• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2024

For important structures such as nuclear power plants, In-Structure Response Spectrum (ISRS) analysis is essential because it evaluates the safety of equipment and components installed in the structure. Because most structures are asymmetric, the response can be affected by eccentricity. In the case of seismically isolated structures, this effect can be greater due to the difference between the center of mass of the structure and the center of rigidity of the isolator layer. Therefore, eccentricity effects must be considered when designing or evaluating the ISRS of seismically isolated structures. This study investigated the change of the ISRS of an isolated structure by assuming accidental eccentricity. The variables that affect the ISRS of the isolated structure were analyzed to see what additional impact they had due to eccentricity. The ISRS of the seismically isolated structure with eccentricity was amplified more than when there was non-eccentricity, and it was boosted more significantly in specific period ranges depending on the isolator's initial stiffness and seismic intensity. Finally, whether the displacement requirement of isolators can be applied to the variation of the ISRS due to eccentricity in the design code was also examined.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.61-80
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• 2002

Wind tunnel aeroelastic model tests of the Commonwealth Advisory Aeronautical Research Council (CAARC) standard tall building were conducted using a three-degree-of-freedom base hinged aeroelastic(BHA) model. Experimental investigation into the effects of coupled translational-torsional motion, cross-wind/torsional frequency ratio and eccentricity between centre of mass and centre of stiffness on the wind-induced response characteristics and wind excitation mechanisms was carried out. The wind tunnel test results highlight the significant effects of coupled translational-torsional motion, and eccentricity between centre of mass and centre of stiffness, on both the normalised along-wind and cross-wind acceleration responses for reduced wind velocities ranging from 4 to 20. Coupled translational-torsional motion and eccentricity between centre of mass and centre of stiffness also have significant impacts on the amplitude-dependent effect caused by the vortex resonant process, and the transfer of vibrational energy between the along-wind and cross-wind directions. These resulted in either an increase or decrease of each response component, in particular at reduced wind velocities close to a critical value of 10. In addition, the contribution of vibrational energy from the torsional motion to the cross-wind response of the building model can be greatly amplified by the effect of resonance between the vortex shedding frequency and the torsional natural frequency of the building model.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.931-953
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• 2016

In this paper, the effects of mass eccentricity of superstructure as well as stiffness eccentricity of isolators on the amplification of seismic responses of base-isolated structures are investigated by using mathematical near-fault pulse models. Superstructures with 3, 6 and 9 stories and aspect ratios equal to 1, 2 and 3 are mounted on a reasonable variety of Triple Concave Friction Pendulum (TCFP) bearings considering different period and damping ratio. Three-dimensional linear superstructure mounted on nonlinear isolators are subjected to simplified pulses including fling step and forward directivity while various pulse period ($T_p$) and Peak Ground Velocity (PGV) amounts as two crucial parameters of these pulses are scrutinized. Maximum isolator displacement and base shear as well as peak superstructure acceleration and drift are selected as the main engineering demand parameters. The results indicate that the torsional intensification of different demand parameters caused by superstructure mass eccentricity is more significant than isolator stiffness eccentricity. The torsion due to mass eccentricity has intensified the base shear of asymmetric 6-story model 2.55 times comparing to symmetric one. In similar circumstances, the isolator displacement and roof acceleration are increased 49 and 116 percent respectively in the presence of mass eccentricity. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that torsional effects of mass eccentricity can force the drift to reach the allowable limit of ASCE 7 standard in the presence of forward directivity pulses.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.65-70
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• 2017

In vertical hydro/hydraulic power turbine-generator applications, traditionally, cylindrical turbine guide bearings (TGBs) are widely used to provide turbine runner shafts with smooth rotation guides and supports. All existing cylindrical TGBs with simple plain pads have drawbacks such as having no pressure generation and film stiffness at the no-load condition and in addition, at the low-load/low-eccentricity condition, having very low film stiffness values and lacking design credibility in the stiffness values themselves. In this paper, in order to fundamentally improve the low-load/low-eccentricity performance of conventional cylindrical TGBs and thus enhance their design-application availability and usefulness, we propose to introduce a rotation-directional leading-edge taper to each partitioned pad, i.e., a pad leading-edge taper. We perform a design analysis of lubrication performance on $4-Pad{\times}4-Row$ cylindrical TGBs to verify an engineering/technical usefulness of the proposed pad leading-edge taper. Analysis results show that by introducing the leading-edge taper to each pad of the cylindrical TGB one can expect a constant high average direct stiffness with a high degree of design credibility, regardless of load value, even at the low-load/low-eccentricity condition and also control the average direct stiffness value by exploring the taper height as a design parameter. Therefore, we conclude that the proposed pad leading-edge tapers are greatly effective in more accurately predicting and controlling rotordynamic characteristics of vertical hydro-power turbine-generator rotor-bearing systems to which cylindrical TGBs are applied.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.265-275
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• 2017

