• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.179-193
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• 2016

The effectiveness of 100/30, 100/40 and SRSS directional combination rules on the response of asymmetric setback buildings is examined. Because of the irregularity in setback buildings, the maximum seismic response would be correlative with the direction of earthquake. To verify the directional combination rules of mode superposition methods, the time history analyses of setback buildings to real earthquake records are carried out. Example analyses have been used to compare the validty and accuracy of SRSS and percentage methods for frame and dual frame-wall systems.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.45-51
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• 2022

This paper focuses on a recently proposed asymmetric base-isolation coupling control system (ABiCS) for the vibration control of adjacent twin buildings. The ABiCS consists of inter-story diagonal dampers, a connecting damper between the two buildings, and a seismic isolation device at the base floor of one building. To investigate the control characteristics of ABiCS, a parametric study was performed by numerically simulating the 20-story twin buildings. In the parametric study, the control capacities of the inter-story diagonal dampers, connecting damper, and seismic isolation device were considered as varying parameters. The parametric study results indicate that the connecting damper between the two buildings reduces the responses of both buildings only at optimal or near-optimal capacity. In addition, adjusting the stiffness of the base isolation is found to be the most effective method for improving seismic performance and achieving cost-effectiveness. Accordingly, we presented a scenario-based performance improvement approach in which reducing the stiffness of the base isolation device could be an effective technique to improve the seismic performance of both buildings. However, note that checking the maximum allowable displacement of the base isolation device is essential.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.339-355
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• 2009

The sealed, tuned liquid column gas damper (TLCGD) with gas-spring effect extends the frequency range of application up to about 5 Hz and efficiently increases the modal structural damping. In this paper the influence of several TLCGDs to reduce coupled translational and rotational vibrations of plan-asymmetric buildings under wind or seismic loads is investigated. The locations of the modal centers of velocity of rigidly assumed floors are crucial to select the design and the optimal position of the liquid absorbers. TLCGD's dynamics can be derived in detail using the extended non-stationary Bernoulli's equation for moving reference systems. Modal tuning of the TLCGD renders the optimal parameters by means of a geometrical transformation and in analogy to the classical tuned mass damper (TMD). Subsequently, fine-tuning is conveniently performed in the state space domain. Numerical simulations illustrate a significant reduction of the vibrations of plan-asymmetric buildings by the proposed TLCGDs.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.489-500
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• 2011

The elastic seismic response of plan-asymmetric multi storey steel-frame buildings is investigated under earthquake loading with particular emphasis on forward-rupture directivity and fling records. Three asymmetric building systems are generated with different torsional stiffness and varying static eccentricity. The structural characteristic of these systems are designed according to UBC 97 code and their seismic responses subjected to a set of earthquake records are obtained from the response history analysis (RHA) as well as the linear static analysis (LSA). It is shown that, the elastic torsional response is influenced by the intensity of near-fault ground motions with different energy contents. In the extreme case of very strong earthquakes, the behaviour of torsionally stiff buildings and torsionally flexible buildings may differ substantially due to the fact that the displacement envelope of the deck depends on ground motion characteristics.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.543-557
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• 2017

Results of an extensive study aiming to properly extend the well known pushover analysis into 3-D problems of asymmetric buildings are presented in this paper. The proposed procedure uses simple, 3 DOF, one-story models with shear-beam type elements in order to quantify the effects of inelastic torsional response of such buildings. Correction coefficients for the response quantities at the "stiff" and "flexible" sides are calculated using results from non-linear time history analyses of the simple models. Their values are then applied to the results of a simple, plane pushover analysis of the detailed building models. Results from the application of the new method for a set of three, conventionally designed, five-story buildings with high values of uniaxial eccentricities are compared with those obtained from multiple non-linear dynamic time history analyses, as well as from similar pushover methods addressing the same problem. This initial evaluation indicates that the proposed procedure is a clear improvement over the simple (conventional) pushover method and, in most cases, more accurate and reliable than the other methods considered. The accuracy, however, of all these methods is reduced substantially when they are applied to torsionally flexible buildings. Thus, for such challenging problems, use of inelastic dynamic analyses for a set of two component earthquake motions appears to be the preferable solution.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.127-147
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• 2011

