• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.957-979
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• 2015

The present paper investigates the influence of the orientation of the ground-motion reference axes, the seismic incident angle and the seismic intensity level on the inelastic response of asymmetric reinforced concrete buildings. A single storey asymmetric building is analyzed by nonlinear dynamic analyses under twenty bi-directional ground motions. The analyses are performed for many angles of incidence and four seismic intensity levels. Moreover three different pairs of the horizontal accelerograms corresponding to the input seismic motion are considered: a) the recorded accelerograms, b) the corresponding uncorrelated accelerograms, and c) the completely correlated accelerograms. The nonlinear response is evaluated by the overall structural damage index. The results of this study demonstrate that the inelastic seismic response depends on the orientation of the ground-motion reference axes, since the three individual pairs of accelerograms corresponding to the same ground motion (recorded, uncorrelated and completely correlated) can cause different structural damage level for the same incident angle. Furthermore, the use of the recorded accelerograms as seismic input does not always lead to the critical case of study. It is also shown that there is not a particular seismic incident angle or range of angles that leads to the maximum values of damage index regardless of the seismic intensity level or the ground-motion reference axes.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.65-74
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• 2021

This study aims to assess the effect of postulated seismic loads on the structural integrity of a spent nuclear fuel dry storage facility. Firstly, three-dimensional modal and response spectrum analyses were carried out. With regard to the latter analysis, the effect of incident angles against two horizontal and one vertical response spectra was also considered. Results showed that even though two critical locations were predicted at the longitudinal axis central part of upper flow path as well as the end discontinuity part of upper and lower flow paths connector, their maximum principal stress values were less than the tensile strength. Moreover, since the influence of vertical angle was 87% higher than that of horizontal angle in particular, which should be carefully handled to demonstrate integrity of the facility.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.39-50
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• 2017

Displacement response and corresponding maximum response energy of structures are key parameters to assess the dynamic effect or even more destructive structural damage of the structures. By employing them, this research has compared the structural responses of jacket supported offshore wind turbine (OWT) subjected to seismic excitations apprehending earthquake incidence, when (a) soil-structure interaction (SSI) has been ignored and (b) SSI has been considered. The effect of earthquakes under arbitrary angle of excitation on the OWT has been investigated by means of the energy based wavelet transformation method. Displacement based fragility analysis is then utilized to convey the probability of exceedance of the OWT at different soil site conditions. The results show that the uncertainty arises due to multi-component seismic excitations along with the diminution trend of shear wave velocity of soil and it tends to reduce the efficiency of the OWT to stand against the ground motions.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.69 no.2
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• pp.177-191
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• 2019

The local topography has a significant effect on the characteristics of seismic ground motion. This paper investigates the influence of topographic effects on the seismic response of a train-bridge system. A 3-D finite element model with local absorbing boundary conditions is established for the local site. The time histories of seismic ground motion are converted into equivalent loads on the artificial boundary, to obtain the seismic input at the bridge supports. The analysis of the train-bridge system subjected to multi-support seismic excitations is performed, by applying the displacement time histories of the seismic ground motion to the bridge supports. In a case study considering a bridge with a span of 466 m crossing a valley, the seismic response of the train-bridge system is analyzed. The results show that the local topography and the incident angle of seismic waves have a significant effect on the seismic response of the train-bridge system. Leaving these effects out of consideration may lead to unsafe analysis results.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.349-365
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• 2020

Since the peak seismic response of a base-isolated building strongly depends on the characteristics of the imposed seismic ground motion, the behavior of a base-isolated building under different seismic ground motions is studied, in order to better assess their effects on its peak seismic response. Specifically, the behavior of a typical steel building is examined as base-isolated with elastomeric bearings, while the effect of near-fault ground motions is studied by imposing 7 pairs of near- and 7 pairs of far-fault seismic records, from the same 7 earthquake events, to the building, under 3 different loading combinations, through three-dimensional (3D) nonlinear dynamic analyses, conducted with SAP2000. The results indicate that near-fault seismic components are more likely to increase the building's peak seismic response than the corresponding far-fault components. Furthermore, the direction of the imposed earthquake excitations is also varied by rotating the imposed pairs of seismic records from 0◦ to 360◦, with respect to the major construction axes. It is observed that the peak seismic responses along the critical incident angles, which in general differ from the major horizontal construction axes of the building, are significantly higher. Moreover, the influence of 5% and 10% accidental mass eccentricities is also studied, revealing that when considering accidental mass eccentricities the peak relative displacements of the base isolated building at the isolation level are substantially increased, while the peak floor accelerations and interstory drifts of its superstructure are only slightly affected.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.183-195
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• 2022

