• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.343-353
• /
• 2021

In this study, in order to improve the seismic performance of existing reinforced concrete (RC) framed structures, various external attachment of corner steel frame configurations was considered as a user-friendly retrofitting method. The external steel frame is designed to contribute to the lateral stiffness and load carrying capacity of the existing RC structure. A six-story building was taken into account. Four different external corner steel frame configurations were suggested in order to strengthen the building. The 3D models of the building with suggested retrofitting steel frames were developed within ABAQUS environment using solid finite elements and analyzed under horizontal loadings nonlinearly. Horizontal top displacement vs loading curves were obtained to determine the overall performance of the building. Contributions of steel and RC frames to the carried loads were computed individually. Load/capacity ratios for the ground floor columns were presented. In the study, 3D rendered images of the building with the suggested retrofits are created to better visualize the real effect of the retrofit on the final appearance of the façade of the building. The analysis results have shown that the proposed external steel frame retrofit configurations increased the lateral load carrying capacity and lateral stiffness and can be used to improve the seismic performance of RC framed buildings.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.29-48
• /
• 2015

The main purpose of this work is to compare different criteria for the seismic strengthening of RC framed buildings in order to find the optimal combinations of these retrofitting techniques. To this end, a numerical investigation is carried out with reference to the town hall of Spilinga (Italy), an RC framed structure with an L-shaped plan built at the beginning of the 1960s. Five structures are considered, derived from the first by incorporating: carbon fibre reinforced polymer (FRP)-wrapping of all columns; base-isolation, with high-damping-laminated-rubber bearings (HDLRBs); added damping, with hysteretic damped braces (HYDBs); FRP-wrapping of the first storey columns combined with base-isolation or added damping. A three-dimensional fibre model of the primary and retrofitted structures is considered; bilinear and trilinear laws idealize, respectively, the behaviour of the HYDB, providing that the buckling be prevented, and the FRP-wrapping, without resistance in compression, while the response of the HDLRB is simulated by using a viscoelastic linear model. The effectiveness of the retrofitting solutions is tested with nonlinear dynamic analyses based on biaxial accelerograms, whose response spectra match those in the Italian seismic code.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.70 no.6
• /
• pp.703-710
• /
• 2019

While fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) materials have been largely used in the retrofitting of concrete buildings, its application has been limited because of some problems such as de-bonding of FRP layers from the concrete surface. This paper is the part of a wide experimental and analytical investigation about flexural retrofitting of reinforced concrete (RC) columns using FRP and mechanical fasteners (MF). A new generation of MF is proposed, which is applicable for retrofitting of RC columns. Furthermore, generally, to evaluate a retrofitted structure the nonlinear static and dynamic analyses are the most accurate methods to estimate the performance of a structure. In the nonlinear analysis of a structure, accurate modeling of structural elements is necessary for estimation the reasonable results. So for nonlinear analysis of a structure, modeling parameters for beams, columns, and beam-column joints are essential. According to the concentrated hinge method, which is one of the most popular nonlinear modeling methods, structural members shall be modeled using concentrated or distributed plastic hinge models using modeling parameters. The nonlinear models of members should be capable of representing the inelastic response of the component. On the other hand, in performance based design to make a decision about a structure or design a new one, numerical acceptance should be determined. Modeling parameters and numerical acceptance criteria are different for buildings of different types and for different performance levels. In this paper, a new method was proposed for FRP retrofitted columns to avoid FRP debonding. For this purpose, mechanical fasteners were used to achieve the composite behavior of FRP and concrete columns. The experimental results showed that the use of the new method proposed in this paper increased the flexural strength and lateral load capacity of the columns significantly, and a good composition of FRP and RC column was achieved. Moreover, the modeling parameters and acceptance criteria were presented, which were derived from the experimental study in order to use in nonlinear analysis and performance-based design approach.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.100-106
• /
• 2010

Most of the school buildings were built before the seismic code was established. To consider the sunlight and ventilation to the partition walls are built about 1m height beside columns at typical school buildings. For the reason, columns which is consisted school building occur brittle failure shape by the reduced effective depth. In this study, experimental test for retrofitting effect by Aramid Fiber Reinforced Polymers(AFRP) strips on masonry infilled reinforced concrete(RC) frames is performed. The test results were to ensured enough time to evacuate due to the enhancement of ductility and strength of school buildings to withstand earthquakes using AFRP strips.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.90 no.1
• /
• pp.51-70
• /
• 2024

Poorly designed reinforced concrete (RC) columns of actual moment-resisting frame (MRF) buildings can undergo Axial Compression Ratios (ACR) so high as their demand exceeds their capacity, even for serviceability gravity load combinations, this lack commonly leads to insufficient seismic strength. Nonetheless, many seismic design codes do not specify limits for ACR. The main contribution of this research is to investigate the need to limit the ACR in seismic design. For this purpose, three prototype 6 and 11-story RC MRF buildings are analyzed in this paper, these buildings have columns undergoing excessive ACR, according to the limits prescribed by standards. To better that situation, three types of alterations are performed: retrofitting the abovementioned overloaded columns by steel jacketing, increasing the concrete strength, and reducing the number of stories. Several finite element analyses are conducted using the well-known software SAP2000 and the results are used for further calculations. Code-type and pushover analyses are performed on the original and retrofitted buildings, the suitability of the other modified buildings is checked by code-type analyses only. The obtained results suggest that ACR is a rather reliable indicator of the final building strength, hence, apparently, limiting the ACR in the standards (for early stages of design) might avoid unnecessary verifications.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.3 no.3_4
• /
• pp.611-628
• /
• 2012

