Reason: Under embargo until 20 March 2018. After this date a copy can be supplied under Section 51 (2) of the Australian Copyright Act 1968 by submitting a document delivery request through your library
Mechanical Properties of Partially Damaged Steel, Concrete, and Concrete Filled Steel Tube Materials Induced by High Strain Rate Loading at Elevated Temperatures
thesis
posted on 2017-02-14, 00:37authored byMahsa Mirmomeni
In today’s
world, designing structures to withstand normal lading conditions is not safe
enough and engineers aspire to design protective structures that can withstand
extreme loading scenarios. With the unfortunate rise of terrorist attacks and
road side accidents causing explosions or high speed collisions, survivability
of structures under large dynamic loads and potential subsequent fire
initiating from them have become a major design concern for structural
engineers. The post-impact/blast fire combined effect is profoundly different
from when the structure is exposed to either loading. That is, the subsequent
fire is imposed on a structure which is now in an altered and potentially
weaker state to what had been assumed during the original fire-resistance
design. Finite element method based software packages currently used in
engineering practice for structural analysis rely on constitutive models to
predict material response and simulate deformations. Accurate material models
that can predict the behaviour of structural materials under such extreme loading
conditions are essential for analysis and design of structural systems.
This thesis aims to develop a fundamental understanding of
the behaviour of conventional construction materials namely steel, concrete and
steel-concrete composites under the combined actions of post-impact-fire and to
present material models which can accurately reflect such complex behaviours.
For this purpose, series of benchmark experimental tests have
been conducted on mild steel, unconfined self-compacting concrete and concrete
filled steel tubes (CFST) to identify the mechanical characteristics of these
materials under the fully coupled effect of high strain rate and subsequent
elevated temperatures. The results have indicated that the strength and
ductility of these materials at elevate temperatures are significantly
dependent on the rate of loading and the pre-deformation history. The reduction
factors currently available in design codes for fire considerations have shown
to fall short of reflecting the loading history and inadequate for such
combined effects. This has necessitated the development of a relation which not
only reflects the mechanical characteristics as a function of temperature but
also the level of rate dependant pre-deformation for a rational fire analysis
and design of structures.
Based on the extensive experimental data, a unified,
versatile and generic empirical material relation which reflects the initial
impact damage on the temperature behaviour of steel, concrete and CFSTs has
been developed. The proposed expression is calibrated and validated on the
basis of test data for each material and has proven to be capable of
successfully reproducing material strength and ductility. The empirical model
resulted from this research can easily be incorporated in commercial packages
such as ABAQUS and LS DYNA with the potential for inclusion in prospective
codes of practice for rational engineering for extremes based designs.