• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.450-459
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• 2010

The present paper investigates the collapse pressure of cylinders with intermediate thickness subjected to external pressure based on detailed elastic-plastic finite element (FE) analyses. The effect of the initial ovality of the tube on the collapse pressure was explicitly considered in the FE analyses. Based on the present FE results, the analytical yield locus, considering the interaction between the plastic collapse and local instability due to initial ovality, was also proposed. The collapse pressure values based on the proposed yield locus agree well with the present FE results; thus, the validity of the proposed yield locus for the thickness range of interest was verified. Moreover, the partial safety factor concept based on the structural reliability theory was also applied to the proposed collapse pressure estimation model, and, thus, the priority of importance of respective parameter constituting for the collapse of cylinders under external pressure was estimated in this study. From the application of the partial safety factor concept, the yield strength was concluded to be the most sensitive, and the initial ovality of tube was not so effective in the proposed collapse pressure estimation model. The present deterministic and probabilistic results are expected to be utilized in the design and maintenance of cylinders subjected to external pressure with initial ovality, such as the once-through type steam generator.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 2019

The aim of the paper is the prediction of the seismic collapse mode of steel storage pallet racks under seismic loads. The attention paid by the researchers on the behaviour of the industrial steel storage pallets racks is increased over the years thanks to their high dead-to-live load ratio. In fact, these structures, generally made by cold-formed thin-walled profiles, present very low structural costs but can support large and expensive loads. The paper presents a prediction of the seismic collapse modes of multi-storey racks. The analysis of the possible collapse modes has been made by an approach based on the kinematic theorem of plastic collapse extended to the second order effects by means of the concept of collapse mechanism equilibrium curve. In this way, the dissipative behaviour of racks is determined with a simpler method than the pushover analysis. Parametric analyses have been performed on 24 racks, differing for the geometric layout and cross-section of the components, designed in according to the EN16618 and EN15512 requirements. The obtained results have highlighted that, in all the considered cases, the global collapse mechanism, that is the safest one, never develops, leading to a dangerous situation that must be avoided to preserve the structure during a seismic event. Although the studied racks follow all the codes prescriptions, the development of a dissipative collapse mechanism is not achieved. In addition, also the variability of load distribution has been considered, reflecting the different pallet positions assumed during the in-service life of the racks, to point out its influence on the collapse mechanism. The information carried out from the paper can be very useful for designers and manufacturers because it allows to better understand the racks behaviour in seismic load condition.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.175-186
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• 2019

Number of studies on the buckling of thin cylindrical pressure vessels, such as submarine pressure hull and pipe with a large ratio of diameter/thickness, have been carried out in the naval and ocean engineering. However, research about thick cylinder pressure vessel has not been active except for the specific application in nuclear area. There are not many papers for the estimation of buckling and ultimate load capacity of thick cylinders for the deep sea usage. Thus, it is important to understand the theoretical bases of the buckling and collapse process and the derivation process of such loads for the proper design and structural analysis. The objective of this study is to survey the collapse behavior, to analyse and clarify the derivation procedure and to estimate the ultimate collapse load for thick cylinder by analyzing relevant books and papers. It is found that the yielding begins at the internal surface of the thick cylinder and plasticity develops from the internal surface to the external surface to generate collapse. Also the initial imperfection of cylinder develops flattening and consequently accelerates buckling and finally ultimate collapse. By comparing the collapse loads of aluminum thick cylinder by applying equations herein, it is shown that the equations analyzed are appropriate to obtain collapse load for thick cylinder.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.265-280
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• 2024

