• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.73 no.1
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• pp.53-64
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• 2020

In different high seismic regions around the world, many non-ductile existing reinforced concrete frame buildings, built without adequate seismic detailing requirements, have been damaged or collapsed after past earthquakes. The assessment and the retrofit of these non-ductile concrete structures is crucial theme of research for all the scientific community of engineers. In particular, a careful assessment of the existing building is fundamental for understanding the failure mechanisms that govern the collapse of the structure or the achievement of the recommended limit states. Based on the seismic assessment, the best retrofit strategy can be designed and applied to the structure. A school building located in Avellino province (Italy) is the case study. The analysis of seismic vulnerability carried out on the mentioned building has highlighted deficiencies in both static and seismic load conditions. The retrofit of the building has been designed based on different retrofit options in order to show the real retrofit design developed from the engineers to achieve the seismic safety of the building. The retrofit costs associated to structural operations are calculated for each case and have been summed up to the costs of the in situ tests. The paper shows a real retrofit design case study in which the best solution is chosen based on the results in terms of structural performance and cost among the different retrofit options.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.665-687
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• 2014

This paper presents a framework for analytical seismic vulnerability assessment of substandard reinforced concrete (RC) structures in developing countries. Amodified capacity-demand diagram method is used to predict the response of RC structures with degrading behaviour. A damage index based on period change is used to quantify the evolution of damage. To demonstrate the framework, a class of substandard RC buildings is examined. Abrupt accumulation of damage is observed due to the brittle failure modes and this is reflected in the developed vulnerability curves, which differ substantially from the curves of ductile structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.429-445
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• 2009

Thermal stability of quasi-isotropic composite and polymeric structures is considered one of the most important criteria in predicting life span of building structures. The outdoor applications of these structures have raised some legitimate concerns about their durability including moisture resistance and thermal stability. Exposure of such quasi-isotropic composite/polymeric structures to various and severe climatic conditions such as heat flux and frigid climate would change the material behavior and thermal viability and may lead to the degradation of material properties and building durability. This paper presents an analytical model for the generalized problem. This model accommodates the non-linearity and the non-homogeneity of the internal heat generated within the structure and the changes, modification to the material constants, and the structural size. The paper also investigates the effect of the incorporation of the temperature and/or material constant sensitive internal heat generation with four encountered climatic conditions on thermal stability of infinite cylindrical quasi-isotropic composite/polymeric structures. This can eventually result in the failure of such structures. Detailed critical analyses for four case studies which consider the population of the internal heat generation, cylindrical size, material constants, and four different climatic conditions are carried out. For each case of the proposed boundary conditions, the critical thermal stability parameter is determined. The results of this paper indicate that the thermal stability parameter is critically dependent on the cylinder size, material constants/selection, the convective heat transfer coefficient, subjected heat flux and other constants accrued from the structure environment.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.91-98
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is analyzing the prescriptions of American codes for straw bale structures and proposing the legislation direction of Korean building code. The process of this study is as follows: (1) To set up the legislation direction of straw bale code of Korea, this study investigated the current state and features of straw bale houses in Korea, and looked into the worldwide status of straw bale codes and permitting. (2) To provide basic data for the legislation of Korean straw bale code or guideline, this study analyzed American codes for straw bale structures like the Tucson/Pima County Arizona Building Code Appendix Chapter 72 - Straw-Bale Structures, California State Guidelines for Straw-Bale Structures, New Mexico Standards for Non-load Bearing Baled Straw Construction, Oregon State Residential Code Appendix M - Straw-Bale Structures and so on. The analysis items are the scope of rule application, material specifications, requirements for straw bale walls/foundations and construction requirements. (3) On the base of analysis of American straw bale codes, this study proposed the legislation process and direction of Korean straw bale code and guideline.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.253-273
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• 2015

The current investigation has been conducted to examine the effect of gravity loads on the seismic responses of the doubly asymmetric, three-dimensional structures comprising walls and frames. The proposed model includes the P-${\Delta}$ effects induced by the building weight. Based on the variational approach, a 3D finite element with two nodes and six DOF per node including P-${\Delta}$ effects is formulated. Dynamic and static governing equations are derived for dynamic and buckling analyzes of buildings braced by wall-frame systems. The influences of P-${\Delta}$ effects and height of the building on tip displacements under Hachinohe earthquake record are investigated through many structural examples.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.553-570
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• 2013

