• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.315-328
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• 2018

Built-up Double-I (BD-I) columns consist of two hot rolled IPE sections and two cover plates which are welded by fillet welds. In Iran, this type of column is commonly used in braced frames with simple connections and sometimes in low-rise Moment Resisting Frames (MRF) with Welded Flange Plate (WFP) beam-column detailing. To evaluate the seismic performance of WFP connection of I-beam to BD-I column, traditional and modified exterior MRF connections were tested subjected to cyclic prescribed loading of AISC. Test results indicate that the traditional connection does not achieve the intended behavior while the modified connection can moderately meet the requirements of MRF connection. The numerical models of the connections were developed in ABAQUS finite element software and validated with the test results. For this purpose, moment-rotation curves and failure modes of the tested connections were compared with the simulation results. Moreover to avoid improper failure modes, some improvements of the connections were evaluated through a numerical study.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.353-370
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• 2020

This paper describes a new type of replaceable fuse for moment resisting frames. Column-tree connections with beam splice connections are frequently preferred in the moment resisting frames since they eliminate field welding and provide good quality. In the column-tree connections, a part of the beam is welded to the column in the shop and the rest of the beam is bolted with the splice connection in the field. In this study, a replaceable reduced beam section (R-RBS) connection is proposed in order to eliminate welding process and facilitate assembly at the site. In the proposed R-RBS connection, one end is connected by a beam splice connection to the beam and the other end is connected by a bolted end-plate connection to the column. More importantly is that the proposed R-RBS connection allows the replacement of the damaged R-RBS easily right after an earthquake. Pursuant to this goal, experimental and numerical studies have been undertaken to investigate the performance of the R-RBS connection. An experimental study on the RBS connection was used to substantiate the numerical model using ABAQUS, a commercially available finite element software. Additionally, five different finite element models were developed to conduct a parametric study. The results of the analysis were compared in terms of the moment and energy absorption capacities, PEEQ, rupture and tri-axiality indexes. The design process as well as the optimum dimensions of the R-RBS connections are presented. It was also demonstrated that the proposed R-RBS connection satisfies AISC criteria based on the nonlinear finite element analysis results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.115-130
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• 2017

A new type of moment-resisting bolted connection was developed for use in composite steel- concrete construction to connect composite open section steel beams to concrete filled steel square tubular columns. The connection was made possible using anchored blind bolts along with two through bolts. It was designed to act compositely with the in-situ reinforced concrete slab to achieve an enhanced stiffness and strength. The developed connection was incorporated in the design of a medium rise (five storey) commercial building which was located in low to medium seismicity regions. The lateral load resisting system for the design building consisted of moment resisting frames in two directions. A major full scale test on a sub-assembly of a perimeter moment-resisting frame of the model building was conducted to study the system behaviour incorporating the proposed connection. The behaviour of the proposed connection and its interaction with the floor slab under cyclic loading representing the earthquake events with return periods of 500 years and 2500 years was investigated. The proposed connection was categorized as semi rigid for unbraced frames based on the classification method presented in Eurocode 3. Furthermore, the proposed connection, composite with the floor slab, successfully provided adequate lateral load resistance for the model building.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.295-315
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• 2014

This paper presents the results of an analytical study on seismic reliability of viscoelastically damped frame systems in comparison with that of conventional moment resisting frame systems. In order to exhibit the reliability of the frame systems with viscoelastic dampers, seismic reliability analyses were carried out for steel framed buildings, 5 and 12 storeys in height, designed as: (a) Case 1: Conventional moment resisting frame, (b) Case 2: Frame with viscoelastic dampers providing supplemental effective damping ratio of 10%, and (c) Case 3: Frame with viscoelastic dampers providing supplemental effective damping ratio of 20%. Nonlinear time history analyses were utilized to develop seismic fragility curves whilst monitoring various performance objectives. To obtain robust estimators of the seismic reliability, a database including 15 natural earthquake ground motion records with markedly different characteristics was employed in the fragility analysis. The results indicate that depending upon the supplemental effective damping ratio, frames designed with viscoelastic dampers have considerably lower annual probability of exceedance of performance limit states for structural components, showing up to a five-fold reduction in comparison to conventionally designed moment resisting frame system.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.617-630
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• 2010

Different types of moment resisting connections are commonly used to transfer the induced seismic moments between frame elements in an earthquake resisting structure. The local connection behavior may drastically affect the global seismic response of the structure. In this study, the finite element and experimental seismic investigations are implemented on two frequently used connection type to evaluate the local behavior and to reveal the failure modes. An alternative connection type is then proposed to eliminate the unfavorable brittle fracture modes resulted from probable poor welding quality. This will develop a reliable predefined ductile plastic mechanism forming away from the critical locations. Employing this technique, the structural reliability of the moment resisting connections shall be improved by achieving a controllable energy dissipation source in form of yielding of the cover plates.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.155-164
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• 2018

