• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.2
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• pp.229-237
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• 2020

The steel slit shear wall (SSSW), made by cutting vertical slits in a steel plate, is increasingly used for the seismic protection of building structures. In the domain of thin plate shear walls, the out-of-plane buckling together with the potential fracture developed at slit ends at large lateral deformation may result in degraded shear strength and energy dissipation, which is not desirable in view of seismic design. To address this issue, the present study proposed a new type of SSSW made by intentionally introducing initial out-of-plane folding into the originally flat slitted plate. Quasi-static cyclic tests on three SSSWs with different amplitudes of introduced out-of-plane folding were conducted to study their shear strength, elastic stiffness, energy dissipation capacity and buckling behavior. By introducing proper amplitude of out-of-plane folding into the SSSW fracture at slit ends was eliminated, plumper hysteretic behavior was obtained and there was nearly no strength degradation. A method to estimate the shear strength and elastic stiffness of the new SSSW was also proposed.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.45-57
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• 2016

Open-cross-section composite beam (OCB) tends to suffer vortex-induced vibration (VIV) due to its bluff aerodynamic shape. A cable-stayed bridge equipped with typical OCB is taken as an example in this paper to conduct sectional model wind tunnel test. Vortex-induced vibration is observed and maximum vibration amplitudes are obtained. CFD approach is employed to calculate the flow field around original cross sections in service stage and construction stage, as well as sections added with three different countermeasures: splitters, slabs and wind fairings. Results show that flow separate on the upstream edge and cause vortex shedding on original section. Splitters can only smooth the flow field on the upper surface, while slabs cannot smooth flow field on the upper or lower surface too much. Thus, splitters or slabs cannot serve as valid aerodynamic means. Wind tunnel test results show that VIV can only be mitigated when wind fairings are mounted, by which the flow field above and below the bridge deck are accelerated simultaneously.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.799-813
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• 2012

Five two-span reinforced concrete (RC) slabs and seven two-span RC beams were tested under the ISO 834 standard fire with different durations. CFRP strengthening was then applied to some of the specimens after the damaged concrete was removed from the specimens and replaced with polymer mortar. All the specimens were loaded to failure to investigate the influence of fire-damage and the effectiveness of strengthening methods. Test results indicated that the flexural capacities of specimens decrease with the fire duration increases. Moreover, fire exposure had more significant effect on the flexural rigidity than on the bearing capacity of the specimens. After rehabilitation, the bearing capacities of specimens reached or even exceeded that of the reference RC specimen, and the strengthening methods seemed to have limited effect on flexural rigidity recovery. From the analysis of moment redistribution of tested beams, elevated temperature is found having different impacts on sagging moment region and hogging moment region. The damage of RC continuous member is definitely a comprehensive response of different regions.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.261-282
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• 2017

The probabilistic information of directional extreme wind speeds is important for precisely estimating the design wind loads on structures. A new joint probability distribution model of directional extreme wind speeds is established based on observed wind-speed data using multivariate extreme value theory with the t-Copula function in the present study. At first, the theoretical deficiencies of the Gaussian-Copula and Gumbel-Copula models proposed by previous researchers for the joint probability distribution of directional extreme wind speeds are analysed. Then, the t-Copula model is adopted to solve this deficiency. Next, these three types of Copula models are discussed and evaluated with Spearman's rho, the parametric bootstrap test and the selection criteria based on the empirical Copula. Finally, the extreme wind speeds for a given return period are predicted by the t-Copula model with observed wind-speed records from several areas and the influence of dependence among directional extreme wind speeds on the predicted results is discussed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.62 no.4
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• pp.465-475
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• 2017

Photovoltaic (PV) panels are used in high-rise buildings to convert solar energy to electricity. Due to the considerable energy consumption of high-rise buildings, applying PV technology is of great significance to energy saving. In the application of PV panels, one of the most important construction issues is the connection of the PV panel with the main structures. One major difficulty of the connection design is that the PV panel connection consists of two separate components with coupling and indeterminate dimension. In this paper, the gap element is employed in these two separated but coupled components, i.e., hook and catch. Topology optimization is applied to optimize and design the cross-section of the PV panel connection. Pareto optimization is conducted to operate the optimization subject to multiple load scenarios. The initial design for the topology optimization is determined by the common design specified by the Technical Code for Glass Curtain Wall Engineering (JGJ 102-2003). Gravity and wind load scenarios are considered for the optimization and numerical analysis. Post analysis is conducted for the optimal design obtained by the topology optimization due to the manufactory requirements. Generally, compared with the conventional design, the optimized connector reduces material use with improved structural characteristics.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.185-209
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• 2016

