• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.729-744
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• 2010

There is world wide concern for safety of nuclear power installations after the terrorist attack on World Trade Center in 2001 and several other civilian structures in the last decade. The nuclear containment structure in many countries is a double shell structure (outer shell a RCC and inner a prestressed concrete). The outer reinforced concrete shell protects the inner shell and is designed for external loading like impact and blast. A comparative study of non-linear response of reinforced concrete nuclear containment cylindrical shell subjected to impact of an aircraft (Phantom) and explosion of different amounts of blast charges have been presented here. A material model which takes into account the strain rate sensitivity in dynamic loading situations, plastic and visco-plastic behavior in three dimensional stress state and cracking in tension has been developed earlier and implemented into a finite element code which has been validated with published literature. The analysis has been made using the developed software. Significant conclusions have been drawn for dissimilarity in response (deflections, stresses, cracks etc.) of the shell for impact and blast loading.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.133-140
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• 2003

The objective of this study is to clarify the seismic capacity and the characteristics in the hysteretic behavior of RC structures with non-seismic detailing. Interior and exterior beam-column subassemblages were selected from a ten-story RC building and six 1/3-scale specimens were constructed with three variables; (1) with and without slab, (2) with and without hoop bars in the Joint region, (3) upward and downward direction of anchorage for the bottom bar in beams of exterior beam-column subassemblage. The test results have shown; (1) in case of interior beam-column subassemblage, there is no almost difference between nonseismic and seismic details in the strength and ductility capacity; (2) the Korean practice of anchorage (downward and 25 $d_{b}$ anchorage length) in the exterior Joint caused the 10％~20％ reduction of strength and 27％ reduction of ductility iii comparison with tile case of seismic details; and the existence of hoop bars in the joint region shows no effect in shear strain.n.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.191-201
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• 2019

In this paper, the aerodynamic analysis of a vertical axis wind turbine was carried out by CFD approach to optimize the turbine performance. To perform numerical simulation, SST-Transition turbulence model was used, which demonstrated more precise results compared to non-transition models. A parametric study was conducted to optimize the VAWT performance based on the selected model. The investigation of pitch angle changes showed that the highest power produced by the turbine occurs at $2^{\circ}$ angle. Considering the effect of the rotor's arm junction to the airfoil showed that by increasing the distance of the junction from the edge of the airfoil from 25 cm to 40 cm, the power of the turbine increases by 60%. However, further increase in this distance results in power decrease. Based on the proposed numerical model, a case study was conducted to consider the installation of four VAWTs in the southwest corner of the medical science building at TMU campus with a height of 42m. The results of the simulation showed that 8.27 MWh energy is obtainable annually.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.283-295
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• 2019

During the seismic performance assessment of existing buildings, staircases are generally not taken into account as structural members but as dead load. Staircases, as secondary structural members, not only serve for connecting successive floors but also provide considerable amount of strength and stiffness to the building which can modify its seismic behaviour considerably. In this parametric study, the influence of staircases on the seismic response of substandard RC frame buildings which differ in number of storey and span, presence of staircase and its position has been examined. Modal Analyses and bi-directional Non-Linear Time History Analyses (NLTHA) were conducted to compare several engineering demand parameters (EDPs) such as inter-storey drift ratio (ISDR), floor accelerations, modal properties, member shear forces and plastic hinge distribution. Additionally, short column effect, variation in shear forces of columns that are attached to the staircase slab, failure and deformation in staircase models have also been investigated. As the staircase was considered in the analytical model, a different damage pattern can be developed especially in the structural components close to staircase.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.487-498
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• 2024

Steel moment resisting frames (MRFs) typically have inter-story drift concentrations at lower stories during earthquakes as found from previous research. Hinged walls (HWs) can be used as structural strengthening components to force the MRFs deform uniformly along the building height. However, large moment demands are often observed on HWs and make the design of HWs non-economical. This paper proposes a method to reduce the moment demand on HWs using a ductile connection system between the MRFs and the HWs. The ductile connection system is designed with a yield strength and energy dissipation capacity, for the purpose of limiting the seismic forces transferred to the HWs and dissipating seismic energy. Nonlinear time history analyses were performed using 10 far-filed earthquakes at maximum considered earthquake level. The analysis results show that the proposed ductile connection system can reduce: (1) seismic moment demands in the HWs; (2) floor accelerations; (3) the connection force between HWs and MRFs.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.339-352
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• 2014

