Saline soil affected by earthquakes and groundwater can lead to subgrade subsidence and collapse in highway construction. Consequently, considering the potential activity of the waste slag and magnesia, new cementitious composite materials used in solid saline soil were developed in our study. The unconfined compressive strengths of the saline soil solidified by the new cementitious composite materials with a combination of magnesium oxide, calcium oxide, gypsum, and mineral powder and cement were investigated, and the optimum dosage proportion of the new cementitious composite material for solidifying saline soil was determined; then the SEM, EDS, and XRD of the saline soil solidified by the new cementitious composite materials and cement were analysed. The research result showed that the saline soil solidified by our newly developed cementitious composite material showed compact internal structure and uniformly distributed soil particles; moreover, the new cementitious composite material exhibited a favourable solidifying effect on harmful ions in saline soil, and the Cl&#x2212; trapping capacity of the new cementitious composite materials was stronger than that of cement. Finally, our developed cementitious composite material was applied to saline soil subgrade strengthening, and the displacement, acceleration, excess pore water pressure, and damage degree of the subgrade strengthening by our newly developed cementitious composite materials decreased remarkably; therefore, our newly developed cementitious composite material can improve the seismic behaviour of the saline soil subgrade and show potential future engineering application value.

Shuai Huang

Yuejun Lyu

Yanju Peng

Application Research of New Cementitious Composite Materials in Saline Soil Subgrade Aseismic Strengthening

The property of water flow through a single rock fracture is the base of describing the seepage characteristics of jointed rock mass. Five artificial tensile fractures of coarse-grained cylinder marble samples were made at about the midpoint of the long axis by using a self-made splitting mold. The upper and lower surfaces of the tensile fractures were scanned by a 3D laser scanner (OKIO) to obtain their 3D coordinates. Then, the Geomagic Studio Software and rock surface topography scan test software were used to obtain peak density values of each single fracture surface. To study the seepage characteristics of open fracture, 4 rectangular plastic spacers with the size of about 3&#x2009;mm&#x2009;&#xd7;&#x2009;2&#x2009;mm&#x2009;&#xd7;&#x2009;0.2&#x2009;mm were put into the fracture when water flowed through the single rough fracture tests were conducted under different normal stresses using the self-developed radial flow system. According to the testing data, the relationships between the seepage characteristics of single rough rock fracture and the peak density of fracture surface were studied. It is discovered that the 3D fracture morphology had great influences on the seepage characteristics of the single rock fracture. A modified cubic law was put forward to present the relationship between the seepage characteristics of a rough rock fracture and peak density of two fracture surfaces. Comparison between the modified cubic law and the experimental data showed a relatively good agreement.

Baohua Guo

Chenlin Wang

Long Wang

Yan Chen

Tan Cheng

A Modified Cubic Law for Rough-Walled Marble Fracture by Embedding Peak Density

This paper carries out forced vibration analysis of graphene nanoplatelet-reinforced composite laminated shells in thermal environments by employing the finite element method (FEM). Material properties including elastic modulus, specific gravity, and Poisson&#x2019;s ratio are determined according to the Halpin&#x2013;Tsai model. The first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT), which is based on the 8-node isoparametric element to establish the oscillation equation of shell structure, is employed in this work. We then code the computing program in the MATLAB application and examine the verification of convergence rate and reliability of the program by comparing the data of present work with those of other exact solutions. The effects of both geometric parameters and mechanical properties of materials on the forced vibration of the structure are investigated.

