• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.83-100
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• 2022

Timber is one of the few natural, renewable building materials and glulam is a type of engineering wood product. In the present work, timber-based braces are applied for retrofitting midrise Special Moment Resisting Frame (SMRF) using two types of timber base braces (Timber base glulam, and hybrid Timber-Steel-BRB) as alternatives for retrofitting by traditional steel bracings. The improving effects of adding the bracings to the SMRF on seismic characteristics of the frame are evaluated using load-bearing capacity, energy dissipation, and story drifts of the frame. For evaluating the retrofitting effects on the seismic performance of SMRF, a five-story SMRF is considered unretofitted and retrofitted with steel-hollow structural section (HSS) brace, Glued Laminated Timber (Glulam) brace, and hybrid Timber-Steel BRB. Using OpenSees structural analyzer, the performance are investigated under pushover, cyclic, and incremental loading. Results showed that steel-HSS, timber base Glulam, and hybrid timber-steel BRB braces have more significant roles in energy dissipation, increasing stiffness, changing capacity curves, reducing inter-story drifts, and reducing the weight of the frames, compared by steel bracing. Results showed that Hybrid BRB counteract the negative post-yield stiffness, so their use is more beneficial on buildings where P-Delta effects are more critical. It is found that the repair costs of the buildings with hybrid BRB will be less due to lower residual drifts. As a result, timber steel-BRB has the best energy dissipation and seismic performance due to symmetrical and stable hysteresis curves of buckling restrained braces that can experience the same capacities in tension and compression.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.175-189
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• 2024

Aiming at studying the plastic hinge (PH) evolution regularities and failure mode of rocking wall moment frame (RWMF) structure in earthquakes, the whole-working history analysis of seismic performance state of RWMF structure based on co-operation performance and PH evolution was carried out. Building upon the theoretical analysis of the elastic internal forces and deformations of RWMF structures, nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA) methods were employed to perform both Pushover analysis and seismic response time history analysis under different seismic coefficients (δ). The relationships among PH occurrence ratios (R_ph), inter-story drifts and δ were established. Based on the plotted curve of the seismic performance states, evaluation limits for the R_ph and inter-story drifts were provided for different performance states of RWMF structures. The results indicate that the R_ph of RWMF structures exhibits a nonlinear evolution trend of "fast at first, then slow" with the increasing of δ. The general pattern is characterized by the initial development of beam hinges in the middle stories, followed by the development towards the top and bottom stories until the beam hinges are fully formed. Subsequently, the development of column hinges shifts from the bottom and top stories towards the middle stories of the structure, ultimately leading to the loss of seismic lateral capacity with a failure mode of partial beam yield, demonstrating a global yielding pattern. Moreover, the limits for the R_ph and inter-story drifts effectively evaluate the five different performance states of RWMF structures.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.481-488
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• 1998

The drift and inter-story drift control method for steel structures subjected to seismic forces is formulated into a structural optimization problem in this paper. The formulated optimization problem with constraints on drift, inter-story drifts, and member strengthes are transformed into an unconstrained optimization problem. For the solution of the tranformed optimization problem an searching algorithm based on the gradient projection method utilizing gradient information on eigenvalues and eigenvectors are developed and presented in detail. The performance of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by application to drift control of a verifying example.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.71-80
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• 2012

Because a smart isolation system cannot be used as a base isolation system for tall buildings, top-story or mid-story isolation systems are required. In this study, adaptability of a smart top-story isolation system for reduction of seismic responses of tall buildings in regions of low-to-moderate seismicity has been investigated. To this end, 20-story example building structure was selected and an MR damper and low damping elastomeric bearings were used to compose a smart base isolation system. Artificial earthquakes generated based on design spectrum of low-to-moderate seismicity regions are used for structural analyses. Based on numerical simulation results, it has been shown that a smart top-story isolation system can effectively reduce both structural responses and isolation story drifts of the building structure in low-to-moderate seismicity regions in comparison with a passive top-story isolation system.

