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  • REVIEW
    Wei HUANG, Minshan PEI, Xiaodong LIU, Ya WEI
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2020, 14(4): 803-838. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-020-0644-1

    Super-long span bridges demand high design requirements and involve many difficulties when constructed, which is an important indicator to reflect the bridge technical level of a country. Over the past three decades, a large percentage of the new long-span bridges around the world were built in China, and thus, abundant technological innovations and experience have been accumulated during the design and construction. This paper aims to review and summarize the design and construction practices of the superstructure, the substructure, and the steel deck paving of the long-span bridges during the past decades as well as the current operation status of the existing long-span bridges in China. A future perspective was given on the developing trend of high-speed railway bridge, bridge over deep-sea, health monitoring and maintenance, intellectualization, standard system, and information technology, which is expected to guide the development direction for the construction of future super long-span bridges and promote China to become a strong bridge construction country.

  • TRANSDISCIPLINARY INSIGHT
    Bin LI, Xiaoying ZHUANG
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2020, 14(6): 1285-1298. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-020-0691-7

    Homogenization methods can be used to predict the effective macroscopic properties of materials that are heterogenous at micro- or fine-scale. Among existing methods for homogenization, computational homogenization is widely used in multiscale analyses of structures and materials. Conventional computational homogenization suffers from long computing times, which substantially limits its application in analyzing engineering problems. The neural networks can be used to construct fully decoupled approaches in nonlinear multiscale methods by mapping macroscopic loading and microscopic response. Computational homogenization methods for nonlinear material and implementation of offline multiscale computation are studied to generate data set. This article intends to model the multiscale constitution using feedforward neural network (FNN) and recurrent neural network (RNN), and appropriate set of loading paths are selected to effectively predict the materials behavior along unknown paths. Applications to two-dimensional multiscale analysis are tested and discussed in detail.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Peng ZHU, Jiajing XU, Wenjun QU
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2021, 15(3): 576-594. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-021-0728-6

    Reinforced concrete beams consisting of both steel and glass-fiber-reinforced polymer rebars exhibit excellent strength, serviceability, and durability. However, the fatigue shear performance of such beams is unclear. Therefore, beams with hybrid longitudinal bars and hybrid stirrups were designed, and fatigue shear tests were performed. For specimens that failed by fatigue shear, all the glass-fiber-reinforced polymer stirrups and some steel stirrups fractured at the critical diagonal crack. For the specimen that failed by the static test after 8 million fatigue cycles, the static capacity after fatigue did not significantly decrease compared with the calculated value. The initial fatigue level has a greater influence on the crack development and fatigue life than the fatigue level in the later phase. The fatigue strength of the glass-fiber-reinforced polymer stirrups in the specimens was considerably lower than that of the axial tension tests on the glass-fiber-reinforced polymer bar in air and beam-hinge tests on the glass-fiber-reinforced polymer bar, and the failure modes were different. Glass-fiber-reinforced polymer stirrups were subjected to fatigue tension and shear, and failed owing to shear.

  • TRANSDISCIPLINARY INSIGHT
    Fangyu LIU, Wenqi DING, Yafei QIAO, Linbing WANG
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2020, 14(6): 1299-1315. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-020-0712-6

    The tensile behavior of hybrid fiber reinforced concrete (HFRC) is important to the design of HFRC and HFRC structure. This study used an artificial neural network (ANN) model to describe the tensile behavior of HFRC. This ANN model can describe well the tensile stress-strain curve of HFRC with the consideration of 23 features of HFRC. In the model, three methods to process output features (no-processed, mid-processed, and processed) are discussed and the mid-processed method is recommended to achieve a better reproduction of the experimental data. This means the strain should be normalized while the stress doesn’t need normalization. To prepare the database of the model, both many direct tensile test results and the relevant literature data are collected. Moreover, a traditional equation-based model is also established and compared with the ANN model. The results show that the ANN model has a better prediction than the equation-based model in terms of the tensile stress-strain curve, tensile strength, and strain corresponding to tensile strength of HFRC. Finally, the sensitivity analysis of the ANN model is also performed to analyze the contribution of each input feature to the tensile strength and strain corresponding to tensile strength. The mechanical properties of plain concrete make the main contribution to the tensile strength and strain corresponding to tensile strength, while steel fibers tend to make more contributions to these two items than PVA fibers.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Zaobao LIU, Yongchen WANG, Long LI, Xingli FANG, Junze WANG
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2022, 16(4): 401-413. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-022-0823-3

