• Wind and Structures
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.209-223
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• 2019

The assessment of wind-induced vibration for tall reinforced concrete (RC) buildings requires the accurate estimation of their dynamic properties, e.g., the fundamental vibration periods and damping ratios. In this study, RC frame-shear wall systems designed under gravity and wind loadings have been evaluated by utilising 3D FE modelling incorporating eigen-analysis to obtain the elastic periods of vibration. The conducted parameters consist of the number of storeys, the plan aspect ratio (AR) of buildings, the core dimensions, the space efficiency (SE), and the leasing depth (LD) between the internal central core and outer frames. This analysis provides a reliable basis for further investigating the effects of these parameters and establishing new formulas for predicting the fundamental vibration periods by using regression analyses on the obtained results. The proposed constrained numerically based formula for vibration periods of tall RC frame-shear wall office buildings in terms of the height of buildings reasonably agrees with some cited formulas for vibration period from design codes and standards. However, the same proposed formula has a high discrepancy with other cited formulas from the rest of design codes and standards. Also, the proposed formula agrees well with some cited experimentally based formulas.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.82 no.5
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• pp.651-665
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• 2022

While the lateral confinement provided by an FRP jacket to a concrete column is passive in nature, confinement is activated when the concrete expands due to additional compression stresses or significant shear deformations. This characteristic of FRP jacketing theoretically leads to similar initial stiffness properties of FRP retrofitted buildings as the buildings without retrofit. In the current study, to validate this theoretical assumption, the initial stiffness characteristics, and thus, the potential seismic demands were investigated through forced vibration tests on two identical full-scale substandard reinforced concrete buildings with or without FRP retrofit. Power spectral density functions obtained using the acceleration response data captured through forced vibration tests were used to estimate the modal characteristics of these buildings. The test results clearly showed that the natural frequencies and the mode shapes of the buildings are quite similar. Since the seismic demand is controlled by the fundamental vibration modes, it is confirmed using vibration-based full-scale tests that the seismic demands of RC buildings remain unchanged after CFRP jacketing of columns. Furthermore, the damping characteristics were also found similar for both structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.83 no.4
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• pp.563-576
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• 2022

This study aimed to evaluate the progressive collapse potential of buildings designed using conventional design codes for the merchant occupancy classification and subjected to a sudden column failure. For this purpose, three reinforced concrete buildings having different story numbers were designed according to the seismic design recommendations of TSCB-2019. Later on, the buildings were analyzed using the GSA-2016 and UFC 4-023-03 to observe their progressive collapse responses. Three columns were removed independently in the structures from different locations. Nonlinear dynamic analysis method for the alternate path direct design approach was implemented for the design evaluation. The plasticity of the structural members was simulated by using nonlinear fiber hinges. The moment, axial, and shear force interaction on the hinges was considered by the Modified Compression Field Theory. Moreover, an existing experimental study investigating the progressive collapse behavior of reinforced concrete structures was used to observe the validation of nonlinear fiber hinges and the applied analysis methodology. The study results deduce that a limited local collapse disproportionately more extensive than the initial failure was experienced on the buildings designed according to TSCB-2019. The mercantile structures designed according to current seismic codes require additional direct design considerations to improve their progressive collapse resistance against the risk of a sudden column loss.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.283-291
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• 2017

A large number of residential buildings in regions subjected to severe earthquakes do not have enough load carrying capacity. The most of them have been constructed without receiving any structural engineering attention. It is practically almost impossible to perform detailed experimental evaluation and analytical analysis for each building to determine their seismic vulnerability, because of time and cost constraints. This fact points to a need for a simple evaluation method that focuses on selection of buildings which do not have the life safety performance level by adopting the main requirements given in the seismic codes. This paper deals with seismic assessment of existing reinforced concrete residential buildings and contains an alternative simplified procedure for seismic evaluation of buildings. Accuracy of the proposed procedure is examined by taking into account existing 250 buildings. When the results of the proposed procedure are compared with those of the detailed analyses, it can be seen that the results are quite compatible. It is seen that the accuracy of the proposed procedure is about 80% according to the detailed analysis results of existing buildings. This accuracy percentage indicates that the proposed procedure in this paper can be easily applied to existing buildings to predict their seismic performance level as a first approach before implementing the detailed and complex analyses.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.145-152
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• 2023

Typical floor systems in contemporary tall buildings consist of reinforced concrete or composite metal deck over framing members and account for a majority of the structural weight of the building. The use of high-density materials, such as reinforced concrete and steel, increases the weight of floor systems, reducing the system's overall efficiency. With the introduction of high-performance materials, mainly mass timber products, and fiber-reinforced composites, in the construction industry, designers and engineers have multiple options to choose from when selecting structural materials. This paper discusses the application of mass timber and carbon fiber composites as structural materials in floor systems of tall buildings. The research focused on a comparative analysis of the structural system efficiency for five different design options for tall building floor systems. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) method was adopted to develop a simulation framework, and parametric structural models were simulated to evaluate the structural performance under specific loading conditions. Simulation results revealed the advantages of lightweight structural materials to improve system efficiency and reduce material consumption. The impact of mechanical properties of materials, loading conditions, and issues related to fire engineering and construction were briefly discussed, and future research topics were identified in conclusion.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.277-296
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• 2013

Margin of safety against potential of progressive collapse is among important features of a structural system. Often eccentricity in plan of a building causes concentration of damage, thus adversely affects its progressive collapse safety margin. In this paper the progressive collapse of symmetric and asymmetric 3-story reinforced concrete ordinary moment resisting frame buildings subjected to the earthquake ground motions are studied. The asymmetric buildings have 5%, 15% and 25% mass eccentricity. The distribution of the damage and spread of the collapse is investigated using nonlinear time history analyses. Results show that potential of the progressive collapse at both stiff and flexible edges of the buildings increases with increase in the level of asymmetry in buildings. It is also demonstrated that "drift" as a more easily available global response parameter is a good measure of the potential of progressive collapse rather than much difficult-to-calculate local response parameter of "number of collapse plastic hinges".

