• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.345-358
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• 2005

The response of single story buildings and other case studies are investigated to observe trends in response and to develop a better understanding of the impact of some design parameters on the seismic response of CBF. While it is recognized that many parameters have an influence on the behavior of braced frames, the focus of this study is mostly on quantifying energy dissipation in compression and its effectiveness on seismic performance. Based on dynamic analyses of single story braced frame and case studies, it is found that a bracing member designed with bigger R and larger KL/r results in lower normalized cumulative energy, i.e., cumulative compressive energy normalized by the corresponding tensile energy (${\sum}E_C/E_T$), in both cases.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.77-94
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• 2004

Steel beam-to-column joints are often subjected to a combination of bending and axial forces. The level of axial forces in the joint may be significant, typical of pitched-roof portal frames, sway frames or frames with incomplete floors. Current specifications for steel joints do not take into account the presence of axial forces (tension and/or compression) in the joints. A single empirical limitation of 10% of the beam's plastic axial capacity is the only enforced provision in Annex J of Eurocode 3. The objective of the present paper is to describe some experimental and numerical work carried out at the University of Coimbra to try to extend the philosophy of the component method to deal with the combined action bending moment and axial force.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.645-664
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• 2021

There is a growing need of seismic retrofit of existing non-seismically designed structures in Korea after the 2016 Gyeongju and 2017 Pohang earthquakes, especially school buildings which experienced extensive damage during those two earthquakes. To this end, a steel multi-slit damper (MSD) was developed in this research which can be installed inside of partition walls of school buildings. Full-scale two-story RC frames were tested with and without the proposed dampers. The frames had structural details similar to school buildings constructed in the 1980s in Korea. The details of the experiments were described in detail, and the test results were validated using the analysis model. The developed seismic retrofit strategy was applied to a case study school building structure, and its seismic performance was evaluated before and after retrofit using the MSD. The results show that the developed retrofit strategy can improve the seismic performance of the structure to satisfy a given target performance level.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.663-677
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• 2023

The self-centering energy-dissipating coupled wall panels (SECWs) possess a dual capacity of resiliency and energy dissipation. Used in steel frames, the SECWs can localize the damage of structures and reduce residual drifts. Based on OpenSEES, the nonlinear models were established and validated by experimental results. The seismic design procedure of steel frame with SECW structures (SF-SECW) was proposed in accordance with four-level seismic fortification objectives. Nonlinear time-history response analyses were carried out to validate the reasonability of seismic design procedure for 6-story and 12-story structures. Results show that the inter-story drifts of designed structures are less than drift limits. According to incremental dynamic analyses (IDA), the fragility curves of mentioned-above structure models under different limit states were obtained. The results indicate that designed structures have good seismic performance and meet the seismic fortification objectives.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.433-438
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• 2003

Structural steel/composite beams provide a viable alternative for coupling individual reinforced concrete wall piers. Well-established guidelines for shear links in eccentrically braced steel frames form the basis of current design guidelines. However, these provisions ignore the effects of nominally reinforced concrete encasement which typically surrounds the coupling beam, and are based on overly conservative assumed deformation demand. A coordinated analytical research program at here has focused on response of steel/composite coupling beams, their connections to reinforced concrete walls, and overall behavior of composite coupled wall systems. Using the results from this study, guidelines for proper design and detailing of steel/composite coupling beams and beam-wall connections have been developed. This paper summarizes the research program, and highlights the basic concepts, important findings, and recommendations.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.338-343
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• 2005

We have evaluated the structural integrity of a sandwich composite train roof which can find a lightweight, cost saving solution to large structural components for rail vehicles in design stages. The sandwich composite train roof was 11.45 meter long and 1.76 meter wide. The reinforced frame was inserted in sandwich panels to improve the structural performance of train roof structure and had the shape of hollow rectangular box. The finite-element analysis was used to calculate the stresses, deflections and natural frequencies of the sandwich composite train roof against the weight of air-condition system. The 3D sandwich FE model was introduced to simulate the hollow aluminum frames which jointed to both sides of the sandwich train roof. The results shown that the structural performance of a sandwich composite train roof under load conditions specified was proven and the use of aluminum reinforced frame was beneficial with regard to weight savings in comparison to steel reinforced frame.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.625-641
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• 2020

