• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.113-130
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• 2023

Hybrid simulation (HS) has attracted community attention in recent years as an efficient and effective experimental technique for structural performance evaluation in size-limited laboratories. Traditional hybrid simulations usually take deterministic properties for their numerical substructures therefore could not account for inherent uncertainties within the engineering structures to provide probabilistic performance assessment. Reliable structural performance evaluation, therefore, calls for stochastic hybrid simulation (SHS) to explicitly account for substructure uncertainties. The experimental design of SHS is explored in this study to account for uncertainties within analytical substructures. Both computational simulation and laboratory experiments are conducted to evaluate the pseudo-random Sobol sequence for the experimental design of SHS. Meta-modeling through polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) is established from a computational simulation of a nonlinear single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) structure to evaluate the influence of nonlinear behavior and ground motions uncertainties. A series of hybrid simulations are further conducted in the laboratory to validate the findings from computational analysis. It is shown that the Sobol sequence provides a good starting point for the experimental design of stochastic hybrid simulation. However, nonlinear structural behavior involving stiffness and strength degradation could significantly increase the number of hybrid simulations to acquire accurate statistical estimation for the structural response of interests. Compared with the statistical moments calculated directly from hybrid simulations in the laboratory, the meta-model through PCE gives more accurate estimation, therefore, providing a more effective way for uncertainty quantification.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.72 no.1
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• pp.99-111
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• 2019

To investigate the seismic performance of long-span partially earth-anchored cable-stayed bridge, a super long-span partially earth-anchored cable-stayed bridge scheme with main span of 1400m is taken as example, structural response of the bridge under E1 seismic action is investigated numerically by the multimode seismic response spectrum and time-history analysis, seismic behavior and also the effect of structural geometric nonlinearity on the seismic responses of super long-span partially earth-anchored cable-stayed bridges are revealed. The seismic responses are also compared to those of a fully self-anchored cable-stayed bridge with the same main span. The effects of structural parameters including the earth-anchored girder length, the girder width, the girder depth, the tower height to span ratio, the inclination of earth-anchored cables, the installation of auxiliary piers in the side spans and the connection between tower and girder on the seismic responses of partially ground-anchored cable-stayed bridges are investigated, and their reasonable values are also discussed in combination with static performance and structural stability. The results show that the horizontal seismic excitation produces significant seismic responses of the girder and tower, the seismic responses of the towers are greater than those of the girder, and thus the tower becomes the key structural member of seismic design, and more attentions should be paid to seismic design of these sections including the tower bottom, the tower and girder at the junction of tower and girder, the girder at the auxiliary piers in side spans; structural geometric nonlinearity has significant influence on the seismic responses of the bridge, and thus the nonlinear time history analysis is proposed to predict the seismic responses of super long-span partially earth-anchored cable-stayed bridges; as compared to the fully self-anchored cable-stayed bridge with the same main span, several stay cables in the side spans are changed to be earth-anchored, structural stiffness and natural frequency are both increased, the seismic responses of the towers and the longitudinal displacement of the girder are significantly reduced, structural seismic performance is improved, and therefore the partially earth-anchored cable-stayed bridge provides an ideal structural solution for super long-span cable-stayed bridges with kilometer-scale main span; under the case that the ratio of earth-anchored girder length to span is about 0.3, the wider and higher girder is employed, the tower height-to-span ratio is about 0.2, the larger inclination is set for the earth-anchored cables, 1 to 2 auxiliary piers are installed in each of the side spans and the fully floating system is employed, better overall structural performance is achieved for long-span partially earth-anchored cable-stayed bridges.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.1115-1144
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• 2015

