• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제22권3호
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• pp.263-275
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• 2022

Structural collapses can occur as a result of a dynamic amplification of either, the building's seismic response or the ground shaking by local site effects; one of the reasons is a resonance effect due to the proximity of the structural elastic fundamental period TE and the soil fundamental period TS. We evaluate the vulnerability to resonance effects in Guadalajara, México, in a three-step schema: 1) we define structural systems in the building environment of western Guadalajara, in terms of their construction materials and structural components; 2) we estimate TE with different equations, to obtain a representative value in elastic conditions for each structural system; and, 3) we evaluate the resonance vulnerability by the analysis of the ratio between TE and TS. We observe that the larger the soil fundamental period, the higher the resonance vulnerability for buildings with height between 17 and 39 m. For the sites with a low TS, the most vulnerable buildings will be those with a height between 2 and 9 m. These results can be a helpful tool for disaster prevention, by avoiding the construction of buildings with certain heights and structural characteristics that would result in a dangerous proximity between TE and TS.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제26권3호
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• pp.361-373
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• 2018

This paper presents the development of finite element (FE) models to simulate the behavior of diagonally stiffened steel plate shear wall systems (SPSWs) with differently shaped openings subjected to a cyclic load. This walling system has the potential to be used for shear elements that resist lateral loads in steel-framed buildings. A number of $\text\tiny{^1/_2}$-scale one-story buildings that were un-stiffened, stiffened and stiffened with opening SPSWs are modeled and simulated using the finite element method based on experimental data from previous research. After validating the finite element (FE) models, the effects of infill plate thickness on the cyclic behavior of steel shear walls are investigated. Furthermore, triple diagonal stiffeners are added to the steel infill plates of the SPSWs, and the effects are studied. Moreover, the effects of a number of differently shaped openings applied to the infill plate are studied. The results indicate that the bearing capacity and shear resistance are affected positively by increasing the infill plate thickness and by adding triple diagonal stiffeners. In addition, the cyclic behavior of SPSWs is improved, even with an opening in the SPSWs.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.49-60
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• 2002

This paper describes a simple method for evaluating the design wind loads for the structural frames of circular flat roofs with long spans. The dynamic response of several roof models were numerically analyzed in the time domain as well as in the frequency domain by using wind pressure data obtained from a wind tunnel experiment. The instantaneous displacement and bending moment of the roof were computed, and the maximum load effects were evaluated. The results indicate that the wind-induced oscillation of the roof is generally dominated by the first mode and the gust effect factor approach can be applied to the evaluation of the maximum load effects. That is, the design wind load can be represented by the time-averaged wind pressure multiplied by the gust effect factor for the first mode. Based on the experimental results for the first modal force, an empirical formula for the gust effect factor is provided as a function of the geometric and structural parameters of the roof and the turbulence intensity of the approach flow. The equivalent design pressure coefficients, which reproduce the maximum load effects, are also discussed. A simplified model of the pressure coefficient distribution is presented.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제31권5호
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• pp.545-566
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• 2009

Bridge columns are subjected to combined actions of axial force, shear force and bending moment during earthquakes, caused by spatially-complex earthquake motions, features of structural configurations and the interaction between input and response characteristics. Combined actions can have significant effects on the force and deformation capacity of RC columns, resulting in unexpected large deformations and extensive damage that in turn influences the performance of bridges as vital components of transportation systems. This paper evaluates the seismic response of three prototype reinforced concrete bridges using comprehensive numerical models that are capable of simulating the complex soil-structural interaction effects and nonlinear behavior of columns. An analytical approach that can capture the shear-flexural interacting behavior is developed to model the realistic nonlinear behavior of RC columns, including the pinching behavior, strength deterioration and stiffness softening due to combined actions of shear force, axial force and bending moment. Seismic response analyses were conducted on the prototype bridges under suites of ground motions. Response quantities of bridges (e.g., drift, acceleration, section force and section moment etc.) are compared and evaluated to identify the effects of vertical motion, structural characteristics and the shear-flexural interaction on seismic demand of bridges.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제1권4호
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• pp.393-410
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• 2001

In an experimental and analytical study on the structural behavior of slender circular steel-concrete composite columns, eleven specimens were tested to investigate the effects of three ways to apply a load to a column. The load was applied eccentrically to the concrete section, to the steel section or to the entire section. Three-dimensional nonlinear finite element models were established and verified with the experimental results. The analytical models were also used to study how the behavior of the column was influenced by the bond strength between the steel tube and the concrete core and the by confinement of the concrete core offered by the steel tube. The results obtained from the tests and the finite element analyses showed that the behavior of the column was greatly influenced by the method used to apply a load to the column section. When relying on just the natural bond, full composite action was achieved only when the load was applied to the entire section of the column. Furthermore, because of the slenderness effects the columns did not exhibit the beneficial effects of composite behavior in terms of increased concrete strength due to the confinement.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제52권5호
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• pp.1079-1092
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• 2020

