• Wind and Structures
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.15-42
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• 2024

A flexible-base coupled-two-beam (CTB) discrete model with equivalent tuned mass dampers is used to assess the effect of soil-structure interaction (SSI) and different types of lateral resisting systems on the design of passive dynamic absorbers (PDAs) under the action of along-wind and across-wind loads due to vortex shedding. A total of five different PDAs are considered in this study: (1) tuned mass damper (TMD), (2) circular tuned sloshing damper (C-TSD), (3) rectangular tuned sloshing damper (R-TSD), (4) two-way liquid damper (TWLD) and (5) pendulum tuned mass damper (PTMD). By modifying the non-dimensional lateral stiffness ratio, the CTB model can consider lateral deformations varying from those of a flexural cantilever beam to those of a shear cantilever beam. The Monte Carlo simulation method was used to generate along-wind and across-wind loads correlated along the height of a real shear wall-frame building, which has similar fundamental periods of vibration and different modes of lateral deformation in the xz and yz planes, respectively. Ambient vibration tests were conducted on the building to identify its real lateral behavior and thus choose the most suitable parameters for the CTB model. Both alongwind and across-wind responses of the 144-meter-tall building were computed considering four soil types (hard rock, dense soil, stiff soil and soft soil) and a single PDA on its top, that is, 96 time-history analyses were carried out to assess the effect of SSI and lateral resisting system on the PDAs design. Based on the parametric analyses, the response significantly increases as the soil flexibility increases for both type of lateral wind loads, particularly for flexural-type deformations. The results show a great effectiveness of PDAs in controlling across-wind peak displacements and both along-wind and across-wind RMS accelerations, on the contrary, PDAs were ineffective in controlling along-wind peak displacements on all soil types and different kind of lateral deformation. Generally speaking, the maximum possible value of the PDA mass efficiency index increases as the soil flexibility increases, on the contrary, it decreases as the non-dimensional lateral stiffness ratio of the building increases; therefore, there is a significant increase of the vibration control effectiveness of PDAs for lateral flexural-type deformations on soft soils.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.501-511
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• 2022

Earthquake Resistant Design Philosophy seeks (a) no damage, (b) no significant structural damage, and (c) significant structural damage but no collapse of normal buildings, under minor, moderate and severe levels of earthquake shaking, respectively. A procedure is proposed for seismic design of low-rise reinforced concrete special moment frame buildings, which is consistent with this philosophy; buildings are designed to be ductile through appropriate sizing and reinforcement detailing, such that they resist severe level of earthquake shaking without collapse. Nonlinear analyses of study buildings are used to determine quantitatively (a) ranges of design parameters required to assure the required deformability in normal buildings to resist the severe level of earthquake shaking, (b) four specific limit states that represent the start of different structural damage states, and (c) levels of minor and moderate earthquake shakings stated in the philosophy along with an extreme level of earthquake shaking associated with the structural damage state of no collapse. The four limits of structural damage states and the three levels of earthquake shaking identified are shown to be consistent with the performance-based design guidelines available in literature. Finally, nonlinear analyses results are used to confirm the efficacy of the proposed procedure.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.227-244
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• 2020

Earthen structures have an excellent bioclimatic performance, but they are vulnerable against earthquakes. In order to investigate the edification process and costs, a full-scale rammed soil house was constructed in 2004. In 2016-2019, it was studied its seismic damage, durability and degradation process. During 2004-2016, the house presented a relatively good seismic performance (M_w=5.6-6.4). The damaged cover contributed in the fast deterioration of walls. In 2018 it was observed a partial collapse of one wall due to recent seismicity (M_w=5.6-6.1). The 15-year-old samples presented a reduced compressive strength (0.040 MPa) and a minimum moisture (1.38%). It is estimated that the existing house has approximately a remaining 20% of compressive strength with a degradation of about 5.4% (0.0109 MPa) per year (considering a time frame of 15 years) if compared to the new soil samples (0.2028 MPa, 3.52% of moisture). This correlation between moisture and compressive strength degradation was compared with the study of new soil samples at the same construction site and compared against the extracted samples from the 15-year-old house. At 7-14-days, the specimens presented a similar compressive strength as the degraded ones, but different moisture. Conversely, the 60-days specimens shown almost five times more strength as the existing samples for a similar moisture. It was observed in new rammed soil that the lower the water content, the higher the compressive/shear strength.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.335-350
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• 2018

