• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.23-37
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• 2018

In this paper, seismic provisions related to built-up special concentrically braced frames (BSCBFs) are investigated under cyclic loading using non-linear finite element analysis of a single-bay single-story frame. These braces, which contain double angle and double channel brace sections, are considered in two types of single diagonal and X-braced frames. The results of this study show that current seismic provisions such as observing the 0.4 ratio for slenderness ratio of individual elements between stitch connectors are conservative in BSCBFs, and can be increased according to the type of braces. Furthermore, such increments will lead to decreasing or remaining the current middle protected zone requirements of each BSCBFs. Failure results of BSCBFs, which are related to the plastic equivalent strain growth of members and ductility capacity of the models, show that the behaviors of double channel back-to-back diagonal braces are more desirable than those of similar face-to-face ones. Also, for double angle diagonal braces, results show that the failure of back-to-back BSCBFs occurs faster in comparison with face-to-face similar braces. In X-braced frames, cyclic and failure behaviors of built-up face-to-face models are more desirable than similar back-to-back braces in general.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.1743-1750
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• 2001

This paper presents an analysis of nonlinear response of the seismically isolated structure against earthquake excitation to evaluate isolation performances of a rubber bearing. In the analysis of the vibration of building, the building is modeled by lumped mass system where the restoring force is considered as linear, bilinear and trilinear. Fundamental equations of motion are derived for the base isolated structure, and hysteretic and nonlinear-elastic characteristics are considered for a numerical calculation. The excitation levels are magnified fur the recorded strong earthquake motions in order to examine dynamic stability of the structure. Seismic responses (of the building are compared fur the each restoring force type. As a result, it is shown that the effect of the motion by the nonlinear response of the building is comparatively not so large from a seismic design standpoint. The responses of the isolated structures reduce sufficiently and controled the motion of the building well in a practical range. By increasing the acceleration of the earthquake, the yielding of the farce was occurred in the concrete and steel frame, which shows the necessity of the exact nonlinear dynamic analysis.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.623-633
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• 2019

A large number of available concrete buildings designed only considering gravity load that require seismic rehabilitation because of failure to meet plasticity criteria. Using steel bracings are a common type of seismic rehabilitation. The eccentric bracings with vertical link reduce non-elastic deformation imposed on concrete members as well as elimination of probable buckling problems of bracings. In this study, three concrete frames of 10, 15, and 20 stories designed only for gravity load have been considered for seismic improvement using performance-based plastic design. Afterwards, nonlinear time series analysis was employed to evaluate seismic behavior of the models in two modes including before and after rehabilitation. The results revealed that shear link can yield desirable performance with the least time, cost and number of bracings of concrete frames. Also, it was found that the seismic rehabilitation can reduce maximum relative displacement in the middle stories about 40 to 80 percent. Generally, findings of this study demonstrated that the eccentric bracing with vertical link can be employed as a suitable proxy to achieve better seismic performance for existing high rise concrete frames.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.46-52
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• 2018

Detail development and performance tests were conducted for the purpose of developing a damper system capable of lateral displacement control of existing frame structures. The development details are 1) ALD designed to prevent deformation of beams between columns and 2) AWD designed to control inter-story displacement. The non-reinforced BF specimen was used as a comparative study. The evaluation variables are failure mode, load-displacement curve, envelope curve, maximum strength, stiffness degradation and energy dissipation capacity. As a result, the seismic strengthening effect of ALD and AWD was confirmed. Also, it was confirmed that the method of restraining the column with the aramid sheet is superior to the improvement of the seismic performance.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2001

Due to aesthetic, economic, and structural performance, the use of structural hollow sections as columns in both continuous moment resisting and nominally pinned construction is attractive. Connecting the beams to these sections is somewhat problematic as there is no access to the interior of the section to allow for the tightening of a standard bolt. Therefore, bolts that may be tightened from one side, i.e., blind bolts, have been developed to facilitate the use of site bolting for this arrangement. This paper critically reviews available information concerning blind bolting technology, especially the performance of fasteners in shear, tension, and moment resisting connections. Also provided is an explanation of the way in which the results have been incorporated into design guidance covering the particular case of nominally pinned connections. For moment resisting connections, it is concluded that whilst the principle has been adequately demonstrated, sufficient data are currently not available to permit the provision of authoritative design guidance. In addition, inherent flexibilities in the connections mean that performance equivalent to full strength and rigid is unlikely to be achievable: a semicontinuous approach to frame design will therefore be necessary.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.699-715
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• 2015

