) and they depend in
general on the chosen conventional value of the partial
reliability (or safety, respectively) factor or connection
deformation, respectively.
4 CONCLUSIONS
In the paper two basic problem areas of the usage of
structural glass in the load-carrying structures, i.e. (i)
the questions of dimensioning and experimental veri-
fication of its load-carrying capacity and deformations
affected by the loading actions, and (ii) the questions
of the verification of the load-carrying capacity and
deformation of structural sealants used for connection
structural detailing.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The paper was elaborated with the financial support
of MMT (Ministry of Education) research projects
MSM 0021630519 and FAST S-12/1786.
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Haldimann, M., Luible, A., Overend, M. 2008. Structural use
of glass, Struct. Eng. Document, No. 10, IABSE, Zrich.
Belis, J., Van Impe, R., De Meester, B., Lagae, G., Katman, K.
B. 2004. Stability Approach of the Dimensioning of Glass
Beams. In Proc. of the Intl. Symposium on the Application
of Architectural Glass ISAAG 2004, Munich.
Colvin, J. 2005. Thermal Stress Breakage in Building Glass,
2005. Workshop, Glass Processing Days, Tampere.
Kott, A., Vogel, T. 2004. Safety of laminated glass structures
after initial Failure, In Proc. of IABSE Symp. Shanghai.
Overend, M. and Zammit, K. Wind loading on cladding and
glazed faades. In Proc. of the 2nd Intl. Symposium on the
Application of Architectural Glass ISAAG 2006, Munich.
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Melcher, J., Karmaznov, M. 2007. Design and experimen-
tal verification of actual behaviour of structural glass in
roofing and faade systems, In Proc. of the 3rd Intl. Conf.
on Struct. Eng., Mechanics and Comput. Cape Town,
Millpress, pp. 657658. ISBN 978 90 5966 054 0.
Melcher, J., Karmaznov, M. 2005a. Experimental verifi-
cation of actual behaviour of the glass roofing structure
under uniform loading, In Proc. of the 4th Europ. Conf.
on Steel and Comp. Sts., Maastricht, Druck and Ver-
lagshaus Mainz Gmbh, Vol. B, pp. 2.4-12.4-8. ISBN
3-86130-812-6.
Melcher, J. 1997. Full-Scale Testing of Steel and Timber
Structures: Examples and Experience, In Struct. Assess-
ment The Role of Large and Full Scale Testing, E&FN
SPON: London, pp. 301308. ISBN 0 419 22490 4.
Melcher, J., kaloud, M., Karmaznov, M., Zrnerov, M.
2005b. Experiment a powerful tool applied in the solu-
tion of two important problems of the limit states of steel
structures, In Proc. of the 1st Intl. Conf. on Advances in
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

The surface electrical and microstructure analysis of peat

treated with cement

Hossein Moayedi
Faculty of Engineering, Kermanshah University of Technology, Kermanshah, Iran

Sina Kazemian
Department of Civil Engineering, Bojnourd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bojnourd, Iran

ABSTRACT: Peat usually undergo large secondary settlements depending on the amount of organic content
present in the soil. This is because of its special microstructure. The microstructure of peat has interdependence
with mechanical and physical characteristics, such as compressive and tensile strength, and water retention. In
the present research, peat samples were admixed with different concentrations of cement to enhance its physical,
chemical, electrical, and microstructural properties.As a result, the surface electrical of the peat colloids influence
the rate of flocculation, and in turn further strength achievement. The results is in contrary with the microstructural
analysis that performed by SEM and EDX on the treated peat.

Keywords: Peat, SEM analysis, Surface charge, Soil improvement, Soft soil, Cement

1 INTRODUCTION from dissociation of the acid groups. A large quan-

The physical and chemical properties of soils are con-
nected to the surface charge characteristics of the
colloidal particles that mobilized the soil. The surface
of colloids carries electric charges, and these surface
electrical charges are the basic cause for soil parti-
cles to possess a series of surface properties. Soil
surface charges affect the chemical properties of the
soil through varying the quantity of electric charge
and the surface charge density (Yu 1997). Surface
charge in turn is a function of pH and dissolved salts
concentration which normally measure by the zeta
() potential (Brunelle 1980; Niriella and Carnahan
2006). The potential is known as an intrinsic property
of colloidal particles suspended in a liquid. Adsorp-
tion of ions or dipolar molecules is determined by, and
also determines, this charge and potential distribution
(Hlavacek and Remy 1995; Sabah et al. 2007). The
chemical reagents that causes a thicker double layer
(e.g. the higher zeta potential), eventually reduce the
flocculation rate (Alshawabkeh et al. 2004). The lower
floculation rate posses the lower shear strength in the
soils (Kazemian et al. 2011).
In the peat humus is the most important source of
variable charge. In addition, for soils with variable
surface charge, aluminum, oxides, hydrated oxides of
iron and edge surface of clay minerals of soil are
responsible for the surface charge (Stevenson 1994;
Tipping 2002). Moreover, there is a large quantity
of acid groups in humus. The origin of charges is
tity of charge is carried by humus which is in the
range of 200 to 500 cmol/kg. The origin of the charges
is mainly from carboxyl groups. Hydroxyl groups
including phenolic hydroxyl, quinonic hydroxyl, and
enolic hydroxyl groups can also produce charge.
PH and valance of ions are important factors which
can influence electrical surface charge (Charlet et al.
1990). Among them, pH is the most important one in
affecting the surface charge of the soils (Alkan et al.
2005; Li and Xu 2008; Yukselen and Erzin 2008). The
dissociation of H+ ions from the hydroxylated surface
and the adsorption of proton (H+ ions) by the hydrox-
ylated surface are pH dependent (Boehm 1971). As a
result of this condition, variable charge minerals, such
as iron and aluminum oxides carry negative charge
when the pH is higher than their zero point of charge
(Hunter 1981; Yu 1997).
Particle aggregation depends on the type of soil
(Mitchell and Soga 2005). The polycation bridges
between organic matter and clay are characteristic of
Vertisols, where clay size fractions and polycations
are the main aggregating factors (Bronick and Lal
2005). Therefore, not only the type of soil, the min-
eral constituents and the organic content, but also
the composition of the soil solution, are responsi-
ble for the structure formed in soils (e.g. peaty soil),
which controls transport through the porous system
(Kretzschmar and Sticher, 1998). Various mecha-
nisms are considered for interactions of organic matter
(humus) with mineral surfaces, i.e. ligand exchange,

597
Table 1. Physicochemical properties of peat samples

Parameters Unit Standard Values

Moisture % BS 1377-2-3 159

content (1990)
Bulk density kN/m3 BS 1377-2-7 9.85
(1990)
Specific BS 1377-2-8.4 1.343
gravity (1990)
Organic % BS 1377-3-4 56
content (1990)
Permeability m/s BS 1377-6-4 3.35 106
(1990)
Fiber content % ASTM-1997-91 41.94
CEC meq Gillman and 54
100 g1 Sumpter (1986)
pH ASTM-4972 5.63 Figure 1. Zeta potential versus electrolyte concentrations.
Zeta potential mV ASTM-4187 12

polyvalent cation bridges, and weak interactions such

as hydrophobic interactions including H-bonding and
van der Waals forces (Theng 1979; Oades 1989;
Vermeer and Koopal 1998; Vermeer et al. 1998).
These mechanism can only be understood using the
microstructural analysis of the treated soil samples.
Portland cement is the most commonly and widely
used binder in ground improvement and soil stabiliza-
tion applications. The main objective of the present
research is to investigate on the physical, chemical, sur-
face electrical, and microstructural properties of peat
when stabilized with the portland cement.

2 MATERIAL AND METHODS
The peat samples were collected from several locations
of Kg. Jawa Klang, Selangor, Malaysia. The containers
for the disturbed soil were capable of being sealed to
prevent any loss or gain of the moisture. Precautions
were taken to avoid any kind of jolting during the trans-
portation of the soil. The physicochemical properties
of the used peat in this study are presented in Table 1.
The samples were prepared according to BS 1377-1
(1990) to evaluate the initial physical and chemical
properties of soil such as organic content (BS 1377-
3: 1990), liquid limit (BS 1377-2 1990), water content
(BS 1377-2-3: 1990), specific gravity (BS 1377-2-8.4:
1990), pH (BS 1377-3-9:1990), potential (ASTM-
4187). Further, CEC, and specific surface area were
determined based on Gillman and Sumpter method
(1986), and Brunauer, Emmett, Teller (BET technique)
(1938) respectively.
3 RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
The colloidal interaction of particles, including repul-
sion and attraction, changes with their inherent surface
properties and the interfacial layer composition around
them, resulting in chemical and physical equilibria
Figure 2. The UCS of treated peat with different cement
concentrations.
between solid and aqueous phases. In other word, order
of magnitude of the potential gives an indication of
the colloidal system stability. If all the particles in a
suspension have high negative or positive potentials,
then they will tend to repeal each other, with no ten-
dency of particles to come together. However, if the
particles show a low potential, there is no force to
prevent them from coming together and flocculating.
The dividing line between stable and unstable suspen-
sions is usually taken to be either +30 mV or 30 mV.
Particles with potentials either more positive than
+30 mV or more negative than 30 mV are consid-
ered stable (Moayedi et al. 2012).The surface electrical
charge of the peat particles suspended in cement elec-
trolytes is presented in Figure 1. It can be seen that the
surface charge of the peat particles suspended in
the cement electrolyte reversed from the negative to
the positive just by increasing the concentration of the
cement (Figure 1).
The UCS of treated peat with 2, 4, 6, 10, and 20%
of cement concentrations (e.g. % of the wet peat) is
showed in Figure 2. The maximum UCS results for
the treated peat with 2, 4, 6, 10, and 20% were 16.32,

598
Figure 3. The pH and moisture content of treated peat with
different cement concentrations.
Figure 4. SEM micrograph for (a) untreated peat sample,
(b) Stabilized peat.
22.76, 30.1, 40.33, and 46.64 kPa, respectively. The
UCS results of the treated peat increased by increasing
the percentages of cement additives. Since finding the
optimum value for the UCS was not the objective of
this research study the cement addition stopped up to
the 20% of the wet sample.
599
Figure 5. (a) SEM micrograph treated peat sample, (b)
Distribution of silicate atoms in part.
Increasing the cement concentration causes a signif-
icant increase in the pH of the treated soil from about 7
in 2% cement to about 11.3 in 20% cement additives.
It is observed that there is insignificant change in pH
after 10% additives. The highest change in pH of the
treated samples occurred for samples made with the
6 to 8 % cement addition (Figure 3). A reverse rela-
tion observed between the cement concentration and
moisture content. As the cement increased, the mois-
ture content of the treated soil decreased significantly
(Figure 3). This is due to the hydration process that
occurred during the curing.
Several samples were selected in order to assess
their microstructure change by using SEM micrograph
and EDX experiment. A remarkable proportion of the
silicate and alumina was observed in the baseline peat
that proves the presence of clayey fraction as the only
important inorganic materials (Figure 4.a). The maxi-
mum alumina and silica atoms dissolution occurred in
pH at 10 produced calcium silicate hydrate (CSH) and
calcium aluminate hydrate (CAH) gel. That is why the
significant improvement in the UCS happened in the

Figure 6. Distribution of (a) Calcium atoms, and (b) alu-
mina atoms in Figure 5.a.
pH between 9 and 11. Also reduction in the thickness
of the diffused double layer and increasing in ionic
concentration makes a better environment for the peat
particles to flocculate (Figure 4.b). Due to addition
of the cement to the baseline peat, a large proportion
of the silicate, calcium, and aluminates added to the
baseline peat and almost uniformly distrusted through
the peat samples. Those places that shows the con-
centration of the calcium and silicate simultaneously
(Figure 5.b, Figure 6.a) proves the presence of CSH
gel and thos which shows the presence of the alu-
mina and calcium (Figure 6) proves the presence of the
CAH gel.
4 CONCLUSIONS
In this study the physical, chemical, surface electrical,
and microstructural properties of peat when stabilized
with the portland cement are investigated. Several
600
zeta potential, UCS, pH, moisture content, SEM, and
EDX tests were performed on the peat samples. The
following conclusions are drawn based on this study:
The surface electrical charge of the peat particles
suspended in cement electrolytes is reversed from
the negative to the positive just by increasing the
concentration of the cement. This means the iso-
electric point is somewhere between the 0.1 to 1 g/l
of the cement concentration.
A significant increasing in the UCS value happened
in the pH between 9 and 11. It can be concluded
that diffused double layer thickness reduced while
the ionic concentration increased. Such conditions
is most favored for the peat particles to flocculate
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Alkan, M., Demirbas, O. & Dogan, M. 2005 Electrokinetic
Properties of Sepiolite Suspensions in Different Elec-
trolyte Media. Journal of Colloid And Interface Science
281(1): 240248.
Alshawabkeh, A.N., Sheahan, T.C. & Wu, X. 2004 Cou-
pling of Electrochemical and Mechanical Processes in
Soils Under DC Fields. Mechanics of Materials 36(56):
453465.
Boehm, H. 1971 Acidic and Basic Properties of Hydroxy-
lated Metal Oxide Surfaces. Discuss. Faraday Soc. 52(0):
264275.
Bronick, C. & Lal, R. 2005 Soil Structure and Management:
a Review. Geoderma 124(12): 322.
Brunelle, M.T. 1980 Colloidal Fouling of Reverse Osmosis
Membranes. Desalination 32: 127135.
Charlet, L., Wersin, P. & Stumm, W. 1990 Surface Charge of
MnCO3 and FeCO3 . Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
54(8): 23292336.
Hlavacek, M. & Remy, J.F. 1995 Simple Relationships
among Zeta Potential, Particle Size Distribution, and Cake
Specific Resistance for Colloid Suspensions Coagulated
with Ferric Chloride. Separation Science and Technology
30(4): 549563. 10.1080/01496399508225609.
Hunter, R.J. 1981 Zeta Potential in Colloid Science. Aca-
demic Press, New York.
Kazemian, S., Huat, B.B.K., Mohammed, T.A., Abdul Aziz,
F.N.A., Moayedi, H. & Barghchi, M. 2011 Influence
of Peat Characteristics on Cementation and Pozzolanic
Reactions in the Dry Mixing Method. Arabian Jour-
nal for Science and Engineering 36(7): 11891202.
10.1007/s13369-011-0121-1.
Li, S. & Xu, R. 2008 Electrical Double Layers Interaction
between Oppositely Charged Particles as Related To Sur-
face Charge Density and Ionic Strength. Colloids and
Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects
326(3): 157161.
Mitchell, J.K. & Soga, K. 2005 Fundamentals of Soil Behav-
ior. John Wiley and Sons, New Jersey.
Moayedi, H., Huat, B.B.K., Kazemian, S., Behpour,
M. & Niroumand, H. 2012 Zeta Potentials of
Suspended Humus in Multivalent Cationic Saline Solu-
tion and Its Effect on Electroosmosis Behavoir. Jour-
nal of Dispersion Science and Technology In press.
10.1080/01932691.2011.646601.
Niriella, D. & Carnahan, R.P. 2006 Comparison Study of Zeta
Potential Values of Bentonite in Salt Solutions. Journal
of Dispersion Science and Technology 27(1): 123131.
10.1081/dis-200066860.
Oades, J.M. 1989 An Introduction to Organic Matter in
Mineral Soils. Minerals in Soil Environments: 89159.
Sabah, E., Mart, U., nar, M. & elik, M.S. 2007 Zeta Poten-
tials of Sepiolite Suspensions in Concentrated Monovalent
Electrolytes. Separation Science and Technology 42(10):
22752288. 10.1080/15275920701313616.
Stevenson, F.J. 1994 Humus Chemistry: Genesis, Composi-
tion, Reactions.
Theng, B.K.G. 1979 Formation and Properties of Clay-
Polymer Complexes. Elsevier Scientific Publishing
Company, Netherlands.
Tipping, E. 2002 Cation Binding by Humic Substances.
Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom.
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Vermeer, A.W.P. & Koopal, L.K. 1998 Adsorption of Humic
Acids to Mineral Particles. 2. Polydispersity Effects with
PolyelectrolyteAdsorption. Langmuir 14(15): 42104216.
Vermeer, A.W.P., Van Riemsdijk, W.H. & Koopal, L.K. 1998
Adsorption of Humic Acid to Mineral Particles. 1. Spe-
cific and Electrostatic Interactions. Langmuir 14(10):
28102815.
Yu, T.R. 1997 Chemistry of Variable Charge Soils. Oxford
University Press, London.
Yukselen, Y. & Erzin, Y. 2008 Artificial Neural Networks
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Presence Of Different Cations. Environmental Geology
54(5): 10591066.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Pushoff shear tests of self consolidating concrete

K.N. Rahal & A.L. Al-Khaleefi

Civil Engineering Department, Kuwait University

ABSTRACT: This paper reports the results of an investigation of the shear-friction strength of self consolidated
concrete (SCC). Seven push-over specimens were tested in compression to investigate their shear behavior. Three
of the specimens were cast using conventional concrete while the remaining four specimens were cast using SCC.
The specimens contained a variable amount of clamping reinforcement. The test specimens were instrumented
to measure the slip along the shear transfer plane and the steel strains in the clamping reinforcement. Reported
results also included the cracking shear stresses, the ultimate strength and the post-ultimate reserve strength.
The experimental results showed that the overall behavior, the ultimate strength, and the post-cracking reserve
strength of SCC were similar to those of conventional concrete. Comparisons between the calculations of the
shear-friction model (as adopted by the ACI code) were very conservative. The calculated results were better
representation of the post-cracking reserve strength rather than the ultimate stresses.

Keywords: self consolidating concrete, shear, strength

1 INTRODUCTION Table 1. Summary of properties of specimens and concrete

strength results
The use of Self Consolidating Concrete (SCC) has
been on the increase around the globe. Its use in the Clamp Age v fy fc fcu
middle east was notable in structural members which Specimen Steel days MPa MPa MPa
contained congested reinforcement such as the rafts
35-2T6-L1-0 26 42 0.934 41.8 43.4
of tall buildings. Its use has also increased in mem- 35-2T8-L1-0 28 42 2.63 41.8 43.4
bers where the elimination of the need for compaction 35-3T8-L1-0 38 42 3.94 41.8 43.4
resulted in considerable reduction in casting duration 35-2T6-L1-SCC 26 28 0.934 31.2 43.7
and effort. 35-2T8-L1-SCC 28 28 2.63 31.2 43.7
The provisions of building codes such as those of the 35-3T8-L1-SCC 38 28 3.94 31.2 43.7
ACI [2008] are typically based on experimental tests 35-4T8-L1-SCC 48 28 5.25 31.2 43.7
and studies on conventional concrete. There has been
studies on the shear behavior of SCC [e.g. Hassan et al.
2008, Lachemi et al. 2005, Lin and Chen, 2011, Yang
and Yu, 2011]. However, this research remains lim- Four of the specimens were cast using SCC while
ited and more experimental testing is required in order the remaining three specimens were cast using con-
to more adequately understand the shear behavior ventional concrete (CC). The target strength in both
of SCC. series of specimens was 35 MPa.
This paper reports the results of an experimental The specimens of two series contained different lev-
study which aimed at gaining a better understanding els of transverse clamping reinforcement (v fy ). The
of the shear-friction behavior of SCC. Seven pushoff values ranged from 0.93 to 5.25 MPa in the SCC speci-
specimens were cast and tested to obtain the ultimate mens and from 0.93 to 3.94 MPa in the CC specimens.
strength (vu ) and the post-ultimate reserve strength The clamping steel in the three CC specimens were
(vr ). In addition, this paper reports the results of a com- similar to those in three of the SCC specimens.
parison between the experimentally observed strength The name of the specimen reflects its properties. In
values (vu ) and (vr ) and the calculations of the well 35-3T8-L1-SCC for example, 35 refers to the target
known shear-friction model. compressive strength, 3T8 refers to the use of three
8-mm closed transverse stirrups as clamping rein-
forcement; L1 refers to the use of 6 12-mm bars in
2 EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAMME each side of the SF specimens. The following num-
ber 0 refers to CC and SCC for self-consolidating
A total of seven specimens were cast and tested. Table 1 concrete.
summarizes the properties of the specimens and Figure Standard size 150 x 300 mm cylinders and cubes
1 shows the details of a typical specimen. 150 mm in dimensions were also cast and tested to

603
measure the compressive strength of the two concrete.
The CC was mixed in the laboratory while the SCC
was provided by a local concrete readymix concrete
supplier. The sample were tested at the same day as
the pushoff specimens. The age of the specimens on
the day of testing was 42 days for the CC and 28 days
for the SCC specimens.
2.1 Material properties
The measured yield stress in the 6 mm and the 8 mm
bars used as clamps was 258 and 408 MPa, respec-
tively. The yield stress in the 12 mm used in the
longitudinal direction was 453 MPa.
The maximum aggregate size in both mixes of con-
crete was 20 mm. The water to cement ratio was 0.46
and 0.35 in the CC and SCC mixes, respectively. The
compressive strength of the SCC was 31.2 MPa for
the cylinders and 43.7 MPa for the 150 mm cubes.
For the conventional concrete mix, these values were
41.8 MPa and 43.3 MPa, respectively.
2.2 Reinforcement
The longitudinal reinforcement (perpendicular to the
clamping reinforcement) remained constant in all the
Figure 1. Details of shear-friction pushoff specimens.
604
specimens. The cross section perpendicular to the
transfer plane was reinforced with twelve 12-mm bars.
The clamping reinforcement was 6-mm or 8-mm
in diameter as shown in Table 1. The clamping hoop
closest the mid-height of the shear-transfer plane was
instrumented with a strain gauge at the intersection of
the clamp and the transfer plane. This gauge provided
readings used to measure the nominal shear stress at
which yielding strains were first reached.
2.3 Loading
The SF specimens were tested under a monotonic com-
pressive strain. The loading was maintained under a
constant strain rate of 1 mm per minute in all spec-
imens. This set rate is based on the deformations of
the machine and not the slip deformation across the
shear-friction plane.
3 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
3.1 Load-slip response
The slip was measured across the shear transfer plane.
Figure 2 shows a typical relationship for specimen 35-
3T8-L1-SCC.
The behavior was relatively linear up to about the
stress at which the first crack was developed along the
shear transfer plane at a stress of 4.9 MPa. Slight soft-
ening in the response was observed with the spread
of cracking. Yielding in the clamping reinforcement
was recorded at a shear stress of vy = 7.6 MPa, which
was immediately followed by the reaching the ulti-
mate strength at a stress of vu = 7.7 MPa and a slip of
1.32 mm.
Figure 2. Typical shear stress versus slip diagram (for
35-3T8-L1-SCC).
 Considerable amount of deformation was sustained
by the specimen, with slip values exceeding 10 mm.
The loading stabilized near a shear stress of 5.6 MPa,
and this stress value is taken as the post-ultimate
reserve capacity. Figure 3 shows the specimen after
the release of the load.
The remaining specimens showed a similar
response. In some cases, the yielding in the transverse
reinforcement was measured slightly after reaching the
ultimate stress. See Table 2.
3.2 Ultimate strength
Table 2 reports the ratio of the ultimate strength to the
yield stress at yielding (vu /vy ). The ratios are shown
to range from 1.01 to 1.12, with an average of 1.07.
This is consistent with the basis of the shear-friction
model, where it is assumed that the steel yields when
the ultimate strength is reached.
Figure 4 shows a plot of the experimentally
observed shear strength versus the amount of trans-
verse reinforcement (v fy ).
The figure shows that the increase in amount of
transverse reinforcement caused a consistent increase
in the ultimate strength. The figure also shows that
there is a limited difference in the shear strength of
CC and SCC. The observed difference can be due to
the difference in the compressive strength of the two
different types of concrete and the variation typically
observed in shear tests.
Figure 4 also shows the calculation of the shear-
friction model as detailed in the ACI code [2008].
In this model, larger amounts of clamping reinforce-
ment causes an increase in the shear strength, but the
increase is limited by an upper value. Figure 4 shows
the limits for the two strength of the two types of
concrete used.
Figure 4 shows that the calculations of the shear-
friction model are very conservative for both CC and
SCC specimens.

3.3 Post-ultimate reserve strength

Table 2 reports the observed values of the post-ultimate
reserve strength of the tested specimens. These values
were reached after the ultimate strength and follow-
ing considerable amounts of deformation, as shown in
Figure 2.
Figure 5 shows the relationship between the amount
of clamping reinforcement (v fy ) and the observed
post-ultimate reserve strength (vr ).

Figure 3. Specimen 35-3T8-L1-SCC after release of load.

Table 2. Summary of experimental results

vy vu vr
Specimen MPa MPa MPa vu /vy

35-2T6-L1-0 5.25 5.55 2.0 1.06

35-2T8-L1-0 7.55 7.94 3.9 1.05
35-3T8-L1-0 7.75 8.68 4.9 1.12
35-2T6-L1-SCC 5.50 6.10 1.6 1.11
35-2T8-L1-SCC 7.00 7.33 3.3 1.05
35-3T8-L1-SCC 7.60 7.70 5.6 1.01
35-4T8-L1-SCC 9.00 9.70 5.3 1.08
Figure 4. Effect of amount of clamping reinforcement on
the ultimate shear strength.
Yield was recorded after ultimate stress was reached.

605

Figure 5. Effect of amount of clamping reinforcement on
the post-ultimate reserve shear strength
Figure 5 shows that the reserve strength increases
with the increase in the amount of clamping reinforce-
ment. However, this increase is limited for the SCC
specimens with larger reinforcement levels.
The figure also shows that the there is limited dif-
ference between the reserve strength of CC and SCC.
Figures 4 and 5 show that the calculations of the shear-
friction model provide a better representation of the
reserve strength rather than the ultimate strength.
4 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
A total of seven pushoff specimens were cast and tested
to study the shear-friction strength of conventional
concrete (CC) and self consolidating concrete (SCC).
The specimens contained a variable amount of clamp-
ing reinforcement. The following were observed:
Upon loading, the specimens suffered from crack-
ing along or near the shear transfer plane.
Further loading caused the specimens to reach their
ultimate carrying capacity. In general, yielding
606
of the strain gauges installed on the clamping
reinforcement along the shear transfer plane was
observed at a load level close to the ultimate
strength. This reinforces the rationality of the shear-
friction model which assumes that at ultimate con-
ditions, the steel in the clamping steel reach yield
levels.
After reaching the ultimate conditions, the ability
of the specimens to resist loading was considerably
reduced, but the specimens were capable of resist-
ing a significant reserve post-ultimate strength. In
addition, the specimens were capable of sustaining
a considerable amount of deformation, with slips
along the shear-transfer plane exceeding 10 mm.
The ultimate capacity of SCC did not differ signif-
icantly from that of CC of similar reinforcement.
The ultimate capacity as calculated using the shear-
friction model of the ACI code were compared with
the observed ultimate capacity values and were
found to be very conservative.
The capacity calculations of theACI code compared
better with the post-ultimate reserve strength.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The research reported in this paper has been possi-
ble by a grant from the Research Administration at
Kuwait University, Project No. EV03/08. This support
is gratefully acknowledged.
REFERENCES
ACI-318, 2008. Building code requirements for reinforced
concrete and commentary ACI 318M-08, American Con-
crete Institute, Committee 318.
Hassan, A.A., Hossain, K.M. and Lachemi, M.
2008. Behavior of Full-scale Self-consolidating Concrete
Beams in Shear. Cement and Concrete Composites, V. 30,
pp. 588596.
Lachemi, M., Hossain, K.M. and Lambros, V. 2005.
Shear resistance of self-consolidating concrete beams
experimental investigations. Canadian Journal of Civil
Engineering, V. 32(6), pp. 11031113.
Lin, C-H., Chen, J-H. 2012. Shear behavior of self-
consolidating concrete beams. ACI Structural Journal, V.
109, pp. 307316.
Yang, J and Yu, M. 2011. Influence of compressive
strength of self-compacting concrete on shear behavior
of prestressed RC beams experimental investigations.
Applied Mechanics and Materials, V. 147, pp. 1418.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Earthquake response study of slope with anti-slide piles under bilateral

seismic actions

Bichang Dong
School of Transportation, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China

ABSTRACT: The interaction between double-rows piles and soil of Hu-rong expressway slope with anti-slide
piles is studied based on the software of ANSYS. The acceleration records of EI-Centro earthquake wave are
adopted as earthquake input load in this paper. Some conclusions have been obtained: (1) The horizontal dis-
placements of both front-row pile and rear-row pile increase gradually and have same direction under horizontal
and vertical seismic actions; The vertical ones of the latter pile are up and those of the first pile are down, that
shows stability of double-rows piles structure. (2) The pile node stress down pile top firstly grows and then
decreases under bilateral seismic shocks, and the biggest node stress of pile lies in about 2.7 m depth down pile
top; At first equivalent node stress of rear-row pile is little than one of front-row pile at the same height and
then increases by and by, which is bigger than that when it reaches shallow positions of piles and becomes the
maximum. Subsequently node stress of both piles decreases and becomes approximate.

Keywords: bilateral seismic actions; slope with anti-slide piles; earthquake response; Mises stress

1 INTRODUCTION square meter. The main slide direction is 220 degree.

As a means of slope treatments, double-rows piles in
recent years have been used in highway slope. How-
ever, pertinent design and study are less, especially
on seismic study[1] . As mentioned above, dynamic
response of Hu-rong expressway slope with anti-
slide pile is studied, EI-centro seismic date including
horizontal and vertical directions are input and the
displacement and stress of pile bodies at various posi-
tions under earthquake action are explored in order
to provide academic and scientific reference for slope
seismic design.
2 ENGINEERING EXAMPLE
Landslide body lies between k177 + 900 and
k178 + 00 of Hu-rong West expressway, whose plane
shape is flat-fan-shaped with the middle-rear wide and
the foreside narrow. Its average width is 140m and
longitudinal length is 170 m and total area is 23,800
The landslide zone spreads from north-east direction
to south-west one with 22 m average thickness, 25
to 30 degree longitudinal grade and 523,600 cubic
meter. The main lithology of landslide includes from
top to bottom mild clay with gravel, slightly dense
clay with gravel, block soil and argillaceous siltstone.
The mechanical parameters of rock and soil layers are
shown in Table 1.
According to literature[3] , double-rows piles were
located in the middle position of slope where the
slope displacement was the biggest, which included
two kinds of strength of 30 m and 32 m. The front-row
pile is 32 m near slope foot and the latter is 30 m. The
section size of crest beam is 2000 mm 1500 mm.
3 FEM MODELING
3.1 FEM model
FEM model is built based on above slope with anti-
slide pile and is shown in Fig. 2. Considering the rock

Table 1. Material values of rock and soil

Compression Poisson Gravity/ Internal friction Cohesion

Layer modulus/[MPa] ratio [kN/m3 ] angle/[ ] force/[kPa]

Mild clay with gravel 20 0.3 20.7 17 34

Clay with gravel 40 0.3 24.2 14 25
Clay with block 80 0.3 21.2 15.5 25
Argillaceous siltstone 24.9 23 117.6

607
and soil layers have close parameters, the layers in the
model are simplified two layers: landslide soi at the top
and bedrock at the bottom. The mechanical parameters
of model are shown in Table 2.
In the model, pile is assumed as linear elastic body,
while rock and soil is simulated by using Drucker-
Pragers model. When shear wave and pressure wave
of bedrock position propagate upward under couple
interaction of horizontal seismic and vertical one, the
node of bilateral boundary have displacement along
horizontal direction and have not along vertical direc-
tion, and the bottom border cannot deform along both
directions and the upper is free boundary.
Considering earthquake-resistance criterion of
expressway and practical conditions, the seismic for-
tification intensity of expressway slope with anti-slide
pile is set 7 degree. The horizontal seismic wave ampli-
tude is reduced to 0.1 g (equivalent to the basic inten-
sity of 7 degree), whose frequency keeps unchanged
and vertical earthquake wave amplitude is also reduced
at double ratio of the former when seismic data are
input. The acceleration input data of bedrock unequal
to ground acceleration ones are got by the inversion of
those[5-6] .
4 RESULT ANALYSIS

3.2 Earthquake wave input 4.1 Displacement analysis

The first 8 seconds data of the acceleration record of
EI-Centro earthquake wave in USA on may 18,1940
are adopted as earthquake input load in this paper,
which consist of 400 acceleration data including the
peak value. The time history wave of the horizontal
seismic and the vertical one are shown in Fig. 2 and
Fig. 3.
The maximum of anti-slide pile horizontal displace-
ment is 0.098 m, which distribute in pile top and
the minimum of it is 0.083, which lies in pile bot-
tom under earthquake along horizontal and vertical
directions. The relative displacement is 0.015 m. The
biggest vertical displacement is 0.002 m, which lies in
the rear-row pile while the least one is 0.00006 m,
which lies in the front-row pile. It can be seen in Fig.
4 and Fig. 5.
From figures it can be observed that horizontal dis-
placements of double-rows piles increase gradually
from pile top to pile bottom and have same direction.
The latter piling vertical displacement is up and the
first piling one is down, that shows stability of double-
row piles structure. Pile displacement curve is shown
in Fig. 6 when the horizontal one is the biggest, which
shows the same rule as Fig. 6.

4.2 Stress analysis

Fig. 7 shows the equivalent node stress of double-rows
Figure 1. FEM model. piles under bidirectional earthquake. It can be viewed

Figure 2. EI-Centro acceleration time historywave Figure 3. EI-Centro acceleration time history wave
(horizontal). (vertical).

Table 2. Mechanical parameters values of model

Compression Poisson Gravity/ Internal friction Cohesion

modulus/[MPa] ratio [kN/m3 ] angle/[ ] Force/[kPa] Damp

Landslide soil 35 0.3 24.2 15.9 25 0.05

Argillaceous siltstone 60 0.3 25.5 23 117.6 0.05
Anti-slide pile 30000 0.2 0.05

608

Figure 4. Pile horizontal displacement (m).
Figure 5. Pile vertical displacement (m).
Figure 6. Pile displacement curve (m).
Figure 7. Pile Mises stress (Pa).
that the maximum distributes near the connection of
pile top and crest beam and node stress enlarges grad-
ually up pile bottom. The curve in Fig. 8 describes
the variations of pile nodes stress which are from left
609
Figure 8. Double-rows pile Mises stress (Pa).
Figure 9. Pile stress time history curve(Pa).
profile of rear-row pile and right one of front-row
pile with pile depth. Whatever the front-row pile or
rear-row pile, it can be viewed that pile stress firstly
increases and then decreases and the maximum lies
in the shallow position near the pile top (about 2.5 m
down pile top); Compared with the first piling stress,
equivalent node stress of rear-row pile is little than one
of front-row pile at the beginning and then increases
by and by, which is bigger than that when it reaches
shallow positions of piles and becomes maximum.
Subsequently node stress of both piles decreases and
becomes approximate.
Fig. 9 shows stress time curve of pile. It can be seen
that stress of pile top is little for it is a free plane. The
biggest stress of pile lies in the position of 112.2 m,
which is only 2.8 m away from the top of pile(115.0 m).
The rules are same as ones showed in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The horizontal displacements of both front-row pile
and rear-row pile increase gradually and have same
directions under horizontal and vertical seismic wave;
The vertical ones of the latter pile is up and those of the
first pile is down, that shows stability of double-row
piles structure.
Whatever the front-row pile or rear-row pile, pile
stress firstly enlarges down pile top and then decreases
under bilateral seismic shock, and the biggest pile
stress lies in the shallow position near the pile top
(about 2.7 m depth); In contrast with the first piling
stress equivalent node stress of rear-row pile is lit-
tle than one of front-row pile at the beginning and
then increases by and by, which is bigger than that
when it reaches shallow positions of piles and becomes
maximum. Subsequently node stress of both piles
decreases and becomes approximate.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by the Fundamen-
tal Research Funds for the Central Universities
(2012IV051) and the Hubei Natural Science Foun-
dation(2009cdb319)
REFERENCES
Yu LUO, Siming HE & Jinchuan HE. 2010. Study on interac-
tion between slope and stabilizing pile under seism loading
[J]. Journal of Yangtze River Scientific Research Institute
27(6): 2629.
610
Xiangping OU, Zhitao JING & Wei XIANG, et al. 2005. The
stability analysis of Fujiapo landslide in Hu-rong national
road. Earth and Environment 33(S1): 403407.
Bichang DONG & Hongsheng QIU. 2007. Simulation study
on stability of slope with double-row piles. Journal of
Wuhan University of Technology (Transportation Science
and Engineering) (2) 502505.
Bichang DONG & Taolang SHU. 2012. Seismic dynamic
response study of Wuhan Changjiang River tun-
nel. Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols 166169
22432247.
Qingjun CHEN & Tuo LIU. 2010. Comparison of two meth-
ods of ground motion inversion and discussion on question
of frequency cut-off. Chinese Quarterly of Mechanics
31(3): 388394.
Guanghua YIN & Qingjun CHEN. 2010. Inversion of ground
motion analysis of soil-structure dynamic interaction.
Chinese Quarterly of Mechanics 31(2): 256264.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation on the reliability of the in-service

highway bridges

Da-wei Zheng & Zhi-bo Hu

Institute of Civil Engineering and Transportation, Liaoning Technical University, Fuxin, China

Li-xiao Qi
Institute of Construction and Engineering, Liaoning Technical University, Fuxin, China

ABSTRACT: The reliability of the bridge structure includes three respects of durability, safety and applicability.
This paper contrasts and analysis the existing researches, engineering entity, analytic hierarchy process as the
main research methods. This article are based on the ease of quantitative and qualitative fuzzy factors of fuzzy sets
and membership functions, have the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation of the bridge including durability, safety,
and applicability. During the evaluation of bridges reliability, especially in durability, this article objectively and
comprehensively considers the main effect of factors, strives to make the results of the assessment closer to the
actual situation.

Keywords: In-service bridges, Durability, Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation

1 INTRODUCTION 2.2 Establish the factor weight set

Generally to use the eigenvectors corresponding to
Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation is an assessment of
the maximum eigenvalue consisted with the eigen-
complex things, as for the impact factors of the com-
values of the matrix A as the weight vector of
plex problems we usually grading, in the first level
factors, therefore, its necessarily to test the matrix
of evaluation, using the existing test data, weights of
consistency.
the factors and membership function to evaluate the
(1) Calculation of consistency index C.I.:
factors; in the second level of evaluation, this arti-
cle uses various factors of the weight set in the first
level of evaluation, does an overall assessment of the
complex issues, given the complexity of factors affect-
ing the bridge reliability, can not simply use the first
level evaluation to make its final judgment. In order n as the number of rows or columns of judgment
to assess the results closer to the actual situation, matrix.
this paper makes use of method of secondary fuzzy (2) The corresponding average random consistency
comprehensive evaluation. index R.I. as shown in Table 1
(3) Calculation of consistency ratio of C.R.:
2 FUZZY COMPREHENSIVE EVALUATION
MODEL

2.1 Determine the membership function
This article uses the typical membership function
proposed by Professor Wang shown in Figure 1:
By the consistency ratio of C.R.,we can determine
whether the judgment matrix has a logical consis-
tency, whether it is acceptable, or the factor weights
assigned are reasonable.Academia agree that when
C.R. < 0.10, this matrix satisfies the requirements of
conformance.

Table 1. The mean random consistency index R.I.

N 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

R.I. 0 0 0.52 0.89 1.12 1.26 1.36 1.41 1.46 1.49

Figure 1. Grade membership function

611
2.3 Establish the evaluation sets and the single
factor fuzzy evaluation matrix
Set up the factor as follows:
U = {u1, u2, . . . , un}, evaluation set: V = {v1, v2, . . . ,
vn} and the fuzzy matrix relation between U and V,
that is evaluation matrix:
using gravity reinforced concrete structure to construct
embankments. The clean breadth of bridge surface
is 26 m.
Affecting factors of durability are mainly the fol-
lowing aspects: damage of cross-sectional area (D),
crack (C), cover depth of concrete (CD), Reinforced-
corrosion (R), chlorine-ion content (I), the depth
of concrete carbonization (DC), attenuation of the
strength of concrete (AS), bridge deck pavement and
expansion joints.

4 THE ASSESSMENT RESULTS

4.1 The first comprehensive assessment of

Among: rij is determined by the membership
function.
2.4 Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation of bridge
durability
The calculation of fuzzy comprehensive assessment:
durability
4.1.1 The determination of factors
Writing each factor based on the membership function
shown in the following Table 2Table 4
According to the above three tables, we can con-
clude the assessment of fuzzy matrice of the main

Table 2. Establishing main beam judgment matrix.

I II III IV

D r11 0.25 0.75 0 0

C r12 0 0.5 0.5 0
CD r13 1 0 0 0
R r14 0 0 0.625 0.375
Among: A is weight vector, B is fuzzy relation I r15 0 0.78 0.22 0
matrix DC r16 0.25 0.75 0 0
The elements bj of vector set B is calculated by: AS r17 0 1 0 0

Table 3. Evaluation results of pier indexes.

2.5 Treatment of the results of fuzzy comprehensive I II III IV

evaluation
D r11 1 0 0 0
In this paper, the asymmetric approach degree method C r12 0 0.5 0.5 0
to the quantification of the results of the assessment. CD r13 1 0 0 0
Close degree is calculated as: R r14 0 0 0.625 0.375
I r15 0 0.78 0.22 0
DC r16 0.25 0.75 0 0
AS r17 0 1 0 0

3 PROJECT Table 4. Evaluation results of coping indexes.

Gan heyu bridge is located in one of the 111 I II III IV

national highway bridges in Beijing, its length is
568 m (expansion joint to expansion joint), two-way D r11 0.25 0.75 0 0
four lane. The pier of substructure uses pile then C r12 0 0.5 0.5 0
CD r13 1 0 0 0
column, pile diameter D = 1.5 m, column diameter R r14 0 0 0.625 0.375
D = 1.2 m, cap beams of pier is ordinary reinforced I r15 0 0.78 0.22 0
concrete, setting straining beam between columns; DC r16 0.25 0.75 0 0
bridge abutment uses cast-in-situ bored pile, pile diam- AS r17 0 1 0 0
eter D = 1.2 m, after the formation of border pile,

612
beam, capping beam and pier: look up Table 1 and know R.I. = 1.36, so we
conclude that the judgment matrices have good
consistency.
Similarly, the weight vectors of factors of pier
and capping beams in the evaluation of durability as
follow:

According to formula (3), we can calculate the

assessment results of the girder, pier and capping
beam:

According to the actual damage of Gan yuhe bridge

and Table 24, we can get the results of evalua-
tion of horizontal linkages, supports and bridge deck
pavement and expansion joints:

B2 = {0, 0, 0, 1}, B3 = {0, 1, 0, 0}, B5 = {0, 0, 1, 0},

4.1.2 The establishment of judgment Table 6. Establishing pier judgment matrix

matrix and determination of the
index weights R DC I C D AS CD
Consulting the existing researches in recent years, this
article presents the judgment matrix of the main beam, R 1 2 2 3 4 5 4
capping beam and pier, the determination shown in the DC 1/2 1 1 2 3 4 3
Table 5Table 7: I 1/2 1 1 2 3 4 3
C 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 2 3 3
The largest eigenvalue of the matrices is max =
D 1/4 1/3 1/2 1/2 1 2 2
7.3120, and its corresponding vector is {0.32, AS 1/5 1/4 1/4 1/3 1/2 1 1
0.19, 0.18, 0.12, 0.08, 0.05, 0.06}, we generate CD 1/5 1/3 1/3 1/3 1/2 1 1
max = 7.3120 into formula(1) and get C.I. = 0.0255,

Table 5. Establishing main beam judgment matrix. Table 7. Establishing coping judgment matrix

R DC I C D AS CD R DC I C D AS CD

R 1 2 2 3 4 5 5 R 1 2 2 3 4 5 4
DC 1/2 1 1 2 3 4 3 DC 1/2 1 1 2 3 4 3
I 1/2 1 1 2 3 4 3 I 1/2 1 1 2 3 4 2
C 1/3 1/2 1/2 1 2 3 2 C 1/3 1/2 1/2 1 2 3 3
D 1/4 1/3 1/2 1/2 1 2 2 D 1/4 1/3 1/2 1/2 1 2 2
AS 1/5 1/4 1/4 1/3 1/2 1 1 AS 1/5 1/4 1/4 1/3 1/2 1 1
CD 1/5 1/3 1/2 1/3 1/2 1 1 CD 1/5 1/3 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 1

613
4.2 The second comprehensive assessment of
durability
4.2.1 Determination of the weight vector A
Reference to JTGH11-2004Technical for maintenance
of highway, we make the following judgment matrix:
The largest eigenvalue of the matrices is max =
6.3611, and its corresponding vector is {0.20, 0.12,
0.43, 0.07, 0.06, 0.12}, we generate max = 6.3611
into formula(1) and get C.I. = 0.0234, look up Table 1
and know R.I. = 1.26, so we conclude that the judg-
ment matrices have good consistency.
So: A = {main beam, pier, coping, horizontal link-
ages, supports and bridge deck pavement and expan-
sion joints} = {0.20, 0.12, 0.43, 0.07, 0.06, 0.12}.
4.2.2 Determination of the fuzzy relation matrix R
According to formula (4), we can get
614
5 CONCLUSION
Through comparing and analyzing the existing results
of researches, this article uses engineering entity as
the object of study, utilizes the ease of fuzzy sets and
membership function in quantitative and qualitative
fuzzy factors to do the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation
of the durability of Gan heyu bridge. In this article,
we considerate the main effects of factors objectively
and comprehensively, the results shows that the fuzzy
comprehensive assessment of the results are consistent
with the facts.
REFERENCES
JTGH11-2004 Technical for Maintenance of Highway.
Yong-ping Wang, Bao-yin Zhang, Shu-ren Zhang.
Bridge using performance assessment of fuzzy expert sys-
tem. Chinese Journal of Highway and Transport, 1996,
9(2):6267.
Chang Damin, Jiang Kebin. Bridges structural analysis and
design. Beijing: China Railway Publishing House. 1995.
Cheng-yi Wang. Fuzzy Mathematics Introduction. Beijing
University Press, 1988.
Di-tao Niu. Service of the mathematical model of struc-
tural reliability. Xian University of Architecture and
Technology.
Zhi-ye Zhao, Chuanyu Chen. A fuzzy system for con-
crete bridge damage diagnosis Computer & Structures
80(2002):629641.
Jia-yun Xu, Xiao-ming He, Jun Zhang. Fuzzy Theory in
Bridge Assessment. Wu Han University of Technology,
2003, 25(7):3841.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Seismic performance evaluation of bridge applying mode-based pushover

analysis method

Chao Yang, Xiedong Zhang & Xiaojun Che & Li Zhu

School of Transportation, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China

ABSTRACT: Now pushover analysis was used in civil engineering to evaluate the seismic performance of the
structure under the earthquake. Uniform force distribution and triangular force distribution are suitable for the
rigid structures and structures of which 1st-mode is main. In order to consider the effects of the higher modes,
pushover method based on mode analysis (MPA) is given in this paper to establish the appropriate level of
lateral load distribution patterns. Analyzing seismic performance of an actual continuous rigid frame bridge by
three different lateral distribution patterns, the results indicate that combining modes selected and combining
nonlinear time history accord with each other. It not only considers the high modes influence, but also avoids the
disturbing of the secondary modes, so its an available method to estimate the aseismic capacity of the bridges.

Keywords: pushover analysis, mode analysis, continuous rigid frame bridge, aseismic capacity

1 INTRODUCTION hundreds of vibration modes involved in the calcu-

In recent years, earthquake damage shows that defor-
mation checking of the bridge structure under earth-
quake is necessary. Nonlinear time history response
analysis is an analytical method to calculate the struc-
tural seismic response, but there is a heavy workload,
complex computation and other issues. Yet static elas-
ticity calculations cannot reflect the seismic behavior
of structures under strong earthquake. Pushover anal-
ysis method was proposed by Freeman et al in 1975,
while pushover analysis method research is rarely
adopted to domestic bridge seismic design, which
is mainly due to the incomplete theory of pushover
analysis method. The MPA method proposed by this
paper aims to select the higher modal contribution rate
involved in the calculation, constructing lateral load
patterns for pushover analysis, which not only avoids
all modal involved in the calculation tedious, but also
considers the influence of higher modes. Through
pushover analysis longitudinal bridge and transverse
bridge by an actual continuous rigid frame bridge and
comparison with the results of nonlinear time history
and two different lateral load distribution patterns,
pushover analysis method provides a reference for
bridge seismic design.
lation, and it leads to increasing workload and time.
This paper presents a method which is used to ana-
lyze dynamic characteristics, especially for analyzing
mode contribution ratio, Selecting the main modes in
combination as a lateral load distribution pattern of the
pushover method. The calculation steps are as follows:
Step 1: Modal contribution rate is the ratio of modal
weight to the whole weight, and isalso an impor-
tant parameter controlling the extent to which that
modality gets involved in the dynamic response.This
paper adopts the subspace iteration method to calcu-
late the structure of the first 100 order period and the
contribution rate of the corresponding modes in all
directions.
Step 2: Take out longitudinal (or transverse) modal
contribution rate is less than a certain value (in this
paper, 0.2%) of the some modes, and lateral load of
each particle of the pier are calculated.
Pointed out in the FEMA-273: Lateral force dis-
tribution mode as consistent as the distribution of
earthquake structure inertia force. So this article refers
to the provisions ofearthquake resistant design for
highway engineering (JTJ004-89), corresponding to
the vibration modes, the lateral force calculation meth-
ods of pier particle i longitudinal (or transverse), See
Equation 1 below:

2 MPA METHOD INTRODUCTION

In regard to long-span bridge structure and the high-
pier bridge, with softness and vibration-intensive
features, higher modes can not be ignored, In order
to obtain reliable results at this point, maybe taking
where Fij = corresponding to the j order vibra-
tion mode, lateral loads act on the pier parti-
cle i; = horizontal earthquake coefficient; j = the
corresponding dynamic magnification factor of
the piers longitudinal (or transverse) the j order;

615
j = participating coefficients of the j order vibra- 3.2 Lateral load calculation
tion mode; ij = corresponding to the jorder vibration
3.2.1 Longitudinal load
mode, the longitudinal (or transverse) mode of the pier
With the analysis of the structures modal contribution
particle i; and Gi = the gravity of the pier particle i.
rate, the modal contribution rate is not less than 0.2%
Step 3: Mmodes are selected in accordance with the
of the modal: 1,10,21,22,23,40,47,48,70 in the first
appropriate combinations to calculate longitudinal(or
100 order modal. The contribution rate selected from
transverse) lateral load of the pier particle i.
the inside of nine vibration modes has reached 95.48%.
Step 4: According to pushover curve, use the capac-
According to Equation 1, each piers particle i longitu-
ity spectrum method for solving seismic response.
dinal forces of the jvibration mode will be calculated,
the results refering to the SRSS method combinationto
get longitudinal force of piers each particle i. No.2
3 EXAMPLE pier and No.4 pier longitudinal force mode are shown
in Figure 2. Affected by high modes, the lateral load
Taking a large span continuous rigid frame bridge for pattern is no longer a form of aninverted triangle.
example to introduce the pushover method based on
modal analysis. Five-span prestressed box girder with
variable cross section on the bridge superstructure. The Table 1. Structural dynamic characteristics.
deck width is 15.75 m, Main girder box section for
the single box girder bridges by using C50 concrete. Effective mass ratio
The bridge contains a total of four piers, everyp-
Period, Longitudinal Transverse Vertical
iers height as follows: No.1 to 3 piers are 33.6 m, Mode T(s) (%) (%) (%)
and No.4 pier is 22.2 m. Using thin-walled solid pier
as the bridge pier, the seismic intensity is set to 1 2.3442 90.85 0.02 0
8 degrees. 2 1.4296 0 62.98 0
According to the design of the bridge data, create a 3 1.2002 0.03 0.73 0
calculation model by using the finite element general 4 0.8636 0.04 12.34 0
purpose computing software, see Figure 1. The gird- 5 0.8453 0.01 0 0.18
ers and piers with beam elements, spring stiffness to 6 0.6976 0.04 0 0.06
simulate the soil stiffness in the buried part of the sub- 7 0.6199 0.02 1.58 0
8 0.5711 0.01 0 13.13
structure of the pile foundation, fix the bottom and set
9 0.4810 0 6.14 0
the plastic hinge in the pier. 10 0.4164 0.35 0 3.48
11 0.3996 0.04 0.01 19.65
12 0.3582 0 0.02 0.04
3.1 Structural dynamic characteristics analysis 13 0.3192 0.5 0 0.01
14 0.2927 0.04 0 0.31
This paper has calculated the bridge vibration charac- 15 0.2793 0.11 0.02 1.12
teristics. Since the bridge is the structure of long-span 16 0.2757 0 0 0
bridges and the flexibility is a little large, therefore, 17 0.2708 0 1.57 0.01
it needs to take hundreds of vibration modes. While 18 0.2694 0 0.01 0.04
19 0.2658 0.01 0.02 0.7
the first 100-order modes of the bridge is selected,
20 0.2637 0.03 0.01 0.72
Modal contribution rate of 90% or more in the x (lon-
gitudinal direction), y(transverse direction), z(vertical
direction). 100 order of the cumulative vibration con-
tribution rate to 97.97% in the x direction. 100 order of
the cumulative vibration contribution rate 96.62% in
the y direction. 100 order of the cumulative vibration
contribution rate to 92.56%. Only list the top 20 order
cycle and the three directions of vibration contribution
rate due to space limitations. See Table 1.

Figure 1. Calculation model of fullbridge. Figure 2. No.2 pier and No.4 pier longitudinal load.

616
3.2.2 Transverse load
By the analysis of the structures modal contribution
rate, The modal contribution rate is not less than 0.2%
of the modal: 1,10,21,22,23,40,47,48,70 in the first
100 order modal, the contribution rate selected from
the inside of nine vibration modes has reached 95.48%.
Calculation methods with the longitudinal load, See
Figure 3.
3.3 Seismic performance evaluation
In this paper, the capacity spectrum method is used
in seismic performance evaluation, used by the U.S.
ACT40. The basic idea sets up two spectral curves of
the same benchmark: one is that load-displacement
curve of the lateral distribution loads are transformed
into the carrying capacity curve, the other is that accel-
eration response spectrum is converted into ADRS
spectrum.
Put the two curves in the same figure, of which the
intersection point is as performance points shown in
Figure 4, compared with the allowable value of dis-
placement determines whether it meets the seismic
requirements or not.
According to the capacity spectrum method, the lon-
gitudinal and transverse bridge separately is applied
in lateral load which carries out the pushover analy-
sis. Putting the load-displacement curve into capacity
spectrum curve, and seismic demand curve is drawn in
the same figure, so the performance points can be got
from the figure to evaluate the seismic performance.
Figure 3. No.2 pier and No.4 pier transverse load.
Figure 4. Capacity spectrum method schematic.
617
3.4 Seismic capacity assessment
In this paper, the longitudinal and transverse bridge
respectivelyconsiders the three conditions, as is seen
in Table 2, which carries out the longitudinal and trans-
verse by the pushover analysis. In accordance with the
first stage modal form of the distribution of load lat-
eral force with the inverted triangle distribution which
is basically the same, the acceleration constant load
lateral force distribution is basically the same.
3.4.1 Longitudinal analysis results
After time-history response analysis, the top of No.2
pier has generated large displacements, therefore,
carry out pushover analysis, with the top of No.2 pier
displacement as the transverse axis, and draw the struc-
tural capacity curve. Through the pushover analysis,
three conditions of base shear-pier top displacement
curve are shown in Figure 5.
The structural capacity curves and seismic demand
curve under three conditions are drawn in the spectral
coordinates, the inter section of the capacity spec-
trum curve and the seismic demand spectrum curve is
the performance point. After the analysis of the three
conditions, if the capacity spectrum curve intersects
with the demand spectrum curve, it will show that
the seismic performance meets the requirements. The
results of the seismic performance analysis are shown
in the Table 3. The spectral coordinate capacity spec-
trum curve and the seismic demand spectrum curve are
shown in Figure 6. The result shows that the analytical
results under the first working condition are consis-
tent with those under the second working conditions.
But the results are significantly larger than the formal
Table 2. Three conditions of pushover analysis.
Conditions Appellation
1st condition First order mode
2nd condition Acceleration constants
3rd condition MPA
Figure 5. Base shear-Top pier displacement curve.
Table 3. Structure of longitudinal bridge seismic perfor- Table 4. Structure of transverse bridge seismic performance
mance analysis results. analysis results.

Sa Sd Shear Displacement Sa Sd Shear Displacement

Mode m/s2 m kN m Mode m/s2 m kN m

1st condition 0.055 0.096 10032.998 0.099 1st condition 0.055 0.096 10032.998 0.099
2nd condition 0.056 0.086 10197.258 0.090 2nd condition 0.056 0.086 10197.258 0.090
3rd condition 0.065 0.071 11822.922 0.074 3rd condition 0.065 0.071 11822.922 0.074
Nonlinear time 12639.554 0.069 Nonlinear time 12639.554 0.069
history history
Percentage of 6.46% 7.24% Percentage of 6.46% 7.24%
disparity disparity

Note: Percentage of disparity refers to the ratio of the 3rd Note: Percentage of disparity refers to the ratio of the 3rd
conditions and nonlinear time history. conditions and nonlinear time history.

Figure 8. Capacity spectrum curve and demand spectrum

Figure 6. Capacity spectrum curve and demand spectrum
curve under three conditions.
curve under three conditions.
After the analysis of the three conditions, if the
capacity spectrum curve intersects with the demand
spectrum curve, it shows that the seismic performance
meets the requirements. The seismic performance
analysis results are shown in Table 4. The spectral
coordinate capacity spectrum curve and the seismic
demand spectrum curve are shown in Figure 8, The
result shows that the analytical results under the 1st
condition are consistent with those under 2nd condi-
tion, while the 3rd condition results are significantly
larger than the formal two, which are nearly close to the
results of nonlinear time history analysis. Therefore,
MPA can better reflect the seismic performance.

Figure 7. Base shear-Top pier displacement curve.
two. Therefore, the push over analysis based on modal
method better reflects the seismic performance.
3.4.2 Transverse analysis results
By the results of pushover analysis, three conditions
of base shear-top pier displacement curve is shown in
the Figure 7, It can be seen that the curve is almost
consistent under three conditions.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Through the whole paper, taking a large span contin-
uous rigid frame bridge example is to introduce the
pushover analysis method based on modal analysis.
And comparing two different lateral load distribution
patterns, the importance of structural seismic capacity
can be obtained through the method of pushover based
on modal analysis.
Firstly, comparing the MPA method and the first
order modal load distribution, the maximum base
shear difference longitudinal bridge is 15.1%, dis-
placement rate of it is 33.8%, transverse bridge to the

618
maximum base shear slip is 5.3%, and the displace-
ment difference is 3.8%. It shows that there exists a
big longitudinal bridge to the first mode load distribu-
tion under the nape to this span continuous rigid frame
bridge.
Secondly, the seismic capacity assessment results
from the longitudinal and transverse bridge show that
the analysis of the results of the first modal analysis of
the base shear and top displacement and the accelera-
tion constant is very close. But analysis of base shear
and top pier displacement through the MPA method
is larger than the former two, which indicates that the
MPA seismic capacity is much more important to the
long-span continuous rigid frame bridge.
Thirdly, through the comparison between the capac-
ity spectrum value and the time-response results,
longitudinal and transverse response value can be cal-
culated through the MPA method analysis, which is
basically consistent with the calculation of the non-
linear time history results. It indicates that to this high
pier-span continuous rigid frame bridges, using a sim-
ple and convenient, fast MPA method for earthquake
response analysis.
619
REFERENCES
Applied Technology Council (ATC). 1996. Seismic evalu-
ation and retrofit of concrete buildings Report ATC40.
Redwood City California: Applied Technology Council.
Chopra A. K. 2002 A modal pushover analysis procedure
for estimating seismic demands for buildings. Earthquake
Engineering and Structural Dynamics 31:561582.
Freeman, S.A. 1998. Development and use of Capacity Spec-
trum Method. Proceeding of 6th National Conference on
Earthquake Engineering: 764772.
GBJ 1189. 1989. Earthquake resistant design for highway
engineering. Beijing: China Building Industry Press.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
1997. Nehrp Guidelines for the Seismic Rehabilitation
of Buildings. Washington D C: FEMA Report 273.
Vision 200 Committee.1995. Performance-based Engineer-
ing of Building. Miranda E. Seismology Committee of the
Structure Engineer Association of California, Oakland:
Wiley Inc.
Xun. Xie. 2006. Seismic response and earthquake resistant
design of bridges. Beijing: China Communications Press.
Xinye. Chen. 2010. Modify the method of MPA for con-
tinuous rigid frame bridge seismic performance analy-
sis.Vibration and shock 29(10): 9396.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Research on the reasonable strength of cement-treated macadam base

Yan Wang & Xue Sun

Jinling Institute of Technology, Nanjing, China

Zaixin Li
Xiamen bridge and tunnel maintenance center, Xiamen, China

ABSTRACT: In order to find out the reasonable strength of different cement-stabilized macadam base mate-
rials, experiments were carried out by mixing the cement-stabilized macadam mixture with different gradations
and cement dosages to test the mixtures dry-shrinkage performance and strength. Hence a model for evaluating
the dry-shrinkage performance of cement-stabilized macadam mixture was made on the basis of the mixtures
dry-shrinkage performances relationship with water loss rate, exposure time, cement dosage, gradation and
other elements. The experiment shows that the mixtures dry-shrinkage performance is the best when mixed
with fine gradations and the cement is added by 3% to 4%,the base courses drying shrinkage and cracking can
be best controlled when the mixture is mixed with 3% cement and the 90th age splitting strength is meet the
requirement of specification.

Keywords: Cement-stabilized materials, Dry-shrinkage performance, Reasonable Strength

1 GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS
Cement-treated macadam base were widely used in
highway of China. These kinds of materials have a lot
of advantages, such as high strength and well Load
diffusing capacity. While, when the shrinking stress
caused by the change of the humidity in the base course
is higher than the materials tension strength, shrinking
cracks come into being in transverse direction in the
cement-stabilized macadam base. Shrinkage cracks
in base and reflection cracks in pavement which is
caused by base cracks were considered as the primary
disadvantage of Cement-treated macadam base.
A lot of research has been done (SHA 1998,
HU 2003 & YANG 2004) in the anti-erosion capa-
bility and durability of the base course and lately
researchers began to study the shrinking performance
of cement-stabilized macadam material, no effective
solution in controlling the dry-shrinkage cracking of
cement-stabilized macadam base has been proposed.
The shrinking coefficient norm commonly adopted to
evaluate the materials shrinking performance is too
complex in evaluating and isnt suitable for direct
construction control. Its necessary to determine the
corresponding strength standard on the basis of the
materials shrinking capability.
This Article is applied to large number of indoor
tests to analyze for intensity and shrinkage perfor-
mance for different cement-stabilized macadam base
material, and applied for finite element method to
make quantitative analysis for base shrinkage stress.
Results for study shall be applied for provision with
some reference while selection out reasonable cement
dosage during actual design and construction and
reduction for transverse shrinkage crack for semi-rigid
base.
2 THE DRY-SHRINKAGE EXPERIMENT
2.1 Test Preparation
The No.32.5 composite silicate cement is employed in
the tests, the fineness degree of which is 3.2%, pri-
mary solidifying time of which is 5.3 h while the final
solidifying time 7.4 h. The rest of the basic capability
data all meet the criterion4.
The crushing value of the aggregate is examined
to be 22.8%; the liquid limit and plasticity index
should also be examined if the grain diameter is below
0.6 mm. The rest of the capability data of the aggregate
all meet the criterion.
The gradation of the aggregate is one of the most
important elements that affect the mixtures character-
istics. Three gradations employed in this experiment
are: the medium value of the standard gradation range,
i.e. fine gradation (marked as z), the rough gradation
of the standard gradation range (marked as c) and
the skeleton gradation5 determined by the compacting
test (marked as g).
2% to 5% of cement of three gradations is cho-
sen in both dry-shrinkage performance experiment and

621
Table 1. Dry shrinkage coefficients of different materials. Table 2. UCS test result for 7 days.

Cement dosage Dry Shrinkage Coefficients Cement dosage (%) Intensity (MPa)
Gradation % /%
2.0 2.9
z 5.0 70.4 2.5 3.3
z 4.0 52.0 3.0 3.5
z 3.0 50.1 3.5 3.7
z 2.0 66.7 4.0 4.1
c 5.0 75.1 4.5 4.4
c 3.5 54.8 5.0 6.1
c 2.5 70.2
g 5.0 84.6
g 3.5 58.1
Table 3. UCS test results for different-ages (MPa).

Average results of UCS for different

the strength experiment, so as to find out the reason-
able strength of the cement-stabilized macadam-based
layer on the basis of the drying shrinkage characteris-
tics (Zai-xin Li 2006).
The dry-shrinkage experiment is performed at the
temperature of 25 degree centigrade and the humidity
of 50%. The beam specimen chosen for the experiment
measures is about 100 mm 100 mm 400 mm. Strain
gauges are pasted on both sides of the specimen to test
the straining change. The strain data is collected by
computers while the water content change of the spec-
imen is recorded manually. The test time interval is
once every six hours on the first day, once every twelve
hours from the second to the fifth day, once every
twenty-four hours thereafter until the water content
basically stops changing.
2.2 Analysis of test results
Based on the change value of dry shrinkage strain and
water content, the average dry-shrinkage coefficient
was calculated by Eq. 1 as follows:
Where, i , o ,is dry-shrinkage strain of initial and
ith time, ; i and 0 is water content of initial and
ith time, %.
Dry shrinkage coefficients of cement-treated
macadam base materials with different cement dosage
and gradation types were calculated in Table 1.
It can be seen from the results that the average dry-
shrinkage coefficient in fine gradation is a bit lower
than that in the other two gradations. On the other hand,
the lower the cement dosage is, the more obvious the
difference will be.
Why does the test result show these two rules? One
reason might be that with much fine aggregate in
fine gradation, the cement can hydrate completely and
there isnt much water lost inside the mixture except
the free water on the surface. Another reason is that
the strength in fine gradation is high, the void ratio
is low and the coarse aggregate and the cement agent
produced in the cement hydrating process inhibit the
shrinking to great extent.
cement dosage
Ages 5.0% 4.5% 3.5% 2.5%
7 6.1 4.4 3.7 3.3
28 7.5 6.7 5.2 4.0
60 8.1 7.5 5.8 4.3
90 8.5 8.1 6.2 4.4
3 THE STRENGTH EXPERIMENT
3.1 Strength test and the results
Indoor strength test will select the same cement dosage
with dry- shrinkage test, medium-class grade with
mix material specified in this regulation facilitates
with intensity test, including 7d, 28d, 60d and 90d
unconfined compression strength (UCS), 60d and 90d
splitting strength. Before test sample forms, in accor-
dance with Highway Engineering Inorganic Com-
bination Stabilization Material Test Regulation (JTJ
057-94) 5, we adopt heavy-duty compaction method
to confirm with optimal water content and max dry
density for different mix material6. Tester forms inten-
sity test sample under optimal water content, and
use plastic film to seal up it after well-formed, and
then put into standard preservation room (tempera-
ture is 25 C, humidity keeps up over 95%) for further
preservation until immersion into water for 24 h before
test, and do unconfined compression strength test or
splitting strength test next day. As for unconfined com-
pression strength test result for different dosage and
different-interval test sample, see Table 2 and 3.
Test for splitting strength shall be done at MTS 810
material test machine so as to preferably control load
speed (1 mm/min), as for test result, see Table 4.
Indoor test results indicated that, while cement
dosage is just 2.5%, UCS for 7 days namely meets the
regulation, so it becomes feasible to reduce cement
dosage to control shrinkage of base after meeting base
intensity under relative regulation.
Cement dosage plays crucial role for intensity. UCS
for mixed material basically becomes linearly rose
along with rise in cement dosage; splitting strength
relatively less rises along with rise in cement dosage
after cement dosage exceeds 4%.

622
Table 4. Test results for splitting strength (MPa).
Average results of UCS for different
cement dosage
Ages 5.0% 4.5% 3.5%
60 0.69 0.64 0.45
90 0.80 0.73 0.49
Table 5. Optimal estimate value for parameters.
a b c d e
0.0609 2.1039 7.5402 19.1359 0.5715
3.2 Prediction model
Since the experiment has confirmed the effect caused
by the cement dosage, gradation and other ele-
ments on the dry-shrinkage performance of cement-
stabilized macadam mixture, a dry-shrinkage per-
formance evaluating model(formulae 2) for cement-
stabilized macadam mixture, which can be affected
by different gradations, cement dosages, water loss
rate and exposing time, is set up in order to facilitate
the design and choice of the base course material and
realize the non-linear regression of the experimen-
tal data by composing the program with the soft-
ware MATLAB. The optimum evaluated value of the
parameters is shown in Table 5.
where,
y: dry-shirnkage coefficient,
P1 ,P2 : gradation coefficient,
Ce : cement dosage,
Wa : water loss rate,
Td : exposure time.
Step-by-step antitheses intend to draw a conclusion
by analyzing the observation data obtained in pairs
through an experiment done under the same condition
in order to compare the two products, two instruments,
two methods, etc. As t-statistic is employed to test in
the hypothesis testing, the test is called t-test based on
the paired data or t-test based on the paired observa-
tion value. T-test is adopted to inspect the validity of
the model. After the respective bilateral t-tests on the
evaluating model paired data on the significance layer
of 0.05, the result can be seen in Table 6.
The analyzed result shows that all the absolute value
of t-statistic of the model is lower than the bilateral crit-
ical value. It brings forward such a conclusion that the
measured value and evaluated value dont have much
difference; the model is valid and can be adopted to
determine the dry-shrinkage performance of different
mixtures.
Also, Figure 1 shows the comparison between the
model-evaluated value and the measured value of the
Table 6. Analyzed result of T-test.
Variable type Measured value Calculated value
Average value 37.796 37.659
2.5% Square deviation 479.4 471.5
Observed value 180 10
0.30 P-coefficient 0.981
0.40 df 107
t-Stat 0.332
P(T< = t) bicaudate 0.741
t-bicaudate criticality 1.982
P-coefficient: Poisson related coefficient.
Figure 1. Comparison of test and estimate values.
shrinking strain and coefficient of different mixtures.
The two groups of value mainly distribute around the
line y = x, which shows that the model-evaluated value
is basically accurate.
As the shrinking performance evaluating model is
set up on the basis of the indoor experiment, it works
with great accuracy when the experimental condi-
tion conforms or is close to that of the research. Any
change in the experimental condition, e.g. the envi-
ronmental humidity and the temperature, can affect
the result of the experiment. Hence the model should
be further amended and verified with more indoor and
outdoor detecting data, so as to accurately evaluate the
dry-shrinkage performance of the cement-stabilized
macadam mixture.
4 ANALYSIS
The experiment result indicates that the shrinking
performance in fine gradation is better than that in
the other two gradations. Therefore, adopting the
experiment-determined various cement dosages, the
mixtures shrinking performance parameter in fine
gradation and the same structural parameter as refer-
ence document 8, a model is set up with the commonly
used finite element program ABAQUS to calculate the
drying shrinkage stress caused by the water loss in the
base course so as to determine the suitable base course
strength (Qiang Li 2006). According to documents,
when the drying shrinkage process is over, the mois-
ture field in the pavement structure will change from
the base course optimum water content to the water
content of 2% on the surface of the base course and
623

Figure 2. Comparison shrinkage stress with splitting
strength.
3% at the bottom of it. This standard is adopted in the
drying shrinkage calculating and the optimum water
content is determined by the experiment.
The comparison between the 90th age splitting
strength and the calculated value of the shrinking
stress in different cement dosages and fine gradations
material is shown in Figure 2.
With the increase in the cement dosage, the split-
ting strength value resulted from the indoor experiment
obviously increases. One reason is that the mixture
has a minimum shrinking coefficient when the cement
dosage is around 3%. Another reason is while the base
course modulus increases widely with the increase in
the cement dosage, the calculated shrinking stress also
has a minimum value when the cement dosage is 3%.
The shrinking stress with a cement dosage of 6% is
three times higher than that with a cement dosage of
3%. The variation range in which the shrinking stress
increases with the cement dosage is much wider than
that in which the strength grows with the increase in
the cement dosage.
When the shrinking stress is higher than the mate-
rial strength, shrinking cracks are formed in the base
course. In fact, cracking has already begun in the weak
part of the base course even before the shrinking stress
reaches the same with the materials strength. In order
to reduce and control the dry-shrinkage cracking in the
cement-stabilized macadam base, after synthesizing
the indoor experiment and the finite elements calcu-
lating result, the cement-stabilized macadam mixture
with the fine gradation and a cement dosage of 3%
under the condition that the 90th age splitting strength
is above 0.44 MPa is highly recommended. This indoor
strength standard tends to be safe as the measured
strength value of the base course in site is usually
higher than the indoor strength value under the same
condition.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The following conclusions were obtained from this
study.
624
1) After dry-shrinkage experiments with different
types of cement-stabilized macadam mixtures, the
dry-shrinkage performance of the mixture with the
fine gradation and cement dosage ranging from 3%
to 4% is found to be optimum.
2) A dry-shrinkage performance evaluating formula
of cement-stabilized macadam mixture is set up and
verified. Though the model works with great accu-
racy under certain conditions, it should be further
amended and verified with more practical project
data.
3) Once cement dosage reduces some degree, shrink-
age stress created in this structure is possibly equiv-
alent to or less than material intensity, theoretically,
this shall not create out any crack arising from
shrinkage, however, the less cement dosage, the
biggest intensity variation, internal structure exist
weaker section; however this is not beneficial for
crack control arising from shrinkage. Consequen-
tially, improvement for construction workmanship
to reduce construction variation and reduce weak
point for base internal intensity also becomes
important to control the crack arising from trans-
verse shrinkage.
4) It is known after combined with finite element
calculation and indoor/outdoor test result that, con-
trol for 3% cement dosage can effectively control
creation for transverse shrinkage crack for cement-
stabilized macadam base on the basis of simultane-
ous paying attentions to intensity and construction
variation.
5) The unconfined compression strength is the critical
index for base construction control in China, the
reasonable UCS of cement-treated macadam base
should be rang from 3.5 4.5 MPa according to the
research results.
REFERENCES
Qing-lin SHA,1998. Asphalt Pavement on Semi-rigid Road-
base for High-class Highways. Beijing. China Communi-
cations Press.
Li-qun HU andAi-min SHA, 2003. China Journal of Highway
and Transport, 16: 2528.
Wen-ding YANG 2004. Research on Shrinkage Perfoemance
of Semi-rigid base Materials. Xian. Changan University.
Department of Transportation. Test Methods of Aggregate
for Highway Engineering(JTJ E42-2005) 2005. Beijing,
China Communication Press.
Department of Transportation. Test Methods of Materials
Stabilized with Inorganic Binders for Highway Engineer-
ing(JTJ 057-94) 1994. Beijing, China Communication
Press.
Yu-fang WANG, Feng HAO, 2001. Process Control and Sta-
tistical Technique. Beijing, China Metrology Publishing
House.
Zai-xin LI, 2006. Research on the Performance of Cement
Stabilized Aggregate Mixture and Indexs Correlation-
ship. Nanjing. South-east University.
Qiang LI, 2006. Research on the Design Indexes of Reflec-
tive Cracking in Semi-rigid Base Asphalt Pavements.
Nannjing, South-east University.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Horizontal shear behavior and vibration isolation efficiency of

FRP rubber isolators

Lei Han, Tian-bo Peng & Zhen-nan Wang

State Key Laboratory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

ABSTRACT: FRP rubber isolators are composed of rubber plates bonded to interleaving reinforcing plates.
Former experimental studies have shown that the equivalent damping ratio, shear deformation capacity and
vertical loading capacity of FRP rubber isolators are not inferior to those of other isolators, so broad application
prospects of FRP rubber isolators can be expected. In this paper a theoretical approach is presented to investigate
the horizontal shear behavior of rectangular FRP rubber isolators, from which the relationship between horizontal
shear force and shear strain of rectangular FRP rubber isolators is derived. Influences of plane dimensions,
material properties, and rubber and FRP plate parameters on the vibration isolation efficiency of the isolators
are studied then, and some conclusions are drawn finally.

Keywords: FRP rubber isolator; horizontal shear behavior; vibration isolation Introduction

At the end of last century, FRP rubber isolator was
developed and the isolator is composed of elastomeric
plates bonded to interleaving FRP plates. The high
stiffness of reinforcements restrains the lateral expan-
sion of bounded rubber plates and results in higher
vertical compression stiffness than unbounded rub-
ber layers. Besides the reliable vertical rigidity and a
certain amount of energy dissipation, FRP rubber iso-
lator has the same advantages as those of rubber block,
such as light weight, small size, the ability to isolate
high frequency vibration and sound, and the ability
to reduce the vibration along the axial, transverse and
rotational direction at the same time. So FRP rubber
isolator is regarded as a suitable vibration isolator for
industrial equipments and structures.
It is very important to investigate vibration isolation
performance of FRP rubber isolator and establish the
mechanical model for the application of the isolator
to vibration isolation design of equipments and struc-
tures. In this paper, the horizontal shear behavior of a
rectangular FRP rubber isolator is investigated theo-
retically, and the relationship between horizontal shear
force and shear strain is derived. Influences of plane
dimensions, material properties, and rubber and FRP
plate parameters on the vibration isolation efficiency
of the isolator are studied then. Finally, some useful
conclusions are drawn.
1 DERIVATION OF HORIZONTAL SHEAR
FORCE FORMULA
FRP rubber isolator works in a state of combined
compression and shear, so horizontal shear behavior
studied here is also under compressive stress states.
An FRP rubber isolator is illustrated in Figure 1, where
rubber plates are painted black and FRP plates are
painted white. When the shear deformation is smaller,
the cantilever segments of all the FRP plates are
shorter, and the forces to make all the FRP plates bend
are also smaller, so all the FRP plates remain plane,
and all the rubber plates deform in shear as shown in
Figure 1b. When the shear deformation is larger, the
cantilever segments of all the rubber and FRP plates
are relatively longer, and the forces to make the plates
bend are larger, so the edges of all the plates will bend
as shown in Figure 1c, and the separation of the edges
of top and bottom surfaces of an isolator from the
supporting plates will be observed.
In the analysis several hypotheses not very rigorous
but acceptable are suggested,
1) The influence of vertical compression on horizontal
shear behavior is negligible;
2) Plane-section assumption is applicable;
3) The material behaviors of rubber and FRP are
assumed to be linear elastic;
4) The flexural stiffness of a single rubber plate is
negligible;
5) The isolator can be divided into three parts in
parallel according to their different deformation
states: The first part is the central prism with a
cross section of parallelogram shape, which will
deform into rectangular shape under compression
shear test. The other two parts are the side prisms
with a cross section of right triangle shape, which
will deform into sector shape under combined com-
pression and shear loading as shown in Figure 2. So
the total horizontal shear force T of the combined
compression and shear test includes two parts, T1

625
 Figure 2. The initial and deformed shapes of the three parts
of an isolator.

Figure 3. The horizontal displacement d of a side prism.

Figure 1. Combined compression-shear behavior of an FRP

rubber isolator.

to make the central part into a rectangle and T2 to

make the two side parts into sectors, then T can be
expressed as:

Figure 4. The relationship among db , h, d and dv .

The length, width and height of a rectangular FRP
rubber isolator are denoted as a, b and h, respectively,
and it is composed of n rubber plates of thickness t
and n-1 FRP plates of thickness tf . When the isolator
deforms along the direction of the width b, the shear
stiffness is the relationship between the horizontal
shear force and the corresponding horizontal displace-
ment. The horizontal displacement of the isolator is
denoted as d, which can be expressed as:
For side prisms, the horizontal displacement d
under T2 can be divided into two parts: shear dis-
placement ds and bending displacement db as shown
in Figure 3, then d can be expressed as:
Shear displacement induced by shear deformation
of rubber plates can be calculated based on the plane-
section assumption, and then ds can be expressed as:

where, is the shear strain of each rubber plate of the

central prism. Then the two legs of the right triangle
equal d and h, respectively, and the base line and height
of the parallelogram are b d and h. so it is shown that
all the base lines of the three parts are functions of .
For the central prism, the relationship between hor-
izontal shear force T1 and horizontal displacement d
is as follows:
The relationship among the bending displacement
db , h, d and dv which is the displacement perpendic-
ular to the ends of all the FRP plates can be deduced
according to the bending deformation of the two side
prisms as shown in Figure 4.

If the flexural stiffness of each rubber plate is

where, G is the shear modulus of rubber plates. neglected, then the relationship between dv and N

626

Figure 5. The relationship between T2 and N .
which is the force perpendicular to the ends of all the
FRP plates can be expressed as
where Ef is the elastic modulus of FRP plates. The
relationship between T2 and N achieved by the bal-
ance of horizontal forces as shown in Figure 5 can be
expressed as:
According to the hypothesis that the cross sections
of deformed side prisms are sector shapes, the angle
can be expressed as:
So the relationship between T2 and d can be
expressed as:
The solution of Eq. (10) is:
where the parameter C is defined as:
So the total horizontal shear force T of the compression
shear test can be rewritten as:
627
2 INFLUENCE OF DESIGN PARAMETERS
ON THE VIBRATION ISOLATION
EFFICIENCY
The design parameters investigated here are all
included in Eq. (12) and (13) and can be divided into
three categories: plane dimensions a and b, material
properties G and Ef and plate parameters n, t and tf .
The performance of vibration isolation is assessed
by displacement transmissibility and vibration iso-
lation efficiency E, displacement transmissibility and
vibration isolation efficiency of a single degree-of-
freedom system are expressed by:
where, is the ratio of the excited vibration frequency
to the natural frequency of the SDOF system and
expressed by:
is the damping ratio. As shown, the vibration isola-
tion efficiency is positive for > 2. For an SDOF
system, the smaller the stiffness is, the larger is and
the smaller is, the larger E is.
A theoretical analysis is carried out using Eq. (14)
to (16), and an SDOF system excited by a series of
harmonic loads with frequencies varying from 1 H z
to 4 H z is taken as the example. Several parameters
are fixed, such as = 2.5, m = 300 ton, = 0.05, and
the other seven parameters are varied to study the
influences on the vibration isolation efficiency.
Relationships between the vibration isolation effi-
ciencies and the excited vibration frequencies for
different design parameters are shown in Fig. 6.
The influence of isolator length a and width b is
shown in Figure 6a and 6b. It is found that the FRP
rubber isolator is more effective for high frequency
vibration isolation and resonance can be found if the
excited vibration frequency is lower than 2H z. For a
smaller a or b, the horizontal stiffness and the natu-
ral frequency of the SDOF system are smaller, so the
vibration isolation efficiency and the excited vibration
frequency range where E > 0 are larger.
The influences of shear modulus of rubber plates
G, elastic modulus of FRP plates Ef and thickness of
FRP plates tf are almost the same, and as shown in
Figure 6c, 6d and 6g, the vibration isolation efficiency
and the excited vibration frequency range where E > 0
are smaller with the increases of these parameters.
Figure 6. Influences of design parameters on the vibration isolation efficiency.

Number of rubber plates n and thickness of rub-
ber plates t appear in the denominator of Eq. (13),
so the value of Eq. (13) is almost inversely propor-
tional to n and t, and as shown in Figure 6e and
6f the vibration isolation efficiency and the excited
vibration frequency range where E > 0 are larger with
the increases of these parameters.
As previously stated, all the seven parameters
have very distinct influences on the vibration iso-
lation efficiency, and among the 7 parameters, the

628
vibration isolation efficiency tends to decrease with
the increases of a, b, G, Ef and tf and tends to increase
with the increases of n and t.
3 CONCLUSIONS
A theoretical model of FRP rubber isolator in a state of
combined compression and shear is presented in this
paper in order to investigate the vibration isolation
efficiency of rectangular FRP rubber isolators. The
relationship between total horizontal shear force T and
the shear strain of rectangular FRP rubber isolators
is derived. The influences of seven design parameters
of the isolator on the vibration isolation efficiency
of rectangular FRP rubber isolators are studied. The
conclusions are as follows:
1. The nonlinearity of the horizontal shear behavior
of a FRP rubber isolator stems from the bending of
the cantilever segments of all the FRP plates.
2. The FRP rubber isolator is more effective for high
frequency vibration isolation.
3. The vibration isolation efficiency tends to decrease
with the increases of a, b, G, Ef and tf and tends to
increase with the increases of n and t.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank National Key Tech-
nology R&D Program (No. 2009BAG15B01), the
629
Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No.
SLDRCE 08-B-04), National Natural Science Foun-
dation of China (No. 50708074), the Fundamen-
tal Research Funds for the Central Universities and
Kwang-Hua Fund for College of Civil Engineering,
Tongji University.
REFERENCES
Kelly, J.M. 1999. Analysis of fiber-reinforced elastomeric
isolator. Journal of Seismology and Earthquake Engineer-
ing, 2(1), 1934.
Kelly, J.M. & Takhirov, S.M. 2002. Analytical and experiment
study of fiber-reinforced strip Isolators. PEER Report
2002/11, Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Cen-
ter, University of California, Berkeley.
Mordini, A. & Strauss, A. 2008. An innovative earthquake
isolation system using fibre reinforced rubber bearings.
Engineering Structures. 30, 27392751.
Moon, B.Y., Kang, G.J., Kang, B.S. & Kelly, J.M. 2002.
Design and manufacturing of fiber reinforced elastomeric
isolator for seismic isolation. Journal of Materials Pro-
cessing Technology 130131, 145150.
Tasi, H.C. & Kelly, J.M. 2001. Stiffness analysis of fiber-
reinforced elastomeric isolators. PEER Report 2001/05,
Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center, Univer-
sity of California, Berkeley.
Tasi, H.C. & Kelly, J.M. 2002. Stiffness analysis of fiber-
reinforced rectangular seismic isolators. Journal of Engi-
neering Mechanics, ASCE, 128, 462470.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

The comparisons of three research methods about horizontal shear stiffness

of FRP rubber isolators

Zhen-nan Wang, Tian-bo Peng & Lei Han

State Key Laboratory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

ABSTRACT: The concept of fiber-reinforced plate (FRP) rubber isolators is introduced firstly in this paper.
Then three methods including experimental method, finite element method (FEM) and theoretical method are
used to investigate the shear stiffness and the hysteretic characteristic of FRP rubber isolators. For the exper-
imental method, three specimens of FRP rubber isolators have been constructed to evaluate the mechanical
performance of the isolators by performing horizontal tests. Finite element and theoretical methods for FRP
rubber isolators are introduced and employed to study the horizontal mechanical properties. By comparing the
results from different methods, the effectiveness of the theoretical and finite element method is evaluated.

Keywords: FRP rubber isolators,horizontal shear stiffness,three research methods

1 INTRODUCTION flexibility of the reinforcement were derived. Mean-

Seismic isolation, which means to protect structures
by isolating and dissipating earthquake energy with
isolation members such as isolator and damper, is a
practical and valuable earthquake-resistant technique
for seismic design for building and bridge structures.
The structures are not required to have high strength
to resist the earthquake loads and can remain elas-
tic under earthquake if designed properly. Therefore,
seismic isolation has been widely used in recent years.
The existing isolators are mostly expensive and
heavy, which maybe hinder the application of seis-
mic isolation, particularly in many developing coun-
tries and economically undeveloped areas, even some
important buildings such as hospitals and schools can-
not apply this ideal earthquake-resistant technique.
Laminated rubber isolator is one of the existing seis-
mic isolators, which is relatively economical but has
little energy dissipating capacity. Therefore, it is nec-
essary to develop a new isolator with lower cost and
higher performance in energy dissipation. Based on
this consideration, Kelly developed a new seismic
isolator, named fiber-reinforced plate (FRP) rubber
isolator. He pointed out that the weight and cost of
the isolator could be reduced by replacing the steel
reinforcement in laminated rubber isolator with fiber
reinforcement. The weight reduction is because of that
the fiber material with an elastic stiffness of the same
order as steel has a relatively low density; the cost sav-
ings may be realized since the use of fiber allows a
simpler, less labor-intensive manufacturing process.
The theoretical equations of compression stiffness
and bending stiffness with the consideration of the
while, experimental studies had also been conducted
and the results showed that FRP rubber isolator had
almost the same compression stiffness and bending
stiffness as the steel reinforced isolators, but FRP rub-
ber isolator could provide greater capacity of energy
dissipating.
Since the promotion of the concept of FRP rub-
ber isolator, many researchers from different coun-
tries have made their efforts to study and improve
the performance of FRP rubber isolator. Currently,
there are three methods to study the mechanical
performance of FRP rubber isolator, including theo-
retical method, experimental method and finite ele-
ment method (FEM). The theoretical researches were
mainly carried out by Kelly and Tsai etc. In these anal-
yses, the rubber in the isolator is assumed to be strictly
incompressible. The following two assumptions were
made when they conducted compression analysis of
FRP rubber isolator: 1) horizontal planes remain pla-
nar and 2) points on a vertical line lie on a parabola
after loading.
Kelly has also conducted some experimental
researches on both circular and strip FRP rubber iso-
lators. The mechanical performance of circular FRP
rubber isolator with Kevlar fiber reinforcement was
studied by Kelly. The results indicated that the flex-
ibility of the fiber reinforcement had only a small
effect on the shear stiffness of the isolator. The stiff-
ness was reduced to around 8085% of that of the
steel-reinforced isolator of the same size and thick-
ness of the elastomer. Another finding of the tests
was the improvement of the energy dissipation of the
bearing with fiber reinforcement. Similar experiments

631
were conducted to strip isolators with carbon fiber
in 2002. In addition, some relevant experimental
researches were conducted by Moon, Kang, Mordini
and Ashkezari. In these tests, different types of fibers
were considered, including carbon fiber, glass fiber,
etc., and the results of the tests showed that carbon
fiber was the best.
Compared with theoretical and experimental
researches, the researches by FEM are relatively fewer.
By taking the fiber reinforcement as orthotropic mate-
rial and modeling the rubber with Ogden model,
Mordini conducted some parametric studies. The
influences of vertical displacement on vertical stiff-
ness and horizontal stiffness were studied and the
equations of the vertical and horizontal stiffness were
derived by taking them as the functions of the vertical
and horizontal displacements and fitting the results
with second order polynomial surfaces. The FEM
results were verified by comparing with the analytical
method.
Most of the researches in the past were based on
the fiber reinforcement which is flexible in tension
and completely flexible in bending. The fiber rein-
forcement was made up of many individual fibers
grouped in strands and coiled into a cord of sub mil-
limeter diameter. In this research, a new type of fiber
reinforcement was promoted. Fiber reinforced plates
made with fiber fabric and epoxy resin, which have
great stiffness both in tension and bending, are used to
replace the steel plates in the laminated rubber isola-
tor to develop a new isolator. Several specimens were
manufactured to study the mechanical performance of
this innovative isolator by conducting horizontal tests.
2 THREE RESEARCH METHODS ABOUT
HORIZONTAL SHEAR STIFFNESS OF FRP
RUBBER ISOLATORS
2.1 Experimental research method
2.1.1 Description of the specimens and tests
The fiber reinforcement used in FRP rubber isolator is
flexible in tension and completely flexible in bending,
so the flexibility of the reinforcement may result in
the reduction of the vertical, shear and bending stiff-
ness. Therefore, the fiber-reinforced plates with great
stiffness both in tension and bending may be an alterna-
tive for the reinforcement. The fiber-reinforced plates
are made by fiber fabric and epoxy resin. The fiber
Table 1. Dimensions of the specimens.


Dimension tr
No. (mm mm mm) (mm)
1 200 300 36.9 26.9
2 300 350 49 37
3 410 460 82.8 60


Dimension = Width Length Height; tr = Total thickness of rubber, including the top layer and bottom layer (2.5 mm
respectively); nr = Number of intermediate rubber layers; nf = Number of fiber layers; tr and tf are thickness of single
intermediate rubber layer and fiber layer respectively; S is the shape factor.
fabric has large stiffness and strength along the fibers
but small stiffness and strength perpendicular to the
fibers.
The plates can have different thicknesses and
mechanical performance, since they can consist of
different layers of fiber fabrics with different ply ori-
entations. The ply orientations are of [0 /90 /0 /90
/0 /90 ] and [0 /90 /0 /90 /0 / 90 /0 /90 /0 /90 ] for
six and ten layers respectively, which were used in the
specimens in this research. The glass fiber was adopted
to make fiber plates in this research.
Three FRP rubber isolator specimens were designed
and manufactured. The detail dimensions are tabulated
in Table 1.
All experiments were conducted with a 20MN
compression-shear combined testing machine. Hori-
zontal cyclic loading can be applied by the loading
plate on the top of the specimen and the fixed plate
kept fixed on the bottom of the specimen.
A series of tests were set to study the mechanical
performance of FRP rubber isolator, including shear
stiffness and hysteretic characteristic. Several horizon-
tal cyclic loadings were applied to each specimen.
Taking No.1 specimen for example, since total thick-
ness of rubber in the specimen is 26.9 mm, the peak of
the cyclic displacement is about 26 mm. The vertical
pressure of the specimens was kept to be 10 MPa for
all horizontal tests.
2.1.2 Analysis of the horizontal tests results
The shear modulus of the specimens was tested accord-
ing to the Plate type elastomeric pad bearings for
highway bridges (JT/T4-2004). It can be calculated
as follows:
where G is the shear modulus, 1 and 0.3 are the shear
stresses of 1 MPa and 0.3 MPa respectively, 1 and 0.3
are the corresponding shear strains. The shear modu-
lus obtained from the tests for specimen No. 1, No. 2
and No. 3 are 0.810 MPa, 0.800 MPa and 0.815 MPa,
respectively. The theoretical value of the shear modu-
lus for laminated rubber bearing is about 1 MPa, which
is the shear modulus of the rubber. Reduction in shear
modulus was found in all the three specimens, which
may possibly be caused by the shear strain and warping
deformation of the FRP reinforcement.
tr tf
nr nf (mm) (mm) S
3 4 7.3 2.5 8.22
4 5 8 2.4 10.10
5 6 11 3.8 9.85
632
2.2 Modeling of the tests with finite element method
Finite element method can be employed to study
the shear stiffness of FRP rubber isolator. There are
two types of materials in FRP rubber isolator: fiber
reinforcement and rubber. It is critical to model the
mechanical performance of the materials correctly.
Furthermore, simulation of the load type in the tests
is essential. MSC.Marc is applied to carry out FEM
analysis.
Rubber is a typical nonlinear material. It can have
large strain with small stress and the largest tensile
strain can get around 500% 1000%. Thus, it may be
unreasonable to model rubber with only modulus and
Poisson ratio. MSC.Marc provides a material model
named Mooney-Rivlin to simulate rubber. The expres-
sion of two-parameter Mooney-Rivlin model is given
in Eq. 2 below:
Where W is the generalized strain energy function, C10
and C01 are the Rivlin factors. And:
which are the first and second Green strain invari-
ants, where 1 , 2 and 3 are the tensile rates of the
three directions respectively. Rubbers with different
Shore Hardness have different C10 and C01 factors.
Tensile and shear material tests have been conducted
to determine the factors of the rubber used in the tested
specimens. The factors are as follows:
Fiber reinforcement is a composite material with
anisotropic mechanic properties. MSC.Marc provides
composite model to simulate composite materials. The
model is composed of different layers. The material,
thickness and angle of the layers can be set different.
In this paper, the material of the layers is uniform and
the included angle of the adjacent layers is 90 . The
factors of the material are as follows:
Where 1 represents the direction along the fiber,
2 represents the direction perpendicular to the fiber,
and 3 represents the direction perpendicular to the
fiber fabric. The ply orientations are of [0 /90 /0 /90
/0 /90 ]s for the reinforcement of specimens No.1
and No.2, and [0 /90 /0 /90 /0 /90 /0 /90 /0 /90 ]
for specimen No.3.
The specimen is modeled as deformable contact
body. There are no relative displacements between
the interface of the loading plate and specimen, and
detachment happens when tension force appears. As
observed in the experiments, the separation between
the specimens and loading plates occurred because
of the rolling over effect caused by large lateral
displacement.
2.3 Theoretical analytical method
The shear stiffness can be analytically calculated as
follows:
where
a, b and h denote the length, width and height of a
rectangular FRP rubber isolator; G is the shear mod-
ulus of the rubber for the isolator (typically 1 MPa);
Ef is the elastic modulus of FRP plates; n is the total
number of rubber layers; t is the average thickness of
single rubber layer; nt is the total thickness of rubber;
is the shear strain of rubber plate.
Nonlinearity of horizontal shear stiffness of a rect-
angular FRP rubber isolator is demonstrated in the
Eq. (7)
The first item of Eq. (7) is the shear stiffness of
a rectangular isolator reinforced by rigid plates and
remains unchanged with the increase of d. Nonlinear-
ity of Eq. (7) comes from the second item and the value
of the expression in the brackets of Eq. (7) varies from
0 to 1 for different values of the parameter C.
For smaller horizontal displacement, the parameter
C is also very small (for example less than 0.1) as
shown in Eq. (8), and the value of the expression in
the brackets of Eq. (7) is less than but close to 0, so
the corresponding Ke is less than but very close to the
first item of Eq. (7). For larger horizontal displace-
ment, the parameter C is also very large (for example
larger than 10), and the value of the expression in the
brackets of Eq. (7) is larger than but close to -1. Then
the corresponding Ke is larger than but very close to
a(b d)G/nt. For moderate horizontal displacement,
the parameter C is also moderate (for example between
0.1 to 10), the value of the expression in the brackets of
Eq. (7) is between 0 and 1 and the corresponding Ke
is less than the shear stiffness of a rectangular isolator
reinforced by rigid plates. Therefore the secant shear
stiffness is nonlinear and decreases with the increase of
the horizontal displacement, and the degree of nonlin-
earity of the horizontal shear behavior increases with
the increase of the horizontal displacement.
3 THE RESULT COMPARISONS OF THE
ABOVE THREE RESEARCH METHODS
The shear stiffness of the three rectangular FRP rubber
isolator specimens was studied in detail with experi-
mental, FEM and theoretical method. The results of
different methods are shown in Figure 1, from which
it can be learnt that the theoretical results are lightly
633

Figure 1. Shear stiffness results from different method.
larger than the experimental results, and the numeri-
cal results are the largest among these three methods.
The lower results with experimental method may be
caused by the inevitable defect in rubber material and
in the manufacturing progress. Moreover, the analyt-
ical expression of the shear stiffness of multilayer
elastomeric isolator is derived from the assumption
that the reinforcement in the isolator is rigid (have
no shear strain), but the fiber reinforcement can have
small shear strain, so the analytical results can be a
little larger. Since the rubber is assumed to be an ideal
hyperelastic and incompressible material in the FEM
method, the results from the method (calculated from
the loading condition with the same shear strain to the
experimental method) are a little larger than that from
the other two methods.
4 CONCLUSIONS
An innovative seismic isolator named fiber-reinforced
plate rubber isolator is developed in this paper. To
investigate the horizontal shear performance of FRP
rubber isolator, specimens with glass fiber-reinforced
plate were manufactured. Horizontal tests were con-
ducted to study the shear stiffness and hysteretic
characteristics of FRP rubber isolator.The results show
that FRP rubber isolator has similar horizontal stiff-
ness with laminated rubber bearing reinforced with
steel plates. Meanwhile, compared to laminated rub-
ber bearing reinforced with steel plates, FRP rubber
isolator has better energy dissipation capacity since it
has hysteretic damping, which indicates that FRP rub-
ber isolator has advantages for seismic isolation design
of building and bridge structures.
634
Finite element method and theoretical analytical
method are applied to research the horizontal shear
performance of FRP rubber isolator. Result compari-
son from different methods is carried out and it shows
well agreement. Further studies of FRP rubber isola-
tor with different kinds of fiber reinforcement plates,
such as carbon fiber reinforcement, Kevlar fiber rein-
forcement, etc. are recommended by experimental and
analytical method.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank National Key Tech-
nology R&D Program (No. 2009BAG15B01), the
Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No.
SLDRCE 08-B-04), National Natural Science Foun-
dation of China (No. 50708074), the Fundamen-
tal Research Funds for the Central Universities and
Kwang-Hua Fund for College of Civil Engineering,
Tongji University.
REFERENCES
Ashkezari, G.D., Aghakouchak, A.A. & Kokabi M. 2008.
Design, manufacturing and evaluation of the performance
of steel like fiber reinforced elastomeric seismic isolators.
J Mater Process Technol; 197: 140150.
Kelly, J.M. & Takhirov, S.M. 2001. Analytical and experimen-
tal study of fiber-reinforced elastomeric isolators. PEER
Rep. No. 2001/11. Berkeley (CA, USA): Pacific Earth-
quake Engineering Research Center, Univ. of California.
Kang, B.S., Kang, G.J. & Moon, B.Y. 2003. Hole and lead
plug effect on fiber reinforced elastomeric isolator for
seismic isolation. J Mater Process Technol; 140: 592597.
Moon, B.Y., Kang, G.J., Kang, B.S. & Kelly, J.M. 2002.
Design and manufacturing of fiber reinforced elastomeric
isolator for seismic isolation. J Mater Process Technol;
130/131: 145150.
Moon, B.Y., Kang, G.J., Kang, B.S., Kim, G.S. & Kelly, J.M.
2003. Mechanical properties of seismic isolation system
with fiber-reinforced bearing of strip type. Int Appl Mech;
39(10): 12311239.
Mordini, A. & Strauss, A. 2008. An innovative earthquake
isolation system using fiber reinforced rubber bearings.
Eng Struct; 30: 27392751.
Ministry of Communications of PRC JT/T4-2004. Plate
type elastomeric pad bearings for highway bridges (in
Chinese).
Tsai, H.C. & Kelly, J.M. 2001. Stiffness analysis of fiber-
reinforced elastomeric isolators. PEER Rep. No. 2001/05.
Berkeley (CA, USA): Pacific Earthquake Engineering
Research Center, Univ. of California.
Tsai, H.C. & Kelly, J.M. 2002. Bending stiffness of
fiber-reinforced circular seismic isolators. J Eng Mech;
128(11): 11501157.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Effect of tower longitudinal stiffness on static performance of self-anchored

suspension bridge with multi-tower

Yong-jian Chen, Chao Zhang & Zhen-zheng Fang

College of Civil Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China

ABSTRACT: Based on the Luozhou bridge in Fuzhou, the effect of tower longitudinal stiffness on static
performance of self-anchored suspension bridge with multi-tower are researched by using FEM. The results
show that the tower longitudinal stiffness has a great influence on the mechanical behavior of it. Changes in
the tower longitudinal stiffness will not only lead to the tower inner force and deformation change, but also
the distribution of inner force and deformation of the overall structure are significantly affected. Increasing the
tower longitudinal stiffness, especially the increase in the mid-tower longitudinal stiffness is an effective way to
improve the vertical stiffness of self-anchored suspension bridge with multi-tower.

Keywords: multi-tower; self-anchored suspension bridge; tower longitudinal stiffness; FEA

1 INTRODUCTION

Relatively mature and perfect research has been done

on earth-anchored suspension bridges and a serious
of related analytical theories and methods have been
formed. In these years, scholars have also done a great
deal of study on ordinary self-anchored suspension
bridges with single tower or double towers and gained
lots of useful results. With the emergence of sev-
eral multi-tower suspension bridges, related research
has also been carried out, which is mainly for earth-
anchored suspension bridges. But the research on the
new structure of self-anchored suspension bridges
with multi-tower is rare. Theoretical and practical
knowledge about it is still not comprehensive and deep
enough. Therefore, it is of great significance to study
its mechanical property.
Self-anchored suspension bridge with multi-tower
is a new structural style, which is different from the
common suspension bridge. From the structure point
of view, it has a mid-tower which lacks necessary lon-
gitudinal restraints more than ordinary self-anchored
suspension bridge with single-tower or double towers.
Under live load, the mid-tower will have a greater lon-
gitudinal displacement, thus affecting the structural
stiffness. Compared with the earth-anchored suspen-
sion bridge with multi-tower, its anchor of the main
cable go to the stiffening girder from the anchorage, so
that the stiffening girder also needs to resist the strong
axial pressure when bearing moment, thus changing
structural mechanical behavior.
Many scholars have done a great deal of study on the
earth-anchored suspension bridge with multi-tower.
We can find that the tower stiffness has a great influ-
ence on the structural mechanical behavior. The design
Figure 1. Side view of Luozhou bridge.
of the mid-tower stiffness is the key point. In order to
understand the self-anchored suspension bridge with
multi-tower, we have done research on the effect of
tower longitudinal stiffness on its static performance.
2 PROJECT BACKGROUND
Based on the Luozhou bridge in Fuzhou, which is
a self-anchored suspension bridge with three towers
under construction now. Its a symmetric four-span
bridge with 168 m main spans and 80 m edge spans.
Figure 1 shows the side view of this bridge.
It has a double cable-plane system with 23 pairs
of sling in the main span and 10 pairs of sling in the
edge span. The rise-span ratio of main span is 1/6, and
1/12.88 in edge span.
3 3D FINITE-ELEMENT MODEL
The 3D finite-element model for studying Self-
anchored suspension bridge with multi-tower is shown
in Figure 2. The model includes a total of 1210
elements and 1087 nodes.
Because of the finished bridge state has an impor-
tant effect on the mechanical behavior of the suspen-
sion bridge, it needs to determine a reasonable finished
state by reiterative and finite element method. And the

635
Figure 2. 3D finite-element model.

Figure 3. Live load condition.

Figure 4. Girders vertical deflection under load.
effect of stress stiffening, gravity stiffness, and geo-
metric nonlinearity are also considered in the process
of the calculation and analysis to meeting the actual
situation of the self-anchored suspension bridge with
multi-tower.

4 EFFECT OF TOWER LONGITUDINAL

STIFFNESS ON STATIC PERFORMANCE

The live load value in the analysis comes from the Gen-
eral Code for Design of Highway Bridges and Culverts
of China. Considering the multi-lane and the longitu-
dinal reduction, the line load is taken 40.74 kN/m and
the concentrated load is taken 1396.8 kN. For multi-
span suspension bridge with multi-tower, when only a
main span is under load, while the rest of spans are no-
load, the inner force and deformation of the structure
is always very significant. So the most representative
load condition is the only single main span covered
loads, it often control the design. Therefore, the live
load condition used in the analysis is only a single main
span under load, which is shown in Figure 3.
In order to study the effect of tower longitudinal
stiffness on static performance of the self-anchored
suspension bridge with multi-tower, two cases are
been researched. There are all the tower longitudi-
nal stiffness changing and only mid-tower longitudinal
stiffness changing. In the analysis, the tower longitu-
dinal stiffness of the model ranges from 0.2 to 1.8
times of the basic models. The structural inner force
and deformation results are as follows. The all in the
graph says the case of all the tower longitudinal stiff-
ness changing, and the middle says the case of only
mid-tower longitudinal stiffness changing.
Figure 5. Girders moment under load.
basic models, the stiffening girders deflection and
moment are each reduced by 54% and 43%. When
only mid-tower longitudinal stiffness ranges from 0.2
to 1.8 times of the basic models, the stiffening girders
deflection and moment are each reduced by 43% and
33%.
It shows that increasing the tower longitudinal stiff-
ness can significantly improve the vertical stiffness of
the self-anchored suspension bridge with multi-tower.
From the comparison of these two cases, it can
be seen that increasing the longitudinal stiffness of
the mid-tower is more effective way to improve the
structural vertical stiffness, which is similar to the
earth-anchored suspension bridge with multi-tower.

4.2 Towers deformation and inner force

4.1 Stiffening girders deformation and inner force
It can be seen from Figure 4 and Figure 5, with
the increasing of the tower longitudinal stiffness, the
deflection and bending moment of the stiffening girder
are significantly reduced. When all the tower longi-
tudinal stiffness range from 0.2 to 1.8 times of the
It can be seen from Figure 6 and Figure 7, with the
increasing of the tower longitudinal stiffness, the hor-
izontal deflection of tower top are reduced, and the
moment of tower at bottom section are significantly
increased. When all the tower longitudinal stiffness
range from 0.2 to 1.8 times of the basic models, the

636

Figure 6. Horizontal deflection of tower top under load.
Figure 7. Moment of tower at bottom section under load.
horizontal deflection of mid-tower top and edge tower
top are each reduced by 78% and 72%, while the
moment of tower at bottom section are each increased
by 102% and 151%. When only mid-tower longitudi-
nal stiffness ranges from 0.2 to 1.8 times of the basic
models, the horizontal deflection of mid-tower top is
reduced by 82%, while the horizontal deflection of
edge tower top is increased by 37%. And the moment
of tower at bottom section are each increased by 63%
and 37%.
It shows that increasing the tower longitudinal
stiffness can significantly reduce the deformation of
the tower, and make the tower inner force increase
remarkably.
Only increasing the longitudinal stiffness of the
mid-tower while edge tower longitudinal stiffness is
constant, the mid-tower deformation is significantly
reduced, while the moment of the tower increase
remarkably. The edge tower deformation and moment
all increase. This is mainly because that the increas-
ing of the tower longitudinal stiffness causes the inner
force redistribution phenomenon of the structure.
637
Figure 8. Cables unbalanced horizontal force at tower top
under load.
Figure 9. Cables maximum axial force under load.
4.3 Cables force
It can be seen from Figure 8 and Figure 9, with
the increasing of the tower longitudinal stiffness, the
cables unbalanced horizontal force at tower top are
significantly increased, which is the reason of the hor-
izontal deflection of tower top and the moment of
tower at bottom section. And the cables maximum
axial force is also increased. When all the tower lon-
gitudinal stiffness range from 0.2 to 1.8 times of the
basic models, the cables unbalanced horizontal force
at mid-tower top and edge tower top are each increased
by 122% and 176%, and the cables maximum axial
force increased by 25%. When only mid-tower longi-
tudinal stiffness ranges from 0.2 to 1.8 times of the
basic models, the cables unbalanced horizontal force
at mid-tower top and edge tower top are each increased
by 79% and 37%, and the cables maximum axial force
increased by 16%.
It shows that increasing the tower longitudinal
stiffness can causes the inner force redistribution phe-
nomenon of the structure, so that make the cables
unbalanced horizontal force and the cables maximum
axial force increase.
 Compared to the case of all the tower longitudi-
nal stiffness increasing, the case of only mid-tower
longitudinal stiffness increasing have smaller cables
unbalanced horizontal force and cables maximum
axial force.
When a main span is under live load, because of
the cables unbalanced horizontal force at tower top,
the top of the tower produces horizontal displace-
ment. And the tower top is the supporting point of the
main cable. Under different load condition, the dis-
tance between two adjacent tower top could become
longer or shorter. And the cable force will increase
or reduce, so that make the structural mechanical
situation change.
5 CONCLUSIONS
In summary, its different from the ordinary self-
anchored suspension bridge with single-tower or dou-
ble towers. The tower longitudinal stiffness has a
great influence on the static performance of the
self-anchored suspension bridge with multi-tower.
Changes in the tower longitudinal stiffness will not
only lead to the tower inner force and deformation
change, but also the distribution of inner force and
deformation of the overall structure are significantly
affected. Increasing the tower longitudinal stiffness,
especially the increase in the mid-tower longitudinal
stiffness is an effective way to improve the verti-
cal stiffness of self-anchored suspension bridge with
multi-tower.
638
However, the improvement of the longitudinal stiff-
ness of the tower will cause the main cable unbalanced
force at tower top increase. It will adversely affect the
sliding security of the cable against saddle. Therefore,
the rational design of the tower stiffness should con-
sider the overall structural deformation, local stress,
and other factors. It is critical in the design of the
self-anchored suspension bridge with multi-tower.
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Osamu Yoshida, Motoi Okuda, Takeo Moriya, 2004. Struc-
tural Characteristics and Applicability of Four-Span Sus-
pension Bridge. Journal of Bridge Engineering 9 (5),
453463.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Characterization of stone matrix asphalt with cellulose and coconut fiber

S.S. Awanti
Prof & Head, department of Civil Engg. P. D. A. College of Engg. Gulbarga, Karnataka, India

A. Habbal, P.N. Hiremath, S. Tadibidi & S.N. Hallale

Former Under Graduate Students, department of Civil Engg. P. D. A. College of Engg. Gulbarga, Karnataka, India

ABSTRACT: This paper reports about the experimental investigations carried out on stone matrix asphalt
mixes prepared by using coconut and cellulose fibers with VG 30 grade bitumen. Experimental work includes
SMA mix design, static indirect tensile strength test at different temperatures and indirect tensile fatigue test.
From the test results it was observed that stone matrix asphalt mix with coconut fiber shows better performance
than stone matrix asphalt mix with cellulose fiber. It was also observed that SMA mix with coconut fiber works
out cheaper and abundantly available.

