• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.937-960
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• 2015

Tuned mass dampers (TMDs) have been a prevalent vibration control device for suppressing excessive vibration because of environmental loadings in contemporary tall buildings since the mid-1970s. A TMD must be tuned to the natural frequency of the primary structure to be effective. In practice, a TMD may be assembled in situ, simultaneously with the building construction. In such a situation, the respective dynamic properties of the TMD device and building cannot be identified to determine the tuning status of the TMD. For this purpose, a methodology was developed to obtain the parameters of the TMD and primary building on the basis of the eigenparameters of any two complex modes of the combined building-TMD system. The theory was derived in state-space to characterize the nonclassical damping feature of the system, and combined with a system identification technique to obtain the system eigenparameters using the acceleration measurements. The proposed procedure was first demonstrated using a numerical verification and then applied to real, experimental data of a large-scale building-TMD system. The results showed that the procedure is capable of identifying the respective parameters of the TMD and primary structure and is applicable in real implementations by using only the acceleration response measurements of the TMD and its located floor.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.325-343
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• 2018

This study aims to propose a performance-based design method of a novel passive base isolation system, BIO isolation system, which is inspired by an energy dissipation mechanism called 'sacrificial bonds and hidden length'. Fragility functions utilized in this study are derived, indicating the probability that a component, element, or system will be damaged as a function of a single predictive demand parameter. Based on PEER framework methodology for Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering (PBEE), a systematic design procedure using performance and fragility objectives is presented. Base displacement, superstructure absolute acceleration and story drift ratio are selected as engineering demand parameters. The new design method is then performed on a general two degree-of-freedom (2DOF) structure model and the optimal design under different seismic intensities is obtained through numerical analysis. Seismic performances of the biologically inspired (BIO) isolation system are compared with that of the linear isolation system. To further demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of this method, the BIO isolation system of a 4-storey reinforced concrete building is designed and investigated. The newly designed BIO isolators effectively decrease the superstructure responses and base displacement under selected earthquake excitations, showing good seismic performance.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.445-464
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• 2012

In order to evaluate the dynamic behavior of passive energy dissipation system, two steps need to be considered for prediction of structural response in the presence of ductile element in an off-centre bracing system. The first is a detailed analysis of the proposed ductile element and the second is the effect of this ductile element on an off-centre bracing system. The use of ductile bracing system is expanding in steel structures in order to increase the force reduction factor. Therefore, regarding the nonlinear behavior of steel material used in an off-centre bracing systems and using ductile element in OBS bracing systems, the seismic evaluation of the mentioned systems seems to be necessary. This paper aims to study linear and nonlinear behavior of steel frames with off-centre bracing system and ductile element, in order to get the best position of these bracing elements. To achieve this purpose, the modeling has been done with ANSYS software. The optimum eccentricity has been obtained by modeling three steel frames with different eccentricities and evaluating the results of them. The analytical results showed that the model OBS-C with 0.3 eccentricities has higher performance among the models.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.537-549
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• 2018

Using vertical links in eccentric braced frames is one of the best passive structural control approaches due to its effectiveness and practicality advantages. However, in spite of the subject importance there are limited studies which evaluate the seismic reliability and response reduction factor (R-factor) in this system. Therefore, the present study has been conducted to improve the current understanding about failure mechanism in the structural systems equipped with vertical links. For this purpose, following definition of demand and capacity response reduction factors, these parameters are computed for three different buildings (4, 8 and 12 stories) equipped with this system. In this regards, pushover and incremental dynamic analysis have been employed, and seismic reliability as well as multi-level response reduction factor according to the seismic demand and capacity of the frames have been derived. Based on the results, this system demonstrates high ductility and seismic energy dissipation capacity, and using the response reduction factor as high as 8 also provides acceptable reliability for the frame in the moderate and high earthquake intensities. This system can be used in original buildings as lateral load resisting system in addition to seismic rehabilitation of the existing buildings.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.82 no.1
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• pp.107-120
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• 2022

The bracing members capable of active control against seismic loads to reduce earthquake damage have been widely utilized in construction projects. Effectively reducing the structural damage caused by earthquake events, bracing systems equipped with retrofitting damper devices, which take advantage of the energy dissipation and impact absorption, have been widely used in practical construction sites. Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) are a new generation of smart materials with the capability of recovering their predefined shape after experiencing a large strain. This is mainly due to the shape memory effects and the superelasticity of SMA. These properties make SMA an excellent alternative to be used in passive, semi-active, and active control systems in civil engineering applications. In this research, a new system in diagonal braces with slit damper combined with SMA is investigated. The diagonal element under the effect of tensile and compressive force turns to shear force in the slit damper and creates tension in the SMA. Therefore, by creating shear forces in the damper, it leads to yield and increases the energy absorption capacity of the system. The purpose of using SMA, in addition to increasing the stiffness and strength of the system, is to create reversibility for the system. According to the results, the highest capacity is related to the case where the ratio of the width of the middle section to the width of the end section (b₁/b) is 1.0 and the ratio of the height of the middle part to the total height of the damper (h₁/h) is 0.1. This is mainly because in this case, the damper section has the highest cross-section. In contrast, the lowest capacity is related to the case where b₁/b=0.1 and the ratio h₁/h=0.8.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.73 no.3
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• pp.271-286
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• 2020

