• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.29-48
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• 2015

The main purpose of this work is to compare different criteria for the seismic strengthening of RC framed buildings in order to find the optimal combinations of these retrofitting techniques. To this end, a numerical investigation is carried out with reference to the town hall of Spilinga (Italy), an RC framed structure with an L-shaped plan built at the beginning of the 1960s. Five structures are considered, derived from the first by incorporating: carbon fibre reinforced polymer (FRP)-wrapping of all columns; base-isolation, with high-damping-laminated-rubber bearings (HDLRBs); added damping, with hysteretic damped braces (HYDBs); FRP-wrapping of the first storey columns combined with base-isolation or added damping. A three-dimensional fibre model of the primary and retrofitted structures is considered; bilinear and trilinear laws idealize, respectively, the behaviour of the HYDB, providing that the buckling be prevented, and the FRP-wrapping, without resistance in compression, while the response of the HDLRB is simulated by using a viscoelastic linear model. The effectiveness of the retrofitting solutions is tested with nonlinear dynamic analyses based on biaxial accelerograms, whose response spectra match those in the Italian seismic code.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.65 no.6
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• pp.689-698
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• 2018

This study focuses on a novel procedure for the robustness assessment of reinforced concrete (RC) framed structures under threat-independent damage scenarios. The procedure is derived from coupled dynamic and non-linear static analyses. Two robustness indicators are defined and the method is applied to two RC frame buildings. The first building was designed for gravity load and earthquake resistance in accordance with Eurocode 8. The second was designed according to the tie force (TF) method, one of the design quantitative procedures for enhancing resistance to progressive collapse. In addition, in order to demonstrate the suitability and applicability of the TF method, the structural robustness and resistance to progressive collapse of the two designs is compared.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.119-133
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• 2017

Several theoretical and analytical formulations for the prediction of shear strength in reinforced concrete (RC) beam-to-column joints have been recently developed. Some of these predictive models are included in the most recent seismic codes and currently used in practical design. On the other hand, the influence of the stiffness and strength degradations in RC joints on the seismic performance of RC framed buildings has been only marginally studied, and it is generally neglected in practice-oriented seismic analysis. To investigate such influence, this paper proposes a numerical description for representing the cyclic response of RC exterior joints. This is then used in nonlinear numerical simulations of RC frames subjected to earthquake loading. According to the proposed strategy, RC joints are modelled using nonlinear rotational spring elements with strength and stiffness degradations and limited ductility under cyclic loading. The proposed joint model has been firstly calibrated against the results from experimental tests on 12 RC exterior joints. Subsequently, nonlinear static and dynamic analyses have been carried out on two-, three- and four-storey RC frames, which represent realistic existing structures designed according to old standards. The numerical results confirm that the global seismic response of the analysed RC frames is strongly affected by the hysteretic damage in the beam-to-column joints, which determines the failure mode of the frames. This highlights that neglecting the effects of joints damage may potentially lead to non-conservative seismic assessment of existing RC framed structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.321-337
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• 2015

Existing building structures can easily present material mechanical properties which can largely vary even within a single structure. The current European Technical Code, Eurocode 8, does not provide specific instructions to account for high variability in mechanical properties. As a consequence of the high strength variability, at the occurrence of seismic events, the structure may evidence unexpected phenomena, like torsional effects, with larger experienced deformations and, in turn, with reduced seismic performance. This work is focused on the reduction in seismic performance due to the concrete strength variability. The analysis has been performed on a case-study, i.e., a 3D RC framed 4 storey building. A Normal distribution, compatible to a large available database, has been taken to represent the concrete strength domain. Different plan layouts, representative of realistic strength distributions, have been considered, and a statistical analysis has been performed on the induced reduction in seismic performance. The obtained results have been compared to the standard analysis as provided by Eurocode 8 for existing buildings. The comparison has shown that the Eurocode 8 provisions are not conservative for existing buildings having a large variability in concrete strength.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.279-286
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• 2002

