• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.78 no.3
• /
• pp.269-280
• /
• 2021

Reinforced concrete (RC) structural walls with L-shaped sections are commonly used in RC buildings. The walls are often expected to sustain biaxial load and Unsymmetrical bending in an earthquake event. However, there currently exists limited experimental evidence regarding their seismic behaviour in these lateral loading directions. This paper makes experimental and numerical investigations to these walls behaviours. Experimental evidences are presented for four L-shaped wall specimens which were tested under simulated seismic load from different lateral directions. The results highlighted some distinct behaviour of L-shaped walls sustaining Unsymmetrical bending relating to their seismic performance. First, due to the Unsymmetrical bending, out-of-plane reaction forces occur for these walls, which contribute to accumulation of the out-of-plane deformations of the wall, especially when out-of-plane stiffness of the section is reduced by horizontal cracks in the cyclic load. Secondly, cracking was found to affect shear centre of the specimens loaded in the Unsymmetrical bending direction. The shear centre of these specimens distinctly differs in the flange in the positive and negative loading direction. Cracking of the flange also causes significant warping in the bottom part of the wall, which eventually lead to out-of-plane buckling failure.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.185-192
• /
• 2020

A new lighting support structure composing of two-way wires and pulley, a pulley-type wireway system, was developed to improve the seismic performance of a ceiling type lighting equipment. This study verifies the seismic performance of the pulley-type wireway system using a numerical approach. A theoretical model fitted to the physical features of the newly-developed system was proposed, and it was utilized to compute a frictional coefficient between the wire and pulley sections under tension forces. The frictional coefficient was implemented to a finite element model representing the pulley-type wireway system. Using the numerical model, the seismic responses of the pulley-type wireway system were compared to those of the existing lighting support structure, a one-way wire system. The addition of the pulley component resulted in the increasement of energy absorption capacity as well as friction effect and showed in significant reduction in maximum displacement and oscillation after the peak responses. Thus, the newly-developed wireway system can minimize earthquake-induced vibration and damage on electric equipment.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
• /
• v.34 no.12
• /
• pp.27-34
• /
• 2018

This paper considers the seismic performance of lever-type tuned mass damper(TMD). The lever-type TMD is designed utilizing the seismic-performance of TMD and the control force required for constraining story drift. The TMD is basically designed by tuning the frequency of primary structure. Thus, the TMD plays an important role to reduce the dynamic responses. The lever-type TMD has a merit to control more displacement responses than the existing TMD due to the control forces. It is shown that the optimum design of lever-type TMD is affected by the ratio of the TMD mass with respect to the mass of the primary structure, the damping ration of the primary structure, and the length ratio of the lever. A numerical example exhibits the effectiveness of the dynamic control by the lever-type TMD and its validity is illustrated in a three-story building structure subjected to earthquake.

• International journal of steel structures
• /
• v.18 no.5
• /
• pp.1741-1753
• /
• 2018

Metallic dampers are sacrificial devices (fuses) that dissipate significant energy during earthquakes while protecting other parts of structures from possible damage. In addition to numerous implementation opportunities of other base isolation systems, U-shaped dampers (UD) are one of the widely investigated and used devices in practice especially in Japan. The present study focuses on enhancing seismic performance of these types of dampers by changing their geometric properties. UDs with perforated (i.e. with holes) and/or nonparallel arms are developed for this purpose. For a better comparison, the criterion of equal material volume (or mass) has been utilized. Three dimensional finite element models of the new type of UDs are formed and investigated numerically under selected displacement histories. Based on the obtained hysteretic curves; dissipated energy intensities, effective stiffness ratios, reaction forces, effective damping ratios are evaluated in this parametric study. It is found that both damper types have merits in use of seismic applications and that the selection of the damper configuration is dependent on the design specific issues.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.76 no.6
• /
• pp.823-837
• /
• 2020

In this research, the idea of improving the seismic response of an existing steel structure with use of friction dampers between external walls and the structure is discussed. The main difference of this method with other methods of seismic rehabilitation is that interior spaces of the existing structure remain untouched and new parts including external walls and dampers are added outside of the structure. Three frames having 3, 6 and 9 stories are modeled in SAP2000 software before and after seismic retrofit and responses of the system are investigated under the effect of seven earthquake records. Initially, different ratios of seismic weight of stories are presumed for slip forces of the dampers with a distribution based on given equations. The optimized capacity of dampers is obtained by investigating the average of maximum displacement, acceleration and base shear of the structure caused by earthquakes. For this optimized values, maximum inter-story drifts and acceleration are obtained through numerical models. Results show that in 3, 6 and 9-story frames peak roof displacement decreased up to 80%. Maximum roof acceleration and base shear of the frames also decreased 46, 40 and 32% and 84, 67 and 65%, respectively for three building structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.77 no.4
• /
• pp.463-472
• /
• 2021