In a companion paper as well as in earlier publications, it has been shown that in asymmetric frame buildings, designed in accordance with modern codes and subjected to strong earthquake excitations, the ductility demands at the so called "flexible" edges are consistently and substantially higher than the ductility demands at the "stiff" edges of the building. In some cases the differences in the computed ductility factors between elements at the two opposite building edges exceeded 100%. Similar findings have also been reported for code designed reinforced concrete buildings. This is an undesirable behavior as it indicates no good use of material and the possibility for overload of the "flexible" edge members with a consequent potential for premature failure. In the present paper, a design modification will be introduced that can alleviate the problem and lead to a more uniform distribution of ductility demands in the elements of all building edges. The presented results are based on the steel frames detailed in the companion paper. This investigation is another step towards more rational design of non-symmetric steel buildings.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.233-248
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• 2020

In this article, one of the procedures to design viscous dampers proposed in literature is applied to 3D asymmetric-plan buildings, considering different distributions for the damping coefficients, which are assumed to be proportional to specific structural or response parameters. The main purpose was to investigate the effectiveness of different vertical and in-plan distributions of the damping coefficients of nonlinear viscous dampers for the seismic retrofit of existing buildings. For comparison purposes, all the distributions were applied utilizing both a simplified and an extended method for the 3D structures, where the simplified method takes into account only the translation in the seismic direction, and the extended method considers the translations along the two orthogonal directions together with the floor rotations. The proposed distributions were then applied to a typical case study involving an asymmetric-plan six-storey RC building. The effectiveness of the different distributions was examined through time-history analyses, assuming nonlinear behaviour for both the viscous dampers and the structural elements. The results of the nonlinear dynamic analyses were examined in terms of maximum and residual inter-storey drifts, peak floor accelerations and maximum damper forces.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.163-175
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• 2010

The vertical axis through the modal center of rigidity (m-CR) is used for interpreting the code torsional provisions in the design of eccentric multi-story building structures. The concept of m-CR has been demonstrated by the author in an earlier paper and the particular feature of this point is that when the vertical line of the centers of mass at the floor levels is passing through m-CR, minimum base torsion is developed. For this reason the aforesaid axis is used as reference axis for implementing the code provisions required by the equivalent static analysis. The study examines uniform mixed-bent-type multistory buildings with simple eccentricity, ranging from torsionally stiff to torsionally flexible systems. Using the results of a dynamic response spectrum analysis as a basis for comparisons, it is shown that the results of the code static design are on the safe side in torsionally stiff buildings, but unable to predict the required strength of bents on the stiff side of systems with a predominantly torsional response. Suggestions are made for improving the code provisions in such cases.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.87-102
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• 2023

The cover plate and the building loads often make the semi-covered deep excavations with existing buildings bearing asymmetric load, presenting different deformation characteristics with normal excavations, which is not absolutely clear in current studies. Based on a typical engineering, the building storeys, the basement storeys, the pile length, the existence of the cover plate (CP) and the depth of the diaphragm walls (DW) were selected as variables, and 44 groups of simulation were designed to study the influence of existing buildings and the semi-covered supporting system on the deformation of the excavations. The results showed that the maximum lateral displacement of DW, δ_hm, and the depth of δ_hm, H_m, are affected seriously by the building storeys and the basement storeys. Asymmetric structures and loading lead to certain lateral displacement of DW at the beginning of excavation, resulting in different relationships between δ_hm and excavation depth, H. The maximum surface settlement outside the pit, δ_vm, increases significantly and the location, d_m, moves away from the pit with the building storeys increases. δ_vm has a quadratic correlation with H due to the existing buildings. CP and building load will affect the style of the lateral displacement curve of DW seriously in different aspects.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.957-979
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• 2015

The present paper investigates the influence of the orientation of the ground-motion reference axes, the seismic incident angle and the seismic intensity level on the inelastic response of asymmetric reinforced concrete buildings. A single storey asymmetric building is analyzed by nonlinear dynamic analyses under twenty bi-directional ground motions. The analyses are performed for many angles of incidence and four seismic intensity levels. Moreover three different pairs of the horizontal accelerograms corresponding to the input seismic motion are considered: a) the recorded accelerograms, b) the corresponding uncorrelated accelerograms, and c) the completely correlated accelerograms. The nonlinear response is evaluated by the overall structural damage index. The results of this study demonstrate that the inelastic seismic response depends on the orientation of the ground-motion reference axes, since the three individual pairs of accelerograms corresponding to the same ground motion (recorded, uncorrelated and completely correlated) can cause different structural damage level for the same incident angle. Furthermore, the use of the recorded accelerograms as seismic input does not always lead to the critical case of study. It is also shown that there is not a particular seismic incident angle or range of angles that leads to the maximum values of damage index regardless of the seismic intensity level or the ground-motion reference axes.