    Real-time dynamic adjustment of the tunnel bore machine (TBM) advance rate according to the rock-machine interaction parameters is of great significance to the adaptability of TBM and its efficiency in construction. This paper proposes a real-time predictive model of TBM advance rate using the temporal convolutional network (TCN), based on TBM construction big data. The prediction model was built using an experimental database, containing 235 data sets, established from the construction data from the Jilin Water-Diversion Tunnel Project in China. The TBM operating parameters, including total thrust, cutterhead rotation, cutterhead torque and penetration rate, are selected as the input parameters of the model. The TCN model is found outperforming the recurrent neural network (RNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) model in predicting the TBM advance rate with much smaller values of mean absolute percentage error than the latter two. The penetration rate and cutterhead torque of the current moment have significant influence on the TBM advance rate of the next moment. On the contrary, the influence of the cutterhead rotation and total thrust is moderate. The work provides a new concept of real-time prediction of the TBM performance for highly efficient tunnel construction.

  • TRANSDISCIPLINARY INSIGHT
    Harun TANYILDIZI, Abdulkadir ŞENGÜR, Yaman AKBULUT, Murat ŞAHİN
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2020, 14(6): 1316-1330. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-020-0646-z

    In this study, the deep learning models for estimating the mechanical properties of concrete containing silica fume subjected to high temperatures were devised. Silica fume was used at concentrations of 0%, 5%, 10%, and 20%. Cube specimens (100 mm × 100 mm × 100 mm) were prepared for testing the compressive strength and ultrasonic pulse velocity. They were cured at 20°C±2°C in a standard cure for 7, 28, and 90 d. After curing, they were subjected to temperatures of 20°C, 200°C, 400°C, 600°C, and 800°C. Two well-known deep learning approaches, i.e., stacked autoencoders and long short-term memory (LSTM) networks, were used for forecasting the compressive strength and ultrasonic pulse velocity of concrete containing silica fume subjected to high temperatures. The forecasting experiments were carried out using MATLAB deep learning and neural network tools, respectively. Various statistical measures were used to validate the prediction performances of both the approaches. This study found that the LSTM network achieved better results than the stacked autoencoders. In addition, this study found that deep learning, which has a very good prediction ability with little experimental data, was a convenient method for civil engineering.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Shuai TENG, Gongfa CHEN, Shaodi WANG, Jiqiao ZHANG, Xiaoli SUN
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2022, 16(1): 45-56. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-021-0777-x

    This paper presents a new approach for automatical classification of structural state through deep learning. In this work, a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) was designed to fuse both the feature extraction and classification blocks into an intelligent and compact learning system and detect the structural state of a steel frame; the input was a series of vibration signals, and the output was a structural state. The digital image correlation (DIC) technology was utilized to collect vibration information of an actual steel frame, and subsequently, the raw signals, without further pre-processing, were directly utilized as the CNN samples. The results show that CNN can achieve 99% classification accuracy for the research model. Besides, compared with the backpropagation neural network (BPNN), the CNN had an accuracy similar to that of the BPNN, but it only consumes 19% of the training time. The outputs of the convolution and pooling layers were visually displayed and discussed as well. It is demonstrated that: 1) the CNN can extract the structural state information from the vibration signals and classify them; 2) the detection and computational performance of the CNN for the incomplete data are better than that of the BPNN; 3) the CNN has better anti-noise ability.

