• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제11권2호
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• pp.195-215
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• 2016

Rehabilitation of historical unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings is a priority in many parts of the world, since those buildings are a living part of history and a testament of human achievement of the era of their construction. Many of these buildings are still operational; comprising brittle materials with no reinforcements, with spatially distributed mass and stiffness, they are not encompassed by current seismic assessment procedures that have been developed for other structural types. To facilitate the difficult task of selecting a proper rehabilitation strategy - often restricted by international treaties for non-invasiveness and reversibility of the intervention - and given the practical requirements for the buildings' intended reuse, this paper presents a practical procedure for assessment of seismic demands of URM buildings - mainly historical constructions that lack a well-defined diaphragm action. A key ingredient of the method is approximation of the spatial shape of lateral translation, ${\Phi}$, that the building assumes when subjected to a uniform field of lateral acceleration. Using ${\Phi}$ as a 3-D shape function, the dynamic response of the system is evaluated, using the concepts of SDOF approximation of continuous systems. This enables determination of the envelope of the developed deformations and the tendency for deformation and damage localization throughout the examined building for a given design earthquake scenario. Deformation demands are specified in terms of relative drift ratios referring to the in-plane and the out-of-plane seismic response of the building's structural elements. Drift ratio demands are compared with drift capacities associated with predefined performance limits. The accuracy of the introduced procedure is evaluated through (a) comparison of the response profiles with those obtained from detailed time-history dynamic analysis using a suite of ten strong ground motion records, five of which with near-field characteristics, and (b) evaluation of the performance assessment results with observations reported in reconnaissance reports of the field performance of two neoclassical torsionally-sensitive historical buildings, located in Thessaloniki, Greece, which survived a major earthquake in the past.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.1-22
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• 2013

Soft storey failure mechanism is a common collapse mode for masonry-infilled (MI) reinforced concrete (RC) buildings subjected to severe earthquakes. Simple analytical equations correlating global with local ductility demands are derived from pushover (PO) analyses for seismic assessments of regular MI RC frames, considering the critical interstorey drift ratio, number of storeys and lateral loading configurations. The reliability of the equations is investigated using incremental dynamic analyses for MI RC frames of up to 7 storeys. Using the analytical ductility relationship and a coefficient-based method (CBM), the response spectral accelerations and period shift factors of low-rise MI RC frames are computed. The results are verified through published shake table test results. In general applications, the analytical ductility relationships thus derived can be used to bypass the onerous PO analysis while accurately predicting the local ductility demands for seismic assessment of regular MI RC frames.

• 한국지진공학회논문집
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• 제21권5호
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• pp.245-254
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• 2017

The building which are essential for disaster recovery is classified as a special seismic use group. Especially, achievement of seismic performance is very important for the hospital, so the hospital should be able to maintain its function during and right after an earthquake without significant damage on both structural and non-structural elements. Therefore, this study aimed at checking the seismic performance of a hospital building, but which was limited to structural elements. For the goal, a plan with a configuration of general hospitals in Korea was selected and designed by two different seismic-force-resisting systems. In analytical modeling, the shear behavior of the wall was represented by three inelastic properties as well as elastic. Nonlinear dynamic analyses were conducted to evaluate the performance of structural members. The result showed that the performance of shear walls in the hospital buildings was not satisfied regardless of the seismic-force-resisting systems, while the demands on the beams and columns did not exceed the capacities. This is the result of only considering the shear of the wall as the force-controlled action. When the shear of the wall was modeled as inelastic, the walls were yielded in shear, and as the result, the demands for frames were increased. However, the increase did not exceed the capacities of the frames members. Consequently, since the performance of walls is significant to determine the seismic performance of a hospital building, it will be essential to establish a definite method of modeling shear behavior of walls and judging their performance.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제65권5호
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• pp.633-644
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• 2018

This paper presents the results of an assessment of the seismic fragility of a long, curved multi-frame bridge under multi-support earthquake excitations. To achieve this aim, the numerical model of columns retrofitted with elliptical steel jackets was developed and validated using existing experimental results. A detailed nonlinear numerical model of the bridge that can capture the inelastic response of various components was then created. Using nonlinear time-history analyses for a set of stochastically generated spatially variable ground motions, component demands were derived and then convolved with new capacity-based limit state models to obtain seismic fragility curves. The comparison of failure probabilities obtained from uniform and multi-support excitation analyses revealed that the consideration of spatial variability significantly reduced the median value of fragility curves for most components except for the abutments. This observation indicates that the assumption of uniform motions may considerably underestimate seismic demands. Moreover, the spatial correlation of ground motions resulted in reduced dispersion of demand models that consequently decreased the dispersion of fragility curves for all components. Therefore, the spatial variability of ground motions needs to be considered for reliable assessment of the seismic performance of long multi-frame bridge structures.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제25권2호
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• pp.241-254
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• 2020

