• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.423-435
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• 2020

Open ground story (OGS) reinforced concrete (RC) buildings are vulnerable to the complete collapse or severe damages under seismic actions. This study investigates the effectiveness of four different strengthening techniques representing the local and global modifications to improve the seismic performance of a non-ductile RC OGS frame. Steel caging and concrete jacketing methods of column strengthening are considered as the local modification techniques, whereas steel bracing and RC shear wall systems are selected as the global strengthening techniques in this study. Performance-based plastic design (PBPD) approach relying on energy-balance concept has been adopted to determine the required design force demand on the strengthening elements. Nonlinear static and dynamic analyses are carried out on the numerical models of study frames to assess the effectiveness of selected strengthening techniques in improving the seismic performance of OGS frame.. Strengthening techniques based on steel braces and RC shear wall significantly reduced the peak interstory drift response of the OGS frame. However, the peak floor acceleration of these strengthened frames is amplified by more than 2.5 times as compared to that of unstrengthened frame. Steel caging technique of column strengthening resulted in a reasonable reduction in the peak interstory drift response without substantial amplification in peak floor acceleration of the OSG frame.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.487-502
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• 2022

China is prone to earthquake disasters, and the higher seismic performance is required by many existing civil buildings. And seismic evaluation and retrofit are effective measures to mitigate seismic hazards. With the development of performance-based seismic design and diverse retrofit technology for buildings, advanced evaluation methods and retrofit strategies are in need. In this paper, we introduced the evolution of seismic performance objectives in China combined with performance-based seismic design. Accordingly, multi-phase evaluation methods and comprehensive seismic capacity assessment are introduced. For buildings with seismic deficiency or higher performance requirements, the retrofit technologies are categorized into three types: component strengthening, system optimization, and passive control. Both engineering property and social property for the retrofit methods are discussed. The traditional seismic retrofit methods usually are costly and disturbing, and for example in Beijing, seismic strengthening costs approx. 1000 RMB/m² (for 160 USD/m²), for hospital building even more expensive as 5000 RMB/m²(for 790 USD/m²). So cost-efficient and little disturbance methods are promising techniques. In the end, some opinions about the retrofit strategy and schemes category are shared and wish to discuss the situation and future of seismic retrofit in China.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.379-395
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• 2016

A seismic strengthening method using Velcro is proposed to improve the seismic performance of columns in RC frame structures. The proposed method was evaluated experimentally using three fabricated RC specimens. Velcro was wrapped around the columns of the RC-frame specimen to prevent concrete spall falling. The reinforcing performance of the Velcro was determined from comparison of results on seismic performance (i.e., strength, displacement, failure mode, displacement ductility capacity and amount of dissipated energy). As the displacement of the reinforced specimens was increased, the amount of dissipated energy increased drastically, and the displacement-ductility-capacity of the reinforced specimens also increased. The final failure mode of RC frame structure was changed. As a result, it was concluded that the proposed seismic strengthening method using Velcro could be used to increase the displacement ductility of RC columns, and could be used to change the final failure mode of RC-frame structures.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.181-187
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• 2009

After introduction of the earthquake resistant design code, it is required to achieve seismic performance of existing bridges as well as earthquake resistant design of new bridges. The achievement of seismic performance for existing bridges should satisfy the no collapse requirement based on the basic concept of earthquake resistant design, therefore, various methods with different strengthening scale should be suggested according to bridge types and importance categories. At present for typical bridges, most studied and applied strengthening methods are bearing change, pier strengthening and shear key installation for improvement of seismic performance. In this study a typical existing bridge, for which earthquake resistant design is not considered, is selected as an analysis bridge. Design changes are carried out to satisfy the no collapse requirement by way of the ductile failure mechanism and seismic performances are checked. It is shown that the seismic performance of existing bridges can be achieved by way of redesign of bridge system, e.g. determination of pier design section for substructure and change of bearing function for connections between super/sub-structure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2018.11a
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• pp.98-99
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• 2018

Seismic retrofitting technologies have been paid attention to structural engineers for rehabilitations of existing building structures vulnerable to seismic loading conditions. This paper introduces the traditional strengtheing method applying externally-bonded steel frames to column and beam elements, and compares with the improved scheme using the frames with additional energy dissipation systems. Throughout experimental studies, it was observed that the method can be effective for promoting the seismic performance of seismic force-resisting systems by guaranteeing strong column-weak beam mechanism. Compared to the traditional manner, it was found that the new scheme can be more efficient for confirming capacity design concept, while energy dissipation systems can provide additional damping effects corresponding to lateral deformation which occurs at seismic force-resisting systems exposed to seismic excitations.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.973-978
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• 2003

