Rabab Allouzi

University of Jordan | UJ · Department of Civil Engineering

Recently, there has been a particular emphasis on the use of structural adhesives in steel connection systems. Applying adhesives that possess both high strength and flexibility would be highly advantageous for structural purposes. In this study, experimental tests are conducted on two main different types of steel-plate connections; namely, bolted...

Concrete-filled steel tubes (CFSTs) have demonstrated superior performance compared to other types of composite columns. The evaluation of interactions between concrete and steel composites is crucial due to their significant impact on the overall structural behavior in various loadings. This study develops an artificial neural network (ANN) that p...

Purpose Cement can be replaced to reduce the energy consumption and the environmental impact of cement. Also, foamed concrete can be used structurally in residential buildings to reduce weight and improve thermal insulation. To achieve these two goals, this paper aims to investigate the effect of basalt powder as a partial replacement of either cem...

Purpose Concrete-filled double skin steel tubes (CFDST) columns are taken more attention due to their ability to withstand high structural loads in structures such as high-rise buildings, bridges' piers, offshore and marine structures. This paper is intended to improve the CFDST column's capacity without the need to increase the column's size to ma...

Sufficient thermal insulation is fundamental to construct energy-efficient structures. As Jordan has little natural resources and applying insulation based on codes of thermal insulation are not put in force yet, the current practice for thermal insulation is investigated. A review of the progress change of modern architecture and construction in J...

The response of RC frames with confined masonry (CM) walls is governed by the interaction between the surrounding RC frames and the confined masonry panels. This interaction will not only affect the structural integrity of the masonry walls but also significantly affect the failure mode of the RC frames compared to what they were originally designe...

This research is part of project conducted to build energy-efficient houses. It is suggested to replace normal weight reinforced concrete slabs and the thermal insulation layer with structural foamed concrete slabs. As strength requirements were previously investigated, the long-term deflections of six foamed concrete slabs with various reinforceme...

Recycled aggregates are one of the options that can be used to form the concrete because they can be considered as environmental-friendly. Using of high replacement ratio of recycled aggregates decreases the compressive strength of the concrete and weakens the rest mechanical properties. This study intended to investigate the effect of the confinem...

In the global construction industry, the demand for new technologies for manufacturing lightweight concrete has greatly increased. Therefore, there is an urgent need to research and explore alternative lightweight concrete systems for structural applications. The objective of this study is to investigate the structural behavior of lightweight foame...

Purpose Concrete-filled double-skin tubular (CFDST) columns have been gaining significant attention since these columns proved to be more efficient compared to concrete-filled steel-tubular (CFST) columns. This paper presents a tool to design slender CFDST columns with/without inclination. Design/methodology/approach First, 3D nonlinear finite ele...

Purpose Short columns can cause serious damage when subjected to an earthquake due to their high stiffness with low ductility. These columns can be exposed to multidirectional shear forces, which encouraged this study to investigate the behavior of structural short columns under bi-directional shear. Design/methodology/approach Finite element anal...

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to improve the lateral capacity of Cold-Formed Steel (CFS) frame walls filled with lightweight foamed concrete (LFC) and supported with straw boards by introducing structural foamed concrete and/or bracing. Design/methodology/approach – Finite element models are developed and calibrated based on previous exper...

New self-compacting concrete (SCC) mixtures were designed to improve the interfacial bond strength in concrete-filled steel tubes (CFST) at 30 days and one year. The proposed SCC mixtures involved the strengthening of bond strength by using waste steel slag aggregates (SSA). A total of thirty-six circular and squared tube specimens with different r...

Numerous existing formulas predicted the ultimate interfacial bond strength in concrete-filled steel tubes (CFST) between steel tubes and concrete core without investigating the whole response under push-out load. In this research, four models are proposed to predict the interfacial behavior in CFST including the post-peak branch under the push-out...

