• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제19권1호
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• pp.45-57
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• 2020

This paper presents the experimental application of a new method for seismic vulnerability assessment of buildings recently introduced in literature, the SMAV (Seismic Model Ambient Vibration) methodology with reference to their operational limit state. The importance of this kind of evaluation arises from the civil protection necessity that some buildings, considered strategic for seismic emergency management, should retain their functionality also after a destructive earthquake. They do not suffer such damage as to compromise the operation within a framework of assessment of the overall capacity of the urban system. To this end, for the characterization of their operational vulnerability, a Structural Operational Index (IOPS) has been considered. In particular, the dynamic environmental vibrations of the two considered strategic buildings, the fire station and the town hall building of a small town in the South of Italy, have been monitored by positioning accelerometers in well-defined points. These measurements were processed through modern Operational Modal Analysis techniques (OMA) in order to identify natural frequencies and modal shapes. Once these parameters have been determined, the structural operational efficiency index of the buildings has been determined evaluating the seismic vulnerability of the strategic structures analyzed. his study aimed to develop a model to accurately predict the acceleration of structural systems during an earthquake.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제10권2호
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• pp.463-482
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• 2016

Air Traffic Control (ATC) towers play significant role in the functionality of each airport. In spite of having complex dynamic behavior and major role in mitigating post-earthquake problems, less attention has been paid to the seismic performance of these structures. Herein, seismic response of an existing ATC tower with a wall-frame structural system that has been designed and detailed according to a local building code was evaluated through the framework of performance-based seismic design. Results of this study indicated that the linear static and dynamic analyses used for the design of this tower were incapable of providing a safety margin for the required seismic performance levels especially when the tower was subjected to strong ground motions. It was concluded that, for seismic design of ATC towers practice engineers should refer to a more sophisticated seismic design approach (e.g., performance-based seismic design) which accounts for inelastic behavior of structural components in order to comply with the higher seismic performance objectives of ATC towers.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제22권2호
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• pp.109-120
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• 2022

Older or damaged structures can require significant retrofit to ensure they perform well in subsequent earthquakes. Supplemental damping devices are used to achieve this goal, but increase base shear forces, foundation demand, and cost. Displacement reduction without increasing base shear is possible using novel semi-active and recently-created passive devices, which offer energy dissipation in selected quadrants of the force-displacement response. Combining these devices with large, strictly passive energy dissipation devices can offer greater, yet customized response reductions. Supplemental damping to reduce response without increasing base shear enables a net-zero base shear approach. This study evaluates this concept using two incremental dynamic analyses (IDAs) to show displacement reductions up to 40% without increasing base shear, more than would be achieved for either device alone, significantly reducing the risk of response exceeding the unaltered structural case. IDA results lead to direct calculation of reductions in risk and annualized economic cost for adding these devices using this net-zero concept, thus quantifying the trade-off. The overall device assessment and risk analysis method presented provides a generalizable proof-of-concept approach, and provides a framework for assessing the impact and economic cost-benefit of using modern supplemental energy dissipation devices.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제3권3_4호
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• pp.341-363
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• 2012

The spectral representation method is a quick and versatile tool for the generation of spatially variable, response-spectrum-compatible simulations to be used in the nonlinear seismic response evaluation of extended structures, such as bridges. However, just as recorded data, these simulated accelerations require processing, but, unlike recorded data, the reasons for their processing are purely numerical. Hence, the criteria for the processing of acceleration simulations need to be tied to the effect of processing on the structural response. This paper presents a framework for processing acceleration simulations that is based on seismological approaches for processing recorded data, but establishes the corner frequency of the high-pass filter by minimizing the effect of processing on the response of the structural system, for the response evaluation of which the ground motions were generated. The proposed two-step criterion selects the filter corner frequency by considering both the dynamic and the pseudo-static response of the systems. First, it ensures that the linear/nonlinear dynamic structural response induced by the processed simulations captures the characteristics of the system's dynamic response caused by the unprocessed simulations, the frequency content of which is fully compatible with the target response spectrum. Second, it examines the adequacy of the selected estimate for the filter corner frequency by evaluating the pseudo-static response of the system subjected to spatially variable excitations. It is noted that the first step of this two-fold criterion suffices for the establishment of the corner frequency for the processing of acceleration time series generated at a single ground-surface location to be used in the seismic response evaluation of, e.g. a building structure. Furthermore, the concept also applies for the processing of acceleration time series generated by means of any approach that does not provide physical considerations for the selection of the corner frequency of the high-pass filter.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제82권2호
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• pp.205-224
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• 2022

This paper presents a refined finite element formulation for nonlinear static and dynamic analysis of sliding cable structures, overcoming the limitation of the existing approaches that neglect or approximate the friction, pulley dimension, temperature and geometric nonlinearity. A new family of elements with the same framework is proposed, consisting of the cable-pulley (CP) elements considering sliding friction, and the non-sliding cable-pulley (NSCP) elements considering static friction. Thereafter, the complete procedure of static and dynamic analysis using the proposed elements is developed, with the capability of accurately dealing with the friction at each pulley. Several examples are utilized to verify the validity and accuracy of the proposed elements and analysis strategy, and investigate the frictional, thermal and pulley-dimension effects as well. The numerical examples show that the results obtained in this work are in good accordance with the existing works when using the same approximations of friction, pulley dimension and temperature. By avoiding the approximations, the proposed formulation can be effectively adopted in predicting the more precise nonlinear responses of sliding cable structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제25권5호
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• pp.519-540
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• 2007

