• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.241-244
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• 2008

The authors proposed a new rapid-screening method for more reasonably evaluating seismic capacities of medium and low-rise RC buildings controlled by both shear and flexure in Ref. [1]. The method proposed in Ref. [1] was based on relationships between required strengths of each failure system for ductility factors and damage degrees of overall system derived from the view-point of ductility factors. The proposed method was also verified using observed real damage data of low-rise RC buildings caused by past earthquakes. Results indicated that the methodology proposed in Ref. [1] compares well with real damages and is a useful strategy for rapidly identifying low-rise RC buildings having high potential seismic risk. In this study, in order to verify the applicability of the new methodology proposed in Ref. [1] to real RC building systems, seismic capacities of existing eleven low-rise RC buildings in Korea are evaluated based on the new method.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.59 no.4
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• pp.653-669
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• 2016

Recent earthquakes worldwide show that a significant portion of the earthquake shaking happens in the vertical direction. This phenomenon has raised significant interests to consider the vertical ground motion during the seismic design and assessment of the structures. Strong vertical ground motions can alter the axial forces in the columns, which might affect the shear capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) members. This is particularly important for non-ductile RC frames, which are very vulnerable to earthquake-induced collapse. This paper presents the detailed nonlinear dynamic analysis to quantify the collapse risk of non-ductile RC frame structures with varying heights. An array of non-ductile RC frame architype buildings located in Los Angeles, California were designed according to the 1967 uniform building code. The seismic responses of the architype buildings subjected to concurrent horizontal and vertical ground motions were analyzed. A comprehensive array of ground motions was selected from the PEER NGA-WEST2 and Iran Strong Motions Network database. Detailed nonlinear dynamic analyses were performed to quantify the collapse fragility curves and collapse margin ratios (CMRs) of the architype buildings. The results show that the vertical ground motions have significant impact on both the local and global responses of non-ductile RC moment frames. Hence, it is crucial to include the combined vertical and horizontal shaking during the seismic design and assessment of non-ductile RC moment frames.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.1499-1528
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• 2015

The yielding mechanisms of reinforced concrete (RC) structures are the main cause of the collapse of RC buildings during earthquake excitation. Nowadays, the application of earthquake energy dissipation devices, such as viscous dampers (VDs), is being widely considered to protect RC structures which are designed to withstand severe seismic loads. However, the effect of VDs on the formation of plastic hinges and the yielding criteria of RC members has not been investigated extensively, due to the lack of an analytical model and a numerical means to evaluate the seismic response of structures. Therefore, this paper offers a comprehensive investigation of how damper devices influence the yielding mechanisms of RC buildings subjected to seismic excitation. For this purpose, adapting the Newmark method, a finite element algorithm was developed for the nonlinear dynamic analysis of reinforced concrete buildings equipped with VDs that are subjected to earthquake. A special finite element computer program was codified based on the developed algorithm. Finally, a parametric study was conducted for a three-story RC building equipped with supplementary VD devices, performing a nonlinear analysis in order to evaluate its effect on seismic damage and on the response of the structure. The results of this study showed that implementing VDs substantially changes the mechanism and formation of plastic hinges in RC buildings.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.791-818
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• 2015

RC buildings constitute the prevailing type of construction in earthquake-prone region like Kathmandu Valley. Most of these building constructions were based on conventional methods. In this context, the present paper studied the seismic behaviour of existing RC buildings in Kathmandu Valley. For this, four representative building structures with different design and construction, namely a building: (a) representing the non-engineered construction (RC1 and RC2) and (b) engineered construction (RC3 and RC4) has been selected for analysis. The dynamic properties of the case study building models are analyzed and the corresponding interaction with seismic action is studied by means of non-linear analyses. The structural response measures such as capacity curve, inter-storey drift and the effect of geometric non-linearities are evaluated for the two orthogonal directions. The effect of plan and vertical irregularity on the performance of the structures was studied by comparing the results of two engineered buildings. This was achieved through non-linear dynamic analysis with a synthetic earthquake subjected to X, Y and $45^{\circ}$ loading directions. The nature of the capacity curve represents the strong impact of the P-delta effect, leading to a reduction of the global lateral stiffness and reducing the strength of the structure. The non-engineered structures experience inter-storey drift demands higher than the engineered building models. Moreover, these buildings have very low lateral resistant, lesser the stiffness and limited ductility. Finally, a seismic safety assessment is performed based on the proposed drift limits. Result indicates that most of the existing buildings in Nepal exhibit inadequate seismic performance.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.175-185
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• 2021

This study strives to highlight the importance of considering the vertical ground motions (VGM) in the seismic evaluation of RC buildings. To this aim, IDA (Incremental Dynamic Analysis) is conducted on three code-based designed high-rise RC frame-core wall buildings using a suite of earthquake records comprising of significant VGMs. To unravel the significance of the VGM inclusion on the performance of the buildings, IDAs are conducted in two states (with and without the vertical component), and subsequently based on each analysis, fragility curves are developed. Non-simulated collapse criteria are used to determine the collapse state drift ratio and the area under the velocity spectrum (SIm) is taken into account as the intensity measure. The outcome of this study delineates that the inclusion of VGM leads to the increase in the collapse vulnerability of the structures as well as to the change in the pattern of inter-story drifts and failure mode of the buildings. The results suggested that it would be more conservative if the VGM is included in the seismic assessment and the fragility analysis of RC buildings.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2006.04a
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• pp.508-513
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• 2006