Trung Thanh Tran

Van Ke Tran

Pham Binh Le

Van Minh Phung

Van Thom Do

Hoang Nam Nguyen

Forced Vibration Analysis of Laminated Composite Shells Reinforced with Graphene Nanoplatelets Using Finite Element Method

The results obtained from the mechanical test of rock samples inevitably suffer dispersion owing to discrepancies between test specimens. In view of these deficiencies, the present study proposes a method based on the empirical equation of shear strength developed by Barton to determine the shear strength parameters of joint surfaces using a single test specimen. This approach is then applied to optimize the analysis of multiple specimens. An analysis of experimental results verifies that the shear strength parameters of joint surfaces obtained by the proposed method can more accurately reflect the shear mechanics of multiple specimens than conventional multiple sample analyses; meanwhile, the results are reasonable and reliable. More importantly, the optimized method ensures the shear strength parameters are no longer affected by the sequence of specimens employed during shear test. The optimized analysis method eliminates the effect of differences between specimens and the influence of subjective factors on test results and therefore provides more realistic evaluations of shear strength parameters.

Yao Xiao

Huafeng Deng

Jingcheng Fang

Hengbin Zhang

Jianlin Li

Optimized Analysis Method for Evaluating the Shear Strength Parameters of Rock Joint Surfaces

With the rapid development of asphalt pavement, the drainage capacity of asphalt pavement is becoming more and more demanding. Therefore, it is imperative to study the permeable asphalt mixture. The air voids and the connected air voids are the main factors affecting the drainage function and low-temperature performance of asphalt pavement. In order to solve the drainage and low-temperature cracking problem, it is proposed to incorporate a certain amount of polyester fiber into the permeable asphalt mixture. This paper studies the air voids and low-temperature performance of asphalt mixture with different polyester fiber contents. It is concluded that with the increase of polyester fiber content, both the air voids and the connected air voids decrease first and then increase and reach the minimum value when the polyester fiber content is 0.4&#x0025;. At this time, the low-temperature crack resistance of the permeable polyester fiber asphalt mixture is also the best.

Jin-rong Wu

Fei Li

Qin-yong Ma

Effect of Polyester Fiber on Air Voids and Low-Temperature Crack Resistance of Permeable Asphalt Mixture

The lifetime of hollow section tubular joints frequently can be shortened owing to the occurrence of the welded cracks and the plastic deformation of chords under the cyclic loading, because of the deficient radial bearing capacity of the steel tube. To avoid such failures, this paper proposes a novel method to strengthen the chord with double plates at the intersection of the chord and braces. To further investigate the efficiency of this strengthening method on hysteretic performance and energy depletion ability of the overlapped K-joints with hollow sections, two unreinforced K-joints and two reinforced K-joints were fabricated. By loading on the braces with collaborative cyclic loading, the joints failure modes, hysteresis curve, and skeleton curve were obtained. The bearing capacity, ductility, and energy depletion of the joints were assessed and the restoring force model of joints was proposed. The results show that the failure mode of the unreinforced joint is the plastic failure of the surface of the chord. For the K-RC1 (double-plate reinforced square hollow section tubular K-joints), cracks appeared at the junction weld between the through brace and the overlapped brace. However, cracks extended along the weld at the intersection of the chord and the through brace for K-CC1 (double-plate reinforced circular hollow section tubular K-joints). There is no obvious deformation on the chord surface of reinforced joints. Experimental results reveal that the mechanical properties of the joints can be improved effectively by such reinforcement measures and that the plastic deformation of the chord can also be restrained. Meanwhile, the reinforcement measures demonstrate the ability to avoid the risk of large stress concentration of the chord in the area where the braces and chords are intersected. The bearing capacity of the joint was increased; however, the ductility of the joint was weakened.

Wenwei Yang

Shuntao Li

Ruhao Yan

Yaqi Suo

Experimental Study on Hysteretic Behavior of Double-Plate Reinforced Overlapped K-Joints

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Advances in Civil Engineering publishes original research articles as well as review articles in all areas of civil engineering. The journal welcomes submissions across a range of disciplines, and publishes both theoretical and practical studies.

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Chief Editor, Professor Vipulanandan, is based at the University of Houston and his current research interests are in geotechnical, materials and geoenvironmental engineering.

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Advances in Civil Engineering - Table of contents 2020

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Advances in Civil Engineering publishes original research articles as well as review articles in all areas of civil engineering. The journal welcomes submissions across a range of disciplines, and publishes both theoretical and practical studies.

Advances in Civil Engineering