• Land and Housing Review
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.43-50
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• 2010

In this study, the influences of steel dampers on the behavior of RC frames were investigated using the experimental approach to suggest the installation methods of steel dampers using K-barces. The performances of RC frames with dampers can be evaluated by superposition the load-displacement curves of RC frames and steel dampers with regard to the influences of K-braces. Three specimens are tested to investigate the cyclic behavior of RC frames with dampers. The performances of RC frames with dampers with respect to strength, rigidity, and hysteretic performance are examined. It was found that test results demonstrates the effect of seismic retrofit on RC frames with steel dampers(D-RCF-KBSF, D-RCF-KBSP) compared with RC frames(N-RCF). An approximate design curves may not be good agreement with those of the tests, it is conservative enough so that you can design of RC frames with steel damper with regard to the influences of K-braces.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2023

Reinforced concrete (RC) moment frames are used as lateral seismic load resisting systems in mid- and high-rise buildings in different regions of the world. Based on the seismic design provisions and construction details presented in design codes, RC frames with different levels of ductility (ordinary, intermediate, and special) can be designed and constructed. In Iran, there are RC buildings with various uses which have been constructed based on different editions of design codes. The seismic performance of RC structures (particularly moment frames) in real seismic events is of great importance. In this paper, the observations made on damaged RC moment frames after the destructive Sarpol-e Zahab earthquake with a moment magnitude of 7.3 are reported. Different levels of damage from the development of cracks in the structural and non-structural elements to the total collapse of buildings were observed. Furthermore, undesirable failure modes which are not expected in ductile seismic-resistant buildings were frequently observed in the damaged buildings. The RC moment frames built based on the previous editions of the design codes showed partial or total collapse in this seismic event. The extensive destruction of RC moment frames compared with the other structural systems (such as braced steel frames and confined masonry buildings) was attributed not only to the deficiencies in the construction practice of these buildings but also to the design procedure. In addition, the failure and collapse of masonry infills in RC moment frames were frequent modes of failure in this seismic event. In this paper, the main reasons related to design practice which led to extensive damage in the RC moment frames and their collapse are addressed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.76 no.3
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• pp.421-433
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• 2020

Masonry infills are normally considered as non-structural elements in design practice, therefore, the interaction between the bounding frame and the strength contribution of masonry infills is commonly ignored in the seismic analysis work of the RC frames. However, a number of typical RC frames with irregular distributed masonry infills have suffered from undesirable weak-story failure in major earthquakes, which indicates that ignoring the influence of masonry infills may cause great seismic collapse risk of RC frames. This paper presented the investigation on the risk of seismic collapse of RC frames with irregularly distributed masonry infills through a large number of nonlinear time history analyses (NTHAs). Based on the results of NTHAs, seismic fragility curves were developed for RC frames with various distribution patterns of masonry infills. It was found that the existence of masonry infills generally reduces the collapse risk of the RC frames under both frequent happened and very strong earthquakes, however, the severe irregular distribution of masonry infills, such as open ground story scenario, results in great risk of forming a weak story failure. The strong-column weak-beam (SCWB) ratio has been widely adopted in major seismic design codes to control the potential of weak story failures, where a SCWB ratio value about 1.2 is generally accepted as the lower limit. In this study, the effect of SCWB ratio on inter-story drift distribution was also parametrically investigated. It showed that improving the SCWB ratio of the RC frames with irregularly distributed masonry infills can reduce inter-story drift concentration index under earthquakes, therefore, prevent weak story failures. To achieve the same drift concentration index limit of the bare RC frame with SCWB ratio of about 1.2, which is specified in ACI318-14, the SCWB ratio of masonry-infilled RC frames should be no less than 1.5. For the open ground story scenario, this value can be as high as 1.8.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.39-47
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• 2020

Lightly reinforced concrete (RC) moment frames may suffer significant damage during large earthquake events. Most buildings with RC moment frames were designed without considering seismic loads. The load-displacement response of gravity load designed frames could be altered by masonry infill walls. The objective of this study is to investigate the load-displacement response of gravity load designed frames with masonry infill walls. For this purpose, three-story gravity load designed frames with masonry infill walls were considered. The masonry infilled RC frames demonstrated larger lateral strength and stiffness than bare RC frames, whereas their drift capacity was less than that of bare frames. A specimen with a partial-height infill wall showed the least drift capacity and energy dissipation capacity. This specimen failed in shear, whereas other specimens experienced a relatively ductile failure mode (flexure-shear failure).

