• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.18 no.5
• /
• pp.645-669
• /
• 2004

In seismic analysis of moment-resisting frames, beam-column connections are often modeled with rigid joint zones. However, it has been demonstrated that, in ductile reinforced concrete (RC) moment-resisting frames designed based on current codes (to say nothing of older non-ductile frames), the joint zones are in fact not rigid, but rather undergo significant shear deformations that contribute greatly to global drift. Therefore, the "rigid joint" assumption may result in misinterpretation of the global performance characteristics of frames and could consequently lead to miscalculation of strength and ductility demands on constituent frame members. The primary objective of this paper is to propose a rational method for estimating the hysteretic joint shear behavior of RC connections and for incorporating this behavior into frame analysis. The authors tested four RC edge beam-column-slab connection subassemblies subjected to earthquake-type lateral loading; hysteretic joint shear behavior is investigated based on these tests and other laboratory tests reported in the literature. An analytical scheme employing the modified compression field theory (MCFT) is developed to approximate joint shear stress vs. joint shear strain response. A connection model capable of explicitly considering hysteretic joint shear behavior is then formulated for nonlinear structural analysis. In the model, a joint is represented by rigid elements located along the joint edges and nonlinear rotational springs embedded in one of the four hinges linking adjacent rigid elements. The connection model is able to well represent the experimental hysteretic joint shear behavior and overall load-displacement response of connection subassemblies.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.73 no.1
• /
• pp.53-64
• /
• 2020

In different high seismic regions around the world, many non-ductile existing reinforced concrete frame buildings, built without adequate seismic detailing requirements, have been damaged or collapsed after past earthquakes. The assessment and the retrofit of these non-ductile concrete structures is crucial theme of research for all the scientific community of engineers. In particular, a careful assessment of the existing building is fundamental for understanding the failure mechanisms that govern the collapse of the structure or the achievement of the recommended limit states. Based on the seismic assessment, the best retrofit strategy can be designed and applied to the structure. A school building located in Avellino province (Italy) is the case study. The analysis of seismic vulnerability carried out on the mentioned building has highlighted deficiencies in both static and seismic load conditions. The retrofit of the building has been designed based on different retrofit options in order to show the real retrofit design developed from the engineers to achieve the seismic safety of the building. The retrofit costs associated to structural operations are calculated for each case and have been summed up to the costs of the in situ tests. The paper shows a real retrofit design case study in which the best solution is chosen based on the results in terms of structural performance and cost among the different retrofit options.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.613-625
• /
• 2021

Non-seismically designed eccentric reinforced concrete beam-column joints were extensively used in existing reinforced concrete frame buildings, which were found to be vulnerable to seismic action in many incidences. To provide a fundamental understanding of the seismic performance and failure mechanism of the joints, three 2/3-scale exterior beam-column joints with non-seismically designed details were cast and tested under reversed cyclic loads simulating earthquake excitation. In this investigation, particular emphasis was given on the effects of the eccentricity between the centerlines of the beam and the column. It is shown that the eccentricity had significant effects on the damage characteristics, shear strength, and displacement ductility of the specimens. In addition, shear deformation and the strain of joint hoops were found to concentrate on the eccentric face of the joint. The results demonstrated that the specimen with an eccentricity of 1/4 column width failed in a brittle manner with premature joint shear failure, while the other specimens with less or no eccentricity failed in a ductile manner with joint shear failure after beam flexural yielding. Test results are compared with those predicted by three seismic design codes and two non-seismic design codes. In general, the codes do not accurately predict the shear strength of the eccentric joints with non-seismic details.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.22 no.5
• /
• pp.291-298
• /
• 2018

Existing reinforced concrete building structures have seismic vulnerabilities under successive earthquakes (or mainshock-aftershock sequences) due to their inadequate column detailing, which leads to shear failure in the columns. To improve the shear capacity and ductility of the shear-critical columns, a fiber-reinforced polymer jacketing system has been widely used for seismic retrofit and repair. This study proposed a numerical modeling technique for damaged reinforced concrete columns repaired using the fiber-reinforced polymer jacketing system and validated the numerical responses with past experimental results. The column model well captured the experimental results in terms of lateral forces, stiffness, energy dissipation and failure modes. The proposed column modeling method enables to predict post-repair effects on structures initially damaged by mainshock.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.39 no.4
• /
• pp.599-620
• /
• 2011

The investigation on possible causes of failures related to documented collapses is a complicated issue, primarily due to the scarcity and inadequacy of information available. Although several studies have tried to understand which are the inherent structural deficiencies or circumstances associated to failure of the main structural elements in a reinforced concrete frame, to the authors knowledge a uniform approach for the evaluation building static vulnerability, does not exist yet. This paper investigates, by means of a detailed case study, the potential failure mechanisms of an existing reinforced concrete building. The linear elastic analysis for the three-dimensional building model gives an insight on the working conditions of the structural elements, demonstrating the relevance of a number of structural faults that could sensibly lower the structure's safety margin. Next, the building's bearing capacity is studied by means of parametric nonlinear analysis performed at the element's level. It is seen that, depending on material properties, concrete strength and steel yield stress, the failure hierarchy could be dominated by either brittle or ductile mechanisms.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.121-128
• /
• 2001

