• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.587-607
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• 2014

Progressive collapse, which is referred to as the collapse of the entire building under local damages, is a common failure mode happened by earthquakes. The collapse process highly depends on the whole structural system. Since, asymmetry of the building plan leads to the local damage concentration; it may intensify the progressive collapse mechanism of asymmetric buildings. In this research the progressive collapse of regular and irregular 6-story RC ordinary moment resisting frame buildings are studied in the presence of the earthquake loads. Collapse process and collapse propagation are investigated using nonlinear time history analyses (NLTHA) in buildings with 5%, 15% and 25% mass asymmetry with respect to the number of collapsed hinges and story drifts criteria. Results show that increasing the value of mass eccentricity makes the asymmetric buildings become unstable earlier and in the early stages with lower number of the collapsed hinges. So, with increasing the mass eccentricity in building, instability and collapse of the entire building occurs earlier, with lower potential of the progressive collapse. It is also demonstrated that with increasing the mass asymmetry the decreasing trend of the number of collapsed beam and column hinges is approximately similar to the decreasing trend in the average story drifts of the mass centers and stiff edges. So, as an alternative to a much difficult-to-calculate local response parameter of the number of collapsed hinges, the story drift, as a global response parameter, measures the potential of progressive collapse more easily.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.70 no.4
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• pp.381-394
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• 2019

If an alternative path would not be considered for redistribution of loads, local failure in structures will be followed by a progressive collapse. When a vertical load-bearing element of a steel structure fails, the beams connected to it will lose their support. Accordingly, an increase in span's length adds to the internal forces in beams. The mentioned increasing load in beams leads to amplifying the moments there, and likewise in their corresponding connections. Since it is not possible to reinforce all the elements of the structure against this phenomenon, it seems rational to use other technics like specified strengthened connections. In this study, a novel connection is suggested to handle the stated phenomenon which is introduced as a passive connection. This connection enables the structure to tolerate the added loads after failing of the vertical element. To that end, two experimental models were constructed and thereafter tested in half-scale, one-story, double-bay, and bolted connections in three-dimensional spaces. This experimental study has been conducted to compare the ductility and strength of a frame that has ordinary rigid connections with a frame containing a novel passive connection. At last, parametric studies have been implemented to optimize the dimensions of the passive connection. Results show that the load-bearing capacity of the frame increased up to 75 percent. Also, a significant decrease in the displacement of the node wherein the column is removed was observed compared to the ordinary moment resisting frame with the same loads.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.65-80
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• 2021

Irregularities of a building in plan and elevation, which results in the change in stiffness on different floors highly affect the seismic performance and resistance of a structure. This study motivated to investigate the seismic responses of high-rise steel-frame buildings of twelve stories with various stiffness irregularities. The building has five spans of 3200 mm distance in both X- and Z-directions in the plan. The design package SAP2000 was adopted for the design of beams and columns and resulted in the profile IPE500 for the beams of all floors and box sections for columns. The column cross-section dimensions vary concerning the number of the story; one to three: 0.50×0.50×0.05m, four to seven: 0.45×0.45×0.05 m, and eight to twelve: 0.40×0.40×0.05 m. Real recorded ground accelerations obtained from the Vrancea earthquake in Romania together with dead and live loads corresponding to each story were considered for the applied load. The model was validated by comparing the results of the current method and literature considering a three-bay steel moment-resisting frame of eight-story height subject to seismic load. To investigate the seismic performance of the buildings, the time-history analysis was performed using ABAQUS. Deformed shapes corresponding to negative and positive peaks were provided followed by the story drifts and fragility curves which were used to examine the probability of collapse of the building. From the results, it was concluded that regular buildings provided a seismic performance much better than irregular buildings. Furthermore, it was observed that building with torsional irregularity was more vulnerable to seismic failure.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.751-760
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the seismic performance of the frame which is assumed to be used with Welded Unreinforced Flange-Bolted web (WUF-B) connections and detailed in compliance with FEMA 350 recommended seismic design criteria. In FEMA 350, these types of connections are only valid for Ordinary Moment-Resisting Steel Frames (OMRSFs). For this purpose, based on test results, we proposed an analytical model for the Post-Northridge WUF-B connections with different panel zone strength ratios. Using the connection model, SAC Phase II three and nine-story frames were modeled and analyzed. From a nonlinear static pushover analysis, ductility, maximum strength, and the maximum interstory drift ratio were investigated for buildings with Post-Northridge details. Moreover, the maximum interstory drift ratio of each performance level (IO and CP) was also investigated through Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA). Analytical results were compared with those of buildings with either Pre-Northridge connection or ductile connections with no fracture. The analytical results showed that buildings with Post-Northridge WUF-B connections provide superior strength and interstory drift ratio capacity than buildings with Pre-Northridge WUF-B connections.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.207-215
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• 2014

As a reinforcement material for RC members, the modified epoxy mortar has been reported one of the superior materials since the material can improve the load capacity and the seismic performance of the RC members. However, there were few experimental studies and analytical research for improving seismic performance with the material. This study is to propose an effective reinforcement plan for RC Ordinary Moment Resisting Frame (OMRF) with the evaluation of seismic performance and economic analysis. For the objective, first, the load-deflection curve of a simple beam specimen was compared with the analytical results. Second, a 5-story RC OMRF structure was designed only for gravity load and the alternatives for seismic reinforcement were suggested. Third, pushover analysis was executed for evaluation of design coefficients and seismic performance of the structures. Finally, an effective reinforcement plan was suggested based on the results of quantity take-off and economic analysis. The findings of this study can be utilized as the basic data when the modified epoxy mortar is applied to practice for improving the seismic performance of RC members.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.238-245
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• 2010

