• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.515-537
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• 2014

Current seismic codes (e.g. the NTC08 Italian code and the EC8 European code) adopt a performance-based approach for both the design of new buildings and the assessment of existing ones. Different limit states are considered by verifying structural members as well as non structural elements and facilities which have generally been neglected in practice. The key role of non structural elements on building performance has been shown by recent earthquakes (e.g. L'Aquila 2009) where, due to the extensive damage suffered by infills, partitions and ceilings, a lot of private and public buildings became unusable with consequent significant socio-economic effects. Furthermore, the collapse of infill panels, particularly in the case of out-of-plane failure, represented a serious source of risk to life safety. This paper puts forward an infill model capable of accounting for the effects arising from prior in-plane damage on the out-of-plane capacity of infill panels. It permits an assessment of the seismic performance of existing RC buildings with reference to both structural and non structural elements, as well as of their mutual interaction. The model is applied to a building type with RC framed structure designed only to vertical loads and representative of typical Italian buildings. The influence of infill on building performance and the role of the out-of-plane response on structural response are also discussed.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.201-209
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• 2019

Response modification factors of school facilities for non-seismic RC moment frames with partial masonry infills in 'Manual for Seismic Performance Evaluation and Retrofit of School Facilities' published in 2018 were investigated in the preceding study. However, since previous studies are based on 2D frame analysis and limited analysis conditions, additional verification needs to be performed to further apply various conditions including orthogonal effect of seismic load. Therefore, this study is to select appropriate response modification factors of school facilities for non-seismic RC moment frames with partial masonry infills by 3D frame analysis. The results are as follows. An appropriate response modification factor for non-seismic RC moment frames with partial masonry infills is proposed as 2.5 for all cases if the period is longer than 0.6 seconds. Also if the period is less than 0.4 seconds and the ratio of shear-controlled columns is less than 30%, 2.5 is chosen too. However, if the period is less than 0.4 seconds and the ratio of shear-controlled columns is higher than 30%, the response modification factor shall be reduced to 2.0. If the period is between 0.4 and 0.6 seconds, then linearly interpolates the response correction factor.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.71-82
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• 2019

Most school buildings consist of reinforced concrete (RC) moment frames with masonry infills. The longitudinal direction frames of those school buildings are relatively weak due to the short-column effects caused by the partial masonry infills and need to be evaluated carefully. In 'Manual for Seismic Performance Evaluation and Retrofit of School Facilities' published in 2018, response modification factor of 2.5 is applied to non-seismic RC moment frames with partial masonry infills, but sufficient verification of the factor has not been reported yet. Therefore, this study conducted seismic performance evaluation of planar RC moment frames with partial masonry infills in accordance with both linear analysis and nonlinear static analysis procedures presented in the manual. The evaluation results from the different procedures are compared in terms of assessed performance levels and number of members not meeting target performance objectives. Finally, appropriate response modification factors are proposed with respect to a shear-controlled column ratio.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.65 no.6
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• pp.721-730
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• 2018

This paper aims to inspect the effectiveness of the Simple Adaptive Control Method (SACM) to control the response of asymmetric buildings with rotationally non-linear behavior under seismic loads. SACM is a direct control method and was previously used to improve the performance of linear and non-linear structures. In most of these studies, the modeled structures were two-dimensional shear buildings. In reality, the building plans might be asymmetric, which cause the buildings to experience torsional motions under earthquake excitation. In this study, SACM is used to improve the performance of asymmetric buildings, and unlike conventional linear models, the non-linear inertial coupling terms are considered in the equations of motion. SACM performance is compared with the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) algorithm. Moreover, the LQR algorithm is modified, so that it is appropriate for rotationally non-linear buildings. Active tuned mass dampers are used to improve the performance of the modeled buildings. The results show that SACM is successful in reducing the response of asymmetric buildings with rotationally non-linear behavior under earthquake excitation. Furthermore, the results of the SACM were very close to those of the LQR algorithm.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.791-818
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• 2015

RC buildings constitute the prevailing type of construction in earthquake-prone region like Kathmandu Valley. Most of these building constructions were based on conventional methods. In this context, the present paper studied the seismic behaviour of existing RC buildings in Kathmandu Valley. For this, four representative building structures with different design and construction, namely a building: (a) representing the non-engineered construction (RC1 and RC2) and (b) engineered construction (RC3 and RC4) has been selected for analysis. The dynamic properties of the case study building models are analyzed and the corresponding interaction with seismic action is studied by means of non-linear analyses. The structural response measures such as capacity curve, inter-storey drift and the effect of geometric non-linearities are evaluated for the two orthogonal directions. The effect of plan and vertical irregularity on the performance of the structures was studied by comparing the results of two engineered buildings. This was achieved through non-linear dynamic analysis with a synthetic earthquake subjected to X, Y and $45^{\circ}$ loading directions. The nature of the capacity curve represents the strong impact of the P-delta effect, leading to a reduction of the global lateral stiffness and reducing the strength of the structure. The non-engineered structures experience inter-storey drift demands higher than the engineered building models. Moreover, these buildings have very low lateral resistant, lesser the stiffness and limited ductility. Finally, a seismic safety assessment is performed based on the proposed drift limits. Result indicates that most of the existing buildings in Nepal exhibit inadequate seismic performance.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.645-664
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• 2021