Keywords: SMA-ctf, SMA-cf, SMA mix design

1 INTRODUCTION coarse aggregates are clearly more significant in SMA

mixtures when compared with conventional mixtures
1.1 General (Gatchalian et al 2006).
SMA being a gap graded mix has more air void con-
SMA consists of two parts a high concentration coarse
tent and requires higher concentration binder. There-
aggregates skeleton and a high binder content mortar.
fore stabilizing additives are added in the mix to
The coarse aggregates skeleton provides the mixture
prevent drain down of the binder. Mostly cellulose
with stone-onstone contact, giving it strength, while
fibers have been tried by various investigators in SMA
the high binder content mortar adds durability. The
mixtures to solve this drain down problem. These
mortar is typically composed of fine aggregate, min-
fibers are either costly or not readily available. As
eral filler, asphalt binder and a stabilizing additive.
reported by Khalil et al (2006), coconut fiber con-
This stabilizing additive acts to hold the asphalt binder
tains certain amount of cellulose. The cellulose has
in the mixture during the high temperatures of produc-
been used by many researchers in SMA mixes to pre-
tion and placement. Since the Stone Matrix Asphalt
vent drain down of binder. Hence, an attempt has
(SMA) is a gap-graded mixture, have a better stone to
been made in the present study to utilize a naturally
stone contact which gives better strength to the mix-
and abundantly available low cost material such as
ture (Brown & Haddock 1997). Aggregate structure
coconut fiber, in preparation of SMA mixes. The lab-
plays a significant role in the resistance of SMA to
oratory investigations such as SMA Mix design by
permanent deformation. This structure is dependent
Marshall Method, Draindown test, Static Indirect Ten-
on stone-on-stone contact of coarse aggregate in the
sile test, Tensile Strength Ratio (TSR) and Indirect
mixture, which places demands on aggregates that are
Tensile Fatigue tests were conducted on SMA (For
different from those for previous conventional mix-
surface course) with coconut fiber and results were
tures. Conventional dense-graded mixes often allows
compared with control mix containing cellulose fiber.
coarse aggregates to essentially float in a matrix
of fine aggregates and asphalt binder, therefore, in
these conventional mixes, strength properties of coarse
1.2 Need for present investigation
aggregates were less important. Evidence indicates
that the construction operations, particularly com- From the literature review it is observed that most of
paction of thin layers, plus subsequent traffic loading the researchers used cellulose fibers in SMA Mix to
can contribute to degradation of coarse aggregates at solve the drain down problem these fibers are patented,
the contact points, which can significantly alter the costly, and are not readily available. As reported by
original design gradation and create uncoated aggre- khalil et al (2006) coconut fiber contains certain
gate faces. Broken binder film can also provide inlet amount of cellulose. The cellulose has been used by
for water which, in presence of traffic loads, can many researchers in SMA mixes to prevent drain down
aggravate stripping. Therefore, strength properties of of binder and to increase the durability and stability of

639
the mix. In view of this there is a need to characterize
the SMA mixes with coconut/coir fiber for its engi-
neering properties and compare the results with SMA
containing cellulose fiber.
1.3 Objectives of present study
To determine optimum bitumen content for stone
matrix asphalt (SMA) by using Marshall method of
mix design.
To evaluate the static indirect tensile strength for
stone matrix asphalt mix with coir fiber and cellu-
lose fiber at different temperatures.
To determine the moisture susceptibility of SMA
mix with coir and cellulose fiber by conducting
tensile strength ratio (TSR) test.
To determine the fatigue life of SMA with coir fiber
and cellulose fibers by conducting Indirect Tensile
Fatigue test.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
Kumar, Chandra & Bose (2004) tried to use an indige-
nous fiber in SMA Mix by taking low viscosity binder
coated jute fiber instead of the traditionally used fibers
and compared the result with the imported cellulose
fiber, using 60/70 grade bitumen and found opti-
mum fiber percentage as 0.3% of the mixture. Jute
fiber showed equivalent results to imported patented
fibers as indicated by Marshall Stability test, perma-
nent deformation test and fatigue life test. Aging index
of the mix prepared with jute fiber showed better result
than patented fiber.
Muniandy & Huat (2006) used Cellulose oil palm
fiber (COPF) and found fiber-modified binder showed
improved rheological properties when cellulose fibers
were preblended in PG 6422 binder with fiber propor-
tions of 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8% and 1.0% by weight of
aggregates. It showed that the PG64-22 binder can be
modified and raised to PG70-22 grade. The Cellulose
oil palm fiber (COPF) was found to improve the dia-
metrical fatigue performance of SMA deign mix. The
fatigue life increased to a maximum at a fiber content
of about 0.6%, whilst the tensile stress and stiffness
also showed a similar trend in performance. The ini-
tial strains of the mix were lowest at a fiber content
of 0.6%.
Coconut fibers have been used in this study as a
stabilizing additive in place of conventional Cellulose
fibers in SMA mixes. The Optimum Binder Content
(OBC) of the SMA mixes, based on the Marshall
test results taking 3% air voids as the main crite-
rion are observed to increase with increase in stiffness
of binder. It is also observed from the above stud-
ies that only marginal incorporation of 0.3% coconut
fiber leads to substantial improvement in engineering
properties of laboratory based mix samples. However,
these studies given above are only preliminary and
these need to be substantiated by lying of experimental
tracks (Suchismita, Panda & Chattaraj 2010).
640
3 EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION
3.1 Materials
1. Crushed basalt type of coarse aggregates 13 mm
and down.
2. Crushed basalt type of fine aggregate 2.36 mm and
down.
3. Basalt stone dust as mineral filler.
4. VG 30 grade bitumen as binder.
5. Cellulose and Coconut fibers as stabilizers.
3.2 Physical properties of aggregate
Various physical tests namely abrasion test, aggre-
gate impact test, shape test as combined index, water
absorption test, specific gravity test of coarse, fine
aggregate and mineral filler and polished stone value
tests have been conducted in order to determine the
physical properties of the aggregates. Test results
obtained were 20.77%, 16.08%, 29.07%, 0.92%, 2.78,
2.57, 2.33 and 72% respectively. These results fulfill
the requirements as per IRC: SP: 79 (2008).
3.3 Physical properties of bitumen
Various physical tests were conducted on VG 30
grade bitumen namely Absolute viscosity at 60 C,
Kinematic viscosity at 135 C, Flash point, Solubility
in trichloroethylene, Penetration at 25 C (100 g, 5 s,
0.1 mm), Softening point and Tests on residue from
thin film oven test such as Viscosity ratio at 60 C
and ductility at 25 C. Test results obtained were 2600
Poises, 370 cSt, 67.33 dmm, 47 C, 220 C, 99.5%, 3.0
and 65 cm. These results fulfill the requirements as per
IS 73: 2006.
3.4 Physical properties of fibers
Fibers are used as stabilizer in SMA Mix. Fibers help
to increase the strength and stability and decrease the
drain down in SMA Mix. There are different types of
fibers are used in SMA Mix like cellulose fiber, poly-
mer fiber, mineral fiber, natural fibers. In the present
investigations two types of fibers such as coconut fiber
(natural fiber) and cellulose fiber were used as stabi-
lizer in SMA mix. Physical properties namely length,
diameter and specific gravity of coconut fibers were 3
to 8 mm, 0.2 to 0.6 mm and 1.0 respectively. Similarly
for cellulose fibers these values were 1100 m, 45 m
and less than 1.0 respectively.
3.5 SMA mix design
The SMA mixture was designed using AASHTO MP8
and AASHTO PP41. The mix design consists of deter-
mination of voids in the coarse aggregate (VCA DRC )
in accordance with ASTM C 29 using the equation 1.
Preparation of twelve Marshall samples with three trail
bitumen contents namely 6, 6.5 and 7%. Three samples
from each trail bitumen content shall be compacted
with 50 blows on each side and used to determine the
volumetric properties of Marshall samples. The fourth Table 1. Results of SMA mix design.
sample shall be used to determine theoretical maxi-
mum specific gravity (Gmm ) according to ASTM D Result of SMA mix Requirements
2041. The bulk specific gravity (Gmb ) of the specimens Sl. Mix design as per IRC:
No parameters SMA-ctf SMA-cf SP:79-2008
were determined as per AASHTO T 166. Using Gmb
and Gmm the percent air voids (Va ), Voids in mineral
1 optimum 6.0 5.8 5.8 min
aggregate (VMA) and voids in the coarse aggregate, bitumen
mix (VCAmix ) were calculated using Equations 2, 3 content
and 4 as shown below. 2 % Air voids 4.0 4.0 4.0
3 VMA % 26.31 25.67 17 min
4 VCA, mix % 37.75 37.42 Less than
VCA,DRC
5 VCA, DRC, % 40.12 40.12
6 Asphalt 0.06 0.10 0.3 max
draindown %
7 TSR % 87.93 86.75 85 min

Where,
VCADRC = Voids in the coarse aggregate in the dry
rodded condition,
Gca = Bulk specific gravity of the coarse aggregate,
w = Unit weight of water (998 kg/m3 ),
s = Unit weight of coarse aggregate fraction in dry
rodded aggregate in kg/m3
PS = Percent of aggregate in mixture
PCA = percent of coarse aggregate in the total mixture
The optimum bitumen content was determined cor-
responding to the design air void content of 4%. The
fiber content used was 0.3% by weight of total mix
for both types of fibers. The remaining mix properties
determined were checked to meet the requirements as
per IRC: SP: 79-2008. Test results are shown in Table 1.
3.5.1 Drain down test
The Schellenberg Drain down test was selected to
determine the efficiency of the Coir and Cellulose
fibers as stabilizer used to prevent drain down of the
binder and mineral filler. In this test method a sam-
ple of the SMA mixture to be tested was prepared in
the laboratory. The sample was placed in a beaker,
which is weighed. The sample along with the beaker is
placed in the oven for one hour at a prescribed temper-
ature of 170 1 C. At the end of one hour, the beaker
containing the sample is taken out from the oven and
immediately emptied the beaker without any shaking
or vibration. Re-weight the beaker to nearest 0.1 gm
to determine the amount of draindown that occurred
and calculate the percent of binder draindown using
equation 5.
Where,
A = Empty weight of the beaker.
B = Weight of the beaker after placing the mix.
C = Empty the beaker without any shaking after one
hour and weighed.
Test results are shown in Table 1.
3.5.2 Tensile strength ratio (TSR) test
Resistance to moisture damage of SMA mixes was
determined by adopting AASHTO: T-283. Under this
method, one set of Marshall Specimens with 6 to 8%
average air voids were immersed (conditioned) in a
water bath at 60 C for a period of 24 hours. The sam-
ples were then removed from the water bath and kept
at a temperature of 25 C for a period of 24 hours.
The samples were then removed from the water bath
and kept at a temperature of 25 C for a period of
2 hours. Other set of samples (unconditioned) were
kept at a temperature of 25 C for a period of 2 hours.
These specimens were placed in to the indirect tensile
strength test assembly by loading along the axis of the
specimen, with the two faces being restrained from the
movement. The entire assembly was then mounted on
the conventional Marshall testing apparatus and the
load at failure was recorded.
The TSR, which is a measure of water sensitivity, is
calculated using the equation 6.
Test results are shown in Table 1.
SMA-ctf: SMA with coconut fiber, SMA-cf: SMA
with cellulose fiber3.6 STATIC INDIRECT TENSILE
TEST
The static indirect tensile test was carried out as
per ASTM: D-4123-1995 (15) to study the behav-
ior of paving mixes at different temperatures. The
split tensile strength of asphalt mixes was determined
by applying a compressive load to Marshall speci-
mens along the vertical diametrical plane, through
two-curved steel strips 12.5 mm wide with the same
inside curvature as that of the Marshall specimens. A
nearly uniform tensile stress is developed normal to
the direction of the applied load and along the same
vertical plane causing the specimen to fail by splitting
along the vertical diameter. Indirect tensile strength of
specimen is calculated as shown in equation 6.

641
Table 2. Results of static indirect tensile strength. Bulk density of SMA-ctf is 0.37% lower than
SMA-cf.
Static indirect tensile strength, mpa Draindown value of SMA-ctf is 60% higher than
at different temperatures, C SMA-cf
SMA-ctf has 2.44% higher Voids in Mineral Aggre-
Mix type 10 20 30 40
gate (VMA) when compared to SMA-cf.
SMA ctf 1.58 1.08 0.54 0.38 SMA-ctf reduces the chances of bleeding of bitu-
SMA cf 1.18 0.82 0.40 0.34 men due to subsequent compaction.
The SMA-ctf at different temperatures shows higher
static indirect tensile strength when compared to
SMA-cf.
Table 3. Results of indirect tensile fatigue test. The tensile strength ratio of SMA-ctf is 1.62%
higher than SMA-cf.
Applied stress, Fatigue life, Indirect tensile fatigue life of the SMA-ctf shows
Sl.No. Type of mix N/mm2 No. of cycles 24.57% higher repetitions of load as compared to
SMA-cf at 30 C temperature.
1 SMA-ctf 0.22 850 SMA-ctf founds to be economical when compared
2 SMA-cf 0.22 645 to SMA-cf as coconut fibers are cheaper than
cellulose fiber and also abundantly available.

Static indirect tensile strength, = 2P/dt ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Where, P = Load at failure in kg
d = diameter of specimen in cm
t = thickness of specimen in cm
Results are shown in Table 2.
3.6 Indirect tensile fatigue test
SMA-ctf and SMA-cf specimens were prepared at
optimum bitumen content by mixing the aggregates
and binder at desired mixing temperatures, and com-
pacted by Marshall hammer at desired compacting
temperatures to achieve the required bulk densities as
per Marshall mix design method. The specimen after
conditioning for two hours at required temperature of
30O C was placed between two steel strips so that the
central axes of the strips, specimen and piston were in
the same vertical plane. A constant repeated load was
applied at a loading frequency of 4 Hz with a loading
period of 0.25 sec and without rest period. Haversine
type of loading waveform was used. The load repe-
titions were continued till the specimen failed, that is
when the permanent horizontal deformation resulted is
5 mm. Fatigue life is the number of load repetitions to
cause failure of specimen as above 30 C temperatures
at one stress levels.
Results are shown Table 3.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The optimum binder content of SMA-ctf shows
0.2% higher binder Content when compared to
SMA-cf.
The authors would like to thank Mr.Sant Kumar Seh-
gal, Country Manager India, J. Rettenmaier & Shne,
Faridabad, India, for supplying cellulose fibers at free
of cost to P.D.A. College of Engineering, Gulbarga for
experimental investigation.
REFERENCES
Brown, E. R. & Haddock, John. E., (1997) A method to
ensure stone-on-stone contact in sma paving mixture
Gatachalian, D, Masad, E, Chowdhury, A. & Little, D. (2006).
characterization of aggregate resistance to degration in
stone matrix asphalt mixtures. Report no ICAR/204-1,
Texas Transportation Institute, The Texas A&M University
System College Station, Texas 77843-3135
IRC:SP:79-2008 Tentative specifications for stone matrix
asphalt IRC, New Delhi, 2008.
Khalil Abdul, H.P.S., Alwani, M.S. & Mohd Omar, A.K.,
(2006), Chemical composition, anatomy, lignin distri-
bution and cell wall structure of Malaysian plant waste
fibres, Bioresources 1(2) pp 220232.
Kumar, P., Chandran, S. & Sunil Bose (2004), Perma-
nent deformation characteristics of asplhaltic concrete
versus stone matrix asphalt. Highway Research Bul-
letin, No. 71, Indian Road Congress, New Delhi 2001,
reprinted:November
Muniandy, R. & Huat, B.B.K., American Journal of Applied
Sciences, Vol-III, issue-9, 2006, 20052010.
Suchismita, Panda, Mahabir & Chattaraj, Ujjal., Proceedings
of international conference on Developments in Road
Transportation DRT-2010, NIT, Rourakela, India, 2010

642
Structural engineering
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Analysis on the capacities of resisting natural disasters for UHV

transmission towers

Jingbo Yang & Fengli Yang

China Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing, China

ABSTRACT: The safety and reliability of the UHV transmission towers were analyzed in many aspects. Load
considerations, tower types, calculating model in structural design, prototype tests. Capacities of resisting natural
disasters were evaluated on UHV transmission towers according to the analysis results. The return period of is
valued as 100 years in the design of UHV transmission towers. Wind loads on UHV transmission towers are
higher than 500 kV transmission towers by 14.5 percent. Therefore the anti-wind capacity and the reliability
level are enhanced. The vibration analysis based on the random vibration theory and the tunnel tests for UHV
transmission tower were carried out. The results show that the value of wind vibration coefficient in the design of
UHV transmission towers is conservative and the towers are safe. Tubular towers are used in UHV transmission
towers. Tubular towers have some advantages including high bearing capacity and good stability. Effects of the
end moments were considered in the structural analysis of tubular towers. The member forces can be computed
more precisely. The typical UHV towers all passed the prototype tests under design load cases. In general,
comparing with the transmission towers of regular voltage grades, capacities of resisting natural disasters for
UHV transmission towers are higher. Safety and reliability of UHV transmission towers can be fully assured.

Keywords: transmission steel tower,natural disaster, wind load, calculating model

1 INSTRUCTIONS Table 1. Return periods for transmission lines with different

Compared to conventional transmission line within
voltage grade of 110 kV 750 kV, design standard of
UHV transmission line presents large improvement
with design calculation method. Furthermore, preven-
tion measures have been improved to some extent.
Therefore, UHV transmission line presents higher
capability of resisting natural disasters like high wind,
accreted ice and earthquake.
In this paper, with respect of resistance to natu-
ral disasters, UHV transmission line is compared to
transmission line of conventional voltage grade from
load considerations, tower types, prototype tests, anti-
vibration and anti-galloping of conductors and seismic
resistance of equipments, to assess disaster resistance
of UHV transmission tower.
voltage grades.
Voltage grade (kV) 1,000 800 750 500 110330
Return period (year) 100 100 50 50 30
For transmission lines with different voltage grades
passing the same corridor, statistical characteristics are
identical for meteorological conditions (wind speed
and thickness of accreted ice) that both wind speed and
thickness of accreted ice are in accordance with type
I extreme value distribution. Regulation factor of ref-
erence wind speed or thickness of accreted ice can be
concluded for different return periods via equation (1):

2 LOAD CONSIDERATION
2.1 Load return period
Load return period largely affects load value. Longer
return period results in higher load value. Load return
period of UHV transmission line (800 kV, 1,000 kV)
is much longer than that of 110 kV 750 kV trans-
mission line. With respect to wind load and ice load of
transmission line for each voltage grade, return periods
are shown in Table 1.
Where x is the design value of corresponding return
period. x is the mean statistical value. vx is the variation
coefficient. C1 is a constant, considered as 1.28225. C2
is a constant, considered as 0.57722. T is the return
period.
In case that variation coefficient vx is 0.2, return
period of 50 years is to be taken as reference. Cal-
culated regulation factor of wind speed (or thick-
ness of accreted ice) is shown in Table 2. Seen

645
Table 2. Factors of the wind velocity (ice thickness) for
different return periods.
Return period T (year) 100 50 30
Regulation factor 1.07 1.00 0.95
from Table 2, wind speed (or thickness of accreted
ice) of UHV transmission line is 7% higher than
that of 750 kV or 500 kV transmission line, 11.3%
higher than that of 110 kV 330 kV transmission line.
Since wind load is in proportion to squared value
of wind speed, design wind load for unit area of
UHV transmission line is 14.5% and 26.8% higher
than the two types of conventional transmission lines,
respectively.
2.2 Value of minimum wind speed
During the design of transmission lines, besides
determination of design wind speed based on mete-
orological data, minimum design wind speed at
reference height of 10 m is specified. Minimum
basic wind speed of 110330 kV transmission line is
23.5 m/s, that of 500 kV750 kV transmission line is
27 m/s. In the design of Jindongnan-Nanyang-Jingmen
1,000 kV UHV AC transmission tower, minimum
design wind speed is 28 m/s. For the subsequent
Xiangjiaba-Shanghai 800 kV transmission line and
Huainan-Shanghai 1,000 kV transmission line, mini-
mum wind speeds are both designed as 27 m/s. Seen
from above, minimum wind speed of UHV transmis-
sion line is not lower than that of 110 kV750 kV
transmission line.
2.3 Value of wind vibration coefficient
In general, weight of arm and tower head and lateral
dimension are at a high level. Components are con-
nected by means of welding and bolt. Due to these
structural characteristics, generally, calculation meth-
ods of dynamic characteristics and wind vibration
coefficient for high-rise tower specified in Load Code
for the Design of Building Structures are not applica-
ble for tubular transmission tower. Value of wind load
regulation factor directly affects structural safety thus
it is necessary to adopt random vibration theory for
accurate calculation.
China Electric Power Research Institute (Yang,
2010) specially studied wind vibration coefficient
of 1,000 kV tubular transmission tower by means of
numerical simulation and model wind tunnel test. The
model is shown in Fig.1.
As indicated by the results, wind vibration coeffi-
cient calculated by means of random vibration theory
is close to value from wind tunnel test under high
turbulence scale. Value of engineering design is high
compared to the result. Thus, value of wind vibration
646
Figure 1. Wind tunnel test of the tubular transmission tower.
coefficient is safe for 1,000 kV tubular tower with
double circuit lines on the same tower.
3 STRUCTURAL STABILITY
Structural element reliability index is not less than
3.2 for 500 kV transmission tower, which meets safety
requirement of second class building. Structural relia-
bility degrees of 1,000 kV and 800 kV transmission
tower are higher than that of 500 kV transmission tower
by one class at least (Li, 2010), that is, safety level is
considered as first class for the two types of UHV
lines, 3.7.
During the design of tower structures, structural
importance factor 0 largely affects reliability index
that once 0 increases by 0.05, reliability index will
increase by 0.1 0.2. Structural importance factor of
500 kV transmission line is considered as 1.0, which
of 1,000 kV and 800 kV transmission line, 1.1. Com-
pared to 500 kV transmission line, the two types of
UHV transmission lines have higher load value and
structural reliability.
4 TOWER TYPE
Tubular tower is adopted in UHV double circuit
transmission lines. Compared to angle steel tower, it
presents significant characteristics like high bearing
capacity, good stability, simple structure type and clear
load transfer form (Sun, 2010), demonstrated as the
following three aspects.
4.1 Load effect
Wind load of tower body shares a high rate in calcu-
lated load of transmission tower, 40% 50% or so in
general. Tubular section presents good dynamic per-
formance that shape factor of wind pressure is only
1/2 of angle steel. Thus, on assumption that require-
ments for calculation of strength and stability are met,
tubular tower with low wind pressure can significantly
reduce wind load of tower body and improve bearing
capacity of tower structure.
Table 3. Comparison of the section properties between
tubules and angles.
Sectional Radius of gyration (cm)
area
Type Specification (cm2) Major axis Minor axis
Tubules 356 8 87.46 12.30 12.30
89 3.5 9.40 3.03 3.03
Angles 2L160 14 86.59 6.20 3.16
L80 6 9.40 3.11 1.59
Figure 2. Typical connections in tubular towers.
4.2 Section characteristics
Section of steel tubular member is centrally symmet-
ric and stressed homogeneously in each direction with
material uniformly distributed around and high bend-
ing rigidity. Table 3 presents comparison of section
characteristics for tubule and angle steel with almost
the same sectional area.
For tension member of transmission tower, sectional
area of tubule is equal to that of angle, no advantage
embodied. However, for bending member, tubule with
relatively small sectional area and high radius of gyra-
tion can play its mechanical property sufficiently and
evenly thus meet requirements for strength, rigidity
and stability of structural load. Especially for high-
load tower with large structural geometric dimension
and long members, the advantage of good stability by
tubular tower is more evident.
4.3 Structural connection
With respect to structural connection, members of
tubular tower are connected by means of flange and
intersection. Diagonal member and main member are
connected by means of gusset and intersection, shown
in Fig.2. For tubular towers, flange connection and
gusset connection are simple thus reduce adverse
impact on bearing capacity from member eccentricity,
excessive couplings and easy deformation meanwhile
enhance rigidity and tightness of connected node,
helpful for improving overall rigidity, stability and
resistance to dynamic load of wind vibration.
647
5 CALCULATING MODEL IN STRUCTURAL
DESIGN
In design of transmission line with conventional volt-
age grade, overall space truss calculating model is
applied. All nodes are considered as ideal hinges,
thus tower member is only stressed by axial force.
In general, tubular tower is used for UHV double
circuit transmission line since it is supposed to bear
high load. Main member of tubular tower is taken
as stressed member, section and rigidity of which
are much higher than diagonal member and auxiliary
member. Flange connections between tower members
ensure high rigidity. At this point, effect of bending
moment at the ends of tower members cant be ignored.
Therefore, China Electric Power Research Institute
carried out special study on Tubular Tower Finite-
element Analysis and Verification (Yang, 2009). In
order to make clear the impact on bearing capacity
of UHV tubular tower member from end moment,
stressed conditions of UHV tubular steel towers were
analyzed by means of space truss model, beam-truss
hybrid model, space steel frame model and semi-rigid
model.
The research results show that the end moment inor-
dinately affects the stress of main member. Most stress
generated by bending moment on main member shares
over 10% in axial stress. The bending moment farthest
affects stress of main member at grade change point
where stress generated by bending moment shares 30%
or so in axial stress. Based on the results, beam-truss
hybrid model is adopted for the stress verification
of UHV tubular tower, and redundancy of bearing
capacity is properly improved in structural design.
6 PROTOTYPE EXPERIMENT
VERIFICATION
In order to ensure safety and reliability of UHV towers,
prototype strength tests were carried out for typical
towers in UHV projects (Xia, 2007; Qin, 2008; Li,
2009). Considering the height limitation and large load
of double circuit transmission tower, original test sta-
tion is not satisfactory. In response, in 2009, State Grid
Corporation built 150 m UHV tower test base and com-
pleted prototype tests for eight UHV towers, covering
SJ3021 test tower of 107 m in height. Loading scheme
in the test is shown in Fig.3.
All of the eight towers were subject to bearing
capacity tests under design loads. Modes of failure
like buckling of local tower member, diagonal mem-
ber on upper plane of arm and earth wire support
member. Design suggestions are put forward based
on the test results. Firstly, beam-truss hybrid model
is proposed for design verification of tubular UHV
towers. The member stresses from end moments of
tower members are taken into account. Secondly, for
steel tubular-angle steel hybrid tower, redundancy can
be properly improved for members on facade of earth
wire support. The members are controlled by 1/20 of

Figure 3. Loading on the test tubular tower of UHV double
circuit lines.
internal force of main member and a slenderness ratio
of 220.
7 CONCLUSION
Capability of UHV transmission line to resist nat-
ural disasters is assessed from load considerations,
tower types, calculating model in structural design,
prototype test verification, anti-vibration and anti-
galloping of conductors and seismic resistance design
of equipment.
(1) Load return period of UHV transmission line
is designed as 100 years. Wind load is improved by
14.5% comparing to that of 500 kV transmission line,
and wind resistance of the UHV transmission line is
also improved. Design thickness of accreted ice is
improved by 7% thus anti-icing capability is improved
to some extent. Structural reliability factor of UHV
transmission line is 1.1, improved by at least one
class compared to transmission lines with conventional
voltage grade.
(2) Wind vibration coefficient of UHV tower is
higher than the value determined by random vibration
analysis and simulation tunnel test. A safe structural
design can be realized.
648
(3) Tubular tower is used in UHV double circuit
transmission lines. Compared to angle steel tower,
it presents significant characteristics like high bear-
ing capacity, good stability, simple structure type and
clear load transfer form. Beam-truss hybrid model is
adopted for stress verification of UHV tubular towers.
Redundancy of bearing capacity properly is enhanced
in structural design. All of typical UHV towers are
qualified in structural bearing capacity tests under
design loads.
REFERENCES
Li Maohua, Dong Jianyao, Yang Jingbo, et al 2009. Full scale
test for tubular steel tower applied in UHV AC double-
circuit transmission line. Proceedings of the CSEE 29
(34): 102107.
Li Yongwei, Yuan Jun, Zhao Quanjiang, et al 2010. Design of
the first 1,000 kV AC single-circuit overhead transmission
line in China. Proceedings of the CSEE 30 (1): 117126.
Qin Qingzhi, Geng Jingdu 2008. Design and test research of
angle tower J1 for 1,000 kV UHV AC transmission line.
Electric Power Construction 29 (10): 59.
Sun Zhusen, Cheng Yongfeng, Zhang Qiang, et al 2010.
Application and dissemination of steel tubular tower in
transmission lines. Power System Technology 34 (6):
186192.
Xia Kaiquan, Li Maohua, Li Feng 2007. Structural analy-
sis and testing research for Chinese 1,000 kV UHV AC
transmission tower. High Voltage Engineering 33 (11):
5660.
Yang Jingbo, Han Junke, Hua Xugang, et al 2010. Wind-
induced vibration suppression of tubular towers for
1,000 kV double-circuit transmission lines on the same
tower from Huainan to Shanghai. Proceedings of the CSEE
30 (7): 104110.
Yang Jingbo, Han Junke, Li Maohua, et al 2009. Selection of
Calculating model for Steel Tubular Tower of UHV Power
Transmission Line. Power System Technology 34 (1): 15.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Analysis on the unbalanced tension of 1000 kV and 500 kV AC four-circuit

transmission lines on the same tower

Han Junke
China Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing, China
Beijing Key Lab of Earthquake Engineering and Structural Retrofit, Beijing, China

Zhang Chunlei
North China Power Engineering Co.,LTD of China Power Engineering Consulting Group, Beijing, China

Yang Jingbo & Yang Fengli

China Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing, China

ABSTRACT: The finite element model of line-string coupled system is built, through the parameter of con-
ductors and ground wires of UHV-EHV AC multi-circuit transmission lines on the same tower. By using the
finite element models, the variation laws of unbalanced ice loads with the number of strain spans in one sec-
tion and unbalanced ice loads under the effect of altitude difference on the attachment points of conductors
and ground wires are summarized for the calculation method of unbalanced ice loads on non-uniform ice con-
ditions. The quantitative calculation results on the percentage of unbalanced tension and maximum working
tension under the non-uniform ice conditions are given, by researching unbalanced ice loads on the attachment
points of conductors and ground wires under the different ice coating rate of conductors and ground wires.
In order to considering the influence of deformation of transmission tower on unbalanced ice loads, the 3-D
finite element model of tower-line-string coupled system is built. Comparative analysis results of unbalanced
ice loads on non-uniform ice conditions are given, based on two kinds of calculating models. According to
calculation result, the percentage of unbalanced tension and maximum working tension on conductors and
ground wires of UHV-EHV AC multi-circuit transmission lines on the same tower is achieved. In general, the
percentage of conductors is 10%, and the percentage of ground wires is 20%. By the economical reason, dif-
ferent voltage grades of UHV-EHV AC multi-circuit transmission lines on the same tower can have different
percentage.

Keywords: UHV-EHV AC multi-circuit transmission lines on the same tower, unbalanced tension, finite
element model

1 PREFACE transmission line corridor is more and more indirect

The fast economic development in China brings the
development of electric power industry. And the fast
development of power grid needs the power transmis-
sion technology of higher voltage level. The building
of UHV power grid can keep the sustainable devel-
opment of power grid in China and is the right
choice to fundamentally solve the existing problems
in power grid development. The successful applica-
tion of UHV AC power transmission project marks
a breakthrough of UHV power transmission technol-
ogy and its building, operation and management. With
the higher modernization of cities in China, the land
resource is more and more important but the land
resource is unrecyclable, therefore, more attention is
paid on its exploration and using. About the building of
power grid in economic developed area, one hand, the
and fewer, and the approval of transmission line cor-
ridor by the local planning department is more and
more strict. On another hand, the huge cost of reloca-
tion and demolishment during the building of power
grid has become a bottleneck restriction on power grid
development. Multi-circuit lines on the same UHV
AC transmission tower are erected by 1000 kV double-
circuit lines and 500 kV double-circuit lines. It meets
the general requirements of building a resource-saving
society, and is the most effective way to reduce line cor-
ridors in economic developed areas with rare land and
crowded houses, save project investment and improve
the transmission capacity.
Now, studies at home and abroad mainly focus on
the ice-coating load of transmission line below UHV
level[1][2] . The study on effect of height difference
of hanging points and different span to unbalanced

649
tension caused by non-uniform ice coating lacks too.
Meanwhile, there is no certain analysis about the
effect degree of the deformation of transmission tower
to the unbalanced tension at the 3D finite element
model for the coupling among towers, lines and insu-
lator strings. Due to the huge transmission capacity
of UHV multi-circuit line, chain disasters of falling
towers like Domino Effect easily happens once falling
an icing transmission tower, which will cause unpre-
dicted loss to power grid. Therefore, it is very nec-
essary to analyze the unbalanced tension caused by
ice-coating of UHV multi-circuit lines on the same
tower.
The common finite element analysis software:
ANSYS is broadly used to study on static or dynamic
performance of transmission tower[3][5] . To be more
clear about the effect of non-uniform ice-coating on
UHV AC multi-circuit transmission lines on the same
tower, 3D finite element model is set up to analyze the
unbalanced tension of conductors and ground wires
caused by non-uniform ice-coating.
2 CALCULATION MODEL
2.1 Design parameters
1000 kV and 500 kV AC four-circuit transmission
tower as Figure 1. Bottom span: 23.0 m, total
height: 127.5 m, weight of total steel tubular tower:
about 200 t. 1000 kV double-circuit transmission lines
are erected above the 500 kV double-circuit trans-
mission lines. About 1000 kV transmission line,
the conductor: 8 LGJ-630/45, the angle of V-shape
insulator string: 100 degree, length of insulator
string: 14200 mm; About 500 kV transmission line,
the conductor: 4 LGJ-630/45, the angle of V-shape
insulator string: 100 degree, length of insulator string:
7890 mm; ground wire: 2 JLB20A-240, length of
I-shape suspension insulator string: 761 mm. The air
conditions of icing design: temperature 5 C, wind
Figure 1. Schematic diagram of tower.
650
speed: 10 m/s, thickness of ice on conductor: 10 mm,
thickness of ice on the ground wire: 15 mm.
2.2 Confirmation the number of strain spans in
one section
The 1000 kV wire (8 LGJ-630/45) is used as the
study target. Calculation models for the number of
strain spans in one section: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
and 11. Among them, two ends are the tension resis-
tance tower; the middle is the tangent tower. Thickness
of design icing: 10 mm, span: 400 m, non-uniform ice
coating: 100% and 20%, the unbalanced tension from
non-uniform ice coating is analyzed by finite element
model of line-string coupled system. The distribution
map of ice-coating load of 8 spans in one section
by finite element model indicates as Figure 2. The
change relationship between unbalanced tension and
the number of strain spans in one section indicates as
Figure 3.
The increase percentage of unbalanced tension goes
down with the increase of number of strain spans in
one section. When the number is more than 8, the
increase percentage of unbalanced tension goes down
slowly.Through the analysis of change law between the
unbalanced tension of non-uniform ice coating and the
number of strain spans in one section, and real condi-
tions of a project, the finite element model of 8 spans in
one section are applied for analyzing unbalanced ten-
sion of non-uniform ice coating on multi-circuit UHV
AC transmission lines at the same tower.
Figure 2. Distribution map of ice loads.
Figure 3. The curve of unbalanced tension of icing and
grades of span.
3 THE IMPACTS OF HIGH DIFFERENCE
AMONG DIFFERENT POSITIONS, WHERE
CONDUCTORS OR GROUND WIRES ARE
SUSPENDED
The multi-circuit UHV AC transmission lines at the
same tower run along relatively flat plain and hills.
6% strain span is used as the height difference dur-
ing analyzing effect of height difference of hanging
points to unbalanced strain. There are many calcula-
tion models of unbalanced tension of non-uniform ice
coating, mainly three models are applied as follow-
ing: Model one, the same height difference in strain
spans, the consecutive and same height difference
when transmission lines climb a mountain; model two,
only the middle tower has the height difference, other
towers have no height difference. model three, the
same height difference in strain spans, the same height
difference when transmission lines go up and down
mountain.
When the designed thickness of ice is 10 mm, the
change law between the length of span and unbalanced
tension of non-uniform ice coating on 1000 kV con-
ductor under condition of 100% icing at the first 4
spans and 20% icing at the next 4 spans should be
considered during using the finite element model for
8 strain spans in one section. Among three models of
height difference, the change law between the length of
span and unbalanced tension of non-uniform ice coat-
ing on 1000 kV conductor indicates as Table 1. The
percentage of tension is the ratio between unbalanced
tension of non-uniform ice coating and the maximum
tension of conductor or ground wire.
According to Table 1, the unbalanced tension of
non-uniform ice coating on conductor goes up with
the increase of the length of span among three models.
When the length of span is the same, the unbalanced
tension by model three is the biggest, the second is
model two and the smallest is model one. The differ-
ence value of unbalanced tension between model three
and model one goes up with the increase of length of
span, and its increase percentage goes down with the
increase of length of span. The percentage increase
value of unbalanced tension goes up with the increase
of length of span. About analysis of unbalanced ten-
sion of non-uniform ice coating at multi-circuit UHV
AC transmission lines on the same tower, model three
is used.
4 ANALYSIS OF NON-UNIFORM ICE
COATING ON CONDUCTORS AND
GROUND WIRES
About the conductors and ground wires of multi-circuit
UHV AC transmission lines on the same tower, the
line-string coupled model is set up for analysis of
unbalanced tension. According to the analysis of finite
element models, 8 strain spans in one section and
model three is used: the designed thickness of icing
on conductor and ground wire is 10mm and 15mm
respectively, 100% ice coating for the first 4 spans,
20% 30% 40% for the next 4 spans respectively. Then,
the calculation result of the unbalanced tension of con-
ductors and ground wires in 550 m span indicates as
Table 2, where UT is unbalanced tension and PT is the
percentage of tension.
According to Table 2, the unbalanced tension of
non-uniform ice coating on conductor and ground wire
goes down with the increase of ice coating percent-
age. The unbalanced tension changes different types
and number of bundle conductor. The unbalanced ten-
sion value of 1000 kV conductor (8 LGJ-630/45)
is more than the tension value of 500 kV conductor
(4 LGJ-630/45), but the percentage of its maximum
tension is less than the percentage of 500 kV conduc-
tor (4 LGJ-630/45). Both have the same type and
different number of bundle conductor, but the V-shape
insulator string on 1000 kV conductor is longer, there-
fore, their unbalanced tension is different. The I-shape
suspension insulator string of JLB20A-240 ground
wire is shorter, which results that the percentage of
unbalanced tension of ground wire is more than the
conductors obviously.
Table 2. Unbalanced ice loads of conductors and ground
wires.
Conductor: Conductor: Ground wire:
8 LGJ-630/45 4 LGJ-630/45 JLB20A-240
Ice coating UT PT UT PT UT PT
percentage (kN) (%) (kN) (%) (kN) (%)
100%/20% 29.16 6.45 19.75 8.74 24.75 20.04
100%/30% 25.42 5.62 17.17 7.60 21.21 17.18
100%/40% 21.74 4.81 14.69 6.50 17.89 14.48

Table 1. Unbalanced tension of different length of spans.

Span (m) 400 450 500 550 600 650

Model 1 Unbalanced Tension (kN) 8.8 13.0 17.8 23.0 28.54 34.8
Percentage of tension (%) 1.95 2.88 3.93 5.09 6.31 7.70
Model 2 Unbalanced Tension (kN) 11.0 15.7 20.9 26.5 32.3 38.8
Percentage of tension (%) 2.42 3.47 4.63 5.87 7.15 8.57
Model 3 Unbalanced Tension (kN) 12.8 17.9 23.4 29.1 35.0 40.8
Percentage of tension (%) 2.82 3.95 5.17 6.45 7.74 9.03

651
 The multi-circuit UHV AC transmission lines on
the same tower belong to the first-class security. Prin-
cipally, transmission lines should work normally under
the heavy icing condition. Therefore, for multi-circuit
UHV AC transmission suspension tower, the ice coat-
ing percentage for the unbalanced tension of conductor
and ground wire can be 10% and 20% respectively.
From the side of cost of steel towers, different per-
centage of unbalanced tension can be used for different
UHV. For conductor belonging to 1000 kV transmis-
sion line is 7%, For conductor belonging to 500 kV
transmission line is 10%, for ground wire is 20%.
5 ANALYSIS OF TOWER-LINE-STRING
COUPLED SYSTEM
The finite element model of tower-line-string coupled
system can consider the influence of the deformation
of steel tower to the unbalanced tension. Comparing
with the line-string model, its calculation result is more
suitable to the real condition of non-uniform ice coat-
ing on transmission line. Considering the influence of
tower deformation to unbalanced tension, the finite
element model basing on tower-line-string coupled
system is set up as Figure 4.
The length of span: 500 m, the designed ice coating
thickness of conductor and ground wire: 10 mm and
15 mm, 100% ice coating for the first 4 spans, 20%
ice coating for the next 4 spans, no height difference,
the unbalanced tension of non-uniform ice coating is
analyzed by above model, calculation results indicate
as Table 3. Under the same calculation condition, cal-
culation result of unbalanced tension of non-uniform
ice coating by line-string model indicates as Table 4.
Where TI is the thickness of ice coating, UP is the con-
ductor on the upper phase, MP is the conductor on the
middle phase, LP is the conductor on the lower phase,
GW is the ground wire, UT is unbalanced tension and
PT is the percentage of tension, SS is the shift distance
of insulator string.
According to the calculation result by the finite ele-
ment model of tower-line-string coupled system, the
unbalanced tension changes with the different position
of hanging points of conductors; at the same voltage
level, the unbalanced tension goes down with higher
position of hanging points and also goes down with
longer cross-arm; the value of unbalanced tension is
closely related to the deformation of steel tower: the
higher hanging point is, the bigger deformation degree
of steel tower is; the longer cross-arm is, the bigger
deformation degree at the hanging point of steel tower
is, the smaller unbalanced tension of non-uniform ice
coating is. The deformation of steel tower causes more
shift of suspension insulator string on ground wire,
which lessens the unbalanced tension of non-uniform
ice coating on ground wire in some degree.
In line-string coupled finite element model, the
hanging point of insulator strings are simplified as fix-
ing. In the finite element model of tower-line-string
coupled system, the influence from deformation of
steel tower to unbalanced tension of hanging point
is considered. According to the comparison between
this two finite element models, under the condition of
the same parameter of conductor and ground wire, the
tension by tower-line-string model is smaller than the
tension by line-string model; at the same voltage level,
the decrease degree of unbalanced tension by tower-
line-string model comparing with line-string model
goes up with higher steel tower.
About hanging points of the lower phase on 1000 kV
double-circuit lines and 500 kV double-circuit lines,
calculation results of unbalanced tension by two mod-
els are relatively closed, the difference of absolute

Table 4. Unbalanced tension on model of line-chain cou-

pling system.

Conductor: Conductor: Ground wire

Types 8 LGJ-630/45 4 LGJ-630/45 JLB20A-240

TI(mm) 10 10 15
UT(kN) 22.75 15.75 21.68
PT(%) 5.03 6.97 17.56
Figure 4. Finite element model of tower-line-string coupled SS(m) 1.62 1.27 0.48
system.

Table 3. Unbalanced tension on model of tower-line-chain coupling system.

Conductor: Conductor: Ground wire

Types 8 LGJ-630/45 4 LGJ-630/45 JLB20A-240

TI (mm) 10 10 10 10 10 10 15
Position UP MP LP UP MP LP GW
UT (kN) 21.51 21.99 22.32 15.61 15.60 15.70 19.28
PT (%) 4.76 4.86 4.94 6.91 6.90 6.95 15.61
SS (m) 1.670 1.653 1.639 1.275 1.276 1.268 0.607

652
value of unbalanced tension is 426.9 N and 45.8 N
respectively, the difference of percentage of unbal-
anced tension is 0.09% and 0.02%; About the hanging
point of the upper phase on 1000 kV double-circuit
lines, the difference of absolute value of unbalanced
tension by two models is 1240.9 N, the difference
of percentage of unbalanced tension is 0.27%. Due
to influence from relatively heavy deformation of
steel tower, the unbalanced tension of ground wire
decreases greatly, its value goes down by 2404.2 N
and its percentage goes down by 1.95%.
A percentage value of the maximum tension of
conductor or ground wire is taken as the unbalanced
tension of non-uniform ice coating to the design of
power transmission tower in china. Through analy-
sis, although the unbalanced tension of conductor and
ground wire at the top phase is easy to be heavily
effected by deformation of tower, if the percentage
of the maximum tension is taken as a standard, the
decrease degree of percentage of unbalanced tension
of conductor and ground wire is within 0.5% and 2%
respectively.
6 CONCLUSION
The percentage of unbalanced tension of non-uniform
ice coating changes with different models for height
difference of hanging points, where conductors or
ground wires are suspended. For multi-circuit UHV
AC transmission lines on the same tower, the height
difference of hanging point where conductors or
ground wires are suspended can be 6, the influ-
ence from height difference of hanging points to the
percentage of unbalanced tension goes up with the
longer length of span, but the increase value is not
more than 1.5%.
For the finite element model for tower-line-string
coupled system, the influence from the deformation
of tower to the unbalanced tension of non-uniform
ice coating can be considered. The calculation shows
653
that, for multi-circuit UHV AC transmission lines on
the same tower, the decrease degree of percentage of
unbalanced tension of conductor and ground wire due
to deformation of tower is within 0.5% and 2% respec-
tively. The line-string coupled model can be used to
analysis the unbalanced tension of non-uniform ice
coating; the positive influence from the deformation
of tower to percentage of unbalanced tension can be
used as a safe backup.
The percentage of unbalanced tension and maxi-
mum working tension on conductors and ground wires
of UHV-EHV AC multi-circuit transmission lines on
the same tower is achieved. In general, the percentage
of conductors is 10%, and the percentage of ground
wires is 20%. By the economical reason, different
voltage grades of UHV-EHV AC multi-circuit trans-
mission lines on the same tower can have different
percentage.
REFERENCES
[1] Li Zheng, Yang Jingbo, Huang Huang, Huang
Tingzheng, Han Junke, Analysis on Transmission
Tower Toppling Caused by Icing Disaster in 2008[J],
Journal of Power System Technology, 2009, 33(2):
3135.
[2] Zhang Wenliang, Yu Yongqing, Su Zhiyi, Fan Jianbin,
et al. Investigation and Analysis of Icing and Snowing
Disaster Happened in Hunan Power Grid in 2008[J],
Journal of Power System Technology, 2008, 32(8): 15.
[3] Han Junke,Yang Jingbo,Yang Fengli, Li Feng, Li Mao-
hua. Value selection of slenderness ratio and diameter-
thickness ratio of steel tube for 1000kV transmission
steel tubular tower legs [J]. Journal of Power System
Technology, 2009, 33(19): 1720.
[4] Han Junke, Yang Jingbo, Yang Fengli. Analysis failure
mode on iced 500kV transmission Cup-type tower [J].
Electric Power Construction, 2009, 30(11): 2123.
[5] Han Junke, Li Zheng, Yang Fengli, Yang Jingbo, Li
Qinghua. Full scale test of transmission tower using
cold-bending profiled steel [J]. Electric Power Con-
struction, 2008, 29(8): 5860.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Research on load-displacement skeleton curve model of L-shaped

concrete-filled steel tubular column

Bing Cao
Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China

Shaobin Dai & Jun Huang

Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China
Design & Research Institute, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China

Zhong Peng & Xin Shen

Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China

ABSTRACT: By using finite element analysis software ABAQUS, seismic performance of 18 L-

shaped concrete-filled steel tubular columns is nonlinearly analyzed, the load-displacement hysteresis curves of
18 L-shaped concrete-filled steel tubular columns are obtained. Based on load-displacement hysteretic curves,
the load-displacement skeleton curves are obtained. The load-displacement skeleton curve model is put forward
and the model parameters calculation expressions are derived by regression analysis on the finite element calcula-
tion results. Then the model calculation results and the finite element calculation results are compared. The results
show that the model calculation results agree well with the finite element calculation results, this model has a cer-
tain calculation precision and application value, and provide a good reference value for L-shaped concrete-filled
steel tubular column seismic design.

Keywords: L-shaped concrete -filled steel tubular column; skeleton curve; model; parameter

1 INTRODUCTION
With the rapid development of the housing industry
and the shortage of the urban land supply, the tradi-
tional brick and concrete structure buildings were not
suited to the requirements of the market due to the
limits of the storey and height. So high-rise residen-
tial buildings and public buildings with span greater,
taller, body more complex, function more perfect and
shape better which are adapted to the era of aesthetic
are built. However, housing-use area is occupied by
beams and columns that is not beneficial to indoor dec-
oration and furniture arrangement, the requirements
of the smooth appearance of the building plane and
space are not met. The problem of the smooth appear-
ance of the building plane and space can be effectively
solved by special-shaped concrete-filled steel tubu-
lar column. So special-shaped concrete-filled steel
tubular column is widely used in practical engineer-
ing. In order to prevent special-shaped concrete-filled
steel tubular column from damaging under the earth-
quake effect, the seismic performance is analyzed.
The seismic performance analysis of special-shaped
concrete-filled steel tubular column creates conditions
for its right seismic design and application in the seis-
mic zones and has important theoretical and practical
significance[1] .
Restoring forces features of the components under
cyclic loading are usually reflects by hysteresis curve
and skeleton curve, while hysteresis curve reflects the
deformation process of the components under cyclic
loading and skeleton curve briefly reflects the injury
process of the components under cyclic loading[2] . The
characteristic points can be reflected on the skeleton
curve as yield load, yield displacement, ultimate load
and ultimate displacement. The mechanic characteris-
tics can be reflected on the skeleton curve as stiffness,
strength and ductility, these are important index of
measuring the structure seismic performance. The
major factors which impact the loading-displacement
skeleton curve mainly include the steel ratio(), the
yield strength of steel(fy ), the compressive strength
of concrete (fc ), axial compression ratio(n) and so
on[3] . Based on the finite element ABAQUS nonlinear
analysis results, the load-displacement skeleton curve
model of the L-shaped concrete-filled steel tubular
column is preliminary discussed and a reference for
future study is provided in this article.

655
2 LOAD-DISPLACEMENT SKELETON CURVE simplified mechanical model which is shown in figure
OF L-SHAPED CONCRETE-FILLED STEEL 3(a) is taken to analyze.
TUBULAR COLUMN On the condition that the axial force is ignored, the
elastic stage stiffness of skeleton curve model can be
By using finite element analysis software ABAQUS, expressed in the formula (1).
seismic performance of 18 L-shaped concrete-filled
steel tubular columns is nonlinearly analyzed and
the load-displacement skeleton curves are obtained.
The load-displacement skeleton curves are shown in Where Esc is the combination conversion bending
Figure 1. elastic modulus and Isc is the cross-section combina-
tion bending inertia.
Compressive stiffness of concrete-filled steel tube
3 LOAD-DISPLACEMENT SKELETON CURVE can be expressed in the formula (2).
MODLE OF L-SHAPED CONCRETE-FILLED
STEEL TUBULAR COLUMN
Bending stiffness of concrete-filled steel tube can
3.1 Selection of the skeleton curve model be expressed in the formula (3).
There are two possible situations of the load dis-
placement skeleton curve of the concrete-filled steel
tubular compression-bending component: no descent Where Escm is combination bending elastic modu-
segment and descent segment. So the skeleton curve lus.
has two calculation models. Two straight lines model Therefore, the relationship between the compres-
is used to simulate the load-displacement skeleton sive stiffness and bending stiffness of the concrete-
curve which has no descent segment and three straight filled steel tube can be expressed in the formula (4).
lines model is used to simulate the load-displacement
skeleton curve which has the descent segment[4] .
The load-displacement skeleton curves of L-shaped
concrete-filled steel tubular columns are analyzed, it Where
only has elastic and strengthened stage, no descent
segment. This paper adopts two straight lines model
to simulate the FEM calculation results of the load-
displacement skeleton curve. Two straight lines model
is shown in figure 2, A is the end point of elastic stage And
and corresponding load is Py , B is the point of the
peak load and corresponding load is Pu , the stiffness
of straight OA is Ka , and the stiffness of straight OB is
Kb . From figure 2, the model parameters are the stiff-
ness Ka of elastic stage, yield load Py and the stiffness
Kb of strengthened stage. so that

3.2 Skeleton curve model parameters

determination
Using regression analysis on the finite element
3.2.1 The stiffness of elastic stage Ka calculation results of L-shaped concrete-filled steel
When calculating the load-displacement hysteresis tubular columns, the relation curve between and is
curve of the concrete-filled steel tubular compression- shown in figure 4.
bending component by using numerical method, for According to the and relation curve, the least
different boundary conditions, as the relation between square method is used to fit the and relation
lateral load P and lateral displacement
can be greatly curve, the relation expression between and is in
affected by calculation length, it should determine the the formula (11).
effective length of the component reasonably[5] . For
two ends with embed bearing and one end with lateral
displacement frame columns with constant axial load,
the inflection point is in the central of column, so it
can be simplify into a cantilever component, its length
is L which is from infection to the fixed end, as shown
in figure 3(a), and reverse symmetric extension, when According to the formula (1), (3) and (10), the stiff-
the influence on the deflection function by lateral load ness Ka in the elastic stage can be expressed in the
P is ignored, the cantilever component can be equiva- formula (12).
lent to the two ends articulated component, its length
is L1 (L1 = 2L), which is shown in figure 3(b). So the

656
Figure 1. Load displacement skeleton curves of L-shaped concrete-filled steel tubular columns.

657
 Figure 5. b and relation curve diagram.

Figure 2. Two straight lines model of skeleton curve.

level displacement at the end of the component can be
calculated by formula (13)[6] .

Thus the yield load Py can be expressed in the

formula (14)

Using regression analysis for the finite element

calculation results of L-shaped concrete-filled steel
tubular columns, then it can be known:

hence

Figure 3. Component simplified mechanical model.

3.2.3 The stiffness of strengthened stage Kb
The finite element results are analyzed, and the rela-
tion between the stiffness of elastic stage Ka and the
stiffness of strengthened stage Kb is fitted by the least
square method. It can be found that the stiffness Kb
and the stiffness Ka is linear relationship. Therefore,
the stiffness Kb is given by formula (18)

Where b is relevant to the confinement coefficient

. And, the relationship between b and is shown in
figure 5. The least square method is used to fit the
relationship graphic of b and , then, b expression
Figure 4. and relation curve diagram. is given by formula (19) and(20).

3.2.2 Yield load Py

From the figure 3, on the condition that concrete-
filled steel tubular cantilever column is under the
constant axial pressure N, the lateral load P for each

658

Figure 6. The model results and the finite element results
comparison diagram.
4 THE MODEL RESULTS AND THE FINITE
ELEMENT RESULTS COMPARISON
Two straight lines model calculation skeleton curves
and the finite element calculation skeleton curves are
compared, part of the comparison results are shown
in figure 6. It can be found that two kinds of skeleton
659
curves are well matched. Therefore, two straight lines
model has a certain calculation precision and provide
a reference for future study. The orthogonal design
method is used to design specimens and the number
of specimen is limited, so the formulas are approximate
in this paper.
5 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, regression analysis is used for the finite
element calculation results of L-shaped concrete-filled
steel tubular columns. When the confinement of steel
tube to core concrete is fully considered, the load-
displacement skeleton curve model is put forward
and the model parameters calculation expressions
are derived. Then the model calculation results and
the finite element calculation results are compared.
The results show that the model calculation results
agree well with the finite element calculation results,
this model has a certain calculation precision and
application value, provide a good reference value for
L-shaped concrete-filled steel tubular column seismic
design.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was financially supported by self-
determined and innovative research funds of WUT
(2012-ZY-051) and the fundamental research funds for
the central universities (2011-IV-014).
REFERENCES
[1] Bo, D., Shuchun, L. & Yinghua, Y., 2008. Cumulative
damage and test analysis on special-shaped concrete
column structure under repeated load [J]. Journal of
building structures, 29 (1) : 5763.
[2] Jia, L., 2002. Seismic performance analysis on concrete-
filled steel tubular frame [D]. Changsha: hunan univer-
sity civil engineering institute.
[3] Linhai, H. & Youfu, Y., 2007.Modern concrete-filled
steel tubular structure technology (second edition) [M].
Beijing: China architecture & building press.
[4] Linhai, H., 2007. Steel tube concrete structuretheory
and practice (the second edition) [M]. Beijing: science
press.
[5] Qinqin, L., 2010. Study on the Earthquake Resistance
Behaviors of L-shaped Concrete-filled Steel Tubular
Columns [D].Wuhan: wuhan university masters degree
thesis.
[6] Shantong, Z., 2002. Steel tube concrete structure (the
third edition) [M]. Beijing: tsinghua university press.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Mixed aleatory-epistemic uncertainty quantification using evidence theory

with differential evolution algorithm

Yu Su, Hesheng Tang, Songtao Xue & Changyuan Hu

Research Institute of Structural Engineering and Disaster Reduction, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

ABSTRACT: The method based on evidence theory is proposed to solve uncertainty induced by imprecise
in-formation, lake of experimental data and epistemic uncertainty. In order to improve the computational effi-
ciency in the uncertainty quantification (UQ) analysis, a differential evolution based interval optimization for
computing response bounds method is developed. The proposed method is demonstrated with a weld beam
which contains the aleatory and epistemic uncertainties, the numerical results show that the proposed method
can handle two kinds of uncertain issue and has good convergence and stability.

Keywords: evidence theory, Differential Evolution, weld beam, mixed aleatory-epistemic uncertainty

1 INTRODUCTION bounds of probability), when the plausibility and

Traditional engineering analysis is generally based on
the certain system parameters and deterministic com-
putational model, however, the fuzzy or imprecise
information may be exists in the geometry, material
properties, external effects, and boundary conditions
of a system widely. In order to obtain reliable analysis
and design, uncertainty must gain a lot of attention.
In general, uncertainty can be broadly classified in
two general types; aleatory (stochastic) and epistemic
(subjective). Aleatory or irreducible uncertainty is
related to inherent variability and is efficiently mod-
eled using probability theory. However, when data are
scarce or there is lack of information, the probabil-
ity theory is not useful because the needed probability
distributions cannot be accurately constructed. In this
case, epistemic uncertainty, which describes subjec-
tively, Ignorance or lack of information, can be used.
Epistemic uncertainty is also called reducible because
it can be reduced with increased state of knowledge or
collection of more data.
Formal theories to handle uncertainty have been
proposed in the literature including evidence the-
ory (Dempster-Shafer theory), possibility theory and
interval analysis. Among them, the evidence theory
which uncertainties are quantified in the form of inter-
val with specific confidence levels is more general
than probability and possibility theories. it can be
used in design under uncertainty if limited, and even
conflicting, information is provided from experts. Fur-
thermore, the basic axioms of evidence theory allow
combining aleatory and epistemic uncertainty in a
straightforward way without any assumptions. More-
over, Dempster-Shafer theory has two measures of
uncertainty, belief and plausibility (upper and lower
belief measures are equal, the general evidence theory
reduces to the classical probability theory. Therefore,
the classical probability theory is a special case of
evidence theory.
However, evidence theory has been barely explored
in engineering design, one of the reasons may be its
high computational cost due mainly to the discontinu-
ous nature of uncertainty quantification and difficulty
of obtaining the response bounds within n-dimensional
hypercube formed on the process of uncertainty prop-
agation. Therefore, in order to reduce computational
cost, a modern intelligent optimization method based
on Differential Evolution (DE) is introduced to quickly
search the minimum and maximum value for each
hypercube.
In this paper, a methodology for the analysis of
mixed aleatory-epistemic uncertainty based on evi-
dence theory and Differential Evolution (DE) is pro-
posed. Evidence theory is used to represent uncertain
variables, and Differential Evolution algorithm is used
to propagate epistemic uncertainty. All principles are
demonstrated with a weld beam to investigate accuracy
and efficiency of the proposed method by comparing
with probability theory.
2 FUNDAMENTALS OF EVIDENCE THEORY
The evidence theory, also known as Dempster-Shafer
Theory, is developed by A. Dempster and G. Shafer in
1976. It is a good method to handle the epistemic and
aleatory uncertainty. one of the most important fea-
tures of evidence theory is that the modal is designed
to cope with varying levels of precision regarding the

661
Figure 1. Belief and Plausibility.
information and no further assumptions are needed to
represent the information.
Evidence theory is based on the three important
functions: the basic probability assignment (or mass)
function, the Belief function (Bel),and the Plausibility
function(Pl). The basic probability assignment (BPA)
or mass is a primitive of evidence theory. It defines
a mapping of the power set to the interval between
0 and 1. Define mass function m a mapping from
2 [0, 1], and A is a subset of frame of discern-
ment , denoted by A , then, this mass function is
given as:
The function m is called basic probability assign-
ment(BPA),the basic probability assignment m(A) is
interpreted as the degree of evidence supporting the
claim that a specific element of  belong to the set
A. Every set A for which m(A) > 0 is called a focal
element of m.
Given the basic probability assignment (BPA), the
belief measure and plausibility measure are uniquely
determined by
The belief Bel(A) is interpreted to be the min-
imum likelihood that is associated with the set A.
Similarly, the plausibility Pl (A) is the maximum
amount of likelihood that could be associated with
set A. Apparently, the belief and plausibility define an
interval-valued probability distribution, not a single
probability distribution, as shown in Figure 1.
Evidence obtained from independent sources or
experts must be combined. If m1 and m2 express evi-
dence from two experts, the combined evidence m
can be calculated by the following Dempsters rule of
combining:
where
662
Figure 2. (a) The process of uncertainty propagation;
(b) The propagation of system uncertainty.
K represents the conflict between the two indepen-
dent expects. Dempsters rule is usually appropriate
for relatively small amounts of conflict. Yager has
proposed an alterative rule of combination where all
degrees of contradiction are attributed to total igno-
rance. Other rules of combining can be founded in
other reference.
3 UNCERTAINTY PROPAGATION WITH
DIFFERENTIAL EVOLUTION
3.1 Mathematical description of uncertainty
propagation
The previous section described uncertainty qualifi-
cation based on evidence theory. This section shows
how to propagate uncertainty through a given modal
(transfer function). We will illustrate that, using the
above simple figure: where x is uncertain variable, d
is certain variable, f is a system model, and y is the sys-
tem response. Essentially, uncertainty propagation is
to determine the uncertainty of system response when
the system uncertain input is given.
In the evidence theory, uncertainty variable is usu-
ally expressed to be a series of intervals based on
uncertain qualification and n variables will form n-
dimensional hypercube. Therefore, uncertainty prop-
agation is a progress of finding the maximum and
minimum of the response value in each hypercube,
just as figure 3 illustrates:
In summary, four major steps are involved in
analysis process of uncertainty propagation:
1. Determine the set of n-dimensional hypercube (n
represent the number of parameter) that have a
nonzero evidential measure.
2. Compute the composite evidential measure (BPA)
of each hypercube.
3. Propagate each hypercube through the modal and
obtain the response bounds within each hypercube.
4. Aggregate the minimum and maximum values of
the response per hypercube with the BPAs to obtain
cumulative belief and plausibility functions on the
response.
The third step involves finding the bounds value
in each hypercube, there are two main approaches to
estimate the response bounds: sampling and optimiza-
tion. With sampling, hundreds of thousands of samples
are needed to take over the space to ensure response
bounds accurately. Therefore, the modern intelligent
optimization method based on Differential Evolution
(DE) is proposed to overcome the computational cost,
it needs to solve two optimization problems:
Differential Evolution resembles the structure of an
evolutionary algorithm (EA), but differs from tradi-
tional EAs in its generation of new candidate solutions,
it is a fast and robust algorithm as an alternative
to EA. The following part will describe the details
of DE.
3.2 Differential evolution algorithm
An optimization task consisting of n parameters can
be represented by an n-dimensional vector. Let S Rn
be the search space of the problem under consider-
ation. Then, the n-dimensional vector can be repre-
sented by xi = (xi1 , xi2 , . . . xin )T S, i = 1, 2, 3,. . .,
NP, and DE algorithm utilizes NP as a population for
each iteration, called a generation of the algorithm.
The DE algorithm is a population based algorithm
like genetic algorithms using the similar operators:
crossover, mutation, crossover and selection.
3.2.1 Mutation
The objective of mutation is to enable search diversity
in the parameter space as well as to direct the exist-
ing object vectors with suitable amount of parameter
variation in a way which will lead to better results at a
suitable time. It keeps the search robust and explores
new areas in the search domain.
According to the mutation operator, for each indi-
(G)
vidual, xi , i = 1, 2, . . ., NP, at generation G, a muta-
(G + 1) (G + 1) (G + 1) (G + 1) T
tion vector vi = (vi1 , vi2 , . . . , vin
determined using different mutation methods. The
mutation method of DE/current-to-best/1/bin rec-
ommended by Storn and Price is used in this
paper to optimize structure, which is corresponding
to Eq. 8:
(G)
where xbest = best individual of the population at gen-
eration G; F and F1 > 0 = real parameters, called
mutation constants, which control the amplification
of difference between two individuals so as to avoid
search stagnation; and r1 , r2 are mutually different
integers, randomly selected from the set {1, 2,. . ., i 1,
i + 1,. . ., NP}.
3.2.2 Crossover
Similar to genetic algorithms, following the mutation
phase, the crossover operator is applied on the popu-
(G + 1)
lation. For each mutant vector, vi , a trial vector
(G + 1t) G + 1) (G + 1) (G + 1) T
uij = (ui1 , ui2 , . . . , uin ) is generated,
with
where j = 1, 2, . . ., n; rand(j) is the jth independent
random number uniformly distributed in the range of
[0, 1]. Randn(i) is a randomly chosen index from the
set {1, 2,. . ., n}, and CR is user defined crossover
constant [0, 1] that controls the diversity of the
population.
3.2.3 Selection
DE employs a greedy criterion which is different from
genetic algorithms. After producing the offspring, the
performance of the offspring vector and its parent is
compared and the better one is selected. If the parent is
still better, it is retained in the population, otherwise,
the offspring retained in the population. The selection
process is represented by Equation 10:
3.2.4 Process of uncertainty analysis with evidence
theory and differential evolution
The flowchart based on the evidence theory and differ-
ential evolution to handle the uncertainty are showed
in the figure 3.
4 NUMERICAL EXAMPLE
A beam of length L with cross-sectional dimensions
t and b that is welded to a fixed support, as show in
Figure 4, is considered. The weld length is l on both
top and bottom surfaces and the beam is required to
support a load P. The weld is in the form of a triangle
) is of depth h. The maximum shear stress developed in
the weld, , is given by Equations 1013:
where
663

Figure 3. Uncertainty quantification using evidence theory
and differential evolution.
Figure 4. A weld beam.
Experimental results demonstrate that the stress dis-
tribution in the weld is more complex and weld defect
and it has largely different performances between the
edge weld and side weld. The roots of the edge weld is
prone to produce stress concentration, the crack gen-
erate in the root firstly and then spread throughout the
whole weld cross section resulting in fracture. More-
over, with the increasing in the weld length, the stress
distribution of side weld is more uneven.Therefore, the
weld strength has significant dispersion due to incom-
pletely filled weld, weld defect and the uncertainty of
weld geometry size, etc.
664
Table 1. BPA values for uncertain parameter with normal
distribution.
Variable Parameters Intervals BPA
l 1 [5.5,6],[6,6.5] 0.28,0.5
[6.5,7] 0.22
1 [0.5,0.57],[0.57,0.62] 0.3,0.5
[0.62,0.65] 0.2
h 2 [0.2,0.225],[0.225,0.25] 0.3,0.5
[0. 25,0.27] 0.2
2 [0.02,0.022],[0.022,0.025] 0.3,0.5
[0.025,0.03] 0.2
P 3 [5000,5500],[5500,6000] 0.2,0.4
[6000,6500],[6500,7000] 0.4,0.2
3 [400,450],[450,500] 0.2,0.4
[500,550],[550,600] 0.4,0.2
The units of l and h is in, and P is lb.
To consider uncertainty of maximum shear stress
in the weld, the length of the weld(l) and the height
of the weld (h) and the load (P) are considered to
be uncertain, other parameters are deterministic, the
nominal data is L = 14 in, t = 8.273 in. The goal is to
analyze the uncertainty of the maximum shear stress
in the weld, and evaluate the likelihood of the max-
imum shear stress not exceeding the specified limit
state value.
A common situation is where one may know the
form of the probability distribution for an uncertain
variable, but one is not sure of the parameters govern-
ing the distribution, the evidence theory can handle
those mixed aleatory-epistemic uncertainty. Contin-
uing with the example of weld beam, uncertainty
variables l, h, and P are supposed to follow normal dis-
tribution with the uncertain parameters (, ). table 1
shows the BPA values of uncertainty parameters.
In addition, the probability theory is introduced to
verified the validity of results calculated by evidence
theory, it can extract a special case of data from the
discernment of frame where l, h, and P are normally
distributed random parameters with l N(6.196,0.6)
in, h N(0.2455,0.025) in, and P N(6000,500)lb.
Cumulative distribution results based on evidence
theory and probability theory are showed in the fig-
ure 5 where CBF , CPF and CDF denote the cumulative
distribution function for belief, plausibility and prob-
ability, respectively, it can be obtained form Figure 6
that CDF curve located in the middle of CBF curve
and CPF curve, thus belief and plausibility provide
bounds as to where the true, unknown cumulative dis-
tribution function may fall. Therefore, when sufficient
data are not available or there is lack of knowledge
and information, the classical probability may not be
appropriate, and evidence theory can deal with the
uncertainty effectively.
Table 2 lists some information of interest from the
results. (1) E(): it represents the expected value of
maximum shear stress; (2) 0.95 : Maximum shear stress
with 95% guarantee probability. the result calculated
by probability theory is a single value 10195.7, but

Figure 5. Cumulative distribution of maximum shear stress
based on evidence theory and probability theory.
Table 2. Comparison of calculation results between evi-
dence theory and probability theory.
Result information Probability theory Evidence theory
E() 694.2 [506.7,906.5]
0.95 10195.7 [9703,13234]
R( < 9066.6) 81% [43%,90%]
The units of E() and 0.95 is lb/in2 in.
the result given by evidence theory is a interval of
[9703.1,13234]; (3) R( < 9066.6): Reliability degree
of the weld beam. The beam is considered unsafe if
the maximum shear stress in the weld is greater than
9066.67 lb/in2 , the belief and plausibility value for
the maximum shear stress less than 9066.67 lb/in2 are
0.43 and 0.9, respectively, and the probability is 0.8
which lies between 0.43 and 0.9. thus the degree of
plausibility,0.9,is the maximum limit state violation
for the design while there is at least 0.43 belief for
a safe design, so the results based on evidence the-
ory can avoid error caused by the estimation deviation
of the probability distribute parameters due to lack of
adequate information.
5 CONCLUSIONS
As for the uncertainty induced by the lack of knowl-
edge or incomplete, inaccurate, unclear information
in the model, simulation, measurement and reliability
assessment and design optimization, the method based
on evidence theory is proposed as an alternative to
the classical probability theory to handle uncertainty.
Moreover, in order to improve the computational effi-
ciency, the modern intelligent optimization method
based on Differential Evolution (DE) is introduced to
find the maximum and minimum of the response value
in n-dimensional hypercubes rapidly. In this paper, a
665
weld beam with uncertainty in the weld length (l),
weld height (h), and load (P) is investigated using the
proposed method. By comparing with probability the-
ory, the numerical results indicate that evidence theory
based on differential evolution algorithm can han-
dle mixed aleatory-epistemic uncertainty successfully,
and it has fast convergence speed and good robustness.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study was supported by the National Natural Sci-
ence Foundation of China (Grant No. 51178337 and
50708076), Basic Research of the State Key Labora-
tory for Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering of
Tongji University(Grant No. SLDRCE11-B-01) and
the Kwang-Hua Fund for College of Civil Engineering,
Tongji University.
REFERENCES
Agarwal, H. & Renaud, J.E. & Preston, E.L. & Padmanabhan,
D., 2004. Uncertainty quantification using evidence the-
ory in multidisciplinary design optimization. Reliability
Engineering and System Safety (85): 281294.
Bae, H.R., Grandhi, R.V. & Canfield, R.A., 2004. An approx-
imation approach for uncertainty quantification using evi-
dence theory. Reliability Engineering and System Safety
(86): 215225.
Dempster, A.P., 1997. Upper and lower probabilities induced
by a multiplicand mapping. Annals of mathematical statis-
tics 38:325339.
Eldred, M.S., Swiler, L.P. & Tang, G., 2011. Mixed aleatory-
epistemic uncertainty quantification with stochastic
expansions and optimization-based interval estima-
tion. Reliability Engineering and System Safty (96):
10911113.
Helton, J.C., 1997 Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis in the
presence of stochastic and subjective uncertainty. Journal
of Statistical Computation and Simulation 57: 376.
McClean, S. & Scotney, B., 1997. Using evidence theory
for the integration of distributed database. International
Journal of Intelligent Systems. 12(10): 763776.
Oberkampf, W.L., Helton, J.C. & Sentz, K., 2001. Mathe-
matical representation of uncertainty, Non-Deterministic
Approaches Forum, Seattle: WA, AIAA.
Shafer, G.A., 1976. Mathematical theory of evidence. Prince-
ton: Princeton University Press.
Storn, R. & Price, K., 1997. Differential evolution- A simple
and efficient adaptive scheme for global optimization over
continuous spaces. Journal of Global Optimization 11(4):
341359.
Sentz, K. & Ferson, S., 2002. Combination of Evidence in
Dempster-Shafer Theory. Sandia National Laboratories
Report No. SAND2002-0835.
Tang, H.S., W, Z.l. & X, S.T., 2010 Truss structure shape opti-
mization with differential evolution algorithm, Journal of
Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering 32(1):
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and new Combination Rules. Information Sciences. 41:
93137.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

New jacket-based anchorage for RC beams with external tendons

Sungnam Hong, Sun-Kyu Park & Jinwoong Choi

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Jangan-gu, Suwon, South Korea

ABSTRACT: This paper presents the result of a study on flexural capacity of reinforced concrete beams
strengthened with external tendons using jacket-based anchorage system. External prestressing is a post-
tensioning method that is becoming popular not only in new bridge construction but also as a strengthening
method for existing concrete structures. In an externally prestressed structure, the tendons are placed on the out-
side of concrete sections to which they are in contact only at anchorages. However strengthening with external
prestressing method, there are many faults to install anchorage system. Therefore, this study proposes jacket-
based anchorage system without any damage to the structure and investigates feasibility of it. A total five concrete
beams were constructed, tested and the response of the beams in terms of deflections, strains and modes of failure
were examined. Test variables included the type of anchorage system and amount of prestressing, and the effects
according to each test variables were analysed. The test results showed that the proposed anchorage system can
increase the flexural capacity such as strength, stiffness of the beam and the increase ranged between 34 and
73% of the load carrying capacity of the control beams.

Keywords: External tendons, Post-tensioning, Jacket-based anchorage system, Concrete structure.

1 INSTRUCTION damaged when the anchorage elements were installed

Generally, with time, all concrete structures suffer
from losses of durability, load carrying capacity, and
service life. Bridges are damaged because of the over-
loaded vehicles, chemical attacks and environmental
changes. As a result, these bridges must be repaired
and strengthened12 .
Current methods for rehabilitating reinforced con-
crete (RC) and prestressed concrete (PSC) bridges
include the sole plate replacement method, the steel
or fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) plate bonding
method, and the external prestressing method36 . Of
these, the external prestressing method is frequently
used to rehabilitate and strengthen various structures
because of its high applicability and high strenthening
efficiency.
Structurally and economically, the external pre-
stressing method has many advantages that can ensure
easy structural analysis and broad applicability.
Furthermore, because of the light dead weight of
strengthening materials, the bridge does not have to
carry any additional load. In addition, installation
is simple, and the construction period is short78 .
After construction, the structure can be maintained
easily and stress can be controlled by adjusting the
prestressing.
Although the external prestressing method has no
serious, some problems arise when the anchorage ele-
ments are installed to apply the prestressing forces910 .
For example, the existing structure will be inevitably
and design of the anchorage elements is impossible
because of complicated structure for transmitting the
load.
In this study, a jacket-base anchorage system is pro-
posed and investigated the feasibility of it. This system
is a kind of bearing support method and can be installed
without any damage to the structure. The proposed
anchorage system was compared with the anchorage
system of the shear support method, which is fre-
quently used in existing concrete structures. A total
five concrete beams were constructed and tested up to
failure under four-point loading. The flexural response
of the strengthened beams in terms of deflections,
strains and modes of failure were examined.
2 EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM
2.1 Test variables
The flexural performance was evaluated by compar-
ing the anchorage system of shear support and that
of jacket-based. Also the effects of various prestress
levels applied to the prestressing tendons were dis-
cussed to evaluate the flexural behaviors. Five concrete
beams were produced: a standard beam, a beam of
shear support anchorage, three beams with the jacket-
based anchorage and with different levels of prestress.
The test variables of each beam are indicated in
Table 1.

667
Table 1. Details and variables of the tested beams.

Prestressing Tendon

Size Concrete Compressive Strength Eccentricity Jacking Force

Beams mm MPa mm kN Remarks

STD 2,160 Control

SEP10 150 98 Shear support
NEP5 250 27.3 60 49
NEP10 2200 98 Jacket-based
NEP20 147

Table 2. Material properties.

Specified Concrete Strength Measured Compressive Strength Modulus of Elasticity Slump

MPa MPa MPa Mm

Concrete 24 27.3 2.10 104 130

Type Yield strength Tensile strength Modulus ofelasticity Elongation
MPa MPa MPa %

Steel D10 409 637 2.11 105 20.0

rebar D16 485 601 2.06 105 22.3
Nominal diameter Area Tensile strength Extensibility
Type mm mm2 MPa %

PS strand SWPC7B 12.7 98.7 183.4 3.5

Yield strength Tensile strength Allowable compressive stress Allowable shear stress Bearing stress
MPa MPa MPa MPa MPa

Steel plate 313.8 480.3 588.4 186.3 107.9 274.6

2.2 Materials eight anchor bolts with an allowable shear force of

46.1 kN was used and the resulting allowable load-
R The ready-mixed concrete with the small speci-
carrying capacity was approximately 362.9 kN. In the
fied compression strength of 24 MPa was used to
case of jacket-based anchorage, the prestressing force
produce the concrete beams. A cylinder (10 mm:
is supported by the welding force from the edge plate,
diameter 200 mm: height) was used for the uniax-
the floor plate and the anchorage plate. In this system,
ial compression test, and the compressive strength
the thickness of the welding is 6 mm and the weld-
measured was as 27.8 MPa. The tension steel of the
ing strength for the length of the unit is approximately
beam was made with 2 D16 deformed rebars with the
2.9 kN. The total allowable load-carrying capacity is
yield strength of 485 MPa, and the compression steel
373.6 kN.
was made with 2 D10 deformed rebars with the yield
The 4 point flexural test was conducted with a
strength of 409 MPa. For the rebar used as the shear
980 kN capacity actuator as shown topt of Figure 1. to
steel or stirrup, D10 rebar, which was the same as the
evaluate the performance of the strengthened concrete
one used for the tension steel, was used.To introduce
beam. For the deflection control, the load was applied
the external post-tensioning, a strand of SWPC7B was
at the speed of 0.05 mm/sec until the ultimate. The data
used. And to produce the anchorage system, an SM490
logger and computer were used for the measurement
steel plate with a thickness of 10 mm was used Table 2
of various test data, and the measurement was taken
shows the material properties used in this paper.
every second. Two 100 mm LVDT were installed in
the mid-span to measure the major deflection of the
beam. Also, 2 strain gauges were attached to the center
2.3 Fabrication and loading
of the beam to measure the strain of compressive steel,
In the case of shear support anchorage, the prestressing tensile steel, prestressing tendon and concrete. Bottom
force is resisted by the shear force of the anchor bolts. of Figure 1 shows the shear support and jacket-based
To install anchorage element to the concrete section, anchorage system and beam details.

668
3 TEST RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Load-deflection relation
Figure 2 shows the load-deflection relation of all the
The significant loads such as the cracking and ultimate
tested beams. Compared to the control beam (STD),
loads of nine beams at the mid-span are summa-
the yield loads for the prestressed beams NEP5,
rized in Table 3 to 4. All reinforced beams, including
NEP10 and NEP15 with prestress force of 49.0 kN,
the standard beam, showed flexural failure. Flexural
98.1 kN and 147.1 kN increased by 30%, 58% and
crack developed in all beams and as the cracking load
78%, respectively. Also the yield loads of SEP10 and
increased, the crack length increased. After the yield-
NEP10, which have the same prestress force, were
ing of the tension steel bar, the width of the crack
123.6 kN and 136.4 kN, respectively.
increased rapidly. All the strengthened beams showed
SEP10 was compared with NEP10. The ultimate
increased load resistance and less deflection and more
load of STD was 90.5 kN, but that of SEP10 was
stiffness than the control beam under the same load.
134.6 kN at 48% higher ultimate load than that of
However, brittle failure occurred, and the ultimate load
STD. The ultimate load of NEP10 was 149.0 kN, which
caused the sudden failure of the compressive region of
was 64% larger than that of the STD. Meanwhile, the
the concrete.
effect of the load increase of NEP10 was 11% greater
than that of SEP10. Compared to the STD, NEP5 and
NEP15 showed a strengthening efficiency based on
the ultimate load of approximately 31% and 73%,
respectively.
However, all the strengthened beams clearly showed
a mode of brittle failure, in which the compressive
region of concrete was radically destroyed at the
ultimate load.
The maximum deflection at the ultimate load for
the STD was approximately 20.2 mm. For the strength-
ened beams, they were as follows: SEP10, 15.3 mm;
NEP5, NEP10 and NEP15, which were used with the
anchorage system of jacket-based, 16.0 mm, 15.5 mm
and 14.2 mm, respectively. This result means that when

Figure 1. Details of beam and anchorage system.

Table 3. Flexural test results.

Load Increment
Cracking Yield Ultimate
Load Load Load Yield Ultimate
Beams kN kN kN % %

STD 12.26 83.36 90.22

SEP10 40.40 123.56 133.37 48 47
NEP5 27.46 108.86 118.66 30 31
NEP10 40.70 131.41 149.06 58 65
NEP15 51.98 149.06 156.91 78 73
Figure 2. Load-deflection curves.

Table 4. Comparison the cracking moment and the flexural strength.

Flexural Strength

Cracking Moment Ana. E/A

(1) (2) (1) (2)
Camber Ana. Exp. E/A fps fps Exp. fps fps
Beams mm kN m kN m MPa MPa MPa

STD 4.6 4.9 1.06 30.8 31.5 1.02

SEP10 0.6 16.2 13.0 0.81 51.1 56.3 53.9 1.05 0.96
NEP5 0.3 11.1 11.0 0.99 45.8 52.0 47.7 1.04 0.98
NEP10 0.6 16.2 16.3 1.01 51.1 56.3 59.6 1.17 1.06
NEP15 1.2 21.3 20.8 0.98 55.6 59.9 62.6 1.12 1.04

(1) Proposed formula: standard specification for concrete11

(2) Proposed formula: Namman1213

669
external tendons are used for strengthening, the max- the external tendon and additional stress due to the
imum deflection at the ultimate load is less than that increase of load. Figure 5. shows the strain of the
of the STD. anchorage system due to increase of load.
Various levels of prestress were applied to the
external tendon by using the jacket-based anchorage
3.2 Load-strain relation system. Unlike the control beam, the increase ratio of
According to the load-tension steel strain curves the ultimate load was proportional to the prestress-
described in Figure 3, the tension steels of all beams ing force. But, the increase of the prestressing force
yielded, except those of shear support (SEP10). And did not mean a proportional increase of strengthening
also the tension steel bar in the jacket-based anchor- efficiency. Figure 6. shows the strain in the prestress
age system was destroyed after the steel reached the tendon.
yielding point. Figure 4. shows the load-strain curve
of the shear steel. Despite the increase in load, the
shear steel is hardly deformed at the critical section. 3.3 Evaluation of the ductility index
However, in the case of shear support, the beam was Ductility is a qualitative concept that refers to inelastic
destroyed before the tensile steel yielded. Further- deformation. It indicates the state of a material, namely
more, the critical section, unlike that of jacket-based, that of a structural section, a structural member or a
suddenly deformed near the ultimate load. The con- structural system, before the material collapses with-
trol beam also suffered deformation of the shear steel out notable loss of resistance. Ductility can be regarded
as the load increased. In contrast, however, the beams
with the jacket-based anchorage system showed very
low strain, which suggests a reduction of shear force
at the critical section.
The deformation of the jacket-based anchorages
was measured by using a strain gauge at the edge plate
and the anchorage plate. After the deformation due to
the initial prestressing force, additional deformation
occurred at each position with increase of load. How-
ever, the maximum strain was below 200 (106 ),
which means that the jacket-based anchorages showed
small deformation due to the prestressing force of

Figure 5. Load-steel plate strain curves, NEP10 (Top) and

Figure 3. Load-strain curves: tension steel. NEP15 (Bottom).

Figure 4. Load-strain curves: shear steel. Figure 6. Load-strain curves: prestress tendon.

670
Table 5. Ductility index. 3) The maximum deflection at the ultimate load for
the STD was approximately 20.2 mm. For the
Yield Load Ultimate Load prestressed beams, they were as follows: SEP10,
15.3 mm; NEP5, NEP10 and NEP15, which were
Load Deflection Load Deflection
Beams kN mm kN mm Index used with the anchorage system of jacket-based,
16.0 mm, 15.5 mm and 14.2 mm, respectively. This
STD 83.4 7.1 90.2 20.2 2.84 result means that when external tendons are used
SEP10 123.6 9.5 133.4 15.3 1.61 for stregnthening, the maximum deflection at the
NEP5 107.9 8.0 118.7 16.0 2.00 ultimate load is less than that of the STD.
NEP10 131.4 9.1 149.1 15.5 1.81 4) The jacket-based anchorage system, if used, will
NEP15 149.1 10.5 156.9 14.2 1.35 have sufficient strengthening effect without the
damage due to the installation of the anchorage
system itself.
as an important safety factor that delays local fail-
ure by redistributing the overstress of a critical section
to another section of a statically indeterminate struc- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ture. The ductility index, or the ductility factor used to
measure ductility, is the ratio of curvature, rotation or This work was supported by the Postdoctoral Research
deflection as defined by the following equation: Program of Sungkyunkwan University (2012).

Ductility index was used to evaluate the safety of a
member. The index is based on the ratio of deflections
at the yielding point of a beam and at the ultimate load.
Table 5. shows the ductility indices of all the tested
beams.
The ductility index of the control beam was 2.84.
SEP10, which included the beam of shear support rein-
forced by the external tendon, had the highest ductility
index. The beams with the jacket-based anchorage sys-
tem, namely NEP5, NEP10 and NEP15, had values
of 2.00, 1.81, 1.35, respectively. Under the same pre-
stressing force, the ductility of NEP10 was about 12
% higher than that of SEP10. Among the prestressed
beams, NEP10 had the highest ductility index
4 CONCLUSIONS
Tests results show that the use of the jacket-based
anchorage system is an effective method to enhance
flexural capacity of RC beams. The results of this study
have drawn the following conclusion.
1) The control beam was showed the typical flexu-
ral failure mode. Strengthening with the external
tendons causes brittle behavior in all the beams.
Also, the beam strengthened with shear support
anchorage system was more brittle than that of
jacket-based anchorage system.
2) The ultimate load of STD was 90.5 kN, but that of
SEP10 was 134.6 kN at 48% higher ultimate load
than that of STD. The ultimate load of NEP10 was
149.0 kN, which was 64% larger than that of the
STD. Meanwhile, the effect of the load increase
of NEP10 was 11% greater than that of SEP10.
Compared to the STD, NEP5 and NEP15 showed a
strengthening efficiency based on the ultimate load
of approximately 31% and 73%, respectively.
REFERENCES
A. Miyamoto and H. Nakamura, 1997, Application of
prestressing technique with external tendons to exist-
ing bridge strengthening. International Conference on
Rehabilitation and Development of Civil Engineering
Infrastructure Systems, 242255.
C. A. Angel and R. Gonzalo, 1996, Flexural strength of exter-
nally prestressed concrete bridges. ACI Structural Journal,
93: 512523.
D.Y. Cho, S. K. Park, S. N. Hong, 2011, Bond-slip behavior of
CFRP plate-concrete interface. Mechanics of Composite
Materials, 47: 529538.
D. S. Yang, S. K. Park, W. K. Neale, 2009, Flexural behaviour
of reinforced concrete beams strengthened with pre-
stressed carbon composites. Composite Structures, 88:
497508.
M. Z. Jumaat and M. A. Alam, 2006, Problems associated
with plate bonding methods of strengthening reinforced
concrete beams. Journal of Applied Sciences Research, 2:
703708.
M. H. Harajli, 1993, Strengthening of concrete beams by
external prestressing. PCI Journal, 38: 7688.
B. El-Ariss, 2004, Stiffness of reinforced concrete beams with
external tendons. Engineering Structures, 26: 20472051.
H. Nordin, 20052007, Strengthening structures with exter-
nally prestressed tendons: laboratory tests, Technical
report: Lule University of Technology, Sweden.
H. T. Kiang and K. N. Chee, 1997, Effects of deviators and
tendon configuration on behavior of externally prestressed
beams. ACI Structural Journal, 94: 1322.
R. Srinvasa and M. Gere, 1996, Behavior of externally pre-
stressed concrete beams with multiple deviators. ACI
Structural Journal, 93: 387396.
KCI Committee, 2007, Standard specification for concrete,
Korea Concrete Institute, Seoul, Korea.
A. E. Naaman and F. M. Alkhairi, 1991, Stress at ultimate in
un-bonded post-tensioning tendons: part 1-evaluation of
the state-of-the-art. ACI Structural Journal, 88: 641651.
A. E. Naaman and F. M. Alkhairi, 1991, Stress at ultimate
in un-bonded post-tensioning tendons: part 2-proposed
methodology.ACI Structural Journal, 88: 683692.

671
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Experimental study on ultimate behaviors of aluminum alloy single shear

four-bolted connections according to plate thickness

T. Kim & Y. Cho

Dept. of Architectural Eng., Hanbat National University, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea

ABSTRACT: Experimental studies have been carried out to investigate the ultimate behaviors of single shear
bolted connections assembled with four bolts (2 2 bolt array) and aluminum alloy (6061-T6) plate. Plate
thickness (3.0 mm and 6.0 mm) and end distance parallel to the direction of loading are considered as main
variables. All specimens failed by block shear fracture and curling (out of plane deformation) was also observed
in the bolted connections with a long end distance. Curling led to sudden ultimate strength reduction and the
condition of curling occurrence was different from plate thickness.

Keywords: Aluminum alloys, Bolted connection, Ultimate strength, Curling, Plate thickness, End distance

1 INTRODUCTION from 0.2% offset method of stress-strain curves. The

Aluminum alloys have been utilized in structural mem-
bers as well as curtain-walls in buildings due to high
strength-to-weight ratio, light-weight, corrosion resis-
tance and ease of forming. Researches on ultimate
behaviors of structural members, especially, welded
columns fabricated with aluminum alloys in buildings
were initiated by Brungraber and Clark. The first edi-
tion of Structural Design with Aluminum was pub-
lished by American Aluminum Association. Recently,
American Aluminum Design Manual, Japanese Spec-
ification and European Code(EC9) for aluminum
structures have been established for design rules of
structural members. Rasmussen etc. and Zhu etc.
have studied the structural behaviors of aluminum
alloy columns andY.Kim etc. investigated the ultimate
strength of aluminum members in bending.
In this paper, specimens of single shear four- bolted
connections made from magnesium based aluminum
alloys (6060-T6) were planned and experimental stud-
ies have been performed in order to investigate the
curling occurrence, curling influence, fracture mode
and ultimate strength according to the difference of
plate thickness and end distance.
bolted connections have 2 2(row column) bolt
array and have end distance(e = 2.0d, 2.5d, 3.0d, 4.0d,
5.0d, 6.0d) parallel to the direction of applied force
and plate thickness (t = 3.0 mm and 6.0 mm) as main
variables as shown in Fig.1. The loading center in test
part is planned to coincide with that of the clamp-
ing part (refer to Fig. 2). High strength bolt (M12,
d = 12 mm) for fastening test part plate to coupling
rigid part were designed to contact directly with bolt
hole of connection plate.
Bolts are tightened with snug-fit conditions.
Also, specimens are composed of edge distance
(b = 5.0d = 60 mm), high strength bolt of 12 mm
diameter (d), pitch (p) and gage distance (g) of
36 mm(=3.0d) as a constant geometry. The list
of specimens and geometry are summarized in
Table 2. For example, specimen, AL4T3B60E24 in
Table 2 denotes that AL is aluminum alloys, 4
is bolt number, T3 is plate thickness(t), B60
is edge distance(b = 60 mm) and E24 is end
distance(e = 24 mm). Specimen assembly is divided
into test part and rigid part for set-up described in Fig-
ures 2 and 3. Loading center in test part (3.0 mm and
6.0 mm thick plate) is planned to coincide with that in
clamping part.

2 EXPERIMENTAL WORK 2.2 Experimental method and results

2.1 Specimen plan and material test
Three tensile coupon tests were conducted with
wrought aluminum alloys; 6061-T6 and the test results
are summarized in Table 1. Yield strength is obtained
Enforced displacement was controlled at a constant
speed of 0.5 mm/min. The elongation parallel to the
direction of loading was measured using two LVDTs
attached to the test assembly. Uniaxial strain gauges
were attached to the plate surface of each specimen.

673
Table 1. Material properties of aluminum alloys.

Coupon Plate thickness E Yield stress Tensile stress Yield ratio Elongation
specimen te [mm] [GPa] Fy [MPa] Fu [MPa] Fy/Fu [%] [%]

AL3-2 3.0 66.82 267.28 324.05 82.48 17.00

AL3-3 3.0 67.11 267.87 325.36 82.33 18.00
Average 3.0 67.20 267.67 324.92 82.38 16.40
COV 0.005 0.001 0.002 0.001 0.098
AL6-1 6.0 68.37 279.62 317.52 88.06 28.70
AL6-2 6.0 70.65 282.60 311.64 90.68 25.40
AL6-3 6.0 68.06 279.62 317.52 88.06 25.20
Average 6.0 69.03 280.61 315.56 88.94 26.43
COV 0.017 0.005 0.009 0.014 0.061

failed by a typical block shear fracture (tensile fracture

Figure 1. Geometry of specimen.
Figure 2. Assembly of specimen.
The locations of the attached strain gauges (G1) on
plate surface are shown in Fig. 3. Gauge G1 in speci-
mens with more than 36 mm end distance was located
at point, 30 mm apart from the center of outermost bolt
hole in order to observe the strain change of loading
direction (1-axis direction, E11) during test.
Geometry in specimen, ultimate strength, strength
ratio, fracture shape and load-displacement curve
obtained from test results are presented in Table 2,
Table 3, Fig. 4 and Fig. 5, respectively. For all
specimens, block shear fracture (BS mode) occurred
in the end of test. AL4T3B60E24, AL4T3B60E30,
AL4T3B60E36, AL4T6B60E36 and AL4T6B60E48
of net section between two bolts + shear fracture par-
allel to the direction of applied force) as displayed in
Figs. 4(a), 5(d) and 4(e). Especially, specimens such as
AL4T3B60E48, AL4T3B60E60, AL4T6B60E60 and
AL4T6B60E72 with a relatively long end distance
showed a curling toward the plate end as displayed
in Figs. 4(b), 4(c), 4(f) and 4(g).
Pue /Pue_eMIn and Pue /Pue_Curl in Table 3 are
defined by the strength ratios of ultimate strength
of specimen obtained from test (Pue ) to ultimate
strength of specimen with the minimum end dis-
tance (Pue_eMin , e = 24 mm for specimens with 3.0 mm
thick plate and e = 36 mm for specimens with 6.0 mm
thick plate) and ultimate strength of curled spec-
imen with the minimum end distance (Pue_Curl ).
It is found that ultimate strengths of uncurled
specimens tended to get larger with the increase
of end distance (AL4T3B60E24 AL4T3B60E36,
AL4T6B60E36 AL4T6B60E48) from the AISC
design ultimate strength formula of block shear frac-
ture described in Eqs. (1) and (2), whereas, for curled
specimens, the strength ratios, Pue /Pue_Curl were close
to 1.00 regardless of the increase of end distance(e).
Curling led to the temporary strength reduction of
bolted connections as can be seen in load-displacement
curves of Fig. 5. In addition, the condition of curling
occurrence differed from the plate thickness, i.e., curl-
ing is likely to occur in bolted connections with the
thinner plate thickness (3.0 mm thick plate) compared
to those with 6.0 mm thick plate under same 48 mm
end distance.
Since plate part on which strain gauge was placed
is under compressive pressure due to bearing action
of bolt, generally, strain value measured in G1
is expected to be compressive(-). Strain distribu-
tions of sample specimens obtained from G1 are
shown in Fig.6. For specimens, AL4T3B60E36 with-
out curling; compressive strain value tended to get
larger with the increase of enforced displacement as

674
Table 2. Specimen list and test results and strength comparison.

End distance Edge distance Plate thickness Ultimate strength Fracture

Specimen e(mm) b(mm) t(mm) Pue (kN) mode

AL4T3B60E24 24 60 3.0 84.97 BS

AL4T3B60E30 30 60 3.0 92.12 BS
AL4T3B60E36 36 60 3.0 96.73 BS
AL4T3B60E48 48 60 3.0 102.51 BS
AL4T3B60E60 60 60 3.0 102.12 BS
AL4T6B60E36 36 60 6.0 186.89 BS
AL4T6B60E48 48 60 6.0 218.93 BS
AL4T6B60E60 60 60 6.0 222.85 BS
AL4T6B60E72 72 60 6.0 223.15 BS

Figure 3. Set-up of specimen, transducers and gauge.

shown in Fig.6(a). However, specimens with strength

reduction effect by curling such as AL4T3B60E48,
AL4T3B60E60, AL4T6B60E60 and AL4T6B60E72
presented different patterns in strain change. For exam-
ple, AL4T6B60E60 had been relatively less affected
by curling compared to the others. At an early step of
displacement, compressive strain value also continued
to rise like that of uncurled specimens. However, after
strength drop point by curling, the compressive strain
has been falling steadily. In case of AL4T3B60E48, Figure 4. Fracture modes.
AL4T3B60E60 and AL4T6B60E72, the occurrence
of severe curling had much impact on the ultimate 3 SUMMARY
strength reduction and it also led to the transfer of
strain distribution from compressive values to tensile Experimental investigation of aluminum alloy single
ones as shown in Figs. 6(a) and 6(b). shear four bolted connections with two types of plate

675
 Figure 6. Strain distribution of specimens in gauge G1.

Table 3. Strength comparison.

Strength ratio
Ultimate
strength Curling Pue/ Pue/
Specimen Pue (kN) occurrence Pue_eMin Pue_Curl

AL4T3B60E24 84.97 1.00

AL4T3B60E30 92.12 1.08
AL4T3B60E36 96.73 1.14
AL4T3B60E48 102.51  1.21 1.00
AL4T3B60E60 102.12  1.20 1.00
AL4T6B60E36 186.89 1.00
AL4T6B60E48 218.93 1.17
AL4T6B60E60 222.85  1.19 1.00
AL4T6B60E72 223.15  1.19 1.00

thickness and various end distance (24 mm 72 mm)

has been performed in order to investigate the ultimate
strength, fracture mode and curling effect accord-
ing to main variables. Specimens with relatively long
end distance and thinner plate showed curling (out of
plane deformation). The curling caused the strength
reduction of bolted connections and so there was no
big difference in ultimate strength for curled speci-
mens in spite of increase of end distance. In addition,
the conditions of end distance and strain distribu-
Figure 5. Load displacement curve.
tion pattern were different from plate thickness for
bolted connection with strength reduction due to
curling.

676
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Authors would like to thank the Korea Research
Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government
(No.2012002110) and Sustainable Building Research
Center of Hanyang University which was supported by
the SRC/ERC program of MEST (grant 2012-0000-
723) for their financial assistance.
REFERENCES
Brungraber R.J. & Clark J.W. 1960. Strength of welded
aluminum columns, Journal of Structural Division,ASCE.
Aluminum Association. 1987. Structural Design with Alu-
minum, 1st Ed., Washington, DC.
677
Aluminum Association. 2010. Aluminum Design Manual,
Washington (DC): The Aluminum Association, Washing-
ton, DC.
Aluminum Association of Japan. 2007. Recommendation for
the design of aluminum alloy structures, Tokyo.
Eurocode 9. 2000. Design of aluminum structures -Part 1-1:
General rules General rules and rules for buildings, DD
ENV 1999-1-1, EC9, London.
Kim J.R. Rasmussen & Rondal Jacques. 2000. Strength
curves for aluminium alloy columns, Engineering Struc-
tures 23 : 15051517.
Zhu J. H. & Young B. 2006. Experimental investigation of
aluminum alloy circular hollow section columns, Engi-
neering Structures, 28 : 207215.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Application of modular industrialized housing method in villa project in

Dubai

J. Li, L. Wang, H. Dong, T. Yu, & Z. Sun

CSCEC (Middle East) (LLC), Dubai, UAE

ABSTRACT: Today attitudes towards modular building methods have been changed considerably, particularly
among major developers. Most housing now tends to incorporate concrete element or other material made in
the factory. Using new material combinations and module production techniques have brought many advantages
for construction. The success of the modular housing projects in the UK and other EC countries spreads out
this advanced method to other countries. In addition, the advanced housing technology in the USA suggests that
modular is also poised to take off there in a big way. Modular housing could soon become a major international
industry. This paper mainly describes about the middle-east construction market which is also paying much
attention to the new modular or precast housing method for construction, and introduces the information about
how a typical modular housing project, Mudon project, is operated, and how the construction flow is achieved
and so on.

Keywords: industrialized housing, prefabricated housing, modular housing, module, modular, advanced
housing technology

1 INTRODUCTION pod structure encountered are during its installation

The 20th century witnessed startling technical
advances and growth in many fields, which contrast
sharply with the progress in the construction industry,
where the improvements in productivity and tech-
nology are comparatively insignificant. However, one
exception is modular building methods which greatly
increase the efficiency of construction and reduce the
resource consumption. This method has been success-
fully applied in the hotel sector for several decades. In
this paper, a practical example is introduced to explain
how this advanced method has been achieved in terms
of technology and management. The project is a 350-
modular-villa project named Mudon located in Dubai,
which is a sign on its potential value on the aspects of
producing low cost homes, offering a combination of
quality and performance. The work has been done by
the contractor CSCEC with the precast system which
showed great efficiency reducing both cost and time.
In addition to the example, the concept, history, design,
scheduling, and product of the precast modular system
are also introduced in the paper.
2 HISTORY
and transportation.
The path of modular development has been marked
by a clearly discernible trend from modular shells
based on timber or concrete, to steel. The type of
material used for the structure of the modules is fre-
quently determined by the type of product that a
company produces, which has to be decided before its
manufacture for modular building. Module manufac-
turer was firstly applied in the production of timber
frame houses, which are built with modules made
of raw timber materials. Similarly, companies with
a background in construction of offshore structures
also prefer to use precast concrete element or the
like. Companies are motivated to use precast system
because of the convenience of using a type of material
which is dimensionally stable, incombustible, consis-
tent in quality, and having good strength to weight
ratio, suited to the highly efficient lean manufactur-
ing process. Another factor affecting the move to use
steel instead of other material is the requirement on
lightweight modules, which can be easily and quickly
assembled to build high-rise buildings, meeting all the
requirements specified in the structural engineering
and design code.

A common characteristic of various types of pod sys- 3 MODULAR HOUSING

tems is that the pods are all inserted into a load bearing
structure; as a result, the only structural need of the The first precast modular housing in modular system
pod is self-supporting. The greatest loading on the was developed in the early 1970s, which at that time

679
was looking for faster and better ways to build infill
housing on small sites. An evaluation period showed
that by using structural precast module system, it is
possible to cut site building times by more than 70%,
without undermining the target of building attractive,
durable and affordable homes.
With regard to the durability of the precast modular
housing, it is worthy of mentioning an inspection of
the precast construction showed there had been negli-
gible corrosion during the last quarter of a century. On
the strength of their findings the SCI announced that
the design life of the modules is expected to exceed the
originally required 60 year as minimum design life by
a margin of at least 40 years.
As developers confidence in modular building
techniques grows, more and more housing projects
with large scale has been developed by applying pre-
cast module system. In the Mudon villas project in
Dubai, all structures were built by using this method
and the relevant structural members are manufactured
in factory. The method using united precast concrete
saves much more time and cost than that using cast-
in-situ concrete on; therefore, it is valuable for the
contractor to consider the application of this precast
module system to make the construction more efficient
and economical.
4 THE ADVANTAGE OF MODULAR DESIGN
IN MUDON VILLA PROJECT
There is no architectural school in the word, which
includes the subject of modular building in its syl-
labus, and it is not surprising that most architects in
the world tend to regard modular building methods
with suspicion, mainly because they assume wrongly
that it will limit their freedom to design, and the lay-
out and appearance of the buildings designed in this
way will be severely restricted. On one hand, it is
true that some manufacturers are producing modular
products that inhibit architectural design freedom, but
these companies are usually new to the field and dont
understand the degree of design control that archi-
tects need, and are not clear that if the products meet
the requirements of the clients and planners or not.
However, on the other hand, it is also true that if archi-
tects shop around they will soon find companies
with more modular experience and far more techni-
cally advanced on manufacture of modular products.
Products that have been developed over the years, have
ensured that when architects design modular build-
ings, it is in no way to inferior the architecture design
in terms of quality, performance and visual appear-
ance comparing with the traditional way.The following
shows the advantages of a modular housing system.
simple manufacturing process
low construction plant costs
low capital start up costs
all weather production
90%+ of production work is unskilled
680
very short site occupancy times [very short build
times]
safer site working conditions
very small numbers of site operators
easy to expand houses
suits medium-rise high density housing develop-
ments
suits self-finish occupancies
adaptable [particularly the housing system]
consistently high build quality [very small construc-
tion tolerances]
less material wastage
light-weight [cheaper substructures smaller
cranes cheaper logistics]
easy to recycle redundant modules
high acoustic performance
excellent fire performance
superior earthquake resistance [unique potential for
application of design]
suits innovative funding methods
low overall cost
5 PRODUCTION HOW TO OPERATE
Module manufacture is on many respects similar to
the production of mobile homes with a straight for-
ward process. For anyone setting out to manufacture
modules for the first time, the main requirements are
a simple shed-like assembly building with a level con-
crete floor and an area of land adjacent to it where
completed modules can be stored before dispatch to
construction sites. The equipments required are min-
imal which are mainly jigs, track castors, a winch,
one or more forklifts, and powered hand tools. The
production of prefabricated cabins for cruise ships
requires very similar skills to those used in module
manufacture.
It is commonly believed by building professionals
that modular buildings are more expensive than the
traditional ones unless the number of the buildings
designed and constructed is tremendous with great
repetition.
However, modules are not always produced as eco-
nomically as they could be; it is mainly because that
very few of those who design the module shells under-
stand how an integrated assembly line production,
transportation and erection process is set to function
optimally. The way that modules are assembled and
fitted out in the factory, transported and erected, fre-
quently requires subtle component and characteristics
that may profoundly affect modular economics and
which are unknown to those who design the traditional
buildings.
To manufacture modules efficiently and ensure high
quality control standards, a number of simple prin-
ciples need to be observed. For example, modules
should be assembled from precast panels but not mod-
ule shells, which require being finished in-situ, and
require the use of wet materials on the assembly line
as well.
Figure 1. The balancing operations.

Figure 2. Straight line of production.

681
Figure 3. The factory capacity guild.
An example shows the efficiency on achieving a
modular product by comparing a modular bedroom
with the same design but built conventionally. The
module consists of a 10 square meter fully furnished
room and a toilet pod. Comparing several different
conventional interior finishing techniques it produced
an average figure of 72 skilled man hours per room.
Using lean production methods derived from car
industry experience and employing unskilled labor,
the production engineer run the modular study after
ten days of tuning, and it was able to demonstrate a
consistent sub 8 man hours for completing the module
interiors. When 48% lower wage costs of the unskilled
labor were taken into account, the labor cost of mod-
ule fit out was almost 18 times lower than the average
conventional interior fit out with the same design. The
following was the factory profile of the building.
6 DUBAI MODULAR HOUSING
The most important difference between Dubai and the
other countries modular housing is that the market for
modular homes in Dubai is among the middle and
higher income groups, whereas in other countries it
is among the lower income groups.
UPC, the largest Dubais modular home manufac-
turer, which was established in 1990s, has produced
most modular homes. Its importance lies in its pro-
duction methods, which owe a lot to sophisticated
manufacturing lean-production methods. UPC uses
682
open framed steel or concrete modules, which are cus-
tomized to meet individual consumer specifications.
Customization is possible because of the extensive
use of computer aided design [CAD] and computer
aided manufacture [CAM]. The sophisticated software
allows the architectural design and pricing process to
take place in the presence of the prospective home-
owner. When arrangements for the purchase of the
house have been agreed, production drawings and
specifications can be produced. As a result, the design
is a unique house design made from a wide range of
standard components.
UPC house is made from many different compo-
nents, but in order to provide consumer with different
choices, the plant makes a sample in advance accord-
ing to the owners need. Without the using CAM
and CAD, millions of component permutations are
impossible to be managed.
The modules are manufactured on assembly lines
like cars, and each module passes through each work
station one by one, so that when it reaches the end of
the assembly line after a few hours, it is ready to be
delivered to site. Meanwhile, preparation of the sites,
construction of the foundations and the erection of
modules are usually left to small building companies,
which are subcontracted to the module manufacturers.
One typical example in this paper is introduced in
this paper. The project to be explained is Mudon Villas
Project in Dubai, which is completed by applying a
typical pre-cast modular system, which substantially
enhanced the efficiency of construction.
Figure 4. Build profile (factory).

Figure 5. Design process of the project.

Figure 6. Holistic focus of design.

7 HOW THE MUDON VILLA IS OPERATED

The Mudon Villa is sited on Dubai land and includes

384 nos. of villas which are about 20,000 square
meters. The figure below is the flow chart of design,
showing us that UPC is a major part in the project exe-
cution, which designs the modular system and supplies
the product as well.
7.1 Typical design
The architecture design of the houses is completed
first, after which the contractor will submit the typ-
ical architecture design to UPC. After discussion and
the architecture design are agreed, UPC will complete

683
Figure 7. Demountable/Regenerated.

Figure 8. Difference between activities of manufacturing and traditional construction.

all the structure design. UPC Basic drawing includes element, but when UPC designs the dowel layout, it
following: must be designed in respect of the foundation drawings
from the contractor.
CONNECTION DETAILS GROUND FLOOR
In addition, the structural drawings shall be read
DOWEL
in conjunction with architecture, electrical, sanitary
LAYOUT ELEVATIONS HOLLOWCORE
and A/C drawings, etc. When UPC drawing is finished
LAYOUT PANEL LAYOUT PLAN SPOT
fully complying with the contractors requirements, the
DETAILS STAIRCASE DETAIL WALL
modular structural members will be produced in the
SECTIONS
factory, and delivered to site for final assembling.
The important part is that UPC drawing is basi- Another important point needs to be highlighted is
cally produced to manufacture the modular or precast the Demountable/Regenerated.