The inelastic earthquake response of existing, reinforced concrete buildings with an open ground story, designed according to the old Greek codes, is investigated before and after their seismic strengthening with steel braces restricted to the open ground stories. The seismic performance evaluation is based on Part 3 of Eurocode 8 for assessment and retrofitting of buildings. Three and five-story, symmetric and non-symmetric buildings are subjected to a set of seven pairs of synthetic accelerograms, compatible with the design spectrum, and conclusions are drawn regarding the effectiveness of the strengthening solutions. Seismic behavior of the selected models confirms results of previous work regarding the insufficient capacity of the open ground stories for design level earthquakes. It is also shown that strengthening only the weak ground story, a choice having the substantial advantage of low cost and continued usage of the building during its seismic retrofitting, can remove the inherent weakness without shifting the problem to the stories above and thus making such buildings at least as strong as those without a weak first story. This partial strengthening is possible for symmetric as well as eccentric buildings, in which torsion plays a further detrimental role.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.43-56
• /
• 2023

Banda Aceh is one of the areas that sustains the most damage during a natural disaster because it contains so many houses, office buildings, public facilities, and schools. Public structures in coastal areas are highly susceptible to earthquakes, resulting in high casualties and property damage. Several public structures were reconstructed during the reconstruction and rehabilitation period. Because this building is located in an area with a high risk of earthquakes, its capacity must be analyzed initially. Additionally, history indicates that Aceh Province has been struck by numerous earthquakes, including the largest ever recorded in 1983 and the most recent earthquake with a magnitude of 9.3 SR on December 26, 2004. The city of Banda Aceh was devastated by this earthquake, which was followed by a tsunami. The possibility of a large earthquake in Banda Aceh City necessitates that the structures constructed there be resistant to seismic risk. This study's objective was to evaluate the seismic performance of the existing building by applying the method of strengthening the structure in the form of jacketing columns and the addition of steel bracing in order to estimate the performance of the structure using multiple ground motions. Therefore, several public buildings must be analyzed to determine the optimal seismic retrofitting technique.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.23 no.5
• /
• pp.473-491
• /
• 2022

The research investigates experimentally the effect of confinement on structural behavior at the ends of beam-column in reinforced concrete (RC) frames. In the experimental study, five specimens consisting of 1/3-scaled RC frames having single-bay, representing the traditional deficiencies of existing buildings constructed without receiving proper engineering service is investigated. The RC frame specimens were produced to represent most of the existing buildings in Turkey that have damage potential. To decrease the probable damage to the existing buildings exposed to earthquakes, the carbon Textile Reinforced Mortar (TRM) strengthening technique (fully wrapping) was used on the ends of the RC frame elements to increase the energy dissipation and deformation capacity. The specimens were tested under reversed cyclic lateral loading with constant axial loads. They were constructed satisfying the weak column-strong beam condition and consisting of low-strength concrete, such as compressive strength of 15 MPa. The test results were compared and evaluated considering stiffness, strength, energy dissipation capacity, structural damping, ductility, and damage propagation in detail. Comprehensive investigations of these experimental results reveal that the strengthening of a brittle frame with fully-TRM wrapping with non-anchored was effective in increasing the stiffness, ductility, and energy dissipation capacities of RC bare frames. It was also observed that the frame-only-retrofitting with an infill wall is not enough to increase the ductility capacity. In this case, both the frame and infill wall must be retrofitted with TRM composite to increase the stiffness, lateral load carrying, ductility and energy dissipation capacities of RC frames. The presented strengthening method can be an alternative strengthening technique to enhance the seismic performance of existing or moderately damaged RC buildings.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.29-37
• /
• 2022

The collapse of reinforced concrete (RC) frame buildings is mainly caused by the failure of columns. To prevent brittle failure of RC column, numerous studies have been conducted on the seismic performance of strengthened RC columns. Concrete jacketing method, which is one of the retrofitting method of RC members, can enhance strength and stiffness of original RC column with enlarged section and provide uniformly distributed lateral load capacity throughout the structure. The experimental studies have been conducted by many researchers to analyze seismic performance of seismic strengthened RC column. However, structures which have plan and vertical irregularities shows torsional behavior, and therefore it causes large deformation on RC column when subjected to seismic load. Thus, test results from concentric cyclic loading can be overestimated comparing to eccentric cyclic test results, In this paper, two kinds of eccentric loading pattern was suggested to analyze structural performance of RC columns, which are strengthened by concrete jacketing method with new details in jacketed section. Based on the results, it is concluded that specimens strengthened with new concrete jacketing method increased 830% of maximum load, 150% of maximum displacement and changed the failure modes of non-strengthened RC columns.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.211-218
• /
• 2021

A new type of earthquake resilient reinforced concrete (RC) shear wall structure, installed with replaceable coupling beams and replaceable corner components at the bottom of wall piers, is proposed in this study. At first, the mechanical behavior of replaceable components, such as combined dampers and replaceable corner component, is studied by cyclic loading tests on them. Then, cycling loading tests are conducted on one conventional coupled shear wall and one new type of coupled shear wall with replaceable components. The test results indicate that the damage of the new type of coupled shear wall concentrates on replaceable components and the left parts are well protected. Finally, a case study is introduced. The responses of one conventional frame-tube structure and one new type of structure installed with replaceable components under the wind and the earthquake are compared, which verify that the performance of new type of structure is much better than the conventional structure.