• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.171-180
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• 2005

In this study the seismic performance of a three-story knee-braced moment-resisting frame (KBMRF), which is typically employed to support pipelines for oil or gas, was investigated. Nonlinear static pushover analyses were performed first to observe the force-displacement relationship of KBMRF under increasing seismic load. The results show that, when the maximum inter-story drift reached 1.5% of the story height, the main structural members, such as beams and columns, still remained elastic. Then nonlinear dynamic time-history analyses were carried out using eight earthquake ground motion time-histories scaled to at the design spectrum of UBC-97. It turned out that the maximum inter-story drift was smaller than the drift limit of 1.5 % of the structure height, and that the columns remained elastic. Based on these analytical results, it can be concluded that the seismic performance of the structure satisfies all the requirements regulated in the seismic code.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.2
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• pp.197-215
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• 2021

Under a severe environment of multiple hazards such as earthquakes and winds, the life-cycle performance of engineering structures may inevitably be deteriorated due to the fatigue effect caused by long-term exposure to wind loads, which would further increase the structural vulnerability to earthquakes. This paper presents a framework for evaluating the lifetime structural seismic performance under the effect of wind-induced fatigue considering different sources of uncertainties. The seismic behavior of a high-rise steel-concrete composite frame with buckling-restrained braces (FBRB) during its service life is systematically investigated using the proposed approach. Recorded field data for the wind hazard of Fuzhou, Fujian Province of China from Jan. 1, 1980 to Mar. 31, 2019 is collected, based on which the distribution of wind velocity is constructed by the Gumbel model after comparisons. The OpenSees platform is employed to establish the numerical model of the FBRB and conduct subsequent numerical computations. Allowed for the uncertainties caused by the wind generation and structural modeling, the final annual fatigue damage takes the average of 50 groups of simulations. The lifetime structural performance assessments, including static pushover analyses, nonlinear dynamic time history analyses and fragility analyses, are conducted on the time-dependent finite element (FE) models which are modified in lines with the material deterioration models. The results indicate that the structural performance tends to degrade over time under the effect of fatigue, while the influencing degree of fatigue varies with the duration time of fatigue process and seismic intensity. The impact of wind-induced fatigue on structural responses and fragilities are explicitly quantified and discussed in details.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.129-142
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• 2013

Linear and nonlinear time history analyses have been becoming more common in seismic analysis and design of structures with advances in computer technology and earthquake engineering. One of the most important issues for such analyses is the selection of appropriate acceleration time histories and matching these histories to a code design acceleration spectrum. In literature, there are three sources of acceleration time histories: artificial records, synthetic records obtained from seismological models and accelerograms recorded in real earthquakes. Because of the increase of the number of strong ground motion database, using and scaling real earthquake records for seismic analysis has been becoming one of the most popular research issues in earthquake engineering. In general, two methods are used for scaling actual earthquake records: scaling in time domain and frequency domain. The objective of this study is twofold: the first is to discuss and summarize basic methodologies and criteria for selecting and scaling ground motion time histories. The second is to analyze scaling results of time domain method according to ASCE 7-05 and Eurocode 8 (1998-1:2004) criteria. Differences between time domain method and frequency domain method are mentioned briefly. The time domain scaling procedure is utilized to scale the available real records obtained from near fault motions and far fault motions to match the proposed elastic design acceleration spectrum given in the Eurocode 8. Why the time domain method is preferred in this study is stated. The best fitted ground motion time histories are selected and these histories are analyzed according to Eurocode 8 (1998-1:2004) and ASCE 7-05 criteria. Also, characteristics of both near fault ground motions and far fault ground motions are presented by the help of figures. Hence, we can compare the effects of near fault ground motions on structures with far fault ground motions' effects.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.65-80
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• 2020

In order to protect a structure over its full life cycle, a novel tuned mass damper (TMD), the so-called semi-active eddy current pendulum tuned mass damper (SAEC-PTMD), which can retune its frequency and damping ratio in real-time, is proposed in this study. The structural instantaneous frequency is identified through a Hilbert-Huang transformation (HHT), and the SAEC-PTMD pendulum is adjusted through an HHT-based control algorithm. The eddy current damping parameters are discussed, and the relationship between effective damping coefficients and air gaps is fitted through a polynomial function. The semi-active eddy current damping can be adjusted in real-time by adjusting the air gap based on the linear-quadratic-Gaussian (LQG)-based control algorithm. To verify the vibration control effect of the SAEC-PTMD, an idealized linear primary structure equipped with an SAEC-PTMD excited by harmonic excitations and near-fault pulse-like earthquake excitations is proposed as one of the two case studies. Under strong earthquakes, structures may go into the nonlinear state, while the Bouc-Wen model has a wild application in simulating the hysteretic characteristic. Therefore, in the other case study, a nonlinear primary structure based on the Bouc-Wen model is proposed. An optimal passive TMD is used for comparison and the detuning effect, which results from the cumulative damage to primary structures, is considered. The maximum and root-mean-square (RMS) values of structural acceleration and displacement time history response, structural acceleration, and displacement response spectra are used as evaluation indices. Power analyses for one earthquake excitation are presented as an example to further study the energy dissipation effect of an SAECPTMD. The results indicate that an SAEC-PTMD performs better than an optimized passive TMD, both before and after damage occurs to the primary structure.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.5 no.6
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• pp.679-702
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• 2013

