• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제63권3호
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• pp.303-315
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• 2017

This paper presents a review on getting a Weighted Multi-Objective Optimization (WMO) of Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) parameters based on Response Surface Methodology (RSM) coupled central composite design and Weighted Desirability Function (WDF) to attenuate the earthquake vibration of a jacket supported Offshore Wind Turbine (OWT). To optimize the parameters (stiffness and damping coefficient) of damper, the frequency ratio and damping ratio were considered as a design variable and the top displacement and frequency response were considered as objective functions. The optimization has been carried out under only El Centro earthquake results and after obtained the optimal parameters, more two earthquakes (California and Northridge) has been performed to investigate the performance of optimal damper. The obtained results also compared with the different conventional TMD's designed by Den Hartog's, Sadek et al.'s and Warburton's method. From the results, it was found that the optimal TMD based on RSM shows better response than the conventional damper. It is concluded that the proposed response model offers an efficient approach regarding the TMD optimization.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제9권1호
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• pp.93-109
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• 2015

Based on the reconnaissance of buildings in Dujiangyan City during 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, China, structural damage characteristics and the spatial distribution of structural damage are investigated, and the possible reasons for the extraordinary features are discussed with consideration of the influence of urban historical evolution and spatial variation of earthquake motions. Firstly, the urban plan and typical characteristics of structural seismic damage are briefly presented and summarized. Spatial distribution of structural damage is then comparatively analyzed by classifying all surveyed buildings in accordance with different construction age, considering the influence of seismic design code on urban buildings. Finally, the influences of evolution of seismic design code, topographic condition, local site and distance from fault rupture on spatial distribution of structural damage are comprehensively discussed. It is concluded that spatial variation of earthquake motions, resulting from topography, local site effect and fault rupture, are very important factor leading to the extraordinary spatial distribution of building damage except the evolution of seismic design codes. It is necessary that the spatial distribution of earthquake motions should be considered in seismic design of structures located in complicated topography area and near active faults.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제15권3호
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• pp.253-261
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• 2018

This article details a bridge-specific fragility method developed to enhance the seismic design and resilience of bridges. Current seismic design processes provide guidance for the design of a bridge that will not collapse during a design hazard event. However, they do not provide performance information of the bridge at different hazard levels or due to design changes. Therefore, there is a need for a supplement to this design process that will provide statistical information on the performance of a bridge, beyond traditional emphases on collapse prevention. This article proposes a bridge-specific parameterized fragility method to enable efficient estimation of various levels of damage probability for alternative bridge design parameters. A multi-parameter demand model is developed to incorporate bridge design details directly in the fragility estimation. Monte Carlo simulation and Logistic regression are used to determine the fragility of the bridge or bridge component. The resulting parameterized fragility model offers a basis for a bridge-specific design tool to explore the influence of design parameter variation on the expected performance of a bridge. When used as part of the design process, these tools can help to transform a prescriptive approach into a more performance-based approach, efficiently providing probabilistic performance information about a new bridge design. An example of the method and resulting fragility estimation is presented.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제59권4호
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• pp.653-669
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• 2016

Recent earthquakes worldwide show that a significant portion of the earthquake shaking happens in the vertical direction. This phenomenon has raised significant interests to consider the vertical ground motion during the seismic design and assessment of the structures. Strong vertical ground motions can alter the axial forces in the columns, which might affect the shear capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) members. This is particularly important for non-ductile RC frames, which are very vulnerable to earthquake-induced collapse. This paper presents the detailed nonlinear dynamic analysis to quantify the collapse risk of non-ductile RC frame structures with varying heights. An array of non-ductile RC frame architype buildings located in Los Angeles, California were designed according to the 1967 uniform building code. The seismic responses of the architype buildings subjected to concurrent horizontal and vertical ground motions were analyzed. A comprehensive array of ground motions was selected from the PEER NGA-WEST2 and Iran Strong Motions Network database. Detailed nonlinear dynamic analyses were performed to quantify the collapse fragility curves and collapse margin ratios (CMRs) of the architype buildings. The results show that the vertical ground motions have significant impact on both the local and global responses of non-ductile RC moment frames. Hence, it is crucial to include the combined vertical and horizontal shaking during the seismic design and assessment of non-ductile RC moment frames.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제7권6호
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• pp.1283-1301
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• 2014

Ground motion modification is extensively used in seismic design of civil infrastructure, especially where few or no recorded ground motions representative of the design scenario are available. A site in Los Angeles, California is used as a study site and 28 ground motions consistent with the design earthquake scenario are selected. The suite of 28 ground motions is scaled and modified in the time domain (TD) and frequency domain (FD) before being used as input to a bilinear SDOF system. The median structural responses to the suites of scaled, TD-modified, and FD-modified motions, along with ratios of he modified-to-scaled responses, are investigated for SDOF systems with different periods, strength ratios, and post-yield stiffness ratios. Overall, little difference (less than 20%) is observed in the peak structural accelerations, velocities, and displacements; displacement ductility; and absolute accelerations caused by the TD-modified and FD-modified motions when compared to the responses caused by the scaled motions. The energy absorbed by the system when the modified motions are used as input is more than 20% greater than when scaled motions are used as input. The observed trends in the structural response are predominantly the result of changes in the ground motion characteristics caused by modification.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제61권5호
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• pp.645-655
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• 2017