This study is concerned wiか the practical optimum design of concrete framed structures considering serviceability - deflection, crack, fatigue. The optimizing problems of framed structure are formulated with the objective function and the constraints which take the section properties as the design variables. The objective functions are formulated as the total cost of the structures and the constraints are derived by using the criteria with respect to safety and serviceability based on the part of concrete bridge in the Korea standard code of road bridge. The SLP method is introduced to solve the formulated nonlinear programming problems in this study and tested out through the numerical examples. This developed optimizing algorithm is tested out and examined through the numerical examples for the practical use of design on the concrete framed structures. And their results are compared and analyzed to examine the possibility of optimization, the applicability and the convergency of this algorithm.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.393-411
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• 2013

In the analysis and design of reinforced concrete frames beam-column joints are sometimes assumed as rigid. This simplifying assumption can be unsafe because it is likely to affect the distributions of internal forces and moments, reduce drift and increase the overall load-carrying capacity of the frame. This study is concerned with the relevance of shear deformation of beam-column joints, in particular of exterior ones, on the quasi-static behavior of regular reinforced concrete sway frames. The included parametric studies of a simple sub-frame model reveal that the quasi-static monotonic behavior of unbraced regular reinforced concrete frames is prone to be significantly affected by the deformation of beam-column joints.

• Magazine of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.121-126
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• 2001

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.343-353
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• 2021

In this study, in order to improve the seismic performance of existing reinforced concrete (RC) framed structures, various external attachment of corner steel frame configurations was considered as a user-friendly retrofitting method. The external steel frame is designed to contribute to the lateral stiffness and load carrying capacity of the existing RC structure. A six-story building was taken into account. Four different external corner steel frame configurations were suggested in order to strengthen the building. The 3D models of the building with suggested retrofitting steel frames were developed within ABAQUS environment using solid finite elements and analyzed under horizontal loadings nonlinearly. Horizontal top displacement vs loading curves were obtained to determine the overall performance of the building. Contributions of steel and RC frames to the carried loads were computed individually. Load/capacity ratios for the ground floor columns were presented. In the study, 3D rendered images of the building with the suggested retrofits are created to better visualize the real effect of the retrofit on the final appearance of the façade of the building. The analysis results have shown that the proposed external steel frame retrofit configurations increased the lateral load carrying capacity and lateral stiffness and can be used to improve the seismic performance of RC framed buildings.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.587-613
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• 2013

A 3-node 3D co-rotational beam element using vectorial rotational variables is employed to consider the geometric nonlinearity in 3D space. To account for shape versatility and reinforced concrete cross-sections, fibre model has been derived and conducted. Numerical integration over the cross-section is performed, considering both normal and shear stresses. In addition, the derivations associated with material nonlinearity are given in terms of elasto-plastic incremental stress-strain relationship for both steel and concrete. Steel reinforcement is treated as elasto-plastic material with Von Mises yield criterion. Compressive concrete behaviour is described by Modified Kent and Park model, while tensile stiffening effect is taken into account as well. Through several numerical examples, it is shown that the proposed 3D co-rotational beam element with fibre model can be used to simulate steel and reinforced concrete framed structures with satisfactory accuracy and efficiency.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.379-399
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• 2015

Existing building structures can easily present material mechanical properties which can largely vary even within a single structure. The current European Technical Code, Eurocode 8, does not provide specific instructions to account for high variability in mechanical properties. As a consequence of the high strength variability, at the occurrence of seismic events, the structure may evidence unexpected phenomena, like torsional effects, with larger experienced deformations and, in turn, with reduced seismic performance. This work is focused on the torsional effects related to the irregular stiffness and strength distribution due to the concrete strength variability. The analysis has been performed on a case-study, i.e., a 3D RC framed 4 storey building. A Normal distribution, compatible to a large available database, has been taken to represent the concrete strength domain. Different plan layouts, representative of realistic stiffness distributions, have been considered, and a statistical analysis has been performed on the induced torsional effects. The obtained results have been compared to the standard analysis as provided by Eurocode 8 for existing buildings, showing that the Eurocode 8 provisions, despite not allowing explicitly for material strength variability, are conservative as regards the estimation of structural demand.