• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.65 no.1
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• pp.53-68
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• 2018

In this paper, an innovative procedure is proposed for the seismic design of reinforced concrete frame structures. The main contribution of the proposed procedure is to minimize the construction cost, considering the uniform damage distribution over the height of structure due to earthquake excitations. As such, this procedure is structured in the framework of an optimization problem, and the initial construction cost is chosen as the objective function. The aim of uniform damage distribution is reached through a design constraint in the optimization problem. Since this aim requires defining allowable degree of damage, a damage pattern based on the concept of global collapse mechanism is presented. To show the efficiency of the proposed procedure, the uniform damage-based optimum seismic design is compared with two other seismic design procedures, which are the strength-based optimum seismic design and the damage-based optimum seismic design. By using the three different seismic design methods, three reinforced concrete frames including six-, nine-, and twelve-story with three bays are designed optimally under a same artificial earthquake. Then, to show the effects of the uniform damage distribution, all three optimized frames are used for seismic damage analysis under a suite of earthquake records. The results show that the uniform damage-based optimum seismic design method renders a design that will suffer less damage under severe earthquakes.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.117-124
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• 1994

Multi-level Multi-objective optimization(MLMO) for reinforced concrete framed structure is performed, and compared with the results of single-level single-objective optimization. MLMO method allows flexibility to meet the design needs such as deflection and cost of structures using weighting factors. Using Multi-level formulation, the numbers of constraints and variables are reduced at each levels, and the optimization formulation becomes simplified. The force approximation method is used to reflect the variation in design variables between the substructures, and thus coupling is maintained. And the linear approximated constraints and objective function are used to reduce the number of structural analysis in optimization process. It is shown that the developed algorithm with move limit can converge effectively to optimal solution.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.53-66
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• 2017

Structures submitted to Fire-After-Earthquake loading situations, are first experiencing inelastic deformations due to the seismic action and are then submitted to the thermal loading. This means that in the case of steel framed structures, at the starting point of the fire, plastic hinges have already been formed at the ends of the beams. The basic objective of this paper is the evaluation of the rotational capacity of steel I-section beams damaged due to prior earthquake loading, at increased temperatures. The study is conducted numerically and three-dimensional models are used in order to capture accurately the nonlinear behaviour of the steel beams. Different levels of earthquake-induced damage are examined in order to study the effect of the initial state of damage to the temperature-evolution of the rotational capacity. The study starts with the reference case where the beam is undamaged and in the sequel cyclic loading patterns are taken into account, which represent earthquakes loads of increasing magnitude. Additionally, the study extends to the evaluation of the ultimate plastic rotation of the steel beams which corresponds to the point where the rotational capacity of the beam is exhausted. The aforementioned value of rotation can be used as a criterion for the determination of the fire-resistance time of the structure in case of Fire-After-Earthquake situations.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.46-52
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• 2018

Detail development and performance tests were conducted for the purpose of developing a damper system capable of lateral displacement control of existing frame structures. The development details are 1) ALD designed to prevent deformation of beams between columns and 2) AWD designed to control inter-story displacement. The non-reinforced BF specimen was used as a comparative study. The evaluation variables are failure mode, load-displacement curve, envelope curve, maximum strength, stiffness degradation and energy dissipation capacity. As a result, the seismic strengthening effect of ALD and AWD was confirmed. Also, it was confirmed that the method of restraining the column with the aramid sheet is superior to the improvement of the seismic performance.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.697-711
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• 2015

It is well known the importance of considering hysteretic energy demands for the seismic assessment and design of structures. In such a way that it is necessary to establish new parameters of the earthquake ground motion potential able to predict energy demands in structures. In this paper, several alternative vector-valued ground motion intensity measures (IMs) are used to estimate hysteretic energy demands in steel framed buildings under long duration narrow-band ground motions. The vectors are based on the spectral acceleration at first mode of the structure Sa($T_1$) as first component. As the second component, IMs related to peak, integral and spectral shape parameters are selected. The aim of the study is to provide new parameters or vector-valued ground motion intensities with the capacity of predicting energy demands in structures. It is concluded that spectral-shape-based vector-valued IMs have the best relation with hysteretic energy demands in steel frames subjected to narrow-band earthquake ground motions.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.83-94
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• 1991