During an earthquake, soils filter and send out the shaking to the building and simultaneously it has the role of bearing the building vibrations and transmitting them back to the ground. In other words, the ground and the building interact with each other. Hence, soil-structure interaction (SSI) is a key parameter that affects the performance of buildings during the earthquakes and is worth to be taken into consideration. Columns are one of the most crucial elements in RC buildings that play an important role in stability of the building and must be able to dissipate energy under seismic loads. Recent earthquakes showed that formation of plastic hinges in columns is still possible as a result of strong ground motion, despite the application of strong column-weak beam concept, as recommended by various design codes. Energy is dissipated through the plastic deformation of specific zones at the end of a member without affecting the rest of the structure. The formation of a plastic hinge in an RC column in regions that experience inelastic actions depends on the column details as well as soil-structure interaction (SSI). In this paper, 854 different scenarios have been analyzed by inelastic time-history analyses to predict the nonlinear behavior of RC columns considering soil-structure interaction (SSI). The effects of axial load, height over depth ratio, main period of soil and structure as well as different characteristics of earthquakes, are evaluated analytically by finite element methods and the results are compared with corresponding experimental data. Findings from this study provide a simple expression to estimate plastic hinge length of RC columns including soil-structure interaction.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.1
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• pp.47-53
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• 2017

The fundamental goal of this study is to minimize the uncertainty of the median fragility curve and to assess the structural vulnerability under earthquake excitation. Bayesian Inference with Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation has been presented for efficient collapse response assessment of the independent intake water tower. The intake tower is significantly used as a diversion type of the hydropower station for maintaining power plant, reservoir and spillway tunnel. Therefore, the seismic fragility assessment of the intake tower is a pivotal component for estimating total system risk of the reservoir. In this investigation, an asymmetrical independent slender reinforced concrete structure is considered. The Bayesian Inference method provides the flexibility to integrate the prior information of collapse response data with the numerical analysis results. The preliminary information of risk data can be obtained from various sources like experiments, existing studies, and simplified linear dynamic analysis or nonlinear static analysis. The conventional lognormal model is used for plotting the fragility curve using the data from time history simulation and nonlinear static pushover analysis respectively. The Bayesian Inference approach is applied for integrating the data from both analyses with the help of MCMC simulation. The method achieves meaningful improvement of uncertainty associated with the fragility curve, and provides significant statistical and computational efficiency.

• 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.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.197-207
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• 2002

Energy dissipation capacity and earthquake responses of steel structures installed with unbonded braces(UB) were investigated. Parametric studies were performed for a single-degree-of-freedom structure under harmonic loads, and optimum yield strength of unbonded braces were derived. Nonlinear dynamic time history analyses were carried out to investigate the seismic response of multi-story model structures with UB having various size and strength. Various techniques were applied to determine proper story-wise distribution of UB in multi-story structures. The analysis results show that the maximum displacements of structures generally decrease as the stiffness of UB increases. However for some natural frequencies and seismic loads the maximum displacement and accumulated damage increases as the stiffness of UB increases.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.467-488
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• 2023

Seismic retrofit of an existing steel-reinforced concrete hospital building that features innovative use of a continuous energy-dissipative steel column (CEDC) system is presented in this paper. The special system has been adopted to provide an efficient solution taking into account the difficulties of applying traditional intervention techniques to minimize the impact on architectural functionality and avoid the loss of building function and evacuation during the retrofit implementation. The lateral stiffness and strength of the CEDC system were defined based on the geometric and mechanical properties of the steel strip dampers. The hysteretic behavior under cyclic loadings was defined using a simplified numerical model. Its effectiveness was validated by comparing the results of full-scale experimental data available from the literature. All the main design considerations of the retrofitting plan are described in detail. The effectiveness of the proposed retrofitting system was demonstrated by nonlinear time-history analyses under different sets of earthquake-strong ground motions. The analysis results show that the CEDC system is effective in controlling the deformation pattern and significantly reducing damage to the existing structure during major earthquakes.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.543-555
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• 2024

This study examines the seismic vulnerability of vertically irregular reinforced concrete (RC) frame buildings, focusing on the effectiveness of retrofitting techniques such as rocking walls (RWs) in mitigating soft story mechanisms. Utilizing a seven-story residential apartment as a prototype in a high-seismicity urban area, this research performs detailed nonlinear simulations to evaluate both regular and irregular structures, both before and after retrofitting. Pushover and nonlinear time history analyses were conducted using OpenSees software, with a suite of nine ground motion records to capture diverse seismic scenarios. The findings indicate that retrofitting with RWs significantly improves seismic performance: for instance, roof displacements at the Collapse Prevention (CP) level decreased by up to 23% in the irregular structure with retrofitting compared to its non-retrofitted counterpart. Additionally, interstory drift ratios were more uniform post-retrofit, with Drift Concentration Factor (DCF) values approaching 1.0 across all performance levels, reflecting reduced variability in seismic response. The global ductility of the retrofitted buildings improved, with displacement ductility ratios increasing by up to 29%. These results underscore the effectiveness of RWs in enhancing global ductility, mitigating soft story failures, and providing a more predictable deformation pattern during seismic events. The study thus provides valuable insights into the robustness and cost-effectiveness of using rocking walls for retrofitting irregular RC buildings.