• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.741-777
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• 2016

A simplified approach of assessing torsionally balanced (TB) and torsionally unbalanced (TU) low-medium rise buildings of up to 30 m in height is presented in this paper for regions of low-to-moderate seismicity. The Generalised Force Method of Analysis for TB buildings which is illustrated in the early part of the paper involves calculation of the deflection profile of the building in a 2D analysis in order that a capacity diagram can be constructed to intercept with the acceleration-displacement response spectrum diagram representing seismic actions. This approach of calculation on the planar model of a building which involves applying lateral forces to the building (waiving away the need of a dynamic analysis and yet obtaining similar results) has been adapted for determining the deflection behaviour of a TU building in the later part of the paper. Another key original contribution to knowledge is taking into account the strong dependence of the torsional response behaviour of the building on the periodic properties of the applied excitations in relation to the natural periods of vibration of the building. Many of the trends presented are not reflected in provisions of major codes of practices for the seismic design of buildings. The deflection behaviour of the building in response to displacement controlled (DC) excitations is in stark contrast to behaviour in acceleration controlled (AC), or velocity controlled (VC), conditions, and is much easier to generalise. Although DC conditions are rare with buildings not exceeding 30 m in height displacement estimates based on such conditions can be taken as upper bound estimates in order that a conservative prediction of the displacement profile at the edge of a TU building can be obtained conveniently by the use of a constant amplification factor to scale results from planar analysis.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.82 no.6
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• pp.785-799
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• 2022

The effect of earthquakes in earthquake resistant structure design stages is influenced by the highest ground acceleration value, which is generally a strength-based approach in seismic codes. In this context, an energy-oriented approach can be suggested as an alternative to evaluate structure demands. Contrary to the strength-based approach, the strength and displacement demands of the structure cannot be evaluated separately, but can be evaluated together. In addition, in the energy-oriented approach, not only the maximum effects of earthquakes are taken into account, but also the duration of the earthquake. In this respect, it can be said that the use of energy-oriented earthquake parameters is a more rational approach besides being an alternative. In this study, strength and energy-oriented approaches of earthquake parameters of 11 different periods of single degree of freedom systems were evaluated over 28 different earthquake situations. The energy spectra intended to be an alternative to the traditional acceleration spectra were created using the acceleration parameter equivalent to the input energy. Two new energy parameters, which take into account the effective duration of the earthquake, are proposed, and the relationship between the strength-oriented spectral acceleration parameters and the energy parameters used in the literature is examined by correlation study. According to the results obtained, it has been seen that energy oriented earthquake parameters, which give close values in similar period situations, will be a good alternative to strength oriented earthquake parameters. It was observed that the energy parameters were affected by the effective duration of the earthquake, unlike the strength-based parameters. It has been revealed that the newly proposed energy parameters considering the effective duration give good correlations. Finally, it was concluded that the energy parameters can be used in the design, and the newly proposed effective energy parameters can shorten the analysis durations.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.9 no.3 s.43
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• pp.51-58
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• 2005

Many RC building structures of multiple uses constructed in Korea have the Irregularities of torsion and soft story at bottom stories simultaneously. Seismic design codes generally require dynamic analysis and to take into account the effect or earthquake excitations in the orthogonal direction using the approximate methods of 100/30 and SRSS for type of building structures. And ail buildings should be designed to be safe in any direction of earthquake input. But, most of designers have difficulty in considering the orthogonal and directional effect of earthquake. The objective of the study stated herein is to verily 1) the effect of the choice of the reference axes on the seismic design member forces by comparing the analytical results on member forces using the principal axes suggested by Wilson and the global axes generally adopted in design office, 2) the validity or the 100/30 and SRSS methods by comparing the member forces obtained through linear elastic time history analysis with those obtained through using response spectrum analysis and 100/30 (or SRSS) methods. Based on the observations on the analytical results, it is concluded as follows; 1) The values of member forces by principal axes can be about $15\%$ smaller than those by the global axes in the example structure. 2) Though the values of member forces given by time history analysis are generally within the peak values predicted by 100/30 and SRSS methods, many member force vectors $(P,\;M_y,\;and\;M_z)$ by lime history analysis were located outside the boundaries predicted by the approximate method such as the 100/30 method.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.59-66
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• 2017

