• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.195-211
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• 2014

When strong seismic forces act on reinforced concrete structures, their beam-column connections are very susceptible to damage during the earthquake event. The aim of this numerical work is to evaluate the influence of the internal steel reinforcement array on the nonlinear response of a RC beam-column connection when it is subjected to strong cyclic loading -as a seismic load. 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. In order to evaluate the nonlinear response of the RC beam-column connection, the 2D model takes into account the nonlinear thermodynamic behavior of each component: for concrete, a damage model is used; for steel reinforcement, it is adopted a classical plasticity model; in the case of the steel-concrete bonding, this one is considered perfect without degradation. At the end, we show a comparison between the experimental test's responses and the numerical results, which includes the distribution of shear stresses and damage inside the concrete core of the beam-column connection; in the other hand, the effects on the connection of a low and high state of confinement are analyzed for all cases.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.15-24
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• 2012

Domestic reinforced concrete (RC) apartments have a unique structural system that consists of shear walls and rink members of slabs and lintels. In this study, the nonlinear static analysis of two RC shear wall sub-assemblages, with and without lintels, was conducted using the uniaxial spring model to develop a method for accurately predicting the seismic behavior of domestic RC apartments. In the case of the specimen without lintels, the analytical result successfully represented a simulation of the nonlinear behavior of the specimen in accordance with the test result. On the other hand, in the case of the specimen with lintels, the analysis resulted in underestimating the nonlinear behavior of the specimen compared to the test result, because the coupling effect could not be predicted from the earlier loading cycle.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.68 no.6
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• pp.747-760
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• 2018

In the present study, a methodology for developing fragilities of arch concrete dams to assess their performance against seismic hazards is introduced. Firstly, the probability risk and fragility curves are presented, followed by implementation and representation of the way this method is used. Amirkabir arch concrete dam was subjected to non-linear dynamic analyses. A modified three dimensional rotating smeared crack model was used to take the nonlinear behavior of mass concrete into account. The proposed model considers major characteristics of mass concrete. These characteristics are pre-softening behavior, softening initiation criteria, fracture energy conservation, suitable damping mechanism and strain rate effect. In the present analysis, complete fluid-structure interaction is included to account for appropriate fluid compressibility and absorptive reservoir boundary conditions. In this study, the Amirkabir arch concrete dam is subjected to a set of 8 three-component earthquakes each scaled to 10 increasing intensity levels. Using proposed nonlinear smeared crack model, nonlinear analysis is performed where the structure is subjected to a large set of scaled and un-scaled ground motions and the maximum responses are extracted for each one and plotted. Based on the results, fragility curves were plotted according to various and possible damages indexes. Discrete damage probabilities were calculated using statistical methods for each considered performance level and incremental nonlinear analysis. Then, fragility curves were constructed based on the lognormal distribution assumption. Two damage indexes were introduced and compared to one another. The results indicate that the dam has a proper stability under earthquake conditions at MCE level. Moreover, displacement damages index is more conservative and impractical in the fragility analysis than tensional damage index.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.531-538
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• 2017

In this paper, the seismic behavior of BRBF structures is studied and compared with special concentric braced frames (SCBF). To this purpose, three BRBF and three SCBF structures with 3, 5 and 10 stories are designed based on AISC360-5 and modelled using OpenSees. These structures are loaded in accordance with ASCE/SEI 7-10. Incremental nonlinear dynamic analysis (IDA) are performed on these structures for 28 different accelerograms and the median IDA curves are used to compare seismic capacity of these two systems. Results obtained, indicates that BRBF systems provide higher capacity for the target performance level in comparison with SCBF systems. And structures with high altitude (in this study, 5 and 10 stories) with the possibility of exceeding the collapse prevention performance level, further than lower altitude (here 3 floors) structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.415-430
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• 2015

Integral abutment bridges have many advantages over bridges with expansion joints in terms of economy and maintenance costs. However, in the design of abutments of integral bridges temperature loads play a crucial role. In addition, seismic loads are readily transferred to the substructure and affect the design of these components significantly. Currently, the European and American bridge design codes consider these two load cases separately in their recommended design load combinations. In this paper, the importance and necessity of combining the thermal and seismic loads is investigated for integral bridges. A 2D finite element combined pile-soil-structure interactive model is used in this evaluation. Nonlinear behavior is assumed for near field soil behind the abutments. The soil around the piles is modeled by nonlinear springs based on p-y curves. The uniform temperature changes occurring at the time of some significant earthquakes around the world are gathered and applied simultaneously with the corresponding earthquake time history ground motions. By comparing the results of these analyses to prescribed AASHTO LRFD load combinations it is observed that pile forces and abutment stresses are affected by this new load combination. This effect is more severe for contraction mode which is caused by negative uniform temperature changes.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.347-352
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• 2018

