• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.125-141
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• 1998

Recent test results of steel moment connections repaired with a haunch on the bottom side of the beam have been shown to be a very promising solution to enhancing the seismic performance of steel moment-resisting frames. Yet, little is known about the effects of using such a repair scheme on the global seismic response of structures. When haunches are incorporated in a steel moment frame, the response prediction is complicated by the presence of "dual" panel zones. To investigate the effects of a repair on seismic performance, a case study was conducted for a 13-story steel frame damaged during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. It was assumed that only those locations with reported damage would be repaired with haunches. A new analytical modeling technique for the dual panel zone developed by the author was incorporated in the analysis. Modeling the dual panel zone was among the most significant consideration in the analyses. Both the inelastic static and dynamic analyses did not indicate detrimental side effects resulting from the repair. As a result of the increased strength in dual panel zones, yielding in these locations were eliminated and larger plastic rotation demand occurred in the beams next to the shallow end of the haunches. Nevertheless, the beam plastic rotation demand produced by the Sylmar record of 1994 Northridge earthquake was still limited to 0.017 radians. The repair resulted in a minor increase in earthquake energy input. In the original structure, the panel zones should dissipate about 80% (for the Oxnard record) and 70% (for the Sylmar record) of the absorbed energy, assuming no brittle failure of moment connections. After repair, the energy dissipated in the panel zones and beams were about equal.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.57 no.5
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• pp.785-808
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• 2016

An innovative Reduced Beam Section (RBS) connection, called Tubular Web RBS connection (TW-RBS), has been recently introduced and its performance has been numerically investigated in some earlier studies. The TW-RBS connection is a kind of accordion-web RBS connection in which part of the flat web of the beam is replaced by a steel tube at the expected region of the plastic hinge. This paper presents experimental results of three TW-RBS connections under cyclic loading. Obtained results indicated that TW-RBS reduces contribution of the beam web to the whole moment strength and creates a ductile fuse far from components of the beam-to-column connection. Besides, TW-RBS connection can increase story drift capacity up to 9% in the case of shallow beams which is much more than those stipulated by the current seismic codes. Based on the experimental results, the tubular web in the plastic hinge region improves lateral-torsional buckling stability of the beam such that only local buckling of the beam flange at the center of the reduced section was observed during the tests. In order to achieve a better understanding, behavior of all TW-RBS specimens are also numerically investigated and compared with those of experimental results.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.35-57
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• 2022

This article presents a computationally efficient framework for multi-objective seismic design optimization of steel moment-resisting frame (MRF) structures based on the nonlinear dynamic analysis procedure. This framework employs the uniform damage distribution philosophy to minimize the weight (initial cost) of the structure at different levels of damage. The preliminary framework was recently proposed by the authors based on the single excitation and the nonlinear static (pushover) analysis procedure, in which the effects of record-to-record variability as well as higher-order vibration modes were neglected. The present study investigates the reliability of the previous framework by extending the proposed algorithm using the nonlinear dynamic design procedure (optimization under multiple ground motions). Three benchmark structures, including 4-, 8-, and 12-story steel MRFs, representing the behavior of low-, mid-, and high-rise buildings, are utilized to evaluate the proposed framework. The total weight of the structure and the maximum inter-story drift ratio (IDRmax) resulting from the average response of the structure to a set of seven ground motion records are considered as two conflicting objectives for the optimization problem and are simultaneously minimized. The results of this study indicate that the optimization under several ground motions leads to almost similar outcomes in terms of optimization objectives to those are obtained from optimization under pushover analysis. However, investigation of optimal designs under a suite of 22 earthquake records reveals that the damage distribution in buildings designed by the nonlinear dynamic-based procedure is closer to the uniform distribution (desired target during the optimization process) compared to those designed according to the pushover procedure.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.215-227
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• 2018

Supplemental passive control devices are widely considered as an important tool to mitigate the dynamic response of a building under seismic excitation. Nevertheless, a systematic method for strategically placing dampers in the buildings is not prescribed in building codes and guidelines. Many deterministic and stochastic methods have been proposed by previous researchers to investigate the optimum distribution of the viscous dampers in the steel frames. However, the seismic performances of the retrofitted buildings that are under large earthquake intensity levels or near collapse state have not been evaluated by any seismic research. Recent years, an increasing number of studies utilize genetic algorithms (GA) to explore the complex engineering optimization problems. GA interfaced with nonlinear response history (NRH) analysis is considered as one of the most powerful and popular stochastic methods to deal with the nonlinear optimization problem of damper distribution. In this paper, the effectiveness and the efficiency of GA on optimizing damper distribution are first evaluated by strong ground motions associated with the collapse failure. A practical optimization framework using GA and NRH analysis is proposed for optimizing the distribution of the fluid viscous dampers within the moment resisting frames (MRF) regarding the improvements of large drifts under intensive seismic context. Both a 10-storey and a 20-storey building are involved to explore higher mode effect. A far-fault and a near-fault earthquake environment are also considered for the frames under different seismic intensity levels. To evaluate the improvements obtained from the GA optimization regarding the collapse performance of the buildings, Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) is conducted and comparisons are made between the GA damper distribution and stiffness proportional damping distribution on the collapse probability of the retrofitted frames.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.863-882
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• 2016

This study aims to introduce a new bracing system by which even super-wide frames with large openings can be braced. The proposed system, hereafter called Cable-Pulley Brace (CPB), is a tension-only bracing system with a rectilinear configuration. In CPB, a wire rope passes through a rectilinear path around the opening(s) and connects the lower corner of the frame to its opposite upper one. CPB is a secondary load resisting system with a nonlinear-elastic hysteretic behavior due to its initial pre-tension load. As a result, the required energy dissipation would be provided by the MRF itself, and the main intention of using CPB is to contribute to the initial and post-yield stiffness of the whole system. Using a stiffness calibration technique, optimum placement of the CPBs is discussed to yield a uniform displacement demand along the height of the structure. A displacement-based design procedure is proposed by which the MRF with CPB can be designed to achieve a uniform distribution of inter-story drifts with predefined values. Obtained results indicated that CPB leads to significant reductions in maximum and residual deformations of the MRF at the expense of minor increase in the maximum base shear and developed axial force demands in the columns. In the case of a typical 5-story residential building, compared to SMRF system, CPB system reduces maximum amounts of inter-story and residual drifts by 35% and 70%, respectively. Moreover, openings of the frame are not interrupted by the CPB. This is the most appealing feature of the proposed bracing system from architectural point of view.