• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제42권4호
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• pp.551-570
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• 2012

An experimental program was carried out to investigate the influence of fibre reinforcement on the mechanical behaviour of high strength reinforced concrete beams. Eighteen beams, loaded in four-point bending tests, were examined by applying monotonically increasing controlled displacements and recording the response in terms of load-deflection curves up to failure. The major test variables were the volume fraction of steel fibres and the transverse steel amount for two different values of shear span. The contribution of the stirrups to the shear strength was derived from the deformations of their vertical legs, measured by means of strain gauges. The structural response of the tested beams was analyzed to evaluate strength, stiffness, energy absorption capacity and failure mode. The experimental results and observed behaviour are in good agreement with those obtained by other authors, confirming that an adequate amount of steel fibres in the concrete can be an alternative solution for minimizing the density of transverse reinforcement. However, the paper shows that the use of different theoretical or semi-empirical models, available in literature, leads to different predictions of the ultimate load in the case of dominant shear failure mode.

• 한국지진공학회논문집
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• 제27권2호
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• pp.83-90
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• 2023

The recent increase in earthquake activities has highlighted the importance of seismic performance evaluation for civil infrastructures. In particular, the container crane essential to maintaining the national logistics system with port operation requires an exact evaluation of its seismic response. Thus, this study aims to assess the seismic vulnerability of container cranes considering their seismic characteristics. The seismic response of the container crane should account for the structural members' yielding and buckling, as well as the crane wheel's uplifting derailment in operation. The crane's yielding and buckling limit states were defined using the stress of crane members based on the load and displacement curve obtained from nonlinear static analysis. The derailment limit state was based on the height of the rail, and nonlinear dynamic analysis was performed to obtain the seismic fragility curves considering defined limit states and seismic characteristics. The yield and derailment probabilities of the crane in the near-fault ground motion were approximately 1.5 to 4.7 and 2.8 to 6.8 times higher, respectively, than those in the far-fault ground motion.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제14권4호
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• pp.435-454
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• 2002

The paper proposes analytical forms able to represent with very good approximation the constitutive law experimentally deducible by means of uniaxial cyclic compressive tests on material having softening post-peak behaviour in compression and negligible tensile strength. The envelope, unloading and reloading curves characterizing the proposed model adequately approach structural responses corresponding to different levels of nonlinearity and ductility, requiring a not very high number of parameters to be calibrated experimentally. The reliability of the model is shown by comparing the results that it is able to provide with the ones analytically deduced from two reference models (one for concrete, another for masonry) available in the literature, and with experimental results obtained by the authors in the framework of a research in progress.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제10권5호
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• pp.1181-1212
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• 2016

Fragility and loss functions are developed to predict damage and economic losses due to earthquake loading in Reinforced Concrete (RC) structural components with smooth rebars. The attention is focused on external/internal beam-column joints and ductile/brittle weak columns, designed for gravity loads only, using low-strength concrete and plain steel reinforcing bars. First, a number of damage states are proposed and linked deterministically with commonly employed methods of repair and related activities. Results from previous experimental studies are used to develop empirical relationships between damage states and engineering demand parameters, such as interstory and column drift ratios. Probability distributions are fit to the empirical data and the associated statistical parameters are evaluated using statistical methods. Repair costs for damaged RC components are then estimated based on detailed quantity survey of a number of pre-70 RC buildings, using Italian costing manuals. Finally, loss functions are derived to predict the level of monetary losses to individual RC components as a function of the experienced response demand.

• 한국전산구조공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전산구조공학회 2000년도 가을 학술발표회논문집
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• pp.182-189
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• 2000

This paper presents a simple and reliable constitutive model for predicting the nonlinear response of reinforced concrete subjected to general membrane loadings. Based on the concept of equivalent uniaxial strain, constitutive relations of concrete are presented in the axes of orthotropy. The behavior of cracked concrete is described by a system of orthogonal cracks, which follows the principal strain directions and rotates according to the loading history. Simple hysteretic rules defining the cyclic stress-strain curves of concrete and steel are used. In addition, the stiffness and strength degradation of cracked concrete is included in the formulation. Correlation studies between analytical results and experimental values from idealized shear panel tests are conducted with the objective to establish the validity of the proposed model.

