• Computers and Concrete
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-27
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• 2016

Final construction project cost is significantly determined by construction rate. The Industrialized Building System (IBS) was promoted to enhance the importance of prefabrication technology rather than conventional methods in construction. Ensuring the stability of a building constructed by using IBS is a challenging issue. Accordingly, the connections in a prefabricated building have a basic, natural, and essential role in providing the best continuity among the members of the building. Deficiencies of conventional precast connections were observed when precast buildings experience a large induced load, such as earthquakes and other disasters. Thus, researchers aim to determine the behavior of precast concrete structure with a specific type of connection. To clarify this problem, this study investigates the capacity behavior of precast concrete panel connections for industrial buildings with a new type of precast wall-to-wall connection (i.e., U-shaped steel channel connection). This capacity behavior is compared with the capacity behavior of precast concrete panel connections for industrial buildings that used a common approach (i.e., loop connection), which is subjected to monotonic loading as in-plane and out-of-plane loading by developing a finite element model. The principal stress distribution, deformation of concrete panels and welded wire mesh (BRC) reinforcements, plastic strain trend in the concrete panels and connections, and crack propagations are investigated for the aforementioned connection. Pushover analysis revealed that loop connections have significant defects in terms of strength for in-plane and out-of-plane loads at three translational degrees of freedom compared with the U-shaped steel channel connection.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.5
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• pp.541-557
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• 2020

A novel family of controllable, dissipative structure-dependent integration methods is derived from an eigen-based theory, where the concept of the eigenmode can give a solid theoretical basis for the feasibility of this type of integration methods. In fact, the concepts of eigen-decomposition and modal superposition are involved in solving a multiple degree of freedom system. The total solution of a coupled equation of motion consists of each modal solution of the uncoupled equation of motion. Hence, an eigen-dependent integration method is proposed to solve each modal equation of motion and an approximate solution can be yielded via modal superposition with only the first few modes of interest for inertial problems. All the eigen-dependent integration methods combine to form a structure-dependent integration method. Some key assumptions and new techniques are combined to successfully develop this family of integration methods. In addition, this family of integration methods can be either explicitly or implicitly implemented. Except for stability property, both explicit and implicit implementations have almost the same numerical properties. An explicit implementation is more computationally efficient than for an implicit implementation since it can combine unconditional stability and explicit formulation simultaneously. As a result, an explicit implementation is preferred over an implicit implementation. This family of integration methods can have the same numerical properties as those of the WBZ-α method for linear elastic systems. Besides, its stability and accuracy performance for solving nonlinear systems is also almost the same as those of the WBZ-α method. It is evident from numerical experiments that an explicit implementation of this family of integration methods can save many computational efforts when compared to conventional implicit methods, such as the WBZ-α method.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.427-440
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• 2017

One of the suitable structural damage detection methods using vibrational characteristics are damage-index-based methods. In this study, a damage index for identifying damages in plate structures using frequency response function (FRF) data has been provided. One of the significant challenges of identifying the damages in plate structures is high number of degrees of freedom resulting in decreased damage identifying accuracy. On the other hand, FRF data are of high volume and this dramatically decreases the computing speed and increases the memory necessary to store the data, which makes the use of this method difficult. In this study, FRF data are compressed using two-dimensional principal component analysis (2D-PCA), and then converted into damage index vectors. The damage indices, each of which represents a specific condition of intact or damaged structures are stored in a database. After computing damage index of structure with unknown damage and using algorithm of lookup tables, the structural damage including the severity and location of the damage will be identified. In this study, damage detection accuracy using the proposed damage index in square-shaped structural plates with dimensions of 3, 7 and 10 meters and with boundary conditions of four simply supported edges (4S), three clamped edges (3C), and four clamped edges (4C) under various single and multiple-element damage scenarios have been studied. Furthermore, in order to model uncertainties of measurement, insensitivity of this method to noises in the data measured by applying values of 5, 10, 15 and 20 percent of normal Gaussian noise to FRF values is discussed.

• 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 ${\tau}$.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.595-615
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• 2014

This study aims to investigate the relationship between structural damage and sensitivity indices using the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) method. Two damage detection indices are proposed: the ratio of bandwidth (RB), and the ratio of effective stiffness (RES). The nonlinear four bays multiple degree of freedom models with various predominant frequencies are constructed using the SAP2000 program. Adjusted PGA earthquake data (Japan 311, Chi-Chi 921) are used as the excitations. Next the damage detection indices obtained using the HHT and the fast Fourier transform (FFT) methods are evaluated based on the acceleration responses of the structures to earthquakes. Simulation results indicate that, the column of the 1 st floor is the first yielding position and the RB value is changed when the RES<90% in all cases. Moreover, the RB value of the 1 st floor changes more sensitive than those from the top floor. In addition, when the structural response is nonlinear (i.e., RES<100%), the RB and the RES curves indicate the incremental change in the HHT spectra. However, the same phenomenon can be found from FFT spectra only when the stiffness reduction is large enough. Therefore, the RB estimated from the smoothed HHT spectra is an effective and sensitive index for detecting structural damage.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.625-638
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• 2007

The damage detection process may appear difficult to be implemented for truss structures because not all degrees of freedom in the numerical model can be experimentally measured. In this context, the damage locating vector (DLV) method, introduced by Bernal (2002), is a useful approach because it is effective when operating with an arbitrary number of sensors, a truncated modal basis and multiple damage scenarios, while keeping the calculation in a low level. In addition, the present paper also evaluates the noise influence on the accuracy of the DLV method. In order to verify the DLV behavior under different damages intensities and, mainly, in presence of measurement noise, a parametric study had been carried out. Different excitations as well as damage scenarios are numerically tested in a continuous Warren truss structure subjected to five noise levels with a set of limited measurement sensors. Besides this, it is proposed another way to determine the damage locating vectors in the DLV procedure. The idea is to contribute with an alternative option to solve the problem with a more widespread algebraic method. The original formulation via singular value decomposition (SVD) is replaced by a common solution of an eigenvector-eigenvalue problem. The final results show that the DLV method, enhanced with the alternative solution proposed in this paper, was able to correctly locate the damaged bars, using an output-only system identification procedure, even considering small intensities of damage and moderate noise levels.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.347-357
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• 2017

