Material Testing–Integrated Simulation of a Rehabilitated Concrete Structure Subjected to Preexisting Damage and Temperature Variation

Abstract

This paper investigates a new simulation framework for analyzing structural systems with unconventional complex materials under extreme loading conditions. The new experimental-numerical simulation method, named material testing–integrated (MTI) simulation is capable of incorporating the physical behavior of complex materials into the numerical simulation of large structural systems in real-time or nonreal-time modes. In this study, the new simulation method is applied on a reinforced concrete (RC) frame rehabilitated by applying active confinement on the columns using external shape memory alloy (SMA) spirals. Two MTI simulations are conducted to assess the impact of SMA confinement on the frame when: (1) SMA is applied as a repair measure (i.e., on a damaged structure), and (2) the ambient temperature drops significantly. Simulation results indicate that the SMA spiral is effective in maintaining the lateral force capacity of a damaged frame. However, its effect slightly decreases at extremely low temperatures.