  • REVIEW
    Jiaolong ZHANG, Eva BINDER, Hui WANG, Mehdi AMINBAGHAI, Bernhard LA PICHLER, Yong YUAN, Herbert A MANG
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2022, 16(1): 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-021-0790-0

    This review of the added value of multi-scale modeling of concrete is based on three representative examples. The first one is concerned with the analysis of experimental data, taken from four high-dynamic tests. The structural nature of the high-dynamic strength increase can be explained by using a multi-scale model. It accounts for the microstructure of the specimens. The second example refers to multi-scale thermoelastic analysis of concrete pavements, subjected to solar heating. A sensitivity analysis with respect to the internal relative humidity (RH) of concrete has underlined the great importance of the RH for an assessment of the risk of microcracking of concrete. The third example deals with multi-scale structural analysis of a real-scale test of a segmental tunnel ring. It has turned out that multi-scale modeling of concrete enables more reliable predictions of crack opening displacements in tunnel segments than macroscopic models taken from codes of practice. Overall, it is concluded that multi-scale models have indeed a significant added value. However, its degree varies with these examples. In any case, it can be assessed by means of a comparison of the results from three sources, namely, multi-scale structural analysis, conventional structural analysis, and experiments.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Ali KARIMPOUR, Salam RAHMATALLA
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2020, 14(6): 1331-1348. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-020-0686-4

    This article proposes a novel methodology that uses mathematical and numerical models of a structure to build a data set and determine crucial nodes that possess the highest sensitivity. Regression surfaces between the structural parameters and structural output features, represented by the natural frequencies of the structure and local transmissibility, are built using the numerical data set. A description of a possible experimental application is provided, where sensors are mounted at crucial nodes, and the natural frequencies and local transmissibility at each natural frequency are determined from the power spectral density and the power spectral density ratios of the sensor responses, respectively. An inverse iterative process is then applied to identify the structural parameters by matching the experimental features with the available parameters in the myriad numerical data set. Three examples are presented to demonstrate the feasibility and efficacy of the proposed methodology. The results reveal that the method was able to accurately identify the boundary coefficients and physical parameters of the Euler-Bernoulli beam as well as a highway bridge model with elastic foundations using only two measurement points. It is expected that the proposed method will have practical applications in the identification and analysis of restored structural systems with unknown parameters and boundary coefficients.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Hamed BOLANDI, Xuyang LI, Talal SALEM, Vishnu Naresh BODDETI, Nizar LAJNEF
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2022, 16(11): 1365-1377. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-022-0882-5

    Finite-element analysis (FEA) for structures has been broadly used to conduct stress analysis of various civil and mechanical engineering structures. Conventional methods, such as FEA, provide high fidelity results but require the solution of large linear systems that can be computationally intensive. Instead, Deep Learning (DL) techniques can generate results significantly faster than conventional run-time analysis. This can prove extremely valuable in real-time structural assessment applications. Our proposed method uses deep neural networks in the form of convolutional neural networks (CNN) to bypass the FEA and predict high-resolution stress distributions on loaded steel plates with variable loading and boundary conditions. The CNN was designed and trained to use the geometry, boundary conditions, and load as input to predict the stress contours. The proposed technique’s performance was compared to finite-element simulations using a partial differential equation (PDE) solver. The trained DL model can predict the stress distributions with a mean absolute error of 0.9% and an absolute peak error of 0.46% for the von Mises stress distribution. This study shows the feasibility and potential of using DL techniques to bypass FEA for stress analysis applications.

  • REVIEW
    Guowei MA, Li WANG
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2018, 12(3): 382-400. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-017-0430-x

    In recent few years, significant improvement has been made in developing largescale 3D printers to accommodate the need of industrial-scale 3D printing. It is of great feasibility to construct structural components and buildings by means of 3D concrete printing. The major issues of this innovative technique focus on the preparation and optimization of concrete materials which possess favourable printable properties as well as the measurement and evaluation methods of their workability. This paper firstly introduces three largescale 3D printing systems that have been successfully applied in construction industry. It then summarizes the commonly used raw materials in concrete manufacturing. Critical factors that should be particularly controlled in material preparation are specified. Easy-extrusive, easy-flowing, well-buildable, proper setting time and low shrinkage are significant for concrete mixture to meet the critical requirements of a freeform construction process. Thereafter, measuring methods that can be employed to assess the fresh and hardened properties of concrete at early stages are suggested. Finally, a few of evaluation methods are presented which may offer certain assistance for optimizing material preparation. The objective of this work is to review current design methodologies and experimental measurement and evaluation methods for 3D printable concrete materials and promote its responsible use with largescale 3D printing technology.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Sang I. PARK, Sang-Ho LEE
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2020, 14(6): 1403-1417. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-020-0666-8

