• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제2권2호
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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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• 제1권2호
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• pp.177-195
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• 2010

This paper presents an appraisal of four nonlinear static procedures (CSM, N2, MPA and ACSM) employed in seismic assessment of plan-irregular buildings. It uses a three storey reinforced concrete plan-irregular frame building exemplifying typical older constructions of the Mediterranean region in the early 1970s that was tested in full-scale under bi-directional pseudo-dynamic loading condition at JRC, Ispra. The adequacy and efficiency of the simplified analytical modelling assumptions adopted were verified. In addition, the appropriate variants of code-prescribed NSPs (CSM and N2) to be considered for subsequent evaluation were established. Subsequent parametric studies revealed that all such NSPs predicted reasonably well both global and local responses, having the benchmark values been determined through nonlinear dynamic analyses using a suit of seven ground motions applied with four different orientations. The ACSM, however, predicted responses that matched slightly better the median dynamic results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제15권5호
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• pp.519-538
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• 2013

The design optimization of a cold-formed steel portal frame building is considered in this paper. The proposed genetic algorithm (GA) optimizer considers both topology (i.e., frame spacing and pitch) and cross-sectional sizes of the main structural members as the decision variables. Previous GAs in the literature were characterized by poor convergence, including slow progress, that usually results in excessive computation times and/or frequent failure to achieve an optimal or near-optimal solution. This is the main issue addressed in this paper. In an effort to improve the performance of the conventional GA, a niching strategy is presented that is shown to be an effective means of enhancing the dissimilarity of the solutions in each generation of the GA. Thus, population diversity is maintained and premature convergence is reduced significantly. Through benchmark examples, it is shown that the efficient GA proposed generates optimal solutions more consistently. A parametric study was carried out, and the results included. They show significant variation in the optimal topology in terms of pitch and frame spacing for a range of typical column heights. They also show that the optimized design achieved large savings based on the cost of the main structural elements; the inclusion of knee braces at the eaves yield further savings in cost, that are significant.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제62권5호
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• pp.643-649
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• 2017

Masonry walls are amongst the oldest building systems. A large portion of the research on these structures focuses on the load-bearing walls. Numerical methods have been generally used in modelling load-bearing walls during recent years. In this context, macro and micro modelling techniques emerge as widely accepted techniques. Micro modelling is used to investigate the local behaviour of load-bearing walls in detail whereas macro modelling is used to investigate the general behaviour of masonry buildings. The main objective of this study is to investigate the elastic behaviour of the load- bearing walls in masonry buildings by using micro modelling technique. In order to do this the brick and mortar units of the masonry walls are modelled by the combination of plane truss elements and plane frame elements with no shear deformations. The model used in this study has fewer unknowns then the models encountered in the references. In this study the vertical frame elements have equivalent elasticity modulus and moment of inertia which are calculated by the developed software. Under in-plane static loads the elastic displacements of the masonry walls, which are encountered in literature, are calculated by the developed software, where brick units are modelled by plane frame elements, horizontal joints are modelled by vertical frame elements and vertical joints are modelled by horizontal plane truss elements. The calculated results are compatible with those given in the references.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제9권5호
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• pp.1115-1132
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• 2015

The study considers earthquake shake table testing of bending-torsion coupled structures under multi-component stationary random earthquake excitations. An experimental procedure to arrive at the optimal excitation cross-power spectral density (psd) functions which maximize/minimize the steady state variance of a chosen response variable is proposed. These optimal functions are shown to be derivable in terms of a set of system frequency response functions which could be measured experimentally without necessitating an idealized mathematical model to be postulated for the structure under study. The relationship between these optimized cross-psd functions to the most favourable/least favourable angle of incidence of seismic waves on the structure is noted. The optimal functions are also shown to be system dependent, mathematically the sharpest, and correspond to neither fully correlated motions nor independent motions. The proposed experimental procedure is demonstrated through shake table studies on two laboratory scale building frame models.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제24권6호
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• pp.683-692
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• 2019

Traditional damage detection methods for nonlinear structures are often based on simplified models, such as the mass-spring-damper and shear-building models, which are insufficient for predicting the vibration responses of a real structure. Conventional global nonlinear finite element model updating methods are computationally intensive and time consuming. Thus, they cannot be applied to practical structures. A decentralized approach for identifying the nonlinear material parameters is proposed in this study. With this technique, a structure is divided into several small zones on the basis of its structural configuration. The unknown material parameters and measured vibration responses are then divided into several subsets accordingly. The structural parameters of each subset are then updated using the vibration responses of the subset with the Newton-successive-over-relaxation (SOR) method. A reinforced concrete and steel frame structure subjected to earthquake loading is used to verify the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method. The parameters in the material constitutive model, such as compressive strength, initial tangent stiffness and yielding stress, are identified accurately and efficiently compared with the global nonlinear model updating approach.