Abstract: Numerous existing formulas predicted the ultimate interfacial bond strength in concrete-filled steel tubes (CFST) between steel tubes and concrete core without investigating the whole response under push-out load. In this research, four models are proposed to predict the interfacial behavior in CFST including the post-peak branch under th...

List of Recognized Reviewers of Practice Periodical on Structural Design and Construction during the period of July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021.

Purpose The main goal is to investigate the effect of size and location of opening and column size on the punching shear strength. Openings are often needed in order to install mechanical and electrical services. This process takes away part of the concrete volume which is responsible for resisting the shear forces and any unbalanced moment. Furthe...

This article suggests a new practical method to estimate the nominal shear strength of reinforced concrete (RC) walls. This method identifies whether a specific RC wall is short, slender, or intermediate in height. The aspect ratio (height/length) is a dominant parameter in defining the slenderness of RC walls by many provisions such as the Federal...

Recently, Concrete-filled double skin steel tubular (CFDST) columns have proven an exceptional structural resistance in terms of strength, stiffness, and ductility. However, the resistance of these column members can be severely affected by the type of loading in which bending stresses increase in direct proportion with axial load and eccentricity...

Foamed concrete exhibits enhanced mechanical, thermal and acoustic characteristics. Such properties seem to be a suitable alternate choice to fit evolving properties required in the housing industry. The main challenge is to select a proper reinforcement scheme of foamed concrete to overcome its low strength to concentrated stresses. Accordingly, t...

This paper discusses the needs for 3D printing in comparison to conventional construction and proposes foamed concrete material for printing. Example of 3D printing projects under study to overcome housing crisis are presented. Stability and sufficient strength and structural integrity are the main parameters to look for when looking of printable m...

Purpose This research is part of a project that aims to investigate using foamed concrete structurally in houses. Foamed concrete has a porous structure that makes it light in weight, good in thermal insulation, good in sound insulation and workable. Design/methodology/approach An experimental program is conducted in this research to investigate t...

Foamed concrete is currently studied to investigate its feasibility to be used structurally to produce lightweight concrete mix that is workable and has sufficient mechanical properties. This encouraged this research to design foamed concrete mix to be used in the construction industry. The main parameters that shall be satisfied for structural use...

Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a procedure used to create 3D objects in which consecutive layers of a material are computer-controlled produced. Such objects can be constructed in any shape using digital model data. First, this paper presents a state-of-the-art review of the advances in 3D printing processes of construction. Then, the architect...

The captive-column and short-column effects are resulted from constructing nonstructural walls or facades to the structural system which restricts the ability of the column to deformlaterally, or from constructing horizontal structural elements at mid-height of the column leaving the column divided in two short segments, or can dynamically evolve d...

The standard design procedure for tube and fitting connections assumes that the connections are only subjected to non-cyclical loads. This paper presents the results of experimental tests and theoretical calculations of the moment-rotation capacities of three common connections – sleeve couplers, swivel couplers and right-angled couplers. The resul...

Reinforced concrete flat plates are used in buildings and garages. Their design is governed by deflection at the serviceability limit state and punching shear at the ultimate limit state. A new system of punching shear reinforcement consisting of top and bottom steel cages connected through small inclined bars, called swimmer bars, was studied. The...

The progressive collapse resistance of reinforced concrete (RC) frames in which a middle column has been removed has been investigated by many researchers. However, previous experimental and computational studies have focused mainly on the catenary action provided by longitudinal reinforcement in the beams spanning the missing column. This study in...

The standard design procedure for tube and fitting connections assumes that the connections are only subjected to non-cyclical loads. This paper presents the results of experimental tests and theoretical calculations of the moment-rotation capacities of three common connections – sleeve couplers, swivel couplers and right-angled couplers - showing...

This paper proposes nanomaterials as a structural material that can be used to 3D print concrete structural members. Such suggestion hold promises to overcome housing crisis that is taking place in many regions. Traditional concrete/mortar is not a suitable material to be printed due to issues with aggregate jamming in the printer’s nozzle, compact...

