As the classical response surface method (RSM), the polynomial RSM is so easy-to-apply that it is widely used in reliability analysis. However, the trade-off of accuracy and efficiency is still a challenge and the "curse of dimension" usually confines RSM to low dimension systems. In this paper, based on the univariate decomposition, the polynomial RSM is executed in a new mode, called as DPRSM. The general form of DPRSM is given and its implementation is designed referring to the classical RSM firstly. Then, in order to balance the accuracy and efficiency of DPRSM, its adaptive order revision around the most probable point (MPP) is proposed by introducing the univariate polynomial order analysis, noted as RDPRSM, which can analyze the exact nonlinearity of the limit state surface in the region around MPP. For testing the proposed techniques, several numerical examples are studied in detail, and the results indicate that DPRSM with low order can obtain similar results to the classical RSM, DPRSM with high order can obtain more precision with a large efficiency loss; RDPRSM can perform a good balance between accuracy and efficiency and preserve the good robustness property meanwhile, especially for those problems with high nonlinearity and complex problems; the proposed methods can also give a good performance in the high-dimensional cases.

Openings in steel plate shear walls (SPSWs) are usually used for decorative designs, crossing locations of multiple utilities and/or structural objectives. However, earlier studies showed that generating an opening in an SPSW has a negative effect on the cyclic performance of the SPSW. Therefore, this study proposes tripling or doubling the steel-sheet-plate (SSP) layer and stiffening the opening of the SPSW to provide a solution to undesirable opening effects, improve the SPSW performance and provide the infill option of potential strengthening measures after the construction stage. The study aims to investigate the impact of SSP doubling with a stiffened opening on the cyclic behaviour, expand the essential data required by structural designers and quantify the SPSW performance factors. Validated numerical models were adopted to identify the influence of the chosen parameters on the cyclic capacity, energy dissipation, ductility, seismic performance factors (SPF) and stiffness of the suggested method. A finite Element (FE) analysis was performed via Abaqus/CAE software on half-scale single-story models of SPSWs exposed to cyclic loading. The key parameters included the number of SSP layers, the opening size ratios corresponding to the net width of the SSP, and the opening shape. The findings showed that the proposed assembly method found a negligible influence in the shear capacity with opening sizes of 10, 15, 20%. However, a deterioration in the wall strength was observed for openings with sizes of 25% and 30%. The circular opening is preferable compared with the square opening. Moreover, for all the models, the average value of the obtained ductility did not show substantial changes and the ultimate shear resistance was achieved after reaching a drift ratio of 4.36%. Additionally, the equivalent sectional area of the SSP in the twin and triple configuration of the SPSWs demonstrated approximately similar results. Compared with the single SSP layer, the proposed configuration of the twin SSP layer with a stiffened opening suggest to more sufficiency create SSP openings in the SPSW compared to that of other configurations. Finally, a tabular SPF quantification is exhibited for SPSWs with openings.

The typical inerter system, the tuned viscous mass damper (TVMD), has been proven to be efficient. It is characterized by an energy-dissipation-enhancement effect, whereby the dashpot deformation of TVMD can be amplified for enhanced energy dissipation efficiency. However, existing studies related to TVMD have mainly been performed on elastic structures, so the working mechanism remains unclear for nonlinear structures. To deal with this, an energy-spectrum analysis framework is developed systematically for classic bilinear hysteretic structures with TVMD. Considering the soil effect, typical bedrock records are propagated through the soil deposit, for which the designed input energy spectra are proposed by considering the TVMD parameters and structural nonlinear properties. Furthermore, the energy-dissipation-enhancement effect of TVMD is quantitatively evaluated for bilinear hysteretic structures. The results show that the established designed input energy spectra can be employed to evaluate the total energy-dissipation burden for a nonlinear TVMD structure. Particularly, the stiffness of TVMD is the dominant factor in adjusting the total input energy. Compared with the case of elastic structures, the energy-dissipation-enhancement effect of TVMD for nonlinear structures is weakened so that the expected energy-dissipation effect of TVMD is replaced by the accumulated energy dissipation of the primary structure.

In this work the mixed mode I/III fracture of sandstone has been studied experimentally and numerically. The experimental work used three-point bending specimens containing pre-existing cracks, machined at various inclination angles so as to achieve varying proportions of mode I to mode III loading. Dimensionless stress intensity factors were calculated using the extended finite element method (XFEM) for and compared with existing results from literature calculated using conventional finite element method. A total of 28 samples were used to conduct the fracture test with 4 specimens for each of 7 different inclination angles. The fracture load and the geometry of the fracture surface were obtained for different mode mixities. Prediction of the fracture loads and the geometry of the fracture surface were made using XFEM coupled with a cohesive zone model (CZM) and showed a good comparison with the experimental results.

A hybrid bridge deck is proposed, which includes steel bars, concrete and glass-fiber-reinforced-polymer (GFRP) plates with channel sections. The steel bar in the negative moment region can increase the flexural stiffness, improve the ductility, and reduce the GFRP ratio. Three continuous decks with different steel bar ratios and a simply supported deck were fabricated and tested to study the mechanical performance. The failure mode, deflection, strain distribution, cracks and support reaction were tested and discussed. The steel bar improves the mechanical performance of continuous decks, and a theoretical method is proposed to predict the deformation and the shear capacity. The experimental results show that all specimens failed with shear failure in the positive moment region. The increase of steel bar ratio in the negative moment region can achieve an enhancement in the flexural stiffness and reduce the deflection without increasing GFRP. Moreover, the continuous deck can achieve a yield load, and the negative moment can be carried by GFRP plates after the steel bar yields. Finally, a nonlinear analytical method for the deflection calculation was proposed and verified, with considering the moment redistribution, non-cracked sections and nonlinearity of material. In addition, a simplified calculation method was proposed to predict the shear capacity of GFRP-concrete decks.

