• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.311-332
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• 2012

Earthquake response of mid-rise to high-rise buildings provided with friction dampers is investigated. The steel buildings are modelled as shear-type structures and the investigation involved modelling of the structures of varying heights ranging from five storeys to twenty storeys, in steps of five storeys, subjected to real earthquake ground motions. Three basic types of structures considered in the study are: moment resisting frame (MRF), braced frame (BF), and friction damper frame (FDF). Mathematical modelling of the friction dampers involved simulation of the two distinct phases namely, the stick phase and the slip phase. Dynamic time history analyses are carried out to study the variation of the top floor acceleration, top floor displacement, storey shear, and base-shear. Further, energy plots are obtained to investigate the energy dissipation by the friction dampers. It is seen that substantial earthquake response reduction is achieved with the provision of the friction dampers in the mid-rise and high-rise buildings. The provision of the friction dampers always reduces the base-shear. It is also seen from the fast Fourier transform (FFT) of the top floor acceleration that there is substantial reduction in the peak response; however, the higher frequency content in the response has increased. For the structures considered, the top floor displacements are lesser in the FDF than in the MRF; however, the top floor displacements are marginally larger in the FDF than in the BF.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.59-73
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• 2013

The Xiaolan channel super large bridge is unique in style and with greatest span in the world with a total length of 7686.57 m. The main bridge with spans arranged as 100m+220m+100m is a combined structure composed of prestressed concrete V-shape rigid frame and concrete-filled steel tubular flexible arch. First of all, the author compiles APDL command flow program by using the unit birth-death technique and establishes simulation calculation model in the whole construction process. The creep characteristics of concrete are also taken into account. The force ratio of the suspender, arch and beam is discussed. The authors conduct studies on the three-plate webs's rule of shear stress distribution, the box girder's longitudinal bending normal stress on every construction stage, meanwhile the distribution law of longitudinal bending normal stress and transverse bending normal stress of completed bridge's box girder. Results show that, as a new combined bridge, it is featured by: Girder and arch resist forces together; Moment effects of the structure are mainly presented as compressed arch and tensioned girder; The bridge type brings the girder and arch on resisting forces into full play; Great in vertical stiffness and slender in appearance.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.483-491
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• 2008

There has been much focus on the strong axis steel moment connections after the Northridge earthquake in 1994. However, research studieson the seismic behavior of weak axis moment connections could be hardly found despite the fact that these connection details have been frequently used as seismic details of MRF in Korea. Therefore, the objective of this research is to provide better knowledge on the seismic behavior of weak-axis steel moment connections, which can be widely applicable to many structures with similar characteristics. For this purpose, an experimental program was designed and performed with twotypes of weak-axis steel moment connections, namely the bracket type and WUF-B type, based on the survey of existing field data and literatures. Using the experimental results obtained from the quasi-static cyclic testing of these specimens, structural performances of the joints such as hysteretic curves, maximum strength capacities and the strain of reinforced bars were investigated. From the test results, the bracket-type connection was shown to have more than a 5% story drift capacity, compared with the WUF-B type connection's 4%. These specimens were also shown to have higher strength capacities than the nominal design strength. The bracket-type connection showed a slow strength degradation after maximum strength was researched. However,the WUF-B type connection showed a rapid strength degradation that caused brittle behavior.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.701-715
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• 2020

Steel storage racks are lightweight structures, made of thin-walled cold-formed members, whose behaviour is remarkably influenced by local, distortional and overall buckling phenomena, frequently mutually combined. In addition, the need of an easy and rapid erection and reconfiguration of the skeleton frame usually entails the presence of regular perforations along the length of the vertical elements (uprights). Holes and slots strongly influence their behaviour, whose prediction is however of paramount importance to guarantee an efficient design and a safe use of racks. This paper focuses on the behaviour of isolated uprights subjected to both axial load and bending moments, differing for the cross-section geometry and for the regular perforation systems. According to the European standards for routine design, four alternatives to evaluate the bending moment-axial load resisting domains are shortly discussed and critically compared in terms of member load carrying capacity.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.1130-1139
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• 2001

Springs are widely utilized in machine element. To find out stiffness of coil spring, the space beam theory using the finite element method is adopted in this paper. In three dimensional space, a space frame element is a straight bar of uniform cross section which is capable of resisting axial forces, bending moments about two principal axes in the plane of its cross section and twisting moment about its centroidal axis. The corresponding displacement degrees of freedom are twelve. The displacements of nodal points due to small increment of force are calculated by the finite element method and the calculated nodal displacements are added to coordinates of nodal points. The new stiffness matrix of the system using the new coordinates of nodal points is adopted to calculated the another increments of nodal displacements, that is, the step by step method is used in this paper. The results of the finite element method are fairly well agreed with those of various experiments. Using MATLAB program developed in this paper, spring constants can be predicted by input of few factors.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.221-230
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• 2004