In order to improve the seismic performance of structures, friction pendulum system (FPS) is the most commonly used seismic isolation device in addition to lead rubber bearing (LRB) in high seismicity area. In a nuclear power plant (NPP) with a large self weight, it is necessary to install a large number of seismic isolation devices, and the position of the center of rigidity varies depending on the arrangement of the seismic isolation devices. Due to the increase in the eccentricity, which is the difference between the center of gravity of the nuclear structure and the center of stiffness of the seismic isolators, an excessive seismic response may occur which could not be considered at the design stage. Three different types of eccentricity models (CASE 1, CASE 2, and CASE 3) were used for seismic response evaluation of seismically isolated NPP due to the increase of eccentricity (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%). The analytical model of the seismic isolation system was compared using the equivalent linear model and the bilinear model. From the results of the seismic response of the seismically isolated NPP with increasing eccentricity, it can be observed that the effect of eccentricity on the seismic response for the equivalent linear model is larger than that for the bilinear model.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.748-752
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• 2004

Fluid dynamic bearings (FDBs) have been replacing ball bearings of the HDD spindle motor very rapidly. But there are several demerits of HDB, such as high friction torque, variable viscosity of the fluid lubricant depending on operating temperature, low stiffness, and etc. Eccentricity is one of the major parameters which affects the static and dynamic characteristics. As the static eccentricity is larger, the stiffness and the damping coefficients become bigger. But friction torque is relatively unaffected by the static eccentricity. This research proposes a new type of journal bearing with asymmetric journal grooves which results in better dynamic characteristics. The static and dynamic characteristics of the new journal bearing are investigated by solving the Reynolds' equation with FEM, and the transient analysis is performed to predict the dynamic behavior of rotor by solving the equations of motion of a HDD spindle system with Runge-Kutta method. The result shows that the proposed Journal bearings have much bigger stiffness and damping coefficients compared with the conventional symmetric ones. And consequently, it has smaller whirl radius and tilting angle.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.88 no.1
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• pp.25-42
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• 2023

This paper presents a finite element (FE) simulation of eccentrically loaded lightweight aggregate concrete-encased steel (LACES) columns with H-shaped steel sections, analytical equations are also established to estimate the columns' axial and bending moment interaction capacities. The validity of the proposed models is checked by comparing the results with experimental data. Good agreements between the test and proposed models' results are found with acceptable agreements. Moreover, design parameters, including the lightweight aggregate concrete (LWAC) strength, eccentricity, column slenderness ratio, and confinement, are studied using the FE analysis, and their efficiency factors are discussed. The results show that the ultimate axial capacity of the LACES composite columns subjected to eccentric loading is negatively affected by the increase in the columns' height, but it is positively affected by the increase of the confinement. Increasing the eccentricity and columns' height reduced the columns'stiffness. In addition, the ultimate capacity of the LACES column is significantly influenced by the LWAC strength and eccentricity, where the ultimate capacity of the LACES column is significantly increased by increasing LWAC strength, and it is remarkably decreased by increasing the eccentricity. When the eccentricity changed from zero to 70 mm, the ultimate axial capacity and stiffness decreased by 67.97% and 63.56%, respectively.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.527-538
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• 2012

In seismic analyses of structures, additional eccentricity is introduced to take account for oscillations of random and unknown origins. In many codes of practice, the torsion about the vertical axis is considered through empirical accidental eccentricity formulation. Due to the random nature of structural systems, it is very difficult to evaluate the accidental eccentricity in a deterministic way and to specify its effect on the overall seismic response of structures. The aim of this study is to develop a procedure for the evaluation of the accidental eccentricity induced by uncertainties in stiffness and mass of structural members, using the neural network techniques coupled with Monte Carlo simulations. This method gives very interesting results for single story structures. For real structures, this method can be used as a tool to determine the accidental eccentricity in the seismic vulnerability studies of buildings.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.421-432
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• 2002

In this study the modal characteristics and responses of an asymmetric structure with added viscoelastic dampers were investigated for design parameters such as eccentricity of stiffness and added dampers, the loss factor of the damping materials used. For modal characteristics, variation of the quantities such as natural frequencies, modal damping ratios, modal participation factors, and dynamic amplification factors were observed, and displacements at flexible and stiff edges, and at center of mass were obtained. Based on the results, the problem of the optimum damper distribution to minimize the torsional effects was addressed, and the proposed method for optimum damper distribution was applied to a multi-story structure to verify the applicability Finally the effect of viscous and viscoelastic dampers were compared by varying the loss factor of the viscoelastic material.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.43-57
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• 1998

A three-degree-of-freedom base hinged assembly (BHA) for aeroelastic model tests of tall building was developed. The integral parts of a BHA, which consists of two perpendicular plane frames and a flexural pivot, enable this modeling technique to independently simulate building translational and torsional degree-of-freedom. A program of wind tunnel aeroelastic model tests of the CAARC standard tall building was conducted with emphasis on the effect of (a) torsional motion, (b) cross-wind/torsional frequency ratio and (c) the presence of an eccentricity between center of mass and center of stiffness on wind-induced response characteristics. The experimental results highlight the significant effect of coupled translational-torsional motion and the effect of eccentricity between center of mass and center of stiffness on the resultant rms acceleration responses in both along-wind and cross-wind directions especially at operating reduced wind velocities close to a critical value of 10. In addition, it was sound that the vortex shedding process remains the main excitation mechanism in cross-wind direction even in case of tall buildings with coupled translational-torsional motion and with eccentricity.