Structural Engineering Research Centre

About: Structural Engineering Research Centre is a facility organization based out in Chennai, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Finite element method & Fracture mechanics. The organization has 520 authors who have published 703 publications receiving 7298 citations.

Studies on Lime Sludge for Partial Replacement of Cement

Abstract: Utilization of industrial and agricultural waste products in the construction industry has been the focus of research for economical and environmental reasons In this paper, Lime sludge, a paper and pulp industry waste product, has been chemically, physically and thermally characterized, in order to evaluate the possibility of its use as construction materials X-ray Fluorescence and X-ray diffractometry studies for the determination of composition and presence of crystalline material and Thermo Gravimetric Analysis to identify the phase transition of lime sludge, as well as physical and mechanical properties and its pozzolanic activity have been conducted It is concluded that the acceptance of this waste product by the construction industry could be decided depending on the application, keeping in view of the limitations on the mechanical strength

Multi-objective optimal design of laminated composite skirt using hybrid NSGA

Abstract: In this paper a new hybridised version of non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA) is proposed to solve combinatorial optimisation problems associated with laminated composite structures. The proposed algorithm is used to optimise the design of hybrid laminated fibre composite skirt of solid rocket motor, subjected to a buckling strength constraint and an overstressing strength constraint under aerodynamic torque and axial thrust. The present investigations involve in determining the best laminate configuration to minimise the weight as well as cost of the skirt through multi-objective optimisation. Buckling strength and overstressing strength of the composite cylindrical skirt are analysed using classical laminate theory. Tsai-Wu failure criterion is employed to assess the first ply failure, and failure strength is described by an overstressing load level factor. The superiority of the proposed hybrid algorithm is demonstrated by comparing with the originally proposed NSGA algorithm. The studies presented in this paper clearly indicate that the proposed modification to the NSGA improves the convergence properties quite appreciably.

Use of Portland Pozzolana Cement to Enhance the Service Life of Reinforced Concrete Exposed to Chloride Attack

Abstract: This paper discusses the improvement expected in the service life of reinforced concrete (RC) structural elements subjected to chloride-rich environments through the use of blended cement Comparisons are made between concretes with ordinary portland cement (OPC) and fly ash-based portland pozzolana cement (PPC) at three water-to-cement ratios (w/c=057, 047, and 037) Through a comprehensive experimental program, the apparent chloride diffusion coefficient (Dc) and corrosion current density (icorr) were evaluated for these concretes The study reveals that (1) although service life depends on both initiation and propagation periods, the propagation period is less significant when the severity of the environment is high; and (2) the service life of an RC structure can double if PPC is used instead of OPC when chloride-induced corrosion is critical