684
7.2 Connection details
For precast building, the most important concern is
the connection between different parts, such as wall
and slab, staircase etc. Those parts are frequently-used
elements and the weakness of the structure, so when
these connections are designed by UPC, the design
must be analyzed and reviewed to be suitable for the
practical conditions.
7.3 The difference comparing with traditional
construction method
7.3.1 Materials
Safe, strong, cheap, easily-formed and environment-
friendly materials are used to manufacture modular
members, which will lead to the development of new
types of bulk composite material, and improve the
efficiency of construction.
7.3.2 Module standardization
In this project, standard pod and module designs are
provided within a range, which can be adjusted to vari-
ous degrees to suit individual customers requirement.
For standardization, unless module manufactur-
ers agree on a basic set of standards, otherwise, the
designs are kept being argued until eventually the
manufacturers are obliged to adopt:
standards which are developed by competitors, or
national/international standards which are produced
by governments or international agencies.
7.3.3 Module sizes
By basing module sizes on ISO container with stan-
dard lengths and widths, modules can be moved by
the existing international freight container transport
systems. The height of the modules can be as high as
3.8 meters, in accordance with national road clearance
height standards.
To facilitate handling the cap and base plates of
the module, corner columns would be designed to be
in line with the requirements of ISO container corner
casting hole.
7.3.5 Cladding Attachment Points
Cladding Attachment Points are designed to support
and/or locate a wide range of cladding types and inte-
grated with corner column cap, base and tie plates.
If the three types of ATM modular details become a
standard, the technological and marketing benefit will
be reflected onto the module manufacturers who adopt
them, especially for those who are planning to develop
export markets for their products. In this way, modular
industries will be globalized rapidly.
8 CONCLUSIONS
Since the total requirement for new housing in the
world is extremely large, and many countries are facing
major challenges on local building industries, it will be
impossible to supply good housing product in terms of
quantity, quality, performance, and cost if the houses
are constructed by using traditional building methods.
In Europe, since the end of the Second World War, there
have been numerous attempts trying to achieve a mass
manufacture for houses, in a way which can substan-
tially accelerate the building construction, overcome
skill shortages, and cut off the costs. The majority of
those methods are on the application of concrete. Fur-
thermore, for a various reasons in the UK, many of
the construction performed very badly, for instance,
almost half the concrete tower blocks built in Britain
the 1960s and 1970s have already been demolished or
are scheduled for demolition. So, the modular indus-
trialized housing system is gorgeous for marketing in
the future. And it will be popularized in this century
and accepted by more and more countries.

7.3.4 Structural joints

In addition to connecting modules together structurally
in the vertical and horizontal planes the ATM joint [ill]
is designed to:
Isolate the modules acoustically from one another
form a lift-on scaffold platform attachment point.
provide a cladding attachment point, and
act as a connection point for corridor tie beams.

685
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Discussion on technical coordination of reconstruction work for special villa

Jing Li, Lishang Wang, Hongyu Dong, Tao Yu & Rong Dai
CSCEC (Middle East) (LLC), Dubai, UAE

ABSTRACT: A special villa in Palm Jumeirah Project was required to be reconstructed by the client in
accordance with the new design from of the client. Therefore, it is very important to know how to carry out
the reconstruction work technically and coordinate with the consultant in regard to the technical confirmation
and approval. This paper is to discuss the technical work of the reconstruction and share some construction
management experience concluded from this process.

Keywords: Reconstruction, Cutting, Doweling, Propping, slab connection

1 OVERVIEW consultant and applied in the practice of execution after

approval, and finally it lead the workto a successful
Described as Eight Wonder of the World, the Palm completion.
Jumeirah is undoubtedly a miracle in the humans his- The followings are the detailed approaches.
tory, attracting eyes from all over the world to the
a. Shop drawing is not developed by the contractor
new amazingly boomed city, Dubai. Palm Jumeirah
to submit for approval; instead, all designdraw-
is an artificial Inland created by pouring sand filling
ings are from the consultant, based on which the
onto the seabed, and with million tons of rocks build
reconstruction has been conducted after the analy-
along the coastline as breakwater to protect the island
sis and understanding by technical engineers from
from the sea. Due to the naturally beautiful view toward
the contractor.
gulf and the comforting wind, the island is developed
b. Onecontractors technical engineer is appointed
as a residential area where apartments and villas are
in charge of the coordination with the consul-
designed throughout the whole island.
tant and the supervision of the site workers so
Since massive projects have just been started and
that the work can be executed strictly in line with
completed in the near few years, modern construc-
the redesigned drawings. In addition, the engineer
tion and projects management in the region is still
shalleffectively control the key factors affecting the
at early stage, therefore; the method which is not
structure reconstruction. The main scope of techni-
only advanced but suitable is eager to be explored
cal work includes analysis and understanding of the
out for both technology and management enhance-
drawings, technical coordination with the consul-
ment. In this paper, a technical solution is intro-
tant, technical control, on-site management, project
duced and the method is illustrated to explain how
duration control, and material procurement man-
a reconstruction work of villas has been successfully
agement. The whole process of reconstructionwork
completed.
for a special villa is illustrated in this paper into four
parts, work flow, structural changes, key technical
issues, and conclusion.
2 GENERAL INTRODUCTION

The total scope of the work package is 286 sets of

villas, scattered in fronds of islands which are called
frond C, D, E and K. At the stage that most of villas
have been structurally completed, however the special
villa K-52, is requested by the ownerto be modified
to the new Architectural and Structural design. Unlike
normal construction, special procedure for this recon-
structionwork had been carried out, and the duration of
the work was specified by the owner as two months. In
order to finish the job on time, the procedure explained
next, was worked out through negotiation with the
3 RECONSTRUCTION WORK FLOW
In particular, the following issues as to the structure
demolition and new structure reconstruction shall be
highlighted.
a. Safe and sufficient shoring system shall be installed
properly while the structural elements are being
demolished, such as slabs, beams and foundation.
In addition, extreme care shall be taken when

687
 unnecessary parts of structure are being cut, so as
that the surrounding existing structure will not be
damaged or interrupted.
b. Principles for reinforcement cutting: first, existing
reinforcement shall be kept as much as possible, so
that it can be utilized as the reinforcement of newly
added structure; second, theconnection between
and the overlapping of the existing reinforcement
and the new ones shall be well arranged; third, the
Figure 1. Structure Reconstruction Flow Chart.
Dwg. 1. Original Foundation Drawing of K52.
688
steel bar splicing and lockset shallbe properly con-
trolled and supervised forthe safety of thewhole
structure.
c. As to the reinforcement lockset which has been
greatly applied inthe reconstruction work, special
attention and supervision shall be given in this
regard. Meanwhile, related specifications and
codes shall be strictly compliedwith when the work
is executed.
4 STRUCTURE CHANGES columns (200 400) are added, and one isolated
footing(1650 1650 250) for one new column C1 is
4.1 Foundation (changed part) arranged. While a new foundation beam (200 750)
and a lift foundation pitch (1300 1650) are
As shown in the above two drawings, the foun-
built.
dation between axis D and axis G, two new

Dwg. 2. Changed Foundation of K52.

Dwg. 3. Connection Parts of New and Old Foundation.

689
Dwg. 4. Changed First Floor Structure.

Dwg. 5. First Floor Slab Connection.

Dwg. 6. Connection K

690
 Meanwhile, the connection joint between the
old and new foundations are demonstrated as the
following drawing:
For the foundation demolishing and reconstruction,
the locksetapplication is a key technical factor.
4.2 First Floor (changed part)
The new floor beams, staircases beams and columns
are shown in the dwg4.
The slab connection is as follows.
Concerning the first floor structure reconstruction,
the cantilever beam NCB-1 (200 400) and its con-
nection K with NB-2 (200 500) are the keytechnical
points. The connection K is shown as follows:
4.3 Second Floor (changed part)
Pic. 1. Pic.1 Connection K on Site.
Dwg. 7. Changed Second Floor Structure.
691
5 KEY TECHNICAL POINTS
5.1 Propping system
The propping system shall is well calculated and built
based on thecutting parts of the structure, and finally
determinedas follows after the mechanical analysis for
the remaining part of the structure.
100 100 timber flitches are used as the brac-
ings along transversedirection at space of 1000 mm.
In addition, the scaffolding system is also setfor the
cutting of the first floor slab, which has been shown
as the following drawings. With similar concept, the
same propping system is also applied in the second
floor as well.
5.2 Reinforcement Lockset-Dowel bar
As a new technical treatment for connectionbetween
the old and new structures, reinforcement doweling
is a method drilling a hole in theoriginal reinforced
concrete structure and dowelling the rebar into the hole
with special glue.
In this reconstruction project, lockfix-P80 is used as
doweling glue; besides, considering the specification
and the diameter of the reinforcement, the drilling
holes diameter is d + 6 mm whereas the doweling
depth of the rebar is 150 mm uniformly.
The procedure of rebar doweling work is as follow-
ings:
Drilling ofhole cleaning of hole filling in
with doweling glue rebardoweling gelling.
Furthermore, the following items shall be high-
lighted while applying the rebar doweling work:
Matching impact electric drill is applied for the
hole-drilling; also, theholes spacing and depth shall
meet the design requirements while the hole is being
drilled.
Pic. 2. Applied Propping System beside Cutting Slab.

Pic. 3. First Floor Original Slab Cutting & New Added Slab Reinforcement Layout.

Pic. 4. New Beam or Slab and Existed Column Reinforcement Connection.

692
 Air-blowing pump is used to clean the dust inside
the drilling hole; then,the hole-cleaning brush is used
to clean it. The hole is cleaned at least several times
of air blowing and brushing. Meanwhile,it is strictly
prohibited to use water for flushing, avoiding water
leftinside the hole wakening the effects of the adhesive
glue.
The doweling injector has been applied to inject
proper amount of adhesive glue into the hole from the
end evenly. Particularly, it is shall be noticed that the
air could not be sealed in the hole.
The reinforcement shall be inserted lightly, clock-
wise to the hole along thelongitudinal direction of the
hole up to the end, whereas theglue is spilled over.
The exposed end of the rebar shall be fixed on the
forming until theglue is coagulated, avoiding exter-
nal loadingon; moreover, specified person shall be
appointed to take care of the site conditions. The chem-
ical reaction time of theglue coagulation is generally
about 15 minutes and the solidification time is about
one hour.
The following pictures show the doweling in differ-
ent connectionsincluding beam-column connection,
beam-beam connection and slab-beamconnection etc.
6 CONCLUSION
During the process of technical negotiation for recon-
struction work of the special villas, key points to be
taken care of can be concluded as the followings:
5.1 As mentioned, this reconstruction work does
not follow thenormal procedure like other villas in
Palm Jumeirah project. For example, no shop draw-
ings are provided, for the purpose of expediting the
progress and saving the costs. Nevertheless, thisap-
proach requires the technical engineer be very famil-
iarwith the whole changed drawings. In addition, the
engineer shall fully understand the structural changes
by properly analyzing them, and be able to instruct and
supervise the site workers to correctly finish the job.
For any uncertain item, engineer shall write RFI to the
consultant for clarification, or even discuss some key
points with the consultantin a face-to-face manner so
that the progress can be accelerated. Inconclusion, this
is a very favorable way to the technical department of
contractor, valuable for consideration, since it can save
both cost and time for the project.
5.2 In the international construction project man-
agement,since consultant plays a very important role in
the whole project, the contractor shall maintain a very
good public relationship with the consultant. Mean-
while, efficient solution shall be always kept in mind
so that more economical approaches can be explored
for more profits. On one hand, the contractor shall fre-
quently contactthe consultants and discuss on some
uncertain issues face to face. However,the contrac-
693
tor shall pay much attention in terms of the attitude
and tone during communication, treating theconsultant
aspartner like a friend, so as that more useful informa-
tion can be obtained. On the other hand, the contractor
shall not hesitate to put forward opinions when con-
flicts exist between the contractor and the consultant;
for example, for the connection K of the cantilever
beam, from construction side, the initial designcannot
agreed with the consultant; instead, another persua-
sive way is suggested for the connection, which is
more workable in the real practice for contractor. As a
result, the suggested method has been accepted after
discussion and analysis.
5.3 For most cases, the contractor is always in the
situation of waiting for the consultants reply or con-
firmation in regard to some very important technical
issues, which seriously slows and even delays the con-
struction progress of the project.Therefore, practically,
compromised solutions are always applied through
oral confirmation and work execution before official
written approving, so that suspension can be avoided.
However, it is very critical to chase consultant toissue
the official file to confirm the changed points as evi-
dence when applying for payment or compensation.
Take one example to explain, the modification of the
roof structures are notincluded in any issued files or
drawings from the consultant for the structure change;
as a result, the reconstruction work has been executed
based on draft drawings from the consultant. Mean-
while, the consultant is requested to issue the official
reply to the contractor regarding the related technical
change. And finally this replay is taken as evidenceto
apply for the additional reconstruction fee which is
estimated by contract department.
Conclusively, the contractor shall fully understand
the role played,and strive to acquire deserved benefits
through effective negotiation with the consultant and
the client.
REFERENCES
Tong Jianmin. Construction Control of Post-Tensioned Pre-
stressing. [J]. Construction of ShanXi, 2007, 33(9):154
155.
Dai Zhiyuan. Brief Introduction of Hollow Slab Erection. [J].
Irrigation of HeBei, 2008(3):2123.
Li Kun, Zhang Tingkai, Zheng Ying. The Problem in produc-
tion of Precast Concrete Hollow Slab. [J]. Irrigation of
ShangDong, 2008(10).
HeSixun.Construction of Pre-Tensioned Prestressing Pre-
cast Beam & Slab in Extra-High Building Construction.
Building Construction, 1998(4):2628.
Chen Daqing. The Calculation of Pre-Tensioned Prestressing
Beam Contra-Arch. Building Construction, 2001(6):56
59.
Yang Zongfang. The Research of Sequence Stretching in
Cast-in-Situ Prestressing Multilayer Building Concrete
Frame. Construction Technology, 1991(4):2628.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Three dimensional failure surface of reinforced concrete element

subjected to complex loads

X. Chen
Department of Solid Mechanics, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai

X.L. Liu
Department of Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai

ABSTRACT: The paper presents a convenient method to describe the three dimensional warped failure surface
of reinforced concrete (RC) rectangular element subjected to axial load, bending, shear, and torsion without using
compatibility conditions. Based on many observations and experiments, graphics of normal stress distribution
and shear stress distribution of element at cracking moment can be concluded, and when normal stress and shear
stress reach the cracking criterion for concrete, cracks start to develop. Using geometry conditions, crack angles
of the warped failure surface can be quickly determined and the three dimensional warped failure surface can
be obtained, which can be used in lower-bound limit analysis directly.

Keywords: reinforced concrete; beams; rectangular section; failure mechanism; limit analysis

1 INTRODUCTION reinforce concrete members can be achieved, which

will be published in near future.
When a reinforced concrete (RC) element is subjected
to complex external loads in general, the failure sur-
face is particularly a warped 3-dimensional surface
and the failure mechanism has been studied by many 2 DESCRIPTION OF FAILURE SURFACE
researchers (Liu 2003). However, while RC elements
under axial load and bending are understood uniquely, In order to describe the failure surface of an RC rectan-
there are many different theories on the failure mecha- gular element subjected to axial load, bending, shear,
nism of RC elements subjected to shear and torsion. In and torsion, a method to predict the angle of signifi-
recent years, researchers tend to develop a unified the- cant inclined crack in each side is primarily required.
ory for RC elements subjected to complex loads based Taking Figure 1 as an example, if compression zone is
on compatibility conditions (Hsu 1996), equilibrium in the top of element, then inclined cracks in the other
conditions, and constitutive laws. This approach can three sides can be estimated by the dominant mech-
analyze RC elements at any loading stage and give out anism of concrete, and the direction of each crack is
more accurate results and failure mechanism, but it presumed to coincide with the direction of principal
also seems too lengthy to be used in practical engi- compression stress (Chen 2007b).
neering (Greene & Belarbi 2009, Hsu 1996, Vecchio
2000).
According to lower-bound theorem in limit analy-
sis (Chen 2007a), if a 3-dimensional failure surface,
which is closer to the realistic failure surface, can be
found and the stress distribution at the limit stage can
be presumed, which can also be closer to the realistic
limit stage without violating yield conditions, the inter-
action relationship between axial load, bending, shear,
and torsion can be finally more accurately obtained
from limit-state equilibrium conditions. In the present
paper, as the first step, how to determine the three
dimensional warped failure surface in general loading
conditions is given. With a presumed stress distri- Figure 1. Failure mechanism for combined axial load,
bution at the limit state, a simple unified theory for bending, shear, and torsion.

695
Figure 2. Normal stress distributions at cracking moment.
(a) Normal stress caused by axial load;
(b) Normal stress caused by bending (Baikov & Sigalov
1981).
At the moment right before major cracks appear, the
entire normal-section is still working to balance exter-
nal loads, but the capacity reaches a limit. At this state,
stress plasticity has already appeared in part of normal-
section. Based on many observations and experiments,
stress distributions at the verge of cracking may be
assumed as follows.
For a solid rectangular element, normal stress is
mainly caused by axial load and bending. The dis-
tribution is presumed to be the combination of two
distributions. The normal stress distribution caused by
axial load is like evenly distributed in the transverse
section as shown in Figure 2 (a) and the normal stress
caused by axial load is ( N ):
where B is the width of normal section, H is the height,
and Ncr is the axial load acting on RC element at
cracking. The stress distribution caused by bending
moment is like the distribution graphic when elements
only subjected to bending as shown in Figure 2(b),
which was developed by researchers in Former Soviet
Union (Baikov & Sigalov 1981). From observations
of members under bending moment, at the verge of
cracking almost the entire tension-area reaches the ten-
sile strength of concrete and the stress distribution in
compression zone is like a triangle (Baikov & Sigalov
1981). The relationship equation between bending
moment and the tensile stress ( M ) can be obtained:
where Mcr is the bending moment acting on RC
element at cracking.
Shear stress is mainly caused by torsion and shear
force, and the stress distribution is presumed to be
the combination of two distributions. The shear stress
distribution caused by torsion is the plastic stress
distribution developed by Nadai (1950) as shown in
Figure 3 (a), and the shear stress ( T ) can be written as:
696
Figure 3. Shear stress distributions at cracking moment.
(a) Shear stress caused by torsion (Nadai 1950, Hsu 1984);
(b) Shear stress caused by shear force.
where Tcr is the torsional moment acting on RC ele-
ment at cracking. The shear stress caused by shear
force is like evenly distributed in most area at crack-
ing as shown in Figure 3 (b), except for top and bottom
edges where there is no shear stress due to boundary
conditions. The shear stress ( V ) can be written as:
where Vcr is the shear force acting on RC element at
cracking.
At the verge of cracking, concrete is in plane stress
state ( z , zx or zy ) as shown in Figure 1. The first
principal stress of this stress state is: 1 0 and the
tensile type of cleavage fracture would happen, which
is governed by the criterion of a constant maximum
tensile stress or strain (Chen 2007b). Crack formation
at tensile failure is characterized by splitting perpen-
dicular to the direction of the maximum tensile strain,
therefore, the crack angle (, shown in Figure 1) can
be obtained using geometry conditions:
or
After cracks in tension zone are calculated, on the
fourth side, ends of cracks are joined by a compression
zone as shown in Figure 1. Thus, the warped failure
surface is obtained.
3 APPLICATIONS
For an RC rectangular element subjected to axial load,
bending, shear, and torsion as shown in Figure 4,
compression zone can appear in the top, in the bottom,
or in the right side of normal-section.

Figure 4. Normal-section properties.
If compression zone forms in the top as shown in
Figure 1, at cracking moment, the stress state in the
bottom is:
and
When ( z , zx ) reaches the cracking criterion for con-
crete (Chen 2007b), crack starts to develop. With the
load proportion, Ncr , Mcr , and Tcr can also be calcu-
lated. By substituting z and zx into Equation 2, the
inclination of crack in the bottom (b ) is obtained.
The normal stress in the left side is:
(in tension zone), or
(in compression zone), and the shear stress is:
The normal stress in the right side is:
697
(in tension zone), or
(in compression zone), and the shear stress is:
Use the cracking criterion (Chen 2007b) to deter-
mine whether cracking happens in tension zone or in
compression zone, and to estimate the stress state at
cracking. Directions of cracks in the left (l ) and in the
right (r ) can be obtained from Equation 1. On the top
of element, ends of cracks are joined by a compres-
sion zone as shown in Figure 1 and the 3-dimensional
warped failure surface is achieved.
If compression zone forms in the bottom, the stress
state in the top at cracking is:
and
Use the cracking criterion (Chen 2007b) to determine
stresses at cracking, and substitute z and zx into
Equation 2 to calculate the inclination of crack in the
top (t ). Inclinations of the other two cracks, l and
r can also be calculated, and so is compression zone
in the bottom.
If compression zone forms in the right side, inclined
cracks in the bottom (b ), in the top (t ), and in the
left (l ) can all be obtained, and eventually the warped
failure surface can be described.
4 EXTREME CASES
The method proposed in this paper not only can
demonstrate the warped failure surface of RC ele-
ment subjected to complex loads, it can also be used
to explain the failure mechanism of RC elements only
subjected to one or two types of external loads.
4.1 RC elements subjected to axial loads
If an RC element is only subjected to an axial force,
only normal stress exists on normal-section as shown
in Figure 2(a):
 Crack angles in all four sides are the same:
If the axial force acting on RC element is tension,
cotangent value of crack angle is zero which means
cracks are all perpendicular to the longitudinal axis,
and if the force is compression, cotangent value is
infinity and cracks are all parallel to the longitudinal
axis, just like the well-known failure mechanism.
4.2 RC elements subjected to bending
If an RC element is subjected to bending, only normal
stress exists on the normal section:
(in tension zone), and
(in compression zone).
Cracks in the bottom, in the left, and in the right are
all perpendicular to the longitudinal axis and in the
top, concrete is crushed. The failure surface is a plane
section, exactly like Bernoulli hypothesis (Hsu 1996)
which is commonly used to analyze RC elements under
flexure.
4.3 RC elements subjected to shear and flexure
If an RC element is subjected to shear and bending, in
the top and in the bottom, only normal stress exists:
(in the bottom), and
(in the top).
Crack in the bottom is perpendicular to the longi-
tudinal axis, and in the top of RC element, concrete is
crushed.
In vertical sides, inclined cracks will appear in
tension zone. In the left side, stresses are:
698
In the right side, stresses are:
Therefore, l = r , which means the failure surface
is an inclined plane surface. Many experiments have
shown a similar failure mechanism.
4.4 RC elements subjected to torsion
If an RC element is subjected to torsion, only shear
stress exists on the normal section as shown in
Figure 3(a):
Cracks would appear in three sides, and each crack
is inclined to 45 . On the fourth side, ends of cracks
are joined by a compression zone.
Experimental studies have shown that three cracks
may not be inclined exactly to 45 due to the effect of
reinforcement, however angles are very close to 45
(Hsu 1984).
5 CONCLUSIONS
The simple method introduced in this paper can
describe the warped failure surface of reinforced con-
crete rectangular element subjected to axial load,
bending, shear, and torsion, and demonstrate the effect
that each type of eternal load has on cracking. Since
only equilibrium conditions and constitutive laws are
involved in the process, this method provides a con-
venient approach for the failure mechanism of RC
elements under complex loads.
More importantly, description of the warped fail-
ure surface of RC element under complex loads lays
the foundation for a lower-bound limit analysis (Chen
2007a). With a presumed stress distribution at the limit
state, a simple unified theory for reinforce concrete
members can be expected in near future.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would appreciate the support from the
National Science Foundation of China (NSFC No.
51178265).
REFERENCES
Baikov V. and Sigalov, E. 1981. Reinforced Concrete Struc-
tures. Vol. 1: Reinforced concrete strength and members.
Moscow: Mir Publishers.
Chen, W.F. 2007a. Limit Analysis and Soil Plasticity. Reprint
ed. J. Ross Publishing Classics Series. J. Ross Publishing.
Chen, W.F., 2007b. Plasticity in Reinforced Concrete. Reprint
ed. J. Ross Publishing Classics Series. J. Ross Publishing.
Greene, G. and Belarbi, A. 2009. Model for reinforced con-
crete members under torsion, bending, and shear. I: theory,
Journal of Engineering Mechanics 135(9): 961969.
Hsu, T.T.C. 1984. Torsion of Reinforced Concrete. New York:
Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Hsu, T.T.C. 1996. Toward a unified nomenclature for
reinforced-concrete theory. Journal of Structural Engi-
neering 122(3): 275283.
699
Liu, X.L. 2003. Going to mature: the theoretical development
of reinforced concrete structure. International Conference
on Advances in Concrete and Structures (ICACS): 1115-
1124. Xuzhou, China, RILEM Publications.
Ndai, . 1950. Theory of Flow and Fracture of Solids.
Vol. 1. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Vecchio F J. 2000. Disturbed stress field model for reinforced
concrete: Formulation. Journal of Structural Engineering
126(8): 10701077.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Study on small base isolation system using friction bearing

Effects of bearing ball shape on dynamic characteristics

Mikito Kezuka, Katsumi Kurita, Shigeru Aoki, Yuji Nakanishi & Kazutoshi Tominaga
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan College of Industrial Technology, Tokyo, Japan

Mitsuo Kanazawa
Kanazawa Seisakusyo Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan

ABSTRACT: In order to prevent the amplification by resonance on the small base isolation system using the
friction bearings, a bearing ball of this device is changed to a marble plate and to a bearing ball with rubber ring.
As the results by excitation experiment using an artificial seismic wave, the damping ratios of this system are
increased. The natural frequency in the case of the marble plate is higher than in the case of the ball. However,
in the case of the bearing ball with rubber ring, it is almost same value. In the case that the thickness of rubber
that makes contact with the spherical concaves plate is 1 mm, the peak acceleration amplitude on the small base
isolation system are decreased to 90% compared to the input wave. The bearing ball with rubber ring is better
than any other one on this system.

Keywords: bearing, natural frequency, damping ratio, friction force, seismic response

1 INTRODUCTION 2 SMALL BASE ISOLATION SYSTEM

Recently, heavy earthquake disasters are increasing 2.1 Friction bearing

in the world. From the seismic disaster prevention
The friction bearing with the bearing ball is shown in
point of view, it is important to construct the building
Fig. 1. It consists of two plates with spherical con-caves
structures by earthquake-resistant. The building struc-
and the bearing ball. The spherical concaves plate and
tures by anti-earthquake reinforcement can withstand
the marble plate are made of acrylic. The size of the
the vibration by seismic ground motion, however, the
concaves plate is 200 mm 200 mm, the thickness is
vibration at the inside building dose not decrease.
15 mm, and the radius of spherical concave is 450 mm.
As a result, there is a possibility that equipments
Since the restoring force is generated when the bearing
installed inside may overturn during an earthquake. So,
ball uplifts, two plates return to original position.
to decrease seismic response of them, the small base
isolation systems that can be installed inside buildings
are required. 2.2 Marble plate
We developed the small base isolation system using
friction bearings with bearing ball (Aoki et al. 2006, To increase the damping ratio of this system, it needs
Kurita et al., 2011a). The natural frequency and the the friction force between the spherical con-cave plate
damping ratio of this system are 0.53 Hz and 0.02, and the bearing ball. In this study, the marble plate is
respectively. From the evaluation of reduction rate prepared shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3. When it moves on
by excitation experiment, the seismic response was the spherical concave plate, the sliding friction and the
decreased to 10% compared to the input wave (Kurita rolling friction are generated. Therefore the damping
et al. 2011b). However, in the case that the input ratio increases.
wave included the natural frequency of this system,
the amplification by resonance occurred.
In this study, to prevent the amplification by reso-
nance of this system, the bearing ball of this device is
changed to a marble plate and to a bearing ball with
rubber ring. And to understand the effects of bear-
ing ball shape on dynamic characteristics of the small
base isolation system, excitation experiments are done
using an artificial seismic wave. Figure 1. Friction bearing (bearing ball type).

701
Figure 2. Friction bearing (marble plate type).
Figure 3. Size of marble plate.
Figure 4. Friction bearing (bearing ball with rubber ring
type).
Figure 5. Size of rubber ring.
2.3 Ball with rubber ring
On the other hand, the bearing ball with rubber ring
is prepared shown in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5. The rubber is
made of chloroprene, its hardness is 40 degrees. And,
to prevent the deformation of the rubber by moving the
bearing ball, the aluminum ring is set up inside hall of
the rubber ring.
2.4 Small base isolation system
The small base isolation system composed of this
device is shown in Fig. 6. The device is set up at
each corner. To investigate effects of the bearing
ball shape on dynamic characteristics, the bearing
ball combination shown in Table 1 is done in this
experiment.
702
Figure 6. Small base isolation system composed of friction
bearings.
Table 1. Experimental conditions.
Experimental conditions
case 1 Ball
case 2 Marble plate (SR30)
case 3 Marble plate (SR80)
case 4 Ball with rubber ring (L = 1)
case 5 Ball with rubber ring (L = 3)
3 FUNDAMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS
3.1 Natural frequency and damping ratio
The natural frequency and the damping ratio of this
system are evaluated. In case 1, the dynamic parame-
ters are evaluated by free vibration experiment, since
the friction force between the spherical concaves
plate and the bearing ball is small. Free vibration is
generated when the upper plate of this system that
added some displacement from original position is
released. Signal from acceleration sensors (KyowaAS-
2GA) installed on the upper plate of the small base
isolation system is recorded to the PC through the
interface (Kyowa PCD-300B). The sampling rate is
0.01 sec/points.
On the other hand, the dynamic parameters are eval-
uated by forced excitation experiment in case 2case
5. The spectral ratio that divide the response accelera-
tion spectrum on the small base isolation system by the
input wave spectrum is calculated, and it is assumed
a transfer function of SDOF. And fitting the transfer
function for the spectral ratio by a forwarding model,
the natural frequency and the damping ratio are evalu-
ated. The analytical frequency band is from 0.2 Hz to
10 Hz.
The natural frequency and the damping ratio evalu-
ated by experiments are shown in Table 2. The damping
ratios from in case 2 to in case 5 are higher than
one in case 1. In the case using the marble plate, as
the radius of the marble plate is increased, the damp-
ing ratio becomes large. Also the natural frequency
Table 2. Natural frequency and damping ratio.

Natural frequency [Hz] Damping ratio []

case 1 0.535 0.02

case 2 2.00 0.40
case 3 0.700 2.00
case 4 0.500 0.60
case 5 0.500 3.00

Figure 9. Restoring force characteristics in case 3.

Figure 7. Restoring force characteristics in case 1.

Figure 10. Restoring force characteristics in case 4.

Figure 8. Restoring force characteristics in case 2.

becomes higher, it is 2.0 Hz in case 2. On the other

hand, in the case using the bearing ball with rubber
ring, the damping ratio increases as the thickness of Figure 11. Restoring force characteristics in case 5.
rubber that makes contact with the spherical concaves
plate is getting thick. However, the natural frequency
changes little compared to the case of the bearing ball. Table 3. Coefficients of static friction.

Coefficients of static friction []

3.2 Static loading experiment
case 1
To understand characteristics of restoring force on this case 2 0.108
system, static loading experiment is done. The restor- case 3 0.243
ing force characteristics are shown in Fig. 7Fig. 11. case 4 0.062
And the coefficients of static friction evaluated from case 5 0.153
the restoring force characteristics are shown in Table 3.
In case 1, the line of the restoring force character-
istic indicates stable change, since the friction force is the restoring force characteristics is fluctuating in case
small. On the other hand, as the marble plate indicates 2 and in case 3. And the static friction coefficient of the
complex motion, the rolling friction and the sliding marble plate becomes large depending on the radius
friction are generated alternately. Therefore the line of of the marble plate. And in case 4 and in case 5, the

703
Figure 12. Input and response wave forms (case 1).
Figure 15. Input and response wave forms (case 4).

Figure 13. Input and response wave forms (case 2).

Figure 16. Input and response wave forms (case 5).

Table 4. Peak acceleration amplitude and RMS.

Peak acceleration
amplitude [gal] RMS [gal]

Input Response Input Response

case 1 1262.9 1812.2

case 2 1367.0 346.0 24.2 1.04
Figure 14. Input and response wave forms (case 3). case 3 1351.1 352.2 23.8 0.91
case 4 1344.8 151.4 25.1 0.22
case 5 1436.2 382.7 26.3 3.99
bearing ball with rubber ring slides and stops, repeat-
edly, the line of the restoring force characteristics is
fluctuating. Also the static friction coefficient of the
bearing ball with rubber ring becomes large depending decreased to 10% compared to the input wave. In case
on the thickness of rubber that makes contact with the 2, since the natural frequency moves to high frequency
spherical concaves plate. band, the reduction rate is decreased to 1/4. And the
damping ratio in case 3 and in case 5 is over damping,
the reduction rate in these case is lower than in case 4.
4 EXCITATION EXPERIMENTS

To investigate dynamic characteristics of this sys-tem, 5 CONCLUSIONS

excitation experiments are done using the artificial
seismic wave with a predominant frequency of 10 Hz.
Then, the weight of 9.19 kg is put on the upper plate of
this system. The input and response waves are shown
in Fig. 12Fig. 16. And the peak acceleration ampli-
tude and the root mean square (RMS) are shown in
Table 4.
In case 1, that the damping ratio is lowest, the
peak response amplitude and the RMS are larger than
the input wave. Since the amplification by resonance
occurred, and the bearing ball between two spheri-
cal concaves plates jumped out. On the other hand,
the response waves in the case of high damping ratio
indicate small amplitude compared to the input wave.
Especially in case 4, the peak response amplitude is
To prevent the amplification by resonance, a bearing
ball of the friction bearing was changed to a mar-
ble plate and to a bearing ball with rubber ring. And
to understand the effects of bearing ball shape on
dynamic characteristics of the small base isolation
system, excitation experiments were done using an
artificial seismic wave.
As the bearing ball of friction bearing changed into
the marble plate or into the bearing ball with rubber
ring, the damping ratios of this system were increased.
And the amplification by resonance was prevented.
The natural frequency in the case of the marble plate
was higher than in the case of the bearing ball. How-
ever, in the case of the bearing ball with rubber ring, it

704
was almost same value. And the best case of reduction
rate is in case 4, that is the bearing ball with rubber ring.
From these results, the bearing ball with rubber ring
is better than any other types on this system.
Kurita K., S. Aoki, Y. Nakanishi, K. Tominaga,
REFERENCES
Aoki, S., Y. Nakanishi, T. Nishimura, M. Kanazawa,
T. Otaka & M. Inagaki. 2006. Reduction of Seismic
Response of Mechanical System by Friction Type Base
Isolation System, The Third Asian Conference on Multi-
body Dynamics 2006. CD-ROM A00705.
Kurita K., S. Aoki, Y. Nakanishi, K. Tominaga & M.
Kanazawa. 2011. Fundamental Characteristics of Reduc-
tion System for Seismic Response using Friction Force.
Jour. of Civil Eng. and Archi. 5(11): 10421047.
M. Kanazawa & M. Wada. 2011. Reduction method of
seismic response with friction bearing (Effect of curvature
change of concaves spherical plate on seismic response
reduction). Proceedings of the Japan Soc. of Mech. Eng.
No. 115-1 115(1). 139140.

705
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Dynamic characteristics of base isolation system using sliding bearing

Shun Suminokura, Katsumi Kurita, Shigeru Aoki, Yuji Nakanishi & Kazutoshi Tominaga
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan College of Industrial Technology, Tokyo, Japan

Mitsuo Kanazawa
Kanazawa Seisakusyo Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan

ABSTRACT: A base isolation system with restorative mechanism using sliding bearing is developed, and the
dynamic characteristics of this system are evaluated by excitation experiment. From the damping ratio point of
view, with a decrease of the thickness of sliding bearing edge that makes contact with surface of the lower plate,
the damping ratio decreases. With an increase of the weight put on the upper plate of this system, it increases.
And from the natural frequency point of view, with an increase of the weigh, it is smaller. In the case that is the
thickness of 0.5 mm and the weight of 3.0 kg, the peak amplitude of response waveforms are decreased to 30%
compared to the input wave. This system is useful to reduce the seismic response for equipments.

Keywords: sliding bearing, natural frequency, damping ratio, peak response amplitude, RMS

1 INTRODUCTION

Many destructive earthquakes such as the 1995 Hyo-

goken nanbu earthquake (The Kobe earthquake in
1995) and the 2011 off the pacific coast of Tohoku
earthquake (The Tohoku earthquake in 2011) have
occurred in Japan. In order to decrease building dam-
ages by seismic motion, it is important to construct the
building structures by earthquake-resistant.
The building structures by anti-earthquake rein-
forcement can naturally withstand the vibration by
earthquake. However, the vibration at the inside build-
ing can not decrease. As a result, there is a possibility
that equipments installed inside may overturn during Figure 1. Base isolation system using sliding bearing.
the earthquake. Therefore, base isolation systems are
being developing (e.g. Aoki et al. 2007).
In this study, dynamic characteristics of the base
isolation system using sliding bearing are investigated
by excitation experiment using an artificial seismic
wave.

2 BASE ISOLATION SYSTEM USING SLIDING

BEARING

A model of base isolation system using sliding bear-

ing is shown in Fig. 1. The size of the upper plate is
300 mm 300 mm, and it is made of acrylic. The ball
Figure 2. Ball transfer.
transfer shown in Fig. 2 (Iguchi Kiko Co. Ltd. IS-19) is
set up at each corner of this plate. The lower plate uses
aluminum one with 2 mm thickness. The frame that is the frame. In this system, the ball transfer rolls on
an image of a wall in a room is installed at the edge the lower plate, and the vibration of the lower plate
of the lower plate, and the three compression springs, is transmitted to the upper plate via the ball transfer.
the spring constant is 0.0131 N/mm, are installed at Since the restoring force is generated when the upper

707

Figure 3. Sliding bearing.
Figure 4. An example of restoring force characteristics on
this device (Case 1 thickness: 0.5 mm).
Table 1. Coefficients of static friction.
Case Confficient of static friction
1 0.204
2 0.696
plate moves to compression springs, the upper plate
returns to original position.
Since it is easy to move the upper plate of the base
isolation system composed of only the ball transfer
by small vibration, a sliding bearing made of acrylic
shown in Fig. 3 is used together. In this study, the thick-
ness of the sliding bearing edge that makes contact
with surface of the lower plate is 0.5 mm (Case 1) and
1.0 mm (Case 2).
3 STATIC LOADING EXPERIMENT
To understand the characteristics of restoring force on
this system, a static loading experiment is done. An
example of the restoring force characteristics is shown
in Fig. 4. And the coefficients of static friction evalu-
ated from the restoring force characteristics are shown
in Table 1.
708
Figure 5. An example of comparison between spectral ratio
and theoretical transfer function.
Table 2. Damping ratio and natural frequency (Case 1
thickness: 0.5 mm).
Weight (kg) 0 3 6 9
Damping ratio () 0.3 0.5 0.8 1.1
Natural frequency (Hz) 2 1.2 0.9 0.8
The line of the restoring force characteristics
changes stably, since the motion of the sliding bearing
is simple. The static friction coefficient is depend-
ing on the thickness of the sliding bearing edge, it
increases with an increase of the thickness.
4 NATURAL FREQUENCY AND DAMPING
RATIO
The natural frequency and the damping ratio are very
important parameters to understand the dynamic char-
acteristics of this system. So these parameters are
evaluated by forced excitation experiment using the
artificial seismic wave. The spectral ratio that divide
the response acceleration spectrum on the base isola-
tion system by the input wave spectrum is calculated,
and it is assumed a transfer function of SDOF. And
fitting the transfer function for the spectral ratio by
a forwarding model, the natural frequency and the
damping ratio are evaluated.
The base isolation system that installed the weight
of 0, 3, 6, 9 kg is put on the shaking table, respectively.
Acceleration sensors (Kyowa AS-2GS) are installed
on the shaking table, in the upper plate of the base
isolation system. And signal from acceleration sensors
is recorded to the PC through the interface (Kyowa
PCD-300A). The sampling rate is 0.01 sec/points. The
direction of excitation is unidimensional horizontally.
An example of comparison between the spectral
ratio and the theoretical transfer function based on
SDOF is shown in Fig. 5. And the natural frequency
and the damping ratio evaluated by this experiment are
shown in Table 2 and Table 3.
With the increase of the thickness of sliding bearing
edge, the damping ratio increases. Since the friction
force is depending on normal component of reaction,
Table 3. Damping ratio and natural frequency (Case 2
thickness: 1.0 mm).

Weight (kg) 0 3 6 9
Damping ratio () 1 1.6 2.2 2.4
Natural frequency (Hz) 1.8 1.2 1 0.8

Figure 7. Acceleration response and input waveforms

(Case 2 thickness: 1.0 mm).

Table 4. Peak acceleration values (Case 1 thickness:

0.5 mm).

Weight (kg) 0 3 6 9
Input (gal) 1490 1409.1 1456 1460.2
Response (gal) 428.2 383.9 398.9 759.3
Figure 6. Acceleration response and input waveforms Amplitude ratio () 0.29 0.27 0.27 0.52
(Case 1 thickness: 0.5 mm).

with the increase of weight installed on the upper plate, Table 5. Peak acceleration values (Case 2 thickness:
the damping ratio increases.And, the natural frequency 1.0 mm).
decreases. However, it does not change independently.
Weight (kg) 0 3 6 9
Input (gal) 1402.7 1536.4 1436.7 1512.3
Response (gal) 623 630.1 620.3 640.9
5 ACCELERATION RESPONSE WAVEFORMS Amplitude ratio () 0.44 0.41 0.43 0.42

Acceleration response waveforms are shown in Fig. 6

and Fig. 7. The peck amplitude of acceleration wave-
form in case 1 with the weight of 3 kg is smallest in Table 6. Root mean square values (Case 1 thickness:
this experiment. Increasing the weight put on the upper 0.5 mm).
plate, the response waveforms consist of the high fre-
quency band component. On the other hand, in case Weight (kg) 0 3 6 9
1 that the weight is 0 kg, it identifies the component Input (gal) 27.58 27.53 27.38 27.32
of low frequency band. However, the characteristics Response (gal) 1.49 1.27 1.72 1.56
of all response waveforms in case 2 are almost same. Amplitude ratio () 0.054 0.046 0.063 0.057
And, since the upper plate of this system collides with
the outer frame, the response waveform in case 1 that
installed the weight of 9 kg on the upper plate identifies
some spikes such as pulse wave. (RMS) amplitude of acceleration response waveforms
The peak amplitude of acceleration response wave- is shown in Table 6 and Table 7. Generally, intensity
forms is shown in Table 4 and Table 5. From a wave of ground motion uses the peak amplitude. However,
energy reduction point of view, root mean square if the peak amplitude consists of high frequency and

709
Table 7. Root mean square values (Case 2 thickness: (2) As the weigh installed on the upper plate in-
1.0 mm). creases, the damping ratio becomes large. On the
other hand, the natural frequency decreases.
Weight (kg) 0 3 6 9 (3) Since the upper plate of this system collides with
Input (gal) 27.98 27.65 27.55 27.65
the outer frame, the response waveform identifies
Rresponse (gal) 7.43 8.58 7.20 6.84
Amplitude ratio () 0.27 0.31 0.26 0.25 a spike such as pulse wave.
(4) From peak amplitude of response wave point of
view, it is possible to decrease to about 30% com-
pared to peak amplitude of input wave in case 1,
appears a moment, it may not be effective for over- and to decrease to 40% compared to peak ampli-
turning equipments. And it is important to evaluate tude of input wave in case 2.
the reduction of wave energy, the RMS was used as (5) From RMS point of view, it is possible to de-
a value of evaluation. The Peak amplitude of accel- crease to about 5% compared to peak amplitude
eration response waves on the base isolation system of input wave in case 1, and to decrease to about
decreases to 2752% compared to the input waves. 30% compared to peak amplitude of input wave in
Also, The RMS amplitude decreases to 531%. case 2.

REFERENCES
6 CONCLUSIONS
Aoki, S., Y. Nakanishi, T. Nishimura, M. Kanazawa,
The base isolation system using sliding bearing was T. Otaka & M. Inagaki. 2006. Reduction of Seismic
developed, and dynamic characteristics of this system Response of Mechanical System by Friction Type Base
were investigated by excited experiment. As a result, Isolation System. The Third Asian Conference on Multi-
body Dynamics 2006, CD-ROM A00705.
(1) As the thickness of sliding bearing edge that makes
contact with surface of the lower plate in-creases,
the damping ratio and the friction coefficient
becomes large.

710
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Development of oil dampers for reduction of seismic response of houses

(Examination for some types of dampers)

Taku Yamauchi, Shigeru Aoki & Katsumi Kurita

Tokyo Metropolitan College of Industrial Technology, Tokyo, Japan

ABSTRACT: In late years, large scale earthquakes are occurring in the world. Then, control of seismic response
of house is important for protection from destructive earthquakes. This paper proposes some types of oil dampers
for vibration control device for two story houses. Oil damper is connected to the ceiling of the first story and
fixed on the foundation. The rectangular parallelepiped damper, the cylindrical damper and the spherical damper
with silicon oil are proposed. The effectiveness of oil dampers is examined by experiment. It is concluded that
the peaks of the resonance curve are reduced when dampers are used.

Keywords: vibration, seismic motion, resonance curve, silicon oil, damping ratio

1 INTRODUCTION 2 EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

Many houses are destroyed in destructive earthquakes
in the world. Then, development of devices for reduc-
tion of seismic response is important for protection
from destruction of houses. Some control methods of
seismic response for houses are proposed. For exam-
ple, high damping rubber (Lewangamage et al. 2003)
and laminated bearings are used (Tsai 2006). Other
types of passive dampers are proposed (Sonng &
Dargush 1997). Dynamic vibration absorbers
(Kawazoe et al. 1998, Reed et al. 1998, Liu & Liu
2005, Wong & Cheung 2008, Yang et al. 2011, Li &
Liu 2004)are investigated. Some devices utilize non-
linear characteristics, impact (Masri 1972, Cheng &
Yang 2003), friction (Inaudi & Kelly, 1995, Calvi
et al. 2004)and plastic deformation (Bakre et al. 2006,
Hegsberg & Krenk 2007).
For residence, two story houses are general in Japan.
It is required that the price of the damper is reasonable
and construction and maintenance of the damper are
easy, especially for houses. In this paper, two story
houses are focused on and some types of oil dampers
are proposed for reduction of seismic response. Con-
sidering easy construction even if houses have been
built up, oil damper is fixed on the foundation and
connected to the ceiling of the first story.
The effectiveness of the dampers is examined exper-
imentally. Three shapes of oil dampers, the rectangular
parallelepiped damper, the cylindrical damper and the
spherical damper are proposed. Response of the first
story and that of the second story are measured for
some values of kinetic viscosity of silicon oil. It is
found that the peak of resonance curve is reduced when
these dampers are used. The effect of kinetic viscosity
of silicon oil on reduction of response is examined.
In this paper, two story houses are focused on and some
types oil dampers are proposed. The effectiveness of
the dampers is examined experimentally. Oil damper
is fixed on the foundation and connected to the ceiling
of the first story. An experimental model of two story
house is made. Three shapes of oil dampers, the rect-
angular parallelepiped damper, the cylindrical damper
and the spherical damper are developed. These types
of the dampers are easily installed in the houses even
if the houses have been built up.
2.1 Rectangular parallelepiped damper
The effect of a rectangular parallelepiped damper on
control of the response is examined. Figure 1 shows
cross section of the rectangular parallelepiped damper.
Figure 2 shows parts of the damper. Left shaft with the
rectangular parallelepiped material in Fig. 2 is used.
The damper consists of a casing and a rectangular par-
allelepiped material connected to a shaft. The casing
is fixed on the foundation and the other tip of the
shaft is connected to the ceiling of the first story as
Fig. 3. Casing and rectangular parallelepiped material
is made of aluminum. Shaft is made of brass. Spaces
between casing and the upper side and the lower side
of the rectangular parallelepiped material are narrow
using resisting plates.Then, large flow resistance of the
silicon oil and large reduction effect of the response
are expected. Space between the casing and the rect-
angular parallelepiped material is filled with silicon
oil. Kinetic viscosity of silicon oil are selected as
10000cSt, 30000cSt and 50000cSt. Kinetic viscosity
of silicon oil do not so depend on temperature. The
model is fixed on the shaking table as shown in Fig. 3

711
Figure 1. Cross section of rectangular parallelepiped and
cylindrical damper (mm).
Figure 2. Parts of rectangular parallelepiped and cylindrical
damper.
Figure 3. Experimental setup.
and shaken horizontally. The frequency response func-
tion is obtained by frequency sweeping method. The
damper can reduce three dimensional response of the
house. The frequency response functions of the ceiling
of the first story and that of the second story including
the first vibration mode and the second vibration mode
are measured. The damping ratio is obtained from the
half power method.
2.2 Cylindrical damper
The effect of a cylindrical damper on control of the
response is examined. Cross section of the cylindrical
712
Figure 4. Cross section of spherical damper (mm).
damper is same as Fig. 1. Figure 2 shows parts of
the damper. Right shaft with the cylindrical mate-
rial in Fig. 2 is used. Cylindrical material is made of
aluminum. Space between the casing and the cylindri-
cal material is filled with silicon oil. Spaces between
casing and the upper side and the lower side of the
cylindrical material are narrow using resisting plates.
2.3 Spherical damper
The effect of a spherical damper on control of the
response is examined. Figure 4 shows cross section
of the spherical damper. Figure 5 shows parts of the
damper. The damper consists of a casing and a spher-
ical material connected to a shaft. The casing is fixed
on the foundation. Casing is made of aluminum and
spherical material is made of acryl. Space between
the casing and the spherical material is filled with
silicon oil.
3 EXPERIMENTAL RESULT
The performance of each damper is compared by
experimental result.
3.1 Rectangular parallelepiped damper
Figure 6 shows the resonance curve of the first story of
the model with the rectangular parallelepiped damper
(50000cSt) and without damper. The peak response of
the first vibration mode and second vibration mode is
reduced when the rectangular parallelepiped damper
is used. Table 1 shows the natural frequency, the peak
value of the amplitude ratio and the damping ratio for
the first vibration mode and second vibration mode
 Figure 7. Resonance curve of the first story (Cylindrical
damper 50000cSt, Without damper).

Figure 5. Parts of spherical damper. Table 2. Response characteristics of the first story
(Cylindrical damper).

Damping ratio

Natural Amplitude First Second

frequency ratio vibration vibration
[Hz] [dB] mode mode

Without 5.6 28.9 0.0193 0.00517

damper
10000cSt 5.6 22.1 0.0429 0.00540
20000cSt 5.8 13.3 0.0875 0.01458
50000cSt 5.8 14.3 0.0844 0.00958

Figure 6. Resonance curve of the first story (Rectangular

parallelepiped damper 50000cSt, Without damper). 3.2 Cylindrical damper
Figure 7 shows the resonance curve of the first story of
Table 1. Response characteristics of the first story the model with the cylindrical damper (50000cSt) and
(Rectangular parallelepiped damper). without damper. The peak response of the first vibra-
tion mode and second vibration mode is reduced when
Damping ratio the cylindrical damper is used. Table 2 shows the nat-
ural frequency, the peak of the amplitude ratio and the
Natural Amplitude First Second damping ratio for the first vibration mode and second
frequency ratio vibration vibration vibration mode of ceiling of the first story. The damp-
[Hz] [dB] mode mode ing ratio of the first vibration mode increases when
the cylindrical damper is used. Reduction of the peak
Without 5.6 28.8 0.0193 0.00517 response and increase of the damping ratio are largest
damper when the kinetic viscosity of silicon oil is 30000cSt.
10000cSt 5.8 18.9 0.0455 0.00961 Reduction of the peak response and increase of the
30000cSt 5.8 14.8 0.0824 0.00963
50000cSt 5.8 15.0 0.0789 0.00961
damping ratio of the second story are comparable to
those of the first story. The natural frequency is not
changed for different coefficient of kinetic viscosity
of silicon oil.

of ceiling of the first story. The damping ratio of the
first vibration mode increases when the rectangular
parallelepiped damper is used. Reduction of the peak
response and increase of the damping ratio are largest
when the kinetic viscosity of silicon oil is 30000cSt.
Reduction of the peak response and increase of the
damping ratio of the second story are comparable to
those of the first story. The natural frequency is not
changed for different coefficient of kinetic viscosity
of silicon oil.
3.3 Spherical damper
Figure 8 shows the resonance curve of the first story
of the model with the spherical damper and with-
out damper. The peak response of the first vibration
mode and second vibration mode is reduced when the
spherical damper is used. Table 3 shows the natural
frequency, the peak of the amplitude ratio and the
damping ratio for the first vibration mode and sec-
ond vibration made of ceiling of the first story. The

713
 REFERENCES
Bakre, S.V., Jangid, R.S. and Reddy, G.R., Optimum X-
plate dampers for seismic response control of piping
systems, International Journal of Pressure Vessels and
Piping, Volume 83, Issue 9, pp. 672685, 2006.
Calvi, G.M., Ceresa, P., and Casarotti, C., Bolognini, D.
and Auricchio, F., Effects of Axial Force Variation in
the Seismic Response of Bridges Isolated with Friction
Pendulum Systems, Journal of Earthquake Engineering,
Vol. 8 (Special Issue 1), pp. 187224, 2004.
Cheng, C.C. and Yang, J.Y., Free Vibration Analysis of
a Resilient Impact Damper, International Journal of
Figure 8. Resonance curve of the first story (Spherical Mechanical Sciences, Volume 45, Issue 4, pp. 589604,
damper 50000cSt, Without damper). 2003.
Hegsberg, J. and Krenk, S., Adaptive Tuning of Elasto-Plastic
Damper, International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics,
Table 3. Response characteristics of the first story Volume 42, Issue 7, pp. 928940, 2007.
(Spherical damper). Inaudi, J.A. and Kelly, J.M., Mass Damper Using Friction-
Dissipating Devices, Journal of Engineering Mechanics,
Damping ratio ASCE, Vol. 121, No. 1, pp. 142149, 1995.
Kawazoe, K., Kono, I., Aida, T., Aso, T. and Ebisuda, K.,
Beam-type Dynamic Vibration Absorber Composed of
Natural Amplitude First Second Free-free Beam, ASCE, Journal of Engineering Mechan-
frequency ratio vibration vibration ics, Vol. 124, No. 4, pp. 476479, 1998.
[Hz] [dB] mode mode Lewangamage, C.S., Abe, M., Fujino, Y. and Yoshida, J,
Experimental Investigation and Modeling of Temperature
Without 5.6 28.9 0.0193 0.00517 Dependency Behavior of High Damping Rubber Proceed-
damper ings of International Conference on Advanced Technology
10000cSt 5.6 21.1 0.0405 0.00975 in Experimental Mechanics 2003, CD-ROM, 2003.
30000cSt 5.6 16.4 0.0533 0.00966 Li, C. and Liu,Y., Ground Motion Dominant Frequency Effect
50000cSt 5.8 15.8 0.0844 0.00968 on the Design of Multiple Tuned Mass Dampers, Journal
of Earthquake Engineering, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 89105,
2004.
Liu, K. and Liu, J, The Damped Dynamic VibrationAbsorbers
damping ratio of the first vibration mode increases Revisited and New Result, Journal of Sound And Vibra-
when the spherical damper is used. Reduction of the tion, No. 284, pp. 11811189, 2005.
peak response and increase of the damping ratio are Masri, S.F., Theory of the Dynamic Vibration Neutralizer
with MotionLimiting Stops, Transactions of ASME, Jour-
larger to the higher kinetic viscosity of silicon oil. It
nal of Applied Mechanics Vol. 39, June, pp. 563568,
is considered that viscous resistance increases for the 1972.
higher kinetic viscosity of silicon oil. Reduction of Reed, D., Yu, J., Yeh, H. and Gardarsson, S., Investigation of
the peak response and increase of the damping ratio Tuned Liquid Dampers under LargeAmplitude Excitation,
of the second story are comparable to those of the ASCE, Journal of Engineering Mechanics, Vol. 124, No. 4,
first story. The natural frequency is not changed for pp. 405413, 1998.
different coefficient of kinetic viscosity of silicon oil. Soong, T.T. and Dargush, G.F., Passive Energy Dissipation
Systems in Structural Engineering, John Wiley & Sons,
Chichester, 1997.
Tsai, H.-C., Compression stiffness of circular bearings of
4 CONCLUSIONS
laminated elastic material interleaving with flexible rein-
forcements, International Journal of Solids and Structures,
As new devices for reduction of vibration of the two Volume 43, Issues 1112, pp. 34843497, 2006.
story houses which can be directly attached in a two Wong, W.O. and Cheung, Y.L., Optimal Design of a Damped
story houses, the rectangular parallelepiped damper, Dynamic Vibration Absorber for Vibration Control of
the cylindrical damper and the spherical damper are Structure Excited by Ground Motion, Journal of Engi-
proposed and the validity of these dampers is examined neering Structures, No. 30, pp. 282286, 2008.
by experiment. For all dampers, the responses of the Yang, C., Li, D. and Cheng, L., Dynamic Vibration Absorbers
first and second story are reduced. Reduction of the for Vibration Control within a Frequency Band, Journal of
Soud and Vibration, 330, pp. 15821598, 2011.
peak response and increase of the damping ratio are
largest when the kinetic viscosity of silicon oil is
30000cSt or 50000cSt.

714
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Simplified calculation method for integral of mean square value

of various nonstationary random responses

Shigeru Aoki & Azusa Fukano

Tokyo Metropolitan College of Industrial Technology, Tokyo, Japan

ABSTRACT: When the system is subjected to nonstationary excitations such as earthquake excitation, the
response of the structure is nonstationary random process. Calculation method for the mean square value of the
response of such a system is very complicated. In this paper, an approximate method for obtaining the mean
square value of the response is proposed. In this method, the mean square value of the response for stationary
random excitation is used. Integrals of the mean square value with respect to time from 0 to infinity are obtained.
Integral of the mean square value is related to total energy of the response. It is concluded that the approximate
method gives exact value of integral of the mean square value of the response.

Keywords: Seismic Response, Random Vibration, Nonstationary Random Process, Envelop Function

1 INTRODUCTION Integral of the mean square value of the nonstation-

Earthquake excitation is a nonstationary excitation.
Then, the response of the structure is nonstationary
random process. Mean square value of the response
is one of the representative values which describe
the statistical characteristics of the random response
(Clough & Penzien, 1993). Mean square value of the
response is related to energy. Energy of the response
is used to evaluate absorbed energy and cumulative
damage of the structure (Soong & Dargush, 1997).
Earthquake excitation is sometimes represented by
multiplying stationary random excitation by envelop
function. It is easy to obtain the mean square value
of stationary random process, which is given as for-
mula (Crandall and Mark, 1963). However, calculation
method for the mean square value of the nonstation-
ary response of the system is very complicated. Then,
an approximate method was proposed for calculat-
ing the mean square value of nonstationary random
process based on that of stationary random process
(Hasselman, 1972) (Bucher, 1988).
For reduction of seismic response, some dampers
and seismic isolation systems have been developed. In
these cases, energy balance between the response and
the input is considered (Wong, 2008). Total energy
is related to integral of mean square value of the
response.
In this paper, a new method is proposed for calcu-
lating the mean square value of nonstationary random
process by using that of stationary random process.
The mean square value of the nonstationary response
is assumed to be a product of the mean square value
of stationary response and square of envelop function.
ary response is related to total energy of the response.
Integral of the mean square value is approximately
obtained from product of integral of square of envelop
function and the mean square value of stationary ran-
dom process. For comparison, exact value of integral
of the mean square value is obtained.
As a structural model, a single-degree-of-freedom
system is used. Nonstationary white noise is used
as excitation. Integral of the mean square value is
calculated for various values of the damping ratio
and the natural period. Integral of the mean square
value calculated from approximate method is equal to
that calculated from exact method irrespective of the
damping ratio and the natural period.
2 ANALYTICAL METHOD
2.1 Analytical model and excitation
As a fundamental analytical model, a single-degree-
of-freedom system shown in Figure 1 is used, where m
is mass, c is damping coefficient, k is spring constant,
x is absolute displacement of mass, y is absolute dis-
placement of ground surface. An equation of motion
with respect to relative displacement of mass to ground
surface z(x y) is given as

where (c/2 mk) is the damping ratio, n ( k/m) is
the natural circular frequency and is derivative with

715
Figure 1. Single-degree-of-freedom system.
Figure 4. Envelop function (Type III).

2.2 Analytical method for nonstationary random

process
The mean square value of relative displacement
response z is obtained from the autocorrelation func-
tion given as the following equation.

where G(, t) is given as

Figure 2. Envelop function (Type I).

where

G*(, t) is complex conjugate function of G(, t). S0

is power spectral density of stationary white noise in
Eq. (2) and i = 1. The autocorrelation function of
relative velocity z is given as
Figure 3. Envelop function (Type II).

The mean square value of relative displacement

respect to time t. As earthquake excitation y (t), non-
z2 (t) and that of relative velocity z2 (t) are obtained
stationary white noise given by the following equation
from the following equations.
is used.

where I (t) is an envelop function which represents

nonstationary characteristic of amplitude, sy (t) is sta-
2.3 Approximate method
tionary white noise.
For seismic excitations, some types of functions are In Eq. (4), it is assumed that I (t) is independent of ,
proposed. In this paper, envelop functions shown in then z2 (t) and z2 (t) are
Figure 2 (Shinozuka & Sato, 1967), Figure 3 (Iyen-
gar & Iyengar, 1969) and Figure 4 (Amin & Ang,
A.H.S, 1968) are used.

716
 Table 1. Integral of mean square value of the response (Tn = 0.5 s) (Type I).

Displacement (m2 s) Velocity (m2 /s2 s)

Exact Approximate Exact Approximate

0.01 8.44 101 8.44 101 1.33 102 1.33 102

0.02 4.22 101 4.22 101 6.65 10 6.67 10
0.05 1.69 101 1.69 101 2.65 10 2.67 10
0.10 8.44 102 8.44 102 1.31 10 1.33 10

Table 2. Integral of mean square value of the response ( = 0.01) (Type I).

Displacement (m2 s) Velocity (m2 /s2 s)

Tn (s) Exact Approximate Exact Approximate

0.2 5.40 102 5.40 102 5.31 10 5.33 10

0.5 8.44 101 8.44 101 1.33 102 1.33 102
0.8 3.46 3.46 2.13 102 2.13 102
1.0 6.75 6.75 2.66 102 2.67 102

Using approximate solution, Iz is given as

where

For relative velocity,

Integrals in Eq. (9) and Eq. (10) are for stationary

response and are expressed as

3 NUMERICAL RESULTS

The mean square value of relative displacement

Equations (13) and (14) are simpler than Eqs. (7)
and (8) using Eq. (3). When approximation in Eqs (9)
and (10) is appropriate, it is easy to obtain the mean
square value of nonstationary random process. In this
paper, the mean square value obtained from Eqs. (13)
and (14) is referred to as approximate value and that
obtained form Eqs. (7) and (8) using Eq. (3) is referred
to as exact value.
Integral of the mean square value of the response
with respect to time from 0 to infinity is given as
given by Eq. (7) is obtained from Eq. (3). Integral
in Eq. (3) is calculated numerically. The mean square
value of relative velocity given by Eq. (8) is obtained
from partial derivative given by Eq. (6) numerically.
S0 is fixed as 1 (m2 /s4 /rad/s).
Table 1 and Table 2 show the results for the envelop
function of type I. Table 1 shows results for various
values of the damping ratio . Table 2 shows the results
for various values of the natural period Tn (2/n ). In
Table 1, Tn is fixed as 0.5 s. In Table 2, is fixed
as 0.01. From these tables, approximate method gives
exact value independent of the damping ratio and the
natural period.
Table 3 and Table 4 show the results for the envelop
function of type II. Table 5 and Table 6 show the results
for that of type III. In these tables, approximate method
gives exact value independent of the damping ratio
and the natural period even if envelop functions are
different.

717
 Table 3. Integral of mean square value of the response (Tn = 0.5 s) (Type II).

Displacement (m2 s) Velocity (m2 /s2 s)

Exact Approximate Exact Approximate

0.01 9.74 101 9.74 101 1.54 102 1.54 102

0.02 4.87 101 4.87 101 7.70 10 77.0 10
0.05 1.95 101 1.95 101 3.08 10 3.08 10
0.10 9.75 102 9.75 102 1.54 10 1.54 10

Table 4. Integral of mean square value of the response ( = 0.01) (Type II).

Displacement (m2 s) Velocity (m2 /s2 s)

Tn (s) Exact Approximate Exact Approximate

0.2 6.24 102 6.24 102 6.16 10 6.16 10

0.5 9.74 101 9.74 101 1.54 102 1.54 102
0.8 3.99 3.99 2.46 102 2.46 102
1.0 7.80 7.80 3.08 102 3.08 102

Table 5. Integral of mean square value of response (Tn = 0.5 s) (Type III).

Displacement (m2 s) Velocity (m2 /s2 s)

Exact Approximate Exact Approximate

0.01 1.36 1.36 2.15 102 2.15 102

0.02 6.81 101 6.81 101 1.07 102 1.08 102
0.05 2.73 101 2.73 101 4.30 10 4.30 10
0.10 1.36 101 1.36 101 2.15 10 2.15 10

Table 6. Integral of mean square value of response ( = 0.01) (Type III).

Displacement (m2 s) Velocity (m2 /s2 s)

Tn (s) Exact Approximate Exact Approximate

0.2 8.72 102 8.72 102 8.57 10 8.57 10

0.5 1.36 1.36 2.15 102 2.15 102
0.8 5.58 5.58 3.44 102 3.44 102
1.0 1.09 10 1.09 10 4.30 102 4.30 102

4 APPLICABILITY OF THE PROPOSED the total energy balance of the response and input is
METHOD obtained as follows.

Total dissipated energy by the damping element is one

of the factors to evaluate the performance of dampers
and seismic isolation systems. The equation of motion
of the structure Eq. (1) is written as
Integral of the mean square value of relative velocity
Iz given by Eq. (16) and obtained from Eq. (18) for the
Multiplying both sides of Eq. (19) by z and integrat- approximate method correspond to the second term of
ing each term with respect to time from 0 to infinity, Eq. (20). Iz is approximately obtained using integral

718
of the mean square value of relative displacement Iz as
follows.
From the proposed method, total energy dissipated
by the damper is simply obtained.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The approximate method for calculating the mean
square value of the response of the system subjected
to nonstationary random process is proposed. In this
method, the mean square value of stationary random
excitation is used. As input excitation, nonstationary
white noise which is product of stationary white noise
and envelop function is used. As the analytical model,
single-degree-of-freedom system is used. Integral of
the mean square value of the response is obtained.
It is concluded that the approximate method gives
exact value of integral of the mean square value of
the response.
REFERENCES
Amin, M. and Ang, A.H.S. 1968. Nonstationary Stochastic
Model of Earthquake Motions. Journal of Engineering
Mechanics Division, ASCE 84(EM2): 559583.
719
Bucher, C.G. 1988. Approximate Nonstationary Random
Vibration Analysis for MDOF System. Journal of Applied
Mechanics, ASCE 51(1): 197200.
Clough, R.W. & Penzien, J. 1993. Dynamics of Structures
(Secind Edition): Singapore: Mc Graw Hill.
Crandall, S.H. & Mark, W.D. 1963. Random Vibration in
Mechanical System: New York: Academic Press.
Hasselman, T. 1972. Probabilistic Displacement Time His-
tory of a Single Degree of Freedom System. Journal of
Engineering Mechanics Division, ASCE 98(6): 519530.
Iyengar, R.N. and Iyengar, K.T.S.R. 1969. A Nonstation-
ary Random Process Model for Earthquake Accelero-
gram. Bulletin of Seismological Society of America 59(3):
11631188.
Shinozuka, M. & Sato,Y. 1967. Simulation of Nonstation-
ary Random Process. Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Division, ASCE EM1, Feb.: 1140.
Soong, T.T. & Dargush, G.F. 1997. Passive Energy Dissipa-
tion Systems in Structural Engineering: Chichester: John
Wiley & Sons.
Wong, K.K.F. 2008. Seismic Energy Dissipation of Inelas-
tic Structures with Tuned Mass Dampers, Jornal of
Engineering Mechanics, ASCE 134(2) 163172.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Experimental tests for the evaluation of the structural behavior of steel

tapered beam-columns with I cross section and their knee connection

I.M. Cristutiu & D.L. Nunes

Politehnica University of Timisoara, Timisoara, Romania

ABSTRACT: Tapered members with variable I cross section made of welded thin steel plates, are mainly used
for the execution of pitched roof portal frames with one or multiple spans. The web tapering arises from the
stiffness and stress demand in structural elements under gravitational loads. Hence sections varying from semi-
compact to elastic and even slender might be obtained. If not adequate restraining is provided, the lateral-torsional
buckling strength of these members is generally low and may influence also the behavior of the rafter-to-column
connection. Besides this, inappropriate manufacturing process and assembling of these elements may lead to
imperfect structure. Due to non-rectangular shape of the web of connected members, the knee joint detail is very
particular. Usually bolted connection with extended end plate on the top or at the face of the column are used.
Hereafter the case of the top connection will be examined. The paper summarizes the result of two experimental
tests, made on both isolated beam-column elements with tapered web and their knee connection. The aim of
the study is to examine how the width-to-thickness ratio could influence structural behavior of such type of
elements.

Keywords: beam-column, experimental test, tapered elements, raftre-to-column knee joint

1 INTRODUCTION more sensible to buckling, they are more sensitive to

The portal frame is one of the most competitive solu-
tions for span ranging up to 40 m and has been used
for frames up to 75 m span. In practice it is found that
greatest economy is generally obtained by using class
semi-compact or elastic flanges and elastic or slender
webs, function of the width-to-thickness ratio of the
plate. Whilst its economic advantages, this refinement
brings additional designing challenges: the high slen-
derness of its resulting cross-sections together with
the uncertainty of results caused by the increased dif-
ficulty of a thorough calculation of the resistance
to lateral-torsional buckling of tapered I-section ele-
ments, increases this structures proneness to stability
issues. The behavior of sections with slender ele-
ments is inherently more complex than that of plastic
sections, due to local buckling and cross-section dis-
tortion. If the plates of the cross section is made are
elastic or slender, they may buckle either before or
soon after the elastic (yielding) moment is reached.
When slender sections are used, which generally is the
case of the rafter in the hunched part, the sectional
buckling (e.g. local buckling of walls or distortion)
may occur in elastic domain. If no lateral restraints,
or when they are not effective enough, the lateral tor-
sional mode characterizes the global behavior of frame
members and, again, interaction with sectional buck-
ing modes may occur. Moreover, as slender walls are
imperfections than more compact sections are. This
buckling sensitivity indicates that special attention
has to be devoted to study the stability behavior of
this type of elements, with high regard to its initial
imperfections.
Because rafters carry significant axial compressive
loads, the problem of stability is more complex than in
case of multi-storey frames. If no adequate restraints
are provided, the lateral torsional buckling strength of
the members is generally low. Purlins and side rails
supporting the roof deck and cladding introduce some
restraining effect, but it is difficult to quantify it for
usual design. Tapering of the elements results due to
internal stresses distribution in the structural elements
under gravitational loads, that are the predominant
ones in the design of these types of structures.
Even though many researchers have performed
investigation on the uniform elements subjected to
bending moment and axial force (Taras 2008, Szalai
2009), information regarding the out of plane behav-
ior of tapered elements are still limited. The ultimate
capacity was determined by Shanmugam 2007 for
tapered steel plate girders subjected to shear and by
Salem 2009 for axially loaded thin-walled tapered
columns with doubly symmetric sections. Shanmugam
(2007) experimentally determined the ultimate behav-
ior of tapered steel plate girders and concluded that the
shear capacity of the girder is 5% less than the case

721

Figure 1. Reference frame for the beam-column test.
of prismatic one, if the inclined flange is tensioned.
Whilst inclined flange is subjected to compression,
the ultimate load of the tapered girder becomes higher
than that of straight girders by more than 5%.
The aim of the present paper is to analyze the behav-
ior of tapered beam-column elements subjected to
bending moment and axial force when different type
of lateral restraints are applied at first. In the second
part of the paper, the behavior of knee rafter-to-column
connection between elements with tapered web ele-
ments will be presented. Results of two experimental
programs, carried out at the Politehnica Univer-
sity of Timisoara, Romania in the Laboratory of Steel
Structures will be also provided.
2 EXPERIMENTAL TEST ON BEAM-COLUM
ELEMENTS
2.1 Specimens and test arrangement
A simple pitched-roof portal frame, as the one in
Figure 1, was designed at first in order to define
realistic specimen configurations. The main geomet-
ric dimensions of the frame were: 12 m span, 6
m bay, 4 m height and a pitch roof angle = 8 .
Common load cases according to EN1991 provi-
sions were considered i.e. characteristic dead load
of roof cladding gk = 0.7 kN/m2 ; characteristic snow
load sk = 2.0 kN/m2 . The load combination considered
for the ultimate limit state was 1.35 gk + 1.5 sk , and
for the serviceability limit state was 1.0 gk + 1.0 sk .
The steel frame was analyzed and designed accord-
ing to the current EN 1993-1-1 provisions. The frames
were considered pinned at the foundation level, while
the rafter-to-column connection was considered fully
rigid. The column specimens were extracted from the
resulting frame and their global geometrical dimen-
sions are presented in Fig. 2. In order to analyze
the influence for the web thickness on the column
behavior, two different values (i.e. 6 and 8 mm) were
considered. The used steel grade was S275 with the
yielding limit of 270 N/mm2 .
The cross section dimensions of the two types
of specimens and their codification are presented in
Table 1.
Three specimens of each configuration were tested,
finally resulting in a number of six experimental tests.
The difference between the tests, for each specimen,
722
Figure 2. Specimen typology (dimensions are in mm).
Table 1. Main dimensions of the tested specimens.
L h1 h2
Specimen [mm] [mm] [mm] b tf tw
C1_8 3376 250 600 200 10 8
C2_6 3376 250 600 200 10 6
Figure 3. Testing set-up and instrumentation.
was the provided type of lateral restraints. Three of
the specimens had 8 mm tapered web (C1-8) and the
other three were designed with 6 mm tapered web
(C2-6). The types of lateral restraints considered
for each specimen configuration were: (NR) no
restraints, (LR) lateral restraints; and (TR) torsional
restraints. Lateral restraints (LR) were provided by
thin walled cold formed Zed purlins (Z150/1.5 mm),
while in the case of torsional restraints (TR) supple-
mentary L50 50 5 fly braces were provided at the
compressed flange.
The applied static scheme is a simple one, i.e.
pinned connection at the right end of the column, and
a roller at the bottom of the vertical element. The lat-
ter was designed stiff enough, so that it wont suffer
major deformations during testing. A horizontal force
was applied at the end of the vertical element.
The applied load and boundary conditions were
designed in such a way as to load the specimen by
a combination of axial compressive load and bend-
ing moment (Fig. 3). The testing set-up was designed
in such a way as to maintain the vertical element in
the elastic range and to replace only the specimen for
each test.

Figure 4a. Exp. moment-rotation curve for C8 specimen.
Figure 4b. Exp. moment-rotation curve for C6 specimen.
2.2 Experimental test results
The results obtained from experimental tests are pre-
sented herein in the forms of tables and graphs. The
first results recorded during the tests have been in
terms of forces (F) and displacements (d). These
results were converted thereafter in terms of bending
moment (M) and rotation () and finally the (M-)
curve was built. The moment rotation curve, plot in
Figure 4 (a and b), shows the behavior from the elastic
to the ultimate capacity of the tapered beam-columns
laterally restrained or not.
The failure modes of the C1-8 series of tests
are presented in Figure 5 and can be described as:
C1_8_NR at first, overall lateral-torsional buckling
of the column was observed, followed by distortion
of the compressed flange and finally the specimen
failed by sectional plastic buckling; C1_8_LR at first
overall lateral-torsional buckling of the column was
observed, followed by distortion of the compressed
flange an finally the specimen failed by sectional plas-
tic buckling; C1_8_TR started with distortion of the
compressed flange and was followed by a slight overall
torsional buckling ending in sectional plastic buckling.
The failure modes of the C2-6 series of test are pre-
sented in Figure 6 and can be described as follows:
C2_6_NR started with distortion of the compressed
flange, followed by isolated sectional buckling and
slight overall lateral-torsional buckling of the column;
Figure 5. Failure of the specimen with 8 mm tapered web.
Figure 6. Failure of the specimen with 6 mm tapered web.
C2_6_LR started with distortion of the compressed
flange, followed by isolated sectional buckling and
slight overall lateral-torsional buckling of the column;
C2_6_TR started with distortion of the compressed
flange, followed by isolated sectional buckling and
slight overall lateral-torsional buckling of the column.
The isolated sectional buckling for this series of tests
prevails over the global out of plane buckling. For this
type of specimen series, the failure is almost the same
regardless of the type of lateral restraints.
It is important to note that for the case of C1-8
series, the failure is influenced by the type of the lat-
eral restraints. Although the same influence of the
lateral restraints should have been recorded in case
of C2-6 series, the obtained results did not confirm it.
Regarding the latter the lateral restraints had a reduced
influence both from its behavior point of view and
failure mode (i.e. distortion of the compressed flange
coupled with a local buckling of the column).
3 EXPERIMENTAL TEST ON KNEE
RAFTER-TO-COLUMN JOINT
3.1 Specimens and test arrangement
In order to define realistic specimen configurations,
a simple pitched-roof portal frame, as the one in
Figure 1, was firstly designed: span 18 m, bay 6 m,
height 5 m and roof angle = 8 . Common load
cases in the design practice were considered i.e:
dead load of roof cladding 0.25 kN/m2 (ULS = 1.35);
technological load 0.20 kN/m2 (ULS = 1.35); snow
723

Figure 7. Top rafter-to column knee joint.
Table 2. Main dimensions of the tested specimens
Column Rafter
Joint (H*B*tf *tw ) (H*B*tf *tw )
J2-3 650*240*15*8 650*200*12*8
J2-4 700*240*15*6 700*200*12*6
J3-4 700*280*12*6 700*230*10*6
load 2.0 kN/m2 (ULS = 1.5). S275 steel frames were
analyzed and designed according to the current EN
1993-1-1 rules. Finally a number of 3 frames were
obtained with different cross-section classes. The
thickness, width and height of cross-section elements
were changed to obtain approximately similar stiffness
and stress distribution in the frame. The geometri-
cal scheme of the tested specimens is presented in
Figure 7.
The three different joint configurations are: J2-3
(rafter and column of semi-compact flanges and elas-
tic webs); J2-4 (rafter and column of semi-compact
flanges and slender webs); J3-4 (rafter and column of
elastic flanges and slender webs).
In order to identify the material behavior, tensile
test have been performed on the specimens, extracted
from the tested joints. The results of the tensile tests
lead to the conclusion that S275 steel grade was used
by fabricator instead of S355. Therefore, further on
S275 steel grade will be considered.
Design of joints was made using the component
method in EN1993-1-1 Part 1.8. M20-10.9 bolts and
20 mm end plates were used for all specimens.
A particular aspect of this type of joint is location
of the zone of the web panel, working in shear at the
end of the rafter that is bolted on the top of the column
(Fig. 7).
Two specimens of each configuration were tested,
one under monotonic and the other under cyclic
724
Figure 8. Testing set-up and instrumentation.
Figure 9. Comparative results from monotonic tests.
loading, in this paper only the monotonic tests will
be accounted for. Figure 8 shows the loading scheme
and specimen instrumentation.
The tests have been conducted in displacement
control procedure according to ECCS provisions for
testing. Lateral restraints were applied at the points
indicated in Figure 8, to avoid out of plane displace-
ment due to inherent imperfection.
Load was applied quasi-statically with a displace-
ment velocity of 3.33 mm/min.
The primary results recorded during the tests have
been in terms of forces (F) and displacements (d).
These were converted afterwards in terms of bending
moment (M) and rotation ().
Comparative moment-rotation experimental curves
for the tested specimens are presented in Figure 9. As
it can be seen, in all cases, the values of initial stiffness
of the joints are very close. The failure mode charac-
terized by distortion of the compressed flange coupled
with local buckling of the rafter web, are presented in
Figure 10 for the 3 (three) different joint configuration.

Figure 10. Failure mode of specimens.
4 CONCLUSION
An experimental study on the behavior and load car-
rying capacity of tapered web beam-columns has been
depicted in the present work at first. A number of six
specimens with different web thicknesses and lateral
restraints were tested. For this case the web slender-
ness is quite significant, while the global slenderness
is rather low (ranging from 0.260.74) and hence the
failure is dominated mainly by local modes.
The failure mechanism for the selected specimen
series varies in function of the web thickness and lat-
eral restraints (i.e. global out of plane buckling governs
in case of 8 mm thickness specimen, whilst distortion
of the compressed flange and local web buckling for
the case of 6 mm thickness web). The ultimate capac-
ity is significantly influenced by the width/thickness
ratio of the web (i.e. 8 mm to 6 mm web thickness).
A reduction of 20% was recorded for unrestrained ele-
ment. However this difference increases with up to
38% for the case of torsional restrained element.
From the experimental results one can conclude
that the restraining contribution from the purlins alone
is reduced (their effect is mall) for both specimen
series. This might be explained by the small influ-
ence of the axial compressive force on the behavior of
beam-column elements with variable cross sections.
The cross section twists rather than buckles laterally,
due to the distribution of the normal stresses on the
725
height of the cross section. The ultimate capacity can
be improved by applying a supplementary restraining
at the compressed flange, but this is only possible with
the use of thicker web element (i.e. t = 8 mm).
It was also observed that both the lateral and tor-
sional restraints played an insignificant role in the case
of the slenderer web models. This might be explained
by the major influence of plastic sectional buckling,
even though slight lateral out of plane buckling was
also observed.
Second part of the paper presents an experimental
program for the evaluation of the ultimate capacity and
behavior for knee rafter-to-column joints. The purpose
was to analyses the influence of the changing of one
of the following parameters: web thickness, flange
thickness and height of the cross section. All joints
are full strength and rigid.
The same failure mode was obtained in all cases,
i.e. distortion of the compressed flange coupled with
local buckling of the rafter web (Fig. 10), even changes
in height of the cross section and thickness of the web
was performed.
The initial stiffness of the joint is not significantly
influenced by the chosen parameters.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial
support of National University Research Council
NURC-CNCSIS-Romania through the national
research grant PN-II-RU-TE-2010-1/38.
REFERENCES
Taras, A. and Greiner, R. 2008. Torsional and flexural
torsional buckling A study on laterally restrained
I-sections, Journal of constructional steel research, 64
(2008) 7-8, S. 725731.
Szalai J. and Papp F. 2009. On the probabilistic evaluation
of the stability resistance of steel columns and beams,
Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 65 (2009),
569577.
Shanmugam, N.E & Min, H. 2007. Ultimate load behaviour
of tapered steel plate girders. Steel and Composite Struc-
tures, 7(6), 469486.
Salem, A.H et al. 2009. Ultimate capacity of axially loaded
thin-walled tapered column with doubly symmetric sec-
tions. Thin Walled Structures 47(2009), 931941.
EN 1993-1-1 Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures Part 1.1:
General rules and rules for bulidings, CEN 2005.
EN 1993-1.3: Eurocode 3: Design of Steel Structures. Part
1.8: Design of joints, may 2005, CEN, Brussels, Belgium.
ECCS 1985 Recommended testing procedures for assessing
the behaviour of structural elements under cyclic loads.
(ECCS) 1985, Tchn. Comm. 1, TWG 13-Seismic design,
No. 45.
Cristutiu I.M., Dubina D., Stratan A. si Grecea D., Moment-
rotation characteristics of bolted beam-to-column connec-
tions of pitched-roof portal frames with class 3 and 4
sections. Steel Structures in Seismic Area STESSA-2006,
Yokohama Japan. aug. 2006
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

The uniaxial tension constitutive model of reactive powder concrete

considering the stochastic damage

Z.R. Yu, X. Qin & Y. Yuan

School of Civil Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China

ABSTRACT: As a brittle material, the mechanical behavior of reactive powder concrete are controlled by
its tensile strength. It is very important to study the uniaxial tension constitutive relation of reactive powder
concrete considered the stochastic damage. By taken the probability distribution of ultimate strain as Weibull
distribution, the uniaxial tension constitutive model and damage evolution equation of reactive powder concrete
are conducted. By using the constitutive model in this paper, the complete uniaxial tension stress-strain curve
of reactive powder concrete can be well predicted. The damage evolution curve can be divided into three stages:
damage latency, damage rapid growth and failure.

Keywords: Reactive powder concrete; Uniaxial tension; Constitutive model; Stochastic damage

1 INTRODUCTION

Reactive powder concrete (RPC) are composed of

cement, high silica fume content, and crushed quart
[1][2]. With ultra-high strength and high durability,
reactive powder concrete meets the needs of modern
building technology asking for high-performance con-
crete. The tensile strength of reactive powder concrete
is 515 MPa which is higher than the corresponding
values of normal concrete. However, since the tensile
strength of reactive powder concrete is much lower
than its compressive strength 120 MPa160 MPa,
the mechanical behavior of reactive powder concrete
structures are still be controlled by its tensile strength. Figure 1. Failure mode of specimen [3].
Meanwhile, because of the randomness of initial dam-
age distribution and damage evolution under working
condition, it is very important to study the uniaxial ten-
sion constitutive relation of reactive powder concrete
considered the stochastic damage.

2 MECHANICAL BEHAVIOR OF REACTIVE

POWDER CONCRETE UNDER UNIAXIAL
TENSION

Literature [3,4] tested the mechanical behavior of reac-

tive powder concrete under uniaxial tension with 8
shape specimens. The impact of different fiber vol-
ume content on the axial tensile strength, deformation
properties and failure mode were studied. Figure 1
shows the failure mode of reactive powder concrete.
On the failure surface, the steel fiber were pulled
out and distributed randomly. The complete stress-
strain curve of the three kinds of specimens with steel
fiber volume content of 0%, 1% and 2% are shown
in Figure 2. According to the curves and observation
Figure 2. Stress-strain curve of reactive powder concrete
under axial tension [4].
during the test, the failure process of reactive pow-
der concrete can be divided into three steps: crack
initiation, crack stable propagation and fiber pull-out.
This process is similar to that of normal concrete and

727
steel fiber reinforced concrete. It can be concluded Substituting Eq. (3) into Eq. (1) and (2) separately,
that the failure of reactive powder concrete is induced we get
by the expansion of micro-defects in matrix and the
destruction of the interface between the matrix and
steel fiber.

3 UNIAXIAL TENSION CONSTITUTIVE

MODEL

3.1 Mean stress and damage variable

Through the measured stress-strain curves of reac-
According to the frontal analysis, the tensile micro- tive powder concrete shown in Figure 2, boundary
scopic physical model which is proposed by Literature conditions of these curves are:
[5,6] can be used to describe the tensile failure mech-
anism of reactive powder concrete. In this physical
model, the stochastic distribution of the phase com-
ponents is considered, a micro-spring model with
meso-scale sense is used to characterize the meso
unit, and the strength of the micro-spring is obeyed where E0 = initial Youngs modulus; t = peak strain;
some kinds of stochastic distribution. The develop- and t = peak stress.
ment of damage in a tensile specimen is not uniform, By making Eq. (4) satisfied the boundary condi-
especially during the stage of micro-cracks develop- tions, we have the Weibull parameters mt and at
ment; the damage will be concentrated in some certain
section, and stopped in the other position. Study the
typical unit body in the ideal micro-spring model, the
mean stress and damage variable of typical unit body
can be derived [3].
The mean stress of typical unit body expressed as
Eq. (1)

Substitution of Eq. (7) into Eq. (4) and Eq. (5) yields

The damage variable is

where m () = nominal stress mean of typical

unit body; D() = damage variable of typical unit
Eq. (8) and Eq. (9) are the constitutive model and
body; = tensile strain of typical unit body;
damage evolution equation respectively of reactive
f (x) = probability density function of ultimate strain
powder concrete in terms of shape parameter mt .
of micro-spring; and E =Youngs modulus.

3.3 Model parameters

3.2 Damage evolution equation based on
Weibull distribution
Considered the randomness of the damage of reactive
powder concrete, we take the probability distribution
of ultimate strain of micro-spring as Weibull distribu-
tion [7, 8]. The Weibull probability density function
with two-parameter can be expressed as
where mt = shape parameter; and at = scale parameter.
Based on the stress-strain curve of reactive powder
concrete under axial tension test[4] , parameter mt in
the damage evolution equation can be determined by
Eq. (6). The values of mt are shown as Table 1, the
stress unit is MPa. On the basis of the data in Table 1,
we can draw the relationship between mt and t in
Figure 3.
The figure shows that with the increase of reac-
tive powder concrete peak stress t , the value of mt is
increased correspondingly. Since the tensile strength
of reactive powder concrete will be increased by the
enhancement of steel fiber content, then the parame-
ter mt reflects the enhancement of steel fiber on the
tensile strength of reactive powder concrete. Due to

728
Table 1. Parameters mt of reactive powder concrete.

t 5.72 4.52 6.17 8.15 8.93 11.1 9.76

mt 2.001 1.948 3.088 2.763 3.685 3.623 3.755
t 10.4 12.06 12.11 13.32 14.31 15.15
mt 3.952 4.618 3.839 4.309 4.624 4.769

Figure 3. The relationship between mt and t .

the toughening effect of steel fiber, it can be conclude

that the smaller the value of mt , the closer to elastic
or brittle the material property is. Simultaneously, the
larger the value of mt , the closer to elastic-plastic the
material property is. It can be seen that the parame-
ter mt changed nonlinearly with tensile strength, so
the cubic polynomial is used to fitting the relation-
ship in this paper. The relation between peak stress t
and probability distribution parameters mt of reactive
powder concrete is

3.4 Prediction on uniaxial tension stress-strain

curve of reactive powder concrete
When the peak stress t is known, the corresponding
parameters mt can be determined by Eq. (10). By sub-
stituting mt into Eq. (8), we may predict the complete
uniaxial tension stress-strain curve. Figure 4 shows the
stress-strain curves of reactive powder concrete with
different steel fiber content which are 0%, 1%, 2%
respectively.
The solid lines in Figure4 are the predictive curves,
and the dash-dotted lines are tested curves. It can be
seen from Figure 4 that the experimental curves and
theoretical predictive curves are in good agreement,
especially in the upward stage. In the descent stage,
the experimental curves decreased a little more rapidly
than theoretical predictive curves.
4 DAMAGE EVOLUTION OF REACTIVE
POWDER CONCRETE UNDER UNIAXIAL
TENSION
Similarly, when the corresponding parameters mt is
obtained as mentioned above, the damage evolution
Figure 4. The predictive uniaxial tension stress-strain
curves.
curves under uniaxial tension can be determined by
the damage model in Eq. (9). The damage evolution
curves of of reactive powder concrete with different
steel fiber content are given in Figure 5.
According to Figure 5, all the damage evolution
curve can be divided into three stages: damage latency,
damage rapid growth and failure. For the reactive pow-
der concrete of 0% fiber content, damage begin to
grow when the strain is 50 106 , and for the concrete
of 1% and 2% fiber volume fraction, the threshold
strain are 100 106 and 200 106 respectively.
For conveniently comparing, normalization the strain
yields Figure 6.

729

Figure 5. The uniaxial tensile damage evolution curves with
different fiber volume content.
From Figure 6 we can see that when the stain is 0.2
times of ultimate strain, the damage begin to develop
rapidly, no matter how many the steel fiber it contents.
For the specimens without any steel fiber, damage
variable are always larger than the two other kinds of
specimens, and the quantity and development speed of
crack in the matrix are much more than others. In con-
trast, the specimens with 1% fiber took second place,
and the specimens with 2% fiber has the lowerest
quantity and development speed of crack.
730
Figure 6. The normalized damage evolution curves.
Analyzing the causes of this phenomenon, we con-
sidered that at the stage of damage latency, macro-
cracks has not yet fromed, the role of steel fiber
reinforcement did not be played. At this stage, There
is little different between the value of damage vari-
able of all specimens. At the damage damage rapid
growth stage (/max = 0.20.9), the cracking of reac-
tive powder concrete matrix is beginning, steel fiber
connected as a bridge between the cracks, this bridge
function prevented the development of crack evolution
effectively, so the damage value decreases gradually
with the increase of fiber content. With the increase
of tensile stress in specimens, as the strain increased
at about 0.9 times of ultimate strain, most of the steel
fibers have been pulled out, the bridging role can not
play anymore, the specimens lost the bearing capacity.
So in this stage, there is no distinct difference in the
damage values for all the specimens.
5 CONCLUSION
(1) Considered the stochastic damage, the uniaxial
tension constitutive model and damage evolu-
tion equation of reactive powder concrete are
conducted.
(2) The relation between peak stress t and probabil-
ity distribution parameters mt are fitted. With the
increase in reactive powder concrete peak stress,
the value of mt is increased correspondingly.
(3) By using the constitutive model in this paper, the
complete uniaxial tension stress-strain curve of
reactive powder concrete can be well predicted.
(4) Damage evolution curve can be divided into three
stages: damage latency, damage rapid growth and
failure. When the stain is 0.2 times of ultimate
strain, the damage begin to develop rapidly. At
the damage damage rapid growth stage, the dam-
age value decreases gradually with the increase of
fiber content.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Foundation project National Natural Science Founda-
tion Project (grant number: 51108019).
REFERENCES
[1] Dugat J, Roux N, Bernier G. Mechanical Properties of
Reactive Powder Concretes [J]. Materials and Struc-
tures. 1996, 29(5): 233240.
[2] P. Richard, M. Cheyrezy. Composition of Reactive
Powder Concrete Research [J]. Cement and Concrete
Research, 1995, 25 (7): 15011511.
[3] Yuan Haiyan. Theoretical Analysis and Experimental
Research on Tensile Performance of Reinforced Reac-
tive Powder Concrete [D]. Beijing: Beijing Jiaotong
University, 2009.
[4] Yang Zhi-hui. Study on Tension Mechanical Perfor-
mance of Reactive Powder Concrete in Different Steel
Fiber Volume Fractions [D]. Beijing: Beijing Jiaotong
University, 2006.
731
[5] Zhang qi-yun. Study on Stochastic Damage Constitu-
tive Law for Concrete Material [D]. Shanghai: Tongji
University, 2001.
[6] Lu Zhao-hui. The Modeling Theory and test research of
Stochastic Damage Constitutive Law for Concrete [D].
Shanghai: Tongji University, 2002.
[7] Liu Zhi-guang & Chen Jian-yun & Bai Wei-feng.
Research on Concrete Failure Process under Uniaxial
Tension Based on Stochastic Damage Model [J]. Chi-
nese Journal of Rock Mechanics and Engineering. 2009,
28(10): 20482058.
[8] Wu Zheng. The whole process constitutive model of
concrete under tension and compression based on dam-
age. [J]. Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering.
1995, (11): 5863.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Design and test study on high-neck forging flange applied in

UHV steel tube transmission tower

Jing Wu, Jing-bo Yang, Qing-hua Li & Guo-qiang Wu

China Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing, China

ABSTRACT: Research and application status of high-neck flange of steel tube tower are investigated. Based
on flexible design idea, design method of high-neck forging flange applied in steel tube transmission tower is
advanced. Axial tension tests about high-neck forging flanges with strength of Q345, Q420 and Q460, which
correspond to Chinese criterion, are carried through, including flanges connecting same and different diameters
steel tubes. Bearing capabilities of Q460 high-neck butt welding forging flanges designed by flexible and rigid
ideas are also tested and compared primarily. High-neck forging flanges were applied for the first time in 8 full-
scale steel tube towers of 1000kV UHV double circuit AC transmission line in China, which were tested in the
tower test base of China Electric Power Research Institute. Design method and valuable advices on conformation,
manufacturing and installation of high-neck forging flange are advanced, which provides technical support for
future research and application.

Keywords: UHV, steel tube tower, high-neck forging flange, design method, joint test, full-scale test

1 INTRODUCTION small. Differing from above two flanges, high-neck

forging flange is forged as a whole, which makes
With the development demand of long distance and metal tissues more tightly and the material capa-
great capacity transmission techniques, UHV trans- bility is strengthened. Compared with flange with
mission lines are widely constructed in China. Loads stiffened plates, high-neck forging flange has less
and weights of UHV transmission towers augment welding workload and high manufacturing efficiency,
continuously, and therefore application of steel tube which assures product qualities. High-neck forging
tower in UHV transmission lines becomes more and flange also has higher strength and rigidity than the
more urgent. 1000 kV Huainan-Shanghai UHV project flange without stiffened plates. Consequently high-
is the first UHV double circuit AC project in China. neck forging flange is recommended for UHV double
It is decided in engineering design that steel tube tow- and multiple circuit steel tube transmission towers in
ers are entirely used and high-neck forging flanges are China.
applied for the first time.
High-neck flanges have been used in steel tube
transmission towers in other countries. Especially in 2 FLANGE FORM AND DESIGN METHOD
Japan, high-neck flanges are widely used in long-span,
UHV and general voltage steel tube transmission tow- There are mainly two types of high-neck flanges, as
ers. In China, high-neck flanges have not been used in shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, butt welding and slip-
steel tube transmission towers, while they have been on-welding, which have not been studied and applied
widely used in petrochemical and mechanical indus- in steel tube transmission towers in China before.
tries. However, high-neck flanges in these industries
usually bear radial forces or torsions, which differ from
loads of flanges in transmission towers.
Flange is mainly used in connecting chord mem-
bers of steel tube transmission tower. There are two
types of flange in common use in China, flange with
stiffened plates and flange without stiffened plates. As
to the flange with stiffened plates, it has enough rigid-
ity, while the welding workload is large and welding
quality is hard to ensure. As to the flange without stiff-
ened plates, the welding workload is reduced, while
strength and rigidity of the flange are comparatively Figure 1. High-neck butt welding flange.

733

Figure 2. High-neck slip-on-welding flange.
There is only one ring welding line on high-neck butt
welding flange, which needs relatively small weld-
ing workloads. The request of welding degree is high,
while the welding quality is easy to check and guaran-
tee. There are two angle welding lines on high-neck
slip-on-welding flange, which need relatively large
welding workloads. The welding quality is hard to
check and guarantee. Actually two angle welding
lines bear loads unequally. Through comparison, it
is suggested to select high-neck butt welding flange
preferentially in UHV steel tube transmission towers.
And this suggestion has been accepted in engineering
designs.
Based on flexible flange design idea, design method
of high-neck forging flange applied in steel tube trans-
mission tower is advanced. When the flange is under
axial tension, the maximal tension of a bolt follows
equation 1.
where Tb is axial tension of a bolt; m = 0.62; a is dis-
tance between bolt center and outer edge of flange
plate and b is distance between bolt center and edge of
flange neck.
Reaction force, shearing stress and axial stress of
flange plate follow equation 2 to equation 4 corre-
spondingly.
where C is thickness of flange plate; E is spaces
between bolts; e0 = 0.5a; fv is allowable shearing
strength and f is allowable axial strength.
Height of flange follows equation 5.
where Ed = 2.2; H1 is height of straight neck of
flange, which is evaluated 20 mm, 25 mm or 30 mm
in accordance with tube diameters.
Calculation principles of flange design parameters
are also proposed, such as neck gradient 15 , keep-
ing the straight neck of flange, spaces between bolts
734
Figure 3. Loading equipment for flange test of small tube.
being 2.2 to 2.5 times of bolt diameter, etc. Series
of high-neck forging flange specification with differ-
ent strength grades are provided, so as to be applied
conveniently by designers and manufacturers.
3 JOINT TESTS AND ANALYSIS
According to flange form and design method advanced
above, joint tests on high-neck butt welding flanges
with strength of Q345, Q420 and Q460, which corre-
spond to Chinese criterion, are carried through, so as
to testify the reliability of butt welding flange applied
in transmission towers.
3.1 Test content
Five groups flange specimens of 219 6 small tube
are selected to be tested by axial tension loads, in
which different connecting tubes and thickness of
flange have been both taken into account. The strength
grades of tubes and flanges are both Q345. And bolts
are common rough galvanized bolts with 8.8 strength
grade and material of 42CrMo. Joint tests are carried
through in the tower test base of China Electric Power
Research Institute in Liangxiang. Loading equipment
of the axial tension test is a 300 ton horizontal tension
machine, which is shown in fig. 3. Tested flange is
in the middle, and then steel tubes, loading flange
and load transmitting part are in both sides of flange
respectively.
Thirteen groups flange specimens of 426 10 are
selected to be tested by axial tension loads, in which
8 groups for flanges connecting same diameter tubes
and 5 groups for flanges connecting different diameter
tubes.The strength grades of tubes and flanges are both
Q345. And bolts are same with before. Since test loads
of big tubes increase greatly, former 300 ton horizontal
tension machine has not been able to meet the loading
request. Consequently two 5000kN hydraulic pres-
sure jacks are applied to load synchronously, shown in
fig. 4. Tested butt welding flange is in the middle. Then
two hydraulic pressure jacks loading synchronously
are in left and right sides of flange, and bearing gird-
ers are in up and down sides. This loading method has
been used successfully in many tests.
Six specimens of Q420 high-neck butt welding
flange are designed. 2 specimens are flanges connect-
ing 2 steel tubes of 356 8, 2 specimens are flanges
connecting 356 8 and 40610 steel tubes, and
2 specimens are flanges connecting 2 steel tubes of

Figure 4. Loading equipment for flange test of big tube.
Figure 5. Form of high-neck butt welding rigid flange.
406 10. The strength grades of tubes and flanges
are both Q420. And bolts are same. The loading equip-
ment, loading order and disposal of test points are both
same with Q345 flange test.
There are altogether 2 types for specimens of Q460
high-neck butt welding flange. One is based on flex-
ible design idea, as shown in fig. 1. The other is
based on rigid design idea, which prefers thick flange
plate without deformation. The neck type for rigid
flange is sloping inside and outside shown in fig. 5.
According to above 2 design ideas, 8 specimens of
Q460 high-neck butt welding flange are designed.
4 specimens for 273 6 are designed by flexible
idea, in which 2 specimens connect 2 steel tubes of
273 6, and other 2 specimens connect 219 6
and 273 6. 4 specimens for 40610 are designed
by rigid idea, in which 2 specimens connect 2 steel
tubes of 406 10, and other 2 specimens connect
35610 and 406 10. The strength grades of
tubes and flanges are both Q460. And bolts are same.
The loading equipment, loading order and disposal of
test points are also same with Q345 and Q420 flange
tests.
The designing load of steel tube is determined
to be the 100% load of flange specimen, and
loading order is shown as follows: 0 25%
50% 75% 90% 100% 0 100%
110% 120% 130% 10% increase by degrees,
until specimens destroy or loading machine is full
loaded. Strain and displacement are recorded in every
loading degree. There are altogether 32 test points of
Figure 6. Steel tube shrink.
Figure 7. Level crack at loading flange.
strain, which are laid separately on middle of tube,
flange neck, flange plate and bolt. There are also 4 test
points of displacement laid on root of flange plate.
3.2 Test data analysis
Deformation characteristics of flange specimens with
three strength grades are similar. As for high-neck butt
welding flange connecting same diameters steel tubes,
flange and weld can both satisfy the capability request
under design load. Tubes are stretched in length and
shrunk in diameter after yielding load, which is shown
in fig. 6, while flange plates and bolts are distorted
slightly. Theres level crack at the joint of rib plate
on loading flange and steel tube under ultimate load,
shown in fig. 7.
As for high-neck butt welding flange connecting
different diameters steel tubes, flange and weld can
both satisfy the capability request under design loads.
During the whole loading process, theres no obvious
deformation on the side of big diameter tube, while
there are distinct axial tension and diameter shrink
deformations on the side of small diameter tube as
shown in fig. 8. Strain distribution curves on sides of
small tube and big tube are shown in fig. 9 and fig. 10
respectively. Flange plate on the side of small diame-
ter tube is distorted slightly under ultimate load, which
is shown in fig. 11. Therefore finite element models
for high-neck butt welding flange are established as
shown in fig. 12. Through finite element analysis, it
also shows the slight deformation of flange plate on the
side of small diameter tube, which is shown in fig. 13.
735

Figure 8. Deformation difference between small and big
tubes.
Figure 9. Strain distribution on the side of small tube.
Figure 10. Strain distribution on the side of big tube.
Figure 11. Slight deformation of flange plate on side of
small tube.
736
Figure 12. Finite element model.
Figure 13. Deformation of flange plate on side of small
tube.
Figure 14. Inside and outside strains of tube near the butt
weld.
By observing test locale and analyzing test data, it
is found that steel tube near the butt weld, straight neck
of flange and bolts are all under eccentrically bearing
states. Fig. 14 shows the distribution curve about inside
and outside strains of steel tube near the butt weld.
The tensile strain of inside point 2 is larger than that
of outside point 1, and it also develops quicker than
outside tensile strain. Fig. 15 shows the distribution
curve about inside and outside strains of straight neck
of flange, in which the outside point 3 bears tension
while the inside point 4 bears pressure. As for above
eccentricity, it is suggested to be considered in high-
neck flange design.
It is found that, however, there is still some
deformation on flange plate of Q460 high-neck butt
Figure 15. Inside and outside strains of straight neck.
Figure 16. Displacement-load curve of flange plate.
Figure 17. Inside and outside strains curve of bolts.
welding flanges designed by rigid idea, shown in the
displacement-load curve of fig. 16. Fig. 17 shows
the inside and outside strains curve of bolts, in which
the inside means the side near the tube, and the outside
means the side away from the tube. The eccentricity of
bolts also indicates the deformation on flange plate,
which differs from the initial design idea for rigid
flange. Through finite element analysis , it is found that
there is still deformation on rigid flange plate, which
is shown in fig. 18. According to stress distribution
of bolts in fig. 19, it also shows the eccentricity state
of bolts. Consequently the thickness of rigid flange
plate is advised to study further. And high-neck butt
welding forging flange designed by flexible idea is rec-
ommended preferentially to be applied in UHV steel
tube transmission towers.
737
Figure 18. Deformation of rigid flange plate.
Figure 19. Stress distribution of bolt.
4 FULL-SCALE TOWER TESTS
Former studies are mainly based on joint tests and
finite element analysis of high-neck flanges, while
these flanges have not been testified by full-scale tower
tests. Following introduction will focus on full-scale
tests of UHV steel tube transmission towers which are
carried through in the tower test base of China Electric
Power Research Institute. Bearing capability of high-
neck flange is verified through application in full-scale
test towers, and correlative suggestions are advanced.
4.1 Test content
1000 kV Huainan-Shanghai UHV transmission project
is the first UHV double circuitAC transmission project
in China. Steel tube towers are entirely used and high-
neck forging flanges are applied in this project for the
first time. 8 full-scale towers of this UHV transmis-
sion project are tested in the tower test base of China
Electric Power Research Institute.
Fig. 20 shows a SZT2 transmission tower, which
is the first steel tube full-scale test tower of 1000 kV
UHV double circuit in China. All the chord members
and part of bracing members are steel tubes, and chord
members are all connected by high-neck flanges. One
couple of chord members in diagonal are connected by
high-neck butt welding flanges, and another couple are

Figure 20. SZT2 tower. Figure 21. SJ301 tower.
connected by slip-on-welding flanges There are alto-
gether 56 high-neck flanges for the whole test tower. 9
load cases are tested, including 120% overload of 60
wind load case.
Fig. 21 shows a SJ301 transmission tower, which
is another full-scale test tower of 1000 kV Huainan-
Shanghai UHV double circuit AC transmission
project. All the chord members are steel tubes, which
are connected by high-neck flanges. There are alto-
gether 8 load cases, including overload of 90 wind
load case.
4.2 Test data analysis
Flanges may bear pressure or small tension under some
load cases of full-scale tower test, which has little effect
on flanges controlled by tension. Therefore 90 wind
load case, 60 wind load case and its overload case
are selected to analyze bearing capability of flanges.
Conclusions are acquired as follows:
(1) High-neck butt welding and slip-on-welding
flanges are not destroyed under all the load cases,
which show the feasibility to be applied in steel
tube transmission towers.
(2) After full-scale tests, two butt welding flanges
and one slip-on-welding flange are cut down to
inspect by radial and magnetic powder. And results
show that there is no microcosmic crack inside and
outside flange necks.
(3) It is suggested to enhance the quality supervision
during manufacturing and stocking processes of
high-neck flanges, so as to insure the reliability of
high-neck flanges applied in transmission towers.
5 CONCLUSIONS
According to theoretical analysis and tests of high-
neck forging flange based on flexible design idea,
conclusions are obtained as follows.
(1) Considering requirements of bearing capability
and manufacturing, high-neck butt welding flange
738
is recommended in UHV steel tube transmission
tower.
(2) Based on flexible flange design idea, design
method of high-neck forging flange applied in
steel tube transmission tower is advanced. Calcu-
lation principles of flange design parameters are
also proposed.
(3) Theres no rupture of flange, welding line or bolts
in joint tests of Q345, Q420 and Q460 high-neck
forging flanges, which proves the reliability of
these flanges applied in steel tube transmission
projects.
(4) As to flanges which connect different diameters
steel tubes, it is suggested that the side of small
diameter tube of butt welding flanges should be
strengthened in design.
(5) Steel tube near the butt weld, straight neck of
flange and bolts are all under eccentrically bear-
ing states, which is suggested to be considered in
flange design.
(6) Q460 butt welding forging flanges designed by
flexible and rigid ideas are both distorted slightly
on flange plates. Consequently the thickness of
rigid flange plate is advised to study further.
(7) Through 8 full-scale tests of 1000kV UHV dou-
ble circuit steel tube towers, bearing capability and
design method of high-neck forging flange are ver-
ified. Simultaneously, it is suggested to enhance
the quality supervision.
REFERENCES
Cai Renliang, Introduction to Flange Design Standard
EN1591(1), Pressure Vessel Technology, Vol. 20, No. 10,
pp. 710, 2003.
Manufacturing Code for Steel Tube Transmission Tower,
Japan Electric Tower Association, 1995.
Steel Pipe Welding Neck Flanges with Flat Face or Raised
Face, GB/T 9115.1-2000, 2000.
Hubbed Slip-on-welding Steel Pipe Flanges with Flat Face
or Raised Face, GB/T 9116.1-2000, 2000.
Technical Regulation of design for tower and pole struc-
tures of overhead transmission line, DL/T 5154-2002, Sep.
2002.
Wu Jingru, Xu Yongxi, Development Prospect of UHV AC
Power Transmission in China, Power System Technology,
Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 14, 2005.
Xue Weichen, Huang Yongjia, Wang Guinian, Prototype
Experimental Studies on Flexible Flanges for Long Span
Electric Transmission Tower in Wusongkou, Industrial
Construction, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 6870, 2004.
S. Kitipornchai, F.G.A. Albermani, A.H. Peyrot, Effect of bolt
slippage on the ultimate strength of latticed structures.
Journal of Structural Engineering, Vol. 120, No. 8, pp.
22812287, 1994.
F.G.A. Albermani, S. Kitipornchai, Numerical Simulation of
Structural Behaviour of Transmission Towers,Thin-Walled
Structures, Vol.41, No.3, pp. 167177, 2003.
F.G.A. Albermani, S. Kitipornchai, Nonlinear Analysis of
TransmissionTowers, Engineering Structures,Vol. 14, No.
3, pp. 139151, 1992.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Improvement of punching shear resistance of RC slabs using GFRC:

An experimental study

Puneet Chugh
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

K.K. Bajpai
Structural Engineering Lab, IIT Kanpur

Supratik Bose & Agrim Gupta

Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

ABSTRACT: This study discusses an experiment investigating the improvement in Punching Shear Resistance
(PSR) of Reinforced Concrete (RC) slabs used as manhole covers, by using Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete
(GFRC) with both steel and Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) reinforcements. The slabs were designed for
typical vehicular loads of an Indian National Highway and tested for punching shear strength up to failure. The
experimental data is analyzed to draw some visible conclusions and compared with the some of the predictions
made using analytical models for the punching shear strength. It was observed that addition of glass fiber in
concrete improves the mechanical properties and gives better performance in terms of strength and ductility for
the same section of slab. Also, when designed for the same load, the punching shear strength of FRP reinforced
slabs is found to be lesser than those of the steel reinforced ones. The analytical models were conservative in
predicting the punching shear strength of the slabs and hence there is a need for more accurate analytical models.

