Two retrofit strategies, aiming at increasing the collapse resistance of simple connections by adding seat angles and steel plates with long-slotted holes, are proposed in order to address the vulnerability of steel gravity frames under column loss scenarios. A high-fidelity, detailed, finite element model for a planar composite frame is developed and calibrated against experimental data and is used to conduct numerical analysis to explore the effectiveness of the proposed retrofit strategies. The simulation results show that the planar composite frame with enhanced connections exhibits significantly higher collapse resistance and better ductility under column loss scenarios compared with the one with conventional connections. Meanwhile, it is also revealed that the proposed retrofit strategies have an insignificant impact on the behavior of the structural system under earthquakes. These two retrofit strategies are then implemented to retrofit the gravity system of a 10-story, seismically designed steel frame structure, which has been shown to be vulnerable to progressive collapse after an interior gravity column is forcibly removed or impacted by a heavy vehicle with high speed. Numerical simulations were performed using a 3-D micro-based model and the simulation results illustrate that progressive collapse of the structure with enhanced gravity systems is prevented under both scenarios. Therefore, the proposed retrofit strategies are effective in preventing the progressive collapse of existing steel structures employing simple connections.

Concrete structure construction with a high strength grade in cold regions is a significant problem that has elicited considerable research attention. In this work, we firstly prepared steel-fiber-reinforced high-strength concrete (HSC) at −20 °C for winter concrete construction in a cold region. Specifically, the combination of graphene nanoplatelet (GNP) incorporation and electric thermal (ET) curing could effectively improve the performance when preparing high-strength concrete (GNP-HSC) at −20 °C. The optimal amount of steel fiber added in this work was determined numerically and experimentally to be 2.5 vol%. The temperature development regularity of the ET-cured sample was also recorded during the whole curing process. Mechanical property results indicated that the combination of GNP incorporation and ET curing could effectively stimulate the strength formation of HSC samples to 91.2 MPa at early age, which is remarkable for concrete construction at −20 °C. Moreover, microstructural analyses (including XRD, TG and SEM analyses) were further conducted to verify the advantages of GNP incorporation and ET curing on the hydration products, hydration degree and microstructure of HSC samples. This work provides new insights into the application of GNP as a nanoscale material to improve the performance of HSC structures at extremely low temperatures.

A gas and coal dust explosion is potential hazard in majority coal mines. A coal mine mobile refuge chamber is a new class of device for miners those who are unable to escape after an accident which can provide basic survival conditions. In this paper, in order to study the propagation law of an underground methane/air mixture explosive wave, and check the failure mode of a coal mine mobile refuge chamber, a full-sized underground tunnel model and a refuge chamber model have been established in ANSYS/LS-DYNA (LSTC, R7.0.0, Livermore, CA, USA, 2014). The simulation results show that the reflected wave pressure on the front surface of the refuge chamber was about twice as high than the incident wave. The pressure on various locations of the chamber was also analyzed. When the peak pressure of the explosive shockwave reached 0.64 MPa, the maximum displacement and stress occur at the center of the front door and the joint of stiffeners and the front plate, respectively. Most parts of the coal mine mobile refuge chamber were in a plastic failure state and the refuge chamber could be defined as damaged. The front door, the front plate, the connecting flange, and the stiffeners on each side were the primary key components. In the end, suggestions were proposed for the refuge chamber.

At present, the calculation method of ice load on surface navigation ships has been very mature, but the calculation method of submarine ice load is very few. The reasonable evaluation of submarine ice load has become an urgent problem to be solved. In this paper, the mechanical characteristics of the submarine surfacing ice-breaking process are systematically analyzed. Based on the theory of plate and shell, the theoretical calculation models of ice-breaking resistance of the submarine command tower and hull are established, respectively, and the ice load calculation method of the command tower and the hull is obtained. Then, the submarine model SUBOFF is used to perform the numerical simulation of the submarine’s ice-breaking and surfacing process. The numerical result is compared with the ice-breaking resistance calculation model. The results show that the ice-breaking resistance calculation model proposed in this paper is consistent with the numerical simulation results, and the influence of parameters such as ice mechanical properties, the upper area of the command tower, and initial crack length on ice-breaking resistance is established. The calculation model in this paper can provide a theoretical reference for the optimization design of polar submarine structures.