This paper presents numerical modelling, modal testing, finite element model updating, linear and nonlinear earthquake behavior of a reinforced concrete building model. A 1/2 geometrically scale, two-storey, reinforced concrete frame model with raft base were constructed, tested and analyzed. Modal testing on the model using ambient vibrations is performed to illustrate the dynamic characteristics experimentally. Finite element model of the structure is developed by ANSYS software and dynamic characteristics such as natural frequencies, mode shapes and damping ratios are calculated numerically. The enhanced frequency domain decomposition method and the stochastic subspace identification method are used for identifying dynamic characteristics experimentally and such values are used to update the finite element models. Different parameters of the model are calibrated using manual tuning process to minimize the differences between the numerically calculated and experimentally measured dynamic characteristics. The maximum difference between the measured and numerically calculated frequencies is reduced from 28.47% to 4.75% with the model updating. To determine the effects of the finite element model updating on the earthquake behavior, linear and nonlinear earthquake analyses are performed using 1992 Erzincan earthquake record, before and after model updating. After model updating, the maximum differences in the displacements and stresses were obtained as 29% and 25% for the linear earthquake analysis and 28% and 47% for the nonlinear earthquake analysis compared with that obtained from initial earthquake results before model updating. These differences state that finite element model updating provides a significant influence on linear and especially nonlinear earthquake behavior of buildings.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.615-636
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• 2000

Some elevated water tanks have failed due to torsional vibrations in past earthquakes. The overall axisymmetric structural geometry and mass distribution of such structures may leave only a small accidental eccentricity between centre of stiffness and centre of mass. Such a small accidental eccentricity is not expected to cause a torsional failure. This paper studies the possibility of amplified torsional behaviour of elevated water tanks due to such small accidental eccentricity in the elastic as well as inelastic range; using two simple idealized systems with two coupled lateral-torsional degrees of freedom. The systems are capable of retaining the characteristics of two extreme categories of water tanks namely, a) tanks on staging with less number of columns and panels and b) tanks on staging with large number of columns and panels. The study shows that the presence of a small eccentricity may lead to large displacement of the staging edge in the elastic range, if the torsional-to-lateral time period ratio $({\tau})$ of the elevated tanks lies within a critical range of 0.7< ${\tau}$ <1.25. Inelastic behaviour study reveals that such excessive displacement in some of the reinforced concrete staging elements may cause unsymmetric yielding. This may lead to progressive strength deterioration through successive yielding in same elements under cyclic loading during earthquakes. Such localized strength drop progressively develop large strength eccentricity resulting in large localized inelastic displacement and ductility demand, leading to failure. So, elevated water tanks should have ${\tau}$ outside the said critical range to avoid amplified torsional response. The tanks supported on staging with less number of columns and panels are found to have greater torsional vulnerability. Tanks located near faults seem to have torsional vulnerability for large ${\tau}$.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.93-102
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• 2022

