• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.307-326
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• 2010

This paper is concerned with the optimal seismic design of added viscous dampers in yielding plane frames. The total added damping is minimized for allowable values of local performance indices under the excitation of an ensemble of ground motions in both regular and irregular structures. The local performance indices are taken as the maximal inter-story drift of each story and/or the normalized hysteretic energy dissipated at each of the plastic hinges. Gradients of the constraints with respect to the design variables (damping coefficients) are derived, via optimal control theory, to enable an efficient first order optimization scheme to be used for the solution of the problem. An example of a ten story three bay frame is presented. This example reveals the following 'fully stressed characteristics' of the optimal solution: damping is assigned only to stories for which the local performance index has reached the allowable value. This may enable the application of efficient and practical analysis/redesign type methods for the optimal design of viscous dampers in yielding plane frames.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.237-243
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• 2002

It is well known that torsionally unbalanced buildings are more vulnerable to earthquake hazards than are the regular structural systems. In this paper, a parametric investigation is presented, in order to observe the amplification in the internal forces, when increased eccentricities are used instead of the ones corresponding to the 5% accidental eccentricity. A series of five, ten-story framed and walled structures, with rather high torsional irregularity coefficients, are selected and a numerical test procedure is applied. Numerical results show that the maximum amplification in the internal forces at the most critical beams and columns at the flexible sides of the structures is about 10%. It is concluded that, more serious measures in the codes are needed in the case of this rather dangerous type of irregularity.

• International journal of steel structures
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1654-1665
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• 2018

In an irregular prism tensegrity, the number of force equilibrium equations is less than the number of unknown parameters of nodal coordinates and member force ratios. As a result, the form-finding process normally becomes nonlinear with additional conditions or needs to be carried out with the use of iterative procedures. For cases of irregular prism tensegrity which involves large number of members, it was found that previously proposed methods of form-finding are not practical. Moreover, there is a need for a form-finding approach which is able to cater to different requirements on final configuration. In this paper, the length relation condition is introduced to be used in combination with the force equilibrium equation. With the combined use of length relation and equilibrium conditions, a linear form-finding approach for irregular prism tensegrity was successfully formulated and developed. An easy-to-use interactive form-finding tool has been developed which can be used for form-finding of irregular prism tensegrities with large number of elements as well as under diverse specific requirements on their configurations.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.5 no.6
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• pp.753-779
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• 2013

One of the most important issues in progressive collapse mechanism of the buildings is evaluation of the collapse distribution in presence of the earthquake loads. Here, collapse propagation is investigated by tracking down the location and type of the collapsed beam and column elements, from the first element to the entire buildings. 6-story reinforced concrete ordinary moment resisting frame buildings with one directional mass eccentricity of 0%, 5%, 15% and 25% are studied to investigate differences among the progressive collapse mechanism of the regular and irregular buildings. According to the results of the nonlinear time history analyses, there are some patterns to predict progressive collapse scenarios in beam and column elements of the similar regular and irregular buildings. Results also show that collapse distribution patterns are approximately independent of the earthquake records.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.20 no.5 s.72
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• pp.36-41
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• 2006

The main object of this study is to develop an accurate and convenient method for the response analysis of offshore structures in real sea states. A numerical procedure is described for predicting the motion responses and tension variations of the ISSC TLP in multi-directional irregular waves. The developed numerical approach in the frequency domain is based on acombination of the three dimensional source distribution method, the dynamic response analysis method, and the spectral analysis method. Frequency domain analysis in the multi-directional irregular waves is expanded to a time domain analysis by using a convolution integral after obtaining the impulse response by Fourier transformation. The results of the comparison between responses in the frequency and time domain confirmed the validity of the proposed approach.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.177-195
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• 2010