    Research on the quality of data in a structural calculation document (SCD) is lacking, although the SCD of a bridge is used as an essential reference during the entire lifecycle of the facility. XML Schema matching enables qualitative improvement of the stored data. This study aimed to enhance the applicability of XML Schema matching, which improves the speed and quality of information stored in bridge SCDs. First, the authors proposed a method of reducing the computing time for the schema matching of bridge SCDs. The computing speed of schema matching was increased by 13 to 1800 times by reducing the checking process of the correlations. Second, the authors developed a heuristic solution for selecting the optimal weight factors used in the matching process to maintain a high accuracy by introducing a decision tree. The decision tree model was built using the content elements stored in the SCD, design companies, bridge types, and weight factors as input variables, and the matching accuracy as the target variable. The inverse-calculation method was applied to extract the weight factors from the decision tree model for high-accuracy schema matching results.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Zhengqiang ZENG, Shengzhi WU, Cheng LYU
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2021, 15(6): 1480-1493. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-021-0776-y

    In waterfront geotechnical engineering, seismic and drainage conditions must be considered in the design of retaining structures. This paper proposes a general analytical method to evaluate the seismic active earth pressure on a retaining wall with backfill subjected to partial steady seepage flow under seismic conditions. The method comprises the following steps: i) determination of the total head, ii) upper bound solution of seismic active earth thrust, and iii) deduction for the earth pressure distribution. The determination of total head h(x,z) relies on the Fourier series expansions, and the expressions of the seismic active earth thrust and pressure are derived by using the upper bound theorem. Parametric studies reveal that insufficient drainage and earthquakes are crucial factors that cause unfavorable earth pressure. The numerical results confirm the validity of the total head distribution. Comparisons indicate that the proposed method is consistent with other relevant existing methods in terms of predicting seismic active earth pressure. The method can be applied to the seismic design of waterfront retaining walls.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Jinwei YAO, Jiankang CHEN
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2022, 16(2): 175-190. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-021-0791-z

    The corrosion degradation behavior of concrete materials plays a crucial role in the change of its mechanical properties under multi-ion interaction in the marine environment. In this study, the variation in the macro-physical and mechanical properties of concrete with corrosion time is investigated, and the source of micro-corrosion products under different salt solutions in seawater are analyzed. Regardless of the continuous hydration effect of concrete, the damage effects of various corrosive ions (Cl, SO42, and Mg2+, etc.) on the tensile and compressive strength of concrete are discussed based on measurement in different salt solutions. The sensitivity analysis method for concrete strength is used to quantitatively analyze the sensitivity of concrete strength to the effects of each ion in a multi-salt solution without considering the influence of continued hydration. The quantitative results indicate that the addition of Cl can weaken the corrosion effect of SO42 by about 20%, while the addition of Mg2+ or Mg2+ and Cl can strengthen it by 10%–20% during a 600-d corrosion process.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Serdar CARBAS, Musa ARTAR
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2022, 16(1): 57-74. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-021-0784-y

    Steel dome structures, with their striking structural forms, take a place among the impressive and aesthetic load bearing systems featuring large internal spaces without internal columns. In this paper, the seismic design optimization of spatial steel dome structures is achieved through three recent metaheuristic algorithms that are water strider (WS), grey wolf (GW), and brain storm optimization (BSO). The structural elements of the domes are treated as design variables collected in member groups. The structural stress and stability limitations are enforced by ASD-AISC provisions. Also, the displacement restrictions are considered in design procedure. The metaheuristic algorithms are encoded in MATLAB interacting with SAP2000 for gathering structural reactions through open application programming interface (OAPI). The optimum spatial steel dome designs achieved by proposed WS, GW, and BSO algorithms are compared with respect to solution accuracy, convergence rates, and reliability, utilizing three real-size design examples for considering both the previously reported optimum design results obtained by classical metaheuristic algorithms and a gradient descent-based hyperband optimization (HBO) algorithm.