Available records of recent earthquakes show that near-field earthquakes have different characteristics than far-field earthquakes. In general, most of these unique characteristics of near-fault records can be attributed to their forward directivity. This phenomenon causes the records of ground motion normal to the fault to entail pulses with long periods in the velocity time history. The energy of the earthquake is almost accumulated in these pulses causing large displacements and, accordingly, severe damages in the building. Damage to structures caused by past earthquakes raises the need to assess the chance of future earthquake damage. There are a variety of methods to evaluate building seismic vulnerabilities with different computational cost and accuracy. In the meantime, fragility curves, which defines the possibility of structural damage as a function of ground motion characteristics and design parameters, are more common. These curves express the percentage of probability that the structural response will exceed the allowable performance limit at different seismic intensities. This study aims to obtain the fragility curve for low- and mid-rise structures of reinforced concrete moment frames by incremental dynamic analysis (IDA). These frames were exposed to an ensemble of 18 ground motions (nine records near-faults and nine records far-faults). Finally, after the analysis, their fragility curves are obtained using the limit states provided by HAZUS-MH 2.1. The result shows the near-fault earthquakes can drastically influence the fragility curves of the 6-story building while it has a minimal impact on those of the 3-story building.

This article presents a nonclassical size dependent model based on the modified couple stress theory to study and analyze the bending behavior of perforated microbeams under different loading patterns. Modified equivalent material and geometrical parameters for perforated beam are presented. The modified couple stress theory with one material length scale parameter is adopted to incorporate the microstructure effect into the governing equations of perforated beam structure. The governing equilibrium equations of the perforated Timoshenko as well as the perforated Euler Bernoulli are developed based on the potential energy minimization principle. The Poisson's effect is included in the governing equilibrium equations. Regular square perforation configuration is considered. Based on Fourier series expansion, closed forms for the bending deflection and the rotational displacements are obtained for simply supported perforated microbeams. The proposed methodology is validated and compared with the available results in the literature and an excellent agreement is detected. Numerical results demonstrated the applicability of the proposed methodology to investigate the bending behavior of regularly squared perforated beams incorporating microstructure effect under different excitation patterns. The obtained results are significantly important for the design and production of perforated microbeam structures.

In recent years, there is an increasing interest to optimize the fuzzy logic controller with different methods. This paper focuses on the optimization of a fuzzy logic controller applied to a seismically excited nonlinear building. In most cases, this problem is formulated based on the linear behavior of the structure, however in this paper, four sets of objective functions are considered with respect to the nonlinear responses of the structure as the peak interstory drift ratio, the peak level acceleration, the ductility factor and the maximum control force. The Improved Charged System Search is used to optimize the membership functions and the rule base of the fuzzy controller. The obtained results of the optimized and the non-optimized fuzzy controllers are compared to the uncontrolled responses of the structure. Also, the performance of the utilized method is compared with various classical and advanced optimization algorithms.

The optimum design of truss structures is one of the significant categories in structural optimization that has widely been applied by researchers. In the present study, new mathematical programming called Consistent Approximation (CONAP) method is utilized for the simultaneous optimization of the size and shape of truss structures. The CONAP algorithm has already been introduced to optimize some structures and functions. In the CONAP algorithm, some important parameters are designed by employing design sensitivities to enhance the capability of the method and its consistency in various optimum design problems, especially structural optimization. The cross-sectional area of the bar elements and the nodal coordinates of the truss are assumed to be the size and shape design variables, respectively. The displacement, allowable stress and the Euler buckling stress are taken as the design constraints for the problem. In the proposed method, the primary optimization problem is replaced with a sequence of explicit sub-problems. Each sub-problem is efficiently solved using the sequential quadratic programming (SQP) algorithm. Several truss structures are designed by employing the CONAP method to illustrate the efficiency of the algorithm for simultaneous shape and size optimization. The optimal solutions are compared with some of the mathematical programming algorithms, the approximation methods and metaheuristic algorithms those reported in the literature. Results demonstrate that the accuracy of the optimization is improved and the convergence rate speeds up.

In this research, the idea of improving the seismic response of an existing steel structure with use of friction dampers between external walls and the structure is discussed. The main difference of this method with other methods of seismic rehabilitation is that interior spaces of the existing structure remain untouched and new parts including external walls and dampers are added outside of the structure. Three frames having 3, 6 and 9 stories are modeled in SAP2000 software before and after seismic retrofit and responses of the system are investigated under the effect of seven earthquake records. Initially, different ratios of seismic weight of stories are presumed for slip forces of the dampers with a distribution based on given equations. The optimized capacity of dampers is obtained by investigating the average of maximum displacement, acceleration and base shear of the structure caused by earthquakes. For this optimized values, maximum inter-story drifts and acceleration are obtained through numerical models. Results show that in 3, 6 and 9-story frames peak roof displacement decreased up to 80%. Maximum roof acceleration and base shear of the frames also decreased 46, 40 and 32% and 84, 67 and 65%, respectively for three building structures.