• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.1-18
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• 2019

In the present study, the behavior of steel plate shear walls (SPSW) with variable column flexural stiffness is experimentally and numerically investigated. Altogether six one-bay one-story specimens, three moment resisting frames (MRFs) and three SPSWs, were designed, fabricated and tested. Column flexural stiffness of the first specimen pair (one MRF and one SPSW) corresponded to the value required by the design codes, while for the second and third pair it was reduced by 18% and 36%, respectively. The quasi-static cyclic test result indicate that SPSW with reduced column flexural stiffness have satisfactory performance up to 4% story drift ratio, allow development of the tension field over the entire infill panel, and cause negligible column "pull-in" deformation which indicates that prescribed minimal column flexural stiffness value, according to AISC 341-10, might be conservative. In addition, finite element (FE) pushover simulations using shell elements were developed. Such FE models can predict SPSW cyclic behavior reasonably well and can be used to conduct numerical parametric analyses. It should be mentioned that these FE models were not able to reproduce column "pull-in" deformation indicating the need for further development of FE simulations with cyclic load introduction which will be part of another paper.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.405-420
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• 2014

This paper examines the nonlinear behaviour of corrugated steel plate shear walls under lateral pushover load. One of the innovations in these types of walls which have used in recent years is the use of the corrugated steel shear walls rather un-stiffness plates. In the last decades many experimental studies have been done on the on the corrugated steel shear walls. A finite element analysis that includes both material and geometric nonlinearities is employed for the investigation. A comparison is made between the behaviour of steel shear walls with sinusoidal corrugated plate and trapezoidal corrugated plate. The effects of parameters such as the thickness of the corrugated plate, the corrugation depth in the corrugated plates and the corrugation length of the infill of the corrugated plates, are investigated. The results of this study have demonstrated that in the wall with constant dimensions, the trapezoidal plates have higher energy dissipation, ductility and ultimate bearing than sinusoidal waves, while decreasing the steel material consumption.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.497-512
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• 2023

Using light weight concrete as infill material in conventional cold-formed steel (CFS) shear wall systems can considerably increase their load bearing capacity, ductility, integrity and fire resistance. The compressive strength of the filler concrete is a key factor affecting the structural behaviour of the composite wall systems, and therefore, achieving maximum compressive strength in lightweight concrete while maintaining its lightweight properties is of significant importance. In this study a new type of optimum polystyrene lightweight concrete (OPLC) with high compressive strength is developed for infill material in composite CFS shear wall systems. To study the seismic behaviour of the OPLC-filled CFS shear wall systems, two full scale wall specimens are tested under cyclic loading condition. The effects of OPLC on load-bearing capacity, failure mode, ductility, energy dissipation capacity, and stiffness degradation of the walls are investigated. It is shown that the use of OPLC as infill in CFS shear walls can considerably improve their seismic performance by: (i) preventing the premature buckling of the stud members, and (ii) changing the dominant failure mode from brittle to ductile thanks to the bond-slip behaviour between OPLC and CFS studs. It is also shown that the design equations proposed by EC8 and ACI 318-14 standards overestimate the shear force capacity of OPLC-filled CFS shear wall systems by up to 80%. This shows it is necessary to propose methods with higher efficiency to predict the capacity of these systems for practical applications.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.263-275
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• 2022

Structural collapses can occur as a result of a dynamic amplification of either, the building's seismic response or the ground shaking by local site effects; one of the reasons is a resonance effect due to the proximity of the structural elastic fundamental period TE and the soil fundamental period TS. We evaluate the vulnerability to resonance effects in Guadalajara, México, in a three-step schema: 1) we define structural systems in the building environment of western Guadalajara, in terms of their construction materials and structural components; 2) we estimate TE with different equations, to obtain a representative value in elastic conditions for each structural system; and, 3) we evaluate the resonance vulnerability by the analysis of the ratio between TE and TS. We observe that the larger the soil fundamental period, the higher the resonance vulnerability for buildings with height between 17 and 39 m. For the sites with a low TS, the most vulnerable buildings will be those with a height between 2 and 9 m. These results can be a helpful tool for disaster prevention, by avoiding the construction of buildings with certain heights and structural characteristics that would result in a dangerous proximity between TE and TS.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.249-259
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• 2011

Band windows are commonly used in reinforced concrete structures for the purpose of ventilation and lighting. These applications shorten the lengths of the columns and, consequently, they are subject to higher shear forces as compared with those of hollow frames. Such short columns may cause some damages during earthquakes. Hence, these effects of short columns should be minimized by choosing the dimensions of the band windows properly in order to prevent serious damages in the structure. This can be achieved by taking into account the parameters that are crucial in causing short column effect. Hence, in this study, the effects of those parameters such as the widths and heights of the band windows, the number of bays and storeys within the frame, and the heights of storeys are examined. The effects of the parameters are analyzed using time history analysis. One of the important results of these analyses, is that, the widths of the band windows should be less than 60% of the clear span between the columns, whereas, their heights should be greater than 35% of the clear storey height in order to decrease the short column effects substantially during the design of the reinforced concrete structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.281-303
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• 2015