  • REVIEW
    Jianguo NIE, Jiaji WANG, Shuangke GOU, Yaoyu ZHU, Jiansheng FAN
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2019, 13(1): 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-019-0514-x

    In view of China’s development trend of green building and building industrialization, based on the emerging requirements of the structural engineering community, the development and proposition of novel resource-saving high-performance steel-concrete composite structural systems with adequate safety and durability has become a kernel development trend in structural engineering. This paper provides a state of the art review of China’s cutting-edge research and technologies in steel-concrete composite structures in recent years, including the building engineering, the bridge engineering and the special engineering. This paper summarizes the technical principles and applications of the long-span bi-directional composite structures, the long-span composite transfer structures, the comprehensive crack control technique based on uplift-restricted and slip-permitted (URSP) connectors, the steel plate concrete composite (SPCC) strengthen technique, and the innovative composite joints. By improving and revising traditional structure types, the comprehensive superiority of steel-concrete composite structures is well elicited. The research results also indicate that the high-performance steel-concrete composite structures have a promising popularizing prospect in the future.

  • INVITED REVIEW
    Zhenning BA, Jisai FU, Zhihui ZHU, Hao ZHONG
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2022, 16(12): 1515-1529. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-022-0887-0

    Based on the domain reduction idea and artificial boundary substructure method, this paper proposes an FK-FEM hybrid approach by integrating the advantages of FK and FEM (i.e., FK can efficiently generate high-frequency three translational motion, while FEM has rich elements types and constitutive models). An advantage of this approach is that it realizes the entire process simulation from point dislocation source to underground structure. Compared with the plane wave field input method, the FK-FEM hybrid approach can reflect the spatial variability of seismic motion and the influence of source and propagation path. This approach can provide an effective solution for seismic analysis of underground structures under scenario of earthquake in regions where strong earthquakes may occur but are not recorded, especially when active faults, crustal, and soil parameters are available. Taking Daikai subway station as an example, the seismic response of the underground structure is simulated after verifying the correctness of the approach and the effects of crustal velocity structure and source parameters on the seismic response of Daikai station are discussed. In this example, the influence of velocity structure on the maximum interlayer displacement angle of underground structure is 96.5% and the change of source parameters can lead to the change of structural failure direction.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    HIRSHIKESH, Sundararajan NATARAJAN, Ratna Kumar ANNABATTULA
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2019, 13(2): 380-396. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-018-0471-9

    In the recent years, the phase field method for simulating fracture problems has received considerable attention. This is due to the salient features of the method: 1) it can be incorporated into any conventional finite element software; 2) has a scalar damage variable is used to represent the discontinuous surface implicitly and 3) the crack initiation and subsequent propagation and branching are treated with less complexity. Within this framework, the linear momentum equations are coupled with the diffusion type equation, which describes the evolution of the damage variable. The coupled nonlinear system of partial differential equations are solved in a ‘staggered’ approach. The present work discusses the implementation of the phase field method for brittle fracture within the open-source finite element software, FEniCS. The FEniCS provides a framework for the automated solutions of the partial differential equations. The details of the implementation which forms the core of the analysis are presented. The implementation is validated by solving a few benchmark problems and comparing the results with the open literature.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Huayang LEI, Yajie ZHANG, Yao HU, Yingnan LIU
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2021, 15(1): 147-166. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-020-0704-6

    The stability of the shield tunneling face is an extremely important factor affecting the safety of tunnel construction. In this study, a transparent clay with properties similar to those of Tianjin clay is prepared and a new transparent clay model test apparatus is developed to overcome the “black box” problem in the traditional model test. The stability of the shield tunneling face (failure mode, influence range, support force, and surface settlement) is investigated in transparent clay under active failure. A series of transparent clay model tests is performed to investigate the active failure mode, influence range, and support force of the shield tunneling face under different burial depth conditions, whereas particle flow code three-dimensional numerical simulations are conducted to verify the failure mode of the shield tunneling face and surface settlement along the transverse section under different burial depth conditions. The results show that the engineering characteristics of transparent clay are similar to those of soft clay in Binhai, Tianjin and satisfy visibility requirements. Two types of failure modes are obtained: the overall failure mode (cover/diameter: C/D≤1.0) and local failure mode (C/D≥2.0). The influence range of the transverse section is wider than that of the longitudinal section when C/D≥2.0. Additionally, the normalized thresholds of the relative displacement and support force ratio are 3%–6% and 0.2–0.4, respectively. Owing to the cushioning effect of the clay layer, the surface settlement is significantly reduced as the tunnel burial depth increases.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Jinggang ZHOU, Xuanyi ZHOU, Beihua CONG, Wei WANG, Ming GU
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2023, 17(1): 78-98. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-022-0936-8