This study proposes seismic response analysis technique of a two-mass rack system which sustains heavy loads with frictional behavioral characteristics. In order to deal with the nonlinear frictional characteristics of the mass on the rack system, the equations of motion of the system has been derived and the appropriate numerical simulation technique has been developed. In order to examine the seismic performance of the proposed system, we consider two parameters that are expected to have great influence on the seismic performance of the system. One is the ratio of the two masses of the load and the rack structure, and the other is the friction coefficient between rack and loaded mass. A number of numerical simulations of the seismic response of structures with various natural frequencies for both parameters have been performed in order to investigate the seismic safety of the rack structures. From the simulated results. it is observed that the maximum displacement of the rack system tends to decrease drastically as the natural frequency of the structure increases regardless of the two parameters of mass ratio and friction coefficient. The proposed study provides important reference data to guarantee the seismic safety of the rack system by considering nonlinear frictional behavior of the loaded mass.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1999.04a
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• pp.671-676
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• 1999

Because of relatively heavy dead weight of concrete itself and unavoidable heat of massive concrete in bridge piers, circular hollow columns are widely used in Korean highway bridges. Since the occurrence of 1995 Kobe earthquake, there have been much concerns about seismic design for various infrastructures, inclusive of bridge structures. It is, however, understood that there are not much research works for nonlinear behavior of circular hollow columns subjected to earthquake motions. The ultimate of this experimental research is investigate nonlinear behavior of circular hollow reinforced concrete bridge piers under the quasi-static cyclic load, and then to enhance their ductility by strengthening the plastic hinge region with glassfiber sheets. It is concluded from quasi-static tests for 7 bridge piers that energy dissipation capacity and curvatures for a given displacement ductility factor $\{\mu}=frac{\Delta}{\Delta_y}$are about 20% higher for the seismically designed columns and about 70% higher for the retrofitted piers than the nonseismically designed columns in a conventional way.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.931-936
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• 2003

Lap splices were located in the plastic hinge region of most bridge piers that were constructed before the adoption of the seismic design provision of Korea Highway Design Specification on 1992. Lap splicing is also permitted if hoops or spiral reinforcement are provided over the lap length in the current seismic design provision. But sudden brittle failure of lap splices may occur under inelastic cyclic loading. The purpose of this study is the analytical prediction of nonlinear hysteretic behavior and ductility capacity of reinforced concrete bridge piers with lap splices under cyclic loading. For this purpose, a nonlinear analysis program, RCAHEST(Reinforced Concrete Analysis in Higher Evaluation System Technology) is used. Lap spliced bar element is developed to predict behaviors of lap spliced bar. Maximum bar stress and slip of lap spliced bar is considered.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.1669-1680
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• 2019

Seismic safety is considered to be one of the key design objectives of AP1000 nuclear power plant (NPP) in strong earthquakes. Dynamic behavior, damage development and aggravation effect are studied in this study for the three main components of AP1000 NPP, namely reinforced concrete shield building (RCSB), steel vessel containment (SVC) and reinforced concrete auxiliary building (RCAB). Characteristics including nonlinear concrete tension and compressive constitutions with plastic damage are employed to establish the numerical model, which is further validated by existing studies. The author investigates three earthquakes and eight input levels with the maximum magnitude of 2.4 g and the results show that the concrete material of both RCSB and RCAB have suffered serious damage in intense earthquakes. Considering RCAB in the whole NPP, significant damage aggravation effect can be detected, which is mainly concentrated at the upper intersection between RCSB and RCAB. SVC and reinforcing bar demonstrate excellent seismic performance with no obvious damage.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.99-112
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• 2016

Since the preservation of monuments is very important to human societies, different methods are required to preserve historic structures. In this paper, 3D model of arch stone bridge at Pont Saint Martin, Aosta, Italy, was simulated by 1660 integrated separate stones using ABAQUS$^{(R)}$ software to investigate the seismic susceptibility of the bridge. The main objective of this research was to study a method of preservation of the historical stone bridge against possible earthquakes using FRP techniques. The nonlinear behavior model of materials used theory of plasticity based on Drucker-Prager yield criterion. Then, contact behavior between the block and mortar was modeled. Also, Seismosignal software was used to collect data related to 1976 Friuli Earthquake Italy, which constitutes a real seismic loading. The results show that, retrofitting of the arch stone bridge using FRP techniques decreased displacement of stones of spandrel walls, which prevents the collapse of stones.