• Wind and Structures
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.153-178
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• 2008

Based on the empirical formulas for power spectra of generalized modal forces and local fluctuating wind forces in across-wind and torsional directions, the wind-induced lateral-torsional coupled response analysis of a representative rectangular tall building was conducted by setting various parameters such as eccentricities in centers of mass and/or rigidity and considering different torsional to lateral stiffness ratios. The eccentricity effects on the lateral-torsional coupled responses of the tall building were studied comprehensively by structural dynamic analysis. Extensive computational results indicated that the torsional responses at the geometric center of the building may be significantly affected by the eccentricities in the centers of mass and/or rigidity. Covariance responses were found to be in the same order of magnitude as the along-wind or across-wind responses in many eccentricity cases, suggesting that the lateral-torsional coupled effects on the overall wind-induced responses can not be neglected for such situations. The calculated results also demonstrated that the torsional motion contributed significantly to the total responses of rectangular tall buildings with mass and/or rigidity eccentricities. It was shown through this study that the framework presented in this paper provides a useful tool to evaluate the wind-induced lateral-torsional coupled responses of rectangular buildings, which will enable structural engineers in the preliminary design stages to assess the serviceability of tall buildings, potential structural vibration problems and the need for a detailed wind tunnel test.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.193-207
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• 2000

The possible application of a spatially placed passive tuned liquid column damper system for suppressing coupled lateral-torsional responses of tall buildings is investigated in this paper. The wind loads acting on rectangular tall buildings are analytically expressed as 3-D stochastic model. Meanwhile, the 3-D responses of tall buildings may be coupled due to eccentricities between the stiffness and mass centers of the buildings. In these cases, torsional responses of the buildings are rather larger, and a TLCD system composed of several TLCD located near the sides of the buildings is more effective than the same TLCD placed at the building center in reducing both translational and torsional responses of the buildings. In this paper, extensive analytical and numerical work has been done to present the calculation method and optimize the parameters of such TLCD systems. The numerical examples show that the spatially placed TLCD system can reduce coupled along-wind, across-wind and torsional responses significantly with a fairly small mass ratio.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.679-694
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• 2017

The complexity, enlargement and irregularity of structures and multi-directional dynamic loads acting on the structures can lead to unexpected structural behavior, such as torsion. Continuous torsion of the structure causes unexpected changes in the structure's stress distribution, reduces the performance of the structural members, and shortens the structure's lifespan. Therefore, a method of monitoring the torsional behavior is required to ensure structural safety. Structural torsion typically occurs accompanied by displacement, but no model has yet been developed to measure this type of structural response. This research proposes a model for measuring dynamic torsional response of structure accompanied by displacement and for identifying the torsional modal parameter using vision-based displacement measurement equipment, a motion capture system (MCS). In the present model, dynamic torsional responses including pure rotation and translation displacements are measured and used to calculate the torsional angle and displacements. To apply the proposed model, vibration tests for a shear-type structure were performed. The torsional responses were obtained from measured dynamic displacements. The torsional angle and displacements obtained by the proposed model using MCS were compared with the torsional response measured using laser displacement sensors (LDSs), which have been widely used for displacement measurement. In addition, torsional modal parameters were obtained using the dynamic torsional angle and displacements obtained from the tests.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.599-618
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• 2014

In this study, a square rectangular tall building is considered to investigate the effects of turbulence integral length scale and turbulence intensity on the along-wind responses, across-wind responses and torsional responses of the tall building by Large Eddy Simulation (LES). A recently proposed inflow turbulence generator called the discretizing and synthesizing random flow generation (DSRFG) approach is applied to simulate turbulent flow fields. It has been proved that the approach is able to generate a fluctuating turbulent flow field satisfying any given spectrum, desired turbulence intensity and wind speed profiles. Five profiles of turbulence integral length scale and turbulence intensity are respectively generated for the inflow fields by the DSRFG approach for investigating the effects of turbulence integral length scale and turbulence intensity on the wind-induced responses of the tall building. The computational results indicate that turbulence integral length scale does not have significant effect on the along-wind (displacement, velocity and acceleration) responses, across-wind displacement and velocity responses, while the across-wind acceleration and torsional responses vary without a clear rule with the parameter. On the other hand, the along-wind, across-wind and torsional responses increase with the growth of turbulence intensity.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.239-260
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• 2021

Torsional response of buildings is attributed to poor structural configurations in plan, which arises due to two factors - torsional eccentricity and torsional flexibility. Usually, building codes address effects due to the former. This study examines both of these effects. Buildings with torsional eccentricity (e.g., those with large eccentricity) and with torsional flexibility (those with torsional mode as a fundamental mode) demand large deformations of vertical elements resisting lateral loads, especially those along the building perimeter in plan. Lateral-torsional responses are studied of unsymmetrical buildings through elastic and inelastic analyses using idealised single-storey building models (with two degrees of freedom). Displacement demands on vertical elements distributed in plan are non-uniform and sensitive to characteristics of both structure and earthquake ground motion. Limits are proposed to mitigate lateral-torsional effects, which guides in proportioning vertical elements and restricts amplification of lateral displacement in them and to avoid torsional mode as the first mode. Nonlinear static and dynamic analyses of multi-storey buildings are used to validate the limits proposed.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.65-72
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• 2012

