• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.259-276
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• 2016

Lead-rubber bearings (LRBs) have been used worldwide in seismic design of buildings and bridges owing to their stable mechanical properties and good isolation effect. We have investigated the effectiveness of LRBs in framed underground structures on controlling structural seismic responses. Nonlinear dynamic time history analyses were carried out on the well-documented Daikai Station, which collapsed during the 1995 Hyogoken-Nanbu earthquake. Influences of strength ratio (ratio of yield strength of LRBs to yield strength of central column) and shear modulus of rubber on structural seismic responses were studied. As a displacement-based passive energy dissipation device, LRBs reduce dynamic internal forces of framed underground structures and improve their seismic performance. An optimal range of strength ratios was proposed for the case presented. Within this range, LRBs can dissipate maximum input earthquake energy. The maximum shear and moment of the central column can achieve more than 50% reduction, whereas the maximum shear displacement of LRBs is acceptable.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.423-430
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• 2012

An adaptive maximum power point tracking (MPPT) scheme employing a variable scaling factor is presented. A MPPT control loop was constructed analytically and the magnitude variation in the MPPT loop gain according to the operating point of the PV array was identified due to the nonlinear characteristics of the PV array output. To make the crossover frequency of the MPPT loop gain consistent, the variable scaling factor was determined using an approximate curve-fitted polynomial equation about linear expression of the error. Therefore, a desirable dynamic response and the stability of the MPPT scheme were maintained across the entire MPPT voltage range. The simulation and experimental results obtained from a 3 KW rated prototype demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed MPPT scheme.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.491-506
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• 2019

Literature regarding concrete walls reinforced by super elastic shape memory alloy (SMA) bars is rather limited. The seismic behavior of a system concurrently including a distinct steel reinforced concrete (RC) wall, as well as another wall reinforced by super elastic SMA at the first story, and steel rebar at upper stories, would be an interesting matter. In this paper, the seismic response of such a COMBINED system is compared to a conventional system with steel RC concrete walls (STEEL-Rein.) and also to a wall system with SMA rebar at the first story and steel rebar at other stories ( SMA-Rein.). Nonlinear time history analysis at maximum considered earthquake (MCE) and design bases earthquake (DBE) levels is conducted and the main responses like maximum inter-story drift ratio and residual inter-story drift ratio are investigated. Furthermore, incremental dynamic analysis is used to accomplish probabilistic seismic studies by creating fragility curves. Results demonstrated that the SMA-Rein. system, subjected to DBE and MCE ground motions, has almost zero and 0.27% residual maximum inter-story drifts, while the values for the COMBINED system are 0.25% and 0.51%. Furthermore, fragility curves show that using SMA rebar at the base of all walls causes a larger probability of exceedance 3% inter-story drift limit state compared to the COMBINED system. Static push over analysis demonstrated that the strength of the COMBINED model is almost 0.35% larger than that of the two other models, and its general post-yielding stiffness is also approximately twice the corresponding stiffness of the two other models.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.653-664
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• 2014

Wind fragility analysis provides a quantitative instrument for delineating the safety performance of civil structures under hazardous wind loading conditions such as cyclones and tornados. It has attracted and would be expected to continue to attract intensive research spotlight particularly in the nowadays worldwide context of adapting to the changing climate. One of the challenges encumbering efficacious assessment of the safety performance of existing civil structures is the possible incompleteness of the structural appraisal data. Addressing the issue of the data missingness, the study presented in this paper forms a first attempt to investigate the feasibility of using the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm and Bayesian techniques to predict the wind fragilities of existing civil structures. Numerical examples of typical linear or hysteretic shear frames are introduced with the wind loads derived from a widely used power spectral density function. Specifically, the application of the maximum a posteriori estimates of the distribution parameters for the story stiffness is examined, and a surrogate model is developed and applied to facilitate the nonlinear response computation when studying the fragilities of the hysteretic shear frame involved.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.459-464
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• 2007

Seismic control performance of MR dampers, which have severe nonlinearity, differs with respect to the dynamic characteristics of an earthquake such as magnitude, frequency and duration. In this study, the effects of excitation characteristics on the equivalent linear system of a building structure with the MR damper are investigated through numerical analysis for artificial ground motions generated from different response spectrums. The equivalent damping ratio of the structure with the MR damper is calculated using Newmark and Hall's equations for ground motion amplification factors. It is found that the equivalent damping ratio of the structure with the MR damper is dependent on the ratio of the maximum friction force of the MR damper over excitation magnitude. Frequency contents of the earthquake ground motion affects the equivalent damping ratio of long-period structures considerably. Also, additional damping effect caused by interaction between the viscousity and friction of the MR damper is observed. Finally, response reduction factors for equivalent linear systems are proposed in order to improve accuracy in the prediction of the actual nonlinear response.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.243-251
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• 2018

