• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.57-82
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• 2014

The heritage value of the mixed wood-masonry 18th century Pombalino buildings of downtown Lisbon is recognized both nationally and internationally. The present paper focuses on the seismic assessment of global response and retrofitting of a typical Pombalino building by nonlinear static analyses, performed by the research software Tremuri, which is able to model 3D configurations. The structure is modelled using nonlinear beams for masonry panels, while in case of the internal walls (frontal walls) an original formulation has been developed in order to take into account their specific seismic behaviour. Floors are modelled as orthotropic membrane finite elements: this feature allows to simulate the presence of both flexible and rigid diaphragms, being the first ones more representative of the original state while the second ones of retrofitted configurations. Seismic assessment has been evaluated by applying nonlinear static procedure and comparing the performance of different configurations (by considering various retrofitting strategies). Finally, assuming a lognormal cumulative distribution, fragility curves are obtained to be representative of Pombalino buildings: the most important application of such curves is for seismic risk and loss estimation analyses.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.70-80
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• 2008

This paper presents comparison of 18000-3 ASK and PJM mode RFID in terms of reading speed. This is accomplished by counting the occurrences of a few representative blocks which constitute the reader / tag interactions for each mode. To apply FS (frame slotted)-aloha protocol, four Q-algorithms, which are a Q-algorithm suggested in the standard document, a fixed Q-algorithm, a minimum Q-algorithm and the number of tag dependent Q-algorithm, are used. Through some simulations, we present the reading speed of each mode with respect to the Q-algorithm and the comparison of the reading speed between the two modes for each Q-algorithms.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.93-108
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• 2010

This paper investigates the seismic performance of existing reinforced concrete frames with wide beams mainly designed for gravity loads, as typically found in the seismic-prone Mediterranean area before the introduction of modern codes. The seismic capacity is evaluated in terms of the overall amount of input energy that the frame can dissipate/absorb up to collapse. This approach provides a quantitative evaluation that can be useful for selecting and designing an appropriate retrofit strategy. Six prototype frames representative of past construction practices in the southern part of Spain are designed, and the corresponding non-linear numerical models are developed and calibrated with purposely conducted tests on wide beam-column subassemblages. The models are subjected to sixteen earthquake records until collapse by applying the incremental dynamic analysis method. It is found that the ultimate energy dissipation capacity at the story level is markedly low (about 1.36 times the product of the lateral yield strength and yield displacement of the story), giving values for the maximum amount of energy that the frame can dissipate which are from one fourth to half of that required in moderate-seismicity regions.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.293-311
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• 2016

A parametric study on the nonlinear seismic response of isolated reinforced concrete structural frame is presented. Three prototype frames designed according to the 1954 Hellenic seismic code, with number of floor ranging from 1 to 3 were considered. These low rise frames are representative of many existing reinforced concrete buildings in Greece. The efficacy of the implementation of both lead rubber bearings (LRB) and friction pendulum isolators (FPI) base isolation systems were examined. The selection of the isolation devices was made according to the ratio $T_{is}/T_{fb}$, where Tis is the period of the base isolation system and $T_{bf}$ is the period of the fixed-base building. The main purpose of this comprehensive study is to investigate the effect of the isolation system period on the seismic response of inadequately designed low rise buildings. Thus, the implementation of isolation systems which correspond to the ratio $T_{is}/T_{fb}$ that values from 3 to 5 is studied. Nonlinear time history analyses were performed to investigate the response of the isolated structures using a set of three natural seismic ground motions. The evaluation of each retrofitting case was made in terms of storey drift and storey shear force while in view of serviceability it was made in terms of storey acceleration. Finally, the maximum developed displacements and the residual displacements of the isolation systems are presented.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.963-995
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• 2015

The effectiveness of the various control algorithms for semi-active structural control systems proposed in the literature is highly questionable when dealing with earthquake actions, which never reach a steady state. From this perspective, the paper summarizes the results of an experimental activity aimed to compare the effectiveness of four different semi-active control algorithms on a structural mock up representative of a class of structural systems particularly prone to seismic actions. The controlled structure is a near full scale 2-story steel frame, equipped with two semi-active bracing systems including two magnetorheological dampers designed and manufactured in Europe. A set of earthquake records has been applied at the base of the structure, by utilizing a shaking table facility. Experimental results are compared in terms of displacements, absolute accelerations and energy dissipation capability. A further analysis on the percentage incidence of undesired and/or unpredictable operations corresponding to each algorithm gives an insight on some factors affecting the reliability and, in turn, the real effectiveness of semi-active structural control systems.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.241-264
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• 2013