• 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.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.587-607
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• 2014

Progressive collapse, which is referred to as the collapse of the entire building under local damages, is a common failure mode happened by earthquakes. The collapse process highly depends on the whole structural system. Since, asymmetry of the building plan leads to the local damage concentration; it may intensify the progressive collapse mechanism of asymmetric buildings. In this research the progressive collapse of regular and irregular 6-story RC ordinary moment resisting frame buildings are studied in the presence of the earthquake loads. Collapse process and collapse propagation are investigated using nonlinear time history analyses (NLTHA) in buildings with 5%, 15% and 25% mass asymmetry with respect to the number of collapsed hinges and story drifts criteria. Results show that increasing the value of mass eccentricity makes the asymmetric buildings become unstable earlier and in the early stages with lower number of the collapsed hinges. So, with increasing the mass eccentricity in building, instability and collapse of the entire building occurs earlier, with lower potential of the progressive collapse. It is also demonstrated that with increasing the mass asymmetry the decreasing trend of the number of collapsed beam and column hinges is approximately similar to the decreasing trend in the average story drifts of the mass centers and stiff edges. So, as an alternative to a much difficult-to-calculate local response parameter of the number of collapsed hinges, the story drift, as a global response parameter, measures the potential of progressive collapse more easily.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.63-69
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• 2003

In this study seismic design procedure for buckling-restrained braced frame systems was proposed using hysteretic energy spectrum and accumulated ductility spectrum constructed from single degree of freedom systems. The hysteretic energy spectra and accumulated ductility spectra corresponding to target ductility ratio were constructed first. The cross-sectional area of braces required to meet a given target displacement was obtained by equating the hysteretic energy demand to the accumulated plastic energy dissipated by braces. Twenty earthquake records were utilized to construct the spectra and to verify the validity of the design procedure. According to analysis results of three- and eight-story buckling-restrained braced frame structures designed using the proposed method, the mean values for the top story displacement correspond well with the given performance target displacements. Also, the inter-story drifts turned out to be relatively uniform over the structure height, which is desirable because uniform inter-story drifts indicate uniform damage distribution. Therefore if was concluded that the proposed energy-based method could be a reliable alternative to conventional strength-based design procedure for structures with buckling-restrained braces.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.3 no.3 s.9
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• pp.95-103
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• 2003

Frame is one of the most commonly used structural systems for the resistance of applied loads. Many researchers have recently conducted their studies to investigate the effect of several parameters such as the connection flexibility, boundary condition of each support, beam-to-column stiffness ratio. These parameters play important roles on the characteristic behavior of frames. A simplified spring model is proposed to obtain the story drifts of frames with various beam-to-column connection stiffnesses in this research. A point bracing system with adequate spring stiffness is also suggested to establish the relationship between the applied load and the resisting translational spring stiffness within the limit state of story drift.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.83 no.6
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• pp.811-824
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• 2022

Despite its disadvantages, soft story can reduce the damage to the upper floors by concentrating drift in that specific story provided that large drifts are avoided. Gapped-Inclined Brace (GIB) with reduced P-delta effects and the control of soft story stiffness makes it possible to take advantage of the soft story in buildings and increase their capacity for energy dissipation. OpenSees software is used in this study to validate and modify the GIB model's shortcomings. Also, the analysis method for this element is changed for design. The modified element is evaluated in 3D analysis. Finally, to retrofit an existing building, this element is used. Based on the Iranian seismic code, a six-story reinforced concrete building is modelled and studied with 3D analysis. In this building, the construction shortcomings and elimination of infills on the ground floor cause the formation of a soft story. Results of nonlinear static analysis, nonlinear dynamic, and incremental dynamic analysis using both components of seismic acceleration applied to the structure at different angles and the fragility curves indicate the improvement of the retrofitted structure's performance using the modified element to reach the required performance level following the retrofit code.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.59-77
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• 2020

The code static eccentricity model for elastic torsional design of structures has two critical shortcomings: (1) the negation of the inertial torsional moment at the center of mass (CM), particularly for torsionally-unbalanced (TU) building structures, and (2) the confusion caused by the discrepancy in the definition of the design eccentricity in codes and the resistance eccentricity commonly used by engineers such as in FEMA454. To overcome these shortcomings, using the resistance eccentricity model that can accommodate the inertial torsional moment at the CM, interactive relations between shear and torsion are proposed as follows: (1) elastic responses of structures at instants of peak edge-frame drifts are given as functions of resistance eccentricity, and (2) elastic hysteretic relationships between shear and torsion in forces and deformations are bounded by ellipsoids constructed using two adjacent dominant modes. Comparison of demands estimated using these two interactive relations with those from shake-table tests of two TU building structures (a 1:5-scale five-story reinforced concrete (RC) building model and a 1:12-scale 17-story RC building model) under the service level earthquake (SLE) show that these relations match experimental results of models reasonably well. Concepts proposed in this study enable engineers to not only visualize the overall picture of torsional behavior including the relationship between shear and torsion with the range of forces and deformations, but also pinpoint easily the information about critical responses of structures such as the maximum edge-frame drifts and the corresponding shear force and torsion moment with the eccentricity.