In this stury, control performance of tuned mass damper (TMD) with torsional rigidity for an eccentric structure showing torsional responses is investigated. To this end, an eccentric structure subjected to earthquake excitation is used to evaluate the control performance of torsional TMD by varying installed location and torsional rigidity of TMD, To reduce computational time required for repetitive time history analysis of an example structure having non-proportional damping system due to TMD, an equivalent analytical model is used in this study. Torsional properties of TMD usually neglected in typical TMD are verified to be effective in reduction of torsional responses of the eccentric structure. In the case of eccentric structures, it has been seen that the center of a plane of a structure may not be optimal location of TMD.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.505-530
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• 2008

This paper proposes the application of active multiple tuned mass dampers (AMTMD) for translational and torsional response control of a simplified two-degree-of-freedom (2DOF) structure, able to represent the dynamic characteristics of general asymmetric structures, under the ground acceleration. This 2DOF structure is a generalized 2DOF system of an asymmetric structure with predominant translational and torsional responses under earthquake excitations using the mode reduced-order method. Depending on the ratio of the torsional to the translational eigenfrequency, i.e. the torsional to translational frequency ratio (TTFR), of asymmetric structures, the following three cases can be distinguished: (1) torsionally flexible structures (TTFR < 1.0), (2) torsionally intermediate stiff structures (TTFR = 1.0), and (3) torsionally stiff structures (TTFR > 1.0). The even distribution of the AMTMD within the whole width and half width of the asymmetric structure, thus leading to three cases of installing the AMTMD (referred to as the AMTMD of case 1, AMTMD of case 2, AMTMD of case 3, respectively), is taken into account. In the present study, the criterion for searching the optimum parameters of the AMTMD is defined as the minimization of the minimum values of the maximum translational and torsional displacement dynamic magnification factors (DMF) of an asymmetric structure with the AMTMD. The criterion used for assessing the effectiveness of the AMTMD is selected as the ratio of the minimization of the minimum values of the maximum translational and torsional displacement DMF of the asymmetric structure with the AMTMD to the maximum translational and torsional displacement DMF of the asymmetric structure without the AMTMD. By resorting to these two criteria, a careful examination of the effects of the normalized eccentricity ratio (NER) on the effectiveness and robustness of the AMTMD are carried out in the mitigation of both the translational and torsional responses of the asymmetric structure. Likewise, the effectiveness of a single ATMD with the optimum positions is presented and compared with that of the AMTMD.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.77-109
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• 1998

An evaluation and comparison of seven of the world's major building codes and standards is conducted in this study, with specific discussion of their estimations of the alongwind, acrosswind, and torsional response, where applicable, for a given building. The codes and standards highlighted by this study are those of the United States, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, China and Europe. In addition, the responses predicted by using the measured power spectra of the alongwind, acrosswind and torsional responses for several building shapes tested in a wind tunnel are presented and a comparison between the response predicted by wind tunnel data and that estimated by some of the standards is conducted. This study serves not only as a comparison of the response estimates by international codes and standards, but also introduces a new set of wind tunnel data for validation of wind tunnel-based empirical expressions.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.249-256
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• 2000

The visco-elastic dampers were used to improve the torsional responses of an asymmetric buildings. The modal characteristic equation of an asymmetric structure with added viscoelastic dampers were derived using the complex modal analysis method. Parametric study has been performed based on the modal characteristics, and the appropriate condition for compensating the stiffness eccentricity was investigated. According to the results the torsional response of the asymmetric buildings could be improved significantly once the dampers were properly placed

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.66 no.5
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• pp.637-648
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• 2018

When the centers of mass and stiffness of a building do not coincide, the structure experiences torsional responses. Such systems can consist of the underlying soil and the super-structure. The underlying soil may modify the earthquake input motion and change structural responses. Specific effects of the input motion shall also not be ignored. In this study, seismic demands of asymmetric buildings considering soil-structure interaction (SSI) under near-fault ground motions are evaluated. The building is modeled as an idealized single-story structure. The soil beneath the building is modeled by non-linear finite elements in the two states of loose and dense sands both compared with the fixed-base state. The infinite boundary conditions are modelled using viscous boundary elements. The effects of traditional and yield displacement-based (YDB) approaches of strength and stiffness distributions are considered on seismic demands. In the YDB approach, the stiffness considered in seismic design depends on the strength. The results show that the decrease in the base shear considering soft soil induced SSI when the YDB approach is assumed results only in the center of rigidity to control torsional responses. However, for fixed-base structures and those on dense soils both centers of strength and rigidity are controlling.