• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.7 no.4
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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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• v.69 no.2
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• pp.155-162
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• 2019

It is very common to find an empirical formulation in an earthquake design code to calculate fundamental vibration period of a structural system. Fundamental vibration period or frequency is a key parameter to provide adequate information pertinent to dynamic characteristics and performance assessment of a structure. This parameter enables to assess seismic demand of a structure. It is possible to find an empirical formulation related to reinforced concrete structures, masonry towers and slender masonry structures. Calculated natural vibration frequencies suggested by empirical formulation in the literatures has not suits in a high accuracy to the case of rest of the historical masonry bridges due to different construction techniques and wide variety of material properties. For the listed reasons, estimation of fundamental frequency gets harder. This paper aims to present an empirical formulation through Mean Square Error study to find ambient vibration frequency of historical masonry bridges by using a non-linear regression model. For this purpose, a series of data collected from literature especially focused on the finite element models of historical masonry bridges modelled in a full scale to get first global natural frequency, unit weight and elasticity modulus of used dominant material based on homogenization approach, length, height and width of the masonry bridge and main span length were considered to predict natural vibration frequency. An empirical formulation is proposed with 81% accuracy. Also, this study draw attention that this accuracy decreases to 35%, if the modulus of elasticity and unit weight are ignored.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.119-129
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• 2019

Many reinforced concrete (RC) buildings constructed prior to 1980's lack important features guaranteeing ductile response under earthquake excitation. Structural components in such buildings, especially columns, do not satisfy the reinforcement details demanded by current seismic design codes. Columns with deficient reinforcement details may suffer significant damage when subjected to cyclic lateral loads. They can also experience rapid lateral strength degradation induced by shear failure. The objective of this study is to accurately simulate the load-deformation response of RC columns experiencing shear failure. In order to do so, model parameters are calibrated to the load-deformation response of 40 RC column specimens failed in shear. Multivariate stepwise regression analyses are conducted to develop the relationship between the model parameters and physical parameters of RC column specimens. It is shown that the proposed predictive equations successfully estimated the model parameters of RC column specimens with great accuracy. The proposed equations also showed better accuracy than the existing ones.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.319-344
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• 2020

Inverse analysis of non-linear reinforced concrete bridge pier using recursive Gaussian filtering for in-situ condition assessment is the main theme of this work. For this purpose, minimum variance unbiased estimation using unscented sigma points is adopted here. The uniqueness of this inverse analysis lies in its approach for strain based updating of engineering demand parameters, where appropriate bound and constrained conditions are introduced to ensure numerical stability and convergence. In this analysis, seismic input is also identified, which is an added advantage for the structures having no dedicated sensors for earthquake measurement. First, the proposed strategy is tested with a simulated example whose hysteretic properties are obtained from the slow-cyclic test of a frame to investigate its efficiency and accuracy. Finally, the experimental test data of a full-scale bridge pier is used to study its in-situ condition in terms of Park & Ang damage index. Overall the study shows the ability of the augmented minimum variance unbiased estimation based recursive time-marching algorithm for non-linear system identification with the aim to estimate the engineering damage parameters that are the fundamental information necessary for any future decision making for retrofitting/rehabilitation.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.417-430
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• 2021

Due to functional requirements, SRC column-RC beam abnormal joints with characteristics of strong beam weak column, variable column section, unequal beam height and staggered height exist in the Steel reinforced concrete (SRC) frame-bent main building structure of thermal power plant (TPP). This paper presents the experimental results of these abnormal joints through cyclic loading tests on five specimens with scaling factor of 1/5. The staggered height and whether adding H-shaped steel in beam or not were changing parameters of specimens. The failure patterns, bearing capacity, energy dissipation and ductile performance were analyzed. In addition, the stress mechanism of the abnormal joint was discussed based on the diagonal strut model. The research results showed that the abnormal exterior joints occurred shear failure and column end hinge flexural failure; reducing beam height through adding H-shaped steel in the beam of abnormal exterior joint could improve the crack resistance and ductility; the abnormal interior joints with different staggered heights occurred column ends flexural failure; the joint with larger staggered height had the higher bearing capacity and stiffness, but lower ductility. The concrete compression strut mechanism is still applicable to the abnormal joints in TPP, but it is affected by the abnormal characteristics.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.749-766
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• 2022

