• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.16 no.3 s.81
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• pp.357-367
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• 2004

In this paper, the effect of cumulative damage for reinforced concrete bridge piers subjected to both single and multiple earthquakes is investigated. For this purpose, selected are three set of accelerograms one of which represents the real successive input ground motions, recorded at the same station with three months time interval. The analytical predictions indicate that piers are in general subjected to a large number of inelastic cycles and increased ductility demand due to multiple earthquakes, and hence more damage in terms of stiffness degradation is expected to occur. In addition, displacement ductility demand demonstrates that inelastic seismic response of piers can significantly be affected by the applied input ground motion characteristics. Also evaluated is the effect of multiple earthquakes on the response with shear. Comparative studies between the cases with and without shear indicate that stiffness degradation and hence reduction in energy dissipation capacity of piers are pronounced due to the multiple earthquakes combined with shear. It is thus concluded that the effect of multiple earthquakes should be taken into account for the stability assessment of reinforced concrete bridge piers.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.74 no.6
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• pp.789-807
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• 2020

Multiple earthquakes that occur during short seismic intervals affect the inelastic behavior of the structures. Sequential ground motions against the single earthquake event cause the building structure to face loss in stiffness and its strength. Although, numerous research studies had been conducted in this research area but still significant limitations exist such as: 1) use of traditional design procedure which usually considers single seismic excitation; 2) selecting a seismic excitation data based on earthquake events occurred at another place and time. Therefore, it is important to study the effects of successive ground motions on the framed structures. The objective of this study is to overcome the aforementioned limitations through testing a two storey RC building structural model scaled down to 1/10 ratio through a similitude relation. The scaled model is examined using a shaking table. Thereafter, the experimental model results are validated with simulated results using ETABS software. The test framed specimen is subjected to sequential five artificial and four real-time earthquake motions. Dynamic response history analysis has been conducted to investigate the i) observed response and crack pattern; ii) maximum displacement; iii) residual displacement; iv) Interstorey drift ratio and damage limitation. The results of the study conclude that the low-rise building model has ability to resist successive artificial ground motion from its strength. Sequential artificial ground motions cause the framed structure to displace each storey twice in correlation with vary first artificial seismic vibration. The displacement parameters showed that real-time successive ground motions have a limited impact on the low-rise reinforced concrete model. The finding shows that traditional seismic design EC8 requires to reconsider the traditional design procedure.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.245-261
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• 2022

Key questions to researchers interested in nonlinear analysis of skeletal structures are whether the distributed plasticity approach - albeit computationally demanding - is more reliable than the concentrated plasticity to adequately capture the extent and severity of the inelastic response, and whether force-based formulation is more efficient than displacement-based formulation without compromising accuracy. The present research focusing on performance-based seismic response of mid-span concrete bridges provides a pilot holistic investigation opting for some hands-on answers. OpenSees software is considered adopting different modeling techniques, viz. distributed plasticity (through either displacement-based or force-based elements) and concentrated plasticity via beam-with-hinges elements. The pros and cons of each are discussed based on nonlinear pushover analysis results, and fragility curves generated for various performance levels relying on incremental dynamic analyses under real earthquake records. Among prime conclusions, distributed plasticity modeling albeit inherently not relying on prior knowledge of plastic hinge length still somewhat depends on such information to ensure accurate results. For instance, displacement-based and force-based approaches secure optimal accuracy when dividing, for the former, the member into sub-elements, and satisfying, for the latter, a distance between any two consecutive integration points, close to the expected plastic hinge length. On the other hand, using beam-with-hinges elements is computationally more efficient relative to the distributed plasticity, yet with acceptable accuracy provided the user has prior reasonable estimate of the anticipated plastic hinge length. Furthermore, when intrusive performance levels (viz. life safety or collapse) are of concern, concentrated plasticity via beam-with-hinges ensures conservative predicted capacity of investigated bridge systems.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.65-87
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• 2016

The wind velocity profile over the height of a structure in high intensity wind (HIW) events, such as downbursts, differs from that associated with atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) winds. Current design codes for lattice transmission structures contain only limited advice on the treatment of HIW effects, and structural design is carried out using wind load profiles and response factors derived for ABL winds. The present study assesses the load-deformation curve (capacity curve) of a transmission tower under modeled downburst wind loading, and compares it with that obtained for an ABL wind loading profile. The analysis considers nonlinear inelastic response under simulated downburst wind fields. The capacity curve is represented using the relationship between the base shear and the maximum tip displacement. The results indicate that the capacity curve remains relatively consistent between different downburst scenarios and an ABL loading profile. The use of the capacity curve avoids the difficulty associated with defining a reference wind speed and corresponding wind profile that are adequate and applicable for downburst and ABL winds, thereby allowing a direct comparison of response under synoptic and downburst events. Uncertainty propagation analysis is carried out to evaluate the tower capacity by considering the uncertainty in material properties and geometric variables. The results indicated the coefficient of variation of the tower capacity is small compared to those associated with extreme wind speeds.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.4
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• pp.497-507
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• 2017

