• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.311-321
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• 2013

In this study, to have a better judgment on the structural performance, the effects of dynamic Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) on seismic behaviour and lateral structural response of mid-rise moment resisting building frames are studied using Finite Difference Method. Three types of mid-rise structures, including 5, 10, and 15 storey buildings are selected in conjunction with three soil types with the shear wave velocities less than 600m/s, representing soil classes $C_e$, $D_e$ and $E_e$, according to Australian Standard AS 1170.4. The above mentioned frames have been analysed under two different boundary conditions: (i) fixed-base (no soil-structure interaction), and (ii) flexible-base (considering soil-structure interaction). The results of the analyses in terms of structural lateral displacements and drifts for the above mentioned boundary conditions have been compared and discussed. It is concluded that the dynamic soil-structure interaction plays a considerable role in seismic behaviour of mid-rise building frames including substantial increase in the lateral deflections and inter-storey drifts and changing the performance level of the structures from life safe to near collapse or total collapse. Thus, considering soil-structure interaction effects in the seismic design of mid-rise moment resisting building frames, particularly when resting on soft soil deposit, is essential.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.79-87
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• 2008

Seismic performance evaluation of structure requires an estimation of the structural performance in terms of displacement demand imposed by earthquakes on the structure. Incremental Dynamic Analysis(IDA) is a analysis method that has recently emerged to estimate structural performance under earthquakes. This method can obtained the entire range of structural performance from the linear elastic stage to yielding and finally collapse by subjecting the structure to increasing levels of ground acceleration. Most structures are expected to deform beyond the limit of linearly elastic behavior when subjected to strong ground motion. The nonlinear response history analysis(NRHA) among various nonlinear analysis methods is the most accurate to compute seismic performance of structures, but it is time-consuming and necessitate more efforts. The nonlinear approximate methods, which is more practical and reliable tools for predicting seismic behavior of structures, are extensively studied. The uncoupled modal response history analysis(UMRHA) is a method which can find the nonlinear reponse of the structures for ESDF from the pushover curve using NRHA or response spectrum. The direct spectrum analysis(DSA) is approximate nonlinear method to evaluate nonlinear response of structures, without iterative computations, given by the structural linear vibration period and yield strength from the pushover analysis. In this study, the practicality and the reliability of seismic performance of approximate nonlinear methods for incremental dynamic analysis of mixed building structures are to be compared.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.95-113
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• 2015

The knowledge of the behavior of any roller compacted concrete (RCC) dam and its foundation is gained by studying the service action of the dam and its foundation using measurements of an external and internal nature. The information by which a continuing assurance of structural safety of the RCC dam can be gauged is of primary importance. Similarly, the fact that the information on structural and thermal behavior and the properties of concrete that may be used to give added criteria for use in the design of future RCC dams is of secondary importance. Wide spread attention is now being given to the installation of more expensive instrumentation for studying the behavior of concrete dams and reservoirs and forecasting of any adverse trends. In view of this, the paper traces installation and need of the comprehensive instrumentation scheme implemented to monitor the structural and thermal behavior of 102.4 m high RCC dam constructed near Mumbai in India. An attempt is made in the present paper to emphasize the need to undertake an instrumentation program and evaluate their performance during construction and post construction stage of RCC structures. Few typical results, regarding the thermal and structural behavior of the dam, obtained through instrumentation installed at the dam site are presented and compared with the design considerations. The fair agreement is seen in the response observed through instrumentation with that governing the design criteria.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.21-24
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• 2004

Structural performance of the seismic devices made by steel bar and high performance fiber reinforced cement composites(HPFRCCs) was experimentally observed. These dampers will be applied for reducing damage as well as seismic response. The advantages of the HPFRCCs damper is selective structural performance, strength, stiffness, and ductility by changing configuration, bar arrangements and type of materials used. The experimental results indicate that elemental ductility is much increased with decreasing damage when the HPFRCCs are applied to the damper. It means cementitious damper for structural control is available which has much merit in performance and cost.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.531-536
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• 2001

URM buildings have been damaged seriously during earthquake since they were not designed to resist lateral loads. It has led to the importance of studying the behavior and capacity for URM building. The objective of this study is to evaluate seismic performance of URM (Unreinforced Masonry) building. For this purpose, this paper discuss the response of 2 story reduced-scale building subjected to earthquake motion and compare them using existing guidelines to provide improved knowledge for URM building.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.73 no.3
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• pp.303-317
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• 2020

