• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.4 no.6
• /
• pp.419-435
• /
• 2004

The safety level of a structural system designed per code specifications can not be inferred directly from the reliability of members due to the load redistribution and nonlinear inelastic structural behavior. Comparison of the system and member reliability, which is scarce in the literature, is likely to indicate any possible inconsistency of design codes in providing safe and economical designs. Such a comparative study is presented in this study for moment resisting two-dimensional steel frames designed per AISC LRFD Specifications. The member reliability is evaluated using the resistance of the beam-column element and the elastic load effects that indirectly accounts for the second-order effects. The system reliability analysis is evaluated based on the collapse load factor obtained from a second-order inelastic analysis. Comparison of the system and member reliability is presented for several steel frames. Results suggest that the failure probability of the system is about one order of magnitude lower than that of the most critically loaded structural member, and that the difference between the system and member reliability depends on the structural configuration, degree of redundancy, and dead to live load ratio. Results also suggest that the system reliability is less sensitive to initial imperfections of the structure than the member reliability. Therefore, the system aspect should be incorporated in future design codes in order to achieve more reliability consistent designs.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.141-159
• /
• 2016

Commonly in steel frames, steel beam and concrete slab are connected together by shear keys to work as a unit member which is called composite beam. When a composite beam is subjected to positive bending, flexural strength and stiffness of the beam can be increased due to "composite action". At the same time despite these advantages, composite action increases the strain at the beam bottom flange and it might affect beam plastic rotation capacity. This paper presents results of study on the rotation capacity of composite beam connected to Rectangular Hollow Section (RHS) column in the steel moment resisting frame buildings. Due to out-of-plane deformation of column flange, moment transfer efficiency of web connection is reduced and this results in reduction of beam plastic rotation capacity. In order to investigate the effects of width-to-thickness ratio (B/t) of RHS column on the rotation capacity of composite beam, cyclic loading tests were conducted on three full scale beam-to-column subassemblies. Detailed study on the different steel beam damages and concrete slab damages are presented. Experimental data showed the importance of this parameter of RHS column on the seismic behavior of composite beams. It is found that occurrence of severe concrete bearing crush at the face of RHS column of specimen with smaller width-to-thickness ratio resulted in considerable reduction on the rate of strain increase in the bottom flange. This behavior resulted in considerable improvement of rotation capacity of this specimen compared with composite and even bare steel beam connected to the RHS column with larger width-to-thickness ratio.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.23-48
• /
• 2013

In this study, the effect of flexibility of superstructures and nonlinear characteristics of LRB (Lead Rubber Bearing) isolator on inelastic response of base isolated structures is investigated. To demonstrate the intensity of damage in superstructures, demand response modification factor without the consideration of damping reduction factor, demand RI, is used and the N2 method is applied to compute this factor. To evaluate the influence of superstructure flexibility on inelastic response of base isolated structures, different steel intermediate moment resisting frames with different heights have been investigated. In lead rubber bearing, the rubber provides flexibility and the lead is the source of damping; variations of aforementioned characteristics are also investigated on inelastic response of superstructures. It is observed that an increase in height of superstructure leads to higher value of demand RI till 4-story frame but afterward this factor remains constant; in other words, an increase in height until 4-story frame causes more damage in the superstructure but after that superstructure's damage is equal to the 4-story frame's. The results demonstrate that the low value of second stiffness (rubber stiffness in LRBs) tends to show a significant decrease in demand RI. Increase in value of characteristic strength (yield strength of the lead in LRBs) leads to decrease in the demand RI.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.23 no.6
• /
• pp.549-580
• /
• 2022

This paper assesses the influences of modeling assumptions and uncertainties on the performance of the non-linear finite element (FE) model updating procedure and model clustering method. The results of a shaking table test on a four-story steel moment-resisting frame are employed for both calibrations and clustering of the FE models. In the first part, simple to detailed non-linear FE models of the test frame is calibrated to minimize the difference between the various data features of the models and the structure. To investigate the effect of the specified data feature, four of which include the acceleration, displacement, hysteretic energy, and instantaneous features of responses, have been considered. In the last part of the work, a model-based clustering approach to group models of a four-story frame with similar behavior is introduced to detect abnormal ones. The approach is a composition of property derivation, outlier removal based on k-Nearest neighbors, and a K-means clustering approach using specified data features. The clustering results showed correlations among similar models. Moreover, it also helped to detect the best strategy for modeling different structural components.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.35 no.5
• /
• pp.701-715
• /
• 2020

