• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.4
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• pp.537-549
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• 2017

One of the main concerns of civil engineering researchers is developing or modifying an energy dissipation system that can effectively control structural vibrations, and keep the structural response within tolerable limits during unpredictable events like earthquakes, wind and any kind of thrust load. This article proposes a new type of mass damper system for controlling wideband earthquake vibrations, called Multiple Wall Dampers (MWD). The basic principle of the Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) was used to design the proposed wall damper system. This passive energy dissipation system does not require additional mass for the damping system because the boundary wall mass of the building was used as a damper mass. The multi-mode approach was applied to determine the location and design parameters of the dampers. The dampers were installed based on the maximum amplitude of modes. To optimize the damper parameters, the multi-objective optimization Response Surface Methodology was used, with frequency response and maximum displacement as the objective functions. The obtained structural responses under different earthquake forces demonstrated that the MWD is one of the most capable tools for reducing the responses of multi-storied buildings, and this system can be practically used for new and existing building structures.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.177-186
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• 2016

Along the subduction-zone of the western Japanese islands, large earthquakes are expected occur around the middle of this century, and long-period ground motions will reach major urban areas, shaking high-rise buildings violently. Since some old high-rise buildings were designed without considering long-period ground motions, reinforcing such buildings is an important issue. An effective method to reinforce existing high-rise buildings is installing additional dampers. However, a problem with ordinary dampers is that they require reinforcement of surrounding columns and girders to support large reaction forces generated during earthquake ground motion. To solve this problem, a deformation-dependent oil damper was developed. The most attractive feature of this damper is to reduce the damping force at the moment when the frame deformation comes close to its maximum value. Due to this feature, the reinforcement of columns, girders, and foundations are no longer required. The authors applied seismic retrofitting with a deformation-dependent oil damper to an existing 54-story office building (Shinjuku Center Building) located in Shinjuku ward, Tokyo, in 2009 to suppress vibration under the long period earthquake ground motions. The seismic responses were observed in the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, and it is clarified that the damping ratio was higher and the response lower by 20% as compared to the building without dampers.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.59 no.4
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• pp.653-669
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• 2016

Recent earthquakes worldwide show that a significant portion of the earthquake shaking happens in the vertical direction. This phenomenon has raised significant interests to consider the vertical ground motion during the seismic design and assessment of the structures. Strong vertical ground motions can alter the axial forces in the columns, which might affect the shear capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) members. This is particularly important for non-ductile RC frames, which are very vulnerable to earthquake-induced collapse. This paper presents the detailed nonlinear dynamic analysis to quantify the collapse risk of non-ductile RC frame structures with varying heights. An array of non-ductile RC frame architype buildings located in Los Angeles, California were designed according to the 1967 uniform building code. The seismic responses of the architype buildings subjected to concurrent horizontal and vertical ground motions were analyzed. A comprehensive array of ground motions was selected from the PEER NGA-WEST2 and Iran Strong Motions Network database. Detailed nonlinear dynamic analyses were performed to quantify the collapse fragility curves and collapse margin ratios (CMRs) of the architype buildings. The results show that the vertical ground motions have significant impact on both the local and global responses of non-ductile RC moment frames. Hence, it is crucial to include the combined vertical and horizontal shaking during the seismic design and assessment of non-ductile RC moment frames.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.557-585
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• 2013

The recent huge earthquake ground motion records in Japan result in the reconsideration of seismic design forces for nuclear power stations from the view point of seismological research. In addition, the seismic design force should be defined also from the view point of structural engineering. In this paper it is shown that one of the occurrence mechanisms of such large acceleration in recent seismic records (recorded in or near massive structures and not free-field ground motions) is due to the interaction between a massive building and its surrounding soil which induces amplification of local mode in the surface soil. Furthermore on-site investigation after earthquakes in the nuclear power stations reveals some damages of soil around the building (cracks, settlement and sand boiling). The influence of plastic behavior of soil is investigated in the context of interaction between the structure and the surrounding soil. Moreover the amplification property of the surface soil is investigated from the seismic records of the Suruga-gulf earthquake in 2009 and the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake in 2011. Two methods are introduced for the analysis of the non-stationary process of ground motions. It is shown that the non-stationary Fourier spectra can detect the temporal change of frequency contents of ground motions and the displacement profile integrated from its acceleration profile is useful to evaluate the seismic behavior of the building and the surrounding soil.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.383-397
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• 2018

Traditional base isolation systems focus on isolating the seismic response of a structure in the horizontal direction. However, in regions where the vertical earthquake excitation is significant (such as near-fault region), a traditional base-isolated building exhibits a significant vertical vibration. To eliminate this shortcoming, a rocking-isolated system named Telescopic Column (TC) is proposed in this paper. Detailed rocking and isolation mechanism of the TC system is presented. The seismic performance of the TC is compared with the traditional elastomeric bearing (EB) and friction pendulum (FP) base-isolated systems. A 4-storey reinforced concrete moment-resisting frame (RC-MRF) is selected as the reference superstructure. The seismic response of the reference superstructure in terms of column axial forces, base shears, floor accelerations, inter-storey drift ratios (IDR) and collapse margin ratios (CMRs) are evaluated using OpenSees. The results of the nonlinear dynamic analysis subjected to multi-directional earthquake excitations show that the superstructure equipped with the newly proposed TC is more resilient and exhibits a superior response with higher margin of safety against collapse when compared with the same superstructure with the traditional base-isolation (BI) system.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.575-589
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• 2019