    For localized fires, it is necessary to consider the thermal and mechanical responses of building elements subject to uneven heating under the influence of wind. In this paper, the thermomechanical phenomena experienced by a ceiling jet and I-beam in a structural fire were simulated. Instead of applying the concept of adiabatic surface temperature (AST) to achieve fluid–structure coupling, this paper proposes a new computational fluid dynamics–finite element method numerical simulation that combines wind, fire, thermal, and structural analyses. First, to analyze the velocity and temperature distributions, the results of the numerical model and experiment were compared in windless conditions, showing good agreement. Vortices were found in the local area formed by the upper and lower flanges of the I-beam and the web, generating a local high-temperature zone and enhancing the heat transfer of convection. In an incoming-flow scenario, the flame was blown askew significantly; the wall temperature was bimodally distributed in the axial direction. The first temperature peak was mainly caused by radiative heat transfer, while the second resulted from convective heat transfer. In terms of mechanical response, the yield strength degradation in the highest-temperature region in windless conditions was found to be significant, thus explaining the stress distribution of steel beams in the fire field. The mechanical response of the overall elements considering the incoming flows was essentially elastic.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Khuong LE-NGUYEN, Quyen Cao MINH, Afaq AHMAD, Lanh Si HO
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2022, 16(10): 1213-1232. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-022-0880-7

    The present study describes a reliability analysis of the strength model for predicting concrete columns confinement influence with Fabric-Reinforced Cementitious Matrix (FRCM). through both physical models and Deep Neural Network model (artificial neural network (ANN) with double and triple hidden layers). The database of 330 samples collected for the training model contains many important parameters, i.e., section type (circle or square), corner radius rc, unconfined concrete strength fco, thickness nt, the elastic modulus of fiber Ef , the elastic modulus of mortar Em. The results revealed that the proposed ANN models well predicted the compressive strength of FRCM with high prediction accuracy. The ANN model with double hidden layers (APDL-1) was shown to be the best to predict the compressive strength of FRCM confined columns compared with the ACI design code and five physical models. Furthermore, the results also reveal that the unconfined compressive strength of concrete, type of fiber mesh for FRCM, type of section, and the corner radius ratio, are the most significant input variables in the efficiency of FRCM confinement prediction. The performance of the proposed ANN models (including double and triple hidden layers) had high precision with R higher than 0.93 and RMSE smaller than 0.13, as compared with other models from the literature available.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    M. Z. Naser, R. A. Hawileh
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2019, 13(3): 686-700. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-018-0506-2

    This paper investigates the effect of differential support settlement on shear strength and behavior of continuous reinforced concrete (RC) deep beams. A total of twenty three-dimensional nonlinear finite element models were developed taking into account various constitutive laws for concrete material in compression (crushing) and tension (cracking), steel plasticity (i.e., yielding and strain hardening), bond-slip at the concrete and steel reinforcement interface as well as unique behavior of spring-like support elements. These models are first validated by comparing numerical predictions in terms of load-deflection response, crack propagation, reaction distribution, and failure mode against that of measured experimental data reported in literature. Once the developed models were successfully validated, a parametric study was designed and performed. This parametric study examined number of critical parameters such as ratio and spacing of the longitudinal and vertical reinforcement, compressive and tensile strength of concrete, as well as degree (stiffness) and location of support stiffness to induce varying levels of differential settlement. This study also aims at presenting a numerical approach using finite element simulation, supplemented with coherent assumptions, such that engineers, practitioners, and researchers can carry out simple, but yet effective and realistic analysis of RC structural members undergoing differential settlements due to variety of load actions.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Hui MA, Fangda LIU, Yanan WU, Xin A, Yanli ZHAO
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2022, 16(7): 817-842. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-022-0844-y