In this paper, the dynamic response of a multi-story steel moment resisting frame equipped with viscoelastic dampers or lead rubber bearing type isolators subjected to seismic loads is investigated analytically. The objective of this study is to find the best location of viscoelastic dampers by the maximum stress method and maximum story drifts method from structure analysis. Also, a secondary objective of the study is to compare the member force, combined stress, and natural period of the structure retrofitted with viscoelastic dampers or lead rubber bearing type isolators to find effective vibration control method.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.250-255
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• 2008

Springs are widely utilized in machine element. To find out stiffness of frustum-shaped coil spring, the space beam theory using the finite element method is adopted in this paper. In three dimensional space, a space frame element is a straight bar of uniform cross section which is capable of resisting axial forces, bending moments about two principal axes in the plane of its cross section and twisting moment about its centroidal axis. The corresponding displacement degrees of freedom are twelve. To find out load vector of coil spring subjected to distributed compression. principle of virtual work is adapted. And this theory was programming using MATLAB software. To compare FEM using MATLAB software was applied MSC. Nastran software. The geometry model for MSC. Patran was produced by 3-D design modeling software. Finite element model was produced by MSC. Patran. Finite element was applied tetra (CTETRA) having 10 node. The analysis results of the MATLAB and MSC. Nastran are fairly well agreed with those of various experiments. Using MATLAB program proposed in this paper and MSC. Nastran, spring constants and stresses can be predicted by input of few factors.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.73-91
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• 2015

The effectiveness of tuned mass dampers (TMDs) in reducing the seismic response of civil structures is still a debated issue. The few studies regarding TMDs on inelastic structures indicate that they would perform well under moderate earthquake loading, when the structure remains linear or weakly nonlinear, while tending to fail under severe ground shaking, when the structure experiences strong nonlinearities. TMD seismic efficiency should be therefore rationally assessed by considering to which extent moderate and severe earthquakes respectively contribute to the expected cost of damages and losses over the lifespan of the structure. In this paper, a method for evaluating, in a life-cycle cost (LCC) perspective, the seismic effectiveness of TMDs on inelastic building structures is presented and exemplified on the SAC LA 9-storey steel moment-resisting frame benchmark building. Results show that the LCC concept may provide an appropriate alternative to traditional performance criteria for the evaluation of the effectiveness of TMDs and that TMD installation on typical existing middle-rise buildings in high seismic hazard regions may significantly reduce building lifetime cost despite the poor control performance observed under the most severe seismic events.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.99-123
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• 2015

In this study, structural vulnerability of reinforced concrete moment resisting frames (RC-MRFs) by considering the Iran-specific characteristics is investigated to manage the earthquake risk in terms of multicomponent seismic excitations. Low and medium rise RC-MRFs, which constitute approximately 80-90% of the total buildings stock in Iran, are focused in this fragility-based assessment. The seismic design of 3-12 story RC-MRFs are carried out according to the Iranian Code of Practice for Seismic Resistant Design of Buildings (Standard No. 2800), and the analytical models are formed accordingly in open source nonlinear platforms. Frame structures are categorized in three subclasses according to the specific characteristics of construction practice and the observed seismic performance after major earthquakes in Iran. Both far and near fields' ground motions have been considered in the fragility estimation. An optimal intensity measure (IM) called Sa, avg and beta probability distribution were used to obtain reliable fragility-based database for earthquake damage and loss estimation of RC buildings stock in urban areas of Iran. Nonlinear incremental dynamic analyses by means of lumped-parameter based structural models have been simulated and performed to extract the fragility curves. Approximate confidence bounds are developed to represent the epistemic uncertainties inherent in the fragility estimations. Consequently, it's shown that including vertical ground motion in the analysis is highly recommended for reliable seismic assessment of RC buildings.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.37-57
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• 2012

The behavior of beam-column joints in moment resisting frame structures is susceptible to damage caused by seismic effects due to poor performance of the joints. A good number of researches were carried out to understand the complex mechanism of RC joints considered in current seismic design codes. The traditional construction detailing of transverse reinforcement has resulted in serious joint failures during earthquakes. This paper introduces a new design philosophy involving the use of additional diagonal bars within the joint particularly suitable for low to medium seismic effects in earthquake zones. In this study, ten full-scale interior beam-column specimens were constructed with various additional reinforcement details and configurations. The results of the experiment showed that adding additional bars is a promising approach in reinforced concrete structures where earthquakes are eminent. In terms of overall cracking observation during the test, the specimens with additional bars (diagonal and straight) compared with the ones without them showed fewer cracks in the column. Furthermore, concrete confinement is certainly an important design measure as recommended by most international codes.