The collapse behavior observed in single-story beam-column assembly (SSBCA) do not accurately represent the actual overall stress characteristic of multi-story frame structure (MSFS) under column loss scenario owing to ignoring the interaction action among different stories, leading to a disconnection between the anti-collapse behaviors of "components" and "overall structures", that is, the anti-collapse performance of frame structures with two different structural scales has not yet formed a combined force. This paper conducts a numerical and theoretical study to explore the difference of the collapse behaviors of the SSBCA and MSFS, and further to reveal the internal force relationships and boundary constraints at beam ends of models SSBCA and MSFS. Based on the previous experimental tests, the corresponding refined numerical simulation models were established and verified, and comparative analysis on the resistant-collapse performance was carried out, based on the validated modeling methods with considering the actual boundary constraints, and the results illustrates that the collapse behaviors of the SSBCA and MSFS is not a simple multiple relationship. Through numerical simulation and theoretical analysis, the development laws of internal force in each story beam under different boundary constraints was clarified, and the coupling relationship between the bending moment at the most unfavorable section and axial force in the composite beam of different stories of multi story frames with weld cover-plated flange connections was obtained. In addition, considering the effect of the yield performance of adjacent columns on the anti-collapse bearing capacities of the SSBCA and MSFS during the large deformation stages, the calculation formula for the equivalent axial stiffness at the beam ends of each story were provided.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.235-248
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• 2020

Progressive collapse in a structure occurs when load bearing members are failed and the adjoining structural elements cannot resist the redistributed forces and fails subsequently, that leads to complete collapse of structure. Recently, construction using precast concrete technology is adopted increasingly because it offers many advantages like faster construction, less requirement of skilled labours at site, reduced formwork and scaffolding, massive production with reduced amount of construction waste, better quality and better surface finishing as compared to conventional reinforced concrete construction. Connections are the critical elements for any precast structure, because in past, major collapse of precast structure took place because of connection failure. In this study, behavior of four different precast wet connections with U shaped reinforcement bars provided at different locations is evaluated. Reduced 1/3^rd scale precast beam column assemblies having two span beam and three columns with removed middle column are constructed and examined by performing experiments. The response of precast connections is compared with monolithic connection, under column removal scenario. The connection region of test specimens are filled by cast-in-place micro concrete with and without polypropylene fibers. Performance of specimen is evaluated on the basis of ultimate load carrying capacity, maximum deflection at the location of removed middle column, crack formation and failure propagation. Further, Finite element (FE) analysis is carried out for validation of experimental studies and understanding the performance of structural components. Monolithic and precast beam column assemblies are modeled using non-linear Finite Element (FE) analysis based software ABAQUS. Actual experimental conditions are simulated using appropriate boundary and loading conditions. Finite Element simulation results in terms of load versus deflection are compared with that of experimental study. The nonlinear FE analysis results shows good agreement with experimental results.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.7_spc
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• pp.485-494
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• 2016

The risk-based assessment, also called time-based assessment of structure is usually performed to provide seismic risk evaluation of a target structure for its entire life-cycle, e.g. 50 years. The prediction of collapse probability is the estimator in the risk-based assessment. While the risk-based assessment is the key in the performance-based earthquake engineering, its application is very limited because this evaluation method is very expensive in terms of simulation and computational efforts. So the evaluation database for many archetype structures usually serve as representative of the specific system. However, there is no such an assessment performed for building stocks in Korea. Consequently, the performance objective of current building code, KBC is not clear at least in a quantitative way. This shortcoming gives an unresolved issue to insurance industry, socio-economic impact, seismic safety policy in national and local governments. In this study, we evaluate the comprehensive seismic performance of an low-rise residential buildings with discontinuous structural walls, so called piloti-type structure which is commonly found in low-rise domestic building stocks. The collapse probability is obtained using the risk integral of a conditioned collapse capacity function and regression of current hazard curve. Based on this approach it is expected to provide a robust tool to seismic safety policy as well as seismic risk analysis such as Probable Maximum Loss (PML) commonly used in the insurance industry.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.429-437
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• 2008

In this study the progressive collapse potential of braced frames were investigated using the nonlinear static and dynamic analyses. All of nine different brace types were considered along with a special moment-resisting frame for comparison. According to the pushdown analysis results, most braced frames designed per current design codes satisfied the design guidelines for progressive collapse initiated by loss of a first story mid-column; however most model structures showed brittle failure mode. This was caused by buckling of columns after compressive braces buckled. Among the braced frames considered, the inverted- V type braced frames showed superior ductile behavior during progressive collapse. The nonlinear dynamic analysis results showed that all the braced frame model structures remained in stable condition after sudden removal of a column, and their deflections were less than that of the moment-resisting frame.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.171-180
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• 2015