The main focus of this study is to numerically investigate the influence of strong earthquake and tsunami-induced wave impact on the response and behavior of a cable-stayed steel bridge with large caisson foundations, by assuming that the earthquake and the tsunami come from the same fault motion. For this purpose, a series of numerical simulations were carried out. First of all, the tsunami-induced flow speed, direction and tsunami height were determined by conducting a two-dimensional (2D) tsunami propagation analysis in a large area, and then these parameters obtained from tsunami propagation analysis were employed in a detailed three-dimensional (3D) fluid analysis to obtain tsunami-induced wave impact force. Furthermore, a fiber model, which is commonly used in the seismic analysis of steel bridge structures, was adopted considering material and geometric nonlinearity. The residual stresses induced by the earthquake were applied into the numerical model during the following finite element analysis as the initial stress state, in which the acquired tsunami forces were input to a whole bridge system. Based on the analytical results, it can be seen that the foundation sliding was not observed although the caisson foundation came floating slightly, and the damage arising during the earthquake did not expand when the tsunami-induced wave impact is applied to the steel bridge. It is concluded that the influence of tsunami-induced wave force is relatively small for such steel bridge with large caisson foundations. Besides, a numerical procedure is proposed for quantitatively estimating the accumulative damage induced by the earthquake and the tsunami in the whole bridge system with large caisson foundations.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.53-64
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• 2018

Nondestructive testing methods are required to assess the condition of civil structures and formulate their maintenance programs. Axial force identification is required for several structural members of truss bridges, pipe racks, and space roof trusses. An accurate evaluation of in situ axial forces supports the safety assessment of the entire truss. A considerable redistribution of internal forces may indicate structural damage. In this paper, a novel compressive force identification method for prismatic members implemented using static deflections is applied to steel beams. The procedure uses the Euler-Bernoulli beam model and estimates the compressive load by using the measured displacement along the beam's length. Knowledge of flexural rigidity of the member under investigation is required. In this study, the deflected shape of a compressed steel beam is subjected to an additional vertical load that was short-term measured in several laboratory tests by using fiber Bragg grating-differential settlement measurement (FBG-DSM) sensors at specific cross sections along the beam's length. The accuracy of midspan deflections offered by the FBG-DSM sensors provided excellent force estimations. Compressive load detection accuracy can be improved if substantial second-order effects are induced in the tests. In conclusion, the proposed method can be successfully applied to steel beams with low slenderness under real conditions.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.85-92
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• 2015

Response spectra of a building are made with a SDOF system taking into account a first mode shape, even though higher modes may affect on the dynamic responses of a high-rise building. A soft soil layer under a building also affects on the responses of a building. In this study, seismic responses of a MDOF system were investigated to examine the effects of higher modes on the response of a tall building by comparing them with those of a SDOF system including the kinematic interaction effect. Study was performed using a pseudo 3D finite element program with seven bedrock earthquake records downloaded from the PEER database. Effects of higher modes on the seismic responses of a tall building were investigated for base shear force and base moment of a MDOF system including story shear forces and story moments. Study results show that higher modes of a MDOF system contribute to a reduction of base shear force up to 1/4-1/5 of KBC and base moment. The effect of higher modes is more significant on the base shear force than on the base moment. Maximum story shear force and moment occurred at the top part of a building rather than at a base in the cases of tall buildings differently from short buildings, and higher modes of a tall building affected on the base forces making them almost constant at the base. A soft soil layer also affects some on the base shear force of a high-rise building independently on the soft soil type, but a soft soil effect is prominent on the base moment.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.1-8
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• 2001

Seismic design forces for bridge components may be determined by modifying elastic member forces of design earthquakes using appropriate response modification factors according to the national design code of bridges Modeling technique of pile foundation system is one of the important parameters which greatly affects the results in the process of the elastic seismic analysis of a bridge system with pile foundation. In this paper, a approximate and simplified modeling technique of a pile foundation system for the practical purposes is presented. The modeling technique is based on the stiffnesses of pile foundation during earthquake. The horizontal stiffnesses are determined from the resistance-deflection curves derived from the results of dynamic field tests using cyclic loads and the vertical stiffness includes the effects of the end bearing capacities and side friction of piles as well as the pile compliances under the expected vertical load level. The applicability of the proposed technique has been validated through the some example bridge analyses.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.12 no.3_4
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• pp.327-344
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• 2013

Beam string structure (BSS) is introduced as a new type of hybrid prestressed string structures. The composition and mechanics features of BSS are discussed. The main principles of wavelet packet transform (WPT), principal component analysis (PCA) and support vector machine (SVM) have been reviewed. WPT is applied to the structural response signals, and feature vectors are obtained by feature extraction and PCA. The feature vectors are used for training and classification as the inputs of the support vector machine. The method is used to a single one-way arched beam string structure for damage detection. The cable prestress loss and web members damage experiment for a beam string structure is carried through. Different prestressing forces are applied on the cable to simulate cable prestress loss, the prestressing forces are calculated by the frequencies which are solved by Fourier transform or wavelet transform under impulse excitation. Test results verify this method is accurate and convenient. The damage cases of web members on the beam are tested to validate the efficiency of the method presented in this study. Wavelet packet decomposition is applied to the structural response signals under ambient vibration, feature vectors are obtained by feature extraction method. The feature vectors are used for training and classification as the inputs of the support vector machine. The structural damage position and degree can be identified and classified, and the test result is highly accurate especially combined with principle component analysis.