The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the use of plastic waste as a low cost asphalt binder modifier. For this purpose Marshall mix design procedure was used. Marshall mix design procedure seeks to select the Optimum Binder Content (OBC) to be added to a specific aggregate blend resulting in a mixture that satisfies the desired properties...

Composite concrete–steel sections are widely used in flooring and decking systems in buildings and bridges. Concrete decks form cracks at negative moment regions and remain uncracked at the positive ones. Finite-element (FE) analyses of beams composed of concrete–steel sections must take the change in the composite section properties into considera...

Tapered columns could be used either for architectural purposes or for structural needs to accommodate the variation of moments along the height of the column. In highway bridges, tapered columns are usually used to reduce the amount of moments that are transferred from the column base to the foundation. This paper studies slender RC columns with a...

In this paper, the non-linear behaviour of slender reinforced concrete (RC) columns with inclination is investigated. The available studies on inclined columns (not struts) are not sufficient in comparison with those on conventional columns and struts. The critical buckling load of inclined slender columns is derived first using second-order analys...

This paper presents a new method to identify the ultimate failure mode of reinforced concrete (RC) frames due to the presence of masonry infill walls. The proposed method is based on simple geometry, reinforcement ratios and material properties of the elements involved in the frame-wall assembly. A simple engineering tool, expressed in terms of inf...

This paper presents a non-linear finite element based modeling approach to estimate behavior of RC frames infilled with masonry walls. At the core of the approach is the ability to qualify and quantify the interaction along the frame-infill and brick-to-brick interfaces during cyclic loadings. Results from simulations of RC frames infilled with mas...

This paper proposes nanomaterials as a structural material that can be used to 3D print concrete structural members. Such suggestion hold promises to overcome housing crisis that is taking place in many regions. Traditional concrete/mortar is not a suitable material to be printed due to issues with aggregate jamming in the printer’s nozzle, compact...

Rapid impact compaction (RIC) has been used effectively as a ground improvement at medium depth technique for granular soils. RIC is normally used to increase bearing capacity, reduce potential settlements and mitigate liquefaction. This paper presents a calibrated three-dimensional cap-plasticity finite-element model (FEM) to simulate ground impro...

To simulate response of concrete members and structures, comprehensive description of concrete behavior is required. This paper presents two groups of models that could be used to simulate behavior of concrete in tension for finite element modeling. The first group of models is based on stress–strain relationships and the second is based on stress–...

Piles are used for many types of structures to resist vertical and lateral loads. Design considerations of piles under lateral load are very crucial because the lateral performance of the pile foundations significantly influences the integrity of the structures supported by group of piles. Finite element study has been conducted to investigate the...

The complex behavior of reinforced concrete frames with infill walls under earthquake loads requires a realistic conceptual model that recognizes changes in strength and stiffness occurring during loading. Accordingly, a new hysteresis model is developed in this article for such reinforced concrete frames to investigate the ultimate damage state gi...

The response of reinforced concrete (RC) shear wall as a lateral resisting member has been studied extensively, but it still demands a general practical model that identifies the envelope within which load–drift paths occur during cyclic loading. Such a broad model is vital to ensure adequate lateral strength to resist reversal loadings imposed on...

This paper presents a new approach to identify the ultimate failure state of reinforced concrete (RC) coupling beams subjected to lateral loadings. The proposed approach is based on simple geometric properties and reinforcement detailing of the coupling beam. A simple threshold expressed in terms of aspect ratio and main reinforcement to transverse...

Field data gathered after destructive earthquakes indicate that infill walls interact with reinforced concrete (RC) frames in buildings during an earthquake and could cause failure mechanism different than what the frames are originally designed for. A new method to identify the failure modes of RC frames with infill walls is developed. The method...

Field data gathered after destructive earthquakes indicate that interaction between reinforced concrete frames and infill walls in a building during an earthquake can alter the performance of the structure, to the detriment or benefit of the building. The objective of this study was to investigate the ability of numerical non-linear finite element...