• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.68 no.5
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• pp.591-601
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• 2018

Non-moment beam-to-column connections, which are usually referred to as simple or shear connections, are typically designed to carry only gravity loads in the form of vertical shears. Although in the analysis of structures these connections are usually assumed to be pinned, they may provide a small amount of rotational stiffness due to the typical connection details. This paper investigates the effects of this small rotational restraint of simple beam-to-column connections on the behavior and seismic response of steel braced non-moment resisting frames. Two types of commonly used simple connections with bolted angles, i.e., the Double Web angle Connection (DWC) and Unstiffened Seat angle Connection (USC) are considered for this purpose. In addition to the pinned condition - as a simplified representation of these connections - more accurate semi-rigid models are established and then applied to some frame models subjected to nonlinear pushover and nonlinear time history analyses. Although the use of bracing elements generally reduces the sensitivity of the global structural response to the behavior of connections, the obtained results indicate considerable effects on the local responses. Namely, our results show that consideration of the real behavior of connections is essential in designing the column elements where the pin-connection assumption significantly underestimates design of outer columns of upper stories.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.241-248
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• 2015

There are a lot of equipment related to safety and electric power production in nuclear power plants. The structure and equipment in NPPs were generally designed considering a high safety factor to remain in the elastic zone under earthquake load. However it is needed to revaluate the seismic capacity of the structure and equipment as the magnitude of earthquake was recently increased. In this study the floor response due to the nonlinear behaviors of structure was analyzed and the inelastic structural response factor was calculated by the nonlinear time history analysis. The inelastic structural response factor was calculated by the EPRI method and the nonlinear analysis method to realistically evaluate the seismic fragility for the equipment. According to the analysis result, it was represented that the inelastic structural response factor was affected by the natural frequency of equipment, the location of equipment and the dynamic property of structure.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.4
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• pp.481-493
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• 2021

Low rise masonry structures are relatively inexpensive and easier to construct compared to other types of structures such as steel and reinforced concrete buildings. However, masonry structures are relatively heavier and less ductile and more vulnerable to damages in earthquakes. In this research, a new innovative low-cost seismic isolator using steel rings (SISR) is employed to reduce the seismic vulnerability of masonry structures. FEA of a masonry structure, made of concrete blocks is used to evaluate the effect of the proposed SISR on the seismic response of the structure. Two systems, fixed base and isolated from the base with the proposed SISRs, are considered. Micro-element approach and ABAQUS software are used for structural modeling. The nonlinear structural parameters of the SISRs, extracted from a recent experimental study by the authors, are used in numerical modeling. The masonry structure is studied in two separate modes, fixed base and isolated base with the proposed SISRs, under Erzincan and Imperial Valley-06 earthquakes. The accelerated response at the roof level, as well as the deformation in the masonry walls, are the parameters to assess the effect of the proposed SISRs. The results show a highly improved performance of the masonry structure with the SISRs.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.529-541
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• 2017

According to the definition, progressive collapse could occur due to the initial partial failure of the structural members which by spreading to the adjacent members, could result in partial or overall collapse of the structure. Up to now, most researchers have investigated the progressive collapse due to explosion, fire or impact loads. But new research has shown that the seismic load could also be a factor for initiation of the progressive collapse. In this research, the progressive collapse capacity for the 5 and 15-story steel special moment resisting frames using push-down nonlinear static analysis, and nonlinear dynamic analysis under the gravity loads specified in the GSA Guidelines, were studied. After identifying the critical members, in order to investigate the seismic progressive collapse, the 5-story steel special moment resisting frame was analyzed by the nonlinear time history analysis under the effect of earthquakes with different characteristics. In order to account for the initial damage, one of the critical columns was weakened at the initiation of the earthquake or its Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA). The results of progressive collapse analyses showed that the potential of progressive collapse is considerably dependent upon location of the removed column and the number of stories, also the results of seismic progressive collapse showed that the dynamic response of column removal under the seismic load is completely dependent on earthquake characteristics like Arias intensity, PGA and earthquake frequency contents.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.469-478
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• 2017