Keywords: Punching Shear Resistance, Slabs, Glass Fiber, FRP

1 INTRODUCTION punching shear strengthening of flat slabs using CFRP

RC slabs are used as manhole covers and suffer from
various problems due to the conditions in which they
are placed. Their environment is acidic leading to
corrosion of reinforcement. Replacing steel with FRP
has resolved this problem to a certain extent in the
past decade. This may also reduce the concrete cover
requirement which in significant for slabs. Further, RC
slabs manhole covers face the punching loads of the
vehicles running over them and they should perform
adequately under this load. Hence, PSR of RC slabs is
an important parameter in their design. The behavioral
efficiency of the GFRC used these days is far superior
to the normal concrete. This looks like a promising
solution to improve the PSR of the RC Slabs.
Nguyen et al [1] investigated the effect of the
amount of steel fibers on punching shear cracking
behavior and resistance of the slabs was studied and
the results show a significant increase of the PSR
and a considerable improvement of cracking behavior.
Wahab et al [2] presented the results of a two-phase
experimental program and found Carbon Fiber Rein-
forced Polymer (CFRP) shear reinforcement to be
inefficient in enhancing significantly the slab capac-
ity due to its brittleness. Esfahani et al [3] studied
sheets and showed that the use of CFRP sheet, in addi-
tion to steel reinforcing bars, as flexural reinforcement
improves the punching shear strength of slabs. Tan et al
[4] strengthened six prototype one way RC slabs with
openings by externally bonded CFRP systems which
were subjected to concentrated line loads. The CFRP
system proved to be effective in enhancing the load-
carrying capacity and stiffness of RC slabs with an
opening, provided that premature failure due to CFRP
debonding is excluded. Maya et al [5] presented a
mechanical model for predicting the punching strength
and behavior of concrete slabs reinforced with steel
fibers as well as conventional reinforcement. A wide
number of experiments were performed for validation
of the proposed model, based on which a simple design
equation for the punching shear capacity of steel fiber
reinforced concrete (SFRC) slabs was proposed
Though the literature on effect of steel and carbon
fiber on punching shear has been found in plenty, the
literature on behavior and capacity of glass fiber rein-
forced concrete has not been reported much. Research
and experimental investigation needs to be done for
development of an understanding of the behavior of
GFRC flexural elements such as slabs. This paper
presents the experimental phase of such a study done

739
Table 1. Details of the specimen tested.

Specimen Details

S1 and S2 Concrete Slabs with steel reinforcement

S3 and S4 Concrete Slabs with FRP reinforcement
S5 and S6 GFRC slabs with steel reinforcement
S7 and S8 GFRC slabs with FRP reinforcement

Figure 2. FRP Reinforcement design 40 mm c/c distance

in both directions.

Table 2. Properties of the materials used.

Property Value

Steel
Ultimate Tensile Strength 515 MPa
Youngs Modulus 200 GPa
Figure 1. Steel Reinforcement design 75 mm c/c distance Density 7.85 g/cm3
in both directions. Fiber Reinforced Polymer
Ultimate Tensile Strength 818 GPa
at IIT Kanpur including the experimental work, key Youngs Modulus 49.6 GPa
experimental results, and the most important conclu- Density 1.5 g/cm3
sions derived. Glass Fiber
Strand Tensile Strength 1.7 GPa
Elastic Modulus 72 GPa
2 EXPERIMENT DESIGN Specific Gravity 2.68
Strain to failure 2.4%
The aim of the experiments was to study and ana- Softening Point 860 C
Fire Performance Incombustible
lyze the change in mechanical properties like punching Length 12 mm
shear strength, ductility, load vs deflection behav-
ior etc. of normal concrete slabs (used as man-
hole covers) on adding glass fiber to the mix for
both steel and FRP reinforcements. 8 specimens of
2.3 Material properties
4 different kinds (two of each kind) of dimension
740 mm 740 mm 130 mm were designed for the The properties of various materials used are given in
study. These included: Table 2.
The reinforcements (steel and FRP) were designed
keeping in mind both the dead load of the slab and a
typical fire-fighter truck load of 16 ton spread over and 2.4 Concrete mix design
area of 300 mm 300 mm which is the design load for As per IS: 10262 1982 (reaffirmed 2004), IS: 9103
typical Indian National Highways as in IRC 6: 2000 1999 and, IS: 456 2000 using design criteria (sec-
The reinforcement details are given below: tion 2) and properties of materials (section 3), in
order to achieve a target mean compressive strength of
26.6 MPa at 28 days, the concrete mix was designed
2.1 Steel reinforcement
for samples S1, S2, S3 and S4 as given in Table 3. For
10 mm steel bars were used at 75 mm c/c distance in samples S5, S6, S7 and S8 glass fiber was also added.
both directions with 20 mm cover. Strain gauges were The mix design is based on the SSD condition of
placed at two locations in the reinforcement matrix both fine and coarse aggregates with a water cement
shown as dark rectangles in Figure 1. ratio of 0.5 and a slump of 70 mm.
Cement: Sand: Coarse Aggregates::1: 1.852: 3.846
2.2 FRP reinforcement
2.5 Testing arrangement
6.5 mm FRP bars were used at 40 mm c/c distance in
both directions with 20 mm cover. The strain gauge The testing arrangement consisted of a frame over
locations are shown as dark rectangles in Figure 2. which the slab was supported to imitate the way an

740
Table 3. Concrete mix design.

Amount
Ingredient (in 1 m3 concrete)

Water 165 litres

Cement PPC (Make: Birla Gold) 330 Kg
Coarse Sand 611.11 Kg
20mm aggregates 634.6 Kg
10mm aggregates 634.6 Kg
Chemical Admixture (Conplast SP430, 3.3 litres
Make: FOSROC Superplasticiser)
Glass Fiber (Cem-FIL anti-crack HD)* 5 Kg

*Used only in sample S5, S6, S7 and S8.

Figure 5. Ten out of twelve specimen lie within 90%

confidence interval for 28 day cube strength.

Table 4. Punching shear strengths.

Average punching shear

Specimen strength (kN)

S1 and S2 385.617
Figure 3. Schematics of the test setup. S5 and S6 448.854
S3 and S4 326.769
S7 and S8 337.832

Similar data for 28-day cube strength is shown in

Figure 5. It can be seen for all the data, a reason-
ably good number of samples fall within the 90%
confidence interval.

3.2 Punching shear strength of the slabs

Figure 4. Ten out of twelve specimen lie within 90%
confidence interval for 7 day cube strength.
actual manhole cover is kept. The frame with the
slab over it was placed under the testing machine
and punching load was applied using a circular punch
of diameter 225 mm from above until the failure of
the slab. A schematic testing procedure is shown in
Figure 3.
3 RESULTS
3.1 Concrete compressive strength
A total of 12 concrete cubes of size 150 mm
150 mm 150 mm were tested to determine the 7 day
compressive strength and 12 for 28 day compressive
strength as per IS:516. The data of the 7 day compres-
sive strength along with the mean and 90% confidence
intervals are shown in Figure 4
The punching shear strength of specimen reinforced
with steel and FRP with and without glass fiber in the
mix are reported in the Table 4. It can be seen that there
is an improvement of about 16.4% for steel reinforced
slabs whereas 3.4% for FRP reinforced slabs in the
PSR when glass fibers are added to the mix. Also, for
the same design load, steel reinforced slabs give better
PSR.
3.3 Load deflection curves
A comparison of the load deflection curves for S1 and
S5 is presented in Figure 6. It can be seen that on adding
glass fiber to the mix, the peak load increases whereas
the deflection at the peak load reduces. So overall, the
stiffness of the slab increases with the addition of glass
fiber to the mix.
A similar comparison for FRP reinforced slabs (S3
and S7) has been shown in Figure 7.
The data for deflection at peak load is given in Table
5. It can be seen from the data that with the addition of
glass fibers, both for steel and FRP reinforcement, the
deflection at peak load reduces. For steel reinforced
slabs, the average reduction is about 34.44% whereas
for FRP reinforced slabs, it is about 21.45%. Addition

741
 Table 7. Ductility factors for various specimen.

Specimen Average ductility factor

S1 and S2 1.185
S3 and S4 1.365
S5 and S6 1.375
S7 and S8 1.625

Table 8. Predicted values of punching shear strength.

Punching shear Vexpt /

Specimen strength (kN) Vpred

Figure 6. Load vs deflection curve for S1 and S5. S1 ACI 318-05 217.83 1.56
S2 ACI 318-05 217.83 1.98
S3 El-Ghandour et al. (1999) 124.7 2.13
S3 Matthys and Taerwe (2000) 136.79 1.94
S3 Ospina et al. (2003) 152.30 1.74
S3 El-Gamal et al. (2004) 130.98 2.02
S4 El-Ghandour et al. (1999) 124.7 3.11
S4 Matthys and Taerwe (2000) 136.79 2.84
S4 Ospina et al. (2003) 152.30 2.55
S4 El-Gamal et al. (2004) 130.98 2.96

was more in case of the steel reinforced slabs than their

FRP reinforced counterparts. However for both types
of reinforcements, an increase in energy required for
Figure 7. Load vs deflection curve for S3 and S7. punching failure when glass fiber was added to the mix
was expected. Although in case of steel reinforcement,
the increase was not very significant, in FRP rein-
Table 5. Deflection at peak load. forced slabs, the energy required for punching failure
increased by about 57.93% with the addition of glass
Deflection at peak load fiber. Since the energy absorbed is a measure of duc-
Specimen (mm)
tility of the system, we can conclude that GFRC slabs
S1 and S2 5.090
are more ductile than simple RC slabs for both types
S5 and S6 3.337 of reinforcement.
S2 and S4 5.150
S7 and S8 4.045 3.5 Ductility factor
Ductility factor () is defined as the ratio of displace-
Table 6. Energy absorbed upto peak load. ment at Vmax and the displacement at 0.8 Vmax , where
Vmax is the maximum strength in the load deflec-
Specimen Energy absorbed (Joules) tion curves. The ductility factors for each of the eight
samples are given in Table 7.
S1 and S2 1188.8 There is an increase of 15.2% in the ductility
S5 and S6 1198.7 factor in case of steel reinforced slabs and 18.2%
S2 and S4 545.01 in case of FRP reinforced slabs. This reaffirms the
S7 and S8 860.76
conclusions drawn from the energy data in Table 6
that addition of glass fiber to the mix improves the
ductility performance of RC slabs for both types of
of glass fibers for improving the deflection has shown reinforcements.
better performance with steel reinforcement than with
FRP reinforcement.
4 ANALYTICAL INVESTIGATION
3.4 Energy absorbed
The punching shear resistance of the slabs was pre-
The energy absorbed up to the peak load computed dicted using various models from the literature to
from the area under the load deflection curve is compare with the experimental values and comment
given in Table 6. From the data it can be observed on the accuracy of the predictions. The results have
that the energy absorbed for punching failure to occur been reported in Table 8.

742
 As can be seen from the table, all the models give the
lower bound of the punching shear strength of the slabs
since the ratio in the last column is always greater than
unity. The analytical models are hence conservative in
nature and there is a need for more accurate models to
predict the punching strength.
5 CONCLUSIONS
From the results, it can be seen that addition of glass
fibers to the RC mix is beneficial for improvement of
Punching Shear Resistance (PSR) as well as ductility
of both steel and FRP reinforced concrete slabs. The
effect is however more pronounced in case of steel
reinforcements. The most important advantage is that
these improvements can be attained without changing
the depth of the section.
For the typical conditions on highways, fatigue con-
siderations are also important and it is expected that
GFRC can be beneficial for improving the fatigue
capacity of the slabs as well. Experimental work how-
ever is needed to prove the validity of this assertion.
Further work in this direction may be undertaken
to see the effectiveness of GFRC in improving the
fatigue capacity. Also since it can be seen that ana-
lytical predictions give only the lower bound and are
very conservative in nature, therefore a finite element
model can be investigated to see if it can give better
predictions of punching shear resistance of the slabs.
However regardless of that, with the results of the
current study we can recommend to use Glass Fiber
Reinforced Concrete (GFRP) for the slabs where PSR
is important (as in case of manhole covers on high-
ways) for a better performance in terms of strength
and ductility with the same section.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the Dean of Resource
Planning and Generation (DRPG), IIT Kanpur and
the Summer Undergraduate Research Grant for Excel-
lence (SURGE), IIT Kanpur for giving the opportunity
to conduct this research.
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Rational determination of cover thickness in reinforced concrete structures

for fire loading

Agrim Gupta, Samarth Prakash Ramdasi, Puneet Chugh, Supratik Bose & Sudhir Misra
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

ABSTRACT: Exposure to extreme temperatures during a fire affects the reinforcement and can result in
structural damage. Generally, clear cover protects the reinforcement from this thermal damage. The temperature
at reinforcement depth is affected by the properties of cover concrete. Cover thickness values in codes are
prescriptive and not always satisfactory. In this study the temperature of concrete inside an RC section was
simulated using 1-D heat conduction for different fire loadings. Based on a defined critical temperature of
reinforcement, rational cover thickness values required to keep the reinforcement safe were calculated. The
calculated values were in general higher than code provisions and depended on the fire mechanism considered.

Keywords: concrete, fire, cover, design

1 INTRODUCTION Various codes specify nominal cover thickness values

Concrete is widely used as one of the primary mate-
rialsfor construction of various kinds of structures. It
acts as the load bearing material in building elements
and protects the structure and its components from
various harmful actions. Due to its properties as an
insulator, it also protects the reinforcement in Rein-
forced Concrete (RC) structures from extremely high
temperatures experienced in the event of a fire.
Fire in the structure causes higher temperature at
the concrete surface, which causes reduction in com-
pressive strength, modulus of elasticity of concrete.
Though concrete is a poorer heat conductor than steel,
sustained high temperature at the surface leads to pro-
gressive heating of the inner layers of concrete via
conduction. Thus, reinforcing bars face higher tem-
peratures and consequently, the load bearing capacity
of RC structures reduces [1]. Thus when studying the
effect of fire, it is important to know the properties of
steel at higher temperatures. Critical temperature for
the steel reinforcement is generally known to be around
500 C[2]. After this temperature the steel starts los-
ing itsyield-stress capacity and tensile strength rapidly.
Mechanical properties of concrete depend on the spe-
cific concrete mix proportions and constituents used;
and they deteriorate at higher temperature mainly
due to physiochemical changes in the cement paste
and aggregate and the incompatibility between these
two [3].
With increasing demand for fire safety in structures,
it becomes imperative to develop a set of guidelines
based on rational arguments that can be implemented
during construction to ensure appropriate fire safety.
for certain fire resistance criteria but previous investi-
gation [4] has revealed that these nominal values may
not always be sufficient enough to allow appropri-
ate fire resistance in some situations. Increasing cover
results in better fire resilience, but it adds to the weight.
Thus a balance has to be achieved in design. Element
design for fire resistance aims at overall dimensions
of the section of an element sufficient to keep the heat
transfer through this element within acceptable lim-
its, and concrete cover thickness to the reinforcement
sufficient to keep the temperature of the reinforcement
below critical value for required fire resistance period.
The aim is to develop a set of rational cover thickness
values which are based on fire-resistance criteria in
concrete structures.
2 PROBLEM DISCUSSION
Fire safety is decided by the maximum critical tem-
perature that the reinforcement can sustain while
remaining in good health. To find the temperature at
reinforcement depth, we must consider the transfer of
heat from inside the structure to the outside.
The structure in this study is a simple room or
compartment(taken up from the compartment fire
theory by Pettersson [5]) with a ventilation open-
ing (Figure 1). The simulation model developed can
be extended to other complex shapes of compart-
ments and other varieties of materials with properties
different from concrete with modifications; but all
this increases computational complexity. The ther-
mal properties of concrete are temperature dependent.

745
Figure 1. Compartment dimensions.
Figure 2. Heat balance in a compartment.
After the flashover has occurred the temperature in a
compartment starts rising. This leads to the rapid com-
bustion in the compartment. Thus heat gets generated
in the compartment and flows out by means of conduc-
tion (transfer through concrete), convection (transfer
through openings, which also bring fresh air in to sup-
port combustion) and radiation (transfer via hot gases
and surfaces). A schematic representation of these heat
transactions is given in Figure 2. We assume a ventila-
tion controlled fire considering the parameters we are
taking; and its dependent on the size of the opening
[6]. For very large ventilation openings, it becomes a
fuel-controlled fire. Fuel is assumed to burn at a con-
stant rate and exhaust all at once (which is idealised),
after which, the room temperature begins to drop.
Heat transfer through an RC wall has been assumed
to be 1-dimensional conduction since the length and
height of wall are much larger than its thickness.
Thermal properties are assumed same for all con-
crete surfaces and the fire temperature is assumed
uniform in the compartment. Thus our methodology
is as follows:
1. The fire temperature in the room at anytime
instance is calculated using compartment fire the-
ory or standard fire curves. This is also taken as
the temperature just near the wall surface and it
depends on the compartment geometry, fuel, and
ventilation size.
2. Simulate heat propagation using 1-D heat conduc-
tion model and the fire temperature. Initial stud-
ies have used constant thermal properties [4],but
here, temperature dependent values of the thermal
746
Figure 3. Schematic of a compartment fire model.
Figure 4. A fire temperature curve.
properties have been used to give more accurate
results.
3. Evaluate temperature-v/s-depth profiles at each
instance of time and create a maximum temperature
profile for a given fire duration.
4. Based on the critical reinforcement temperature,
arrive at required cover thickness values.
3 EXPERIMENT PARAMETERS
The following properties and parameters were used
in developing the compartment fire and heat transfer
simulation models:
qC is the heat release due to combustion. qL is
the convective heat loss. qR is the radiation heat loss.
qW is the heat loss by conduction through the ceiling,
floor and walls. qB is the heat stored in the heated gas
itself and is generally negligible.
Fire load (Q) is the heat liberated by the com-
bustible materials per square floor area (cal/m2 ). Wood
is the sole combustible material considered, having
heat combustion value (Hc ) of 18.8 KJ/g [5]. Dura-
tion of the fire is taken as tf at which the fuel has
completely combusted and the room temperature starts
decreasing. Fire (gas) temperature is taken as Tg
with the specific heat value and effective emissivity
of the gas as Cp and f . f depends on the flame
thickness. Radiation heat loss depends on f . is
Boltzmann constant.
Table 1. Eurocode dimension specifications.

At (m2 ) Aw (m2 ) H (m)

CF1 95.8 2.0 1.0

CF2 95.8 2.79 1.75
CF3 128.2 2.0 1.0

Concrete surface temperature is taken as Ts and

temperature at any general point in the concrete is
given by Tc . Outside temperature is T . Tempera-
ture rise at outer compartment boundary is neglected.
hi is the surface heat transfer coefficient. TXXmm and Figure 5. Tg v/s time curves for different fire durations.
TXXmin are temperatures at XXmm depth and XXmin
time respectively.
We can also use fire-curves (fire temperature v/s
time see Figure 4) available in some codes fire
for analysis of fire-susceptible structures [79]. These
curves do not consider boundaries and openings of
compartment [10], hence we used compartment fire
theory [5], which is very useful in determining the
time-temperature relationship [11].
Compartment dimensions are l b h as shown in
Figure 1 with the total area (At ) as enclosed by the
boundaries of the compartment. Wall thickness is t
uniformly throughout and we have taken t as 16 cm.
Ventilation opening hasan area Aw with a height H
at a height c. Eurocode guidelines have specified
different Aw , At and H values (Table 1). Figure 6. Ts v/s time for different fire durations.
Specific heat (Cc ) and thermal conductivity (Kc ) of
concrete have been taken temperature dependent with
temperature relations from Eurocode 2 Part 1-2. This
is an improvement from previous studies [4] where
constant properties were assumed. With all this, we get the following:

We use finite difference technique to discretise the

1-dimensional heat conduction for computation.
4 FORMULATION

Using the experiment parameters, we proceed to

formulation of the simulation model.
Burning rate in a ventilation controlled fire is:
5 CALCULATIONS AND RESULTS

Tg can be found out using standard fire curves (which

Heat balance (symbols explained earlier):
Relations for heat generation parameters are [5]:
give a direct relation between time and fire temper-
ature), or by using the compartment theory equation
above. It is assumed equal to the temperature at the
point just near the wall surface. Out of Tg , Ts , and Tc ,
it is obvious that Tg will have the maximum value. We
see in Figure 5 that Tg increases for the duration of the
fire and drops hence after.
Ts at any given time ti depends on Tg at ti1 and hi .
Figure 6 is very similar to Figure 5 as Tg has a direct
influence on Ts and vice versa. This similarity of tem-
perature curves for points inside the wall decreases

747
 Figure 9. Tc profile at different timesfor a 0.5 Hr. fire.

Figure 7. Ts v/s with time for 0.5 Hr fire.

Figure 10. Tc profile long after fuel exhaustion for a 0.5 Hr

fire.

Figure 8. Tc at different times during a 0.5 Hr. fire.

with the depth as these points are away from the sur-
face and their temperature controlled by their adjacent
points.
In Figure 7 of a 30 minute fire, Tg , Ts , and T10 mm
have a similar nature while at deeper points T30 mm ,
T50 mm and T70 mm have a flattened behaviour with a
lag in temperature drop after the fire stops. Perhaps
the heat stored in the near surface layers is conducted
deeper to generate this lag. This effect is similar for
other durations of fire too. Longer fires result in Figure 11. Maximum temperature profile for various dura-
higher temperatures. To clearly understand this and tions of fire (based on Eurocode CF1 specifications).
other behaviour, next we need to develop full-depth
temperature profiles. same as the fire cut-off time and the maximum possible
temperature at any point is an important parameter to
say whether that point is safe enough for a given critical
5.1 Temperature profiles temperature criteria or not. A very long time after the
fire cut-off, we observe that Tc inside the wall is higher
To obtain Tc at any depth and time during or after a fire, than Ts or Tg and as time passes this inside temperature
we develop temperature profiles like the ones in Figure will come down by giving out heat to both surfaces of
8, Figure 9 and Figure 10. During the fire, the profile is the wall, which are at lower temperature.
steadily increasing. Points inside the wall have a slower
rate of increase in temperature than the surfaceas the
concrete provides insulation. The temperature increase
5.2 Maximum temperature profile (Tmax )
anomaly and the temperature drop lag for inside points
can be seen in Figure 9 and Figure 10 where at a depth There is a need to develop a Tmax profile showing
of 2 cm we have T30 min > T40 min > T90 min but at a the maximum temperature experienced at a given
depth of 6 cm we have T90 min > T40 min > T30 min point throughout a fire (includes combustion, cut-
with other variations in between. Thus, the time of off, and post-fire cooling). The time for achieving
maximum temperature at any location need not be the Tmax increases as we go deeper in the wall. Figure 11

748

Figure 12. Different cover thickness required based on
critical temperature of 773K and for various durations of fire.
shows the Tmax profile for various combustion dura-
tions using the Eurocode CF1 specifications. The total
time in each case was 4 hours. Similar profiles were
developed using CF2, CF3 specifications and using
ISO & IS fire-curves. With this curve, and the notion
of critical reinforcement temperature, we can relate
this information to the critical depth required for ade-
quate reinforcement safety and to the concrete cover
to the reinforcement required.
6 DISCUSSION
Since, concrete cover is determined on durability
and fire resistance criteria, it should provide ade-
quate protection to reinforcement from corrosion, high
temperatures and other environmental effects. IS456
(the Indian Standard for Plain and Reinforced Con-
crete) provides nominal cover specifications normal
weight aggregate concrete (Table 16 and Table 16A,
IS456). In older versions, it was based only on dura-
bility criteria, but since recently (IV edition) fire
criteria were also introduced. Fire resistance ratings
for different elements based on structural importance
are given in IS1642 (the Indian Standard for Fire
Safety of Buildings). Due to the elementary nature
of these specifications, we need to rationally deter-
mine cover thickness based on the critical temperature
(500 C)[2]at reinforcement depth.
We choose a particular depth from the Tmax pro-
file such that the temperature at reinforcing bar depth
should always be lower than the critical tempera-
ture for the designed fire duration. This simple step
leads us to Figure 12 which shows safe cover thick-
ness values for different fire durations based on the
Eurocode CF1, CF2 and CF3 compartment specifi-
cations and a critical reinforcement temperature of
500 C. In comparison, the nominal values prescribed
by IS456 are also shown. We observe that for most
of the cases, IS456 cover values are lesser compared
to those obtained from our simulation model. The
difference is significant only in fires of very long
749
length (>1 Hr). CF2 specifications seemed to be
very conservative while CF3 seemed very similar to
IS456 specifications. CF1 was in between these two
providing moderately higher cover values than IS456.
7 CONCLUSION
There are many factors that can affect the temperature
at the reinforcing bar. Proper consideration to these
factors can reduce the necessity of larger cover thick-
ness and providing for better fire-resistance in struc-
tures. Different compartment specifications lead to
different compartment temperatures and consequently
different values of rational cover thicknesses.
IS456 provisions provided the cover thicknesses
according to the required fire resistance. From our
discussion,we can say that IS456 concrete cover pro-
visions may fall inadequate at times. Thus the more
rational, critical temperature approach can be justified
in its claim and it can also help understand the current
provisions of cover determination. It is seen that the
suggested rational approach is much more effective
in providing protection against fires of long durations
rather than shorter ones where to a certain extent, the
present code values are somewhat satisfactory.
8 LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE WORK
For further research, a higher order model (>2) can be
developed for better and more accurate results. More
advanced fire theories and simulation models can be
used for complex real-world situations including dif-
ferent types of fuels, rooms, and wall configurations.
Thermal conductivity and heat capacity can be experi-
mentally determined for different concretes, especially
in cases of admixtures. An experimental method to
develop temperature profiles will help in validating the
current model and also help in improving it. Effect of
temperature on mechanical and physical properties of
concrete and steel (e.g. microstructure) can be studied
for a more rigorous analysis.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the Dean of Resource
Planning and Generation (DRPG), IIT Kanpur and
the Summer Undergraduate Research Grant for Excel-
lence (SURGE), IIT Kanpur for their continued sup-
port and for giving the opportunity to conduct this
research.
REFERENCES
[1] U. Wickstrm and E. Hadziselimovic, Equivalent con-
crete layer thickness of a fire protection insulation
layer, Fire safety journal, vol. 26, pp. 295302, 1996.
[2] E. nloglu, I. B. Topu, and B. Yalaman, Concrete
cover effect on reinforced concrete bars exposed to
 high temperatures, Construction and Building Mate-
rials, vol. 21, pp. 11551160, 2007.
[3] G. A. Khoury, Effect of fire on concrete and concrete
structures, in Progress in Structural Engineering and
Materials, 2000, pp. 429447.
[4] S. P. Ramdasi, Modelling reinforce-ment temperature
in RC structures susceptible to fires, MTech. , Civil
Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur,
Kanpur, 2009.
[5] O. Pettersson, S. E. Magnusson, and J. Thor, Fire
engineering design of steel structures, 1976.
[6] K. Kawagoe, Fire behaviour in rooms, Building
Research Institute1958.
750
[7] ASTM, Standard Methods of Fire Tests of Building
Construction and Materials, vol. Designation E 119-
83, ed, 1983.
[8] BIS, Indian Standard for Fire Resistance of Struc-
tures, vol. IS 3809, ed, 1979.
[9] ISO, Fire Resistance Tests Elements of Building
Construction, vol. ISO834, ed, 1975.
[10] T. Tanaka, M. Sato, and T. Wakamatsu, Simple For-
mula for Ventilation Controlled Fire Temperatures,
Fire Science and Technology, vol. 17, pp. 1527, 1997.
[11] A. H. Buchanan, Structural design for fire safety,
2001.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Seismic retrofit of reinforced concrete soft-storey structures using

toggle-brace-damper system

R.W.K. Chan & Z. Zhao

School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, RMIT University

W.C. Tang
School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Newcastle, University Drive Callaghan NSW, Australia

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a seismic retrofit method to reinforced concrete structures which suffer from
soft-storey mechanism in their ground level. The proposed method consists of strengthening of columns by FRP
wraps, and an inclusion of a double, upper toggle-brace-damper system. This method considers functionality
and practicality in retrofits of existing structures. Governing equations are examined. It is found that, if designed
properly the toggle-brace-damper significantly increases stiffness and effective damping of system. The complete
system can be described by a simple, nonlinear single-degree-of-freedom system.

Keywords: toggle-brace-damper, seismic retrofit, soft-storey

1 INTRODUCTION In the last few decades significant research and

A very widespread structural problem is character-
ized by the absence of claddings or walls at the
ground floor while they are present in upper lev-
els. It causes a sudden reduction in stiffness in the
ground level and it is commonly termed soft-storey.
This configuration permits good use of the ground
floor space, but in structurally it is undesirable. Under
earthquake excitation large lateral load may cause sig-
nificant rotation demand at the extreme sections of
the columns in ground level, while the superstructure
behaves like a quasi-rigid body (Fig. 1). Soft-storey
failure is commonly observed in earthquake dam-
ages, claiming significant life and economical losses.
Conventional strengthening approach often involves
addition of braces to ground level such that the lateral
stiffness is increased.
Figure 1. Soft-storey mechanism.
development has been made to make civil struc-
tures safer and more robust with the use of energy
dissipating systems (Symans et al 2008). In this tech-
nique designated energy dissipating devices (EDD)
are installed in the structure such that a portion of
the energy originated from ground shaking is diverted
to. Among many EDDs developed, dampers that uti-
lize metallic yielding to dissipate energy is widely
adopted for they are inexpensive, insensitive to fre-
quency of vibration, and require minimal maintenance.
Developed metallic EDD include the patented ADAS
(Bergman et al 1987), and the Steel Slit Damper (Chan
et al 2008). The Buckling-restrained brace (Watan-
abe et al 1988) and its variant Buckling-restrained lug
(Chan et al 2011), on the other hand, makes use of the
axial deformation of steel. Shear yielding of thin steel
plates have also been research (Chan et al 2009).
To apply displacement-based energy dissipation
systems in RC soft-storey structures, there are several
difficulties:
1. Displacement-based dampers rely on sufficient
damper travel to dissipate energy. When such dis-
placements occur in dampers the main structures
may have been damaged;
2. Many existing RC structures, especially those not
specifically designed for earthquake excitations,
possess very limited ductility; and
3. Addition of brace elements in the ground floor
space obstructs normal functions (e.g. parking
space), and this is usually unacceptable to building
owners and occupants.

751
Figure 2. Proposed retrofit method.
This paper proposes a seismic retrofit method
that attempts to address the above difficulties while
maintaining practicality and effectiveness.
2 PROPOSED RETROFIT STRATEGY
2.1 Overview
This paper proposes a retrofit method, which com-
prises of FRP strengthening of existing RC columns
and addition of a toggle-damper-brace system, as
shown in Figure 2. A double upper toggle configu-
ration is selected to allow more usable space in the
ground floor. To enhance rotational ductility at poten-
tial plastic hinge regions, top and bottom portions of
columns are strengthened by FRP wrapping. This will
ensure a ductile behavior within a certain limit of
superstructure displacement. A toggle-damper-brace
system is added to ground level to increase lateral stiff-
ness and energy dissipation capability. When subjected
to the design earthquakes, vibration of superstruc-
ture is kept within an allowable displacement. The
following sections describe the proposed retrofit in
detail.
2.2 Fiber reinforced polymer wrapping of column
Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) wrapping is a devel-
oped technique to increase the strength and ductility
of damaged or under-designed reinforced concrete
frames. It is applied externally with minimal distur-
bance to existing structure. As a result it is considered
suitable for retrofit applications. FRP provides effec-
tive confinement to concrete, achieving a significant
improvement in ductility. It effectiveness is affected
by a number of parameters which include concrete
strength, levels of axial compression, FRP sheet thick-
ness or number of layers, and wrap angle. Their effects
have been thoroughly researched (Teng et al 2001). In
addition, unlike strengthening methods such as exter-
nal steel and concrete jacking, FRP wrapping does
not significantly increase bending capacity and stiff-
ness of RC columns, consequently it does not attract
additional earthquake forces.
752
Figure 3. Displacement in toggle-damper-brace system.
Enhancement of column ductility by application of
FRP has been discussed (Teng et al 2001). While the
design of FRP wrap is not the focus of the present
paper, herein we define um1 which represents an accept-
able level of lateral movement of superstructure after
application of FRP. Typical value of um1 can be taken
as 0.02h.
2.3 Toggle-damper-brace system
Dampers, or alternatively known as energy dissi-
pative devices, dissipate input energy and effec-
tively suppresses structural vibrations. In this study
displacement-based dampers are installed on two
upper toggle braces. The main purpose to connect a
damper to a toggle-brace is to magnify the displace-
ment travelled in a damper. The configuration has been
investigated by a number of researchers (Constantinou
et al 2001, Hwang et al 2005). Due to symmetry, con-
sider a half-frame shown in Figure 3 with dimension
h b/2. The toggle brace is characterized by a lower
brace of length l1 , an upper brace of length l2 and a
damper brace with length ld . The lower brace forms an
angle with respect to the ground. To maximize usable
floor space, we shall limit our study with greater than
45 degrees. For a given building dimension h and b,
the toggle geometry is completely defined by l1 and .
The three members meet at a hinge denoted by O.
Upon horizontal displacement of u in the super-
structure to the right (Fig. 3), the lower brace undergoes
a clockwise rotation together with the change in
position of brace intersection O to O . It will cause
straightening of lower and upper brace, subsequently
an axial deformation of damper (tension in this case).
In this regard, displacement-based passive energy dis-
sipater which operates in axial movement will be
suitable, for example the Buckling-restrained Lug
(Chan et al 2011) which relies on plastic deforma-
tion of a steel bar. Geometric consideration suggests
that superstructure displacement should not cause the

Figure 4. Magnification factor f (b/2 = 6 m, h = 3.5 m).
upper and lower braces to form a straight line, hence
u should satisfy,
um1 described in previous section, um2 and in this
section imposes limit on superstructure displacement
under design earthquakes.
2.4 Magnification factor
Consider Figure 3, due to ground shaking the super-
structure is displaced by u. Assuming the brace ele-
ments are axially stiff, the position of O can be
determined by the intersections of the two arcs of
radii of l1 and l2 with centres at A and C respec-
tively. The change in damper length uD as a function
of superstructure displacement u can then be deter-
mined. The magnification factor f is defined as the
ratio between the change in damper length and the hor-
izontal displacement superstructure with respect to the
ground, i.e.
The magnification factor varies with the magnitude
of u, and it is affected by the geometry h, b, l1 and
. While h and b is determined by building geometry,
l1 and can be chosen by the retrofit engineer. Fig-
ure 4 shows the magnification factor as a function of
u for a number of l1 and combinations. Generally
f increases as decreases. Also, it can be observed
that f is fairly constant over practical ranges of dis-
placement, although it tends to increase slightly with
increase in displacement. It should be noted that for
values of f less than 1.0, it indicates the toggle-brace
configuration reduces damper travel, which is contrary
to our requirement.
2.5 Lateral stiffness of toggle-brace-damper
To study the effect of toggle brace in lateral stiffness of
system, let us consider the force exerted on the damper
753
Figure 5. Force-displacement response of retrofitted
system.
is FD while the horizontal shear force on superstructure
is V (Fig. 3). Assuming brace members are axially
rigid, the damper contributes all lateral stiffness. By
equating external and internal work we have,
Realizing lateral stiffness is V /u, and substituting
with relationship expressed in Eqn. 2 and 3 we have,
2.6 Combined lateral strength and stiffness
For a frame with inherent lateral stiffness ks (column
lateral stiffness in this case), the total horizontal stiff-
ness after addition of two toggle-brace-damper assem-
blages can be expressed as numerical summation of
two stiffness, i.e.
The lateral force-displacement behavior of the RC
frame and the toggle-brace-damper system is depicted
in Figure 5. Bilinear relationship is assumed. The
toggle-damper-brace system is designed to yield at uy
(yield displacement of complete system uy is related to
damper yield displacement expressed in Eqn. 2), which
should be less than frame yield displacement. This
ensures that under small earthquakes energy dissipa-
tion in damper occur prior to elastic limit of RC frame.
When a moderate or large earthquake hits the struc-
ture, displacement will exceed elastic limit of frame,
and since the columns are strengthened by FRP a duc-
tile behavior in frame occur due to rotation of plastic
hinges in column ends.
Summation of frame and toggle-brace-damper
results in total response behavior, as shown in Fig. 5.
A tri-linear response is resulted. Post-yield stiffness
ratio can be used to describe stiffness subsequent to
yielding of damper and frame.
 Yield strength of the complete system with a toggle-
damper assembly added is expressed as,
where uDy is damper yield displacement. For simplic-
ity, f may be taken as a constant.
The nonlinear behavior of a structure installed
with toggle-brace-damper system is now completely
defined by four parameters: ks , , uDy and f . In
practical retrofit scenarios, ks of the building can be
estimated by structural analysis, whereas , uDy and
f are choices of the designer by adjusting damper
yield displacement and toggle-brace geometry. On the
other hand, to model nonlinearity of dampers, a con-
tinuous Bouc-Wens model (Wen 1976) is adopted. A
single equation governs both elastic and inelastic range
of the device under cyclic loading. Resilient force of
complete system is expressed by,
where z(t) is a variable contains hysteretic properties,
which is defined by a first-order nonlinear differential
equation,
where , and u are calibration coefficients.
Hence, it is shown that the lateral movement of the
complete structure is expressed as a nonlinear single-
degree-of-freedom system. Implementation of Eqn. 8
and 9 can be carried out by established numerical inte-
grations method such as Runge-Kutta method (Chan
et al 2012).
3 CONCLUSION
Soft-storey mechanism is a common problem
observed in many historical earthquake events. It is
characterized by a soft-storey which horizontal stiff-
ness of a particular storey is significantly smaller than
the rest of the structure. When a strong earthquake hits
the large shear force exerted on superstructure causes
plastic rotations in columns, causing collapse of the
superstructure. This paper presents a seismic retrofit
method to reinforced concrete structures that suffer
754
from this mechanism in the ground level. To main-
tain a suitable usable ground floor space, and at the
same time to increase stiffness and damping, a double
upper toggle-brace-damper system is proposed in the
ground level. To ensure ductility of the existing RC
structure, FRP strengthening is necessary at column
ends. This paper examines the governing equations of
such system. It was found that a toggle-brace-damper
system, if proportioned correctly, will significantly
magnify the travel in the damper and overall stiffness
of structure can be enhanced. Finally, the complete
retrofitted structure can be described by a nonlinear
single-degree-of-freedom system.
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Steel-concrete composite columns composed of high-strength materials

Experimental analysis of buckling resistance

M. Karmaznov
Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic

ABSTRACT: The paper deals with some problems of the actual behaviour and buckling resistance of steel-
concrete compression members composed of high-strength steel and high-performance concrete. Especially, this
paper is directed towards the steel-concrete composite columns of the dimensions used usually for columns of
multi-storey buildings. High-strength materials (steel and concrete, too) can effectively increase in the resistance
of columns in the case of simple compression, because of their high strengths. In the case of the buckling the
resistance is significantly influenced by the stiffness (through the slenderness) dependent on theYoungs modulus
of elasticity. For steel the modulus of elasticity is the same regardless of steel grade, in the case of high-strength
concrete the modulus of elasticity increases more slowly compared with the strength increasing, so that Youngs
modulus of both materials can influence the buckling resistance negatively. This paper presents brief information
and some selected results of experimental and theoretical analysis oriented to the usage of high-strength steel and
high-strength concrete in composite columns, for the particular example of the typical steel-concrete sections -
open H-sections encased between flanges.

Keywords: Steel-concrete column, compression member, buckling resistance, high-strength steel, high-
performance concrete (HPC), experimental analysis

1 INTRODUCTION determination (philosophy of the design assisted by

In the last period in civil engineering constructions the
usage of modern progressive materials is frequent. In
the reliable and efficient structures the combinations
of steel and concrete is effective to reach the high resis-
tance commonly with the low self-weight and costs.
For this reason the utilization of high-strength steels
(HSS) and high-performance concretes (HPC) can be
advanced in the case of steel-concrete columns, too.
However, because of the buckling resistance increas-
ing it is necessary to find the available cross-section
type with the suitable relation of both section parts
from the viewpoint of the cross-section shape and the
contribution of steel and concrete to the resistance.
On the authors workplace the intensive attention
is paid to the problems of steel-concrete structural
member resistance (including composite columns)
in the period of last several years. Especially, the
actual behaviour of structural members composed
of high-quality steels and concretes is investigated
[Kala 2010, Karmaznov 2011c, 2011d, 2010, 2009].
These research activities are directed towards the
problems of the behaviour and resistance of steel-
concrete compression members composed of HSS
and HPC and cover various forms of the analysis,
for example: experimental verification of the actual
behaviour and the objective ultimate resistance with
the utilization of the test results for design resistance
testing) [Karmaznov 2012, 2011a, 2011b, 2011e],
the buckling resistance analysis based on the gen-
eral theoretical principles in comparison with the nor-
mative rules approaches [EN 1993-1-1, EN 1994-1-1,
2008], statistical and probabilistic evaluation [Kala
2009, 2010] aimed to the reaching of the guaranteed
reliability level with the structural design economy,
sensitivity analysis [Kala 2009] aimed to the deter-
mination of the influence of particular geometrical
and physical-mechanical parameters and their impor-
tance on the resulting buckling resistance, and other
methods.
2 DESIGN BUCKLING RESISTANCE
THEORETICAL ANALYSIS
In accordance with the experimental research of the
behaviour and load-carrying capacity of the steel-
concrete columns (see below) the design buckling
resistances were calculated using the normative rules
given in [EN 1993-1-1, EN 1994-1-1, 2008], to select
available of cross-section types from the viewpoint
of the optimal proportions of steel-to-concrete areas
and strengths (also within the context of subsequent
numerical modelling). The design buckling resis-
tances have been calculated for two basic selected

755
cross-section types circular tube filled by concrete
and H cross-section encased by concrete between
flanges. In this theoretical calculation the members of
cross-sections and critical lengths typical for the usual
building columns (in practice) have been investigated.
Hence, arising from the parametric and compara-
tive studies, for the subsequent analysis steel-concrete
composite columns of the following cross-sections
have been selected: (i) circular tubes of TR 152/4.5,
TR 159/4.5, TR 168/4.5 and TR 133/4.5, and
(ii) cross-sections of HE 140A, HE 160A, HE 180A
and HE 200A, in all cases with the actual length of
Lcr = 3 000 mm. For the theoretical analysis of the
design buckling resistance respecting the effect of
material properties, the following steel and concrete
have been considered steel grade in the range from
S 235 to S 690 (for more see [Liang 2011]), concrete
class in the range from C 20/25 to C 80/95 (for more see
[Yu 2008]). The design buckling resistances have been
calculated according to relevant European Standards
[EN 1993-1-1, EN 1994-1-1, 2008].The results for one
selected group of the investigated structural members
the columns of the HE 140A cross-section are pre-
sented in this paper. Particular results of experimental
verification and theoretical analysis mentioned below
are presented not only for steel-concrete composite
columns, but also for steel columns (steel only, without
concrete encasement), for the comparison. Figure 1. Design buckling resistance Npl,Rd in compari-
The design buckling resistance of steel and steel- son with full plastic resistance Npl,Rd and critical force Ncr
concrete compression members is given as influence of steel yield strength and cylindrical concrete
strength.

and the critical force Ncr for steel and steel-concrete

cross-section respectively, is given by the formats

where for the steel member A is the cross-section

area, fy is the nominal steel yield strength, M 1 is the
material partial safety factor and is the buckling
reduction factor (see below) depending on the non-
dimensional slenderness ; the full-plastic resistance with the flexural stiffness EI or the effective flexural
for the steel-concrete member is given as stiffness (EI)eff (for steel-concrete members). Then the
buckling reduction factor is given generally in the
form of

where Aa , Ac are the cross-section areas of steel and

concrete section parts, fy is the nominal steel yield
strength, fck is the characteristic concrete cylindrical
strength, a , c are material partial safety factors for
steel and concrete. The non-dimensional slenderness
can be obtained from the formula
where the full-plastic section resistance (without buck-
ling) Npl,Rk for steel cross-section and for steel-
concrete cross-section respectively, is given as
The imperfection factors 1 have been considered:
for hot-rolled HEA sections buckled to weak axis
1 = 0.49 (buckling curve of c), for steel grades
S 460 and above 1 = 0.21 (buckling curve of a).
To show the influence of steel yield strength and
cylindrical concrete strength the design buckling buck-
ling resistance Npl,Rd in comparison with the design
full plastic resistance Npl,Rd and with the critical force
Ncr are depicted in the graph in Fig. 1. These values
have been calculated for the HE 140A cross-section,
steel grade in the range from S 235 to S 690 and con-
crete class in the range from C 20/25 to C 80/95.

756
Table 1. Specification of test specimens HE 140A section.

Symbol Cross-section type

HEA HE 140A + normal concrete

HEA + NC HE 140A + normal concrete
HEA + HPC HE 140A + high-performance concrete

Material properties mean values of measured properties

Steel S 355 Yield strength 456 MPa

Cylindrical Modulus of
Concrete strength elasticity

NC 27 MPa 32 GPa
HPC 87 MPa 49 GPa

Within the context of the experimental verification

(see below), the values of Npl,Rd , Npl,Rd and Ncr are
drawn for steel grade S 355 combined with concrete
classes C 20/25 and C 80/95, which have been assumed
for the test specimens.
Figure 2. Illustration of test arrangement, test specimens
and test performance.
3 BUCKLING RESISTANCE EXPERIMENTAL
VERIFICATION

3.1 Test specimens, test arrangement, test

performance
Within the framework of experimental verification 9
specimens of the HE 140A cross-section have been
tested: 3 steel columns and 6 steel-concrete columns
with concrete encasement between flanges, from that
3 test specimens with normal concrete (NC) and 3
specimens with high-performance concrete (HPC).
The specification of specimens, from the viewpoint
of cross-section types and material properties (have
been measured), is described in Table 1. Realized tests
aimed at the comparison of actual results with theo-
retical analysis results. Some illustrations of the test Figure 3. Illustration of failed test specimens.
performance are shown in Figs. 2 and 3.
evident, that due to real structural detailing of the ends
supporting and other influences (e.g. the loading force
3.2 Test results evaluation is not centric, the member axis is not parallel with the
From the realized tests the basic results have been force direction etc.) the assumption of ends hinges is
obtained, especially the ultimate objective resistance more or less inexact. These effects will influence the
reached when the specimen failed, which was used actual member slenderness, which can be derived from
as the most important result for the evaluation of the the test results and related to the slenderness supposed
actual buckling parameters. These test results have theoretically.
been utilized, among others, for the derivation of the If Ntest is the force corresponding to the member
actual buckling length and slenderness respectively, buckling and Ncr is supposed critical force calculated
and for the determination of the actual initial imper- for the hinges on both ends (Lcr = L, where Lcr
fections, which can influenced the buckling resistance is the buckling length, L is the member length, is
very significantly. the buckling length factor, here = th = 1), then for
the non-dimensional slenderness from the tests and
3.2.1 Actual buckling lengths and slenderness for the theoretically calculated slenderness it can be
During the loading tests the actual supporting of mem- written
ber ends was investigated. Theoretically the hinges
on both member ends were supposed, if the mem-
ber length between supports was L = 3 070 mm. It is

757
Table 2. Actual buckling length and slenderness.

Cross- Ncr Ntest test Lcr,test

section [kN] [kN] [] [mm] []

HEA 855.4 881.8 0.985 3 024 1.274

931.2 0.958 2 942 1.240
835.2 1.012 3 107 1.309
HEA + NC 1 388.7 1 239.5 1.058 3 250 1.223
1 321.5 1.025 3 147 1.184
1 078.7 1.135 3 483 1.311
HEA + HPC 1 672.0 1 707.3 0.990 3 038 1.278
1 603.4 1.021 3 135 1.319
1 541.4 1.042 3 197 1.345
Figure 5. Ratios of the buckling resistance and criti-
cal force to the full plastic resistance in dependence on
non-dimensional slenderness comparison with test results.

Figure 6. Southwells lines and actual initial imperfections.

Figure 4. Buckling resistance in dependence on the
non-dimensional slenderness.
From equations (8), (9) the actual buckling length
follows as Lcr,test = test L and the actual buckling
length factor test can be written (if th = 1) as
In Fig. 5 the ratios of buckling resistance and critical
force to full plastic resistance in dependence on the
non-dimensional slenderness are drawn for all cross-
section types. For the comparison the same ratios for
the test results are added to the graphs. The ratio of the
buckling resistance to the full plastic resistance is the
reduction factor corresponding to the buckling curve
c. The ratio of the critical force to the full plastic
resistance using (3) is given as

so that in dependence on this relationship is the same

The actual buckling length factors, buckling lengths
and non-dimensional slenderness calculated using
equations (8), (9), (10) are written in Table 2.
The graphic expressions of the actual and theoret-
ical values of the buckling resistance in dependence
on the non-dimensional slenderness are seen in Fig. 4.
In this figure the values are shown for all 3 types of
specimens (HEA, HEA + NC, HEA + HPC) to show
the influence of the cross-section configuration and
material properties on the buckling resistance. It is
seen, that the buckling resistances obtained from the
tests are practically equal to the Euler critical force. It
is mainly due to the very small imperfections, which
were observed in the range from Lcr /1 500 to Lcr /2 000
(see Fig. 5) in this specific case, where the conditions
were suitable (quite randomly) to obtain the buckling
resistance reaching the Euler critical buckling force.
for all types of cross-sections regardless of the cross-
section configuration and material properties.
3.2.2 Actual initial imperfections
The information about the influence of the initial
imperfections on the buckling resistance Southwells
line can give, helping the initial imperfection e0 . In
the case of the buckling compression, Southwells line
expresses the linear relationship between the values
w/N and w, which is seen from Fig. 6. The initial
imperfection e0 is evident from the graph in Fig. 6,
too, and in the form of the relative initial imperfection
m0 = e0 /j (where j = W /A) is used in the procedure of
the derivation of reduction buckling factor .
Southwells lines and actual initial imperfections are
depicted for all test specimens in Fig. 6. In this partic-
ular case, the initial imperfections were in the range of
Lcr /1 500 to Lcr /2 000.

758
4 CONCLUSIONS
Summarizing the results of the design analysis and
experimental programme the following particular con-
cluding remarks can be mentioned: (i) the actual
objective buckling resistances are more than the cal-
culated ultimate resistances, so that they were much
higher (in average by 30 %) than the design resistances;
(ii) the actual supporting of the ends can significantly
influences the actual buckling length, but here, in the
case of HEA cross-sections were maximally by 13 %
higher than theoretical buckling lengths considered for
the theoretical assumptions; (iii) actually obtained ini-
tial imperfections were very low (even several times) in
comparison with the imperfections given in [EN 1993-
1-1, EN 1994-1-1, 2008]. Ascertained information can
influence the test evaluation not only positively, but in
some cases negatively, too.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The paper was elaborated with the financial sup-
port of the MMT (Ministry of Education, Youth
and Sports of the Czech Republic) research projects
CZ.1.05/2.1.00/03.0097 AdMaS, MSM 0021630519
and FAST S-11-32/1252 and the GACR (Czech Sci-
ence Foundation) grant project No. 103/09/0597.
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2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Influence of organic matter on the stabilization soft soil with

cement mixed method

Li Shao, Jia Liu & Yong Ding

University of Shanghai For Science & Technology, Shanghai, China

ABSTRACT: The effects of organic matter on the mechanical properties of the soil-cement admixture were
investigated through a series of unconfined compression tests and PH tests. Unconfined compressive strength
and the relationship of stress and strain were measured on the different specimens in which different organic
contents were added separately to soft soil. The results indicate that the organic matter suppressed the pozzolanic
reaction of the soil-cement admixture. Unconfined compression strength increased greatly when organic content
is less than 6% while it increased slowly when organic content reached 6%. The characteristics of deformation of
the specimens were changed from brittle failure to plastic failure. The value of PH is decreased with the organic
contents and increased with the curing time.

Keywords: cemented soil, organic matter, PH, Unconfined compressive strength

1 INTRODUCTION The soil has a clay content of about 46.4% to 61.1%.

The natural water content is about 35% to 75%. The
The soft soil is widely distributed at coastal areas of sensitivity varies is in a range of 510. The maximum
China. Cement mixed method is widely used in the value of the sensitivity varies reaches 14.6, The soft
improvement of soft ground clay in highway con- soil has a high organic content in terms of the highest
struction at coastal areas of China, for its simple ignition loss of 11.6%. The cone pointed resistance is
construction method, high efficiency, low cost, low about 0.4 MPa.
pollution and low affect on the adjacent building. The The main geotechnical engineering properties of the
soft soil is hardened as cemented soil. The strength of soil are summarized in Table 1. The chemical com-
the ground is reinforced. However, preliminary tests positions of the soil are summarized in Table 2. The
show that some kinds of organic matter may inter- ordinary Portlant cement was added to the soil with a
fere with the hydration process, because organic matter content of 14% (the ratio of the weight of cement to the
tends to coat additive grains, retarding or preventing
the hydration reaction(Kamon, M et al. 1989). For
instance, humic acids may extend hydration processes Table 1. Main geotechnical engineering properties of the
undisturbed soil.
of cemented soil apparently(Kamon, M et al. 1989;
Tremblay, H. 1998). But it is beneficial to reinforc- Density Liquid Limit
ing cemented soil or peat when cement is mixed with g/cm3 Specific gravity Void ratio (%)
appropriate additives(Holm, G et al. 1983; Ogino, T.
et al. 1994; Parkkinen, E. 1997). 1.678 2.66 1.681 66.3
Cement mixed method was selected as the stabiliza-
tion method in Yancheng of Jiangsu province of China Plastic Limit Friction angle Cohesion

which is on lagoonal soft clay deposits with high con- % kPa
tent of organic matter. However, The purpose of this
study is to investigate the effect about the content of 31.2 2.2 10
organic matter on soil-cement strength. The value of
PH about the stabilized soils were used to evaluate
effects of the stabilized organic soils.
Table 2. Chemical component of soft soil.

Element SiO2 Al2 O3 Fe2 O3 CaO MgO

Content(%) 56.00 17.15 6.92 1.10 2.08
2 MATERIALS AND TEST METHOD
Element K2 O Na2 O TiO2 MnO P2 O5
The specimens of soft soil were obtained from the Content(%) 2.83 1.10 0.80 0.16 0.11
lagoonal area of Yancheng, located in Jiangsu, China.

761
Table 3. Summary of the test conditions.

Water Cement Organic Curing

content ratio content time
% % % days

60 14 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18 7, 14, 28, 60

dry weight of the soil) and mixed with distilled water

at a water to cement ratio of 0.5. The organic matter
used in this study is humic acid which is come from
Pingxiang of Jiangxi province.
The soils were oven-dried and then passed through
a 5mm sieve. Each compound (humic acid, ordinary
Portland cement) with controlled weight was added Figure 1. Relationships between unconfined compressive
individually and mixed sufficiently. Then water was strength and curing time.
added into the mixture to a desired content. The
mixture was completely mixed. Cubic shaped speci-
mens were made using molds with height, width, and
length of 70.7 mm. The admixtures were cured at the
controlled condition with a temperature of 20 3 and
a relative humidity of 100%.
The test conditions presented in this study are shown
in Table 3. Parallel unconfined compression tests were
performed and the average was taken as the uncon-
fined compressive strength of the soil. The PH value of
soil specimens were measured during the unconfined
compression test.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Effects of organic matter on unconfined
compressive strength of soil stabilization
The high content of humic acid will hinder the reaction
between the cement hydrates and the clay particles.
Fig. 1 shows the unconfined compressive strength
of cement soil increased with the increase of cur-
ing time. When the organic matter content is 3%,
the unconfined compressive strength of cemented
soil grows fast. At this time, qu,28 = 2.37qu,7 . The
increase rate of the cemented soil strength has been
reduced 28 days later, but the cemented soil strength
still grows significantly (qu,60 = 1.49qu,28 ). The extent
of the increase in unconfined compressive strength
became small with the increase in the organic con-
tent. When the organic matter content reaches 6%
to 9%, the increase rate of unconfined compressive
strength is quickly reduced (qu,28 = (1.551.65)qu,7 ,
qu,60 = (1.331.42)qu,28 . When the organic matter
content is to 12%, the increase of unconfined com-
pressive strength bacame slower.
At this time, qu,28 = (1.061.13)qu,7 , qu,60 =
(1.01.11)qu,28 .
Therefore, when organic content is higher than
6%, the increase rate in strength is small; indicating
that pozzolanic reaction between soil and cement was
suppressed.
Fig. 2 shows the relationship between the uncon-
fined compressive strength and the organic matter.
Figure 2. Relationships between unconfined compressive
strength and organic content.
Unconfined compression strength decreased quickly
when the organic matter content increases from 3%
to 6%, Therefore, organic matter content has a great
influence on the unconfined compressive strength of
the cemented soil.
The relationships between unconfined compressive
strength ratio and organic content is shown in Fig. 3.
The ratio between unconfined compressive strength
of organic matter content of h% and organic matter
content of 3% decreased with the increase of organic
matter content.
The unconfined compression strength which
organic matter content is greater than 3% can be
obtained, as expressed by following equations:
where: qu,h = unconfined compressive strength which
organic matter content is h% (MPa) qu,3 = unconfined
compressive strength which organic matter content is
3% (MPa); h = organic matter content (%); t = curing
time (days); k1 , k2 : = age-coefficient related to curing
time.

762
Figure 3. Relationships between unconfined compressive Figure 4. Relationships between stress and strain (t = 28
strength ratio and organic content. days).

Soil organic matter is mainly divided into the fulvic

acid and humin acid. In the experiment, the main com-
ponent of organic matter is fulvic acid. Research shows
that the impact of unconfined compressive strength
level is the fulvic acid in the organic composition. In
the system world of the fulvic acid, water and cement
(Pan Youlin, 2001), fulvic acids exhibits a water-
soluble form. After the exposure of cement and fulvic
acid in water solution, the cement hydration begins
meanwhile adsorbed layers formed by the cement
mineral adsorption retards the cement hydration pro-
cess. furthermore, in the generation of hydrated cal-
cium aluminate, hydrated calcium sulphoaluminate
and hydration of iron calcium aluminate crystal, the Figure 5. Relationships between organic content and the
decomposition of the fulvic acid make the hydration value of PH.
products of cement soil disintegrate and destroy the
formation of the soil-cement structure, which leads the form of the cement soil deformation is brittle
to decrease the level of the sample of the uncon- failure. With the organic content increasing, the soil
fined compressive strength (Xun Yong, 2000). At the cement hydration is inhibited, the degree of framework
same time, the Hu Min acid in organic matter has the strength is lower and has not formed the whole struc-
very strong chemical affinity to the calcium, adsorbs ture, the deformation is characterized as low strength
the calciumion produced by the hydration of cement, deformation and large plasticity.
inhibits the cement itself for hydration, hinders the
hardening of cement, influences strength degree of soil
cement formation (Chen Huie, 2005). 3.3 The variation of PH value
The influence of the cemented soil by the organic
matter content can be reflected by PH value. Fig-
3.2 Effects of organic matter on stress-strain
ure 5 shows the relationship between soil pH value
relationship of soil stabilization
and organic matter content of the cemented soil. PH
The relationship between stress and strain which cur- value of the specimens increased with increase of cur-
ing time is 28 days is shown in Fig. 4. The form ing time and decreased with increase of organic matter
of the cemented soil deformation is brittle failure content. Due the content of H+ ion is in high vol-
when the organic matter content is 3%. However, ume, soil samples will consumes OH ion generated
when the organic matter content reached 6%, the form by the cement hydration. The consumption of OH
of the cemented soil deformation is changed appar- ion and generation of the Ca(OH)2 by the cement
ently, which converted into plastic failure from brittle hydration reacted simultaneously during the cement
fracture. hydration. The OH ion generated by cement hydra-
When the content of organic matter was little, the tion are required to supply the depletion of H+ion
hydration of the cement was performed sufficiently, and CSH gel formation during the cement hydration,
thus, it could be formed as a high framework strength resulting in decrease of CSH gel which are the main
and the overall strength resist the external force, so factors to form the unconfined compressive strength.

763

Figure 6. Relationships between the value of PH and curing
time.
Therefore, unconfined compressive strength will
decrease when the value of pH decreases with organic
matter content (Ning Jianguo, 2007). Fig. 6 shows the
relationship between PH value and curing time of the
cemented soil. PH value increased rapidly with the
age if the age is less than 28 days. However, PH value
increased slowly with curing time if curing time is
more than 28 days.
4 CONCLUSIONS
(1) Organic matter content will significantly influence
the unconfined compressive strength of cemented
soil. Unconfined compressive strength reduced
obviously with increase of organic matter content,
and when the organic matter content is higher than
6%, cement performs a remarkably little impact on
solidification of soft soil.
(2) Cemented soil deformation characteristics of the
performance is brittle failure when the organic
matter content is to 3%. cement soil characteristics
of performance is plastic failure when the organic
matter content is more than 3%.
764
(3) PH value increased rapidly with curing time if itis
less than 28 days. However, PH value increased
slowly with curing time if curing time is more than
28 days.
REFERENCES
Kamon, M., Tomoshisa, S., and Sawa, K. (1989). On the
stabilization of hedoro by using cement group hardening
materials. Journal of the Society of Materials Science,
Japan, 38(432): 10921097.
Tremblay, H. 1998. Amlioration mcanique et prdiction
de lacompressibilit des sols fins du Qubec. Ph.D. the-
sis. Department of Geology and Geological Engineering,
Universit Laval, Qubec, QC.
Holm, G., Trank, R., and Ekstrom, A. 1983. Improving lime
column strength with gypsum. In Proceedings of the 8th
European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation
Engineering (ECSMFE), Helsinki, Finland, pp. 903907.
Ogino, T., Goto, T., Kataoka, K., and Kuroda, M. 1994. Uti-
lization of stabilized dredged waste for construction mate-
rial. In Proceedings of the 1st International Congress on
Environmental Geotechnics (ICEG), 1015 July. Edited
by W.D. Carrier, III. Edmonton, Canada, pp. 4956.
Parkkinen, E. 1997. Utilization of industrial by-products to
strengthen soft clayey and organic soils. In Proceedings of
the 14th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and
Foundation Engineering (ICSMFE), Hamburg, Germany,
pp. 17011704.
Pan Linyou. Soft soil cement stirring pile reinforcement
search in special muck quality range[J]. Building Science
Research of Sichuan, 2001, 27(4), 5859. (in Chinese).
Xun Yong. The anti-influences and influences of contain-
ing organic matter on cement soil strength [J]. Build-
ing Science Research of Sichuan, 2000, 26(3), 5859.
(in Chinese).
CHEN Hui-e, WANG Qing. Influences of Organic matter
on the Effects of Consolidating Soft Soil with Cement
[J]. Chinese Journal of Rock Mechanics and Engineering,
2005, 24, (supp2), 58165821. (in Chinese).
Ning Jianguo et al. Effect of pH value of soil on strength
increasing of the stabilized soil [J]. Chinese Journal of
Geotechnic and Engineering, 2007, Vol. 29 No. 1: 98102.
(in Chinese).
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Performance of shape memory alloys in the nonlinear response

of RC frames

Z. Pirsamadi
Mohaghegh Ardabili University, Ardabil, Iran

S. Zargham
Ahar Islamic Azad University, Ahar, Iran

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a numerical investigation aimed at evaluating the improvements achievable
through devices for passive seismic protection of reinforced concrete buildings based on the use of shape
memory alloys (SMA). A large number of 3D reinforced concrete models are analyzed undergoing a suite of
ground motions, scaled to increasingly higher spectral accelerations at the natural period of structures. These
models are according to the following configuration: non protected buildings, buildings protected with steel
braces and buildings protected with SMA braces. Finally, dynamic responses of the uncontrolled and controlled
buildings are calculated to verify the effectiveness of the proposed SMA dampers for vibration control of building
structures.

Keywords: Shape Memory Alloys, Nonlinear Behavior, Reinforced Concrete Frames, Superelastic

1 INTRODUCTION changes. The phase transformations between austen-

Passive control is a new method to design structures
to withstand earthquakes. Passive control systems
are designed to absorb the energy of excitations and
therefore, the damage of structures reduces. These
systems are currently used such as friction dampers,
visco-elastic dampers, viscous fluid dampers, Tuned
mass dampers and Tuned Liquid dampers. Another
way to control structures is using smart materials.
Smart materials have many types that any of them
is different in their behavior and function. Some
types of smart materials are Shape Memory Alloys,
Piezoelectric materials, Electroheological Fluids and
Magnetorheological Fluids.
Shape memory alloys show features not present-
ing in conventional materials that used in structural
engineering. They are materials capable of undergo-
ing large recoverable strains of the order 10% without
exhibiting plasticity. High damping capacity, recenter-
ing, high fatigue resistance, no need of maintenance,
durability and the recovery of strains by heat are among
the characteristics which have made SMAs, an effec-
tive damping device or component of base isolators.
These alloys have two crystallographic phases: The
first one known as austenite, and the second one known
as martensite. Austenite is stable at higher tempera-
tures and lower stresses and martensite is stable at
lower temperatures and higher stresses. Phase trans-
formation will be possible if stress or temperature
ite and martensite, causes the two special behaviors of
SMAs that are described as below:
Superelastic Effect. In a certain temperature, the
strain generated when SMA wire is stretched up to
apparent yielding, is fully recovered by unloading.
This characteristic is called superelastic effect (or
pseudoelastic effect).
Shape-Memory Effect. In the other certain temper-
ature, when a SMA wire is stretched up to apparent
yielding, the residual strain remains. By heating at
the certain temperature, the residual strain disap-
pears. This characteristic is called shape memory
effect.
The most important characteristic of shape memory
alloys is the so-called superelasticity in which the alloy
can undergo large strains while recovering their initial
configuration after unloading without any permanent
deformation. This ability of dissipating energy in the
loading-unloading process, makes these alloys suitable
to be used as seismic dissipation devices. The most
important aspect of the behavior of a brace is its force-
deformation response, which is known as its hysteretic
behavior therefore, engineers consider the use of shape
memory alloys as braces in buildings.
In order to assess the seismic behavior of SMA
based braces, a series of 3D reinforced concrete mod-
els are analyzed undergoing lateral cyclic static loads
and a suite of ground motions. As mentioned, these

765
Table 1. Dimension of the sections. Table 2. The properties of the SMA materials.

Section name Concrete section Reinforcement ESMA SAS fAS SSA fSA EL
(MPa) (MPa) (MPa) (MPa) (MPa) (%)
Columns 50 50 8F18
Beams 50 50 6F20 27579 414 550 390 200 3.50

models are in three types: non protected buildings,

buildings protected with steel braces and buildings
protected with SMA braces.

2 DESCRIPTION OF THE MODEL

The investigated structures in this analytical study

is based on a one-story three-dimensional reinforced
concrete moment-resisting frame. This frame has one
bay in two directions X and Y , and its dimensions
are 3 m high, 4 m long in X direction and 5 m in Y
direction. In order to investigate the seismic response
of a superelastic SMA bracing system, two types
of concentrically braces were added to each bay of
the moment-resisting frame: Conventional steel brac- Figure 1. Model of the superelastic SMA.
ing systems and superelastic SMA bracing systems.
Dimensions of the beam and columns of analyzed
structures are shown in Table 1.
All nonlinear analyses are carried out using the
OpenSEES software. The beam and column elements
are modeled in OpenSEES using nonlinearBeamCol-
umn elements with fiber sections. In addition, torsion
is attached to flexure of the beams and columns with
Aggregator sections. P-D effects are accounted for
columns during the analyses. Both the conventional
and superelastic SMA braces elements are modeled
using corotTruss elements in order to ensure that they Figure 2. Defined cyclic load.
only carry axial loads. The cross-sectional area of
braces is 10 cm2 . In order to compare the effective-
ness of the SMA braces to that of the conventional under two types of analyses. Finite-Element method is
steel braces, the steel material is changed to be effec- used to conduct the analyses of the uncontrolled and
tive only in tension. The properties of the SMA controlled frames. The two types of the analyses are
materials are shown in Table 2. Model of the supere- described below:
lastic SMA braces are shown in Figure 1. In this
model SAS , fAS , SSA , fSA show the phase transfor-
mation stresses, martensite start, martensite finish, 3.1 Structures under cyclic static loads
austenite start and austenite finish stresses. Details Cyclic static pushover analyses are first conducted on
in regards to the continous model and its integra- the three framing systems. This cyclic load is shown
tion techniques can be found in Fugazza (2003). All in Figure 2.
connections are assumed to be fixed connections and The force-deformation relationships that are mea-
typical Rayleigh damping of 2% for frames is consid- sured during the defined load are shown in Figure
ered. The Deadload and Liveload that are assigned to 3 through 5. These figures show that the frame with
the frames as gravity loads are equal to 600 kg/cm2 steel braces has more energy absorption than the other
and 200 kg/cm2 respectively. frames, but because of large residual displacements it
cant go under more displacements, whereas the frame
with SMA braces can go under more displacements
3 ANALYSIS AND RESULTS without any instability. The results of the analyzed
models show that the residual drift of the frame with
The structural parameters of the frames are determined SMA braces is about 63% of the frame with steel
in the past section and in this section the behavior of braces and about 57% of the moment-resisting frame.
the each three types of the structures are investigated Also, these figures show that for this defined cyclic

766
 Table 3. Acceleration records.

PGA
Earthquake ATH Station Year Magnitude (g)

Kobe/ Kobe/ KJMA 1995 6.9 0.598

Japan KJM090

Figure 3. Moment resisting frame hysteretic behavior.

Figure 6. Roof displacement history of moment-resisting

frame for Kobe earthquake.

Figure 4. Steel bracing system hysteretic behavior.

Figure 7. Roof displacement history of steel braced frame

for Kobe earthquake.

Figure 5. SMA bracing system hysteretic behavior.

load the influenced force of the frame with steel braces

is about 1.3 times more than that of the frame with
SMA braces and, this observation is not good point
for steel braces.

3.2 Structures under earthquake ground motions

In order to investigate dynamic behavior of the mod-
els, several different seismic excitations are applied
to the models (supplied to OpenSees as accelera-
tion records), but only one is presented here. The
records which are used as seismic excitations are pre-
sented in Table 3 with their associated Peak Ground
Accelerations (PGAs).
The time history of the models for the response of
the structures to Kobe ground motion are shown in
Figures 6 through 8. It is shown that both of the con-
trolled frames dont sustain any residual or permanent
Figure 8. Roof displacement history of SMA braced frame
for Kobe earthquake.
deformation on the structure. The results of the ana-
lyzed models show that the largest displacements of
the SMA braced frame during the excitation is about
80% of that of the steel braced frame and about 64%
of the moment-resisting frame.

767
4 CONCLUSION
Cyclic behavior of SMA braces is presented and dis-
cussed in this paper first. For this reason, eight SMA
braces are added on a reinforced concrete moment-
resisting frame to investigate the effectiveness of the
SMA braces in vibration reduction of the frame. In
order to judge about the effectiveness of the SMA
braces we also, added eight steel-only in tension braces
on the reinforced concrete moment-resisting frame
in another model. Finite-element method is used in
cyclic static analyses of the models. By comparing
the behavior of the models it is clear that the resid-
ual deformation of the SMA braces is less than the
other systems. Finally, dynamic responses of the mod-
els subjected to earthquake excitations are simulated
based on the finite-element method to study how effec-
tiveness of the SMA braces to reduce the dynamic
response of the frame. From the analyses data, it is
found that the proposed SMA braces can reduce the
structural responses better than the other models.
Considering the excellent property of energy dissi-
pation and higher resistance to corrosion and fatigue,
SMA is quite suitable for making brace devices for
vibration control.
768
REFERENCES
Aiken I.D., Nims D.K., Whittaker A.S. and Kelly J.M. 1993.
Testing of passive energy dissipation systems. Earthquake
Spectra 9(3).
Boroscheck R.L., Farias G., Moroni O. and Sarrazin M. 2007.
Effect of SMA braces in a steel frame building. Journal
of Earthquake Engineering, 11: 326342.
Bruno S. and Valente C. 2002. Comparative response analysis
of conventional and innovative seismic protection strate-
gies. Earthquake Engineering And Structural Dynamics
31: 10671092.
Cardone D., Dolce M., Ponzo F.C. and Coelho E. 2004.
Experimental behavior of R/C frames retrofitted with dis-
sipating and re-centring braces. Journal of Earthquake
Engineering 8(3): 361396.
Clark P., Aiken I., Ko E., Kasai K. and Kimura I.
1999. Design procedures for buildings incorporating hys-
teretic damping devices. 68th Annual Convention, SANTA
BARBARA, California Structural EngineeringAssociation
Of California.
DesRoches R., McCormick J. and Delemont M. 2004. Cyclic
properties of superelastic shape memory alloy wires and
bars. Journal of Structural Engineering ASCE.
Dolce M., Cardone D. and Marnetto R. 2000. Implementa-
tion and testing of passive control devices based on shape
memory alloys. Earthquake Engineering and Structural
Dynamics 29: 945968.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

The strut arrangement and monitoring analysis of deep foundation pits in

silty sand

Yu Haihong
Sinopec Shanghai Engineering Co. Ltd., Shanghai, PRC

Hong Chengpo
Department of Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China

ABSTRACT: In the combination with the strut arrangement and field monitoring data of a metro station
excavation in Hangzhou silty sand, the variation principles of axial forces of steel strut in the excavation of a
long and narrow deep foundation pit are compared and analysed. The analysis shows that setting up or removing
of a strut has large influence on its adjacent struts. Installation of next strut will lead to decrease of axial force
of last strut, and the axial forces in four struts keep changing as the depths change through excavation. The axial
forces in 1st and 4th struts are relatively small and the axial force in 2nd strut is relatively large through the
whole excavation, based on which optimization design on supporting system can be carried out.

Keywords: deep foundation pit; supporting system; strut; silty sand

1 INTRODUCTION 2 ENGINEERING SITUATION

Design of a deep foundation pit is a complicated and The foundation pit lies near Qiantang River in
complex geotechnical problem. Soils outside the foun- Hangzhou, and the soils are mainly silty and silty sand.
dation pit change from static soil pressure state to The physical and mechanical parameters of soils are
active soil pressure state during the excavation, while shown in table 1.
the pit bottom soils change to passive soil pressure The standard section of the Hangzhou metro station
state. Change of stress state leads to deformation of foundation pit is shown in Figure 1.The foundation
supporting structure and retained soils, and hence pit of Hangzhou metro station is 406.4 meters long,
influences the axial forces in supporting system. (Liu 18.7 meters wide and 15.6 meters deep at the standard
Jianghang & Hou Xueyuan 1997). section as shown in figure 1. And it is 19.2 meters
Firstly, most previous researchers focused on the deep to the most partially at the standard section. It is
freeze-thaw durability of concrete without external a typical long and narrow foundation pit.
loads. However, in practice, most concrete structures The retained structures of the foundation pit adopt
in cold regions, such as bridges and pavements, are drilling bitten piles which are 1000 mm in diameter
subjected to both external loads and freezing-thawing. and lap 250 mm. The open-excavation construction is
The measured axial forces of struts differ greatly adopted and the standard part of the foundation pit
from the designed axial force due to construction adopts 4 layers of steel struts. The 1st layer of struts
quality and technology failed to meet the designed is set 1.1 meters below the ground surface, and the
requirements or unpredictable geological reasons. The 2nd layer of struts is set 5.6 meters below the ground
supporting system tends to fail and the deformation of
the retained structure is large when the axial force is too Table 1. Mix proportions and major parameters of concrete.
small, while the concrete struts tend to crack and steel
struts tend to bend when the axial force is too large. It ccu cu
is of vital important to monitor the supporting system Soils (%) (kN/m3 ) e (kPa) ( )
during excavation in a foundation pit. The variation
principles of axial forces of struts are studied with the Miscellaneous fill 28.4 18.5 0.804 8.0 20.0
example of a deep foundation pit in silt sand of a metro Sandy silt 29.2 19.0 0.833 30.0 29.0
Silty sand 27.6 18.8 0.818 35.0 29.8
station in Hangzhou, and some results are obtained, Silty clay 23.6 20.4 0.642 15.0 17.3
which provide valuable experience to future design and Silt 24.6 18.8 0.765 36.0 30.0
construction of similar deep foundation pits.

769

Figure 1. Standard section of foundation pit.
Figure 2. Structure of steel strut.
surface, and the 3rd layer of struts is set 9.6 meters
below the ground surface, and the 4th layer of struts is
set 12.6 meters below the ground surface. The 4th layer
of strut is required to replace during the construction
of the metro station structure. The integral rigidity of
drilling bitten piles adopted is relatively smaller than
diaphragm wall, which is unfavorable to supporting
system. As the lateral deformation of drilling bitten
piles increases, the axial forces in struts get larger.
3 CONSTRUCTION OF STRUTS
The steel strut of the foundation pit is assembled by
609 14 mm and 609 16 mm steel pipes, which system and axial force of ZL03-02 increases greatly
are joined together by high-strength bolts or welding.
The joint strength is ensured to be stronger than steel
pipe itself. The active end is like a drawer and is made
up of active end and accommodation steel pipe. The
active end is made up of end steel plate, channel tele-
scope handle, slab used as stiffening rib. The channel
telescope handle, which is placed in the accommo-
dation pipe, is able to adjust length of the strut by
stretching of hydraulic jack as shown in Figure 2.
Installation of steel struts and excavation are two
inseparable key procedures during construction of
770
Table 2. Designed axial forces of 4 struts.
Strut ZL03-1 ZL03-2 ZL03-3 ZL03-4
Designed axial 601.5 1830 2613 2538
force/kN
foundation pits. Principle of timeliness should be fol-
lowed during installation of steel strut. The time and
place to set up strut and the magnitude of pre-stress
have great influence on stability of deep foundation
pit. Installation of steel strut must meet the designed
requirements. When the excavation depth is 0.5 meter
below the strut, the steel circuit purlins and struts are
required to install in time so that the retained structure
receives reaction force of steel strut in advance. Hence
deformation of the retained structure is decreased.
To analyze the relation between excavation depth
and axial force in strut, width of the analysis model
is taken for 4 times the strut spacing longitudinally.
Designed axial forces of 4 layers of struts are shown
in table 2. The predicted magnitude of axial force is
0.7 times the designed axial forces, except that the 1st
layer of strut is half the designed axial force.According
to the monitored data, the magnitudes of axial forces
of struts are adjusted during the construction to ensure
stability of the foundation pit.
In table 2, ZL03-1 represents the 1st layer of strut,
ZL03-2 represents the 2nd layer of strut, ZL03-3 rep-
resents the 3rd layer of strut and ZL03-4 represents the
4th layer of strut.
4 ANALYSIS OF MONITORED AXIAL FORCES
Curves for axial forces of struts changing with time
are shown in Figure 3. During 1st layer of the earth
excavation, the axial force of ZL03-01 is relatively
small because of small deformation of the drilling bit-
ten piles due to small depth of excavation and high
lateral stiffness of drilling bitten piles. As the depth
of the foundation pit increases, ZL03-02 and ZL03-
03 take most part of the axial forces in the supporting
system, the axial force of ZL03-01 keeps very small
until removal of ZL01-02.
After the 2nd layer of earth excavation, the 2nd
layer of strut takes most of the force of the supporting
from 485 kN to 1141 kN by 135.3%. The axial force
of ZL03-02 decreases from 1141 kN to 846 kN after
installation of the 3rd layer of strut by 25.9%. It is
proved that installation of the 3rd layer of strut releases
the force on the 2nd layer of strut greatly. Installation
of a strut has a great influence on adjacent struts while
other struts are less influenced.
In the primary stage of the 3rd layer of earth exca-
vation, the 2nd layer of strut plays the most important
role in supporting system. Axial force of the 3rd layer
of strut increases sharply as the excavation depth

Figure 3. Axial forces-time curves of struts.
increases. At the bottom of the 3rd layer of earth exca-
vation, the total axial force provided by the 2nd and
3rd struts are 1800 kN, while axial force of 1st strut
is only 40 kN which can almost be ignored. The main
load bearing struts are the 2nd layer and 3rd layer of
struts.
The axial force of the 4th layer of strut increases
slowly during the 4th layer of earth excavation. Axial
force of ZL03-04 is 260 kN, while the total axial force
of the 2nd layer and 3rd layer of struts is 1911kN after
the 4th layer of earth excavation. And the axial force
of the 1st layer of strut is only 60 kN. During the 4th
layer of earth excavation, the main load bearing struts
are the 2nd layer and 3rd layer of struts, and the 4th
layer of strut bears part of the load while axial force of
the axial force of the 1st layer of strut can almost be
ignored.
After the bottom slab concreted, the axial forces of
the 3rd layer of struts increase greatly as the removal of
the 4th layer of struts, while axial forces of other struts
have little influence. And similarly, the axial forces of
the 2nd layer of struts increase greatly as the removal
of the 3rd layer of struts, while axial forces of other
struts have little influence. The removal of a strut has
a great influence on adjacent struts. That is the reason
why construction section of sidewall is not supposed
to be divided into long sections and avoid removing
too many struts of the 3rd layer at the same time. Dur-
ing the installation and removal of a strut, the axial
force of adjacent struts should be closely watched to
avoid risks of suddenly increase or suddenly decrease
of axial forces.And the monitoring analysis of the axial
forces in struts is especially important.
The comparison between the designed axial forces
and the monitored axial forces of struts are shown in
table 3.
As to the designed axial forces, the measured axial
forces during most time of construction of the metro
station are relatively secure. Especially the axial forces
of the 3rd layer and 4th layer of struts are conservative,
while on the other hand axial force of the 1st layer and
2nd layer of struts are insecure as its value of axial
force reaches 64.4% and 91.3% of the designed value.
771
Table 3. Comparison of designed axial forces and the
monitored axial forces.
Designed Monitored maximal Percent
Strut value (kN) value (kN) (%)
ZL03-1 601.5 387.2 64.4
ZL03-2 1830 1671.6 91.3
ZL03-3 2613 1391.6 53.3
ZL03-4 2538 261.7 10.3
The predicted axial force of the 1st layer of strut is
half the designed value as the 1st layer of strut is very
important to stability of supporting system and safety
of foundation pit. The axial force of ZL03-1 reaches
64.4 percent of designed value, which means that the
1st layer of strut should be enhanced. The predicted
axial force of the 2nd layer of strut is 0.7 times the
designed value, and the 2nd layer of strut is insecure
and it should be enhanced and axial force of the 2nd
layer of strut is supposed to be closely watched dur-
ing the 2nd, 3rd and 4th layer of earth excavation and
removal of the 3rd layer of strut. The measured axial
force of the 4th layer of strut is only 10.3% percent
of the designed value, which means that the designed
axial force of the 4th layer of strut is too conservative
for the foundation pit in silty sand.
The design of the foundation pit can be optimized to
achieve balance between safety and economy. Besides,
the axial forces reach its peak during the removing of
struts. Rational and careful design of removal of struts
and monitoring analysis of axial forces during removal
of struts is of vital importance to safety of foundation
pit construction.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The variation principles of axial forces of steel strut
in the excavation are analyzed in the combination
with the field monitoring data of a metro station
excavation in Hangzhou silty sand, 3 main conclusions
are obtained:
1. Installation and removal of a strut has great influ-
ence on its adjacent strut. Installation of next strut
reduces the force on above strut, but its influ-
ence on struts beyond the adjacent struts is small
due to the adjacent struts. Monitoring on adjacent
struts should be enhanced during the installation
and removal of struts.
2. The measured axial forces of struts are smaller
than designed forces. The axial forces of the 1st
and 4th struts are relatively conservative, while the
axial force of the 2nd strut is relatively insecure.
Optimization design on supporting system can be
carried out.
3. The axial forces on 4 struts are changing during
the excavation, and most struts will reach the peak
during the removal of struts.
REFERENCES
Liu Jianhang, Hou Xueyuan. 1997. Handbook of deep
excavation engineering. Beijing: China Architecture and
Building Press.
Jiang Hongsheng, Liu Guobin. 1998. Time-space effect on
strut force in deep excavation of soft soils. Chinese
Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, 20(6): 105107.
Zhang Zhongmiao, Fang Kai, Liu Xingwang, Wu Zufu. 2010.
Monitoring analysis of axial forces of strut for deep
772
foundation pits of subway station in silty sand. Chinese
Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, 7(32): 427429.
Yang Youhai, Wang Jianjun, Wu Jinguang, et al. 2008.
Informationized construction monitoring analysis of deep
foundation pit for Qiutao Road station of Hangzhou
Metro. Chinese Journal of Geotechnical Engineering,
30(10): 15501554.
R. P. Ashen, L. Waterman. 1994. A case history of foun-
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ICE: Geotechnical Engineering, 1994, 107(3): 173184.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Fracture assessment of cold-press-formed square hollow sections

at welded joints

M. Arita, Y. Kayamori, Y. Suzuki & K. Hanya

Steel Research Laboratories, Nippon Steel Corporation, Futtsu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan

T. Suzuki & I. Takeuchi

Construction Materials & Products Development Div., Nippon Steel Corporation, Tokyo, Japan

T. Yamaguchi
Nittetsu Column Co., Ltd.

ABSTRACT: Cold-pressed-formed square hollow sections (SHSs) are widely used for columns in steel struc-
ture. In addition to conventional steels such as JIS-SN490, the use of Thermo Mechanical Control Process
(TMCP) steel plates has been increasing in the manufacture of cold-pressed SHSs because TMCP steels have
both high strength and good weldability. However, the fracture properties of TMCP SHSs have not been demon-
strated in detail so far. In this study, the failure assessment diagram (FAD) was applied to the evaluation of the
critical fracture condition of TMCP SHSs, and their toughness requirements were investigated.

Keywords: Square hollow sections, FAD, Cold press forming, Fracture, TMCP

1 INTRODUCTION chemical elements such as nitrogen and the index

SHSs can resist load in any direction, and are widely
used for columns in steel structures. Cold-pressed-
formed SHSs are subjected to plastic strain at corners
(Figure 1), which degrades fracture toughness and
plastic deformation capacity (Akiyama, 1992, 1995).
In the 1995 Kobe earth-quake, brittle fracture occurred
at the corner of a weld connection between a cold-
pressed SHS and a diaphragm (Figure 2) without
any plastic deformation (Editorial Committee for the
Report on the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster,
1997).
In recent years, because of various efforts, the
plastic deformation capacity of cold-pressed SHSs
has been improved, for example, by optimizing some
of fHAZ (Furuya, 2007), limiting welding condi-
tions, and guaranteeing the Charpy V-Notch (CVN)
absorbed energy of not only flat parts but also corners
(Katayama, 2004).
In addition, the use of cold-pressed SHSs with
high strength steel manufactured by TMCP is increas-
ing. Despite its high strength, TMCP steel generally
has higher fracture toughness than that of conven-
tional steel. In bending tests conducted by Suzuki
(2010, 2011), TMCP steel columns showed ductile
fracture behavior and large plastic deformation capac-
ity equivalent to those of conventional cold-pressed
SHSs made after the Kobe earthquake. Although
the seismic performance of cold-pressed SHSs has
been improved, the critical condition between fracture
and plastic collapse has not been shown clearly. In

Figure 1. Section of a cold-press-formed SHS and the detail Figure 2. Beam-to-column connection through
of its corners. diaphragms.

773
Table 1. Steel plates used for column specimens.

Mechanical Property
Specification

Maximum
Minimum Yield to Chemical Composition
Tensile Tensile
Strength Ratio Thickness C Si Mn P S Ceq Pcm fHAZ
Specimens [MPa] [%] TMCP t [mm] [%] [%] [%] [%] [%] *1 *2 *3

A 490 85  27 0.08 0.28 1.54 0.006 0.001 0.39 0.18 0.30

B 590 85  22 0.14 0.22 1.45 0.006 0.001 0.41 0.23 0.37
C 590(JIS-SA44 80 - 22 0.15 0.26 1.55 0.008 0.003 0.43 0.24 0.41
D 490 85  22 0.08 0.21 1.53 0.019 0.004 0.35 0.17 0.40
E 490(JIS-SN49 80 - 22 0.15 0.21 1.50 0.009 0.001 0.42 0.24 0.46
F 490 85  25 0.14 0.28 1.30 0.008 0.002 0.37 0.22 0.37
G 490(JIS-SN49 80 - 25 0.14 0.22 1.49 0.006 0.001 0.41 0.43

*1 PCM = C + 30
Si
+ Mn
20
+ Ni
60
+ Cr
20
+ Mo
15
+ 10
V
+ Cu
20
+ 5B; *2 Ceq = C + Si
24
+ Mn
6
+ Ni
40
+ Cr
5
+ Mo
4
+ V
14
;
*3 fHAZ = C + 8 + 6(P + S) + 12N 4Ti
Mn

this paper, the failure assessment diagram (FAD) of
BS7910 was applied to the evaluation of cold-pressed
SHSs, and the Charpy-based toughness requirement
was investigated.
2 APPLICABILITY OF HAZ TOUGHNESS
ESTIMATION TO TMCP STEEL
geometry of a subsize CVN impact test specimen used
in the subsize CVN impact tests is shown in Figure 3.
These specimens were sampled in such a way that the
longitudinal direction of the specimens is the same as
rolling direction, which is equal to the length direction
of the columns. The estimated values of v E273 using
fHAZ almost corresponded to experimental values, and
fHAZ is applicable for TMCP steel.

When applying FAD to welded structures, the deteri-

oration of fracture toughness in the heat affected zone
(HAZ) should be considered. For initial ductile crack-
ing at a weld toe, the CVN absorbed energy in the HAZ
of single layer welding at 273K (0 C), v E273 , can be
estimated using fHAZ proposed by Furuya, where the
fHAZ is related to fracture toughness in the HAZ of sin-
gle layer welding. The weld toe at the corner of a SHS
is formed by the final pass, and its fracture toughness
is not affected by subsequent beads, hence the frac-
ture toughness at the corner of a SHS can be estimated
by fHAZ .
2.2 Applying estimated HAZ toughness to reference
specimens tests
Fracture toughness in the HAZ of the cold-pressed
SHS specimens (Suzuki, 2010, 2011) was estimated
using fHAZ , and is shown in Table 2, from A to E. In
the estimation, the CVN transition temperature, v TE ,
was calculated from

where ka is the coefficient of 0.06; T is test temper-

2.1 Validity of HAZ toughness estimation using fHAZ
for TMCP steel
Because fHAZ is essentially based on the test data of
JIS-SM490, SN400, and SN490, the validity of apply-
ing fHAZ to TMCP steel is not clear. To determine the
propriety of fHAZ for TMCP steel, the CVN absorbed
energy in the HAZ of a single bead at the corner of
cold-pressed SHSs was obtained and shown in Table 1
as materials F and G.
Experimental v E273 in HAZ was compared with
estimated v E273 in HAZ as shown in Table 2. In the
CVN impact tests, full-size specimens were used for
base metal, but subsize specimens were used for corner
single-layer HAZ. Single layer welding condition is
shown in Table 3. Subsize test results were converted to
those of full size by the method of Sokolov (1994). The
ature (273K); and v Eshelf in HAZ was assumed to be
v Eshelf in corner base metal according to F and G in
Table 2. From Table 2, it was demonstrated that v E273
in HAZ of after TMCP steel was 2030% higher than
that of conventional steel.
In addition, fracture toughness values based on
stress intensity factor, Kmat , were estimated by using
the master curve (BS7910) expressed in the following
equation,
where T0 is (T27J 18K); Tk is 25K; and Pf is 0.05. It
was revealed that the values of Kmat at 273K (Kmat273 )
of TMCP steel were higher than conventional steel.

774
Table 2. Fracture toughness values of column specimens.

Fracture Toughness Fracture Toughness

(Corner Base Metal) (Corner Single Layer HAZ)

Experiment Experiment Estimation(by fHAZ)

v Eshelf v E273 v TE T27J Kmat273

v Eshelf v E273 v E273 v TE T27J Kmat273

Specimens [J] [J] [K] [K] [MPa m] [J] [J] [J] [K] [K] [MPa m]

A 317 317 145 84 1159 280 239 200 152

B 312 312 197 177 231 240 253 214 128
C 238 238 185 155 337 200 245 211 133
D 241 241 218 203 151 210 241 207 142
E 258 258 223 182 212 140 270 234 94
F 273 273 198 177 225 255 255 240 240 203 146
G 271 271 215 201 151 262 202 180 262 225 105

Table 3. Single layer welding condition. Table 4. Mechanical properties at the corners.

Heat Interlayer Yield Tensile

Welding Input Preheating Tempareture stress strength
Methods wire [kJ/cm] [K] [K] Y U Elongation Y/T Ratio
Specimens [MPa] [MPa] [%] [%]
Metal JIS 2030 523 523
Active Z3312 A 547 588 15 93
Gas (CO2) YGW18 B 627 670 14 94
C 588 690 16 85
D 544 595 15 91
E 485 568 20 85

The width of the gross section including the flaw,

W , was calculated by the following equation,
Figure 3. Geometry of subsize CVN impact test specimen.

3 FRACTURE BEHAVIOR ASSESSMENT OF With the assumption of pure membrane stress acting
COLUMN-TO-DIAPHRAGM WELDED on the assessment area, fracture behavior was assessed
CONNECTIONS USING FAD using FAD. The load ratio, Lr , was defined by the
following equation,
In the FAD assessment of column-to-diaphragm
welded connections at the corner of cold-pressed
SHSs, initial flaws or cracks must be set. In this study,
two cases of flaws as shown in Figure 4 were assumed;
Case-1 has an initial 2 mm flaws in HAZ and Case- where y is the yield stress; and ref is the reference
2 has a ductile crack proceeding into the corner of stress.
the base metal after Case-1. These cases were based
on macroscopic cross sections of specimens shown by
Suzuki (2010, 2011). By applying FAD to specimens
A to E in Table 2, fracture behavior was estimated for
both cases, and was compared to their test results.
3.1 Case-1
An initial flaw of 2 mm in depth (see Figure 4) was
In this study, the bending stress, Pb , is assumed to
assumed, and the width of flaw, c, was calculated by
be 0; and Pm is the membrane stress from 0 to the
the following equation,
tensile strength, u , in Table 4. The fracture ratio Kr
was defined by the following equation,

where t is the specimen thickness and a is the depth of

flaw.

775

Figure 4. Shape of an assumed flaw or crack at the corner
weld toe.
Figure 5. FAD assessment of specimens A to E in Case-1.
where KI is the applied mode-I stress intensity fac-
tor around the surface flaw; and Kmat is the Kmat273 in
Table 2. The fracture assessment curve shown in Fig-
ure 5 was calculated using the level-2A method. The
formula for the level-2A assessment curve is given by
the following equation,
The cutoff line of Lr = Lrmax shown in Figure 5 was
determined by the following equation,
The cutoff line was defined as the critical line of
plastic collapse. Therefore, when the crack driving
force from Pb = 0 to u passes through the cutoff line,
its fracture behavior is estimated as plastic collapse.
In that case, it is assessed that the cold-pressed SHS is
not fractured in a brittle manner. As shown in Figure
776
Figure 6. FAD assessment of specimens A to E in Case-2.
Figure 7. Required CVN absorbed energy at 273K (0 C)
for plastic collapse (not to fracture in brittle manner).
5, in the Case-1, all the cold-pressed SHS specimens
resulted in plastic collapse.
3.2 Case-2
A propagated crack of 6 mm in depth as shown in
Figure 4 was assumed, where c and W were cal-
culated from equations (3) and (4), respectively. All
cold-pressed SHS specimens also resulted in plastic
collapse as shown in Figure 6.
These results of both Case-1 and Case-2 are in
agreement with the actual fracture behaviors obtained
by the experiments (Suzuki, 2010, 2011).
4 REQUIRED CVN ABSORBED ENERGY FOR
PLASTIC COLLAPSE IN
COLUMN-TO-DIAPHRAGM WELDED
CONNECTIONS
In order to gain the plastic deformability of steel struc-
tures with column-to-diaphragm welded connections,
the required fracture toughness should be clarified for
plastic collapse. The required CVN absorbed energy at
273K, v E273req , was calculated from the minimum Kr
that ensured plastic collapse determined by the cut-
off line. The critical point was calculated with the
intersection of formulas (9) and (10).
 Figure 7 shows the relationship between v E273req
at the SHS corners and the crack depth according to
Level-2A FAD. These requirements are lower than the
measured v E273 in Table 2, and this suggests that recent
cold-pressed SHSs have safety margins to prevent brit-
tle fracture as long as the crack depth is smaller than
6 mm.
This evaluation also implies that high Y/T ratio
is advantageous to low v E273req for plastic collapse
because of the determination of cutoff line Lrmax .
The validity of this evaluation should be further
investigated in the future.
5 CONCLUSIONS
In order to investigate the relation between the fracture
behavior and fracture toughness of welded connections
in cold-press-formed SHSs, the CVN absorbed energy
was estimated in the HAZ of the connections, and FAD
was applied to the evaluation of critical fracture condi-
tions. The experimental and analytical results obtained
in this study are summarized as follows.
(1) The index of fHAZ estimated the appropriate CVN
absorbed energy in the HAZ of a single bead at the
corner of a cold-pressed SHS manufactured with
TMCP steel.
(2) The CVN absorbed energy (v E273 ) of HAZ in
TMCP steel resulted in 210280J, and they were
2030% higher than those of conventional steel.
(3) The required CVN absorbed energy for plas-
tic collapse was lower than the measured CVN
absorbed energy of HAZ in cold-press-formed
SHSs manufactured with TMCP steel.
777
REFERENCES
Akiyama et al 1992. Effects of Manufacturing Processes on
Ultimate Behaviors of Box-shaped Steel Members. Jour-
nal of Structural Engineering., AIJ, Vol.38B, pp. 399410
Editorial Committee for the Report on the Hanshin-Awaji
Earthquake Disaster 1997. Report on the Hanshin-Awaji
Earthquake Disaster. AIJ, Building Series Vol. 3
Akiyama et al 1995. Fracture in welded joints of cold press-
formed square steel pipes. J-Struct. Constr. Eng., AIJ,
No.471, 163171
BSI 2005. BS7910: Buide to methods for assessing the
acceptability of flaws in metallic structures.
Furuya et al 2007. A new proposal of HAZ toughness evalu-
ation method: Part2. Supplement to the welding journal,
AWS & WRC, Feb., 44-s
Katayama et al 2004. Structural Performance of Cold
Press Formed Rectangular Column Guaranteed Fracture
Toughness. Steel Construction Engineering, JSSC,Vol.11,
No.41
Kuwamura et al 1995. Criterion for ductile crack initiation in
structural steels under triaxial stress state. J.Struct. Constr.
Eng., AIJ, No.477, 129135
Sokolov et al 1994. On impact testing of subsize Charpy V-
notch type specimens, US Doe rep.
Suzuki et al 2010. Structural performance of cold press
formed rectangular column using high yield strength steel
Part1 & Part2. Structures III Summaries of technical
papers of annual meeting, AIJ, 917918
Suzuki et al 2011. Structural performance of high yield
strength rectangular HSS columns subjected to tensile
axial force. Proceedings of constructional steel, JSSC,
Vol.19, 677684
The Japan Welding Engineering Society 2003. WES2808 :
Method of assessing brittle fracture in steel weldments
subjected to large cyclic and dynamic strain.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Research on deformation capacity of Frame-Bent Structure under

bi-directional horizontal seismic excitation

Xiaohong Bai & Fengjun Liu

Planning and Architectural Engineering College, Henan University of Science &Technology, Luoyang, China

ABSTRACT: Because of the eccentricity and irregularity of the frame-bent structure in the industrial workshop,
based on the prototype of thermal power plants principal workshop, the spatial computational model of integral
structure was established and elastoplastic time history analysis under two-directional horizontal earthquake
were made. The dynamic properties and the spatial deformation performance were studied on emphasis. The
result shows that the stiffness of longitudinal direction and the transverse direction is abrupt, which makes the
torsional effect evidently, and the weak parts are more. Because of the special productive demand, torsional
effect was reduced from adjusting the dimension and position of structural members.

Keywords: frame-bent structure, elastoplastic time-history analysis, biaxial eccentric, irregularity

1 GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS 2 FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS MODEL

From structural seismic response observation and 2.1 Calculation model

earthquake damage survey, the seismic performance
A sub-space model of three-bay, eight-span frame-
of irregular shape structure is affected seriously by
bent R.C structure composed of steam-turbine-house,
lateral-torsional coupling vibration due to eccentric-
deoxidized bay and bunker bay adopted to analyze the
ity. Under bi-directional horizontal seismic excita-
spatial seismic response. The ichnography and ele-
tion, furthermore, the response of irregular structure
vation are graph 1. The disposal of prototype and
will increase distinctly than unidirectional earthquake
distributed steel were detailed to the reference [3].
excitation[1][2] .
Viewed as the complexity of the structure, relevant
In the R.C. industrial structures such as electric
simplified were made to the model: (1) Because of a
power, metallurgy and mine, because of demands
less influence on the dynamic response, the roof truss
of production technology, the multilayer deoxidized
was replaced by an axis member bar and an ideal hinge
bay joined with bunker bay and large-span mono-
was regarded in the middle of the roof truss and bent.
layer steam-turbine-house, which is a big spatial
Namely, the inactivation of roof truss was taken no
system comprised of multilayer structures and mono-
account of in the seismic action. (2) The practice struc-
layer structures in a whole workshop. Because heavy
tural members were simplified with the spatial link
equipments offset one-side of workshop, the centre
element and shell element. The dispersed link element
of stiffness of the system departures the centre of
and shell element were connected together by nodes
mass, which becomes into being a spatial asymmetric
which came into being from the program of beam, col-
structure. The structural system is capacious, com-
umn, floor and shear wall. So, the three-dimensional
plex disposal, weak integrality, and the load transfer
finite element model was built considered the defor-
route of it is ambiguity and directness. For the biaxial
mation of floor in the plane and out of plane. The
eccentric frame-bent structure, the longitudinal earth-
spatial analysis model is graph 1.
quake action will affect transverse structural members,
and the two directional vibrations coupled each other.
On the basis of large-scale dynamic test in the early[3] ,
2.2 Input seismic wave
the spatial elastoplastic seismic response of frame-
bent structure under bi-directional horizontal seismic Based on the provision of earthquake input in the Seis-
excitation was analyzed in the paper and the spatial mic Design Code of Building Structure (GB50011-
deformation capacity was focused on. 2001), EL-Centro, Taft and Tangshan wave were

779
Graph 1. Dimension of the prototype and spatial analysis model of frame-bent structure.
Graph 2. X story displacement of spatial structure.
selected representatively to operate on the structure
for ten seconds, and the earthquake wave with peak
acceleration 220 gal. was conducted.
To the spatial structural model, the one with the
bigger peak acceleration of each pair earthquake wave
was operated on the transverse direction(X axis), at the
same time, the other of the smaller peak acceleration
of the relevant pair earthquake wave was operated on
the longitudinal direction(Y axis). The damping ratio
in the paper is 0.05.
3 ELASTIC-PLASTIC DISPLACEMENT OF
SPATIAL STRUCTURE
3.1 Lateral displacement
The displacement response of spatial structure of trans-
verse and longitudinal direction is shown in graph 2
and 3. The figure shows that displacement and defor-
mation of structure meet the specification and the
stiffness is fitness. On the same seismic action, the
curve properties of transverse and longitudinal dis-
placement are different, and that the shear deformation
is the major of transverse structure, whereas the bend-
ing deformation is the major of longitudinal structure.
The longitudinal displacement curve is smoother than
780
Graph 3. y story displacement of spatial structure.
transverse curve which indicates that the relatively uni-
form distribution of mass and stiffness on longitudinal
structure.
3.2 inter-story displacement angle of spatial
structure
Under each pair of earthquake action, the chart of
inter-story displacement angle of spatial structure of
transverse and longitudinal direction is graph 4 and 5.
In the graph, its evident that the inter-story displace-
ment angle of both axes direction is different, and the
one in longitudinal direction is smoother than that of
transverse direction relatively. It can be explained that
there have no weak story in the longitudinal direction.
Because of the seventh retractile floor in longitudinal
direction, the stiffness of structure is broken which
makes the stiffness distributed non-homogeneously,
the displacement angle in this direction is biggest.
The mass and stiffness distributes non-homogeneously
in transverse direction, moreover, weak place on the
structure is much more, which make the curve of
inter-story displacement angle along vertical struc-
ture change complexly. The reason of the biggest value
of inter-story displacement angle in transverse direc-
tion is on second story is that the length of bottom
layer columns are not equal, which makes torsion
Graph 4. X Inter-story displacement angle of spatial
structure.
Graph 5. Y Inter-story displacement angle of spatial
structure.
coupled with vibration under earthquake motion. As
a result, the deformation concentrates on this story.
The curve of inter-story displacement angle in trans-
verse direction breaks on the third story and fifth
story, and the value becomes bigger. This is because
that there is no transversal frame beam in the range
of the third story. Because frame columns hinge to
transverse steel beams which were added to pro-
vide the stronger supporting requirement to the coal
bucket beam, the restraint of lateral deformation is
weaker. So, under the operation of earthquake, the
value of displacement and displacement angle on the
story are quite both bigger. It is obvious that short
column of bottom layer, second story columns, coal
bucket layer and the fifth retractile floor are all weak
places of the structure under earthquake action. The
characteristics of structural deformation in calcula-
tion accord with the displacement reaction of model
pseudo-dynamic test [3] .
3.3 Spatial Torsional Reaction of Structure
Under the bidirectional earthquake action, the tor-
sional angle of frame-bent structure of transverse and
longitudinal direction is graph 6 and 7. As the graph
shows, the torsional angel of rotating transverse axis(X
781
Graph 6. Torsional angle of structure rotating X axis.
Graph 7. Torsional angle of structure rotating Y axis.
axis) is smaller than the value of rotating longitudinal
axis(Y axis), and the change trend of curve is even
along the height of structure relatively. For being dif-
ferent in structure type of bent and multilayer frame,
which makes it non-homogeneous of plane stiffness
distributed of the whole structure, and the coal bucket
layer and other heavy equipments offset one-side of
workshop, all in all, which make the center of mass
and the center of stiffness of each story are all make
a deviation along the vertical of structure. So, it is
worse in non-homogeneous of mass and stiffness dis-
tributed relative to longitudinal direction of structure.
To this spatial frame-bent structure, its more evident
of influence that the degree of irregularity of trans-
verse direction on integral structural torsion. From the
graph, the curve breaks and increases because of the
staggered bottom floor and fifth retractile floor.
Aimed at the located floor of the maximum torsional
angle in the transverse and longitudinal direction of
structure, the time history curve of torsional angle
of both directions operated by the EL-Centro earth-
quake action with 220gal.peak acceleration is graph
8 and 9. As the graph shows, the difference of time
history cure of each floor of rotating longitudinal axis
is so great, and the time of corresponding peak value
Graph 8. The time-history curve of torsional angle of structure rotating X axis.
Graph 9. The time-history curve of torsional angle of structure rotating Y axis.
is not same. It is mostly because that the degree of
non-homogeneous of the mass and stiffness distributed
in transverse direction of structure is so worse than
another direction.
4 CONCLUSIONS
According to the requirements of code [4], and in
order to ensure that the structure will not have tor-
sional failure under earthquake effect, the stiffness of
transverse should be increased as far as possible to
make the dynamic characteristics of two principal axes
similar. For the special functions of use, the building
shape has to be irregular inevitably. So, on the basis of
assurance of structural arrangement for the demand of
manufacturing technique, lateral rigidity of structure
should be big end down as for as possible and uniform
change gradually. In addition, by means of reduction
of structural mass and the degree of stiffness muta-
tion, greater torsional effect of these mutation parts
should be reduced. From adjustment of dimension and
position of structure members, its find out that every
type of torsional control index will restrain or restrict
782
mutually [5]. So, from whole for the structure design, it
should be thinking about comprehensive performance
of adjustment measures on economy, effect, and appli-
cation, the optimal case for the study of the structure
will be find finally.
REFERENCES
Hongnan li, 2006. Structural multiple seismic theory and
design method. Beijing. Science press.
S.H. Jeong, A.S.Elnashai, 2005. Analytical assessment of
an irregular RC frame for full-scale 3D pseudo-dynamic
testingpart?: anslytical model verification. Journal of
Earthquake Engineering 9(1), 95128.
Guo-liang Bai, Wu Tao, 2002. Experimental reports of the
seismic behavior of R.C. structure of larger-scale ther-
mal power plants. Xian University of Architecture and
Technology.
Seismic Design Code of Building Structure (GB50011-
2001), 2008.
Xiao-hong Bai, 2008. Multi-Dimensional Seismic Response
Analysis of the Reinforced Concrete Frame-Bent Struc-
ture Considered Lateral-Torsional Coupled. Doctoral Dis-
sertation.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Flexural rehabilitation of RC beams using self-compacting

concrete jacketing

C.E. Chalioris, C.N. Pourzitidis, C.P. Papadopoulos & D. Fotis

Democritus University of Thrace, Department of Civil Engineering, Xanthi, Greece

ABSTRACT: The structural rehabilitation of reinforced concrete beams damaged under flexural loading using
a self-compacting concrete U-formed jacketing technique is experimentally investigated. Three initially tested
beams were restored using reinforced thin jackets and retested by the same monotonic four-point bending loading.
Test results of the six beams indicated that the examined jacketing is a reliable rehabilitation method since the
flexural capacity of the jacketed beams was ameliorated with respect to the initial ones.

Keywords: self-compacting concrete, jacketing, reinforced concrete, test, rehabilitation

1 INTRODUCTION 2 EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM

1.1 Jacketing of reinforced concrete members 2.1 Initial specimens characteristics

The application of jacketing in deficient or damaged
Reinforced Concrete (RC) members is one of the most
commonly rehabilitation technique (Julio et al. 2003).
Jackets constructed by RC (Vandoros et al. 2008)
and FRP sheets (Chalioris 2008) have been exam-
ined as strengthening methods in existing RC columns
and beams. Normal and thin RC jackets have also
been successfully applied to restore damaged beams
(Altun 2004) and beam-column joints subassemblages
(Karayannis et al. 2008).
Three RC beams (S1, S2 and S3) with rectangular
cross-section (b/h) subjected to monotonic four-point
bending loading. The geometrical and mechanical
characteristics of the specimens are presented in
Table 1. The steel reinforcement of these beams is
shown in Figure 1 and summarized in Table 1 in terms
of tensional longitudinal and transverse reinforcement
ratios (l,tens. and t , respectively). The mean concrete
cylinder compressive strength (fc,cyl ) of each beam is
also presented in Table 1.

1.2 Self-compacting concrete 2.2 Rehabilitated specimens characteristics

Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) is a highly flow
able non-segregating concrete that spreads and fills
into formwork, encapsulating even the most con-
gested reinforcement without any mechanical vibra-
tion demand (Khayat 1999, Sideris 2007).
Good workability, remarkable filling and passing
ability make SCC an optimal material to rehabilitate
damaged concrete parts, restoring element continu-
ity and homogeneity. Further, SCC crosses thick new
and existing reinforcement without causing vacuums
into the element or any discontinuity at the interface
between the existing and the new concrete (Albanesi
et al. 2008).
For these reasons, SCC mixtures with high fluidity,
small diameter aggregate, shrinkage offset and high-
strength are usually required in jacketing applications
because of the lack of space in the jacket. This is due
to its diminished thickness associated with the volume
occupied by the added steel reinforcement (Julio et al.
2003, Albanesi et al. 2008).
After the initial loading, the three damaged beams
were rehabilitated using reinforced thin jackets made
of SCC. The jacketed specimens were retested under
the same flexural loading as the initial beams.
The thickness of the jackets was 25 mm. Details
of the jacketing scheme are shown in Figure 2. Jack-
ets encased the bottom width and both vertical sides
of the damaged beams (U-jacketing). The steel rein-
forcement of the jackets consists of small diameter
5 (5 mm) mild steel bars and U-formed stirrups,
Table 1. Characteristics of the initial beams.
b/h fc,cyl l,tens t Py Pu
Beam mm/mm a/d MPa % % kN kN
S1 200/300 2.91 27.6 0.56 0.25 109.9 130.5 16.1
S2 125/200 3.43 28.2 0.46 0.10 29.9 36.4 5.0
S3 125/200 3.43 25.5 0.46 0.21 30.6 43.5 13.7

783
 Table 2. Characteristics of the jacketed beams.

b/h fscc,cyl l,tens t Py Pu

Beam mm/mm a/d MPa % % kN kN

S1-J 250/325 2.62 43.8 0.82 0.52 210.8 231.9 3.6

S2-J 175/225 2.93 42.8 0.50 0.22 41.5 55.2 11.0
S3-J 175/225 2.93 43.0 0.50 0.26 43.0 60.7 10.8

Figure 3. Application of the jacketing steel reinforcement

(view from the bottom).

Table 3. Mix proportions of SCC.