There is a growing need of seismic retrofit of existing non-seismically designed structures in Korea after the 2016 Gyeongju and 2017 Pohang earthquakes, especially school buildings which experienced extensive damage during those two earthquakes. To this end, a steel multi-slit damper (MSD) was developed in this research which can be installed inside of partition walls of school buildings. Full-scale two-story RC frames were tested with and without the proposed dampers. The frames had structural details similar to school buildings constructed in the 1980s in Korea. The details of the experiments were described in detail, and the test results were validated using the analysis model. The developed seismic retrofit strategy was applied to a case study school building structure, and its seismic performance was evaluated before and after retrofit using the MSD. The results show that the developed retrofit strategy can improve the seismic performance of the structure to satisfy a given target performance level.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.1
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• pp.19-35
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• 2021

Existing methods to estimate the probability of seismic pounding occurrence of adjacent buildings do not account for nonlinear behavior or only apply to simple lumped mass systems. The present study proposes an efficient method based on subset simulation for fragility and risk assessment of seismic pounding occurrence between nonlinear adjacent buildings neglecting pounding effects with application to finite element models. The proposed method is first applied to adjacent buildings modeled as elastoplastic systems with substantially different dynamic properties for different structural parameters. Seismic pounding fragility and risk of adjacent frame structures with different floor levels is then assessed, paying special attention to modeling the non-linear material behavior in finite element models. Difference in natural periods and impact location are identified to affect the pounding fragility simultaneously. The reliability levels of the minimum code-specified separation distances are also determined. In addition, the incremental dynamic analysis method is extended to assess seismic pounding fragility of the adjacent frame structures, resulting in higher fragility estimates for separation distances larger than the minimum code-specified ones in comparison with the proposed method.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.511-539
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• 2015

The main objective of this study is to analytically investigate the effectiveness of different strengthening solutions in upgrading the seismic performance of existing reinforced concrete (RC) buildings in Nepal. For this, four building models with different structural configurations and detailing were considered. Three possible rehabilitation solutions were studied, namely: (a) RC shear wall, (b) steel bracing, and (c) RC jacketing for all of the studied buildings. A numerical analysis was conducted with adaptive pushover and dynamic time history analysis. Seismic performance enhancement of the studied buildings was evaluated in terms of demand capacity ratio of the RC elements, capacity curve, inter-storey drift, energy dissipation capacity and moment curvature demand of the structures. Finally, the seismic safety assessment was performed based on standard drift limits, showing that retrofitting solutions significantly improved the seismic performance of existing buildings in Nepal.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.409-419
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• 2017

In order to analyze the vibration control effect of viscous damper in the concrete archaized buildings with lintel-column joints under seismic action, 3 specimens were tested under dynamic excitation. Two specimens with viscous damper were defined as the controlled component and one specimen without viscous damper was specified as the non-controlled component. The loading process and failure patterns were obtained from the test results. The failure characteristics, skeleton curves and mechanical behavior such as the load-displacement hysteretic loops, load carrying capacity, degradation of strength and rigidity, ductility and energy dissipation of the joints were analyzed. The results indicate that the load-bearing capacity of the controlled component is significantly higher than that of the non-controlled component. The former component has an average increase of 27.4% in yield load and 22.4% in ultimate load, respectively. Meanwhile, the performance of displacement ductility and the ability of energy dissipation for the controlled component are superior to those of the non-controlled component as well. Compared with non-controlled component, equivalent viscous damping coefficients are improved by 27.3%-30.8%, the average increase is 29.0% at ultimate load for controlled component. All these results reflect that the seismic performance of the controlled component is significantly better than that of the non-controlled component. These researches are helpful for practical application of viscous damper in the concrete archaizing buildings with lintel-column joints.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.429-442
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• 2023

To study the seismic vulnerability of the composite material structure of adobe and timber, we collected and statistically analysed empirical observation samples of 542,214,937 m² and 467,177 buildings that were significantly impacted during the 179 earthquakes that occurred in mainland China from 1976 to 2010. In multi-intensity regions, combined with numerical analysis and a probability model, a non-linear continuous regression model of the vulnerability, considering the empirical seismic damage area (number of buildings) and the ratio of seismic damage, was established. Moreover, a probability matrix model of the empirical seismic damage mean value was provided. Considering the coupling effect of the annual and seismic fortification factors, an empirical seismic vulnerability curve model was constructed in the multiple-intensity regions. A probability matrix model of the mean vulnerability index (MVI) was proposed, and was validated through the above-mentioned reconnaissance sample data. A matrix model of the MVI of the regions (19 provinces in mainland China) based on the parameter (MVI) was established.