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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Straining Definitions, William Pollalis, Santiago Pujol Aug 2015

Straining Definitions, William Pollalis, Santiago Pujol

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The concept of strain is ubiquitous in engineering textbooks. It is defined early in engineering education as change in length divided by initial length, and is used to quantify deformations due to things like stresses and temperature changes. The concept itself is quite straightforward and represents homogenous materials well, but homogenous materials are rarely present in engineering design. Composite materials such reinforced concrete cannot be simply defined, as their properties are heavily influenced by their non-uniformity. For example, there are large deformations around tensile cracks in reinforced concrete, where the reinforcement withstands all the tensile stress, and little deformation in …


Role Of Soil Parameters On Loading Of Buried Structures, Xiao Zhang, Mark D. Bowman, Rafael R. Armendariz Briones Aug 2015

Role Of Soil Parameters On Loading Of Buried Structures, Xiao Zhang, Mark D. Bowman, Rafael R. Armendariz Briones

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Load rating is the process to evaluate and explore the structural capacity of bridges as much as possible within safety range. As a balance between economy and safety, proper load ratings save money and keep public safe. Knowing the contribution and interaction of each different soil parameter on the loading can significantly reduce the amount of work when load rating those structures. However, for buried structures without plans, such contribution or interaction is never known. This parametric study explores how much each soil parameter of three types of soils can affect the loading of buried structures without plans. An existing …


Seismic Vulnerability Assessment Of Low-Rise Reinforced Concrete Buildings In Kathmandu, Nepal, Prateek Pratap Shah, Santiago Pujol Aug 2015

Seismic Vulnerability Assessment Of Low-Rise Reinforced Concrete Buildings In Kathmandu, Nepal, Prateek Pratap Shah, Santiago Pujol

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

In seismically active cities like Kathmandu, there often exists a need to assess the seismic vulnerability of a large number of poorly designed buildings within a short period of time. Traditional analysis techniques do not work because they require building data that are either inaccurate or unavailable. One alternative to traditional analysis techniques is to use simple correlations like the Priority Index. This index uses basic building information such as floor area, column area, and wall area to estimate the seismic vulnerability of a building. Following the 2015 Nepal earthquake, 146 low-rise reinforced concrete buildings were surveyed in Kathmandu, Nepal. …