• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.54-63
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• 2022

This paper is a study on the friction damper, which is one of the seismic reinforcement devices for structures. This study developed a damper by replacing the internal friction material with ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), a type of composite material. In addition, this study applied a multi-friction method in which the internal structure where frictional force is generated is laminated in several layers. To verify the performance of the developed multi-friction damper, this study performed a characteristic analysis test for the basic physical properties, wear characteristics, and disc springs of the material. As a result of the wear test, the mass reduction rate of UHMWPE was 0.003%, which showed the best performance among the friction materials based on composite materials. Regarding the disc spring, this study secured the design basic data from the finite element analysis and experimental test results. Moreover, to confirm the quality stability of the developed multi-friction damper, this study performed an seismic load test on the damping device and the friction force change according to the torque value. The quality performance test result showed a linear frictional force change according to the torque value adjustment. As a result of the seismic load test, the allowable error of the friction damper was less than 15%, which is the standard required by the design standards, so it satisfies the requirements for seismic reinforcement devices.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.373-384
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• 2022

To improve the seismic performance of suspended ceiling structures, various vibration-damping devices have been developed. However, the devices made of metals have a limit in that they cause large deformation and seriously damages the exterior of the suspended ceiling structure from the wall. As a results, their strengthening effect of the suspended ceiling structure was minimal. Thus, this study employed a spring and vibration-proof rubber effectively controlled vibrations without increasing horizontal seismic loads on the ceiling to enhance the seismic resistance of suspended ceiling structures. The objective of the study is to examine the dynamic properties of a seismic damping-isolation unit (SDI) with various details developed. The developed SDI was composed of a spring, embossed rubbers, and prestressed bolts, which were the main factors enhancing the damping effect. The shaking table tests were performed on eight SDI specimens produced with the number of layers of embossed rubber (n_s), presence or absence of a spring, prestressed force magnitude introduced in bolts (f_ps), and mass weight (W_m) as the main parameters. To identify the enhancement effect of the SDI, the dynamic properties of the control specimen with a conventional hanger bolt were compared to those of the SDI specimens. The SDI specimens were effective in reducing the maximum acceleration (A_{c max}), acceleration amplification factor (α_p), relative displacement (δ_R), and increasing the damping ratio (ξ) when compared to the control specimen. The A_{c max}, α_p, and δ_R of the SDI specimens with two rubbers, spring, and f_ps of 0.1f_by, where f_by is the yielding strength of the screw bolt were 57.8%, 58.0%, and 61.9% lower than those of the conventional hanger bolt specimens, respectively, resulting in the highest ξ (=0.127). In addition, the α_p of the SDI specimens was 50.8% lower than those specified in ASCE 7 and FEMA 356. Consequently, to accurately estimate the α_p of the SDI specimens, a simple model was proposed based on the functions of f_ps, stiffness constant of the spring (K), W_m, and n_s.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.273-282
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• 2020

An innovative high-rise timber-concrete hybrid structure was proposed in previous research, which is composed of the concrete frame-tube structure and the prefabricated timber modules as main structure and substructures, respectively. Considering that the timber substructures are built on the concrete floors at a different height, the floor response spectrum is more effective in estimating the seismic response of substructures. In this paper, the floor response spectra of the hybrid structure with different structural parameters were calculated using dynamic time-history analysis. Firstly, one simplified model that can well predict the seismic response of the hybrid structure was proposed and validated. Then the construction site, the mass ratio and the frequency ratio of the main-sub structure, and the damping ratio of the substructures were discussed. The results demonstrate that the peaks of the floor response spectra usually occur near the vibration periods of the whole structure, among which the first two peaks stand out; In most cases, the acceleration amplification effect on substructures tends to be more evident when the construction site is farther from the fault rupture; On the other hand, the acceleration response of substructures can be effectively reduced with an appropriate increase in the mass ratio of the main-sub structure and the damping ratio of the substructures; However, the frequency ratio of the main-sub structure has no discernible effect on the floor response spectra. This study investigates the characteristics of the floor response spectrum of the novel timber-concrete structure, which supports the future applications of such hybrid structure in high-rise buildings.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.75-82
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• 2008