Using confined shape memory alloy (SMA) bar or plate, this study proposes an innovative self-centering damper. The damper is essentially properly machined SMA core, i.e., bar or plate, that encased in buckling-restrained device. To prove the design concept, cyclic loading tests were carried out. According to the test results, the damper exhibited desired flag-shape hysteretic behaviors upon both tension and compression actions, although asymmetric behavior is noted. Based on the experimental data, the hysteretic parameters that interested by seismic applications, such as the strength, stiffness, equivalent damping ratio and recentering capacity, are quantified. Processed in the Matlab/Simulink environment, a preliminary evaluation of the seismic control effect for this damper was conducted. The proposed damper was placed at the first story of a multi-story frame and then the original and controlled structures were subjected to earthquake excitations. The numerical outcome indicated the damper is effective in controlling seismic deformation demands. Besides, a companion SMA damper which represents a popular type in previous studies is also introduced in the analysis to further reveal the seismic control characteristics of the newly proposed damper. In current case, it was found that although the current SMA damper shows asymmetric tension-compression behavior, it successfully contributes comparable seismic control effect as those having symmetrical cyclic behavior. Additionally, the proposed damper even shows better global performance in controlling acceleration demands. Thus, this paper reduces the concern of using SMA dampers with asymmetric cyclic behavior to a certain degree.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제10권2호
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• pp.329-350
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• 2016

A parametric study was conducted to investigate the seismic deformation demands in terms of drift ratio, plastic base rotation and compression strain on rectangular wall members in frame-wall systems. The wall index defined as ratio of total wall area to the floor plan area was kept as variable in frame-wall models and its relation with the seismic demand at the base of the wall was investigated. The wall indexes of analyzed models are in the range of 0.2-2%. 4, 8 and 12-story frame-wall models were created. The seismic behavior of frame-wall models were calculated using nonlinear time-history analysis and design spectrum matched ground motion set. Analyses results revealed that the increased wall index led to significant reduction in the top and inter-story displacement demands especially for 4-story models. The calculated average inter-story drift decreased from 1.5% to 0.5% for 4-story models. The average drift ratio in 8- and 12-story models has changed from approximately 1.5% to 0.75%. As the wall index increases, the dispersion in the calculated drifts due to ground motion variability decreased considerably. This is mainly due to increase in the lateral stiffness of models that leads their fundamental period of vibration to fall into zone of the response spectra that has smaller dispersion for scaled ground motion data set. When walls were assessed according to plastic rotation limits defined in ASCE/SEI 41, it was seen that the walls in frame-wall systems with low wall index in the range of 0.2-0.6% could seldom survive the design earthquake without major damage. Concrete compressive strains calculated in all frame-wall structures were much higher than the limit allowed for design, ${\varepsilon}_c$=0.0035, so confinement is required at the boundaries. For rectangular walls above the wall index value of 1.0% nearly all walls assure at least life safety (LS) performance criteria. It is proposed that in the design of dual systems where frames and walls are connected by link and transverse beams, the minimum value of wall index should be greater than 0.6%, in order to prevent excessive damage to wall members.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제20권5호
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• pp.505-526
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• 2005

The influence of the inter-story structural pounding on the seismic behaviour of adjacent multistory reinforced concrete structures with unequal total heights and different story heights is investigated. Although inter-story pounding is a common case in practice, it has not been studied before in the literature as far as the authors are aware. Fifty two pounding cases, each one for two different seismic excitations, are examined. From the results it can be deduced that: (i) The most important issue in the inter-story pounding is the local effect on the external column of the tall building that suffers the impact from the upper floor slab of the adjacent shorter structure. (ii) The ductility demands for this column are increased comparing with the ones without the pounding effect. In the cases that the two buildings are in contact these demands appear to be critical since they are higher than the available ductility values. In the cases that there is a small distance between the interacting buildings the ductility demands of this column are also higher than the ones of the same column without the pounding effect but they appear to be lower than the available ductility values. (iii) It has to be stressed that in all the examined cases the developed shear forces of this column exceeded the shear strength. Thus, it can be concluded that in inter-story pounding cases the column that suffers the impact is always in a critical condition due to shear action and, furthermore, in the cases that the two structures are in contact from the beginning this column appears to be critical due to high ductility demands as well. The consequences of the impact can be very severe for the integrity of the column and may be a primary cause for the initiation of the collapse of the structure. This means that special measures have to be taken in the design process first for the critically increased shear demands and secondly for the high ductility demands.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제7권6호
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• pp.1241-1258
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• 2014

