• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.57-66
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• 2011

For the lateral load resistance of a RC frame in a medium risk seismic zone, the strength of lower story beams and columns should be larger than those of the upper stories. However, the lateral loads can be accommodated by redistributing design beam moments vertically as well as horizontally so all beams end up with identical strengths. This paper looks at the impact of the vertical redistribution of beam moments to provide identical beam strength over as many floors as possible. Two-bay six-story RC frame was designed with and without vertical beam moment redistribution and its seismic performance were evaluated by using push-over limit analysis and by non-linear time history dynamic analysis. Analytical results show that with the use of vertical beam moment redistribution the increase in the ductility demand is similar to the proportion of moment redistribution applied, but this additional demand is below the ductility capacity of well detailed RC members.

• 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 Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.18 no.5 s.95
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• pp.595-602
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• 2006

An experimental study was conducted to investigate seismic behaviour of post-tensioned(PT) exterior slab-column connections used for the purpose to resist gravity loads only. For these, 2/3-scale, two PT post-tensioned exterior connections with two different tendon arrangement patterns and one conventional reinforced concrete(RC) exterior connection was tested under quasi-static, uni-directional reversed cyclic loading. During the lateral testing, gravity forces transferred to the column were kept constant to closely simulate a moment to shear ratio of a real building. One of the objectives of this study was to assess the necessity and/or the quantity of bottom bonded reinforcement needed to resist moment reversal which would occur under significant inelastic deformations of the adjacent lateral force resisting systems. The ACI 318 and 352 provisions for structural integrity were applied to provide the bottom reinforcement passing through the column for the specimens. Prior test results were also collected to conduct comparative studies for some design parameters such as the tendon arrangement pattern, the effect of post-tensioning forces and the use of bottom bonded reinforcement. Consequently, the impact of tendon arrangement on the seismic performance of the PT connection, that is lateral drift capacity and ductility, dissipated energy and failure mechanism, was considerable. Moreover, test results showed that the amount of bottom reinforcement specified by ACI 352. 1R-89 was sufficient for resisting positive moments arising from moment reversal under reversed cyclic loads. Shear strength of the tested specimens was more accurately predicted by the shear strength equation(ACI 318) considering the average compressive stress over the concrete($f_{pc}$) due to post-tensioning forces than that without considering $f_{pc}$.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.976-983
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• 2023

Purpose: The dynamic behavior of a bridge structure under seismic loading depends on many uncertainties, such as the nature of the seismic waves and the material and geometric properties. However, not all uncertainties have a significant impact on the dynamic behavior of a bridge structure. Since probabilistic seismic performance evaluation considering even low-impact uncertainties is computationally expensive, the uncertainties should be identified by considering their impact on the dynamic behavior of the bridge. Therefore, in this study, a global sensitivity analysis was performed to identify the main parameters affecting the dynamic behavior of bridges with I-curved girders. Method: Considering the uncertainty of the earthquake and the material and geometric uncertainty of the curved bridge, a finite element analysis was performed, and a surrogate model was developed based on the analysis results. The surrogate model was evaluated using performance metrics such as coefficient of determination, and finally, a global sensitivity analysis based on the surrogate model was performed. Result: The uncertainty factors that have the greatest influence on the stress response of the I-curved girder under seismic loading are the peak ground acceleration (PGA), the height of the bridge (h), and the yield stress of the steel (fy). The main effect sensitivity indices of PGA, h, and fy were found to be 0.7096, 0.0839, and 0.0352, respectively, and the total sensitivity indices were found to be 0.9459, 0.1297, and 0.0678, respectively. Conclusion: The stress response of the I-shaped curved girder is dominated by the uncertainty of the input motions and is strongly influenced by the interaction effect between each uncertainty factor. Therefore, additional sensitivity analysis of the uncertainty of the input motions, such as the number of input motions and the intensity measure(IM), and a global sensitivity analysis considering the structural uncertainty, such as the number and curvature of the curved girders, are required.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.82 no.1
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• pp.107-120
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• 2022