C W/C FA CA Filler SP R VMA

1 0.54 2.48 2.25 0.28 0.0335 0.0032 0.0012

sides of the initial beams to support the longitudinal

Figure 1. Geometry, test setup and steel reinforcement
arrangement of the tested beams.
Figure 2. Cross-sectional dimensions and steel reinforce-
ment arrangement of the jacketed beams.
as displayed in Figures 1 and 2. The geometrical
and mechanical characteristics of the jacketed beams
(S1-J, S2-J and S3-J) are also presented in Table 2. It is
mentioned that the values of the flexural and shear rein-
forcement ratios in Table 2 concern the total amount
of the steel reinforcement (sum of the reinforcement
of the initial beam and the jacket).
No special roughening of the surface of the dam-
aged beam was performed prior jacketing. L-shaped
mild steel dowels 5 were placed in the vertical
bars of the jacket. Dowels were bonded by injected
epoxy resin into 7 mm holes that were drilled before.
Steel bars, stirrups and dowels of the jacketed beams
S2-J and S3-J were all welded together. Welding only
between dowels and bars was performed in jacketed
beam S1-J. It is also mentioned that the steel bars of
the damaged beams S1 and S3 that have been fractured
during the initial loading were repaired using welded
splices with an extra short overlapping bar, before the
installation of the jacketing reinforcement. Steel rein-
forcement details of the jackets are also shown in the
photographs of Figure 3.
Cast-in-place SCC was used to complete the reha-
bilitation procedure of the damaged beams. Mix pro-
portions for casting one cubic meter of SCC are
summarized in Table 3 where C: Cement that con-
tents 305 kg CEM IV (W-P)/B 32.5 N and 51 kg
CEM II 42.5 N, W /C: Water to cement ratio, FA: Fine
aggregate (sand), CA: Coarse aggregate with maxi-
mum diameter 14 mm, SP: Superplasticizer (Glenium
21), R: Retarder (Pozzolith 134 CF) and VMA: Vis-
cosity modifying admixture (Georgiadis et al. 2010).
The mean SCC cylinder compressive strength used for
each jacketed beam (fscc,cyl ) is presented in Table 2.
After SCC pouring, the final result was generally
good although the limited superficial imperfections
that were observed after formwork stripping.
2.3 Test setup
All six beams were tested in monotonically increas-
ing loading up to failure or the maximum deformation

784
Figure 4. Experimental behavior of the beams S1 & S1-J.
Figure 5. Experimental behavior of the beams S2 & S2-J.

capacity of the test apparatus. The experimental setup

is shown in Figure 1. Beams were edge-supported on
roller supports using a rigid laboratory frame. The
imposed loading was applied using a steel spreader
beam in two points in the midspan of the beams. The
shear span to the effective depth ratio (a/d) values of
the initial and jacketed beams are presented in Tables
1 and 2, respectively.
Loading was imposed consistently by a pinned-end
actuator and measured by a load cell with accuracy
0.05 kN. The net midspan deflections were recorded
by three LVDTs with accuracy 0.01 mm. One of them
was placed in the midspan of the beams and the other
two in the supports (see also Fig. 1). Measurements
of load and corresponding deflections were read and
recorded continuously during the tests.

3 TEST RESULTS

3.1 Flexural strength and behavior

The experimental behavior of the initial and the
jacketed beams in terms of flexural capacity versus
midspan deflection curves is presented and compared
in Figures 4, 5 and 6 for the specimens S1 & S1-J,
S2 & S2-J and S3 & S3-J, respectively. Values of the
applied load at yield point (Py ) and at ultimate capacity
(Pu ) of the initially tested and the jacketed beams are
presented in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. From these
load values and the behavioral curves of Figures 46 a
significant improve of the flexural capacity of the jack-
eted beams with respect to the corresponding initially
tested beams can be observed.
The overall flexural behavior of the initially tested
and the jacketed beams can be also evaluated using
the displacement ductility value of that expresses
the ratio of the deflection at failure to the deflection
at yield point of the beam. These values for the initial
Figure 6. Experimental behavior of the beams S3 & S3-J.
and the jacketed beams are presented in Tables 1 and 2,
respectively. An enhanced ductile behavior is observed
only in the case of the jacketed beam S2-J with respect
to the corresponding initial beam S2.
3.2 Cracking patterns and failure modes
The cracking patterns at failure of the tested beams
are displayed in the photographs of Figure 7. From
this Figure it can be observed that the initially tested
specimens S1 & S3 and the corresponding jacketed
beams S1-J & S3-J exhibited pure flexural response.
Beams S2 and S2-J demonstrated a rather com-
bined failure mode of flexure and shear. Tension bars
of these beams yielded and a flexural response is firstly

785

Figure 7. Cracking patterns at failure.
observed. However, shear failure occurred at the end
due to the inadequate amount of the transverse rein-
forcement. Beam S2 exhibited severe shear diagonal
crack between the stirrups, whereas S2-J failed due to
the fracture of the stirrup of the jacket.
786
4 CONCLUDING REMARKS
The application of a reinforced thin SCC jacket for
the rehabilitation of RC beam damaged under flexural
loading was experimentally investigated. Test results
addressed that the examined jacketing seems to be
an easy-to-apply and effective technique to restore
damaged RC beams since the flexural capacity of the
jacketed beams was fully restored or ameliorated with
respect to the initially tested specimens.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The help and expertise on self-compacting concrete
properties by K.K. Sideris, Assist. Prof. of Democritus
University of Thrace, is gratefully appreciated.
REFERENCES
Albanesi, T., Lavorato, D., Nuti C. & Santini S. 2008. Exper-
imental tests on repaired and retrofitted bridge piers.
In Walraven & Stoelhorst (eds.), Tailor Made Concrete
Structures; Proc. intern. fib symp., Amsterdam, 1922
May 2008: 673678. London: Taylor & Francis Group,
CRC Press.
Altun, F. 2004. An experimental study of the jacketed
reinforced-concrete beams under bending. Construction
and Building Materials 18(8): 611618.
Chalioris, C.E. 2008. Torsional strengthening of rectangu-
lar and flanged beams using carbon fibre-reinforced-
polymers Experimental study. Construction and
Building Materials 22(1): 2129.
Georgiadis, A.S., Sideris, K.K. & Anagnostopoulos, N.S.
2010. Properties of SCC produced with limestone filler
or viscosity modifying admixture. Journal of Materials in
Civil Engineering 22(4): 352360.
Julio, E.S., Branco, F. & Silva, V.D. 2003. Structural reha-
bilitation of columns with reinforced concrete jacketing.
Progress in Structural Engineering and Materials 5(1):
2937.
Karayannis, C.G., Chalioris, C.E. & Sirkelis, G.M. 2008.
Local retrofit of exterior RC beamcolumn joints using
thin RC jackets An experimental study. Earthquake
Engineering and Structural Dynamics 37(5): 727746.
Khayat, K.H. 1999. Workability, testing and performance of
self-consolidating concrete. ACI Materials Journal 96(3):
346353.
Sideris, K.K. 2007. Mechanical characteristics of self-
consolidating concretes exposed to elevated temperatures.
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering 19(8): 648654.
Vandoros, K.G. & Dritsos, S.E. 2008. Concrete jacket con-
struction detail effectiveness when strengthening RC
columns. Construction and Building Materials 22(3):
264276.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Quantitative robustness analysis of reinforced concrete frames

Y. Gao & X.L. Liu

Department of civil engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

ABSTRACT: Structural robustness, as developed aiming at the sudden events, is the concept to evaluate
whether local damages to the structure will cause disproportional consequences. In the present paper, with a
typical structural form, i.e. reinforced concrete frame, a loaded structure is mapped to a weighted graph to
quantitatively describe its topology and its robustness is related to the working condition of each edge of the
graph after sudden events. Furthermore, the structure graph is expressed as a hierarchical model which is built by
a set of vertex-connected units. The relation between the change of the weighted graph and the perturbation of the
properties of the unit(s) in each hierarchy indicates the sensitivity of the structural topology to the corresponding
part(s). Thus, the most vulnerable part, as well as the topologic difference between the subordinates of the
structure, can be found accordingly.

Keywords: Structural robustness; Structural topology; Weighted graph; Hierarchical model

1 INTRODUCTION indicated by the contribution of these indirect risks to

total risk (Baker & Faber 2008). In the latter group,
1.1 Research status of structural robustness N.J. Woodman described a structure as a hierarchy
model and found the hazard potential through a partic-
Structural robustness is the concept to evaluate
ular failure scenario (Pinto & Woodman 2002). L.M.
whether local damages to the structure will cause dis-
Zhang and X.L. Liu considered a loaded structure as
proportional consequences. It belongs to the structural
a directed network of energy transfer. The key path
safety and is against to the uncertainties of the struc-
in frame structures was determined by the quantity of
ture systems. The research significance of this subject
energy transferring in and out at members and joints
is to find and to eliminate the most vulnerable parts of
(Liu & Zhang 2007).
the structure and to keep the expected function of the
structure under the conditions of sudden events.
Being different from the randomness of the tra- 1.2 Research method in the present paper
ditional loading and the variability of the structural
The author considers the structural robustness as a
resistance, the uncertainty dealt with by the structural
property of the structure-loading system, which can
robustness, such as the terrorist attack, will change
be mirrored by the structural topology. A typical struc-
the structural topology, whatever on the direct con-
tural form, i.e. reinforced concrete frame is analyzed in
sequence (initial local damage) point of view or on
the present paper. Using the weighted graph and hier-
the indirect consequence (progressive collapse) point
archy model to describe a structure, the contribution
of view (Liu & Gao 2010). With different force
of each unit in a particular hierarchy to the structural
transmission mechanism, the basic condition of most
robustness is indicated by the structural topological
traditional methods for evaluating structural safety
change caused by the property perturbation of this unit.
will be no longer available. Accordingly, the research
For the simplification of the analysis, a member
methodology shall not only rely on the safety margin
is assumed to fail once its inner force state touches
in structural calculation and the safety management
the failure surface of the material. The failure of the
during structural construction, but should also import
member is assumed as conceptual removing without
the specific robustness analysis (Liu 2001).
additional loading caused by large rotation or crashing.
Most of the existing quantitative analysis to struc-
tural robustness is based on the probabilistic of the
risk or on the topology of the structure itself. In the
2 WEIGHTED GRAPH OF REINFORCED
former group, B.R. Ellingwood established a gen-
CONCRETE FRAMES
eral framework to evaluate risk probabilistic of the
design against the progressive collapse of structures
2.1 Definition of structure weighted graph
(Ellingwood 1978). M.H. Faber computed both direct
risk and indirect risk, which were caused by potential Essentially, structural robustness is the ability of sub-
damages to the system. The structural robustness was sequent force transmission of the structure after local

787
Table 1. Calculation of the shear capacity.
Condition Calculation
Eccentric compression V 1.75ft bh0
+
fyv Asv h0
fy As  s As
+1
Eccentric tension V 1.75ft bh0
+
fyv Asv h0
+1
*N is valued as 0.3fc A if it is larger than 0.3fc A.
y A s 1 fc bx
**The right hand side is valued as fyv Asv h0 /s if it is less than
fyv Asv h0 /s.
destructions. Being similar with a network, the struc-
ture should be emphasized on the connections of the
nodes and the working condition of each loading path.
Furthermore, using the graph theory, the joints and
members of the structure being corresponding to the
vertexes and edges of the graph, the properties of each
member being integrated as the weight of the related
edge, the whole structure can be mapped to a weighted
graph.
According to a member of the reinforced concrete
frame, the weight w can be defined as a positive scalar
factor, by which the combination of the axial force,
shear force and bending moment (N , V , M ) on the
critical section turns into the inner force state (N /w,
V /w, M /w) on its failure surface. Because of the lack
of a relatively perfect and unified failure theory for
the member of reinforced concrete frame, its failure
surface is estimated by calculating its shear capacity
and flexural and axial capacity which are according to
the code for design of concrete structures (GB50010-
2010).
2.2 Calculation of weight
Firstly, the member is assumed to be controlled by its
shear capacity. The related calculation, according to
the code, is shown in Tab. 1.
In the above, , defined by M /(Vh0 ), stands for the
shear span ratio of the calculated section; b, A and h0
are respectively the width, area and effective height
of the member section; ft and fc are the symbols of
the axial tensile and compressive strength of the con-
crete; fyv , Asv and s are respectively the tensile strength,
section area and spacing of the stirrup.
According to the definition of w, the limit state of
the eccentrically compressed member is as below.
where N /w is valued as 0.3fc A if it is larger than 0.3fc A.
The weight of this member is then obtained.
Table 2. Calculation of the flexural and axial capacity.
Condition Calculation
+ 0.07N * Eccentric N 1 fc bx +
s
compression Ne 1 fc bx h0 2x + fy A s (h0 a s )*
0.2N **
s Small eccentric Ne fy A s h0 a s
tension Ne fy As (h0 as )
Large eccentric N fy As f
tension Ne 1 fc bx h0 2x + fy A s (h0 a s )*
*x is required to be larger than 2a s . If it is not satisfied, use
the formula Ne fy As (h0 a s ) instead.
The weight of the member in eccentric tension
condition can be deduced similarly as follows.
Secondly, the member is assumed to be controlled
by its flexural and axial capacity. The calculation,
according to the code, is shown in Tab. 2.
In the above, x is the compression height; 1 is
the ratio of the equivalent rectangular compressive
stress to fc ; fy and A s are respectively the compressive
strength and section area of longitudinal steel bars in
the compression zone; fy , s and As are respectively
the tensile strength, actual stress and section area of
longitudinal steel bars in the tension zone; a s and as
stand for the distances from the compressive and ten-
sile bars to the edges; e and e stand for the distances
from the compressive and tensile bars to the point of
application of the axial force.
If a member is eccentrically compressed, the actual
stress of the tensile steel bar s equals to fy when
2a s x b h0 or equals to ( 1 )fy /( b 1 ) approx-
imately when x > b h0 . Here, is the relative com-
pression height and b is its boundary; 1 is the ratio
of x to the height of the neutral axis. Put the s into
the related formula in Tab. 2, consider the limit state
and obtain x by solving the function. The weight of the
member can then be worked out.
If the member is in the condition of eccentric
tension, the compression height x can be solved in
a similar way, the weight is calculated and shown
respectively as Eq. (5) for the small eccentric tension
condition and as Eq. (6) for the large eccentric tension
condition.
788

The weight of the member indicates the fullness
of its inner force. Thus, by comparing the two condi-
tions of shear capacity and flexural and axial capacity,
the weight w is chosen as the larger one. Furthermore,
the graph can be expressed by using the adjacency
matrix.
where the element wij in the row i and column j stands
for the weight of the edge between vertex i and vertex
j; n is the amount of all members. When the inner force
of a member is less than its strength, the related edge is
in the normal working condition and wij [0,1). When
the inner force combination of the critical section of
a member is infinitely close to its failure surface, this
edge is in ultimate state and wij = 1. When the mem-
ber is broken or about to take mechanism motion, the
edge fails and wij = . The weight between the same
vertex is defined as 0, while the one between the non-
connected vertexes is defined as . The distributed
form of the numbers in w shows the adjacency rela-
tion between all joints, and the specific value shows
the working condition of each member. This is the
quantitative expression of the structural topology.
2.3 Application of weighted graph
Use the vector D which is integrated by the damage
of each member to stand for the initial local damage
to the structure, and emphasize the weighted graph w
at the final state of the structure failure sequence. It
is clear that w is a function of D. The component Di
of D is the reduced proportion of the section size of
the member, including its area, moment of inertia and
the area of the reinforcement. When Di = 0, the related
member is undamaged. When Di = 1, the member is
totally destroyed.
The stiffness, damping and mass matrices of the
structure are respectively expressed as K, C and M.
The external loading vector, including the nodal forces
caused by the concentrated loadings and the equiva-
lent nodal forces caused by the distributed loadings, is
noted as R. Then the structure has the original state,
including the nodal displacement, nodal velocity and
the weighted graph according to the inner forces of
members.
The degeneration of the stiffness, damping and mass
of the structure caused by the initial damage are
K,

C and
M. The change of the loading due to the
789
change of the structural topology is
R.The difference
between the internal force and the external loading
then can be calculated as
R
KV0 , by which small
increments of the nodal displacement and velocity are
generated as dV and dV. The new information of the
structure is shown as below.
Then the parameters of the system can be obtained
as M(w1 ), C(w1 ), K(w1 ) and R(w1 ). The new unbal-
anced force, as well as the new increments of the nodal
displacement and velocity can be calculated similarly.
The information of the new structure can be recorded
as w2 . This cyclic process keeps going for m steps until
the following condition is satisfied.
where is a small number due to accuracy. The state of
the current structure is also recorded by its weighted
graph.
In this way, the relation between the structural
weighted graph and the initial damage is established.
Although it is hard to express w(D) by a specific
functional form, the w-D relation can be numerically
described by each w with different D. D indicates the
perturbation of the properties of some members. The
initial weighted graph is a constant which implies that
the weighted graph w at the final step shows the change
of the structural topology. Thus, with a specific value
or form of w, the component of D can be analyzed to
indicate the sensitivity of the structural topology to the
related member.
3 PROCEDURE OF ROBUSTNESS ANALYSIS
Due to the high level of the nonlinearity of the function
(12), for a given w, the solution D is usually non-
unique. Therefore, it is not sufficient to evaluate the
contribution of each member to the structural robust-
ness by a particular solution. Meanwhile, to avoid
enumerating all kinds of initial damages, it is needed
to find something more essential to the structural
robustness, still on the basic of structural topology. A
hierarchical model built by a set of vertex-connected
units is used to describe the structure, which is shown
in Fig. 1.
Unit j in hierarchy i is noted as Lij . Its initial dam-
age is expressed as Dij . L0 is the structure itself. The
basic unit in the lowest hierarchy can be chosen as a
single member, a room or even a floor of a large scale

Figure 1. Hierarchical model of structure.
structure. Any Lij is permitted to have 2 or 3 subordi-
nates to ensure that the relation between these units
can be visibly shown in 2-D or 3-D figures instead of
hyper-planes.
The analysis to hierarchy 1 is explained in detail.
The weighted graph can be expressed as follows.
A given w noted as wFC is considered to describe
the specific failure consequence of a structure which
is determined by engineers according to the function
and the allowed maximum loss of the structure.
In this way, taking the measurement of the damage
of each unit L1i (i = 1, 2, 3), which can be expressed by
the 1-norm of the damage vector ||D1i ||1 as the coor-
dinate axis, the points (||D11 ||1 , ||D12 ||1 , ||D13 ||1 ) which
satisfy Eq. (13) will form a body containing an upper
surface, a lower surface and the part of space between
them. Any point (||D 11 ||1 , ||D
12 ||1 , ||D
13 ||1 ) below the
lower surface indicates that when the measurements of
the damages of units L11 , L12 and L13 are ||D 11 ||1 , ||D
12 ||1
and ||D 3 ||1 respectively, the loss of the structure will be
1
less than the failure consequence which is defined by
wFC , irrelevant to the specific damage combination
inside each unit. Any point (||D11 ||1 , ||D12 ||1 , ||D13 ||1 )
above the lower surface means that when the measure-
ments of the damages of units L11 , L12 and L13 are ||D11 ||1 ,
||D12 ||1 and ||D13 ||1 respectively, the loss of the structure
will be greater than the failure consequence which is
defined by wFC , irrelevant to the specific damage com-
bination inside each unit. Any point (||D11 ||1 , ||D12 ||1 ,
||D13 ||1 ) between the two surfaces means that with the
corresponding damage measurement of each unit, the
failure mode of the structure is the one defined by wFC .
However, the damage combination inside each unit is
not arbitrary. As a special case, when D11 , D12 and D13
are numbers, which means the three units are respec-
tively single members, the two faces of the upper and
lower ones will coincide with each other.
Thus, it is not necessary to evaluate the structural
robustness by analyzing all kinds of initial damages.
790
The calculation can be focused on the critical sur-
face(s) as referred above. With the consideration of
the structural safety, the analysis should be relatively
conservative and only the lower surface is taken into
account. Let ||D11 ||1 , ||D12 ||1 and ||D13 ||1 satisfy the
following relation.
The points on the lower surface should satisfy the
following function.
This function can be solved by the genetic algo-
rithm. If the failure consequence is chosen as the total
destruction of the structure, wFC can be shown in detail.
where N is a relatively big number expressing the infi-
nite value of the weight. If the failure mode is defined
as the failure of some important rooms, wFC will be
expressed in another form.
where {(i0 , j0 )} is the set of the nodes of these room.
Other failure consequences of the structure can be
defined in a similar way.
From the procedure above, the contribution of each
unit in a particular hierarchy to the structural topol-
ogy can be shown visually and comprehensively by
the envelope diagram of the damage combination of
the units. The hierarchical mode for a structure is
not uniform. Through different hierarchy divisions,
the comparisons of different units may be obtained.
However, as the most vulnerable part of the structure,
whatever hierarchy it belongs to and whatever unit it
compares with, it can always be found by designers
and engineers due to its highlighted negative effect
to the structural robustness. To simplify the calcula-
tion, the units belonging to the same superordinate are
suggested to be symmetrical in layout and similar in
mechanical property and scale.
4 EXAMPLE
A reinforced concrete frame is shown in Fig. 2 (unit:
m). The external loadings can be seen in Fig. 3 and
Fig. 4 (unit: kN for concentrated loading and kN/m for
distributed loading). The reinforcements of the frame
are shown in Fig. 5 (unit: mm). The properties of the
material are listed in Tab. 3.
Figure 2. Elevation view of the frame.

Figure 3. Distribution of the live load.

Figure 5. Reinforcement of the frame.

Table 3. Material properties.

Figure 4. Distribution of the dead load.
Material Marking Strength (N/m2 )
The structure stiffness K, mass M and damping C
satisfy the following relation. Concrete C30 fc = 14.3 106 , ft = 1.43 106
Reinforcement HRB400* fy = 360 106
HRB335* fy = 300 106
The hierarchical model of the structure is shown *The mark HRB400 is for longitudinal bars and HRB335 is
in Fig. 6. Each unit of the lowest hierarchy is chosen for stirrups.
as a single room which is built up by two columns
and a beam on them and the initial damage to such a
basic unit is considered as evenly distributed on these other indicates that the structure is not allowed to lose
members. over 50% of its members. The contribution of the unit
Two failure consequences are chosen. One indicates in the hierarchical model to the structural robustness
that the structure is not allowed to fail completely. The is analyzed as below.

791
 Figure 8. Failure criteria of L0 due to L23 and L24 .
Figure 6. Hierarchical model of the structure.

Figure 7. Failure criteria of L0 due to L11 , L12 and L13 .

Figure 9. Failure criteria of L0 due to L25 and L26 .

To the units in hierarchy 1, Eq. (14), Eq. (15) and
Eq. (16) are used where wFC has the following forms.

where the condition w0,ij 1 stands for the mem-

ber whose weight is not larger than 1 at the original
state which implies that the weight between the non-
connected vertexes is not summed; n is the amount of
the members of the example. The parameters 1 and
2 are respectively and orderly valued as tan(i/12)
(i = 0, 1, 2, . . . , 6) in which there shall be 72 kinds of
groups (1 ,2 ). In the genetic algorithm, the size of
initial population is 12. The generation is 20. The frac-
tion of crossover is 0.8 and the fraction of migration
is 0.2. The results are shown as below.
To the units in hierarchy 2, the analysis is similar
and the results are shown as follows. Any damage com-
bination of L21 and L22 will not cause the failure of over
50% of the members. None of the damage combina-
tions of L23 and L24 will cause complete destruction of
the building.
To the units in hierarchy 3, the analysis is similar
and the results are shown as follows. Any damage com-
bination of L31 and L32 or of L35 and L36 will not cause the
failure of over 50% of the members. The same con-
clusion can be obtained for L33 and L34 , and for L37 and
L38 due to the symmetry. None of the damage combi-
nations of L39 and L310 will cause the total failure of the
building. The conclusion is similar for L311 and L312 .
The analysis to the hierarchy 1 shows that the struc-
tural topology is most sensitive to L13 . This unit takes
Figure 10. Failure criteria of L0 due to L39 and L310 .
the most adverse effect to the structural robustness.
Simply speaking, it is a key member for terrorist
attacks to cause the total destruction of the building.
When the permitted failure consequence is fasten, i.e.
the building is thought as broken once over half mem-
bers fail, the envelop surface is contracted remarkably.
At the same time, the shape of the surface changes
greatly along the L12 -related direction. It indicates that
in the two failure consequences, the effects of L12 are
quite different: when L13 suffers a serious damage, the
specific damage of L12 will no longer change the fail-
ure consequence of the structure from totally failing;
but when the damage level to L13 is low, the damage
of L12 will significantly determine whether more than
50% of the structure will survive.

792
 The analysis to hierarchy 2 shows that when the
initial damage is concentrated on L23 or L24 , the loss of
the structure will be less than half of it. It means that L23
and L24 are effective alternative loading paths to each
other. If the permitted failure consequence is loosen
to the complete destruction of the structure, L23 and
L24 can also be thought as effective alternative loading
paths to each other.
The analysis to hierarchy 3 shows that the topologic
difference of L39 and L310 is great. L310 is necessary to
be optimized both to the topology of itself and the
connection with other members.
5 CONCLUSION
A reinforced concrete frame structure is chosen as
a typical structure form for robustness analysis. A
weighted graph, as well as the hierarchical model
based on it is used to quantitatively describe the struc-
tural topology. The contribution of each unit in a
particular hierarchy to the structural robustness is indi-
cated by the structural topological change caused by
the property perturbation of this unit.
Based on the discussion in the present paper, the
minimum initial damage according to various kinds
of given failure consequences of the structure can be
obtained. The ratio of the disproportional consequence
to the initial damage can be used as the index of the
structural robustness. The relative work will be done
in near future.
793
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Beijing: China Architecture & Building Press.
(in Chinese).
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Engineering. Beijing: China Communications Press.
(in Chinese).
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6267 (in Chinese).
Liu, X.L., Gao, Y. 2010. New load effect: human active
damage. Symposium of Reliability Engineering and Risk
Management.
Pinto, J.T., Blockley, D.I., Woodman, N.J. 2002. The risk of
vulnerable failure. Structural Safety, 24: 107122.
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frame structures and its preliminary application. China
Civil Engineering Journal, 40: 4549 (in Chinese).
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Evaluation reinforcement of compound column to bearing capacity

with corrosion

Yousif A. Mansoor & ZhiQiang Zhang

MOE Key Laboratory of transportation of tunnel Engineering Dep., Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China

ABSTRACT: The main aim of this study that is evaluating the bearing capacity for reinforcing compound
column concrete with corrosion that it can be more deteriorated the reinforcement concrete (R.C) bond. Bearing
capacity tests were carried out to evaluate the effects of corrosion on the strength behavior, for that purpose,
a series of specimens with reinforcement corrosion was tested. The acceleration steel corrosion was eight-day
corrosion. The purpose of choosing eight days for acceleration corrosion time is trying to reflect a heavy field
condition during the test. The tests were designed to provide the data required to assess the strength properties
with different variables, like bar diameter and concrete cover. The result showed the compressive of concrete has
a same shape before and after corroding. The bar diameter to cover of concrete had a positive impact to reduce
the corrosion effect on the bearing capacity. The 2428 corrosion rate (Jr ) could be reducing the compound
column bearing capacity to 3235% for concrete cover 35, 50 mm respectively and bar diameter 10.

Keywords: Reinforcement Compound Column Corrosion, Bearing Capacity

1 INTRODUCTION of the bearing capacity and ductility of these mem-

The main factor which could cause of reinforcement
distortions and damage for structure was reinforce-
ment corrosion. The corrosion process includes two
stages; first, corrosion reduces the cross sectional-
area and mechanical properties of reinforcement, itself
especially when pitting corrosion occurs. Second, the
volume of corrosion products is larger than the volume
of steel lost. The expansive products generate tensile
stresses on the concrete surrounding the cording bar,
which may cause cracking and spalling of concrete and
consequently, reduce the bond between concrete and
reinforcement.
Experimental works on the mechanical behavior
and load capacity of corroded R.C compound columns
are limited.
Hui Yunlings (1997), test result showed that the
capacity of a corroded member was lower than that
of the member without corrosion. Shi Qing-xuan,
et al, (1999) and Shi Qing (2001) tested 9 electro-
chemical accelerated corrosion eccentric compressive
members. Test results showed that the deterioration
of bearing capacity for corroded reinforced concrete
columns was obvious lower than that of the non-
corroded RC member to a great extent. Xu Shanhua
(2003) studied the effects of the corrosive degree
of steel bar and eccentricity on the loading perfor-
mance of eccentrically loaded column. PANYi (2003),
(2004), studied the behavior and bearing capacity of
2 corroded RC columns with carbonized concrete and
corroded rebar in atmospheric environment for more
than 28 years. Test results show that the deterioration
bers is obvious. Gong Jinxin et al (2004), studied the
low-cycle behavior of corroded reinforced concrete
columns under eccentric compression.16 corroded
members subjected to eccentric compression were
divided into eight groups with 0, 7.5, 11, 15, 19, 23,
31 and 39-days corrosion respectively, each group had
the same carrion rate. Test results showed that the yield
load and ultimate load of specimen, rigidity, ductil-
ity of corroded reinforced specimens decrease with
the increase of corrosion rate of reinforcement. Yan
Xikang (2005), tested the bearing capacity of 10 short
axially compressed RC columns Corroded by electro-
chemical accelerated corrosion. Fu (2006) studied the
time-dependent behavior and bearing capacity of cor-
roded columns. Bearing capacity and corrosion degree
of steel bars of 6 short columns were tested after 10,
20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 days electrochemical corrod-
ing. Lei (2007) and Yi (2008) compared the bearing
capacity of 4 un-corroded RC columns with 9 cor-
roded RC columns of corrosion rate of 1%, 3% and
9% respectively. Corroded specimens were put in the
wet sand with NaCl, electric currents were applied to
accelerate the corrosion of reinforcement. Test showed
that bearing capacity and the flexural stiffness of the
corroded columns were much lower than that of non-
corroded columns with the same eccentricity. In this
study, the effect of reinforcement corrosion on strength
is investigated using comparisons between the results
from the tests carried out. The experimental program
was conducted for reinforcing bars at corrosion levels.
Specimens were first investigated under bending test,
compression and tensile strength.

795
Table 1. Properties of steel material (GB 50010-2002). Table 2. Mixture proportion.

Yield Tensile Elastic Concrete Cement Sand Aggregate

Steel bar stress strength modulus strength (gm) (gm) (gm) w/c
type D (mm) (n/mm2 ) (N/mm2 ) (105 N/mm2 )
C25* 274 833 1061 0.48
HRB335 1014 305312 365370 2.02.1
(20MnSI) *The quantity for one cubic meter concrete.

Figure 2. The electrochemical acceleration system.

it was 2ma/cm2 . The current direction was adjusted

so that the reinforcing steel became an anode, and a
Figure 1. The Reinforced concrete compound column stainless steel plate placed on the concrete specimen
specimen details. served as a cathode a show in figure 2.

2.4 Corrosion rate test

2 EXPERIMENT PROGRAM
2.1 Experimental methods
The main test for experimental that is bending test,
which used to get the strength for 24 specimens. The
12 corroded specimens would be corroded for cor-
rosion levels under direct electric current. Electrolytic
corrosion method was used to accelerate the corrosion.
2.2 Test specimens
The design of the specimen conformed to be standard
(GB50010 /T50081, China Standard). The steel prop-
erties are shown in table 1. The reinforcement had a
14, 10 mm steel bar diameter. The cove of concrete
for specimen was 35, 50 mm as shown in Figure 1.
The bars were cleaned before casting into the concrete
specimens. The table 2 shows the mix proportions were
used for concrete casting.
2.3 Corrosion acceleration
After 28 days curing, the specimens were prepared
to accelerate corrosion by applying anodic current
of specified intensities and for specified time period,
eight-days. This was achieved through DC power sup-
ply with a built-in ammeter to monitor the current and
a potentiometer to control the current intensity which
To get the significant corrosion level (corrosion cur-
rent density Icorr.) with time for all specimens, the
linear polarization resistance measurement (LPRM)
technique would be used for all specimens. (Stern, et al
(1957) and Ijsseling (1986)).
The LPRM idea is constructed according to the
stern-Geary characterization of a typical polarization
curve for the corroding metal. The corrosion cell con-
sisted of a reference electrode, a working electrode
which was the reinforcing steel embedded in the con-
crete specimen, and a counter electrode which was
placed in the 5% salt solution around the concrete spec-
imen as shown in figure 3. The reinforcing steel bar
was polarized by applying a small potential shift to
it (
E (mV)) and the resultant current (
I) between
the working electrode and the counter electrode was
measured.
The linear polarization resistance, Rp, was deter-
mined from the slope on the plot of applied potential
versus the measured current. The corrosion current
density was then calculated by using the Stern-Geary
formula. (Stern, et al, (1957)).
where:
Icorr: is the corrosion current density (A/cm2 ).
Rp: is the polarization resistance (k cm2 ).

796
Figure 3. Corrosion rate measure detail.

To measure the weight loss was used to calculate the Figure 4. Loading frame used for bending test.
instantaneous Corrosion rate (Jr ) as follows (Ijsseling
(1986)):

where: Icorr is in mA/cm2 , Jr is in gm/cm2 /year,

W = equivalent weight of steel and F = Faradays
constant.
For corrosion rate measure, the electrochemical
measurement system (CS) was used. The electrochem-
ical measurement system is an integrated set of full
automatic electrochemical measurement and analysis
that controlled by microcomputer.The system includes
electrochemical workstation, corrosion test control
and data analysis software, which can be used for
measuring corrosion rate Jr as shown in figure 3.
2.5 Compound column bending test
The bending test is a simple way to evaluate the com-
pound column behavior under loading condition. The
test was a tool to reflect compound column resis-
tance for concrete crack, spalling and other surface
irregularities during applying a load.
The characteristics of static bending load test
according to GB50010-2002, was 200 Ton capac-
ity, inset for 2-point load with hydraulic driver, set
with pressure plate for the bending test and there are
bending table.
To achieve the bending test aim, the test program
would include three stages as shown below:
First: specimen fixing.
For bending stress purpose, the specimen should
be adjusted according to eccentric value (e) which
subjected to get a failure in tension stress. The spec-
imen was fixed from top and bottom by hinged as
shown in figure 4. The eccentricity was setting to
110 mm from a specimen edge for top and bottom.
For bending stress requirement and fixing spec-
imen with eccentricity, the load and unloading
Figure 5. The strain sensor on steel bar.
pressure technique was subjected on the specimen
before applying loading. The loading pressure was
applied up to15% from design load and after that
did unloading pressure up to zero. The loading,
unloading was adjusted for three times.
Second stage: To can get the stress (compression
and tension stress) and strain value for specimen
under loading, the strain sensor with computer sen-
sor record system was used. The system includes ten
(five for each side) stress sensor was fixed on the
tension area as shown in figure 4. The stress of sen-
sor position was 15 mm, 52 mm, 89 mm, 126 mm,
and 185 mm from the edge in the both tension sides.
Furthermore, there are eight steel sensor was fixed
to the steel bar for control specimen as shown in
figure 5.
The recorder system for sensor typed DH3816
from Jiang Company, which connected to computer
as shown in figure 6. The sensor accuracy was
adjusted to 1/400 mm.
Third stage: The test program.
The main function of bending test was:
Failure bending load,
Stress and strain of failure bending.
To can get the good results, the test was adjusted to
many stages, after loading-unloading stage, and fixing

797
 Table 4. Corroded specimen load result.

Average
Max. Min. First crack corrosion
load load load rate, Jr (gm/
Sample (kn) (kn) (kn) cm2 /year)

C25-35-10 152 40 45 27.517

C25-50-10 170 30 43 24.850
C25-35-14 176 60 71 17.517
C25-50-14 210 50 60 18.184

Figure 6. The strain sensor record system.

Table 3. Control specimen load result.

Max. load Min. load First crack load

Sample (kn) (kn) (kn)

C25-35-10 231 50 56
C25-50-10 230 60 79
C25-35-14 290 50 59
C25-50-14 321 30 56

Figure 7. The corrosion crack map.

the time, the loading stage would start with average
load speed 200 N/S.

3 TEST RESULT

To can evaluate the strength bond properties between

corroded steel and concrete, the test results would be
analyzed to the following items:
(1) Comparison between corroded and control
specimen.
(2) Effects of corrosion on the strength.
The average failure load, corrosion rate and cor-
Figure 8. The Max. Steel tension stress with loading time.
responding stress and strain for the specimens were
obtained by averaging the results of three speci-
mens that tested in each case. They are presented in
tables 3 and 4 for control and the corroded specimen, It can be seen the direction of crack was longitudi-
respectively. nal. The steel strain sensor result for control specimen
From Table 3 and 4, it can be seen that the mea- showed the various behaviors for steel tension with
sured failure load were generally lower than the control time loading as a show in figure 8.
ones. The difference in results indicates that the corro- The specimens results that shown in Figures 9 & 10
sion rate reduced the bond strength for steel bar with reveal that as the corrosion level increased the concrete
concrete. compressive value decrease.
In the beginning period of corrosion acceleration, The figures 11 and 12 show the results for concrete
it was observed that the electric intensity was slowly, strain with sensor position for different specimen. The
and then increased with time. The Surface fine cracks concrete strain has complex behavior under loading
could be observed a time after the electric intensity because the corrosion was effected on concrete strain
began to decrease. Figure 7 shows the corrosion crack. behavior.

798

Figure 9. The Max. Concrete compressive stress with load-
ing time for control specimen.
Figure 10. The Max. Concrete compressive stress with
loading time for corroded specimen.
Figure 11. The strainsensor behavior for control specimen
c25-35-10.
Figure 12. The strainsensor behavior for corrosion speci-
men c25-50-14.
799
4 CONCLUSIONS
From these tests, the following conclusions can be
drawn:
1. The shape of concrete compressive curves for both
corroded and non-corroded specimen is similar: the
compressive initially increases up to a maximum
value, but eventually decreases for greater levels of
corrosion. .
2. The bar diameter to concrete cover had a positive
impact on the bearing capacity, the increase the bar
diameter and concrete cover show more resist for
corrosion.
3. The 8 days corrosion could refer to heavy corrosion
condition.
4. The concrete strength had not uniform behavior
because corrosion.
5. The 2428 corrosion rate (Jr) could be reducing
the compound column bearing capacity to 3235%
for concrete cover 35, 50 mm respectively and bar
diameter 10.
6. The 1620 corrosion rate (Jr) could be reducing
the compound column bearing capacity to 2532%
for concrete cover 35, 50 mm respectively and bar
diameter 14.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors acknowledge gratefully the support pro-
vided by Project (No. 51078318) for the National
Natural Science Foundation of China and Program
(No. 10-0667) for New Century Excellent Talents in
University, and National key basic research develop-
ment program (973 Program, No. 2010CB732105)
and the Fundamental Research funds for the Central
universities (SWJTU11ZT33).
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Shi Qing xuan, Li Xiaojian, Niu Ditao. 1999. Tentative study
on the bearing capacity of R.C. eccentric compressive
members before and after reinfocement corrosion. Xian
Univ. of Arch. & Tech., 31 (003), pp. 218221.
Shi Qing-xuan. 2001. Experimental study of bearing capac-
ity of corroded reinforced concrete eccentric compressive
members. Indust rial Construction, Vol. 31, No. 5.
XU Shanhua. 2003. The models of deterioration and dura-
bility evaluation of reinforced concrete structure. Xian
University of Architeeture and Technology.
PAN Yi, CHEN Zhaohui. 2004. Experimental studies on the
property of corrosion in basic concrete members. Sichuan
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PAN Yi. 2003. The Research on Durability Assessment
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Members. [D], College, Civil Engineering Chongqing
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GONG Jinxin, ZHONG Weiqiu, ZHAO Guofan. 2004.
Experimental study on low-cycle behavior of corroded
reinforced concrete mumber under eccentric compression
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Ultrasonic testing of masonry structures by features extraction and

self-organising maps

Barbara Cannas, Sara Carcangiu, Alessandra Fanni, Renato Forcinetti,

Augusto Montisci, Giuliana Sias & Mariangela Usai
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

Nicoletta Trulli
Department of Architecture and Planning, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy

Giovanna Concu
Department of Civil Engineering, Environmental and Architecture, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

ABSTRACT: This paper presents the results of a novel approach to ultrasonic testing of masonry structures.
This approach is based on the integrated analysis, in both time and frequency domains, of several features
associated with ultrasonic waves propagating through the material. By the Direct Transmission Technique, the
received ultrasonic signals have been acquired in a grid of nodes, and several signal features have been extracted.
Firstly, each single feature effectiveness in detecting defects has been analyzed. The selected features allow
detecting the presence of a cavity within the wall structure under examination. In order to have a more precise
definition of the contours of the cavity, a Self-Organising Map has been built taking into account the high-
dimensional features space. The proposed method has been tested on a full scale stone masonry model with
known cavities inside.

Keywords: Non destructive testing, ultrsounds, Self organising maps

1 INTRODUCTION that the propagation of any wave is affected by the

Stone masonry buildings form an integral part of the
historical building heritage in Europe and throughout
the world. When dealing with preservation and restora-
tion of this kind of structures, it is necessary to assess
their serviceability and, if possible, their load carrying
capacity. Assessment of such buildings can however
be difficult as there is little knowledge or experience
available on their design, and the evaluation of their
real state shouldnt interfere with the condition and
the functionality of the building, and should possi-
bly involve limited costs. To provide confidence for
the assessment result, reliable input parameters are
required and effective inspection and measurement
methods are necessary to establish or verify the input
parameters. Thus, inspection and monitoring of struc-
tural conditions is becoming an essential part of proper
management of buildings rehabilitation.
In the field of assessment methodologies, partic-
ular importance is given to developments of Non-
Destructive Testing Techniques (NDTs), including
automated procedures and information technology to
evaluate data and support decision making. Among
NDTs, ultrasonic techniques are based on the principle
medium through which it travels. Thus, changes in
measurable parameters associated with the passage
of a wave through a material can be correlated with
changes in physical properties of the material itself
(Krautkramer & Krautkramer 1990, Berke 2000). Tra-
ditional application of ultrasonic techniques is based
on measurements of the velocity of waves propagat-
ing through the material, which is the easier and faster
way to get relevant information from the wave. Nev-
ertheless, from application in other fields, such as
geophysics and aeronautics, it has long been believed
that other waves characteristics such as attenuation,
scattering and frequency content, primarily related to
the elastic wave power, may allow one to get rele-
vant information about the material, because of the
reliance of the propagation on the properties of the
medium through which waves travel. In fact, different
materials absorb or attenuate the wave power at dif-
ferent rates, depending on complex interactive effects
of material characteristics, such as density, viscos-
ity, homogeneity. Additionally, waves are reflected
by boundaries between dissimilar materials, so that
changes in materials structure, e.g. presence of discon-
tinuities or defects, can affect amplitude, direction, and

801

Figure 1. Front view of the wall: grid of test points. In red
the discarded points.
Figure 2. Vertical plane section (left) and Horizontal plane
section (right).
frequency content of scattered signals (Hinton 1999,
Katz 2002, Reda Taha et al. 2006, Perov et al. 2007,
Perov et al. 2008).
In this paper, the potentiality of a novel approach
to ultrasonic investigation is analyzed. This approach
involves the analysis in both time and frequency
domains of several parameters, associated with acous-
tic waves propagating through the material. Moreover,
a clustering of the high-dimensional parameter space
has been performed in order to group set of parame-
ters corresponding to regions with similar behaviour
(Kohonen 1989).
2 CASE STUDY
The analysis has been carried out on a trachite stone
masonry with a cavity inside. The wall is 90 cm wide,
62 cm high and 38 cm thick, and it is made of tra-
chite blocks sized 20 38 12cm3 , settled as shown
in Figures 12 and jointed with cement lime mortar.
The block assigned to the central position of the wall
was not settled, thus realizing a macro-cavity with the
same size of the missing block (Fig. 2), and assumed
as a known anomaly. Mortar joints have been assumed
to be 1 cm thick, but since the wall was manually built
by a builder, actual dimensions are not so precise.
Trachite specimens have been prepared and then
tested following the Italian standards UNI EN 1926
(2000) and UNI EN 14580 (2005), obtaining a com-
pressive strength of 40.5 MPa and a static elastic
modulus of 6100 MPa.
Figure 3. The energizing signal.
The testing method is the Direct Transmission
Technique (EN 14579 2004). In this method, the ultra-
sonic wave is transmitted by a transducer (emitter)
through the test object and received by a second
transducer (receiver) on the opposite side of the struc-
ture. Changes in received signal provide indications of
variations in material properties.
In this case study, 308 emitters and 308 receivers
have been arranged in a grid of 14 22 nodes in the
opposite surfaces of the wall. Note that during the
experimental session some nodes (red crosses in Fig-
ure 1) have been ruled out due to the high roughness
of the surface.
Ultrasonic measurements have been carried out
using the ultrasonic test equipment Pundit Lab+ ,
developed by Proceq. This testing equipment includes:
2 standard 54 kHz transducers for emitting and
receiving signals;
a unit for signals generation, acquisition and pre-
liminary analysis;
a PC for data storage and further signal processing;
a dedicated software Pundit Link, developed by
Proceq, which unlocks the full capabilities of the
ultrasonic test system.
The energizing signal is a square wave with high
input voltage of 500 V (Fig. 3), which allowed signals
on the other side of the wall to be detected even if
strongly attenuated.
3 WAVE FEATURES EXTRACTION AND
ANALYSIS
At the end of the experimental sessions 308 signals
have been obtained, one for each point of the grid of
receivers. From each node of the grid, several parame-
ters have been extracted (Krautkramer & Krautkramer
1990, Berke 2000, Hinton 1999, Katz 2002, Reda Taha
et al. 2006, Perov et al. 2007, Perov et al. 2008). Fea-
tures not correlated enough with changes in physical
properties of the tested structure have been discarded.
The extracted features are listed in the following:
1. Velocity of propagation
2. Spectrum normalized mean value
3. Local rise time from 25% level to the peak of the
envelope
4. Skewing factor Spectrum central frequency
802

Figure 4. Map associated to the M matrix.
Figure 5. (a) Skewing factor map (b) binary map.
Figure 6. (a) Velocity of propagation map (b) binary map.
5. Spectrum bandwidth
6. Mean value of the normalized amplitude
Each feature i is associated with a matrix Ai
(14 22), i = 1, . . . , 7, containing the values of that
feature in each node of the grid.
In order to evaluate how each feature correlates with
materials properties, a matrix M (14 22) has been
built. The element mij identifies the type of path the
wave, emitted in the (i, j) position of the grid, prop-
agates through. In particular, an integer number, and
a corresponding grey scale color, is associated to the
three possible types of paths: 0 (white) no measure-
ment; 1 (light grey) trachite or trachite + mortar; 2
(black) air. The goal is to distinguish the air cavity
inside the wall.
Figure 4 shows the map associated to the M matrix.
As an example of feature map, Figure 5a shows
the distribution map of Skewing factor. In this figure,
each square identifies one receiver and it is representa-
tive of its neighborhood (pixel). It can be noticed that
Skewing factor is able to identify the presence of the
defect.
In Figure 5b the binary map created by replacing
all values above the mean value of the signal with 1
and others with 0, is reported. Figure 6 shows the same
maps for the Velocity.
Generally speaking, the distributions of the maps
allow us to distinguish two types of signal paths
803
Table 1. Error made using a single feature in percentage of
the missed classification of pixels.
Feature Error (%)
Skewing factor 1.94
Spectrum central frequency 3.57
Spectrum bandwidth 4.56
Centroid mean time 6.49
Mean value of the normalized amplitude 6.49
Local rise time from 25% level to the 8.44
peak of the envelope
Velocity of propagation 8.77
through the wall: the paths that pass through a region
containing air and all other possible routes (trachite
and trachite + mortar); on the contrary, the points
relating to the paths in the mortar were not examined
due to the high roughness of the surface of the wall at
these points (Figure 1).
The maps created using one feature at each time
detect the presence of the defect and locate it correctly,
but they do not allow us to accurately reconstruct its
contours.
Table 1 shows the error made by the single features
expressed as the percentage of the missed classifica-
tion of pixels. As confirmed by Figure 5b, the Skewing
factor is characterized by a low error.
4 SELF-ORGANISING MAPS
Let us consider an n-dimensional input space X and
N data items, which have to be partitioned in K clus-
ters Cj , j = 1, . . . , K. The cardinality of cluster Cj is
|Cj | = Nj , i.e., the j-th cluster contains Nj samples.
A SOM defines a mapping from an n-dimensional
input space X onto a regular (usually two-dimensional)
array of neurons, preserving the topological proper-
ties of the input. This means that points close to each
other in the input space are mapped on the same or
neighbouring neurons in the output space. The output
neurons are arranged in a 2D lattice and are fully con-
nected to the inputs via the weights w. The j-th output
neuron represents the j-th cluster. Hence, the output of
the j-th output neuron Oj , j = 1, . . . , K, is:
A competitive learning rule is used, choosing the
winner j* as the output neuron with w closest to the
input x. The learning rule is:
The neighborhood function ( j, j ) is equal to 1
for j = j , and decreases with the distance djj between
neurons j and j in the output lattice. Thus, neurons
close to the winner, as well as the winner itself, have

Figure 7. (a) D-Matrix (b) SOM.
their weights updated, while those further away, expe-
rience little effect. When training is completed, the
prototype vectors associated to each neuron define the
partitioning of the multidimensional data.
One possible representation of the SOM is the
D-Matrix, whose elements correspond to the median
distance between a cluster and the adjacent ones. Thus,
it allows one to display the similarity of data elements
into one cluster with respect to the data into nearest
ones. With this display, it is possible to detect if there
are macro-clusters of data and to judge if possibly they
are well separated or not.
5 RESULTS
In order to exploit the complementary contribution of
the information contained in the different features, a
SOM has been built. As previously shown, the velocity
of propagation produces the higher error, hence it has
been discarded, and the SOM is the 2D projection of
the 6D feature space.
Figure 7a reports the SOM D-Matrix where each
cluster is represented as a hexagonal unit and the
distance among units is proportional to the median
distance with neighboring clusters. A short distance
between the map units means that prototype vectors
are close to each other in the input space. Therefore,
areas where the map units are close each others can
be thought as clusters, whereas areas where the units
are further apart can be thought as cluster separators.
As can be noted a separated region can be identified
in the top of the D-Matrix display.
Figure 7b reports the SOM where each unit is col-
ored on the basis of pixels type contained. Dark gray
clusters contain pixels corresponding to air paths, gray
804
Figure 8. (a) Map of the SOM D-matrix (b) Binary map.
clusters contain pixels corresponding to trachite and
air paths, light grey clusters contains pixels corre-
sponding to trachite and mortar paths, white cluster
are empty.
Comparing the two displays in Figures 7a and 7b,
a macro-cluster of pixels carrying similar features
can be distinguished by a macro-cluster of pixels
carrying different features, thus the upper region of
map correspond to modifications in the materials in
the wall.
In order to evaluate how each D-matrix distance is
correlated with the materials properties, in Figure 8a
the grey scale map of the values of D-matrix is reported
(dark gray corresponds to a large distance, a light gray
to a short distance).
A significant rise of color shade at the wall center
can be noted. In Figure 8b the binary map is shown
using the average distance as threshold. Figure 8b
clearly shows that an inner anomaly can be detected
when the distance becomes lower than the threshold.
The error percentage is equal to 0.3%.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The effectiveness of a novel approach to ultrasonic
buildings testing, based on the extraction of sev-
eral features from waves propagating through the
structures thickness, has been tested.
The propagation of ultrasonic signals through a
stone masonry with an inner cavity has been anal-
ysed and various waves features have been extracted
from the received signals. Then a clustering of 6 fea-
tures has been performed through a Self Organising
map. Results show that the proposed method is able
to locate the anomaly and to define its contour with
better precision with respect to using single features.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work is supported by the operating program
of Regione Sardegna (European Social Fund 2007
2013), L.R.7/2007,Promotion of scientific research
and technological innovation in Sardinia.
REFERENCES
Berke M. 2000. Non-destructive material testing with ultra-
sonics. Introduction to the basic principles. e-NDT5(2).
EN 14579. 2004. Natural stone test methods Determination
of sound speed propagation.
Hinton Y.L. 1999. Problems associated with statistical
patter recognition of acoustic emission signals in a
compact tension fatigue specimen. National Aeronau-
tics and Space Administration. NASA/TP-1999-209351
ARL-TR-1691.
Katz H.E. 2002. Acousto-Ultrasonics to Asses Material and
Structural Properties. National Aeronautics and Space
Administration. NASA/CR-2002-211881.
Kohonen T. 1989. Self-Organization and Associative Mem-
ory. Springer-Verlag: New York.
Krautkramer J. & Krautkramer H. 1990. Ultrasonic testing of
materials. Springer Verlag: New York.
805
Perov D.V. & Rinkevich A.B. 2008. Acoustic pulse signal dif-
fraction from different reflectors in an elastic medium.
Insight 50 (4): 216217.
Perov D.V. et al. 2007. Interaction of pulse ultrasonic sig-
nals with reflectors of different types. Russian Journal of
Nondestructive Testing 43 (6): 369377.
Reda Taha M.M. et al. 2006. Wavelet Transform for Structural
Health Monitoring: a compendium of uses and features.
Structural Health Monitoring 5: 267295.
UNI EN 14580. 2005. Determination of static elastic
modulus.
UNI EN 1926. 2000. Determination of compressive strength.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Frequency analysis of ultrasonic signals for non-destructive diagnosis

of masonry structures

Barbara Cannas, Sara Carcangiu, Alessandra Fanni, Renato Forcinetti,

Augusto Montisci, Giuliana Sias & Mariangela Usai
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

Giovanna Concu
Department of Civil Engineering, Environmental and Architecture, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

ABSTRACT: The target of this work is to define a new procedure for the non-destructive diagnosis of masonry
structures in order to highlight and analyze the presence of material defects, such as fractures, cavities or
inhomogeneities which might reduce the structural stability. Among the various non-destructive techniques an
ultrasonic method has been chosen. In order to determine the signal characteristics most closely correlated with
the presence of defects inside the masonry, a finite element analysis (FEM) was carried out on a 2D stone masonry
model, followed by a frequency analysis of the acquired signals. For each frequency component, the level of
correlation with the average density of the medium has been then evaluated, extracting the most interesting
features. Finally, in order to verify the feasibility of the proposed approach, the same procedure has been applied
to a real stone masonry with a known internal cavity.

Keywords: NDT, Ultrasonic testing, Frequency analysis

1 INTRODUCTION also presents the advantage of reducing the number of

The collection of test data for the assessment of the
product quality, the examination of components struc-
tural integrity and the identification of mechanical and
physical characteristics of a material or structure, is
based on the execution of tests which can be divided
into destructive and non-destructive.
The choice of test methods and procedures to
be followed depends on the possibility of obtaining
reliable results from them so as not be too burden-
some and invasive (Masi 2007). While destructive
tests are highly reliable, they are also time consum-
ing and expensive and the defects they leave behind
often become focal points for deterioration (Sansalone
1998).
The non-destructive testing techniques (NDT) have
the advantage of providing, quickly and simply, use-
ful elements, without compromising the status of
structures and infrastructures (Taffe 2003). However,
while being easy to apply, by estimating indirectly the
structure characteristics, the NDT are conditioned by
several factors and their exclusive use can lead to unre-
liable results (Cianfrone 1993). As well as to provide
a direct diagnosis, the purpose of NDT is often to
provide useful details to guide the technician in the
collection of samples for subsequent laboratory tests.
The coupling of destructive and non-destructive test-
ing techniques, in addition to the complementary and
the completeness nature of the obtained information,
tests to be performed and therefore the diagnosis costs
(AIPnD).
In this paper, among the NDTs, the ultrasonic Direct
Transmission Technique (EN 14579 2004) has been
chosen, which allows obtaining useful, rapid and rel-
atively low cost information on the studied structure
(Krautkramer & Krautkramer 1990). This technique
uses a beam of ultrasonic waves emitted by a trans-
ducer and received by another one placed on the oppo-
site surface of the structure. The waves pass through
the tested material and they are reflected and refracted
by incidental discontinuities encountered along the
path. The characteristics of the ultrasound vibration,
such as the velocity of propagation, the intensity atten-
uation and the frequency content are then investigated
in order to obtain interesting indications on materials
condition.
The inner conformation of the structure, i.e. the
possible presence of discontinuities and defects, intro-
duces reflections at the interfaces between the differ-
ent materials, then altering amplitude, direction and
frequency content of the signal (Perov et al. 2007).
Regarding the frequency content, materials act as a
low pass filter, attenuating and dispersing the higher
frequency components more than the lower. There-
fore, the frequency analysis of the signal filtered by
the tested material contains traces of the effects asso-
ciated to the internal structure of the material itself
(Berke 2000).

807
Figure 1. Front view of the wall and vertical and horizontal
plane section that intercepts the cavity.
Figure 2. First model for correlation analysis: the thickness
of mortar and air grows from a minimum (left) to a maximum
(right) value, the width being fixed.
In this work, a first phase of the study has been
conducted through a simulation of a finite element
numerical model, calibrated on the basis of experi-
mental measurements, aimed at identifying, in the post
processing phase, features of interest. These features
have then been extracted from the signals obtained by
direct measurements on a real structure and finally
they have been mapped to verify the actual correlation
with the characteristics of the traversed paths.

Figure 3. Second model for correlation analysis: the thick-

2 CASE STUDY AND NUMERICAL ness varies as in the first model, but a path is leaved to the
SIMULATIONS beam to bypass the air gap.

The analysis has been carried out on a stone masonry

is to study the variation of the output signal with the
model. The ultrasonic wave is transmitted through
average density of the material. The model consists of
the structure and received by a second transducer
a rectangle 6 38 cm2 , which represents the section
positioned on its opposite side, according to the
of a trachite block with the insertion of interspaces of
Direct Transmission Technique. Changes in received
mortar and air, transversal to the propagation direc-
signal provide indications of variations in material
tion. Two other rectangles of size 2.5 3.5 cm2 , are
homogeneity.
inserted at the ends of the block in order to simulate
The wall is 90 cm wide, 62 cm high and 38 cm
the transducers.
thick, and it is made of trachite blocks sized 20 38
Several simulations have been performed varying
12 cm3 , settled as shown in Figure 1 and jointed with
the geometry under test. Initially, gaps of mortar and
cement lime mortar. The block assigned to the central
air of the same width of the block have been chosen
position of the wall was not settled, thus realizing a
by varying the thicknesses equal to 0.1 cm, 3.1 cm and
macro-cavity with the same size of the missing block,
6.1 cm, resulting in 9 different parameters configura-
and assumed as a known anomaly. Mortar joints have
tions (Fig. 2). Secondly, a more realistic model has
been assumed to be 1 cm thick.
been developed considering an air gap with a width
In order to simulate the wave propagation through
less than that of the structure and the same thicknesses
the structure, a 2-D model has been developed using
of the previous model (Fig. 3).
the commercial code Comsol Multiphysics 4.2
In all the models the time evolution of the electric
(Comsol). The numerical analyses have been carried
potential at the center of the receiver transducer in the
out simulating the use of piezoelectric transducers for
time interval 01.4 ms has been analyzed. A sampling
emitting and receiving the signal.
time of 1 s has been adopted.
The simulation of ultrasonic test is one of the
emerging areas in NDT research allowing one to
perform parametric studies and to obtain significant
results related to the changes in the system under 2.2 Equations and materials
test. The practical difficulty of extracting the infor-
A multiphysics acoustic piezoelectric interaction
mation necessary to characterize the materials has led
model has been adopted and a transient analysis has
to the development and use of different mathematical
been performed, where the unknowns of the problem
methods to the signal processing (Spies 1999).
were the acoustic pressure p, the displacement vector
u and the voltage V.
2.1 Model geometry The acoustic pressure p in a stationary lossless
medium is governed by the following partial differ-
To reduce the calculation time, an axisymmetric 2D ential equation:
model has been chosen, exploiting the cylindrical
geometry of the transducers and, with a certain approx-
imation, the volume of material crossed by an ultra-
sonic wave. The objective of the numerical simulation

808
Table 1. Materials properties.

Air
Trachite Mortar (a 20 C) PZT4

Sound velocity 1968 1768 343.4

cs [m/s]
Density [kg/m3 ] 1750 1800 1.3 7500
Young modulus 6.1e9 5.5e9 1.5e4 7.8e10
EY [Pa]
Poissons ratio 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.31

where is the density of the material [kg/m3 ], cs is the

speed of sound [m/s]; Q [1/s2 ], and q [N/m3 ], that are
a monopole and a dipole acoustic source respectively,
are both optional and have been neglected in this study.
The density and speed of sound are assumed to be
constant because they vary with time on scales much
larger than the characteristic acoustic wave period.
During the simulation the first piezoelectric ele-
ment (the emitter) is electrically charged in order
to transform the voltage V in a vibration which,
when applied to the wall, propagates into the material
according to the equation of motion of the structural
mechanics:
where is the stress tensor connected to the strain
tensor:
Figure 4. 500 V excitation pulse modelled by COMSOL.
of generating a pulse, transmitting this to the struc-
ture under test, receiving and amplifying the pulse,
measuring and displaying the first arrival time.
The excitation wave is an acceleration signal,
obtained by the piezoelectric transducer (made of the
crystal PZT4), by applying the impulsive voltage sig-
nal shown in Figure 4. This electric pulse with a
maximum amplitude of 500 V and duration of 9.3 s,
is applied to the upper part of the emitter trans-
ducer, while the bottom part of both the transducers
is grounded.
The vibration produced by the emitter arrives at the
receiver, which transforms the acoustic vibration into
an electric voltage.

2.3 Post-processing analysis

by Hookes law:
where EY is the Young modulus. The constitutive rela-
tions of piezoelectric devices are expressed in the
subsequent strain-charge form:
where SE is the compliance matrix [1/Pa], d is the
coupling matrix [C/N], D is the electric displacement
field [C/m2 ], 0 and r are the vacuum and the relative
electric permittivity respectively, E is the electric field
[V/m], connected to the voltage by:
The step of the numerical data processing in MATLAB
environment is crucial for the choice of the most sig-
nificant features. In this work, the attention has been
focused on the correlation between the average density
of the ray paths and the characteristics of acquired sig-
nals. The simulated signals were processed and studied
in the frequency domain using the Fast Fourier Trans-
form (FFT). In the two cases described in Sec. 2.1
(Figs. 23) the correlation between the module of each
frequency component and the average density of the
paths has been evaluated. In both cases, the compo-
nents with the highest correlation index have been
identified. As expected the features most closely cor-
related to the variables were different. In Figure 5 the
correlation coefficients of the components amplitudes,
sorted in descending order, for the two models are
shown. As can be noted, the signals from the second
simulation give values of the correlation coefficient
higher than those of the first one.

The materials used in the model are listed in Table 1.

The simulations have been carried out considering 3 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
the equipment used for the experimental measure-
ments, that were performed using the Pundit Lab+ , The effectiveness of the proposed method has been
developed by Proceq. This one provides a means tested by applying it to a real trachite masonry (see

809
Figure 5. Correlation coefficients of the 100 components Figure 6. Modules map of the 4 amplitudes with highest
amplitudes with maximum correlation, for the first and the correlation index obtained with the first model (normalized
second model. sum, with threshold 0.25).

the front view of the wall and the plane sections that
intercepts the cavity on Figure 1).
The experimental measures are generally affected
by numerous factors of uncertainty (Fcsk 2005).
For example, given the heterogeneity of the mor-
tar and the irregularity of its thickness due to limited
attention of the builder during the construction of the
masonry, diffusion and attenuation phenomena give
rise to strong disturbances and attenuations on the test
signal, close to the joints. Moreover, the measures in
the marginal points of the grid, due to edge effects
associated with the proximity of the interface between Figure 7. Modules map of the 4 amplitudes with highest cor-
solid and air, produces distortions and attenuations relation index obtained with the second model (normalized
with respect to adjacent, more internal, points although sum, with threshold 0.25).
the path has similar average densities. Another clear
problem is the effect of the background noise due to
the coupling between transducer and surface. In fact,
the coupling considerably varies with the manual skill 4 CONCLUSIONS
and attention of the operators and with the amount
of couplant. Thus, it has been chosen to avoid many In this paper, a study has been conducted through
measurement points at joints in which the bad align- a simulation with a finite element numerical model
ment of blocks as well as the imperfect leveling of the for the generation and reception of ultrasonic waves
mortar made the measure excessively contaminated that propagate through a medium of average variable
by the poor quality of the coupling between wall and density. In the subsequent phase, the simulated sig-
transducers. In these cases the hypothesis of absence nals have been processed and studied in the frequency
of defect has been done. The FFT of the experimental domain using the Fast Fourier Transform to identify
signals has been evaluated, the components selected by the features of interest. To validate the method these
the previous numerical analysis have been extracted, features have been extracted from the signals obtained
and the normalized sum of the first four components by direct measurement on a real structure, a trachite
identified from the models have been represented in wall with an inside cavity, and consequently mapped
a gray scale map where each pixel corresponds to a to verify the actual correlation with the characteristics
test point of the measurement grid. To improve the of the traversed paths.
image clarity, a null value is assigned to the ampli- The obtained results confirm the suitability of fre-
tudes below a threshold equal to 0.25, chosen by a quency analysis in materials defects search, and thus
trial and error procedure. The values that have the same open the way for further investigations.
order of magnitude of measurement noise have been
eliminated. However, the application of the threshold
has not completely eliminated the false positives. This
is not considered a drawback of the method, because ACKNOWLEDGMENT
these pixels reflect the presence of surface defects or
small air gaps actually present in the physical model. This work is supported by the operating program
As shown in Figures 6 and 7, the defect is clearly of Regione Sardegna (European Social Fund 2007
detected in the center of the wall also in the case of 2013), L.R.7/2007,Promotion of scientific research
the first simple model. and technological innovation in Sardinia.

810
REFERENCES
AIPnD Associazione Italiana Prove Non Distruttive
http://www.aipnd.net.
Berke, M. 2000. Nondestructive material testing with ultra-
sonics. Introduction to the basic principles, NDT.net, 5
(9), http://www.ndt.net.
Cianfrone, F. 1993. Indagini microsismiche ed ultrasoniche,
Atti del seminario: Sperimentazione su strutture: attual-
it ed affidabilit delle metodologie dindagine, a cura di
E. Pozzo, E. Siviero, Iuav, Venezia.
Comsol Multiphysics 4.2a -Multiphysics modeling and
simulation software, http://www.comsol.com.
EN 14579, Natural stone test methods Determination of
sound speed propagation, 2004
Fcsk, F., Muller, C., Scharmach, M. 2005. Measuring
of The Reliability of NDE. 8th International Confer-
ence of the Slovenian Society for Nondestructive Testing.
Application of Contemporary Nondestructive Testing in
Engineering, September 13, Slovenia, pp. 173180.
811
Krautkramer, J. & Krautkramer, H. 1990. Ultrasonic testing
of materials, Springer Verlag, New York.
Masi, A., Vona, M. 2007. Prove distruttive e non distruttive
su materiali ed elementi strutturali di edifici esistenti in
cemento armato, Atti del XII Convegno Nazionale dell
AIPnD, Milano 1113 ottobre 2007.
Perov, D. V., Rinkevich, A. B., Nemytova, O.V. 2007. Interac-
tion of pulse ultrasonic signals with reflectors of different
types, Russian Journal of Nondestructive Testing, 43 (6),
pp. 369377.
PUNDIT-plus, CNS Farnell, web: www.cnsfarnell.co.uk.
Sansalone, M. J. & Streett, W. B. 1998. The Impact Echo
Method, NDT.net, 3 (2), http://www.ndt.net.
Spies, M. 1999. Simulation of UltrasonicTesting of Complex-
Structured Materials and Components, IEEE Ultrasonics
Symposium Proceedings, Vol. 1, pp. 791800.
Taffe, A., Mayerhofer, C. 2003. Guidelines for NDT meth-
ods in civil engineering, Proc. of the 5th Int. Symp. on
NDT in Civil Engineering, 1619 September 2003, Berlin,
Germany, pp. 454462.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Experimental investigation on shear strengths of concrete deep beams

reinforced with FRP rebars

H. Choi, J. Choi, Y.H. Lee, H. Kim & D.J. Kim

Department of Architectural Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea

ABSTRACT: This paper focuses on the shear strengths of concrete deep beams reinforced with FRP rebars.
A total of 15 deep beam specimens reinforced with steel, AFRP and CFRP rebars was tested by considering the
effective beam depth, shear-span-to-depth ratio and reinforcement ratio as test variables. The general behavior
of the test specimens was examined and the effects of the test parameters on their shear strengths were investi-
gated. The results of the test showed that, as the shear span-to-depth ratio of the test specimen decreased or its
reinforcement ratio increased, the maximum shear force increased and the deflection at the same level of applied
load decreased. It was also revealed from the test results that the shear strength of the specimen was proportional
to the tensile strength of the rebars used if the amount of reinforcement was kept constant, and the specimen
reinforced with steel rebars showed more ductile behavior than those with AFRP or CFRP rebars.

Keywords: damage RP rebar, concrete deep beam, shear strength, strut-and-tie-model

1 INTRODUCTION 2 EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM

There has been active research on the shear behavior 2.1 Materials and specimen details
of FRP reinforced slender beams with shear span-to-
The compressive strength of concrete was measured in
depth ratio higher than 2.5 and several design formulas
accordance with the standards of ASTM C392 and the
have been proposed.36 In contrast, relatively not much
measured average strength was found to be 26.1 MPa.
research has been performed on the evaluation of
The FRP rebars used in the test specimens were made
shear strengths of concrete deep beams reinforced
of aramid fiber reinforced polymer (AFRP), carbon
with FRP rebars, of which shear span-to-depth ratio
fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) and deformed steel
is less than 2.5, and its design standards are still under
bars and theirmaterial properties are listed in Table 1.
development.
For this study, a total of 15 deep beam speci-
According to the current ACI building code (ACI
mens was manufactured and tested. Seven of them
318-08)1 , a steel reinforced concrete deep beam should
were reinforced with AFRP rebars, another seven with
be designed using the strut-and-tie model (STM),
CFRP rebars, and one with steel deformed bars. The
which takes into account complicated force flow in
total length of each specimen was 2,000 mm, and the
D-regions, instead of simply relying on an empirical
clear span of the beam was 1,500 mm. To prevent end
formula for its design. In order to apply this approach
anchorage failure of longitudinal rebars, the specimens
to the design of FRP reinforced concrete deep beams,
had an anchorage length of 210 mm beyond the cen-
it is required to modify several design factors due to
ter of the support and an additional concrete cover of
the differences between the material properties of steel
40 mm. The width of all beam specimens was kept
and FRP reinforcement.
constantas 200 mm.
Based on these discussions, this study aims at exper-
Test parameters include the effective depth of
imentally investigating the shear behavior of FRP
the beam (190 mm, 250 mm and 310 mm), shear
reinforced concrete deep beams and providing exper-
imental data that are needed for the modifications of
effectiveness factors used in the ACI STM to design Table 1. Material properties of rebars.
FRP reinforced deep beams. A test was performed
on15 FRP reinforced concrete deep beam specimens Bar Sectional Tensile Modulus of
by considering the shear span-to-depth ratio, rein- Bar diameter area strength elasticity
forcement ratio, effective depth and rebar type as test type (mm) (mm2 ) (MPa) (MPa)
variables, and their shear strengths were measured.
Steel 10 78.54 400.0 200,000
The shear failure characteristics of each specimen were AFRP 9 63.62 1,826.9 80,697
examined, and the effects of the test variables on the CFRP 9 63.62 1,955.8 120,214
shear strengths of the test specimens were investigated.

813
Figure 1. Notation to indicate the type of each specimen.

Table 2. Specimen details.

Reinforcement ratio, %
d Figure 2. Test setup of a typical specimen.
Specimens (mm) a/d b min
Two strain gages were attached to measure the strains
A3D9M-1.4 250 1.4 0.38 0.12 0.12 of the concrete top fiber and FRP rebar in the middle
A3D9M-1.7 250 1.7 0.38 0.12 0.12 of the span as shown in the figure.
A3D9M-2.1 250 2.1 0.38 0.12 0.12
A4D9M-1.7 250 1.7 0.51 0.12 0.12
A5D9M-1.7 250 1.7 0.64 0.12 0.12 3 TEST RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A3D9S-1.7 190 1.7 0.50 0.12 0.12
A5D9L-1.7 310 1.7 0.51 0.12 0.12 3.1 General behavior
C3D9M-1.4 250 1.4 0.38 0.15 0.11
C3D9M-1.7 250 1.7 0.38 0.15 0.11 The results of the test are presented in Table 3, which
C3D9M-2.1 250 2.1 0.38 0.15 0.11 include the failure load, deflection at midspan of the
C4D9M-1.7 250 1.7 0.51 0.15 0.11 beam and maximum strains measured at the concrete
C5D9M-1.7 250 1.7 0.64 0.15 0.11 top fiber and FRP rebar for each specimen. The failure
C3D9S-1.7 190 1.7 0.50 0.15 0.11 modes of all specimens are shear-compression failure
C5D9L-1.7 310 1.7 0.51 0.15 0.11 with the exception of two specimens (C3D9M-2.1 and
S4D10-1.7 250 1.7 0.63 2.87 0.32
C4D9M-1.7), of which failure mode is shear-tension
failure. The shear-compression failure is the typical
type of failure mode for deep beams and its represen-
span-to-depth ratio (1.4, 1.7 and 2.1) and reinforce- tative cracking pattern is shown in Fig. 3. (specimen
ment ratio (0.38%, 0.51% and 0.64%) and their effects A5D9L-1.7). It is characterized by flexural cracks
on the shear strengths of deep beams are discussed in occurring at the tension surface in the middle of the
Section 3. The notation to indicate each set of the test span, which are followed by the formation of inclined
parameters is illustrated in Fig. 1. In order to prevent cracks. As the inclined cracks propagate toward the
flexural failure andto induce shear failure, no shear loading point, crushing of concrete occurs in the upper
reinforcement was provided in all specimens. The end region of the inclined crack at the final stage of
specimens were singly or doubly reinforced depending failure. In contrast, the crushing of concrete does not
on the number of rebars. The details of each specimen occur in the shear-tension failure, and the specimen
discussed are listed in Table 2. fails by the propagation of the inclined crack to its top
surface.
For further investigation of the shear failures
2.2 Test setup and procedures
occurred in the test specimens, typical measured strain
The details of the test setup are schematically illus- versus applied load curves are drawn for three AFRP
trated in Fig. 2. Load was applied to the specimen at reinforced specimens (A3D9M-1.4, A3D9M-1.7 and
a rate of 15 kN/min using a hydraulic cylinder with A3D9M-2.1) in Fig. 4. In all of the three specimens, the
maximum capacity of 1000 kN. The force generated strains remain negligible at the initial cracking stage,
by the hydraulic cylinder was transmitted to the cen- butthen suddenly increase as cracksstart to propagate
ter of the steel frame with sufficiently high stiffness, with increasing load. Upon the failure of these speci-
which was installed to apply a two-point loading to mens, the applied load suddenly drops after reaching
the beam specimen, and the distance between the two its peak point, which indicates brittle nature of the
loading pointswere adjusted depending on the shear failure occurred in the specimen. It can be also noted
span-to-depth ratio of the specimen. The magnitude of from the results in the figure that, in all of the three
loading was measured by the load cell attached at the specimens, the magnitudes of the measured strains at
bottom of the cylinder, and the vertical displacement concrete top fiber are less than 3,000 , which is the
was monitored by a linear variable differential trans- maximum allowable strain of concrete adopted by the
ducer (LVDT) installed at the midspan of the beam. ACI. These evidences confirm that the three specimens

814
 Table 3. Summary of Test results.

Maximum strain ()
Failure load Deflection at
Specimens (kN) midspan (mm) Rebar Concrete Failure mode

A3D9M-1.4 136.05 18.20 8,744 1,771 Shear-compression

A3D9M-1.7 98.98 22.74 8,960 2,121
A3D9M-2.1 88.00 34.50 12,226 1,124
A4D9M-1.7 121.00 26.80 6,588 2,188
A5D9M-1.7 133.97 15.86 6,350 1,747
A3D9S-1.7 109.58 28.28 9,782 2,418
A5D9L-1.7 134.27 16.70 8,099 2,642
C3D9M-1.4 169.26 16.98 7,072 2,257
C3D9M-1.7 106.54 13.62 7,879 1,899
C3D9M-2.1 52.64 10.04 3,922 841 Shear-tension
C4D9M-1.7 96.09 12.98 3,860 1,306
C5D9M-1.7 151.39 18.02 6,466 2,407 Shear-compression
C3D9S-1.7 104.84 18.34 6,363 2,878
C5D9L-1.7 145.39 16.66 5,923 2,412
S4D10-1.7 101.50 10.32 36,614 2,420

Figure 5. Single-span strut-and-tie model for a deep beam

member.

three CFRP specimens (C3D9M-1.4, C3D9M-1.7 and

C3D9M-2.1) with three different shear-span-to-depth
ratios, respectively. The results in the figure show that,
Figure 3. Cracking pattern at failure for specimen
A5D9L-1.7.
as the shear span-to-depth ratio increases, the peak
load decreases and the deflection at the same level of
applied load increases. This behavior can be explained
by considering the following condition on the com-
pressive strength of the inclined strut (strut AC in
Fig. 5), which must be satisfied for safe detailing of
concrete deep beams:

where Fus is the compressive force of the inclined strut,

Figure 4. Measured strains for three AFRP specimens.
considered in the plot did not fail by flexural failure,
but shear failure.
3.2 Effects of test parameters
In this section, based on the ACI strut-and-tie model,
we analyze the effects of test parameters on the mea-
sured shear strengths of the test specimens. A single-
span strut-and-tie model for a deep beam is assumed
for the analysis as illustrated in Fig. 5.
Fig. 6(a) plots the measured deflection versus
applied load curves for three AFRP specimens
(A3D9M-1.4, A3D9M-1.7 and A3D9M-2.1) and
Vu is the applied shear force, is the inclined strut
angle, is the strength reduction factor, s is the con-
crete effectiveness factor, b is the width of the deep
beam, and z is the width of the inclined strut.
The effects of reinforcement ratio on the mea-
sured shear strength are presented in Fig. 6(b), where
the measured deflection versus applied load curves
are plotted for three AFRP specimens (A3D9M-1.7,
A4D9M-1.7 and A5D9M-1.7) and three CFRP spec-
imens (C3D9M-1.7, C4D9M-1.7 and C5D9M-1.7)
with three different reinforcement ratios, respectively.
It can be seen from the results of the figure that, as
reinforcement ratio increases, the maximum applied
load increases and deflection for the same level of load
decreases. The increase in reinforcement ratio induces
the increase in the width of horizontal concrete strut
(strut AB in Fig. 5) as well as that of the inclined strut

815

Figure 6. Effects of test parameters on the shear strengths
of the test specimens.
angle and width. Therefore, the maximum shear force
increases with increasing reinforcement ratio as simi-
lar to the case of decreasing shear-span-to-depth ratio.
The measured deflection versus applied load curves
are plotted for three representative specimens rein-
forced with steel, CFRP and AFRP rebars, respec-
tively, in Fig. 6(c). All the other conditions kept same
in all of the three specimens (C3D9M-1.7, C4D9M-
1.7 and C5D9M-1.7) except the type of rebars.It can be
noticed from the results of the figure that the maximum
shear force of the specimen increases in the order of
the specimens reinforced with steel, AFRP and CFRP
rebars. The higher tensile strength of rebars, the larger
the tensile force taken by the horizontal tie illustrated
in Fig. 5. This eventually leads to the increase of the
angle and width of the inclined strut as before. Regard-
less of the tensile strength of rebars, the slope of the
816
curve is influenced by their modulus of elasticity, thus
the beam specimen reinforced with steel rebars shows
the highest slope in the plot. It is also interesting to
see that the steel reinforced specimen exhibits more
ductile behavior than those reinforced with AFRP or
CFRP rebars.
4 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
In this study, a total of 15 concrete deep beam spec-
imens reinforced with steel, AFRP and CFRP rebars
was tested by considering the effective beam depth,
shear-span-to-depth ratio and reinforcement ratio as
test variables. The general behavior of the test speci-
mens was examined and the effects of the test param-
eters on their shear strengths were investigated. The
main conclusions of this study can be summarized as
follows:
1) Most of the specimens failed by the shear-
compression failure with the exception of two
specimens of which failure mode is shear-tension
failure. This was confirmed by the cracking pattern
of the specimens and maximum strains at failure
measured at the top fiber of concrete and FRP rebar.
2) As the shear span-to-depth ratio of the test specimen
decreases and its reinforcement ratio increases, the
maximum shear force increases and the deflection
at the same level of applied load decreases. This
can be explained by the single-span strut-and-tie
model for a deep beam member, which shows that
the changes in the two test parameters can increase
the angle and width of the inclined strut, thus even-
tually increasing the shear strength and stiffness of
the deep beam.
3) The shear strength of a test specimen is propor-
tional to the tensile strength of the rebars used if
the amount of reinforcement ratio is kept constant,
and the specimen reinforced with steel rebars shows
more ductile behavior than those with AFRP or
CFRP rebars.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the National Research
Foundation of Korea(NRF) grant funded by the Korea
government(MEST) (No. 2012-0005672).
REFERENCES
ACI 318R-08 2008 Building Code Requirements for
Structural Concrete and Commentary American Concrete
Institute
ASTM Standard C39/C39M-11 2011 Standard Test Method
for Compressive Strength of Cylindrical Concrete
Specimens
El-Sayed, A. K. et al. 2006 ACI Struct J 103(383)
Nehdi, M. & Omeman, Z. and H. EI-Chabib 2008 Mater
Struct. 41(1713)
Razaqpur, A. G. et al. 2004 J Compos Constr. ASCE 8(452)
Tureyen, A. K. & Frosch, R. J. 2002. ACI Struct J. 99(427)
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Numerical simulation of in plane behavior of fiber reinforced polymer and

polypropylene composite retrofitted masonry wallet using 3-D Applied
Element Method

A. Saleem Muhammad Umair

Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Japan

B. Muneyoshi Numada & C. Kimiro Meguro

ICUS, Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, Japan

ABSTRACT: In this study, a numerical model is developed to simulate the behavior of Fiber Reinforced
Polymer (FRP) and Polypropylene (PP-band) composite using 3-D Applied Element Method. Both of materials
owning unique characteristics impart strength and ductility to a masonry wall system. FRP being a strong and
expensive material provides a significant increase in strength. On the contrary, PP-band serves to confine the
wall system with fairly high deformation capacity at a very low cost. Both FRP and PP-band are modeled as beam
element considering the elastic and plastic behavior of respective materials. Brick and mortar are modeled using
non linear constitutive law employed by Gambarotta model. FRP failure criteria are defined by Triantafillou
and Antopoulos (TA) Model. Experiments are also conducted using six masonry wallets, three non-retrofitted,
one PP-band retrofitted, one Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) retrofitted and one CFRP+PP-band
retrofitted masonry wallet using diagonal compression loading. Proposed numerical model has shown a fairly
good agreement with experimental results which motivates the use of numerical model to produce a close
behavior of FRP and PP-band retrofitted wall systems.

Keywords: Fiber Reinforced Polymer, Polypropylene, Composite, Applied Element Method

1 INTRODUCTION retrofitting method considering economic affordabil-

1.1 Background and purpose
Unreinforced masonry (URM) being a low cost and
locally available material is extensively used as a con-
struction material in developing countries. However,
historically URM has suffered extensive damage in
earthquakes. Most of the dwellings in the affected
areas were constructed of solid clay brick. Lot of URM
construction is without seismic considerations even a
low ground motion can cause fatal effects. Because
masonry is a brittle material and wall elements tends
to break into small components leaving almost no
survival space causing lot of dust and suffocation,
reducing the chances of survival.
In order to encounter above problems, lot of
retrofitting methods have been proposed by many
researchers worldwide. Cement grout injection,
shotcreting, ferrocement coatings, addition of con-
crete and steel frames, external steel bar applica-
tions and FRP near surface mounting methods are
some of the retrofitting techniques. From last few
decades, FRP has become popular retrofitting mate-
rial not only for concrete but also for URM. Along
with above retrofitting methods, Meguro and Mayorca
[Meguro and Mayorca, 2005] have developed PP-band
ity, localavailability and technological applicability
required for PP-band. PP-band is a cheap material with
fairly large deformation capacity.
In this study, we proposed a new composite
retrofitting method for URM structures. An attempt
has been made to find a composite material using
FRP and PP-band which can increase not only the
structural strength but also the deformation capacity
of masonry. In order to achieve aforementioned objec-
tives, the research is divided into two parts: modifica-
tion of existing Applied Element Method (AEM) for
numerical simulation of FRP+PP-band composite and
experimental verification of modified numerical tool.
1.2 Applied Element Method (AEM)
In AEM [Meguro and Tagle din, 2001] the structure is
divided into distinct rigid elements mainly carrying the
mass and damping. Rigid elements are connected with
the help of shear and normal springs. Each element has
elemental degree of freedom including displacements
and rotations concentrated at element geometrical cen-
teroid. AEM was first developed by Meguro and Tagle
din [Meguro and Tagle din, 1997] for analysis of lin-
ear and non linear behavior of reinforced concrete

817
structures. AEM is a derivative of Finite Element
Method and Discrete Element Method. Application
of AEM for masonry structures unretrofitted and
PP-band retrofitted is further enhanced by Meguro
and Mayorca [Meguro and Mayorca, 2003]. Hetero-
geneous behavior of masonry structures was covered
by Guaragian and Meguro [Guaragian and Meguro,
2006] using constitutive laws of masonry proposed
by Gamaraotta [Gamaraotta, 1997]. To simulate three
dimensional behavior of masonry structures, Kawin
and Meguro [Kawin and Meguro, 2008] modified
all the two dimension system of analysis to three
dimensional analysis systems keeping same theoret-
ical background.

1.3 Modified three dimensional Applied Element

Method
In 3D-AEM masonry is divided into a three dimen-
sional grid system depending upon the size of struc-
ture, level of information required and efficiency, time
and storage of analyzing machine. Every element is
connected with the other element with springs and
these springs have both normal and shear stiffness.
Equation 1 and 2 give normal stiffness Kn and shear
stiffness Ks .

Figure 1. Arrangement of masonry elements in masonry

wall system and their spring connectivity.

where Eb =Youngs modulus of brick element;

Gb = shear modulus of brick element; a = length of
element; b = width of element, and c = height of
element.
Figures 1(a), 1(b) and 1(c) shows arrangement
of masonry elements, connectivity of two elements
at brick to brick interface and connectivity of two
elements at brick to mortar interface respectively.
Whereas the Figure 2 shows the nodal degree of
freedom of connected elements.
1(c) shows the connectivity of brick to mortar spring
by assuming a system in which brick and mortar
springs are in series which enables us to calculate
the equivalent normal and shear stiffness. Following
equation gives brick to mortar spring normal and shear Figure 2. Degree of freedom of individual elements and
stiffness. their springs on connected face.

where Kn,eq = spring equivalent normal stiffness;

Ks1,eq = spring equivalent shear stiffness in 1 direc-
tion; Ks2,eq = spring equivalent shear stiffness in
2 direction; Ks2,eq = spring equivalent shear stiff-
ness in 2 direction; Em =Youngs Modulus of mor-
tar; Gm = shear modulus of mortar and t = mortar
thickness.
PP-band is modeled as beam element having span
equal to the length between two intersection points.
PP-band is connected to the masonry with the help
of connectors at specified interval with inner surface,
outer surface and with the masonry. PP-band mainly

818
contributes in its axial stiffness depending upon the Table 1. Polypropylene tension test results.
nodal connectivity with the brick masonry.
Existing version of 3-D AEM was not able to deal Maximum Initial Residual Failure
with FRP retrofitted wallet as well as FRP and PP-band axial stress modulus modulus strain
Specimen (MPa) (GPa) (GPa) (%)
retrofitted wallet. In order to implement new concept
of FRP and PP-band retrofitting method it was of
PP-1 254.20 7.38 1.91 12.30
utmost demand to modify the existing version to deal PP-2 246.50 6.95 2.06 12.67
with more complex problems of retrofitting. In order PP-3 234.40 6.42 1.96 11.91
to achieve the required objective some major changes Average 245.03 6.92 1.98 12.29
in the structure of existing program have been done.
Presence of FRP can completely change the mode of
failure of masonry. It is also observed that FRP may Table 2. Material properties of CFRP.
change the failure mode of specimens, namely from
joint sliding to diagonal shear failure. There could be Coefficient
three possible modes of failure when FRP is attached Tensile Tensile of thermal Ultimate
to brick surface with epoxy as follows: strength modulus expansion Elongation
Material (MPa) (GPa) (106 /C ) (%)
1) FRP and epoxy debonding
2) Brick surface tensile failure CFRP 1600 120 0.2 2
3) FRP rupture
Ideal case is that in which FRP reaches its ultimate
tensile capacity but experimental data shows FRP con- Table 3. Material properties of epoxy.
tribution is far less due to premature debonding failure
Tensile Tensile shear Compressive shear
or surface tensile failure of brick. Modeling of FRP in
strength bond strength bond strength
advanced 3D-AEM is achieved by selecting a suitable Material (MPa) (GPa) (MPa)
damage model to compute the shear contribution pro-
vided by the FRP. In case of FRP and FRP+PP-band Epoxy 20 9.6 21
retrofitted masonry wallet, the resulting shear strength
of masonry is calculated by Equation 7.
mortar, masonry and diagonal compression tests on
(1:4)-scaled masonry wallets.
where Vm = masonry shear strength contribution;
VFRP = FRP shear strength contribution. 2.2 Material tests
Masonry is modeled as two phase material for this
purpose; Gambrotta et al [Gamaraotta, 1997] constitu- Tension test are carried out using three samples of
tive law has been adopted to simulate non-linear cyclic PP-band with dimensions 6 mm 0.6 mm in nominal
behavior of the masonry and can reflect well the impor- cross sectional area and 150 mm gauge length. PP-
tant physical phenomenon of masonry. For masonry band has shown a biaxial type of behavior. PP-band
retrofitted with FRP limited models are developed tension test results are summarized in Table 1.
[Zhuge, 2010]. All these are based upon the assump- Biaxial type of carbon fiber reinforced polymer
tion that shear strength of FRP retrofitted wallet is (CFRP) is used with sheet thickness of 0.5 mm. Bond
sum of shear strength provided by masonry and shear E-250 epoxy is used to apply CFRP over the brick sur-
strength contribution of FRP. It was a difficult task face. Table 2 and 3 show the properties of CFRP and
to find out the most suitable damage model. In this epoxy as provided by the supplier.
regard, Y. Zhuge [Zhuge, 2010] has compared the dif- Brick masonry consist of clay burnt bricks of
ferent damage models of FRP retrofitted walls under size 75 mm 37 mm 50 mm and cement: lime: sand
in plane shear. According to his finding, Triantafillou mortar with mixed proportion of (140 g: 1,110 g:
[Triantafillou, 1998] model has given non-conservative 2,800 g). Compressive strength of bricks is determined
but fairly close estimate of FRP shear strength. Based according to ASTM C-67. Mortar compression test is
upon his finding TA model has been adopted to set the carried using ASTM C-109. Three masonry prisms are
failure criterion of FRP by comparing effective FRP also casted and tested according to ASTM C-1314 to
strain FRP,e at different load computed by AEM. determine their shear and compressive strength. Shear
strength of mortar is also determined using masonry
triplets. Table 4 summarizes the test results of masonry.
2 AEM MODEL VERIFICATION SCHEME
2.3 Masonry wallet testing
2.1 Experimental verification
Six masonry wallets are tested using diagonal com-
A series of experiments are carried out in order to ver- pression loading. All wallets and masonry materials
ify the proposed changes in 3D-AEM. Two types of are casted and cured using same constituent mate-
experimental studies are carried out: material test to rial under same environmental conditions. Out of
determine the material properties of PP-band, bricks, six masonry wallets, three were non-retrofitted, one

819
Table 4. Characteristics of material used in 3 RESULTS AND COMPARISON
experimentation.
Four types of masonry wallets are tested and their load-
Compressive Compressive displacement curves were obtained. Same scheme of
Compressive strength strength of Shear masonry wallets is than analyzed by the modified
strength of mortar Masonry strength 3D-AEM program. Figure 5 shows the comparison
Test of brick cube prism of mortar
of experimental and numerical load-displacements
Specimen (MPa) (MPa) (MPa) (MPa)
curves of all the masonry wallets. Figure 5(a) shows
that experimental results of non-retrofitted masonry
1 25.10 0.57 18.95 0.020
2 26.60 0.42 10.70 0.016
wallets have shown the variety of peak strength but
3 26.70 2.10 10.60 0.032
all are in fairly good agreement of AEM numerical
Average 26.10 1.03 13.42 0.023 results. Figure 5(b) mainly shows the numerical and
experimental load displacement curves of PP-band
retrofitted wallets. After the initial failure of PP-band
behavior of experimental and numerical results is dif-
ferent. It is because of very high level of uncertainty in
terms of interlocking, fixity and arrangement of brick
elements during the experiment. Figure 5(c) mainly
shows the comparison of numerical and experimen-
tal results of CFRP retrofitted masonry wallet. These
two are again in very good arrangement because FRP
is totally elastic up to the final failure of masonry
wallets. Load displacement comparison of numer-
ical and experimental results of CFRP+PP-band
retrofitted is shown in Figure 5(d). As that of only
PP-band retrofitted wallet, behavior of CFRP+
PP-band is highly unpredictable due to uncertain fix-
ation and interlocking of PP-band with the brick
elements during the experiments.

4 FAILURE MODES

Figure 6(a) shows that the experimental and AEM

Figure 3. Details of masonry wallets testing plan.
simulation failure patterns are similar each other.
Figure 6(b) shows sliding and separation of bricks
when subjected to a displacement of 28mm. Failure
patterns of CFRP retrofitted wallets are shown in
Figure 6(c), diagonal shear type of crack has been
observed. CFRPretrofitted wallet suddenly collapsed
allowing no time to capture the photo during the exper-
iment and Figure 6(d) shows the failure patterns of
CFRP+PP-band retrofitted masonry wallet.

5 CONCLUSION

There are two main parts of conclusion consisting

Figure 4. Experimental setup of masonry wallets under
diagonal compression test.
PP-band retrofitted, one CFRP retrofitted and one
CFRP+PP-band retrofitted wallet. LDTV and laser
displacement measuring devices were used to mea-
sure the displacement of wallets. Strain gauges are also
used on CFRP and CFRP+PP-band retrofitted wallet
to monitor the FRP and brick strain. PP-band mesh is
made using ultrasonic welding device. PP-band mesh
pitch of 40 mm is used. CFRP is pasted on both faces
of wall using epoxy. Figures 3 and 4 shows the test
details of masonry wallets and experimental setup.
of performance of proposed retrofitting scheme and
efficiency of AEM based numerical simulation.
Proposed retrofitting scheme is found to be a
viable solution of URM retrofitting problems. PP-band
being a cheap material has significantly increased the
deformation capacity and energy dissipation capac-
ity of the structural wall system, on the other hand
only CFRP-retrofitted wallet has shown significant
increased the initial strength but shown a brittle failure.
This deficiency of CFRP retrofitted wallet has been
overcome by the application of PP-band. CFRP+PP-
band retrofitted wallet has not only increased the initial
strength but also the deformation capacity and energy

820

Figure 5. Experimental and AEM simulation load-
displacement curves of non-retrofitted, PP-band retrofitted,
CFRP retrofitted and CFRP+PP-band retrofitted masonry
wallets.
dissipation capacity that was the initial assumption
while purposing of this retrofitted method.
AEM has served as a good analysis toot to deal
with the analysis of a non-linear material like masonry
821
Figure 6. Experimental and AEM simulation failure pat-
terns of non-retrofitted, PP-band retrofitted, CFRP retrofitted
and CFRP+PP-band retrofitted masonry wallets.
in an efficient way. In case of URM and CFRP
retrofitted wallet experimental and numerical results
are in close agreement where as PP-band retrofitted
and CFRP+PP-band retrofitted wallet are good enough
upto initial failure of wallet but as PP-band action
starts then numerical and experimental results devi-
ates. This is because of uncertain rearrangement of
elements when subjected to large displacements dur-
ing the experiment. But in simulation, the failure is
independent of interlocking and rearrangement. Fail-
ure always starts at those elements where normal and
shear springs have reached their capacity and failed
propagating redistribution of forces in the residual
spring system and this process continues up to final
displacement levels.
REFERENCES
K. Meguro, P. Mayorca, N. Sathiparan, R. Guragain, & N.
Nesheli, 2005. Shaking Table Tests of 1/4 Scaled Masonry
Models Retrofitted with PP-band Meshes. Proceedings of
the Third International Symposium on New Technologies
for Urban Safety of Mega Cities in Asia, Singapore, 918.
Kimiro Meguro & Hatem Tagel Din. 2001. Applied Ele-
ment simulation of RC Structures Under Cyclic Loading.
Journal of Structural Engineering 127(11), 12951305.
Kimiro Meguro & Hatem Tagel Din. 1997. Development and
Application of New Model for Fracture Behaviour Anal-
ysis of Structures. First US-Japan Workshop on Earth-
quake Engineering Frontiers in Transportation Facilities,
Buffalo, New York, U.S.
822
Mayorca. 2003. Strengthening of Unreinforced masonry
structures in the Earthquake Prone Regions, PhD Thesis,
Civil Engineering Department, The University of Tokyo.
Guragain, 2006. Numerical Simulation of Masonry Struc-
tures under Cuclic Loading using Applied Element
Method, Master Thesis, Civil Engineering Department,
The University of Tokyo.
Gambrotta L. & Lagomarsino S., 1997. Damage Model for
the Seismic Response of Brick Masonry Shear Walls.
Part1: The Mortar Joint Model and its Application. Earth-
quake Engineering and Structural Dynamics 26. 423439.
K. Worakanchana, P. Mayorca, R. Guragain, S. Navaratnanaj
& K. Meguro, 2008. 3-D Applied Element Method for PP-
band Retrofitted Masonry. The 14th World Conference on
Earthquake Engineering, Beijing, China.
Y. Zhuge, 2010. FRP-Retrofitted URM Walls under in Plane
Shear: Review and Assessment of Available Models.
ASCE Journal of Composites for Construction 14(6),
743753.
Triantafillou. T.C., 1998. Strengthening of Masonry Struc-
tures using Epoxy Bonded FRP Laminates. Journal of
Composite Construction 2(2, 96104.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Reliability design of doubler plates for sea tankers

Ibrahim A. Assakkaf
Research Scientist, Building & Energy Technologies Department, Environmental & Urban Development Division,
Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research

ABSTRACT: Maintenance and repair procedural methods are key aspects of managing the structural integrity
of atankerlife cycle framework. For example, an inspection program can be developed with the objective of
maintaining the structural integrity of an ocean tanker. It can start with system definition, followed by qualitative
reliability assessment, and then quantitative reliability assessment with the objective of performing reliability-
based design for maintaining system integrity. Doubler plates have been used to offer a temporary solution
for plate damage in tanker steel structures.. The temporary nature of this fix stems from the lack of data on
their performance and an engineering design guidance. In this study, a reliability-based design model for an
unstiffened panel of a tanker with doubler plate(s) was developed using both finite difference (FD) and finite
element (FE) procedures. Partial safety factors were also determined to account for the uncertainties in strength
and load effect. The First-Order Reliability Method (FORM) was used to develop the partial safety factors.

Keywords: Reliability, LRFD, Partial Safety Factors, Tanker Maintenance

1 INTRODUCTION

Currently, doubler plates offer a temporary solution for

steel plate damage. The temporary nature of this fix
stems from the lack of data on their performance and
an engineering design guidance (Ayyub et al., 2001).
Therefore, a need to survey the use of doubler plates,
document experiences with their use, and develop
guidance on their design and uses with any associated
limitations. This study will survey such experiences,
and develop the needed guidance. Repair actions can
be classified into two categories: (a) temporary, and
Figure 1a. Base plate.
(b) permanent.
The use of doubler plates, or alternatively lapped
structural components is usually governed by local
plating, has become extensive, and is an inexpen-
buckling of these plate elements or flat plates that make
sive method of repairing corroded plating, cracked
up the cross-section. Such local buckling means that
plates, or defective welds. A doubler plate is nothing
the buckled element will no longer take its propor-
but a plate that is added to top of the defective area
tionate share of any additional load to carry. This also
and welded around the plates perimeter as shown in
means that efficiency of the cross section is reduced.
Figure 1. While this method of repair has economic
This situation resembles the case where there is a crack
advantages, it falls in the temporary repair category
or a hole in one of the plate elements of stiffened pan-
and its use has never been accepted as a permanent
els of a tanker, which needs an immediate remedy such
repair. This temporary repair method would maintain
as adding a welded doubler plate on top of the crack or
structural integrity until the tanker is either in dry-dock
the hole (see Figure 1b). There are so many and numer-
or in restricted availability, and is followed by perma-
ous factors that can affect the capacity (or strength) of
nent repairs made to the original corroded structure.
flat plate with doublers plate. Among these factors are
In the maintenance of commercial sea tankers the use
(Ayyub et al. 2001):
of doublers for anything other than temporary repair
is currently not recommended. The objections to their 1. The type of material that both the base structure and
use are both on technical and operational grounds. the doublers are made of,
Structural components of a tanker are basically 2. The location of the doubler plate within the base
rolled shapes or built-up sections that are composed structure,
of plate elements (flat plates). The strength of these 3. The end conditions of the base plate,

823

Figure 1b. Unstiffened panel with doubler plate.
4. The degree of corrosion and cracking on base plate,
and
5. The type of welding along the perimeter of the
doubler plate.
2 RELIABILITY-BASED DESIGN METHODS
The reliability-based design of any structure requires
the consideration of the following three components:
(a) loads, (b) structural strength, and (c) methods
of reliability analysis. These three components are
essential for the development of LRFD-based relia-
bility design for tanker structural elements. There are
two primary approaches for reliability-based design
(Ayyub et al., 1998): (a) direct reliability-based design
and (b) load and resistance factor design, LRFD. The
LRFD approach is called a Level 1 reliability method.
Level 1 reliability methods utilize partial safety factors
(PSF) that are reliability based; but the methods do not
require explicit use of the probabilistic description of
the variables.
2.1 Direct reliability-based design
The direct reliability-based design method uses all
available information about the basic variables and
does not simplify the limit state in any manner. It
requires performing spectral analysis and extreme
analysis of the loads. In addition, linear or nonlin-
ear structural analysis can be used to develop a stress
frequency distribution. Then, stochastic load combina-
tions can be performed. Linear or nonlinear structural
analysis can then be used to obtain deformation and
stress values.The appropriate loads, strength variables,
and failure definitions need to be selected for each fail-
ure mode. Using reliability assessment methods such
as FORM, reliability indices s for all modes at all
levels need to be computed and compared with tar-
get reliability indices 0 s. The relationship between
the reliability index and the probability of failure is
given by (Ang and Tang, 1990 & Ayyub and McCuen,
2003)
824
where (.) = cumulative probability distribution func-
tion of the standard normal distribution, and
= reliability (safety) index. It is to be noted that
Eq. 1 assumes all the random variables in the limit state
equation to have normal probability distribution and
the performance function is linear. However, in prac-
tice, it is common to deal with nonlinear performance
functions with a relatively small level of linearity. If
this is the case, then the error in estimating the prob-
ability of failure Pf is very small, and thus for all
practical purposes, Eq. 1 can be used to evaluate Pf
with sufficient accuracy (Ayyub and McCuen, 2003)..
2.2 Load and resistance factor design
The second approach (LRFD) of reliability-based
design consists of the requirement that a factored
(reduced) strength of a structural component is larger
than a linear combination of factored (magnified)
load effects as given by the following general format
(Ellingwood et al., 1980):
where = strength factor, Rn = nominal (or design)
strength, i = load factor for the ith load component
out of n components, and Li = nominal (or design)
value for the ith load component out of n compo-
nents. In this approach, load effects are increased,
and strength is reduced, by multiplying the corre-
sponding characteristic (nominal) values with factors,
which are called strength (resistance) and load fac-
tors, respectively, or partial safety factors (PSFs). The
characteristic value of some quantity is the value that is
used in current design practice, and it is usually equal
to a certain percentile of the probability distribution
of that quantity. The load and strength factors are dif-
ferent for each type of load and strength. Generally,
the higher the uncertainty associated with a load, the
higher the corresponding load factor; and the higher
the uncertainty associated with strength, the lower the
corresponding strength factor. These factors are deter-
mined probabilistically so that they correspond to a
prescribed level of reliability or safety. It is also com-
mon to consider two classes of performance function
that correspond to strength and serviceability require-
ments. The difference between the allowable stress
design (ASD) and the LRFD format is that the lat-
ter use different safety factors for each type of load
and strength. This allows for taking into consideration
uncertainties in load and strength, and to scale their
characteristic values accordingly in the design equa-
tion. ASD (also called working stress, WSD) formats
cannot do that because they use only one safety factor
as seen by the following design equation:
where R = strength or resistance, Li = load effect, and
FS = factor of safety. In this design format, all loads
are assumed to have average variability. The entire
variability of the strength and the loads is placed on
the strength side of the equation. The factor of safety
FS accounts for this entire variability.
In the LRFD design format, tanker designers can
use the load and resistance factors in limit-state equa-
tions to account for uncertainties that might not be
considered properly by deterministic methods (i.e.,
ADS) without explicitly performing probabilistic anal-
ysis. The LRFD format as described herein is con-
cerned mainly with the structural design of tanker
steel structuralelements under combinations of dif-
ferent load effects. The intention herein is to provide
tankers analysts and designers with reliability-based
methods for their use in both early and final design
stages and for checking the adequacy of the scantlings
of all structural members contributing to the longitudi-
nal and transverse strength of a sea tanker. The general
form of the LRFD format that is used in this paper
is given by Eq. 2. The probabilistic characteristics
and nominal values for the strength and load com-
ponents were determined based on statistical analysis,
recommended values from other specifications, and
by professional judgment. The LRFD general design
formats for tanker structural components are given by
one of the following two main cases, limit state 1, and
limit state 2, respectively: Figure 2. Methodology for developing simplified strength
models for plates with doublers (Ayyub et al., 2001).

3 METHODOLOGY FOR DEVELOPING

where = strength factor, Rn = nominal (or design)
strength such as the ultimate stress, s = load factor
for stillwater load effect such as bending moment,
Ls = nominal (or design) value for stillwater load
effect such as bending moment, kWL = combined
wave-induced and dynamic bending moment factor,
and WD = load factor for combined wave-induced
and dynamic bending moment, LWL = nominal (or
design) value for wave-induced and dynamic bend-
ing moments effect, kW = load combination factor,
W = load factor for waves bending moment load
effect, LW = nominal (or design) value for waves bend-
ing moment load effect, kD = load combination factor,
D = load factor for dynamic load effect such as bend-
ing moment, and LD = nominal (or design) value for
dynamic load effect such as bending moment. The
strength and load factors are called collectively partial
safety factors (PSFs). These factors are determined
using structural reliability methods based on the prob-
abilistic characteristics of basic random variables for
materials, geometry and loads including statistical and
modeling (or prediction) uncertainties. The factors are
determined to meet target reliability levels that were
selected based on assessing previous designs. This
process of developing LRFD rules to meet target reli-
ability levels that are implicit in current practices is
called code calibration.
SIMPLIFIED STRENGTH MODELS FOR
STRUCTURAL MEMBERS WITH DOUBLER
PLATES
Evaluation and assessment of doubler plates as well as
the base structural components that are strengthened
by these plates can be a difficult task. In most cases the
use of finite element analysis allows a proper approach
to do this. However, sometimes a design engineer or
an analyst might need a handy and quick tool to design
and check out the adequacy of a weak structural ele-
ment (e.g. unstiffened panel) that must be strengthened
by a doublerplate. For this reason, simplified strength
models are needed. The purpose of this paper is to
review and assess the strength of various structural ele-
ments such as thin columns and flat unstiffened plates
with doublers in order to develop simplified empir-
ical formulas that can be used to assess and evaluate
doublers structural elements. These simple models can
be developed based on the results of both the finite-
element and finite difference methods, andsometimes
on analytical solutions. Figure 2 shows a schematic
illustration of the general methodology for developing
these simplified models for column and unstiffened
plate element with doublers (Ayyub et al. 2001).
3.1 Column buckling
Buckling is a mode of failure usually results from
structural instability due compressive action on the
structural member or element involved. The distinctive

825
Figure 3. Euler column.

feature of buckling is the sudden catastrophic nature

of the failure. The collapse of a column or a panel of a
tanker can lead to the collapse of the whole tankers hull
structural system. Although plates, shells, tubes, and
various kinds of structural members have a tendency to
buckle under different types of loadings, in this paper Figure 4. Plate Under uniaxial compressive loading.
only straight members that are axially loaded and have
constant cross sectional area will be considered.
The basic equation that governs column instabil- of the column-doubler plate structure. Once this simple
ity was developed by Euler in 1744. This equation is formulation is developed, it should be verified using
a relationship between the applied axial compression the same dimensions and material properties for both
load P and the elastic restoring ability of the column the column and the doubler plate.
as shown in Figure 3. If P is sufficiently small, the col-
umn will tend to remain straight and stable; whereas if
P is too large, the column will be unable to maintain 3.2 Buckling of uniaxially compressed
its straight position and will tend to become unstable unstiffened plate
and eventually buckle. Therefore, the value of P that
The differential equation that governs plate buckling
will serve to distinguish the stable from the unstable
was developed by Timoshenko (1961) and modified
conditions is desired.
byGerstle (1967) as (see Figure 4)
The differential equation that governs column
buckling is given by Euler (1744) as

where Nx = cr t and D = plate rigidity and is given by

where P = applied compressive force, E = modulus
of elasticity (Youngs modulus) of the material, and
I = moment of inertia of the cross section about the
weak axis.
The exact solution for for Eq. 6 according to Euler The elastic buckling unit stress can be expressed as
(1744) is

The procedures for developing strength models start

with a simple case such as a thin column structure;
with doubler plate of known dimensions and mate-
rial properties placed at different locations along the
length of the column. A Finite-difference or finite-
element analysis can then be performed to evaluate
and assess the buckling strength of the column-doubler
plate structure as the plate is placed at different loca-
tions along the length of the column. This analysis
should be repeated for various dimensions of the dou-
bler plate to insure that a reasonable range of input data
will produce sufficient output results for developing a
simple semi-analytical model. The procedure should
also be repeated for a column with various degrees
of damage (i.e., holes, corrosion, etc.) at which the
doubler plate is placed. Based on the results of the
finite-difference or finite-element analysis as well as
on some analytical procedures, a simple formulation
can be developed for predicting the buckling strength
The buckling coefficient kis a function of the type
of stress (in this case uniform compression on two
opposite edges) and the edge support conditions (in
this case simple support on four edges), in addition to
the aspect ratio b/a.Values of k for various values of the
aspect ratio b/a and for idealized edge conditions can
be found in a number of textbooks relating to structural
mechanics.
As in the case of the column, similar models can
be developed for evaluating the buckling strength of
unstiffened panel-doublers structures. However, the
process is involved since plate-buckling problems are
more complex than that of column buckling, and there-
fore, a thorough finite-difference or finite-element
analysis should be performed to evaluate and assess
the buckling strength of the unstiffened panel-doubler
plate structure as the doubler plate is placed at different
locations within the unstiffened panel.