Current climate conditions along with advances in technology make further design and verification methods for structural strength and reliability of wind turbine towers imperative. Along with the growing interest for "green" energy, the wind energy sector has been developed tremendously the past decades. To this end, the improvement of wind turbine towers in terms of structural detailing and performance result in more efficient, durable and robust structures that facilitate their wider application, thus leading to energy harvesting increase. The wind tower industry is set to expand to greater heights than before and tapered steel towers with a circular cross-section are widely used as more capable of carrying heavier loads. The present study focuses on the improvement of the structural response of steel wind turbine towers, by means of internal stiffening. A thorough investigation of the contribution of stiffening rings to the overall structural behavior of the tower is being carried out. These stiffening rings are placed along the tower height to reduce local buckling phenomena, thus increasing the buckling strength of steel wind energy towers and leading the structure to a behavior closer to the one provided by the beam theory. Additionally to ring stiffeners, vertical stiffening schemes are studied to eliminate the presence of short wavelength buckles due to bending. For the purposes of this research, finite element analysis is applied in order to describe and predict in an accurate way the structural response of a model tower stiffened by internal stiffeners. Moreover, a parametric study is being performed in order to investigate the effect of the stiffeners' number to the functionality of the aforementioned stiffening systems and the improved structural behavior of the overall wind converter.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-23
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• 2016

Steel plate shear walls (SPSWs) have been shown to be efficient lateral force-resisting systems, which are increasingly used in new and retrofit construction. These structural systems are designed with either stiffened and stocky or unstiffened and slender web plates based on disparate structural and economical considerations. Based on some limited reported studies, on the other hand, employment of low yield point (LYP) steel infill plates with extremely low yield strength, and high ductility as well as elongation properties is found to facilitate the design and improve the structural behavior and seismic performance of the SPSW systems. On this basis, this paper reports system-level investigations on the seismic response assessment of multi-story SPSW frames under the action of earthquake ground motions. The effectiveness of the strip model in representing the behaviors of SPSWs with different buckling and yielding properties is primarily verified. Subsequently, the structural and seismic performances of several code-designed and retrofitted SPSW frames with conventional and LYP steel infill plates are investigated through detailed modal and nonlinear time-history analyses. Evaluation of various seismic response parameters including drift, acceleration, base shear and moment, column axial load, and web-plate ductility demands, demonstrates the capabilities of SPSW systems in improving the seismic performance of structures and reveals various advantages of use of LYP steel material in seismic design and retrofit of SPSW systems, in particular, application of LYP steel infill plates of double thickness in seismic retrofit of conventional steel and code-designed SPSW frames.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.959-964
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• 2001

This study investigates the seismic performance of bearing walls with rectangular sectional shape and specific details of reinforcements developed for 10 to 20-story apartment buildings in Korea. To investigate seismic behavior of structural walls, several specimens were experimented by author and laboratory test results by other researchers were collected and analysed. Structural behaviors of walls were evaluated by means of ductility, deformation, and strength capacities. For this purpose, thirty six specimens having different Properties such as aspect ratios and details were considered. Based on the results of this study, deformability of the walls with specific details is discussed. Also this study compares the response modification factor(R) for the bearing wall systems in seismic design provisions between Korea and United States.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.67 no.1
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• pp.69-78
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• 2018

The study presented herein focused on the change in hysteretic force-deformation behavior of lead rubber bearings (LRBs). The material model used to idealize response of LRBs under cyclic motion is capable of representing the gradual attrition in strength of isolator unit on account of lead core heating. To identify the effect of loading history on the hysteretic response of LRBs, a typical isolator unit is subjected to cyclic motions with different velocity, amplitude and number of cycles. Furthermore, performance of an LRB isolated single degree of freedom system is studied under different seismic input levels. Finally, the significance of lead core heating effect on LRBs is discussed by considering the current design approach for base isolated structures. Results of this study show that the response of an LRB is governed strongly by the amplitude and number of cycles of the motion and the considered seismicity level.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.43-48
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• 2022

