• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.37 no.6
• /
• pp.679-693
• /
• 2020

This paper investigates the seismic response of buildings equipped with Self-Centering Energy Dissipating (SCED) braces. Two-dimensional models of 3, 6, 12 and 16-story SCED buildings considering both material and geometric nonlinearities are investigated by carrying out pushover and nonlinear time-history analyses. The response indicators of the buildings are studied for weight-scaled ground motions to represent the Design Basis Earthquake (DBE) level and the Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCE) event. The fragility curves of the buildings for two Immediate Occupancy (IO) and Life Safety (LS) performance levels are developed using Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA). Results of the nonlinear response history analyses indicate that the maximum inter-story drift occurs at the taller buildings. The mean peak inter-story drift is less than 2% in both hazard levels. High floor acceleration peaks are observed in all the SCED frames regardless of the building height. The overall ductility and ductility demand increase when the number of stories reduces. The results also showed the residual displacement is negligible for all of case study buildings. The 3 and 6-story buildings exhibit desirable performance in IO and LS performance levels according to fragility curves results, while 12 and 16-story frames show poor performance especially in IO level. The results indicated the SCED braces performance is generally better in lower-rise buildings.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.47 no.2
• /
• pp.185-201
• /
• 2023

Despite the high lateral stiffness and strength of the Concentrically Braced Frame (CBF), due to the buckling of its diagonal members, it is not a suitable system in high seismic regions. Among the offered methods to overcome the shortcoming, utilizing a metallic damper is considered as an appropriate idea to enhance the behavior of Concentrically Braced Frames (CBFs). Therefore, in this paper, an innovative steel damper is proposed, which is investigated experimentally and numerically. Moreover, a parametrical study was carried out to evaluate the effect of the mechanism (shear, shear-flexural, and flexural) considering buckling mode (elastic, inelastic, and plastic) on the behavior of the damper. Besides, the necessary formulas based on the parametrical study were presented to predict the behavior of the damper that they showed good agreement with finite element (FE) results. Both experimental and numerical results confirmed that dampers with the shear mechanism in all buckling modes have a better performance than other dampers. Accordingly, the FE results indicated that the shear damper has greater ultimate strength than the flexural damper by 32%, 31%, and 56%, respectively, for plates with elastic, inelastic, and plastic buckling modes. Also, the shear damper has a greater stiffness than the flexural damper by 43%, 26%, and 53%, respectively, for dampers with elastic, inelastic, and plastic buckling modes.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.227-237
• /
• 2017

This paper presents optimization of a long-span portal steel frame under dynamic wind loads using a surrogate-assisted evolutionary algorithm. Long-span portal steel frames are often used in low-rise industrial and commercial buildings. The structure needs be able to resist the wind loads, and at the same time it should be as light as possible in order to be cost-effective. In this work, numerical model of a portal steel frame is constructed using structural analysis program (SAP2000), with the web-heights at five locations of I-sections of the columns and rafters as the decision variables. In order to evaluate the performance of a given design under dynamic wind loading, the equivalent static wind load (ESWL) is obtained from a database of wind pressures measured in wind tunnel tests. A modified formulation of the problem compared to the one available in the literature is also presented, considering additional design constraints for practicality. Evolutionary algorithms (EA) are often used to solve such non-linear, black-box problems, but when each design evaluation is computationally expensive (e.g., in this case a SAP2000 simulation), the time taken for optimization using EAs becomes untenable. To overcome this challenge, we employ a surrogate-assisted evolutionary algorithm (SAEA) to expedite the convergence towards the optimum design. The presented SAEA uses multiple spatially distributed surrogate models to approximate the simulations more accurately in lieu of commonly used single global surrogate models. Through rigorous numerical experiments, improvements in results and time savings obtained using SAEA over EA are demonstrated.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.471-495
• /
• 2014

