Engineering Commons^™

Shear And Peel Stresses At The Interface Between Hollowcore Slabs And The Topping Concrete, Aiham Adawi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Hollowcore slabs are used in floors and roofs of residential, commercial, industrial and institutional buildings. They are precast/prestressed concrete elements produced using the extrusion process. Their surface finish can be “machine-cast” or “intentionally roughened”. A typical floor consists of a number of hollowcore slabs that are connected together. Prestressing causes hollowcore slabs to camber, which results in an uneven floor surface. A 50 mm topping concrete is commonly cast to level the floor surface. To avoid delamination, engineers require bonding agents to be applied on the hollowcore slab surface before pouring the topping concrete. The concrete topping can be used …

Behaviour Of Helical Pile Connectors For New Foundations, Muhammad Ahmad Muhammad Diab

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Despite the wide application of the connections between slender pile types, which end with a mono steel bar at the ground level (e.g. helical piles and micro piles), and new reinforced concrete foundations with limited width (e.g. RC grade beams) in the piling industry in North America, neither a clear understanding of the connections' behaviour nor a specific design criteria for their implementation is presented.

The main goal of this research was to clearly understand the behaviour of these connections and their failure mechanism under monotonic and cyclic loadings. The research methodology involved conducting experimental tests on 33 full-scale pile-foundation …

Performance Of Protective Perimeter Walls Subjected To Explosions In Reducing The Blast Resultants On Buildings, Fada Casi F Alsubaei

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The existing methods to predict the blast effects on structures located behind blast walls are based on plane rigid walls and the results of small-scale studies, which are not validated by the results of full-scale experiments. Hence, they are only valid for a very limited range of scaled parameters. Also, they do not account for the impact of non-spherical charges or for different ignition points; they also put their emphasis on mid-and far-field overpressures.

The current thesis investigates blast wave propagations created by cuboid charges and their effects on structural members at close-in and nearby ranges. First, a preliminary numerical …

Statistical Analyses Of Historical Pipeline Incident Data With Application To The Risk Assessment Of Onshore Natural Gas Transmission Pipelines, Chio Lam

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Statistical analyses of the pipe-related incident data for onshore gas transmission pipelines between 2002 and 2013 collected by the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) of the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) are conducted. It is found that the total length of the onshore gas transmission pipelines in the US is approximately 480,000 km as of 2013. The third-party interference, external corrosion, material failure and internal corrosion are the leading causes for the pipe-related incidents, responsible for over 75% of the total incidents between 2002 and 2013. Based on the pipeline mileage and incident data, the average rate …

Application Of Polyurethane Products In Accelerated Construction Of Innovative Noise Barrier, Bahman Daee

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Noise barriers (sound walls) are usually constructed along roadways to mitigate the airborne noise emanating from vehicles. They are currently built using various materials including precast concrete panels, masonry, wood and transparent sheets. The main challenge in roadside construction is the obstruction of roadways during the construction, which may result in traffic congestion, public dissatisfaction, car collision and subsequently fatalities. In order to decrease the risk of roadside construction, accelerated and non-obstructive methods are highly preferred by transportation authorities.

An innovative wall system comprised of polyurethane products is proposed, developed and investigated for application in accelerated construction of noise barriers. …

Experimental And Numerical Study On Full-Scale Precast Steel Fibre-Reinforced Concrete Pipes, Nedal Mohamed

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Reinforced concrete (RC) pipes are widely used as open channels (non-pressurized pipes) for sewage and storm water conveyance. RC pipes have generally achieved a reliable long-term performance. Depending on multiple parameters (e.g. pipe diameter, pipe wall thickness, required strength, etc.) the pipe may have up to three welded reinforcement cages in order to resist anticipated loads. Each cage is an assembled unit of steel reinforcement consisting of circumferential and longitudinal bars or wires. The fabrication process of a steel cage reinforcement is time and labour consuming. Thus, eliminating the steel cage reinforcement will yield an overall reduction in the production …