• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.81-87
• /
• 2014

The use of Buckling Restrained Braces (BRB) for enhancing the performance of the buildings is gaining wider acceptance. This paper presents the first application of these devices in a major high-rise building in the Philippines. A 50-storey residential reinforced concrete building tower, with ductile core wall, with BRB system is investigated. The detailed modeling and design procedure of buckling restrained brace system is presented for the optimal design against the two distinct levels of earthquake ground motions; serviceable behavior for frequent earthquakes and very low probability of collapse under extremely rare earthquakes. The stiffness and strength of the buckling restrained brace system are adjusted to optimize the performance of the structural system under different levels of earthquakes. Response spectrum analysis is conducted for Design Basis Earthquake level and Service level, while nonlinear time history analysis is performed for the most credible earthquake. The case study results show the effectiveness of buckling restrained braces.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.8 no.6 s.40
• /
• pp.67-72
• /
• 2004

In this study the overstrength factors of medium to low-rise bucking restrained braced frames (BRBF) were evaluated. Various design variables, such as number of stories, span length, yield strength of the brace, level of earthquake load, and the response modification factors. The overstrength factors were obtained using the nonlinear static analysis following the procedure proposed by ATC-19. According to the analysis results, the overstrength factors obtained from this study were generally larger than those proposed in 'AISC/SEAOC Recommended Provisions for BRBF'.

• Coupled systems mechanics
• /
• v.6 no.3
• /
• pp.229-249
• /
• 2017

A new technique to mitigate irregular buildings with soil structure interaction (SSI) effect subjected to critical seismic waves is presented. The L-shape in plan irregular building for various reasons was selected, subjected to seismic a load which is a big problem for structural design especially without separation gap. The L-shape in plan building with different dimensions was chosen to study, with different rectangularity ratios and various soil kinds, to show the effect of the irregular building on the seismic response. A 3D building subjected to critical earthquake was analyzed by structural analysis program (SAP2000) fixed and with SSI (three types of soils were analyzed, soft, medium and hard soils) to find their effect on top displacement, base shear, and base torsion. The straining actions were appointed and the treatment of the effect of irregular shape under critical earthquake was made by using tuned mass damper (TMD) with different configurations with SSI and without. The study improve the success of using TMDs to mitigate the effect of critical earthquake on irregular building for both cases of study as fixed base and raft foundation (SSI) with different TMDs parameters and configurations. Torsion occurs when the L-shape in plan building subjected to earthquake which may be caused harmful damage. TMDs parameters which give the most effective efficiency in the earthquake duration must be defined, that will mitigate these effects. The parameters of TMDs were studied with structure for different rectangularity ratios and soil types, with different TMD configurations. Nonlinear time history analysis is carried out by SAP2000 with El Centro earthquake wave. The numerical results of the parametric study help in understanding the seismic behavior of L-shape in plan building with TMDs mitigation system.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.51 no.3
• /
• pp.447-470
• /
• 2014

Numerical simulation of the non-linear behavior of (RC) structural walls subjected to severe earthquake ground motions requires a reliable modeling approach that includes important material characteristics and behavioral response features. The objective of this paper is to optimize a simplified method for the assessment of the seismic response and damage development analyses of an RC structural wall building using macro-element model. The first stage of this study investigates effectiveness and ability of the macro-element model in predicting the flexural nonlinear response of the specimen based on previous experimental test results conducted in UCLA. The sensitivity of the predicted wall responses to changes in model parameters is also assessed. The macro-element model is next used to examine the dynamic behavior of the structural wall building-all the way from elastic behavior to global instability, by applying an approximate Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA), based on Uncoupled Modal Response History Analysis (UMRHA), setting up nonlinear single degree of freedom systems. Finally, the identification of the global stiffness decrease as a function of a damage variable is carried out by means of this simplified methodology. Responses are compared at various locations on the structural wall by conducting static and dynamic pushover analyses for accurate estimation of seismic performance of the structure using macro-element model. Results obtained with the numerical model for rectangular wall cross sections compare favorably with experimental responses for flexural capacity, stiffness, and deformability. Overall, the model is qualified for safety assessment and design of earthquake resistant structures with structural walls.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.299-310
• /
• 2018