This paper investigates the seismic performance of exposed RCFST column-base joints, in which the high-strength steel bars (USD 685) are set through the column and reinforced concrete foundation without any base plate and anchor bolts. Three specimens with different axial force ratios (n = 0, 0.25, and 0.5) were tested under cyclic loadings. Finite element analysis (FEA) models were validated in the basic indexes and failure mode. The hysteresis behavior of the exposed RCFST column-base joints was studied by the parametrical analysis including six parameters: width of column (D), width-thickness ratio (D/t), axial force ratio (n), shear-span ratio (L/D), steel tube strength (f_y) and concrete strength (f_c). The bending moment of the exposed RCFST column-base joint increased with D, f_y and f_c. But the D/t and L/D play a little effect on the bending capacity of the new column-base joint. Finally, the calculation formula is proposed to assess the bending moment capacities, and the accuracy and stability of the formula are verified.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.89-98
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• 2022

The recent earthquake in Korea caused a lot of damage to reinforced concrete (RC) columns with non-seismic details. The nonlinear analysis enables predicting the hysteresis behavior of RC columns under earthquakes, but the analytical model used for the columns must be accurate and practical. This paper studied the nonlinear analysis models built into a commercial structural analysis program for the existing RC columns. The load-displacement relationships, maximum strength, initial stiffness, and energy dissipation predicted by the three analysis models were compared and analyzed. The results were similar to those tested in the order of the fiber, Pivot, and Takeda models, whereas the fiber model took the most time to build. For columns subjected to axial load, the Pivot model could predict the behavior at a similar level to that of the fiber model. Based on the above, it is expected that the Pivot model can be applied most practically for existing RC columns.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.363-382
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• 2024

In India's north-eastern region, low-strength autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) blocks are widely used for constructing masonry structures, making them susceptible to lateral forces due to their low tensile and shear strengths and brittleness nature. The absence of earthquake-resistant attributes further compromises their resilience during seismic events. An economically viable solution to enhance the structural integrity of these masonry structures involves integrating steel wire mesh within the masonry mortar joints. This study investigates the in-plane shear behaviour of AAC masonry by employing two approaches: incorporating steel wire mesh within the masonry bed joint "BJ" and the masonry bed and head joint "BHJ". These approaches aim to augment strength and ductility, potentially serving as earthquake-resistant attributes in masonry structures. Three distinct variations of steel wire mesh and three reinforcing arrangements, i.e. (-), (L) and (Z) arrangement were employed to reinforce the two approaches. The test result reveals a significant enhancement in structural performance upon inclusion of steel wire mesh in both reinforcing approaches, with the "BHJ" approach outperforming the "BJ" approach and the unreinforced masonry, along with increase in capacity as the wire mesh size increases. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the reinforcing arrangement is ranked with the (Z) arrangement showing the largest performance, followed by the (L) and (-) arrangement.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.283-297
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• 2023

This research aims to simulate and investigate the efficiency of strengthening damaged concrete columns using concrete jacketing.The numerical program included unjacketed reference column made of ordinary RC concrete had a cross-sectional dimension of (100×100) mm and 560 mm long reinforced concrete. These cores were damaged by loading them with approximately 60% of their actual ultimate load capacities as a service load. Then, column specimens were strengthened by applying two types of self-compacting concrete SCC jacketing, which were 25 and 30 mm thick, on all four sides. Exposed to external loads at different directions vertically and horizontally simulate to the seismic load. The 3D Finite Element (FE) simulation is used to predict of three structural criteria that were selected and evaluated (deflection, stress, cracks). The results show that the failure of the strengthening columns is interesting and corresponds to the characteristics of the cracks formed in the concrete section,which was documented numerically using 3D Finite Element (FE). A significant improvement of deflection has been noted at the values at the top SECTION of columns compared to the reference sample reaching an average of up to 36.6% when using a 25 mm thick SCC-3500 jacket.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.71-80
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• 2007

Because of the characteristics relating to high tensile ductility, High Performance Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Composites (HPFRCC) are studied to be adopted in repair and retrofit of buildings. A series of three shear wall specimens was tested under constant axial stress and reversed cyclic lateral loading in order to evaluate the seismic retrofit that had been proposed for the shear wall with the opening. The retrofit involved the use of newly developed ECC and MDF(Macro Defect Free), both of which are sprayed through the high pressure pump, over the entire face of the wall. The results indicate that two difference types of retrofitting strategy make the different effects of a rise in the strength and ductility of each specimen.