826
3.3 Example: Simple formulation for column with
doubler plate(s)
An analytical formula based on the concept of equiv-
alent rigidity of the column-doubler plate structure
can be developed. It was evident from the results of
both the finite-element and finite difference analyses
of this study that a column with doubler plating has a
much higher buckling load than that of a base column.
Furthermore, the buckling load of the column-doubler
structure is a maximum at the center and decreases as
the location of the doubler plate x decreases from the
end point of the column. Therefore, the rigidity of the
column-doubler structure is a function of the location
Figure 5. Critical buckling strength of damaged column
of the doubler plate along the length of the column, structure as a function of the degree of corrosion; % of plate
and also a function of the mechanical properties of depth (Ayyub et al., 2001).
both the doubler plate and the column.
Let (I /L2 )eq = equivalent rigidity of the column-
doubler structure, and assuming that the modulus of
elasticity for the column and the doubler plate is the
same, then

where Id = moment of inertia of the doubler plate,

Ic = moment of inertia of the column, I = Id + Ic ,
L = length of column, ad = length of doubler plate,
and n = exponent depends on the numerical results
of either the finite- difference or the finite-element
Figure 6. Effect of doubler location on the critical buckling
analyses. Therefore, the buckling strength of a column
strength of unstiffened plate; doubler on one side only (Ayyub
with doubler plate can be evaluated according to the et al., 2001).
following equation:

The purpose of this paper is to study these effects on

The exponent n can be set based on the results of
the finite element or the finite difference analyses for
a wide range parameters relating to both the column
and the doubler plate. In a similar manner, simplified
formula can be developed to predict the strength of
uniaxially compressed unstiffened panel with doubler
plates.
4 CASE STUDIES
These case studies focus and emphasize the combined
effect on column strength resulting from welds proce-
dures, corrosion, and cracking. Also, they show how
the doubler plate strength varies based on the critical
area(s) of buckling within the original base flat plate.
4.1 Effect of welds, corrosion, and cracking on
column strength
The main welds, corrosion, cracking, and in general
discontinuity have great effect on column strength.The
buckling load capacity of a column tends to decrease
due to these damaging factors (Ayyub et al., 2001).
column strength, with and without doublers that cover
these cracks and holes.
Figure 5 shows critical buckling strength of dam-
aged column structure as a function of the degree of
corrosion (% of plate depth).
4.2 Effect of doubler location on the critical
buckling strength of unstiffened plate
The effect of doubler location on the critical buckling
strength of unstiffened plate is illustrated in Figure 6.
The values in the figure were based on the results of
a finite-element analysis performed by the joint team
effort of Martec and BMA Engineering (Ayyub et al.,
2001).
5 PARTIAL SAFETY FACTORS FOR
UNSTIFFENED PANEL WITH
DOUBLER PLATE(S)
As mentioned earlier, the second approach (LRFD)
of reliability-based design consists of the requirement
that a factored strength of structural component must
be larger than or equal a linear combination of fac-
tored load effects as presented by the LRFD format of

827
Table 1. Partial safety factors for limit state 1. It is to be noted that the values for kWD , kW , and
kD that appear in Eqs. 4 and 5 or Eqs. 7 and 8 can
0 u SW WD be taken as 1.0, 1.0, and 0.7, respectively. Also, the
strength variable Rn in the right-hand side of these
3.0 0.75 1.05 1.45 equations is to represent the ultimate buckling nomi-
3.5 0.70 1.05 1.50
nal design stress (e.g., P/tb) for uniaxially compressed
4.0 0.64 1.05 1.55
unstiffened panel with doubler plate(s).

REFERENCES
Table 2. Partial safety factors for limit state 2.
Ang, A. H-S., Tang, W. H., 1990. Probability Con cepts in
0 u SW W D Engineering Planning and Design. Vol. II Decision, Risk,
and Reliability, John Wiley & Sons, NY.
3.0 0.83 1.05 1.40 1.10 Assakkaf I.A. and Crdenas-Garca, J. F.,2003. Reliability-
3.5 0.79 1.05 1.55 1.10 Based Design of Doubler Plates for Ship Structures.
4.0 0.76 1.05 1.70 1.10 ISUMA, University of Marland, College Park, MD.
Ayyub, B. M., and McCuen, R. H., 2003. Probability, Statis-
tics and Reliability for Engineers. Chapman & Hall/CRC.
Ayyub, B. M., Assakkaf, I., Basu, R., Koko, K. S., Watts,
Eq. 2. For a uniaxially loaded and damaged unstiffened J., and Akpan, U. O., 2001. Development of Design and
panel with doubler plate, partial safety factors were Fabrication Guidelines of Doubler Plates for Permanent
Repair of Ship Structure. NAVSEA, U. S. Navy, 166 pages
determined (for demonstration purposes) to satisfy the
Ayyub, B.M., Assakkaf, I., Atua, K., Engle, A., Hess, P.,
requirements of the LRFD general design formats for Karaszewski, Z., Kihl, D., Melton, W., Sielski, R.A.,
tanker structural components as given by limit state 1 Sieve, M., Waldman, J., and White, G. J. 1998.Reliability-
(Eq. 4) and limit state 2 (Eq. 5). These partial safety based Design of Ship Structures: Current Practice and
factors are provided in Tables 1 and 2 for limit states 1 Emerging Technologies, Research Report to the US Coast
and 2, respectively. The factors were determined using Guard, SNAME, T & R Report R-53.
FORM and based on previously established proba- Ellingwood, B., Galambos, T. V., MacGregor, J. G., Cornell,
bilistic characteristics of basic random variables for C. A., 1980. Development of a Probability Based Load
both the strength and the load. Eqs.4 and 5 or Eqs. 7 Criterion for American National Standard A58. National
Bureau of Standards, Special Publication No. 577.
and 8 can be used in conjunction with the partial
safety factors provided in Tables 1 and 2 for the design
or checking the adequacy of uniaxially compressed
unstiffened panel with a doubler plate.

828
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Reliability-based design of tanker unstiffened steel panels

Ibrahim A. Assakkaf
Building & Energy Technologies Department, Environmental & Urban Development Division Kuwait Institute for
Scientific Research

ABSTRACT: The philosophy of structural design has always been to insure safety, functional, and performance
of an engineering system for target reliability levels and for specified time frame period. Because this must
be accomplished under conditions of uncertainty, reliability and risk analyses are deemed necessary in the
development of such reliability-based design of unstiffened steel panels for sea tankers. This paper presents the
development of the load and resistance factor design (LRFD) for panels or sometimes called flat steel elements.
Partial safety factors were determined in the paper to account for the uncertainties in strength and load effects. In
developing these factors, Direct Monte Carlo simulation was utilized to assess the probabilistic characteristics
of strength models (equations) by generating the basic random variables that define the strength and substituting
them in these models; and the First-Order Reliability Method (FORM) was used to determine the partial safety
factors based on prescribed probabilistic characteristics of load effects. Also, strength factors were computed
for a set of load factors to meet a target reliability level.

Keywords: load and resistance factor design (LRFD), First-Order Reliability Method, Steel Panels

1 INTRODUCTION different types of structures without departing dras-

Structural design methods nowadays have been mov-
ing toward more rational probabilistic and reliability-
based design procedures. Such design procedures take
under consideration more information than determin-
istic methods in the design of structural components.
This information includes uncertainties in the strength
of various structural elements, in loads, and model-
ing errors in the analysis procedures. Reliability-based
design formats are more flexible and rational than the
traditional working stress design (WSD) or alterna-
tively allowable stress design (ASD) formats because
they provide consistent levels of safety over various
types of structures. In reliability-based limit states
design, probabilistic methods are used to guide the
selection of strength (resistance) factors and load fac-
tors which account for the variability in the individual
resistances and loads and give the desired overall level
of safety. The load and resistance factors (or called par-
tial safety factors, PSFs) are different for each type of
load and resistance.
Engineer and designers can use the load and resis-
tance factors in limit-state equations to account for
uncertainties that might not be considered properly
by deterministic methods (e.g.; WSD or ASD) with-
out explicitly performing reliability analysis. For this
reason, design criteria should be as simple as possi-
ble. Moreover, they should be developed in a form
that is familiar to the users or designers and should
produce desired levels of uniformity in safety among
tically from existing current practice. In general, the
basic approach to develop a reliability-based strength
standard is first to determine the relative reliability
of design based on current practice(s). This relative
reliability can be expressed in terms of either a proba-
bility of failure or a safety index. The safety index for
structural components normally varies between 2 and
6 (Mansour et al., 1984).
2 LOAD AND RESISTANCE FACTOR FORMAT
For the purpose of designing code provisions, the most
common format is the use of load amplification factors
and resistance reduction factors (called partial safety
factors), as representedby the following equation:
where = the resistance reduction factor, R = strength,
i = partial load amplification factor for each type of
load i, and Li = load effect for each type of load effect
i. In fact, the American Institute of Steel Construction
(AISC), ACI, ASSHTO, and other societies and indus-
tries have developed procedures for using this design
format. Also, a recommendation for the use of this for-
mat is given by the National Institute of Standards and
Technology, NIST (Ellingwood et al., 1980).

829
3 FIRST-ORDER RELIABILITY METHOD the partial safety factors can be determined by the iter-
ative solution of FORM as given by Ayyub&McCuen
The First-Order Reliability Method (FORM) is a fairly (1995) and Ang& Tang (1984). The mean value of the
good tool to assess the reliability of a structural sys- resistance and the design point can be used to compute
tem and/or component. It also provides a means for the required partial design safety factors as
calculating the partial safety factors and i that
are shown in Eq. 1 for a specified target reliability
level 0 . The simplicity of FORM stems from the fact
that this method, beside the requirement that the distri-
bution types of basic random variables must be known,
requires only the first and second moments; namely the
mean and the standard deviations values of the relevant
random variables. Knowledge of the joint probability
density function (PDF) of the design basic variables 3.2 Determination of a strength factor for a given
is not needed as in the case of the direct integration set of load factors
method for calculating the safety index . Even if the
When developing design code provisions, it is some-
joint PDF of the basic random variables is known, the
times necessary to follow the current design practice(s)
computation of by the direct integration method can
to insure consistent levels of safety over various types
be a highly difficult task.
of structural elements. Calibrations of existing design
In design practice, there are usually two types of
codes is needed to make the new design formats as
limit states: the ultimate limit states and the service-
simple as possible and to place them in a form that is
ability limit state. Both types can be represented by the
familiar to the designing engineers and users. More-
following performance function:
over, the partial safety factors for the new codes must
provide consistent levels of safety. For a given safety
index and probability characteristics for the strength
and the load effects, the partial safety factors deter-
in which X = vector of basic random variables (X1 ,
mined by FORM approach might be different for
X2 , , Xn ) for the strengths and the loads. The per-
different failure modes for the same structural com-
formance function g(X) is sometimes called the limit
ponent. For this reason, calibration of the calculated
state function. It relates the random variables for the
partial safety factors (PSFs) is imperative in order to
limit state of interest. The limit state is defined when
maintain the same values for all loads at different fail-
g(X) = 0, and therefore, failure occurs when g(X) < 0.
ure modes. Normally, the calibration is performed on
As indicated earlier, the basic approach to develop
the strength factor for a given set of load factors.
a reliability-based strength standard is to determine
This can be accomplished by the following algorithm:
the relative reliability of designs based on current
practice. In order to do that, reliability assessment 1. For a given value of the safety index , probabil-
of existing structural components is needed to esti- ity distributions and statistics of the load variables,
mate a representative value of the safety index . and the coefficient of variation for the strength,
The First-Order-Reliability Method is very well suited compute the mean value of the strength R using
to perform such a reliability assessment. A complete the first-order reliability method as outlined in the
and thorough step-by-step computational procedure Section 3.
for FORM method can be found in Ayyub and McCuen 2. With the mean value for R computed now in step 1,
(1995). the partial safety factor of the resistance can be
revised as follows:
3.1 Partial safety factors
The first-order reliability method can be used to
compute partial safety factors such as those found
in the design format of Eq. 1. At the failure point where Li and R are the mean values of the
(R , L1 , . . . , Ln ), the limit state of Eq. 1 is given by loads and strength variables, respectively; and I ;
i = 1, 2, , n, are the given set of load factors.

or, in a general form 4 EXAMPLE: UNSTIFFENED PANEL UNDER

UNIAXIAL COMPRESSION

Faltplates elements are important components in steel

For a given target reliability index 0 ; probability structures, and therefore they should be designed for
distributions and statistics (means and standard devi- a set of failure modes such as yielding, buckling,
ations) of the load effects; and coefficient of variation and fatigue of critical connecting components. This
of the strength, the mean value of the resistance and example consider only a simply-supported plate with

830
uniaxial compressive stress of dimensions a and b. The Table 1a. Ranges of Key Parameters.
limit state for this case is given by
Mean Range

a/b 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 2, 3, and 4

b/t 50, 100, and 150
where Fu = the strength of the plate (stress), t (inch) 0.25, 0.375, and 0.5
fS = external stress due to stillwater bending of the
tanker, and fW = external stress due to wave bending.
The strength Fu is given by one of the following two
Table 1b. Probabilistic Characteristics of Basic Random
cases: Variables.
1. For a/b 1.0
Statistical Information Bias or Error Information

Nominal Dist. Std. Dist.

Variable Value Mean COV Type Mean Dev. Type

t(inch) 0 0.01563 Normal

b(inch) 0 0.125 Normal
a(inch) 0 0.125 Normal
fyp(ksi) 34000 35700 0.07 Normal 1.05
E(ksi) 29500 29500 0.05 Normal
2. For a/b < 1.0

where fyp = yield strength (stress) of plate, a = length

or span of plate, b = distance between longitudi-
nal stiffeners, and in which B = b/t fyp /E, = a/b,
t = thickness of the plate, E = modulus of elasticity,
= Poissons ratio, and

The probabilistic characteristics of the strength Fu

was assessed based on the underlying basic random
variables that define Fu . These variables are a, b, t,
fyp , and E. Direct Monte Carlo simulation was used to
assess the probabilistic characteristics of the strength
Fu by generating the values for a, b, t, fyp , and E, and
then feeding the generated values in the strength equa-
tion to obtain Fu values. This process was repeated for
ranges of selected key parameters as shown in Table 1a.
Additional information and assumptions were needed
for the probabilistic characteristics of the basic ran-
dom variables. This information and assumptions are
provided in Table 1b. Poissons ratio was assumed
to be deterministic and therefore, a value of 0.3 was Figure 1. Effect of Simulation Cycles on Sample Mean for
considered in this example. Fu /Fun , COVof Fu , and COV of Sample Mean for Fu /Fun .
The above strength basic random variables were
assumed to have normal probability distributions. The adequate for all practical purposes based on the charts
results of the simulation were expressed in the form of provided in Fig. 1 for a typical set of an estimated
mean to nominal ratio of Fu , the coefficient of varia- mean, coefficient of variation, and the coefficient of
tion (COV) of Fu , and the distribution type of Fu . The variation of the sample mean for Fu . The results of the
number of simulation cycles was set at 500, which is simulation of Fu are summarized in Tables 2, and 3.

831
Table 2. Mean to Nominal Strength Ratio (Fu /Fun ) using Table 4. Ratios of Means for Strength/Stillwater Load.
500 Simulation Cycles.
Ratios of Means for Wave/Stillwater Load
b/t
COV(Fu ) 1.5 1.6 1.7
a/b t (in) 50 100 150
0.04 3.43035 3.5695 3.70977
2 0.250 1.0329002 1.018011 1.0243729 0.08 3.6375 3.7817 3.9271
0.375 1.0384686 1.0232304 1.0267309
0.500 1.0415835 1.0297619 1.0278817
0.250 1.0322676 1.0249275 1.0217597
3 0.375 1.0401574 1.0250572 1.0098963 Table 5. Partial Safety Factors (for COV for Fu equals 0.04
0.500 1.0412124 1.0211235 1.0274101 and 0.08, respectively).
0.250 1.0431215 1.0061456 1.0300229
4 0.375 1.0359757 1.0296331 1.020356 Ratios of Means
0.500 1.0317967 1.0351399 1.0212485 for Wave/Stillwater Load
0.250 1.0316134 1.0367885 1.0379335 Partial
0.4 0.375 1.0286892 1.0322983 1.0271185 Safety Factors 1.5 1.6 1.7
0.500 1.037029 1.0313444 1.031872
0.250 1.0292437 1.0245135 1.0282429 Strenght Reduction 0.960338 0.961079 0.961747
0.6 0.375 1.0317401 1.0328774 1.0324076 Factor () 0.863684 0.86526 0.86679
0.500 1.0404428 1.0317212 1.0346454 Stillwater Load 1.301221 1.283616 1.267817
0.250 1.0232164 1.0128006 1.0191385 Factor (S ) 1.28566 1.270806 1.257081
0.8 0.375 1.0402862 1.0119037 1.0141044 Wave Load 1.328696 1.341832 1.352955
0.500 1.0397768 1.0348356 1.0209614 Factor (w ) 1.237262 1.250783 1.262827

Table 3. Coefficient of Variation of Strength (Fu ) using 500 4.1 Calculation of partial safety factors
Simulation Cycles.
The partial safety factors for the limit state equation
b/t (Eq. 8) were developed using a target reliability index
of 3.0. The First-Order Reliability Method (FORM)
a/b t (in) 50 100 150 requires the probabilistic characteristics of Fu , fS , and
fW . The stillwater load effect fS is due to stillwater
2 0.250 0.0584253 0.0790815 0.0694034 bending of the tanker that can be assumed to follow a
0.375 0.0607941 0.0510484 0.0572355
normal distribution with a coefficient of variation of
0.500 0.0527346 0.0475373 0.0553382
3 0.250 0.0576359 0.0793697 0.0693333 0.2. The wave load effect fW , which is due to waves
0.375 0.0542866 0.0533326 0.0585843 effect can be assumed to follow an extreme value
0.500 0.0489141 0.0546104 0.0511533 distribution (Type I, largest) with a coefficient of vari-
4 0.250 0.0668116 0.0763437 0.0707261 ation of 0.1. The mean values of stillwater and waves
0.375 0.0600205 0.0479042 0.0595471 are considered in this study in the form of a ratio of
0.500 0.0556326 0.0506372 0.0549195 wave/stillwater loads that ranges from 1.5 to 1.7.
0.4 0.250 0.0705274 0.0744475 0.0706838 The simulation results of Fu were used to develop
0.375 0.0572604 0.0588016 0.053054 the partial safety factors based on the limit state equa-
0.500 0.0523423 0.053527 0.0561629
tion. The partial safety factors were computed for
0.6 0.250 0.0574048 0.050443 0.0485009
0.375 0.0552815 0.0557277 0.0617511 several selected cases that cover the assumed ranges
0.500 0.054886 0.0576134 0.0467804 of the parameters a, b, t, fyp and E. The ratios of
0.8 0.250 0.0621478 0.0701532 0.0717148 means for strength/stillwater load and the partial safety
0.375 0.0597223 0.0517489 0.058896 factors for a target reliability of 3.0 are summarized
0.500 0.0526932 0.0462986 0.0591769 in Tables 4 and 5, respectively, and in Fig. 2. Based
on these results, the following preliminary valuesfor
partial safety factors are recommended:
Strength reduction factor () = 0.85(1.03) = 0.88
The distribution type for Fu was determined to be either Stillwater load factor ( S ) = 1.3
normal or lognormal. A lognormal probability distri- Wave load factor ( W ) = 1.25
bution for R was used in this study. The strength Fu
has a mean to nominal ratio of about 1.03. This ratio
4.2 Calculation of strength factor for a given set of
will be needed to revise the resulting strength reduc-
load factors
tion factor by multiplying it by 1.03. The maximum
and minimum strength ratios were found to be 1.043, As indicated earlier, for a given index and prob-
and 1.006, respectively. The maximum and minimum abilistic characteristics for the strength and the load
values of coefficient of variation (COV) for strength effects, the partial safety factors determined by FORM
were found to be 0.08, and 0.04, respectively. approach might be different for different failure

832
 partial safety factors for a simply-supported flat plate
(unstiffend panel) under uniaxial compressive stress.
The strength model for the plate Fu for this case was
established. Then Direct Monte Carlo simulation was
used to assess and evaluate the probabilistic character-
istics of the strength Fu by generating the basic random
variables that define the strength and then feeding the
generated values in the strength model of the plate ele-
ment to obtain Fu values. The distribution type of Fu
was determined to be lognormal. The maximum and
minimum COV values of Fu were found to be 0.08 and
0.04, respectively. The prescribed probabilistic charac-
teristics of the load effects and the simulation results
of the strength were used to develop the partial safety
factors based on a linear limit state. The partial safety
factors were calculated for several selected cases that
cover the assumed ranges of key parameters that define
the strength Fu . Based on these results and for a tar-
get reliability level of 3.0, the following values for
partial safety factors were selected:

Figure 2. Partial Safety Factors for Plates UnderUniaxial

Strength reduction factor = 0.88
Compression. Stillwater load factor S = 1.30
Wave load factor W = 1.25
Table 6. Probabilistic Characteristics of Random Variables. The resulting partial safety factors can be used to
design flat steel plates under uniaxial compressive
Random Distribution
Variable Mean COV Type stresses to meet a strength limit state as given by the
following design format:
Fu not provided 0.06 Lognormal
LS 1 0.2 Normal
LW 1.6 0.1 Type I (Largest)
or

modes. For this reason calibration is often needed

on the strength factor to maintain the same val-
ues for all load factors s. The following numerical
example illustrates the procedure of Section 3.2 for
revising the strength factor for a given set of load fac-
tors. For instance, given S = 1.3, W = 1.2, and the
probabilistic characteristics of the random variables as
shown Table 6, the corresponding strength factor was
computed for a target reliability level 0 = 3.0. Using
FORM method, the mean of Fu was found to be 3.66.
With the mean value known, Eq. 7 gives
Since the strength Fu has a mean to nominal ratio of
1.03, this ratio was needed to revise by multiplying
it by 1.03.
REFERENCES
Ang, A. H-S., Tang, W. H., 1990. Probability Concepts in
Engineering Planning and Design.Vol.II Decision, Risk,
and Reliability. John Wiley & Sons, NY.
Assakkaf, I. A. and Ayyub B. M., 1995.Reliability-based
Design of Unstiffened Panels for Ship Structures.ISUMA,
University of Maryland, College Park, MD.
Ayyub, B. M., and McCuen, R. H., 1995.Probability, Statis-
tics and Reliability for Engineers. Draft textbook, not
published.
Ayyub, B. M., and White, A. M., 1987.Reliability-
Conditioned Partial Safety Factors.Journal of Structural
Engineering, Vol. 113, No. 2, ASCE, 280283.
Ellingwood, B., Galambos, T. V., MacGregor, J. G., Cornell,
C. A., 1980. Development of a ProbabilityBased Load
Criterion for American National Standard A58. National
Bureau of Standards, Special Publication No. 577.

5 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

The First-Order Reliability Method (FORM) can be

employed to assess and evaluate the reliability of a
structural system or component as well as to develop
and establish partial safety factors. In this study,
FORM method was utilized to develop the needed

833
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Parametric studies in plates with holes for stress concentration factor

Victor Pop, Radu Hulea & Maria Pop

Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a study on a stress concentration in steel plates with various holes dimensions.
The first part of the paper describes the theory of stress concentration. Afterwards the paper includes a closer
presentation of the stress concentration factor. The last part, includes the parametric study of the variation of
the holes position and different dimensions in the steel plates with different plate supports: hinge-hinge and
fixed-fixed. The results are showed through graphics which contain stress concentration factor for different
holes position and dimensions.

Keywords: stress concentration factor, plate with holes, Stress concentration

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Stress concentration

Stress concentration formulas in the design of steel
plates are based on having a constant section or a sec-
tion with gradual change of contour. For steel plates
with central and non-central positioned holes occur
widely different applications. In a developing plate it
is impossible to avoid changes in cross-section, holes,
notches, shoulders etc. (1)
Almost all structural members contain some form
of geometrical: a notch or any abrupt change in cross
section. The maximum local stress, normally occurs
at these discontinuities. In the ideally elastic mem-
bers, the ratio of the maximum stress tot the nominal
stress is designated, the theoretical stress concentration
factor Kt .
Stress concentration factors may also be obtained
using experimental techniques:
strain gage method
photoelasticity method
grid method
1.2 Stress concentration factor
The stress concentration factor is K (Fig. 1) and can
be defined as the ratio of the peak stress in the body
to some other stress. To account for geometrical stress
concentration the reference stress is:
Figure 1. Tension bar with hole.
The first Eq. (1) is for normal stress (tension or
bending) and the second Eq. (2) is referred to shear
stress.
Where the stress nom , max represent the maximum
stress to be expected in the member under the actual
loads and the nominal stresses nom , max are reference
normal and shear stresses. The parameter t indicates
that the stress concentration factor is a theoretical
factor. The Kt factor can be considered as the form
factor. (1)
1.3 Tension bar with hole
The mathematical method to induce stress concentra-
tion factor in steel plates with uniform tension applied
to a plate with a single circular hole.
The stress in a cross section far from the circular
hole is used as the reference stress. The area at this
section is called: gross-sectional area and is defined:

835
The stress concentration factor becomes: from OL37. The plate dimensions are 32 m length and
8 m. The study offers different graphs for stress con-
centration factors from the steel slab. The steel plate
is under load with 1 KN/m2 . The results are offered
as a comparison with each graph to the corresponding
hole.
The use of the stress is on the cross section at
the hole, which is formed by removing the circular
hole from the gross section. The corresponding area is
referred to as the net cross-sectional area. If the stress
at the cross section is uniformly distributed an equal
to n (5):

Figure 3. Structural plate and analyzed parameters.

The stress concentration factor based on the reference

stress n is:
2.2 Parameterizations results for hinge-hinge plate
support
2.2.1 Direction XXb = 4[m]

1.4 Notches influence

Notches are frequently found in machine elements,
different parts of circular or rectangular section under
the loads of axial stresses, bending or torsion.
The variety of section causes this effect is called
thickener.
The stress distribution that occurs in normal tension
is a part of a rectangular narrow section, in right of the
notches. (1)

2 ANALYSIS OF STRESS CONCENTRATION

FACTOR TENSION IN PLATES WITH HOLES

2.1 The description of the structural model and

parametric studies Figure 4. The variation of Ktn according the holes position
in 2D (p) and the parameter dimensions (a).
The structural model is a steel plate with central holes
and non-central holes with different position.Applying
two different support types: hinge-hinge and fixed-
fixed. The steel plate thickness is 1 cm and is realized

Figure 5. The variation of Ktn according to the parameter

Figure 2. Torsion bar with grooves. dimensions (a) and to the holes position in 2D (p).

836
2.2.2 Direction YY b = 4[m]

Figure 6. The variation of Ktn according to the holes Figure 9. The variation of Ktn according to the parameter
position in 2D (p) and the parameter dimensions (a). dimensions (a) and the holes position in 2D (p).

2.2.4 Direction YY b = 2[m]

Figure 7. The variation of Ktn according to the parameter

dimensions (a) and the holes position in 2D (p).

Figure 10. The variation of Ktn according to the holes

position in 2D (p) and the parameter dimensions (a).

2.2.3 Direction XX b = 2[m]

Figure 8. The variation of Ktn according to the holes Figure 11. The variation of Ktn according to the parameter
position in 2D (p) and the parameter dimensions (a). dimensions (a) and the holes position in 2D (p).

837
2.3 Parameterizations results for fixed-fixed plate
support
2.3.1 Direction YY b = 2[m]

Figure 15. The variation of Ktn according to the parameter

dimensions (a) and the holes position in 2D (p).

2.3.3 Direction XX b = 4[m]

Figure 12. The variation of Ktn according to the holes

position in 2D (p) and the parameter dimensions (a).

Figure 16. The variation of Ktn according to the holes

position in 2D (p) and the parameter dimensions (a).

Figure 13. The variation of according to the parameter

dimensions (a) and the holes position in 2D (p).

2.3.2 Direction XX b = 2 [m]

Figure 17. The variation of Ktn according to the parameter

dimensions (a) and the holes position in 2D (p).

2.3.4 Direction YY b = 4[m]

The structural analysis was elaborated with the finite
Figure 14. The variation of Ktn according to the holes element method in the calculation program Robot
position in 2D (p) and the parameter dimensions (a). structural analysis.

838
 In the embedded slabs, stress concentration factor
is maintaining between 1.28 and 1.35, exceptions are
only for holes with a above 4 m, that starts directly
from the edge of the slabs, this phenomenon can be
observed on both directions.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1] C. Bia, V. Ille, M. V. Soare, Rezistentamaterialelor-

siteoriaelasticitatii.
[2] Walter D. Pilkey , Petersons stress concentration
Figure 18. The variation of Ktn according to the holes factors, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., ISBN:0-471-
position in 2D (p) and the parameter dimensions (a). 53849-3.
[3] Jose M. Minguez, JeffreyV., Plates with holes under
lateral load pressure, Engineering Failure Analysis
vol 5 no. 4, 13506307.

Figure 19. The variation of Ktn according to the parameter

dimensions (a) and the holes position in 2D (p).

Figure 20. Plate discretization.

3 CONCLUSION

In the articulated structures, once with the moving of

the goal along the mid-plate stress concentration factor
decrease or has a very small variation for b = 4 m as
for b = 2 m. With increasing the size a on XX direc-
tion stress concentration factor is increasing, and on
the YY direction the stress concentration factor is
decreasing.

839
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Theoretical analysis for the effect of reinforcement diameter on bond strength

Shutong Yang
Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Ocean University of China, P.R.China

Dewang Li
Shandong Huaye Programming and Architectural Design Limited Corporation, P.R.China

ABSTRACT: Good bond performance between concrete and reinforcement can ensure the two mediums
work together in reinforced concrete structures. Then much experimental work is carried out on the interfacial
properties between the two materials. It has been accepted that the bond strength decreases with the increasing of
the reinforcement diameter. But very few explicit explanations are found on this phenomenon so far. The intention
of this paper is to analyze the size effect in the bond strength in pull-out tests and give rational explanations.
The distribution of normal stresses along the diameter of the reinforcement is obtained analytically which has
never been addressed in the literature. In virtue of the compatibility conditions at the reinforcement-concrete
interface, the distributions of the tensile forces in the reinforcement cross-section and the interfacial stresses
along the bond length are obtained analytically, and the pull-out load is expressed related to the interfacial shear
crack length. Then the pull-out capacity can be given based on the theory of extremum and the average bond
stress is yielded accordingly which is actually the experimentally determined bond strength in pull-out tests. It
is concluded that the bond strength indeed decreases with the increasing of the diameter especially due to the
non-uniform distributions of the normal stresses in the reinforcement cross-section and the interfacial stresses
along the bond length.

Keywords: concrete, reinforcement, bond length, interfacial bond stress

1 INSTRUCTION size, reinforcement diameter, lateral pressure, bar

The performance of reinforced concrete structures
mainly depends on the bond strength between rein-
forcement and concrete. Good bond performance can
ensure the reinforcement efficiently delays the crack
initiation and crack propagation in concrete, and
improve the crack-resistance and durability of rein-
forced concrete structures accordingly. Moreover, the
strengths of the two materials can be exerted ade-
quately. Therefore, the bond properties between the
reinforcement and concrete deserve to be paid much
attention. Many researchers have thus carried out
much experimental work to study the bond perfor-
mance (Alavi-Fard et al., 2004; Desnerck et al., 2010;
de Larrard et al., 1993; Soroushian et al., 1989; Turk
et al., 2003, 2005; Walker et al., 1997; Zhu et al., 2004).
Test methods are generally composed of pull-out tests
(RILEM 1973a) and beam tests (RILEM 1973b). With
the wide application of fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP)
rods, the two kinds of test methods can be used to
investigate the bond strengths of FRP rods in concrete
(Benmokrane et al., 1996; Jiang et al., 2012; Okelo
et al., 2005).
It has been found that the bond strength between
concrete and steel bars or FRP rods is mainly affected
by such factors as concrete strength, concrete cover
spacing, etc (Alavi-Fard et al., 2004; Walker et al.,
1997; Jiang et al., 2012). In pull-out tests, the bond
length is 5 times of the bar diameter (RILEM 1973a)
and the bond strength is obtained by dividing the pull-
out capacity by the lateral area of the reinforcement
with concrete. It is found that the measured bond
strength decreases with the increasing of the reinforce-
ment diameter (Benmokrane et al., 1996; Desnerck
et al., 2010; de Larrard et al., 1993; Okelo et al., 2005;
Turk et al., 2003, 2005; Walker et al., 1997; Zhu et al.,
2004). However, the bond strength should be a material
constant only depending on the types of the reinforce-
ment and concrete but independent of the structural
size. Unfortunately, very few explicit explanations are
given on this phenomenon so far. The present study
attempts to explain the size effect by correlating the
bond strength to the distributions of normal stresses
along the reinforcement diameter and interfacial shear
stresses along the bond length.
2 ANALYTICAL MODEL
According to the pull-out test, a simple mechani-
cal model is adopted as shown in Figure 1 with the

841
 Figure 3. Distribution of normal stresses in the reinforce-
ment cross-section.

moments (D d)F/2d are yielded accordingly as

Figure 1. A simple mechanical model from pull-out test.
shown in Figure 2(c) where the resultant moment M is
equal to F(D d)/2. Then the distribution of the nor-
mal stresses along the diameter can be seen in Figure
3 in the form of meridian plane.
Obviously, the normal stresses distribute unevenly
along the radial direction as shown in Figure 3(a).
The uniform tensile stress tu in Figure 3(b) can be
obtained as

Moreover, the stress state in Figure 3(c) is induced by

the uniform bending moments in Figure 2(c) and then
the axial resultant force is zero, which reads

Figure 2. Internal force state in any cross-section of rein-

forcement.
where is the curvature of the cross-section bend-
reinforcement diameter D, the concrete diameter B and ing around the characteristic circle. Then we have
the bond length L (L = 5D). d = 2D/3. Therefore, the relationship between the nor-
The interfacial bond stress at the reinforcement- mal stresses ti and co in Figure 3(c) is obtained based
concrete interface provides the resistance against the on the assumption of linear strain distribution along the
pull-out load during the loading stage of the bar. The radial direction as follows.
internal force in the cross-section of the reinforce-
ment is tensile and the normal stresses are analyzed
as uniform in the cross-section in the previous work of
The resultant moment M can be given according to the
the authors (Wu et al., 2007, 2009; Yang et al., 2008).
stress state in Figure 3(c) as follows.
But the stresses may be varied along the reinforcement
diameter. The points will be verified as follows.
The internal force state in any cross-section of the
reinforcement (e.g., I-I section in Figure 1) is seen
in Figure 2 where F denotes the internal force and
is the interfacial stress at the reinforcement-concrete
interface.
In fact, the internal force F should be applied on the In virtue of M = F(D d)/2 andd = 2D/3, ti can be
boundary of the cross-section as uniform forces F/D expressed by
to equilibrate the isolated reinforcement element as
shown in Figure 2(a). Therefore, the normal stresses
are hardly uniform along the diameter. But there must
be a position where the internal forces are applied
resulting in the uniform tensile stresses in the cross- Then the tensile stress ti adjacent to the reinforcement-
section (see the dashed circle with the diameter d in concrete interface is given by
Figure 2(b)). When the F is transferred on the dashed
circle denoted by the characteristic circle in this paper
as uniform forces F/d, uniform distributing bending

842
The relationship between the interfacial stress and the
internal force F in the reinforcement can be expressed
by (Yang et al., 2008)

The interfacial shear slip is induced by the relative

axial deformation difference of the concrete and the
reinforcement, i.e.,

where ui is the axial displacement of the reinforcement

Figure 4. Relationship between interfacial stress and slip.
adjacent to the interface and uc is the axial displace-
ment of the concrete. Differentiating in Eq. (8) with
respect to x, we have

where Es and Ec are the elastic moduli of the rein-

forcement and the concrete, respectively. c is the
compressive stress in the cross-section of concrete
and it can be obtained easily in virtue of the equilib-
rium conditions in the cross-section of the anchorage
specimen as follows.

Introducing Eq. (10) into Eq. (9) gives Figure 5. Interfacial crack propagation.

For 0 x L-a, the interface behaves elastically.

A differential equation related to F is obtained by
inserting Eqs. (7) and (12a) into Eq. (11) as follows.
The relationship between the interfacial stress and
the slip is simulated by a tri-linear model as shown
in Figure 4, which reads
where

By applying the following conditions

where u refers to the actual bond strength irrelevant

to the sizes of the reinforcement and concrete. s is the
size-independent residual frictional stress. we have
As the reinforcement is pulled out, the interfacial
slip gradually increases and the slip at the loaded end
is the maximum. Once the interfacial stress attains u ,
the interface begins to debond from the loaded end
and an interfacial shear crack with length a appears as
shown in Figure 5.

843
For L a x L, the interface is in a softening
state and Eq. (12b) is applied in this region. Then
introducing Eqs. (7) and (12b) into Eq. (11) yields
where
By considering the continuity conditions of F and at
x = L a, the following solutions can be obtained.
According to Eqs. (17) and (20), the distribution of
interfacial stress along the bond length is indeed non-
uniform and even non-linear, and the non-uniformity
is more pronounced as the bond length increases.
By applying the boundary condition at x = L, i.e.,
the pull-out load P can be obtained related to the crack
length a as follows.
The pull-out capacity Pmax can be obtained by solving
dP/da=0 and inserting the corresponding a into Eq.
(22). Then the determined bond strength m
u in pull-out
tests is given by
3 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
The pull-out capacity Pmax is hardly proportional to
the square of the diameter (D2 ) since the distribu-
tions of interfacial stresses and normal stresses in
the reinforcement are non-uniform. Then the deter-
mined bond strength m u must not be constant in
light of Eq. (23). To study the variation of the m
u forcement diameter. But very few explicit explanations
with the reinforcement diameter, D is allowed from
6 mm to 32 mm and other parameters are adopted
844
Figure 6. Variation of determined bond strength with bar
diameter.
as B = 150 mm, L = 5D, Es = 210 GPa, Ec = 30 GPa,
u = 20 MPa, s = 6 MPa, 1 = 1 mm and 2 = 2 mm.
By introducing the above parameters into the proposed
model, the effect of the reinforcement diameter D on
the determined bond strength m u is seen in Figure 6.
Based on the proposed model, the determined bond
strength mu in pull-out tests indeed decreases with
the increasing of the reinforcement diameter, which
is consistent with the experimental observations (Ben-
mokrane et al., 1996; Desnerck et al., 2010; de Larrard
et al., 1993; Okelo et al., 2005; Turk et al., 2003, 2005;
Walker et al., 1997; Zhu et al., 2004). It is known that
the interfacial slip is mainly related to the displace-
ments of the concrete and the reinforcement adjacent
to the interface. The distribution of normal stresses in
the cross-section of the reinforcement is non-uniform
based on the proposed model. Then the displacements
along the diameter of the reinforcement are hardly the
same, which means the value of the m u should be varied
for different bar diameters. Moreover, the distribution
of the interfacial shear stresses is more non-uniform
as the bond length is increased. In pull-out tests, the
bond length is 5 times of the bar diameter. Obviously,
the bond length is improved and the non-uniformity
of the interfacial stresses distribution is more appar-
ent as the bar diameter increases. It is accepted that
the average bond stress decreases with the increasing
of the bond length. The determined bond strength m u
is just the average bond stress along the embedment
length (=5D). Thus, it is reduced as the bond length
or the reinforcement diameter increases as shown in
Figure 6.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Pull-out tests are usually used to study the interfacial
bond performance between reinforcement and con-
crete. The experimentally determined bond strength
is found to decrease with the increasing of the rein-
are given. The intention of this paper is to analyze
the size effect in the bond strength and give rational
explanations. An analytical model is proposed to deter-
mine the pull-out capacity of specimens in pull-out
tests based on the interfacial deformation compati-
bility. The distribution of normal stresses along the
diameter of the bar cross-section is obtained. Besides,
the distributions of tensile forces in the reinforcement
and interfacial shear stresses along the bond length
are yielded at different loading stages. Then the pull-
out load is expressed related to the interfacial crack
length and the pull-out capacity is given in virtue
of the extremum. By using the proposed model, the
determined bond strength can be obtained by dividing
the pull-out capacity by the lateral area of the rein-
forcement with the concrete. In other words, the bond
strength is the average bond stress along the bond
length which is 5 times of the bar diameter. As the
diameter increases, the distribution of the bond stress
becomes more non-uniform along the bond length and
the average bond stress is reduced accordingly. There-
fore, the experimentally determined bond strength in
pull-out tests indeed decreases with the increasing of
the bar diameter due to non-uniformity of the nor-
mal stresses in the bar cross-section and the interfacial
shear stresses along the bond length.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The financial support from the National Natural Sci-
ence Foundation with Grant No. 50908136, of the
Peoples Republic of China, is highly acknowledged.
REFERENCES
Alavi-Fard, M., Marzouk, H. 2004. Bond of high-strength
concrete under monotonic pull-out loading. Magazine of
Concrete Research 56(9): 545557.
Benmokrane, B., Tighiouart, B., Chaallal, O. 1996. Bond
strength and load distribution of composite GFRP rein-
forcing bars in concrete. ACI Materials Journal 93(3):
246253.
Desnerck, P., De Schutter, G., Taerwe, L. 2010. Bond
behaviour of reinforcing bars in self-compacting con-
crete: experimental determination by using beam tests.
Materials and Structures 43: 5362.
845
de Larrard, F., Schaller, I., Fuchs, J. 1993. Effect of bar
diameter on the bond strength of passive reinforcement in
high-performance concrete. ACI Materials Journal 90(4):
333339.
Jiang, S., Ye, Y., Fei, W. 2012. Experiment on the bonding
performance of BFRP bars reinforced concrete. Applied
Mechanics and Materials 174177: 993998.
Okelo, R. & Yuan, R.L. 2005. Bond strength of fiber
reinforced polymer rebars in normal strength concrete.
Journal of Composites for Construction 9(3): 203213.
RILEM 1973a. Technical recommendations for the test-
ing and use of construction materials: RC6, bond test
for reinforcing steel: 2. Pull-out tests. Materials and
Structures.
RILEM 1973b. Technical recommendations for the testing
and use of construction materials: RC6, bond test for
reinforcing steel: 1. Beam tests. Materials and Structures
96105.
Soroushian, P. & Choi, K. 1989. Local bond of deformed
bars with different diameters in confined concrete. ACI
Structural Journal 86(2): 217222.
Turk, K., Yildirim, M. S., Caliskan, S. 2003. Effect of
reinforcement size on the concrete/reinforcement bond
strength. Role of Cement Science in Sustainable Develop-
ment International Symposium Celebrating Concrete:
People and Practice, September 3, 2003 September 4,
2003 4757.
Turk, K., Caliskan, S., Yildirim, M. S. 2005. Influence of
loading condition and reinforcement size on the con-
crete/reinforcement bond strength. Structural Engineer-
ing and Mechanics 19(3): 337346.
Walker, P.R., Batayneh, M.K., Regan, P.E. 1997. Bond
strength tests on deformed reinforcement in normal
weight concrete. Materials and Structures 30: 424429.
Wu, Z., Yang, S., Hu, X., Zheng, J. 2007. Analyti-
cal method for pullout of anchor from anchor-mortar-
concrete anchorage system due to shear failure of mortar.
Journal of Engineering Mechanics 133(12): 13521369.
Wu, Z., Yang, S., Wu, Y., Hu, X. 2009. An analytical method
for failure of anchor-grout-concrete anchorage due to con-
crete cone failure and interfacial debonding. Journal of
Structural Engineering 135(4): 356365.
Yang, S., Wu, Z., Hu, X., Zheng, J. 2008. Theoretical analysis
on pullout of anchor from anchor-mortar-concrete anchor-
age system. Engineering Fracture Mechanics 75(5):
961985.
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

RC slabs with openings issues and provision for design

approach strategies

S.C. Florut, V. Stoian & T. Nagy-Gyrgy

Politehnica University of Timisoara, Timisoara, Romania

ABSTRACT: The paper presents some specific issues of RC slabs with openings and cut-out openings and
a series of technological and design recommendations for the strengthening of such RC slabs. Civil engineers
increasingly employ the use of composite materials, especially the Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRPs), since
their properties have made their use to prove a real success. One of the circumstances in which the use of
FRP composites might be suitable refers to strengthening/retrofitting of reinforced concrete (RC) slabs with or
without openings and/or cut-out openings.

Keywords: RC slabs, reinforced concrete, Fiber Reinforced Polymers

1 INTRODUCTION 2 RC SLABS WITH OPENINGS CONSIDERED

Almost inevitably, in most RC slabs in the structure
of civil, industrial or agricultural buildings, openings
should exist, due to a number of functional reasons.
They may be small in order to allow mounting of
various installations (heating, sewage, water supply,
rainwater pipes, etc.) or have significant size, needed
for mounting of elevators and/or stairs. Openings
amend the yield lines scheme, their corners being often
areas where the cracking and failure phenomenon are
initiated. The new yield lines schemes will almost
always be ones that characterize much lower bear-
ing capacity than the original scheme of breaking
lines (without openings). On the other hand, in almost
all cases, the total load that the slab is subjected to
decreases by creating an opening in that slab, the
magnitude of total load variation being directly pro-
portional to the openings size. By overlaying these
phenomenons, from one situation to another, different
behaviours of the elements are obtained. Thus, a com-
parison between a homogeneous (without openings)
slab and equivalent one that incorporates openings can
be made. If both slabs are subjected to similar loads,
uniformly distributed on their surface, one can find
that, depending on a series of parameters, the ultimate
capacity (by loaded area unit) can be higher for either
one of the slabs.
A distinction between the types of openings accord-
ing to their size (small and large ones) is the most
important from a structural point of view. Thus, very
small gaps do not usually affect the overall behaviour
of a slab, whilst large ones are defining for the capac-
ity and stiffness of the slabs inside of which they are
generated. Considering the moment of their inclusion
in the slabs, the openings can be further categorized
into initially designed and cut-out ones.
IN THE DESIGN STAGE
An overarching approach performed in order to elim-
inate undesirable effects caused by the presence of
small holes, is to place reinforcing bars having an
equivalent area to the bars interrupted by creating the
opening. The issue of initially designed openings in
RC slabs is approached by certain national codes, such
as the USA (ACI 318-08), the Swedish (BBK 04) or
the Polish one (PN-B-03264) and by some specialists
works.
Polish Code PN-B-03264 also contains some pre-
scriptions for designing of slabs with openings consid-
ered in the original design.The first difference from the
Swedish approach is that the code limits the maximum
edge length of the opening to a quarter of the length
of the corresponding side of the slab (parallel side to
the edge of the opening). The calculation method also
shows a different approach from the Swedish code,
assuming the plate sizing to be the same as for homo-
geneous plate, aftermath the amount of reinforcement
missing due to the void being distributed around it.
Compared to the Swedish code, it is allowed that the
bars placed around the opening to be shorter, but
proper anchoring is still required. At the same time,
the Polish code limits the magnitude of the uniformly
distributed load acting on the slabs surface to a value
of 10 kN/m2. This code makes no recommendation
on the strip width, where the additional reinforcement
required around the voids. Recommendations of the
PN-B-03264 code and the steps for the design are
illustrated in Figure 1.
Another approach for calculation of two-way slabs
with openings is to consider the slab devised into a
number of panels. All the panels are resting on three
sides, as shown in Figure 2. Thus, it is considered that

847

Figure 1. PN-B-03264 approach on issue of small openings
in RC slabs.
Figure 2. Approach for designing of slabs with large open-
ings.
the panels 2 and 3 rest on the panels 1 and 4, the reac-
tions on the x direction sides of the panels 2 and 3
becoming distributed loads applied on the free edges
of panels 1 and 4.
As a general statement valid for both beamless
slabs and slabs supported on beams, the American
ACI 318-08 code states that any type of opening may
be designed if proven by computation that the slab
will comply with all requirements regarding load bear-
ing capacity and serviceability demands. To avoid an
analysis that can often be quite cumbersome, the code
848
issues a series of recommendations only valid for the
beamless slabs (flat plate or flat slab):
1. openings of any size can be designed in the area
of intersection of two perpendicular field strips,
but it is mandatory to keep the entire reinforc-
ing area resulting from the calculations for the
homogeneous slab.
2. in the areas corresponding to an intersection of sup-
port strips, no more than an eighth of the strip width
that can be disrupted by an opening. An amount of
reinforcement equivalent to the one discontinued by
hole will be added to the plate, along the openings
sides.
3. in the area corresponding to an intersection between
a support strip and a field strip, no more than a quar-
ter of each strip reinforcement will be interrupted
by openings. Equivalent amounts of reinforcement
to those interrupted by the presence of the openings
will be placed along its edges.
A common feature of these recommendations con-
sists in the mandatory lay-out of the entire reinforcing
area as it results from calculation of the entire panel, on
the element with cut-out by placing reinforcement bars
of equivalent area around the edges of the opening.
These recommendations are presented graphically in
Figure 3 and are valid for the situation where L2 L1.
The Swedish Code BBK04 approaches the issue
of initially designed openings in two distinct ways,
depending on the openings size related to the slabs
geometry. Thus, for slabs subjected to uniformly dis-
tributed loads, an opening is considered to be small if
its length is less than one third of the slabs short-
est side length, otherwise it is considered as large.
In the case of small openings, the plate is sized as
a homogeneous element. Then, moments acting on
the two directions in the central area of the open-
ing are distributed and added to the moments acting
along the edges of the respective opening. In this man-
ner, a series of calculation strips around the opening
are obtained. These strips are parallel to each side of
the opening separately and must have their width less
than three times the slabs thickness. The additional
reinforcement that is placed in order to undertake the
supplementary efforts developed in the plate due to
the opening will be embedded in the width of these
strips. The length of these reinforcing bars must be at
least equal to the length it would have had if no open-
ing had existed in the slab. Graphical representation of
this procedure is illustrated in Figures 4.
3 RC SLABS WITH CUT-OUT OPENINGS
As any intervention work on structural elements, cut-
ting openings in existing slabs should be approached
with caution and avoided if possible. Normally, struc-
tural engineers should have a strong say in sizing of
cut-outs and in choosing their location. Therefore,
knowledge of recommended areas in order to limit
the adverse effects arising from the establishment of
cut-outs is imperative. [Newman A.]
Figure 3. ACI 318 recommendations on the position and sizes of openings for beamless slabs.

Figure 4. BBK04 approach on issue of small openings in RC slabs.

849
Figure 5. Recommendations on the position and orientation
of cut-outs in one-way slabs.

3.1 Cut-outs in one-way slabs

Typically, one-way RC slabs are part of floors with
multiple spans, the slab being structurally continu-
ous. Slabs continuity is beneficial on the one hand, Figure 6. Recommendations on the position of cut-outs in
two-way slabs rested on contour beams.
as it allows some bending moment redistribution. For
example, a plate weakened by creating a midspan
cut-out has reduced flexural capacity in this area,
but may be acceptable when there are reserves of
bearing capacity in the support areas. On the other
hand, due to continuity, carrying out of larger cut-
outs may disrupt the structural balance of the plate.
[Newman A.]
In order to determine the most suitable position
where to create a cut-out opening, the structural engi-
neer should have the initial building plans or detailed
knowledge on plates reinforcement, determined by
destructive and non-destructive testing. Then, it has
to be found out by calculations, which reinforcement
area is determined for the overall slab capacity limit
(the bottom reinforcement in the field or the upper one
at the supports).
When the amount of inferior reinforcement in the
midspan is inadequate or just slightly larger than the
reinforcement area required by the calculations, it is
strongly recommended the cut-out to be made in the
vicinity of support area (e.g. Figure 5 cut-out 1).
Similarly, insufficient superior reinforcement at the Figure 7. Recommendations on the position of cut-outs in
supports is an indication that cut-outs should be made flat slabs and flat plates.
near the midspan (e.g. Figure 5 cut-outs 2 and 3).
The cut-outs orientation is extremely important as in a preliminary assessment phase for the optimal loca-
well. Thus, a cut-out with its long edge parallel to the tion of the cut-out.To illustrate these recommendations
short side of the span (e.g. Figure 5 cut-out 2) cuts proposed by Newman A. the plate is divided into three
off less reinforcement bars than one with its long edge kinds of zones, marked with arabic digits 1, 2 and
parallel to the long side of the mesh plate (e.g. Fig- 3. To obtain them, a similar approach as that used for
ure 5 cut-outs 1 and 3). These recommendations are dividing flat slabs and flat plates into field and support
illustrated in Figure 5. strips, may be used. As a result, three kinds of inter-
section areas between those strips are obtained. Area
numbering indicates in fact the preference for creating
cutouts, 1 the most recommended, 3 the least rec-
3.2 Cut-outs in two-way slabs
ommended. These recommendations are graphically
To avoid a very laborious analysis in order to determine illustrated in Figure 6 for slabs resting on contour
if, in a specific situation, interventions are required beams and in Figure 7 for flat slabs and flat plates.
after creating a cut-out in a slab, there are some rec- For slabs resting on contour beams, in the support
ommendations and guidelines that can be used at least strips intersection area (type 1), there can be created

850
cut-outs sized up to a quarter of the span, of course,
keeping the beams intact. These corner areas are sub-
jected mainly to shear, which usually is not a problem
in terms of the capacity of such items. In areas of type
2, obtained by the intersection of a support strip with
a field strip, creating cutouts is less desirable, a beam
design verification being mandatory in order to deter-
mine whether they were designed or not as T beams.
Area resulting from the intersection of two field strips
(type 3) is the least convenient for cut-outs creation,
but even in this area, square cut-outs, sized smaller
than one-eighth of the span, can usually be created
without any strengthening, as Newman recommended.
Cut-outs exceeding those limits require analysis.
Obviously, for slabs resting on contour beams it
is better to avoid creating of an opening as large
as the whole panel, a certain width all around the
panel has to be kept in order to provide appropriate
anchorage for the upper reinforcement in the adjacent
panels. By removal of an entire panel, adjacent beams
will be subjected to torsion that has not been initially
assessed. When removal of an entire panel is required,
retrofitting works for beams and adjacent panels are
usually needed.
For flat slabs and flat plates, the situation reverses,
as detailing these kinds of slabs is usually ruled by
the shear capacity of the slab around the columns. For
this reason, cut-outs larger than 300 mm should not
be cut in areas resulted at the intersection of support
strips (type 3). Type 2 areas, resulted from the inter-
section of a field strip with a support one, are more
suitable for creating cut-outs. In these areas, cut-outs
not exceeding 15% of the span can be created with no
need of strengthening interventions. The most recom-
mended area to create cut-outs lays at the intersection
of field strips (type 1). According to some specialists
(Newman 2001) this area can be completely removed,
without generating adverse effects, since it would just
decrease the load on the slab.
851
REFERENCES
Alkhrdaji, T., Thomas, J. 2004. Design, application tech-
niques key to successful structural repair, strengthening
of aging concrete facilities. Concrete Monthly.
Ebead U., 2002. Strengthening of Reinforced Concrete
Two-Way Slabs, PhD. Thesis, Memorial University of
Newfoundland, St. Johns, NF, Canada.
Florut, S.C. 2011. Performance study of elements subjected
to flexure strengthened by using Polymeric Compos-
ite Materials (in Romanian), Thesis, UPT. Timisoara:
Politehnica.
Newman, A. 2001. Structural Renovation of Buildings:
Methods, Details, and Design Examples, McGraw-Hill.
Nilson, A. H., Darwin, D., Dolan, C. W. 2003. Design of
Concrete Structures, Thirteen Edition, McGraw-Hill.
Park, R., Gamble, W. L. 2000 Reinforced Concrete Slabs,
Second Edition, John Wiley and Sons.
Tljsten, B. 2006. FRP strengthening of existing concrete
structures. Design guideline. Lule University of Tech-
nology.
American Concrete Institute Committee 318 ACI 318-08
2008. Building Code Requirements for Structural Con-
crete (ACI 318-08) and Commentary, American Concrete
Institute, Farmington Hills.
Polish Guide Concrete Structures and prestressed con-
crete. Static calculations and design 2002. (Konstrukcje
betonowe, z elbetowe i sprez one. Obliczenia statyczne i
projektowanie PN-B-03264-2002).
Swedish Guide Handbook on Concrete 2004. (Boverkets
Handbok om Betong-konstruktioner BBK04).
Structural Group Strengthening of Concrete, Timber and
Masonry Structures.
VSL Construction Systems Buildings and parking structures
brochure.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Causes and required interventions on the rehabilitation process of large

panel buildings in Romania

T. Nagy-Gyrgy, I. Demeter, S.C. Florut & D. Dan

Politehnica University of Timisoara, Timisoara, Romania

ABSTRACT: This paper intends to discuss the rehabilitation requirements of the reinforced concrete condo-
minium buildings, especially of those made of large panels system. The necessity, the causes and the procedures
of rehabilitation are outlined, finally presenting some recommended solutions. Based on the seriously astonish-
ing data of the European and Romanian Statistical Institutions with regard to the housing conditions, the need
of immediate and high performance interventions for rational and energy efficient rehabilitation of the block of
flats type buildings is obvious.

Keywords: concrete condominium buildings, large panel buildings

1 INTRODUCTION low-rise 5-storey Precast Reinforced Concrete Large

The renovation of residential buildings is always a hot
topic, irrespective of the structural type, which country
or the solutions that are in discussion. Of course, the
given conditions are very relevant and it is important
to know the causes leading to renovation, as well as
the chosen concepts.
In 2008 the European Union (EU) adopted the so
called 20-20-20 Renewable Energy Directive; accord-
ing to this document until 2020 the member states
agreed on 20% cut in energy consumption through
improved energy efficiency and on 20% increase in
the use of renewable energy. The justification was, that
buildings sector represents 40% of the EU total energy
consumption, and thus reducing energy consumption
is a priority objective. However, this directive proba-
bly will be overwritten by a more important reason,
i.e. 30 million people in the EU suffering both lack
of space and poor housing conditions (see Directive
2002/91/EC).
According to data reported by the National Institute
of Statistics (NIS 2009), in Romania there are 8.3 mil-
lion dwellings with 21.6 million rooms. In average an
apartment has 2.6 rooms and 2.6 inhabitants. 50% of
the population is represented by urban resident, who
mostly live in prefabricated large panel buildings (NIS
2009).
Likewise other Eastern European countries, Roma-
nian urban areas underwent significant transformation
during the second half of the 20th century, regarding
the housing conditions.A considerable 28% of the total
room area of residential buildings was represented by
blocks of flats built as reinforced concrete construction
realized in the period of 1950-2000, totalizing more
than 57000 buildings. Over 40000 of these blocks are
Panel (PRCLP) buildings, more than 3500 are 9-storey
and more than 4500 are 11-storey mid-rises (Fig. 1).
The Romanian terminology used the large-panel res-
idential building or large-panel block. The structural
system of the PRCLP buildings is composed of the
cast-in-place reinforced concrete (RC) infrastructure
and the entirely precast superstructure. The infrastruc-
ture consists in strip foundations and 200 mm thick
RC walls. The superstructure was made of room-size
(2 5 m in their plane) precast slab and wall pan-
els, assembled on-site through vertical and horizontal
joints along their edges by lap welding of steel rein-
forcement and casting in-place concrete, emulating
the conventionally formed cast-in-place RC structures.
Modular construction was employed using M300 mm
as unit. (Demeter 2011).
According to a study published by Rybkowska
& Schneider (2011) and extracted data regarding
Romania can be affirmed that the European average
of 15 m2 /person is significantly lower in Romania.
Although it seems unbelievable, but more than 55% of
the population lives in overcrowded dwellings (Fig. 2),
which is considerably above of the European average
of 18%. Further serious problem is the severe hous-
ing deprivation, which reaches more than 28%. Due
to poverty, defined as individuals living in households
with a disposable income below 60% of the national
average, it is more likely to live in overcrowded con-
dition. Based on the recorded data, in Romania the
rate of these persons reached 65% (Fig. 2). These
problems are generally associated with more deficien-
cies, such as leaking roof, lack of a bath or a shower
or a flushing toilet and the insufficient natural light
in the rooms. By far the most unfavourable situa-
tion can be found in Romania, where over 43% of

853

Figure 1. Inventory and construction period of RC flat
blocks in Romania (Demeter 2011).
Figure 2. Overcrowding rate (% of population) in 2009
(Rybkowska & Schneider 2011).
the population has at least two housing deprivation
(Fig. 3).
It is obvious, that the problems presented above are
far more serious than somebody see or let see. Solu-
tions for these could be found only through deliberated
coordination. A rehabilitation concept which meets
both economic and psychological demands, as well as
structural and feasibility criteria required. In the fol-
lowings, the authors try to show their opinion on the
854
Figure 3. Housing deprivation rate by number of items (%
of population), in 2009 (Rybkowska & Schneider 2011).
Figure 4. Distribution of population by tenure status (% of
population), in 2009 (Rybkowska & Schneider 2011).
most important steps which are supposed to be con-
sidered in order to ease the above presented problems
considerably.
2 ACTORS OF THE REHABILITATIONS
Based on the above presented data in the near future
there is a significant need for housing rehabilitation
and improvement of housing conditions. The upcom-
ing great wave of renovation is determined by two main
reasons. One is the huge number of blocks of flats
built during the 19601990 period and second, the EU
directives regarding the housing conditions. The mag-
nitude of the interventions will depend on the financial
capacity of the owners, but the quality will depend on
the available information and technology solutions to
such an extent they can be used.
The key players of the rehabilitation works are:
Owners, mostly individuals, who own their homes
in more than 96% in Romania (Fig. 4).
HousingAssociations, are representing the interests
of housing block owners; mostly poorly organized,
Figure 5. Structure of the average energy consumption for
flats built between 19501990 (MRDT 2009).

usually with low professional, economical and legal

preparedness.
Investors (contractors), who are more active in
the direction of new investments, rather than
towards the difficult-to-manage Housing Associ-
ations, which are trying to cover the rehabilitation
costs through state-financed founds.
City Council, is the supervisor of the national
reconstruction & renovation programs; main dis-
advantage is that they are heavily politicized, often
unreliable and represents different interests.
Ministry (now the Regional Development and
Tourism), as the coordinator of the Romanian
National Program for Energy Efficiency Increase
of Housing Blocks. Its goals are appreciable, but
Figure 6. The strengthening layout for wide and narrow
its results are not completely transparent and not cut-out openings.
predictable. It is still unclear how many build-
ings should, and how many will, eventually be
refurbished. wall panels, to assess the weakening of doorway
EU, through its directives requires the energy effi- cut-outs and to investigate the performance of the
ciency assessment and certification through energy externally bonded carbon FRP strengthening method
audit, both of existing and new buildings. (EBR-FRP). A typical strengthening layout is pre-
Banks, through specialized products financing the sented in Figure 6. The strengthening strategy was
required home improvements, usually with govern- divided in three directions: (1) to offer flexural capac-
mental guarantees. ity along the edges of the cut-out opening, (2) to
increase the shear capacity of the wall piers, and (3) to
provide confinement effect at the cut-out opening cor-
ners (Fig. 6). The experimental results indicated that
3 STRUCTURAL INTERVENTIONS
the energy dissipation capacity of the walls retrofitted
by this technique increased significantly, whereas the
At a complete renovation of a building the necessity of
other response characteristics were influenced in a
structural interventions is obvious. These may refer to
smaller degree. As regards the performance of the
conversion or strengthening of the existing elements,
FRP strips, it can be concluded that the confinement
or may be additional structures.
FRPs show the most stable performance; the shear FRP
In several situations the strengthening may be nec-
strips debond in the vicinity of the inclined cracks;
essary if the existing wall and slab panels are weakened
and the flexural FRPs subjected to alternating tension-
by cut-out openings due to unification of dwellings, in
compression reversals parallel to the fibre direction,
this way increasing the usable surface. In such cases,
are likely to fail prematurely.
a straightforward, efficient and quick solution is to
use the fiber reinforced polymeric (FRP) composites.
Due to lack of space in the following the authors will
presents some of strengthening solutions developed in 3.2 Strengthening of RC slab panels
their research programs. The research program was conducted on two-way
slabs with cut-out openings in order to determine the
effectiveness of the a mixed retrofitting solution that
3.1 Strengthening of RC walls panels
involves the use of both Near Surface Mounted Rein-
The objectives of the experimental research were to forcement (NSMR-FRP) and EBR-FRP techniques.
record the seismic performance of the precast large As a general characteristic of all tested slabs, is the

855

Figure 7. Strengthening layout and the final crack patterns
for two of the analysed slabs.
fact that the goal of the interventions is achieved as
they prove a regain or an increase in the capacity after
applying the strengthening/retrofitting solution. All of
the CFRP components have failed due to fibre rup-
ture, the only situation in which premature debonding
had occurred was related to the failure of the laminate
mounted by EBR-FRP. The failure of CFRP compo-
nents by fibre rupture along with the crack patterns,
have proved the effectiveness of the strengthening
solution. The crack patterns of all tested elements show
a greater concentration of cracks for the retrofitted ele-
ments in comparison with the reference bare elements,
suggesting a more favourable behaviour in terms of
crack opening. The crack patterns indicate that the
failure mode is upon yield lines for the bare ele-
ments and upon smeared cracks (spider shape) for
the retrofitted ones (Fig. 7).
4 CONCLUSIONS
There is no doubt that after the great construction
boom between 19501990, an important aftermath is
expected posterior to 2010 period because of the aging
buildings.
856
Contrary to the more than 100 years old historic
buildings constructed in the past century, the rein-
forced concrete large panel buildings built in the
second part of the 20th century are not representing a
cultural value. However the discussion is about a very
significant part of the urban populations everyday life
and quality of life, which needs definitely appropriate
attention.
Recognizing this, in the next 1020 years com-
petent action plans must be developed which either
maintain the large panel residential buildings and res-
idential neighbourhoods as a liveable environment,
or transform them more liveable. This very com-
plex task, ranging from the owners to the European
Union level, attracted the attention starting from the
local construction companies up to major international
investors.
The technology for interventions is available, the
engineering and architectural solutions can be very
diverse, however just their comparative life-cycle cost
analysis could be the right choice for categories of
arguments.
The action plans for the organizational background
should be provided by the leading authorities of the
local community, while the implementation and rea-
sonable crediting falls to the business and economic
operators.
REFERENCES
Demeter, I. 2011. Seismic retrofit of precast RC walls by
externally bonded CFRP composites, PhD Thesis, UPT.
Timisoara: Politehnica.
Directive 2002/91/EC of the European Parliament and of the
Council on the Energy Performance of Buildings. EU.
Florut, S.C., Stoian, V., Nagy-Gyrgy T., Dan, D., Diaconu,
D. 2012. Experimental results of research program on RC
slabs retrofitted by mixed CFRP system, 14th Interna-
tional Conference Structural Faults and Repair 2012,
Edinburgh, 35 July. Edinburgh: Engineering Technics
Press.
Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism (MRDT).
2009. Presentation of the Thermal Rehabilitation Pro-
gramme for Blocks of Flats. http://www.mdrt.ro/lucrari-
publice/programul-de-reabilitare-termica. Romania:
MRDT.
National Institute of Statistics Romania (NIS). 2009.
http://www.insse.ro/cms/rw/pages/index.ro.do.
Rybkowska, A. & Schneider, M. 2011. Population and social
conditions, Eurostat 4/2011, Statsitics in focus. EU.
Transportation engineering
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Analysis of speed difference at tunnel entrance and exit on

freeways in China

Hongbo Wu & Ronggui Zhou

Research Institute of Highway, MOT, Beijing, China

ABSTRACT: In order to investigate the vehicle speed characteristics at tunnel entrance and exit on freeways in
China, the effects of geometric alignments of tunnel entrance and exit on average speed difference of passenger
vehicles and trucks were analyzed using statistical analysis and regression method in the paper. Furthermore,
prediction models for average speed difference of passenger vehicles and trucks at tunnel entrance and exit
section were established.

Keywords: speed difference, tunnel, entrance, exit, freeway

1 INTRODUCTION

In recent years, with the implementation of 7918

national freeway network and large-scale development
strategy in western China, the building of freeways
gradually extends to mountainous areas. In mountain-
ous areas, terrain and geology conditions are complex.
As critical elements of transportation infrastructure,
tunnels are often used on freeways in these areas
since they can optimize road alignments, reduce con-
struction quantities, and avoid the geology hazards.
Because road environment suddenly changes in tun-
nels, drivers need to deal with vast information while
moving in tunnels. As a consequence, they may need
slow down their speeds. Currently, Gao & Guo (2004);
Fitzpatrick & Collins (2000); Gibreel, Easa, & El-
Dimeery (2001); etc, have done much research on
speed analysis of two-lane highways, but only Fang,
Wang, Zhu, & Zhou (2010); Zhu, Rong, & Zhou
(2010) conducted some elementary research on the
speed change tendency along tunnels. Therefore, the
quantified relationships between average speed dif-
ference and geometric alignment of tunnel entrance
and exit are investigated through the analyses of speed
data measured on site in order to understand the effect
of tunnel alignment on traffic safety since too-much
speed difference is the root cause of traffic accident.
2 SPEED TREND ON TUNNEL SECTIONS
In general, vehicle speed is always changing when
driving on tunnel section due to special environment
in tunnels. In order to analyze the trend of speed
on tunnel sections, driving speed data at some spe-
cific points along travel direction are collected for
Figure 1. General Trend of Observed Average Speeds along
Tunnel Sections.
each freeway tunnel located in Guangdong and Hubei
Provinces. Based on existing experiences, the posi-
tions of these points are defined as 150 m outside
tunnel entrance portal (average speed is denoted by
V0 ), tunnel entrance portal (average speed is denoted
by V1 ), 250 m inside the tunnel (average speed is
denoted by V2 ), middle of tunnel (average speed is
denoted by V3 ), 100 m inside tunnel exit portal (aver-
age speed is denoted by V4 ), tunnel exit portal (average
speed is denoted by V5 ), and 150 m outside tunnel exit
portal (average speed is denoted by V6 ). The speed
radar gun is used to collect speed data, and the data are
collected for passenger vehicles and trucks in the traf-
fic stream under free-flow conditions. The observed
data are statistically analyzed and the general trend
of average speeds along tunnel sections is shown in
Figure 1.
Drivers tend to decrease their speeds while
approaching tunnel portals. This appears to be related
both to the change in light levels as well as the experi-
ence of going from an open road into a confined space.

859
Figure 2. Average Speed Differences Versus Radii of Hori-
zontal Curves.
After entering tunnels, drivers gradually raise their
speeds along with their adaptation to internal envi-
ronment of tunnels. And then, drivers will maintain
their speeds until they approach tunnel exits. Speeds
will be reduced again near tunnel exits. After leaving
tunnels, drivers often raise their speeds. According to
on site survey, speed differences of adjacent measured
points do not exceed 10 km/h after vehicles enter tun-
nels. Therefore, the effect of geometric alignment of
tunnel entrance and exit on average speed difference
is focused in the following paragraphs.
3 EFFECTS OF TUNNEL ENTRANCE
ALIGNMENT ON AVERAGE SPEED
DIFFERENCE
Firstly, the effects of tunnel entrance alignment on
speed change tendency of vehicles are studied in the
paper.
3.1 Effect of radius of horizontal curve
It can be seen from Figure 2, speed difference of pas-
senger vehicles at tunnel entrance does not exceed
15 km/h in general, and the effect of radius of hori-
zontal curve on speed difference is not clear. At some
tunnel entrances, passenger vehicles will speed up
when approaching tunnels.
Similarly, speed difference of trucks at tunnel
entrance does not exceed 15 km/h, and the effect of
radius of horizontal curve on speed difference is rela-
tively large. With the increasing of radius of horizontal
curve, speed difference is tending to getting smaller.
860
Figure 3. Average Speed Differences Versus Grades.
When entering the tunnel, trucks will slow down on
the whole.
3.2 Effect of grade
As shown in Figure 3, speed differences of both pas-
senger vehicles and trucks at tunnel entrances are
relatively discrete, and their relations to grades are not
distinct.
3.3 Combined effect of horizontal and vertical
alignment
The combined effect of horizontal and vertical align-
ment of tunnel entrance on speed difference of passen-
ger vehicles and trucks at entrance section is shown in
Figure 4.
It can be seen from Figure 4, there is no obvious
relationship between speed difference of passenger
vehicles at entrance section and comprehensive param-
eters of horizontal and vertical alignment. However,
this kind of relationship is obvious for trucks.
The relationship between speed difference of
trucks at tunnel entrance section and comprehensive
parameter I is shown in Equation 1 using statistical
analysis.
Where I = G/R comprehensive parameter; G = grade
of tunnel entrance (%); R = radius of horizontal curve
of tunnel entrance (km).
It can be deduced from the above equation that
speed difference of trucks is minimal when I is around
Figure 4. Average Speed Differences Versus Comprehen-
sive Parameters. Figure 5. Average Speed Differences Versus Radii of
Horizontal Curves.
0. With the increasing or decreasing of I , speed
difference is always increasing. It shows that the com-
bination of sharp curve and steep grade should be
avoided at tunnel entrance.

3.4 Analysis of speed variation of passenger

vehicles
Previous analysis shows that the effect of horizontal
and vertical alignment on speed difference of pas-
senger vehicles at tunnel entrance is not significant.
Furthermore, the relation model for passenger vehicles
between speed difference and average speed
V0 at the start of tunnel entrance section is developed
based on existing research findings.

4 EFFECTS OF TUNNEL EXIT ALIGNMENT

ON AVERAGE SPEED DIFFERENCE

4.1 Effect of radius of horizontal curve

It can be seen from Figure 5, the effect of radius of hori-
zontal curve on speed difference of passenger vehicles
at tunnel exit is relatively large. With the increas-
ing of radius of horizontal curve, speed difference is
decreasing. The relation model can be described as
follows:
Where = speed difference of passenger vehi-
cles at tunnel exit section (km/h); R = radius of
horizontal curve of tunnel exit (m).
Figure 6. Average Speed Differences Versus Grades.
4.2 Effect of grade
It can be seen from Figure 6, average speed difference
of passenger vehicles at tunnel exit section is relatively
discrete, and no obvious relationship with grade exists.
The relationship between average speed difference
of trucks at tunnel exit section and grade is relatively

861

(3) Speed differences of passenger vehicles and trucks
(4) The effect of radius of horizontal curve on speed
Figure 7. Average Speed Differences Versus Comprehen-
sive Parameters.
obvious. With the increasing of grade, speed difference
of trucks at tunnel exit section is also increasing. The
relation model is given by
Where = speed difference of trucks at tunnel
exit section (km/h); G = grade of tunnel exit (%).
4.3 Combined effect of horizontal and vertical
alignment
The combined effect of horizontal and vertical align-
ment of tunnel exit on speed difference of passenger
vehicles and trucks at exit section is shown in Figure 7.
It can be seen from Figure 7, there is no obvious
relationship between average speed differences of pas-
senger vehicles and trucks at tunnel exit section and
comprehensive parameters of horizontal and vertical
alignment.
5 CONCLUSIONS
This paper describes the effect of horizontal and ver-
tical alignment of tunnel entrance and exit on average
speed difference for passenger vehicles and trucks.The
major research findings can be summarized as follows.
(1) The data measured on site shows that average speed
differences of adjacent points of tunnels do not
exceed 10 km/h except for speed difference at
tunnel entrance and exit section.
862
(2) The speed difference of passenger vehicles at tunnel
entrance section does not exceed 15 km/h generally,
and the effect of radius of horizontal curve on speed
difference is not large. At some tunnel entrances,
passenger vehicle will accelerate when entering the
tunnel. The speed difference of trucks at entrance
section does not exceed 15 km/h, and the effect
of radii of horizontal curves on speed difference is
relatively large. Almost all trucks decelerate when
entering tunnels.
are relatively discrete, and their relations to grades
are not obvious. There is no definite relationship
between speed difference of passenger vehicles at
tunnel entrance section and comprehensive param-
eter of horizontal and vertical alignment. The
relationship between speed difference of trucks at
tunnel entrance section and horizontal and vertical
alignments is clear.
difference of passenger vehicles at tunnel exit sec-
tion is relatively large, and the effects of grade
on speed difference of trucks is relatively obvious.
However, there is no obvious relationship between
average speed differences of passenger vehicles and
trucks and comprehensive parameters.
Further research is proposed on two issues: (1) veri-
fication of prediction models for speed difference; (2)
effect of other factors such as pavement conditions and
lighting levels of tunnels on speed difference.
REFERENCES
Fang, Jing, Wang, Shuangjie, Zhu, Zhandong, & Zhou, Rong-
gui. 2010. Operating speed models for trucks at express-
way tunnel sections. Journal of Traffic and Transportation
Engineering 10(3): 9094.
Fitzpatrick, Kay & Collins, M. Jon. 2000. Speed-Profile
Model for Two-Lane Rural Highways. Transportation
Research Record 1737 TRB, National Research Council,
Washington, D.C., 4249.
Gao, Jianping & Guo, Zhongyin. 2004. Evaluation of high-
way alignment design quality based on operating speed.
Journal of Tongji University (Natural Science) 32(7):
906911.
Gibreel, M. G., Easa, M. S., & El-Dimeery. 2001. Predic-
tion of Operating Speed on Three-Dimensional High-
way Alignment. Journal of Transportation Engineering
127(1):2130.
Zhu, Zhandong, Rong, Jian, & Zhou, Wei. 2010. Research
on operating speed prediction model for passenger cars
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portation Research and Development 27(7): 123127.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Empirical study on the relationship among lane changing, traffic speed and
density for weaving area of urban expressway on the Level of Service
(LOS) four on the upper half in China

Han Xie, Yangsheng Jiang, Jidong Sun & Dan Tu

College of Transportation & Logistic, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China

ABSTRACT: In the past, the researchers of lane changing have focused on substantial analysis on lane changing
behaviors and its impact on traffic flow characteristics. However, there is a lack on how lane changing, speed
and density in weaving area influence each other. This paper wants to establish statistical relationships among
the three elements in weaving area of urban expressway in LOS four on the upper half (it refers that the designed
speed is 60 km/h, the ratio of volume to capacity range is from 0.64 to 0.81 and density is less than 26 pcu/Km/ln)
in China. We collected large volumes of data within 5 minutes interval from four survey segments for regression
analysis. A series of models and their corresponding parameter value ranges for multi-lanes were recommended
as basis for the relationships among the three parameters. Compared the effectiveness of the recommended
models with the existing models, it shows that the times of lane changing has significantly effect on destiny of
traffic flow, and the recommended models are more suitable than the existing model for scribing the relationship
among speed, density and number of lane changing within LOS four on the upper half in weaving area of urban
expressway in China.

Keywords: the times of lane changing; urban expressway; weaving area; speed; density

1 INTRODUCTION model hasnt considered that lane changing behavior

The service levels of urban expressways in many
metropolis basically keep from level three to four
in most time of everyday. Lane changing behaviors
frequently happen in weaving area. Because of segre-
gations and junctions of vehicle flow, it would lead to
chaos and reduce capacity. Inappropriate lane chang-
ing behaviors are an important reason for accidents.
Studying the relationship and the degree of influence
among the lane changing behaviors, speed and density
in different lanes in weaving area of urban expressway
under different levels of service is an important subject
of traffic flow and capacity.
The research on the influence of lane changing
behavior to traffic flow can be traced back to Green
Shield who proposed the famous linear relationship
between speed and density of traffic flow. This rela-
tionship has been used till now. But the model has
not been considered the influence of lane changing
behavior. From the model, Greenberg and Underwood
put forward the logarithmic model in high density and
the index model in small density. But they were still
not mentioned the lane changing behavior. And then
Lighthill and Whitham (1955) and Richards (1956) put
forward the LWR model to solve bottleneck prob-
lem. In this model, the relationship between density
and speed derived from Green Shield. The LWR
could disturb the traffic flow by acceleration and decel-
eration. Munjal et al (1971a,b) knew the shortage of
LWR model and believed that lane changing vehi-
cles could change speed instantaneously and could not
hinder the following vehicles. After that, Laval and
Daganzo (2003) proved that lane changing has a sig-
nificant influence on the following vehicles and set up
the maximum possible passing rate to update the model
(Laval et al,2006). Their traffic model which applied
four parameters is the relationship model of speed,
density, capacity and lane changing rate. In the model,
the expectation of lane changing rate is estimated from
the aspects of human and not the direct observation.
Meanwhile, there was no study on the relationship
among the number of lane changing, speed and den-
sity. Above studies started from the LWR model and
proved that lane changing behaviors have influence on
traffic flow and provided calculation methods based
on assumptions and estimates partly.
Above all, previous studies are all lack of empirical
analysis and hard to reveal the real influence of the
relationship among the times of lane changing, speed
and density. Especially on different lanes in weaving
area under general levels of service remains blank and
HCM2010 hasnt given clear calculation method.
Based on previous studies, this paper attempts to
establish statistical relationships among the times of

863
Table 1. Expressway level of service table (The Traffic the lanes into 100 km/h and 80 km/h, the 60 km/h, the
Engineering Manuals Editorial Committee of the China data in 60 km/h will be eliminated. So we divide all the
Highway Society, 2001). groups under the speed 60 km/h and only take research
on LOS four on the upper half. This condition is usual
120 km/h 100 km/h 80 km/h 60 km/h
and easy to happen and could able to complete lane
LOS D v/c v v/c v v/c v v/c v
changing behavior. The lower half of LOS four belongs
to forced flow and difficult to collect, so we havent
1 12 0.56 94 0.51 81 studied it in this paper. The definition of the upper half
2 19 0.79 86 0.71 75 0.67 69 0.64 59 of LOS four in this paper is applied the road conditions
3 26 0.94 73 0.85 68 0.83 62 0.81 53 that speed is 60 km/h, v/c value is 0.811.0 and the
Upper 42 1.0 48 1.0 48 1.0 45 1.0 43 density is less than or equals to 42 pcu/km/ln.
half of 4 Lane changing is comprehensive behavior. Here we
Lower >42 d <48 d <48 d <45 d <43 study on behaviors of entering lane or exiting lane.
half of 4 The traffic conditions: the weaving area; the main
vehicle types (involves cars, middle buses, a few
*In the Table, LOS means Level of Service, D means Den-
sity, and V means Velocity. The unit of Velocity is km/h; d
large buses and motorcycle); work day (9:00-20:00
represents v/c value of lower half of LOS 4, which is quite including the peak hours).
high traffic flow under the condition of congested. However, The road conditions: eight lanes of two-way; stan-
its maximum value does not exceed that of the upper half. dard wide of each lane.

2.2 Research method and process

lane changing, speed and density through measured
data within 5 minutes interval. On the base of data vali-
dation and data sample expansion, this paper describes
statistical quantitative model about the interaction
among the lane changing, speed and density and the
range of parameters. Then we compare the fitting
effect of the recommended models and the existing
models.
This paper applies camera shooting method proposed
by HCM2010 and shoot videos for many days about
many weaving areas in the Third Ring Road. We
obtained large data offline about the times of lane
changing, speed and density. These data are studied
by drawing scatter plots, fitting model choice, regres-
sion analysis and goodness-of-fit comparison, testing
recommend model, ensuring the parameter selection
interval and then obtaining the conclusion.

2 BASIC CONCEPTS AND RESEARCH

METHOD 3 DATA COLLECTION AND TREATMENT

2.1 Basic concepts and research preconditions
Urban expressways are central separated, have one-
way multi-lanes and support facilities for safety and
management. The space and forms of entrances are
fully controlled. The Third Ring Road of Chengdu in
China belongs to the typical urban expressway. Junc-
tions and segregations of expressways are connecting
together and forming many weaving areas. In gen-
eral, the length short than 30 m could be regarded as
unsignalized intersections and that more than 750 m
could be thought as the basic section (Zhang et al,
2001). The distance between entrance and exist is most
in the range from 30 m to 750 m in the urban express-
way and is satisfied the definition. In China, LOS is
divided into four levels, such as Table 1.
In China, expressways are designed according to
service level three and only provided the standard
of that. The designed speed of different lanes are
100 km/h, 80 km/h, 80 km/h and 60 km/h. The lanes
groups are a whole itself. If we divide all data accord-
ing to different designed speed of different lanes under
distinct service level, the same time data in 5 minutes
interval would under different service level.As a result,
this paper takes overall consideration on lanes group
of the same designed speed. According to different
designed speed of The Third Ring Road, if we divide
3.1 Data collection and calculation of the amount
of the minimum sample
By analyzing the position of entrances, surrounding
land utilization and observation location of each weav-
ing area, we selected collection segments which are
all entrances of the Third Ring Road and connect with
flyovers in different line-types (4 in all) (Xie, 2011).
Most periphery areas have commercial and residential
buildings, pedestrian overcrossings which can provide
convenient place for taking videos. According to the
above rules, we choose four collection segments which
are shown in Table 2.
For we need to take regression analysis on data
which is collected within 5 minutes interval of 3D
array about the times of lane changing, average speed
and density. The amount of 3D array should meet the
requirement of the quantity of the minimum sample of
statistics by Eq. (1) (Zhang et al,2007).
where n = the amount of the minimum sample of
observational data; = the standard deviation of
observational speed samples; K = a constant corre-
sponding to the confidence level which fulfill the

864
Table 2. Statistical Table.

DISTANCE SHOOTING TOTAL

SEGMENT (M) TIME MINUTES

A 300 Jan.12, 2011 525

Jan.13, 2011
B 300 Jan.12, 2011 610
Jan.13, 2011
C 200 May. 27, 2010 455
May.28, 2010
Jul.21, 2010
Jan.1, 2011
Jan.11, 2011
Jan.12, 2011
D 200 Jan.13, 2011 710
Jan.18, 2011

*The distance of each collection segment is convenient to

calculate. Lane1 to lane4 is fast lane to slow lane and the
speed is limited to 100 km/h, 80 km/h, 80 km/h and 60 km/h.

expectation; E = the permissible error of speed which

depends on the precision of average speed, the gen-
eral value is from 1.5 km/h to 2 km/h. Here, we can
take = 7 km/h (Zhang et al (2007)), K = 1.96 (95%),
E = 2 km/h. The minimum sample is 48.
Figure 1. (a) Speed Density. (b) the times of Entering
Lane -Density.(c) the times of Exiting Lane Density. (d) the
times of Entering Lane- Speed.(e) the times of Exiting Lane
Speed.

4 REGRESSION MODEL OPTIMIZATION

3.2 Data obtained method
The video data can produce the average speed Vs, the
times of entering lane n1 and the times of exiting lane
n2 by processing Hi-pro MTC-10 traffic flow data col-
lection instrument. And we also applied the method
put forward by Li (2002) to investigate density K. We
chose one picture each 5sec and calculated the vehicles
and get K by Eq. (2).
Where n = the number of pictures which we chose in
5min; T = the total time(s);
T = the time interval (s)
in which we chose each picture; Ki = the number of
vehicles in the picture during the observation distance;
L = the length of observation distance (km).
4.1 Model analysis and sample expansion
At first, we examined the distribution of velocity Vs,
the times of entering lane n1 , the times of exiting lane
n2 and density K of each lane as normal distribution.
The distribution of different data has no signifi-
cant distinction from normal distribution. We analysis
by SPSS and the result shows in Table 3. We took
= 0.001.
From the Table 3, we can see that the value of AS
of Vs, n1 , n2 and K are all. So we believed that the dis-
tribution satisfied the acceptance fields H0 , and Vs,
n1 , n2 and K accord with normal distribution. We esti-
mated Eq. (3) to describe the relationship among K,
Vs, n1 and n2 .

We analyzed the correlation of K, Vs, n1 and n2 by

3.3 Analysis of scatter plots
We chose 84 data (over48) that the range of the
v/c value is 0.811.0, density is no more than
42 pcu/km/ln from the measured data and obtained
scatter plots as Fig.1.
Just as Fig.1(a) shows that the speed tends to slow
down from Lane1 to Lane 4 with the same density
while the density decrease with the same speed. This
situation meets the actual situation about imitated
speed of lanes. Fig.1 (b) to Fig.1 (e) display the times of
lane changing hasnt clear relationship with speed and
density. So it is necessary to take regression analysis
and gain further conclusion.
SPSS and shown the result in Table 4.
In each lane, K has the relationship withVs, n1 , n2 . It
is necessary for us to take further research on the rela-
tionship among them. Obviously, those 84 data were
not enough to make analysis. Those data had signifi-
cant aftereffect nature of time. The value, we picked in
the former 5minutes, had no relationship with the value
in the next 5munites. And those 84 data were selected
from more video data to satisfy a subset which is lim-
ited within the upper half of LOS 4 in this article. Each
data wasnt continuous on time. Moreover, we com-
pared mathematical expectation and variance of n1 , n2 ,
Vs, and K on the four collection segments and found

865
Table 3. The Distribution of Vs, n1, n2 and K. Table 5. The Fitting Average and Variance Corresponding
with the Change of n1, n2.
Vs n1 n2 K
LANE1 LANE2 LANE3 LANE4
LANE1 N 84 84 84 84
NP M 4.190227 15.31 10.96 30.216270 model1
SD 0.282277 9.364 5.721 6.7672361 n 1 = n1 A 0.8013 0.8251 0.8002 0.8002
KS Z 1.272 0.923 1.122 0.878 n 2 = n2 V 0.0028 0.0027 0.0061 0.0061
AS 0.079 0.362 0.161 0.423 model2
LANE2 N 84 84 84 84 n 1 = (n1 )1/10 A 0.7935 0.4702 0.2842 0.2842
NP M 4.126255 29.11 24.27 27.086310 n 2 = (n2 )1/10 V 0.0029 0.0480 0.0092 0.0092
SD 0.287025 15.325 13.838 6.5132144
KS Z 1.829 0.720 0.672 0.812 model3
AS 0.002 0.678 0.757 0.524 n 1 = (n1 )10 A 0.8199 0.8623 0.8113 0.8113
LANE3 N 84 84 84 84 n 2 = (n2 )10 V 0.0024 0.0023 0.0077 0.0077
NP M 4.046181 28.10 28.51 24.406250 model4
SD 0.272361 15.206 18.426 5.3190304 n 1 = In(n1 ) A 0.8220 0.8631 0.8032 0.8032
KS Z 1.766 1.132 1.319 0.722 n 2 = In(n2 ) V 0.0024 0.0025 0.0077 0.0077
AS 0.004 0.154 0.062 0.674
model5
LANE4 N 84 84 84 84
n 1 = en1 A 0.7938 0.1456 0.0529 0.0529
NP M 4.017083 14.54 16.75 14.730489
n 2 = en2 V 0.0028 0.0552 0.0037 0.0037
SD 0.332788 12.185 9.549 8.4290780
KS Z 2.408 1.798 1.139 1.556
AS 0.002 0.003 0.149 0.016 *A means average and V means variance. We applied log-
arithmic regression method by any base and have the same
standard error. To take regression analysis with logarithm the
*N means number, NP means Normal Parameter, M
indexes of 1/10 and 10 were obtained the standard error in
means Mean, SD means Standard Deviation, KS Z means
balance inflection point.
Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z, and AS means Asymptotic Signifi-
cant(both).

After calculating, the model is well fitted under the

Table 4. Analysis of Correlations of K, Vs, n1 and n2.
lane Vs n1 n2
1 0.536** 0.472** 0.768**
2 0.657** 0.575** 0.907**
3 0.648** 0.518** 0.871**
4 0.775** 0.588** 0.471**
***means that two factors have significant linear correla-
tion under 99.9 confidene level.
that the result wasnt good for the differently central-
ized range of v/c value on each collection segment in
different type of road lines. Hence we considered that
n1 , n2 , Vs, and K have significant relationship with
service level.
If we randomly combined data form 84 3D data,
1766 groups will be formed with 48 in each. Hybrid
fitting curves were obtained from those 1766 group.
They could meet the need of statistical regression
analysis, especially the parameters range estimating,
and eliminate randomness and incidental than arbi-
trarily selected one group (48 data) from the 84 data
and ensure the stability of fitting model structure and
parameters. For the structure of Eq.(3), we made many
changes of the times of lane changing, such as the way
of linear, index, logarithms, the power function and
polynomial etc. , and fitted by Eq.(4).
Where a, b, c and d are parameters.
linear relationship between Vs and K (some studies
have shown and we can judged from scatter plots) and
n1 and n2 by the way of linear, index (two kinds), loga-
rithms and the power. We compared the fitting of five
models on average, variance and picture and show in
Table 5.
From theTable 5, we consider that the highest fitting
degree is Model 4 in Lane1, Model3 in Lane2, Model3
in Lane3 and in the Lane4 which we can apply Model3
too.
Nonlinearity models are as following:
Lane1:
Lane2, 3, 4:
Where a, b, c and d are parameters.
4.2 The determination of value range of model
parameters
We obtained relative parameters of four lanes after tak-
ing regression analysis on data by EXCEL with Eq. (5)
and Eq. (6).
We took = 0.05 and used t test for the significant
test of each parameter as following:
H0 : a, b, c are 0 H1 : a, b, c are not all 0
When t0.025 (46) = 2.013 and |t| is less than
t0.025 (46), we believed that not all parameters are 0. So
the t values of every selected parameter in each model

866
Table 6. The Value of Each Lane and Each Parameter. variance, where in Lane4 the average is as same as
variance. This probably because Lane1 is a fast lane,
LANE PARAMETERS UPPER LOWER Lane2 and Lane3 are middle lane and lane4 is a slow
one. In general, the average speed is over 20km/h, and
1 a [28.4515, 75.4537] the fitting average of recommended formulas in this
b [0.559, 0.0981]
speed range is more than that of existing formula. The
c [5.8868, 4.14339]
d [5.1061, 3.47572] fitting average of recommended formula and that of
2 a [0.4415, 1.22876] existing formulas are almost the same in Lane1 and
b [0.0046, 0.00651] Lane4 while the Lane2 and Lane3 are so different. We
c [0.0032, 0.00108] consider that Lane1 is a fast lane and the Lane4 is
d [0.21893, 1.31881] opposite. In the fast lane, many vehicles travel in the
3 a [1.29521, 1.66985] lane and less lane changing behaviors happen. Lane4 is
b [0.0027, 0.00604] the slow lane where not only less vehicles travel on but
c [0.003, 0.00647] less lane changing behaviors happen, just as the Fig.1
d [0.0058, 0.0012]
(b) to Fig.1 (e) shown. In such situation, theres clear
4 a [98.7824, 166.261]
b [4.1026, 1.0791] relationship between density and speed and almost
c [1.0978, 0.90615] no relationship with lane changing behavior, so the
d [1.3057, 0.55107] fitting average difference between recommended for-
mula and existing formula isnt huge. Lane2 and Lane3
are middle lanes, so the vehicles in these lanes are pos-
sibly ready to exit or enter into other lane. Hence, more
Table 7. The Comparison of Fitting Degree between Rec- lane changing behaviors are happened here. This also
ommended Formulas and Existing Formulas. could be shown from Fig.1 (b) to Fig.1 (e). In this situa-
tion, clearer relationship could be seen among the three
LANE1 LANE2 LANE3 LANE4 elements, so recommended formulas are more suitable
than existing formula. Meanwhile, the fitting aver-
Recommended 0.8221 0.8623 0.8113 0.7658 age of recommended formulas is higher than existing
Formulas formula in these two situations. That means recom-
Existing 0.7829 0.0636 0.0319 0.6643
Formulas
mended formulas can better display the density under
the upper half of LOS four. Hence, recommended
formulas are a kind of revise between density and
speed under the upper half of LOS four. Especially
when simulating lane changing behaviors in urban
satisfied the rejection region, and the regression effect
expressway, and we can apply Eq. (5) and (6) to obtain
was significant. The range of each parameter is shown
relative values, and then regard them as the controlled
in Table 6.
conditions.
In this paper, we just explain the relationship among
4.3 Model comparison density, speed, the times of lane changing in weaving
area in different lanes under the upper half of LOS four,
Based on the linear relationship between K and Vs
which are only on workday, cloudy and commercial
which was proposed by Green Shields and still adopted
and residential buildings around. Then the recommend
in model LWR, we carried on linear regression
formulas and the range of related parameters are given.
via Eq.(7) and list the average fitting degree in the
Further researches, such as the relationship among the
Table (7). And then we compared the same value via
times of lane changing, speed and density under the
Eqs.(5) and (6) in Table (7).
situations of other LOS, different utilizations of lands,
time, weather and other urban roads (such as urban
main roads, secondary roads, ship roads and so on),
will be studied.
The mean value of fitting degree from recom-
mended formulas are better than existing formulas as
shown in the Table 7. The phenomenon illustrated that
density has relevant with not only speed but the times
of entering lane and existing lane. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported in part by the China National

5 CONCLUSION
Through the above analysis, we know that there is
relationship among density, speed and the times of
entering lane and exiting lane. The relationship is
showed as Eq.(5) and (6). Different models from Lane1
to Lane3 have distinct fitting degree average and
Natural Science Fund (51108391). We also acknowl-
edge the students of Southwest Jiaotong University for
their assistance in data collection and management.
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2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Fuzzy C-means clustering based on clustering algorithms

for traffic crash data

Iman Aghayan
Dept of Civil Engineering, Eastern Mediterranean University, Mersin, Turkey

Nima Noii
School of Civil Engineering and Surveying, University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom

Mehmet Metin Kunt

Dept of Civil Engineering, Eastern Mediterranean University, Mersin, Turkey

ABSTRACT: Clustering generally is related to classification problem. This paper used three clustering
algorithm-hierarchical, K-means, and fuzzy C-means clustering- to obtain the number of cluster which finally
was applied to fuzzy C-means clustering so as to determine the classification accuracy and time response. The
dataset used consists of 1049 traffic crashes and was derived from traffic crashes reported between 2005 and
2010 on the North Cyprus primary road network. Seven parameters are selected as input for such a model: drivers
gender, drivers age, crash time, type of vehicle, weather condition, traffic way character, and collision type and
three injury levels were taken into consideration for this study (i.e. no injury, evident injury, fatality).The results
showed that data classification accuracy was around 0.725 and time response was around 0.474 according to
fuzzy C-means clustering.

Keywords: fuzzy C-means, hierarchical clustering, K-means clustering, traffic crash severity

1 INTRODUCTION exponent m = 2, which was proposed by Dunn

Clustering is an essential task in information pro-
cessing, engineering, and machine learning domains.
Applications include man-machine communication,
pattern recognition, decision making, data min-
ing, system modeling, forecasting, and classification
(Bezdek & Pal 1992). Clustering techniques aim
at obtaining useful information by the grouping of
multi-dimensional data into clusters. In this study,
three clustering algorithmshierarchical, K-means,
and fuzzy C-means clusteringare investigated. An
unsupervised learning algorithm to solve the clus-
tering problem is K-means clustering, which is a
good selection for clustering large-scale data sets (Xu
& Wunsch 2008). Hierarchical clustering solutions,
which are in the form of trees called dendrograms, are
of great interest for a number of application domains.
Hierarchical trees provide a view of the data at differ-
ent levels of abstraction. Because of the consistency
of clustering solutions at different levels of granular-
ity, flat partitions of particular granularities can be
extracted during data analysis, making the solutions
ideal for interactive exploration and visualization.
Ruspini (1969) was the first to propose fuzzy
c-partitions as a fuzzy approach to clustering. Later,
the fuzzy C-means (FCM) algorithms with a weighting
(1974) and then generalized by Bezdek (1981) to
m > 1, became popular. Fan et al. (2003) proposed a
suppressed-type FCM algorithm. Wang et al. (2004)
considered a feature-weighted FCM based on feature
selection methods. Frigui & Nasraoui (2004) proposed
an extended type of feature weighted FCM to deal with
an unknown number of clusters based on competitive
agglomeration.
The K-means algorithm (MacQueen 1967) is one of
the most popular methods for clustering multivariate
quantitative data. This algorithm is an unsupervised
pattern classification method and can thus be applied
directly to industrial environments without the need
of being trained by data measured on a machine under
a fault condition. A prior knowledge of the number
of clusters is a requirement of the K-means clustering
algorithm. K-means is defined over continuous data
(Fukunaga 1990) and calculates its centers iteratively
(Gersho & Gray 1992). Pena et al. (1999) presented a
comparative study for different initialization methods
for the K-means algorithm. The performance of the
K-means algorithm depends on the initial cluster
centers. Furthermore, the final partition depends on
the initial configuration. Some research has solved
this problem by proposing an algorithm for com-
puting initial cluster centers for K-means clustering

869
(Khan & Ahmad 2004, Redmond & Heneghan 2007).
Krzanowski & Hand (2009) introduced a screening
method to quickly select useful variables prior to
clustering.
Hierarchical clustering solutions have been obtained
primarily by using agglomerative algorithms (Sneath
& Sokal 1973, King 1967, Karypis et al. 1999), in
which objects are initially assigned to their own clus-
ter and then pairs of clusters are repeatedly merged
until the whole tree is formed.
Akiyama & Sho (1993) studied the traffic safety
problem on urban expressways. Hadji Hosseinlou &
Aghayan (2009) used fuzzy logic to predict the traffic
crash severity on the Tehran-Ghom freeway in Iran.
Fuzzy logic utilized for the control of traffic systems
(Kamijo et al. 2000 & Mussa et al. 2002).
The dataset used in this study consists of 1049
traffic crashes derived from traffic crashes reported
between 2005 and 2010 on the North Cyprus pri-
mary road network. Seven parameters were selected
as input for such a model: drivers gender (Man,
Woman), drivers age (Year), crash time (Day, Night),
type of vehicle (Passenger car, Pick up), weather con-
dition (Clear, Cloudy, and Rainy), traffic way character
(Curve, Straight road segment), and collision type
(Rear-end, Right-angle, and Side-wipe). Three injury
levels were taken into the consideration for this study
(i.e. no injury, evident injury, fatality).
The primary goal of the study is to determine the
classification accuracy and time response using fuzzy
C-means clustering based the proposed clustering
algorithms on traffic crash data.
2 METHODOLOGY
2.1 Cluster validity
For finding the number of clusters in the dataset, sil-
houette values were used which can be calculated by
Eq. (1). The silhouette value for each point is a measure
of how similar that point is to the other points in its own
cluster compared with points in other clusters. Silhou-
ette values range from +1, indicating points that are
distant from those in neighboring clusters, through 0,
indicating points that are not distinct to any given clus-
ter, to 1, indicating points that are probably assigned
to the wrong cluster (Shie and Chen 2008).
where a(i) is the average distance from the ith point to
the other points in its cluster, b(i.k) is the average dis-
tance from the ith point to points in another cluster k.
An average silhouette width value can be interpreted.
For example, a value of mean silhouette between 0.7
and 1.0 indicates a strong structure, between 0.5 and
0.7 indicates a reasonable structure, between 0.25 and
0.5 indicates a weak structure, and less than 0.25 indi-
cates an insubstantial structure (Kononenko & Kukar
2007).
870
Second, in the determination of the optimal number
of clusters, the correlation coefficient matrix rep-
resents the normalized measure of the strength of
the linear relationship between variables. Clustering
should be applied to the input and output spaces and
between the checking values. The correlation coeffi-
cient (R) is considered an index error for training and
test datasets. The matrix R is related to the covariance
matrix C = Cov(yi , y i ) given by Eq. (2).
where yi is the actual value (target output) and y i is the
predicted value (estimated output).
2.2 Hierarchical clustering
Hierarchical clustering (HC) can be categorized as
an agglomerative or divisive algorithm (Jain et al.
1999 & Jiang et al. 2004). The agglomerative hier-
archical algorithm is used largely as an explanatory
statistical technique to determine the number of clus-
ters of datasets (Anderberg 1972). In this method,
Euclidean distance is applied in order to find the dis-
tance between objectives. Clusters are grouped into
larger clusters until a hierarchical tree is formed. The
average linkage method is applied.
2.3 K-means clustering
The K-means (KM) clustering algorithm (Johnson &
Wichern 2002) is well known. The KM clustering,
which is a nonhierarchical clustering algorithm, is a
hard clustering algorithm because the membership
value of each datum to its cluster centers on zero or
one, according to whether the datum belongs to that
cluster or not. The KM clustering is inarguably one
of the most used methods for data clustering. Given a
data set X = {x1 ; x2 ; . . . ; xN } R N D represent a vec-
tor of real numbers, where N is the number of data,
and C = {c1 ; c2 , . . . ; ck } R KD is the corresponding
set of centers, and where k is the number of clus-
ters. Therefore, by partitioning X into K exhaustive
and mutually exclusive clusters S = {S1 , S2 , . . . , Sk },
Kk=1 Sk = X , Si Sj = for 1 i  = j K based on the
minimization of the squared-error objective function
J (C):
where xi ck  is the Euclidean distance.
2.4 Fuzzy C-means clustering
Fuzzy C-means clustering (FCM) is a fuzzy version of
K-means (KM). One of the differences between FCM
and KM is that FCM contains an additional parameter:
the fuzzifier m(0 < m < ). The FCM algorithm is
defined by the objective function as Eq. (4).
Figure 1. Simplified dendogram for HC.
where n is the number of data point, c the number of
cluster, xk is the kth data point, vi is the ith cluster cen-
ter, and Uik is the degree of membership of the kth data
in the ith cluster. The fuzziness parameter has a typi-
cal value of m = 2 (Wang et al. 2007). While updating
cluster center 1 and the degree of membership func-
tion Uik used in jFCM (U,V; X) defined as Eqs. (5)
and (6).
Fuzzy C-means clustering is an iterative process.
First, the initial fuzzy partition matrix is generated
and the initial fuzzy cluster centers are calculated. In
each step of the iteration, the cluster centers and the
membership grade points are updated, and the objec-
tive function is minimized to find the best location
for the clusters. The process stops when the maximum
number of iterations is reached, or when the objective
function improvement between two consecutive itera-
tions is less than the minimum amount of improvement
specified.
3 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
3.1 Hierarchical clustering
Figure 1 shows a simplified dendrogram in which no
more that 12 leaf nodes are formed by collapsing the
lower branches of the tree. By this means, Cluster
1 = [6 9 4 8], Cluster 2 = [1 3 7 2 5], and Cluster
3 = [10 12 11]; thus, the number of members compris-
ing the nodes was equal to 800, which was obtained
from the summation of 223, 540, and 37.
The inconsistency coefficient characterizes each
link in a cluster tree by comparing its height with
the average height of other links at the same level
of the hierarchy. The higher value of this coefficient
is, the less similar are the objects connected by the
link. The inconsistency coefficient for the cluster is
zero, which means each node is in same cluster. The
inconsistency deviation of all links included in the
calculation is shown in Figure 2.
871
Figure 2. The inconsistency coefficient for each record.
Figure 3. Silhouette values for two clusters in the HC.
The clustering efficiency of our proposed method
was checked by a silhouette plot that displays a mea-
sure of how close each task in one cluster is to the
location of tasks in the neighboring clusters. Thus, the
overall separation parameter is reflected by average
silhouette values. For example, Figures 34 show the
results of using silhouette values for our dataset. As
shown, traffic crash data has been divided into two
and three clusters. The mean silhouette values for the
two and three clusters were found to be 0.7071 and
0.7962, respectively. However, each cluster contains a
few points with low silhouette values, indicating that
those points are near points from other clusters. Also,
Figure 3 contains a few points with negative values,
indicating that the separation into two clusters was not
justified as well as the separation into three clusters
shown in Figure 4.
3.2 K-means clustering
Silhouette plots are shown in Figures 56 for two
clusters and three clusters, respectively. As shown,
most points in both clusters had large silhouette val-
ues, greater than 0.8, indicating that those points were
well separated from neighboring clusters. Each cluster,
however, also contains a few points with low silhou-
ette values, indicating that they were nearby to points
from other clusters. In addition, the first plot contains

Figure 4. Silhouette values for three clusters in the HC.
Figure 5. Silhouette values for two clusters in the KM.
a few points with negative values. For the two clus-
ters, the mean silhouette value was found to be 0.8074.
The number of clusters was increased to determine
whether, K-means could find further grouping struc-
tures in the data. Thus, information from each iteration
of the clustering algorithm was used for subsequent
iterations. At each iteration, the K-means algorithm
reassigns points among clusters to decrease the sum
of point-to-centroid distances and then recomputes the
cluster centroids for new cluster assignments. Notice
that the total sum of distances and the number of reas-
signments decrease at each iteration until the algorithm
reaches a minimum. The algorithm used in K-means
consists of two phases. In this study, the second phase
of the algorithm did not make any reassignments, indi-
cating that the first phase reached a minimum after five
iterations. After six iterations, the total sum of distance
was equal to 26,674.4.
The K-means algorithm begins the clustering pro-
cess using a randomly selected set of initial centroid
locations and the solution that K-means reaches some-
times depends on the starting point. It is possible for
the algorithm to reach a local minimum, where reas-
signing any one point to a new cluster would increase
the total sum of point-to-centroid distances, but where
a better solution does exist. However, the parameter
872
Figure 6. Silhouette values for three clusters in the KM.
Figure 7. Silhouette values for two clusters in the FCM.
is replicated to improve the final result. When more
than one is specified, the K-means algorithm repeats
the clustering process starting from different randomly
selected centroids for each replication.
The output shows that, even for this relatively sim-
ple problem, non-global minima do exist. Each of the
15 replications began from a different set of initial
centroids. Depending on where it started, the K-means
process reached one of two different solutions. How-
ever, the final solution that K-means returned is the
one with the lowest total sum of distances over all of
the replications. The sum of distances determined the
cluster that was the best solution. In this case, for three
clusters the total sum of distance and the mean sil-
houette value were found to be 16,806.9 and 0.7881,
respectively.
3.3 Fuzzy C-Means clustering
Figures 710 show the results of the silhouette val-
ues and the objective function values for two and
three clusters for traffic crash data. After 26 iterations
for two clusters, the objective function value and the
mean silhouette value were 28,645.730 and 0.7996,
respectively. After 39 iterations for three clusters,
the objective function value and the mean silhou-
ette value were 13,531.845 and 0.7883, respectively.
Figure 8. The objective function values at each iteration of
the FCM (two clusters).
Figure 9. Silhouette values for three clusters in the FCM.
Figure 10. The objective function values at each iteration in
the FCM (three clusters).
Figure 11 depicts the relationship between the inter-
action count and objective function value in fuzzy
C-means clustering with regard to the number of
clusters.
Thus, based on the mean silhouette coefficient
for the hierarchical, K-means, and fuzzy C-means
873
Figure 11. The relationship between interaction count and
objective function values in FCM.
Figure 12. Graphic representation for fuzzy C-means clus-
tering algorithm.
Figure 13. The time response of fuzzy c-means algorithm
with regard to number of running.
clustering, 12 clusters was considered as a final result
in all algorithm.
The structure of fuzzy C-means clustering is shown
in Figure 12, which was consisted of the seven input
variables that each input was connected to the 12 mem-
bership function of clusters. After processing by rule
base, the output membership functions were obtained
which leaded to making aggregated output. Finally, the
best aggregated output was selected as output results.
The fuzzy C-means provided the accuracy with the R
value of around 0.725. In addition, Figure 13 shows
the time response of fuzzy C-means with regard to
number of running which was around 0.4744.
4 CONCLUSION
In this paper, three clustering algorithms were investi-
gated and the number of clusters was determined based
on them.
This study has used the fuzzy C-means clustering to
evaluate the classification accuracy and to estimate the
time response of traffic crash data. The results depicted
that the R-value of the fuzzy C-means clustering was
around 0.725 and the response time was around 0.474
second. Moreover, the FCM clustering needs more
computation time than K-means due to fuzzy cal-
culation involved in the algorithm; whereas, fuzzy
C-means clustering is useful algorithm to be applied to
complex dynamic systems and provide an automatic
way to generate robust fuzzy systems. Meanwhile,
other fuzzy clustering algorithms can be used in order
to improve the data classification and obtain the lower
time response.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The data have been collected with the coopera-
tion of the local authority for traffic control in the
framework of TSIP (traffic safety improvement pro-
gramme) funded by EU. The authors are indebted for
the effort of the local authority.
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Potential use of multi-criteria analysis in context sensitive solutions

N. Stamatiadis
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA

A. Di Graziano & S.D. Cafiso

Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Catania, Catania, Italy

ABSTRACT: Context Sensitive Solutions is a project development process aiming to provide a systematic and
comprehensive approach to project development from inception and planning through operations and mainte-
nance. Its goal is to achieve a project development process that provides an outcome harmonizing transportation
requirements with community needs and values. Multi-criteria analysis can assist in the evaluation of the various
competing needs and provide a systematic approach in evaluating options. This paper explores this potential and
identifies required steps to be taken to allow for evaluating this concept.

