•Axially loaded UHPC and RC columns were tested under lateral impact loads.•Impact response of UHPC columns was studied through numerical modelling.•Analytical damage assessment was proposed for UHPC ...columns.
This paper presents an experimental and numerical study on the dynamic behaviour of axially-loaded reinforced conventional concrete (RC) and ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) columns against low-velocity impact loading. The test specimens were divided into two groups with square and circular cross-section shapes, and each group includes both RC and UHPC columns. The impact scenario was modelled with a drop weight falling freely on the column mid-span. Brittle failure with shear plug formation was observed in RC columns while UHPC columns remained a flexure response with minimal damage under severe impact loads. To further interpret the experimental data, detailed finite element (FE) models were developed for RC and UHPC columns. A Continuous Surface Cap Model (CSCM) which accounts for the triaxial material strength, post peak softening and strain rate effect was adopted for UHPC material. After validating the material and structural model based on the testing data, extensive numerical simulations were performed to predict the UHPC column residual loading capacity after lateral impacts. Impact mass-velocity (M-V) diagrams were derived for the UHPC column damage assessment, and analytical formulae which could be easily applied to generate M-V diagrams were derived based on parametric studies.
•UHPFRC filled steel tubular (UHPFRCFST) members have been tested under lateral impact loading.•UHPFRCFST members exhibit higher lateral impact resistance than the normal strength concrete (NSC) ...filled steel tubular (NSCFST) members.•Finite element (FE) model is developed and validated by the test results.•Parametric analyses have been carried out by using the developed FE model.
This study investigates the behavior of ultra-high performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) filled steel tubular (UHPFRCFST) members under lateral impact loading. A total of five specimens were prepared and tested under lateral impact loading. All specimens were 168 mm in diameter and 2000 mm in length. In addition to UHPFRCFST members, normal strength concrete (NSC) filled steel tubular (NSCFST) members were also tested for comparison purpose. Other investigated parameters in this study include the impact energy and the presence of an inner void. The test results show that as compared to the NSCFST members, the UHPFRCFST members exhibit higher lateral impact resistance with higher peak and plateau impact forces, smaller deflection, and less local indentation. With the increase of impact energy, the peak impact force, the impact duration, and the deflection of the UHPFRCFST members are increased, while the plateau impact force is almost kept constant. Moreover, the presence of an inner void does not deteriorate the lateral impact resistance of the UHPFRCFST members. Finite element (FE) model was then developed and validated by the test results in this study. Afterwards, full-range analysis was performed to investigate the damage evolution, sectional bending moment distribution, and the interactions between the steel tube and the concrete during the impact process. Finally, detailed parametric analyses were carried out to investigate the influences of different parameters on the lateral impact behavior of UHPFRCFST members.
•Phase field fracture is formulated for multi-surface plasticity.•Hardening and yield function could affect fracture behaviour in elastoplastic solids.•The unified yield criterion can facilitate the ...study of different yield surfaces.•Analytic solutions of fracture are derived for homogeneous response.•Numerical solutions are presented for non-homogeneous facture response.
The phase field modelling has been extended from brittle fracture to ductile fracture by incorporating plasticity. However, the effects of plastic yield functions and hardening on the fracture behaviour have not been examined systematically to date. The phase field fracture coupled with multi-surface plasticity is formulated in the variational framework for the unified yield criterion, which is able to facilitate the study on different yield surfaces. First, the homogeneous solutions of fracture in elasto-plastic solids are derived analytically for 1D and 2D cases. The results show that a greater hardening modulus would lead to an ascending branch of the stress versus strain curve; and the yield function may significantly affect the stress state and phase field damage. Second, the finite element (FE) technique is implemented for modelling the phase field fracture in elasto-plastic solids, in which the stress update and consistent tangent modular matrix are derived for the unified yield criterion. Finally, three numerical examples are presented to explore the effects of the yield function and material hardening. It is found that the yield function and material hardening could significantly affect the crack propagation and the final fracture pattern. In particular, the Tresca yield function tends to create a straight crack path orthogonal to the first principal stress, while the other yield functions show no sizeable difference in their crack paths.
