• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.155-171
• /
• 2013

This study analytically evaluated the seismic performance of wind-designed diagrid tall steel buildings in regions of moderate/low seismicity and strong winds. To this end, diagrid tall steel buildings with varying wind exposure and slenderness ratio (building height-to-width ratio) conditions were designed to satisfy the wind serviceability criteria specified in the Korean Building Code and the National Building Code of Canada. A series of seismic analyses were then performed for earthquakes having 43- and 2475- year return periods utilizing the design guidelines of tall buildings. The analyses demonstrated the good seismic performance of these wind-designed diagrid tall steel buildings, which arises because significant overstrength of the diagrid system occurs in the wind design procedure. Also, analysis showed that the elastic seismic design process of diagrid tall steel buildings might be accepted based on some wind exposures and slenderness ratios.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.15 no.6
• /
• pp.639-654
• /
• 2018

Rocking motion have been used for achieving the 'resilient buildings' against earthquakes in recent studies. Low-rise buildings, unlike the tall ones, because of their small aspect ratio tend to slide rather than move in rocking mode. However, since rocking is more effective in seismic response reduction than sliding, it is desired to create rocking motion in low-rise buildings too. One way for this purpose is making the building's structure rock on its internal bay(s) by reducing the number of bays at the lower part of the building's skeleton, giving it a mushroom form. In this study 'mushroom skeleton' has been used for creating multi-story rocking regular steel buildings with square plan to rock on its one-by-one bay central lowest story. To show if this idea is effective, a set of mushroom buildings have been considered, and their seismic responses have been compared with those of their conventional counterparts, designed based on a conventional code. Also, a set of similar buildings with skeleton stronger than code requirement, to have immediate occupancy (IO) performance level, have been considered for comparison. Seismic responses, obtained by nonlinear time history analyses, using scaled three-dimensional accelerograms of selected earthquakes, show that by using appropriate 'mushroom skeleton' the seismic performance of buildings is upgraded to mostly IO level, while all of the conventional buildings experience collapse prevention (CP) level or beyond. The strong-skeleton buildings mostly present IO performance level as well, however, their base shear and absolute acceleration responses are much higher than the mushroom buildings.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.3 no.4
• /
• pp.279-289
• /
• 2000

The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the necessity of considering wind load combinations even for low-rise buildings. It first discusses the overall quasi-static wind load effects and their combinations to be considered in structural design of low-rise buildings. It was found that the maximum torsional moment closely correlates with the maximum along-wind base shear. It was also found that the instantaneous pressure distribution causing the maximum along-wind base shear was quite similar to that causing the maximum torsional moment, and that this asymmetric pressure pattern simultaneously accompanies considerable across-wind and torsional components. Secondly, the actual wind pressure distributions causing maximum quasi-static internal forces in the structural frames are conditionally sampled and their typical pressure patterns are presented.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.27 no.6
• /
• pp.439-449
• /
• 2018

Wind loading of a tall building built amidst a group of buildings in urban environment is always greatly affected by shielding effects. Wind tunnel tests were carried out to assess the shielding provided by a row of low-rise or medium-rise buildings upstream a square-section tall building of height-to-breadth ratio 6. Mean and dynamic wind loads on the tall building were measured at different wind incidence angles and presented as interference factors (IFs). It is found that presence of a row of upstream buildings provides significant shielding to the tall building. At normal wind incidence, the mean along-wind loads and all components of fluctuating wind loads on the tall building are always reduced by shielding. Vortex shedding seems to still occur on the upper exposed part of the tall building but the vortex excitation levels are largely reduced. The degree of shielding is found to depend on a number of arrangement parameters of the row of upstream buildings. Empirical equations are proposed to quantify the shielding effect based on the wind tunnel data.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.12 no.5
• /
• pp.515-527
• /
• 2017

Recently, Friction dampers become popular due to the desirable performance in the energy dissipation of lateral loads. A lot of research which has been conducted on these dampers results in developing friction dampers with low sensitivity to the number of cycles and temperature increases. Friction dampers impose high residual drifts to the buildings because of low post-yield stiffness of the damper which results from increasing lateral displacement and period of buildings. This issue can be more critical under strong aftershocks which results in increasing of structural damages. In this paper, in addition to the assessment of aftershock on steel buildings equipped with friction dampers, methods for controlling residual drifts and decreasing the costs of retrofitting are investigated. Utilizing rigid connections as a lateral dual system and activating lateral stiffness of gravity columns by adding elastic braces are as an example of effective methods investigated in this research. The results of nonlinear time history analyses on the low to medium rise steel frames equipped with friction dampers illustrate a rise in residual drifts as the result of aftershocks. In addition, the results show that different slip loads of friction damper can affect the residual drifts. Furthermore, elastic stories in comparison to rigid connections can reduce residual drifts of buildings in an effective fashion, when most slip loads of friction dampers are considered.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.25 no.5
• /
• pp.201-211
• /
• 2021

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety in Korea developed seismic fragility function for various building types in 2009. Damage states for most building types were determined by structural analyses of sample models and foreign references because actual cases damaged by earthquakes rarely exist in Korea. Low-rise, piloti-type buildings showed severe damage by brittle failure in columns due to insufficient stirrup details in the 2017 Pohang earthquake. Therefore, it is necessary to improve damage state criteria for piloti-type buildings by consulting actual outcomes from the earthquake. An analytical approach was conducted by developing analysis models of sample buildings reflecting insufficient stirrup details of columns to accomplish the purpose. The result showed that current spectral displacements of damage states for piloti-type buildings might be too large to estimate actual fragility. When the brittle behavior observed in the earthquake is reflected in the analysis model, one-fourth through one-sixth of current spectral displacements of damage states may be appropriate for existing low-rise, piloti-type buildings.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.163-173
• /
• 2018