Modern seismic codes rely on performance-based seismic design methodology which requires that the structures withstand inelastic deformation. Many studies have focused on the inelastic deformation ratio evaluation (ratio between the inelastic and elastic maximum lateral displacement demands) for various inelastic spectra. This paper investigates the inelastic response spectra through the ductility demand ${\mu}$, the yield strength reduction factor $R_y$, and the inelastic deformation ratio. They depend on the vibration period T, the post-to-preyield stiffness ratio ${\alpha}$, the peak ground acceleration (PGA), and the normalized yield strength coefficient ${\eta}$ (ratio of yield strength coefficient divided by the PGA). A new inelastic deformation ratio $C_{\eta}$ is defined; it is related to the capacity curve (pushover curve) through the coefficient (${\eta}$) and the ratio (${\alpha}$) that are used as control parameters. A set of 140 real ground motions is selected. The structures are bilinear inelastic single degree of freedom systems (SDOF). The sensitivity of the resulting inelastic deformation ratio mean values is discussed for different levels of normalized yield strength coefficient. The influence of vibration period T, post-to-preyield stiffness ratio ${\alpha}$, normalized yield strength coefficient ${\eta}$, earthquake magnitude, ruptures distance (i.e., to fault rupture) and site conditions is also investigated. A regression analysis leads to simplified expressions of this inelastic deformation ratio. These simplified equations estimate the inelastic deformation ratio for structures, which is a key parameter for design or evaluation. The results show that, for a given level of normalized yield strength coefficient, these inelastic displacement ratios become non sensitive to none of the rupture distance, the earthquake magnitude or the site class. Furthermore, they show that the post-to-preyield stiffness has a negligible effect on the inelastic deformation ratio if the normalized yield strength coefficient is greater than unity.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.59-77
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• 2020

The code static eccentricity model for elastic torsional design of structures has two critical shortcomings: (1) the negation of the inertial torsional moment at the center of mass (CM), particularly for torsionally-unbalanced (TU) building structures, and (2) the confusion caused by the discrepancy in the definition of the design eccentricity in codes and the resistance eccentricity commonly used by engineers such as in FEMA454. To overcome these shortcomings, using the resistance eccentricity model that can accommodate the inertial torsional moment at the CM, interactive relations between shear and torsion are proposed as follows: (1) elastic responses of structures at instants of peak edge-frame drifts are given as functions of resistance eccentricity, and (2) elastic hysteretic relationships between shear and torsion in forces and deformations are bounded by ellipsoids constructed using two adjacent dominant modes. Comparison of demands estimated using these two interactive relations with those from shake-table tests of two TU building structures (a 1:5-scale five-story reinforced concrete (RC) building model and a 1:12-scale 17-story RC building model) under the service level earthquake (SLE) show that these relations match experimental results of models reasonably well. Concepts proposed in this study enable engineers to not only visualize the overall picture of torsional behavior including the relationship between shear and torsion with the range of forces and deformations, but also pinpoint easily the information about critical responses of structures such as the maximum edge-frame drifts and the corresponding shear force and torsion moment with the eccentricity.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.21-32
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• 2018

Prefabricated structures are constructed by bolted connections of separated members. The design and analysis of these structures are generally performed by defining fully hinges for the connection of separated members at the joint of junction. In practice, these connections are not fully hinged. Therefore, the assumption of semi-rigid connections (restrained or partially fixity) instead of fully hinge connections is a more realistic approach for bolted connections used in the prefabricated elements. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of semi-rigid connections on seismic performance of prefabricated structures. Nonlinear static analysis (pushover analysis) of a selected RC prefabricated structure is performed with SAP2000 structural analysis program by considering various partially fixity percentages for bolted connections. The target values of roof displacements obtained from the analyses according to ATC-40, FEMA-356, FEMA-440, and TEC-2007 codes are compared each other. The numerical results are given in tables and figures comparatively and discussed. The results show that the effects of semi-rigid connections should be considered in design and analysis of the prefabricated structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.58 no.1
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• pp.39-58
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• 2016