The bracing members capable of active control against seismic loads to reduce earthquake damage have been widely utilized in construction projects. Effectively reducing the structural damage caused by earthquake events, bracing systems equipped with retrofitting damper devices, which take advantage of the energy dissipation and impact absorption, have been widely used in practical construction sites. Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) are a new generation of smart materials with the capability of recovering their predefined shape after experiencing a large strain. This is mainly due to the shape memory effects and the superelasticity of SMA. These properties make SMA an excellent alternative to be used in passive, semi-active, and active control systems in civil engineering applications. In this research, a new system in diagonal braces with slit damper combined with SMA is investigated. The diagonal element under the effect of tensile and compressive force turns to shear force in the slit damper and creates tension in the SMA. Therefore, by creating shear forces in the damper, it leads to yield and increases the energy absorption capacity of the system. The purpose of using SMA, in addition to increasing the stiffness and strength of the system, is to create reversibility for the system. According to the results, the highest capacity is related to the case where the ratio of the width of the middle section to the width of the end section (b₁/b) is 1.0 and the ratio of the height of the middle part to the total height of the damper (h₁/h) is 0.1. This is mainly because in this case, the damper section has the highest cross-section. In contrast, the lowest capacity is related to the case where b₁/b=0.1 and the ratio h₁/h=0.8.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.51-69
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• 2016

Monitoring the performance and estimating the remaining useful life of aging civil infrastructure in the United States has been identified as a major objective in the civil engineering community. Structural health monitoring has emerged as a central tool to fulfill this objective. This paper presents a review of the major structural monitoring programs that have been recently implemented in the United States, focusing on the integrity and performance assessment of large-scale structural systems. Applications where response data from a monitoring program have been used to detect and correct structural deficiencies are highlighted. These applications include (but are not limited to): i) Post-earthquake damage assessment of buildings and bridges; ii) Monitoring of cables vibration in cable-stayed bridges; iii) Evaluation of the effectiveness of technologies for retrofit and seismic protection, such as base isolation systems; and iv) Structural damage assessment of bridges after impact loads resulting from ship collisions. These and many other applications show that a structural health monitoring program is a powerful tool for structural damage and condition assessment, that can be used as part of a comprehensive decision-making process about possible actions that can be undertaken in a large-scale civil infrastructure system after potentially damaging events.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.389-410
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• 2004

In this study, theoretical and experimental results are presented which were obtained during an investigation of the influence of the $P-{\Delta}$ effect that was caused by the simultaneous changing of the axial load P of the column and the lateral displacement ${\Delta}$ in the external beam-column joints. The increase or decrease of ${\Delta}$ was simultaneous with the increase or decrease of the axial compression load P and caused an additional influence on the aseismic mechanical properties of the joint. A total of 12 reinforced concrete exterior beam-column subassemblies were examined. A new model, which predicts the beam-column joint ultimate shear strength, was used in order to predict the seismic behaviour of beam-column joints subjected to earthquake-type loading plus variable axial load and $P-{\Delta}$ effect. Test data and analytical research demonstrated that axial load changes and $P-{\Delta}$ effect during an earthquake cause significant deterioration in the earthquake-resistance of these structural elements. It was demonstrated that inclined bars in the joint region were effective for reducing the unfavourable impact of the $P-{\Delta}$ effect and axial load changes in these structural elements.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.455-475
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• 2016

Dynamic characteristics, named as natural frequencies, damping ratios and mode shapes, affect the dynamic behavior of buildings and they vary depending on the construction stages. It is aimed to present the effects of construction stages on the dynamic characteristics of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings considering theoretical and experimental investigations. For this purpose, a three-storey RC building model with a 1/2 scale was constructed in the laboratory of Civil Engineering Department at Karadeniz Technical University. The modal testing measurements were performed by using Operational Modal Analysis (OMA) method for the bare frame, brick walled and coated cases of the building model. Randomly generated loads by impact hammer were used to vibrate the building model; the responses were measured by uni-axial seismic accelerometers as acceleration. The building's modal parameters at these construction stages were extracted from the processed signals using the Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition (EFDD) technique. Also, the finite element models of each case were developed and modal analyses were performed. It was observed from the experimental and theoretical investigations that the natural frequencies of the building model varied depending on the construction stages considerably.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.393-402
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• 1995

The structural analysis of the reactor coolant system mainly consist of too fields. The one is the static analysis considering the impact of pressure and temperature built up during normal operation. The other is the dynamic analysis to estimate the impact of postulated events such as the seismic loads or postulated branch line pipe breaks event. Since the most important goal of the RCS structural analysis is to prove the safety of the RCS during normal operation or postulated events, a widely proven theory having enough conservatism is adopted. The load occurring on the RCS during normal operation is considered as the basic design loading condition throughout whole plant life time. The most typical characteristic of the RCS during normal operation is the thermal expansion of the RCS caused by reactor coolant with high temperature and pressure. Therefore, the exact estimation on the thermal movement of the RCS is needed to get more clear understanding on the thermal movement behavior of the RCS. In this study, the general structural analysis concept and modeling method to evaluate the thermal movement of the RCS under the normal plant operation condition are presented. To discuss the validation of the suggested analysis, analysis results are compared with the measured data which ore referred from the standardized 1000 MWe PWR plant under construction.