• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.83-109
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• 2013

A simple damper optimization method is proposed to find optimal damper allocation for shear buildings under both target added damping ratio and interstorey drift ratio (IDR). The damping coefficients of added dampers are considered as design variables. The cost, which is defined as the sum of damping coefficient of added dampers, is minimized under a target added damping ratio and the upper and the lower constraint of the design variables. In the first stage of proposed algorithm, Simulated Annealing, Nelder Mead and Differential Evolution numerical algorithms are used to solve the proposed optimization problem. The candidate optimal design obtained in the first stage is tested in terms of the IDRs using linear time history analyses for a design earthquake in the second stage. If all IDRs are below the allowable level, iteration of the algorithm is stopped; otherwise, the iteration continues increasing the target damping ratio. By this way, a structural response IDR is also taken into consideration using a snap-back test. In this study, the effects of the selection of upper limit for added dampers, the storey mass distribution and the storey stiffness distribution are all investigated in terms of damper distributions, cost function, added damping ratio and IDRs for 6-storey shear building models. The results of the proposed method are compared with two existing methods in the literature. Optimal designs are also compared with uniform designs according to both IDRs and added damping ratios. The numerical results show that the proposed damper optimization method is easy to apply and is efficient to find optimal damper distribution for a target damping ratio and allowable IDR value.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.295-310
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• 2019

This study attempts to develop new simplified approximate formulas to predict the fundamental natural periods of vibration (T) for bearing wall systems engaged with special reinforced concrete shear walls (RCSW) under seismic loads. Commonly, seismic codes suggested empirical formulas established by regression analysis of measured T for buildings during earthquake motions. These formulas depend on structure type, building height, number, height and length of SW, and ratio of SW area to base area of structure. In this study, a parametric investigation is performed for T of 110 selected models of bearing RCSW systems with varying structural height, configuration of horizontal plans including building width, number and width of bays, presence of middle corridors and core SWs. For this purpose, a 3D non-linear response time history (TH) analysis is implemented using ETABS v16.2.1. New formulas to estimate T are anticipated and compared with those obtained from formulas of IBC 2012 and ASCE/SEI 7-10. Moreover, the study examines responses of an arbitrarily two selected test model of 60 m and 80 m in height with presence of SWs having middle corridors. It is observed that the performance of the tested buildings is different through arising of considerable errors when using codes' formulas for estimating T. Accordingly, using the present proposed formulas exhibits more reasonable and safer design compared to codes' formulas. The results showed that equitable enhancement is promising to improve T formulas approaching enhanced and accurate estimation of T with reliable analysis, design, and evaluation of bearing RCSW systems.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.123-134
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• 2018

Recently, due to the rising incidence of disasters in the nation, there has been a growing interest in the relevance and role of science and technology in solving disaster and safety related issues. In addition, the necessities of securing the human rights of all citizens in disaster risk reduction, identifying fields of technology development for effective disaster response, and improving the efficiency of R&D investment for disaster and safety are becoming more important as the different types of disasters and stages of disaster and safety management process have been considered. In this study, we analyzed bipartite or two-mode networks constructed from an expert survey dataset of technology development for disaster and safety management. The results reveal that earthquake and fire are the two disasters affecting an individual and society at large and demonstrate that AI and big data analytics are effective supports in managing disaster and safety. We believe that such a network analytic approach can be used to explore some important implications exist for the national science and technology effort and successful disaster and safety management practices in Korea.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.617-627
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• 2018

