• 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.9 no.6
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• pp.1337-1353
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• 2015

Seismic upgrading of existing structures is a technical and social issue aimed at risk reduction. Sustainable design is one of the most important challenges in any structural project. Nowadays, many retrofit strategies are feasible and several traditional and innovative options are available to engineers. Basically, the design strategy can lead to increase structural ductility, strength, or both of them, but also stiffness regulation and supplemental damping are possible strategies to reduce seismic vulnerability. Each design solution has different technical and economical performances. In this paper, four different design solutions are presented for the retrofit of an existing RC frame with poor concrete quality and inadequate reinforcement detailing. The considered solutions are based on FRP wrapping of the existing structural elements or alternatively on new RC shear walls introduction. This paper shows the comparison among the considered design strategies in order to select the suitable solution, which reaches the compromise between the obtained safety level and costs during the life-cycle of the building. Each solution is worked out by considering three different levels of seismic demand. The structural capacity of the considered retrofit solutions is assessed with nonlinear static analysis and the seismic performance is evaluated with the capacity spectrum method.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.1-4
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• 2006

A down construction method is frequently used in these days to reduce popular discontent and to assure sufficient working space at early stage in downtown area. There are two main problems in the existing down construction method. One is a confliction between frame works and excavation works, and the other is a cold joint in retaining wall which is unavoidable due to a sequence of concrete placement and induces a water leakage. Therefore, a new method is needed to overcome these problems. The CWS (buried wale Continuous Wall System) method was developed by authors. By replacing RC perimeter beam with embedded steel wale, the steel frame works of substructure can be simplified and the water leakage can be prevented using continuous retaining wall. Consequently, the improved duality and reduction of construction period can be obtained from CWS method.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.6 no.2 s.20
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• pp.81-89
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• 2006

A down construction method is frequently used in these days to reduce popular discontent and to assure sufficient working space at early stage in downtown area. There are two main problems in the existing down construction method. One is a confliction between frame works and excavation works, and the other is a cold joint in retaining wall which is unavoidable due to a sequence of concrete placement and induces a water leakage. Therefore, a new method is needed to overcome these problems. The CWS (buried wale Continuous Wall System) method was developed by authors. By replacing RC perimeter beam with embedded steel wale, the steel frame works of substructure can be simplified and the water leakage can be prevented using continuous retaining wall. Consequently, the improved qualify and reduction of construction period can be obtained from CWS method.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.417-430
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• 2021

Due to functional requirements, SRC column-RC beam abnormal joints with characteristics of strong beam weak column, variable column section, unequal beam height and staggered height exist in the Steel reinforced concrete (SRC) frame-bent main building structure of thermal power plant (TPP). This paper presents the experimental results of these abnormal joints through cyclic loading tests on five specimens with scaling factor of 1/5. The staggered height and whether adding H-shaped steel in beam or not were changing parameters of specimens. The failure patterns, bearing capacity, energy dissipation and ductile performance were analyzed. In addition, the stress mechanism of the abnormal joint was discussed based on the diagonal strut model. The research results showed that the abnormal exterior joints occurred shear failure and column end hinge flexural failure; reducing beam height through adding H-shaped steel in the beam of abnormal exterior joint could improve the crack resistance and ductility; the abnormal interior joints with different staggered heights occurred column ends flexural failure; the joint with larger staggered height had the higher bearing capacity and stiffness, but lower ductility. The concrete compression strut mechanism is still applicable to the abnormal joints in TPP, but it is affected by the abnormal characteristics.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.4
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• pp.547-571
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• 2023