In construction of RC buildings, the quality of shop and detail drawings is very essential for the quality and safety of buildings. Nevertheless, most of thess works are left to site workers and the requirements about bar detailing such as anchorage and splice have been done without rational design and engineering. The purpose of this research is to develop a computer-aided drawing system of rebars for RC buildings. The system is based on an integrated structural design system, that is SDP. SDP manages an engineering database for structural design information. It provides all the information needed to draw rebar drawings. The drawing system consists of three modules, 1) Structual Plan Drawing System, 2) Shop Drawing System, and 3) Detail Drawing System. It is expected that not only the productivity of detail drawing works but also the quality and safety of buildings will be improved using the rebar drawing system developed in this research.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.1175-1200
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• 2015

This paper investigates the fundamental period of vibration of RC buildings by means of finite element macro-modelling and modal eigenvalue analysis. As a base study, a number of 14-storey RC buildings have been considered "according to code designed" and "according to code non-designed". Several parameters have been studied including the number of spans; the span length in the direction of motion; the stiffness of the infills; the percentage openings of the infills and; the location of the soft storeys. The computed values of the fundamental period are compared against those obtained from seismic code and equations proposed by various researchers in the literature. From the analysis of the results it has been found that the span length, the stiffness of the infill wall panels and the location of the soft storeys are crucial parameters influencing the fundamental period of RC buildings.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.99-123
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• 2015

In this study, structural vulnerability of reinforced concrete moment resisting frames (RC-MRFs) by considering the Iran-specific characteristics is investigated to manage the earthquake risk in terms of multicomponent seismic excitations. Low and medium rise RC-MRFs, which constitute approximately 80-90% of the total buildings stock in Iran, are focused in this fragility-based assessment. The seismic design of 3-12 story RC-MRFs are carried out according to the Iranian Code of Practice for Seismic Resistant Design of Buildings (Standard No. 2800), and the analytical models are formed accordingly in open source nonlinear platforms. Frame structures are categorized in three subclasses according to the specific characteristics of construction practice and the observed seismic performance after major earthquakes in Iran. Both far and near fields' ground motions have been considered in the fragility estimation. An optimal intensity measure (IM) called Sa, avg and beta probability distribution were used to obtain reliable fragility-based database for earthquake damage and loss estimation of RC buildings stock in urban areas of Iran. Nonlinear incremental dynamic analyses by means of lumped-parameter based structural models have been simulated and performed to extract the fragility curves. Approximate confidence bounds are developed to represent the epistemic uncertainties inherent in the fragility estimations. Consequently, it's shown that including vertical ground motion in the analysis is highly recommended for reliable seismic assessment of RC buildings.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.337-355
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• 2016

Steel coupling beam in reinforced concrete (RC) coupled shear wall system is a proper substitute for deep concrete coupling beam. Previous studies have shown that RC coupled walls with steel or concrete coupling beam designed with strength-based design approach, may not guarantee a ductile behavior of a coupled shear wall system. Therefore, seismic performance evaluation of RC coupled shear wall with steel or concrete coupling beam designed based on a strength-based design approach is essential. In this paper first, buildings with 7, 14 and 21 stories containing RC coupled shear wall system with concrete and steel coupling beams were designed with strength-based design approach, then performance level of these buildings were evaluated under two spectrum; Design Basis Earthquake (DBE) and Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCE). The performance level of LS and CP of all buildings were satisfied under DBE and MCE respectively. In spite of the steel coupling beam, concrete coupling beam in RC coupled shear wall acts like a fuse under strong ground motion.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.90 no.1
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• pp.51-70
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• 2024

Poorly designed reinforced concrete (RC) columns of actual moment-resisting frame (MRF) buildings can undergo Axial Compression Ratios (ACR) so high as their demand exceeds their capacity, even for serviceability gravity load combinations, this lack commonly leads to insufficient seismic strength. Nonetheless, many seismic design codes do not specify limits for ACR. The main contribution of this research is to investigate the need to limit the ACR in seismic design. For this purpose, three prototype 6 and 11-story RC MRF buildings are analyzed in this paper, these buildings have columns undergoing excessive ACR, according to the limits prescribed by standards. To better that situation, three types of alterations are performed: retrofitting the abovementioned overloaded columns by steel jacketing, increasing the concrete strength, and reducing the number of stories. Several finite element analyses are conducted using the well-known software SAP2000 and the results are used for further calculations. Code-type and pushover analyses are performed on the original and retrofitted buildings, the suitability of the other modified buildings is checked by code-type analyses only. The obtained results suggest that ACR is a rather reliable indicator of the final building strength, hence, apparently, limiting the ACR in the standards (for early stages of design) might avoid unnecessary verifications.