Durability Testing and Reliability Analysis of Connections in Lightweight Metal Structures

轻质金属结构连接的耐久性测试和可靠性分析

• 批准号: RGPIN-2017-03926
• 负责人: Walbridge, Scott
• 金额: $ 2.48万
• 依托单位: University of Waterloo
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=710430
• 关键词: Durability; Testing; Reliability; Analysis; Connections

In the design of civil infrastructure, such as buildings and bridges, aesthetics and sustainability considerations such as reducing user delay costs and long term environmental impacts are increasingly leading designers to consider the use of lightweight metal structures. With a modest increase in material cost, significant benefits can be realized through the use of more durable alloys and lightweight modular solutions that allow for longer service lives, a higher degree of prefabrication, reduced transportation and installation costs, and significantly reduced build times. These materials also lend themselves particularly well to “design for deconstruction” (DfD) an emerging concept, which involves careful consideration at the design stage, largely through the material selection and connection design, of how a structure can be more easily taken apart at the end of its service life to facilitate higher rates of reuse. In order to ensure that the highest potential is achieved in terms of the sustainability and societal benefit offered by lightweight metal structures, fundamental research is needed to develop more durable and reliable connection concepts for these structures. Against this background, the current proposal describes pioneering research aimed at increasing the state-of-knowledge and developing improved design rules and performance characteristics for the following connection types: i) slip-resistant bolted connections in modular metal structures, ii) cables at the saddle supports in cable-supported structures, and iii) friction-stir welded (FSW) joints in lightweight aluminum bridge deck panels. In each project, graduate students will employ similar research tools, including: durability testing, finite element (FE) modelling, non-linear fracture mechanics, and risk and reliability analysis. This research will investigate complex phenomena, which experts are still struggling to fully understand and accurately model, including: corrosion, wear, fretting fatigue, and variable amplitude (VA) loading effects on fatigue behaviour. The planned experiments will validate analytical models, which will be used to investigate ways of improving connection performance through material selection, geometric design, and surface enhancement by various means. It is expected that this timely research will lead to an improved understanding of the broader fundamentals of connection behaviour and the proposal of new and innovative connection concepts, which will eventually be adopted in standards and change the way that we design new buildings and bridges. The high quality personnel (HQP) trained through this research will be highly sought after by the Canadian construction sector, where they will take on leadership roles, due to the specialized knowledge they will acquire in durability assessment, reliability analysis, and sustainable infrastructure design.

在民用基础设施（如建筑物和桥梁）的设计中，美学和可持续性考虑（如减少用户延迟成本和长期环境影响）越来越多地引导设计师考虑使用轻质金属结构。随着材料成本的适度增加，通过使用更耐用的合金和轻质模块化解决方案，可以实现更长的使用寿命，更高程度的预制，减少运输和安装成本，并显着缩短建造时间，从而实现显着的效益。这些材料也特别适合“解构设计”（DfD），这是一个新兴的概念，它涉及到在设计阶段的仔细考虑，主要是通过材料选择和连接设计，如何在其使用寿命结束时更容易地将结构拆开，以促进更高的重复利用率。为了确保轻质金属结构在可持续性和社会效益方面发挥最大潜力，需要进行基础研究，为这些结构开发更耐用和可靠的连接概念。