This paper presents an efficient and accurate method for nonlinear analysis of frame structures by idealized structural unit method. The main idea behind the present method is to minimize the computational effort by reducing the number of unknowns. An explicit form of the tangential elastic stiffness matrix of the element is derived by the principle of virtual work. The ultimate limit state of the element is judged on the basis of the formation of a plastic hinge mechanism. The elasto-plasto-plastic stiffness matrix of the element is derived by plastic node method and the post-ultimate stiffness equation is formulated under a simple analytic consideration. A comparison between the present solution and the existing experimental and other numerical result for unit column member and simple frame structure is made. If is clear from the result of this study that the present method is very useful because the computing time required is very small while giving the accurate solution.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.515-537
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• 2014

Current seismic codes (e.g. the NTC08 Italian code and the EC8 European code) adopt a performance-based approach for both the design of new buildings and the assessment of existing ones. Different limit states are considered by verifying structural members as well as non structural elements and facilities which have generally been neglected in practice. The key role of non structural elements on building performance has been shown by recent earthquakes (e.g. L'Aquila 2009) where, due to the extensive damage suffered by infills, partitions and ceilings, a lot of private and public buildings became unusable with consequent significant socio-economic effects. Furthermore, the collapse of infill panels, particularly in the case of out-of-plane failure, represented a serious source of risk to life safety. This paper puts forward an infill model capable of accounting for the effects arising from prior in-plane damage on the out-of-plane capacity of infill panels. It permits an assessment of the seismic performance of existing RC buildings with reference to both structural and non structural elements, as well as of their mutual interaction. The model is applied to a building type with RC framed structure designed only to vertical loads and representative of typical Italian buildings. The influence of infill on building performance and the role of the out-of-plane response on structural response are also discussed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.367-386
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• 2006

This paper describes the results of a numerical investigation of the large deflection behaviour of steel beams under fire conditions, taking into consideration the effect of catenary action provided by the surrounding structures. The main focus is on the development, validation and application of a simplified calculation method that may be adopted in design calculations. Because no experimental result is available for validation of the simplified calculation method, the finite element program ABAQUS has been used to simulate the large deflection behaviour of a number of steel beams so as to provide alternative results for validation of the proposed method. Utilising catenary action has the potential of eliminating fire protection to all steel beams without causing structural failure in fire. However, practical application of catenary action will be restricted by concerns over large beam deflection causing integrity failure of the fire resistant compartment and additional cost of strengthening the connections and the surrounding structures to resist the catenary forces in the steel beams. This paper will provide a discussion on practical implications of utilising catenary action in steel beams as a means of eliminating fire protection. A number of examples will then be provided to illustrate the type of steel framed structure that could benefit the most from exploiting catenary action in fire resistant design.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.4580-4586
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• 2013

Many school buildings are not applied seismic code because of small size structures. But it must be designed to show enough structural performance when subject to earthquake due to the fact that most of school buildings are generally used as public shelters when the natural disasters. In this study, the seismic risk of the reinforced concrete school building structure which is the most common types of school structures was evaluated by using the seismic performance evaluation methods. As a result, model structures don't have enough seismic performance.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.539-549
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• 2017

Existing reinforced concrete frame buildings designed for vertical loads could only suffer severe damage during earthquakes. In recent years, many research activities were undertaken to develop a reliable and practical analysis procedure to identify the safety level of existing structures. The Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) is considered to be one of the most accurate methods to estimate the seismic demand and capacity of structures. However, the executions of many nonlinear response history analyses (NL_RHA) are required to describe the entire range of structural response. The research discussed in this paper deals with the proposal of an efficient Incremental Modal Pushover Analysis (IMPA) to obtain capacity curves by replacing the nonlinear response history analysis of the IDA procedure with Modal Pushover Analysis (MPA). Firstly, In this work, the MPA is examined and extended to three-dimensional asymmetric structures and then it is incorporated into the proposed procedure (IMPA) to estimate the structure's seismic response and capacity for given seismic actions. This new procedure, which accounts for higher mode effects, does not require the execution of complex NL-RHA, but only a series of nonlinear static analysis. Finally, the extended MPA and IMPA were applied to an existing irregular framed building.