The dynamic responses of a rocking wall-moment frame (RWMF) with a post-tensioned cable are investigated. The nonlinear equations of motions are developed, which can be categorized as a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) model. The model is validated through comparison of the rocking response of the rigid rocking wall (RRW) and displacement of the moment frame (MF) against that obtained from Finite Element analysis when subjected ground motion excitation. A comprehensive parametric analysis is carried out to determine the seismic performance factors of the RWMF systems under near-fault trigonometric pulse excitation. The horizontal displacement of the RWMF system is compared with that of MF structures without RRW, revealing the damping effect of the RRW. Frame displacement spectra excited by trigonometric pulses and recorded earthquake ground motions are constructed. The effects of pulse type, mass ratio, frame stiffness, and wall slenderness variations on the displacement spectra are presented. The paper shows that the coupling with a RRW has mixed results on suppressing the maximum displacement response of the frame.

• The Journal of Engineering Research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.53-63
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• 2004

In this paper, influence of shear on the seismic performance and failure mode of reinforced concrete piers subjected to earthquake loading is investigated. Comparative study has been carried out for reinforced concrete column tests to verify the shear-axial interaction model presented in this paper. Comparison shows that predicted shear hysteretic response agrees well with the test results. Also conducted is a nonlinear time-history analysis of a reinforced concrete bridge damaged by the Kobe earthquake using the current development. Displacement response for piers reveals that maximum displacement is considerably increased due to the effect of shear coupled with axial force variation, which leads to overall stiffness degradation and period elongation. It is therefore concluded that the response considering both shear and axial force gives better explanation regarding the seismic damage evaluation of reinforced concrete bridge piers.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.87-93
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• 2008

Seismic control performance of MR dampers, which have severe nonlinearity, varies with respect to the dynamic characteristics of an earthquake such as magnitude, frequency and duration. In this study, the effects of excitation characteristics on the equivalent linear system of a building structure with the MR damper are investigated through numerical analysis for artificial ground motions generated from different response spectrums. The equivalent damping ratio of the structure with the MR damper is calculated using Newmark and Hall's equations for ground motion amplification factors. It is found that the equivalent damping ratio of the structure with the MR damper is dependent on the ratio of the maximum friction force of the MR damper over excitation magnitude. Frequency contents of the earthquake ground motion affects the equivalent damping ratio of long-period structures considerably. Also, additional damping effect caused by interaction between the viscousity and friction of the MR damper is observed. Finally. response reduction factors for equivalent linear systems are proposed in order to improve accuracy in the prediction of the actual nonlinear response.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.389-403
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• 2021

Skewed bridges, being irregular structures with complicated dynamic behavior, are more susceptible to earthquake damage. Reliable seismic-resistant design of skewed bridges can be achieved by accurate determination of nonlinear seismic demands. However, the effect of geometric characteristics on the response modification factor (R-factor) is not accounted for in bridge design practices. This study attempts to investigate the effects of changes in the number of spans, skew angle and bearing stiffness on R-factor values and to assess the seismic fragility of skewed bridges. Results indicated that changes in the skew angle had no significant effect on R-factor values which were in consonance with code-prescribed R values. Also, unlike the increase in the number of spans that resulted in a decrease in the R-factor, the increase in bearing stiffness led to higher R-factor values. Findings of the fragility analysis implied that although the increase in the number of spans, as well as the increase in the skew angle, led to a higher failure probability, greater values of bearing stiffness reduced the collapse probability. For practicing design engineers, it is recommended that maximum demands on substructure elements to be calculated when the excitation angle is applied along the principal axes of skewed bridges.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.713-730
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• 2021

The seismic performance of rigid steel frames is widely investigated, but that of semi-rigid (SR) steel frames are not studied extensively, especially for near-field earthquakes. In this paper, the performances of five and ten-story steel SR frames having different degrees of semi-rigidity are evaluated at four performance points in the four different deformation states, namely, the elastic, elasto-plastic, plastic, and near collapse states. The performances of the SR frames are measured by the response parameters including the maximum values of the top floor displacement, base shear, inter-story drift ratio, number of plastic hinges, and SRSS of plastic hinge rotations. These response parameters are obtained by the capacity spectrum method (CSM) using pushover analysis. The validity of the response parameters determined by the CSM is evaluated by the results of the nonlinear time history analysis (NLTHA) for both near and far-field earthquakes at different PGA levels, which are consistent with the performance points. Results of the study show that the plastic hinges of SR frame significantly increase in the range of plastic to near-collapse states for both near and far-field earthquakes. The effect of the degree of semi-rigidity is pronounced only at higher degrees of semi-rigidity. The predictions of the CSM are fairly well in comparison to the NLTHA.