Under the effects of the near-field earthquakes, the incident angle of the incoming wave could be different. In this study, the influences of some parameters such as incident angle, basin edge, peak ground acceleration level of the bedrock motion as well as different clay types with different consistency on the amplification behavior of the shallow basins are investigated. To attain this goal, the numerical analyses of the basins filled with three different clay types are performed using a fully nonlinear method. The two dimensional models of the basins are subjected to a set of strong ground motions with different peak ground acceleration levels and three different incident angles of 30◦, 45◦ and 90◦ with respect to the horizontal axes. The results show the dominant effect of the obliquely subjected waves at most cases. The higher effect of the 45◦ incident angle on the basin response was concluded. In the other part of this study, the spectral amplification curves of the surface points were compared. It was seen that the maximum spectral amplification of different surface points occurs at different periods. Also, it is affected by the increase in the peak acceleration level of the incoming motions.

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

Historical earthquakes have shown that successive seismic events may occur in regions of high seismicity. Such a sequence of earthquakes has the potential to increase the damage level of the structures, since any rehabilitation between the successive ground motions is practically impossible due to lack of time. Few studies about this issue can be found in literature, most of which focused their attention on the seismic response of SDOF systems or planar frame structures. The aim of the present study is to examine the impact of seismic sequences on the damage level of 3D multistorey R/C buildings with various structural systems. For the purposes of the above investigation a comprehensive assessment is conducted using three double-symmetric and three asymmetric in plan medium-rise R/C buildings, which are designed on the basis of the current seismic codes. The buildings are analyzed by nonlinear time response analysis using 80 bidirectional seismic sequences. In order to account for the variable orientation of the seismic motion, the two horizontal accelerograms of each earthquake record are applied along horizontal orthogonal axes forming 12 different angles with the structural axes. The assessment of the results revealed that successive ground motions can lead to significant increase of the structural damage compared to the damage caused by the corresponding single seismic events. Furthermore, the incident angle can radically alter the successive earthquake phenomenon depending on the special characteristics of the structure, the number of the sequential earthquakes, as well as the distance of the record from the fault.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.55-71
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• 2018

This paper investigates the role of the masonry infills on the correlation between widely used earthquake Intensity Measures (IMs) and the damage state of 3D R/C buildings taking into account the orientation of the seismic input. For the purposes of the investigation an extensive parametric study is conducted using 60 R/C buildings with different heights, structural systems and masonry infills' distributions. The results reveal that the correlation between the IMs and the seismic damage can be strongly affected by the masonry infills' distribution, depending on the special characteristics of the structural system, the number of stories and the incident angle.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.663-680
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• 2012

Previous major earthquakes revealed that most damage of the buried segmented pipelines occurs at the joints of the pipelines. It has been proven that the differential motions between the pipe segments are one of the primary reasons that results in the damage (Zerva et al. 1986, O'Roueke and Liu 1999). This paper studies the combined influences of ground motion spatial variations and local soil conditions on the seismic responses of buried segmented pipelines. The heterogeneous soil deposits surrounding the pipelines are assumed resting on an elastic half-space (base rock). The spatially varying base rock motions are modelled by the filtered Tajimi-Kanai power spectral density function and an empirical coherency loss function. Local site amplification effect is derived based on the one-dimensional wave propagation theory by assuming the base rock motions consist of out-of-plane SH wave or combined in-plane P and SV waves propagating into the site with an assumed incident angle. The differential axial and lateral displacements between the pipeline segments are stochastically formulated in the frequency domain. The influences of ground motion spatial variations, local soil conditions, wave incident angle and stiffness of the joint are investigated in detail. Numerical results show that ground motion spatial variations and local soil conditions can significantly influence the differential displacements between the pipeline segments.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.185-204
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• 2015

This study investigates the impact of the earthquake incident angle on the structural demand and the influence of ground motion selection and scaling methods on seismic directionality effects. The structural demand produced by Non-Linear Time-History Analyses (NLTHA) varies with the seismic input incidence angle. The seismic directionality effects are evaluated by subjecting four three-dimensional reinforced concrete structures to different scaled and un-scaled records oriented along nine incidence angles, whose values range between 0 and 180 degrees, with an increment of 22.5 degrees. The results show that NLTHAs performed applying the ground motion records along the principal axes underestimate the structural demand prediction, especially when plan-irregular structures are analyzed. The ground motion records generate the highest demand when applied along the lowest strength structural direction and a high energy content of the records increases the structural demand corresponding to this direction. The seismic directionality impact on structural demand is particularly important for irregular buildings subjected to un-scaled accelerograms. However, the orientation effects are much lower if spectrum-compatible combinations of scaled records are used. In both cases, irregular structures should be analyzed first with pushover analyses in order to identify the weaker structural directions and then with NLTHAs for different incidence angles.