This paper summarizes estimated seismic response results from three-dimensional nonlinear inelastic time-history analyses of some steel buckling-restrained braced (BRB) structures taking into account soil-structure interaction (SSI). The response results involve mean values for peak interstorey drift ratios, peak interstorey residual drift ratios and peak floor accelerations. Moreover, mean seismic demands in terms of axial force and rotation in columns, of axial and shear forces and bending moment in BRB beams and of axial displacement in BRBs are also discussed. For comparison purposes, three separate configurations of the BRBs have been considered and the aforementioned seismic response and demands results have been obtained firstly by considering SSI effects and then by neglecting them. It is concluded that SSI, when considered, may lead to larger interstorey and residual interstorey drifts than when not. These drifts did not cause failure of columns and of the BRBs. However, the BRB beam may fail due to flexure.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.211-218
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• 2003

Most structures are expected to deform beyond the limit of linearly elastic behavior when subjected to strong ground motion. Seismic evaluation of structure requires an estimation of the structural performance in terms of displacement demand imposed by earthquakes on the structure. Nonlinear response history analysis(NRHA) is the most rigorous procedure to compute seismic performance among various inelastic analysis methods. But nonlinear analysis procedures necessitate more practical and reliable tools for predicting seismic behavior of structures. This paper presents a nonlinear direct spectrum method(NDSM) to evaluate seismic performance of structures, without iterative computations, given by the structural initial elastic period and yield strength from the pushover analysis, especially for MDF(multi degree of freedom) system. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the accuracy and reliability of this method from a point of view of various earthquakes and structure parameters.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.561-567
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• 2007

This paper deals with the numerical model of a bracing-friction damper system and its deployment using the optimal slip load distribution for the seismic retrofitting of a damaged building. The Slotted Bolted Connection (SBC) type friction damper system was tested to investigate its energy dissipation characteristic. Test results coincided with the numerical ones using the conventional model of a bracing-friction damper system. The placement of this device was numerically explored to apply it to the assumed damaged-building and to evaluate its efficiency. It was found by distributing the slip load that minimizes the given performance indicies based on structural response. Numerical results for the damaged building retrofitted with this slip load distribution showed that the seismic design of the bracing-friction damper system under consideration is effective for the structural response reduction.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.228-235
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• 1999

As a seismic damper the viscoelastic damper is known the effective method to control the drift of the flexible building. As the viscoelastic damper has the characteristics of both damping and stiffness specially when the rubber material used hysteretic damping. The behavior of the hysteretic damping is quite different from that of the viscous damping. For the evaluation of the viscoelastic damper for the seismic purpose the nonlinear response spectrum was generated based on the dynamic test of the viscoelastic damper and the results is compared to that of the typical linear response spectrum,

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.258-265
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• 2002

Most structures are expected deform nonlinear and inelastic behavior when subjected to strong ground motion. Nonlinear time history analysis(NTHA) is the most rigorous procedure to compute seismic performance in the various inelastic analysis methods. But nonlinear analysis procedures necessitate more reliable and practical tools for predicting seismic behavior of structures. Some building codes propose the capacity spectrum method. This method is the concept of an equivalent linear system, wherein a linear system having reduced stiffness and increased damping is used to estimate the response of the nonlinear system. This procedure are conceptually simple, but the iterative procedure is time-consuming and may sometimes lead to no solution or multiple solutions. This paper presents a nonlinear direct spectrum method(NDSM) to evaluate seismic performance of structures, without iterative computations, given by the structural initial elastic period and yield strength from the pushover analysis, especially for mixed building structure.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.7-15
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• 2002

In this paper, the nonlinear parameter estimation method using the estimated hysteresis of each structural members was studied for the purpose of efficient seismic damage prediction and estimation of MDOF nonlinear structural model in the shaking table test. The hysteresis of each structural members can be obtained by the conversion of measured response histories into relative motions of each structural members and member forces. These hysteresis can be used to evaluate various kinds of damage indices of each structural members. The MDOF nonlinear structural model for further analysis(re-analysis) can be easily reconstructed using estimated nonlinear structural parameters of each structural members. To demonstrate the proposed techniques, several numerical and experimental example analyses are carried out. The results indicate that the proposed method can be very useful to assess local seismic damages of structures.