• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.87 no.5
• /
• pp.405-418
• /
• 2023

This study focused on the effectiveness of seismic isolation technique in case of a reinforced concrete structure with soft story defined as the stiffness irregularity between adjacent stories. In this context, a seismically isolated 3-story reinforced concrete structure was analyzed by gradually increasing the first story height (3.0, 4.5, and 6.0 m). The seismic isolation system of the structure is assumed to be composed of lead rubber bearings (LRB). In the analyses, isolators were modeled by both deteriorating (temperature-dependent analyses) and non-deteriorating (bounding analyses) hysteretic representations. The deterioration in strength of isolator is due to temperature rise in the lead core during cyclic motion. The ground motion pairs used in bi-directional nonlinear dynamic analyses were selected and scaled according to codified procedures. In the analyses, different isolation periods (Tiso) and characteristic strength to weight ratios (Q/W) were considered in order to determine the sensitivity of structural response to the isolator properties. Response quantities under consideration are floor accelerations, and interstory drift ratios. Analyses results are compared for both hysteretic representations of LRBs. Results are also used to assess the significance of the ratio between the horizontal stiffnesses of soft story and isolation system. It is revealed that seismic isolation is a viable method to reduce structural damage in structures with soft story.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.175-182
• /
• 2021

There have been many instances of damage to buildings with soft stories, and it is important to consider vertically irregular buildings when evaluating the seismic performance of existing buildings. However, because conventional methods do not easily reflect vertical irregularities with sufficient accuracy, it is possible to underestimate or overestimate the seismic performance of buildings with vertical irregularities. This study aims to develop a seismic performance evaluation method for vertically irregular buildings using the stiffness-based soft story ratio (SSR), which is a parameter that represents the ratio of the demand and the capacity for displacement and refers to the ratio of displacement concentration in buildings. The seismic performance evaluation method developed in this study is compared with the conventional seismic performance evaluation method for four piloti buildings, using the first-floor column as a variable. Conventional seismic performance evaluation methods often overestimate the seismic performance for models in which vertical irregularities are maximized. However, results of the proposed seismic performance evaluation method are identical to those from a detailed evaluation for all models. Therefore, it is considered that the proposed seismic performance evaluation method can provide more precise seismic performance evaluation results than conventional methods in the case of piloti buildings, where vertical irregularities are maximized.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
• /
• 2008.04a
• /
• pp.483-489
• /
• 2008

Masonry infill walls are frequently used as interior partitions and exterior walls in low- or middlerise RC buildings In the structural design and assessment of structural behaviors of buildings, the infill walls are usually treated as non-structural elements and they are ignored in analytical models. In this study, seismic behaviors of RC frame with/without masonry infill walls were investigated. To this end, the infill walls were modeled as equivalent diagonal struts. Based on analytical results, it has been shown that masonry infill walls can increase the global strength and stiffness of a structure. Accordingly, inter-story drift ratio will be decreased but seismic forces applied to the structure were increased than design seismic load because natural period of the structure was decreased. It is also seen from the analytical results that the inelastic deformation of RC frame with soft story is concentrated on the first story columns and thus, partial damage may have possibility of collapse of system.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.26 no.6
• /
• pp.463-475
• /
• 2024

The study aims to investigate the pounding that occurs between the isolator's ring and slider of isolated structures resulting from excessive seismic excitation, while considering soil-structure interaction. The dynamic responses and poundings of structures subjected a series seismic records were comparatively analyzed for three different soil types and fixed-base structures. A series of parametric studies were conducted to thoroughly discuss the effects of the impact displacement ratio, the FPB friction coefficient ratio, and the radius ratio on the structural dynamic response when considering impact and SSI. It was found that the pounding is extremely brief, with an exceptionally large pounding force generated by impact, resulting in significant acceleration pulse. The acceleration and inter-story shear force of the structure experiencing pounding were greater than those without considering pounding. Sudden changes in the inter-story shear force between the first and second floors of the structure were also observed. The dynamic response of structures in soft ground was significantly lower than that of structures in other ground conditions under the same conditions, regardless of the earthquake wave exciting the structure. When the structure is influenced by pulse-type earthquake records, its dynamic response exhibits a trend of first intensifying and then weakening as the equivalent radius ratio and friction coefficient ratio increase. However, it increases with an increase in the pounding displacement ratio, equivalent radius ratio, friction coefficient ratio, and displacement ratio when the structures are subjected to non-pulse-type seismic record.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.28 no.3
• /
• pp.149-158
• /
• 2024