Fully rigid floor diaphragm is one of the main assumptions that are widely used in common practices due to its simple application. However, determining the exact degree of diaphragms flexibility cannot be easily accomplished without finite element modeling, which is an expensive and time-consuming procedure. Therefore, it is always possible that apparently rigid diaphragms, based on prescriptive limitations of seismic codes, experience some degrees of flexibility during the earthquakes. Since diaphragm flexibility has more uncertainties in asymmetric-plan structures, this study focuses on errors resulting from probable floor diaphragm flexibility of torsionally restrained structures. The analytical models used in this study were single-story buildings with asymmetric plan and RC shear walls. Although floor system is not considered explicitly, a wide range of considered diaphragm flexibility, from fully rigid to quite flexible, allows the results to be generalizable to a lot of lateral load resisting systems as well as floor systems. It has been shown that in addition to previously known effects of diaphragm flexibility, presence of orthogonal side elements during design procedure with rigid diaphragm assumption and rapid reduction in their absorbed forces can also be an important source to increase errors due to flexibility. Accordingly, from the obtained results the authors suggest designers to consider the possibility of diaphragm flexibility and its adverse effects, especially in torsionally restrained systems in their common designs.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.83 no.6
• /
• pp.745-756
• /
• 2022

This study aims to determine the cause of the load resistance loss in storage racks that can be attributed to external forces such as earthquakes and to improve safety by developing reinforcement systems that can prevent load resistance loss. To this end, a static cyclic loading test was performed on pallet racks commonly used in logistics warehouses. The test results indicated that a pallet rack exposed to an external force loses more than 50% of its load resistance owing to the damage caused to column-beam joints. Three reinforcement systems were developed for preventing load resistance loss in storage racks exposed to an external force and for performing differentiated target functions: column reinforcement device, seismic damper, and viscoelastic damper. Shake table testing was performed to evaluate the earthquake response and verify the performance of these reinforcement systems. The results confirmed that, the maximum displacement, which causes the loss of load resistance and the permanent deformation of racks under external force, is reduced using the developed reinforcement devices. Thus, the appropriate selection of the developed reinforcement devices by users can help secure the safety of the storage racks.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.109-120
• /
• 2022

Older or damaged structures can require significant retrofit to ensure they perform well in subsequent earthquakes. Supplemental damping devices are used to achieve this goal, but increase base shear forces, foundation demand, and cost. Displacement reduction without increasing base shear is possible using novel semi-active and recently-created passive devices, which offer energy dissipation in selected quadrants of the force-displacement response. Combining these devices with large, strictly passive energy dissipation devices can offer greater, yet customized response reductions. Supplemental damping to reduce response without increasing base shear enables a net-zero base shear approach. This study evaluates this concept using two incremental dynamic analyses (IDAs) to show displacement reductions up to 40% without increasing base shear, more than would be achieved for either device alone, significantly reducing the risk of response exceeding the unaltered structural case. IDA results lead to direct calculation of reductions in risk and annualized economic cost for adding these devices using this net-zero concept, thus quantifying the trade-off. The overall device assessment and risk analysis method presented provides a generalizable proof-of-concept approach, and provides a framework for assessing the impact and economic cost-benefit of using modern supplemental energy dissipation devices.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.46 no.5
• /
• pp.591-609
• /
• 2023

In some buildings, the lateral structural response of steel framed buildings depends on the shear walls and it is very important to study the behavior of these elements under near-field seismic loads. The link beam in the opening of the shear wall between two wall plates is investigated numerically in terms of behavior and effects on frames. Based on the length of the beam and its bending and shear behavior, three types of models are constructed and analyzed, and the behavior of the frames is also compared. The results show that by reducing the length of the link beam, the base shear forces reduce about 20%. The changes in the length of the link beam have different effects on the degree of coupling. Increasing the length of the link beam increases the base shear about 15%. Also, it has both, a positive and a negative effect on the degree of coupling. The increasing strength of the coupling steel shear wall is linearly related to the yield stress of the beam materials, length, and flexural stiffness of the beam. The use of a shorter link beam will increase the additional strength and consequently improving the behavior of the coupling steel shear wall by reducing the stresses in this element. The link beam with large moment of inertia will also increase about 25% the additional strength and as a result the coefficient of behavior of the shear wall.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.231-243
• /
• 2022

Beam-column joints (BCJs) are recognized among the most crucial zones in reinforced concrete structures, as they are the critical elements subjected to a complex state of forces during a severe earthquake. Under such conditions, BCJs exhibit behaviors with impacts that extend to the whole structure and significantly influence its ductility and capability of dissipating energy. The focus of this paper is to investigate the effect of undamaged transverse beam (secondary beams) on the ductility of concrete BCJs reinforced with conventional steel and shape memory alloys bars using pushover analysis at tip of beam under different axial load levels at the column using a nonlinear finite element model in ABAQUS environment. A numerical model of a BCJ was constructed and the analysis outcomes were verified by comparing them to those obtained from previous experiments found in the literature. The comparison evidenced the capability of the calibrated model to predict the load capacity response of the joint. Results proved the ability of undamaged secondary beams to provide a noticeable improvement to the ductility of reinforced concrete joints, with a very negligible loss in load capacity. However, the effect of secondary beams can become less significant if the beams are damaged due to seismic effects. In addition, the axial load was found to significantly enhance the performance of BCJs, where the increase in axial load magnified the capacity of the joint. However, higher values of axial load resulted in greater initial stiffness of the BCJ.