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the progressive and rapid spread of reinforced concrete (RC) has led to the adoption of mixed masonry-RC solutions, such as the confined masonry. However, together with structures conceived with a definite role for earthquake behaviour, the spreading of RC technology has caused the birth of mixed solutions inspired more by functional aspects than by structural ones, such as: internal masonry walls replaced by RC frames, RC walls inserted to build staircases or raising made from RC frames. Usually, since these interventions rise from a spontaneous build-up, any capacity design or ductility concepts are neglected being designed only to bear vertical loads: thus, the vulnerability assessment of this class becomes crucial. To investigate the non-linear seismic response of these structures, suitable models and effective numerical tools are needed. Among the various modelling approaches proposed in the literature and codes, the authors focus their attention on the equivalent frame model. After a brief description of the adopted model and its numerical validation, the authors aim to point out some specific peculiarities of the seismic response of mixed masonry-RC structures and their repercussions on safety verification procedures (referring in particular way to the non-linear static ones). In particular, the results of non-linear static analyses performed parametrically to various configurations representative of different interventions are discussed.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.147-156
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• 2013

In this paper, a new speech endpoint detection method in noisy environments for moving robot platforms is proposed. In the conventional method, the endpoint of speech is obtained by applying an edge detection filter that finds abrupt changes in the feature domain. However, since the feature of the frame energy is unstable in such noisy environments, it is difficult to accurately find the endpoint of speech. Therefore, a novel feature extraction method based on the twice-iterated fast fourier transform (TIFFT) and statistical models of speech is proposed. The proposed feature extraction method was applied to an edge detection filter for effective detection of the endpoint of speech. Representative experiments claim that there was a substantial improvement over the conventional method.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.113-137
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• 2012

Frame structures with viscoelastic (VE) dampers mounted on them are considered in this paper. It is the aim of this paper to compare the dynamic characteristics of frame structures with VE dampers when the dampers are modelled by means of different models. The classical rheological models, the model with the fractional order derivative, and the complex modulus model are used. A relatively large structure with VE dampers is considered in order to make the results of comparison more representative. The formulae for dissipation energy are derived. The finite element method is used to derive the equations of motion of the structure with dampers and such equations are written in terms of both physical and state-space variables. The solution to motion equations in the frequency domain is given and the dynamic properties of the structure with VE dampers are determined as a solution to the appropriately defined eigenvalue problem. Several conclusions concerning the applicability of a family of models of VE dampers are formulated on the basis of results of an extensive numerical analysis.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.725-745
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• 2009

In this paper, probabilistic seismic performance assessment of a typical non-seismic RC frame building representative of a large inventory of existing buildings in developing countries is conducted. Nonlinear time-history analyses of the sample building are performed with 20 large-magnitude medium distance ground motions scaled to different levels of intensity represented by peak ground acceleration and 5% damped elastic spectral acceleration at the first mode period of the building. The hysteretic model used in the analyses accommodates stiffness degradation, ductility-based strength decay, hysteretic energy-based strength decay and pinching due to gap opening and closing. The maximum inter story drift ratios obtained from the time-history analyses are plotted against the ground motion intensities. A method is defined for obtaining the yielding and collapse capacity of the analyzed structure using these curves. The fragility curves for yielding and collapse damage levels are developed by statistically interpreting the results of the time-history analyses. Hazard-survival curves are generated by changing the horizontal axis of the fragility curves from ground motion intensities to their annual probability of exceedance using the log-log linear ground motion hazard model. The results express at a glance the probabilities of yielding and collapse against various levels of ground motion intensities.

• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.7-16
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• 2010

In this paper, we propose an ambient light control method based on the difference of image frames in video. The proposed method is composed of three steps. 1) The first step is to extract a dominant color of a current frame. 2) The second step is to compute the amount of change and the representative color in the changed region using the difference image. 3) The third step is to make a new representative color. The difference image is created from two images transformed into the YUV color space. The summed color difference of each pixel is used for the amount of change. The new representative color is created by synthesizing the current color and the changed color in proportion to the amount of change. We compare the variations of the light effect according to time with and without the proposed method for the same video. The result shows that the new method generates more dynamic light effects.