• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.64 no.6
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• pp.765-781
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• 2017

The out-of-plane response of infill walls has recently gained a growing attention and has been recognised fundamental in the damage assessment of reinforced concrete and steel framed buildings subjected to seismic loads. The observation of damage after earthquakes highlighted that out-of-plane collapse of masonry infills may occur even during seismic events of low or moderate intensity, causing both casualty risks and unfavourable situations affecting the overall structural response. Even though studies concerning the out-of-plane behaviour of infills are not as many as those focused on the in-plane response, in the last decades, a substantial number of researches have been carried out on the out-of-plane behaviour of infills. In this study, the out-of-plane response is investigated considering different aspects. First, damages observed after past earthquakes are examined, with the aim of identifying the main parameters involved and the most critical configurations. Secondly, the response recorded in about 150 experimental tests is deeply examined, focusing on the influence of geometrical characteristics, boundary conditions, prior in-plane damage, presence of reinforcing elements and openings. Finally, different theoretical capacity models and code provisions are discussed and compared, giving specific attention to those based on the arching theory. The reliability of some of these models is herein tested with reference to experimental results. The comparison between analytically predicted and experimental values allows to appreciate the extent of approximation of such methods.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.411-424
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• 2018

This study explores the inelastic behavior of systems with flexible base. The use of a single degree of freedom system (ESDOF) with equivalent ductility to represent the response of flexible base systems is discussed. Two different equations to compute equivalent ductility are proposed, one which includes the contribution of rigid body components, and other based on the overstrength of the structure. In order to asses the accuracy of ESDOF approach with the proposed equations, the behavior of a 10-story regular building with reinforced concrete (RC) moment resisting frames is studied. Local and global ductility capacity and demands are used to study the modifications introduced by base flexibility. Three soil types are considered with shear wave velocities of 70, 100 and 250 m/s. Soil-foundation stiffness is included with a set of springs on the base (impedance functions). Capacity curves of the building are computed with pushover analysis. In addition, non linear time history analysis are used to asses the ductility demands. Results show that ductility capacity of the soil-structure system including rigid body components is reduced. Base flexibility does not modify neither yield and maximum base shear. Equivalent ductility estimated with the proposed equations is fits better the results of the numerical model than the one considering elastoplastic behavior. Modification of beams ductility demand due to base flexibility are not constant within the structure. Some elements experience reduced ductility demands while other elements experience increments when flexible base is considered. Soil structure interaction produces changes in the relation between yield strength reduction factor and structure ductility demand. These changes are dependent on the spectral shape and the period of the system with fixed and flexible base.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.119-133
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• 2017

Several theoretical and analytical formulations for the prediction of shear strength in reinforced concrete (RC) beam-to-column joints have been recently developed. Some of these predictive models are included in the most recent seismic codes and currently used in practical design. On the other hand, the influence of the stiffness and strength degradations in RC joints on the seismic performance of RC framed buildings has been only marginally studied, and it is generally neglected in practice-oriented seismic analysis. To investigate such influence, this paper proposes a numerical description for representing the cyclic response of RC exterior joints. This is then used in nonlinear numerical simulations of RC frames subjected to earthquake loading. According to the proposed strategy, RC joints are modelled using nonlinear rotational spring elements with strength and stiffness degradations and limited ductility under cyclic loading. The proposed joint model has been firstly calibrated against the results from experimental tests on 12 RC exterior joints. Subsequently, nonlinear static and dynamic analyses have been carried out on two-, three- and four-storey RC frames, which represent realistic existing structures designed according to old standards. The numerical results confirm that the global seismic response of the analysed RC frames is strongly affected by the hysteretic damage in the beam-to-column joints, which determines the failure mode of the frames. This highlights that neglecting the effects of joints damage may potentially lead to non-conservative seismic assessment of existing RC framed structures.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.55-62
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• 2018

In this study, natural period formular is presented for a RC shear wall structure with H-, T-, and L-shaped wall sections. The natural period formular proposed by Goel and Chopra and adopted in ASCE 7-10 was modified by using the ratio of the flange and web wall area. The natural periods of structures with H-shaped wall were numerically obtained, the results indicated that the ASCE 7-10 could not consider the natural period variation according to the length of the flange wall, but the proposed formula could do. Especially, ASCE 7-10 estimated much longer periods than eigenvalue analysis, and this implies that conservative seismic design is difficult. The periods by eigenvalue analysis exist between the upper and lower bounds given by the proposed formula, and conservative design is possible by using the proposed lower bound value. In order to verity the effectiveness of the proposed method, actual residential buildings with various types of flange walls are considered. Ambient vibration tests, eigenvalue analyses, and nonlinear dynamic analyses were conducted and the periods were compared with the values by ASCE 7-10 and the proposed formula. The results showed that the proposed formula could estimate more accurately the periods than ASCE 7-10.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.351-365
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• 2002

The box system that is composed only of reinforced concrete walls and slabs we adopted on many high-rise apartment buildings recently constructed in Korea. And the framed structure with shear wall core that can effectively resist horizontal forces is frequently adopted for the structural system for high-rise building structures. In these structures, a shear wall may have one or more openings for functional reasons. It is necessary to use subdivided finite elements for accurate analysis of the shear wall with openings. But it would take significant amount of computational time and memory if the entire building structure is subdivided into a finer mesh. An efficient analysis method that can be used regardless of the number, size and location of openings is proposed in this study. The analysis method uses super element, substructure, matrix condensation technique and fictitious beam technique. Three-dimensional analyses of the box system and the framed structure with shear wall core having various types of openings were performed to verify the efficiency of the proposed method. It was confirmed that the proposed method have outstanding accuracy with drastically reduced time and computer memory from the analyses of example structures.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.139-152
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• 2010

