• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제6권5호
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• pp.473-494
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• 2014

Progressive collapse, which is referred to as the collapse of the entire building under local damages, is a common failure mode happened by earthquakes. The collapse process highly depends on the whole structural system. Since, asymmetry of the building plan leads to the local damage concentration; it may intensify the progressive collapse mechanism of asymmetric buildings. In this research the progressive collapse of regular and irregular 6-story RC ordinary moment resisting frame buildings are studied in the presence of the earthquake loads. Collapse process and collapse propagation are investigated using nonlinear time history analyses (NLTHA) in buildings with 5%, 15% and 25% mass asymmetry with respect to the number of collapsed hinges and story drifts criteria. Results show that increasing the value of mass eccentricity makes the asymmetric buildings become unstable earlier and in the early stages with lower number of the collapsed hinges. So, with increasing the mass eccentricity in building, instability and collapse of the entire building occurs earlier, with lower potential of the progressive collapse. It is also demonstrated that with increasing the mass asymmetry the decreasing trend of the number of collapsed beam and column hinges is approximately similar to the decreasing trend in the average story drifts of the mass centers and stiff edges. So, as an alternative to a much difficult-to-calculate local response parameter of the number of collapsed hinges, the story drift, as a global response parameter, measures the potential of progressive collapse more easily.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• 제6권4호
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• pp.417-437
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• 2017

This paper shows a comparative study for design of reinforced concrete boundary combined footings of trapezoidal and rectangular forms supporting two columns and each column transmits an axial load and a moment around of the axis X (transverse axis of the footing) and other moment around of the axis Y (longitudinal axis of the footing) to foundation to obtain the most economical combined footing. The real soil pressure acting on the contact surface of the footings is assumed as a linear variation. Methodology used to obtain the dimensions of the footings for the two models consider that the axis X of the footing is located in the same position of the resultant, i.e., the dimensions is obtained from the position of the resultant. The main part of this research is to present the differences between the two models. Results show that the trapezoidal combined footing is more economical compared to the rectangular combined footing. Therefore, the new model for the design of trapezoidal combined footings should be used, and complies with real conditions.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제35권2호
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• pp.279-294
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• 2020

Foundation of a building is damaged under service loads during construction. First visit shows that the foundation has been punched at the 6 column's foot region led to building rotation. Foundation shear punching occurring has made some stresses and deflections in construction. In this study, progressing of damage caused by foundation shear punching and inverse loading in order to resolve the building rotation has been evaluated in the foundation and frame of building by finite element modeling in ABAQUS software. The stress values of bars in punched regions of foundation has been deeply exceeded from steel yielding strength and experienced large displacement based on software's results. On the other hand, the values of created stresses in the frame are not too big to make serious damage. In the beams and columns of ground floor, some partial cracks has been occurred and in other floors, the values of stresses are in the elastic zone of materials. Finally, by inverse loading to the frame, the horizontal displacement of floors has been resolved and the values of stresses in frame has been significantly reduced.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제24권6호
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• pp.783-791
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• 2019

Prefabricated reinforced-concrete shear walls are used extensively in building structures because they are convenient to construct and environmentally sustainable. To make large walls easier to transport, they are divided into smaller segments and then assembled at the construction site using a variety of connection methods. The present paper proposes a precast shear wall assembled using steel shear keys, wherein the shear keys are fixed on the embedded steel plates of adjacent wall segments by combined plug and fillet welding. The anchoring strength of shear keys is known to affect the mechanical properties of the wall segments. Loading tests were therefore performed to observe the behavior of precast shear wall specimens with different anchoring components for shear keys. The specimen with insufficient strength of anchoring components was found to have reduced stiffness and lateral resistance. Conversely, an extremely high anchoring strength led to a short-column effect at the base of the wall segments and low deformation ability. Finally, for practical engineering purposes, a design approach involving the safety coefficient of anchoring components for steel shear keys is suggested.

• 국제초고층학회논문집
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• 제7권4호
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• pp.397-408
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• 2018

In a recent tragic fire incident, the Plasco Tower collapsed after an intense outburst of fire lasting for three and a half hours and claiming the lives of 16 firefighters and 6 civilians. This paper will present continuing collaborative work between Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Queen's University in Canada to model the progressive collapse of the tower. The fire started at the 10th floor and was observed to have travelled along the floor horizontally and through the staircase and windows vertically. Plasco Tower was steel structure and all the steel sections were fabricated by welding standard European channel or angle profiles and no fire protection was applied. Four internal columns carried the loads transferred by the primary beams, and box columns were constructed along the perimeter of the building as a braced tube for resisting seismic loading. OpenSees fibre-based sections and displacement-based beam-column elements are used to model the frames, while shell elements are used for the reinforced concrete floor slabs. The thermal properties and elevated temperature mechanical properties are as recommended in the Eurocodes. The results in this preliminarily analysis are based on rough estimations of the structure's configuration. The ongoing work looks at modeling the Plasco Tower based on the most accurate findings from reviewing many photographs and collected data.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제83권2호
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• pp.195-206
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• 2022

