Dr. Florentia Kavoura
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15 records found
1
In this paper, a computational approach is undertaken to determine the rotational stiffness and moment capacity provided by typical “pinned” column base-plate connections in low-rise metal buildings by analyzing a wide-range of connection parameters. The most influencing details of the connections on the overall behavior were identified. First, development and validation of high-fidelity computational models using experimental data are described. Then, the validated models were used to perform a parametric study to understand the effect of configurational details on the rotational stiffness and moment capacity of the column base-plate connections with anchor rods between the flanges. Anchor rod diameter, by itself, and in combination with base-plate thickness, was found to be the most influential parameter on the moment capacity of connections with smaller web depths. For larger web depths, the number of anchor rods was influential in the moment capacity, particularly, in one of the loading directions.
The technical solutions and design strategies for deconstruction are reviewed and investigated in the building sector in order to achieve the sustainability goals set in the EU Commission´s “Green Deal” towards net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The demountable and reusable steel–concrete composite structures could contribute immensely to the achievement of these sustainability goals. The main technical practice which allows for demountability and reusability is the use of bolted connections on the skeleton of the steel structure with the parallel use of demountable shear connectors in their floor systems with the steel load-bearing beams. However, there is a very limited number of studies and methods into specific demountable and steel–concrete composite structural systems, and even fewer focus on their practicability and feasibility. Since these systems have the potential to reduce embodied carbon impacts, encourage resource efficiency and, reduce construction waste, their feasibility and technical practices should be investigated. This paper focuses on technical solutions and design strategies that currently have been developed for steel and steel–concrete composite reusable structural systems.
Seismicity in the Delaware basin is suggested to be associated with oilfield operations. To better characterize the seismogenic structures revealed by the induced seismicity, in this study we determined source mechanisms for the Delaware basin of Texas and leveraged the obtained source mechanisms to perform stress inversion for evaluating the region’s stress state. Based on the seismogenic patterns and seismicity distribution, we identified seven distinctive seismogenic zones. Within each zone, earthquakes form several parallel-trending linear clusters. Most notably, there is an observable change in the seismicity trend on either side of the basin-bisecting Grisham fault zone. In addition, the extent of hypocentral depths vary drastically across the fault zone, with events located below the basin–basement interface north of the fault zone and more shallowly to the south. We also see spatial variations of source mechanism patterns and the direction of the maximum horizontal stress across the Delaware basin. A vast majority of seismic moment release can be attributed to the basement-rooted tectonic faults in the Culberson–Mentone seismogenic zone. A statistic deficit present in the magnitude–frequency distribution suggests that earthquakes with Mw 3.8–4.7 are needed to fulfill this scaling law. It indicates a strong possibility for future occurrence of earthquakes within this magnitude range.
In response to the sustainability requirements set in the EU Commission´s “Green Deal” towards reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions, it is estimated that the structural design for deconstruction is going to contribute considerably to the sustainable development of the built environment. The demountability of multi-material structural systems basically depends on the shear connectors used in the structural system. This paper focuses on a type of demountable injected shear connector with an injected steel-reinforced resin (iSRR) which consists of spherical steel particles embedded in a resin. Its application to steel-to-concrete and steel-to-Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) decks is presented along with its benefits. In parallel, an overview of the experimental and numerical research on the evaluation of the mechanical properties of the demountable bolted connectors with iSRR is discussed. Last, detailed finite element (FE) models and a parametric study are performed to quantify the confinement level of the SRR material influenced by the oversized hole diameter.
The short-headed stud connectors play a critical role on the interaction of the orthotropic steel deck (OSD) and the ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) layer in orthotropic steel-UHPC composite bridge deck. In this paper, the fatigue behavior of these short-headed stud connectors was experimentally investigated in a beam test. The failure modes of the short-headed stud connectors were identified and classified into 5 types. The fatigue test results were analyzed by linear regression analysis neglecting run-outs and treating run-outs as failure respectively. On the other hand, the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) approach was used to shape the S-N curve by considering the influence of run-outs. Additionally, the push-out and beam fatigue test data were compared, and the push-out test presented a relatively conservative result. Last, the applicability of existing specifications on design guidelines regarding the short-headed stud connectors design in orthotropic steel–UHPC composite bridge deck is discussed, and a design S-N curve with 95% survival probability is proposed.
In this study, we present a local magnitude (M L) relation for the earthquakes recorded from the Texas Seismological Network (TexNet) between the dates of 1 January 2017 and 31 July 2019. Using a comprehensive seismic dataset from earthquakes in Texas, we propose a distance correction term − log A 0, which is consistent with the original definition of the Richter magnitude. The proposed distance correction calculation for the TexNet events accounts for the attenuation characteristics of the direct and refracted waves over different distance ranges. Regression analysis of Wood-Anderson amplitudes results in the following trilinear function, which represents the attenuation attributes of the events under investigation: (equcation prensent) in which R hyp is the hypocentral distance (km). The derived distance correction relationship results in an accurate M L relationship for Texas that is unbiased over a 200 km distance range. Compared with other M L relations, the proposed relation in this study gives lower M L values over all distances than those calculated by Richter (1958), Hutton and Boore (1987), Babaie Mahani and Kao (2019), and Quinones et al. (2019) by an average of 0.01, 0.12, 0.16, and 0.15 units, respectively; this study's proposed relation gives higher M L values over all distances than those calculated by Scales et al. (2017), Yenier (2017), and Greig et al. (2018) by an average of 0.28, 0.01, and 0.08 units, respectively.