Since the publication of ACI 318-02, the concrete capacity design (CCD) method has been used to determine the resistance of unreinforced concrete anchors. The regulation of steel-reinforced anchors was proposed in ACI 318-08. Until ACI 318-08, the shear resistance of concrete breakout for an unreinforced anchor during an earthquake was reduced to 75% of the static shear strength, but this reduction has been eliminated since ACI 318-11. In addition, the resistance of a hairpin-reinforced anchor was calculated using only the strength of the steel, and a regulation on the dynamic strength was not given for reinforced anchors. In this study, shaking table tests were performed to evaluate the dynamic shear strength of unreinforced and hairpin-reinforced cast-in-place (CIP) anchors during earthquakes. The anchors used in this study were 30 mm in diameter, with edge distances of 150 mm and embedment depths of 240 mm. The diameter of the hairpin steel was 10 mm. Shaking table tests were carried out on two specimens using the artificial earthquake, based on the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (US NRC)'s Regulatory Guide 1.60, and the Northridge earthquake. The experimental results were compared to the current ACI 318 and ETAG 001 design codes.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.667-689
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• 2014

Structural walls (also known as shear walls) are one of the common lateral load resisting elements in reinforced concrete (RC) buildings in seismic regions. The performance of RC structural walls in recent earthquakes has exposed some problems with the existing design of RC structural walls. The main issues lie around the buckling of bars, out-of plane deformation of the wall (especially the zone deteriorated in compression), reinforcement getting snapped beneath a solitary thin crack etc. This study compares performance of a typical wall designed by different standards. For this purpose, a case study RC shear wall is taken from the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Christchurch which was designed according to the 1982 version of the New Zealand concrete structures standard (NZS3101:1982). The wall is redesigned in this study to comply with the detailing requirements of three standards; ACI-318-11, NZS3101:2006 and Eurocode 8 in such a way that they provide the same flexural and shear capacity. Based on section analysis and pushover analysis, nonlinear responses of the walls are compared in terms of their lateral load capacity and curvature as well as displacement ductilities, and the effect of the code limitations on nonlinear responses of the different walls are evaluated. A parametric study is also carried out to further investigate the effect of confinement length and axial load ratio on the lateral response of shear walls.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.201-213
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• 2015

Site effects resulting in the amplification of earthquake ground motion are strongly influenced not only by the subsurface soil conditions and structure, but also by the surface topography. Yet, over the last several decades, most studies of site-specific seismic responses in Korea have focused primarily on the seismic amplification associated with geologic and soil conditions. For example, the effects of local geology are now well established and have been incorporated into current Korean seismic design codes, whereas topographic effects have not been considered. To help address this shortcoming, two-dimensional (2D) seismic site response analyses, using finite element (FE) ground modeling with three different slope angles, were performed in order to assess the site effects of surface topography. We then compared our results, specifically peak ground acceleration (PGA) and acceleration response spectrum, to those of one-dimensional (1D) FE model analyses conducted alongside our study. Throughout much of the upper slope region, PGAs and spectral accelerations are larger in the 2D analyses than in the 1D analyses as a result of the topographic effect.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.109-127
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• 2010

This work aims at introducing structural sensitivity analysis capabilities into existing commercial finite element software codes for the purpose of mapping retrofit strategies for a broad group of structures including heritage-type buildings. More specifically, the first stage sensitivity analysis is implemented for the standard deterministic environment, followed by stochastic structural sensitivity analysis defined for the probabilistic environment in a subsequent, second phase. It is believed that this new generation of software that will be released by the industrial partner will address the needs of a rapidly developing specialty within the engineering design profession, namely commercial retrofit and rehabilitation activities. In congested urban areas, these activities are carried out in reference to a certain percentage of the contemporary building stock that can no longer be demolished to give room for new construction because of economical, historical or cultural reasons. Furthermore, such analysis tools are becoming essential in reference to a new generation of national codes that spell out in detail how retrofit strategies ought to be implemented. More specifically, our work focuses on identifying the minimum-cost intervention on a given structure undergoing retrofit. Finally, an additional factor that arises in earthquake-prone regions across the world is the random nature of seismic activity that further complicates the task of determining the dynamic overstress that is being induced in the building stock and the additional demands placed on the supporting structural system.