• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.825-847
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• 2011

This paper investigates the design using wind-moment method for semi-rigid un-braced steel frames bending on weak axis. A limiting sway method has been proposed to reduce the frame sway. Allowance for steel section optimization between moment of inertia on minor axis column and major axis beam was used in conjunction with slope-deflection analysis to derive equations for optimum design in the proposed method. A series of un-braced steel frames comprised of two, four, and six bays ranging in height of two and four storey were studied on minor axis framing. The frames were designed for minimum gravity load in conjunction with maximum wind load and vice-versa. The accuracy of the design equation was found to be in good agreement with linear elastic computer analysis up to second order analysis. The study concluded that the adoption of wind-moment method and the proposed limiting sway method for semi-rigid steel frame bending on weak axis should be restricted to low-rise frames not more than four storey.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.433-447
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• 2024

During earthquakes, regular buildings perform better than irregular buildings. In general, seismic design codes define a regular building using estimates of Storey Stiffness and Storey Strength. At present, seismic design codes do not recommend a specific method to estimate these parameters. Consequently, any method described in the literature can be applied to estimate the aforementioned parameters. Nevertheless, research has demonstrated that storey stiffness and storey strength vary depending on the estimation method employed. As a result, the same building can be regular or irregular, depending on the method employed to estimate storey stiffness and storey strength. Hence, there is a need to identify the best method to estimate storey stiffness and storey strength. For this purpose, the study presents a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of nine approaches used to determine storey stiffness. Similarly, the study compares six approaches for estimating storey strength. Subsequently, the study identifies the best method to estimate storey stiffness and storey strength using results of 350 linear time history analyses and 245 nonlinear time history analyses, respectively. Based on the comparison, it is concluded that the Fundamental Lateral Translational Mode Shape Method and Isolated Storey Method - A Particular Case are the best methods to estimate storey stiffness and storey strength of low-to-mid rise buildings, respectively.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.603-619
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• 2014

Soft storey buildings are characterised by having a storey that has a large amount of open space. This soft storey creates a major weak point during an earthquake. As the soft stories are typically associated with retail spaces and parking garages, they are often on the lower levels of tall building structures. Thus, when these stories collapse, the entire building can also collapse, causing serious structural damage that may render the structure completely unusable. The use of special soft storey is predominant in the tall building structures constructed by several local developers, making the issue important for local building structures. In this study, the effect of the incorporation of an isolator on the seismic behaviour of tall building structures is examined. The structures are subjected to earthquakes typical of the local city, and the isolator is incorporated with the appropriate isolator time period and damping ratio. A FEM-based computational relationship is proposed to increase the storey height so as to incorporate the isolator with the same time period and damping ratio for both a lead rubber bearing (LRB) and high-damping rubber bearing (HDRB). The study demonstrates that the values of the FEM-based structural design parameters are greatly reduced when the isolator is used. It is more beneficial to incorporate a LRB than a HDRB.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.167-186
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• 2007

Ductility based design of reinforced concrete structures implicitly assumes certain damage under the action of a design basis earthquake. The damage undergone by a structure needs to be quantified, so as to assess the post-seismic reparability and functionality of the structure. The paper presents an analytical method of quantification and location of seismic damage, through system identification methods. It may be noted that soft ground storied buildings are the major casualties in any earthquake and hence the example structure is a soft or weak first storied one, whose seismic response and temporal variation of damage are computed using a non-linear dynamic analysis program (IDARC) and compared with a normal structure. Time period based damage identification model is used and suitably calibrated with classic damage models. Regenerated stiffness of the three degrees of freedom model (for the three storied frame) is used to locate the damage, both on-line as well as after the seismic event. Multi resolution analysis using wavelets is also used for localized damage identification for soft storey columns.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.69-88
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• 2008

A number of construction practices, implemented during the design process of a reinforced concrete (RC) structural system, may have significant consequences on the behaviour of the structural system in the case of earthquake loading. Although a number of provisions are imposed by the contemporary Greek national design codes for the seismic design of RC structures, in order to reduce the consequences, the influence of the construction practices on the seismic behaviour of the structural system remains significant. The objective of this work is to perform a comparative study in order to examine the influence of three, often encountered, construction practices namely weak ground storey, short and floating columns and two combinations on the seismic performance of the structural system with respect to the structural capacity and the maximum interstorey drifts in three earthquake hazard levels.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.353-373
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• 2015

