• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.181-194
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• 2012

Chile is characterized by the largest seismicity in the world which produces strong earthquakes every $83{\pm}9years$ in the Central part of Chile, where it is located Santiago, the capital of Chile. The short interval between large earthquakes magnitude 8.5 has conditioned the Chilean seismic design practice to achieve almost operational performance level, despite the fact that the Chilean Code declares a scope of life safe performance level. Several Indexes have been widely used throughout the years in Chile to evaluate the structural characteristics of concrete buildings, with the intent to find a correlation between general structural conception and successful seismic performance. The Indexes presented are related only to global response of buildings under earthquake loads and not to the behavior or design of individual elements. A correlation between displacement demand and seismic structural damage is presented, using the index $H_o/T$ and the concrete compressive strain ${\varepsilon}_c$. Also the Chilean seismic design codes pre and post 2010 Maule earthquake are reviewed and the practice in seismic design vs Performance Based Design is presented. Performance Based Design procedures are not included in the Chilean seismic design code for buildings, nevertheless the earthquake experience has shown that the response of the Chilean buildings has been close to operational. This can be attributed to the fact that the drift of most engineered buildings designed in accordance with the Chilean practice falls below 0.5%. It is also known by experience that for frequent and even occasional earthquakes, buildings responded elastically and thus with "fully operational" performance. Taking the above into account, it can be said that, although the "basic objective" of the Chilean code is similar to the SEAOC VISION2000 criteria, the actual performance for normal buildings is closer to the "Essential/Hazardous objective".

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.63-78
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• 1996

Various type of in-situ and laboratary tests were performed in order to evaluate the stiffness of sedimentary soft rock. In triaxial compression tests of sedimentary soft rocks, axial strains from the axial displacement of the loading piston or specimen cap conventionally were considerably larger than those measured. tocally on the lateral surfaces of specimen, due to the bedding errors at the top and bottom ends of a specimen. A local deformation transducer was used to measure axial strains free from the bedding error ranging from 0.001% to about 1%. In ultra-sonic wave tests, the elastic modulus of unconfined spec imens was smaller than that of confined specimens, due probably to microfracks. Young's modulus Ed from ultra-sonic wave tests and those at small local strains from triaxial tests were similar, both of which agreed very well with Young's modulus Er from field shear wave velocities. Young'a modulus from the field behaviour was virtually similar to that obtained by reducing Er based on the strain level-dependency of stiffness evaluated by the triaxial tests.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.881-898
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• 2013

This paper describes analytical investigation into a new dual function system including a couple of shear links which are connected in series using chevron bracing capable to correlate its performance with magnitude of earthquakes. In this proposed system, called Chevron Knee-Vertical Link Beam braced system (CK-VLB), the inherent hysteretic damping of vertical link beam placed above chevron bracing is exclusively utilized to dissipate the energy of moderate earthquakes through web plastic shear distortion while the rest of the structural elements are in elastic range. Under strong earthquakes, plastic deformation of VLB will be halted via restraining it by Stopper Device (SD) and further imposed displacement subsequently causes yielding of the knee elements located at the bottom of chevron bracing to significantly increase the energy dissipation capacity level. In this paper first by studying the knee yielding mode, a suitable shape and angle for diagonal-knee bracing is proposed. Then finite elements models are developed. Monotonic and cyclic analyses have been conducted to compare dissipation capacities on three individual models of passive systems (CK-VLB, knee braced system and SPS system) by General-purpose finite element program ABAQUS in which a bilinear kinematic hardening model is incorporated to trace the material nonlinearity. Also quasi-static cyclic loading based on the guidelines presented in ATC-24 has been imposed to different models of CK-VLB with changing of vertical link beam section in order to find prime effectiveness on structural frames. Results show that CK-VLB system exhibits stable behavior and is capable of dissipating a significant amount of energy in two separate levels of lateral forces due to different probable earthquakes.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.779-807
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• 2016

Ground Motion Prediction Equations (GMPEs) are essential tools in seismic hazard analysis. With the introduction of probabilistic approaches for the estimation of seismic response of structures, also known as, performance based earthquake engineering framework; new tasks are defined for response spectrum such as the reference criterion for effective structure-specific selection of ground motions for nonlinear time history analysis. One of the recent efforts to introduce a high quality databank of ground motions besides the corresponding selection scheme based on the broadband spectral consistency is the development of SIMBAD (Selected Input Motions for displacement-Based Assessment and Design), which is designed to improve the reliability of spectral values at all natural periods by removing noise with modern proposed approaches. In this paper, a new global GMPE is proposed by using selected ground motions from SIMBAD to improve the reliability of computed spectral shape indicators. To determine regression coefficients, 204 pairs of horizontal components from 35 earthquakes with magnitude ranging from Mw 5 to Mw 7.1 and epicentral distances lower than 40 km selected from SIMBAD are used. The proposed equation is compared with similar models both qualitatively and quantitatively. After the verification of model by several goodness-of-fit measures, the epsilon values as the spectral shape indicator are computed and the validity of available prediction equations for correlation of the pairs of epsilon values is examined. General consistency between predictions by new model and others, especially, in short periods is confirmed, while, at longer periods, there are meaningful differences between normalized residuals and correlation coefficients between pairs of them estimated by new model and those are computed by other empirical equations. A simple collapse assessment example indicate possible improvement in the correlation between collapse capacity and spectral shape indicators (${\varepsilon}$) up to 20% by selection of a more applicable GMPE for calculation of ${\varepsilon}$.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.541-560
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• 2017

