• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.309-324
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• 2014

In the design of reinforced concrete structural walls, in order to ensure adequate inelastic displacement behaviour and to sustain deformation demands imposed by strong ground motions, special reinforcement is considered while designing. However, these would lead to severe reinforcement congestion and difficulties during construction. Addition of randomly distributed discrete fibres in concrete improves the flexural behaviour of structural elements because of its enhanced tensile properties and this leads to reduction in congestion. This paper deals with effect of addition of steel fibres on the behavior of high performance fibre reinforced cement concrete (HPFRCC) slender structural walls with the different volume fractions of steel fibres. The specimens were subjected to quasi static lateral reverse cyclic loading until failure. The high performance concrete (HPC) used was obtained based on the guidelines given in ACI 211.1 which was further modified by prof.Aitcin (1998). The volume fraction of the fibres used in this study varied from 0 to 1% with an increment of 0.5%. The results were analysed critically and appraised. The study indicates that the addition of steel fibres in the HPC structural walls enhances the first crack load, strength, initial stiffness and energy dissipation capacity.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.2
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• pp.259-268
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• 2017

In this paper, the incremental nonlinear dynamic analysis is used to evaluate the seismic performance of steel moment frame structures. To this purpose, three special moment frame structure with 5, 10 and 15 stories are designed according to the Iran's national building code for steel structures and the provisions for design of earthquake resistant buildings (2800 code). Incremental Nonlinear Analysis (IDA) is performed for 15 different ground motions, and responses of the structures are evaluated. For the immediate occupancy and the collapse prevention performance levels, the probability that seismic demand exceeds the seismic capacity of the structures is computed based on FEMA350. Also, fragility curves are plotted for three high-code damage levels using HASUS provisions. Based on the obtained results, it is evident that increase in the height of the frame structures reduces the reliability level. In addition, it is concluded that for the design earthquake the probability of exceeding average collapse prevention level is considerably larger than high and full collapse prevention levels.9.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.64 no.5
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• pp.653-660
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• 2017

The aim of this study is to accurately estimate seismic damage and the collapse mechanism of the historical stone masonry minaret "Hafsa Sultan", which was built in 1522. Surveying measurements and material tests were conducted to obtain a 3D solid model and the mechanical properties of the components of the minaret. The initial Finite Element (FE) model is analyzed and numerical dynamic characteristics of the minaret are obtained. The Operational Modal Analysis (OMA) method is conducted to obtain the experimental dynamic characteristics of the minaret and the initial FE model is calibrated by using the experimental results. Then, linear time history (LTH) and nonlinear time history (NLTH) analyses are carried out on the calibrated FE model by using two different ground motions. Iron clamps which used as connection element between the stones of the minaret considerably increase the tensile strength of the masonry system. The Concrete Damage Plasticity (CDP) model is selected in the nonlinear analyses in ABAQUS. The analyses conducted indicate that the results of the linear analyses are not as realistic as the nonlinear analysis results when compared with existing damage.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.6 no.8
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• pp.953-974
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• 2010

The performance of variable dampers for seismic protection of the benchmark highway bridge (phase I) under six real earthquake ground motions is presented. A simplified lumped mass finite-element model of the 91/5 highway bridge in Southern California is used for the investigation. A variable damper, developed from magnetorheological (MR) damper is used as a semi-active control device and its effectiveness with friction force schemes is investigated. A velocity-dependent damping model of variable damper is used. The effects of friction damping of the variable damper on the seismic response of the bridge are examined by taking different values of friction force, step-coefficient and transitional velocity of the damper. The seismic responses with variable dampers are compared with the corresponding uncontrolled case, and controlled by alternate sample control strategies. The results of investigation clearly indicate that the base shear, base moment and mid-span displacement are substantially reduced. In particular, the reduction in the bearing displacement is quite significant. The friction and the two-step friction force schemes of variable damper are found to be quite effective in reducing the peak response quantities of the bridge to a level similar to or better than that of the sample passive, semi-active and active controllers.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.843-857
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• 2015

System identification is regarded as the most basic technique for structural health monitoring to evaluate structural integrity. Although many system identification techniques extracting mode information (e.g., mode frequency and mode shape) have been proposed so far, it is also desired to identify physical parameters (e.g., stiffness and damping). As for high-rise buildings subjected to long-period ground motions, system identification for evaluating only the shear stiffness based on a shear model does not seem to be an appropriate solution to the system identification problem due to the influence of overall bending response. In this paper, a system identification algorithm using a shear-bending model developed in the previous paper is revised to identify both shear and bending stiffnesses. In this algorithm, an ARX (Auto-Regressive eXogenous) model corresponding to the transfer function for interstory accelerations is applied for identifying physical parameters. For the experimental verification of the proposed system identification framework, vibration tests for a 3-story steel mini-structure are conducted. The test structure is specifically designed to measure horizontal accelerations including both shear and bending responses. In order to obtain reliable results, system identification theories for two different inputs are investigated; (a) base input motion by a modal shaker, (b) unknown forced input on the top floor.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.759-773
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• 2012