To deeply probe the actual earthquake level and fragility of typical reinforced concrete (RC) structures under multiple intensity grades, considering diachronic measurement building stock samples and actual observations of representative catastrophic earth shocks in China from 1990 to 2010, RC structures were divided into traditional RC structures (TRCs) and bottom reinforced concrete frame seismic wall masonry (BFM) structures, and the empirical damage characteristics and mechanisms were analysed. A great deal of statistics and induction were developed on the historical experience investigation data of 59 typical catastrophic earthquakes in 9 provinces of China. The database and fragility matrix prediction model were established with TRCs of 4,122.5284×104 m² and 5,844 buildings and BFMs of 5,872 buildings as empirical seismic damage samples. By employing the methods of structural damage probability and statistics, nonlinear prediction of seismic vulnerability, and numerical and applied functional analysis, the comparison matrix of actual fragility probability prediction of TRC and BFM in multiple intensity regions under the latest version of China's macrointensity standard was established. A novel nonlinear regression prediction model of seismic vulnerability was proposed, and prediction models considering the seismic damage ratio and transcendental probability parameters were constructed. The time-varying vulnerability comparative model of the sample database was developed according to the different periods of multiple earthquakes. The new calculation method of the average fragility prediction index (AFPI) matrix parameter model has been proposed to predict the seismic fragility of an areal RC structure.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.11 no.2 s.54
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• pp.95-104
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• 2007

Three types of high-rise RC building structures having irregularity in the lower two stories were selected as prototypes and were performed nonlinear static analysis by using OpenSees to verify the analysis technique and to investigate the seismic capacity of those buildings. The first one has a symmetrical moment resisting frame (Model 1), the second has an infilled shear wall in the central frame (Model 2), and the third has an infilled shear wall only in one of exterior frames (Model 3). Fiber model, which consists of concrete and reinforcing bar represented from stress-strain relationship, is adapted used for simulate the nonlinearity of members, and MVLEM(Multi vertical linear element model) is used for simulate the behavior of wall. The analytical results are simulate the behavior of piloti stories well, for example, the stiffness and yield farce of piloti stories, the up-lift of wall and the variation of lateral stiffness of column due to the variation of axial forces. Overstrength of Model 2 and Model 3 are about 2 times larger than that of Model 1. The reason of the high oversttrength and ductility of Model 2 and Model 3 is that the conservative design of Model 2 and Model 3, whose beam and column sections are the same as those of Model 1. The ductilities of Model 1 and Model 3 are slightly larger than that of Model 1 and Model 3. Model 1 and Model 3 reached mechanism condition, whereas Model 2 failed to the shear failure of shear wall and the large axial forces in columns due to large overturning moment.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.76 no.1
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• pp.83-99
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• 2020

Shear walls are structural members in buildings that are used extensively in reinforced concrete frame buildings, and almost exclusively in the UK, regardless of whether or not they are actually required. In recent years, the UK construction industry, led by the Concrete Centre, has questioned the need for such structural elements in low to mid-rise reinforced concrete frame buildings. In this context, a typical modern, 5-storey residential building is studied, and its existing shear walls are replaced with columns as used elsewhere in the building. The aim is to investigate the impact of several design variables, including concrete grade, column size, column shape and slab thickness, on the building's structural performance, considering two punching shear limits (V_Ed/V_Rd,c), lateral drift and accelerations, to evaluate its maximum possible height under wind actions without the inclusion of shear walls. To facilitate this study, a numerical model has been developed using the ETABS software. The results demonstrate that the building examined does not require shear walls in the design and has no lateral displacement or acceleration issues. In fact, with further analysis, it is shown that a similar building could be constructed up to 13 and 16 storeys high for 2 and 2.5 punching shear ratios (V_Ed/V_Rd,c), respectively, with adequate serviceability and strength, without the need for shear walls, albeit with thicker columns.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2014.05a
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• pp.34-35
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• 2014

When various construction types of architectural construction are proceeded in order, the reinforced concrete construction is the frame construction which takes up the most important proportion among the construction process. Thus, the analysis of the effectiveness and productivity of the reinforced concrete construction is necessarily needed for smooth performance of construction projects. However, the conventional studies are performing the analysis of the productivity of only part(mould and steel) of the reinforced concrete construction and they have limitation in that they do not propose quantitatively the overall productivity of reinforced concrete construction.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.181-189
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• 2015

Shimizu Corporation Tokyo Headquarters, one of the city's leading office buildings, features many pioneering technologies that contribute to a sustainable society through environmental stewardship and a sophisticated disaster management facility. In terms of structural engineering, a seismic isolation system incorporating reinforced concrete core walls and precast concrete perimeter frames create a robust structure in the event of a large earthquake. In addition to the seismic resistance of the structure, several pioneering construction methods and materials are adopted. This office building can serve as a basis for new design and construction approaches and methodologies to ensure safe and economical structures.