When reinforced concrete structures are subjected to strong seismic forces, their beam-column connections are very susceptible to be damaged during the earthquake event. Consequently, structural designers try to fit an important quantity of steel reinforcement inside the connection, complicating its construction without a clear justification for this. The aim of this work is to evaluate -and demonstrate- numerically how the quantity and the array of the internal steel reinforcement influences on the nonlinear response of the RC beam-column connection. For this, two specimens (extracted from an experimental test of 12 RC beam-column connections reported in literature) were modeled in the Finite Element code FEAP considering different stirrup's arrays. The nonlinear response of the RC beam-column connection is evaluated taking into account the nonlinear thermodynamic behavior of each component: a damage model is used for concrete; a classical plasticity model is adopted for steel reinforcement; the steel-concrete bonding is considered perfect without degradation. At the end, the experimental responses obtained in the tests are compared to the numerical results, as well as the distribution of shear stresses and damage inside the concrete core of the beam-column connection, which are analyzed for a low and high state of confinement.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.3 no.3
• /
• pp.245-261
• /
• 2007

Nonlinear time-domain system identification (SI) algorithm is proposed to assess damage in a shear building by synchronously estimating time-varying stiffness and damping parameters using measured acceleration data. Mass properties have been assumed as the a priori known information. Viscous damping was utilized for the current research. To chase possible nonlinear dynamic behavior under severe vibration, an incremental governing equation of vibrational motion has been utilized. Stiffness and damping parameters are estimated at each time step by minimizing the response error between measured and computed acceleration increments at the measured degrees-of-freedom. To solve a nonlinear constrained optimization problem for optimal structural parameters, sensitivities of acceleration increment were formulated with respect to stiffness and damping parameters, respectively. Incremental state vectors of vibrational motion were computed numerically by Newmark-${\beta}$ method. No model is pre-defined in the proposed algorithm for recovering the nonlinear response. A time-window scheme together with Monte Carlo iterations was utilized to estimate parameters with noise polluted sparse measured acceleration. A moving average scheme was applied to estimate the time-varying trend of structural parameters in all the examples. To examine the proposed SI algorithm, simulation studies were carried out intensively with sample shear buildings under earthquake excitations. In addition, the algorithm was applied to assess damage with laboratory test data obtained from free vibration on a three-story shear building model.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.5 no.6
• /
• pp.657-678
• /
• 2013

For economical earthquake resistant design of cable-stayed bridge tower, the use of energy dissipation systems for the earthquake protection of steel structures represents an alternative seismic design method where the tower structure could be constructed to dissipate a large amount of earthquake input energy through inelastic deformations in certain positions, which could be easily retrofitted after damage. The design of energy dissipation systems for bridges could be achieved as the result of two conflicting requirements: no damage under serviceability limit state load condition and maximum dissipation under ultimate limit state load condition. A new concept for cable-stayed bridge tower seismic design that incorporates sacrificial link scheme of low yield point steel horizontal beam is introduced to enable the tower frame structure to remain elastic under large seismic excitation. A nonlinear dynamic analysis for the tower model with the proposed energy dissipation systems is carried out and compared to the response obtained for the tower with its original configuration. The improvement in seismic performance of the tower with supplemental passive energy dissipation system has been measured in terms of the reduction achieved in different response quantities. Obtained results show that the proposed energy dissipation system of low yield point steel seismic link could strongly enhance the seismic performance of the tower structure where the tower and the overall bridge demands are significantly reduced. Low yield point steel seismic link effectively reduces the damage of main structural members under earthquake loading as seismic link yield level decreases due their exceptional behavior as well as its ability to undergo early plastic deformations achieving the concentration of inelastic deformation at tower horizontal beam.