The objective of this paper is to present an energy-based method for calculating target displacement of RC structures. The method, which uses the Newmark-Hall pseudo-velocity spectrum, is called the "Pseudo-velocity Spectrum (PSVS) Method". The method is based on the energy balance concept that uses the equality of energy demand and energy capacity of the structure. First, nonlinear static analyses are performed for five, eight and ten-story RC frame structures and pushover curves are obtained. Then the pushover curves are converted to energy capacity diagrams. Seven strong ground motions that were recorded at different soil sites in Turkey are used to obtain the pseudo-acceleration and the pseudo-velocity response spectra. Later, the response spectra are idealised with the Newmark-Hall approximation. Afterwards, energy demands for the RC structures are calculated using the idealised pseudo-velocity spectrum. The displacements, obtained from the energy capacity diagrams that fit to the energy demand values of the RC structures, are accepted as the energy-based performance point of the structures. Consequently, the target displacement values determined from the PSVS Method are checked using the displacement-based successive approach in the Turkish Seismic Design Code. The results show that the target displacements of RC frame structures obtained from the PSVS Method are very close to the values calculated by the approach given in the Turkish Seismic Design Code.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-23
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• 2016

Steel plate shear walls (SPSWs) have been shown to be efficient lateral force-resisting systems, which are increasingly used in new and retrofit construction. These structural systems are designed with either stiffened and stocky or unstiffened and slender web plates based on disparate structural and economical considerations. Based on some limited reported studies, on the other hand, employment of low yield point (LYP) steel infill plates with extremely low yield strength, and high ductility as well as elongation properties is found to facilitate the design and improve the structural behavior and seismic performance of the SPSW systems. On this basis, this paper reports system-level investigations on the seismic response assessment of multi-story SPSW frames under the action of earthquake ground motions. The effectiveness of the strip model in representing the behaviors of SPSWs with different buckling and yielding properties is primarily verified. Subsequently, the structural and seismic performances of several code-designed and retrofitted SPSW frames with conventional and LYP steel infill plates are investigated through detailed modal and nonlinear time-history analyses. Evaluation of various seismic response parameters including drift, acceleration, base shear and moment, column axial load, and web-plate ductility demands, demonstrates the capabilities of SPSW systems in improving the seismic performance of structures and reveals various advantages of use of LYP steel material in seismic design and retrofit of SPSW systems, in particular, application of LYP steel infill plates of double thickness in seismic retrofit of conventional steel and code-designed SPSW frames.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.61-84
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• 2010

Presented in this paper is the behaviour of asymmetric building isolated by the double variable frequency pendulum isolator (DVFPI). The DVFPI is an adoption of single variable frequency pendulum isolator (VFPI). The geometry and coefficient of friction of top and bottom sliding surfaces can be unequal. The governing equations of motion of the building-isolation system are derived and solved in incremental form. The analysis duly considers the interaction of frictional forces in the two principal directions developed at each sliding surface of the DVFPI. In order to investigate the behaviour of the base isolation using the DVFPI, the coupled lateral-torsional response is obtained under different parametric variations for a set of six far-fault earthquake ground motions and criterion to optimize its performance is proposed. Further, influences of the initial time period, coefficient of friction and frequency variation factors at the two sliding surfaces are investigated. The numerical results of the extensive parametric study help in understanding the torsional behaviour of the structure isolated with the double sliding surfaces as in the DVFPI. It is found that the performance of the DVFPI can be optimized by designing the top sliding surface initially softer and smoother relative to the bottom one.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.894-903
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• 2019

An approach for collapse risk assessment is proposed to evaluate the vulnerability of electric cabinet in nuclear power plants. The lognormal approaches, namely maximum likelihood estimation and linear regression, are introduced to establish the fragility curves. These two fragility analyses are applied for the numerical models of cabinets considering various boundary conditions, which are expressed by representing restrained and anchored models at the base. The models have been built and verified using the system identification (SI) technique. The fundamental frequency of the electric cabinet is sensitive because of many attached devices. To bypass this complex problem, the average spectral acceleration $S_{\bar{a}}$ in the range of period that cover the first mode period is chosen as an intensity measure on the fragility function. The nonlinear time history analyses for cabinet are conducted using a suite of 40 ground motions. The obtained curves with different approaches are compared, and the variability of risk assessment is evaluated for restrained and anchored models. The fragility curves obtained for anchored model are found to be closer each other, compared to the fragility curves for restrained model. It is also found that the support boundary conditions played a significant role in acceleration response of cabinet.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.447-457
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• 2019

The use of Tuned mass dampers (TMD) has proved to be effective in reducing the effects of vibrations caused by wind loads and far-field seismic action. However, its effectiveness in controlling the dynamic response of structures under near-fault earthquakes is still under discussion. In this case, the uncertainty about the TMD performance arises from the short significant duration of near-fault ground motions. In this work, the TMD effectiveness for increasing the safety margin against collapse of structures subjected to near-fault earthquakes is investigated. In order to evaluate the TMD performance in the proposed scenario, the nonlinear dynamic response of two reinforced concrete (RC) frames was analyzed. TMDs with different mass values were added to these structures, and a set of near-fault records with frequency content close to the fundamental frequency of the structure was employed. Through a series of nonlinear dynamic analysis, the minimum amplitude of each seismic record that causes the structural collapse was found. By comparing this value, called collapse acceleration, for the case of the structures with and without TMD, the benefit produced by the addition of the control device was established.