Significant structural damages due to earthquakes reveal the importance of seismic design provisions. This paper presents a comparison between the seismic design provisions of Albania, Croatia, Iran, and Turkey for the design of mid-rise reinforced-concrete (RC) frames. Information on the historical development of the considered provisions are given. The code provisions are compared, illustrating the main differences in the minimum requirements for column and beam detailing and analysis for mid-rise RC frames. 4-story, 5-story, and 6-story buildings are designed according to each design code, and their performance is evaluated comparatively by using a displacement-based adaptive pushover procedure and eigenvalue analysis. It is observed that recent Turkish code has the highest and Albanian code has the lowest level of requirements in terms of member size and reinforcement detailing. The considered models indicate 15%, 20% and 50%, lower period values than the Croatia, Iran and Albania buildings, respectively. Additionally, building models per Croatia, Iran and Albania codes have 30%, 35% and 65% less base shear capacity when compared to Turkish building codes. Building models per Croatia and Iran codes indicate similar properties both in terms of strength and stiffness.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제86권3호
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• pp.349-359
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• 2023

This paper presents a technique for determining the optimal number of elements in stochastic finite element analysis based on reliability analysis. Using the change-of-variable perturbation stochastic finite element approach, the probability density function of the dynamic responses of stochastic structures is explicitly determined. This method combines the perturbation stochastic finite element method with the change-of-variable technique into a united model. To further examine the relationships between the random fields, discretization of the random field parameters, such as the variance function and the scale of fluctuation, is also performed. Accordingly, the reliability index is calculated based on the explicit probability density function of responses with Gaussian or non-Gaussian random fields in any number of elements corresponding to the random field discretization. The numerical examples illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for a one-dimensional cantilever reinforced concrete column and a two-dimensional steel plate shear wall. The benefit of this method is that the probability density function of responses can be obtained explicitly without the use simulation techniques. Any type of random variable with any statistical distribution can be incorporated into the calculations, regardless of the restrictions imposed by the type of statistical distribution of random variables. Consequently, this method can be utilized as a suitable guideline for the efficient implementation of stochastic finite element analysis of structures, regardless of the statistical distribution of random variables.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제22권3호
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• pp.319-330
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• 2022

Retrofit of soft-story buildings due to seismic loads using Gap-Inclined-Brace (GIB) system is considered a new retrofit technique that aims to maintain both strength and stiffness of structure. In addition, it provides more ductility and less P-delta effect, and subsequently better performance is observed. In this paper, the effect of the eccentricity between GIB and the retrofitted column due to installation on the efficiency of the retrofitting system is studied. In addition, a modification in the determination method of GIB properties is introduced to reduce the eccentricity effect. Also, the effect of GIB system on the seismic response of mid-rise buildings with different heights considering soft-story at various heights has been studied. A numerical model is developed to study the impact of such system on the response of retrofitted soft-story buildings under the action of seismic loads. To achieve that goal, this model is used to perform a numerical investigation, by considering five case study scenarios represent several locations of soft-story of two mid-rise reinforced concrete buildings. At first, Non-linear static pushover analysis was carried out to develop the capacity curves for case studies. Then, Non-linear time history analyses using ten earthquake records with five peak ground accelerations is performed for each case study scenario before and after retrofitting with GIB. The results show that large GIB eccentricity reduce the ultimate lateral resistance and deformation capacity of the retrofitting system. Moreover, the higher the retrofitted building, the more deformation capacity is observed but without significant increase in ultimate lateral resistance.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제49권3호
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• pp.257-270
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• 2023

In this study, the feasibility and applicability of a friction damper with a vertical installation scheme are investigated. This device is composed of a steel section and two friction hinges at both ends which dissipate seismic energy. Due to its small width and vertical installation scheme, the proposed damper can minimize the interference with architectural functions. To evaluate the performance of the proposed damper, its mechanical behavior is theoretically evaluated and the required formulas for the yield strength and elastic stiffness are derived. The theoretical formulas are verified by establishing the analytical model of the damper in the SAP2000 software and comparing their results. To further investigate the performance of the developed damper, the provided analytical model is applied to a 4-story reinforced concrete (RC) structure and its performance is evaluated before and after retrofit under the Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCE) hazard level. The seismic performance is thoroughly evaluated in terms of maximum interstory drift ratio, displacement time history, residual displacement, and energy dissipation. The results show that the proposed damper can be efficiently used to protect the structure against seismic loads.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제91권4호
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• pp.369-382
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• 2024

The earthquake loss assessment framework of ductile reinforced concrete (or RC) frame using component-performance -based methodology was studied in this paper. The elasto-plastic rotation angle was used as the damage indicator of structural component, and the damage-to-loss model was proposed on the basis of the deformation indicator of structural component. Dynamic instability during incremental dynamic analysis was taken as collapse criterion, and column failure was taken as criterion that structure has to be demolished. Expected earthquake losses of low-rise, mid-rise and high-rise RC frames were discussed. The expected earthquake loss encompassed collapse loss, demolition loss and repair loss. Furthermore, component groups of RC frame were divided into structural components, nonstructural components and rugged components. The results indicate that ductile RC frame is more likely to be demolished than collapse, especially in low-rise and mid-rise RC frames. Furthermore, the less collapse margin ratio the structure has, the more demolition probability the structure will suffer under rare earthquake. The demolition share of total earthquake loss might be more prominent than repair share and collapse share in ductile RC frame.