The volume expansion of reinforcement corrosion products resulting from the corrosion of steel reinforcement embedded into concrete causes the concrete’s protective layer to crack or spall, reducing the durability of the concrete structure. Thus, it is necessary to analyze concrete cracking caused by reinforcement corrosion. This study focused on the occurrence of non-uniform reinforcement corrosion in a natural environment. The characteristics of the rust layer were used to deduce the unequal radial displacement distribution function of concrete around both angular and non-angular bars. Additionally, the relationship between the corrosion ratio and the radial displacement of the concrete around the bar was established quantitatively. Concrete cracking due to the non-uniform corrosion of reinforcements was simulated using steel bars embedded in concrete that were of uneven displacement because of rust expansion. The distribution of the principal tensile stress around the bar was examined. A formula for calculating the critical radial displacement at the point when cracking began was obtained and used to predict the corrosion ratio of the concrete cover. The determined analytical corrosion ratio agreed well with the test result. The effect factor analysis based on the finite element method indicated that increasing the concrete strength and concrete cover thickness delays concrete cracking and that the adjacent rebar causes the stress superposition phenomenon.

Post-earthquake fire (PEF) is a relatively frequent disaster, but its damage on reinforcement concrete (RC) members is complicated and usually affected by uncertain factors. Earthquake damage leads to the decreasing of the stress and deformation properties of structures before the fire disaster begins. Even though it is difficult to figure out the exact damage principal of the PEF structures, there are several efforts focused on it. The main innovation of this paper relates to the extent of the earthquake damage on the fire resistance of the PEF RC columns, for which there has been little study in the past. The earthquake damage of an RC structure under a shaking table test is presented first, and the simulation models of the PEF RC columns are established. Then, the temperature field analysis of the PEF RC columns exposed in ISO 834 fire curve is carried out, from which the temperature contours and curves with the different spalling forms are employed. Finally, the prediction equations of the compressive bearing capacity reduction factor of the PEF RC columns are proposed.

In order to achieve low-carbon optimization in the intelligent mix ratio design of concrete materials, this work first constructs a concrete mix ratio database and performs a statistical characteristics analysis. Secondly, it employs a standard back propagation (BP) and a genetic algorithm-improved BP (GA-BP) to predict the concrete mix ratio. The NSGA-II algorithm is then used to optimize the mix ratio. Finally, the method’s accuracy is validated through experiments. The study’s results indicate that the statistical characteristics of the concrete mix ratio data show a wide distribution range and good representativeness. Compared to the standard BP, the fitting accuracies of each GA-BP set are improved by 4.9%, 0.3%, 16.7%, and 4.6%, respectively. According to the Fast Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) optimization for meeting C50 concrete strength requirements, the optimal concrete mix ratio is as follows: cement 331.3 kg/m³, sand 639.4 kg/m³, stone 1039 kg/m³, fly ash 56 kg/m³, water 153 kg/m³, and water-reducing agent 0.632 kg/m³. The 28-day compressive strength, material cost, and carbon emissions show relative errors of 2.1%, 0.6%, and 2.9%, respectively. Compared with commercial concrete of the same strength grade, costs and carbon emissions are reduced by 7.2% and 15.9%, respectively. The methodology used in this study not only significantly improves the accuracy of concrete design but also considers the carbon emissions involved in the concrete preparation process, reflecting the strength, economic, and environmental impacts of material design. Practitioners are encouraged to explore integrated low-carbon research that spans from material selection to structural optimization.

Transformer substations are among the most significant components of an electric power distribution system. These critical elements must remain operational during and after any extreme event, especially a severe earthquake. In past studies, the interaction between the main plant and the electrical equipment (EE) in a transformer substation was usually ignored. While a few considered this interaction through numerical simulations, there were no experimental studies to validate the findings. The aim of the present paper is to analyze the seismic reaction of a substation with explicit consideration of the dynamic interaction between the main plant and the EE mounted inside—achieved through a shaking table test and numerical simulations. A 1:8 scale model of a transformer substation plant with EE on its second floor is built and tested on a shaking table. Dynamic response data are gathered during seismic excitations of the substation, with and without the EE. These measurements and the corresponding validated numerical simulations clearly showed that there is obvious interaction between the plant and the EE. The stronger ground motions lead to a higher amplification of the seismic responses of the plant and the EE; and the observed acceleration amplification factors of the EE on the main plant are significantly greater than the factors recommended in the codes. In addition, the study shows that achieving the common performance objective of “ strong columns and weak beams,” may not be possible without explicitly considering the EE-main plant interaction effects, which cause the higher demands to migrate towards the column-ends. As such, those areas should be strengthened when designing substations against earthquakes.

Post-Earthquake Fire (PEF) on frame structures usually leads to complicated and unpredictable thermal performance of damaged concrete members. In order to determine the structural performance of seismic-damaged Reinforced Concrete (RC) beams under PEF conditions, the RC frame structures are subjected to the shake table test. The test, used in conjunction with other existing seismic hazard data, demonstrates that the main geometric damage forms of RC beams after the earthquake are cracks and concrete spalling. Subsequently, calculating models of PEF RC beams are established in ABAQUS, and then the distribution of thermal field, high-temperature bearing capacity and reduction coefficient of seismic-damaged beams are proposed respectively. From experimental and numerical investigations, It can conclude that (a) the simplified numerical models are proven to accurately determine the fire performance of the damaged RC beams; (b) the thermal performance degradation caused by spalling is more severe than the degradation caused by cracking on PEF RC beams, which demonstrates that spalling takes a more important role than cracking; and (c) the prediction equation of the flexural bearing capacity reduction factor of PEF RC beams is feasible.