A parametric study of several parameters relevant to design safety on the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) rod response under a drop accident is presented. In the view of the complexity of interactions between the independent safety-related parameters, a factorial design of experiment is employed as an efficient method to investigate the main effects and the interactions between them. A detailed single full-length fuel rod is used with consideration of post-irradiated fuel conditions under horizontal and vertical free-drops onto an unyielding surface using finite-element analysis. Critical drop heights and critical g-loads that yield the threshold plastic strain in the cladding are numerically estimated to evaluate the fuel rod structural resistance to impact load. The combinatory effects of four uncertain parameters (pellet-cladding interfacial bonding, material properties, spacer grid stiffness, rod internal pressure) and the interactions between them on the fuel rod response are investigated. The principal finding of this research showed that the effects of above-mentioned parameters on the load-carrying capacity of fuel rod are significantly different. This study could help to prioritize the importance of data in managing and studying the structural integrity of the SNF.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제32권6호
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• pp.731-741
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• 2019

Shear deformation effects are neglected in most structural system identification methods. This assumption might lead to important errors in some structures like built up steel or composite deep beams. Recently, the observability techniques were presented as one of the first methods for the inverse analysis of structures including the shear effects. In this way, the mechanical properties of the structures could be obtained from the nodal movements measured on static tests. One of the main controversial features of this procedure is the fact that the measurement set must include rotations. This characteristic might be especially problematic in those structures where rotations cannot be measured. To solve this problem and to increase its applicability, this paper proposes an update of the observability method to enable the structural identification including shear effects by measuring only vertical deflections. This modification is based on the introduction of a numerical optimization method. With this aim, the inverse analysis of several examples of growing complexity are presented to illustrate the validity and potential of the updated method.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.179-200
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• 2022

This paper proposes a data-driven methodology for online early damage identification under changing environmental conditions. The proposed method relies on two data analysis methods: feature-based method and hybrid principal component analysis (PCA) and kernel PCA to separate damage from environmental influences. First, spectral sub-band features, namely, spectral sub-band centroids (SSCs) and log spectral sub-band energies (LSSEs), are proposed as damage-sensitive features to extract damage information from measured structural responses. Second, hybrid modeling by integrating PCA and kernel PCA is performed on the spectral sub-band feature matrix for data normalization to extract both linear and nonlinear features for nonlinear procedure monitoring. After feature normalization, suppressing environmental effects, the control charts (Hotelling T² and SPE statistics) is implemented to novelty detection and distinguish damage in structures. The hybrid PCA-KPCA technique is compared to KPCA by applying support vector machine (SVM) to evaluate the effectiveness of its performance in detecting damage. The proposed method is verified through numerical and full-scale studies (a Bridge Health Monitoring (BHM) Benchmark Problem and a cable-stayed bridge in China). The results demonstrate that the proposed method can detect the structural damage accurately and reduce false alarms by suppressing the effects and interference of environmental variations.

• 한국공간구조학회논문집
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• 제20권4호
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• pp.101-110
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• 2020

In case of stone pagoda structures, the various construction types appear, and various damages occur due to exposure to the outdoors for a long time. Such damages can be classified into non-structural damages and structural damages. However, studies for the effects of structural damages on stone pagoda structures are insufficient. Accordingly, this study intends to perform structural modeling and structural analysis according to structural damages of stone pagoda structure, and to perform risk analysis through the fragility curve. So, we expects that this study gives a great contribution to the preservation and maintenance of stone pagoda structures under the various structural damages.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• 제35권9호
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• pp.2738-2742
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• 2014

Geometry relaxation effects on the formation of benzene excimer were investigated by means of ab initio calculation at SOS-CIS($D_0$)/aug-cc-pVDZ level. In the case of T-shaped dimer configuration, intermolecular interactions in the excited states are found to be nearly the same as those in the ground state and structural deformations are limited within a single molecule; the geometry relaxation effects are then negligible and singlet-triplet energy gap remains constant. As for face-to-face eclipsed dimer, on the other hand, both molecules undergo structural change. As a result, intermolecular interactions in the excited states are significantly different than those in the ground state. Although the intermolecular distances obtained from potential energy curve calculation with frozen molecular structures are in qualitative agreement, the excited-state binding energies are notably overestimated with respect to those at optimized structures. In particular, the effects are calculated to be larger in $T_1$ state and hence singlet-triplet energy gap, which reduces markedly in this configuration, is underestimated without relaxation.