• 국제강구조저널
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.1125-1138
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• 2018

During earthquakes, braces behave in complex manners because of the asymmetric response nature of their responses in tension and compression. Hollow structural sections (HSS) have been popularly used for braces due to their sectional efficiency in compression. The purpose of this study is to accurately simulate the cyclic behavior of rectangular HSS braces using a computationally efficient numerical model. A conceptually efficient and simple physical theory model is used as a basis model. To improve the accuracy of the model, cyclic beam growth and buckling load, as well as the incidences of local buckling and brace fracture are estimated using empirical equations obtained from regression analyses using test data on rectangular HSS braces. The accuracy of the proposed model is verified by comparing actual and simulated cyclic curves of brace specimens with various slenderness and width-to-thickness ratios.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제7권4호
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• pp.485-510
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• 2014

In performance-based seismic design procedures Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) and pseudo-Spectral acceleration ($S_a$) are commonly used to predict the response of structures to earthquake. Recently, research has been carried out to evaluate the predictive capability of these standard Intensity Measures (IMs) with respect to different types of structures and Engineering Demand Parameter (EDP) commonly used to measure damage. Efforts have been also spent to propose alternative IMs that are able to improve the results of the response predictions. However, most of these IMs are not usually employed in probabilistic seismic demand analyses because of the lack of reliable Ground Motion Prediction Equations (GMPEs). In order to define seismic hazard and thus to calculate demand hazard curves it is essential, in fact, to establish a GMPE for the earthquake intensity. In the light of this need, new GMPEs are proposed here for the elastic input energy spectra, energy-based intensity measures that have been shown to be good predictors of both structural and non-structural damage for many types of structures. The proposed GMPEs are developed using mixed-effects models by empirical regressions on a large number of strong-motions selected from the NGA database. Parametric analyses are carried out to show the effect of some properties variation, such as fault mechanism, type of soil, earthquake magnitude and distance, on the considered IMs. Results of comparisons between the proposed GMPEs and other from the literature are finally shown.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제74권1호
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• pp.33-54
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• 2020

The aim of this study is to calculate natural frequencies and harmonic responses of cracked frames with general boundary conditions by using transfer matrix method (TMM). The TMM is a straightforward technique to obtain harmonic responses and natural frequencies of frame structures as the method is based on constructing a relationship between state vectors of two ends of structure by a chain multiplication procedure. A single variable shear deformation theory (SVSDT) is applied, as well as, Timoshenko beam theory (TBT) and Euler-Bernoulli beam theory (EBT) for comparison purposes. Firstly, free vibration analysis of intact and cracked frames are performed for different crack ratios using TMM. The crack is modelled by means of a linear rotational spring that divides frame members into segments. The results are verified by experimental data and finite element method (FEM) solutions. The harmonic response curves that represent resonant and anti-resonant frequencies directly are plotted for various crack lengths. It is seen that the TMM can be used effectively for harmonic response analysis of cracked frames as well as natural frequencies calculation. The results imply that the SVSDT is an efficient alternative for investigation of cracked frame vibrations especially with thick frame members. Moreover, EBT results can easily be obtained by ignoring shear deformation related terms from governing equation of motion of SVSDT.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제13권6호
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• pp.539-549
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• 2017

Existing reinforced concrete frame buildings designed for vertical loads could only suffer severe damage during earthquakes. In recent years, many research activities were undertaken to develop a reliable and practical analysis procedure to identify the safety level of existing structures. The Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) is considered to be one of the most accurate methods to estimate the seismic demand and capacity of structures. However, the executions of many nonlinear response history analyses (NL_RHA) are required to describe the entire range of structural response. The research discussed in this paper deals with the proposal of an efficient Incremental Modal Pushover Analysis (IMPA) to obtain capacity curves by replacing the nonlinear response history analysis of the IDA procedure with Modal Pushover Analysis (MPA). Firstly, In this work, the MPA is examined and extended to three-dimensional asymmetric structures and then it is incorporated into the proposed procedure (IMPA) to estimate the structure's seismic response and capacity for given seismic actions. This new procedure, which accounts for higher mode effects, does not require the execution of complex NL-RHA, but only a series of nonlinear static analysis. Finally, the extended MPA and IMPA were applied to an existing irregular framed building.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제9권5호
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• pp.417-432
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• 2000

A comprehensive analytic study has been conducted to investigate the instability problems of metal-plate-connected (MPC) joints in light frame trusses. The primary objective in this study is to determine the governing factors that constitute the buckling of the metal connectors and their effects on the structural response of joints. Another objective is to recommend design curves for the daily structural design of these joints. The numeric data presented in this paper has emerged from a broad base that was founded on over 350 advanced computer simulations, and was supported by available experimental results obtained by others. This basic-to-applied research includes practical engineering parameters such as size of gaps, shear lengths, gauge (plate thickness) of connectors, size of un-braced areas, failure modes, and progressive disintegration of joints. Square-end members have been emphasized though the results cover the custom-made fitted joints. The results indicate that chord shears cause and dominate the buckling of MPC joints, and the shear length has a more pronounced effect than the size of gaps. Further, large gauges and small un-braced areas improve the buckling response. Several practical recommendations have been suggested throughout the paper such as keeping the ratio of gap/shear length below 3/4 for improving the buckling strength. The study reveals that multi-area joints should not be simplified as single web-to-chord MPC joints such as keeping the ratio of gap/shear length below 3/4 for improving the buckling strength, even where one web is in tension and the other in compression. Finally, the results obtained from this study favorably agree with experimental data by others, and the classic buckling theories for other structural components.