• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.487-498
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• 2018

Buckling-restrained braces are passive control devices with high level of energy dissipation ability. However, they suffer from low post-yield stiffness which makes them vulnerable to severe ground motions, especially near-field earthquakes. Among the several methods proposed to improve resistance of BRB frames, mega-brace configuration can be a solution to increase frame lateral strength and stiffness and improve distribution of forces to prevent large displacement in braces. Due to the limited number of research regarding the performance of such systems, the current paper aims to assess seismic performance of BRB frames with mega-bracing arrangement under near-field earthquakes via a detailed probabilistic framework. For this purpose, a group of multi-story mega-BRB frames were modelled by OpenSEES software platform. In the first part of the paper, simplified procedures including nonlinear pushover and Incremental Dynamic Analysis were conducted for performance evaluation. Two groups of near-fault seismic ground motions (Non-pulse and Pulse-like records) were considered for analyses to take into account the effects of record-to-record uncertainties, as well as forward directivity on the results. In the second part, seismic reliability analyses are conducted in the context of performance based earthquake engineering. Two widely-known EDP-based and IM-based probabilistic frameworks are employed to estimate collapse potential of the structures. Results show that all the structures can successfully tolerate near-field earthquakes with a high level of confidence level. Therefore, mega-bracing configuration can be an effective alternative to conventional BRB bracing to withstand near-field earthquakes.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.531-541
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• 2020

This paper demonstrates the possibility of evaluating the safety of a building right after an earthquake using consumer-grade surveillance cameras installed in the building. Two cameras are used in each story to extract the time history of interstory drift during the earthquake based on camera calibration, stereo triangulation, and image template matching techniques. The interstory drift of several markers on the rigid floor are used to estimate the motion of the geometric center using the least square approach, then the horizontal interstory drift of any location on the floor can be estimated. A shaking table collapse test of a steel building was conducted to verify the proposed approach. The results indicate that the accuracy of the interstory drift measured by the cameras is high enough to estimate the damage state of the building based on the fragility curve of the interstory drift ratio. On the other hand, the interstory drift measured by an accelerometer tends to underestimate the damage state when residual interstory drift occurs because the low frequency content of the displacement signal is eliminated when high-pass filtering is employed for baseline correction.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.190-202
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• 2018

Maintaining the integrity of the major equipment in nuclear power plants is critical to the safety of the structures. In particular, the soundness of the piping is a critical matter that is directly linked to the safety of nuclear power plants. Currently, the limit state of the piping design standard is plastic collapse, and the actual pipe failure is leakage due to a penetration crack. Actual pipe failure, however, cannot be applied to the analysis of seismic fragility because it is difficult to quantify. This paper proposes methods of measuring the failure strain and deformation angle, which are necessary for evaluating the quantitative failure criteria of the steel pipe elbow using an image measurement system. Furthermore, the failure strain and deformation angle, which cannot be measured using the conventional sensors, were efficiently measured using the proposed methods.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.127-145
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• 2012

One of the most important and challenging steps in seismic vulnerability and performance assessment of highway bridges is the determination of the bridge component damage parameters and their corresponding limit states. These parameters are very essential for defining bridge damage state as well as determining the performance of highway bridges under a seismic event. Therefore, realistic damage limit states are required in the development of reliable fragility curves, which are employed in the seismic risk assessment packages for mitigation purposes. In this article, qualitative damage assessment criteria for ordinary highway bridges are taken into account considering the critical bridge components in terms of proper engineering demand parameters (EDPs). Seismic damage of bridges is strongly related to the deformation of bridge components as well as member internal forces imposed due to seismic actions. A simple approach is proposed for determining the acceptance criteria and damage limit states for use in seismic performance and vulnerability assessment of ordinary highway bridges in Turkey constructed after the 1990s. Physical damage of bridge components is represented by three damage limit states: serviceability, damage control, and collapse prevention. Inelastic deformation and shear force demand of the bent components (column and cap beam), and superstructure displacement are the most common causes for the seismic damage of the highway bridges. Each damage limit state is quantified with respect to the EDPs: i.e. curvature and shear force demand of RC bent components and superstructure relative displacement.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.531-538
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• 2017

In this paper, the seismic behavior of BRBF structures is studied and compared with special concentric braced frames (SCBF). To this purpose, three BRBF and three SCBF structures with 3, 5 and 10 stories are designed based on AISC360-5 and modelled using OpenSees. These structures are loaded in accordance with ASCE/SEI 7-10. Incremental nonlinear dynamic analysis (IDA) are performed on these structures for 28 different accelerograms and the median IDA curves are used to compare seismic capacity of these two systems. Results obtained, indicates that BRBF systems provide higher capacity for the target performance level in comparison with SCBF systems. And structures with high altitude (in this study, 5 and 10 stories) with the possibility of exceeding the collapse prevention performance level, further than lower altitude (here 3 floors) structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.925-942
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• 2016

With ongoing development of earthquake engineering research and the lessons learnt from a series of strong earthquakes, the seismic design concept of "resilience" has received much attention. Resilience describes the capability of a structure or a city to recover rapidly after earthquakes or other disasters. As one of the main features of urban constructions, tall buildings have greater impact on the sustainability and resilience of major cities. Therefore, it is important and timely to quantify their seismic resilience. In this work, a quantitative comparison of the seismic resilience of two tall buildings designed according to the Chinese and US seismic design codes was conducted. The prototype building, originally designed according to the US code as part of the Tall Building Initiative (TBI) Project, was redesigned in this work according to the Chinese codes under the same design conditions. Two refined nonlinear finite element (FE) models were established for both cases and their seismic responses were evaluated at different earthquake intensities, including the service level earthquake (SLE), the design-based earthquake (DBE) and the maximum considered earthquake (MCE). In addition, the collapse fragility functions of these two building models were established through incremental dynamic analysis (IDA). Based on the numerical results, the seismic resilience of both models was quantified and compared using the new-generation seismic performance assessment method proposed by FEMA P-58. The outcomes of this study indicate that the seismic resilience of the building according to the Chinese design is slightly better than that according to the US design. The conclusions drawn from this research are expected to guide further in-depth studies on improving the seismic resilience of tall buildings.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.215-224
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• 2021

The carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere is one of the main reasons for the corrosion of bridges, buildings, tunnels, and other reinforced concrete (RC) structures in most industrialized countries. With the growing use of fossil fuels in the world since the Industrial Revolution, the amount of carbon dioxide in urban and industrial areas of the world has grown significantly, which increases the chance of corrosion caused by carbonation. The process of corrosion leads to a change in mechanical properties of rebars and concrete, and consequently, detrimentally impacting load-bearing capacity and seismic behavior of RC structures. Neglecting this phenomenon can trigger misleading results in the form of underestimating the seismic performance metrics. Therefore, studying the carbonation corrosion influence on the seismic behavior of RC structures in urban and industrial areas is of great significance. In this study, a 2D modern RC moment frame is developed to study and assess the effect of carbonation corrosion, in 5-year intervals, for a 50 years lifetime under two different environmental conditions. This is achieved using the nonlinear static and incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) to evaluate the reinforcement corrosion effects. The reduction in the seismic capacity and performance of the reinforced concrete frame, as well as the collapse probability over the lifetime for different corrosion scenarios, is examined through the capacity curves obtained from nonlinear static analysis and the fragility curves obtained from IDA.