This paper describes the experimental study on seismic strengthening effect of circular bridge columns with poor lap-splice details using FRP(Fiber Reinforced Plastic) wrapping, The as-built column suffered brittle failure due to the deterioration of lap-spliced longitudinal reinforcement without developing its flexural capacity or any ductility, The strengthening columns using FRP wrapping showed significant improvement in seismic performance due to FRP's confinement effect.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.3_4
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• pp.611-628
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• 2012

The inelastic earthquake response of existing, reinforced concrete buildings with an open ground story, designed according to the old Greek codes, is investigated before and after their seismic strengthening with steel braces restricted to the open ground stories. The seismic performance evaluation is based on Part 3 of Eurocode 8 for assessment and retrofitting of buildings. Three and five-story, symmetric and non-symmetric buildings are subjected to a set of seven pairs of synthetic accelerograms, compatible with the design spectrum, and conclusions are drawn regarding the effectiveness of the strengthening solutions. Seismic behavior of the selected models confirms results of previous work regarding the insufficient capacity of the open ground stories for design level earthquakes. It is also shown that strengthening only the weak ground story, a choice having the substantial advantage of low cost and continued usage of the building during its seismic retrofitting, can remove the inherent weakness without shifting the problem to the stories above and thus making such buildings at least as strong as those without a weak first story. This partial strengthening is possible for symmetric as well as eccentric buildings, in which torsion plays a further detrimental role.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.97-102
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• 2013

This paper presents a new strengthening method of underground box structures against seismic loads for anti-seismic capacity improvement. A threaded steel member with pressure devices(so called 'I-bracing pressure system') is used to improve seismic capacity of the RC box structure. The I-bracing pressure system is fixed the corner of opening after chemical anchor was installed by drilling hole on the box structure. The structural performance was evaluated analytically. Two bracing types of strengthening methods were used; conventional bracing method and improved I-bracing pressure system. For the performance evaluation, seismic analyses were performed on moment and shear resisting structures with and without I-bracing pressure system. Numerical results confirmed that the proposed I-bracing pressure system can enhance the seismic capacity of the underground RC box structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.511-539
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• 2015

The main objective of this study is to analytically investigate the effectiveness of different strengthening solutions in upgrading the seismic performance of existing reinforced concrete (RC) buildings in Nepal. For this, four building models with different structural configurations and detailing were considered. Three possible rehabilitation solutions were studied, namely: (a) RC shear wall, (b) steel bracing, and (c) RC jacketing for all of the studied buildings. A numerical analysis was conducted with adaptive pushover and dynamic time history analysis. Seismic performance enhancement of the studied buildings was evaluated in terms of demand capacity ratio of the RC elements, capacity curve, inter-storey drift, energy dissipation capacity and moment curvature demand of the structures. Finally, the seismic safety assessment was performed based on standard drift limits, showing that retrofitting solutions significantly improved the seismic performance of existing buildings in Nepal.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.275-283
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• 2018

Seismic strengthening is essential for existing bridge piers which are deficient to resist the earthquake. The concrete and CFRP jackets with a bottom-anchoring method are used to strengthen railway bridge piers with low reinforcement ratio. Quasi-static tests of scaled down model piers are performed to evaluate the seismic performance of the original and strengthened bridge pier. The fracture characteristics indicate that the vulnerable position of the railway bridge pier with low reinforcement ratio during earthquake is the pier-footing region and shows flexural failure mode. The force-displacement relationships show that the two strengthening techniques using CFRP and concrete jackets can both provide a significant improvement in load-carrying capacity for railway bridge piers with low reinforcement ratio. It is clear that the bottom-anchoring method by using planted steel bars can guarantee the CFRP and concrete jackets to work jointly with original concrete piers Furthermore, it can be found that the use of CFRP jacket offers advantages over concrete jacket in improving the energy dissipation capacity under lateral cyclic loading. Therefore, the seismic strengthening techniques by the use of CFRP and concrete jackets provide alternative choices for the large numbers of existing railway bridge piers with low reinforcement ratio in China.