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.171-180
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• 2014

Since the execution of structural design by professional structural engineers is not mandatory for small-size buildings in Korea, structural design is conducted by architects or contractors resulting in concern about the seismic safety of the buildings. Therefore, the Korean Structural Engineers Association proposed dedicated structural design criteria in 2012. The criteria were developed based on a deterministic approach in which the structural members are designed only with information of story and span length of the buildings and without structural analyses. However, due to the short time devoted to their development, these criteria miss satisfactory basis and do not deal with structural walls popularly used in Korea. Accordingly, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport launched a research on the 'development of structural performance enhancement technologies for small-size buildings against earthquakes and climate changes'.. As part of this research, this paper intends to establish direction for the preparation of deterministic structural design guidelines for seismic safety of domestic small-size reinforced concrete buildings. To that goal, a typical plan of these buildings is selected considering frames only and frames plus walls, and then design is conducted by changing the number of stories and span length. Next, the seismic performance is analyzed by nonlinear static pushover analysis. The results show that the structural design guidelines should be developed by classifying frames only and frames plus walls. The size and reinforcement of structural elements should be provided in the middle level of the current Korean Building Code and criteria for small buildings by considering story and span length for buildings with frames only, and determined by considering the shape and location of walls and the story and span length as well for buildings with frames plus walls. It is recommended that the design of walls should be conducted by reducing the amount of walls along with symmetrically located walls.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.535-558
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• 2008

This study evaluates seismic performance of the school buildings with the selected template designs in Turkey considering nonlinear behavior of reinforced concrete components. Six school buildings with template designs were selected to represent major percentage of school buildings in medium-size cities located in high seismic region of Turkey. Selection of template designed buildings and material properties were based on field investigation on government owned school buildings in several cities in western part of Turkey. Capacity curves of investigated buildings were determined by pushover analyses conducted in two principal directions. The inelastic dynamic characteristics were represented by equivalent single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) systems and their seismic displacement demands were calculated under selected ground motions. Seismic performance evaluation was carried out in accordance with recently published Turkish Earthquake Code that has similarities with FEMA-356 guidelines. Reasons of building damages in past earthquakes are examined using the results of performance assessment of investigated buildings. The effects of material quality on seismic performance of school buildings were investigated. The detailed examination of capacity curves and performance evaluation identified deficiencies and possible solutions for template designs.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.278-287
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• 2000

In Korea, countermeasures against earthquake disasters such as the seismic performance evaluation and/or retrofit scheme of buildings have not been fully performed since Korea had not been experienced many destructive earthquakes in the past. However, due to more than four hundred earthquakes with slight/medium intensity occurred in the off-coastal and inland of Korea during the past 20 years, and due to the great earthquakes occurred recently in neighboring countries, such as the 1995 Hyogoken-Nambu Earthquake with more than 6,500 fatalities in Japan and the 1999 Ji-Ji Earthquake with more than 2,500 fatalities in Taiwan, the importance of the future earthquake preparedness measures in Korea is highly recognized. The main objective of this paper is to provide the basic data for development of a methodology for the future earthquake preparedness in Korea by investigating the concept and applicabilities of the Japanese Standard for Evaluation of Seismic Performance of Existing RC Buildings developed in Japan among the methodologies of all over the world. In this paper, a seismic performance evaluation method of the existing reinforced concrete buildings is proposed based on experimental data of columns and walls carried out in Korea by referring the Japanese Standard, especially focusing on the Strength Index(C) among the indices in the seismic capacity index(IS) equations. Also, the seismic capacities of two existing reinforced concrete buildings in Korea are evaluated based on the proposed methodology and the Japanese Standard, and the correlations between the seismic capacities by the proposed methodology and the Japanese Standard are discussed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.2
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• pp.237-249
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• 2017

The Self-Organization Feature Map as an unsupervised network is very widely used these days in engineering science. The applied network in this paper is the Self Organization Feature Map with constant weights which includes Kohonen Network. In this research, Reinforced Concrete Shear Wall buildings with different stories and heights are analyzed and a database consisting of measured fundamental periods and characteristics of 78 RC SW buildings is created. The input parameters of these buildings include number of stories, height, length, width, whereas the output parameter is the fundamental period. In addition, using Genetic Algorithm, the structure of the Self-Organization Feature Map algorithm is optimized with respect to the numbers of layers, numbers of nodes in hidden layers, type of transfer function and learning. Evaluation of the SOFM model was performed by comparing the obtained values to the measured values and values calculated by expressions given in building codes. Results show that the Self-Organization Feature Map, which is optimized by using Genetic Algorithm, has a higher capacity, flexibility and accuracy in predicting the fundamental period.