• 국제초고층학회논문집
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.113-145
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• 2024

Bamboo is seen as a low cost, lightweight, widely available and environmental-friendly material. In Vietnam, it also connects deeply to our culture. However, it wasn't seen as a viable material for large structures before VTN Architects. Furthermore, Vietnamese cities are facing the same environmental problems as many developing metropolises in the world. Globally, climate change is a serious issue. The need for sustainable construction material is clear. The increasing development of eco-tourism in Vietnam and Asia is also a background. These become the background to the foundation and the development of bamboo architecture by VTN Architects. The journal analyses our development of bamboo construction, joints, structures, and how to use them to realise space and to create eco-friendly architecture. We will talk about our process of bamboo procurement, our construction methods, our unique joint system, how we make a frame unit and how we construct VTN bamboo structures from units.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제68권5호
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• pp.575-589
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• 2018

It is well known that the incidence angle of seismic excitation has an influence on the structural response of buildings, and this effect can be more significant in the case of near-fault signals. However, current seismic codes do not include detailed requirements regarding the direction of application of the seismic action and they have only recently introduced specific provisions about near-fault earthquakes. Thus, engineers have the task of evaluating all the relevant directions or the most critical conditions case by case, in order to avoid underestimating structural demand. To facilitate the identification of the most critical incidence angle, this paper presents a procedure which makes use of a two-degree of freedom model for representing a building. The proposed procedure makes it possible to avoid the extensive computational effort of multiple dynamic analyses with varying angles of incidence of ground motion excitation, which is required if a spatial multi-degree of freedom model is used for representing a building. The procedure is validated through the analysis of two case studies consisting of an eight- and a six-storey reinforced concrete frame building, selected as representative of existing structures located in Italy. A set of 124 near-fault ground motion records oriented along 8 incidence angles, varying from 0 to 180 degrees, with increments of 22.5 degrees, is used to excite the structures. Comparisons between the results obtained with detailed models of the two structures and the proposed procedure are used to show the accuracy of the latter in the prediction of the most critical angle of seismic incidence.

• 전산구조공학
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• 제4권3호
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• pp.89-97
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• 1991

본 논문은 지진발생시 빌딩프레임상의 각 부재의 흡수에너지율이 일정하도록 유도하는 다시말하면 각각의 부재의 손상지수값이 고루게 분포토록 하는 새로운 설계법인 손상제어 전산설계법의 유용성을 입증코져 하는 것이다. 이를 위하여 우선 사용된 기본적인 이력모델 및 손상모델의 정확성을 평가하기 위하여 one-bay one-stody 프레임의 실험적인 하중-변위곡선을 해석적으로 재생하여 비교분석하였다. 그리고 본 설계법을 각종 프레임에 적용한 결과 1) 구조물의 특징 및 사용된 지진형상에 관계 없이 손상제어 설계된 프레임은 일반적으로 종래의 방법으로 설계된 프레임보다 같은 지진하중하에서 더 작은 손상값으로 저항하였으며, 2) 손상제어 설계된 프레임의 하층부 부재들은 더 큰 항복강도를 나타내는 현상을 보였으며 상층부 부재들은 반대 현상을 보였다.

• 대한기계학회논문집A
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• 제25권11호
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• pp.1743-1750
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• 2001

This paper presents an analysis of nonlinear response of the seismically isolated structure against earthquake excitation to evaluate isolation performances of a rubber bearing. In the analysis of the vibration of building, the building is modeled by lumped mass system where the restoring force is considered as linear, bilinear and trilinear. Fundamental equations of motion are derived for the base isolated structure, and hysteretic and nonlinear-elastic characteristics are considered for a numerical calculation. The excitation levels are magnified fur the recorded strong earthquake motions in order to examine dynamic stability of the structure. Seismic responses (of the building are compared fur the each restoring force type. As a result, it is shown that the effect of the motion by the nonlinear response of the building is comparatively not so large from a seismic design standpoint. The responses of the isolated structures reduce sufficiently and controled the motion of the building well in a practical range. By increasing the acceleration of the earthquake, the yielding of the farce was occurred in the concrete and steel frame, which shows the necessity of the exact nonlinear dynamic analysis.