The responses of steel buildings with perimeter moment resisting frames (PMRF) with medium size columns (W14) are estimated and compared with those of buildings with deep columns (W27), which are selected according to two criteria: equivalent resistance and equivalent weight. It is shown that buildings with W27 columns have no problems of lateral torsional, local or shear buckling in panel zone. Whether the response is larger for W14 or W27 columns, depends on the level of deformation, the response parameter and the structural modeling under consideration. Modeling buildings as two-dimensional structures result in an overestimation of the response. For multiple response parameters, the W14 columns produce larger responses for elastic behavior. The axial load on columns may be significantly larger for the buildings with W14 columns. The interstory displacements are always larger for W14 columns, particularly for equivalent weight and plane models, implying that using deep columns helps to reduce interstory displacements. This is particularly important for tall buildings where the design is usually controlled by the drift limit state. The interstory shears in interior gravity frames (GF) are significantly reduced when deep columns are used. This helps to counteract the no conservative effect that results in design practice, when lateral seismic loads are not considered in GF of steel buildings with PMRF. Thus, the behavior of steel buildings with deep columns, in general, may be superior to that of buildings with medium columns, using less weight and representing, therefore, a lower cost.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.34 no.6
• /
• pp.891-907
• /
• 2020

Many studies reveal that during destructive earthquakes, most of the structures enter the inelastic phase. The amount of hysteretic energy in a structure is considered as an important criterion in structure design and an important indicator for the degree of its damage or vulnerability. The hysteretic energy value wasted after the structure yields is the most important component of the energy equation that affects the structures system damage thereof. Controlling this value of energy leads to controlling the structure behavior. Here, for the first time, the hysteretic behavior and energy dissipation capacity are assessed at presence of elliptical braced resisting frames (ELBRFs), through an experimental study and numerical analysis of FEM. The ELBRFs are of lateral load systems, when located in the middle bay of the frame and connected properly to the beams and columns, in addition to improving the structural behavior, do not have the problem of architectural space in the bracing systems. The energy dissipation capacity is assessed in four frames of small single-story single-bay ELBRFs at ½ scale with different accessories, and compared with SMRF and X-bracing systems. The frames are analyzed through a nonlinear FEM and a quasi-static cyclic loading. The performance features here consist of hysteresis behavior, plasticity factor, energy dissipation, resistance and stiffness variation, shear strength and Von-Mises stress distribution. The test results indicate that the good behavior of the elliptical bracing resisting frame improves strength, stiffness, ductility and dissipated energy capacity in a significant manner.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.579-598
• /
• 2020

Consideration of the panel zone (PZ) deformations in the analysis of steel moment frames (SMFs) has a substantial effect on structural response. One way to include the PZ effect on the structural response is Krawinkler's PZ model, which is one of the best and conventional models. However, modeling of Krawinkler's PZ model has its complexity, and finding an alternative procedure for PZ modeling is of interest. In this study, an efficient model is proposed to simplify Krawinkler's PZ model into an Adjusted Rigid-End Zone (AREZ). In this way, the rigid-end-zone dimensions of the beam and column elements are defined through an appropriate rigid-end-zone factor. The dimensions of this region depend on the PZ stiffness, beam(s) and columns' specifications, and connection joint configuration. Thus, to obtain a relationship for the AREZ model, which yields the dimensions of the rigid-end zone, the story drift of an SMF with Krawinkler's PZ model is equalized with the story drift of the same structure with the AREZ model. Then, the degree of accuracy of the resulting relationship is examined in several connections of generic SMFs. Also, in order to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model in SMFs, several SMFs ranging from 3- to 30-story representing low- to high-rise buildings are examined through linear static and dynamic time history analysis. Furthermore, non-linear dynamic analyses of three SMFs conducted to validate the degree of accuracy of the proposed model in the non-linear analysis of SMFs. Analytical results show that there is considerable conformity between inter-story drift ratio (IDR) results of the SMFs with Krawinkler's PZ model and those of the centerline SMFs with AREZ.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
• /
• v.35 no.5
• /
• pp.390-396
• /
• 2007