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•UHPC slabs and NRC slabs are tested under contact explosions.•Spall damages are observed and compared among all the slabs.•Empirical methods are adopted to predict the spall damage and their ...limitations are discussed.•Fragments from all tests are collected and their size distributions are investigated.
Unlike ductile behaviour under static loads, a reinforced concrete structure can respond in a brittle manner with highly localised damage like concrete spalling, cratering and reinforcement rupturing under close-in or contact explosions. High speed fragmentation resulting from concrete spall may cause severe casualties and injuries. It is therefore important to have a better understanding of the concrete spall phenomena and fragments distribution. In the present study, contact explosion tests were carried out on concrete slabs to observe the concrete crater and spall damage. Seven slabs including two control specimens made of normal strength concrete (NRC) and five ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) slabs are tested. The superior blast resistance capacity of UHPC slabs is verified through comparison against NRC slabs. The influence of longitudinal reinforcement spacing and slab depth on the spall resistance of UHPC slabs is investigated. Predictions through available empirical methods are made and compared with the test observations. The accuracy of these empirical methods is discussed. All fragments resulting from the contact blast tests are collected and analysed through sieve analysis. It is found that Weibull distribution can be used to model the fragments size distribution of NRC slabs while Log-normal distribution better models the fragments size distribution of UHPC slabs.
A 100mm-diameter split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) was applied to investigate effects of nanoparticles on the dynamic mechanical properties of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) under impact ...loading. The nano-SiO2 (NS) and nano-CaCO3 (NC) were incorporated to replace cement by mass of 1 and 2% in RACs. The impact velocities were set as 7.7, 9.8 and 11.6m/s in the SHPB tests. The effects of nanoparticles on failure patterns, compressive strengths, elastic modulus, peak strain and dynamic increase factor (DIF) of RACs under different strain rates were analyzed and discussed. The results show that nanomodified RACs exhibit higher both quasi-static and dynamic compressive strengths compared to control RAC. Dynamic elastic modulus of RAC seems not be affected by nanoparticle dosages and impact velocities. Compared to NC, NS is more effective to improve dynamic compressive strengths of RAC. On the other hand, the nanoparticles modified RACs exhibit lower DIF values than that of the control RAC. Moreover, NC obviously more reduces the DIF values of nanomodified RAC than NS.
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•Nano-SiO2 and nano-CaCO3 modified recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) exhibit higher dynamic compressive strength compared to the control RAC.•Nanoparticles can reduce the strain rate sensitive of cement mortar in RAC, and then decrease the dynamic increase factor.•Compared to nano-CaCO3, nano-SiO2 more effectively improves the dynamic compressive strength of RAC, but less obviously enhances the deformation capacity.
Patients with indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma typically respond well to first-line immunochemotherapy. At relapse, single-agent rituximab is commonly administered. Data suggest the immunomodulatory ...agent lenalidomide could increase the activity of rituximab.
A phase III, multicenter, randomized trial of lenalidomide plus rituximab versus placebo plus rituximab was conducted in patients with relapsed and/or refractory follicular or marginal zone lymphoma. Patients received lenalidomide or placebo for 12 cycles plus rituximab once per week for 4 weeks in cycle 1 and day 1 of cycles 2 through 5. The primary end point was progression-free survival per independent radiology review.
A total of 358 patients were randomly assigned to lenalidomide plus rituximab (n = 178) or placebo plus rituximab (n = 180). Infections (63%
49%), neutropenia (58%
23%), and cutaneous reactions (32%
12%) were more common with lenalidomide plus rituximab. Grade 3 or 4 neutropenia (50%
13%) and leukopenia (7%
2%) were higher with lenalidomide plus rituximab; no other grade 3 or 4 adverse event differed by 5% or more between groups. Progression-free survival was significantly improved for lenalidomide plus rituximab versus placebo plus rituximab, with a hazard ratio of 0.46 (95% CI, 0.34 to 0.62;
< .001) and median duration of 39.4 months (95% CI, 22.9 months to not reached) versus 14.1 months (95% CI, 11.4 to 16.7 months), respectively.