Keywords: highway design, project optimization

1 INTRODUCTION and quantify their impacts and determine possible

The basic premise of a properly designed roadway is to
consider the capacity and safety issues while address-
ing its physical and human environmental needs. The
recent Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) initiatives
have emphasized the concept of designing roadways
to address the capacity and safety issues while consid-
ering their physical and human environmental needs.
To achieve the objectives of these elements, tradeoffs
among several factors are usually considered. Using
flexibility as part of the geometric aspects of road-
ways is not a new concept, since it has been stated
clearly in the foreword of the Policy in Geometric
Design of Highways and Streets (Green Book) since its
1984 edition (American Association of State Highway
Transportation Officials (AASHTO, 1984).
In recent years, CSS has been promoted by
both AASHTO and Federal Highway Administra-
tion (FHWA) as a best practice for project develop-
ment. CSS provides a systematic and comprehensive
approach to project development from inception and
planning through operations and maintenance. Its goal
is to achieve a project development process that pro-
vides an outcome harmonizing transportation require-
ments with community needs and values. CSS aims
to address the question How do people in this com-
munity want to live while investigating mobility and
access solutions.
Central to this the ability to evaluate different trade-
offs among competing needs and be able to arrive at
a solution that is agreeable to the agency, stakehold-
ers, and public. It is therefore important to identify
a process that would consider these needs, evaluate
solutions to satisfy any given constraints.
In the CSS approach criteria such as road safety,
operational efficiencies, environmental issues, energy
efficiency, and social concerns are not directly quan-
tifiable and comparable. Moreover, the influence of
these criteria for each project can vary based on the
scale and type of the project. Therefore the decision
process and evaluation requires multiple criteria to be
considered.
The Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) could provide
such a systematic framework for identifying the indi-
vidual criteria required in order to understand the
issues and consequently arrive at a decision. Essen-
tially, MCA provides a means to investigate a number
of choices or alternatives, in light of conflicting pri-
orities, combining both quantitative and qualitative
costs and benefits, and monetized and non-monetized
benefits into a single analytical framework. When
a problem is structured in this way, road invest-
ment alternatives may be ranked according to pre-
established preferences in order to achieve the define
objectives.
This may be more critical today given the economic
constraints that several highway agencies are facing,
thus creating a new emphasis on financial issues as
they relate to project development. The use of MCA
could provide the answer to this need selecting and
prioritizing projects to be included within the available
budget for optimizing road network investments.
This paper presents the basic concepts of CSS and
its principles and identifies the idea of using an MCA
approach to evaluate the various criteria set forth to be
satisfied.

875
2 CONTEXT SENSITIVE SOLUTIONS
Since the early days, highway design and construc-
tion has been viewed as the domain of transportation
professionals (highway and traffic engineers). Design
decisions were often made based on providing the
highest quality service at the lowest cost and these
solutions reflected a concept that bigger is better.
The increased use of the automobiles and trucks in the
middle of the 20th century fueled roadway design and
construction resulting in policy decisions for more and
better roadways. However, in the 1960s the general
public became concerned with the adverse environ-
mental impacts of various human activities including
(but not limited to) the expansion of the roadway net-
work. This resulted in the passing of the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 1969 which had
significant implications on roadway design and con-
struction. This act required that engineers consider the
natural and social environment of the roadway project
and develop solutions that address these issues. The
public also became more aware of roadway design
issues and impacts while requesting to have their opin-
ion heard. However, this created a conflict between the
highway design community and the public especially
when projects were viewed as having negative impacts
to the quality of life of their community. The traditional
benefits from roadway projects, such as reduced delays
and improved safety, now have to be balanced against
the long-term intrusion of the facility and their impacts
on the community.
Over the past 30 years, Congress has passed a
number of policy acts and regulations that have empha-
sized, strengthened and refocused the commitment to
addressing the impacts of roadways. Central to this
is the need for flexibility in highway design, an aspect
that has been long recognized in the Policy of Geomet-
ric Design of Highways and Streets (Green Book) by
AASHTO. However, some designers have viewed the
suggested values of the Green Book as rigid standards
instead of guidelines to be used in roadway design to
achieve a reasonable degree of flexibility based on the
roadway surroundings. The public and elected offi-
cials have also become more involved and aware of
the issues that roadway projects may generate and have
begun questioning the basis for the resulting designs.
The conflict between the engineers and the community
has often resulted in delaying or stopping projects due
to the antithetical views between these parties.
It became apparent that there was a need to recon-
sider the current approach in addressing highway
design and identify new means and directions for
solving such conflicts. The Federal Highway Admin-
istration attempted the first step by publishing the
Flexibility in Highway Design Guide in 1997 empha-
sizing the need for flexibility and encouraging high-
way designers to consider non-traditional approaches
and review how they apply the Green Book values
for solving highway design problems. The guide also
underscored the need for balancing mobility, safety,
human and natural issues while developing contextual
876
solutions. This is conceptually captured the notion of
CSS.
The basic concept for CSS is to develop a project
that balances the mobility, safety, environmental, and
social needs. Its goal is to achieve a project develop-
ment process that provides an outcome harmonizing
transportation requirements with community needs
and values. The solution to be developed will address
the agency expectations to deliver an on-time and
within budget project along with the stakeholders
expectations of addressing natural and human envi-
ronment and community expectations of delivering a
project that will improve the quality of life. CSS con-
siders the total context within which a transportation
improvement project will exist.
An aspect that should be emphasized from the outset
is that CSS is a systematic approach for a project devel-
opment and delivery process. There are distinct steps
taken during the development and delivery of a project
and CSS simply provides a systematic, principle-
driven approach. It is a rational process that considers
all phases of the project development and delivery
process, and uses a set of principles to achieve it.
The idea of CSS is to define a proper solution for a
project through public consultation, team interaction,
and stakeholder involvement in order to effectively
utilize available resources and deliver a project that
improves the quality of life. This implies that solutions
are to be sought through innovative approaches and
often require moving away from standards and tables.
Project teams need to be able to see what they are
trying to achieve and customize the project to the spe-
cific needs (hence the need for a properly defined and
well written purpose and need) in order to maximize
benefits.
An issue that CSS has not considered is the need
for system-wide optimization of funds (Stamatiadis &
Hartman 2011). This is the aspect that the Multi-
Criteria Analysis can introduce where the needs and
benefits for one project are considered as part of the
overall state improvement or budget.
3 MULTI-CRITERIA ANALYSIS
At the heart of the MCA is a two-(or more) dimensional
matrix, where one dimension expresses the various
alternatives and the other the criteria by which the
alternatives are evaluated (Voogd 1983).
Hence, the primary process of MCA involves clear
definition of possible alternatives, together with the
criteria under which the relative performance of the
alternatives in achieving pre-established objectives is
to be measured.
In general, multi criteria choice problems can be
grouped into two classes: those with an Explicitly
known set of alternatives (e.g., a finite list of alter-
natives), and those with the set of alternatives known
Implicitly. In the latter group, the alternatives are
described by vectors of decision variables and the
Figure 1. Analytical framework example.
criteria are mathematical functions of these variables
(or objective functions).
Therefore, each criterion may be represented by a
surrogate measure of performance, or attribute, of the
consequences arising from implementation of any par-
ticular alternative. This is followed by the assignment
of preferences (i.e., a measure of relative importance,
or weighting) to each of the criteria to support the
choice of the best (or the most efficient) alternative
that is consistent with the decision makers preferences
and yields the best compromise among criteria. The
assignment of preference information can be referred
to as a priori or a posteriori, depending mainly on with a rigorous mathematical structure. In AHP the
whether or not the final choices have to be justified and
rationalized. Methods of a priori articulation of prefer-
ences is relevant particularly in CSS cases where it is
required that the decisions made must be fully justified
and rationalized. Methods of a posteriori (or progres-
sive) articulation of preferences could be useful in
some CSS approaches allowing exploration of the
decision space systematically, without having to spec-
ify any prior preferences. This is more efficient, and
requires less sweeping assumptions regarding prefer-
ence structures, but is also more open to manipulation
by skilled users, and is thus less defensible when
solutions have to be justified and rationalized.
A number of MCA methodologies have been devel-
oped over time to help decision-makers discover the
most desirable solution to a multi-objective problem
(Hwang & Masud 1979). The various types of method-
ology differ in the way the preferences on the various
877
criteria are specified and the way in which the alter-
natives are ranked. Previous research (Cafiso et al.
2001) has highlighted the flexibility of the Analyti-
cal Hierarchy Process (AHP) method (Saaty 1990),
an MCA approach with a priori articulation of pref-
erence, for application in road infrastructure planning
and management.
The AHP method transforms systematically the
study of complex systems to a series of simple compar-
isons between the constituent elements. The schematic
hierarchization of the problem in groups of elements
within interdependent levels provides this method
expressions of judgment (i.e., preferences) are car-
ried out before the process of hierarchization. These
preferences are inserted in a well defined analytical
framework and allow for the determination of the best
solution. Such an approach is much more compre-
hensible to the user as it introduces simplicity in the
comparison between two single activities and the pos-
sibility of a control of the consistency of assigned
values. However, this rigidity could render the AHP
a less versatile method for the incorporation and com-
parison of public opinion.Then, an external framework
for the determination of the preferences could help
during the community involvement. In general, the
approach does not require an explicit definition of
trade-offs between the possible values of each attribute
and it is easier for users to understand the way in
which outcomes are reached and how the weightings
influence the outcomes.
 AHP is considered more suitable for the optimiza-
tion process because it arrives to a multiple criteria
ranking number for every alternative as a measure-
ment of utility. This approach allows for arriving to the
optimum list of required roadway projects in a more
efficient and effective way. Therefore, the utility mea-
surement index (UI) can be applied under certain rules
to select and prioritize investment projects in both situ-
ations where sufficient funds are available, and, above
all, when there is a budget constraint, using optimiza-
tion procedures already implemented for the economic
analysis.
Figure 1 reports the analytical framework of the
potential use of a Multi-Criteria Analysis in a Con-
text Sensitive Solutions approach. For instance, CSS
benefits highlighted in the NCHRP Report 642 could
be grouped under different evaluation criteria (Stama-
tiadis et al 2009). These are compared defining a priori
preference in order to carry out a weights vector. For
each criterion and for each alternative, benefits are also
compared in order to define an alternative comparison
matrix. Multiplying the alternative comparison matrix
and the weights vector, the ranking vector is carried
out. This vector reports the utility index measurement
of each alternative
4 DISCUSSION
In this paper a widespread multi criteria-based
methodology for appraising context sensitive solutions
in road projects is presented. The proposed methodol-
ogy suggests the use of an MCA technique known as
Analytical Hierarchy Process. MCA could be imple-
mented in the CSS approach to select the best or most
effective investment alternative(s) from a set of user-
defined choices to meet pre-established objectives or
constraints. In order to account for the views of the
different stakeholders in the CSS process, a Utility
Index can be determined for each criterion. The index
can be considered as an effectiveness ratio indicating
whether an alternative. is better than others. Therefore
the UI can be applied to select, prioritize and optimize
alternatives in CSS
The advantage of this approach is that it allows
for considering a variety of factors that previously
878
were not considered in a quantitative manner. The CSS
approach considers all elements equally and the MCA
provides the opportunity to reconsider several of these
elements based on their relative importance within
a project and the entire system. The CSS approach
lacks the ability to consider the implications on a
system-wide optimization and the addition of the AHP
provides for this missing link.
The idea of CSS is to define a proper solution for a
project through public consultation, team interaction,
and stakeholder involvement in order to effectively
utilize available resources and deliver a project that
improves the quality of life. This implies that solutions
are to be sought and customized in order to maxi-
mize benefits. MCA adds to this process the ability to
consider several projects simultaneously and optimize
them at a system-wide level. This combined approach
advances the current concepts, since the needs and
benefits for one project are considered as part of the
overall state systems capital improvement budget,
and thus improves current practices.
REFERENCES
American Association of State Highway Transportation Offi-
cials (2004b). A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways
and Streets, Washington, DC.
Cafiso S., Di Graziano A., Kerali H.R. and Odoki J.B.
Multicriteria Analysis Method for Pavement Maintenance
Management. Journal of the Transportation Research
Board Record 1816, pp. 7384.
Hwang C. L. and Masud A. S. M. Multiple objective deci-
sion making. Methods and applications. (Lecture notes
in economics and mathematical systems). New York,
Springer-Verlag. 1979.
Saaty T. L. The Analytic Hierarchy Process: Planning,
priority setting, resource allocation. Pittsburgh, RWS
Publications, 1990.
Stamatiadis, N. and Hartman, D. Context Sensitive Solutions
vs. Practical Solutions: What Are the Differences? Journal
of the Transportation Research Board, Record 2262, pp
173180.
Stamatiadis, N., Kirk, A., Hartman D., and Pigman, J. Quanti-
fying the Benefits of Context Sensitive Solutions Projects,
NCHRP Report 642, Transportation Research Board,
Washington, DC, 2009.
Voogd H. Multi-criteria Evaluation for Urban and Regional
Planning. Pion, London, 1983.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Increasing Minimum Spanning Tree estimation precision;

implemented for Tehran province

A.R. Mamdoohi, M. Yousefikia & A.R. Mahpour

Tarbiat Modares University, faculty of civil & environmental engineering, Tehran, Iran

ABSTRACT: Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) is a well-known problem for analyzing the structure and per-
formance of transportation networks. MSTs are useful for controlling connectivity of network vertices and
prioritization of network links. Generally the cost associated with each link is its Free Flow Travel Time (FFTT)
but in this paper this concept is developed to the case of loaded network with links capacity constraints. In this
manner the estimation precision of MST is anticipated to increase. Thus, equilibrium travel time for the loaded
network as the result of Deterministic User Equilibrium traffic assignment of the demand matrix is proposed
to replace FFTT. The developed concept is formulated and solved for Tehran province arterial roads network.
Results show that based on equilibrium travel time, the total cost of MST will have an 8 percent increase from
25973 to 28081 seconds and MST links change about 30 percent. If the MST based on FFTT is used for the
loaded network, the total cost will be 30232 seconds which demonstrates 17 percent increase in cost and 9
percent increase in error.

Keywords: Minimum Spanning Tree, Deterministic User Equilibrium assignment, travel time, Tehran arterial
roads network

1 INTRODUCTION supply interaction and this simplification lead to

Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) is a well-known
problem for analyzing structure and performance of
transportation network. It aims to find a tree that con-
nects all vertices of network with minimum cost. MST
has obvious applications in the design of computer
(Chung and Condon. 2003) and communication net-
works (Pettie. 2003), power and leased line telephone
network, wiring connection, piping in a flow network
and links in a transportation network (Murali, 2009),
etc. Road transportation networks play vital role espe-
cially in post-disaster management and its optimum
performance planning would lead to direct and indi-
rect consequence reduction of disaster condition. For
instance to analyze and improve reliability of arte-
rial network and reduce rescue time to disastrous and
finding the best location for fire places, etc.
Despite the fact that MST has fast improvement in
some science fields even its dynamic approach (Epp-
stein. 2009), in transportation arena this problem is
mostly used in analyzing connectivity and has not a
considerable expansion.
In this problem generally cost is assumed just a
function of demand properties (transportation net-
work) like free flow travel time or link length and
independent of traffic volume (Bradley et. al. 1977).
This is a simple and ideal situation that neglects
effect of traffic volume on links travel time. In fact
network performance should be a result of demand and
neglect sensitivity of the problem to demand, although
simplify solving the problem. By using real travel time
instead of free flow travel time MST estimation would
be more accurate and realistic. In this paper cost con-
cept is developed to the case of loaded network with
capacity constraints. To achieve this goal at first MST
for the network is calculated before loading and then
the OD demand matrix assigned to the arterial ways of
the Iran country and travel time among arterial ways
of Tehran province derived and according to these cost
the new MST is calculated.
In the following section the paper methodology is
studied, in the third part problem data, like Iran road
network properties, OD demand matrix and study area
is expressed. In forth section results and final anal-
ysis are presented and final part is appertained to
conclusions and suggestions.
2 PROBLEM DATA; TEHRAN PROVINCE
To study effect of developing MST concept to loaded
condition and compare it with unloaded condition the
demand matrix of the year 2007 is assigned to the net-
work with user equilibrium method and travel time
of study area links derived to calculate MST and then
compare it with MST of unloaded condition. Iran roads
network data, OD demand matrix and study area are
the inputs of the problem.

879

Figure 1. Present study area and arterial roads of Tehran
province.
2.1 Iran roads network
To calculate travel time in links of study area, demand
matrix of the year 2007 for 4 different modes (1- pas-
senger, 2- air, 3- train, 4- bus and fright) is assigned to
Iran arterial roads network. The most important net-
work between all the categories of Iran road network
according to performance (traffic volume, connection
between residential and major industrial centers, future
plans for development, etc) is Iran arterial road net-
work that consists of 854 nodes, 1147 links with a
total length of about 34795 Km; and 56 traffic analysis
zones (CTSI. 1994).
2.2 Study area
In this paper, study area is Tehran province consist of
56 nodes, 75 links with total length of 1022.11 Km.
3 METHODOLOGY
Network flow problem is used to formulate and model
different problems in transportation networks. Net-
work flow problem is a mathematical optimization
model which consists of an objective function and a
set of constraints in the form of a system of equations
or inequalities. These networks could be inner or outer
city. One of the most important problems in analyzing
transportation networks is minimum spanning tree that
connects all the vertices of a network with the lowest
total cost.
Generally the cost associated with each link
assumed as a function of supply properties in other
word network transportation like Free Flow Travel
Time (FFTT) or link length. In this paper this con-
cept is developed to the case of loaded network with
capacity constraints and minimum spanning tree is
calculated by this cost. Considering the importance
880
of cost rule and its limitation to length of the link in
most of projects, developing cost concept consider-
ing effect of transportation demand relevant problem
formulated and solved for the arterial network of Iran
country. Assignment of OD demand matrix and calcu-
lating equilibrium travel time in whole country arterial
ways is performed by Visum software package and
the MST problem formulated and solved for Tehran
province network by WinQSB software package.
3.1 Minimum spanning tree problem
There are many different formulation for MST sug-
gested. One of those given a connected graph G = (V;
E), with weight for all edge in E, find a spanning tree
GT = (VT; ET) of minimum total weight. (Spanning
means thatVT = V).The constraints of the formulation
need to enforce that the edges in ET form a tree:
The decision variable of MST is:
Where (S; S) denotes all edges that go from a node
in the set S to another node in the set S.
Equation (1) is the goal of the problem to minimize
the total cost of the network. Equation (2) enforces the
constraint that the edges cant form cycles and Equa-
tion (3) enforces the constraint that the edges in ET
cant form cycles [Feremans et. al. 2004 (7)].
3.2 Deterministic user equilibrium problem
The traffic assignment or the transportation network
equilibrium problem defines the relationship between
link flows and the origin-destination demand matrix
(Kanafani. 1983). The solution of the problem is based
on the behavioral assumption that each motorist travels
on the path that minimizes the travel time from origin
to destination. This choice rule implies that at equi-
librium, the link-flow pattern is such that the travel
times on all used paths connecting any given O-D
pair, will be equal (Ortuzar & Willumsen. 2004). The
travel time on all of these used paths will also be less
than or equal to the travel time on any of the unused
paths. At this point, the network is in user equilib-
rium; no motorist can experience a lower travel time
by unilaterally changing routes (Patrikson. 2003).
The equilibrium assignment problem is to find the
link flows (x) that satisfy the user-equilibrium crite-
rion when all the origin-destination entries (q) have
been appropriately assigned. This link-flow pattern
can be obtained by solving the following mathematical
problem, first proposed by Wardrop (Sheffi. 1984):

Link volume-delay function:

Figure 2. MST of Tehran province arterial roads before

loading (based on FFTT).
xa : flow on link
ta : travel time on link
k : flow on path k connecting O D pair r s
frs
qrs : trip rate between origin r and destination s
Ca : Capacity of link a
t0 : free-flow travel time on link a
a,k
rs : If link a is on path k between OD pair 1,
otherwise 0

4 RESULTS OF MST MODEL FOR TEHRAN

PROVINCE NETWORK

In this section the proposed concept is applied to the

case of Tehran province network. For this purpose
the intercity OD demand matrix of the year 2007 is
assigned to the arterial network of the country and
travel time on the arterial roads of Tehran province are
derived and the MST is calculated based on them. To
study the sensitivity of the MST to the loaded case
(as contrasted to FFTT), both cases are computed and Figure 3. MST of Tehran province arterial ways after
compared. Results express that MST changes result loading.
from changing links travel time from free travel time
to the case of loaded network lead to MST, its total Table 1. Data related to the before and after loading MST.
length and total cost change.
Figure 2 shows MST of Tehran province arterial Before
roads before loading (link cost is free flow speed) that Row Parameter After loading loading
is independent of demand. The 54-linked MST with
total length of 718 Km has a total free flow travel time 1 MST Length 701 718
of its 25937 seconds. 2 Number on MST links 51 54
3 MST travel Time 28081 25937
Figure 3 shows MST of Tehran province arterial
ways after loading, i.e. OD demand matrix of the year *MST Links length that are in common before and after
2007 is assigned to network and just travel time of loading = 627 Km.
Tehran arterial way is presented. It leads to more real- ** Number of MST links that are in common before and after
istic results of equilibrium flow in arterial roads. In loading = 38.
this case travel time used to calculate MST is the time
results from deterministic user equilibrium assignment
of Iran demand matrix for the study area. Thus in this to calculate MST. There are 51 links in MST after load-
step obtained tree is a function of traveler and equiv- ing that 38 one of them is in common with unloaded
alent freight demand addition to network properties. MST. The total length of new tree is 718 km and free
User equilibrium process is applied to Iran arterial road flow travel time of the entire network increase 2144
network by Visum software package and results used and reached to 25937 seconds.

881
 Results show that by developing cost concept to
the loaded condition, despite decreasing link numbers
from 54 to 51 and also decreasing MST length from
718 km to 701 km (that 627 km is in common) real total
cost has 2144 seconds increased. If travel time derived
from loaded MST and links belong to unloaded MST
form a new Tree, the total cost of this tree will be 30232
S. total cost of this tree differs about 4295 S (17%) with
unloaded MST total cost and about 2152 S (8%) with
loaded MST total cost.
5 CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
Different mathematical programming problems have
been used in transportation planning literature. Min-
imum Spanning Tree is a well-known problem for
analyzing the structure links in a transportation net-
work. Generally the cost associated with each link is
Free Flow Travel Time. In this paper this concept is
developed to the case of loaded networks with capac-
ity constraints and sensitivity of the MST to loading is
studied.
Demand matrix of the year 2007 was assigned Iran
network arterial roads consisting of 854 nodes, 1147
links and 56 traffic analysis zones to obtain the equi-
librium travel time to be used as the loaded network
parameters of Tehran province. There were 54 of 75
links of Tehran arterial roads network in MST with the
total free flow travel time of 25973 S. After loading the
network and resolving problem there were 51 links in
MST and total cost increased to 28081 S (8%) and
30 percent of links has changed. If travel time derived
from loaded MST and links from unloaded one, form
a new Tree, the total cost of this tree will be 30232 S,
which means 17 percent increase in total cost with 9
percent error.
The concept developed here and applied to the inter-
city network can be adopted and applied to urban
882
networks to compare and control the effects. It is fur-
ther suggested to make a prioritization list of network
links based on their existence in the MST and the cost
their removal from the network will cause to the whole
network.
REFERENCES
Bradley, S. P., Hax, A. C. & Magnanti, T. L. 1977. Applied
mathematical programming, Addison Wesley.
Chung, S. & Condon, A. 2003. Parallel implementation
of Boruvkas minimum spanning tree algorithm, Com-
puter sciences department, University of Wisconsin, IEEE
Journal, Vol. 7, No 1.
Eppstein, D. 2009. Dynamic Euclidean minimum spanning
trees and extreme of binary functions, Department of
information and computer science, University of Califor-
nia, Irvine, Tech. Rep. pp. 9288, ICS, UCI.
Feremans, C., Labbe, M. & Laporte, G. 2004. The General-
ized Minimum Spanning Tree Problem: Polyhedral Anal-
ysis and Branch-and-Cut Algorithm, Networks, Vol. 43,
pp. 7186.
Kanafani, A. 1983. Transportation demand analysis, First
Edition, McGraw Hill, New York.
Ortuzar, J. D. & Willumsen, L. G. 2004. Modeling transport,
Third Edition, John Willy and Sons.
Passenger demand prediction, comprehensive transportation
study of Iran (CTSI), 2006. phase 3, Vol 3, Road and
transportation ministry, Tehran.
Patriksson, M. 1994. The traffic assignment problem- Mod-
els and Methods, Linkopring Institute of technology,
Linkopring, Sweden.
Pettie, S. 2003. On the Shortest Path and Minimum Span-
ning Tree Problems, PhD thesis, department of computer
science, The University of Texas at Austin.
Murali, T. M. 2009 Applications of minimum spanning trees,
Science press, In Proc, 39th Annual IEEE Symposia.
Sheffi, Y. 1984. Urban transportation networks: Equilib-
rium analysis with mathematical programming methods,
Prentice-Hall.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Simulation of dynamic load for heavy vehicle under

bilateral tracks road excitation

Dawei Liu, Rongchao Jiang Huanming Chen & Song Wang

Automobile Engineering Department, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China

ABSTRACT: In order to study the dynamic load characteristics of heavy vehicle under bilateral tracks spatial
domain road excitation, the spatial domain random road surface was simulated through the harmonic superpo-
sition method of rational function power spectral density(PSD). A rigid flexible coupling multi-body dynamic
model of the heavy vehicle was established by using SIMPACK software. The tires and leaf springs were treated
as deformable body, and rubber pads and limit block were reduced to force elements with non-linear stiffness and
damping characteristics. Then a ride dynamic model of heavy vehicle was established which combined virtual
prototype vehicle with bilateral tracks spatial domain road excitation. The dynamic load and dynamic load
coefficient (DLC) of each tire around axles of the vehicle were calculated. The research results could provide
the basis for the vehicle dynamic tire load calculation, verification, prediction and the design of road.

1 INTRODUCTION this process.The numerical methods, such as harmonic

The tire dynamic load caused by road roughness is
one of the key factors causing the early damage and
affects the service life and service capacity of the road.
Over years, many scholars have done a lot of work for
tire load, such as establishing quality-spring-damper
vibration model and selecting the appropriate num-
ber of degrees of freedom to do calculation (Todd &
Kwiatkowski 1989, Kawatani & Sasaki 1988, Sun &
Dend 1998, Kropc & Mcka 2008, Yuanwenet al.
2008, Minet al. 2010), or establishing multi-body
dynamic model to do calculation (Dawei et al. 2009,
Dawei et al. 2010, Zhaoyi et al. 2009). However, in the
above study, the single tracks or bilateral tracks time-
domain road excitation is widely used to reconstruct
road roughness, and the spatial domain road excitation
has not been widespread concerned (Shi & Cai 2009).
Under different road excitations, the calculation, ver-
ification, and prediction of tire load will be different.
Therefore, it is necessary to study it. In this paper, a
bilateral tracks spatial domain random road surface
model was established based on the harmonic super-
position method of rational function power spectral
density (PSD). And a multi-body dynamic model of
the heavy vehicle was established by using SIMPACK
software to study the dynamic load characteristics of
heavy vehicle under bilateral tracks spatial domain
road excitation.
2 BILATERAL TRACKS SPATIAL DOMAIN
ROAD EXCITATION MODEL
superposition method, white noise method, based on
the discrete time series AR/ARMA method and based
on PSD discrete sample path simulation method, can
be used to express the random road roughness. In this
paper, the harmonic superposition method was used to
express the random road roughness.
The road displacement power spectral density in the
spatial domain can be expressed as
where b0 , b1 , b2 , a0 , a1 , a2 , a3 are the fitting coeffi-
cients of the road spectrum polynomial; n is the Spatial
frequency, m1 .
Harmonic superposition method is a discrete
numerical method, using the Discrete Fourier trans-
formation, the random signals of road roughness can
be divided into a series of sine waves with different
frequency and amplitude.
The variance of road roughness 2q in the spatial
frequency n1 < n < n2 can be expressed as
Divide the interval (n1 , n2 ) into m equal parts, and
nmidi (i = 1, 2, , m) is the center frequency of each
parts. Gq (nmidi ) is spectral density value for nmidi .
The Equation (2) can be express as

Road roughness is a random process, and roads dis-

placement power spectral density is used to describe

883
 Corresponding to each equal part, the sine wave
function with standard deviation Gq (nmidi )
ni is

Put the sine wave functions together, the spatial

domain pavement roughness input can be expressed as

where x is pavement vertical position; i is independent

random variables uniformly distributed on [0, 2].
The tracks of the vehicles left and right tire on the
same road have the characteristics of random, station-
ary and ergodicity. Also there is a correlation between
different tracks as left and right tracks (Sun 2002).
Therefore, the correlative must be taken into account
while building bilateral tracks spatial domain road
excitation model.
Assuming the left track is x, the right track is y, and
their road roughness PSD are Gqx (n) and Gqy (n) which
are obtained by equation (5). The coherence function
of the two tracks can be expressed as
Figure 1. Road roughness.

 
where Gqxy (n) is the cross power spectrum density of
Gqx (n) and Gqy (n).
It can be known from equation (6) that the other
tracks road roughness PSD can be calculated by coher-
ence function, and the other tracks road roughness can
be obtained.
In SIMPACK road builder, when the appropriate
number of sine wave and the cutoff frequencies of
the upper and low are input, different levels of bilat-
eral tracks road roughness will be established. Taking
the number of the sine function 1500, the cut-off
spatial frequency [0.01, 2.83]m1 , b0 = 0.0037439,
b1 = 0, b2 = 0, a0 = 5.058896, a1 = 917.2805, a2 = 1
and a3 = 0, the 200 m long B-grade bilateral tracks
road roughness generated in SIMPACK is shown in
Figure 1(a). Taking b0 = 0.01496774, b1 = 0, b2 = 0,
a0 = 5.058896, a1 = 917.2805, a2 = 1 and a3 = 0, the
200 m long C-grade bilateral tracks road roughness
generated in SIMPACK is shown in Figure 1(b). The
coherence function curves of B and C-grade bilateral
tracks road roughness are shown in Figure 2.

3 VEHICLE RIDE DYNAMIC MODELING

A 6 4 heavy dump truck was used as the object of
study in this paper, and the main model parameters are
shown in Table 1.
In the modeling process, the tires and leaf springs
in the heavy vehicle were modeled as flexible bod-
ies, and the other parts of vehicle were treated as rigid
Figure 2. Coherence function.
bodies. The heavy vehicle also contains a lot of rubber
bushings and rubber stoppers, which were modeled as
non-linear force elements with different damping and
stiffness characteristics. The curve fitting method was

884
Table 1. Vehicle basic performance parameter.

Parameter Numeric

Full load quality (kg) 27000

Front axle load (kN) 70000
Middle and rear axle load (kN) 200000
Wheelbase (mm) 3825+1360
Front wheel distance (mm) 2220
Rear wheel distance (mm) 1830
Stiffness coefficient of front spring (N/mm) 200
Stiffness coefficient of rear spring (N/mm) 2200
Tire type 11.00 R20

Figure 3. Dynamic multi-body model of heavy vehicle.

used to import the non-linear stiffness characteristics
to SIMPACK software, and simulate the character-
istics of rubber bushings and rubber stoppers. The
vibration of power train on the simulation platform
was ignored.
The vehicle model consists of the frame, cab, cargo
body, front axle, front leaf spring, mid-axle, rear axle,
rear leaf spring, steering and tires, total of 13 sub-
systems connected to each other. In this paper, the
concept of a discrete beam in SIMPACK software was
used to establish the leaf spring flexible body model.
The magic formula tire model which was proposed
by professor Pacejka was used to simulate the tire
characteristics (Pacejka & Besselink 1997).
The front axle, mid-axle, rear axle, front leaf spring,
rear balanced suspension leaf spring, steering and tires
subsystem are established in SIMPACK.And each sub-
system can be connected by zero degrees of freedom
connection to frame. Then a rigid-flexible coupling
virtual prototype model of the truck will be established
which is shown in Figure 3.
Then a ride dynamic model of heavy vehicle was
established which combined virtual prototype vehicle
with bilateral tracks spatial domain road excitation
(see Figure 3). The dynamic load each tire around axle
of the vehicle can be calculated by simulation.
4 ANALYSIS OF SIMULATION RESULTS
The Tire dynamic load coefficient (DLC) can be
defined as
Figure 4. Dynamic load coefficient changes with the vehi-
cle speed.
where Fjz is tire static load; Fd is the root mean square
value of tire dynamic load.
Under the conditions of B-grade and C-grade bilat-
eral tracks spatial domain road excitation and vehicle
speed of 60 km/h90 km/h, the change curves along
with driving distance of tire dynamic load coefficient
of front axle, mid-axle and rear axle are shown in
Figure 4.
Seen from Figure 4, regardless of B-grade or
C-grade road, the tire dynamic coefficient of the
mid-axle and rear axle increase as the vehicle speed
increases, and the tire dynamic coefficient of front
axle is greater than the mid-axle and rear axle, the tire
dynamic coefficient of the front axle doesnt increase
as the vehicle speed increases, and the tire dynamic
load coefficient begins to decrease when the vehicle
speed surpasses 80 km/h which is because RMS value
of tire dynamic load of front axle begins to reduce at
this time.
It also can be seen from Figure 4 that, regardless of
B-grade or C-grade road, the left and right tire dynamic
load coefficients of front axle are basically the same,
and the left and right tire dynamic load coefficients
of middle axle and rear axle are difference. Under
the conditions of B-grade road excitation, the left and
right tire dynamic load coefficients of front axle are

885
in the range of 1.415-1.493 and 1.402-1.486, the left
and right tire dynamic load coefficients of middle axle
are in the range of 1.161-1.237 and 1.185-1.292, the
left and right tire dynamic load coefficients of rear axle
are in the range of 1.144-1.236 and 1.155-1.278. Under
the conditions of C-grade road excitation, the left and
right tire dynamic load coefficients of front axle are in
the range of 1.494-1.583 and 1.479-1.581, the left and
right tire dynamic load coefficients of middle axle are
in the range of 1.191-1.293 and 1.229-1.369, the left
and right tire dynamic load coefficients of rear axle
are in the range of 1.173-1.292 and 1.190-1.350.
5 CONCLUSION
In this paper, a rigid-flexible coupling multi-body
heavy vehicle dynamic model has been established
by SIMPACK software, and harmonic superposition
method of rational function power spectral density was
used to build the model. Then, a ride dynamic simu-
lation model of vehicle under bilateral tracks spatial
domain road excitation has been created.
The simulation results show that, regardless of
B-grade or C-grade road, the tire dynamic coefficients
of the mid-axle and rear axle increase as the vehi-
cle speed increases, the tire dynamic coefficient of
the front axle doesnt increase as the vehicle speed
increases, the left and right tire dynamic load coeffi-
cients of front axle are basically the same, and the left
and right tire dynamic load coefficients of middle axle
and rear axle are difference.
The research results could provide the basis for
the vehicle dynamic tire load calculation, verification,
prediction and the design of road.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the Natural Sci-
ence Foundation of Shandong, China, Grant No.
ZR2009FM044, for the financial support for this
project.
886
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Field evaluation of weigh-in-motion system on weight enforcement operation

P. Chotickai
Department of Civil Engineering, Kasetsart University, Thailand

ABSTRACT: The paper evaluates truck traffic characteristics around a weigh station in Thailand for pre-
and post-installation conditions of the high-speed mainline WIM systems. The average delay times of truck
traffic was found to decrease from 134.0 seconds to 106.5 seconds after the implementation of the systems. The
systems therefore significantly reduced the delay time and improved weight enforcement efficiency at the station.
Additionally, based on the observed traffic characteristics and operations at the weigh station, the simplified
stochastic simulation was conducted to investigate weighing efficiency of the systems for different levels of
traffic demand. The simulation results illustrated the effects of bypass threshold and truck arrival rate on the
delay time. Therefore, it may be utilized to facilitate the decision making regarding weight enforcement policies
and operations at the weigh station.

Keywords: Delay, Weight enforcement, Weigh-in-Motion, Traffic

1 INTRODUCTION at a greater speed for the mainline sorting system. The

Truck weight enforcement is used to preserve road-
way infrastructure and to enhance traffic safety. Under
the current weight enforcement policy in Thailand, all
trucks are required to enter weigh stations, which are
located on main highway network. A truck with legal
weight may therefore experience unnecessary delay at
weigh stations due to queuing time and multiple entries
required at weigh stations. Additionally, as truck traf-
fic volumes exceed operating capacity at the scales,
the backup queue can interfere with the traffic flow in
main line, adversely affecting traffic safety.
Weigh-in-motion (WIM) technology has been used
as an effective heavy vehicle pre-sorter at weight
enforcement facilities. The technology can signifi-
cantly improve the capacity at weigh stations and often
used at weigh stations that cannot accommodate heavy
truck traffic volumes (Benekohal et al., 2000). Vehi-
cles can be weighed while travelling at highway speed
along highway main lanes. The vehicles with weight
greater than the threshold will be instructed to enter
weigh stations, while the ones with weight lower than
the threshold will be allowed to pass weigh station
facilities.
The WIM systems can be installed in the ramp
leading to weigh station or on the mainline highway,
referred to as a ramp sorting system and a mainline
sorting system, respectively. Vehicles are generally
required to slow down and travel in a single file line, as
they enter the ramp sorting system, to avoid the com-
plexity of vehicles and be able to track them while
moving in the facility. On the other hand, a high-speed
WIM system allows vehicle weights to be monitored
weighing operation capacity can therefore be signif-
icantly increased. Additionally, the mainline sorting
system can be utilized when a land requirements for
ramp sorter is not available. However, the difficulties
on tracking and signaling vehicles at highway speed, as
well as actions regarding to vehicles violating instruc-
tions put a challenge on an operation of the mainline
sorting system.
A continuous economic expansion is typically asso-
ciated with an increase in traffic volumes and weights
carried by commercial vehicles. To accommodate
these demands, the Department of Highways (DOH)
decided to utilize the intelligent transportation tech-
nology (ITS) with an integration of the mainline
sorting system at several weigh stations in Thailand.
The ITS system was designed to facilitate electronic
screening for trucks at weigh stations and was com-
posed of high-speed WIM, vehicle message sign
(VMS), and CCTV.
The study was aimed to evaluate the truck traffic
characteristics around a weigh station and examine
the potential benefits of WIM technology on enhance
weight-enforcement efficiency. The truck traffic char-
acteristics at one weigh station were monitored before
and after the installation of the WIM system to gain
valuable insight on how the technology influenced
the operation at weigh stations. In addition, based
on the weighing operation and traffic characteristics
observed at the weigh station, the simplified stochas-
tic simulation was performed to evaluate the potential
benefits of the pre-screening system on different lev-
els of traffic demand, as well as the effect of bypass
threshold on delay travel time and a confidence level

887
 Figure 2. Arrival rate of truck traffic.

Figure 1. Bangpai weigh station.

that overweight trucks would be checked for weight

compliance at the static weigh station.

2 DATA COLLECTION

Truck traffic characteristics were monitored at Bang-

pai weigh station, as shown in Figure 1, for both
before and after the installation of WIM systems. The
weigh station was located on the highway number 304
used to connect between the central and northeaster Figure 3. Arrival rate of truck traffic at monitored weigh
regions of Thailand. There were 2 lanes of traffic in station.
each direction. The IRD high-speed single-load-cell
of incoming and outgoing traffic from the monitored
and piezoelectric-sensor WIM systems were installed
section were determined using 5-minute intervals. Fig-
at approximately 0.6 km upstream of the weigh sta-
ure 3 presents the arrival rate of truck traffic during the
tion on left and right traffic lanes, respectively. All
observation periods. The arrival rate varied from 48
trucks were required to travel on the left traffic lane,
to 264 vehicle/hour with mean values of 146 and 136
as they approached the weigh station. The VMS was
vehicle/hour for pre- and post-installations of the WIM
employed to provide instruction to truck drivers. When
systems, respectively. Therefore, the rates of incoming
a truck was identified as a possible overloaded truck,
truck traffic were found to be relatively the same for
the VMS instructed truck drivers to enter the weigh sta-
both observation periods.
tion. Then, the possible overloaded truck was weighed
again by the static scale. However, if the possible over-
loaded truck disobeyed the instruction, the siren at
3 TRUCK TRAFFIC CHARACTERISTIC
weigh station would be turned on to notify highway
patrols. The images of the violated trucks were then
The images of trucks captured by the video camera at
taken by CCTV.
upstream location were matched with the images at the
Based on an interview with weigh station officers
downstream location to determine truck travel time.
and a review of the recorded truck traffic data, traffic
The average delay was determined from the difference
volume at the weigh station was found to be relatively
between the average observed travel times for trucks
high during weekdays and Saturday from midnight
that entered and bypassed weigh stations. Addition-
to noon. Figure 2 presents the average arrival rate of
ally, the space mean speeds of vehicles entering and
2-week truck traffic data. The average arrival rate dur-
bypassing the weigh station facilities were determined
ing weekdays was found to be in a range 50 to 230
using 5-minute intervals. The space mean speed (us )
vehicle/hour. The observation time from 6:00 a.m. to
can be expressed as:
12:00 p.m. during weekdays was selected to monitor
truck traffic for both pre- and post-installations of the
WIM systems so that clear images of trucks could be
obtained by using video recorders.
Two video recorders were located at approximately
one km upstream and downstream of the weigh station.
These two monitored location were selected to mini- Where D is the distance between two monitored loca-
mize the acceleration and deceleration of truck traffic tions, N is the number of vehicle passing the monitored
due to activity at the weigh station. The arrival time location during 5-minute interval, and ti is the time for
at both locations and license number were recorded vehicle i to cross the distance D.
for each truck. This information was used to deter- Figure 4 presents the travel time distributions of
mine travel time and vehicle speed. The flow rates trucks that entered and bypassed the weigh station for

888
Figure 4. Travel time distribution for trucks entering and
bypassing weigh station.
both pre- and post-installation conditions. It should be
noted that although all trucks were required to check
for weight compliance at weigh enforcement facili-
ties, some of them with unloaded shape of tires or an
empty open-type trailer were allowed to bypass weigh
stations when the weight compliance could be easily
determined from a visual inspection. Approximately
thirty percent of trucks were allowed to bypass the
weigh station during the observation period for the pre-
installation conditions. However, the WIM systems
allowed all trucks to be check for the weight compli-
ance before instructing to bypass the weight station.
With a bypass threshold at 94 percent of legal limits,
it was observed that approximately forty-nine percent
of trucks were allowed to bypass the weigh station for
the post-installation condition. This indicated a signif-
icant reduction on a number of trucks required to stop
at the weigh station.
Before the installation of the WIM systems, the
average travel times were found to be 150.9 and 83.0
seconds for trucks entering and bypassing the weigh
station, respectively. The difference between travel
times reflected delay that trucks experienced due to
weighing operations. The average delay of truck traffic
due to weighing operations was equal to 67.9 seconds
for pre-installation condition. The maximum travel
time of 230.5 seconds was observed during the moni-
toring period. Meanwhile, after the installation of the
WIM systems, the average travel times for trucks that
entered and bypassed the weigh station were equal to
129.2 and 80.5 seconds, respectively. Therefore, the
average delay of truck traffic was equal to 48.7 seconds
for post-installation conditions. The delay was found
889
Figure 5. Speed distribution for trucks entering and bypass-
ing weigh station.
to decrease significantly after the implementation of
the WIM system. The maximum traffic time was equal
to 198.4 seconds for trucks entering the weigh station.
The average travel time of trucks entering the weigh
station was found to decrease due to a reduction in
the number of trucks required to stop at the weigh sta-
tion. The average travel times of bypassing trucks were
relatively similar for both pre- and post-installation
conditions. This indicated that a greater number of
trucks on main highway lanes did not adversely affect
speed of the bypassing trucks.
Figure 5 presents the frequency and cumulative
probability distributions of space mean speed for
trucks that entered and bypassed the weigh station. The
average speeds of the bypassing trucks were found to
be 52.8 and 53.1 km/hr for pre- and post-installation
condition, respectively. The average speed of entering
trucks increased from 30.1 km/hr to 34.0 km/hr when
the WIM systems were utilized at the weigh station.
The average travel time and speed of truck traf-
fic were determined using 5-minute intervals for both
pre- and post-installation conditions, as presented in
Table 1. The travel times of truck traffic had a mean
value of 134.0 and 106.5 seconds for pre- and post-
installation conditions, respectively. The difference in
average travel time was primarily due to an increase
percentage of authorized bypassing trucks, resulting in
a decrease in a number of trucks experiencing delays
and a reduction in queue length at the weigh station.
The paired t-test was utilized to estimate the differ-
ences and comparing values of average travel time. The
Table 1. Statistics of average travel time and speed at weigh
station.
Pre-installation Post-installation
Parameter Mean Std. Mean Std.
Average Travel 134.0 18.3 106.5 13.6
Time (sec)
Speed (km/hr) 36.6 4.5 45.9
Figure 6. Relationships between average travel time and
occupancy.
average travel time of truck traffic for pre-installation
condition was greater than the travel time for post-
installation condition with a confidence level of 95%.
Additionally, the average travel times were compared
with the number of trucks in the monitored sections, as
presented in Figure 6. The results revealed that with the
same occupancy level, the average travel time of truck
traffic could be significantly decreased with an imple-
mentation of the WIM systems. Additionally, with
an approximately similar arrival rate of truck traffic,
the pre-installation condition tended to have a greater
number of trucks remaining in the monitored highway
section than the post-installation condition.
4 WIM ACCURACY
Three technologies commonly used for WIM systems
are piezoelectric sensors, bending plate scales, and
single load cell scales. These technologies provide
different accuracies on weight measurement. Vehicle
dynamics and variance inherent to the WIM systems
are primary factors affecting the accuracy. Typically,
a single load scales are used for weigh enforcement,
while piezoelectric sensors and bending strain scales
are employed for traffic data collection purposes.
Measurement error can be determined based on the
vehicles static weight and expressed as:
5.9
Figure 7. Percent error on gross vehicle weights.
The ASTM E 1318-02 specification provides the
maximum percent error at 95% confidence for various
types of WIM system. The maximum percent errors on
gross vehicle weight of Type I and II systems are equal
to 10% and 15%, respectively. These systems are gen-
erally used for traffic data collection and represented
by bending plate scales and piezoelectric sensors. Type
III system is specified with the maximum percent error
of 6% on gross vehicle weight and typically used for
a sorting application at a weigh station. Bending plate
and single load cell scales are employed this WIM sys-
tem. The maximum percent errors on axle groups for
Type I II and III systems are equal to 15%, 20%, and
10%, respectively. It is common for axle group weights
measured from the WIM systems to be slightly less
accurate than gross vehicle weights.
To determine the accuracy of the WIM systems
at the monitored weigh station, the gross vehicle
weights obtained from the single load cell scales
were compared with those obtained from the static
weigh stations, as presented in Figure 7. The accu-
racy of the WIM systems was found to conform to the
requirements of the Type III system.
5 BYPASS THRESHOLD AND DELAY TIME
The delay incurred at a weight station is primarily a
function of the WIM performance, bypass threshold,
truck arrival rate, and weight distribution of the arrival
trucks. The unnecessary delay of legal trucks can be
eliminated with accurate and reliable WIM systems. In
order to reduce the probability of erroneously allowing
an overloaded truck to bypass weigh station, a weight
threshold lower than the legal weights is typically used.
However, a low threshold value may result in a con-
gested traffic condition at a weigh station during peak
hours. In addition, as a queue length increases, vehicle
speeds at WIM scales may decrease below the cal-
ibrated values, resulting in a reduction in weighing
efficiency of the high-speed mainline WIM systems.
Therefore, a suitable threshold is crucial to obtain an
effective weight enforcement operation.
Several researches have been conducted on the traf-
fic simulation around weigh stations (Gieseman and
Maze, 2007 and Kamyab, 1998). Vehicle weight dis-
tributions by vehicle classification and configurations
of weigh enforcement facility are generally required
890
 Figure 9. Gross vehicle weight distribution of 1-month
WIM data.

Table 2. Dominant vehicle classification and legal weight

limit.

Legal Percentage
Figure 8. Simulation architecture. Classification Description GVW (kN) of Trucks

5 2-Axle Single 147 48.7 %

for the simulations. In the present study, a simpli- Unit Truck
fied stochastic simulation was conducted to evaluate 6 3-Axle Single 245 28.0 %
Unit Truck
the effect of a bypass threshold on the delay time for
11 5-Axle Multi- 461 13.1 %
several traffic demands. The simulation architecture Trailer Truck
is presented in Figure 8. Truck traffic was generated
using the gross vehicle weight (GVW) distribution
and percentage of each vehicle classification obtained
from the 1-month WIM data, as presented in Figure 9
and Table 2. The 2-axle single unit trucks, 3-axle single
unit trucks, and 5-axle multi-trailer trucks were found
to dominate high percentages of truck traffic at the
weigh station. The legal weight limits for these trucks
were equal to 147, 245, and 461 kN, respectively. The
arrival rate was assumed to be the Poisson distribution
with a mean value varied from 150 to 500 vehicle/hr.
Three different bypass thresholds, including thresh-
olds at legal limits, 6% below legal limits, and 12%
below legal limits, were utilized in the simulation mod-
els. These thresholds corresponded to the probabilities
of 50%, 2.5%, and 0.0% that an overloaded vehicle
Figure 10. Service time distribution at weigh station.
was allowed to bypass the weigh station. Based on
the selected thresholds, a generated truck was deter-
mined either to continue on the mainline highway the recorded service times, as presented in Figure 10.
or to be checked for weight compliance the station. Trucks returned to the mainline highway after finish-
Trucks bypassing the station experienced no delay in ing the weighing operation. A delay time of each truck
the model. Trucks entering the station encountered was monitored during the simulation.
the delay due to weighing operation and had to stay Figure 11 presents an average delay of generated
in a queue line until a static scale was ready for the truck traffic for various arrival rates and bypassing
operation. thresholds. As the arrival rate increased from 150
The service time of the weighing operation was to 500 vehicle/hr, the average delay time of trucks
defined as the duration from the instant that a truck weighed at the station varied from 27.7 seconds to
was served until it left the static scale. The service 34.4 seconds, 28.2 seconds to 53.8 seconds, and 29.4
time did not include the waiting time in a queue line. seconds to 90.7 seconds for the thresholds at legal
The service times of 360 trucks at the weigh station limits, 6% below legal limits, and 12% below legal lim-
are presented in the histogram distribution in Fig- its, respectively. Meanwhile, the percentages of trucks
ure 10. The service times were found to vary from entering the station were equal to 9.32%, 17.0%, and
7 to 103 seconds with a mean value of 29.2 seconds 23.5% for these bypass thresholds. A gradual increase
and a standard deviation of 23.3 seconds. Based on in the delay time with an increase of the arrival rate
the maximum likelihood method, parameters for the could be observed for the bypass thresholds at legal
lognormal distribution function were determined for weights and 6% below legal limits. For the bypass

891

Figure 11. Average delay or trucks entering weigh station
for different arrival rates and bypass threshold.
threshold at 88% of legal limits, the delay time tended
to increase rapidly when the arrival rate was greater
than 350 vehicle/hr.
As aforementioned, the probability of erroneously
allowing an overloaded vehicle to bypass the weigh
station could be considerably reduced by lowering the
threshold from legal weights to 94% of the limits,
while the simulation results indicated that the differ-
ence between the average delay times of these two
thresholds varied from 0.4 seconds to 19.4 seconds, as
the arrival rate increased from 150 vehicle/hr to 500
vehicle/hr. Therefore, a balance between the two con-
siderations, the probability of erroneously allowing an
overloaded vehicle to bypass and the probability of
erroneously pulling an under-loaded vehicle to report
at the weigh station, for a wide range of the arrival
rates may be obtained using the threshold at 94% of
the legal limits.
It should be noted that although the simplified sim-
ulation model did not include the effect of deceleration
and acceleration of vehicles on the delay time, the sim-
ulation model was able to capture the influence of the
bypass threshold on the delay time. The results can
be used to facilitate the decision making regarding
weighing policies and operations at the weigh station.
6 CONCLUSION
This study quantified truck traffic characteristics
around a weigh station for pre- and post-installation
conditions of the WIM systems. The travel time and
space mean speed of trucks were determined using the
892
time stamps at upstream and downstream locations of
the weigh station. The average delays of truck traffic
were equal to 134.0 seconds and 106.5 seconds for pre-
and post-installation conditions, respectively. With the
implementation of the WIM systems, approximately
49% of trucks were allowed to bypass the weigh sta-
tion during the observation period. Consequently, the
systems could improve weight enforcement efficiency
at the weigh station and were beneficial for carriers
who operated compliance with the law. Additionally,
the effects of bypass threshold and traffic demand on
the enforcement efficiency and delay time were inves-
tigated using the simplified stochastic simulation. The
simulation results revealed that the average delay time
of trucks weighed at the static scale was not sensitive to
the level of bypass threshold when the arrival rate was
low. However, strict weight enforcement policy with
a low value of the bypass threshold could result in
long delays at the weigh station and impair the overall
efficiency of weighing operation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research reported herein was conducted with
the financial support from the Kasetsart University
Research and Development Institute (KURDI). Sup-
port and assistance provided by the Department of
Highways is also acknowledged.
REFERENCES
American Society for Testing and Materials. Standard Spec-
ification for Highway Weigh-in-Motion (WIM) Systems
with User Requirements and Test Methods. E1318-02,
2002.
Benekohal, R.F., El-Zohairy Y.M., Wang, S. Truck Travel
Time Around Weigh Stations: Effects of Weigh In Motion
and Automatic Vehicle Identification Systems. Trans-
portation Research Record 1716, 2000, pp. 135143.
Gieseman, D. and Maze T.H. Evaluating Capacity and Delay
Given the Implementation of ITS Technology at Truck
Weight and Safety Inspection Stations. IET Intelligent
Transportation Systems and Services, Vol.1, No. 2, 2007,
pp. 124130.
Kamyab A. Weigh Stations Capacity Enhancement Alter-
natives: A Comparison of Mainline Electronic Screen-
ing and Physical Expansion. Transportation Conference
Proceedings, 1998, pp. 2932.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Optimization of departure time for time dependent vehicle routing problem

Zhengyu Duan & Dongyuan Yang

Key Laboratory of Road and Traffic Engineering of the Ministry of Education,
Tongji University, Shanghai, China

Miao Zhang
School of Economics & Management, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

ABSTRACT: Time dependent vehicle routing problem (TDVRP) is a problem of vehicle routing optimization
in road network with fluctuant link travel time. Compared with traditional vehicle routing problem (VRP),
researches on TDVRP are scare. While in recent two decades, it has attracted more and more scholars attentions.
Most studies on TDVRP assumed that all vehicles depart from the depot at a fixed time. But actually, in a
time dependent network, the choice of departure time will greatly influence the planning of vehicle routing.
In this paper, we designed a route construction algorithm for optimization of departure time in TDVRP. Test
instances show that the algorithm is efficient, and the qualities of computational results depend on the time
step. Moreover, we constructed extended Solomon instances for TDVRP, and analyzed the factors who influence
the optimization of departure time, such as spacial distribution of customers, time windows of customers, and
vehicle capacity.

Keywords: time dependent vehicle routing problem (TDVRP); routing construction algorithm; optimization of
departure time

1 INTRODUCTION algorithm. Jung (2000) carried out a thorough study

1.1 Brief introduction of TDVRP
Vehicle routing problem (VRP) is one of the core
problems in logistics distribution, has attracted many
scholars doing a lot of research. Most researches on
traditional VRP assume that the link travel time is
a constant. However, in real road network, the link
travel time is often fluctuant due to the traffic flow,
the weather, the accident and so on. Time dependent
vehicle routing problem (TDVRP) is a problem of
studying how to arrange vehicle delivery route in order
to archive certain optimization objectives in a road net-
work with fluctuant link travel time, such as shortest
travel distance, least cost, least travel time, least vehi-
cle number, etc. The traditional VRP has been proven
an NP-hard problem, so that it is more difficult to solve
TDVRP.
1.2 Literature review
In recent 2 decades, TDVRP has attracted more and
more scholars attentions.
Malandrak & Daskin (1992) made an impor-
tant contribution for TDVRP. They proposed a strict
mathematical model for TDVRP, designed a nearest-
neighbor heuristic algorithms and a cut plane heuristic
of TDVRP in his doctoral dissertation. He designed a
genetic algorithm, and solved test instances of 30 cus-
tomers. Ichoua et al. (2003) introduced first in first
out (FIFO) rule into TDVRP. He used time depen-
dent function of speed to represent dynamic network,
which avoid the deficiency of waiting in customer
node in Malandraks model. Donati et al. (2002, 2008)
designed a multi-ant colony algorithm, and solved test
instances of 100 customers with time windows.
The research of TDVRP in China began at around
the year of 2000.
Xiao (2004) studied TDVRP systematically in her
masters thesis. She designed an immune genetic algo-
rithm, and solved test instances of 20 customers
without time windows. Wu (2007) put forward a self-
adaptive particle swarm optimization algorithm for
TDVRP.
The research above of TDVRP, mostly assumed
all vehicles depart from depot in a fixed time. Only
Xiao (2004) studied optimization of departure time
for TDVRP. She gave two optimization strategies: 1)
determine departure time first, then arrange delivery
route; 2) determine delivery route first, then optimize
departure time.
In fact, in real road network, the choice of departure
time will greatly affect the planning of vehicle routing,
and whether the vehicles can fulfill the distribution

893
task on schedule. For the reason of fluctuant travel
time, especially in the morning and evening peak time,
it is necessary to study the problem of optimization of
departure time for TDVRP.
2 MATHEMATICAL MODEL FOR TDVRP
2.1 Representation of dynamic network
According to the method of Ichoua et al. (2003), we use
time dependent function of speed to represent dynamic
road network. This method can ensure the network
meet the FIFO property.
For a directed network G = (N , E, V ), N = {1, ,
n} is the set of nodes, E = {1, , m} is the set of
directed edges (links), V = {vij (t)| (i, j) E} is the set
of time dependent function of link speed. The form of
vij (t) can be a discrete step function or a continuous
function. For a real road network, it is always difficult
to get the continuous function of link travel time. In
this paper, we use step function to represent the time-
varying of link travel time, define a set T = {1, , M -
1} which denotes M intervals, and assume link speed
is a constant in every interval.
2.2 Mathematical model for TDVRP
In this paper, we study TDVRP with hard time window,
i.e., each customer must be served in his time window.
TDVRP is a multi-objective optimization problem, and
we consider mainly on number of vehicles and total
schedule time. In addition, we think the number of
vehicles is more important than the total schedule time.
The following is a mixed-integer programming
model forTDVRP. (Jung 2000, Ichoua et al. 2003, Xiao
2005)
Objective Function:
Constraints:
894
Notation and variables: K : number of utilized vehi-
cles; ST: total schedule time; TT: total travel time; WT:
total waiting time; SVT: total service time; xijm = 1, if
any vehicle departures from node i to node j at time
m; otherwise xijm = 0; ti , i SDE: vehicles arrival time
at node i; svti : service time of customer i; qi : delivery
demand of customer i; vik = 1, if customeri is visited by
vehicle k; otherwise, vik = 0; Rm ij : travel time from node
i to node j at time m, i SD, j DE, i  = j; [0, T ]: time
window of depot; [ei , li ]: time window of custom i;
Qk : capacity of vehicle k; M : interval number of time
dependent function; B: an infinite number; S : starting
nodes of all vehicles; E: end nodes of all vehicles; D :
set of all customer nodes; SD: set of starting nodes and
customer nodes; DE: set of customer nodes and end
nodes; SDE: set of all nodes; C : set of all customers;
SC: subset of C, |SC| is the number of customer in SC.
3 OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHM DESIGN
3.1 NNC algorithm
The idea of Route construction algorithm is, accord-
ing to some rules, adding sequentially customers into
delivery route, until all customers be visited. NNC
(nearest neighbor algorithm base on minimum cost)
algorithm is a route construction algorithm, which can
generate high quality feasible solution for VRP. NNC
was proposed by Solomon (1987) for traditional VRP.
Now, we extend it to TDVRP. The procedure is as
follows:
1) Start a route from depot in a given departure time,
select an unvisited customer closest to the depot,
and add it to the end of the route;
2) Select the unvisited customer closest to the last
added customer, if it satisfies the constrains, add
it to the end of the route;
3) Repeat step 2, when it reaches the capacity of
current vehicle, return to step 1 and start a new
route.
4) If all customers have been visited, stop the
algorithm.
 Here, the weighted distance between two nodes is
defined as a weighted sum of travel time, nearness
of time windows between two nodes, and urgency of
time window of subsequent node. We can consider the
distance here as an insertion cost into the route. The
nearness of time windows is the difference between
the lower bound of backward nodes time window and
the upper bound of forward nodes time window. The
urgency of time window is the difference between the
upper bound and the lower bound of a nodes time
window.
Thus, the weighted distance between two nodes is
determined by Eq. (13).
In Eq. (13), cij is the weighted distance between
node i and j; tij is the travel time between node i and j;
Tij is the nearness of time windows between node iand
j; Eij is the urgency of time window of node j; 1 , 2 ,
3 are weights, satisfy 1 + 2 + 3 = 1.
Tij is determined by Eq. (14)
In Eq. (14), bi is the lower bound of time window
at node i; si is the service time of node i.
Eij is defined by Eq. (15), in Eq. (15), lj is the upper
bound of time window at nodej.
3.2 Algorithm process of optimization of departure
time
We will give an algorithm for optimization of departure
time based on NNC algorithm as follows. We can name
it DTO-NNC algorithm. The basic idea of DTO-NNC
algorithm is that for a vehicle, from t = e0 , we modify
its departure time with a step of
t, then optimize its
delivery route until the number of visited customers
and schedule time cant be optimized.
According to the definition above, the time win-
dow of depot is [e0 , l0 ], and the number of utilized
vehicles is K. Assume the number of visited cus-
tomers of vehicle k is vck , schedule time of vehicle
k isvck , the optimization time step is
t. Define
TM = (l0 e0 )/
t ( is round up operation). The
procedure of DTO-NNC algorithm is as follows:
1) From time t = e0 , using NNC algorithm to construct
the delivery route for vehicle k = 1, record the num-
ber of its visited customers vck and schedule time
vtk .
2) Let t = t +
t, t = t , reconstruct its delivery route,
and record the number of its visited customers vc k
and schedule time vt k . If vc k < vck or vc k = vck and
vt k < vtk , let vck = vck , vtk = vtk .
3) Repeat step 2, until t l0 .
4) If there are still unvisited customers, dispatch a
new vehicle k = k + 1, and return to step 1, until
all customers have been visited.
Time complexity of DTO-NNC algorithm: assume
that the time complexity of NNC algorithm is s0 ,
then the time complexity of each vehicles route con-
struction is TM s0 , so that the time complexity of
DTO-NNC algorithm is K TM s0 .
4 TEST INSTANCE OF TDVRP WITHOUT TIME
WINDOWS
4.1 Introduction of test instance
Xiao (2004) gives a TDVRP test instance, which
includes 20 customers without time window (but the
depot has a time window). Its network is represented
as step functions of link travel time with 5 equal inter-
vals. It gives two optimization strategies: 1) determine
departure time firstly, then arrange delivery route; 2)
determine delivery route firstly, then optimize depar-
ture time. An immune genetic algorithm has been
designed to optimize the departure time and vehicle
route. But the best optimal solution given by Xiao
(2004) is wrong, which cant meet the vehicle capac-
ity constraint. As to the second best optimal solution
given by Xiao (2004), the best departure time of all
vehicles is 11, the number of utilized vehicles is 6,
and the total schedule time is 357.36.
In the following, we will use DTO-NNC algorithm
to solve the test instance given by Xiao (2004).
4.2 Test environment
In this paper, the test environment is as follows
(notebook computer): CPU: Intel Core i5 (four-core),
2.40 GHz; Memory: 3GB; Operation Systems: Win-
dows XP Professional; Program Language: Microsoft
C# .Net.
4.3 Computational result
We solve respectively TDVRP by DTO-NNC algo-
rithm with optimization time step of 20, 10, 5, and
1, and compare its computational result with the one
which doesnt optimize departure time (all vehicles
depart from depot at time 0), and the one given by
Xiao (2004). (Table 1)
As table 1 shows, for the best solution of above algo-
rithm (time step equals 1), its schedule time is 4.61%
less than the one given by Xiao (2004), and 5.96% less
than the one which doesnt optimize departure. As the
optimization time step decreases, the quality of opti-
mization solution improves, and the computing time
increases linearly. DTO-NNC algorithm is efficient,
its computing time is only 25.94 milliseconds, even in
the case of time step is 1.
5 EXTENDED SOLOMON INSTANCES
5.1 Construction of test instances
Solomon instances (Solomon 1987) are classical
benchmark problems for traditional VRP. According
to spatial distribution and time window of customers,
895
Table 1. Computational results of TDVRP instance without Table 3. Time dependent function of speed.
time window.
Link Type v1 v2 v3 v4
Vehicle Length Schedule Travel Computing
number of route time time time (ms) 1 1.80 2.20 1.60 2.40
2 1.60 2.40 1.80 2.20
Xiao (2004) 6 1171.61 357.36 357.36 3 1.40 2.60 1.00 3.00
Non-optimize 6 1183.50 362.50 362.50 0.62 4 1.20 2.80 1.40 2.60
departure time 5 1.00 3.00 1.20 2.80
Time step = 20 6 1073.82 357.88 357.88 1.56
Time step = 10 6 1124.58 347.53 347.53 2.34
Time step = 5 6 1124.58 342.03 342.03 4.53 uniformly in the network. In Eq. (16), Grade(i, j) is
Time step = 1 6 1124.58 340.88 340.88 25.94 the road type of link (i, j), Mod(a, b) is the remainder
of a divided by b.
The best solution of DTO-NNC algorithm is:
Vehicle 1, departure time is 13, delivery route: 0 -> 7 -> 19
-> 1 -> 15 -> 20 -> 0
Vehicle 2, departure time is 8, delivery route: 0 -> 5 -> 3 ->
12 -> 2 -> 0
Vehicle 3, departure time is 40, delivery route: 0 -> 14 -> 13 5.2 Computational result and analysis
-> 17 -> 0 We solved the extended Solomon instances by DTO-
Vehicle 4, departure time is 14, delivery route: 0 -> 16 -> 6
-> 9 -> 0
NNC algorithm, and compared the results with that of
Vehicle 5, departure time is 35, delivery route: 0 -> 10 -> 8 non-optimize departure time. Considering the qual-
-> 4 -> 0 ity of solution and computing efficiency, we let time
Vehicle 6, departure time is 6, delivery route: 0 -> 18 -> 11 step equal 5.
-> 0 The computational results of table 4 show:
Table 2. Solomon Instances (Solomon 1987). 1) After optimization of departure time, the schedule
time (7.61%) and the waiting time (59.96%)
Number Capacity are all reduced, especially the average waiting
of of Time Service Spatial Time time declines 59.96%. the delivery route has been
Set problems vehicle bound time distribution window
arranged more compactly.
2) After optimization of departure time, the number
R1 12 200 230 10 random short
R2 11 1000 1000 10 random long
of vehicles (0.60%) also decreases slightly. Thus,
C1 9 200 1236 90 cluster short the vehicles has been fully used.
C2 8 700 3390 90 cluster long 3) The average optimized departure times are almost
RC1 8 200 240 10 mix short in the first interval (morning peak time) of time
RC2 8 1000 960 10 mix long dependent function, and the optimized departure
times of C2, R2 and RC2 are slightly after the first
interval. One reason is to ensure each vehicle serves
they can be grouped into 6 sets of problems. The geo- more customers, the other reason is to avoid the
graphical data are randomly generated in sets R1 and influence of morning peak.
R2, clustered in C1 and C2, and a mix of random and 4) The results of RC1, RC2, R1 and R2 are better
clustered structures in RC1 and RC2. Sets R1, C1 and improved than C1 and C2. That is because that the
RC1 have a short time window, a small capacity of customers of C1 and C2 are gathered more closely
vehicle, and allow only a few customers per route. In geographically, and the service time of each cus-
contrast, the sets R2, C2 and RC2 have a long time tomer of C1 and C2 are much longer, thus there is
window, a large capacity of vehicle, and permit many less potential of optimization.
customers to be serviced by the same vehicle. Table 5) The results of C1, R1 and RC1 are better improved
2 gives all problem sets of Solomon instances. Time than C2, R2 and RC2. That is because that the
bound is the upper limit of the depots time window. vehicle capacity of the latter ones are larger, the cus-
There are not yet benchmark problem for TDVRP, in tomers time windows of the latter ones are longer,
this paper, we adapted the Solomon instances of tradi- and that each vehicle can serve more customers,
tional VRP, added time dependent functions of speed, thus there is more potential of optimization.
then got extended Solomon instances for TDVRP. 6) As the efficiency of algorithm, the average comput-
The time dependent functions of speed are defined ing time of DTO-NNC algorithm is 33.60 seconds,
as step functions. Five different types of time depen- 100.76 times than the algorithm which doesnt
dent functions represent 5 types of road. Each step optimize departure time. It is still acceptable.
function has 4 equal intervals, which describe traf-
fic characteristics in morning and evening peak time. 6 CONCLUSIONS
Table 3 gives the time dependent functions. The type
of link (i, j) is defined by Eq. (16). This approach In this paper, we designed DTO-NNC algorithm for
of definition can ensure all kinds of roads distribute optimization of departure time in TDVRP, tested it by

896
 Table 4. Computational results of extended Solomon instances.

Average Average Average Average Average Computing

vehicle schedual travle waiting departure time
Set number time time time time (ms)

C1 BO 10.00 10182.32 856.37 325.95 0 17.01

AO 10.00 9882.50 775.53 106.97 52.83 1765.45

0.00% 2.94% 9.44% 67.18%
C2 BO 3.38 10096.50 656.07 440.43 0 34.96
BO 3.38 9793.05 571.00 222.04 321.72 10974.22

0.00% 3.01% 12.97% 49.58%
R1 BO 10.25 2056.38 860.25 196.14 0 16.93
AO 10.25 1911.29 799.44 111.85 16.97 306.77

0.00% 7.06% 7.07% 42.97% 1712.31%
R2 BO 2.45 2098.22 864.21 234.01 0 44.32
AO 2.45 1884.52 824.47 60.05 125.53 4431.62

0.00% 10.18% 4.60% 74.34%
RC1 BO 10.75 2209.78 1012.91 196.87 0 16.21
AO 10.75 1926.12 878.36 47.77 29.43 300.78

0.00% 12.84% 13.28% 75.74%
RC2 BO 3.00 2359.08 1063.32 295.76 0 41.41
AO 2.88 2089.09 986.88 102.21 140.52 3708.40

4.17% 11.44% 7.19% 65.44%
Average BO 3.00 2359.08 1063.32 295.76 0 41.41
AO 2.88 2089.09 986.88 102.21 140.52 3360.45

0.60% 7.61% 8.79% 59.96% 100.76

BO: before optimization, i.e., non-optimize departure time. AO: after optimization, optimize departure
time by DTO-NNC algorithm with time step of 5.
: the difference between AO and BO. C1, C2, R1,
R2, RC1, and RC2: the average computational results of problem set C1, C2, R1, R2, RC1, and RC2.
Average: the average computational results of all solomon instances.

instance given by Xiao (2004) and extended Solomon REFERENCES

instances, and got the following conclusions:
1) After optimization of departure time, the number
of vehicle and the schedule time are both reduced.
A suitable departure time can make delivery route
more compactly.
2) If the distribution of customers is closer, there is
less potention of optimization.
3) The longer time windows of customers, the more
potention of optimization.
4) If the vehicle capacity is larger, each vehicle can
serve more customers, there is more potential of
optimization.
5) DTO-NNC algorithm is efficient, for the extended
Solomon instances of 100 customers; its average
computing time is 33.60 seconds.
In further research, we will study intelligence
algorithms such as ant colony algorithm, particle
swarm algorithm for optimization of departure time
in TDVRP, and apply the algorithm for optimization
of departure time in real road network.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work is supported by National Natural Science
Foundation of China, Study of Vehicle Routing Prob-
lem in Stochastic and Time-Dependent Networks, No.
71001079. Thanks Miss Hu Xiaoliang for her help of
correcting mistakes of English grammar in this paper.
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Andrea E., Casagrande Norman, Montemanni Roberto
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897
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Study on percent time-spent-following: A performance measure

for two-lane highways

P. Saha & M. Pal

National Institute of Technology, Agartala, Tripura, India

A.K. Sarkar
Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani, Rajasthan, India

ABSTRACT: This paper presents an alternative method of estimating Percent Time-Spent-Following (PTSF),
one of the Measures of Effectiveness (MOEs) to assess the Level of Service (LOS) of two-lane highways as per
Highway Capacity Manual (HCM). The method is based on field observations and traffic data was collected on a
two-lane National Highway in India. The study result shows that PTSF increases with the average platoon length
due to lack of passing opportunities. This paper also presents comparison between the PTSF values obtained
from field data and HCM empirical model. The values obtained from the field data show that HCM empirical
model overestimates PTSF. The reason could be attributed to the mixed-traffic scenario on Indian roads and also
the drivers willingness to take more risk during passing maneuver to avoid delay which is not taken into account
by the HCM empirical model.

Keywords: Two-lane highway, level of service, percent time-spent-following, platooning, heterogeneous traffic
flow

1 INTRODUCTION (LOS) on a two-lane highway and defines as the Per-

A large proportion of National and State Highways
in India are of two-lanes and traffic normally is het-
erogeneous in character. The flow of traffic on such
highways is different from those of divided carriage-
ways due to the on-coming traffic in the opposite lane.
As a result often the fast moving vehicles get delayed
due to their inability to overtake impeding slow mov-
ing vehicles. Subsequently, some vehicles are forced
to follow the impeding vehicles and they move in a pla-
toon. The delays caused to these vehicles may be long
depending upon the volumes of traffic in each direc-
tion.The drivers of the following vehicles continuously
evaluate the acceptable gaps in the on-coming traffic
to complete the overtaking operation successfully. In
a platoon the second vehicle just after the leading one
i.e. the vehicle forced to move at a slow speed, is con-
sidered as the first vehicle in the queue and normally
this second vehicle gets the first opportunity to over-
take by accepting suitable gap in the opposing stream
of traffic. Subsequent vehicles get their opportunity to
overtake as and when they reach the second position
in the platoon. In the process all the vehicles in the
platoon get delayed. The Highway Capacity Manual
2000 (HCM 2000) considers the average percentage of
time spent by vehicles following slow moving imped-
ing vehicle in the platoon as one of the Measures of
Effectiveness (MOEs) to assess the Level of Service
cent Time-Spent-Following (PTSF). However, HCM
recommends surrogate field measurement to estimate
PTSF on a two-lane highway. It has been reported by
a number of researchers that it usually overestimates
the actual PTSF values. Moreover, it is necessary to
evaluate the effectiveness of the method suggested by
HCM when the traffic is heterogeneous in character.
Therefore, in the present study an attempt has been
made to suggest an alternative method of measuring
PTSF in a two-lane highway directly from field data
to assess LOS under heterogeneous traffic conditions
and also to compare these values with those obtained
from the HCM model.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 An overview of HCM methodology
Besides Average Travel Speed (ATS), the HCM 1985
introduced a new performance measure Percent Time
Delay (PTD) on two-lane highways. PTD was defined
as the average percent of time that all vehicles are
delayed while travelling in platoons due to inability to
pass. Vehicles are considered delayed while moving
inside a platoon due to reduction of speed from their
desired speed. The HCM 1985 suggested the use of
percent of vehicles with headways less than 5 seconds
as a good estimate of the PTD in the field.

899
 The PTD concept was continued to be used with
minor modifications in the HCM 2000. The name
of the performance measure was changed to Per-
cent Time-Spent-Following (PTSF) because it better
describes the platooning effect and lack of passing
opportunities on two-lane highways. The PTSF is
defined as the average percentage of travel time that
vehicles must travel in platoons behind slower vehicles
because of an inability to pass. To estimate PTSF,
the HCM recommends a surrogate field measure of
the percentage of vehicles in the traffic stream with
headways less than 3 seconds.
2.2 An overview of other studies
There have been several studies that reported that
the PTSF determined by the method suggested by
HCM overestimates the values. Luttinen (2001) pro-
posed several models to estimate PTSF based on the
total flow, percentage of no-passing zones and direc-
tional distribution of traffic. These models result lower
value of PTSF than that estimated by HCM. Based on
a study conducted on uncertainty in the operational
analysis of two-lane highways, Luttinen (2002) also
showed that limitations in the accuracy of the analy-
sis procedures were causing errors and reducing the
usefulness of LOS concept. Harwood et al. (2003)
conducted National Cooperative Highway Research
Program Study on the HCMs two-lane road analy-
sis methodology and indicated an overestimation of
PTSF by HCM. Accordingly, they developed a revised
set of curves to estimate PTSF. Based on an analy-
sis of drivers impatience on two-lane rural highways
Pollatschek & Polus (2005) developed theoretical
models for reducing the critical passing gap with
longer delays prior to the passing maneuver. The impa-
tience of the driver may cause willingness to accept
more risk as delay increases which eventually reduces
PTSF. This could be one reason for overestimating the
PTSF parameter by HCM.
There have been a few studies that reported an
alternative way of using existing HCM performance
measures and also about new performance measures
for two-lane highways to assess LOS. Based on the
queuing model developed to estimate the flow charac-
teristics on two-lane highways, Polus & Cohen (2009)
proposed that the LOS could be determined by up to
five flow characteristics including PTSF. It was shown
that these five measures could be calculated from eas-
ily collectible data parameters. Al-Kaisy & Karjala
(2008) also investigated six performance indicators on
two-lane rural highways considering percent followers
and follower density as well. They observed follower
density to be the most promising service measure on
two lane highway. Also, this measure was found easier
to estimate in the field when compared with current
performance measure, the PTSF. An alternative way of
using the current HCM performance measures: aver-
age travel speed and percent time-spent-following was
suggested by Romana & Prez (2006) for evaluating
the level of service on two-lane highways. Botha et al.
900
(1994) introduced percent time delay as a measure to
describe service quality from a LOS study conducted
on two-lane rural highways. Morrall & Werner (1990)
proposed the use of overtaking ratio, which is obtained
by dividing the number of passing achieved by the
number of passing desired, as an indicator of LOS on
two-lane highways.
3 STUDY DESIGN
3.1 An approach towards PTSF estimation
The amount of impedance to fast vehicles caused by
slower one and availability of overtaking opportuni-
ties, effect of which is manifested in the amount of
platooning, are the determinants of PTSF on two-lane
highways. Therefore, to estimate PTSF directly from
the field, expected time spent by the fast vehicles
while in platoon needs to be measured. Thus, PTSF
is given by
Where, = the expected time spent by the fast vehi-
cle in the platoon and = average travel time between
platoons.
However, direct field measurement of these deter-
mining parameters is not easy and requires further
simplification. Polus & Cohen (2009) simplified this
equation and obtained PTSF as a function of average
number of headways inside and outside a platoon. The
same approach has been adopted in the present study
however minor modifications have been incorporated
to simplify it as discussed below.
As platoon formation is a queuing phenomenon, the
time that a vehicle spends in a platoon () is the ratio
of queue length to rate of arrival at the back of the
platoon; hence
Where, = arrival rate of fast vehicles at the back
of the platoons and Q = expected value of the num-
ber of fast vehicles behind an impeding slow vehicle.
Thus, there will be no platoon formation when the
number of fast vehicles, Q = is zero. Moreover, in a
platoon, the number of fast vehicles that are following
in the queue corresponds to the number of headways
observed during field data collection. Thus,
Where, Q0 = the average number of headways
observed inside platoons.
The rate of arrivals in Eq. (2) can be substituted by
the inverse of the average headway between platoons,
ha and thus:
Substituting Eq. (4) into Eq. (1), the PTSF value is
obtained as:
The value of is given by,
Where, No = average number of headways between
platoons
Substituting Eq. (3) and Eq. (6) into Eq. (5) and
simplifying, PTSF is given by
The average values of both Qo and No are very sim-
ple to observe in the field, consequently, making field
estimation of PTSF easy.
3.2 Study site and field data
Field studies were carried out to observe Qo and No on
NH-44 (two-lane highway), a national highway pass-
ing through Tripura, a state in the north-east India.
Seven segments were selected along 20 km highway
section between Agartala, the capital of Tripura and
Jirania, a village for conducting the study at different
traffic volumes. Due consideration was given in selec-
tion of the study locations so that they are free from the
effect of intersection, curvature and ribbon develop-
ment. Pavement conditions were good and uniform in
all the stretches. Video photographic survey technique
was adopted to observe the platooning phenomenon
appropriately. Two reference lines 500 m apart were
marked and four observation points were chosen for
installing the video cameras; two in each direction, for
recording the entry and exit of vehicles. The record-
ings were synchronized so that extraction errors due
to time lag could be avoided. The video files were
played on a computer to extract the traffic data. The
necessary readings i.e. vehicle type, registration num-
ber and time were noted down independently for the
four specified locations when a vehicle just crosses
the reference line. Form the extracted data the number
of headways inside platoons, Qo and outside platoons,
No were determined and then PTSF values were cal-
culated using Eq. (7). To compare these field values
of PTSF with those obtained from the HCM empirical
formula, traffic volume count was conducted for 10
hours during day time (8 am to 6 pm) on working days
at two locations in the study stretch to determine the
flow rate during peak periods.
4 STUDY RESULTS
To compute Qo and No by simple counts of head-
ways inside and outside platoons, the phenomenon of
platooning was studied for the study sections. Both
two-way segment and directional segment (Agartala
bound and Jirania bound traffic) according to HCM
was considered to compute PTSF. As the highway
approaches the city, the traffic volume was found
to be high and more heterogeneous. Thus, to cover
a wide range of traffic volume, data was collected
901
Figure 1. Comparison of observed PTSF at study sites over
different v/c ratios.
from different segments chosen along the study sec-
tion at different time of the day in accordance with
the hourly traffic variation obtained from classified
volume count. The raw data was analyzed and wide
spectrum of traffic flow was identified which corre-
sponds to volume by capacity ratios (v/c) from 0.2 to
1.0. The PTSF computed using field data for two-way
and directional segments have been plotted against v/c
ratio (Figure 1) to observe the trend and pattern and
also to compare the segment wise variations.
In Figure 1, it is evidently observed that PTSF is
sensitive to traffic flow and increases with it. Dur-
ing peak flow, PTSF is the maximum with 66 percent
whereas during low flow it ranges between 20 and 25
percent. This may be attributed to the effect of platoon-
ing. The possibility of overtaking becomes more and
more restricted with increase in traffic flow, resulting
in longer platoons i.e. more following vehicles. While
approaching capacity, overtaking becomes quite dif-
ficult and drivers become impatient and sometimes
take considerable risk to overtake disobeying lane dis-
cipline. A few drivers even dare to overtake from the
lower positions in the queue. This may cause reduc-
tion in platoon length and thus affecting PTSF. This
phenomenon was investigated further by observing
the average platoon length over different v/c ratios
(Table 1) and plotting the same with the corresponding
PTSF values obtained (Figure 2).
The results obtained from the HCM method for two-
way and directional segments in the study sections
were also examined. Two sites for conducting traf-
fic volume count were selected so as to compute the
demand flow. Thus, based on traffic count and apply-
ing due adjustments as per HCM for two-way segment
and for directional segments, PTSF values were com-
puted as shown in Table 2. It may be clearly observed
that the PTSF values obtained from field observa-
tions were lower compared to those obtained using
HCM method. For example, PTSF was observed to be
maximum 59 percent against v/c ratio 0.9 considering
two-way segment and the corresponding value using
Table 1. Observed Average Platoon Length at Study Sites. it was observed that HCM empirical model overes-
timates PTSF. Also, it was observed that the value of
Average platoon length (Vehicle) PTSF goes high as the average platoon length increases
due to lack of overtaking opportunities. In developing
v/c Directional Directional Two Way
countries normally the prevailing traffic consists of
ratio Segment-1* Segment-2* Segment
wide range of vehicles which includes sizable percent-
0.2 2.20 2.25 2.23 age of slow moving vehicles. This leads to a possibility
0.3 2.46 2.55 2.50 that the drivers of fast moving vehicles may become
0.4 2.48 2.64 2.56 impatient particularly when impeded by a slow moving
0.5 2.96 2.93 2.95 vehicle. Quite often, the speed difference between slow
0.6 3.10 3.20 3.15 and fast moving vehicles is very high. Consequently,
0.7 3.34 3.32 3.33 to avoid longer delay and frustration, drivers readily
0.8 3.70 3.88 3.79 accept reduced gap to complete overtaking maneu-
0.9 3.53 6.00 4.77 ver. Eventually, willingness of the drivers to take more
1 3.90 5.23 4.57
risk lessens PTSF values estimated from the field data.
*Directional Segment-1: Agartala bound traffic; Directional
The HCM model does not consider this particular phe-
Segment-2: Jirania bound traffic nomenon observed in the developing countries. There
is a need to take up further research to understand the
traffic behavior on two-lane highways in mixed-traffic
conditions for determining PTSF.

REFERENCES
Al-Kaisy. A. & Karjala, S. 2008. Indicators of Performance
on Two-Lane Rural Highways. Transportation Research
Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board,
No. 2071: 8797.
Botha, J. L., Sullivan, E. C. & Zeng, X. 1994. Level-of-
Service of Two-Lane Rural Highways with Low Design
Speeds. Transportation Research Record, No.1457:
1725.
Harwood, D. W., Potts, I. B., Bauer, K. M., Bonneson, J.
A. & Elefteriadou, L. 2003. Two-Lane Road Analysis
Methodology in the Highway Capacity Manual. Final
Rep. National Cooperative Highway Research Program
Project No. 20-7 (160), Washington, D.C.
Figure 2. Relationship of performance measure PTSF with Highway Capacity Manual. 2000. TRB, National Research
the average platoon length at study sites. Council, Washington, D.C.
Luttinen, R. T. 2001. Percent Time-Spent-Following as Per-
formance Measure for Two-Lane Highways. Transporta-
Table 2. Estimated PTSF at Study Sites based on HCM tion Research Record: Journal of the Transportation
Model. Research Board, No. 1776: 5259.
Luttinen, R. T. 2002. Uncertainty in Operational Analysis
PTSF of Two-Lane Highways. Transportation Research Record,
No. 1802: 105114.
Directional Directional Two Way Morrall, J. F. & Werner, A. 1990. Measuring Level of Service
Study Site Segment-1 Segment-2 Segment of Two-Lane Highways by Overtakings. Transportation
Research Record 1287: 6269.
Site 1 77.15 75.03 77.08 Pollatschek, M. A. & Polus, A. 2005. Modeling Impatience of
Site 2 74.95 75.28 74.98 Drivers in Passing Maneuvers. Transportation and Traffic
Theory ISTTT16, H. S. Mahmassani, ed., Elsevier Science
and Pergamon, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, pp. 267280
Polus, A. & Cohen, M. 2009. Theoretical and Empirical
HCM model was 77.08 percent. Similar lower values Relationships for the Quality of Flow and for a New
were also obtained by Luttinen (2001), Harwood et al. Level of Service on Two-Lane Highways. Journal of
(2003), Pollatschek & Polus (2005). Transportation Engineering, ASCE, 135(6): 380385.
Romana, M. G. & I. Prez. 2006. Measures of Effective-
ness for Level-of-ServiceAssessment ofTwo-Lane Roads:
5 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION An Alternative Proposal Using a Threshold Speed. Trans-
portation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation
Research Board, No. 1988: 5662.
The present study attempted to estimate PTSF directly Special Report 87: Highway Capacity Manual, 2nd ed. 1965.
from field observations and compare them with those HRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C.
obtained by using HCM method. Both two-way seg-
ment and directional segments were examined and

902
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

CTM-based evacuation under incident-based non-recurrent congestion

with information

N. Liu & A.M.H. Zhang

China Academy of Transportation Sciences, Beijing, China

ABSTRACT: Emergency evacuation becomes more and more an effective ways to response to natural or
man-made disasters. Network-wide propagation of the non-recurrent congestion during emergency evacuation
is one important factor which greatly affects the utilization of the transportation system. The travel time of links
will largely increase due to spillback from downstream. This dynamic scenario is distinct from the well-studied
planning scene. Information is able to alleviate the propagation of congestion by providing knowledge of traffic
condition and suggesting the people to alter their a priori planning routes to the alternative routes. By the means
of Cell Transmission Model (CTM), this paper proposes a simulation-based network-wide propagation model
of non-recurrent congestion and then combines it with routes choice behavior model of people with information
based on the Stochastic Dynamic User Optimal (SDUO) principle to analysis the spatio-temporal distribution
of traffic flow. The results show that information is able to significantly improve the performance of real-time
evacuation traffic management and the effect of information is related to the severity of incident and the quality
of information both.

1 INTRODUCTION if they receive less than perfect information; drivers

Due to the complexity and randomness of emergency
evacuation, non-recurrent congestion is likely to occur.
This kind of congestion sources such as traffic inci-
dent, vehicle breakdown, lanes closures and so on. In
the case, if the pre-trip information modeled in this
paper is absent, people will make their route choices
according to the priori evacuation planning which
ignore the incident and its affect. As a result, they are
likely to join the queue after entering congestion area.
The congestion delay will waste lots of time and made
the people unable to reach their destination in time and
even result in life losses.
Recently, more and more evacuation research has
been mostly focusing on dynamic traffic control
and routing strategies during emergency evacua-
tion rather than the planning stage. Theodoulou &
Wolshon (2004) use CORSIM to evaluate the free-
way contraflow evacuation. Liu et al. (2007) developed
the model reference adaptive control framework for
real-time traffic management under emergency evacu-
ation. Chiu et al. (2007) proposed dynamic traffic flow
optimization model for no-notice mass evacuation.
Most of these studies focus on the static paradigm
under recurrent congestion by employ mixed user
equilibrium (UE) and stochastic user equilibrium
(SUE) assignment to model the effect of informa-
tion: drivers equipped with an information device
behave according to the UE principle if they receive
complete information, or behave according to SUE
principle with less variability of travel time perception
unequipped with an information device behave accord-
ing to SUE principle with more variability of travel
time perception (Yang 1998). Base on that behav-
iorally sound method, some related important issues
(Yang & Meng 2001, Lo & Szeto 2002, Yin & Yang
2003) were determined from benefit derived from
information.
The simplicity or ignorance of spatio-temporal dis-
tribution of traffic flow in dynamic scenario under
non-recurrent congestion may result the bias, even
the worse, wrong analysis and conclusion. There were
some studies to analysis the effect of information
in the dynamic scenario (Ben-Akiva et al. 1991,
Mahmassani & Jayakrishnan 1991, Emmerink et al.
1993, Al-Deek et al. 1998).
The outline of this paper is as follows. Section II
models the propagation of congestion and analy-
sis how to calculate the link travel time and delay
by the CTM. Then we develop the dynamic mixed-
equilibrium traffic assignment model of the static
model described in Yang (1998). Section III contains
the numerical studies. Finally, Section IV provides
some concluding remarks.
2 METHODOLOGY
2.1 Nomenclature
In a strongly connected traffic network, a A denotes
a link in set of network links, w W denotes an

903
origin-destination (OD) pair in this network, Given 2.3 CTM model multiple route choice behavior
t [0, T ]: with information
Mw The evacuation demand between OD pair w.
During evacuation, peoples have formed certain a pri-
az The actual travel time of driver z on link a.
ori route choice according to deterministic evacuation
a (t) The average travel time entering link a at time
planning. Due to the sudden and randomness of inci-
interval t;
dent, the drivers who are lack of the traffic condition
az (t) If driver z enters link a at time interval t, it
information will prefer to insist their a priori route
takes a value 1; otherwise it takes a value 0.
which maybe contain the congestion links rather than
wr (t) The travel time of path r between OD pair w
alter their routes to detour the congestion area. As
at time interval t.
a result, this kind of drivers will be likely to join
pz,i
r (t) The probability of driver z who complied the queue what makes the congestion propagates to
with information source i and choose route r at time
upstream. On the contrary, the drivers with device who
interval t.
receive traffic condition information and get to know
i The perception variations of the information
that their a priori route contain these congestion links
source i.
would like to alter their routes to detour the conges-
iz Whether the driver z complied with information
tion area in order to reach their destination as soon as
source i.
possible.
nia (t) The number of drivers in cell i of link a at time
The SDUO principle state that for each OD pair,
interval t.
the actual travel times perceived by drivers departing
yai (t) The outflow number of drivers from cell i 1
at the same time interval are equal and minimal. By
to cell i of link a at time interval t.
adopting the logit model, for the driver z depart from
Qai (t) The maximum number of drivers that can flow
OD pair w and receive information i, the choice prob-
into the cell i of link a at time interval t.
ability of route r between the routes set is calculated as
Nai The maximum number of drivers that can be
follow:
present in cell i of link a at time interval t.
dai (t) The congestion delay in cell i of link a at time
interval t.

2.2 CTM model

In this section we focus on the impact of non-recurrent
congestion on evacuation transport system. All the
information of trip, such as the outflow and inflow
number of each cell and route choice of vehicles, will
be recorded during the simulation period of CTM.
Thus, it is able to calculate the average travel time
of each link which composes the paths at each time
interval. a (t) can be calculated as follows:
If the path r between OD pair w is composed of links
set {a1 , a2 , ...an }, then its travel time can be calculated
as follow:
2.4 Compliance of information
In generally, whether a drivers complies with the Infor-
mation is motivated by the time saving of altering route
from the a priori route.The drivers will follow informa-
tion when it can improve their perception, especially
under non-recurrent congestion condition, and help
them to reach their destination earlier. It means that
the drivers are bounde rationality and the compliance
of information can be defined as the possibility of the
actually travel time of complied drivers being less than
the non-complied and unequipped drivers who insist
their a priori route.
With the logit-based SDUO principle, the aver-
comp,i
age travel time cz of driver z who complies
with information (i = 1 or i = 2) is defined as
follow:

The numbers update of vehicles in each cell can be

calculated as follows:

The average travel time of non-complied and

unequipped driver is defined as follow:

The congestion delay of each cell is defined as the

additional time for the vehicles to pass through the cell
subtract the free flow travel time. It can be calculated The time saving can be obtained as follow:
as follows:

904

Figure 1. The simulation network.
The compliance of each information source i can
be determined by:
Where z is a positive parameter which describes
the satisfaction of the drivers with the time saving of
information. This parameter is affect greatly by the
cost of each drivers z and traffic status. If z = 0, it
means that the driver z will comply with the informa-
tion as long as it help to reduce evacuation time. In the
case of incident, the drivers whose a planning evacu-
ation routes contain these congestion links will prefer
to comply the information due to the longer cost of
evacuation.
3 SIMULATION EXAMPLE
3.1 Scenario design
The solution method integrated with simulation based
Method of Successive Algorithm (MSA) was adopted
here to obtain the spatio-temporal distribution of
traffic flow.
To analysis the spatio-temporal distribution of traf-
fic flow under incident and information during evac-
uation based the above proposed models, we choose a
simple network and the formulations are applicable for
general networks. As shown in Figure 1 that there is a
grid network which consists of 14 nodes, 38 links and 1
OD demand pair (evacuation from node 1 to node 14).
There will be 25 drivers depart each moment during
the period of time interval 0 to 100. The parameters of
CTM are as follows: time interval length = 5 s, jam
density 133 vehicles/km/lane, free flow speed 54 km/h,
backward shock wave speed 21.6 km/h, lane numbers
2, link capacity 3 vehicles/interval/lane, cell length
75 m, each link has 9 cells. It is assumed that there will
be an incident in the link marked at 30th time inter-
val and its capacity will reduce. The incident is clean
at the 250th time interval and the capacity is recov-
ered. The initial route choice sets of travelers can be
905
Figure 2. Distribution of traffic flow under incident only
(a) and under incident and information (b).
obtained from the solution of SDUO without incident
under lower information quality. Set z = 0.3.
3.2 Case study result
In generally, the incident severity is the main reason
which affects the propagation of congestion. We anal-
ysis the spatio-temporal distribution of traffic flow
under follow different traffic condition of incident
severity: (1) high severity (cell outflow capacity of
incident location reduce to 0) (2) low severity (cell
outflow capacity of incident location reduce to 2). To
deal with the case of different severity level of inci-
dent, we assume that 20 percents of the drivers equip
information device with higher quality ( = 10) and 20
percents of the drivers equip information device with
lower quality ( = 1). Then the effects of the infor-
mation under mentioned above traffic condition were
evaluated.
(1) High severity
As presented in figure 2 that, the network-wide
propagation of congestion with providing information
(see b) is alleviated than the condition without infor-
mation (see a) due to several drivers alter their a priori
route to the detour route whose free flow trip cost is
longer (via link 7) or congestion delay is less (via link
17). The congestion in (a) propagate to 4 upstream
links (i.e. 11, 26, 9, 24) and propagate to 2 upstream
links (i.e. 11, 26) in (b). The capacity of upstream link
(i.e. link 38) to destination is fully used by the drivers
detour to link 17 and link 20. It clearly means that
the information providing is able to prevent the con-
gestion from propagating to the upstream links and
forming the network-wide congestion area.The spatio-
temporal distribution of traffic flow is changed due to
the information providing.
As shown in figure 34, the system congestion delay
and the average travel time of the links in congestion
area (i.e. link 5, 9, 11, 24, 26, 34) with information
providing decline greatly to the lower level than the
condition without information providing. By prevent
the congestion from propagating to link 9, 24, 5, the
travel time in these link decline to the normal status
during the incident period.
The information is able to alleviate the propagation
of congestion by providing the description of traffic
condition and suggesting the drivers to detour. The
result presented in figure 4 that, lots of trip makes
Figure 3. System delay varies with time interval.

Figure 5. Cumulative inflow of links. (a) link5. (b) link 7.

(c) link11. (d) link26.

Figure 6. Distribution of traffic flow under incident only

(a) and under incident and information both (b).
Figure 4. Average travel time of links. (a) link5. (b) link 9.
(c) link11. (d) link24.

detour from link 11, 26, 34 to link 5, 7, 32. The inflow

number of link 5 increase due to the downstream link 7,
which will lead to detour of the congestion area by the
means of longer free flow travel cost. Obviously, most
of the drivers out of link 5 alter their a priori routes to
choose link 7 rather than link 26 which will make them
encounter the congestion queue. The choice between
link 32 and 11 is similar, while the different is that the
detour to link 32 will not lead to the longer free flow
travel cost but another congestion bottleneck which
cost less delay than link 34. Figure 7. System delay varies with time interval.
(2) Low severity
To Analysis the improvement of traffic status from
figure 58, we can conclude that the affect of incident
on the network-wide spatio-temporal distribution of
traffic flow and the alleviation of the propagation of
congestion under the lower level congestion status are
tiny. Most of the drivers will insist their a priori route.
(3) The effect of information quality
There will be three information strategies tested to
analysis the effect of information quality on alleviation
of the propagation of congestion, i.e. plan 1 which was
analysis above (20 percents of drivers equip informa- Figure 8. Links average travel time and inflow. (a) average
tion device and 20 percents of drivers equip radio), plan travel time of link 34. (b) inflow of link 34.

906

Figure 8. System delay varies with time interval under dif-
ferent incident severity with different information plan. (a)
High severity. (b) Low severity.
2 (40 percents of drivers receive higher quality infor-
mation only), plan 3 (40 percents of drivers receive
lower quality information only).
As shown in figure 8, the congestion delay under
high incident severity is alleviated greatly by all the
three plans, of which the plan provides more infor-
mation of high quality will alleviate more congestion
delay. On the contrary, the alleviation of congestion
delay under low incident severity is tiny and the
improvement of information quality is just a waste of
funds. The optimal strategies are to assign reasonable
proportion of the drivers with high quality and low
quality. As shown in fig. 8(b) that, the plan 1 fixed
with both the higher and lower level of information
quality is even better than the plan 2 of which all
the drivers receive information of higher quality. In
conclusion, the proportion and information quality of
strategies need to be considered under different traffic
conditions as incident severity.
4 CONCLUSION
This paper studies on the spatio-temporal distribution
of traffic flow under non-recurrent congestion and
pre-trip information during evacuation. By the means
of CTM simulation, the propagation of congestion to
upstream of the incident link and upstream links were
modeled. Then we analysis the effect of information
based on the DSUO route choice principle with dif-
ferent information quality. The result of simulation
experiments clearly illustrate that the non-recurrent
congestion will affect not only the travel time of inci-
dent link but also the travel time of upstream links.
Under the condition of higher incident severity, the
information with higher quality is able to alleviate the
network-wide propagation of congestion, then maxi-
mize the utilization of the transportation system and
minimize losses. On the contrary, i.e. under the condi-
tion of lower incident severity, the effect of information
under lower congestion level is tiny no matter how high
is the quality of information. It means the drivers will
prefer to join the queue to endure the congestion delay
rather than take more free flow travel cost in this status.
The analysis of this paper is based on SDUO route
choice principle.And we doubt that whether the drivers
under non-recurrent congestion and information dur-
ing evacuation will follow the route choice principle
907
assumed in this paper. The routing mechanism of
drivers which meet the reality well is also need to be
developed. Furthermore, the simulation is based on the
CTM in the ideal grid network. Naturally, there will be
many other congestion control strategies that can pre-
vent the propagation of non-recurrent congestion, such
as variable message sign (VMS), traffic signal control,
turning restrict, etc. Therefore, our future work aims to
extend the proposed control strategies by more reality
routing model and evaluate it combine with other con-
trol strategies by some micro-simulation tools such as
VISSIM, Aimsun, and so on.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge the support
for the research received from the western traffic
construction project Study on Traffic Organization
Early-warning and Joint Emergency Management of
Regional Highway Network under Disaster Condi-
tion(2009 318 223 089) of the Ministry of Transport
of the Peoples Republic of China.
REFERENCES
Al-Deek, H. M., Khattak, A. J. & Thananjeyan, P. 1998.A
combined traveler behavior and system performance
model with advanced traveler information systems. Trans-
portation Research 32A:479493.
Ben-Akiva, M. & Palma, A. D. 1991.Dynamic network
models and driver information systems. Transportation
Research 25A:251266.
Chiu, Y.C., Zheng, H., Villalobos, J. Gautam, B. 2007. Mod-
eling no-notice mass evacuation using a dynamic traffic
flow optimization model. IIE Trans 39:8394.
Emmerink, R. H. M., Axhausen, K. W. & Rietveld, P. 1993.
The potential of information provision in a simulated
road transport network with non-recurrent congestion.
Transportation Research 3C:293309.
H. X. Liu, J. X. Ban, W. Ma, & Mirchandani, P. B. 2007.
Model reference adaptive control framework for real-time
traffic management under emergency evacuation. Journal
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Lo, H. K. & Szeto, H.Y. 2002. A methodology for sustainable
traveler information services. Transportation Research
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Mahmassani, H. & Jayakrishnan, H. 1991.System perfor-
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yses of freeway contraflow to improve future evacua-
tions. Proc., 83rd Annual Meeting of the Transportation
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Speed management pilot project in China

Changcheng Li, Tao Wen, Han Feng & Gaoqiang Zhang

Road Safety Research Center (RSRC), Research Institute of Highway (RIOH), the Ministry of Transport (MOT)

Ann Yuan
Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) Country Manager for China Regional Delegation for East Asia,
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

ABSTRACT: Speeding and inappropriate speed are recognized as major contributory factors in both the
number and severity of traffic crashes in most of the countries in the world including China. Global Road Safety
Partnership (GRSP) carried out a 4- year speed management in China during 20082011. The project was divided
into 2 phases: phase I speed management situational survey at 6 different road segments in Beijing and Guangxi
Province; phase II implementation and evaluation of speed management Intervention countermeasures at G103
highway in Beijing. Objectives of this pilot project are, to better understand the speed related problems on the
selected road sections, to implement the international good practice on speed management based on the local
needs, to use low engineering cost countermeasure to reduce speeding rate and improve the safety on the selected
road section. The before-after comparison shows that low cost engineering countermeasures make spot speed
reduce by 5 km/h for mean speed and 7 km/h for V85(85 percentile speed) approximately on general road section;
for crosswalk, the corresponding figure is about 7 km/h and 12 km/h.

Keywords: highway, traffic safety, speed management, speed limit, evaluation

1 BACKGROUND

Speeding and inappropriate speed are almost univer-

sally recognized as major contributory factors in both
the number and severity of traffic crashes. Speed man-
agement is considered as a very important measure
to improve road safety. However, increasing the law
complying rate and reducing the unsafe speed on the
road are not easy; it is still one of the largest chal-
lenges to the road safety professionals worldwide. The
developed countries have built up many good practice
and experience in road safety and speed management,
which can be used as in other countries reference. For
example, Safe-System Approach in Australia [1].
Along with rapid motorization in China, speed-
ing and inappropriate speed is one of the primary
contributors of road traffic crashes. According to the
official data released by the Ministry of Public Secu-
rity (MPS)[2], approximately 10,000 people killed in
the road crash related to speeding. The speed related
fatalities reached to the peak of 18,000 in 2004. By
reviewing the crash data of past 5 years, it was found
out that speed related crashes and injuries account for
10% in total number of road crashes and injuries; while
the fatality is around 14%. Speed related crashes are
more serious in terms of fatality per crash as opposed
to other types of crashes (see figure 1 and 2 for more
detail).
Figure 1. Number of the speeding related road crashes,
fatalities and injuries during 20012010 in China.
The figure 1 and 2 blow shows the number and
percentage of the speeding related road crashes, fatal-
ities and injuries during 2001-2010 in China. (Data
source: annual report for road traffic crashes issued
by ministry of public security, China)
In China, due to lack of technical standard and
guideline, many speed related issues exist. The
Figure 3 shows the posted speed limit on an expressway
is 30 km/h and 20 km/h corresponding to passenger
cars and other vehicles, drivers are very hard to comply
it. Figure 2 shows the two different speed limit signs
posted at the same road section. Without any explana-
tion, it is hard to understand if they are setting up for
different lane or different type of vehicle. Other promi-
nent problems include: inappropriate set of speed

909
 Table 1. Situational Survey Road Sections.

Technical
Route Station Class Function

G109 K51-59 Class II Rural collector

and distributor
G109 K75-84 Class II Rural collector
and distributor
Shuidan Whole route Class II Suburban collector
and distributor
Figure 2. Percentage of the speeding related road crashes, G103 K26-50 Class I Suburban arterial
fatalities and injuries during 20012010 in China. Nanyou Whole route Expressway Rural expressway
G323 Luzhai-Pingle Calss II/III Rural collector
and distributor

Figure 3. Too low speed limiton expressway.

Figure 4. Ambiguous speed limit signs.

Figure 5. Spot speed data collection.

limit not reflecting prevailing road and traffic condi-
tions; lack of transition design between speed limits;
efficient combination of posting speed limit, imple-
menting engineering countermeasures and speeding
enforcement.
2 INTRODUCTION OF SPEED MANAGEMENT
PILOT PROJECT IN CHINA
Worked together with the Research Institute of High-
way (RIOH) of the Ministry of Transport (MOT),
Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) carried out a
4-year speed management in China during 20082011.
The project was divided into 2 phases: phase I speed
management situational survey at 6 different roads in
Beijing and Guangxi Province; phase II implementa-
tion and evaluation of speed management Intervention
countermeasures at G103 highway in Beijing. Local
road administration agencies and local traffic polices
as stakeholders were invited in the project.
The project aims to understand the speed man-
agement related problems based on selected typical
roads; design and implement the targeted solutions;
adopt good practice on speed management and use
low cost engineering countermeasures to address local
problems; conduct the outcome evaluation after the
construction to understand the effectiveness of the
countermeasures; thus to set up good examples of
speed management as reference for other projects.
Finally, to reduce the speed related crashes and
improve satisfaction and acceptance of road users on
speed management.
Figure 6. Road user questionnaires on speed.
3 PHASE I SPEED MANAGEMENT
SITUATIONAL SURVEY
3.1 Introduction of the surveyed roads
Six different types of technical class and function road
sections with the mileage of more than 400 kilome-
ters totally, are selected as situational survey road of
speed management, the survey road list see table 1.
Spot speed data were collected at more than 100 sur-
vey sites, see figure 5. More than 500 questionnaires
were conducted at roadsides, tollgates, or service areas
to solicit road user viewpoints and attitudes on speed
management related issues, see figure 6. Traffic acci-
dents and road design materials were also acquired
and compiled. Comprehensive analysis was conducted
from aspects of speed distribution, speed limit and
speeding, speed and safety, road users attitudes on
speed management, operating speed and maximum
safe speed prediction, etc.
3.2 Findings of spot speed survey
Figure 7,8 and 9 shows spot speed survey statistics
on different speed limit road segments of Naning-
Youyiguan expressway. For expressway, when adopt-
ing speed limits of 100 km/h or 120 km/h, V85 (85
percentile speed) and posted speed limit are nearing.
when adopting speed limits of 80km/h, speeding rate is
relatively high, and almost all V85 of surveyed spot are
higher than speed limit. Other expressways with speed
limit of 80km/h in China also reflect similar results
that speeding problems are serious. The lowest design

910

Figure 7. Mean and V85 speed histogram on Naning-
Youyiguan expressway section with speed limit 120 km/h.
Figure 8. Mean and V85 speed histogram on Naning-
Youyiguan expressway section with speed limit 100 km/h.
Figure 9. Mean and V85 speed histogram on Naning-
Youyiguan expressway section with speed limit 80 km/h.
Figure 10. Mean and V85 speed histogram on Luzhai-
Pingle two-way two-lane sections with speed limit 60 km/h.
speed in China is 80 km/h, however, the lower design
standard is only adopted at few restricted segments
and most of the rest segments satisfy higher standard
generally. Thus, when posting speed limits for express-
way with low design speed such as 80 km/h, adopting
different speed limits or setting speed zones based on
operating speed consistency evaluation and analysis of
spot speed survey are recommended.
Operating speed usually fluctuate largely for two-
way two-lane roads due to factors or their combination
such as road geometry, traffic volume, roadside con-
dition, intersection density, speed management mea-
sures. It needs to balance the efficiency and safety
when setting speed limit for two-way two-lane roads
in line with their road characteristics and functions.
Figure 10 shows spot speed survey statistics of Luzhai-
Pingle two-way two-lane sections with speed limit
911
60 km/h. survey shows V85 of most surveyed spots
reach to 80 km/h due to fine road geometry, so it may
cause problem when adopting design speed as posted
speed limit. For rural two-way two-lane arterial roads
such as Luzhai-Pingle highway, the emphasis of speed
control should laid on special road segments such as
segments through county or town, segments with sharp
curve or steep slope, crash-prone segments, etc.
4 PHASE II IMPLEMENTATION AND
EVALUATION OF SPEED MANAGEMENT
INTERVENTION COUNTERMEASURES
4.1 Introduction of speed management intervention
road
G103 in Beijing Tongzhou district (milepost K25-
50) is finally selected as the pilot road section for
implementation of speed management intervention
and before-after effect evaluation. This road section
is located in plain area; the general geometric align-
ments are preferably good without noticeable sharp
curves, steep grades and constricted sight distance.
This road is two-way four lanes (part of stretch has
six lanes), and opposite traffic are physically divided
by iron fence, median with vegetation or concrete bar-
riers. This section adopts technical standard of class I.
Area along the road has dense populations and there
are many towns or villages. High density of accesses
or intersections is the notable character. Main intersec-
tions are controlled by signals while small intersection
and accesses are controlled by stop/yield signs.
Six speed zones with speed limit of 60 km/h were
set along the road section. Besides six speed zones,
there are no speed limit signs posted. Based on the
data collected, the mean speed was around 70 km/h and
V85 (85 percentile speed) is around 8090 km/h on the
road. At the survey spot of K38 + 200 in a speed zone,
it was found that 76% vehicles drove over speed. There
were 190 crashes occurred in the road section from
Jan. 2006 to April 2010, causing 42 persons killed and
213 injured. Average casualty rate per year kilometers
reaches to 2.37 persons/year kilometer, which much
higher than other similar roads. This shows its nec-
essary to strengthen speed enforcement and carry out
speed intervention countermeasures to manage speed
and reduce speed related crashes.
Intervention scheme in this pilot road section
includes three aspects: Comprehensive Implementa-
tion of speed control measures on general sections;
Safety improvements of non-signal controlled cross-
walks; Safety improvements signal controlled inter-
section (not introduced in this paper).
4.2 Comprehensive speed control measures on
general sections and their effects
4.2.1 Problem description
Some of the speed limit signs were either poorly vis-
ible (sheltered from trees or other objectives) or not
informative enough. Operating speed is relatively
Figure 11. Extension of speed limit sign posts. Figure 15. Implementation of longitudinal speed pavement
markings.
Figure 12. Installation of speed limit signs at median.
Figure 16. Implementation of peripheral speed pavement
markings.