Design of structures subjected to blast loads are usually carried out through nonlinear inelastic dynamic analysis followed by imposing acceptance criteria specified in design codes. In addition to comprehensive aspects of inelastic dynamic analyses, particularly in analysis and design of structures subjected to transient loads, they inherently suffer from convergence and computational cost problems. In this research, a strategy is proposed for design of steel moment resisting frames under far range blast loads. This strategy is inspired from performance based seismic design concepts, which is here developed to blast design. For this purpose, an algorithm is presented to calculate the capacity modification factors of frame members in order to simplify design of these structures subjected to blast loading. The present method provides a simplified design procedure in which the linear dynamic analysis is preformed, instead of the time-consuming nonlinear dynamic analysis. Nonlinear and linear analyses are accomplished in order to establish this design procedure, and consequently the final design procedure is proposed as a strategy requiring only linear structural analysis, while acceptance criteria of nonlinear analysis is implicitly satisfied.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.221-224
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• 2008

A secant stiffness linear analysis method was developed for moment redistribution of moment-resisting frames. In the proposed method, rotational spring models are used for plastic hinges of the members whose flexural moments are needed to be redistributed. At the plastic hinges, secant stiffness is used to address the effect of the flexural stiffness reduced by inelastic deformation. Linear analysis is repeated with adjusted secant stiffness until the flexural equilibrium is satisfied in the structure and members. By using the secant stiffness analysis, the effect of the inelastic deformation on the moment redistribution can be considered. Further, the safety of plastic hinges can be evaluated by comparing the inelastic rotation resulting from the secant stiffness analysis with the rotational capacity of the plastic hinges. For verification, the proposed method was applied to a continuous beam tested in previous study. A application example for a multiple story moment-resisting frame was presented.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.319-334
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• 2018

In this paper, an analytical study was carried out to propose an optimum base-isolated system for the design of steel structures equipped with lead rubber bearings (LRB). For this, 5 and 10-storey steel moment resisting frames (MRFs) were designed as Special Moment Frame (SMF). These two-dimensional and three-bay frames equipped with a set of isolation systems within a predefined range that minimizes the response of the base-isolated frames subjected to a series of earthquakes. In the design of LRB, two main parameters, namely, isolation period (T) and the ratio of strength to weight (Q/W) supported by isolators were considered as 2.25, 2.5, 2.75 and 3 s, 0.05, 0.10 and 0.15, respectively. The Force-deformation behavior of the isolators was modelled by the bi-linear behavior which could reflect the nonlinear characteristics of the lead-plug bearings. The base-isolated frames were modelled using a finite element program and those performances were evaluated in the light of the nonlinear time history analyses by six natural accelerograms compatible with seismic hazard levels of 2% probability of exceedance in 50 years. The performance of the isolated frames was assessed in terms of roof displacement, relative displacement, interstorey drift, absolute acceleration, base shear and hysteretic curve.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.82 no.5
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• pp.667-678
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• 2022

Moment-resisting frames (MRFs) are among the most conventional steel structures for mid-rise buildings in many earthquake-prone cities. Here, a simplified performance-based methodology is proposed for the seismic collapse capacity assessment of these buildings. This method employs a novel multi-mode pushover analysis to determine the engineering demand parameters (EDPs) of the regular steel MRFs up to the collapse prevention (CP) performance level. The modal combination coefficients used in the proposed pushover analysis, are obtained from two metaheuristic optimization algorithms and a fitting procedure. The design variables for the optimization process are the inter-story drift ratio profiles resulting from the multi-mode pushover analyses, and the objective values are the outcomes of the incremental dynamic analysis (IDA). Here, the collapse capacity of the structures is assessed in three to five steps, using a modified IDA procedure. A series of regular mid-rise steel MRFs are selected and analyzed to calculate the modal combination coefficients and to validate the proposed approach. The new methodology is verified against the current existing approaches. This comparison shows that the suggested method more accurately evaluates the EDPs and the collapse capacity of the regular MRFs in a robust and easy to implement way.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.355-362
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• 2009

Many of residential buildings, which have pilotis in lower stories to meet the architectural needs, are recently constructed in Korea. Usually, infill walls located in the upper stories of these buildings may cause a soft first story, which is very weak from the earthquake resistance. In the design of the buildings, the infill walls of upper stories are usually considered as non-structural elements and thus they are not included in the analytical model. However, the infill walls may affect the seismic behavior of the residential buildings. Therefore, the differences in seismic behaviors of RC buildings with and without masonry infill walls are required to be investigated. In this study, seismic fragility analyses were performed for masonry infilled low-rise RC moment-resisting frames. And seismic behaviors of RC moment-resisting frame with/without masonry infill walls were evaluated. Two types of structural system with the same frame and different allocation of infill walls are used to evaluate the influence of masonry infill walls on seismic behavior of RC moment-resisting frames. The infill walls were modeled as bi-equivalent diagonal struts. The fragility analyses show that the seismic performance of RC moment-resisting frames with soft story is below the desirable building seismic performance level recommended by current seismic codes, indicating high vulnerability of RC moment-resisting frames with soft story.