There is a concern with worldwide deterioration of highway bridges, particularly reinforced concrete. Due to the corrosive nature of steel re-bars used in concrete bridge decks, the service-life of these bridges is reduced. The advantages of advanced composite materials (ACM) over conventional materials motivate their use in highway bridges for rehabilitation and replacement of structures. Howe...

This paper presents the formulation of a time-dependent seismic fragility format for bridges, as well as new insights into the potential effects of aging and deterioration on seismic vulnerability traditionally neglected in fragility modeling, including joint impacts of multiple component deterioration not investigated to date. The study evaluates the impact of lifetime exposure to chlorides fr...

cost optimization of the reinforced concrete cantilever soil retaining wall of a given height satisfying some structural and geotechnical design constraints is performed utilizing harmony search and improved harmony search algorithms. the objective function considered is the cost of the structure, and design is based on aci 318-05. this function is minimized subjected to design constraints. a n...

This paper presents the performance-based optimization of strut-and-tie models in reinforced concrete beam-column connections. The performance-based optimization (PBO) technique is employed to investigate optimal strut-and-tie models in reinforced concrete beam-column connections. Developing strut-and-tie models in reinforced concrete beam-column connections is treated as a topology optimizatio...

During earthquake excitations, reinforced concrete bridge columns can be subjected to a combination of axial load, shear force, flexural moments, and torsional moments. The torsional moment can be much more significant in columns of bridges that are skewed, curved, have unequal spans, or unequal column heights. Combined loading including torsion can result in complex flexural and shear failure ...

Nowadays, concrete with strength higher than 50 MPa is utilized due to the ever increasing need for higher strength and prolonged healing properties. Despite the widespread use of high-strength concrete, only a few research projects have been conducted on the punching shear strength of high-strength concrete slabs. Reinforced concrete flat slabs are widely employed in structural systems. The lo...

This paper presents the application of the genetic algorithm to the design of some common concrete structures in Hong Kong, namely, tall reinforced concrete building frameworks, long-span concrete portal frames and prestressed concrete beams or bridges using spreadsheet. Cross-sectional dimensions of member groups are treated as discrete design variables and the method aims to minimize the weig...