No description available.

The relocation of Chongqing Iron and Steel Company (CIS) in 2011 resulted in its old site’s demolition in 2012. As one of the largest post-industrial sites in Chongqing, it faces many future challenges. Framed by an existing redevelopment plan, this practicum proposes a design that responds to the current site conditions and lays groundwork for its future. The design capitalizes on the existing attributes of the site to create a variety of experiences. It employs phytotehcnologies to remediate contaminated soil and also offers opportunities for research, education and recreation. Personal experiences and reflections on China’s post-industrial regeneration are also discussed. / October 2016

Stainless steel profiled walls have increasingly been used in the process and other industries to protect people and personnel against hydrocarbon or chemical explosions. The existence of various uncertainties, in particular the ones associated with explosion loading and parameters, make the current design and assessment which are based on single degree of freedom (SDOF) and deterministic approach, very complicated and in many cases leading to unreliable design assessment. Therefore, developing an appropriate reliability approach for assessing and designing blast wall structures would greatly assist in improving the safety of personnel and plant facilities. The objective of this research study is to develop a practical framework for performance based design of stainless steel profiled barrier blast walls, with specific focus on reliability assessment by implementing stochastic finite element analysis (SFEA). Initially, the current traditional SDOF method is reviewed to identify the related issues and weaknesses and accordingly an appropriate method for structural assessments of the blast walls is proposed. Furthermore, a comprehensive investigation on various available methods is carried out to identify a suitable probabilistic approach for the reliability assessments. The corresponding reliability of these structures is evaluated with a MCS method, implementing the Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) approach. A programming package is developed using Ansys Parametric Design Language (APDL), to generate parametric finite element models and to perform automated reliability assessments. The significant uncertainties are combined with an advanced analysis model to investigate the influence of loading, material and geometric uncertainties on the response of these structures under realistic boundary conditions and connection configuration. Effective implementation of the framework is achieved by the development of a combined programming package to deal with both finite element and reliability analyses. A further development for this research study is associated with the development of performance based design approach, using the results of the probabilistic and finite element assessments. This can be utilised for optimum and appropriate design of the blast wall structures, based on the defined performance levels. Application and practicality of the developed approach and associated programming package is demonstrated through a number of case studies of realistic stainless steel profiled barriers subject to explosion loading. The results of the preliminary probabilistic case studies confirm that the explosion loading is the main influential input parameter and also nonlinearities are more critical than dynamic effects for unstiffened profiled barrier blast walls. An appropriate dynamic load factor (DLF) is proposed for the preliminary stage of the design and assessments. It is observed that using the probabilistic approach can help identify the important variables and parameters to optimize the design of profiled blast walls, and to perform risk assessments for these structures. The study is expanded to develop a performance based design methodology, linking the probabilistic results with various performance levels and associated parameters (e.g., damage levels). The results and discussions of the case studies associated with performance based design assessments confirm the suitability of the proposed framework, and also highlight the complications in defining intermediate levels, without preliminary investigations. This shows that QRA approach and involvement of professionals can play an important role to develop performance levels and the associated objectives. The developed programming package and associated framework are expected to provide valuable guidance to professional design engineers and researchers, by obviating the need for complex computational requirements.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xiii, 148 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 136-137).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2008. / "Graduate Program in Public Health." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lehigh University, 2004. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 411-424).

Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

This thesis studies the uni-axial behaviour of circular double-skinned concrete-filled-steel-tubular (CFST) columns with external confinement in form of external steel rings. Particular attention is paid to the experimental behaviour of double-skinned CFST columns and theoretical model for evaluating the loadcarrying capacity of un- and ring-confined double-skinned CFST columns. Experimental studies on circular double-skinned CFST columns with various spacing of confinement, concrete strength and hollow ratio were conducted and discussed comprehensively. The mechanical properties of double-skinned CFST columns such as elastic stiffness, elastic strength, load-carrying capacity and ductility are presented. From the result, it is found that the elastic stiffness, elastic strength, load-carrying capacity and ductility are enhanced by installing the external steel rings to the outer tube as external confinement. To verify the effectiveness of external steel rings, the Poisson’s ratios of the double-skinned CFST columns are listed and found to be similar to that of concrete so that a perfect bonding is maintained. To emphasis the excellent performance of double-skinned CFST columns with external rings under uni-axial compression, the load-carrying capacity, elastic strength and elastic stiffness are compared to those of single-skinned CFST columns and reinforced concrete columns. To fill up the gap that no design model is provided in Eurocode 4 (EC4) for confined double-skinned CFST columns, a theoretical model based on the force equilibrium condition is proposed for evaluating the load-carrying capacity of both un- and ring-confined double-skinned CFST columns. The model takes into account the composite action between the steel tubes and core concrete. To verify the proposed model, numerous test results obtained by the author and other researchers are used for comparing the theoretical results. According to the above theoretical model above, a parametric study is carried out to investigate the effect of various geometry and material properties on the load-carrying capacity of double-skinned CFST columns. The confining pressure is expressed in terms of geometry and material factors. A simplified design formula is proposed to facilitate the preliminary design of double-skinned CFST columns with and without external confinement. / published_or_final_version / Civil Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy