• Computers and Concrete
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.603-619
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• 2014

Soft storey buildings are characterised by having a storey that has a large amount of open space. This soft storey creates a major weak point during an earthquake. As the soft stories are typically associated with retail spaces and parking garages, they are often on the lower levels of tall building structures. Thus, when these stories collapse, the entire building can also collapse, causing serious structural damage that may render the structure completely unusable. The use of special soft storey is predominant in the tall building structures constructed by several local developers, making the issue important for local building structures. In this study, the effect of the incorporation of an isolator on the seismic behaviour of tall building structures is examined. The structures are subjected to earthquakes typical of the local city, and the isolator is incorporated with the appropriate isolator time period and damping ratio. A FEM-based computational relationship is proposed to increase the storey height so as to incorporate the isolator with the same time period and damping ratio for both a lead rubber bearing (LRB) and high-damping rubber bearing (HDRB). The study demonstrates that the values of the FEM-based structural design parameters are greatly reduced when the isolator is used. It is more beneficial to incorporate a LRB than a HDRB.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.671-682
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• 2017

In this research, seismic response of pipes is examined by applying nanotechnology and piezoelectric materials. For this purpose, a pipe is considered which is reinforced by carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and covered with a piezoelectric layer. The structure is subjected to the dynamic loads caused by earthquake and the governing equations of the system are derived using mathematical model via cylindrical shell element and Mindlin theory. Navier-Stokes equation is employed to calculate the force due to the fluid in the pipe. Mori-Tanaka approach is used to estimate the equivalent material properties of the nanocomposite and to consider the effect of the CNTs agglomeration on the scismic response of the structure. Moreover, the dynamic displacement of the structure is extracted using harmonic differential quadrature method (HDQM) and Newmark method. The main goal of this research is the analysis of the seismic response using piezoelectric layer and nanotechnology. The results indicate that reinforcing the pipeline by CNTs leads to a reduction in the displacement of the structure during an earthquake. Also the negative voltage applied to the piezoelectric layer reduces the dynamic displacement.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.3264-3274
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• 2021

In a severe accident of light water reactor (LWR), molten core material (corium) can be released into the wet cavity, and a fuel-coolant interaction (FCI) can occur. The molten jet with high speed is broken and fragmented into small debris, which may cause a steam explosion or a molten core concrete interaction (MCCI). Since the premixing stage where the jet breakup occurs has a large impact on the severe accident progression, the understanding and evaluation of the jet breakup phenomenon are highly important. Therefore, in this study, the jet breakup simulations were performed using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method which is a particle-based Lagrangian numerical method. For the multi-fluid system, the normalized density approach and improved surface tension model (CSF) were applied to the in-house SPH code (single GPU-based SOPHIA code) to improve the calculation accuracy at the interface of fluids. The jet breakup simulations were conducted in two cases: (1) jet breakup without structures, and (2) jet breakup with structures (control rod guide tubes). The penetration depth of the jet and jet breakup length were compared with those of the reference experiments, and these SPH simulation results are qualitatively and quantitatively consistent with the experiments.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.93-102
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• 2021

The dynamic characterization of a three-story auxiliary building in a nuclear power plant (NPP) constructed with a monolithic reinforced concrete shear wall is investigated in this study. The shear wall is subjected to a joint-research, round-robin analysis organized by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, South Korea, to predict seismic responses of that auxiliary building in NPP through a shake table test. Five different intensity measures of the base excitation are applied to the shaking table test to get the acceleration responses from the different building locations for one horizontal direction (front-back). Simultaneously to understand the global damage scenario of the structure, a frequency search test is conducted after each excitation. The primary motivation of this study is to develop a nonlinear numerical model considering the multi-layered shell element and compare it with the test result to validate through the modal parameter identification and floor responses. In addition, the acceleration amplification factor is evaluated to judge the dynamic behavior of the shear wall with the existing standard, thus providing theoretical support for engineering practice.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.69 no.6
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• pp.677-691
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• 2019

In recent years, interest is growing in the engineering community on the experimental assessment and the theoretical prediction of the out-of-plane (OOP) seismic response of unreinforced masonry (URM) infills, which are widespread in Reinforced Concrete (RC) buildings in Europe and in the Mediterranean area. In the literature, some mechanical-based models for the prediction of the entire OOP force-displacement response have been formulated and proposed. However, the small number of experimental tests currently available has not allowed, up to current times, a robust and reliable evaluation of the predictive capacity of such response models. To enrich the currently available experimental database, six pure OOP tests on URM infills in RC frames were carried out at the Department of Structures for Engineering and Architecture of the University of Naples Federico II. Test specimens were built with the same materials and were different only for the thickness of the infill walls and for the number of their edges mortared to the confining elements of the RC frames. In this paper, the results of these experimental tests are briefly recalled. The main aim of this study is comparing the experimental response of test specimens with the prediction of mechanical models presented in the literature, in order to assess their effectiveness and contribute to the definition of a robust and reliable model for the evaluation of the OOP seismic response of URM infill walls.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.103-108
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• 2018

The fragility curves for CFRD dams are derived in this study for probabilistic damage estimation as a function of a ground motion intensity. The dam crest settlement, which is a widely used damage index, is used for minor, moderate, and extensive damage states. The settlement is calculated from nonlinear dynamic numerical simulations. The accuracy of the numerical model is validated through comparison with a centrifuge test. The fragility curve is represented as a log normal distribution function and presented as a function of the peak ground acceleration. The fragility curves developed in this study can be utilized for real time assessment of the damage of dams.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.551-561
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• 2018

The percolation of interfacial transition zone (ITZ) in cementitious materials is of great importance to the transport properties and durability issues. This paper presents numerical simulation research on the ITZ percolation threshold of mortar specimens at meso-scale. To simulate the meso-scale model of mortar as realistically as possible, the aggregates are simplified as ellipsoids with arbitrary orientations. Major and minor aspect ratios are defined to represent the global shape characteristics of aggregates. Some algorithms such as the burning algorithm, Dijkstra's algorithm and Connected-Component Labeling (CCL) algorithm are adopted for identification of connected ITZ clusters and percolation detection. The effects of gradation and aspect ratios of aggregates on ITZ percolation threshold are quantitatively studied. The results show that (1) the ITZ percolation threshold is mainly affected by the specific surface area (SSA) of aggregates and shows a global decreasing tendency with an increasing SSA; (2) elongated ellipsoidal particles can effectively bridge isolated ITZ clusters and thus lower the ITZ percolation threshold; (3) as ITZ volume fraction increases, the bridging effect of elongated particles will be less significant, and has only a minor effect on ITZ percolation threshold; (4) it is the ITZ connectivity that is essentially responsible for ITZ percolation threshold, while other factors such as SSA and ITZ volume fraction are only the superficial reasons.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.69 no.2
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• pp.155-162
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• 2019

It is very common to find an empirical formulation in an earthquake design code to calculate fundamental vibration period of a structural system. Fundamental vibration period or frequency is a key parameter to provide adequate information pertinent to dynamic characteristics and performance assessment of a structure. This parameter enables to assess seismic demand of a structure. It is possible to find an empirical formulation related to reinforced concrete structures, masonry towers and slender masonry structures. Calculated natural vibration frequencies suggested by empirical formulation in the literatures has not suits in a high accuracy to the case of rest of the historical masonry bridges due to different construction techniques and wide variety of material properties. For the listed reasons, estimation of fundamental frequency gets harder. This paper aims to present an empirical formulation through Mean Square Error study to find ambient vibration frequency of historical masonry bridges by using a non-linear regression model. For this purpose, a series of data collected from literature especially focused on the finite element models of historical masonry bridges modelled in a full scale to get first global natural frequency, unit weight and elasticity modulus of used dominant material based on homogenization approach, length, height and width of the masonry bridge and main span length were considered to predict natural vibration frequency. An empirical formulation is proposed with 81% accuracy. Also, this study draw attention that this accuracy decreases to 35%, if the modulus of elasticity and unit weight are ignored.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.241-247
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• 2019

In this paper the effect of bedding layer on the failure mechanism of rock in direct shear test has been investigated using particle flow code, PFC. For this purpose, firstly calibration of pfc2d was performed using Brazilian tensile strength. Secondly direct shear test consisting bedding layer was simulated numerically. Thickness of layers was 10 mm and rock bridge length was 10 mm, 40 mm and 60 mm. In each rock bridge length, bedding layer angles changes from $0^{\circ}$ to $90^{\circ}$ with increment of $15^{\circ}$. Totally 21 models were simulated and tested. The results show that two types of cracks develop within the model. Shear cracks and tensile cracks. Also failure pattern is affected by bridge length while shear strength is controlled by failure pattern. It's to be noted that bedding layer has not any effect on the failure pattern because the layer interface strength is too high.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.65-74
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• 2019

This paper reports on the results of a parametric study, which examines the effects of varying aspect ratios on the dynamic response of cylindrical silos directly supported on the ground under earthquake loading. Previous research has shown that numerical models can provide considerably realistic simulations when it comes to the behavior of silos by using correct boundary conditions, appropriate element types and material models. To this end, a three dimensional numerical model, taking into account the bulk material-silo wall interaction, was produced by the ANSYS commercial program, which is in turn based on the finite element method. The results obtained from the numerical analysis are discussed comparatively in terms of dynamic material pressure, horizontal displacement, equivalent base shear force and equivalent bending moment responses for considered aspect ratios. The effects experienced because of the slenderness of the silo in regards to the seismic response were evaluated along with the effectiveness of the classification system proposed by Eurocode in evaluating the loads on the vertical walls. Results clearly show that slenderness directly affects the seismic response of such structures especially in terms of behavior and the magnitude of the responses. Furthermore the aspect ratio value of 2.0, given as a behavioral changing limit in the technical literature, can be used as a valid limit for seismic behavior.