• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.123-137
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• 2022

The fundamental period (FP) is one of the most critical parameters for the seismic design of structures. In the reinforced concrete (RC) infilled frame, the infill walls significantly affect the FP because they change the stiffness and mass of the structure. Although several formulas have been proposed for estimating the FP of the RC infilled frame, they are often associated with high bias and variance. In this study, an efficient soft computing model, namely the group method of data handling (GMDH), is proposed to predict the FP of regular RC infilled frames. For this purpose, 4026 data sets are obtained from the open literature, and the quality of the database is examined and evaluated in detail. Based on the cleaning database, several GMDH models are constructed and the best prediction model, which considers the height of the building, the span length, the opening percentage, and the infill wall stiffness as the input variables for predicting the FP of regular RC infilled frames, is chosen. The performance of the proposed GMDH model is further underscored through comparison of its FP predictions with those of existing design codes and empirical models. The accuracy of the proposed GMDH model is proven to be superior to others. Finally, explicit formulas and a graphical user-friendly interface (GUI) tool are developed to apply the GMDH model for practical use. They can provide a rapid prediction and design for the FP of regular RC infilled frames.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.231-243
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• 2022

Beam-column joints (BCJs) are recognized among the most crucial zones in reinforced concrete structures, as they are the critical elements subjected to a complex state of forces during a severe earthquake. Under such conditions, BCJs exhibit behaviors with impacts that extend to the whole structure and significantly influence its ductility and capability of dissipating energy. The focus of this paper is to investigate the effect of undamaged transverse beam (secondary beams) on the ductility of concrete BCJs reinforced with conventional steel and shape memory alloys bars using pushover analysis at tip of beam under different axial load levels at the column using a nonlinear finite element model in ABAQUS environment. A numerical model of a BCJ was constructed and the analysis outcomes were verified by comparing them to those obtained from previous experiments found in the literature. The comparison evidenced the capability of the calibrated model to predict the load capacity response of the joint. Results proved the ability of undamaged secondary beams to provide a noticeable improvement to the ductility of reinforced concrete joints, with a very negligible loss in load capacity. However, the effect of secondary beams can become less significant if the beams are damaged due to seismic effects. In addition, the axial load was found to significantly enhance the performance of BCJs, where the increase in axial load magnified the capacity of the joint. However, higher values of axial load resulted in greater initial stiffness of the BCJ.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.455-467
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• 2023

Impact damper is a passive damping system that controls undesirable vibration with mass block impacting with stops fixed to the excited structure, introducing momentum exchange and energy dissipation. However, harmful momentum exchange may occur in the random excitation increasing structural response. Based on the mechanism of impact damping system, a semi-active impact damper (SAID) with controllable impact timing as well as a semi-active control strategy is proposed to enhance the seismic performance of engineering structures in this paper. Comparative experimental studies were conducted to investigate the damping performances of the passive impact damper and SAID. The extreme working conditions for SAID were also discussed and approaches to enhance the damping effect under high-intensity excitations were proposed. A numerical simulation model of SAID attached to a frame structure was established to further explore the damping mechanism. The experimental and numerical results show that the SAID has better control effect than the traditional passive impact damper and can effectively broaden the damping frequency band. The parametric studies illustrate the mass ratio and impact damping ratio of SAID can significantly influence the vibration control effect by affecting the impact force.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.529-545
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• 2023

The coupled soil-pile-structure seismic response is recently in the spotlight of researchers because of its extensive applications in the different fields of engineering such as bridges, offshore platforms, wind turbines, and buildings. In this paper, a simple analytical model is developed to evaluate the dynamic performance of seismically isolated bridges considering triple interactions of soil, piles, and bridges simultaneously. Novel expressions are proposed to present the dynamic behavior of pile groups in inhomogeneous soils with various shear modulus along with depth. Both cohesive and cohesionless soil deposits can be simulated by this analytical model with a generalized function of varied shear modulus along the soil depth belonging to an inhomogeneous stratum. The methodology is discussed in detail and validated by rigorous dynamic solution of 3D continuum modeling, and time history analysis of centrifuge tests. The proposed analytical model accuracy is guaranteed by the acceptable agreement between the experimental/numerical and analytical results. A comparison of the proposed linear model results with nonlinear centrifuge tests showed that during moderate (frequent) earthquakes the relative differences in responses of the superstructure and the pile cap can be ignored. However, during strong excitations, the response calculated in the linear time history analysis is always lower than the real conditions with the nonlinear behavior of the soil-pile-bridge system. The current simple and efficient method provides the accuracy and the least computational costs in comparison to the full three-dimensional analyses.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.113-123
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• 2023

