• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.521-535
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• 2018

The main purpose of this paper is to predict missing absolute out-of-plane displacements and failure limits of infill walls by artificial neural network (ANN) models. For this purpose, two shake table experiments are performed. These experiments are conducted on a 1:1 scale one-bay one-story reinforced concrete frame (RCF) with an infill wall. One of the experimental models is composed of unreinforced brick model (URB) enclosures with an RCF and other is composed of an infill wall with bed joint reinforcement (BJR) enclosures with an RCF. An artificial earthquake load is applied with four acceleration levels to the URB model and with five acceleration levels to the BJR model. After a certain acceleration level, the accelerometers are detached from the wall to prevent damage to them. The removal of these instruments results in missing data. The missing absolute maximum out-of-plane displacements are predicted with ANN models. Failure of the infill wall in the out-of-plane direction is also predicted at the 0.79 g acceleration level. An accuracy of 99% is obtained for the available data. In addition, a benchmark analysis with multiple regression is performed. This study validates that the ANN-based procedure estimates missing experimental data more accurately than multiple regression models.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.505-521
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• 2017

The steel plate shear wall with beam-only connected infill plate (SSW-BO) is an innovative lateral load resisting system consisting of infill plates connected to surrounding beams and separated from the main columns. In this research, the effects of perforation diameter as well as slenderness ratios of infill plates on the hysteresis behavior of SSW-BO systems were studied experimentally. Experimental testing is performed on eight one-sixth scaled one-story SSW-BO specimens with two plate thicknesses and four different circular opening ratios at the center of the panels under fully reversed cyclic quasi-static loading in compliance with the SAC test protocol. Strength, stiffness, ductility and energy absorption were evaluated based on the hysteresis loops. It is found that the systems exhibited stable hysteretic behavior during testing until significant damage in the connection of infill plates to surrounding beams at large drifts. It is also seen that pinching occurred in the hysteresis loops, since the hinge type connections were used as boundaries at four corners of surrounding frames. The strength and initial stiffness degradation of the perforated specimens containing opening ratio of 0.36 compared to the solid one is in the range of 20% to 30% and 40% to 50%, respectively.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.1145-1165
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• 2015

A behavior model for screw connections is developed to provide a better representation of the nonlinear response of thin steel plate shear walls (TSPSWs) with infill plates attached to the boundary frame members via self-drilling screws. This analytical representation is based on the load-bearing deformation relationship between the infill plate and the screw threads. The model can be easily implemented in strip models of TSPSWs where the tension field action of the infill plates is represented by a series of parallel discrete tension-only strips. Previously reported experimental results from tests of two different TSPSWs are used to provide experimental validation of the modeling approach. The beam-to-column connection behavior was also included in the analyses using a four parameter rotational spring model that was calibrated to a test of an identical frame as used for the TSPSW specimens but without the infill plates. The complete TSPSW models consisting of strips representing the infill plates, zero length elements representing the load-bearing deformation response of the screw connection at each end of the strips and the four parameter spring model at each beam-to-column connection are shown to have good agreement with the experimental results. The resulting models should enable design and analysis of TSPSWs for both new construction and retrofit of existing buildings.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.355-372
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• 2015

This paper identifies the effects of infill wall existence and arrangement in the seismic response of steel frame structures. The methodology followed was based on the utilisation of overall seismic response indicators that distil the complexity of structural response in a single value hence enabling their straightforward comparative and statistical post process. The overall structure damage index after Park/Ang ($OSDI_{PA}$) and the maximum inter-story drift ratio (MISDR) have been selected as widely utilized structural seismic response parameters in contemporary state of art. In this respect a set of 225 Greek antiseismic code (EAK) spectrum compatible artificial accelerograms have been created and a series of non-linear dynamic analyses have been executed. Data were obtained through nonlinear dynamic analyses carried on an indicative steel frame structure with 5 different infill wall topologies. Results indicated the significant overall contribution of infill walls with a reduction that ranged 35-47% of the maximum and 74-81% of the average recorded $OSDI_{PA}$ values followed by an overall reduction of 64-67% and 58-61% for the respective maximum and average recorded MISDR values demonstrating the relative benefits of infill walls presence overall as well as localised with similar reductions observed in 1st level damage indicators.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.163-178
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• 2016

Composite Lightweight (CL) insulated walls have gained wide adoption recently because the exterior claddings of steel building frames have their cost effectiveness, good thermal and structural efficiency. To investigate the seismic behavior, lateral stiffness, ductility and energy dissipation of steel frames with the CL infill walls, five one-story one-bay steel frames were fabricated and tested under cyclic loads. Test results showed that the bolted connections allow relative movement between CL infill walls and steel frames, enabling the system to exhibit satisfactory performance under lateral loads. Additionally, it is found that the addition of diagonal steel straps to the CL infill wall significantly increases the initial lateral stiffness, load-carrying capacity, ductility and energy dissipation capacity of the system. Furthermore, the test results indicate that the lateral stiffness values of the frames with the CL infill wall are similar to those of the bare steel frames in large lateral displacement.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.527-534
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• 2022

EDCC (Eco-Friendly Ductile Cementitious Composites) is a recently created class of engineered cementitious composites that exhibit extremely high ductility and elastoplastic behavior under pure tension. EDCC contains reduced amounts of cement and very large volumes of fly ash. Due to these properties, EDCC has become one of the solutions to use in seismic upgrading. This paper discloses previous studies and research that discussed the seismic upgrading of unreinforced, non-grouted, unconfined, and non-load bearing masonry walls which are called URM infill walls using the EDCC technique. URM infill wall is one of the weak links in the building structure to withstand the earthquake waves, as the brittle behavior of the URM infill walls behaves poorly during seismic events. The purpose of this study is to fill a knowledge gap about the theoretical and experimental ways to use the EDCC in URM infill walls. The findings reflect the ability of the EDCC to change the behavior from brittle to ductile to a certain percentage behavior, increasing the overall drift before collapse as it increases the energy dissipation, and resists significant shaking under extensive levels with various types and intensities.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.141-153
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• 2023