    To research the axial compression behavior of steel reinforced recycled concrete (SRRC) short columns confined by carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) strips, nine scaled specimens of SRRC short columns were fabricated and tested under axial compression loading. Subsequently, the failure process and failure modes were observed, and load-displacement curves as well as the strain of various materials were analyzed. The effects on the substitution percentage of recycled coarse aggregate (RCA), width of CFRP strips, spacing of CFRP strips and strength of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) on the axial compression properties of columns were also analyzed in the experimental investigation. Furthermore, the finite element model of columns which can consider the adverse influence of RCA and the constraint effect of CFRP strips was founded by ABAQUS software and the nonlinear parameter analysis of columns was also implemented in this study. The results show that the first to reach the yield state was the profile steel in the columns, then the longitudinal rebars and stirrups yielded successively, and finally RAC was crushed as well as the CFRP strips was also broken. The replacement rate of RCA has little effect on the columns, and with the substitution rate of RCA from 0 to 100%, the bearing capacity of columns decreased by only 4.8%. Increasing the CFRP strips width or decreasing the CFRP strips spacing could enhance the axial bearing capacity of columns, the maximum increase was 10.5% or 11.4%, and the ductility of columns was significantly enhanced. Obviously, CFRP strips are conducive to enhance the axial bearing capacity and deformation capacity of columns. On this basis, considering the restraint effect of CFRP strips and the adverse effects of RCA, the revised formulas for calculating the axial bearing capacity of SRRC short columns confined by CFRP strips were proposed.

  • REVIEW
    Venkatesh KODUR, M. Z. NASER
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2021, 15(1): 46-60. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-020-0676-6

    This paper reviews the fire problem in critical transportation infrastructures such as bridges and tunnels. The magnitude of the fire problem is illustrated, and the recent increase in fire problems in bridges and tunnels is highlighted. Recent research undertaken to address fire problems in transportation structures is reviewed, as well as critical factors governing the performance of those structures. Furthermore, key strategies recommended for mitigating fire hazards in bridges and tunnels are presented, and their applicability to practical situations is demonstrated through a practical case study. Furthermore, research needs and emerging trends for enhancing the “state-of-the-art” in this area are discussed.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Shan LIN, Hong ZHENG, Chao HAN, Bei HAN, Wei LI
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2021, 15(4): 821-833. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-021-0742-8

    In this paper, the machine learning (ML) model is built for slope stability evaluation and meets the high precision and rapidity requirements in slope engineering. Different ML methods for the factor of safety (FOS) prediction are studied and compared hoping to make the best use of the large variety of existing statistical and ML regression methods collected. The data set of this study includes six characteristics, namely unit weight, cohesion, internal friction angle, slope angle, slope height, and pore water pressure ratio. The whole ML model is primarily divided into data preprocessing, outlier processing, and model evaluation. In the data preprocessing, the duplicated data are first removed, then the outliers are filtered by the LocalOutlierFactor method and finally, the data are standardized. 11 ML methods are evaluated for their ability to learn the FOS based on different input parameter combinations. By analyzing the evaluation indicators R 2, MAE, and MSE of these methods, SVM, GBR, and Bagging are considered to be the best regression methods. The performance and reliability of the nonlinear regression method are slightly better than that of the linear regression method. Also, the SVM-poly method is used to analyze the susceptibility of slope parameters.

  • REVIEW
    Xing MING, John C. HUANG, Zongjin LI
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2022, 16(1): 24-44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-021-0794-9

    Design is a goal-oriented planning activity for creating products, processes, and systems with desired functions through specifications. It is a decision-making exploration: the design outcome may vary greatly depending on the designer’s knowledge and philosophy. Integrated design is one type of design philosophy that takes an interdisciplinary and holistic approach. In civil engineering, structural design is such an activity for creating buildings and infrastructures. Recently, structural design in many countries has emphasized a performance-based philosophy that simultaneously considers a structure’s safety, durability, serviceability, and sustainability. Consequently, integrated design in civil engineering has become more popular, useful, and important. Material-oriented integrated design and construction of structures (MIDCS) combine materials engineering and structural engineering in the design stage: it fully utilizes the strengths of materials by selecting the most suitable structural forms and construction methodologies. This paper will explore real-world examples of MIDCS, including the realization of MIDCS in timber seismic-resistant structures, masonry arch structures, long-span steel bridges, prefabricated/on-site extruded light-weight steel structures, fiber-reinforced cementitious composites structures, and fiber-reinforced polymer bridge decks. Additionally, advanced material design methods such as bioinspired design and structure construction technology of additive manufacturing are briefly reviewed and discussed to demonstrate how MIDCS can combine materials and structures. A unified strength-durability design theory is also introduced, which is a human-centric, interdisciplinary, and holistic approach to the description and development of any civil infrastructure and includes all processes directly involved in the life cycle of the infrastructure. Finally, this paper lays out future research directions for further development in the field.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Shaojun ZHU, Makoto OHSAKI, Kazuki HAYASHI, Shaohan ZONG, Xiaonong GUO
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2022, 16(11): 1397-1414. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-022-0860-y