In order to evaluate the seismic performance of the modular expansion joint known for its large expansion allowance and remarkable durability, this study conducts seismic response analysis and seismic simulation test. The bridge selected for the seismic response analysis is a cable stayed bridge with main span length of 1,000m. Three artificial earthquake were generated with respect to the design response spectra of the Korean Standards (KS), AASHTO LRFD and Eurocode, and applied to the selected bridge. The seismic simulation tests reproduced the artificial earthquakes using dynamic hydraulic actuators in the longitudinal and transverse directions. The test results verified the durability and safety of the expansion joint in view of its seismic behavior since abnormal behavior or failure of the expansion joint was not observed when the artificial earthquake waves were applied in the longitudinal direction, transverse direction and both directions.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.69 no.3
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• pp.257-268
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• 2019

Infills are as important members in structural design as beams, columns and braces. They have significant effect on structural behavior. Because of lots of variables in infills like material non-linear behavior, the interaction between frames and infill, etc., the infills performance during an earthquake is complicated, so have led designers do not consider the effect of infills in designing the structure. However, the experimental studies revealed that the infills have the remarkable effect on structure behavior. As if these effects ignored, it might occur soft-story phenomena, torsion or short-column effects on the structures. One simple and appropriate method for considering the infills effects in analyzing, is replacing the infills with diagonal compression strut with the same performance of real infill, instead of designing the whole infill. Because of too many uncertainties, codes and researchers gave many expressions that were not as the same as the others. The major intent of this paper is calculation the width of this diagonal strut, which has the most characteristics of infill. This paper by comprehensive on different parameters like the modulus of young or moment of inertia of columns presents a new formula for achieving the equivalent strut width. In fact, this new formula is extracted from about 60 FEM analyses models. It can be said that this formula is very efficient and accurate in estimating the equivalent strut width, considering the large number of effective parameters relative to similar relationships provided by other researchers. In most cases, the results are so close to the values obtained by the FEM. In this formula, the effect of out of plane buckling is neglected and this formula is used just in steel structures. Also, the thickness of infill panel, and the lateral force applied to frame are constant. In addition, this new formula is just for modeling the lateral stiffness. Obtaining the nearest response in analyzing is important to the designers, so this new formula can help them to reach more accurate response among a lot of experimental equations proposed by researchers.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.315-325
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• 2019

Double skin composite walls offer structural and economic merits over conventional reinforced concrete counterparts in terms of higher capacity, greater stiffness, and better ductility. This paper investigated the axial behavior of double skin composite walls with steel truss connectors. Full-scaled tests were conducted on three specimens with different height-to-thickness ratios. Test results were evaluated in terms of failure mode, load-axial displacement response, buckling loading, axial stiffness, ductility, strength index, load-lateral deflection, and strain distribution. The test data were compared with AISC 360 and Eurocode 4 and it was found that both codes provided conservative predictions on the safe side.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.37-44
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• 2017

PURPOSES : This study is primarily focused on evaluating the effects of the non-linear stress-strain behavior of RAP concrete on structural response characteristics as is applicable to concrete pavement. METHODS : A 3D FE model was developed by incorporating the actual stress-strain behavior of RAP concrete obtained via flexural strength testing as a material property model to evaluate the effects of the non-linear stress-strain behavior to failure on the maximum stresses in the concrete slab and potential performance prediction results. In addition, a typical linear elastic model was employed to analyze the structural responses for comparison purposes. The analytical results from the FE model incorporating the actual stress-strain behavior of RAP concrete were compared to the corresponding results from the linear elastic FE model. RESULTS : The results indicate that the linear elastic model tends to yield higher predicted maximum stresses in the concrete as compared to those obtained via the actual stress-strain model. Consequently, these higher predicted stresses lead to a difference in potential performance of the concrete pavement containing RAP. CONCLUSIONS : Analysis of the concrete pavement containing RAP demonstrated that an appropriate analytical model using the actual stress-strain characteristics should be employed to calculate the structural responses of RAP concrete pavement instead of simply assuming the concrete to be a linear elastic material.