During recent earthquakes, a significant number of concrete structures suffered extensive damage. Conventional reinforced concrete structures are designed for life-time safety that may see permanent inelastic deformation after severe earthquakes. Hence, there is a need to utilize adequate materials that have the ability to tolerate large deformation and get back to their original shape. Super-elastic shape memory alloy (SMA) is a smart material with unique properties, such as the ability to regain undeformed shape by unloading or heating. In this research, four different stories (three, five, seven and nine) of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings have been studied and subjected to near-field ground motions. For each building, two different types of reinforcement detailing are considered, including (1) conventional steel reinforcement (RC frame) and (2) steel-SMA reinforcement (SMA RC frame), with SMA bars being used at plastic zones of beams and steel bars in other regions. Nonlinear time history analyses have been performed by "SeismoStruct" finite element software. The results indicate that the application of SMA materials in plastic hinge regions of the beams lead to reduction of the residual displacement and consequently post-earthquake repairs. In general, it can be said that shape memory alloy materials reduce structural damage and retrofit costs.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.70 no.3
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• pp.289-301
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• 2019

Hysteretic energy is defined as energy dissipated through inelastic deformations during a ground motion by the system. It includes frequency content and duration of ground motion as two remarkable parameters, while these characteristics are not seen in displacement spectrum. Since maximum displacement individually cannot be the appropriate criterion for damage assessment, hysteretic energy has been evaluated in this research as a more comprehensive seismic demand parameter. An innovative methodology has been proposed to establish a new equivalent linear model to estimate hysteretic energy spectrum for bilinear SDOF models under two different sets of earthquake excitations. Error minimization has been defined in the space of equivalent linearization concept, which resulted in equivalent damping and equivalent period as representative parameters of the linear model. Nonlinear regression analysis was carried out for predicting these equivalent parameter as a function of ductility. The results also indicate differences between seismic demand characteristics of far-field and near-field ground motions, which are not identified by most of previous equations presented for predicting seismic energy. The main advantage of the proposed model is its independency on parameters related to earthquake and response characteristics, which has led to more efficiency as well as simplicity. The capability of providing a practical energy based seismic performance evaluation is another outstanding feature of the proposed model.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.97-104
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• 2005

The seismic behavior of framed structure with Chevron-type bucking restrained braces were investigated and their behavior factors were evaluated following the procedure proposed in ATC-19 & ATC-34. Two types of structures, building frame systems and dual systems, with 4, 8, 12, and 16 stories were designed per the IBC 2000, the AISC LRFD and the AISC/SEAOC Recommended Provisions for BRBF. Nonlinear static pushover analyses were carried out to observe the plastic hinge formation and to identify the loads and the displacements at the yield and the ultimate states. Time history analyses were also carried out to compute the permanent displacement md the dissipated hysteretic energy. According to the analysis results, the response modification factors of model structures fumed out to be larger than what is proposed in the provision in low story structures, and a little smaller in medium-story structures. The dual systems, even though designed with smaller seismic load, showed superior static and dynamic performances.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2002.03a
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• pp.327-334
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• 2002

This paper develops an optimized torsional design method of asymmetric wall structures considering deformation capacities of walls. Contrary to the current torsional provisions, a deformation based torsional design is based on the assumption that stiffness and strength are dependent. Current torsional provisions specify two design eccentricity of stiffness to calculate the design forces of members. But such a methodology leads to an excessive over-strength of some members and an optimal torsional behavior is not ensured. Deformation-based torsional design uses displacement and rotation angle as design parameters and calculates base shear for inelastic torsional response directly. Because optimal torsional behavior can be defined based on the deformation of members, deformation based torsional design procedure can be applied to the optimal and performance-based torsional design. To consider the effect of accidental eccentricity, an over-strength factor is defined. The over-strength factor is determined from performance level, torsional resistance and arrangement of walls.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.16 no.2 s.92
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• pp.101-106
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• 2007

Uniaxial displacement controlled tests were performed on annealed Type 304 stainless steel at room temperature. A servo-controlled testing machine and strain measurement on the gage length were employed to measure the response to a given input. The test results exhibit that the flow stress increases nonlinearly with the strain rate and the relaxed stress at the end of the relaxation periods depends strongly on the strain rate preceding the relaxation test. The rate-dependent inelastic deformation behavior is simulated using a new unified viscoplasticity model that has the rate-dependent format of nonlinear kinematic hardening rule, which plays a key role in modeling the rate dependence of relaxation behavior. The model does not employ yield or loading/unloading criteria and consists of a flow law and the evolution laws of two tensor and one scalar-valued state variables.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.25-32
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• 1989

A finite element program for material nonlinear fracture analysis of reinforced concrete shell was developed. This method can be used to trace the load-displacement response and crack propagation through the elastic and inelastic ranges. A layered isoparametric flat finite element considering the coupling effect between the in-plane and the bending action was developed. Mindlin plate theory taking account of transverse shear deformation was used. The validity of the present program was proved by comparing the numerical results with Hedgren's experimental data.