Papers by Author: Cheng Chen

Abstract: Concrete has one of the highest carbon footprints of building materials in use, and is also one of the most often used building materials in modern construction. Polystyrene is a non-biodegradable polymer in continued use. This paper examines the feasibility of using polystyrene beads in structural concrete. Recycled polystyrene beads were used as a coarse aggregate in concrete mixtures to explore possible structural application. Two samples apiece of three experimental mixes of concrete as well as control concrete mixtures were tested in the laboratory for density and compressive strength at 14, 28, 56 and 70 days curing. The laboratory testing showed one experimental mixture was of comparable compressive strength to the control concrete mixture. The experimental results demonstrated that recycled polystyrene concrete in volumetric percentages below 18.75% could be a feasible green concrete mixture.

Abstract: Shear-lag phenomenon exits in many long-web structure especially when the stiffness of web is much larger than that of the flange’s. In this paper, Energy-Variation Method is applied to interpret shear-lag phenomenon in cast-in-site reinforced concrete hollow floor system. Finite Element Method (FEM) and is then used to validate the analysis results. The solution for the variation equation for effective flange width is proposed by solving the differential equations using proper boundary conditions.

Abstract: Experimental evaluation of large scale MR fluid dampers for seismic hazard mitigation in buildings is presented in this paper. A simplified design procedure is applied to design a two-story, four-bay steel moment resisting frame (MRF) prototype structure with MR fluid dampers in passive mode. Real-time hybrid simulations are conducted to experimentally evaluate the performance of the MRF. The simulation results show that the simplified design procedure enables an efficient design to be achieved for an MRF with MR fluid dampers in passive-on mode.