In this paper, the effects of different types of irregularity along the height on the seismic responses of moment resisting frames are investigated using nonlinear dynamic analysis. Furthermore, the applicability of consecutive modal pushover (CMP) procedure for computing the seismic demands of vertically irregular frames is studied and the advantages and limitations of the procedure are elaborated. For this purpose, a special moment resisting steel frame of 10-storey height was selected as reference regular frame for which the effect of higher modes is important. Forty vertically irregular frames with stiffness, strength, combined-stiffness-and-strength and mass irregularities are created by applying two modification factors (MF=2 and 4) in four different locations along the height of the reference frame. Seismic demands of irregular frames are computed by using the nonlinear response history analysis (NL-RHA) and CMP procedure. Modal pushover analysis (MPA) method is also carried out for the sake of comparison. The effect of different types of irregularity along the height on the seismic demands of vertically irregular frames is investigated by studying the results obtained from the NL-RHA. To demonstrate the accuracy of the enhanced pushover analysis methods, the results derived from the CMP and MPA are compared with those obtained by benchmark solution, i.e., NL-RHA. The results show that the CMP and MPA methods can accurately compute the seismic demands of vertically irregular buildings. The methods may be, however, less accurate especially in estimating plastic hinge rotations for weak or weak-and-soft top and middle storeys of vertically irregular frames.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.79-83
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• 2013

Shaking table test is an important and useful method to help structural engineers get better knowledge about the seismic performance of the buildings with complex structure, just like Shanghai tower. According to Chinese seismic design guidelines, buildings with a very complex and special structural system, or whose height is far beyond the limitation of interrelated codes, should be firstly studied through the experiment on seismic behavior. To investigate the structural response, the weak storey and crack pattern under earthquakes of different levels, and to help the designers improve the design scheme, the shaking table model tests of a scaled model of Shanghai tower were carried out at the State Key Laboratory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China. This paper describes briefly the structural system, the design method and manufacture process of the scaled model, and the test results as well.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.421-443
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• 2016

When conducting seismic assessment of an asymmetric building, it is essential to carry out three-dimensional analysis considering all the possible directions of seismic input. For this purpose, the author proposed a simplified procedure is to predict the largest peak seismic response of an asymmetric building subjected to horizontal bidirectional ground motion acting in an arbitrary angle of incidence in previous study. This simplified procedure has been applied to torsionally stiff (TS) asymmetric buildings with regular elevation. However, the suitability of this procedure to estimate the peak response of an asymmetric building with vertical irregularity, such as an asymmetric building with setback, has not been assessed. In this article, the pushover-based simplified procedure is applied to estimate the peak response of asymmetric buildings with bidirectional setback. Nonlinear dynamic (time-history) analysis of two six-storey asymmetric buildings with bidirectional setback and designed according to strong-column weak beam concept is carried out considering various directions of seismic input, and the results compared with those estimated by the proposed method. The largest peak displacement estimated by the simplified method agrees well with the envelope of the dynamic analysis response. The suitability assessment of the simplified procedure to analysed building models is made as well based on pushover analysis results.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.19-35
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• 2015

This study compares the seismic performances of two reinforced concrete frame specimens tested by the pseudo-dynamic procedure. The pair of 3-storey, 3-bay frames specimens are constructed with typical characteristics of older construction which is lacking seismic design. One of the specimens is a bare frame while the other is infilled with low-strength autoclave aerated concrete (AAC) block masonry. The focus of this study is to investigate the influence of low strength masonry infill walls on the seismic response of older RC frames designed for gravity loads. It is found that the presence of weak infill walls considerably reduce deformations and damage in the upper stories while their influence at the critical ground story is not all that positive. Infill walls tend to localize damage at the critical story due to a peculiar frame-infill interaction, and impose larger internal force and deformation demands on the columns and beams bounding the infills. Therefore the general belief in earthquake engineering that infills develop a second line of defence against lateral forces in seismically deficient frames is nullified in case of low-strength infill walls in the presented experimental research.