In this study, the possibility of vibration control of high-rise building structures by applying top-story isolation has been investigated. To this end, El Centro NS (1940) earthquake load is applied to 20- and 50-story building structures for numerical analysis. Artificial wind loads are used to evaluate the serviceability of example structures against wind vibration. As the number of isolated stories of example buildings is changed, structural responses has been evaluated to investigate optimal isolated building mass. And the natural period of isolation systems for top-story isolation is varied to investigate the improvement of control performance compared with the fixed base structure. Based on the analytical results, the top-story isolation system can be used as a hued mass damper and effectively reduce the structural responses of high-rise buildings against wind and seismic loads.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.547-564
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• 2014

This study focuses on the application of an active tuned mass damper (ATMD) for controlling the seismic response of an 11-story building. The control action is achieved by combination of a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) method. FLC is used to handle the uncertain and nonlinear phenomena while PSO is used for optimization of FLC parameters. The FLC system optimized by PSO is called PSFLC. The optimization process of the FLC system has been performed for an 11-story building under the earthquake excitations recommended by International Association of Structural Control (IASC) committee. Minimization of the top floor displacement has been used as the optimization criteria. The results obtained by the PSFLC method are compared with those obtained from ATMD with GFLC system which is proposed by Pourzeynali et al. and non-optimum FLC system. Based on the parameters obtained from PSFLC system, a global controller as PSFLCG is introduced. Performance of the designed PSFLCG has been checked for different disturbances of far-field and near-field ground motions. It is found that the ATMD system, driven by FLC with the help of PSO significantly reduces the peak displacement of the example building. The results show that the PSFLCG decreases the peak displacement of the top floor by about 10%-30% more than that of the FLC system. To show the efficiency and superiority of the adopted optimization method (PSO), a comparison is also made between PSO and GA algorithms in terms of success rate and computational processing time. GA is used by Pourzeynali et al for optimization of the similar system.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.187-198
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• 2023

Model Predictive Control (MPC) is an advanced control approach that uses the current states of the system model to predict its future behavior. In this article, according to the seismic dynamics of structural systems, the Predictive Functional Control (PFC) method is used to solve the control problem. Although conventional PFC is an efficient control method, its performance may be impaired due to problems such as uncertainty in the structure of state sensors and process equations, as well as actuator saturation. Therefore, it requires the utilization of appropriate estimation algorithms in order to accurately evaluate responses and implement actuator saturation. Accordingly, an extended PFC is presented based on the H-ifinity (H∞) filter (HPFC) while considering simultaneously the saturation actuator. Accordingly, an extended PFC is presented based on the H-ifinity (H∞) filter (HPFC) while considering the saturation actuator. Thus, the structural responses are formulated by two estimation models using the H∞ filter. First, the H∞ filter estimates responses using a performance bound (𝜃). Second, the H∞ filter is converted into a Kalman filter in a special case by considering the 𝜃 equal to zero. Therefore, the scheme based on the Kalman filter (KPFC) is considered a comparative model. The proposed method is evaluated through numerical studies on a building equipped with an Active Tuned Mass Damper (ATMD) under near and far-field earthquakes. Finally, HPFC is compared with classical (CPFC) and comparative (KPFC) schemes. The results show that HPFC has an acceptable efficiency in boosting the accuracy of CPFC and KPFC approaches under earthquakes, as well as maintaining a descending trend in structural responses.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.285-296
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• 2017

Base isolation is a quite practical control strategy for enhancing the response of structural systems induced by strong ground motions. Due to the dynamic effects of base isolation systems, reduction in the interstory drifts of the superstructure is often achieved at the expense of high base displacement level, which may lead to instability of the structure or non-practical designs for the base isolators. To reduce the base displacement, several hybrid structural control strategies have been studied over the past decades. This study investigates a particular strategy that employs Tuned Mass Dampers (TMDs) for improving the performance of base-isolated structures and unlike previous studies, specifically focuses on the effectiveness of this hybrid control strategy in structures that are equipped with nonlinear base isolation systems. To consider the nonlinearities of base isolation systems, a Bouc-Wen model is selected and nonlinear dynamic OpenSees models are used to perform several time-history simulations in time and frequency domains. Through these numerical simulations, the effects of several parameters such as the fundamental period of the structure, dynamic properties of the TMD and isolation systems and properties of the input ground motion on the behaviour of TMD-structure-base isolation systems are examined. The results of this study provide a better insight into the performance of linear shear-story structures with nonlinear base isolators and show that there are many scenarios in which TMDs can still improve the performance of these systems.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.17-35
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• 2012