Table 2. Spot speed statistics before and after implementa-

tion of different speed pavement.

before after

Mean Mean
speed V85 speed V85
Measures (km/h) (km/h) (km/h) (km/h)
Figure 13. Implementation of speed limit pavement
markings. transverse speed 60.7 77.6 58.4 72.6
pavement markings
Figure 14. Implementation of transverse speed pavement longitudinal speed 72.5 86.9 65.7 79.5
markings. pavement markings
peripheral speed 64.5 78.2 60.5 71.0
pavement markings

high, and some road segments need to control speed

by taking engineering measures.
4.2.2 Objectives
Improve visibility of speed limit signs or markings,
prompt for drivers of the change of road conditions,
and to reduce speed.
4.2.3 Intervention countermeasures
Low cost engineering countermeasures include:
adjustment of speed limit signs, speed limit pavement
markings, transverse speed pavement markings, lon-
gitudinal speed pavement markings, peripheral speed
pavement markings.
(1) Adjustments of speed limit signs. Increase vis-
ibility by extending sign beam (see figure 11)
and installing speed limit signs at median (see
figure 12).
(2) paint speed limit pavement markings of 60 km/h at
the approach of the speed zone (see figure 13) and
markings of 80 km/h at segments of good road con-
dition without posted speed limit signs to inform
drivers of speed management.
(3) Paint transverse speed pavement markings to make
drivers control speed by vibration and noise (see
figure 14).
(4) Paint special speed pavement markings to make
drivers control speed by visual illusion including
longitudinal speed pavement markings (see figure
15) and peripheral speed pavement markings (see
figure 16).
4.2.4 Evaluation
The table 2 shows the vehicle speed before and after
various speed reduction pavement markings imple-
mented. It shows the transverse pavement markings
are most effective and followed by the peripheral speed
pavement marking and transverse speed pavement
markings.
In general the outcome of the countermeasures is
positive. Based on the before and after data compari-
son, it is found out that the mean speed and V85 speed
on this pilot road were reduced on average by around
4.4 km/h (6.5%) and 6.5 km/h (8.1%) respectively.
4.3 Non-signal controlled crosswalks safety
improvement measures and their effects
4.3.1 Problem description
The demand of pedestrian crossing is high due to vil-
lages near by the crosswalks. As lack of signal control
and high driving speed, vulnerable road users were
exposed to high safety risk especially at nighttime
with poor visibility. Non-signal controlled crosswalks
atYulin and Matou villages were selected to implement
intervention measures.
4.3.2 Objectives
Reduce vehicle speed when passing by the crosswalks;
improve visibility of the crosswalks; and make drivers
aware of the existence of crosswalks and the change
of road conditions more noticeably.

912
 pedestrian crossings. The effects are significant after
taking low cost engineering measures of signs and
pavement markings etc comprehensively.The outcome
shows that at 150 meters upstream of the pedestrian
crossings, the mean speed and V85 speed were reduced
on average by around 4.1 km/h (6.8%) and 6.9 km/h
(9.1%) respectively. The result is even better at the
spot of pedestrian crossings; the mean speed and V85
speed were reduced on average by around 6.8 km/h
Figure 17. Crosswalks with colorful anti-skid pavement.
(11.1%) and 12.1 km/h (15.7%) respectively.
Figure 18. Pavement figure markings and transverse speed
pavement markings.
5 CONCLUSIONS

This speed management pilot project is the first project

on speed management sponsored and technically sup-
ported by international organization GRSP. The rig-
orous implementation flows of situational analysis,
pilot road selection, intervention countermeasures
design and implementation, before-after analysis and
evaluation of were used when carried out the project.
This project laid great stress on introduction and adop-
tion of international practices on speed management,
Figure 19. Retroreflective road studs. low cost engineering measures addressing local condi-
tions, and effectiveness evaluation. Below conclusions
Figure 20. Pavement character markings and transverse can be drawn after the implementation of the two phase
speed pavement markings. of the project:
(1) Speeding and inappropriate speed are recognized
as major contributory factors in both the number
Table 3. Spot speed statistics before and after implementa- and severity of traffic crashes in China.
tion of crosswalks safety improvement measures. (2) Using design speed as posted speed limit, speed
limit not reflecting prevailing road and traffic con-
before after ditions, inappropriate speed limit signs set are
most prominent problems in speed management
Mean Mean Mean currently.
speed V85 speed speed
position (km/h) (km/h) (km/h) (km/h)
(3) The low engineering countermeasures (such as
speed reduction pavement markings, speed limit
150 meters 60.2 75.2 56.1 68.3 pavement markings, and pavement figure or char-
upstream acter markings) were used to reduce travel speed
of crosswalk and to improve safety on the pilot road section of
crosswalk 60.9 77.2 54.1 65.1 G103 highway in Beijing. Before-after compar-
ison shows that the countermeasures make spot
speed reduce by 5 km/h for mean speed and 7 km/h
for V85 (85 percentile speed) approximately on
4.3.3 Intervention countermeasures general road section; for pedestrian crossing, the
Low cost engineering countermeasures include: corresponding figure is about 7 km/h and 12 km/h.
implementation of transverse speed pavement mark- However, speed management cannot only rely on
ings (see figure 18, 20), improvement of warning and the engineering countermeasures as their effects
indication signs, setup of colorful anti-skid pavement are still limited, other activities such as enhanced
(see figure 17), addition of pavement figure or char- speed enforcement together with public education
acter markings (see figure 18, 20), installation of road campaign are very much necessary.
studs (see figure 19), setup of solar amber light, etc.

4.4 Evaluation
By using the pneumatic tube traffic flow detector,
the vehicle speed was measured at both 150 meters
upstream of the pedestrian crossings and at spot of
pedestrian crossings. The table 3 shows the spot speed
statistics of before and after implementation at the
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to express our sincerely appreciation
to the 7 multi-national companies of Global Road
Safety Initiative (GRSI): Ford, GM, Honda, Miche-
lin, Renault, Shell and Toyota. Many thanks for their
financial support provided to the project. We would

913
also like to express our thanks to the local partners of
the project in Beijing and Guangxi province: Beijing
Road Administrative Bureau Tongzhou Branch; Bei-
jing Road Administrative Bureau Mentougou Branch;
Guangxi Road Administrative Bureau; Beijing Traffic
Management Bureau Tongzhou Branch. Without their
support, it is impossible to translate the proposal of
this project from paper into concrete actions.
914
REFERENCES
[1] Speed management: A road safety manual for decision-
makers and practitioners. Geneva, Global Road Safety
Partnership, 2008
[2] Annual Report: Statistics of Road Traffic Accidents,
Bureau of Traffic Management, Ministry of Public
Security, 20012010
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Gravity model with the function of cost impedance

Da-guang Li
Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tianjin Agricultural University, Tianjin, China

Ying Zhang
Tianjin Petroleum Vocational and Technical College, Tianjin, China

Zhi-wei Zheng
Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tianjin Agricultural University, Tianjin, China

ABSTRACT: Through comparing and analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of three models widely used
in the distribution of urban traffic forecasts, paper explores the gravity model, which is applied to urban traffic
distribution forecast, with the maximum entropy method. It not only overcomes the gravity models limitations
of no reliable theoretical basis and the complex process of parameters calibration, but also makes full use of
the basis of the complete theory of physics of maximum entropy method and reveals the inner meaning of the
traffic characteristics. At the same time, it simplifies the process of gravity models parameters calibration. The
gravity model with the function of cost impedance, which is derived by the maximum entropy method, has very
broad applicability and fully takes the influences, which are the results of the improvement of the transportation
network, on the trip expenses into account. Consequently, its application will have promising prospect for the
forecast of transportation distribution.

Keywords: maximum entropy method; traffic distribution; gravity model; parameters calibration; function of
cost impedance.

1 INTRODUCTION entropy concept is introduced into the gravity model

The distribution of urban traffic forecasts is one of
the most important parts in the four-stage model of
urban traffic distribution forecasts are these, such
as the growth coefficient model, the gravity model
and the maximum entropy model. The growth coef-
ficient model which can be forecast directly through
the observed traffic matrix is simple and understand-
able, while there are severe limitations as follows.
the accuracy of results annual is mainly based on
that of the benchmark data and it requires complete
annual benchmark O-D graph and the non-observed
data shouldnt exist in the graph meanwhile, the
growth coefficient model should not consider the
influence of network improvement on the traffic cost.
under the rather changeable condition of the traffic
network, it is not suitable to use the growth coef-
ficient model still lacks reliable theoretical basis,
the process of parameters calibration in the practical
application. The maximum entropy model is rarely
applied to practical traffic demand forecasts. How-
ever, it has complete theoretical basis in physics and
can well describe the relation between macrostates
and macrostates of the system. Therefore, when the
of the traffic distribution forecasts, the match degree
between the theoretical model of traffic distribu-
tion forecasts and the practical condition can be
improved.
2 THE RATIONAL OF THE GRAVITY MODEL
The gravity model is based on Newtons law of uni-
versal gravitation. It is deduced from that the product
between the gravity of the two objects and the quality
is proportional while it is proportional to the square of
a distance Casey (in 1995) is the earliest person to use
the gravity model.
The model is
Pi refers to the population of the i community;
Pj refers to the population of the j community;
Pij refers to the distance from the I community to the
j community
refers to the coefficient

915
 
As the above model simply imitates the law of uni- The macro state number G Tij associated with
versal gravitation, it has severe limitations in practical that of the medium state will be deduced through the
use. Therefore, after the continuous following equation:
Research and improvement of later generations,
the gravity model has some relative change in forms,
that is

As all the macrostate are supposed to have equal pos-

f (cij ) refers to the traffic impedance function
As the traffic impedance functions decreases with
the increase of travel distance or cost, the widely used
function form is as follows:
Exponential function
sibility, the most possible medium state is the one that
can produce the most macrostate, namely: solve the
maximum value of G in equation (7), that is: solve the
maximum value of Gs monotone function ln G.

Power function Applying the Stifling approximate formula, log

X ! = X log X X , we can deduce:

Combination of function:
Usually log T ! is a constant. Thus it can be left out from
the formula, the other parts of the equation is called
entropy function.
Every macrostate of the system has a certain level
of occurence the state of the system itself can bi man-
ifested through the probability field formed by every
macrostate. Except the moment average value, the
Maximizing log G and meeting the correspond-
most important quantity indicating the macrostate of
ing constraints, the biggest possible state of medium
the system is entropy and entropy will better indicate
model can be attained, that is the most likely matrix T.
the change of the system state.
Suppose that the random variable is yi , i equals 1,
2, 3 until n; also y = {yi }, yi s occurrence probability


n 3 DEDUCING THE GRAVITY MODEL WITH
is pi , pi = 1,Y is called probability field. THE FUNCTION OF COST IMPEDANCE
i=1 WITH THE MAXIMUM ENTROPY METHOD
The following equation is
3.1 Model building
When the maximum entropy concept have been intro-
duced into the gravity model, the principal problem to
build the gravity model is converted to how to max-
The only function meeting the following condition: imize log G in equation (10), as well as meet the
(1) H is a continuous function from p1 , p2 , p3 , corresponding constraints of the medium state in the
until pn : following three equations:
(2) H is maximized if and only if p1 = p2 = p3 =
. . . . . . = pn :
(3) H (Y ) = H () + H (Y/), where = f (X ), H (Y/)
is Ys condition entropy under condition , H (Y )
is called entropy of probability field Y.
Suppose that all the macrostates with the same
macrostate have the equal occurrence probability,
unless the special explanation, through the method
of using a set of mathematical programming equation Applying Lagrange function method will deduce:
constraints to indicate the known information in order
to reach an agreement on the cognition of the macro
states. When you are interested in the medium state,
you can distinguish these states which are the same
under the condition of given macro states constraints.

916
Take Tij s first-order partial derivative and let it be zero,
one will deduce
Then:
Change one of the variables and find the Lagrange
multiplier:
One can obtain:
Introduce the total travel cost constraint of the
system (e.g. general cost):
where C refers to the total travel cost of the system; cij
refer to the travel cost from community i to community
j.
The above constraint can be described as:
Using the method of Lagrange multipliers, one can
obtain:
where: The value of is associated with the con-
straint condition equation (19). Usually, C is unknown.
changes in different regions. Therefore, is used
as a calibration parameter adjusts different research
regions. The approximate value of can use average
value of cost.
Take equation (20)s first-order partial derivative
and let it be zero, one will deduce:
Then:
917
Make the similar change, one will deduce:
The value of the balance factor Ai and Bj can be
derived from the following constraint:
Further, divide the constraint condition equation
(19) into several groups, use m to mark each group.
Then, for any m, one can obtain:
Maximize log G in equation (10), and meet the
constraint condition equation (11), equation (12) and
equation (26), one can obtain:
This is the gravity model with the function of cost
impedance through the maximum entropy method.
3.2 Parameter calibration
As previously mentioned, Ai and Bj can be estimated as
one part of the double proportional (Furness) balance
factors. But should be estimated based on reappear-
ing the distribution of the trip Length at the extreme
(TLD).
At any stage of calibration, a travel matrix
T () can be obtained, that is s current estimated
function. Such matrix offers the total travel number


ij Tij () = T ().
Based on the following constraint:
where: c refers to the average cost of the observed
travel length distribution (OTLD);
Nij Refers to the travel number of every observed
pair of the beginning and the end.
The method of calibration is as follows:
(1) Let m = 0, an initial estimation will be obtained:
0 = 1/c .
(2) Let m = m + 1, for the current estimated m1 ,
apply the standard gravity model to calculate the
travel matrix, the average travel cost on a model
basis cm will be obtained; compared with c . If
both are quite approximate, one can stop calculat-
ing. Make m1 be the optimal estimation of the
parameter, other turn to step 3.
(3) If m = 1, one ban make a better estimation of m :
If m > 1, a better estimation of m is:
(4) Repeat step 2 and step 3 until convergence.
3.3 The error of models and common processing
methods
The gravity model which is built through the method
of mathematical program as well as used in the dis-
tribution of urban traffic forecasts and is deduced
through the maximum entropy method cannot avoid
certain errors when it is applied in practical use and
real distribution are irregularly changing. The regu-
larity of the changes of some factors can be found
out through the mathematical program method while
the other regularity is not really able to obtain under
the current level of science and technology and equip-
ment. However, in order to explore the regularity at the
extreme factors on the urban traffic distribution, some
appropriate hypotheses are allowed in the process of
model building. In this way, the process of model
building will be simplified and understandable. Also,
it will also pave the way for the future further research.
Thus, the existences of such errors are supposed to be
reasonable.
Although the errors cannot be avoided in the pro-
cess of model building, in order to make the forecast
results of the model better match with the real traffic
distribution, certain measures must be taken to reduce
the errors to the minimum. Currently, the widely used
model building are statistical approach and simulation
approach.
3.3.1 Statistical approach
To the same objective reality, if the observing method
and angle are different, different mathematical mod-
els may be built. Therefore, one need to assess and
chose different mathematical models. That is looked
as hypothesis testing or statistical testing of different
models. Whose testing standard is to minimize the
model errors.
The main thinking process of the statistical
approach: Suppose that M0 and M1 are two mathemat-
ical models describing some objective phenomenon,
then M0 can be looked as a zero hypothesis (H0 )
relative to objective reality
 and M1 is looked as an complete theoretical and technological support. It
alternative hypothesis Ha1 , If M1 s model error is less
918
than M0 s, then, M0 can be thought to be more accu-
rate than M1 , By that analogy, chose the mathematical
model with the least error as the required one.
Statistical approach has a transmission function on
errors. That is, the error is transmitted from input
data to output data. Thus, in order to achieve the goal
that strengthen statistical approachs ability to handle
errors, accurate, reliable and comprehensive basic data
should be collected. Meanwhile, the hypotheses in the
error-handling process need to match with the reality
as much as possible.
3.3.2 Simulation approach
The simulation approach first designed in the lab is
a model which is similar to the phenomenon or the
process in the study (prototype). It is an experiment
method that studies indirectly the regularity of the
prototype through the mode.
The main thinking process of the simulation
approach: First, according to the main characteristics
of the prototype, design a similar model. Then, study
the prototype indirectly through the model. Based
on the similar relationship between the model and
the prototype, simulation approach can be divided
into physical simulation and mathematical simulation.
Currently, with the remarkable development of science
and technology, mathematics is widely used in vari-
ous kinds of scientific field, especially the advanced
technological effect and generalization of the simula-
tion approach is becoming more and more extensive,
which is one of indispensable or chief study methods
to come up with new scientific ideas and explore the
unknown world.
The chief advantages of the simulation approach are
as follows:
(1) It can be used to study the old and not-yet-
emergent phenomenon;
(2) It can be used to study the inside system which
neither can be opened or observed directly from
the outside;
(3) It can simplify, amplify and reduce the phe-
nomenon (prototype) according to the actual
requirement;
(4) It can be easily controlled. One can set differ-
ent factors which affects the models application
according to his needs;
(5) It can be economical. Simulation approach doesnt
need to collect and analyze basic data with
large amount of human, material and financial
resources. Thus, it is a relatively economical
method.
The chief disadvantages of the simulation approach
are as follows:
(1) Due to man-made simulation and artificial co-py
property the results are sometimes less accurate
and complete and may not fit with the simulation
target;
(2) Simulation is a new developing method, lacking
needs to be tested and improved in practical use.
3.4 The property of models
Entropy maximum method is a very flexible deduc-
ing method of models, the travel distribution can be
derived from converting the entropy maximum method
to the mathematical program problems, even maxi-
mize the entropy and meet some linear constraints.
The advantages of the gravity model with the func-
tion of cost impedance through the maximum entropy
method include:
(1) It offers a feasible method to the explanation of the
final model. For example, it indicates the objective
function is convex. It also indicates that there is
feasible solution space for the given constraints,
even the parameter Ai and Bj are not the only one,
the most problems still have an only solution.
(2) With the framework of mathematical program, one
can conveniently make use of the standard solution
tool library and iterative algorithm to solve and
effectively analyze.
(3) The theoretical framework of occurrence models
is helpful to explain the solution. The maximum
entropy method deducing the gravity model can
associate with the information theory, the error
estimation and the maximum likelihood method
of statistics. Although the three ones can produce
the same gravity models in form, the explanation
of each theoretical framework is different to the
problem and solution.
(4) The gravity model derived from many different
methods doesnt indicate the models accuracy.
Because the models adaptability depends on the
adopted hypothesis, the model itself is not right or
wrong. It just explains more or less the given prob-
lems under the specific scope, required conditions
and required resources.
919
4 CONCLUSION
On the basis of analyzing the advantages and disadvan-
tages of the three models applied to the distribution
of urban traffic forecasts, the thesis introduces the
entropy concept into the distribution of urban traffic
forecasts in a creative way. The gravity model with
the function of cost impedance applied to the distri-
bution of urban traffic forecasts is deduced from the
complete theoretical basis of the maximum entropy
method. It not only overcomes the limitations of the
gravity models lack of complete theoretical basis, but
also simplify the complex parameter calibration pro-
cess of the gravity model. The gravity model with the
function of cost impedance with the maximum entropy
method has a strong adaptability. It can fully allow for
the influence of the improvement of the transportation
networks on the travel cost, it has a bright future in
the distribution of urban traffic forecasts. In addition,
the thesis also offers two ways that are widely used
currently of handling errors in the process of model
building so that the models in practical use better fit
with the actual urban traffic distribution.
REFERENCES
Li-jun Yu, Yan Hai, Yan Baojie maximum entropy principle
in the statistical distribution of the traffic flow model [J].
Traffic and Transportation Engineering, 2001, 1 (3).
De-ren Li. The first edition of the error handling and reli-
ability theory [M]. Beijing: Surveying and Mapping
Publishing House .1988
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

A review of cyclist safety studies in and out of China

Liye Chen, Xiaodong Pan & Xiaorong Chen

School of Transportation Engineering Tongji University, Shanghai, China

ABSTRACT: Traffic safety has been a continuous research hot topic in the past few decades. For the developing
and under-developing countries, cyclist safety concerns have drawn lots of attentions.This study provides a review
of studies focused on cyclists safety in and out of China. Comparisons and summarizations have been made for
the research data issues, statistical methodology aspects, research conclusions and suggestions. Based on the
past studies, suggestions for the future works have been concluded.
Keywords: cyclist safety, crash pattern, injury severity

1 INTRODUCTION Yan et al. (2011) utilized the data extracted from

In recent decades, energy and environmental issues
caused by the growing usage of motor-vehicles have
increased the needs of sustainable traffic modules.
Therefore, the popularity of non-motorized vehicles,
most commonly known as bicycle, has gain growing
attentions. Despite of the advantages of commuting by
bicycle (e.g. reduction of traffic congestion, air pol-
lution and noise pollution), encouraging cycling has
more deterrents compared to driving cars. Cyclists
are fear of crime, poor road surface, bad weather,
long riding distance and especially the danger from
motor-vehicles when sharing the roadways with them
(Gregory, et al. 2009), which arouse more concentra-
tions of the study of bicycle safety.
This study summarized several studies focusing on
cyclists safety issues in and out of China. Moreover,
comparisons among these studies have been made in
the methodology aspects and the conclusion parts.
2 RESEARCH DATA
Data issues are the key part in the traffic safety stud-
ies, variety types of data have been utilized in the
bicycle safety studies. Generally they can be summa-
rized into four types: (1) demographic characteristics;
(2) cycling exposure information; (3) historical acci-
dents and (4) clinical information. Specific data types
were chosen to match different study purposes. For
the data preparation procedures, mainly two ways have
been employed: (1) utilizing data archived in the offi-
cial database and (2) conducting surveys to achieve
the data.
2.1 Using the database only
Data from official database are usually adopted in
some retrospective studies.
the vehiclebicycle crashes records filtered by Traf-
fic Accident Database System (TRADS) to analyze
the driver and cyclists irregular maneuvers (e.g. dis-
obeying traffic signals), crash patterns (e.g. head-on,
rear-end) and injury severity in the city of Beijing.
Besides, driver/cyclist demographics as well as other
potential risk factors were also taken into account.
While in Hongkong, Loo and Tsui (2010) also made
use of the TRADS and they incorporated a hospital-
based Road Casualty Information Database (RoCIS)
as a supplement to analyze bicycle crashes and gain
medical information about the injury patterns of bicy-
cle crashes. The type of other vehicles, the direction
of impact and the contributory factors were extracted
from TRADS.
Data of three specific crash types (overtaking, rear-
end and door crashes) were selected from the British
Stats19 national road accident database by Pai (2011)
in his study and the following items were contained:
general information such as time/date, weather, road
and light conditions and posted speed limit; vehi-
cle and driver characteristics such as age and gen-
der of driver/cyclist and vehicle type; and detailed
information of casualty.
Maya et al. (2012) conducted a study on injury
severity based on the data from hospital database.
Information of patient demographics, injury charac-
teristics, hospital utilization, and hospital discharge
outcomes were provided by 11 trauma centers partic-
ipating in the Israel National Trauma Registry (ITR).
Katalin et al. (2010) carried out a retrospective study
with the help of the Department of Pediatrics at two
hospitals in Hungary.
2.2 Conducting surveys in addition to the database
In order to decrease the effect of the underreporting
of the accidents, in some studies, researchers prefer

921
to conduct surveys instead of relying on the databases
completely.
Bas de Geus et al. (2012) developed an online
data registration system based on website and e-mails
to collect data. The data contains bicycle involved
accidents and the factors related to their occurrence
during cyclists utilitarian cycling (commuting to or
from work or cycling for other transport purposes) in
Belgium. Participants fulfilled the following criteria:
(i) age between 18 and 65 years old; (ii) having a paid
job based outside the home; (iii) cycling to work at
least 2 times a week in the preceding year; (iv) living
in Belgium were asked to fill out the General Ques-
tionnaire (GQ) about their personal information such
as gender, age, level of education; and traffic-related
information such as travel frequency, place of resi-
dence and work. They were also required to finish the
weekly travel diaries (TD) of their travel frequency,
cycling time and distance in the past 7 days. If an acci-
dent occurred, a Prospective Questionnaire (PQ) about
the context, circumstances and cause of the accident
such as road conditions and some other information
such as injury type was required. Kristiann et al.
(2011) also carried out a similar but less complicated
online survey to collect data on cyclists character-
istic, behaviors and experiences regarding cycling in
Queensland.
A study conducted in Fushun, China employed both
approaches to collect data (Chen et al. 2007). Prelim-
inary analysis in the study was conducted with the
help of China census 2000 data and government yearly
reports. Then a face-to-face survey was carried out to
collect data on cyclists information of demographics,
travel behaviors, and obstacles and barrier at specific
locations during cycling. Photos and video shots were
used to document the obstacles mentioned by cyclists.
3 METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
Different statistical methods as well as some other
analysis methods such as comparison were employed
in the studies on bicycle safety problems to find out
the correlation between variables.
Among all these approaches, descriptive statistics
is the most commonly used ones and almost appeared
in every study to describe the demographic or clin-
ical characteristics such as the proportion of each
injury pattern. In Yan et al. (2011)s work, descrip-
tive statistics were used in the preliminary analysis
for the purpose of understanding the city context and
general population in the aspects of natural, histor-
ical and socio-economical conditions. Furthermore,
a linear regression model was developed to find the
correlation between speed and travel distance.
In Bas de Geus et al. (2012)s study, incidents Rates
(IR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI)
were calculated as the number of injuries reported
per (1) 1000 trips; (2) 1000 hours; and (3) 1000 km
of exposure. Incident Rates were compared to each
other based on regions and genders. Accidents were
922
categorized as minor (person is hospitalized for less
than 24 hours) and major (hospitalization of more
than 24 hours) bicycle accident. And factors associ-
ated with the accidents were analyzed by direct rate
comparison.
Yan et al. (2011) employed multinomial logit model
(MNL) to analyze the irregular maneuvers by asso-
ciating specific irregular maneuver with risk factors
such as traffic condition, while the binary logit mod-
els (BL) were utilized to identify the major crash
patterns and risk factors affecting injury severity. By
calculating the ratios of pattern propensity for each
category of the irregular maneuvers to the average
pattern propensity for a specific irregular maneuver,
finally, the authors explored the propensity of specific
irregular maneuvers to various crash patterns.
Pai (2011) developed a mixed logit model and a
standard multinomial logit model to analyze variables
associated with three specific bicycle crash types. The
results showed that mixed logit models, which took
unobserved factors into consideration, were found to
be superior to the multinomial ones.
Katalin et al. (2010) applied descriptive statistics,
one-way analysis-of-variance (ANOVA), correlation
analysis and Chi-square test in their study to test the
relationship between circumstances, severity of injury
and some other factors.
Loo and Tsui (2010) used the buffer analysis, chi-
square tests, ANOVA and binary logistic regression in
their study.
Maya et al. (2012) employed descriptive analyses on
the data according to whether there was motor vehicle
involved in and age. Chi square test was used to test
whether there were any differences between groups.
Multivariate logistic regression was used to estimate
beta coefficients and standard errors for the predictor.
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Data
As mentioned before, acquiring accurate data is the
foundation of carrying out a successful study in bicycle
safety. Therefore, it is important to take the defect of
the data into consideration while processing data.
Underreporting of bicycle accidents is one key issue
that needs to be realized. Researchers found out that
only 7% of the prospectively recorded bicycle acci-
dents were reported in police reports. Underreporting
is a common phenomenon in Belgium and they found
that the severer the injury was, the higher the likelihood
of being reported to in police statistics could be. (Bas
de Geus et al. 2012) In Hongkong, the underreport-
ing of bicycle crash casualties was about 64% during
20052007 period. (Loo and Tsui, 2010), Moreover,
underreporting to police about the incidence of acci-
dent was also proved in Kristiann et al. (2011)s study.
All of these demonstrated the weakness of retrospec-
tive study, which should be took into consideration
when using the data extracted from official database
directly.
Table 1. Data type and methodology.

Study area Data type Methodology

Fushun, China Demographic characteristics and cycling Descriptive statistics and linier regression model
exposure information
Belgium Demographic characteristics, cycling Descriptive statistics and simple comparison
exposure information and historical accidents
Queensland, Australia Demographic characteristics, cycling Quantitative analysis, descriptive statistics
exposure information, historical accidents and logistic regression model
and clinical information
Hungary Demographic characteristics and clinical Descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA,
information correlation analysis and Chi-square test
Hongkong, China Demographic characteristics, historical Buffer analysis, chi-square tests,
accidents and clinical information analysis-of-variance and binary logistic regression
Britain Demographic characteristics and historical Mixed logit model and standard multinomial logit
accidents model
Israel Demographic characteristics and clinical Descriptive analyses, Chi square or Fishers exact
information test and multivariate logistic regression model
Beijing, China Demographic characteristics and historical Multinomial logit models and binary logit model
accidents

Table 2. Main purpose and some of the conclusions.

Study area Purpose conclusion

Fushun, China Main problems cyclists experienced while High-speed motor vehicles; poor design and
cycling in Fushun management; and lack of bicycle facilities are the
main problems
Belgium Correlation between the occurrence of minor Injury risk differs between regions and genders if
accidents and demographic characteristics the effect of exposure is taken out of consideration.
Queensland, Incidence, severity and correlates of Most of the injuries were caused by poor road
Australia bicycling injuries conditions, falling off and injuries involving other path
user were more likely to be serious
Hungary Bicycle injuries in children Situations in village were worse than those in
midsized towns and large town because of poor road
quality, the lack of protective equipment and
school education.
Hongkong, Correlations between crash casualties and Bicycle safety problem in Hongkong has a spatial
China demographic and spatial characteristics dimension.
Britain The occurrence of three specific crash types The likelihood of overtaking collision increases
when teenager cyclists are involved or in
non-built-up area.
Israel Relationship between injury severity and Injuries involving motor vehicles and severe
age and mechanism injuries were more prevalent among adult than children.
Children had more head and brain injuries than adults.
Beijing, Correlations between irregular maneuvers, Irregular maneuvers are closely related to the occurrence
China crash pattern and crash severity of vehiclebicycle crashes and angle collision is
associated to all irregular maneuvers.

4.2 Region degree of injury and age of the cyclists casualties also
increased with longer distance from the cycle tracks.
Correlations between the geographic regions and the
So does the chance of an injury causing disability. Such
bicycle safety problems have been mentioned in sev-
correlation was also found in Hungary that safety sit-
eral studies.
uations in village were worse than those in midsized
Loo and Tsui (2010) found that bicycle safety prob-
towns and large town. (Katalin et al. 2010).
lem in Hongkong had a significant spatial correlation.
However, Bas de Geus et al. (2012) found that injury
Most of the bicycle crashes were located within 100 m
risk differs between regions only if the effect of expo-
and 500 m of the cycle tracks where the nearby road
sure is taken out of consideration. Such a difference
network was under developed and the residents tended
in conclusion can be explained by the weakness of
to have a lower household income. The likelihood
retrospective study.
of pedestrians being involved in bicycle crashes, the

923
4.3 Occurrence of crashes and crash types
According toYan et al. (2011)s study, irregular maneu-
vers are closely related to the occurrence of vehicle
bicycle crashes in China. Teenagers and males are
more likely to disobey traffic rules. Drivers disobey-
ing traffic signals at night, failing to give way and too
close following at peak time increase the likelihood
of crashes happening. iv. Cyclists cycling faster and
longer distance also have a higher likelihood of being
involved in an accident. Bas de Geus et al. (2012)
Regarding crash types, angle collision, head-on,
rear-end, overtaking and door collision are the most
common crash types appearing in vehicle-bicycle
crashes.
Angle collision is associated to all irregular maneu-
vers. The likelihood of overtaking collision increases
when teenager cyclists are involved or when it is in
non-built-up area (speed limit > 40 mph). Traversing
maneuvers as well as teenager cyclists were found to
have a correlation with the incidence of rear-end crash.
Accidents on cycle lane or bicycle crash involved
taxi and female bicyclist/motorist have more chance
to be a door collision.
4.4 Injury patterns and severity issues
There are seven mechanisms of injury: falls from the
bicycle, spoke-injuries, handlebar-injuries, collision
with motor vehicles, injuries with other bicycle parts
and collision against objects and with other bicycles,
respectively. Contrarily, injuries involving other path
user were more likely to be serious and collision with
motor vehicles is the most dangerous ones. (Katalin
et al. 2010, Loo and Tsui, 2010).
Gender was not found to be associated with overall
injury or serious injury while cycling exposure does.
In addition, head-on and angle collisions, higher speed
limits, involvement of heavy vehicles and older bicy-
clists, worse lighting conditions and lack of median
and division are the factors that tend to increase the
injury severity levels.
4.5 Suggestion
In order to improve the bicyclist safety, prevent bicy-
clists from being involved in accidents or being seri-
ously injured if accident happens, three solutions are
summarized and suggested.
Firstly, the most direct way to protect cyclists is
to use protection equipments such as helmet, wheel
cover or reflecting clothing. A study carried out in
New Zealand after the bicycle helmet law took effect
found that if Helmet wearing rates increased by 1%,
924
head injury accidents would be reduced by 0.43%.
(Paul et al. 2000) Reflecting clothing can increase
the likelihood of being detected by drivers under poor
lighting condition. Therefore, all the cyclists should be
suggested to use these gadgets during their cycling.
Secondly, relevant departments should pay more
attention to the traffic management and roadway main-
tenance. For example, the objects which may cause
cyclists falling of the bicycle should be removed from
road. If allowed, some equipment (e.g. isolation strip)
should be installed.
Moreover, for the sake of decreasing the occurrence
of crashes, education is the most effective solution.
For the long term consideration, education would ben-
efit in protecting cyclists, especially for the children
and residents of developing countries.
REFERENCES
Chen, Y. & Mehndiratta, S. 2007. Involve the long-neglected
mass in urban transportation: bicycle user survey in
Fushun,
China, 2005. The 86th Annual Meeting of the Transportation
Research Board.
Geusa, B.D., Vandenbulcke, G., Panis, L. I., Thomas, I.,
Degraeuwe, B., Cumps, E., Aertsens, J., Torfs, R. &
Meeusen, R. 2012. A prospective cohort study on minor
accidents involving commuter cyclists in Belgium. Acci-
dent Analysis and Prevention 45: 683693.
Heesch, K., Garrard, J. & Sahlqvist, S. 2011. Incidence, sever-
ity and correlates of bicycling injuries in a sample of
cyclists in Queensland, Australia. Accident Analysis and
Prevention 43:20852092.
Kiss, K., Pt, Z., Pintr, A. & Srkzy, S. 2010. Bicycle
injuries in children: An analysis based on demographic
density. Accident Analysis and Prevention 42: 15661569
Loo, B. & Tsui, K.L. 2010. Bicycle crash casualties in a
highly motorized city. Accident Analysis and Prevention
42:19021907.
Pai, C.W. 2011. Overtaking, rear-end, and door crashes
involving bicycles: An empirical investigation. Accident
Analysis and Prevention 43:12281235.
Scuffham, P., Alsop, J., Cryer, C. & Langley, J. 2000. Head
injuries to bicyclists and the New Zealand bicycle helmet
law. Accident Analysis and Prevention 32:565573.
Siman-Tov, M., Jaffe, D., Peleg, K. & Israel Trauma Group.
2012. Bicycle injuries: A matter of mechanism and age.
Accident Analysis and Prevention 44: 135 139.
Vandenbulcke, G., Thomas, I., Geus, B.D., Degraeuwe, B.,
Torfs, R., Meeusen, R. & Panis, L.I. 2009. Mapping bicy-
cle use and the risk of accidents for commuters who cycle
to work in Belgium. Transport Policy 16:7787.
Yan, X., Ma, M., Huang, H., Abdel-Aty, M. & Wu, C.
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 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Research on intercity rail terminal area planning and land development

Dehui Li
Beijing Institute of Technology Zhuhai, Guangdong, China

Junhao Cao
Parsons Brinckerhoff Shanghai Office, Shanghai, China

Yuyu Zheng
Parsons Brinckerhoff Guangzhou Office, Guangzhou, China

Liya Yao
Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China

ABSTRACT: In recent years, China has witnessed an enormous investment in the construction of intercity
PDL (Passenger Dedicated Line), while the operational losses for the built PDL are also quite normal due to low
attendance. As an approach in land use planning around the station areas, TOD is widely applied to effectively
optimize the urban space and enhance the land development profits. It is really a balanced strategy to find
compensation for operational losses from the land development profits around station areas, and at the same
time to make use of the passenger flow and commercial opportunities in those areas brought by rail transit.
Zhuhai North Railway station is an important station on the Guangzhou-Zhuhai PDL, around which is mostly
newly-added reclamation land with abundant land resources and a great potential for development. Sunk cost and
perspective cost are the main development cost within 800 meters around the station areas, while development
of residence, commerce and commercial offices are the main benefit sources. The net benefit can be used to
compensate for the operational losses. This paper analyzes the pattern and advantages and disadvantages of
Railway-city cooperative land development around the station areas, and then estimates the actual scale of land
development based on the recommended pattern.

Keywords: damage Urban transport; Land development pattern; Transit Oriented Development; Cost-benefit
analysis

1 INTRODUCTION railway. According to the built PDL (Passenger Ded-

According to the Pearl River Delta reform and devel-
opment compendium guidelines by state council,
regional economic integration of this area will be real-
ized in the future. The Pearl River Delta infrastructure
integration planning, which was approved in 2010,
is a breakthrough in regional economic integration.
It provides strong support for efficiently integrating
regional resources and accelerating regional economic
integration by means of infrastructure integration,
laying a solid foundation for the modernization of
infrastructure in the Pearl River Delta. As an impor-
tant means of rapid transit, rail transit is a significant
way of the regional move of passenger flow, of which
the Guangzhou-Zhuhai intercity transit is positioned
as the main corridor in the Pearl River west region to
serve the rapid moving for passengers. However, the
construction investment of the intercity transit is so
huge that it is usually shared by both the Ministry of
Railway (MOR) and provincial governments along the
icated Line) such as Beijing-Tianjin intercity railway
(Zhang, L. J. 2011) in the past years in China, the
direct building cost is over 0.2 billion RMB for only
one kilometer.
Similar with the enormous investment in construc-
tion, operation losses is also amazing. In China, all
the national railways are operated by MOR. Some fac-
tors like high prices and low frequency of trains have
led to continuous losses in operation, so it is urgent
to broaden financial resources and avoid future debt
increasing.
2 TOD DEVELOPMENT AND LAND USE
PLANNING
2.1 Preparing the new file with the correct template
In order to optimize the layout of city space, innovate
the city development mode, promote urban agglom-
eration, integrate development along the inter-city

925

Figure 1. Land use of Zhuhai North Railway Station 800 m
area.
railway, internalize the external effect of the intercity
railway, and feed back to the inter-city rail transit oper-
ation, solve the funding problem of future Pearl River
Delta rail construction and ultimately realize the sus-
tainable development in the operation process in the
Pearl River Delta. Guangdong Province conducted a
comprehensive land use survey on the main corri-
dors of the Railway network in Pearl River Delta. Five
terminals were selected which have great land devel-
opment potential and commercial value as the first
pilot development terminals.
TOD (Transit Oriented Developments) develop-
ment mode will be adopted to promote the land
comprehensive development, create the urban com-
plex, broaden and optimize the urban development
space and innovate city spatial organization, so as to
improve overall regional competitiveness, and finally
form the circle, with intercity rail transit and urban
planning promoting mutually.
Zhuhai North Station is the terminus of the first
phase of the Guangzhou-Zhuhai intercity line, located
in Tangjiawan new town, and most of the land sur-
rounding the station is reclamation land. Besides, the
station has a perfect hinterland, and TOD planning
principles are applied in the planning of land use
around the station, which is positioned as regional
CBD. Prior to the land use planning, Successful
cases of TOD development are studied(Tan, M.& Wei,
X. 2010, Wang, J.Y. et al. 2010, Zhou. L. 2008)
include Kawasaki Japan, Central station of Hong
Kong, Zhongshan Station etc.. The land use and plot
ratio are shown in Figure1.
1) There are three circles around the terminal, the inner
is called core circle, 250 m radius around the ter-
minal including railway station, bus terminal, car
parking lots, taxi waiting. In the middle circle, the
largest proportion of land is used for commerce and
commercial offices, and the plot ratio is 3.54.0 to
maximize the land benefit. While the outer circle
926
is residence and industry, the plot ratio is between
3.03.5.
2) Comprehensive terminal using building complex;
3) Mixed land use together with comprehensive devel-
opment will win a wide range of passenger traffic,
and will also ensure the high efficiency of land
development, and long-lasting economic benefits.
3 COST-BENEFIT CALCULATION
Guided by the TOD comprehensive development plan,
the estimation includes an analysis of the cost of
comprehensive development and the land value, thus
providing a basis for designing province-city cooper-
ate development pattern that is suitable for the Zhuhai
North Station.
Estimate the total cost that Zhuhai government
needs to invest, including sunk cost and prospective
cost in the future;
Estimate the benefits from level-I land development
in the station area, including economic and social
benefit;
Estimate the annual land payment collection during
the development period based on the development
sequence;
Provide reference for the selection of the operation
pattern in the later stage;
3.1 Cost estimation
The development cost consists of sunk cost and
prospective cost. Sunk cost is retrospective cost that
has already been incurred and cannot be recovered.
Prior to the Railway company-Zhuhai cooperation
development, Zhuhai has invested 0.57 billion RMB in
this area.In the future, cost for feasibility study, archi-
tecture design, public facilities construction, financial
cost etc. is needed to invest in this area, calculated as
below:
3.2 Benefit estimation
The land usages in station area mainly include resi-
dence, commerce, commercial offices and the public
facilities, but residence (R), commerce (C) and com-
mercial offices (O) are the most possible land to create
profit.
The formula for land profit is,
where A is unit land price for the three different
properties, and S refers to the transfer area.
Take commercial offices as an example to explain
the calculation. The station area is located in the new
town, however, since the Guangzhou-Zhuhai PDL is in
operation, this area has a promising future prospects,
so the average price for commercial offices in Zhuhai
is used as the estimation basis. Net investment profit
Table 1. Prospective cost list. Table 2. Estimation of Land value for different land use.

Unit price Area Total cost Unit

Items RMB/m2 m2 10 thousand land price Floorage Land value
Land use RMB/m2 10 thousand m2 Billion MB
Preconstruction cost
Seven-Provided 384 1436498 55161.52 Residence 9398 46.82 1.158
and One leveling Commerce 11694 117.50 3.351
Municipal facilities 54 1436498 7757.09 Commercial 7295 128.34 3.468
Land transformation 80 1077374 8618.99 offices
Subtotal 71537.60 Summary 292.66 7.98
Public facilities
Elementary school 2810 35599 10003.32
Kindergarten 4000 4995 1998.00
Sports center 6050 6610 3999.05 Table 3. Land development patterns.
Culture center 5278 56846 30003.32
Gas station 5017 598 300.02 Patterns Description
Subtotal 46303.70
Other cost
Fixed Fixed compensation pattern is beneficial
Financial cost 168 718249 12066.58
developers bear the expenses including land
Management cost 3535.24
use cost of rail traffic construction, some rail
Unpredictable costs 5892.07
traffic construction cost, capacity
Subtotal 21493.89
strengthening cost, etc.
Summary 139335.19
Loan Loan pattern means by borrowing from banks
Totally, the development cost will be 1.96 billion RMB. and local financial capital injection, a
company is set up to deal with level-I land
development around the station, so as to
realize land collection, and then transfer to
is equal to total revenue of office land minus all kinds developers in good time.
of taxes. Suppose that the net profit rate of investment
Cooperation Cooperation pattern refers to that local
is 35%, the unit land price for commercial offices can government and the railway company act as
be calculated as: joint developers, responsible for level-I land
Net profit rate of investment = net profit/total development around the station. Then, a
investment fraction of the profits is used to bear
construction investment of lines and stations.
Besides, the joint venture company can be
joint-stock system.

where,
R Net profit rate of investment;
Z Unit land price of commercial offices.
Unit land price of commercial offices will be
6948 RMB/m2 . Considering the fact that the com-
mercial buildings are mostly located in the core area,
the unit price for land can be 5%15% higher along
the railway based on the related research (Yang,Y. &
Wang, H.X. 2009, Dai, P. et al. 2008), so the unit land
price can be up to 7295 RMB/m2 .
To sum up, the total land value in station area is the
value of land for residence, commerce and commercial
office, which is about 7.97 billion.
3.3 Cost-benefit analysis
In the process of land development of Zhuhai North
Station area, the total development investment will be
as high as 1.96 billion RMB, in which 0.567 billion
RMB has been invested in the earlier stage and 1.393
billion RMB more will be needed in the future.
The land available in Zhuhai North Station area
is about 760 thousand m2 , and the total value of
transferable land will be 7.977 billion RMB.
4 RESEARCH ON DEVELOPMENT PATTERNS
4.1 The main development patterns
According to the research of land development pat-
terns around the railway station in other countries
throughout the world, there are several patterns (Ni,
J.D. 2010) for land development as indicated in the
Table 3.
Influenced by the provincial policy, the railway side
adopts the cooperation pattern and they will be the
controlling shareholder. So the estimation is based on
this pattern.
4.2 Losses estimation
The Guangzhou-Zhuhai PDL began to operate in 2011,
and suppose that there are K years left to amortize
the pre-construction investments, then the total loss
compensation R will be:

927
Table 4. Land value estimation under cooperation patter. PDR = Profit delivering rate; PSR = Provincial share-
holding ratio; LDC = Level I development cost of A
Classification Items Value area; SA = Sunk cost amortization and I = Interest.
Based on the annual loss compensation of 0.195
Parameters Annual loss compensation 1.95 billion RMB, in the situation where Railway sides
Loan interest rate 7.05%
shareholding ratio is 51%, it can be concluded that if a
Inputs Investment of Railway side (A) 0.89
Investment of Zhuhai side (A) 0.86 value of 4.902 billion RMB (about 64.22 hectares) of
Investment of Zhuhai side (B) 0.11 land is injected into a joint venture company, the rail-
Bank loan (B) 0.93 way side can gain a total profit that will match with
Outputs Annual profit of level-I 4.04 the loss compensation undertaken by the Zhuhai North
land development-A area Station.
Annual profit of level-I 2.37
land development-B area
Aggregation Annual profit for Railway side 1.98 5 CONCLUSION
Annual profit for Zhuhai side 4.43
Railway sides shareholding ratio (A area) 51%
Zhuhai sides shareholding ratio (A area) 49% In the situation where intercity PDL operation suffers
Land value of A area 49.02 great losses, it is significant to realize the sustainable
Land value of B area 30.75 development of intercity transit. A new idea which
allows the land development profits to compensate for
PDL operation losses is raised up accordingly. This
paper takes the example of Zhuhai North Railway sta-
ave.R = PMT(,5,R) tion along Guangzhou-Zhuhai PDL to conduct the loss
where, R = Total loss compensation; Ave. R = Annual compensation analysis. With the cost benefit analysis
loss compensation; Q = daily volume of passen- of the land, and then calculate the land development
ger traffic for Guangzhou-Zhuhai PDL; P = Average scale in the cooperation pattern.
income from each passenger; 1 = Adjustment factor
for length of operation line; 2 = Adjustment factor for
average price; = Gross profit after deducting depre- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
ciation on the fixed assets; = Discount rate; = The
number of operation stations of Guangzhou-Zhuhai The authors gratefully acknowledge the support
PDL; = Predicted increase rate of annual opera- of National Natural Science Foundation of China
tion income; C = Amortization of pre-construction (No.51108028) and Beijing Institute of Technology
investments. Zhuhai Research Fund (No. 2011A02). Our thanks
Assume the Guangzhou-Zhuhai PDL will operate at also go to other members of the research team, who
least 30 years, and the average period for level-I land played a great part in the study.
development is 5 years. First cumulate the difference
between the operation income before depreciation of
fixed assets and the amortization of pre-construction REFERENCES
investment from 2011 to 2040, and get 0.854 billion for Dai, P. et al. 2008. Discussion on the Development Pattern of
the present value of compensate loss. Second, annu- the Traffic-oriented Urban Underground Complex. Jour-
alize the losses to 5 years according to the principle nal of Shandong university of science and technology
of time value, which is 0.195 billion annually after (Natural science) 27(2), 4851
considering time value. Ni, J.D. 2010. Discussion on Modes of Comprehensive
Development of Urban Rail Transit Stations. Tunnel
construction 30(6), 656659
4.3 Cooperation pattern Tan, M. & Wei X. 2010. Exploration of the Practice of Urban
Rail Transit Station Zone Planning in TOD Pattern: Taking
According to the compensation for the railway side, Guang-Zhu Interurban Rail Transit Zhongshan Station
combined with the shareholding ratio (51%) of the Zone Planning as Example. Architectural Journal (8),
railway side, the station area is divided into two parts, 101104
A area will be developed by the joint venture com- Wang, J.Y et al. 2010. Typical Cases of TOD in China and
pany and the profit will compensate for the operation Abroad and Its Application in Shenzhen Rail Transit.
losses. The rest of the land called B area will be Urban rapid rail transit 23(2), 2226
Yang, Y. & Wang, H.X. 2009. Study on Calculating the
developed by the Zhuhai government alone. Comprehensive Cost of Transportation for High-Speed
Railway. Journal of Railway engineering society (1),
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transport of China 6(5),1926
where LVA = Land value of A area (joint venture Zhang, L. J. 2011. When could the Beijing-Shanghai PDL
company); CUZ = Annual loss compensation under- recover the cost. China economics Weekly (24): 3638
taken by Zhuhai North Station; ITR = Income tax rate;

928
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Validity analysis on ECG coefficient of variation indicator as driving

fatigue measurement

Xiaoli Xie, Yifei Zhao & Bingyuan Huang

School of Highway, Changan University, Xian, China

ABSTRACT: For effective driving fatigue measurement, an ECG (Electrocardiogram) coefficient of variation
indicator is proposed, which reflects drivers arousal level and its fluctuations. The indicator derivation process
was introduced first, and then the validity of the indicator was studied through driving simulation experiment.
Braking reaction time and self-reported data were introduced as independent indicators. The change patterns
of the independent indicators over time and the correlation between the proposed ECG indicator and braking
reaction time were analyzed. The results show that the devised ECG coefficient of variation indicator RRCV
(R-R interval coefficient of variation) is reliable, and there is a driver resistance stage when driving fatigue
occurs.

Keywords: driving fatigue; electrocardiogram; measurement; validity

1 INTRODUCTION R-R intervals (the interval time between two adja-

In active traffic safety and driving behavior research
fields, real-time driver fatigue monitoring is one of
the effective countermeasures to avoid driving fatigue
related accidents. However, driving fatigue can not be
measured directly. What can be measured are drivers
physical and psychological performances influenced
by fatigue. Therefore real time precise driving fatigue
distinguishing is still a difficult problem. With the
development of science and technology, data acqui-
sition and real-time indicator computation are not
problems anymore. The main problem is whether the
indicators derived from the acquired and computed
data can be used to identify driving fatigue correctly.
As a driving fatigue measurement method, ECG
(Electrocardiogram) has advantages. The electrodes
are easy to attach to the skin and have high reliability
for long time measurement (Welch 1973) with little
action interference (De Waard 1996). Common ECG
indicators include heart rate and heart rate variability
indicators. Heart rate, the number of heartbeats per unit
of time, is the most available ECG indicator. De Waard
(1996) and Riemersma (1977) found that the average
heart rate became lower with the increase of the driv-
ing time. However, Egelund (1982) found that heart
rate was not sensitive to driving fatigue. And in Oron-
gilads (2007) one-hour driving simulator experiment,
the drivers heart rates showed no significant change.
These conflicting studies suggest that as an indicator,
heart rate is not valid for measuring driving fatigue.
Heart rate variability indicators are introduced to
measure drivers status more accurately. Heart rate
variability is the variation of heart rate rhythms or
cent QRS complex peaks). Wu (2008) found that the
standard deviation of R-R interval gradually increased
with the increase of driving time. According to exper-
iment results, De Waard (1996), Riemersma (1977)
and Oron-gilad (2007) obtained that drivers heart rate
coefficient of variation increased when driving fatigue
happened. But the link between their indicators and the
degree of drivers fatigue are not strong.
According to the authors previous studies, when
driving fatigue happens, drivers will try to resist it,
which will cause fluctuations of the arousal level (Xie
2010). Therefore, driving fatigue indicators should
reflect the changes of drivers arousal level. Based on
this theory, a driving fatigue index RRCV (R-R inter-
val coefficient of variation), which is derived from
ECG, is proposed and then verified by an simulation
experiment.
2 RRCV DERIVATION
KF2 dynamic multi-parameter physiological detec-
tor was used to record drivers ECG. The derivation
process of RRCV is as follows.
(1) The R-R interval time series is obtained by ana-
lyzing the measured ECG data.
(2) The time series is divided and the R-R interval
standard deviation and average value of each data
section are calculated.
(3) By dividing the standard deviation of the aver-
age value, the R-R interval coefficient variation
(RRCV) is acquired.

929
 Table 1. Stanford sleepiness scale [10].

Scale
Rating Degree of Sleepiness

1 Feeling active, vital, alert, or wide awake

Figure 1. The measurement of braking reaction time. 2 Functioning at high levels, but not at peak;
able to concentrate
3 Awake, but relaxed; responsive but not fully alert
3 EXPERIMENTAL PROTOCOL 4 Somewhat foggy, let down
5 Foggy; losing interest in remaining awake;
3.1 Independent indicators slowed down
6 Sleepy, woozy, fighting sleep; prefer to lie down
To verify the reliability of RRCV used as a mea-
7 No longer fighting sleep, sleep onset soon;
surement of driving fatigue, the correlation between having dream-like thoughts
the degree of drivers fatigue and RRCV should be
analyzed. However, as previously mentioned, driving
fatigue degree can not be measured directly. So most
researchers introduce independent indicators, which
are widely recognized and easy to control, to inter-
mittently quantify drivers fatigue. Driving time, sub-
jective measurement indicators such as self-reported
indicator, and psychophysical measurement indica-
tors such as psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) are
commonly used as independent indicators.

3.1.1 Braking reaction time

Reaction time is one of the psychophysical measure-
ment indicators. Li (2007) concluded that reaction
time was sensitive enough to measure driving fatigue.
Ting (2008) also found that the drivers reaction time
increased as their fatigue level increased. In this
research, braking reaction time during driving was
measured. As it is shown in Figure 1, the participants
were asked to brake immediately after they saw the
STOP symbol on the screen, and the time interval is
braking reaction time. Figure 2. Simulation scenario.
and there are five cars randomly around the test car in
3.1.2 Self-reported indicator 500 meters, which makes the traffic in free flow state.
Self-reported method was also introduced in the There are four interchanges on the road to make the
experiment. As the direct description of drivers own scenario more real.
feelings, the self-reported indicator is worth to con-
siderate, although there are some deficiencies in the
method. 3.3 Experimental procedure
Stanford sleepiness scale (See in Table 1) was The braking reaction time was tested and the driver
employed to measure the drivers subjective feelings was asked to fill the Stanford sleepiness scale at the
about fatigue. The participants only needed to choose tenth minute after the driver started driving. This pro-
one of the seven descriptions which could reflect their cess took about two minutes. After that, the braking
status. The number of the scale rating is the value of reaction time was tested and the driver was asked to
the self-reported indicator. fill the Stanford sleepiness scale after every 30-minute
driving.
The entire experiment procedure lasted about three
3.2 Experimental scene
hours. And the drivers were required not to speak and
Road traffic environment is one of the important fac- do anything else during driving.
tors that influence driving fatigue. The simpler or more
monotonous the environment is, the easier a driver gets
4 EXPERIMENT RESULTS AND VALIDITY
tired. So the scene was designed as simple as possi-
ANALYSIS
ble to make the participants experience high degree of
fatigue in a short time.
4.1 The changes of independent indicators
The experiment was conducted in the AutoSim driv-
over time
ing research simulator. As shown in Figure 2, the
simulation scene of the experiment is a four-lane ring Figure 3 shows that the fatigue feelings of the drivers
expressway in plain areas with 120km/h speed limit, are increased very quickly, and almost all of the

930

Figure 3. The changes of self-reported indicator over time.
Figure 4. The changes of braking reaction time over time.
self-reported indicator values are equal to or more
than three (Which means awake, but relaxed; respon-
sive but not fully alert) in the first test section. This
suggests that the monotonous scene really can cause
driving fatigue very quickly, which is consistent with
other studies conducted in similar scenes. From Fig-
ure 4, it can be seen that drivers braking reaction time
of the initial test sections are all lower than that of the
later test sections, which shows that the driversmental
state really are affected by the designed experimental
scene in a negative way.
However, the self-reported indicator and the brak-
ing reaction time do not always increase in the whole
process. There are fluctuations in the later part of
the experiment. Because the experimental conditions
were strictly controlled, the fluctuations indicate the
existence of a driving fatigue resistance stage.
4.2 The correlation between RRCV and braking
reaction time
The Spearman rank correlation test method was used
to calculate the correlation between the RRCV and
the braking reaction time of every participant. And the
results are shown in Table 2.
931
Table 2. The correlation coefficients between RRCV and
braking reaction time.
Driver Correlation Coefficient
No.1 0.952**
No.2 0.857*
No.3 0.829*
No.4 0.771
No.5 0.786
No.6 0.837*
Mean 0.839
Standard Deviation 0.064
*Means the correlation is significant when the confidence
level (bilateral) is 0.05.
**Means the correlation is significant when the confidence
level (bilateral) is 0.01.
It is shown in Table 2 that the correlation between
RRCV and braking reaction time are very high. More
than half of the participants correlation coefficients
are significant.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The correlation between the ECG coefficient of vari-
ation indicator and braking reaction time of every
participant is studied to analyze the validity of that
indicator used as the measurement of driving fatigue,
instead of averaging all the drivers indicator values
from the same test section or calculating all the par-
ticipants data together to compute the correlation
coefficient. If every participants correlation coef-
ficient is significant, the indicator is valid indeed.
Moreover, analyzing each participants change pat-
tern of driving fatigue indicator is more conducive to
exploring the development of driving fatigue.
From the results of correlation analysis, it can be
concluded that the proposed RRCV can effectively
reflect the degree of driving fatigue. The change pat-
terns of self-reported indicator and braking reaction
time over time indicate that drivers will resist driving
fatigue consciously or unconsciously when the fatigue
happens.
REFERENCES
De Waard, D., 1996. The Measurement of Drivers Mental
Workload. PhD thesis. University of Groningen, Traffic
Research Centre.
Egelund N., 1982. Spectral Analysis of Heart Rate Variabil-
ity as an Indicator of Driver Fatigue. Ergonomics 25:
663672.
Li, B., Wang, M., Wang, L. & Li, H.H., 2007. Experimental
Research on the Impact of Driving Time on Commercial
Drivers Driving Ability. Journal of Highway and Trans-
portation Research and Development 24(5), 113120. (In
Chinese).
Oron-Gilad, T. & Ronen, A., 2007. Road Characteristics
and Driver Fatigue: A Simulator Study. Traffic Injury
Prevention (8), 281289.
Riemersma, J.B.J., Sanders, A.F., Wildervanck, C. & Gaillard,
A.W.K., 1977. Performance Decrement during Prolonged
Night Driving. In: R.R. Mackie (Eds.). Vigilance: Theory,
Operational Performance, and Physiological Correlates,
4158. Plenum Press, New York.
Stanford Sleepiness Scale. http://www.stanford.edu/
dement/sss.htm.
Ting, P.H., Hwang, J.R., Doong, J.L., Jeng, M.C., 2008.
Driver Fatigue and Highway Driving: A Simulator Study.
Physiology & Behavior (94),448453.
932
Welch, A.J. & Richardson, P.C., 1973. Computer Sleep Stage
Classification Using Heart Rate Data. Electroencephalog-
raphy and Clinical Neurophysiology 34, 145152.
Wu, S.J. & Fang, S.Y., 2008. Contrastive analysis of different
drivers heart rate variability on operating mode. Journal
of Inner MongoliaAgricultural University 29(2),118123.
(In Chinese)
Xie, X.L., Li, P.S. & Wang, S.Y., 2012. Research into
Formation Model of Driving Fatigue in Road Traffic Envi-
ronment. China Safety Science Journal 22(1), 118123.
(In Chinese)
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Research on green transportation planning architecture and

evaluation index system

Zhenbo Lu
Intelligent Transportation System Center, Southeast University, Nanjing, China

Dengyun Wang
Science & Technology Development Center of Jiangsu Housing and Urban-Rural
Development Department, Nanjing, China

ABSTRACT: As urban development and residents low-carbon living requirements, the green transportation
occurs. The development of green transportation system should be under the guidance of green transportation
development architecture. On the base of the international and domestic studies and practices, this paper firstly
summarized the content of green transportation system and its development objectives, and then the framework
of green transportation architecture was presented. Secondly, the evaluation index architecture of green trans-
portation system was analyzed, and the specific estimation method for the selected evaluation index was given.
Finally, based on the case study of the green transportation evaluation index values for different types of urban
areas, the development emphasis of urban green transportation system of various types of urban areas were
pointed out. The study is promising for providing a good guidance to the development of domestic urban green
transportation system

Keywords: damage Low-carbon development; Green transportation; Architecture; Planning; Index system

1 INTRODUCTION should be further researched. Firstly, current cases are

Since the second half of the 20th century, traffic
congestion and traffic pollution brought by the pros-
perity and development of motor vehicles became
the unbearable pain for many urban cities. At the
same time, with the global warming and environ-
ment deterioration, urban low-carbon development
was gradually obtained more concerns. Under these
situations, green transportation appeared, and grad-
ually become an important issue of urban traffic
sustainable development.
The concepts of green transportation was firstly
proposed by Chris Bradshaw in 1994, which advo-
cated that the status and the development priority
of traffic modes should be sorted according to the
people-oriented principle as walking, bicycling, pub-
lic transportation, carpooling, and passenger driving.
According to the view by Chris Bradshaw, the con-
struction of green transportation system should play a
positive role in reducing urban environment pollution,
improving social harmony, saving urban operation
cost, and etc. (Ding et al 2003, Bai et al 2006).
The concept of green transportation was introduced
to our country at the end of last century and was exten-
sively studies after 2000 (Xia et al 2011). On how
to construct green transportation architecture, some
cities have provided excellent examples from their
planning and practices. However, there are some issues
lack of deeply studying on green transportation devel-
opment and comprehensively information archiving
on green transportation planning. Moreover, the eval-
uation index architecture of green transportation is
lack of comprehensive considerations. For some spe-
cial cases, the selected and classified evaluation index
is not convincing and unscientific.
Based on the experience in planning and design-
ing practices of the green transportation systems in
Jiangsu Province in P.R.China, this paper firstly pro-
posed the green transportation architecture, and then
the evaluation index system was presented followed
by the estimation methods for some important index.
2 A STUDY OF GREEN TRANSPORTATION
ARCHITECTURE
Green transportation is a specific expression and
implementation of the sustainable development con-
cept in traffic planning and designing. Thus, the green
transportation architecture covers a wide range of con-
tents and contains many influence factors. From the
aspects of traffic planning and management, green
transportation includes the following internal require-
ments. Firstly, transportation development should
coordinate with land use. The land use and its layout
decide the intensity, distribution, and travel distance

933
for the travelers. To some certain extent, the land use 2.2 Green transportation subsystem
also determines the major corridor mode of transporta-
Green transportation development should be based
tion. So the reasonable land use and layout is essential
on the transportation infrastructure and transportation
for developing green transportation. Secondly, green
operators. In this sense, green transportation subsys-
transportation systems and its sub-systems should be
tems include the public traffic systems, non-motorized
coordinated with each other. The systems are mainly
traffic systems, and pedestrian traffic systems. The key
composed of public transportation (railway, bus),
contents of building the subsystems are as described
non-motorized transportation (public bike, non-motor
as follows.
vehicle), and pedestrian transportation. The green
Firstly, for multi-pattern and multi-level of public
transportation development needs all the sub-systems
traffic systems, different levels of public traffic routes,
with an organic combination with support between
such as rail transit, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), pas-
each other. Thirdly, green transportation should have a
senger traffic hub, bus trunk, and feeder bus lines,
scientific traffic organization design and an efficient
should be consider for improving the public traffic line
traffic management. In this sense, green transporta-
density to build a multi-pattern and multi-level public
tion architecture should be capable to improve traffic
transportation network with full functions and a rea-
infrastructure services with scientific traffic organiza-
sonable structure. Secondly, for pedestrian system, it
tion design, and to improve the overall level of service
is important to create a suitable pedestrian traveling
of the whole traffic system with efficient traffic man-
space and environment according to the travel charac-
agement. Finally, new energy and technologies should
teristics of different regions, to encourage road users
also be taken into considerations when constructing
to use walking as the main way for short-distance trav-
and managing traffic systems for saving energy and
eling and some long-distance traveling as well. Finally,
reducing vehicle emission (Fu et al 2011).
for public bicycle systems, it contains the planning and
Based on the analysis, the construction of a green
construction of rental stations of public bicycles and
transportation system should comprehensively use the
bicycle lanes. In this sense, the characteristics of the
advanced planning concept, design method, and scien-
city development planning should be carefully consid-
tific and intelligent management method, for building
ered to layout the rental stations of the public bicycle,
a diversified city and an external traffic system with
and to create a good public bicycle use environment by
public transportation and slowing traffic as the main
efficiently scientific management, reasonable layout
modes. In this regard, green transportation can not only
and humanized traffic traveling space.
promote the coordinated development of the construc-
tion of the city and social economy, but also can create
a livable environment that is adaptive to the urban
2.3 Traffic organization design
transportation environment, to finally form a safe, con-
venient, high-efficient, low-energy consumption, and Based on the scientific land-use pattern and the
low-pollution urban green transportation system. planning of green transportation subsystems, the
The architecture of an urban green transportation design and optimization of traffic organization
system is shown in Figure 1. becomes another important content to further enhance
the operational efficiency of green transportation
2.1 Transportation and land use infrastructure, for making the convergence of traffic
infrastructure more reasonable in layout and functions,
Loop feedback relationship exists between land-use
and avoiding the emergence of the traffic infrastruc-
patterns and urban transportation system. On the one
ture bottlenecks. Traffic organization mainly includes
hand, land use patterns usually affect the transport
transit network capacity matching design, intersection
behaviors in four aspects as scale (i.e., the size of pop-
channeling design, regional traffic flows and flow-
ulation, worker, and housing), density, design (e.g.,
line organization. Based on the priorities and strategic
the space distribution of street, the accessibility of
objectives of green transportation development, traf-
commercial service facilities), and layout (e.g., the
fic organization design should focus on considering
structure of land-use, the balance in staff and housing,
the total weight and arrangement of green transporta-
the structure of city, the layout and features of the cen-
tion modes in the traffic space for reflecting the needs
ter, the distribution of residents and employment along
of space priority and user priority for different green
the transportation corridor area). Moreover, land use
transportation modes.
patterns affect the trip generation, trip distribution, trip
distance, trip mode choice, and etc.
On the other hand, the development of traffic will
2.4 New energy and new technology
change the regional distribution of urban land and the
size of accessibility, which affects the location of the With the development of science and technology, new
social space activities and thus stimulates the develop- materials for saving energy and reducing consumption,
ment of new land use (Feng et al 2011). Therefore, rea- new energies, and new technologies are rapidly coming
sonable land use patterns is essential to a green trans- out. New materials for saving energy and reduc-
portation system since it can cut down traffic trips or ing consumption involve broad aspects. However, the
shorten trip distance, and so as reduce dispensable trips materials for saving traffic energy and reducing vehi-
and support the sustainable development of city space. cle consumptions mainly include: (1) road pavement

934
Figure 1. Architecture of Urban Green Transportation System.
materials; (2) the traffic engineering facility materi-
als; and (3) road landscape materials. The applications
of new energy mainly refer to the new energy vehi-
cles. Because new energy is the future development
direction, update or replace existing vehicles with
new energy vehicles in each city will be gradually
becoming popularized, for not only reducing the gas
consumption but also reducing the emissions from
automobiles that is significantly important for mak-
ing contributions to the development and construction
of low carbon cities as well as a green transporta-
tion system. New technologies mainly manifest the
applications of technologies and ideas of advanced
intelligent traffic management. In this regard, the intel-
ligent traffic management system should be suitable
to the own characteristics of the city for realizing sci-
entific traffic management, fully exploiting potential
improvement of road network, and enhancing traffic
operation efficiency and security.
3 EVALUATION INDEX SYSTEM
Because of the differences of economic social
development and traffic systems in different cities,
the contents and emphasis of green transportation
935
development differs. Therefore, it is necessary to build
a reasonable green transportation evaluation index
system to judge the level of green transportation devel-
opment in different cities on the basis of characteristic
of different cities. Since green transportation system
has a broad and variety of contents, its evaluation is
complicated. In this sense, the evaluation index of
green transportation should be carefully and compre-
hensively constructed in accordance with scientific,
objective, comparable and operational principal (Jiang
et al 2008).
Based to four main contexts as shown in the green
transportation architecture, for achieving the reduced
carbon emission goals, a two-layer green transporta-
tion index system is proposed in this paper as shown
in Table 1.
Specifically, the contributions of different green
transportation efforts as described in the green trans-
portation architecture are different, and the total
reduced carbon emissions from green transportation
can be estimated as:
where,
Cs the total reduced carbon emissions from Green
Transportation;
Table 1. Green Transportation evaluation index system.

Number Index Sub-index Explanation Calculation formula

1 The proportion The total The proportion of green
of Green proportion of transportation travel
Transportation Green (referring to relying on
travel Transportation conventional public
transit, BRT, rail
transport, cycling,
walking, and etc).
Green The percentage of green
Transportation transportation travel in
proportion person relying on slow
of travel in transport (walking,
the external cycling) and public
transport transport (bus, BRT,
rail transportation) in
external travel.
The proportion The degree of the internal
of Green green transportation travel
Transportation in person in the total
in the internal number of internal
traffic transport traveling.
2 The Public transit Refers to the degree of
convenience network density public transport routes
of public through the road
transport centerline.
facilities Slow transit The number of slow
network density road per square kilometers
of land area.
Coverage of Within a 400 m distance,
bus stops the percentage of the
number of bus stops to
the number of the
construction projects.
Coverage of Within 400 m distance, the
public bike percentage of the number
rental points of public bike rental points
to the number of all
construction projects.
Green Transportation total travel proportion
Green Transport travel (person)
= 100%
Total travel (person)
Green Transportation proportion of
travel in the external transport
External Green Transport travel (person)
=
The total number of external transport (person)
100%
The proportion of Green Transportation
in the internal traffic
Internal Green Transport travel (person)
=
The total number of internal transport (person)
100%
Public transit network density
Length of road centerline (km)
=
Urban land area (km2 )
Slow transit network density
Length of slow road centerline (km)
=
Urban land area (km2 )
Coverage of bus stops
Within 400 m, the number of bus stops
= 100%
The number of all constructions
Coverage of public bike
rental points
Within 400 m,the number of public bike
rental points
= 100%
The number of all constructions

Public transport The percentage of the Public transport within walking distance rate
within walking number of bus stops or The number of 5 minutes walk to reach
distance rate public bicycle rental points bus stops or public bicycle rental points
within 5 minutes walking = 100%
The number of all constructions
to the total constructions.
3 New energy New energy bus The proportion of new New energy bus penetration
vehicles penetration energy buses in all buses. The number of new energy buses(veh)
penetration = 100%
The number of all buses(veh)
New energy car The proportion of new New energy cars penetration
penetration energy cars in all cars. The number of new energy cars(veh)
= 100%
The number of all cars(veh)
4 Intelligent Intelligent trans- The percentage of area Intelligent transportation coverage
transportation portation cover- with intelligent
Land area of intelligent transportation
coverage age transportation systems to = 100%
the total land areas. The total land area
5 Traffic carbon Carbon The ratio of the total Carbon emissions per capita travel mileage levels
emissions emissions per traffic carbon emissions Traffic total carbon emissions(kg)
=
capita travel to the capita travel Capita travel mileage (km)
mileage levels mileage.

936
Table 2. Characterization of each application city .
City Region Area of the Traffic Location
Region(km2 )
Huaqiao International 53
Multiple corridors goes
Business City, through from Nanjing to
Kunshan Shanghai;  located to the
north of Shanghai.
Huaian Ecological 29.77
urban expressway
New Town around;  two metro lines
planned;  the Grand
Canal goes through
Nanjing New Town 4
connecting to eight
Technology Park major arterials such as
OlympicAthleticsAvenue,
MengduAvenue, and et al.;
 metro line 1, 2, and 7
pass through
Suzhou Industrial Park 288
inside the radius of
service of airport in
Shanghai, Wuxi, and
Hangzhou;  high-speed
railway and interurban
railway pass through;
 with freeway, national
highway, provincial
highway, and passenger
hub around
Hexi New Town, 94
besides the old
Nanjing downtown of Nanjing
with a river;  to Ning-Ma
freeway through Bingjiang
expressway and circle
highway
Wuxi Taihu lake 23.14 Faced to Wuxi New
International District on the east; faced
technology park Taihu New Town on
the west; 3 kilometers
away from southern
Jiangsu international
airport; close to
Shanghai-Nanjing
freeway; besides Taihu
Lake freeway, 312
National Highway,
Beijing-Shanghai railway,
and Shanghai-Nanjing
interurban railway
937
Functional Localization Land Use

to be one of the three industry, resident,
business zones in Jiangsu; and business
 to be the Nesting Zone
of industry in Jiangsu;
 a satellite city for
international business
service of Shanghai

modern service and The functional
tourism center of northern districts for industry
Jiangsu;  the sports, group, resident group,
cultural, and public facilities group,
administrative center and leisure vacation
of Huaian;  New Town group is arranged
for ecological reasonably
demonstration

with the technology Land use is
development for dominant emphasized on
goal and infant industry industry, and small
for supplement; amounts of land
 technology is used for resident
innovation as
the park sprit

a national hi-tech Land-use is divided
industrial park and service into 4 functional areas,
outsourcing base;  one and it is divided into
of the modern 13 detailed functional
commercial logistic groups.
operation and cultural
creative industry center in
the Yangzi River Delta
area;  a CBD and a
crucial service center in
Suzhou

a financial and One district, three
business center of nodes, two regions,
Nanjing metropolitan four road axles, and
area;  a modernistic four parks
tourism destination which
takes exhibitions, cultural
and sports for
characteristic;  a
technology innovation
base;  a prominent
Bingjiang New Town in
Yangzi River Delta area

one of the crucial A district, two road
technology service axles, three towns and
outsourcing base; five regions
 composite supporter
for ecological technology,
business, cultural, and
resident around the
Taihu Lake in Wuxi
Table 3. Green Transportation index system of model city (long-term goal).

Huaqiao Nanjing
International Huaian New Town Suzhou Hexi Wuxi(Taihu lake)
Business City, Ecological Technology Industrial New Town, International
Index Kunshan New Town Park Park Nanjing technology park

Trip ratio 80% 8590% 8590% 85% 80% 85%

of green
transportation
Bus share 60% 4050% 7080% 45% 60% 40%
ratio of the
external traffic
Density of 3.5 3.5 3.5 >3.5 3.5 3.5
bus network
(km/km2 )
Density of 8 8 5 >8 8 7.0
slow-moving
traffic
network
(km/km2 )
Popularizing 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
rate of new
energy bus
Popularizing 80% 80% (government 80% (official 80% (official 80% (official 80% (official
rate of new vehicles) vehicles) vehicles) vehicles) vehicles)
energy car
Coverage rate of 80% 70% 90% 90% 100% 90%
intelligent
transport
Carbon emission 32600 17000 4300 177120 53674 15750
from traffic (ton)

C1 the reducde carbon emissions from the balance
development of transportation and land use;
C2 the reduced carbon emissions from Green Trans-
portation subsystem;
C3 the reduced carbon emissions from traffic orga-
nizations;
C4 the reduce carbon emissions from the application
of new energy and new technology.
The established evaluation index system of green
transportation can be used to assess the pros and cons
of the development of green transportation quanti-
tatively. Moreover, it can promote the coordinated
development of green transportation and urban con-
struction.
4 APPLICATIONS
Considering the typical projects or practices if green
transportation in Jiangsu Province in P.R. China for
building energy saving and green demonstration zone,
the comparability index data was summarized and
presented in Table 2 and Table 3.
In Table 3, due to the different regional characters,
land allocation characters, function orientation, and
traffic trip characters, the green transportation index
systems are different. Other cities and regions can
build their green transportation index system accord-
ing to their characters and the typical index value as
this study proposed.
5 CONCLUSION
So far, green transportation has been an effective
way to the sustainable transportation development.
Based on the international and domestic studies and
practices, this paper firstly proposed the architecture
and evaluation index system of green transportation
system. Applications shows that cities could study
green transportation and index system, then to build a
compatible Green Transportation system according to
their own regional characters, land allocation charac-
ters, function orientation, traffic trip characters, traffic
network, and traffic organization.
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Sciences Edition), 2006, 2(5):1014.
Xia Sheng-guo, Wang Shu-sheng, Cao Guo-hua. Green
Transportation Planning Theory and Methodology: A
Case Study in Sino-Singapore Nanjing Eco Hi-Tech
Islang. Urban Transport of China, 2011, 9(4):6675.
Fu Li, Yang Shun-shun, Zhao Yue, Chen Hong-han. Urban
Transportation Sustainable Development Strategies Based
939
on the Conception of Green Transportation. China Popu-
lation, Resources and Environment, 2011, 21(3):367370.
Feng Zheng-min. Green Transportation Policy and Practice
in Taiwan.Urban Transport of China, 2011,1 (9):2934.
JiangYu-hong, He Xiao-zhou, Guo Xiu-cheng. Discussion on
the evaluation index system of urban Green Transporta-
tion planning. Journal of Hefei University of Technology,
2008, 9 (31):13991402.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Taipei Songshan Airport (TSA) EMAS (Engineered Material

Arresting System)

John Bosco, Hong Zou, Hugh K. DeLong & T.J. Chen

Zodiac Aerospace Engineered Arresting Systems Corporation (ESCO), Logan Township, New Jersey, USA

ABSTRACT: Taipei Songshan Airport (TSA), located close to the business center of Taipei City, ROC, has
recently undergone a dramatic increase in airline traffic, specifically international service to China, Japan
and other Asian airports. Because of this increased traffic, the existing airfield, constrained by surrounding
development, needed to be evaluated for Runway End Safety Area (RESA) protection. The existing Runway
10/28 is primarily involved in takeoffs and landings to the east. The runway is 2,605 meters (8,547 ft.) long by 60
meters (197 ft.) wide. The existing RESA provided only 240 meters (790 ft.) of overrun protection, far short of
current requirements. The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) decided to investigate ESCOs Engineered
Material Arresting Systems (EMAS) as a means of improving RESA safety. There have been many improvements
and innovations in the specialized technology involved with the emergency stopping of commercial aircraft when
they have had an unplanned excursion from the landing or take-off runway. While these overruns and undershoots
do not occur at a high frequency, when they occur the results can be disastrous. For more than fifteen years,
ESCO-Zodiac Aerospace has been a pioneer in the commercial aircraft stopping business. ESCOs EMAS has
led the way with a system that has gone beyond Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) acceptance in 1996 to
become a proven life saver. (See References Bennett and Lang.) In the more than half dozen times that an
aircraft emergency has resulted in an aircraft in an EMAS bed, the system has worked successfully. More than
200 people have been protected from serious injury or death because of the presence of an EMAS in the RESA
at the end of a runway. All aircraft that have entered an EMAS have subsequently flown from the airport in less
than two weeks and continued on in revenue service. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the
EMAS design and installation at TSA.

1 HISTORY OF TAIPEI SONGSHAN AIRPORT
The current airfield was originally a Japanese mili-
tary airfield during the occupation. After World War
II, the Republic of China Air Force assumed con-
trol in 1946. The airfield was converted to a dual
commercial/military facility in 1950.
Traffic to the airfield increased steadily until the
opening of the new Chiang Kai-Shek InternationalAir-
port 30 miles west of Taipei. There began a steady
decline in traffic to TSA. Around 2008, some nor-
malization in relations with the Peoples Republic of
China led to increased interest in cross-strait com-
mercial routes, with a resulting increase in traffic.
At this time CAA realized the need to address the
RESA shortcomings, particularly on the east end of
the runway.
2 REVIEW OF DEVELOPMENTS
LEADING TO EMAS
Reviews of the existing RESA on the east runway end
showed an available distance of 240 meters. Prelimi-
nary modeling of EMAS provided to CAA by ESCO
showed that a bed setback 110.97 meters (364.08 ft.)
from the runway end would predictably arrest all fleet
mix aircraft at 70 knots or greater with a bed length
of 122.23 meters (400.92 ft.). The fleet mix, con-
sisting of the aircraft most frequently utilizing TSA,
included Boeing 757 and 737 variants, Airbus 330 and
320/321, MD-90, MD-82, FK-100, ATR72-500 and
Dash 8.
3 DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF
THE TSA EMAS
ESCO worked closely with CAAs consultant engi-
neer, Calvin Consulting Engineers, to assure proper
site preparation for the EMAS. These efforts included
grading to assure proper stormwater drainage from the
EMAS and RESA, and rerouting of existing drainage
and underground utilities. Design efforts continued
through 2010, and the site was ready for EMAS instal-
lation beginning January, 2011. In total, EMAS blocks
in 99 rows by 56 columns were adhered to the support
pavement during nighttime hours while the runway
was closed.The EMAS was completed in March, 2011.

941
4 ASSESSMENT OF THE TSA EMAS TO DATE
A program of ongoing monthly inspections by Calvin
Consulting Engineers has been a valuable tool in iden-
tifying areas requiring repair (minimal) and assessing
overall condition of the bed. The EMAS is in very
good condition 16 months after installation (as of July
2012).
REFERENCES
Bennett, David L., Director of Airport Safety and Standards,
AAS-100. Runway Safety Area Program. FAA Order
5200.8. October 1, 1999.
Bennett, David L., Director of Airport Safety and Stan-
dards, AAS-100. Engineered Material Arresting Systems
(EMAS) for Aircraft Overruns. FAA Advisory Circular
150/5220-22A. September 30, 2005.
Lang, Catherine M., Deputy Associate Administrator for Air-
ports, AAS-100. Financial Feasibility and Equivalency of
Runway Safety Area Improvements and Engineered Mate-
rial Arresting Systems. FAA Order 5200.9. March 15,
2004.
942
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
DOT/FAA/PM-87/27, Soft Ground Arresting Systems, Final
Report, September 1986 August 1987, published August
1987 by R. F. Cook, Universal Energy Systems, Inc.,
Dayton, OH.
DOT/FAA.CT-93/4, Soft Ground Arresting Systems for
Commercial Aircraft, Interim Report, February 1993
by Robert Cook.
DOT/FAA/CT-93/80, Soft Ground Arresting Systems for Air-
ports, Final Report, December 1993 by Jim White, Satish
K. Agrawal and Robert Cook.
DOT/FAA/AOV 90-1, Location of Commercial Aircraft
Accidents/Incidents Relative to Runways, July 1990.
UDR-TR-88-07, Evaluation of a Foam Arrestor Bed for
Aircraft Safety Overrun Areas, 1988 by Cook, R. F.,
University of Dayton Research Institute, Dayton, OH.
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Research on luminance variation rate index of tunnel based on experiment

Qiong Wu, Xiaodong Pan & Hui Yang

School of Transportation Engineering, Tongji University, China

Shaoshuai Li
Shanghai Municipal Engineering Design General Institute, North Zhongshan

ABSTRACT: Defects exist in luminance calculating method in current tunnel lighting specifications of China.
With the relationship between the luminance variation of tunnel entrance and recognition distance for the very
obstacle taken into consideration, the luminance variation rate index is proposed based on driving experiments
in sunny and cloudy weather. And the relationship between the luminance variation rate index and recognition
distance in different speed situations is clarified in order to evaluate the level of visual environment for driving
through tunnel entrance section and provide references to improve current specifications of China. After applying
the index to a practical example, it is proved that the required recognition distance in current specification is
larger than the minimal recognition distance corresponded to the most malignant luminance variation rate, and
the data in specifications should be revised.

Keywords: dark adaption; tunnel entrance; luminance variation index

1 INSTRUCTIONS section and luminance variation. To improve the driv-

Tunnel is an important part of highway system,
with many accidents happened, especially at the tun-
nel entrance, which has higher traffic accident rate.
Xuebin Guo concluded that the reason why there is
higher accident rate at tunnel entrance section is the
rapid change of luminance which is beyond drivers
visual adaption. Bryan Reimer inspected drivers gaze
distribution characteristics while in cognitive sec-
ondary tasks and indicated that on-road communica-
tion increased drivers visual tunneling effect and was
easy to cause accidents.
The current calculating method of luminance at
tunnel entrance section in Specifications for Design
of Ventilation and Lighting of Highway Tunnel
(SDVLHT) is L20 , which recommends that the lumi-
nance of tunnel entrance section (longer than stopping
sight distance) can be a single value during the whole
section. This method is effective by improving lumi-
nance level of tunnel entrance section, making drivers
observe obstacle at tunnel entrance clearly. However,
when it comes to the situation that obstacle is placed
behind the tunnel entrance section it would not have
enough safe stopping sight distance because of the
rapid change of luminance in driving environment.
In this paper, the recognition distances of drivers
in different driving speeds and luminance conditions
were obtained from 24 driving experiments. Illumi-
nometer and contactless velocimeter were used in
these experiments to study the relationship between
obstacle recognition distance of tunnel entrance
ing condition of tunnel entrance and provide theo-
retic foundation to revise specifications of China, the
luminance variation rate index was proposed.
2 EXPERIMENT DESIGN
2.1 Experiment settings
Four tunnels (Snow Tunnel, Qiuzhuang Tunnel, Feng-
shutou Tunnel and Fengshuling Tunnel) of Zhuyong
Highway (from Zhuji to Yongjia) in Zhejiang Province
of China were chosen for the experiments. The length
of Snow Tunnel is 2103 m, and that of the other tun-
nels are 455 m, 1643 m and 1298 m. The design driving
speed of tunnels is all 80 km/h and the pavement
material is asphalt concrete.
2.2 Apparatus
Luminance was recorded by an illuminometer. Speed
of vehicle and recognition distance in the experiment
was recorded by a contactless velocimeter. The vehicle
was a Mazda Premacy and the size of obstacle used is
20 cm 20 cm which reflection coefficient is 0.3.
2.3 Methodology
2.3.1 Measurement of luminance at tunnel entrance
section
The luminance of a series of certain distances, 10 m,
20 m, 30 m, 40 m and 50 m from experimental tunnel

943
Figure 1. Luminance variation in sunny afternoon.
entrance section were recorded by an illuminometer
during daytime in both sunny and cloudy weather. The
change of luminance during the whole entrance section
of experimental tunnels could be used as fundament
of obstacle recognition distance experiment.
2.3.2 Measurement of obstacle recognition distance
and luminance
Observers were required to find the target obstacle
placed on the left driving lane at different distances
inside to the tunnel portal, such as 30 m, 40 m, 50 m
and 60 m, with the speed 60, 80, 100 km/h respec-
tively. Their task was to start to record velocimeter
once they saw the obstacle and stop recording when
past it. The luminance of three parts (outside of tun-
nel, location and surface of obstacle) was measured by
illuminometer in every driving experiment.
3 LUMINANCE VARIATION RATE INDEX
OF TUNNEL ENTRANCE SECTION
3.1 Variation character of luminance at tunnel
entrance section with natural light
The luminance outside tunnel ranges from ten thou-
sands to millions lux while that of inside is hundreds
lux during daytime. Influenced by different tunnel
portal types, incident angle of sunlight and reflect
properties of pavement, the luminance varies. The
luminance declines rapidly from tunnel portal to tun-
nel inside. To analyze variation character of luminance
in tunnel entrance section, the luminance of differ-
ent places in tunnel was measured and displayed in
figure 1 and figure 2.
Influenced by natural light, the luminance varia-
tion can be described schematically: in the first section
which refers to the first 10 m of tunnel portal, lumi-
nance for driving demand can be effectively met
according to current specifications. In the second sec-
tion which ranges from 10 m to 30 m away from tunnel
entrance, the curve of luminance declines rapidly with
distances. Xiaodong Pan and Yongchao Song proved
the same results that the distance ranging from 5 m
944
Figure 2. Luminance variation in cloudy afternoon.
to 15 m of tunnel portal was the heaviest visual bur-
den section during daytime by establishing an index
of maximum transient velocity value of pupil area
(MTPA) to evaluate tunnel entrance.
3.2 Luminance variation rate index of tunnel
entrance
Within the process driving from tunnel portal to obsta-
cle recognition, the visual adaption of driver eyes is a
gradual and relatively slow process and significantly
influenced by outside luminance situation. According
to that, those certain static indexes such as the lumi-
nance of outside and inside tunnel or that of obstacles
surface cannot reflect the relationship between tunnel
luminance and obstacle recognition distance accu-
rately. The luminance variation rate index is proposed
to replace some static state indexes for analyzing the
relationship between luminance variation and drivers
obstacle recognition distance, and it is defined as
below:
where Eout = luminance of outside and Eobject =
luminance of obstacle surface.
4 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LUMINANCE
VARIATION RATE AND RECOGNITION
DISTANCE
4.1 Relationship between luminance variation rate
and distance to tunnel
According to equation (1) and study above, the lumi-
nance of obstacle surface becomes lower as deeper
inside tunnel and its variation rate goes higher. The
relationship between luminance variation rate and
distance to tunnel portal is demonstrated in figure 3.
The fitted curve expression of this relationship is
also shown as following:
Figure 3. Relationship between luminance variation ratio
and inner distance to tunnels entrance.
Figure 4. Relationship between luminance variation ratio
Table 1. Lighting stopping sight distance (unit: m). and sight distance when speed is 60 km/h.

80 km/h 100 km/h

Longitudinal slope m m

4% 112 179
3% 110 173
2% 106 168
1% 103 163
0 100 158
1% 98 154
2% 95 149
4% 93 145
4% 90 142

where x = luminance variation rate and y = distance Figure 5. Relationship between luminance variation ratio
from tunnel portal. and sight distance when speed is 80 km/h.

4.2 Relationship between luminance variation rate

and recognition distance
According to SDVLHT, part of regulation for stopping
sight distance is shown in table 1.
Known from table 1, stopping sight distance is
significantly different as driving speed varies. The
relationships between luminance variation rate and
recognition distance at different driving speed is fitted
with curves based on experimental data and displayed
in figure 4, figure 5 and figure 6:
The fitted curve expressions are also shown as the
following:

Figure 6. Relationship between luminance variation ratio

and sight distance when speed is 100 km/h.

From the curves above, it can be inferred that recog-

nition distance shows a downtrend in a certain range of
the luminance variation rate, and after that recognition
distance is in the opposite direction variation.
The reason why recognition distance does not keep
declining correspondingly with luminance variation
rate is the visual adaption, which means that drivers can
recognize the obstacle when they drive long enough in
where x = luminance variation rate and y = recognition a low luminance environment because they have got
distance adapted to the dark condition.

945
Table 2. Result of calculating (unit: m). distance from tunnel portal of the most dangerous
section [31 m, 87.7 m] is obtained according to fitted
Shortest Distance expression (2). Consequently, the relative indexes of
recognition luminance from tunnel specifications can be improved and revised.
distance variation portal
Speed (m) rate (m)

60 km/h 82.4 0.4612 91.8 5 CONCLUSIONS

80 km/h 68.2 0.4246 66.6
100 km/h 56.0 0.4145 59.3
According to figures above, the lowest point which
means the shortest recognition distance corresponds to
a luminance variation rate. And then induce the former
luminance variation rate into fitted expression (2), cor-
responding distance from tunnel portal can be obtained
which means this point has the shortest recognition
distance. The related data is shown in table 2.
As design speed of experimental tunnel is 80 km/h
and its longitudinal slope is 3%, then the stopping
sight distance is 110 m according to specifications
from table 1, while the recognition distance 68.2 m
from table 2 is much shorter than that, making the
tunnel entrance section dangerous.
4.3 Calculating case
Shown in table 1, the stopping sight distance is 90 m,
when driving speed is 80 km/h. After inducing these
data into fitted expression (4), a luminance varia-
tion rate range [0.3769, 0.4549] is calculated. Then
Based on experiment, the luminance variation rate
index is presented in order to analyze the relation-
ship between it and obstacle recognition distance and
to evaluate luminance condition of tunnel entrance
section. The results of these experiments can bring
theoretical support for improving and revising current
specifications.
REFERENCES
Bryan Reimer 2009. Cognitive Task Complexity and the
Impact on Drivers Visual Tunneling, In Transportation
Research Board 2009 Annual Meeting, CD-ROM.
Xuebin Guo 2006, Experimental Research on Characteris-
tics of the Drivers Pupil and Eye Fixation Point and Its
Distribution at Tunnel Entrance and Exit. Dissertation for
Master Degree, Shanghai, Tongji University: pp. 7590.
Ministry of Transport of Peoples Republic of China 1999,
Specifications for Design of Ventilation and Lighting of
Highway Tunnel (JTJ 026.11999) China Communica-
tions Press, pp 45.
Xiaodong Pan,Yongchao Song, ZhenYang, et al. 2009. Visual
Environment Improving Scope at Entrance and Exit of
Highway Tunnel Based on Visual Load. Journal of Tongji
University; Natural Science, 37(6):777.

946
 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Chang, Al Bahar & Zhao (Eds)
2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-64342-9

Studies on the low carbon building technology and integration

on the green highway

Yin Jing
Shandong Jiao Tong University, Jinan City, Shandong Province, China

Fan Lu Tao
Shandong Province Communication Planning and Design Institute, Jinan City, Shandong Province, China

Kong Yuan
Shandong Province South Suburbs Municipal Landscape Group Co., LTD., Jinan City, Shandong Province, China

ABSTRACT: Combining with green building practice experience and analysis the energy consumption status
of Shandong province and a low carbon economy of highway construction characteristics, the article discusses
the necessity and the urgency of green building ideas in the highway green building practices and technology
application. Analysis and research the theory and practice of green building technologies home and abroad,
summarizes the domestic and foreign scholars research results, relatively systematically introduce the green
building design and construction principle and the method of the newest application technology suitable for
highway green building techniques and strategy. Hope to provide method and experience for highway of green
buildings and promote the development green building especially the highway green architecture by the highway
window effect.

Keywords: green highway, low carbon, building technology, integration

1 INTRODUCTION In this article combining the authors green build-

The energy consumption of china accounts for about
10% of the world total energy consumption, rank-
ing second in the world. The energy consumption
of Shandong province accounts for the total energy
consumption by 11.3%, ranking the first in China.
In our country, green building started in October
2005, signed for promulgating <The Green Building
Guideline> by the original construction ministry. In
March 2006, the state standards <The Green Building
Evaluation Standards> (GB/T50378-2006) are issued,
and in 2008 the green building mark and the green
building labeled operation are declared. In June, 2009
green building assessment sign in regions with one star
and two stars. By the end of December 2010, there
are 116 green building projects by review of public.
Since 2008, the green building project number sharply.
In 2008, there are only 10 green building projects. In
2009, the number is 20, and in 2010 the number rises to
86, but there are only 2 of them in Shandong province.
By construct, the highway of Shandong province
developed rapidly, by the end of 2011 the total mileage
traffic has reached 2000 kilometers, it is the top one
in China. In the next five to 10 years, it will be total
of 3800 kilometers. The facilities will develop quickly
with it.
ing construction practice, research the green building
experiences and techniques and practical experience
and mature strategy domestic and foreign, especially
summary and induced the green building case. And
hope to apply the green building the ideas and methods
for the makers and designers to beneficial the green
buildings in the highway.
2 GREEN BUILDING IMPLEMENTATION
METHOD
Green architecture design strategy is especially impor-
tant, added the green ecological and energy saving
design part in the early design stages, and it should go
repeatedly many times during the design process. The
design ought to integrate by the person in the design
team, and they often think about the some basic design
conditions.
In early stage design energy target should be set
according to the user requirements and the mini-
mize energy consumption. Establish the rank goal the
project will be according to the aim. So the green build-
ing strategy and the design ideas goes throughout the
process. At present the green building evaluation sys-
tem labeled in China is divided into Green Building

947
Design Evaluation Mark and Green Building Evalu-
ation Marked. Evaluation result is divided into three:
one star, two stars and three stars.
The green building technology design is a com-
prehensive system. It is the entire process from the
planning design, architecture design, building mate-
rials selection, construction to operation management
of harmonious the human and nature, resources and
environment, development, realize the green building.
During the design process, architects and engineers
cooperate fully, confirm their tasks in the design, and
sure some strategy which are influence the overall pro-
gram. Then in the subsequent stages, designers can
fully understand the relationship between each part
and the overall.
Consider the design about publicity, guide and
tips in the design document which show energy sav-
ing technology using the method through the bill-
boards, guide system. And prompt system to let every-
one understand the knowledge about energy saving
imperceptibly, take part in the energy saving in action,
and make the project become a saving energy educa-
tion base.
3 GREEN BUILDING TECHNIQUES AND
INTEGRATION
Green building is not only the art but it is more technol-
ogy, it is the unity of technology and art, Consider the
influence of green building technology creative arts. It
is an opportunity and it is also a limit such as building
site planning, architectural size, available energy. Site
condition influence architectural form, selection site
consider position and climate, micro climate, layout,
front on structures. Architectural forms consider the
construction technology such as the building shape,
thermo action, and the window and glass assembly.
3.1 Green building techniques and integration
3.1.1 Palisade structure
The thermal state of building indoor is affected by
building maintenance structure outdoor climate state.
It is an important way of building energy efficiency
to improve the building maintenance structure form to
improve building thermal performance.
(1) Maintenance structure design main consideration
maintenance structure whole and the partial ther-
mal resistance, maintenance structure the overall
and partial tightness performance. It gets the node
through simulation analysis the combination ratio
of window and wall, the insulation air tightness of
doors, Windows and glass, external wall thermal
insulation technology and perfect detail measures.
(2) Insulation approaches mainly lie in four insula-
tion form that is from external thermal insulation
internal thermal insulation, heat preservation and
heat insulation in among insulation technology.
Level maintenance structure adopt XPS extruded
polystyrene green roof for insulation. Local plants
948
are given priority to plant configuration in green
roof. In green roofs planting trees and shrubs form
rich layers of greening system, providing shade,
recreational function, improving the ecological
environment around. The slab of polystyrene is
adopted in the overhead floor for insulation.
Vertical maintenance structure such as exter-
nal wall thermal insulation extruded polystyrene
plate with the polystyrene particles insulation
mortar, EPS which heat transfer coefficient is 0.
97 w/(m2 k); Outside the window is the break hot
aluminum alloy, low radiation hollow glass which
is 5 + 9 A + 5, its heat transfer coefficient is 2.
7 w/(m2 k).
Glass curtain wall: the window frame is for PA
the aluminum alloy, south glass structure is for 8
thick toughened glasses + 12 argon + 8 thick dou-
ble silver low-e hollow glasses and its heat transfer
coefficient is 2. 0 w/(m2 k). The west and east glass
structure is for 6 mm toughened glass +12 argon
+6 mm double silver low-e hollow glass which
heat transfer coefficient 2.0 w/(m2 k).
Wide directly glass curtain wall (the circulation
breathing curtain wall): outer layer is the single
glass with the break hot profiles, inner lining is
hollow glass and break hot profiles. It forms venti-
lated in middle layer which may take a breath with
device its terminals into the wind and exhaust, also
can be set to shutter shade device etc.
3.1.2 Sun-shading system
It has very great help to improve the window of the
thermal performance with the setting of Sun-shading
system. The Shading system design comprehensive
consideration the needs of solar control, the sun-
light and ventilation. The style of Shading are the
active shutter shade, fixed shutter shade, skylight wing
sunshade, construction component shading, planting
sunshade, y combined with building modeling.
3.2 Natural lighting design and the illumination
technology
3.2.1 Natural lighting design
In the natural lighting design choose the appropri-
ate layout and the depth control of the scale of the
construction in order to improve the indoor available
natural lighting area ratio. Natural lighting elements
have glass area, keep out content, orientation, the
window height, deep into the room, the roof surface
materials, roof window lighting, avoid glare. The shad-
ing function is considered in natural lighting system
design.
Natural lighting design is usually optimized by the
day lighting and sunshine simulation software, such
as dial-Europe and ECTECT5.5. The natural light-
ing optimizes and adjusts by setting up day lighting
wells to the basement, adjusting external windows
and skylights. Setting reflector sunshade at outside
the window right position can reduced face the win-
dow high intensity of illumination. Sunlight will be
spared and reflected to deep area by reflection board
and ceiling.
Use lighting shaft, guiding light tube, guiding light
pipe to light for the basement which achieve day light-
ing during the day and switch power supply lighting in
the evening.
3.2.2 Illumination saving energy technology
Green artificial lighting technology design principle:
not excessive design, specific work area by using loca-
tion lighting, energy-saving lamps, high efficiency
lights, efficient control unit etc. Lighting is controlled
by time control, use control, natural light control, and
local control. T5 efficient fluorescent lamp, energy-
saving lamps choose. High efficiency light source,
efficient lamps, low loss ballast and other acces-
sories are adopted in Public area. Set control as voice,
lighting, electric, timing, sonic induction equipment.
Natural lighting area is controlled by time-set or pho-
toelectric. Concentrated switch control with the group
control panel which illumination intensity induction to
reduce light or packet switch control. The aisle focus
on the group switches control, human body sensors
control. The basement optical illumination chooses
optical. The first floor underground chooses the zon-
ing control combined with the light tube during the day
and close corresponding area lights and it is open the
evening. The Second floor underground is also lighting
for garage. A metal halide lamp is for Environmental
landscape with light, the street lamp and the courtyard
lamp use the solar energy.
3.3 Natural ventilation design
Natural ventilation have various forms such as unilat-
eral ventilation, double side ventilation, convulsions
ventilation (chimney ventilation, atrium ventilation,
double facade ventilation), mechanical ventilation,
mixed auxiliary way (temporary hybrid system,
switching mixed ventilated, cooperative mixed ven-
tilated), night ventilated.
Natural ventilation controls the main consideration
types of control and ventilated period of time. Con-
trol types have mainly manual adjustment the window
or automatic control air vents, adjusting mechanical
ventilation and cooling system. Ventilation time is
divided by all day and night natural ventilation, night
ventilation, daytime ventilation.
In the building layout plan design formed much
space combined-type to benefit to natural ventilation
considering use landform. And choose the appropri-
ate plane to create prerequisites for the indoor natural
ventilation which different building height keep cer-
tain wind pressure in the wind back. Optimize the
facade window form when the facade design according
to the wind pressure distributions,
Natural ventilation simulation optimization is use
as software PHOENICS and CFD to right simulation
indoor natural ventilation environment, and provide
optimized design scheme adjusting the position and
the window open size and increase the time natural
ventilation based on the simulation analysis results.
949
3.4 Air conditioning system energy saving
technology
Reasonable reduce indoor temperature and humid-
ity standards; use of outdoor new air volume
Controllably and correctly; Reduce the energy con-
sumption of the conveying system; Choose energy-
saving air conditioning system, comfortable air termi-
nal; Rationally divided years best running condition;
zone Reasonable; save energy using air conditioning
storage system; operate management control automat-
ically. A variety of air conditioning system form open,
flexible adjustment to assure the saving energy effect
of air conditioning system.
3.5 Renewable energy resources use
3.5.1 Solar
Solar energy (light) can be used to generate power,
provide hot water, heating and cooling and lighting
buildings.
(1) The main application of solar photovoltaic is inte-
grated technology of solar photovoltaic power
generation with the building. Photovoltaic systems
(photovoltaic) can form more than the photoelec-
tric products such as the sun stood, glass plate,
solar flat, solar tiles. It can install in the building
elevation and roof, it also can be as a peripheral
protect structure layer such as cold and hot facade,
shading or the building outside window. Light can
provide the landscape lighting and the power of
the temperature control equipment such as solar
clock, the scenery complementary street light, dis-
play screens etc. it can set up photovoltaic power
real-time data display screen.
(2) The solar energy light heat utilization includes
solar energy collector and tank. Solar energy col-
lector not only provide hot water, it can use hot
water heating, and provide energy for building
cooling such as circulation medium of absorp-
tion refrigeration Solar water heating system may
be separated half centralized, centralized, and hot
water with divided system. It can supply the needs
for the catering room, kitchen and shower rooms,
lavabo of toilet and the air conditioning system.
(3) It can use the sun space as the passive solar energy
heating designed.
3.5.2 Wind energy
The Wind energy application is wind turbines. It pro-
duces power for the electric sign necessary of at night.
It installation in The roof as wind power breeze start-
ing fan, and it also use for the street lamp lighting as
scenery complementary.
3.5.3 Heat pump Ground source
The condensing heat or evaporator embedding as the
air conditioning system of cold source and heat source
are burying underground. The underground burying
tube heat exchanger has vertical buried tube and level
buried tube. The buried tube quantity is according to
the load demand. The other technology is the solar
energy + air source heat pump technology joint hot
water.
3.6 Building saving water design
3.6.1 Saving water instruments and equipment
All appliances of water-saving sanitary ware and
accessories meet the requirements as <The Water-
saving Life Water Instruments> (CJ164) and
<General Rules on the Water-saving Technical and
Management Products> (GB/T18870).
3.6.2 Sewage
The sewage adopts reuse water and waste confluence
system. It will flow into the processing pool before the
wetland after the septic tank processing, and then it
will be promoted to artificial wetland. We may collect
high quality miscellaneous drainage coming from
office, hotel etc. After processing it may recycle for
toilet, green water and road cleaning.
3.6.3 The rainwater collection system
Collect the rain on the road, the green roof excess rain-
water. Rainwater flows into the pool as landscape lake
accumulation after an abandoned. The water from the
Landscape lake and quality miscellaneous drainage
may be reused after processing by artificial wetland
disinfection. The excess rainwater flows into the storm
sewer outdoor.
3.6.4 Outdoor permeable ground technology
We will use permeable ground on the ground out-
door sidewalks, square; the garden to let the rain water
directly penetrates into underground.
3.6.5 Recycle-water system
(1) Set municipal water filling water pipe in order to
strengthen the rain reliability
(2) Strict control the water quality in the process of
water use. Adopt the safety protection and con-
trol measures in handling, storage, distribution and
other links.
(3 )The wetland is as a part of the water treatment
system combine with the surrounding water scene
and landscape.
(4) The water achieves the reuse quality after wetland
process reaches back for toilet water and green
water.
3.6.6 Greening irrigation
Greening irrigation Use the methods such as drip
irrigation and sprinkler irrigation and micro spray irri-
gation combined with the automatic control system.
It is saving water and high efficiency.
3.7 Intelligent design
Intelligent design includes data acquisition, monitor-
ing and display system etc.
(1) Partial measurement: energy management center
will measure electricity of each function room in
950
the building of water, gas and energy consumption
including lighting, equipment, air conditioning
measurement, such as cold and heat sources, trans-
mission and distribution system, lighting, office
equipment, hot water energy consumption.
(2) Real-time measurements: elevator electricity
meters, layered measurement, lighting layered
measurement, water machine measurement, the
rain collect and use measurement, etc.
(3) Monitoring system: we may use the intelligence
monitor technology by the data monitoring control
the relevant system inside and outside the building
such as the air conditioning heating system. And
achieve the optimal operation.
(4) Intelligent instruments: gathering parameters such
as water and electricity air conditioning, analysis
saving energy with the statistics analysis of the
energy consumption platform showing a variety of
forms the trend diagram, bar chart, analysis report
such as energy saving effect, analyzes the energy
consumption level and the rationality of the energy
consumption structure, and find problems and
was improved, the more effective energy saving.
(5) Automatic control system: adjust each parts of
the building operation state according to environ-
ment change including lighting control system,
ventilation shutters control systems and the heat
pump system, solar photovoltaic system, the solar-
thermal systems, artificial wetland system. The
centralized control realizes the central console.
The data acquisition, monitoring and display system
provide the basic research data and the actual operating
experience for the green ecological technology further
research.
3.8 Efficient operation management
Efficient operation management include the estab-
lishment management of saving energy and water,
consumables management, green management system
Implement resource management incentive system
advocating energy-saving way of life. Set up a perfect
building operation parameters real-time monitoring
system including the air conditioning ventilation fan,
cold and heat sources, water pumps and other effective
monitoring and real-time feedback in energy con-
sumption, energy saving rate, water saving rate in the
operation parameters according to the actual situation
of the automatic adjustment control to make its effi-
cient operation. Set Garbage classification recycling
including recycled trash and not waste recycling.
4 HIGHWAY GREEN BUILDING TECHNIQUES
AND INTEGRATION
Highway construction green technology has green
construction general character, and it has also its
particularity. Highway lies away from the city con-
struction, there is not perfect municipal pipeline net-
work compare with city; building density is small,
the site is open; Building layer is one layer or fewer
layers. According to the geographical environment
condition (climate, topography and landforms, wind
direction, vegetation, etc), make full use of natural
light, natural ventilation, use the right technology and
building material combination and achieve the low
energy consumption environment and more comfort-
able purpose. In the integration design scheme of the
above consideration of mature green technology sys-
tem, and realizing green building by careful design,
strict control methods.
4.1 The rain water and comprehensive utilization
The rain after treatment is for landscape water added
and for water supplies to plant, road spraying, and
recirculation cooling of cooling tower. Reuse Water is
for toilet water with municipal water filling. Set water
quality monitoring device to ensure the water quality.
When water quality cant meet the use requirement,
the reused water from the water valve outlet bypass
backflow adjusts the pool, the rain water from the
valve bypass backflow to the rainwater collection pool.
They enter the water treatment system again. To ensure
water safety with the automatic switching tap supply
and issued a warning signal.
4.2 Soil energy use
Cold and heat sources in water source heat pump air
conditioning system use water heat pump units and
cooling water is near the wetland + landscape water
with the ground landscape and wetland.
4.3 The solar energy system application
Remote area electricity of highway lighting, TV, radio
use 10100 w solar power as a small power supply
for. 35 K Solar power use as grid generation sys-
tem on the roof or along the highway. Solar power
is used as Photovoltaic water pump for drinking water
from the well and irrigation, and Solar power is used
as transportation for light, traffic warning, symbol
lamp, street lamp, infinite phone booth, unattended
on duty power supply, etc. and Solar power is used as
communication/communication field for microwave
Repeaters. 10100 MW Photovoltaic power stations is
as independent photovoltaic power station, wind-light
complementary power stations, all kinds of parking
lot battery charging station, etc. It is also as Lamps
power for garden light, street light.
4.4 Intelligent integrated management
Use the intelligent management platform unified reg-
ulation the energy management, environment test,
equipment management and information manage-
ment. Intelligent system and highly efficient electrical
equipment integrated linkage.
951
5 CONCLUSION
We will take the green building as the goal in highway
construction and build highway green building demon-
stration project aided computer modeling analysis,
behavior, tips, and guide energy saving propaganda, as
well as intelligent management and human operation
management.
(1) In the design process we will follow the concept
like local, low consumption, fine green design
and adopt the most practical green building design
plan, the more mature of green technology and the
new materials, new technology without reasonable
to stack.
(2) Research the practical and promotion of green
ecological technology to improve social benefits,
economic benefits and environmental benefits to
save energy, effective use and the use of energy
protect the ecological and realize sustainable
development goals.
(3) Green building is not only a kind of material prod-
ucts reflecting the functional and sanitarian; it
also is a kind of spirit products, a kind of culture
and humanistic spirit. It creates a refreshing and
natural way of life.
(4) In the design process we will pay attention to
collect and store and arrange all kinds of effi-
cient data be benefit to apply, copy, reference the
green building in order to make the contribution
by promotion the development of green buildings.
(5) The green building embodies human and the nat-
ural harmonious coexistence; reflect the great
responsibility in the process of the development
of the human society. It is the future of the devel-
opment of the highway construction the melody.
REFERENCES
China building science research institute, China building sci-
ence research institute Shanghai branch, 2011, 7, one
hundred cases on new green buildings of China, China
Architecture & Building Press.
Yao Run Ming, KOEN STEEMERS, Li Bai Zhan, 2006.3,
Sustainable city and architectural design, China Architec-
ture &Building Press
Zhou Hao Ming, Zhang Xiao Dong, Ecological building-the
future of building, 2002, 9, Southeast University Press
Proceedings of the workshop on sustainable energy solu-
tions for buildings in the high north, 2011, 11, Narvik
University College
Yin Jing, Research and case on ecological construction and
environmental, 2009, 9, China Building Materials Press
Ma Yue Ping, Dong Guang Yong, roof greening design and
construction, 2011, 10, Machinery Industry Press
Liu Jia Ping, Dong Jing, Sun Shi Jun, green building
overview, 2010, 7, China Architecture &Building Press
Chen Ping, building energy research of the toll and service
area highway and in hot summer and cold winter zone,
2006,11, Central South University Masters Degree Thesis
Liu Dong, Duan Chen, Xin Hong Xi, Suggestions on present
situation and the future of highway service area, 2008, 9,
Traffic Standardization
 Editors
Chang
Al Bahar
Zhao

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