The presented paper considers infill masonry walls' influence on the seismic reliability of precast concrete frames. The recent Bojnord earthquake on May 13th, 2017 in Iran (MW 5.4) illustrated that the infill masonry walls play a crucial role in the damage extent and life safety issues of inhabitants in the precast concrete buildings. The incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) approach was used to determine the fragility curves of the represented damaged precast frame. Then, by integrating site hazard and structural fragilities, the seismic reliability of the represented precast frame was evaluated in different damage limit states. Additionally, the static pushover analysis (SPA) approach was used to assess the seismic performance assessment of the precast frame. Bare and infilled frames were modeled as 2D frames employing the OpenSees software platform. The multi-strut macro-model method was employed for infill masonry simulation. Also, a relatively efficient and straightforward nonlinear model was used to simulate the nonlinear behavior of the precast beam-column joint. The outputs show that consideration of the masonry infilled wall effect in all spans of the structural frame leads to a decrease in the possibility of exceedance of specified damage limit states in the structures. In addition, variation of hazard curves for buildings with and without consideration of infilled walls leads to a decrease in the reliability of the building's frames with masonry infilled walls. Furthermore, the lack of infill walls in the first story significantly affects the precast concrete frame's seismic reliability and performance.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.489-499
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• 2024

Infill masonry walls are vulnerable to lateral loads, including seismic, wind, and concentrated push loads. Various strengthening metal fittings have been proposed to improve lateral load resistance, particularly against seismic loads. This study introduces the use of post-compressed wedges as a novel reinforcement method for infill masonry walls to enhance lateral load resistance. The resistance of the infill masonry wall against lateral-concentrated push loads was assessed using an out-of-plane push-over test on specimens sized 2,300×2,410×190 mm³. The presence or absence of wedges and wedge spacing were set as variables. The push-over test results showed that both the unreinforced specimen and the specimen reinforced with 300 mm spaced wedges toppled, while the specimen reinforced with 100 mm spaced wedges remained upright. Peak loads were measured to be 0.74, 29.77, and 5.88 kN for unreinforced specimens and specimens reinforced with 100 mm and 300 mm spaced wedges, respectively. Notably, a tighter reinforcement spacing yielded a similar strength, as expected, which was attributed to the increased friction force between the masonry wall and steel frame. The W-series specimens exhibited a trend comparable to that of the displacement ductility ratio. Overall, the findings validate that post-compressed wedges improve the out-of-plane strength of infill masonry walls.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.69 no.3
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• pp.257-268
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• 2019

Infills are as important members in structural design as beams, columns and braces. They have significant effect on structural behavior. Because of lots of variables in infills like material non-linear behavior, the interaction between frames and infill, etc., the infills performance during an earthquake is complicated, so have led designers do not consider the effect of infills in designing the structure. However, the experimental studies revealed that the infills have the remarkable effect on structure behavior. As if these effects ignored, it might occur soft-story phenomena, torsion or short-column effects on the structures. One simple and appropriate method for considering the infills effects in analyzing, is replacing the infills with diagonal compression strut with the same performance of real infill, instead of designing the whole infill. Because of too many uncertainties, codes and researchers gave many expressions that were not as the same as the others. The major intent of this paper is calculation the width of this diagonal strut, which has the most characteristics of infill. This paper by comprehensive on different parameters like the modulus of young or moment of inertia of columns presents a new formula for achieving the equivalent strut width. In fact, this new formula is extracted from about 60 FEM analyses models. It can be said that this formula is very efficient and accurate in estimating the equivalent strut width, considering the large number of effective parameters relative to similar relationships provided by other researchers. In most cases, the results are so close to the values obtained by the FEM. In this formula, the effect of out of plane buckling is neglected and this formula is used just in steel structures. Also, the thickness of infill panel, and the lateral force applied to frame are constant. In addition, this new formula is just for modeling the lateral stiffness. Obtaining the nearest response in analyzing is important to the designers, so this new formula can help them to reach more accurate response among a lot of experimental equations proposed by researchers.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.301-315
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• 2023

Adopting cohesive soil as geocell-pocket infill materials is not fully accepted by researchers in the field of road engineering. The cohesion that may inhibit the lateral limitation of geocells is a common vital idea that exists within every researcher. However, the influence of infill materials' cohesion on geocell-reinforced performance is still not thoroughly determined. The mechanism behind this still needs to be studied in depth. This study initially discussed the relationship between subgrade bearing capacity, geocells' contribution to reinforced performance, and infill materials' cohesion (IMC). A law was proposed that adopting the soil with high cohesion as infill materials benefited the subgrade bearing capacity, but this was attributed to the superior mechanical properties of infill materials rather than geocells' contribution. Moreover, the vertical and lateral deformation of subgrade, coupling shear stress and confining stress of geocells, and deformation of geocells were deeply studied to analyze the mechanism that high cohesion can inhibit the geocells' contribution. The results indicate that the infill materials with high cohesion result in the total displacement of the subgrade toward to deeper depth, not the lateral direction. These responses decrease the vertical coupling shear stress, confining stress, and normal displacement of geocell walls, which weaken the lateral limitation of geocells.