Characteristics of Grade 60 and Grade 72.5 Re-bars in Pakistan
In Pakistan, quality assurance of re-bars is practically non-existent and there is no generally accepted testing method for testing of re-bars. Steel re-bars of Grade 60 are exclusively used in Pakistan; however production of high strength re-bars has recently started. In this study, thirty samples of steel re-bars of Grade 60 and thirty samples of Grade 72.5 were tested using ASTM standard testing protocol to obtain the stress-strain curves and comparisons were made between the experimental results of Grade 60 and Grade 72.5 re-bars. It can be concluded that Grade 72.5 steel shows less deformation capacity as compared to Grade 60 steel. For Grade 60 re-bars, the yield strengths of all individual re-bars were much higher than the prescribed minimum yield strength, i.e. 60 ksi. For the Grade 72.5 rebars, about 50 % of the re-bars did not reach the prescribed minimum yield strength of 72.5 ksi. The experimental curves were then compared with an idealized stress-strain curve developed by using a fractional equation. It is recommended that instead of producing Grade 72.5 ksi reinforcing bars, the traditional ASTM Grade 75 reinforcing bars be produced.
Complete Triaxial Stress-Strain Curves for Concrete
A method to predict the ascending and the descending parts of stress-strain curve of concrete subjected to triaxial compressive stresses is presented. The proposed analytical stress-strain relationship depends on the values of the three principal stresses and strains at the ultimate compressive strength. A criterion to predict the triaxial compressive strength is proposed, which is sensitive to all three stress invariants. To enable predictions of the post-peak stress-strain relation, experiments were conducted on concrete confined by steel tube. Concretes with different compressve strengths were confined by steel tubes of varying thicknesses. The predicted stress-strain curves compared favorably with the available experimental data on uniaxial, biaxial, and triaxial compression.
Robust solutions of inverse problems in electromagnetic non-destructive evaluation
Non-destructive testing (NDT) is the application of physical measurement technology based on energy interaction with the material and its nonconformities. The material's response is sensed by transducers and sensors which?in most cases?scan the component and document the results in inspection images. However, NDT measures a physically defined quantity or even an intrinsic property. The difference between non-destructive evaluation (NDE) and NDT is in the interpretation of the inspection data. NDE has to discuss the inspection results in terms of quality elements and characteristics which are relevant to describe the fitness of the material for use. In the case of macroscopic defects these are the kind of defect (cracklike, globular) and its size and orientation to the main stress directions; in the case of material property determination the parameters are mainly mechanical properties. Therefore, in NDE one has to solve inverse problems. The solution of inverse problems based on mathematical procedures such as integral equations is a strong developing discipline and most of the articles prepared for this special issue of the journal have the objective of discussing the latest state of the art in that field. However, practical NDE needs robust and quick solutions which are to be applied mainly online. Therefore, we present here inversion procedures based on multiple linear regression algorithms applied to inspection data. We describe the calibration procedure to fit the free parameters of the model functions and give examples of practical applications in industry.