This is paper presents the results of an analytical study aimed at evaluating the effect of narrow-banded mainshock/aftershock seismic sequences on the response of structures built on very soft soil sites. Due to the scarce availability of recorded seismic sequences in accelerographic stations located in the lake-bed of Mexico City, artificial narrow-banded sequences were employed. In the first part of this study, a parametric investigation was carried out to identify the mainshock/aftershock ground motion features that have detrimental effects in the seismic performance of equivalent single-degree-of-freedom systems representative of framed-buildings that house standard and essential facilities. In the second part of this work, the seismic response of two (8- and 18-story) steel-moment resisting frames that house essential facilities is examined. It is concluded that buildings with fundamental periods of vibration longer than the dominant period of the mainshock can experience a significant increment in their inter-story drift demands due to the occurrence of an aftershock.

• 한국지진공학회논문집
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• 제11권4호
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• pp.53-63
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• 2007

Seismic design codes are developed mainly based on the observation of the behavior of structures in the high seismicity regions where structures may experience significant amount of inelastic deformations and major earthquakes may result in structural damages in a vast area. Therefore, seismic loads are reduced in current design codes for building structures using response modification factors which depend on the ductility capacity and overstrength of a structural system. However, structures in low seismicity regions, subjected to a minor earthquake, will behave almost elastically because of the larger overstrength of structures in low seismicity regions such as Korea. Structures in low seismicity regions may have longer periods since they are designed to smaller seismic loads and main target of design will be minor or moderate earthquakes occurring nearby. Ground accelerations recorded at stations near the epicenter may have somewhat different response spectra from those of distant station records. Therefore, it is necessary to verify if the seismic design methods based on high seismicity would he applicable to low seismicity regions. In this study, the adequacy of design spectra, period estimation and response modification factors are discussed for the seismic design in low seismicity regions. The response modification factors are verified based on the ductility and overstrength of building structures estimated from the farce-displacement relationship. For the same response modification factor, the ductility demand in low seismicity regions may be smaller than that of high seismicity regions because the overstrength of structures may be larger in low seismicity regions. The ductility demands in example structures designed to UBC97 for high, moderate and low seismicity regions were compared. Demands of plastic rotation in connections were much lower in low seismicity regions compared to those of high seismicity regions when the structures are designed with the same response modification factor. Therefore, in low seismicity regions, it would be not required to use connection details with large ductility capacity even for structures designed with a large response modification factor.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제11권3호
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• pp.483-503
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• 2016

This study aims to evaluate seismic performance of existing low and mid-rise reinforced concrete buildings by comparing their displacement capacities and displacement demands under selected ground motions experienced in Turkey as well as demand spectrum provided in 2007 Turkish Earthquake Code for design earthquake with 10% probability of exceedance in 50 years for soil class Z3. It should be noted that typical residential buildings are designed according to demand spectrum of 10% probability of exceedance in 50 years. Three RC building sets as 2-, 4- and 7-story, are selected to represent reference low-and mid-rise buildings located in the high seismicity region of Turkey. The selected buildings are typical beam-column RC frame buildings with no shear walls. The outcomes of detailed field and archive investigation including approximately 500 real residential RC buildings established building models to reflect existing building stock. Total of 72 3-D building models are constructed from the reference buildings to include the effects of some properties such as structural irregularities, concrete strength, seismic codes, structural deficiencies, transverse reinforcement detailing, and number of story on seismic performance of low and mid-rise RC buildings. Capacity curves of building sets are obtained by nonlinear static analyses conducted in two principal directions, resulting in 144 models. The inelastic dynamic characteristics are represented by "equivalent" Single-Degree-of- Freedom (ESDOF) systems using obtained capacity curves of buildings. Nonlinear time history analysis is used to estimate displacement demands of representative building models idealized with (ESDOF) systems subjected to the selected ground motion records from past earthquakes in Turkey. The results show that the significant number of pre-modern code 4- and 7-story buildings exceeds LS performance level while the modern code 4- and 7-story buildings have better performances. The findings obviously indicate the existence of destructive earthquakes especially for 4- and 7-story buildings. Significant improvements in the performance of the buildings per modern code are also obvious in the study. Almost one third of pre-modern code buildings is exceeding LS level during records in the past earthquakes. This observation also supports the building damages experienced in the past earthquake events in Turkey.