• Advances in Computational Design
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.229-251
• /
• 2022

In 2017, an intraplate earthquake of Mw 7.1 occurred 120 km from Mexico City (CDMX). Most collapsed structural buildings stroked by the earthquake were flat slab systems joined to reinforced concrete (RC) columns, unreinforced masonry, confined masonry, and dual systems. This article presents the simulated response of an actual six-story RC frame building with masonry infill walls that did not collapse during the 2017 earthquake. It has a structural system similar to that of many of the collapsed buildings and is located in a high seismic amplification zone. Five 3D numerical models were used in the study to model the seismic response of the building. The building dynamic properties were identified using an ambient vibration test (AVT), enabling validation of the building's finite element models. Several assumptions were made to calibrate the numerical model to the properties identified from the AVT, such as the presence of adjacent buildings, variations in masonry properties, soil-foundation-structure interaction, and the contribution of non-structural elements. The results showed that the infill masonry wall would act as a compression strut and crack along the transverse direction because the shear stresses in the original model (0.85 MPa) exceeded the shear strength (0.38 MPa). In compression, the strut presents lower stresses (3.42 MPa) well below its capacity (6.8 MPa). Although the non-structural elements were not considered to be part of the lateral resistant system, the results showed that these elements could contribute by resisting part of the base shear force, reaching a force of 82 kN.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.69 no.5
• /
• pp.567-577
• /
• 2019

Guyed steel lattice towers (or guyed masts) are widely used for supporting antennas for telecommunications and broadcasting. This paper presents a numerical study on the static and dynamic response of guyed towers. Three-dimensional nonlinear finite-element models are used to simulate the response. Through performing static pushover analyses and free-vibration (modal) analyses, the effect of different bracing configurations is investigated. In addition, seismic analyses are performed on towers of different heights to study the influence of earthquake excitation time-lag (or the earthquake travel distance between tower anchors) and antenna weight on the seismic response of guyed towers. The results show that the inclusion of time lag in the seismic analysis of guyed towers can influence shear and moment distribution along the height of the mast. Moreover, it is found that the lateral response is insensitive to bracing configurations. The results also show that, depending on the mast height, an increased antenna weight can reduce the tower maximum base shear while other response quantities, such as cables tension force are found to be insensitive to variation in the antenna weight.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.27-41
• /
• 2023

This study focused on nonlinear effective stress site response analysis using two coupled constitutive models, that is, the DM model (Dafalias and Manzari 2004), which incorporated a simple plasticity sand model accounting for fabric change effects, and the PMDY03 model (Khosravifar et al. 2018), that is, a 3D model for earthquake-induced liquefaction triggering and postliquefaction response. A detailed parametric study was conducted to validate the effectiveness of nonlinear site response analysis and porewater pressure (PWP) generation through a true coupled formulation for assessing the initiation of liquefaction at ground level. The coupled models demonstrated accurate prediction of liquefaction triggering, which was in line with established empirical liquefaction triggering relations in published databases. Several limitations were identified in the evaluation of liquefaction using the cyclic stress method, despite its widespread implementation for calculating liquefaction triggering. Variations in shear stiffness, represented by changes in shear wave velocity (Vs1), exerted the most significant influence on site response. The study further indicated that substantial differences in response spectra between nonlinear total stress and nonlinear effective stress analyses primarily occurred when liquefaction was triggered or on the verge of being triggered, as shown by excess PWP ratios approaching unity. These differences diminished when liquefaction occurred towards the later stages of intense shaking. The soil response was predominantly influenced by the higher stiffness values present prior to liquefaction. A key contribution of this study was to validate the criteria used to assess the triggering of level-ground liquefaction using true coupled effective-stress constitutive models, while also confirming the reliability of numerical approximations including the PDMY03 and DM models. These models effectively captured the principal characteristics of liquefaction observed in field tests and laboratory experiments.