The realistic modeling of the beam-column semi-rigid connection in steel frames attracted the attention of many researchers in the past for the seismic analysis of semi-rigid frames. Comparatively less studies have been made to investigate the behavior of steel frames with semi-rigid connections under different types of earthquake. Herein, the seismic behavior of semi-rigid steel frames is investigated under both far and near-field earthquakes. The semi-rigid connection is modeled by the multilinear plastic link element consisting of rotational springs. The kinematic hysteresis model is used to define the dynamic behavior of the rotational spring, describing the nonlinearity of the semi-rigid connection as defined in SAP2000. The nonlinear time history analysis (NTHA) is performed to obtain response time histories of the frame under scaled earthquakes at three PGA levels denoting the low, medium and high-level earthquakes. The other important parameters varied are the stiffness and strength parameters of the connections, defining the degree of semi-rigidity. For studying the behavior of the semi-rigid frame, a large number of seismic demand parameters are considered. The benchmark for comparison is taken as those of the corresponding rigid frame. Two different frames, namely, a five-story frame and a ten-story frame are considered as the numerical examples. It is shown that semi-rigid frames prove to be effective and beneficial in resisting the seismic forces for near-field earthquakes (PGA ≈ 0.2g), especially in reducing the base shear to a considerable extent for the moderate level of earthquake. Further, the semi-rigid frame with a relatively weaker beam and less connection stiffness may withstand a moderately strong earthquake without having much damage in the beams.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.71-85
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• 2006

This paper presents the results of a series of tests carried out on cold-formed steel rectangular hollow and concrete infilled beam to column connections and frames. A stub column was chosen such that overall buckling does not influence the connection behaviour. The beam chosen was a short-span cantilever with a concentrated load applied at the free end. The beam was connected to the columns along the strong and weak axes of columns and these connections were tested to failure. Twelve experiments were conducted on cold-formed steel direct welded tubular beam to column connections and twelve experiments on connections with concrete infilled column subjected to monotonic loading. In all the experiments conducted, the stiffness of the connection, the ductility characteristics and the moment rotation behaviour were studied. The dominant mode of failure in hollow section connections was chord face yielding and not weld failure. Provision of concrete infill increases the stiffness and the ultimate moment carrying capacity substantially, irrespective of the axis of loading of the column. Weld failure and bearing failure due to transverse compression occurred in connections with concrete infilled columns. Six single-bay two storied frames both with and without concrete infill, and columns loaded along the major and minor axes were tested to failure. Concentrated load was applied at the midspan of first floor beam. The change in behaviour of the frame due to provision of infill in the column and in the entire frame was compared with hollow frames. Failure of the weld at the junction of the beam occurred for frames with infilled columns. Design expressions are suggested for the yielding of the column face in hollow sections and bearing failure in infilled columns which closely predicted the experimental failure loads.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.317-335
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• 2016

Concentrically braced steel frames (CBFs) can be optimised during the seismic design process by using lateral loading distributions derived from the concept of uniform damage distribution. However, it is not known how such structures are affected by uncertainties. This study aims to quantify and manage the effects of structural and ground-motion uncertainty on the seismic performance of optimum and conventionally designed CBFs. Extensive nonlinear dynamic analyses are performed on 5, 10 and 15-storey frames to investigate the effects of storey shear-strength and damping ratio uncertainties by using the Monte Carlo simulation method. For typical uncertainties in conventional steel frames, optimum design frames always exhibit considerably less inter-storey drift and cumulative damage compared to frames designed based on IBC-2012. However, it is noted that optimum structures are in general more sensitive to the random variation of storey shear-strength. It is shown that up to 50% variation in damping ratio does not affect the seismic performance of the optimum design frames compared to their code-based counterparts. Finally, the results indicate that the ground-motion uncertainty can be efficiently managed by optimizing CBFs based on the average of a set of synthetic earthquakes representing a design spectrum. Compared to code-based design structures, CBFs designed with the proposed average patterns exhibit up to 54% less maximum inter-storey drift and 73% less cumulative damage under design earthquakes. It is concluded that the optimisation procedure presented is reliable and should improve the seismic performance of CBFs.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.971-983
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• 2015

To promote greater acceptance and use of composite RCS systems, a two-bay two-story frame specimen with improved composite RCS joint details was tested in the laboratory under reversed cyclic loading. The test revealed superior seismic performance with stable load versus story drift response and excellent deformation capacity for an inter-story drift ratio up to 1/25. It was found that the failure process of the frame meets the strong-column weak-beam criterion. Furthermore, cracking inter-story drift ratio and ultimate inter-story drift ratio both satisfy the limitation prescribed by the design code. Additionally, inter-story drift ratios at yielding and peak load stage provide reference data for Performance-Based Seismic Design (PBSD) approaches for composite RCS frames. An advantage over conventional reinforced concrete and steel moment frame systems is that the displacement ductility coefficient of the RCS frame system is much larger. To conclude, the test results prove that composite RCS frame systems perform satisfactorily under simulated earthquake action, which further validates the reliability of this innovative system. Based on the test result, some suggestions are presented for the design of composite RCS frame systems.