Using of masonry infill as partitions, in flat slab frame buildings is a common practice in many parts of the world. The infill is, generally, not considered in the design and the buildings are designed as bare frames. More of fundamental information in the effect of masomary infill on the seismic performance of RC building frames is in great demand for structural engineers. Therefore the main aim of this research is to evaluate the seismic performance of such buildings without (bare frame) and with various systems of the masonary infill. For this purpose, thirteen three dimensional models are chosen and analyzed by SAP2000 program. In this study the stress strain relation model proposed by Crisafulli for the hysteric behaviour of masonary subjected to cyclic loading is used. The results show that the nonstructural masonary infill can impart significant increase global strength and stiffness of such building frames and can enhance the seismic behaviour of flat slab frame building to large extent depending on infill wall system. As a result great deal of insight has been obtained on seismic response of such flat slab buildings which enable the structural engineer to determine the optimum position of infill wall between the columns.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.477-487
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• 2024

The interaction between multiple structures through the supporting soil media, known as structure-soil-structure interaction (SSSI), has become an increasingly important issue due to rapid urbanization. There is a need to investigate the effect of SSSI on the structural response of buildings compared to non-interaction analysis (NIA) and soil-structure interaction (SSI) analysis. In the present study, two identical 4-bay×4-bay, three-story RCC buildings are modeled adjacent to each other with a soil domain beneath it to investigate the effect of SSSI on the forces experienced by footings under gravity and seismic load cases. The ANSYS software is used for modeling various non-interaction and interaction models which work on the principle of FEM. The results indicate that in most of the footings, the SSSI effect causes a significant redistribution of forces compared to SSI and NIA under both gravity and seismic load cases. The maximum interaction effect is observed on the footings that are closer to the adjacent building. The axial force, shear force and bending moment values on these footings show that SSI causes a significant increase in these values compared to non-interaction analysis but the presence of adjacent building relieves these forces significantly.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.557-585
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• 2013

The recent huge earthquake ground motion records in Japan result in the reconsideration of seismic design forces for nuclear power stations from the view point of seismological research. In addition, the seismic design force should be defined also from the view point of structural engineering. In this paper it is shown that one of the occurrence mechanisms of such large acceleration in recent seismic records (recorded in or near massive structures and not free-field ground motions) is due to the interaction between a massive building and its surrounding soil which induces amplification of local mode in the surface soil. Furthermore on-site investigation after earthquakes in the nuclear power stations reveals some damages of soil around the building (cracks, settlement and sand boiling). The influence of plastic behavior of soil is investigated in the context of interaction between the structure and the surrounding soil. Moreover the amplification property of the surface soil is investigated from the seismic records of the Suruga-gulf earthquake in 2009 and the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake in 2011. Two methods are introduced for the analysis of the non-stationary process of ground motions. It is shown that the non-stationary Fourier spectra can detect the temporal change of frequency contents of ground motions and the displacement profile integrated from its acceleration profile is useful to evaluate the seismic behavior of the building and the surrounding soil.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.219-222
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• 2005

Many RC building structures of multiple uses constructed in Korea have the irregularities of torsion and soft story at bottom stories. A typical irregular building was selected as prototype and shaking table tests were performed to investigate the seismic performance of this building. The objective of this study is to evaluate the correlation between the experimental and analytical responses of this irregular building structure subjected to the earthquake excitation by using OpenSees(Open System for Earthquake Engineering Simulation). The results of analyses simulate well the behavior of the building having torsional irregularity and weak stories.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.425-431
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• 2021

Background: This study evaluated the radon contribution rate through an evaluation of the exhalation rate of radon from building materials. Objectives: This study compared and evaluated the computation of the radon contribution rate based on each different exhalation rate in a building. Methods: The six demonstration houses that are the subject of this study are wall structures or Rahmen structures, and include demonstration houses similar to general residential environments and non-finishing houses with some walls exposed. Results: The highest exhalation rate was found at 62.98 Bq/m² per day from the non-finishing floor, and the second highest exhalation rate was from stone materials at 58.76 Bq/m² per day. Based on this result, investigating the contribution rate of building materials derived from building materials among indoor radon concentrations, house three was the highest at 81.7%, and house one was confirmed to be 33.96%. Conclusions: It can be judged that the effect of exposed concrete and stone is high, and that it is possible to reduce radon emitted from indoor building structures by controlling the indoor materials.