Passive control technologies are commonly used in several areas to suppress structural vibrations by the addition of supplementary damping, and some modal damping may be heavy beyond critical damping even for regular structures with energy dissipation devices. The design of passive control structures is typically based on (complex) mode superposition approaches. However, the conventional mode superposition approach is predominantly applied to cases of under-critical damping. Moreover, when any modal damping ratio is equal or close to 1.0, the system becomes defective, i.e., a complete set of eigenvectors cannot be obtained such that some well-known algorithms for the quadratic eigenvalue problem are invalid. In this paper, a generalized complex mode superposition method that is suitable for under-critical, critical and over-critical damping is proposed and expressed in a unified form for structural displacement, velocity and acceleration responses. In the new method, the conventional algorithm for the eigenvalue problem is still valid, even though the system becomes defective due to critical modal damping. Based on the modal truncation error analysis, modal corrected methods for displacement and acceleration responses are developed to approximately consider the contribution of the truncated higher modes. Finally, the implementation of the proposed methods is presented through two numerical examples, and the effectiveness is investigated. The results also show that over-critically damped modes have a significant impact on structural responses. This study is a development of the original complex mode superposition method and can be applied well to dynamic analyses of non-classically damped systems.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.767-788
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• 2015

A steel shear wall with double-tapered links and in-plane reference was developed for assisting the assessment of the structural condition of a building after an earthquake while maintaining the original role of the wall as a passive damper device. The double-tapered link subjected to in-plane shear deformation is designed to deform torsionally after the onset of local buckling and works as an indicator of the maximum shear deformation sustained by the shear wall during an earthquake. This paper first examines the effectiveness of double-tapered links in the assessment of the structural condition under various types of loading. A design procedure using a baseline incremental two-cycle loading protocol is verified numerically and experimentally. Meanwhile, in-plane reference links are introduced to double-tapered links and greatly enhance objectivity in the inspection of notable torsional deformation with the naked eye. Finally, a double-layer system, which consists of a layer with double-tapered links and a layer with rectangular links made of low-yield-point steel, is tested to demonstrate the feasibility of realizing both structural condition assessment and enhanced energy dissipation.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.595-617
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• 2013

Semi-active control equipments are used to effectually enhance the seismic behavior of structures. Magneto-rheological (MR) dampers are semi-active devices that can be utilized to control the response of structures during seismic loads and have received voracious attention for response suppression. They supply the adaptability of active devices and stability and reliability of passive devices. This paper presents an optimal fuzzy logic control scheme for vibration mitigation of buildings using magneto-rheological dampers subjected to near-fault ground motions. Near-fault features including a directivity pulse in the fault-normal direction and a fling step in the fault-parallel direction are considered in the requisite ground motion records. The membership functions and fuzzy rules of fuzzy controller were optimized by genetic algorithm (GA). Numerical study is performed to analyze the influences of near-fault ground motions on a building that is equipped with MR dampers. Considering the uncontrolled system response as the base line, the proposed method is scrutinized by analogy with that of a conventional maximum dissipation energy (MED) controller to accentuate the effectiveness of the fuzzy logic algorithm. Results reveal that the fuzzy logic controllers can efficiently improve the structural responses and MR dampers are quite promising for reducing seismic responses during near-fault earthquakes.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.337-351
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• 2017

In the present study a capacity spectrum method based on constant ductility inelastic spectra to estimate the seismic performance of structures equipped with elastic viscous dampers is presented. As the definition of the structures' effective damping, due to the damping system, is necessary, an alternative method to specify the effective damping ratio ${\xi}eff$ is presented. Moreover, damping reduction factors (B) are introduced to generate high damping elastic demand spectra. Given the elastic spectra for damping ratio ${\xi}eff$, the performance point of the structure can be obtained by relationships that relate the strength demand reduction factor (R) with the ductility demand factor (${\mu}$). As such expressions that link the above quantities, known as R - ${\mu}$ - Τ relationships, for different damping levels are presented. Moreover, corrective factors (Bv) for the pseudo-velocity spectra calculation are reported for different levels of damping and ductility in order to calculate with accuracy the values of the viscous dampers velocities. Finally, to evaluate the results of the proposed method, the whole process is applied to a four-storey reinforced concrete frame structure and to a six-storey steel structure, both equipped with elastic viscous dampers.