After earthquakes FRP sheets are often used for the rehabilitation of damaged Reinforced Concrete (RC) beamcolumn connections. Connections with minor to moderate damage are often dealt with by applying FRP sheets after a superficial repair of the cracks using resin paste or high strength mortar but without infusion of thin resin solution under pressure into the cracking system. This technique is usually adopted in these cases due to the fast and easy-to-apply procedure. The experimental investigation reported herein aims at evaluating the effectiveness of repairing the damaged beam-column connections using FRP sheets after a meticulous but superficial repair of their cracking system using resin paste. The investigation comprises experimental results of 10 full scale beam-column joint specimens; five original joints and the corresponding retrofitted ones. The repair technique has been applied to RC joints with different joint reinforcement arrangements with minor to severe damage brought about by cyclic loading for the purposes of this work. Aiming at quantitative concluding remarks about the effectiveness of the repair technique, data concerning response loads, loading stiffness and energy absorption values have been acquired and commented upon. Furthermore, comparisons of damage index values and values of equivalent viscous damping, as obtained during the test of the original specimens, with the corresponding ones observed in the loading of the repaired ones have also been evaluated and commented. Based on these comparisons, it is deduced that the technique under investigation can be considered to be a rather satisfactory repair technique for joints with minor to moderate damage taking into account the rapid, convenient and easy-to-apply character of its application.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.639-654
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• 2018

Rocking motion have been used for achieving the 'resilient buildings' against earthquakes in recent studies. Low-rise buildings, unlike the tall ones, because of their small aspect ratio tend to slide rather than move in rocking mode. However, since rocking is more effective in seismic response reduction than sliding, it is desired to create rocking motion in low-rise buildings too. One way for this purpose is making the building's structure rock on its internal bay(s) by reducing the number of bays at the lower part of the building's skeleton, giving it a mushroom form. In this study 'mushroom skeleton' has been used for creating multi-story rocking regular steel buildings with square plan to rock on its one-by-one bay central lowest story. To show if this idea is effective, a set of mushroom buildings have been considered, and their seismic responses have been compared with those of their conventional counterparts, designed based on a conventional code. Also, a set of similar buildings with skeleton stronger than code requirement, to have immediate occupancy (IO) performance level, have been considered for comparison. Seismic responses, obtained by nonlinear time history analyses, using scaled three-dimensional accelerograms of selected earthquakes, show that by using appropriate 'mushroom skeleton' the seismic performance of buildings is upgraded to mostly IO level, while all of the conventional buildings experience collapse prevention (CP) level or beyond. The strong-skeleton buildings mostly present IO performance level as well, however, their base shear and absolute acceleration responses are much higher than the mushroom buildings.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.807-819
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• 2019

In recent earthquakes, the failure of ceiling systems has been one of the most widely reported damage and the major cause of functionality interruption in some buildings. In an effort to mitigate this damage, some scholars have studied a series of ceiling systems including plaster ceilings and mineral wool ceilings. But few studies have involved the backdrop metal ceiling used in some important constructions with higher rigidity and frequency such as the main control area of nuclear power plants. Therefore, in order to evaluate its seismic performance, a full-scale backdrop metal ceiling system, including steel runners and metal panels, was designed, fabricated and installed in a steel frame in this study. And the backdrop metal ceiling system with two perimeter attachments variants was tested: (i) the ends of the runners were connected with the angle steel to form an effective lateral constraint around the backdrop metal ceiling, (ii) the perimeter attachments of the main runner were retained, but the perimeter attachments of the cross runner were removed. In the experiments, different damage of the backdrop metal ceiling system was observed in detail under various earthquakes. Results showed that the backdrop metal ceiling had good integrity and excellent seismic performance. And the perimeter attachments of the cross runner had an adverse effect on the seismic performance of the backdrop metal ceiling under earthquakes. Meanwhile, a series of seismic construction measures and several suggestions that need to be paid attention were proposed in the text so that the backdrop metal ceiling can be better applied in the main control area of nuclear power plants and other important engineering projects.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.449-466
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• 2019