In this study an innovative rocking zipper braced frame (RZBF) is proposed to overcome the deficiencies of common concentrically braced frames. RZBF is an improved rocking concentrically braced frame which is based on combination of rocking behavior and zipper columns. The base rocking joints and post-tensioned bars provide rocking response and restoring force, respectively. Also, zipper columns distribute the unbalance force over the frame height and reduce the damage concentration. To evaluate seismic performance of RZBF, a comparison study is carried out considering concentrically braced frame, zipper braced frame, rocking concentrically braced frame and RZBF. Thereby, a suite of non-linear time history analyses had been performed on four different types of archetypes with four, six, eight, ten and twelve stories. Frames were designed and non-linear time history analyses were conducted in OpenSees. To compare the seismic behavior of the archetypes, roof drifts, residual roof drifts, story drifts, the forces of first and top story braces, PT bars forces, column uplift and base shears were taken in to consideration. Results illustrate that using RZBF, can reduce the damage due to reduced residual drifts. Zipper columns enhance the seismic performance of rocking systems. As the number of stories increase in the RZBF systems, larger top story braces were needed. So the RZBF system is applicable on low and midrise buildings.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.265-272
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• 2000

Unbond brace hysteretic dampers are generally used to prevent or decrease structural damage in buildings subjected to strong earthquake by its energy dissipating hysteretic behavior. According to a previous research, the optimum ratio of device yield strength to story yield strength of the combined system has been identified as the most important parameter for characterizing the performance of this device. In this research, the validity and the applicability of the previous research has been investigated and a new approach has been proposed through earthquake response analysis of a steel structure installed with unbond brace type hysteretic damper.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.600-606
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• 2019

Studies on the application of the lead rubber bearing (LRB) isolation system to nuclear power plants are being carried out as one of the measures to improve seismic performance. Nuclear power plants with isolation systems require seismic probabilistic safety assessments, for which the seismic fragility of the structures, systems, and components needs be calculated, including for beyond design basis earthquakes. To this end, seismic response analyses are required, where it can be seen that the behaviors of the isolation system components govern the overall seismic response of an isolated plant. The numerical model of the LRB used in these seismic response analyses plays an important role, but in most cases, the extreme performance of the LRB has not been well studied. The current work therefore develops an extreme nonlinear numerical model that can express the seismic response of the LRB for beyond design basis earthquakes. A full-scale LRB was fabricated and dynamically tested with various input conditions, and test results confirmed that the developed numerical model better represents the behavior of the LRB over previous models. Subsequent seismic response analyses of isolated nuclear power plants using the model developed here are expected to provide more accurate results for seismic probabilistic safety assessments.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2012

Offshore wind turbines are complex structural and mechanical systems located in a highly demanding environment. This paper proposes a multi-level system approach for studying the structural behavior of the support structure of an offshore wind turbine. In accordance with this approach, a proper numerical modeling requires the adoption of a suitable technique in order to organize the qualitative and quantitative assessment in various sub-problems, which can be solved by means of sub-models at different levels of detail, both for the structural behavior and for the simulation of loads. Consequently, in a first place, the effects on the structural response induced by the uncertainty of the parameters used to describe the environmental actions and the finite element model of the structure are inquired. After that, a meso-level FEM model of the blade is adopted in order to obtain the detailed load stress on the blade/hub connection.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.73-93
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• 2012

With an active structural involvement in spiral case structure (SCS) that is always the design and research focus of hydroelectric power plant (HPP), the compressible membrane sandwiched between steel spiral case and surrounding reinforced concrete was often assumed to be linear elastic material in conventional design analysis of SCS. Unfortunately considerable previous studies have proved that the foam material serving as membrane exhibits essentially nonlinear mechanical behavior. In order to clarify the effect of membrane (foam) material's nonlinear stress-strain behavior on SCS, this work performed a case study on SCS with a compressible membrane using the ABAQUS code after a sound calibration of the employed constitutive model describing foam material. In view of the successful capture of fitted stress-strain curve of test by the FEM program, we recommend an application and dissemination of the simulation technique employed in this work for membrane material description to structural designers of SCS. Even more important, the case study argues that taking into account the nonlinear stress-strain response of membrane material in loading process is definitely essential. However, we hold it unnecessary to consider the membrane material's hysteresis and additionally, employment of nonlinear elastic model for membrane material description is adequate to the structural design of SCS. Understanding and accepting these concepts will help to analyze and predict the structural performance of SCS more accurately in design effort.