A shaking table test was conducted at the E-Defense shaking table facility to investigate the damage and collapse behavior of a steel high-rise building under exceedingly large ground motions. The specimen is a one-third scale 18-story steel moment frame designed and constructed according to design specifications and practices used in the 1980s and 1990s. The shaking table tests used a long-duration, long-period ground motion simulated for a sequential Tokai, Nankai, and Nankai earthquake scenario. The building specimen was subjected to a series of progressively increasing scaled motions until it completely collapsed. The damage to the steel frame began through the yielding of beams along lower stories and column bases of the first story. After several excitations by increasing scaled motions, cracks initiated at the welded moment connections and fractures in the beam flanges spread to the lower stories. As the shear strength of each story decreased, the drifts of lower stories increased and the frame finally collapsed and settled on the supporting frame. From the test, a typical progression of collapse for a tall steel moment frame was obtained, and the hysteretic behavior of steel structural members including deterioration due to local buckling and fracture were observed. The results provide important information for further understanding and an accurate numerical simulation of collapse behavior.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.76 no.3
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• pp.421-433
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• 2020

Masonry infills are normally considered as non-structural elements in design practice, therefore, the interaction between the bounding frame and the strength contribution of masonry infills is commonly ignored in the seismic analysis work of the RC frames. However, a number of typical RC frames with irregular distributed masonry infills have suffered from undesirable weak-story failure in major earthquakes, which indicates that ignoring the influence of masonry infills may cause great seismic collapse risk of RC frames. This paper presented the investigation on the risk of seismic collapse of RC frames with irregularly distributed masonry infills through a large number of nonlinear time history analyses (NTHAs). Based on the results of NTHAs, seismic fragility curves were developed for RC frames with various distribution patterns of masonry infills. It was found that the existence of masonry infills generally reduces the collapse risk of the RC frames under both frequent happened and very strong earthquakes, however, the severe irregular distribution of masonry infills, such as open ground story scenario, results in great risk of forming a weak story failure. The strong-column weak-beam (SCWB) ratio has been widely adopted in major seismic design codes to control the potential of weak story failures, where a SCWB ratio value about 1.2 is generally accepted as the lower limit. In this study, the effect of SCWB ratio on inter-story drift distribution was also parametrically investigated. It showed that improving the SCWB ratio of the RC frames with irregularly distributed masonry infills can reduce inter-story drift concentration index under earthquakes, therefore, prevent weak story failures. To achieve the same drift concentration index limit of the bare RC frame with SCWB ratio of about 1.2, which is specified in ACI318-14, the SCWB ratio of masonry-infilled RC frames should be no less than 1.5. For the open ground story scenario, this value can be as high as 1.8.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.107-122
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• 2024

Following an internal column failure, adjacent double-span beams above the failed column will play a critical role in the load transfer and internal force redistribution within the remaining structure, and the span-to-depth ratios of double-span beams significantly influence the structural resistance capacity against progressive collapse. Most existing studies have focused on the collapse-resistant performances of single-story symmetric structures, whereas limited published works are available on the collapse resistances of multi-story steel frames with unequal spans. To this end, in this study, numerical models based on shell elements were employed to investigate the structural behavior of multi-story steel frames with unequal spans. The simulation models were validated using the previous experimental results obtained for single- and two-story steel frames, and the load-displacement responses and internal force development of unequal-span three-story steel frames under three cases were comprehensively analyzed. In addition, the specific contributions of the different mechanism resistances of unequal-span, double-span beams of each story were separated quantitatively using the energy equilibrium theory, with an aim to gain a deeper level of understanding of the load-resistance mechanisms in the unequal-span steel frames. The results showed that the axial and flexural mechanism resistances were determined by the span ratio and linear stiffness ratio of double-span beams, respectively.