Piloti-type structures with vertical irregularity are vulnerable to earthquakes due to the soft structure of the first story. Structural characteristics of buildings can significantly affect the seismic loss function, calculated based on seismic fragility, and therefore need to be considered. This study investigated the effects of the number of stories and core locations on the seismic loss function of piloti-type buildings in Korea. Twelve analytical models were developed considering two variations: three stories (4-story, 5-story, and 6-story) and four core locations (center core, x-eccentric core, y-eccentric core, and xy-eccentric core). The interstory drift ratio and peak floor acceleration were assessed through incremental dynamic analysis using 44 earthquake records, and seismic fragility was derived. Seismic loss functions were calculated and compared using the derived seismic fragility and repair cost ratio of each component. The results indicate that the seismic loss function increases with more stories and when the core is eccentrically located in the piloti-type structure model. Therefore, the uncertainty due to the number of stories and core location should be considered when deriving the seismic loss function of piloti-type structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.14 no.6
• /
• pp.615-626
• /
• 2018

The seismic vulnerability of Turkey is relatively high due to its active fault systems with potential to create destructive earthquakes. Thus, reducing the loss of life and property, the number of the earthquake-prone buildings and their retrofit requirements are considerably significant key issues under the scenario earthquakes. The street survey based rapid assessment (SSRA) method can be considered as a powerful tool to determine the seismic vulnerability of building stock of an earthquake-prone city/state. In this study, the seismic vulnerability of the building stock of the Kirikkale province in Turkey is aimed to be estimated adopting the street survey based rapid assessment method (SSRA). For this purpose, central 2074 existing reinforced concrete (R/C) buildings were structurally surveyed with rapid visual site screening and disadvantages such as, the existence of short-column, soft-story, heavy overhangs, pounding effect and local soil conditions were determined for obtaining the structural performance score of each. The results obtained from the study demonstrate that 11-25% of the surveyed buildings in the study region needs to be investigated through more advanced assessment methods. Besides, higher correlation between increasing story number and unsafe/safe building ratio is obtained for the buildings with soft-story parameter than that for those with heavy overhangs and short-column parameters. The conformity of the results of the current study with the previous documented cases of rapid assessment efforts in the recent earthquakes in Turkey shows that the SSRA method for the Kirikkale province performed well, and thus this methodology can be reliably used for similar settlement areas.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.145-152
• /
• 2015

In the study, the effects of damping devices on damping ratio increase and wind-load reduction were investigated based on the computational platform, which is one of the parametric modeling methods. The computational platform helps the designers or engineers to evaluate the efficacy of the numerous alternative structural systems for irregular Super-Tall building, which is crucial in determining the capacity and the number of the supplemental damping devices for adding the required damping ratios to the building. The inherent damping ratio was estimated based on the related domestic and foreign researches conducted by using real wind-load records. Two types of damping devices were considered: One is inter-story installation type passive control devices and the other is mass type active control devices. The supplemental damping ratio due to the damping devices was calculated by means of equivalent static analysis using an equation suggested by FEMA. The optimal design of the damping devices was conducted by using the computational platform. The structural element quantity reduction effect resulting from the installation of the damping devices could be simply assessed by proposing a wind-load reduction factor, and the effectiveness of the proposed method was verified by a numerical example of a 455m high-rise building. The comparison between roof displacement and the story shear forces by the nonlinear time history analysis and the proposed method indicated that the proposed method could simply but approximately estimate the effects of the supplemental damping devices on the roof displacement and the member force reduction.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.37 no.6
• /
• pp.565-576
• /
• 2024