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.67 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2018

Shake table tests performed on five 1:3 reduced scale two story RC moment resisting frames having construction defects, have shown severe joint damageability in deficient RC frames, resulting in joint panels' cover spalling and core concrete crushing. Haunch retrofitting technique was adopted herein to upgrade the seismic resistance of the deficient RC frames. Additional four deficient RC frames were built and retrofitted with steel haunch; both axially stiffer and deformable with energy dissipation, fixed to the beam-column connections to reduce shear demand on joint panels. The as-built and retrofitted frames' seismic response parameters are calculated and compared to evaluate the viability of haunch retrofitting technique. The haunch retrofitting technique increased the lateral stiffness and strength of the structure, resulting in the increase of structure's overstrength. The retrofitting increased response modification factor R by 60% to 100%. Further, the input excitation PGA was correlated with the lateral roof displacement to derive structure response curve that have shown significant resistance of retrofitted models against input excitations. The technique can significantly enhance the seismic performance of deficient RC frames, particularly against the frequent and rare earthquake events, hence, promising for seismic risk mitigation.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.137-149
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• 2014

In this study, modal parameters such as natural frequencies, mode shapes and damping ratios of RC frames with low strength are determined for different construction stages using ambient vibration test. For this purpose full scaled, one bay and one story RC frames are produced and tested for plane, brick in-filled and brick in-filled with plaster conditions. Measurement time, frequency span and effective mode number are determined by considering similar studies and literature. To obtain experimental dynamic characteristics, Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition and Stochastic Subspace Identification techniques are used together. It is shown that the ambient vibration measurements are enough to identify the most significant modes of RC frames. The results indicate that modal parameters change significantly depending on the construction stages. In addition, Infill walls increase stiffness and change the mode shapes of the RC frame. There is a good agreement between mode shapes obtained from brick in-filled and in-filled with plaster conditions. However, some differences are seen in plane frame, like expected. Dynamic characteristics should be verified using finite element analysis. Finally, inconsistency between experimental and analytical dynamic characteristics should be minimize by finite element model updating using some uncertain parameters such as material properties, boundary condition and section properties to reflect the current behavior of the RC frames.

• 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.5 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2013

Soft storey failure mechanism is a common collapse mode for masonry-infilled (MI) reinforced concrete (RC) buildings subjected to severe earthquakes. Simple analytical equations correlating global with local ductility demands are derived from pushover (PO) analyses for seismic assessments of regular MI RC frames, considering the critical interstorey drift ratio, number of storeys and lateral loading configurations. The reliability of the equations is investigated using incremental dynamic analyses for MI RC frames of up to 7 storeys. Using the analytical ductility relationship and a coefficient-based method (CBM), the response spectral accelerations and period shift factors of low-rise MI RC frames are computed. The results are verified through published shake table test results. In general applications, the analytical ductility relationships thus derived can be used to bypass the onerous PO analysis while accurately predicting the local ductility demands for seismic assessment of regular MI RC frames.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.613-628
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• 2016

The effectiveness of the use of modern repair schemes for the seismic retrofit of existing RC structures were assessed on a comparative experimental study of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips and sheets for the repair of reinforced concrete members of RC frames, damaged because of cyclic loading. Two virgin, single - story, one - bay, 1/3 - scale frame specimens were tested under cyclic horizontal loading, up to a drift level of 4%. Then, virgin specimens, B and F, respectively, were repaired and retested in the same way. One, specimen RB, was repaired with epoxy injections and CFRP strips and one, specimen RF, was repaired with epoxy injections and CFRP sheets. The two specimens are used to examine the differences between the structural behavior of frames repaired using CFRP strips and frames repaired using CFRP sheets. Both qualitative and quantitative conclusions, based on the observed maximum loads, loading and reloading stiffness, hysteretic energy absorption and failure mechanisms are presented and compared. The repaired frames recovered their strength, stiffness and energy dissipated reasonably. The use of CFRP sheets was found more effective than CFRP strips, due to the proper anchorage.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.641-652
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• 2019

This paper investigates the effect of aftershocks on the seismic performance of self-centering (SC) prestressed concrete frames using the probabilistic seismic demand analysis methodology. For this purpose, a 4-story SC concrete frame and a conventional reinforced concrete (RC) frame are designed and numerically analyzed through nonlinear dynamic analyses based on a set of as-recorded mainshock-aftershock seismic sequences. The peak and residual story drifts are selected as the demand parameters. The probabilistic seismic demand models of the SC and RC frames are compared, and the SC frame is found to have less dispersion of peak and residual story drifts. The results of drift demand hazard analyses reveal that the SC frame experiences lower peak story drift hazards and significantly reduced residual story drift hazards than the RC frame when subjected to the mainshocks only or the mainshock-aftershock sequences, which demonstrates the advantages of the SC frame over the RC frame. For both the SC and RC frames, the influence of as-recorded aftershocks on the drift demand hazards is small. It is shown that artificial aftershocks can produce notably increased drift demand hazards of the RC frame, while the incremental effect of artificial aftershocks on the drift demand hazards of the SC frame is much smaller. It is also found that aftershock polarity does not influence the drift demand hazards of both the SC and RC frames.