• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.957-976
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• 2015

Recently, two energy-based response parameters, i.e., the absolute and the relative elastic input energy equivalent velocity, have been receiving a lot of research attention. Several studies, in fact, have demonstrated the potential of these intensity measures in the prediction of the seismic structural response. Although some ground motion prediction equations have been developed for these parameters, they only provide marginal distributions without information about the joint occurrence of the spectral values at different periods. In order to build new prediction models for the two equivalent velocities, a large set of ground motion records is used to calculate the correlation coefficients between the response spectral values corresponding to different periods and components of the ground motion. Then, functional forms adopted in models from the literature are calibrated to fit the obtained data. A new functional form is proposed to improve the predictions of the considered models from the literature. The components of the ground motion considered in this study are the two horizontal ones only. Potential uses of the proposed equations in addition to the prediction of the correlation coefficients of the equivalent velocity spectral values are shown, such as the prediction of derived intensity measures and the development of conditional mean spectra.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.411-417
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• 2018

To solve the seismic response problem of a vertical floating roof tank with base isolation, the floating roof is assumed to experience homogeneous rigid circular plate vibration, where the wave height of the vibration is linearly distributed along the radius, starting from the theory of fluid velocity potential; the potential function of the liquid movement and the corresponding theoretical expression of the base shear, overturning the moment, are then established. According to the equivalent principle of the shear and moment, a simplified mechanical model of a base isolation tank with a swinging effect is established, along with a motion equation of a vertical storage tank isolation system that considers the swinging effect based on the energy principle. At the same time, taking a 150,000 m 3 large-scale storage tank as an example, a numerical analysis of the dampening effect was conducted using a vibration mode decomposition response spectrum method, and a comparative analysis with a simplified mechanical model with no swinging effect was applied.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.233-247
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• 2007

The insertion of steel braces has become a common technique to limit the deformability of steel framed buildings subjected to wind loads. However, when this technique is inadequate to keep floor accelerations within acceptable levels of human comfort, dampers placed in series with the steel braces can be adopted. To check the effectiveness of braces equipped with viscoelastic (VEDs) or friction dampers (FRDs), a numerical investigation is carried out focusing attention on a three-bay fifteen-storey steel framed building with K-braces. More precisely, three alternative structural solutions are examined for the purpose of controlling wind-induced vibrations: the insertion of additional diagonal braces; the insertion of additional diagonal braces equipped with dampers; the insertion of both additional diagonal braces and dampers supported by the existing K-braces. Additional braces and dampers are designed according to a simplified procedure based on a proportional stiffness criterion. A dynamic analysis is carried out in the time domain using a step-by-step initial-stress-like iterative procedure. Along-wind loads are considered at each storey assuming the time histories of the wind velocity, for a return period $T_r=5$ years, according to an equivalent wind spectrum technique. The behaviour of the structural members, except dampers, is assumed linear elastic. A VED and an FRD are idealized by a six-element generalized model and a bilinear (rigid-plastic) model, respectively. The results show that the structure with damped additional braces can be considered, among those examined, the most effective to control vibrations due to wind, particularly the floor accelerations. Moreover, once the stiffness of the additional braces is selected, the VEDs are slightly more efficient than the FRDs, because they, unlike the FRDs, dissipate energy also for small amplitude vibrations.