In this paper, the energy-based plastic-damage model previously proposed by the authors [International Journal of Solids and Structures, 43(3-4): 583-612] is first simplified with an empirically defined evolution law for the irreversible strains, and then it is extended to its rate-dependent version to account for the strain rate effect. Regarding the energy dissipation by the motion of the structure under dynamic loadings, within the framework of continuum damage mechanics a new damping model is proposed and incorporated into the developed rate-dependent plastic-damage mode, leading to a unified constitutive model which is capable of directly considering the damping on the material scale. Pertinent computational aspects concerning the numerical implementation and the algorithmic consistent modulus for the unified model are also discussed in details, through which the dynamic nonlinear analysis of damping structures can be coped with by the same procedures as those without damping. The proposed unified plastic-damage model is verfied by the simulations of concrete specimens under different quasistatic and high rate straining loading conditions, and is then applied to the Koyna dam under earthquake motions. The numerical predictions agree fairly well with the results obtained from experimental tests and/or reported by other investigators, demonstrating its capability for reproducing most of the typical nonlinear performances of concrete under quasi-static and dynamic loading conditions.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제66권2호
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• pp.249-262
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• 2018

In this paper, reaction of functionally graded (FG) thick nanoplates resting on a viscoelastic foundation to a moving nanoparticle/load is investigated. Nanoplate is assumed to be thick by using second order shear deformation theory and small-scale effects are taken into account in the framework of Eringen's nonlocal theory. Material properties are varied through the thickness using FG models by having power-law, sigmoid and exponential functions for material changes. FG nanoplate is assumed to be on a viscoelastic medium which is modeled using Kelvin-Voight viscoelastic model. Galerkin, state space and fourth-order Runge-Kutta methods are employed to solve the governing equations. A comprehensive parametric study is presetned to show the influence of different parameters on mechanical behavior of the system. It is shown that material variation in conjunction with nonlocal term have a significant effect on the dynamic deformation of nanoplate which could be used in comprehending and designing more efficient nanostructures. Moreover, it is shown that having a viscoelastic medium could play an important role in decreasing these dynamic deformations. With respect to the fresh studies on moving atoms, molecules, cells, nanocars, nanotrims and point loads on different nanosctructures using scanning tunneling microscopes (STM) and atomic force microscopes (AFM), this study could be a step forward in understanding, predicting and controlling such kind of behaviors by showing the influence of the moving path, velocity etc. on dynamic reaction of the plate.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• 제15권2호
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• pp.113-122
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• 2014

The objective of the paper is to clarify a methodology based on the use of the existing component mode synthesis methods for the case of two damped substructures which are coupled through a linking viscoelastic flexible substructure and for which the structural modes with free geometrical interface are used for each main substructure. The proposed methodology corresponds to a convenient alternative to the direct use either of the Craig-Bampton method applied to the three substructures (using the fixed geometric interface modes) or of the flexibility residual approaches initiated by MacNeal (using the free geometric interface modes). In opposite to a geometrical interface which is a topological interface on which there is a direct linkage between the degrees of freedom of substructures, we consider a physical flexible interface which exists in certain present technologies and for which the general framework linear viscoelasticity is used and yields a frequency-dependent damping and stiffness matrices of the physical flexible interface.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• 제2권4호
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• pp.403-425
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• 2015

This work is focused on the definition and the analysis of both complete and incomplete similitudes for the dynamic responses of thin shells. Previous numerical and experimental investigations on both structural and structural-acoustic systems motivated this further analysis, mainly centred on the incomplete (distorted) similitudes. These similitudes and the associated scaling laws are defined by using the classical modal approach (CMA) and by invoking also the Energy Distribution Approach (EDA) in order to take into account both the cinematic and energetic items. The whole procedure is named SAMSARA: Similitude and Asymptotic Models for Structural-Acoustic Research and Applications. A brief summary of the procedure is herein given and the attention is paid to the analytical models of thin stiffened and unstiffened cylindrical shells. By using the well-known smeared model, the stiffened cylinder equations are used as general framework to analyse the possibility to define exact (replicas) or distorted similitudes (avatars). Despite the extreme simplicity of the proposed models, the results are really encouraging. The final aim is to define equivalent models to be used in laboratory measurements.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.139-150
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• 2017

The structural strain plays a significant role in structural condition assessment of in-service bridges in terms of structural bearing capacity, structural reliability level and entire safety redundancy. Therefore, it has been one of the most important parameters concerned by researchers and engineers engaged in structural health monitoring (SHM) practices. In this paper, an SHM system instrumented on the Jiubao Bridge located in Hangzhou, China is firstly introduced. This system involves nine subsystems and has been continuously operated for five years since 2012. As part of the SHM system, a total of 166 fiber Bragg grating (FBG) strain sensors are installed on the bridge to measure the dynamic strain responses of key structural components. Based on the strain monitoring data acquired in recent two years, the strain-based structural condition assessment of the Jiubao Bridge is carried out. The wavelet multi-resolution algorithm is applied to separate the temperature effect from the raw strain data. The obtained strain data under the normal traffic and wind condition and under the typhoon condition are examined for structural safety evaluation. The structural condition rating of the bridge in accordance with the AASHTO specification for condition evaluation and load and resistance factor rating of highway bridges is performed by use of the processed strain data in combination with finite element analysis. The analysis framework presented in this study can be used as a reference for facilitating the assessment, inspection and maintenance activities of in-service bridges instrumented with long-term SHM system.