The effects of infill panels on the response of r.c. frames subjected to seismic action are widely recognized. Numerous experimental investigations were effected and several analytical models were developed on this subject. This work, which is part of a larger project dealing with specific materials and structures commonly used in Italy, discusses experimental tests on masonry and samples of bare and infilled portals. The experimental activity includes tests on elemental materials, and 12 wall samples. Finally, three one-bay one-story reinforced concrete frames, designed according to the outdated Italian technical code D.M. 1996 without seismic details, were tested (bare and infilled) under constant vertical and cyclic lateral load. The first cracks observed on the framed walls occurred at a drift of about 0.3%, reaching its maximum capacity at a drift of 0.5% while retaining its capacity up to a drift of 0.6%. Infill contributed to both the stiffness and strength of the bare reinforced concrete frame at small drifts thus improving overall system behavior. In addition to the experimental activities, previously mentioned, the recalibration of a model proposed by Comberscue (1996) was evaluated. The accuracy of an OpenSees non linear fiber based model of the prototype tested, including a strut element was verified through a comparison with the final experimental results. This work has been partially supported by research grant DPC-ReLUIS 2014.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.123-137
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• 2022

The fundamental period (FP) is one of the most critical parameters for the seismic design of structures. In the reinforced concrete (RC) infilled frame, the infill walls significantly affect the FP because they change the stiffness and mass of the structure. Although several formulas have been proposed for estimating the FP of the RC infilled frame, they are often associated with high bias and variance. In this study, an efficient soft computing model, namely the group method of data handling (GMDH), is proposed to predict the FP of regular RC infilled frames. For this purpose, 4026 data sets are obtained from the open literature, and the quality of the database is examined and evaluated in detail. Based on the cleaning database, several GMDH models are constructed and the best prediction model, which considers the height of the building, the span length, the opening percentage, and the infill wall stiffness as the input variables for predicting the FP of regular RC infilled frames, is chosen. The performance of the proposed GMDH model is further underscored through comparison of its FP predictions with those of existing design codes and empirical models. The accuracy of the proposed GMDH model is proven to be superior to others. Finally, explicit formulas and a graphical user-friendly interface (GUI) tool are developed to apply the GMDH model for practical use. They can provide a rapid prediction and design for the FP of regular RC infilled frames.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.121-135
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• 2022

Many public buildings such as schools, hospitals, etc., where partial infill walls are present in reinforced concrete (RC) structures, have undergone undesirable damage/failure attributed to captive column effect during a moderate to severe earthquake shaking. Often, the situation gets worsened when these RC frames are non-ductile in nature, thus reducing the deformable capability of the frame. Also, in many parts of the Indian subcontinent, it is mandatory to use fly-ash bricks for construction so as to reduce the burden on the disposal of fly-ash produced at thermal power plants. In some scenario, when the non-ductile RC frame, partially infilled by fly-ash bricks, suffers major structural damage, the challenge remains on how to retrofit and restore it. Thus, in this study, two full-scale one-bay, one-story non-ductile RC frame models, namely, bare frame and RC partially infilled frame with fly-ash bricks in 50% of its opening area are considered. In the previous experiments, these models were subjected to slow-cyclic displacement-controlled loading to replicate damage due to a moderate earthquake. Now, in this study these damaged frames were retrofitted and an experimental investigation was performed on the retrofitted specimens to examine the effectiveness of the proposed retrofitting scheme. A hybrid retrofitting technique combining epoxy injection grouting with an innovative and easy-to-implement steel jacketing technique was proposed. This proposed retrofitting method has ensured proper confinement of damaged concrete. The retrofitted models were subjected to the same slow cyclic displacement-controlled loading which was used to damage the frames. The experimental study concluded that the hybrid retrofitting technique was quite effective in enhancing and regaining various seismic performance parameters such as, lateral strength and lateral stiffness of partially fly-ash brick infilled RC frame. Thus, the steel jacketing retrofitting scheme along with the epoxy injection grouting can be relied on for possible repair of the structural members which are damaged due to the captive column effect during the seismic shaking.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2012

In this study the progressive collapse behavior of a moment frame with infill steel panels is evaluated using nonlinear static pushdown analysis. The analysis model is a two story two span structure designed only for gravity load, and the load-displacement relationship is obtained with the center column removed. To obtain local stress and strain as well as the global structural behavior, finite element analysis is conducted using ABACUS. Through the analysis the effect of the span length and the thickness of the steel plate on the progressive collapse behavior of the structure is investigated, and the effect of the dividing the infill panel using stud columns is also studied. According to the analysis results, the thickness of the panels required to prevent progressive collapse increases as the span length increases, and as the number of panel division increases the progressive collapse resisting capacity increases slightly but the effect is not significant. It is also observed that when the infill panel is installed in only a part of the span the progressive collapse resisting capacity is somewhat increased.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.159-169
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• 2020

Sandwich composite wall consists of concrete core attached by two external steel faceplates. It combines the advantage of steel and concrete. The appropriate composite action between steel faceplate and concrete core is achieved by using adequate mechanical connectors. This research studied the compressive behavior of the sandwich composite walls using steel trusses to bond the steel faceplates to concrete infill. Four short specimens with different wall width and thickness of steel faceplate were designed and tested under axial compression. The test results were comprehensively evaluated in terms of failure modes, load versus axial and lateral deformation responses, resistance, stiffness, ductility, strength index, and strain distribution. The test results showed that all specimens exhibited high resistance and good ductility. Truss connectors offer better restraint to walls with thinner faceplates and smaller wall width. In addition, increasing faceplate thickness is more effective in improving the ultimate resistance and axial stiffness of the wall.