In this study, the earthquake risk assessment of single-story RC precast buildings in Turkey was carried out using loss curves. In this regard, Kocaeli, a seismically active city in the Marmara region, and this building class, which is preferred intensively, were considered. Quality and period parameters were defined based on structural and geometric properties. Depending on these parameters, nine main sub-classes were defined to represent the building stock in the region. First, considering the mean fragility curves and four different central damage ratio models, vulnerability curves for each sub-class were computed as a function of spectral acceleration. Then, probabilistic seismic hazard analyses were performed for stiff and soft soil conditions for different earthquake probabilities of exceedance in 50 years. In the last step, 90 loss curves were derived based on vulnerability and hazard results. Within the scope of the study, the comparative parametric evaluations for three different earthquake intensity levels showed that the structural damage ratio values for nine sub-classes changed significantly. In addition, the quality parameter was found to be more effective on a structure's damage state than the period parameter. It is evident that since loss curves allow direct loss ratio calculation for any hazard level without needing seismic hazard and damage analysis, they are considered essential tools in rapid earthquake risk estimation and mitigation initiatives.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.627-639
• /
• 2021

Fragility curves are being more significant as a useful tool for evaluating the relationship between the earthquake intensity measure and the effects of the engineering demand parameter on the buildings. In this paper, the effect of different site conditions on the vulnerability of the structures was examined through the fragility curves taking into account different strength capacities of the precast columns. Thus, typical existing single-story precast RC industrial buildings which were built in Turkey after the year 2000 were examined. The fragility curves for the three typical existing industrial structures were derived from an analytical approach by performing non-linear dynamic analyses considering three different soil conditions. The Park and Ang damage index was used in order to determine the damage level of the members. The spectral acceleration (Sa) was used as the ground motion parameter in the fragility curves. The results indicate that the fragility curves were derived for the structures vary depending on the site conditions. The damage probability of exceedance values increased from stiff site to soft site for any Sa value. This difference increases in long period in examined buildings. In addition, earthquake demand values were calculated by considering the buildings and site conditions, and the effect of the site class on the building damage was evaluated by considering the Mean Damage Ratio parameter (MDR). Achieving fragility curves and MDR curves as a function of spectral acceleration enables a quick and practical risk assessment in existing buildings.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
• /
• v.33 no.6
• /
• pp.419-426
• /
• 2020

The structural design of the steel eccentrically braced frame (EBF) was developed and analyzed in this study through multiobjective optimization (MOO). For the optimal design, NSGA-II which is one of the genetic algorithms was utilized. The amount of structure and interfloor displacement were selected as the objective functions of the MOO. The constraints include strength ratio and rotation angle of the link, which are required by structural standards and have forms of the penalty function such that the values of the objective functions increase drastically when a condition is violated. The regulations in the code provision for the EBF system are based on the concept of capacity design, that is, only the link members are allowed to yield, whereas the remaining members are intended to withstand the member forces within their elastic ranges. However, although the pareto front obtained from MOO satisfies the regulations in the code provision, the actual nonlinear behavior shows that the plastic deformation is concentrated in the link member of a certain story, resulting in the formation of a soft story, which violates the capacity design concept in the design code. To address this problem, another constraint based on the Eurocode was added to ensure that the maximum values of the shear overstrength factors of all links did not exceed 1.25 times the minimum values. When this constraint was added, it was observed that the resulting pareto front complied with both the design regulations and capacity design concept. Ratios of the link length to beam span ranged from 10% to 14%, which was within the category of shear links. The overall design is dominated by the constraint on the link's overstrength factor ratio. Design characteristics required by the design code, such as interstory drift and member strength ratios, were conservatively compared to the allowable values.