Lenalidomide improved efficacy of rituximab in patients with recurrent indolent lymphoma, with an acceptable safety profile.
In one-step raise excavation, spherical cartridge blasting mode is easy to be implemented due to minimal requirement of the hole-deviation. Nevertheless, it may induce cumulative damage to the ...country rock. This study firstly uses a validated rock model (Johnson-Holmquist model) to simulate the damage evolution process of a raise by spherical cartridge blasting mode in LS-DYNA software. Then a field test is carried out to examine the numerical results of spherical cartridge blasting mode. Both the numerical and test results indicate that because of highly confined rock mass and restricted free face in deep raise, a large charge is required in spherical cartridge blasting mode which leads to extensive damage on the wall of the raise. In order to solve such a problem, the pre-split blasting technique is developed to optimize spherical cartridge blasting mode. According to the subsequent numerical results, the improved spherical cartridge blasting mode is successfully applied in another filling raise. This study provides an effective solution to the difficulties that are encountered in one-step raise excavation by spherical cartridge blasting mode.
Concrete filled steel tubes (CFST) have been widely used in constructing high-rise buildings, arch bridges and factories for the past few decades. In this research, numerical studies were carried out ...to investigate the flexural behaviour of CFST columns under both static and dynamic loads. The numerical models were calibrated and validated against a number of experimental data where the proposed models showed very good agreement with the test results. The results indicated that CFST columns showed good resistance against flexural loads under both static and dynamic loading conditions and therefore it has the potential to be widely used in these areas where potential blast attacks or frequent earthquakes are expected. The verified numerical model can also be extended to predict performances of concrete-infilled steel tubes under different loading conditions.
•A numerical model is developed to predict the structural responses of CFST columns.•The pressure–time histories recorded from the blast tests are compared to the numerical predictions.•Good agreement is achieved between the test results and the numerical predictions.
•A simple and effective one technique is used for the measurement of the spall strength.•The free surface velocities of the specimen were measured by a laser detector.•The spall strength of granite ...specimens under static pre-confining pressure is obtained.•Spalling strength decreases with an increase in the static pre-confining pressure.
A testing method of spalling strength at different static pre-confining pressure is proposed in this paper. Using a modified split Hopkinson bar facility, a static pre-confining pressure was loaded before dynamic loading. The pull-back method is used to calculate the spalling strength and the free surface velocities of the specimen were measured by a laser detector system. The experimental results indicate that the spalling strength is related to the static pre-confining pressures. When the impact loading and rate effect are almost the same, the results demonstrated that the spalling strength decreases with an increase in the confining pressure.
In this study, immersion experiments were conducted on the geopolymer mortar (GPM) by using artificial seawater, and the effects of alkali equivalent (AE) and waterglass modulus (WGM) on the ...resistance of geopolymer mortar (GPM) to seawater immersion were analyzed. The test subjected 300 specimens to 270 days of artificial seawater immersion and periodic performance tests. Alkali equivalent (AE) (3-15%) and waterglass modulus (WGM) (1.0-1.8) were employed as influencing factors, and the mass loss and uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) were used as the performance evaluation indexes, combined with X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to analyze the time-varying pattern of geopolymer mortar (GPM) performance with seawater immersion. The findings demonstrated a general trend of initially growing and then declining in the uniaxial compression strength (UCS) of geopolymer mortar (GPM) under seawater immersion. The resistance of geopolymer mortar (GPM) to seawater immersion decreased with both higher or lower alkali equivalent (AE), and the ideal range of alkali equivalent (AE) was 9-12%. The diffusion layer of the bilayer structure of the waterglass particle became thinner with an increase in waterglass modulus (WGM), which ultimately led to the reduction in the resistance of the geopolymer structure to seawater immersion. Additionally, a support vector regression (SVR) model was developed based on the experimental data to predict the uniaxial compression strength (UCS) of GPM under seawater immersion. The model performed better and was able to achieve accurate prediction within 1-2 months, and provided an accurate approach to predicting the strength of geopolymer materials in a practical offshore construction project.