In this study, limestone powder (LS) and fly ash (FA) were used as powder materials in self-compacting concrete (SCC) in increasing quantities in addition to cement, so that the two powders commonly used in the production of SCC could be compared in the same study. Considering the reduction of the maximum aggregate size in SCC, 10 mm or 16 mm was selected as the coarse aggregate size. The properties of fresh concrete were determined by slump flow (including T₅₀₀ time), V-funnel and J-ring experiments. The experimental results showed that as the amount of both LS and FA increased, the slump flow also increased. The increase in powder material had a negative effect on V-funnel flow times, causing it to increase; however, the increase in FA concretes was smaller compared to LS ones. The increase in the powder content reduced the amount of blockage in the J-ring test for both aggregate sizes. As the hardened concrete properties, the compressive and splitting strengths as well as the modulus of elasticity were determined. Longitudinal and transverse deformations were measured by attaching a special frame to the cylindrical specimens and the values of Poisson's ratio, initiation and critical stresses were obtained. Despite having a similar W/C ratio, all SCC exhibited higher compressive strength than NVC. Compressive strength increased with increasing powder content for both LS and FA; however, the increase of the FA was higher than the LS due to the pozzolanic effect. SCC with a coarse aggregate size of 16 mm showed higher strength than 10 mm for both powders. Similarly, the modulus of elasticity increased with the amount of powder material. Inelastic properties, which are rarely found in the literature for SCC, were determined by measuring the initial and critical stresses. Crack formation in SCC begins under lower stresses (corresponding to lower initial stresses) than in normal concretes, while critical stresses indicate a more brittle behavior by taking higher values.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.5
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• pp.589-605
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• 2023

This paper investigates the ductility demands of steel frames equipped with self-centring fuses under near-fault earthquake motions considering multiple yielding stages. The study is commenced by verifying a trilinear self-centring hysteretic model accounting for multiple yielding stages of steel frames equipped with self-centring fuses. Then, the seismic response of single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) systems following the validated trilinear self-centring hysteretic law is examined by a parametric study using a near-fault earthquake ground motion database composed of 200 earthquake records as input excitations. Based on a statistical investigation of more than fifty-two (52) million inelastic spectral analyses, the effect of the post-yield stiffness ratios, energy dissipation coefficient and yielding displacement ratio on the mean ductility demand of the system is examined in detail. The analysis results indicate that the increase of post-yield stiffness ratios, energy dissipation coefficient and yielding displacement ratio reduces the ductility demands of the self-centring oscillators responding in multiple yielding stages. A set of empirical expressions for quantifying the ductility demands of trilinear self-centring hysteretic oscillators are developed using nonlinear regression analysis of the analysis result database. The proposed regression model may offer a practical tool for designers to estimate the ductility demand of a low-to-medium rise self-centring steel frame equipped with self-centring fuses progressing in the ultimate stage under near-fault earthquake motions in design and evaluation.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.21-28
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• 1986

Plywood used for construction as a decorative inner material is inflammable and can fire accident, causing destruction of human life and property. In this study, 3.5mm Kapur plywoods were soaked in the 23% monoammonium phosphate solutions by cold soaking method 3, 6, 9hrs and hot-cold bath method for 3/3hrs, and redrying was carried out by press-drying at the platen temperature of 110, 130, 160, 180$^{\circ}C$, and then fire test was carried out to investigate burning point, flame exhausted length, frame spread length, back side carbonized area and weight loss. The results are as follows; 1. In cold soaking method for 3, 6, 9hrs. retentions of monoammonium phosphate were 0.377, 0.448, 0.498kg/(30cm)$^3$ respectively, and in hot-cold bath method for 3/3hrs, the retention was 1.331kg(30cm)$^3$ that exceeded the minimum retention 1.124kg/(30cm)$^3$. 2. Correlation coefficients among the variable were shown in table 2. From the table, it could be recognized that there were close negative correlations between the treatment and burning point, flame spread length, back side carbonized area, flame exhausted time and weight loss, and there was negative correlation between treating time and back side carbonized area, but there was positive correlation between platen temperature and burning point. 3. From table 3, it can be observed that there were highly significant differences for burning point, flame spread length, flame exhausted time, back side carhonized area, weight loss between treatments. And in 2-way interactions, there were also highly significant for burning point, flame spread length, flame exhausted time, weight loss between time x treatment. 4. It was observed that burning point, flame exhausted time, flame spread length, back side carbonized area, and weight loss in fire-retardant treated plywood were the best effects in fire-retardant treated plywood, water treated plywood and nontreated plywood. In conclusion, I can estimate that absorbed chemical contents by hot-cold bath method for 3/3hrs, have a lot of effects on fire-retardant factors such as burning point, flame spread length, flame exhausted time, backside carbonized area and weight loss, but platen temperatures have a little effects on the fire factors.