• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.361-382
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• 1999

This paper reviews aspects of current design procedures for seismic design of structures, and specifically examines their relevance to the design of light framed residential buildings under earthquake loading. The significance of the various structural contributions made by the components of cold formed steel framed residential structures subjected to earthquake induced loadings has been investigated. This is a common form of residential construction worldwide. Particular attention is given to aspects related to ductility and overstrength, the latter arising principally from the contributions of the designated "non-structural" components. Based on both analytical and experimental data obtained from research investigations on steel framed residential structures, typical ranges of the ductility reduction factor and overstrength ratios are determined. It is concluded that the latter parameter has a very significant influence on the seismic design of such structures. Although the numerical ranges for the inelastic seismic parameters given in this paper were obtained for Australian houses, the concepts and the highlighted aspects of seismic design methodology are more widely applicable.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.223-236
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• 2017

Seismic assessment and rehabilitation of Monumental Buildings constitute an important issue in many regions around the world to preserve cultural heritage. On the contrary, many recent earthquakes have demonstrated the high vulnerability of this type of structures. The high nonlinear masonry behaviour requires ad hoc refined finite element numerical models, whose complexity and computational costs are generally unsuitable for practical applications. For these reasons, several authors proposed simplified numerical strategies to be used in engineering practice. However, most of these alternative methods are oversimplified being based on the assumption of in-plane behaviour of masonry walls. Moreover, they cannot be used for modelling the monumental structures for which the interaction between plane and out-plane behaviour governs the structural response. Recently, an innovative discrete-modelling approach for the simulation of both in-plane and out of-plane response of masonry structures was proposed and applied to study several typologies of historic structures. In this paper the latter model is applied with reference to a real case study, and numerically compared with an advanced finite element modelling. The method is applied to the St.Venerio church in Reggiolo (Italy), damaged during the 2012 Emilia-Romagna earthquake and numerically investigated in the literature.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.783-794
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• 2020

Steel-concrete-steel sandwich composite wall is composed of two external steel plates and infilled concrete core. Internal mechanical connectors are used to enhance the composite action between the two materials. In this paper, the compressive behavior of a novel sandwich composite wall was studied. The steel trusses were applied to connect the steel plates to the concrete core. Three short specimens with different truss spacings were tested under compressive loading. The boundary columns were not included. It was found that the failure of walls started from the buckling of steel plates and followed by the crushing of concrete. Global instability was not observed. It was also observed that the truss spacing has great influence on ultimate strength, buckling stress, ductility, strength index, lateral deflection, and strain distribution. Three modern codes were introduced to calculate the capacity of walls. The comparisons between test results and code predictions show that AISC 360 provides significant underestimations while Eurocode 4 and CECS 159 offer overestimated predictions.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.335-353
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• 2012

This study suggests a simple two-step method for structural vibration-based health monitoring for beam-like structures which only utilizes mode shape curvature and few natural frequencies of the structures in order to detect and localize cracks. The method is firstly based on the application of wavelet transform to detect crack locations from mode shape curvature. Then particle swarm optimization is applied to evaluate crack depth. As the Rayleigh quotient is introduced to estimate natural frequencies of cracked beams, the relationship of natural frequencies and crack depths can be easily obtained with only a simple formula. The method is demonstrated and validated numerically, using the numerical examples (cantilever beam and simply supported shaft) in the literature, and experimentally for a cantilever beam. Our results show that mode shape curvature and few estimated natural frequencies can be used to detect crack locations and depths precisely even under a certain level of noise. The method can be extended for health monitoring of other more complicated structures.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.157-162
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• 2006

Chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP), one of the dominant technology for ULSI planarization, is used to flatten the micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) structures. The objective of this paper is to achieve good planarization of the deposited film and to improve deposition efficiency of subsequent layer structures by using surface-micromachining process in MEMS technology. Planarization characteristic of poly-Si film deposited on thin oxide layer with MEMS structures is evaluated with different slurries. Patterns used for this research have shapes of square, density, line, hole, pillar, and micro engine part. Advantages of CMP process for MEMS structures are observed respectively by using the test patterns with structures larger than 1 urn line width. Preliminary tests for material selectivity of poly-Si and oxide are conducted with two types of silica slurries: $ILD1300^{TM}\;and\;Nalco2371^{TM}$. And then, the experiments were conducted based on the pretest. A selectivity and pH adjustment of slurry affected largely step heights of MEMS structures. These results would be anticipated as an important bridge stone to manufacture MEMS CMP slurry.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.731-741
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• 2019

