• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.47-57
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• 2024

Recently, in newly constructed apartment buildings, the exterior wall structures have been characterized by thinness, having various openings, and a significantly low reinforcement ratio. In this study, a nonlinear finite element analysis was performed to investigate the crack damage characteristics of the exterior wall structure. The limited analysis models for a 10-story exterior wall were constructed based on the prototype apartment building, and nonlinear static analysis (push-over analysis) was performed. Based on the finite element (FE) analysis model, the parametric study was conducted to investigate the effects of various design parameters on the strength and crack width of the exterior walls. As the parameters, the vertical reinforcement ratio and horizontal reinforcement ratio of the wall, as well as the uniformly distributed longitudinal reinforcement ratio and shear reinforcement ratio of the connection beam, were addressed. The analysis results showed that the strength and deformation capacity of the prototype exterior walls were limited by the failure of the connection beam prior to the flexural yielding of the walls. Thus, the increase of wall reinforcement limitedly affected the failure modes, peak strengths, and crack damages. On the other hand, when the reinforcement ratio of the connection beams was increased, the peak strength was increased due to the increase in the load-carrying capacity of the connection beams. Further, the crack damage index decreased as the reinforcement ratio of the connection beam increased. In particular, it was more effective to increase the uniformly distributed longitudinal reinforcement ratio in the connection beams to decrease the crack damage of the coupling beams, regardless of the type of the prototype exterior walls.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.37-46
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• 2012

In Korea, most existing school buildings have been constructed with moment frames with un-reinforced infill walls designed only considering gravity loads. Thus, the buildings may not perform satisfactorily during earthquakes expected in Korea. In exterior frames of the building, un-reinforced masonry infill walls with window openings are commonly placed, which may alter the structural behavior of adjacent columns due to the interaction between the wall and column. The objective of this study is to evaluate the seismic performance of existing school buildings according to the procedure specified in ATC 63. Analytical models are proposed to simulate the structural behavior of columns, infill walls and their interaction. The accuracy of the proposed model is verified by comparing the analytical results with the experimental test results for one bay frames with and without infill walls with openings. For seismic performance evaluation, three story buildings are considered as model frames located at sites having different soil conditions ($S_A$, $S_B$, $S_C$, $S_D$, $S_E$) in Korea. It is observed that columns behaves as a short columns governed by shear due to infill masonry walls with openings. The collapse probabilities of the frames under maximum considered earthquake ranges from 62.9 to 99.5 %, which far exceed the allowable value specified in ATC 63.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.689-713
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• 2014

The seismic vulnerability of stone masonry buildings is studied on the basis of their fragility curves. In order to account for out-of-plane failure modes, normally disregarded in past studies, linear static Finite Element analysis in 3D of prototype regular buildings is performed using a nonlinear biaxial failure criterion for masonry. More than 1100 analyses are carried out, so as to cover the practical range of the most important parameters, namely the number of storeys, percentage of side length in exterior walls taken up by openings, wall thickness, plan dimensions and number of interior walls, type of floor and pier height-to-length ratio. Results are presented in the form of damage and fragility curves. The fragility curves correspond well to the damage observed in masonry buildings after strong earthquakes and are in good agreement with other fragility curves in the literature. They confirm what is already known, namely that buildings with stiff floors or higher percentage of load-bearing walls are less vulnerable, and that large openings, taller storeys, larger number of storeys, higher wall slenderness and higher ratio of clear height to horizontal length of walls increase the vulnerability, but show also by how much.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.483-489
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• 2008

Masonry infill walls are frequently used as interior partitions and exterior walls in low- or middlerise RC buildings In the structural design and assessment of structural behaviors of buildings, the infill walls are usually treated as non-structural elements and they are ignored in analytical models. In this study, seismic behaviors of RC frame with/without masonry infill walls were investigated. To this end, the infill walls were modeled as equivalent diagonal struts. Based on analytical results, it has been shown that masonry infill walls can increase the global strength and stiffness of a structure. Accordingly, inter-story drift ratio will be decreased but seismic forces applied to the structure were increased than design seismic load because natural period of the structure was decreased. It is also seen from the analytical results that the inelastic deformation of RC frame with soft story is concentrated on the first story columns and thus, partial damage may have possibility of collapse of system.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2022

Debates on what is the first skyscraper have been ongoing from time to time since the construction of the Home Insurance Building in Chicago in 1885, which is generally recognized as the first built skyscraper. This paper attempts to verify this assertion through a detailed investigation after identifying the criteria that characterize a skyscraper. By considering and examining several competing buildings for the title of "first skyscraper" in terms of their levels of satisfying these criteria, the paper reconfirms that the Home Insurance Building in Chicago indeed qualifies as the first skyscraper and is the harbinger of future skyscrapers. By introducing technological and associated architectural innovations in this pioneering building, its designer William Le Baron Jenney paved the way for the construction of future skyscrapers. In traditional construction, heavy masonry walls especially at lower levels did not allow large window openings in exterior walls that would permit ample daylight. For the Home Insurance Building, originally built with 10 stories, Jenney created a metal-framed skeletal structure that carried the building's loads, making the building lighter and allowed for large windows permitting ample natural light to the building's interior. The exterior iron columns were encased in relatively small masonry piers mainly for fireproofing, weather-protection and façade aesthetics. Relying on the structural framing on the building's perimeter, the exterior masonry thus turned into a rudimentary "curtain wall" system, heralding the use of curtain wall construction in future skyscrapers. This building's innovative structural system led to what is known as the "Chicago Skeleton," and eventually produced remarkable skyscrapers all over the world.