This paper discusses the appropriate duration for basic gust wind speeds in wind loading codes and standards, and in wind engineering generally. Although various proposed definitions are discussed, the 'moving average' gust duration has been widely accepted internationally. The commonly-specified gust duration of 3-seconds, however, is shown to have a significant effect on the high-frequency end of the spectrum of turbulence, and may not be ideally suited for wind engineering purposes. The effective gust durations measured by commonly-used anemometer types are discussed; these are typically considerably shorter than the 'standard' duration of 3 seconds. Using stationary random process theory, the paper gives expected peak factors, $g_u$, as a function of the non-dimensional parameter ($T/{\tau}$), where T is the sample, or reference, time, and ${\tau}$ is the gust duration, and a non-dimensional mean wind speed, $\bar{U}.T/L_u$, where $\bar{U}$ is a mean wind speed, and $L_u$ is the integral length scale of turbulence. The commonly-used Durst relationship, relating gusts of various durations, is shown to correspond to a particular value of turbulence intensity $I_u$, of 16.5%, and is therefore applicable to particular terrain and height situations, and hence should not be applied universally. The effective frontal areas associated with peak gusts of various durations are discussed; this indicates that a gust of 3 seconds has an equivalent frontal area equal to that of a tall building. Finally a generalized gust response factor format, accounting for fluctuating and resonant along-wind loading of structures, applicable to any code is presented.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.369-380
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• 2017

The effects of the vertical component of a ground motion on the earthquake performances of semi-ductile high-rise R/C structures were investigated in the present study. Linear and non-linear time-history analyses were conducted on an existing in-service R/C building for the loading scenarios including and excluding the vertical component of the ground motion. The ratio of the vertical peak acceleration to the horizontal peak acceleration (V/H) of the ground motion was adopted as the main parameter of the study. Three different near-source earthquake records with varying V/H ratio were used in the analyses. The linear time-history analyses indicated that the incorporation of the vertical component of a ground motion into analyses greatly influences the vertical deflections of a structure and the overturning moments at its base. The lateral deflections, the angles of rotation and the base shear forces were influenced to a lesser extent. Considering the key indicators of vertical deflection and overturning moments determined from the linear time-history analysis, the non-linear analyses revealed that the changes in the forces and deformations of the structure with the inclusion of the vertical ground motion are resisted by the shear-walls. The performances and damage states of the beams were not affected by the vertical ground motion. The vertical ground motion component of earthquakes is markedly concluded to be considered for design and damage estimation of the vertical load-bearing elements of the shear-walls and columns.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.353-364
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• 2023

In this study, a method has been proposed for the static and dynamic nonlinear analysis of multi-storey buildings, which takes into account the contribution of axial deformations in vertical load-bearing elements, which are especially important in tall and narrow structures. Shear deformations on the shear walls were also taken into account in the study. The presented method takes into account the effects that are not considered in the fishbone and flexural-shear beam models developed in the literature. In the Fishbone model, only frame systems are modeled. In the flexural shear beam model developed for shear wall systems, shear deformations and axial deformations in the walls are neglected. Unlike the literature, with the model proposed in this study, both shear deformations in the walls and axial deformations in the columns and walls are taken into account. In the proposed model, multi-storey building is represented as a sandwich beam consisting of Timoshenko beams pieced together with a double-hinged beam. At each storey, the total moment capacities of the frame beams and the coupled beams in the coupled shear walls are represented as the equivalent shear capacity. On the other hand, The sums of individual columns and walls moment at the relevant floor level are represented as equivalent moment capacity at that floor level. At the end of the study, examples were solved to show the suitability of the proposed method in this study. The SAP2000 program is employed in analyses. In a conclusion, it is observed that among the solved examples, the proposed sandwich beam model gives good results. As can be seen from these results, it is seen that the presented method, especially in terms of base shear force, gives very close results to the detailed finite element method.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.143-152
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• 2020