Steel storage racks are lightweight structures, made of thin-walled cold-formed members, whose behaviour is remarkably influenced by local, distortional and overall buckling phenomena, frequently mutually combined. In addition, the need of an easy and rapid erection and reconfiguration of the skeleton frame usually entails the presence of regular perforations along the length of the vertical elements (uprights). Holes and slots strongly influence their behaviour, whose prediction is however of paramount importance to guarantee an efficient design and a safe use of racks. This paper focuses on the behaviour of isolated uprights subjected to both axial load and bending moments, differing for the cross-section geometry and for the regular perforation systems. According to the European standards for routine design, four alternatives to evaluate the bending moment-axial load resisting domains are shortly discussed and critically compared in terms of member load carrying capacity.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.51 no.5
• /
• pp.563-573
• /
• 2024

This research experimentally evaluated the local stress distribution along the cross-section of composite beams under both positive and negative moments. The experiment utilized a large-scale, two-story, two-by-three bay steel gravity frame with a concrete on metal deck floor system. The composite shear connections, which are nominally assumed to be pinned under gravity loading, can develop non-negligible moment-resisting capacity when subjected to lateral loads. This paper discusses the local stress distribution, orshear lag effects, observed near the beam-to-column connections when subjected to combined gravity and lateral loading. Strain gauges were used for measurements along the beam depth at varying distances from the connection. The experimental data showed amplified shear lag effects near the unconnected region of the beam web and bottom flange under the applied loading conditions. These results indicate that strain does not vary linearly across the beam cross-section adjacent to the connection components. This insight has implications for the use of experimental strain gauge data in estimating beam demands near the connections. These findings can be beneficial in informing instrumentation plans for future experimental studies on composite beams.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.16 no.5
• /
• pp.533-557
• /
• 2014

In this study, the performances of the SMRF building equipped with energy dissipating devices are studied. Three types of these structures with different heights are considered. The Added Damping and Stiffness (ADAS) devices are used as energy dissipating devices in these structures. The behavior of these structures with ADAS devices subjected to near source ground motions are investigated. Three SMRF buildings with five, ten and fifteen-story, with ADAS devices were chosen. The nonlinear time history analysis was used by applying the near source ground motions with PERFORM 3D.V4 and conclusions are drawn upon an energy criterion. The effect of PGA variation and height of the frames are also considered based on the energy criterion.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
• /
• 2005.05a
• /
• pp.295-298
• /
• 2005

Coupled shear wall(CSW) has been adopted as a lateral force resisting system in building frame structures. New Zealand code recommends the capacity design in designing the CSW. Capacity design based on using moment redistribution of member force may provide the economical benefit to designer. In this study, CSW's are designed by both capacity design and strength -based design. The design results and the seismic performance are compared by using nonlinear static analyses. The amount of reinforcement of shear wall and the section area of steel coupling beams by capacity design appear to be reduced by 19$\%$ and 17$\%$, respectively. Also CSW designed by capacity design shows good seismic performance at the ultimate state.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.70 no.4
• /
• pp.381-394
• /
• 2019

If an alternative path would not be considered for redistribution of loads, local failure in structures will be followed by a progressive collapse. When a vertical load-bearing element of a steel structure fails, the beams connected to it will lose their support. Accordingly, an increase in span's length adds to the internal forces in beams. The mentioned increasing load in beams leads to amplifying the moments there, and likewise in their corresponding connections. Since it is not possible to reinforce all the elements of the structure against this phenomenon, it seems rational to use other technics like specified strengthened connections. In this study, a novel connection is suggested to handle the stated phenomenon which is introduced as a passive connection. This connection enables the structure to tolerate the added loads after failing of the vertical element. To that end, two experimental models were constructed and thereafter tested in half-scale, one-story, double-bay, and bolted connections in three-dimensional spaces. This experimental study has been conducted to compare the ductility and strength of a frame that has ordinary rigid connections with a frame containing a novel passive connection. At last, parametric studies have been implemented to optimize the dimensions of the passive connection. Results show that the load-bearing capacity of the frame increased up to 75 percent. Also, a significant decrease in the displacement of the node wherein the column is removed was observed compared to the ordinary moment resisting frame with the same loads.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.12 no.6
• /
• pp.35-45
• /
• 2008

To investigate the effects of residual displacement, the structural responses of buckling-restrained braced frames (BRBF) and special moment-resisting frames (SMRF) were evaluated for design-based excitations following an application of initial residual drift. The initial residual drift was applied to the structure in two ways. The first way was to simply apply the same earthquake record to the structure twice, with an appropriate pause between applications to allow the structural response from the first record to return to zero. The second way to apply the initial residual drift was to apply a pushover to the structure until it arrives at the desired residual drift value. According to the analysis results, the initial residual drifts had a significant effect on the responses of steel BRBF and SMRF. The responses of BRBF were more highly dependent on the initial residual deformation than the responses of SMRF. Therefore, in order to minimize the post-event repair cost, a reduction of residual drift is required.