This paper presents an appraisal of four nonlinear static procedures (CSM, N2, MPA and ACSM) employed in seismic assessment of plan-irregular buildings. It uses a three storey reinforced concrete plan-irregular frame building exemplifying typical older constructions of the Mediterranean region in the early 1970s that was tested in full-scale under bi-directional pseudo-dynamic loading condition at JRC, Ispra. The adequacy and efficiency of the simplified analytical modelling assumptions adopted were verified. In addition, the appropriate variants of code-prescribed NSPs (CSM and N2) to be considered for subsequent evaluation were established. Subsequent parametric studies revealed that all such NSPs predicted reasonably well both global and local responses, having the benchmark values been determined through nonlinear dynamic analyses using a suit of seven ground motions applied with four different orientations. The ACSM, however, predicted responses that matched slightly better the median dynamic results.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.9-12
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• 2001

Composite materials can be used economically and efficiently in broad civil engineering applications when standards and processes for analysis, design, fabrication, construction and quality control are established. Many of the bridge systems, including the girders and cross-beams, and concrete decks behave as the special othotropic plates. Such systems with boundary conditions other than Navier or Levy solution types, or with irregular cross sections, analytical solution is very difficult to obtain. Numerical method for eigenvalue problems are also very much involved in seeking such a solution. A method of calculating the natural frequency corresponding to the first mode of vibration of beam and tower structures with irregular cross-sections was developed and reported by the author in 1974 Recently, this method was extended to two dimensional problems including composite laminates, and has been applied to composite plates with various boundary conditions with/without shear deformation effects and reported at several international conferences including the Eighth Structures Congress of American Society of Civil Engineers in 1990. In this paper, the result of application of this method to the special orthotropic plates with various boundary condition is presented.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.90-103
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• 1997

A numerical procedure is described for predicting the motion and structural responses of the very large floating offshore structures supported by multiple 3-D floating bodies of arbitrary shape in multi-directional irregular waves. The developed numerical approach taking into account of the hydrodynamic interactions among the multiple floating bodies is based on a combination of the 3-D source distribution method, the wave interaction theory, the finite element method and the spectral analysis method to get the significant values of the dynamic responses in the multi-directional irregular waves. The effects of wave interactions and directionality on the dynamic responses of a very large offshore structure, which is semisubmersible ring type, are numerically examined.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.1069-1089
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• 2015

This paper presents average numerical results of 2128 nonlinear dynamic finite element (FE) analyses of lightweight acceleration-sensitive non-structural components (NSCs) attached to the floors of one-bay three-storey reinforced concrete (RC) primary structures (P-structures) with different eccentricity ratios. The investigated parameters include the NSC to P-structure vibration period ratio, peak ground acceleration, P-structure eccentricity ratio, and NSC damping ratio. Appropriate constitutive relationships were used to model the behaviour of the RC P-structures. The NSCs were modelled as vertical cantilevers fixed at their bases with masses on the free ends and varying lengths so as to match the vibration periods of the P-structures. Full dynamic interaction was considered between the NSCs and P-structures. A set of seven natural bi-directional ground motions were used to evaluate the seismic response of the NSCs. The numerical results show that the acceleration response of the NSCs depends on the investigated parameters. The accelerations of the NSCs attached to the flexible sides of the P-structures increased with the increase in peak ground acceleration and P-structure eccentricity ratio but decreased with the increase in NSC damping ratio. Comparison between the FE results and Eurocode 8 (EC8) predictions suggests that, under tuned conditions, EC8 provisions underestimate the seismic response of the NSCs mounted on the flexible sides of the plan-irregular RC P-structures.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.219-222
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• 2005

Many RC building structures of multiple uses constructed in Korea have the irregularities of torsion and soft story at bottom stories. A typical irregular building was selected as prototype and shaking table tests were performed to investigate the seismic performance of this building. The objective of this study is to evaluate the correlation between the experimental and analytical responses of this irregular building structure subjected to the earthquake excitation by using OpenSees(Open System for Earthquake Engineering Simulation). The results of analyses simulate well the behavior of the building having torsional irregularity and weak stories.