    This paper proposes a framework for critical element identification and demolition planning of frame structures. Innovative quantitative indices considering the severity of the ultimate collapse scenario are proposed using reinforcement learning and graph embedding. The action is defined as removing an element, and the state is described by integrating the joint and element features into a comprehensive feature vector for each element. By establishing the policy network, the agent outputs the Q value for each action after observing the state. Through numerical examples, it is confirmed that the trained agent can provide an accurate estimation of the Q values, and handle problems with different action spaces owing to utilization of graph embedding. Besides, different behaviors can be learned by varying hyperparameters in the reward function. By comparing the proposed method and the conventional sensitivity index-based methods, it is demonstrated that the computational cost is considerably reduced because the reinforcement learning model is trained offline. Besides, it is proved that the Q values produced by the reinforcement learning agent can make up for the deficiencies of existing indices, and can be directly used as the quantitative index for the decision-making for determining the most expected collapse scenario, i.e., the sequence of element removals.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Zhiyuan ZHANG, Xu LI, Yongkang WU, Xiaokang LI
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2022, 16(12): 1501-1514. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-022-0893-2

    The Richards’ equation describes the flow phenomenon in unsaturated porous media and is essential to hydrology and environmental science. This study evaluated the numerical stability of two different forms of the Richards’ equation. Sensitivity analyses were performed to investigate the control parameters of the equation. The results show that the h-form Richards’ equation has better applicability for calculating variable saturation flows than the θ-form Richards’ equation. For the h-form Richards’ equation, the hydraulic conductivity of the soil in the low-suction range and the specific moisture capacity in the high-suction range primarily influenced the solution. In addition, sensitivity analyses indicated that the saturated hydraulic conductivity, initial condition, and air-entry pressure have a higher sensitivity to the simulation results than the saturated water content, rainfall intensity, and decline rate of hydraulic conductivity. Moreover, their correctness needs to be guaranteed first in numerical simulations. The research findings can provide a helpful reference for improving the reliability of numerical simulations of unsaturated flows.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Ninghui LIANG, Jinwang MAO, Ru YAN, Xinrong LIU, Xiaohan ZHOU
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2022, 16(3): 316-328. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-022-0810-8

    To study the damage evolution behavior of polypropylene fiber reinforced concrete (PFRC) subjected to sulfate attack, a uniaxial compression test was carried out based on acoustic emission (AE). The effect of sulfate attack relative to time and fiber hybridization were analyzed and the compression damage factor was calculated using a mathematical model. The changes to AE ringing counts during the compression could be divided into compaction, elastic, and AE signal hyperactivity stages. In the initial stage of sulfate attack, the concrete micropores and microcracks were compacted gradually under external load and a corrosion products filling effect, and this corresponded with detection of few AE signals and with concrete compression strength enhancement. With increasing sulfate attack time, AE activity decreased. The cumulative AE ringing counts of PFRC at all corrosion ages were much higher than those for plain concrete. PFRC could still produce AE signals after peak load due to drawing effect of polypropylene fiber. After 150 d of sulfate attack, the cumulative AE ringing counts of plain concrete went down by about an order of magnitude, while that for PFRC remained at a high level. The initial damage factor of hybrid PFRC was −0.042 and −0.056 respectively after 150 d of corrosion, indicating that the advantage of hybrid polypropylene fiber was more obvious than plain concrete and single-doped PFRC. Based on a deterioration equation, the corrosion resistance coefficient of hybrid PFRC would be less than 0.75 after 42 drying−wetting sulfate attack cycles, which was 40% longer than that of plain concrete.

  • Editorial
    The Editorial Office
    Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, 2018, 12(1): 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-017-0485-8