Progressive collapse is defined as a collapse caused by sectional destruction of a structural member which links to other surrounding structures. Currently the design guidelines for the prevention of progressive collapse is not available in Korea. So, structural engineers have a difficulty in evaluating progressive collapse. In this study, the static and dynamic analysis to evaluate the methods and procedures are conducted using commercial analysis program for RC moment resisting frames. According to the study, DCR value of RC moment resisting frame system based on code in Korea is over 2 and it shows that it can't provide alternate load paths due to the progressive collapse. And additional reinforcement should be considered for the progressive collapse resistance. As a result of vertical deflection and DCR value of linear static analysis and linear dynamic analysis, the results of dynamic analysis were underestimated more than the result of static analysis. Thus, the dynamic coefficient value of 2 provides conservative estimation.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.453-462
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• 2018

Damages to buildings affected by a near-fault strong ground motion are largely attributed to the vertical component of the earthquake resulting in column failures, which could lead to disproportionate building catastrophic collapse in a progressive fashion. Recently, considerable interests are awakening to study effects of earthquake vertical components on structural responses. In this study, detailed modeling and time-history analyses of a 12-story code-conforming reinforced concrete moment frame building carrying the gravity loads, and exposed to once only the horizontal component of, and second time simultaneously the horizontal and vertical components of an ensemble of far-field and near-field earthquakes are conducted. Structural responses inclusive of tension, compression and its fluctuations in columns, the ratio of shear demand to capacity in columns and peak mid-span moment demand in beams are compared with and without the presence of the vertical component of earthquake records. The influences of the existence of earthquake vertical component in both exterior and interior spans are separately studied. Thereafter, the correlation between the increase of demands induced by the vertical component of the earthquake and the ratio of a set of earthquake record characteristic parameters is investigated. It is shown that uplift initiation and the magnitude of tensile forces developed in corner columns are relatively more critical. Presence of vertical component of earthquake leads to a drop in minimum compressive force and initiation of tension in columns. The magnitude of this reduction in the most critical case is recorded on average 84% under near-fault ground motions. Besides, the presence of earthquake vertical components increases the shear capacity required in columns, which is at most 31%. In the best case, a direct correlation of 95% between the increase of the maximum compressive force and the ratio of vertical to horizontal 'effective peak acceleration (EPA)' is observed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.15-27
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• 2007

Over the past decade, labor costs have increased relative to the cost of material hardware according to analysts in the construction industry. Therefore, the minimum weight design, which has been widely adopted in the literature for the optimal design of steel structures, is no longer the most economical construction approach. Presently, although connection- related costs is crucial in determining the most cost-effective steel structures, most studies on this subject focused on minimum-weight design or engaged in higher analysis. Therefore, in this study, we proposed a fabrication scheme for the most cost-effective moment-resisting steel frame structures that resist lateral loads without compromising overall stability. The proposed approach considers the cost of steel products, fabrication, and connections within the design process. The optimal design considered construction realities, with the optimal trade-off between the number of moment connections and total cost was achieved by reducing the number of moment connections and rearranging them using the combination of analysis that includes shear, displacement and interaction value based on the LRFD code and optimization scheme based on genetic algorithms. In this study, we have shown the applicability and efficiency in the examples that considered actual loading conditions.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.84-91
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• 2022

This study investigated the behavior of out-of-plane skewed moment connections that were designed as IMFs, as per the Korean standards. A total of 14 finite element models were constructed with the consideration of two types (single- and double-sided connections) and four levels of skew angle (0°, 10°, 20°, and 30°). The results indicated that the skewed connections considered in this study met the acceptance criteria for IMFs given by the codes. However, the load-carrying capacities of skewed connections were decreased as the skew angle increased. For the connection with a skew angle of 30°, the peak load was noted to be 13% less and the energy dissipation capacity could be 26% less than that of non-skewed connection. In addition, because of the skewed nature, the stress distribution in the skewed beam flange near the connection was asymmetric and the stresses were concentrated on the beam inner flange. Column twisting induced by the skewed configuration was very small and negligible in the beam and column combination considered in this study.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.173-182
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• 2003

In equivalent static nonlinear analysis and in energy-based design, the structures are generally transformed into an equivalent SDOF system. In this study the seismic energy demands in multi story structures, such as three-, eight-, and twenty-story steel moment-resisting frames(MRF), buckling restrained braced frames(BRBF) and a damage tolerant braced frame(DTBF), are compared with those of equivalent single degree of freedom(ESDOF) systems. Sixty earthquake ground motions recorded In different soil conditions, which are soft rock, soft soil, and neat fault, were used to compute the input and hysteretic energy demands in model structures. In case the modal mass coefficient is less than 0.8, the effects of higher modes are considered in the process of converting into ESDOF According to the analysis results, the hysteretic and input energies obtained from 3 story and 8 story MRF and DTBF agreed well with the results from analysis of equivalent SDOF systems. However in the 20 story BRBF the results from ESDOF underestimated those obtained from the original structures.