To determine the seismic applicability of a long-span railway concrete upper-deck arch bridge with concrete-filled steel-tube (CFST) rigid skeleton ribs, some fundamental principles and seismic approaches for long-span bridges are investigated to update the design methods in the current Code for Seismic Design of Railway Engineering of China. Ductile and mixed isolation design are investigated respectively to compare the structural seismic performances. The flexural moment and plastic rotation demands and capacities are quantified to assess the seismic status of the ductile components. A kind of triple friction pendulum (TFP) system and lead-plug rubber bearing are applied simultaneously to regularize the structural seismic demands. The numerical analysis shows that the current ductile layout with continuous rigid frame approaching spans should be strengthened to satisfy the demands of rare earthquakes. However, the mixed isolation design embodies excellent seismic performances for the continuous girder approaching span of this railway arch bridge.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제18권3호
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• pp.285-296
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• 2020

Dams are important structures for management of water supply for irrigation or drinking, flood control, and electricity generation. In seismic regions, the structural safety of concrete gravity dams is important due to the high potential of life and economic loss if they fail. Therefore, the seismic analysis of existing dams in seismically active regions is crucial for predicting responses of dams to ground motions. In this paper, earthquake response of concrete gravity dams is investigated using the finite element (FE) method. The FE model accounts for dam-water-foundation rock interaction by considering compressible water, flexible foundation effects, and absorptive reservoir bottom materials. Several uncertainties regarding structural attributes of the dam and external actions are considered to obtain the fragility curves of the dam-water-foundation rock system. The structural uncertainties are sampled using the Latin Hypercube Sampling method. The Pine Flat Dam in the Central Valley of Fresno County, California, is selected to demonstrate the methodology for several limit states. The fragility curves for base sliding, and excessive deformation limit states are obtained by performing non-linear time history analyses. Tensile cracking including the complex state of stress that occurs in dams was also considered. Normal, Log-Normal and Weibull distribution types are considered as possible fits for fragility curves. It was found that the effect of the minimum principal stress on tensile strength is insignificant. It is also found that the probability of failure of tensile cracking is higher than that for base sliding of the dam. Furthermore, the loss of reservoir control is unlikely for a moderate earthquake.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제11권1호
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• pp.141-163
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• 2016

Fiber models have been developed and applied to various structural elements such as shear walls, beams and columns. Only scarcely have fiber models been applied to circular foundation systems such as cast in drilled holes shafts (CIDH). In pile foundations with constraint head boundary conditions, shear deformations can easily contribute to the lateral pile response. However, soil structure interaction formulations such as the p-y method, commonly used for lateral pile design, do not include structural shear deformations in its traditional derivation method. A fiber model that couples shear and axial-bending behavior, originally developed for wall elements was modified and validated on circular cross sections (columns) before being applied to a 0.61 m diameter reinforced concrete (RC) pile with fixed head boundary conditions. The analytical response was compared to measured test results of a fixed head test pile to investigate the possible impact of pile shear deformations on the displacement, shear, and moment profiles of the pile. Results showed that shear displacements and forces are not negligible and suggest that nonlinear shear deformations for RC piles should be considered for fixed-head or similar conditions. Appropriate sensor layout is recommended to capture shear deformation when deriving p-y curves from field measurements.

• 한국지진공학회논문집
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• 제17권4호
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• pp.187-195
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• 2013

In this paper, firstly, acceleration-time histories were generated by varying strong motion duration in the frequency domain for application to a seismically isolated nuclear power structure, so as to examine the effects of strong motion duration on the behavior of the structure. Secondly, real recorded earthquakes were modified to match the target response spectrum based on the revised SRP 3.7.1(2007) and the modified time histories were applied to the analysis of a seismically isolated nuclear power structure. The obtained values of acceleration and displacement responses of the structure were, finally, compared with the values obtained in case of applying acceleration-time histories generated in the frequency domain to the structure.

• 한국안전학회지
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.98-104
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• 2003

Various nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques have been studied to locate steel rebars of dowel, and to detect invisible damage such as voids and cracks inside concrete and debonding between rebars and concrete caused by corrosions and earthquakes. In this study, the aurhors developed 3-dimensional (3D) electromagnetic (EM) imaging technology to detect such damage and to identify exact location of steel rebars of dowel. The authors have developed sub-surface two-dimensional (2D) imaging technique using tomographic antenna array in previous works. In this study, extending the earlier analytical and experimental works on 2D image reconstruction, a 3D microwave imaging system using tomographic antenna array was developed, and multi-frequency technique was applied to improve quality of the reconstructed image and to reduce background noises. This paper presents the analytical expressions of numerical focusing procedures for 3D image reconstruction and numerical simulation to study the resolution of the system and the effectiveness of multi-frequency technique. Also, the design of 4?4 antenna array with switching devices is introduced as a preliminary study for the final design of whole array.