Across-wind aerodynamic damping ratios are identified from the wind-induced acceleration responses of 15 aeroelastic models of rectangular super-high-rise buildings in various simulated wind conditions by using the random decrement technique. The influences of amplitude-dependent structural damping ratio and natural frequency on the estimation of the aerodynamic damping ratio are discussed and the identifying method for aerodynamic damping is improved at first. Based on these works, effects of turbulence intensity $I_u$, aspect ratio H/B, and side ratio B/D on the across-wind aerodynamic damping ratio are investigated. The results indicate that turbulence intensity and side ratio are the most important factors that affect across-wind aerodynamic damping ratio, whereas aspect ratio indirectly affects the aerodynamic damping ratio by changing the response amplitude. Furthermore, empirical aerodynamic damping functions are proposed to estimate aerodynamic damping ratios at low and high reduced speeds for rectangular super-high-rise buildings with an aspect ratio in the range of 5 to 10, a side ratio of 1/3 to 3, and turbulence intensity varying from 1.7% to 25%.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.141-156
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• 2011

A cable stayed bridge under construction has low structural damping and is not as stable as the completed bridge. Control countermeasures, such as the installation of energy dissipating devices, are thus required. In this study, the general procedure and key issues on adopting an active control device, the active mass damper (AMD), for vibration control of cable stayed bridges under construction were studied. Taking a typical cable stayed bridge as the prototype structure; a lab-scale test structure was designed and fabricated firstly. A baseline FEM model was then setup and updated according to the modal parameters measured from vibration test on the structure. A numerical study to simulate the bridge-AMD control system was conducted and an efficient LQG-based controller was designed. Based on that, an experimental implementation of AMD control of the transverse vibration of the bridge model was performed. The results from numerical simulation and experimental study verified that the AMD-based active control was feasible and efficient for reducing dynamic responses of a complex structural system. Moreover, the discussion made in this study clarified some critical problems which should be addressed for the practical implementation of AMD control on real cable-stayed bridges.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.399-408
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• 2017

This paper experimentally studies the cyclic behavior of hybrid connections between steel coupling beams and concrete shear walls with embedded steel columns. Four beam-to-wall connection specimens with short and long embedded steel columns are tested under monotonic and cyclic loads, respectively. The influence of embedment length of columns on the failure mode and performance of connections is investigated. The results show that the length of embedded steel columns has significant effect on the failure mode of connections. A connection with a long embedded column has a better stiffness, load-bearing capacity and ductility than that of a short embedded column. The former fails due to the shear yielding of column web in the joint panel, while failure of the latter is initiated by the yielding of horizontal reinforcement in the wall due to the rigid rotation of the column. It is recommended that embedded steel columns should be placed along the entire height of shear walls to facilitate construction and enhance the ductility.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.379-397
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• 2013

Large Eddy Simulations (LES) were carried out to investigate the aerodynamic characteristics of a rectangular cylinder with side ratio B/D=5 at Reynolds number Re=22,000 (based on cylinder thickness). Particular attention was devoted to the effects of velocity shear in the oncoming flow. Time-averaged and unsteady flow patterns around the cylinder were studied to enhance understanding of the effects of velocity shear. The simulation results showed that the Strouhal number has no significant variation with oncoming velocity shear, while the peak fluctuation frequency of the drag coefficient becomes identical to that of the lift coefficient with increase in velocity shear. The intermittently-reattached flow that features the aerodynamics of the 5:1 rectangular cylinder in non-shear flow becomes more stably reattached on the high-velocity side, and more stably separated on the low-velocity side. Both the mean and fluctuating drag coefficients increase slightly with increase in velocity shear. The mean and fluctuating lift and moment coefficients increase almost linearly with velocity shear. Lift force acts from the high-velocity side to the low-velocity side, which is similar to that of a circular cylinder but opposite to that of a square cylinder under the same oncoming shear flow.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.76 no.6
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• pp.709-724
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• 2020

The typical inerter system, the tuned viscous mass damper (TVMD), has been proven to be efficient. It is characterized by an energy-dissipation-enhancement effect, whereby the dashpot deformation of TVMD can be amplified for enhanced energy dissipation efficiency. However, existing studies related to TVMD have mainly been performed on elastic structures, so the working mechanism remains unclear for nonlinear structures. To deal with this, an energy-spectrum analysis framework is developed systematically for classic bilinear hysteretic structures with TVMD. Considering the soil effect, typical bedrock records are propagated through the soil deposit, for which the designed input energy spectra are proposed by considering the TVMD parameters and structural nonlinear properties. Furthermore, the energy-dissipation-enhancement effect of TVMD is quantitatively evaluated for bilinear hysteretic structures. The results show that the established designed input energy spectra can be employed to evaluate the total energy-dissipation burden for a nonlinear TVMD structure. Particularly, the stiffness of TVMD is the dominant factor in adjusting the total input energy. Compared with the case of elastic structures, the energy-dissipation-enhancement effect of TVMD for nonlinear structures is weakened so that the expected energy-dissipation effect of TVMD is replaced by the accumulated energy dissipation of the primary structure.