Ministries and departments of transportation are working to undertake assessments of deteriorated metal culverts. To assist with these assessments by developing rational methods of classifying culverts, to select those requiring replacement or repair, the current thesis studied the effects of metal corrosion and backfill erosion on culvert stability. Finite element calculations were used to explain how stability is jeopardized by two forms of deterioration, both material failure (yield in the steel) and geometrical nonlinearity (bucking failure). The stability assessments are presented for structures designed using limit states design procedures in the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code and the LRFD Bridge Design Code of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. It was found that yield in culverts in intact ground is proportional to plate thickness (thrust and moment are not affected). Buckling strength changes as corrosion occurs, but does not become critical in structures supported by good quality backfill (without erosion). Surprisingly, thrusts decrease when erosion develops adjacent to the culvert, and this implies that factor of safety against yield is increased. However, substantial decreases in buckling strength occur, and elastic instability can then become the critical performance limit after erosion. Three dimensional finite element analysis indicates that local buckling can develop before global buckling, for new structures featuring thin plates, or for thicker structures after corrosion. This form of elastic instability may not be safely estimated using current culvert buckling equations which consider global buckling. Local buckling results were not effectively estimated using the Bryn’s equation (the conventional method used for stiffened plate structures); therefore a preliminary design equation for assessment of local buckling is provided. After verifying the results obtained from this thesis with physical experiments, these findings can provide practitioners with useful evaluation tools for a quantitative assessment to the stability of buried culverts subjected to these two different kinds of deterioration (corrosion and erosion) in order to augment engineering experience or judgment, which is the primary tool currently being used. Moreover, the current study helps future experimental and numerical studies by investigating various significant deterioration scenarios, and the impacts of these scenarios. / Thesis (Ph.D, Civil Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2009-10-08 12:56:13.218

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This thesis investigates the shear capacities of carbon-fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) prestressed concrete T-beams using a non-linear finite element analysis. The finite element models on ANSYS are validated with the experimental results of four beams having the shear span-to-depth (a/d) ratios of 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5 subjected to four-point bending and that of a beam subjected to a uniformly distributed load. The numerical results are within 10% range of accuracy in comparison to the experimental results. The validated models are used to investigate the influence of the a/d ratios and the prestressing force level on the beam capacity. The analysis indicates that the shear capacity of the beams is inversely dependent on the a/d ratio. It also shows that the increase in the prestressing force by 37% results in a 5.1% increase in the beam shear capacity. The comparison of the analysis results and the North American design shear formulas shows that the formula given by the CSA S806-12 gives similar a/d dependency but lower values of shear resistance than the analysis.

Three 3D nonlinear finite-element (FE) models are developed to study the behavior of concrete beams and plates with and without externally reinforcement of fibre reinforced polymer (FRP). Ramtekkar’s mixed layer-wise 3 dimensional (3D) 18-node FE model (108 degrees-of-freedom, DOFs) is modified to accommodate the nonlinear concrete and elasto-plastic steel behaviour. Saenz’s stress-strain equation is used for material nonlinearity of concrete. As in any 3D mixed FE analysis, the run time using the model can be computationally expensive. Two additional layer-wise 18-node FE models: Displacement FE model (54 DOF) and transitional FE model (81 DOF) are developed. The displacement FE model is based on purely displacement field, i.e. only displacement components are enforced throughout the thickness of the structures. The transitional FE model has six DOF (three displacement components in the coordinate axis direction and three transverse stress components - where z is the thickness direction) per node in the upper surface and only three DOF (three displacement components in the coordinate axis direction) per node in the bottom surface.The analysis of reinforced concrete (RC) beam strengthened with FRP and composite plate using these models are verified against the experimental results and the results from the commercial software, ANSYS respectively. Several parametric studies are done on composite RC beam and composite plate.

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An advanced finite-element package, tailored to the static and dynamic analysis of radial impellers has been produced. Two families of new elements, one for thin and thick plates and the other for thin and thick shells, have been derived and proved to perform very well within a wide range of structural thicknesses. Static and dynamic economical solvers, two- and three-dimensional mesh generation and plotting, sectorial symmetric analysis, steady state response, transient response, and other programs are part of the large number of facilities available in the package. The finite-element package has been validated by solving a large number of simple case studies and comparing the package results with those obtained from analytical solutions. Two different radial impeller, experimental validation tests have been carried out, the first being the dynamic analysis of a radial impeller using the time averaged holographic technique, and the second the measurement of the steady-state stresses by means of a strain-gauge/slip ring assembly for a rotating impeller. The experimental results have been shown to be in good agreement with those obtained from the package.