Simplified equations for fundamental period of vibration of skeletal structures provided by most seismic design provisions suffer from the absence of any associated confidence levels and of any reference to their empirical basis. Therefore, such equations may typically give a sector of designers the false impression of yielding a fairly accurate value of the period of vibration. This paper, although not addressing simplified codes equations, introduces a set of mathematical equations utilizing the theory of error propagation and First-Order Second-Moment (FOSM) techniques to determine bounds on the relative error in theoretically calculated fundamental period of vibration of skeletal structures. In a complementary step, and for verification purposes, Monte Carlo simulation technique has been also applied. The latter, despite involving larger computational effort, is expected to provide more precise estimates than FOSM methods. Studies of parametric uncertainties applied to reinforced concrete frame bents - potentially idealized as SDOF systems - are conducted demonstrating the effect of randomness and uncertainty of various relevant properties, shaping both mass and stiffness, on the variance (i.e. relative error) in the estimated period of vibration. Correlation between mass and stiffness parameters - regarded as random variables - is also thoroughly discussed. According to achieved results, a relative error in the period of vibration in the order of 19% for new designs/constructions and of about 25% for existing structures for assessment purposes - and even climbing up to about 36% in some special applications and/or circumstances - is acknowledged when adopting estimates gathered from the literature for relative errors in the relevant random input variables.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.563-573
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• 2015

For hard rock subsea tunnels the most challenging rock mass conditions are in most cases represented by major faults/weakness zones. Poor stability weakness zones with large water inflow can be particularly problematic. At the pre-construction investigation stage, geological and engineering geological mapping, refraction seismic investigation and core drilling are the most important methods for identifying potentially adverse rock mass conditions. During excavation, continuous engineering geological mapping and probe drilling ahead of the face are carried out, and for the most recent Norwegian subsea tunnel projects, MWD (Measurement While Drilling) has also been used. During excavation, grouting ahead of the tunnel face is carried out whenever required according to the results from probe drilling. Sealing of water inflow by pre-grouting is particularly important before tunnelling into a section of poor rock mass quality. When excavating through weakness zones, a special methodology is normally applied, including spiling bolts, short blast round lengths and installation of reinforced sprayed concrete arches close to the face. The basic aspects of investigation, support and tunnelling for major weakness zones are discussed in this paper and illustrated by cases representing two very challenging projects which were recently completed (Atlantic Ocean tunnel and T-connection), one which is under construction (Ryfast) and one which is planned to be built in the near future (Rogfast).

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.621-642
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• 2011

Passive tuned mass dampers (TMDs) efficiently suppress vibrations induced by quasi-stationary dynamic inputs, such as winds, sea waves or traffic loads, but may prove of little use against pulse-like excitations, such as near-field (NF) ground motions. The extent of such impairment is however controversial, partly due to the different evaluation criteria adopted within the literature, partly to the limited number of seismic records used in most investigations. In this study, three classical techniques and two new variants for designing a TMD on an SDOF structure are tested under 338 NF records from the PEER NGA database, including 156 records with forward-directivity features. Percentile response reduction spectra are introduced to statistically assess TMD performance, and TMD robustness is verified through Monte Carlo simulations. The methodology is extended to a variety of MDOF bending-type and shear-type frames, and simulated on a case study building structure recently constructed in Central Italy.Results offer an interesting insight into the performance of TMDs against NF earthquakes, ultimately showing that, if properly designed and sufficiently massive, TMDs are effective and robust even in the face of pulse-like ground motions. The two newly proposed design techniques are shown to generally outperform the classical ones.