A modal parameter based damage sensitive feature (DSF) is defined to mimic the relative change in any diagonal element of the stiffness matrix of a model of a structure. The damage assessment is performed in a statistical pattern recognition framework using empirical complementary cumulative distribution functions (ECCDFs) of the DSFs extracted from measured operational vibration response data. Methods are discussed to perform probabilistic structural health assessment with respect to the following questions: (a) "Is there a change in the current state of the structure compared to the baseline state?", (b) "Does the change indicate a localized stiffness reduction or increase?", with the latter representing a situation of retrofitting operations, and (c) "What is the severity of the change in a probabilistic sense?". To identify a range of normal structural variations due to environmental and operational conditions, lower and upper bound ECCDFs are used to define the baseline structural state. Such an approach attempts to decouple "non-damage" related variations from damage induced changes, and account for the unknown environmental/operational conditions of the current state. The damage assessment procedure is discussed using numerical simulations of ambient vibration testing of a bridge deck system, as well as shake table experimental data from a 4-story steel frame.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.469-488
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• 2008

Finite element methods have often been used for structural analyses of various mechanical problems. When finite element analyses are utilized to resolve mechanical systems, numerical uncertainties in the initial data such as structural parameters and loading conditions may result in uncertainties in the structural responses. Therefore the initial data have to be as accurate as possible in order to obtain reliable structural analysis results. The typical finite element method may not properly represent discrete systems when using uncertain data, since all input data of material properties and applied loads are defined by nominal values. An interval finite element analysis, which uses the interval arithmetic as introduced by Moore (1966) is proposed as a non-stochastic method in this study and serves a new numerical tool for evaluating the uncertainties of the initial data in structural analyses. According to this method, the element stiffness matrix includes interval terms of the lower and upper bounds of the structural parameters, and interval change functions are devised. Numerical uncertainties in the initial data are described as a tolerance error and tree graphs of uncertain data are constructed by numerical uncertainty combinations of each parameter. The structural responses calculated by all uncertainty cases can be easily estimated so that structural safety can be included in the design. Numerical applications of truss and frame structures demonstrate the efficiency of the present method with respect to numerical analyses of structural uncertainties.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.567-576
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• 2018

This manuscript introduces a new damping device which is composed of a water tank and a pendulum. The new damping device can be tuned to multiple frequencies. In addition, it has a higher energy dissipation capacity when compared with the conventional Tuned Liquid Dampers (TLDs). In order to evaluate the efficiency of this new damping device a series of free vibration and forced vibration tests were conducted on a scaled down single-story one-bay steel frame. Two different configurations were studied for the mass of the pendulum that included a completely and a partially submerged mass. It was observed that the completely submerged configuration led to 44% higher damping ratio when compared with the conventional TLD. In addition, the completely submerged configuration reduced the peak displacement response of the structure 1.6 times more than the conventional TLD. The peak acceleration response of the structure equipped with the new damping device was reduced twice more than the conventional TLD. It was also found that, when the excitation frequency is lower than the resonance frequency, the conventional TLD performs better than the partially submerged configuration of the new damping device.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.483-491
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• 2018

Timoshenko beam model is widely exploited in the literature to examine the mechanical behavior of stubby beam-like components. Timoshenko beam theory is well-known to require the shear correction factor in order to recognize the nonuniform shear distribution at a section. While a variety of shear correction factors are appeared in the literature so far, there is still no consensus on the most appropriate form of the shear correction factor. The Saint-Venant's flexure problem is first revisited in the frame work of the classical theory of elasticity and a highly accurate approximate closed-form solution is presented employing the extended Kantorovich method. The resulted approximate solution for the elasticity field is then employed to introduce two shear correction factors consistent with the Cowper's and energy approaches. The mathematical form of the proposed shear correction factors are then simplified and compared with the results available in the literature over an extended range of Poisson's and aspect ratios. The proposed shear correction factors do not exhibit implausible issue of negative values and do not result in numerical instabilities too. Based on the comprehensive discussion on the shear correction factors, a piecewise definition of shear correction factor is introduced for rectangular cross-sections having excellent agreement with the numerical results in the literature for both shallow and deep cross-sections.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.215-235
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• 2020

Cracks and defects may occur anywhere in a plate under tension. Cracks can affect the buckling stability performance and even the failure mode of the plate. A search of the literature reveals that the reported research has mostly focused on the study of plates with central and small cracks. Considering the effectiveness of cracks on the buckling behavior of plates, this study intends to investigate the effects of some key parameters, i.e., crack size and location as well as the plate aspect ratio and support conditions, on the buckling behavior, stress intensity factor (SIF), and the failure mode (buckling or fracture) in cracked plates under tension. To this end, a sophisticated mathematical code was developed using MATLAB in the frame-work of extended finite element method (XFEM) in order to analyze the buckling stability and collapse of numerous plate models. The results and findings of this research endeavor show that, in addition to the plate aspect ratio and support conditions, careful consideration of the crack location and size can be quite effective in buckling behavior assessment and failure mode prediction as well as SIF evaluation of the cracked plates subjected to tensile loading.