Shear deformation effects are neglected in most structural system identification methods. This assumption might lead to important errors in some structures like built up steel or composite deep beams. Recently, the observability techniques were presented as one of the first methods for the inverse analysis of structures including the shear effects. In this way, the mechanical properties of the structures could be obtained from the nodal movements measured on static tests. One of the main controversial features of this procedure is the fact that the measurement set must include rotations. This characteristic might be especially problematic in those structures where rotations cannot be measured. To solve this problem and to increase its applicability, this paper proposes an update of the observability method to enable the structural identification including shear effects by measuring only vertical deflections. This modification is based on the introduction of a numerical optimization method. With this aim, the inverse analysis of several examples of growing complexity are presented to illustrate the validity and potential of the updated method.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.76 no.6
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• pp.709-724
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• 2020

The typical inerter system, the tuned viscous mass damper (TVMD), has been proven to be efficient. It is characterized by an energy-dissipation-enhancement effect, whereby the dashpot deformation of TVMD can be amplified for enhanced energy dissipation efficiency. However, existing studies related to TVMD have mainly been performed on elastic structures, so the working mechanism remains unclear for nonlinear structures. To deal with this, an energy-spectrum analysis framework is developed systematically for classic bilinear hysteretic structures with TVMD. Considering the soil effect, typical bedrock records are propagated through the soil deposit, for which the designed input energy spectra are proposed by considering the TVMD parameters and structural nonlinear properties. Furthermore, the energy-dissipation-enhancement effect of TVMD is quantitatively evaluated for bilinear hysteretic structures. The results show that the established designed input energy spectra can be employed to evaluate the total energy-dissipation burden for a nonlinear TVMD structure. Particularly, the stiffness of TVMD is the dominant factor in adjusting the total input energy. Compared with the case of elastic structures, the energy-dissipation-enhancement effect of TVMD for nonlinear structures is weakened so that the expected energy-dissipation effect of TVMD is replaced by the accumulated energy dissipation of the primary structure.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 2021

Composite nature of the masonry structures in general causes complex and non-linear behaviour, especially in intense vibration conditions. The presence of different types and forms of structural elements and different materials is a major problem for the analysis of these type of structures. For this reason, the analysis of the behaviour of masonry structures requires a combination of experimental tests and non-linear mathematical modelling. The famous UNESCO Heritage Old Bridge in Mostar was selected as an example for the analysis of the global behaviour of reinforced stone arch masonry bridges. As part of the experimental research, a model of the Old Bridge was constructed in a scale of 1:9 and tested on a shaking table platform for different levels of seismic excitation. Non-linear mathematical modelling was performed using a combined finite-discrete element method (FDEM), including the effect of connection elements. The paper presents the horizontal displacement of the top of the arch and the failure mechanism of the Old Bridge model for the experimental and the numerical phase, as well as the comparison of the results. This research provided a clearer insight into the global behaviour of stone arch masonry structures reinforced with steel clamps and steel dowels, which is significant for the structures classified as world cultural heritage.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.117-125
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• 2022

In this study, centrifuge model tests were performed to evaluate the seismic response of multi-DOF structures with shallow foundations. Also, elastic time history analysis on the fixed-base model was performed and compared with the experimental results. As a result of the centrifuge model test, earthquake amplification at the fundamental vibration frequency of the soil (= 2.44 Hz) affected the third vibration mode frequency (= 2.50 Hz) of the long-period structure and the first vibration mode (= 2.27 Hz) of the short-period structure. The shallow foundation lengthened the periods of the structures by 14-20% compared to the fixed base condition. The response spectrum of acceleration measured at the shallow foundation was smaller than that of free-field motion due to the foundation damping effect. The ultimate moment capacity of the soil-foundation system limited the dynamic responses of the multi-DOF structures. Therefore, the considerations on period lengthening, foundation damping, and ultimate moment capacity of the soil-foundation system might improve the seismic design of the multi-DOF building structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.84 no.5
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• pp.665-673
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• 2022

Additive manufacturing is an emerging method to manufacture objects with complex shapes and intricate geometry, such as cellular structures. The cellular structures can widely be used in lightweight application as it provides a high strength-to-load ratio. Under the various testing condition, each topology shows different mechanical properties. This study investigates the structural response of various types of cellular structures in compression loading, both experimentally and numerically. For that purpose, honeycomb, modified honeycomb, and spiral-type topology were selected to investigate. Besides, structural properties change by changing the cell size for each topology is also investigated. The specimens were subjected to a compression test by a universal testing machine to determine the absorbed energy and other mechanical properties. An implicit numerical study was also conducted to determine cellular structure's mechanical characteristics. The experimental and numerical results show that the honeycomb structure absorbs the maximum energy compared to the other structures. The experimentally and numerically calculated absorbed energy for the 4.8 mm honeycomb structure was 32.2J and 30.63J, respectively. The results also show that the increase of cell size for a particular cellular structure reduces the energy-absorbing ability of that structure.