This study presents graphic-user interface computer program for optimal compensation of differential column shortening with high field applicability. The implemented system can perform both relative and mixed compensation while satisfying both performance and construction constraints. In the proposed system the shape of the structure before and after compensation can be checked graphically, and the results of compensation of each stories can be printed in drawings which can be directly used as the report of column shortening. The field-applicability of the implemented system was verified by applying it to the four reinforced concrete residental buildings of 61, 42, 49 and 53 stories where compensation of differential column shortening had already been performed. Using the implemented system, compensation can be performed easily with the various constraint conditions and was able to acquire rational compensation results for the cases where conventional method was not successful.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.117-143
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• 2017

The attack of environmental aggressive agents progressively reduces the structural reliability of buildings and infrastructures and, in the worst exposition conditions, may even lead to their collapse in the long period. A change in the material and sectional characteristics of a structural element, due to the environmental damaging effects, changes its mechanical behaviour and varies both the internal stress redistribution and the kinematics through which it reaches its ultimate state. To identify such a behaviour, the evolution of both the damaging process and its mechanical consequences have to be taken into account. This paper presents a computational approach for the analysis of reinforced and prestressed concrete elements under sustained loading conditions and subjected to given damaging scenarios. The effects of the diffusion of aggressive agents, of the onset and development of the corrosion state in the reinforcement and the corresponding mechanical response are studied. As known, the corrosion on the reinforcing bars influences the damaging rate in the cracking pattern evolution; hence, the damage development and the mechanical behaviours are considered as coupled phenomena. The reliability of such an approach is validated in modelling the diffusion of the aggressive agents and the changes in the mechanical response of simple structural elements whose experimental behaviour is reported in Literature. A second set of analyses studies the effects of the corrosion of the tendons of a P.C. beam and explores potentially unexpected structural responses caused by corrosion under different aggressive exposition. The role of the different types and of the different positions of the damaging agents is discussed. In particular, it is shown how the collapse mode of the beam may switch from flexural to shear type, in case corrosion is caused by a localized chloride attack in the shear span.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.321-337
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• 2020

Contemporary design and construction of steel-concrete composite structures employs the use of prefabricated concrete elements and demountable shear connectors in order to reduce the construction time and costs and enable dismantling of elements for their potential reuse at the end of life of buildings. Bolted shear connector with mechanical coupler is presented in this paper. The connector is assembled from mechanical coupler and rebar anchor, embedded in concrete, and steel bolt, used for connecting steel to concrete members. The behaviour and ultimate resistance of bolted connector with mechanical coupler in wide and narrow members were analysed based on push-out tests and FE analyses conducted in Abaqus software, with focus on concrete edge breakout and bolt shear failure modes. The effect of concrete strength, concrete edge distance and diameter and strength of bolts on failure modes and shear resistance was analysed. It was demonstrated that premature failure by breakout of concrete edge occurs when connectors are located 100 mm or closer from the edge in low-strength and normal-strength reinforced concrete. Furthermore, the paper presents a relatively simple model for hand calculation of concrete edge breakout resistance when bolted connectors with mechanical coupler are used. The model is based on the modification of prediction model used for cast-in and post-installed anchors loaded parallel to the edge, by implementing equivalent influence length of connector with variable diameter. Good agreement with test and FE results was obtained, thus confirming the validity of the proposed method.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.81-91
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• 2003

Recently, many high-rise reinforced concrete(RC) bearing-wall structures of multiple uses have been constructed, which have the irregularities of weak(or soft) story and torsion at the lower stories simultaneously. The study stated herein was performed to investigate seismic performance of such a high-rise RC structure through a series of shaking table tests of a 1: 12 model. Based on the observations of the test results, the conclusions are drawn as follows: 1) Accidental torsion due to the uncertainty on the properties of structure can be reasonably predicted by using the dynamic analysis than by using lateral force procedure. 2) The mode coupled by translation and torsion induced the overturning moments not only in the direction of excitations but also in the perpendicular direction: The axial forces in columns due to this transverse overturning moment cannot be adequately predicted using the existing mode analysis technique, and 3) the hysteretic curve and the strength diagram between base shear and torque(BST) clearly reveal the predominant mode of vibrations and the failure mode.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.261-271
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• 2015

Steel concentrically braced frame is an efficient system that can acquire resistance against the lateral force of buildings with the least amount of quantity. In this study is intended to proceed on the research of schemes for reinforcement by supplementing previously installed H-formed brace with non-welded cold-formed plastic stiffening materials restricting the flexure and buckling and acquire a consistent strength on the tensile and compressive force. As for the measures of supplementing previously-installed inverted V-formed braced frame, stiffening materials in the previous studies were converted to weak-axial supplementing materials to suggest a specific scheme evaluating the structural function through an experiment of members, interpretation of members, and frame-focused experiment. Reinforced brace satisfied the requirement to be prevent AISC brace from being ruptured due to imbalanced strength in the beam.