The design wind pressure for low-rise buildings in the ASCE 7-10 is defined by procedures that are categorized into the Main Wind Force-Resisting System (MWFRS) and the Components and Cladding (C&C). Some of these procedures were originally developed based on steel portal frames of industrial buildings, while the residential structures are a completely different structural system, most of which are designed as low-rise light-frame wood constructions. The purpose of this study is to discuss the rationality (or irrationality) of the extension of the wind loads calculated by the ASCE 7-10 to the light-frame wood residential buildings that represent the most vulnerable structures under extreme wind conditions. To serve this purpose, the same approach as used in the development of Chapter 28 of the ASCE 7-10 that envelops peak responses is adopted in the present study. Database-assisted design (DAD) methodology is used by applying the dynamic wind loads from Louisiana State University (LSU) database on a typical residential building model to assess the applicability of the standard by comparing the induced responses. Rather than the postulated critical member demands on the industrial building such as the bending moments at the knee, the maximum values at the critical points for wood frame buildings under wind loads are used as indicators for the comparison. Then, the critical members are identified through these indicators in terms of the displacement or the uplift force at connections and roof envelope. As a result, some situations for each of the ASCE 7 procedures yielding unconservative wind loads on the typical low-rise residential building are identified.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.46 no.6
• /
• pp.791-808
• /
• 2013

The main purpose of this paper is to develop seismic fragility curves for existing reinforced concrete, RC, buildings based on the post earthquake field survey and the seismic performance using capacity design. Existing RC buildings constitute approximately 65% of the total stock in Algiers. This type of buildings, RC, was widely used in the past and chosen as the structural type for the future construction program of more than 2 millions apartments all over Algeria. These buildings, suffered moderate to extensive damage after the 2003 Boumerdes earthquake, on May 21st. The determination of analytical seismic fragility curves for low-rise and mid-rise existing RC buildings was carried out based on the consistent and complete post earthquake survey after that event. The information on the damaged existing RC buildings was investigated and evaluated by experts. Thirty four (34) communes (districts) of fifty seven (57), the most populated and affected by earthquake damage were considered in this study. Utilizing the field observed damage data and the Japanese Seismic Index Methodology, based on the capacity design method. Seismic fragility curves were developed for those buildings with a large number data in order to get a statistically significant sample size. According to the construction period and the code design, four types of existing RC buildings were considered. Buildings designed with pre-code (very poor structural behavior before 1955), Buildings designed with low code (poor structural behavior, between 1955-1981), buildings designed with medium code (moderate structural behavior, between 1981-1999) and buildings designed with high code (good structural behavior, after 1999).

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.34 no.5
• /
• pp.395-405
• /
• 2022

Tornado-induced damages to high-rise buildings and low-rise buildings are quite different in nature. Tornado losses to high-rise buildings are generally associated with building envelope failures while tornado-induced damages to low-rise buildings are usually associated with structural or large component failures such as complete collapses, or roofs being torn off. While studies of tornado-induced structural damages tend to focus mainly on low-rise residential buildings, transmission towers, or nuclear power plants, the current rapid expansion of city centers and development of large-scale building complexes increases the risk of tornadoes impacting tall buildings. It is, therefore, important to determine how tornado-induced load affects tall buildings compared with those based on synoptic boundary layer winds. The present study applies an experimentally simulated tornado wind field to the Commonwealth Advisory Aeronautical Research Council (CAARC) building and estimates and compares its pressure coefficient effects against the Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) flow field. Simulations are performed at the Wind Engineering, Energy and Environment (WindEEE) Dome which is capable of generating both ABL and tornadic winds. A model of the CAARC building at a scale of 1:200 for both ABL and tornado flows was built and equipped with pressure taps. Mean and peak surface pressures for TLV flow are reported and compared with the ABL induced wind for different time-averaging. By following a compatible definition of the pressure coefficients for TLV and ABL fields, the resulting TLV pressure field presents a similar trend to the ABL case. Also, the results show that, for the high-rise building model, the mean and 3-sec peak pressures are larger for the ABL case compared to the TLV case. These results provide a way forward for the code implementation of tornado-induced pressures on high-rise buildings.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.36 no.4
• /
• pp.277-292
• /
• 2023

Low-rise structures are generally immersed within the roughness layer of the atmospheric boundary layer flows and represent the largest class of the structures for which wind loads for design are being obtained from the wind standards codes of distinct nations. For low-rise buildings, wind loads are one of the decisive loads when designing a roof. For the case of cylindrical roof structures, the information related to wind pressure coefficient is limited to a single span only. In contrast, for multi-span roofs, the information is not available. In this research, the numerical simulation has been done using ANSYS CFX to determine wind pressure distribution on the roof of low-rise cylindrical structures arranged in rectangular plan with variable spacing in accordance with building width (B=0.2 m) i.e., zero, 0.5B, B, 1.5B and 2B subjected to different wind incidence angles varying from 0° to 90° having the interval of 15°. The wind pressure (P) and pressure coefficients (C_pe) are varying with respect to wind incidence angle and variable spacing. The results of present numerical investigation or wind induced pressure are presented in the form of pressure contours generated by Ansys CFD Post for isolated as well as variable spacing model of cylindrical roofs. It was noted that the effect of wind shielding was reducing on the roofs by increasing spacing between the buildings. The variation pf Coefficient of wind pressure (C_pe) for all the roofs have been presented individually in the form of graphs with respect to angle of attacks of wind (AoA) and variable spacing. The critical outcomes of the present study will be so much beneficial to structural design engineers during the analysis and designing of low-rise buildings with cylindrical roofs in an isolated as well as group formation.