The wind design of buildings is typically based on strength provisions under ultimate loads. This is unlike the ductility-based approach used in seismic design, which allows inelastic actions to take place in the structure under extreme seismic events. This research investigates the application of a similar concept in wind engineering. In seismic design, the elastic forces resulting from an extreme event of high return period are reduced by a load reduction factor chosen by the designer and accordingly a certain ductility capacity needs to be achieved by the structure. Two reasons have triggered the investigation of this ductility-based concept under wind loads. Firstly, there is a trend in the design codes to increase the return period used in wind design approaching the large return period used in seismic design. Secondly, the structure always possesses a certain level of ductility that the wind design does not benefit from. Many technical issues arise when applying a ductility-based approach under wind loads. The use of reduced design loads will lead to the design of a more flexible structure with larger natural periods. While this might be beneficial for seismic response, it is not necessarily the case for the wind response, where increasing the flexibility is expected to increase the fluctuating response. This particular issue is examined by considering a case study of a sixty-five-story high-rise building previously tested at the Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory at the University of Western Ontario using a pressure model. A three-dimensional finite element model is developed for the building. The wind pressures from the tested rigid model are applied to the finite element model and a time history dynamic analysis is conducted. The time history variation of the straining actions on various structure elements of the building are evaluated and decomposed into mean, background and fluctuating components. A reduction factor is applied to the fluctuating components and a modified time history response of the straining actions is calculated. The building components are redesigned under this set of reduced straining actions and its fundamental period is then evaluated. A new set of loads is calculated based on the modified period and is compared to the set of loads associated with the original structure. This is followed by non-linear static pushover analysis conducted individually on each shear wall module after redesigning these walls. The ductility demand of shear walls with reduced cross sections is assessed to justify the application of the load reduction factor "R".

• Wind and Structures
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.15-42
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• 2024

A flexible-base coupled-two-beam (CTB) discrete model with equivalent tuned mass dampers is used to assess the effect of soil-structure interaction (SSI) and different types of lateral resisting systems on the design of passive dynamic absorbers (PDAs) under the action of along-wind and across-wind loads due to vortex shedding. A total of five different PDAs are considered in this study: (1) tuned mass damper (TMD), (2) circular tuned sloshing damper (C-TSD), (3) rectangular tuned sloshing damper (R-TSD), (4) two-way liquid damper (TWLD) and (5) pendulum tuned mass damper (PTMD). By modifying the non-dimensional lateral stiffness ratio, the CTB model can consider lateral deformations varying from those of a flexural cantilever beam to those of a shear cantilever beam. The Monte Carlo simulation method was used to generate along-wind and across-wind loads correlated along the height of a real shear wall-frame building, which has similar fundamental periods of vibration and different modes of lateral deformation in the xz and yz planes, respectively. Ambient vibration tests were conducted on the building to identify its real lateral behavior and thus choose the most suitable parameters for the CTB model. Both alongwind and across-wind responses of the 144-meter-tall building were computed considering four soil types (hard rock, dense soil, stiff soil and soft soil) and a single PDA on its top, that is, 96 time-history analyses were carried out to assess the effect of SSI and lateral resisting system on the PDAs design. Based on the parametric analyses, the response significantly increases as the soil flexibility increases for both type of lateral wind loads, particularly for flexural-type deformations. The results show a great effectiveness of PDAs in controlling across-wind peak displacements and both along-wind and across-wind RMS accelerations, on the contrary, PDAs were ineffective in controlling along-wind peak displacements on all soil types and different kind of lateral deformation. Generally speaking, the maximum possible value of the PDA mass efficiency index increases as the soil flexibility increases, on the contrary, it decreases as the non-dimensional lateral stiffness ratio of the building increases; therefore, there is a significant increase of the vibration control effectiveness of PDAs for lateral flexural-type deformations on soft soils.