A novel type of buckling restrained brace with built-up angle steel was developed. The core segment was formed by welding angle steel, and the middle section was reduced by cutting technology to solve the problem that the end of BRB was easy to buckle. The experimental program has been undertaken to study the performance of BRBs with different unbonded materials (silica gel, kraft paper) and different filler materials (ordinary concrete, full light-weight concrete). Four specimens were designed and fabricated for low cycle reciprocating load tests to simulate horizontal seismic action. The failure mode, hysteretic curves, tension-compression unbalance coefficient and other mechanical parameters were compared and analyzed. The finite element software ABAQUS was used to conduct numerical simulation, and the simulation results were compared with the experimental phenomena. The test results indicated that the hysteretic curve of each specimen was plump. Sustaining cumulative strains of each specimen was greater than the minimum value of 200 required by the code, which indicated the ductility of BRB was relatively good. The energy dissipation coefficient of the specimen with silica gel as unbonded material was about 13% higher than that with kraft paper. The experimental results were in good agreement with the simulation results.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.99-107
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• 2022

Existing reinforced concrete building structures constructed before 1988 have seismically-deficient reinforcing details, which can lead to the premature failure of the columns and beam-column joints. The premature failure was resulted from the inadequate bonding performance between the reinforcing bars and surrounding concrete on the main structural elements. This paper aims to quantify the bond-slip effect on the dynamic responses of reinforced concrete frame models using finite element analyses. The bond-slip behavior was modeled using an one-dimensional slide line model in LS-DYNA. The bond-slip models were varied with the bonding conditions and failure modes, and implemented to the well-validated finite element models. The dynamic responses of the frame models with the several bonding conditions were compared to the validated models reproducing the actual behavior. It verifies that the bond-slip effects significantly affected the dynamic responses of the reinforced concrete building structures.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.5A
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• pp.399-406
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• 2010

In this paper, the optimization of frictional bearings that applied to improve the seismic performance of conventional bridges were conducted. The nonlinear dynamic analysis of steel bridges and concrete bridges are carried out with the El Centro and artificial earthquake motions, and the reponses of the bridges were optimized by genetic algorithm. The object functions were considered with two parameters, such as shear forces and displacements at bearing, and the optimum object functions were searched by varying the weighting factors of the two parameters. As results, in case of the steel bridges, the optimum results were obtained when larger weight factor was imposed to the shear force. However, in case of concrete bridges, larger weight factor was need to the displacement for optimum results.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.571-578
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• 2022

Modularization in a high-rise building is different from a small building, as it is exposed to more lateral forces like wind and earthquakes. The integrity, robustness, and overall stability of the modules and their performance is based on the joining techniques and strong structural systems. High lateral stiff construction structures like concrete shear walls and frames, braced steel frames, and steel moment frames are used for the stability of high-rise modular buildings. Similarly, high-rise stick-built buildings have concrete cores and perimeter frames for lateral load strength and stiffness. Methods for general steel-concrete connections are available in many works of literature. However, there are few modular-related papers describing this connection system in modular buildings. This paper aims to review the various research and practice adopted for steel-to-concrete connections in construction and compare the methods between stick-built buildings and modular buildings. The literature review shows that the practice of steel module-to-concrete core connection in high-rise modular buildings is like outrigger beams-to-concrete core connection in stick-built framed buildings. This paper concludes that further studies are needed in developing proper guidelines for a steel module-to-concrete core connection system in high-rise modular buildings.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.291-304
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• 2022

Maximum shear modulus (G_max or G₀) is an important soil property useful for many engineering applications, such as the analysis of soil-structure interactions, soil stability, liquefaction evaluation, ground deformation and performance of seismic design. In the current study, bender element (BE) tests are used to evaluate the effect of the void ratio, effective confining pressure, grading characteristics (D₅₀, C_u and C_c), anisotropic consolidation and initial fabric anisotropy produced during specimen preparation on the G_max of sand-gravel mixtures. Based on the tests results, an empirical equation is proposed to predict G_max in granular soils, evaluated by the experimental data. The artificial neural network (ANN) and Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) models were also applied. Coefficient of determination (R²) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) between predicted and measured values of G_max were calculated for the empirical equation, ANN and ANFIS. The results indicate that all methods accuracy is high; however, ANFIS achieves the highest accuracy amongst the presented methods.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.275-281
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• 2023

The demand for high-strength steel is rising due to its economic efficiency. Low-cycle fatigue (LCF) tests have been conducted to investigate the nonlinear behaviors of high-strength steel. Accurate material models must be used to obtain reliable results on seismic performance evaluation using numerical analyses. This study uses the combined hardening model to simulate the LCF behavior of high-strength steel. However, it is challenging and complex to determine material model parameters for specific high-strength steel because a highly nonlinear equation is used in the model, and several parameters need to be resolved. This study used the particle swarm algorithm (PSO) to determine the model parameters based on the LCF test data of HSA 650 steel. It is shown that the model with parameter values selected from the PSO accurately simulates the measured LCF curves.