In the present study, we have developed a flapping wing using a smart material to mimic the nature's flyers, birds. The wing consists of composite frames, a flexible PVC film and a surface actuator, and the main wing motions are flapping, twisting and camber motions. To change the camber, a Macro-Fiber Composite(MFC) is used as the surface actuator, and it's structural response is analyzed by the use of piezoelectric-thermal analogy. To measure the lift and thrust simultaneously, a test stand consisting of two load cells is manufactured. Some aerodynamic tests are performed for the wing in a subsonic wind tunnel to evaluate the dynamic characteristics. Experimental results show that the main lift is mostly affected by the forward velocity and the pitch angle, but the thrust is mostly affected by the flapping frequency. The effect of the camber generated by the MFC actuator can produce the sufficient lift increment of up to 24.4% in static condition and 20.8% in dynamic condition.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.16 no.5
• /
• pp.491-506
• /
• 2014

Buckling-restrained braces (BRBs) have excellent hysteretic behavior while buckling-restrained braced frames (BRBFs) are susceptible to residual lateral deformations. To address this drawback, a novel self-centering (SC) BRB with Basalt fiber reinforced polymer (BFRP) composite tendons is presented in this work. The configuration and mechanics of proposed BFRP-SC-BRBs are first discussed. Then an 1840-mm-long BFRP-SC-BRB specimen is fabricated and tested to verify its hysteric and self-centering performance. The tested specimen has an expected flag-shaped hysteresis character, showing a distinct self-centering tendency. During the test, the residual deformation of the specimen is only about 0.6 mm. The gap between anchorage plates and welding ends of bracing tubes performs as expected with the maximum opening value 6 mm when brace is in compression. The OpenSEES software is employed to conduct numerical analysis. Experiment results are used to validate the modeling methodology. Then the proposed numerical model is used to evaluate the influence of initial prestress, tendon diameter and core plate thickness on the performance of BFRP-SC-BRBs. Results show that both the increase of initial prestress and tendon diameters can obviously improve the self-centering effect of BFRP-SC-BRBs. With the increase of core plate thickness, the energy dissipation is improved while the residual deformation is generated when the core plate strength exceeds initial prestress force.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 2014

Improving the earthquake resistance of buildings through seismic retrofitting using steel braces can result in brittle failure at the connection between the brace and the building, as well as buckling failure of the braces. In this study, a non-compression cross-bracing system using the Carbon Fiber Composite Cable (CFCC), which consists of CFCC bracing and bolt connection was proposed to replace the conventional steel bracing. This paper presented the seismic resistance of a reinforced concrete frame strengthened using CFCC X-bracing. Cyclic loading tests were carried out, and the maximum load carrying capacity and ductility were investigated, together with hysteresis of the lateral load-drift relations. Test results revealed that the CFCC X-bracing system installed RC frames enhanced markedly the strength capacity and no buckling failure of the bracing was observed.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.417-424
• /
• 2003

A bearing failure in RCS(Reinforced Concrete Column and Steel Beam) system is recognized as one of the distinct joint failure modes for the composite frames. Vertical and transverse reinforcement in addition to concrete are effective for better transfer of vortical forces through concrete bearing. To examine the effect of the vertical bars, tie bars, a U-type detail developed in this study and concrete confinement, local bearing tests were conducted using 22 small-scale concrete block specimens. Test results show that vertical reinforcement and tie bars mainly contribute to the bearing capacity. However larger amounts of tie reinforcement are required than those recommend from ASCE guidelines, to apply the nominal concrete strength as 2 $f_{ck}$ over the bearing area. Cross ties are proved to be highly effective for resisting the vertical forces. Maximum bearing strength can be increased upto 2.5 $f_{ck}$ . An accurate prediction model for bearing strength is proposed for better design of the composite Joint.