In this research, experimental and numerical simulations were adopted to investigate the effects of ligament angle on compressive strength and failure mode of rock-like material specimens containing two non-coplanar filled fissures under uniaxial compression. The experimental results show that with the increase of ligament angle, the compressive strength decreases to a nadir at the ligament angle of $60^{\circ}$, before increasing to the maximum at the ligament angle of $120^{\circ}$, while the elastic modulus is not obviously related to the ligament angle. The shear coalescence type easily occurred when ${\alpha}$ < ${\beta}$, although having the same degree difference between the angle of ligament and fissure. Numerical simulations using $PFC^{2D}$ were performed for flawed specimens under uniaxial compression, and the results are in good consistency with the experimental results. By analyzing the crack evolution process and parallel bond force field of rock-like material specimen containing two non-coplanar filled fissures, we can conclude that the coalescence and propagation of crack are mainly derived from parallel bond force, and the crack initiation and propagation also affect the distribution of parallel bond force. Finally, the displacement vectors in ligament region were used to identify the type of coalescence, and the results coincided with that obtained by analyzing parallel bond force field. These experimental and numerical results are expected to improve the understanding of the mechanism of flawed rock engineering structures.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.100-106
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• 2014

Lower control arm (LCA) is a part of chassis in automotive. Performances of LCA such as stiffness, durability and permanent displacement must be considered in design optimization. However it is hard to consider different performances at once in optimization because these are measured by different commercial tools like Radioss, Abaqus, etc. In this paper, firstly, we construct the integrated design automation system for LCA based on Matlab including Hypermesh, Radioss and Abaqus. Secondly, Akaike information criterion (AIC) is used for assessment of reliability of LCA. It can find the best estimated distribution of performance from limited and discrete stochastic information and then obtains the reliability from the distribution. Finally, we consider tolerances of design variables and variation of elastic modulus and achieve the target reliability by carrying out reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) with the integrated system.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.31-44
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• 1995

The puppose of this study is to propose the numerical modelling criteria for underground opening, rock mass continuum is regarded as homogeneous rock behaved linear elastic. The results of this study are summarized as follows: - Boundaries of the finite element mesh should be located at least 6 radii away from the center of the opening. - For circular openings, tension only developed when $K_0$ was less than one-fourAs the ratio of initial horiwntal to vertical stress increased, the inward springline movement increased and the inward crown movement decreased. - The displacement patterns developing for opening I shaped horse-shoe and opening II shaped powerstation are similar to those for circular openings. For both type opening I and opening II, stress concentrations develop at the intersection of the wall and floor. Greater stress concentrations are found for the type opening II.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.7-13
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• 1993

Fracture behavior of pre-cracked compact tension specimens made of AISI 4130 steel was investigated using acoustic emission (AE) and ultrasonic C-scan measurements. While each specimen was loaded up to a certain level, various acoustic emission parameters were recorded together with the crack opening displacement (COD). An elastic-plastic finite element analysis was performed to calculate COD and the damage (plastic) zone size ahead of crack tip. Ultrasonic C-scans, in a pulse-echo, immersion mode, were done for mapping the damage zone size. The agreement between the finite element results and the measured COD was satisfactory. Based on AE results, the test specimens were found to show ductile behavior. The slope of the total ringdown counts vs. COD curve was useful to determine the crack initiation. The preliminary C-scan images showed evidence of changes in the amplitude of ultrasonic signal in the damaged region, and the shape and size of the damage zone matched qualitatively with the finite element results. A further work on the damage zone sizing was also pointed out.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.273-286
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• 2020

The pile group foundation is widely used for gravity pier of high-speed railway bridges in China. If a moderate or strong earthquake occurs, the pile-surrounding soil will exhibit obvious nonlinearity and significant pile group effect. In this study, an improved pushover analysis model for the pile group foundation with consideration of pile group effect is presented and validated by the quasi-static test. The improved model uses simplified springs to simulate the soil lateral resistance, side friction and tip resistance. PM (axial load-bending moment) plastic hinge model is introduced to simulate the impact of the axial force changing of pile group on their elastic-plastic characteristics. The pile group effect is considered in stress-stain relations of the lateral soil resistance with a reduction factor. The influence factors on nonlinear characteristics and plastic hinge distribution of the pile group foundation are discussed, including the pier height, longitudinal reinforcement ratio and stirrup ratio of the pile, and soil mechanical parameters. Furthermore, the displacement ductility factor, resistance increase factor and yielding stiffness ratio are provided to evaluate the seismic performance of soil-pile system. A case study for the pile group foundation of a railway simply supported beam bridge with a 32 m-span is conducted by numerical analysis. It is shown that the ultimate lateral force of pile group is not determined by the yielding force of the single one in these piles. Therefore, the pile group effect is essential for the seismic performance evaluation of the railway bridge with pile group foundation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.22 no.10 s.175
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• pp.114-120
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• 2005

Urethane is a high polymeric and elastic material useful in designing mechanic parts that cannot be molded with rubber or plastic material. In particular, urethane is high in mechanical strength and anti-abrasive. Hereby, a urethane coated aluminum wheel is used to support of the OHT vehicle moving back and forth to transport products. For the sake of verifying the safety of the vehicle, structural safety fur applied maximum dynamic load on a urethane wheel must be examined carefully while driving. Therefore, we performed a dynamic simulation on the OHT vehicle model and we determined the driving load. The area definition of applied load may be obtained from the previous study of Hertzian and Non-Hertzian contact force model having exact properties of contact material. But the static analysis is simulated after we have performed the actual contact area test for each load since the proper material properties of urethane have not been guaranteed. In this study, the method of distributing loads for each node is included. Finally, in coMParison with the results of analysis and load-displacement curve obtained from the compression test, we have defined the material properties of urethane. In the analysis, we verified the safety of the wheel. Finally, we performed a mode analysis using the obtained material properties. With these results, we presented a reliable finite element model.