Papers published in Structures and Buildings are eligible for awards from the Institution of Civil Engineers. Papers from any of the ICE journals can be nominated for several awards. In addition, each journal has awards dedicated to their specific subject area.
On Friday 15 October 2021, ICE president Rachel Skinner presented awards to the following papers published in Structures and Buildings in 2020. The editorial panel nominated their best papers and an awards committee chaired by Tim Broyd allocated the awards.
Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya Award
The Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya Award, presented to the best papers written by overseas authors or covering an overseas project was awarded to Ayatar et al., (2020).
Abstract
Infill walls in reinforced concrete frames are susceptible to failure owing to their brittle nature. Their interaction with boundary columns during earthquakes may also cause shear damage in the columns. It is crucial to employ effective seismic strengthening strategies in order to mitigate the seismic risk induced by the infill walls. In this study, a new strengthening technique, conducted by bonding engineered cementitious composite (ECC) precast panels onto infill walls, was investigated. Three reinforced concrete frames, termed bare frame, infilled frame and strengthened frame, were tested by using the pseudo-dynamic testing method. The test specimens were three-storey, three-bay, half-scaled frames with the central bay having hollow clay brick infill walls. The specimens were subjected to three consecutive ground motions scaled to represent earthquakes with return periods of 144, 475 and 2475 years. The experimental results were compared to observe the influence of the infill walls on the reinforced concrete frames, and to demonstrate the performance of the proposed strengthening technique. It was found that application of ECC panels significantly increased the frame strength and stiffness while allowing the system to have a displacement ductility of about four.
Frederick Palmer Prize
The Frederick Palmer Prize was awarded to Venkateshwaran et al., (2020).
Abstract
The phenomenon of moment redistribution in steel-fibre-reinforced concrete (SFRC) members has not been adequately studied. In this study, the phenomenon was investigated by conducting point-load tests on seven two-span, one-way continuous slabs without traditional reinforcement. Significant redistribution of moments from the elastic values was observed at the critical mid-span and interior support sections. An analytical approach to predict the moment–curvature response of SFRC is presented, with which the predicted variation of moments with increasing load compared to the observed trends with reasonable accuracy. Also, the analytical approach predicts the load-carrying capacity of the slabs within 8% of the average observed values, with a standard deviation of 8%. In addition, the load–deflection curves of the slabs were well predicted. The results are beneficial for the analysis and design of a SFRC slabs-on-pile system by considering moment redistribution due to slab continuity.