The applications of active control is being more popular nowadays. Several control algorithms have been developed to determine optimum control force. In this paper, a Chaotic Particle Swarm Optimization (CPSO) technique, based on Logistic map, is used to compute the optimum control force of active tendon system. A chaotic exploration is used to search the solution space for optimum control force. The response control of Multi-Degree of Freedom (MDOF) shear buildings, equipped with active tendons, is introduced as an optimization problem, based on Instantaneous Optimal Active Control algorithm. Three MDOFs are simulated in this paper. Two examples out of three, which have been previously controlled using Lattice type Probabilistic Neural Network (LPNN) and Block Pulse Functions (BPFs), are taken from prior works in order to compare the efficiency of the current method. In the present study, a maximum allowable value of control force is added to the original problem. Later, a twenty-story shear building, as the third and more realistic example, is considered and controlled. Besides, the required Central Processing Unit (CPU) time of CPSO control algorithm is investigated. Although the CPU time of LPNN and BPFs methods of prior works is not available, the results show that a full state measurement is necessary, especially when there are more than three control devices. The results show that CPSO algorithm has a good performance, especially in the presence of the cut-off limit of tendon force; therefore, can widely be used in the field of optimum active control of actual buildings.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.257-280
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• 2014

In this paper, a novel PARAllel FACtor (PARAFAC) decomposition based Blind Source Separation (BSS) algorithm is proposed for modal identification of structures equipped with tuned mass dampers. Tuned mass dampers (TMDs) are extremely effective vibration absorbers in tall flexible structures, but prone to get de-tuned due to accidental changes in structural properties, alteration in operating conditions, and incorrect design forecasts. Presence of closely spaced modes in structures coupled with TMDs renders output-only modal identification difficult. Over the last decade, second-order BSS algorithms have shown significant promise in the area of ambient modal identification. These methods employ joint diagonalization of covariance matrices of measurements to estimate the mixing matrix (mode shape coefficients) and sources (modal responses). Recently, PARAFAC BSS model has evolved as a powerful multi-linear algebra tool for decomposing an $n^{th}$ order tensor into a number of rank-1 tensors. This method is utilized in the context of modal identification in the present study. Covariance matrices of measurements at several lags are used to form a $3^{rd}$ order tensor and then PARAFAC decomposition is employed to obtain the desired number of components, comprising of modal responses and the mixing matrix. The strong uniqueness properties of PARAFAC models enable direct source separation with fine spectral resolution even in cases where the number of sensor observations is less compared to the number of target modes, i.e., the underdetermined case. This capability is exploited to separate closely spaced modes of the TMDs using partial measurements, and subsequently to estimate modal parameters. The proposed method is validated using extensive numerical studies comprising of multi-degree-of-freedom simulation models equipped with TMDs, as well as with an experimental set-up.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.371-390
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• 2010

Historical buildings in seismically active regions are severely damaged by earthquakes, since they certainly were not designed by the original builders to withstand seismic effects. In particular the reports after major ground motions indicate that earthquake-induced pounding between buildings may lead to substantial damage or even collapse of colliding structures. The research on structural pounding during earthquakes has been recently much advanced, although most of the studies are conducted on simplified single degree of freedom systems. In this paper a detailed pounding-involved response analysis of three adjacent structures is performed, concerning the main bodies of the "Quinto Orazio Flacco" school. The construction includes a main masonry building, with an M-shaped plan, and a reinforced concrete building, separated from the masonry one and realized along its free perimeter. By the analysis of the capacity curves obtained by suitable pushover procedures performed separately for each building, it emerges that masonry and reinforced concrete buildings are vulnerable to earthquake-induced structural pounding in the longitudinal direction. In particular, due to the geometric configuration of the school, a special case of impact between the reinforced concrete structure and two parts of the masonry building occurs. In order to evaluate the pounding-involved response of three adjacent structures, in this paper a numerical procedure is proposed, programmed using MATLAB software. Both a non-linear viscoelastic model to simulate impact and an elastic-perfectly plastic approximation of the storey shear force-drift relation are assumed, differently from many commercial softwares which admit just one non-linearity.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.381-399
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• 2005

Base isolation technologies have been proven to be very efficient in protecting structures from seismic hazards during experimental and theoretical studies. In recent years, there have been more and more engineering applications using base isolators to upgrade the seismic resistibility of structures. Optimum design of the base isolator can lessen the undesirable seismic hazard with the most efficiency. Hence, tracing the nonlinear behavior of the base isolator with good accuracy is important in the engineering profession. In order to predict the nonlinear behavior of base isolated structures precisely, hundreds even thousands of degrees-of-freedom and iterative algorithm are required for nonlinear time history analysis. In view of this, a simple and feasible exact formulation without any iteration has been proposed in this study to calculate the seismic responses of structures with base isolators. Comparison between the experimental results from shaking table tests conducted at National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering in Taiwan and the analytical results show that the proposed method can accurately simulate the seismic behavior of base isolated structures with elastomeric bearings. Furthermore, it is also shown that the proposed method can predict the nonlinear behavior of the VCFPS isolated structure with accuracy as compared to that from the nonlinear finite element program. Therefore, the proposed concept can be used as a simple and practical tool for engineering professions for designing the elastomeric bearing as well as sliding bearing.