Reinforced concrete frame buildings in regions of low to moderate seismicity are typically designed only for gravity loads with non-seismic detailing provisions of the code. These buildings possess strong beam-weak column, which brings about the brittle structural performance like the column sidesway failure mechanism during the strong lateral load. The objective of this paper is to enhance the column strength and deformation capacity for reconfiguring the structural failure mode by averting a column soft-story collapse and moving to a more ductile beam-sides way mechanism suing new reinforcing materials. Aramid fiber sheet and reinforcing rod-composite materials was used for this purpose. The column was modeled by the 2/3 scale experimental specimen retested. According to the concept of the capacity design, the damaged column was strengthened by the column jacketing using new reinfocing materials such as rod-composite materials. In conclusion, the improvement of the flexural strength is observed and the capacity of the energy dissipation and the ductility is enhanced, too.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.13 no.3 s.55
• /
• pp.209-216
• /
• 2009

Flexible frames on their own offer little resistance to lateral forces, resulting often in large deflections and rotations at the joints. On the other hand, walls subjected to lateral loads fail mainly in shear at relatively small displacements. Therefore, when the nonductile frames and wall act together, the combined action of the composite system differs significantly from that of the frame or wall alone. The objective of the study is to evaluate seismic response of infill walls with notched midsection. Reinforcement detail of wall was main variable in the experiment. Also SHCC was used in order to prevent damage concentration into notched midsection of walls. Test results, SHCC infill walls show the multiple crack patterns as expected. However, PIW-ND specimen exhibits less story drift, stiffness and energy dissipation capacity than those of PIW-NC specimen.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.327-335
• /
• 2009

In the seismic region, non-ductile structures often form soft story and exhibit brittle collapse. However, structure demolition and new structure construction strategies have serious problems, as construction waste, environmental pollution and popular complain. And these methods can be uneconomical. Therefore, to satisfy seismic performance, so many seismic retrofit methods have been investigated. There are some retrofit methods as infill walls, steel brace, continuous walls, buttress, wing walls, jacketing of column or beam. Among them, the infilled frames exhibit complex behavior as follows: flexible frames experiment large deflection and rotations at the joints, and infilled shear walls fail mainly in shear at relatively small displacements. Therefore, the combined action of the composite system differs significantly from that of the frame or wall alone. Purpose of research is evaluation on the seismic performance of infill walls, and improvement concept of this paper is use of SHCCs (strain-hardening cementitious composites) to absorb damage energy effectively. The experimental investigation consisted of cyclic loading tests on 1/3-scale models of infill walls. The experimental results, as expected, show that the multiple crack pattern, strength, and energy dissipation capacity are superior for SHCC infill wall due to bridging of fibers and stress redistribution in cement matrix.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.11-24
• /
• 2011

A real-time hybrid test of a 3 story-3 bay reinforced concrete frame which is divided into numerical and physical substructure models under uniaxial earthquake excitation was run using a fixed iteration implicit HHT time integration method. The first story inner non-ductile column was selected as the physical substructure model, and uniaxial earthquake excitation was applied to the numerical model until the specimen failed due to severe damage. A finite-element analysis program, Mercury, was newly developed and optimized for a real-time hybrid test. The drift ratio based on the top horizontal displacement of the physical substructure model was compared with the result of a numerical simulation by OpenSees and the result of a shaking table test. The experiment in this paper is one of the most complex real-time hybrid tests, and the description of the hardware, algorithm and models is presented in detail. If there is an improvement in the numerical model, the evaluation of the tangent stiffness matrix of the physical substructure model in the finite element analysis program and better software to reduce the computational time of the element state determination for the force-based beam-column element, then the comparison with the results of the real-time hybrid test and the shaking table test deserves to make a recommendation. In addition, for the goal of a "Numerical simulation of the complex structures under dynamic loading", the real time hybrid test has enough merit as an alternative to dynamic experiments of large and complex structures.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.71-81
• /
• 2009

In this study, the seismic performance of the Buckling Restrained Knee Bracing (BRKB) system was evaluated through a pin-connected one-bay, one-story frame. The BRKB system developed in this study was composed of a steel plate as a load-resisting core member and two channel sections to restrain local and global buckling of the core plate. The main purpose of the BRKB system is to restrengthen/rehabilitate old low- and mid-rise RC buildings, which, it is assumed, were designed with non-seismic designs and details. The main variables for the test specimens were the size of the core plates and the stiffeners, and the condition of the end plates. The test results showed that the size of the core plate, which was the main element of the load-resisting member, was the most important parameter in achieving a ductile behavior under tension as well as compression until the maximum displacement exceeds twice the design drift limit.