Cable-stayed bridges are attractive due to their beauty, reducing material consumption, less harm to the environment and so on, in comparison with other kinds of bridges. As a massive structure with long period and low damping (0.3 to 2%) under many dynamic loads, these bridges are susceptible to fatigue, serviceability disorder, damage or even collapse. Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) is a suitable controlling system to reduce the vibrations and prevent the threats in such bridges. In this paper, Multi Tuned Mass Damper (MTMD) system is added to the Ahvaz cable stayed Bridge in Iran, to reduce its seismic vibrations. First, the bridge is modeled in SAP2000 followed with result verification. Dead and live loads and the moving loads have been assigned to the bridge. Then the finite element model is developed in OpenSees, with the goal of running a nonlinear time-history analysis. Three far-field and three near-field earthquake records are imposed to the model after scaling to the PGA of 0.25 g, 0.4 g, 0.55 g and 0.7 g. Two MTMD systems, passive and active, with the number of TMDs from 1 to 8, are placed in specific points of the main span of bridge, adding a total mass ratio of 1 to 10% to the bridge. The parameters of the TMDs are optimized using Genetic Algorithm (GA). Also, the optimum force for active control is achieved by Fuzzy Logic Control (FLC). The results showed that the maximum displacement of the center of the bridge main span reduced 33% and 48% respectively by adding passive and active MTMD systems. The RMS of displacement reduced 37% and 47%, the velocity 36% and 42% and also the base shear in pylons, 27% and 47%, respectively by adding passive and active systems, in the best cases.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.1
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• pp.115-135
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• 2021

This paper focuses on examining the effects of span arrangements on displacement responses of plan-symmetric RC frame buildings designed using the direct displacement-based design (DDBD) method by employing non-linear analyses and the skew seismic attack. In order to show the desired performance of DDBD design approach, the force-based design approach is also used to examine the seismic performance of the selected structures. To realize this objective, 8-story buildings with different plans are selected. In addition, the dynamic behavior of the structures is evaluated by selecting 3, 7, and 12-story buildings. In order to perform non-linear analyses, OpenSees software is used for modeling buildings. Results of an experimental model are used to validate the analytical model implemented in OpenSees. The results of non-linear static and non-linear dynamic analyses indicate that changing span arrangements does not affect estimating the responses of structures designed using the DDBD approach, and the results are more or less the same. Next, in order to apply the earthquake in non-principle directions, DDBD structures, designed for one-way performance, are designed again for two-way performance. Time history analyses are performed under a set of artificial acceleration pairs, applied to structures at different angles. It is found that the mean maximum responses of earthquakes at all angles have very good agreement with the design-acceptable limits, while the response of buildings along the height direction has a relatively acceptable and uniform distribution. Meanwhile, changes in the span arrangements did not have a significant effect on displacement responses.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.483-495
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• 2020

Dams are vital infrastructures that are expected to maintain their stability during seismic excitations. Accordingly, cemented material dams are an emerging type, which are being increasingly used around the world owing to benefiting from advantages of both earth-fill and concrete gravity dams, which should be designed safely when subjected to strong ground motion. In the present paper, the seismic performance of a cemented sand and gravel (CSG) dam is assessed using incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) method by accounting for two failure modes of tension cracking and base joint sliding considering the dam-reservoir-foundation interactions. To take the seismic uncertainties into account, the dam is analyzed under a suite of ground motion records and then, the effect of friction angle for base sliding as well as deformability of the foundation are investigated on the response of dam. To carry out the analyses, the Cindere dam in Turkey is selected as a case study, and various limit states corresponding to seismic performance levels of the dam are determined aiming to estimate the seismic fragilities. Based on the results, sliding of the Cindere dam could be serious under the maximum credible earthquake (MCE). Besides, dam faces are mostly to be cracked under such level of intensity. Moreover, the results indicate that as friction angle increases, probability of sliding between dam and foundation is reduced whereas, increases tensile cracking. Lastly, it is observed that foundation stiffening increases the probability of dam sliding but, reduces the tensile damage in the dam body.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.5-13
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• 2022

In this study, dynamic characteristics and liquefaction resistance characteristics of silica sand which is used to simulate sandy layer were conducted using the cyclic triaxial test according to the relative density difference. The difference in liquefaction resistance with the relative density was confirmed through the test results, which the relative density conditions were changed to 40%, 60%, and 80%, and the cyclic resistance ratio (CRR) curve of the silica sand was obtained. In addition, in order to examine the validity of the liquefaction resistance ratio (CRR) curve, artificial silica sand ground was created, and liquefaction potential was evaluated through the simple assessment method and the detailed assessment method, and the safety factors of each were compared.